my beloved mutual sweetmapple I've suddenly remembered you once drew a piece of raw meat so realistic it squicked you out and you removed it from the drawing and as someone with normal views of the intimacy of cannibalism I'm a bit curious how you drew said piece of raw meat. Would you perhaps have advice on that?
AGHHH THE MEAT- good lord- it haunts me
Yes- this fucker right here, like I’m pretty proud of it but 🤢 (it’s the semi coagulated blood ontop that did it for me)
And beloved mutual I will happily explain it best I can for you🫶
I definitely had a ton of pictures of raw steak up on my main monitor for reference and generally (cause I have one other arkayne piece with raw meat in it lolll) I start with the solid red of the muscle and the striations of fat in a tan off white color. You need to pick which way the grain of the meat is going. Most (?) cuts of meat are sliced perpendicular to the grain so that does make it easy (Since I don’t have in progress pics of the meat above here’s the other one)
So the top piece kinda looks more like a proper cut of steak, with the band of hard fat on the top. I like to call the forked meat wagyu (lol) cause the muscle and fat is more evenly distributed at a similar ratio. Anyway- start with the red and tan colors- middling shades, and go in with a slightly darker and more rich red, kinda implying a “juicer” part of the meat. And I think it helps trying to think of the fat as a 3d object. If you see it on the front facing side, what’s the shape of it gonna be past that front facing boundary. And if you’re feeling spicy add a few drops of “sauce” (blood) at the end of the process. (Other tidbit- the fat is gonna hold its shape better than the muscles, so just sitting on a plate the red portions will slightly sink while the fat is slightly more rigid)
But if you’re going for a more “natural presentation” (cannibalism angle lolll) I’d just stick to the mind set of lines and striations. Muscle is just a shit ton of teeny fibers all going in the same direction as eachother
Also at the very end I play around with red overlays to make sure I get the right shade of red- usually aiming for a ruby like tone
Okay and last thing (this more works for cuts of meat lollll) so if muscles are all circular fibers stacked, the side view is gonna look like rectangles / straight lines but the top view is gonna be tightly packed circles. Just like drawing tubes / cylinders. And meat being actively torn is gonna look like cylinders being bent all noodly like- but holding tension like a pulled rope (but in thicker clumps because the muscle fibers are held together by fascia (think of it like sleeves of fat)
I’ve been chewing on this for a few days now and I’m not sure I entirely have an answer but-
For one year now (since listening to malevolent if I’m being honest) I’ve had a burning need to draw almost every day. And for the occasional day or two where I didn’t want to draw or couldn’t muster up something I wanted to draw I’d just do something else (usually Fromsoft games or playing piano)- I’ve found forcing it is never a good idea. (But that really wasn’t the question agh)
But when I do sit down to draw my driving force is truly The Character. Wanting to portray The Character in a hot way- in a badass way- in a sweet way- in a whump setting. Whichever of those flavors that speak to me in that moment.
Also-! I’ve found drawing for others really makes me motivated to get more complex ideas done. I get too anxious for commission work but if a buddy has a good idea it really makes me happy to draw it out. Sometimes coming up with ideas yourself is too difficult so others ideas can be so helpful! I’m so grateful for the suggestions I get cause it forces me to draw things I wouldn’t have considered. (basically all of my early smut stuff wouldn’t exist without me wanting to share it with my pals) (and that in itself is recursive, the practice drawing smut skyrocketed my anatomy knowledge giving me a greater ability to draw which also increased my want to draw because I could do things I had only dreamed of)
Also also- self admittedly I’m absolute shit at coming up with interesting poses and comp- so to work around that I started out doing a lot more comic pieces so the whole work is more focused on the story or idea rather than the individual composition and execution of a single picture. (Ie. If the comic needs me to show a character reacting a certain way- I’d do a close up of their expression and it allows me not to have to cook up a new pose, just portray what the comic needs for the story to progress) so I can have a few so-so panels but at least one or two that really gets me pumped
(Like below, the first page I was fighting for my life on the top and last panel but those two middle ones I was salivating for- just to get to Kayne’s reactions I had to draw those really difficult body angles (great practice and I never would have chosen those angles for a single composition) and the second page here was just bread and butter to me. Out of all 10 pages of the original comic I wanted to do that page the most- good enough can get you so far !!)
It’s led me to be more comfortable and confident in doing single comps. At the same time, I love how comics can accomplish true progression (the first picture below) but now since I’ve bleed and sweat over a multitude of bizarre poses for various comics I can accomplish the same goal of getting a feeling down on the page in an provocative way with just one drawing
God, alls this to say, I want to draw to get better to draw more difficult ideas and when I can finally draw more difficult ideas I get better and I want to draw more. My biggest tools in doing this was finding The Character (a true stalwart muse) and throwing myself upon the anvil of comics and anatomy study. And trusting my eye. I know not every one of my pieces is perfect- fuck no- but as long as I trust my eye in whether or not somthing looks good, I’m quite happy with it. And if it doesn’t look good to my eye, I could fix it or I’ll have to be content with how it is knowing it’s a little above my pay grade for where I am.
Fiction podcasts are a boon because if you can’t come up with an idea you can just cherry pick a favorite scene and tackle it :) and I always make a point to look at others art every single day. It’s so so so absurdly important to look at other people’s art and ask yourself questions. why do I like a piece? Why do the colors look so good? How do they draw their noses? What makes this piece obviously this artist? What do I gravitate toward? And last tidbit- the whole ‘kill your darling thing’ has really expanded my growth. Can’t really explain it but it’s allowed me to work much faster.
Forgive me if my speech is unclear or absurd. Thank you for listening to my Ted talk.
“You have the cold, calculated demeanor of someone not to fuck with”
It’s officially been one whole calendar year since I’ve listened to the first episode of Malevolent so I thought I’d redraw my first try at the boys~ a lot has changed in one year, I’m so grateful for the growth this series has provided me and the wonderful amazing and downright lovely people I’ve met because of it <3
thank you so much for lookin at all my stuff, I’m externally grateful <333
this might be a weird request/suggestion ☝️However. are you considering making any fanart for your arthur x callihan fic?? because 1. that was some top shelf stuff right there, and 2. i couldnt help but picture a lot of it in your style, and kept thinking it would look gorgeous. maybe I'm just gay, but listen...
