inevitability
Richard Siken // Anna Belle Kaufman, "Cold Solace" // Ada Limón, "Accident Report in the Tall, Tall Weeds"
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"Lament! Terror! Despair! I shall kindly teach them all to you! And in your final moment, I... shall kill you by my own hand!!"
pandora hearts print for anime north this weekend 🥀🖤🤍
I also put this up on my inprnt! there's a sitewide sale for 40% off right now 🌟
For this drawing, I really wanted to emphasize the gothic and chaotic, convoluted nature of the series. Pandora Hearts has become a lot of things to me, as someone who's read it since I was like, 14 years old. but I eventually found the perfect words to sum up the series - a cross between a Shakespearean tragedy and a Grimm fairy tale.
The ink brush + watercolour brushes I used turned out so well together!! I wanted the style to be kind of a nod to like the manga cover art you'd see from the late 90s to 2000s, kind of like Mochizuki's early approach to traditional art.
A lighter approach to both the lineart + coloring also helped me not strain my arm too much - besides work, I stopped doing full illustrations due to the amount of work being heavy on my arm/shoulder T__T. my last full illustrations were the TGAA/DGS zine + WHA zine pieces back in Dec-Jan, but my heart really lies in illustrations more than anything and I definitely want to get back into it!! (as long as my physical health allows it!!)
anyways, above is the thumbnail/inspiration board for this drawing! I also did some quick chickenscratch studies of others' drawings to help me get a sense of their composition. I started on the top left and then made a sort of meandering curve through... definitely went through a lot of ideas for this one. If I explained the intended symbolism.. I would be here.. all day..............
the candles were definitely first inspired by an animation of a lighter I did during art skool... and then I did this AA Dahlia animated illust... and then this OC charm (below) I did in 2022...? maybe I should draw fire more often. it's like, the way that fire looks in animated keyframes that I really like drawing out, and I guess I kinda really enjoyed translating that into a non moving visual medium??
This drawing simultaneously took SO long but I also sped through it?? I had to like... not dwell too long on certain parts... like for example I think some individual character compositions really could be a lot stronger... because I knew this would be a beast of a drawing, I didn't want to spend an unnecessary amount of time focusing on details when I should be looking at the big picture. and I know that's a bad habit of mine!! I'm trying to unlearn my perfectionism!!
thanks for reading if you got this far, hope ya enjoy it!! and I hope I'll keep drawing Pandora Hearts in the future (clearly I haven't stopped since high school omg) and I hope to draw some more Vanitas someday beyond just chibis!
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Lawrence squirmed uneasily; the mere sight of the individual across the room had initially managed to knock the air out from his lungs and squeeze his heart mercilessly, a breath held tightly within his chest tinted with the taste of bile. His lips parted absentmindedly when his vision finally cleared itself seconds later and allowed him to take a good look at the man, who, unsurprisingly, was definitely not Adam Faulkner. It's just the new janitor. Gordon wasn't sure whether the pang he felt afterwards was one of relief or disappointment.
Although the uncanny resemblance still disturbed him greatly, he could now identify various signs that should've tipped him off to that sooner (other than Adam being, well, dead); slightly longer hair reaching the base of David's damp neck-- Gordon had managed to catch his name in the tag on his uniform--, a gnarly red line ripped along his cheekbone altering the path of the sweat drops rolling down his forehead and a sarcastic tone of voice without the intention of lightening the mood, but tainted with a certain degree of hostility. Gordon would've risked calling it defensive, even.
He tried not to think too much about the stranger as he drove back to his lamentably empty apartment, to no avail.
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i do think there's a fascinating parallel between teruko and fukuzawa here. fukuzawa can't do what needs to be done because of his love for fukuchi; teruko does what she has to despite her love for fukuchi.
fukuzawa doesn't have the military mindset that teruko does. his one wish was to be able to protect those he cared about. fukuzawa is a good person, but there are certain people he values above the rest of the world, and when he's forced to make the choice between saving someone he cares about and saving the world, he can't do it. there's a reason he doesn't like organizations and a reason he refused to join the army with fukuchi; he's literally not cut out for it. and because of this, he really isn't cut out to lead the army of mankind either. if he can't kill fukuchi, who nearly destroyed the world, why should he be given the one order?
teruko, on the other hand, can put her feelings aside and make the hard choice and do what has to be done. arguably, she would be far more suited to lead the army of mankind because of this. fukuchi needed fukuzawa to kill him to fully prove himself capable of using the one order and leading the world's army. but he didn't. he didn't want that anyway, and it's not a role he's cut out for, even though fukuchi so desperately wanted him to be. fukuchi was banking on the fact that fukuzawa would be worthy of the role he gave him. and teruko knows that. teruko knows fukuzawa needed to be the one to kill fukuchi. and she knew that he couldn't do it, but she could, and she could give him the credit so they are the only two who know the truth. so the rest of the world will follow fukuchi's plan out after his death and decide fukuzawa is capable and worthy of a role he never wanted, and a role he shouldn't have
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