#quick little screen redraw

[tamagoneko]

croco is real to me <3

[applesandbannas747]

i wanna hear your thoughts on the fence challengers: long shot preview pages if you want to share!

oh mAN I have so many and they are all over the place!!

The first one is a little thing, but I bet Seiji had a crush on Marcus Washington when he was a kid--Nick's horror, Harvard's teasing, and Seiji's indignant blush imply as much.

And a fun fact, Jo posted a mini preview of baby Seiji to Patreon on February 14th...maybe I'm reading into it too much, but that's nothing new XD

Next couple of things are about the scene with the trophy case. It was really interesting and fun to see side-by-side redraws of Robert! It really illustrates the way the style has evolved, and also I gOTTA say it feels like Jo is more invested in Robert based on the level of detail she put in--like it's not just a style comparison, it's also just obvious a lot of attention was put into these shots when a) she could have just reused old shots (which she's done before, so I know it was an option), or kept it more simplified like she did when drawing the original shots.

I also think it's sweet that the redraws have Robert looking much more like Jesse than the originals.

And I am sure I will get flack for this, but I have incredible second-hand embarrassment from Nick leaving his newspaper clipping + note in the trophy case jfhdasl like bestieee noooo anyone can see that shit now oh my god please stooop

Onto some Nichoji thoughts! I love that Seiji's been confirmed as a before-bed reader! Him having a Kindle makes sense for the sheer efficiency of it too lmfao. Of course it's also adorable to see him in reading glasses <3 And then my favorite detail is Nick's stupid nightlight...notice where it is?

Rather than illuminating Nick's side of the room, it's peeking around the curtain and lighting up Seiji's reading, which is beyond adorable and sweet. I wonder whether Seiji stole it or Nick put it there knowing Seiji likes to read before bed, and I love both scenarios.

Also, it's fucking adorable that as soon as Nick mentions their date appointment, Seiji takes off his glasses and lowers his Kindle because it's got his full attention and investment.

And a quick pitstop to the locker rooms!

I like the visual metaphor here with Aiden and Bobby both very casual about changing and both literally having their shirts open; meanwhile, Seiji's straightening the cuffs on his button-down, which is already neatly tucked in and complete with his tie. It just highlights how Seiji's a lot more closed off than the others, and I think this was a neat trick to remind us of that.

In regards to plot, I'm still...really disappointed in the pacing. I know most people feel like it's a slowburn/it's taken a long time to develop, but if you waited to read Fence at all until it was complete and then read it all in one sitting, I think you'd see how unbalanced it is. Williams says that their first match will be in three weeks back right after tryouts:

which means everything between issue 12 and CHALLENGERS has happened in 3 weeks. Seiji and Nick's relationship is so sweet and cute, but it went from resentful rivalry to puppy love overnight with very little 'screen time' dedicated to the actual transition from resentment to friends (which I could write a whole essay on but this is not the post for that lmfao). Furthermore, the fact that it's the first match of State Championships rather than first match of the season is crazy to me. I'll admit, I didn't fence in high school--it wasn't even an option because we didn't have a team. And despite hours of research, the structure of high school team fencing is not entirely clear to me. However, I do know that typical high school sports go through the season, facing every other team in their division or whatever. Based on performance in those matches, they can qualify for state, and then their win ratio determines their seeding order for the state championships that happen in like 1-2 days. Seeding order is who you go up against in a bracket, so it's what this diagram is, basically:

(side note, but it appears there are 24 schools competing at state). Again, fencing could be different, but it kinda seems to me like we skipped over the season and went right to State Championships, which just cuts out so much development and build-up. It's like we're speed-running the entire story to get to the end faster. We cut out showing the development in the romance, and now we're cutting out the development of the plot. There's still plenty that we can do at state, of course, but imagine how much more it would mean to see Nick fencing in front of Robert if we'd built that up more. I just don't understand how we spent 12 issues on try outs, 4 on a practice match, 8 on camp, and none on the fencing season. It feels so abrupt and unbalanced. Tryouts and camp were my favorites arcs because they felt pretty well-paced as self-contained pieces of the story. I just feel like we needed waaaaay more relationship development between those two arcs to be satisfying, and I feel like there should be waaaaay more build up during the fencing season between camp and State Championships.

and now, the moment you've all been waiting for: my devastation over Eugene's role (???) in the story. I honestly question why he's in the story at all--at this point, it would have made more sense to have him flat-out not make the team. Except that keeping him this long lowkey backs up the theory I've had on his role since Striking Distance/RIVALS: Eugene is here to make everyone else look better/cooler/more impressive. The very first thing that struck me when reading the first look was this:

The dialogue here suggests that only one reserve actually gets to be on the team in the end, and the reserve is Nick. And, worse, everyone expected it to be Nick. Sure, it's sweet that Seiji thinks Nick's the better fencer, but all I can think about is how hard Eugene's worked for ten years trying to make the team as opposed to Nick's three months of fencing. Now, I love an underdog story. But it's interesting because Pacat stated in an interview (I'd have to go find where for the specific quote) that he always feels bad for the person who's been working to be #1 their whole lives only to be knocked out of the running by an upstart underdog--which I've always assumed would influence the path taken in Fence...and it seems like we may well let Seiji and Jesse remain above Nick in skill (or at least it seems like we won't be dethroning Seiji, even if we go for Jesse), but Nick's overcoming smaller obstacles. And those smaller obstacles hurt worse to see crushed because Eugene almost made the team in a way that mattered, only to have that taken away. It would have been less cruel to him and his fans to let Nick take the reserve slot back in issue 12, but instead we brought Eugene along to serve as a means to make Nick out 'secret weapon' and elevate his story.

I will say though, this page is one of my favorite Eugene moments because I see the character I selfishly want Eugene to be in it. From the context of the panels above, this page is likely Williams telling them that only one will be fencing in State Championships, and this is their reaction. Eugene's immediate concern for Nick and the comforting hand on his shoulder followed by a bright smile and a thumbs up--he just cares so much about other people and it so used to smiling through his own pain/disappointment and comforts Nick through being positive (and as seen back in issue 12, up playing his competitiveness) and acting like it's no big deal.

Eugene deserved better, but if this is where he goes out, I think I can live with it. Better to see him go now than continue to be a means to uplift the rest of team by being less than. but, man, I was really hoping we were turning it around after his moment in REDEMPTION being the only KR boy not to lose his bout

anyway, thank you sm for listening to my rambles!!! <33

[thecoffeelorian]

Fandom Friday, 08/09: Fanart

Hello again, everyone...and welcome to another installment of Fandom Friday, the two-post series where I go off to find new and interesting fanworks that might need a bit more visibility.

Before we get started, however...I'd like to run a quick interest check for further updates on this subject, as I have recently dealt with a little pushback from a user who wanted nothing to do with this, and so don't want to annoy anybody else if they would truly prefer their uninterrupted browsing. 😅

Therefore...if you are still interested in being tagged for this, or if you are a new friend who wants to be included in all future updates, then please leave this little icon (👩‍🎤) in the comments or reblogs.

If not...then just don't like, reblog, or comment at all, and I'll be sure to remove you. Ya know, because I'm not some crazy weirdo who stays up all night plotting new ways to bother people...or whatever.

Anyway. Now that I've put in my two cents on the subject, here are my fanart picks of the week.

THE HIGH REPUBLIC

The High Republic Fanart--By @magicalplaylist:

THE CLONE WARS

The Clone Wars Fanart--By @tlmtwelve

The Clone Wars Fanart--By @runekirikjartan:

THE BAD BATCH

The Bad Batch Fanart--By @nerdygreenhouse:

The Bad Batch Fanart--By @beeartsy:

ROGUE ONE

Rogue One Fanart--By @foolishskull

AHSOKA

Ahsoka Fanart--By @constellacrow:

In conclusion, as part of my mission to poke around the Star Wars fandom and, on Friday every week, highlight those artists who might otherwise go unnoticed…I hope you will check out the links I have included for yourselves and like, comment on, and reblog them, as well as also giving the artists a few more followers to their Tumblr pages.

Please also like and reblog this latest installment so that these links can be spread around to as many other fans as possible, just in case not all of them can tune in at the same time.

An additional thank you goes to @djarrex for making the divider I used earlier in this post, but still want to give credit for.

And finally, so that I do not forget…this post will be continued in its second half: the Fanfiction Edition.

Thank you, good morning, and I’ll see you in the next post!

No Pressure Tags: @melymigo @algo-o-nada @theosb0rnway @everybirdfellsilent @skellymom

@leos-multifandom-corner @maggie-dylan @leenabb104104 @gun-roswell @tazmbc1

@bluedeedeedoop @its-time-to-rise-above and anybody else who might be on the lookout for new SW fanart.

[sendmeartgifs]

Also did a quick little sketch redraw of this screen cap because he looks so cute 🥹

[lico-arts]

Quick update + A little treat!

Hello! I won't be very active during July because of ArtFight and a few illustrations i have planned (on top of my job, send help), so to make up for the upcoming lack of content, here's some insight on how i animate my Twst Chibis :)

(shoutout to the person who sent an ask about this topic! idk if i misclicked or if you took it down yourself, but it made me really happy to be asked and i spent 4 hours writing this as an answer, so i'm posting anyway lol)

Rigging & Animation talk below the cut, feel free to scroll by if you were just here for the update (and have a great day 👋)

I'll be taking Mafuyu as the exemple here, because he's the most complete one i made so far.

Firstly, here's some WIPs i saved showing off his faces and hair bones

Basically i went ahead and made an entire rig for him, since i know i'm eventually going to come back and make him more reactions and outfits. I started from scratch so it took a while, but at least now i have a nice base ready to go!

The original sketch was made on CSP, then the model itself and animation were made on Toon Boom because i haven't learned to use Live 2D yet.

Great thing about that is that it ended up being fully vectorized, which is always a plus if i ever need to resize him.

Here's a zoom (or huh, as close up in as my screen will allow) on all the elements, and their hierarchy. From the left are the elements that show up on top of everything (pearls, hair, head & face), to the ones that are behind everything on the right (cardigan back, braid, shadow):

It's kinda tricky to describe but all elements have their individual pegs (the green bits), which then get linked up additionally and in groups, so for example if i start selecting from the hand and go up, it goes:

Hand -> Hand + Forearm -> Hand + Forearm + Upper arm -> Both Arms + Torso + Head + Hair -> Upper Body + Pelvis + Both Legs

Once the model was done it was onto animating!

No secrets here, i really just tried my best to match the rhythm of how the in-game models move, what movements came back regularly etc... So typically: the heads often bop up and down in a specific way when they laugh or look up, the entire body stretches slightly when they jump or get startled, things like that.

I keep thinking that technically i shouldn't have animated the bangs because the in-game models have pretty limited hair animations, but hhh it felt too important to skip for Mafuyu (and mostly i was just having fun lol).

Just for fun, here's what most of my timeline looks like for the idle animation:

I'm confident that the og animations are fully tweened, so i did that too. But ofc with some adjustments to the timing so it doesn't look stiff. Since everything is on ones I didn't have the patience to go back and modify frames by hand lol.

It was especially tricky to figure out how to make the elbows look good, because of the pattern on his cardigan. I had to redraw the arms like 4 times to have them work in all positions. I spent many minutes looking at in-game models that had checkered sleeves (White Rabbit Deuce ended up being my main reference) to analyse how they made theirs work. I could've bothered making a clipping texture that I could warp to match the movement of the arm but,,, that probably would've killed my motivation entirely, i was determined to make this look good, but not THAT much lmao

The bangs, braid and cardigan were the only elements that i animated with bones and warps, for everything else i just used basic pegs to rotate and stretch the limbs

After that i just threw a Ramshackle themed bg behind him and gifed him up, and Voilà!

Random/fun facts, because why not:

The shoes took me 4 hours to make, because im really not used to drawing with vector tools, all those details made it hell lol

His proportions are mostly based off of Ruggie's model :)

I think that about covers it! I tried going into details without being boring, so hopefully it's still understandable, and maybe even interesting for curious folks 🤞

If you made it all the way here, holy shit thank you!!

[quibbs126]

Heck I don’t actually remember if Pure Vanilla/Dark Cacao was a request or if it was something I just planned to do on my own. I know it started out as my own idea, but sometimes that happens and then before I get to doing it, someone requests it and I just make it a request, and I don’t remember if that happened here

But regardless, this was a drawing I made of the idea for a purecacao fankid on it’s own, and I’m posting it as such

Now you’ll notice that this isn’t my usual format. This is because this isn’t her official design, it’s just that last night, I had this idea for a design of her as a young child with Dark Cacaoian clothing, and so I just wanted to make a quick doodle to show you

It was just going to be that picture in the middle, as it’s more sketchy and rough, and clearly not how I usually do these fankid requests. However when I finished, I realized that I made her too small. See, if I may explain some things, for my poorly drawn comics and other things that use that particular brush (it’s the Narinder Pencil if you want to know), and I don’t like enlarging pictures drawn with it because the lines get all blurry and it loses its texture. Prior to the Charcoal Cheese comic, for my poorly drawn comics I tended to enlarge the sketch to fit the screen, and then I’d completely redraw the lines. But here, I had already colored the whole thing, plus it was multiple layers to redraw, so I didn’t want to. But I couldn’t just crop down the canvas to fit it because my square canvases are already 500x500 pixels, they’re very small (and also I think the small size might account for why they may not show up in the best quality, but I’ve been using this size for over 2 years and I’m set with it, and I feel like changing would be too much effort). And I feel like making it even smaller would just tank the quality even more

Though to be honest, I’m glad I made a second version with my proper sketching process, as I was better able to figure out her colors and design

Speaking of her design, yeah this is sort of what I’m thinking for her look, at least in terms of hair, dough and eye color. She’s not gonna keep the braid though, that’s just a kid thing

I feel like maybe I should give her streaks, but I’m not sure where to put them or what color

Also I realize that I forgot to put KitKats on her design. I wasn’t planning to originally since this is a little kid’s outfit, but also in some of the artbook drawings, young Dark Choco had small Oreo shoulderpads, so maybe she should have something similar. I had an idea for her wearing tiny KitKat shoulderpads, but I forgot them. Ah well

Hmm, does she look like a purecacao kid? I’m looking at her and I feel like she looks more like her own character than related to them. Maybe it’s the lack of streaks

Oh yeah, and one more thing I want to add, I’ve decided she’s a post-canon kid, as in Pure Vanilla and Dark Cacao got together after the events of the Dark Flour War and canon in general. The story in my head goes that Dark Cacao developed feelings for Pure Vanilla, but was hesitant to tell him about it, maybe because he’s socially awkward and wasn’t sure how to, maybe because Pure Vanilla and White Lily had something going on and he didn’t want to stir up drama between them. But regardless, Dark Cacao felt that it wasn’t so much of a big deal since they were immortal, he could tell him when he felt it was right. But then the Dark Flour War happened and Pure Vanilla seemingly died, with Dark Cacao never telling him how he felt. But then years later, Pure Vanilla came back, and while Dark Cacao was of course overjoyed, it also caused him to realize that even being immortal, they don’t have all the time in the world, and he needed to tell Pure Vanilla how he felt, and so during the events of Odyssey, he confessed to Pure Vanilla, and then likely sometime after Dark Enchantress’s defeat, they got together, and later had this girl

Also this means she has a (probably) 30+ year older brother in Dark Choco, but it’s all good

I feel bad just keeping her unnamed, but I don’t know what to call her. *sigh*

Any suggestions?

But yeah, I just wanted to show y’all this idea. Don’t know when I’ll be finishing her, but I’ll draw her officially at some point

[dyke-in-crisis]

some quick facts about Ayden:

-fav winx is Tecna

-worst habit is hoarding & stealing metal (and probably your data if he feels like it 👁️)

- had a pet possum at some point

-only two facial expressions

-major introvert

-tech as fuel for magic (will elaborate in detail later but it's similar to the way nature energy works in this universe -> electricity & nature can work hand in hand/ as a parallel)

-Elder Emo/Scene Kid

-chronically late to everything

-ftm trans & bi (currently single lol)

-loves spicy food

feel free to ask anything about him!!

YOO I CANT BELIEVE I FINISHED ANOTHER REF SHEET thats insane I work on my comic soo little lately and this really motivated me a I think every writer can relate but l mostly write & draw in my head instead of planning everything out on paper!

I'm really excited for his arc, I plan to have him summoning a spirit through cables and screens in a ritual. that haunted my brain forever and I keep redrawing everything but thats it for now! never would have expected for patron saints to be such a long term project but thats what you get when you struggle with executive dysfunction and depression 🧍 not giving up on this comic anytime soon though!

commissions patreon for more of my comic wip!!

[eiseryn]

"You're stupid. I like that in a man."

I had to redraw this meme as soon as I found out Vail's INT is a 50 XD (for reference, Lei's INT is 80)*

I love them together so much 🥺🥺🥺 I used to clown Lei for having bad taste in men (Vail LOL because he seemed super flaky due to him having 0 screen time but it turns out he's really good to her??? He's just a very very busy man 😔😔😔). I also like how he's a short king BUT IT TURNS OUT HIS SIZ IS 65 and LEI'S SIZ IS 50 XDDD but since the DM said he's only a few cm taller I will believe in the Vail short king canon-ity (I'm going to estimate he's like 165cm though XD -- Lei is 158.5cm which she justifies is basically 159cm which is basically 160cm XD. She wears lots of heels for a reason XD) This was supposed to be a quick little sketch but y'know I haven't had much time to draw so after cleaning up the sketch for the lines I started the flats... and then I started rendering.. .and then for some ungodly reason I decided to draw a cyberpunk cityscape for the background WHICH MEANT OF COURSE I HAD TO DO THE APPROPRIATE FILTER + LIGHTING FOR IT 😭😭😭 SO HERE I AM LIKE 5 HOURS LATER 🤡🤡🤡💀💀🤡🤡🤡 I'm clowning too hard I have no time to draw nowadays... man...

Details I am proud of here: Lei's hand!!! I always struggle with hands but I spent a lot of time + effort this time and looked at a bunch of refs! Of course putting the effort into the lighting/BG is another one! BUT a very cool detail I included is that Vail's ear tips are red 😳😳😳 cute, right? They're so cute together 🥺🥺🥺 *80 is the usual max, but for some strange reason, her doctor friends Elise and Ceres have INT of 85 and 90 respectfully! This is very sus!!! (But there's apparently lore reasons why which have yet to be revealed...)

[ecogirl2759]

It's time.

So, I have decided to formally retire from FireAlpaca and will not be revisiting any of my old works made on that app (just because of personal preference). SO, I've decided to share some of my favorite WIPs that I had hoped to finish once upon a time lol.

I'm gonna be tagging all the characters that show up btw, so sorry if this comes up as you're peacefully scrolling your fandom tags hehe.

Please check the tags for the characters/fandoms and decide if you wanna open this post.

So yeah, have a couple of old sketches from 2-5 years ago :D

[Uncolored blood in one of them jsyk]

This one felt appropriate to put first lol I was really liking the way it was turning out... and then I lost motivation lol. Think this is from 2 years ago-ish.

Here's another of my OC. I was going to make a super cool battle illustration with super cool effects and super cool lighting and I gave up almost instantly lol. SHE HAS NO WRISTS!!

This is one I made for Drawfest 2, like, 2 years ago now, I think. I thought it was coming along kinda nice except I couldn't get the perspective to look right so my character ended up looking huge lmao.

Here's ANOTHER of my OC. This one is really old lol. I've redesigned her now and I don't use this shading style anymore, so I retired this profile picture really early on.

Ok, last one of this OC. This was going to be one of many sprites that I was making to use in videos and stuff, but I, once again, lost my motivation hehe. Looks REALLY bad tho so idc.

Now for some fandom junk!

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Pico jumpscare I got really into Pico's school way back when and never saw any fanart for his death screen. So I wanted to try my hand at it. Got through the lineart before I decided I didn't like it and was not skilled enough to salvage it so I gave up. Might redraw this in the future though!

Haha mind the huge empty space on this one.

This was going to be a picture of Gregory and Freddy from FNaF Security Breach (made this around the time the game came out), but I quickly realized I couldn't draw animatronics and quit lol. You can kinda see the stripe on Gregory's shirt, but my sketching abilities back then were awful so it's a little hard.

ASJKFHSABFHJBF I ALMOST FORGOT I WAS DRAWING HIMMM!! This bean is a character from To Your Eternity, an anime I randomly found on Netflix once and fell in love with (I quit at the weird scene in the prison tho, remind me to finish it). HE WAS SO CUTE I JUST HAD TO DRAW HIM <3 Also this isn't the ball, this is the boy. I just didn't get to his eyes.

MULTIFANDOM IDEAAAAA

So me and my sister were talking a few years ago, and I think one of us misspoke and said "Coffee shot" instead of "Coffee shop," so this AU was born.

It's a coffee shop called the Coffee Shot staffed by characters that love guns and have guns and shoot guns and I love them. The shop is frequented by characters from other franchises (in this case Danganronpa), and it's got the best coffee and the best theming you've ever seen >:)

Characters from left to right: Pico (FNF), Kiyotaka Ishimaru (DR1), Mondo Owada (DR1), Lance (EBF5)

Here's another MultiFandom picture :D

This one was based on Pinterest lol. I have boards for both of these franchises, but they kept wanting to save these two characters to each other's boards lol. SO I wanted to make a style swap with them! Didn't end up finishing it, though, but I do want to come back to it!

Characters: Kiyotaka Ishimaru (Danganronpa), Ranma Saotome (Ranma 1/2)

Aaaaand then just take some Danganronpa stuff.

This first one is actually the second piece of fanart I ever did for this game, but I quit really quick because I SCREWED UP TAKA'S HAIR AND DIDN'T WANNA REDO IT BECAUSE EVERY TIME I TRIED IT LOOKED FUNKY SO NOW HE'S JUST FUZZY. AND THE BACKGROUND EWWW I FORGOT IT LOOKED LIKE THIS

And then this one is of the same two characters but based on a fanfic I read once. It was a Beauty and the Beast one. It was really fun to read. I liked it. It's on Wattpad if you're interested. I quit on this picture really quick tho. Made the sketch on Photoshop 2 years ago, transferred the sketch to FireAlpaca, then realized the sketch sucked and didn't bother trying again.

.

.

.

SO

There's all my sketches. The ones that I'm willing to share, that is.

Let this be a lesson that not all of your pictures are going to go the way you want to. Your sketches are going to be messy, your lineart isn't going to match up, your colors are going to look funky, and your shading is going to want to make you rip out your hair sometimes.

I think what's important is to make sure that all that stuff doesn't discourage you.

If you give up all together, you'll never know what you'd've been able to produce if you hadn't.

If a picture isn't working for you, find out why. Then quit that picture, practice, and come back. You'll be able to compare yourself to your own art instead of other people's, which will give you a clearer sense of how far you've come.

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SORRY DIDN'T MEAN TO GO ON A RANT THERE

I think I'll shoot to redraw some of these next year. I definitely want to come back to that Pico one, the style swap one, the Coffee Shot, and the Christmas one.

Don't really have time for that now, but that's now on my New Year's Resolution list lol.

If you're reading this, thanks for looking at my old crappy art. It feels nice to share <3

[vindersdraws]

[ℕ𝕠𝕥 𝕊𝕠 𝕌𝕨𝕌 𝔹𝕖𝕒𝕟 𝕀𝕀]

I’ve wanted to redraw her for sometime now. First time she appeared on my screen (March 2, 2023!), she was just a quick warm up & had a shrine maiden outfit, but she’s grown a little bit to a different direction since then. I want to use her as a character in a project.

Also, it’s almost 9am and I should be sleeping.

ততততততততততততততততততততত

► vinders.carrd.co ► ko-fi.com/vinders ► patreon.com/vinders

Commission info ► vindersart.carrd.co

[ryliesavage]

I needed a break from my fun (but intricate) current art projects, and so I did this little screen shot doodle from one of my favorite movies Sabrina (1995- starring Harrison Ford, Julia Ormond, and Greg Kinnear) I quite enjoyed it, so I may be doing more of these quick doodles in the future! #ryliesavageart #sabrina1995 #90smovies #screenshot #redraw #art #artistsoninstagram #artwork #illustration #illustrationartists #illustragram #illustatorsoninstagram #illustrator https://www.instagram.com/p/CoK_vvlPP-g/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[crackerqueen-ineedsleep]

in like august or something i sent lorel a very rambly ask about blogverse. well im doing it again because it was such a big thing in my life and i loved it so much.

it is i, roleplayer of bv!shandy/shando, bv!digi/mercury, and the very first lorelcest ship kid; oleander. There's more, but those were the ones i remember clearly. to this day i regret deactivating those blogs, mostly due to all the lost memories. it brought me so much joy. looking back, it was definitely my hyperfixation at the time.

the summer of 2020 (holy shit almost 3 years ago) and i think early into the start of online school, i watched from the sidelines as blogverse grew. every day i watched my little people in the screen. I wasnt much younger but i was still a cringe little tumblr kid having a shit time in school. and then i realized that i could just join. i didnt need permission or anything, i could just make a blog from the get-go and become one of them.

and thats how blogverse shandy was born. my very first tumblr blog, and the one that made me stay. (actually, idk which of them was the first)

i'm still pissed at myself for clearing out my google drive because i used to still have the shitty pictures i drew on my computer of them, due to the fact my ipad was broken at the time. those shitty little pictures were what kept me interested in art (they didnt make me better, i was trash through and through, but they're what sparked my interest and led me to get better). i treasure the old fanart i find in their tags when i go through the ruins of blogverse.

They didn't really have a fleshed out personality or backstory. they were "weird and quirky" one moment, then straight up violent the next. this was mostly because i had no prior experience at actually fleshing out characters. though, i think their "wild card"ness somehow became their personality in the end. i was still some cringe little kid who thought i was a genius at writing because i had this little guy in my computer who lived in a void and had a cat and atattchment issues.

but holy shit i loved them. i used to think about them like a real flesh and blood person. i'd spend long nights roleplaying with others and long days talking to myself about my plans for them and then totally abandoning them moments later. i drew them poorly and decided i was a master of character design. they felt like a part of me.

i had no idea how tumblr worked but it was so much fun. bv digi, bv shandy, and oleander were 3 separate blogs because i didn't even know side blogs were a thing. bv shandy was deactivated several times due to minor issues that could've been fixed with the press of a button.

then came oleander, who i kind of had an idea for. they were a snotty little motherfricker who i absolutely adored being. it started as a joke and then it wasnt a joke anymore and they were a fully fledged character. i got bored quick though, and their blog went inactive soon. i hate their design to this day, and in the morning i'll probably redraw them.

there was also bv digi, whose entire personality was being a little weirdo who kidnapped ship kids at random just be-fucking-cause. they might've actually been the first blog i dont remember. anyway, they had the normalest design and the least art. i loved them with my whole fucking soul.

they made no sense and were generally shitty but that was the best thing to ever happen to me i think. bv introduced me to tumblr where i'd meet so many amazing people and see so many hilarious and sometimes eye-opening posts. it got me into art, writing, and roleplay, my 3 biggest hobbies to this day. it was a hyperfixation i leaned on to cope with the mild distress that just came with being alive and a dumb kid in 2020. my very first 'real' blog was made after bv's fall, and i met one of my longest mutuals bc she wrote a lorelcest fic.

I think back on it as the good old days, nostalgic even. Blogverse was my pride and joy, what i'd go do after a day of suffering in school or do when i retreated to my room. When it died so did my hyperfixation, but now looking back it meant so fucking much to me and was arguably my strongest interest and maybe even coping mechanism.

sure, it deprived me of sleep and sometimes food because i was so caught up with it, but it made me happy. all's well that ends well, right?

and i still am a dumb kid (Older Edition, yay), but even when i'm a dumb adult i'll never forget blogverse. BV was my pride and joy that summer. Thank you for being its accidental ringleader, and i know its wacky to say, but without bv i would be a different person.

:]

KSDJEKFKEKC AAAAAAAAAAAAA-

BICH U GONNA GET ME ALL TOUCHY AND FEELY

I'm so surprised yet happy that there's still at least one person that remembers BV! It was a lot of work to run so many blogs but I'm happy to know that it was worth it. BV means a lot to me aswell :)

[blqgumi]

My Sister Is A Genie Visual Novel Dev Log#1

My Sister Is A Genie...  Visual Novel  Dev Log #1

Feel free to ask me questions and check out my Ko-fi because I also do updates on my visual novel there.

Dev Log #1

So I've been working on this visual novel that focuses on two sisters wishing for a better world. One sister is a genie and the other is the wish maker. It's my first time coding a game and making a visual novel. I've already made a lot of progress and had my little sister play-test the game for me. In its current version, it's very short.

I wrote down some improvements my sister had made a point of and now I'm at a stopping point because I don't know how or what to incorporate next. I just want to breakdown my thought process and explain what I already have.

What Have I Done So Far?

So  I made three different choices that the player can choose from. The three choices are all wishes the main character Chloe will wish for. The player now goes through each choice where there is an explanation of how that choice effect the world. What I see as a transition to an exchange between Chloe “the wisher” and Chyna “the genie”.  After this interaction Chloe will make a new wish and rinse, repeat. There will be a new transition and dialogue that coincides the wish. After all three wishes are made there is a final fourth wish option that appears. This final fourth wish is the good ending to the game.

 I have only 5/10 of the backgrounds completed. There are two that are being worked on but are incomplete and most of the character designs are incomplete as I have more reactions to create due to the additions I’m creating for the game. I have music in the game, no sound effects and a sketch of what I think I want the start screen to look like. I haven’t messed with the text UI or the text bar UI and I don’t plan to. I don’t intend to push myself too hard on this first project and just work with what I can.  In it’s current state, its a game that takes 5 minutes at the most to complete.

I didn’t realize how short it was until I let my sister play test it and it was a bit disappointing to realize how little was presented despite a month of work put into it. At the same time I feel re-energized to the project as I’ve had soem time a way from it. I never expected it to feel this long when creating it, but little by little I see the pieces come together and it feels nice to have something I took my time on. My hope is that I finish this game feeling proud of what I made and emboldened to make the next game. 

What I Want To Do Next?

I want to add more dialogue options that are connecting points to the three main wishes that involve a good and bad route. My sister pointed out that I had a good back and forth with the characters in one of three main wishes but that it needs to be consistent and reflect that in the other wishes. I agreed and went back to my original plan and build from there. 

I will have 3 main wishes and 1 extra fourth wish with only a good ending.

 Those three wishes will branch out into 3 different choice reactions, which are “double down”, “apology” and “anger”.

 These will branch off into 3 situations that will lead to a dead-end or a  new wish (leads back to the main 3 wishes).

What Am I Doing Now?

I am working on redrawing Chloe and Chyna so I have an actual character reference sheet and get used to redrawing them over and over again. I also have been redesigning their outfits to get a better feel for their personality and what would better fit into the game. 

I am also writing out the different scenes for the additional routes. It is proving to take more time to create than the drawings at this point. This part of the development is still in the planning stages as I haven���t changed the code at all as of yet. 

I also will be redrawing one scene and rethinking other scenes to fit the mood of that these additional scenes might imply.

Final Thoughts?

I honestly didn’t think this project would take as long as it has because it felt so quick when I finished coding and drawing is easy breezy for me but the task of drawing out so much in a short amount of time is near impossible. As I’m planning out more content for the game, I feel more tired and overwhelmed but how much more I still need to draw. I have a hard time being patience and allowing the work to get done when it needs to. This project isn’t for profit, I just wanted to make a visual novel because I can. So I want to at least enjoy the process while I can.

[lizleeships]

That Winchesters trailer looked so good I had to redraw a quick and completely accurate screen cap.... 

*cough*

(Don’t repost, but if you like my work, feel free to buy me a ko-fi, every little bit helps in this economy, heh. Or you can join my patreon for early access and other perks.)

[hedonistbyheart]

There was this really cute bts bit where ZZH examines GJs white wig and I just wanted it with a little less green screen and crew around. 

This is just a quick canonized redraw basically.

reference:

[theholeyness]

Your brush strokes feel so precise while also flowy, not restricting at all! how do you do it?? :D

This is easy, let me teach you (^^ )

Having to do lines over and over again can take up a lot of time, so it's important to be able to make accurate lines! The first thing I do after opening a new canvas is to check my eye-hand-monitor coordination. I use a screen-less tablet but those exercises are applicable to traditional painting as well. Here's how to do it: Quickly* draw a line straight down across your tablet, if the line on your canvas goes perfectly down, you're good. If it is skewed left or right, rotate your tablet a little and try again until it goes straight downwards. *The lines should be quick for a few reasons: 1.) a "real" painting will be made out of thousands of brushstrokes, you don't want to think about every single line. 2.) quick lines are not as shaky and therefore more elegant. 3.) the faster you paint, the more you can paint.

It's important to check that you can accurately and repeatedly hit the same spot on your canvas regardless of the direction of your brushstrokes. Imagine or draw a point on your canvas. Draw a vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines that will meet in that point. Try it in three or four places on your canvas for good results.

Checking the length of your stokes: Quickly draw a square, with the intention of not erasing any edges outside the square. Getting this done correctly should help you get an idea of how the length of your brushstrokes drawn across the tablet corresponds to the lengths of your lines on the screen.

If you get those right, it should be easy to get your lines to look good! Please try it out! <(￣︶￣)> About flowy lines... You can enhance your linework using brushes that have settings such as brush size or opacity changing with pen pressure and/or velocity. (make sure your tablet is properly set up for these. I use an older Wacom tablet, so my advice is to make notice of the "tip feel" setting) but the most important thing.... I think we've all had this thought while working over a sketch we really liked, "the more effort I put into it, the more tired this picture feels!", gradually straying away from the original idea, losing motivation to work and throwing the file into the wip folder, never to open it again..! orz

The solution is to make meaningful lines! Paint with intention! That is, you don't want to make lines which you will have to redraw later. The exceptions would be... if your idea changes during the process or if you forgot to include something in the sketch. Then, you should, naturally, edit your picture... haha.......

Here, I made an example using my sketch, (the original sketch + final pic are above) and, below, a "bad" sketch I edited just now,

Things I would personally see as mistakes: 1.) Zig-zaggy lines that don't go in direction with the form. 2.) Filling in parts that will not be black with black. Tempting to do to see how the contrast will turn out later. Will have to be repainted. 3.) Filling in big black spaces with black. Unless it's a void, it will have to be shaded later. There is no need to do black before other colors. 4.) Adding a lot of cluttering lines that disrupt the flow make it easy to get lost later. 5.) Black shadows that obscure form. Since the picture is not going to be black and white, it's too strong and heavy. Steals attention off more important things.

Why these things that are not necessary, is because after you're overall satisfied with your sketch you can easily make a layer under it (in my case one under and one above the sketch) and do a color test with minimal shadows. This is an important step that tells you if the final picture will look good. And it takes only a minute!

(this is what mine looked like ↓)

If you have a good foundation to work on, cleaning up becomes easy and you maintain the energy of the sketch!

I'm happy you like my art. ❤ I hope this helps!