[merriway]

Do you have any tips for how you developed your style? I want it to be like yours :3

OH my style has been developed over the course of many years through many different inspirations. I dont really have a name for it either per your other ask its more just like a hodge podge of all my favorite things. I can list some of my prominent inspirations for you to look up as well as list some of the things I focus on when arting!

For inspiration I'd have to go back to elementary school and say that my first creative inspo was probably the Nightmare before Christmas. I think that really encouraged a love of weird and whacky shapes in character design. Anime was obviously also a huge inspo and I love a lot of retro anime from the 80s/90s. Ranma, Moomins, Add in some PS1-PS2 era platformer mascots like sonic, spyro, crash, and klonoa. If we're talking video games too i gotta bring up pokemon cause thats been my obsession since the games first came out. From highschool through college I really studied a lot of art from classic disney and I'd say one of my favorite book series is "They drew as they pleased' I think studying that gave me a love for gesture drawing and acting. I think there was the show Wakfu which had a lot of art from Gobi and Bill Otomo and I loved how they pushed shapes in their character design. Takashi Nakamaru is a big inspo for me in how he stylizes and animates. He has such a level of volume and weight that what he animates feels so real but his style feels so cartoony and whimsical. Yuasa Masaaki headed one of my favorite anime, Kaiba. Which had a very stylized toony look but held a lot of darker heart wrenching themes. I really love cute/fun aesthetics mixed with heavier topics. Yoh Yoshinari is another major artist I reference a lot. Hes a major hitter at Trigger and I love the way he has blended both western and anime styles together. Also his extreme poses are so fun. I particularly love his book of sketches he did of Osamu Tezuka characters. Very toony but animated stuff. There is probably a lot more but I would say thats a erally good starting place to know where Im coming from. As for how I approach drawing. I will echo this as long as I live but gesture drawing gesture drawing gesture drawing. I took several life drawing classes in college and my favorite thing was to do short timed drawings of people and animals. There are so many videos for free on youtube about the Line of Action, about how to start gesture drawing as well as so many resources to find models/reference to draw from. Do 5 second gesture drawings where you can only get like three lines on the page, that helps you to focus most on the feeling and energy of a pose. Then 30 sec, 1 min, etc See how people do life drawing too. I really like Heinrich Kley and he was a huge inspo for many of the classic disney artists. You keep practicing that and it'll start to show up in your more stylized work. When you learn how to twist and bend shapes it starts to show in your personal art. For my personal art I tend to have a lot of mood boards, pinterest boards with artists I like and work that inspires me. I sometimes just spend 15min-30min looking at my favorite art, injecting the things I like about them into my brain and getting hyped to draw! Draw all sorts of styles, all sorts of things! Experiment with a variety of styles and eventually you'll start to create your own signature look. And dont be afraid to make a bad drawing!! I made so many! I drew on notes in class, on napkins, on post it notes, you name it. Just doodle and sketch bad things then try to figure out how to fix them through reference and learning. But remember to just stop and think about what you want! For example, what do you like about my art? is it the posing the shapes, the energy? Think about those things. Take a moment to ask yourself questions like 'what am I going for?" "why?" I think having a motivation, a drive, or something similar to that helps you want to draw and not get caught up with social media and trying to compete with your peers. Overall enjoy the journey! You're your own unique person and all your own personal experiences can feed into your work in a way others may not! And good luck with drawing, I hope it stays fun for you!!

[merriway]

I know it's been a bit since you've drawn her, but I absolutely love and adore your Queen Boo design. Not only does she actually look like a ghost, let alone a boo, but she's not sexualized. (Unlike whatever that anime abomination boosette is-)

She's exactly what I'd image King Boo to look like as a female. She radiates power, pure evil, and sass.

THANK YOU!

Her name is Queen Tabitha and shes become a bit of an OC as well!

I dont really diss on anyones take, everyone has their own cup of tea! However, I do love to see more big lady rep.

Been a while since Ive drawn her so a lil russtyyy

[merriway]

Not really an ask, but I just found your blog and I love it sm

Your characters are wonderful

Aw than you! And thank you for reminding me I need to post more! I'd recommend following my main @thefairygodmonster I have more art up there!

[merriway]

I saw your latest post of Hamme sketches and oh my gosh you do a really good job at getting a variety in expressions when drawing him! Also this is slightly off-topic but I just got reminded of "he him hanns strong" while I'm thinking about oranhamme

He hamme him is strong! Honestly I love that.

And thank you! I get a kick out of his big ol mouth. Giving him a gigantic face also means lots of room to do silly stuff.

[merriway]

Does Merrilee have a separate form they use to interact with their universe?

They actually appear as their dragon form within their universe to interact with it! They sometimes change their size but I dont think I’ve explored the thought of them taking on other forms outside of their dragon self. It would be cute though!

[thefairygodmonster]

Can someone help me give me the name of the illustrator who draws this character? Sorry if its not accurate, Im drawing from memory but the illustrator used this guy a lot in their pieces and I really adored their work but cant remember their name or find them on my inspo blog ;C

[merriway]

[merriway]

OKAY THEY WERE FOUND!  THEY ARE ON TWITTER 

[merriway]

starniv0re replied to your post “Bibble Bamble Im doing a Ramble![[MOR] I find it so difficult to...”

i wanna say its a lil bit of burnout, the migration to twitter, and being less active in art groups. it really doesnt matter how or what you post but damn do i also feel reluctant on sharing things for all sorts of reasons, so I totally get that. I find that these feelings eventually pass so hopefully it is just that end of the year fatigue.

For sure. I think a lot of what Im going through other people have already been through or are starting to as well so its sort of just figuring this all out. Recognizing what it is and how to address it, etc. 

[merriway]

Bibble Bamble Im doing a Ramble!

I find it so difficult to share stuff online nowadays. I remember a time not too long ago I would post sketches all the time, share thoughts about my characters, share my opinions, and talk about whats going on in general. Im trying to get back to that but its been a journey.

I met a lot of good friends this way and got to interact with people I look up to. Now I feel like I overthink anything and everything I might want to put up. I find myself apologizing more than anything. I feel like I let possibly good friendships slip through the cracks and its impossible for me to determine whether these people are also just taking it easy from social media or feel like I stood them up. And this is part of the problem. 

I dont know how I appear online to others and thats quite frightening to me. I worry about coming off too forward, too fake, too this or that. Has my silence been received as me being standoffish or ignoring someone? Do they think I dont like them? I dont know! I want to be an earnest fun person but it feels like everyone is watching and I need to be careful. I spent a lot of time trying to meticulously craft what I post and how I post in order to be good but I think it just ended up messing me up really badly. Its pretty easy to get swept up in an online persona and forget to take care of the real you.

It felt like I lost sight of who I am, what I want, what it is Im doing and so the past few months have been therapy and trying to rediscover those things.

I want to get back to just sharing things like I used to and not being afraid. I dont want to compare anymore. I dont want to make myself feel like Im doing something wrong because Im doing something different from what I see. Im working on it too and slowly getting better. I sometimes feel like things may be beyond fixing but all I can do is move forward. 

This isn’t meant to be sad or depressing by any means. Just stuff thats been on my mind that maybe others will find useful. I think its good to step back and realize the effect the internet and social media have on our lives and remember that it doesn’t have to control us.

 Even if things go south you can always work on  healing and becoming better.

Im okay! There is so much ahead of me and I’ll take things as they come or try. Im not on a deadline and I’ll take time to do me.

[merriway]

mmmmbees replied to your post “I think sometimes we feel like we are regressing in our art. I think...”

Been really needing advice like this recently, thanks for posting this!! Ive gotten super frustrated with how hard it is to go back to cartooning after spending a long semester figure drawing but itll be for the better in time!

Thats very relatable I think! I think I wanted to focus more on volume, weight, and shapes but I feel like I’ve lost a lot of energy I used to have in my previous art. I feel like my line of action and gestures used to be really strong and really pushed. Its been hard figuring out how to combine what I’ve recently learned with that energy I had before.  I have friends who feel like this as well, they’ve been rebuilding their foundation and feel like their cartoons/style is lacking again. It can make us feel defeated but we got this!

[merriway]

I think sometimes we feel like we are regressing in our art. I think thats pretty normal honestly. Im learning that progress is not as linear as we think. In fact I think a lot of times we need to step backwards to move forward? Why? Because we need to go to the root of things to make actual change.

I was given the advice that when I feel stuck in my art it helps to go back to basics. Its been a hard bit of advice to take honestly. It can be frustrating and I often lament doing it. It feels like ‘I should know this already’ “I’ve already done this why do I do I have to go through this again?!” and sometimes makes me feel stupid for not retaining knowledge. But considering all the things we have to do and think about on a daily basis I dont find it surprising that things slip between the cracks and get lost. So its good to go back and refresh your foundation. 

Sometimes this process may make you feel like you’re art is regressing too. It feels like that cool style you worked so hard on is falling apart. As an example, I feel like I’ve lost a lot of elasticity in my art recently because I was trying something different and now I have to go back and relearn that all over again. 

Going back to basics tends to mean deconstructing things and it can affect a lot of things. Its hard! I feel like I’ve lost progress and wasted time...but I havent! In fact Im reproaching all of this with new knowledge and while its a pain in the butt because it takes time to relearn everything it also hopefully means I’ll come out the other side better off for it.

Social media doesn’t help either. Because all of our journeys are on different tracks sometimes I may be going backwards while someone is going forward and it does make me feel like a failure. But there have also been times I noticed when I feel like Im on a high while someone else feels on a low. Neither one of us is doing anything wrong. We are just on different rides and we all have our own rhythm and path. And our paths dont even necessarily have the same destination. 

Its okay to fail. Its okay to mess up a drawing and not know something and do it wrong. Art is always very experimental and you’ll have to try new things and go back to the start and try again. Its so fucking painful at times but its also very very normal. As long as you keep trying and keep yourself open to learning I think everyone will be alright.

[merriway]

i have a big crush on the soft orange beauty that is oranhamme--why have you done this to meeeeeeeee

Because I have a huge crush on him too and everyone must suffer with me!!!

[merriway]

I took a small break from drawing after having been working hard on multiple projects with little time to rest. It was very refreshing! However going back into drawing has been a bit tricky. My ability to draw isn’t an issue but how I want my art to look has been a question I’ve been asking myself a lot, lately.

I’m going back to a lot of my inspirations and influences to see if I can wrap my head around what Im trying to do again. 

If you decide to read please be aware Im writing this for myself. This isn’t meant to be any sort of guide or tutorial and the things I write down are very stream of thought and might not make a ton of sense because its hard for me to explain certain feelings and abstract concepts. I also ramble a lot;;

Inspirations: 

Dofus (Treasures of Kerub and Movie)

Takashi Nakamura (Catnapped, Peter Pan)

Inu Curry (Madoka and Universe-Music Video)

Muppets

Masaaki Yuasa (Lu Over the Wall, Kaiba)

Egon Schiele

Warren Kremer (Harveytoon Comics)

Little Nemo in Slumberland (Comics by Winsor Mccay and Movie by Tokyo Shinsha)

Pokemon

Klonoa

Spyro (Both Original and Reignited Trilogy)

Ub Iwerks

Variety of Early Disney Artist (Albert Hurter etc)

Cory Loftis

Variety of 80s-90s Anime (Grimm Fairytale Adventures, Creamy Mami, Maple Town, etc)

Soviet Russian Animation (Snow Queen, Tin Soldier

Kockásfülű Nyúl (Checker Eared Rabbit)

Rayman

1930s-1940s Cartoons

Метеор на ринге 

Sonic the Hedgehog

Fabien Mense and Bill Otomo

And many more but I think this embodies a lot of what I like in art.

I think from this list I can boil down what I like in art and what I want.

Exaggerated Shapes: I really love it when people push feature and shapes to the extreme. I particularly like it when theres a big contrast in the proportions like a huge barrel chest with really skinny legs or a really large head on a teeny body. Balanced designs with extreme and unusual shapes. I love this even more when its paired with simple clear shapes. 

Simplicity: I really like simple but striking designs This kind of plays into shapes but I love characters who have a few lines but are still iconic and get their personality across.

Appeal: I think its really amazing when people can stretch and push a character. Really over the top detailed expressions are a real talent. However when things get too gritty it sort of turns me off. By gritty I mean stuff like ren and stimpy where they hyperfocus on gross stuff and overly render a zit or something. Its not bad and I think it requires a lot of talent to do but its not my cup of tea. 

I suppose an example for pushed expressions that still keep the character appealing is stuff like 80s toony anime where their faces can stretch to absurd degrees and even get detailed but its still more ‘funny’ and ‘appealing’? 

Weirdness: Stuff like Klonoa, Rayman, Inu Curry, and some others in the list above, really influenced me because they had this unique blend of weirdness. Like Rayman having no limbs, and some klonoa characters had floating appendages too, or characters looking like 3 different designs put together are really neat? Its stuff like that which inspired the Dreamons I think. Its kind of like adding a mystery ingredient that gives that final ‘something’

Whimsy: This goes hand in hand with weirdness but I think theres a very particular brand of weirdness I like where its definitely odd but still very light, bouncy, fantastical, and overall fun. Something that feels surreal like a dream while still being coherent.

Fluidity & Energy: I think this ties into a lot of the previous things. Simple and exaggerated designs are fun to move and draw poses for. I like it when people break models to make a drawing or character look ‘fun’ Masaaki Yuasa is one of the best examples of this I think. 

Stretch and Squash: This sort of ties in with Fluidity and Energy but maybe ties it down a bit. I guess if I could put these concepts together it’d be like a taking a flexible mold and filling it with liquid. A character can be really smooshed or pulled out to make fun poses and expressions and move but never quite loses their overall ‘shape’

Volume: This is where things get tricky for me personally. I love things being simple and super stylized but when you can also add volume and weight to it I think thats absolutely magic. Takashi Nakamura is one of my favorite artists for this. Catnapped and his other works have these really simple toony characters but they way they’re drawn and animated has this feeling of ‘life’ that I see a lot in disney movies. Its like, these characters really occupy a space like a person but are still these simplified and weird shapes we dont normally see in real life.

[merriway]

HI! Been a little while, was finishing freelance and just got finished with a con! Took a rest day today but I’ll be drawing again soon. I also wanted to rework some things for my trainer, Bean, And Pop cause I’ve had some new ideas for them while playing pokemon!

[merriway]

Okay, a little more on some of the ideas.

Essentially I wanted to split Bean into two separate trainers. Mainly because theres just a lot going on with them and its always felt a bit cluttered and confusing and I never knew what direction to go with them. I think splitting them into two and having both sides have a focus is a much better than one character who just does everything and anything.

So Bean has become Vaughn(Bean still a nickname) and Beryl (working name)

Vaughn is from Unova and started out as a competitive trainer. They loved myths, local folklore, and visiting historical sites on their adventures. Their pokemon partners reflect this interest and tended to involve ghost, ground, and dragon pokemon or pokemon tied to history in general. 

They enjoyed the competition scene but as they grew older they became more aware of how difficult it would be to make a career out of pokemon battling. Vaughn didn’t despair though and instead focused on the other passion they had on their travels, history! Vaughn would study to become a historian/archeologist. Overall they try to hunt down the lost past of their own region and try to piece together the history of Unova and the pokemon world in general. They also have interest in other regions and try to see if theres any significant links that tie the regions together.

Currently one of their main focuses is the ancient ties between pokemon and human beings.

Some of their team members include: Claydol, Cofagrigus, Beheeyem, Palossand, Dargonite, (Still deciding between goodra, zweilous and noibat woops)

They also have a small partner riolu who just chills with them outside his ball and mostly helps with their investigations.

[merriway]

HI! Been a little while, was finishing freelance and just got finished with a con! Took a rest day today but I’ll be drawing again soon. I also wanted to rework some things for my trainer, Bean, And Pop cause I’ve had some new ideas for them while playing pokemon!

[merriway]

I know you’re on a Pokémon kick currently but have you played the new Luigi’s Mansion game yet?

Not yet! Though I would like to eventually! 

[merriway]

Aaah! I love lickilicky’s design a ton, I think it works as such a cute character even outside of the pokemon franchise so I always want to draw Pop in other outfits and go crazy with his expressions. Funnily enough thats what lead to the creation of Oranhamme. But Oranhamme has become his own thing entirely and sometimes I just love the simple eyes and pink bubblegum wad look. Oh theres a bunny here too.

[merriway]

Some other silly warmup doodles from the past week or so. Drawing sonas has been the thing keeping me sane between storyboard freelance, preparing for designer con, commissions, and trying to manage all the regular life stuff as well.