Jen

Commissions currently Open | I have a shop now! Hello! I’m Jen, they/them Lots of One Piece, very occasional Cookie Run, Nine Sols, Genshin and Kirby gijinka. Ask box always open!! Gijinka Kirby ask blog @ask-gikabi reblog blog @553otaku

[otaku553]

Hello hello! My name is Jen (they/them), and I draw things.

Commissions

I've moved my commissions to VGen, so please submit requests and inquiries there! If you have any questions, don't hesitate to DM me!

otaku553 (@otaku553)

Check out otaku553's commissions and portfolio! | Jen, 22, they/them. I make illustrations, character designs, and comics! ...

Links

You can find me on most other platforms through the links on my carrd, as well as a portfolio of some of my work!

Jen | Otaku553

as it says

Shop

If you'd like to buy some prints or merch from me, please consider checking out my shop! I’ve just recently opened preorders for Beast Cookie charms and Kirby charms!

Otaku553

Prints and posters of One Piece, Genshin Impact, and Kirby

Projects

Here are some of the things I’ve been working on!

One Piece

Spade Pirate Sabo AU | Masterpost

Luffy Week 2024

Sabo Week 2025

Cookie Run Kingdom

Lost Shepherd AU (Truthless Recluse Time Travel AU)

Genshin Impact

Homuncular Nature (Albedo FMA crossover) | AO3

Ten Thousand Maple Leaves (Kazuha KNY crossover) | AO3

Albedo Klee Ageswap AU

Misc

Kirby Gijinka

Original Characters

FAQ

Can I repost your art? Please don't!

Can I use your art as a pfp or header? Yes, as long as you do so with credit!

[otaku553]

The tree and the star

I plan on making these into standees and so the backs of these have different designs that are spoilers for the manga! If you’re an anime only so far, don’t click!

Chapter 40 and 88 Spoilers ⚠️

On the fence still about whether to do these for the backs or keep their originals heh

[otaku553]

TADC FINALE SPOILER ⚠️⚠️⚠️

Don’t click into this until you’ve watched the final episode!!

I am. So emotionally devastated

[otaku553]

I made this piece while thinking about field mice sleeping in flowers and so I’ve had a tab of google images of field mice in flowers open on my computer for the past month

[otaku553]

I’m not super proud of how this turned out but after 11 hours I finally finished it!! One of these days I’ll get better at drawing environments and backgrounds

[otaku553]

Writing tips for a really busy irl person and also a really procrastinating person and also a really stuck in a writing rut person please please please

Ps: they're all the same person unfortunately T_T

1. If you have any part of your day or job where you have downtime or are just supervising something that doesn’t need your full attention, let your mind be like a movie theatre where you’re imagining what’s happening at some point that you haven’t written yet! I tend to write from what I can imagine visually so this has been helpful for me sometimes.

2. If you’re in a writing rut because you’re not sure how to continue something, try mapping it out with paper and pencil or on anything that’s not a writing formatting app like docs or word! This has been helpful for me in the past to make connections and figure out what’s going on if things are nonlinear. Example of some scrapped/recycled plans from homuncular nature below. They’re a bit incoherent so hopefully they don’t reveal anything I have actually planned for upcoming chapters.

3. Try just writing a paragraph or a sentence for fun for anything and see where it goes from there! Oftentimes with both writing and art I find that I get stuck in a rut because I have no momentum to start with and doing some quick sketches or a bit of warm up can do wonders for putting you in the mindset to keep going

This is the extent of my tips lmao unfortunately I too am a procrastinating writer who often gets writers block

[otaku553]

whats ur fave plushie or, if u dont have plushies, do u prefer a hard or soft pillow 🤔🤔🤔

My favorite is this Kirby plush that I got from a convention several years ago :) it’s perfect hugging size and sometimes I have trouble falling asleep without it

[otaku553]

If you don’t mind sharing your trade secrets, I was wondering what manu you used for the recent cookierun/kirby keychains you just posted? I really like that it’s full bleed, and while I can’t tell if it’s just the photo, it looks like to me that edges are rounded somewhat..? It looks super nice and I was hoping to get into merch making myself 👉👈

It’s not much of a secret! Vograce was usually what came up first when I was asking around and looking for manufacturers. The shipping can take a while but it’s generally pretty reliable and high quality! For those full bleed Kirby keychains, I think the edges might look round because of the refraction of light off the edge but they’re flat. Thank you for asking, and I hope this helps you get started making your own merch!

[otaku553]

I’ve had to rewrite a post like 5 times because it keeps saying it doesn’t support the media format and the media format in question is just a normal png. What’s going on

[otaku553]

Do you have a favorite color combo when coloring?

For aesthetics, my favorite combo is red and bluish green! I like it somewhat muted; I think it feels a little old and lived in and unsettling from how close to complementary they are. I started liking it because of Toilet Bound Hanako-kun, which has some absolutely gorgeous coloring and color combinations! It makes me happy whenever I see it, but unfortunately I don’t get a chance to use this color combo often in my own art.

For rendering, my favorite and what I use most often is probably this bluish purple and yellow. I feel like dark yellow gets a bad rep as an individual color but in combination with the purplish lighting it really brings out the cool lighting. I started enjoying this because of the art of Yuming Li, which often uses this purplish lighting with a warm ambiance that gives a very ethereal feeling to it. I think it’s because in natural contexts, we often are only seeing warm or neutral lighting. I try to work it into my art all the time but I’m nowhere near as masterful at it.

[otaku553]

Idk if you are still doing this au, but since tinybedo doesn't hide his homunculas status, does that mean he tells them he's from another world as well?

For the homuncular nature tinybedo AU? I think he doesn’t know enough about Teyvat at this point to realize he’s in another world altogether. Since his travels with his teacher were pretty isolating and often in the snowy mountains, when he mentions where he comes from people think he’s just from Briggs.

[otaku553]

Hi! Your art is gorgeous, how did you get into making art?

So as a kid I don’t really remember when I started drawing but my mom says I’ve always been into art since I was like 3, and my birthday gifts past that point certainly check out with that. My clearest memories are that I was very well-versed as a child in the art of Copying Everything My Cool Older Sister Did and that included copying what she tried to draw like Pokémon and photorealistic birds and anime characters. I didn’t even know what anime was and I was drawing anime characters through second hand exposure from my sister.

My sister was getting into anime around the time she was in high school and I was in elementary school, and I remember a classmate asking me what I liked to draw and the discussion leading somehow to anime, and it was over from there. After I asked my sister what anime was and she showed me how to draw it and got me started on Inuyasha and I just took it and ran with it up til now.

Nowadays I always think it’s a little ironic that my mom and my sister were the ones to teach me how to draw for all that they see me as the artist of the family now. I think they’re both plenty good artists, but I can’t tell anymore if that’s my nostalgia speaking or not.

[otaku553]

Which of the four elements do you find you have the most trouble drawing? (Fire, Water, Earth, Air)

I’m quite fond of water because I really like rendering reflections and lights, and air isn’t something you draw directly so much as something you imply through context in a piece (I.e. movement of fabric or hair in the wind). I got more used to drawing fire when I was working on the spade pirate Sabo comic, and it’s honestly not too bad once you figure out that cutting shapes from it makes it look more organic.

Earth is just something I don’t draw often I guess. I’m assuming plants don’t fall under the same category, but earth is a lot more opaque and physical than the other elements and that comes with thinking about form and topology in a way that you don’t have to as much for the others.

[otaku553]

what's the illustration you're procrastinating on?

Here’s a peek of what I haven’t rendered yet! I feel like I’m punching outside of my skill level for this piece with the perspective and so many characters in the composition. I’m not sure I’ll really like how it turns out but I want to see it to the end. Working on it just feels excruciating when I know it’s not going to be as good as I imagine it being.

[otaku553]

Hello! For the asks - What's your favorite non-human thing to draw?

I like drawing light reflections in water and through manmade things like glass and plastic! Reflections and refractions just make me so happy sometimes for no reason. Besides this I’m also quite fond of these little guys that Whery, Loopey and I will draw into all of our magma canvases. It’s from one of Whery’s ASL AUs and I remember it being one of the early things that kicked off my friendship with the two of them :)

[otaku553]

I’m continuing the tradition of using asks to procrastinate on work by procrastinating on the illustration that I’m working on for fun

[otaku553]

I’ve added some new keychains to my shop! Please check it out!