#i'm actually really proud of these drawings and i'm super happy with the colors | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

next-station-willde-central · 3 months

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Something about Nine makes me sad and happy at the same time - he's an artist; he did his own grafittis, to be exact, and that's yet another thing that differentiates him from Tails, that, as I'm aware, isn't really skilled in spraypainting

"Wait, Wild, aren't you just projecting headcanons onto your favourite character?" - nope. The proof is in his original New Yoke base:

"Oh, but it's just the creators 'prolly drawing him and placing it as a treat" - then how, in-universe, did it appear there? And why is it a drawing of Nine specifically (notice he's shown in his hoodie and off-coloured), alongside a gun (?) and, I assume, some spray tests, just like people test brushes and paints? No one else had access to his base other than Nine himself, and knowing how distrustful he is, he would not let some random street artist barge into his lair and do his portrait on the wall.

What further supports this theory is the fact he has the same drawings in the Grim... which, again, could not be accessed by anyone other than him (by the way, it seems like all the paintings were made on a movable board that Nine must've carried all the way from New Yoke, which still, why would you move THOSE DRAWINGS in particular if you weren't the author that's, I'd even say, proud of them?).

Annndddd let's also not forget the board has a drawing of a gun, like aformentioned - the same one he used to scan Sonic... is that a coincidence? I really, really don't think so.

On the ending note(s), can we talk about how he even picks colors and how he portrays himself? Because in the drawing of himself, he seems sharper and more vibrant (f.e.: his fur is phosphorescent lime-yellow, or his muzzle is literally cyan), with a bitching expression ever more amplified by the shadows around his face and a black hoodie, like he even WANTS to be viewed, even in his private home, in interior no one should even see, in a simple spray doodle, as someone dangerous, someone you would never want to cross paths with, someone shady and a little bit of not obvious (that part refers to the absolutely eyesore colours he used; unless Nine is just colorblind and doesn't know how that drawing appears to most people, buut that's more of a big speculation-theory territory that we do not get into in this post).

Second ending, it also further proves that Nine is not really Tails - sure, in the New Yoke universe he does fill the niche of being Miles Prower, same as Mangey does in Boscage Maze and Sails in No Place, but in this equation Nine =/= Tails (and some, like me, would say Nine > Tails, but we call those horrid phases opinions and we keep them under our pillows /lh). They share the basics - being super-intelligent, young foxes skilled in mechanics, inventors bullied for their two tails that overcame hardships due to their determination - but aside from that? The skeleton is identical, but everything else that's bulit upon it is completely different - this is why they aren't really the same person. Tails is a prodigy kid and a hero, accompanied by friends and a team ready to help him, and Nine is an isolated and ostracized anarchist basement dweller driven by anxiety and childhood trauma that also happens to be an artist. And a hacker. And a suprisingly good fighter. And-

And a person with his own identity - imagine stripping away his every single original trait and comparing him to a random kid that's also a "better", more successful version of him that actually won in the end.

A kid that's super great, but can the kid do those amazing grafittis like him? Nah. 1:0 for Nine, losahs' /j

tldr; Nine can actually spraypaint and he's good at it, as seen in his New Yoke lab/in Grim - the way he does it kind of tells his personality and thoughts; also further proves Tails and Nine are two different people and that Nine is just occupying Tails' "niche" in his Shatterverse, not directly being him

#sonic prime #sonic prime s3 #nine the fox #tails nine #analysis #also he's such an theatre kid lmao #“let's make an Elsa palace in a purple gem wasteland to show my utteerrrr powerrr”#yeah nine this is how you do it

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hbprophetie · 1 year

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Inktober Day 31: Farm 🎃

Happy Halloween everyone!! 🎃 OH MY GOD I'm sacrificing my night to get this done ahah.

I know I've been skipping a few prompt but I really wanted this one out for October 31th! ✨️ So here is a little Sev with his harvested pumpkins!! I hope so much that you'll like it! 🤗

My computer is actually super desaturated so it looks widely different on my phone right now lol, hope it doesn't attack your retina too much - originally it wasn't that flashy but changing color palette now would be too time consuming.

I want to thanks all the peoples who showed interest and support for this little series. @momo-t-daye , @snapesnailtape, @snapecentric and all the others, thank you so much for your shares and taggs, I'm ashamed to not taking the time to answer but you have to know that it means a lot to me. ♡

I may do the lacking prompts later, this was a very difficult rythm to keep up, and despite not having achieving the full thing I still very proud that I stuck to it. It's still my biggest achievement in term of number of posts and drawings and I'm happy I could do it eventually.

I know a lot of you may prefer different content but don't worry - I'll certaibly bring back angsty Snape soon. Ahah

#fanart #harry potter #severus snape #harry potter fanart #pro snape #snape community #snape fandom #inktober #snapetober #severus snape art #happy halloween #halloween

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boyswhowawa · 7 months

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Artificer Design!!

Or at least me working on it!!

This is the last drawing I did, and I think it really shows off the design well!!!! I really love this design I came up with, and it's with heavy inspiration from @snickerdoodlesart, so a bit more on that, and the design! under the cut

First things first, the reason I chose to take inspiration from Snickerdoodles' design is, because it's just super fucking rad and gender, ajsd;flkkjas;fkldjadkl;sfja

HOWEVER, I understand completely if taking inspiration like this is not okay, and I would be fine with deleting this design and restarting should you say so, Snickerdoodles, genuinely

regardless, some fun stuff!

first things first, I did some studies of Snickerdoodles' design, just simple ones, because I wanted to figure out what it was that I really felt was so like... fantastic about it???

(the answer ended up being "god everything comes together so well, the shapes and the dynamics of the scars and how the explosive things interact with it all just make for such a wonderful design that is like, the PURE energy of the character it comes from, in such a sincere way that I feel like this IS the character in every facet of what they could be")

but what I learned was that like, I wanted to try to have fun with the scars! so that's what I went for!

So then I started sketching, and I had this idea with the face

I wanted the eye scar to be like, totally bright similarly to Snickersdoodles' (admittedly a lot of the face scar comes from snickerdoodles...)

but I knew with some bits *around* the eye I wanted to have these extra little cuts, that sort of just... idk i like doing cheek markings and I thought this was a creative way to do it!! also the eyebrow is just three lines that are sometimes meshed together<3

I really really liked this face, so I keep it going forward

this is the next sketch I did, to figure out where I wanted the scars to be placed!!

this is kind of where I slightly decided I wanted Arti's head kind of hunched forward at all times, big huncho boyo, she's great

I also wanted just, a BIG burst spot on their tail, and like...

then I was like "oh i'm gonna finish this sketch actually"

then I--- inked on the wrong layer. aj;sdlkfja;klsdfjakl;j

so it got stuck like this and I couldn't do anything about it....

I think when I do color my arti properly again, I wanna have it lean over to a reddish dark purple rather than this

also i think the cherry bomb thing being like woven into the spear cloth was too much, and doesn't really work for arti's bomb spears ?

i just messed up a lot, basically

Oh! Also this is where I was like "oh I can put extra little light spots in Arti's scars...."

then I did this to sort of vaguely show what an explosion from Arti might look like, or more accurately, Artificer 'Igniting', rather than just doing bursts, I imagine this Arti revving up and just being extremely hot for a while, letting out bursts of energy still, but not able to do it as easily from a neutral, unignited state

this was SO fun to do, using pink and yellow is really fun when i'm trying to do something with strong energy

this also is where I feel I figured out everything I felt I needed to still figure out with the design, the scar placements, the scar styles, the shapes I wanted, etc. etc.

and then finally, I did a sort of pseudo ref for Arti!

and while I am super happy with this, and super proud

more importantly than that, I want to be sure that this is *okay* with Snickerdoodles, it wouldn't be right of me to just, steal things from your design for my own sake, and it's not like I'm starving for design ideas, I can probably think something else up if I try hard enough, so there'd be no harm done, and if you're at all uncomfortable with me taking inspiration like this, just let me know as soon as you can

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sakarrie-creates · 4 months

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It’s that time of year! Here’s my 2023 art summary! After two years of having to include non-colored pieces, I finally did enough ‘full’ pieces to fill my art summary template! I did have to get a bit creative with the months since I was able to draw a LOT more during the summer, but I’ll take it! Sorry it's a bit blurry. I'm not sure if that's just for the preview or not, but it was a smaller file than normal and since these reflections are 99% for my own interest, I decided it wasn't worth trying to change.

As usual, I got rambly so reflection questions are answered under the cut. The template I used is available here in case anyone else wants to make their own! My fic summary will be coming in a week or so, so stay tuned for the stats and round-up there. :)

What events did you participate in (with art)? Player Appreciation Week, Fandom Trumps Hate, Dear Fellow Traveler (Animatic), Weird People (Editing), SPN Comfortably Queer Zine (dropped), and lots of zine applications for page artist, merch artist, comic artist, and spot artist roles!

What was your biggest challenge this year? While time, like last year, was still a challenge, I think my biggest challenge was a mix of low motivation and an intense perfectionistic mindset. At the start of the year, I got super into TOH and was super hyped about all the zines with apps opening. I really REALLY wanted to get into them and figured I should apply for art too just cause it would increase my overall chances of getting in. After the finale, I did a screenshot redraw that ended up being absolutely fantastic for where my skill level is. I went deeper into rendering than ever before, and somehow it worked for me.

That probably was the start of my unreasonably high expectations, and I got it into my head that maybe if I could make a whole portfolio of artwork at that quality level, I actually stood a chance at getting into a zine as an artist. From then on, I was hardcore crash-coursing perspective, rendering techniques, and generally trying to improve without allowing room for mistakes. While I do think it helped me grow a lot, it burnt me out so I struggled to work on stuff past summary (when all the zine apps were) and even dropped from the SPN Comfortably Queer Zine cause my imposter syndrome was so strong. (Though that was also partially because it was a ‘sign-up and you’re in’ zine, so they never saw my art during the application process and had no way of knowing if I was good enough.

What was something you were surprised by? I’m pretty sure I discovered the perspective tool is CSP this year! CSP has so many tools I’m not aware of (despite watching tons of tutorials and guides), so it wasn’t super surprising but it was nice. I have to say, they’re a serious hassle to work with and require a higher understanding of vanishing points and such than I currently have, but I could see it being very useful for future scene art pieces.

Did you try anything new this year?

Yes! This year I kicked down the door to the merch world and have been collecting and designing throughout the year. Though the designs have mostly just been for zine app portfolio’s, everything has worked out really well for me and I hope to produce charms for my collection as I improve my skills. Where do you think you most improved? Definitely my confidence in rendering! And probably my rendering itself too. I did a ton more pieces with it this year and it’s definitely a favorite part of the art process for me. I think I’ll have a lot more fun with it this year too, since I’m trying to keep it lower pressure, so I can experiment more to find out what brushes and styles I like most. What are you most proud of? I think I’m most proud of how ambitious I was with my zine apps. Though I didn’t get into any for art and it burned me out a fair bit, I did a lot of hard work and made pieces I can be mostly happy with. As for specific pieces, I’m very proud of my animatic clip for the Dear Fellow Traveler MAP (which is what the Belos art from the summary is from). My portion was about 5 seconds with 24 fully colored and shaded frames. A few of those were moving frames too, so the end result is the closest thing to actual animation I’ve done. I also really like the rendering on the Huntlow Epilogue art and generally how the Steve&Matt hug turned out.

How’d this year compare to your 2023 goals? I honestly couldn’t remember what my goals were, but all things considered, I didn’t do too bad! Thankfully past-Sakarrie was wise and made it a bullet list so I can just check things off. Met: -Player Appreciation Week -Add to zine portfolio -Apply to at least one zine as an artist (fine if don’t get accepted) -Keep experimenting with backgrounds and shading -Pull out some old WIPs -Build more consistency of style

The checked off ones I definitely met, so good for me! This was a very zine-focused year, so I way exceeded those goals. The last two I did do, but they’re a bit subjective. Specifically, I think the ‘WIPs’ I was referring to were old sketches, but most of the old WIPs I revisited were already colored and I was either adding rendered or cleaning them up for zine usage. As for style, I’m REALLY bad at telling haha. That said, my characters seem reasonably similar when I draw them, so I’m going to tentatively count it. Kinda: -One fully colored piece per month

I’m gonna give myself a half check on this one. I didn’t have a fully colored piece every month, but I did have over 12 fully rendered pieces in the end, several of which had backgrounds. So while I didn’t meet the letter of the goal, I feel like I met the spirit of it.

Did Not Meet: -Finish Huntlow comic -30 minutes animatic digitalize rough draft -Maybe make some fanart of my favorite fics

These don’t shock me. They’re all personal projects and this was a very external-goal-driven year for me. The Huntlow comic is a big love of mine but it’s definitely ambitious for where my skill is. I’ve got the whole thing messy-sketched and most of it has been clean sketched, but the jump from that to lineart is gonna be hard, and I have no idea what I’d be doing with color since the panels don’t have a background. That said, I do feel like it’s some solid work and I adore the angst vibe of it, so maybe I’ll get it done one day. I could also see myself posting it as a messy lineart comic so that others could enjoy the concept being executed in case it never gets finished.

As for the 30 Minutes animatic, I still 100% intend to complete it eventually. I love the way it fits to the music and I’m so proud of the thumbnails. Even if it never becomes a full animatic, I want to digitize the frames and line it up with music so I can share the concept I see in my mind with others. My brain was somewhat overtaken suddenly by TOH this year, so now that that’s settled and I’m hoping to follow my muse more this year, maybe this will be something I can get excited about again.

The fanart for favorite fics is no surprise since it’s kinda the tack on. With low motivation and projects with deadlines that needed my focus, personal art like this was buried way below other priorities. It’s a nice though for sure though.

Alrighty then, now it’s time for 2024 goals!! Oh goodness, I really don’t know what to expect of myself. I definitely am going to try to allow for more personal projects with lower pressure, but I do still have some goals. Hopefully most can be accomplished without applying big pressure though.

2024 Goals:

-Number One Priority: Create for my and don’t put myself in a place to get crazy burnt out and still have requirements. If I meet this goal, then it’s okay if I don’t meet any of the others. (It would be sad.... But I would still count it as meeting overall goals.) -Participate in Summergen and PAW Week (Art or Fic) -Design Handplates charm as anniversary gift (November) -Design CS Charm -Have a fully usable Zine Portfolio (Currently need more merch samples and rendered pieces with backgrounds) -Apply to new TOH Zines or other loved fandom zines. If I end up getting into any, I can pull back, but since that doesn’t seem likely, I want to get into the habit of always being ready to apply with what I have. -Make an ongoing project list to pin to my tumblr. This applies mostly for fics, but that way people coming to my page can see what fandoms I’m actively creating for and what they can look forward to (as well as have an opening to ask questions if they’re interested). -Post more (at least 10 times throughout the year) and add my best pieces to instagram (8+ pieces by end of year). -Do ONE of the following: 1. 30 minutes digitized so it can be shared with music 2. Open Up Your Eyes fully thumbnail 3. Fanworks for other people’s fics 4. Participate in an extra bang or exchange with art 5. Design and manufacture a pin -Play with different brushes and rendering styles -Draw something from scratch every month, no matter how small -Not exactly art, but I want to have a finalized long-term merch display plan for all my items Overall, how’d the year go? I think I did well! I didn’t meet all my goals and I pushed myself too far, but I learned and improved a LOT this year. All things considered, I made pieces that last year me would be blown away by, so I think that’s an automatic win. I’m pretty uncertain on how this next year will go (even more so than last year, which is surprising since I was changing schools last year), but I’m hoping to enjoy what I do and create art semi-regularly. Here’s to 2024!

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real-oddity · 4 months

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Real Oddity's 2023 Art

Hello hello, gay people in my computer, it's that time again! Time to look at my art over this year! Feel free to look at 12 pieces that I did throughout the year. Enjoy :D!!

January- Fluffybird hyperfixation was in FULL SWING, WOW! I was in a really good groove early in the year, and was getting a lot of nice work done, including these idiots! I've changed how I draw these boys, but I still really like the shading for the most part! Generally holds up well. The background is pretty cool, too! I drew it myself :]

February- Luz Noceda my beloved! The Owl House was my favorite show for a while and still means a lot to me, so I felt like drawing Luz! Overall not very happy with this piece, like the shading, and also the nose, but I love the tears and eyes :D! Also hey those weird funky angular hands I used to draw, what ever happened to those-

March- BALDI!!!!! I was such an indie horror kid, man, so when I found out I had like. 12 hours to get a drawing done for Baldi's anniversary, I fucking jumped at the chance. I'm proud of that fact, but yeesh that shading is a little gross color wise. Also I could not draw lips, ears, or noses. I still can't, but I'm better at it!

April- oh god not them- So I was into Homestuck for a bit lol. I haven't finished it, and don't know if I will, but that's beside the point! Honestly this piece still holds up! For a colored sketch, I still like it a lot, especially Whimsy's hands. Dieonn's chin though... god you can tell I'm ass at perspective-

May- Oh my goodness, it's Wally Darling! He's just the most~ This was a practice in perspective, which as mentioned before I'm not great at!. I think it came out well, and while the shading isn't realistic for a felt body, I still like it :]

June- Oh my goodness he's multiplying!!! Run, run! This was me still trying to wiggle into the Welcome Home fandom (and failing lol) This was also a practice in both just drawing Wally, and composition! I didn't do great, but hey, it was good practice.

July- Oh my gosh it's him... the birthday boy- So the Daycare Attendant stole my heart a few years back when I was really ill and recovering from some trauma, so I of course had to make something for Eclipse! I wanted to test painting, and honestly? I like it a lot, at least dirt wise. He looks so grimy, I love it, ah!! Still needs more work on the lighting, though.

August- God dammit he came back again >:[ I was getting excited for all the new fnaf stuff, so I decided to draw Springtrap, the animatronic that scarred me so much as a kid. I'm actually still pretty happy with the general lighting. Like, there are a few things I have notes on, but overall I still like it :] Also the wires were fun, hehe

September- Mr. Darling is back again! I decided to try my hand at digital painting again and!!! I am still really pleased with the results. Pretty man!

October- Oh god its The Horse Show- For Cringetober, I drew a rarepair of Rarity and Sassy Saddles from MLP:FIM. I'm still super super happy with the horse anatomy, they're so cute! This was also a test in cell shading.

November- Circus time! I thought the pairing of Jax and Kaufmo was kinda funny, so I drew them. This was another test in composition and such, and general interactions. I still think it's alright :]

December- JANUARY EVERLY MY BELOVED SON!!! God it's been a hot minute sense I've done any illustrations with Jan. This was me just dicking around tbh, but hey! The results are fun! I love my son <3

2023 was so much better than 2022 in many ways. I'm looking forward to an even better 2024, and I hope you'll join me!

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cage-cat-yt · 1 year

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Big art dump (also happy autism awareness month!)

Ok so first thing was just some art I did for autism awareness month because this sort of thing means a lot to me. These are all just headcanons (except Kayz and Cain but that's cause they're my ocs and canonically) so if yoy wanna hear more about them don't be afraid to send an ask!

Next page I'm actually super proud of, and Khalil is just so fun to color omg omg! Also the Geist and Khalil one was fun to draw. The ship art too once I got the sketch done.

Third thing was just some sketches I wanted to do, I accidentally made Jack's skin tone a little dark (I use Rose beige but used brick brown by accident- oops) but I think it still turned out good. Also the Orange addison is slaying that pose

Next 3 things was an art project for school. We had to make (or remake) album covers or music posters, so I decided to create a theoretical Tesla album! It turned out pretty good, could've done better on the shading tho.

Then there's some sketches for an au where Drunk Guy gets Hanahaki disease! I'm still messing with it but can talk about it if you wanna hear ^^

Then I drew Spamton because I love him and I needed comfort that day really badly.

Then final thing I redrew a scene from entry 61 because I was feeling bad lol.

Also I'm doing better now for people worried.

Anyway, thanks for reading! Remember to hydrate and I hope you have a good day :)

Characters

Jack Walten (The Walten Files) <3

Sophie Walten (The Walten Files)

Zero_One (The Living Tombstone)

Hit the snooze girl (the living tombstone)

Jay Merrick (Marble Hornets)

Engineer (Team Fortress 2)

Claire (Jack Stauber's Opal)

Yellow Guy (Don't hug me I'm scared)

Katz Macpherson (Josef and Sauer)

Cain Sephtis (Josef and Sauer)

Tim Wright (Marble Hornets) <3

Khalil (The living tombstone oc)

Geist (The Living Tombstone)

Drunk guy (The living tombstone) <3

Wiw guy (The Living Tombstone)

Orange Addison (deltarune)

Unnamed tlt ocs (same species as DG, which in my hc is mostly human but having some tombsona in them, not enough to make much of a difference tho)

Tesla (The living tombstone)

The entirety of the tlt cast on the back part

Spamton (Deltarune) <3

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drill-teeth-art · 6 months

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happy Be Nice to Me Wednesday! bc youre having a bad day, i wanted to tell yall about how you helped me gain confidence in my art style.

when i do digital art, i draw with the polyline tool. this used to be bc i couldn't afford a new tablet after my old one broke, but ive actually grown quite attached to it, and now i wouldn't go back if given the choice. anyway, when i first started doing this, i felt really insecure about it--like i had to draw extra well to make up for the deficit of not using a brush tool.

however, last year, i found your account. i know you don't use the polyline tool (some of the lineless art you do you might use it though--good bi gender for example), but your art style is very angular, and uses a lot of bright colors--just like mine! and yalls art is so fricking cool--its the kind of art people wanna chew on, bounce like a ball, dive into--its art that inspires real, powerful, emotion! so realizing that my art had traits in common, traits that i appreciated in your work--well, it made me feel a lot less inferior to artists who use more traditional tools. and now i'm actually super proad of my art style :D

It might make you excited to know I use the polyline tool very frequently in my own work!

And thank you for sharing this with me. I don’t have a lot of energy atm, but this makes me really happy to hear. And I’m glad you’re proud of your own work. You should be.

#ask #otto thoughts

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seahdalune · 4 months

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Seana's 2023 art highlights

(surprisingly, not a reupload this time!)

January: i drew nothing! we're off to a great start.

February: i drew something! i love Champ even if i haven't drawn anything tf2 related since April. i think it was this piece where i decided to give Champ RED coloring. [link]

also, this is the month i made my second Moldy plush.... i wasn't very happy with this one, though. [link]

March: uhhhh. more of my tf2 ocs but i think those aren't that interesting. just go to my tf2 oc blog @brokenbrainstormbulb if you wanna see them honestly, i have an image limit to keep ffs. that said, this was around the time i got into TC2, so i drew a lot of that kind of stuff... i'm never drawing stuff for it ever again, sorry. [link]

April: look at the cool thing i drew for a fellow tf2 robot fan! now, this is the point in time where i start drawing more because of a certain interest, so look forward to all the art that'll come up here.....

May: wow, this really was my first public piece of Papa Louie art, huh. i was so proud of it when i showed it off on tumblr the first time... i don't like it as much anymore. for one, the office wall color is wrong.... i still can't believe Papa Louie was what got me out of art block, but god, i'm glad it did. i don't think i've drawn this much before, and even though the community's tiny, i'm glad to give back as much as i can. anyways, i said something like "it's so funny that people think they're either super married or divorced as hell" on the same post. i still think that, and it's defos funny as hell, but i've grown a kind of appreciation towards the ship as well. like yeah, you go girls, we love that extra slow burn with so many road bumps on the way! [link]

June: how the hell did i pump this out. this was also like a few days before i had to leave for the airport too... i don't know myself sometimes. i swear i still love Boigashipping! i just... i'm just busy with other ships okkkk [link]

July: i didn't draw anything...? i was in Bali. and i was busy selling adopt designs to draw anything substantial, oopsie! actually, i DID draw the first part of WDB... it's uh, still the only part. i'm sorry!!!! i'm sorry!!!! i swear i have the whole thing outlined!!! can you just give me anons about the story instead so you won't have to wonder what comes next!! [link]

August: TOSI fixation. it had not gone past it's conceptual stage, i must note. i do wish i would do something about it though. [link]

September: the art trade i did with my friend! actually, i was a few weeks late with my part, so it was supposed to be finished by August. oops. i like the textures tbh. my Chuseok drawings.... i need to draw more characters in hanbok, hee hee. [link]

October: (breaths in) ...this is the month i finally gave into the JoGotcha wantings. LOOK. ever since someone put the idea into my brain i couldn't get enough of it, and like,, nobody draws the ship anymore so i had to take matters into my own hands. this is the first ship i'm this obsessed with. i usually leave ship stuff to other people but this time that wasn't enough and i... i had to do SOMETHING, y'know? [link]

Cringetober? who's that? haha;; i stopped feeling like doing the whole list after less than a week. impressive.

November: oh look, Plushy Power League. Quinn didn't win, but i do like the thing i drew as propaganda, so whateves. the first Papa Louie character i ever drew (minus Chuck and Taylor)... did i change how i draw her? uhh. maybe? i'm not too sure. [link]

also look! the keychain drawing... i need to talk about my Gods and Monsters au again at some point. actually, since i last uploaded the image of my keychain, i revised it tons... it's kinda different now, and i defos think it looks better. this is actually the time i finally fixed the stupid display setting thing that was really messing up my coloring! [link 1] [link 2]

December: ...oops! tablet broke. and i got my 3ds back so i just didn't draw that much even after exams were over. didn't stop me from drawing though, and in fact i think i made something pretty neat with my christmas art.... even if it did come one day late. [link]

wow. that's a whole year of stuff... and that's defos a lot! i think i'm really happy with what i drew this year.... i don't know what was in my water the last few years but my art highlights felt really.... miserable? for some reason. i mean, yeah, i didn't do a lot of what i had planned (GOE ANIMATIC IM SORRY) but i can see that i've done just as much with my hands anyways, so like, who cares? plus, i always have next year... that's coming in 3 hours, oh god- so, maybe i won't be too hard on myself for not fulfilling my goals... like, i kinda glossed over it, but i did sell my designs for money, and that's like, really impressive! so many people around me buy and sell their art stuff already, so i guess i didn't really register it as something to be proud of... but doing that shit (making, and marketing) is hard!! so like, it's a wow moment for me!

anyways, i'm tired, i only came back home a few hours ago, and i need to get up again for church in a few hours.... mrphgdjd. lets stop being sentimental, and i'll see you people next year. that's a long way off! hope you don't miss me.

#dalune recap #dalune recap 2023

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clovariia · 4 months

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thank you for all the support on my art and writing this year, everyone! here's my art summary for 2023!!! 🥳💕 happy new year!!!!!

i've rambled a bit about this year under the cut.

this was the best year ever for me on a personal level, even though my art didn't change very much. i got into south park thanks to my wonderful girlfriend that i started dating this year, and it transformed my art and writing. here's a list of some things i made this year!

i made one animatic!

the toh grimoire zine hasn't been completed yet due to some complications with paypal so i haven't been able to share my fic for it yet, but i'm so excited for it to come out!!

the amphibia tribute zine that i participated in last year came out and matt braly retweeted it, which was super awesome! here's my drawing for it!

the our duet: raeda fanzine came out! it was so thrilling to receive my first physical zine with my own writing in it. i also made merch for the first time because i contributed art for the polaroid keychain charm a few people collaborated on. avi roque also got a copy of the zine. i'm really proud of myself for this zine!!! you can see my pieces for it here.

i participated in the oops! all autistic! zine!!! you can find the amphibia fic i wrote for it here!

i'm participating in the k2 fanzine! it won't be released until 2024, but i wrote two fics for it and did a little bonus drawing for it that you might see in my art summary 👀

i'm the beta reader mod for the second huntlow zine, golden garden! i also wrote a fic for it. i'm really excited for everyone to see the work we've been putting into this project!!! i hold it so close to my heart.

besides zine stuff, i wrote fics for the huntlow hearts exchange and tweek week 2023!

since i shared my ao3 statistics last year, here are the updated ones from 2023 and overall.

these numbers aren't totally accurate because there are things i wrote this year that i haven't posted yet (shoutout to my big multichapter south park fic wip...) and things that i never finished, but they're interesting to look at anyways. although less people read my south park stuff than my toh stuff, i'm having so much fun with this show and i intend to write a ton more for it. south park gives me so much creative inspiration and i'm really glad that i got into it. thank you so much to everyone who's supported me through this transition period of my art and writing. ❤

i also wrote some goals for 2024 in my art summary post from last year. i didn't accomplish some of them, but i'm proud of myself for the stuff i did achieve. here are a few more resolutions for 2024:

write more multichapter stuff

write for a wider variety of fandoms

make at least one south park animatic

get more relaxed about my art style and stop being such a perfectionist. i want my art to get messier and cartoonier. i'm hoping to change my art style a lot, and you might be able to notice that in some of my recent drawings.

do at least one piece of colored digital art a month (i have to list this as a resolution every year so i actually do it...)

do more large and detailed pieces

experiment more with procreate (i've finally figured out how to use it, but i want to make use of more of its features and brushes)

write more consistently...i kept going weeks without writing at all in 2023 and it sucked so much. i want to do it at least a little bit every week.

participate more in the south park fandom. i'd love to join in on more fandom events like the k2 zine and tweek week.

thank you so much to everyone for supporting me again this year!!! i'm excited to see where 2024 goes!!! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!! 🎉🎉🎉

#my art #art summary #2023 art summary #misc

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amagicdoctor · 1 year

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Hey everyone!

As we move into 2023, I wanted to reflect about the past year and talk about my plans for the upcoming months. Overall, I think 2022 went off better than I expected. Several great things happened, but I’ll mention a few that really impacted me:

✨I got into the monthly theme mode. This kept the blog well organized, and allowed me to tackle important blog lore. Also, you guys really got into it too, which is what I originally wanted! I received plenty of asks to keep me busy and for the most part I was able to answer them in time if they connected to a certain month’s theme.

✨Blog interaction increased exponentially. This was a big one that I did not expect. I have to give a special shout-out to the X-Men side of my followers. I have never received this much attention before, and it was thanks to you guys that more of my followers felt confident sending in asks/comments/DMs. Besides the asks sent in to me, I’ve also got a big backlog of asks for the blog. Seriously, blog interaction really popped off cause of the X-Men fans. I think this thing started off because I was super curious about the Krakoa situation, and a few of my followers actually responded and spent part of their time to educate me. This has been going on for months and it makes me feel REALLY happy that you guys care enough to talk to me about this stuff.

I’ve mentioned this before, but knowing that there’s a section of my followers who are X-Men fans is very important for content creation. Now I know I have a certain audience and can personalize my content for them! This is not to say I’m gravitating all my future content toward Doctor Strange’s relationship toward the X-Men, these are just things I keep in mind. Asks are the driving point of this blog, and right now the X-Men fans are the most vocal. But we’ll see what happens with that in the future 😉.

I’m very thankful to all of you (not just the X-Men folks!), and I hope we can continue this relationship. If there’s any crazy incident happening on another side of the Marvel universe that you think may interest me as a Doctor Strange blog, let me know! I'm mostly partial to the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man. My asks/DMs are always open. This goes double for any DC comic fans out there too!

✨Art improvement. My art is the biggest selling point of this blog. Comic book illustration is such an amazing subsection of the art field. I grew up making comics, and I love seeing my progress in this year alone. I’m becoming more confident with drawing bodies and hairstyles. Faces are a work in progress, and I’m even experimenting with color schemes! I’m not an art student, so there are things that I have to learn all by myself. I don’t make art with improvement in mind, I just think of an idea I want to execute and then go for it. If I happen to draw something better than I did before, then yay me! But I literally draw everyday, and practicing overtime does show change. I’m super proud of myself and I’m amazed at how far I’ve grown from the end of 2021 to now. I hope you too have enjoyed seeing my progress. I can’t wait to see what I can accomplish next year, I hope you’ll join me on that journey as well!

Looking forward, I have some wishlist plans for next year, this includes:

Monthly themes featuring: the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man and the Scarlet Witch. Asks sometimes do drive the themes, so if I get an influx of asks about a certain character or situation, I’ll dedicate a month or so to it.

Speaking of certain characters, because I will be quickly moving this blog to match canon’s current timeline, I will not have a month dedicated to Clea’s time as a Sorcerer Supreme. Disappointingly, I have not enjoyed her run as much as I have wanted to. Maybe this feeling will change by the end of the Strange (2022) series, but this conflicts with the blog timeline that I have planned (this does not mean you cannot send asks to her and co. about her experience). I also won’t speak about the blog’s posting schedule in a separate post like I usually do. This is because there will be no “monthly themes” until further notice. Doctor Strange’s new series starts in March of 2023, and the blog will be just about caught up by then. My current plans for the next few months are going to be hitting major plot points like Krakoa, Doctor Strange’s death arc, and Clea’s Supreme arc. You'll actually start to see a bit of a... shift starting in February (hint hint, wink wink). I hope you will follow along as the plot thickens and send in asks when needed!

I also want to know what other types of content I should cover. The art on my blog always comes first, but there are more things that I can get into. I can make more graphics, gifs, and even commentate on some parts of the series. For example, one thing I tried to set up is my new Character Design mini-series, so I could play around with ideas like those.

I would also be interested in any collabs. While I am an artist first, I’m also open to writing and any other ideas you may come up with. Actually, it’s one of my biggest dreams as an ask blog to interact with other (art) ask blogs. Please DM me at any time if this sounds like something you would want to be a part of!

Finally, I wanted to end this off with a big THANK YOU, to my followers, and everyone else who pops by the blog. I have loved reading your asks, your comments, and connecting with you in the DMs. The comics fandom is small, and the blog’s growth is a work in progress, but we have good moments here. Your continuous support means SO much to me. It really has been a good year, and I’m looking forward to what the future may bring! Have a good New Year!

See you in 2023!

#doctor strange #marvel comics #earth 616

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raspberrybrain · 2 years

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Technique Testing with Ed

He gets it. He's a scientist.

These are the brushes that I used. Default "Soft Blend", "Round Brush", and "Flat Brush". Plus a version of the Flat Brush that I added a taper to, and a version of the 6B Pencil that I messed with "grain" for (scale, depth, brightness properties). Note: my custom brushes take up stupid RAM. Pencil Baby laggs soooo bad.

Fill a layer with low opacity color

Erase where the light hits (or less pigmented areas. I couldn't decide.)

Add detail with the darkest mix of the layers (purple in this case) and light.

Paint every color that isn't there already…See, this is why I told me not to word this like a tutorial. It's just misleading. But did me listen? Noooooo.

More babbling below the cut ⤵

Mess with curves graph

Color zones (layer mode: color)

Um…paint? use a super low opacity brush with fleshy flesh tones to pretend the sketchy line work isn't there.

Liquify to correct proportions. Ask friends why color looks muddy. Friends may point out that Ed's cheek is pretty close in value to the background. Bring some blue lighting back with a low opacity fluffy brush (layer mode: color dodge)

Go "eh, I've learned what I wanted from this." and post it on Tumblr. 😋 Actually, though, I am really happy with what I figured out here. The underlying drawing isn't working for me, but I'm super proud of the colors 🌈

#digital painting tutorial #but not really #color study #technique study #painting process #fma #fullmetal alchemist #my art #edward elric #digital painting #ed elric #digital illustration #procreate #digital drawing #artists on tumblr

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8bit-mau5 · 1 year

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22, 23, 27, & 30? For the art meme!

What physical exercises do you do before drawing, if any

I'm gonna get in trouble for this one cos i know. i KNOW this is so important but i just CANT integrate it into my routine. Its the ADHD i think, starting smth and adding it to my daily tasks is nigh impossible for me. SO... THE ANSWER IS I DONT.. NHSGDBFGFBG

Do you use different layer modes

Sometimes, though very rarely!! I only use things like multiply + add glow because those are.. 2 of 4 layer modes i actually understand. I havent bothered to learn the rest, or commit their effects to memory.

Most of my coloring and rendering is all on one layer because it's fun and easy for me. Feels like I'm working traditionally when I do ^^ (i also regularly forget to just. add more layers!)

When I DO use layer modes, it's usually for when Im working on big illustrative pieces for myself.

Do you warm up before getting to the good stuff? If so, what is it you draw to warm up with

Sometimes, but not always! Another really bad artist habit of mine is jumping right into a big commission project, or jumping right into what I wanna do and then end up surprised when it doesnt go my way asjdhdhgdg

What piece of yours do you think is underrated

Lord almighty. So many. So many. But especially these I think. The first one is DND but the response was underwhelming even on twitter, which was a shame cos its still one of my top fave pieces Ive ever done! IIRC this piece is from 2020, it was the first time I tried a hard light effect/high contrast lighting and I've definitely improved plenty since this piece, it was my first step to getting little out of my comfort zone and trying new things.

The next would have to be this piece I was SUPER proud of cos I had tried new things, like I was extremely happy w/drawing a full piece for myself but the response was. I don't remember much if any. BUT that wont stop me from loving how this came out. Gigi looks so serene here and I couldn't be happier! TW for blood + death, thought the first pic makes me think of cotton candy w/the colors askdjhdhgd

Thirdly, a piece that blew up on twitter but got an underwhelming response here Where I Post Fantrolls. TW for blood + strangulation under the cut. It's a Chrona flshback I was really excited to reveal, it's the reason he has as many tattoos as he does (': Given the TWs i DO understand why it didnt go around though.

ARTIST ASK GAME

#asks #toojazzed #mun stuff #Gabriel's art #blood #death #death ment #strangulation #FOR JUST IN CASE #ask to tag #THANKS SO MUCH FOR THIS ASK BTW LIAM #i meant to get to it yesterday but. bad migraine #im alive now though #this was such a fun ask game

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mossy-drawingtablet · 25 days

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🌱🌸🌟🐚🏳️‍⚧️🪲🌻🌿

~~Intro post~~

🪻🪼🩷🍓🌈🌧🐞🏳️‍🌈

Hello beloved visitors! Feel welcomed to this blog. My name is Moss and I am the artist who posts here :3

🩷 Commissions are currently closed.

🩷 Trades are open but depends on style, subject & if you're nice to me

❤️ I have other (art) blogs:

❤️ Main: @kid-a-their-blog

❤️ Furry art (safe furry): @mossy-paws-art

❤️ OC art & lore: @aveganvampire

🧡about my art🧡

🧡 I like to draw all sort of things, usually with fantasy or natural themes

🧡 my current artistic interest is "children's" illustrations of animals. There is just something so sweet about stylized nature & the personalities that can be added to the animals!

🧡 when drawing digitally I draw either on an Ipad 6 with procreate and apple pencil, or on a wacom intuos pro large with krita or gimp (I'm still learning gimp but I like it thus far!) Result wise I really prefer an actual drawing tablet over ipad, but sometimes I'm lazy and wanna see my drawing directly under my pen lolol

🧡 when drawing traditionally I like to combine many materials. This includes watercolor, collage, scrapbook kinda stuff, markers, oil pastels, colored pencils, stickers etc etc etc.

🧡 I go through phases of different art styles & interests :3

💛about me💛

💛basic info is in the bio

💛 I am about 3 years on T and about 2.5 years post-op from top surgery

💛 I love being non-binary & my medical transition has made me a bazillion times more happy in life! Yeah, it still gets difficult & dark sometimes, but I can say now that I am mostly content and that I am able to connect, love, enjoy. This is not oly because of my transition, also many other things including a lot of therapy

💛 I have autism & (undiagnosed) adhd. I am also chronically mentally ill (doing way better than before but bad times still sometimes come) & chronic pain.

💛 I have 2 cats, the youngest one is evil & the oldest one is a fool (I love them)

💛 I collect rocks, crystals, shells & fossils.

💛 with friends I like to do grandparent activities like going for a walk of making a puzzle or sorting out beads.

💛 listening to music is a very important coping mechanism to me & I am currently saving up for better headphones & streaming!

💛 art/illustrating/creating is also one of the things that is super duper important to me! I have done it for as long as I could hold a pen & I cannot imagine myself without it.

💚reblogs are honestly gifts to artists like me!💚

& spam reblogs/likes etc are welcomed too <3 . Reblogs are a very important way on tumblorb dot com to help artists be seen & appreciated !

🩵 Some recent works I am proud of will be added here:

#artist blog #original art #illustration #digital illustration #illustrator #illustrative art #illustration artists #illustration art #digital art #queer artist #autistic artist #neurodivergent artist #mentally ill artist #chronically ill artist #new artist

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qllie · 1 month

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hehe i drew nilou instead of doing homework (i am going to do homework after making post)

i had lots of fun making it... I love watercolors they are awesome!!! also i haven't used micronpens in a loooooong time and i remember hating them but they're actually okay. i think they only suck if you really really hate making mistakes...

i was very proud of the skirt and the sweater tee hee wrinkle queen yas yay!!!! i mean it's not perfect but yeah...

the skin color is a bit off (i think it's maybe a little purple and it's a bit darker than i wanted) but that happens every time i use watercolors man if it's not green it's good to me lol. the face is super janky i'll admit i did not try at all on it i was too excited to draw the clothes!!!!

i think some of the issues coulda been fixed by refining the sketch a little more (like making the skirt hem actually even, making the skirt folds distributed a bit nicer, legs, face...) but yeah this was quick and it was fun i'm happy!!!! i haven't done anything traditional that wasn't a doodle in a long time so yay

#qllies #qlliesart #qlliegenshin

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bonetrousledbones · 3 years

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maybe sometimes.......staying up until 5am.............IS worth it

(but yall dont get to see why yet)

#trouseld reghs #the tag doesnt MATTER i'm dleteing this lkater anyway also its 5AM I CANT. TYPE SUDDENLY #ANYWAY. i slightly betrayed yall by not streaming this BUT!!! i am making it a speedpaint instead >:3 #with an actual video editing program that ISNT window's movie maker :O #hence the cropped picture lol #i'm genuinely really happy with how this came out i cant wait to post it aaahhh #but DONT ask me what is happening in it bc i dont KNOW i just wanted to DRAW COLORS #(and i am very super proud of those colors)

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recurring-polynya · 3 years

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Do I mind if I ask how you approach writing longer fic? I've always struggled to write anything more than maybe two chapters long and I'm curious if you have a particular method to how you approach such stories.

Thank you so much for this ask! I absolutely love it when people ask me for writing advice because it makes me feel like a Smart Person Who Knows Things.

Before we start, here is one grain of salt to take all of this with: I have a naturally long-form brain. It is very hard for me to write something less than 1k. Short fiction is great, and there is nothing wrong with sticking to short things if that's what your brain likes to do.

So. You have decided to write a story. This is going to focus on "stories". Some people write fic that's more freeform or whatever, I am not going to cover that. What I mean by a story is this:

It starts

Some stuff happens

It ends

It is highly probable that your story contains a change of state, which could be that a villain is defeated, or a goal is reached, but it could also be that character falls in love with another, or someone learns to like broccoli.

I like to start out by completing the sentence, "This is a story where _______". This is basically like coming up with a summary for an ao3 post, except that it doesn't need to be catchy. Lots of different kinds of things could go in that blank! It could literally be what happens: This is a story where Ichigo goes back in time and punches young Aizen in the nose. It could be about what you want to explore: This is a story where Hitsugaya gets a better understanding of his zanpakutou. It could be about the vibe you want to achieve: This is an AU where everyone is in a punk rock band and has cool hair and outfits. The idea of this is to clearly define what you, the author, is interested in writing. Make sure it feels right! Maybe you pick the first one, but when you say it out loud, you say, "You know, I really just want Ichigo to go back in time so he can horse around with young Renji and Rukia and punching Aizen in the nose is just an excuse for that." That may sound dumb, but it's fine, actually! Most people don't read stories strictly for the plot, they read stories for the implications of those plots! Will my favorite two characters kiss? Will there be funny interactions between these two groups of characters? Will there be sick fights? Stories are excuses to have scenes. Sometimes, you will have a story where the interesting sequence of events is the draw, but the point is to know what you're about.

Once you feel happy with your "mission statement", you need to decide the bounds of your story: where it starts and where it ends. It may be easier to start with the end. In some cases, it may be obvious from your mission statement: everyone gets home, a villain is defeated, Kenpachi realizes the meaning of friendship. On the other hand, let's look at that punk rock AU. You've picked a vibe, but you don't really have a natural story arc. It has to have a destination, though, otherwise, it's not really a story, it's a recipe for 3 chapters of an abandoned fanfic. So brainstorm a little: Maybe they get a record deal? Maybe they win a Battle of the Bands? Maybe Byakuya accepts that the band is actually good and tells Rukia he is proud of her. Do not settle for a plot just because it works. Pick something that makes you excited! You're the one who is gonna have to write it!

I said that we needed to pick a beginning point, too, but I'm actually going to skip that for now. The next thing I do is think of all the Big Scenes I want to write, the ones you are hype to write, the ones that pop in your head as you think about the premise. Make a bullet list. They don't need to be in order. The descriptions don't need to be super detailed, but write down anything about it that is important to you. If there's a mood or a snippet of dialogue or a joke you want to make, go ahead and jot that down so you don't forget it later. What you're doing now is putting broad blotches of color on a canvas, filling in space and leaving the detail for later.

Once you are pretty happy with what you have down, try to arrange it in chronological order. Put your end at the end (if it wasn't one of your big scenes, add it now). The next task is figuring out how to traverse your scenes. You've already picked out where you want to spend the majority of your energy. The rest, I regret to tell you, is your slog writing. Now, it often happens that you will find joy in some of these scenes and your best writing may occur there, but that's serendipity. These are the scenes that you are gonna have to make yourself sit down and write, so you honestly want to limit them to just the ones you need.

So how do we do this? Look at the first thing on the list. Can you start there? If so, congrats, that's your beginning. If you can't, what needs to happen to get to there? Where can you start so that you can get to your first fun scene as soon as possible? There. That’s it. You’ve picked your beginning, good job! Now, go through the rest of your list, and add in things that must happen, even if you don’t particularly look forward to writing them. The characters need to travel from geographic point A to point B. Shuuhei needs to say something that Izuru hears and misinterprets. The Central 46 makes a new law. If you have a good idea of how these things happen, go ahead and write them down, but it’s okay if you don’t know yet. Fill in all the blanks so that if you think of each bullet list as a scene, you could read it as a story, start to end. Once you get writing, you might add more scenes, or move things around or whatever, but you should have a thing that functions as a story.

If you struggle with this, an alternative is a story with a very strong structure that is going to guide you though what you have to write.Here are two examples from my own stories Hold On, Hold On (which is only one chapter, but the principle is the same) is structured around the 5 stages of grief. Not Broken, Just Bent takes place over roughly a week, and I just decided what happened every day of the week. See You on the Other Side takes place in the middle of a bunch of canon events, which worked at mile markers.

Congratulations. You’ve just made a rough outline!

Special note for avoiding burnout!: I am a slogger. I will drag myself through the broken glass of an interminable plot to get to a single thirsty scene. That's why, at this stage, I try to look at the ratio of what I want to write to what I must write. It's gonna vary for everyone, but this is a hobby, and if looking at this proto-outline makes you feel deeply tired, maybe this isn't a good story to be devoting your time to! Can you carve it down? Can you chuck two scenes you really want to write and get rid of 80% of the slog? Or maybe you can't! In that case, just write that thirsty scene as a standalone drabble! Or just go work on something else! Maybe in the future, this one will come back to you and you’ll have a fresh idea or a renewed enthusiasm for it.

Another thing I sometimes like to do at this point is to write out some notes about my characters and their motivations and moods. Character A is homesick. Character B is so determined to defeat the enemy that they are having a hard time being sympathetic to Character A. Character C cares for both A and B and is trying to support them both. This is sort of background info that you want to keep in your head as you are writing. Depending on the type of story you are writing, this might actually be the main plot, or it might be happening subtly, but adding to the emotional impact of the story. It’s very easy for me to write these sorts of emotional arcs, but if you struggle with that, you may wish to go ahead and made a more detailed outline for that, too.

Now, it’s time to start writing! I am great at beginnings-- it is very often the case for me that the opening scene was one of my Big Tentpole Scenes. (Before you hate me too much, I make up for this by being double horrible at endings; just let me have this) Usually, I will start at the beginning and write linearly for as long as I can until I get stuck. Then, I will look forward on my outline and do the next chronological scene that I feel like writing. In general, if I sit down to write and there is something I have an urge to write, that trumps everything else. Inspiration is a precious commodity, and you should embrace it when it hits! You can slog any day. I will occasionally hold off writing a scene that I really want to, because I am saving it, like a prize for myself for getting that far. This is a very personal process of figuring out what motivates your brain and then giving your brain what it needs to be its most productive.

Eventually, you will run out of things you are excited to write, but the good news is, you’ve got a bunch of story now! Odds are that what’s left is going to be a lot of those connective tissue scenes, and you’re just going to have to do them, except that now, because you’re connecting two concrete points instead of two abstract points, it will be a lot easier. You can continue running jokes you’ve started. Maybe you invented a cafe in an earlier scene where your characters hang out and you can have them return there. Try to think of ways to make these scenes more fun, both for yourself to write and for your reader to read.

Around this time, I like to start refining that rough strokes outline into what I will call an “as-built” outline. (This is an engineering term where you update your plans or models for something to reflect any changes that had to be made along the way). This is a great activity to do at times when you feel like you have writers block. I write down every scene I have written as a 2-3 word blurb, in order. I break the scenes into what I think makes logical chapters, and I will do a word count on those prospective chapters and write it down. As you do this, you will realize that maybe you can move a scene from here to there, which will make it 1000% easier to write. Things may be happening too much, or you’ve got the characters eating three times in the same chapter. If you have subplots and dangling threads, this is where you make sure they get closure. I know this sounds very headache-y, but you are so far along in the story at this point that it’s really not-- it’s a way to look at the problems you have left. Use some sort of formatting (I like to bold things I haven’t done and sometimes I put them in red) and it gives you a very visual to-do list.

You specifically mentioned multi-chapter fanfics and I admit that I don’t tend to think in chapters, I tend to think of the story as a whole and just break it up where it feels natural. The as-built outlining I described is very helpful in making sure that my chapters feel balanced. They don’t necessarily need to be the same length, but I like them to have the same amount of stuff in them. One chapter may basically contain one long scene, and other may contain many short ones. I don’t tend to, but you can certainly have a fanfic that varies between short and long chapters, that can actually be an interesting effect. But like I said, I always like to know what I am doing, and so having it mapped out, you can say “welp, this is what I’ve done, how do I feel about that?”

Polynya, you may be saying at this point, do you write the whole fanfic before you post any of it? and I regret to inform you, the answer is yes. A lot of people write as they go, and I have made one attempt at this and I didn’t like it. I don’t like locking myself in, I just need to be able write out of order and go back and change things. Here is the story of a little in love: someone gave me an AU prompt and I got mildly obsessed with it, and wrote 5 snapshots drabbles in that universe, ending with a slight cliffhanger ending. I probably should have stopped there, but I decided to keep going. I wrote out an outline of 5 acts where the first act was detailed to the degree of each chapter being specified. The chapters here were much smaller than I usually make chapters: 1-2k. I wrote act i and ii and it was actually great, and then I hit act iii which required a lot of set up for misunderstandings and a mini romance arc. I couldn’t wing it, but nor could I figure it all out with outlining. I write dialogue in almost sort of an improv “Yes, and...?” style, so until I do it, I don’t know what’s going to happen. So, what I did was treat the second half of act iii as a complete story in the process I describe above, wrote the entire rest of it, and then posted it. One might notice that the chapter lengths grew to 3-5k each. I have two more acts to go, and I haven’t decided how I am going to do them yet, but I suspect I will treat each of them as their own mini-stories.

(I will admit that in Heart is a Muscle, I tend toward chapters that are about 10k long, and this is honestly too long, someone should smack me. If you like punchy chapters, 1-2k is good. I think 3-6k is probably an ideal chapter length. Is this how long the chapters are in my latest fanfic? Absolutely not.)

Okay, so there’s one more step, which is quality control. I am habitual re-reader-- I read my fanfics-in-progress over and over and over while I am working on them. I understand that not everyone does this, but I am usually the primary audience for my own writing, and this is the actual fun part for me. Nevertheless, you should re-read your work at least once, to make sure it hangs together.

This is purely optional, but I recommend it: get a writing friend (if you don’t like re-reading your work, I recommend this even more strongly). If you can get a full-service beta reader, that’s great, but if you can’t find someone, or if receiving that level of critique stresses you out, it’s perfectly valid to just find a friend who will read your stuff and a) shower you with compliments, b) reassure you about parts you aren’t sure about (or suggest ways to help) and c) point out any huge problems you missed. When I am writing a long fanfic, it is a huge motivational factor for me to be able to send my beta chapters as I finish them. If you are already an established writer, and you have people who consistently comment on your fic, they might be overjoyed to get a sneak peak at your work.

And that’s it! That’s the way I do it, anyway! Some people are able to sit down and write a very detailed outline and the write it start-to-finish. Good for them, I say! I have tried this and it doesn’t work great for me. I will admit that some of my fics (especially my early ones) I just sat down and banged out whole-cloth like an insane person and they are generally better than the ones I actually plan out, but that’s not a reproducible process.

As one final mechanical note, I usually write in Google Docs, which I can access on multiple devices (I used to write a lot on my phone), has convenient sharing functionality, and I use the ao3 html formatting script add-in. I generally have two documents for a single story-- one is the outline, and any other notes I want to have handy. I’ll usually put a trashcan space at the bottom for scenes that got cut but I don’t want to lose. The other is the fanfic itself.

I hope this is helpful! Please feel free to follow up with other questions and good luck with your writing!

#writing advice #longform writing

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