#and in sort of a mashup of designs lol

[saeiken]

☀️☀️☀️☀️

#one piece #luffy #monkey d. luffy #straw hat luffy #zoro #roronoa zoro #zolu #my art #was drawin on the plane today and just defaulted to drawing them #and in sort of a mashup of designs lol #things i like: luffy post timeskip; zoro without an eye; zoro in a tank top adjgbslkg #also feel like i unlocked something w these colors i like them a lot :O #did pretty desaturated flats (for me) and then messed around w brightness and hard light layers #i <3 layer modes #honestly considering changing my icon to this luffy face bc i rlly like it but im so bad at keeping my own art as an icon :< #maybe..

[kil9]

reasons to watch each of the taemin concerts:

hi its me, the self-appointed taemin concert expert :) i think we're all missing him a lot rn so its the perfect time to watch all his concerts >:) here's what i think are the strengths of what i consider his 4 quintessential concerts !!!! come join my world >:)

off-sick:

[DL link]

- his first korean concert ! he debuted most of the tracklist for the "move" album there (which is a phenomenal album)

- also performed "move" itself for the first time here !!! the energy of it is insane

- live band [!!!!] as the backing instruments for at least half of, if not most of the concert, gives a different feel to songs youve already heard :)

- because of that theres a lot of rearrangements, & his romeo + juliette solo version which is so beautiful

- (biggest selling point is the live band tbh but its so so good ^^^^)

- also the best door performance is the offsick one (yeah, the bondage one)

- the mystery lover vcr !!! (his indie horror movie) and a very cool dance vcr

- overall very fun & extremely energetic feel with a classic taemin edge !!

- this concert was such a big hit irl that he had to do it again in a bigger venue lol (his one and only public apology, not enough people got to see this concert)

Sirius:

[DL//watch link (eng subs)]

- a concert with a story !!! theres a LOT of overarching themes and storytelling in this, even the vcrs are mostly continuous :) !

- some very very beautiful expressive performances

- THE DOOR PERFORMANCE [!!!!!] its completely different from the usual tied-up door, but in a way that lends itself to the story very very well (i will never shut up about it)

- overall feels very musical-esque ? theatrical ? besides the vcrs, even the performances themselves seem to continue from each other in a sort of plot arch :) (if you care to read that much into it which, you should)

- very cool use of the background screens, feels more integral to the performances, rather than just something as a backdrop. the set design is super cool in general !!

- overall elegant and theatrical feel !! a lot of emotion in this. i go insane over sirius lore once per month

- space wolfs [!!!!]

t1001101:

(also known as "TMI concert") [DL link]//[watch link (eng subs)]

- a "little prince" themed concert with some of my favorite costumes and visuals out of any of them (i own the photo book :] )

- THE INCLINE !!!! a large portion of the stage is inclined and incorporated into the dance in very very cool ways

- ^^^ the incline !!!!! (emphasis) its very cool and steep, a lot of time he's on it he has to be held with a bungee, but since hes taemin, uses it to make the dance even cooler :)

- he debuted "identity" and "heaven" here (before they were full versions u know today) !!!!! the identity opening is one of the coolest things ive seen, he has so much power

- the very concert that gave us "taemins media bible" & songs transitioning into each other a lot (plus a taemin+shinee mashup)

- stone heart and back to you VCRs !!!!!! basically bonus music videos :) stone heart got the mv it deserves considering its the best song of all time :)

- overall cool cool cool feeling, prettyboy taemin strikes again, the feeling of a taemin music video, but 2 hours long

- the first taemin concert i watched :) my recommendation for newer or more casual fans

X™:

[DL link]//[watch link]

- his most recent in person concert, extremely good and epic !!

- i've seen this so so many times, also amazing costumes and visuals, so much power, he's truly living up to being called "king"

- there isnt really a gimmick but it has some of the most solid taemin performances ive seen (eclipse lives forever in my heart <3 most underrated performance) & a generally amazing setlist

- the famous album came out during this tour so a few songs from famous were debuted here :) !!!

- specific shoutout to the slave performance.... yknow

- the lighting and camerawork is so amazing !!!!!!! seriously, i can not sing the crew's praises enough they deserve a raise

- they surprised him with an end of tour video it was really sweet :(

- "FLOW" & "CRYONICS" vcrs !!!! are so crazy... i still dont understand the lore but they fuck

- overall very solid and powerful feeling, taemin simply showing off what he does best !!!!

in summary: i can not stress enough how experiencing a taemin concert in full is very different from seeing the same performances isolated. him and the crew clearly give so much thought into them, the sequencing, the continuity, the set and costume design, lighting.... the secret lore thats going on maybe sometimes ??? i really think they deserve more appreciation (even if they get a lot lol, never enough !!!) so... yeah :) bye

#99.txt #taemin #shinee #literally just screaming abt these because i love taemin concerts so so much augsdgsdihgs #i hope ppl read this :') its one of my favorite subjects (clearly) #please love taem concerts as much as i do !!!! #you want to watch them you want to watch them sooooo bad #my special interest within a special interest lol #long post

[lacefuneral]

it could be the sleep deprivation! but it is also possible. that i unironically like space waltz BECAUSE!

[spongebob holding hands out dot jpeg]

it reminds me a lot of red dwarf. WHICH!

[spongebob holding hands out dot jpeg]

isn't to say that it's good like red dwarf is. only that, as a parody of the space exploration/space opera genre, it also manages to be its own thing. you look at, for example, unser traumschiff. it's a one-to-one parody of star trek tos. the characters, set design, costume, even sound effects. when you watch unser traumschiff you are essentially watching Bad, unliscenced Star Trek, on purpose. red dwarf, while a sitcom that parodies, goes out of its way to make New Lore. New Characters. New Motivations. (and is also a pastiche of many scifi works.) when you watch red dwarf, you are just... watching red dwarf.

and that's the weird thing about space waltz. because it strikes a weird balance between an unser traumschiff and a red dwarf. the primary parody is star trek tos, and this is obvious. you have a character standing in for uhura, a character that references sulu (a botanist that also flies the ship), a character that appears to reference both data from TNG and kryten from red dwarf in the form of an android.

but.... the costume design, the sound design, the set design, even the props.... they don't follow the norm for a parody in this genre. you have this weirdly haunting music that plays over most skits. a bright white ship interior that ALSO differs from more modern blockbuster takes of sci-fi, it's like its own... uncanny sort of thing. and then the uniforms are a mashup of navy, pirate, super hero??? reflective tape??? rubber/PVC???

and then we have the characters. the captain isn't there because he's skilled... he's a nepo baby with absolutely no expertise. a māori descendant, weirdly, of the colonizer captain cook. he has a literal pirate ship steering wheel (which... may? or may not? work?) and his first officer, a pāhekā with a te reo name, Rangi. meaning sky/heaven and, as one fanfic author pointed out, one letter away from "ranga" (derogatory slang for a red-haired person). he's a knowitall, spent 6 years at the academy, and resents his inexperienced captain for outranking him. also there's a guy that has kirk and spock "dollies" that he plays with at his station.

then plotwise, the purpose of their mission is specifically to find a planet to evacuate the aoteoroean population to, as rising sea levels have already swallowed the north island and are beginning to swallow the south island. in one skit, the PM says that they are doing this so the kiwis won't have to go to australia. but, paradoxically, we do also see a group of australians in space? and most of australia's population is concentrated on the coastline. so perhaps the australians, too, are in search of land to evacuate to. unclear.

anyway. all of this is like. genuinely kind of compelling to me? which is weird to say because this was made as part of like. an objectively terrible, unfunny, aged-like-milk skit show. the goal of which was to be as LOL RANDOM XD and offensive as possible, apparently. so even though space waltz is undoubtedly the best skit segment, it's still........ well. it's still radiradirah. the premise of one "episode" (collection of related skits?) is that the ship has been infested by tribbles (called "meeple" here) that can only be killed with human farts. the premise of another episode is that captain hemi """gets schizophrenia""" from looking into a black hole (which results in. what you would expect. unfortunately.). and in the same episode, the uhura stand-in character makes a comment that she's worried about being sexually assaulted if first officer Rangi mutinies and takes over the ship. (which like. deeply upsetting to begin with. but also there's no basis at all for the character to do something like that. it, like many other radiradirah skits, chucks in SA as an Edgy Shock Humor Joke).

if you do check out space waltz, i recommend doing so by watching the compilation someone made on youtube. radiradirah itself isn't worth it. i gave up on episode 4. and also... do be aware that it is still radiradirah. and with it comes... well. what it comes with.

now all of that being said. i do kind of want to see a take of space waltz that's more like red dwarf. like, still silly. completely absurd. but also... a little more effort put in. some more lore building. little less trek. really showcase the bits of the world that are actually interesting and new.

like, it's fucking strange that captain hemi talks into a vacuum cleaner hose on his belt to record his captain's log. that's awesome. give me 500 more details like that

alcohol is illegal? why? what happened? prohibition 2? give me the fake earth history

but more importantly. put men back in those shiny suits and hats. for me, specifically

[zheida]

Pleaseee tell me about Mercury!! The design is so cool :)

OH THANK U!!! Mercury is a bit of a mashup of things, but he's a pearl dragon! His whole name is Mercurius because i was inspired by the old pc98 game mercurius pretty which is an old like... fairy raising sim, so a lot of his inspiration and design come from that and also (hilariously) he and his partner (sirah, belongs to my frien :)) are based off scorch and magic the dragon beanie babies LOL

but he is a pearl dragon, one of the children of my prismatic dragon named Eceri and here he is;

Mercury and Eceri are both seers, they can see into the future, Eceri moreso because he's an ancient prismatic dragon, Mercury mostly sees future outcomes in his dreams when he sleeps.

His personality is-- all over the place he's very outgoing, kind of weird. he's the oldest of his brothers but doesn't really act like it (tbh i dont think any of them act their age) he likes to pick on people and joke around, very silly and fun, while his partner is serious and sort of a stick in the mud. He doesnt have too much of a story just yet because me and friend reset a lot of oc lore to remake my world setting and fit everyone in but he is somewhat important to the dragon population.

#Anonymous #oc ask #*mercury #zhe.txt

[cbspams]

iKON - Love Scenario + Killing Me

I'll specifically be referring to each member by the name they're using in Kingdom subtitles, so like Jinhwan instead of Jay, Donghyuk instead of DK etc.

Damn these are long lol, thank god for read more cuts

Sarangeul haetdaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa 🎶🎶🎶

I'm honestly so happy they did Love Scenario. I mean it's one of their most famous songs for sure but like, I would've been really sad if it wasn't performed at least once on Kingdom I think, just because I was so curious how they would spin it.

I will say that I would not consider this performance as a "mash up". Now in Round 2 the only groups who do mashups are iKON and SKZ as far as I'm aware, so I'm also taking some of the mash ups used in RTK (Pentagon - Shine/Spring Snow, ONF - We Must Love/Moscow Moscow, It's Raining) as reference to why I would personally call this a "set" rather than a "mash up".

So Love Scenario is a pretty classic mellow song, one which is beloved for obvious reasons of being fun and cheerful but in a quieter, soft vibes way. I loved that they took the melody and made it even more cheerful, adding in those trumpet/saxophone tones and bumping it up to a musical tone song. I especially appreciate that they made it so bright because the other performances are so dark (ATEEZ included, though theirs was more forceful and powerful than dark). It's just really refreshing to hear.

Going back to mash ups though, I'm not sure if I could consider this a mash up in my mind? Here's the thing, I don't actually consider Shine/Spring Snow (Pentagon) or We Must Love/Moscow Moscow (ONF) as mash ups wither. To me, those are more like "sets", in which the songs have similar vibes or transition really well into each other. Shine/Spring Snow being a special stage to send of Jinho, the transition wasn't just a musical flow through but a small "cut". I can't really judge this one as a mash up because it's not a performance for the stage but for the heart but if you watch it, you can clearly see where Shine ends and where Spring Snow begins right? Even if the songs bled into each other though, the way they arranged Shine and Spring Snow, I think it would've been a flawless transition in.

Separately, consider ONF's spliced set in which they do nearly all of We Must Love and then tag Moscow Moscow in towards the end lyrically. Because both songs carry different vibes originally, the arrangement became really important in order to splice the songs together and make the transition seamless. And that arrangement did a wonderful job! If I didn't watch those songs beforehand, I wouldn't even have been able to tell that there were two songs in the performance.

So then what's a mash up? A mash up in my mind is more similar to SKZ's Jasin or ONF's It's Raining. It's where the songs and melodies are arranged together, splicing together lyrics and melodies to become one song completely. There's no telling where one song ends and another begins because they're integrated together. ONF's It's Raining is actually a really cool example of this, where they mashed up It's Raining (Rain) with their own song Complete. They keep all the lyrics of It's Raining but add in their own jaunty vibe with the fun saxophone, changing the song entirely. Similarly, SKZ's Jasin (which I will also analyze later), has God's Menu and Side Effects spliced together to become a new song. Obviously SKZ's is different from ONF as SKZ produce and arrange their own songs already, but the end result is the same: a completely new song despite carrying lyrics and melodies from the components.

In this way, I would define iKON's performance as a "set" over a "mash up". The songs align together to tell a story and have a relatively seamless transition, but they do not incorporate each other to become a new song. I think that as far as arrangements go, this is decent and like in Shine/Spring Snow or We Must Love/Moscow Moscow, it's not a bad idea but it feels "weaker" because it's more like just lining the songs up together instead of actually "mashing" the songs together.

Wow that's a lot of talk on something that's not even actually the performance kdjfhk

BACK TO IT.

Because their theme is a breakup and dealing with what comes after, I think their intro is incredibly strong. Like the others said in the episode itself, Bobby's opening shot captures attention immediately. I love that they used a sort of, older black and white movie set with and actual The End card. I think the kind of jazzy vibes go right with that opening shot, the set designer and costumer definitely knew what kind of image they were going for. The movie end card as well as the girl disappearing clearly defines the performance as a breakup illustration, and the mellow vibes perfectly fit the kind of nostalgia that Love Scenario talks about. For anyone who doesn't know, Love Scenario is actually a post-breakup song that reminisces on the good times they had in the relationship. Bobby's verse in particular mentions that it's good they cut it off when they did, even though it hurts.

I also want to mention that I love how individual Bobby is. It's clear in every performance that he's a quirky one and I'm really impressed how he carries it in each performance, because this performance requires more cohesion as a story and yet he still adds little flairs of his own to make the performance more engaging and also more representative of iKON's hip hop style.

Donghyuk's acting and dance sequence flows so well! It's smooth, tells a small story of how they were close but drifting apart and I think his flair with the trench coat works wonderfully as far as visual effects go. There's just something so satisfying about watching the coat go whoosh hehe

THE CHORUS!!! Yo this totally reminds me of like, old broadway in the 1920's. The gold lights, jazzy tone, even the trench coats which I believe are iconic of old movie detectives and gentlemen-esque figures. Kinda reminds me of like black and white detective movies? The thing is, even if you don't know exactly what the outfits and such remind you of, the fact that they invoke that memory is awesome. I love costume design specifically because you don't always have to be detail for detail. It's enough if you can invoke a specific image in the mind of the audience. Junhoe really rocks the look in particular.

The choreography is also very reminiscent of musical theater! Obviously all of kpop is coordinated to be group based and there's always been formations that are similar to what iKON did, however the slide and arms out movement is very much so a musical theater thing. The flashing hands thing is as well! They really nailed down the idea of musical theater, and I love that so much! It's a sort of genre bend you might not expect from kpop but iKON's out here showing you that it is possible.

I love the lighting sequence. The blue and purple are so good, and once again it just invokes that older musical theater style because even as there's color, there's also a lot of clear white/yellow light. Choosing just two colors can be really impactful as the fewer colors there are, the more concentrated the stage looks. Consider for example, Pentagon's Follow stage in RTK. Choosing to only go with gold light and then using other lights as accents really enhanced the theme as well as made the stage easier to follow. Humans are designed to track movement and flashing, so having fewer things to distract us means we focus more on iKON's performance and less on the entire set.

I'll skip to the transition here just because the rest of the muscial theater sequence is very similar to what I've already said.

The transition is a bit jarring if I'm being honest. I think the fact that everyone else reacted like ?! as well means that the transition isn't as smooth as it could have been, especially considering the next song is Killing me. I mean it's pretty straight forward story wise: you fall in love, you undergo the break up and you're hurt but you're happy that you loved. But then still you feel regret and pain because you broke up. I think what would've made this smoother was if DK had one more dance sequence with the female dancer from the beginning. If she walks away from him and then he falls to the floor and has that heartbeat moment, I think that would've helped ease into the next song much easier.

The fact that they end on the line You’re too precious to just leave in the past though is a good transition point. It then bleeds into how in Killing Me, the lingering memories stick deeply. So lyrically it makes a lot of sense. I just don't like how the arrangement just switches off so suddenly, from cheerful jazz to then a rain fall heart beat thing. There's just something missing in between, visually or auditorily.

Something I've noticed about iKON is that they really like using their arms. In Rhythm Ta (intro stage), this stage and later in Inception (Round 2), iKON always has a dance sequence that involves moving arms, kind of like snakes? But as trees? Tree branches as snakes? Yeah. But I literally adore this kind of consistency. It's really cool to watch especially because as the rounds go on, they do it with more people so like obv the 100 sec intro was just the members of iKON but then round 1 had more and then round 2 was literally so many people!! It creates such a cool visual effect! For this performance, I do wish the lighting wasn't as dark as it was. I think some flashing black light would've made this awesome but it's still cool as it is.

PLEASE THE DANCE BREAK IS SO CLEAN. The move where Yunhyeong moves his arms in a circle and the members mirror that (screen left goes from low to high while screen right goes from high to low) is really pleasing to see. I could already tell from the 100 sec intro performance but iKON is has really good bounce to their movement. They pull off the isolation and popping that everyone else does but they do it so smoothly.

I think part of what gives iKON their bounce and flow is that when they stop for a second, it's very clean. There's no extra wobbling that happens with others. And again I really do think their dedicating to using their arms in wide gestures helps contribute to that contrast, because when you go wide movement to stop to wide movement again, your eyes get tricked into thinking the stop is a lot smoother than it could actually be.

I already could tell from before but Donghyuk and Jinhwan really are amazing dancers. Donghyuk is a master of more technical aspects but Jinhwan is really elegant in his moves? That little body roll he does just before Chanwoo's part is so good.

Chanwoo's acting!! Specifically his lines go "Why did I meet her? / Why did I choose this break up?" And then the next part that they all sing in is "I loved her to death / The extinguished fire is burning up again" which makes the fire lighting up so much more obvious. I also think that the fire stand area kind of looks like a coffin so lighting it on fire is a way of mourning the relationship? It visually looks awesome and connects really well to the story line itself, especially since it's a very intense moment to a soft drop in the song. Contrast creates focus!!

And then we have the literally name brand stuff iKON is made out of: bouncing hip hop. It fits them so well, it really does!

Gosh okay I know iKON hasn't been ranking very high and on initial impact, they honestly rank about mid to low for me as well but the more I watch their performances, the more I recognize bits and pieces of artistry they put into their performances. I really start to think like, no wonder they have so many award winning songs. I'm not really sure if they're suited to the way that this competition show works? Because I think first impressions are everything, and although obviously the kingdom judges will understand the lyricism and view the set designs and such more clearly, iKON's performances are still better suited to being watched repeatedly. Their first impression is always good but curiously not enough as far as initial impact goes. It's kind of like it just sticks to you so you want to see it over and over again. Which is really not great for competition shows like this where first impression and impact are everything, which I get but also it lowkey sucks because you miss a lot of details and it sort of forces everyone into the highly impactful performances rather than nuanced ones.

I've mentioned this before but because Kingdom has so much more for set design, costumes, lighting, it can be really distracting from the groups themselves. I think iKON actually does really well with having "still" sets, in which they're the focus, but I feel like that leads to more people picking out their flaws? I dunno, I really like iKON's performances so much and yet I can't find it in my heart to rank them higher than 3rd at any given point. I do just think it's the style of competition.

STILL, it means so much that they stick to their own identity rather than conform to Kingdom's standards. And clearly as they rise through the ranks, more people are recognizing that. So iKON! Fighting!!

#admin talk #kingdom commentary #kingdom performance comments

[swordmaid]

Tagged by the lovely @samirant​​ <3

rules: it’s time to love yourselves! choose your 5 favourite works you created in the past year (fics, art, edits, etc) and link them below to reflect on the amazing things you’ve brought into the world. tag as many writers/artists/etc as you want (fan or original) so we can spread the love and link each other to awesome works!

a.k.a in which i try to write stuff that i haven’t already ranted about in the tags of the original post

1.it’s always summer in the songs ☀️ | AH YES. this one. the one that i will always bring up whenever i get asked these sort of things. i think i’ve talked about it in the tags but i like this piece even more because all the characters here (brienne, jaime, honor) were actually drawn in detail--as in--i drew everyone separately then joined them altogether--AS IN--the parts that are covered up by another character is actually drawn with its own detailing and all that jazz. this is specifically towards honor who a.) i’ve never drawn before and i had never been confident to draw animals so i actually had to draw a FULL HORSE this time which was daunting and had to size him appropriately b.) the outfit he wears, straps for the saddle, his belts, etc. they all have their own detailing! jaime’s sitting on it, but there’s actually a sash that loops around his back with the symbols of the seven pointed star. i was going to continue over on the front with the same symbols but it got cut out because of the crop. the little tree on the side/foreground originally had more branches and leaves but i just pushed it to the side else wise it would’ve looked awkward. i also designed j/b’s armor while i was working on this, and jaime’s detailing took me a lil while to figure out because i was referencing loosely off like, 5 images lol. brienne’s face angle was hard to get right and it looked awkward in my sketches but i got lucky with it in the end aaand this was also the first time i drew oathkeeper in detail. overall, i put a LOT of details in this one but it just took me a good three days to finish it. i loved it even more because i never felt like i was slogging through it when i was working on it, which is the most important thing haha. 

2. might i have this dance, my lady? | this one is particularly special for me since this is when i finalized their overall design i think. i used to always bring up this drawing as a reference when i draw my j/b (but now i use another one hehe.) anyway, this one was actually the starting point for the one i drew above because of the detailing on jaime’s armor--which i just drew freely and doesn’t have any symbolic meaning behind it whatsoever. this was the start of me adding more and more details into my art because i realized that they weren’t too hard to add and i do enjoye drawing them. i also like this one because i drew brienne’s body in detail and i spent the time drawing up silhouettes over it to find the most flattering dress i can fit her in, and i’m happy i struck with this one! oh and it’s subtle but i tried to make their outfits match with the gold detailing on jaime’s armor/the light yellow accents on brienne’s blue dress hehe. 

3. i’ve known the warmth of your doorways | my quiet isle riighhhtsssss. i screeched while i was thinking up of the concept of this tbh it hit me good. i particularly LOVE oathkeeper in this one because he looks like an expensive sword here and not like one of those pens with an animal topper. anyway, i love post adwd / post lsh fics so i tried to do a rendition of my own uvu i also love hand kisses---and honessstlyyyyy-- this one is just a mashup of my favorite tropes tbh LOL

4. ICHOR | oh my god a non jb art. i did this one a couple of years ago, and it’s a digital painting of my oc amara !!! i like this one because of how I rendered the hair. some of it reminds me of marble and i love it even to this day--which is particularly rare because i always end up hating my shit a couple on months after. this was the art style i had before, but i just changed it when i started to draw jb because this one was complicated to do + it took too much time, and i wanted to draw a LOT of jb lol (and i don’t think the style fits them as well to be honest)

5. that gym scene in modern aus | back to jb arts!! and AH yes from brienne’s physique, jaime’s slutty crop top, the man bun, mesh leggings, and their dumb rainbow guard and kingsguard designs, this one was incredibly self indulgent and i love everything it implies and represents. fun fact i had to go through so many thirst traps in ig just to draw jaime’s body properly LOL i do my research ok

tagging: @ayofandomthings​ / @fawnilu​ / @darcydash​​ 🥰🥰

#long post. #thank you so much for the tag <3 this was fun #and also very sorry for the length LOL i talk too much #i would've added my jb renaissance art series majig but i think ya'll know i already like that one #i just realized i've been drawing AUs these days. do ya'll prefer if i draw canon based jb art or my dumb aus??? #or like scenes from the book sort of things #but anyway WHEW someone doesn't ship jb. clearly !!

[felassan]

if it's not too much to ask, which of the characters introduced in tevinter nights do you think have "potential companion energy" and why?

Not at all! It’s just feelings I get mind. Cut for length and obviously there’s spoilers under there.

One is Strife. This is partially wishful thinking on my part, but not completely. He’s both City and Dalish, bringing knowledge of both perspectives in one slot. He’s an example of City-Dalish solidarity/working together, which I think we need more of, especially in the face of what’s coming. I can’t see him not wanting to improve the lives of the remaining City Elves, and I’ve said before I’m in desperate need of a modern elf who is FOR!! modern elves as a whole, not other or semi-related groups like slaves and the little people (which are absolutely worthy causes, just not the thing I mean). Members of both elf factions are followers of Solas, I’d like for members of both these factions to be represented among our companions/followers/agents as well. He’s older (and not in a “I’m an immortal ancient being” way), which we haven’t had before in an elf dude companion or indeed in any elf companion before. He’s explicitly pro-Dalish, as in how they are in the present, and is proud of being Dalish/an elf which is a perspective we’ll be sorely in need of on the companion roster in the next game (like if it’s lacking in this I will be frustrated. It was already lacking in DAI which I think is a game that really needed it). He’s “elfy”; we haven’t had an “elfy-elf” male companion. He seems happy with his new Dalish life and has good relationships with his clanmates. He’s also not a Dalish exile. Love Merrill and Velanna, but wouldn’t it be nice if we had a Dalish companion who wasn’t an outcast with a strained relationship with their clan? Give me examples of that BioWare. He’s not explicitly attached, like Irian. Not that his single-ness matters (this comment isn’t in terms of availability as an LI) or that having an SO precludes someone from being a companion. But for example, Irian also has Big Energy, but I think it’s probably a bit harder/less convenient to write a companion who has an active SO with whom they have a close, healthy and current relationship with elsewhere? Oghren was kinda estranged from both Branka and Felsi in those games, and Aveline and Donnic, while lovely and wholesome, was player-choice dependent and not from the very outset of the game. The love between Viv and Bastien was real, but he dies in the game. Strife is also not an isolationist-Dalish - he and his clanmates are clearly interested in and troubled by the current events unfolding in the wider world, worried about how it will effect/what it will mean for the Dalish, and wanting to keep an eye on it, to the extent that they launch an intrepid covert mission to infiltrate a Vint city while it was the middle of being invaded by Qunari (dangerous!!) to steal info on the Qunari plans. “Clans” implies multi-clan cooperation which I’m interested in, and there’s your motivation - Strife is clearly interested in doing dangerous things in order to protect his People, even if that involves being away from his clan. You could easily turn that into “I’m going to help the DA4 PC stop Solas, because I want to protect my People [and again, for him this = City and Dalish both, potentially saving another slot from needing filled/represented]”. He also has Felassan-style energy and I think quite a few folk are interested in having an elven companion like that. And he’s cool, with his height and silver hair.

He has a notable snappy name and gets a lot of spotlight in that short I feel, and that’s a prominent place to have, in the opening story to boot. The language describing him is consistently complimentary. His role in the story is heroic. And he’s clearly super-skilled/competent! Just from memory, he’s intelligent/smart/a quick thinker, strong and sturdy and spry, a decent hand-to-hand fighter, is able to infiltrate a Vint city, a great archer, light-footed, an agile tree-climber, brave, possesses elfy-knowledge, is open to changing his mind/new perspectives (character development), knows some elven, can navigate in the woods, etc. He’s also fairly sassy which is generally always welcome in companions.

I got the biggest companion energy from Lucanis though. I’m less interested in having him and therefore another Crow as a companion (no offense to my boy Zev, it’s just something that’s been done before), but he is pretty cool/interesting and his story really seemed to idk like.. talk him up. He’s obviously a skilled combatant as an expert Crow, one whose reputation proceeds him and whom others/those he is hunting are largely super afraid of/concerned about. Literally evil powerful Magisters cower in fear at his name, and he’s a lowly foreign non-mage! They’ve started calling him “The Demon”, that’s how afraid of his prowess and him coming for them they are! Heck in this short alone his recent body count starts at 9 Venatori (and that’s just his recent contracts) and he ends it having killed like, 8 guards, 1 Magister and inadvertently like 40 decadent slave-having-approving Venatori-supporting/sympathetic partygoers!! He’s clearly intelligent and smart, agile stealthy and resourceful, has keen senses. He’s visually striking, lean, dark hair, umber eyes, basically sounding dangerously handsome in a rugged sort of way, and wears a badass Designated Cool Guy black leather greatcoat. “Focused and intense - the kind of man you couldn’t look away from. Until he looked at you.” Arsenal of daggers and throwing knives. He seems like he was made with “attractively brooding” in mind lol. Quiet bad boy with a heart kinda deal. This isn’t a crit or saying he’s one-note or one-dimensional, not so, he has a lot of character for a character in a short story. He’s uniquely-skilled for a non-mage, with these instincts he’s developed - able to feel magic energy and tell when the Veil is thin or when there’s tears in it/mages are pulling across it. He also seems to have some knowledge of Veil/artifacts/demon/mage/red lyrium/magic stuff, more than you’d expect from a random non-mage normie Thedosian. Despite being a Crow he’s very different to Zevran, so it wouldn’t be a duplicate situation. Despite being a gruff killer and stuff, he had a lot of emotional depth like. He’s written sympathetically - he has standards (e.g. no red lyrium), a soft heart which he tries to hide even from his cousin, and which his enemies i.e. remaining Venatori know they might be able to exploit (his kind treatment of Effe, risking things to free the Magister’s slaves, ending the suffering of the experimented-on people and allowing them to take vengeance), and espouses stuff the fanbase just devooours, like loving killing racist evil supremacist Magisters. “[I LOVE] killing racist blood mages who have it coming”, lol! He’s the Great Lucanis, no Ordinary Crow, Master Dellamorte. In contrast to his sassier, chattier, more “lolol” and dramatic cousin, he’s the ‘straight’ man, but still has that dry/wry wit/sense of humor thing going on people are suckers for (again not a crit). His marks all have a gleam in their eyes that show they’re evil (i.e. they deserve it and showing he usually only takes such contracts), he thinks ignorance is not innocence. He says cool badass stuff. He’s like a bingo-board of all the things people love. He does the brooding “we’re not freedom fighters, I know what I am, I’m a killer” thing, but you get the distinct impression that he’s not just that. The Magister’s obscene cruelty makes him rage. He’s like a mashup of Thane (custom-designed to be an LI) and Ezio (a very popular character). Important to note that his brooding is really mild, not at all annoying, not overdone, which are common crits of such chars. AH! He’s like Antivan Batman lol.

Seems like he’d have interesting stories to tell. He’s noted to be more widely travelled than his cousin. His orientation hasn’t been specified so there’s wiggle-room. The return to being hero protector freedom-fighters rather than what they are right now thing for the Crows is hinted at for at least some parts of the Crows in the 8 Talon story. Lucanis’ relationship with his cousin and gran, and the issue of the First Talon succession/his grandmother would be a perfect loyalty/personal mission/arc and in general are really interesting. He admits that it’s impossible to refuse his gran, only prolong her. I can imagine exploring his feelings about his grandma and the life she made him live in order to become strong. Is he really ok with that history? Does he not share his cousin’s bitterness? His cousin is like how long are you going to keep doing this, our gran’s bidding? His cousin also offers that if he was First Talon, he’d let Lucanis quit and be free. I can imagine the peeling away his layers stuff and the “you’re not just a killer” “your calling is more than death bro!” char arc. His anti-Venatori crusade is not complete, and the story ends with setting up his clearly insanely cruel/evil enemy Magister Renata - unfinished business much. If the plot of DA4 has a route the remaining Venatori arc, he could show up and fit right in. There’s your motivation-y stuff. The Crows are prominent in the book and seem like they will be prominent in the next game (Antiva’s only line of defense against the Antaam invasion), and this guy is a high-ranking Crow related to Queen Crow. If it turns out his mysterious hirer for the Venatori jobs was Solas/a Solas follower, there’s potential for the little “aw shit” reveal. 

I would like Teia to show up in a Briala-esque role. She’s amazing but I don’t want to separate her from her cute, finally!! newly-budding close romantic relationship with Viago.

[msg refs this post]  warning, Tevinter Nights spoilers at link

#dragon age 4 #the dread wolf rises #dragon age #bioware #mj replies #anonymous #video games #spoilers #spoiler #tevinter nights spoilers #tevinter nights spoiler #tevinter nights #strife #mj meta #felassan #best elf #solas

[bluuejayart]

some headshot doodles of my fursona, Bloo. He’s some sort of dragon/goat/monster mashup lol

His design fluctuates but he’s always one big fluffy sad boi

#myart #ocs #bluuejayart #fursona #dragon oc

[supreme-stories-z]

Thank you for tagging me @tenemos-que-hablar you're dope

1. are you named after anyone? weirdly enough im also a names mashup, both my grandmothers names

2. when was the last time you cried? saturday

3. do you have kids? no, no thank you lol

4. do you use sarcasm a lot? it's the only way to survive

5. what’s the first thing you notice about people? the way they treat others

6. what’s your eye color? brownish

7. scary movie or happy ending? none? lol, scared of both

8. any special talent? apparently animals like me, but like everyone says that

9. what country were you born in? mexico

10. what are your hobbies? watching all sort of stuff, lately playing around with photoshop

11. do you have any pets? two doggies

12. what sports do you play/have you played? tried track and football but never really enjoyed them

13. how tall are you? 168 cm

14. favorite subject(s) in school? When I was little probably arts and music, at university were project design and urbanism

15. dream job? Anything to do with movies

I'm tagging @lyl-i-am @salsatabasco @bidesinsr @you-maake-me-crazier @wildernesssorpresa @thecleverduck

#tag game #tag

[ratretro]

The Heart Beats Chapter 2

Title: The Heart Beats

Pairing: NaLu

Summary: Soulmate AU mashup - Red Strings. Forgotten Dreams. Colors of Gray. Marked Skin. Unfamiliar Names. Soulmates have different meanings for everyone, and Lucy struggles to find the courage to take her next step forward. Will she finally claim her future or will feelings go left unsaid?

Rating: M – sort of??? probably??????

None of these characters are owned by me, they are all owned by the wonderful Hiro Mashima!

A/N:

Old Bullets is on hiatus. Cause I wanna focus on this story tbh

lmao ill update  the info on it so everything is fancy official (I have to update my author page anyway lol) more info at the end!!  Also, let me send a little love to my girl @petri808 for being the beta for this chapter to make sure my prescription brain didn’t completely destroy it lmao

FF.net - AO3

He watched her carefully from his position near the blender. He didn’t have the best view but the top of her head was visible and he could see brief movements that made him think of what actions she may be taking. Was she laughing, shaking her head, or just listening to each word coming out of her friend’s mouth with intensity.

The pinkette bounced from one foot to the other, wondering what exactly was being said beyond his outrageously good hearing. Behind him, the blender chirped and the whirring of the blade faded as it finished the selected setting. It jolted him from his thoughts, sort of, and reminded him: ‘Hey! I have a job!’. The frappucino was poured into a plastic cup with the typical fluff of whipped cream on top. From there, it was a handoff to Juvia with high hopes she didn’t fumble and drop it on the woman in front of her. He’d originally replaced her on the register so she could go to break but now that she was back he could safely hide in the corner and make the drinks. He could also reply to her.

What did she think he was anyway? Some kind of criminal? He tugged roughly at his sleeves until the blue smudges came into view, ‘Shit!’ She’d give him hell about it later. His eyes flitted around for one of the dirtier rags. It would be gross on his skin, but it’s not like she’d have to feel it. Once he was done all he had to do was scrub his hands down and throw the rag in the designated dirty rags basket. Done. Easy Peazy.

Pen in hand he was ready to respond when a man walked up and stared at the menu. Natsu vaguely remembered that he was sitting at the table with the blonde from earlier, and for one reason or another, that bothered him. It bothered him a lot.

“Of course! Natsu, one strawberry-banana smoothie.” a girl’s drink, in Natsu’s opinion. Though, he could easily be ordering for one of the girls he was with.

“Got it.” He supposed that reply would have to wait.

“You seem… familiar?” the voice was deeper, meaning it must have belonged to the dark-haired male. Was that a pick-up line? If so, it felt like one lifted straight out of a book.

“Juvia thought so as well.” it was the tone that got Natsu. It was higher than normal, and she definitely sounded… excited. Not that he cared about that, he wasn’t interested in her anyway, but Juvia was always gushing about her dreams. Mostly, the man in her dreams. She’d never been interested in a guy until now. She was surprisingly dedicated to a man she’d never met in person.

He lost track of their conversation as the blender once again whirred to life and blocked out most of the general noise of the cafe. The blender had about 2 more minutes left which meant that, if he was quick about it, he could get a response in.

Rude.

I work normal jobs like a normal person.

He was sure she wouldn’t believe him but he didn’t have time for an argument during a work shift. Though, argument was a strong word here. It was more like bickering. They rarely fought, but if they did she’d start drawing on her face in permanent marker. Shit like hearts or the one time she wrote ‘NERD’ in red on his forehead. He just messed up her notes in retaliation.

Natsu wondered, ever so briefly, what kind of girl she was outside of notes. Was she like the blonde sitting 10 feet away from him or was she like the bubbly blue-haired girl next to her? He wanted to meet her. It’d be easy too. Literally, a dab of ink on his skin and he could ask. Yet, he was somehow scared.

He was the punk who got into fights frequently. Who knows how many bruises she had to hide because of him. Once again, his nervous ticks returned. His ball-point pen tapping on the metal counter that held the equipment. His foot tapping incessantly. Nervousness quickly became agitation followed with a groan of disappointment.

Surely, he’d made things difficult for her without thinking about it. Especially, before the point where he’d learned they were even connected. Not that he could help it. Besides, while he had told her he worked normal jobs that wasn’t exactly the case. The shop they were in now was a cover for a mission they were working.

It wasn’t a big job, but all the same, it had to be handled. They just needed some information on a cocaine dealer. That dealer was also working in human trafficking. Mostly women. Mostly sexual. It disgusted him and he’d needed a new mission so he offered himself as the ‘tank’ so to speak. If they were talking game terminology.

Besides, it was legal. They were hired by the police after all. That was how their company worked with most of their revenue coming from the cafe,  the bar, and finishing up with the occasional work sent their way by the police.

Personally, he was happy he’d taken this job. After all, it placed him in the same city (hopefully) as his soulmate. Or at least he thought it was. She’d mentioned ‘Magnolia University’ and they were in Magnolia right now. He’d been stationed in a smaller city and jumped at the opportunity to move to the main branch for Fairy Tail.

The chairs screeched as the blonde and her peppy friend stood to follow the dark-haired male as he left with his newly acquired smoothie in hand. They’d mentioned their friend seeing color so they were probably meeting her now. He wished her luck in trying to find whoever her soulmate was. Juvia was having a hard time so he imagined others had similar issues. That caused him a pang of guilt.

“Natsu.” Juvia’s voice cleared his mind and brought him back to focus.

“What’s up?” there was a lull as the cafe emptied; as though they were following the blonde and her group.

“Did you know that Jellal’s back?” no, he hadn’t. Not until now, except that was pretty typical of gramps too. Jellal had been living across the country with his father until now.

“Nah. But you know how gramps is. He doesn’t really explain himself.” he gave a shrug in tangent with his answer.

“Juvia thinks he might work with us on the trafficking case.” she was suddenly back to being soft-spoken even though she had been surprisingly animated with the male from earlier.

“Probably. Didja get that guy’s number?” from the look of surprise, and the immediate flush of her cheeks, he guessed she hadn’t.

In all honesty, they kinda needed the help anyway. Natsu had already been in two brawls since he started two weeks ago. The area was great at looking like a safe middle-class section. But he’d stopped one kidnapping and a mugging since he came here.

------------------------

Lucy hated Blue Pegasus. Hated was a strong word, or so her mom would say, but it was the truth and she wouldn’t lie to herself. She didn’t like coming here for a few reasons. One, her dad caught it on her bank statement and grounded her for a month. Two, the idea and sight of strippers always gave her unease. Three, Hibiki, Eve, and Ren. Her friends called her pure-hearted but they still insisted that she spend her 21st birthday here. So, she did.

Unfortunately.

Her dancers at that time had been Hibiki, Ren, and Eve which was fine until they discovered she was a light-weight. And a touchy one at that. At one point, they became the one receiving the show and she had to be dragged out of the club by Erza, and Levy. Now, every time she saw them she became unbelievably embarrassed.

Coincidentally, this was also where she met Gray. Not on THAT night, but it was a few days after when she’d mustered the courage to come back and apologize to the trio. He worked a different job now, but occasionally he still picked up a shift or two if he needed the extra cash.

“Don’t worry! They’re not here today!” the chipper voice of Blue Pegasus’ owner and bartender rang through the air.

“Master Bob!” surprise was laced in Levy’s voice as she came face to face with Pegasus’ one and only owner.

It wasn’t exactly rare to see the master. In fact, he probably spent most of his waking hours behind the bar even though all of his staff could make drinks and were certified to do so.

“What is my favorite worker doing here on his day off?” Master Bob’s voice was always high-pitched and sing-songy. While most thought it could be annoying, they actually enjoyed it. Master Bob was a happy man, and as such, he exuded that aura which made Blue Pegasus a comfortable location to visit.

Really the only thing preventing Lucy from liking the place was her own humiliation.

“Hello, Master.” a curt nod was given to his direction. He gave her a chuckle and a knowing wave before pointing to the door.

She knew it was Erza walking – strutting – in the door like she owned the place. She didn’t but she exuded the aura of dominance which made it hard to tell the difference.

“Erza--!” A man bumped into the blonde’s shoulder and while she’d normally fight for her ‘honor’ this man smelled like a beer refinery. She opted for silence. It also wasn’t hard to recognize the male as a regular here. Lucy had seen him more than enough times and was fairly certain he was in love with Jenny.

The blue-haired male stumbled a bit and then spread his arms as if trying to remain steady. He did, somehow, before continuing on. Really, nothing about him was attractive. In fact, she thought his appearance, and demeanor, both sucked. He even had a tattoo of an ‘X’ above his eyebrow. Speaking of eyebrows: hideous.

An obnoxious snort rolled from her lips and Levy clicked her tongue. Gray did nothing, as per usual, but his posture had changed to one a slight bit more aggressive.

“Lucy. It’s good to see you.” Erza’s voice wasn’t loud, per se, but it was commanding. Deep, but soft. If that made any sense. It wasn’t something that Lucy herself would put on paper. In fact, she’d probably skirt around the subject entirely.

“Is there a problem?” the redhead drew her back from the contemplation inside her mind: fight or flight? In the end, wasn’t it always flight that won?

“No, everything’s okay. Right guys?” the blonde prompted for answers.

“Yeah. Men with ugly eyebrows definitely didn’t walk off drunk.” Levy’s sass was newfound to Lucy. The blunette wasn’t normally this saucy but she’d been hanging out with some man she’d discovered in a bar a week or to ago. Lucy didn’t know who and Levy wasn’t providing the information so the pair was at an impasse. All she knew was he was ripped with piercings. He looked like the guy her dad warned her about on many an occasion.

“Definitely didn’t run into anyone, either.” Gray’s backup was quick; no hesitation.

Erza remained quizzical for the most part. She gave a casual glance to the man with ugly eyebrows. The redhead really wasn’t too focused on it, Levy had been oddly specific. She tensed as he threw an arm over a woman’s shoulder but, upon seeing it was consensual, she let it go. Truly, it wasn’t the group’s business.

“So, Erza. What’s up?” it was Levy who broke the red head’s thoughts and brought her back to the issue at hand. The blue-haired male disappeared in the crowd which aided in the loss of her attention.

“Yes, I’m actually quite excited.” her face lit up. Though, it wasn’t like a little kid on their birthday. More like, someone who got a small promotion and was celebrated with a beer. I

The group waited in hopes it would prompt her to continue.

“Colors. It seems faded at best but… I can see them.” No one spoke for a moment. Faded could mean one of two things. He was coming near to her, possibly even the same city, or he was passing through on his way out of the area. They all hoped for the former.

“This is a good thing right?” Levy prompted the question. ‘Did she want this?’

“I think so.” Truth be told she wasn’t sure. The thing about soulmates was that you had to meet them in some capacity. It wasn’t like you had to speak to them. It could be simply passing by, a bump on the shoulder, a one-time meeting on the playground as children. You never really know.

Did she want to know a man she could’ve met briefly as a child? Passed by in a coffee shop? She didn’t know.

A/N:

Hello my loves it’s me ya boi back at it again with a chapter I wrote on an impressive amount of prescription medication. Things had to be adjusted more then once and it caused quite a delay in the chapter. (plus that writers block) if you follow my tumblr i’ve been giving updates on the situation and now I should be back up and running unless a plethora of drugs are thrown my way again. Ive got the brain issues and stuff so thats a struggle. Everyone who has been waiting so patiently I appreciate ya fam. I’ve got a question for you guys and I want to see your theories:

What did you catch in this chapter? Did you guys see the little hints I dropped? ;)

I can’t wait to see you all next chapter!

#fairy tail #nalu #natsu x lucy #nalu ff #ft #lucy heartfilia #natsu dragneel #dorkneel #queen #my children #i love them so much tbh #the heart beats #thb

[astranautic]

Kind of older, kind of less ugly Mina hero costume redesign. Okay, really not an improvement in the ugly department. This was mostly just to have fun with colours, perspective, and lighting. I’ll put more info under the cut!

So, Mina’s hero costume is ugly. I’m sorry, but it is. Technically, the teal and the purple do compliment her skin tone, but the beige of her coat is out of place, and the pattern is weird, and overall it just doesn’t seem like something a superhero would wear... Although this isn’t an improvement at all lol.

Some of my criticisms with Mina’s canon costume:

The colours, although technically working with her skin tone, seem a bit out of place and don’t look nice to me. The beige doesn’t work. There’s not a cohesive colour palette.

What’s that tiny jacket for?

The supposedly has lots of exposed skin for her quirk to work more efficiently, but I’ve only ever seen her expel acid from her hands and feet.

Doesn’t seem too functional as a hero outfit. There isn’t any gear or anything that would help her.

How I addressed those criticisms:

Put together a colour palette using colorsupplyyy.com (which is my best friend and a godsend btw)

Made the jacket more of a jacket.

 Kept her hands free of any fabric (as in gloves. Not that there was any in the first place)

Gave her somewhat of a utility belt, along with boots that would support her ankles and more of an outfit that’s fit for movement and rough terrain

Criticisms of my own design:

The colours aren’t better. I was going for a more pink, yellow, and blue/mint colour palette, but then I added on some other colours such as the purple and sky blue (and a red) that I wasn’t going to use, and then, somewhere within my dissociating, listening to music, and being tired out of my mind I completely abandoned that.

I accidentally used the pink I was going to use for her outfit as her skin and got too lazy to change it and find a different pink for the skin and hair.

The shirt, jacket, and belt just look like Keith from Voltron and I hate it. Don’t know why I did that.

This doesn’t look like a hero outfit either. It just looks like some Voltron x Jurassic World x a toddler’s colouring page sort of mashup.

Utility belt? It’s got like, two weird little boxes, only one of which is visible. What are you gonna put in there? Chicken nuggets?

Overall just kind of weird.

So, yeah. I’m definitely going to do another redesign. I definitely don’t think this is an improvement at all, but hey, I had fun testing colour palettes and seeing what works and what doesn’t. This is also the most perspective-y drawing I’ve done ever, I think. It was heavily referenced, but hey, references are very helpful. I also liked experimenting with a more saturated colour palette than usual as well as high-contrast lighting.

EDIT: I was gonna put this in originally but I forgot lmao. When I was making this, I thought a lot about that post about allowing yourself to make and post bad art. This definitely isn’t bad for my skill level right now, but I know I could easily make improvements already. I think it was very important to me to get a piece done and put it somewhere that I risk other people seeing it, especially since I’ve been in a kind of creative gutter for the past little while.

#mina #mina ashido #ashido #bnha #boku no hero academia #mha #my hero academia #redesign #mina redesign #pinky #alien queen

[jarateblog]

Day 7: Some Random Stuff

There was quite a bit of a disparity between all of this stuff. Since it’s been about two years since I’ve been out of that class (and almost another year since I made a post again lol), I’ve honestly forgotten quite a bit of the history behind all of these pieces by now. The dates, for example, are one of those things I don’t really remember at all of what I’ve done. That’s why this post will mainly be a mashup of a bunch of other stuff I made throughout the class.

Another issue I ran across is that many of my remaining images either have a real person I know IRL or collaborations that I don’t want to post without giving the proper credit (Like one of my collaborators, who I don’t think has much of social media presence at all). So, perhaps one day some of those works will get to see the light of day rather than collecting dust on my hard drive.

Nevertheless, this will be the last set of images until I can sort ‘copyright issues.’ I do have some minor animations I will follow up with later, but they are pretty garbage, just to forewarn anybody reading this. The animations I am actually fairly proud of are under some of those collaborations that I mentioned. So, whether or not they will get posted will be decided in the future.

Kaleidoscope:

Here is an image that I think was done in the fall or winter (???). I really don’t remember the process behind it, but I think it was done in Illustrator. My teacher likely discovered a way to make a shape like this and taught us how to do it in that day. It just involved making an original image and reflecting it in a bunch of different angles. The design though? Looks like a Teensy from Rayman to me looking at it now.

This is probably the best one I did out of the three I am posting here. I actually think the colors work beautifully and the design is unique enough without being something absolutely unintelligible like I usually make.

Non-Self Portrait:

My teacher proposed the concept of making a self portrait without the face. So, like a metaphorical one. Thing is, I really don’t know who I am when I look at myself in the mirror. How do I portray this stranger in a picture without attempting to picture their face? I have no idea, so that’s why this picture sucks. I’m ultimately just not that artistic. I just threw in some stuff I was starting to get into at the time.

I cut out some of the flowers from the cover of The Cure’s Disintegration and some roses inspired from Depeche Mode’s Violator. The background image is just a random city photo I altered the levels in (I think I put that in because I like the sort of aesthetic nighttime cities give off. Was playing Va-11 Hall-A at the time, so I enjoyed that kind of atmosphere). The overlay is a semi-transparent image of a CD. Then there’s just some brush strokes. There’s also a tiny stickman in the middle if you care to look hard enough. Why is it there? Don’t know. Perhaps it feels lost in this mess of an image it was summoned to be in.

Ski Poster:

The teach was gone for a day again and gave us a link to a Photoshop tutorial on how to make a cool looking ski poster. I was busy working on another project at the time, so I rushed this one pretty quickly.

Basically, cut out a skier, add some adjustments to make them stand out. Put them on a minimal, contrasting background design so that they pop out. The original one was much more pleasing to look at, and actually had the text look good and not so much a “I sure did screw myself over when needing to fit long words into a tight background” moment. If you read the white text though, it does tell you that the event “is on Schweiz,” which really doesn’t mean anything unless you like mixing two languages together in a lame way like a Jarate does.

I took German throughout my 4 years at High School. Many of it has stuck with me, even when I haven’t used it for anything in the past two years. Still wouldn’t be confident enough having a conversation with anybody though. I already tried that when I was over there and looked like a complete plank. Anyways, that’s why everything here is in German, although you should be able to tell what each thing means even if you are not bilingual in any sense of the word.

For the German/Swiss-illiterate though, just because I love you all the same:

Titlis (Mountain in Switzerland)

Skistation (Ski station)

Die Schweiz (Switzerland)

02 / 28 Oktober (Should actually have been 28 / 02, since that is how everywhere else in the world writes dates, October)

#jarchive

[cylent-nite]

(Top) Shadow + Sonic= Surge the Hedgehog! (Left) Sonic + Silver = Shimmer the Hedgehog! (Right) Silver + Shadow = Salvatus the Hedgehog! — Did this as a bit of a design exercise of sorts. Was going to do a proper hexafusion meme, but I got too lazy to think of a tri-fusion design lol. I may do that later on, but for now enjoy these simple mashups!

#sonic the hedgehog #shadow the hedgehog #silver the hedgehog #sonic fusion

[thievinimp]

This question’s been sitting in my askbox for WEEKS now, apologies for taking so long to respond to this!

To preface this post it’s important to note: I’m not a professional, and don’t have professional experience.  All thoughts are based on personal opinion, preference, and prior experience designing characters for personal projects!

Click the jump for a big post with me rambling about character designs I do and don’t like, and why I do/don’t like them!

So several months ago I went on a tirade about character designs in all these big multiplayer games coming out.  You know the ones!  Overwatch, Battleborn, Battlerite, Gigantic, Splatoon, etc. etc., there’s a thousand of these released every few months it feels like.  At any rate, one of the big draws for all of these titles are the characters you control in them obviously.  Partially thanks to the success of MOBAs like League of Legends and DOTA 2 we’ve seen more and more focus on games with these characters referred to as “heroes” and “champions”.  While this should be really exciting for a lot of those who are interested in the character design aspect of titles such as these (like me!), I feel as though a lot of them miss the mark for one reason or another.

There’s several important aspects to designing a character, I believe the most important are all tied to their shape/silhouette.  Ornate details and color are important, but in terms of character design hierarchy, a good shape will trump all other details.  A silhouette is what you’re gonna see first always, you might acknowledge decorations or color choice first, but your brain is focused on the outline they’ve got.  This is where my problem lies with a lot of these games (which stems from my love of diverse shapes and sizes in these rosters.).  Most of these games feature characters with proportions that don’t stray too far from reality as to not scare people away with stuff that’s too unfamiliar, or in some cases “too cartoony”.

For example, let’s take a look at some Overwatch’s characters for a moment.

Here we’ve got a small sampling of characters from 2016′s GAME OF THE YEARRRRR: Overwatch.  Notice something with these 5?  They’re a bunch of people in fancy costumes, coupled with some stock personalities.  This isn’t a diss at the art itself (courtesy of Blizzard artist Arnold Tsang), the art itself is great.  These characters are the result of focus testing to reach as broad of an audience as possible.  They are played as safely as possible as to not offend with their depictions of race, and are shaped in ways that are very safe to people who don’t typically play video games too much, let alone first person shooters.  I think this is boring.  They didn’t play around with the different characters shapes to identify them better, instead we’ve got a few very similar body types dressed and animated differently (the in-game animations are actually really good, and I don’t want to discredit Blizzards work on a lot of the character animations).

Now, that’s not to say Overwatch is riddled with designs I perceive as boring, I think there’s a couple strong, unique designs in the game that actually look good, one of which stands above the rest.  Look at this big asshole:

This is Roadhog.  This is a character with a clear, concise concept and idea that’s executed as perfectly as they could within the constraints they have with the characters.  He has an immediately recognizable shape, he’s decorated appropriately, every aspect of him visually conveys what he is and who he is.  He’s big, he’s bad, and he’s ugly (in the best possible way).  They really went all out with this particular design, and it saddens me a lot of the other characters feel under-cooked compared to him thanks to how safe they played it with most of the cast.  SHOUTOUTS TO Reinhardt, Reaper, Torbjorn and Zenyatta for doing their best to break the mold as well.

With Overwatch out of the way let me gush for a minute about Gigantic.

This is a game that gets it, the people at Motiga have created a colorful, diverse cast of characters in terms of shape and size and they’re each immediately recognizable from just their silhouettes.  They’ve gone with more stylized and unconventional shapes not typically seen in MOBAs (LoL, DOTA, etc) or games like Overwatch, Paladins or Battleborn.  Let’s get a sample of Gigantic’s characters.

Look at this!  Look at how much they’ve stylized the proportions, how unafraid they are to make characters with these shapes.  The little round man, the hulking armored juggernaut, the top-heavy bull, the short and squat witch, and the elegant and mysterious masked warrior: all with completely unique bodies.  Not only are they shapes unique, the colors used throughout either support aspects of the character, or are used masterfully to break up the color in ways ideal for 3D character animations.  The animations in-game are incredible as well, every single character oozes personality through just their movements and designs!

Unfortunately, characters like these don’t appeal to everyone.  They aren’t as immediately appealing as the Overwatch cast due to their unorthodox shapes and stylized bodies.  Some will deem them “too cartoony”, others will insist the characters are “ugly” because they aren’t familiar with characters stylized like this.

Overwatch and Gigantic are going for two completely different looks overall, and especially with their characters.  But there’s one comparison I want to make that demonstrates the philosophies behind both, but more importantly shows why Gigantic’s direction is so strong.

These are Zarya, and Zandora, respectively

Zarya is the absolute weakest design in Overwatch.  She’s an awkward mashup of shapes that convey absolutely nothing.  She’s got big arms and a short haircut to clue players in on how powerful she is.  She totes around a big gun too, ain’t that somethin’?

Zandora is what Zarya’s design should have been in several ways.  Her power isn’t overstated with a bevy of cheap visual cues slapped onto something that’s just “large”.  Her power is communicated through the strong shapes that make up Zandora: the top heavy armor, the overall wider build, big in-your-face hair, and a sword that was crafted to compliment her.  What might be most notable is her star-shaped silhouette.  It’s handled so tastefully and executed perfectly.  I want to say that her design is by Devon Cady-Lee, who also did these illustrations below that show how good that idea looks on paper as well:

Gigantic is paragon of quality among a sea of games full of safe, boring marketable designs made to attract the largest possible crowds.  It pains me knowing this game won’t reach the same success Overwatch will partly because of how visually distinct this title is.

While I clearly have a bias towards Gigantic, I will admit Overwatch as a whole is mostly competent.  The character designs serve their purposes, even if I happen to think they’re boring.

What about those other games?  Here’s a game that I’ve enjoyed playing recently: Battlerite.

Battlerite is a top-down arena brawler.  One might call it a MOBA, but it’s a team deathmatch game sort of.  Your goal is to defeat the enemy team in a first to 3, 2v2/3v3 match.  You moved with WASD and you’ve got keys for abilities, vaguely similar to games like LoL or DOTA 2 in a way.

Battlerites case is very much “we want the MOBA crowd”.  This sounds like a really lazy descriptor that lacks any value, but hear me out:  Battlerite is the spiritual success to a game just like it called Bloodline Champions that came out a few years ago.  Here’s a sampling of characters from Bloodline Champions:

Bloodline Champions is a game with a unique, clear visual identity.  Whether or not you like it, it’s clearly something wholly unique in terms of color and how they’ve decorated their characters.  Weird shapes (top left, top right) as well as familiar ones with distinct ornate details (bottom two).  They all adhere to colors that the games overall aesthetics thrive from, it’s very gritty and twisted.

SO WHAT DO YOU MEAN “WE WANT THE MOBA CROWD”???  JERK

This is what I mean.  The first character showed off that wasn’t a direct adaptation of a bloodline champions character was Pearl.  Here’s Pearl:

Pearl is the epitome of the differences between Bloodline Champions and Battlerite’s character designs.  Half-baked ornate details because without them, the characters would end up more generic than they already are.  Battlerite’s cast is comprised of archetypal MOBA character stand-ins.  They’re boring, and hollow uninspired renditions of characters that had a lot more style in a previous life.  Here’s some really boring Battlerite characters:

BLAH.  They’ve got the Overwatch “problem” but even worse.  These guys really just look like cosplayers doing characters that don’t exist.  Staff man.  Sickle man.  Gun woman.  These designs convey nothing beyond what you see.  I don’t mind cool characters for the sake of cool characters, I’m the last person to complain about it, but Battlerite really tests that for me.  The in-game camera doesn’t do these designs or models any favors too, unfortunately.  There’s a single very standout design among the roster.

This is Pestilus.

He’s shaped strange.  He’s round, he’s got really stubby limbs, and he’s got these big bug legs on his back.  Pestilus is cool!  Lookit’ his gnarly teeth, wowie.  Unfortunately the in-game model doesn’t do him justice:

He’s paler, his teeth are simplified and lack the character his chompers had in the above illustration.  I still like this one, he’s in a league of his own compared to most of the rest of the cast.  HONORABLE MENTIONS GO TO RUH KAAN AND ASHKA:

I’ve said that the worst thing a character design can be is mediocre.  Not good enough, not bad enough.  Battlerite rides slightly above that line.  There’s a few interesting characters here and there.  Some have unique silhouettes (Ashka, Ruh Kaan, Pestilus and Rook) and most server their purpose.  They’re boring, but they’re not aggressively boring/mediocre.  That line of design goes to a little game called. . .

Paladins: Wizards of the Coast or whatever the fuck the subtitle is

Chinese bootleg overwatch.  A game that was trying to be a bit unique before a lot of changes were made to match a similar, “hero”-based shooter game where you push payloads and capture points.  This is a game with aggressively boring characters.  The characters are in this game because if you had none, you wouldn’t have anything to play as.  They’re crude facsimiles of better looking, more thought-out characters and designs.  Here’s a sampling of these lot of losers.

These characters are nothing.  Their silhouettes are bland.  You’re either big, small or medium with no rhyme or reason.  You have a gimmick.  Your colors don’t serve much purpose beyond “we needs color-keys to recolor for skins”.  Very rarely are they in service of the shapes in question, or to break up monotony in big stretches of solid color.  The knight on the left is dull as dull can be.  Sure, knights are done to death but good lord they’ve really found a way to try and make him exciting but failed miserably thanks to:

A silhouette that is nothing beyond “TALL MAN”

Colors that are gray all over, his armor is supposed to be metallic but the textures and shading do it no favors.  The yellow in there doesn’t do enough in breaking it up because they’re only along the trim of each armor piece.

His shield doesn’t compliment him, it’s an obligation.  He has a lance, he needs a shield, and not one that works in conjunction with anything solid.

There’s a single design in Paladins that I don’t think is the absolute most mediocre thing in the industry: Bomb King.

He’s big and loud both visually and personality wise.  He’s got a standout silhouette, and colors used mostly tastefully to break up his main blue coat.  Bomb King doesn’t look like he belongs in this game, and is strangely. . .  Toyetic.  I kind of like Bomb King.

Paladins is mediocre.  Paladins is very unimaginative and dull, the most recent characters are some of the most unmemorable I’ve seen in recent times, when it comes to these games.  While Paladins is mediocre, at the very least it isn’t. . .

COMPLETE, IRREDEEMABLE SHIT.

ENTER: BATTLEBORN-

Battleborn is a game that isn’t aggressively boring, it’s aggressively ugly.  It’s annoying.  It’s messy, it’s loud, it’s busy.  Battleborn is garbage.  This game is rife with characters that convey nothing, silhouettes that are awkward and make no sense who are modeled in one of the most unappealing looking games of the past 5 years.  This one is so bad I really don’t want to post a sample of characters because I hate looking at 99% of the roster, but I have to. . .  I have to. . .  Here’s a sampling of Battleborns characters. . .  eugh. . .

Do you like any of these designs?  Legitimately curious.  Unnappealing shapes, ugly facial features, completely mangled details that are hard to make out, poorly balanced silhouettes. . .  There’s so much wrong with all of these designs.  Some of the ones in the game wildly stylize proportions, mostly very poorly, some are very restrained and more realistic, some are complete abominations like the monster in the upper left: Attikus.

It’s worth singling out Attikus because his concept art has something very interesting behind it:  He didn’t look like complete fucking shit, his shapes were solid and his silhouette would’ve worked perfectly, but they seemingly went out of their way to get the ugliest possible outcome they could achieve. See below, Attikus thumbnails:

These are all so much more sound than the final product.  Why didn’t they go with any of these four beyond “We gotta make it uglier to fit in with everything else!”.  While still asymmetrical, the shapes here tell you he’s powerful and ready to rip and tear through every living thing in his path to victory.  That final Attikus looks like it tried to go with something weirdly proportioned like some of the Gigantic characters, but with a fresh coat of grime.

At no point has this stream-of-conscious post has been about nitty gritty things like facial features but Thorn looks vile:

There are no honorable mentions for Battleborn.  The very best of the bunch is still very boring and half baked.  They’re plain, and that’s really it.  They don’t assault your eyeballs with how putrid and gaudy they are, which, by default, makes them the best.

One thing worth nothing is that there are piece of concept art here and there that actually look great, but are put through Battleborns poor “World of Warcraft” + “Disney Infinity” + GREASE filter don’t look nearly as good.  The one I like most is this rendition of one of the first DLC characters, Pendles.  Here’s the piece in question:

Very lovingly rendered.  I don’t want to talk about Battleborn any more.  I’m sick of looking at it.

Anyways, there’s some insight on what I think does and doesn’t work in the form of this weird stream-of-consciousness, giant post.  Feel free to ask more and I’ll weigh in on it as poorly as I did here!  I’d love to hear what everyone has to say about these games and their character designs, and what you like most about the, as well as what you like least about them!

#not art #character design #overwatch #battleborn #gigantic #gogigantic #Paladins #Battlerite

[juggieheadcoopers-blog]

Interstate Love Song (Chapter 1)

Betty Cooper is a down-on-her-luck college student who is in danger of losing her spot on her school’s newspaper. She’s given one last chance to prove herself by conducting an interview with the lead singer of an up and coming indie band, Archie Andrews. When she’s thrown next to a freelance photojournalist who is the opposite of Betty in every way possible at the concert, things go sour in the worst ways when their most prized possessions get packed up with the band’s equipment and they’re forced to travel the road together to retrieve them. 

A/N: This is like a mashup of different AU’s (road trip, enemies to lovers, college, etc) that was loosely based on a request by an anon lol. Not sure if I should continue it or not so let me know what you think! (Chapter 2 is already written!)

–

Greendale - Crash Into Me

Betty Cooper had just spent the last ten minutes scrubbing the mustard stain out of her pair of lucky white slacks with the ripped-off-corner of the last bit of paper towel on the roll in the ladies bathroom. The mustard stain had been the result of a careless fan maneuvering his way from the busiest food stall, to the merchandise booth - his camera in one hand, his Italian sausage in the other, and his focus on anything other than the path in front of him. As fate would have it, Betty had been heading down that very same path in the opposite direction, at the exact wrong time. 

One shoulder bump and a trip over a much-too-oversized combat boot later, the condiment-soaked meat product went flying in the air and onto Betty’s favorite pair of pants that she only wore when she had a very big, very important day that required an extra bit of luck. The scruffy-haired miscreant didn’t even apologize for possibly ruining the only article of clothing that brought her any shred of hope for successfully keeping her sanity in an interview like the one she was conducting today, and instead mumbled something about wasting three dollars on the now-asphalt-heavy food item, and headed into the auditorium without another glance in her direction. 

Out of sorts and unsure of where she was going, she stumbled through an unlocked, unguarded, gate that happened to lead backstage and into the one room where she needed to be most - Archie Andrews’ dressing room. Silently praising the gods in charge of the luck in her lucky-white-slacks, she removed her trusty red day planner and charged forward, a few feet away from the reason she had stepped foot into this god-forsaken concert in the first place and the big break she was sure to receive after she wrote this kick-ass article. Taking a deep breath - inhale ten seconds, exhale for five - she lifted her fist to knock on the door and -

“Miss?” A booming voice coming from behind her startled Betty into lowering her arm as quickly as it had shot up, the knowledge that she had just been caught in an act of misconduct causing her palms to sweat in a way that she had never experienced before. “You can’t be back here.” 

“You don’t understand,” she told the husky man with the thin strip of hair along the top of his hairline, her voice surprisingly strong for the way she was screaming at herself to surrender on the inside. “I’m with the Riverdale University Daily Gazette and I’m supposed to be doing an entire column on local superstar Archie Andrews who used to-”

“That’s an interesting story, really,” he deadpanned, his stony face showing no sign of remorse for kicking her out of the one and only place she needed to be at that very moment. “But you still can’t be back here. Now, I suggest you find your way to your seat before I’m forced to take you there myself or remove you from the premises.” 

“The disrespect for straight and honest journalism these days is unbelievable, I swear,” she muttered under her breath, shoving the organizer back into her almost-designer handbag and marching her way back through the same gate she came in, her swinging blonde ponytail nearly smacking the security guard’s nose as she passed him. 

Her thoughts jumped from one crazy scenario to the next as she strategized ways for how she was going to find her way backstage again after the concert, making her way through the slightly inebriated, slightly odor-ridden crowd of concert-goers and into the auditorium where the show was about to start. 

“Excuse me,” Betty told the annoyed group of business majors already seated at the end of her row, pointing to the empty seat six or seven seats down and tiptoeing her way past them. “Yeah, I just need to squeeze through here - yep, right there - thank you!”

Betty collapsed into the hard plastic seat that her college’s newspaper had paid for unsuspectingly, placing her purse delicately on her lap and removing her planner once more from inside, flipping to the small notebook at the back of the organizer and removing her pencil from the side pouch. 

“A little dressed up for a rock concert, don’t you think?” 

Betty turned her head to find the Italian-sausage-flinging-bandit sitting in the seat next to her, his unbrushed hair falling into his eyes in what Betty thought was an annoyingly attractive manner, and his camera held in front of his right eye as he captured the screaming gaggle of teenage girls standing in the front row attempting to storm the stage before the security guards at the front safely removed them and went about their business. 

“I’m not here to partake in senseless activities that the average college student clings to in hopes of finding where they belong in this big bad world of mistakes and confusion like some people,” Betty informed him, adjusting her Peter-Pan-collared sweater and flicking her nose up and away from him. “I’m here on business.” 

“What a coincidence,” he told her, his mouth dropping open in mock-surprise as he pointed the camera in her direction and clicked the button without warning. “So am I.”

“Please, what kind of business could you possibly be administering at a concert other than,-” Betty rolled her eyes, but then quickly turned to him with wide eyes as the realization settled into her expression. “Oh my god, are you a drug dealer?”

“Hot damn, she found me out,” he hollered, throwing his hands into the air as he let his camera hang by the strap around his neck. “You heard it here first, folks, I’m Greendale’s very own Scarface - get the finest blow from this side of the river right here!” 

“Alright, then why are you here?” Betty shushed him, her eyes flicking down to the flannel shirt tied around his waist like he had time traveled back to the 90′s and had just stumbled out of a Nirvana concert. “If you’re not dealing drugs or enjoying the musty atmosphere of bad decisions and cigarette smoke, what kind of business could you offer in a place like this?” 

“I run a music blog,” he admitted, holding up his camera to her as if she hadn’t noticed it by now and flipping it over so that she could see it from every possible angle. “I travel to concerts documenting my experience - the fans, the music, the ove-priced merchandising. I capture the entire thing with my camera and then I share it with everyone else who couldn’t be here to enjoy it with me.” 

“So you spend your whole life skipping from town to town like a poorly dressed nomadic bunny,” Betty scoffed, scrunching her nose up in disgust as she watched the opening band make their way onto the stage. “Sounds irresponsible.” 

“It sounds like I’m actually enjoying my life,” he shot back, turning to glare at her shiny-black heels and hundred dollar manicure like it was the foulest thing he had ever seen. “Better than being a stuck up Priss whose only problems range from how much Daddy left me in the trust fund, to what car I’m going to drive to my boyfriend’s mansion next weekend, the Porsche or the Ferrari?” 

“You don’t know me,” she snarled, her cheeks red with anger as she resisted the urge to reach across his body and rip that camera off of his neck so she could smash it into a million pieces on the concrete. 

“Well thank god for that,” he mumbled. “Now if you’ll excuse me, the concert is starting and I’d rather not listen to your irritating voice throughout the whole thing so do me a favor and don’t talk to me.” 

“Happily,” she huffed, turning away from him dramatically by crossing one leg over the other and facing her body so that it was as far away from him as possible. “But for the record, I’m doing this as a favor to myself and not you because I don’t want to talk to you either.” 

“Nice mustard stain by the way,” he told her, his eyes flitting down to the faded yellow blob on the white fabric covering her thigh and smirking. “Really completes the outfit.” 

Forget the camera. She was going to kill him. And she was going to make it slow and painful and she was going to enjoy every last second of it. Or at least that’s what she thought about from the time the band stepped on stage, to the second they exited through the large velvet curtains after their final encore. She hated him. And if she never had the pleasure of seeing that smug look on his face ever again, she would have been the luckiest girl to ever walk the planet from that point on, stained slacks and all.

#bughead fanfiction #juggiecoopfanfic #betty x jughead #betty and jughead #betty and jughead fanfiction #bughead #bughead au #jughead jones #riverdale fanfiction #betty cooper