#Scene-ish art style
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#hinduism#hindu mythology#desiblr#Shaktism#Kali#Kali ma#Devi Kali#ma kali#Devi#Shakti#Art#Hindu art#Scene-ish art style#idk#Blue-Lotus arts
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This day still terrifies me. To my core. With the strange weather that happened before, I expected something to occur. I could have never predicted the magnitude of that event.
I assume you're here to wake me up then? You want us to face that evil again? I'm… We're afraid... Of everything. Of everyone. I don't know what I'm supposed to do! WE DON'T WANT TO GO BACK!
#pokemon rejuvenation#aevia#nightmare realm#god i love this scene#it isn't easy to make a teenager with pink hair and overalls look menacing but i did my darndest#ive been art style shopping#trying to find out what resonates#this one is emulated from hiro mashima#i've always liked the way he draws faces#maybe someday ill just be able to sit down and shut my eyes and draw what comes naturally#until then i will drown myself in reference photos#recently i finished another playthrough#i sat down and compiled my notes and i have a lot of different theories but not a lot of concrete revelations#mostly freaking out about the ss oceana. i might scream some of my thoughts into the void soon. ish. maybe. perhaps.#if u read all my notes ily and i hope you have an amazing day <3
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SUPER OLD RAINBOW! ART THREAD!!! Open only if you are brave enough to face teen me's cringe art...
(mostly joking but fr white Mimi and skinny Boo jumpscare below)
Very first digital piece of Boo and Mimi circa 2011!! I was 14 when I drew this. Usually I'm able to look back fondly at super old art of mine but this one does make me cringe a liiiiittle bit. Mimi girl what are you wearing, why are you white. Boo also had pink eyes in the beginning, which she would continue to have for several years to come (even in the current iteration of RAINBOW! they were pink at first, I later recolored those pages) but it was only later that it was due to the color scheme of the comic and not because they were literally pink. I'm pretty sure they were meant to be contacts, because their hair is and always have been dyed rather than anime-esque natural colorful hair, so that was some crazy dedication from Boo back in the day.
More 2011 art showing off Mimi's goth/scene-ish style and green eyes. They were initially meant to have pastel and neon fashion senses, respectively. The story was already named at this point, only a few days or maybe weeks into its inception, which is impressive considering it has taken us literal years to name other stories (I'm looking at you, Phantom Pains)
this one is from super early 2012! Interesting to think that this was less than 9 months later since it feels completely different to me. The first version of the comic had started at this point, and the pink and green color scheme was just starting to develop. This lineup features some characters that would later be cut. Lucian and Lily were friends of Boo, and Cecilia was Mimi's ex girlfriend. Notably Clarice is not on this lineup, and frankly I'm not sure why.
A picture I drew to commemorate 50 fans on RAINBOW!'s smackjeeves page, mid 2012. Boo's outfit resembled a recolored version of her 2011 outfit, but I have no idea what Mimi is wearing. What. are. you. wearing.
Chibi-ish drawings of Boo and Mimi cosplaying various characters, from early 2013. Homura Mimi is very funny to me, I really don't know why I didn't draw her as Kyoko. I assume I was trying to keep them as paired characters, but I didn't do that with the Sailor Moon or Disney ones, so I who knows why I did it with PMMM. Mimi's hairstyle changes to a shaved cut somewhere around this time, but it is much more dramatic than her current undercut, and her hair is still pretty long. Boo is wearing a closet cosplay of Fluttershy that I myself wore once. These also resemble the chibi-ish drawings on the chapter intermission pages of RAINBOW! Vol 1.
A character study I did in late 2013, which would be shortly after I made a major style shift into the art style that would eventually develop into the one I currently have. At this point, Boo was meant to be fatter than Mimi, but the execution wasn't really there at all. There is also a doodle at the bottom of me and Sunny at the time (I am the one with long hair), expressing thanks for 300 fans on smackjeeves. Considering it had 50 in mid 2012, the readership was pretty slow growing back then.
outfit exploration for Mimi, circa 2014. At this point I started to expand the color scheme a little bit more so that not every character would be paper-white, though she is still very pale even though she is no longer meant to be white anymore. None of these outfits really resemble her current style, and I don't particularly like any of them either. It took me a very long time to settle on a fashion sense for her.
an Adventure Time-eqsue drawing of Mimi and Boo that I actually drew less than two weeks after the previous image despite the difference in things such as the way the hair was drawn. I had to include this one because it blew up overnight, which was a huge deal for highschool me, I remember checking my phone at school a lot because it was just getting hundreds or even thousands of notes over the span of the day. I think it has something like 16,000 notes. Still the post with the highest number of notes I have by far, so I guess I peaked in high school, whomp whomp
More fashion exploration, this time of Mimi and Boo, from early 2015. The color scheme is starting to approach what it currently is, but much more dull since I used to be afraid of bright colors. Mimi's fashion sense is starting to get closer to what it currently is, but the pastel goth influence that was popular in early-mid 2010s tumblr is apparent. In chapter 1, Boo wears an outfit that is extremely similar to the one with the bear shirt, except it's a rabbit instead. The dress that Mimi gives to Boo is also almost identical to the depiction of it here. This drawing implies that Mimi was originally going to be present in the film noir scene where Boo finds her mom, which is interesting...
Another cast lineup! This one is from late 2015-early 2016. Mimi is wearing an outfit pretty similar to what she wears in chapter 1 but with the colors altered. The execution of Boo's body type is starting to improve but she's still kind of pear-shaped. Mimi is also a little more square, and her hair finally looks like the style she has now. Clarice gets to be in the lineup this time and she is SUPER tall. I think she is still taller than Milo. And Mimi is around 5'7"-5'8", so Clarice must be around 6 foot by that logic.
The original version of chibi-ish Boo riding a bike in her Kiki outfit, from 2016. I think it was meant to be a banner of some kind, possibly for tapas or tumblr. A newer version of this drawing features as a chapter intermission drawing in the physical book.
The original cover for RAINBOW! from 2017. The color scheme is finally starting to get a little brighter! This is actually a redraw of an older drawing from 2014, I want to draw it again someday. Also, I was going by Rain at the time.
A drawing I did in late 2017 for a class in which we were meant to try digital painting and I went for a very simple approach. I like that Mimi's legs are a little noodle-y. This is also the first drawing where Mimi's eyes are no longer green, but dark pink instead. By the language of RAINBOW!'s color scheme, that means they are brown. Boo's eyes are still pink, however.
Another drawing for a class, this time from 2018. I can't remember the specifics of the assignment, but I used the opportunity to draw the playground and Max, the dog, for the first time. I like the way the trees look in this. That little snip of hair by Mimi's ear also made a reappearance here for some reason.
The original version of the drawing that would become the cover of RAINBOW! Vol 1, from mid 2019! I believe I drew it to be a banner on Tapas, but I used it for tumblr as well.
And lastly, Boo and Mimi outfit sheets from 2019-2020. I messed with them for a while, hence the timeframe. Boo's eyes are finally green, which I changed since I liked the idea of Mimi having green hair and pink eyes, and Boo having pink hair and green eyes, as if they are reflected a bit in each other. Outside of RAINBOW!'s color scheme, Boo's eyes are actually blue though. It took about a decade, but I finally settled on a fashion sense for Mimi.
BONUS ART!!! 💖💖✨✨ I thought these would be better grouped together rather than chronologically with the rest.
RAINBOW!'s banners from its era on smackjeeves! Smackjeeves didn't have square/circular icons but rather these thin long banners which could also be animated. I thought that was so fun, so I always animated them at least a little, even though one doesn't seem to work. It was customary to write girls love/boys love on the banner of mlm/wlw romance stories then, so almost all of them say that. I still see that trend on some comics on webtoon and tapas nowadays. They are from 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2017. I don't believe the 2017 one was ever used.
And RAINBOW!'s icon throughout the years! I always refused to change it, only update it, because I thought it was really cute. They are from (approximately) 2017, 2018, 2020, and 2021.
And finally, art from 2021 of Mimi with her cousin August, who will be the protagonist of our next comic, Phantom Pains. Weird to think that we'll be on that comic in foreseeable future, since it is also over 10 years old now. Bit of a passing the torch type drawing to end on. 💕 If you made it all the way here, thanks for reading! Hopefully it was fun and didn't hurt your eyes.
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hey angel
could please make a list of the best smuts you know? pleaseeeeeee
girl i gotchu!!!
Brother’s Best Friend by @helladirections (that's me)
Inspired by 'choke her with a sea view', soft dom
Harry is YN’s brother’s best friend, and YN isn’t a little kid anymore. Ft. dom/sub, rough sex, and soft words.
I Dig Your Cinema by @helladirections (me again, it's my list so I can do what I want)
mostly f receiving oral
YN as Harry’s PA on set of DWD around shooting the eating out on the table scene
other people.......
Us Again second part to You Again by @freedomfireflies
rough
This part is literally just smut. and TBH you don't have to read the first part if you don't want to (but it's good too!)
Teach Me by @freedomfireflies
series - lots of different kinks
Harry needs a little practice in the art of Eating Pussy, and who better to ask for help than his best friend?
Something to Gawk at by @cherryjuiceblues
some dom-ish
harry's grown in some places and y/n is more than obsessed.
Eavesdropper by @lukesaprince
honestly just hot af
Where your neighbour Harry happens to hear you masturbating to his music and decides to do the neighbourly thing and lend a helping hand… or something else.
Mechanicrry by @jawllines
one of my favorite soft doms of all time
Harry is a grumpy mechanic and Y/N just can’t stop talking
The Rich Series by @lukesaprince
age gap, daddy, anal, etc
Neighbour/Older!Harry. A Summer dogsitting job for Mr. Styles is a dream come true for any broke uni student. He's rich, gorgeous and finally fucks you after your weekly dinner together. A series that follows two neighbours who end up in a sexual relationship.
golfrry pt. by @atharryshouse
short but good
Need Your Hand by @harrycore
honestly the list could on but I don't want to clog up your dash
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How do you get the ideas for your backgrounds?
mmm ideas.... sometimes i draw the background directly from a photo reference (the happy case) so there's not a lot for me to change and i can have a rather peaceful painting process
othertimes, the BG is tied to the subject/concept/scene I'm thinking of, so it only makes sense that i have that as the background
for example, for this fem skk art, i knew i wanted to have chuu kneeling in a crater after destroying a city so drawing that background was just a logical follow-up because i already had the entire idea in mind
Here, I wanted to have Akiangel sit on a building, watching over the city. The ominous sign with "the day of salvation" and crow came later after I found this picture on Pinterest, so they helped further develop the concept, but the main idea was there and so on
The third background option happens when my painting doesn't depict a certain irl scene or landscape, nor do i have any particular references i can use. In that situation, I first and foremost think about the general composition, the shapes, how they flow with each other, how I can tie them to my main theme and what sort of symbolism or little easter eggs i can throw in there just to keep it fresh and interesting for the viewer ( aka the person reading this aha ;;) :-* )
For this piece, i started with a big circle for the background, and then I started breaking it up in pleasing, cloud-like shapes and swirls that constantly keep your eye moving around the picture (i mean hopefully lol). The composition was inspired by a) Dazai's Mayoi card ofc, that trad Eastern illustration style with the circle and then branches of trees, and also .. kazuha's splash art ok i admit it bshsj
for this one, the roses came much, much later. Again, I added that sort of golden arcade to better frame the focal point or the main subject of the scene which was ofc her face and/or outfit. Then, since it still felt rather empty, awkward, and directionless, I tried finding a pleasing, spiral line that would compliment the already existing shapes and that would, again, move your eye all around the composition. I figured since her outfit already had those small roses stuffed in her belt, those curvy lines could become some bloody, spikey roses and boom! here are the theme and elements for you: blacks-roses-blood-deadly-sharp-gold etc. I then had her crush some of those roses in her right (ik it's the left hand shut up) hand to balance out the busier left side
and a last example, sometimes I draw multiple character poses in one piece and they sort of become my background. Yet I still have some blank spaces left so i gotta figure out a way to fill them out. Here, since the pose where he's all curled up was inspired by the TDIPUD light novel, i drew him as a "corpse" in a pool of blood, and contrasted it with some nice flowery-ish patterns and swirls that sort of come from within that bloody mess ( someone also mentioned it looks like a womb which I found very interesting as well ). The cats also helped fill out the space. On the left side, i added that swirly black sun that drips into three squares that gradually fill up with straight blackness and raindrops falling below inspired by the "a conviction that the sun will never rise again" line. I don't think I should go into detail with the symbolism cause it's pretty obvious and not that deep so i won't but yeah, and that's my BG all filled up!
I do this with most of my BGs, it's mostly just abstract shapes; I'm very fixated on making the overall composition look okay and for the piece to send a message ( most of the time ), so i don't think of backgrounds as a separate entity, they are part of an already existing idea, generally speaking.
This kinda turned into a composition discussion midway......... sorry about that....... To be completely honest with you, I have plenty of BG ideas, they kinda just spawn in my brain so i'm not exactly lacking in that department. Having to draw them and finding refs is the hard part for me
#long post#what's new#i genuinely enjoy talking about this so thanks for the question#i hope it helped?#bottom line is - direct refs - already existing ideas - abstract shapes and symbols that work well together#ask iztea#this is nothing new under the sun im aware it's just what i do
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The Swords
So I was watching, as you do, some videos by some very charming and passionate martials arts practitioners comparing and contrasting various designs of sword and their usage. And I remembered that I had vaguely, perhaps subconsciously, noticed something strange about the magical swords used in this show.
The first one we see is the Hellfire sword which Dongfang Qingcang materialises as he calls Shangque.
It's straight, with no curve to the blade at all, and both edges appear to be sharp. It's basically cross-shaped, with a large, decorated cross-guard extending parallel with both edges. And it has a fairly large roundish pommel, by which he holds it:
I think I semi-consciously noticed that this looks a lot more like a European longsword, except that it's not all that long. Chinese swords are usually curved, even if only slightly, are usually sharp on one side only, and usually have disc-shaped handguards. [Edit! see reblogs for information on jians, which are straight and double-edged but with tiny crossguards] They sometimes have pommels, but the kind you see in the Wuxia genre generally doesn't.
So I thought, is this one of the subtler ways in which they're setting out to make Dongfang Qingcang and the Moon Tribe seem a little bit foreign and therefore barbarous, "not-Han-coded", as someone on Discord put it?
But then I checked the other swords, and that's not it.
Changheng's is a bit ambiguous. It has a pronounced cross-guard, less elaborate but more fantastical - it seems to be thinking about morphing into a 16th-century European basket hilt, as that downturned curve wouldn't work to catch your opponent's blade, but it isn't quite there yet:
The blade also looks very straight, and we don't see the prop without the CGI for long enough to tell whether it's meant to be sharp on both edges. It might be more of a sabre, a design that pops up in martial arts traditions everywhere.
The third sword we see is Lady Chidi's battle sword, which is the same basic design as Dongfang Qingcang's:
As you can see in the closeup, it's cross-shaped, double-edged, straight, and symmetrical, with a pronounced pommel, a long hilt for two hands, and a large cross-guard parallel to the edges.
This shape is important, because scale is an optional setting for powerful immortal beings, and she will soon turn it into this mountain, with the cross-guard becoming a very convenient platform for conversation and sunbathing:
The other plot-relevant sword, in Episode 31, is the same cross-shape, with a really big cross-guard and a fairly pronounced pommel.
However! Intriguingly, to spar with Ronghao in the illusion-forest in Episode 32, Chidi uses a very simple blade, straight, but with neither cross-guard nor pommel, like a civilised Chinese lady:
It might be double-edged or single-edged, I can't tell, but it has virtually no hand guard at all, not even a round one like a katana:
But when in a later scene Ronghao confesses, it is her own, true sword she drops, as a sign that things are getting simultaneously more magic and more real:
In Ep34, she uses it to kill some unfortunate pikemen:
Meanwhile, back in Ep 16, Yannu's sword was the same plot-relevant shape, like Dongfang Qingcang's, and she holds it like a medieval warrior saint looking down from a Gothic arch:
He held it the same way when Shangque greeted him in Episode 2.
Danyin's sword, when she manifests it, is in a rather modest and perhaps youthful style. Still straight and symmetrical, but with a very small, sharply hooked cross-guard:
When Dieyi's whip-chain-flail-thing turns into a sword, it's even more European - it looks very like a rapier with a basket hilt! Kind of appropriate to her general look, actually, and her street-fighting personality.
When she changes stance we see this bonkers wiggly blade, which looks still rapier-ish (long, pointed, thrust more than cut), only insane. She doesn't use it like a rapier, though.
Ronghao's sword for killing is a curious design, still straight and with a pommel, but this curious sort of vestigial, bulbous thing that isn't really a guard of any kind. I don't know what's going on with this but the shape is a little bit like Theoden's sword in Return of the King. Not quite.
However, when Chidi eventually attacks him, they both use their simple sparring blades again:
Anyway! I was surprised to discover how nearly all of the swords used in this particular show visually followed styles I am familiar with both from western drama and from western historical collections, and none of them, except the ones in that last shot, looked at all like the most common styles of sword you see in Chinese dramas.
Obviously the weapons function exactly like the costumes in that they're primarily artistic visual references to various moods and ideas, rather than functional objects, but I think that makes this choice even more interesting. I don't know how usual it is for this genre, or what it means.
I haven't found where, if at all, we see Xunfeng or Shanque use a sword, and it's long past my bedtime so I'm stopping there.
#can lan jue#lbfad costumes#costumes and weapons meta#lbfad#love between fairy and devil#dongfang qingcang#rong hao#this is actually weird in a fascinating way#I don't think we ever see shangque use a sword
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Catreig AU Snippet
so @crownorclover shared some sketch art here that features catreig! so i thought it only fair i share a snippet from the au! it's about 16k now and i think i'm roughly 70% done with it? the core concept is that reigen gets a ranma 1/2 style curse where cold water turns him into a cat and hot water turns him back. when he gets the curse serizawa is there but doesnt see him actually get cursed, so this adorable orange cat just starts meowing at him and obvs he's gonna pet it, right?
the context for this scene: serizawa is holding this v nice, if loud, orange cat he found against his chest. the client theyre working for knows EXACTLY what has happened and is trying to convince serizawa that his boss left the job site already to go back to the office and he should go too.
“Something doesn’t seem right, Kitty-san. Why would Reigen leave before a job was done? Before he got paid? That’s not like him.”
Thank you!
“And why would he pay for two cabs to go to the same place? That’s a waste of money. Reigen doesn’t like wasting money.”
Exactly!
“He won’t even let us get a new kettle for the office.”
Wh— His tail smacked against Serizawa’s arm. The one they had was perfectly fine! Sometimes it shut off before it actually finished boiling. And sometimes it didn’t turn on at all. But when it did it worked fine! Mostly.
“What if something happened to him? I left him alone in the garden…”
Well something did happen but that was hardly his fault.
“I don’t feel comfortable leaving…”
No. No leaving was good. Shit. How was he supposed to convince Serizawa to leave when everything was so clearly suspicious?
The owner returned from the back gardens, “No sign of your boss, I’m afraid.”
“Oh…”
“But I did find his phone. He must have dropped it in his hurry.”
Serizawa stared at the offered phone. Reigen stared up at his face. Everything in his demeanor had shifted from anxious and worried to …angry? He marched past the owner, heading toward the back gardens, “REIGEN!”
“I—I told you,” the owner said as she followed behind, “he already left!”
“And left his phone? On the ground? Where did you find it?”
“Oh by the one of the ponds. But he left—“
He rounded on her, “Which pond?”
She pointed a shaky hand in the direction of the Drowned Cat pool and Serizawa took off.
Hey… Katsuya, I’m okay. It’s okay. “…mreow.”
“If something’s happened to him I…” Serizawa searched the nearby area of the pool, still clutching Reigen in his arms. “ARATAKA!”
tadaaaa!
hoping to finish this one soon-ish so i can start posting it!
(don't worry, gaymer au is also still happening. i'm at 30k with that one and... looking at the timeline i'd say that's a solid... 20% of what's planned to happen. that au has a life of its own y'all it's. massive.)
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i’ve discovered your art and comics over last last few months and have been devouring as much as i can. obsessed over your style and the stories you create. stray souls is brilliant and ticks all of my boxes.
how does your planning process for making these stories go? is there a planning process or are you just winging it?
the absolute dreaded question, and i apologise: what inspires you?
Thank you wo much! And sorry for taking so long to respond, it's been a while since I last scrolled to the bottom of the inbox orz
My process is a mix of winging it VS planning. Because I do work in bursts of inspiration and creativity, and because I'm a lot more character-focused instead of plot-focused, a lot of the time I create the stories by thinking about independent scenes and character bits and then gluing them together in the world.
For a project like Stray Souls (my first big one), I had a rough skeleton of a plot, some characters and a world I added to over the years, so some bits were very well thought out and others weren't thought out at all lol. Because it's been written, drawn, redrawn and never fully completed (and posted on webtoon on a weekly basis), it's A Mess. I should definitely have planned it better and not allowed rogue subplots and arcs roam free the way they did because it became way too complex and convoluted 😔
For a project like The Under Garden, I'm trying to use the lessons I've learned with Stray Souls and cut down on as many unnecessary characters/side plots/worldbuilding bits as possible. Also working with a cowriter which helps a ton not letting my chaotic ideas roam free haha
As for actual steps of the process, I tend to have a rough outline of at least the next 10 ish chapters/episodes (1-3 sentences each) then just wing thumbnailing and dialogue as I go 🫡
As for inspirations, if you look at my q&a tag there's a post with some artists and comics that inspired me/pushed me to create my own comics n stuff, but I'm usually so drenched in these stories that anything around me is a source of inspiration in some way
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NCT 127 RECS
directory | general masterlist
✨ favourites
Taeil
recharge @lunena
1k
super cute domestic fluff
Johnny
set up ✨ @smileysuh
14.4k
frat!johnny, i love this so much, rivals/dislike to lovers, and smileysuh's writing style never disappoints (but it's been a while since i last re-read it so i can't give a really good summary rn sry...)
birthday boy ft. tyong, doyoung, jaehyun @smileysuh
13.1k
the logistics of this are incredibly impressive, i also love the dynamics between all of them, and smileysuh's smut is simply incapable of disappointing
Taeyong
birthday boy ft. johnny, doyoung, jaehyun @smileysuh
13.1k
the logistics of this are incredibly impressive, i also love the dynamics between all of them, and smileysuh's smut is simply incapable of disappointing
Yuta
a spoonful of sugar @thru-the-grapevine
1.7k
i was so happy to finally have found a good and normal yuta ff (they're usually a little weird or intense) and then.. then the martial arts happened? and everything before and after it? but it was written in such a funny way, that i still had to finish the fic? i don't know what to say about this, it was unhinged, but not bad unhinged, just unhinged, eye ....👁️👄👁️
Doyoung
only angel @catboyieejeno
0.3k
smut, good smut
birthday boy ft. tyong, johnny, jaehyun @smileysuh
13.1k
the logistics of this are incredibly impressive, i also love the dynamics between all of them, and smileysuh's smut is simply incapable of disappointing
Jaehyun
in the a.m. @hwanghyunjinenthusiast
2.9k
never in my life have i looked twice at motherfucking jeong jaehyun. this fic? this fic made me look? do i like jeong jaehyun?? questioning my allegiances right now what?
birthday boy ft. johnny, tyong, doyoung @smileysuh
13.1k
the logistics of this are incredibly impressive, i also love the dynamics between all of them, and smileysuh's smut is simply incapable of disappointing
Jungwoo
your belated valentine @itgetsquiet
4.9k
frenemies2lovers, super cute, i love the frenemy relationship, be warned though there is kissing with dubcon bc y/n is drunk off their fucking face
Mark
(surviving) no nut november ft. hyuck ✨ @domjaehyun
28.8k
smut, so much smut, so many smut scenes, i loved this one, it was the first recommendation i ever sent another unhinged person, i've read this and been chasing this high ever since
this is (not) easy @mrkis
13.2k
this is quite possibly the most well executed bff2lovers i've ever read, i was kinda obsessed with the execution, their relationship is so fucking nice
Haechan
babyface ✨ @smileysuh
14.4k
even better than the frat!johnny one my good lord, E2L-ish, this is legitimately so good i love how 'you' and haechan are at each others' throat all the time, excellent snarkerie and sass
(surviving) no nut november ft. mark ✨ @domjaehyun
28.8k
smut, so much smut, so many smut scenes, i loved this one, it was the first recommendation i ever sent another unhinged person, i've read this and been chasing this high ever since
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This is the post where I show off the stuff I've gotten in the last month-ish. And it's been another good one!
(I mean it's always a good one, I have excellent taste)
Coffee and Chaos: I'm tickled by the concept of a coffeeshop AU, and I know that this game isn't explicitly for that. But it's also not *not* for that. Comes in a like conference-style folder, with all the bits you need to play tucked into the sides, which is also a great presentation that I felt deserved a shout-out!
Far Horizons Guide to Cults: I'm friendly with some Far Horizons folks, but wanted this book because it's awesome. A book containing notes and pre-made cults that have goals and drives beyond just "Be A Cult". I am intrigued by the occult, and I hope this gives me more nuance.
Neurocity: Picked this up on vibes alone, but I'm hearing more and more rad things about the creator. It's dystopic, a little cyberpunk, and the book is dripping with style. Can't wait to dig deeper.
You're In Space and Everything's Fucked: Station and Struggler's Guides: The title alone sold me, but I like what Dinoberry Press puts out in general. This is a solo survival space horror game with a cool respawn mechanic. I also splurged on the fancy version because the covers are very cool.
Dead Belt: The pleather folio for this honestly is what sold me, but the game itself is really cool. Salvage ships by laying out cards, exploring, and managing your air and tool resources. Try not to die. I haven't really succeeded at that last part yet...
Exquisite Corpse in the Maggot's Keep: Technically, this isn't a TTRPG, but it's go so many TTRPG folks in it that it might as well be. It's a choosable path adventure written by a variety of people in (if I remember the pitch) exquisite corpse style.
Best Left Buried: Throne of Avarice and In Calamity's Wake: As we already know, I'm a SoulMuppet fan (as in, I've written for their other big series, Orbital Blues). The main book, Throne of Avarice, was written by a creator whose work I've been trying to get more of. I haven't read Best Left Buried as fully as a game, but I am really excited by the excuse to dig in.
Between Clouds: I like air islands and big monsters and found family. Partially, I grabbed this because a friend got really excited about it, and it seemed like it could be fun to run a campaign with them, but I'm also curious about the Year Zero Engine, and glad to see people using it.
Kitchen Knightmares: Grabbed this as an add-on for the You're In Space crowdfund, but I'm glad I got it because it's loosely inspired by This Discord Has Ghosts In It, and that game rules. I might be able to pitch this to my friend group, who enjoyed Discord Has Ghosts.
In a Mirror Brightly/Handbaskets: First off, plug for the RTFM podcast, because it's very good. This two-games-in-one book is created by the two hosts of that show, who are great designers and seem really lovely. But, two wildly different vibes in a single volume is a great idea.
You Meet in a Tavern, You Die in a Dungeon: I've been following the creator for this since some of my earliest days in the RPG scene, so I was happy to help make this a reality. Feels very tropey, and I mean that in the best way possible.
In Other Waters: Tidebreak: Honestly, I have barely scratched the surface of In Other Waters, the PC game this is based on. But this is a Mothership solo hack that returns to that world, and it had me curious based on that pitch alone.
Aaand because I'm a doofus who forgot to include it, here's one more book! PLUS A guest appearance from my new desk mat.
Teeth: Been into Forged in the Dark lately, and as much as I enjoy Monster of the Week, the pitch for this seemed like it was more my speed. You're monster hunters, trying to keep the occult under wraps, while keeping secrets of your own. Plus, horror comedy!
The mat is the cover art from Friends at the Table's current season, Palisade. It's an Armor Astir campaign following up on some of the characters from their Partizan series.
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Review of Blue Eye Samurai on Netflix
There are some spoiler-ish things below, but I think most of it is in the trailer, so I don't think I will ruin anything. I'll warn you during the most spoilery section, though the show makes the "twist" pretty obvious from the beginning.
Premise
Blue Eye Samurai is a Kill Bill-style revenge tale that takes place in 17th century Japan. The samurai is half white/half Japanese. The show states that no white folks were allowed in the country back then, so the samurai tries to conceal blue eyes with some sweet BluBlocker™ orange glasses. The Samurai is displeased to have white heritage and decides to try and kill all the "white devils" hiding in Japan.
Will some reactionaries complain there is a show all about someone trying to murder white people? I have no idea. But they're all bad white people, so I'm hoping it won't become a thing.
My Hot Takes
A few episodes meandered a bit, but I enjoyed the series as a whole quite a bit. If nothing else, the sword fights were epic and bloody. I would have watched it for that alone. And there is some gorgeous art direction where they really take advantage of the 2D styled, 3D animation. Plus, Japan is just really pretty. There is also a puppet show that was brilliantly mixed in with the story and the way they animated it was next level awesome.
They fell into cliche a few times. I think they were trying to do homages and tributes but ended up in Derivative Land and some of them felt a bit cringe.
They used "Battle Without Honor Or Humanity" which is that rousing instrumental song from Kill Bill and it was way too on the nose. Like, yes, this show is obviously a 1600s version of Kill Bill, but you're not supposed to make it that obvious.
Also, there was a Metallica song that equally made me roll my eyes and think, "That is badass" so I give them a pass on that one.
And there were a few sections where it felt like you were watching someone else play a video game. I don't know how else to describe it. As if the narrative melted away and suddenly a bunch of Prince of Persia obstacles appeared.
That said, the story was enjoyable, the actors were great, the characters were interesting, the animation was solid, and the fight choreography was top notch.
The nice thing about animation is you don't have to do any jump cuts during the action, so you get to really *see* the fights develop. Thankfully they didn't make use of a lot of impossible-in-real-life camera moves, so it all felt very grounded. As if these fights could actually be filmed in live-action. I suspect they may have even used motion capture or closely adhered to reference footage. Most of the non-fantastical choreography felt like something a stunt performer could actually do. They even had some legit Japanese samurai-style sword fighting moves before it got to the "John Wick with a katana" part of the show.
Back in the day, samurai duels were more akin to jousting than fencing and usually only lasted one or two moves. It can be pretty exciting as long as you build tension and anticipation. But if every sword fight in the show was like that, it would probably get boring. But it was still nice to see it toward the beginning.
So the quality was a bit roller coaster-y at times, but I think it was a solid first season. And I am really hopeful they get a chance to smooth things out in a second. But it is Netflix, soooooo...
As far as content warnings, there is a lot of blood and sex and nudity. Women are very subjegated and some of those depictions are rough. There are some brutal torture scenes. And I think there is implied rape, but it isn't made super clear.
The nudity was surprisingly balanced which felt refreshing. So get ready for boobies and floppy cartoon peens. All the genitals get screen time.
Quick aside about erotic scenes...
There has been recent discourse about nudity and sexy time in media. My biggest issue has always been that men's bodies are rarely shown aside from the patoot. It is never balanced and I always felt uncomfortable with that arrangement. I know movies are a bit stuck because the MPAA has decided dicks in a sexual context are an automatic NC-17. But even in newer HBO-type content where they do show penises, they are usually prosthetics. Hyper real fake dicks on top of real dicks that probably cost tens of thousands of dollars to develop and apply.
Like, the folks with boobs don't get expensive prosthetics. Only the most famous actresses can opt for a body double. For years, if an actress wasn't willing to get naked they would just say, "Well, I guess we'll just have to find another actress."
And now if a guy doesn't want to get naked, apparently the response is, "Don't worry, we'll raise Stan Winston from the dead so he can make you a perfect megadick."
Women are usually asked to do the brunt of the nudity and I have long felt that wasn't fair and it was exploitative whether intentional or not.
I just think if you are going to ask actors to be vulnerable, everyone should do it or no one should do it.
I also think we need to see more normal non-porn genitals. Like, you can't brag about your progressive all-inclusive nudity if you slap a giant fake wang on every time.
/end tangent
And now, the spoilery part...
The big twist, which is really only a big twist for a character in the show and not the audience, is that the Blue Eye Samurai was born a girl. To avoid capture and death they essentially hid in a different gender identity. And I'm trying to decide if this is a trans story or not.
Sometimes it felt like the show was bluntly saying, "She's a girl. See, she has boobs and no penis. And we make a big deal about her getting caught naked. It's like Mulan!"
But then the show kinda/sorta implies that while identifying as a man was a tactic at first, the Blue Eye Samurai came to feel much more comfortable as a man most of the time and only revealed their feminine attributes to a select few. They also had a binding scene which felt like intentional trans imagery.
Since there wasn't the same concept of trans-ness in 1600s Japan as we understand it in modern times, I'm having trouble determining if this is just an homage to Mulan that wasn't thought very deeply about, or if this is allegory exploring a trans identity.
It is unclear if the identity was chosen purely out of necessity or if there was more to it.
Was it like... they tried on a coat because it was cold, but then they really liked how it fit and made it an essential part of their wardrobe?
Or was it just pure pragmatism? If they don't wear the coat they will die from exposure.
I'm worried they wanted to stay close to that line where they could say it wasn't a trans story if that ended up being more convenient. I don't know. I'm fine with allegory and I really enjoyed how they did it with Nimona, but this felt more deliberately ambiguous and it frustrated me a bit. It would be nice if we could just have blatant trans stories that didn't need to hide in ambiguity to avoid controversy. But maybe there were more obvious things I missed and my confusion is unwarranted.
I also think an argument could be made for ol' Blue Eye being genderfluid. Actually genderfluid would make a lot of sense. Their masculine side is the stoic warrior and their feminine side is their vulnerability, love, and humanity—reserved only for those most trusted. And when the two blend and they are a warrior woman they get super horny. So the entire spectrum is there.
I'm sure there will be a long complicated video essay analyzing this gender dynamic.
/end of spoilery section
In any case, I think if you liked Kill Bill, this might be a show that interests you. It has much less cultural appropriation and blatant stereotyping. No Pussy Wagon, but there is a cool horse. And they did use an all East Asian voice cast, so that representation was cool. And the co-showrunner was Japanese, and I think that influence definitely made a difference.
I give Blue Eye Samurai 7.5 Froggies out of 10.
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Robin/Batgirl: Fresh Blood REVIEW
So, it's Cassandra Cain day, and as always on this day I'll usually review a comic, I decided for this year I'd be reviewing Robin/Batgirl: Fresh Blood, considering I recently bought the trade last Christmas, so yeah!
First off, I want to start by saying that overall I think this is a pretty decent story, but it also highlights the difference between the two writers of Bill Willingham and Andersen Gabrych, seeing how they handle the grieving process of both Cass and Tim is particularly interesting.
Obviously I don't want to say Willingham doesn't try his best to make it seem like Tim is sad following Stephanie's death, but like he does really brush it off more, during her funeral he isn't even really sad about Steph all that much, more mad at Bruce.
And I understand Willingham tries to make an excuse that Tim is sad over a bunch of people rn so he doesn't have that many tears to shed over Steph, but like she's the most recent death, I think Tim would be a little more upset over her. 😭
Even after frickin' hallucinating her does he not even get sad over her, more or so his father, it really feels like he doesn't care that much about Steph's death and she's just another casualty.
Meanwhile for Cass, I'd say the weight is more felt, you actually see her shedding tears at her funeral, and it genuinely seems like Cass is more upset about her loss whereas Tim is just bottling up his emotions about it.
So, I definitely prefer how Gabrych writes the reaction to Stephanie's death as opposed to Willingham, because she feels more important of a loss.
As for things beyond that, I have to say there's some really good action sequences in this 4 parter, it's certainly helped that two of Cassandra Cain's best artists worked on this, being Damion Scott and Ale Garza, while their style does certainly contrast, considering Scott is more cartoonish and Garza is more anime-ish, I still think both do a fine job regardless and it's just nice to say there's a Cass comic out there where two of her best artists did some awesome stuff for her.
I especially like the scene where Cass is fighting Shrike and the scene where she's taking on a bunch of the Penguin's goons.
Finally, I'd like to touch on what I love most about the story, and that would be the contrast between Tim and Cass on wanting to be like Batman.
It's basically the main theme of the story, where Tim is afraid of becoming more like him, but Cass is embracing that, wanting to become that symbol.
It's best summarized in the scene at the end of the story where the two finally have a heart to heart about it, and it's some good stuff.
So, overall, I would say I think Fresh Blood is a pretty good read.
It has some flaws here and there, especially the weird contrast between how each writer was reacting to the death of Steph at the time, but beyond that there's some good stuff that builds up Cass and Tim's relationship, and the art is certainly excellent coming from some of Cass's best artists.
Well, there you have it, my little review/analysis of Robin/Batgirl: Fresh Blood! Hope you all enjoyed it, and as always stay tuned.
Same bat-time, same bat-channel!
And happy birthday to the best comic character ever created imo: Cassandra Cain!
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Aoi slayer au! I want to see how it'll look like in your art style. No need to look too much into it if you don't want to, (if you can, could you maybe add some of your hcs? sorry I'm getting kinda needy I've never been there when the ask box was open 😅😂😂)
I love your tumble account very much! I hope you have a great day, say hi to your research for me.
(Thank you for saying hi to my research, too! I passed that along, but my research is glaring at me. Typical.)
I have drawn Slayer!Aoi before, actually! She could use a Water Breath action pose, though.
I have worked a lot of my Slayer!Aoi headcanons into fics, actually. Most prominently, this one-shot about Aoi having to take up the sword again for a night while everyone else is busy with Pillar Training. In that one, I provided some background for Aoi having received a haori Kanae picked out for her, a white silk one with a blue "kagome" (basket-weaving) pattern on the inner lining. It's a traditional pattern that hasn't been used by any other cast members, and it's a protective motif. (This fic include a non-action drawing of her.)
In another fic (a short-ish multi-chapter fic trying to figure out how Shinobu's deceased Tsugukos fit into canon), I wrote the scene when Shinobu bids Aoi good luck at the Final Selection, and gives her the haori telling her that Kanae picked it out for her and Shinobu had held onto it all this time.
In those ones I tried to keep it closely tied to whatever we know of Aoi as a canon Water Breath user, and I've organized all my thoughts of Aoi's canonical past here. One detail I particularly liked figuring out was that Aoi might not had even seen a demon until the Final Selection, since it was common for young girls to be sent away to domestic service to earn money for their families, so she might not had seen the demon who killed her family while she was away.
As an extra headcanon, I'll bet she's the type to forget her Breath when she gets scared.
Before we found out her Water Breath details in the second fanbook, though, I wrote a long-ish canon divergent fic which had her re-enter the service as an Insect Breath user, and since she was Flower Pillar Kanao's Tsuguko in that fic, she got a bit more action as an active slayer.
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Oh man you're finally tipping me towards starting one piece. I've avoided it for years - I could barely finish reading Naruto, and that was my special interest in middle school. 1000+ episodes is incredibly daunting. But Gear 5 Luffy looks so charming and silly and inexorably happy and the animation looks so, so, so good.
Should I bite the bullet and finally give it a shot? Should I start with the manga or the anime?
I know it can seem scary because of the length, but it's a fun journey! The entire series is fun and charming and silly and emotional and just, genuinely life changing? It's been a pretty positive experience for me for well over a decade :]
I can easily sit down and say yeah you should totally watch the anime if you're patient for it! It took me around 4-ish months to get caught up last year just watching 10 episodes a day on average and I'm soooo in love with the character voices and OST and all the unique laughter, it's so oughhhh its so good
The manga's pretty good too! It's got a VERY charming art style that I'm in love with, and if there's ever a scene you wanna see in the anime, you can always look it up :]
The manga also has all the cover stories that show what other characters are up to off-screen and the sbs! A little question corner Oda does through the volume (though you could always look these up later if you wanna go with the anime)
So it would depend on your taste! The manga is shorter, but the anime feels more alive and even include extra tidbits here n there
#mp answers#one piece#it's so long since its an actual ongoing adventure#everythings connected to a previous arc in someway or another!#there's so much world building to this series its insane and i love it for it
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The problem with AI and the entertainment industry in particular is that...okay, fine, technology marches on. Digital art made physical ink-on-cels animation into mostly a hobbyist novelty (though boy howdy did it ever make it an impressive one). Photography turned portrait painting into a luxury, rather than something everyone who could afford it saved to do at least once for every family member because it was the only way to keep their likenesses alive. Photo editing has gone through so many changes that it's almost unrecognizable compared to what it looked like as recently as the 80s and 90s, and the older methods are, again, super impressive hobbyist passion projects now. Digital painting made physical painting less viable in an economy of scale, but way more impressive as an art form. These kinds of changes always really fucking suck for some people, but you can't really prevent them without stifling human development in general.
But.
The entertainment industry wants to make it suck way more than it has to for everyone but their executives and shareholders. They want to have their cake and eat it too. They want to take advantage of the inherent marketing power of celebrity culture without ACTUALLY involving, let alone paying, the people whose names and likenesses they're using. That, I hope we can all agree, is vile.
Now, the logical endpoint of this is that we push back against that, and as an alternative we get more fictional celebrities in the near-ish future, and as a Vocaloid fan, theoretically, I dont see much of a problem with that. Theoretically, at least. In the best case scenario, I think it could be a lot of fun! But the problem is, well...
See, in the early days, Vocaloid producers tended to take a very backstage role. Very few people were fans of specific producers; they were fans of Miku or any other character. Eventually, though, producers just kind of came more into the spotlight on their own because everyone has their own style and taste. We still love the characters, but we all started to notice when half our favorite songs by Miku were produced by the same person, well, perhaps we were fans of that producer as well!
But in American-born entertainment culture...
You may notice that CGI was conspicuously absent from my Technology Marches On breakdown. That's because while, yes, it has made for an interesting highlight of practical effects, with love for the work and nostalgia for their jank the same way other new art media has shone a spotlight on its predecessors, it hasn't actually gotten to be recognized as an art form the way the others listed have. We've barely moved on from the attitude that got Tron disqualified from the Academy Awards for SFX because "the computer did those effects, not you" (in 1982). In fact, I'm strongly of the belief that if Disney were a halfway decent company, they would be bragging about how they're pioneering photorealistic animation, rather than trying to pass off 90+% CGI animated films, usually (but not always; see: The Lion King remake) with live celebrity actors' faces composited in, as "live-action". Instead, they treat the VFX department as mindless dancing monkeys, and perpetuate the idea that VFX is just "select material, press button, get polished scene" - because to brag about it as its own art form might imply that the people doing it are skilled artists who deserve to be paid fairly and treated like human beings, and oh, we can't have THAT, now can we?
VFX labor is all hidden; very few people have a favorite VFX artist or director, instead we treat the artists, who put the time and effort into wrangling code and semiconductors and routines and layers into creating a professional-looking end product, as just part of the machine themselves, to save the companies some money - and culturally, I fear we're well on the way to regarding AI exactly the same way but worse.
As such, I fear that we wouldn't have the same effect with any digital idols produced by Silicon Valley.
Now, I don't fear virtual celebrities being able to fully replace human ones. Half of the draw of celebrity culture is the illusion of human connection. As much as the word "parasociality" has grown to be associated with only the negative effects of this, in reality, it's also the driving mechanism behind why representation matters. It's fun to be able to feel a connection to a fictional celebrity, but it doesn't replace the feeling of knowing that your fave is a human being with a real life - ...whether you use that knowledge for better or worse.
What I do fear is the fight against using AI to replicate real humans without their input, or with their manufactured consent, being long and drawn-out and doing a lot of harm before we can fully put a lock on it, and virtual celebrities being used to hide the work that the human directors and producers put into them for the sake of saving a parent company a buck.
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Have you ever wanted to draw something but you fought due to your skill level at the time you decide not to do it
OH yeah ABSOLUTELY. all the time. my wips folder is full of stuff like this!! let me dust off some old examples
here's a sketch i did for a rain world piece that i was initially feeling pretty good about!! i wanted to experiment with more scenic pixel art, but i guess i didn't know where to start or how to approach it and ended up feeling really roadblocked really early on.
i blocked in some basic colors and did a little detailing on pebbles, but i was just struggling too hard with learning the tools and techniques i needed to pull off what i was envisioning that i got frustrated and stopped. I never picked this one up again, but I have made some other, better pixel art since :] i think the reason the one i linked worked out better is because i was trying to learn fewer things at a time while working on it. that one was a mostly 2-dimensional scene and was more heavily based on a reference, so i didn't have to think as hard about those things. this one was not only a new-ish medium to me, but also had some more challenging perspective and was less reference-heavy. if that makes sense?
more rain world! this was one of my earlier attempts at mimicking the cutscene art style. i got so frustrated with my inability to make the colors & shading look right that it went right into wip jail never to be seen again.
but then i scaled my ambitions back from Immediately Making A Polished Piece to just doing a quick study, and that helped immensely. original on the left, my study on the right. working on this was still difficult, cause i was learning something new, but since it was much simpler it was a much more manageable task. i could take more time to get it right without feeling like i was going nowhere
i never did finish that first one, but i did make some other finished pieces in that style that i think are pretty bangin if i do say so myself. one such example above
here's a video wip (whoa)! god it's really rushed & was never meant to see the light of day in this state so please don't look too hard at it. but this one i got frustrated with mostly because i wasn't feeling good about my ability to draw the cast of characters. so into the pits it went. i don't really have any interest in finishing it anymore since my ideas for the rest of it were speculative and, y'know, the rest of the show has since been released lol.
anyway, to close off my response. the first two are more or less success stories? despite the fact i never finished the original pieces i abandoned. because i wanted to talk about what's worked for me to alleviate this feeling—which is: scale back, try something less ambitious first, work your way up to the big project you're struggling with. but i also have dozens of other examples i could put in here of things that didn't work out at all and went nowhere. like, that just is how it is sometimes. i feel you 🤝 i think most if not all artists (of any medium) go through this haha
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