#the final sketch from that dumb idea i had the other day

[tenpoints4andy]

shower karaoke, part 3

[sen-ya]

@heart-pirates-week || Day 3 || Penguin

Peng gets a third thing I had a lot of thoughts abt him while I made Heart Pirates Week stuff. Puttin it here for now so I can add it to the queue, I'll put it on Ao3 when I'm not on vacation lol. Previous Peng comics I've done (which I will also link once I am not on vacation lol) recommended before this, but not necessary.

take care

Summary:

“Where’re Beps and Cap?” “Dunno, think they went a few villages over looking for some nerd shit.”

or

teen peng & shachi start unpacking a few things

Warnings: implied child abuse/neglect

Word Count: 1669

“Where’re Beps and Cap?”

Penguin glanced around the open room the four teens had been calling home. It was run down, the wood floor scuffed and littered with what debris Law hadn’t already cleared. He was the only one who seemed invested in tidying the place so the process had become long and drawn out, with periodic full days dedicated to cleaning where Law would use what he could of his powers to move heavy things and direct the other three on how to best scrub the floor or mend the roof. What was left now was one large room that was half-tidy, loosely segmented into a corner for sleeping, a corner for eating, a corner for lounging, and a corner full of books and papers for Law and Bepo’s research. 

“Dunno, think they went a few villages over looking for some nerd shit,” Shachi shrugged from his spot in the lounging area. He took a long drag of the joint he was holding before holding it up as an offer. Wordlessly, Penguin made his way to sit beside him and easily took the smoke. Shachi sniffed and pushed his sunglasses up on his head, using them to hold back his bangs which he’d been meaning to cut for months at this point. He was crouched over some papers, clearly stolen from the research corner and flipped to their blank sides. He was scribbling flowing patterns, his hand turned black from the charcoal he sketched with. 

Penguin tilted his head, leaning in to get a better look. Shachi cast him a sideways glance. “Thinkin’ about our Jolly Roger,” he explained, turning the page so his friend could see better. “Cap gave me some ideas he had, hearts and shit like that. Real creative.” He huffed a laugh. Strewn across the page were decorative hearts, their lines swirling in where the curves met. Penguin smiled warmly at the drawings, his finger hovering over a few while he ghosted the outlines, careful not to touch the charcoal. Shachi held his head a little higher with pride at the approval.

“But this ain’t it,” he proclaimed with excitement, turning to grab a few papers he’d tossed to the side. He spread them out in front of them messily, showing off five or six pages of simplified, wide smiles. “Cap said hearts and you know what he was thinkin’.” Penguin gave a knowing nod. “So I was thinkin’ about that story he told us, the way that guy smiled at him and whatever. He was even smilin’ a little thinking about it. Anyway. Think he’ll like ‘em?”

“Yeah. Thoughtful,” Penguin beamed. Shachi scoffed and rolled his eyes, shoving his shoulder into his friend a little harder than he needed to. Penguin shoved him right back, and before long they were pushing each other back and forth, snickering as they play fought. 

“Don’t say dumb shit like that,” Shachi huffed, though it was clear he was pleased that the other boy could tell he’d spent time on his little project. He gave Penguin a final shove on his head, leaving a nearly solid black handprint on his hat. That only made Shachi’s grin widen and he snatched the hat away.

“What—!” Penguin lunged for it, Shachi quickly scrambling to his feet and running across the room.

“Calm down, you don’t need it right now!” Shachi laughed, turning on the faucet of the sink in their ‘eating’ corner. The delay in the water actually coming out was such that Penguin was able to cross the room and very nearly reclaim the hat before the other boy shoved it under the icy stream, rinsing the charcoal off his hands and the hat in the same go.

“Yes I do,” Penguin pouted, arms tight across his body with his chin pressed firmly into his chest. 

Shachi rolled his eyes, turning the water off and slinging the hat over the faucet. He flicked his wet hands at his friend’s face, causing him to startle backwards and look up. Their eyes met and Shachi frowned at the shame making a home on Penguin’s face. “Seriously?” he asked, a little hurt. “It’s just me.” 

Penguin’s gaze dropped, his hand shooting up to cover his right eye. The burn and accompanying scar that was there was long healed, leaving a distinct gap in his eyebrow and redness around his ever swollen eye. The iris was clouded, he hadn’t seen out of it in a few years at this point. All he offered as a response was a small shrug before beginning to step away. 

He didn’t make it far. Shachi’s hands, still icy from the tap, wormed their way to Penguin’s cheeks. His grip was firm as he forced eye contact. 

“You don’t gotta cover your face all the time,” he said sternly. Penguin tried to look around, desperately wanting to be anywhere but here. “I’m right! Don’t act like I’m not. Why are you ashamed of this stupid thing?” He jutted his chin towards the scar. Penguin only clawed at Shachi’s hands, trying his best to squirm away. 

The subject had come up a handful of times since it’d happened, but each time his apparent discomfort had gotten the other boy to drop the subject. Maybe it was because they were a little older now, or maybe it was because they were a little intoxicated, but this time Shachi didn’t back down. “It’s ‘cause you got it for me, isn’t it?”

Penguin’s good eye blew wide. “No,” the word was choked. “No, no.” His hands shot up, mirroring the gesture Shachi was holding firm. He shook his head as much as he could in the other’s grasp, his eye squeezing shut. An image sprung to his mind, one of a much younger ginger haired boy, stomach growling. He was a ball of well deserved anger, tightly wound and never afraid to spring. He understood when Penguin was quiet, knew that well fed and well cared for had different meanings. So of course Penguin had to squirrel some of that food away to the only person he felt understood him. Alone and in need — of care, of warmth, of companionship. 

There was one thing he would never regret, and that was the reason behind his injury.

But that didn’t make him proud of it. Didn’t make the waves of powerlessness the scar brought on any easier to weather. Didn’t make him feel less that he should have left sooner, didn’t make him feel less weak for not being able to fight back. There were so many things tied up in what he saw when he looked in a mirror. It was easier to pretend it wasn’t there. Hide it away to avoid people staring in a way that reminded him they could see it. 

Shachi had a tear in the corner of his eye, and if it weren’t for that anyone would have thought he was absolutely livid. But Penguin knew better, and he felt his heart fracturing as he recognized guilt in his friend’s stare. “I’d do it again,” he muttered. Then, confidently, “I’d do it a million times if it meant you’re taken care of.”

Shachi’s eyesbrows knit together even tighter as the tear fell free, and after that they kept coming. “I told you he’d kick your ass,” he squeaked.

“Didn’t care.”

“You fucking should have.”

Another rigid shake of the head. 

“You’re only a year older than me,” Shachi tried. “I don’t need taking care of.”

At that Penguin blinked, considered it for a moment. “I know,” he said carefully. “…But I want to take care of you.”

Shachi studied his face, confused. Penguin knew he was doing it again, giving his friend that look. The one he knew gave him away, the one he was certain Shachi had yet to find a name for. “Actually,” Penguin muttered, swallowing nervously. “I think…?” He looked around, confidence wavering. He screwed his eyes shut to make it easier and blurted, “I think I wanna kiss you. Can I?”

Silence.

Too long of a silence.

After what felt like ages he cracked his eye open and he could see Shachi’s gears turning. There wasn’t hesitance, per se, but questions he seemed to be working through in his mind rapid fire. Finally, he tilted his head, gave a shrug.

“Sure.”

It was quick, awkward, new. 

When it was over both of them dropped their hands back to their sides, studying the person in front of them. Penguin’s heart thrummed, and he smiled listlessly. As Shachi pressed his lips together in a tight line, evaluating the situation, he realized he couldn’t recall ever seeing such a grin on his friend’s face. After a few more moments of consideration he offered, “I think I liked that.”

Before either could think on it more their front door slammed open, Law and Bepo strolling in. “Yeah, just put them on my desk,” Law was saying, nodding to the appropriate corner over the stack of books he had in his hands. Behind him, Bepo carried twice as many.

Shachi leaned to the side to look around Penguin. “Sup nerds?” he called. Law flipped him off in response.

“The woman at the library was so nice!” Bepo cooed, easily sliding his book stack where Law had asked. “She saw how much we got through while we were there, so she let us borrow twice as many books.”

“I’m more surprised that they had this much worth reading,” Law mused. He sounded calm, but it was clear to the other boys that he was just as giddy about the development as Bepo. 

“What are they?” Shachi made his way to their corner, carelessly picking up a book to flip through. Law snapped at him to be careful, and quickly the three of them started to stir up a commotion.

Penguin sighed a chuckle, hanging back to watch the show as he gave himself a moment to consider the afternoon. 

Yeah, he decided. He thought he liked it too.

[notthatnoodle]

Tombstone Redemption

~Van Der Linde Gang meets the Cowboys~

”Gentlemen! May I simply ask you to listen to my, proposal.”

”Hear that, boys? We’re going to have some fun tonight, shall we!”

~~~~~~~~~~

And my dumb talk about cowboys, mental health, and me being so unsure of my drawing skills. Buckle up cowboy, it's going to be a long one.

~~~~~~~~~~

Do you know that feeling, when you have an idea. And that idea is something that scares you? Because I do, too clearly if one may say.

I wanted to do something. Draw something that I would be proud of. But how to do that when you just hate everything you do, when it feel overwhelming to do.

Well, just trying to do it. Just trying to enjoy the journey and the things I'm doing while on it.

It was scary to start, but I still had a plan for it, you know.

Something big, scary.

"This is never going to look good. It's going to be terrible."

"It's going to take so long, it's going to look stupid."

"I already hate it."

That's what I thought at the time, while doing the sketch.

And you know what...

I did. But after days of just doing the lines again and again, it finally got better. After DAYS. For me it might take weeks before I can continue working on something which looks bad in my eyes.

I hated to do the line art first, I hated to do it, so much that I almost gave up because it already, alone, felt overwhelming. I didn't like it one bit. The characters didn't look like themselves, and I wasn't happy. No one has any idea how long it took to do it.

BUT i finally did it. I got flat colors done. And from there, I could finally move to the next part. And I was so happy how it turned out, it gave me hope, feeling of success.

"I can do it."

"I can do the next part too."

I was in halfway now, the RDR2 side was ready, except the lighting and the shadows of course but anyway. To get myself to do the rest, I asked myself...

Why I do this again?

And the answer to that was surprisingly simple.

I do this because even it feels so overwhelming at times, I love to do it. I love to see what I'm capable of. I love to draw, sketch, do things like that.

Because it helps my mental health.

Because I need to get my inspiration out to a paper.

Because I love westerns

Because RDR2 became my comfort game.

Because Tombstone became my comfort movie.

Because I have no money to travel to the other side of the world to a meetings or something. I have to create my own "meetings", in a way of an art.

Because both, RDR and Tombstone, have helped me in the past year, in the ways I never imagined would be possible.

Who would've known long time ago that I wouldn't need any meds in couple of years because some sad, rough, cold, unstable cowboy men, huh?

I've heard so many times that people have called comfort characters "cringe" or "weird."

And that "you should get real help."

Well, I did. I had that real help, but beside the medication that helped, I just couldn't find anything to talk about with the professionals.

I never personally have liked talking (but it's still good, try it) and I've always used art and writing to get all my feelings out. Tbh, it haven't helped the situation that I'm terrible at recognizing my own feelings.

And, well.

If anyone would've said back in 2020 that "In couple years your mental health is going to get better because of Arthur Morgan and Johnny Ringo" I would've been so confused.

"Who??? Where??? When???"

The two most mentally stable men in the universe, right?

But you see, here we are. Still trying to decide do I hate my art or not. But even still, it's finally on place where I dreamed it would be when I was 14 years old and could only draw poor dogs and cats.

I may not feel like it, but I try to remind myself many times in a day. That this is what I wanted, this is what I worked for.

The progress has been slow, but it's still showing up. But I want to get better, I want to draw even more better, to get more realistic or something. I'm not even sure myself. Can you believe it? 10 years of drawing and I'm still not sure what I want my style really to be, other than somewhat realistic.

The progress is slow, but it's here. The mental health and drawing skills are both growing even I may not admit it to myself. And I still want to get better.

There is going to be bad times, there is always going to be bad times, those are never going to disappear. But what also is not going to disappear, is my passion to my art. To the characters, to the world they live in.

It's surely going to stay a big part of me, even it may fade in some point. But it is still there, a part which shows what helped me get back up.

As a reminder to myself how I got better. And that healing journey isn't in the end. Is only just begun.

It's a journey I'm afraid of, excited, curious, terrified...

But it's going to be amazing, hard, I'm going to hate and love every second of it.

And that's good. It means I've finally managed to dig up my closed emotions.

I may be able to know what I feel for the first time in years. I might be able to feel something that has been hidden away since forever.

And all that just because of some Cowboy Depression Simulator and the movie with the Cowboys and tuberculosis.

Seriously, they both end almost same way and managed to broke my fucking heart while doing it. And still they are probably the best things that have ever happened to me.

What I learned, what I thought while doing this art and thinking it's meaning... Only person you can let down in this planet is yourself, and only person who really knows everything you've done to get back up, is yourself. So, give a hug to you, give a tap to you, give a hamburger to you or something.

The good begins before the bad things end.

So go kick this day to the balls or something, somewhere where the sun doesn't shine, get it all back to yourself.

Carpe diem and have some FAITH to yourself...

Because you really don't know how good the light of tomorrow morning could feel.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk. I believe in y'all.

~~~~~~~~~~~

-Setri.

[coolfireguy73]

Charadesign :O (with research)

SO !

I saw this reel a while ago on Instagram. That was the fist time I saw this little animation, and I loved it. It's so simple yet their movement and their comically big pants stuck with me.

Also I like Phonk music so... It stuck with me too X)

I liked is so mush in fact I wanted to make OCs off of it.

It's been a while since I had made and "original" OC, outside of an already existing fandom so I thought I'd really need that.

So I started sketching:

I knew I wanted to make two, one for each version of the music. I waned them to "represent" the version if you will. (I obviously took the color scheme of the covers for the final design)

I also wanted to include the big pants of the little stickman animation. (BTW this is the original)

I thought of them as friend at first but a friend referred to them as brothers and the idea of dumb brother rivalry/copying each other was way more fun.

As I wanted to take inspiration from the music in the video I searched them on YouTube and discovered... there is a third version !

So who knows maybe I'll draw their third long lost brother one day X)

(Here are all three versions if you're curious)

And the final designs :)

I'm really happy with them, I especially love 2's little ushanka/cap and pom-poms X) And the ponytail !!!

I went for kind of a "cold" vs "hot" or the clothing styles. Avoid me 2 sounded "colder" to me, I don't know how to explain it.

I love that you can see they clearly have different personalities (yet strangely similar) just by their facial expressions. If you see what I mean.

Also I keep refering to them as "1" and "2". They don't really have names. I never really tried giving them any but if you have any ideas feel free to tell me.

I love how 2 looks absolutely stoned even tho he's not. He's just... not here.

Also, It didn't make sens to me to make 2 the oldest since, you know, 2 comes after 1 lol, but 1 looks too much like the little bro who's always screaming for no reason.

I didn't think I would talk so much :/ Well if you are here, thanks :)

[r0yalgrimmartz]

Kore and Chazz in the year 2024,,,

Since yugioh GX is set in like 2004 at the start of the series and they're like 15-16 there, so like 35-36 (oh JESUS), and I think Chazz and Kore might be married at this point here. Idk mainly because I personally think it would take them a while to get married mainly cause Kore was not exactly one to be in a rush to get married. AND I COULDN'T BE BOTHERED TO SKETCH FUTURE DESIGNS IMMA CRY!!!

But here are some ideas my brain was scrambling:

⚡️ Chazz is a world famous pro duelist basically at this point, absolutely knocking it out of the park. He's finally where he feels like he's meant to be, yet without his brothers help. However, he's somewhat mellowed out as he's gotten much older, but his old personality still lingers. He's still The Chazz we all know and love at heart.

[MORE SHIT UNDER TO READ]

⭐️ Kore does also funny enough become a pro duelist, however that is somewhat a bit later yet she's managing just fine. Chazz is somewhat responsible for helping funding her (that was before they confessed the feelings but shhh).

⚡️ They currently have three kids (idk how the fuck they even agreed to three), with Kore being the fun and exciting parent but knows when to be stern and mature when things get a bit serious. Chazz is surprisingly the somewhat stern parent, however he's a great listener if his kids have problems and is better at giving advice. Plus he might let them get away with a few things it's all good.

⭐️ Kore absolutely misuses modern day internet slang so bad. She has tried this with her kids. Her kids are absolutely embarrassed. Chazz does not even bother, he's just confused. Like wtf is "GYATT"???

⚡️ Chazz ends up needing fucking reading glasses, his vision when reading up close got worse-

⭐️ For all Kore is the physically affectionate one, Chazz has to initiate the affection and love since...Kore forgets. This man just waiting for a smooch as she just obliviously walks past.

⚡️ I am not entirely sure what Chazz's relationship with his brothers would be currently, since originally I had it where they absolutely do not speak to one another. But, maybe they all met up once just to have a brief catch up??? As unrealistic as it sounds, but maybe after that they just all go seperate ways.

⭐️ Kore gets married to Chazz around the age of 29-30. Mainly because Kore and Chazz didn't see each other again till they were like 23-24, but it was mainly Chazz trying to initiate trying to form a bond again (ends up being a romantic bond). Chazz literally tried proposing to her several times and this dumb bitch was like "ehhhh can we hold it off till next year and ask me that again?" Then after a few attempts Chazz just did one last attempt out of frustration probably outside of a gas station and she just was like "hmmmmmmm okay sure <3 But could you put 20 on number 4- " Yeah. Very...romantic.

⚡️ Chazz cannot drive for shit. Kore is the designated driver. Currently has been trying to learn thanks to Kore but he kinda just says fuck it and goes. Nine times outta ten nearly crashes into the side of someone's car.

⭐️ Shopping trips tend to be a nightmare, mainly because Kore wanders off, and Chazz is fighting for his life on trying to find out where tf his spouse just fucked off to. Kore is found wanting to buy several mugs she found cute. Chazz is scolding her like a fucking parent and dragging her back to the shopping cart.

⚡️ Adding onto shopping nightmares, I feel like Chazz still is like "we getting the finer brands" and Kore on the other hand is like "yeah but they have a three for one sale- " then it ends with Chazz forcing the finer brands into the shopping cart. He's paying for the shopping tho so win win???

⭐️ Kore has dragged Chazz out for late night car rides a couple of times. Both going on late night drives, and getting food from drive throughs. Sometimes they'll park somewhere quiet and just chill on the car bonnet and watch the stars. It's a lame as it sounds, but Chazz just sorta let's Kore. I feel like Chazz does enjoy dumb things like these, granted not wanting to be woken up at stupid hours of the morning, but they kinda just star gaze and ramble on dumb shit or problems they're just feeling.

⚡️ Chazz I don't imagine is the most affectionate person during the series of GX, but thanks to Kore's gentle affection and her being slow and steady with Chazz, he grows more affectionate over time. Doing little things like hand holding, leaning against one another while they're sitting, Chazz constantly keeping Kore close - mainly so she doesn't wander off - or small brief head pats in public.

⭐️ Kore doesn't have much identity issues compared to the shit that happened after Season 3 of GX, but now and then I feel as if after what she's gone through she still struggles with her own image and doubts on who she is. Cause ya know, being used as some sort of sacrifice to be rebirthed as some horrifying deity close monster like some shit outta Fear & Hunger meanwhile your other friends are dead and your other friend is some Supreme King and there's some non-binary dragon monster spirit- Yeah that shit crazy. But Chazz does try help reassuring Kore a lot. She might still have the odd nightmares but Chazz immediately hugs her close and let's her silently cry it out. Once she's calm they'll chat after or unless Kore is that tired, then she'll doze back off.

⚡️ Idk why...but I feel like Chazz is somewhat the type of motherfucker that's like "you kids don't know how good you have it these days" or like "they don't Duel like how they used to" idk but it plays on my mind.

⭐️ Kore worries about how she raises her kids, as she doesn't want to cause strain or pressure on them like how her mother used to push her to be the best along with her siblings. Same with Chazz, he worries about how he raises his kids but he's a bit more self aware and doesn't hold unrealistic standards like his brothers did on him.

~~~~~~

As for like their kids, I doubt they'll ever be sketched. Originally I didn't think they'd have any due to their like fear of how they'd raise them. But I've pondered so just in case, then here even tho it really isn't relevant (both English and Japanese names):

🥀 Kenji Manjoume/Kaden Princeton

- First child

- Golden child yee yaw ass

- Gifted then severely burnt out in later years.

- Very soft and sweet wee lil' boy, grows to be a severely tired and irritable man.

- WhoreTM

- Top buttons on shirt always undone, cleavage. Slut behavior.

- Dramatic af, Kardashian style break down if shit doesn't go his way.

- Needs therapy but won't go. Says he's fine. Is not fine.

- Probably Bisexual. Man leaning.

- Fave ice cream: Cookie Dough.

💎 Himari Manjoume/Harper Princeton

- Second child

- Actually was planned. Ended up being a nightmare child (feral gremlin).

- Was the cutest baby, but underneath would attempt to set someone on fire.

- Tried cutting Atticus' hair once. In his sleep.

- Very chill in later years.

- Quiet and intimidating looking which makes people fear her (is actually super shy and easily flustered someone talk to her).

- Lifts. Has been passed down the beef genes (thanks to Kore and Riley's papa <3).

- Absolutely spoiled by Chazz when she was little. Deffo some form of Daddy's girl surprisingly....

- Can now easily pick up Chazz in later years. She strong. That ain't yo lil' girl Chazz you raised King Kong. Still loves her tho. Just is startled at how she can easily pick him up.

- Literally a beast duelist. Yet fumbles when her crush talks to her.

- Likes to dress very feminine. Very into skin and hair products.

- Very into girl's....is shy to even ask out.

- Fave ice cream: Mint chocolate chip.

✨️ Ekou Manjoume/Elijah Princeton

- Third child.

- Ultimate accidental child.

- Actually the most chilled baby to raise.

- Yet found ways to get into places he shouldn't like the balcony, cupboards, under the bed, on top of the closet,,?

- Very soft and shy little bab, a full on enthusiastic dumbass in later years.

- Zero braincells.

- Surprisingly academically super smart. Yet lacks common sense at times.

- Acts very flamboyant. Yet has ultimate rizz. Doesn't even realise he has rizz, he's a fucking idiot-

- Somewhat looks more like Chazz. Hilariously. Yet has more of Kore's enthusiasm and her life filled eyes. Probably will cause arson though.

- No filter. Says the most outlandish, borderline horrific down bad shit your poor ears have ever heard.

- Bisexual??? Somewhat woman leaning.

- Fave ice cream: HAH. He lactose intolerant like Kore....likes a lot of sorbet tho. Mainly lemon or lime flavoured desserts.

~~~~~~

This is all of my rambling I will croak now if anemia doesn't do it-

[creativeafterdark]

Chapter 9 and 10

Heyo folks taking a @journeythroughjourneytothewest

Had to take a break from book club last week, burn out was very bad. But I've had a week to relax, celebrated my birthday and slept most of the day lol. Let's get back into Journey to the West

First: Chapter 9.

We finally meet our Monk and learn the story of his family!

We don't spend a lot of time learning about them (minus his Dad, gets a thumbs up from me. Kind to all and easy going enough to be like "I got hit by a ball-- oh I'm married now? Okay cool". Like talk about a shotgun wedding), but we do see little bits that remind me of our Monk. He does share his kindness with his Dad, and I genuinely think his anxiety is from his mom. I'll talk about her in a minute because she is a whole other thing.

My one question is... wouldn't other officials notice that Liu Hong, essentially becoming Chen E, had no idea what he was doing??? He went on business trips, did no one recognize he wasn't who he said he was????? I mean you would think anyone who took the exams with him who got positions would be like "uh... that's not him tf??". Or they just did not care. Who knows at this point. Apparently he had Six Eared Macaque level disguise skill, rolled a nat 20 in bullshitery.

Now. Lady Yin. The poor lady went through hell for over 18 years. She had to watch her husband get murdered, had to abandon her baby, and had to play wife to a murderer. Even when her husband came back... I'm not surprised she still ended up passing. That's a lot of guilt (and I'm sure Liu Hong was not kind to her) on her mind for a LONG period of time, nearly two decades. I wish there was a happy ending for the family but I get why it ended how it did, knowing what depression and anxiety can do to people.

Now our baby Monk. Our Xuanzang. I am so proud of him for being as brave as he was. This recently turned 18 year old did everything he could to help his family. Licking his grandma's eyeballs was...a choice. But it was for a good cause so good on him. I can see why he was a good choice as the Scroll Pilgrim.

And as promised, a sketch of Xuanzang

And as a bonus baby Monk with a doggo

But now we move to Chapter 10.

...I legit got annoyed going thru the debate between the fisherman and woodman. Like it went on far longer than it should have. I'm sure there was a profound moment that we're supposed to glean from it but I just wasn't receptive to it. Maybe I'll read it again.

Anyway.

I have been doing some looking into of Chinese historical heroes (I desperately want to read Romance of the three kingdoms, and I need more reading material about folk heroes and heroines) so seeing some references to the stuff I learned made me happy. There was mention of Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang and the painting of The Emporer's Generals on the doors (supposedly the Tang dynasty is where this practice was first used. A few three kingdom folks also get this treatment as door gods, or menshen, along with other important heroes and deities. Makes me wonder if the Emperor essentially deified his Generals and Wei Zheng. How does Heaven handle that?)

Fun fact! In my jttw x mythology story Wukong will work with Asena, mythical wolf mother of the Ashina Clan of Gokturks. Guess which dynasty of China had to deal with them a lot? :)

Anyway.

I've also come to the conclusion that Dragons just like to fuck around and find out. Like, the Dragon King just goes against heaven's orders to spite a very accurate fortune teller, does not even THINK of the consequences, and is surprised Pikachu face when he gets in trouble. Also not sure why he thought appealing to an earthly emporer would save him from THE SUPREME DAOIST DEITY'S JUDGMENT. Like, y'all, I'm beginning to think dragons just don't give a crap or just don't think. Got what he deserved for being dumb. Did the emporer make promises he shouldn't have? No doubt, you don't promise supernatural beings anything because it will make you want to die if they catch wind of you breaking promises, regardless of nationality. Did he deserve what he got? .... I mean historically probably but in the sense of this story, no.

I find the Tang dynasty interesting (because it gave us a certain Empress and had some fun female warriors, like Taizong's sister, who helped her father found the dynasty) and I can definitely thank jttw for getting my attention about it.

I think that's all I have as far as thoughts. And I apologize if my rambles just jumped around too much lol.

Over and out ✌️

[vampwritesstuff]

Songbird ~

Pairing : Xavier Thorpe x Siren!reader (gender neutral, no pronouns mentioned)

Summary : Xavier Thorpe adores your voice and goes out of his way in order to listen to you sing

Warnings : stalker behavior if you squint

Genre : general fluff

Requests : Open

I could not get this idea out of my head and needed to write it because it just seems so cute and pure.

Masterlist

Xavier wasn’t certain in many things, but one thing he was certain of was that he adored your voice.

He first heard you when you were practicing with the choir club, he had been painting his mural in the quad at the time and you had begun a solo.

He was struck dumb at the sound of your voice, it was such a saccharine sound and he was addicted to it. Eventually he began to notice your little habit of humming to yourself as you did little tasks, like reading or studying for exams. Soon he began to actively seek you out when he knew you would be singing or humming, often ‘coincidentally’ being near the entrance of the quad when there was choir practice. Xavier found himself constantly sketching you, often on a stage where you’re the spotlight.

His secret adoration for you wasn’t a secret very long, Ajax eventually found out when he found him sketching you, and it wasn’t long before Enid found out from Ajax either. However, Xavier made them both swear to secrecy, and eventually they end up attempting to get you both together.

It started out as small things, Enid mentioning to you how Xavier looked nice that day or Ajax purposely sitting next to Enid and leaving no other seats except next to Xavier and forcing you both to sit together. But to no avail, Xavier was too nervous to strike up a conversation and you were too oblivious to get the hints.

However, something they didn’t know, you greatly admired Xavier’s art. Always watching with interest as he painted the mural in the quad, even just watching him concentrate while sketching in class made you feel a sense of calmness. Xavier made you feel more peaceful than anything else.

You did start to notice how, during the week before the rave’N, he started showing up to places where you often visited when you wanted to study, read, or just relax. You found it odd how you would catch him glancing at you as he drew in his sketch book. Unbeknownst to you, Xavier was working up the courage to ask you to the dance and sketching you while you were going about your daily life helped calm his nerves.

It was during a cold, rainy morning that he finally got the chance to ask you. You had been hurrying to class and bumped into someone, knocking them and yourself off balance. The person you bumped into grabbed hold of your waist to steady you and themself, and keep the both of you from falling onto the wet stone pathway of the quad. Processing what had happened, you looked up to see Xavier. “Oh my gosh, Xavier, I’m so sorry. I wasn’t watching where I was going, are you alright?” You asked him.

“Uh, yeah. Are you okay?” He asked, looking down at you, realizing just how much smaller you were compared to him. “I’m alright, so sorry again but I have to get to class.” You stated as you began to walk away but was stopped as a hand caught hold of your wrist. “I actually needed to ask you a question.” Xavier told you as you turned to face him, looking at him with a quizzical expression. “I… uhm… well,” he started, obviously nervous about was he was going to say, but you patiently stayed silent to allow him time to process his words.

“I’ve liked you for a couple months now and if you would allow me, I would like to take you as my date to the rave’N.” He blurted out, trying to hide a bright, red blush that adorned his cheeks. You were stunned, obviously not expecting him to be so out right with it. You looking at him for so long with out answering made him regret asking, thinking you were going to laugh and reject him. But instead, you smiled the same soft smile that he so often draws when he has art block, and said to him, “I would love to go with you to the rave’N.”

Xavier breathed a sigh of relief, smiling widely as he heard those words. Which he was sure would play over and over in his head on repeat for the entire day. However your eyes widened, “I have to get to class!” You panicked, leaving Xavier after leaving a small kiss on his flushed cheek and hurried off to your class. His hand found it’s way to the cheek that you kissed and, if it was even possible, his smile became wider. He was sure that Enid and Ajax would be excited to hear this.

[squidproquoclarice]

Yeehawgust Day 21: Desert Paintbrush

March 1912

Paradise Run, New Caledonia

They’d gotten the assignment to draw something for class, and chores done for the day, she finally turned towards it.  Put it off in favor of assignments that felt easier, and that even included math.  But math was simple enough.  It was or it wasn’t, matter of fact.  Draw something.  Sounded easy, but it wasn’t.  So many possibilities out there, and all of them running through her mind, ideas examined and picked over, and nothing seemed right.  Looking out the window of the farmhouse, seeing the endless sea of white snow under a heavy leaden grey sky, Bea had to think the long, long winters here on the edge of the Canadian prairies didn’t help either.  Nothing much to see until you went into the forest, and there was a beauty to that, but she didn’t want to draw that either.

Sitting by the fireplace, hearing the wind roaring outside and rattling the frost-dusted windowpanes, she found herself picking up the pencil and starting to draw what felt like the furthest thing from.  

She’d been born all the way down in Nuevo Paraiso.  Gone from Mexican desert to Canadian prairie, and that seemed like one heck of a jump to her.  Didn’t remember much about Chuparosa, because they’d left that house when she was only two, gone on the move with the circus for the next few years, before settling down here.

All the same, there were wisps of images in her mind, and something in her wanted to try to put them on paper before maybe even they faded.  So she sketched, sitting there with her hot cocoa, and ended up with a sweeping rock formation on her page, a hole in its underside, turning it into an arch.  Cactuses and the like dotting the landscape, she imagined.  They must have been there.  She started to draw one, not remembering them too clearly.  She looked at it and hated it, seeing it looked more like the winter-bare maple tree in their front yard than anything, and moved to erase it.  But redrawing it, trying to make it stockier, just made it look like a shapeless blotch of nothing.

“There’s a face,” Dad said, passing through the parlor, and obviously having glanced her way.  “You’re looking at that page like you want to cuss it out, just about.”

“I’m drawing,” she said, scowling at the stupid tree-cactus-thing.  “But it ain’t working.  I don’t see it clearly enough and it just looks stupid.”

Coming over, he leaned over, gave a low whistle.  “Ojo del Diablo,” he said.  “No, you got that right, pretty well.  You remember that, huh?”

“A little.  Just got a picture of it in my head.  Not sure why, but it’s there.”

He smiled at that.  “Your momma and me used to take you out there for picnics sometimes if the weather weren’t too bad, and we had a day off from whatever work we was doing at that point.  Took both you and Mattie after he came along.  Guess you remember a bit of that for it to have stuck.”

That made sense of it, and when he said it, she felt like there was a flicker of memory too, of Mom sitting on a blanket, laughing and reaching up to take Bea in her arms.  “Don’t remember what them plants in the desert looked like,” she admitted.  “And so my cactus just looks dumb.  And there should probably be other things there and I ain’t…”

He gave her a quick pat on the shoulder, and gestured for her to hand over the pad of paper and the pencil.  Headed over to his chair near the fire and flipped to the next page of the paper, sat there, one booted foot crossed over the other knee, pencil scratching in quick, confident strokes she could only envy.  She knew he drew some too, had seen little doodles and the like that he made, and wished she could get something to look like that.

Sitting there sipping her cocoa, she could only wait, wanting to go and peek, a bit fascinated at seeing the look of intent focus on his face, caught up in whatever he was seeing in his own head.  After a good while, he handed it back.

He’d drawn a whole page of plants for her, a few strokes somehow giving the look of them in a way she could almost see them in her mind, alive and real.  Labeling them too in his neat handwriting.  Cactuses, trees, even flowers–she hadn’t thought about there being flowers in the desert, but there had been.

Barrel cactus

Desert paintbrush

Chuparosa

Desert sage

Saguaro cactus

Desert chicory

Ironwood

Nuevo Paraiso thistle

Buckhorn cholla

Prickly pear

Mesquite  

She looked up at him, unable to help a grin.  “Those are real fine.”

“Well, I had more years than you to study plants in the desert,” he said teasingly, reaching out and tapping the tip of her nose with his finger.  “Sadie had even more than me, growing up in New Austin as she did, but unfortunately you’re stuck with me as the one scratching out drawings.  But maybe that helps, all the same.”

It helped.  It helped more than she could say, and it made her eager to get back to the drawing now.  “Thank you, Daddy,” she said, already studying the buckhorn cholla intently.  

Heard a low chuckle from him in reply as he headed out to whatever he’d been on his way to do before.  “Welcome, Beanstalk.”

[nebuleeart]

3 4 5 10 12 14 16 18 22 25 26 27 30

Skipped a couple bc i couldnt think of a good answer but ehehe lets GOOOO

3. What ideas come from when you were little

A lot of my current design elements for my anthro ocs actually started when I was in elementary school and designing magical kitty girls to LARP on the playground… like honestly? If you look at Chip and Fray and Hem and then compare them to my childhood characters, not much has really changed, i just got better at art. Also these two OCs (moon and lyrica) are from like 2011 and I still use them to this day 😏

4. Fav character/subject that's a bitch to draw

Despite my best efforts over the past decade (decade…. *sobs*) i STILL to this day struggle to draw sonic characters 😭 its the faces and body proportions… I just cant get it right and make them not look stiff. I’m working on it tho so hopefully in another 10 years or so I’ll finally get it down AJSHHSHAHABAB

5. Estimate of how much of your art you post online vs. the art you keep for yourself

Its a HUUUUGE difference. Like i’d say out of 100 sketches maybe 10 of them get finished and only 5 of those 10 end up on social media… i am very picky about what art people see.

10. Favorite piece of clothing to draw

I loooooove thick/heavy fabrics!! Almost all my ocs have something like that on them, i like to make them comfy 😊

12. Easiest part of body to draw

Hair! it just comes to me the easiest compared to all other parts. Close second is eyes

16. Something you are good at but don't really have fun doing

I studied cat anatomy when i was young bc i was obsessed with cats so i can specifically draw realistic cats very well but i actually dont like doing it very much… i prefer to draw them more stylized and cute :]

18. An estimate of how much art supplies you've broken

Ive had a nervous habit of biting pencils since i was old enough to use one so you can imagine the carnage I’ve inflicted on many an innocent dollar store pencil

22. What physical exercises do you do before drawing, if any

Nothing before but i do stretch and get up and walk around when im feeling stiff while drawing.

26. What's a piece that got a wildly different interpretation from what you intended

Not quite a different interpretation but an unexpected response was all the comments on my sonic underground redesign post analyzing the design aspects and a couple pointing out things i didnt even realize I did which was really fun!! I love getting comments like that i still think about it all the time

27. Do you warm up before getting to the good stuff? If so, what is it you draw to warm up with

Yes!! I mostly do silly loose doodles of whatever’s on my mind at the time,, dont really think about it I just draw

Recent one i did around the time the new rtfd episode dropped and i thought was funny but never posted

just dumb stuff like that ajsvshhsaj

30. What piece of yours do you think is underrated

Okay so last year I did this splatoon magazine spread and spent hours on it and it got like 30 notes total but its okay im not sad about it im not sad😊 (lying)

Thank you for the ask maria ily!!!

[bizkitsnuggets]

01, TUNAS ARE DUMB.

masterlist.

The girl sat on her designated seat, letting her bag hang onto the hanger beside her table. Awaiting for class to finally begin. She took out her notebook and pencil case from her bag, sketching out what seems to be like a type of fish you'd see commonly in Japan.

This fish was a bluefin tuna.

It has a streamlined body with a metallic-blue like color on the upper side and a silver-white color on the lower side.

The girl wasn't too fond of this fish, it wasn't all that special to her.

There's more fishes in the sea.

She'd thought to herself every time she saw this fish in popular seafood restaurants around her area. But somehow, it was alluring. Making her interested when in her mind she couldn't give a fuck less about it.

It didn't have pretty colors, it looked boring, and it's not even a rare fish. There's cooler ones out there.

Yet, why…

“Everybody quiet down!" The teacher barged into the room, making his way to the middle of class. “Good morning everybody! Glad to see you all again." He gave the class a big grin.

The students didn't respond as they didn't have the energy to. It was seven in the morning and they had just finished their summer break, could you really expect them to be energetic this early?

The teacher visibly sweated at this but chose to ignore it. “Alright then! Let's start with role calls shall we? Amajiki-san?”

He called out names after names when he finally got to her. “[L/N]-san?”

"Here”.

The girl looked around the class, finally taking in the fact that all her classmates are here. In a few months, they'll all be graduating. Most of them probably won't pass though.

Especially that Kujo Jotaro.

He's a delinquent that skips almost every class. If you'd see even his shadow in the classroom, you'd be called lucky.

What the hell? He actually attended class huh? I guess cause it's the first day.

He looks like he was held back for two years, his voice sounds raspy because of all those cigarettes he smoked while skipping class. [Y/N] was bewildered by the fact that he even passed his second year.

But even with an attitude like that, he's still admired by the many girls in the school. [Y/N] had no idea why. It could be because those girls just fantasize about falling in love with a ‘bad boy’. But Kujo Jotaro? Really? Anyone could see that he's bad news.

────────────────────────────────

To everyone's relief, it was finally time for the first lunch break. Most of the people headed out to the 7/11 that was near the school, and some others stayed back to eat their packed lunch.

[Y/N] was one of the people who couldn't care less about bringing her own lunch. It was a nuisance, especially in the morning where she has to get ready for school and on top of that do all the housework at the same time. She's gotten used to it by now though, but still, packing her own lunch wasn't all that important to her.

She got out of the classroom and made her way to the store. Taking a shortcut so she wouldn't have to wait in line to pay. But as she was nearing it, she saw a trail of smoke from the alley way she was about to go in.

Oh, who would've guessed.

Let's play a quick trivia. Who was out there smoking his ass off at lunch?

A. The Principal

B. A talking turtle

C. A motorcycle that needed a break

I'll give you three seconds to guess.

.

.

.

Three seconds is up. The answer is…

None of them, you moron. It was obviously Kujo Jotaro.

[Y/N] stood straight as she proceeded her walk into the alley way. Normal people would've shat their pants going in, but not [Y/N]. Jotaro wouldn't hurt a girl in broad daylight. And as long as she doesn't provoke him in any way, she's safe.

The girl walked in, not gaining a reaction from said boy. She made eye contact with him, observing his stance. Even if she was almost ninety nine percent positive that this man wouldn't hurt her, she still needed to be careful.

Their stare at each other felt longer than it needed to be. His deep spring green eyes stared back at her [E/C] ones.

After that intense stare off, the girl succeeded in escaping his piercing gaze. Not long after, she arrived at her destination.

⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀

[ethrixarts]

h e l p - 2d animation

Gotta love my first post on my art blog being a cry for help but, what can ya do :]

Context, I'm a digital artist who's been trying to self-learn 2d animation for perhaps years now, with MANY different attempts being lost to time. Tried setting up separate storyboards, tried making the key frames and interpolating form there, I've tried laying out every sketch I can think of before realizing it looks like shit. I've tried silly little shitposty animations too and none of it just...works? I've tried the ball. That evil, evil ball. So far it seems no combination of study or method has helped my quest for animation in the slightest, then again, every time I tried I've kinda jumped into something just to stumble and fall on my face exactly as much as I should've otherwise expected.

So, obviously I need to start over, and start from the beginning, and FINALLY I have the time and freedom to do that, but...where do I actually start?

Most good courses are paid, (and I am a broke mf, I am not paying for that unless I literally cannot help myself anymore,) a lot of guides are specifically career oriented or made for people trying to join big studios (I just want the basics, and there is plenty of knowledge to be had from these, but it also assumes a level of experience/competence I dont have,) others just say "lmao practice scrub."

So- all that nonsense to say I'm very lost, if anyone seeing this is like, at all experienced with 2d animation and self taught, how did you learn? Where did you start? What do you recommend for someone new? My preference is really just any free resource or practice or process I can sit down and try that makes sense to someone who just, doesn't really have a grasp on it all. It doesn't need to be perfect or studio quality, or even realistic or, well, any other advanced bar, just a way for me to wrap my dumb little mind around this thing just barely out of reach.

When I think about animation, I feel like I have such awesome ideas, especially when I listen to good music. I can SEE it all in my mind, the awesome motion and color and feeling of it, but its basically doomed to stay an idea until it inevitably fades away, so I just hope that some day I can make those ideas a reality.

Any help is appreciated, and who knows, maybe I'll actually do it and have an animation posted here some day.

Thanks :]

[sofs-studio]

DES301 - Week 9 Capstone

Happy second week of the mid-sem break! Since I took the first week of the break to mainly relax and recover from the first half of the semester... I knew that this week I had to prioritise organising myself and getting the 'upper hand' before commencing the last half of the year!

Therefore I told myself I must had the following done by the end of the week:

- Finish INTBUS202 reading chapter 8

- Make a big start on INTBUS business memo

- Make a big start on DES302 report

- Finish the ideate phase in my capstone project

Other admin: fix my website and clean my car ;)

As discussed before, I am super keen to make my market campaign animated (with a guerilla marketing tactic). A precedent that inspires me the campaign 'Dumb Ways to Die' ( Metro Trains Melbourne, 2012). Therefore, as character design takes strong precedents in this, I knew I needed to ideate characters I may include.

Here my ideation blossomed, I was able to take defining tools on what exactly I wish to animate. Finally, after 2 months of working on this project, I finally had my light bulb moment!

Perhaps now, I am feeling my animated market campaign can be displayed as a GIF in public settings. This takes inspiration from a GIF I found on Pinterest that I think speaks volumes to the problem I am targetting *Find screenshot reference of this pin in above images*. When finding this precedent I started connected the dots on how might this work in relation to the problem I am looking at. Here is when I thought back to the campaign found in Creative Advertising: ideas and techniques from the world's best campaigns by Mario Pricken (2002). This campaign was of still images on machinery in public spaces that provoke whoever is using the machine to understand who put the mahi into making their coffee, coke to dispense etc... I think it would be really powerful is I encapsulated both ideas into one project.

Now, once I came up with this thought, I started sketching my version of Collby Graphics (n.d.) Happy International Women's Day GIF. To differentiate my project to this one, I want to symbolise the things that prevent a women to prosper in the workplace. These symbols may be, finances, family situation, angered faces etc... I need to keep thinking more on this. However, I have started off with simple quick sketches of what may be included - as well as a storyboard of screenshot frames I wish to include in the campaign. With this, I now have plans to take my ideations to Diana etc... So that I can gain feedback and pivot from there to the prototyping phase.

Now I have another point to consider, as I am hoping to exhibit this campaign/GIF in public places (Eg. a bus stop) - I should also prototype this, but I ask myself how? And that is something I hope Diana can answer.

//References//

Collby Graphics. (n.d.). Happy International Women's Day.

Jobsintown.de. (2005). The wrong working environment campaign.

Metro Trains Melbourne. (2012). Dumb ways to Die. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJNR2EpS0jw

Pricken, M. (2002). Creative Advertising: ideas and techniques from the world's best campaign.

[sanekibeko]

Heyo! Currently on break from socials while I finish up my final semester which includes my senior thesis film but while on Spring Break I found a some draws that never saw the light of day I thought I'd share.

Some got further than others but I'm only sharing those that got further along than just a very rough sketch. Another quick note from 2018-2020 I was mainly doing pokemon related stuff before I shifted my way to Vivz.

2018

Title: Mommy doesn't want you in here

Back then I was really involved in Pokemon Emerald's Battle Frontier and had to grind a lot of the best pokemon to breed. One of the pokemon I breed from was Gardevoir, which swept the floor getting me many of my symbols, and I thought of this very dark situation where a Gardevoir was breeding for the perfect child and that said child wandered into the incubation room finding her imperfect siblings. Pretty much how IV and shinny breeding goes in games. Reason I never finished it is it got too complex for my skill at the time. Wtf is perspective?

2019

Title: Dog Show

I'm going to be honest I have no idea what I was thinking when I drew this. Brionne looked too much like a dog I guess.

Title: Gen 8 Drawing(Unfinished name)

This one hurt to scrap after so many hours but I was so unhappy and embarrassed with it. I wanted to make a big draw for Pokemon Sword and Shield but cause I was so focused on making a pretty picture instead of anatomy, composition, and flipping my canvas.

I swear I can draw humans better now! >.<

2020

Title: Escort missions

Ok so here's an interesting story behind this. You know how controlling partner pokemon especially escort pokemon in PMD1 sucks? Well I decided to take on a bunch of jobs in Fiery Field where not only has a bunch of traps but also you have to quick save before entering meaning if you mess up you lose everything. This is pretty much what happened. I was almost finished escorting that Surkern, who was pain my ass, where a warp trap happened and everything fell apart. I wanted to throw my DS Lite so bad. Later on decided to vent out my in a comic. However I never finished it cause it got to complex.

One note though this comic is half truthful. I'm the one who fell in the warp trap cause I didn't have that trap ability and that Surkern kept wondering around and ended up in a fight. I ended up deleting that mission cause I was getting paid jack shit.

2021

Title: (N/A)

Don't remember much. Just how I was feeling at that point struggling through school. I was also trying out using 3D for perspective and using Procreate.

2022

Title: Dad and Looney(Unfinished Name)

Just a quick doodle I never finished and was messing around in Procreate. I think it later lead to Free Hug.

The next few draws were cause I was on a Timber and Makasin drawing spree that didn't turn out the way I wanted it too mainly cause I was in a slump during that summer. I would like to go back to them at so point.

Title: In her arms

Title: Piggyback

Title: Voice of Reason

Title: Reading a book(Unfinished name)

I was close to finishing this one but never felt like finishing it.

Title: Clip Studio Shitpost comic(Unfinished name)

This was back in Clip Studio announced their subscription for standalone Windows and Mac versions going forward and everyone got pissed off including me. I made a quick comic to vent but later got bored of it.

Soon after the company tried to put out the flames and gave everyone who bought a copy that year a free copy of v2 and a trial for update pass but I still use v1.13.2 copy and sometimes Procreate. The update pass still sounds dumb to me. If you pay for a new major version you should continue to get feature updates until the next major version comes out. That's what Affinity, Toonboom, and Final Draft does. Least they didn't go full out Adobe. Yet...

Title: Mindscape

Idea I had to expand Saneki's backstory with his curse. Later turned into one of my many school project ideas but never did anything going forward. I just now realize I gave my dude a bakery. 0_0

2023

Title: Slay Ride

Little Chaggie idea I had but I was getting deep into my semester and Winter was coming to an end.

Title: Snowy Ride Remake

Back in early 2015 after I adopted Holly I had a simple draw of my at the time main oc riding her in the woods. It aged badly and I wanted to remake it with Saneki instead. 8 years later when I was starting to remake it I needed an idea for a school project and decided to go with it thinking I could knock out 2 birds with one stone. However I had to follow a strict set of rules including a limited color pallete and using Photoshop which I hated. It didn't have the settings or brushes I was used to which lead to this. From that forward I began to hold a grudge against Photoshop like I do with Animate. Someday I would like to take another shot at this without involving Photoshop. -_-

One the bright side I did learn some color theory and perspective tips. ^^

Title: Cowgirl Loona

This was my first attempt on Cowgirl Loona before I swapped over from Clip Studio to Procreate and finished it this earlier year. Just wasn't happy with what I was going for and felt like Procreate could get this done better.

2024

Title: N/A

I recently decided to can this. I thought of a cute idea of Stella at a hellhorse show but had no idea how I wanted to present it and this is all that came out of it.

And that's pretty much what I feel like showing. Looking back I think it's just more of a lesson in drawing. Not everything turns out the way you want it too. Either you didn't think everything through or just got bored with them and wanted to move on. Sometimes it's not worth putting in more hours in something that isn't going to turn out the way you hoped. But that's no to say everything you do should be scrapped. Sometimes It just needs reworked. Cowgirl Loona and Carousel Alastor went through hell but I got them out cause of the lessons I learned from continuing to draw. But also I want to stop focusing on the little details cause not everyone is going notice. Have you seen the many tangents in my earlier stuff.

Ok that's all for now. Like I said taking the time to finish up my final semester so I can soft reboot my socials afterwards. See ya in May!

[sugxrslushy]

Are you still out there?

➪ a/n: this solely came from that one idea where whatever your soulmate writes of your body appears on your own. I just though Law’s tattoos would be cool for that so here we are with a dumb little fic. it’s not really much, just an idea I had haha

➪ includes: law (w/ a gn!reader)(soulmate au!)

➪ warnings: death but not really?? idk reader thinks someone does but n o p e. I should also mention that I have an idea about laws backstory but have never actually watched it, so sorry if there’s any mistakes!!

Soulmates. Most people upon hearing that would laugh and cast the idea aside. It’d always seemed like such a silly idea, even to you although you’d seen the living proof of it. Little marks and messages scrawled across the skin of people you knew, drawn by their soulmate far away always taunted you, proving you wrong.

Maybe you were just being pessimistic or trying not to accept the truth. When you were younger, your body had been covered with white splotches along your skin. Upon first seeing it, your mother had shrieked and rushed you to the hospital. The doctors examined it and solemnly informed your mom of something.

It was amber lead syndrome.

You didn’t have it, but your soulmate did. And it was going to kill them.

You weren’t the only person who’d lost a soulmate before meeting them. There were plenty of people who noticed how the small scribbles and marks they saw along their body suddenly stopped appearing. It left people devastated, your other half was gone and you were incomplete.

And the moment you’d despised finally came one day, the white splotches faded away and never returned. You’d grown used to seeing the odd spots on your skin, your body almost felt empty without them. Or maybe it was your chest that felt empty, mourning the love you’d never met.

You wondered how old they were. Your heart ached at the thought that if they were younger than you, you weren’t even that old yourself when the marks suddenly disappeared. Hopefully someone had been by their side in their final moments, the thought of them dying alone left a bitter taste in your mouth.

The thought stuck with you for years, it followed you everywhere. You’d never thought the death of someone you’d never known would weigh so heavy on your consciousness. It drove you through some nights, you wanted to know more about them but was never given the chance. You were stuck in the dark for the rest of your life about them.

You grew up with the thought on your mind, following you as you navigated life on the water. Among the free seas you found that you weren’t alone, plenty of others had a soulmate who’d suddenly disappeared and left them heartbroken. They shared their mourning with you, and you could only wonder about their mysterious soulmates they’d never met in addition to your own.

You’d also meet some strange cases. A young boy with a straw hat who’d convinced you to join his crew told you he’d never had a soulmate to begin with. There was not one day where anything had appeared on his skin, and shockingly, he was never bothered. His hunger for adventure outweighed love.

You felt at ease among the new crew, the pressure of having a soulmate didn’t matter here. From the swordsman who couldn’t care less about the scribbles that’d appear on his arm to your own captain who didn’t have one, you didn’t feel out of place for yours having passed.

You almost forgot about them, until the one day you watched as a dark black line began to appear along your body. It was slow, sketching out a design carefully. You watched speechlessly and in fascination as it slowly began to form the shape of a heart on your chest with a smiling jolly roger in the middle.

“What the hell?” You murmured, flicking on the light to get a better look. You rubbed at your eyes and looked down again, wondering if you were just dreaming. It was still there, the tattoo standing out boldly against your skin with more lines branching off of it. And for once, your heart fluttered with excitement.

They were alive.

It took a month for lines to stop appearing, whoever had gotten it had taken their time. You could only imagine how much of a pain the whole piece was, a mural of swirling black lines making up hearts and other symbols along your upper body.

The part that had made you giggle was the letters spelling out “death” along your knuckles. They definitely seemed like an optimistic person.

You almost felt delirious over this, it was way too odd for it to be true. No one survived from amber lead disease, there’d never been a found cure for it. Yet your soulmate seemed alive and well, living his life just fine somewhere out in the world.

You ran a finger over the lines on your chest, tracing the heart. It was odd, why had they gotten a heart? It made no sense to get something so sweet while they had death tattooed on their hands. And what pirate crew had a flag with that jolly roger? Was it even a jolly roger?

Luffy was ecstatic when he saw the marks on your body. He was filled with question after question and you could only answer a few, having to peel the rubbery man off of you so that you could catch a breath. You could barely understand it yourself.

__________

From your spot at the back of the auction hall, you saw him. The captain of the heart pirates, a man with a 200,000,000 belli bounty on his head and nicknamed the “surgeon or death”. He had a cold glare and you felt uneasy, but maybe that was also from the whole auction house having their attention on you.

Chaos had ensued as expected and things went to shit. But the only thing on your mind was the noticeable tattoos along his knuckles. You wished you’d gotten a better look, the tattoos held your attention like they were hypnotic. But things never went as planned with the Strawhats.

Now you weren’t even on the same island.

___________

Punk hazard was cold, but your body was unreasonably warm. You pinned it on the excitement of seeing the now warlord on the island. He was as cold as ever but it didn’t make your curiosity disappear.

Your skin almost felt like it was on fire the closer to the man you stood. You ran your finger over the letters, tracing them with a curious feeling welling in you. It almost didn’t feel real, you had a soulmate and you were so sure it was him.

You’d caught sight of the letters across his knuckles and you couldn’t fight the smile on your face, even if you were in a life or death situation. Five letters spelling out in dark ink the word “death”, accompanied by a black cross on the back of his hand.

Each little mark and accent to the tattoo was mimicked on your own hand.

Trafalgar Law. That was the name of your soulmate. The man you’d thought died all those years ago. And yet here he stood, alive and well in front of you on Punk Hazard

Soulmates are a weird thing, aren’t they?

tag list: @tsunderedoctor @cjm-cookiethief @acesmarigold

[cupcakes-and-pain]

Charles & Ollie: Chapter 8

Hello dearest beloved readers. Buckle up, things are going get interesting across these next few chapters.

CW: pet whump, caretaker new master, legalized slavery, unreliable narrator, unreliable characters (no one knows what they’re talking about today lol), fear of being abandoned, believing they’ve been abandoned, anxiety, low self esteem, implied kidnapping

— — —

It had been a day like any other. Master had finished sketching out ideas and decided to spend the rest of the day at the park. Something about the penthouse being too stuffy and making Master claustrophobic. How that was possible in such a huge house was beyond Ollie, but he was so grateful to be able to go out for a walk with his Master.

Until he got lost, that is.

Everything had been going so well. The two were having fun at the park, and Master seemed genuinely pleased with Ollie. He and Master had been hanging out by a flowerbed that seemed to hold every color of the rainbow. Ollie had been smelling a pretty dark blue one, and when he looked up, his Master was gone. 

He started panicking, desperately looking around for his Master, but he was nowhere to be found. Was this just an attempt to get rid of him? Did Master not want him anymore? Did he finally get bored of him? Was this the end?

He had been abandoned, just like the last time. The last time... no, he couldn't get sucked back into those memories. He couldn't afford to. He had promised himself he would forget about all of that.

Ollie started to cry. He knew he was just an ugly, dumb, worthless pet. He was an it, really, although he didn't use that word if he could help it. He knew he would never deserve Master's kindness and gentleness. But it still hurt. And he thought... well, it had seemed like Master had really loved him, worthlessness and all. Master had always called him darling and sweetheart and other affectionate nicknames. Surely, he had reasoned, that Master would only say things like that to a pet that he loved. But, now it seemed that it had been just wishful thinking.

Ollie wandered around a bit, a part of him still hoping that this was an accident and that Master was worried and looking for him. But he knew that he wasn't. Eventually, he sat on the sidewalk, knees pulled up to his chest, defeated.

"Hey, are you okay?"

Ollie looked up. Someone was standing in front of him, and they had a concerned look on their face.

"Um, I-I don't know, no I guess-"

"Hey," the person cut them off, the expression on their face changing dramatically from concern to slight disgust. Ollie flinched.

"Aren't you the pet that rich prick bought?" 

"N-no, I-, umm, no... I-I-" Ollie tried to get the words out, to deny that he was a pet just like Master wanted. But if Master had abandoned him, did he still have to follow those orders?

Before he could make up his mind, the person turned around.

"Callie! Come over here, look at this guy."

A new person, presumably Callie, walked over to the duo. 

"Tell me this isn't that artist's pet. You know, that guy always painting gorey stuff."

"No, it is totally him. Hey, easy there, hey," Callie cooed softly, getting down onto Ollie's level, trying to look in his eyes. "It's okay. You can cry. It'll be alright. Are you lost?"

Ollie didn't even know at this point. Was it still being "lost" when you get abandoned? Then again, he didn't know exactly where he was. He decided that yes, he was lost, and so he nodded.

"You can come with us. We can keep you safe. We won't let that man hurt you ever again."

"O-okay. Wait, what man?" Th only one who has ever actually hurt Ollie was his first Master, and Ollie had deserved every punishment he gave out. And who were these people anyway? Fans? They didn't seem like fans.

Callie and the other person shared a look. 

"Your owner. Charles Durand."

"B-but he was nice. He cared about me and he d-didn't hurt me. He loves- um, he loved me. I meant he loved me."

"See, loved. Past tense," the other person said. "He said that he loved you, and now what? He just abandoned you out of nowhere, is that it? That is hurting you, even if it's not physical."

Callie nodded in agreement. Ollie didn't know if they were right about that. He really didn't think they were, but disagreeing with the people offering to take care of you isn't generally the best idea. 

They must not be fans. They don't seem to have a very high opinion of Master. Well, now former Master, Ollie remembered sadly.

Oh well. There was nothing he could do about any of it except go along with what the humans wanted.

“Yeah, okay. Of course, I’ll go with you.”

— — —

Tag list:

@whumpzone @whump-me-all-night-long @whumpsweetwhump @thingsthatgo-whump-inthenight @apples-and-whump @professional-idiocy @nicolepascaline @cowboy-anon @wolfeyedwitch @kim-poce @guachipongo @badluck990 @secretwhumplair @batfacedliar

[mauesartetc]

How do you find inspiration to create shows, characters and whatnot?

Whoa well first off, I've never created any shows and have no plans to do so in the near future. It might seem like every independent animator has a pilot out these days, but the truth is very few of us possess the resources necessary to take that path. Maybe someday I'll have the money and desire to work full-time on my own series, but right now... nah.

In terms of general inspiration, though, it helps to have a travel-sized sketchbook handy when I'm away from my digital art-related battle stations. That way I can rough out whatever ideas come to me so I won't forget them later. Just before going to sleep a few nights ago, I had a vision of a magenta space lion (like something straight out of an ‘80s action cartoon), which I sketched in the book and then recreated in digital form.

The animal kingdom is a huge inspiration for me. I like discovering cool species that tend to fly under the radar and seeing what I can do with them. We've all seen countless character designs inspired by wolves, horses, lions, tigers, bears, oh my. But what about Malabar Giant Squirrels?

What about the newly-discovered Rose-Veiled Fairy Wrasse?

But if I have no idea what to draw, typically I warm myself up in one of two ways: Starting with circles and adding to scribbles.

"Starting with circles" is kinda self-explanatory: I draw a circle and use it as a foundation for a character's head. I don't have a set plan for how I want the character to look; I just improvise the features as I go. Basically I aim for variety: Different eyes, noses, proportions, ages, species, etc.

The latter method is a habit sparked by a moment of frustration I experienced a couple years ago. I was drawing and drawing, but somehow everything I drew came out looking like shit. Finally I threw up my hands, closed my eyes, and scrawled a loose scribble on the page, figuring it couldn’t look any worse than what I’d already churned out. I realized I could see a face through the chaos, so I drew those outlines in darker strokes on top. This created a sort of caricature effect.

Of course I don’t follow every scribble line exactly. The point is to maintain their original energy while translating them into recognizable forms. And if I particularly like a certain doodle, I might revisit it for a more polished drawing.

However, it seems the pertinent question for artists doesn’t involve what inspires us but what motivates us. Why make art at all? What drives us to do it?

When I was younger, a rough patch of grief and emotional turmoil led me to draw more and more frequently. It was a form of therapy, of exorcising my own demons. Pretty sure my current OCs wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for this dark period. Fast forward to the present, and my motivations for making these posts are strengthening my sense of purpose through helping others, and honing my skills in both art and communication.

Ask yourself what motivates you, and don’t be afraid to doodle some dumb shit that makes no sense. If you’re doing it as a hobby in your free time, it doesn’t have to be super-serious business where you’re constantly stressed about quality. Just have fun and get random with it. Good luck!