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#also my art style's changed an itty bitty bit
lemonisntreal · 5 months
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Some sketches because it's been months since I drew these idiots oops☝️🥰
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HI THERE. It's been a minute, sorry about that lol. I took a tiny out-of-nowhere and sorta involuntary break from the fandom because I lost interest for a second, but I'm slowlyyyy making my way back. With art, and some news about Tone Deaf for the people who are still wondering about that.
Also I see there's some asks in my box, I'll get to that eventually, I see you ;-; dw
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As stated, I momentarily lost a bit of interest with this movie- partially because I've recently been ensnared in a new fixation that will not be named right now, but yeah. I'm digging my heels in rn, because the last thing I wanna do is abandon this project. But, also, I've clearly bitten off more than I can chew with this being a comic lmao. In over my head and going through all 5 stages of grief and currently on acceptance.
The story got bigger. Like, a LOT bigger. Too big to capture every thought in a drawing and panel it and put it out as a perfectly polished comic without seriously burning myself out. It really doesn't help that my art style evolves by the second too apparently, so I've reached a middle-ground:
Tone Deaf is going to be a fic with some comic-like segments in it. An illustrated fanfic bc I still love showing and not telling a little too much.
This'll help me not only get stuff out faster, but also to help me fill in the gaps I didn't know how to draw with just text. So I can focus on just drawing the juicy shit. This also means it'll all be collected over on Ao3 in a neat little package, and I honestly prefer that over having a bunch of posts of pages that might be hard to find. So yeah, that's the plan.
Another bonus is that the frames can now be a lot more polished and nice looking [in glorious color] rather than hastily mashed together due to my bad habit of going overboard on singular frames without realizing it.
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Tldr; Tone Deaf is technically still gonna be a comic, it's just now gonna be supplemented with word-based fic mixed in because I made the project way too fucking big [the first Act has like 20 chapters I'm going to literally die]. Also it's gonna be on Ao3 and I'll probably be posting all the art here alongside any updates I make so huzzah! Help me :>
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mothscotch · 25 days
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wip ٩(ˊ〇ˋ*)و
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grapefruitsketches · 4 years
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Oh, Simple Thing
Rated T, 1,340 Words. Songxiao, Post-Canon, Post-Yi City Arc, both are alive and together and no I do not explain, Fluff
My 4th fill for @touchmycoat‘s Songxiao Reverse Itty Bitty Bang 2020
Inspired by mfqdraws’s art, “Morning by the Bamboo Grove,” on twitter at mfqdraws/status/1307307586560036869 (link in reblog/notes so it shows up in the tags! Please go take a look - this piece just makes me instantly relax)
Also for fytheuntamed’s Untamed Fall Fest Day 14: Savor
(AO3 link also in reblog/notes)
There was a spot they had once liked to visit. It lay just on the edge of Lanling, on the roads towards Gusu. A spot truly unremarkable, unmemorable. They wouldn’t be able to give directions to it even if they tried.
But it was their spot.
It had been many years. Many falling outs, many sacrifices, many tragedies since they’d last walked this path, but now, here they were again. They both felt it, felt the call of this place that had once been theirs and theirs alone. Felt it, and needed hardly even a brush of the hand to discuss before veering off the path as one, and into the endless rows of green. The one place that remained that was like...
“Home,” Xingchen whispered, remembering the view of the bamboo forest. Of the rivers snaking through, revealing imposing waterfalls or peaceful ponds if you cared to follow them. It did not matter, though, that he could not see it any longer. Being here was so much more than that.
It was the clean smell of the bamboo paired with the musty smell of the always slightly-damp earth. It was the sounds of birds – a finch? Maybe a dove? Xingchen didn’t know, but promised himself he’d learn each of their distinct calls one day – as they went about their business. Creatures so small yet so unafraid of building their dreams high in the sky.
This place was the taste of fish, freshly caught, cooked slowly over a carefully constructed fire in their clearing. The feel of Zichen beside him, pressed up close, each taking slow, easy breaths. The rise and fall of their chests making the pair expand outwards, but inevitably collapse back into one another in the end.
And like this, they eventually fell asleep.
“Zichen?” Xingchen asked blearily, recognizing where he was before he remembered when. He groaned softly as he stretched, rising from the soft dirt to find his partner. He followed the promising crackling sound of fire, the delicious smell of food.
Fish, again, of course, but when they were here, the monotony didn’t really bother him.
He felt the heat of the fire as he approached. This place so familiar to him that even though he had had his sight the last time he was here, navigation was much easier than it had been following less crowded, but less familiar, paths.
“Good morning, Zichen,” Xingchen said, smiling as he held a hand out, silently asking if the other man wanted to take it. Instead of a hand, though, he received only a slightly warmed wooden stick between his fingers, the smell of breakfast from the other end of it making his stomach rumble. He laughed, “Fine. I’m hungry too.”
Zichen did take Xingchen’s hand once the second fish was done though, leading the two of them to sit on a log by the little cooking fire. It wasn’t cold, exactly, but the morning breeze and recent rainfall still made the fire’s sde a welcome spot of warmth.
It was just so blissfully quiet here.
Xingchen had experienced quiet before. The pained quiet of a man overcome by grief. The lonely quiet of wandering the countryside alone. The eerie quiet of a city that always seemed just a bit too devoid of public life. And Xingchen had been able to move through each of those moments with patience and grace.  
This quiet was different. Not the eye of the storm but the end of one. Not just easy to get through but easy to live in. A quiet to find each other in, to grow to learn about one another again.
Xingchen flipped open his palm, letting Zichen slowly trace out one character after another. He shivered pleasantly at the touch, but tried to focus. Tried to learn the little quirks in Zichen’s handwriting style through feel that he had never noticed while reading. An extra flourish here, a lazy refusal to fully lift his finger between strokes there. He concentrated on learning them all, not just so that Zichen could communicate more quickly in future once they became familiar, but also just because they were his quirks and Xingchen wanted to memorize them all.
Breakfast over and diligently tidied up, they went for a walk. One of Xingchen’s hands was left to run along the bamboo trunks as they passed, the other sat firmly in Zichen’s hand. Both the wood and the hand offered comfort, direction, and familiarity, but only for Zichen could Xingchen return the favour.
They made their way towards the source of the river, easy to find by the roaring sound of the waterfall, and sat near the shore, enjoying the gentle mists cast from the water as it thundered down.
Xingchen let his hands explore the ground beneath him, feeling the stones, dirt, and leaves. He let the earth run between his fingers, pausing to pick up a particularly intact branch he found, marvelling at its smooth edges, the cool freshness of its leaves right at his fingertips.
He felt Zichen shift behind him, shuffling closer. Xingchen leaned back in kind, a gentle smile gracing his face unconsciously.
Zichen reached up and traced three words into Xingchen’s shoulder. Xingchen. Together. Happy.
Not a question, but a simple equation. I am together with Xingchen. So I am happy. Some of the most easily understood words, as some of the ones Zichen had been most eager to communicate, after Xingchen’s return.
“Well then that’s how we shall stay, right Zichen?”
Zichen let out an affirming hum and let his fingers travel up to Xingchen’s head, carding his fingers through his hair. His fingers, though, almost immediately got snagged in the tangled locks, and Zichen cleared his throat. His new version of his old affectionate tutting in disapproval.
Xingchen laughed, “I slept on the ground, Zichen, the cold, hard ground, what did you expect?”
Zichen pokes at the back of Xingchen’s hand, telling him to clean the dirt out from them, after which he lifted his lover’s hand to his own head, inviting him to compare.
“That’s not fair, though, you had your head on my chest all night. It’s not nearly the same,” Xingchen smirked mischievously, “Besides, now that I think about it, I seem to remember having to stop you from drooling onto my robes at some point? I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s not where all of it ended up… Are you sure that didn’t tangle my hair?”
Xingchen only laughed harder at Zichen’s indignant pokes to Xingchen’s arm, his shoulder, his back, “Stop, stop! You know I’m ticklish there,” he gasped. And Zichen easily obliged, but not without a small huff of victory.
Xingchen sighed, leaning back further, enjoying the feeling as Zichen went back to running his fingers through his hair. The two sat there for a while, listening as the river rushed by, the wind rustled through the bamboo above. Savoring the moment. Lingering in this hard-earned tranquility.
“I really could stay here forever, you know.”
Zichen hummed, then traced a thus far unmentioned word between them, each stroke hesitant as though trying to maintain the ability to change course as long as possible. Just in case.
Sect?
Xingchen froze, letting the word sink in slowly. The weight of Zichen’s question, what it could mean, what it would take, winding its way down to his core.
A swell built in his heart, constricting his throat and building a pressure of happy tears behind his eyes. He turned, hands on Zichen’s shoulders, nodding eagerly.
“If... if that is what you want? Then yes!” he cleared his throat, conscious of his exclamation, and quieted down, now shy in his hopeful excitement, “Yes we could do that. We could make this our... our...”
And even with this being the most quickly drawn character Zichen had ever traced on him, and even though, with Xingchen’s hands still fixed firmly on his shoulders, the character was written on his less discerning chest, not his sensitive palm, Xingchen understood, and agreed, immediately:
Home.
(Title from Somewhere Only We Know, specifically Lily Allen’s cover in terms of what I was listening to <3)
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angel-gidget · 4 years
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Amethyst #1: A Riveting Reboot
I could say Amethyst #1 written and illustrated by Amy Reeder is a work of art and you’d all be like “no duh, gidge. comics are half art” but Amethyst #1 is also clearly a work of LOVE. I’ve been reading and flailing and feeling like I should review, but have been uncertain where to start. So I shall try to simply pick 10 delights that stand out to me.
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Heads up for spoilers!
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1. Her mom and dad. Amy’s origin has clearly been restored from the left turn at Albuquerque that was the nu52. I love that Reeder shows right out the gate that Amy’s adoptive parents are supportive yet struggling with raising a daughter that spends more and more time in a magical realm they can’t enter. Or can they? We will see what the rules are as we go.
In the original series, anybody who didn’t have magic risked getting lost and stranded between realms if they tried to cross between the Gemworld and earth. That doesn’t conflict with the glimpses we’ve seen in YJ, exactly, so we’ll wait and see how things unfold.
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2. One thing that DOES conflict with what we’ve seen in YJ though: Turquoise’s number of arms. Or, the number of arms on anybody living in her entire kingdom for that matter. Might be that Reeder and Bendis didn’t get a chance to double-check those details against each other before committing to their scripts. But who thinks to ask about things like that though? (“Hey, your redesign of this character has the standard 4 limbs or less, not 6, right?”)
You know what? I’m okay with this. We get pretty Bendis/Gleason?/Timms? design and this totally funky four-armed broad-sword user and I think I will enjoy seeing if they actually DO come up with an in-canon explanation of the discrepancy.
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Also, apparently this Turquoise is married? He’s clearly a consort rather than a ruler, and I wanna know more. (All of the bullpen appears on board with avoiding the Amy/Topaz/Turquoise love triangle from the original series and that’s probably for the best. I just hope that we’ll get to see my boy Topaz at some point anyway, even if he’s no longer a romantic candidate for either fair lady.)
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3. Hallelujah! We have a name! I have always loved that Amethyst rides around on a pegasus/pegacorn (another YJ mismatch here, but seems like semantics to me). BUT HE’S NEVER HAD A NAME. HE FINALLY HAS A NAME! IT’S A BADASS NAME. Ypsilos. Greek & unique. I dig it. ‘Bout time.
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4. Her mentors. Granch and Citrine(a) are back! Ok, they’re actually missing, but it was good to see their faces smiling down on itty bitty!Amy. I dug the way “witch mother Citrina” would roll off the tongue in the original series, but it didn’t make totally sense that everybody gets to take the exact name of a gemstone while Citrine gets her name kinda anglicized by sticking an A on the end. Small fix, I appreciate the logic.
I’m wondering if Cintrine is as powerful of a magic user in this story as she was in the original. I mean, probably not, bc of House Amethyst disapearing without a trace, but it will be cool to see how it goes. I dig how Amy notes how much she usually relies on them, and how this sensibly leads to…
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5. Noob ruler, a lil’ tone-deaf. She’s clearly trying. Taking some good speech-giving cues from Braveheart, probably. But this scene shows she IS inexperienced and bc she’s still in training, she doesn’t have a lot of trust from her neighboring common people. PEOPLE IN THE CROWD ARE MISSING LIMBS. Turquoise warned her about this. These people clearly HAVE been fighting. They aren’t turning her down bc they lack courage. They’re just insulted that this tiny neighbor princess showed up in a BALLGOWN royal-splaining warrior grit to them.
I gotta admit, I was a bit worried when Amy Reeder’s interview (also at the back of the comic) came out, and she talked about Amy Winston having a “little miss perfect” personality. There were some character details that never got fleshed out about 80′s Amy, but I’m relieved that this new iteration actually has some of the original character flaws shown.
She’s a lil’ presumptuous. She gets her ideas from watching Earth movies and TV. Sometimes it pans out, and she’s like “Of course it did! You backwards middle ages people are so quaint. No worries, I will bless you with my high school knowledge of democracy and vaccination.” But she lacks the foresight to see when and why a youthful earth-style plan won’t work in the Gemworld’s environment.
Re-worked Amy just gets really lucky here that Nameless Warrior of the Cool Haircut and Rad Caterpillar Creature sees that she’s such a tiny summer child and decides to assist, impugning of honor aside.
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6. Monsters vs. Innocent Creatures. This was always a fun aspect of the Gemworld! Is that a terrifying monster or a cute critter? Maybe it’s both! Or maybe its not a monster at all, and you’re just biased. Nice to meet you, Stan.
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7. Living birth parents? That’s a twist (Or, it still CAN be.) In the original series, Amy’s birth father was revealed be the host of a Lord of Order (If that sounds familiar, it’s a Dr. Fate thing.) That meant she technically had an original living parent, but… that’s where the writing went South and turned obnoxiously edgy and tangential. But this implies that both her bio mom and dad are plain-ol’-fashioned alive. Which is new and an intriguing dangling plot-thread. Cool cool.
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8. He’s just… so evil. It’s great. I’ve already blubbered about the pleasant simplicity of Dark Opal’s villainy, but I also appreciate that his funky face clasp is back, and I dig the drone-spiders. In the original series, his adopted son Carnelian was the techie, so I’ll be curious to see if there any nods to that in the future.
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9. One seriously solid exposition page. Pretty, concise... and just enough holes to entice. This implies that the events of the first Amethyst mini series have ALREADY HAPPENED in this continuity. But some things are CLEARLY different. (Turquoise kingdom world-building, Amy does not change her age between realms, etc.) That leaves some surprises in store.
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10. First issue parallels. It’s her birthday. Again. Her parents are giving her title-drop jewelry. Again. She’s all gussied up in an over-the-top dress for her mentor’s sake, but it’s completely inappropriate for battling evil which is what she’s gonna have to ACTUALLY go do bc that’s her luck. Again. I do love me some good symmetry.
TO CONCLUDE... I am so, so happy to read this. Reeder has done right by my girl, and I look forward to issue #2. Huzzah!
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redphienix · 5 years
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Alright, it’s an improper moment to let this ramble commence- literally moments after getting all emotional about vibeo games I already beat because I’m researching to write (or try to) a fic about it and reliving it through a replay made me emotion heavy- but let me say a fuckin’ thing about monster hunter for a second.
My hunting partner and I have reconnected, or are trying to, after our falling out and things are going well and I’m happy and all that jazz- unimportant (outside of explaining why I’m looking at monhun again before Iceborne has come).
And yesterday we got to talking.
You see, we love World, we do, but we have a lot of things in world that we find infinitely pick-a-part-able because not everything in world is an upgrade to the monhun formula.
Just for shits and giggles, a short and unexpanded upon list of things I’m not about to ramble about but still suck would be:
Weapon designs are boring and crap- severe lack of “awesome” “silly” and “ridiculous” in favor of “steal blade with a flab of scales on it”.
The adjustment to RNG by taking charms out of tables, removing crafting of decorations, and changing how skills work AS A WHOLE (as in the three systems put together in world) has given us a net gain of RNG rather than a net loss and it’s just altogether more fucking annoying. (IE: Get an ‘okay’ charm in old monhun and you’re feeling fine enough, but there is no such thing as an ‘okay’ decoration in world so there is no equivalent, you either get 500 worthless decs or ONE good one which isn’t enough to make a build- compare that to old monhun where even with bad RNG you could fit 2/3rd of your build without the charm and an ‘okay’ charm would fill you out more than well enough- the RNG in world for fine tuning builds is simply worse. We should be able to craft decs again, even if they made them all take gems to make it’d be infinitely more rewarding and I said I wouldn’t expand on this but holy hell it’s a pet peeve).
Poor implementation of the gathering hub leading to online interactions feeling more ‘loose’ and ‘unimportant’. (also partly SOS’s fault but I think SOS is more good than bad)
Arena doesn’t give nearly enough actually useful rewards (could be bias from blackbelt torso up memories so this is a BS point)
Slinger is half baked and feels like it should just be forgotten altogether (upcoming expansion seems to want to fix this and the claw is a plus but the countless ‘scatter shotgun blast mid combo’ moves are.... not. It looks entirely weak and worthless)
True Charge for GS is bad, come at me. Old GS was consistent, new GS moveset convinces new hunters to only go for TS which means they contribute nothing and likely quit playing, and ignoring that- regular charge? hits in front of you, strong charge? hits in front of you, true charge? hits awkwardly two meters away from you with a stupid double slam flip animation. It feels like a really really really bad generations hunter art baked into our base moveset.
Charge blade is still in it.
No Great Jaggi
But you know what we dwelled on yesterday? Something we’ve complained about before, no doubt, but it was extremely relevant none the less.
Events.
Fucking lord I hate the “live service” style “maintain engagement through drip feeding and arbitrarily limiting access to things” events in world.
Basically, we were talking about the good times in world and what we could do to both get back in the groove of things after our break and further refine our builds that itty bitty bit more for Iceborne and G rank and we ran headfirst into that brick wall of stupid fuckin’ design decisions.
We started talking about what we think is the objectively most fun hunt in world (and monster hunter in general, not that we think world’s hunts are the best, I just mean the conversation also dwelled heavily on Gog and how much I want him in World or Rajang and how much he’d fit in in world but that’s besides the point) and that would be Kulve.
We talked about how we didn’t really let ourselves fully enjoy Kulve when they were new because we were burning ourselves out and we were optimizing like crazy to make the hunt last only a few minutes so we could grind the weapon drops- we basically talked about how much we would love to fight Kulve right now because it’d be fun and it would technically be ‘progression’ since we can still get some decent weapon drops- only to both start feeling annoyed that Kulve is timed and not available right now because fuck us you know?
Then we talked about what few quests still exist for us to do- like he needs to do the lvl 100 quest (no big deal), we both need to do both behemoth slays (not the prior one) because we quit when Behemoth came out (I still think his hunt is bad because it’s not conducive to the ‘jazz’ gameplay of monster hunter but that’s besides the point and I can respect an MMO fight so it’s fine), we both need to do the hunter v Leshin hun (doing that today) despite that gaining us nothing of use, and grinding decorations is (unforntunately) always good but the two events meant for that, surprise surprise, aren’t available.
Or how about how arch nerg and arch luna are the ONLY hunts I still need for anything viable in my builds but neither are available because arbitrary accessibility?
*sigh* I know I’m not conveying this well but seriously, I hate the desperate pull for engagement by limiting access. It’s fucking stupid. If content is worth doing people will do it, don’t fucking limit us in the hopes of funneling us into the ‘current week quests’.
Having 100% access has worked for literally every previous monhun, I’ve hopped on fucking THREE ULTIMATE **YEARS** after the fact and have been able to gather a full 4 people for pointless event runs because back then the agreement was ‘take turns on events, pick whatever one’ etc. Now it’s fucked by the current matchmaking, it’s fucked by the weekly system, and it’s just fucked.
Since people are railroaded to do the ‘current’ events you never really find anyone doing events at all UNLESS they are new, because they felt obligated to farm them at release, so they did, so now no one does.
You ironically killed it all while making it so when we WANT to do quests, we fuckin’ can’t.
Thanks, asses.
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theamazingmimi · 6 years
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It’s week two of my Monster Art Challenge! This week has been an interesting one, art wise. I’ve been doing more without following a tutorial. I still followed one for the majority, but it’s nice to see that I can branch out and be happy with my results.
The Art of Sketching
Also in art news, I finished my first sketchbook! I started it last year in September. I didn’t draw in it every single day, and I had a few other drawing pads that I was working in at the same time. Still, this is the first quality, bound sketchbook that I’ve drawn on every page.
It was exciting to know that I was reaching the end and purchasing a new one. Strangely, it made me feel like I’m a real artist!
It’s also made me realize that there really are a lot of different types of paper out there. There is a huge difference in the 65lb paper in my old sketchbook and the 75lb paper in the new one. The new paper is a lot smoother, which makes it easier to draw on. However, it also makes it more prone to smearing. This isn’t an issue when I’m working in pencil since I normally erase it after I ink. But it is an issue when I use certain types of ink.
I have several Pentel pens that I use for inking. Their fine tips give me nice thin lines and are easy to control. But the first time I tried to use them on the new paper I had major issues when I attempted to erase my pencil lines. Smear, smear, smear. I needed a pen that would absorb better, so now I’m using Sharpie ultra-fine tips and that seems to have done the trick.
I’ve also done a good bit more coloring this week, and I’m really starting to understand why people recommend Prismacolor pencils. Crayola just can’t compare. They are like a cross between pencils and soft crayons. The color is beautiful.
So without further ado, here is my week in art!
Monster Art Challenge Day 9: Demon
This adorable little devil was done on 65lb drawing paper with pencil, Pentel ink, and Prismacolor pencils. For this one, I followed this tutorial by Fun2Draw
Monster Art Challenge Day 10: Succubus
I’m not completely thrilled with this one. It came out…okay. It was after doing this one that I realized I need quite a bit of work on hands. She has itty bitty hands! I followed this tutorial on Dragoart.com for this one. I think my main issue with this one was that it came immediately after drawing a demon girl, and they are so similar.
This was drawn on 65lb drawing paper with pencil and Pentel ink.
Monster Art Challenge Day 11: Reptile Girl
I started out with a tutorial for a dragon girl on this one. It was the closest that I could find to what I was looking for. However, I did tweak the drawing to exclude the horns, and I changed the face significantly to give it a more reptilian look.
This drawing was created on 65lb drawing paper with pencil, Pentel ink, and Prismacolor pencils.
Monster Art Challenge Day 12: Fairy
I really love Fun2Draw on YouTube. Clearly! Three of my drawing this week come from her tutorials, including this one for a Fairy Princess. She is easy to follow, and the drawings are so cute! This is one of my favorites for this week.
This is the final drawing in my first sketchbook! Drawn on 65lb drawing paper with pencil, Pentel ink, and Prismacolor pencils.
Monster Art Challenge Day 13: Insect Girl
My insect girl has two pictures because I wanted to show just how much color can change a picture. Personally, I like the pre-colored version better on this one, but the mister prefers the colored version. Regardless, I’m pretty happy with this little lady bug, especially since she was done without a tutorial!
This is the first drawing in my new sketchbook! It was exciting to draw on that very first page and date it. I can’t wait to see what kind of progress I make from here to the last page.  Drawn on 75lb drawing paper with pencil, Pentel ink, and Prismacolor pencils.
Monster Art Challenge Day 14: Dullahan
This is another that I did without a tutorial. Straight from my head to the paper! I really liked this one, so I was very disappointed when the ink smeared so badly. Due to the smearing, I decided not to color it. I was afraid it would get even worse. Still, I like her quite a bit.
Drawn on 75lb drawing paper with pencil and Pentel ink.
Monster Art Challenge Day 15: Dragon
This is by far my favorite drawing from this week. It is just SO cute. This baby dragon is another tutorial from Fun2Draw. I didn’t feel like going with an anthro-style dragon, so instead, I made this adorable little baby super girly with pink skin and purple horns.
Drawn on 75lb drawing paper with pencil, Sharpie super fine marker, and Prismacolor pencils.
Next Week?
Next week, I have a ghost, goblin, alien, cyclops, faun, canine girl, and feline girl to draw. Stay tuned for more progress or join in by downloading my 30-Day Monster Girl Challenge and giving it a try.
Also, let me know which one was your favorite in the comments!
Daily Dose of Music
Monster Art Progress It's week two of my Monster Art Challenge! This week has been an interesting one, art wise.
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