202409

other than (hopefully) being a crunchy krad-typical story on delicious coercion nuances in silly videogames, this current 14 page strip i'm working on captures a lot of my feelings on twenty years of quietly self shipping.

i say quietly since certian areas of the internet wildly misunderstood or mocked selfshipping for the longest time. a lot of folks may not remember when it was viewed with the similar disdain of 'hags writing smoochy BL fanfiction'.

to be honest, i've been trying to get better about making things i give a shit about. and in some ways, i wouldn't be true to that unless this strip came to life. the truest guilty pleasure piece of art if you will.

mind, it's also been very fun to crack the code on toning & return to an old favorite. i hope you'll enjoy it as much as i am~

filed under #zihark

2024.09.11 00:48:31 selfship 編集

i don’t know if i consciously started talking more about process and resources, but there’s a few possible explanations…

one, is i guess i’ve always found it neat when peers and mentors explained changes in their work. maybe you get bored. maybe you level up so much that it requires a different process (more complex comic projects aiming to evoke emotions vs single page doodles). maybe you want to showcase your work to a different audience (a background painter wanting to pivot to animation for work, or to simply study character design for fun). maybe you want to get into specific kinds of nsfw art; either for “yolo” reasons or something else.

maybe my reasons have absolutely nothing in common with yours. maybe they do, and it sparks more understanding. talking to satisfy curiosity’s sake, basically - it’s a bonus if more happens.

another take is i feel that a large part of my workflow (both dayjob design management and hobby work) is asking the “why” and then iterating off of that. just my humble opinion but in the age of ai images, the biggest missing step between those images and a sentient creative is the capability of asking the why, (why this as a illust? why are those three lines stylistically drawn like that? why is that prop in there? why is that line arced like so?) and using your slew of mental, physical, and digital tools to execute the work in aim of an unspoken goal (or several).

maybe artists misstepped by not extending an olive branch and illuminating that missing reasoning, in a similar way to educating others on critical thinking (but with visual arts). maybe selfishly i want to leverage this as a way to separate myself from the goopy grey morass of images in a unique way.

maybe this is half a diary to my future self to track what actually works, or to get past an area that i feel stuck in. there’s a concept in tech called rubber duck debugging that’s essentially talking about that why until you get past a mental roadblock.

i also miss how resources back in 2008 just used to be … free. not “technically” free if you sign up for a newsletter/class/etc, but freely given, sincere - no strings attached. honoring the ethos of early-internet ‘information wants to be free’ culture, even if it’s mostly extinct now. mindfully knowing that you’re lifting the current & next generation of artists up, if there’s a need for a reason to go with the extra effort.

i never do anything without multiple reasons why.

perhaps some of these are the answers. COLLAPSE

2024.09.03 00:08:35 resource 編集

Not sure if this has been asked before but: do u have any advice for drawing old men?
-Asked by holdinglines

KRAD: Appreciate you asking, this post would be most relevant there ~ I also did two artbook reviews covering JP-styled ossans, if that’s the specific angle you’re looking for.

Otherwise good ol’ observation, practice, and dignity goes a long way.

Observation (preferably from real life if it’s possible, documentaries or gifs if not) to equip the mental library with how skin ages and how bones are a wonderful map underneath. Almost every time I’m talking to a person, I’ll be mentally sketching out how I would draw their interactions and the curvature of the face. If you’ve ever played the videogame Okami, it’s a remarkably similar notion to “drawing” on top of that world. :)

On the other side, I like documentaries specifically because you get a wider variety of folks and you can see the specific body language as well, and how age affects how people move.

Practice, if only for the (unfortunately unavoidable) fact that learned repetition over time teaches you what lines are critical and what lines aren’t needed for the sake of clarity. There’s also going to be a period of adjustment time in getting used to drawing those different shapes, lines, and motions especially if favorite subjects have skewed younger before. It’s totally natural and nothing to be ashamed of - I find it takes me a solid year before I’m truly comfortable drawing a brand new subject.

And last but greatest: dignity, as they’re no less visually interesting than any one of us, regardless if you’re coming from a place of personal attraction or not. You can (and should) draw breathtakingly erotic, kinky, sexual pieces that channel that dignity hand in hand - but it’s dignity in how you breathe a lived life into those lines, both on paper and what you’re depicting.COLLAPSE

2024.09.03 00:07:45 resource 編集

ANONYMOUS: What are your favorite brushes?

KRAD: Ha, you timed that well as I was considering making a ‘what tools do I use’ post. information wants to be free and all of that ~

   Before I get into specific brushes, I need to mention hardware. Two years ago i switched permanently to linux (Ubuntu distro), via a system76 laptop . Linux isn’t for the tech-fainthearted, but if you hav a passion for playing with computers and are feeling increasingly constricted with the subscription BS that mac/win is pushing, consider giving it a trial run.

   Krita is an open-sourced free paint/vector program that’s available on all major OS’s (win/mac/linux), but is by far the best one for linux. Frankly, I adore Krita; it reminds me of the best of paint tool SAI way back in the day, a little of photoshop CS2, and I just discovered in the past two weeks it’s got some deceptively powerful vector tools for speech bubbles and comics. open source programs used to be pretty pathetic compared to “professional” ones but the gap between krita and say, CSP is pretty nil.

   Now to talk brushes: I uploaded a slightly older version of my go-to brushes here on mediafire some which have been slightly tweaked from krita defaults. there’s a solid pen one, a halftone brush, and some watercolor ones.

   however, I discovered these brushes (thanks to @am-herrington) a few months ago and am convinced the linked newer brushes are going to make everything else I have obsolete - the natural/textural inking is just that good. tl;dr - just grab these.

   some other odds and ends to my process: i could not draw without the hydrus network which is essentially a booru-esque media organizing program. stores gifs, images, can mass-download images, and has a robust tagging ability. taco’s drawing book is one of the one I’ll also reliably flip through when my brain’s trying to figure out a piece of tricky anatomy. lastly, blambot is my trusted go-to font store when I’m in need of a manga/comics related font; there’s some very generous pricing and freebies for indie comics. COLLAPSE

2024.09.03 00:04:35 resource 編集

made a *ton* of progress on this FEH #zihark strip this past weekend now that i’m artistically unconstipated. 🙂 hoping to release it october 17 since it's when i unofficially celebrate his birthday (also POR's NA launch date)

2024.09.02 23:16:31 selfship 編集

finished the fe alphabet challenge! (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:・ﾟ✧

filed under #fegen #fefates #fetellius & #zihark

2024.09.02 21:19:27 編集

your ruin, my ruin (epilouge) // a #fefates gunter/corrin doujinshi side strip; revelation route. based on the final scene of this fanfic.

after everything – the fight against anankos, the possession, peace between nohr and hoshido – gunter and corrin have one last decision.
this strip will be part of a printed gunter/corrin r18 doujinshi called ashes and ghost

2024.09.02 21:17:05 編集

sketchy #fefates warmup fanwork for jonphaedrus’ drinking the well dry because not a week goes by without thinking about this fic.
Creator Chose Not To Use Warnings

COLLAPSE

2024.09.02 21:15:46 nsfw,gift 編集

JD Riley and kradeelav curated an #original nazisploitation anthology during spring 2024 called NaZine I with over fifteen contributors - since my copy came in, have a nice crop of my piece.

cover art by the wonderful kmclaude

A beautiful, refined, and uniquely unsettling full-color collaborative work of both art and prose delving into the fantasies of those who find particular joy in the aesthetic of Nazisploitation–a genre long misunderstood and abhorred by the uninitiated. Are you ready to be In The Know?
Contributors:

   DES ABRAHAM / IDAL WAVES / JACKBOOT / J.D. RILEY / K. M. CLAUDE / KRAD / MISCELLANIUM / OZZY / ANTON RICHTER / MORO / SALT LICK / EC12 / L.F.
   Creator Chose Not To Use Warnings
   Print - 124 Pages (Full Color) 6.5x9.5in
   FREE digital DRM-free low-resolution PDF included

If there’s any questions, happy to answer via email (overlord (at) kradeelav (dot) com)

2024.09.02 21:10:35 nsfw 編集

DEAD IS CALLING // a gunter/corrin doujinshi side strip; revelation route.
even after anankos is defeated in valla and her lover is returned, corrin wonders… what would have happened if he had won?

⚠ share on tumblr / read on ao3 / share on bsky
⚠ this strip will be part of a printed #fefates r18 doujinshi called ashes and ghost

COLLAPSE

2024.09.02 21:04:54 portfolio,nsfw,featured 編集

analyzing my picture hoard today as to why some backgrounds “do” it for me (eg old well designed videogame levels) and some others don’t (eg artfully flat stills).

2024.09.02 21:02:36 resource 編集

#fefates gunter/corrin nsfw dump as promised ~ they’re gonna get kicked out of the hot springs if they keep fooling around…

COLLAPSE

2024.09.02 21:01:15 nsfw 編集

'your ruin, my ruin' is my 120k #fefates gunter/corrin slowburn romance where they both earn their happy ending. 💕 complete, revelation route ~

📚 to read on Ao3
🌐 site mirror

2024.09.02 20:57:32 portfolio,featured 編集

work in progress shots of "ashes and ghost" - a #fefates gunter/corrin doujinshi

2024.09.02 20:49:56 featured 編集

lululeighsworld and I got together to make a possessed!Gunter FE: Heroes (gacha) unit! crossposted on Ao3 with writing

Leigh did the fantastic writing, and yours truly stitched together the art & UI. Leigh’s inspired me with their unshakeable devotion to the character not to mention talented writing and so it felt like a delightful inevitability, and an honor nonetheless, to collaborate here.

2024.09.02 20:45:10 portfolio,featured 編集

assorted #fefates gunter/corrin doodles and comic WIPs around spring 2023 :) i had a bad wrist RSI issue i let go for too long about then - it was frustrating not being able to draw them as much as i wanted!!

2024.09.02 20:40:17 編集

i made a cover for my #fefates gunter/corrin 120k fanfiction, your ruin, my ruin

here's the step-by-step cover progress for the curious, under the cut!

before drawing, there were a few things i knew that the cover had to have/show:

*critically, had to have vibes of an enemies-to-lovers dynamic in the sense of … the power tilt? even though that’s not “technically” the true nature of their dynamic. gunter’s not a nice guy in this fic, even aside from the possession, and i also didn’t want anybody to run into this unsuspecting the darker parts to the fic. him more looming/threatening than you’d expect in base game, etc.
* wanted to emulate kozaki’s style through the whole cover in line qualitty, coloring, and composition. thankfully he gives a few tips over on his twitter. it’s both a neat little nod at the source material, and also as a style experiment.
* a big theme in this fic is gunter being made of so many masks/shells (there’s a perfect blue cover, see below, that specifically made me think this composition could work.)
* learning that kozaki hews pretty close to grids + the golden ratio was another big lightbulb moment, here’s a drawing yoinked from his twitter where he shows it himself.

after scraping/studying from kozaki’s twitter, i made one or two thumbnail doodles below. you can see the solid one had a golden ratio + general line dynamic check squiggled to the side. there’s room for the title, the focus is on corrin, it’ll work both in a horizontal and vertical crop, looking good so far.

you can see how pretty tightly to the thumbnail i kept, other than moving the vertical text to the top since i didn’t have as much room there. i’m a little worried about the different line quality between how big the face is vs corrin but we’ll see. something i also realized i like about the composition is corrin “could” look like she’s attacking the viewer, but she also looks like she could be guarding him with her back to him, which…. heh. comes up in some interesting ways in the last third of the fic (possession wise). bunch of cleaning up.

as I suspected since this is 11x17in (much bigger than what i normally draw) i had to grab a different brush for gunter since thin lines were not going to work as they did for corrin. i think kozaki’s real genius is how he treats texture with his linework; where he does thin lines, where he puts the thick ones, etc. corrin’s coming along great but there’s a spirit to the first face on the left i think i’m missing now, so i’ll probably re-insert that. (also decided to at least draw in his face there even though the masks/slices will distort that). i think what also helps is gunter’s face is very low contrast and needs to remain low contrast, to help corrin pop out in front.

then i started thinking about typography. a lot of the fonts i had were either way too masculine/bland/modern, or way too feminine/curvy. this title needs a hint of masculinity to nod at FE’s general action-adventure RPG roots, but it’s also very distinctly the kind of erotica that doesn’t easily lend itself to a genre. it’s tender horror, it’s daddy kink, it’s vicious romance, it’s … a lot of things. here’s another thing: when thinking about title typography, another consideration is genre. briefly i considered something like lovecraftian covers; my doujin circle and i had been sharing pictures of old pulp covers. i also noticed a lot of my favorite JP erotic horror doujin have very spiky titles. this title also needs to be scrunched up in a tight space so it’s not like we got a sprawl of acreage here either. what doesn’t help is enemies to lovers doesn’t really have a visual language in mainstream media. it’s a staple of Ao3 (written) genres, but the closest you’d get otherwise would be romantic horror (kind of says a lot about who makes what huh?). for example, the shape of water (movie) isn’t a 1:1, but it’s pretty damn close — unfortunately that poster dodged the question by using an art deco-inspired font typeface that was more about the setting than the genre. and then i had an epiphany. maybe i was approaching this from the wrong direction: it’s the knight/liege romance that’s the heartbeat to YRMR. think more old dragonlance novels. old medieval/fantasy pulp novels; plenty of kinky sex and ass in there, and still close enough to FE. remember everyone and their mamma having a bi ass crush for bad boy raistlin? that’s the vibe i want.

this kind of glorious deranged shit. you’re not gonna be surprised at possessed grandpa whip kink if you read these on the regular. after ~*arcane designer magic*~ (I do this for a living) bolton and magiona display were the two fonts that were gonna work just fine together. god that looks so much better. this looks believable now.

the thin/thick line weight contrast in magiona display is going to accentuate the lineart in a way that might be tricky with other fonts that work better on painted covers. bolton’s “squished” vertically enough it doesn’t compete with the other one, and makes for a good secondary/tertiary font. few other things happened. i shrunk gunter’s face because not being able to see his jawline (sex appeal u see) was bothering me from a composition standpoint. it’s the same reason frank frazetta didn’t censor his glorious asses. (said seriously, by the way. so many people don’t give their lust in art enough credit.)

i also needed more room for the title to show, and the line quality/scale difference between his face was also bugging me. does this mess up the golden ratio composition? sure, temporarily, but his armor’s weirdly flexible that we can adapt it pretty easily. it’s about this time i’m also looking through my hydrus network stash of favorite covers for what color palette and contrast to use. kozaki tends to skew purple/cooler hues for nohr characters, and that’d go well with these two. purple/green hues that play well with light purple and the yellow from those old covers i love so much, low contrast midground, and something that’d contrast well with text above. dark/black background for the gothic vibes, and the text will probably need to be white or some sort of light-warm hue for that “pop”. doing color tests is more of a leap of faith and intuition than an exact science, but damn it is it satisfying when you nail it in one go and go ‘holy shit i want to read this. 😀

(green/gold for the hint of anankos’ mask, also matching the yato and her warmer skin tone. purple flames for him, but the high contrast armor to separate her from his larger shapes. we’ve got the dragonstone and the yato as flexibility for lighting and emphasizing contrast with her. ) i kind of like how i accidentally made the mask shards reflect(?) a bit of his own face. hell yeah throw it in. this is something that’s more likely to work than not. this is something that has that mix of id and horror i’ve been going after. here’s another version with references to the side and the golden ratio laid on again.

honestly a lot of it at this step is going ‘dude you know what would be SO DOPE…. PURPLE FIRE…’ ‘dude….. fuck yes….’ ‘what about some sick ass sword effects?’ ‘YEAH….’ and saving a bunch of backups in case of the idea didn’t work out. (am i going so much harder on a literal gilf porn fanfic cover than i need to? hell yeah. gunterfuckers deserve better. 😀 ) anyway here is when i start questioning everything, so i’ll take a break from the colors to tighten up the lineart. now that the composition’s settling in much tighter, i’m also thinking about how the two shapes interact with each other and if there’s any potential issues with tangent points (where two lines intersect each other in a way that makes an optical illusion.)

that said i love how his jawline “points” at her face, that kind of line you want. grinding away on corrin’s lineart. also double checking that the shapes/colors/forms for her “make sense” both standalone and with the composition too. what’s nice is she’s at the point where i can just turn off my brain and polish up. naturally couldn’t resist poking at it more and this is when the rest of it clicked after figuring out which bit was anankos’ mask, which bit was possessed!gunter vs himself (polished up the armor a bit too. at this point i’m pretty confident that it’ll stay “set”; the biggest thing i’m likely to change is the blue silhouette to the dragonstone side for corrin.

thanks for reading. 😀 COLLAPSE

2024.09.02 20:25:58 resource 編集

making several strips for a #fefates gunter/corrin doujinshi called 'ashes and ghost' unfortunately i’m changing up this particular nsfw strip, so these delectable panels got axed ~

2024.09.02 20:21:18 nsfw,featured 編集

local gilf stud SLAUGHTERS gacha fetuses

++ assorted #fefates memes because shitposting about a character is a love language. gunt_jeb meme under the cut, knock yourself out of you want to meme with it

COLLAPSE

2024.09.02 19:59:45 meme 編集

WIP crops from a #fefates gunter/corrin strip called YRMR: EPILOUGE after my fanfic of the same name.

2024.09.02 19:52:11 編集

“I love you more than you will ever know, Corrin.”

golden route, #fefates

2024.09.02 19:50:17 編集

thirsty as sin for fucked up senile meow meows rn
#hellsing

+ extra walter doodle because been reading some of the most well written, but really fucked up fics of old!walter by an author who described him as every bit as mad as the rest of the hellsingers, he just hides it best.

anyway he’s been on my mind lately. fascinating dude.

2024.09.02 19:41:18 編集

assorted sketchdumps of scenes from your ruin, my ruin my 120k #fefates gunter/corrin slowburn fic. even getting bad wrist problems in spring 2024 didn't slow me down... nsfw under the cut!

unclench your fists, my lover, the war is over now.
(i’ve forgotten how to uncurl my fingers from the trigger.)
be gentle, my lover, the war is over now.
(i don’t remember what it’s like not to have gunsteel in my bones.)
come home, my lover, the war is over now.
(i’m back at the place i left but home is gone where i cannot find it.)
sleep, my lover, the war is over now.
(the war follows me into sleep. i’m afraid i’ll never leave it behind.)
kiss me, my lover, the war is over now.
(my fingers still drip red and i do not want to stain you with them.)

— teach me how to be at peace again ( j.p. )

COLLAPSE

2024.09.02 19:37:14 nsfw 編集

assorted cumbrain-inspired #fefates gunter doodles ;D

COLLAPSE

2024.09.02 19:34:42 nsfw 編集

final #ironcrown banner i did for the official hiatus announcement. you can read the comic for free here

2024.09.02 19:32:02 portfolio,featured 編集

one of the best and most unironic pieces of art advice i can give is to draw yourself with your favorites. whatever you want to call it, self insert, self shipping, hanging out with your muse, doesn’t matter; draw yourself and your favorite characters in the same space and interacting.

you don’t have to post it, but make it for the love of god.

I’m serious, by the way, and it doesn’t matter what kind of dynamic you’re imagining, either.

if it’s platonic or familial– play with the body language. does your favorite’s body language change around you versus other people? if they’re a villain, how would they relax in that sense of privacy versus in the public or “keeping the face”? what are the gestures you’d draw for both of you talking? do they touch their face while talking? how would you draw yourself leaning in with attention?

if it’s romantic– how do you draw them relaxing in the space with you, and/or vice versa? if they give comfort with tactile quality, how would they give a hug, and how does the overlapping forms of the bodies interact on paper? how do you draw longing vs satisfaction, and playing with the distance of space of both?

(and yes, if it’s sexual– what kind of kinks have you always hidden away? what’s the shit you can’t imagine poking at with a stick in daylight or in reality? how would you render the textural implements of fetish items? how does the anatomy work in 3D/perspective/the space itself? how do you draw the raw tension lines of intimacy to the point you “feel” the intimacy and/or it feels believable? how do you convincingly portray shyness or lust?)

this exercise, for lack of a better word, also has a funny but cool side effect of letting you play with how you want to present yourself too. are you not feeling your own shape language? change it up! want to wear the clothes you’ve always felt a little too scared to put on? want to play drag? use this chance to study how clothes look, how to render the tactile quality of fabric, what makes silk feel different than leather, how would you draw confidence in a person?

how would you erase the idea of artistic shame in your vocabulary?

2024.09.02 19:30:47 resource 編集

SFW #fefates gunter/corrin doodles as i continue to fangirl over these two ~

+ lastly northern fortress days, aka an understandable start of darkness 😀

(I just finished #fefates revelation last night at 3am (august 25 2023) which makes this ten times funnier)

2024.09.02 19:24:34 編集

gunterleigh gifts to lululeighsworld for being so kind to me as i loose my mind over their FE hubby <3

first pic is us having a teatime double date :) the refill line is actually an easter egg nod to their adorable fic as it felt apropos. filed under #fefates & #zihark

COLLAPSE

2024.09.02 19:22:05 gift,selfship 編集

private gift to anonymous
Creator Chose Not To Use Warnings

COLLAPSE

2024.09.02 19:13:44 nsfw,gift 編集

what greater sin wip’s. love i can remove almost every iconic element from alucard and he’s still recognizable. more nsfw pix and talking about the #hellsing doujin under the cut

WGS was originally created as an alucard/integra-centric doujinshi since it’s been one of my mainstay ships from day one.

halfway through creating WGS, i started getting into walter/integra for various reasons.

firstly, old man walter’s hot. porque no los dos.

secondly, now, before the audience starts pelting me with tomatoes and molotov cocktails, I find i like walter/integra in large part because it brings up deeply uncomfortable questions about why integra/alucard feels so delightful to ship but why walter/integra feels viscerally wrong in comparison when arguably alutegra is just as skewed in a consent and power tilt sense.

integra’s raised in a deeply fucked situation where she kills for the first time before her teens, is raised by two men who are at *best* platonically obsessed with her, and have each already killed hundreds. that’s at best. personally i’m under no delusions that they both have designs on her to various degrees.

i intentionally drew her with lolita style in mind to point harder at that.

when and where does she try to reclaim her agency (sexually, with violence, with coercion)? when does she succeed? when does she not? when is her diminutive quality an advantage?

when do all three of them find the humanity in each other? when do they bite harder at each other’s psychic wounds?

COLLAPSE

2024.09.02 19:11:50 nsfw 編集

vallite king and queen
#fefates gunter/corrin

2024.09.02 17:39:17 nsfw,featured 編集

i went absolutely feral over gunter in fall 2023 while starting on a slowburn longfic (that would ultimately be over 120k words). was still trying to figure out how to draw him and his armor here. #fefates sketchdump & nsfw under the cut

COLLAPSE

2024.09.02 17:33:54 nsfw 編集

so one of the technical bits i challenged myself with this gunter/corrin doujin was to:

   (a) figure out an efficient process for professional multi-page artistic works in linux/true OSS programs - from ideation all the way to printer hand-off.
   (b) and a process that fit well with my brain and kept me from spinning my wheels endlessly redoing pages. it’s a common problem with longer projects (aka why you see reboots of webcomics all the time, and also why i haven’t been able to get “what greater sin” out for three years cuz i sucked at this lol).

why the focus on process though?

after mastering a certian degree of technical proficiency. it’s what separates the hobbyist artists from the pros. not to toot my horn, but i’m quite good at project management process at work, and about two years ago it dawned on me to take some of that learned knowledge and actually apply it here if only to save eyestrain/wrist-strain time.

work ~~lazier~~ smarter, not harder etc.

before i get into the process outline, there’s two programs that are doing the heavy lifting since i gave them a trial run with the last anthology and they worked great in tandem. (both cost no money and are available on all major OS’s btw)

   krita - my main drawing program. sketching/inking/speech bubbles/coloring/vector stuff can all be done here.
   libreoffice writer - basically microsoft word for linux. i use it for arranging multiple pages, reordering, and exporting as .pdf to give to the printer (while amazing at rendering, krita can’t export as pdf or show multi-pages)

so!

process wise, it occurred to me not too long ago that i needed to consolidate my multi-page creative projects into 3 major gates.

   thumbnail sketches
   proof of concept layout
   “last 10” final

thumbnail sketches

thumbnails are a common concept in comics, but they’re great for print front/back matter too. thumbnails ain’t here to look pretty, their sole purpose to get the idea from your noggin to on the page.

here’s a completely unaltered spread from my journal with a ton of thumbs and notes for this doujin.

so what’s the kind of stuff i think about with thumbs?

   how panels in a comic fit together with the major emotional beats + line of action. does the eye follow the pages naturally? do you “feel” the emotional impact?
   does the compositions work with each other? negative/positive space, weight on top or bottom or diagonally, etc. do the pages feel claustrophobic or too empty? do they breathe?
   decorative framing elements that reflect the tone you want + how they generally lead the eye across the page
   random notes about overall tone or potential future pages
   etcetc

at this point i import that digitally, and start drawing a proper sketch off of it.

fast forward from that sketch to: “proof of concept” layout

i’m calling this proof of concept instead of a draft as they serve different purposes. a draft is a half-finished work you can just screenshot and show to anyone for feedback (like comms). proof of concept here is showing a certian level of completeness across draft pages to measure consistency.

lack of consistency is the mind killer killer of comics.

proof of concept is specifically meant to nip the ‘fizzled out halfway’ issues in the bud. it’s to show you how cool it looks altogether already, but also shed a light on problem areas that are potentially popping up on the earlier side, so there’s less time wasted.

this is a little premature in the process for a proof of concept screenshot, but you get the idea here in a later strip, shown here as screenshots imported into libreoffice writer:

another reason that made libreoffice writer essential is the accurate 2-page spread view. between that, being able to resize the page to whatever you need, and the very easy pdf exporter (with customizable compression), i don’t know if i could do this kind of project here.

now, backing up - what kinds of consistency are we checking for here?

   does the inking/coloring style change noticeably in a jarring way?
   is there one comic strip that the pacing/paneling sucks in comparison to the others? or feels awkwardly added in tone and perhaps better saved for a different project?
   is there one panel within a sequential series that’s torturing you? what’s the best way to throw it out and redo it even faster?
   do the front/back matter support the meat of the inside in a clever, on-tone way?
   did you accidentally change the font halfway through after you liked your new shiny toy? which one works better?
   etc

keep in mind we’re not just checking the consistency in one strip, it’s for the book as a whole.

and then lastly, “the last ten” final

“the last ten” is a mental concept i’ve used for the last ten years for single comic pages. it’s especially tempting to noodle over endlessly making one comic page perfect, when you could have done ten reasonably good ones in the same time, and so i made this my last step making IC pages.

once when you approach a level of reasonably done, but kinda hate the page and are procrastinating on getting it out, stop, rest your eyes overnight, and list the last ten minor things you’d change.

once when you’ve changed those? out the door it goes. now, i’m gonna switch to a different project but here’s a good example of a “last ten” stage applied to illustrations when i did fallen!gunter’s FEH mockups.

looks pretty complete, right? WRONG :D i can’t remember the exact last ten i used, but it was something like:

   too much of one specific glowy purple on both, i wanted more contrast with the red glow + “water” texture
   needed more effects on the first image to better match FEH’s aesthetic
   change Leigh’s credits after they got a chance to see it and give the thumbs up
   knee/shin on left looks unfinished painting wise, clean up
   missing chest plate silver decorations on left, clean up
   etc

this is the last hail mary check to hack your brain into being satisfied with the page. you’ve had your say, onwards to the next one. now, you can also have an additional 'last ten’ for the project as a whole. but it’s especially critical for comic pages to help keep the momentum/tempo/pace going.

anyway! we’ll see how all of this actually works in practice depending on how fast i can get this doujin out. :)
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2024.09.02 17:29:36 resource 編集

my, what sharp teeth you have.

little corrin touches his scars. #fefates

2024.09.02 17:28:09 featured 編集

a very, very happy birthday to the incredible @glassshard ! hats off to the dear @forumkedis for instigating this; we figured your boys from unsounded would be a treat for you, especially in such … compromising … positions ~

2024.09.02 17:26:44 nsfw,gift 編集

notes on drawing old people:

* morpho’s skin + fat book is an invaluable reader for an easily-digested anatomy study. here’s that book plus a few others. please support the author if you can.

* like other naturalistic carbon life forms in nature, lines don’t have to be perfect. (personally i find tiktok-standard young people the hardest ones to draw because if you draw a line with the eye a smidge off, it looks weird. old people, you got a lot of forgiveness in them lines. hell, multiple lines just look good as wrinkles.)

*fleshy things sag, and they always sag towards gravity (down). if you had to pick three major areas to draw, the bit under people’s chin, the tits (unisex), and the belly are generally the main three.

* a cluster of wrinkles tend to pop up in joints that bend a lot, notably knuckles, elbows, and knees. those same joints have a habit of enlarging, whether due to inflammation, or the surrounding muscle wasting away a bit.

* you move real slowly and your range of motion is a lot more limited because joints hurt in particular. (aka your hands/elbows/neck/shoulders can’t reach shit they used to.) old people’ll often have canes/back-scratchers/etc discretely within range to help with this, to almost act as a limb-extender.

* with necks in particular, you tend to move your whole upper body in one piece rather than your neck twisting independently from the shoulders.

* … and you really don’t want to fall, and maybe your eyesight’s going too. so you’re always double checking whether or not your surroundings are stable. old people sit down gingerly (hands might grasp a table or railing several times for the best position), and gravity is not your friend getting up either.

* backs tend to hunch over and stay in the bent position. because of this, and the muscles wasting a way, old people often tend to look like they “shrink” slightly versus an adult in their prime. a notable exception is people who’ve had military training, and the difference is striking.

* lastly, when in doubt, watch some videos of some old people even just for a few seconds, and mentally sketch out how you’d draw the freeze-frames. which bits move, and which bits stay stationary?

2024.09.02 17:24:59 resource 編集

drawing tip! when i clean up a gestural sketch straight into a clean line work (I don’t sketch on different layers), there’s some lines that if you erase these specific lines, the picture immediately looks pretty fugly.

I joke these lines should be called “load bearing lines’ - borrowing a term from building construction (load bearing beam) where if you remove the beam, the house becomes structurally unstable.

these load bearing lines are different than outlines around the form, or even invisible skeletal lines. these can be as subtle as curving around the waist as a belt and transforming into a cloth fold, and back into hair. the key is the load bearing line keeps the eye moving in an arc.

below you can see the few lines in the torso that i’d say fit the description, and a before/after.

the red line is the key since it wraps around the form in 3 axis (left/right, towards you/behind the guy, and from bottom/up, and also is a guide-line for your eye to follow along. there’s other "echoes” of the load bearing line particularly in the hair; always a good idea to have to keep that one smooth motion going.

see what I mean?

these load bearing lines “can” be briefly broken up (see blue line around left shoulder) but should still attempt to use negative space as part of the continuation. try it! :>

2024.09.02 17:21:02 resource 編集

even late blooms need a good watering - for jonphaedrus
crossposted on Ao3
tags: #fefates
Creator Chose Not To Use Warnings

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2024.09.02 03:25:09 nsfw,gift 編集

title: first time
It’s the only time Corrin feels the old veteran’s hands tremble.
Creator Chose Not To Use Warnings
crossposted on Ao3

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2024.09.02 03:19:25 nsfw 編集

tfw you get emotionally REKT by one fucking line in a fe support

this is the most romantic shit i’ve heard in the absolute most depraved ship nintendo’s ever made ajjhhshjshjhja #fefates

2024.09.02 03:00:52 編集

be the feral ossan smut artist you want the world to have ✨
#fefates ⚠️ gunter x f!corrin

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2024.09.02 02:58:48 nsfw 編集

some illustrated scenes from my recent #fetellius Muarim/ #zihark fic, sweet dreams (are made of this), posted on Ao3

bonus, an accurate representation of the writing process…

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2024.09.02 02:57:06 nsfw 編集

krad u r not beating the fangirl allegations lol
#fetellius #zihark

2024.09.02 02:55:18 編集

title: FEALTY - #hellsing illustrated fic
Ao3 mirror
summary: a gift Sir Integra Hellsing gets for her sixteenth birthday, and what bootblacking means.

2024.09.02 02:36:59 編集

> mfw i play through #fefates 10 years later
> fates was based, actually
(also tiddies)

(.... also #fegen b/c this was one of the only non-gunter fe:fates arts i managed to do lmao)

2024.09.02 02:34:30 nsfw 編集

no art in this post, but i’d like to share a little about how i organize files! (i’ve intentionally kept this on one image so you can easily save it on your desktop, or repost elsewhere; just keep the signature if you do.)

I started the “Artchives” folder back in college a decade ago when I needed one place to dump every final work i drew, whether it be taking pictures of a sketchbook, screenshots to the now-deleted twitter, or meme-art to share to friends. it’s been a wonderful way to have an organized set of yearly time capsules for my work, and to track improvements over time. if I remember vaguely what season and what year I drew something, it also makes it very easy to hunt for old art.

The $kradeelav (root folder for projects) system was actually borrowed from my dayjob’s server, naming scheme and all. (I manage an international household-name brand at work, with a need to organize tons of mini-projects within). when i started doing larger and more ambitious zines, comic projects, and freelance work – this is a secondary system that helps to house these in a similarly-ordered set of folders without invoices and reference images and who knows what else getting absolutely blasted all over my desktop. usually i’ll have 2-3 active projects going on at one time, with the folders on the desktop; they get moved into this root folder when they’re closed.

happy to answer questions about these!

2024.09.02 02:31:32 resource 編集

quasi-test comm for a bud, finished ~ :3 i genuinely love drawing self inserts, these two were a BALL of fun. #fegen

+ later sketch gift of the same characters:

2024.09.02 02:21:30 gift 編集

After Sothe narrowly misses death by Tibarn’s talons (and Micaiah’s orders), he offers a lie to the one he loves most. Sometimes lies are easier than the truth, after all.

(or are they?)

2022 #fetellius nagamas gift for seasaltmemories 🙂 crossposted on Ao3

2024.09.02 02:19:58 gift 編集

plowed through a bunch of amazing sanaki/sephiran fics recently and remembered why i loved these two so much…

also remembered my fondness for the Kiesha‘ra Series and how the shapeshifters and magic system there gives me SO many heron magic headcanons and this happened. god i need to reread those.
#fetellius

2024.09.02 02:17:34 編集

joining in canon x oc week which made me get off my arse and actually nail down my avatar-stand in for tellius. 😛 turns out designing with the mindset of ‘can you tell the characters apart if they were in gloriously polygonal n64/gamecube graphics’ is a good philosophy.

plus a contribution to canon x oc week that i redrew from last jan ~ longer privateish-locked dreamwidth about it here
#zihark

2024.09.02 02:16:59 selfship 編集

wip of the last image of FEALTY, the #hellsing integra/alucard bootlicking illustrated fic :3

2024.09.02 02:14:52 編集

brain went just a little cuckoo feral the past 2? 3 days?
i somehow remembered i wanted to do a fanservice book of #zihark and uh

iz happenin 😀

oh one more shitpost that i nearly coughed up a lung laughing at

2024.09.02 02:13:38 selfship 編集

AT THE MERCY OF - For 2023’s prisoner exchange.
ao3 mirror
website mirror
There is a companion drawing with all of the scenes, and 500 word drabbles for each.
Creator Chose Not To Use Warnings

#fetellius & #zihark NSFW under the cut

Captor!Naesala+(begnion senator) / Prisoner!Leanne, Prisoner!Stefan / Prisoner!Vika, Prisoner!Leanne / Rescuer!Volug, Captor!Izuka / Prisoner!Micaiah, Captor!Zihark / Prisoner!Lethe

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2024.09.02 02:09:16 nsfw,gift 編集

i had the absolutely brilliant idea of doing a whump spread based off of how much HP #zihark had and uh yeah

yeah
#fetellius i guess

2024.09.02 01:58:17 編集

nsfw test comm of bastion from Unsounded for a kind friendo. 🙂 somehow i became the resident porn fanartist for that webcomic lol.

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2024.09.02 01:55:10 nsfw,gift 編集

i have 5 different ink styles right now dueling to the death thunderdome style and it’s kind of fun ngl. #zihark nsfw under the cut.

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2024.09.02 01:51:54 nsfw,selfship 編集

no intimacy like that of pain / (and no trust like that of torture)
nsfw liquid/solid snake for FaggotTapedeck in the 2022 MGS Exchange, ao3 post here #mscfanart

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2024.09.02 01:47:24 nsfw,gift 編集

FALKE - 2022 is an #original comic that JD wrote and I drew. physical & digital copies are still available to buy on itch.io

we had been talking about making something like this for a while. tl;dr of the …. plot … is a beautiful man killin’ nazis messily. not a bad zine at all to pick up these days.

Not gonna lie, the recent book-banning culture zeitgeist was a big motivation for both of us; we’ve both been hit directly and indirectly by pressure and harassment to make “safer” creations (JD moreso than me), and wanted to push back on that idea, especially as persons that are typically targeted during fascist regimes.

It’s still one of the creations I’m proudest of, not only of last year and the chaos during multiple eye surgeries but in terms of my whole creative career and pushing me to the envelope craft-and-thematic-wise. JD was a darling to work with; the absolute best kind of zine co-collaborator and writer one could ask for, and is in the process of making more.

2024.09.02 01:45:05 portfolio,nsfw,featured 編集

delightful #hellsing nonsense plus the 2022 holiday card to the doujin circle.

last photoshop drawing i did before switching to krita in 2023

2024.09.02 01:25:54 nsfw 編集

people have done some pretty good expression tutorials but nothing quite as macro as “power”

2024.09.02 01:16:14 resource 編集

hellooo officer ~~ /shot
(making falke means uniforms are easy mode for me now lul) #ironcrown throwback to diane/hardin

2024.09.02 00:57:18 編集

entry for unsounded’s fanwork contest. one of the few I’ll pointedly make time for.

2024.09.02 00:35:00 gift,featured 編集

BOX OF DOOM - #original 2022 zine
buy on itch.io

still poking away at my general irritation with autobio zines, and had a few thoughts on identity n’ such that happened to be best laid out on this kind of a medium.

2024.09.02 00:19:42 編集

part one to the offline hiatus and learning how to love art again was some depraved selfship smut lol. #zihark nsfw under the cut

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2024.09.02 00:12:26 nsfw,selfship 編集

sefikura nsfw
ff7, filed under #mscfanart

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2024.09.02 00:07:26 nsfw 編集

some #fetellius nailah/zihark. years later i wrote a pretty cool fanfic called ghost in the dunes that is exactly this scene.

2024.09.02 00:04:25 編集

diggin’ these self portrait doodles.
#original

2024.09.02 00:02:17 編集

LIVE WIRES - 2021 #original zine
buy on itch.io

2024.09.01 23:57:19 編集

2021 nagamas gift to RaenUE Request was for a moment between Renault and Kishuna on Valor. I may have taken some liberties with the moment of rest part, ha, but after a funny coincidence of reading your Renault fics without realizing it was you who wrote them – I couldn’t help but imagine a little more between them. #fegen

2024.09.01 23:54:56 gift 編集

enjoy a free gift of a whoppin’ 1.29 GB file collection of nine years / 2440+ pieces of my artwork. :’) Including ~all~ old works that were paywalled on patreon, many i’ll never post online, and a whole ass comic pitch.

DOWNLOAD LINK

2024.09.01 23:52:47 admin,featured 編集

assorted #fetellius #zihark yaoi ships under the cut

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2024.09.01 23:51:16 編集

some #hellsing work across 2021

2024.09.01 23:18:23 編集

full work for #fetellius flightofdrakes zine featurin’ FE wyverns and their riders (and #zihark ). Went all saturday morning cartoon with these two.

2024.09.01 23:17:43 gift 編集

6666 site kiriban ~ #zihark , #hellsing & #mscfanart as is tradition

2024.09.01 23:09:20 featured 編集

more selfship stuff feat: #zihark across 2021 as i slowly started learning how to love drawing again.

2024.09.01 23:07:02 selfship 編集

SO LONG SENTIMENT - a ‘what if?’ of #fetellius #zihark and micaiah’s confrontation over daein’s choice as a nation. crossposted on Ao3

been dying to see this confrontation for literal decades so i suppose i had to take matters into my own hands.

2024.09.01 23:02:35 編集

2020 #hellsing holiday card to my doujin circle. i (like most people) had a pretty terrible 2019-2020 but things got better after.

2024.09.01 23:00:02 編集

2k kiriban for the website. Some of the old crew together as a thank you to everyone who’s supported my work through the years. <3
feat: #zihark & #fegen

2024.09.01 22:54:46 featured 編集

some silly selfship-adjacent works i had fun with when #zihark got into FEH.

2024.09.01 22:52:39 selfship 編集

that’s unsanitary, Valter. and lewd. (a very bad wyvern man I wanted to draw for @metodey8) fe8, filed under #fegen

2024.09.01 22:51:56 nsfw,gift 編集

nsfw selfship smut feat: #zihark

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2024.09.01 22:49:57 nsfw,selfship 編集

got into FEH mid 2020, took a stab at drawing #zihark with the standard gacha poses before he got in.

2024.09.01 22:48:34 編集

random #ironcrown smut i kept finding in my sketchbook even after the comic ended. all nsfw under the cut.

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2024.09.01 22:37:42 nsfw 編集

some #hellsing schrodingers. nsfw major/schro & integra/rip under the cut

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2024.09.01 22:36:20 nsfw 編集

SAFETY OFF is a 10 page collaborative zine made by sokolyat and kradeelav exploring the eroticism of firearms. Letterpressed cover and black and white interior gray paper. First edition printed February 2021 and limited to 50 numbered copies. Printed with help from Dead Dove Publishing

2024.09.01 22:32:26 portfolio,nsfw 編集

so this freaking delicious eirika/valter fic awoke my id from the GRAVE it was so good. 2021 or so
fe8, filed under #mscfanart

nsfw under the cut

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2024.09.01 22:29:26 編集

TALKS - 2020
feat: #zihark

2024.09.01 21:48:00 selfship 編集

right about 2020 or so i started getting a little less timid about drawing this yumijoshi ship feat: #zihark

2024.09.01 21:37:38 selfship 編集

had a lot of fun with logos for #original projects in mid 2020

2024.09.01 21:36:15 編集

nsfw nailah/rafiel from #fetellius. rafiel ain’t foolin’ anyone.

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2024.09.01 21:29:10 nsfw 編集

illusts for a #original R18 zine i briefly attempted called A(A)CAB "all art cops are bastards"
2 more nsfw images under the cut.

Creator Chose Not To Use Warnings

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2024.09.01 21:26:36 nsfw 編集

our pointy bad boys being melodramatic territorial cats. you can almost hear the anime rivalry from here.

heysawbones Allan and my Hardin from #ironcrown

2024.09.01 21:21:53 gift 編集

fe:heroes (gacha game) reminded me how nasty valter was.
fe8, filed under #mscfanart

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2024.09.01 21:18:02 nsfw 編集

ff7 sefikura, filed under #mscfanart

nsfw under the cut

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2024.09.01 21:16:34 nsfw 編集

replaying #fetellius

2024.09.01 21:11:43 featured 編集

:)c (don't look at me - nsfw under the cut)
#zihark

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2024.09.01 20:40:10 nsfw,selfship 編集

last #ironcrown /GBN post when i officially scrapped the latter.
Creator Chose Not To Use Warnings
nsfw under the cut

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2024.09.01 20:38:51 nsfw 編集

old #hellsing strip.

2024.09.01 20:33:55 編集

tormod & #zihark in senri kita's style
filed under #fetellius

( "samecharacter" hashtag meme on twitter, 2020)

2024.09.01 20:33:27 featured 編集

remnants of #ironcrown doodles
Creator Chose Not To Use Warnings

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2024.09.01 20:32:26 nsfw 編集

part of a #ironcrown scene i started coloring and never finished

2024.09.01 20:29:38 編集

even after everything, i was drawing these two.
#zihark

2024.09.01 20:28:22 selfship 編集

i keep finding random #ironcrown smut crackships lol

more nsfw images under the cut

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2024.09.01 20:22:43 nsfw 編集

some of the better #ironcrown patreon posts (back when I had one)

2024.09.01 20:21:18 編集

#original

2024.09.01 20:19:19 nsfw 編集

last few #ironcrown / 'good, bad, nasty' smut artworks
Creator Chose Not To Use Warnings

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2024.09.01 20:17:50 nsfw 編集

(posting some tips about art i answered back on the NSFW blog)

ANONYMOUS: Any tips on drawing leather? Yours always looks so realistically shiny

A: Thank you! Honestly feel like I only cracked that code in the last few weeks; it's absolutely much trickier than it looks at first glance. A few tips that helped recently:
- Have an idea where the light source is in the picture, likewise where ridges/creases tend to build up. It doesn't need to be an exact science, but it'll give a sense of consistency (for example, underlighting versus side-lighting versus above will all change how creases look - and they tend to build up around joints, the crotch, and/or if it's folded up in places.)

- I tend to color it all in black, and then go in with an eraser and "draw" out the highlights/creases organically. Much less time consuming.

-Spend the time familiarizing yourself with how it feels in real-life, for example to see if your style works better with textures added or not. if you don't have access to a jacket or gear, movies are a decent option. (ironically the last Tom of Finland biopic was an *excellent* example for research not to mention a deeply moving piece of art on the subculture.) (... there are also, ahem, certain online stores and lifestyle photographers that have a proliferation of handy pictures, if definitely NSFW. :v)
- spend time checking out how different artists do it. I render leather differently than say, how @/kmclaude (twitter), the aforementioned Tom of Finland, @/hawklewds (twitter), or other JP artists do - there's a myriad of delicious takes, and no wrong way. Wishing you the best!

2024.09.01 20:16:26 nsfw,resource 編集

(posting some tips about art i answered back on the NSFW blog)

ANONYMOUS: Do you use references for your nsfw art? If not, how do you get two characters to look right in a nasty setting?

A: "references", snerk. (I actually don't with erotic art, but had to grin at that. :>)
That's a really good question, though - and appreciate the ask! Personally have done live figure drawing (and would heartily recommend that at least in some portion of time in any artist's training), though most of that happened a long time ago.

Interestingly I would say that studying animation and drawing_comics_ as a generality has helped me the most to "get them to look right" - once when an artist has a basic handle on anatomy, it's almost more important to get the gestural, posing, and body language part right. Clear body language has always been one of my top priorities - Walt Stanchfield's two "Drawn to Life" books are the masterclass on this. Read those books, if nothing else.

Now, to be perfectly blunt, I also think kink in general has a lot to teach here.
it's many things to many different people - but very often it's about power dynamics, power play, who controls the scene, how the sub follows, introducing tools/toys/props - but always, always, keeping the magnetic charge the whole way. Even vanilla erotica has some of this to an extent as - thank god - every individual is different and is going to approach intimacy with their own preferences.

However, with kink, by getting into the id and mind of the characters (like an actor) and recognizing the physical cues of someone who controls the moment - the tilt of an observant head, whether they (as a character) prefer subs who kneel (what kind of kneeling? there's plenty. are they a brat? how?), do you use the camera angles to show it from the dom's point of view (or not)? are you going for a rom-com silly- intimate angle or the energy of a hard scene? you get a *lot* of mileage. And, with a bit of elbow grease - get to breathe life in them. Good luck.

2024.09.01 20:13:39 nsfw,resource 編集

guess who made an appearance again~
#fetellius #zihark

2024.09.01 19:26:41 編集

I really wanted to draw KM CLAUDE‘s Tielfer with sacrilegious disney villain vibes (because wow, mood) – enjoy, padre. see his work here

+ an extra gift

2024.09.01 19:25:30 gift 編集

#hellsing is a very serious show about a traumatized vampire and his vampire hunter master, clearly.

2024.09.01 19:22:57 編集

byleth/hubert ships
Creator Chose Not To Use Warnings

three houses art aka #fegen since i was into hubert for a hot sec. bonus:

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2024.09.01 19:21:44 nsfw 編集

crops from the #ironcrown - verse R18 aborted zine, 'the good, the bad, the nasty'. in a time i wasn't having a lot of fun with my art, these were the pieces i most enjoyed.

more NSFW images below the cut

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2024.09.01 19:17:49 nsfw 編集

really started to get a name for myself with #hellsing smut on twitter around 2019 or so. short lived, but learned a lot stylistically.
Creator Chose Not To Use Warnings

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2024.09.01 19:15:04 nsfw 編集

i played a little longer with diane/hardin (#ironcrown characters) in a r18 doujinshi i wanted to do called 'the good, the bad, the nasty' ... it didn't happen but it was the first real foray into smutty zines.
Creator Chose Not To Use Warnings

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2024.09.01 19:11:56 nsfw 編集

if *i’m* the one to think of black materia as a ball gag first, I’m going to be severely disappointed in y’all.

ff7, filed under #mscfanart

2024.09.01 19:08:55 nsfw 編集

last #ironcrown -specific smut doodles. i played a little more with diane/hardin afterwards as its own thing, though.
Creator Chose Not To Use Warnings

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2024.09.01 19:07:36 nsfw 編集

“I don’t want to see you with boys, Diane. I don’t share well. If you’re with me, you’re mine.” he murmurs, and she shudders under the weight of his voice.

a scene from a R18 fanfic from the skilled and kind aspareme, #ironcrown - verse. fic below.

______________
Because bad ideas are best shared with good company…Absolute filth below the cut, which is funny because nobody even gets naked. You have been warned.I don’t own any of this, and am infinitely grateful to @notkrad for letting me write awful things with her awesome characters. Thanks for sharing the sandbox!

Heads up: generalized power-play

_______________

“We must be careful, little miss, or we’ll be caught. You have to be so quiet, Diane. So… so quiet. Will you do precisely what I tell you to, Diane, exactly when I tell you to do it?”

His gloved hand cradles her chin; the joint of his thumb bends at the delicate bone of her jaw, and her head is tilted up to accommodate it. It isn’t comfortable. She couldn’t care less, because his lips are at her ear, and his voice is saying the things she’s only dared dream of.

She knows she’s probably being played; nobody wants nothing from her, and she’s been told that bad boys only want one thing from pretty girls. With her mousy brown hair she’s more pigeon than peacock and she knows it, so it’s not like he’s after her for her looks.

And he isn’t a bad boy, anyways.

Captain Hardin is a man — a dangerous man — and she knows he’s killed people. She doesn’t know if they were all on Father’s orders, either. It ought to disgust her. It will one day. But for now all she wants is for him to keep doing…

Whatever it is he’s doing to her pulse.

It thuds in her ears, a mortal instrument. She wonders if he’s close enough to see it at her throat.

“Yes”, she whispers, and the grip tightens a little.

“I thought I told you to be quiet, Diane.”

He drawls her name into her ear, and she can’t help but let a little moan escape. They’re tucked away into an empty office that’s fallen into disuse. It’s dark here, and it’s got a heavy door; she knows they can’t be heard over the music coming down the hallway.

But Hardin sounds serious. His grip on her jaw certainly is.

She shivers helplessly in his grasp, but doesn’t apologies. She’s got to be quiet. He told her so, and she’s always been told to trust her security detail implicitly.

“There’s my little miss”, he purrs, and the shivers turn into quakes trembling down her thighs. Pinned apart as she is, Diane knows he can feel her tremble. Her back is to the door, and her legs are forced wide over his thigh; her wrists are pinned above her head by one of his hands, and she is altogether helpless. The ballgown’s skirts are bunched around her hips, and she’s so aroused it almost hurts to think.

She knows she ought to feel bad about it, but doesn’t. She’ll worry about it later, because —

“You were bold the last time, little miss, and it was charming. I enjoy an ingenue, especially the sort that come crawling through my window at night.” He gives her a cold once-over, as though assessing something he was considering purchasing. Searching for flaws, maybe, or otherwise cataloguing points of interest. He stares at her, and she feels… bared.

Diane’s wearing three layers and he makes her feel naked.

She realizes to her absolute horror that she’s wet at the same time that he lifts his leg. The muscle bunches under the black trousers of his formal dress uniform, and she lifts precariously up on to her toes.

Her legs have fallen open, and now she must rest her full weight onto his thigh. She bites her lip against the cry that wants to escape. She feels the heat of his leg through her silk knickers, and knows she’s making a mess.

She’s mortified, cheeks flushing and eyes prickling with sudden tears — even as Hardin makes a noise of appreciation in the back of his throat.

“There there, little miss. Shh, that’s enough. No need for these”, he murmurs, thumbing away an errant droplet. “I’ve got you, Diane. I’ll take care of everything. I’ll make sure we’re not discovered, little miss. All you have to do is trust me, absolutely. Can you do that? Will you do that for me?”
Pinned as she is, she can only nod.

She knows it’s a bad idea even as she does it.

It won’t stop her, though. She wants him. Strong, commanding… and his voice can be so warm with pride, approval, interest.

Hardin cares… or can fake it convincingly. She can’t make up her mind which, and it clearly doesn’t matter. He’s here with her now, and she’s pragmatic enough to take what she can get.

It isn’t her brain calling the shots today anyways.

“Very good, little miss. Now, here are the rules. You will obey them to the letter, and they are non-negotiable. If you are well-behaved, this… can continue. If you are disobedient, it stops immediately. Do you understand? You tell no-one, and you follow the rules.”

She thinks of her father, of his growing collection of empty bottles and conspiracy theories. Diane isn’t delighted at the idea of him finding out that she and Hardin have… anticipated something that might not happen in the first place. It’s not like she doesn’t know why princesses are valuable, but she resolves to be selfish and steal a little something of her own.

She nods.

Hardin smiles, but his eyes stay cold. They look like chips of February skies, when the blue is clear and lethal. She has trouble holding his gaze, and drops hers after a second or two. With her chin held up as it is, it’s a subtle submission. He sees it nevertheless, and she’s rewarded with a stroke of his thumb up the blade of her jaw to her chin and back up. The slide of silk against her skin is decadent, and she likes it more than she should.

“I don’t want to see you with boys, Diane. I don’t share well. If you’re with me, you’re mine”, he murmurs, and she shudders under the weight of his voice. He sounds possessive, and she wants to be wanted back.

She nods, and he continues.

“And I love an ingenue as much as the next man, but if we’re to do this, I’ll be calling the shots. No more climbing through windows unannounced, little miss. I’ll let you know the nights you can come. When it’s safe for you to come.”

She flushes with dull mortification; she really had managed to get into his room, and had made rather a mess of her confession. But the kiss he’d given her had been worth it, even if she’d been deliriously happy and sickeningly anxious by turns the rest of the night.

You’re beautiful, you know”, he murmurs, and she feels her cheeks burn again. She’s never been called beautiful until him, and she’s discovering that she quite enjoys it.

“Tawny, as many shades as a mountain cat; you make it hard for me to control myself. I’ll never put you — us — at risk, little miss, but I like to hunt. Do you understand?” His hand gentles on her jawline, but his eyes don’t soften.

He’s always seemed capable of reading her like an open book, but she’s never felt flayed open like this before. He knows her worst impulses, sees what she tries to hide as though she’d painted it orange.

And he’s still here, with her.

So she does trust him, and nods. She knows that even now, she mustn’t make a sound. He must be pleased by that, because he shifts the hand holding her jaw down to the place where his thigh meets… her.

“Good. Then I’ll take what’s mine when inclination and opportunity strike. Any objections, little miss?”

The way she’s straddling him stretches the silk over her mound. His longest finger strokes over the damp fabric, tracing every rounded contour with a marksman’s precision. It’s the first time anyone’s touched her like this, and she can’t help it. She moans.

His eyes narrow, and that is the only indication he gives her before he snaps his thigh up. She’s truly on tiptoe now. She rides his thigh, hips squirming for purchase and finding only a keen and wild darkness of sensation.

Hardin’s small moue of disappointment makes her want to cry. She didn’t mean it. She doesn’t want him to go, so she shuts her mouth and lowers her eyes. He must know she’s contrite, because he keeps stroking her through the silk, until she’s flushed and panting silently for air.

“You’ll learn, little miss. You’ll learn. But what am I to do with you until you do, hm? And when I asked you so nicely, too. Your punishment, little miss…” he pauses, considering, until his eyes light with something hungry.

His thigh disappears at the same time as his hand.

She lands flat on her feet all of a sudden, and wobbles. Now released from the pressure, the heat between her legs throbs. She can feel her pulse with every thud, a strange ache that makes her skin feel too tight around the edges.

“Your underwear, Diane”, he orders, and it is an order. He’s even got his hand out; his face is dark with promise and something that looks darker than lust and more intense than desire. She trembles under his gaze, and helpless — unwilling — to resist, she does as she’s told.

When she hands them over with a trembling hand, she is mortified to see how wet they are. She can smell iodine and something organic, a richness and tang, like seaweed and brine. She realizes with a start that it’s her, and her cheeks flame.

He tucks the fabric into the inside breast pocket of his suit, and Diane realizes she’s not getting them back any time soon.

Hardin smiles, and brings his lips to her ear. “Until I give you these back, Diane… you don’t get to wear any. To make sure you remember, hmm, little miss?”

She is helpless to resist. She’ll give him whatever he wants to have him to herself. It’s reckless, and dangerous, but she wants to hear him call her sweet things again, wants to see that look of lust, of haughty assessment and cruel intentions.

She ought to hate it, but can’t deny the effect it has on her. She wants him to make her feel, even if it’s not right or good or smart.

Diane nods, barely capable of sucking in a breath.

“Good girl”, Hardin drawls against the soft skin of her jaw, at the tender place where it meets her ear, and Diane shudders once, hard, and feels her inner thighs go slick.

She sags against the doorway, blown as a deer chased by wolves, and he watches her with the same predatory interest. It’s not like she’s unaware of the picture she makes; tousled and rumpled and well-used, for all that he barely touched her.

She feels her lack of undergarments acutely.

“We should return, little miss, or you’ll be asked after. I’ll leave first; you clean yourself up and follow when you’re ready. If we’re challenged — you felt self-conscious and retreated for some privacy. I noticed you missing and went after you. Do you understand?”

Though their assignation is clearly over, she finds it hard to speak. She nods instead, and a smile blooms on his face. This time when he cradles her jaw, his hand is gentle.

“There’s my little miss.” She feels lighter than air, and knows she’s got a stupid dreamy smile on her face. He steps around her, hand on the door knob, and then pauses. She shifts closer to him, aching for another taste of him. His gaze rakes over her, head to toes and back. She likes the way he looks at her, the quiet way he wears command.

“Oh, and Diane?” His hand cups between her thighs, a firm and possessive grip. He doesn’t ask permission; she doesn’t exactly mind. She does, however, stay quiet.

“The next time, I want you bare.” The thought of tender, bare flesh is so shockingly arousing that her breath catches.

He meets her gaze and the cruel slash of his mouth widens into something almost warm. “Enjoy the party, little miss”, he whispers into her ear, and slips out of the room before she can do anything else. Alone in the dark room, she sucks in a whooping breath, and lets it out through her teeth in a sibilant hiss.

“Holy shit.”COLLAPSE

2024.09.01 19:03:11 nsfw 編集

last few #ironcrown doodles i did. still kinda want to do that mousepad not gonna lie.

2024.09.01 18:59:44 編集

last of the #ironcrown character sheets, Joanna. comic's free to read online here

As the patron saint of guns, gold, and gin, she’s the unofficial vodka aunt demon consultant and sniper that Isandar calls in for challenging jobs, or when she needs a surgical strike. Brutally competitive and lives for the hunt, Joanna doesn’t care how much she needs to get her hands dirty as long as it’s in the name of her one mission in life – killing said demons.

While also abrasive, cynical, and foul-mouthed (to put it mildly) outside the job, she has an amusing quirk of giving nicknames to everyone in the crew – Tango promptly took her given nickname from the day they met, which solidified their friendship mostly based on explosions (and salt). Only Isandar knows anything about her before being a sniper-for-hire, but there’s a decent amount of speculation of her unusual familiarity with the Judges and how they operate. Then again, that just may have to do with their shared efficiency of purifying the margins of the world from the unholy monsters.

2024.09.01 18:58:13 編集

#hellsing work around 2017 or so, when i was posting to twitter

2024.09.01 18:55:53 編集

#ironcrown smut
Creator Chose Not To Use Warnings

COLLAPSE

2024.09.01 18:01:28 nsfw 編集

more #hellsing smut

COLLAPSE

2024.09.01 17:51:38 nsfw 編集

note to self: never call a ship a crackship for your own IP. it, in fact, will not remain a crackship
filed under #ironcrown

2024.09.01 17:49:56 編集

splash image i made for #ironcrown when it was officially launched. you can read the comic for free here

2024.09.01 17:48:46 編集

completely forgot i was into detroit:beyond human for five seconds
lesbian hankcon, filed under #mscfanart

2024.09.01 16:44:35 編集

detroit:beyond human had some hella good slashfics aka gavin/nines from this

“Well, go on,” says RK, like they’re back at the office and handing over files or talking shop about cases. “Don’t exercise restraint on my account. You’ve always done what you’ve wanted, haven’t you?”

(plus an extra gavin) #mscfanart

2024.09.01 16:42:48 nsfw 編集

#ironcrown nsfw challenge posts over on twitter around 2016 or so

COLLAPSE

2024.09.01 16:27:54 nsfw 編集

#hellsing nsfw dump
i still crack up like a loon at that last one.
Creator Chose Not To Use Warnings

COLLAPSE

2024.09.01 16:25:55 nsfw 編集

#ironcrown april fools prank i did over on tumblr for a fake hardin dakimakura pillow.
bonus, what was on the “april fools!” linked site:

2024.09.01 16:23:22 nsfw 編集

#ironcrown nsfw dump

COLLAPSE

2024.09.01 15:56:32 nsfw 編集

#hellsing nsfw

COLLAPSE

2024.09.01 15:54:19 nsfw 編集

first #hellsing piece on the nsfw tumblr back around 2016 or so

COLLAPSE

2024.09.01 15:34:54 nsfw 編集

Jayd (chirart) commissioned me last year to be a part of LITTLE FOOLERY's 10th anniversary celebration . Muun and Jayd have been dear to me over the years, and it’s truly been a delight to see how their creative partnership has made stories like Sfeer Theory (and more) happen.

2024.09.01 02:42:18 portfolio,gift,featured 編集

even in the trees of making a webcomic i still found time to draw #zihark
#fetellius

2024.09.01 02:39:35 編集

more fun warmups & concept art for #ironcrown
(comic is free to read here )

2024.09.01 02:35:56 編集

doodle dump of some #ironcrown and #zihark naturally.

2024.09.01 02:33:20 selfship 編集

action layout/pacing warmup for #ironcrown
noodling with some (very abbreviated) scenarios about how/why they’d fight, even if this doesn’t actually happen in the main story.

2024.09.01 02:31:44 編集

Realized I haven’t done proper introductions of this cast for #ironcrown - let’s fix that!
(comic is free to read here )

Starting off with our lead, Diane Weiss. Stubborn, suspicious, temperamental, two-faced, and stubborn again - she’s a gryffindor heart deep (very, very deep) in a slytherin mind.

Diane’s painfully aware of the spotlight on her as the daughter of the Butcher, and mistrusts strangers due to everyone and their pet hamster attempting to curry favors from a seemingly less intimidating personality. (they learn.) She also gets a bad habit of using other people as tools without a shred of doubt - that and his paranoia are two in a long list of similarities they share.

On the other hand, her one redeeming side is she’s a sucker for backing the underdog or fixing an unjustice that crosses her path (someone else being misused, for example) (the hypocrisy is strong in this one) - and has zero problem throwing a considerable amount of sheer willpower in solving it, even if it means declaring war on an empire without a scrap of bread to her name.

(Which she, of course, does. Because why not.)

After her homeland’s in flames due to her father being a shithead, and she’s on the run - mercenary Commander Isandar takes her under the wing and is a much better fit for Diane, authority issues and all. Those two (plus a certain … ah, smarmy demon … ) end up quite the power-trio through the story.

2024.09.01 02:30:17 編集

Continuing the #ironcrown character ref sheets - here’s Commander Isandar!
(comic is free to read here )

Calm and pragmatic with a voice like a foghorn - she’s led the Iron Crown Brigade for decades and is a familiar -and feared- sight at the Imperium’s warring borders. Ambivalent about many of her clients (and the few journalists that interview her), she nonetheless holds a strong moral code - likewise with her crew, who remain fiercely loyal even despite facing suicidal contracts and hordes of Fell (demons). The pay’s worth it, they say.

Isa’s a bit of an adrenaline junkie, too - thankfully Joanna’s usually there to talk her out of the wilder schemes (as the freelance ‘Fell consultant’ and off-and-on girlfriend). (One of those involved several gunships, a crate of melons, and half the Imperium treasury. Don’t ask.)

2024.09.01 02:28:58 編集

#ironcrown character sheet for shard. (comic is free to read here )

This guy.

As the arch-demon of war, destruction, and change, it’s an open secret that Shard gets pulled out as a living weapon every ~200yrs by the powers-that-be to intimidate political enemies and/or wipe them out. (The latter doesn’t happen as much these days since he’s a touch too good at it. The last time was called the Annihilation .. yeah.)

Currently possessing the body of an unfortunate (deceased) Chanderan soldier. (demons work slightly different in IC given they gotta have a host body without a soul to inhabit it. He’s a bit unique in that he’s bound by a magic dagger called Binder as well.)

Loathes the Judges who were the religious order that had the foresight to bind him in the first place, long ago. He’s on board with anything that could spite them, which includes your usual demonic activity of carnage and mayhem, tempting mortals, backstabbing unwary masters, more carnage, and generally being a colossal troll. Despite being the most smarmy thing ever on the surface, he’s actually deeply emotional and fluctuates between nihilistic apathy and widely varying mood swings (constant existential crisis over being a living weapon, etc). Also has a few er a LOT screws loose after the Butcher left him to rot in the cellars for the last lifetime, which doesn’t help …

Diane and him end up bailing each other out of a sticky situation – but from the sheer amount of arguments that they bicker about, aka everything under the sun, you’d think they’ve forgotten it. (They haven’t.) Since she’s on her own revenge spree against the Judges, he’s smug as a cat being her right hand and is more or less on his best behavior.

mostly.
(he is a demon after all …)

2024.09.01 02:24:13 featured 編集

about this time, i was starting to work on a lot of #ironcrown concept art, since i was pitching the webcomic to a publisher. you can read the comic here online for free

2024.09.01 02:22:16 編集

more vaguely nsfw timeskip!integra/alucard because krad is weeb garbage

(this was the post that made me realize i needed a separate artblog for nsfw at the time lol) #hellsing

2024.09.01 02:15:16 編集

dedicated to lesmismignon and the absolutely amazing way they write integra/alucard in the treasure trove of their #hellsing fics.

Satis , SnowWhite , PushingDasies , and Threnody , for easy linkage of some. Go read them!

2024.09.01 02:09:35 gift 編集

really started getting into integra/alucard as a ship about this time - 2016 or so? they eventually were the two #hellsing characters who got me to start drawing NSFW art too.

2024.09.01 02:06:13 編集

For justinrelinaleinc who was amazingly helpful in tracking down overseas #hellsing artbooks! ♥ (Also wow, I’m digging this crackship.)

2024.09.01 02:04:20 gift 編集

i will be drawing #zihark until the actual heat death of the universe
#fetellius

2024.09.01 02:02:18 編集

I always wondered how integra knew her vampire servant could survive, y’know, everything…

#hellsing - also crossposted on Ao3!

2024.09.01 01:30:51 編集

right about 2015 or so i started getting back into #hellsing

2024.09.01 01:28:31 編集

‘You’re going to have to get poor uncle Shinon another bottle to learn THAT trick.’

for a friend - slightly tipsy!Shinon giving Rolf a few more pointers in making bows – sometimes i wonder how many lessons were taught like that.
#fetellius

2024.09.01 01:27:19 gift 編集

“And it’s always weighted.”
Naesala noodlin’. This entire cast was an utter gift. #fetellius

crossposted on Ao3!

2024.09.01 01:21:57 編集

“my dear, a weapon is nothing but entropy in service of ideals.”
you’ll take my fe13-living-weapon!AU out of my cold dead hands. warmup. #zihark

2024.09.01 01:20:03 selfship 編集

y’all like dumb teeth-rottingly self indulgent ships right

i’ve got a long history with original characters and playing around in Fire Emblem’s sandbox of games (most notably 9/10) – (put it this way, I RP’d 100k+ words of ‘em way back in the day). but FE13 rolled around and suddenly an actual excuse came along to throw out the plot and throw in these derps + #zihark because (a) biases and (b) aformentioned dumb ships.

anyway have another one of those very indulgent doodle dumps <3

2024.09.01 01:15:25 selfship 編集

a delightfully shameless ‘fuck the canon’ fe13 au where the avatar is the wandering monster to rule them all –

– and the prince realizes it far, far too late. (but not before they inadvertently save the world first because hey, even eldritch abominations have standards.)

2024.09.01 01:12:48 selfship,featured 編集

last few #starwars #repcomm artworks

2024.09.01 01:11:50 編集

was into dishonored for 5 seconds due to Martin, that bastard.
(so my type) #mscfanart

2024.09.01 01:09:58 編集

the only way to play fe13
#zihark

2024.09.01 01:06:24 selfship 編集

was on the tail end of my #starwars #repcomm fandom run given the RP group broke up, but still have good memories with the book characters.

2024.09.01 01:04:24 編集

why is this ship so goddamn cute
(you can really see my romance taste even this early lol)
#starwars #repcomm

2024.09.01 00:55:51 編集

still to this day my favorite piece i did of vau.
#starwars #repcomm

2024.09.01 00:52:51 featured 編集

rp-ing #starwars #repcomm dears gave a lot of opportunity for imagining shenanigans

2024.09.01 00:51:44 編集

One of my favorite, favorite crackships from this series.
parja/vau, #starwars #repcomm

2024.09.01 00:49:23 編集

still drawing #zihark on tumblr around 2015 :)
#fetellius

2024.09.01 00:48:00 編集

why do i love this trash tier ship
almedha/ashnard, #fetellius

2024.09.01 00:46:53 編集

kind of like the idea of these two as a potentially-interested-but-ultimately-don’t-fit-with-each-other vibe, but still good friends. life’s like that.
#fetellius #zihark

2024.09.01 00:45:29 編集

#starwars #repcomm pieces while i was in the thick of rp'ing

2024.09.01 00:44:17 編集

another two #starwars #repcomm strips with rav, kal and vau, though a little more humorous.

2024.09.01 00:40:53 編集

right about this time (2014?) i started experimenting with comic strips and found i really loved the chance to think about body language and character interaction versus just contextless busts.

#starwars #repcomm ; rav bralor and kal skirata having a discussion.