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#don't shade with black something something light sources
sanctus-ingenium · 1 year
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I was wondering how achieve such a wonderful textured finish on your pieces? They are wonderful and I love their resemblance to aged photographs and the speckles of colors in the backgrounds. Your art is mesmerizing :)
you can see some of the texture brush sets i use in my #info_asks tag but i have some more (procreate) tips aside from just brushes
also hi i made this whole thing and then stupidly hit ctrl z to erase ONE word and i lost the entire bottom half of the post and all my image descriptions so fuck you tumblr i had to make this twice
to get a faded photo or old digital screen look, consider duplicating the canvas (once all the layers are merged) and using a gaussian blur tool on the new duplicated layer. then set that to low opacity to add a misty sort of look. looks nice in combination with some chromatic abberation and a small bloom effect. then a subtle noise filter on top:
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for faded print effects, it's really worthwhile to learn how to use layer masks. you can use a layer mask to non-destructively 'weather' blocks of colour or lineart, without erasing the layer itself. the weathered ink/block print effect here was made using layer masks which means that if i just hide the mask, the lineart becomes solid black again and easy to alter or colour in:
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for old paper effects you can just set a paper texture on multiply over the art sure, but you can also combine it with the blur & bloom thing, a really subtle drop shadow and canvas tilt, and highlights to make it look like an aged photograph of a card. this originally had a transparent bg but i'll post it here with a white bg so that the drop shadow is more obvious. the scuffed edges of the card (left) were hand drawn, simple white stucco brush. the bigger patch of scuffed ink (top right) was a texture stamp.
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for block print looks you can move the colour layer out of alignment by a few pixels - but only after you're absolutely sure you're done with it, otherwise you'll get something like this -
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i forgot to erase out her eye before i moved the red layer so now her eye defeats the 'look' of a misaligned print. the black lineart and red layer were also given the same layer mask treatment as described above to make them look faded or like the ink didn't stick down right to the paper
you can do this with multiple colour layers too. if the colour layers are separated and set to multiply (as in this cmyk example), it'll leave halos and edges around each shape which mimic old comic book print
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just to show what you can do WITHOUT any special brushes, here's a piece of one of my mez tarot cards from before i got any extra brushsets at all. for this one, i added a green tint over everything to mimic a sun-bleached or faded print (my actual goal wasn't 'medieval illustration' but actually 'trading card from the 60s that got left on someone's windowsill for decades'). the background texture is the procreate noise brush. the texture under the green lion drawing is the procreate concrete brush (to make it look painted onto a wall). the lettering and lineart is procreate's 6B pencil. but to properly aim for The Look of it being a printed physical object, i also used a perspective blur so that the edges are out of focus, and metallic gold highlights which don't match the lighting of the actual illustration and appear to be catching some other external light. that texture was made from the procreate noise brush
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it's pretty simple compared to my later stuff but i still really like the effect
in terms of colours, you need to keep them unified so that they all appear to be acting under the same external light source, like if someone is holding up a torch to a painting then the painting colours will be glazed with firelight even if there's no painted fire. a really easy way to do this is to slap a multiply layer over everything in one shade - grey-yellow for a weathered paper look, or greenish blue for sunbleached photos. this unifies all the colours of the drawing. or you can apply a gradient map at a low opacity so that there's only a subtle change. or just do it by hand - if you want everything to be slightly tinted yellow, just pick the colours you normally would, but move the colour wheel towards yellow to get a yellowfied version of the base colour. easy
it's really important to consider how fading and weathering can affect printed colour. white paper yellows, black fades. you will rarely see pure black or pure white. which means you can use pure black or pure white to add external effects like the white scuff marks on the hierophant card. if the whole drawing is yellowed from age but there's some white somewhere, it's an easy shorthand to show that the scuff mark or whatever was not originally part of the drawing (great way to add some nasty stains lol)
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david-talks-sw · 1 month
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I got a good feeling about "The Acolyte"
Not even kidding. Like, I've spoken before about why I'm wary of it.
George Lucas' Star Wars is something that intentionally has black and white morality, rather than shades of gray. Those movies are meant for kids and projecting a "gray" morality onto them then proclaiming it was George's vision all along is doing so in bad faith.
The narrative of the Prequels doesn't frame the Prequel Jedi in as negative a light as Leslye Headland, Dave Filoni, etc etc do.
See here for more details, but bottom line: yeah, a show that has a darksider as the underdog is bound to demonize the Jedi (who are the actual underdogs in the Prequels), and obviously that rubs me the wrong way.
BUT.
The trailer looks fucking cool. It really really does.
youtube
And more importantly? I've done some research... and Leslye Headland is ticking a lot of good boxes, in my book.
1. The Acolyte won't be a 10-hour movie.
I've criticized Disney Plus shows before, explaining that a big source for most of their issues is that these series are being structured as "long movies" rather than, y'know, actual shows.
But in this interview with Collider, Headland addresses that: it'll be a series. Not a long movie that you need to watch across four weeks.
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Thank God. You have no idea how much that comforts me. Finally a showrunner who's, y'know, actually running a show.
And this goes hand in hand with what she told IGN, here, about how she's going about building suspense.
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Yes! Exactly! That's how it's supposed to be!
Like, compare this to Baylan Skoll's storyline in Ahsoka.
In no possible way was that emotionally-fulfilling. For 8 episodes we had no idea what he was after, and the season ended where we still don't know. What does he want? What is he after? Your guess is as good as mine, it's something Mortis-related.
So yeah. Maybe getting the Emmy-nominated trained screenwriter on board to run this was a good idea.
2. Maybe the Jedi will not be as demonized as I originally thought.
Don't get me wrong. 80% of what she says about the Jedi makes me cringe. It's the typical fan's interpretation and y'all know I disagree with that interpretation.
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It's painful to see her refer to the Jedi as an institution (not how the Prequels' narrative frames them) and to see her frame "Balance" in the "oh there's so many of them and just two Sith, that means the Force is out of balance" meaning... but at least she acknowledges the Jedi are a benevolent institution.
They're not an "elitist force hiding in their ivory tower" as others have described the Jedi.
Moreover, there'll be a variety of Jedi POVs, many personalities.
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Yord Fandar, is described as a strictly by-the-book Jedi Knight and guardian from the Jedi Temple, is an overachiever and a rule follower.
The question now becomes: will the narrative frame him as "your typical Jedi" or is it just this one guy? I'm hoping it's the latter.
I also like how her reasoning goes re: Jedi drawing their lightsabers.
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Which explains the hand-to-hand combat seen in the trailer.
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This teenager is coming at Carrie-Ann Moss with a dagger, of course the Jedi won't draw her saber.
3. She's a fan of Star Wars... but a screenwriter first.
You can tell in the interviews she's a fan. She's using words like "BBY" and "EU" casually. In the above-linked interviews she's bringing up the Nightsisters, Timothy Zahn, The Clone Wars, she mentions she has a tattoo of Ralph McQuarrie's concept art of Leia, the High Republic books, etc.
She's done her homework. She's a fan.
But the vibe I'm getting from these interviews is that she's weaving in these various lore-elements in a more organic way, rather than in the "fan-servicey" way Dave Filoni has been doing in his shows.
The references and Easter Eggs will be there, but the narrative won't bend over itself just so you can get it. Crafting a good story comes first, and Andor is a beautiful illustration of why this is true.
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Which is why I was never bothered about one of the writers never having watched Star Wars before getting the job. You need those fresh eyes when you're tackling something of this scale.
That makes sense to me. Maybe it's because of my own screenwriting experience, but yeah. That out-of-the box perspective is precious.
And like, obviously, that writer watched the films eventually, but for some reason everyone who bitched about Headland omitted that detail and opted for a more bad faith interpretation.
Hm. Wonder why.
Maybe it's the same reason that months ago this clipped audio circulated socials without context, in which she debates whether Star Wars only came from George Lucas and only Lucas is the key.
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The FULL context of that interview reveals that she's actually:
debating the "autheur director" myth and positing that it was achieved by a collective of excellent filmmakers and craftspeople that George was skilled and smart enough to recruit...
the studios now think it's a simple as hiring one guy and throwing money at him, because they have no idea what the fuck they're talking about. See Napoleon (2023) for example.
Yes, she also does a jab to the Prequels, which speaks to the generation of fans she's a part of... but overall she's giving Lucas props whilst also stating an ideological difference, that's it!
George is a proponent of the "autheur" theory, Leslye isn't.
However, guess what, in like half the talks George gave post-selling Star Wars? He's giving shoutouts to everyone who helped make the first film, even remembering their names.
So I'm not even sure he'd vehemently disagree with Leslye, in fact they'd prolly have a conversation about it and immediately bitch about how stupid studio executives are :D
But that's not as incendiary, is it? Again, the more I do the research, the more it feels like the reason most of these influencers are hating on her is purely sexist.
I mean, on IGN she's even acknowledging that she does plan on taking stock of fan reactions for Season 2.
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It's not a guarantee that she'll incorporate the feedback, but at least that's more consideration than, say, JJ Abrams or Rian Johnson gave the fandom.
She's even bringing the moral ambiguity that the Gray Jedi-loving edge-lords love so much.
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"No, she's a woke feminist! Anything she does is evil! Eww, girls!"
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Needless to say... I'm gonna give it a shot.
I think it's gonna be a good show, I think it's gonna be a solid story.
I'm crossing my fingers that they won't as biased against the Jedi as it seems they'll be. Even if they are... if it's still an enjoyable experience, I'll gloss over it.
As @gffa states in this post:
Worst case? It's not a story from George. I can dismiss it from my headcanon without a moment's hesitation :D
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holybibly · 5 months
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Object of Desire | OT8 | Preview
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Pairing: otx8 x reader
Genre: sugar daddy au, dark romance, smut, vampire au,
Word Count: ....
Summary: Caught in a web of deceit and forbidden pleasures, Nabi quickly learns that some obsessions can be deadly and love can bite.
WARNING: only!18+ Blood drinking, blood kink, obsessive behavior, voice kink, daddy kink, master/pet game, pet names, explicit sexual content, explicit language, emotional manipulation, possessive behavior, seduction, BDSM, polyamory, mirror sex, marking, voyeurism, power play, and more.
Disclaimer: I do not support themes of violence, obsession, possessiveness, or emotional or psychological manipulation. This book is intended for entertainment purposes only.
A/N: Another vampire ot8 that no one asked for. Someday I will learn to stop being seduced by random ideas.
Feedback is greatly appreciated!
Part 1. Do you want to make a deal with the Devil?
Now going out of town in the middle of the night with Yeonjun seemed like a bad idea.
A very bad one, I thought.
God, what was I thinking when I agreed to do this? Yesterday, this whole venture seemed like a great way to solve my problems, but now the prospect was not so rosy.
Sometimes I feel like a complete idiot, and this is one of those times.
Outside the window the dark landscape was sweeping by at high speed; the bare trees were shrouded in an ominous gloom, and only the dim light of the tall street lamps over the road was the only source of illumination to guide us in the darkness.
It seemed that the darkness around us did not stop Yeonjun from driving. His posture was relaxed and his hand was sure as he turned the wheel in the right direction, the diamond bracelet on his thin wrist sparkling with starlight. One of the many family jewels that Yeonjun treated with special affection.
In contrast to him, I couldn't relax and kept fidgeting on the leather seat made of black Iberian leather, no less.
Every part of my body was begging me to stop and come home before it was too late.  Not so, I had imagined that we were going to an elite club. I knew that we would be there late at night, but the fact that the club was way out of town came as an unpleasant surprise.
At the moment it's an hour's drive from Seoul and more than an hour and a half to the destination on the GPS.
The whole thing was strange and made me dizzy, or was it the thick smell of Yeonjun's perfume? It was a dense, smoky scent with a hint of vanilla. Powerful enough to draw the eyes of everyone around to its source, and sexy enough to make you want to kiss the naked skin of the wearer of this tantalising scent.
It would be several days before I was able to wash off the remnants of his perfume after our meeting, so much of it had eaten its way into my skin.
I glanced at Yeonjun; a stray yellowish-white light from the lantern momentarily illuminated his face, and a shadow of long velvet eyelashes fell on his pale cheeks. His black raven hair was streaked with flashes of platinum and gold. He looked otherworldly - I would even say demonic.
I felt a palpable shiver run through my body, as if someone had just dipped my heart into a bucket of icy water.
"Jun." My voice was terribly uncertain. "I don't think I can do this." I said as my fingers pulled down the hem of a short dress. The expensive material looked luxurious in a perfect shade of white and was decorated with a sprinkling of crystals. Yeonjun insisted that I wear it tonight and said that I would be grateful for it as soon as we got to the club. I don't think I'd ever choose something like that for myself, and not just because of its crazy cost; Jun's fashion preferences were so different from mine. He was a fan of overt sexuality and bold lines; I, on the other hand, preferred neutrals and comfort. "I have changed my mind; this proposal does not suit me at all. Maybe we can go back..."
Yeonjun smiled softly as he turned to me, but in the darkness of the drawing room the smile was more ominous than reassuring, his lips the most breathtaking shade of red I had ever seen.
Warning bells began to ring in my head. There are times when you can sense danger even before you are faced with it.
"Nabi, my dear, there is nothing for you to be worried about. We have already discussed this. Remember?" His hand was cold as he laid it on my knee. "I will take care of everything. You're my guest tonight, which means you're under my protection." The long fingers shrank a little, a kind of confirmation of his words. His fingernails were painted glossy black, and his fingers were adorned with several silver rings.
I would like to believe that nothing is going to happen to me, but my insides are tied up in a tight knot of fear.
Miss Kim Seoyun's words echoed in my head like thunder: "Humble yourself and surrender to destiny; you are where you are supposed to be.
When did I start believing all this? This is no time to panic, Nabi.
Everything will be fine.
To be honest, Yeonjun was never my first choice when I needed help, and I always tried to keep a certain distance from him for a number of reasons. There was something so predatory about him, almost animalistic, that lit up the red lights of danger, but I was desperate; student loans, rent, insurance and food were starting to pile up. I was in desperate need of money, and preferably a lot of it, fast.
The threat of being left out on the streets and being thrown out of university has never been as real as it is now.
The only thing that gave me the slightest bit of confidence was Jimin's assurance that I could trust Yeonjun completely and how carefree he was.
Damn, Jun looked like we were going on a spontaneous romantic trip instead of a closed elite club outside the city in the middle of the night.
I asked myself again, "Why did I agree to this?" Oh yes, money. A lot of money.
A few days ago, Yeonjun contacted me and offered to help me with my money problem. Of course, Park Jimin couldn't keep his big mouth shut and told him about my problems. He told me that one of his friends at the private club had a good deal for me. I could make a lot of money out of it.
The income was enough to pay off all my debts and the number of zeros on offer was enough to turn my head.
It was an unequivocal and desperate "YES" and at that moment I did not think at all about the consequences or the characteristics of this proposal.
Jun also promised me a lot of fun but after I signed the NDA and read the multi-page contract with its veiled meaning and rather vague wording of some specific points, doubts blossomed in my chest, and I began to understand what kind of fun was being discussed.
Looks like I made a deal with the Devil.
The dress was delivered on the eve of our trip, a few hours before Yeonjun's chic Ferrari pulled up outside my dorm room. The all-white gown, richly embroidered with blue topaz and opal, was incredible. The plunging neckline of the corsage barely covered the lace bralet of the same colour as the dress.
I have never seen my breasts look so full and so soft. I would even call it seductive. Everything I moved had to be clean and graceful; if I moved too sharply, the soft pink halos of my nipples would start to show. This was beyond the limits of my modesty. At one point, I could even feel Yeonjun's searing gaze resting on my cleavage. It was a carnal look with a shadow of hidden lust in the depths of the dark, shining pupils. It was the first time in the several years of our dubiously friendly communication that he had shown such a desire for me.
The dress and underwear came with four-inch heels. Of course, if my life had been in danger and I had tried to escape, there would have been no chance of success. Incidentally, I'm a terrible runner; I bet I couldn't have run more than ten meters before I collapsed with breathlessness. I should have gone to the gym when Jimin offered it to me.
Oh my God, Nabi, what the hell have you gotten yourself into?
Jun's silky voice pulled me out of my thoughts.
"You have such a tense look on your face, my darling." He purred. "We'll be there soon, Nabi. Try to relax; you're going to love "Crescent", I'm sure."
Why did it have such a sinister ring to it? "Crescent" - the name was sweet enough, I would say poetic, but the way Yeonjun rolled the word over his tongue as if he could feel its taste - thick and viscous - made the name something forbidden and sinful. Well, the idea of the cult was not so absurd to me. And that stupid prophecy never left my mind.
"You're where you should be..."
In the reflection of the small mirror in the car, I met my gaze. My pupils were dilated like those of a hunted prey. And though I tried to calm down, I could feel the cold, predatory touch of Youngjoon's hand all too well. Baby, it looks like you're going to get caught.
I ask myself again. Why did I find myself in this situation?
Dressed in the most luxurious designer clothes, like a real doll. Ready to become an exclusive blood donor for a very wealthy private community whose clients needed this kind of service, accompanied by one of Seoul's wealthiest heirs.
Now I can say: "Hey, Nabi, you really screwed up."
To be continued…
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lraerosesims · 2 months
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How I draw: Silver Metallic Buttons for Sims 2 Textures
As we all know, Sims 2 doesn't really appreciate large file sizes/dimensions for it's textures, so sometimes you have work very closely with the individual pixels. Here is how I draw buttons. Video is sped up so don't feel like you need to draw as fast as me!
Side note: this tutorial is created on the basis that you already know how to use the basic functions of Sims BodyShop to extract the texture file. There's plenty of tutorials out there explaining that so please don't ask me to clarify on that part. Anyway, on to the buttons...↓↓↓
What you need:
A PC
Digital Drawing app (like Photoshop, Krita etc)
A Graphics Tablet with pen - you could try this with a mouse but I wouldn't recommend!
And obviously Sims 2/Sims 2 BodyShop
First off, create a new layer - we don't want this button permanently stuck to our base texture. Then I get a standard hard edge brush (I use Krita as my drawing software, so just use whatever hard brush is available in your preferred software/app). Because I'm making relatively small buttons, I make my brush 7.09px in size. Select a mid to light grey colour as the base. Make a single circle.
Then decrease the brush size to be nice and small. As a comparison to my 7.09px circle, I decrease to 0.01px for this next step. Choose a slightly darker grey colour and lightly sketch in a 'semi-circular line' about 3/4 of the way around just in from the edge of the circle. By lightly sketching - and not pressing down hard, you'll get varying tones on each pixel to represent different reflections on the 'metal'.
Next choose a darker grey again, and lightly sketch around the similar area as the last colour, but don't be too fussy on hitting the same pixels - we want varying tonal values for our shadows.
Then choose white and lightly sketch the 'catch light' part of the button. This doesn't need to be right in the centre, in fact it's better if it's off to the side, or towards the top more. We're not always facing directly towards a light source so this creates a more realistic lighting effect. You'll see me select the same mid to light base grey I used just to lightly dust over the edges of the white area to soften it a tiny bit (only do this if your white edge is a little to crisp).
After that I go back and forth between a few different tones of grey to lightly sketch over the parts we haven't really drawn on yet. This just helps create some gradual shading that enhances the 'roundness' of our very flat, very 2D button texture.
Once you're happy with the shadowing (remember it looks somewhat janky this close up, but you can always zoom out to see if the button looks more smooth when further away), you can then make another layer, and drag it below your newly made button layer in the layer menu. Select a soft edge brush and increase the size to slightly wider than your buttons overall size (I chose 9.14px compared to my 7.09px button)
Choose black from the colour wheel/palette and lightly build up the shadow underneath the button, gradually increasing size and opacity until desired tone. If the colour of the 'garment' in this texture is light then keep the shadow to a minimum, if it's dark then the shadow needs to be deep enough to show up.
Zoom out and inspect how this button looks further out. If you're satisfied, then merge the button and shadow layers together, copy/paste it as many times as needed for the garment you're texturing and Voila! You made buttons for a Sims 2 Texture!!
Feel free to ask any questions below - I'm definitely no professional, especially in creating tutorials so I'm more than happy to clarify if something didn't make sense.
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spacelandz · 11 months
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SO! You've seen these little things I do sometimes and you want to know the process!
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It's genuinely super simple, so here goes! Apologies by the way if anything is unclear or glossed over. A lot of this is personal taste and such so I hope this can be a nice boost to create something!
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RESOURCES AND THINGS TO KNOW!
To preface this little guide already assumes you have basic knowledge of color distribution, lineless art, or breaking up art into proper layers for later processing! I am also assuming that your art program has access to scatter brushes and tiling textures. Personally I use Clip Studio Paint, but this can work on other apps. Anyways, here are some good sites for this:
EZGIF - Free, easy gif maker for assembling any kind of gif*! It also has stuff like converting those damn WEBP's back into png.
*PLEASE KNOW THAT YOU CANNOT MAKE GIFS THAT ARE PARTIALLY TRANSPARENT. YOU MUST USE A SOLID COLOR UNDER ANY PART THAT IS OVER BARE CANVAS
Transparent Textures - Free to use source for HQ transparent textures that tile! Amazing for finding a paper texture for these if you commit to the paper doll look. Best results for textures that are in white or black!
So! You have a finished, prepared piece that you want to glitterfy. Well I'm not covering that right now so you can scroll down to That part if you came just for the glitter. This next section is for...
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PREPARING THE PAPER DOLL
To start, your piece should already be separated into respective layers in any order you'd like! We're about to use a ton of clipping masks so Make sure you know your program before starting! So, as my example we have my oc Roy, resized to around... 1500x1500 or the nearest equivalent Smaller is better because it brings out the texture! He looks a little ah...Flat, though right now?
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I'm using this guy for a couple different reasons! Those being:
Roy has translucent bodyparts! Just so you will know what to do with characters who are translucent! I'll get to this in a moment so sit tight
He has a clear, defined, and distinct palette that is easy to pick a color to slap the glitter on! This is important because I personally find balance to be the most appealing part of the finished art.
He also just has a lot of doohickeys on his design.
This is where you need your transparent texture! You can use any kind of texture and I encourage experimentation and such, but I personally use a simple paper texture. What we are going to do is go through and clip our imported and tiled texture to each applicable layer! (Make sure to just Copy and Paste the layer you do NOT need to repeatedly go through this menu...)
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And... When you are done, you should have something like this:
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"But why don't I just clip the texture to the entire piece through a folder? Why go through the hassle of clipping to each individual layer?"
Well that's because of the next step, where we will be adding the shadows. If we don't clip each individual layer, your shadows will look like this example on the left which sort of just ruins the 3D effect and kinda just looks icky, as opposed to this, which is nicer and smoother.
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Now I'm no lighting wiz! In fact I'm rather mediocre at best but some general tips for adding the shadows:
Try to keep your shadows going all in one direction mostly! It gives the effect of one light source and generally just looks better than if you shaded around ALL edges everywhere.
Try to only shade where there are parts overlapping that need the dimension! Overdoing it can make the piece look odd. It's especially helpful to separate any details like different shades of hair, layers of hair, etc so that you can put as much volume as you want.
Once the shadows are all added in you should have something that looks like this:
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Which looks good! Now I'd sometimes stop here if I can't pinpoint how I'd like the glitter to sit or if I think the piece just doesn't need it, but we're moving on to the big important steps!
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ADDING GLITTER
This part is entirely up to your taste! But I'll describe how I do my glitter stuff. Firstly I start out by identifying which color I want to pop out. For Roy here I chose the red parts! For your character it may be different. Experimentation is key!
This is also, however where you need that scatter brush I mentioned earlier. Personally I just use the default CSP spray brush, but again go wild!
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Make a folder above your piece, set its blending mode to glow dodge (or add, or add glow depending on what options you have), and create three layers inside of this folder. Setting the folder to clip is optional right now but will be needed later.
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Then, fill each glitter layer with your choice of particle in whatever color looks good! Yes, you can do gradients and other stuff on the particles too! World's your oyster.
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^ Unclipped example of a glitter layer.
Glitter tips for the early 2000's webcore enthusiast:
Use different strokes and patterns for the glitter distribution! This helps it animate better by moving around. For example this time I went diagonally for the first, horizontally for the second, and then in loose circles for the third. Particle density and stuff is also completely up to you.
Use a color that would pop against the intended area! For Roy I used an orange-ish yellow since it compliments both blue and red.
So now we have the layers! This is where clipping is our best friend once again! You're just going to go in and clip the glitter to whatever layers you want it on. Entire folder, not just one of the layers!
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Once that's all done, go through and toggle the respective glitter layer for the frame, saving individual copies when done. You should end up with 3 identical images with different glitter distribution.
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"BUT WAIT! JONES, THE TRANSLUCENCY!!" I hear you call! Yes, this is where we handle that! If your character is NOT translucent, you can scroll past this section.
Open up your frames all in one canvas, stacked on top of eachother (no jittering or slight displacement! ON TOP of eachother!)
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Our layout should look something like this...Note how the translucent parts are rather hard to see, well if you took your frames and put them in EZgif, they'd be gone entirely! That's because you physically cannot have a partially translucent gif due to technology limitations. So an easy little cleanup thing I did was:
1. SELECT THE CANVAS AROUND THE CHARACTER WITH THE MAGIC WAND TOOL. Do not have any expansion settings on or it probably won't look right in the end.
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Make sure you do not miss any gaps! I personally missed the gap between the arm, leg, and lanyard and I had to redo this next step...
2. SELECT -> INVERT SELECTION
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3. FILL SELECTION WITH THE DESIRED COLOR. IT MUST BE OPAQUE. I personally picked this cloudy gray color.
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You can now save individual frames of your character with the fill so that they don't go bald when you move on to the next step! Again, you should have 3 frames.
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FINISHING UP
This is nice and easy. Upload your three frames into EZGIF and wait for it to process. It'll look like this if you're in the right place.
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Once things have loaded, make sure to change the settings to the following:
FRAME DELAY: 0 (this is how fast the frames move.)
DON'T STACK FRAMES: ENABLED
You can play around with this but I generally leave everything else alone because you don't need it. Just hit the make a gif button and you're all done!
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Aaaand that's it! If you've read this far...Firstly thank you for dealing with my rambliness and horrible explanation skills. Secondly, I hope that this can come in handy for anyone interested! Would love to see if anyone puts this to use. n_n
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hometoursandotherstuff · 10 months
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This stone 1893 Victorian in Ambler, Pennsylvania has been renovated and is now mostly 50 shades of gray, b/c even owners of historic homes feel that it's the thing to do b/c that's what buyers want. I think it can be fixed with some paint, though, so take a look at this 6bd 4ba home that's listed for $1.3M.
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Interestingly, the entrance to the home is directly into a large sitting area, and the stairs are further back. I suspect that a wall was taken down to open it up, especially since there's a support beam across the ceiling.
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The sitting room has been given a black trim with gray walls. I suspect that more modern, thin molding was put up along the ceiling.
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The curvature of the walls in this home are wonderful. The formal dining room has the original wainscoting and lighting.
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The renovated kitchen.
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This casual dining room looks like it may be a converted porch.
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On to the upper floor, there are a few hallways, b/c it's a large home.
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At the end of the hall is a home office.
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Not sure if this is the main bd, but it has an added storage chest and an en-suite.
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This bd is being used as a home gym.
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These stairs lead to the finished attic.
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There's a living room with a kitchenette up here.
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I don't know what this is- it must be one of the turrets, but I'm not sure what you do in here.
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There's a bedroom.
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And this larger bd has room for a sitting area.
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There's also bath.
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Down in the basement is something that looks like it may have been an original source of heat. You can see that it hasn't been used in ages.
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Outside is a porte cochère so you can pull the car in and enter the side door w/o getting wet in the rain.
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Plus, there's a large carriage house that has potential.
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tawaifeddiediaz · 11 months
Note
Hi!
I was just wondering if you have a tutorial on how you created this effect in your gifset, it's something I'd like to try but have no idea where to start. Your set is so pretty! Any helps appreciated x
https://www.tumblr.com/tawaifeddiediaz/712911415428743168/ill-take-you-with-me-then-well-both-die-you?source=share
Hey Nonnie, thank you! This is super late, but I don't actually have the psd for this set anymore (I delete them as soon as I post them), so we're just gonna wing it with a gif I made the other day. I think this ask is about the text, but if it's anything else, just drop me another line and I'll get to it when I can!
I'm pretty sure I got this tutorial from the wonderful @eddiediaaz but I then turned it into Lazy Girl Hours :)) anywho, here we go!
We’ll be making this gif:
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This tutorial assumes basic knowledge of gif-making, Photoshop, and coloring. I’ve only described the typography tutorial in this, but you can reach out if you have any questions.
Tutorial under the cut:
Couple things to note beforehand:
There is a lot of trial and error involved when doing any sort of effect, and this is no exception! You might have to play around with the colors and the settings before you find something that looks good and readable and that fits your set!
This text effect works better on big gifs (540px width).
For this, I find that a simple font works better than a fully-cursive one, but play around with what you like. The boxes may need some adjusting if you use a font with too many tall or tail letters (i.e. text where all the letters aren't on one uniform line - that's why capital letters work so well.)
Movement works really well with effects like these, but again, it depends on your gif + readability. If you have a blended gif, it may take a little more trial and error.
I work in frame animation for all my text effects, but this works just as well in timeline as well.
We’re going to start with this gif:
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First, I like to put my text on the gif. You can obviously move this around later so don't worry too much about how it looks right now.
The dialogue is "Just don't feel it." "Feel" is one of those Big Words for this quote, so I'm going to emphasize it with cursive text.
I am using Moon for the sans serif text, and Santa Fe Spring for the cursive text. Keep both of these in white for now:
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Next, we're going to use the rectangular marquee tool to draw our rectangles around the capital letters (we're not touching the cursive text right now). I just eyeball this, and then try to center it as much as possible.
(The rectangular marquee tool has a keyboard shortcut of M, and it's the second tool in that little toolbar on the left of most people's Photoshop.)
This is what that'll look like:
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Next, we're going to go down to the icons at the bottom right of the layers panel and select the half-black half-white circle > Color Fill.... You should get a color dialogue box. Choose your color - I'm using #8d0000. Then, we're going to move that layer below the corresponding text layer, and set its blending mode to Difference. This is what that looks like (click the image for better quality):
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I'm going to repeat that with the other two boxes as well, using the same color. The boxes will look different with the Difference blending mode because of the shadows underneath.
For example, the box with "it" looks like a solid red square because it's against a completely black background, while the other two have some blue shading to them since there are some highlights behind them.
This is what my gif looks like now:
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Next, I like to go The Lazy Girl™ route and put all three color-fill layers into one group underneath all the text layers. This just lets me edit the drop shadow of all three of them at the same time.
Right-click the group and open up the Blending Options. In Drop Shadow, these are the settings I'm using. The drop shadow color is #0c6477:
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(Note: uncheck "Use Global Light" especially if you're working in frame animation to make sure all the drop shadow has the same angle on all frames.)
This is what my gif looks like now:
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Now that we've finished that, time to move on to the cursive text.
I usually match the cursive text to the palette of the rest of the text, and since the drop shadow is our "accent" color, so to speak, I'm going to use a lighter version of that color. I am also going to add a drop shadow for readability.
The color I used for the text is #acfffe and I actually ended up adding two drop shadows, just because I needed something subtle that doesn't overwhelm the text, especially since it's a delicate font. Here are the settings for both layers:
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And here's what my gif looks like now:
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Now, before we move on to the lines, just check the adjustment of all these text layers, see if there's anything you want to change. It's easier to change now than after the lines are added, since you'll most likely have to redraw them if you move the boxes after the fact.
To draw the lines, we're going to use the Line Tool. I just freehand all of this, and I try to go from center to center of the boxes when I can. It all depends on your angles.
My lines are 2px thick, but you can change these depending on your preference. Here's what mine look like right now:
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We're going to do the same lazy hack that we did for the color fill, and put all three line layers into a group. Move this group below the text layer and the color fill layers. The reason for this is so that the lines look like they're coming seamlessly from the box, rather than from on top of them or something.
Then, set the group to opacity 50%. I like more subtle, simple looks in my gifs, so I don't like super high opacities.
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And that's it! This is our final gif:
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Some final notes:
Absolutely play around with the blending modes of the color fill layers for this effect. These two gifs are the exact same color we've been using, just two different blending modes. You can see how drastically different they look. The first one is Linear Dodge (Add) and the second one is Vivid Light:
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It can change how your gif looks in a BIG way, so play around with it, see what you like, especially if you don't really like the "two toned" thing going on.
Sometimes, I also like playing with the width and height of the text in the font settings, making it shorter and wider, or making it taller and more compact. You can play with the letter spacing as well. The world is your oyster, etc etc.
One other thing I've started doing is erasing the lines with a big brush, just to fade them from his face a little, like this:
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To do that, use a layer mask on the line layer folder, and a brush that's 0% hardness, and at least 200px big. For this gif, I also changed the opacity of the lines back to 100% so the fading effect is a little more pronounced:
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(this gif isn't the best example for this, but oh well. Anywho, hope this helps, Nonnie! Let me know if you have any questions.
Enjoy!
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tai-janai · 1 month
Text
Reunite
Path 8: Trust
(Chapter Select)
Voice of the Hero:
Y'know I- Agh.
You shudder, and your head spins a bit.
"What? What is it?"
Voice of the Hero:
They're... communicating. Through me. It's... disorienting.
"The others? The ones we freed?"
Voice of the Hero:
A... couple of them. The, uh, funny one with the dust. And the mean one after that, with the chains. I'm... relaying a conversation between them.
"What are they saying?"
The Voice searches, connecting to them.
Voice of the Hero:
They're just trying to... Yeah. We're trying to reach each other. They are, I mean.
"We're not done yet, though."
Voice of the Hero:
I mean, I know that. The cynical one wants a plan, though. It's... It's hard to reach, but I'll ask the first one, too. He was hoping for a plan early on.
"Try not to get lost up there."
Voice of the Hero:
Don't worry. I'm here with you. It isn't like before where I couldn't focus. It was just a little unsettled when two of me had to connect their thoughts.
"What were you going to say before you got cut off?"
Your wings flap from something subconscious.
Voice of the Hero:
Oh, uh, nothing. This place is, uh, pretty nice, isn't it?
It is very nice. Shiny marble walls, floor, windows. Maybe a little too shiny. A grand chandelier lighting up the room sends bright glimmers of light bouncing off of everything, practically attacking your vision.
Voice of the Hero:
None of them were ever this nice, even the marble one last time was all dusty and cracking.
A table in the corner holds the echo of the blade once again. Though it is pristine metal, it is somehow less reflective than every other thing in the room. You grab it, and once again feel the weightlessness.
Voice of the Hero:
Another cabin, another captive.
You aren't jostled. You smile confidently as you open the pretty, glistening door.
The way to the basement is hot. The floor seems to give under your feet, made of some non-newtonian fluid only barely thick enough to stay solid for a moment. It makes you hurry as not to sink. It is well-lit, but the walls are shiny, smooth, and pitch black.
Thankfully, the floor of the basement is solid. You stumble onto it, and look back to see the clawed footprints you left in the stairs.
Voice of the Hero:
God, what are those made of?
You're back!
Your head whips around to find the source of the voice.
At the end of the bright, warm room there sits a... thing. What would be the lower part of it is liquid the shade of periwinkle, drooping in a thick puddle. Its head is completely engulfed in a mane of small, pink flowers. You can only see a smiling, carved mouth. A dark chain around their neck is quite the contrast against the bright colors. What shocks you the most is its arms, which are extended, and holding something out to you. The something is moving.
Have you brought another with you? The more the merrier! Please, let me see them!
Voice of the Hero:
Actually- Uh- Aah!
Something rips at the skin of your soul, clawing and dragging something off of you. Your skin stings like it is being pulled at. You wince, then stumble.
The Hero:
Ugh... Again...
Everything itches. You and the, now separated, other you rub your faces and arms.
There, much better!
The Hero:
You didn't have to do that... I was perfectly fine in there.
Oh, but now I can clearly hear your beautiful voice!
The Other freezes for a second, thrown off, then resumes scratching at its feathers, a bit flustered.
The Hero:
You think it's nice...?
He glances around, then his gaze catches yours. You shrug and nod in agreement. He looks pretty pleased.
On edge, but not sensing immediate danger, you step towards the Being.
The pulsing thing it continuously extends to you is wet and bloody. It sits atop an unfolded, magenta flower.
The Hero:
What... is that?
"Its heart."
It's for you!
You wince. The other you recoils, bringing its hands out in front of it.
"Do you know who I am?"
The Being's bright smile folds for a moment, remembering the lonely eternity.
You are what put me here. But I offer forgiveness!
There is a whisper of desperation in its melodious voice. Its smile widens beyond what it had been.
The Hero:
He didn't put you down here, though.
The Being seems to stumble over itself, failing to hold its form. The puddle of whatever it is loses solidness.
I believe you.
Though it sinks, its beating heart is still extended to you.
Take this from me, please, dear hero.
You are confused. Why is it exposing its weakest parts to you? The Other steps back, also put off by its compliments.
"Why are you so sure I'll help you?"
I believe in forgiveness. I will give my heart to anyone who will give me theirs.
For the first time, you are the one untrusting, and the Being is trying to convince you.
"That isn't safe. What if I take your heart and don't return it?"
It melts faster.
Why would you do that? I... I rather you didn't.
"Why do you want to trust me? Why are you so willing to be hurt?"
If I have your heart, and you have mine, you won't leave, will you?
The liquid part of it has spread enough to reach the talons on your feet. It is burning hot, and you recoil. Wax, you realize. It's made of wax.
"You're melting."
Yes, my apologies, incredibly embarrassing of me. Please look past my flaws, focus on the love I have in my heart.
"This isn't good for you. Please keep your heart."
Its arms are now fully extended, as it has lowered further to the ground but continues to offer its source of life.
It is a display of my trust. My forgiveness.
A flower falls from the array on its head. Through the hole, you see the pale underneath.
It is where an eye would be, but it is the corner of a hollow socket. Roots crawl into the darkness. Fear rises in you.
"This isn't good for you. You're going to die."
You are the only thing I know. If you won't have my heart, I see no point in life at all.
The weight of the situation grips you. You kneel to it, and place your hands on the beating heart in an instant. The hot wax burns your knees and gets stuck on your feathers.
"This isn't good! Take it back, you don't have to do this!"
Two of your hands, and one of its own, are holding the bloody muscle. It raises a soft, waxy hand to your face. Another few flowers fall. An off-white core peeks through, more roots coming into view.
I am so proud you've chosen the path of redemption, hero.
"I didn't put you here. I want to get you out."
The bright smile falls once again.
I said I believe you, dear. Even if I remember differently. I don't need to leave if you're here.
The Hero:
This is... just like the others...
The Other comments in horror behind you. You push the creature's heart towards it, desperate for its survival.
"I'm sorry you've become like this. You are hurt. Please don't fall apart."
You hang your head. Your skin burns as the Being melts. Flowers drift down into the wax, crinkling and getting absorbed.
You aren't what put me here?
"If you want to trust anything, trust that."
Instead, the Being sounds even more dejected.
Why won't you accept my heart then? Why won't you give me yours? We have no reason to hate each other, no reason to be apart.
You look at it. The roots that cover the waxy skull look like cracks. They are embedded in the eye sockets gruesomely. Every flower is beautiful up close. Panic strains your voice.
"You... don't have to fall apart... to be trusted... and loved..."
The creature slowly brings its heart closer to itself. Its smile has shrunken. The wax cools, solidifying. It barely has a torso.
This is all I know. It was... so quiet without you.
"I'm sorry."
Another flower skirts down, you catch it before it joins the half-solid wax. It is soft, but it shrivels quickly.
"I'm sorry nobody was here for you."
It laughs, and comments sarcastically.
You are here, yet you deny me.
"I'll be here for what you are. Not for what you're willing to give up for me."
Only a hero, not a captor, could hold such valiant pacifism in his heart.
It drops its head, and curls in on itself, grinning.
Nay, you must be an angel.
You hear the fluttering of feathers, and you feel a sense of worry for the creature. They close in on it, pinching at you as you unstick from the wax on the floor. Chains scrape and clang, hitting the lustrous tile flooring.
You hold your resolve as the new form comes into view, kneeling with you. This one's feathers have been preened, ready for presenting and showing displays of attraction. Its scales look weak, like it has never been attacked, and never would care to defend.
Eyes blink, unseeing at first. Then the pupils find you, and it grins widely.
The Smitten:
Ah... There you are. My, you are beautiful.
You can only breathe a sigh of relief. It is safe now.
The Hero:
Y-you couldn't see us before?
The Smitten:
Well... no, I had no eyes. Everything was dark, I could only hear and feel my beating heart. Until you came, of course.
The Hero:
I dunno. No eyes never stopped any of the other guys.
It blinks, then the new one's face contorts with excited realization.
The Smitten:
There are others? More people to see?
The Hero:
Well, we're working on the "seeing" part, but there were things trapped too, and I can help you talk to them.
The new one lights up. He rises to his feet and takes you by the hand to your own.
The Smitten:
We must go and meet these others! My heart is my own but I am welcome to new faces taking up room within it!
It flutters about you, practically drifting. Whimsy pours from its exuberant voice. It is safe, and that warms your heart.
The Other speaks with a chuckle in his voice.
The Hero:
Yeah, yeah, you'll make plenty of friends. We're nearing a dozen at this point, yeah?
The Smitten:
Surely they all are just as eager as myself to finally be free and find others to share the joys of life and love!
The Hero:
Yeah, somethin' like that.
His tone is unsteady. He is thinking about the next step. You look at him uneasily.
The Smitten:
Come now! Angel, Other, I wish to see the sky once again!
Without a glimpse of the tension, the new one practically floats up the stairs.
"I'd like to... see the sky."
The pleased look on the other you's face falls, immediately sympathetic to you.
The Hero:
Hey... we're getting close, alright?
You nod. It is quiet now.
The Hero:
Should we... Should we tell him what I've gotta do?
"Don't. He'll try to stop you."
The Other mumbles and retrieves the echo.
The Hero:
He'll hate me later, though...
It walks up to you. You stare at the blade. You don't want to go. This place is nice, the Being here cares about you.
You tear your eyes from the gleaming echo and find the other you looking back at you, concerned.
The Hero:
Are you okay?
"Just get it done."
You can't help the panic that makes you flinch when the blade is raised.
Your body moves a bit, which only makes the slaying hurt more. The echo is buried in your pounding heart. You look down at it. You can... really tell it's there.
It feels like nothing when you hold it. Why is it so real as soon as it's in your chest?
The Other, noticing you're dying slower than usual, reaches for you.
The Hero:
Did... it... work?
You take a step back, recoiling from his hand.
Everything goes dark.
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theelf-art · 7 months
Text
How I color manga panels: a tutorial
I'm no expert at doing recolors, I'm simply an artist who's occasionally too lazy to do my own lineart, and uses that of my favorite mangaka's so I can focus on other styles to simply have fun with my colors. I always try and choose panels or pages that are high quality, to avoid too much pixelization. Often I end up sourcing these from scanners or google images.
As far as programs, I use Krita (a free software). This all can be done with the standard brushes and tools that come with the software. But for some of the coloring, I have brushes from brush packs i like to use, as well as a few brushes I have customized myself. The main ones I use are from David Revoy, so if you want a recommendation for a great free brush pack, that's mine.
For this example I'll be using this panel from Chapter 58 of Moriarty the Patriot (I believe this would be Volume 15 of the manga) that I posted earlier here.
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I'm not including the step where I crop the image, but I personally chose to remove some of the white borders that are needed for a traditional volume's page borders. Since I'm doing digital art, I don't always include them.
My next step is always to outline and fill the individual base layers. This includes the speech bubbles, each character, any independent props, the panels themselves and the backgrounds. There's no correct way to do this, but personally I use a brush to outline the object, then fill tool to well. Fill it, as well as the rectangle tool for the panels or straight lines I need to do.
For layers, I usually put all of these color base layers in a single group that's set to multiply, and change the opacity of the base panel so that I can fill the blacked out areas with a solid color easily, here you can see I was working with the base panel at 50%, but honestly i just kind of turn it down to whatever I think looks good.
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The colors I use for this step are usually brightly saturated rainbow colors so it's easy to tell the different elements apart from each other. So you end up with something that ends up looking rather horrific like this:
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From here, I usually create a copy of the base panel to put over the top of the colors. This way I can have transparency for the colors on some of the blacked out parts, but don't loose some of the nuance of the shading entirely. Moriarty the Patriot is a very black heavy cell style, which is the style I find the "panel above, panel below" method works best on. However as I work on the colors, I tend to toggle between having it on or off.
It's about here where I start doing my coloring. Of course this will depend on your coloring style and art habits, however personally, I like to start with the characters. I use those colored layers as the base layer I can clip my coloring layers to.
I will often turn off the layers that I'm not currently using so I don't have to deal with eyestrain, and will change the base layer to something more suitable (often a grey or light tan) so my color theory doesn't get all messed up. The bright colors in previous steps are to make sure they're visually separate. Now they've been established, I don't have to worry about that.
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I don't usually label my layers, but for the sake of the tutorial I have to make it clearer which layer grouping is which.
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I find in this step because of the multiply layer the colors can be a bit washed out, so I tend to either use much more saturated colors than I usually do, or switch to another layer style like Linear Burn of the overall color group to make the colors pop more. Ultimately though this comes down to personal preference. If your coloring style is very de-saturated, you might not have any problems with it. (I do suggest making your base color white, so the coloring of the base panel isn't off, you'll see in the screenshots above I forgot to when working on Sherlock. Ignore my mistake)
For the parts of the image where it's primarily blacked out (such as Sherlock's hair or coat) I don't bother shading at all, and only do the highlighting, as the black takes care of the darkest tones anyways.
During my coloring, I also add a separate grouping above everything for adding rendering and details above the panels. This includes things like the eye highlights (which I always do in pure #000000 white) and making certain parts of the heavily blacked out areas pop more.
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(those refs and paint layer 13 are what I'm using to color pick off of, and keep the shading colors consistent throughout the piece. There's probably a better way to do it, but I just paste them directly into the image and then delete them at the end, paint layer 43 is a color dodge layer, and so has to be outside of the layer grouping to work)
Comparison of the art without:
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And with the top details and white highlights:
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It's a pretty subtle difference, but I find it's the little things that truly make the piece. Especially with the strands going over the face, they need just a bit more to make them really pop. I also just really like my fancy eyes which is hard to do without the top layer.
Insert several hours of coloring here, and about another hour just trying to figure out what gradient to use for the background, and you end up with the the base colors. From here I usually mess with overlay layers as well to get the colors to all look fancy and nice together without having to do color theory (pro tip /lh).
I forgot to grab screenshots while doing the background, but for the top panel I essentially just used the [deevad 5c screentones] brush and a transparency mask to add a screentone gradient, and totally didn't google "splatter overlay" or something like that and picked something off of google, and added some borders.
Because both the base manga panel and manga panel over the top are both not at full opacity, if there is text in the page or panel (such as this one) I like to copy the just the text part of the panel and add it as full opacity in the "colors" folder to make sure it's legible and matches up the rest of the colors.
And after all that, its basically done. I'll sometimes continue to mess around with certain aspects to make sure I like how it look, but that's essentially it. This is when I add my signature, and then it's queued to post!
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painting-warhammer · 14 days
Text
Callidus Assassin in the style of Ann Takamaki/Panther (Persona 5)
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My personal best miniature paint job yet! At least, it's a personal best to me. Still plenty of flaws! Commentary under cut.
This is where a lot of what I'd learned really started coming together! A lot of Warhammer and painting channels will talk a lot about edge highlighting and it's pretty important to be sure, but a YouTuber named Ninjon broke it down in a way where I understand how and where to do it. Namely, you're supposed to think about light sources. I did that for Ann's hair and her boots; the undersides have their darker shades, but anything from topside is very bright.
The next big change was learning Ardcoat. With my Sylvanas figure, I completely fucked that one up, but with Ann I definitely put a fun candy gloss on top of the Baal Red contrast and the boots after I edge-highlighted. True, I could have added those highlights in a risky attempt to recreate a lycra effect, but as Ann already sorta sneaks around and is constantly mobile, I thought it would sell the illusion to have the lights move with her rather than make a single stationary reflection pattern.
The pink gloves were almost a disaster; I got a cheap, super viscous acrylic that made this lumpy gel as I painted, but after some trial and error I got it to cooperate.
The basing is still touch and go. I genuinely did try to edge highlight the bullet decals and the rocks, honest; I was actually hyped because I wanted to make it the stylish red, white, and black that Persona 5 is famous for. But in the end it came off as looking unpainted when I added whiter highlights, so I just doused the whole thing in Black Legion contrast.
The base was a happy accident. It's not how I initially wanted it. I put Mordant Earth down, thinking I would flow some red shader through to make a weird lava-ish effect that had the bright red of Persona 5 again, but they just mushed together to make this weird mud. A bummer, but it did teach me how to make mud in the future!
And the base. Yeah you're supposed to put black on the rims, but I had to go for style.
Overall, I just feel proud of this one, whether or not I should. I'm always glad when I get to use a color scheme completely different from canon or at the very least different from the on-the-box demo artwork.
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The boots were me flying blind, and admittedly on Ann/Panther herself, they're a slightly darker red rather than an outright purple, but I thought purple was a bit more dynamic and I did it for the belt and various other straps as well.
I'll admit I had no good ideas for the poisoned needles, I just doused them in Barak-Nar Burgundy and moved on. The guns and sword I had an idea for, I was going to go for implying they were a polymorphed Morgana, but it just didn't seem interesting. I definitely just half-assed them, but I think it's fine given I wanted the attention on Ann herself. So even the weapons, something I struggle with to make interesting, turned out okay, I think. I got 'em done and moved on.
A small detail I thought was fun: the goggles. I made them Ann's specific eye color! I think they stand out pretty well on the overall model and they don't clash with anything.
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Also, Baharroth Blue is the color I love/use way too much, and if it's not on my figure somehow then is it really complete? I think not. 😜
This isn't my favorite figure, but it's the one I pull out when I want to flex a little. I still got one more where it's from a media franchise to go before I post my main army. It's not going to be as good as Ann, but then again I don't know if I'd call it finished per se. Until then!
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eltanin0 · 20 days
Note
I just found this blog and I noticed that a lot of your stuff seems, well, oddly 3D. I don't mean like in a bad way but it feels like rendered but untextured 3D models? I kinda want to ask what your art process is (sorry for mini-rant)
thanks for checking out my blog! and no need to apologize for anything.
hmm, my art process. honestly i have no idea what to say, i dont know how people normally answer this question so i cant base it off anything either. i'm still kinda new to this whole art thing but i'll try and answer, super sorry if i get this completely wrong and this was all a waste of time.
i guess i'll just talk about how i draw things step by step? for the high effort pieces at least.
ok, so for starters like step 0. when it's a high effort piece, i can already see the image in my mind. i see the pose, i see the general lighting, the layout of stuff, but it's a bit blurry. if i cant see this mental image, the drawing usually comes out extremely poorly.
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this is kind of an example of what i see in my head? this might be all useless info idk, but this is i guess where i start.
well step 1 is just the sketch and line. i start with just sketching the general shapes, then slowly refining it until it fits close enough to the image in my head. then in the line layer i'll fix any mistakes the sketch had and add more details to it. oh and for brush, it's just a round brush, like default. i dont know how much of a difference using a drawing tablet does, but i dont use one so... yeah.
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i should've put more effort into the sketch for this drawing, but i did not.
next i do flat colors. pretty simple, i just select the smart select the outside of the line layer, invert the selection and now i can't paint outside the lines. i dont really think about what colors i use, i just use whatever the characters normal colors are.
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next i do the shading, but first. i duplicate flat layer and recolor it to like a cream color
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like so. for high effort pieces, i was told online to shade in pretty much black and white. now actually onto shading. there's 2 kinda shading i do, 1 from the proper light source, and 1 that's kinda just a shadow because things are close together (like corners and stuff). and i'll shade them on separate layers so i can adjust them individually however i want. oh right, i'll either use a very dark color, pretty much black and the the layer blending mode set to multiply. or i'll use a light kind of gray, tinted slightly yellow or something and set the layer blend mode to difference. then i just use a soft air brush and shade in the ways i described above. shading from regular light source, and the corner stuff thing.
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normal lightsource - - - - - corner thing
then toggle both layers on and mess with the opacity of each layer until you get what you want.
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then you can toggle the normal flats layer, the one that has color and it should apply the shading decently. you can mess with the opacity again on the shadows.
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next i do lighting. i just grab a very light color, usually pretty close to white and set the layer blend mode to overlay. then i use a soft airbrush and "light" it? idk i just do like the opposite of the normal shadows, lighter the closer it is to the light source
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mess around with the opacity as usual. then i do pretty much the same thing if there's another light source. in this case there was a blue light kinda coming from underneath, so i did that.
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now from here i would go back to the flats layer, make a copy, and mess around with different layer styles and properties and settings. sometimes just messing around is useful. in this case, i felt it was too bright and colorful, so i decreased the brightness and saturation of it.
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i think it helped a little bit but who knows.
now i do some kinda highlights and details. i grabbed the colors that were in the background and used those. it was a weird pale blue. i had 2 layers for this, 1 of them was specifically for his antenna things at the top, and one was just for his "skin". anyway, the antenna layer was normal, just kinda gave it an outline with the random reflective circles you see normally in pictures, no thoughts behind them. the skin tho had the layer blend mode set to soft light, i thought it looked best this way. it was just more random things to imply it was slightly reflective.
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together the layers looked like this. i think it makes him look glossier which is what i was aiming for.
next, and it pretty much the end for pebbles, i got someone to look at it and let me know if they think anything was missing. they said it looked a little unsaturated. which it does. so i made a new layer, set the blend mode to saturation, grabbed the airbrush and made it pretty inline with the lighting layer.
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that's kinda it. the background i didnt really care about, just drew and colored it. blurred it a bunch and added a bunch of shadows. i did add some like, "overshadows" is what i call it, i just draw some big shadows down the screen as the top layer.
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but yeah thats literally everything i did to draw this. i would like to apologize if this was not at all what you wanted to know, i'm certain i've screwed this up bigtime. super sorry for wasting your time. if there's anything i can do to help, please ask. i owe you a proper answer to your question, i'm just really dumb. sorry for rambling. sorry. and sorry if the drawing i used for example didnt showcase what you wanted to know.
also, i really like your art! please keep up the great work!
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krislin · 1 month
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Monster Sides
A Sanders Sides Monster AU fic
Summary:
In a dark forest, some distance away from the capital, but right outside a small village, lived six individuals.
These six were seen as cursed, as monsters.
But those in the forest saw them as a part of nature, maybe even guardians.
These six were a close family, living together and helping each other.
Word Count: 4590
The land of the large kingdom was extraordinary. The meadows were a beautiful green, the skies a bright blue, and the weather was usually at its best. Gentle winds blew over. The grass and leaves dancing softly alongside it. The forests around in the kingdom were a significant source of materials for the city, towns, and villages. All from herbs, to food, and to wood could be gathered in these gatherings of flora.
But there was one forest in the kingdom that none dared to even approach. 
Next to a small village, a fair distance away from the capital of the kingdom, was a large, gloomy forest. Objectively, one would say it looked no different from any other forests in the territory of the kingdom, but for the people, it was a cursed and dangerous place.
After centuries of living next to that forest, people had come to learn to never step inside, or even close to it. It didn't even take long after the village was first established that they found out something dangerous resided in the darkness between the large, old trees. 
Or not just something.
Deep in the forest stood a large and old, almost run-down, mansion. But no human lived inside.
Or preferably said, no full human.
All the creatures belonging to the forest knew who they were, and what they were. But they all lived in harmony.
Because in the mansion lived six men. All hybrids that made them only half human.
Many would see them as monsters, but the fauna saw them as much of a part of nature as themselves. Maybe even more. The nature of the forest would sometimes even call them the guardians of their home.
Outside the mansion laid a small lake. Next to the lake was one of the six. The man had bright brown hair and round gray glasses on his face. As a silhouette, he would have the appearance of a normal human, but in the light, one would immediately take their words back. His skin was a slight shade of green, and clearly looking moist. The man smiled brightly as he skipped alongside the lake side. His leaps were longer and higher than possible for the normal human. 
Because this is Patton. The frog hybrid of the mansion.
Patton continued to hum and skip his way back towards the mansion. His beams were as bright as he was known for every time he saw an animal or a pretty plant close by. Even if he knew their domain well, it always made his day to see the forest in such a pretty state.
The sound of a hysterical cackle came from the trees next to him, but it didn't alert the man. Patton only smiled widely as he stopped to turn in the direction. "Remus! Back already?" he beamed as he waved towards the rustling bushes closing in.
Through the bushes stretched a dark green tentacles, placing itself on the ground to drag its core forwards. "Heya, Croakie!" the man, Remus, grinned when through the plants. The man had the upper body of a human with dark brown hair with a silver highlight on his bangs. But his lower body was of just dark green tentacles with black dots on the top. 
This is Remus. The octopus hybrid of the mansion.
"You should have seen those brats!" Remus told, laughing hysterically as he dragged his tentacles to approach the other. "They had the audacity to make a dare to approach our territory! But that just made the day so much better!" he laughed, as he held his right arm to the side. He held his hand open, and suddenly green sparkles sparkled over his palm, and his morning star fell into his hold. "It's been far too long since I got to play with the humans!"
"Now, now, kiddo. I know they're humans, but don't be too harsh on them. Especially if they were kids," Patton softly scolded the other. But even with his hands on his hips, there was still a slight amused smile on his face. Patton may ever be the optimist, friendly, and peaceful one, but even he had the disliking to the human species.
Snickers filled the air around them as Remus explained the humorous scene to Patton. They had never hurt any humans, unless necessary. They only wanted the selfish species to stay away from their territory and those residing in it; them, the animals, and all the plants.
The sound of wing beats reached them through the silent air, making the two turn to see the third of the six flying in for a landing. Patton beamed seeing the man, jumping high in joy as he landed. "Logan!" he beamed, leaping to immediately stand next to him. "Everyone's back early! This is great!"
This one is Logan. The owl hybrid of the mansion.
"Indeed," Logan answered, a tiny smile of joy visible. He tucked his dark brown feathered wings into his back, then turned to the octopus hybrid. "It would seem your scare has given us the boost for a peaceful day today."
"Of course!" Remus beamed at the praise hidden behind the sentence. A hand was proudly placed to his chest, his weapon disappearing with a green light. "But as much as I wished to play with them more, Hoarder and I have something to finish."
Logan's black hair blew to the passing wind as he narrowed his eyes at the other. "If this is that creation competition you are talking about, I do hope you tend to mend what you break and make sure he doesn't hoard more than he already has."
"Hey!" an offended yell came from the mansion. They all turned, and they all saw a man with red hair and red dragon wings and tail come flying over. "I am only keeping the necessary things in life in our home. Thank you very much!" The man landed down by the group, but he was mostly throwing Remus a glare, which earned a grin back.
This man is Roman. The dragon hybrid of the mansion.
A deep sigh left Logan, and Roman turned to the owl hybrid to see the man shaking his head. "The pile of unnecessary equipment and object in your hoarding room says otherwise, I believe." Logan turned his eyes to look at the dragon hybrid through his black glasses. The talons of his hand were raised to adjust the glasses properly back on his nose again. "But as long as it doesn't pile up outside that room, do as you please."
"Great!" Roman beamed, but shook his head and coughed into his fist of clawed hand. "I mean-. Like it will ever overfill. There's so much room left inside! I can still fly inside, you know!"
"Now, now, do not lie," another man's voice came from behind, a slight hiss in his speech. Everyone turned around to see a man with a bright yellow snake lower body slithering towards them from the mansion. The man's snake tongue flicked out, but looking rather amused as he slithered closer. The left side of his face had greenish-yellow scales which almost gleamed in the light, and on top of his brown hair laid a black fedora with a yellow ribbon around the base. "You know lying to us won't do."
This is Janus. The snake hybrid of the mansion.
Roman rolled his eyes at the fifth man of the group as he stopped by them. "Yeah, yeah, whatever, Slithering Scales," the man scoffed out, but gave out a small smile as he nudged the yellow snake hybrid with his elbow. But a small scoff them came from him, and his red eyes glanced between Janus and Patton. "But you two alright to be out? Winter's approaching, you know."
"Ever the overprotective hoarder you are," Janus commented as he rolled his eyes, but gave a small smile as he shook his head. "We are fine. The season is yet to properly begin. We cold-bloods have survived multiple winter already, you know."
"Yeah!" Patton beamed, leaping around them all. "Your fire and my strange, dark son's clothes and blankets really help!"
Roman gave out a pleased smile at the response, but he did give out a pout at Janus's comment. As part dragon, of course he would be protective of his hoard. And his main, and most precious, treasure he had in said hoard was his family. "Great to hear, Padre," he smiled at Patton, but turned to glance back at the mansion. "Speaking of him, where is he?"
"He was resting in his web the last time I saw him," Janus shrugged as he answered the other. "I had him rest after creating a bit too much silk for his crocheting and knitting later. He doesn't eat enough for the silk production he's doing."
"My poor kiddo!" Patton immediately spoke out in horror and concern. The man made a giant leap towards the mansion, but the sound of skittering had him stop.
Everyone glanced up the walls of the mansion. And out one of the top windows, something came out. "Hey, Snake Face, I have control of my own health, you know," the last of those calling the mansion their home said. The man had black hair and a black hoodie on, but his lower body was of a large spider body. Though his upper body wasn't fully human. The man had eight eyes, six fully purple and the last two human brown, and on each side of his mouth he had the fangs of a spider, which moved slightly as he spoke. And his lower body, his spider body, was large enough for someone to actually sit on his back, but mostly having to curl into themselves to not get hit by the eight legs as the man crawled around.
This is Virgil. The spider hybrid of the mansion.
Virgil crawled down the wall of the mansion, his spider legs letting him walk on any surface without troubles. He crawled down to step down on the grass, his arms crossed in front of his chest as he glared at the snake hybrid. "And for your information, I had just stopped when you slithered in. I was just about to start crocheting, but you just had to barge in."
"Whatever you say, Spiderling," Janus responded, rolling his eyes, but throwing him a smile. "Just make sure to rest. You work too much when winter approaches. You're cold-blooded as well, so you need your rest, especially with the stress of the season."
A scoff left the spider hybrid, but he shook his head and let his arms fall down, his black clawed fingers having a few short silk threads dangling down and dancing to the breeze. "I'm the one making clothes and blankets, you know. So for now, I'm the warmest cold-blooded here."
The chirp of birds came as two magpies came flying down, landing on the back of the spider hybrid. The birds chirped happily up at them all, and they all smiled and greeted back with a nod. Virgil gave the two a smile, and he moved his hands into the pockets of his hoodie. Getting something out of the pocket, Virgil got out a small crochet blanket of his silk, handing it over to the two small birds.
"Here you go," Virgil spoke, smiling as he handed the birds the small blanket. "Stay safe and warm in your nest now. The cold's approaching soon." The magpies gave him joyful and thankful chirps, and the two grabbed the silk blanket and flew off into the forest. Virgil smiled as he watched them fly off, but turned to glance at the others again, also taking notice of the skies above turning dark. "Well, evening's coming, so I better get to my route while handing out what I got."
"Alright, stay safe, kiddo!" Patton beamed at the other, beaming brightly as Virgil went to crawl past them. "Let us know if you need anything, alright?"
"Of course, Popstar," Virgil responded, giving a salute over his shoulder as he headed for the trees behind. Suddenly the man stopped and turned around to face them again. "Oh, and I repaired all the stuff with holes in them," he informed them all, earning beams of delight in return. "That includes the plushies. They're all on my web, so get them whenever."
Cheers erupted from Patton, Remus, and Roman, while Janus and Logan smiled with a nod of appreciation. "You're awesome, Virge!" Roman beamed, eyes visibly sparkling with joy before he spun around to bolt into the mansion to fetch what Virgil had repaired for him.
Patton was not far behind the flying dragon, Remus quick to follow as well. Janus and Logan was left, chuckling alongside Virgil as they watched the others charge in with such energy. "Thank you, Virgil. It is much appreciated," Logan said with a smile at the spider. "But stay safe out. Remus most definitely has scared the humans away for today, but one never know when it comes to that species."
"Yes, yes, I know," Virgil answered, rolling his eyes. "No need to say that every time. I can take care of myself. My poison is paralyzing for a reason."
"Yes, Remus had you show so too many times," Janus agreed, snorting at the memories of the octopus hybrid constantly having Virgil paralyze some of his detached tentacles after regenerating new ones for fun. "Just make sure you don't freeze. The colder you get, the slower you get. And that means the longer in the cold you will be."
Virgil huffed in response, but gave no other answer as he turned to leave the place. Janus and Logan watched as the spider left into the forest, and the two turned to head into the mansion themselves. 
*************
Virgil silently hummed to himself as he crawled between trees and bushes. Each step his eight legs took made a tiny sound in the grass and leaves, and with the speed of his steps, his crawling always sounded like skittering. And many in the forest recognized that skittering.
Birds, squirrels, deer, and all the animals of the forest would glance up and approach him during his routes through their home. Virgil greeted them all with a small smile, and many animals came either leaping, running, or flying over. The day was turning dark, a time where most would go to lie down for the day, but seeing the hybrid being close, they'd always come over to greet him.
"Hey, guys," Virgil softly greeted. All the animals joyfully greeted back, and a soft chuckle left the hybrid as bunnies, squirrels, and birds came to rest on his spider back. "Hope you're all doing well. But since winter is approaching, I came to give you all new blankets."
The spider put his hands into his pocket, and out came a roll of blankets of his silk. All of the animals grew visibly joyful, and Virgil smiled, pleased to see them like it. He handed out blankets, one by one to the animals around him. All the deer got the larger blankets over them, the birds got the smallest to carry to their nests, and the squirrels and bunnies got the perfect size for them, or larger ones if Virgil knew they had a family. All the other animals with them got their blankets as well, and Virgil was happy as to how tight he rolled the blankets, seeing that it was good that he brought as many as he could.
Virgil lifted the last blanket in his hold to hand to another pair of birds, but the sudden harsh gust of a wind had it fly out of their hold. The birds chirped in dismay as the silk was blown away from them, and they watched it quickly disappear into the darkness with a distressed look.
"Oh, crap..." the spider muttered, seeing the blanket fly between all the trees and much farther away through his night vision. "That was my last one too..." The birds' chirps was low and short, both lowering down to the ground in sadness. "Hey, hey, it's alright," Virgil assured them, gently holding down his hands to them. Both birds glanced up at him, but jumped onto his palms for him to lift them up. Virgil held them up and guided them to his left front leg, letting them jump on to rest right by him. "Don't worry, I can quickly make a new one. It's all fine."
Questioning chirps came from the two, and Virgil gave a soft chuckle as he shook his head. He quickly reassured them once again, and he raised a clawed finger to his mouth and stretched out multiple silk threads, enough to make a thick enough thread to use.
"Won't take long. Don't worry," Virgil mumbled as he moved the thread to his left pointy finger, using his right one to drag out more silk from his mouth. Unlike normal spiders, Virgil created silk from his mouth, usually using his fangs to hold the thread still as he used his clawed fingers to crochet, knitt, or sew with. And his clawed fingers were able to make a small hook at the tip, which was what made him able to crochet, but for knitting and sewing, and outside all that, he usually kept his claws straight and pointy.
Virgil laid on the ground as he started. His legs, except the one the birds sat on, halfway tucked under his body to lie comfortably. Most of the animals had left to sleep for the approaching night, but some continued to stay around the spider, curled in their blanket as they peacefully watched the hybrid crochet another of his blankets.
The birds happily chirped as they watched him masterfully create their blanket, and Virgil smiled as he glanced to the side at them.
Unusual gusts of winds came to their hearing, and they glanced up at the dark night sky to see something red come flying over them. "Ah, there you are, Spider Nightful!" Roman was to speak as he beamed seeing them under him. The dragon flapped his wings to slowly lower down to the ground, careful of the trees' branches. But as he landed his feet down on the ground, he raised an eyebrow at the glare Virgil was throwing at him. "What?"
"Mind your wings, Flame Head. I'm crocheting here, and your gusts are not helping," Virgil scoffed, but returned to his crocheting, being close to finishing the small silk blanket for the two waiting birds.
"And why are you out here, working more in the middle of the cold night after not having had your meal after your last production?" Roman challenged the other, a protective glare thrown at him through narrowed eyes. "I am certain you have not eaten anything protein filled since you left. You know you'll grow weak if you're lacking that, Virgil! You can't go producing more silk without refilling yourself!"
Another scoff left the spider, and he finished off his blanket as he sent the other a glare. "Geez, never took you to be one to sound like Logan," he commented, but averted his gaze to give the blanket to the thankful birds. The birds gave thankful chirps and took off with their new blanket, and Virgil gave them a small smile before turning it into a sigh as he turned back to the dragon. "Why are you here anyway? Aren't you supposed to stay in the mansion to keep up the fire for the others?"
"Logan can hold the fire up long enough until I return," Roman answered with a shrug, but stepped forwards to give Virgil a push in the direction of their home. "You're much later than normal, and you need my fire just as much as them! So off we go now, Night Crawl!"
"Alright, alright, Ro! Geez!" Virgil yelled, but sighed as he shook his head. "I know you're a hoarder, but keep it down, could you? You know I can defend myself if something would suddenly come."
"Whatever you say, V," was all Roman responded before grabbing the spider's wrist to drag him along with him. Virgil groaned as he was dragged by Roman, who power-walked through the forest. The dragon hybrid was dedicated on bringing the spider with him back home before the air grew too cold for the cold-blooded. Roman threw the other a glare after hearing the annoyed groan. "You have no right to do that, Emo Nightmare. Only one hoodie isn't good enough! You don't even have any of your blankets on you! What you have on isn't enough to keep you warm, and you know that!" Roman scolded, only receiving an annoyed deadpan in return, which he ignored as he faced forward again, all out on getting home. "This is why you need my fire!"
A snort came from the other, but he didn't speak out. He knew Roman was in his protective hoarder mode because of his longer than usual absence. And because of that, he knew it was futile to fight against it. He never fought against it, only showing his annoyance or teasing the other, whichever fit the situation best. 
It wasn't long until they came to the treeline ending by their mansion. Stepping through the last bushes, they appeared in the back garden of their home. Faint light danced on the grass during the darkness of the night, so Roman strode towards the back door, still dragging the spider with him.
Roman swung the old wooden door open, stepping into the indoor light with Virgil right behind. The moment they stepped inside, Virgil felt the change in temperature, and a silent sigh of relief left him. The spider's shoulders slumped down at the warmth, not having to force an appearance anymore.
"Come," Roman spoke with a stern voice, but stepping through the room and towards the living room right by. Another sigh left Virgil, but the spider crawled after to follow into the warmer room.
Huddled together in some type of pile were the others. Janus and Patton laid in the middle, Remus using his tentacles to keep the large blanket over them in place, and Logan standing by the fire in the fireplace. Hearing the two return home, Patton beamed brightly, almost jumping out of his spot as he waved them over.
Roman smiled at the frog hybrid, but turned to give Virgil a brief nod to then take Logan's place by the fire. Logan gave the dragon a nod, and he stepped to join the pile of hybrids to help keep the warmth for the cold-blooded ones.
Virgil soon came to crawl over, and Remus lifted some of his tentacles, a part of the blanket while at it, so the spider could join in the middle, the spot for the cold ones. When tucking in his legs and lying down, Janus wrapped his long tail around him, but placing an arm on his back as support. With Virgil's body being a lot different, his back basically going ninety degree up from his spider body, he always only laid with his spider body, his human top having to hang or lean into something for support.
Remus stretched the blanket out to lie over the spider's back, but stretched a different tentacle to fetch another blanket to their side. With the new blanket, he wrapped it around Virgil's shoulder, having the spider now fully covered. Finished with his job, he continued to have his tentacles spread to keep the blanket over the three firmly in place, even if they were to move slightly.
But having nothing much but an arm to support his back, Virgil raised a finger to his mouth for his silk. He needed something to lean on, or his back would turn stiff again, and a single thread hanging from the ceiling would be enough for him. But as he went to do so, a growl from Roman had him stop to turn and raise an eyebrow.
"What did I just tell you earlier?" Roman questioned, eyes obviously narrowed with a warning look.
A huff left the spider, but he let his hand fall back down. A demanding look was shot back, and the dragon immediately went to drag over a cushioned stool for him.
When the furniture was in arm reach, Virgil immediately dragged it over and leaned onto it with crossed arms.
Seeing as everything was finally settled, a sigh of pleasure came from Patton, and he melted into the pile. With everyone back home, and Roman keeping a bright fire burning for them, everything was perfect. The group had always lived together and had this routine for the colder times. The more warm-blooded would always make sure the cold-blooded were all well in health, not growing cold or sick. 
Remus, as an octopus hybrid, should also be a cold-blooded, but for some miracle, he was actually not. Maybe it was from his creation magic, like Roman's, or if it was his relation to the dragon hybrid, no one knew. They were just glad he wasn't cold-blooded as well. Knowing he would have been a difficult one to keep healthy as so. That man was always all around. All from being underwater in the lake, to climbing in the trees, to doing his job to scare off all the humans daring to step close to their territory. Keeping him constantly warm enough would be a pain for them all, so they were thankful for that miracle.
Logan got up from his place, his wings tucked behind his back, but Virgil could see the others had helped him groom by the time he had gotten back, or more like Roman dragged him back. "I will go and start on something for us all to eat," Logan stated, heading to the kitchen, leaving the group to continue to huddle together for warmth. "I will be right back."
"Alright! But call if you need help!" Patton called after the other, but cuddled closed to Janus as he hugged the silk blanket closer to them.
"He'll be fine like usual, Padre," Roman chuckled as he stepped over to take Logan's place by the frog. "He does fine in the kitchen. Though I do still prefer your meals, but the priority is to keep you warm."
A small chuckle left Patton, and the man croaked as he reached an arm up at the dragon. Roman smiled as he took it, and Patton dragged him down to lie with them. An amused laugh came from Roman, but he got himself comfortable by the pile, but making sure he had good view of the fire, being ready to strengthen it if it was to weaken for even a moment. 
Everything was nice, cozy, and peaceful for them as another normal day passed by. The six men were as close as one could be without being blood-related, with the exception of Remus and Roman that is. And they would continue to be a close family of unique specimen, who stood out from everything else in the world.
The moon of the night sky shone beautifully down over the mansion as they all feasted and cuddled together for warmth and rest. This was all they ever needed, and it was all they ever wanted.
This is the hybrids' mansion. Their home.
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I don't know if you've ever been asked this question, but I was wondering:
Did you learn to draw somewhere, or were you self-taught? Maybe you have some tips or hints for beginners? What was your favourite thing about drawing?
Sorry if this ask is too personal, but I really like your drawing style and wanted to ask some advice :D Have a good day! 🌸
it's a mix of both, really! i grew up loving art from the very beginning, like. im talking about making teletubbies fanarts and asking my dad to make me learn to draw characters from w.i.t.c.h. and tomb raider fandsndfs, according to my parents i had a pencil in my hands before i even started talking -- and that's what led me to actually learn to draw "properly", first in a art-centered high school (that. did less than good to me tbf but it was a matter of 90% of the art-related teachers being garbage) and the comics academy in torino where i think i started to truly "understand" what i wanted from my art style
if i may give some advices other than the good ol' "keep practicing and try to at least doodle something once a day", i could go with:
don't compare yourself to other artists negatively, especially those younger than you. it's probably the hardest part, but you need to "force yourself" to be positive. if you find yourself thinking "this 14 years old draws better eyes than me", go with "i love how they draw eyes, let's see if i can learn from it"
copy copy copy copyyyyy!!!!! copy from references, copy from photos, copy from comics, copy from movies. of course don't plagiarize people and then present that stuff as your own, but try to make a pose yours and learn to take pictures of your own hands, feet, face or ask people to pose if you can't find the right position
your art will look like shit to you, a LOT of times, but know that at one point you're going to quit. if you don't like what you're drawing, either quit there or restart, don't try to "fix" it because you'll just end up noticing more and more issues with it - issues that, most of the times, aren't even issues to begin with. letting go of perfectionism is very difficult, but at some point you'll have to do that--
and about perfectionism, a VERY good exercise we did in comics school was being forced to "draw fast". this isn't me telling you you NEED to draw as quick as possible, but it's an exercise that forces you to learn quickly where certain body parts go, to prioritize specific details rather than others. we had a model, and at first we had to sit there for an hour drawing her, then the hour became 30 minutes, then 10, then 5, and at the end 1. it took us a few lessons to do that, but at the end the super sketchy 1 minute copy went from ???? to a stylized human figure!!!
learn to draw realistic anatomy, and then make it your own style.
for the love of god learn prespective it's a bore it's a chore but as soon as you learn that everything becomes SO much easier
for shading, just. put a point in the canvas where the light source is and go from there!! if the light is on the right, the shades will be on the left
if you're coloring, play with the shades' colors. a good idea is to use the opposite color you use for the lights - if the light is yellow, the shades look great in purples, for example just don't use pure black unless you wanna go for a more dark/noir aesthetic oh my god
professional comic artists retrace a lot of their backgrounds. i'm js. use this as you wish :)
learn to draw different body shapes!!!! like getting out of the anime phase of "fat people are just like thin people but with a huge belly" can be difficult, but it's very satisfying
go out of your comfort zone. if you have problems drawing horses, spend a few days learning to draw horses. take some pics and try to understand them.
body proportions are so fun once you realize how so many things are the same. generally speaking, your spread hand is as long as your face, your feet and half the size of your arm; the outer corner of your eye is at the same level of your ear, and the inner corner is perpendicular to your nose and the corner of your mouth; if you leave your arm on your side, your elbow is at the same level of your bellybutton, and your fingers reach halfway your thighs. it's so fun
and yea, i can't stress it enough. it'll take time. art is painful, art is stressful, art can be discouraging. take a step at the time, accept some failures and celebrate any good thing - even the smaller ones. you learned to draw hands today, and you should be proud. i tried to draw a cat for the first time and it looks wonky, but the cat you will draw tomorrow will look better. i believe in you
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weirdozjunkary · 10 months
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Been thinking about the movie version of the MVA AU and how it would play out in that universe. So I created a small Tumblr exclusive fic of how I think it would go down. Honestly it’s not that vastly different from the movie, but that’s just how I like to write au tie-ins. Enjoy and happy reading!
The big problem
(a movie MVA AU oneshot)
The night was dark, and so was the house. As sonic had turned off every light in the house in order to create the best movie watching experience. He was still vibrating with exitement from earlier in the day, two full days to himself. Left home alone with Ozzie while Tom and Maddie visited Rachel for her wedding.
As much as he wanted to go, they all nunanamously agreed that it would be best for sonic to stay at home. Rachel still wasn’t accustomed to the brown hedgehog that had warranted himself child status in the wachowski house. Plus the people outside of green hills didn’t exactly know about him yet, nor was he really allowed to let them know about him.
So here he was, the couch l pushed in, practically inches from the tv, front row seats for the blue hedgehog and his non alien animal companion right beside him.
“Alright Ozzie-bozzie! It’s movie night at cassa-de-Sonic! And as esteemed second in place animal companion, you can pick the movie this time!” He twirled the remote in his hand. “Just don’t pick any of the channels next to the news ones, those movies SUCK!”
The tv shut off, and just as quickly became a noise of static. The sudden roar caused Sonic to practically leap from his seat in surprise.
“NO!” He yelled. He pressed his face to the tv and pleaded. “YOU CAN'T DO THIS! DON'T DIE ON ME! DON'T DIE ON MOVIE NIGHT!!!” Ozzie’s bark snapped him out of his delusion. “You’re right ozzie.” He said, wiping a dramatic tear from his eye. “If I'm gonna save movie night, I’m gonna need to get to the source! Be right back!” And he zipped away in a blink of an eye.
Up on the roof the speedy hedgehog pulled up a heavy box of tools, prepared to use as many as he needed to save the night he always dreamed of having since he met Tom and Maddie. Well, more like stalked, as up until a year ago, they weren’t really… accustomed, yet. Though, he most likely wouldn’t need a full box of tools on a satellite dish.
“Hmm, looks like mister Jet hasn’t come back to build his nest on the dish again.” He folded his arms and stuck his head up in a snobbish manner. “Good! I don’t want to see that dumb hawk again! Stupid jerk! Stealing my chilidog…!” He looked back at the dish. “Oh, right! Movie night!”
He popped open the box and pulled out a screwdriver. “Let’s do it to it!” And he began his work. He wasn’t really fixing the problem, more like just messing with the dish. He’s seen Tom try his hand at fixing it once or twice before, but he didn’t really understand what he was doing. Still, he was going to try and get this thing working again, zipping back and forth from the living room and back up onto the roof to see if the static had went away. But it didn’t, in fact, what he was doing seemed to make the situation worse, as the static began to have an eerie green glow to it.
“What the heck am I doing wrong?” Sonic puzzled, scratching his head with the end of the screwdriver. “It can’t be that hard to fix a satellite!” He banged the end of the screwdriver against the dish. “Come on you stupid thing! Work!”
There was a blur, a flurry of green and browns and neutrals that flooded his eyes till everything went black. His vision had only just begun to come through as the pain did. A soreness that was all around his body, but mostly on his head and back. It was a familiar pain. Similar to when he fought Robotnik for the first time and won. But Robotnik wasn’t here. At least he didn’t think he was here.
There was something else. A shade of golden that pulled him out of the rubble of the living room by his arm. Through his blurred vision he could only suspect it being Ozzie.
He lifted himself up, using him as a crutch as the world still wobbled like his legs did. “Good boy Oz.” He mumbled and petted his companion weakly. Ozzie stayed next to him as he helped guide the disoriented hedgehog to the hallway. Sonic was a trooper though. As just like before, his vision finally focused again, though the room still swayed like he was on a boat.
A deafening click entered his eardrums, snapping him back to reality. The sound made his stomach drop and he grew seasick in his stomach once again, though he didn’t know if it was from whatever had happened on the roof or not. No, it wasn’t from the roof. As the door opened, Sonic was face to face with the man he thought he’d never see again. Standing right there, illuminated by the porch light, was Dr. Robotnik.
“Hello, hedgehog.” He said through a wide grin. “Did you miss me?”
“Eggman?!” Sonic sad in disbelief. He half expected this to be a hallucination from hitting his head to hard. The headache he had should be proof of it. But no. He was here. Somehow. “I don’t know how you got back. But you made a big mistake coming here!”
“On the contrary. The only mistake here was thinking that you had won. But that was but a prelude to what I have planned for you! An hors d’oeuvre, an aperitif, an-“
“I get it!” Sonic growled.
“Oh-Ho Ho! I don’t think you do!” That creepy smile stretched farther across the mad doctors face as he finally stepped into the house. “But you’re about to… and so will that idiot sherif and his wife! And your little dog, too!”
He had enough of this. Sonic charged at Robotnik, ignoring his body's cries for him to rest. But he couldn’t get near him, as a split second before he could give the old doctor what for, a gloved fist careened into his face.
Sonic flew back into the living room which had more mess to clean up as he had been sent flying through a wall. That feeling of dizziness and discomfort came back to him as he slowly stood back up and faced his threat. There, standing through the hole in the wall was a figure he never thought he’d see again, not robotnik, but an echidna.
He was large and muscular, thick red fur coated his body, and he had spines that draped down and framed his face like thick dreads that could be a weapon of their own. But the real weapon was his fists, as large spines poked out from the bottom of his gloves. He stared down Sonic with a fury in his eyes he had never seen before, and while he said nothing, his expression told a thousand words to the hedgehog.
“Now where are my manners!” Robotnik butted in. “Sonic, I would like you to meet, Knuckles! My new BFFAE— Bested Friend Forever And Ever!” That wide grin was still stretched across his face.
How in all of green hills did he manage to do this— to get an echidna on his side? Especially him, one that looked like he would snap Sonic in two if he took even just a single step. He looked like Robotnik’s guard dog. No. He was his weapon.
“Look robotnik, I don’t care who you’ve brought to help you. I’m not going to let you walk in here and take my home from me!” Sonic’s fur crackled with energy as he stared them both down. The feeling felt odd, though. But he didn’t pay any attention to it.
“I am not here for your pathetic home!” The echidna growled at him.
Those words enraged Sonic, and he bared his gums to the red echidna. His eyes and quills began to glow, but it wasn’t amber like it had been before, no. The colour now had turned to a bright, almost neon, green. He clenched his fists tightly as green electricity crackled around his fur. Though he was furious, he was still scared.
Of course he would be, this echidna was part of the same clan that had made him hide for most of his life, that made him run from his home, that took his guardian, Longclaw from him. But here, he wasn’t going to let the same thing happen to this one. He won’t let it be taken from him again. Sonic reeled back a fist and…
“AAAAAAGH!”
Sonic wrapped his arms around himself and began screaming as pain began to overwhelm his body. His yell managed to make even the echidna and doctor pause in surprise.
“W-WHAT IS… GOING ON!!! AAAAAAH!!!” He shouted once more as the green electricity began to crackle around the room, and as well, his height suddenly jolted from 3-feet to 5-feet.
Robotnik reeled back in disbelief. “Um, what?!”
“Deceiver! You never told me he had the master emerald!” Knuckles barked at the doctor.
“The, uh, master-what-now?”
“I am talking about the device that wields ultimate power! Something that that hedgehog now has possession of!”
Another painful yell from Sonic made them jolt again in surprise. His height had doubled again, now he was 10-feet.
“Wait, ‘Ultimate power’ you say?” Robotnik said quietly to himself, partly ignoring the hedgehog who was still groaning and crying as his body kept passing each foot, his fur and quills changing its colour with it. He grinned gleefully as a sinister plan began to cross his mind. “Now you speaky my language!”
“HELP…. ME…. AAAAAAAH!!!” Sonic shouted again and his height jolted once more. 25-feet. He could barely fit in the living room now. His back pressed against the ceiling making it bend and crack. He continued to cry and howl in pain. Whatever was happening to him wasn’t done yet.
Knuckles ran out of the house to the backyard with robotnik trailing on not far behind. They had made it out just in time, as only a few seconds after, the hedgehog had finally bursted out of the side of the house, sending rubble flying across the yard.
“HOLY GEARS AND STARTERS!” Robotnik shouted in awe. He gripped the sides of his head that was reeling from the sight he was witnessing.
Sonic stumbled out of the house, his feet breaking more of the rubble beneath him. He panted and huffed, still feeling awful and tingly from the pain that now faded with him along with the green electricity. It was only a couple more seconds for the vertigo to subside, and he finally saw what had happened to him.
His fur and quills were now a bright blue colour, and they were all messy and ragged from the electricity that shot out of him only a few moments ago. But that wasn’t what made his stomach drop, no. He realized he had suddenly grown 50-feet in only a few minutes.
“Holy crap…” Sonic exhaled in fright. He looked down at his feet. The deck was completely ruined. Broken boards that had snapped against his weight. They were so small now. Everything was so small now.
A bark fell into his ears making him whip his head around to the house. It was Ozzie. Oh no, please don’t let him be hurt.
“Ozzie!” Sonic yelped in fright. “Oh, no no no no! Please be okay!” He knelt down, sending a knee crashing into the wooden floor that broke as soon as it had collided with it. He dug through the rubble, tossing it out to the yard behind him. “Ozzie! Ozzie!” He called out to his canine friend. He heard him bark once more. There, just outside of the living room. He was okay.
“Ozzie!” Sonic shouted in relief and in a flash, he grabbed the retriever in his hands and hoisted him up to his face. “Oh my god I’m so glad you’re okay!” He exhaled through teary eyes, relieved he wasn’t hurt. Ozzie didn’t seem to have any change of view of him, as he wagged his tail at the sight of the now massive hedgehog that held him up carefully.
“Um excuse me! We are right here!” Robotnik shouted.
His voice pierced his eardrums like nails on a chalkboard, and Sonic’s relieved expression faltered. He slowly placed his companion back in the house. “Stay here Ozzie. I’ll be right back.” He said gently to him before he turned to Knuckles and Robotnik.
“What did you do to me?!” His voice boomed.
“Me?! I didn’t do anything to you this time!” Robotnik said. “Though I have to say, it is a good look on you!”
“What he looks like doesn’t matter.” Knuckles bellowed. “No matter your size, I will still strike you down and take the power of the master emerald from you! Even if I have to rip it out of you one cell at a time!”
“Master emerald…?” Sonic muttered in surprise. He looked at his feet again. That old bedtime story that Longclaw had told him many times before. It was actually real? It’s what made him like this?
“Face me, giant!” Knuckles shouted. “Or are you now a coward?” He made Sonic’s eyes glide back to him. “You are unworthy to hold such immense power that belongs to my tribe! The size you are now is proof enough! Now will you stand and fight? Or will you lay down your life to me?”
Slowly, Sonic stood up and shifted away from the house that he had broken a hole through the side of it. He clenched his teeth and narrowed his eyes at the echidna below him. Robotnik slowly shimmied away to avoid the crossfire.
“Alright, you want me…” He raised his fists and took a stance. “Then come get me!”
A pleased toothy grin stretched over the echidnas face. Finally, someone who wouldn’t keel over with just one strike from his fists. He reeled back his hand as he stared sonic in the eye, ready to strike him with all his might.
A loud siren shot through the air. It was the last sound that Sonic would had ever expect to hear, especially now. Was it a hallucination? No, they heard it to. As like Sonic, Knuckles and Robotnik turned their attention to the noise, and that was right before a police cruiser broke through the fence and rammed itself into the echidna, driving itself head first into the tree that sat just off of the middle of the yard.
Sonic was in disbelief. How, or even why did this happen? Who was even driving this thing? Was it Wade? Or… The door flung open and a little yellow fox tumbled out of it. A yellow fox… an alien. Just like him.
“Agh! I’m okay!” He huffed. Boy, did he sound young, he looked young. This kid looked to be no more than 8 years old, and yet he was here driving a police car. You have to be at least 18 to be able to drive one of those!
“Uh, I’m sorry. Who are you?” Sonic said.
“Don’t worry, I’m on your side!” The young fox said as he stood up straight. “My name is-“ He paused once he caught sight of him. “Oh gosh! I came too late!”
“What?” Sonic exclaimed in confusion. “What are you even-“ Knuckles’ groaning cut him off, as he finally had begun to wake up from being knocked out and pinned by the police cruiser. “You know what? It doesn’t matter. We need to move!”
He grabbed the fox and dashed away at the speed of sound, creating a violent gust of wind trailing behind him. He left just in time, as the red echidna unwedged himself from the car and just as fast began tailing them behind.
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elliemarchetti · 1 month
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Gwynriel Weeks Day 14
This was meant to be published two days ago but a horrible headache prevented me from doing so (or doing anything else that wasn’t lying as still as possible in my bedroom with the shades closed) so here we are, with something NSFW to end this @gwynrielweeksofficial in style
Prompt: Free Day
Warnings: When I say NSFW I mean EXPLICIT. We’re talking about loving, consensual, descriptive sex scenes but someone may be uncomfortable. I don't know, it's up to you to judge, but it's nothing different from what can be found in canon
Words: 953
Mate, mate, mate. Gwyn couldn't think of anything else as Azriel's lips finally descended on hers, full of desperation. He needed her, he needed to get closer, to cancel every obstacle between their bodies, be it clothes or the air he didn't seem to need to live. Something about the way he moved, the way his shadows blotted out every source of light in the room, told her there was a lot he didn't want to talk about, but if in any other situation she would’ve taken a step back, asked him to make her aware of what was troubling him, at the moment the availability of her body seemed the best remedy to his worries.
She let his rough fingers slip under the straps of her nightgown and slide them off her shoulders, the fabric falling fast to the floor, pooling at her feet, revealing her in her most primal nakedness. Azriel, who was still fully dressed, looked pleased, and for some reasons his expression made her braver, more uninhibited. She backed away until the backs of her knees hit the mattress of her bed, too small to accommodate them both, and she watched intently as he knelt before her, opened her legs with methodical control, and lightly caressed the insides of her toned thighs.
“Tell me to stop,” he said in a hoarse voice, halfway between an order and a plea. But Gwyn wasn’t going to do that, she wasn’t going to let fear and inexperience deprive her of what she wanted. For a while now she had thought she was on the verge of going mad if she didn’t have him, but if the situation was serious when she was awake, it was even worse in her dreams.
“Tell me not to touch you,” he went on, now so close she could feel his breath on her belly, where a beast of primal magic roared, begging for the male to worship her like a forgotten hedonistic deity, to silence her thoughts and satiate her desire. To stop herself from saying all this and more, she bit her tongue so hard she made it bleed.
“Tell me to go away,” he murmured, when he was too close to her sex to not know how much she wanted to finish what they started.
There was no shame in the moan that escaped her throat when his tongue finally began to taste her, nor did she refrain from grabbing his black hair when the sensation he was causing became so intense she thought she would explode. At one point, Azriel forced her to lift her legs and rest her heels on the metal of the bed for better access, and for a moment, Gwyn thought she couldn’t take it any longer, but that was before he pushed a finger inside her. It was a pleasant invasion, one around which her muscles tightened almost instinctively, and one that made Azriel’s eyes roll back.
“More,” she murmured into the darkness as warm, thick liquid began to leak out of her, dripping onto the covers. Azriel complied with her request, and continued his ministrations, this time with two fingers.
“More,” she almost screamed, but this time her lover didn’t oblige, instead, he raised his head to meet her pleading gaze, and in the blink of an eye his lips were on hers again, soft and smooth against split and swollen. Not that she had anyone else to blame but herself: it was her own teeth that had sunk into her tender flesh, an extreme attempt to force herself to silence.
“Do you taste how sweet you are?” he asked, when he was sure that every muscle in her body was now abandoned to pleasure. Gwyn shook her head, but they both knew it was a lie. She could feel her sweet flavour mixed with Azriel’s on her tongue, together with the metallic tang of blood and something else she attributed to the mating bond only she was aware of. A part of her brain, the rational one, was convinced she should’ve told him before letting him touch her like that, while the more unhinged one could only wonder how he would’ve claimed her if he felt it too. Maybe he would’ve marked her, covering her in his scent and love bites she would’ve shown off with pride, so no other male could even think of getting close…
Her reverie was interrupted by a new sensation on her lips, battered skin caressing and pushing to open her mouth. In a burst of resourcefulness, she sucked the finger stained with her juices until she felt the tip in her throat, prompting Azriel to make a guttural noise, which she would’ve expected to hear if she had her lips wrapped around something else, maybe the bulge hidden by his trousers, against which she was rubbing herself mindlessly.
Mate, mate, mate, her heart screamed, wanting nothing more than to feel his twin beat wildly against her chest.
“Azriel…” she murmured, as she tremblingly undid the laces of his tunic, and when they were finally both naked, and what would happen seemed inevitable, a tear of joy quickly escaped from her right eye, sliding from her temple into her hair. The Illyrian misunderstood, and instantly froze, apologies for what he allowed himself to do and words Gwyn didn’t want to hear ready to come out of his perfect mouth. So, even though she had never done it, even though he was immeasurably stronger than her, the priestess took his face in her hands and kissed him passionately.
“Tell me what you want,” he whispered, when he found himself beneath her, his wings crushed between his powerful back and the mattress.
“Everything.”
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max verstappen x reader part4
(incase you missed part3- https://www.tumblr.com/justaninchident-f1xreader/740278819966042112/max-verstappen-x-reader-part3?source=share)
themes-
ferrari female driver jealousy enemies to lovers possible spice (i will put the warning accordingly)
warnings- spicy thoughts? not really tho, so don't worry lovelies
Tumblr media
chapter 4 - fiery eyes and tracksuits
The cooldown room hummed with a tense silence. Max, Lewis, and Y/N sat perched on their podium chairs, the champagne clinging to their hair and suits like glittering tears. Lewis, ever the gentleman, excused himself for a quick phone call, leaving Max and Y/N alone in the charged atmosphere.
Max stared at the wall, his jaw clenched, his gaze avoiding the fiery spark in Y/N's hazel eyes. The memory of their clash on track, the touch of her car against his, still thrummed in his veins. Then, a brush of warmth against his thigh, a feather-light touch that sent a jolt through him.
Y/N, seemingly oblivious, had shifted in her chair, her racing suit stretching taut across her curves. The accidental contact was fleeting, but it hung in the air like a charged wire. Max's breath hitched, his gaze darting to the spot where their skin had met, a flicker of heat igniting in his eyes.
"Tough race," Y/N said, her voice a breathy whisper, her eyes locked on his. "You were a storm out there."
Max swallowed, his throat suddenly dry. "You weren't exactly a picnic yourself," he countered, trying for his usual gruffness, but the words came out strained.
Y/N smiled, a slow, knowing curve of her lips. Her fingers began to dance over the zipper of her racing suit, a silent invitation that sent a shiver down Max's spine. "Just a rookie trying to learn the ropes," she purred, her gaze dropping to the exposed expanse of her Ferrari under-suit, a scarlet flame against her tanned skin.
Max's heart hammered against his ribs. The tension in the room crackled, thick and electric. He wanted to reach out, to trace the line of her neck, to mark her neck with a mark to how that she was his. to explore the heat that simmered beneath the surface. But the fear of rejection, of breaking the fragile truce they'd forged on track, held him back.
Just then, the door swung open, and Lewis walked in, his smile bright and oblivious. The spell shattered, the tension dissipating like smoke in the wind. Max's gaze snapped away from Y/N, his face a mask of cool indifference.
"Back to the rat race, then," Y/N sighed, zipping up her suit with a practiced ease that sent a pang of disappointment through Max.
The rest of the post-race interviews passed in a blur. Max answered questions on autopilot, his mind still replaying the touch of Y/N's skin, the fire in her eyes. As they parted ways, Y/N leaned in, her lips brushing his ear.
----------------time jump to the night of the same day-----------------
The Monaco night thrummed with an energy fueled by champagne and victory laps. The drivers had traded helmets for sleek suits and Ferraris for fancy cocktails, the post-race party a kaleidoscope of laughter and gossip. Y/N, the star of the show, glided through the crowd in a black bodycon dress that clung to her like a second skin. Her fiery hair cascaded down her shoulders, framing a face adorned with a mischievous grin. All while sporting a hickey on her neck
"That hickey, darling," Carlos purred, his eyes twinkling as they landed on the crimson mark peeking from beneath her necklace, "is quite the souvenir."
Y/N's cheeks flushed a becoming shade of scarlet. "Just a friendly exchange of congratulations," she said, batting her lashes innocently. "Some guys know how to celebrate." Y/N was purely bluffing, she had burnt her neck while curling her hair, but hey, playing into hilarious rumors was her specialty.
Max, simmering across the room, scoffed. "More like celebrating something else," he muttered under his breath, his usual gruffness laced with a sharp edge of jealousy. Every laugh Y/N shared, every lingering glance exchanged with another driver, felt like a blow to his chest.
Meanwhile, Y/N had found herself captivated by Charles' girlfriend, Alexandra Saint Mleux. ( WE LOVE ALEXANDRA SM ) "So, tell me all about the Italian stallion," Y/N teased, her smile playful.
Alexandra giggled, leaning in conspiratorially. "Oh, Charles! He's…passionate. Like a Ferrari engine on full throttle."
Alexandra winked. "Don't tell him I said that, but trust me, the real victory was after the lights went out."
Their conversation, laced with teasing and veiled innuendo, flowed like vintage champagne. Max, unable to tear his gaze away, felt a familiar heat crawl up his neck. The image of Y/N and some random guy, tangled in a post-race celebration, ignited a flame of possessiveness in his gut.
He tried to dismiss it. They were colleagues, rivals, nothing more. But the thought of Y/N's fiery laughter echoing in someone else's embrace, the whisper of her kiss lingering on someone else's lips, was almost unbearable.
The night wore on, the air thick with unspoken desires and veiled intentions. Y/N, the captivating enigma, danced her way through the party, leaving a trail of smoldering glances and whispered rumors in her wake. Max, a storm brewing beneath the surface, watched her every move, the green monster gnawing at his insides.
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