#reference vs final art

[zishu-arts]

nicknames

anybody remember this au?

[stargirl230]

Heard there’s going to be another lxh movie!! and immediately renewed my hyperfixation by consuming all the available media in the franchise

(no reposts; reblogs appreciated)

[grapeenthusiast]

(2/?)

something that'll make it talk

1 2 3 4

[stormflyblue]

my (one of) pjsk x noragami aus... read left to right! (though it might get confusing at moments, sorry!)

this au is focused on kaito and tsukasa (whos surprised) super proud of this :3

[imbelfoxxyloxxy]

I mostly did this because the colors of their outfits matched yah know?

[chimchiri]

Reminder that if you're frustrated, stuck on something or it just keeps looking weird, it's probably time to grab some good ol' reference.

[beastomato]

huge fan of drawing his ass sitting down lol

[the-local-bunny]

Of course I didn't put everything that I like in one art...

[harpaleon]

[miswaken]

Alice got her first tattoo in the spring of 2012. In college and in her professional career, she'd known plenty of people that had them -- and she admired the art -- but could never be convinced to get one herself. She'd claim that she just couldn't make up her mind, couldn't think of any fleeting whim she'd want to ink on her body forever. And then the first anniversary of Alan's disappearance came and went, and Alice was reminded of just how horribly short life is and how quickly time moves. The concept of bodily permanence is sort of a useless thing to get hung up on, isn't it?

Her first piece is a matching set of delicate, leafy branches that follow the curve of her collarbones. It's not exactly a comfortable experience, but Alice finds something almost meditative in the whole process, a sense of grounding and connection to her body that sometimes feels tenuous on her rougher days. And more importantly, she loves the result, the way the ink plays like a shadow under her skin.

The thing about tattoos is that it's hard to stop at just one.

She gets a few other pieces over the years. A luna moth on the top of her left thigh. A cluster of fireflies over her right ankle. There's at least one coordinating appointment made with @mslangermann. Small things here and there, nothing that's visible except for when she wants it to be, and naturally all in black and white. She keeps her forearms -- and most of her upper arms -- bare. The work is for her, a statement to and for herself that she can choose to show off with the cut of her clothing when she sees fit. Otherwise, the tattoos are something she only does for herself.

Her largest piece comes years later, born of a perhaps unconscious desire to assert control over herself and her life as the recurring apartment hauntings tear her reality apart. It's the work of a few sessions and spans almost her entire back -- a geometric and floral design with bold lines and deep shadows. Although she can't see it unless she twists before a mirror, Alice knows it's there. Just for her. And the appointments are something she can look forward to, time out of the apartment and out of her own head. She's almost sorry when it's over, even if the annoyances of the healing process multiplied over such a large swath of skin knocks some of the luster out of it.

The work that goes into planning her exhibit -- and everything that goes along with it -- keeps her out of tattoo studios after that. However, that doesn't stop her from contemplating new pieces from time to time, and when the dust of post-lake life settles, she'll likely find herself back under the familiar whir of an artist's needles.

[eydilily]

someone asked for a cleo and a 5am pearl in my reqs (AND I WILL GET TO IT!) but i wanted to share some of my practice cleos from the past months because of the coincidence that they were already right next to each other on my sketch canvas

cleo was one of the first hermits i drew even before i really got to know them because i just love their character design

(bonus cleo under the cut where it was my first time drawing them and all i knew was that they were amazing at armor stand things)

help me you could really tell the diff of me looking up references vs first impressions

anyway !!! i will draw something new for cleo and pearl over the weekend when i finally get the time to do my art requests :3c

[meanbossart]

Hi, I've enjoyed your art for almost a year now but now I'm curious as to how you come up with what you want to draw. I've been struggling with coming away from using references, especially when drawing people lately and was wondering how you could do it.

Hello!

If you mean how do I come up with the poses, I will usually "doodle" my way into them and fix things along the way to better match whatever it is I'm seeing in my head. I think the secret is really not overthinking your very first draft - get it out as quickly and messily as possible so you can better access what you want the final pose to actually good like.

Here are some examples of my first pass vs final art:

Sometimes something only takes 1-2 sketches before I start lining and sometimes the sketch process is a convoluted mess with more layers than the final render, either way I ALWAYS change things up to some extent, either through redrawing, re-scaling/moving things around, or even messing with the liquify tool.

As for how I actually come up with the scenes themselves in the first place, I'd be negligent to not mention the several hundred comic pages I've drawn throughout the course of my career 😅 it's a muscle that's been exercised nonstop for over a decade and hence a non-issue for me at this point. Between art, film, and every-day human interaction I've developed a great love for human expression - the meaning behind posture, hand-gestures, micro-expressions, minute word-choices - that definitely wasn't there when I first started drawing as a teenager, but that I picked up on throughout my life.

I think getting into film is especially good for learning how to frame a scene. If you have trouble coming up with them at all, try becoming the type of movie nerd that says things like "wow, this composition!" in the middle of movie-night, or someone who knows what a "dutch angle" is. I can't tell you how to do that, unfortunately. Maybe you can watch Inland Empire and ask yourself "why the fuck did David do that" every 3 minutes? We all have a movie nerd in us, we just gotta find the movie that pisses us off enough to find them 😔

[sydneymykah]

WHAT’S NEXT FOR THE MUSIC INDUSTRY?

☆ Neptune in Aries and the music industry ☆

☆ I've seen a lot of people make the realization that the Grammy’s were actually enjoyable this year. The public mostly agreeing that the awards given out were justified and long over due for certain artists. (Disregarding pointless stan wars) There was a section during the ceremony where the head of the grammy committee gives a speech about making things right and rewarding artists more for innovation. For example; Beyonce finally getting Album of the Year, an award that has been long overdue according to fans and critics. Along with her best country album win that even shocked her. And the Grammys giving The Weeknd a formal apology for not nominating him after he had one of the most iconic eras of music we’ve since in the past decade. It also seems like music award shows are slowly becoming more enjoyable again.

☆ Festivals like Coachella recently sparked conversation and arguments about what is acceptable as a performer, with all of artists getting flack for being lack luster, low energy and lacking professionalism while performing. Especially when you’re in this economy where you want to get your moneys worth. Other artists being praised for putting in actual effort and people even saying that Megan Thee Stallion should’ve been a headliner.

☆ Apps like TikTok changing how music and artists get recognized adding onto the digital era of music. But ever since the end of quarantine blowing up on TikTok for your music is more sparse, especially with the app constantly being threatened to be banned in America. And your chance of sticking is less and less in such a now crowded space.

☆ The most current thing about music that is making the rounds is the rise in main female pop and rap stars vs the men. It seems like every year a new pop girlie is announced or started to gain momentum and sky rockets to stardom. Whilst for male artists the competition seems to be more sparse.

☆ All of these things occurring during the tail end of Neptune in Pisces. So it sparks the question;

HOW WILL MUSIC CHANGE WITH NEPTUNE IN ARIES?

☆ Neptune is a very mysterious planet. Many of its rulings feeling contradictory to one another. It can rule compassion and kindness but also deception and delusion. One of its rulings is melodies/music.

☆ Neptune entered Pisces August 2011. The state of music in 2011 going onward was this:

The increasing rise of streaming

The widespread of new emerging Artists via the internet (social media)

Rap (specifically mumble and female rap) and Edm/Dance topping the charts and radio

The new mainstream trend of blending genres

The rise of music from other cultures and countries in western media

Pisces Neptune and the ending of things:

☆ Pisces is the last sign of the zodiac and can often show us what is dissipating and coming to an end, not necessarily being destroyed (that would be more pluto energy) but a cycle that is ending at least for now. Pisces is spiritual, referred to the higher realm, and can be considered a healing sign. Therefore Neptune in pisces coming to an end can show what the world of music has learned and healed from. The ripple effect that will lead to the Aries transit. It seems that people are tired of just the chill vibes and wants energy in music and on stage again. In essence for the past few years the music scene has been in a limbo but artists who bring the heat are getting more recognition and respect, for ex: Megan thee Stallion. Or artists who are more blunt and bold with their lyricism and performances. Ex Sabrina Carpenter (esp with her Juno positions) Also whilst I do enjoy artists feeling more comfortable than ever in their art and music (as Neptune is at home in Pisces) it has also made music a bit calm. Many people complaining that we don’t have many powerhouses in the mainstream. It’s hard to think that someone like a Whitney Houston or Aretha Franklin will be a heavy hitter in the mainstream but with the Aries in Neptune transit now here i believe there’s a chance of that. Less whisper singers or people who can’t sing on stage without sounding out of breathe constantly (no shade)

The last time Aries was in Neptune

☆ The last time Neptune was in the sign of Aries the biggest historical event(s) to take place was the Civil War. I feel the need to talk about this because in a lot of my predictions that are below I believe this new wave of music will be filled with revolution topics and artists getting their emancipation back. Artists challenging labels or calling out labels for ex Chappell Roans speech at the Grammies talking about healthcare for artists. Beyonce taking back genres once owned and created by black people that have overtime been taken by white people. Also Movies like Sinners getting so much love from the mainstream, with a messages that center around individualism/identity, your passions, and people who prey on your talents for their own gain (Neptune also rules film) and the Cowboy Carter tour being filled with messages saying “You can’t reclaim something that already belongs to you” I see Artists and people in the music industry will start to fight for their autonomy and freedoms. I see artists that will refuse to conform. They will set their own paths and change how things are operating behind the scenes. In a sense making things right (by their own definition)

MY MUSIC/MUSIC INDUSTRY PREDICTIONS

Resurgence of Artist Development

☆ Complaints on artists with no media training and lack of professionalism from mainstream artists have been a complaint for a while. I think the chill laid back nature of artists is slowly not becoming the cool norm anymore and people want authenticity still yes but they also want to see drive and passion. Being nonchalant is a trend amongst more of the younger generation and the fear of being a try hard will make you look cringe. But I think this transit will glamorize being a hard worker and someone of passion. If labels are smart they’ll start actually devolving artists behind the scenes like they did in the 90s. Beyond labels I think more artists will treat their craft with more discipline.

More powerful independent music labels

☆ Aries is known to be one of the more independent signs. Off that fact alone I’d hope to see more and more artists be independent and/or sign to new independent labels that might have a chance of becoming extremely successful. It’s not exactly a secret that labels have been getting lots of flack for not prioritizing their artists health, finical stability or actually giving the artists the dreams they’re selling. It’s becoming more and more of a better option to be an independent artist than it is to sign to a label since they’re essentially glorified banks that give out huge loans. Aries being innovate, first of the zodiac and independent may give independent labels and artists the chance to thrive.

Shortcuts in music

☆ Aries is a temperamental and emotional sign. Quick to get riled up in passionate emotions and easily one of the most impatient of the signs. This leads me to believe that music will have a lot of shortcuts and quick fixes or “cheatcodes” if you will which sadly reminds me of AI and AI music. If there’s an artist who comes out who strictly issues AI and becomes popular I will not be surprised. I can also see this as labels growing more impatient with signing new artists who have potential to go viral but don’t after a certain amount of time and more artists getting dropped for those reasons

Extreme competitiveness behind the scenes

☆ Ares is the god of war and very militant. I see a lot of strategic fighting and dirty plays being made even more so in the industry. I think the more and more new artists are able to blow up and sign to management/have distribution deals the more competitive the field will become. It’s already a competitive industry but I think it’s going to enter a whole new phase of it. For ex; I think labels are gonan start cracking down on finding and developing the new “black pop girl”. And black girls in pop/rnb who are already established, their teams will most likely try to jump on that opportunity or put them on the back burner for someone else (harsh but the truth in this field). I also see artists and their teams being more strict.

New leaders, holy trinities and standards

☆ Aries is the first sign in the zodiac and is known to be trailblazing and set standards. Neptune in Aries will bring a new era of music along with new leaders of music, and new holy trinities. Similar to Mariah, Whitney, and Celine being the holy trinity when Neptune was in Sagittarius/Aquarius and Rihanna, Nicki, and Beyonce being our gens big three when Neptune was in Pisces this new era will give us a new standard to look up to.

More innovative/trailblazing performances

☆ I see new ways of performing making the mainstream. We’ve gotten used to the norm of award show performances, the Super Bowl and the typical day time/late night television performance. I can see music teams, labels and artists getting more creative with places to perform and do performances never done before. For ex. The Beyonce Bowl. Although it was still a NFL performance not only was it live streamed to Netflix but was a Christmas Day special performance with such a high production it was a performance an artist hadn’t done for the NFL Christmas show before. Performances like that might inspire people in the industry to come up with performances that haven’t been done before and become new norms.

Rock/Grunge Comeback

☆ When it comes to specific genres I do believe rock, rock influenced music and grunge will become mainstream again. Especially with black artists as it’s speculated artists like Beyonce will be releasing a Rock inspired album for her 3rd act album. I think it’s pretty self explanatory why Aries in Neptune can bring back the rock wave. Rock can be extremely powerful, expressive, emotional (not just including rage and anger), a lot of people consider rock to only be an aggressive genre so it coming back during this transit would aline very well with what a lot of people have been feeling. Music can reflect the world we live in and it’s safe to say A LOT of people are angry. Rock has always been a revolution filled genre with subjects that often criticize and rebel against the status quo and polices/systems against the oppressed

The New Male Pop Star

☆ Aries is masculine and even though it doesn’t necessarily mean men I do think we’re long overdue for a new male pop star or just star in general. A Justin Bieber, A Harry Styles, an Usher or maybe even someone who will live up to a legacy like Micheal Jackson. We’ll have to wait and see 🤫

What’s your prediction for what will happen to music and the music industry with the Aries Neptune transit?

Xoxo

- Sydney Mykah ✫彡

[imbelfoxxyloxxy]

Hopefully I start drawing the other characters soon 😭

Reference

Also fun fact the flowers used are known as the amaranth flower, and are often associated with, Immorality, cannibalsim, and its resilience to staying fully bloomed even after being plucked :)

[sugarontherush]

experimenting a bit with designs for animator vs animation

- after the note block episodes with green, I thought "WOW he can compose and play music with his hypothetical eyes closed"!" (tbh he doesn't need eyes, all he needs is ears) THEN i thought it was a fun hc that he ALWAYS had his eyes closed no matter the occasion, and that he only opens them on "special occasions" (his eyes are really sparkly and can flashbang someone when he finally opens them as a ref to the faces short)

- blue is able to morph her face into little emoticons unlike the rest of the stick figures, again a reference to the face short

OKAY ONTO THE ART STYLE THING

- i thought it would be neat if like the stick figures, the human versions also came with different art styles. after all, it's the internet and every single one of them is a piece of art made by a different creator with a different vision in mind.

- this is just a fun hypothetical because this would be tricky to incorporate

- popular newgrounds/internet styles at the time definitely could've influenced the way these guys looked, but I was too lazy to research that

[blessphemy]

I was ruminating on fanon vs canon, and the ways in which certain ideas, through the power of plausibility or compellingness, can propagate through fandom. So here's a list of fanon of varying popularities, that have never actually been canon. Plus an honorable mention of fanon-proved-canon.

Fanon:

The entirety of All Systems Red is a letter given to Mensah - This is a popular fan interpretation of the final chapter of All Systems Red, but personally I've thought that Murderbot might have just written a shorter letter separate from the whole diary.

Gurathin is from the corporation rim - Not specified in books-canon, but this is a popular fanon. It's implied that Gurathin or his grandparents came to Preservation "later," so imagining a corporate background is a reasonable interpretation, though it's just as possible he came from another Preservation sister system or non-corporate system.

ART’s university is from a non-corporate system - If anything, the books imply that the university is from a corporate system if you take ART's credentials in Artificial Condition at face value: Murderbot met it at a corporate berth where its university supposedly was. It's possible ART could have been lying, but it wasn't lying about its official designation of "Perihelion" at the time. Also why not a corporate university doing anticorporate work?

Amena is going to the Pansystem Uni of Mihira and New Tideland - Reasonable to project this out from her reading the University catalogue at the end of Network Effect, but she hasn't officially matriculated yet.

Amena and Iris are of similar age - This never actually is mentioned in the books but is nonetheless a popular fanon. I suspect it comes from Amena and Iris being compared in size. Amena is specified to be a young-adult/juvenile human. Personally I imagined Iris as older, grad-school age, doing dangerous anticorporate work and all.

The company name AmaSoft - Murderbot never mentions the name of the company in its diaries but CompletelyDifferent coined this one and it has been used since by multiple fic writers.

Murderbot is tall - A very popular fanon that you'll see people defending to death but Murderbot has no strictly specified height, neither in numbers nor referring to itself as compared to population average. I can say short king all I want.

CombatUnit handlers - originated in the fanfic my enemy, bright star dancing and propagated to other CombatUnit fics from there by dint of being a fun idea to play with. Two related canon things: 1. the mention of a "controller" for a SecUnit in Exit Strategy and 2. Years later when System Collapse came out and it was shown that Barish-Estranza employs human-hubystem-like overseers for their SecUnits.

The Pressy is sapient - Mostly just fun fandom riffing

Exit Strategy combat unit in the shuttle is the same one as the docks - A reasonable assumption on all accounts but not strictly defined.

Aromantic Allosexual Ratthi - This one is just cool.

Fanon that was later proved canon by System Collapse:

Iris is ART’s sister - We did it gang.