#i can sketch the characters enough to get the general idea down

[olde-scratch]

needed an art dump for all my (admittedly not very good) sketches for souichi from my saiki k/junji ito crossover so heres his house layout

and no it's not harsh black on white its ao3 dark mode colors (very pleasing to the eye) so u don't need to worry abt eyestrain

heres the whole house and its layout

i dont actually know if they would have a wall around their house, but i assume they would bc that seems like a staple in Japanese properties regardless of price. their yard is smaller than pictured, i just didn't wanna obscure it too much.

the house looks bad but it gives u a good idea of what it looks like so

in case u cant read my writing bc of the stabilizer, next to the tv in the 1st floor is the shrine. next to the stairs is the washer and dryer and then the bathroom.

the 2nd floor notes explain that the hallway is covered in various framed pictures of the tsujii family with a significant jump from right before fuchi's attack to after. (ill probably go more into depth if souichi ever brings anyone over, but souichi is normally smirking or obviously annoyed in most pics pre-fuchi, but just looks miserable or actually in pain in any after)

the attic. i havent decided whats up there, but ive decided that the door is locked and souichi stole the key. i might have mentioned that the house didn't have an attic, and i like that idea, so i think the attic's totally unuseable due to the insulation and stuff. souichi probably would have cleaned it up if he wasn't injured, but yk.

the downstairs is def inspired by the anime "inuyashiki" it's so heartwrenching i watched it twice and cried both times. highly recommend. it's basically if light yagami got turned into a robot alongside an old man and it's only 10 or 11 episodes but GOD im gonna make more references to it at some point.

souichi's bedroom

souichi’s the standing thingy while the other thingy standing against his wardrobe is that weird statue thingy he has which ive decided it a halloween prop he got and decided it was a hone onna he captured and sealed

for reference, souichi's about 5"4, but his hunch (which is probably more dramatic than shown) makes him seem a lot shorter. canonically, he's like 4"9-11 but everyone thought he was 5"4 so i figured i'd make him 5"4.

theres stuff in the bookshelf i just didnt feel like putting anything in there. the emptiness on top of the shelves and the actual shelf is intentional bc souichi cant comfortably reach them!! he also doesn't have that cloth over his light bc once again he can't reach it. that's also why his hone onna is propped between the dresser and the wardrobe rather than hanging, bc he couldn't put it up and no one helped him

i also hope that the proportions are right. souichi wouldn't be able to reach a top shelf within the wardrobe and i think he's a bit too tall in the second pic but u know what i mean

the thingy with the wheels by the door is actually a thingy i have irl! its got three levels of tiny shelves with abt 3 inch walls. i use it to store my sewing stuff and any fabric or yarn i need for current projects. its also a lot taller. (sorry that its blurry and the lines are thicker than the other stuff i had to resize and didn't feel like redrawing)

his wardrobe's got clothes in it, but i think his bookshelf would probably have a few books and then his dolls everywhere else. his kokkuri geisha is top-shelf and constantly berates him when he talks to it about giving it a proper place to sit. souichi can't move her tho bc her box is so heavy and no one wants to touch it anymore. (it was put there temporarily and misako and shuji kept putting off putting her elsewhere)

if anyone wants a closeup of any room just ask!! ive got heights for all the characters planned and i might sketch out some of the pictures on the walls

#saiki k #the disastrous life of saiki k #saiki no psi nan #souichis diary #souichi tsujii #just dont ask me to actually draw the characters #or anything with too much detail #i can sketch the characters enough to get the general idea down #and do more room angles #but dont ask me to do lineart. ever. #originally souichi had a window in his room where the shelf is but i realized his room placement wouldn't work with that #its just. very isolating.

[frostgears]

the chosen one

there are handlers that went to officer school and supposedly know what the fuck they're doing, all swagger with the authority of the Service behind them, uniforms like slices of space, voices like knives, their lethal charges trailing docile behind them.

they're the ones that show up in the porn sketches and the short clips of grainy video that circulate in the Fleet network. they're the ones that have pages and pages of fan fiction written about them.

then there's you. you didn't go to officer school. your entire signup process was this:

"hey, Cooper, you were in its old unit, weren't you? before it went to the lab? remember anything that'd distract it from biting at its own link sockets and screaming at techs?"

"uh, shit, sir, i can try…"

"great, it wandered into the rec room. go nuts."

you called your last conversation to mind. there'd been two major rec time activities in your last squad, and the alert that kicked off Paloma 17 had interrupted something.

you sat down next to the thing that had once been your squadmate, not meeting its weird red eyes. you already knew it didn't like that; looking it in the face was how Muñoz got their arm broken yesterday.

the augment whiffed of human sweat, the fake citrus of type-2 interface gel, something musty and unpleasant. its fatigues probably hadn't been washed ever.

"hey, asshole," you said, "you still owe me a Kinetic Princess match. best of five, remember? we were two and one when the hammer came down for P-17."

you put a gamepad on the floor next to it.

"ch. ch. ch."

was it laughing?

it swatted the gamepad away.

and then player 2's character select screen came up. without moving a muscle, it picked Valkyrie, switched her outfit to red, and handed you your ass, twice in a row, with no apparent exertion.

"ch. ch. ch."

yeah, it was laughing.

it kept laughing as it used its onboard hardware to disconnect your gamepad, choose the princess you'd just been playing, and win three matches against itself, beating Valkyrie with Marjoram.

again.

three-one.

three-zero.

three-one.

"well," someone said behind you, "that's kinda freaky. but better than tearing up the couch. guess you're on augment duty."

it was going all out. maybe trying to prove some sort of point. to itself? to you?

you got up.

it immediately paused the game.

"hey," you told it, "i gotta piss."

it followed you down the hall into the restroom. it tried to follow you into the stall.

"hah, you find a friend, Acey?" someone laughed.

"shut the fuck up, Lima." you tried to finish your business as best you could. it wasn't easy. the thing really did reek and it was not giving you a lot of space.

fuck it. you rose, didn't bother to wipe. you grabbed the augment and hauled it into the shower, spun the dial to hot, drenched the both of you, fatigues and all.

"wooooo! take it off!"

always a fucking audience in this place.

you found the zippers to strip the thing, flung wet clothing out of the shower at a spectator, pumped all-purpose soap into your hands.

"if you're gonna follow me around," you told the augment, "you gotta smell better."

this had to get done. you soaped it. all over. the generic floral smell of all-purpose soap was definitely an improvement already. felt human enough under your hands, except where it wasn't, the occasional beveled edge of a link socket. between its legs… human standard.

more hooting and hollering from the onlookers.

you remembered too late not to meet its eyes, but it just stared back at you, tilting its head a bit. no sign of aggression. was it smiling?

you never got around to the second major rec time activity with your old squadmate. you had no idea if she was ever interested. you also had no idea if sexual preferences survived augmentation.

fuck it. audentes fortuna iuvat, right? said so on your shoulder patch.

you slid a finger in.

shut the audience right up.

the thing kept staring at you.

you slipped a second finger in and stared back right up until you finished it off. it shivered visibly, made a sort of low whine.

nobody said shit after that. when you finally shut off the water, silence like a library.

you walked out. it trailed behind you. you grabbed a towel off the stack by the shower exit, wrapped the thing in it. it didn't protest. wearing nothing but your own towel, you stalked back to your bunk, hoping you still had a few clean uniforms, your expression daring anyone to mention that a single thing was out of the ordinary.

"heyyyyyy Acey, you get lu—"

someone always dared. this fucking unit.

the augment hissed. an unmodified human throat wouldn't have been able to make that noise; it sounded like a fire extinguisher. there was reverb in that hiss. there were teeth.

"oh, gods, just don't," you said wearily, looking back over your shoulder. it let Chroma, who had a tiny bit of sense in her head, back away slowly, in one piece.

anyway, that's how you became a handler. the pay bump is nice, your CO says you've been fast-tracked for officer school someday, and more to the point, the augment has already saved your whole squad at least three times.

but you have not once showered alone since that day, and you know it'd be a really, really bad idea to ever refuse a game of Kinetic Princess. that's just how it is when your real MOS is "weapon's favorite person". □

#empty spaces #dollposting #microfiction #combat doll

[egophiliac]

I was wanting to try doing an art piece in the style of the signature spell poster art pieces you create. But I’m not really the best at coming up with a composition for such a thing.

Do you have a process for how you come up with the compositions for them?

oh, awesome! it is an INCREDIBLY enjoyable style to work in; I hope you have fun with it! :D

I'm not great at putting my thought/art process into words, so my apologies if this doesn't make a lot of sense, but I'll try! my first step is always to do a LOT of thumbnails to figure out both the idea and how I want to show it; not trying to do a real sketch or anything, just little doodles to figure out what exactly I'm trying to portray. (I also call these "garbage passes" because they're not meant to be any good, they're just there to throw things out. aha. ha. ...anyway.) I think it's important during that first stage to really focus on the idea and the layout and not to get too bogged down in the actual drawing yet!

I tend to save my final thumbnails, so I'll use 'em as examples (I posted the ones up through episode 5 here if you're interested!) (and, uhhh, spoilers through episode 5 also in this post, hopefully that won't be an issue!)

the main thing I try to think about in composition is balance -- not necessarily in terms of symmetry, but in where each element is placed and how much space it's taking up. remember, empty space is still space! it's also really important to think about the parts that don't have anything in them, as much as the parts that do!

personally, I like to divide things up roughly by both halves and by thirds -- there's a lot more in-depth info out there on why the "rule of thirds" in particular works well visually, but in short, our brains tend to focus on things that are placed closer to imaginary division lines, instead of in the exact center of an image. so even when I'm doing something that is very centered and symmetrical, I try to keep that in mind and generally aim around those for landmarks like faces/eyes (or...where they would be, anyway) and other focal points.

it's not a formula of "the character's face should be in this division of this grid" or anything, more like "our minds like to focus on these areas, let's think about how to use that", if that makes sense! and of course rules are made to be broken, art is lawless anarchy, and so on. but it can be a good starting place for deciding where you want to put things!

(blue - thirds, red - half)

and against the finished versions, because they do usually end up changing a lot (including the empty space of the border):

(...these actually lined up a lot better than I thought they would. :') it makes me look like I do things way more intentionally than I do.)

other stuff I just try to keep in mind is that our eyes like following arcs and paths, which can be a good way to guide the eye:

and frame and control the focus:

honestly, composition is one of those things I feel like I struggle with a lot, so I'm not sure how much of this is helpful or actually makes sense outside of my head. but hopefully it helps a little! it's all just stuff to think about while drawing and not anything hard-and-fast, so don't, like, stress out about making sure things are lining up exactly on the thirds or anything. again, it's more "our brains think these are the dopest parts of the rectangle" than anything else! take advantage of the cool parts of the rectangle!

NOW GO HAVE FUN DRAWING seriously though, it is always super cool that other people like this idea and style enough to want to do it themselves and for other/their own characters! thank you! ❤️❤️❤️

#art #sketch #twisted wonderland #...technically i guess? it's not about twst but there is twst art present anyway #i did have a few more examples but then i wasn't sure if you were cool with episode 7 spoilers. whoops. 🫠 #many other people have explained the rule of thirds and directional flow way better than me and i apologize #it is so hard to put things into words i am so sorry #me: the...you know...the lines...they sort of converge? like a triangle? #the internet: mm-hmm. yes. go on. #me: (sweating) the...the triangle points here...because it...it has a point. #the internet: it's doing better than you are then #genuinely shocked at how well some of these line up though #uh. i mean. actually it was all totally intentional and i put actual thought into it! NOT an accident at all! #my eyes darting back and forth shiftily are just ✨following the paths✨

[dailyhatsune]

hi! not exactly a request but i do wanna ask, whats your process when you're rendering more paint like art? (if that makes sense, English isnt my first language so apologies hdskhsjdbd) i really love how you use the colors and im curious how you do it :0

i’ve been meaning to answer this one for a while so here’s how i painted miku in today’s post (put under the read more because yeah prepare for a long post

i’d also like to preface this by saying that i never follow a set way of doing things, so in terms of what my personal process is like, these are only broad strokes of what i do! sometimes i’ll combine or skip parts entirely, depending on how i feel. also, this is not a tutorial, just how i do things, so please don’t treat it like one :’D this will read like the ‘how to draw an owl’ picture if you do

first, like every artist, i sketch. more specifically, i’m getting an idea of what i want to paint later on. this could be how a scene is set up or in this case, how a character is posed. here i’m not concerned about details or getting everything perfectly, i’m only planning how the thing will be composed. maybe a lot of canvas size changing, or adjusting what miku’s doing (note how busted miku’s right hand looks from all the transforming!) however, i still have to be concerned with how clear the sketch will be to future me, because the sketch won’t be any good if i can’t read what miku’s doing

after that, i lay down a flat gray under the sketch, mainly focusing on giving miku a clear silhouette. this is also a good time to make adjustments to the composition on the fly if i suddenly feel like something can be improved upon, like shortening miku’s left arm from the sketch!

after painting a flat silhouette, i start shading in grayscale, focusing only on lighting. i usually do it in two passes, one for the lightest and darkest tones i’ll use (not black and white) and then a second for midtones to blend them better with the base gray but i forgot to screenshot the result of the first pass 🗿 nevertheless, here is where i can start adding some amount of details. i’m not including any extra accessories yet, just focusing on the base design of the outfit and the character herself (for anyone wanting to draw characters from That Gacha Game, this is how i personally make the process more bearable for myself.) i still use the dark gray to separate where certain details (like the facial features and fingers) begin and end, mainly to make colouring more bearable later.

now here’s where i get the Good Colours. it’s a cheat lol. i put a gradient map layer over the grayscale painting so that there’s a little bit of color to start. some gradient maps can be applied as is, some need the layer settings adjusted to make it look good. this one, for example, is a (free) gradient map set from the csp assets store that needs you to set the layer opacity to 20% and to set the blending mode to color to achieve this result. in general, i tend to pick which gradient map i want to use based on vibes, or basically whether i want the work to be warmer or cooler, colour-wise. but this does do quite a bit of lifting for the colors in my stuff.

and then, finally, i add the colours. i add flat base colours in an overlay layer. at this stage, i’ve made the character silhouette clear enough that i don’t need to refer to the sketch anymore for what miku looks like. also, the gradient map layer does its magic by making the shading a bit more vibrant than it would’ve been without it. after that i paint over with a new layer to add details like the lace.

and then i put some extra shading on top. basically this is where the ‘better lighting’ happens. again, this isn’t a tutorial, so i’m not here to say what each part of the lighting is, but i’ve labeled which layers do which job. in other works where the lighting within a scene is more defined (from a window, from a small crack in the walls, etc) the glow dodge layer may be more opaque and sharper, but since this isn’t a work with that, the lighting was applied using an airbrush. the linear burn layer is also there to make the whole thing darker so the glow dodge doesn’t end up oversaturating miku. i also usually match the lights to the vibe i want, and use a complementary color for the shadows. so here you can see i have warm colors on the glow dodge layer, but light purple on both the linear burn and multiply layer.

and that’s it for the character—here’s a gif showing how each layer adds to miku! (sorry it’s so toasty)

as for the background, depending on the complexity, it may go through a similar process, or if i can settle with flat image backgrounds, i just go for that. it’s ok to use external image materials. i didn’t have a background in mind for this miku in specific, so i got some default csp materials and threw together something

and that’s about a rough overview of what my process for more finished works looks like! again, art is a fluid process so i never specifically stick to certain steps all the time, and you shouldn’t either. i can probably answer why i’d pick this colour over another in one particular work, but it’s something that kinda has to be learned on a grander scale. i think everyone can already feel what colors work with what atmosphere or what setting, even if they can’t immediately explain why. colors and composition do take some level of experimentation to find what works best!

#hatsune miku #vocaloid #piapro studio #doodle #ask #partypoizzon

[fagboyfriend]

i rlly like ur composition, i wanna know about your process :D

thank uuu !! yeah so like. composing a scene for me generally begins with a vague idea that i want to get down as quickly as possible- and for me that usually starts with finding a setting. I knew that i wanted to draw a) a group of roomates gossiping in a crowded kitchen and i wanted there to be b) one figure in the extreme foreground and c) lots of plants. i do use some tools to figure out perspective, mainly the csp perspective ruler. Usually i start by finding a picture i like similar to the vibe im going for- but instead of referencing anything else- im purely interested in perspective. sorry to anyone who is shocked i dont generate all of my perspective purely by myself- i can draw in perspective fairly well but i struggle to make straight lines and this is easier to make grids with than the line tool lol ^_^ i try to use it kinda more like spellcheck on typos than like something to fully rely on. this is the video i learned this trick from:

i saw the left photo and realllly loved how the cabinets alligned with the wall- so i used my ruler tool to draw out my inital plotted points from the image- basically the linear movements i was most interested in and then i turned off the image layer and worked with those lines and the ruler tool to move on. eventually i had this:

which was enough for me to put my characters in for the inital round. if you notice- i made a looot of further adjustments as i go on. this sketch is not a final layout, its so my characters have somewhere to be! i cannot draw someone standing on a floor if theres no floor, nor leaning on a table that doesnt exist. i can’t draw my characters without a background, but i also cant finish my background without accounting for how my characters can comfortably exist in it!!

this was the like.. very basic start. i knew the positions of two characters- but i needed to change a lot not only to fit them better but to allow for the other two figures i had planned.

okay.. a little better. i widened the kitchen, closed the fridge door.. added a chair and fit in all the figures.. but this is waaay too dramatic. only two figures are actually interacting- and they are at wildly different energy levels!

this is where things started to make a little more sense characterwiss, so i was ready to refine backgrounds and figures and unite the two.

inital base sketch. much better layout.

okay- this is where im getting my footing but things seem.. really really off. You can see me working on my framing here- theres some good linear movement from left to right here- but not vertically. It’s hard to notice the figure in the far back, so i need to redirect the viewers eye to move upwards as well!

this is where i decided to zoom out, add an interesting vertical element to the left of the image and make it clearer whats happening in the foreground. i had to account for some stuff by adjusting the cropping, but i paid attention to that as well.

annnd- thats what a clean sketch looks for me! i have all the elements of my scene accounted for, and things are clean enough to read.

the next step for me would be transfer! essentially- I print the image of my sketch out, resizing and taping pages together so my sketch matches the size of the paper i want to paint on, and then i use a lightboard to transfer my sketch with pencil onto my paper. Then i refine the sketch a few times on paper before stretching my watercolor paper (essentially just prepping for painting) and inking with a brush and colored ink before going in with watercolor, gouache and ink, then usually finishing with marker, colored pencil, pastel and ink. it’s a lengthy process but a lot of fun lol. but sketches for me can be like.. 15 layers of different roughs until im happy with just the sketch. there were more images but im on mobile and theres a 10 image limit 😭😭 im a bit masochistic but i believe that if i dont have a good sketch i dont have a good painting!!

[t-hal-mothman]

CW: blood

Lately I wanted to work, but I started drawing… and BOOM, absolutely at random Rick and Morty in Centaur AU came up…

by this point, I have already come up with a pretty extensive plot around this, so I intend to develop this dimension a little in my head :D

I'm also absolutely thrilled with the dumb pink backpack, so I plan to write a fanfiction-oneshot for this art in the near future, just to make sure that enough attention is paid to the pink backpack.

number of times I fixed this sketch should have been seen... I break and change the poses/hands etc. of the characters

the idea WAS BORN QUICKLY, it was just so instant, "I need centaurs Rick and Morty, who are running from something by jumping into a portal!!!" and I sat down to sketch it quickly, so it's kind of just spontaneous :D

I would also like to show some work with the designs that I started picking at

when I was starting, I couldn't figure out what I wanted to see, and to my surprise, I stumbled more at Rick than at Morty coat, although I've always been bad at bay and buckskin horses, I'm better at dealing with palomino or gray coats, and here it turned out the other way around

But I'm glad that it turned out to be very pleasant and good! So have a look:

As a result, I got 2 versions of Rick - old and youth, a kind of azure handsome alien appearance, just for fun

I really think our looks kind of reflect our essence, don't ya'll think?

When we do not meet on earth such a coat (or hair colour) as Rick's, except perhaps shades of more gray-purple like grulla or blue dun, you will not find such a bright blue and azure and I just found it INCREDIBLY AMAZING in the sense that through his coat you can show a little more in terms of his "strangeness" than when he's just a human being

and about Morty's coat - there's everything much simpler, his usual hair colour in general easily falls on the ordinary most "common" horse coat, let's say so BUT I still didn't want to make him simple chestnut or bay, it was just for me it was meh

I wanted something closer to the chestnut dun coat, and it was quite difficult to make it so that it still fit Morty, but I also didn't want something overly ordinary >:( I wanted to add beige brown and a little crimson, just so that his coat didn't look like dirt - I wanted to show that he was actually a pretty cute young stallion with a cute look (if he would have cared about it a little more...)

I also really wanted to show the difference through their legs and hooves by adding dark stockings and hooves to Rick (Rick's stockings turn noticeably gray with age, as well as a bright dorsal stripe); and light hooves and white socks for Morty!

although I did have thoughts of adding a little more to the bodies, for example a little more ammunition, like boots or bandages to protect their legs

but I thought that Morty wouldn't really think about it in the long run - after all, it's pretty safe on Earth, and as for space it's possible that he doesn't really care, and Rick just doesn't give a heck about it as if losing an arm or a leg or getting a couple of open wounds - is a trivial matter

I've also always been delighted with Rick's cybernetics, so at some point I just took AND BIT OFF RICK'S LEG on art, because who knows what he faced protecting Morty and stuff they originally went for where they went, so I just added a couple of holes where you can see his gold-teal mechanics

#cw blood #my art #my talk #I REALLY talk a lot... #rick and morty #rick sanchez #morty smith #centaur au #centaur art #centaur #digital art #character design

[lee-hakhyun]

orv ocs from lime? 👀 gimme gimme!

i've got them visualized in my head but i've barely got anything down about them besides a few sketches. got a little group together. not very good at names so some of them just don't have one yet 🥲

these ocs are american, living in the state i currently live in - new york - because i'm the most familiar with this area. however, as it's not a capital, most of these incarnations joins the scenario later on, after the 10th main scenario had already passed. something about seeing how the world progresses outside the domes... what happens if you have family trapped in the dome? what about the people who just don't believe the scenarios are real? it's really interesting to think about.

also, domes. it wasn't elaborated on how the domes are made outside of 'capitals', but in the side story we learn that extra domes are created based on population. the korean peninsula has a population of about 75 million with one dome, so assuming 75 million per dome, the united states would have 4 or 5 domes. we only know of the dc and las vegas domes in canon, so i'm assuming new york city ends up as a dome here. anyway, the incarnations:

arin, sponsored by the philippine goddess of lost things anagolay. she a matching skill and a stigma, dubbed [lost] and [found] until i can think of better names for them. [lost] is a stealth skill, which masks your presence / makes people 'forget' about your existence temporarily, while [found] summons things that have previously been lost (the type of item can be influenced, e.g 'weapon' or 'trinket', but the specific item is random. more probability spent generally means a better item.)

arin has a brother, who is actually sponsored by anagolay's husband, dumakulem, a god of the mountains/hunting! he was caught in a dome while traveling over there, and has managed to survive until the domes are freed and is now trying to get back to arin

a teenage incarnation with kind of hypnosis / control skills. she has (again, temporary names) [suggestion] and [command], with [suggestion] being used while talking to subtly influence the other party. on the other hand, when [command] is used the other party is notified through a system message, but the power of the influence is way stronger. i found it interesting to explore how much a character that you know could be manipulating you can be trusted

a girl sponsored by sherlock holmes. she has a skill that's something like a weaker character list. she can 'investigate' an incarnation, learning their sponsor, a limited amount of attributes/skills, and basic information.

elio and esmeralda. esme is an old lady who was in a nursing home, and elio her nurse, who paired up after a particularly bad first scenario. elio is a more supportive incarnation, and he's able to reinforce an enclosed space to block people who aren't allowed in. esme is sponsored by the grim reaper, and wields a scythe.

a dokkaebi! asong (아송), a mid-grade dokkaebi who isn't actually a streamer, but a dokkaebi who takes care of a museum of rare items collected from particularly famous incarnations who have died, or donated by their sponsors who liked their incarnations for showcasing after they died. she's shocked after an item is summoned out of the museum by arin's [found], and hunts her down to get her item back

there's a few more, but they're still just ideas and i don't have enough on them to list yet.

as these incarnations are in america, they do run in with anna croft and the zarathustras eventually. yoo joonghyuk is out there doing his own thing, but this world is set in a regression where he dies before he can impact the world too much. i think about these guys a lot... my own little kimcom. i really encourage everyone to make their own orv ocs it is so fun

#ask #orv #ocs

[bara-izu]

Do you have any advice for doing comics? Like do you plan them out before hand or let the story develop itself as you go?

I do mostly plan, but sometimes the scene changes as panels are drawn out! Personally i try to keep it loose but with a general idea of a start and finish, like, whats the main thing i want to get across-

This might get long so lemme break this up :D

My comics usually start with dialogue exchanges or a specific interaction (object or person), which i then branch out from- i try and thumbnail these ideas down asap, just really shitty sketches so i can move chop and change their positions as i see fit~

Lil behind the scenes of some of my recent ones with their crappy thumbs (which i admit sometimes have more charm then the finished but alas, we roll)

For longer comics i will write a script out eg.

H (awkwardly looking away): Sorry... i just, have a lot on my mind... and well.... in it A (a faked smile, monotone voice): Ha. Ha. funny.

For me, i do try and think about the scenes as if they were storyboards for a film rather than comics... (hence why most of my panels are just uninteresting long boxes) so i use a lot of cinematography approaches to the framing (close ups, establishing shots ect) The other main thing you're then going to want to think about is:

Leaving enough room for speech bubbles (i'm bad at this, but this is why we script beforehand)

Arranging your speech bubbles to lead the reader around your art

The first thing people will look at is the speech bubbles in a panel. While 'leading lines' are a great way to help guide you in the right direction to read, having the bubbles arranged in a way that leads the eye is also useful!

(this is from my upcoming story 'Be Gay Do Crime', this is however a scrapped version of the prologue which is currently being editted)

Pacing is also incredibly important! And i dont just mean the scene itself- but also the way the dialogue is presented! For example:

Breaking up the speech bubbles puts pauses between the sentence, spaces out the way a character speaks and gives them a bit more personality. (of course you don't have to break everything up into 2 word boxes, this is just an example)

If there is anything i've missed, let me know- this is the main bits i could think of off the top of my head! i hope it helps!

#ask izu #sorry this is a long one #i hope this makes sense! #comics

[theman-and-themachine]

Weird fucking thang. Posting these sketches just so i can talk about her. What if there was a guy who could be so insecure but so much better at hiding it.

Idfk whats going on with her outfit but its stuck on me so im keeping it.SHE'S WEARING STOCKINGS/leggings? BUT THEYRE WHITE SO IDK HOW TO VISUALIZE THAT. Hair is either a perm OR welcome side-effects from bleach + bright ass red hair dye (yes lizzie is ginger but she will dye her hair more red because. Clown.). Make up is exaggerated, lips and eyeshadoe overfilled, blush too bright/dark, literally everything besides actual greasepaint. Also she has funshaped suit cuffs button things..HONESTLY SHES HAVING A RLLY FUN TIME BEING DRAMATIC she goes to stock holder meetings dressed like this.

Elizabeth immediantly latches onto the Make ur Own Nice Fantasy and Friends thing :). She thinks this is a perfect idea. Like a LOT MORE INVOLVED version of movie william, sorta, i think she directly talks to the animatronics (esp. The funtimes)..but refuses to say their Real Names or talk about their old life in any way but sorta mean like "arent you glad you can be here now instead :3?"

The funtimes grow to FUCKING HATE HER. esp..because they are probably the ones she's "closest" to. And the ones she had the most hand in killing. (And they're also the ones that have been shown to revolt in canon.)

So eventually she gets too handsy or tests her luck somehow, with Baby(a couple of souls amalgamed into one robot, plus an AI), and, snatch, Lizzie is grabbed by her arm, pulled forward, and Baby clamps down on bone. Hard enough to chomp off (they made improvements to their strength.

If Lizzie hadn't had the knowledge of What They Do, and if she was younger and smaller, she'd be dead. She's not.

As soon as she's not dying from bloodloss and probably not from sepsis, she just goes ":o] okay i want a robot arm, daddy." And Bill is happy to oblige, mostly just scaling down blue prints from Baby's arm.

Elizabeth really enjoys giving handshakes with that arm. And using it to showcase all the wonderful potential Afton Robotics has. Fully artifulated and very strong :o].no dont worry about the phantom pains or how far the wires must go into your skin. Don't worry about how invasive or dangerous or the burns or how it Never Really Feels like I'm in control of it--Aren't you a fan of Progress, John? Don't stifle this. Imagine the profits

She clamps down harder on what's Proper Behavior for the funtimes. Many controlled shocks. I think she becomes a lot more cautious (but certainly she'll never be as much of a scaredy cat as Bill. She's above that.).

I think she's generally very insecure and shit. I think she's sort of feels "hollow" , no real self, similar to Bill. But i think she knows she's much better at hiding it, and knows how to be much more of a character. She's more solid. More grounded. She knows what she wants and By God she is going to get it.

I think she absolutely hates going to social events that are not 99% business. Elizabeth cannot exist in normal public life-- she's better than that (shes so so scared. She does not know how to act normal.).

What if a guy was extremely agoraphobic. I mean she's been hanging out in a fucking underground bunker for most of her life, besides school. That's where all the fun happens and where she can be in control.

She takes over Afton robotics, legally, as soon as William Afton goes missing. She Really takes over when "Dave Miller" goes missing, and when she snoops and finds his dead, "lifeless" body in the rabbit suit. She thinks this is a wonderful opprunity. She has so many ideas she needs to get out there, now that she's not stifled.

I think she takes this oppurtunity to Expand and seperate the brand from previous associations (leaches). Sues Henry Emily and his strand of the company. I dont know if she wins but that happens.

I think. I think. I'm going to make the Circus aniamtronics (the fucking funko pop shit) to be Lizzie's own little experiment at expanding the brand. I THINK SHE DOES SO WELL and takes the killing into her own hands esp now <3.

Aaaaaughhh idk i love lizzie so much. Thiss is rambly AND ALL SUBJECT TO CHANGE.

#dottxt #dotpng

[sleepingdeath-light]

wally + painting as foreplay hcs ; 18+

requested by ; anonymous (19/06/23)

fandom(s) ; welcome home

fandom masterlist(s) ; sfw | nsfw

character(s) ; wally darling

outline ; “nsfw request (from an adult! haha) for more of Wally and the painting foreplay from your last post because I absolutely love the idea and I’m curious about the details!”

warning(s) ; sexually explicit content, referenced sexual intercourse, use of painting as a form of foreplay

note ; block the tag ‘playfellowxxx’ if you don’t want to see nsfw content for this fandom — clown created it for this specific use haha

additional note ; if anyone can guess what the third method is a reference to then you get a cookie

minors and ageless blogs will be blocked

wally is, before anything else, an artist — painting is practically in his blood — so it’s no surprise that this passion of his would make its way into the bedroom

there are a few ways that this tends to manifest itself so i’ll go through them in order of likelihood

the first is that it’s a painting of an erotic pose/outfit that turns into something more involved

typically this begins with him being solidly behind a canvas and viewing you and the scene you’re apart of through the lens of artistry rather than arousal

of course he finds the sight appealing and attractive on principle — it involves you after all — but the intention is innocent enough so his mind is centred on mixing acrylics and sketching shapes and the like

he’s mentally breaking you down to your components rather than seeing the whole picture: the curve of your throat, the swell of your thighs, the strain of your arms and the array of toys and gear that surround you

light and shadow and shading and colours and his hands are covered in paints and there’s some on his face… his hair is more black than blue, even

and he’s not going to be thinking about sex unless you invite him into the scene or mention wanting to see the painting close up

even then it will take him a minute since his mind is elsewhere, but after that he’ll start to appreciate the full picture in a much more active (and enjoyable) way for you both

the second is done through him painting you whilst you’re being pleasured or pleasuring yourself

whether it’s by instructing you to masturbate or using a remote controlled toy, this method will involve him trying to depict you in the throes of pleasure to the best of his abilities

he thinks you look absolutely stunning when you’re getting off and he wants to be able to capture that moment in paint and pencil — which, of course, means that there will be more than one attempt needed for him to get it right

this time he’s not oblivious to the eroticism of the situation and is instructing you on what to do in a calm and gentle voice — praising you for doing so well as he always does

‘hmm… spread your legs a bit wider please, dear,’

‘now, now, don’t muffle yourself — i promise you’re not distracting me,’

‘hmm… i’m not sure if i got your eyes quite right. would you be okay with trying that again?’

he’ll show you each sketch and painting after the fact whilst he helps you come down from your climax

talking you through the techniques he used and pointing out things about you that he loves through the art piece

and, of course, he’s more than happy to reward you for a job well done — which is what leads to some more active commentary on how much he appreciates your body, your words and, well, just you in general

the third, and final, way that painting is used as a type of foreplay for wally would be him painting your body like it’s a canvas

this would rarely ever happen because it just wouldn’t be something he’d think of doing — so you’d have to be the one to propose it

he’d probably struggle a bit with planning and fretting over the logistics of finding body safe paints (especially if you have sensitive skin)

but once everything is sorted out he’d probably get really into it in the moment

he’s printing the natural world onto your naked body and he’s being so gentle and focused as he does so

petunias and forget-me-nots and baby’s breath and lilies and roses and lavender and bluebells and daisies and so much more

each one with its petals painted heavy and thick with it’s stems brushed faint and thin — decorating and complimenting every dip and curve and scar and stretch mark that made your body your own

he’s humming some song or another as he makes his way further and further down: from your lips and cheeks, to your throat and chest, down your stomach and back, along your thighs and calves before ending at your sex

by then you’re a breathing work of art and the sun is warm and low and he’s looking at you like you were one of the beautiful blooming flowers that now decorated your skin

and you kiss him and he kisses you and you make love

the artwork gone — smudged all over your faces and bodies and the blanket beneath you — but it’s impact permanent

a memory, a moment, an emotion

then nothing went to waste — not even as you carry yourselves up to shower together and are intimate once again and you feel and see the paint (in a mixture of other things) washing away down the drain

#sleepingdeath #playfellowxxx #smut #minors dni #minors fuck off #minors dont touch #smut hcs #welcome home smut #welcome home x reader #wally darling x reader #wally darling smut #gender neutral reader

[bunnymajo]

Went ahead just filled out that whole OC ask prompt for Quake the Elephant :P

Get to know her better! She'll be competing in the @sonic-oc-showdown going on right now!

You can vote here!

Name: Quake the Elephant

Species: Asian Elephant

Type: Power

Alignment: Good

Home: Sol Empire (wanders)

✨How did you come up with the OC’s name?

Since Blaze & Marine have very on-the-nose names based on their powers I wanted a similar kind of name for her. So I thought of a bunch of earth-related names that I thought were cute, Quake I was on the fence about but after talking with some friends (shout-out to the bumblekast server) who liked it I started warming up to it too. 

🌼  - How old are they? (Or approximate age range)

Late teen/young adult. Older than Blaze

🌺- Do they have any love interest(s)?

Not currently. 

🍕  - What is their favorite food?

Anything Lychee flavored. Tropical fruits are always a hit in general. Never eats meat.

💼  - What do they do for a living?

A traveling oracle, she can pick up vibes and premonitions from certain gemstones or rock formations. People seek out her help for advice or if there’s land that needs excavating

🎹  - Do they have any hobbies?

At her core Quake is just a big rock nerd. She likes learning and going to museums if there's any kind of exhibit about geology

Also all her jewelry is handmade so she's good at metal craft, all her rings are melted down ores & metals she's collected. There's a story behind each one.

🎯  -What do they do best?

Crush rocks. Look at rock. Know where rock came from.

🥊  -What do they love to do? What do they hate to do?

She loves to just sit and enjoy her surroundings, no drama, only sitting

She hates shopping for herself. She doesn’t mind it if it’s a gift, but clothes shopping for herself in particular she’s just really uncomfortable with the whole experience (look around, looking at sizes, trying them on, figuring out if she likes it enough to wear more than once, standing in line to buy it. etc. )

❤️  - What is one of your OC’s best memories?

I could be cheesy and say when she made friends with Blaze & Marine, but other than that she's always traveling she doesn't usually spend time with other people on her birthday or holidays - but one time a town she was staying at found out and threw her a small surprise party and she still cries when she thinks about it.

✂️   - What is one of your OC’s worst memories?

Sometimes picking up & and experiencing the memories of an old rock aren't always pretty. She doesn't like to talk about them.

🧊  - Is their current design the first one?

There’s a few initial sketches I did to get the overall idea going, but currently she’s on her 1st finalized design

🍀  - What originally inspired the OC?

I like powerhouse ladies and I like plus-sized representation in my favorite media, Blaze currently doesn’t have that in the Sol dimension so I took that as a challenge to see if I could make one. Sega also (currently) isn’t really keen on large mammal designs like elephants or horses, so I wanted to see if I could make a large hooved animal fit into the Sonic template. 

🌂  - What genre do they belong in?

I picture her fitting right into a kung-fu movie, as either a wise mentor or the hero's traveling companion, or even a mini boss depending on the situation.

She would hope she fit right into a cozy slice of life drama or a hallmark movie though, but she has too much of a fantasy character presence

💚  - What is your OC’s gender identity and sexuality?

Identifies as a girl, she/her/they pronouns, Ace Lesbian

🙌  - How many siblings does your OC have?

Currently 0. She views Marine as what it would be like to have a little sister though.

🍎  - What is the OC’s relationship w/their parents like?

Parents? In Sonic’s world? Ha!

Her oracle powers can be traced through her lineage though. I imagine she would view them with respect.

🧠  - What do you like most about the OC?

She’s cute and she can punch a rock in half

I also just like gentle giant characters. She's oc comfort food.

✏️  - How often do you draw/write about the OC?

Not as much as I should but I really want to change that, I think there’s so much potential to explore Blaze’s world and it’s just sitting there.

💎  - Do you ever see yourself killing off the OC?

Absolutely not. Even if there was a dire situation where death seems like the only way out, I’ve seen enough magical girl baloney to know there’s always another way. Blaze & Marine would snap her out of that “I have to end myself here to save everyone” mentality, but that's the only kind of scenario where I'd even think about that.

💀  - Does your OC have any phobias?

Claustrophobia, including feeling closed in by big crowds 

🍩  -Who is your OC’s arch-nemesis or rival?

In a playful manner, Blaze as a rival. 

🎓  - How long have you had the OC?

About 5 months :’D

Thanks for reading!

#quake the elephant #my ocs #sonic oc

[dbh-bb]

Yet More Questions

As we come up to the final sign up deadline for Artists we've been receiving a lot of questions about how much we expect by June 1st, so we wanted clarify some information for both artists and writers

ARTISTS

Oh my god, how much do I have to have ready to submit by 01 June? What will the form ask for?

The form will ask you to submit the following things:

Identifying info (obvs), including whether you are a minor

Your willingness to be paired with a minor

A sketch, layout, or concept of your art

The premise of your concept for the story

Ratings you’d be happy with on the story

Things you really don’t want to see in the story

Let’s break down a few of those.

Sketch, layout, or concept of your art: 

This should be substantial enough to get your idea across to the writer. It does not have to be finished or near-finished (although it can be if you’re there). If you work in a medium that takes significant time to generate, or where the concept of a “sketch” is hard to apply (such as 3D render art, gifs, or fanvids), do your best to express what the idea is. This could include a storyboard, a rough sketch, stick figures, and/or references/examples to show what you mean. We want the writers to get the general idea of what the final art will look like.

We will ask these submissions to be in standard formats (i.e. .png, .jpg, .gif, etc) that can be accessed on anyone’s computer without the use of special software. Your final art can be in your preferred format.

There will also be a text box where you can describe what the final art will be, like you might for an alt-text.

Premise of your concept for the story:

Artists aren’t just sharing a sketch, they’re sharing the concept behind that sketch. The concept of your story should be enough to give your writer a good direction to head in, without being so limiting that you’re ‘ordering’ a story rather than planting an idea. Yes, you can give ideas for bits of dialogue, and scenes, and major story beats and character dynamics. We want you to be either providing a jumping off point that a writer can build from, or full on working with the writer to tell a story. You need to give them enough that they can write ten thousand words from it, so we want more than the idea for the scene you are depicting yourself and a pairing.

That being said, this isn’t an opportunity to demand a very specific story out of a writer; that’s called a commission. There should still be room for the author to help shape the story as well. As Atro said, you’re giving them the blueprints; they’re building the house.

Things you don’t want to see in the story:

This is where you can let writers know anything you really don’t want added to the story. Including your personal specific do-not-wants is a way to help writers pick which stories they want to bid for. For example: “No X/Y, I prefer X and Y as platonic,” or “Please no background A/B.”

Keep two things in mind: first, writers are not allowed to add any of the AO3 Big Four to a story unless the artist suggests it first. Second, we do expect writers to work with the artist’s concept. So you don’t need to list out every single possible thing you don’t want.

What if my idea is risque, or even extreme?

We’ll make sure you get into the version not provided to minors, and you’ll have the same space to explain your concept as everyone else. Sometimes having a more extreme concept makes it harder to find a writer …but sometimes, you find that one person who does see your vision! All we ask is that you remain flexible in case the idea has to evolve to find you a match.

I’m not a writer. How much do they need for 10,000 words?

In writing terms, 10k and up is a novelette or a novella — either way, a short novel. Significantly, this will introduce plot. Now sometimes people think “plot means an entire movie” and it might not — sometimes the plot is “X and Y on a date.” Sometimes the plot is porn. But 10,000 words gives you both room to play with moving pieces. 

Example for artists who don’t write: Let’s use a very generic concept: a heist fic. You want the Jericrew on a heist. THESE ARE ESTIMATES DONT COME AT ME based on mods being old enough to remember when a drabble was 100 words exactly, but in general:

~3000 words will get you a scene. A dramatic scene or a confrontation! Cool! But a single scene.

5000-7000 words is a bit of the plot. Maybe the heist itself. Or a bit after the heist. More details, some repercussions.

~10,000 words will cover… let’s say planning the heist, executing it, and a bit of what comes after. 

A full mystery novel is usually 70,000-90,000 words. 

I’ve seen heist fics that break 200K.

This is why the minimum is 10,000 words — we want to generate deeper works where things happen. And the artists get to start the process this year. For those of you who wanted to make multiple arts and are limited by our writer count: this is your chance to think of other artworks you’d like to make within this concept!

WRITERS

How much information / freedom am I going to have?

First: We ask that writers do not add any of the AO3 Big Four to a story unless the artist suggests it. 

Second, see above for the information artists are being invited to share, to get a feel for it.

Third: There will be a variety of offers to choose from. Some artists might have a much more vague concept, while others might have a lot of the story in their head already. Remember that writers get to pick in this scenario. So if you prefer jumping into a fully-formed idea, look for those. If you prefer a less-firm idea where you can really collaborate with your partner to flesh it out, look for those. 

Artists are expected to understand that their concept is a suggestion, not a commission. So even if an artist sounds like they have a narrow view of the story they want, they know that they need to work with their writer to make it belong to both of you. Even at low levels of collaboration, we’ve seen this work out so that both contributors can be happy. So if there’s an idea you love but/and have suggestions for, go for it — there’s a good chance your artist will be happy with all your enthusiasm.

#detroit: become human #detroit become human #dbh #dbhrbb2024 #reverse big bang #fanart #fanfic #big bang #dbh big bang #detroit become human reverse big bang

[milaisa]

Teach me how to speed draw I mean I'm unable to finish even a simple sketch in 2 hours...

The secret of being able to draw "fast" comes down to routine and experience. I've worked in a professional environment where I learned fundamentals of efficient work. However, no matter what your skill level is, you can always start practicing.

In my opinion, the most important thing to remember is that sketches are supposed to be just quick scribbles of your ideas. In a professional environment, artists are encouraged to spend as little time in the early development phase. When you start designing characters for example, your first job is to create as many illustrated ideas in a very short time as possible. You shouldn't focus on details but shape language, silhouette and the general "story" you want your character to be able to tell visually.

To me it sounds like your general problem is that you spend too much time thinking how something "should look" or if your sketch is clean enough. Instead of that, try to focus on sketching the outer shape of the character. Here are some of my sketches I've made under a few minutes.

See? My sketches aren't the cleanest but they convey the message I want to bring. Instead of focusing too much on detail, I make sure the shape language and facial expressions are clear and easy to read. I personally suggest checking out the work of storyboard artists. I think learning about their working habits could help you learn how to spend less time on detail and rather put that effort into conveying the message you want your sketch to tell.

When you gain more experience, build your confidence and grow more familiar with your own style, your sketching habits start to become automatic and you don't need to put much thought process into it anymore. It all really comes down to experience. I've not always been fast at drawing. It took me years of practice to get where I am now and believe me or not, I'm STILL learning. It never stops. I'm still aiming to be even faster.

As a general note, being fast doesn't mean you're a good artist but it's a useful skill while working in a professional field. However, I personally admire artists who are able to pour hundreds of hours in a single painting. I could never be able to do that.

#anon #asks #art tutorial #kinda? #art fundamentals #efficient work habits #art tip #I'm just a junior artist but I think I'm still allowed to answer this #I hope it helped!

[hexfloog]

2021 - 2022 - 2023 - 2024

Can you believe there's barely 10 days left to the year?? Because I can't! Time to lay my feelings bare again!!!

So I definitely slowed down quite a bit compared to 2022, but I still made enough to fill the template and, in spite of everything else, lots of life development things happened these last 365 days that I think makes 2023 one of my best years in recent memory :)

I have less to say about the art this time. The drop in quantity checks out when I stop to reflect on just how much time I spent on each one. I definitely don't have as many sketchy works to show off this time either (probably in no small part due to the fact that I've also slowed down on Detco) - and that's probably owed to having spent most of my art effort this year drawing for other people, be it commissions or fan projects, and I already know that I'm more inclined to take risks when I have just myself to please. It's not a bad thing, that's just how it is.

I suppose my one observation of this year's body of work is that the vast majority of it is quite ambitious. Real pushing-my-comfort-zone stuff, but it's more of a polished brand of risk rather than the kind you get sketching ideas on the spot. Some examples:

February - both a collab and a thing that became a fan cel intended as an autograph piece at a con

April - simultaneously a gift and a very personal piece

June - silly comic (anything humorous is automatically out of my comfort zone)

August - community project + comic page redraw that really tested my ability to find a new style to play with

September - made to become tangible merch (it did)

October - redraw of my very first digital piece

November* - character design from text description only and formal reference sheet commission (my first ever)

December* - digital watercolor + fake children's paperback cover

*active WIP, not yet complete

It's not that much (really, it's average output for me) but I will take my wins where I can get them, especially since this is pretty much the scope of my art projects this year. Didn't really have much time or energy to write, or make more models, or scan more cards, because... ya girl was too busy getting a promotion/raise, moving out, enjoying the best con experience of her life (so far), volunteering, meeting lots of new people, dating again, having general fun, eating good food, trying new things, finishing a monthly art challenge for once, playing creative romhacks, waking up to new career opportunities, etc. etc. etc! It feels like so much happened this year!!

I tend to be harsh on myself and often feel like my life is not going anywhere, but this year really made me feel like I'm finally gaining some momentum again. And like... I don't expect (or want) to live life in the fast lane or anything, but stagnating isn't good, either, and with every passing year I have to ask myself with a little more sincerity what my future looks like.

So all that said, thanks very much for sticking around and suffering me another year <333 Who knows what 2024 will bring!! But for the first time in a while, I think I am looking to it with more than just a resigned "meh" and I hope the same for anyone reading this, too.

#personal #summary of art #summary of art 2023 #2023 summary of art #queue

[theambivalentagender]

My Comics Process

I've seen other people post an overview of their comic making process, so I figured I'd put up my own for Valley Echoes. Fair warning, a lot of this is probably good examples of what you really shouldn't do. There's bits to it I need to tweak. But overall this is just what works for me.

Step 1: Borderline Maladaptive Daydreaming

I have a general outline of upcoming comics and plot points, mostly in my head, partially written down in a Notepad file named "ejfiejfeij." Sometimes I'll see something like an incorrect quote or headcanon that inspires a part of a comic, and when that happens I'll try to take note of the original creator of said inspiration to credit later.

Several of my comics have been literally inspired by weird things that have happened while playing modded Stardew - one good example being this bit.

Step 2: Sketch Concept

I don't always do this stage in full for every comic - sometimes I just know exactly how things are going to go. But a lot of the time I like doing it because it's a quick way to note down specific visual ideas I have for upcoming comics so I can save time once I get to them.

Funny enough I don't really write scripts for my comics. Again, probably something I should do, but I find writing out scripts actually makes it harder for me to get ideas out fluidly. A script feels like I have to lock down a lot of details right away - that isn't necessarily the truth, it's just how it feels for me, and can result in me not being able to just get the ideas out of my head.

I purposefully keep this stage very, very simplified and loose, mostly for the above reasons. The idea is to keep as much detail-oriented thought away from this stage of the process as possible. You'll see I use certain quick markers to differentiate characters - Shane's sideways hair triangle, Emily's curl, Clint's beard, and Zeke's zig-zaggy hair.

I may write down specific dialogue lines that I know for sure I want in the final comic, but mostly it's just general dialogue ideas or reminders to myself what the "bit" is supposed to be if it's not immediately obvious. I'll add small direction lines if they're important, and quick speech bubbles as a reminder that a character is talking offscreen.

Apologies for my abysmal handwriting. It's readable to me, and in this stage that's really all that matters.

Step 3: Detailed Sketch

This is the part where I finally sit down and take a couple of hours to do the initial comic sketch. Sometimes the final version of this won't entirely match up with the concept. Rarely, I've added or removed panels up until the final image. In most cases, though, this is where the overall comic gets locked in.

I use CSP's 3d models and assets for most of my scenes. I have saved models for each of the characters' proportions, which I find is super great for keeping relative heights consistent. Most of the time when I need props or other set pieces in a scene I'll just use various primatives, however there was absolutely no way in hell I was going to be able to pull that off for the camera, so that's its own asset.

I don't carry my notes over from concept to this stage, I mostly just refer back to the concept layer when I need to add those bits. I've been trying to get more in the habit of sketching out word bubble blocks at this stage to get an idea of how much space I need to leave in each panel. I didn't do this for this comic, which did lead to issues with the one panel where Zeke is trying to walk naturally, but oh well.

Step 4: "Inking"

I like to call this stage "inking" but it's really doing the final clean up layer. This is where I start messing with vectors.

There's actually a lot of steps to this that I can't quite show in this final layer version. Here, I start with just drawing over the lines in the detailed sketch layer with my "inking" pen. I try to keep my lines clear and tend to draw over crossing lines so I can erase the overflow later for a cleaner look. Throughout this stage I'm doing a lot of line adjustments, simplifying where I can, just to make the next part easier.

After I've done all that, I'll go back and adjust line thicknesses. I could probably do a whole post on that alone, but in general I lean toward thicker lines, thickening the lines of clothing, hair, eyebrows, and eyes in particular, as well as thinning wrinkle and other small detail lines.

Step 4: Base Color

I have a pallet of base black-grey-white colors for Valley Echoes, each of which I use consistently for different details. For example, nearly all characters get the same "skin" color (exceptions being Maru, Jas, and Demetrius, who each have their own). Zeke and Shane's hair and common outfit colors are also saved, as well as a few for other recurring characters.

Other than that, I try to "color" according to what needs to stick out in a scene and just trying to make sure grayscale tones aren't too similar next to each other and muddied. If two characters are going to be standing next to each other frequently I try to give them noticeably different shades in their clothing.

The process for this is slightly different for in-color comics. I also have pallets saved for those comics.

Step 5: Details

This is where I'll go back in and add other details that can't simply be added with fill and other tools. In this case, I added Shane's stubble, the blushing in several panels, and Clint turning blue with effect lines.

This is also where I'll add a background. Again, I try to keep the backgrounds so that they don't muddy the foreground elements.

Step 5: Dialogue

This is the bit where I'm likely going to do some revamping in the future. CSP's base dialogue tools are...not great. I'm considering finding another program for doing this bit.

I've also been trying to learn more about methods for dialogue bubble placement in general. This is the bit that can be the most frustrating for me, but overall it works.

How to write the dialogue itself would probably take up multiple posts in of itself. It's a bit instinctual to me because I have much more experience with writing in general. There's also a lot you can say about how splitting dialogue into different bubbles changes how those lines are interpreted, etc.

In this case, a chunk of this comic is taken directly from the original SDV scene, slightly altered for timing purposes. When it comes to canon scenes, it variates on how strictly I follow the dialogue.

After this step, it's just splitting each of these into separate images for each panel and uploading to Tumblr. And I guess that's my very messy, still in development process.

#valley echoes asides #comic #comic process

[starry-briar]

A fic idea I’ve had rotating in my head for a while:

I headcanon Sucrose as aro/ace. While she doesn’t particularly struggle with this aspect of herself, her lack of interest in sex and romance contributes to the alienation she feels around her peers. She genuinely does not understand how most people find that more interesting than, say, skeletal anatomy or the chemical composition of sweet flower nectar. She just eventually learns to take it as a given that they do.

Enter Albedo. Sucrose struggles to make friends in general, and Albedo has the added awkwardness of being both her mentor and a higher ranking member of the Knights. But slowly, during the breaks in their lessons and other work, they get to talking about their lives.

Eventually the topic of romance comes up. Albedo largely disdainful of the subject: it can make for some interesting drama and character motivation in the novels he reads, but the appeal of it in real life is completely lost on him.

Sucrose is ecstatic. She thought she was the only one who felt that way, but it turns out there is at least one other person like her! They spend some time bonding over this shared difference before moving on to talk about alchemy, biology, and other such things that, to the both of them, are far more interesting than romance could ever be.

A while later, Aether shows up.

And Sucrose realizes that Albedo isn’t like her after all.

She actually notices before Albedo himself does. She sees the excitement on his face when talking to Aether, the droop in his shoulders when Aether leaves, the pages upon pages of sketches of Aether in his notebook. When asked what the thinks the source of his fascination with Aether is, he says it’s scientific curiosity, but Sucrose is dubious.

She knows it’s silly to feel betrayed but...part of her does anyway. They had just started to become good friends; what will happen to their friendship if Albedo gets a partner? Will it continue on the same as before, or will he redirect his attention and let their friendship fall away?

Thankfully, even once Albedo and Aether do figure their feelings out and get together, Albedo continues to put effort into his friendship with Sucrose -- more so than he used to, in fact. Sucrose attributes this to Aether drawing him out of his shell. (She’s not entirely wrong, but there is a bit more to the story than that; see my previous post about Cinnabar Spindle.) At some point, Albedo mentions that, while Aether follows along admirably for a lay person, it’s refreshing to talk to someone who is both knowledgeable and passionate about alchemy.

--

When Sucrose meets Collei during the Windblume festival, their friendship feels radically different than Sucrose’s other friendships. It’s more emotionally open, intense, intimate. She considers whether she can feel romantic love after all, but somehow that doesn’t seem...right.

Collei also doesn’t know what to make of it. Partially it’s that she’s still recovering from getting turned down by Amber, her childhood crush who apparently views her as a little sister (even though, at least for the purposes of this fic, they’re only a year or two apart in age). She wonders if she will feel differently once the pain from that subsides.

Collei brings up the subject of kissing, once. She doesn’t really want to do it, but she is curious how it would feel. She also figures the scientifically-minded Sucrose would appreciate a chance to conduct to gather data to better understand her own feelings. The visceral horror Sucrose feels is data enough, though, and they both breathe a sigh of relief that kissing is officially off the table.

But holding hands is nice, and they spend Collei’s last night in Mondstadt cuddling together.

#genshin impact #sucrose #albedo #collei #headcanons #sucrose x collei #but in a qpr way #albedo x aether #(not putting this in the aebedo/albether tags because this really isn't about that)