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cloverwoodss · 2 years

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Hello!!! I have said this before and I'll say it again: I have always adored your art style

I had always had a talent for drawing, but I only ever drew by looking at a drawing and making an exact copy of the drawing. I never dared making my own art because I didn't want to fail. But you inspired me. I tried getting out of my comfort zone. I wanted to be like you. I wanted to be that artist on Tumblr that had the cute art style. I wanted to be the artist that loved drawing Tom's hair

I have been improving, and honestly, I'm not doing too bad. I'm ok in traditional art, but I've been trying digital

And I don't know how to do line art. HOW DO YOU TRACE???? It's a pain. :,) If you don't mind, could you give some tips?

But, what I wanted to say was: Thank you. You may not have been aware of it, but you had been great inspiration. You made me get up do it. And hey, who knows who else you've helped

Thank you <3

Hey there! (You asked a single question and I wrote practically an essay, I'm so sorry aaa)

First- Thank you so much gOSH :’0 That means SO SO SO much to me. Anyone considering me an inspiration is one of thee biggest compliments I could ever get. <33

There are a few art programs, but it seems most have a “Stabilizer” now. It helps smooth out lines when you draw, making more fluid looking lines. I sometimes have shaky hands due to medication and anxiety. So it really helps!! I'd look into it, but I personally use Clip Studio and it does have a stabilizer options under tool properties when a brush is selected.

This might help as well but- I wouldn’t think of doing line art as “tracing” you’re re-drawing the sketch on top of it. If you only consider the sketch’s lines and think of tracing the lines it will end up like those “the sketch” vs “the line art” memes. It’s hard to explain- sketches can be messier so your eye sees the thicker part of sketches and “fills in” what it considers to be right. So you're still drawing when you line art, still analyzing and correcting as you go. Also have the sketch layer at much lower opacity. Don’t have it in a light color and at 100%, the chances of drawing on the wrong layer is higher that way. Some programs have a "lock" option for layers so you could even lock it so you don't do it on accident.

My OTHER advice is. You don’t HAVE to line art. You can clean up your sketch, leave it a little messy and consider it good enough. There’s nothing wrong with that! :) Duplicate the layer and hide the original so you can always go back to that if you don't like how it's coming out. and SAVE SAVE SAVE.

And don’t even get me started on how much I love Tom’s hair and drawing it ; u; I love drawing fluffy hair so so much.

Another piece of advice I have is- similar to how you mentioned re-drawing other's art you can use that to study. Don't 'just' draw what you see, try to really look at it and think but why was it drawn that way? Then draw it yourself a few times using structure and guide lines. just REALLY study it and it could really help you learn. Just don't upload or claim it as yours obvi.

I allow anyone to study my art as long as it isn't uploaded. Technically you don't have to ask to do so if you stick to the "Study it and don't upload it" rule. And look into multiple artists! Experiment with different ideas and ways of doing stuff. When it comes to art styles don't worry about that too much. Don't feel bad if it seems inconsistent or keeps changing. That will always be apart of life. You learn, you gain more experience, you change and you grow.

Wishing you the best with everything!! <3

#huntersia #ask #advice #art advice

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ladybugboots · 3 years

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redesign of susato’s dlc outfit because i think it's ugly! some notes below the cut on my many many thoughts below the cut.

[id: first image: a picture of the original outfit, and the pose, sketch and line art for the redesign. the redesign has susato posing, touching the top of her hat with her raised right arm, her other arm at her side. she is taking a step forward, and winking at the camera. second image: the final colored drawing, in the same pose. the first layer of the dark magenta dress ends at the hip in a dark brown ruffle, and the second ends below the knee. the top is like a vest, with a dark brown V border, two buttons below, and ruffles on the shoulders. the white, collared undershirt sports a yellow cravat. the puffy sleeves are bound by a beige, metal armlet with a heart near elbow. the rest of the sleeve is pleated, ending at the forearm. at the waist is a belt, with a metal buckle, and a flower shaped button. she has tall, laced boots, with yellow petal shaped decoration, and is wearing vertically striped stockings. she is wearing cuffed gloves with a heart shape cut out on top of the hand. metal goggles with her family crest rest on her bowler hat, and she has a pink, heart shaped shoulder bag with her rabbit mascot keychain. behind her is a pink circle, an off white ring, and her crest. /end id.]

so i actually referenced the artbook pic but i didn't want to post that on my art blog since it’s from scans and i don’t own it lol l so i just sourced this from the official trailer. in-universe, the outfit is made by iris! so it makes sense it looks familiar to hers, but the decision to keep the same skirt length, as if susato wasn't taller than iris.. one of nuri's comments on overall character design was to keep things more modest for the time period, and well, all of the women wear either pants or long dresses, save for iris, who wears pantaloons under her shorter dress. so it just doesn't make sense! another thing is the buttons, which iris has as well, extending to below the belt. what's the point..? i altered the top layer to curve into under the belt, and extended the rest, a style seen in iris' concept art and a dgs2 side character (since i didnt feel like doing research lol). i got rid of the long sleeve glove things with the hearts because it looked ugly. i wouldn't have minded it if not for the repetition of the hearts, but i decided to take a route similar to iris again, with the puffy sleeves. i really enjoy the cherry blossom resembles a heart motif otherwise, which i think is emphasized enough through out the original design, so i kept everything else. did you know that her dgs1 render has laced boots? but i'm pretty sure that's the only time nuri took the time to draw them out, so in the rest of the official art theyre just smooth. i drew them laced here because they look nice :-) another fun fact! usato, the rabbit mascot, has a tail. you can kind of see it in her dlc model renders! also i examined the model and turned the rabbit around (btw, it's the only in-game model mascot (chunosuke, kumaris and usalock being the others) to sport a tail. one last thing; this pose is the same as in the artbook, but i had to change her proportions because it was really wonky. thanks for taking the time to read this if u made it this far :-D

#take care if you press read more.. it's very long #dai gyakuten saiban #susato mikotoba #fan art #image described

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parkersloths · 3 years

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Hi ^^

First of all – your Art is INCREDIBLE!!!

I especially love your use of colors and textures :) Everything is so bright and colorful, but still cohesive. And your images are so clear without being overly detailed! It’s all literally perfection!!!

I like to draw digitally as well and your art-style is a huge inspiration for me. So I wanted to ask if you have any work in progress videos or pictures? Or if you could explain your process in general? Like, are you using a sketch layer underneath, with how many layers are you normally working, what kind of brushes do you use or any tips overall to improve digital painting?

Of course you don’t have to answer this (kinda a lot of questions, sorry 😅 ). Just know that I adore your art and that you’re helping me on my own art-journey just by sharing your work with the world – so, thank you!!! <3

Hey!! So first of all thank you so much for everthing you said about my art, I really appreciate it! But also omg thank youuu for this amazing ask like this is for real the kind of ask I've always wanted to get, where a total stranger is interested in my process XD So yeah don't worry about asking a lot of questions, they were great and I loved them!

Also I'm super flattered that my art has inspired you in your own digital art journey and I hope the stuff I say here can also help somewhat! This will get pretty long so sorry in advance everyone for making you scroll so much cause for some reason the read more option doesn't work on mobile :/

But anyway to answer your questions!

Sadly I don't have videos but I do have some pics I'll share. This is actually my second attempt at answering this because before I was going to use some WIP pics of the Majid drawing as example but then I didn't want to because it was in black and white and color is kind of one of the main things I like to emphasize in my art so I wanted to talk about it in the example XD Then I started a couple new drawings and was taking pics of those but I got super artblocked, but luckily I just finished one out of the blue that I can use. Okay so... I started answering this, again, and it was getting way too long and rambly so I'm gonna try to keep it simple this time and maybe I can elaborate more another time if you're still interested/ if anyone else wants know X'D

My process in general: I always start by making a simple basic background to work on, just fill it in and add some blotches of color. Then on a new layer I just start painting the subject, no sketch, so again just laying down some colors (I usually take whatever color in the bg is closest to skin tone and adjust the new color from there) and I just start blocking some shapes in aproximately the right places to start defining where things will be and how they fit together and just go from there. It's hard to explain it more cause that's kinda it, I just paint until things look like they're supposed to or at least visually appealing enough XD I add or adjust whatever colors seem necessary along the way (in this particular drawing I left the darker values until way too late which I don't recommend) and just refine and refine and refine things and add as many or as few details as I feel like, working on everything simmultaneously bit by bit.

Layers: like I mentioned before there's no sketch, and I try to use as few layers as possible so usually I'll have about 3-5. One for the basic background, one to three (though sometimes I merge them) additional layers for more background effects/colors/value fixes that I usually add later in the process, and I try to have just one for the subject. Sometimes I have one or two more if I'm feeling too hesitant but I always merge them in the end.

Brushes: I only use one brush at 50% opacity the whole time for everything. It's a squarish/rectangular brush that has some sort of jagged edges and a bit of a watercolory texture.

Tips: so this part is especially hard cause like.. I feel like any tips I could give are only applicable to drawing portraits and even then it'd be for doing it in the particular way that I prefer.. Like for example I could say it's best to work on every area at the same time and never spend too long one thing before moving on to the next but.. some people actually prefer finishing the eyes completely before moving on to the nose for example you know? So honestly the main thing I'll say is kinda to just experiment with a lot of methods and styles and see what works or doesn't work for you. Something that I think always helped me a lot was watching speedpaints of people who were more skilled than me and had a distinct style, just literally watch how they did their thing and every once in a while I might notice something I'd be interested in trying for myself and yeah with practice and experience you just kinda figure out what kind of things you not only like seeing but actually want in your own art. Like years ago I used to sketch but then I saw enough videos of people painting without sketching that I wanted to try it and I realized it's just more fun and makes more sense to me that way. So yeah try lots of different things and see what works for you and what you want to incorporate into your own art style!

Some more standard digital art tips I could give I guess are like.. the thing I said about not spending too much time on just one area (if it applies to your prefered process XD). Flip the drawing every now and then to catch stuff that's off. Stay zoomed out as much as possible and when you do zoom in for details always keep an eye on how the bigger picture's looking. Take your time finding or arranging a good reference pic that really inspires you cause it'll save you time and frustration later. And aaa idk I could say more but I don't think it's that informative or helpful, and all of this is probably really basic obvious stuff anyway and this is long enough as it is so yeah I'll leave it there...

I hope any of this can help in some way or that I've at least answered your questions in a satisfying enough way haha And finally here are some of the WIP pics I took. Where you can see some parts of the process. I did a lot more after that last pic but yeah at that point it's just about fixing little things, refining and adding details, but there you can see the color adjustment thing I usually do as the very last step (though not for this pic). I don't always have to do it, and there are probably times when I shouldn't, but I almost always like to do it anyway and that's why my colors look so exaggerated and bright XD I usually make the midtones more red and/or magenta, the shadows more blue, and the highlights more yellow (and sometimes a bit cyan) but if you wanna try something like that it's definitely fun to experiment with the different color possibilities ;u;

And yeah that's it for now! I'm sorry this is so long, and this was the short version lol I hope you like the answers at least a fraction of how much I loved the questions X'D

#asks #asks and stuff #sorry for the late reply #ugh this is so long sorry #but seriously I love questions #feel free to ask me stuff lol #I apparently also love to talk X'D

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deecitys · 3 years

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blue, white, and a little bit of gold; z. chenle

pairing: chenle x fem!reader

genre/warnings: school au, friends to lovers, student!chenle, fluff, swearing, food

word count: 2.7k

a.n.: this is part of the nct secret santa collab hosted by @neoculturechristmas ! i’m writing for @candychanhee i hope u enjoy <33

masterlist

lowercase intended

MONDAY, DEC. 14

“you’re really going to leave me alone?” you frown. “here? with mrs. s? out of all the teachers?”

your best friend, jiwoo, places her hand on your shoulder empathetically. “she called you. i’m terrified of her. the discussion is over, y/n.”

she bows like a ballerina and proceeds to jump away from you down the hall. you roll your eyes and push the wooden door open, sighing. the empty home economics classroom smells like freshly baked muffins, except evil freshly baked muffins, just because this is mrs. s’s classroom.

you walk up to the one desk you could find, clear of fabric scraps and needles, and dump your heavy backpack on it. the noise echos; or maybe it’s just your hyperactive brain anticipating for a jumpscare. in mrs. s’s classroom, anything can happen…

but just as you were about to call for the terrifying teacher, the door rattles open behind you and you let out a yelp, scrunching down.

“hey y/n,” a slightly familiar voice calls. you slowly shift your gaze to find zhong chenle.

you’ve known chenle ever since middle school (you might’ve had a crush on him back then…), and he was in your friend group at one point, but you two have never crossed paths in particular especially after he was announced as mvp for the school basketball team and became mega popular. he was nice though, as far as you knew, and it was a sense of relief that you weren’t going to be the only one in mrs. s’s room.

“haha, um, hi chenle,” you force a smile and hold the desk to get up. something shifts in the storage room of the class, and when you two turn your attention to the noise, mrs. s enters the scene. her leather buckled shoes clack on the floor as she approaches you and chenle.

“hello, chenle,” mrs. s greets the smiling boy with ink-black hair, and proceeds to frown on you through her narrow glasses. “you should’ve told me you’re here.”

“sorry,” you utter, avoiding eye contact.

she mumbles something about kids these days. “i called you two here because i want to ask for a favor.”

while mrs. s shuffles through her desk, you glance at chenle with wide eyes, who shrugs back in question.

“i’m on duty for planning, and you two are the highest performing in my classes. a week left.” mrs. s hands a piece of paper, and chenle reaches out to grab it.

“december 18th, friday, gym, at 6 through 8:30 pm… the winter dance?” he reads. “we’re supposed to plan it?”

“plan it, manage it, whatever else it needs,” mrs. s explains while you panic trying to think of an excuse out. chenle just stands, dumbfounded. “10 percent raise of semester grade of whatever class if it goes successfully.”

10 percent? holy shit, this is your chance. your math grade!

“we’re doing it!” you blurt out loudly, inducing an emotion (slight surprise? indistinguishable.) out of mrs. s for the first time.

“we are?” chenle questions, to which you blink inanimately . “oh… oh yeah, we are. leave it to us! we’re really trustworthy, and we have teamwork. we’re, we’re practically best friends. you can count on us.”

mrs. s slowly nods in approval while you force a big grin, grabbing your backpack and pushing chenle towards the door. “we’ll start planning now, thank you, see you in class!”

you two rush out of the room. “dear god,” you sigh.

“you know what? i need that grade raise, my english grade is, uh, kinda questionable.” chenle sighs.

“so is my math grade, i’m literally about to be disowned. meet tomorrow after school at the gym?” you ask, and he nods, giving you a thumbs up. with a strained grin, you turn right around and speed walk to the end of the hall. jiwoo appears, peeking behind the corner.

“is that zhong chenle?”

TUESDAY, DEC. 15

“so…” you hold on to the ends of your puffy jacket to make sure they aren’t blown away by the freezing winter wind. “where do we start?”

“we could look at the gym and, i don’t know, envision the scene. i got the keys. and budgets tomorrow,” chenle enunciates, which you give a positive shrug to.

the door creaks open and you hurry in to turn on the lights. you’ve been in here plenty of times before, and you try to remember the setup last year, hoping you would be able to get some inspiration. it’s interrupted by a tingly feeling in your nose and a following sneeze.

“god, it’s freezing in here too,” you exclaim. “doesn’t it get even colder? we’ll need to have everything indoors.”

“do you think they’ll let us sell winter themed popsicles?” chenle asks. you frown at his contradicting question. he’s wearing a simple crewneck sweatshirt unlike you prepared for antarctica.

“...a hot chocolate stand?” he negotiates, noticing your glare.

“a hot chocolate stand it is,” you take your phone out to write a note, pausing halfway to point at the spot near the entrance. “we could have it right there, with the entry fee stand, so people can grab one as they come.”

“and this can be the dance floor?” chenle is now suddenly standing in the middle of the room. you nod, writing down another bullet point.

“so, how was it?” jiwoo asks on the phone.

“it wasn’t that awkward, he’s still chatty, actually,” you describe, twiddling the blanket you have over your head. “we got a week’s notice which is so shitty, but we got to everything we had to do and we’re on track. he comes up with the wildest, most unrealistic ideas, though. can you imagine popsicles in a winter dance? it’s fucking freezing, i’m going to work a bit on decorations after school so he doesn’t mess with it…”

WEDNESDAY, DEC. 16

“what are you wearing?” chenle lets out high-pitched laughs. it’s after school the next day, and this time, you’ve prepared for the climate.

“what?” you frown. “it’s cold in there. i need to survive.”

“you look like a penguin.”

“it’s only five layers.”

“whatever you say, best friend,” chenle does a fancy little bow to lead you into the gym. you huff but follow him anyway.

“today, we have to do all the budget stuff,” he takes a seat on the open bleacher to open his laptop, and you hesitantly take a seat a feet away. “i actually did some research and found all the places we need to contact, with all the costs and fees written and added一 here.” he turns the laptop your way and you lean towards the laptop (NOT HIM, THE LAPTOP!) slightly to take a look. a lot of work with numbers is done and you’re actually quite astonished by the organization and amount.

“practice got cancelled, and so like i had a lot of time lying around. i’ve contacted some places if we already made the decisions on the specifics so some are finalized, um, if that’s okay,” he explains. you continue to scan through the spreadsheet. the dj, catering, lights, they’re all done.

“wow, chenle,” that’s what you manage to say. “i’m glad i did something too.” you quickly dig up your sketchbook from your backpack and flip through it until you find the decoration sketches. you hand it over to him with fully stretched arms, keeping your distance. “they’re all at target, all the stuff i marked. so we can go get them whenever, if the budget, you know, allows it.” you hold down the strong urge to bite your nails through the long, dreadful silence. where did the chatty chenle go while you needed his chattiness the most?

“this is really cool,” he finally speaks. “and it fits our budget, so it’s perfect. i remember you being really good at art in middle school! guess you didn’t change.”

you flush (for no absolute reason!) and quickly take the drawing away, mumbling up a ‘thanks’.

“uh, anyways, today all we have to do is contact the rest of the people on the list, and then we’ll buy the stuff tomorrow, sell last minutes tickets on thursday, and theeeen we’ll decorate and see how the dance goes on friday, right? since the school’s been advertising since, what, last week?” you speak quickly to change the subject. he doesn’t seem to notice and instead nods.

“tomorrow, we’re driving to target to get all the decorations. hey, remember when i liked him in middle school?” you ask jiwoo. it’s after school and you’re at her house, doing homework. she looks up from her science assignment to give you a look.

“don’t tell me you’re starting to like him again,” she laughs.

“hey, what’s wrong with that?” you raise your voice slightly, then turn your attention back to your laptop, suddenly self-conscious. “i mean, not that i like him, anyway.”

“you know i can see right through you?” jiwoo doesn’t take her gaze off of you for the long period of silence that follows. you roll your eyes.

“fine, whatever, i may have the tiniest physical symptoms of liking him again or whatever,” you admit. jiwoo giggles, then scrunches closer to you.

“so, what do you like about him?” she asks enthusiastically.

“i mean… he has a nice smile, yeah, that,” you mumble.

“and?”

“i guess he’s funny, and nice, and actually kind of responsible, i don’t know, and his voice一”

your description is interrupted by jiwoo’s screech.

“shouldn't have brought it up…” you sigh.

THURSDAY, DEC. 17

what have you gotten yourself into?

out of all the cars, you’re sitting at the front seat of ZHONG CHENLE’s car. he’s driving. CHENLE IS DRIVING.

the familiar roads aren’t so familiar when you’re in such a peculiar situation. he drives nicely though. and there’s the radio on. and he’s humming. super nicely. that’s so attractive. there’s nothing particularly attractive about humming, but on chenle it is. SHUT UP Y/N!

“do you sing?” you unconsciously ask.

“yeah, actually,” he answers. “my dad doesn’t like it, though, actually, so i don’t tell a lot of people. he just wants me to focus on basketball, because i don’t sing in a deep tone like the opera people, and he thinks if i don’t do that, it’s not manly enough, or whatever.”

the mood… you brought up the wrong topic, you think. “sounds like what jake would say,” you reply in a lighter note. “remember him? the super old school kid from 7th grade?”

“oh my god, YES,” chenle laughs, moving on to talk about him and middle school memories until you reach target. you quickly find the party decoration section and pick out the things. you’re on your last item when chenle taps your shoulder. he’s holding packages of golden sparkly streamers.

“i know the colors are blue and white, but imagine a little bit of gold. a little bit of sparkle, but no annoying glitter shit! what do you say?” he anticipates.

“actually, pretty cool, yeah,” you say, and chenle pumps his arm before throwing the packages into the shopping basket.

“i was about to just say no without listening after that one time you suggested we get popsicles, but good suggestion. love the improvement!” you half-joke. he immediately mocks you, which you laugh at.

the car is loaded up and now you’re on your way back. you two chat about the most random things, from taste in food to tv shows to traumatic but funny experiences, and you keep yawning. it’s been a long day.

chenle drives out of route, but you’re too tired to realize; the most you can do is keep up with the conversation. a blink later and you’re at the drive-thru of starbucks. “pick a drink, miss,” he rolls the window down when the car stops front of the menu.

“me?” you ask in surprise.

“yes, you.” chenle laughs. “you look so dead right now, it’s only 5 pm. i think we both need a caffeine boost for homework.”

“ooh, so thoughtful of you,” you dramatize.

he rolls his eyes. “shut up, i’m paying.”

“caramel macchiato please, mr. zhong!”

you sit patiently while he orders and gets the drinks; a caramel macchiato for you and a café latte for himself. you sip the drink in now comfortable silence and bliss (who wouldn’t be happy with a free drink?) on the way back.

“why didn’t we ever talk before?” chenle asks, breaking the silence.

“dunno,” you say. “just we didn’t have any reasons to, i guess,”

“remember when i told mrs. s we were practically best friends? maybe that wasn’t a lie.”

for once, you love mrs. s so much right now.

FRIDAY, DEC. 18 (D-DAY!)

with the help of chenle’s friends, decorations are up on time and students show up to the dance. everything goes by plan and people are thriving, except… jiwoo had a change of plans last minute. and you were going to ask her to help ask chenle out.

“i’m telling you, it’s the perfect chance,” over the phone, jiwoo’s voice sounds passionate and a little distorted. it’s a little hard to tune into with the background noise, even outside of the dance room alone. “once this is over, nothing happens, and winter break starts, you guys will end up like before. distance friends with zero interactions and zero chances. take the risk while you can, y/n!”

“but you aren’t here to help me!” you whine. “i’ve never done this before! i wasn’t prepared for this! i’m not the kind of person to be doing this!”

“and you’ll never be prepared anyway, so what’s the point of waiting?” jiwoo argues. “don’t be a pussy and go for it. if he likes you back, that’s cool, and if he doesn’t, you have nothing to worry about because you guys won’t have a reason to talk anymore. now, i have an angry mother to deal with, so i’m hanging up, peace out and tell me how it goes. love you, bye!”

your urgent call of her name is interrupted by a long and loud beep. you sigh.

as much as you hate to admit, she’s right. there isn’t any other excuse to keep talking to him. you check the time, and it’s almost 8; half an hour until the dance ends.

“fuck it,” you say to yourself, pushing the heavy door open and meeting the warm and noisy atmosphere. it’s not long until you find chenle chatting with the dj. you take a deep breath feets away from his back and decide to approach him that way.

“chenle! chenle!” you whisper-yelled through the booming music. he turns around immediately, eyes wandering until he finds you.

“y/n! y/n!” he whisper-yells back.

“i need to tell you something important.” you take his arm and start to drag him towards the door out.

“you good? what’s up?” he asks. you shake your head, signaling it’s too loud in the gym, and point to the door, continuing to pull him. through your booming heartbeat you keep calm until you reach the cold outdoor air where you finally let go of chenle.

“so, um, hi,” you greet, to which chenle chuckles.

“hey.”

“the important thing is,” you take a deep breath in. “ithinkilikeyouandithinkweshouldgoout.”

it takes a second for him to process your fast words. maybe you shouldn’t have confessed, you think. you internally scream, and this is the longest second of your LIFE.

“uhh, this isn’t fair,” chenle argues, and you’re stand there, dumbfounded. ?_? “i was going to ask you out! life is so unfair.”

you gasp. “you’re KIDDING.”

“no, i’m not. uh, so, like, i think yes. what am i saying… i’m saying that yes, we should go out.” chenle looks nervous. CHENLE LOOKS NERVOUS!

“i was NOT expecting that,” you say.

“well, i wasn’t either, on my end,” chenle laughs.

“well,” you hold yourself back from screaming and jumping. “we should go back in, we’re the managers, y’know?” chenle nods, taking your hand to walk back into the gym. smooth.

“also, y/n, when i bought you starbucks, the intention was not to seduce you, just wanted to clarify. that was only like, four bucks. you’re worth more than four bucks, i swear.” chenle rants.

“glad to hear,” you roll your eyes but end up laughing anyway.

there couldn’t have been a better winter dance.

#nct fluff #kpopscape #neowritingsnet #neothestars #nct chenle #chenle fluff #nct christmas #nct collab #nct school au #nct drabbles #nct scenarios #nct #chenle soft hours #chenle fics #chenle oneshots #nct oneshot #nct dream fics #nct dream fluff

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kae-karo · 3 years

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"That sigh was a lot louder than I intended it to be." kaeya 👉👈

HI BESTIE THANK U FOR THIS i hope u enjoy!!! 💜💜

[send me a dialogue prompt from this list and a genshin character!]

tags: kaeya’s got a crush on diluc (shocking), canon divergence, albedo calling kaeya out on his bullshit

Kaeya leans back, tips his drink precariously to the side, just until the wine reaches the rim. Diluc isn’t here to yell at him for making a mess of the bar- yes I know you didn’t actually spill it, but you’re still taking an unnecessary risk.

His lip ticks up at the corner - how chastising can be so endearing, he isn’t quite sure. Perhaps simply because it’s been so long since he’s heard Diluc’s voice that he’d be glad for anything right now. Perhaps he’d invite the chastising, if only to ensure he’d have Diluc’s attention. How pathetic, that his desire to see Diluc again has overrun his own sense of pride.

He exhales a breath, lifts the glass to his lips and takes a long sip. It does not taste as sweet as he’d like.

“Something the matter?”

Kaeya blinks at the voice, pulls ardently at his usual facade and turns to grin at-

“Ah, dear alchemist. What brings you to the tavern this fine evening?” Kaeya can’t think of a time he’s seen Albedo in Angel’s Share perhaps ever, but the man sits there all the same, head bowed over a sketchbook and pencil scribbling seemingly at random.

“Research.” Blue eyes flick up to meet Kaeya’s for the briefest moment, then return to the paper. “You sound bothered. What’s wrong.” Hardly the tone for a question, and Kaeya quirks a brow.

“Ah, that sigh was a lot louder than I’d intended it to be…” he muses, more to himself than Albedo, but the pencil stops its near-inaudible scratching. Albedo lifts his head properly, then, and fixes a- well, it’s not quite a blank stare, more a judging one, but very subtle. Kaeya wonders if he’d learned it from Diluc.

“No, it wasn’t.” Kaeya blinks at Albedo, and his brows lift a bit of their own accord. “You were precisely as loud as you intended to be.” With that, he returns his focus to his paper, soft scratches of pencil returning as he draws - Kaeya wonders who he might be sketching.

“Do you mean to imply that I’m searching for attention?” Kaeya asks as he leans an elbow on the bar. Albedo lifts his gaze but not his head, quirks a brow silently, and Kaeya huffs out an amused breath. Fine, he’d been searching for attention, but not from Albedo.

Diluc isn’t here, though, and he doubts he could sigh quite loudly enough for Diluc to hear him.

“You came to draw?” Kaeya prompts, because he thoroughly doubts that Albedo cares anything for Kaeya’s own personal issues. Nor would Kaeya speak of them so easily, though he can’t imagine why Albedo would even bother to ask - surely he’s perfectly aware of Kaeya’s inclination to keep his cards close to his chest? Even if he’s not inclined toward socializing, he must hear bits and pieces of the rumors that follow Kaeya like his own personal stormcloud.

Suspicious. Strange. Unusual tactics. Do his men even trust him? What’s with the eyepatch, anyway?

Always the eyepatch, Kaeya thinks with a subtle smirk.

“I came to research, and that often includes my art, yes.” Kaeya blinks at Albedo’s words, focuses on the moment. “And even if you weren’t sighing like some fair maiden in an overdramatic stage play, everything about your expression screams your desire to have someone listen to your problems.”

Kaeya stares, eye wide and brows raised.

“Don’t look like that,” Albedo says with a hint of exasperation. “I was drawing your smug smirk, this is a different expression entirely.” Kaeya blinks once, then again.

“I have no desire to make someone listen to my problems,” he says carefully - no, he’s never wanted others to hear his problems. Not in a long while. Where Albedo could’ve possibly gotten that idea, Kaeya has no clue.

Albedo just tips his head, though, and taps his pencil on the bartop. Focuses on Kaeya with an assessing sort of stare, and Kaeya makes a concerted effort to relax his expression, to ensure it’s as neutral and normal as possible. Albedo just huffs out an amused breath, and his lip ticks up at the corner.

“A commendable attempt, but your actions only serve to prove my point.”

“Do you intend to pester me until I bare my soul to you?” Kaeya says, and finds his tone not as nonchalant as he’d hoped. Albedo hums.

“It does not bother me either way.” Albedo returns the tip of his pencil to his paper. “Suffer in silence, if you want.”

Kaeya grits his teeth, watches with mild confusion and mild irritation in tandem - he doesn’t want to talk about his own issues, certainly not with someone like Albedo. Would he even understand? Pretty as he is, Kaeya’s well aware that he spends most of his time alone in Dragonspine, focused wholeheartedly on his research. It’s unusual to find him anywhere without purpose, certainly not in the middle of a tavern.

“Even if I did desire to talk about my problems - and assuming you’re correct in your assessment - I fear you’d find them rather complex,” Kaeya says, takes another sip of his wine. The pencil pauses, then resumes its scratching.

“I can’t decide if your intent was to insult my intelligence or goad me into coercing you to speak.” His eyes flick up, then back to his page. “Either way, I’m nearly done with this, so I’d prefer you make up your mind sooner rather than later.”

Kaeya has no interest in talking about his problems, so it’s just as well, isn’t it? Except…

Perhaps he doesn’t know Albedo well, doesn’t trust him farther than he can throw him, but he can’t possibly cause Kaeya problems if he’s holed up in Dragonspine, if he’s less inclined to socialize than even Sucrose.

“It’s matters of the heart, if you must know,” Kaeya says as nonchalantly as he can manage. Still, he’ll keep Diluc’s name out of it, whatever little else he does choose to reveal. “I fear I’ve lost this person’s trust too severely to ever regain it, and that they will not even give me a chance to make amends for my actions.”

So simple, it sounds so impossibly simple, when he says it that way. When he strips away the layers upon layers of their complicated relationship to the bare bones, they could be anyone, the two of them. Mere star-crossed lovers, some fairytale that can be woven with ease into a happy ending. Kaeya’s lip ticks up at the corner, at the idea of something so simple.

“How unnecessarily complicated,” Albedo says with a sigh. He straightens up, tucks his pencil behind an ear. Kaeya huffs out a breath, though even he isn’t sure whether it’s one of annoyance or amusement. He lifts his glass to his lips. “You should tell him how you feel.”

Kaeya coughs out a laugh, now, and nearly chokes on his wine.

“You sound like a child,” he says without thinking, and Albedo tips his head.

“You say that like an insult. Perhaps you could do with a child’s advice.” With that, he climbs to his feet, and Kaeya catches a glimpse of the sketch Albedo had been working on, of- oh, of his own face. Albedo had said as much, hadn’t he?

“Why me?” Kaeya asks quickly, before Albedo can grab his sketchbook and leave. Albedo just hums. Picks up the sketchbook, flips it closed and tucks it under his arm.

“I received a commission for my art. A portrait of you.” Kaeya’s lips part, but he’s stunned to silence by the way Albedo’s lip curls up into a smirk. “I suspect Diluc will find this quite to his tastes.”

#genshin #kaeluc #genshin impact #kaeya #shigarakitomura #ask

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ryuichirou · 4 years

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I really love the way you draw anatomy - you are literally perfect. Would you mind one day if you make a simple tutorial on how to draw anatomy, particularly hands and just keeping things in proportion. Sorry if this sounds like a demanding ask - u can definitely decline or not answer no offence taken x

First of all, thank you so much! <3 I’m so happy to hear that you think my anatomy looks good. I’m not sure if I can teach you anything, but I’ll try! And sorry it took me so long to reply.

I wouldn’t call this a tutorial, more like an outline of what I usually do (maybe with some tips here and there). Hope it’s at least a little bit helpful 🙏

I’ll start with how I draw the hands. Well, as you’ve probably seen on my previous post about this topic, I used to have a hard time with hands because I didn’t understand the logic behind them + my only reference was my own small and blobby hands. Practice helps a lot, but imo mostly because as you draw more hands, it becomes easier for you to break them into simpler shapes (this is important!) and imagine them in 3d in your head or as you draw.

When I draw hands, I start with a rough sketch. Basically I just draw a fingerless block first. It’s a bit illegible right now, but bear with me.

After this I add fingers. Once again, they’re all broken into shapes: a finger is just 3 short tubes connected to the block we just drew. Sometimes some parts of the “tubes” aren’t visible because of the perspective of the hand, sometimes you can clearly see all of them. As I already said, it’s all about learning how to imagine these things in 3d.

Since my sketch is so rough, I tried to make the shapes more clear here. I hope it makes sense.

After the sketch is done, I basically just… draw hands. Remember that this is skin and meat, there are going to be folds (??? Idk if this is the correct word) and stuff. And nails, oh nails… I scream when I remember the times when I used not to draw them lol They help to convey the perspective and the angle of the fingers, so for me it’s better to have them than not. I’m not drawing them the exact correct way, though, but still.

And once again, it took me a long time to start drawing hands more or less properly, and I still fix them all the time. For example, a thumb of the first one on the left is too short. In fact, I’d make all the thumbs bigger…

So yeah, something among the lines. It’s not perfect, but this is the basic idea of how it works, at least for me.

About proportions… Well, I’m one of those artists who like to make 1000000 sketches before I move on to the inking phase, it’s just more comfortable to me. This way, I give myself more control of the pose and proportions and have a lot of time to adjust and fix whatever feels off to me. Many good artists don’t do that because they don’t really need it.

First, I make a very quick sketch just to grab the “feel” of the pose I’m going for, plus it helps with the overall composition of the drawing. It isn’t detailed at all, so it takes about 5-10 minutes to draw, even less if I’m confident about what I want and don’t try to find the pose that would work the best. At this stage I try to keep the proportions in mind, but I don’t think about them too much.

When I’m more or less satisfied with the basic idea, I draw my first sketch. At this stage I’m err building the body. There are a lot of ways to do that, I’m drawing something similar to a mannequin that is made out of meat. Oh no, that sounded horrible…

As you can see, this time I pay more attention to proportions and sketch all parts of the body properly. I make sure that both arms are the same length, both legs are the same length, that the shoulders are on the same level, stuff like that. At this stage I don’t think about the character, just about the body: I’m trying to make it make sense lol

Also you might’ve noticed, but I changed the position of the arms on this sketch because my initial idea didn’t really work (I tried to sit in the same pose and it was uncomfortable lol)

And then I draw yet another sketch. Sometimes this can be the last stage and I ditch the inking altogether and just colour this sketch instead, but more often than not it looks too messy and I have to make another sketch… (This is also where Katsu usually tells me to chill because we were planning to draw something simple and quick and I’m already making it complicated lol)

Here I’m adding more details, like face, hair, clothing, anything else that I need to sketch before inking/colouring. After this sketch is done, I look at it again and see if anything looks off. If it does, I try to fix it, adjust it, sketch it again, whatever works and whatever makes my sketch less stiff and more proportional. It doesn’t have to be super realistic proportions-wise though.

Things that I pay attention to when I check the proportions on my drawings:

Shoulders: they should be the same size (although the perspective can create a distortion, but this is a whole other can of worms) + ideally they should be able to fit two heads in them length-wise.

Arms: I check if they’re the correct length (the hand part should start ~at the crotch level). If the arm on the drawing is bent, I try to visualize how it’d look like if they were straightened up. If it’s difficult to imagine, I just sketch it.

Oh, and the size of hands. I always check if they’re the correct size by comparing them to a face of the character: they should be about the same size (of course some people have larger hands and some of them have smaller hands).

Legs: same with arms, I try to make sure they are not too long and not too short. Also, when drawing arms or legs, you can draw this thing. The shoulder/hip and the hand/foot have the same distance from the elbow/knee. This… sounds confusing, I hope it at least looks understandable lol

There are a lot of ways to check if everything is correct: sometimes I just put my fingers on the screen to check if all of the lengths make sense lol and sometimes I draw these lil lines to check if the lengths of the parts that are supposed to be the same match.

If your drawing looks off, just create another layer and sketch the body (the meaty mannequin thingie) over it again. It might help you see some obvious mistakes if there are any. Some people might say it’s too much work, I call this practice lol

There are instances when I redraw some parts of the body completely. There are situations when it’s easier to do it all over again than to fix the existing sketch.

Another thing that I do is flip the image as I draw. Not very often though, you need not to get used to the flipped version of your drawing, it should be somewhat new to your eyes, this way your mistakes will be more visible to you. At least I think so…

It also helps to pay attention to details as much as you can, they make a huge difference. I still have a lot to learn about how the abs work, but like a year ago I knew nothing about them aside from “err I think there are 6 or 8 of them?? And they start below the boobs” (my boobs were also more square). After I started drawing them more often and learning how they actually work, my drawings changed accordingly. I think the right one is at least slightly better haha

So yeah, this is more or less my process. It isn’t necessary to draw 10203100 sketches and to go through all these stages, but I personally feel much more comfortable doing that because this way I can be sure that I would’ve noticed if there was a major fuckup somewhere.

To be honest, if we’re talking proportions, this image is literally the only thing you need to know.

Just keep in mind how many heads are in the human body length, how many heads can fit inside one’s torso, etc. Compare body parts to each other accordingly. Just make a habit out of checking if the proportions on your drawings are correct: make a shoulder bigger, make sure that the legs are the same size. It might be too much at first, but it’ll literally become a subconscious thing very soon, and you won’t have to actively think about all of this every time you draw. I google this image from time to time just to make sure that I’m fixing everything correctly lol

You don’t have to be exact with these proportions, but they still need to have some logic behind them. Like here, if we look at Osomatsu, who is clearly very stylized, we can still see that his body is proportionate. His shoulders are too small for his head, and his body surely doesn’t have 8 heads in its length, but he still doesn’t fall apart because there is logic behind his stylization: his arms are still long enough for him to put his hands in his pockets; they aren’t too long or too short. Hope that makes sense…

Sorry for the long read. Once again, I hope it was somewhat helpful or at least interesting. If you have any more questions, please feel free to ask!

Although I’m still learning myself of course, so there are things that I probably don’t know or forgot to mention…

#replies #ryuichirouart #tutorial #of sorts #about drawing

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fanartfunart · 3 years

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Heya! I really really like your style and saw the commission thing and was wondering how to, y'know, commission a tningy ^^' I haven't done it before

Glad you like my art and like it enough to consider commissioning! ^u^

My commission information page is here. I suggest looking through it. I explain how I work in that as well, at the very bottom. But, I’ll give ya a breakdown for the Never Commissioned Before. (since that version lowkey assumes at least slight familiarity)

It’s not too difficult or anything so don't stress it! If you want a general price-point before diving in or anything: for me, an average work tends to be around $35-50ish USD (usually mostly depending on color or number of characters) but some of the more complex stuff, which often includes multiple characters and background goes more up towards $200ish. If you’re tighter on cash, as I know a lot of people are, I suggest setting yourself a budget and telling me what it is! That way if you want something, but you can’t afford it, I can help make it something affordable! (ie I may suggest not using full color, or having a bust rather than a full character- etc)

For the actual process, I’ve put it under the cut. I go pretty in-depth and it got long.

Step One: Message me with what you want to commission me to do. Give a short description.

You can message me on tumblr or through my email [email protected]. I like it if you come in with a semi-solid idea of what you want. Hopefully you read through my commission page, but, I’m also happy to provide suggestions and ideas as well. I do fanart and original works! You should have a description of what you have in mind ready.

Here’s two examples on each extreme of what I can work with:

“A picture of my character, standing with their hands on their hips. They have long brown hair and eyes and wear a pirate-like costume”

“A picture of my character, standing with their hands on their hips, a little sassy in pose an expression. They have long brown hair that goes to their hips, and is parted to the left. They have brown eyes, and a small scar on their cheek. They’re a little stocky and they wear a v-cut loose black tunic, a purple vest and leather belt.”

I’d ask more questions for both of these! I’ve never had a commission where I don’t feel the need to ask for more information. If it’s an original character (or even au-versions of fanart or characters I’m not familiar with), I love hearing about who they are as a character, since that gives me a sense of what energy I’m trying to portray with the character. If you have references (doesn’t matter if it’s an amalgamation of references plucked off of google or something you drew yourself) that’s awesome! I don't require it, but, they’re always appreciated. I am totally open to helping you make decisions too! if you have the base idea, but you don’t know if you want them to have a coat or not, I can give you sketches with both options.

Step 2: Pricing.

If you don’t already mention it, I’ll ask you specifics of the things in my commission post- ie: if it’s full body or a half body, or if it’s full color or anything.

If anything on my commission post confuses you, you can always ask me for more examples or an explanation of the difference!

After determining exactly what you want me to do, I’ll usually give you an estimate for how much it would cost to complete. Sometimes, if you’re still deciding between things that determine the price, like how complex the pose is, I might do some sketches first and see which ones you like before giving you a price. I have a little leeway on pricing here, and if you think it’s too much, you’re welcome to ask me to explain why I priced it that way and if I can lower the price. That said, a lower price means lower complexity and detail.

If we’re confident in the price, I like if you pay me at this point, rather than later, as it’s easy to forget, and frankly, I’d rather not do all this work just for someone to take the image and not pay me at the end. I have some leeway, but I usually prefer if you pay me before I get to the last step before completion. If it’s a lineart work, that means after the sketch. If it’s a colored work, it means after the lineart.

Step 3: Sketches.

When I get started with sketches it usually takes me a day or 2 to get them done. I’ll give you several to choose from. I usually do about 4-6 individual sketches and label them by number (because I’m dyslexic and for the life of me never remember left vs right).

Once I send you a batch of sketches I’ll ask you for your opinion. I basically want to know: which sketch(es) fit your idea the best and if there’s anything I’m missing or need to get rid of. It’s going to be loose and messy, so if you want me to explain anything about how it looks, please feel free to ask. I can combine sketches if you like parts of one or two of them but as a whole they’re not perfect. If I’m totally off the mark, you can totally tell me so! That kinda means I didn’t do my job right in step 1, and I’ll ask more questions to understand which aspect I’m missing.

Once we have one sketch that works, I’ll ask you a few more questions about what you’d like to see on the lineart.

Step 4: Lineart

Depending on how complex it is and how busy my life is, this might take me a day or a whole week.

Using the sketch as my base I’ll use this time to make clean lines, get some details in (this is usually where expressions and clothes are defined beyond the general structure.)

I’ll send you the sketch after I’m finished and once again, ask you what you think and what might need adjustment. Your job is to nitpick here! Please, feel free to nitpick. Is the hair too short? Is the arm in a funky angle? Tell me! You’re buying it, you get to critique it. I’ll work with you to come to an agreeable look.

If you’re commissioning me for a colored work, I’ll also ask you for any clarification/changes from the original concept for the color.

Step 5: Color

This tends to take about 1-3 days.

If it’s flat color, it’ll be pretty simple, and shading or lighting will be done with kinda flat bold lines unless otherwise stated that you just want it Flat-Flat. It’s not my usual style, so most people tend to go for full color. Full color is my usual coloring style, and I use some pretty soft shading. It tends to reflect a midday-look, but if there’s a specific background I’m doing, I will match the color to it. Dynamic shading is a secondary layer of color. I usually do color and shading on one layer. Dynamic shading is where I work with really bold, dramatic lighting.

I usually work with a background at the same time as everything else, but, sometimes I don’t because I focused on one aspect or another, so that might be an additional step.

Once again, I’ll send the work to you and ask for your opinion.

Step 6: Finishing up

Once you’re happy with it, all that’s left is A) confirming you paid me (I’ll usually remember or write it down, so if you had, I won't ask.) B) signing the artwork and C) sending it to you via email. I usually send it as a .png but you’re welcome to request other filetypes. I’ll ask you for all these things too.

You’re also welcome to request that I record the process I can take screen-capture videos or I can screen-shot each step that I’m not screen-shotting already to send to get your opinion. (you’d have to ask me to do this at the beginning though.)

After all that, I’ll usually post it on my tumblr here, and you’ll have your commission!

#commissioning #answered asks #fanart's commissions

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set-phasers-to-whump · 4 years

Text

it’s hard to breathe, but that’s alright

X=done

Prompt: panic attack

Whumpee: Malcolm Bright

Fandom: Prodigal Son

For: @quirkykayleetam

aaaa hope u like this!!! the title is from cradles by sub urban, and this is set after the events of the finale! hope it’s ok!!!

It had been just over a month since...that day. Malcolm was doing...okay wasn’t really the right word (his sister had been arrested for murder, and his father figure had been stabbed and nearly died, after all), but fine. Yes. He was fine. He had definitely not been throwing himself into work to avoid thinking about, well, pretty much everything that wasn’t work. Definitely not.

There was a case to work right now, anyway. A case which needed a profiler. And it had been a month. He didn’t need to take any more time to ‘process.’ Never mind the fact that Gil and Dani and JT and Edrisa and his mother and practically everyone else in his life had advised him to do just that. There was work to be done.

The case was a tricky one-two people were dead already, killed in wildly different, bloody ways. They had both been fairly wealthy, and they had belonged to the same church. However, not a single regular member of the church had any information, and nearly all of them had alibis-both victims had been killed during the main service, two Sundays apart.

Malcolm had been building up a profile all week, and he had made some serious progress that had Gil reluctantly admitting that yes, it was good that Malcolm was here instead of at home doing nothing but thinking of being here. They had a fairly small list of suspects now, and currently, Malcolm was talking with Dani about how they might whittle that list down further.

But before the two could really get to discussing the suspects, Gil poked his head into the room and announced that there’d been another murder, which wasn’t confirmed to be connected to the case, but which surely was, given what was known about the victim.

“It’s not Sunday…” Malcolm thought aloud, as he, Gil, and Dani hurried outside. “Our killer’s changing up his ritual…”

On the drive to the crime scene, Malcolm tried to work out why the killer would have deviated from what had been his routine-perhaps this had simply been an opportunity that was too good to pass up, or maybe it was some obscure Christian holiday that the killer felt a connection to, or maybe the killings being on Sundays had been merely coincidental…

They pulled up in front of the crime scene, a small apartment building with sturdy brick steps and a penthouse at the top-the victim’s home, Malcolm assumed, given the financial status of the two previous victims.

Before they went into the building, Gil pulled Malcolm aside, gesturing to the rest of his team to go on ahead.

“What?” Malcolm asked, impatient to get inside and analyze the scene.

“The man had his throat cut,” Gil said. “I just want you to be careful, okay? If you’re uncomfortable about-”

“I’m fine, Gil,” Malcolm interrupted. He’d seen people with their throats cut before. Most recently Nicholas Endicott, his mind supplied. His blood on Ainsley’s face, the look in her eyes when she realized what she’d done…

He shook his head slightly, as though his brain was an etch-a-sketch and he could stop his train of thought just like that. He was fine. Fine.

The two of them entered the building, and, just as Malcolm suspected, took the elevator up to the penthouse.

Inside, everyone else had already gotten to work. Crime scene techs were poking around in the main living area, and a line of bright yellow police tape sectioned off one of the bedrooms. Malcolm could faintly hear JT saying something inside.

Malcolm stepped towards the door, and was just about to duck under the tape when Gil stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. Malcolm whirled to face him, irritated. It’s fine, he reminded himself. “I already said I’m fine, Gil. Really.”

Concern was painted over the older man’s face. “I know, kid. I also know you’re not. Be careful.”

“You already told me that,” Malcolm replied, and ducked beneath the tape, Gil following close behind.

“Malcolm!” Edrisa’s voice came from a corner, where she was hunched over a body mostly obstructed from view by the bed. She stood up, a smile on her face, but she looked surprised. Worried. Why did everyone seem so worried about him? He was fine. “I wasn’t sure if you’d be here-but never mind! You’ve gotta see this, it’s wild…”

Malcolm walked over to where the body was. As more of it came into view, he reminded himself to be calm. He was fine. He’d seen plenty of people with their throats cut. He was fine.

Malcolm saw the body, the blood pooling around the man’s neck, the bloodied knife that had to have been the murder weapon lying across his chest, its blade glistening scarlet, and was decidedly not fine.

He backed up instinctively, and then kept backing up. He smacked into Gil, who reached out for him, but Malcolm spun around and ran the rest of the way out of the room. He had to get out...he needed…

He couldn’t think. He could barely breathe. Some small part of his mind registered that he was still in a crime scene and that he couldn’t disturb the evidence. A larger part of his mind registered that he was about to have a panic attack, and that he needed out. He made it halfway down the stairwell before he collapsed on a landing, curling into himself. Stop stop stop stop...Ainsley, Gil, blood, blood everywhere, bloody knives, bloody bodies, the hospital, the living room, all of it too much, too much, too much-

“Malcolm?”

A hand softly touched his knee, and he jerked backwards. His breathing was uneven and ragged and he just wanted to scream, or collapse, or...he couldn’t focus, couldn’t think, everything was toomuchtoomuchtoomuch-

A warm presence settled down next to him, not touching him, not trying to even talk to him, just there.

One clear thought made its way to the front of his racing mind. Gil. It had to be Gil sitting next to him on the landing. It couldn’t be anyone else. Gil. Gil was alive and okay and he could make it stop. He could fix it.

Malcolm flung himself sideways, burying his face in Gil’s neck. A pair of arms wrapped loosely around him, holding him to the earth. A hand rubbed circles into his back.

He tried to focus on the things he could sense. Gil’s arms, of course. The faint sound of traffic on the street, mostly masked by the sound of his own deep, ragged breaths. Those breaths picked up the scent of Gil-the cologne he always wore, layered with the faint scent of spices and something thick and heavy like smoke. He’d been in this position many times before, coming down from a panic attack with Gil’s arms around him, breathing in the scent that would eventually smell like home.

He shifted a little, turning his face so it was no longer buried in Gil’s neck, but instead so that his left cheek was pressed into Gil’s chest. He stared at the wall and tried to even out his breathing. Gil said nothing, simply holding Malcolm, grounding him, until he felt ready to talk.

After some time, Malcolm felt a sense of order begin to come back to his mind. Gil was alive. He was alive, and he was okay, which resolved about half of Malcolm’s panic. He took a deep, steady breath, and became suddenly aware that he was crying.

As soon as he realized this fact, he realized that he couldn’t stop, and suddenly he was sobbing. Gil’s arms tightened around him slightly, and a hand ran gently through his hair. He cried for what felt like hours, though in reality it was only minutes. He ended his sobs with a soft hiccup and a “sorry” which was muffled into the fabric of Gil’s jacket.

“It’s okay, kid.”

“I’m not.”

“I know. I shouldn’t have brought you here.”

“‘S not your fault.”

“Malcolm-”

“No.” Malcolm took another deep breath. “It all would have come out anyway.”

An understanding nod. “You wanna talk about it?”

“Not really.”

“Kid…”

“Not now, I mean. I will...I’ll talk about it. Just, just later.”

“Okay,” Gil said, and gently shifted Malcolm off of his shoulder. He stood up, and offered Malcolm a hand. “Let’s get you home.”

“The crime scene-” Malcolm tried to protest.

“The crime scene is in good hands. And you are too, alright?” Gil shuffled his feet, hand still extended. “Anytime you want to talk, I’m here.”

Malcolm nodded, and finally took Gil’s hand. “Thanks.” You almost weren’t here, he thought, and then tried to stop thinking of it. He’d had enough panic for one day.

“Anytime.” Gil wrapped an arm loosely around Malcolm’s shoulders and guided him the rest of the way down the stairs. As though he could read Malcolm’s mind, he added, “I’m always gonna be here for you, okay? Always.”

Malcolm nodded and mustered up a smile that felt almost genuine. Gil wasn’t going anywhere, and Malcolm wasn’t okay, but Gil knew this now, he knew this and he wasn’t leaving. And Ainsley was still in trouble, but Gil was alive, and Gil could help. Gil could make it okay.

Everything was going to be okay. Not today, and not tomorrow, and maybe not for a long time. But it would be. One day, everything would be fine.

Yet again i have written a terrible ending but i hope this is ok apart from that!!!! Thanks so much for reading!

#bad things happen bingo #panic attack #malcolm bright #prodigal son #emotional whump #i say things #my writing #damn when i was editing this i really realized my affinity for italics lol #do i use them too much?? idk #anyway yea i hope this is ok!!#also just a heads up i probably wont be able to do any more writing until like the 15th bc i have ap exams coming up #and i have to prepare etc #but yea!! hope this was good lol #also im so proud i have like this big list of titles for fics but i never use them bc they never fit but finally one did

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isabeladraws · 4 years

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i'm not the same anon as before but i'd also like to know a bit about your style and process and how u developed it, learned, etc. if that makes sense.

this so hard for me to answer! when i say i have no idea how i got here i mean it 😩

my main inspirations back in the day were burdge, viria and laia. i think you may be able to see those inspirations in my drawings still (i love all of them to this day, and laia is still inspiring me a lot lately!). they used to post lots of tutorials, especially viria, so i’d follow those very closely!

when i developed more my style i’d say was during 2016-2018, i was in a gap year and in a weird place in many ways so i wasn’t drawing much. i lost touch of digital art so that’s how i got to draw on my sketchbook and scanning things. i was doing this before but it was basically the only way i was drawing back then. why i say those years were important is because, i may not have been drawing, but everyone else around me seemed to be on this amazing art development time and, guys, observing is a tool you should not underestimate. i’m not kidding. i was BARELY drawing but everytime i took the time to sketch, i’d have improved in a way or another. because i was studying shapes, colors, poses, anatomy, just by observing and taking the time to figure things out. i think i’m one of those people that just stare anyway but it helps. take the time to study your inspirations! you may not see results right away, but they’ll show up soon enough. (also i’m lazy so i’m glad i can pick up anatomy and other things just by looking?? amazing. incredible. brilliant.)

at that time i think i was doing mystic messenger fanart.. i can’t believe that game took so much time out of my life and NOW I’M HERE PLAYING CHOICES. anyway. i think if you go back and look at my mysme fanart you kind of see that i’ve started to find a method that i liked and was sticking to it! that was probably the beginning of orange lineart...

i’m the worst at this but definely experiment with things. i cannot remember how i started using this especific color for my lineart but i guess i wanted a color i could use for everything and that’s how i use a brown/orange color for lineart most of the time. i’ve always used a multiply layer for lineart, something i picked up from viria. i hate the look of black lineart on my drawings, i don’t know what it is, it looks so ugly. i wish i could do it because it’s kind of the standard but i can’t. ugly. i’ve tried different painting styles, if you scroll back you’ll notice them. those obviously didn’t stick, but i liked them anyway! experiment.

uni has forced me in a way, to be consistent. so i guess that’s how i’ve been solidifying what i’ve been doing for a while? i hate this but in my uni you work on one big project every semester so if you’re stuck with something for 4 months, you’re bound to find consistency at some point. i think that’s where i’m at, and i am trying to break from that in a way. my art is okay. it’s not professional enough because i’ve been doing a specific method for a long time instead of branching out and being good in a variety of areas.

definetely experiment! you will never regret it. it’s kind of annoying but it’s important, regardless of whether you want to be in the field or not.

is this even helpful? i’m sorry i can’t do art advice properly. you probably heard this advice a million times. but it’s what works! it takes time and then one day you’re like... is this... a style? yeah buddy. it is. just gotta keep drawing.

#anonymous #aq #faq #im sorry my art advice is always crap lmao

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skookworks · 4 years

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Gallery – 2019 Daily Sketches 61-90

Here are another thirty of the sketches that I posted on a daily schedule last year, now in a convenient gallery so you don’t have to scroll through posts day by day.

Story Seed #47 Music of Mystery

A couple has purchased a big house. It had previously been a rental with multiple tenants. Not all the tenants took their stuff with them when they moved out so the couple is having to clear out the abandoned belongings as they move in. They find a box with a couple dozen cassette tapes. The cases are labeled with a list of the songs on each tape. The couple doesn’t recognize any of the songs. Out of curiosity they decide to play the tapes to find out what the music sounds like.

From there the story can go many directions –

The tapes are filled with amazing songs and the couple are compelled to track down the original albums that the music came from.

The songs listed aren’t actually songs. They’re weird interviews that reveal secrets that the couple wishes that did not now know.

The songs alter the couples thoughts and moods, slowly driving thiem insane and/or sparking epiphanies that lead them to enlightenment.

The music on the tapes is strange and obscure. The couple is inspired to track down the original albums and, in the process, they discover hidden worlds and forgotten histories.

Every time one of the tapes is played, something changes in the house. Sometimes for the better. Sometimes for worse. Sometimes simply for strange.

????

Recommendation

My brother, Glenn, used to blog regularly. Him starting a blog is what inspired me to start blogging. He’s got two blogs: Lovesettlement and Dare I Read? In recent years he’s left them quiet. Until the coronapocalypse and the California Lockdown. What’s been bad for “normal life” has sparked him to do more posting. He uses Lovesettlement to post about his poetry. Dare I Read? is where he posts a wider range of thoughts.

He’s been called back to work so the blogs have been quiet again but there’s enough interesting stuff up that visting is worthwhile.

Local News

A good way to start thinking of all the ways I might be screwing up at my job is to have the boss say as she walks by my case, “Come see me in the office before you leave today”. That happened to me on Wednesday. And I spent a bunch of time trying to think of what I might have done wrong. Too many u-turns? Too much office time? My delivery time isn’t matching the metrics that corporate thinks it should?

Nah.

Turns out she wanted to give a me a certificate of appreciation for the extra work I do beyond delivering my own route. With mail volumes down I often have undertime available and I volunteer to carry parts of other routes in that undertime. It was a pleasant surprise to get acknowledged for that.

On Thursday the boss gave out small gift certificates to those carriers who had scanned 100% of their packages in the last month and slightly smaller certificates to those who had managed 99% scans. I’m a 99%er.

On Saturday we were given new procedures for how and when we’re supposed to sort our mail and parcels. I’m not going to try to explain the details. Mostly it’s an attempt by management to get the carriers to do our “office time” work during a designated “office time” and everything else during “street time”. I have to compliment our stations managers for actually taking carrier complaints into account and restructuring the way the clerks sort parcels to try to accomodate the new mandates. Past managers have have heard the same complaints and just shrugged.

On Sunday I finished the last illustration for the Lovecraft Country Holiday Collection. Now the clock is ticking until the Growing Up / Overnight Kickstarter launches on August 1st. I will have more to say about that as the date approaches.

Today is my day off. I made a batch of bacon bits – 1 pound pork bacon plus 2 pounds turkey bacon, chopped and baked for a couple hours at 375 degrees. I’ll use those as a garnish for the next couple weeks. I also made a huge lasagna. Five layers of noodles and homemade sauce and five types of cheese. That’s lunch for the next ten days.

And that’s another week gone. I hope yours had more high points than low ones. And I hope that the coming week looks bright. There’s a lot of nonsense happening in the world right now but there’s also a lot of beauty and brilliance. We’re all in this together and when we remember that, we thrive.

Tuesday Night Party Club #28 Gallery - 2019 Daily Sketches 61-90 Here are another thirty of the sketches that I posted on a daily schedule last year, now in a convenient gallery so you don't have to scroll through posts day by day.

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ff7central · 6 years

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Creator Spotlight: Kizunatsudoishi

Miri here, with the next entry in our Creator Spotlight series. This time the random number generator has summoned artist Kizunatsudoishi (Kizu). ( http://Kizunatsudoishi.tumblr.com )

Want to be on a future spotlight? Sign up on the FF7Central directory to get in on the list: https://goo.gl/forms/u0h5rJXmgv40zX9m2

Miri: Which of your works is the most memorable to you? I don’t necessarily mean favourite or best work, it could be the work that taught you the most making it or that holds a special reason in its creation.

Kizu: Hm, for some reason the sleeping elves!Sefikura popped up in my head. It was certainly one of those that took me weeks to finish. I learned so much about coloring doing that piece. Seph's thighs were thickened with layers of white and purplish white and blueish white and orangeish white because I couldn't get the pale tone right. I even beat myself over it for days. Thank god it turned out... not so bad...?

Miri: Comments on the reblog, or in the tags. Do you have a preference?

Kizu: Comments ANYWHERE. But anyway, from what I've seen, people are less likely to comment on the reblog because they feel like it's rude or something, but if you feel like that, please comment all the craziest thing and reactions in the tags. UwU I dare speak for all of the creators out there that WE LOVE COMMENTS. Especially the squeally over the top ones.

Miri: Who is your favourite character from the FFVII setting? What do you love about them?

Kizu: Aside from the obvious choices (the blond angry smol and the silver-haired mean assholery tol), in terms of characterization (and in-game stat), Cid Highwind is my lowkey favorite. Those moments featuring Cid Highwind is either hilarious or super inspirational. His speeches about his dream, the power of mankind and science, the planet Gaia, the goddamn tea... gosh. Cid Highwind gives the most powerful speeches and the most hilarious profanities.

Miri: Favourite media to work in?

Kizu: I actually have a love hate relationship with it but, pencil and paper.

Miri: Inquiring minds have asked if you have any tips for dealing with art block/slump.

Kizu: Hmmmm. Maybe... try to brainstorm exactly how you want to draw the thing. Come up with keywords that you can search by (aka finding references). Read/watch something visual and may inspire you to draw the thing since references can pop up in those visual media.

If nothing of the above works, force your stupid hand to at least draw *something* (Like, if you draw something that would involve a human, sketch their head first with a circle, and try to expand the face, where the face is facing towards, then expand pose from there with skeletal-ish pose.) If you don't know how poses work then feel free to look it up. At least, learn how to *sketch* poses with stick figures since that will save you from so much pain.

You can also listen to music that put you in certain moods.

Miri: Is there a character/idea you haven’t gotten to yet that you really want to do?

Kizu: I suppose most of the stuff I had always want to doodle *cough* frillysmexykinkydressesandflowyconcubineoutfitsandfancyhairdosforCloud *cough* I have done... to some extent. There's so much more Emperoth x Cloudcubine thing I want to do though... :Q_ I-I have this... constant need of putting Cloud in dresses. He just... looks too gorgeous in dresses. Mmm, Cloud in dresses...

Come to think of it, I kinda want to try doodling something fluffy or... school life-ish too...?

Miri: Any remake thoughts or hopes you’d like to talk about?

Kizu: 1. Have a section of land that looking towards Midgar that can trigger a flashback cutscene of Zack's final stand... and maybe his yellow flower...

2. Keep the W-Item glitch ;D

3. Explorable Midgar, maybe SOLDIER private quarters with snippets of the SOLDIER boys...?

4. Keep Cloud riding a dolphin. And the CPR part.

5. A dressing up montage of Miss Cloud with pink background and hearts flying while everyone ogles "her". (A thing that ACTUALLY HAPPENS in FFRK so I'm looking at you Squeenix you WILL give us a Miss Cloud dressing up montage).

6. We get to Omnislash """Executioner""" (a synonym for half naked) Sephiroth with Miss Cloud. In a purple dress. With a big bow. Wearing perfume. And diamond tiara. Yeap The Great Sephiroth was defeated by all of *that*.

7. Kinda overlap with the above but... maybe an attire option like we can change the party member's clothing (much like FF15). We can have a bunch of Shinra infantrymen and sailors running around in dirt.

8. Steve Burton and Takahiro Sakurai saying "Warrrk!!". If Lightning can say "Kweh" then of course Cloud has to be a chocobo whisperer.

9. After seeing the giant ass Diamond Weapon in Kingsglaives... I actually look forward to the Weapon boss fights.

Miri: Throw a headcanon at us that you’d like to see more of.

Kizu: I don't know... most of the headcanons I enjoy are all from you guys, like Sephiroth being a Scorpio, or he being the one breaking Ifalna and smol Aerith out of Shinra back then, or Cloud being a little shit... Usually I would think more about AUs. If it's an AU then I'd like to see more school life AUs. Listening to Bolbbalgan4 songs makes me think of a Cloud doodling stick figures on Seph's notebook in the library and they're playing footsies under the table ughf.

Miri: Favourite party idea when playing FFVII? They don’t have to actually work, so much as you like the idea of them together as a fighting party.

Kizu: I usually go for the OP team or the most practical so... Cloud Aerith Cid in disc 1 (I usually have Cloud as the healer/tank/everything else XD Aerith as main magic damage bc she is stronk with spells, and Cid). After that the team is Cloud Yuffie and Cid because of Yuffie's morph ability and her agility is stupid. Nothing can hit Yuffie... ever.

Miri: Do you have a favourite/easiest character to draw? Or a character you tend to draw when you need some comforting/relaxing art time?

Kizu: CLOUD.

Drawing Sephiroth, albeit very satisfying for the eyes, is a great burden. That ridiculous man has a too high standard for his face alone. And then there comes that stupid, geographically mountainous plane of a body, and his 84 miles of legs. Not to mention that unbelievable luscious hair. And don't make me rant on those *eyelashes* that stabs through the fabric of space and time itself.

Miri: Are you open for commissions right now? Drop your link.

Kizu: Well guess what, I AM. Poof: http://kizunatsudoishi.tumblr.com/post/161768170836/3-commission-open-%CE%B5

Miri: Anything you’d like to say to the community?

Kizu: I used to be in a too active fandom and it was a nightmare. I used to be in a dead fandom and it was so sad. But then... this FF7 fandom is by some magical blessings, is still an alive submarine after all these years. I know some may have been sour grapes to some other, but the people I found in my little trash can corner, I can say that you guys are one of the greatest creators and people I've ever met. You guys... are the best. UmU

Miri: Here’s a few pieces picked out with some help from friends) to share with everyone

Sefikura Ballet: http://kizunatsudoishi.tumblr.com/post/177615867741/ballet-dancerssefikura-performing-swan-lake

Sefikura: http://kizunatsudoishi.tumblr.com/post/172478852401/art-based-on-asreoninfusions-whiskey-kisses

Sefikura Week Art for a fic by RadiusZero: http://kizunatsudoishi.tumblr.com/post/170107270506/sefikura-week-day-1-showing-up-unexpectedly

NSFW Cloud for a fic by AsreonInfusion: http://kizunatsudoishi.tumblr.com/post/161495409636/oviposition-tentacles-au-this-is-based-on (NSFW)

NSFW Sephiroth Images: http://kizunatsudoishi.tumblr.com/post/165607580006/sephiroth-in-chain-lingerie-commission-for-anon (NSFW)

http://kizunatsudoishi.tumblr.com/post/165966347761/another-kinky-ukeroth-in-chain-lingerie-for-anon-u (NSFW)

http://kizunatsudoishi.tumblr.com/post/166560946871/ukeroth-commission-for-anon-xd-this-time-i-went (NSFW)

http://kizunatsudoishi.tumblr.com/post/167444208926/ukeroth-commission-for-anon-this-time-with-lace (NSFW)

And my personal pick, my Christmas card for my discord group (This one IS safe for work): http://kizunatsudoishi.tumblr.com/post/167932312851/a-merry-asgzc-christmas-for-asylos-and-the-folks

#creator spotlight #kizunatsudoishi #fanart #community

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itsmyhugbear · 6 years

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i LOVE the way you paint!!! would you ever be willing to do a tutorial/give some tips on painting?

Hey, thank you so much!!! I’m really flattered that you’d ask, but I honestly feel like I have very little technical grounding in digital painting and am nowhere near qualified to tell anyone else what to do... I’ll try to explain a little about what I think about while painting/the way I approach it but I’m nervous about giving bad advice, so please take what I say with a grain of salt...

I usually colour my sketch layer red or blue and set it to multiply, then whack some kind of neutral-ish colour underneath before I very sloppily lay down flats behind the sketch. I don’t think it matters very much but I just use the default hard round brush in photoshop, sketching and usually flatting on like 80%. Then if I’m feeling fancy or for the sake of this ask I can make another layer on top of the flats to roughly block out shadows, set it to multiply and reduce the opacity until I like the colours (or, more accurately, until I can stand them I guess)

Then I make another layer on top and start painting. This is pretty much just tidying up the lines and trying to define form a little more clearly. In this part I don’t pick any new colours - the whole process I pretty much have one finger on i and one finger on b and am just flicking back between the eyedropper and the brush tool (mostly set to around 50% opacity) nonstop the whole time. I think it’s useful to make the lineart and background coloured because it helps to have a set “dark point” and “white point” which aren’t flat black and white while you’re in this step. Constraining your basic palette that way helps highlights and shadows pop later on and also I think makes it easier to retain colour harmony overall.. (Sorry if all this is super obvious/rote!!)

I know this is not a super helpful part to get vague about, but from that point it’s basically just blending, refining, adding more highlights and shadows where necessary, etc. This is the fun part but also the most difficult to give any concrete advice on. You can probably see that 95% of my process is just making stupid decisions and then trying to fix them lol, but I don’t think that’s so bad, imo the process of drawing/painting basically is just making dumb problems and then trying to fix them... it’s easier to define light and shadow in harsh ugly colours and then gradually blend and soften than to go the other way.... ohhh I feel so dumb trying to give anyone advice OTL just try to think about ambient lighting where u can, texture is easy to define loosely (and loosely is all I usually bother with) with the direction/length of your brush strokes, think about places where skin is loose or tight or hollow or smooth or oily, try not to be too married to your initial sketch and move stuff around where you need to (although this one stayed pretty much the same apart from a few little tweaks..)

Anyway, then I fiddle around with the colours a bit until I hate em less, fix any last second stuff that was bugging me and eventually can’t stand to look at it anymore. VOILA!! My biggest and only valid piece of art advice is that if you are like me you will always be embarrassed and ashamed of everything you make but just make it and don’t make excuses for it anyway. The best way to get better is to do it a lot!!

Also I don’t know if this helps but I found a couple old (non-TAZ related) gifs I made of painting processes.

(that gravity falls one is... so... old...)

Anyway, hope that helps a little and that your day is going well anon!!!

#i feel so snotty whenever i try to give art advice #i wanna add the disclaimer I ACTUALLY DONT KNOW FUCKING ANYTHING #Anonymous #hugbear talk

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litriu · 7 years

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Hi I'm stalking your art tag because you're SO GOOD and just?? How did you improve so much? My art looks the same from like. 10 years ago. How do you do what you do

First of all, thank you so much!! You’re such a sweetie!I am by no means an art teacher. I feel like you have to have a certain mindset to be a teacher, and I don’t have one of those mindset. I’m not good at it, so I don’t teach, but I will give you some really helpful stuff I wish I’d figured out earlier.

Second of all I’m going to give you a boring answer you don’t want to hear and I don’t want to say:

Practice.

Now, here’s the more fun answer that I’m hoping is more helpful:

Practice while you’re going. Every time I draw is a chance to practice. I’ll draw and redraw poses and edit them about a dozen times before I settle on it for lining! In one of my most recent drawings I have AT LEAST 29 layers of me drawing, redrawing, and tweaking the poses.

Practice can mean sitting down and doing 20 hand sketches, or practice can mean something different. Find out what method of practice works best for you. Sometimes drawing a thousand hands doesn’t help, and it’s okay if it doesn’t help you. Find another method!

Don’t settle on your first draft! Redrawing something is not only improving the drawing, but giving you experience for the future!

Draw from life, i know, that’s really basic. But still, it helps!

Make practice fun! Motivate yourself to practice by using things you enjoy drawing. Are you garbage at drawing hands, but you love drawing aliens? Draw aliens with a bunch of hands. This is a really basic example, but you get the jist!

My babe and I recently (before I came down with tendonitis and had to take a break) would watch a dance video where the dancers are wearing relatively snug clothing, pause it at a random place, set a timer for 5 minutes and draw whatever pose we got. (you can obviously do a shorter time if you want!) It helped a lot with foreshortening, movement, and making bodies look more 3d.

Speaking of which this won’t help your art any but it’ll help your health: S T R E T C H before, after, and while you draw, okay? You know that tendonitis I mentioned? Yeah, guess who didn’t stretch. Find stretches that work for you. Wrists, back, neck. Walk around a little every once in a while. Drink water. Eat. Take care of yourself.

Practice SMART, not just practice. Figure out what you want to strengthen in your art style. If you want to focus on improving the fluidity or readability of your poses, doing half hour studies of detailed landscapes or portraits isn’t going to help with that. Doing 1 minute speed-sketches of exaggerated poses might, though. Same goes for if you want to get better at drawing landscapes and detailed portraits.

You’ll get something out of it, so if you want to do these things do them! They’re fun! but don’t draw nothing but anime eyes and wonder why you can’t draw a skyscraper perfectly.

REFERENCE. U S E R E F E R E N C E

I’m gonna break this wall of text up with a doodle of a kitten because it’s a lot

Don’t be afraid of shitty anatomy! Sometimes to get the right perspective, it has to look weird. Making mistakes helps you learn what to improve. What works and what doesn’t. And, in my experience, the pieces I obsessed over were the pieces I felt like aged the worse, while pieces I had fun doing and relaxed drawing are still pieces I really love.

All in all, just don’t be afraid of mistakes. You’ll make them, just have fun making them.

EXPERIMENT, EXPERIMENT, EXPERIMENT! Experiment with colors. With more lineweight, with less lineweight, with weird anatomy and proportions, try out aspects of art styles you love, try out aspects of art styles you hate! Just have fun!

Step out of that comfort zone! Learn something new! You don’t have to curate an entire art exhibit on horses if you can’t draw horses, but sketch a couple at least.

Take bits and pieces from everywhere and adapt them to what works best for you. Does this method of sketching not work for you? Okay, change it. Find a new one. Find one that works better. That includes this list of tips! If something I’m saying doesn’t work for you? IGNORE IT! find something new. Don’t try to force yourself to work in a box that doesn’t work for you. It’ll just make you feel inadequate, and instead of spending time improving, you’re spending time trying to fit into the box.

I can’t give you too many super specific tips because I don’t know your art style or what you want to improve, but in general, just experiment and adapt to whatever works best for you.

This one is more of a catch all for developing your art, not nesecarilly improving it: Don’t treat things like color theory as sacred rules of the land that cannot be broken. Learn anatomy, learn color theory, learn about lineweight and how it works, learn about light and shadow! But keep in mind; they’re a guide for how things work, not an instruction manual. Do whatever you think looks cool, even if that isn’t what other people say looks good.

Learn at every opportunity! You think that lighting is cool? Try to replicate it. You watched a speedpaint and you liked their technique? try it out for yourself. Like that color palette? Analyze what you like about it and try to replicate that feeling.

Draw as often as you can! And “draw as often as you can” does not mean draw until your hands and arms hurt! It means draw a little when you have some time, if you have the energy. Don’t hurt yourself.

Time for another kitten break

Take a step back if you don’t like how something’s turning out. close it up, have something to eat, sleep on it, work on something else, whatever. If you’ve just been looking at it too long, that’ll fix it. And if there’s actually something off, you’ll come back to it less frustrated and with fresh eyes!

Draw fingernails on hands. This sounds really weird and dumb and random but it literally upped my hand game by at least 25%. It does WONDERS for portraying the angle of the hand.

A major chunk of my artistic development and improvement was done in a very unhealthy way. When I was younger, I would push myself to pain, I’d stay up until 3-6 am drawing something, I’d cry at least once every two weeks because I wasn’t good enough. I improved a lot very quickly, but I pushed myself way too hard because I was so desperate to improve…

Don’t do that. I mean it. I’m very thankful for the growth i achieved in that time, but if you can avoid that phase, do. It’s better to improve slowly and keep a healthy relationship with your art than to push yourself so hard that art becomes a chore and you lose your passion, or even hurt yourself.

Finished not Perfect

Your art has improved!! I promise it has, it may not seem like it but it has! You don’t see it right away, but every single drawing is a little better than the last as long as you keep striving to learn a little more with every drawing. Everything grows at a different pace, and you’re growing at the right pace for you.

You’re good enough right now! Have goals for what you want to do with your art, not standards for how “good” you need to be!

I’m sorry this post is long, I wish I could say “I sacrificed my soul to the art demons” but… I can’t say that. I didn’t do anything special.

Draw as much as you can, draw what makes you happy, draw new and exciting things, and surround yourself with art, artists, and people that inspire you!

BEND ART TO YOUR WILL AND MAKE IT YOUR PET

If you know an art demon that might help too idk?

aaaand here’s one more incredibly small, incredibly round kitten

#long post #litriu text #art advice #probably incredibly questionable art advice #my tips and tricks for art pretty much amount to #'idunno sound' + have fun do whatever you want #palepinkroses

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creekkidart · 7 years

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Surface Pro 4 initial review reactions n stuff

Model: Surface Pro 4 i5 8gb

Drawing Program: Krita

Pros: Does everything I figured it would

Main Con: Screen size, awkwardness for longterm use

Other: pen pressure different, had to change settings in Krita

Conclusion: DEFINITELY GET THE TABLET PRO APP But basically if you’re deciding between a laptop, or cintiq, and you don’t need to do crazy heavy work I would highly recommend.

Long version:

Reasons I bought it: I lacked the ability to draw on a screen, but I also don’t own a laptop. I wanted to be able to work on art in more places than my desk but I also do design work for a Real Job and school and I wanted to be able to do those things with my boss and at school, and all the good things that are portable. The Cintiq companion doesn’t let you use photoshop away from your computer and the mobile studio is both expensive and bigger and more awkward and likely more powerful than I need. (i don’t do 3d work. 5zillion levels of pen pressure is overkill Wacom tone it down). After seeing decent reviews of the Surface for drawing and determining that it does work with Krita I decided it would be a good compromise between a decent laptop and a fancy drawing tablet.

I get that good irs tax return so I bought my long dreamed for surface pro last week and I’ve been using it for the last few days. Overall, I really like it even though it’s still a little awkward for me to use it. Once I figured out how the fuck to make the pen pressure work (not even really sure how i did it, pretty sure was an act of God) it runs Krita great, faster than my pc even (Probably because I have nothing saved on it yet)

The main issue with using Krita is how fucking tiny all the icons are, like u need to really fucking concentrate, use your dex bonus for aiming, and roll higher than 15, to click on the little eye button next to a layer. Pretty sure theres nothing to be done about this. Second main issue is not having a keyboard (the keyboard cover is 100 bucks? #ThanksMicrosoft) A mouse would probably be useful as well but i bought the thing for portability.

ANYWAY when trying to figure out how to make the pen pressure work, the Krita documentation very nicely pointed to the Tablet Pro app which has a tool called Artist Pad which adds customizable keyboard shortcuts to the screen similar to the buttons on the side of cintiqs. Figuring out the set up was a little confusing, but thankfully there’s plenty o’ tutorials on the Google and from digging around in the settings I discovered they even recently added a preset specifically for Krita! Thank god cuz I didn’t want to spend an hour making my own. It’s pretty good for my workflow as is, but it could use some more buttons. Theres a button for undo (of course), new layer, switch back to brush (clicking b), ctrl, shift, eraser mode, arrows to cycle through layers. There are a few more but those are the main ones I use. I’m on the trial of the app right now but I will likely end up buying it because it’s so dang useful, and I don’t want to always have the keyboard in my lap even after I get one.

So, about the pen pressure. It didn’t register in Krita. I downloaded the drivers the documentation said to, tried both versions, still didn’t work. Uninstalled Krita. Downloaded the portable version of krita. Didn’t see a different. Left it there, reinstalled the regular version. Also downloaded photoshop (some one in a forum said doing this made the win drivers work for some reason) after the last two steps it magically worked. Think I ended up with 64bit win driver installed. Not sure if photoshop did the trick, or having both versions of Krita. There’s nothing on the krita website that says which one you should download or the difference, think one just isn’t the installer sooo?? Regardless, I’m just glad it works now.

That being said, the pen feels a little “harder” than what I’m used to pressure wise. Meaning I have to press down harder to get darker lines, and I’m used to sketching pretty lightly. And you can’t calibrate the sensitivity in the system settings like you can for wacom tablets. I’m not sure if this is a function of the pen it’s self being less sensitive or just different than my personal settings for intuos or even just how it’s mapped to Krita. Ultimately, it’s not a problem because I can change the sensitivity in Krita (thanks Krita ur da best). All I did was go in configure krita>tablet settings then move the low end of the curve up the y axis so that it’s more opaque for less pressure. (This makes sense if you’ve seen the settings thing trust me)

Surprisingly, I also found my lines to a be a little wobblier even though I have over all more control on where they go. I ended up turning on the stabilizer for line art (tool settings. unchecked delay, set to 100 or so). But that’s fine because my line art looks better now B) don’t need the stabilizer for painting

Other general things: the thing gets warm pretty fast specially if it’s plugged in. I ended up turning off the login pin thing because it’s too annoying, but it still tries to recognize my face even tho i can just swipe the screen away?? the fan turns on pretty quickly as well. The little kick stand is really great and sturdy. How ever I find myself wishing I had it on a desk or stand or something to make it face height so I don’t have to hunch over. That’s just a function of the size I know, but it’s really the only uncomfortable thing about using it. So if you’re already a cool kid who has a big ass cintiq and you’re used to it, using this little baby probably won’t replace your workstation. HOWEVER it’s a very functional tool, and infinitely more portable than any cintiq product. ALSO it can actually plug in and be used like a second monitor, so other than the size difference, it’s like having a cintiq that is also it’s own computer. (note: I haven’t tried this yet cuz u need another chord but it is A Thing. Will update if I do)

So I think that’s it! Overall I really like drawing on it. Makes me feel fancy. Does anyone else use a Surface to draw? Let me know if you have any tips!

#surface pro 4 review #digital art #surface pro for artists #digital art tools #krita tools #drawing

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