*sigh* so much of this site as a creator has become about how fast you can update, who you interact with to get people to actually want to read/reblog your stuff and people asking you to cater your story/work more to them and I’m just so tired of it
we create what we want to create. if you love our work then support us as much as you can. not just when something is brand new, not just when you might have something of your own to promote in exchange, not just when the piece caters exactly to your own personal experience or the way you THOUGHT something might go.
Creators create hoping you enjoy what they concocted in their own mind and that you continuously support them whenever you can. I just wish we could find our way back to that sometimes.
Almost wanna edit these dudes out to just get more of this delicious lighting lol
Anywho, Twitter’s on its deathbed it would seem and I don’t have a Bluesky invite yet. Probably going to open up a Patreon so I can post whatever I want, at the quality/image size I want, I have lots of WIPs and sketches/studies and headcanon things (also writing?) that I’d like to share but don’t really want to on Twitter... I dunno, Twitter feels... very chaotic and sometimes very aggressive and I feel uneasy over there a lot of the time..? I like Tumblr, but I can’t post half of what I draw here obviously. So yeah, probably going to make a Patreon unless a better option presents itself.
i love how you can instantly tell there were news of the madoka magica movie simply by the sudden ammount of attention my (and surely every other artist's) madoka art is getting ever since yesterday. that's what i appreciate more about this hellsite tbh. haven't posted in days but BAM suddenly +20 notifications one morning. i wish other apps had this much post longevity
The new picture of Rebecca is based on a screencap from anime computer game called "Viper CTR".
(I'm not going to go into detail about what that game is. If you know what that is, then you know what that is, and that's good enough! It's not important, anyway.)
Before anyone accuses me of being a shameless copycat, I want to say that
I would never do this for a commission unless the client specifically asked me to.
And
The material I'm using is 20-25 years old and it's published/official/commercial material. I'm not going to dive into an independent artist's gallery and copy their work.
And
What I'm doing is only for these little portrait studies. That's all. No figure drawing, action poses, etc.
And Finally
I also had a reason for doing this!
Which I will explain now.
Not that long ago I was having a difficult time with a Raven picture, and I realized that over the years I had gotten away from my fundamentals.
It feels like things started slipping away from me around the end of May. I have done some good pictures since then, but it's been harder than it should be.
It's taking me a lot longer to finish pieces than it used to.
It feels like for every mark I make on my picture, I erase two more. It's really annoying and what normally is automatic for me has been a struggle.
Like since when do I have trouble drawing a Raven picture?!
When I first learned how to draw I did so by copying from anime and manga. Or videogame instruction manuals. I thought it would be fun to start doing that again, between commissions, and see if I could recapture those fundamentals.
It's sorta like going back to square-one with my learning.
I can't say that these portraits have resulted in a breakthrough yet, but doing them has been entertaining and artistically refreshing.
Another thing is that copying them from other sources puts boundaries on what I can do. I can't overthink them. I have to draw what's in front of me, and I have to use the same colors and composition that the original pic used (to an extent).
I'm not sure if I'll keep doing these with Rebecca or switch to another character.
I'm also not sure how many more of these I'll do.
Probably as many as I want until I get bored!
Random-type challenge) Poison/Dragon Larvesta and Volcarona
Serpenom
Dracobra
What a fun typing for the pseudo-legendary of the alternate pokedex. Poison is easily my favorite typing, and I had such a blast designing these two. It does feel a little strange that Serpenom basically loses its back legs when it evolves, but there have been stranger evolutions. That's the main reason I wound up giving Dracobra arms, to better tie them together, but I'm glad I did so. Yes it is snake themed, but it is also a dragon. The point of being a dragon-type is to defy logic.
The strangely featureless heads are a throwback to classic gen 1, invoking the likes of Gastly and Cloyster and Tangela. A mystery wrapped in an oh-so toxic shell.
I actually have someone in the world who has my art tattooed on them. Permanently. Like…forever. It’s still such a bonkers concept that she actually did it and every time I think about it I’m in awe. My art is forever on someone’s body, there is no greater honor than that.
Being an artist is really just going "Cringe culture is dead! I draw what I want!" And then immediately back pedaling when it comes to actually posting the damn thing