i promise i will never use the term ‘anthro-fiction’ when describing your body of work

*wheeze* slowly, but surely, working on art of them all

This Lacus has been haunting me for almost a year now

you ever spend enough time on a drawing doing all the details and such and then eventually you just start scribbling and then you realize hey maybe i should take a break actually

Ok wish me luck. Local guy-who-has-been-getting-hyped-for-Art-Fight is going to try and speedrun owed art while the site runs like ass the first two days.

How long does it take for you to finish drawing?

I'm an artist (beginner) and i unconsciously set unrealistic goals for myself and need a reminder of how long it takes to complete a drawing, Thanks.

Hi! In the context you presented it in, that is a really interesting question, so I'll try to approach it thoroughly. I hope I won't make you roll your eyes too much.

Where to start, where to start... I guess the first thing I should say is that there is a difference between time I spend preforming the action of <drawing>, and the time I spent <working> on a particular piece. The first would be counted in hours, the second one - days. I'm a big believer in slowing things down, and giving things time - going through options, gathering research and references, taking breaks every 1h of sitting and drawing - and seeing things through until I achieve the goal I set at the beginning of the process.

The goals are usually different each time: "quick design", "character exploration", "analysis of an artist's linework and experimenting with the knowledge gained", "creating an aesthetically pleasing image", and so on and so forth. Of course I don't write these down like it's a school assignment, but knowing in the back of my head what I'm actually doing helps me manage my expectations. I also enjoy being conscious of why I create - when I was younger regardless of what I was doing I had the thought "AND IT MUST LOOK GOOD AND PRESENTABLE! BECAUSE PEOPLE WILL LOOK!" ...and I think that obsession is the cancer of creative process.

Since the goals for each picture are different, the time I'll spent on achieving each one will be different as well, because the "satisfactory results" lay in different places. For example, the Marcile sketchpage was created in one afternoon, and took approximately 3 hours. The goal was to play around with a brush that has no opacity forcing my lines to be more decisive. I did that and so it is "finished". There's nothing else I want from it.

On the other hand, the cover of Asterism took about 10 days to create, the goal of which was to make "an aesthetically pleasing cover picture taking colour inspiration from the works of (specific list of artists)". I took my time designing it so that it looks aesthetically pleasing, made sure the anatomy is "correct" (a nebulous statement when it comes to stylised humans), took my time masking, and picking colours, and shading. I wanted it to "look good" to my own eyes so if something was not working I would go back, change it, alter it, move it around... that's the wonderful thing about personal art, you can take as long as you like making something satisfactory.

The funny thing is, with what the Asterism cover actually is (a cellshaded image), it could have been done probably in 4 days by the me 4 years ago. But that person was willing to sit 8-10 hours a day to draw with no breaks, she had little social life, and treated herself as a little circus seal performing tricks so that people clap around her, and the clapping was soooo nice because it meant that people remembered her and she mattered. And it worked for her! For long 10 years! Until her arm gave out, and the reality of never being able to draw again became more tangible than ever, and it's been following her like a fog ever since for the past 4 years. The me today works about 4 hours a day and every hour I take about a 30 minute break. I also don't post half the stuff I draw. There is also another aspect that dictates the speed of creating and that is familiarity with the subject matter. The less you know something, the fast you'll draw it! But as you get to know the intricacies of the process, and see all the building blocks, it will start taking *longer* because you will start accounting for every block. But then you'll eventually get familiar with the blocks and so the time spent on a picture will go down again! The cool yet overwhelming thing about art is that, there are always hundreds of building blocks. Form, composition, ambient occlusion, saturation, hue, light balance, line form...... and those are just the *some* of the generalised *categories*. And each category will have it's own subsection of building blocks! And then those blocks will interact with each other to create completely new area of expertise! This is crazy! Marcille sketch page took me only 3 hours to create because I am already quite familiar with linework - I have drawn 3-4 comicbooks worth of linework. This also means I am familiar with believable anatomy, more or less, which got utilised in the Asterism cover - the main bulk of linework got created during a 3h livestream. So.... what's the answer.... "It's all relative" is so unsatisfactory and probably not what you looked for. But you can draw something in 3 days and kill your body over it. Or you can become an expert in a field and dish the same picture out effortlessly in 8 hours. You can also split that 8h block over multiple days bringing you back up to 3 days. You could even add a whole day of visual research which might make your picture only marginally better. And even if we calculate it in terms of raw working time, pen-to-paper, like a self-inflicted capitalist tumor, that time can fluctuate still due to personal visual library and knowledge base. If I asked Tom Fox how long it takes for him to create his sketch pages his answer would probably be downward of 30 minutes. Yet I need whole 3 hours to create something *less* anatomically correct than him. And so here we are at the end of this perhaps unnecessary essay. And all we learned is this: it depends. Dry, not nuanced tl;dr, my personal timings: single sketch - 30mins; single linework pic 1-2h; Cellshaded illust - 16h; Rendered illust: 20-25h.

Asking some artists/writers that I follow:

What is the most recent thing you've written or drawn? Do you like to share sneak peeks of your work, or do you prefer to post finished pieces only?

Personally I prefer to post finished pieces, for some odd reason I’ve noticed that whenever I post sneak peeks I sometimes suddenly lose interest in finishing the work. This seems to also affect my comics long term which is why I’ve decided to fully finish the post shredder series before posting it. As for my most recent work, a lot of it has been quick sketches that I’ll scribble down whenever I have time, most of which I don’t really show anyone or share. But there is a piece I’ve been trying to render forever:

This was supposed to be done weeks ago, highly likely I still won’t finish it, but if I don’t get it done over the weekend I might just post the linework.

The Chain

Pairing: rockstar!joel x actress!reader

Author’s note: I swear on my life they will get a happy ending eventually

Summary: “I hope you get everything you’ve ever wanted and I hope I never hear a thing about it.” - Audrey Emmett [2.6k]

Warnings: brief mentions of poor mental health, vague allusions to substance abuse issues, nostalgia, we’re burning bridges and working through the stages of grief

"No Joel tonight?" Alexa asks as she swipes blush across your cheeks. You freeze and pick at your cuticles as you think.

The premiere for Red Dirt Girl is finally here, and people will be able to see everything you did and judge it. It's terrifying, exciting, and uncertain, and it turns out that adding a breakup to that mix is not good for your mental health. Getting ready to film for Beginning of the End and leaving for Ireland has been a great distraction as you organize your life into neat little boxes that travel easily. You've poured yourself over the script, looking into dramaturgy and creating a movie Bible to access during shooting. It's not unlike anything you've done for any other project, but this one feels especially important. You've ignored Joel's texts and calls the past week except to tell him to leave you alone, which he did.

"No, he's gonna meet me there," you tell Alexa with a soft practiced smile, and she nods. "What time is it?" 

"Six forty-five," Jenna answers from behind you, and you take a deep breath. "You nervous?"

"Yeah, but it's all good. I'm excited for people to see the movie."

"I've been hearing really good things from reviewers."

"Really?" You ask, and they both nod. 

"Heard it was one of your most powerful performances to date," Alexa says as she hands you a brilliant red lipstick, and you anxiously turn the tube over in your hands. It's silent as you slide the color over your lips, power, and confidence taking over as you take in the full look for the first time. True to the name of the movie, you and your castmates decided to wear red. When you told this to your stylist, she was thrilled and said she knew exactly what she wanted to put you in— an off-the-shoulder red dress with a lower neckline (á la Pretty Woman) with a slit in the long skirt. It's pretty simple, but when you added the jewelry, hair, makeup, and shoes, it became a beautiful mix of elegant and sexy. "Joel is gonna freak the fuck out when he sees you." 

You know she's trying to hype you up and get you excited for the premiere. You know she's trying to be nice, but the idea of seeing him makes your stomach churn. You nod and pocket the tube of lipstick before standing. You thank them both for helping you get ready but don't say much else as you get escorted out of the hotel room and down to the car waiting for you. Based on the number of people outside the red carpet, half of LA seems to either be getting to the premiere or already at the event. It's insane to see that many people there for something you helped make.

Cameras flash the second you step out of the car, and people scream your name. Fans are lined up on either side of the first stretch of carpet when you get to the theatre. You smile and take the time to greet, take pictures, and sign autographs for different people waiting on each side. It's always fun to hear what fans say to you when they get the chance, and every once in a while, you'll have an experience that just truly shocks you. As you take a picture with a twenty-something girl, she rolls up her sleeve and shows you a beautiful tattoo. At first, you're too absorbed in the linework on the flowers, but once you look closer, you see that the flowers surround a line from one of your first major projects, "On Purpose." 

You cup your hand over your mouth as you look closer at the ink forever etched into her skin. It was such a quick line. You weren't even sure if it would stick with people like it stuck with you. Your character, Margot, said it when she explained why she loved her husband when he was depressed and feeling like a shitty person. "I love you on purpose," she said. You have to swallow around the lump in your throat to keep yourself from crying as you hug the young woman tightly. Quietly, she tells you what it means to her and why that movie stuck with her so much, and you rub her back as she cries. Despite the cameras flashing and the hundreds of people vying for your attention, you can only focus on her and this interaction. This is why I do what I do, you think.

Once you find the strength to walk away and go to the actual carpet, you ask one of the interns to give two tickets for the premiere to that girl and her friend and smile from afar as you watch them get the news. You blow them a kiss and wave one last time before being shuffled away by one of the bodyguards. When you get to wherever you're supposed to be, you see Joel waiting for you. He's wearing a nicely tailored suit with red flowers embroidered over his chest and shoulders with black shoes. He smiles, and you let him kiss you on the cheek to keep up with appearances, suddenly hyper-aware of the five million cameras pointed in your direction.

"You look beautiful." He says.

"Thanks." You mumble. It's the most you've spoken since you had that massive argument at his house. He wants to say more. You can tell he does. You can hear the fucking gears turning in his head he's thinking so loud. But you don't want to listen to any of it. You're here because you legally have to, and you're not going to miss your own movie premiere. He says your name at the same time someone with an earpiece comes up to tell you it's your turn to walk the carpet. You don't even look at him before walking out to the wolves, him trailing closely behind you.

You take a lot of solo shots, feeling in your moment as you spin and show off the look. However, the second your castmates spot you on the carpet, they rush over to kiss your cheeks, hug you, and take so many stupid photos. Some with Lilly and you back to back like Charlie's Angels, or some with Peter bowing down to you. At one point, Max, the guy who plays your dad, picked you up and spun you around like a baby. Once everyone has gotten through their unhinged behavior, you manage to take some nice full-cast pictures with Lilly right next to you and her hand in yours. It's all fun and lovely until you have to take pictures with Joel. Of course, everyone wants pictures of you being completely in love— kisses on the cheek, forehead, lips. Hold her hand, Joel! No, not like that! Look at him like you love him! Aw! It's exhausting. 

When you get toward the end of the carpet, you do interviews with different reporters and answer questions about what you hope people take away from the movie, your favorite memories from set, and more. One reporter gestures to Joel behind you and smiles as she asks, "It must be really nice to have someone like Joel to support you through all this craziness. How have things been with you two? You seem to be everyone's favorite couple right now." You laugh and look back at Joel, who raises his eyebrows at you. You hold your hand out, and he takes it as he joins your interview, much to the reporter's excitement.

"He's pretty great. I mean, look at his matching flowers. Are we kidding?" You gush as you point at the delicate embroidery on his suit, resting your hand on his chest.

"They are pretty amazing! Everyone was talking about you guys coordinating. I think someone even called you a power couple."

"Well, I don't know about that, but we're definitely very happy. I think he's navigating the actress thing pretty well." You say, and he laughs. The interviewer thanks you both and sends you on your way. The second you two enter the theatre, Joel grabs your arm and pulls you to the side where you're out of earshot of other people. 

"Can we talk?" He asks as you rip your arm away from him.

"I have nothing to say to you."

"Then, can I talk, and you listen?" He asks. You roll your eyes and shake your head. You should say no. You should push past him and go to sit down without saying another word, but for some stupid reason, you stay quiet. He takes a deep breath and grinds his teeth nervously. "I'm sorry. I should've told you Sarah was in contact with Angela. I was scared you would get freaked out or think I didn't wanna be with you because I did. I still do. But, I swear, I didn't know she was gonna be there that night. Sarah invited her without tellin' me, and I..." he sighs. "I thought she was dead. She'd been sick for so long, and I hadn't heard anythin' for years. So, when I saw her... I don't know. It fucked with my head, and that's not an excuse."

"No, it's not," you say. "I want Sarah to have everything she's ever wanted, and if that includes a relationship with her mom, then I have no problem with that. What I have a problem with is you lying to me or arguing with me about work when I've never once made a big deal about your job."

"You're right, and I'm so sorry."

"I trusted you, Joel. More than I've ever trusted a partner, and you broke that."

"I know," he says simply. "I can't change what happened, but I wanna try to earn your trust again."

"I don't have time to start over."

"We can find time."

"When? You'll release your album and go on tour, and I'll go back to work. Plus, you've gotta figure out this whole co-parenting situation now." You say, and he nods.

"We'll figure it out. We found time before, right? You came to the studio, and I went to set. We can do that again." 

"We had time because my schedule for the past few months has literally been created around yours."

"Then, I’ll create my schedule around yours. I'll plan dates and trips. We can fix this. Just-"

"Pike offered me a role. A big one, and I took it. I'm shooting in Ireland for at least six months in three weeks." You cut him off, the words spilling out of you.

"What?" He asks, and you shrug. 

"This could be huge for me. I read the script. It's amazing. It's the best script I've read in a long time, and he's not directing. I don't even think he'll be on set a majority of the time but-"

"Do you even hear yourself? When he pulled that shit a couple months ago, you were scared out of your fucking mind!" He raises his voice, and you grab him and press the two of you further into the corner you're hidden in. 

"I had it handled." You mutter, and he scoffs.

"That's what you call handling it?"

"Yes. Not everyone can go around punching photographers and yelling at their managers when something goes wrong!" You snap. 

"Really?" He asks, visibly shrinking as he takes in what you just said. You smooth your hands down your dress and glance around to see if anybody heard you. You bite the inside of your cheek and look at him, but he's looking at his feet.

"This is the chance I've been working my whole fucking life for, and I'm not going to let it pass me by because of one shitty guy. I want to make beautiful art and bring this character to life. I want to do the work. I want a fucking legacy," you say. He refuses to look at you, and you let out a sharp exhale. "I want to be great or nothing, and I'm sorry if you can't handle that." 

For one long, painful minute, neither of you says anything. You stand there, shifting your weight anxiously while waiting for him to say something. There's nothing he can say that would make you change your mind. You decided that way before tonight, but this, the silence, hurts more than you thought. How was there once a time when you two talked so much that you fell asleep on the phone? Those people seem so far away, so stupid, compared to the people you are now. 

"I guess you were right. I guess there's nowhere for us to go after this." 

"No, there's not," you say. "I'm sorry." He nods and doesn't say anything as he steps closer. You get a whiff of his cologne when he leans down to kiss your cheek, lingering for a second before pulling away.

"D'you want me to stay?" He asks, and both its meanings slap you in the face. He asked you the same thing the first time he laid next to you after the car accident, more than ready to give up his bed to you. You looked at him through the darkness and nodded before letting him hold you until you fell asleep. He asked you the same thing when you were doing dishes while on FaceTime with him. You looked at him through the hundreds of miles separating you and nodded as you scrubbed a plate clean. But this time is different. This time you take a shaky breath and push his hair out of his eyes so you can see through the curls.

"No." You say. He doesn't fight you. He just takes a step back and looks over your dress like it's the first time he's seeing you. His brown eyes move over you, making you suddenly self-conscious, but you straighten your posture and square your shoulders to hide it. He smiles half-heartedly, and you know he knows why you did that. 

"Have a good night, pretty girl." He says before turning away from you and walking toward the back doors of the theatre to leave without the press seeing him. You watch him disappear. If this were a movie, you would cry or chase after him. Run through an airport to catch him before he gets on his flight. If this were a movie, you'd tell him you love him. He'd say it back, and you'd kiss like all the problems that led to the third-act breakup are suddenly solved. If this were a movie, you'd quit your job to move in with him and paint baby nurseries and spend the rest of your life bending around his.

Fuck that.

"Hey, the movie's about to start," Lilly gets your attention, and you look at her. She smiles and holds her hand out to you. "Sit with me?" She asks, and you smile back. You walk over and slide your arm around her shoulders to pull her close and kiss her temple. 

"Of course." You say. Then, without much fuss, she interlocks your fingers, and you two walk into the dim theatre, knowing you've earned your seats and then some.

have you done the beedrill line yet :>?

I already did Weedle over here, but as for the rest of the line:

Kakuna is pretty much just your average cocoon Pokemon. I do like how the body foreshadows Beedrill a little, with something resembling a striped abdomen and two arms clasped together, and the linework and detailing on the body works well. It's good for what it is, just nothing that has a ton of personality compared to all the other cocoon Pokemon out there.

Weirdly, one of its RG sprites shows it with the "arms" in front extended like Beedrill's limbs, which I kind of like just as something different, but that seems to be almost exclusive to this sprite.

Beedrill itself is honestly kind of underwhelming. A wasp (not a bee, despite what the English name wants you to believe) with drills is a decent enough idea, tying back into their stringers, but Beedrill just feels like a first attempt that never got refined. It's literally just a bipedal cartoon wasp with two large drills (or spears, according to the Japanese name) on each of its forelimbs. It's not really bad looking or anything, don't get me wrong—but for such a cool premise as a drill wasp, this just feels so weirdly bland and almost kind of generic somehow. I do really like the overall head shape and the wing patterns, but that's about it.

Mega Beedrill is, in my opinion, one of the best megas out there. It does exactly what it should—it takes a weak 3-stage Pokemon with a fairly mediocre or otherwise bland design and improves upon it across the board, making it stronger in the process.

The design of the mega really fixes all of the issues I had with the base design. The generic body design has been changed, with the abdomen itself now taking on a shape very akin to a drill or some other kind of power tool with the distinct thin abdomen of a wasp. Not only is this great visually, but it also comes with a functionality bonus—those ridges allow it to slot its bottom set of limbs in to form one giant drill! Love that. I also really like that the stinger is now separate from the body to match the drills (I do wish it was white instead of light yellow, but that's my only nitpick).

In addition to this, it takes the lower legs triangular and striped while the upper ones sport extra-large drills. This feels much more natural than the original design, which just had the drills stuck onto the ends of the limbs in an an unnatural and awkward way.

Finally, the head has been changed to have to have the eyes wrap around it (this is more accurate to actual wasps), more black has been added to really make the form pop, and the wings have been given a more unique shape that invokes industrial equipment. All of these changes are fantastic—it makes the design bolder, it expands on the original concept, and it doesn't look overly busy or complicated.

So overall, Kakuna is fine but pretty standard for a cocoon Pokemon, and Beedrill is a bit too underbaked and bland for its cool concept. However, the mega does everything it needs to and expands on the design considerably, improving it across the board. @ gamefreak please put this one in Z-A I'm begging

✦•······················•✦•······················•✦୨୧✦•······················•✦•······················•✦ ℑ𝔯𝔬𝔫 ℌ𝔞𝔫𝔡𝔰 Ferrus Manus x female oc (Argena Seeva) Other parts in the reblogs Ferrus, in a bid to one up his pain-in-the-ass brother Fulgrim, takes up drawing. Gets some reference help from his long suffering friend and senechal, Argena. Part of my AU I have cleverly called the Primarch Wife AU. Happy endings, the boys get the help they need, Big E is a good dad and, most importantly, everybody gets a wife. Because big husband and small wife makes brain go brr

Sexual content/NSFW after the cut - Very lewd-but-not-lewd touching, Ferrus jacking off to his future wife while trying to get work done, idiots in love. @thevoidscreams @pringles-plaguehaus ✦•······················•✦•······················•✦୨୧✦•······················•✦•······················•✦

₊˚ ‿︵‿︵‿︵୨୧ · · ♡ · · ୨୧‿︵‿︵‿︵ ˚₊ “Gena?” Ferrus asked, sounding uncharacteristically nervous. “I have a…strange favor to ask of you.” Argena put down the loop of silver she’d been polishing and turned around on her stool to face him as she heard him out. Throne, he even looked uncomfortable, and she wondered what exactly he needed that he was looking so hot under the collar. Ferrus Manus was many things, but wavering was not one of them. Actually he was kind of cute like that. She mentally slapped herself almost as soon as the thought crossed her mind. HE. IS. YOUR. BOSS. She’d been with him for over a year and half at this point. It felt like it should have been longer. Falling into the role of his senechal had been so easy after a while. Especially after they’d started spending more time simply enjoying each other’s company. He was a surprisingly layered man once he opened up enough to show it. And, she heavily suspected, a lonely one too. So they’d gotten close more easily than she would have first thought. It even showed in the way he addressed her. Gena, a more tender nickname than her given. “Does it have anything to do with your ongoing attempts to one up your brother?” He rubbed the back of his neck. “It does, yes. Look, I can’t help it. Fulgrim has been driving me mad recently, so I want to pay him back in kind.” “I know, I know. And if you pull it off you’ll make him absolutely seethe.” “It” in question was Ferrus putting a serious effort into learning how to draw. He could already, but it was an entirely different kind. Technical drawings, machine blueprints, weapon schematics. Nothing really artistic, although it could be counted as a form of art in its own right if you asked her. Watching him work was hypnotic, the movement of the pencil or stylus in his metal hands impossibly graceful. Elegant even. But most people didn’t see it that way. Resident artsy fuck, Fulgrim, certainly didn’t. Constantly making little jabs and jokes at his best friend’s inability to produce anything else than purely practical drawings. Finally, Ferrus had enough and announced to her in private that he was going to produce a piece of actual art better than anything Fulgrim could do (and he wasn’t as good as everyone thought he was, including himself) out of pure brotherly spite. The early results were rough, but promising. Argena herself had quite a bit of skill, picked up from her goldsmithing hobby, and he’d come to her with practice sketches, rudimentary shapes and simple three dimensional objects. It took him a while, but he was definitely getting it. His talent for technical drawings was beginning to shine through with the clean linework. In short, it seemed he might actually do it. “That is the goal.” He said, just a little smug. “So what do you need me for, pray tell my lord?” She prompted. The Primarch seemed to steel himself for a moment. “Well…I feel I’m ready to move on to…organic materials now. I can only draw my own tools so much before I cease to learn any more from the exercise. I was going to ask if I could study you. Your anatomy, I mean.” And it already sounded like that would involve less clothes than she started with that day. “...Study my anatomy? How so? Moreover, why?”

“Feel up your body. Your muscles, skeletal structure, general build. How everything connects and moves together. I find that I learn best when I am up to the elbows in it so to speak, so being able to touch it would be the best thing. You are the only person I feel comfortable coming to with this. It is, ultimately, quite a petty thing I’m after. You have been very understanding of me. More than I thought would be possible.” Ferrus paused for a moment, wondering if what he had to say next was even a good idea before deciding he’d take that chance. “Also, you are objectively a very beautiful woman. Whatever someone’s personal tastes may be, nobody could look at you and deny it. And subjectively, I think you are a beautiful woman. For those reasons you’d make the best subject for what I’m trying to accomplish. If the goal of art is to create something pleasing to the eye, something that captures the beauty of the world and the enthusiasm of the creator in a still image, you would be a perfect basis. Not like the mess of colors and lines Fulgrim throws on his canvases.” He spoke so frankly. Ferrus was always a very no-nonsense type of person, but to have that direct, blunt nature used in such a glowing description of her was something else entirely. Because you knew for a fact when he said something, he meant it. It made her feel very warm inside. “And this is purely for research, right?” She asked tentatively. “Purely objective.” He swore. “And I won’t go any farther than you want or touch you anywhere you don’t want to be touched. I’ll fill in any gaps in my knowledge with an anatomy book. Just tell me where to stop, and I will.” Somehow a Primarch who’d grown up in the wilderness eating sand had a better concept of boundaries than many people. “Well...I trust you, so I suppose it wouldn’t hurt.” She said after a moment, rubbing her upper arm. “I’m willing. Let’s do it.” He gave her one of his rare smiles (that seemed to be becoming less rare nowadays come to think of it), genuinely grateful. It made her feel more at ease with the agreement. Who knows, it might even be fun. ₊˚ ‿︵‿︵‿︵୨୧ · · ♡ · · ୨୧‿︵‿︵‿︵ ˚₊

would you consider dropping some tips on how you color? your art always has such a nice feeling to it

Thank you so much, and yes, absolutely! 

So... I have been agonizing over how to answer this question for over a week because I tend to make a lot of my major decisions based on what looks and feels good to me in the moment. It’s sort of hard to explain. Then I started getting philosophical with it (“how does one color? How do I explain aesthetic?”), and I started rambling, and had to cut the answer way, way, way down lol.

But here’s what I can help with right now. I think the most important part of how I color is my tools and what they allow me to do. These are currently my favorite brushes to use: 

From top to bottom, I use Kyle T’s Gouache for just about everything. A lot of my recent pieces are done entirely in that– I love the chunky texture and how the pressure mimics traditional gouache. It’s great for children’s book illustrations, and filling linework, and realistic portraits. She is my soft wife and I love her. 

I practically never use the default hard round. Ignore that. 

The roller brush is another one I use for painting. It was my go-to before KT’s gouache, so you’ll find it a lot in my older work (and as a big texture thing in my current works). The “Sampled Tip” below that one I usually use for children’s book styled illustrations. It’s like a really dense, waxy crayon, so it’s fun for textured lines and details.

I always paint in my own shadows and highlights, but I like to use the soft round if I want to blow the shadow or highlight out. It’s for extra large areas.

And finally my pencil. I use it for sketching as well as linework, if I plan on doing a linework-centric piece. I don’t think there’s much of a difference between the two there… one is probably smoother than the other. 

______________

The reason why I like textured, pressure-sensitive brushes so much is because they’re important to how I paint. When I blend, I don’t use a blender brush or a smudge tool. What I do is layer two colors– lightly– then use the eyedropper to select the color between them and continue painting with it. That’s probably the key to most of my work. I’ve gotten pretty fast at it, so I’m constantly selecting colors from the painting and reusing it throughout my painting. 

I still use the color-wheel to hand-pick what I think will look best, though. This is probably going to be a really frustrating answer, but I choose color palettes based on basic color/lighting theory combined with personal aesthetic preference. It can take some studying (of both theory and other artists’ work). If you’re ever looking for a really great reference on the former subjects, I highly recommend Color and Light by James Gurny. Even if you’re not into watercolor or dinosaurs or realism, the guy is a master at explaining all that different stuff in depth. 

Shape and negative space are also pretty important to me, but that's a whole other thing. And as a side-note, I recommend following more children’s book illustrators. Their work may look simple, but a lot of intention goes into how they use color, shape, space, and texture. 

Also, on texture, I hand-draw most of mine. I love to add little scratches and drops and splashes when the painting is almost over. It's one of my favorite things to do :')

____

Now, the other most important tip:

Once I’m happy with the sketch/linework, and once I’ve laid down the basic colors of my piece, I do a Really Terrible Thing. I become a graphic designer’s worst nightmare and collapse everything onto one layer. 

Then I paint directly on top of it, linework and all.

I do this for a lot of reasons, but mostly because 1) my tiny brain is overwhelmed by the clutter of too many layers, and 2) it forces me to approach a piece as if it was traditional media– a process which I find a lot more comfortable and rewarding. I paint right on top of the base colors, and right on top of the linework, effectively redoing and cleaning up what I already have there. Even if I'm working with a blank background, I'll paint a new blank one on top because it gives the feeling of a more unified piece, if that makes sense.

Basically, I approach my drawings as if I’m using traditional media. I like chunky brushes, utilizing (what I personally think are) interesting color combinations and textures, and smashing everything down onto one page so I can just paint. 

Anyway, please let me know if there’s anything specific you’d like me to go into detail on, any pieces of mine you’d like to know how exactly I went about it, etc etc etc. I’m happy to answer ^^

Without a doubt, and by far, the most marginalizing development I've seen within media analysis over the past decade is a shift towards the production of long, flashy videos which tend to require the same for a dialogue to occur. Literally nothing which has been written about Elden Ring, for example, since its release has enjoyed even a fraction of the visibility as a one-hour-and-forty-minutes video by Joseph Smith, or another of similar length by NeverKnowsBest. I don't know when exactly the shift started to happen most obviously -- maybe 2016 or 2017 -- but, today, circumstances are such that pretty much the only way to get real discursive traction on your thoughts about a piece of media is to make a colossus of a video.

Although worried and worrying discourse has complemented the unveiling of newer public A.I. technologies, we've already done a perfectly fine job of out-dating other forms of media communication by way of the aforementioned analytic format; just as, of course, earlier methods of industrial production rendered a whole variety of professions or emphases as outmoded. If you don't have the relevant editing tools at your disposal and/or don't want to spend hundreds of hours cropping footage and making it fit with music and your own narration, well -- too bad! And even then, of course, there's no guarantee that your video will reach your desired scale of an audience. I've found dozens of such videos on YT channels with only a few thousand views, if that; and on each channel it's clear that the people finally gave up after the monumental task of assembling these videos had no equivalent payoff.

Personally, I do still believe in the primacy of the text (or the spoken word, with no competing stimuli); in text as the primary form of critical engagement. More than that -- if I'm going to read a non-fiction work, I want the paged book, and not a digital version. Now, this preference is just that: a preference. And it surely is a preference a good number of people share. I find that a paged book lends itself better to my own retention of the material; and I really enjoy making my notes on the book's paper with a pen. But I don't believe that the construction of multimedia behemoths should be a baseline requirement for discourse.

I wonder if we will, in the near future, start to see some resurgence of the valuation of unembellished textual analysis complementing a more general fatigue with Internet-derived overstimulation. I've already run across numerous channels with fairly sizable communities where there is an appreciation for the "simplicity" of the formats: a person in a room just talking to the camera. I think a lot of people like engaging analysis where the only barrier of significance is devising a good script. To be sure, this is a formidable barrier in itself. I find writing long-form pieces to be the most difficult of any of my creative practices (which include drawing, painting, and music composition). But if writing on media were my main passion or goal in life, I'd feel fairly crushed to know that these projects now required me to put in perhaps quadruple the amount of time to make a blip on the radar of engagement.

EDIT: Thinking on this -- I wonder if there's a parallel to be found in the realm of supplementing one's work with excess-entertainment via social media engagement; e.g., daily Instagram videos. "Excess-entertainment" refers to material that's being made not because everyone who's making it wants to make it, but because each person is now beholden to an abstractly instituted algorithm of engagement -- an algorithm reinforced by audiences who, also under algorithmic influence, will wonder what's going on if a week goes by without something from a Content Creator.

Most artists who I've talked to regarding their Instagram videos say they would be only too happy if they never had to do another upload showing them adding paint or linework to a work-in-progress with lo-fi beats. Similarly, I wonder how many people making these mega-videos actually want to make them, and if we're not rather seeing the production of this material under a mutual, and mutually untrue, assumption of necessity, and the demands of a largely imaginary audience; and how long they'll be able to keep the act up, given the certainly enormous time investments they require (while noting that I am sure the more successful people hire others to do most of the editing for them).

Warmest disconnect by keeping all eyes in the dark

more info below cut

slams desk like the Detroit become human meme: "23 HOURS!"

well more like 24 as I transferred it over to Photopia just to do some final editing touches.

Every year I like to make one piece that pushes my skills as to what I can do, last year was more a linework thing with this artwork of mine here. So this year I knew I had to go with a painted render as I haven't done one in so long.

I think this can be considered my magnum opus so far? in terms of time spent on a thing. I started this in late December and have been working on it on and off until now, their was multiple times where I thought Id NEVER get finished but I finally did! IM FREE, the freaky bastard IS DONE. As I look at it theirs some things ill always think need tweaking but it was becoming a thing where id just be picking away at it forever otherwise.

I might upload a process video of this with the Skinny Puppy song linked if Tumblr decides to behave with the video upload. Idk if the song really fits him per say? I think it does a little but at the same time its just what I had on repeat whilst drawing this and was like hmm ye hmm this has grabber vibes.

I couldn't make any art without music, its like the bread and butter to the process of like figuring out a set up and for staging an idea I want to draw. Sorry if this is all sounding a bit pretentious now, I just spent so long on this ahah!

Anyway I love this weird freak. Its funny because I despised this character at first, (I think that was mostly due to the sheer amount of stupid takes that where going on when the black phone first came out) but then quickly realized, oh hey these are the same talking points people used back for Freddy Kruger and pennywise THIS IS FUCKING STUPID then he grew on me like a parasite and now hes one of my favorite blorbos going <3

Anyway, If you read any of this rambling thanks and here's a cookie 🍪

wip... thursday

i know i had said i would try to post chapter 2 of tk&ts this month, i'm still trying to make that happen but i can't promise anything :( but it is very close to being done!! i promise i've been working on it, but my real life job has been pretty busy and high stress recently and i've found it hard to use my brain each night.

please accept another snippet in the meantime <3

“Good girl… So beautiful, baby, you know that?” he praises softly, tucking a stray lock of hair behind your ear before lightly rubbing his thumb across your pouty bottom lip. He presses it downward against the pillowy skin, and pushes the digit inside with ease when your mouth parts so eagerly. You close your lips around him and swirl your tongue along the calloused skin a few times, and he looks like he wants to eat you alive as he watches you fall apart for him so easily. Joel pulls his thumb from your mouth, dragging it down your spit-slick lip so that it bounces back into place when his finger leaves your skin. He wears a satisfied grin at the way he has you completely at his mercy now, looking up at him with your glazed-over doll eyes. They scan back and forth between his glowing amber ones, awaiting your next instruction. “Gave you a compliment. What do you say, babygirl, hm?” “Thank you, Da– unh…” The word starts to come out before you can catch it in time, shove it back into his cage. Your face runs hot, embarrassed at your slip-up. “‘S okay, sweetheart. You can call me that, if you wanna, say it real pretty for me. Don’t got it tattooed on me for nothin’,” Joel soothes, still-wet thumb rubbing across your cheekbone in placating strokes. “C’mon, finish your sentence, baby.” “Th– thank you, Daddy,” you repeat, so lost in this saccharine headspace he’s coaxed out of you that you don’t even feel ashamed anymore. “There we go… c’mere, baby. Lemme feel you.” He uncrosses his legs, returning them to their trademark spread so that he can pull you into his lap and situate you into straddling his hips. The position makes your dress ride up so far that your panties are exposed to him, soaked-through gusset and all. His fingers make to tease the wet spot there, but change course to pay attention to something else first instead. Something scrawled in uneven black linework, peeking out from underneath white silk. He pushes the hemline of your dress further up your bare thigh to fully unveil the shoddy little illustration, tracing around it with a roughened finger.

What is Cinderella's hair color?

This is totally up to interpretation! Ilene Woods was pretty much the basis of everything when they were creating Cinderella, from her temperament to her facial structure to her coloring to her sayings to her eye placement when she smiled, and even Ilene's hair color is hard to read. She was definitely objectively blonde- she was referred to as such on radio shows and even in the press announcement that was released when she was cast as Cinderella. But in a lot of photographs, her hair appears brunette on camera- and there's a few reasons for this. First and foremost, the relatively primitive nature of cameras from that time period really couldn't capture nuances in natural tones- so unless your hair was platinum white or bleached, it would probably read brunette, and everything else would register as darker, inevitably. Plus, we're used to seeing people with bleached/colored hair these days, so what is truly considered a natural blonde- albeit dirty or a darker or just a more "natural" toned blonde- many contemporary people refer to, on a superficial lens- as brunette. So, I think Ilene was a dirty blonde, even though I've seen pictures of her later in life where she looks like a neutral blonde that is neither very light or very dark.

When it comes to Cinderella's intended/official hair color, that's also a can of worms. So, people are quick to discredit the platinum blonde Cinderella has appeared with in the 80s/90s/2000s/2010s merch and say she's a 'strawberry' blonde. They claim this is because of how she looks in the 'original' movie, but they're using the 2013 blu ray/2005 dvd master to go off of, which is even influencing current artwork of Cinderella in the Disney Princess franchise, and that master- beyond scrubbing all the linework out of the film (see screenshot below- look at how even the 1988 VHS maintains the lines in the bedding better than the 2005 and 2013 rubbery effect) also had inaccurate representations of the color relationships between elements in the film, which- again- means that you're not going to see what was intended.

The team that worked on remastering the current 4K edition of Cinderella that came out this year (which I love btw! I'm still not super pleased with certain changes BUT it's a MASSIVE, MASSIVE improvement over the 2005/2012 master that had been done in 2003 and is far more pleasing to look at and, generally, my favorite restoration Disney has officially done) said that they referenced the original cel artwork, as well as promotional materials like lobby cards to better understand what the artistic intent was...and that's tricky. Because, while they interpreted it better than remasters of the 2000s/2010s which sought to LITERALLY make the film look exactly like the raw cel art, these movies were not meant to be viewed as, I do think they still stuck too close to the cel colors. Due to the nature of technicolor, a lot of color tests had to be done so that the artists could see what the finished product would look like after it had gone through the process of being printed on film- because it was always apt to differ greatly from the artwork on cel. A good example of this is the fact that blonde hair didn't read so the artists had to color it with a green tint on the original cels (see first screenshot below) so that it'd appear blonde on camera. However, again, I think the team looked too deeply into this and now we've ended up with a master, a gorgeous one, but a faulty one that depicts Cinderella's hair as almost green in 2023 (see right screencap from 4K remaster)

When it comes to lobby cards, they're not going to be accurate either. I've seen lobby cards that were released in 1959 that depict Aurora as a brunette, blonde, and redhead, and they even change the color of her peasant dress to green, blue, pink- anything you can think of. And Cinderella's hair differs greatly in the lobby cards from the 50s themselves

The funny thing is, it really seems to be decade dependent. I actually have access to a 1973 print and I think that's what the basis for the 2005/2013 master was, because the colors are very similar to that strawberry blonde and even the hues of the hallway in the chateau look nearly identical to the 2005/2013, and we never seen those colors again outside of those two masters. It's so odd it premiered in the 70s, that specific master, because in that decade, and in the 60s, they marketed Cinderella more as a brunette and gave Aurora the blonde title (which was reversed in the 2000s, where they almost made Aurora a light brunette and made Cinderella platinum beyond belief):

You can even see Disney's confusion at what her hair is supposed to be; in the sequel, they gave Cinderella the platinum hair of the marketing at the time, but in the third movie, they tried to be more 'faithful' and cinematic and went off of the current, faulty, master of the time...which resulted in an unappealing turnout, imo? Like her skin and hair shouldn't be that close, color relationship wise, on film? (again, merch is always a different color)

Also in House of Mouse, which is generally accurate with a lot, they make Pete put a red wig on when he's in Cinderella garb, indicating they thought that was the color of her hair at that point:

Also, I feel like she's not supposed to be a true redhead or lean as close to strawberry blonde or people say she is? Again, cels shouldn't be viewed strictly for the color themselves, but if we observe the color relationship between her hair and that of Anastasia's- who is a true redhead- there's a huge difference:

There are also a few production notes that we do have that can help a little. We know Cinderella's Prince was made to have much darker hair to contrast hers, so they could be visually striking with one another, again leading us to the conclusion that she does have light hair (which kinda dodges the 60s/70s artwork where she's a dusty brunette). We also know that Disney tried to make the Prince in Snow White sandyhaired, but it came across on camera as dark brown and didn't provide that much of a contrast to Snow White, which they were able to capture more successfully in books of that era, all through even the 80s/90s. I, personally, really love this book especially and I find the colors of everything- the interiors, Cinderella, her dress, etc- ring true to me, personally:

And this color can be seen anywhere as brunette to some, to sandy, to blonde, to dirty blonde, to slightly red- and that's how I think Cinderella's hair is. I think she's a warm level 7, if we're going by a professional hair chart, and it's like a russet blonde color? Hints of red that could make someone see her as a redhead, or just a blonde, or to some who view blondes as solely being platinum, she'd almost even appear as a brunette. That being said, Aurora is definitely a blonde and in the current master we have, her skin appears pink/red and her hair looks greenish, so if anyone who's working on the future 4K master of Sleeping Beauty could fix that, it would be greatly appreciated!!

i just ranted about this to some friends so i'm gonna rant about it here because everyone needs to hear this. EVERYONE.

DO NOT SELF-DEPRECATE!! CRITIQUE YOURSELF!!

as an artist and a writer i hear this ALL THE FUCKING TIME. someone will show me their work and go "this is so bad, i'm sorry, this looks awful."

i cannot begin to express in words how much that shit pisses me off. self-deprecation does not gain my sympathy. it gains my absolute unfathomable rage. it makes me red in the fucking face.

do you not like something that you did? okay. GIVE ME A REASON WHY!

don't like how you drew something? why? were the proportions off? don't like the linework? is the coloring too messy? the shading? the lighting? the background? what don't you like? why don't you like it?

don't like how you wrote something? why? is the tone strange? is the pacing off? bad grammar, spelling, punctuation? bad spacing? what don't you like? why don't you like it?

this self-critiquing literally applies to everything, even outside of artistic works. it applies to school essays, conversations, human character. if you don't like something, especially if that something is something that you have made or done, give me a fucking reason why. NOTHING IS BAD SIMPLY ON THE BASIS THAT IT IS YOURS. THAT IS NOT A VALID REASON. IT NEVER HAS BEEN, AND NEVER WILL BE.

you are allowed to hate your work. every creator has done something that they don't like, some more frequently than others. that's natural. that is allowed. what i hate is when people hate their work simply because it is their work. they completely lose their motivation to make because they hate everything that they make and cannot come up with a single genuine reason why.

give me a reason. "it just looks bad" is not good enough. end of story. i won't hear anything otherwise. self-deprecation does not gain my sympathy. it gains my fucking ire, is what it gains.

be confident in your work. self-analyzation is one of the best ways to improve your work. always self-analyze. you learn to do it unconsciously. if you can come up with at least one reason why you don't like something you've done, you can come up with a solution on how to avoid that problem the next time. you know better, you do better.

so do not self-deprecate. self-critique. have confidence. be assured; everything you do is good, even if it has elements to it that you do not like. creation in and of itself is a good thing, no matter how much you might hate it. simply doing is better than not doing anything at all. adopting this mindset will improve your confidence and ensure that you make more things and do better in the future.

hope this helps. go make some good shit.