#i put too much thought into all the little references in this and composition. my mind is goo

[ghostskyee]

DONT WATCH GOMENS 2 IT RUINED MY LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

#good omens #good omens 2 #crowley #aziraphale #aziracrow #ineffable husbands #drawss #digital #procreate #2023 #i put too much thought into all the little references in this and composition. my mind is goo

[sanctus-ingenium]

another one of these posts lol... sketches vs final. not much changed for these ones, i kind of went into them with a very solid mental image already in my head. all of these were done start to finish in procreate

thoughts below the cut

horse fight .... this is based off a really really beautiful sky i saw while driving home one evening. i'm really proud of getting the colours i saw exactly right, this kind of greenish yellow fading to dark blue and with grey clouds low over it that looked very dark against the yellow by the horizon, but very pale against the dark blue.

i thought it would be a cool backdrop to draw a scene i've been thinking about for a while. The little cartoony horses are there to provide some tonal whiplash but also because these are two immortal shapeshifters who can fight violently without it being a huge deal. the little horses represent the actual gravity of the fight (that is, kind of a slap fight between two drama queens) which contrasts with the visuals of two animals brutally tearing at eachother. also i got the two horses at the bottom mixed up, Pascal is the one with the skinny plumed tail and Macha has a more traditional horse tail and i put them on the wrong sides.

i had a LOT of trouble shading this. i didn't want the horses to be too shiny but that meant a much lower contrast in shading and even with my screen brightness turned up i could barely see what i was doing. but i wanted it to read as realistic. mixed results i think. if i did it again i might try a different shading style because this one didn't really do it for me

--

spooky van!!! the post i deleted by accident (rip. i will repost it soon). this is a picture of the barrow (the field) taking a different shape - in this case a cool van. the van contains every single thing the field does (including the human victims that get lost in there...) but compressed down into a manageable shape. the void is Pascal because the field is inside him. he did this for his human bf to provide novel way to travel through the Otherworld. don't ask how this works like, spatially, because the answer is: i don't do hard magic systems in this setting

i loooove shading things with pencil hatching and i really like contrasting it with smooth colours/shading so that's mainly what i did here. it was simple enough. the van is of course heavily referenced and i wish i had been able to stylise it a little more.. maybe next time. i want to draw a kind of cutaway illustration of the van showing exterior and interior (like an old blueprint schematic), which i might use as a cover for the book/comic/whatever but that will require a very intimidating level of precision so i think i'll work up to that.

--

RUA magazine. this is my third time doing a rua magazine cover (first time posting tho). this is an in-universe magazine distributed throughout the Otherworld to an audience of fairies. in the sketch, the illustation was originally the King of Pentacles tarot card (the pentacle being the disco ball). but i decided to make a different King of Pentacles card for him instead, since I try hard to move away from symmetrical composition for the tarot cards (it's boring). so i repurposed this one into another magazine cover. like i said Pascal is a self-absorbed attention whore and has a habit of giving bullshit interviews just so that he can be on the cover as much as possible. he dresses like this all the time (the year is 2017)

the disco ball took 15 years off my life and it's not even the first disco ball i've drawn! i finished my actual king of pentacles card before i finished the rua cover sketch, so i can show u this

which is much better even if i did reference so heavily that it isn't exactly stylised. but this card needs some serious revision before i even think about posting it. i'm just not happy with his face.

original intent was for it be mysterious with emphasis on the neon lights but it ended up far more suggestive than i expected. that's life!

[helloanthy]

🗒️ 24.04.2024 ⋅⋅⋅ 🥀

some notes for 20.09.2023 post and a separate cut out for utena because i spent a very long time rendering her ... the original concept i had in my head for this art was very different. it was just supposed to be a style study of this an official anime prop design art, and i'd thought to draw anthy in a similar pose across from her like in the shown version, but with her wearing her prince outfit from the manga. something something another form of female competition under the patriarchyyy stop pitting 2 girlprinces against each other omg etc (side note, how sick would it have been in an AU where akio made anthy fight against utena in the ring? like i dont think it would hav added more to the story or made it better really ... probably would've diluted the message to be honest ... but everytime i see that manga art of prince anthy i imagine some convoluted black rose arc AU where utenas dodging anthy getting her hair hacked off left and right like himemiyaaa nooo snap out of it this isnt uuu while anthys silent and dead eyed hahaha) but then after i drew prince anthy, the picture looked rather empty ... so i thought to add a few decals or borders in the style of the show & official arts but aaahh ... there was still too much negative space. i had to scrap anthy's prince outfit and put her back in her rose bride dress 😭 man !!! he cant keep getting away this !!! [blames akio the figurehead of patriarchy instead of taking responsibility of my own actions] which made me sad because i was pretty satisfied with the way i drew her pose and legs ! but i had to cover it up 🥲 ... the composition overall looked better though. and then after that it kept spiraling. i just kept adding more and more things until i lost control of this drawing and it plagued my WIP folder for months ... i dont want to try and connect all of it in words so ill just lay out all the pieces for you so you can connect them yourself. and you can experience my art thought process in fraction of erraticity and frustration as i experience it myself. this is a lot neater than what happened in my head though because i bothered to put it in order. honestly if i can make you feel a little bit insane trying to scroll through and read all this than i can make you understand how annoying my brain is when all i wanted to draw was utenanthy girlprinces fighting starting references & inspiration: utena prop reference sheet & manga prince!anthy

the tower & the lovers tarot

above: the lovers as depicted in the tarot of marseilles deck, tarocco bolognese deck, & tarocco piemontese deck the lovers (tarot card) wikipedia: The Lovers is associated with the star sign Gemini, and indeed is also known as The Twins in some decks. Other associations are with Air, Mercury, and the Hebrew letter ז (Zayin). In the Rider Waite deck, the imagery for this card is changed significantly from the traditional depiction. Instead of a couple receiving a blessing from a noble or cleric, the Rider–Waite deck depicts Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

a.e. waite, the pictorial key to the tarot, part III, section 3, no.6: UPRIGHT: Attraction, love, beauty, trials overcome REVERSED: Failure, foolish designs. Another account speaks of marriage frustrated and contrarieties of all kinds a.e. waite, the pictorial key to tarot, part II, VI. the lovers: In the foreground are two human figures, male and female, unveiled before each other, as if Adam and Eve when they first occupied the paradise of the earthly body. Behind the man is the Tree of Life, bearing twelve fruits, and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is behind the woman; the serpent is twining round it. The figures suggest youth, virginity, innocence and love before it is contaminated by gross material desire. This is in all simplicity the card of human love, here exhibited as part of the way, the truth and the life. It replaces, by recourse to first principles, the old card of marriage, which I have described previously, and the later follies which depicted man between vice and virtue. In a very high sense, the card is a mystery of the Covenant and Sabbath. The suggestion in respect of the woman is that she signifies that attraction towards the sensitive life which carries within it the idea of the Fall of Man, but she is rather the working of a Secret Law of Providence than a willing and conscious temptress. It is through her imputed lapse that man shall arise ultimately, and only by her can he complete himself. The card is therefore in its way another intimation concerning the great mystery of womanhood. going off of the rider-waite tarot deck: the pictorial key to the tarot—biddytarot's interpretation of the lovers: UPRIGHT: Love, harmony, relationships, values alignment, choices REVERSED: Self-love, disharmony, imbalance, misalignment of values In its purest form, The Lovers card represents conscious connections and meaningful relationships. The arrival of this card in a Tarot reading shows that you have a beautiful, soul-honoring connection with a loved one. [...] The Lovers is a card of open communication and raw honesty. Given that the man and woman are naked, they are both willing to be in their most vulnerable states and have learned to open their hearts to one another and share their truest feelings. [...] On a more personal level, The Lovers card represents getting clear about your values and beliefs. You are figuring out what you stand for and your philosophy. Having gone through the indoctrination of The Hierophant, you are now ready to establish your belief system and decide what is and what is not essential to you. It’s time to go into the big wide world and make choices for yourself, staying true to who you are and being authentic and genuine in all your endeavors. At its heart, The Lovers is about choice. The choice about who you want to be in this lifetime, how you connect with others and on what level, and about what you will and won’t stand for. To make good choices, you need to be clear about your personal beliefs and values – and stay true to them. Not all decisions will be easy either. The Lovers card is often a sign that you are facing a moral dilemma and must consider all consequences before acting. Your values system is being challenged, and you are being called to take the higher path, even if it is difficult. Do not carry out a decision based on fear or worry or guilt or shame. Now, more than ever, you must choose love – love for yourself, love for others and love for the Universe. Choose the best version of yourself. Finally, The Lovers card encourages you to unify dual forces. You can bring together two parts that are seemingly in opposition to one another and create something that is ‘whole’, unified and harmonious. In every choice, there is an equal amount of advantage and disadvantage, opportunity and challenge, positive and negative. When you accept these dualities, you build the unity from which love flows.

the tower (tarot card) wikipedia: The Tower is widely associated to danger, crisis, sudden change, destruction, higher learning, and liberation. In the Rider–Waite deck, the top of The Tower is a crown, which symbolizes materialistic thought being bought cheap, downcast. a.e. waite, the pictorial key to the tarot, part III, section 3, no.16: UPRIGHT: Misery, distress, indigence, adversity, calamity, disgrace, deception, ruin. It is a card in particular of unforeseen catastrophe REVERSED: According to one account, the same in a lesser degree also oppression, imprisonment, tyranny (the wikipedia included a.e. waite's upright meanings, but i have no idea where they got the reversed meanings) going off of the rider-waite tarot deck: the pictorial key to the tarot—biddytarot's interpretation of the tower: UPRIGHT: Sudden change, upheaval, chaos, revelation, awakening REVERSED: Personal transformation, fear of change, averting disaster The Tower shows a tall tower perched on the top of a rocky mountain. Lightning strikes set the building alight, and two people leap from the windows, head first and arms outstretched. It is a scene of chaos and destruction. The Tower itself is a solid structure, but because it has been built on shaky foundations, it only takes one bolt of lightning to bring it down. It represents ambitions and goals made on false premises. The lightning represents a sudden surge of energy and insight that leads to a break-through or revelation. It enters via the top of the building and knocks off the crown, symbolizing energy flowing down from the Universe, through the crown chakra. The people are desperate to escape from the burning building, not knowing what awaits them as they fall. [...] The best way forward is to let this structure self-destruct so you can re-build and re-focus. [...] with a card like The Tower, you have no choice but to surrender to the destruction and chaos, no matter how unwanted or painful [...] After a Tower experience, you will grow stronger, wiser and more resilient as you develop a new perspective on life you did not even know existed. 

infant stars taken by NASA hubble used in the background overlay of akio's tower star birth | cool cosmos: Stars form from the simplest of building blocks - huge clouds of gas and dust that permeate the Galaxy. [...] While these big clouds of dust and gas lay dormant for many millions and perhaps billions of years, eventually some of them are disturbed. This can happen gradually, maybe caused by the approach of one of the Milky Way's spiral arms as it slowly sweeps around the center of the galaxy, or it can be a sudden event, like a nearby supernova explosion that blasts a shockwave through the cloud. Either way, a small increase in the pressure and density of the cloud forms knots in the gas and dust that eventually collapse under their own gravity, pulling more and more of the surrounding material in, and forming the stellar "seeds" known as protostars. From Protostar to Star: As the clouds collapse, they start to rotate, and, like a spinning skater pulling in her arms, each of these seed protostars begins to spin faster the more it collapses. The material falling towards the protostar flattens out into a rotating disk of dust and gas encircling the central core. The protostar warms up, as the potential energy of the material falling in is converted into kinetic energy, but it has not yet ignited to form a fully-fledged star. For the next few million years, the protostar's gravity pulls in more material from the surrounding cloud into its disk. That disk transports the gas and dust onto the protostar, causing the protostar to grow. The increase in mass causes the gravitational field of the protostar to increase and so even more material is pulled into the disk. The addition of more material, in turn, increases the gravitational field even further, pulling in more material, and so on, creating a feedback loop that keeps the whole process going. [...] The density and temperature of the protostar keep climbing higher and higher, until eventually the core grows to about one tenth the size of our Sun, and becomes hot and dense enough for hydrogen nuclei to spontaneously stick together to form helium, in a process called nuclear fusion. At that instant, the core ignites, and the new star is born. Meanwhile, in the disk, clumps of material have been forming, which are the seeds of new planets. These seeds sweep up material in the disk in a process called accretion, forming the planets of a new solar system. Once the star has started nuclear fusion, the heat and wind from the infant star begin to blast the gas and dust away, creating a cavity in the cloud. As more and more matter gets funneled onto the star from the disk, the star gets larger and larger, causing it to push harder and harder against the cloud and the disk, enlarging the cavity, vaporizing the disk, and halting the growth of planets.

deadheading (flowers) wikipedia: Deadheading is the horticultural practice of removing spent flowers from ornamental plants. Deadheading is a widespread form of pruning, since fading flowers are not as appealing and direct a lot of energy into seed development if pollinated. The goal of deadheading is thus to preserve the attractiveness of the plants in beds, borders, containers and hanging baskets, as well as to encourage further blooming. Deadheading flowers with many petals, such as roses, peonies, and camellias prevents them from littering.

[...] Ornamental plants that do not require deadheading are those that do not produce a lot of seed or tend to deadhead themselves [...] if the plant bears attractive seeds or fruits, deadheading is normally avoided

ladybird, ladybug, lady beetle: scientific name "coccinellidae" wikipedia: Etymology: [...] The common English name ladybird originated in Britain where the insects became known as "Our Lady's birds". Mary ("Our Lady") was often depicted wearing a red cloak in early art, and the seven spots of the species Coccinella septempunctata (the most common in Europe) were said to represent her seven joys and seven sorrows. Trophic Roles: Coccinellids act both as predators, prey and parasitic hosts in food webs. The majority of coccinellids are carnivorous and predatory. [...] Cannibalism has been recorded in several species; which includes larvae eating eggs or other larvae, and adults feeding on individuals of any life stage.

Defense: The bright warning colouration of many coccinellids discourage potential predators, warning of their toxicity [...] Species with more contrast with the background environment tended to be more toxic. Coccinellid haemolymph (blood) contains toxic alkaloids, azamacrolides and polyamines, as well as foul-smelling pyrazines. Coccinellids can produce at least 50 types of alkaloids. When disturbed, ladybirds further defend themselves with reflex bleeding, exuding drops from their tibio-femoral (knee) joints, effectively presenting predators with a sample of their toxic and bitter body fluid.

despite said being named after the lady virgin mary they are known to be promiscuous breeders, who's habits have been documented to result in epidemics of sexually transmitted infection in large populations, subject to various academic studies

lyric from lady oscar's theme song "the rose perishes beautifully"

ok there was more but its been like 8 hours it turns out trying to put my thoughts into words even if its just a bunch of copy pasting is even more annoying than just thinking them im ending this post 😭

#🗒️ #📜

[yougavemeyourheartyouknow]

On thin ice (Hockey player! Miguel O’Hara x Ice skater! Fem! Reader

A/N: Hehe new chapter bitches come feast 🤭. The usu, so excuse grammatical errors and typos, Miguel being ooc most likely. Also if anyone knows that “get your hands off my stunt” tiktok I wanted to make a reference to it in here hehe.

(Y/N)- Your name.

Cursing, Miguel not knowing how to communicate his feelings, Peter trying to get Miguel to communicate said feelings. Logan being a king lol.

Word count: 1.4k

Series Masterlist

Chapter 12: Baby we both know,that the nights are mainly made for saying thing’ that we can’t say tomorrow day.

—

“Alright, let’s practice the lift.” Logan said, as he motioned for you to step closer to him, which you quickly obliged, standing next to him as you both postion yourselves for the crucifix lift. You took a deep breath as you grip onto Logan’s tone shoulders, trying to focus on you and your partner rather than the shouts and the sound of composite hockey sticks hitting the puck that was coming from the inside of the rink that was happening 20 feet away from you. Usually on Thursdays you both wouldn't go over your lifts off the ice while the spiders practice, but with a week and a day till regionals, anxiety has gotten the best of you, and the inability to get one of the empty dance rooms to practice only helped turn that anxiety into annoyance.

As Logan goes down to position his hands on you, and began to lift you, one the hockey players thought it would be oh so funny to shoot the puck in your direction, causing it to hit the plastic barrier with a loud bang, startling you a bit as you let go of Logan’s shoulders, letting out a small screech, and a few chuckles from the players on the ice. Thank god for Logan, the heavenly partner he was, was still able to go through with the move, although his movements were slightly shaky due to the scare. It seems you both weren’t the only ones to notice the shakiness, because one of the players that wasn’t on the ice was walking by and noticed too.

“I got her, I got her.” He mumbled as he stopped behind you and placed his hands on your waist, you didn’t move from the touch since if you tried to squirm away, your hip would hit Logan’s head.

Logan in response let out a dry chuckle as he looked over at the guy holding onto your waist, giving him a once over before saying, “get your hands off my partner.” To which the other guy quickly let go, putting both hands up in a defensive manner.

“Sorry man, just trying to help.” The guy said as Logan flipped you to put you back on the floor.

“Yeah, well, I didn't ask.” Logan replied as he whipped his hands on his practice tights. You couldn’t help but let out a little snort at Logan’s sassiness.

“Reilly! Stop talking to those two and get your ass in here! We still have 20 minutes!” You turned your head once you heard Miguel’s orders to his teammate, as he skated past you three, his eyes lingering a bit longer on you then it did on Logan or on his teammate, both your eyes locking for a split second, and in that second, time slowed for a bit.

“You heard him Ben, get your ass in here!” Peter shouts next, your eyes ripped from Miguel’s to look over at him. Honestly, the only one you could really recognize in red and blue sports gear was Mig, you only knew it was Peter who just spoke from the sound of his voice, even with the numbers and the names on the back, although you didn’t really know any but Peter and Miguel. With Miguel it was easier to tell him apart from the rest since his physique was so much different from the others. Sure they were all tall and muscular, but compared to Miguel…

“Oh my god stop being a horny bitch…” you scolded yourself internally, shaking your head as you watched the guy whose name was Ben Reilly (you were guessing at least, it made more sense to you then Reilly Ben.) made his way back on the ice.

“Fucking god… he thinks I don’t know what I’m doing…” Logan scoffed under his breath as he whispered to you, his eyes narrowed as he looked over at the rink before his gaze met yours, his shifting to one of a more playfulness once he saw the look of amusement in your eyes. “What?” He asked with a slight chuckle as he moved his hands to rest inside of his jacket pockets.

“Nothing, it’s just funny. When you said it like that, you sounded so possessive.” You grinned, lightly pointing him in his ribs, your grin widened when he scowled and squirmed away from your touch in retaliation.

“Well, excuse me, for not wanting someone else who I don’t know to be touching my ice dancing partner while we practice the moves.” Logan retorted with an eye roll, taking his hands out of his pocket to instead cross his arms in front of his chest. “Besides, I know you didn’t want him to touch you as much as I didn’t.” He added with a slight head tilt and a small smirk.

“Yeah, yeah...” you scoffed with a smile.

—

“Miguel…”

“Miguel..”

“Miguel.”

“Mig-“

“Shut the fuck up Peter, I’m trying to focus.”

“I know you don’t like ‘talking about your feelings’ or whatever but you can’t just ignore her-“

“Watch me.”

Peter let out an exasperated sigh, running his hands through his light brown hair, before putting both hands onto the small dining room table that was in their tiny kitchen area, leaning his weight against it as he watched Miguel, who’s eyes never lifted from We’re he sat at the table, shifting from the notebook, to his laptop then to his textbook and back again, but never actually letting his eyes wander up to meet his friend’s.

“I can ignore her till I die.” Now that was a lie. Miguel knew it the second he uttered the words, although not a complete lie, it was still a lie. Sure, he could tease you, call you names, send you those classic smirks of his, and kiss you with more hunger than a starving man could devour food with when no one was around to look, all he wanted. But having to look you in the eyes, talking about how you made his heart race far more faster than any sort of championship game did,having to keep his jealousy at bay when he saw the was Ben put his hand on your waist in an attempt to help support you, when you and Logan were practicing outside of the rink today, knowing if he didn’t you’d be a witness to the sight of Ben Reilly getting decked in the face. The thought of having to him allowing himself to lay bare to you, he couldn’t even imagine it, he was never was one to talk to others in a way to allow himself to be seen as vulnerable, as a human with complex thoughts and emotions, so the prospect of you the only woman to make his heart stir with such emotion that it felt like he was suffering a heart attack, knowing what he hiding in the depths of his mind was utterly terrifying to him.

“Besides-“ Miguel continued, finally looking up at Peter, “I'm more focused on my next midterm to be worrying about some silly, little crush. I'm not a schoolgirl.” He finished before looking back down at his laptop, his full dark brows scrunched together as he attempted to concentrate on the more important task at hand. If he was still looking up, he’d see how Peter’s eyes widened once he had finished speaking.

“Wait… say that again.” Peter muttered quietly, Miguel looked up at his dorm mate again with a raised brow, before letting out a huff of air as he closed his laptop, knowing he isn’t going to get any work done with Peter continuing to push the conversation.

“ I said I’m too busy trying to get ready for-“

“No,” Peter almost hissed with how quickly he interrupted Miguel, “not that. You said crush, you, Miguel O’Hara just said you have a crush.” Once the words left Peter’s mouth, both males covered their mouths with their hands as their eyes widened, one in horror, the other in excitement.

“No I didn’t-“

“Oh yeah, you did!” Peter’s hands slips from his mouth, revealing that childlike grin he always seems to wear, but it was 10 times more annoying than it usually was, Miguel in response just dug his face further into his hand, muttering a curse in Spanish that his friend couldn’t quite understand.

“You’re gonna be the death of me Peter…” he mumbled into his palm, but his thoughts continued the sentence, “If (Y/N) doesn’t kill you first.”

—

Taglist: @tayleighuh @cowboylikeevie @coralineyouareinterribledanger @jukioku @loser-alert @miguel-ohara-eater @serpentstarr @littlexscarletxwitch @darksidescorner @sukioyakio @minimari415

#miguel o hara fanfic #miguel o'hara x reader #miguel o'hara #on thin ice fanfic #spiderman 2099 x reader #astv miguel #astv spiderman 2099 #miguel o’hara au #figure skating au #hockey au #miguel spiderverse #spiderman 2099 fanfic #spiderman 2099

[erysium]

I started reading Kochab a bit ago and while I'm no where near done I wanted to tell you how gorgeous it is

I keep stopping at every page to zoom in and study all the details, your artwork is absolutely stunning <3 I love the backgrounds, and how you play with the framing and composition, it looks so good !!

And the little animations! Agkkfsdlkf! They are so pretty! You make everything come to life! I want to live in this world!

Also love how you use colors, really makes me feel how warm/cold it is, esp when the warm vibrant oranges begin flooding in after a lot of darker purples n blues, feels so cozy

I'm still in the early phases and dont know Kye or Sonya very well yet, but I just know I'll fall in love (while they do the same w each other>:3)

I think there was more I wanted to talk about but I'm half asleep n can't remember so I'll leave it there. Thank you so much for sharing your work, you clearly put so much into it :]

Thank you so much! this comment is so lovely to receive. thank you for taking the time to appreciate all these little details, this all makes me so happy to hear <3

thank you! It was watercolor base + digital touching up (for the fine details and also broad color shifts) I really like that medium combo, it feels like I can get the best out of both :)

thank you so much!! I keep saying it but I've been really blown away by all the support for the comic ending and kickstarter - it's really much more than I'd hoped for. :') <3

<3 thank you so much for reading!

thank you!! :') ah that's a broad question! Color is part of how I think about contrast, values, composition, lighting, and mood. I look at a lot of photos and art for reference/inspiration, and try to make myself try new things! I do fall pretty easily into wanting every painting to just be blue/purple and yellow, and I try to avoid doing that too often, haha. I also have to try hard to not let things get muddy, and/or bogged down by realism when stylized or expressive color would work better. A lot of my art is based on lighting or color schemes I've seen in real life and want to try to capture. I've taken Kat Tsai's color class and Sam Nielsen's lighting class, and both really influenced me too! My asks tag might have some more thoughts/resources too.

#asks #comic #long post !! #a lot of these are a bit old #i've just been holding onto them happily for a while <3

[chuuyadelune]

now that i have recovered from the emotional shock of seeing *that* akutagawa scene from chapter 88 animated in HD 4K (i thought i’d have another week to emotionally prepare myself LMAO), i just wanna be a little bit of a nerd and say that i really liked the cinematography/composition this episode.

in particular, i really enjoyed the anime’s decision to draw visual parallels between this fight and previous fights (in particular, the fight against francis, which is important because it is the first time they worked together).

after all, this fight is the culmination of everything they’ve done together. from the combining of their abilities, coming to an understanding with each other, realising the potential of beast-beneath the moonlight-rashoumon… bringing back similar shots that were used in previous fights is SUPER effective at highlighting the parallels and how far they’ve come, in my humble opinion.

here are a few things i noticed:

- first of all, both of them activating their abilities one after another is an explicit nod to S2’s fight;

- the confrontation/conversation in the hallway from S2 (to an extent! they’re on the same sides, which caught my eye);

- akutagawa blowing up the engine room on the ship, and kyouka doing the same during the first fight between him and atsushi (S1);

- and a similar angle being used for black tiger claws / koukko zessou as a nod to the fight in the S3 finale.

the parallels — though maybe less explicit, *are* still there in the manga? like, the entire “structure” of the fight so to speak is very similar to the francis fight in S2 — akutagawa finding atsushi, taking place on a(n air)ship, breaking away from the fight to strategise before confronting the final boss (then, francis, and now, fukuchi) is undeniably a nod to that fight? i love that this is given its due in the anime as well.

another thing about the cinematography this episode i loved was them using the clock as being the indicator of fukuchi’s fuckass space-time sword doing its thing. that was a really nice touch, in my opinion; the cuts in between were jarring and disorienting and really helped put us into sskk’s shoes.

and as for the background design alongside the clock itself — there were a couple of things about them i enjoyed:

- the number of floors / levels of the ship in the back (5, as a nod to the five ways an angel decays, the DOA)

- the blue of the clock is meant to be reminiscent of fukuchi’s sword, i’d argue, with the way both of them pops out of the sunset/orangey-red lighting

- the clock’s design being super ornate and gold plated reminds me a *bit* of a tabernacle (where they keep unused eucharist in a church) — and thus brings up connotations of sacrifice. that white bridge-thing beneath the clock as well reminds me a lot of an altar, too (see the image above the last to see what exactly i’m referring to, because image limit)

okay, yeah, that one might be a bit of a stretch, sure. but its placement as being above them, combined with the two tables/boxes to the left and right of the ship’s bow (which looks very much like a cross, btw) gives it a distinctly religious, altar-kinda feel, i’d argue. and crosses have been used in S4 as symbolism as well!

(tbh, there could even be a bit more imagery i’m missing, because — the angels of the DOA refers specifically to the buddhist conception of an angel. i’m not too familiar with buddhist imagery, but i thought that this was worth pointing out regardless!)

the last thing i want to say is that the red and blue symbolism went CRAZY this episode. i don’t have much else to say because it was super obvious — they even reused the same “black tiger claws” shot from S3, after all — but i do wanna point out that the symbolism even went into the carpets. the fucking carpets.

like, the shift: it’s red when akutagawa’s leading the conversation but changes to blue after atsushi’s suggesting of the submersible as a strategy? i mean, i don’t know if this (or anything i’ve said, to be fair) was intentional or not, but it’s a cool detail anyway!

personally, i enjoyed this episode, the action was great, and all of this too was a really neat addition as well! and now… uh. we wait for the chaos to get worse i suppose !? (laughs nervously)

#while i haven’t been enjoying S5 as much as i did S4 i think they still did pretty good w this episode #there was a lot i really enjoyed about this episode!! #studio bones will always deliver on the action. we can count on that bit at least LMAO #next week though…. it’s shin soukokover #bsd #jem rambles #bsd s5 #bungo stray dogs #bsd spoilers #atsushi #akutagawa #shin soukoku #bsd atsushi #bsd akutagawa #bsd sskk #sskk #i do mourn the loss of some of the nuance of their characters but. they did say at the panel the anime focuses more on action sooo 🥴 #you win some you lose some i guess #only reason i was able to make this post btw is because ive watched bsd so many times to the point shit’s literally engraved into my brain #it’s bad for me NDLDGAJ #bsd analysis #bsd anime analysis #bungo stray dogs season 5 #bsd season 5

[goron-king-darunia]

Eggtober 15th 2023

"Minutia" Air Fryer Fried Egg with Berries.

(Clip Studio Paint, Gouache Brush, Air Brush tool for the pepper. 17 colors, 2 hours with breaks.) I kind of just blacked out and worked until it was done with remarkable focus? The ADHD hyperfocus is real. I would have gone back and put the extra reddish shine on the blackberries to do the reflective light from the strawberries, and would have done the strawberries in a more meticulous way but I started getting hungry and was like "Nah, this will take too long. Gotta find a shortcut. Not sure if the meticulous 2 tone approach for the little pits on the strawberries where the seeds are is worth the time it takes but I do think that when I do that right it looks much better than the "just shade it like a matte object, then as a shiny object, and then carve the little pits in with the dark base color and then plop the seeds in" method. Key phrase being "it looks better when I do it right."

A labor of love, honestly, I knew from the moment I first saw the reference that I loved the colors and shine and the organic textures all working together so I knew I simply had to draw it for one of my Eggtober entries.

One problem with my method is if my reference is too big or I need it big to see more detail, I forget it's there and so when the final composition time happens I realize "Oh. I need to add in more strawberry. And I thought I was done... Yeesh. So yeah, enjoy me realizing at the last second "either I cut off one of my stellar blackberries or I have to draw more of this strawberry" when you watch the speedpaint. XD

@lady-quen's breadbugs will have lots to steal in this piece. Strawberries and blackberries are very portable!

And, as always, praise be to the Egg King, @quezify.

Can you tell that rendering the blackberries was my favorte part? So round and shiny. Hopefully the surface of the strawberries doesn't trigger anyone's trypophobia.

#Eggtober 15 2023 #Eggtober 2023 #Fried Egg #Strawberries #Blackberries #my art #art by GKD #me blacking out and conjuring shiny berries from the ether like little jewels: #''hehehe shinyyy''

[gumnut-logic]

31. Broken limb and dealers choice of character 😁

K2

The first thing that came to mind was a scene referred to in Six Point Five, so this is what resulted. Not long, but it is something :D

Thank you so much for asking ::hugs tight::

And thank you to the wonderful @onereyofstarlight for answering my call yet again and reading through my writing ::hugs you too::

It's short, whump, and Earth and Sky. Sorry to both Tracy bros. I hope you enjoy it.

-o-o-o-

“Hold still!”

“I’m trying!”

“Virgil-“

“You’re holding it wrong.”

Scott sighed. His heart was still beating in his ears. After watching Virgil slip over the edge, caught in a rockfall, his circulation system hadn’t yet recovered.

Or the rest of him, really.

So close.

Don’t think about it. Focus.

“Virgil! I’ve got it. You’re going to be okay.”

“Not if you don’t hold it correctly.”

This could easily have been an argument over fixing Two down in the hangars if it wasn’t for the gasp in his brother’s voice.

And the several thousand foot drop off to their left that could have brought so much to an end.

“Virgil, do you trust me?”

Even in the frostbitten air between them and the reflection off his helmet, Scott could see the honesty in his little brother’s eyes as he drew in an unsteady breath. “Of course.”

“Then trust me.”

And without further warning, he lifted his brother’s leg and set it.

The scream that came with it cut his heart to pieces. “It’s-it’s done.” He focussed on scanning and then further immobilizing the broken limb. At least now it was less fodder for a horror film.

His thoughts were interrupted by a roar as suddenly, on the far side of the valley, half a mountain of snow slid down onto the glacier below.

Goddamnit.

He found himself bodily covering his brother, hovering over him as if to protect him from the world collapsing.

Virgil hadn’t noticed. His eyes were screwed shut and he was panting, sweat beading on his brow.

God, he wished the man would take the pain medication when he was told to.

Scott hovered there a moment longer, as the valley below filled with an avalanche that could never reach them. For some reason he did not want to move back. Pushing all his weight onto one arm, he reached out and clasped Virgil’s shoulder. “You with me?”

Dark eyes opened, filled with pain. More an exhale than anything else, “Always.”

“Good.”

And with that, Scott shut down his emotions and got on with getting his brother off this damned mountain.

To think that Virgil had dragged him out on this ‘simple’ rescue to get him away from Dad’s desk.

Scott was ever so grateful he had come.

Firstly, rich and privileged idiots should not be allowed to climb a mountain like K2, or any mountain bigger than an anthill for that matter, without sufficient training and experience. The idiots who had them out today were poorly equipped and would have died come nightfall after having an argument with their guide and wandering off.

It was the guide who had called IR. His apologies were extensive and frustrated.

But he was right. Scott and Virgil had found them mired in deep snow and, despite their protests, completely lost.

They were damned lucky Virgil was there. Scott wanted to give them a piece of his mind, particularly when they initially refused to leave the mountain. It was only due to Virgil’s patience – that would likely at some point result in a violent painting or mess of a composition on the piano – and using the ‘fame’ element of flying a Thunderbird and coercing them into coming for a ride that got them moving.

Yet it was also Virgil’s kindness that had him fetching the woman’s pack. Or more likely, she put up so much of ruckus, Virgil preferred to shut her up rather than kill her on the way to New Delhi, no matter how short the journey.

That return to the snow led to Scott spinning just in time to see Virgil slide over the edge as the rockface gave way.

A call to John that had so little words but cried out for so much.

The rest was a blur of terror and fear as Scott scrambled down the mountain after his brother. He didn’t have his jetpack. They’d left One at home. It was supposed to be a quick rescue. A bit of brotherly time together.

But Scott was ever so grateful for the time they were given due to a snow-covered ledge that had caught his brother.

The alternative…

He was willing to thank any deity that watched over them.

A broken leg, bent in blatantly the wrong direction, halfway up K2.

“You held it wrong.” The words were little more than a gasp.

“It’s done.” Scott drew in a breath and fastened the last of the splint velcro. “Alan and Gordon will be here any moment and we’re getting you off this rock.”

Shifting the remains of Virgil’s right boot aside, he sat down next to Virgil and let out a breath. “You’re safe.”

A sigh and Virgil’s helmeted head dropped gently onto Scott’s shoulder.

As a familiar and beloved roar swelled at the other end of the valley, he draped his arm around his little brother’s shoulders.

“Safe.”

-o-o-o-

#thunderbirds are go #thunderbirds #thunderbirds fanfiction #scott tracy #virgil tracy #nuttyfic #earth and sky

[redwayfarers]

(you) restless son

Fandom: FFXIV Ship: Nika/Artoirel Characters: Nika Perseis (WoL), Artoirel de Fortemps, Minfilia Warde (mentioned) Rating: Mature (direct references to sex, though the scene is fade to black) Words: 1795 Spoilers: Heavensward spoilers read on ao3

Nika’s visits to Ishgard have been few and far between recently, but every time he does go there, he makes sure to go straight to the Fortemps manor. It’s become something of a home, if you can count the presence of the few people he’s bonded with in this whole frozen hellhole. He hasn’t had a home in a long while, least of all in a person. It’s a strange feeling and something entirely too tender for Nika’s harsh hands, but it settled under his skin and it’s not going anywhere. 

He can’t complain all that much, really, when it affords him unlimited access to Artoirel. He likes Emmanellain just fine, and Edmont makes for a nice dinner buddy when he isn’t being a horrible parent to his sons.  But Artoirel is the heart of that whole oversized house for Nika; it’s his face rising amidst everyone else that makes his shoulders relax and his jaw unclench. When did he clench his jaw so much anyway? And more importantly, why is he noticing that? 

No matter. What matters is that time after he settles in his room, after he eats dinner, or lunch, or whenever he happened to burst upon their door like a cannonball, when he and Artoirel go to the grand salon with the big piano, drinks in hand, and find comfortable places on one of the couches. What matters is the way Artoirel loosens his collar, opens his throat up a little, and Nika can’t help but look at the way it bobs ever so slightly under his gaze. 

“Do I have something on my… throat?” Artoirel asks, confused, red in the face, and Nika looks at the glass in his hand. 

“No,” he says and rubs the side of his neck. “I just think you look better without the cravat.” 

“Such are the fashions of Ishgard, Nika.” 

“Fuck the fashions of Ishgard, Artoirel.” Nika looks at his own shirt, open at the front, and the length of his white boots. Artoirel follows suit; his eyes linger on the exposed skin of Nika’s chest. “Some of them, anyway.” 

“Not all of us can make that shirt look good,” Artoirel comments quietly. “You and Lord Stephanivien, perhaps. As for myself? The cravates are that much presentable.”

“Bah, you’re too prim and proper.” Nika puts a foot down. The heels echo in the otherwise silent room like a battle trumpet. It may be the drink he’s had, but his next words come out offensively shamelessly. “I like the way your collarbones look.” 

Artoirel huffs amicably and shakes his head. “You may look at them as you please, then,” he replies, though his voice is colored by something Nika doesn’t dare name. 

“Thank you for the permission.” Nika says as he downs the rest of his drink and pours himself another glass. “I will now proceed to indulge myself. At the grand piano, of course. Why would we go in the grand salon if not to play the fucking piano?” 

“I did want to show you a composition I have been working on in my leisure time,” Artoirel says. He sounds almost uncertain, half the size he usually is on the battlefield, or in the political arena of Ishgard. “What?” 

“You’re afraid I’m gonna hate it or something? Is that why you sound like you’re a kid meeting your idol for the first time?” 

Artoirel laughs in disbelief. “Nika, do you realize even an inkling of what weight your opinion carries? You are the Warrior of Light, the slayer of Nidhogg. You rode into Ishgard on a dragon - the first individual to have done so in history. You are one of Eorzea’s best living bards. Compared to you, I am but playing pretend.”  

Nika blinks. “Didn’t wanna be that hero you bring up,” he says. “If it was up to me, I’d be playing my little lute and singing about other people. But no, Minfilia had to use my arrow shooting prowess to kill a primal or two and now here I am.” The thought sticks to his skin even though he vehemently tries shaking it away. His heart aches for Minfilia still; the love he’s nursed for her feeds into his bloodstream. His knees will forever ache from kneeling at her feet, and the memories of her soft voice and gentle smiles and kind eyes will nurse them back to health. 

But recently, in the midst of all the grief he wears around his neck like a collar, he’s found it in himself to be angry at her. Angry she didn’t stop sending him when he asked her to. Angry she kissed his tears away only to send him off to his potential death afterwards. Angry she never told him, no, stop loving me, not until she fucking died and stayed in the aether, and he had to go see fucking Hydaelyn herself just so he could hear it. 

Artoirel does nothing of the sort. If anything, Nika feels like he’s stringing him along, pulling at his heart that wants nothing more than Nika’s presence. Artoirel never asked him to be the hero. Everything since he’s arrived in Ishgard has been Nika’s choice. Any hurt he feels about that shit he can lay at his own feet and use it to cut open his heart again. 

Nika drowns the entirety of his glass in one chug. “You give yourself too little credit,” he says. “Too fucking little.” He curls a hand around Artoirel’s slender shoulders to run his fingers over those biteable collarbones.

“Nika,” Artoirel goes to stand up just as Nika’s hand bends around his shoulders, and the height difference makes Nika take a step forward and his hand slides down to Artoirel’s waist. He holds it anyway. 

“Let’s go play the piano,” Nika says. His voice is gruff, stuffed to the brim with need and anger and yearning and the drunkenness of the whiskey and the warmth of Artoirel’s skin. “Let’s go play the fucking piano or I’m pinning you down on these overpriced floor covers.” 

Artoirel’s mouth opens and the tips of his ears burn bright red. His hand folds in a fist and he tries to look down, avoid Nika’s eyes, but the fact he’s tall as all fuck bites him in the ass so hard that he just ends up looking where he didn’t want to. Or did he want to? He shifts his body closer to Nika’s, hip to waist, and Nika’s fingers play over his shirt. 

“There’s a story,” he says. “I know of someone who supposedly had sex with her lovers in her grand salon and over the piano, specifically. That poor piano, I’d thought. Of course, I don’t normally follow that kind of rumor, but I’d overheard it and it stayed with me.” 

“Piano sex? What happened to walls, floors, or even good old fashioned beds?” Nika feels his face burn. Must be the drink, he thinks, even if he has to admit that Artoirel’s words are only making whatever need that’s already been here stronger. He doesn’t even know what Artoirel’s lips feel like, but he does know he wants to kiss them, and that Artoirel wants to kiss him too. 

It’s just never been this direct! Nika blames the whiskey, the open shirt, those delicious looking collarbones, Minfilia’s memory, Ishgard itself. He knows what it feels like - Estinien’s hands on his skin are a refreshed memory - but this is Artoirel; his Artoirel, the way Minfilia was never his, his to spend time with, his to kiss, his to enjoy, his to listen to him laugh. His to make Nika’s heart beat and warm up faster than any fire would. 

“I suppose she has had enough of those options by that point,” Artoirel shrugs, but his cheeks are still red, his hair’s in disarray, his lips are slightly parted, thin and pink, and those fucking collarbones are still taunting Nika like it’s their one job. 

“You’re so fucking beautiful,” Nika replies, as if that makes any sense to the prior conversation. “And I want to kiss you so, so badly.” 

“I would very much like to kiss you too,” Artoirel replies, holding onto the edges of his self-control. Nika can feel his fingers ghost over the skin of his jaw and takes a deep breath not to groan from the way it sends sparks down his spine. The knowledge Artoirel wants him just as badly, right now, makes his belly tighten. “May I?” 

“Yes,” Nika breathes and Artoirel’s facing him, tall, relaxed, hair a dark halo around his head. His eyes are impossibly wide, impossibly big, and Nika rises on his tip toes and wraps himself around Artoirel’s body, like he was made to be here. Maybe he was. Maybe he was made to share breath with Artoirel de Fortemps for torturously long moments before their lips meet, maybe he was made to bury his fingers in his hair and pull him down on the couch. His body soars and he’s shaking with need and his heart beats wildly in his chest. 

And when their tongues touch, Nika claws at Artoirel’s back. I’m going to fuck this man tonight, he thinks, and it feels brash and crude but he can’t help himself. Artoirel moans into the kiss, and it only serves to make Nika’s skin even tighter. 

“I wanna fuck you,” Nika says between kisses, pulls on Artoirel’s hair. “Stop me if you need to, fuck, Artoirel, I want to bite your chest, and I want to make you feel good, I want–” 

“Yes,” Artoirel breathes out. His body’s shaking beneath Nika’s touch and Nika peppers his face with small kisses. “I want that too–” 

“Glad we agree,” Nika replies and steals the rest of his sentence in a deep kiss. Artoirel’s hand wraps around Nika’s waist but Nika uses the leverage to drag him beneath him and settle on his hips. From this angle, he looks even better. A prim and proper lord, commander of men, count de Fortemps, beneath him, already hard, messy from kisses, and Nika can’t help but groan. It’s not like he’s any better himself. He then leans down and kisses him softly, the way he never got to kiss Minfilia. 

But she isn’t here, is she? It’s just him and Artoirel, alive, in the flesh. And it’s an aching flesh, and Nika wants to kiss it senseless, and he wants to keep him close, keep him warm, safe, wants to make him happy and make him laugh. 

“Artoirel,” Nika says, because he can’t say anything else. And Artoirel kisses him back, presses his hands against Nika’s back, and somehow, he feels like he got the message just fine. 

Just like that, the rest of the world falls away.

#ffxiv #inspo birb has come to town #nika perseis #artoirel de fortemps #wolship #wol x artoirel #wol #warrior of light #hyur wol #ffxiv fic #ffxiv fanfic #now that housekeeping is done: #baby's first non-fluff is out to public pls be kind to me #this isn't smut but it's close #these two have eaten my braincells so this came to be #also not me posting at weird times. sad #heavensward spoilers #nika x artoirel #wolartoirel

[spiritshaydra]

Okay yeah gonna say screw it and just post the fullbody I finished back in November because her ref is taking too long and I wanna share my cringe ass nae nae hellspawn 😭

OKAY SO

THIS IS REQUIEM (Or just “Em”)

And she’s a Megasound fanspawn,, bear with me, I’ve never made an oc like this before so I’ve been extremely nervous to show the creature off. 💀(especially since this is the fancharacter type I avoided making at all costs when in high school despite it leading to some very interesting character development.) Eventually I just said screw it, I’m proud of the design and character work I’ve been developing since August, I’m going to show her off.

I don’t really take her all too seriously as I originally made her to shitpost because I thought it’d be funny. And like my main TFP OC Quantum, she eventually grew past that and became something more. (While still keeping her silly at the same time)

I have. A LOT. Of development for this single celled organism that prolly won’t fit in one post, so on here I’m just going to do a sort of character bio thing (based on the format of Quantum’s Toyhouse bio) to introduce her. (Maybe I’ll do a Q&A sort of thing if anyone’s actually interested in that?)

HERE WE GO:

Name: Requiem (Em for short)

Name Origin: This is what happens when you put a poetry/mythology nerd and a music nerd in a room together and have them name something. You get a name with origins in both music and literature (A music or literary composition that acts as a form of remembrance for the souls of the dead.) annnnnnd a reference to a mythological figure (the name of Megatronus/The Fallen’s weapon, the Requiem Blaster. Gee sure wonder who’s idea that was.) Unfortunately, the goblin who was given that name has a grand total of two brain cells and has as much class as a hagfish.

Gender: female

Pronouns: she/her

Species: Cybertronian

Height:  12ft approximate (for design depicted above)/ 30ft (adult; not pictured)

Alt-Mode: (Base) Cybertronian heavy bomber/ (Earth) Tupolev Tu-160 Blackjack

Home Planet: Earth

Faction: Decepticon

Pre-War Occupation: Did not exist before the war.

Personality: Requiem is loud, stubborn, rude, mischievous, a little naive, and all around a feral mess. Absolutely no filter. Textbook example of “curiosity killed the cat”. The champion of the age-old schoolyard discussion of “my dad can beat up your dad.” For… obvious reasons.

She’s easily bored and easily distracted, and thinks it’s entertaining to mess with other bots in the form of stupid pranks and barrages of questions.

Has a bit of a potty mouth and gets creative with her insults.

A fembo (but a lil mean) was told to use her head in a fight, but ended up head butting the opponent and subsequently knocking them out as a result.

As a result of (EXTREME) helicopter parenting combined with adrenaline junkie behavior, Requiem has the tendency to be an escape artist and to purposely seek out potentially dangerous situations such as but not limited to: Diving into a hurricane (to see what would happen), storm chasing (the bigger the better! Also to see what would happen), playing Icarus and getting struck by lightning on the Flight Deck of the warship (STRIKE ME DOWN ZEUS), sneaking out of the Nemesis and simultaneously smuggling all sorts of creepy crawlies and other organic critters back on board (has to be shaken out just to be sure.), being a little too interested in volcanic activity, sneaking weapons out of the armory and attempting to join the fight, and sneaking away from the ship to “explore”. Em wrangling is a very tiring objective.

If Rumble and Frenzy were alive, they would’ve definitely gotten along. (And would’ve been an unstoppable force of chaos oh gOD.)

She likes the pastel magical horse show about friendship, LOVES stickers, and her absolute favorite color is the most obnoxious eye bleeding shade of pink imaginable. (She was denied changing her PRIMARY paint job color to it for obvious reasons. Honey, that is a LOOK and not exactly a good one.)  She likes to pretend to be a gladiator. She likes to give people really stupid and bad nicknames for the hell of it. A favorite being combining the first few letters of a name or descriptor with “uncle”. She thinks it’s hilarious. A little too interested in arson and explosives. Her music taste can be described as “2012 Warrior cats amv” and “noise”. Really likes slasher films for some reason.

She exhibits several behaviors that could only be described as those of a cryptid. (…or cat.) These range from being able to sneak up on others and move without making a sound, staring unblinkingly and expressionlessly at things and other bots, climbing up and perching on top of things, noise mimicry, recharging facedown in a deathlike manner, and the worst thing being how she used to skitter across the walls and ceilings of the Nemesis as a sparkling. There were a handful of instances where she got into the vents of the ship and it was a nightmare trying to coax her back out. Oh yeah. There was a biting problem.

Requiem either hates or actively dislikes things ranging from water, being told to stay still, the thunder part of thunderstorms, the medbay, and being quarantined.

Her social ability leaves much to be desired, as she was raised in total isolation from her own age group, so she lacks most social skills as a result. Because of this, she often comes across as “weird” and as a bully, even if unintentional. Due to her isolated upbringing, she is a very lonely individual despite not exactly acting the part. Being routinely quarantined does not help that feeling of loneliness in the slightest. Em wants nothing more than a friend, or at least an acquaintance to spend time with. It’s just that, given who her parents are, that makes things impossible.

She has a very unhealthy view on death, as it isn’t exactly rare onboard the Nemesis. Surprisingly, she was actively kept away and shielded from most of the fighting as a child- however, in wartime there’s only so much one could be protected from even as the child of the highest ranking individuals of the faction.

#spirit’s oc vault #REAL Spirit refs #maccadam #maccadams #tfp #tfp oc #transformers #transformers oc #Transformers Prime #OC #original character #fancharacter #fanspawn #megasound #tfp megasound #mecha oc #mecha design #Character Design #robot #robot oc #decepticon #decepticon oc #digital art #sci-fi #science fiction #procreate #procreate art #Man this thing took fifteen hours to complete because I had to completely redo the lineart #pro tip: make sure you’re drawing on the right layer AND that you didn’t accidentally merge the lines with the sketch

[mask-of-prime]

TLG: As You Move Forward

So I went a few months thinking about how I'd forgotten to include Makini to my past depictions of Kion's Guard as adults (1, 2), so I decided to celebrate the 4th anniversary (albeit 2 days late :p) of the Journey of Memories episode by finally showing off the adult design I have for her!

Because I'm still salty about TLG's last-minute decision in making Makini the Mjuzi of the Night Pride instead of Kiara's bestie like Season 2 hyped her up to be, I made a compromise by headcanoning that she frequently journeys back-and-forth between the Pridelands and the Tree of Life, especially when she's called over by each land for a ceremony of some kind.

Design Process:

To avoid making her look too much like a clone of her mother Fikiri, I figured that Makini would develop her dad Kitendo's features as she grew older (I think she's about 20-something in this image). It's kind of a thing for TLG to erroneously depict animals without their distinct sexual dimorphism (see: Mbuni the ostrich), but this time, I felt like embracing Makini's unusual bright colors for a female mandrill and make her look a little androgynous. I feel like it would fit her role as a Mjuzi for some reason lol

I figured the Bakora Staff she received at the Tree of Life would be her last new one as she's since learned to keep better track of it. I like to think that it symbolizes not only growth and learning, but it coming from the Tree of Life symbolizing that her true place is there.

In all that time she's owned it, being the crafty artist she is, she's put years of customization and souvenirs from her back-and-forth Pridelands/Tree of Life adventures into her decorating her staff, selecting just about every pretty flower and naturally-occurring bead she saw. I mainly sought out the idea of people bedazzling their canes for reference, she seems like the type to do that, making just about anything she owns pretty lol

Drawing Process:

ngl I got to work on this very much like that episode where Makini procrastinated on getting started on her portrait of Simba's family. I just, like... really struggled with the composition until I was hit with sudden inspiration to just go wherever my hand took me.

I grabbed a thumbnail sketch of my adult Makini design that I was the most happy with and rendered it digitally and was happy that it got me somewhere... then I ran into the background that I didn't put any thought into.

Because of the cropping and composition I already had going on with Makini's standalone model, it was very hard to come up with something she could be surrounded by, until I decided to insert some headcanons about a certain new TLG-related short Disney released. Basically: I headcanon Makini made those Circle of Life paintings that Kion shows to those younger cubs as I think the style they used in those paintings looks WAY different from Rafiki's (I mean the whole video looks different from the whole TLK art style). You can't tell me those purple pigments and cutesy flowers aren't something Makini would draw everywhere lol

Sources of Inspiration:

Sadly not pictured due to the angle and cropping is the headcanon that she paints her nails all the time, and she's always trying different color combos basically every week lol. I adopted that headcanon from iceflowerglow, who depicts Makini with painted nails in their comic "Shining Above Your Head". Other artists I drew inspiration from were Vtoony's "TLG: Kion's Guard" and tango_fizz.le's "Where'd all the time go?" when it came to designing her fully-developed mane.

#The Lion King #The Lion Guard #TLK #TLG #Makini #My Art

[cqtlatte]

could you post about your thought process for your art? i always love the colors you choose!! and the themes n composition always are AMAZING AAAA

a lot of the time it's p much head empty swirly painting HAHA but I'll ramble below!

Honestly sometimes I have an immediate idea/theme in mind and I just play around a lot when I'm sketching, and other times it kind of just evolves while painting. I remember with the Yoimiya Pyro flamenco piece came around when I asked my Twitter followers which Genshin girl they wanted to see next, and I got a LOT of Yoimiya requests. And literally it went like this LOL

I have a couple of other sketches I could pull out but I'd have to find them...

It actually wasn't supposed to be a flamenco dress in the beginning, more like a mermaid tail style dress?? But while I was sketching I thought to myself,, yo... this would actually make a sick flamenco dress! So I started to look up tons of flamenco photos for reference to make it look accurate. :)

---

As for my coloring thought process, analogous colors are my best friend! (colors that sit side by side on the color wheel) I like to choose one color that all the other colors will revolve around. Kind of like how for my previous commission, the client asked for a cherry blossom theme. As you can see in the sketches I offered, almost all of the pieces have the same cherry blossom color, but different colors revolving around them.

If you take an eyedropper and drag it across, you'll see the colors change along the color wheel. That's what analogous colors are! They're pretty great for tricking the eye too ;) The grass from the sketch may look like a blue-ish teal with all the colors surrounding it, but it actually does fall under blue! (I made a little video to show this but it won't upload for some reason, so I put it on Drive!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zYFu2MTvwOY8KsLzWsa7oyCLz03x4H7d/view?usp=sharing )

__________

I guess if I were to describe my thought process from a technical standpoint, I like to capture moments (as if the piece were photography or a page in a picture book) and movement (the swirls and other patterned lines blending into the composition. )??

obligatory link to an earlier ask for a deeper look into the work process itself (although it may not be relevant)

Hopefully this is helpful anon!!

#asks #unfortunately I'm a terrible teacher because I'm learning too! #but always happy to share tidbits of what I've learned so far ^^ #I hope this post isn't wonky when I post it fdhfdjg #I went to have lunch in between answering and my computer ran out of battery so half the answer disappeared HHHHH

[sothasil]

Hi! You're one of my favorite artists ever, and I would love to do some studies of your art! What are some of your favorite pieces that you've done, and how do you pick your colors? There's a lot more questions that I could ask, but figured you wouldn't appreciate an entire list of questions XD

Hello and thank you, I am honored! Feel free to send me all and any questions! I'll answer these two, starting by:

How do you pick your colors?

As I change art style with pretty much every illustration project of significance, this varies a lot. Here are, from most to least common, ways I pick my colors.

Eyeballing it. Unfortunately my most common... What I will do a lot digitally is lay down a color background, and flats of a few colors, then manually adjust each until they look good together by selecting by color and using adjustements. I then paint over it all.

Using a limited palette, eyeballed. Same as before, but this time I force myself to only use a few colors. It helps me, as constraints do.

Using a reference, eyeballed. This happens a lot when I mimick an art style. My medieval drawings for example, are often done by looking at images of actual medieval art to get an idea of what colors to use to look medieval.

Using an existing image, pipetted. Rarely, often as a challenge or if I'm super stuck, I'll just take a pic with colors I like and pipet from it. This website automates this if you want a good easy starting point!

These can be combined around. I'll post examples now, explaining how they use each.

This is a sketch for a drawing I ended up doing way different. This is the first method - I used a flat layer for the characteres and three colors for the sky to test out atmosphere. This is how I plan out most full paintings, just trying to nail down a mood I have in my head. I fiddle around until I like it or, like in this case, fully give up and iterate further. Here, the composition was to be redone too as I did not like the body language. I was going for "bright hot sunny day under a weather that feels wrong".

For this comic, I combined a very limited palette and a photo ref to pipet from. I was looking for the stark cold/warm contrast of a mid-season bright night by a fireside. I took a google image photo of a campfire at night that was already edited. The photo itself looks unnatural but conveyed what I wanted. It's still on the file itself! From it, I pipetted a few colors I found "summed up" the palette and did all with them.

While my own habits make me prefer painting as you would in traditional methods, with directly picking the right colors, I will often digitally alter with overlays and layer blending modes some colors and gradients, etc, to alter a drawing to fix it's color palette. The following is a quite egregious example, because I first drew the character in flats before putting him in a full scene. Here is a before/after summed up.

The shadow is a layer, the bright yellow light zones also, and the orange "transitions" of light zones on the skin a third. There's also an overlay over the full character to blend him in. I do this by...making a full flat color of a layer, fucking around until a blending mode does what I want, and adjusting hue/brightness/saturation and opacity until it looks good.

Another WIP where I was struggling with the overall palette. I was going for late 60s psychedelic. You can see in the top right the original color. I thought it looked too...new, so I added a yellow layer on top, and fiddled with it. Final choice was the following setting. I then put it with my sketch and color blockout in a folder and painted over it.

For this sort of adjustement, the "Color Balance" modifier in CSP, Photoshop, and others is also a godsend - but one I often use for fine tuning a finished piece.

This being said, there's some rough rules to coloring which are...born from studying color theory and doing studies. I am guilty of doing very little studies...so I'll just sum up the basics of the color theory rules I use.

For "default" shading, I use a color that is darker, more saturated and with a slight hue diff. This is my "don't shade with black".

Using a shadow that's cooler will make the light look warm.

Vice versa.

There's a bunch of stuff to remember in how colors relate to each other and pipetting images who's atmosphere you think is interesting really is the best way to learn... It's learning how to black-blue/gold-yellow dress in your own art for the lack of a better word...But the basics will be:

Don't trust numerical values, but look at your colors in context. A same hue, brightness, saturation can look so much different. This is how Rakkan's beard looks whiteish here despite being a light very grey brown.

All this but...colour is such a wide topic, I can't really say a lot but can also type for hours... if you have precise questions about a piece in particular I can explain :') I hope this wasn't too vague and was instructive!

Speaking of particular pieces, answering your question last under the cut:

What are some of your favorite pieces that you've done?

In no particular order, illustration only.

Including this in another poast bc staff's new post editor limits the amounts of pics I can put in response to asks. Insert colorful language here...

Frankly twas hard to pick I am rarely fond of what I draw

#ask

[souryogurt64]

hey sour!

I was curious if you had any advice for an english grad student whose at a crossroads in their life?

so, I’m about halfway through my master’s in english, and quite frankly, I hate it. every day I wake up questioning the purpose of what I do. a year ago, I thought that teaching literature was what I was put on this earth to do — but now, I have begun to question that. analyzing literature is morally and intellectually enriching, but as the days go on, I wonder what real-world benefit an 18 year old can really gain from that. (at the moment, I’m much more drawn to rhetoric and composition studies, but my university tricked me during the admissions process and accepted me into a program with no graduate level coursework in that subject — but that’s another story)

anyway. my studies are making me depressed, and I miss writing for fun (I used to be a journalist before I switched majors) — and I see your writing for scrunchie and it gives me a little hope. you’re writing about projects and subjects that matter to you, and I can tell you clearly enjoy the work that you put out.

is there hope for someone like me to find a job, or a hobby as enriching as that? do you have advice for someone who wants to start writing again for the joy of it all?

thanks for suffering through this late night ramble. I love your blog, and I fully intend to get through the Gray dissertation after finals <3 what I’ve read is fantastic! keep up the killer work!

Yeah definitely! I majored in English during undergrad because I felt a very strong calling and I felt like it was what I was meant to do. I doubted myself a lot but I just felt like it was how my brain worked and I had to do it. Similar to you I felt drawn to a lot of rhetoric classes as well, and I did kind of accidentally stumble into a second Communications major, but that was in undergrad.

I can’t really speak on anything involving grad school because I didn’t really do that. I definitely feel for you, I think the higher ed process and most admin are intentionally manipulative, and a lot of professors think they’re well-meaning but kind of live in a ridiculous bubble and expect everyone else to, too.

As for a career, I knew majoring in English was a big risk to take, and I was pretty OK with failing because I knew I had to. I thought I wanted to be a music journalist, but recently I realized I actually don't at all. Once I realized that, I decided to try and get a job. A couple things kind of converged sort of out of pseudo-nowhere and I ended up getting a really, really good job.

I don't want to be insufferable but people always told me if I majored in English I would be lucky to have a shot at making 30k a year teaching and would probably work at McDonald's for the rest of my life. And this job is so beyond anything I even knew was possible for a job to have. Plus, I really enjoy it, and I feel like it is a perfect fit for me. I worked really hard for this and to get into the position to have a shot, even if I didn't always understand what I was working towards. But a percentage of it was just being in the right place at the right time. In short, yes, it is possible.

My advice would just to be to always trust your instincts, use your connections first, do what you're passionate about, and fill out your resume. I made rent by working in a restaurant, but I was doing a lot of weird gigs off like, Craigslist so I had stuff to put on my resume. I studied interview questions pretty much daily for months both verbally, with people, and by rewriting them. Volunteer-related stuff was also a big plus I think. The zine and a reference were 100% the main reasons I got hired though, I barely talked about my work experience at all.

As for the hobby, I liked interviewing bands for awhile but I got super sick of it. I wrote fanfic and stories pretty much constantly as a kid, and then when I was late teens-very early twenties I mostly stopped except for occasional poetry and erotica. I am a bad prose writer and I thought the only type of writing you could do was like, novels, and I knew that was not my forte.

But I really loved writing essays in college, and I was always viewing bandom through like the English major lens. I referenced The Outsiders and the PWHC blowout on here I think and then someone sent me an ask about it. I wrote an essay in response and posted it on the band interviews website and it got a way bigger response than almost all of the band interviews ever did.

Then I realized that like… there were no rules against doing this really strange and niche and kind of genreless thing I enjoyed doing and really wanted to do that almost no one else cared about. And if I wanted to write 40 page literary analysis about Fall Out Boy even if almost no one else on planet Earth has even considered doing that, I could, and I didn't have to write flawless 100k romance fanfiction like I was jealous of other people for being able to do.

So I guess just do whatever you want even if it's incredibly weird lol

[practically-an-x-man]

more thoughts about Wish:

Chris Pine has the best voice acting in this movie by far. Dude could be a legitimately scary villain if the animation wasn't so goofy

I'm telling you dude, the man is acting his ass off but the script and animation style are just ruining all the emotion he's giving

Alan Tudyk is also putting in the work but the script is not working in his favor

Evan Peters needs more lines. His character is legitimately interesting, a young guy who just gave up his wish and is now weirdly lethargic all the time, but they don't explore it enough

Speaking of the animation, it felt very inconsistent. With the King especially we'd get like... one cool moment (like him stopping the globes during his solo song) but then it's immediately cut by these goofy Nimona-as-Ballister type motions

The facial expressions are generally overblown, past the point of "animation stretching the rules" and into "this just looks goofy"

Like I said before, it feels like a patchwork of a dozen other, better Disney movies. My dad and I were watching this going "Tangled. Brave. Frozen. Peter Pan. Mulan."

The third act is like... Rise of the Guardians meets that one scene in Trolls where they sing True Colors

The music is just inconsistent. I think it mainly comes from the fact that they had a pop singer/songwriter do the music rather than a musical theatre composer, there aren't any consistent themes or leitmotifs and it leaves everything feeling very disjointed.

Some of the songs on their own are decently catchy but they just feel like they're trying way too hard

The dialogue is the same way. It serves a purpose but it doesn't quite feel natural or human. Some characters are worse than others and the VO work plays a role but the script itself is just awkward

I think they've just set up too many characters here. If they took two people out of Asha's friend group it would leave more room to develop the others. As it is, I don't remember their names and I have no idea what they want

Except for Asha since she's the main character and Simon because he's the only one who stands out from the rest (again, really interesting character! drastically underutilized!)

Feels like the talking animals are only a thing because it's a Disney movie. Valentino I understand, animal sidekicks are a classic, but the chickens and squirrels and mice are just too much

As a whole there's just... no substance in it. It feels like they've tried to make The Disney Movie and just started making it without even deciding on the themes or characters' journeys at all

It is a heaping pile of deus ex machinas. Every single problem in this movie is resolved in some cheeky little deus ex machina, solely for the sake of a stupid joke or a cheap reference to another Disney reference

If you're gonna copy Lin-Manuel Miranda's composition style anyway... just hire Lin-Manuel Miranda. At least he knows how rhyme schemes and leitmotifs work

This movie is so fucking trite it makes me legitimately angry

Good points I guess (because I refuse to dish on a movie without pointing out something decent about it):

Some of the songs are kinda catchy

There are a few powerful moments of animation, mostly with the King

There are little gold character moments here and there: the King's desperation for power, Simon's character as a whole, Asha's selflessness sparking the initial wish, etc.

Some of the voice acting is legitimately good!

The concept itself is interesting, a King who hoards wishes to make himself more powerful. It had the grounds to be a much better movie, it just didn't act on them very well

The diversity in this movie is genuinely good! We see various demographics of people - race, gender, physical build, disability, etc. - and there's not much "Disney same face syndrome" like we've gotten in other movies.

#out of the two wish-themed movies with harvey guillen in them... yeah no i'm just gonna watch puss in boots

[procrastinova]

art summary 2022 vs art summary 2023

individual 2023 artworks below (plus some thoughts on them because why not. Said thoughts will include me critiquing some of the pieces, especially the ones from earlier in the year.)

also here's a link to all the artworks from my 2022 one if anyone wants to see them

JANUARY - Art piece i did right before For the Future aired of Luz and the rest of the hexsquad having a much-needed group hug. I didn't really look at any references for this one (apart from for the character's designs) so the poses look really awkward and stiff tbh 😭. That being said, I'm still glad I gave it a shot, and it looks a lot better than the one I did before Thanks to Them's release, since I was more used to drawing the characters.

I'm not going to go too much into some of the... questionable... anatomy choices I made, since they aren't exclusive to this artwork in particular, nor is this the worst example of them (*cough cough* my old King's Tide screenshot redraw).

Overall I think this is an okay art piece. Definitely could have been improved by actually using references for the pose though.

FEBRUARY - This one is actually another redraw of a REALLY old piece I drew in 2021. With my finger. Not a good combination to say the least. This one is miles better especially in terms of anatomy, facial expressions and composition.

That's not to say that it's without it's flaws. I do think that lining up Betty and Amber's poses better would have improved the overall look of the piece. Another thing that I did end up changing a little while after I drew this was removing the shine from the black parts of the mirror to make it look like it was actually cracked, which I didn't do in the original version (that one's on my scratch account if you want to see it). It's a subtle difference, but I think it makes the piece look a lot better.

Again, I think this is an okay piece overall. Looks like the mona lisa compared to the 2021 version, but honestly I think anything would.

MARCH - Yet another Owl House artwork (bet u guys cant guess what my favourite tv show is). This one I created for a zine which I was working on for my multimedia class (this artwork in particular was supposed to be an advertisement for the finale). You can kinda tell I still wasn't that confident in drawing King, since his pose is pretty stiff (I don't think I ever really got used to drawing him tbh).

I do think this piece would have benefited from some more shading and lighting that wasn't the singular multiply layer I placed over the characters then erased some parts of. (There is some other shading but there's no other lighting).

Most of the other issues I have with this pieces are just issues I have with my old art in general so I'll leave it there.

APRIL - This is the last Owl House artwork I promise. I made this one for Zeez Vov Gee 2's watching and dreaming art contest. I actually do still quite like this one, which might partly be to do with the fact that I really like all of the character's timeskip designs, but whatever.

Some of the proportions on the hands are a bit weird, and I REALLY wish I put the shading on the lineart as well, considering how light of a colour it is.

One thing I do really like which I didn't notice while I was drawing it, is the pose Luz and Amity are in forms a sort of heart shape, which is really adorable akdjfhskhdf ;w;

Anyway, overall a pretty good piece, might remake it later. Who knows 👀

MAY - as you may immediately be able to tell, I did not make that much art in May (I might've had a few tests on at the time. Or I was just lazy). This one is actually OC art for once (wow shocking never seen before).

It's kinda just a doodle/a more doodley art piece, but it's pretty alright. I actually really like the pose that Robyn (the OC in the drawing) is in. This is also kinda the first time I drew their design, so yeah. The background isn't great, but I can't really expect that much from a doodle -v-

overall, pretty decent doodle. (for anyone wondering if I'll ever post more about Robyn... maybe? I'm mainly using their story for writing practice, but I think I posted something from it on here)

JUNE - June was literally the polar opposite of May. I'm not kidding, there were like 3 artworks that I was debating putting for June (this one, some deltarune fanart and a TOH screenshot redraw). I eventually went with this one because HOLY CRAP am I proud of that background.

This one was really heavily influenced by cartoon backgrounds (in particular ones from Gravity Falls and Hilda), and while I do think there are a few things that could be improved (like some of the trees), this was the first time in a while that i'd tried drawing a background that wasn't grass and a couple of trees (and i think the first time ever that i'd done something this complex).

I think another reason that this one turned out so good is that it was a birthday card for a friend. And if there is anything that I am constantly trying to do better at every time I redraw it, it's birthday cards (probably bc they're for my friends, love you guys sm /p).

anyways, overall a really good piece, 11/10 background.

JULY - behold... the first artwork I posted on Tumblr! I drew this shortly after seeing Across the Spiderverse in cinemas (which I have to say was one of the greatest experiences of my life).

I wanted to mess around with lineless art a bit on this one, as well as sort of try to give it a watercolour feel like earth-65. And I gotta say, I think it turned out pretty good. Though I did spend a good 15 minutes looking for references because ATSV wasn't out digitally yet ;w;

overall, I like this piece, I tried something new and I made fanart for the greatest movie of all time (in my opinion)

AUGUST - I don't think I drew nearly enough Omori fanart when I was super into the game, so I'm making up for it now. I wanted to redraw one of my favourite photos from the photo album for this one.

I probably could have put a bit more detail into the background for this one, but I really like the warm lighting, and the dappled light effect that I used for the characters. The lineart is also a bit sketchy, but I was (and sort of still am) in the process of figuring out how I actually want my lineart to look.

overall, I really like this one, nice colours, nice lighting, has the omori characters being happy in it :]

SEPTEMBER - like in May, I didn't get as much Art Stuff TM done, so it's just a doodle of some of my OCS (except this time it's Copper, Lapis and Peg, who I have posted about before).

I kinda just wanted to draw something cozy, so I didn't put too much effort into the background and stuff. One thing I will say, is that I wish I drew them looking a bit older, since they are all 16-17 lol.

overall, this one's ok. Could be better, but it's just a doodle.

OCTOBER - ohohohohoho we are SO back. Yet another birthday card. I love the perspective and poses on this one (because, you guessed it, I used references for them). Everything about this artwork was really fun to draw (especially the characters).

Overall, really good artwork, 11/10

NOVEMBER - redraw of an artwork from 2021 part 2: electric boogaloo. I remember being so proud of the original artwork, so I wanted to make this one an artwork I was proud of too (which was a success).

One of the main things I wanted to do for this one was to actually draw a background, instead of getting one off google. The one I drew was simple, but I think it really works, because I wanted the focus to be on the character, not the background. I also added some slight perspective to the drawing to make it look a bit more interesting.

Overall, amazing, especially compared to the original

DECEMBER - and finally... December's artwork! Aka my banner. I wanted to do something kinda simple for this, because I'm probably going to redraw it or make a new one later. I really like the contrast between the colours in the foreground (which is supposed to be inside a train, but it's kinda hard to tell), and the background.

Also something I've started doing for a few artworks is making a duplicate of the artwork, blurring it slightly and lowering the opacity, which makes it look a lot more visually interesting :0

overall, love this one, good artwork to end the year off with :] (i'll prolly still draw more stuff tho)

(fun fact - I was going to put the redraw I did of the 'get in loser we're going shopping' scene with the characters from TMC for December because it's the highest quality meme i've ever made but it looked weird next to the other ones bc it was in black and white 😭)

#art evolution #art improvement #my art #nova.txt #long post #like seriously long post i should not be allowed to ramble about this much stuff sorry guys