#and i need to brush up doing faster drawings - my initial sketches are always a bit messy

[taidotonheiluja]

Käärijätober Day 2 - Fantastista I guess it's likely to get a hit by a sandal

#käärijätober #käärijä #käärijätober day 2 - fantastista #inktober #i missed the first day so I made myself sit down and draw something - this is what happened #i know the song was written in the mic mac era but i really wanted to draw the corduroy outfit #my art #and i need to brush up doing faster drawings - my initial sketches are always a bit messy #I published this through drafts but STILL somehow managed to put in a typo and the a version of the image with a slight error lmao oops

[snowbellewells]

Do as the Romans Do

A @captainswanmoviemarathon​ fic by @snowbellewells​

((((I made a first attempt at creating my own fic art, but for whatever reason, I can’t get it to post in my story. It’s on my page, but for whatever reason, I can’t get them both in one!)))

Hello there! Welcome to my little Roman Holiday-inspired AU for the @captainswanmoviemarathon! There were some scenes from the original movie that I was simply too enamored with not to include, so those I am sure you’ll recognize those, but I’ve also let this version of Killian and Emma wander off on their own when they wish to change the script a bit. I’m envisioning this being about three parts - today’s shorter introduction to set the scene, a larger part two with the bulk of the plot, and then a shorter conclusion to wrap things up. We’ll see how it goes (or if it grows on me beyond that!)  Please enjoy, and I’d love to hear what you think…

Part One

                                           *Press Release*

From the Royal Italian Embassy this 4th of September, 1953, Princess Emma Ruth Nolan, Crown Princess of the small nation of Misthavia, only child of Queen Margaret Mary Blanchard-Nolan and King Consort David Nolan visits us here in Rome for a brief stop on her first solo goodwill tour. 

Already, she has made stops in Copenhagen, Prague, Vienna, and Geneva, and will attend a state dinner, tour local businesses, preside over a medal ceremony, christen the children’s wing of a hospital, and hold a press conference in her three days here before heading on to Paris and London to complete her journey across Europe. Lucky indeed are those who have an invite to one of these events and will have a chance to meet the Princess in person!

The receiving line outside the embassy dining room had long since passed from lengthy to trying and on to interminable as Emma prayed her empty stomach would not begin to grumble aloud before she was finally able to find a seat at the head table and at last enjoy the hard-earned meal. As always seemed to be the case at these formal events, meeting “just a select few” somehow turned into glad-handing with a neverending line of people she would never remember or hope to keep straight from one another. 

To think she had initially been excited about this particular event! At least she had thought there might be the chance for some entertainment and dancing after dinner. Now that she stood in one place for so long, she was regretting the posh new heels she had paired with her full-skirted ballgown for the occasion. If she ever got to move from her spot again, Emma was not at all sure that her feet would actually support forward motion any longer; they might well be broken inside the three-inch heels.

Hoping to do so without being noticed, Emma stealthily shifted most of her weight onto one foot, lifting the other slightly beneath her skirts and flexing her toes in the hope of bringing feeling back to the extremities. She bobbled a bit, but thankfully her press secretary, and closest friend since nursery school, child of palace staff or not, was standing beside her. Surreptitiously, Emma caught Ashley’s arm to steady herself. The other blonde made no comment, merely offered a reassuring sidelong glance and tiny smile without the disapproval that Emma knew she would have received from the Countess on her other side - a retired former nun who had been her main chaperone and minder of all the etiquette and behavior since Emma’s first official public appearance years go.  The Princess could practically see the woman’s pinched disapproving mouth, admonishing eyes and warning tone - even in Mistress Blue’s absence.

The end of the receiving line was at last in sight, and Emma let out a breath that she hoped went unnoticed, trying as hard as she could not to let her eyes roll back in her head at the momentary relief she had gained for her aching feet. Intending to put the first one back into its pretty little torture device and flex the other similarly, she continued blindly offering her hand to the passing dignitaries, murmuring greetings and shifting to her other side gingerly.

Unfortunately, just as her foot returned to its shoe, a flashbulb went off unexpectedly and much closer than any had been so far.  She blinked, momentarily blinded, and her balance wobbled; the hidden empty shoe tipped over on its side before she could slip her toes back into it. This made her dip unexpectedly to the left, and she felt herself falling, despite all her natural grace and her practiced poise. Cheeks already flushing, Emma’s tongue was too tangle to call out, knowing her one bare foot and her impatient lack of polish was about to be exposed before she even hit the floor. A gasp escaped Ashley on her other side as she realized too late what was happening and tried to catch Emma’s hand, but instead, what arrested her fall was the interception of two warm, firm hands at her elbows, halting the topple which had seemed inevitable only seconds ago.

Suddenly braced by the solid forearms in a lean, handsomely suited man standing there before her, Emma blinked, reorienting herself to the fact that he’d spared her a rather embarrassing incident, she wouldn’t be humiliated on all the gossip shows that evening.

“Th - Thank you, Sir,” she breathed tremulously, quickly fishing her toes into her shoe and righting it at last before straightening and looking up to meet her rescuer’s eyes.

Bright, crystal blue met her inquisitive green as she did so, a twinkling of mischief enlivened his expression even further against the heavy dark brows and the rather rakish appeal of his unshaven cheeks and jaw. For a moment, the breath nearly rushed from Princess Emma’s lungs again - for a completely different reason.

A gentle chuckle rumbled from this undeniably handsome stranger’s chest as he dipped his chin in the slightest of acknowledging bows. “Think nothing of it, your Majesty. I’m simply glad I was here.”

She nodded in mute agreement, wincing again at how she’d nearly made herself a laughingstock. It was one of the things she hated most about her life as a monarch - one silly mistake, unimportant in the grand scheme of things, could undo or overshadow so much good, so much hard work in a mere instant.

With a rather devilish wink, the man before her, bowed his head over her hand, now more delicately cradled in his own larger one and place and brazen kiss to the back of it, his whiskers prickling her skin and sending tingles all along her nerve endings. “After all, it isn’t every day one finds a princess in his debt,” he murmured silkily.

She blushed brighter, knowing they were beginning to hold up the line and draw curious attention now, but not wanting him to move on. “Is that so?” she replied with equally humored stealth.

“Indeed.” He sketched on more quick bow, then added, “Killian Jones, at your service, Princess.  And if you are safely in your shoes once more, I suppose I must be going now.”

Her eyes widened even as her fingers released their grip, and he slipped on through the line, while she extended her hand to shake those of the last few people behind him. He had known what happened all the time! Why did that make her heart beat even faster than it had been already?

~~~*

That night, after a long bath, with her hair brushed, nightgown donned, and her legs tucked under the blankets, Princess Emma still felt her fingers tingling from the remembered grip of Jones’ hand, even as she listened to the Countess’ long list of the next day’s engagements. Emma tried not to shudder as she noticed that once again nearly every moment was spoken for, every word and action, and even thought, seemed already determined for her. That near-fall and the following encounter had been the most excitement she could remember in her meticulously programmed, rote, respectable, predictable life of duty.

What would it be like to simply walk out of such an event, as Jones and all the other attendees had done, and have it simply be over? To return to a normal life? To determine what one wanted to do for oneself, and have no watching eyes to judge or weight the following movements. She could hardly imagine such freedom.

When Emma was finally left alone for the night, she knew she needed to sleep. According to the schedule that had just been droned into her ear, she had an early morning before her. Yet, sleep felt the furthest thing from her mind. Eventually, she threw the covers off and hopped back out of bed, crossing the sumptuous room provided to her by her Roman hosts and gazing out the window to the River Tiber below in the distance. Music and lights reached out to her beguilingly despite the hour, and she wished she could be in the midst of whatever celebration was happening there, a part of the laughter and dancing and raucous joy she could only imagine from the echoes that reached her.

It was not an unprecedented longing, but one that struck her more acutely than ever this night. She was going to have this experience while she had the chance. Mind made up as abruptly as the moment presented itself, Emma flew from the window to her suitcase, quickly shedding her nightgown and putting on her most understated skirt, blouse, and espadrilles. With hardly a look back, shew as soon perched on the window ledge, preparing to climb down the fire escape of the old, sturdy building she was staying in without risk of alerting any of her numerous attendants and guardians.

‘Just one day to herself, to live as she chose,’ Emma vowed, closing her eyes for a moment and then surging forward. ‘Then it’s back to what’s expected, what I’ve always known will be my life…’

As she reached the ground and then slipped through the embassy gates out into the night air and the excitement of a foreign city, Princess Emma Ruth Nolan felt like someone else entirely. Like someone who could breath freely for the first time in her life.

Tagging: @captainswanmoviemarathon​ @teamhook​ @revanmeetra87​ @jennjenn615​ @kmomof4​ @searchingwardrobes​ @whimsicallyenchantedrose​ @tiganasummertree​ @lfh1226-linda​ @optomisticgirl​ @spartanguard​ @laschatzi​ @resident-of-storybrooke​ @darkcolinodonorgasm​ @stahlop​ @hollyethecurious​ @winterbaby89​ @thislassishooked​ @shireness-says​ @thisonesatellite​

#captainswanmoviemarathon #csmm #roman holiday au #cs ff #part one

[erekiosuncreativeideas]

Being Human - Chapter 12

<= Chapter 11

Summary : Snatcher has a talk with someone. Also available on AO3 : https://archiveofourown.org/works/24826561/chapters/65084764

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NEW CHAPTER HEEEEY I hope you'll like it ! I managed to work quite well on "Being Human" recently and I finished writing the 14th chapter yesterday (and it's a long one too) ! I had a blast writing the 12th and 14th chapter and I can't wait for you to read it !

Thank you so much for all your support, it means so, so, so much to me. I know I keep repeating this, but this is the truth. Without you, I wouldn't be where I am today.

Fun fact: I will soon draw my 100th drawing on "A Hat In Time" (I'm colouring the 98th one and I sketched the 99th one, I genuinely wonder what the 100th will represent!). I have been extremely productive this year, I think I drew like 150 pictures (in general) from the beginning of 2020 to today. And it's all thanks to you guys !! Thank you so much !

ANYWAY.

The “Oh The Humanity” AU belongs to @doodledrawsthings​ !

Happy reading !

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Chapter 12 - “You’re bad at telling scary stories.”

-“Here, come this way,” instructed Cooking Cat, as she led him to the machine room, her face serious now that the kids were nowhere in sight.

Snatcher’s expression showed how confused he was, seeing where she was taking him. Why there? He didn’t have his place in this room, and certainly neither did she, unless he greatly underestimated her. If she saw his face, she didn’t say anything, leading him further into the ship instead, stopping in front of a green door with the pictogram of a brush on the centre of it. Where would it lead? A playroom perhaps? A room dedicated to hobbies? After all, with such a huge ship, it wouldn’t be far-fetched to find a room like that inside.

The door opened swiftly revealing -another!- hallway, just as sloped as the others. Oh, this was just great, especially with how he fell earlier. His legs hurt. Well, everything did, but mostly his legs. However, the cat seemed to notice the scowl on his face and offered her paw for him to remain stable.

-“Need some help?” she offered, concern plastered all over her face. Ugh, Gods, did Snatcher hate that expression. It just made him feel even more pathetic than he already was.

-“No,” he spat, keeping his eyes fixed on the slope not to stumble, “I can walk on my own. I’m not a stupid baby, thank you,” he added, his stone still very harsh. Deep inside, he knew the other was just trying to help, but he couldn’t keep the words inside. He was too mad at himself, at the whole situation to care. But, surprisingly, Cooking Cat only smiled at him and pulled her hand back.

-“Okay,” she simply replied and the former ghost cringed at her compassionate tone. Still… This was a very different reaction than what he had expected. The hatted brat would have yelled at him, the other one would have given him a sad look… But Cooking Cat just agreed, not looking different than usual, despite his harsh words.

Somehow… Somehow, it felt like he wasn’t rushed to accept his current “condition” for once. It was a nice change. He knew the little girls had been trying to help him, but this was different, in a way he couldn’t describe precisely.

Great, and now he was feeling bad. Just another negative feeling on the top of all the terrible ones he was already feeling, perfect, fantastic. The former ghost avoided looking at Cooking Cat, guilt eating him inside. This was so ridiculous: he was (used to be…?) a soul-stealing spirit, one that forced people to work for him only to kill them afterwards… And now he was feeling guilty? What the heck?

“This is just this stupid human brain,” he thought grumpily as they walked into the hallway, the cat adapting her pace to match his, not forcing him to go faster than he could. He hated to be pitied that much, it just reminded him that he was less capable than any human… Yet, a part of himself felt grateful for it, no matter how much he was trying to repress it.

Snatcher wasn’t weak, he didn’t want to be. How could he, with an entire village to protect against a crazy Queen? It was his responsibility.

They eventually reached the other door, which opened just as quickly as the first one. The sight that greeted Snatcher’s eyes was definitely not one he had expected. His jaw dropped from the surprise, his eyes glancing everywhere, examining his surroundings with much interest.

It was a gallery. The walls were green, with burgundy columns in the corners of the room. The floor was covered in red carpet, with round, darker patterns on it. A long light green rug was in front of them, starting from the door to the opposite wall. On their left was a pedestal on which was exhibited a bust with a golden, shiny necklace. Just as expected, the room was full of paintings, all very different from one another. Most of them represented the hatted girl, others showed people he didn’t know, or ones he vaguely remembered such as the mafia goons who often wandered in his forest. He entered the room, more than impressed with what he was seeing… Until he found a particular painting that caught his attention.

-“Hey, that’s me!” he exclaimed, surprised. He moved just in front of the painting, admiring it in bewilderment: his previous ghostly appearance could be seen in the middle of the picture, as if he were screaming, though his expression wasn’t a horrified one. The setting seemed awfully familiar to him, as if he had seen another version of that painting somewhere else. Huh. Weird.

Confusion replaced his initial surprise as questions echoed in his mind. However, his lips moved on their own, voicing them as he kept his eyes stuck on the painting before him:

-“Who made that?” he asked, unable to look anywhere else.

Cooking Cat stayed silent for a brief moment, as if to think, before replying, unsure:

-“I don’t know,” she answered trustfully: “I’ve only been here once, to be completely honest. I tried asking about it, but the girls avoided the question. They’re usually pretty talkative, but there are some things they try not to talk about. So… I don’t force them.”

The former ghost remembered what the kids told him earlier, about the war that broke out between their people… If this was something like that, it made sense they didn’t want to talk about it. He couldn’t really blame them, considering he didn’t like to mention his own past. However… This was different: his face was literally on the picture, he was directly concerned by this! He never gave anyone the right to use his image! Really, the nerve of some people, he should sue!

But, as he finally managed to inspect the other paintings as well… He realized that he wasn’t the only one concerned, seeing as some pictures featured other people, like that awfully annoying tourist that always managed to avoid his traps…

For real, who painted those? Certainly not the kids: he had seen their drawings and they certainly didn’t look like that. These paintings were obviously made by professionals, people who knew how to draw and how to colour. What a strange mystery…

Snatcher was brought back to reality as Cooking Cat called out to him softly. He turned in her direction, noticing only now that she was sitting on the floor, patting the spot next to her, as an invitation for him to join her.

-“You’re kidding, right?” he asked, with a mix of confusion and mockery in his voice.

-“Trust me,” she answered, patting the spot harder, clearly insisting. The man looked at her for a few seconds, wondering how naive she could be to think he’d sit on the floor just because he was asked to… But no matter how motionless he remained, she just kept her eyes on his, waiting patiently for him to sit, not pushing him nor rushing him to do so.

Just waiting.

It wasn’t long until her stare made him ill at ease, made him feel like he was ridiculous, just like a child throwing a tantrum at his patient mother. But as soon as that thought came to his mind, he realized this wasn’t really far from the truth, given how motherly Cooking Cat had acted up until now… And he had just admitted he was behaving like a kid.

Now that was just great.

With a loud and frustrated sigh, Snatcher eventually gave in and sat next to her, a clear frown visible on his face. His arms were around his legs, keeping his knees close to his chest. He stared at her with irritation:

-“Fine, I’m sitting next to you. Amazing. What now?” his voice sounded bored and exasperated, but he was actually intrigued, if he had to be completely honest. Why would she take him to this room, only to have him sit on the carpet? As if this was going to help him fight his so-called emotions! Ugh.

Being human sucked.

However, before he was able to say anything else, he felt a powerful tug on the collar of his jacket, pulling him down to the floor. His back soon hit the ground, though not as hard as he thought it would. His head thankfully was stopped by the cat’s paw before any possible impact. Snatcher’s eyes were wide open from the surprise and the shock, looking everywhere as the gears in his mind started to turn. And then it clicked.

Cooking Cat had pulled on his collar, forcing him to lie down, his back against the soft carpet.

-“Hey!” he protested, trying to straighten up once more: “What do you think you’re doi-”

Yet, despite his wish to yell at the other for her over-familiar gesture, he was silenced both by the cat and by the sight caught by his eyes.

-“Hush and look up,” she simply said, pointing at the ceiling, forcing him back down. She lied down as well, putting her chef’s hat aside as she did so. Snatcher stopped moving as he stared at what was above him, speechless with awe. A glass ceiling, one he could see through, one that showed him many stars and planets so, so far away from him and yet so beautiful.

-“What-,” started the former ghost, only to close his mouth, not sure what to say. A lot of conflicted emotions were echoing in his mind, like exasperation, impatience but, most of all, confusion. Why would she bring him here out of every room in the spaceship? Why would she make him lie down to look at Space -not that he’d complain about that last point- ? What was she trying to achieve by doing so? Snatcher didn’t understand and that only made him even more irritated.

Thankfully, Cooking Cat seemed to pick up on his emotions without having him explain them in details. It really was impressive how she managed to read people like open books and, in a way, that made the man quite uneasy. Knowing his heart could be so exposed to someone he barely knew… This was not something he enjoyed.

-“Thought you might like this,” she explained calmly: “I wanted to talk to you in private and, well, we might as well be in the nicest room of the ship, right? Plus… We have such a good view, here.”

Snatcher stared at her, not sure what to answer at first. Yet… He could only agree. They did have a really good view. The stars were all shiny, very distinct from the black, interstellar void. Planets could be seen in the distance, like ants walking on the glass ceiling. Somehow, lying down and watching all of that gave the man the feeling of floating above water, as if he were drifting away and seeing the sky moving. In a way… This wasn’t entirely false, as the ship was drifting away. Still, the sight remained particularly magnificent and very different from what he was used to see in Subcon Forest, even at the top of his tree.

-“There isn’t anything to talk about,” replied Snatcher with a scowl, glancing away. Why would he talk to someone he just met? He would be stupid to do so, especially since he didn’t even like talking to people to begin with. Well, unless they could be useful to him in any way, he supposed. In any case, personal topics were a definite no-no and nothing this cat could say would change anything.

-“Really?” answered Cooking Cat with a false surprised intonation: “I thought you’d like to hear about one of the tales I was told when I was only a kitten, you know, the one about you.”

Okay, maybe Snatcher was ready to talk about some personal topics.

He squinted, wary, eying the cat with suspicion:

-“You’re trying to gain my trust to make me talk, aren’t you?” he accused her, though she only smiled more at his accusations, lifting her paw to her heart to feign being hurt by them.

-“Me?” she gasped with exaggeration: “Oh, no, I would never!”

The man just frowned even more. Yeah, she was totally trying to make him talk. At this thought, he let out a long and loud irritated sigh. Whatever, it wasn’t like he could get out of this situation anyway. He had the feeling the cat wouldn’t let him, especially with how he had behaved earlier. And so, what could he do but to endure this, if it meant he could leave faster and stay alone to mope just like he wanted to? Thus, with an audible and exaggerated groan, Snatcher agreed.

-“Fine,” he grunted, already feeling he was going to regret this, “Hope it’s scary, otherwise keep it to yourself,”

-“Oh, it is,” she confirmed, nodding vigorously: “It kept me up at night many times. We were told that naughty kittens would be taken away by a mysterious spirit called “The Snatcher”, only to be eaten and forgotten by their family.”

The former shade listened attentively, wondering where the story would go. Well, so far, the story was half true. He didn’t kidnap kittens, but he did eat people somewhat, so heh, close enough.

-“So, I was your Bogeyman equivalent, basically,” he interrupted, not sure what to think of that. It was nice to know he terrified children, but being compared with such a ridiculous monster was kind of an insult. His words made his interlocutor laugh though, and she continued telling her story:

-“Ahaha, yeah, pretty much! I used to fake not being scared by it in front of my parents, but as soon as night came, I would always shake like a leaf under my bedsheets. It lasted a few years, I must admit,” she giggled awkwardly at the memory: “But you know, I’m glad I was scared of you as a kitten,” she confessed, glancing back at him with a warm smile.

-“Why?” retorted Snatcher, quite perplexed. Why would someone be happy about something like that? Usually, people would do everything to repress childhood traumas like this, or at least laugh about it later… But being happy about it? This sounded off, if not just wrong.

-“Because one night, I was so scared I couldn’t sleep. And so, I slipped out of bed and rummaged through my parents’ bookcase, doing my best not to wake them up… And then, I found what changed my whole life.”

-“And that was…?” asked Snatcher curiously, still wondering how he could have indirectly impacted someone’s life so much. He disliked helping people, so even doing so without actually wanting to made him frustrated.

-“The first cooking book I ever read,” she told him with, perhaps, the most heartfelt expression he had ever seen: “It wasn’t special or anything, just an old book my mother had kept just not to throw it away… But I was immediately hooked on it. Just thinking about creating something new from completely different ingredients… It’s, woah, you know?”

The former spirit remained silent, not sure how to answer. He wanted to retort something disagreeable, he wanted to shut her up, wanted not to listen to her sappy backstory… And yet, he kept his mouth close, for a reason he couldn’t quite place.

Was he becoming soft?!

Hating the sound of that thought, he just scoffed at her words. Yet, he already knew it wasn’t as sincere as his usual mockeries were. It felt like he was just trying to prove to himself that he was still the horrible and terrifying ghost he had been the last few centuries. This just made him feel ridiculous, ugh.

-“Hey, it’s true!” protested Cooking Cat with a little nudge, though she didn’t seem like she was offended by his attitude. Instead, she seemed to take it lightly, like a joke or something: “I remember that time so clearly. I went down in the kitchen in the middle of the night and I tried cooking something from the book. But not only did I end up cooking something that tasted terrible, but I also woke up my parents in the process!” she started to laugh again, staring into space as she looked like she was remembering it fondly: “Oh, they were mad, really mad, I can tell you that. But still, it made me realize how much I loved cooking and it soon became my dream job afterwards.”

-“Couldn’t have guessed,” he remarked sarcastically, hinting at her own name, which was pretty obvious on that regard.

-“Oh, hush!” she nudged him once more, still mischievously. Her smile faded after a few moments and she let her eyes wander in the interstellar void. Silent fell between the two and Snatcher couldn’t help but imitate her, watching the stars drift away through the window, his ears catching up on the many sounds caused by the ship. The constant whirring of the engine was… Soothing, so much that he almost fell back asleep at some point, only to be brought back to reality as Cooking Cat started to talk again:

-“So, I guess… I wanted to thank you. For existing and for being you, I mean,” she said softly: “Without you, I wouldn’t have become what I am today. Thank you.”

Snatcher glanced away, his expression turning bitter. He didn’t want to be thanked for anything. He didn’t want to help anyone, he didn’t want to be nice, even indirectly! He was a soul-stealing ghost, an entity who had murdered countless of people and had done so without feeling any guilt!

… Well, he didn’t anymore, at least. But that wasn’t the point!

Apparently, his face must have been pretty obvious to read as the cat spoke again, an embarrassed tone in her voice:

-“Sorry, I think I said more than I should have,” she confessed, giving him an apologetic look: “I didn’t want to make you feel ill-at-ease. But, if that makes you feel any better, you did give me plenty of nightmares as a kitten, so that makes us even, right?”

The former spirit only scoffed again, this time much more sincere than the last. Gods, this was so sappy, he could almost throw up because of it… Well, figure of speech, considering that he didn’t really want to experience that out of everything possible from being back from the dead. Still, this was some mushy stuff right there, exactly what exasperated him the most.

And yet, he kept his mouth closed once more. The other waited patiently, not pushing him to say or do anything and… It really felt nice. And while he was still feeling pretty… Bad, it was still better than a while ago. At least, he was calmer and less likely to snap.

It is only at that moment he realized that Cooking Cat’s purpose had not been to make him talk about his feelings… But just make him feel better, if only a little bit, never forcing him to listen if he didn’t want to. Snatcher frowned, though it wasn’t from irritation this time.

He was feeling guilty and he hated that. Why did he have to feel things like that?! However, the former shade did his best to push that thought away, very much aware that this would only lead him to snap again. And so, Snatcher took a deep breath, closing his eyes as he did so. He couldn’t describe how much he had needed that.

-“You know,” he reopened his eyes after a few minutes of silence, “You’re bad at telling scary stories,” he eventually said, the tinge of a smile on his lips.

Cooking Cat smiled back at him, not taking that as an insult… Because it wasn’t really one, in the end. Fortunately, she was observant enough to notice that instantly.

-“I know, I know,” she answered with a short giggle, before continuing, her eyes fixed on his as a more serious expression appeared on her features: “I hope you’ll teach me someday, though.”

The message between those words was clear to the man: “I’ll always be there if you need to talk again, never fear to ask”. Although… He couldn’t deny he was quite hesitant on the matter. After centuries spent without talking to anyone about his -ugh- ‘feelings’, suddenly doing so wasn’t really easy. On the contrary, it was pretty difficult. However, another thing he couldn’t deny was how he felt a bit better after talking to the cat, even if they hadn’t talked about anything related to the recent events. But perhaps it was the reason, maybe he was feeling better because she hadn’t mentioned anything about that, because she had let him choose whether he wanted help or not… And it felt nice, to have his boundaries being respected like that.

He had needed this.

-“Maybe,” he finally replied with a small nod, his eyes fixed on the glass ceiling: “not sure you can handle it, though, I am pretty scary,” he joked, even though it was still a little hard to do so considering how he was feeling at the moment. But it did the job and Cooking Cat laughed again:

-“Oh, don’t worry, I’m kind of stubborn,” she assured him. After a few more moments of silence, she stood up, catching Snatcher’s attention: “The girls must be waiting for us, by now. Let’s go back,” she told him, offering her hand to help him to stand up.

The thought of seeing the brats again after the incident in the kitchen made him quite uneasy, for obvious reasons. It would be stupid to wonder about what they talked about, considering what had just happened. He didn’t really want to see them now, yet some part of him knew that waiting would just make things worse. And as they were the only persons in the world able to revert him to his spectral form… It was best to avoid any conflict with them.

And so… Snatcher took Cooking Cat’s paw, the cat waiting patiently for him to do so. He stood up just like her, his posture tensed as he agreed to her words:

-“Yeah… Let’s go back.”

Whether the bad feeling he had about this was going to become reality or was just the product of his pessimistic nature… He didn’t know yet. But he would very soon.

Snatcher did not look forward to it.

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I had so much fun writing this dialogue when, in reality, dialogue is one of my weak points, alongside writing action scenes. I hope you liked this chapter ! It wasn't the longest one but it was one of them! (7 pages and approximately 3700 words).

I read all of your comments and I love every single one of them. Thank you so much for following me and my fanfictions, thank you for leaving kudos and thank you for leaving such lovely comments. It really means so much to me, I mean it.

See you on the next chapter, take care everyone ! :)

=> Chapter 13

#A Hat In Time #ahit #ahit being human #Being Human #BH #oth #oth au #Oh The Humanity AU #snatcher #ahit snatcher #cooking cat #fanfiction #ahit fanfiction #my art #doodledrawsthings #erekio #erekio bh

[billdenbrough]

hi i’ve had a headache all day (my fault for staying up until 5am smh) and am coming down with a cold (outrageous, fuck u winter) so i’m not sure how coherent this is but @trentadepresso was having a rough day which is a Crime™ bc andrea is an angel, and she really loves stenbrough, so i thought i’d try my hand at this to cheer her up a little? andrea, babes, i have v little experience/thought w them so i hope i do them justice for u!! i love u v much. also i’m mobile as per so like. apologies in advance for any typos

STENBROUGH + 30. you don’t see me

It’s a Thursday, so it should be a quiet night, but there are about twenty people crammed into various nooks and crannies of the dorm that Bill, Richie and Ben share.

There are three girls sitting in a circle on Mike’s bed, braiding each other’s hair as they listen to him tell a story about Bill, Richie and an ornery goat that has Bev in stitches across the carpet; she’s sitting with some of Richie’s classmates from his Calculus class (“Rich, you’re doing an Arts degree,” Bev had pointed out with a laugh when he’d first slapped his schedule down in front of them all, which he’d met with an unrepentant shrug) at the foot of Ben’s bed, half-watching Community on Ben’s laptop, half-listening to Mike’s story; Ben and Richie playing a very intense game of Charades, along with about ten other people, in front of Richie’s bed, where Eddie is seated, watching the chaos between his fingers, laughing helplessly at absolutely every ridiculous impression Richie does; and finally, where Stan’s eyes always are, Bill, lying down on the carpet, lazily sketching some of the tableau in front of them.

Stan, for that matter, is sitting on the windowsill by the head of Ben’s bed, perched in a way that allows him to survey it all. He’d been talking to some of the braiding girls before Mike had started telling his story, and has since escaped to his raised position. Despite what Richie might say when teasing him, Stan likes these sorts of kick-backs, likes seeing his friends have fun, likes engaging with their peers. He’s not the most sought-out ever (that would be Richie, Bill, or maybe Bev), but that’s hardly a concern of his; he likes having his odder sense of humour, likes having shorter interactions with people, likes having less demands for his time and energy. Richie gets energy from other people’s attention. The only attention that sends a zing through Stan is that of the people he cares about.

There’s a girl giggling—well, there’s several, it’s Richie, but this one stands out in her intentionality—over Richie’s antics at Charades, and Stan winces. He thinks her name’s Belinda—or maybe Bethany?—which would already be a no from him, given how many fucking B-names his friends have, but he’s very certain she’s out of luck. She’s attractive, he supposes, and he could see Richie being interested for a night, but, well. They’ve never talked about it, but Stan is Richie’s best friend. He’s always been aware of how Richie’s eyes travel to Eddie after every antic, always craving his reaction more than anyone else’s. 

Of course, that goes two ways. Like, Eddie glancing back, sure, but that’s not what Stan means. He means that he’s pretty sure Richie’s aware of the way Stan’s always on the look out for a crop of auburn hair half a head above everyone but Richie or Mike, the way his gaze always—inevitably—finds Bill in any room, the way something in his heart hurts when it’s late at night and Bill’s looking at him with that sleepy smile.

There’s a shout of triumph, and Stan glances over at the charades crew, which seems to have grown in number. Richie’s whooping, Ben’s laughing at him, and Mike and Bev have ended up over there too, on either side of Eddie, shouting “best of three!” Richie glances at Ben, who shrugs, making Richie beam. “All right! This time, though, Eds, you’re playing,” Richie announces, and Stan stifles a laugh at the expression on Eddie’s face.

“Wait, Rich—” Eddie’s saying, and then Mike says, “C’mon, Eddie, I’ll be with you guys too. Who’s going to get Richie’s impressions faster than you?” and the expression on Eddie’s face... kind of knocks the breath out of Stan. He dearly wants to talk to him and figure out exactly what Mike’s words did to Eddie’s understanding of it all, but Richie’s still smiling brightly at Eddie, all hopeful eyes, and just like always, Eddie sighs, and nods. “Yeah, okay, as long as Mikey’s with us,” he says, and Richie whoops.

“Guess that means I’m with you,” Bev says to Ben, who smiles back. “Guess so,” he says. “Bill, do you want to play?” he asks, turning to where his roommate is still lying on the floor. Stan, again, stifles a laugh at the expression on Richie’s face (“He is entirely too good of a friend sometimes,” Richie had grumbled to Stan once, “like he and Bill are close, and Bill and Bev are totally over what the fuck ever you wanna call what they had going on for literally like, two weeks, so it’s not like he needs to do it to be a good friend to Bill anyway, but holy shit, I wish he’d realise that Bev, like, wants to hang out with him for him. Like, love yourself, dude.”), before his eyebrows shoot up at what Bill’s doing.

Because Bill is standing, shaking his head, and completely abandoning the two people who were lying beside him, not so subtly trying to get him to sketch them. “Nah, I wanna show Stan some of these,” he says, which is... odd. Not that he wants to show him things—Stan knows, realistically, that he’s one of the most important people in Bill’s life, and that Bill values his opinion—but just the timing of it all.

Ben nods, asking one of the girls braiding hair if she wants to join their team instead, but Bev’s eyes stay on Bill. There’s something knowing in them that Stan’s not entirely sure what to do with.

“Hey, you been having fun?” Bill asks, leaning against the wall just to the left of the head of the bed. He’s close enough that Stan can feel every movement brush against him.

“Yeah,” Stan says agreeably. “I mean, probably not as much as them—” he leans his head towards a few of the audience members for the charades shenanigans who seem to be drinking beer, even though Stan didn’t see any boxes around, “—but it’s been fine. What about you?” He nudges Bill, inclining his head towards the sketchbook Bill’s got under his arm. “Any good scenes?”

Bill’s lips, in a grimace at the drinking students, twist into an embarrassed smile. “Yeah, I mean, kind of? Everyone’s having fun, and that’s, you know, soothing to draw.”

“Can I see?” Stan asks. He doesn’t usually ask. He’s the only one. He’s always been the most sensitive about the idea of Bill saying no. But. But Bill is warm and bright and next to him, and he said he wanted to show Stan some of them, and maybe Stan’s not foolish to believe it.

Bill glances at him in surprise. “You want—yeah, sure,” he says, and it sounds so easy in his mouth, even though it was accompanied with the kind of initial surprise that used to get him stuttering so hard that even their teachers referred to him by it. (That had always made Stanley angry, so angry; the idea that anyone could see Bill, with all of his bravery and determination and loyalty, his creativity and care and warmth, and think the thing that mattered most to define him was his fucking stutter.)

He pushes off from against the wall and tilts his head towards his now-empty bed, and Stan nods. He slips down from the windowsill onto Ben’s bed, gently closes Ben’s laptop mid-rant from Jeff Winger, and ends up sitting at the head of Bill’s bed while Bill drops himself into his desk chair. He passes Stan the sketchbook, and Stan opens it, drawing in a breath. The first one is of Richie, and it’s—fuck, it’s just beautiful. Richie’s always been so in motion that Stan would never have guessed he could see a paper page and feel like he could find his best friend in the lines on it, but Bill’s managed it. There’s something striking in the lines and slopes of Richie’s face, something frenetic in the feathering lines of his hands, something in the expression on his face that suggests of a laugh beginning to form. It’s bright and bold and fucking beautiful, and Stan was always sure Bill was talented, but he doesn’t have words for this.

“Holy shit,” he breathes, and he’s vaguely aware of Bill’s eyes on his, the weight of his gaze, but he’s mostly losing himself in the sketches. He flicks to the next page, and it’s Bev and Ben. Stan always thinks of the way Ben looks at Bev, maybe because he’s a little closer to Bev than he is to Ben, but Bill drew it the other way around. Ben’s the star of the piece, with his burly arms and wide, sweet face, and Bev’s looking at him, and the expression on her face is so fond and amused and fierce and affectionate that it hurts, because it’s so her, but Stan prides himself on being observant, and if he didn’t notice this tonight, then Ben definitely didn’t. Maybe if he sees it here, rendered in such vivid detail that it’s impossible not to swallow as something true, it’ll hit him.

“She looks at him like Eddie looks at Richie,” Bill says with a quiet chuckle, and Stan’s heart stops in his chest. Because, yeah, Richie and Eddie feel very obvious to Stan, especially Richie at Eddie. But he can’t fathom how Bill could possibly notice Bev looking at Ben and Eddie looking at Richie and not notice Stan’s eyes following him through every room. He flicks more hurriedly through the pages, soaking them all in, and they’re beautiful, all so beautiful. Mike’s strong and tall and genuine, laughing quietly with three girls on Bill’s bed; Bev’s legs are tangled in Richie’s from earlier in the night, the two of them setting up Community; Eddie’s laughing so hard that he’s breathless, leaning on Ben for support, and—

Wait.

Stan glances back at it, brow furrowing. The background is half filled-in, and something in Stan’s stomach lurches, because he remembers this moment. He’d been right there, on the other side of Ben, looking at Eddie with amusement. But he’s not in the sketch.

He flicks to the next page. It’s Mike and Bev, sitting cross-legged on the floor, well before most people arrived, and Stan’s frown deepens, because he knows he was there, standing behind Bev, hands resting on her shoulders. They’re bare in the pictures. He flicks forward again. Richie talking to Mike. Stan feels like he and Eddie should be laughing in the background, but they’re not. He’s not.

He flicks forward again. There are more of the kick-back, all these people Stan knows only vaguely, and yet. None of Stan. This whole night is basically immortalised in this sketchbook, but there’s none of Stan or Bill. He... really doesn’t know what to do with that.

“Stan?” Bill’s voice breaks through. “What’s wrong?”

Stan doesn’t look up. He’s thinking this through in his mind, examining it from every possible angle. He ends up with one possible conclusion, and he doesn’t know what to do with it.

“You don’t see me,” he says carefully. His heart thuds, but his voice is level. He finally looks up.

Bill blinks. “W-what?” Clearly, it’s the last thing he expected Stan to say. Some distant part of Stan notes that the stutter is back.

“There are like twenty pictures here,” Stan says, and does his voice sound too rigid? Too taut? He’s trying for patient, or at the very least, not hurt. “All from tonight.”

Bill nods, brow furrowed.

“Bill,” Stan says patiently, wondering why he’s even pursuing this. Because he’s a constant disappointment to himself, probably. “There are like twenty pictures in here, and none of them are of me.”

Bill’s eyes widen, and his mouth pops open ever so slightly. It hurts to look at it. Because that’s what he’d look like when he kisses someone, Stan imagines, and that’s never felt like less of a possibility for him to experience than now.

“It’s whatever,” Stan says, “I mean, you’re under no obligation to. I just... was surprised, I guess.” Because we’re best friends. Aren’t we? Because even if your heart doesn’t skip a beat when I smile at you, we’re still friends, aren’t we?

Bill still looks a little taken aback, but something Stan said must have gotten under his skin, because he opens his mouth furiously, before being cut off by a whoop from Bev (“Suck on that, Tozier!”). He closes his mouth instead, and looks at Stan with such intensity that Stan feels off-kilter.

“Stan,” he says quietly, fiercely. “Stan, I see you. You’re like, the only thing I see.”

And now Stan’s mouth is slightly open, because he doesn’t know what to do with that. How to compute that, how to make it align with the facts of the universe as he knows it, with what he’s surmised from the sketchbooks.

Bill, apparently, didn’t mean to say all that, because his face shuts down for a moment, before it takes on a determined set. He slides back slightly from the edge of the bed and rifles through his desk drawers—god, they’re a fucking disaster area, Stan notes with a wince—before pulling out another sketchbook.

“Th-th-this is the one I had before,” he says, and there’s something so familiar about Bill in this moment, stuttering yet determined, that it twists something in Stan’s chest. He pushes it towards Stan, who opens it.

The first picture is of Richie again. But it’s Richie with Stan, and Richie’s laughing, joy in motion, and yet. The sketch is focused on Stan, with his wry smile and dancing eyes and the way his shoulder sits under the arm Richie slung around it. The next one is Eddie and Richie, and Stan’s in the background, but he’s got as much detail in his expression as Richie does, despite his face being a fifth of the size. Stan flicks through. They’re all like that. There’s a fair few without him, of course, but all of the ones that feature him, it feels like the pencils came a little more alive when resting on him. He looks up at Bill, open-mouthed.

“You’re just,” Bill says, before laughing shakily. “You were the only thing I could see. So I had to start drawing the space around you. To cope, you know.”

Stan’s heart is thudding. He’s genuinely, for the first time in his life, speechless. Which is saying something, given how long he’s known Richie Tozier.

Bill flicks the pages of the sketchbook from tonight to the very back, and there’s Stan’s face, staring back at him. He’s grinning to the side, amusement in his eyes, and every line of it is so fond, so carefully rendered, that Stan’s heart genuinely hurts.

“Bill,” Stan says, and he doesn’t know what he’s saying. That he gets it, maybe. That his eyes find Bill in every room. That he fell in love with everything Bill drew tonight, that to see the way Bill sees him blows him completely away.

“I didn’t mean to drop this all on you,” Bill says, running his hands through his hair. “I just. Couldn’t stand the idea of you thinking you didn’t matter.”

Stan’s hands snake out and capture Bill’s. Bill glances up at him, eyes wide. Behind them, Stan can hear Eddie shouting something about an octopus—Richie must be having his turn—but Stan wills away those noises.

“You’re the first person I look for in any room,” Stan says, and when Bill’s breath hitches, Stan squeezes his hand. “You’re always the first thing I see.”

Bill looks like he’s been struck by lightning. “God,” he breathes. “We’re so fucking stupid.”

Stan huffs. “Okay, no. Richie and Eddie are idiots. Ben too. We’re just... mildly moronic.”

“Mildly moronic?” Bill sounds like he’s trying not to laugh.

“I mean, we sorted it out in one conversation,” Stan says, ignoring the way his stomach is fluttering. “They’re all going to need at least three. Mike’s the only one I trust.”

Bill really does laugh then, and he’s sliding his chair forward, and Stan’s breath hitches. “Mike’s the smartest one of us all,” he agrees, speaking into the small space between them.

“Richie is so fucking clever, and yet,” Stan murmurs into the space between, and is it getting smaller...?

“No braincells,” Bill sighs, and then he’s sighing it into Stan’s mouth, and Stan was so wrong earlier, when he thought he’d never see what it looked like for Bill Denbrough to look at him like he meant to kiss him.

(When they separate, Stan’s flushed and Bill’s ears are red. The noise is still coming from the charades crew—Bev’s the one acting it out now—but Richie catches Stan’s eye, waggling his eyebrows, but the beam on his face is sincere, and the thumbs up he gives Stan completely genuine. Stan rolls his eyes back, but can’t stop the smile spreading across his face, least of all when he meets Bill’s gaze again, and sees the giddy grin on the taller boy’s face.)

#stenbrough #bill denbrough #stan uris #stanley uris #stanbrough #x #m #jane writes sometimes #andrea #stan #bill #the losers club #i rly dk what i'm doing babes i hope you liked it though <333 #also i've made the playlist for that post i made yesterday lmao mayhaps i will post it soon #stupid cw #ableist slur // #unedited as ever we die like men #what the fuck is this ending #UGH andrea i hope this is ok #this is almost 3k... why am i this way

[kurokoros]

turn a little faster (the world will follow after) preview | sp x oc

Title: turn a little faster (the world will follow after)

Rated: T

Words: ~1K

Pairing: Sweet Pea X Jubilee Jones

Summary: Sweet Pea never expected to meet his soulmate. He also never expected her to be the cute florist working across the street from his tattoo parlor.

AN: A preview of the florist/tattoo artist soulmate au I’m working on. For Camp Riverdale themes soulmates and meet cute!

The pencil slips from Sweet Pea’s fingers and clatters onto the counter. “Shit,” he hisses, brows furrowing in annoyance as he shakes out his hand. A prick of pain lingers on the pad of his thumb, the dull, phantom ache of something that isn’t his. An echo. The pencil rolls off the counter and onto the floor before he can catch it, and he sighs, grumbling under his breath as he stoops to pick it up.

Joaquin pops his head out of his booth as Sweet Pea swears again loudly, eyes narrowed in confusion. “Everything okay out there, man?” he calls across the empty shop, rolling his chair into the main room. The other artist quirks a brow at the sour look Sweet Pea sends him, his lips twitching in amusement.

Sweet Pea waves him off. “Nothing. Soulmate,” he says shortly. He wiggles his fingers so Joaquin can see the already fading red mark on his thumb. “It’s like they fucking shove pins into their hands or something.”

Snorting obnoxiously, Joaquin leans back in his chair. “Must be payback for all those times you got your face busted up,” he jokes. “And all that ink. You must drive them up the wall.”

“Fuck off.” Sweet Pea rolls his eyes. Guilt shoots through him at Joaquin’s quip, but he shoves it down before it can linger.

Joaquin is right, of course. In high school Sweet Pea was definitely a troublemaker, picking fights all the time, even when he shouldn’t have. Black eyes, bruises, and bloody noses were the usual for him. Back then, he was too angry at the world and self-centered to ever think about how a set of bruised ribs might hurt someone else, and he thought being a member of the Southside Serpents meant he had to break himself. He really wouldn’t be surprised if his soulmate was pissed at him for all those years of phantom pain, even if it wasn’t always his fault.

Sensation sharing can be a bitch sometimes.

He still gets into fights, of course. It comes with being a member of the Serpents here in Riverdale. Between territory wars and drugs it’s something they can’t avoid, but he tries not to lose his temper as much as he used to. It helps that things have settled recently. Things will always be tense in Riverdale, but there’s tentative peace between the local gangs.

Joaquin is right about the ink though. After high school he started his apprenticeship with Micah, the Serpents primary tattoo artist. He’d always been a bit of an artist, and under Micah’s watch he’s become damn good with a tattoo gun. Sweet Pea’s been working for the older Serpent for over five years now at his shop on the Southside, Black Velvet Ink and Piercings.

He must drive his soulmate absolutely crazy with all the tattoos he’s gotten over the years.

Sweet Pea’s fingers brush against the side of his neck, absentmindedly tracing the double-headed snake inked there. The first tattoo he ever got was right after he was initiated into the Serpents at fifteen and he hasn’t looked back since. Most of his torso is inked, and his left arm is covered in a full sleeve, of mostly Asian inspired designs. Koi fish. A geisha. Chinese calligraphy running along his left side. A dragon on his arm. His style has always been black and grey. Bold.

That is, all aside from the soft, wispy, cherry blossoms between his shoulder blades. His soul mark.

It’s a pretty thing. A dark branch and a cluster of pale pink blossoms and smaller buds. More delicate and feminine than anything he would have picked for himself, and he wanted to hate it at first, because it was bright and beautiful and everything he didn’t deserve, but he can’t help but be fond of the little thing that showed up one morning when he was sixteen.

His hand drops from the tattoo on his neck and he looks back at the design laid out in front of him, delicate stalks of peonies all woven together across the page. It’s a rough sketch and there isn’t a flow to the design, but he just can’t get the damn thing right. None of the pictures he’s been looking at have the right dimension for what he wants.

Shaking his head, Sweet Pea shoves the sketchbook away and closes his laptop. With a sigh, he leans back on his stool, stretching out his back until there’s a satisfying series of pops.

Joaquin gets up from his chair and walks up behind the desk, looking at the sketch over Sweet Pea’s shoulder. “Peonies still giving you trouble?” he asks, cocking his head as he squints down at the design. Sweet Pea makes a low sound of agreement. “When do you need the design ready?”

Sweet Pea spins one of the rings decorating his fingers and looks over the drawing again, mouth pulled into a frown. “The appointment isn’t for a week, but you know how picky people can be. I need this draft done by tonight.”

“You know your mom’s shop is literally across the street, right?” he reminds Sweet Pea, jerking his chin towards the front windows and the florist shop across the street. “You could just go ask to look at some peonies.” Sweet Pea stills and Joaquin sends him a sly look, suddenly teasing. “Or is there a reason you don’t want to go over there.”

“I’m working,” Sweet Pea tells him immediately, gaze drifting across the street. Immediately, he catches sight of the pretty flower girl that his mom hired at the beginning of the summer. Small and thin, with dark hair pulled into a braid dangling over one of her shoulders. There’s something magnetic about the way she moves and he always ends up staring like a creep. Especially when he gets a glimpse of those long legs that would look fantastic with some ink tracing up her thigh. He can almost picture a winding vine of flowers creeping across her skin.

“Working my ass.” Joaquin rolls his eyes, following Sweet Pea’s gaze out the front window to the girl working in the shop. “You’re just too scared to talk to the hot new girl.”

Ripping his gaze from the pretty brunette, Sweet Pea sends Joaquin a look. “I am not,” he says, like a liar. Joaquin crosses his arms and leans his hip against the counter, expression smug. “Fuck off, Joaquin,” Sweet Pea grumbles, making the other man chuckle. “I’m going to go get some coffee.” He closes his laptop and stands, swiping his keys and wallet off the counter and shoving them into his pockets. He leaves his jacket on the chair.

“You mean go ogle the new girl?” Joaquin calls after him. “And get me a latte!”

Sweet Pea flips him the bird as he steps through the glass doors.

#riverdale #sweet pea x oc #sweet pea imagine #riverdaleevents #fic: turn a little faster #swubilee

[cacpartmobile]

sparc! interviews Teaching Artist, Maddu Huacuja

"I know what's in my heart and what's on my mind and I start creating images and have a conversation with the canvas."

This interview took place on the Zoom platform on June 10, 2020 Ekua: I want to introduce Maddu Huacuja, who is a friend, an esteemed artist, a very passionate involved community member who works with sparc! as a lead artist for our Paint Nights - along with many other things that she does with sparc! She attends and participates in Paint Jazz, she's done community based murals for Paint Salsa, so she's a part of our family.

We thought we would start our series by interviewing her with maybe some questions that I had and maybe some questions that you also had.

So welcome Maddu.

Maddu: Thank you it’s a pleasure to see your face.

Ekua: My first question for you Maddu, was how do you begin a painting?

Maddu: *chuckles* First I take a nap, after my canvas is ready I go to sleep in the studio.

Doesn't matter what time it is, day or night. I just lie down. I guess it’s a meditation but I feel like I’m dreaming the painting first and then I just make a mark anywhere on the canvas, just to break the whiteness of it. I generally have a vague idea of what I am going to paint. I never have a finished sketch or anything like that, it’s a general idea. I know what's in my heart and what's on my mind and I start creating images and have a conversation with the canvas.

Ekua: I think that's very admirable, given the beauty of your work. Another thing that I think is very admirable is how large you are able to work sometimes. Can you tell me, why do you work large, what's important about working large to you?

Maddu: Even though I seem like a very calm person and I am, I need to be moving. So the large canvas - I can move from one end to the other. Sometimes I have to get on a ladder or a step stool, and then I really feel like an artist, but I like the movement. I feel that if I’m moving the image moves. I also always have music playing, often loud and active music. I have a lot of different music. I put it on a roll and the mood of the song or piece moves me in a certain way, so that becomes part of my imagery. I feel like the movement is really important. I don’t want to paint a painting that isn’t moving.

Ekua: So you're not sitting down, you're not standing in one spot, you're moving around that canvas. Do you work in oil or acrylic, what kind of mediums do you use?

Maddu: I often mix acrylic with drawing. I rarely work with oil. I think again because of the movement, acrylic is faster, but I do like oils. Everytime I think about it I'm like, “Oh I want to paint with oils”. But when I get to the studio it’s like I’m in acrylic. I like having a bucket of water near me, maybe that’s all it is.

Ekua: Well It certainly does dry faster, which allows you to move through a very large painting a little bit faster. Do you feel that your subject matter is in a particular area that you don’t really stray from? Is your storytelling about a particular kind of story or do you move around? How would you describe that aspect of your artwork?

Maddu: It’s not a decision, it's sort of how it works out. My focus is mostly… well, I do a lot of abstract but also I don’t know if I’m mostly figurative. When I do figurative work I am focused on people that “don’t matter”, either symbolically or specific people. For instance years ago there was a massacre in Mexico and all these men were murdered and the women were left as widows and the children were all orphaned. They were very poor to begin with. So they went to the local city hall to make a statement to try to get help, etcetera. There was a tiny photograph in the magazine of these women with their babies and every single one of them was barefoot, and I decided to paint their portraits. As I was painting I was like, “Why am I doing this, here in the United States no one even heard of this place, let alone cared about it?” I just thought, “Well If I don’t do it nobody is going to do it” and it seemed important to me. So I struggled through all those toes and little baby feet. It was in the show that you saw at the Roxbury Community College gallery many years later. So sometimes an event that touches me is my theme. I think I am very connected to my Mexican roots, so it's not just in the events that happen but in my image making. It really is part of my DNA; the colors, the kind of images I create. I think it is influenced a great deal from my childhood in a city that was thriving: vibrant with public art, murals everywhere, beautiful fresco murals, with the famous three muralists Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros , José Clemente Orozco. And also by Frida Kahlo's work. My mother was a painter, so even though she wasn’t painting I knew she had been a painter and her oils were in the closet. So, you know, it just became part of who I am. I think that still comes through. Sometimes my focus is specifically on women.

Ekua: So we mentioned RCC as the sight of one of your exhibitions. I know recently you’ve been spending some time over at Bunker Hill Community College and you had an opportunity to do some teaching. I am wondering how you feel teaching influences your artwork or has an impact on your artwork. Working with young artists, not just young artists but artists that you are mentoring within a classroom setting or within a community arts setting like sparc! the ArtMobile. How does that seep into your consciousness or into your work?

Maddu: I love teaching. I enjoy teaching spanish or art. I like all ages, so sparc! in particular is perfect for what I love because you have 2 year olds and 82 year olds and everything in between. I think teaching is fun, and as far as what I paint it’s freeing, it just loosens my hands, my mind. At Bunker Hill most of the teaching I did was around the exhibition that was up. It was called Open the Way and it was up from October through the end of February. So it was a long stretch and a lot of classes came in, and I learned a lot about my painting from my teaching these students.It was fascinating because, particularly in Bunker Hill, there's a really international student body. Every time there was a class there were at least 10 countries represented and several continents. It was very interesting because I said in one class that in a previous class people were not speaking up, and a student from the African continent, I don’t remember which country, it might have been Ghana, said “That’s because they are being polite. You don’t just speak in front of your elders.” I was like, “Oh.” I was humbled by that. Also, about my paintings, they saw things and told me things about how the work affected them and what they saw in it. That was wonderful for me to hear, really an eye opener for me.

Ekua: That’s so interesting that you can learn about your art from a viewer.

Maddu: Yes, totally.

Ekua: Revelations about the richness of your own artwork.

Maddu: Yes, I wish that I could have recorded everything that was said. Of course nothing was recorded and I always regret that I didn’t take half an hour afterwards to write down the things that I heard. That’s something that I definitely want to make part of my practice.

Ekua: When you're teaching at an event like Paint Night, and you have this audience from 2 to 92 and everything in between, do you come in with one sort of thing that you want everyone to leave with?  You know some people obviously have more skill with painting. Children are interested in mixing all the paints together and sticking their hand in it. Everybody’s entering from a different standpoint, but what do you as an artist hope to impart as a takeaway for each person?

Maddu: You know, the didactic part of me wants them to learn one thing at least. Even if it’s just what blue and red make, or something. I really want them to learn how to use a brush. There's always something that is very gratifying for me that they learn. But mostly, I usually come after my day job to a Paint Night because they are always on a Monday night, and very often I am like, “God, how am I going to make it through this class?” I’m so tired and my mind is mush and I get there and I just get this energy from sparc!. From all the helpers that are amazing, and without it I wouldn't do it, and from the students because they come with their own positive energy. So I hope they leave the class like I leave the class, which is feeling really happy. You know it’s uplifting to me to do the class. I figure if they are happy they are going to like art because it is a happy experience, and so I like them to feel good about what they did, and about themselves. I like to bring each kid up and show his work or her work and introduce themselves, and say something about the painting, which I think is a good thing regardless of what you’re teaching or what they are learning. Just to be able to get up in front of a group of people that they mostly don’t know and introduce themselves and speak up. It leads me to my other piece of my art and being an artist is, in this time - where I feel we are on the brink of many things - I think it’s really important for people to speak up. If they learn to speak up, to say “Hello! I’m over here and I have this much to say!” and to be able to say it. I think if they learned that we have accomplished something

Ekua: I totally agree with that. You know, initially I thought people would be very shy about getting up and talking about their work, but the overall atmosphere of a Paint Night seems like an environment where people feel comfortable, safe and feel welcomed. Little kids or people who have never spoken before a crowd get up and talk about their painting. They receive so much warmth and appreciation. I think it's such a key part of the Paint Night experience and I believe that you are the artist who started doing that, and now it has become a part of our best practices. So thank you.

Maddu: I’m very happy to hear that. I remember one kid in particular - putting her on a chair because she was so tiny. ”You stand over here and show everybody.” It’s like 45-60 people in the room, and it's a wave of “Aww that’s beautiful, that's wonderful!” Clapping. “Congratulations!” And the kid just seems to overcome their shyness. So yeah, I love it.

Ekua: Well I am sure you know we miss being able to do our Paint Nights this semester and we are looking at an uncertain fall. We don’t know if we will be able to be together in that room with 50-60 people. We will have to create something new. If you were speaking to some of the folks at home, sheltering at home during this pandemic, how would you encourage them to bring more creativity into their life - even though they aren't at a Paint Night, or they might not even have paints or supplies. Is there anything you can share with them about your life as a creative maker that they can apply to their lives now?

Maddu: I think the only way anything gets done is if you make room for it, and that goes for everything. So we tend to give prime importance to our job. You have to be there by 9 o’clock no matter what happens there you are. But when it comes to our own personal stuff we tend to give it less importance, like going to your exercise class or going to your studio seems to be less important - but it really isn't. I think the only way, particularly when we are sitting around and no one’s telling us that we have to be anywhere, we have to initiate on our own.  “Today at noon I’m going to drop everything and go to my studio.” Or “I’m going to pull out my little art stuff.” Whatever you have at home, put on some music or tapes whatever it is that inspires you and motivates you and just do something. It doesn’t matter how much you get done for an hour - or maybe that’s stretching it.

Ekua: I guess that can even be dancing or singing. I mean it’s not necessarily all visual art but just the idea that each of us has a creative spirit that is longing for expression.

Maddu: Right. Or sit down and write for an hour regardless of if it's your masterpiece or not - or your future novel. I signed up online for an app called Ulysses that is a writing app. I love it because it is very intuitive and you just write. You don’t have to save or anything, whatever you write is saved automatically. You don’t have to format. So it makes it easy. You have to find ways to know yourself enough to make it happen for you, make it easy.

Ekua: Well here is my last question. I was in another zoom meeting the other day and someone said we need to reframe all of our work as social justice work. I thought that was really interesting to think about everything I do in the context of social justice. So as not just an artist but an arts activist, how would you apply that to your life in this sort of immediate time? Being an activist and reframing as a social justice activist?

Maddu: Well the fact that this is a pandemic and we are all locked down - but here we are. We can still influence and speak up through all the media. We all need to be political. There is no option. It's not like, “Oh I’m not into politics.” Everybody has to be into politics. Making art, the decision to create is, in my mind, a political statement. The one thing I would say is, vote at every level, not just for the presidential elections but all your local elections. Find out who your local representatives are, call them up. You can do that, it's not hard. Write letters if that is what you are prone to do. Again it's a matter of everybody has to act and find what it is that you deeply care about and act on that even if it is about saving polar bears. You know if it's about politics or if it's about...

Ekua: Global warming, climate change.

Maddu: Everything is so dire, you know.

Ekua: Mhm feels that way.

Maddu: If you just hold it in you're going to die, so just do something, do anything. And do it with somebody else. Join a group and see what is going on. Meet on zoom and see what people are talking about. Together we rise. I think it’s always been a crucial moment, but this one is really obvious. People are dying everyday, thousands of new people are sick. This is really life and death, and if we allow the current president another 4 years I dont know whats going to happen.

Ekua: Heaven help us.

Maddu: I mean really seriously it’s not even like “Oh I like this candidate or that candidate”. Forget that. I think everything you do to influence the social fabric and what's going is literally saving the world. Saving the world for our children, for our grandchildren, for ourselves. And if we let this moment pass it’s going to be that much harder.

Ekua: And all of the tools at our disposal include painting, poetry and dance - things that touch the heart and soul.

Maddu: Absolutely.

Ekua: So everybody can do something.

Maddu: Everybody! Children can do something. They can write letters.They can study. They can read books and find out their history, find out what's happened before. I also don’t mean everybody has to go around in a panic and freaking out. I think we need beauty, we need to feed our heart and our soul and our mind with poetry and beautiful paintings, or intense paintings. But it’s not just about the intensity, but about the beauty and the love.

Ekua: Love is at the center of everything good, I would say.

Maddu: I think Rumi said “Love is the bridge between you and everything else”.

Ekua: Like that! Well, I want to thank you for taking this time out to be with us. I’m sure you and I could talk for another hour at least but I want to keep it within a framable amount of time that people can squeeze in or listen to while they are painting or whatever. We don’t know what will happen in the fall but whatever we're doing Maddu, we know that you're going to be a part of it, in terms of sparc! the ArtMobile and the Center for Art and Community Partnerships. We thank you so much for being a part of our family, contributing to the beauty in the world, and we will be back in touch with you very, very soon.

Maddu: Thank you for everything you do, especially for this community. And I am a total fan. I think you're a hero.

Ekua: Thank you so much.

#contemporarywomenartists #sparctheartmobile #madduhuacuja

[milandherstyle-blog]

Koha blog posts

Week 7.1

Unfortunately due to a family event I was unable to attend the first lecture in the pit and class because I was still in Auckland. To utilise my time well before next class I looked at the resources on stream and tried to catch up as best I could. I understood the new brief, that being that we had to create a trans media campaign creating a poster, website and motion graphic video. I also listened to the Warren Maxwell songs and read through the lyrics as a class mate had mentioned this would be important for next class. Missing the lecture from Warren Maxwell was disappointing as it would have aided in my process however I am confident I will be able to establish a good work flow regardless.

Week 7.2

This was my first class back for the Koha brief and it was a bit hectic. In the previous class people had paired up for an exercise and these pairs were now doing the trans media campaign together, due to being away I wasn’t in a pair. I was quickly paired up with Courtney which was a relief however Courtney had also missed the first class. This meant starting our project came to a bit of a halt whilst we got to grips with the brief and what was being asked. Myself and Courtney analysed the lyrics to 3 of Warren’s songs, writing up word lists, thumbnail drawings, key themes and potential storylines. We also took this opportunity to have a one on one with Andre about what we missed in the previous class and how we could further ourselves. Towards the end of class we decided to continue with a physical workbook and on top of this set up our Trello website for our project management. For homework we decided it was best that both of us continue to analyse and establish potential storylines for our motion graphic.

Week 8.1

This weeks lecture in the pit focussed on the motion graphic aspect of the campaign and explored techniques to make the process of starting the motion graphic easier. By this point our pair had established a storyline combining key themes from 3 of Warren’s songs; Peaceful Man, Nature of Man and Home Land and Sea. We split up the work of looking as visual precedents and aI focussed on creating a moodpboard for the illustration style for our animatic. This mood board was a good first step to visualising how the animatic would look. In this class I learnt the importance of storyboarding and how quick sketches can really help aid in the process of creating a motion graphic. I sketched out a few images from the storyline we created and looked at how they could be put together to create a storyline for the “plays”. We also completed an in class exercise using a key frame from “A some for Europa” and looked at how the image could change meaning and context depending on what word we paired with the image. This was interesting and taught me that anything is subject to change when people are looking at something a certain way feeling a certain emotion.

Week 8.2

This week’s lecture taught me the importance of user experience. How creating a visual system targeted at a specific audience will help to portray my ideas. We began the class by brainstorming in our pairs, thinking back to the Warren Maxwell songs we chose and the key themes in these. We then focussed on the imagery related to these key themes and how we could begin to portray these images in a storyboard. We had an introduction to storyboarding by Jason which was super helpful for me because it’s not a skill I practice often. Once we had a few initial sketches I began to research types of animation style as well as illustration style and how our own skills and ideas could fit in to what we were researching. Myself and Courtney both found an animation we really liked, it was the simplicity of the motion graphic that drew our attention.

https://www.behance.net/gallery/69437287/SELFRIDGES?tracking_source=curated_galleries_list

We chose to delegate the illustrations to Courtney because we wanted our body of work to look cohesive so having one person dedicated to this would help. The Lab this week was after effects, Courtney attended and brushed up on some after effects skills, I was unable to attend however I had some knowledge of after effects from first year.

Week 9.1

This class was our interim presentation, I completed wireframe sketches of our initial idea of a mobile website with organic shapes, as well as some initial illustrated key frames from our story board, we also had a printed moodpboard which I put together. During the time I was putting together the interim presentation work I learnt that communication is key when working in a pair, I ended up doing most of this presentation by myself which is no reflection on my partner just on the fact I like to take control and do things myself. However when working in a group or pair I have learnt that delegation is a really useful skill to have in order to get work done faster and smarter. The feedback we got from our interim presentation was good, Lee really liked our storyline and the initial semiotics I had illustrated of the coins and flowers. We are headed in a good direction and the moodpboard we printed is a good starting point for the visual aesthetic we want to achieve for our animation, poster and website. Going forward I will be further defining our storyboard for the motion graphic while Courtney works on illustrating. I will definitely be looking at how I can help to divide the work between us to make sure we get everything done.

Week 9.2

This week in class I looked at the timeline of the motion graphic and how the Warren Maxwell songs can work as a soundtrack for the motion graphic. I decided I would take on the role of creating the animation/motion graphic as Courtney has no prior experience with after effects, even though my own knowledge is limited.

Week 10.1

The illustrations for our motion graphic were taking longer than expected so personally I used this time to create a website. Usually some of the illustrations we already had I created a mobile website with a few different iterations as a start. The website started to come together really nicely and I was quite happy with how it looked. I also worked on our bookwork as well as beginning the animation with the key frame illustrations that were complete. During this week I learnt that learning a new skill such as after effects or even remembering and brushing up on the skill takes time, it took a long time and quite a few tries before I got to grips with the software.

Week 10.2

This class was just working towards Monday’s interim presentation, we tiled our poster, and our website is pretty much navigable. Our animation is also partly done but I’m not too happy with how it’s looking at the moment. Jason mentioned everyone’s motion graphics are looking almost like a stage - everything entering and exiting from the sides, I’m thinking of how we could develop our motion graphic to look less like this. Courtney has developed quite a few poster iterations now which are looking good. This week I’ve been brushing up on after effects and trying to learn some better skills which is proving harder than I thought. After effects is definitely teaching me patience.

Week 11.1

We presented our interim work for the class and tutors, having interim presentations is always really helpful for me personally, if I have been struggling to feel motivated to get the work done I’m always keen for feedback so the interim is a good opportunity for me to collate my work and get feedback. We got some really helpful feedback, the animation was feeling weak so I decided to reassess what I wanted to achieve from the animation and think logistically about what I could get done in the timeframe. Like always bad feedback is kind of disheartening however it’s something I have learnt to take in my stride and it will really help our project in the long run. We decided to re-establish the style for my motion graphic, cutting the time down and keeping it even more simple.

The poster we presented had really good feedback and we’re pretty much ready to print with a few minor touches. The website is also coming along really well and just needs a few final touches. This week I learnt that its all about the process and thinking of target audience, instagram ad transmedia, don’t want to watch a long video, short snappy but effective.

Week 11.2

This class was about continuing my work with the motion graphic and getting back up to speed. By this point we were ready to submit our poster to toy store and put our final touches on the website adding in a merchandise section and a link to more Warren Maxwell information. We are super on track at the moment with work only really needing to be done on the animation. We were told about the due dates being early for the animation and website, this shouldn’t really affect us too much because we are on track. I’m feeling quite good at the moment about our project and I am proud of the progress we have made.

Week 12.1

Today’s class was our last opportunity for feedback before hand in. We showed the tutors our motion graphic and website, both of which are now done. Was really good to get some positive feedback. We have submitted the poster to toy store and will only need to mount the poster. We need to create the website walkthrough after putting some final touches on the website. Our animation is due tomorrow night so I will need to put some final touches on that too. We are really on track which is such a good feeling. This project has been really interesting working in a pair and establishing a routine of communication and delegation of jobs.

Week 12.2

We submitted our animation on Tuesday and mounted our poster. This morning was an interesting opportunity to see everyone’s different style of animation. The trans media campaign has been super interesting really thinking on a deeper level about how your design will interact with the target audience.

[mareebrittenford]

Character sketch: David

other sketches for my superhero novel can be found here

I slip out of my bedroom window and cling to the deepest shadows beside the house as I strip off my clothes. It’s achingly cold, but I have to do this outside, once I’ve changed I don’t have the opposable thumbs required for window operation, and besides, changing inside four walls is always terrifying. Enclosed spaces are bad enough in human form, but when my full range of senses open up, it’s unbearable. The one time I did it, accidentally, I trashed my room and broke the window by jumping through it in a panicked bid to escape. Lesson learned. Never ever change indoors.

Which leaves me here, tonight, shivering and naked in the woodsmoke-scented air. My body forcing me to change and hunt. Being a werewolf is so awesome and glamorous, I bet everyone would want to be one if they knew they’d get to experience this.

I take a few deep breaths and reach inside myself, to that part of me that is always pushing on my awareness, the wild and strange part, and let it expand, like trickling, sparkling heat from my chest out, and down, along my arms and legs, wrapping and unfurling all at once. I feel the change beginning, as it always does, in my fingertips and toes, and traveling back up my limbs, until it meets back together in my chest, and I am changed. A wolf.

The cold is gone, replaced by the mad range of wolf senses. I always think I remember what it’s like, but I can’t fully hold my wolf sensory memory in my human brain. All at once my world is defined, not by what I can see and touch, but by what I can smell and hear. Trying to describe the way the world smells when I’m a wolf is hard. I’ve heard the cliche of ‘like describing color to a blind person,’ but that’s not really it.

 It’s more like clicking on that paint box icon on your computer to get a basic red, and then it opens up to ten thousand shades of red. That single shade of red is smell as a human, and the ten thousand shades is smell as a wolf. That’s the best I can describe it anyway.

 I struggle to focus the lupine brain. It’s not as if I’m turned into a mindless beast incapable of rational thought, but everything is more immediate, and consequences seem so distant. The neighbor’s cat smells delicious. No. Cat, bad.  The smell of humans nearby makes me flinch nervously. Wolves are cautious by nature, and the buildings around me, the conflicting smells of so many living creatures nearby push me to escape. I clear the back fence with an easy bound, and slide through the shadows, heading for the river. The many-toned smell of chickens, drifts past me as I pass one backyard, but I move on. Cats. I will hunt the stray cats that live along the river. It’s repulsive to my human mind, but as a wolf, the memory of the hot taste of the fresh kill in my mouth draws me on powerfully.

 They are easy to catch. They run, but I run faster, embracing the feeling of stretching my legs and chasing. I love to run, I love to chase. I run one down, and tear into it, relishing the hot bloody organs, the sweet meat, and stifle the urge to howl. If I was in human form I’d be laughing, that’s how happy I feel. After my initial hunger is satisfied, I take my time getting a few more, glorying in the moment, the being, the darkness, the smooth cut of chill air against my fur, the textures of crisp grass and rough pebbles under my paws. The sounds of small animals going about their business, and the smells!  Of earth and grass and rabbit and mice, and air and sky. I can smell the sky, and it smells like freedom.

 The urge to stay lupine, to just let my form rest, is asserting itself But I know I can’t, and I use my human memories to drag me back, into the shadows of buildings, the spaces that smell of garbage and petroleum products, and fear. I ignore my senses and instincts and cram myself back against the shadows of my house, and force the change. Going back to human form is always harder, withdrawing the the shimmering feeling makes me feel hollowed out, bereft. But I lock it down, and force my body, shaking with cold and exhaustion, into my clothes and back through the window. The cats churn uneasily in my human stomach. If only I could wait long enough to digest it as a wolf, but I need to sleep more than I need to settle my stomach.

 I go into my bathroom and wash my hands and face, brush my teeth, rinse with mouthwash a few times. The best I can do right now. It’s two a.m. and I have to be up for school in four hours. I curl in bed, and try to relax and drop into sleep. It’s always hard, after. To go from being powerful and free and go back to being ordinary and alone. It’s why I don’t change more than my biological cycles demand. Being a wolf without a pack is hard. But being a teenage boy without a pack is the loneliest thing in the world.

 My name is David, and I am a lone wolf.

-----

 “Have you considered trying out for track?”

 I startle, always edgy in the odiferous, windowless space of the boys locker room.

 “What?”

 The boy, a tall lean black guy, I think his name is Lionel? repeats himself, already exasperated.

 “No.” I haven’t. But I suppose I should have. I crave the escape of running, human or lupine form, it’s one of the only ways I have of dealing with what I am.

 “Well, you should. I was watching you today.” He leans forward, enthusiastic and I back up a little, ready to escape. He was watching me? What did he see? “You’ve got talent. I’m amazed I didn’t notice you last year.”

 Most likely because last year I was ordinary. And now I’m not.

 I don’t like people noticing me. I take another step back.

 “Anyway, I sure would like to see you try out, can I get you to show up for a practice, at least see what it’s like?” For every step I take back, he takes one forward, insistently invading my space. The cold steel of the lockers hits my bare back, and my breath is starting to come faster.  I can feel it pressing in my chest, the need to change to my more defensible form.

 “I don’t know,” I look to either side, can I slip past him? Evade him in this cramped and obstacle riddled space? He slaps me on my shoulder and I can’t help it, I twitch away, baring my teeth.

 He looks momentarily confused and then backs away from me, his posture altering, becoming less aggressive. “Hey look, no pressure. How about this, the team runs together after school, why don’t you show for that, see how you like it?” He’s not going to go away unless I give him something.

 “Yes, okay. Sure.”

 “Great, great,” he’s still backing away, watching me uncertainly. When he’s out of my sight I can relax. I’m an idiot, and I need to get a handle on myself. I take deep breaths, but the locker room reeks of urine and fear. I dress quickly. Once I’m out in the open air I can think more clearly. He wasn’t threatening me, he was recruiting me. I don’t know why I panicked like that. Well I do, enclosed spaces plus aggressive body language (even though it was aggressively enthusiastic, not aggressively violent) pricked all my wolf instincts to fight or flee. I don’t know why I trigger so easily. I knew he wasn’t trying to harm me.

 I curse Natalie again, for abandoning me to this. There’s probably all sorts of things I should be doing and learning, to be in better control, but how would I know? So instead I’m out here alone risking exposure with every new and unexpected interaction.

 And now I have to take a run with the track team.

 I know where they congregate, to the left of the front gates, immediately after school. They’re dressed in their team shirts, and I, in my gym uniform, the only suitable clothes I had with me, obviously do not belong.  I observe them for a few minutes, watching their interactions, before I approach, so I’m not surprised when the first one to speak to me is overtly threatening.

 “Hey, this is a team run, team members only.” He’s lean and long limbed, as they all are, as I am, but like most of them he’s taller than me, and he uses his height advantage forcefully, looming. I’m prepared to deal with this.

 The two great gifts that being changed has given me are my ability to run, and my ability to read body language as easily as printed text. His screams insecurity. He doesn’t have a strong place in this group, and all newcomers threaten it. I cannot show fear.

 “I know. But Lionel invited me.” I hope I’ve got that name right. Lionel? glances over his shoulder and comes over. He has the comfortable, loose-limbed gait of someone confident in their authority and abilities.

 “David! I’m glad you decided to come. What’s your 5k pace?”

 I have no idea. I run. I don’t time it.

 “I’ll just keep up with you guys.”

 This earns a sneer from insecure guy. Great.

 Leo leads off with his bounding confidence, and the team falls in behind him.  I drop in with a group of three behind the lead group, and watch, in amusement as the insecure guy struggles to keep up in front.

 “Don’t let Eric bother you,” a girl tells me. “He’s a jerk.”

 “I’ll keep that in mind.”

 “I’m Carlyse.”

 “David.”

 I’m not sure what else to say. I’ve never had a conversation while running before. Luckily I’m not stuck searching my brain for conversation topics for long. The captain drifts back from the lead group and falls into step with our little pack.

 “Hey Lionel,” Carlyse says, “I’ve been keeping an eye on your new boy here, not that he needs it.”

 “Good!” He slaps me on the shoulder and drops back further. He’s a physical kind of guy, obviously.

 The run is surprisingly fun. I stick with the small pack and Carlyse smirks as we pass Insecure Eric after about two miles.

 “So how about it?” Lionel asks, as everyone stands around chatting back in front of the school.

 I shrug.

 But then I look over and see my former best friend walking out the front doors of the school. He meets my eyes, and for a second I think he’s going to come over. Instead he glares at me.

 “Why not. It’s not like I have anything better to do.”

#camp nano prep #camp nano july 2017 #superhero novel #david #werewolf

[creekkidart]

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

[catherinesnyder]

Dig into digital illustration with Procreate

While there are plenty of digital painting and illustration apps out on the market today, one that regularly rises to the top amongst the creative crowd is Procreate. With an intuitive interface and (let’s be honest) a cheap price tag, this iPad app is on of my favorites and it empowers artists everywhere to take their digital sketches on the go.

In this article, I’ll go over Procreate’s key features, recommend some of my favorite Skillshare classes to familiarize you with the app, and introduce ways to incorporate it into your workflow.

Web banner illustration by Fe Melo

So, what is Procreate? _

Procreate is a digital painting app designed exclusively for mobile, which means it’s been optimized for you to start sketching whenever the mood strikes. To use the app, you’ll need to have access to an iPad and an Apple Pencil and download the app from the Apple Store.

The app is most known for having an intuitive workflow, where designers navigate through brush libraries, layers and effects using finger gestures and customized Apple Pencil strokes. You can easily save, organize and export your artwork in a variety of file formats. I use Procreate for most of my designs.

Here’s a look at a few of the key features:

Import & export files

Procreate can easily be incorporated into your existing workflow. The app supports most major image formats, so you can bring in photos and existing design files to tweak within the app.

If you want to finish your piece up on a desktop computer, you can export it as a layered PSD file and make the final touches in Photoshop.

If you need to vectorize your drawing (maybe you’re working on a logo, pattern or hand lettering), you can switch off the background layer in Procreate and export the artwork as a PNG. Then simply open the file in Adobe Illustrator and convert it into a vector using Image Trace.

Experiment with brushes

Mix and match the Shape and Grain to create your own custom brushes. Image via the Procreate Artist Handbook.

Procreate has a well-stocked library of more than 130 brushes, so you should be able to find some brushes that suit your style.

Each brush is split into two elements: Shape and Grain. The Shape is the container that houses the Grain. The Grain is what’s rolled onto the canvas (anything from a basic pattern or texture to an imported image or photo).

Once you get comfortable with the default library, the real fun starts. Each brush is comprised of 52 editable settings, including dynamic settings based on things like the speed of your stroke and your applied pen pressure.

From there you can customize the way you want to blend paint colors and build up opacity, charge your brush to naturally run out of paint, and experiment with other techniques.

Save time & design faster

Experiment with an isometric perspective in your next design. Illustration by Maxim Andreev.

Like most digital painting apps, Procreate alleviates many of the common issues you typically hit when putting pencil to paper.

Mistakes can be fixed by simply hitting “undo” or deleting a layer. Small inconsistencies can be manipulated or wiped away using a variety of filters. The StreamLine feature ensures your strokes are smooth and stabilized (this is great for designers who want their lettering to look flawless).

You can also ditch the time-consuming process of building out vanishing points and complicated guidelines by hand. If you switch on the Drawing Guides mode, you can build out snappable grids for all kinds of perspectives. The QuickLine feature lets you snap your strokes into straight lines with your finger, while Drawing Assist will constrain your strokes to the 2D, isometric or perspective guide you’ve created.

Show off your creative process

Let’s be honest… This feature is the crowd favorite by far.

A recorded timelapse of digital wallpaper by Fe Melo

You can switch on Time-lapse recording to create high res, time-lapse videos of your process from initial sketch to final piece. If you want to make a few fixes discreetly, just pause the recording and turn it back on when you’re ready.

Once it’s ready, import your time-lapse into a video editing app to add music, edit the clip and add your personal branding. Then share it with the world!

If you’re building out a professional brand or looking to gain more exposure, consider making these kinds of videos a staple on social channels like Instagram and YouTube. It’s always inspiring for fans (and prospective clients) to see how the pros create their artwork.

Ready to dive in? _

I’ve rounded up some of my favorite Skillshare classes to get you up to speed, with the hope that you’ll learn some new styles and skills that you can apply to your own work.

Illustrating in Procreate: Drawing a Shareable Time-lapse

Most excited about the Time-lapse feature? Learn how to create “magical” time-lapses from sketch to finish.

Digital Illustration: Learn to Use Procreate

This course was definitely one of my favorites. I’ve always liked Jarom Vogel’s style, so it was awesome to see his illustrations come to life—and to see how he uses Procreate as a tool to do that.

Intro to Procreate: Illustrating on the iPad Pro

Learn how to use the app tool-by-tool and achieve some really cool effects by using different layer modes. Brooke’s background is in children’s apparel and greeting cards—and I love her cutesy style.

Ink and Color in Procreate® for Illustrators

If you love pen and ink, this class is for you. You’ll create a decorative monogram, while learning how to set up your canvas, create basic shapes and outlines, and how to color it in with added details and shading.

Mastering iPad Lettering with Procreate 4

Learn hand lettering basics and how to achieve trendy effects including watercolor brush and ombré lettering. You’ll also be introduce to some of the new tools added in Procreate’s latest update.

New to Skillshare?

Get two months free access with the promo code 99designs2Months

Start learning

About the author

Fernanda Melo Stark is a freelance illustrator and graphic designer, with a background in textile and fashion design. You can find her in the 99designs community as Fe Melo. Read more about Fernanda in our blog interview.

The post Dig into digital illustration with Procreate appeared first on 99designs.

via https://99designs.co.uk/blog/

Dig into digital illustration with Procreate syndicated from https://www.lilpackaging.com/

[helenpattersoon]

Dig into digital illustration with Procreate

While there are plenty of digital painting and illustration apps out on the market today, one that regularly rises to the top amongst the creative crowd is Procreate. With an intuitive interface and (let’s be honest) a cheap price tag, this iPad app is on of my favorites and it empowers artists everywhere to take their digital sketches on the go.

In this article, I’ll go over Procreate’s key features, recommend some of my favorite Skillshare classes to familiarize you with the app, and introduce ways to incorporate it into your workflow.

Web banner illustration by Fe Melo

So, what is Procreate? _

Procreate is a digital painting app designed exclusively for mobile, which means it’s been optimized for you to start sketching whenever the mood strikes. To use the app, you’ll need to have access to an iPad and an Apple Pencil and download the app from the Apple Store.

The app is most known for having an intuitive workflow, where designers navigate through brush libraries, layers and effects using finger gestures and customized Apple Pencil strokes. You can easily save, organize and export your artwork in a variety of file formats. I use Procreate for most of my designs.

Here’s a look at a few of the key features:

Import & export files

Procreate can easily be incorporated into your existing workflow. The app supports most major image formats, so you can bring in photos and existing design files to tweak within the app.

If you want to finish your piece up on a desktop computer, you can export it as a layered PSD file and make the final touches in Photoshop.

If you need to vectorize your drawing (maybe you’re working on a logo, pattern or hand lettering), you can switch off the background layer in Procreate and export the artwork as a PNG. Then simply open the file in Adobe Illustrator and convert it into a vector using Image Trace.

Experiment with brushes

Mix and match the Shape and Grain to create your own custom brushes. Image via the Procreate Artist Handbook.

Procreate has a well-stocked library of more than 130 brushes, so you should be able to find some brushes that suit your style.

Each brush is split into two elements: Shape and Grain. The Shape is the container that houses the Grain. The Grain is what’s rolled onto the canvas (anything from a basic pattern or texture to an imported image or photo).

Once you get comfortable with the default library, the real fun starts. Each brush is comprised of 52 editable settings, including dynamic settings based on things like the speed of your stroke and your applied pen pressure.

From there you can customize the way you want to blend paint colors and build up opacity, charge your brush to naturally run out of paint, and experiment with other techniques.

Save time & design faster

Experiment with an isometric perspective in your next design. Illustration by Maxim Andreev.

Like most digital painting apps, Procreate alleviates many of the common issues you typically hit when putting pencil to paper.

Mistakes can be fixed by simply hitting “undo” or deleting a layer. Small inconsistencies can be manipulated or wiped away using a variety of filters. The StreamLine feature ensures your strokes are smooth and stabilized (this is great for designers who want their lettering to look flawless).

You can also ditch the time-consuming process of building out vanishing points and complicated guidelines by hand. If you switch on the Drawing Guides mode, you can build out snappable grids for all kinds of perspectives. The QuickLine feature lets you snap your strokes into straight lines with your finger, while Drawing Assist will constrain your strokes to the 2D, isometric or perspective guide you’ve created.

Show off your creative process

Let’s be honest… This feature is the crowd favorite by far.

A recorded timelapse of digital wallpaper by Fe Melo

You can switch on Time-lapse recording to create high res, time-lapse videos of your process from initial sketch to final piece. If you want to make a few fixes discreetly, just pause the recording and turn it back on when you’re ready.

Once it’s ready, import your time-lapse into a video editing app to add music, edit the clip and add your personal branding. Then share it with the world!

If you’re building out a professional brand or looking to gain more exposure, consider making these kinds of videos a staple on social channels like Instagram and YouTube. It’s always inspiring for fans (and prospective clients) to see how the pros create their artwork.

Ready to dive in? _

I’ve rounded up some of my favorite Skillshare classes to get you up to speed, with the hope that you’ll learn some new styles and skills that you can apply to your own work.

Illustrating in Procreate: Drawing a Shareable Time-lapse

Most excited about the Time-lapse feature? Learn how to create “magical” time-lapses from sketch to finish.

Digital Illustration: Learn to Use Procreate

This course was definitely one of my favorites. I’ve always liked Jarom Vogel’s style, so it was awesome to see his illustrations come to life—and to see how he uses Procreate as a tool to do that.

Intro to Procreate: Illustrating on the iPad Pro

Learn how to use the app tool-by-tool and achieve some really cool effects by using different layer modes. Brooke’s background is in children’s apparel and greeting cards—and I love her cutesy style.

Ink and Color in Procreate® for Illustrators

If you love pen and ink, this class is for you. You’ll create a decorative monogram, while learning how to set up your canvas, create basic shapes and outlines, and how to color it in with added details and shading.

Mastering iPad Lettering with Procreate 4

Learn hand lettering basics and how to achieve trendy effects including watercolor brush and ombré lettering. You’ll also be introduce to some of the new tools added in Procreate’s latest update.

New to Skillshare?

Get two months free access with the promo code 99designs2Months

Start learning

About the author

Fernanda Melo Stark is a freelance illustrator and graphic designer, with a background in textile and fashion design. You can find her in the 99designs community as Fe Melo. Read more about Fernanda in our blog interview.

The post Dig into digital illustration with Procreate appeared first on 99designs.

via https://99designs.co.uk/blog/

[daclippingpath]

Why the mask layer is better than the eraser in Adobe Photoshop

In many of my lessons, you might have come across the following command: "Remove the part of the image by using a layer mask ( Layer Mask) , or using a tool Eraser ( the Eraser Tool will) ».

Since you are a beginner, you certainly choose Eraser , because you already know how to use it, but the Layer Mask will sound like some complicated professional technique for you. The truth is that using the Layer Mask is not much different from using the Eraser , but it gives you more options and will save you a lot of time.

The only advantage of the Eraser is that it replaces the "real eraser" with which you are already familiar. But why limit yourself to replacing a traditional tool when working in a digital format?

I suggest you familiarize yourself with this easy lesson to understand how you can use Photoshop and its tools for your ideas. Discover a new type of eraser that will allow you to erase the image without any loss!

Why the Eraser is not always convenient to use

Let's imagine a very simple situation where you could use the Eraser. For example, you drew a sketch of a snow leopard:

Eraser

Looking at the sketch, you notice that the tail of a snow leopard is too long. Therefore, using the eraser, you erase the end of the tail.

Having studied the proportions of the snow leopard body, you find out that these animals actually have disproportionately long tails.

And to return the original look to the outline, you can choose one of the proposed solutions:

Use the Undo command by pressing the Ctrl + Z key combination as many times as necessary to return to the original state. Close the file without saving the last changes, after opening it again to see the original outline. Re-paint the tail. The first solution works fine, but only if you have enough history actions (the more of them, the more slowly Photoshop will work), as well as if in addition to erasing the tail you did not make other changes in the outline. The second solution will work only if you have saved the sketch before erasing the tail. A third solution can take you a long time.

Layer-Mask

If instead use the Layer Mask , then you could erase most of the tail, as in the figure:

You can even use this "anti-eraser" to return those parts that were deleted, even after they were closed, and then opened the file again!

It's like magic, is not it? Let's see how to achieve this!

How to Use the Layer Mask

You can download this file to step through the lesson:

Step 1

To use the Layer Mask , you need to initially select a layer with a snow leopard image.

Step 2

Click the Add Layer Mask icon .

On the layers palette, next to the thumbnail of the layer, a miniature of the white layer mask appears.

Step 3

Note that you can choose to work with one of two layers. This is very important, since you can mix them up because they are nearby. If you select one of the layers, then all that you draw will be displayed in the thumbnail of the layer.

Step 4

Make sure that you have chosen the mask layer. Choose a round brush of black color and draw a large point right in the middle of the snow leopard body.

See what happens? When you select a thumbnail layer mask, you can use black color to erase any part of the image (on the layer you are working on).

Step5

Now you need to select a white color and use the brush to draw a white dot inside the black one.

See, part of the image is back! That's how our anti-eraser works!

Step 6

At the moment, you see the very effect of the layer mask. To see the mask itself, you need to press the "\" key. Red color will show the area of ​​the black dot.

Step 7

To bring everything back, you need to take a white brush and draw a black dot on the mask layer.

 Step 8

As you already noticed, with the help of black color we can make the image transparent, and white color will help restore the opacity of the picture. You can also use gray shades - the darker the shade of gray, the more transparent the effect of the mask will be.

Step 9

Let's use this technique to hide the snow leopard paws under the snow. Select the layer mask and use the soft black brush to walk along the paws of the snow leopard.

You can change the size of the brush at your discretion to get the desired effect:

Step 10

If you move the cursor over the thumbnail of the layer mask and click the right mouse button, a shortcut menu appears before you. In this menu, we need only the first three items:

Disable Layer Mask - turns off the mask effect so that you see the original image. You can use this at any time.

Delete Layer Mask   - allows you to delete the mask entirely, and the original image remains unchanged.

Apply Layer Mask - Allows you to combine the layer mask effect with the image. In this case, the mask itself disappears, and the image will remain with the changes.

Step 11

If you want to make a copy of the masked image, you will need to hide the other layers and use Copy Merged (by pressing the Ctrl-Shift-C key combination). If you use the usual method of copying, then copy the original image completely without changes.

When is it better to use Layer Mask

Despite the fact that the Layer-Mask is a great tool, it should not be used every time you want to erase some part of the image. If you draw a sketch, then a faster and more effective option is to use the Eraser in order to erase something. Similarly, if at the same time you periodically make several copies of the layer with the outline, so that they can correct them at any time.

Layer-Mask is better to use when working with large images, for example, photo processing or digital painting.

Mix the image together

With Layer Mask you can achieve a soft blend between the images. Unlike the Eraser , with the Layer-Mask you get more options in its adjustment when working with the image.

Partial application of the texture

When you apply a texture to an object, sometimes you only need to use a small part of it. With the help of a layer mask you can remove those parts of the texture that you do not need.

Drawing light and shadow

Beginners often draw light and shadow separately, but the truth is that the shadow is only the absence of light. In digital painting, you can darken the entire image, and then use the Layer Mask to lighten the areas you need.

Correction layers

Also, you might notice that all adjustment layers have their own mask layer. You can use the same mechanism to apply the adjustment layer only to the desired part of the image.

It's all!

Photoshop has many different tools that you did not know about, but once you learn about them, they are very useful and effective for you, rather than their simpler counterparts.

The Mask layer is one of these tools, but I'm sure that for you this is no longer magic!

This tutorial provided by Da Clipping path services