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bookofchaos · 2 years

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Week 1 Evaluation of working on Sacred Liminality the comic

This week I overwhelmed myself.

First it started off with excitement!

That snowballed into anxiety.

I let myself get ahead of myself.

I have a lot to learn when it comes to using a digital canvas as a medium. There's even more to learn when it comes to creating comics.

I attempted my first colored piece via cell shading. It's so cool, y'all. But I'm soooooooooooooooooooooo bad at it.

I forgot I needed to use different layers and ended up messing up the piece.

I am still proud of it. It's more than I've ever done! And I definitely learned that I *need* to remember layers are a thing.

I also have so much to remember when it comes to social media.

I have a software I'm using to help me try to keep all of my organization in order... but even so, I'm still having a hell of a time.

Part of this is due to my failing to acknowledge that I require time to set all of this up.

I got plenty done. Two character sketches, one kinda rendered, and a comic strip with 5 panels. Plus, add on setting up and editing multiple different social media platforms to look kinda similar. (Koji, Tumblr, Twitter, Reddit, Imgur, and ComicFury). I even attempted to set up a website. By then, I was way to overwhelmed to get past setting up a basic domain name.

What I've learned is I need to scale back, and I think I'm going to push back the release date. I can put out bad art. That's fine with me. Actually that's one of my goals. Put out bad art. Just put out, honestly. Haha (I'm a sex novel character *wink wink*).

As I revaluate, I think I want to set it up so I have a month to get pages started and inked. This will give me time to also actually practice and learn how to cell shade properly. I also want to do a bit more re-working on the comic page I have. I may post it with this just as a reference for myself of where I started.

I also want time to work on other pieces so I can give my brain a break from working on the comic page. I want to be able to look at it with some freshness before posting. This distance will - hopefully - allow me to critique my art, make changes, and ultimately make it better in the end.

Other things that came up - I'm an anxious bean. I'm horribly scared of what other will think of my work. Like on one hand, I want important people I look up to see it and be like 'Hey, you're a badass,' but I don't want to put out my art because jeezus christ some asshole is gonna say something mean and I'm going to be a bawling sack of tears. (And my run on sentences are strong with this one).

Then there's the lingering issue of feeling like a failure because I am not keeping to my initial time tables I set for myself. Even now I want to cry because it's like 'Fuck, I use to be able to do this.'

Mind you, for reference since many of you know nothing about my life, I am currently thirty. I haven't produced art at a regular rate since high school back in 2008-2011. Because of life, I let my art go. My art is kinda like a time capsule in that way. It still reflects the knowledge my brain and body has of drawing and coloring of a high school student.

While that doesn't bother me because art is just something I can get better at, it does suck when I remember creating as if it was breathing. I would walk into a class, sit down, and doodle or sketch or continue on a project. And it wasn't like I didn't have worries back then. I just could push them to the side. Art would take over, and I'd create.

Now I have to shovel through more of my brain shit before I can start. the process is a bit more stiff. I have to work at doing art... and I know that will change as I progress... but damn man, I'm shaming myself for not having the skills and progress of my 17 year old self.

I've been through worst. This won't stop me of course. I am just in the midst of finding that internal kindness that will help me.

Journaling has always helped. That is part of why I built it into my process. First views and ya know interacting with a creator... All that marketing jazz. But also, like, I kind hope it humanizes me. Maybe someone else will see it and say they've experienced similar. It's always nice to not feel alone.

Creating can be lonely, especially people just starting out on their own. I know I feel alone sometimes. Thankfully, I am strong enough to lean on myself. Haha

I don't really have any special way of ending this other than simple promo stoofs.

Promo Stoofs Ahead

Hey, I'm writing/drawing/promoting a comic. This will be my personal little experiment using my newest deck of cards. Being a bit high, I was illuminated with such a fantastical idea which I am now bestowing (or cursing) upon the internet. I have no idea at the time of writing this what the plot will be, who will be the main characters, nor what words shall be spoken. Accompanying each tarot inspired panel shall also be optional written pieces connecting each panel via delicately chosen (or incredibly rushed) words for thine eyes to feast upon. Come along and enjoy the chaos as we both discover the next panel together.

As of now the comic won't be dropping until Dec 21st, 2022 or in pagan terms - Yule! I'm hoping to gift - possibly curse - the world with my art (and myself with a well created comic). Anything I release before then will be of course promotional in nature.

(Wheel of the year reference below for anyone new to pagan holidays. Stevie Storck Artist.)

I do have other social media. Check my link tree out as I also will be posting on YouTube concerning connecting spirituality and art.

I really do appreciate you stopping by!

Have a lovely day.

Keep creatin'!

#witchcraft #paganism #chaos witch #chaos witchcraft #diary #dungeons & dragons #tarot #spirituality #wheel of the year #yule #comic #my comic #my artwork #comics

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monstersandmaw · 4 years

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Embers - male dragon shifter x reader, Part Thirteen (sfw)

Hey folks - sorry I didn’t post it yesterday. Here it is, at 6.30am on a Saturday for you instead! And we finally get a glimpse of Mikaeïl in his... bigger form too...

Next week is our final chapter! I can’t believe it! Thank you so much to those of you who’ve let me know you’re enjoying it, and to those of you who have reminded me (on more than one occasion!!) that Friday means Embers day, and where the hell is the story, Ghosti!! haha.

One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Eleven, Twelve

Mikaeïl’s request that you ‘bring something warm to wear’ for your weekend with him confused and mystified the hell out of you. Added to that, he absolutely refused to give you any more information about it, so you found yourself driving over to his house with a number of different jumpers and coats packed, and a knot of anxious tension in your stomach.

It didn’t help that he’d texted you before you’d set off to say, ‘When you get here, come round the side of the house to the back terrace.’ And that had been it.

So, dutifully, you followed the gravel path around the side of his huge, sandstone, ancestral mansion, and emerged onto the upper lawns.

At the sight that greeted you, your fingers lost their strength and you dropped your weekend-bag to the ground.

Standing on the lawn, resting his huge, coppery wing on the thumb joint like a bat, was a gleaming wyvern. Large, perhaps thirty foot tall when he drew his head up to its full height, with metallic scales the same colour as those you’d seen on his human body, ranging from bright copper to tarnished bronze and even gold along the crest of his back, Mikaeïl was stunning.

Drawn by the movement of your arrival, he watched you fall still and stare openly at him, though a soft, familiar, low-frequency rumbling pervaded the whole garden, and the sound of it stirred you back to life.

Leaving your bag where it lay abandoned on the sunny gravel path, you walked over to him with awe etched onto your face, and breathed, “Mikaeïl?”

The wyvern nodded once, slowly, golden eyes glinting.

“Can you talk when you’re like this?” you asked as you continued to approach him.

“I can talk,” he said, though his voice was different. It still had all the delicate enunciation of the Mikaeïl you knew, but it was richer, far more sonorous, and much deeper.

When you were standing beside him, you raised your palm, barely noticing the trembling excitement in your fingers, and pressed it gently against his cool scales.

He lowered his head and sank his body to the ground, lying down for you like a colossal dog while you just explored the miraculous strangeness of his incredible body. “You’re so beautiful…” you whispered. Two horns curved back over his head, the same ruby-red, flecked with gold, that you knew from his other form, only they were so much larger like this.

“God, Mikaeïl,” you chuckled in wonderment. “You are just so beautiful…” He was; fabergé looked like they could have taken inspiration from him for one of their unbelievable creations.

If wyverns could blush, you suspected Mikaeïl might well have done. As it was, his nostrils flared, and his head shied away slightly, showing off the beautiful array of spikes at the edges of his jaw and head, and he rumbled something again more deeply. In response, you put your palm on his deep chest and felt the vibrations of it shiver through you.

Suddenly, the penny dropped about the clothing, and your eyes went wide. “Mikaeïl… when you said to bring warm stuff to wear… You’re not… We’re… We’re not going to…”

A slow, deep laugh rolled out of him and he shifted his weight slightly, drawing your eye from his glimmering scales - each one like hand-hammered bronze - down to his clawed hind feet and the tip of his wing which rested on a single, massive, taloned thumb. While you waited for his reply, your fingers wandered to the leathery, sunset-yellow membrane of his wing, right near the knuckle which propped him up, and a shudder ran through him, all the way to his barbed tail.

“Sensitive?” you murmured with a wry smile.

“Mmm,” he rumbled, lowering his head and slowly, luxuriantly, inhaling the scent of your skin right by your neck. “How do you feel about going for a short flight?” he asked softly.

“Honestly…?” you said breathlessly, “I have no idea. I’ve never, uh… flown before. I mean, not like that…”

“Test flight?” he asked.

“Please tell me that you don’t have spines on your back because I’m not sitting on that and trying to cling on…”

Mikaeïl laughed his rich, deep laugh and said, “Take a closer look at the junction of my neck and shoulders…”

He rolled slightly towards you but still you couldn’t see the top of his back properly, so in the end he had to help you up with his wing like a leg-up onto a horse. His back was smooth for perhaps a foot and a half between the end of his sinuous neck and the start of his back - the perfect space for someone to sit. You ran your hand over the space and he shivered again.

“It’s like it was made for someone to sit here,” you commented.

“Not quite,” he said dryly, “But my family were royal guards, a thousand years ago - which is why we have three forms: human, half human, and this. We have been known to carry royalty into battle or over long distances…”

“Royalty,” you cooed as he lowered you back to the ground. “Nice… You sure I’m worthy? I’ve never even sat on a motorbike, let alone a wyvern…”

Again, Mikaeïl laughed at your sense of humour, and nuzzled his nose affectionately against your stomach while you rubbed his forehead. His head was as big as a small couch and it was going to take some getting used to, but he was so damned gorgeous that you could hardly process the fact that this magnificent creature was the Mikaeïl you’d come to know.

“Put on a coat to keep warm while we fly, and I’ll take you for a little trial run… if you like. You don’t have to though…”

“You’ve got something else planned though, haven’t you?”

“Yes,” he admitted. “But it’s alright if you don’t want to fly there.”

“No, let’s try it,” you said, as you scuttled back to your bag and dug out the warmest coat you had. You imagined that with the wind rushing past you, even on such a sunny day, it would be cold.

And you were right.

You clambered warily onto his back, settling yourself in the smooth crook of his shoulders, nestled at the base of his neck and the start of his hugely muscular wings. Conveniently, he had two large horn-like spikes at the base of his neck, to which you clung for dear life as he began to flap his wings, trying to get some lift. You clamped your thighs around him as tightly as you could and leaned forward, honestly terrified.

“I won’t let you hurt yourself,” he promised and then you lurched upwards into the sky.

The ground rushed away beneath you and he continued to rise in jerky movements that made your stomach churn and drop each time. Eventually he had climbed as high as the roof of the mansion, and began to glide, the canvas of his great wings spread to catch the air, and you tried hard not to lose your breakfast all over his beautiful scales.

Mikaeïl did one lap of the parkland of his property and then began to descend gradually, spiralling down until the ground rushed up to meet you and he landed with a jolt that his body absorbed before it could throw you from your tenuous position atop his back.

“Alright?” he asked nervously, tilting his head to one side to see you out of the corner of his golden eye.

Taking a moment to catch your breath, with your heart still pounding in your ears, you nodded and swallowed. “Yeah,” you croaked. It had felt like a rollercoaster ride, only much, much wilder. “That was… amazing…!”

His laugh rippled through you and he said, “Why don’t you stow your bag in the conservatory, and if you could lock up, that would be amazing. Then if you’re alright with it, I want to take you somewhere a little further away.”

You nodded, slithering and landing weak-kneed on the grass beside him. “Come here first,” you said, crooking your finger and beckoning his head closer.

He obliged, curious and amusedly wary, and when his muzzle was level with your face, you took his smooth, leathery head in your hands and kissed him squarely on the tip of his nose. His laugh came out as a warm blast of air through his nostrils, ruffling your hair, and you laughed too as he closed his eyes for a moment, clearly enjoying the closeness and the contact.

Nudging you playfully away after a minute or so, he rumbled happily, the sound halfway between an alligator and an elephant, only much deeper and louder, and you trotted off to do as he requested.

Once back, you ran your hands over his shoulder and chest again, letting the deep, appreciative sounds thrum through you, and watching as he closed his eyes again in pleasure. “You’re going to cause trouble if you keep touching me like that,” he said eventually. “And then I won’t be able to fly.”

“Not decently, anyway,” you grinned and he shook his head, laughter dancing in his yellow eyes.

“Get back on board and we’ll go before you render me incapable of flight altogether.”

“Would that be such a bad thing?” you asked coyly and were met with a snarl that held no danger.

“Get. On.” he said but the fierceness of his tone was ruined by the laugh that bubbled out of him immediately afterwards.

“Fine,” you pouted, and clambered back on his back the same way you’d done before.

With a final glance up at you, those eyes turned serious and he said, “Are you ready? Comfortable?”

“Yeah. How long will we be in the air?”

“About twenty minutes,” he said. “You let me know if you need me to land though, alright?”

You nodded, and he turned his attention away from you, hind claws gripping the earth as his great leathery wings, the colour of saffron, began to beat again, and he lifted skywards once again.

To be concluded next week...

—

I really hope you folks enjoyed this one! Don’t forget to let me know if you did enjoy it by leaving a like and/or reblogging it!

For all early releases, character art and bios, upcoming story info, and much, much more, join me over on Patreon!

You’ll have access to stories before anyone else, and you’ll get instant access Patreon-only content as well, including polls and an exclusive monthly story for those on the Pixies and Goblins tier or higher!

#dragon #dragon x reader #dragon shifter x reader #male dragon shifter x reader #male dragon x reader #embers #weekly story #one more chapter left!

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swordmaid · 4 years

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Tagged by the lovely @samirant <3

rules: it’s time to love yourselves! choose your 5 favourite works you created in the past year (fics, art, edits, etc) and link them below to reflect on the amazing things you’ve brought into the world. tag as many writers/artists/etc as you want (fan or original) so we can spread the love and link each other to awesome works!

a.k.a in which i try to write stuff that i haven’t already ranted about in the tags of the original post

1.it’s always summer in the songs ☀️ | AH YES. this one. the one that i will always bring up whenever i get asked these sort of things. i think i’ve talked about it in the tags but i like this piece even more because all the characters here (brienne, jaime, honor) were actually drawn in detail--as in--i drew everyone separately then joined them altogether--AS IN--the parts that are covered up by another character is actually drawn with its own detailing and all that jazz. this is specifically towards honor who a.) i’ve never drawn before and i had never been confident to draw animals so i actually had to draw a FULL HORSE this time which was daunting and had to size him appropriately b.) the outfit he wears, straps for the saddle, his belts, etc. they all have their own detailing! jaime’s sitting on it, but there’s actually a sash that loops around his back with the symbols of the seven pointed star. i was going to continue over on the front with the same symbols but it got cut out because of the crop. the little tree on the side/foreground originally had more branches and leaves but i just pushed it to the side else wise it would’ve looked awkward. i also designed j/b’s armor while i was working on this, and jaime’s detailing took me a lil while to figure out because i was referencing loosely off like, 5 images lol. brienne’s face angle was hard to get right and it looked awkward in my sketches but i got lucky with it in the end aaand this was also the first time i drew oathkeeper in detail. overall, i put a LOT of details in this one but it just took me a good three days to finish it. i loved it even more because i never felt like i was slogging through it when i was working on it, which is the most important thing haha.

2. might i have this dance, my lady? | this one is particularly special for me since this is when i finalized their overall design i think. i used to always bring up this drawing as a reference when i draw my j/b (but now i use another one hehe.) anyway, this one was actually the starting point for the one i drew above because of the detailing on jaime’s armor--which i just drew freely and doesn’t have any symbolic meaning behind it whatsoever. this was the start of me adding more and more details into my art because i realized that they weren’t too hard to add and i do enjoye drawing them. i also like this one because i drew brienne’s body in detail and i spent the time drawing up silhouettes over it to find the most flattering dress i can fit her in, and i’m happy i struck with this one! oh and it’s subtle but i tried to make their outfits match with the gold detailing on jaime’s armor/the light yellow accents on brienne’s blue dress hehe.

3. i’ve known the warmth of your doorways | my quiet isle riighhhtsssss. i screeched while i was thinking up of the concept of this tbh it hit me good. i particularly LOVE oathkeeper in this one because he looks like an expensive sword here and not like one of those pens with an animal topper. anyway, i love post adwd / post lsh fics so i tried to do a rendition of my own uvu i also love hand kisses---and honessstlyyyyy-- this one is just a mashup of my favorite tropes tbh LOL

4. ICHOR | oh my god a non jb art. i did this one a couple of years ago, and it’s a digital painting of my oc amara !!! i like this one because of how I rendered the hair. some of it reminds me of marble and i love it even to this day--which is particularly rare because i always end up hating my shit a couple on months after. this was the art style i had before, but i just changed it when i started to draw jb because this one was complicated to do + it took too much time, and i wanted to draw a LOT of jb lol (and i don’t think the style fits them as well to be honest)

5. that gym scene in modern aus | back to jb arts!! and AH yes from brienne’s physique, jaime’s slutty crop top, the man bun, mesh leggings, and their dumb rainbow guard and kingsguard designs, this one was incredibly self indulgent and i love everything it implies and represents. fun fact i had to go through so many thirst traps in ig just to draw jaime’s body properly LOL i do my research ok

tagging: @ayofandomthings / @fawnilu / @darcydash 🥰🥰

#long post.#thank you so much for the tag <3 this was fun #and also very sorry for the length LOL i talk too much #i would've added my jb renaissance art series majig but i think ya'll know i already like that one #i just realized i've been drawing AUs these days. do ya'll prefer if i draw canon based jb art or my dumb aus???#or like scenes from the book sort of things #but anyway WHEW someone doesn't ship jb. clearly !!

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swirlmup · 6 years

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Sucker 3 Year Anniversary

Three years.

Three years is a long time.

I spent a couple weeks trying to think of what to say, to collect my thoughts. But I’m always blown away by the simple fact that I’ve been working on Sucker for three years now.

I had just started college back then. Was living in a dorm, and still had aspirations of becoming an illustrator or an animator back then. I had recently discovered the game watgbs, and was strangely drawn to it and its characters. I’m not usually the type of person to make fanart or fanfiction, although the mood does occasionally strike me.

When I first started this comic, it was by making a promise to myself. I wanted to make a long-form comic, all the way to completion. I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it, and thus even get some hefty practice in before I started making comics professionally. At 151 pages, it would be the longest comic I ever embarked to make for the general public. So far, I’ve completed 88 of those pages.

But it’s funny to look back on now. I’m glad I started making this comic, because I learned something very important. I don’t want to be an animator, or an illustrator. I’m ultimately not suited to either of those professions, even though I like to draw, because it’s not where my passion truly lies.

Making this comic taught me that I enjoy the process of storytelling and writing, regardless of what medium it’s done in. So in a way, the original purpose of this comic as practice for a future career has been rendered moot.

But I still don’t want to quit it, because I still enjoy the process, and value the promise I made to myself. Since the time I started this comic, back when I was a freshman in college and didn’t even have my license, I’m now in a completely different place. I’ve transferred colleges, got my driver’s license, and have now even graduated with my AA this past May. And I’ve kept making Sucker through it all.

In a way, I think I’m a bit of a strange person. I doubt I’m really continuing Sucker because I have that much devotion to the game.

But I like fixing things, is what I’ve discovered about myself. I like problem-solving and troubleshooting. I get a lot of inspiration for the original stories I work on based on the premise of me fixing some problem that I perceive. I think the same is probably true for Sucker, in that I like working on it because through it I’m able to fix some of the flaws I saw in the game.

Enjoyable game though it is, I think we can all agree that it had flaws, both in gameplay and story. For me, what ended up capturing my attention the most and becoming the center of my efforts was Fukami. He was a surprisingly delightful character whose personality came out in unexpected ways throughout the game. Most fascinating of all is that there exists a storyline where he gives in to his darker ambitions and betrays everyone.

More than anything, I wanted to explore him as a character, to dig deeper into who he is as a person and discover what could compel him to make the choices he does. I was a bit disappointed when the manga ended up not going any deeper into his motivations than “he likes her.” Like, we already knew that from the start, lmao. But as far as I’m concerned, that’s not a strong enough motivation, and doesn’t even explain why he likes her so much.

So I wanted to write a story that actually did that. That treated him properly like the more 3-dimensional character I know he can be. I wanted to dive into his psychology, and produce an answer that made sense, and give him a fully developed character arc in the process.

That, plus I kinda think he’s a better husbando for Wadda than Samekichi lmao.

That’s all well and good for me to say those things, but I’m sure that might be hard for the rest of you to believe. From your perspective, so far all we’ve done is retrace a lot of the same stuff from the game, with some new events and changes added in with more of a fukawada focus. But that’s also probably what’s motivating me.

Because the real meat of what I want from this comic, the exploration of who Fukami is as a person, doesn’t come until chapter 6. Five chapters of build-up it seems, just for it all to come spilling out at once during the climax and test his mettle. And I won’t be satisfied in the least until I get to that point. So I guess I’m sorry for the wait, and that we’ll have quite a ways to go still before I really dig into the meat of his character, from my own perspective.

Although it hasn’t all been build-up. Thus far the part of this comic that I’ve enjoyed the most has been chapter 4. That one’s gone the deepest into both Fukami and Wadanohara as characters so far, and thus has been the closest to my ultimate goal for the comic. My own explanation for why Fukami hates Samekichi so much, that I think goes a little further than him just being jealous. Not just jealous, but also angry and hurt for Wadda’s sake at how he keeps mistreating her. Or at least I hope that’s how it came across, haha. Hard to know how you guys saw that scene.

Anyway, I guess that’s all I have to say in celebration of the anniversary this year. At my current pace, I predict that I’ll probably be working on this comic still for another year, but not for another two years. That’s my hope, anyway.

I really love and appreciate that the comic’s gained its own little following, and that there are people who genuinely like it. I hope I continue to not disappoint you, because as far as I’m concerned, the best is yet to come.

Till then, thank you all for reading. See you next year.

#long post

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