#this coloring was very experimental but i really liked the brush i used

[ela-arts]

Made a Haori for my buddy Sigma's birthday

[anistarrae]

I kinda want to get into digital painting, how do you make your paintings look so good? Do you have any tips?

its really all about practice id say, and understanding shadows and light sources.

my mom has studied art for years, she no longer does it, but she told one of the most important advices when it comes to shading. draw a small ball on where you want the light source to come from, and draw from there. imagine how it will effect every small thing in the drawing, how little or lots of light it will have.

this is something i made while explaining this to someone a few months ago, this is what my mom told me what to do, and i learned a lot about shading from this. studying from real life is also very important, seeing how light interacts with objects, how light is reflected off to other objects, how blurry or sharp the shadow can be. its endless amounts of knowledge when looking at real life subjects.

when rendering, light sources are one of the most important things, learning the fundamentals can help you in the long run. thinking of what you want your shadows to look like too, do you want them soft or sharp, or even a mix of both? finding something right for you is important, and that's why experimentation is key for finding what you're happy with. trying so many different techniques is possible when going into digital art, take things from artists you like, redraw your favorite piece to see how they've made it, try new brushes or programs, its all up to you!

color is important when it comes to rendering, that could be said for any piece. color dictates the feeling of the piece, using many different colors in your shading can make it pop out. going back to experimenting, trying new different colors and palettes is very helpful too! play with saturations, values, try using only one hue. i stick to warms usually, but seeing what else you could be using can be fun too! color is limitless, try all that you can :D

in art, i believe experimentation is one of the most important things, it leads to your growth as an artist. i would be nowhere without it, and i very much encourage anyone to try all they can. digital art is one of the most expansive artforms, you can get almost any look with it, you can do so much with it that makes creativity limitless.

[conkorse]

Can I ask how you pick your colors? I'm very fascinated by it and how well it works with your style

sure i will try my best 2 explain !!! >_<

typically i start drawing my main subjects on a grey colored background. this makes it so my color range is alot larger than if i sketched and colored on a white/lighter background because the colors that surround your piece will affect how they are perceived. i will attach an example below:

as you can see the drawing on the left (which is a wip i havent posted this drawing yet lulz) heavys skintone changes to match the context of the colors in the background which when you compare that bg to the bg on the right it is much darker in comparison. i also simply wanted to play around with colors coz i try not to restrict myself in any capacity. coloring is the most fun part of drawing to me and part of that fun comes from imposing zero limitations on myself which is why alot of my art has the most stupid ass color combinations u will eva see #live #laf #lov

this is what my drawings typically look like once i finish the actual main subject of the piece as you can see scout n pyro are in a grey void gidbles them. i typically do backgrounds last (which is something i should prbably change up sometime soon) because i tend to create them around the main drawing and it makes it easier for me to make everything more cohesive in the end because i can make the background however i want to fit the main drawing. i do not recommend doing this 24/7 becoz then u will struggle with environmental backgrounds/perspective shit and other stuff which is something i want to get better at but struggle with alot hashtag supaaa mega sad hashtag noob lyfeee

as for coloring itself and choosing colors its really just a combination of experimentation (and by that i mean i go through so much of the color wheel before i decide on something) and intuition. i already have an idea of what looks good together well in mind because well ive spent quite alot of time fine tuning ermmm idk what 2 call it i guess my color sense ??? hallppp but anyways i really recommend not just using bright/neon colors exclusively! the best way to make colors pop is to couple them with more muted ones so the contrast is better evident btwn the two. OH ANDD i tend to try not to use straight up black and white/grey to portray those colors. for example if a character has ermm lets say a white shirt i wont use white or grey colors to depict it but rather maybe a light cyan orrr yellowy green :p

i also overuse textured brushes and patterns in my art alortttt (see abovee) HALP so maybe try that??? i use clip studio paint and there are so many rly awesome textured brushes that i overuse coz they r SUPAAAA epik. IDK im just rambling but your biggest take away from this should be to GO EXPERIMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!! and have fun anddddd mix "ugly" colors 2gether coz u just can never know what will and wont work unless u try :33

ALSO I ALMOST FORGOT play around with this feature in csp if u have it coz its another way i create textures (my heavy mii shown as an example) and here is a link to a tumblr post where i link all of the brushes i use in csp 0 .o I HOPE THIS HELPS SOMEWHAT!!!!!!!!! SOZZZ I AM NOT THE BEST AT EXPLANING >_<

[cbedfordart]

Hey! I’ve been following you for a while and I really love your art, it’s absolutely stunning and I love the way you paint and capture anatomy. I know this is a bit of a broad question but I was wondering if you had any tips on getting better at painting digitally and studying anatomy, maybe more specifically blending, colour picking, and structuring anatomy in a way that looks somewhat realistic?

Thanks and I'm glad you enjoy my work long enough to be following me for this long! I definitely love drawing a naked body that's for sure haha. In terms of tips for getting better there's a few things I can mention but it's going to fall broadly in the general answer of "study", because this is the most sure fire way to be able to understand what it is you're trying to emulate in your art. There are different ways to study, and they teach something slightly different. For example, doing studies from life (live drawing classes) help me understand movement in a way studying from a photograph cant, simply because you're seeing the same model in different poses in real time, you can see how the fat and muscle moves around as they shift to different positions. So they're not technically moving the whole time, but you're still seeing some movement there, and understanding what sticks to what while it rotates and bends. Studying from photographs can help give you time to do some real deep dives and investigate where different bones/muscles sit while someone is in a particular position. There's also the opportunity for understanding how shadows may be formed by the body as typically photographers are more conscious of how the subject may be lit than what may be available in a live drawing class. Beware though, as more things are photoshopped than you realise, not all photos represent reality. Especially glam and fashion photos. It doesn't mean its bad to want to have these effects on your work but just be conscious they might not always be anatomy accurate if that's what you're striving for. I sometimes make a conscious decision to go against what is anatomically correct for a certain effect myself. A book I have been recommending for years for anatomy is Dr. Paul RIcher's "Artistic Anatomy". It's great for understanding muscle structure intimately - it's designed specifically for artists, but with the idea of trying to stylise the diagrams as little as possible for the sake of understanding the human form. There's a lot of great info and detail in here, but beware, there is not a lot of variety in body structure (at least not in the edition I have which is missing female anatomy I think already so I'm not sure what else I don't have in here). So you'll be able to understand function a lot from here but you wont be able to learn a lot about fatter body types sadly.

Colour picking is probably the most difficult for me to explain easily, as I have spent a long time winging it, then studying it, then being really experimental with it. I could write a lot a lot about this but to spare making this post any longer I'll refer to another fun book just for getting started on some frequent and common terms called "Color and Light" by James Gurney.

I also love that he uses like, dinosaurs for everything in here lol. It's a great starting point that can give you some go to ideas that you can then experiment from there. It's not very authoritarian (or at least that's what I feel), and doesn't push anything forward as a hard and fast rule, just showing what affects some colour combinations might instil in someone.

As a whole, I've gotten better at painting digitally by studying traditional painting techniques. They theories are basically transferrable one to one with some few exceptions. I tend to blend my colours by simply using a soft round brush in Photoshop with a low opacity. Much the same way I would with a real canvas, with a large round brush and diluted colour. I hope this answers your questions in some way. I tried to be not too specific only because this answer would be at least another 30k words lol because this is something i think a lot about! I love technique! If I ever stream again, feel free to pop in and ask more questions where I might be able to show some stuff in real time! Not sure when that will happen though!

Also the way i do stuff isn't a "correct" way either. I like painting from imagination so this is how I make that work. Some people like to only work with references for every piece, and that is a completely legit way to create stunning art as well. Good luck!

[kokoasci]

Hi!! I know it's a terribly basic question, but what brushes do you use? How do you choose and achieve those textures?

hiya!! no problem at all i'd be happy to explain!! welcome to:

KOKO'S CRASH COURSE IN TEXTURES !!

(she has no idea what she's doing)

first off brushes!! i just yoinked this from another ask but these are the main brushes i use! Most importantly is the Old Beach brush, which is what i use for flat colors and to add lighting. Hard airbrush I use to add shadows and those pink/white highlights, and the soft airbrush is to add gradients and light overlays.

Most of the kind of like rough texture you see in my art comes from a bunch of textured brushes like old beach. I've also used stuff like Matt's 5.2 Painting brushes for procreate to add lighting sometimes, but it doesnt really matter as long as you've got some sort of grainy watercolor-ish brush. usually i stick with the three above though for main coloring :>

After I'm done adding shadows and lighting, whatever, I'll add a bunch of light yellow/orange/pink soft light overlays on top using the old beach brush as well. it helps w/ creating a really grainy feel in places that you usually don't see that, especially directly lit areas.

i also like to experiment with pattern brushes near the end so that textures look and feel different depending on what you're looking at. below is a breakdown of some stuff in my recent post:

i like to add dot patterns and color pick from surrounding colors to make strands of hair, lighting/shadow edges, and especially clothes feel more 3D. I'll usually add these to more shadowed places, and instead for places where light directly hits use hard highlights so that it gives it a glossy feel (so more texture on shadows, glossy on lit areas. i think that's why a lot of people say it looks crystallized, bc of that mix of different finishes)

i also HATE using curved lines in my art which is why most lines are pretty rigid (Very evident above). But ahaha!! when I'm adding shadows and lighting, I add these in curved or soft shaped lines, which provides a great contrast to how blocky the lineart is (see: sigma's lil nose above. the lighting is circular, although the rest of the face is pretty angular!! definitely helps with achieving texture/3D look to a piece)

sorry if this is long. every piece i do is really experimental and although i have a general process, i mostly just play around with different stuff every time :D i'm completely self taught so i can't speak on if this is "correct" or whatever, but this is just stuff i've picked up so im happy to share it!! and have fun with it!! art should be fun and satisfying fr

thanks a bunch for asking!! <3

[onegianthotmess]

Ikemen Vampire Rants:

💃If the Suitors Turned Into Women💃

If you haven’t seen part One of this rant, I suggest you read it for more of an explication on how this multi-part rant is formatted.

This is part three, which means the next three suitors in this rant are Dazai, Isaac, and Jean! And I’m very sorry this part took so long, it just got pushed to the back due to a couple of other things!

Also, I will be using myself (Amelia; looks like Uraraka from MHA but with peach colored eyes, fluffy and curvy figure, and is between 5’9-5’10 in height) as an insert for the MC and as the one who helps the suitors through their strange experience.

Faust needed a few test subjects for his new experimental elixir, and naturally he first moved to put it into Charles’s and Vlad’s dinner. But, by some inexplicable reason, a few vials of the elixir somehow made their way to le Comte’s mansion and ended up in the residents’s dinner. Let’s see how this plays out, shall we???

Dazai Osamu

Dazai woke up feeling more or less the same

He got up and went to get his clothes for the day and-

Oh.

He had breasts and shoulder length hair now

. . .

Meh, it’s not that big a deal!

Dazai simply got dressed in his usual attire before making his way to Amelia’s room for help with his hair since he didn’t have anything to help him untangle long hair

And Amelia screamed when a now woman Dazai climbed into her room through the window as she was about to leave to go and help Sebastian with breakfast

“Toshiko-san! Would you be so kind as to help me with untangling my hair, please?”

Amelia stared at the author before sighing and telling Dazai to sit down at her vanity, which he did after giving her a smile and a “thank you”

And after Amelia brushed out Dazai’s hair, which was somehow softer than silk, she grabbed the author by the wrist and made him use the door to her room to leave because she was still shaken from him breaking into her room

And the rest of the day went on

Dazai gave zero explanation to anyone’s questions and just talked with Arthur and teased Isaac all through breakfast

Nothing really happened throughout the day and everyone was just going with it because Dazai wouldn’t give a straight answer anyway

When Dazai woke up the next day, he climbed into Amelia’s room through the window, thanked her for helping him yesterday, and climbed back out of the window leaving a very sleepy and confused Amelia behind

Isaac Newton

Isaac woke up and immediately went back to tinkering with a little gadget he was dissecting last night, not even noticing his longer hair or body

Since this was a somewhat regular occurrence, Amelia brought him his breakfast along with a small bottle of Rouge for him and only noticed what had happened to Isaac when she sat the try of food down

His body and face were now that of a woman’s, with a petite hourglass shape and a soft baby face that made him look even cuter than before

And his hair was now down to his chin in a sort of “bob” haircut

Pretty much, Isaac was the cutest woman Amelia had ever seen in her life

Feeling eyes on him, Isaac looked up to see Amelia staring at him

“Do you need somethi-”

Isaac stopped mid sentence when he actually listened to the sound of his voice

It was softer and lighter than normal, and much sweeter sounding than it had ever been

Amelia had to hold back a squeal from just how cute Isaac was as he now noticed his hair and body had changed overnight

And when Isaac was turning red and beginning to panic, Amelia quickly told him that she’d be right back with a few things to help him

And seeing no other options, the professor just nodded and sat in his room uncomfortably stiff and nervous due to his new body

After a few minutes, Amelia returned with a bag and began to help Isaac

The top undergarment had to be improvised due to the difference in chest size, but once that was done it was just simply a matter of getting Isaac’s pants to fit nicely around his slightly slimmer waist

He stayed more or less the same size, if a little smaller than before, so his clothes were just the tiniest bit loose on him

And after Amelia helped him, Isaac asked to just stay in his room the entire day and Amelia said she’d bring him food and a few books if he’d like

And so Isaac stayed in his room, tinkering away at dissected gadgets with Amelia bringing him his meals and chasing off Dazai and Arthur away from the awkward man’s room

At one point, Isaac actually heard both Arthur and Dazai being chased of by Amelia beating them both with a broom…

When Isaac woke up back to normal the next day, he awkwardly thanked Amelia in private, which Arthur walked in on and he began teasing Isaac, which made Amelia chase him off with a broom because she’s Isaac’s overprotective older sister/mom friend

Jean d’Arc

Oh, our poor Christian boy…

He looks away from Amelia when she has the tiniest bit of her collarbone showing, so he’d be going insane with embarrassment if he woke up and had a woman’s body

Jean woke up with a slight ache in his back and a heavy feeling on his chest

When he looked down to find he now had breasts, he almost screamed

Well, he started to but then he slapped a hand over his mouth when he heard how feminine his voice now sounded

In short, he was fucking terrified and wondered if what he was seeing was considered a sin or not because it was womanly parts, but it was his body

He was having an internal mental breakdown so bad that he didn’t even notice Amelia come into the room with Rouge and Blanc for him until she asked him what happened

When Jean spoke out of the instinct to immediately respond, he slapped his hand over his mouth again at the sound of his voice

The poor boy’s brain still needs to process what is happening-

Jean was still freaking out and barely registered Amelia speaking before she left and quickly returned to his room with a bag

Essentially, Amelia had to dress Jean as he just sat there blankly as his mind slowly processed and came to terms with what had happened to him

So it was just Jean sitting there blankly while Amelia cursed under her breath as she laced up one of her corsets around Jean’s now feminine body

And it wasn’t until Amelia started to brush through Jean’s now waist length hair that Jean slowly started to come out of his processing of the current situation he was in and he actually started talking with Amelia as she put up his hair in a simple ponytail

Jean was very confused at the entire situation, but he was especially confused at the new proportions and feelings of his body

Did all women have a bit of plush around their hips and thighs? Did all women have back pains from their breasts? Did he get shorter? How did he get shorter? How could people live at such small heights as he’d seen in town?

He’d have been in his head all day if Amelia didn’t ask him if he wanted to go to breakfast

Jean said he wouldn’t mind going to breakfast, since he’d planned on going and spending his day with Cherie since Amelia told him that he couldn’t spend every moment of his free time studying or sparing with Napoleon

So Jean went down to breakfast with Amelia and witnessed a variety of reactions

Mozart was semi-freaking out, Vincent complimented Jean and said he looked very beautiful, Arthur tried to get flirty but that was put down by a sword to his throat, Dazai attempted to tease Jean but was met with his usual adorable denseness, Comte also complimented Jean but was ignored, Sebastian almost called Jean “Joan” which was funny, and everyone else was either silently confused or didn’t really care

After breakfast, Jean went outside to spend his time with Cherie

He played with her and fed her and eventually ended up spending a good chunk of his afternoon with Napoleon, who was also outside with his pet eagle, Jupiter

Jean actually ended up taking a nap with Cherie outside and Vincent and Amelia saw this while they were looking for a place to set up Vincent’s painting supplies

So Vincent decided to paint Jean napping with Cherie, until both Jean and Cherie woke up that is

Jean felt a bit uncomfortable, so he picked up Cherie and said a polite goodbye before leaving

And then the rest of his day was spent in his room after he put Cherie back in her pen outside with some food and headpats

The next day when Jean woke up normal, he was very relieved

He didn’t want to live another day as a woman because one, it felt strange and like it went against specific moral principles he had, and two, having breasts meant big back pains

Later during the day, Jean thanked Amelia for her helped and became genuinely concerned for her back now that he knew having breasts meant back pains

All he got was a hug from Amelia because he was being “adorable” in her words

And about a week later, Vincent gave Jean the finished painting of Jean as a woman taking a nap with Cherie

And Jean hung it above his bed because it was a very beautiful painting and he didn’t have any pictures of his beloved tiger yet

Someone draw woman!Jean napping with Cherie, I BEG YOU-!!!

And that’s part three done! Again, I apologize for how long this took, it just got pushed to the back with other projects! I hope you enjoyed and that you’re looking forward to the fourth part, which will be Will, Comte, and Sebastian!

[sw33tsuccubus]

Seriously?

party poison x male reader

desc: Korse missed. Y/k/n takes in a certain redhead.

genre: fluff? comfort?

word count: 1.3k

A/N: when i say ‘Korse missed’, i want to say a stray shot hit him and caused him to pull the trigger, and he went to fight. with Party on the ground, unconscious, people assumed they died.

They didn’t know where they were. There was a smell in the air, kind of like burning. What was burning? They didn’t know. They knew their head was pounding and they desperately needed water. They sat up, groaning, only to gasp in horror.

A male with blonde hair lay not too far from them. Oh no. That was their brother.

Party stood with a gasp, hurrying to him. They collapsed halfway there, pulling his brother to them. Kobra’s body was decorated with different wounds. They must have shot him multiple times before he went down.

They staggered away from him, holding in cries of anguish. They stumbled towards the door, just to find their brother’s best friend, Ghoul.

They clamped a hand to their face, trying not to throw up. The doors are flung open as they hurry outside. There’s a Trans Am with a spider painted onto the hood.

Party stumbles to the car. They aren’t sure why they can’t walk. Maybe they hit their head real hard. They head to the drivers seat, only to be met with a man with curly hair laying there, most likely dead. They didn’t need to investigate to know it was their best friend. It had to be, with their other friends inside.

They staggered away from the Am, deciding to walk somewhere. It was really hot, and they had just woken up. This wasn’t doing any good for their mind. They tripped and fell, hitting their head. Right before they passed out, they smiled. They could be with their brother.

~~~

Their eyes fluttered open in a room. There were art supplies everywhere, as well as comic books and random cans and wrappers. No way this was the afterlife.

They took a ragged breath, standing from the mattress they were on. They groaned as their vision went blank, and they quickly leaned against the wall. They took a few deep breaths before standing straight.

They looked around the room, taking in their surroundings. There were a few rusty screws and daggers, but they weren’t sure why the owner hadn’t thrown them away. Some gun polish, tons of paints, tons of paintbrushes. Experimentally, they opened some drawers.

Colorful makeup and clothes lay in the drawers, set with some whites and blacks as well. They decided they would have to try some of it out, given that the person who brought them here wouldn't harm or kill them.

Would dying be so bad, though? They would be reunited with their baby brother, their best friend, and the one they couldn’t help but say they probably had a small crush on.

Shaking their head, they pulled out some clothes. A simple loose tank top and loose shorts; they weren’t fancy, there was no reason for the mysterious person to be mad at them.

They quickly changed and discarded their usual outfit near the bed, pushing the clothes into the corner. They ruffled their hair, running their fingers through it; it was very knotty. They hissed as they used their fingers to brush through it and pull the knots apart. It wasn’t ideal, but it worked.

Upon hearing footsteps, they nervously walked over to the mattress and sat down. Their eyes stared intently at the doorway as a shadow crept up, and-

This had to be the prettiest person Party had ever seen. Their breath caught in their throat and they felt a blush creep onto their cheeks. Embarrassed, they clear their throat. Their voice was raspy from not using it for multiple days, although the man could hear his voice was deep, yet soft.

“Hi? Who are you?”

The man smiled warmly at Party, and their cheeks felt like they were burning. He was beautiful.

“I’m Y/k/n. I found you on the side of the road, are you okay? What happened?”

Y/k/n walked over, cupping the side of Party’s face. He gently turns their head, inspecting for damage. He seemed to not find anything, and gently released Party.

Party didn’t know if they should trust Y/k/n. They had just met. But they needed someone to talk to, and he seemed to be all they would get.

“They- they killed my brother and our friends. I barely made it out.”

Y/k/n’s face softened, and he let out a small huff.

“Sorry to hear that. I hope you don’t feel guilty. I’m sure you could have died too. You know what happened?”

“Someone - his name is Korse, he’s an exterminator - was gonna shoot me. And then he got distracted, and he dropped me. I hit my head pretty hard, and I’m assuming I was knocked out. I woke up alone, with dead bodies all around.”

“Oh, that’s horrifying.”

His look of sympathy made them want to hug him and cry. Party desperately wanted to be told everything was okay, even though they weren’t sure it ever could be again.

With the war in their mind going on, they hesitantly opened their arms. Y/k/n obliged, pulling Party to his chest. Party’s head slumped against Y/k/n’s shoulder, and they squeezed their eyes shut. They felt tears prick at their eyes, but they wouldn’t cry. They had just met Y/k/n, and they didn’t wanna make a bad first impression.

“Anything I can do to get your mind off of it?”

Party thought for a moment, before shaking their head. They would settle for being held, even if neither of them said anything.

After a few minutes, Y/k/n sent a hand carding through their hair. He got stuck a few times, but pulled out rather than yanking at the knots. It was actually quite calming, especially when he began putting pressure in some spots. Party could feel themselves drifting off, comfortable for the first time in a long time..

~~~

Party awoke alone again.

They would have thought it was all a dream, if not for their surroundings. They slowly stood, and made their way out of the room. They took in their surroundings; a lot of clutter on the floors, although pushed to all of the walls. The place wasn’t very big; it was maybe a cabin. They doubted being in the woods, though.

There was a big room, filled with all sorts of wanted posters, juice cans, bloody clothes, random markers and pens, and sand glazing over everything. It was kind of rough. They could tell Y/k/n had been alone for a while.

They decided to leave the room, feeling sad all of a sudden. It reminded them plenty of the diner, hell, even of the motel. If they ever moved on, it wouldn’t be any time close to now.

The next room was much more bearable. A card table and a few folding chairs, two missing their backs, like they had been broken off. Cooking materials and kitchenware were present, which was interesting. The wall was painted an odd coral color, and where there were chips, it was mint. Ugly, but comforting. Like a home.

They hummed, walking to the cabinets. They managed to get a granola bar. After observing the kitchen and munching on their snack, they came to the conclusion that Y/k/n didn’t eat Power Pup. An escape of something they hated was great. Wouldn’t bring any memories either.

They put the wrapper in a box on the counter that seemed like the trashcan, doing some more exploring. There was the bathroom, which interestingly had a running toilet and shower. Even the sink worked - he assumed it was a special system, or they were close to the city. The latter was probably more truthful, but they were both options to be considered.

The next room was mostly empty. There was a small stack of blankets in the corner, two boxes next to them, and that was it. Strange.

The last room had a mattress and living conditions; had to be Y/k/n’s room. Now that Party thought about it, they hadn’t seen him all day. They were slightly worried, so they went to the kitchen room and sat at the card table on one of the chairs. They stared patiently at the door, waiting for Y/k/n to come back safe.

It was unnatural, really. They had only known him for a day. Maybe they cared because he was another human being. They had just lost three people close to them, after all.

The moment the door opened, Party stood and marched over to it. Y/k/n entered, goggles pulled over his eyes and sand in his hair. Party grabbed his shoulders and gently shook him.

“Where did you go? Why didn’t you tell me? Are you okay?”

Y/k/n reached out his hands and grabbed Party’s face, squishing their cheeks together.

“I went for a little walk. Possibly about a mile and a half, making it 3 miles as a walk. You were asleep, didn’t wanna wake you, and I’m fine. Are you okay?”

Y/k/n let go of Party, and they hesitantly returned the action. They settled for following him as he walked to his room, and he gave them an uneasy look upon appearing at the door.

“You sure you wanna come in? It’s kind of messy.”

“As if the rest of this place isn’t?”

Party rested a hand on their hip and cocked an eyebrow, and Y/k/n grinned.

“Fair point, come on.”

Y/k/n entered, Party right behind him. They plopped onto the mattress, and Party looked around. A few posters on the walls, and a lot of boxes that seemed to have stuff in them.

“What’s in the boxes?”

It slipped out before they knew what they were saying, and they paused. Y/k/n looked at Party, then back to a poster on his wall.

“Those boxes are filled with memories. I won’t elaborate.”

Party nodded respectfully. They wouldn’t intrude.

“Up for doing something today?”

Y/k/n thought about it for a moment.

“You want to do something? With me?”

He gave them a teasing smile, and then made a small ‘hm’ sound. As long as he wasn’t looking, they wouldn’t see their pink cheeks.

“You ever been stargazing before?”

“Isn’t that touchy-feely? For couples?”

“You want us to be one?”

With Y/k/n’s pressing, Party’s face almost became as red as their hair. They quickly shook their head, afraid of the stuttering that might come out of their mouth.

“I was jokin’, don’t worry. You still up for it, though? I find it relaxing.”

Party thought for a moment, and then nodded. Jet had tried to show the other three the stars once. The night ended with Fun having a sprained wrist and a black eye, Kobra delirious from laughter, and Jet yelling at everyone to be careful if they want to survive. Party had been chuckling and helping Fun back to his room, reminding him to be careful. Fun had groaned that Jet and Party were no fun, but he still knew the two cared about them.

~~~

That night, Party joined Y/k/n outside. He had set up two folding chairs and some blankets so they could sit comfortably while looking at the stars. The two sat side by side, in comfortable silence for about half an hour.

“I haven’t known you long, but I feel like I like you a lot.”

Y/k/n hums at Party’s comment, turning to look at him. He smiles softly, turning his attention back to the sky.

“Same to you. You seem very nice.”

They fall back into silence, watching the stars. This time, they don’t break the silence, finding constellations on their own and enjoying each others’ presence.

At some point, Party turned to look at Y/k/n to make sure he was still there. He had fallen asleep. His chest rose and fell with each breath, and they found it was quite cute.

Party smiled softly, doing their best to not disturb Y/k/n as they picked him up and carried him inside. They lay him on his mattress, going back outside and bringing their mini set-up back in. The two could deal with that in the morning. In the meantime, they headed back to their room and plopped onto their mattress comfortably.

~~~

Y/k/n groaned, stretching himself. He had been working all day to clean the base, after Party made an off-handed comment about how messy it was. Hopefully they liked it.

He had sent Party out to get some food while they worked, so it would actually be a surprise. He thought he did a pretty good job, so it was all up to Party’s reaction.

When the red-head returned, they were slightly shocked by everything being clean. They put the food in the kitchen area and looked around, finding Y/k/n taking a nap on his mattress.

They decided not to disturb him and to only mention how nice it was later.

~~~

“You know..”

Y/k/n looked at Party when they spoke, raising an eyebrow.

“I’m glad you found me. I really like your company.”

Y/k/n smiled softly.

“I like your company too.”

Party shifted, slinging an around around Y/k/n’s shoulders.

“I hope I don’t make you uncomfortable by saying this, but I like-like you. If you know what I mean.”

Y/k/n raised an eyebrow and looked at Party, whose cheeks were pink. He let out a small chuckle.

“Never thought I would hear an adult say ‘like-like.’”

“Shut up.”

Party turned their head, so Y/k/n opted to place his head on their shoulder. They tensed up for a moment, but relaxed after a few seconds.

“I like-like you too, Party.”

Y/k/n said with a giggle.

“Seriously?”

“Seriously.”

Party looked to the stars, not being able to bite back a grin. They hoped their friends were happy for them.

[petorahs]

Hi! Hope you're doing well. I really like the way your art looks, and wanted to ask if you have any advice on how to stop the endless ctrl+Zing that happens when you're doing lineart? (Was gonna post a gif showing it but it won't let me send links in asks) -- Have a good one o/

hey! i'm very glad to hear you like my art and even more that you'd ask for my advice! :D

me and lineart go waaay back... that is to say i liked doing it more than any other thing in the art process. i hate coloring and still do. lineart my beloved... but also, these days as my art evolved i stopped doing actual ""Clean"" lineart anymore. what you see in my more recent works are essentially the first and only "line draft" or sketch layer so to speak? i just spend a lot of time refining it. and this is how i do that:

duplicate + merge layers to achieve your desired lineweight and erase as needed!

also important to note is as much as i talk about drawing/lining/sketching on a single layer... if the drawing isnt working i will just do it the "traditional" way and make a whole new layer and start from there :0 if that is your preferred way then set the sketch to 10-15% opacity max... makes it so the finished lineart wont look "worse than the sketch"...!!

what else... hm i feel like my lineart game changed when i found a brush i liked. i currently use derwent, a default procreate brush under 'pencils' i think? to get that sketchy yet yummy thin at the end look. but i also change my brushes every time i feel like im in a 'slump'. experimentation is key! get curious and curiouser on what u can achieve with different mediums.

additionally, if you're looking for advice on achieving "line confidence" (like lack of ctrl+z-ing your problems away) then thats a whole other thing. what i find to have best helped me is essentially just doing what this video tells u to and profitting!! i realized ive been doing it for years as a kid just emulating my fav fanarts and yeah. ofc there's more i can say but this is getting long enough, feel free to shoot another ask and i can expand!

as always with art though, feel free to also break these rules as you see fit! :D have fun

[artofloof]

BYF/Intro post!!!!!!!!!!!!! (super long sorry)

☆

Hiiiiiiii!!!!! I'm Laura or Floof. I draw silly synth people and funny looking skeletons

"Can I use your art for (blank)?" Read this page first.

The button below is the gate to the legendary post. >Hey um Joku...

RECENT ART THAT I REALLY WANT YOU TO LOOK AT!!!! (experimental) >Teto :) <3

BLOG INFO

☆Reposts of my artwork are strictly forbidden.

☆My current fandoms are UTAU/vipperloids and UTMV (Sans AUs)

☆Recommended 15+ if you're gonna interact! Here's why: --->I swear. a LOT. --->I sometimes post art with suggestive themes or lots of skin showing. These are always tagged! I do not post NSFW. --->I don't censor anything Be responsible!

☆I'm ALWAYS open to asks!!! I have tons of AUs and character headcanons that I would love to talk about. No pressure, but... easy way to get me clipped in the floor like a broken NPC going "YIPPEE! YIPPEE!" /hj

☆NO posting schedule. And also I post whatever I want. It's the wild west out here 🦅

TAGGING SYSTEM

THIS IS GETTING LONG SORRY. SPEEDRUN:

>BLACKLIST TAGS: -I use #eyestrain, #flashing colors, and #flashing lights to tag seizure/headache-inducing content. If you find a post like this on my blog and it's not tagged, PLEASE TELL ME!!! Sometimes I don't know what is triggering and what isn't!!! -#suggestive for posts with sexual themes or lots of skin showing. There is no NSFW on my blog. May also use #nudity and/or #partial nudity in the future -#long post for posts that eat the space on your screen (like this one...)

>SORTING TAGS: -#Laurart is my art tag! -#Laurtalks for text posts -#Laurtunes music?!??! no way -#Laura's creations for my AUs and character designs -To group art by character, use #(their first name)! I don't always tag posts consistently, so this is an easy way to find art of them -#shitpost is a busy place -#not utmv exists because most people follow me for sans au content lmao (this tag is no longer in use) -#reblog is self explanatory and #other people's posts is anything that's not mine

Okay got that? Cool. Swag and poggers. More about me as a person below the cut

☆☆ MEEEE ☆☆

TIME FOR ME TO GO INSANE okay yippee

-My favorite aspect of art is COLOR THEORY - you might notice I'm crazy for complimentary color schemes, and they're something I purposefully shove into most of my artwork. I also love character design but it doesn't take a detective to see my painful lack of OCs

-I use FireAlpaca and some edited default brushes

-MY FAVORITE AU SANS IS DREAM and my favorite vocal synth is Ritsu Namine :)))) second favs are Killer and Ruko Yokune 💖

-very normal about Dreamtale. promise. I'm even MORE normal about the Shattered Dreams AU. PROMISE.

-I like to read "bad" fanfiction for shits and giggles. This eventually culminated into THE SECOND BIBLE, which I wrote with my friend @artobsessedloser: Bloody Love (you should read it)

-Biggest art weakness right now is my inability to draw characters consistently :( but we're getting there gamers!!! yeaaah!!!!

-Super picky about shipping. Currently I only have ships I like in the utmv fandom, here they are: Driller (Dream Sans + Killer Sans) Crossmare (Cross Sans + Nightmare Sans) Sheam (Dream Sans + Shattered Dream) Dreamberry (Dream Sans + Swap Sans)

-Labeling myself the founder of missile boob mondays before anyone else does 💥 /lh (we love Ritsu a lot on this blog)

-i like women

-more TBA because we all know this section is never truly finished

☆

[bsd-cherish-official]

BSD: Cherish Second Anniversary Interview

On September 21st, the second anniversary of the fanfic, Bungou Stray Dogs: Cherish, a post was made on this account by myself, its author and first artist, @linklethehistorian, stating that in celebration of the big milestone, I would be running a poll-based interview consisting of 10 polls with five questions each — which fans of the fic could vote on and have the most popular questions in each poll to be answered at the end of the voting period.

This is the result of those polls, and my responses to the winning questions that were determined therein.

Full interview below the cut for minor Cherish spoilers. Proceed on to read.

Q: Why did you choose to have four different artstyles used throughout the fic?

A: Well, in the beginning, you know, for the first…almost a year or so, I didn’t really have a co-artist on the project with me; it was just me, myself and I that was working on Cherish alone, and I knew from the very beginning that I wanted to have artwork for — and included in — the fic, so in that first year-ish that it existed, I basically just had to make do with using my own artstyle that was based on the BSD anime.

So, you already have that going on, and I was pretty happy with that, but the truth is that from the beginning, I’d always really wanted to have at least some of the art — especially the cover art I’d sketched up years and years back — resemble the actual official art from Harukawa-sensei in the BSD  manga and light novels. After about a year of procrastinating and overthinking everything about it, I finally worked up the courage to ask my friend, Asachuu, who was not only a fan of the story but also had a very lovely artstyle and was very good at recreating the look I wanted, if it would be possible for us to collab on a piece, and sent the old sketch for the cover, and from there things kind of just…took off. Pretty soon, one single collab had very happily turned into me suddenly having a dedicated co-artist who could contribute some absolutely beautiful BSD manga-reminiscent artworks for certain chapters.

Then, after the Storm Bringer Stage Play had come out, I ended up extremely inspired by a lot of the very cute and lighthearted official chibi artworks and merch that sprung up from it, and thus, by the end of last year, I ultimately wound up endeavoring to create some chibi artwork of my own for Cherish; originally, this was not intended to be any sort of long-term staple for the story, as I expected it would just be a one-and-done thing to surprise fans with during the holidays, but…as I’m sure most of you have seen, after discovering how fairly quick and easy yet still adorable the end result was, I made the choice to continue with that style of art for all of our little celebrations, events, and milestones. 

Lastly, those little chibi drawings also unintentionally came to invent a brand-new style of coloration in regards to my methods, which resulted in the final type of my artwork that you see involving Cherish — a sort of lighter, softer way of coloring that results in an almost crayon-like effect. This was initially a complete accident, as it was nothing more than me using a random brush for the first colored sketch of the holiday 2022 piece, but after some experimentation with keeping it for the finished work, I found that I really liked it quite a lot and later began using it for more than just the chibi-style artworks, as it brought a certain warmth and light-heartedness to the scenes, and reminded me a tiny bit of this one still image from the first season of the BSD anime:

And so, there you have it! Although the gorgeous manga-reminiscent style of my co-artist may be the well-known face of the fic in a lot of ways given that our collaborations are reserved for and make up the bulk of many of the most intense or important scenes and chapters of the story, every artstyle that is involved with Cherish’s official art has its own special and equally important part to play therein.

Asachuu’s manga-like style lends a certain extra feeling of authenticity to Cherish as having its place among the other BSD light novels, and presents certain scenes and chapters in a uniquely stunning form, and with extra attention to detail that likely wouldn’t otherwise be possible.

The more typical BSD anime artstyle that is my usual signature, with its fuller and more official-looking coloring technique, is used to depict the rest of the darker, more somber-toned scenes that do not receive the previous treatment; this, I feel, not only properly represents the anime artstyle in some form as I had wanted to begin with, but also brings forth a sadder, more down-to-earth aspect than its lighter and fluffier, almost crayon-like colored counterpart, which is conversely used to evoke the happier, more heartwarming moments and emotions within the fic.

And, of course, the chibi artstyle allows me to make much more quick, cute, and mostly much less serious little drawings to share with my friends and fans of the story, easily celebrate special events and milestones, and express my endless gratitude toward Cherish’s continued support. 💖

Q: Who are your least and most favorite characters to write for in the fic?

A: Oh, this is kind of a tough one. I actually wouldn’t say I genuinely dislike writing for any of the characters that have appeared in Cherish thus far, but I guess if I had to pick one that I liked dealing with a little less than the rest, that would have to be Ango; it’s not that he’s a bad character by any means, and I honestly like him in BSD quite a fair bit, it’s simply that he’s the most…I guess you could say “ordinary” or “stiff”…out of the group, in terms of outward personality — at least, under the circumstances in which he was introduced and presented up until now. 

“He was still pleasant to write and there was a moment or two there that was a little fun to do, he just didn’t really have the chance to truly show off the more intricate parts of his soul in that scene”, is I guess how I’d put it.

As for most favorite, that’s a bit harder to pin down. haha I like all of the main cast in different ways. 

Obviously, I’m very, very fond of both Arthurs; not only do I just really love both of their personalities and find them both super interesting, but I also relate to them both in a lot of different ways, and the subjects that often get tackled with their scenes, dialogue, and thoughts are all very important matters to me that I treat with a lot of personal care, respect, and passion, so it would be very hard for me to say that those two aren’t one of the absolute main highlights of writing Cherish to begin with.

At the same time, though, also really into writing for Chuuya and Paul — especially when they’re interacting with each other, because of how perfectly their polar opposite personalities, apparent outlooks, and ways of communicating their feelings play off of each other, though definitely not exclusively there, either. I really just find them fun, well-written, and fascinating to explore in general, too.

And then of course there’s Mori. I guess if we had to talk about pure novelty and entertainment value alone when it comes to writing, then he would have to be the top pick for the most fun and smooth experience overall, since his ability to change from cheerful to chilling on a dime, like the simple flip of a light switch — or even accomplish both at the same time, without even doing anything explicitly threatening at all — is a uniquely cool concept and character trait to play with. 

I don’t know, to be honest, I just think they’re all super neat in their own ways.

Q: Are there any outfits you really want to draw someone in, in a future artwork?

A: Oh God, you have no idea how many, but yes; I have a lot of planned outfits for the future that I want to draw and release some proper Cherish art for, and some that I really already have done and just haven’t been able to share with all of you because it is spoilery.

I think two outfits in particular I’d really like to draw in a full-on chapter artwork, though, are the outfit Arthur was wearing to the restaurant in Chapter 10, and then the cute little casual number Chuuya was wearing in Chapter 11. You can actually see both of those in the Valentine’s and White Day chibi artworks I’ve made for this year, but I consider those to be a little bit different from drawing it in a more properly proportioned piece…

Q: Are there any minor plotholes you’ve had to go back and fix that nobody noticed?

A: Well, technically, yes — if memory serves, at least; I mean, I believe the day that I released Chapter 10, I had left in one instance in which Mori called Paul “Verlaine-kun” right there in front of Arthur, despite that the doctor himself had been the one to insist that he use an alias, and I think I then had to go back and fix that retroactively so that he called him “Marion-kun” instead. 

Granted, they were both speaking Japanese to begin with, so it’s not totally impossible that Arthur wouldn’t have picked up on what Mori was calling him, but…yeah, to be honest, I think that’s one thing that both Mori wouldn’t risk and Arthur wouldn’t so easily overlook or fail to hear.

Other than that…well, this isn’t technically a plothole or anything because it did have a reason from the start — it’s more just a case of something not having been elaborated on as much as I’d like — but there’s currently a scene in Chapter 6 where Rimbaud, in a fit of frustration and emotion, goes off to Paul about how no one back home was worth returning to or would even really miss him if he died or disappeared, and he references his past lover fairly clearly as having been a man.

The possible “problem” that I think there’s potential for someone to take away from this moment is that later on, Arthur acts deeply worried about Paul finding this fact out and being severely discriminatory or cruel to him as most people in his original time were about such things and refusing to continue being there for him or even helping him as a result — thereby possibly making it seem like I’d forgotten that Arthur had had this outburst.

That isn’t really the case, though; moreso, it was originally intended for there to be a scene at some point where Arthur would reflect back on what he had said and inwardly question why Paul had continued to be so kind to him despite knowing that he had been involved with a man, ultimately deciding that it was likely that Verlaine didn’t really pay attention or give enough thought to all of the finer details of all of what he was rambling on about back then, in the heat of the moment, too focused on calming the teen down to be bothered with picking apart every statement he’d made — as Arthur himself simply couldn’t imagine he’d have been lucky enough, on top of all the other ‘highly fortunate’ circumstances he’d landed in, to have also just so happened to find someone who would be that ‘absurdly’ willing to overlook his orientation. (It’s not like he could have imagined that Paul simply wouldn’t think anything of it at all — which was actually the case…)

Unfortunately, I forgot to put that dialogue in, so at present, it kind of just has to be inferred by the reader… I do have plans to go back at some point before the start of the next arc and add this in, in some manner, but thankfully no one so far seems to have cared that this wasn’t explicitly explained, so I’m glad of that, at least.

And if you have wondered…well, I guess you have the answer for now. Sorry it’s not explicitly in the fic at the moment, but hopefully it will be quite soon.

Q: Is there anything you’re afraid you might have been TOO subtle about?

A: Well…yes. I’m going to put up a disclaimer here and now that the response to this question could not only be potentially triggering for some people who have experienced certain types of trauma, but also is kind of NSFW, so…if either of those things might be a problem for you for any reason, you may want to skip over this question.

We alright? Have you decided whether you wanted to keep reading this or not?

Okay. Let’s get into it, then.

So…while I don’t exactly want to say there isn’t plenty of room or time or even plans to perhaps go into it more deeply later, since there definitely is and I most likely will in some manner, given that it is my first time delving into such topics, I do wonder now and again if some of the dark implications made in Chapter 7, Chapter 8, and Chapter 13 — namely, that Arthur had been through multiple cases of extreme sexual trauma, in addition to the other emotional and physical traumas he had endured throughout his life — were altogether too cryptic to have been picked up on by the average reader at present. 

I did intend from the very beginning to be more subtle about the matter in these chapters and only make little references to it in passing where it was immediately relevant and/or was natural to come to mind for Arthur in light of the situation, but I frequently worry if the things that I see as having been decently clear indications towards that end actually were decently clear or not. I suppose it doesn’t matter if they were or not, since that is something that as I said is bound to be more obvious at some point in the future chapters anyway, but it is something I think about nonetheless.

I think that if you were fully familiar with and completely in the current know about the poet Arthur Rimbaud’s life as it unfolded in our world, and especially have kept up with all of the most recent findings, then you might have a slightly better chance at putting two and two together on your own, and in that case I think my words will almost certainly have served their purpose, but for anyone else, I do have some minor concerns that maybe my desire to have been more subtle about it at this stage in the story actually ended up backfiring and making it altogether impossible to assume or even question…

Anyway, that particular heavy subject aside, I often also just in general worry about whether or not I’m coming off clearly enough when it comes to any existing or possible future hints towards anything that is remotely non-traumatically sexual or relating to sexual attraction in nature as a whole, since, as an asexual person who myself doesn’t experience sexual attraction whatsoever, it is a subject matter that on some levels is fairly unnatural to my own personal human experience and sexuality; I don’t think that I’m bad at talking about it by any means, I just don’t know that I’m particularly amazing at it, either.

But yeah, those are…pretty much my only main times when being too subtle might have ever crossed my mind, I think…?

Q: What’s the message you most want people to walk away with after reading Cherish?

A: Good question.

The thing is, I wouldn’t say that I originally created Cherish with any specific message in mind at all; I mean, obviously, there were always going to be heavy themes and topics that I knew it would have to tackle, and there were things that it definitely represented to me on a personal level after it came into being, but back when I first created the headcanons themselves that would eventually become this story, considering that I had absolutely zero plans to share it with anyone at the time, I didn’t really ever consider the idea of it carrying an actual message I wanted to convey.

Even now, I don’t want to define Cherish as this thing that exists solely for the purpose of communicating a particular idea to others, because it isn’t; I’ve known from the very beginning that to some people, this tale is just going to be something they look at and enjoy on a completely surface level — as something that is exactly what it says on the tin and nothing more — and I’m fine with that.

To me, Cherish is both of these things: a story that exists simply for the sake of itself — for the love of its characters, its pairings, and its plot, taken entirely at face value — and something which on a deeper level also represents and carries a great deal of messages and concepts which happen to be very important to me, that I hope other people might see and feel touched by as well.

Given that it does represent more than one thing in my eyes, though, that makes this question a little hard to answer; provided I had the ability to ensure it somehow, I’m really not sure which message I would want everyone to walk away with the most.

I suppose, in the end, if I could only choose one thing, then the message that I would most want my readers to see would depend upon who they themselves are, and what they need to hear most.

As I’ve mentioned in one post before, I would very much like it if some victims of abuse and/or trauma might be able to feel seen and heard by the fic, and maybe even find hope or at least catharsis in reading it. I don’t want to say too much about the matter in this particular interview, as a lot of the commentary I could make beyond that could lead to spoilers for people who would rather not know certain things that will happen or the outcome of them, but I will say that there are many questions and themes in this fic that I would like to believe might strike a comforting note for some people who are going through a lot of uncertainty in their lives, in the aftermath of traumatic and/or abusive experiences.

Likewise, I would hope that for anyone who maybe knows someone who has gone through abuse or trauma but struggles with understanding it, because this story has not only been carefully researched and written about, but also by, someone who has been through certain types of abuse and experienced the lasting effects of trauma, it might be able to help them get a closer look at some of the possible ways those things can present themselves and the things that can potentially go through our heads as a result.

For someone who might be reading this with either a newly budding or already pre-existing interest in the real life Arthur Rimbaud who once lived here in our world, I would like to think that this story — albeit having some minor differences here and there that I will get to in a later question — might show a bit more nuance towards his situation compared to how many other forms of media surrounding the topic (especially, but not limited to, the English ones) tend to present it.

Having spent the many, many years that I have researching his life story in multiple languages and every possible remotely credible source I could find, digging to the bottom to find the absolute truth as best as one can, I have found that in many cases, there is sadly far too much of a focus around sensationalism when it comes to coverage of the individuals and events involved, and far too little of a focus on actually bothering to get all of the facts and the interpersonal dynamics straight in order to present the most accurate and nuanced recounting of history that can humanly be given. 

While I don’t want to get too into it in this little interview, as I’ll probably be making a separate post about it sometime anyway, I will put it out there that it is largely thanks to this failure to share crucial details that for quite a while into my earliest endeavors of research, I myself was led to believe the very much false and yet sadly most widely spread, highly sensationalized narrative that either, at best, both Verlaine and Rimbaud were equally terrible people who were, likewise, equally to blame for what happened between them, or at worst, that Rimbaud was the one to blame almost entirely for Verlaine’s supposed “descent” into a crueler and less respectable person — both of which narratives, by the way, cannot exist without completely ignoring and omitting several key facts that provide much more nuance than most of these various coverages were willing to provide: such as the several extreme power dynamics involved in their relationship coming from Verlaine’s side, the extremely traumatic background that Rimbaud had come from and how that had left him a vulnerable target in numerous ways, and most notably, that Verlaine had a pre-established pattern of alcoholism, extreme abusive tendencies of practically all varieties, homicidal urges, guilt-tripping tactics, and exactly everything else for his entire adult — and to some extent even teenage — life, far prior to meeting Arthur, and also continued on that path for the rest of his life even after their parting, whereas Rimbaud by all accounts prior to their meeting was nothing more than what, by today’s standards, would be considered overall a perfectly normal, if (and understandably so, given his background) troubled, teenager, who would later also go on to be a perfectly normal if somewhat withdrawn, well-adjusted adult once their relationship was over.

My hope, then, in that vein, is to tell this story without shying away from or missing those facts, and in doing so, to hopefully present his life story from an angle that is rarely seen or covered by many of the most popular sources of information out there, allowing people to perhaps step away from the great echo chamber of omissions, sensationalism, and misinformation for a moment and view and understand Arthur from a much more real and human perspective — to see him as a real, feeling, troubled human being who once lived, breathed, loved, struggled, and suffered just like nearly anyone else, rather than some dehumanized, over-exaggerated spectacle spoken of purely to be gawked at and made into a shocking and scandalizing caricature into which only the most extreme of rumors and actions are projected, as is so often sadly the case.

So, uh…yeah, those are my main messages I’d like to get across, I guess. I’d like to return to talking about this more in the future when the fic is complete, since by then I can truly get into the topics more, but for now, there you have it.

…I think at the end of the day, though, what’s most important is that people who need it get from Cherish whatever it is they came for; if there’s a message they really need to hear right then, then I hope they hear it. Sometimes as writers, we see a certain message in our stories and we intend to have that come through, but someone finds an entirely different and equally beautiful one inside it instead — one that we didn’t even intend to be there — and it helps them. I think that’s pretty awesome. 

Q: What chapter are you most/least looking forward to recording for?

A: Well, to be honest with you, despite that by the time of answering this, I’ve already finished what I think will be the final recording for it, Chapter 2 has been a massive bitch to work with from beginning to end — nothing like Chapter 1 — so…yes, that would be the one I was least looking forward to recording out of the thirteen chapters that already exist; I’m honestly relieved it’s over.

I don’t really know how to explain what the problem even was with that one; it’s not a bad chapter by any means, but the first time I recorded it — an impossibly perfect take all the way up to the last third of the fic, by the way — I sadly found out that the audio ended up somehow distorted beyond any repair or salvaging, and ever since then the lines for some reason have just refused to be spoken out loud the same way that they do when I read it in my head. 

As of this moment, I still haven’t listened to that recording more than the few seconds that were necessary to make sure that it took this time, so I don’t even know whether or not I’ll end up completely unsatisfied with the result, but it was really the best that I could do, so whatever the case, I’m stuck with it the way that it is. Let’s just hope it doesn’t totally suck.

There are way too many chapters that I think will be a cool experience to record for me to narrow it down to just one right now, but the closest one that I’m really anticipating is actually Chapter 3; I’ve always been really fond of the whole exchange that happened between Paul and Chuuya there, and I think getting to narrate those lines would be really exciting, since up until now, I haven’t had a great opportunity to get into the more emotionally intense lines. I hope that when the time comes, I’m able to do them justice.

Some other chapters I’m really looking forward to recording, I think, are 6, certain parts of 7, 10, and 12.

Q: Is there anything you wish you had been able to keep in the fic, but couldn’t?

A: Well, I definitely think there are some things that would have been more intense and exciting for people who were maybe expecting a more canon-typical plot to what we’ve gotten so far, but I don’t really know that I have regrets about not being able to use them in the fic.

For example, because the very first iteration of the original headcanons that make up what would eventually become Cherish were, well, headcanons, and tied to a much longer overarching storyline with no clear-cut beginning or end, both the way that the story started and, in some aspects, how it will wrap up is somewhat different from how it was back then.

I’m not going to elaborate on that at this time, because there are some aspects of those things that I had to change which I intend to still try to potentially incorporate at a different point in the fic, and thus I don’t want to spoil any of what might happen in the future, but there were definitely things and characters that had to be cut from the final version of Cherish that I do wonder what it would have been like for my readers if I had kept it; I wouldn’t say it’s a regret, though, as I’m quite proud of the fic I have now, and I think it’s probably best as it is currently.

Other than that, I guess my only potential regrets about things I couldn’t keep would have to be some of the deleted scenes and lines delving into certain characters’ mindsets, but I talk about those in the development notes already, so I won’t delve into that here, either. 

Q: Do you plan to find a way to reuse all of the scrapped content for Cherish?

A: As much as I reasonably can without impacting the story in a negative way, at least, yes; it would be utterly impossible for me to keep literally everything in the fic that was ever discarded, but within the margins of good sense, I will try to re-incorporate whatever I feel is important, insightful, cool, or interesting and works with the plot.

Almost anything worth talking about that is left over after that is likely to end up in my Cherish Development Notes, so maybe keep an eye on those if scrapped content tends to pique your fancy.

Q: Do you think Cherish would’ve been as successful if it kept its original title?

A: Honestly? In some ways, I think it probably would’ve been a lot more successful – at least, in terms of marketing. 

The thing about Cherish as a title is that although it’s very fitting for the story, and I do love it a lot, it’s very definitely not even half as marketable as a name like Storm Chaser would’ve been; there’s simply no getting around that fact.

Yes, for a fic, something short, sweet, and romantic like ‘Cherish’ does just fine – it’s expected, even; searching it up as a fic title right now, in fact, there are a total of 764 results, 3 of which by the exact same title are in the BSD fandom – obviously including mine. That’s just the issue, though; sure, it’s a perfectly normal and acceptable title, but that just means that when it comes to marketing, it doesn’t help it to stand out at all from the others.

If we’re talking in terms of more conventional ideas of success and popularity, then for a fic that is meant to be a fully-fledged light novel of the same quality and effort as its official canon kin – and which has been made into such a massive project stretched out across so many forms of media – having a title that sounds like what one would usually expect to be some little oneshot drabble of the most common kind is absolutely a bad move.

Storm Chaser as a title for a fic, on the other hand, has only 29 total entries on AO3, none of which are in the BSD fandom, and it sounds like an actually plausible name for an official sequel to Storm Bringer; there is no doubt that at the very least, something like that would absolutely generate more clicks and hits out of pure curiosity alone than Cherish ever could. 

That being said, though, generating more curiosity clicks doesn’t necessarily mean generating more genuine love and interest, and I’d rather have people clicking out of interest in the summary and description and tags than over something as petty as the title to begin with – not to mention that I decided a long time ago I’d rather make Cherish from the depth of my heart in every way, in accordance with what I want it to be, than to worry about its popularity levels.

Q: How historically accurate do you feel that this fic is in its representations?

A: Well, at least more accurate than a great deal of the more popular sources of information out there, when it comes to irl Rimbaud and Verlaine’s life stories and situations, unfortunately — as I said further up above.

Granted, there are going to be some small differences and creative liberties taken here and there, given that the versions of them presented in Cherish come from a slightly alternate universe to ours, but that’s mostly just to do with the fact that in this alt-world, Paul actually succeeded at making a second attempt on Arthur’s life at the train station where the teen intended to have their final parting; apart from that and the obvious connecting of dots and filling in of blanks wherever information simply didn’t fully exist about the more intimate and intricate details of their lives, great care was taken to ensure that everything was presented as realistically and accurately as possible, according to all of the intensive research I have done about them over the years.

As for the general historical representation of the time period they come from itself, I’d like to think that I’m doing well with it, as I try to do my research on every aspect the very best that I can, but aside from certain highly specific subjects, I don’t claim to be half so much of an expert of the general late Victorian era itself as much as I am an expert on them and their life stories, relationship, and circumstances specifically; if there’s a minor slip-up or two in regards to facts about the era that I somehow managed to overlook or misunderstand, I’m truly sorry about that. haha

Q: What is your favorite fan interaction you’ve had to this day?

A: I’m going to guess that my interactions with my dear co-artist don’t count here, right? In that case, it would definitely be finding out that my new pal, @dazaisshippingcontainer, is making fanart of my fic; that was such a touching moment for me — the thought that someone out there (especially someone that at the time I wasn’t close to) had been reading my fic and loving it enough to actually make fanart for it. 😭 Moments like this are moments I truly treasure beyond compare. Ily Clover, buddy. 💖

Let’s be honest, though; I love and live for every single fan interaction I’ve had to date. 🥺💖 They all mean the world to me.

And of course there’s Art — my dear, dear friend and co-artist, whom I appreciate so, so much… I truly feel blessed by it all.

Q: Do you ever read your own fic?

A: Oh, you have no idea... lol Yes, yes, and a thousand times more: yes. I adore Cherish; it’s not just something I wrote for you all to enjoy — it’s something I wrote for me, too, something precious that I adore with all of my heart, and something that I’m immensely proud of.

Every time I release a chapter, I read it together with my partner, and besides that, I probably re-read a chapter from my fic —if not multiple or all of them — just by myself at least once a week.

Needless to say, I really love Cherish.

Q: How many animatics do you plan to have for Cherish?

A: Ideally, I’d like to have at least one for every arc in the fic, plus one last animatic at the very end as a final look back on the story and a great celebration — which would make for six — but I don’t know how that will actually work out, in the end, given how massive of a project making even just one can be; I may end up making more than that or less — we’ll just have to wait and see, I suppose.

—

And, that would be all. Thank you for your questions, everyone, and I look forward to the next time we hold an interview like this together!

[magicalmyu]

the colors in your art are really pretty,,, whats your process for shading and picking colors and all that? the effect you achieve where everything looks so bright and lustrous is muah

hello, thank you so much! honestly its a little tricky to explain my art process but ill try my best

here's my recent specter's sands art from my oc alt without filters, i usually go with the flow but I usually go with shadows, then color noise, then highlights

my rule for shadows is to take the base color, move the hue on the color wheel towards blue/purple, and lower the saturation and brightness a little. keep doing this for as many layers of shadow as you want

"color noise" is what i call adding extra colors (blues, greens, purples, etc.) which gives my art a messier, "painterly" look. I like using a desaturated green in most areas, adjusting the brightness so it still feels harmonious with the other colors while still adding variation to the area. for reds, i prefer using blue as green clashes too much, or red for blue as green may look to similar and not add enough variation. this step is mostly based on experimentation, just play around with colors until you find what's best!

highlights are a lot simpler. take the base color, move the hue on the color wheel towards yellow, and raise the brightness and saturation a bit. sometimes i just go with yellow for sharper highlights, like in the art above

after that, I add filters! I've found that adding a layer set to "soft light" on ibis paint x (i dont know if other programs have it TT) and using a solid desaturated red has a gorgeous effect! then on the same layer i use the airbrush tool with a pale yellow for light - sunlight, as shown in this finished art! then over all of that, I use a white "star brush" (ajhshbcdbfgsb i dont know how to describe it but any brush thats a lot of dots randomly scattered around) on an overlay layer to further achieve that noisy effect

ive found that brushes affect a lot, i use a very textured brush which compliments my messy artstyle a lot, which is why i always say to experiment! i do hope this helps though, as messy as this explanation may be TT

[sillycreaturecreations]

been giving some thought to the style I use for drawing, and realised I can take advantage of this to give an identity to each world my characters currently live at.

I have each separated in my toyhouse for better organization.

So here they are~

first of all I got my sketchy style this one is a little more clean but the point of it is still have some construction lines along the drawing as well as chicken scratch and messy lines, dulled the colors. Depending on how im feeling it, it could be colored or greyscale.

This style I'm saving it for characters and fragments related to the world "Nature's Vow"

Second, I got this that has been more of an experimental style. I've tried doing clean lines before but is not something I often do unless for a very specific reason. This style is one of bright and pastel colors, thick clean lines for characters and cell shading, out to be a very clasic comic/videogame style.

For "Chaos' world". Most my ocs are from this place so will give me plenty of times to practice my lining.

Finally, the style I only do every once in a while, which is a painting style. A lot of line variation, brush strokes visible in the shading, colors I'd say theres nothing specific about them other than keep a fantasy vibe.

For "Dream's Project", where my most treasurred characters reside at really. Including my main sona.

Theres one character that doesnt belong to neither of these 3 places, and that is Jay. So they remain being drawn in however I feel like doing.

[sukeart]

CODFISH your splatoon ocs are so ADORABLE! I just love your art so much you have some incredible talent. I always struggle w/ translating Splatoon character proportions into my art style and you do it so effortlessly :,,D. I wanted to ask, what software/app do you often use for your illustrations and what is your go-to brush(es)? It's an experimental thing, I'm asking other artists what they use and I'm trying to find a medium I really like. If you're not up for sharing, that's totally fine!

Also (abt the twitter tag post) I'm not entirely sure what you mean by "vibe" but piercings and jewelry spawn in on almost all of your characters. Very flowy and vibrant artstyle!

oh thank you so much!! ;; i'm really glad you like my ocs!! i actually still struggle a lot with splatoon proportions myself ;v; lots of tweaking and resizing when i sketch, I hope to be able to draw them more naturally eventually ..! But i'm glad I can make it seem like it's natural, because I put a lot of effort into it 😭🙏 Currently I use paint tool SAI ver.2 for about 95% of my drawing process. I eventually hop into CSP v1.13 if i need more specific tools or brushes (mostly for background or effects) My go to brushes in sai2 is the effect pen tool for sketching and rough lineart, and I use the brush tool for coloring and rendering (alongside the default pen and airbrush tools)

I've been using sai for over ten years now.. its very simple and clean UI allow me to focus entirely on my drawing. I've tried switching to CSP for maybe 2 years, but still ended up going back to sai, because the wide array of tools and brushes etc. that csp has just kept distracting me (think of it like forcing yourself to use a ballpen to draw instead of a pencil and eraser, with which you end up trying to correct every single small mistake you make) (i tried to simplify csp's UI to mimick sai's but it was still overwhelming for me) Good luck on finding your soulmate art program and brushes!! It can be difficult but definitely worth the experiments

And thank you!! I do really like piercings, so I'll make sure to give that new oomie some :^)

[quinnonimp]

two things. one, your art is absolutely wonderful. i love the warm tones and style. two. got any like. weird art tips. like just weird things you do that work really well. or just art tips in general lol. there's something bout your style that makes me go ':D' lmao

aaaaaa tysm !!!! very glad u like my style <33 means a lot

and yeah id say i have quite a few with the way im very experimental n passionate abt art !

>> i think my weirdest one is rly just the main way i render tbh ? like, as u can pretty easily see with my main art style is that its all very crunchy n pixelated, n thats all cause i have anti-aliasing off for my brush . i render in a pretty unorthodox way but it makes things so so so much easier and more fun for me, even if its more time consuming for several reasons

heres a little bit of an infographic ive whipped up that hopefully u can get smth out of lmao . its 6am ive been up all night drawing as usual so im having a lot of trouble doing things properly sorry sorry

and the funny thing is this is aaaaaaaaall just cause i hate blending and am scared of committing to things (esp colors) so i just decided "okay whatever im gonna be goofy and just make it all pixelated idc anymore" and it worked !! (thanks homestuck) art is sm more enjoyable since i started doing this as it fits perfectly with the way my brain works and its helped me sm with getting better at colors bc of the way i have to do every single color manually (for several reasons like how i have to keep track of every color ((which makes me recycle them a lot more making things look more united)), gradients r the most fun to do but i have to make sure all the colors "blend" together nicely, i get to change them super easily, etc etc)

however these days i HAVE been trying to get back into working with anti-aliased brushes just to get out of my comfort zone n such, but tbh the only thing its helped me with is remind me how much more fun drawing aliased is and how absolutely dogshit i am at blending FDJHJKDF

also it makes me better at minecraft skins since im so used to working with pixels !

>> another little weird thing i have that honestly just goes against basic art rules is experiment by having ur values be as close together as possible without losing contrast . this is horrible as a tip, but fun as an experiment, and for me its just fun since i already know pretty well how values work and have enough experience to break the "rules" - because lot of times good shading colors r actually lighter than the original when put under b&w

so if ur like me i would recommend trying it out ! if u dont even know what values are then this ISNT good for u, do values properly as they really help

>> if u struggle a lot with side profiles, just learn from the gorillaz demon days album art . like literally im not joking that is THE thing that made me learn to draw side profiles and id say im pretty good at them now (however the effectiveness of this probably depends on the style)

and by learn from it i mean u can just trace it with any other characters, or study it, or reference it, yadaydayada . just do wahtever with it, damon albarn dgaf

obviously this isnt gonna magically make u great at side profiles but if u want a fun art challenge or ur a big gorillaz fan like me, it could get u kickstarted !!!! especially if ur doing it with ocs or characters u like that are in a band or something

ok thats all the tips ill be giving out tonight im a little sickly victorian child rn

hope it helped . uhm . bye

[skeletonsloverockcandy]

I really like ur oracle of the moon card, what materials did you use? I haven't figured out yet what media I should use, the cards' matte texture isn't something I typically draw on

It was something I went back and forth on because the cards don’t have the absorbent quality that most drawing paper does, so I knew it would be tricky. I did a light sketch in pencil, and then I thought I would try doing the background at least in alcohol markers to test how well it worked. I was surprised to see that, unable to fully sink into the paper, it kind of defused like watercolor instead of streaking like marker, and gave it a fuzzy, blendable quality I kind of liked. One thing I quickly noticed though was that while the marker was still wet, you could blend colors very well, but if you put another color on top after it it dried, it would pull up the color underneath.

Funnily enough, I used this limitation to my advantage and used it to highlight and blend, and it actually looked great on the sense of depth and space in the beacon. The ironic part is, that I fully intended to use acrylic paint, but at each new step, I experimentally tried marker first to see how it worked, telling myself I could paint over it if I messed up. (Though I will admit I was slightly hesitant to commit to acrylics if it came to that because it would make the card heavier and the texture distinct unless it was very thin paint).

I ended up doing the whole thing in alcohol marker (I used prismacolor and copics) and blocking out the colors and sections as I went, and I was most nervous about the skin tones and the gilded edges of the beacon because those needed to pop right and might’ve been more fit for acrylic—if it weren’t for the fact that the details were so tiny that I might have lost my mind if I had to do that with a brush. After I let the marker fully dry, I used liner pens for the outside, I used a .005 mm if you’re interested, and white gel pen for the stars. I would let the gel pen get a bit dry so some of the dots were far smaller than others, with just a couple fully pressed in dots for a few of the bigger stars.

In general, I’d probably recommend an acrylic based paint pen, like posca, or else a thin acrylic paint if you’ve got a tiny brush and steady hands, because then it won’t risk smudging as much or stripping away the color underneath if you apply a new layer. But it will give you a more opaque look. If you like the kind of blendy-transparent look and feel of watercolors, I would use alcohol marker and then just be careful how much you sweat on the card lol. Do not use actual watercolor on it though, it will warp and ruin your card, and the pigment will not absorb into the paper properly. 

Also thanks! I’m glad you liked my card! Please tag me if you end up making one of your own, I’d love to see it :)

[lavenoon]

What brushes do you use in clip studio paint?

Hi!

For sketching and simpler doodles, I use the default "Lighter Pencil" - this one just as is, no color jitter!

For lineart, I use "Dense Watercolor" (don't mind the 2 - it's a copy so I don't have to change the settings for the color jitter every time) (click for full settings view!)

For one tone coloring, I use this custom brush! This link packs a whole bunch of materials, but the Watercolor 2 brush is my favorite!

And for more elaborate coloring, I use another copy of the dense watercolor brush, with lower color jitter settings! Because I still like some variation <3

And, as bonus - I also really love this Blender for watercolor, and the Erase Along Edge eraser has been a gamechanger!

I'm not super experimental with the settings usually, but I also don't always remember if I've messed with them or not, so you get the settings screenshots. I'm very partial to watercolors lmao.

Hope this helps! <3