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currantlees-creative-corner

Currantlee's Creative Corner

My brain has lots of random ideas, which I try to express in various media. Usually, I'm too slow. Main: @currantlee

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currantlees-creative-corner · 1 month

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Can't afford art school?

After seeing post like this 👇

And this gem 👇

As well as countless of others from the AI generator community. Just talking about how "inaccessible art" is, I decided why not show how wrong these guys are while also helping anyone who actually wants to learn.

Here is the first one ART TEACHERS! There are plenty online and in places like youtube.

📺Here is my list:

Proko (Free)

Marc Brunet (Free but he does have other classes for a cheap price. Use to work for Blizzard)

Aaron Rutten (free)

BoroCG (free)

Jesse J. Jones (free, talks about animating)

Jesus Conde (free)

Mohammed Agbadi (free, he gives some advice in some videos and talks about art)

Ross Draws (free, he does have other classes for a good price)

SamDoesArts (free, gives good advice and critiques)

Drawfee Show (free, they do give some good advice and great inspiration)

The Art of Aaron Blaise ( useful tips for digital art and animation. Was an animator for Disney)

Bobby Chiu ( useful tips and interviews with artist who are in the industry or making a living as artist)

Second part BOOKS, I have collected some books that have helped me and might help others.

📚Here is my list:

The "how to draw manga" series produced by Graphic-sha. These are for manga artist but they give great advice and information.

"Creating characters with personality" by Tom Bancroft. A great book that can help not just people who draw cartoons but also realistic ones. As it helps you with facial ques and how to make a character interesting.

"Albinus on anatomy" by Robert Beverly Hale and Terence Coyle. Great book to help someone learn basic anatomy.

"Artistic Anatomy" by Dr. Paul Richer and Robert Beverly Hale. A good book if you want to go further in-depth with anatomy.

"Directing the story" by Francis Glebas. A good book if you want to Story board or make comics.

"Animal Anatomy for Artists" by Eliot Goldfinger. A good book for if you want to draw animals or creatures.

"Constructive Anatomy: with almost 500 illustrations" by George B. Bridgman. A great book to help you block out shadows in your figures and see them in a more 3 diamantine way.

"Dynamic Anatomy: Revised and expand" by Burne Hogarth. A book that shows how to block out shapes and easily understand what you are looking out. When it comes to human subjects.

"An Atlas of animal anatomy for artist" by W. Ellenberger and H. Dittrich and H. Baum. This is another good one for people who want to draw animals or creatures.

Etherington Brothers, they make books and have a free blog with art tips.

As for Supplies, I recommend starting out cheap, buying Pencils and art paper at dollar tree or 5 below. For digital art, I recommend not starting with a screen art drawing tablet as they are more expensive.

For the Best art Tablet I recommend either Xp-pen, Bamboo or Huion. Some can range from about 40$ to the thousands.

💻As for art programs here is a list of Free to pay.

Clip Studio paint ( you can choose to pay once or sub and get updates)

Procreate ( pay once for $9.99)

Blender (for 3D modules/sculpting, ect Free)

PaintTool SAI (pay but has a 31 day free trail)

Krita (Free)

mypaint (free)

FireAlpaca (free)

Libresprite (free, for pixel art)

Those are the ones I can recall.

So do with this information as you will but as you can tell there are ways to learn how to become an artist, without breaking the bank. The only thing that might be stopping YOU from using any of these things, is YOU.

I have made time to learn to draw and many artist have too. Either in-between working two jobs or taking care of your family and a job or regular school and chores. YOU just have to take the time or use some time management, it really doesn't take long to practice for like an hour or less. YOU also don't have to do it every day, just once or three times a week is fine.

Hope this was helpful and have a great day.

#Reblog #Resources #Art

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currantlees-creative-corner · 1 month

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Wings anyone?

#Reblog #Resources #Tutorials #Art Tutorial #smiggles

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currantlees-creative-corner · 2 months

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Massive PSA to ALL artists who may be on Twitter, please protect yourself. I just wiped all my art off that shit site, so unfortunately a lot of NSFW art that could be viewed on there will not be available. Some is available on Slasher app, and a bit on Pixiv. I will try to post old lewd art on pixiv and any relevant lewds on Slasher app. I'm really thinking of looking into just getting my own website to display all works uncensored depending on the cost.

To give more context on what the XAi program will be doing here is a link to an article with interview answers from the Mustyness himself:

A quote from said article:

'He also claimed that xAI’s use of Twitter data would not be much different from what many are already using the platform for, adding that it would primarily be used for “text training” and “image and video training.”

“I guess we will use the public tweets — obviously not anything private* — for training as well, just like basically everyone else has,” Musk said.'

He will be using data from private accounts, what Elon means is likely data of birthdates and addresses.

I added ALT descriptions now to the image, I didn't have time before (I'm working on an overly detailed art piece right now), I hope that helps all with screen readers!

#PSA #Elon Musk #Twitter #Data Scraping #Generative AI

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currantlees-creative-corner · 2 months

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Hey, what if Surge took over the IDW comics? (inspired by one particular BtVS comic cover)

I haven't drawn Sonic characters in... A pretty long while 😅 But I'm really happy with how she turned out regardless.

#Sonic #Sonic fanart #Surge the Tenrec #IDW Sonic #IDW Comics #Sega #Surge #IDW Surge #Sonic the Hedgehog #Comic Cover #Fake Cover #Surge is the ultimate Faker #Essentially #Illustration #Artists on Tumblr #Street Art #Street Art inspired #Currantlee here #Currantlee drawing

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currantlees-creative-corner · 6 months

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Sternentreue (Colored Version)

"It's a promise..."

I said I was going to color this one, wasn't I? 😊 So here it is, in all it's colorful glory (and I made the Inktober version my new blog header). I tried how the more cel-ish shading I did for some of my inktober pieces works with color, and I'm overall extremely happy how it turned out!!

For all those who haven't seen the original (and are too lazy for following the link), Sternentreue is the German name of Oathkeeper / Yakusoku no Omamori. I love this name because there is something really poetic about it: literally translated it means loyalty of / to the stars, but more figuratively, it can be interpreted as staying true to one's (chosen) destiny / promise.

Also, thanks to everyone who liked and reblogged / shared the original. I was stoked to see so many of you liked it, so... Thank you so, so much! 💗

As always, please reblog on Tumblr instead of reposting! I'm okay with having my work reposted on other social media sites that I'm not on, as long as I'm credited (ideally by linking my blog or my main). Do not claim my creative work as your own! Thank you 💜

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currantlees-creative-corner · 6 months

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I have thought about doing Inktober before, but I've always shied away from it because I thought that there is no way I can do it. Well - turns out that at least this time, I was right, I didn't even turn half of my prompts into finished pieces 😄 But you know what? That's okay.

Honestly, I had a lot of fun doing this challenge! I feel like it gave me more confidence in my drawing (something I really needed. I struggled a lot with drawing at all the entire past year because I felt that I just wasn't good enough), the opportunity to experiment with some drawing techniques and tools I haven't tried before, and hey, I got a watermark now!!

Anyway, as mentioned in the ALT of the image with the prompts, I have some sketches and concepts. I might turn some of them into full pieces eventually, but right now, I have another art project in mind that I really wanna persue. That being said - here's a collection of all my finished Inktober pieces. You can of course also find them individually (with notes) on my blog among my other work 😊

Thank you to everyone who liked, shared and commented on my Inktober drawings as well!! 💗

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currantlees-creative-corner · 7 months

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Insomnia | Bed Sharing / I'll Protect You / Fear

Yes, we're combining prompts now A piece I made for @theeeveetamer's birthday a few days back, but I also got some inspiration from my Inktober prompts because... Vee's birthday is in October, so why the hell not? I had a lot of fun making this too 😊

The scene is inspired by Vee's Leokumi fanfics, as well as my own headcanon that Leo is a light sleeper / insomniac due to being a constant target during the concubine wars. So whenever he can't sleep, he watches Takumi, making sure they're both safe.

As always, please reblog on Tumblr instead of reposting. I'm fine with having my work reposted on other social media sites that I'm not on, as long as I'm credited (ideally by linking my blog or my main). Do not claim my creative work as your own! Thank you 💜

#Inktober #Inktober 2023 #theeeveetamer #Birthday #Birthday Gift #Fire Emblem #Fire Emblem Fates #FE Fates #Leo #Takumi #Leokumi #Fanwork #Fanart #FE Fanart #Fire Emblem Fanart #Currantlee here #Currantlee drawing

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currantlees-creative-corner · 7 months

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Sternentreue | Oath / Promise

Yes, I have finally done it, I have named one of my creative ourbursts after the German name of Oathkeeper (which I LOVE because it's such a great, poetic name IMO - it roughly translates to loyalty to the stars, which can be read as staying true to a chosen destiny), SoKai shipping lifegoal accomplished, let's move on.

Also, it's still Inktober, but I might do a colored version of this once it's over. As always, I'm using a prompt from my own prompt list (feel free to use it for your Inktober project as well, and please tag me if you do, I'd love to see it!!).

#Inktober #Inktober 2023 #Fanwork #Fanart #Kingdom Hearts #KH Fanart #Sora #KH Sora #Kairi #KH Kairi #SoKai #Oathkeeper #Lucky Charm #KH3 #Kingdom Hearts III #Kingdom Hearts 3 #Currantlee here #Currantlee drawing

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currantlees-creative-corner · 7 months

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Tea

Hey, can we talk about how hard drawing glass is? Especially when only using black and white?? Probably even more so when you haven't done ink drawings since middle school before this Inktober??? ... Admittedly, I kinda gave up after a while, but at least I tried 😅 Also, I actually still kinda like the result. Oh, and I played around with screentones on this one (does that count as cheating in Inktober?).

Anyway, in case you're wondering, I'm kinda doing my own Inktober thing. The rules change according to my whims, and I even created my own prompt list (using the prompt generator of a Discord server I'm in) because I think the official one is boring. Feel free to use my prompts as well (and please tag me if you do, I'd love to see how you interpret them!)

As always, please reblog on Tumblr instead of reposting!! Reposting on other social media is fine with me as long as you give me credit (ideally by linking this blog or my main). Do not claim my creative work as your own!! Thank you 💙

#Inktober #Inktober 2023 #Tea #Drama #Online Drama #Fandom #Fandom Drama #Wank #Kerfuffle #Cringe #Shipwars #Character Bashing #Grudgewank #Fandom Police #Artists on Tumblr #Digital Art #Original Art #Currantlee here #Currantlee drawing

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currantlees-creative-corner · 7 months

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I see you (again) | Eye Contact

(Currantlee: "I can't draw eyes to save my life!!" Also Currantlee: *draws this*) ... Okay, but seriously, I've struggled with drawing eyes for quite some time, but I feel like I learned a lot from making this piece. I like how it turned out!

I'm not using the official Inktober prompts. You can find a list of mine here if you're interested (feel free to use them as well, and please tag me if you do, I'd love to see your interpretations!!).

As always, please reblog on Tumblr instead of reposting! If you want to repost this on other social media sites (that I'm not on), feel free to, but please give me credit (ideally by linking this blog 😊). Do NOT claim as your own!! Thank you 💙

#Inktober #Inktober 2023 #Eye Contact #Original Art #Artists on Tumblr #*nudge nudge* Feel free to read the Image Description 😉#Eyes #Digital Art #Digital Illustration #Currantlee here #Currantlee drawing

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currantlees-creative-corner · 7 months

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Tidal Forces, Ever Shifting | Paopu Fruit

Happy Inktober everyone!! Here is my first piece. I'm using my own prompt list, which you can find here 🙂 (if you want to use it as well, feel free to, and please tag me if you do, I'd love to see your interpretations of the prompts!!) So far, I'm having a lot of fun with this challenge!

As always, please reblog on Tumblr instead of reposting! If you want to repost this on any other platform (that I'm not on), feel free to, but please credit me - ideally by linking to my blog 😊 Thank you ❤️

#Inktober #Inktober 2023 #Kingdom Hearts #Paopu Fruit #Digital Art #Illustration #Digital Illustration #Artists on Tumblr #Currantlee here #Currantlee drawing

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currantlees-creative-corner · 8 months

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Summary: Sora, Kairi and Riku have returned to Destiny Islands, but it is clear that nothing is like before their adventure off-world. While Riku struggles with the fact that half of the school wants to date him, Sora struggles with her new-found feelings for Kairi on top of getting bullied for - supposedly - sleeping with Riku. And Kairi? Well, she tries to do everything in her power to make her two friends feel a bit better.

~3.9k Words. Rated T (Teens and Older). LGBTQ+ themes. Depictions of Bullying, Misogny, Sexism and Xenophobia. Wanna read it on Ao3? Click here!

Tick, tock. Tick, tock. Tick, tock… Rrrrrrrrring!!

The alarm clock was quickly shut down when Sora turned around, and slammed her hand down on the poor thing. She actually needed multiple attempts to find it in her daze, but once she did, her room quickly got quiet again. It was a wonder that after all these years, the clock on Sora’s nightstand was still ticking. Then again – it had already needed to be repaired several times.

Sora yawned and turned around once more. She wasn’t awake yet, and if it was up to her, she would have kept sleeping. It didn’t take long for her to drift away into the realm of dreams once more…

“Rise and shine, Sora!”

She groaned as she slightly opened her eyes again. “Yeah?”

“You have school today!”

“Ugh…” She had just returned home from saving not only the world, but the entire universe from Xemnas’ plot, and she was already pushed back into everyday life. Sora appreciated the sense of normalcy, but she also wished she could have gotten a break first. “Just five more minutes…”

“You’re gonna be late again, young lady!”

“You know I don’t need that long in the bathroom…”

“Well, you do ever since you came home out of nowhere with that long hair!”

Sora sighed. She still tended to forget that her hair was much longer than it had ever been these days. Not that she hated it, she actually kinda liked it (especially since Kairi liked to play with it), but it was a pain to take care of. Definitely not a great hairstyle to go on another worlds-saving quest with. If she ever had to again, she’d probably cut it off at least to shoulder-length…

“Sora!”

“Right…” She yawned. “Gimme a sec…”

She rolled onto her side, and blinked – unfortunately right as her mother opened the yellow curtains across the room. She rubbed her eyes. Yeah, now she was definitely awake…

“Come on, Sora,” her mother chided. “You don’t wanna be late.”

“Yeah, yeah…”

That wasn’t really true – truth be told, Sora couldn’t care less about being late to school. She had never particularly liked it after her initial excitement about it had worn off. Learning things from lectures and books was so dull. Sora preferred learning from practice. Maybe that was why her favorite subjects – or rather the only ones she liked and frequently excelled at – were art, music and sports. She had a hard time following the lectures without drifting away into a daydream or thinking of her plans for the afternoon, even when they were technically about topics that interested her. At least most of the teachers were kind and understanding, though there were a few who thought the key to handling Sora’s lack of attention in class was giving her extra homework. Luckily, she had Riku and Kairi to help her out with that so she was done quicker, and they could go back to having fun together. Her friends were pretty much what kept her coming back to school every day.

Sora sighed and opened her eyes again, finally sitting up. She rubbed her eyes. Her mother wasn’t in her room anymore – she must have left. How long had it been since she had come into Sora’s room to wake her up? Sora glanced at her alarm clock again.

“Oh, phooey!”

She was definitely going to be late now. Not that it mattered much. Sora already had a reputation for being late, so at least it wasn’t like she had anything to ruin.

Despite that, Sora got out of bed rather quickly, grabbed her school uniform ensemble she had already worn the day prior, and hurried to the bathroom. She got out of her PJ top on the way somehow, but that stunt also resulted in her hitting her arm on the doorframe.

“Ouch!” She hissed. That would certainly bruise…

“Heal,” she murmured, purely out of a habit, before remembering that she would have to summon her Keyblade for this to work – and both of her hands were occupied. Sora sighed. Despite all the things she’d learned in the past year and a few months, she still didn’t know how to cast magic without a conduit. She definitely had to ask Donald if he knew anything about that when they next met.

She threw the uniform on the toilet haphazardly before taking off her pajama pants, and starting to get dressed.

The Destiny Islands’ school uniform, alongside a strict dress code, was supposed to make everyone appear equal, to hide the fact that someone like Riku or Kairi came from a family that was better situated than those of others like Sora. She appreciated the idea, but what she didn’t like was that just like all the other girls, she wasn��t allowed to wear pants, and had to put on one of these short, impractical skirts instead. Sora had never understood that. Pants were so much more practical, and she didn’t feel like she risked exposing her panties every time she did anything but walking or sitting with her legs in a perfectly parallel fashion. She had pondered wearing leggings underneath, but any deviation from the uniform wasn’t allowed. On top of that, the boys’ pants had pockets, which her and the other girls’ skirts didn’t. It was almost as if the designers thought girls were calm and quiet, and that they didn’t need any extra space to store their stuff.

Sora sighed when she put on her tie. She was still totally out of the loop when it came to making the knot – she would have preferred to go with her crown necklace instead. However, it had to stay at home. Even small personal touches like this weren’t allowed according to the dress code.

She stared at herself in the mirror. Another Sora stared back.

She never looked like herself in this uniform. She never felt like herself in this uniform. If she could at least wear pants… With pockets.

Brushing her hair in the morning was trouble these days. Sora still wasn’t used to having long hair, and it proved to be as untamable as ever. If it wasn’t for Kairi, then she probably would have cut it off as soon as she returned to Destiny Islands. Sora had to admit there was something enjoyable about her best friend doing her hair during the school breaks whenever Sora didn’t manage to tame it in the morning herself. Besides, long hair actually suited her better than she would have thought. She wanted to keep it like this, at least for a while, even though it was a battle every single morning.

Sora sighed in defeat. This morning, her hair won.

She pulled one of the headbands that matched her uniform (and apparently her eyes, as Kairi had remarked a few days prior) from the bathroom shelf, and pulled it over her head, before tying the mane back into a chaotic, messy ponytail. That would hopefully keep it from tangling any further when she cycled to school at least, and at least the dress code didn’t say anything about hair apart from the fact that dying it in unnatural colors wasn’t allowed and that it was supposed to be worn in a tidy manner – something that Sora regularly didn’t succeed at even before her hair had grown out. She’d have to ask Kairi if she could fix that part for her during one of the breaks.

~*~

“Sora, you really need some kind of leave-in conditioner,” Kairi sighed. She had tried to detangle Sora’s hair during the first and the second break before lunch, and both times, she had failed to get the job done in time. Now they were at lunch break, and Kairi was still working on getting Sora’s hair into a manageable condition.

“Yeah, I could probably try that,” she mumbled. Admittedly, her hair was worse than usual today, but she also secretly enjoyed Kairi detangling it for her. She was always so careful – whenever she did Sora’s hair, it never hurt. “Do you have any that I can borrow?”

“Unfortunately not,” Kairi replied. She started working through another strand of hair. “My hair is pretty straight naturally. It tends to get stringy really quick if I put too much stuff into it.”

Sora sighed. Yeah, Kairi’s hair was as straight as her, probably…

“But we could go shopping on Friday afternoon if you want.”

“Sheesh, you still aren’t done?” Riku sat down a tray with two meals on it on their table. He took one of them, and placed the other in front of Kairi on the table.

“Nope,” she said. “I swear Sora’s hair has a life of its own.”

Sora was startingto think that too – mainly that her hair was trying to get her closer to Kairi in this innocent way. But she wasn’t getting her hopes up. She could daydream, yes. But more than that was probably never meant to be.

“Thanks for getting me my food,” Kairi said. She sounded as warm as she always did whenever she was sincerely grateful.

Sora used to think that Riku and Kairi must have it easier, coming from better situated families. Nowadays, she knew better. Kairi’s adoptive parents were lovely, but neither of them could cook. They usually ate out, or their meals consisted of simple sandwiches. As for Riku’s father, he was a doctor, meaning he rarely had time for his son. As a result, both of them usually got their lunch from the cafetéria, or whenever they had a free afternoon, at Sora’s house. Meanwhile, she didn’t have to worry about that. Sora’s mother still made a bento for her daughter to take to school each morning, and Sora was still excited to open and enjoy it every single day.

“Hi Riku!”

“Ouf,” Riku huffed under his breath. “Oh no…”

Riku had always been popular with the girls in school ever since the talk about who dated whom and which couples would break up at the end of the month became a thing. Ever since Sora and him had returned from what as far as everyone else knew was a lonely island they had gotten stuck on after the storm, his popularity had only increased. Meanwhile, Sora’s was at an all-time low. At least Kairi, Riku, Tidus, Wakka and Selphie still stuck with her.

“Sitting at the losers’ table again?”

“It’s not the losers’ table,” Sora disagreed with the two girls, a blonde and a brunette who seemed to have gone to the bathroom just to refresh their looks for this occasion. They weren’t in the same class, but Sora knew them. She had seen them pinning something to her locker the other day.

“Oh?” The brunette addressed her, without actually turning towards her. “What would you call it then?”

“Uh…” Truthfully, Sora had no real idea how to respond. “The table of people who are cool enough to sit with Riku?” Okay, that came out meaner than she wanted to, but then again, it wasn’t like these girls were going to be nice to her anyway.

“Sounds like someone doesn’t know their place,” the other girl said, and her voice was dripping with venom. “Listen up, Sora, you may have turned the head of the hottest guy in school just because you two happened to get stuck on a lonely island for a year, but don’t get cocky. At the end of the day, you’re just a slut and the entire school knows.”

Sora heard Kairi suck her breath in sharply, like she wanted to jump to her defense immediately, and she could see Riku furrowing his eyebrows. But Sora didn’t want to argue back, and simply shrugged instead, hopefully to the girls’ annoyance. The situation didn’t need to be escalated any further, and at this point she was pretty used to being called a slut, a whore, and other names. Sora and her closest friends knew she wasn’t any of that, and that was what really counted.

“Anyway, Riku,” the blonde girl went on, and her voice shifted back to a sweet tone in the blink of an eye, “we were wondering if you’re free after school?”

“Sorry,” Riku said coldly. “But I don’t put up with people who call my best friend a slut.”

“Aww, come on! It’s not that big of a deal. Besides,” the girl glanced at both Sora and Kairi, “you deserve better than these two anyway.”

“I think I can decide who I want to be friends with by myself, thank you very little!”

“A whore and an outsider? Seriously?”

“You know, I think you should apologize,” he said in a rather unimpressed manner. “To Sora for calling her names, and to Kairi for dismissing her for literally no reason.”

“She isn’t even from here,” the blonde girl said. “Why should we put up with her?”

“Excuse me?” Sora interjected.

Kairi just looked down and said nothing, and Sora’s heart ached. Her friend had always been picked on for not being born on Destiny Islands, despite the fact that that wasn’t her fault at all and she didn’t get much of a say in the matter. She had just arrived on the islands one day, without a memory as to where she came from.

“I think you two should go,” Riku said coldly. “Now.”

“Fine.” They turned to leave, of course not without winking and waving at him first. “See you later, Riku!”

He rolled his eyes after they finally turned their backs on him.

“Are you alright, Kairi?” Sora asked her best friend, who had stopped working on her hair and turned to her meal silently.

She nodded. “Thanks for your support, you two.”

“No problem.”

They all turned back to their lunch – Sora’s hair still wasn’t done, and it would probably have to wait until they had all finished.

“Honestly, I still don’t get what all of these girls haven’t gotten about me not being interested in anyone,” Riku sighed, grabbing the cup on his tray. “I really hoped this would stop after coming out, but no.”

“I mean, they’re probably just desperate because you’re unavailable,” Sora remarked. “You’re just a really sexy guy.”

Riku choked on his matcha tea.

Kairi reacted immediately. She stood up, moved to their friend, and gave him a few pats on his back. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” Riku coughed once more, but then returned to breathing normally. Sora smiled. It was rare to see Riku laugh like this, although she felt a bit sorry for making him choke on his tea. She hoped the joke hadn’t made him too uncomfortable.

Kairi stepped back. “I’m gonna get myself a smoothie,” she announced, still sounding a bit down. Maybe she needed some space after what had just happened. “I’ll be back in a minute.” She didn’t wait for their response before taking her leave. Her hair in its ponytail bounced and shimmered as she took her steps rather quickly. She was almost skipping.

“So,” Riku, who had apparently calmed down again, asked, “when are you going to tell her?”

Sora sighed. Well, there it was – that topic she’d rather not talk about.

“I don’t know,” she admitted. “Honestly, I haven’t really planned on outing myself.”

Riku nodded. He was already out himself – not that it really changed anything. The girls in the school kept blaming Sora for him being unavailable, and flirted with him anyway pretty much on a daily basis. Sora could kind of see why, and part of her had meant what she said before. Riku was attractive, even she could see that, despite the fact that she’d discovered that she was into other girls – Kairi in particular. But he was off limits, and Sora was fine with that. Obviously, not everyone was, though.

“I don’t want to pressure you,” he said. “But I think Kairi wouldn’t be mad if you just told her.”

“And I told you, she can’t know,” Sora sighed. She wished she could, but she really didn’t want to lose Kairi as a friend.

“I may be aroace, but I’m not blind , Sora. I see the way you look at her.”

“Well, what do you want me to do?” Sora snapped, a little more harshly than she meant to. “Confess to her in front of the entire school?”

“Well, that would be one way to get rid of all the hatemail on your locker,” Riku chuckled.

Sora groaned. Not that topic again too… She appreciated that her friends were looking out for her, but she also knew very well that an outing would just give the entire school another reason to make fun of her, call her names, and pin not so lovely letters onto her locker. Well, half the school. The guys didn’t seem to mind her as much.

“They’d probably just write different things in their hatemail,” Sora murmured. “Or throw me out of the girls’ changing room before PE.”

“Realistically, unfortunately yes,” Riku said. “But it’s not like they have to know. You could also just tell Kairi.”

“Look, I don’t wanna get my hopes up, okay?” Sora sighed. “I just… Don’t want Kairi to hate me too.”

“I honestly don’t think she would.”

“You don’t know that.”

One of the cafetéria’s glasses was set in front of her, the fancy ones with the handles and engravings. It was nicely decorated with a strawberry and a starfruit on the rim, and there was a small note on the straw that read ‘You’re amazing!’.

Kairi sat down next to her, with a smoothie of her own in her hand.

“Kairi, I didn’t want any…”

Kairi smiled. “It’s strawberry and lime. Your favorite.”

“But I don’t have any munny with me!”

“That’s okay,” Kairi said. “I’m paying.”

“Kairi, I can’t ask you to…”

“I can spoil my bestie a little from time to time, especially when she has a notably bad day. Besides,” Kairi waved a small card, “my coupon card is all filled out now. Which means, I can get a smoothie for free tomorrow!”

Sora couldn’t help but smile. Kairi was about the only student whose family was better off financially who used the school’s healthy meal coupon cards in order to get a free smoothie every once in a while, at least that Sora knew of. She loved them. Sora did too, she just didn’t get one as often, seeing as making one at home and bringing it to school with her in a bottle was much cheaper.

“Thank you, Kairi.”

“No problem,” she smiled back. “Enjoy!”

Sora nodded, smiling, and took a sip from the smoothie. She enjoyed how the sweetness of the strawberry and the sourness of the lemon blended together into something that was still sweet, but with a little bit of extra spritz.

“So,” Kairi said with her mouth full of food, “where were we?”

“We were talking about how I am just a really sexy guy, apparently.”

Sora had to compose herself not to break out in laughter, and spill her smoothie in the process. The way Riku said that out loud in such a dry tone was just funny. She failed however – a giggle still escaped her. Riku was grinning as well.

“Very funny,” Kairi said, but Sora could see she was trying to hide a grin as well – for whatever reason. “Anyway, do you guys have any plans for the weekend already?”

Riku shrugged. “My dad’s on night shift from Saturday afternoon to Sunday morning,” he said. “So I can pretty much do whatever I want.”

“We could have a sleepover,” Sora suggested. They hadn’t had one in a really long while.

Riku and Kairi looked at her somewhat disapprovingly.

“Oh… Right.” They weren’t kids anymore. “I guess our parents wouldn’t allow that.”

“More like people would talk even more than they already do if they find out,” Kairi pointed out.

Sora shrugged. “They can think whatever they like.”

Kairi and Riku exchanged glances.

“Sora, we know all of this hurts you,” Kairi said gently. “You know, the hatemail, the name-calling, all of that. You don’t have to pretend it doesn’t.”

Sora sighed. Kairi was right – as much as she liked to pretend that she was unbothered, she really wasn’t. Having to throw away all of the more or less gross stuff that was pinned to her locker each morning nowadays, and sometimes having to clean it up entirely because someone decided it was a good idea to smear something onto it, took a toll on her mood and nerves. Being called a slut, a whore, a bitch or anything like that hurt. However, Sora knew people had already made up their minds about her. She knew these girls, who happened to have a crush on Riku, were set on the idea that just because the two had supposedly spent a year on a lonely island together, that must mean they slept together. Which was somehow a big catastrophe, because apparently it meant Sora had taken something irreplaceable from him – and that he was no longer available, even though he really had never been in the first place.

“You’re not wrong,” Sora admitted. “But there isn’t really anything I can do to change their minds. Even if I outright say that Riku and I aren’t a thing, they won’t believe me.”

And neither did they believe Riku whenever he said that he wasn’t interested in anyone. Why did people have such a hard time accepting that others were different . Even when they weren’t outright hostile, like they were with Kairi, they were still disrespectful.

Sora sighed. “You know… I miss it.”

“What?”

“Traveling the worlds. Meeting awesome people. Learning new things. Wearing whatever I want every day. Being able to be myself without getting judged for it. Everything.” Sora lowered her head. “School sucks.”

She had never been happy whenever she entered this building, but nowadays she was even unhappier. The boring lectures and occasional extra-homework she could deal with, but now with the bullying and her newly realized feelings for her best friend, she wished she could just go back to adventuring.

“Maybe we could just take the gummi ship and spend the weekend… Anywhere but here,” Riku suggested. It sounded like something he would have said a year ago, only that this time, it wasn’t to satisfy his own curiosity – it was for all of them, to get away from everything, even if it was just for two days. “We could visit some friends we made along the way, or just… Get away, at least for a while.”

“Sounds good,” Sora murmured. “I’ve been wanting to see Donald, Goofy and my other friends again for a while.”

Kairi apparently had other concerns. “And you think that won’t get people talking?”

Riku shrugged. “Maybe, if they find out,” he said. “But it’s not like they aren’t talking about the three of us being different already. Why should we let our lives be ruled by that?”

“Well, we could at least try to fit in…”

“Awww, come oooon, Kairi!” Sora whined. “It’ll be fun!”

Kairi sighed. “I mean, probably, but…”

“It’s not like the entire school has to know,” Riku smirked.

Sora couldn’t resist the temptation to make yet another joke. “Oh, but it’s so scandalous,” she giggled. “I mean, you, just a really sexy guy, in a gummiship, with two very pretty girls…”

Riku pretended to throw his chopsticks at her, and she broke out in laughter.

“Alright,” Kairi said. “But only under one condition.”

She had both of their attention.

“We stop by some sort of shopping mall at some point,” she said. “Sora needs a leave-in conditioner.”

~*~

Author's Note: A lot of this is based on my personal experiences. That being said, no character in this fic is in any way, shape or form based directly on a real person, and I do not condone certain behaviors depicted in this fic. Thank you for reading, and no matter which ethnicity, culture, gender or sexuality you are / have, I wish you wonderful times.

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currantlees-creative-corner · 8 months

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Portfolio advice, from a lead who hires Concept Artists

(This was originally a twitter thread I wrote before the site self imolated, hense it's strange structure.) I wrote this after a weekend of portfolio reviews - 1. Like a maths exam, please please show your working. I want to see thumbs options, mid options and of course a final design.

2. Arrange your portfolio, I don't want to bounce about between subject matter and pipeline. Your portfolio's narrative should be as strong as your work... 3. Please make worlds that excite the viewer, make them want to go in and explore them, explain to them the interesting parts of the town, or the way the character's hat unfolds. How will this draw the viewer in? 4. As I've said before the majority of your project work is explanatory not mood, make sure your portfolio contains explanatory work. Explained here -

5. A lot of beautiful post apocolyptic paintings, , but 80% of realistic games and film, we just give the environment artists photo ref, they are capable artists in their own right. Different work in stylised where you do need to create rules for how things can be translated. 6. Production art contains call out sheets, material references and flat graphics. This doesn't have to be your final image, but it should support it.

7. Design characters on a swatch(es) of the environment they will be viewed in. Not on white. I make swatch backgrounds from screenshots, it avoids assumptions that damage readability. 8. Reverse of this, put people in your environments, show me the scale.

9. It's not a deal breaker for a review, but if you intend to get a job, please show me your work on a screen larger than a smartphone (print outs probably the cheapest option with the best battery life). 10. Please have your contact details clearly visible, and by that I mean email address, I will not pass your social media contact on, I cannot input your form into my tracking system. EMAIL ADDRESS emblazoned and bake it in, sometimes recruiters do funky stuff to pdfs

11. Your portfolio will never feel done, not to you anyway. You will have learnt from your latest pieces and want to apply it to older work. But we know art is a journey. Send your portfolio anyway. I've been in the industry 10+ years and my portfolio is still not 'finished'. 12. If you are applying to an environment centric Concept Art position then please vary your times of day! Golden hour is cool but show me some happy sunny days, looming overcast days, what about at night? Vary your weather too! Sunny snowy day? Rainy Spring day? Stormy night?

13. If you are applying for a character centric Concept Art role then please ensure your portfolio shows a variety of body types and ethnicities. 14. Designing characters for games? Please show back views and feet (!) Many potfolios contain only front views. This is a problem because:

You haven't shown you are considering the design from all angles.

In many games rear view is the main view.

Stop cropping feet.

15. If you are entry / graduating and looking at Portfolios to compare content and standard of yr own work too, look at hired grad/junior artists as opposed to seniors Seniors and leads often have old or personal work in their portfolio which isnt representative of the day job. 16a. Show clearly the intended use case for your Concept Art. Mention the game type in the description. Are these player character designs for a 3rd person adventure game? Then more back views please. Bonus points for diagetic ways of showing health / equipment / role etc.

16b. Are these designs for an FPS? Then really the player view of the gun needs to sell the player style/ choices, in an FPS your weapons are almost your character. Are these world designs? What's the view distance? For an RTS your shapes need to read from above & a distance. 16c. The lack of clarification means I am judging the design in isolation, which both harms the design (you might be considering the backview of a char as the main adventure character.) Or an NPC, their waist up expressions may be important for conveying exposition and mechanics.

16d. Concept art is not separate from gameplay, great concept art serves the game team before it is a good illustration.

17. Play games. A variety of games. Think about them. IMO to be a good concept artist you need to understand the common language & references used by your peers. Also understand the principles and common language your audience are used to. FPS design rules are v.diff from RTS.

18. There are many skills that are needed in concept art, please show them. For example: Graphic design - logos, liveries, typographic use etc. VFX concepts - Abilities, Ambience, motion concepts. Architectural knowledge - How buildings are built! & more but I'm out of space :O

#Artist Advice #Portfolio #Resources #Reblog #badgertracksart

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currantlees-creative-corner · 8 months

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I hate myself, so I am going to attempt this again. But I hate the official Inktober prompt list even more than myself, so I'm gonna use this one instead - thanks to @the-secret-place and their Chrithy Bot for all the prompts (if you have trouble reading them, click on the ALT-image description). Feel free to use it as well if you want!

No, I'm not gonna do these prompts in a particular order. What, that's against the rules? Well, I call my liberty artistic freedom then!

In other words, happy fall everyone!

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currantlees-creative-corner · 9 months

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Kairi deserves a crown, so I decided to put flowers into her hair.

This piece was originally meant for Kairi Day 2023, but I couldn't finish it in time due to a lot of life stuff happening in the first half of this year... And now I' have'm struggling with a bit of an artblock 😆

I think it might have to do with the fact that I tend to be very perfectionist and overdo it on the detail when I draw (and then I lose all motivation because I just have so many ideas and one takes too long to bring to life), so I intentionally tried to go for a less detailed look on the coloring with this one. I also experimented with some filters to give the final image more texture. What do you think?

As always, please reblog on Tumblr instead of reposting. I allow reposting my artwork on other platforms, as long as you don't claim it as your own (ideally by linking my blog 😉). Thank you 💗