toanw

[toanw]

Your art has gotten me much more interested in watching Pretty Cure but I have no clue where to start! What seasons do you recommend for someone who’s new to the series?

yayyyy i’m glad i could help spark your interest!!

the original (futari wa pretty cure) is honestly where i recommend most people start, although tbh i haven’t seen it in a LONG time lol. Not sure how well it holds up objectively, but I don’t think it’s ever a bad idea to start at the beginning 👍 (just dont watch max heart its not very good lol)

if you want something slightly more modern/reflective of the current state of the franchise, i know go princess pretty cure is a popular season for people just getting into the series (and that’s for good reason, too). gopri is ideal if you’ve seen other magical girl anime and know generally what to expect in terms of characters and story!!

I’ve talked about my feelings on hirogaru sky pretty cure before lol. i am not shy about calling it my favourite and (subjectively) the best one, and it’s the only season i can confidently recommend to most people regardless of how much experience they have with the genre. it is honestly a pretty atypical entry in the franchise in many ways, though, and it might be good to establish a baseline with other seasons to fully appreciate it.

tldr; futari wa, go princess, and hirogaru sky are all good places to start depending on what you’re looking for!! gopri is the safest bet imo :)

[toanw]

how do u feel about the new precure season?

it’s hard for me to say definitively how I’ll feel when it actually airs, but for now i can’t say i have many positive feelings lol

maybe this is a weird take for someone with an idol fanseries, but the idol theme isnt for me (and the doomer in me doesn’t want to watch precure become aikatsu lmao sorry aikatsu u are boring)…just don’t really get the hype i guess lolol

I do think kyunkyun is very cute and i will still try it for her…save me kyunkyun…….

[toanw]

Masami (Cure Rainy), Sarina (Cure Amarelo), and Kanon (Cure Asterism) dressed up for a Harvest-themed Red Carpet \o/

[toanw]

i remember first stumbling upon u in the fancure wiki n' saw memoria precure ... needless to say i was MESMERIZED by those designs (up to seeing how much they've improved now alongside ur other cures) n' i jus wanted to know if u had any tips on how you design your characters ??? they're all soso clever

Ahhhhhh thank you so much!!! yeaaa lol prior to this all my stuff has been on the wikis only :,) very out of date too, but im happy when people recognise my fanseries regardless!!

i mentioned in a previous ask that i like to abstract objects and reuse their shapes as design elements, and i think thats my best advice for really getting across a motif in a character design! This is really helpful for cure outfits specifically, because i find theres a limit to how many plain frills and bows you can use before a magical girl looks generic, LOL

shape language is like 80% of character design, even when aiming for more realistic character designs. whenever im designing a character i try to think about how everything down their features convey their personality—from eye shape to hairstyle—and i try to think about outfits in terms of texture/fabric. silhouettes are also really important!! i pick specific pieces of clothing, for example, based on what i associate their silhouette with (this can be as rudimentary as round shapes indicating friendliness, or as specific as a dress shape evoking a specific era of fashion/art).

keeping on silhouettes, i like to keep “statement pieces” to a minimum. In my cure designs i try to pick and choose which elements i exaggerate so that they still feel grounded—to use some of the memoria designs as an example, spring’s focal point is her twintails, levin’s is his scarf, and grave’s is her hat and skirt. everything else on their designs is slightly scaled back so that those are the parts that (hopefully, if i did my job right) stand out, and ive chosen other elements that work with the silhouette of those focal points instead of against them.

In the aforementioned ask i brought up pokemon trainer designs as a really great example of abstracting motifs to create character designs, and i think thats a great place to start when learning!! theyre so simple but (particularly with the type specialists) can get across a theme so well with that limited detail through their shape language. Other places i look for inspiration are gijinka artists (rinotuna is one of my favourites) because you can actually see a direct line between the original image/object and a character design based on it. Very interesting stuff!

i have a very long running list of artists whose character designs inspire me, and i suggest making a list like this of your own! it has really helped when i feel stuck :)

[toanw]

I just realised what your profile pic is and I got a relevant question: whats the context of that pic of Cure Nebula weeping sobbing sniffling over the phone

tragedy strikes………

[toanw]

more old stuff, tropika's predecessor cures (elysian angels and two ancient cures as a treat!)

(lack of activity has been due to school, i hope to design more sooooon)

[toanw]

any tips for beginner artists?? I love ur art !!

thank you!!! Im not great at giving art advice but i can try lol…

here are some rules i try my best to follow to this day when im aiming to improve:

make art a habit: mileage isnt everything, but it certainly helps!! It’s much harder to improve if youre rarely creating.

dont be afraid of making mistakes, but always try to understand the mistakes you make. If something doesn’t look right, try your best to figure out why!! you’ll get better at catching yourself with time.

get to know the tools you already have instead of fixating on the tools others use. i find that beginners especially tend to obsess over the brushes/programs/tablet/etc. that their favourite artists have, but the truth is that artistic skill is transferable between mediums and no single tool is going to magically make you a better artist. its very easy to get caught in this trap, and i still do sometimes!!

draw the things you want to draw, even if you know they’re beyond your current skill level. taking risks goes hand in hand with my second point—the more mistakes you make, the more you’re going to learn!! and remember that you can always redraw a bad drawing.

go into a drawing knowing roughly what you want to create. mindless doodling is an easy way to make yourself believe that you have no ideas, and it can lead you to hate the act of sitting down to draw. you don’t have to know exactly what the finished product will be like, but make sure you have a tangible goal!!

these aren’t concrete rules you HAVE to follow by any means, but they are things that i wish someone had told me when i started out. i hope you find them useful!

[toanw]

what drawing programs do u use

clip studio paint.................................and notability which is not a drawing program please dont ever use it

[toanw]

alchepre x sanrio !

[toanw]

a couple of alchepre designs I haven't posted yet!! the mascots (sylph, gnome, undine, and salamander), latecomer villain (inanis), and big good (queen beryl splendor prima)

[toanw]

Been a fan since the tropica shine days, I'm obsessed with your designs! May I ask if you have civilian designs for the rest of your cures (the alchepre ones are so unique!)?

Omfg no way….tropica shine fan………….that was a long ass time ago LOL ur one of the reals…

i have doodles of civ forms here and there but id like to show them when they have cleaned up designs like the alchepre ones (thank u so much!!)

stay tuned!!!! 😁

[toanw]

Would it be alright to ask what some of the plot/themes of your fancures are? I'm kinda curious as to what you've cooked up......even a crumb

anon u have unleashed a great and terrible beast. u get more than a crumb for asking so nicely

all of my public fanseries stuff (on wikis, etc.) is so old so I spent a few hours making a few pages with up to date info...and way too much background lore as per usual lol

Alchemical is here

Memoria is here (this one is subject to change i can never settle on a story/tone i like haha.......)

I'll likely update the pages later to expand more on the characters/plot points but this should hopefully give you a basic idea of what they're like!!

[toanw]

yeaaaaaaaaaaaa baby.........space idol cures...

[i made a video w the voices i'd choose for them as well right here pls forgive my self indulgence lolol]

[toanw]

THERE'S SO MANY OF THESE PRECURE FELLOWS How do you do it...? They should hire you I think

I do it with the power of debilitating hyperfocus RRRRAGHHH unfortunately if they hire me they will get 50 designs in one week and then they will not hear from me for 6 months. stamina is my dump stat

[toanw]

if rainy boy why skirt and not pant...?

we'll never know.

[toanw]

my designs for an amusement park/carnival-themed collab me and @kokoruu did last year :)

(their designs)

[toanw]

+ big good prince fuwaffle + last of the collabs