#probably my most detailed and time consuming piece of art

[pertaretart]

-knowledge is limited, imagination encircles the world- 🖌️💫🌏🌃🌟🌉🛸🌕🌌🌠✨✒️

This OC has the most boring name (Jack) (no offense, if your name is Jack), I’m still thinking of a cooler sounding name orz

[empty-movement]

May I ask what scanners / equipment / software you're using in the utena art book project? I'm an artist and half the reason I rarely do traditional art is because I'm never happy with the artwork after it's scanned in. But the level of detail even in the blacks of Utena's uniform were all captured so beautifully! And even the very light colors are showing up so well! I'd love to know how you manage!

You know what's really fun? This used to be something you put in your site information section, the software and tools used! Not something that's as normal anymore, but let's give it a go, sorry it's long because I don't know what's new information and what's not! Herein: VANNA'S 'THIS IS AS SPECIFIC AS MY BREAK IS LONG' GUIDE/AIMLESS UNEDITED RAMBLE ABOUT SCANNING IMAGES

Scanning: Modern scanners, by and large, are shit for this. The audience for scanning has narrowed to business and work from home applications that favor text OCR, speed, and efficiency over archiving and scanning of photos and other such visual media. It makes sense--there was a time when scanning your family photographs and such was a popular expected use of a scanner, but these days, the presumption is anything like that is already digital--what would you need the scanner to do that for? The scanner I used for this project is the same one I have been using for *checks notes* a decade now. I use an Epson Perfection V500. Because it is explicitly intended to be a photo scanner, it does threebthings that at this point, you will pay a niche user premium for in a scanner: extremely high DPI (dots per inch), extremely wide color range, and true lossless raws (BMP/TIFF.) I scan low quality print media at 600dpi, high quality print media at 1200 dpi, and this artbook I scanned at 2400 dpi. This is obscene and results in files that are entire GB in size, but for my purposes and my approach, the largest, clearest, rawest copy of whatever I'm scanning is my goal. I don't rely on the scanner to do any post-processing. (At these sizes, the post-processing capacity of the scanner is rendered moot, anyway.) I will replace this scanner when it breaks by buying another identical one if I can find it. I have dropped, disassembled to clean, and abused this thing for a decade and I can't believe it still tolerates my shit. The trade off? Only a couple of my computers will run the ancient capture software right. LMAO. I spent a good week investigating scanners because of the insane Newtype project on my backburner, and the quality available to me now in a scanner is so depleted without spending over a thousand on one, that I'd probably just spin up a computer with Windows 7 on it just to use this one. That's how much of a difference the decade has made in what scanners do and why. (Enshittification attacks! Yes, there are multiple consumer computer products that have actually declined in quality over the last decade.)

Post-processing: Photoshop. Sorry. I have been using Photoshop for literally decades now, it's the demon I know. While CSP is absolutely probably the better piece of software for most uses (art,) Photoshop is...well it's in the name. In all likelihood though, CSP can do all these things, and is a better product to give money to. I just don't know how. NOTENOTENOTE: Anywhere I discuss descreening and print moire I am specifically talking about how to clean up *printed media.* If you are scanning your own painting, this will not be a problem, but everything else about this advice will stand! The first thing you do with a 2400 dpi scan of Utena and Anthy hugging? Well, you open it in Photoshop, which you may or may not have paid for. Then you use a third party developer's plug-in to Descreen the image. I use Sattva. Now this may or may not be what you want in archiving!!! If fidelity to the original scan is the point, you may pass on this part--you are trying to preserve the print screen, moire, half-tones, and other ways print media tricks the eye. If you're me, this tool helps translate the raw scan of the printed dots on the page into the smooth color image you see in person. From there, the vast majority of your efforts will boil down to the following Photoshop tools: Levels/Curves, Color Balance, and Selective Color. Dust and Scratches, Median, Blur, and Remove Noise will also be close friends of the printed page to digital format archiver. Once you're happy with the broad strokes, you can start cropping and sizing it down to something reasonable. If you are dealing with lots of images with the same needs, like when I've scanned doujinshi pages, you can often streamline a lot of this using Photoshop Actions.

My blacks and whites are coming out so vivid this time because I do all color post-processing in Photoshop after the fact, after a descreen tool has been used to translate the dot matrix colors to solids they're intended to portray--in my experience trying to color correct for dark and light colors is a hot mess until that process is done, because Photoshop sees the full range of the dots on the image and the colors they comprise, instead of actually blending them into their intended shades. I don't correct the levels until I've descreened to some extent.

As you can see, the print pattern contains the information of the original painting, but if you try to correct the blacks and whites, you'll get a janky mess. *Then* you change the Levels:

If you've ever edited audio, then dealing with photo Levels and Curves will be familiar to you! A well cut and cleaned piece of audio will not cut off the highs and lows, but also will make sure it uses the full range available to it. Modern scanners are trying to do this all for you, so they blow out the colors and increase the brightness and contrast significantly, because solid blacks and solid whites are often the entire thing you're aiming for--document scanning, basically. This is like when audio is made so loud details at the high and low get cut off. Boo.

What I get instead is as much detail as possible, but also at a volume that needs correcting:

Cutting off the unused color ranges (in this case it's all dark), you get the best chance of capturing the original black and white range:

In some cases, I edit beyond this--for doujinshi scans, I aim for solid blacks and whites, because I need the file sizes to be normal and can't spend gigs of space on dust. For accuracy though, this is where I'd generally stop.

For scanning artwork, the major factor here that may be fucking up your game? Yep. The scanner. Modern scanners are like cheap microphones that blow out the audio, when what you want is the ancient microphone that captures your cat farting in the next room over. While you can compensate A LOT in Photoshop and bring out blacks and whites that scanners fuck up, at the end of the day, what's probably stopping you up is that you want to use your scanner for something scanners are no longer designed to do well. If you aren't crazy like me and likely to get a vintage scanner for this purpose, keep in mind that what you are looking for is specifically *a photo scanner.* These are the ones designed to capture the most range, and at the highest DPI. It will be a flatbed. Don't waste your time with anything else.

Hot tip: if you aren't scanning often, look into your local library or photo processing store. They will have access to modern scanners that specialize in the same priorities I've listed here, and many will scan to your specifications (high dpi, lossless.)

Ahem. I hope that helps, and or was interesting to someone!!!

[ashirisu]

hey, everyone!

My name is Ley (pronounced like "Lee," she/they) and I'm a fiction writer/editor based in the PNW. I haven't done a proper writeblr intro in a while, so I figure the new year is a great time to reintroduce myself to the community!

— about me

An important thing to understand about me and the way I talk about writing is that this stuff is literally my entire life. Even outside of work, I don't think I have a single interest or hobby that doesn't relate back to storytelling in some capacity. I'm an avid media consumer and critic, and will hyperanalyze just about anything that catches my fancy for more than a minute.

I love science fiction and fantasy, and my goal as a writer is to take all the genres I loved growing up and create stories that are a little more diverse, inclusive, and queer.

— about the blog

I came to writeblr mostly to share my work, but also to find an active community where I can get excited with other writers and talk shop. Marketing is obviously a really important part of the publishing industry, but I get tired of having to filter every thought I have about my work and experiences through the lens of aesthetic micro-trends just to put it out in the world. Sometimes I just want to pop off about scenes I'm proud of, you know?

Above all else, I really just want to connect with more writers like myself, ones who got their start in fandom spaces and are working to take their writing from a hobby into a career. I see you, I am you, I love you, let's be friends!

You’ll definitely see me posting and reblogging a lot of stuff that isn’t necessarily related to writing, so be ready for that. My art exists in the context of my personality and the world as a whole, and I simply do not have it in me to maintain a whole separate blog for silly nonsense and memes. Just consider it a way to get to know the writer as well as the writing!

— about my writing

I write a lot, though most of it is disconnected nonsense. Flash fiction and short stories are where I really thrive as a writer. I don't tend to commit to long-form projects, but I have a few projects that I'll occasionally share details about!

I like to describe my style as "earnest and character-forward," which is a fancy way of saying that I like driven protagonists who think too much and are emotional to the point of it being a character flaw.

My goal is to share more of my original writing moving forward, so hopefully you'll get to see all of this for yourself. If I'm totally honest, though, you'll probably see more of me discussing my work than actually writing it.

— about my projects

Here are the things you'll most likely see me posting about:

Agnomen: A sci-fi retelling of Hamlet and Coriolanus, currently in its very preliminary stages. It is literally my Roman Empire, except it's set on a moon of a planet that I'm calling Jupiter as a placeholder (but please note that it isn't actually Jupiter, as Jupiter is a gas giant and therefore a scientifically impossible setting for large sections of the plot).

Alter Ego: A superhero fic in which not-so-mild-mannered reporter Drew Derrick fights for mutant rights and can't seem to get his act together when it comes to keeping the complicated parts of his life separate.

Untitled Fantasy Project: The very first project I ever wrote, and the piece I return to every so often when writing is feeling more like a slog than a fun hobby. I set a lot of one-offs in this world and follow a few key characters around without them having a real plot.

D&D: I write a lot about Baz, my Wild Magic Barbarian. He's a regency noble with a lot of problems, and I care about him very much. I also have various other settings and characters, but he's my most active PC at the moment and therefore gets the most attention.

Short Stories: Sometimes I write these, and sometimes I like them enough to share!

— tag directory

ley rambles: my (often wordy) opinions about things

ley writes: not necessarily my writing, but talking about my writing

my writing: stories, blurbs, and other content I've written

not my writing: reblogs and creative writing that I liked, shared, and sometimes commented on

[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!

[swollenbabyfat]

How did you come to draw and paint the way you do? What inspirations do you pull from? All of your art oozes with some strange, almost ethereal emotion I've not quite seen anywhere else, something similar to what I'd like to capture with my own works.

I’ve always had a bit of a hard time answering this bc like…I honestly think aesthetic/inspirational/taste stuff is a library you build up over your whole life, or maybe a closet that you try things on to see what does and doesn’t work for you. My biggest advice to this kinda stuff is to experiment a lot and take in a lot of media in a purposeful way, and try to actively apply things you like about said medias to your work. And don’t just consume stuff within your field, I take inspiration from a ton of stuff that isn’t art. I also recommend having somewhere to keep a kind of reserve of inspo, wether it be on tumblr or Pinterest or what have you.

So with that being said I’ll try to sum up what I can about myself.

I’m a horror lover, have been since I was (too) young. I’ve consumed a ton of horror movies, read a lot of books, and certainly have digested a lot of art about it. I am a bit of a haunted person haha, and I’ve always really attached myself to horror, and with some exception to just purely cute stuff I truly am always thinking about it with my work. I am not really aiming to make people feel comfortable with my stuff, in fact often the opposite, but many feel understood anyways which feels nice. I don’t think horror for horrors sake is always as fufilling to me, it always pulls from something internal that I’ve been wrestling with or are afraid of myself.

I am classically trained in fine art due to the kind of art program my highschool had (magnet program if that means anything to anyone), it was incredibly good and I always feel so lucky I got to go there. Bc of this I learned a lot of techniques in painting as well as the fundamental of art. I don’t think my art would be the way it is without this training, but I also think with how the internet is now you can probably do the same thing at your own pace, just have to be dedicating a decent amount of time and mental energy into it.

Bc of my highschool training I also learned about art history, which had a big impact on me, particularly renaissance, baroque, and rococo. Religious imagery as well had a huge impact on me, particularly catholic (probs cause we learned about it it the most). I would say doing master studies with these would be a huge help.

I would say it’s important to me that each “full” illustration tells a story of sorts, I can’t really help it, I’m a story teller at heart. I use a lot of symbolic imagery, I pull a lot from religious imagery but also within fruit, flowers, personal objects… I think “what am I trying to say with this work” and kind of go from there with what I choose. Make your own personal symbolism language.

There’s like this certainty digital painting aesthetic I really enjoy by niche furry artist lol, many of them really nsfw so I don’t feel comfortable linking to them. It’s like…highly detailed well rendered pieces that they make with literally one brush that is often without any kind of pen pressure, just layering things with opacity. It’s crazy and yeah idk they’re definitely up there in inspo for me.

I really really care about fashion. Lolita was my first love in terms of clothing, and I pull a ton of inspiration from it, but also a lot of other street styles and runways stuff. I like drama and frills.

I play with my art and stories in a way that I don’t know how to describe other than childlike. It’s important for me to do so in my process, but basically, I let my imagination run wild, I talk to my characters, I listen to music and think about them. A lot of my bigger pieces take a lot of time of me thinking about them ahead a time, I draw in my head a lot. Sketchbooks are a huge help in this.

I thiiiiiink that’s all I have to say for now…I could probably list a million things but this feels like a good core to start with. I hope it’s not too vague, but I’m always good to keep answering stuff like this if you wanna know about one part in depth.

[venomous-qwille]

How on earth do you do your drawings? Do you start off with a black layer and just erase till you have an amazing piece of art? I'm so in love with your style 💚

Heya I'm glad you like my work! Lemme break down how I like to work at the moment <3 for the style I've been doing lately this is my workflow:

I start with a quick rough comp sketch to figure out the over all shapes of the art! I will then clean it up a bit to make the inking part easier.

Inking is next! (Draw the rest of the owl, lmao) As you can probably tell this is the most time consuming part of this style, everything has to work in black and white or it wont work in colour! I use about three different brushes to get this look: a big rough round speckled brush to block in large areas of black, a very pressure sensitive 'ink-brush'- style brush to get that super traditional almost-dry pen look, and a 'fountain pen' style brush that lets me do accurate opaque fine detail. I always block in the big shapes and areas of shadow first. If I have to erase I do it on a mask layer so my eraser marks can be made with the same heavily textured brushes (this stops it from accidentally looking too digital).

For this style I like to use very bright blocks of colour, so I start with figuring out the main shapes the colour will make and how I want them to accent eachother. After that I get a bit more precise about local colours and the base palette I want to use for the subject of the painting (in this case ruin eclipse). I try to keep my layers clipped so the shapes stay sharp and graphic. Almost all my colouring is done under the line art. Later on in this piece I add some colour to the shadows to reduce the contrast a little. At this point I can play around with light and refine the mood of the piece with lighting layers!

I ended up going for something a little warmer for my final palette because I liked the mood it created! But it's easy to make those final changes if you keep your layers organised throughout! Hope that de-mystifies it a bit ^^

[spongebob-connoisseur]

So what is Slappy exactly? Is he undead? I’m so confused lol

He's undead without question. When I first saw him in birthday blowout, I knew instantly he was something that crawled out of a coffin somewhere. Something about those cute soft-boiled egg eyes..

Now the details of it, well I'm glad you asked because I have yapped about this to my sister many nights prior. Finally! Someone who will listen <3333

I'm sure Slappy is some sort of zombie fish but not in a stereotypical sense since he doesn't seem to rot and he prefers bugs over brains. The fact that he has an actual burial plot and headstone implies he was dead for a period of time before being ressurected (it also implies that his family must've been well off, do you know how EXPENSIVE dying is?? Let alone a headstone with his face carved on it).

Who knows why or how but the gag where he decapitates himself makes me think it's a hint of how he died. Perhaps he was executed by guillotine or he ended up at a fish market, or maybe Nosferatu was the one who killed him by ripping his head off and drinking his juice.

I really hope they revealed just HOW he died and how he got ressurected and started worked for Nosferatu. I really want to see 👉👈

Speaking of Nosferatu, Slappy also works for the vampyre, Nosferatu (His name is actually Count Orlok but that's not important) and he basically fulfills the role of Renfield (or what Renfield is named in Nosferatu, Knock). He's basically a vampire's familiar which can be counted as it's own species of undead. There is an srticle he wrote in the unused art for the Bleeder's Digest magazine for Squidferatu. He wrote for the Bikini Bottom Familiar. It's in the name duh.

Slappy has all of the traits of a Renfield; Insane fits of laughter, penchant for eating bugs, calling his vampire "master", ect. Renfield himself is usually mortal according to the book but I'm sure Dracula cooked his brain cells hence why he's like that. Though some pieces of Vampire media sometimes makes him sort of undead like the 1979 Nosferatu.

How sad would it be if Slappy was actually a normal person once but Nosferatu scrambled his brain and that's why he's like that? Sometimes I think about it. I also think of the possibility that he was dead but he came back wrong. But I also prefer if he was always naturally a freak. I think he probably always had morbid tendencies, he is a licensed mortician after all. Being a mortician automatically makes you hotter a freak.

Tbh for the longest time I assumed Slappy was undead because of Nosferatu, however because of the most recent Patrick show episode, I think he was undead before he met Nosferatu and his obsession for Nos grew over time. He had his slumber party in the cemetary in his own burial plot which is set up like a home with a mail box and a framed picture of Nosferatu. He still works for Nosferatu but clearly not full time yet in The Patrick Star Show. He has work as a mortician and seemed to have money for his own things like a boat and a phone. I think Nosferatu slowly consumed his unlife. Probably because it's nice to have a friend who gets how it feels to he undead. Slappy is prone to obsessive tendencies so it just consumed him and that's why he seems much more dependent on Nosferatu in Spongebob Squarepants. Idk that's just my thoughts. I could just be over thinking it. Nosferatu probably refused to allow the slumber party to happen anywhere near the castle, so Slappy had to improvise lol

Now the real question is how OLD is Slappy. Is he just a regular middle aged dude from the current time or was he from centuries prior. How long has he been dead? How long has he been undead for? Does he have any surviving family members? I'm begging on my knees to know😭😭😭🙏

[shootingstarrfish]

HOW DO YOU DRAW SO QUICKLY AGH

I swear every time I turn around you’ve posted another masterpiece I’m jealous you can draw so fast it takes me like 3 days at least for a piece lol

AHH i keep being asked this and im flattered yall think this?? ill take a bit to explain the choices that help with my speed and circumstantial stuff that helps a lot

obligatory YOU DON'T NEED TO DO THINGS FAST taking your time is good!! i just get bored easily so i like being done with things and moving on, but i'm very aware of the fact that social media rewards this and punishes inconsistency so i get it lol

long ass ramble under the cut lol

okay so things i deliberately do to draw fast-

i specifically have 2 distinct styles because i constantly have too many ideas, and most of them don't need to be several hour long illustrations so i try to pick my battles and go for a simpler more expressive style for shitposts/memes/etc and reserve my more detailed style for ideas that actually benefit from having that extra time and effort. ofc this won't work for everyone but i tend to have 50 styles at any given moment anyway so giving myself the freedom to switch between them has been really nice

not necessarily deliberate??? but theres no perfectionism in this house, which helps a lot so i don't spend ages fussing over minute details (im a perfectionist at heart but a lazy one LOL)

giving myself time deadlines is also really helpful, like "i have to finish the lineart im the next half an hour" has been really good for getting me to focus and get things done, even if i don't make the 'deadline'. i think generally being conscious of how i use my time is good

okay so circumstantial (?) things-

ALSO USE REFERENCES they help a lot!!! stumbling around trying to figure things out on your own is time consuming, don't be scared of using references!

this isn't a speed thing but i think it's important to note that i spend like ALL my free time drawing, probably to a ridiculous degree. i draw during my work break, i draw after work, on the weekend, speed is nothing in the face of time lol. im usually tired after work but im also stubborn so i try to push through and draw anyway (50/50 chance it works and i get something done or i just sit there in a daze wishing i was asleep LOL)

im also a dumbass who takes on way too much, i have a whole buncha zines and commissions constantly at all times cause i can never say no so i kinda just HAVE to be fast to keep up with everything. i don't recommend it but it's a thing ashdjfj

i also used to be on tiktok and for some god forsaken reason i spent like a solid few months consistently posting 3 times per day which burnt me out SO fast and i absolutely don't recommend but it definitely required speed lol

i will also say that as i draw more and feel more comfortable in my art it comes to me a lot more naturally, and i'm able to make decisions on the fly a lot easier

also okay so starr lore my dad used to be really against me drawing so i would have to sneak onto the computer when he was out of the house hahaha, this gave me anywhere from 30 mins to 2 hours per day to do whatever i wanted, so i had to quickly adapt to that and be super fast if i ever wanted to get anything done

again speed isnt the be all end all of anything, tbh most of this is just my brain working in weird ways that prefers the quicker pace so please don't compare yourself!!

okay long ass ramble over thanks for reading <3333

[starrzies]

★Comic Test Page [Canineformers AU]★

WOOO OKAY

Test page for my future comic! :D My last test pages were in 2020 so a LONG ass time ago. Decided to do this to see if the project is manageable with my level of perfection and it SOMEWHAT is. This took me around 5 hours to do which is super low on time for pieces like this! I simplified some of my shading process as well because that is arguably the most time consuming things!

I have't reavelaed much of the plot and details to ANYONE, so this is super out of context. But; Barricade (Character w/ 'Police' On shoulder) is indebted to Celeste (other character in the scene), and part of him fufilling that is to train her so she can thrive within the Decpeticons. But she is not progressing as quickly as he wants her too and ended early on this day to think of solutions!

If there is a lot of interest in this I will probably try and do more teaser stuff as I work on the story :]

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Art Trades are Open! Commissions are Open!! Do NOT ask me about Requests!! Do NOT; Reupload, Repost, Claim, Trace, Reference or use my art without my Permission! 💜

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[616witch]

heyo, i've been following your works for a long time now and i genuinely love your creations, you put so much effort into them - they're so brilliant and polished, it's remarkable and inspiring.

i edit often but i am more used to working with gifs of live action media — comics is a whole new territory for me but i would still like to get into it. could i please ask for your tips and recs on how i can get started?

it's alright if not! thank you for what you do and have a nice day. x

Aw, thank you very much! <3 I'll make a list of some different tips I think might be useful (but as with all things, experimenting is the best experience!), and also some links to different resources I often use for edits. Some of these you'll probably be familiar from gifs, but others will hopefully be new!

Gifmaking is a really good basis for making graphics; most of the same principals apply, particularly with colouring and playing with light with art! One of the best ways to make edits work together imo is having consistent colour themes to make all the edits look related and to work with one another, and those elements mirror in graphics and gifs.

The main thing that I think is different is the use of art. A lot of the time with art, you have to cut it out of panels by yourself, and sometimes colour something in yourself, if it's a sketch or something. You can use the subject selection tool in Photoshop/Photopea, but this really only works if there's a very clear background and subject; something more detailed or with multiple subjects doesn't work so well. I like to select using either the lasso tool or the polygonal tool, and then create a layer mask once my subject is fully selected! It's timeconsuming, but worth it to have those sharp and detailed pieces.

Using large pieces of art I think is really important for making sure edits are sharp. I generally try to only use stuff above 1000px, but generally anything below 700px is really difficult to use, especially if you're colouring in a sketch by hand.

Hand-colouring is another thing that's real difficult and time-consuming, but is worth it! Multiply and soft light are your best friends. Multiply for the blocks of colour, and soft light I like to use for adding a bit more depth for things like hair, or blush, etc. But play around with the different layer styles, you can get some interesting affects!

It's also useful to build up a little catelogue of styles or designs you like to incorporate into your work. A lot of graphic designers post their work to Pinterest, for example. Here's my own pinterest board of graphics I like!

And here are some of the resources/websites I use. Behance for general PSDs, fonts, textures. Search 'freebie' in the search bar to get those free resources! Dafont and freefonts.io are the two websites I use most to find fonts! Texturelabs is a great resource of free textures to use; white images generally go on multiply level, dark ones go on screen. Resource Boy has a bunch of free textures and pngs on there that you can use, I recently downloaded 70 different chain pngs from here. Designsyndrome is mostly paid stuff, but they do have a number of free pngs and effects that are cool to use. Comicartfans is a really handly website where a lot of people upload art from professionals. It works as a buying and selling site, but I use it often to find art by searching a character name in the searchbar. Unfortunately, not all of these are high quality, but generally you can use these to find larger resolutions by finding an artist's personal website.

As always, feel free to ask if you want something explained, or if you want to find out how I did a certain affect! I'll always be happy to share where I got stuff, most of this hobby functions via word of mouth :3

[gravelilyaufgehoben]

I have yet to see an Isekai story try really to explore what it means to transmigrate — I mean in the form of the soul transfer into a different body. Most get close only by raising it as a problem in the sense of: "Do I really have the right to love this person given that I am not originally of this world", or having it revealed to the other characters as a plot point that the transmigrator is from another world.

This is boring. They hold entirely too much onto the idea of a substantial self — as if a soul is something one can pick up and place elsewhere. Someone who woke up from sleep or concussion with a life's worth of someone else's memories would not be immediately convinced that they had transmigrated from another world. Probably, they would first think that they had just seen a bizarrely detailed dream, and potentially been stricken with amnesia (this perception tends to be reflected in the other characters, perceiving the heroine as having changed, suddenly using strange language, etc., but it is always presented as a kind of joke or piece of dramatic irony)

And what about the perspective of the transmigratee? Would she experience it as an invasion by a foreign personality, or would she immediately consume that consciousness: incorporate it as if she had dreamt up those memories herself? Do you really believe a soul is in there? Would she feel herself erased — or split?

As the story continues, would she not find herself practising habits from whence she knows not? — from either perspective. I have seen hints of this, though, only in the form of the "original owner" coming back up from the unconscious, exerting control over the body, but they have never taken it to the end. Could we not reach a point where the two enter doubt: "Did I really transmigrate, or did I just experience some delusions or divine visions? — do I only think I was reborn in this body, or has my transmigrated personality intertwined with those of this body to such an extent that I can no longer tell?" This would solve so easily the superficial problems of "do I or do I not belong?" — The answer is "you always already do not belong." — with the added benefit of opening up many more possibilities for the narrative. (Imagine all the half-felt impressions which our protagonist would have to piece together in order to navigate the web of intrigue she finds herself thrown into — rather than recalling them from a conveniently half-remembered book she read in her previous life — or just facing them then for the first time, i.e., doing away with the uniqueness of the genre in the first instance).

I believe the cause for this conceptual blindness stems from the Isekai genre being still too much a staged fantasy, the author's and audience's desire, "I want to go to another world." It is a genre, then, which has not yet reached maturity. Not yet achieved the autonomy of art, but persists for the most part as a mere means of wish fulfilment and escapism (maybe that is representative). I am certain, however, that there are those out there which have done something interesting with the problem: though they must be rare. As, again, I have only ever been half intrigued and disappointed.

[deep-space-lines]

Have you ever wanted to draw something but you fought due to your skill level at the time you decide not to do it

Honestly I don't think there's been a time in my life where I haven't experienced this. There's a file on my ipad I've had on the backburner for like probably over 4 years now; there's a really clear image in my head of a poster showing the detailed anatomy of an astronaut from the perspective of aliens who believe the spacesuit to be part of its body, and every time I come back to it, I keep saying I'll do it later because I just can't pull it off yet :') so yeah the struggle is real

That being said, I've personally found that apart from just 'don't draw it and let it haunt you for years until your confidence improves', there's two solutions that work for me

1: Just draw it the best you're able now, with the knowledge that it might suck (in your eyes) but there's no rule that says you can't come back and re-draw it a few months or years down the line once you've learned more, if you still want to. It can be super frustrating if you have a really concrete awesome image in your head that you know you can't execute the way you'd like, but treating it more like a rough draft than something that has to be perfect the first time around can help get around this. Genuinely I think about this post all the time now, I think it rewired my brain chemistry as an artist. Just accept it'll look bad, who give a shit!!!! If you draw the rough draft now, it'll either turn out better than you expected, or you'll figure out what you struggled with for next time. Either way you'll at least temporarily get The Image out of your head and satiate the Art Beast.

Which leads into...

2: Figure out if there's a specific aspect of the Thing that intimidates you the most and put some time into low-stakes practice with the skill that's blocking you. Usually it's gonna be something like perspective, anatomy, rendering/painting, struggling with dynamic poses, etc.

Starting a completely new skill from scratch sounds intimidating, but you're not starting from scratch, and if you sit yourself down and give it some dedicated practice, you WILL see improvement within the same day. Keep it up for a week or a month and you'll have learned a lot. If it's dynamic perspective, tell yourself "ok I am GOING to learn how to draw with perspective" and mess around with references, look up tutorials, draw other art pieces with perspective until you feel like you have a somewhat decent grasp of it. If it's anatomy or dynamic poses: (once again, cannot stress enough) use references. Trace and then copy references until you get a feel for the shapes (AdorkaStock is really good), practice figure drawing (Quickposes, Line of Action), watch Proko because they have really good videos on these things (1) (2) (3).

'Practice makes perfect' is simultaneously very correct and very unhelpful advice, but if you've got a good grasp of the fundamentals of art, picking up specific, individual skills to a 'good enough' level is not nearly as time-consuming and frustrating as trying to just get better at 'art' as a whole. It can be really good motivation tbh (at least for me), to have an image of something I want to create and telling myself "I am going to intentionally practice [indoor environments]/[perspective]/[faces]/[painting with unrealistic colors]/[insert specific skill] for a few weeks until I feel confident enough to draw this thing".

anyway sorry that was so long. idk if this is any help, just my personal experience

[tunapesto]

whos ur art inspo, if u have one? And what inspires you to draw in general? :3

WOWWW 1st one is a bit difficult to answer so I'll get the 2nd one out of the way. Long answers ahead I like to ramble

I honestly don't have like, a clear cut inspiration to draw. it's just a skill I've known all my life and thought, "might as well" whenever I have any interests. it's an important one to me though, it helps me express my thoughts and feelings and interests, and has helped me connect with many people over the years that I don't know what I'd do if I never met them. The internet has helped in that greatly, and it's also another source of income which is nice. I'm a very simple person, art and drawing is one of my ways to live not just financially but socially. it's a big part of myself and that's why I keep going- who am I if I didn't, you know?

as for artists that inspire me... I'm not really one to look at classical artists hahaha, of I'm sorry if that disappoints. I probably should but it's never piqued my interest aside from my general opinion that classical artists are cool and I like to study them every now and then, no specific piece is a favorite though.

I just get inspired by anything I locally come by, i.e the internet most of the time. It also depends on whatever media I currently fixate on. Before, I usually focused on one media at a time because of neurodivergency I think, but now I'm on the complete opposite end of that where I consume multiple media at once to prevent a single thought. It's cool to have ideas and concepts and inspirations crossover each other, it's fun

anyhow, I find my fave artists through fandom and just general socmed algorithms . I'll start w the ones on tumblr (note that some are also on twitter lol) a lot of artists inspire me but I'll be listing out the big ones for the most part

daneesoro has just. very good linework and it inspires me a lot. knows how to put weight on the right parts of drawing and good animations. kny mostly, fem giyuu afficionado. very swag!

ohrsoh I found through mp100 but draws a lot of other stuff like drhdr iirc. similar to daneesoro in how they inspire me, just good drawings all around

taffypointby is a Big inspo in terms of art style and colors. good ideas and incredible execution that really scratches ur brain u know. variety content as well but I found through jjk and wha I believe

twitter time

elodeas is mainly genshin, Incredible color and renderwork it's insane. she just has good stuff all in all

diinnple yet Another big inspo ahhhh, variety content. really cute art style and I learned a few tricks on ibis from. just gorgeous works w lovely drawings

samzalong has an upcoming comic which I highly recommend following up on if you're interested in horror elements. mostly oc stuff. colors are soooo good and art style is very charming and I adore it

galoogamelady , mostly ocs I believe. art is just very humorous and I adore how facial expressions are done in their art

tunneisnakes... mostly horror , sometimes oc sometimes not. found through resident evil stuff. facial expressions, details, color, texture, concepts, everything... just good stuff all around!!! if u like horror and creepy stuff they're an incredible artist for it

pomsteak , a mutual of mine hehehe . really pretty linework and drawings and colors are amazing too . gives me a lot of anime nostalgia w their art style but it's got its own spin on it, very charming and lovely. mostly fandom, found through genshin but they do jjba too iirc! please check em out o7

nymria has very gorgeous art with a mostly warm color palette I enjoy, and they are mostly of women (I love women!) cutesy art style and it makes me feel like I just got shot by cupid and I'm flying in circles. good stuff

there are many others but I'm also largely inspired by a lot of artists that are on the r18 side haha , stylization of anatomy and colors are hard. but I cannot recommend those since this blog isn't really focused on that age range and I wouldn't want to send people who aren't their target audience on their way

[mishkakagehishka]

*banging on ur front door* YAN MIKA WRITTEN AS HORROR YES I LOVE THIS hewlo...

i dont really know how much i can add. on that post myself but im here for this. i am consuming it. im not one to usually or generally rlly think much of mika BUT his fucked up factor ♡ good to think ab sometimes. plus the fact hes actually into eroguro canonically? hello sir. the scary factor from the fact hes just so delusional he wld actually think he could probably pain his darling any way and theyd just?? magically live thru it?? cause of course. theyre just so awesome great and godly to him、right? my god yeah he would absolutely try to recreate his fantasies thru clothes n hope his darling would accept them. i mean how mean can you be to poor little mika who offered to make some adorable clothes for you and say no to trying them? and hrnnn the drawings he would totally make so many. methinks he'd also make a plushie of some sorts of their darling maybe to keep around?? a tiny one. all with the guts spilling out and maybe forming a heart shape. how romantic

side note i think yan mika would also only be scary on surface level and thru his drawings ? like all bark no bite. i think as a yandere you could drive him off if youre mean enough to him. he'd still stalk you but stop bothering you and thats better than what others would do if you tried distancing yourself from them. i may be wrong on this、i dont know as much ab mika as ab my actual favs buuuut i felt like slapping all this here <3 keep it up op. and also maybe you can just mention gore vaguely and leave it up to interpretation if it makes you sick in the stomach :")

Disclaimer that I write yandere as a horror trope meant to shock and scare the reader and I don't try to romanticise it!

Warnings for talk ab gore and blood, mentions of eroguro and allusions to a blood/gore fetish (but nothing explicit)

Right awghh he'd be so fucked up about it... yandere Mika who spends his free time drawing how he thinks his darling would look with their guts spilling out, neck sliced open, bones peeking from beneath the skin... yandere Mika who blushes and has to bite his hand while thinking about how much he wants to cut his darling open, just to see, just out of curiosity... yandere Mika who sewed a little cloth doll of his darling that he cuddles to sleep, but the doll is painted to look as if it's covered in blood, and the organs are drawn on it, above its little clothes. Yandere Mika who so sweetly asks his darling to model his clothes, who dresses them up in increasingly worrying ensembles, but he's so passionate about it, they just can't tell him no. Yandere Mika who leaves his sketchbook open on the most gruesome pages in places where he knows his darling will see them, in an almost exhibitionistic manner... who wants them to ask about his art because he's too shy to bring it up himself. Who happily shows them, after they ask, page after page of his sketches, explaining in detail his thought process behind every aspect of the pieces. Explaining detail which ones he wants to recreate with them, and how he wants to do it.

Yandere Mika who asks his darling outright if he could hurt them. Not "hurt", that's not how he phrases it. He promises he would never harm them and that they'll be fine... that he just wants to see their blood. Yandere Mika who, if he gets brave, even shows them his eroguro art. Who breathes heavily as he keeps a blade to his darling's stomach. Who kisses their neck whilst making cuts on their torso just deep enough to draw blood. Who flirts by saying, "I wish I could cut ya open" and "I wanna see yer guts so bad, darlin'." Who tries to get his darling to cut him open after some time. Who, really, just has a fantasy of his lover killing him and being killed by him.

Yandere Mika obsessed with gore and blood, just, yeah. And the eroguro aspect... so many thoughts in my head. He'd be so slimy, so creepy about it, and very obvious. Blushing, squirming, frantically looking elsewhere, all because his darling had a sudden nosebleed that dripped down to their shirt, and his mind went straight to the gutter. He'd be such a creep. If he gets composed fast enough, he'll offer to help them clean up and change, but~ If he offers that, he's already getting brave, so hs might just pin them in the office bathrooms and clean them up by licking the blood off their lips, chin and neck himself.

And oo the all bark no bite... as for me, I think Mika would be like that at first. As a yandere he worships the ground his darling walks on, so he'll want to avoid making them angry with him or hate him, but... the thing is, he's also a bit of a masochist. If you're mean to him, he'll just find that even more addictive and seek you out more, he loves when his darling yells at him and calls him names, even though he doesn't want to be so happy about it (it's a paradox of his own thoughts - he doesn't want them to hate him, but he still loves when they call him a creep and tell him off). I think what might work better is ignoring him. Not really the grey rock method, but just straight up not responding when he talks to you, pretending like he doesn't even exist. No positive nor negative reactions for him to feed off. He wouldn't get bored of his darling, he'd just get sad that they're ignoring him, and would leave them alone/give them some space until they decide to talk to him again. But he does continue stalking them, stealing from their rubbish, leaving them weird unsigned "secret admirer" notes and presents etc etc anyway. Mika might be the hardest yandere to shake off because he has his own delusions of his darling and he doesn't give up easily on them, if at all, so no matter what you do, he makes excuses and reasons why he still has a shot with you and why he should just persist or become worse with all his fucked up habits to "impress" you.

[jarofloosescrews]

Hi!!! I have seen your TFP art at times and absolutely adore the colors and utter skill you have with drawing the mechs. I am curious, as I've slowly started to step into getting commissioned art from artists, how do your commissions work?

Are they solely physical/traditional? If so, do you have examples between watercolor and the alcohol markers? I can't tell from your commission page which is which from the Bumblebee, Predaking and Wheeljack examples.

Also, with shipping of physical, how large is your canvas, or does that depend on pose/character?

If you have an option for digital solely, is that cheaper than physical or the same price? And generally how long does a physical commission take you to complete - as well as what are your stages you show to the commissioner (as in sketch stage, lined stage, finished)?

Are there any TFP mechs you won't draw? (I am most interested in a Breakdown or Dreadwing one, if I potentially commissioned you).

Thank you and apologies for the many questions, I am a person who prefers clear instructions/explanations before I delve into spending money but your art and my returning TFP love is making me curious about the potential of commissioning art off someone. Again, thank you!

Hey there, I'll try my best to answer eveything:

"Are they solely traditional?" The commissions I'm offering for TFN pickup are, yes. But I do offer digital commissions, also, which you can find here.

I'm aiming to get a better ref sheet up very soon, I'll make a note to make it clear which is watercolor and which is marker and my other media examples. But from that traditional commission page, all are markers except TFA Sentinel. I'm quite happy for people to point to artwork of mine and go 'what's that? I want that style/coloring', since I have so many variations, but lemme link a few more examples of my watercolor work:

A5 head shot of TFP Breakdown | A5 head shot of TFP Arcee | A4+ sized head shot of IDW Prowl | A4+ sized full body of IDW Ironhide | A4 bust profile of TFA Bumblebee

"...how large is your canvas, or does that depend on pose/character?": Depending on how much of the character is wanted, yeah it does depend. I won't draw a full bodied character on an A5 size, it's too small for all good details. Full bodied poses are for A4 sizes and up, but I can draw head shots on all sizes. In regards to shipping, I have shipped A3 size with no problem, flat and reinforced, but sadly the post office likes to cash in on that size, so it can be pricey.

"If you have an option for digital solely, is that cheaper than physical or the same price?": Technically my traditional artwork should be more than my digital, as I have to factor in consumable materials. But a few of my traditional prices are are the same as my digital ones. For me, personally, it all came down to trial and error, I just didn't have any takers when I last put my traditional prices up, sadly. And I'm in a position where some money is better than no money right now. Also, 90% of my commissioners/shop buyers have been/are from the USA, and I'm in the UK. The additional postage cost doesn't help, I guess.

As for how long a traditional piece can take, it really depends. If it's a character I'm very familiar with, I can probably finish within a day or two (rarely a day, though, unless I have the time to spend many hours in a single go). Some pieces take several days, if I have trouble with a pose, and I have to draw it several times to get it right. Depending on posing and how many characters, too.

I show the commissioner the sketch stage, and sometimes it's a really rough sketch just to show composition or pose. If it's a rough sketch, I'll then neaten it up and show again, and if they're happy I'll move to the lineart, show them again, and then move to final colors. I like to give commissions a good chance to ask for edits, but there are some who take advantage and keep asking for changes, so after, say 4 edits, depending if they're big/time consuming, I will charge for further edits.

"Are there any TFP mechs you won't draw?": I don't think there are any characters I won't draw, not in the TF fandom, anyway. I would definitely love to give Dreadwing a go 0.0

I hope that answered your questions! If you would like to know anything else please do ask, or for any other artwork examples, since my examples page is still in the making and the current one is a bit limited.

[aotopmha]

My blog turned 8 years old today!

My activity on Tumblr started as an anon on @momtaku 's blog somewhere during the Uprising arc of Attack on Titan.

I was inspired to start a blog because I've always loved talking about/criticising media, I really started to enjoy the insight of a number of the content creators for the series and along with this interest, the series itself showed up at the right time and right place for me, being about themes I care about and having flaws that I found interesting, too.

At that time AoT didn't have the issues I ended up having with it (despite of which I still have a soft spot for it), but it ended up being a very important, even a somewhat formative series for me although I technically wasn't at a formative age anymore because it served as a proxy for me to develop my voice as someone who likes criticism.

Despite my issues with the story, I think there were moments and points where it was very moving and powerful and none of the issues that showed up later removed that for me.

If it wasn't for AoT, I would've never sought out certain perspectives, never met certain people or sought out certain pieces of media.

I only recently, about 7-8 years after finding AoT found a story that I simply *care* about this much, even if I think some other series do what AoT does better.

Above all AoT made me care deeply to the point I wrote 1000s and 1000s of words about it across 8+ years.

And so here I am 8 years later.

The same yet older and wiser and different. I'd argue much more patient and much more open-minded. Maybe a better writer.

And probably not even 10% of that growth was because of AoT, but I certainly feel it at least played a part and that is very rare for a piece of media for me.

Very few pieces of media I've consumed in life have prepetuated change in me personally, but I will eternally remember them and I think even if my relationship with them may change or maybe some outside influence might change my perspective of them (it's entirely possible Hajime Isayama might end up being a complete asshole for whatever reason instead of just making a few jokes that cross some lines or having a 9-10 year old tweet or blog post saying dumb shit that contradicts his own series), the good in them will stay with me forever.

But the most important detail of all in this is that I mostly had fun. My current issues with fandom don't extend to specific series, but rather the general internet space.

The nature of a lot of recent discussion in fandom just isn't that interesting for me.

Tribalistic competition between communities of series, equating depiction to approval, removing feelings from media disscussion, fear of depicting loss or failure, criticising characters for acting human at all – all of these discussion trends remove why I like media in the first place and make it all pretty uninteresting to me.

People are complicated and not always right and the conflict arising from being a person is what keeps me coming back to media.

That's the art I look for because that's what makes me care and draws me in.

Hey, if you like that kind of discussion, more power to you! But I just don't find it engaging or substantial.

I consume media mainly to think about various topics I find interesting, to think about life and feelings.

Sometimes a simple series with simple ideas is nice to chill to once in a while, but I often lose interest in those kinds of series because they remain simple and thus become repetitive in a very specific way.

And during these 8 years, this perspective is also something that I slowly refined. My basic beliefs as a human being haven't changed for a long time, but the nuances and specifics have. These years simply helped me define them better – what I believe in and what I look for.

And here's to many more years of analysis and thank you to everyone who likes my stuff!