Laughter that warmed my heart like naught else before. They are my meaning and my purpose. My love.  :)

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omg ponyo was also one of my favourites as a kid!! one time i even brought it to school and got upset bc nobody else wanted to watch it they wanted some dumb horse movie instead (-_-)

anyway i’ve watched it so much that the disk skips now 。・゜・(ノД`)・゜・。 but! i did get the artbook for it a couple years ago and god it’s just such a gorgeous movie and a huge comfort ♡(๑ᴖ◡ᴖ๑) i’m literally cuddled in my ponyo blanket as we speak

also really love tangled, & totally agree on wanting to live it. the adventure, the lights, rapunzel and flynn having insane chemistry together ahh (〃ω〃) it’s such a good movie i should rewatch it soon! i feel like it’s got great au potential as well. poor riddle locked in his tower…. :(

i like to think that the twst boys would really enjoy tangled and the ghibli movies (as all people should)! octa would probably find the peaceful harmony of the sea in ponyo a very interesting change from what they’re used to (and pester you about getting a kiss so they can live on land. dummy that’s what the potion is for >:[ )

in conclusion, movie night at ramshackle w everybody! ＼＼\\٩( ^ω^ )و //／／

Ponyo is such a wonderful film aaaaaa!!! I love it so much. >w< all of the Studio Ghibli films are beautiful and filled with magic. But Ponyo was the one I watched most when I was a child! :D it's still one of my favorites even today.

AAAAA TANGLED AU WITH RIDDLE........ omg that's so perfect. The idea of Riddle with very long hair is a cute thought. <3 he deserves to go on an adventure and fall in love with his darling and make many fun memories!!!! Tangled has such great au potential uuwaaa,,, the plot is so enjoyable. I love plots where the characters have a deal that means they must tolerate the other in order to get what they want (for Flynn it was the crown and for Rapunzel it was getting to see the lanterns) until all of that inevitably changes when they grow closer!!!! The dynamic is so wonderful... orz

Octavinelle liking Ponyo!!!! AAAAA YES YES!!! >0< this is very true. If anyone's going to be a fan of the Ghibli films, it's 100% Idia!!!! Omg he would love all of them so much. Movie night at Ramshackle or even Ignihyde means he's going to play all of his favorites, and the Ghibli films naturally have to be part of that!!!

Collectors Edition showcase

Finally got to unpack the collectors edition, and BOIIIIII

I'm very happy with it Q^Q

We start with ... Packaging :D

(We ignore the RDA notebook in this house :) )

If you want to see something from the artbook, here's the index:

(we won't trigger the mouse to soon)

The AMP blueprint came in that "package"

(probably gonna frame it when I have time)

Those landscapeshots are so freaking stunning Q_Q

Love a good steelbook case <3

Love the energetic pose and proportions!

And, to proof this is the real thing

(that number is oddly satisfying XD)

Could u info dump about the smile for me game? :3 /nf

:-D!!! I can try! I'm not very good with my words, but thank you for letting me say them anyway :-]

I think one of my favorite things about the game is how weird everything is and how it makes it seem like 'Oh yeah that's normal!' Which is really nice!! Cuz I define myself as pretty weird!

Spoilers for the new update!!! v v v

For example, Flower Kid now has Flower Hands! Which I thought was a cute new addition, especially considering when playing you get A Hand as an item

SPEAKING OF THE UPDATE!!!!!!! GOD DAMN!!!!!!! They added so much ESPECIALLY INVOLVING KAMAL AND HABIT!!!! THE TWO GUYS!!

THEY MADE THE HABITAT TOGETHER LIKE I THOUGHT!!!!!!!!! AND THE ARTBOOK EXPLAINED EVEN MORE THINGS THAT I DON'T WANNA SPOIL HERE, SO I RECOMMEND GETTING THE DIGITAL DLC CUZ IT UPDATED ALONG WITH THE GAME. I really can't believe that LimboLane decided to make that canon. It's making me have so many Thoughts everyday.

Thoughts that include the fact that there's A COLLECTOR'S EDITION & PHYSICAL ARTBOOK!!1!!! THAT I IMMEDIATELY BOUGHT. NOT FAIR TO ME CUZ I BOUGHT THE GRIM FANDANGO COLLECTOR'S EDITION A WEEK EARLIER.

Anyway now I'm out of money <//3 This damn game I will purchase so many things, I bought the vinyl first pressing as well so you know that I'm a Super-Fan

I just really attached to Smile For Me for reasons unknown to me! It itches my brain in a good and nice way every time I think about it which is OFTEN! It's a silly game about mental health and helping people! I love helping people! And making them smile!! And the game makes me smile so Win-Win!.

I'm particularly attached to Dr. Habit as you can probably tell from all the art I do of him on here and all the talking I do of him on my main. He's so!!! Look at him!!! He's so pretty and silly and tall and all the things that I personally enjoy looking at into one being!

Legitimately I have NOT felt crushes on fictional characters to this extent before. I DON'T KNOW WHAT SPELL YUGO PUT ON THIS GUY TO MAKE ME LOVE HIM SO MUCH BUT IT AINT GOING AWAY ANYTIME SOON! Maybe it's cuz he's so mysterious and doesn't show what he really looks like up until the reveal which permanently changed my brain.

And even more epic is that Yugo said we can headcanon all the characters how ever we want so my headcanon for him is that he's transfem and uses He/Him and She/Her cuz I am a Girl Liker and I can do what I want. And him and Kamal are T4T (Kamal being transmasc)

I love how in earlier play tests of the game, the players wanted to Kiss Habit so LimboLane added the neutral ending where you can. So real of them to do that <3

ALSO!!!!! There's a lot of implication that the characters are Neurodivergent which makes me very happy and probably why I clung myself so much to the game being Au-DHD myself. Yugo is neurodivergent themself as well which is pretty swag. We love trans & neurodivergent creators of the world

Okay at this point I'm just RAMBLING, and I thank you if you read this much and thank you for being patient with me about it lol! I'm not very good at info dumping but I'm not sure if there's a way to do it really?

TL:DR I really like this game

What was your first time watching rotg like? Did you watch it in theatres? Where do you re-watch it, if you ever want to? What environments in the film did you like aesthetically? What character design(s) did you like the best? Which scenes were memorable to you? What were your favorite pieces of dialogue?

Hi, Anon!! Thank you so much for asking 😭❤ Since we're two people, some of these will have two answers. We'll try to make it as easy to read as we can!

What was your first time watching rotg like? Did you watch it in theatres?

K: We came to the fandom years late so my first time watching it was Fuuma suggesting we watch it together at their house just as something to do. 😂It was casual af. I was NOT expecting to become obsessed but my eyes were opened seeing Jack and Pitch interact together. 👀 I’m weak for a good villain, and after the movie was over we both started looking into fanart and as soon as we stumbled onto some blackice, we were hooked. New ship acquired, proceed to hyperfixate.

F: I watched it almost immediately after it came to cable. I wasn't impressed with the ad campaign, so I didn't go see it in theaters. I did expect to fall in love with Tooth based on her design, but then I didn't. And I was so disappointed with the ending (Pitch and Jack have way too much in common to sell me on Jack banishing Pitch and feeling good about it) that I just kind of... set it aside for four years. And then I was re-introduced through a Drarry fic and the next time I saw it on cable I thought, hey, maybe I should give it a second shot. So I suggested to Kam that we put it on. The rest is history.

Where do you re-watch it, if you ever want to?

We own a physical copy so we can watch it any time, but those times usually end up being for the rotg discord server we mod. (Which is open to anyone, hit us up for an invite! :D) We’ll usually stream it around Easter and for the anniversary or if enough people ask for it. 😂

What environments in the film did you like aesthetically?

K: Tooth’s palace is gorgeous. Pitch’s lair is hauntingly beautiful and especially appeals to me being a huge horror fan. And the spikey totem in Antarctica is lovely both visually and for sentimental reasons. ;)

F: Everything Kam said, but also Jack's lake. I really love that opening scene with the frost on the trees. Ask anybody; I'm big on trees.

What character design(s) did you like the best?

Tooth hands down is the most well designed character. So much detail with all her colors and feathers and her wings, it’s hard not to find something new to admire in each re-watching. As much as we love Jack and Pitch, their designs are quite simple. I really wish they would have done more with Pitch in particular than a plain black robe. BUT the Nightmare designs are excellent. Imposing and elegant and almost skeletal, but also so expressive.

If the artbook counts, we're big fans of the Eldritch Pitch designs that didn't make it into the movie. Some of those ideas were really, really cool.

Which scenes were memorable to you?

K: Any scene with Pitch. 🤣Jude Law’s voice is so perfect, even when Pitch is just fumbling around. I love how much personality they animated him with, I love that they made him dance, I love the range of emotion in Antarctica~ Basically every scene besides the ending is gold. Honorable mention to the scene where Jamie finally sees Jack too—that scene almost made me cry the first time I saw it hearing the tears in Jack’s voice. 😭

F: Antarctica. The opening scene. Pitch's lair with the wicked shadows. And the ending credits 🤣 I love Phil signing the book.

What were your favorite pieces of dialogue?

K: Pitch’s ‘Boo’, Pitch’s ‘You can have em back’, but my FAVORITE is probably the ongoing ‘Paint it red’ ‘Paint it blue’ joke. THE YETIS NEED A VACATION. 🤣

F: I can't get over "Suck an egg." Or "No offense" for that matter. Those itty bitty bits that say so much about who they are in three words or less.

If Phil pointing at Jack threateningly and saying nothing counts, then that too. I love that wordless communication so much 🤣🤣🤣

Thank you again, Anon ❤ This was a lot of fun to think about~

EEE SNAIL!! i’m sorry last week was super rough on you ʕっ•ᴥ•ʔっ be proud you got through it!!~ i love love love banana flavoured stuff i think it’s so underrated! how were the muffins? one thing i reallyyy miss about being in school is the build up to winter/summer break. i know not everyone celebrates christmas but everyone would always be so excited up until the last day (≧▽≦) humans are cute like that

i will not tell star she is a trend setter… psst ^^ that’s me in the snow (REAL!)

i haven’t been doing anything fun but it finally snowed!!! it never snows in the uk (-д-。) i made my parents take a walk with me while it was still snowing but i have the worlds worst cold now (T＿T) promise me u will never take breathing through ur nose easy for granted…..

the figures look SO so cute!!!! i love ur list.. the re-ment + house so you can set em up in little scenes… not sure if i was the only kid that did this but i would spend hours setting up my calico critters houses just to make em look nice and then i wouldn’t even play with them (๑´ㅂ`๑) i just liked makin sure they had a cute house to live in!

would you want a modern doll house?? or a themed one? or a wooden one? Σ(･口･) i would love to be a doll or a toy and just have a little room.. something about small things… waa

+ to answer your question i would really really love the calico critters lavender rabbit family .. it’s a japan exclusive though T_T id love to have the ‘art of ghibli’ books! have you seen them? i think id want ponyo + howls moving castle versions most because i love the art of both movies SO much… rement.. tiny food.. ohehehe…. i would die for a little re-ment set…

HAIII BELOVED CAPPA IM BACK!! ⸜ (｡˃ ᵕ ˂) ⸝ so sorry this took me so long to respond to !

but tysm for the sweet words!! things have definitely gotten better recently + at the time of writing this tomorrow is christmas!!! YAHOOOO ( / >ヮ< )/

GRAHH YES i love banana flavored baked goods!!! & the muffins turned out really well! :D i should make some banana chocolate chip cookies sometime bc that sounds delicious ..

BUT YAHH the build up to christmas is always really fun in school! (minus the finals) but it was really sweet cus one of my electives is being an assistant in the counciling office and they got us hot coco and mini donuts it was sooo sweet !! ( ˃̵ᴗ˂̵ ) ♡

also that IS u in the snow, #SO REAL!

SNOWWW that is so so cool!!! but yah omg i imagine that must be uncomfortable- >_<!!

AWEEE thats so precious tho!!! they rlly just itch a certain part of my brain !!! GRAH i adore the calico critter doll houses tho id also love to have something like these i think ?? just something with an open face! AND LITERALLY OMG i would be so content as a silly little toy

the lavender calico critters are absolutely adorable.. and the art of ghibli book sounds so cute!! i think ive seen similar ones, i bet they'd be so fun to flip though! i have a couple artbooks myself of video games i like + some artists and i adore them sm!! i really want to collect some more magazines tho (i got a bit inspired by tamakid ofc) bc the japanese kids magazines just look so fun !? AHH PONYO AND HMC THO i feel like ive said this before but ponyo is my fav and i wanna name an orange cat after her someday ^__^

ANYWAYS i love ur ideas !!! they all sound too cute and ty for the ask again it was very fun to answer :D i hope ur having a great holiday season! and merry christmas if u celebrate, i'll probably be popping in ur ask box to send u a lil christmas message soon !! :3

Update 2022-05-09

1 ) I'll be wrapping up April Arrivals by the end of this week. There will be an official announcement on Tumblr/Twitter later once I'm done (so don't stress if you haven't received yours yet) but please do keep an eye on your inbox :)

The In Stock orders submitted over the past 2-3 weeks will also be packed later this week so you guys should get your second payment emails soon too! Apologies for the delay and thanks for your patience. 2 ) I'm aiming to host a livestream this Friday evening (May 13) as I'll be staying up to grab the TGCF artbooks and would welcome the company n__n;;; It'll probably be a chill hangout/chitchat and I might give Youtube streaming a try since landscape view is a bit easier for merch show and tell :D

Feel free to subscribe to the channel if you're interested! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHvqUlw8iUT-8Rr9bl1NzeQ

If Youtube ends up giving me issues, I'll likely host it on Instagram as usual: https://www.instagram.com/shandiango

3) I'm also planning to take a short break after April Arrivals wrap up as there's a few IRL events coming up, plus me and the family/friends supporting me have basically worked non-stop since I came off semi-hiatus in January and we all need some time to recuperate;;;

I'll still be around to check emails/socials so don't worry about not being able to reach me if you have an urgent issue! I'll likely just hold off on non-urgent listings and take an extra day or two to reply

2021

Holy crap I haven’t posted anything in since July 2020 :O

Anyways my tumblr account is quite on hiatus alot nowadays since I spend most of my time on instagram D: I should spend more time here aswell but I’m kinda slowly drifting away for some weird reason. ._. and work eats up alot of my sparetime.

In general it feels like I’m less and less lurking around on different websites and just focusing more on my job, physical and mental health + sustainable enviroment friendly lifestyle, close friends and personal plans.

I’m sorry if I’m absent alot nowadays here... I’m just focusing alot on my wellbeing and physical health and environment. Also trying to eat more plantbased...^^ Lately I’ve been interesting in collecting some indie artbooks by original independent artists and old nostalgic books. I do plan on buying more manga books in the future :D

I’m trying to make the most of my projects and revive some old hobbies(drawing/painting). I’m planning on starting an art insta account soon... I just wanna find a suitable insta name for my account before I officially publish anything. I have some ongoing knitting/crocheting projects as late xmas gifts for my parents so my main plan is to finish them in January.

For work I’ll be quitting work here and returning to my homevillage there to work in February, so I’m kinda sad that I can’t be in the town where most of my friends are living in (for now but I will be visiting V-town alot whenever I’m having a free 2 day break or so) ...

I really like living in that town but the workplace I’m at atm is not suitable or interesting enough for me to continue. I feel more and more tired when I work there (bcus of bad air, early mornings, onesided tasks + sometimes bad sleeping habit).

Even though the boss, colleagues are nice and friendly I just doesn’t feel free. I feel trapped/ or stuck if I have to sit all day in a room take blood and talk to patients. The worst is probably the timetable there which sometimes is super stressful. Also kids who scream and cry is just not suitable for me who has ADD...Especially in the morning, it’s always many patients reserved and when a problem occurs witth either the phlebotomy or blood draw and leads to longer that the time reserved for the patient you could very fuck up and easily get late with the timatable for each patients time reservation.

The timetables are so tight  I’m not having anytime for a morning break. So I usually just skip it and work until lunch break.. But I will still have my appartment there. I’m not moving back my stuff to my parents bcuz I know this is just a temporary stay for maybe like a year at maximum. I don’t mind moving back to my home village tho. It’s quite peaceful and nice but I’m afraid I’ll just be very lonely there.

As soon as I get my covid vaccine I’ll be planning to do some big dream travel ...maybe in autumn. Ultimate Number one bucket list is Japan. Second is Iceland and Anime Expo and Comic Con in San Diego...thats where my money savings will mostly go for the upcoming years. :D

I will also be planning on working abroad sometimes in the future but not at least this year.

Chibi Halloweek by OceRydia

Hi :D

Finally...  Zieg and I finished our halloweek event ! It was a lot of fun (and work), I hope you liked it as much as I did. :3

You can read the final chapter here :

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13089413/10/Halloweek-2018-The-Storyline

A LOT of things happened on this last chapter. LIKE, a lot. Don't hesitate to share your though on Fanfiction.net or anywere you want to, it's always a pleasure to read your comments !

So, this is the end of the storyline... though, a small epilogue will be post as soon as possible, and will be write by our nice friend Cimar [Again, thank you so much for accepting !!].

That said, since it was a project with original characters, we definitively planned to do some merchandising of it, including an artbook with the story inside. So, you will probably see more illustrations of those demons and hunters characters. That mean, about commissions, that I will probably accept the ones concerning the event. Unfortunately, I will not be able to take others commissions, because I want to finish the ones I have to do before the end of 2018. And private life will be much complicated in december, wich mean that I haven't a lot of free time in front of me to finish everything.

Anyway, thank you so much for your support, I wish you a good night, I'm going to sleep soon :D

PS : about the chibi version of the characters, I will draw all of the demons and hunters for free, when I will have some times to do them ;) I would like a giant art with a lot of characters inside, like a big poster. It's my little gift for all those creazy and sweet friends who  make me laugh every day on Discord and Patreon ;)

You want your character on this poster but you didn't participated to the event ? Don't worry, now we have much more time than before to create yours, so if you want to commission a Chibi Halloweek, send me a PM ^^

Art resources and how to improve!

One year ago I started out with digital painting and made some decent progress (I think). Many people ask me, how I learned on my own painting in Photoshop in that time. For this reason, I’d like to share with you all my art resources, that I had been using and still often take a look into for repetition. If you have any other tips for us, let me know in the comments! If you don’t want to read all, just click the links! The Basics There is a ton of good tutorials on Youtube for the first easy steps in Photoshop. I started out with some, that I don’t consider good right now, so I want to recommend you another one, that I found much later. The tutorials of CTRL+Paint cover pretty much everything that you need to know about basic painting. They are easy to understand and follow. And they are completely free! https://www.ctrlpaint.com/library/ For the next step one should probably decide whether to go for a realistic look or going directly into manga/comic style. I recommend learning first the fundamentals of realism, before getting into styles. This way also your manga/anime art will look much more convincing. Starting with painting realistically The first tutorials I watched to paint humans (full body/ portraiture) were from Ahmed Aldoori (also having a great tutorial for blending!) and Jesus Conde (great skin tutorial and also environments covered!).

Ahmed: https://www.youtube.com/user/revolutions34/videos

https://www.youtube.com/user/JesusCondeArtStudio

Other great basic tutorials (but also some more advanced ones) you can find in Draw with Jazza, KNKL and Xia Taptara and Sycra. But be cautious: They are not realistic (some paintings come close though).

Xia: https://www.youtube.com/user/idrawgirls/videos

https://www.youtube.com/user/Sycra

In addition, I must say that some content is contradictory between these artists and I can just recommend to either try them out yourself and pick one or rely on only one source, that is most attracting you. I decided to rely more on Istebrak, I want to introduce as follows.

My main source for realistic painting though is Istebrak. She is doing some great tutorials, critiques and also has a google community where you can post your (realistically attempted) artwork to get critiques by her and the community. She might sound harsh sometimes, but her content is really professional and helpful. It is a great resource for beginners and advanced people likewise! I was mostly relying on her content to improve in painting and it helped me a lot! Try always to critique the paintings she is showing yourself and watch her suggestions after and you will learn a ton and also be able to train your eyes to actually SEE. Google: https://plus.google.com/communities/106157483273509078501 Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/Istebrak Comic Style For a more comic oriented approach I recommend Draw with Jazza and for a mixture of comic/anime styles KNKL. But I didn’t use their tutorials often.

https://www.youtube.com/user/KienanLafferty

https://www.youtube.com/user/DrawWithJazza

Istebrak also has one tutorial for a realistic approach for anime styled painting. Go and check it out!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CF05uz5fd90

I also like the art of Sara Tepes, but it is much stylistic, so I don’t recommend try out that style as a beginner. You can learn a lot from her but please stick with fundamentals first. Other than these I didn’t watch any tutorials on how to do anime style. If you have any suggestions, let me know!

 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWgMcluGLnaVpCWmscaFs_Q

Landscape For my first paintings I needed some information about painting landscapes. I didn’t get too much into it, but I was mainly watching Istebrak’s videos on this matter or Walid Feghali, whose environments look insanely good! And also Jesus Conde, of course. I also got a glimpse on Noah Badleys Landscapes tutorials, but you will need time for these!

https://www.youtube.com/user/Feroyn

https://www.youtube.com/user/noahbradley

Animals For one piece I had to get into painting a tiger. For this I used mainly the tutorials of Aaron Blaise. He works for Disney and can do both- realistic and also stylistic painting. He is a must to check out. https://www.youtube.com/user/AaronBlaiseArt

General (advanced) tutorials you should also watch as beginner

I LOVE Marco Bucci, but he dumped me unfortunately when I asked him to marry me (LUL). But his videos are SO much into depth, entertaining, short but really really informative. You must go check out his tutorials, like NOW.

https://www.youtube.com/user/marcobucci/videos

I also liked the tutorial on how to plan lighting by Tyler Edlin. And the Tutorial series from Swatches is just LOVE (especially the one on values is really valuable… Get it? :D) It is usually for 3D modeling in Blender, but here and there are really good videos also for us painting artists on the channel Blender Guru.

https://www.youtube.com/user/TylerE2284

https://www.youtube.com/user/AndrewPPrice

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiU1-5VronbfeScuABAJC4A/videos

If you are already more advanced it might be interesting for you to have a look at the levelup series on youtube. They have amazing content and feature many professional artists as well. https://www.youtube.com/user/levelupsessions/videos If you have the money and you want to get good at art really seriously, then you should consider paying for personal mentorship that many artists offer (Istebrak, Swatches, Bucci …) or to buy also purchasable tutorials. Tutorials you need to pay for

By now I only bought tutorials from Sakimichan and Ross Draws. I recommend Sakimichan, as soon as you got the fundamentals done. I don’t recommend starting with these tutorials, if you never ever painted before. It might take you longer to get things like anatomy, lighting and so on done correctly. RossDraws tutorials are more or less commented videos on his painting process, which is also really interesting to see of course. I am considering buying also Bucci tutorials and the artbook from swatches. I will update as soon as I worked with these! Getting critiques First of all I recommend joining Istebraks Community, because you can get critiques there quickly and all for free. Also, some other youtubers give critiques on Portfolios for free, but you must be really lucky to be “chosen”, e.g. Swatches (but these critiques are sooo good!). Getting critiques is really fundamental for improvement. So, you really should consider to get them, whenever you can. Depending on what you are aiming for I recommend getting one of the mentorships I talked about earlier.

Another way is to join an online class. I found some great looking ones on https://2d.cgmasteracademy.com/ where also my idol teaches. The prices are really tough though. I did not take part in these classes yet, but they look really promising. Resources that are not video tutorials

Another website I can recommend (to train many poses) is Posemaniacs. It will give you many random poses that you quickly need to jot down. http://www.posemaniacs.com/

I will also drop some links here of pages with tutorials that I looked through as well.

 https://design.tutsplus.com/tutorials/the-secret-to-realistic-painting-how-to-master-value--cms-23457

 https://www.creativebloq.com/illustration/13-ways-improve-your-card-art-41619873

 https://www.pinterest.de/characterdesigh/

 https://www.daz3d.com/animation-and-poses#p=7 (for getting some pose ideas)

 PortraitStudio by Istebrak (MUST GET) http://istebrak.com/store/portraitstudio General tips on how to improve (fast) First of all- ART NEEDS TIME. Stop looking for “how to improve fast” videos! And of course, you only learn how to ride a bike, by riding a bike and not watching others riding it. So, get on your bikes now! Painting every day is a must! But to my opinion there is no use to paint everyday only out of one’s head. So, my first tip is: 1. GET REFERENCE This is a lesson I had to learn much too late in my life. It always felt wrong to use references as if I was copying or stealing from others. But fact is: You need to learn seeing first and you need to see things before you can paint them. A dog without reference will never reach realism. Of course, you somehow can improve without referencing BUT it could take you years and years. Take the shortcut, look at references when painting. 2. STUDY It sounds obvious but studying (especially anatomy when painting humans and also doing form studies) is the only way to learn. Try to study everyday (by using references! GOD!), scribble and paint until your fingers start to burn! 3. GET (REAL) CRITIQUES Yes, you can show your painting to your mommy or best friend and they will tell you how amazing you are. But this won’t lead to anything. You need people to tell you what is wrong, what you need to improve. Not friends, artists. Go and ask them. I gave some suggestions in the text above. 4. SETTING GOALS You need to know why you are doing all this. What are you aiming for? Only with the right motivation you can get yourself into painting daily. Also pick some artists that you can set as your personal goal (Melanie Delon for portraiture in my case). 5. KEEP YOUR OLD ARTWORK Sometimes motivation can be a tricky thing so keep your old paintings so that you can see your progress! I even keep steps of each painting to see the progress within that painting! 6. DON’T COMPARE Motivation gets even harder, when you always compare your work to those of great or famous artists. You can get some inspiration from these or just enjoy them. Just stay on your track and focus on your art. Every great artist was a beginner once. 7. DO IT #NOEXCUSES #BECONSISTENT Last but not least, just paint, sketch and draw. Remember that bike thing I was talking earlier about? Yeah. EXTRA: Speedpaints As a general tip: Don’t waste too much time watching speedpaints. They give a REALLY fast insight in how a piece started out and developed, but you won’t know HOW they did it and WHY they made these choices. If you are liking one special artist, consider getting their more in-depth stuff from their patreon or gumroad. I know it is mesmerizing to watch, but you won’t learn much from it. And because they are so addictive, you might lose a whole day without realizing it. It is often good to watch a tutorial instead, but it is even better to just spend your time painting by yourself. Wow! You read the whole thread! GG! Thank you, for making it here. If you liked the content and want to connect with me, feel free to join me either on twitch or follow me on Instagram! https://www.twitch.tv/qnqura https://www.instagram.com/qnqura

:3 So, I guess I want to publish some of my  character profile pages of my Shaman King sequel fanfiction Shaman King Elemental At the moment there are in german(it’s not perfect written jet ~always when I read it I could chance this and that....), but I’ll write on the bottom here what stands there (I based the design on Takei’s art book  and used the style(I hope,....it looks a lil like it) Mikihisa Asakura (in casual cloths ) Mihikihsa is the younger son of  Yoh and Anna  Asakura. He was born at the year when the 5 warriors met again. Like his older brother, he had  been given a heavy burden at a young age.He was reborn as one of the 6 elementary warriors of the ancient times -The water. His ability in this case is not only  to control the water around him, but also in people  by his will. This is probably the greatest difference between old and new warriors. In contrast to his father, Mikihisa is not quite as prudent, he is quickly annoyed and likes to take the leadership. First at the story he can’t quite understand what his shamanic training is meant to be but soon fate befalls him in the form of a mysterious letter (sry if the translating couln’t be  that well....I’m using google translate for this^^’, and my knowledge)    Asakura Hana [In buisness clouth] Hana has become a rare guest at the spa hotel, since he started law studies several years ago. No one knows exactly how it happened, but Hana seems to like it very well.  He and Mikihisa had a bad start when his parents returned, Hana wished him everything bad, but LIttle Mikihisa loved him from the bottom of his heart and one day , Hana could open his too. Now they are best buddies. When Hana comes to visit from time to time it can happen that the two sleep together in the same futon as they did when they where kids. (:D I used Lyserg as adult for help , and for Miki I wanted to  draw it similiar of his father in the first panel of the artbook) Toyotama [a god] The daughter Watatsumi a god of the Japanese sea. She represents the perfect water spirit and is thousands of years old. She met Mikihisa ones  as he fell from a cliff in the toddler age,... She is very caring and loves Mikisha very much. While  she always claims only to stay with him because of his blue eyes. When Mikihisa starts his journey, she is very skeptical, but she realizes that Mikihisa needs this. Her home is a small  shell in the form of an Okarina which Mikki carries round heis neck. In the summer she usually hides in it all day long. Asakura Yoh (36) (In casual cloths) Hana and Mikihisa’s father, who is now owner of the Inn and He leads this more or less. Next to his wife. Yoh has a hard life with his boys, since he doesn’t understands this youth.  He loves music more than ever and now he  has time to practice it. That doesn’t  mean that he  become lazy. His wife forced him and the boys to go to the top. Thus, without a doubt, he remarks the small amount of Foryoku, which was deliberately applied, to his son's letter. He leaves Mikihsa his sword and his bear claw neglace, as a lucky charm, which he had already given him as a child, He wears glasses for reading. 

5 things meme

tagged by @deadbirdlife! :D (over a month ago but i always do this)

5 things you’ll find in my bag well you can check out my meet-the-artist meme if you want to know not just five but basically everything you'll find in my bag/on my person but for the sake of this meme:

bokutowl/bokuaka nitotans (unless they're in my pocket instead of my bag) to accompany on my many adventures

i haven't really used my sketchbook for like over a year now but i still bring it with me wherever i can, maybe in the hope that i'll use it again at some point

if i do draw anything by hand it's usually on a loose sheet of paper that i carry in my clipboard case. also useful to have for any papers i might pick up while i'm out

i carry around earplugs and athletic tape/bandaids for taiko, since they're small enough that i can leave them in my bag (and bandaids are useful in general). on sundays i bring my taiko bachi and shinobue to practice

my phone case is a wallet case which i use to carry more frequently-used cards like my ID, metrocard, and primary credit card, but i keep another wallet in my bag where i leave cash/coins, other IDs, credit/debit cards, insurance info, membership/stamp cards, etc

5 things you’ll find in my bedroom

an absurd number of books/artbooks/doujinshi/comics. an entire wall of my room is dedicated to books

currently a bunch of moving boxes that i haven’t finished unpacking yet and probably won’t finish unpacking for years tbh

a few real plants and a few fake plants :P i like the idea of a room full of plants but i can only take care of so many and i'm not really opposed to supplementing with fake ones, especially in hard-to-reach places

a fledging little bokuaka shrine that i have many grand ambitions for......

okay wait i’m really excited about this because i recently moved into a new apartment and one of my goals for my room was to make a cozy little under-bed nook but this ended up being a lot more complicated than originally imagined and took like a month of wrangling with furniture weight capacities/materials/budget/help from my ex-structural engineer dad but i finally did it and it’s great

5 things i’m currently into

bokuaka but if you didn’t know that then i’m not sure who you’ve been following

went to a LITE and mouse on the keys concert a few weeks ago so i’ve been re-listening to the setlist a bunch as well as some CDs i bought

for some reason i've also been listening to a lot of ayumi hamasaki lately, digging through my old middle school favorites...

i finally started watching voltron last week okay OKAY FINE

reading paradox blue in japanese! the english scanlations stop halfway through volume 3 and i really want to know what happens -- it’s usually a bit draining for me to read anything longer than 40 pages or so or that involves a lot of non-conversational language, but i’ve been slowly moving along and it’s been good practice

5 things on my to-do list see also: new year's resolutions

HOLIDAY CARDS LOL I DIDN'T FORGET ABOUT THEM i just wasn't joking when i said they'll be like... early spring cards... or later......

starting up classes again this wednesday so i should probably brush up a bit and review my notes from last semester

i finally bought some bird repellent gel for my balcony because these pigeons have been waking me up every morning and it’s really been messing with my sleep. it’s kind of a pain to climb out there so i’ve been putting it off but they’ve been getting increasingly persistent these past few days so i should probably do it soon

i need a haircut lol

gotta call my doctor about some changes in my insurance and also (separately, but falling under the “calling medical offices” category) schedule a surgery consultation which i’ve been meaning to do for weeks now but i’m a weenie

(sticking this in as a sixth item since it’s semi-private but it’s important enough that i’d feel remiss if i didn’t include it) qkbis expxjz dkhyzxpt yrkppku, igh xp kpb ykjs, yopesjj ho jyklers

5 things people may not know about me

my dad is an ordained reverend (and so am i)

i sort of collect cute candy packaging -- i was pretty intentional about it in early high school, then recently dug up my old collection while moving to my new apartment and instead of doing the sensible thing and throwing it out i ended up keeping it

other things i casually collect: postcards, playing cards, cool hats, cool socks, knives, artbooks, doujinshi, stickers, am i a collector or just a hoarder

things i seriously considered majoring in while i was at uni: english, computer science, psychology, film, religious studies, astronomy (of them all, i probably went the furthest with astronomy). the main reason i ended up doing art wasn’t because i particularly wanted to, but because i ended up spreading myself too thin trying to do everything while also consistently taking at least one art class a semester so it ended up being the only subject i had enough credits in to complete with minimal suffering

i really like singing! i wouldn’t say i’m particularly good or bad at it, but i love going to karaoke, and in high school i spent a lot of my time participating in amateur online song cover groups and learned a bit about audio mixing while i was at it. i’ve posted a few covers on tumblr in the past, but it’s been over a year since my last one so a lot of people probably don’t know about it. i’d like to do more at some point, but it might be harder now that i’ve moved to an apartment (bonus: i live right across from a railway line)

tagging @roboraptor3000 @cmktusa @menopiano @thasali @shun-takei @toondoon-here @aidenmoo @silvercistern @twomilkmen @spacevocals @zorofab @cattletyrants @candide-kun @adropofcolour (as always, only if you want to! if you don’t like being tagged in these sorts of things, feel free to shoot me an ask and i’ll make a note of it. same for if i missed you and you really like being tagged :P)

I’d love to know...

Okay, seeing as I’m nearing the end with the pages about Gaea worldbuilding (the only ones left are the Zaibach and Freid pages), I’m throwing this out there, because I think soon I’ll be ready to translate some more (little by little). I am not fluent in Japanese or anything, but I try. 

Things I am curious about and very willing to do translations regarding to:

Eries’ abdication, her supposed feelings for Allen

first and last names of characters which were never mentioned in the series or official materials afaik, such as Balgus Ganesha, Miguel Lavariel, Hitomi’s brother Mamoru  

the accursed colored birthdays of characters or any other reference to the dating system and time measurement on Gaea

anything about Sylphie the Mermaid (just because)

Hitomi and Van (and I suppose some other characters) being a few years older in the movie

If you see/know about an artbook or other official material which could be in relation to these (like, a picture of Eries with some text, a character profile which seems to include a date of birth etc.), please let me know and I’ll be on it.

Also would appreciate:

Knowing the source of this drawing by Hiroshi Osaka:

Source/better quality image of this sericel or whatever it is:

Source/better quality image of this artwork (I suspect it is a poster from a magazine):

I think that’s it for now.  I would have more but gotta stay a bit realistic. :D

If you feel like, you are welcome to add your own stuff (reblog this, message or tag me in the post). 

Maybe I or someone else from the nice Esca folks could help. For example, if you have some bit you would like to be translated, well, maybe I could do that. But it has to be specific , not just “can you find something on xy” (ideally also with a scan or a good picture of the text). I also probably wouldn’t be able to do blocks of text, but a paragraph, a short comic or such is fine.

A little catch up ..

So for some of you who don't follow me on my Insta where I am very active, I have converted/rebranded my old fanfiction (Some of you know it as Rogues ) into an Original story and by original I mean removing any fanfiction terms from there and revamping everything into an original! :D

(I probably mentioned it before in my farewell journal in DeviantART months but didn't go into detail much)

It was pretty hard at first having to reposition it from fanfiction to Original for the first few months rewriting it until a finalized plot has been finalised. I added brand new characters who will make the story interesting (Example: Maurien who is the little innocent cinnamon roll of a brother of Malakai and Mavriki) and yeah from there they helped me finalized whats going to happen in Season / Series 1!!

°

I am currently editing the 10+ chapters of it and creating exclusive artwork for the upcominh mini artbook. Estimated release of the novel is next year while the Prologue which consist of 3 short stories (Derora, Maurien and Kayli) will arrive later end of the year. I will announce the platform where you will read the novel series when I am done with my finals in University where this year, I will be graduating !!! And from there I will probably make an artist booth debut in my home country in Singapore (Deets coming soon! I hope it doesn't conflict with my future full time job in the Fashion Industry unless I take a damn day off)

So yeah. And I apologize to my old fans who have followed Rogues' early development as a fanfiction back in advance.

I can't wait to release the novel in a brand new season as the new burg who want to promote original stories :)

-Burg

(P.S: if you are wondering what has happened to the old Burg who used to humanize mecha and stuff, I lost interest in that fandom and don't do that fandom anymore but in the future, you may see me getting out of retirement as a gijinka artist for a bit. One day. If I feel like it)