#while now. redesigning characters is always fun! want to do more!!

[sualne]

I wanted to draw another outfit for Harley Quinn, after a few sketches I settled on an outfit that would reflect her feelings when she was close to end her relationship to the Joker.

-The black sleeve is meant to look both like a butterfly and two broken hearts, her love is doomed to end soon.

-Black pattern growing on the red is meant to remind of mourning veils and laces, she's preparing herself to grieve this period of her life.

[heilos]

Living Harmony AU relevant character sheets/info: Harmony aka the "Tree of Harmony" Shadow Lock Somnambula Starswirl the Bearded Stygian might be my favorite of the Pillars of Equestria and it's always made me sad that he wasn't used more in the show. So I decided to team up with my new friend Orin who's taken the time to make a bunch of amazing Pillar redesigns (same person I made this Starswirl animation rig for as a gift) that i'll be incorporating into my future animation project. The Pillars are very important characters to Harmony's story so I wanna do them justice. Listed below is some context for these sketches provided by my friend Orin and some written bits from myself. This is a Stygian who's been separated from the Pony of Shadows for some time, but is now dealing with the consequences of dark magic. I've had so much fun throwing ideas back and forth for this AU and I can't wait to share more in the near future.

Unicorn from a small sea side village in ancient times

Dedicated scholar and battle strategist

Special talent is writing. An incredible wordsmith in his own right

Wrote a very popular autobiography about his time possessed by the Pony of Shadows called “Me and My Shadow” (his third novel)

Name means "dark and gloomy" and also relates to the river and deity "Styx" of Greek mythology

Brought the Pillars of Equestria together in a bid to save his home town from the Sirens (the Dazzlings)

Wanted to become a hero in his own right even though he tried to convince himself otherwise

Lacks the physical strength and magical prowess of his fellow Pillars. Compared to any other run of the mill unicorn, however, Stygian is actually decently above average in terms of magical ability, though he downplays himself significantly

Ousted from the group after a misunderstanding involving him taking the other pillar’s relics to make copies of them so he too could be a hero and join them as an equal. His friends thought he was out to steal their power instead

Becomes bitter and seeks revenge afterwards when discovering the Well of Shade, which leads to the Pony of Shadows claiming him as its vessel

Banished along with the pillars to “limbo” for 1000 years through a powerful spell conceived by Starswirl and planned out by the rest of the pillars

Is freed from the Pony of Shadows' influence in modern Equestria thanks to the Mane 6 and the pillars with Twilight and Starlight being the main catalyst in helping Stygian where Starswirl had failed before

While no longer claimed by the Pony of Shadows, the consequences of using such powerful dark magic as well as being possessed by a being of pure shadow left its mark on him

Has dark magic scarring visible on his body. His eyes, inner mouth, teeth and magic color are permanently altered in appearance. It gives him a rather unsettling aura, much to his displeasure

The Pony of Shadows mark is not so easily purged, even with the combined strength of the past and present Elements of Harmony. A fragment of the shadow lives on in Stygian, inextricably bound to him, but small enough that it can no longer influence him.

Has abilities superficially similar to King Sombra's, albeit on a much smaller scale, and needs extensive practice before he can comfortably wield this new strength.

Luna becomes Stygian's second mentor, after Starswirl, to help him gain control over his new abilities. Her direct experience using dark magic to become Nightmare Moon makes her an effective teacher

As Stygian exerts better control over the shadow fragment, he eventually gains the ability to "Shadow Walk" or travel between shadows. This temporary form makes him look eerily similar to the Pony of Shadows. Pretty spooky

Can tell when the Pony of Shadows is close in proximity due to the shadow fragment, like a magic tracker

Stygian is a lucid dreamer. He appreciates dreams a lot more now that he’s sleeping on a proper schedule. Once in a while he’ll meet up with Princess Luna in the dream realm when they can’t find spare time in the waking world, outside of mentoring sessions, to enjoy each other's company as friends

Stygian redesign by Orin331

[papermonkeyism]

I think I'm finally starting to recover, after a few years of artistic dry season.

The plague was a big hit, then losing my job and finally my social life collapsing once my IRL DnD group basically disbanded pretty much destroyed what creative juiced I had always lived on up to that point, and it's been HARD to just not having any desire to be creative or do anything.

But now that I have a job again, and have had it for long enough my bank account is stable, and having been adopted into a new DnD group that's active both in-game (weekly game sessions!) and outside of it (we actually talk and communicate generally as well! It's mostly online, but it's still more than I've had in years), I have started to feel more like myself again. That, and the brain meds. I can't overstate how big it is that my default doesn't have to be brain fog anymore.

Like, I'm doing evening doodles again? I'm actually having fun thinking up creatures and characters and plots again? I stopped carrying my sketchbook and pencil case with me everywhere I went during my dry stint of nothing, but now I actually feel like I'm missing it when I don't have it on me at times, like during coffee shop visits.

And I kinda... want to MAKE a thing again.

(Just thinking out loud again, pay no mind.)

I miss having a Project.

Jumping back into making fully plotted out comic feels a bit too much at this stage, though, so I probably won't dedicate myself wholely to something of that scale.

I don't know what exactly will be the final shape of Arcanth's eventual thing, but I'm currently enjoying myself in the fiddly worldbuilding stage. (And just so you know, in the slight off chance that I might maybe pick Wurr back up again some day, I probably won't tell you about it. After all this time and all the messages I've gotten, I don't trust you guys with that one anymore. Even if I would eventually get back to posting it online, it won't happen untill I have a full year's worth of buffer and that would still be a loooooooong way from now even IF I got back to it full time, and I still have that day job besides anyway.)

But what if...

I think an art book or a zine or something might be more achievable at this point.

I feel like the dinosaur project thingy needs some more fiddling with its eventual format (I know I already have enough concept doodles to fill a zine on its own, but I crave an excuse to go ham with watercolors and make full illustrations), but it's one option I still want to make eventually.

And I kinda want to do a slight redesign for the Singing People. (I bought a skull replica a while ago that had narrower snout than how I had drawn them. And I know it doesn't matter that much, and I can always invoke artistic licence and "they aren't necessarily supposed to be any specific real life dinosaur species, it could always go with the 'undiscovered' route if I feel like it and the Troodon/Stenonychosaurus material is super fragmentary anyway", but I'm pretty sure it would bother me anyway if I didn't at least try it out and see how it looked.)

Though I think I got an idea about what to do with Entica!

Those of you who've been here a while know that one started out as my pandemic project. The world had just shut down along with my job warehouse, things were still new and uncertain, and I suddenly had so much free time and not much to sink my creative juices into, and I wanted something low pressure to do.

So I dug up an old setting from my teenage years two decades ago, gave it a facelift, threw out my teenage baggage and just ran wild. No planning, no plot, just art.

The "no planning" part did get back to bite me when the morbs eventually hit and I finally ran out of the creative juices, but that's still a lot of very good material, right there, ready to use.

But I just thought of a new framing device that would work with the already existing material AND give the character more of a goal and agency to make plotting more fun! And I think I like it.

Instead of a random scribe with no background from a place I didn't bother designing who just wants to see the world, Didor now works for a library that has sent her on a mission [to document something and/or take a message to *place*]. She still wants to see the world, but now she has a background, goal and a motive to do so!

And instead of just hanging around at Maaro's cart while Maaro does her own unrelated thing, Maaro is actively helping in her goal! While also doing her job.

I feel that having Didor be on a field work mission would give it more structure while not having to technically retcon anything already existing, and gives more solid excuse to do things than "random encounter number 82" would. Also potential reasons for further adventures ("While you're already out there, could you maybe also do X on the way?")

Also I want to insert nawani in it earlier. I didn't even have them as part of the setting untill psrt way through, and I want to show them off more.

Maybe a travel journal, perhaps?

[pyjamaart]

Breaking Bot (read more for some rambling about mega man fully charged)

Mega Man Fully Charged has been on my mind again lately, which made me realize that there's literally a robot named Chemistryman who worked as a chemistry teacher. Not using him as a Walter White stand-in would be a criminal offense.

I'll have to admit I started getting back into Fully Charged again after seeing some asshole on twitter complain about the character design for the hundredth time. I just can't stand that kind of negativity. I swear to god, Fully Charged is like the Sonic Boom of the Mega Man franchise. Personally, I really enjoy the FC designs. I've probably said this before, but I feel like the redesigns give some of the more forgettable robot masters way more character. Like, do I care for Classic Drillman from Mega Man 4? I mean, yeah, I do, but I wouldn't care as much if it wasn't for his Fully Charged incarnation.

I also really enjoy most of the original robot masters. I already talked plenty about Blastowoman and why I love her so much, but I want to talk about the others this time.

Take for example Chemistryman. Comparisons to Walter White out of the way, I feel like his character was a really fun idea. God knows I had teachers who put me to sleep back in the day. For me, it wasn't chemistry though, it was my economics teacher. I always compared her to a story teller at a Christmas market who would read children stories out of her big fairy tale book. Only that in reality, it was stuff like the minimization/maximization principle. Most of my notes for that class were incomprehensible chicken scratch, because I just couldn't keep my eyes open. In the end, I slept through like half her classes, lol. But I gotta say that I still always got a B or higher in the end. Somehow. I thank god every day that I never have to step foot in a school again.

I really wish Chemistryman got a little more time to shine though. Two episodes is just way too little. I would gladly take three more episodes with him over those gross Gutsman episodes. I know I love talking about wasted potential with this show, but I wish there was an episode that focused on Chemistryman outside of the school setting. I get that his whole character is "boring, bitter teacher", but I'd really like to see what he gets up to when he's not trying to force children to listen to his chemistry lectures. Like having Aki try to talk him into going into retirement for good. And then he tries to find hobbies for him so that he doesn't bore himself to death. I can see him getting into building model ships or something like that, lol.

Now that I'm already writing up a storm again, I might as well talk about some other headcanons I have about the FC bots. Since Woodman was in sleep mode for 30 years after the war ended (I don't know where I got that number from. I rewatched his debut episode, but the exact number doesn't appear anywhere. Oh well, let's just pretend this is canon, even if it isn't.) we got kind of a Shadow the Hedgehog type situation on our hands. All of his friends and family got to live their lives in this new, peaceful world of harmony between robots and humans, while Woodman spent 30 years powered down in a bush or something. Completely forgotten about. Like, why didn't they go look for him after the war ended? I don't think Aki and Suna wandered that far into the forest for their school assignment. If you really think about Woodmans back story for a moment, you realize how fucked up it actually is. 

Now my explanation for this goes into heavy heavy headcanon territory. When Suna calls the principal about Woodman, he warns her that Woodman is dangerous and to get away from him immediately. Now why would he say that? The principal also calls him "ruthless" in that same explanation. What I think happened back then was that Woodman actually planned to assassinate the human armies leader. (Possibly Sgt. Night?) The leader of the robots caught wind of his plan and put him into sleep mode himself, since he and Dr. Light were on the brink of finding a way to end the war peacefully. In my mind, this leader is the FC version of Swordman. Don't ask me why, he was just the first guy I thought of. And then it just stuck.

I know this makes Woodmans back story even more fucked up, but I just love putting my favorite blorbos through hardship. Don't even ask me about my headcanons for Drillman. They'd actually put me in prison.

Now all this culminates after Woodman is reactivated by Suna and Aki. Finding himself alienated from all his former friends and comrades (Maybe the other Mega Man 2 robot masters?), what was he supposed to do? He couldn't spend the rest of his life isolated (and homeless) in the forest, could he? And this is where season 2 could have delivered. But I'm done whining about that. If Capcom doesn't deliver, I gotta write my own season 2. Simple as that.

Anyway, getting back to Chemistryman, since he's pretty old, I imagine that he was already working as a teacher when Woodman was still around. Maybe he even was his teacher at some point.

And since I love having my favorite characters interact, I also thought of a scenario where Drillman wanders into the forest out of frustration over his miserable life, only to meet Woodman by coincidence. In the end, Woodman helps him work through his daddy issues and his body dysmorphia, while Drillman helps Woodman reintegrate and manage this (for him) completely new world of peace. Another great headcanon of mine is that Chemistryman is actually Acidmans father. Just because I think it would be funny. And as Fully Charged has confirmed: robots in that universe do indeed have parents. (Flashback to the time I drew Dr. Light beating the shit out of Drillman's father)

Speaking of Drillman.... For being one of my favorite Mega Man characters of all time, I haven't drawn him nearly enough. That will probably be my next project.

This might also be a great time to tell you that I've never watched Breaking Bad before, lol. Everything I know about it comes from RTGame's Stardew Valley playthrough and the RTVS Half Life parody.

Sorry for all the yapping. But if I don't talk about robots at least once a day, I might die. This is a serious condition.

[origamiwithhorns]

Where do people think they're going to get by harassing old Hellpark Ri mods?

NOBODY CAN STAND THIS ANYMORE, IT'S ALREADY REACHING AN ABSURD LEVEL, and the most we can do is write loooong texts asking these people to stop AND THAT'S NOT ENOUGH

It's okay if you don't like the project, no one is obliged to like it, BUT ANY NORMAL HUMAN BEING WOULD DO IS IGNORE IT AND MOVE ON, BUT NO, THERE ARE PRIMATES DOXING US AND SPREADING LIES

in fact, you don't even need two brain cells to realize that you won't get anywhere doing this SINCE THESE PEOPLE NO LONGER HAVE ANY CONNECTION WITH THE PROJECT

I don't know what goes through these people's heads to commit this type of act, because it is a VERY SERIOUS thing

We already have to go through so many things every day for countless reasons and now this?

The worst part is knowing that many of the mods that were there were minors who just wanted to have fun drawing their favorite characters, doing redesigns and giving ideas for the story

I really hope this doesn't affect them like it affected me some time ago and recently it's affecting more people

Please leave us alone, we no longer have any involvement with this project, stop doxxing old mods, it won't get you anywhere

thank you(my english sucks sorry)

-------------------------------------------------------------------

I also wanted to vent a little, it's not a very recent situation but it started happening again these days and it's bothering me A LOT

When I discovered Hellpark I fell in love with the artstyle and started to practice drawing with it, consequently I reached a level where if someone saw my drawing without analyzing it, they could come to the conclusion that it was an official drawing (people have actually told me this already)

At first I felt very special about it, but as soon as I joined the project, DMs from all my social midia (except Discord) started to arrive from people asking if I was Wire

I always answered: no, I'm not Wire

and I started to get afraid that people would start to bother Wire themself, or idk some of the og mods from Hellpark (I don't know if this kind of thing really happened, but I hope not)

These messages didn't stop until I completely disassociated myself from the project (after the old mods left I ended up staying on the project for a few more months to help peeks while new moderators didn't join), but a week ago not only ppl started asking if I was Wire again, but they also started literally insulting me or asking me to come back to the project via discord like whaaaat

I've never given my primary Discord account username to anyone other than acquaintances

and now I'm a little scared to be honest

like this morning I got one message from a person I've never even seen in my life

I just changed my username and left some servers related to Hellpark. I hope this solves it, I really don't want to have to change accounts

I just wanted to vent about this, on one hand it's kind of worrying because someone literally leaked my old username, but other than that nothing too "horrible" happened to me :p

[camellia-salazar]

Ed Edd n Eddy Pony Redesigns.

Ed Edd n Eddy; Friendships are Jawbreakers. (Ed Edd n Eddy rhymes with My Little Pony)

I did this last month, but for some reason put off posting it until now.

I was into both shows at the time, so it was easy for me to understand the characters as well as the rule set of the MLP universe.

I would tell you each explanation of their cutiemarks, but maybe in another post. For now, I'll explain at least a few distinct facts about each of them.

Ed: Him and Sarah's family are relatively stronger than the average earth pony thanks to them actually being hella strong in canon. AJ would be tripping on the sight of Ed casually lifting a boulder.

Edd: Does pretty well with certain spells, less than Twilight and Starlight, but more capable than most unicorns his age. It takes a lot of energy to even do them, tho, like teleport.

Eddy: Pretty much what Scootaloo has when it comes to his wings. A lot of his insecurities are from his lack of flying. He can barely hover for about 3 seconds but ultimately crashes hard at the end. He blames it on not being taught.

Kevin: Not many ponies ride bikes. He's one of the exception. Wanted to be a Wonder Bolt at one point, but eventually dropped it on account of the day he earned his cutiemark. (I'll explain eventually).

Nazz: Like all unicorns, her magical ability depends on her cutiemark/special talent. She can spark up visions that resonate the stories she would tell. She was also trained in defense magic to protect the kids she would babysit along with herself.

Rolf: His family is the only one that have a stipe across their torsos. It just develops like a cutiemark, but only when you figure out the role you play for the family. So basically, there's a little more pressure on this kiddo.

Sarah: If my pony version would be a version of the show, she and Jimmy would earn their cutiemarks at around season 3. She would be a teeny tiny bit more empathetic, too, since she's a pony now.

Jimmy: He and Sarah were a lot like the CMC prior to their cutiemarks. Mostly inspired by the fact that they act like so in canon, always trying new things essentially. He also struggles with his magic like Sweetie Belle did for a while.

Jonny 2×4: He acts a lot like Pinkie Pie and often would stim by bouncing on his tail. Also, much like how I thought of Sarah and Jimmy, he would learn to fly later on, but most likely the end of season 2, beginning of season 3. Most likely, the former.

Plank: Was supposed to be an imagined pony, but idk if I want to keep that or have him be a dragon. He would give off griffin vibes at times, tho. Idk. Maybe I should just draw his face like the OG so that the others would keep guessing.

Lee Kanker: I couldn't think of her with normal mare hooves, so she inherited her dad's hoof look. Rather, she shaved it, or it was just developed that way is pretty unknown. I thought of the latter at first.

Marie Kanker: Much like Kevin, she loves cloud bucking. The only difference is that she loves it while he sees it as more of a chore. She would often get away with chores because her mother would tell her to. But even then, she would have fun doing it.

May Kanker: Most would be threatened with her magic being red, that is, anyone but her sisters. Not only would anyone know it's her, but also red magic is usually frowned upon. The judgment doesn't bother her, tho, giving the fact that she's used to it.

Eddy's Bro: He got one of the biggest pare of wings anypony had seen on a pegasus. Because of his huge wings, Eddy would have another reason to not only look up to him but also envy him. Stupid bro taking all the flight genes.

So that's it for now, I went from EEnE to other things, so it'll take some time before I get back into EEnE again.

Thanks for reading all of this. Have a good one. 👍💖✨️

[ultrajtb]

Okay so my biggest problems with how the Steve Saga base color steves were designed are that they don’t match and they aren’t as vibrant as I’d like, sometimes even looking kinda muddy. Green and Yellow especially.

So I’ve redesigned all 5 to ease my brain, and will be adding descriptions of how I’d change them lore-wise (excuse me if the ideas seem jumbled, I’m not very good at compiling my thoughts coherently)

First there’s Red Steves

In terms of design I basically just brightened it up and made it shinier

The original lore had them be incredibly dumb. While it’s a fun gag, I would prefer if they were closer to average

So in my idea of a streamlined Red Steve, they’d still be pyrokinetic with anger issues, but they wouldn’t be boneheads. The original had them using redstone as a power source, but it was never really explained, so to expand on that, their ability to create fire demands they consume mass amounts of fuel to function. So lots of food and burnable items can help them. Alternatively, redstone blocks contain a similar level of energy that they will feed on to fuel themselves more efficiently.

Next Blue Steves

Honestly the best of the original designs. Once again, basically just brightened it up and made it shinier to match the more overhauled ones.

So, these guys are hydrokinetic as well as the smartest, strongest, and wisest of the 5. Not much I want to change there. I do want to add on to them that they have a level of hubris comparable to the SCU Red Steves, which does lead some to less than desirable fates

Now the first majorly changed design, Green Steves

The original green steve design always bothered me because it was the most different from the other base colors. In short, it’s just way too bright. The green just doesn’t really pop. So I actually darkened it a bit so that it matches the other colors better.

We never really learned much about the green steves in the steve saga. From what I know, they were all fairly timid and pretty weak.

Obviously I’d like to at least tweak that. So my ideal version would have them be Chlorokinetic, meaning they can create and control plants. I feel this could give them a bit more character by having them be more connected to nature.

Now for my personal favorite of the redesigns, Yellow Steves why doesn’t tumblr have a yellow text option 😭

My gripes with the Steve Saga design are that it has a lot more contrast than the others, has weirdly colored highlights, and is just a sickly shade of yellow. So I fixed the contrast and highlights up and made it a more golden yellow

These guys were known for being electrokinetic speedsters in the original. Honestly I like that about them, don’t really wanna change anything there. I do think it’d be interesting to make them drawn to metals because conducting electricity, and weak to resisters like wood since electricity can’t flow through stuff like that. They’re the only ones who actually fight using lighting. The other 4 will at most have lightning while using their own abilities, but won’t be able to use that lightning for actual combat

Lastly, we have Purple Steves

So the original was missing some highlights, and I didn’t really like the shade of purple. Pretty easy fixes

The power these guys were known for was being able to teleport basically anywhere at will. Pretty cool power, not gonna change it.

Personality-wise we only saw one in the series and he was brain damaged for most of it. I think a good general trait for them is that they don’t like staying in on place for long, both because they lack any real attacking abilities and they just instinctively want to teleport to new places as a means of avoiding people who’d want to harm them.

Lmk your thoughts and what you think I could do differently with the ideas or if you have your own that you think could be cool to add. I will be keeping an eye out and will add anything that I like (with credit obviously). I have some more complex thoughts for the upcoming prominent steves so keep an eye out for that.

Have a good day/night!

[spaceorphan18]

The Rogue and Gambit Project: A New Beginning (X-Men #1-3)

The true beginning of Rogue and Gambit's story really comes with the new and somewhat iconic era of X-Men. X-Men: The Animated Series drew its inspiration from the relaunch designs, and for someone who grew up with this era, it feels nostalgic as well as historic. Rogue looks and sounds like the character I grew up with. Gambit being crucial to the line up and no longer an afterthought feels pivotal. I feel like we've finally arrived.

And while I know this era isn't void of problems -- believe me, I know... I kind of enjoy this early Rogue and Gambit dynamic. It's fun and flirty and has a little bit of an edge to it. And the angst. So. Much. Delicious. Angst.

The funny part is... there really isn't a whole lot of it in these first few issues. Things don't really heat up until issue #4. Not only that, I'm gonna have to bring up Rogneto again... I'm so sorry, guys. Blame Chris Claremont.

Alright, let's dig in...

X-Men #1

Rogue in her now iconic new uniform -- this is going to be a standard for quite awhile. Get ready to see this pose a lot - Jim Lee, and artists after him, really like to do the whole one leg up, one fist out thing. Anyway, despite the fact that I (shockingly) don't like that much yellow on her - she's so pretty. I've always loved this era's hair.

Anyway, you want plot details you say?? This is Chris Claremont's last hurrah on his initial, epic 17 year run with the X-Men. And of course you can expect two things -- space shenanigans and coming full circle with Magneto as the villain. The crux of it is about Magneto possibly being a threat, despite the fact that he wants to be left alone, and of course, the X-Men get sucked into the drama.

X-Men #1

Gambit's redesign - which uses his initial costuming but man does he look so much better. He looks 'cool' in the way that all the X-Men look cool in this era. The dude can pull off the color fuchsia. That isn't easy to do. I do like, however, in color theory that the pinks and purples of Gambit goes well with the greens of Rogue's coloring. But more to the point - Gambit is pretty now, which is what we're all really here for. ;)

Anyway - because this is a relaunch, after our initial Magneto based prologue, we get a (re-)introduction to the entire team in one of my absolute favorite sequences of X-Men comics. The teams will eventually be divided into two groups; the Blue Team -- Cyclops, Beast, Rogue, Gambit, Wolverine, Psylocke, and Jubilee and the Gold Team -- Storm, Jean Grey, Iceman, Angel, Forge, and Colossus, but for now, they're one happy family doing a classic danger room sequence as designed by Charles Xavier.

X-Men #1

The whole sequence is really pretty awesome, but it leads to one of my favorite comic book moments -- where Gambit just goes for it and kisses Jean. It's a fake, robot Jean, but it's a bold move. And leads to Cyclops wanting to drop a truck on him. It's such a classic moment and I love it.

X-Men #1

Our first Rogue and Gambit panel happens right after Wolverine wins the whole training sequence (because of course he does). (Also - Claremont can't quite resist and we get a final 'bang, you dead' moment.) Meanwhile, Rogue and Gambit still haven't spoken to each other - but at least they know the other one exists. Progress, right?

X-Men #1

I really need to take a moment and appreciate the fact that most of the time during this era, when Gambit isn't in his uniform, he's running around half naked.

X-Men #1

Ug, alright, let's talk about Magneto again. This whole arc is about Magneto kind of having an existential crisis (which, you know, happens when they need to reset you to villain again). And, unfortunately, we'll get a few of these moments scattered throughout these issues of Rogue trying to talk sense and reason into him due to their 'spark' in the Savage Land. I get that someone should be a reasonable voice -- especially when the rest of the X-Men are attacking the guy before any kind of provocation. But I'm still rolling my eyes that it's Rogue. Notice he calls her 'child' during this? He'll do that throughout. Eesh.

Magneto claims that he has no beef with them and offers them all safe haven on his floating asteroid base -- Asteroid M. And guess who doesn't join him? That's right - Rogue at least has enough sense to stick with the family she knows and cares about over a possible, not really fling. Btw - I hadn't mentioned it back when I was talking about the Savage Land, but there was nothing to suggest Magneto can actually touch her. (I think that might be an Age of Apocalypse thing?)

Also, in case you think any of this sounds familiar - pretty sure X-Men '97 drew heavily from this arc for their Season 1.

X-Men #1

The first time either of them mentions the other one, and it's Gambit being sassy about whether or not Rogue should be a considered a lady. I kind of love it, actually. And love that Beast is like -- oooh, you're playing with fire on that one.

X-Men #2

They're getting more on panel togetherness! Granted it's group shots and they're taking down Magneto, but I'm taking all the scraps!

X-Men #2

Alright, well as much as I'm not a fan of the Rogue/Magneto dynamic, I'm still going to be fair and talk about it. Because it is part of Rogue's development. The key thing here though is that Rogue isn't going to compromise her values and beliefs because she may feel something for Magneto. And this will continue to ring through always through the comics. Of course, how nice of Magneto to swat her away like an annoying fly. Romance for the ages, guys.

X-Men #2

More on panel time! They're really going for all the group shots these days - probably to milk sales. But I mean, Rogue and Gambit look good just standing next to each other, so who am I to complain?

So, back to the plot... Magneto is getting pissy because the world governments are seeing him as a threat. He kidnaps Moira MacTaggart and berates her and blames her for all of his issues (because, you know, she messed with his genetics after he was de-aged, in an attempt to make him /not/ a villain). It was... a whole thing don't worry about it.

Anyway, he has Moira (somehow) brainwash the Blue Team into joining Magneto's side. Because they can't otherwise be convinced. Which, oh my gosh - what's with all the brainwashing lately?? Of course, this means it's Gold Team to the rescue...

X-Men #3

I'm going to try to document every time they're on the same cover. Also, it isn't X-Men unless there's at least an X vs X brawl every other month.

X-Men #3

Another group shot with Magneto in between them?? What can this mean??? Actually, nothing, I think it's just a coincidence. But - I really like the art here.

But.. you guys! YOU GUYS! We get our first real Romy moment in this issue! Granted - they're still brainwashed! But it's another first! Here we go...

X-Men #3

So, they're all hanging out on Asteroid M, taking it easy because - apparently that's what you do when you're a brainwashed Magneto fan. I love that Cyclops is still in his full uniform while Gambit has managed to strip down to his undies. I'm sure we can all tell who is the real fun one of the group.

You know what I like about this exchange, though? Gambit was casually complementing her diving skills and Rogue is the one who decides to get flirty about it. Of course, Gambit's going to push it further - see how far she wants to really go, and that'll cause her to run -- a dynamic that we're going to see a ton of as we go through all of this early stuff.

But for all that Gambit's going to push - it's not completely unwarranted or completely out of nowhere. Yeah, he gets flirty with the ladies on principal. Yeah, he went for kissing (fake robot) Jean unprompted because he thought he could. I won't defend some of the ickier aspects of these comics.

But... I'm fascinated by the idea of - what if she could touch? Would it still be a game to him? Would she have let it continue? Would they just have had a little fling right off the bat? Are her powers what really pushes them to have a deeper relationship than what they might have had? Just all the thoughts I'm throwing out there.

I also like that, that little moment of humor, where she knocks him into the pool, is so genuine it shakes her out of her mind control.

I also like that Gambit's genuine concern for her stops his playfulness.

It's such a tease of some great stuff coming up, and I am here for it.

X-Men #3

And that's really all we get guys. The Gold Team shows up to save the day but not before some X-Men fighting amongst each other. Magneto monologues for a while. Charles tries to get him to see reason. The people of Earth try to nuke Asteroid M and everyone gets outta there while Magneto decides to go down with the proverbial ship.

X-Men #3

This is in the closing moments of the issue - and I'm putting it here because it is Rogue talking about Magneto again -- but kind of seeing reason and how their ideologies do not work. She's trying to get Xavier to see this, and it's funny that Xavier is having a very hard time trying to let his old 'friend' go. Rogue, however, is fine. Maybe there had been a small, romantic spark of being caught up in close quarters in a shared moment. But that was all it was.

There is more to a longer lasting romance than fleeting moments due to circumstances. ;)

The X-Men take off leaving Magneto and his real followers to their fates. Of course... we know that it's never the real end of Magneto. Asteroid M may blow up, but he'll be fine.

However, I'll take a moment say that it's a poetic ending. Chris Claremont closes it out with a sort of goodbye. His tenure on X-Men is now complete, and we've fully stepped into a bright, new era!

X-Men #4 is gonna bring it. Let's do it! ;)

[redbread-design]

Batfamily Tree (2023)

I've been really into the 90's-early 00's era of DC while I've been reading Birds or Prey, Last Laugh, so I wanted to bring more contemporary characters introduced over the last 20 years, and marry the two eras. I always have fun redesigning these characters, and doing a Batfamily piece was kind of a return to form to my highschool days. I'm also a huge fan of True Grit's Kraftone brushes, but l think I'm just now figuring out how to effectively upload online and still retain the texture. I just may go back and re-upload older art to have on here in better quality. If you're still here, of course I’m still taking commissions, this design and more are available on my Redbubble ;)

[papyrusweekblog]

Papyrus week! April 16 – April 22

 (ID: Image of one of Undertale’s official stickers. Papyrus is smiling and happily crying, trying to dry off his tears with a tissue. There are letters above him that read, in all caps, “You’re nice!! You’re too nice!!”  / end ID)

Greetings! This is the first time I ever prepare an event, so trust me I will not be any good at it, but I really love Papyrus and I’ve always wanted to participate in a week appreciation about him, so I might as well make one myself!

The tag for this event will be #papyrusweek2023 and it will start on April 16 and end on April 22

 Read more for all the information:

 Rules:

-This event is for Undertale Papyrus, you can include your own version of Deltarune Papyrus too, but I would prefer the focus wasn't on AUs. However, Papyrus redesigns or human versions of the character are the exception, absolutely post these if you want!

-I want to keep this event sfw, please don't post any suggestive or nsfw content in the papyrus week tag

-Please I ask that you do not draw yellowface Frisk and/or Kris if you include either of them

-No misgendering of characters, not any erasure of characters’s canon identities, no bigotry or hate of any kind

-If you make content about the no mercy run or a couple of neutral runs do tag it properly, it can be upsetting to see for some people

-Of course, inc*st and p*dophilia are not allowed, get out of here. Yes, this includes Frisk and Chara, they are children. This includes Flowey too, there is debate on how old he is but he very clearly behaves like a child, and whether you agree or not I do NOT want to see him being shipped with Papyrus, keep that content out of this event

-While I didn't include a 'ship' day you can absolutely draw ship content, Papyton is allowed here or any other ship (that is normal and doesn’t involve inc*st or p*dophilia. I would prefer to not see selfcest either)

-You can pretty much do anything: drawings, fics, character analyses, videos, music, etc. Have fun!

  ------------------------------------

 Days:

April 16, day 1: Hobbies and Jobs

Let's start with an easy one: Papyrus's interest in puzzles, cooking and the royal guard! Papyrus cares deeply about anything he is interested in, even beyond the examples I just mentioned (being cool online, cars, etc). There is even a possibility for him to be The Monster Ambassador! Lots of things to choose, pick whichever you want!

  April 17, day 2: Battles

You're blue now, that's his attack. Papyrus's fight is really interesting isn't it? He has so many cool attacks, he's the only monster able to not kill you, and he might be incredibly strong...? It's a shame we couldn't see his special blaster attack, but if you want you want, you could show us! Or maybe even more interesting ideas for different Papyrus battles! Or simply appreciate the one we have and listen to Bonetrousle all day

  April 18, day 3: Family

Papyrus has a really cool brother, not as cool as he is but still pretty great. Some say he might also have a mysterious scientist dad/grand father/brother.....? We don't know much but that sounds pretty great too!

  April 19, day 4: Friendship

Papyrus wants to be popular, popular, popular! But perhaps what's most important is the friends that care about you for who you really are. And luckily, Papyrus has found friends like that along the way!

  April 20, day 5: Give up giving up

Papyrus is a character that has been very misunderstood in the past, from being reduced to a comic relief to being seen as nothing but an innocent naive character. But Papyrus is a very complex character: he has insecurities, he has flaws, he believes in kindness no matter what, and there are just a lot of things we don't know about him. For some reason we haven't seen him in Deltarune yet...? While we wait for him, let's show everyone how interesting Papyrus is!

  April 21, day 6: Free day

Make whatever content you want! Headcanons, fun ideas that you want to share, ships, post-game stuff, etc. Impress Papyrus with your creativity

  April 22, day 7: Papyrus

We have focused on everything that revolves Papyrus, now it's time for Papyrus himself! What do you love about this character? Do you think he is cool? Let's show Papyrus how many fans he really has

  ----------------------------------------

 And that’s all! I apologize for being very new at this but I’ll try my best. Most importantly, if you decide to participate even if it’s just for one day, thank you and have fun!

[im-s0rry]

Grimm's Chaos Clash Finale (300 Post Special)

So it seems that this little game has ended. Our winners have been found from the Chaos Clash Tourney. . .

GIVE IT UP FOR DOGGONE AND ORCHESTAL!!!

AND NOW, AS STATED, @petra-creat0r AND @cannibala-co NOW GET SPAMTON'S WILL TO LIVE AS WELL AS BRAGGING RIGHTS FOR WINNING THIS STUPID LITTLE TOURNAMENT!!!

I just wanted to say, from the bottom of my heart, thank you all for submitting your characters, joining this tournament, voting, cheering on our contestants, and overall just having a fun time expressing your creativity through this niche community that we all call home. I made this tournament so that we could all use our creativity to push ourselves further beyond. . . And I think that we were able to accomplish that with this tournament. I am so glad that this community was able to get together and do something like this. . .

And now, a few closing statements for my 300th post on this Blog.

Folks, I'll be honest with you all, I'm not sure how I got this far. This community has shifted so much in this short time, it's hard to see how we got here in the first place. We lost and regained my dear friend Mercair, we went through two ARGs where several people got replaced by AI while Sakriss was introduced to the world, almost all of my Secret Bosses got redesigned, fun was had, and friends were made. . . To @glitch-the-artist , whom I have spent way more time with, in all honesty, I want to thank you for all that you've done for this community. Your work is amazing and has inspired me to work harder than ever. . . To @mercair , who left for a long while before returning with the incredibly made @dont-play-deltarune-at-3am ARG and a new Secret Boss, Sakriss! You've always been an incredible friend, an inspiration to many, and a niche micro-celebrity in this side of the Deltarune Secret Boss Fandom. I owe a lot to you, man, and I still don't regret turning you into Sonatta that one time. . . To @mrchaosman , who's taking a break from posting to focus on his mental health. . . Thank you. You were always there for me when I needed you, you built me up and I. . . I never returned the favor. . . And I regret all of those times where I left you on read. I hope to do better after this, I mean it this time. . . To those six other people who were at one point in my mind. . . May you rest in peace. You made up a small part of my life that. . . I kind of regret now that I think of it. Your sacrifices weren't in vain, y'all. . . But even then, I don't miss y'. . . To @creepa-b0t-inc , honestly one of the most dedicated and amazing people in this Fandom. You've helped on so many projects and worked with some of the biggest creators in this Fandom and i want to thank you for all of that work youve done for this community. Without you, I don't think this community would be the way it is now. . . To everyone who's supported my work up to this point, I want to thank all of you. Without you, I wouldn't be here ranting about my weird ocs and improving as much as I have now. This community, this game, it means so much to me. . . And I want to thank you for all of that. . .

. . . By why go out like that? Why go out without something new to think about. Something. . . Bold. This is the first time I've told anyone outside of the small group of people who I've tried to make this happen with, I'm here to tell you about Void Hotline. Void Hotline is a small Deltarune AU I've had a hand in making about WD and Dess, along with a small group of other characters including the Goners, Chara, Flowey, Seam, Everyman, and the Skeleton Brothers, all working at a call center which is specifically designed to make the Secret Bosses go insane and know the truth about their world. I wouldn't expect much from it, due to it being an uphill battle with me and the team constantly forgetting to work on it, but I feel like with the help of some other people, specifically you guys, maybe this can go somewhere. If you're interested in helping with this AU, please message me about it and I will see if you're fit for the team. Together, I hope that we can make this stupid little AU. . . And I hope that you all have a great day. I bid you all adieu. Happy 300th.

[genopaint]

SOME NEW DRAGON GIRLS HAVE APPEARED!!!

A long while back (around 2019?) I made some alt designs for Green in different colors. And later I decided I really wanted to try and give them some genuine nice redesigns to match other dragons and be fleshed out more. This is my first attempt to actually do that! Green is a little more general dragon-esc and is meant to be Bahamut cause it's my favorite. But now Blue, Red, and Yellow are their own characters, all based on different dragons I draw a lot! I think they came out cute, I hope you like em too!

Now these are all just my first goes at these girls, I'm sure I'll give them more tries later. And just like Green, they can all be drawn differently every time! Because I just like that sort of thing lol. Not to mention they're just girlie versions of the main 4 dragons I draw.

Their personalities are probably something like:

Green - The regular girl, a bit of a clutz, but tries her best

Blue - The cool one, is always chill and friends with everyone! Also for some extra design context, Blue's horns aren't meant to be little sea slug antenna they're meant to be those little whiskers I always draw on Leviathan. Just didn't feel like giving her a mustache for personal reasons lol.

Red - The mean one, always acts tough and gets angry easily

Yellow - The silly one, really bubbly and fun! This one is of course Ziz and because of that she has wings!

Also all their height differences are intentional. From shortest to tallest: Red, Green, Blue, Yellow

Here's some of the earlier drawings of them! The first with all 4 is from 2019, and the other 2 are from 2020!

Similarly to Blue I did try to do a redesign in 2020 of Red... However, this was actually an accident cause I totally forgot about the alt colored Greens lol. But it's still neat to see what was in my brain at the time! Unlike Red and Blue, I've never tried to redesign Yellow before today. So I do hope you enjoy this first attempt at her!

I also have plans to do at least 4 more to finish the rainbow and to maybe have 4 girls for the evil dragons I made a while back (Nero, Caligula, Commodus, Tiamat) Idk when I'll get around to them but do keep an eye out if you liked these 4!

[hiraunia]

With the final chapter of TCWKTM by @crinklytinfoil upcoming I have decided to celebrate with more doodles. YAY!

(Did I say upcoming, I meant release. Apperently I posted this 3 minutes after the last chapter updated)

I don't know why I have decided that Shrike always wears those night vision goggles(?) now but they look cool at least(GOD I LOVE THEM).

I think I've finally gotten a hang of Dani's hairstyle for my design which is a blessing because in order from the easiest to hardest hair texture to draw is Coily>Straight>Locs>Wavy>Braids>Curly with a jump of times 4 from braids to curly(My hubris for giving Cyan short curly hair has and will continue to keep biting me in the ass).

Speaking of Cyan, I've also updated him. He always has eye bags now cause he feels tired now, more so than the start of the fic at least. Since, unless I've missed something, he's still wearing Black's suit I felt I should make it a part of his outfit. One of the issues I was having when I drew him though was that we still call him Cyan but he wasn't wearing cyan anymore which is an issue when I read the story but when I drew him it just felt odd. My solution to that hangup of mine was to keep the suit and belt black’s but give him the gloves and boots so there's at least some cyan still on him since I don't think it was ever stated that Johnny cut those off, there wouldn't be a reason to and they would fit him better than Johnny's anyways. He also isn’t wearing his backpack thing or helmet(not that I ever drew anyone with theirs anyways) since I figured they probably lost it or some shit. In this pic no one is wearing theirs but that’s just because I wanted them to look like they were chilling, Cyan straight up doesn’t have his.

Funnily enough this is the one that took the least amount of time to make, I started it yesterday and finished it like now though I do attribute that to a stroke of sudden inspiration that I was able to draw in my sketchbook so honestly most of the work was the coloring.

Drawing these guys just kinda being silly is so fun it's unfair, especially Purple. This man has done so much bullshit, I should shoot him on sight but the moment I pick up my pen he appears, the motherfucker! A pretty fun aspect of these purple are, as you can see, he's using Grey's skin. While I'm pretty sure in the story he looks the exact same I figured it would be more fun for drawing purposes to mix the two of them together to create some distinction rather than just drawing Grey with a purple suit.

My design for Grey had him as average height but more stout(at least comparatively for my artstyle) while Purple was a little more scrawny and tall which worked well for what I wanted to do. His bangs are center parted when Grey's bangs are gathered in the center. Also I drew their expressions differently, when it's Purple I draw his more bitter/sour, I decided that most of his expressions are squinty and tend to furrow the brows while Grey's are more, I'm not sure how to put it, genuine?

As you can probably tell I really enjoy trying to come up with the character's designs myself but I know when to throw in the towel and admit someone did better than me. I tried to come up with a design for Olive/Finch myself but I just could not come up with one I liked even equally let alone more than @krysmcscience 's design. They really captured their energy well so I’m just using theirs.

Ayy, I drew my take on good old Johnny boy. I think I did a pretty good job making him look older without him becoming a mass of wrinkles.

Drawing Flayer's ship was pretty fun, I've been trying to draw backgrounds and objects more so it was good practice. We obviously don't know what it actually looks like yet other than it is made of flesh and metal so I definitely had to just make shit up. For these bitches sake I hope it's bigger than what I designed because it is going to suck otherwise. Just as I'm typing this I kinda already wanna redesign it though.

I went for something more simple based of the premise that ships are complicated and difficult to make; the whole thing is kinda supposed to look like the flesh is doing a lot of the work to keep it together to compensate for a lack of technical knowledge and skill but just now I remembered that Flayer was the head of the mechanics so she almost certainly has more than enough knowledge and experience to make a good ship on her own even without the flesh. Oh well, I can redesign it when we learn more. I'm keeping its face though, the face was a completely but incredibly happy accident.

Also, I find it interesting that the Imposter’s missions are usually about them destroying biomechanical technology but one of Flayer's named imposter abilities is to use her genetic material to create machinery that fuses artificial and organic material.

Bounus Doodles!

I'm pretty sure these were all drawn sometime before the new year but they were all I had and I didn't want to post one image of doodles so enjoy them now.

While I am still proud of Brown and Devon making out I think my favorite doodle here is Cyan and his judgmental ass face. Why is he staring at Finch like, he is not in any position to but judging like that.

I also borrowed Kry's designs for Red and Umber, I couldn't help myself for Umber, it was just too perfect!

Not sure how I feel about my take on Skeld!White(Finnegan I CANT-). I'm not sure if it's just I'm so used to seeing Kry's design that anything else feels weird or just that I made him too baby faced and princessy. I tend to draw men that are very pretty and feminine so I think I went overboard when I tried my hand since he was usually described similar to how I would normally design a man.

[try02line]

The Owl House: Charis!AU

sorry for taking ao long to continue this, have been sort of busy with sone other stuff- but here we are again with another redesign for my TOH AU. I made this a while back and yet i am still so proud of it tbh- making redesigns is challenging but also very fun, nd although for now all the major characters have been covered (Hunter, Philip, Caleb, Eda, Luz-) I may do some other redesign of other characters moving forward. Would you be interested in see someone else?

NOW- as always, my thought process behind this:

- i wanted to keep the overall shape and colors of her original design (as per usual), but adding some twists. In particular i wanted to add references to all the potential palisman people used to speculate she would have before the reveal! Hence, you can find reference to a cat, snake and even bats! (Although that last one is sort of sneaky and is in the lower decor of the pants!)

- is a small thing- but her leg warmers are intentionally not symmetrical just to sprinkle in some chaos- is a small thing, but i thought it would fit well her personality and give her a somewhat more casual vibe

- i had to add a small bag- both because is adorable, but also because I always thought Luz should need a more comfortable and secure place to hold all her glyphs, this without mentioning all the pencils she probably carries all around in between other things as small trinkets and stickers! She is a creative person, who in my opinion provably enjoys collecting small things for memories! A small easily accessible bag seemed a much better idea than stuff paper and pens in her pockets

- he hair was a nightmare to draw as i couldn’t figure put in what direction it should go. But i am so proud with the results! What i wanted to bring your attention to tho, was her sort of headphones. These are very important, as in my AU let’s say that human are not seen favorably, sort to speak, and as such Luz would have to hide her true nature by constantly covering her round ears or finding ways to disguise their natural round shape

This should be all for now- hope you like this! Have a lovely day 🦊

[archandshri]

23rd Feb '24 - [arch] OH RISO my beloved!!!!!! ft. cyberpunk hermitcraft soup group

A cliffhanger!!!! And now I have to wait a month for you to upload the second half?? How will I cope :’’0

For real, it’s so awesome to see your process and the sheer amount of inspiration you take! In particular, I thought ‘Sit on Two Chairs’ and ‘This Was Our Pact’ were particularly yummy. 

I think book covers are really hard. You have to sum up a book’s energy in one image, make it stand out and show just enough so people want more. Exploring the narrative through those full pages is really interesting - though this is something you did for fun, it could be a really useful technique for getting to know a narrative. When I’m designing my comic covers, I always do it last - that way I’ve had practice with the visual style and I’m thoroughly familiar with the themes, so I guess spending a bit of time with the characters and narrative in this way helps for standalone book covers too. Of course, it helps if you have the time for that XD

Okay!! Onto what I've been up to!!! [warning this is a beefy post I'm sorry for your poor reading brain]

The past two weeks have been really enjoyable! I’ve been playing a lot with slow world-building, in sketchbooks, google documents, and voice notes to friends. Letting myself really sit with concepts, think about the characters, let them play in my head with no expectations. With this relaxation and lack of pressure, some beautiful narratives and interactions have been developing. I’m starting to need a name for a world/ the story. I’m not quite ready to give them a full introduction to the internet - I know it doesn’t but it feels like there’s some accountability to *produce something* and this slow development is really important for the quality and my skill building. It’s really hard to take on, but we actually don’t have to make the perfect thing now! In fact, it’s impossible. Pressure on ourselves makes it so hard to make something good if we’re always grasping at the final result.  In the meantime, while those characters develop, I have been working hard on my basic skills. I wrote about characterization last post, but this week I focused on setting and colour. I was inspired (once again) by Hermitcraft. I’ve seen some really incredible illustrations of Minecraft builds in the fandom, and it seems like a great exercise.

Bdouble0's Season 10 Base illustrated by @applestruda [source] and The Red Zone, built and illustrated by Bdouble0 [source]

One of the creators on Hermitcraft, ImpulseSV, created this build in a recent episode. It takes inspiration from the last season of Hermitcraft, where he was part of the ‘soup group’ with two other players, and his current base concept - a cyberpunk city.  I also LOVE his new character design, so I wanted to place him in the scene.

Screenshot from Impulse's video and new impulse design by @maxx-doodles

Here are some initial thumbnails I did, trying to figure out the composition. I wasn’t sure of the vibe yet, so I tried some rough thumbnailing, and drawing on an isometric grid and other perspective techniques. I’m going a bit mad for characters at the mo, so I wanted to place some in the scene. I found the angle of the isometric grid steep to place characters comfortably, so decided against that.

Looking back at it, I love the second! But I believe I was struggling with the perspective. I decided on the last one eventually.

Now, I absolutely adore all of the players in the Soup Group, and I am BIG fan of redesigning their notable characteristics to suit different settings. So yes, I decided to put all of the soup group in the image.

PearlescentMoon (left) from my comic and GeminiTay's Hermitcraft Season 10 design [from this thumbnail] (right)

Here's the sketch of the final image. I really enjoyed coming up with cyberpunk versions of them all. I used the impulse design almost exactly, with a few extra interesting details since he's mostly viewed from the back. For PearlescentMoon (middle) I kept her fringe, dark hair and gave her a glowing moon symbol on her top. For GeminiTay, I kept her long ginger hair, antlers (but glowing!) and took inspiration from her new season 10 design - a dark blue jumpsuit to match her dark blue clothes in her new design, and the braids she is often drawn with. I also gave them edgy new hairstyles. And a robot arm. I don't have lore for that.

As usual, I filled each flat colour-to-be with black and lowered the opacity to play with the values. Then I added colours one at a time, aware might be riso printing it. Originally I stuck to trying to make it printable (making the colours out of ones I could make my layering 2-3 colours at different opacities), but as I went on, I decided to drop that and focus on the quality of the image in a digital format alone. I did keep the grayscale version above with all the separate layers in case I needed that if/when I came to riso printing it. Below are the main two digital colour schemes I tried out.

I settled on the one on the left, with the blue tones - the foreground characters really pop. I put a few details in Gem's hair, colour variations etc, and cropped it for Instagram. I actually much prefer the cropped version - it sits better in a rule of thirds.

Now the moment we've all been waiting for :'')

RISO!!!!!!!!!!!

I returned to Cardiff after a couple of months away and was delighted to spend my first day back at The Printhaus, an awesome shared print studio where I have basically made my home. A few of my awesome friends happened to be there, so I spent the day playing around with this image with their help! (please check them out they're very cool - Gavin helped me a lot (we hung out at Thought Bubble, remember? and Rhi gave good crits too!!)

For those who don't know, risograph is basically a shitty photocopier that can only print one colour at a time. However, you can play with gradients and opacities, and layer colours really nicely to combine. I've done a lot of single-colour tonal work with riso but this is my first go really layering.

First, Gavin showed me how to separate the channels in Photoshop, using the flat image uploaded to the 'gram. We copied and pasted these layers in grayscale and added blending modes to each layer to replicate what they might look like when printed.

With blending modes, the digital mockup looked like this!!

This bit goes into technical details for replicating what the print might look like for those who might want it - feel free to skip :)))

I copied and pasted the Cyan, Black and Magenta layers as greyscale (as you can see above)

I made all of the greyscale layers multiply layers since risograph ink is transparent and we wanted to see how it layers. The ink usually comes out a bit lighter than you think, so it's good to bear that in mind. I used a clipping mask over each greyscale layer and a blending mode. WHEN YOU PRINT, PRINT IN GREYSCALE, NOT COLOUR.

Here's how I split the colours from CMYK to the riso colours, their hex codes and the blending mode I used to replicate the colours:

Cyan - Mint [HEX#82D8D5] Screen Magenta - Fluorescent Pink [HEX#FF48B0] Screen Black - Blue [HEX#0078BF] Overlay Yellow - scrapped for colour scheme purposes

Blue, Mint and Florencent Pink layers in greyscale in Procreate.

Riso printed Mint and Florescent Pink layers on separate paper, followed by the two layered together.

We always start with the lighter colour inks first, because sometimes the rollers can pick up the ink and cause extra marks where you don't want them. The first two colours came out great!

The first time we printed the blue, it came out very dark (left, first image). I have had this issue before - my last book, Winter Wellbeing, came out much darker than I wanted. Now I realise that the blue ink is super sensitive. All the 'white space' that is covered by a low-opacity blue on the left is only 2%, and yet it has come out pretty strong. We tried printing it on one of the misaligned images just to see, but it took all of the brightness out of the neon soup sign at the top of the image (second image). So I changed the values and pushed them way lighter, so it just pushed the values of the darker bits slightly, and brightened some of the lineart (right, first image)

And this is the final riso printed version!! I'm so so happy with how this came out. It's so different from the original digital version, and I actually love that.

I didn't create new colours in the way that I intended to - I wanted to play with overlaying purposefully to create specific colours eg. orange for the hair etc. But!!! I'm really happy with how it came out. That will have to be a project for next time.

Also, many copies are slightly misaligned, so in future I think I'd do flat layers for the colours a more blobby style with the linework on one layer only so there's less of a chance for obvious misalignment. design for the riso, rather than riso the design.

Overall though, this feels like a super cool step up and a milestone for me. Super happy with how it came out!! And I'm excited to play with colour some more. Can't wait to see the rest of the Lionheart brothers! Enjoy your weekend :)))

Archie 🕺🕺🕺🕺🕺🕺🕺🕺🕺🕺🕺🕺 <3

[3motionally3xhausted]

More Ouran redesigns!

Below the cut, listen to me ramble about the art choices I made in the redesigns, please. (Honey, Yasuchika, Kasanoda, Renge)

+A little sketch of Haruhi & Tamaki 😊

I redid Honey's because I was so unhappy with the first version, but I like this one a LOT more. He kinds of looks like an idol, but I'm not mad at it lol

The main thing I don't like about the canon design of Honey is that he looks like a literal child (wow new idea alert) and somehow in my first redesign I didn't get rid of that problem?? And I just didn't like the way that one turned out art-wise.

So! This time, I made his face a lot less round and decided to give him shorter hair in a more natural/ash blonde color. Instead of going full l*lita, I was aiming more for "soft boy" & I spent a good minute just coloring his eyes so they look pretty magical (or a bit creepy, I can't tell lol) but I wanted him to have long pretty lashes. Also, I added a little scar on the bridge of his nose to hint at his hidden violent side

(That shirt is entirely improvised lmao)

Anyway, Yasuchika!

I always felt kind of bad for him (for that one episode that he appeared lol), so I wanted to lean into the fact that he's kinda bitter Honey left the Judo club but still admires him a lot.

I had to remember what he looked like first, but I actually really like his design in the manga so its practically the same lol. The hair is slightly different though. And, it's subtle, but his hair is bleached here as a tiny nod that he wants to be more like his brother, though he didn't go full blonde. And since their hair and eyes are different, I now headcanon that they have different moms, because I can and it tugs at my heartstrings for some reason.

Now, Kasadona's and Renge's were done kind of a while ago, so the art is marginally worse imo, but anyway

Onto Kasanoda!

Another character that I always loved and felt sad about! This time he has two episodes, I think.

Since it's important to his character, I had to keep him looking scary, but that doesn't mean I couldn't make him look sad too! I love aiming for subtle expressions lol, I remember this one was really fun.

I can't tell you why I made his hair wavy/curly, I just wanted that, but those little shaved bits at the corners of his hairline were very intentional; it's meant to kind of mimic devil horns just to solidify that he's seen as kind of evil and whatever. And his eyes! I think that blizzard nickname/reputation (i can't remember) is really unique, so it exaggerates his cold glare.

(Trying to avoid saying 'kind of' so much, jeez)

Last up, Renge!

She also kind of looks like an idol, mostly 'cause of the pose and little sparkle, though. And oddly enough, I really didn't like her when I was originally watching the show (thought she was annoying lol) but I kind of adore her now because..

This girl is a nerd, she's silly, she's a cosplayer, a complete madwoman, and girl boss! (Character-wise, I only really take issue with the 'fuj*shi' 'y*oi stan' part, so that's cut for my version) But I really wanted to show that more fun, adventurous part of her, so she has pink dye on the underside, with her hair pulled into this big red bow.

I don't have many thoughts on her past what I already said, she just deserves to be cute and have fun. But I do think she should be in on the secret that Haruhi's a girl, and they should be good friends, the show is just lacking in girl friendships. (Excluding the Zuka club, they're full on lesbians and the show portrayed them so weirdly imo.)

(***I only censored some words cuz I don't want anything to end up in my feed lol)