#you can tell my digital art from my traditional art because i never learned to shade or color digitally so i only do binary brush line art

[bowelfly]

Hi I just want to say that I love your use of texture in your artwork! Especially those in your art vs artist. The watercolory texture on the greys are so cool

REAL INK 4 LIFE BABY

#also thank u #my fingers havent known a day free from ink splotches in many years #you can tell my digital art from my traditional art because i never learned to shade or color digitally so i only do binary brush line art #see for example my bug doodle commissions over the last few months

[meanbossart]

Another much overdue ask compilation! Some short-ish lore asks (Gale, Gort, DU drow relationships and pet-companion preferences) and a couple of art/advice ones sprinkled in. THIS IS BY NO MEANS ALL OF MY ASKS so as usual I appreciate everyone's patience!

I actually think he'd give them a pass entirely as soon as he noticed. Correct me if I'm mistaken but half-drow get No love from underdark drow and are usually surface babies right? So that fruit is miles away from the tree lol. I think he generally has a bit of a soft spot for mixed kinds since he himself feels like an amalgamation of sorts.

Thank you! They're kind of a pain in the ass to draw at times for that very reason but man I do like the look 😩if other people like it too then that makes it all worth it!

THAT'S TRICKY TO ANSWER BECAUSE OFTEN TIMES I'M NOT... REALLY TRYING. I've draw a ton of horror comics for mine and my partner's series' SAD SACK and SORTIE, so I think it just comes naturally to me 😅 also I do genuinely find expressive and, uh, rugged faces more attractive? (I think they look rugged, again that's what people tell me at least.)

I think the secret might be adding bits of realism in there. I get a lot of comments about the wrinkles and eyelashes I add to my art, as well as the way I draw individual teeth (though I've lately been making an effort to simplify my style in favor of drawing faster, so I haven't done that as much or in as much detail.)

Both symmetry and the lack of it can also add to that effect. I have employed both facial unevenness and almost point-perfect symmetry to achieve something a little frightening or otherworldly in my work. [MORE UNDER THE CUT]

Thank you so much!!! The contrast is very much intentional, that's what DU drow's character is all about ;)

Hahah well I somewhat doubt Bhaal would care that his spawn gets named, but either way he stripped himself of his name as soon as he killed his foster parents and abandoned the Underdark. He had a drow name that I jotted down somewhere but it's completely irrelevant because nobody has used it since he was a child, and he doesn't remember it (even pre-tadpole/having his brain scrambled.) Here's a little write up about his origins that might shed some more light on that: https://meanbossart.tumblr.com/post/739688837431836672/did-drow-ever-have-a-childhood-before-the-temple

And about his original drow-given name and the reason behind it: https://meanbossart.tumblr.com/post/741350986692591616/drow-had-to-have-been-given-a-name-by-his-adoptive

Everyone just referred to him as his supposed race, or as Bhaalspawn or Bhaal's child, and any other similar titles. Orin called him "kin" and "brother" and Gortash likely called him his associate. Post-tadpole the camp grows entirely used to calling him "the drow" and he has no desire to change that or to choose a proper name.

THANK YOU BOTH SO MUCH😭 no reason to be intimidated, I'm just some rando drawing BG3 fan art LOL I've been drawing since I was a child, and started taking it semi-seriously when I was 16 years old, so twelve years ago! That's around the time where I got my first non-display tabled and used that well into my twenties, prior to that I only did stuff on paper and liked to do inks color with pencils. I never really ventured into traditional painting at all except for a little bit of water-coloring in college.

Traditional and Digital art are very much different beasts. Which one you want to start with is, in my opinion, just dependent on what you want to do. Digital art gives you a lot of tools that makes learning easier, but you might find yourself having much steeper of a learning curve if you ever decide to do traditional art instead. If you want to be good at both, you need to practice both, since the skill doesn't entirely translate from one medium to the other.

Naturally you will be able to draw well on either, it's just... Different. I will say though, that I think if you're still learning you should use whatever allows you to look directly at what your hand is doing, so either traditional or display tablet/Ipad. I have no idea what a non-display tablet would do to a beginner, but remembering my experience with it I feel like it might be a huge detriment to developing the skill (feel free to share your experiences in the replies if you disagree, as I would definitely be curious to read them!)

YOU KNOW ME BABY IT WAS MESSY AND COMPLICATED the tldr.: is that they were "buddies", absolutely no romance intended there on either mine or DU drow's part, but due to his nature the friendship was extremely weird.

Here's a couple of replies where I go into more detail about it: https://meanbossart.tumblr.com/post/739191190871818240/i-dont-have-a-particular-question-in-mind-sorry

https://meanbossart.tumblr.com/post/744952815768764416/so-not-sure-if-youve-covered-this-but-i-thought

That's definitely reserved for the vamp LOL DU drow very much enjoys when Astarion teases and fusses over him, and while Astarion probably got a kick out of acting that way around such a big and scary looking guy at first, I think by "now" (later and post-game) he's pretty much immune to DU drow's looks and just enjoys doing it in earnest.

He's not at all averse to being touched (even rather intimately) by close friends, but he wouldn't be quite THAT vulnerable with anyone else.

HE REALLY DISLIKED GALE... He irked him out by seemingly fostering a rather persistent romantic interest in him for at least half the time they spent together (very much based on my interpretation of their in-game interactions at the time, though my Gale might have been a little bugged.)

But also they had a... Fairly in depth relationship still? Gale was a staple in my party, and even though I antagonized him constantly by the end of the game it still felt like they had so much weight in each other's lives, if that makes sense. I might need to do a bit of an "update" on the DU Drow/Gale lore sometime, I feel like I've had some thoughts since that warrant more exploration of their dynamic (you can find a lot of old asks about it if you just search the Gale Dekarios tag in my blog though).

The gist of it is that DU drow found him arrogant and duplicitous, his constant optimist irritated him to no end and felt like it veiled a stream of self-pity (two things DU drow despises) Gale's attempts to get through to him only added insult to injury. By the end of the game he decided to pursue the crown of Karsus and this only lost him even more respect in Drow's eyes, seeing as he doesn't value godly power at all.

I was pretty overwhelmed by the game at the start so I actually missed a lot LOL including Scratch. I did get the owlbear cub though, which DU drow gladly welcomed into camp since it was injured - but I think he would have wished for it to remain a wild animal and to return back to it's home after it had grown up a bit. He didn't really make a "pet" out of it more than he just looked after the little guy in the way it's mother might have, probably with Shadowheart's help.

He wouldn't be opposed to proper pets though if one were to stumble into his life. He'd definitely be more of a cat guy because of their independence and strong little attitudes.

It is very hard to build proper rapport with him. He will be "friendly" to most people who have a good sense of humor about them, but friendSHIP is another thing entirely.

I think it's kind of circumstantial. He's very economical in his relationships and doesn't really seek them out at all - so a situation where he's forced to be in someone's company might be the only way to develop a bond with him, as he doesn't appreciate insistence either and that's more likely to push him away. He doesn't value status or titles either (kind of looks down on them really) so that won't help.

I think he just likes people who are true to themselves and their nature, sometimes even if the nature is one he disagrees with at it's core. This is why he liked Gortash, why he and Shadowheart got along so well, and why him and Astarion fit together so seamlessly despite seeming so different. Likewise I think it's why he didn't jive with people like Gale or Wyll, because they seemed to be rather... Dishonest with themselves and their own end-goals.

#ask compilation #DU drow lore #ask

[iztea]

Maybe you have some drawing tips for beginners?

Your style is incredibly beautiful and it just inspires this thing inside me to grab my iPad and start drawing but unfortunately I have no idea where to even begin

Or maybe you have some recs where to look to learn how to draw stuff?

But I understand completely that it’s your thing and artists should never feel pressured to share all their techniques and secrets, you worked hard on it!

I just really really love your art to the point where I just look at it for 30 minutes straight with this big feeling in my chest

<3

ah it was never about being secretive, i'm pretty open about my drawing process since gatekeeping knowledge is a big pet peeve of mine. It was more like,, laziness because writing a cohesive and helpful drawing tutorial is pretty difficult and i wouldn't even know where to start; i'm afraid i'll get maybe too technical and what have you.

As for tips for beginners, i've shared plenty on my couriouscat so you can scroll through the answers there, i also have some drawing timelapses on my twitter account as well (albeit you'll have to scroll a little)

I'm very flattered you feel that way about my art, it really means a lot to me and i'm glad to have inspired you to draw as well that's awesome and i wish you best of luck!

I actually don't know how different drawing on an iPad is compared to a graphic tablet+desktop, so I am actually pretty clueless in that regard. I think Procreate is the most used digital art app for iPad so you can start by getting it and familiarizing yourself with the UI. I think this step is often overlooked. The brushes and the chosen program can make or break the drawing experience. If you simply find yourself not enjoying Procreate, experiment with other apps or maybe try switching to a graphic tablet, maybe that feels better and is more suited to your tastes.

To be completely honest, one "bad" piece of advice that i should probably keep to myself is to draw something you actually enjoy: fanart, Pretty Girl Portrait(tm), your cat, landscapes etc even if it's above your skill level (becoming obsessed/ fixated on some character from a piece of media also works wonders i'm just gonna throw that out there). The main point is to actually care about your chosen subject in order to get inspired and to have that inner desire of "doing them justice" aka drawing them well. The traditional art learning route probably involves studying the fundamentals, shading spheres and cones and simple 3D forms blablbablah which. Yeah ! sure that's probably better advice but i'm telling you what will make you want to keep going and not get discouraged after a few failed attempts.

As for the drawing subject, I highly recommend having photo references to guide you.. you always need refs it's a recurring thing. My fastest artworks are the ones where I have the right references. the less references the more difficult it is to draw something

As a beginner it is also a good practice to draw OVER your photo reference to get the proportions right ( i'm not talking about literally tracing the contour of a face or limb ( just an example ), but moreso identifying the Main shape which makes up that body part and observe how long is it in respect to the other components, how does it connect to the other parts etc - big difference. Tracing won't help you in the long run).

Another thing you can do is to study your favourite artists and see how They tackle whatever it is that you like in their work. how do they simplify facial features? what about anatomy? color/ light etc and kinda reverse engineer your way through their process. ( but i highly recommend to just keep these practice sketches to yourself, and to not share them on social media- unless you get the artist's permission)

This is how i got into drawing and what i did back then, again, for more technical hands-on information i did answer similar CCs before so with a little bit of stalking you'll find them in no time

I wanna finish this with some resources that helped me:

>youtube guys - sinix, ahmed aldoori, marco bucci, and also just speedpaints in general i highly recommend watching those

>for simplified anatomy i found @/ taco1704 's ref sheets to be very helpful but ........... I'm pretty dry here i just look up refs on Pinterest tbvh

speaking of, here's my pinterest i have a bunch of art related boards board cool stuff overall maybe they can help guide you towards some direction or inspire you in some way idk

ok i kinda suck in the resource department listeN. im starving too just.................. watch youtube speedpaints ok

SORRY IT'S SO LONGGGBGGG i hope it was at least a bit helpful? this was all over the place... I'll try to come up with a tutorial as well but i really gotta be careful with how i go about it. I'll leave you with this for the time being. Again, thank you a lot for the kind words, I really am very grateful and touched esp by that last part about staring with the big feeling stuff eeeeeeeeeeeeee really wow T T that's so lovely and a big compliment thanks ty ly

#long post #this is so messy...... sorry anon #i don't have a very. linear thought process as the kids would call it #you should see my lit essays back in the day lmfao #anyways #if there are typos i'll fix them later #ASK IZTEA #they call me the tutor the way rial my way through the ..... #ok nevermind

[katyspersonal]

When you started drawing? And how? Your works are so detailed and you feel the perspective so Q_Q Your drawing of old hunter from DLC is incredibly cool, I am looking respectfully

Oh- You mean this ( x ) one? Haha, yeah, it was an art commission, so I tried to give it the best I could... Though maybe using something I was paid for as a chance to practice perspective was a little irresponcible :') But the customer was happy, and this is what matters!

To be honest, I've been drawing for as long as I can remember...? I have quite the regrets about having basically none of my drawings from childhood survive, because it's been a LOT. But I've been going over the top with details, colors and settings since the age of like, 4-5 I think? I recall the caretakers at kindergarden REALLY loving my drawing of underwater, because I killed it with variety of fish and seaweed, despite having no references or knowledge! Also, fun fact - the very first art criticism of my life from me was towards a girl that colored every woman in her coloring book as blonde with blue eyes! I criticized her saying that there were other colors for people and that it was boring to be so samey dsfjjdshfsd Had to apologize, but.. yeah, it was the ultimate "I've always been this way" moment if I've seen one. :')

I used to visit classes to practice my drawing in elementary school, though! But it was mostly environment and animals, when I was more interested in drawing people at that time! The period from 8 to 12 years was the one where I kept creating OCs obsessively, and stories for them, and I've had like 6 comics I've been drawing and coloring at the same time (mostly comedy + fantasy)! I think what really inspired me to start creating the comics and characters that were mostly young girls with elemental powers was the Russian comic, Rainbow Knights x) (Журнал "Юла", припоминаешь? хд) I was obsessed with it, and I was obsessed with excuse to use more colors, effects and nature/elemental aesthetic. And yes, it was all trdaitional! I love using crayons, markers, pens and pencils for coloring. My clumsy hands were never good for paintbrushes... I moved more onto digital around the age of 14. It was when I've found a summer job, and earned enough money to buy a tablet! So.. I started prioritize digital art since then! But it had the form of me first drawing something on the paper, and then scanning and fixing/lining/coloring it on the computer for a LONG time! Well, it was taking some time to get used to, as well, so I also had some drawings I did with my mouse and vector tool in PS or SAI, like this:

It is one of the only few remaining "ancient" ones, since most of them got lost forever on the old hard drive! ...I still HAVE this hard drive, I just have no idea how to extract anything from it.. It is kinda broken :U But if I get my hands on very old doodles trapped there, I will share!

^ I believe this was the first doodle that I did 100% on the computer AND with the tablet! Without mouse, without first drawing traditonally and then digitally, but just on the computer, from start to finish! But it was still hard to do, so I kept with the use of paper and pencil for some more while. Like- I hoped I'd find some old drawings for this ask, but all I found were traditional versions of some of my drawings!

You could tell that using traditional paper + pencil were beneficial for anatomy and proportions. And that I used to be better at that, VERY much better. And that it was sorta... easier to 'get lost' in the process? It was a simpler life when not only I was far less depressed and broken, not only I had more spare time in schoo/uni years, but also just... I did not feel burnt out. Or guilty over the fact of not finishing new drawing "fast enough" (and thus, looking like a loser). I also had less things online to drain my spare time, less distractions... I kinda miss that time, really...

All in all, I've never learned to draw PROPERLY. I was self-taught but not studying too hard, mostly I was just analysing art of artists I loved to improve my own, and asking advice from good artists to fix this or that! Hence, my skill used to be better! Year 2015-16 was my most productive year artistically! I've been drawing a bunch of (then) popular cartoon stuff, as well as TONS of fanart for Rick and Morty RP community, and all the things were sooooo bright, colorful and full of energy...

And now meet the man that sorta ended my art career :^) I've picked interest in Mark (Endlish localisation called him Marx and I hate it lol), and that pulled me into the rest of K1rby. Except I could not actually play anything (besides 64 Crystal Shards that I emulated), so I compensated with letsplays and anime. And Super Paper Mario was a side obsession. xD But.... yeah, since MARK, dark ages for my art started. No, no, my art was good! Awesome, even! I kept people begging me to "please draw K1rby again" for years since fandom shifting! Words like, 'no one ever cared about this universe and characters the same way you do'... But! Drawing 'creatures' for 2-3 years completely destroyed my prior (already loose) knowledge of human anatomy and proportions, and I am still struggling to recover that former skill! :')

Finally, year later, around February/March 2021, I've gotten pulled into Bloodb0rne! Badly. And thanks to Mic0lash. Huh, it is always some madman, isn't it? xD But I felt very self-consious about my art... I felt like serious, detailed, dark and beautiful atmosphere of BB deserved better than my "overly cutesy" and "tone-deaf" art.... annnnd if this sounds like something I'd never say, but rather as an unfair criticism from some antsy reddit-ish asshole? It is because it is EXACTLY what it was! :')

But in either case, the Doll was the first time I've used paper and pencil again in many years. I felt so... alive? I recall the feeling I could only describe as 'blood returned in my veins' but spiritual, you know? It felt like so much fun! To remember how to draw traditonally, to break out of my 'round cutesy' comfort zone- heck, I even downloaded brushes for my SAI for the first time in my life, just to color the characters better! Learned new coloring style, too: usually my coloring was very rigid and relying on very concrete colors for shadow and base.. but from this point on, I prioritized more 'chaotic' approach, as I felt it was more appropriate!

....and so, now we are here. x)

You could tell that some of the things I am just used to persisted, and that colorful, "childish" energy is still slipping through the cracks. Soulsb0rne games are ideal for how my mind works... but perhaps not for how my soul works. There is just something in me that craves that sillyness, overly colorful designs and settings, and maybe ER is closer to that aesthetic? Yeah, had I not been criticized on my art harshly upon joining BB, maybe my art would've been way more cute and 'free'! I always loved drawing many details, but something about the route I've taken about drawing made it very heavy. My brain short-circuits at the AMOUNT of the details I keep in mind, yet I can't rest unless I got it "at least 90% correct", even when it is a darn shitpost ;-; I will figure out what went wrong compared with the way I used to draw humans..... someday.

Thank you for asking, though! Ha! Honorable mention: tons of shitposty comics and doodles I kept drawing in classes, both school and uni! x)

#ask replies #personal #doodles #memories #creativity #visual art #damn that was a neede retrospection... even if a bit sad one #I've also have insentive to think that the reason my art got 'distorted' is my eye condition and..... something with my brain #hoooo boy #like you know those 'before and after' drawing comparison from the same person when their mental illness progressed? #basically I have insentive to think it is something drastic like this especially with how I seem to be intellectually regressing #...about everything but 'mysteries of the universe' and spirituality #I really AM going to turn into a spider huh?! okay when and how kos did something to me? fdsjhhfdsds #but yeah basically? I've been 'this way' since childhood #i always took art assignments over the top #not mentioned in the post because yes sad stuff is for the tags but teachers at school abused this skill lol #they kept forcing me to draw large canvases for holidays and events without any compensation for my wasted time -_- #god I hate teachers in government-funded schools! #still thank you for the ask! #i am not accustomed to so much interest to my weird ass self so sorry if I appear like I am taking it for granted.. #i'll respond in kind! .....eventually ;-;

[maluceh]

how long have u been drawing? i scrolled ur blog (great stuff btw) and your art has improved sooo much over the past like year or so it motivated me a lot hehe so im just asking out of curiosity as someone who's been thinking about picking up the hobby! and maybe if u could share what exactly made u improve thar would be fantastic <3

hi! I have been drawing since i was a toddler, but my art stayed pretty much the same cause i made the same drawings over and over. Even when I picked up digital art, I did it on my phone and with my finger so it wasn’t… great. (to anyone seeing this i beg you to let my 2017-18 art DIE).

I started to get serious about it like four years ago, i stopped doing just profiles and hiding hands and I started looking at different references and art videos which helped a lot. I also started studying graphic design and they had a class on traditional drawing and human anatomy and it helped me A LOT. not saying you have to join a class or anything, there’s a lot of online free classes or videos that can help you, what I did in those classes you can do it for free for sure. But having a routine, or an specific time where you set to just learn and take the time can help you (the class was 4 hours a week and all we did was draw and draw and draw, but with direction)

i don’t like to say “don’t do this, do that”, because every artist chooses their own path and they end up using things that others don’t and it works for them. so this is what i did:

doing the basics, studying the human figure (if that’s what you want to draw), studying scale and contrasts, etc. This is for traditional art

applying that knowledge and drawing A LOT of dynamic poses

it gets repetitive having to draw different poses again and again but it helps a lot

timing it to do 20 or 30 second drawings so you find the quickest way to recreate a pose or to at least get the basics of the subject (how long the arm goes, how the leg bends, how the hand sits on different poses etc) it doesn’t have to be great, it’s practice :)

then learning about color theory and how colors works and combinations, etc.

applying that to digital art, learning more things from other artists online.

finding new things about the program i use and taking advantage of them.

never stop learning, there’s always something else you haven’t tried, something you didn’t know, a new hack another artists teaches you, a new discovery you make yourself that changes the way you did things…

a lot of artists will tell you “oh you need to draw and draw a lot” but i find that advice unhelpful. You do need to draw a lot, but you need to work your way up and KNOW what you draw.

this is for later but, for coming up with your own style:

looking at and taking from other artists helps too! (i recommend this FOR PRACTICE not for posting and claiming it’s yours after copying one artist)

if there are more experienced artists you like, you can learn a lot from them and take little things from their art but it has to be multiple artists you shouldn’t take from just one. Try to resemble the way one of them draws bodies, the way that other one does hair, this one has a fun palette, the line art on this one, etc. Even if it’s things from other artists, you will end up with your own style, and it will help you find things that you like or don’t like and discard them (maybe cause they don’t work for you, maybe cause you want your style to look different).

and that’s basically what i did, i hope it helps you!! and i’m honored my art journey inspired you :)

#artists on tumblr

[honeyviscera]

HI HI HI here's my tips for skin :) i wouldn't call myself an expert or anything but. just some things ive learned!

this is what colors you get when you straight color pick from references. nothing wrong with it per say, she's quite cute! just a bit dull, yknow? there's a lot more you can do with it

this is the way my art professor has us do it when we color in pastels. it's a technique built for traditional, but works well through the screen! skin has an underlayer of red, no matter what shade it is. warm colors are best to lighten things up, and don't be afraid to add a touch of blue and brown to get the shadows! you can see that in the way i shaded the rest of an, too- her black shirt, for example, uses yellow highlights and purple shadows! don't be afraid to throw a color and blend it to death. (though, if you want a sharper edge, be careful not to smudge too much!) it's a very trust the process method- you have to build things to get the colors you want

and this is my way! (not The way. my way). (i got lazy on the rest of her so only the skin is different here) i tend to color pick to get a base, but almost always end up darkening the color. that goes in as the base. darker, cooler colors for shadows, and lighter, warmer colors for highlights. i also tend to add some pink around the cheeks/nose for blush, just because i think it looks cute. you can't tell unless you look, though.

no two areas of skin are the exact same shade. take your own hands, for example- the tips of your fingers are different than the base, and the back of your hand is different than your palm. you don't have to go crazy with it, but variation really helps!

and a general shading tip is to never use white or black- those aren't shading colors! they mess with color intensity. and, since you have access to literally every color digitally, you can always get what you want using different coolness/warmth values.

ummm for where to shade them... honestly, i'd recommend doing studies of lighting on people's faces to really get a handle on it. light is weird.

generally, there's usually pretty strong contrast on the nose? here, the light is from the bottom right corner, so it lights up that bottom edge. there's a bit of rim on the jawline, and the light bounces over the eyebrow bone line place. the shadow is cast on the left half of her face since the nose blocks it.

anime styles tend to not worry too much about strong face lighting, but it's definitely good to understand!

THANK U ACEY,,, very much appreciated :) this will help my colours look more natural 👍👍 also. whenever i try to shade it looks so blotchy and then when i blend it always looks over-rendered and Not what im going for..... drawing traditionally with pencil is what i have most practice with so im just not super used to... making skin look like skin. hh. if you also have any tips for the actual application of shading.... that would be appreciated...... 🙇‍♂️🙇‍♂️🙇‍♂️

#ocean asks #for later #ALSO THE LIL AN DOODLE..... SHES SO CUTE.........

[elenatria]

I'm truly so fascinated how you come up with these compositions, also how you are so good at the anatomy and proportions. Would you have any tips for someone on how to improve their drawings, maybe even a demonstration?

I'm a professional art teacher, however I've never made any tutorials. I guess I could give one free demo if people want to contact me in pm and then maybe have a skype session or something? Just once because I'm busy, sorry. 😅

The way I learned was years and years of practice, but the first thing I tell my students is to start tracing just to make things easier and stop being afraid of failure, whether they use tracing paper for traditional art, or layers in photoshop for digital art.

You find what you want to copy and trace it. Of course, there's the problem of finding the right angle of the character you want to draw, the right pose. So you either google the pose/clothes/background/expressions you want ("man sitting on couch", "holding hands", "men in suits" etc), take screenshots from the movie/TV show, or you have your friends model for you, and you take many many pics of them. You either print the photos or draw by looking at the screen (if you want to do free hand instead of tracing).

The hardest part is how to attach e.g. Valery's face on the bodies of your reference pics. That is learned only through trial and error, so don't be afraid to try and fail and throw away tons of paper. What I do is print out every single face/angle I think might be useful to me, so what you see in my art is a composite human figure, taking the expression from one picture, the hand movement from another, the hair from a third one etc.

I don't do tracing for my own art, I do free hand, but you can try either method and see what suits you.

As you can see here, I changed Valery's head many times to the point that I had to erase it entirely because not only did it not look like him but also it was too small compared to Boris'. What a huge pain in the a$$.

Then on to the inks.

I use kurecolor or copic markers, as many shades of gray as I can get my hands on - so much easier than messy watercolours and acrylics (which I adore but yeah, messy - also not handy if you want to draw during a flight).

One useful tip is to take your distance from the drawing as many times as you can. While you draw you may think it looks right but once you get up, it doesn't. So make sure to take a few steps back and look at it from a distance while you work on it, that way you will notice easier any flaws or things you want to change.

Another tip for getting it right is looking at the art through a mirror (hey, Da Vinci did it so why not you). If not through a mirror, just take a picture of your WIP and reverse/mirror it on your phone. You'll notice any imperfections right away.

#chernobyl #valoris #valerylegasov #borisshcherbina #stellanskarsgard #jaredharris #wip #tutorial #sort of #art

[fortheloveofexy]

What advice would you give to beginner artists/those trying to get back into art about resources or techniques? Specifically figure drawing because YIKES

Oh my darling Lev, I'd be happy to tell you what I've learned!

Okay, so some of this advice is going to be especially geared towards digital art, but the first thing I will say right now is that traditional art is great for learning the fundamentals. If you're completely new to art, I would recommend starting with traditional first.

Traditional is especially good for figure drawing bc you can work with really fast, loose shapes. I like to do timed sketches, where I spend 15 minutes drawing a figure in pencil or charcoal and try to get as much form in as I can. The goal is to work light and quick; don't get caught up in the details or erasing mistakes, just get the basic shape down. Do this regularly, at least once a week. You'll be amazed at how much you improve.

But, whichever medium you choose, here is some general advice:

Use references. I cannot stress this enough; references are essential for nearly every artist. Do not shy away from using them because you think it might make your work "less original". Most, if not all, professional artists use references in some form. It saves time, it saves your wrist, and it still hones your skills. Do not suffer needlessly drawing every single thing from memory when you can use a reference.

On that note - tracing is not a bad word. Tracing, outside of the art world, has a terrible reputation, and this is because it is often abused by people who don't know how to use it properly. Tracing can be a great way to improve your skills, save you time and save your wrist, provided you do it correctly.

A few tips for how to use tracing the right way - don't trace another artist's work. Trace stock images or photos you have taken instead.

Also, don't trace an image line-for-line exactly - instead, loosely sketch over the image you are tracing, mapping out general shapes and form, then draw in your own lines without the reference image and make any adjustments and changes. This way you're still improving your skills and your understanding of proportion/perspective, and the drawing will look more natural. Badly done tracings are very obvious and have a specific "look" to them that most people will be able to pick out. Well-done tracing is nigh undetectable.

Finally - while tracing is a useful and valuable way to improve, it should never function as a replacement for the fundamental skills. You still need to practice free-handing. Tracing is not a replacement for those skills - it's just another tool in your arsenal.

Even professional artists use tracing at times. Muralists, painters, even some of the most well-known artists in history used methods of tracing in their great works.

Now, for the more digital art-specific stuff:

I mostly use Procreate (which is only a $10 one-time fee on the app store) but that requires having an iPad and Apple Pen. So here are some alternatives:

Wacom offers drawing tablets that are less than $100 and come with a 2-year Clip Studio Paint subscription - a well known program that many artists use and some even prefer to Procreate. You can use Wacom tablets with basically any PC.

Krita is a free drawing program that also works well. It's a bit more simplistic than CSP and Procreate from what I've heard but it's a create way to get started with digital art if you've never tried it before.

There are literally hundreds of options out there for digital art programs to use, so I won't list them all here. But if other artists have rec's, please feel free to list them in the replies.

#asks #ask jess #art advice

[andizoidart]

siddles in here. @ ur tags i am first and foremost ABSOLUTELY DELIGHTED to learn u are okay w those kinds of things (IN FICTION), im going absolutely feral. i didn't wanna send an ask before i knew u were okay with anything bc let's face it ppl on the internet are MEAN but i'm absolutely thrilled by ur response and going whhehehegegfegg *little gremlin noises.* i already love ur boy so much AND also has anyone told u i literally love ur art. AND ur a traditional artist HUGE props for that i could never.

p.s. pls tell me everything abt ur boy i want to know it all

BITES YOU AND EATS YOU IN THE MOST POSITIVE WAY-

I will answer this in order fhdhsjsk:

Yes! I am very much okay with viewing and perceiving what people ship! I find it fascinating in all honesty and try to understand the different sides of it (but underage stuff is a big no no in my house guys, gals and nonbinary pals).

I *absolutely* understand this point. People on the internet are absolutely awful and cruel sometimes, but I think if we can all learn to be respectful, that would be so neat and the opposite of toxic!

Thank you so so much!! It literally means the world to me when anyone compliments my characters, especially ones I’ve worked hard on thinking out and designing fhshjskd. Don’t you worry, I’ve got big plans in progress for this little boy-

Aaaa thank you!! I always feel like I’m at a bit of a disadvantage in the art world being a fully traditional artist QwQ,, Like, it’s not that I haven’t tried to do digital art, it’s that I don’t have the equipment, finances, or ability that I would need to do it- I love that everyone has their own unique style, though, it’s so fun to see!!

As for a little bit more on mister middle child nonsense, I’ll list some silly trivia about him and his brothers! Who knows what may be relevant ;]

Somnus’ Nightmare has collected little porcelain figurines since they were children, and has always had an affinity for horticulture.

Somnus was (and still is) obsessed with bugs, biology, zoology, and anatomy. He would absolutely freak Dream and Nightmare out by trying to show them the “super cool spider I just found”.

Somnus doesn’t have good magic control or stats. He sometimes wishes he didn’t have it at all, rather than being weak. Because of this, he took up a lot of material arts, such as medicinal practices and potion making.

Somnus is a *serious* insomniac. Like, the hardly sleeps insomnia with night terrors and daydreams attached (realizing the irony in that).

Somnus only started becoming interested in science because he was looking for a way to create and sustain artificial magic. His hope was that by using natural elements, he could find a way to enhance his magic. Heeee has yet to find that solution.

Somnus’ Dream was a very oblivious child. Not in the “dumb blonde” stereotype way, but in the way that if he wasn’t told something, it didn’t happen in his mind. He was, however, very observant.

Each of the brother’s gained something from their mother tree: Dream’s cape from the banner sigil, Nightmare’s powers from the blackened apple, and Somnus’ talisman carved from the wood of a branch that fell in a storm.

I can go on and on and on, I just love talking about my AUs and my boys-

#andi answers #andizoid #andizoidart #my character #not my character #not my characters #dream #dream sans #nightmare #nightmare sans #somnus #somnus sans #dreamtale au #dreamtale triplets #okay but in 100% honesty getting this made me scream #and happy stim a whole lot fgshsj

[dual-domination]

I posted 662 times in 2022

97 posts created (15%)

565 posts reblogged (85%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@the-marron

@huntress1013

@jaimebluesq

@zhu-yilong-laying-on-things

@pangzi

I tagged 591 of my posts in 2022

Only 11% of my posts had no tags

#guardian - 78 posts

#dmbj - 71 posts

#zhu yilong - 71 posts

#zhao yunlan - 65 posts

#mdzs - 61 posts

#wu xie - 50 posts

#bai yu - 42 posts

#shen wei - 42 posts

#nie mingjue - 42 posts

#the untamed - 37 posts

Longest Tag: 137 characters

#i just wouldn't take xiexie to the desert island bc if he and zyl are there i'm going to stay alone.... if you know what i mean jksjkskjs

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

I am so sorry, but you two made my day. Literally made me giggle like a teenager. Thank you so much. OK, new ask.

Pairing: Lan XiChen x Jiang Wanyin

AU : The frazzled babysitter

You're welcome! It's my pleasure to serve the humor and comedy 😆

So here we go again:

Little menaces

Xichen tried to not give up. Coffee and energetic drinks weren't working anymore. He wondered why his didi and his (twice?) brother-in-law got cute sweet children like a-Yuan and tiny romantic Zizhen, meanwhile he got Jingyi and a-Ling. Just one of them was enough to make him keep the two eyes very open, but the two, together… a true nightmare. A-Ling would fight over his jiujiu's attention - against Jingyi AND against Xichen. And Jingyi would fight back because… well, because he was who he was: the less Lan of all Lans. 

LXC: Sometimes I wonder if there's any chance of Jingyi being actually a Nie changed at birth…

JC: Sometimes I wonder HOW Wei Wuxian managed to raise such a calm son while a-jie's child is… this full-time upset baby Peacock…

JL: A-Ling is not a peacock! 

JC: Your dad is a Peacock, and so are you.

JL: Mean jiujiu!

LXC: Wanyin, making them cry won't help…

JC: Helps me to get my revenge for what they've done to us.

LXC: They're just small babies… we have to love them.

JC: I love my peacock nephew. 

JL: A-Ling is going to tell everything to xiaoshushu!

JC: Just like you, he's not a big thing. 

LJY: Jin Ling is a coward!

JL: And you are what??

LJY: I'm a fucking badass NIE!

Next time they'd have to babysit, Jingyi definitely would stay with Mingjue and a-Yao, even at risk of learning at least five more bad words and cursing to Lan Qiren's horror.

47 notes - Posted August 10, 2022

#4

Now that my husband loves Mo Dao Zu Shi, I can send him stuff I find on Tumblr. So I sent this one for him...

And he sent it back to me and told me he fixed it:

He doesn't want to be a Lan anymore. He wants to be a Nie, have a respectable mustache and qi-deviate like man.

He says: The Mustache is Canon.

93 notes - Posted July 8, 2022

#3

POV: Meng Yao never left Qinghe

Part 1:

* MY, immersed in business papers. *

NMJ: What are you doing?

MY: Long-term investments.

NMJ: For what?

MY: For good reasons.

NMJ: I was not consulted. 

MY: War is your business, investments are mine.

NMJ: Shall I remind you who Qinghe Nie Sect belongs to?

MY and NHS looking at each other from opposite sides of the room.

NHS: Da-ge, shall I remind you who you belong to?

NMJ: I sense a conspiracy here…

( @novas-grimoire I blame that tweet... and my obsession in Nieyao fix-it stuff)

97 notes - Posted July 2, 2022

#2

It's been a while since my hand tremors returned and it's been rare for me to feel like painting - especially since I've lost a lot of motivation since Traditional Art has become underrated in light of digital art.

But then this wonderful Guardian fic by @the-marron left me overly emotional and I can't get out of my head everything I felt while reading.

So, Marron, a quick painting of someone who wished he had the talent to convey your impeccable writing on a canvas, but really just has a lot of feelings.

Fun fact: it's the first time in over twenty years of being part of fandoms that I've tried to paint something for someone else's fic.

You can find this little literary treasure here:

When I walk past the mountain peak, it doesn't speak

(It took a lot of courage to post this 😅)

140 notes - Posted August 31, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

See the full post

467 notes - Posted June 25, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review #my n2 post is the one I wished to be my n1 bc it's personal #but the tags are accurate abt my feelings in 2022 sjkkjskjs #Marron look you're famous here XD #my longest tag is crack written under tazzy's ask game and that says a lot abt me #no surprise guardian and dmbj tags are where they are kjskjskjs #surprise is that I didn't post zhao yunlan enough or I forgot to tag :V

[thetragicallynerdy]

taro, cactus, jasmine for the random asks!

oooh thanks pal!!

taro ⇢ if someone called you right now to catch up, what’re the things you’d tell them about?

Honestly I find talking about myself like that so hard, so probably very little before turning the conversation back on them XD

However, in the interest of the game - that yesterday I got to cuddle 3 10-week old ish miniature aussie doodle puppies that my sister was fostering for a few days, and they were the softest cutest things in the world. I had to lay down to rest when I was at her place post-driving and two of them cuddled with me the whole time and it was amazing.

Also because I've talked with like 3 people about it in the past few days, probably that I have a wedding to go to in March and I'm stressed about clothing XD formal clothing my beloathed!!

cactus ⇢ something you’re currently learning (about)?

Men's formal clothing XD (sort of. I hate learning about clothing. So take that with a grain of salt.)

Also digital art! I very recently started noodling around with it, and it's been a fun exploration. It's really different from traditional art, and it's pretty hard on my eyes in a way traditional art isn't (screens ugh), but I've really enjoyed learning it so far.

jasmine ⇢ do you have a movie or book you loved but will never watch/read again?

Ohhh good question. Honestly there's a bunch that fit the "I loved this in a certain time and place, but for reasons don't want to interact with it any more." Harry Potter springs to mind, as does a lot of Johnny Depp's stuff. (Fuck both JKR and Depp, honestly).

There's also some stuff though that's more along the lines of "I adored this, but it was hard to watch for various reasons, so I probably won't watch/read it again" lol. The Bear was a tv series that is probably this for me - it was fucking amazing, absolutely loved it - but the stress was very high!! I probably won't watch the first season again lol.

Thanks so much for the ask, pal!! For anyone curious, the get to know you ask game these are from can be found here!

#ask game #get to know you ask game #asks #yourlocal-charlatan #about me

[courtofmatchups]

Hello! I was wondering if I could get a matchup? I’m bi so any gender is fine. I use she/her pronouns as well. For personality I’m creative, introverted, and individualistic. Though I’m introverted, around my friends/when I’m comfortable I can be quite talkative and humorous. However, I definitely treasure my alone time the most. Im a very big homebody and can be very hermit introvert sometimes. As for bad traits, I am sometimes the worst pessimist when it comes to myself. I’ll be fine motivating others but then when it comes to me I live by the “be ready for the worst and you wont be disappointed” As for hobbies escaping to new worlds while reading books/comics, watching movies, and playing rpg video games. My favorite genres are fantasy and sci-fi, though I do love a good classic from time to time. Apart from that, I love working out. My interests on the other hand are art focused. I’m currently in art school working with mostly digital mediums, though I sometimes work with traditional. I love my practice and everything including, game, web and interaction design, video art and visual effects, 3D modeling and character design, and digital illustration. Sometimes I whip out graphite and ink. A list of random likes: coffee, chai tea, dark chocolate, rock/blues/jazz/80s pop/soundtrack music, cafe art shows, arcades, comic book stores, purple, thai/Indian/Chinese food, roller blading to classic rock, quality alone time. A random list of dislikes: people i am unfamiliar with and have to make small talk with, the biting cold, rain, non fiction, staying too close to reality and not being allowed to daydream/imagine/roam freely in my thoughts, physical touch, overly crowded areas. I think that’s it thank you!

It seems to me you've captured the heart of...

The Lone Flame:

Lance Ira

(A/N: WOW. This took forever to write. I had university assignments that are a higher priority for me 😳)

I hope you're into slow burn because this burn will be incredibly slow. It is worth it in the end, however, since he realizes how similar you are. You give off some major black cat energy, and I feel like Lance would quite appreciate that. He's also a bit introverted, so the first time you'd meet is during a class you're both basically conscripted into taking. You might laugh, but the way you'd actually get to know each other happens in the most "Wattpad" way possible: the two of you are paired up for a project kind of like what happens in his own route.

As he gets to know you, he takes more interest in what you're into. Of course, some of the more modern things you're into are a bit lost on him, but he's more than willing to hear about them. I headcanon that he also has an appreciation for art, so whatever artwork you'd make he'd absolutely adore. He may even ask you to draw him and Gruscha if you're okay with it. He'd even keep some of your pieces for himself.

If he does make it to Earth, I think he'd also like your more modern interests. Heck, I think he'd even do some of your favourite activities with you.

***~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~***

(Earth AU because, why not?)

To say that the experience with your paramour on Earth was bizarre is putting it quite lightly. The ubiquitous nature of technology here is dizzying to him, much like magic was to you when you were unceremoniously thrown into Saligia. It took him a while to learn about the magicless world around him, but he managed in no time with your help.

Once he's got his footing on Earth, you took him to places you thought he'd enjoy: restaurants, parks, arcades, as well as some comic book stores. He quite enjoyed his time there, mostly because he was with you. Of course, he was still a bit lost, but he still enjoyed himself. His favourite activity was roller skating at an empty park with you.

You: All right, over there?

Lance: Yep. I must say, no matter how much I do this, I can never get enough of the thrill

You: Tell me about it. By the by, what do you think of my playlist?

Lance: I quite like it! It has all the classic rock songs you and I like, but it feels a bit different

You: That's because I made the playlist with the two of us in mind

Lance:

Lance: Hahaha! You're a precious one, you

***~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~***

#court of darkness #court of darkness matchups #court of matchups #lance ira #lance ira x reader #court of darkness x reader

[paintingdragonfeathers]

Whew! Survived Nekocon 2022! But no rest for the wicked—I immediately went home to finish packing things for the movers this weekend. Then I can get back to creating AAAARRRRTT.

Thank you everyone who stopped by the Painting Dragon Feathers booth in the artist alley and either taking home some art or signing up for commissions, and thank you everyone who came to the “Dragons, Cryptids, and Dinos, OH MY!” Panel. While it was only my second time ever vending at Nekocon, and my first ever pro-row booth, it was one of my most successful conventions to date! And thank you cosplayers for showing off your craft!

Special shoutout to my stellar friends and booth beard for all their help manning the booth and keeping us all sane over the weekend.

I also had a chance to meet some new faces and make some new friends. And I had a humbling interaction with a particular congoer—a young man approached my booth and said he came to the con specifically to see ME and my work after seeing it on social media.

This is already heartening as it’s proof my social media posts don’t end up yeeted into the void, lol.

Anyway, this young artist came seeking advice on how to pursue a career in the arts as he heads off to college. Now, I’ve looked out for and helped newbies and first-timers in artist alleys over the years, but this is the first time someone made a pilgrimage to talk to me. I can remember when I was in his shoes, and now with close to a decade of experience between college and cons, I had a split-section realization of “Oh crap…I’m an ADULT ARTIST and can offer this kind of advice.”

So, I didn’t sugar coat it—I was frank that I was very fortunate to have a foundation of supportive friends and family to pursue the arts in school, and as a career I’m at the point where it’s still feast or famine, but I encouraged him that perseverance is key. A lot of times something worth doing is a long gambit and requires patience since stuff rarely happens overnight. A typical rule of thumb I go by is for small businesses of most ilks (including creative work) they tend to either gain traction or “fail” between 4-6 years. Fun fact, until the pandemic hit and set EVERYONE on the planet back, I started gaining traction as a professional artist at years 5-6 of Painting Dragon Feathers. It’s good to be ambitious, and it’s healthy to be pragmatic; I’ve seen so many talented writers and artists flounder because they lack a lick of business sense and don’t know how to apply their skills. And that a lot of skills, whether creative or business-y, can be learned.

I told him that there are so many resources—books, online groups, etc.—that can help him make connections, study artistic principles, and learn the trade to make life as an artist easier. And when he showed me some samples of his art, I could tell based on his expressive line work and composition that he has the creative chops. I recommended him which digital art programs (something he asked about) and tools best emulate traditional media, yet emphasized that it is just a tool, and that you still need to know the principles of art—shading, hue, tone, composition, etc.—whether you’re picking up a paintbrush or a stylus.

All in all, I count myself blessed that I have had excellent guidance and mentors myself over the years from bigger, “adultier” artists, and that if I can hand down some of those sparks and advice to make younger artists coming after me walk a smoother path while I’m still learning and bushwhacking the road for myself, then I’m doing something right at the end of the day. I have no doubt that that young gentleman is gonna go on and create cool stuff.

Go forth and make cool things young artists. The world needs them, and you never know who’s watching your work. And my digital mailbox and art booths are open if you want some wisdom too. ;)

#nekocon #nekocon2022 #nekocon24 #convention #anime #animeconvention #artist #artistalley #cosplay #cosplayparade #costume #fursuit #furry #lifeadvice #paintingdragonfeathers

[kissagii]

hello hello :> sorry this is so long i wrote half my... damn life story but idk i'm not exactly simple to describe and we're moots so you're chill

may i ask for an attack on titan and my hero academia match-up? if you shall so bless me

i'm a trans dude who has not yet began the medical transition but want to (onceihavemoney), and right now, i don't have any real interest in women. i'm 5'2, almost 5'3, with a spoon figure. my hair is, naturally, a dirty blonde, but it's dyed pink (my favorite color), and i have plans to dye it different colors in the future. i like to experiment with different fashion styles, from grunge to pastel academia. whatever i feel like wearing, i wear, basically. i am a cancer, which will become relatively clear as i go on (jk)

i'm a pretty open person. i like meeting people, though i'm more confident online and a bit shy when first meeting someone irl. but i'm also known for not having much of a filter after only a few days of friendship. i fall in love easily. i guess i'm a hopeless romantic? i do believe in true love, but i've got the "soulmates are made not found" attitude. i've been the therapist friend in a number of groups, insert trickle-down therapy joke here. i like making people laugh, so i have a pretty diverse sense of humor and never back down from cracking jokes. but i also have a decent knowledge of when a joke should and shouldn't be said out loud. my moods can vary widely over the span of a few days. i'm hyper-affectionate even to my friends, after i check boundaries with them. safe to say i would be very huggy/cuddly with a boyfriend, unless i'm going through the anniversary effect. i enjoy learning but high school was not my forte. i dropped out at sixteen and got my hiset before i turned seventeen. for a while i wanted to follow my abuela's blueprint; go to college at 17. but that wasn't right for me, and i also didn't have the money. from a technical standpoint, i'm a troubled kid. i've been diagnosed with major depressive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, ptsd from various people and situations, insomnia, and some form of schizophrenia (spanning from auditory/visual/tactile hallucinations to paranoid delusions and thoughts). i still have therapy three times a week. never really had a dad or a (proper) mother figure, so we are double-wielding the mommy and daddy issues in this house. mental health is a big thing in my family; so as you can tell i'm not scared to talk about it. most of the time. and i'm also cool with people talking to me about their struggles with it. i've lost a lot of people, to death itself and to the death of bonds. so when i give people advice, it's usually because i had some experience with it. i started smoking weed as a form of escapism when i was 16. i don't smoke or eat edibles often, so i'm not a full stoner or anything. but i have experience with it and use it for times of high stress.

music is a huge thing for me. i sing, my only honors class in high school was honors chorus, i play the electric guitar, and my music taste ranges from slut pop to heavy metal to melanie martinez/mitski/lana del rey and whatever fleetwood mac would be defined as. and father and son by cat stevens for hours at a time. i listen to music or videos or wtv 24/7- i can't even fall asleep to silence. it scares me lol right now my biggest dream is to be a musical artist, write songs about my trauma and invite the world to be a little more okay with the fact that it exists, and that it's okay to ask for help. but my realistic dream is pursuing something in the field of astronomy/astrophysics. i love writing, from stories (and fics as you can tell by my 69 tumblr drafts) to lyrics, and love to experiment with cooking. my favorite cuisine, both to eat and to make, is japanese cuisine. i want to get more into puerto rican cuisine since the entire paternal side of my family is puerto rican, even part native. i do digital and traditional art, i play video games (mostly sandbox games, aka only minecraft) and have a sweet tooth the size of actual jupiter. i play volleyball from time to time and i enjoy high intensity interval training and pilates. junji ito is my favorite mangaka- i absolutely love horror movies and horror books, from the actual scary stuff to modern horror movies.

thank you for humoring me my friend and fully expect me like bombing the items on your masterlist :> xx

of course!! don't worry about the detail in the description, it helps me match you more effectively :)

i match you with...

𝕜𝕚𝕣𝕚𝕤𝕙𝕚𝕞𝕒 𝕖𝕚𝕛𝕚𝕣𝕠

and

𝕒𝕣𝕞𝕚𝕟 𝕒𝕣𝕝𝕖𝕣𝕥

#{🌼 - wildflowers} #mha matchup #mha matchups #bnha matchup #bnha matchups #kirishima #kirishima eijiro #aot matchup #aot matchups #attack on titan matchup #attack on titan matchups #armin #armin arlert

[highly-opinionated-art]

I wanna share with you guys some traditional art I've been making recently- since November I've been doing this album-of-the-week thing, and a few weeks into the year I started picking out my favorite line from the album of the week and doing a little illustration for it. If you can call it that- they're just quick, rough little pictures, more experimental than polished. Some are better than others. But I have some watercolors and acrylic paints that I never used before this project, and a hell of a lot of markers and gel pens and colored pencils that need to be used, too. I've been learning a lot and getting some use out of what I have at the same time, so that's good enough for me! Here's the first quarter of 2024 done:

Albums/artists/lyrics under the cut, plus some additional commentary because why not.

Week 1 was bury me at makeout creek, by mitski. The line is "I wanna be what my body wants me to be" from the song Townie. I have a red marker that does that blotting thing sometimes, but I made another one to match on the other side, so the first I is like that half on purpose. I should have done the exclamation point facing the other way, I realize.

Week 2- album was In League With Dragons, by the Mountain Goats. "It never hurts to give thanks to the local gods, you never know who might be hungry" is from the song Younger. In digital art I sometimes just put a mostly transparent blue layer over everything when I want it to look like night. Turns out you can't do that with watercolor so easily.

Week 3- My Head Is An Animal by Of Monsters And Men, it says "that we won't run, and we won't run, and we won't run" from King and Lionheart, but you can't tell very well. I used a metallic sharpie. But I like how the painted parts came out on that one!

Week 4- Minutes to Midnight by Linkin Park. "Make it a dirt dance floor again" from Bleed It Out. It looks just like poop but I swear the paint came out of the tube like that, I didn't mix it with anything or anything!

Week 5- 52nd Street, by Billy Joel, "gotta be more to life than just try, try, try" from the song Half A Mile Away. This was actually the first one I made, I went back and did the first 4 a little later.

Week 6- The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, by Chappell Roan, "I'm gonna keep on Dancing" from the song Pink Pony Club. The words are metallic on this one too.

Week 7- Built To Last, by Arrows in Action, "maybe they'll love me when I finally get out of this town" from the song Mad For This. I like this one.

Week 8- Born To Run, by Bruce Springsteen, I know you can't read it but it says "together, Wendy, we can live with the sadness, I love you with all the madness in my soul". It was really hard to get a picture of this one for some reason. Metallic gel pen might have something to do with it.

Week 9- No Angel, by Dido, "Inside, everybody's hiding something" from the song Slide. I meant to add more masks, ok. I got lazy. I should have just made the other ones bigger...

Week 10- How Will You Know If You Never Try by the band COIN, "tomorrow's just another day" from the opening song Don't Cry 2020 (which was released in 2017). It's my room, but I didn't get up and walk 10 steps to get a reference, just did it from memory. The window is too small and not in the right place, and I just changed up the patterns on the blanket because I didn't feel like checking.

Week 11- Pure Fiction by Eric Hutchinson. The lyric is "if it's ever gonna happen, it's gotta happen here I am", which seems like it should be missing a comma, but it's like that on purpose.

Week 12- New Beginning, by Tracy Chapman, "make new symbols, make new signs" from the title track. I'm so mad that I messed this one up. I should have left blank space for the words, I think.Week 13- Good Charlotte, self-titled debut album, "I don't look important, so they're telling me to wait" from WaldorfWorldwide. It's me. I'm really short and carry my stuff in a backpack and get mistaken for a student so much, it's absolutely infuriating. It's Thursday when I'm posting this but I just knew that was going to be the line for the week, so there you go.

#art attempt #album of the week #personal #see you in another 3 months...? #with lyrics

[dodounchained]

I have a genuine question: wouldn't it be better to practice creating your own art, rather than using these image generators? to each their own, but considering how many people struggle creating their own art because of depression following this "ai" boom, I know I personally would not want to contribute to something that makes other people feel bad about creating things by hand.

Hey, thanks for the questions and the chance to dive into these overdue thoughts from a personal angle, because you phrased them so well :)

The straightforward reason I don't practice drawing and create things with my own hands is that I simply don't have enough time to learn a new skill while working a 9-to-5 job while taking care of the family. Fandom is my escape, and there's only so much I can dedicate to it. Learning to paint demands significant effort, time, and talent, and unfortunately, I don't possess those gifts at the moment.

Let me be clear: "AI-generated imagery" can't replace traditionally painted arts, whether on canvas or through digital tools like Wacom or Procreate. They're not even in the same ballpark. Fun fact, I wanted to be a painter as a kid because my mom was one, but she shunned it because it didn't work out well for her. In the game industry I'm in now, Art directors and artists are still highly sought after and are crucial to any successful project. At the moment, AI generation can't precisely interpret what we envision or tell a client that, no, black is too dark for a 70 pt bold logo in a children's game with predominantly pastel colors. It can't even add weight to a line or create a simple walking animation. Returning to the point, we live in a time where both Photoshop skills and traditional oil painting are appreciated, where calligraphy and typewriting are both practiced, and where sculpture and 3D printer skills are both taught in schools. I hope for a future where AI imagery and the drawing community are not at odds but appreciated in their own ways.

For aspiring artists struggling, I can't comment directly as I'm navigating the same path. But I know the struggle is real, justified, and will pay off in the end. If you ask me to feel bad for them, it's like asking a working person if they feel guilty towards Uber drivers. The analogy falls apart because AI and creative artists aren't competing for the same limited real-life resources right now. If someone felt guilty for being able to do something others can't, they'd be living with guilt every moment.

If I sound a bit defensive, I hope for your understanding. I have imposter syndromes (deserved or not), being a woman in tech and an AI image generator (let's not stretch for the word AI artist). This blog goes on hiatus when I'm so depressed that I can't even open the page. I'm enraptured in the R&D process, but there's no one I can talk to about it. It's a different struggle, but I have terabytes of failed models, wasted hours, and spreadsheets documenting what might have gone wrong before the model reaches its best likeness. What's worse, there's little community for us. AI imagery gets a bad rep because there are mountains of perverts doing unspeakable things I witness every day on forums and servers while looking for the newest style or training method. I'm scared to tell people this is what I (can) do. Perhaps in the '90s, people denied going on the internet because it automatically equated them with being a porn-watcher. That'd be funny.

If there's anything to feel bad about, it's the copyright issue in the AI community. I try my best to use models trained over "ethically" obtained images, but one can never be sure. None of my work has ever been used commercially either.

This response has probably gone on a tangent for too long, and I'd like to appreciate your attention if you've reached this far. Fandom is my escapism, and I have so many headcanons that would otherwise be fleeting posts that vanish in a second. Now, I'm gifted with this new tool to indulge in them, and I feel truly lucky.

#discussion #text post