#the concept for this one is so nice and the reference photo is from

[dkniade]

🌌💫🌒

Fan art of @kianamaiart’s characters from I Don’t Want To Be A Magical Girl! (with glasses, ft misc glasses characters & two IDWTBAMG universe fan characters)

I’ve been following this project from the start so it’s been great seeing interactions between the characters and how the fandom is so excited for it. ^^

I tried to draw the cast from memory and, while Miss seems a little different from canon, at least I got the dark hair roots and strands sticking out lol. But details aside they’re all recognizable! Which means they’re lovely designs that are unique from one another✨

Eclipse’s shades are a combination of his usual eye mask and the shades from this artwork, and Hoshi’s glasses are inspired by this one!🌒⭐️

Designs… (I don’t have a name for her yet but) the pigtails girl’s shapes are a combination of curves pointing downwards and curves pointing upwards. The idea ended up being that she’s on Eclipse and Lady DeVoid’s side so (after reading this post by Kiana about how most of the characters had Aika’s design as the springboard and are designed to complement eachother) I wanted her design to complement those two’s, with some influence from Zira. I like that the strands of hair on her forehead and the shape around them mirror both Zira’s hair and DeVoid’s horns haha. Plus, I was trying to figure out how to design her glasses and they ended up being kind of the inverse of Eclipse’s eye mask, which is very nice. Eclipse and DeVoid seem to be associated with sharp curves and circle shapes; maybe her outfit could be a lot fancier…

As for what her role might be in the story… I dunno, if she works with Eclipse and DeVoid, and Eclipse is all ~theatric and grand~ then maybe she could be like… his assistant… or something? Who knows. Or, I say “observer from afar” so perhaps she actually gets along with Zira well and they’d watch on the sidelines while Aika and Eclipse duke it out…?

Eclipse… Moon… Umbra… man what if I just name the pigtails girl Yueshi (月食, lunar eclipse)(for both the moon motif that Zira and Eclipse have, and the darkness motif that Eclipse and DeVoid have haha)

Shooting star and telescope don’t feel quite right, but with the circular shapes and the lunar eclipse, I could kind of see her having some star trail motifs with her sweater…

I guess Umbra would be the same type of elf (? darkness/concept personified?) as Lady DeVoid but I’m not sure haha. We don’t have much information on DeVoid other than the fact that she is darkness itself and that she lost most of her powers which she can’t remember how to use. Banished by a Star Guardian, revenge, recruiting Eclipse to help spread the darkness particles to destroy the Star Guardian… If she has a similar backstory to MLP:FIM’s Princess Luna then does that mean she was originally Aika’s teammate or something? haha

About Umbra’s hair… (Feel free to correct me for any inaccuracies.) I think from the reference photos I was trying to draw box braids but got so focused on also making the braids look like moon phases that I’m not sure if it’d still be box braids in the end? They seem more like cornrows now, at least for the side ones?

Here are some earlier versions of the OCs! and more rambling about designs

Well, initially I scribbled down Yueshi so I could experiment with values because I was thinking about how light-coloured pants draw the eye too much if the outfit or the top half of the character is darker. (Half way through she ended up looking like a IDWTBAMG character so I tried to match the proportions with Aika’s turnaround.) But I suppose if there’s enough contrast for the upper half (and IDWTBAMG’s stark black design style gives a lot of contrast) then it works out better. I think the combination of making Yueshi’s hair and the top half of her sweater black and the circle shape white worked out okay. Initially she had large round eyes so I tried giving her round glasses too but since she ended up being a fan character in the universe, it was too similar to Aika and Zira.

Umbra’s design kind of popped into my mind today so I tried to scribble it down and experimented with hairstyles. But green and purple are already associated with Zira, and that shade of lavender is more like Eclipse so I guess I’ll fiddle around with her colour scheme more. Maybe there’s not enough of the signature black there, and both could use some more details to match the level of details in the canon designs… (If Yueshi works under DeVoid then she’d probably get a fancy outfit too.) Then again, Umbra is more like Miss in terms of detail so it seems she’d be a background/supporting character or something…🤔

(I can’t seem to escape the puffy sleeves/cone shape silhouette🤔 Gotta diversify. Also, not sure if it’s ‘cause of the project’s style or if I just really love circles in character design haha)

[heretherebeturtles-comic]

Hello! Many people have said this but ill say it too, I LOVE YOUR COMIC SO MUCH ( ´ ▽ ` ).｡ｏ♡

I really wanted to ask you about how you do the backgrounds? (Something i struggle with) whats the process? Like from start to finish, also, to do the rise backgrounds do you use reference from the show and generally real photo of ny? Or do you come up with them? And last question- The shadow and light on the background- Like HOW

i know it’s a lot of questions but i’m just so curious qwq and wanna learn to be better, thank you again in case you read this and respond, in case you don’t, i hope you have a nice day and a wonderful life uwu keep up the great work! (≧◡≦) ♡

Backgrounds are a really broad subject and I'm always a little overwhelmed when asked this question. Just like drawing the human body, backgrounds take time, repetition, and practice!

My answer got a bit long, so it's going under a read more :) but if you digest info better in video format I found this on youtube

It pretty much goes over everything I wanted to say, but in a much better way. I wish I had found it before writing all this out lol

ok, first of all, I'm not a teacher nor was I built to be one of those cool helpful art tutorial people who do a full coloured tutorial filled with illustrations. This is just going to be a messy "how I do backgrounds / environment layouts from start to finish." kinda thing.

... lets start with a sight tangent.

Sketch from Life!!!

If you want to get better at backgrounds I recommend doing some sketching out in the real world!

When I was first getting into doing backgrounds I went to cafes and parks to just sketch the buildings and objects. Sketch rocks, flowers, clumps of grass, garbage cans, bottles, tables, street signs, etc. If you are drawing a tree observe how the trunks twist, how the bark flows, or how the leaves are bunched.

If you can't leave the house the same still applies! Sketch the interiors of your house, the walls, or common objects like chairs and bookshelves. How are objects stacked? items on the floor?

If you aren't comfortable with drawing outside or in public you can take some photos to draw from! They are good for practice and you can use them again as references later. Alternatively you can find pictures online of buildings and objects to sketch as practice.

All spaces have objects in them, it becomes easier to draw those kinds of spaces when you already have spent time observing and sketching them.

ALSO! They don't have to be good sketches! It's just to build out your mental catalogue and strengthen your perception of perspective.

now the actual thing...

BACKGROUNDS

(the pictures used for this are my own. I dug them out of my 2022 folder)

Backgrounds have slightly different rules based on what you are making them for. Videogame Environment Concept Art vs Animation Layouts vs Comic Backgrounds vs Illustration backgrounds.

They all follow the same basics, which I will go over here, but the intention and function of those designs are going to be different. It's all about how you set up the scene and what it's purpose is!

Brainstorming and Thumbnailing

I like to think about a location as though it is a character. An abandoned old house with creaky sagging floorboards is very different from a futuristic space ship with sharp metal floor panels. A gas station has a very different feeling from a library.

I usually start by asking what is this location's story? Why was it built and for what purpose? What kinds of things does this room need to fulfill that purpose? You don’t need solid answers, but its good to be thinking about it while you are working.

Next, sketch some ideas for how this place is going to look. For me, this usually involves drawing the idea from multiple angles and then making lists & small sketches of the objects I think should be filling the space.

Example: The main character of my original work is a Wanderer. They collect a lot of things on their travels, but those items have to be small enough to be easily carried in a backpack. I wanted his room to be in the corner of an attic, walled off by curtains, and filled with trinkets. You can see some of my brainstorming above.

References

I only look for references after I've done some sketching and planning; this is to solidify my idea first so that I don't accidentally copy anyone else's work. I will make a moodboard with pictures of lighting, colours, items, rooms with specific ceiling beams, old chairs, etc. basically whatever I feel fits the vibe.

Honestly, I don't use references as much as I should. For ROTTMNT fanart I look at backgrounds and screenshots from the series to study the style. I also reference actual photos of NYC to get a feel for how Rise condenses the visual information.

In general, it's good to have references of real life objects/locations, because there are so many details like cracks in pavement, stickers on polls, crowning on buildings, fancy fencing, weird chair legs, etc. that you might not think of. It's the imperfect details that can make a location feel more alive.

Perspective

Once you have your chosen sketch we move to.... the infamous perspective boxes. Doing backgrounds is just learning to be comfortable drawing So Many boxes and carving items out of them.

Many better artists than myself have made videos on perspective, vanishing points, and all the technical bits. Videos like THIS ONE and THIS ONE are helpful (this post is great too!!). There are probably a lot of classes to be found on Skillshare or Schoolism. I learned a lot of this in my college art course, so I can't give you a specific video which helped me.

You can get by and be a good artist without learning this stuff. There are quite a few successful artists who have admitted they never bothered to learn perspective (one of these people even made a whole graphic novel series).

I personally avoided properly learning this stuff until I was in my 20s because I thought it would be boring and difficult to do. tbh I really wish I had learned it earlier because it's so much fun to make those silly little boxes imo. It looks scary and complicated but, just like drawing humans, it just takes time, repetition, and practice to develop the knowledge and skills.

Cleanup

You have your boxes and lines! Cool! Now to make a scene out of it. Fill in the details, get everything placed were you want it! Generally, the lines of each item will point back towards the horizon line, but they can have different perspective points.

Generally you would want to clean it up and get your room completely sketched before doing the lineart. I tend to combine the steps (not recommended)

Lineart

I've mentioned how I do this before. Closer objects have thicker lines and more detailed inside. Further objects have thinner lines and less detail. I didn't quite achieve that balance with the image below, but it's close enough.

Colours and Shading will have to be a separate post. In the meantime, I highly recommend the book "Color and Light" by James Gurney. I used to borrow it from my local library and a good chunk of my knowledge was learned from it :)

[bweirdart]

#mARTch 2024

text version (with more info!) under the readmore! please check it out if you're confused about anything <3

F.A.Q

do i have to draw every day? no!!!! there are skippable days built into the event, please use them whenever you need them! i really don't want anyone getting a wrist injury!

can you share my art? yep! i try to share entries to @bweirdevents daily during the event!! the tags can get busy tho so i might miss some posts OTL sorry

what are the tags? #mARTch is the main tag, but this year you might find posts in #mARTch2024 too!

wait, i'm confused about a prompt... full breakdown of all the prompts below ↓ with helpful hints if you're stuck!

_____

INTRO WEEK

this week is all about your artistic identity ... technically, you don't have to draw anything new this week if you have some art that already fits. the starter days are:

1 ⭐ self portrait who are you? it doesn't have to be you IRL .. if you feel more comfortable drawing a fursona or mascot, that's fine too! if you don't wanna draw, you can also just share old self portraits today and talk about why you drew yourself that way!

2 🤍 inspirations see how this day doesn't have a star? that means it's optional and you don't have to do it at all! but if you really wanna- tell us all about what inspires you to create art! this could be anything from the people that inspire you, the shows you like, the pins on your big messy pinterest board, or concepts that you're drawn to! you can draw something about it, talk about it, or just post your inspirations! anything is fine

3 ⭐ fav thing to draw what do you like drawing most? backgrounds? animals? one specific animal? bust of your oc facing left? cars? the same anime boy over and over and over? no judgement!! show us :)

_____

STUDY WEEK

this is the week we actually start drawing from reference! polished art is not required at all, quick sketch studies are fine! please don't burn yourself out

4 🤍 plant

5 🤍 body

6 ⭐ animal

7 🤍 object

8 🤍 food

9 🤍 face

10 ⭐ hand

these ones are pretty self explanatory! you can do them as realistic studies, or adapt them into your own art style, it's all fine! you can reference from your own photos or from resources on the web.. have fun!

_____

COLOUR WEEK

this is the week for playing with palettes and working on your colour theory skills! if you're really struggling with these ones, don't worry about drawing scenes or characters, you can just have fun splashing colours around on an abstract canvas!

11 🤍 RGB a set or primary colours typically used in digital/screen art - red, green and blue!

12 🤍 CMYK a set of primary colours typically used in traditional/print art - cyan, magenta, yellow ... and key (black!)

for both of these days ↑ you can add in black and white. and feel free to combine the two days into one, if you're struggling with a three-colour palette! use all six!

13 ⭐ WARM COLOURS the warm side of the colour wheel, reds oranges and yellows!

14 🤍 MONOCHROME monochrome doesn't mean black and white ... it means one colour! that can be any colour at all- shades of red, shades of purple, shades of green .. or yeah, grey if you really want!

15 🤍 COMPLIMENTARY complimentary colours are the ones opposite each other on the colour wheel! they're kinda married

16 🤍 YOUR FAV COLOURS pick any palette that works for you! where's your comfort zone? what looks nice to you? what colour combos do you always go back to?

17 ⭐ COOL COLOURS the cool side of the colour wheel, purples, blues and greens!

_____

CREATIVITY WEEK

this week is all about vibes! try to create something that matches the mood of the prompt .. they're vague on purpose! don't overthink it, just draw from the heart!

18 🤍 SMALL you could draw something that's really small, like an ant .. or draw on a canvas that's really small .. or use a really small brush .. get creative with it!

19 🤍 DANGER try to capture the adrenaline .. the rush .. the fear that you associate with the word danger!

20 ⭐ SOFT soft colours, soft textures, soft vibes ... whatever makes you comfy!

21 🤍 MIDNIGHT darkness and secrecy .. spooky witchy vibes .. the tranquility of a forest at night .. the fun of a late-night party .. there's lots of ways you can take this!

22 🤍 POWER what does this word make you think about? superpowers? control and oppression? literal electrical power? something else?

23 🤍 CHILL chill as in calm? or chill as in cold? who knows .. it's up to YOU!

24 ⭐ LOUD try to draw something that feels LOUD! BRASH! IN YOUR FACE! how can you convey sound through art?

_____

FUN + GAMES WEEK

this week is just for enjoying yourself! take it easy and have fun! also .. another reminder! there are skippable prompts! if you're tired and struggling to get to the finish line, please don't hesitate to skip a day!!! or multiple days!! as many as you need!!!

25 🤍 TRY A NEW ART STYLE copy the art style of a show you like, ask a friend if you can try their style, draw the eyes a new way, develop a totally new style on the spot... whatever you want!

26 🤍 DRAW WITH YOUR NON-DOMINANT HAND righties, draw with your left! lefties, draw with your right! ambidextrous nation ... our time to show off!

27 ⭐ DRAW WITH YOUR EYES CLOSED don't peek! try to draw something without looking! if you really want, you can colour it with your eyes open after you draw the lines/sketch with your eyes closed... but please try not to cheat with the actual drawing part!

28 🤍 RE-DRAW SOMETHING OLD find some old artwork you like, or something you feel like you can do better on now, and give it another go!

29 🤍 RE-DRAW A MEME find a silly picture on the internet to redraw .. do you have any in-jokes with your besties?

30 🤍 DRAW A GIFT FOR A FRIEND create something for someone you love <3

31 ⭐ FREE CHOICE final day! you can draw anything you want today! show off your skills! draw something you've been meaning to draw! whatever!

_____

please refrain from reblogging this post after march ends - next year's prompts will be different, thank you! if you have any additional questions, don't hesitate to shoot me an ask!

[lizdive]

I propose reader being a big brother figure who's responsible and reliable for the astral express trio (March 7th, trailblazer, Dan Heng) since Welt is the grandpa/father figure while himeko is the mother figure

i do 💍 /j this is such a cute idea i love the astral express crew found family trope it’s so cute <33 i don’t think i did this too well concept wise i’m sorry,,, but thank you for requesting <3 If you’re not satisfied then just tell me and i’ll redo it !! <33

notes 𐙚 male! reader — "you" + "he/him" + "big brother" used to refer to the reader ,, reader as an older brother figure ,, platonic relationships ,, trailblazer is not specific — can be seen as stelle or caelus ,, not proofread so excuse typos auhm ,,,,,,,

⭑ Whether you joined first or last, your closeness to the express does not differ. You’ll always be the one MARCH runs to when she wants to try out new outfits and needs an opinion, or when DAN HENG needs help with the archives, or when the TRAILBLAZER wants to go dumpster diving.

⭑ If you joined before DAN HENG, you probably had the role of Astral Express Guard and handled the archives. You left the most of the archive work to DAN HENG when he joined so he could freely enjoy the archives, but whether you give up your role as Astral Express Guard or still hold it alongside DAN HENG is up to you.

⭑ HIMEKO and WELT are very thankful for your responsibility and reliability, and HIMEKO will praise you for it with a pat on the head or the back. While DAN HENG is responsible and reliable, too, it’s nice for someone to relieve the stress of the TRAILBLAZER and MARCH from his shoulders while looking after him, too.

⭑ Also, while DAN HENG is a victim of the TRAILBLAZER and MARCH’s shenanigans, you’re always there to put a stop to them before they get too out of hand. Sometimes whenever you four are on a mission and your separated from the group, the moment you all meet back up DAN HENG will snitch on MARCH and the TRAILBLAZER. They’ll convince you to not snitch to HIMEKO and WELT after you scold them.

⭑ You’re the unofficial official chaperone for those three so good luck.

⭑ During crew group photos you’ll always be in the middle between WELT and HIMEKO. Doesn’t matter if you’re on the shorter side or the taller side.

⭑ After the Xianxhou arc, DAN HENG will find solace in your presence. Whether it’s just in silence or you comforting him verbally, he appreciates it. If you stay with him on the express during Penacony, he may feel a tear being shed from how touched he is.

⭑ The TRAILBLAZER will call you 'big brother' and depending on how you view / play them, it can be seen as either teasing or genuine. MARCH does it, too, but it’s joking.

⭑ WELT always feels himself relaxing more when you join him on missions because he knows you’ll be able to handle yourself and enemies as well as keep up with negotiations and pitch in ideas should there be any. He’ll make sure you don’t push yourself, of course, but he will appreciate you fighting diligently.

⭑ With HIMEKO it just feels like you’re babysitting the crew while she deals with the important things. It’s like when a mother is talking with a teacher and the oldest is trying to keep his siblings in check so they don’t do anything stupid.

⭑ The trio would follow big brother! reader like ducklings and if anyone calls them out on it, they’ll deny it. Maybe TRAILBLAZER wouldn’t and would crack a joke, but DAN HENG and MARCH will definitely deny it, DAN HENG being better at doing so than MARCH. big brother! reader just laughs and says he’s fine with it and doesn’t mind.

⭑ Good heart health is most likely non-existent. Poor heart will be at risk of stopping permanently with all the shit those three get into. HIMEKO and WELT will start taking your place in missions because you’ll need 5–12 stress and anxiety-free rest days after every few missions.

⭑ If anything during a mission is going downhill you’re the first person the trio will think to call. Big brother to the rescue!

[honeytonedhottie]

starting and managing ur blog⋆.ೃ࿔*:･🍰

so you wanna start a blog? in this post i’ll break down effective ways to start, manage and maintain a blog (from my own experience of course) i hope u find this helpful ✨

TOPIC AND IDEA ; 

to have a blog you need an idea or concept about what your blog will be about. make your blog about either something that you know a lot about/are proficient in.

or blog about something that u are learning about as a way to track ur progress and learn new information. you could blog about something that you love a lot etc etc. 

AESTHETIC ; 

what is your aesthetic? for me it’s hyper feminine and pink and just DIVINE. when u choose and stick to an aesthetic it’ll give ur blog kind of a signature which is important for the rest of this post. 

when u have an aesthetic in mind for ur blog make sure that you have plenty of pins on pinterest that mesh nicely with ur aesthetic so u can find things like headers, dividers, photos and emojis that suit the aesthetic of ur blog. 

RESOURCES ; 

pinterest is my holy grail for resources. there u can find headers and photos to use in ur posts to give ur audience something visually pleasing to look at while they read ur post. 

what ur gonna want to start off ur blog aesthetic and theme is ; 

a header 

a color scheme (for coloring/bolding words. and the colors for ur blog page in general)

an informative bio 

a pfp 

dividers 

START OFF POST IDEAS ; 

if u want to run a well organized blog there are a couple posts that i think are beneficial for u to make. in fact the most important post that i think any blog should have is a MASTERLIST.

master lists are great for a multitude of things. they help ur audience to navigate ur blog easier and see all that you have to offer in one convenient tap of their finger. plus when u make navigating ur blog easy, more people will experience ur content which will mean more interactions with ur post.

not only does it help the audience but it also helps u to know what u did and didn’t post, so that u can plan effectively for the future. it’s also a fun way to see how much u posted. i recommend making a new masterlist every year or when you can’t put any more links onto it 💀. if u want a reference for a good masterlist you can check out mine right here.

CONSISTENCY ; 

consistency is key in anything and everything and blogging is no exception. i recommend not blogging in a competitive nature, rather i think in order to be consistent with something like a blog you should genuinely just do it for funsies/passion and as a way to have ur own authentic creative outlet.

i don’t have a set posting schedule bcuz i don’t want blogging to feel like a chore when in reality it’s just a hobby that happened to gain an audience because people enjoyed it. and because people enjoy what i write, it in return makes me happy and wanna write more.

SIGNATURE ; 

i cannot stress this enough but when u have a platform whether it’s small or big individuality sets you apart! have something that sets u apart like personalized hash-tags, a way that u talk, etc etc. 

personalize hash-tags with things like emojis. also, USE UR HASHTAGS because when someone looks up something like “self improvement” your post will be what they see if u add those hashtags.

furthermore if u personalize those hashtags it sets u apart and gives ur blog a kind of brand and individuality in a way. like a signature at the end of a post.

THINGS TO KEEP TRACK OF ;

what posts you’ve done/want to do

upcoming projects or ideas that u have

how your following/interactions are growing or shrinking

how much $ u get from tips

inbox questions or dms to answer

your plans and goals

your personalized hashtags

i hope this post was helpful to anyone who has been thinking about or wants to create their own blog, i encourage you to do so ✨

[rassicas]

is there any consistency to which side of the road cars drive on in the splatoon universe? so far i've found left-hand traffic in inkadia in the background of flounder heights:

and right-hand traffic in the splatlands (even if it is more difficult to see in a still photo)

are there any other instances of background traffic in the games we can use as reference here?

omg yeah this was one of the entries on my ancient splatoon lore iceberg video (12:40)

I'd been meaning to look into the topic again....well, nice to know it's still kind of inconsistent LOL I've thought about cars in the Splatoon world and had to take this into consideration (drawing my oc in a car!!!). I refuse to accept "they just switch lanes directions in different parts of the city because inklings are chaotic!!" or that "Inkadia goes left hand and the splatlands goes right" or whatever as an answer because the stages where we see these inconsistencies are not that far apart, and it's not how a functioning society would work. it's just a tiny background detail that the designers didn't find important enough. But I recall there being much more examples of right hand driving represented in stages and concept art esp for splatoon 3, and I'd give these more weight because these had to be deliberately drawn/ designed this way.

What I think are the most noteworthy examples would be the truck Sheldon is driving at the end of S2s story mode and Crusty Sean's truck, as the inside of vehicles in Splatoon are usually not visible. Both are for right hand traffic.

So i just go with that they have right-hand traffic and all the instances of left hand traffic are just inconsistencies from a dev team that's used to left-hand traffic

[punkrockmlchael]

How They Are As Boyfriends - Corroded Coffin Version

Masterlist | Corroded Coffin Masterlist

These boys have been on my mind lately so here's how I think they are as boyfriends, all four boys in one spot! Once again thank you to my lovely besties @keeryhours + @the-witty-pen-name for help; I love you both so much, smooches

Modern AU ; Includes: Eddie, Jeff, Gareth and Grant (Freak) - also these are with gender neutral reader!

Warnings: Mentions of Drinking and Smoking (Weed), Some Mentions of Sexual Innuendos but nothing major, this is mostly fluff, though. As I've stated before: These boys deserve more love than they receive and I am here to give it to them and feed you all with the fluff in the process woooo!

Eddie:

(Word Count: 339)

Eddie is very touchy

No, like, so touchy. Touch starved. He always needs to be touching you in some way, shape or form. He has no concept of personal space at all, it's kind of funny

You're literally walking from the front door to his van? He's holding your hand, making sure to give you a nice little squeeze of your hand and a hug before he opens the door for you

He has an entire photo album of you in his camera roll. They include candid pictures he's taken of you, pictures he's taken of you while you're not looking, some, uh, spicy pictures of you

He loves to love you and your body, he'll spend hours kissing you and over your body while cuddling just because he loves you that much

Eddie likes to leave little notes around the house for you to find later. They usually are to tell you how much he loves you and how hot you are. Occasionally though he leaves you notes about how he "forgot" to take the trash out asking if you can

Oh, you and Eddie always get high together and order like two pizzas and breadsticks (the pizza guy knows your names at this point)

And, let's just say all of that food gets eaten each time, also, you also know the pizza guy's name and, Matt is pretty chill. Eddie has even offered him some weed as a tip once (Matt said yes)

Eddie's kisses have two spectrums: he can be so soft and sweet and lovey and gentle with you but he can also be really passionate and needy when he wants you

Referring back to the first statement, Eddie's love language is physical touch... need I say more? But, he also is a huge gift giver and not necessarily in a "here's this really expensive gift" more of a, "hey I was walking through the park and I saw this rock it was kind of shaped like a heart so I grabbed it for you"

Jeff:

(Word Count: 340)

Jeff is pretty private about his personal life but he loves to show you off

Anytime you go out together for dinner, for drinks, for anything really he is always snapping candid pictures of you for his Social Medias

He'll usually caption it something cheesy and lovey like "dinner with this beauty, love them so much"

Jeff also loves to cook so you when you're not out and about getting dinner, you're usually at home making dinner together. You've told him countless times he needs to make a TikTok account for cooking but, again, he doesn't want to share too much of his personal life

He makes this really good pasta dish that his mom taught him, he made it for you the first time you came over and your swore to yourself that if you didn't marry him, getting that recipe was going to be a must

He is the type of person to tell you that he loves you multiple times a day, sometimes at the weirdest and most random of times. No, like, he'll call to remind you to bring the trash to the road because he forgot and he's ending the call with "thanks, baby, I love you"

He can get kind of handsy from time to time. Usually when kissing, like, there are times when his hands will roam down to your ass just to give it a little squeeze because he loves hearing the noises that'll come out of your mouth

Jeff's kisses are always soft and sweet. Whether it's a quick kiss before starting your day or a kiss to, uh, initiate something, he always makes sure his kisses are so soft and so sweet because he loves you so much

Jeff's love language is quality time. He loves being around you and spending time with you, even when doing different things. He's trying to learn a new riff on the guitar? Cool, you're sitting in bed reading your favorite book while he sits on the edge of it messing with his guitar

Gareth:

(Word Count: 371)

Gareth is an attention whore, point blank period. He loves to be the center of your attention, specifically. Little kisses, little hugs, hand holding, he is a slut for all of that with you

He also loves to make you laugh and will always crack jokes, even if it's not really the time for a joke

He really loves when you play with his hair, too. If you're sitting on the couch he will come lay his head on your lap and force your hands into his hair, making you comb through the fluffy knots and scratch at his scalp gently until he is purring like a cat and falling asleep in your lap

Gareth will always finish your fries or any part of your meal that you can't, he doesn't even play the boyfriend tax because he knows he'll get some of your food

Gareth can't cook to save his life but somehow he knows how to bake? He claims he used to help his mom bake when he was younger and that's how he learned but you're still suspicious when you come home to freshly baked cookies

He sometimes drums on your ass if you're laying on your stomach in bed or on the couch

He gets kind of upset when you call him Gareth and not baby or babe or, as he says, "super hot and talented drummer who is a sex god"

He tells you he loves you every night before bed and every morning when you wake up

Gareth's kisses are sloppy and needy. And that's not because he's a bad kisser, the opposite, really. He just is always so excited to kiss you that they turn desperate and needy

Gareth's love language is a mixture of physical touch and quality time. He loves spending time together and he understands that sometimes you have separate things to do but he loves knowing you're still there. He's playing Call of Duty? You're laying in his lap playing on your switch making sure your Animal Crossing Villagers are happy. You're in the kitchen making dinner? Yeah, he's behind you with his arms around your waist and his chin on your shoulder. He's kind of clingy as previously stated

Grant (Freak):

(Word Count: 408)

Grant loves to take you out and spoil you. He loves dates and he loves taking you on dates. He even surprises you at least once a month, leaving a note telling you what to wear and when to be ready before he’ll take you to a restaurant you e been eating to try or a restaurant that you’ve been talking about for ages

He also is always thinking of you, not necessarily in a sexual way. No, he just loves making sure you’re happy. When you get coffee together and you’re stuck between two flavors he’ll make you order first so he can get the other one you were thinking of so you can still try it (and if you like his better, he’ll switch coffees with you)

He actually really likes to draw and doodle so from time to time when he’s writing with the boys or chilling while making a dnd campaign he’s usually doodling you little pictures (you keep them all, you have a special folder full of his drawings and doodles)

He always makes sure he’s holding your hand in crowds, and he always make sure you’re in front of him in crowds so he doesn’t lose you

He blushes a bright red when you call him babe or baby, which is funny, because he calls you baby more than your actual name

Grant always has the best snacks. Like roadtrips with him is the best because he thinks of all the snacks you’d want

He gives the best hugs, honestly, look at him. He just loves to wrap you up in a hug and hold you close to him, especially if he knows you’ve had a bad day. He will hold you so close and not let you go

Grant’s kisses are always so passionate. It could be the quickest kiss in the world or a make out session but it doesn’t matter, either way, he is always making sure there is so much love and passion into each and every kiss he gives you

Grant's love language is words of affirmations. He's never really had many people compliment him in his life so anytime you thank him, or compliment him or even just tell him you love him he turns into a complete stuttering mess. No, really, all you have to say is “awe, baby you look so good in that..” and he’s blushing, stuttering and dragging you to the bedroom

corroded coffin tag list: wanna be added? comment + let me know! @keeryhours ; @the-witty-pen-name ; @pupwrites ; @the-unforgivenn

[agarthanguide]

Hi Hannah! How much creative freedom do you get with the official art? How many pose sketches do you do before you settle on the perfect one? Also, can you tell us what kind of brushes you use? And do you use procreate? Sorry for all the questions, I just find this all so fascinating! Thank you for everything you do for the fandom. You are so very appreciated and loved, I hope you know this.

Hi Anon!

I have total creative freedom with the official art. But that doesn't mean the actors will go for it lol. In reality, it generally goes- - Actor sends brief. May be a few sentences. May be a huge pdf with multiple reference photos. Or anything in between. - I craft a pitch. I try to focus on a few main elements, those being- - Face - Pose language - Outfit/gear - Color palette - Weapons (if applicable) Then there's a back and forth in which the actor picks stuff I've pitched, or asks for more specific things, makes changes, etc. It doesn't always go exactly like that, but it's mostly something like that.

So, you know. That actually translates into a lot of freedom! I have not ever gone completely off script, but I do try to spread different elements around, and pitch a variety of styles and concepts. I conceive of my job as helping the actor get their vision across to the audience. In my worst nightmares, the audience is alienated from a character or misinterprets a character because of my design, instead of the intentions of the actor.

I use photoshop, because I am an Old. I have a huge gorgeous wacom cintiq, and I use a foolish number of layers. I know younger, more nimble artists who make massive paintings on ipads with procreate, but I am not that slick lol.

I have a stupidly large collection of brushes, but I mostly use a few key ones. A very pressure sensitive triangle brush for sketching and lineart, a heavily textured round brush for shading. I make my own brushes for things like knitwear and armor.

Thank you for the nice ask and the lovely words- I can't tell you how much that means to me. Here is a sketch of Imogen in a cape!

[t00nyah]

SO! A THING ABOUT THE ART CHALLENGE I TALKED ABOUT IN MY LAST POST...

we ended up trading characters. LMAO. it was so funny how we just were like WAIT CAN I GET THIS ONE PLEASE PLEASE

SO. ABOUT MY COOL AND AWESOME IDEAS.

if you're an old t00nyan...you know splatoon changed me as a person.

but there's one particular thing i really like making characters based off...

SEA SLUGS. (please stay till the end the final artwork is the best thing i ever drew and is like the equivalent of me learning splatoon style AND there's umm something cool you need to know.)

so. literally everyone knows i love sea bunnies for looking so so so cute and silly. i always say white lizards are like sea bunnies to me. and as you all know i love gathering a lot of facts and applying them to the character.

first, i've decided to make it somewhat atypical to what people are more used to see...as far as i know yellow sea bunnies are more common than white ones. and it works! the character looks way better than when it was white haha. speaking of appearance, of course they're small, sea bunnies are teeny tiny!!!!!!!!!

from what i've read for this challenge, apparently sea bunnies use jellyfish stingers for self-defense, huge if true bc that's why this fella holds a jellyfish. they highly depend on stunning predators to outrun them in my vision. also, um. wiki mentions that the sponges sea bunnies feed on contain toxins that can be used in cancer treatment, so you know what that means. in MY concept it's like... them being a rotting iterator's last hope or smth, which would be funny because being toxic also equals to being a little shit personality-wise. imagine your last hope is a creature that won't stop throwing jellyfish at you.

next one is a cabbage slug! it's a very pretty one!! i actually have a splatoon oc Elysia based on them haha.

this particular photo was my reference for the blueish palette but they can be veeery colorful and veeery pretty...

i don't have anything in my head for this one, i just felt like i HAD to make an elysia crispata slugcat. they're just nice, herbivore, love sunbathing and just enjoy being here!

so. last one is like my MAGNUM OPUS. at first i didn't even consider it. i wanted to make an octopus based one for branding reasons but then i saw this shitter.

im sorry im not actually mean to them but. this guy is a blue dragon. i randomly saw them and went 'oh yeah they exist, wonder what they'd be like. could be a cool design.'

THE RESULT...

IS THIS GUY.

so. blue dragons, apparently, prey on bigger predators and then store their most dangerous venom to use it on their next prey. but it also ends up even more deadly that the predators'.

so i went okay. if that's not a cool concept, i don't know what is. and then...things went kind of too far.

introducing to you: The Weaponeer.

food requirement: 8(10) [quite obviously eats corpses with 1/4 pip from blue fruit and stuff]

they're fast, (NOT as fast as rivulet, but faster than hunter, probably like 1.45x) have bigger lung capacity (~4.25x, a lot, but not as much as rivulet has) and have a 'special ability' of sorts

the Weaponeer is a master in self-defence and knows well how to utilize its' predators' weapons as their own. they can deshell overgrown(!) centipedes, demask vultures and steal king vultures' harpoons (without needing a spear, practically like a maul but it only works for this and only due to the Weaponeer just knowing how to do that more practically)

their base damage is 1.0, BUT using harpoon spears multiplies it to 1.5 (although i think it lowers throwing skill considering it's heavy and giant, they can't exactly throw it, it's more of a melee weapon. it probably slows them down too?)

i have a little campaign idea too! so, wiki mentions them being washed up on the shore sometimes...and that felt like an idea.

the Weaponeer is a capable and very confident slugcat, but they are lost far from home in Deserted Faraway - a result of some poor planning of the Ancients. once a river, now a cavern full of adapted to new circumstances living beings. the region has two subregions, one of them being a cave system and the other being the remains of the iterator that was doomed right from the start. when the Weaponeer arrives to Deserted Faraway, it's already its own blooming ecosystem.

im really proud of how this menu art turned out! i hope i will get to draw more artworks like that someday...when im not that busy, haha. it did take me an entire DAY to finish this one.

i intended to sell them initially just bc they ended up pretty cool so...THAT'S WHAT I'M DOING. i sadly can't really...actually...sell them for money...which is very fucking dissatisfying.

BUT. but. if you know me you know i'm desperate for OC fanart, so if you really want them trading for art is an option!!! my dms are open :]

but yeah, thanks for looking at this, it took me a while and im actually proud of this project!!

[deepdreamnights]

Tribute AMV for Dr. Underfang and Mrs. Natalie Nice/Nautilus.

From TyrannoMax and the Warriors of the Core, everyone's favorite Buzby-Spurlock animated series.

After all, who doesn't love a good bad guy, especially when they come in pairs?

Process/Tutorial Under the Fold.

This is, of course, a part of my TyrannoMax unreality project, with most of these video clips coming from vidu, taking advantage of their multi-entity consistency feature (more on that later). This is going to be part of a larger villain showcase video, but this section is going to be its own youtube short, so its an video on its own.

The animation here is intentionally less smooth than the original, as I'm going for a 1980s animated series look, and even in the well-animated episodes you were typically getting 12 FPS (animating 'on twos'), with 8 (on threes) being way more common. As I get access to better animation software to rework these (currently just fuddling along with PS) I'm going to start using this to my advantage by selectively dropping blurry intermediate frames.

I went with 12 since most of these clips are, in the meta-lore, from the opening couple of episodes and the opening credits, where most of the money for a series went back in the day.

Underfang's transformation sequence was my testing for several of my techniques for making larger TyrannoMax videos. Among those was selectively dropping some of the warped frames as I mentioned above, though for a few shots I had to wind up re-painting sections.

Multi-entity consistency can keep difficult dinosaur characters stable on their own, but it wasn't up to the task of keeping the time-temple accurate enough for my use, as you can see here with the all-t-rex- and-some-moving-statues, verses the multi-species effort I had planned:

The answer was simple, chroma-key.

Most of the Underfang transformation shots were done this way. The foot-stomp was too good to leave just because he sprouted some extra toes, so that was worth repainting a few frames of in post.

Vidu kind of over-did the texturing on a few shots (and magenta was a poor choice of key-color) so I had to go in and manually purple-ize the background frame by frame for the spin-shot.

This is on top of the normal cropping, scaling, color-correcting, etc that goes into any editing job of this type.

It's like I say: nearly all AI you see is edited, most of it curated, even the stuff that's awful and obvious (never forget: enragement is engagement)

Multi-Entity Consistency:

Vidu's big advantage is reference-to-video. For those who have been following the blog for awhile, R2V is sort of like Midjourney's --cref character reference feature. A lot of video AIs have start-end frame functionality, but being able to give the robot a model sheet and effectively have it run with it is a darn nice feature for narrative.

Unlike the current version of Midjourney's --cref feature, however, you can reference multiple concepts with multiple images.

It is super-helpful when you need to get multiple characters to interact, because without it, they tend to blend into each other conceptually.

I also use it to add locations, mainly to keep them looking appropriately background-painting rather than a 3d background or something that looks like a modded photo like a lot of modern animation does.

The potential here for using this tech as a force multiplier for small animation projects really shines through, and I really hope I'm just one of several attempting to use it for that purpose.

Music:

The song is "The Boys Have a Second Lead Pipe", one of my Suno creations. I was thinking of using Dinowave (Let's Dance To) but I'm saving that for a music video of live-action dinosovians.

Prompting:

You can tell by the screenshot above that my prompts have gotten... robust. Vidu's prompting system seems to understand things better when given tighter reigns (some AIs have the opposite effect), and takes information with time-codes semi-regularly, so my prompts are now more like:

low-angle shot, closeup, of a green tyrannosaurus-mad-scientist wearing a blue shirt and purple tie with white lab coat and a lavender octopus-woman with tentacles growing from her head, wearing a teal blouse, purple skirt, purple-gray pantyhose. they stand close to each other, arms crossed, laughing evilly. POV shot of them looming over the viewer menacingly. The background is a city, in the style of animation background images. 1986 vintage cel-shaded cartoon clip, a dinosaur-anthro wearing a lab coat, shirt and tie reaches into his coat with his right hand and pulls out a laser gun, he takes aim, points the laser gun at the camera and fires. The laser effect is short streaks of white energy with a purple glow. The whole clip has the look and feel of vintage 1986 action adventure cel-animated cartoons. The animation quality is high, with flawless motion and anatomy. animated by Tokyo Movie Shinsha, studio Ghibli, don bluth. BluRay remaster.

While others approach the scripted with time-code callouts for individual actions.

[imthepunchlord]

Ok so I was looking through old miraculous concept stuff and it really shows how much they fumbled Adrien. Apparently early drafts of Adrien wanted to be a doctor, which could have been interesting for his character when you factor in that his mother was sick before she "disappeared/died" and it's likely doctors couldn't figure out what was wrong, maybe Adrien wants to be a doctor to figure out what happened his mom was suffering from and maybe to help other people avoid that same situation.

This also sparked an idea for how Adrien's being "pefect" could have been used for this character. Maybe since Gabriel puts so much pressure on Adrien to be perfect and maintain this perfect image, Adrien has a lot of repressed anger and he has to keep in check. Also early verisons of Felix had him do boxing, maybe it's something Adrien does in secret as a way to help him vent his anger and become something he actually enjoys or maybe he could do breakdancing as a refer to the breakdance au (it's probably one of the oldest Miraculous aus and was one of the most popular)

Him being a doctor I do really like, and it seems it's an idea the fandom had picked up on early on, as the most popular ideas I saw for Adrien's future was him being a teacher, or a child therapist. Doctor or therapist is now one of the top two picks I like in what he may do in the future, as both do have merits to get the ball rolling. Though I do also like the idea of him getting into acting since he does dabble in it in canon, and he is quite a showman. And season 1 wise, yeah he did really like to dance.

From what I remember when I was watching s2 and from what I've heard and seen, it is kinda a shame he doesn't break out into dance anymore. It really added to Adrien's character as a model, as he stands so still but he himself is someone who likes to be animated and in motion, so him loving to dance and able to do so as Chat Noir just added a nice touch to Adrien. So it's a shame it seems like that aspect diminished.

Learning that Felix boxed, I am not too surprised, as boxing was/is regarded as a gentleman's sport (idk if it still counts?), and older concept Felix gave off that air of sophistication and poise.

I don't know if Adrien would box though, at least, not while he models for his father. Boxing does come with a risk of damaging your face and that would not be good for photo shoots. Felix it's unclear if he modeled at all, we don't see it, so presumably he didn't, which could allow him to box more easily.

I know Adrien did study some sort of martial arts when he was younger, though he quit. Fencing now seems to be his go to sport, I've heard some say he incorporates it into his fighting style, but I don't have enough knowledge on that to say for sure. I just know he doesn't use a staff correctly as a weapon, at least going off Rogercop.

Btw, Alya is my go to pick on who may be into boxing, and now I want to see a boxing match between her and Felix.

[iztea]

How do you get the ideas for your backgrounds?

mmm ideas.... sometimes i draw the background directly from a photo reference (the happy case) so there's not a lot for me to change and i can have a rather peaceful painting process

othertimes, the BG is tied to the subject/concept/scene I'm thinking of, so it only makes sense that i have that as the background

for example, for this fem skk art, i knew i wanted to have chuu kneeling in a crater after destroying a city so drawing that background was just a logical follow-up because i already had the entire idea in mind

Here, I wanted to have Akiangel sit on a building, watching over the city. The ominous sign with "the day of salvation" and crow came later after I found this picture on Pinterest, so they helped further develop the concept, but the main idea was there and so on

The third background option happens when my painting doesn't depict a certain irl scene or landscape, nor do i have any particular references i can use. In that situation, I first and foremost think about the general composition, the shapes, how they flow with each other, how I can tie them to my main theme and what sort of symbolism or little easter eggs i can throw in there just to keep it fresh and interesting for the viewer ( aka the person reading this aha ;;) :-* )

For this piece, i started with a big circle for the background, and then I started breaking it up in pleasing, cloud-like shapes and swirls that constantly keep your eye moving around the picture (i mean hopefully lol). The composition was inspired by a) Dazai's Mayoi card ofc, that trad Eastern illustration style with the circle and then branches of trees, and also .. kazuha's splash art ok i admit it bshsj

for this one, the roses came much, much later. Again, I added that sort of golden arcade to better frame the focal point or the main subject of the scene which was ofc her face and/or outfit. Then, since it still felt rather empty, awkward, and directionless, I tried finding a pleasing, spiral line that would compliment the already existing shapes and that would, again, move your eye all around the composition. I figured since her outfit already had those small roses stuffed in her belt, those curvy lines could become some bloody, spikey roses and boom! here are the theme and elements for you: blacks-roses-blood-deadly-sharp-gold etc. I then had her crush some of those roses in her right (ik it's the left hand shut up) hand to balance out the busier left side

and a last example, sometimes I draw multiple character poses in one piece and they sort of become my background. Yet I still have some blank spaces left so i gotta figure out a way to fill them out. Here, since the pose where he's all curled up was inspired by the TDIPUD light novel, i drew him as a "corpse" in a pool of blood, and contrasted it with some nice flowery-ish patterns and swirls that sort of come from within that bloody mess ( someone also mentioned it looks like a womb which I found very interesting as well ). The cats also helped fill out the space. On the left side, i added that swirly black sun that drips into three squares that gradually fill up with straight blackness and raindrops falling below inspired by the "a conviction that the sun will never rise again" line. I don't think I should go into detail with the symbolism cause it's pretty obvious and not that deep so i won't but yeah, and that's my BG all filled up!

I do this with most of my BGs, it's mostly just abstract shapes; I'm very fixated on making the overall composition look okay and for the piece to send a message ( most of the time ), so i don't think of backgrounds as a separate entity, they are part of an already existing idea, generally speaking.

This kinda turned into a composition discussion midway......... sorry about that....... To be completely honest with you, I have plenty of BG ideas, they kinda just spawn in my brain so i'm not exactly lacking in that department. Having to draw them and finding refs is the hard part for me

[solitaireships]

Nostalgia

Hello friends I am back in the Robby building again, specifically having been inspired by seeing a lot of pictures from the 90s/early 2000s of his actor in other roles and from general pictures. It keeps making me think about seeing pictures of him from when he was younger and his spirit hadn't been broken by everything yet, so here's a little fic based on that concept and with some progression in their relationship overall <3

Rating: Teen

Words: 1137 words

Divider by saradika

Content warning: references to smoking and alcohol

Raven always likes cozy days in with Robby. The two of them aren’t able to get them often with how many days he works at the ER, then spending the remainder of his day crashing after hours of exhausting work. That makes this day together all the more important to enjoy, even though the first half of it’s largely been Robby doing the cleaning he’d been putting off for months. 

Raven’s glad to be able to settle down on the couch now though. She’s never liked cleaning, but it’s at least more tolerable to get to do it with Robby. His house is nice, but it’s also bigger than her apartment. Having two people to help clean makes the whole process faster, and he told her she was welcome to take a break while he finished cleaning out some cabinets. 

It's nice to slow down and notice how things have changed here since when she and Robby started dating. Her things have started making their way into his house. It’s nothing much— a jacket left in his closet or a book on the coffee table along with his stack of things to read. He’s started keeping some of the snacks she likes in the cupboard, leaving space by the door for her to leave her shoes when she comes in. But all of these small changes are a nice reminder of how their lives have started to intertwine since they started dating, even despite some of Robby's initial hesitance. 

Raven takes a long drink of water as she relaxes into the couch, eyes closing slightly. It's been a long time since she's cleaned this much, and all the dust being stirred up in the process has aggravated her allergies. She's tired, and she can't help but think about how nice it would be to spend the rest of the day cuddled up here with Robby. 

Which makes it a relief when he makes his way into the living room, what looks like a book of some kind tucked under his arm. 

Robby looks more laidback than usual, dressed in a pair of sweatpants and a worn college t-shirt. His reading glasses are perched on the edge of his nose as he takes a seat next to Raven, a photo album in hand. The cover’s dark red and fairly battered, presumably having been hidden away in some cabinet for who knows how long. 

“Look what I found,” he says. 

“I’m guessing some old pictures of you?” Raven says. 

“Uh-huh. And I figured you might want to see some of them.”

Robby opens the photo album, flipping a couple of pages in before he offers it to Raven. He leans against her, pointing with one hand at the page it’s open to. 

“That's from the first day of my residence,” he says. “Me and the other new residents went out for drinks after the shift.”

The Robby in the pictures is both familiar and different looking. It's almost uncanny to see how he looked when he was in his late twenties�� he had the same pretty brown eyes and defined nose, the same build. But he looks so much younger. It's strange to see him clean shaven, with longer, fluffy, brown hair. The first two pictures are from what must have been a game of pool. He stands with a pool cue in hand, smiling at the camera in the first. The second shows him lining up a shot at the table, shot in profile. The third picture shows him and some other residents— a man with closely cropped black hair and a woman with dark red hair— raising their glasses in a toast. The last one must have been taken outside of the bar, with him lighting a cigarette as he leans back against a brick wall. 

“God, you look young there,” Raven says with a laugh. 

“I was, I was in my twenties,” he replies, grinning. “I had a lot more hair back then, and a lot less wrinkles.”

“The thinning hair and wrinkles are part of what makes you so handsome, though.”

“Is that your way of telling me you wouldn't have been into me if I were younger?” 

“I mean, I do like that you're older than me,” Raven says. She gives him a quick kiss on the cheek. “But you were very cute back then too.”

“Thank you.” Robby turns, half burying his nose in her hair. “I probably don't want to think about how old you would've been when I was taking these pictures, do I?”

“You do not,” she confirms. 

“Can you at least tell me you were in high school?”

“If you want me to lie.”

Robby groans, burying himself deeper against the side of her head. “I’m a cradle robber.”

“I don't think it counts as cradle robbing if you met me when I was in my thirties,” Raven replies. 

“Maybe,” he says. 

“But still. These are cute. Thanks for showing me them.”

“Sure. And if you wanted,” Robby says, pausing for a second before continuing, “you could bring some old pictures of you to add to this. There are plenty of empty spots near the back.”

Raven can’t help but smile at that. It’s sweet that he wants to include her, wants to bring another part of her life into his. Considering everything they’ve been through together, it’s a nice sentiment. Raven knows how hard it is for Robby to let people into his life, and this is a big deal for him. She supposed it's not like this is the first way he’s let parts of her into his life, but it feels different as he sits up straighter again so he can flip through the photo album, letting Raven glimpse bits of his past. 

“I don't have a ton of pictures,” Raven admits. She’s never liked pictures of herself, avoiding them as much as she could for the majority of her life. She hates having to look at herself, having something that shows that does nothing but encourage her to analyze every flaw in her appearance. She's gotten better about being in them over the years, but still tends to avoid them whenever she can. 

“Ah, right. Then you don't have to put anything in here,” Robby says. “It's just an option.”

“But,” Raven says, “I might have some. At least some old family pictures and some from when I graduated— both with the undergrad and masters.”

“Then you can bring them by whenever you have the chance.”

She presses a quick kiss to his cheek. “And thank you for letting me be part of your life.”

“If anyone is, I’m glad it's you,” he replies, taking her hand in his. 

“Yeah,” Raven agrees, the corners of her eyes crinkling as she smiles at him. “Me too.”

[subterraneanna]

@youandthemountains asked in the tags if I’d be willing to share my artmaking process, so for anyone else interested: I frequently jump between mediums, so for better or worse, I’ve never had a set process. But I’m happy to walk through the steps I took to create my last piece and show the tools I used. Also, because I never want my creations mistaken for generative AI, I’ve gotten in the habit of documenting the work (perhaps excessively!) so I have plenty of WIP photos to share:

(More below the cut)

My current sketchbook is made of cold-pressed 100% cotton paper with a nice toothy vellum surface that’s great for wet and dry media. Usually, when working with ink, I start directly sketching with a pen or marker. But achieving reasonable character likeness was important here, and I didn’t want to mess it up, so I did a light pencil sketch first. I then inked it with a fountain pen and erased the pencil marks once dry. And because the pen was loaded with waterproof ink, it was safe to paint over with watercolor. As I was painting, I noticed the paper had a slight yellow tint which worked well with the warmer light sources but muddied the blues and purples. I wanted the color to be more vibrant, so I scanned the piece, digitally painted in some deeper values, and did a little color correction to bump up the cooler tones. I’m glad I did because the improved contrast made the bioluminescent parts pop.

I didn’t have a plan when I made this piece, and in hindsight, I wish I had done a little more line weight variation, but I’m still happy with how it came out. I think Spock’s pose is appropriately awkward. And the fact that he and McCoy seem to be sticking to their typically squashed 4:3 aspect ratio positioning despite the wide-open forest feels right.

These are the supplies I used, most of which work as a travel kit for plein-air painting and sketching (I ditch the longer paintbrushes and use the travel brush with a built-in water well [disassembled in the watercolor kit]):

Not all of my projects are as simple as the last one. For instance, the Sub Rosa painting I did last year was a big production that combined concept work, painting, graphic design, lighting design, and even some cosplay! A certain level of realism was needed to pull off a convincing romance novel cover, so good reference photos were crucial. But I wasn’t interested in re-painting a still shot from TNG footage. I wanted a completely original composition and pose with lighting that was far more dramatic than the scene it was parodying. So, I set up studio lights, dressed as Dr. Crusher, and took several hundred photos whipping my wig around with a high-powered fan blowing (I'm not posting those pics 😅). I then sifted through them for light and shadow details that eventually informed the painting you see. Unfortunately, I hit a major snag when I realized I couldn’t find a single photo of Gates McFadden in similar lighting. And if the painting didn’t instantly read as her, the whole thing would be a bust. I didn't think it'd be that much of a challenge, but I failed so many times. When I got the lighting right, the likeness was lost. When I got the likeness right, the lighting looked disconnected from the rest of the painting. I wrestled with this for months. NGL a few angry tears were shed at one point, and many evening walks were spent sulking over whatever the hell anaphasic energy light was supposed to look like reflected on skin (if you look closely at the episode footage, there’s no actual green light on Beverly while Ronin’s in his non-corporeal state). Things finally clicked somewhere around the 10th (?) version I painted, and while the lighting’s still a little wonky, I’m playing it off as supernatural artistic license.

Thank you @youandthemountains for asking about my work and for all of your kind words! I always read the tags people leave; they're a big motivation to keep making more fanart!

[dustyratt]

Hey I hope you’re doing okay! Ive been stalking your page for a while! I’m in the same process of making a visual novel! I was wondering how you do the AI+Sims 4 without it looking you know jacked up! Would love to know your progress!

Hold your hats everyone, i'll be explaining in details...

I was quite sceptical about AI previously. It felt like I'm being replaced with something monstrous, artificial - the imitation of life that's superior me on every single parameter. The sudden sting of a guilt for years of seemingly vain trials and tribulations. Was it all just for nothing? I believe everyone of us came to that question sooner or later. But here I stand telling you how to make a machine fulfill your demands.

First thing. The machine loves precise. From my personal experience, a better formed human wish grants a better machinery result. A less formed wish gives it a choice. Think beforehand, seek the patterns (keywords) that may help you sustain the artstyle throughout the workflow.

Tell the AI what it needs to do. Give it a reference image and explain how you want it to be changed. For example, I want this alien dude becoming a:

"A visually ominous face of an eyeless humanoid creature. This divine image, resembling a digitally rendered painting, showcases the ancient Egyptian god of chaos in detail: sharp chin and cheekbones, dark gray and beige skin, shimmering with pulsating rainbow hues, blood is visibly circulating under his translucent, cadaverous skin. His mouth with tightened teeth grins menacingly. The overall composition is dynamic and captivating, evoking a sense of fear, malevolent power and impending chaos". That will be my prompt. If you're lacking skills then put your hands on other's results, copy their prompts and reshape according to your needs.

Oh. Not so eyeless. Let's give it less of a free will shall we?

Better now! Sadly the eyes are in place, as you can see it is not perfect even with precise input. Now let's make about 5-10 generations with same settings. It may take time to pass a cooldown after you'll run out of tokens, so be patient. If you have absolutely no spare money to buy a decent amount of generations (or if the transactions themselves are banned in your country 👍) and your enthusiasm is on pathetically vigorous level join me on free trial option almost any of the AI sites provide. That is fair exchange - money or your time.

You get what I mean? It could be anything shaped into another anything. Put here your sim, order a nice shot - here you go! Make something out of nothing with the power of words. Make a human being... some kind of.

Hooray! Not only we have the result we craved for but a whole bunch of reusable high-quality textures of various nature.

Our next step: we go in a deep dark lair of creator's mind. Hm-m, I'd correct here and there, erased that part and attached that one... Now we play "compile your Frankenstein out of everything that is not in its place". Of course a machine is not yet on the level where there wouldn't be a possibility to distinct its presence. So to hide these little (big, actually) inconsistencies we use a power of photo editing. Grab your software. With the power given to you by the sense of vision eliminate the overgrowing fingers and fight back mutilated teeth clumps.

Meet my favourite one hundred percent AI generated method. Generate a simple low quality image free and effortlessly (I use Craiyon, the perfect weapon)

Let another AI add the details for you. Catches the concept just great. Though it does not mean no handiwork after.

You can stylize it even further. Here you can see AI generated monster dudes crispy pixelated after a luxurious tour into pixelart AI. Good thing for a pixel indie gamestyle.

So, that's it. The secret is basically in your own hands. Acknowledge the style of your game, follow it while generating contents and patch up the AI mistakes.

+ zero investments

+ compensation for a lack of skills / hardware

+ easy to use

- even more work than if you would do all the same without AI

- straight dependence on sites / chat-bots, etc.

- time consuming

- many limitations (forget this if you're not on a free subscription... wait a second that abolish the first plus too!)

Hope it was helpful!

[whinnyornot]

PLEASE NOTE: I made these fan redesigns before SSO announced their plans to make an actual Gen 3 Friesian. This can be corroborated on my Instagram account. Any resemblance my designs might have to the Gen 3 Friesian, or their coat concepts is completely coincidental.

This was my own fan redesign of the "Jorvik Friesian" we have in-game. 🐎 Colors: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]

This sixth color is a flaxen chestnut with some slight dappling. As stated previously, chestnuts come in all shades and Chestnut Friesians have been slowly lightening up in recent years. While I have yet to come across a purebred Friesian that is a super light chestnut, I figure it's only a matter of time before one shows up.

Since different coat shades are not discriminated against in registries this variation is a very plausible outcome. This coat also sports a nice stripe on its face. While typical Friesian registries do not allow for any markings other than a small star, American registries allow for white markings. Dapples can occur on any coat and do not prevent Friesians from registration.

I used O. Redman Of RF as reference for this coat. He was a Friesian Stallion raised by Beddingfield Farms.

Redman wasn't actually as light as the coat I ended up making, but he was so pretty in this particular photo that I couldn't pass up the chance put it on my redesign.

Further Reading:

Friesian Breed Standard (archive.org)

Rules & Regulations – American Friesian Association (archive.org) Sponenberg, D. Phillip, and Rebecca Bellone. Equine Color Genetics. 4th ed., Wiley-Blackwell, 2017.