So uh, I haven't posted in a hot minute 💀. I need to get back to work! I haven't been under a slump or anything, I've just been out on a fantastic family cruise, and I got a bit distracted 😭.
While I did a lot of new things [like karaoke in front of a crowd], when I did find occasional glimpses of solitude, I just ended up reading really good star wars time travel fanfics because there is NO end of ROTS!
Getting Padme's face right is always so weirdly difficult for me compared to Anakin. I don't know why, I just think Natalie Portman has such a beautiful face, and I find it very difficult to reference without messing it up too much. Anyways, I'm a huge fan of those modern au fics where Padme is a beautiful, career-driven lady who's just rushing her life, and then Anakin comes crashing in to keep on her toes. Also him being absolutely in love with her first is a MUST!
Well I hope this doesn't look too much of a mess, and I do plan on making more fully rendered pieces soon, and actually doing some writing once I get accustomed back to my job and back in my native state. Hope everyone like this piece and take care!
I always seem to draw Juvia it seems. I ended up making her gown a bit more intricate then the last post. I have never drawn lace before. It is really small, so you might have to zoom in to see it. This design is meant to be the gown Juvia wears when she is going to be sacrificed and killed. This is the arc where she must confront her past and put it behind her to be with the people who love and care for her in the present.
I added some more lore to the reason behind Juvia's rain always following her around. To be honest, it's not hard to give Juvia more backstory because well she barely has any😭. I decided to make her rain based not only on her emotions but a curse she inflicted by accident when she awakened her powers for the first time due to a horrific loss. We know that curse powers and curses [not the jjk kind] exist in Fairy Tail and are brought on by negative emotions, so I don't think this would be too much of a stretch.
I like the idea that the rain can also be a symbolism for her negative feelings or depression. This is kind of a headcanon of course, but throughout the series the rain mostly comes when Juvia is experiencing stronge negative emotions. I wanted to interpret Juvia as someone who is dealing with something similar to depression in arc she's introduced and only through gaining a real proper support system and facing the roots of her trauma and pain do those feelings mostly vanish. I'm not an expert or doctor, so I hope this isn't coming off insensitive, I just thought someone so linked to sadness and rain could be interpreted this way.
I never liked how in the original series the rain simply just vanishes after her fight with Gray. Someone who has been so sad for so long isn't just going to magically get better after one good event y'know? I'm not saying this wouldn't be a catalyst for happiness for Juvia, but I wished we could see her actually get better at dealing with those negative emotions on her own and with the help of others.
In the fanfic, I wanted Juvia to be someone who is incorrectly managing these negative emotions and feelings in the Phantom Arc where she is introduced. She bottles her emotions to seem more presentable to others, and not disturb anyone, seeming aloof or even apathetic to most. While her rain isn't exactly pouring down, it is forever present, a symbol of the pain that is always there and always present. This would put her at odds with someone with as much tenacity as Lucy. Even after she joins Fairy Tail, she still has trouble letting go of these more unhealthy behaviors she has carried from the past. I planned also for Juvia and Lucy to have more of a dynamic, I'll probably go over it in another post.
I wanted Juvia to indeed see the sun after her battle with Gray [a light at the end of the tunnel], but I wanted her rain to somewhat remain present until this arc where she faces her past, and truly accept the love of Fairy Tail and join team Natsu. It is only then that the rain finally disappears for the first time completely.
Whoa that was a lot of yap, I'm so sorry. If you have made it this far, I'm just going to go over the design choices.
I wanted Juvia's look here to give a feeling of slight romanticism/eroticism. A loose gown that still shows off her form, and a forlorn expression. I got a lot of inspiration off of 1980s gothic romance book covers, an unused nightgown for Padme, older wedding dresses, and other gothic movie influences. I wanted her look to be both very vulnerable and still look regal and sensual. This is the arc I wanted Juvia to properly fall in love with Gray in so that also played a part here. What I mean by this is of course want Juvia to have a strong attraction to Gray from there very first meeting, but several moments and this arc leads to her ultimate passionate and unyielding love for him.
References:
Overall, I am very proud of this so far. I haven't done thin and sharp lineart like this in a while, and it was great practice and very refreshing. I'm so sorry if this post it too long. Once again, I do apologize for that. I hope everyone likes this post. I love drawing Juvia, and I hope that was conveyed here.
This is actually supposed to be a design for Juvia in an arc for the fanfic I've been yapping about in most of my posts. I feel like for such a popular character, Juvia really doesn't have too much known about her background compared to some of her companions. I wanted to rectify that, so I had a full arc planned on her past, and her working through that. I wanted to integrate her into Team Natsu in the fic since that would give her more time with everyone and elevate her to that more mc status, but I wanted the transition to feel natural. I noticed that in Fairy Tail there's a bit of a formula for Team Natsu characters.
Especially in the early arcs, every member of Team Natsu would get a bit of their own backstory and arc introduced, and this arc would always have them resolve an issue from their past and bring the team closer together by the end. Power of friendship, fighting, all that good stuff.
Examples:
Erza-Tower of Heaven
Gray-Galuna Island
Wendy-Cait [or cat?] Shelter
Lucy-Phantom Lord [Key of the Starry Sky Arc, although I think this is anime only]
Natsu- Tbh this one is more confusing but I guess, Tartaros would be a good answer.
Point is, there is always a backstory arc for a member of Team Natsu that brings everyone closer as a team and as friends. If I wanted to put Juvia in Team Natsu, I needed to make sure it didn't feel too forced or uncomfortable. I decided to create a backstory arc that brings in Team Natsu and Gajeel and Levy, and by the end Juvia would be closer to everyone in Team Natsu, and become a part of the team.
The arc's main themes will be about memory as well as present relationships over past guilt. Frowndown is gonna be the name of Juvia's birthplace/town. I even mapped it out [I'm doing way too much ngl]. I actually looked up Frowndown because that sounded almost like an arc in One Piece, but I was both surprised and happy that it wasn't. Anyway, I am placing the arc a little after the Battle of Fairy Tail arc and before Cait Shelter arc.
Juvia's backstory timeline goes a bit like this:
Time in Frowndown- Birth until 8 years old
Orphanage time- 8-12 yrs old [she meets and befriends Gajeel at 10 years old, this would be not too long after Gajeel was sent to the present]
Time as a Phantom Mage Wizard- 12-19
Fairy Tail- 19-Present
Hope this all makes sense, and I'm sorry for such a longer post. I'll probably make a more concrete design for her appearance in the future.
May the 4th be with you guys! I drew a snippet of Padme during the funeral scene. This is lowkey for an art project. I always loved how she looked in this scene even if it does make me incredibly sad. If only Anakin had stayed in that damn temple!
So for this design, I obviously went a bit simpler this time. This is primarily because Levy is not as main of a character as the others I have redesigned and honestly, I was already pretty happy with her original design. I apologize if it's not detailed enough, I've been super busy with finals. After this upcoming week, I will finally obtain freedom.
I liked the idea of Levy both being super cute while having a very slight edge to her. I imagine she explores this more as Gajeel perhaps rubs off on her a little. I don't know if I conveyed her frame properly, but I always found it funny that Levy canonically is pretty flat-chested but has a great ass, so I tried to draw that. I hope I succeeded 😭. I ended up making her hair in the unfiltered art a lot more saturated and blue-green leaning, and I made her eyes much more yellow in color. Besides liking the color scheme, I wanted her hair to be very different from my Juvia redesign and I wanted her eyes to read as more of a golden yellow than the golden brown I used for Lucy's eyes.
In my writing concepts for the fanfic, I plan on including a lot more scenes for Levy to get to show off her intelligence. I really loved her scenes in the Battle of Fairy Tail arc, and I always wished we got to see more of Levy's very high academic intelligence especially since a lot of people headcanon her as a nerd anyway. I always felt a little sad all of that bookish knowledge just ended up going to Lucy as the series goes on, they both definitely could have shared that role. I also didn't want Levy to look too shy. She's fairly popular and even had three guys pining for her at one point, she's definitely got to have a little confidence y'know? She's definitely an underrated baddie for sure!
Anyways, I hope this design still feels like Levy. I tried using Clip Studio Paint again to some interesting success. I hope everyone likes this design, and more will come in the future as I descend into studying for my finals and reading anidala fanfiction.
So, I decided the next person I wanted to redesign would be Levy. I like Levy a lot, and honestly since she's not quite as major of a character like Jellal or Wendy [my other two choices for the next redesign], I decided to go with her instead.
I wanted to make Levy still have that cute, bookish vibe she had in the original, but I just added slight stylish differences. Originally, I thought about giving Levy a very office-siren adjacent design, but I ended up deciding against it. I instead wanted her outfit to read as cute with the slightest bit of edginess. Like a bunny bearing its teeth y'know?
I ended up changing her hair a bit because honestly, her originally style was just hell for me to draw. It was probably the bangs or something. I instead gave her the ponytail style she had during the Battle of Fairy Tail arc, and her hair without the hairband look. I also thought she would look cute with freckles.
I'm obviously not done, but this is all I got for now. I'll come back with more soon. Like I said earlier, Levy's design will be a little less detailed to give me a break before doing a really huge redesign like Wendy or Jellal. This especially concerns Jellal with his 50,000 identities [I know there's only like 3].
So um... I'm obviously a huge fan of Gruvia, and I haven't posted in a while so I just whipped this up. I always like the idea of Gray being the more hesitant one when it comes to initiating romance, but when he goes in, he GOES IN y'know? Does that sound dirty, I sure hope not...
It's been a while since I've actually drawn a kiss scene so sorry if it looks bad. Their looks are based off of the redesigns I posted for them in the past so especially with Juvia if her hair looks off, that's why.
I hope everyone likes this, I love them so bad.
P.S. I totally suck a paneling so pls don't judge me too harshly if the formatting is wrong💔😭.
So I mustered the courage to try to use Clip studio paint again. This time things went a bit better I think? The interface of CSP still fries me, but I just stopped caring and started doing my own thing at one point y'know?
I originally was going to post a time-lapse for this until I realized that you have to manually turn on the damn record button, so I have no footage💔. My heart is broken. I did like the ease of moving face models though.
This is just a simple Wendy fanart, I have planned on her redesign several times, but I just keep bailing. I need to lock in. I planned on making her more of a character outside of Team Natsu and eventually even having her lead a team of her own!
So I tried using Clip Studio Paint for the first time in a minute and spoiler alert, it's really hard😭.
I've been spoiled by using Procreate and it's simple interface, and now I'm faced with a thousand buttons. I need a break omg, layout reminds me of that one plane cockpit meme😭.
However, the facial assets are actually really good! I did these two sketches of Juvia and Lucy based off of some facial assets I sketched over. Very helpful for wanting to shortcut some of that extra referencing and work when doing facial angles.
Side note: I noticed someone totally re-uploaded my art to Facebook. They credited me so I'm not at all upset, but I'm just like wow, there's a place where my art resides that I didn't even know about😭.
Hope everyone likes this sketch as I prepare for the hardest week of my life😩. [3 tests tomorrow!]
This is based off of the Akaza manga cover from Demon Slayer.
Especially after reading some of the novelization of Rotj, I like to imagine that after saving his son and looking upon him, the first thing Anakin is greeted with after his death is Padme sitting in the same grassy meadows of Naboo where they fell in love all those years ago. Before all the politics, plotting, and war when it just the two of them and the powerful love they shared.
I like to think that Padme watched over Vader/Anakin over the years and is initially distraught/angry at the monster he has become, but seeing his pain and loneliness of course would make her feel for him a bit. After defeating Palpatine to protect their son, I imagine Padme would be proud and able to forgive Anakin because despite his failings, when it mattered the most, he chose their son, he chose love, and he chose the light. Her last words rang true in the end. There was still good in him.
This makes me a little emotional, they're just so endearing to me. I hate when people act like Anakin didn't love Padme, and she didn't love him. At the end, it was their love that ultimately saved both him, Luke, and the galaxy y'know? Give em a little credit.
Anyways, I like this piece a lot, I did it today on a whim since my class was canceled. Anakin and Padme are so tragic and beautiful they give me so much inspiration. I love them so dearly!
hi! I wanted to request that you please take out the fanfic review from your latest post. I understand the sentiment but I am afraid the author might read it and feel demotivated. at the end of the day, both of you are creating something. 😅
Love your art though, really pretty! 🩷
and of course, it is up to you. it's just, it is generally considered impolite to call out a fic like that because it might dampen someone's spirits just spending time with their otp their own way.
please and I hope you don't take this any other way than a polite request. no offence meant! 😅😊
Yeah, I get that it was pretty late. I'll take out that part didn't want to seem like I hated them personally or anything👍.
Not gonna lie, my artstyle was kinda bad here, I was just gonna post the sketch for this, but I kept adding more and more until it became a piece in a way. Anakin's hair is so hard to nail down. Is it brown? Reddish brown? Dirty blonde? I'm tired of this, grandpa! I always think it's so funny that Anakin and Padme thought they were so secretive with their marriage, but anyone that's known those two for more than 5 minutes knows SOMETHING is going on.
Side note:
I hate when people act like Anakin was the only freaked out/obsessed person in the relationship. Padme was crazy about Anakin too, she just was better at hiding it and had no force sensitivity.
And another thing! A piece of me dies everytime I see a fanfic where Anakin is written as some weird alpha male and or slightly sexist. This man was raised by a strong single mother, grew up around powerful women, had a powerful baddie wife, and a strong female padawan. And you write him to think he's better than women? Gtfo outta here man😭. Writing him like this is so crazy because this is the same man who would definitely whimper for Padme if asked🤨.
Anyways, this was just a ramble post, and also please don't think I'm hating whoever wrote that fanfic or anything, I'm sure there are people who love it, I'm just not one of them😭. Hope y'all like this post, and I'm going to bed.
What I’d like more people to understand about Anidala is how they are NOT a dark romance but more of a Greek tragedy.
Ultimately at the core both of them were good people, especially for their first three years they were together. Anakin was never a morally grey or dark “I’ll burn the world to keep you warm” book-boyfriend and Padmé wouldn’t have fallen for him if he was either (that’s the whole point of her heartbreak leading to her death). They were never and will never be dark romance and I stand by that - that wasn’t who either of them were.
So this is just a quick few things I wanted to share about little things I'm doing for the fanfic, not anything concrete while writing [don't wanna give everything away😭], but just little fun facts.
Height!
I made a height chart for all of the main Fairy Tail characters or at least the ones that mattered to me at the moment. I'm writing this just in case the image is harder to see. Heights are:
Gray- 6'2
Juvia- 5'6
Natsu- 5'10
Lucy- 5'3
Jellal- 6'3
Erza- 5'9
Gajeel- 6'4
Levy- 4'11
Laxus- 6'6
Mirajane- 5'7 [Her height varies though depending on her takeover magic, this is just her base height]
Wendy- 5'1
Aries- 5'3
Cana- 6'0
Loke- 5'11 [Definitely would be the type to wear good shoes to seem taller btw]
I also aged up the characters a little in my rewrite. It helps if there are any particularly crazy scenes that are violent [I mean fighting btw not anything really crazy] or fanservice with the main cast that they are young adults and not high schoolers. Besides doesn't that just make more sense?
Pre timeskip Ages are:
I'm also shortening the timeskip from 7 to 3 years. 3 is a magic number, and it just makes more sense to me personally.
Natsu-19 [400...]
Lucy-19
Juvia-19
Elfman-19
Wendy-15-16
Erza-21
Jellal-21
Lyon-21
Gajeel-21 [400...]
Gray-20
Cana-20
Levy-20
Loke-20 [physically, spirit world age idk]
Laxus-23
Mirajane-23 [I'll explain this if people care enough to ask, but in short, I like Mira being a figure Erza has both a rivalry with and looks up too, and she's a bit older than her siblings so it makes more sense why they look up to her so dearly]
Lisanna-18 [if she was still alive💔, she's staying dead in the rewrite, sorry... in a flashback that happened 3 years before main events so she was 15 when she passed]
Ultear-26
Meredy-17
Makarov-82
Zeref- 400+ [looks 20-25]
Mavis- 100+ [looks 18-20, I don't play with that little girl look she has, I made an aged up design for her already]
Gildarts-38 [makes more sense for him not to know about Cana if she was conceived while he was a teenager]
All exceeds- 10 [does it really matter tho, they're cats?😭, and they age weird anyway]
Romeo- 14
Alzack-18
Bisca-18
Macao- 40
Wakaba-37
Jet-20
Droy-20
Max-20
Laki-19
Mest- 20 [he won't be a pedophile in my story💔]
Porlyuscia-80
Hades- 100+
Ivan Dreyar- 55
Evergreen- 21
Freed- 22
Bickslow-20 [he just feels like the baby of the group]
Sting-15
Rogue-15
Minerva-17
Yukino-16
Simon-22
Kagura-16
Sorano [Angel]- 19
Miliana- 16
Macbeth-19
Erik [Cobra]-20
Racer-19
Kinana [Snake girl]- 20
Rustyrose-20
Azuma-30
Kain- 35
Zancrow- 18
And that's all, there's obviously more characters, but it's 5 in morning where I am, and I still have class😩💔.
Remember when I said some bs about Gray being the hardest design to finish? I lied, this takes the cake. This is beyond the pail, I'm exhausted y'all through and through.
I wanted Gajeel to have a very intense, reptillian, and almost off-putting look to him. He is a dragon slayer, and dragons are just giant lizards with wings when you really put things into perspective. When designing Natsu, I wanted him to also have these features, but I intentionally made them softer and more boyish. Gajeel on the other hand, I wanted to go all the way on the sharpness and intensity. Especially in his eyes, I even darkened his sclera to make his eyes just that much more intense! I also always imagined him with a kind of alternative/punk style which especially kind of ties him to Juvia's gothic style [I know these are two different styles bear with me] given that in my rewrite they're actually adopted siblings with him being her older brother!
In my version, I based his face off of several Apache and Cherokee men. Like I said in a comment before, my style isn't very realistic, so if that doesn't come across I apologize. In my headcanon races for characters that I responded to a comment about, I didn't include Gajeel because I wasn't finished with his sheet, but I imagine him as Native American/slight Japanese. This comes from both his name origins, and also honestly what I'm just feeling like. I hope it doesn't come across as offensive or anything, that was certainly not my intention! I lastly made sure to give him his piercings maybe even more than the original [I bet he has them everywhere ifykyk], and he has a Phantom Guild crest because this design of him is before he joins the guild. I also still tried to make him very handsome which wasn't hard given my references, and he is actually my best friend's favorite guy in the series, so this is kind of like a gift for her in a way.
Filtered close ups
I hope everyone likes this longer post, and I'm going to take a break from doing these character sheets to focus on sketching, and writing. Gajeel tuckered me out, but I do like how he turned out. In the future, my next sheet will either be Wendy or Jellal. I will also share my heights in another shorter post.
So I'm a very big fan of the Prequels as well as the political theming of the first three movies, but I really love Anakin and Padme so bad. They're in my top five ships every tbh. They just hit everything I love in a ship, tension, passion, angst, fluff, they're just so beautiful. I hate how doomed they are.
This is my first time actually drawing them [I did a gruvia sketch with their promo art as a reference so slight lie there😬😭]. I think the most important part of sketching or drawing new characters is to nail expressions and identifiable features, details will come later.
Even though the dialogue between these two weren't always perfect [blame George Lucas and just read the novels instead], I always loved the crazy eye contact and chemistry between Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman. They just look so in love y'know?
[Such intense and romantic eye contact, I love them so bad!]
Hope y'all like this first attempt with them, I might draw more of them in the future and pretend the last 30 minutes of Rots isn't real 🙃.
