I felt like drawing something super kawaii, so welcome to the fan crack at its finest.
There's the popular headcanon/au situations with the 2012 Ninja Turtles that Leo is trans femme and hasn't realized it yet. (All Leo's are trans, btw, I don't make the rules.) So in the interest of exploring this popular fan trope, I've played around with a trans femme Leo story in my head for a while. This is her.
When she's first brave enough to express who she is, she starts trying to find a good feminine Renaissance name to still fit the family. She is told that she doesn't need to feel pressured to stay within the box to still belong, this is her chance to break out of it and explore herself. She starts looking at names that have to do with the color blue, ultimately landing on Sky. And then, because her very loving family is deeply unserious, she ends up with the nickname GoGo. Because she *didn't* decide to use Indigo. Obviously.
So Sky is the name she introduces herself as to new people and uses in school - because of course she's in high school, pfft - and GoGo is the family name people have to earn.
There's a lot to this fan crack story, but that's the overview of why she is Sky GoGo. It's a multiverse story and all her siblings end up with name changes, but we'll see if I sketch those guys later or not.
Welcome to another installment of The Art Archive! Where we dig through my old sketchbooks to find the treasures hidden in there. 1998! We're digging really deep today, folks.
Be kind to the child who drew these.
Full breakdown of the story and analysis of what was going on with 13 year old me in the link above.
hey um. so sorry to tell you this, but op of that post plays toys kinda weird. yeah you should just block them, that's not how normal people play with toys
The entire point of, OK, my phone really wants to call it Anastasia so I guess we’re doing that? The entire point of Anastasia (as administered by a board-certified Anastasiologist) during sugary. Sugary? Haven’t I suffered enough? The entire point of Anastasia during augury. Jesus Christ. Hold up. You know what, augury is preferable to sugary. Augury is obviously performed by an auger (makes sense if you give it a think) whereas sugary is performed by…? A sugardaddy? NO THANK YOU. Anyway. The entire point of Anastasia is so that you don’t know what music your sturgeon. Fuck right off. Was playing. While you were under. You’re not supposed to wake up from Anastasia and immediately realize you managed to get earwormed by Motörhead’s “Ace of Spades” during your sugary.
I drew this from a Patreon poll of colors and we ended up with blue, green, and grey. I couldn't resist the urge to do something dramatic with Leonardo.
And when I say I couldn't resist, I mean I tried to.
TL;DR - I was reminded that art is about expression, and if I'm in a dark place, it's perfectly fine for my art to be there with me. The point of my art is for it to be there with me, wherever I might be
Full story of the emotions of this one under the cut.
There was a time in my life where almost all I drew was super dramatic, heartbreaking, horrifying moments in stories. That hasn't been my jam these days. However, I was going through a rough time. I'd been on the emo rollercoaster and I can only speculate that it's chemical imbalances at this point. So I was sitting at my desk looking for a good Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles screenshot to do a redraw of - because I like to focus on color more than coming up with my own composition when it's a color challenge poll - and I just couldn't find anything I liked at all. This moved into a bit of an emotional spiral, like one does.
And I kept coming back to this screenshot.
This is from a very pivotal moment in Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie - which if you haven't seen it, you really should, it is an amazing animated horror movie with the goofiest moments sprinkled into a completely terrifying premise. This is a moment in the final act and you can bet I cry every time.
So I finally gave in and decided that this was the only screenshot that spoke to me. And something interesting happened. By the time I was done sketching, inking, and laying out base color, I felt a bit better. I felt accomplished. I gave my hand a rest for the night and came back to it the next day, still in a depression haze. And by the time it was done, I felt a little bit more better. It stayed sitting open on my desk for weeks afterwards and it gave me a little boost every time I saw it.
It's not perfect and it doesn't have to be. The color challenges are about me experimenting with a limited pallet, as well as getting reacquainted with tools I may not have touched in a while. Every time I pull out my art pencils set, it's like visiting old friends again. I was reminded that I have to layer them on top of the color, if I miss a space and try to put the color over the top after, the effect is different. I was reminded that I need to be patient and build up from lightest to darkest, not grab the darkest one and skip five shades to just get the dark in there fast, it doesn't have the desired effect. I was reminded that I really like blending and tinkering with the details.
I was reminded that art is about expression, and if I'm in a dark place, it's perfectly fine for my art to be there with me. The point of my art is for it to be there with me, wherever I might be.
I was also amazed that my phone camera made this look really fantastic in just the dim light of my computer screen instead of the overhead light when the pencil kept reflecting weirdly.
Prisma pencils and art pencil set, with sharpie marker inked lines
Y'all I just realized that I can follow the hashtags of all the comics I'm trying to follow on here and keep losing and yes that made be go through all of my faves this morning to follow hashtags and basically I'm gonna need some of you to make unique tags for your ongoing comic how am I supposed to find it again otherwise?????
A Patreon poll dictated what colors I'd use: 4 purples, 3 greens, 2 blues, 2 grey, 1 brown. Sometimes when I want to play with colors, the easiest thing to do is to draw something from a screenshot. Rise of the TMNT Donatello in his very canon hoodie.
I set the finished piece on my desk and was really amused by how well the colors matched everything already there.
Prismacolor pencils blended with a Prisma colorless blender.
turnnoffyourmind
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