#OH YEAH this is very much a leyendecker study | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

gildara-art · 7 years

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art process: zimbits

Like everyone who lets even a little bit of the comic @omgcheckplease into their life, it has completely swallowed mine. Over the course of a few afternoons I made this color pencil drawing. For anyone into this kind of thing I took some photos of the process and I'll do a little walk through below the cut.

I didn't go to art school (or college at all) and I don't remember much terminology from the few art classes I've taken since high school so just pretend I'm using all these fancy words and references to old masters etc. [also, my omgcp sideblog is @jack-manpain-zimmermann]

At left is the Leyendecker piece that I used as reference for the gesture and mood of Jack and Bitty respectively. It's a stolen moment of joy for Bitty, and a baffling one for hockey robot Jack. Bitty's smile is soft and tentative and Jack's appears mostly in his eyes widening slightly at the burst of effusiveness.

Ignore Bitty being foreshortened due to the camera angle. I started blocking out the shadows in each: Bitty in a vibrant apple red and Jack’s sallow Canadian paleness.

---Jack.

White skin in full lighting gets a lot less pigment on the paper but has no fewer colors than more melanin. Jack spends the majority of his life indoors and has never lived further south than Massachusetts. Most of his blue lying deep under the skin shows through with some close capillary red over cartilage and bone.

The red around his eyes is also intentional. A lost year following a medication overdose and rehab combined with a naturally intense disposition has made this guy permanently on edge. The little guy wrapped around his waist helps with that eventually.

Jack's nose could probably do with being a bit bigger based on Ngozi's comic version of him but his most defining features are all here. The geometry of hooded brow, cheekbones and sculpted jaw. Those bright blue eyes defined by kohl eyelashes. Oh Jack, so very pretty.

Sadly I forgot to photograph the pencils used in Jack's hair. It's a combination of ice blue, violet, browns and black. Based on his coloring I've reckoned that Jack has dark hair on the inkier rather than browner side. I wouldn't reckon it would lighten in the sun even if he spent more time outside.

---Bitty.

This is a bit of a jumble but the top two are processes and the colors used for Bitty’s skin while the bottom is his finished hair and skin combined with the pencils used for his hair.

Ngozi blows my mind with the way she sketches and shades her characters with such deliberate intent over this protracted format. Bitty is our POV and the main character so by the time we've known him six months (in comic time) he is fully fleshed out and visible. While Ngozi doesn't have him agonizing or self-hating for his cherubic looks she does highlight the frustration Bitty often feels about his baby face. He clearly likes being cute and is at home in his smaller non-musclebound body, which is refreshing to see in a gay male character. He isn't internalizing any toxic feelings from his community about needing to be buff or being ashamed of behaviors and preferences that are very wrongly labeled as exclusively feminine. He just wants to look his age, lift a bit more in weight training and have a bigger butt. He's even fine with not being able to grow facial hair to any significant degree.

So Bitty's skin is definitely soft and has a healthy well-fed glow. There's so much of Georgia within and without him that I ended up making him a peach. Unlike Jack, he has no sharp edges or sense of weight to him. Fan fic writers across fandom describe Bitty as a warm, glowing presence who warms every space he inhabits. In this moment he's warming cold and remote lunar Jack.

(Technically Bitty is a blonde. I make no apology for deciding that Bitty's hair turns a strawberry blond in Massachusetts weather and spending his days on the rink or indoors.)

This is their skin after balancing them out against each other a bit.

---Clothing.

Jacks’ crisp linen white shirts. Made famous throughout the series due to his lack of an undershirt, suggestion of chest hair and wearing them with a casual sartorial grace. I straight up copied the colors for the white shirts in Leyendeckers’ painting at the start of this post.

Jack’s giant top-shelf ass. I mean errr uhhh yeah the dress trousers are going to be picked out for him and expensive. No flat poly-blend colors here.

I studied Ngozi’s Samwell Red closely and I hope I got close. It's very New England with the forest green hint in the shadow but brilliant crimson in the light.

I didn’t get a picture of Bitty’s shorts but they were very simple. Lilac, lemon, a coating of taupe and slate to define the folds and lines.

To finish, here’s a closer detail of their faced and hair. See?? Bitty’s still a blond kinda! Jack’s eyes are a less scary blue when put in color context!

This was a joy to make and if you haven’t read Check, Please yet then trust me it’s going to light up your life. I hope I’ve done a fraction of justice to the charm and depth of these two characters.

#art process #drawing process #drawing reference #color rendering #zimbits #gildaraprocess

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thehappyaccidentsteamblog · 7 years

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Chapter 6: It Could Have Gone Worse

“Well I guess I can’t criticize your pre-game ritual anymore,” Leyendecker chuckled weakly as Gil tucked bed sheets around his shoulders.

Gil returned the laugh, equally as strained. “No, you’re still absolutely correct,” he turned to sit lightly on the edge of Leyendecker’s bed. As one of the few elves left on the pitch, Gil had helped his team mates limp home after the very difficult game. “To keep myself honest, I'll admit I took several shots at the half.”

“And we didn't give up a single touchdown after the half,” Leyendecker groaned.

“I am pretty sure the alcohol had nothing to do with that,” Gil shook his head and laughed quietly.

Leyendecker joined him in chuckling at the logical folly. They quieted rather quickly because neither of them had much energy.

“How is everyone?” Leyendecker asked after a moment.

“Oh not too bad considering,” Gil forced a smile. “I followed Elizabeth and Albrecht to the hospital.”

“And?”

“They’ll both be fine, but will have to sit out a game. Al was asleep, but I talked to Elizabeth,” Gil continued.

Leyendecker sighed. “That's good news.”

“Yeah and Elizabeth couldn't be happier.”

Gil saw Leyendecker begin to quirk his eyebrows in confusion.

“In her words, and I quote,” Gil paused to let confusion fully filter into Leyendecker’s expression. He then affected a flaunting pose, throwing out his chest and forcing his voice into a higher register. “‘Hot damn this is great! Journeyman insurance never would have covered this. And I can wear a bitchin’ eyepatch. I'm gonna be so badass!’”

About half-way through the imitation, Leyendecker snorted loudly and buried his face into his pillow. “Oh my gosh,” he said, voice muffled by the pillow.

“And of course Tom is taking care of Robert, Frida has the two that live with her and Fragonard is just fine,” Gil added while Leyendecker was still laughing. “Could’ve been worse but it wasn't.”

The last of Leyendecker’s giggles left him and he gazed up at Gil. “You are right, Gil.” He sighed again and sank further into the folds of his bed.

Gil nodded firmly, then as one topic of conversation drew to a close, Gil glanced up to the wall beyond and then back down at Leyendecker. He shifted his seat towards Leyendecker then decided that was too awkward and went back to sitting sidelong. There was something Gil had been wanting to ask Leyendecker and it made his palms sweat. At least Leyendecker didn't seem to notice - in fact he was staring rather placidly at the ceiling.

“So J, can I ask you a question while you’re a captive audience?” Gil blurted out into the silence of the room.

“Yeah sure. What’s up?” Leyendecker rolled onto his side, giving Gil his full attention.

Gil suddenly felt flushed and he sort of wished Leyendecker had said no, I want to sleep. But now he couldn't backtrack and so he pushed on, trying to keep as much inflection from his voice as possible. “Back in college, you knew that I wanted to ask you to be my partner right?”

Leyendecker’s eyebrows knit together and he hesitated before answering. “...yes…” he paused again and when Gil didn't reply, added, “And you knew I was waiting on you?”

Not expecting Leyendecker to volunteer information, Gil stuttered, “...yeah...so uhh…” He gulped mentally and tried his best to keep his eyes on Leyendecker, but his courage failed him and studied the bed sheets instead. “If I had, what would you have said? Before everything went to shit.”

Gil couldn't tell where Leyendecker was looking, but he suspected it was at the horrendous blush Gil knew he had across his cheeks. “I would have said yes,” Leyendecker replied simply.

The next question came out much too quickly. “What about now?”

“What do you mean?” Leyendecker’s voice had gone soft in such a way Gil couldn't quite place. He didn't sound guarded, but it didn't quite sound like a normal speaking voice.

Clenching his fists into the bedsheets, Gil continued before his nerves could fail him. “If I were to ask you out now, what would you say?” There was an answer that Gil wanted to hear, and he'd spent a very long time thinking it up. And it wasn't a simple yes or no, but if he received anything but what he knew the answer should be, he wasn't going to like the answer.

There came a very long pause from Leyendecker in which Gil swore his heart stopped beating. “...What if I asked you the same?”

When Leyendecker replied, Gil’s breath caught in his throat and his next sentence sputtered out of existence. “Umm ahh,” Gil faltered, of all the things he was prepare for, a counter question was not one and of course Leyendecker would stumble on that.

Fortunately, Leyendecker didn't let Gil flounder for long. “I would say no,” his voice was careful, the ‘no’ hardly sounding absolute. But Leyendecker also seemed conscious of how his words still sounded like a flat rejection and he quickly continued. “But not because I uh...I’m not attracted to you or haven't thought about it myself.”

Finally Gil was able to pull his eyes back to Leyendecker’s and they held each other’s gaze steady. Gil stared, maybe a bit wide eyed, so stunned that he had heard what he’d wanted, he couldn't figure out what to say next.

As Gil drew out the silence, yet didn't seem distraught, Leyendecker continued. “So much has changed between then and now, that…” Leyendecker accompanied the mention of time with a sweep of his hand from one extreme to the other, “that I feel so unsure - about everything - and I don’t think that that is a good way to go into any relationship.”

When Leyendecker finished speaking, a great weight lifted from Gil’s shoulders and he laughed a short laugh that made his whole body tremble with anticipation. His earlier blush came back worse than before and he found his tongue only slight functional. “That’s uhm...actually…” he mumbled, eyes flicking from Leyendecker to the sheets back to Leyendecker, “That’s how I feel as well. To answer your question.”

Leyendecker blinked rapidly into the silence that followed. “Well...that conversation certainly worked out better than I thought it was going to.”

“You and me both,” Gil smiled and ran a hand through his hair. “So ahhh…” In fact, the conversation had gone so well, his plan to leave at the conclusion seemed wholly unnecessary now.

“So now that we’ve established that we both still have an attraction to the other, what do you want to do about it?” Leyendecker asked. He rolled onto his back again, looking up at Gil expectantly.

“We don’t have to do anything and that's OK with me,” Gil replied quickly, hands held in front of his face disarmingly. “I’ll leave it up to you.”

Leyendecker crossed his arms over he chest and regarded Gil with a bit of a smirk. “Well. I know that I want to get to know you again.”

Gil couldn't quite tell what Leyendecker was getting at. “That can be done,” he leaned forward eagerly. “How would you like to do that?”

“Like...maybe go do something to spend time together. Ya know outside of the team setting,” Leyendecker was unabashedly smirking now.

“You mean like a date?” Gil’s heart jumped.

“Now I didn’t say date, per se,” Leyendecker rolled his eyes so hard he moved his whole head.

“I think you just described a date,” Gil retorted and when all Leyendecker did was continue to smile, Gil understood that a date was exactly what J meant. Returning his own lop-sided smile, Gil teasingly chided, “Leyendecker are you asking me on a date after all these years?”

Leyendecker’s pale complexion quickly became bright red. “I - I - have two tickets to a Bard College theatre performance. Do you want to go with me?”

“And he already has the tickets, how presumptuous?!” Gil crossed his arms and tossed his head in mock indignation. But he finished the motion by leaning slightly over Leyendecker and giving him a full smile.

Leyendecker sputtered, crossed his arms even more firmly over his chest and tried very hard to sink into his bed.

“Of course I'll go with you, J,” Gil answered softly, sitting upright once again.

A broad smiled pulled across Leyendecker’s face as he uncrossed his arms and relaxed. Rolling back onto his side, Leyendecker gazed with heavy eyelids up at Gil. “I look forward to it,” he murmured.

“Me too,” Gil replied.

Leyendecker nodded against his pillow as his eyelids fell shut. “I'm going to sleep now though. Wake me up if anything happens?” He was trying his best to sound authoritative, but his words were just shy of being slurred together with sleep.

“I will,” Gil promised dutifully with a nod.

“Thank you,” Leyendecker yawned and Gil nearly squeaked when he felt Leyendecker pat his hand. His eyes snapped to the contact then back to Leyendecker’s face, but his eyes were already closed and the hand withdrew.

Smiling to himself, Gil gingerly got up from the bed and tip-toed from Leyendecker’s room. He shut the door behind him and leaned against it as his knees suddenly felt weak. Breathing out slowly, Gil righted his balance and made his way down the hall. Still smiling of course.

~~~

Leyendecker's usual post-game speech ended up being being delayed several days until Albrecht and Elizabeth returned from the hospital. When they did, the elves gathered in the living room of the house, which also lacked enough seats for all eleven of them.

As elves gathered on the couch, Robert sat on top of Tom and then yelled, “Yo Captain!”

Having not seen what transpired, Leyendecker turned from making his way to the front of the room with an actual concerned expression. “The couch is a little lumpy!” Robert finished his complaint with a wide smirk. He bounced up and down where he sat to demonstrate his point. Tom grunted.

Leyendecker narrowed his eyes and shook his head at the two of them. On the far end of the couch, Fragonard shrugged. Louise, the unfortunate elf in the middle laughed. Shaking his head, Leyendecker turned back around lifting his foot to continue to the front of the room and nearly stepped on Gil, who was sitting cross-legged on the floor directly in front of him. While Leyendecker did the one-foot hop to avoid Gil, Gil blinked innocently up at him.

“Guys you are so silly,” Leyendecker laughed and Gil scooted on his bottom to a more reasonable distance.

Then, Leyendecker turned to the rest of the room and cleared his throat. The other three chairs were now occupied, Elizabeth seemed to have brought down a chair from her room, and with Edgelord and Frida also sitting on the ground, everyone fit.

“So this’ll be sort,” Leyendecker began. “Coach's notes to us were mostly curse words and it being all her fault.”

“To be fair,” Gil interrupted, raising his hand as he did so. “Putting everyone on the line worked out last time - we are a group of hardy elves.”

Someone snorted.

“C’mon more confidence erfs!” Gil grinned.

Leyendecker shook his head. “Regardless, it was a mistake we didn't pay permanently for. And that's good.”

“And coach seems like she's more down about this one than us,” Gil nodded sagely.

“It's true,” Leyendecker agreed. “Coach said she doesn't want to talk about it - it never happened, so let's just move on?”

Various affirmations filtered in from around the room. “Who are we playing next, Captain?” Gil asked when the noise died down.

Leyendecker looked at his clipboard. “Uh… Dead Reckoning again.”

“Huh, well that should be fine,” Gil said.

“Oh and,” something about Gil's question also reminded him and he thumped the clipboard with a finger. “We have a new catcher joining us!”

“Really now? We made that much money?” Tom asked. “No, they probably just needed the money like the rest of us,” Robert smirked. Tom made a face and Robert laughed.

“I will have you know - “ Leyendecker wagged the clipboard in the general direction of the couch.

“They’re probably desperately in need of a job so we could hire them for less,” Gil added glibly.

“No,” Leyendecker frowned, jabbing the clipboard at Gil. He, of course, knew they were all joking and he was playing into their teasing. But that was just fine. “I will have you know we can afford to pay them the proper salary and - “ Then he paused, screwing up his face as he tried to remember if the new catcher was actually in need of money just like the rest of them. “No, I think they do need the money,” Leyendecker concluded aloud.

“That's okay, they’ll fit right in then,” Elizabeth laughed.

There was a chorus of knowing murmured from the room.

“Anyway, we’re going to have a welcome dinner for them on Friday and that's the end of team meeting.”

#blood bowl #bloodbowl #even union

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