Butch Yang Week Yap… Post? We’ll go with post.
Just posted my Yap Thread on twitter so I thought… why not bring it to tumblr as well this year? I wrote one for my first 2 Butch Yang Weeks but never posted them here cause there wasn’t really anyone here yet but what the hell. Here we go.
I think I redeemed myself from last year this byw in a big way. Last year I was stressed as fuck, trying to make art for all 7 days and failing miserably. There’s really only one piece from last year that I still like now, where this year I’m proud or at least extremely happy with everything I’ve produced.
As usual, I started off with brainstorming ideas surrounding this year’s prompts. A lot of these ideas I already had floating around in my head but hadn’t had chance to make them real yet (sbb quote for example, always wanted to include one but didn’t have the chance until byw), some ideas I didn’t go forward with (day 3’s for example. I ended up doing the comic element for day 5 and so I literally just made up the just right sequence on the fly. More on that when we get there tho) and some literally were finalised here.
Day 1!! give it up for day 1!!
💬 1 🔁 17 ❤️ 45 · 🦾Butch Yang Week Day 1: Bravado🦾
This was my starting point for a lot of the through-lines that I wanted to display throughout the week (the poster-ish layout, typography, borders, etc) and I think it’s a good piece to start the week off with. I love drawing Yang flexing 🤭
Day 2!!
💬 3 🔁 24 ❤️ 66 · 💍Butch Yang Week Day 2: Body Language💍
This one kinda came to me as I was doing it. I didn’t want to do something obvious (I’ve drawn Yang manspreading and being cocky quite a bit and I didn’t want to keep doing that) so I pivoted to thinking about Yang being nervous. It made me think of him flirting and being all bashful during his confession to Blake, so I thought ‘why not marry them? I haven’t drawn that before’ so that’s what I did and it was so fun. I love how I laid it out and the close ups of Yang’s blushing face and fidgety hands. I have to say, though, if I were to do something different I’d probably redraw Blake’s face as looking at it now, I’m not all the way happy with it. Love every other detail on her though, gorgeous gorgeous girl.
Day 3!!
💬 1 🔁 13 ❤️ 31 · 💈Butch Yang Week Day 3: Hair💈
Okay so. I really didn’t have a clue what I was going to do here, so I procrastinated and worked on days 4&5 before ever touching this piece. Maybe shouldn’t have done that but hey. I still think it fits with what I was trying to accomplish, just maybe would have done it differently in hindsight. Maybe would’ve had more of a consistent approach and had more of a flow between each stage Of hair growth but hey. It is what it is and I think the message of long hair being just right for Yang is an important one since butches having long hair is such a heated topic in the community. Love you long haired butches you’re very important to me.
Day 4!!
💬 1 🔁 11 ❤️ 24 · ☀️Butch Yang Week Day 4: Warmth☀️
My personal favourite to make and favourite now that it’s finished. This work is supposed to mirror the first panel of day 5 loosely, that’s why Yang’s wearing the same clothes in both. Anyway, this was originally meant to look much different, and instead of Yang laying on the grass, he was supposed to be standing up and facing the sun with his back to us but I drew that out and hated it, so I did something else. Guess what?? It turned out better than my original plan. Love that for me.
Everything about this drawing, from his gigantic mane of hair, to his scroll playing Dragula by Rob Zombie in his earbuds, to his serene face, to the Stone Butch Blues quote that made me cry when I first read it, all of it is so so fucking special to me. I’m very proud of myself for this one and I don’t say that about myself a lot so don’t expect much more pride from here. lmao.
Day 5!! We made it to day 5!!
💬 0 🔁 4 ❤️ 12 · 🌕Butch Yang Week Day 5: Vulnerability 🫂
I was working on this one from about mid June until 3/4pm today. I just had to pile more work on myself it’s cool. I definitely didn’t procrastinate at all 😃 Anyway. This one is kinda the bow on the present that is my art for this week.
Originally it was just supposed to be that first panel with Yang in front of the window, but then I realised that that was not the prompt. Yangst for yangst sake was not the prompt. The prompt was vulnerability, so who would Yang be the most vulnerable with?
Blake.
It’s not just Blake because she’s his girlfriend and she holds his gooey egg-yolky heart in her hands (she does but it’s deeper than that). It’s cause she *knows* him. She knows the depth of what tortures him in the middle of the night, she knows the pain and the burdens he’s had to soldier through. His nightmares reflect a few of her own, even if few and far between in the future they share here (which is loosely 3/4 years post Salem war if you’re wondering). But bad days still happen, bad nights still follow blissful days of laying in the sun and Blake knows that all too well. She knows Yang all too well and knows what he needs when he’s up past midnight panicking. He needs soft, reassuring words in his ear and a tight hug to keep him grounded, even if he can’t or won’t say it. That’s what Blake does for him that enables him to be completely vulnerable around her and to trust her completely.
Anyway, to round this up cause i have yapped 5ever, the only thing I wish I’d done here is to have animated the bees hugging and swaying slightly in the 3rd panel but I really wanted to post this today and so… I didn’t. Maybe in the future I will. I also might post the fic I wrote alongside this small comic at some point too. Who knows ;)
In Conclusion…
If you read this far, thank you.
After this week, rwby art from me will start to slow down as I move on to drawing from other medias that I love (deltarune (tomorrow) next) and working on uni stuff but I wanted to go out with a bang first, so I hope I did that.
As always thank you Brax (@/MlLFOLOGY) for organising byw, and thank you to all my oomfs, mutuals and random strangers on the internet that have liked, reblogged or commented on any of my byw art. I’ve loved making every single piece and participating in every edition of this very important week. I hope to be making more for any Butch Yang Weeks in the (hopefully nearby) future when volume 10 has been released into the world and the fandom flourishes again. For now, farewell Butch Yang Week, my sweet prince.
