hepilsketches

I sketch what I want with no system and ignore all notifications. Do whatever you wish but give credits. WARNING: some Jee/Zuko content.

[hepilsketches]

quick silly jeeko

surprise, I'm still alive.

you turned away for just a moment, and your brat is already chasing some girl

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Okay. guys. Long story short, I'm no longer obsessed with a fictional teenager's weird haircut. Yay?

But here's some jeeko for you anyway because I just don't know what else to draw lol I'm finally in the mood

Also, I got some pretty nice messages from you while I was away from tumblr. Thanks for your support! <3

[hepilsketches]

continuation of my book 2 jeeko cursedverse

no one asked for, but my life is suffering so the world has to suffer too

basically, I got so sad over sideburnless Jee from my own stupid art getting rejected so I made ponytailess Zuko forgive him. that's why this sketch exists

(Disclaimer: I have nothing against Jee's sideburns. They literally is half of the things which keep the caracter recognizable at all, lol. But that's exactly why drawing Jee without them is a curious exercise.)

careful, mild sexual content and double cursedness ahead

"Will you get over it already?! I stole a whole f*cking ostrich pony for you! What else can I possibly do, Jee?!" "First of all, sir, it's not an ostrich pony but an ostrich horse." "Jee." "Secondly, even if it were a pony, its tail wouldn't be attached to you, sir, which kinda ruins the whole point." "Jee..." "And lastly, even if I just were interested in any thing with a ponytail attached to it, I'd prefer to limit myself to a) humans who b) would be capable to give me informed enthusiastic consent, thank you very much." "What do you mea...... URGH! Nevermind!" ... "You know what, Jee? I think it's time for me to try and find my own path in this world."

yep, you just read the cursedverse's premise for Zuko Alone, lol.

---

Okay, guys. Frankly? I have no smart/deep/beautiful stories to tell through my art, and most likely the day I finally get over my raging book 1 Zuko frustration will be the day I lose 90% of my drawing motivation. That's the sad truth I have to deal with.

This doesn't mean I can't take an advantage of this dubious fuel to exercize my art skill and have some trashy fun with it in the process, though 8)

[hepilsketches]

Jee & pipa sketches

who needs some stupid anatomy practice when there's cool drawing pipa practice? right, guys?

.... guys?

I want you to know that I'm sorry for that

but not really

and the pipa doesn't really look good in the end, lol

I'm aware this joke is bad taste incarnated, you don't have to tell me 8)

anyway... I noticed I have 4 Bruce Springsteen's songs in my playlist, and half of them has "fire" in the title! How could I just ignore this fact?!

("Streets of Philadelphia" is my fav, though. ... Never was in Philadelphia, but hey, I can catch the general vibe, can't I?

I was bruised and battered, I couldn't tell what I felt, I was unrecognizable to myself, I saw my reflection in a window, I didn't know my own face, Oh brother, are you gonna leave me wastin' away On the streets of Philadelphia? I walked the avenue 'til my legs felt like stone, I heard the voices of friends vanished and gone, At night I could hear the blood in my veins, Black and whispering as the rain On the streets of Philadelphia Ain't no angel gonna greet me, It's just you and I, my friend, My clothes don't fit me no more, I walked a thousand miles Just to slip this skin The night has fallen, I'm lyin' awake, I can feel myself fading away, So receive me, brother, with your faithless kiss, Or will we leave each other alone like this On the streets of Philadelphia?

yep, you just visited my local version of the music night. It wasn't planned, but... whatever. maybe there's no proper music, but there's... a night! yep.

...and time for me to go to sleep and stop talking nonsence, apparently.

good night to yall <З

[hepilsketches]

book 2 au jeeko sketch

trash comedy? trash comedy.

careful, sexy topics

okay, guys, I promised myself that I'll finish this sketch today and not overwork myself even if it ends up looking like shit. ... and that's exactly why it looks like shit!

enjoy <3

"Not a pervert, but a sophisticated man who knows how to appreciate the subtle nuanced eroticism of unique unconventional beauty, sir!" "In other words, fancy pervert." "You're lucky I like your new haircut too, brat."

Cursed bonus:

so cursed

---

Really, I believe the fate of Zuko's ponytail in mature fics deserves its own sexology research.

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On a completely unrelated note....

I seem to run out of ideas for quick sketches, aww. Which means... It's as good time as ever to concetrate on some anatomy practice!

... Or coloring practice.

or maybe doing something abot the anxiety disorder that has crept up on me like a total bitch

Or... something.

We'll see, anyway ouo

[hepilsketches]

silly Jee comic

...aka "misadventures of an anxious artist in the world of atla's artstyle inconsistency"

no, the last one is totally NOT the guy I imagine while reading jeeko fics

... but seriously.

how the hell am I supposed to draw Jee in these conditions?!

[hepilsketches]

hey guys, I figred it out!

I'll just create a special inner blog tag for all my trash jeeko art and long text posts so guys in the common space don't have to suffer through it!

sorry I didn't think about it sooner

as I said, I'm not that bright than it comes to social interactions, especially when I'm depressed, oops

I wonder if everyone hates me by now or just 3/4 of jeeko community

oh dear

but hey, better late than never, I guess

anyway, since now, all my dubious jeeko content will go under jeeko_hepil tag

that is, basically all my jeeko content

cheers!

[hepilsketches]

another long-ass jeeko post

that can be better than jeeko sketch?

quick lazy jeeko sketch with a lot of text after it!

... aww, drawing more elaborated stuff lives me burned out pretty qickly, and I want to sketch as many things as I can until my job finds me again

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you know I kinda wish I could conduct a survey to understand the general paradigm in jeeko fandom if it exists at all

Like: "What are your main reasons for shipping jeeko?" Or: "Does it offend you when the ship is treated as a crack?"

Or: "Would you be interested in getting fundamentally new interpretations of Jee and jeeko or you're irrevocably affected by Dracze and Nele's vision and worship it as a holy canon?" Or: "Would you prefer for these guys to end up in a serious long-term relationship or you'd be okay if they eventually shifted to different partners"? Or: "Do you think canonical Jee is hot and get offended when someone says he isn't, or do you just imagine some vague dilf of your taste instead of him while reading fics"? Or: "If it's the former, which frames with Jee you take as a main depiction of his appearance"? (seriously, artstyle in atla is inconsistent as hell, and Jee looks for me a bit like 20 different dudes in one) or… or……. OR

SO many questions and the answers form so many possible jeeko shippers I'm not used to deal with this level of complexity

I mean, the community isn't small enough to be glad to any shit I post

And it isn't big enough to be entirely unaffected by the shit I post

And I'm a weirdo with lacking empathy and a complex relationship with the ship

So it feels like every time I open my mouth, I offend 20 different people for completely different reasons and I don't want to upset anyone, damn it!

anyway, I'll be brutally honest with yall now, okay? Okay.

I have a lot of fondness for jeeko community (as much as I'm familiar with it from reading fics on ao3, that is), but whether I enjoy the ship itself or not entirely depends on specific interpretation. Basically, depending on the way it's cooked, for me, it can be the most enjoyable and/or beautiful thing ever, but just as well, it can be the biggest turn-off.

So as an artist, I'm kinda suspended in this half-state

Where partly I perceive myself as a shipper (which kinda gives me the right to draw some trash comedy stuff and express my mood and personal issues through jeeko art (because that's just a kind of artist I generally am, okay? I draw mostly for myself, and whatever is my current hyperfixation falls victim to it))

And partly an outsider, which, I suspect, can make posting this kind of stuff look like an act of an insensitive critical bitch who hates jeeko or something

ugh

it's just SO DAMN COMPLEX \>__</

one way or another, I hope it's possible for me to make at least some of you guys happier with my art ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ eventually I mean, If I draw a lot of stuff, at least some of it will have the chance, lol

or something like this, anyway

[hepilsketches]

zuko crossover sketches

sometimes you just wake up in the mood for a quick crossovery nonsence, you know

ah, the Dragon Hunters. love the setting and the intro song. and the show's character designs is basically a short story of my troubled sexuality pfft

also, yep, I'm a sucker for classic seinens :Р Do you have problems with that?

well, even if you don't, don't subscribe at me unless you don't mind jeeko, ponytail obsession and general trashy weirdness. I'm a mess.

[hepilsketches]

Jee + Zhao + Zuko color sketch

Do you love flying heads as much as I do?

Anyway, here's a bit of quick lazy coloring practice to celebrate the fact that I finally have time and energy to draw. Yay

Don't subscribe at me unless you ready to deal with a lot of jeeko, ponytail obsession, general weirdness and my trashy personality. I'm a mess, okay? Don't tell me you weren't warned.

[hepilsketches]

silly jeeko idea (+sketch)

surpise, I'm still alive! yep, again

and it's not Zhao. again. goddamit! maybe next time.

anyway - I finally got an idea that has nothing to do with people's hair! can you believe it? what a great f*cking miracle.

(there will be sexual topics and the art on the verge of nsfw or is it nsfw already? I'm not quite sure so proceed carefully. also, I don't think you can really get the sketch right without the context, so I'm afraid you'll have to read the wall of text beforehand)

anyway, I read this really old fic in which Jee cut off his topknot as a sign of mourning for his dead wife and kids, and this thought came to my mind:

In all jeeko fics I read, Jee is interpreted as an experienced gay/bisexual who can teach Zuko all the naughty stuff

and I get the reasons behind it

but

what if we imagine a jeeko scenario in which Jee is a different kind of guy?

(Nele/Dracze interpretation is great, but hey, it could be fun to explore alternatives)

anyway, this story's Jee is a guy who married quite early in his life so he had no opportunity to really explore his bisexuality

and then his family tragically died yada yada, and he wasn't really in the mood for fun for the recent years

but enough time has passed

and here's just...

Zuko.

a lot of Zuko.

and Jee tries to repress it as the good responsible adult he isn't.

which goes about as well as you can imagine.

and suddenly, - as it usually goes with repressed stuff, - things get totally out of control

and when they both half-naked and bothered...

Jee realizes with horror that he has no idea how to proceed, because - goddamit! - he actually never slept with a boy before.

(well, he kinda has some thoughts, but.. to actually do that?!)

still, he knows for a fact that people saw Zuko in the company of a male prostitute, so there's a chance the brat has some experience in this area

(meanwhile, Zuko with the said prostitute: "Did you hear anything about the Avatar?!")

so, both are inexperienced and feel extremely inadequate and start to panic

(and here's the part where my trashy sense of humor really comes into play)

...so to cover their embarrassment, they start to argue about who is supposed to make the next move first

wouldn't it be absolutely hilarious?

(well, maybe not, but here's the sketch anyway because this blog still has "sketches" in the title for some reason)

Don't ask me why Yue's here. Some bizarre time travel shenanigans or whatever.

It's obviously a trash comedy approach, yep. feels like a kind of humour a shitty yaoi author could put in their manga. But I believe it could be interesting to explore the same idea through a more serious lense.

(I'm not a writer, though - unless you can call "writing" my disastrous attempts at humorous dialogues in dubious English. But... I don't mind if someone else get some kind of inspiration from this nonsense~ ouo)

[hepilsketches]

(just text post)

damn, it just occured to me what I used 'European eyes' shape' wording in the tags recently, and it's obvious that not only European people have this eye shape. Sorry guys, I'm not exactly a paragon of awareness when it comes to this kind of stuff (the fact that English is not my native language doesn't help too). Which word should've I used instead, I wonder? 🤔 'Caucasian'? (in my language, this word refers to a specific group of people living in a particular small part of Europe, so it's all quite confusing, tbh.)

Another thing that occured to me is that some of my jeeko narratives can be interpreted as homophobic. And damn! It definitely wasn't my intention.

(I mean, the whole 'happy lovey-dovey gay couple' thing is just not jeeko aesthetic as I see it (at the same time, I'm generally not comfortable with drawing NSFW - at least for now). This ship has very intricate mechanics which work for me only with a right ratio of all the components, and elusive beauty of such a romance is much more difficult to catch visually (at least with my level of skill). I still think about the organic ways I can depict it without glamorizing the characters way too much. The 'crude' part is considerably easier to work with, though.)

Anyway, I want to make it clear that I don't approve homophoby in any way and support lgbt community. … fun fact, though: in the country I live in, just for these words of mine (let alone all my jeeko sketches) I can literally go into prison, lol. … please don't call the police I still like my kidneys and want to live for some reason. And I suspect some rudimentary bits of homophobic upbringing can still lurk in the dark corners of my brain, I'm afraid. But I really want to be a better person.

So, yep. If some of my words or drawings translate homophobic/racist/etc. narrative, it's totally unintentional and happens due to my ignorance. So feel free to point it out in replies (or personal messages) so I can correct such patterns (I mean, if I agree with your reasoning, of course).

(This applies to all stuff I say, actually. I never try to say disturbing things on purpose - I'm just… a natural, lol. My empathy and social skills suck with all the might of turbo vacuum cleaner, I tend to be too blunt without realizing it, and as a cherry on top, I have an exceptional talent to put my complex messages in the wrongest ways possible lol. But… I still want to talk, unfortunately. So, yep. Sorry for all the possible upsets.)

[hepilsketches]

P.S. jeeko sketch

…Annnd here’s a more believable hair-down scenario, because of course I couldn’t help it Men with lips attack!

(I know this topic in my art got pretty old already, but… what can I say? I’m fascinated by the idea of loving ‘despite’ instead of ‘because of’, so my mind keeps gravitating towards it.)

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Anyway, took an Asperger’s syndrome test recently, and there was this question about whether I tend to stare at the hair of the people I like. And I was like: «Wait a minute! Are you trying to tell I’m not a crazed person unhealthily obsessed with a fictional teenager’s weird haircut and this is just something that autistic people do?!» … Got 108/200 points in the end, lol. Who knows. Who cares.

...But here’s a sudden list of the reasons why I enjoy jeeko, so you don’t think I’m only here for the ponytail lol:

The ponytail;

Kinky sir/lieutenant dynamic;

Nice contrast between the outward crudeness and undercurrent poetry;

Sweet melancholy.

That's all, folks :В Have a nice day.

Who knows, maybe it will finally be Zhao next time~

[hepilsketches]

colored jee+zuko sketch

Surprise – I’m still alive! And I suddenly remembered that colors exist

… so here are the same two boring Fire Nation dudes as usual, but this time in color lol

this sketch is not sponsored by Disney, but it might as well be

«What’s wrong, lieutenant?» «Well sir, you look like a guy who can start singing about importance of being prepared to your evil minions (before throwing your royal sibling off a cliff) any moment, and I can’t decide whether I’m aroused or terrified by the fact, and apparently I really need to get laid, because I myself feel this weird urge to sing about hellfire to some imaginary girl named Beata Maria quite often lately, and as a matter of fact this urge is pretty strong right now, and you do not exactly help it you little confusing ugly bastard, and…» «Everything is totally fine, sir.»

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Okay, it could look worse, given my lack of practice. Would prefer to stick to monochrome anyway, though - I still hope to figure values out, and with coloring I tend to just drop a bunch of bright hues all over around and pretend I know what I’m doing lol

I have no idea what I’m doing whatsoever guys

You know what, though? I guess I’ll just keep drawing whatever and however keeps me drawing. Restrictions don’t do much good to my productivity, as I discovered. So, no promises~

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and all this stuff to you, btw

[hepilsketches]

a minute of (body)positivity with jeeko

okay guys, this November is clearly trying to kill me :') It's challenging enough to simply open my eyes in the morning, let alone make myself to sketch stuff.

I kinda promised you shirtless dudes, but... my brain chemistry kinda had another plans. Sorry? There will be shirtless dudes! ... I guess. Sooner. Or later. If I manage to survive until next year.

...Anyways, in this situation I needed to draw something really, really motivating!

And it's me, so.... yup.

Sorry, Zuko, I had to do it to your face. At least I'm sorry, unlike your father

Also, remind me to never again try and draw complex poses with interactions without a reference.

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A typical romance writer: "He was the hottest man she had ever seen in her life! His chiseled body was that of Adonis, his face was so ridiculously handsome that..." Me: That's nice and all, but can I read about someone loving a real human being instead of a plastic sex android, please? Or can we at least don't throw out into the window an interesting unique haircut a ridiculously handsome guy had in the freaking canon? Thank you.

[hepilsketches]

just to make some things clear (no art post)

damn, it just occured to me what my ponytail ramblings can be interpreted in a wrong way

like an attempt to pressure on jeeko fandom or something like, "give me this freaking ponytail or I'll stop drawing and will resent yall for the whole eternity" lol

(is my art even good enough to make such kind of pressure at least slightly efficient, lol? I doubt it. still, I turned off all my notifications except for replays in order to not indulge my inner approval junkie, so apart from it, I don't really have an idea which reaction I get)

so, I want to make it clear.

nope.

I do everything I do in response for the things that already exist and already made me happy for one reason or another. basically, your possible future actions what go in conflict with it can hardly affect me in any way.

so, if my behavior made some creators feel pressured into something… I hope I managed to reassure you about it.

(I realize that this hyperfixation of mine is rather annoying, but… what can I say? I'm a person with a monotropic mind, and I spent a whole year in zutara 'aged up Zuko got rid of his godawful ponytail two years ago' fandom T_T I just need some more time to get over it.)

[hepilsketches]

silly Jee sketch

you know, initially I planned to draw all sorts of different atla characters to not appear like a boring one-track-mind dude I am

until I realized that I'm, in fact, falling into autumn depression

you would never believe it looking at my recent sketches would you pfft

so shifting to something new would stress me out way too much right now, I'm afraid. Hence...

Here's another Jee :Р

jeeko if you squint really hard

ugh, I reread my anatomy textbook, but I still suck at predicting how exactly the torso and arm muscles shift with the body movements. and there's also fat and skin to consider. I need to do a lot of copying stuff, apparently

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Dunno why, but drawing Jee really comforts me for some reason. Maybe that's because of a general association with safe vibe of jeeko fandom my brain formed ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

... I have a suspicion though that most people would prefer looking at shirtless Zuko or even Zhao instead lol

(really, I wonder how many people find canonical Jee sexually appealing without any glamorization involved. I saw ficwriters calling him handsome, but it feels more like comforting lie to me, tbh. On the other hand, being fond of Zuko's ponytail myself, I know what it's like to have something you enjoy to be discarded all the freaking time for the sake of majority's preferences. I don't want to do the same kind of shit with Jee fans, even if I myself don't get the appeal.

... and now I wonder if giving Jee defined abs can be considered a glamorization too D: I mean, we didn't see him shirtless in canon, so...

ugh! to hell with it! I study basic anatomy at the moment, so defined muscles it is >__<

shut it, my pesky super-ego, I can give Jee a mirrorverse-canon belly later)

[hepilsketches]

another portion of jeeko positivity here

yep, I used Rejlander's "Hard Times" as a pose reference because I'm sophisticated like that

There could be a joke here about Sozin who decomposed into mold and linden honey, but no one would get it most likely, aww

(Anyways, what do you guys think about Jee having chest hair? The first time I gave it to him I did it solely for the sake of the value composition lol. Literally, that was the only reason. It's kinda fun to draw, but it's not a hill I'm going to die on for once, so… I wonder if it matters to anyone (all things being equal).

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Annnd to more general problems. Predictably, I pretty fast came down from the "yay, I'm drawing again" mode to the good old "I have no good ideas and my art sucks" one. And I also got a job. But I'm not ready to give up on my motivation without a fight just yet.

My motto as an artist is "in any confusing situation just go study anatomy" god knows I need it. So unless you guys give me some requests, that's what I'm going to do.

And who knows - maybe occasionally adding atla characters' heads to the muscles I study will make some people happier ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (I discovered that making people happier is a nice change from my usual routine of shocking them with repulsive personality of a socially awkward autistic hermit lol.)

So expect in this blog a lot of shirtless for-no-good-reason atla characters who are slightly more muscular than they were in canon, lol. Or maybe not. Life is unpredictable.