The Groovy Den

Art, Gijinka and stupid stuff

[thegroovyboar]

the only reason this illustration exists is because I wanted to draw a Rokurokubi Gyaru. In my head it was the best idea ever. Rokurokubi are such a cool looking type of yokai (there are so many cool yokai in fact) and I really like the Gyaru aesthetic so I wanted to combine them in a character. Lately I just love to design cool looking monsters characters.

that being said Gyaru comes in many versions like lolita fashion and i was a little overwhelmed with the possibilities. I was aiming for a ganguro gyaru but in the end it kinda feels more like a onee gyaru. Of course the fashion styles are quite similar and sometimes they blend in one another.

I didn't wanted to just draw the Rokurokubi so I decided to put my monster ocs Hitomi and Akai aswell. this are probably Hitomi besties (even if I imagine her as the kind of person almost everyone likes and has tons of friends) awing to Akai present for Hitomi (not an engagment ring, more like a serious girlfriends ring..?) the other friend looks a lot like a werewolf..but she's supposed to be a goth yeti, I made her too grey i'm afraid. She's very Elvira inspired. I tried my best to have three diferent boody shapes with a thin one, a fat and luscious one and a muscle mommy one but I'm not sure if I was succesful with that. i would love to draw very different body types because I like to think that in a society where all kind of monsters live together beauty standards are way different and all bodies are celebrated.

Lately I'm not drawing much. I'm kinda uninspired but most of all it's soo hot and I don't have a place in my home with good natural light, to draw I have to use a lamp on my desk which is so so so fukin hot. I hope to draw more as summer ends. i hate summer so much. it sucks balls. I can't do my walks without melting and diying and I don't feel like drawing either. I want fall right now.

[fedini]

☀️🌙

[thegroovyboar]

Long time no see. unfortanetely because of my wrist inflamation, no inspiration and the scolding hot climate in italy i'm not drawing much lately. I hope to get back at it eventually, but i'm sure it won't be like in past anymore. I just don't have all that energy anymore.

Instagram algorithm knows me and showed me some photos from an all women japanese theatre company called Takarazuka Revue, and god knows I'm a big sucker for a woman in elegant men clothing.. perfection (✿◡‿◡)

all the photos of the main couple actressess dynamic made me think so much of my ocs Hitomi and Akai and I knew I had to redraw at least one! (even if I wanted to redraw them all because thy're beautiful photos and amazing costumes) those actresses are just. so. beautiful and cool.

I tried to do a full background, even if i'm never goo at those but It wouldn't look good with only the characters. also in the initial sketch there were more background chracters but I scraped them, they looked awful. backdrop filler chracters are so difficult, becuse they must look less detailed to not fill and distract from th focus of the piece but still look decent. impossible skill level for me. since it's been a while from the last big backgroun draw i'm quite satysfied, even if it's not and amazing piece. I'm totally in a monster drawing / designing mood so i'll do more for sure!

[thegroovyboar]

A draw I made of my three roleplay OCs Gail Le Lay, Süleyman Za'atar and Aleksandrya Athanasia Ambrož, that I like to call all together Disagio Siblings (disagio meaning awkwardness, as this three are quite problematic each own in their unique way).

The idea was to focus on my weak point, inking, and try my best to create something decent without using color, which is my comfort zone, and try different techniques. I think I did... well. It's not excellent. My lineart is always quite messy and the crosshatching is not clean at all. I also wanted to use stipling to shade the characters' faces, but it was coming out horrible so I gave up. I though this was going to be quite tedious process as I don't like inking, but in the end as I was in the zone it wasn't so bad. Still, I prefer much more rendering with colors. They're amazing to cover up all my mistakes.

Of course this took me way too much time, I knew this was going to be long. I definetely respect people that inks whole comic or manga pages traditionally. It's a slow and precise process. Not my thing but i'm happy I gave it a go. I hope to do more detailed linearts in the future but most of all to try and make them more clean and not rush them, which is my biggest problem.

[thegroovyboar]

« Oh yes ma'am the heart is definetely the most delicious part of the human, What a shame they only have one each, isn't it? Hehehe.. what? suffer? Oh no, ma'am, absolutely not! Human farming is completely ethical, without any kind of cruelty! They live a wonderful life without any problems, and when they're fat enough and the time comes… well, bang, it's just a moment and they don't feel any pain! Hehe, I wish I could have a life as wonderful as that, instead of huffing and puffing all day here..! Hehe.... what? fingers? Of course, ma'am, with or without nails? »

It's been a long time since i've drawn a more finished and polished illustration. In the past months i've been just sketching in my sketchbook, and not very frequently, so I knew I'd be pretty rusty... but this was truly a humbling experience. Wanting to do such a complex, detailed illustration with some perspective too was definitely not a good idea. I struggled and it took me about five days of work.

The inspiration for this illustration came from Caio Yo, one of my favorite artists on Instagram. His subjects are very different from mine, definitely less gruesome, but I really admire the way he manages to create small environments, simple yet complete and fascinating, often using isometric perspective. I'll include a couple of his illustrations at the end to make sure I understand what I mean. In general, I love his style, his use of color, everything. But whenever I create an environment, I tend to add too much detail, making the scene chaotic and disorganized. The final products are often very different from how I imagined the drawing in my head.

That being said said, I know it's a bit of a weird illustration… tending towards gore… I swear, I'm not a psychopath, at least I think so. I like to flip perspective and imagine a world where we are the cattle. And I love drawing monsters. At first, the butcher was supposed to be an oni, but I've already drawn some in the past, so he became a kappa (I love how derp he is, how cute). Obviously, it's the same world Hitomi and Akai live in. I want to draw more illustrations of this world, I relly like drawing colorful monster gnawing on human's organs. I'd like to take up drawing seriously again, and I think I'll start with my OCs. I haven't considered some of them for ages… because there are too many. I already have some ideas, but my wrist reminds me that I have to take my time.

[thegroovyboar]

ᗷOᑌᑎTIᖴᑌᒪ ᔕᑭᗩᑕE

An illustration based on a quick draw I made for Inktober in 2017, which in turn is based on a draw I made in middle school, inspired by a videogame art design that I don't remember the name. Inspiration is cyclical sometimes.I always have many ideas and not much time for them unfortunately.

If I say myself this illustration is quite good and I'm proud of it. I tried multiple times to draw outer space at this point and I feel like this is the best attempt I made so far.I had a very good NASA photo for reference, it helped me somewhat. It was a fun one that I had in my head for a while and I'm happy I finally had to put on paper.

Watercolor pencils, alcohol markers and colored pencils on blue toned paper.

[thegroovyboar]

Last november I went to a trip to Rome and it was kind of wild, I've visited 11 museums in 4 days ahah. In the Capitolina art gallery I've found the most glorious, noble and beautiful Komainu little statue and I knew I had to draw him one day. I just had to. he was so derp, and goofy, and it was sorrounded by other cool komainus, and it was obvious thta he was the Moon Moon of the group. Unfortunetely he was displayed in a very small cabinet so I couldn't take good photos of him but I think the derpiness shows well anyway. It's been a while since the last time i've drawn something but still I think this is a masterpiece depicting such a perfect statuette.

[thegroovyboar]

An illustration of my oC Akai. I'm not drawing much as for now mostly beacause i'm doing other things and my wrist inflammation is reutrning (at this point it's obvious it will never really go away.) so I did something more simple. My OCs Akai and Hitomi are my most favourite to draw because they're quite colorful and have a slick design so I feel i return to them when I'm not sure what to draw.

Also I discovered that sport pictures, especially tennis and volleyball make for amazing dynamic poses references.

[thegroovyboar]

A draw for the new year, five days late, not too bad.

I just received a lovely package from the even more lovely OoAnBuOo, wich contained, amoong many others goods, some art materials, most notably a set of six faber castell polychromos colored pencils. I already own a couple of them I bought individually at the art shop and they're EXPENSIVE but very good, so i got excited, also because colored pencils are my favourite art material. I challenged myself to draw something using the material provided (and a pencils and eraser of mine).

I knew that it would been challenging so I opted for a subject which had all the colors provided in the set, and to celebrate the year of the snake I wanted to draw a african bush viper, gorgeus animals whish perfectly fitted the theme and colors. The polychromos are so good at blending and on my most beloved taned paper they're just so smooth to use. Colored pencils are a slow medium that requires patience, as the correct way is to layer them many, many times. this colored pencils are so pigmented and yummy. love them. I'm gonna treasure them for a long time I think.

Also in the package there were some liquitex acrylic markers in neon colors, which are something different from me, as I don't use neon colors that much but they were nice to use. But I knew that neon and highlighters don't work at all with the scanner, so I had to take photos, and I suck at taking photos. meh.

finally, I decided to call this piece "Year of Resistance" because the LGBTQIA* center where I do voluntary work there has been several homophobic attacks and vandalism. Italy is more and more fascist and a increased danger and bigotry, so I think it will be all war and resistance from now on. Well ok. the world is shit in any case, so bring it on, we're ready I guess.

[thegroovyboar]

No use crying over spilled tears.

Because the problem isn't so much the mistakes you made, but the time you wasted crying about them.

this illustration has a cool concept, but a terrible execution. This draw SUCKS! there are so many things I'm unhappy about and doesn't look very much as I pictured it in my mind. But I worked on it so i'm gonna post it again because I really like the basic idea.

Also the scanner killed the colors. I've used so many different shades of blue in this draw and it all looks the same. fuck (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻

[thegroovyboar]

Savory Kaijūs

Nagamaki (o Shenlonigiri) VS Octoramen (o Ramenpus)

A battle of titans! probably that's what happens in my stomach after I went to all you can eat japanese restaurant.

the real drawing align perfectly, but the scanner unfortunately cut part of the image and so I had to adjust it a little bit. not phenomenal but that's the best I can do.

[thegroovyboar]

Cockroaches! 🦗🦗 I decided to channel my inner Marcello Barenghi and give a try to realism! I feel like bugs are the perfect candidate for realism because they look super cool and also there are a lot of details that make a little easier to make them look realistic. I feel like for my first try is not too shabby and as a thumbnail on computer it looks like a photo! (yes, that's how I name my files, keyboard gibberish nonsense) that being said I forgot to put shadows which is a very important component to realism, but when I noticed I already scanned it and I was too lazy to do it. 🤷 Meh lesson learned.

[thegroovyboar]

V - The Royal Magus

.

.

"What are you willing to sacrifice to gain the power you think you deserve? What limits are you prepared to surpass, what laws to violate in order to wander into uncharted territories, in order to become something completely different and formidable? You know the price and you're foolishly eager to pay it. In the end, it is not so important to have lost some piece, or completely yourself when you think you are invincible."

.

Final piece for Vintagetober! I know I'm always critical with my drawings but this one it's definetely the weakest of the bunch. The proportion are very off. for some reason I really didn't saw the mistakes until I was at the final touches. I fell like the sketch was actually good but something went wrong during inking.

and the concept it's not super original either. While with the others pieces I thought of a more deep meaning to the images portrayed, this one it's kind of literal with the "magic/ power comes always with a price " trope that at this point it's oh so used in fantasy media. yeah that's it. power=cost. predictable but I didn't had any other ideas.

The only positive note is that I went for some diversity and tried an asian protagonist, I feel like in the people that I draw there's some diversity already, but I could do more, especially with body types and race. there's so much variety of interesting human beings and so little representation sometimes.

And this is the end! I debated if to do a final post at the 31 with all the finished pieces together but I don't think I will, it would be redundant plus it seems like this kind of illustration is not so appreciated, which is totally ok, I had fun doing them so that's what matters!

[thegroovyboar]

IV - The Court Jester

.

.

"What are you willing to sacrifice to satisfy the others? Pleasing everyone is possible if you know how to wear and change many different masks, but eventually you might forget what your original face looked like. In the end, you don't need to know yourself if you'll always have the favor of others."

.

We're close to the end with Vintagetober! The Court Jester, I actually didn't liked my lineart, I thought in general was quite a weak concept compared to the others, but after coloring it I'm so much more happy with it! I like how delicate it came out, it looks both pastel and desaturated. Also even if it's simple I really like the background.

The concept is esay as I said, and it's about hiding your true self and putting on a mask specifically to appease the people around you, being your "friends", colleagues, society etc. This situation can happen in many ways, like a neurodivergent that tries to act like a neurotypical, passing for non cishet people, or just trying to be like someone that you're not when you met new people. It's draining, but sometimes necesary unfortunately.

I personally feel this illustration more closely than the others, since when I was in elementary school I was the class clown. I was very, very unhappy, but the others kids continuously asked me to do the old same sketches and stupid things again and again, and I thought it was the only way for me to be in their company. I ws more like a pastime than a friend to them, but at least I was in the group! Then when middle school came, I was in class with the same identical people (since I come from a small town it's quite normal), but they didn't care for my comedy anymore, thy've grown up and preferred more teenager things like boy band and making out. I was relieved as I didn't had to do those stupid act thta I hated to be honest, but at the same time I wasnìt part of the group anymore. I was alone. and from that moment later I've been very alone. the type of crying yoursel to sleep alone. After 15ish years of solitude, toxic friendships I desperately submitted to not be alone, suicidal thoughts and immeasurable pain and depression, I feel that at 31 years old I finally found my happy place. I like to be alone. I don't like to stay with people for a long time, and I don't like people. But I found many situations and different social gatherings that make me fell quite confortable to stay in company for the time I need. Mostly I don't want to act like somebody else. I won't wear any more masks. I'm not afraid to be alone anymore.

[thegroovyboar]

III - The Golden Heir

.

.

"What are you willing to sacrifice to make your truth being spoken? Will you continue to reflect the lights of those that came before you, or will you ignite your own very flame, raise your voice so it will be heard by everyone at last? In the end, some stars are made to die in the oblivion of a dark hole, for even brighter new ones to born and shine trough"

.

Week three of Vintagetober is the golden heir. Lots of warm colors here. I like how rusty looking the cape come out, it was definetely a happy accident thought ahah.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. So for the golden heir I immediately thought of a prince, or some kind of powerful figure that gets on the throne after their parents dying. I imagine the parent being so loved by the people that they reigned over, that their presence was warm, bright and sometimes overwhelming like the sun. The heir doesn't shine of his own light, but like a mirror or a satellite only reflects what was their parent light.

The heir has to make a choice: to continue to be only a reflection of what their parents were, and so just emulate and try his best to do like their parents would, or breaking this condition and making their own voice came trough.

With this idea, the first image that came in my mind was "someone ripping their vocal cords and showing them to everyone as to say: see, that's my own voice! that's my truth!" What a genius I am! what an artist ! of course I know nothing of anatomy, and so I thought that vocal cords are like.. tubes in our throat. easy to draw. well not. thy're not funny tubes in out throat. thy're like weird stuff membrane that open and close to make sounds. huh. not easy to draw. in the end I opted for an exposed throat area and the heir just indicating it. I think is not as a clear image as the one I thought. so the lesson is, if you want to draw human body stuff you must know your anatomy... at least a little bit! Did I learn my lesson? No. never. of course no.

At the end the metaphor is maybe, don't be afraid to not always follow other people steps and be courageous enough to say what is your opinion or your way to do stuff, because maybe, sometimes a new approach or idea can be the one that will revolutionize everything.

[thegroovyboar]

II - The Celestial Knight

.

.

"What are thou willing to sacrifice to respect all weaknesses, and constitute thyself as the defender of them ?  shalt thou be generous and give largesses to everyone, in cost of thy heart, exposed and undefended in front of the world's cruelty ? Be aware, because thy same sword you wield to guard thine neighbor could be the one that will cause thou the bloodiest of wounds."

.

The celestial knight, the second prompt, gave me some troubles. it was the only one for that I hadn't a clear concept in my mind ( when I feel inspired to draw something I have already a very clear image in my head of what it's gonna look which is both a curse and a blessing). In the end I thought about how a knight should be an emblem of sacrifice to "protect the innocent" as stated by the code of chivalry. I have to say that even if I talk about protection, I think about it more like a metaphor for altruism in general, event in the smaller things.

Generosity and altruism are definetely rare traits in nowadays society and lifestyle, because of how self centered and individualistic we've becomed, so I feel that genuine altruist people seems very special... but also destined to be disappointed and sometime even betrayed in their kindness. it's a pity, but as a very selfish person myself it's something I don't fully understand. It definetely takes a great strenght to be kind in these days.

for the art, it took me a lot of time to finish this one. Reflective and metal surfaces like armor it's always a pain in the ass. I'm not sure if I was able to really obtain the shininess of the metal. One thing I'm very happy with thought, it's how the figure of the knight seems to shine of bright light in the darker backgroung. let's be honest, there isn't much of "celestial" here. I've just thrown here and there some stars and called it done, because I was more invested in my whole stabbed in the back concept. the backgrounf is made in watercolor graphite which was absolutely perfect for a space/ night texture. The anatomy is... bad. but back anatomy is something I've never really studied well. all in all i'm happy with this one.

[thegroovyboar]

I - The Swan Princess

.

.

"What are you willing to sacrifice to look lithe and exquisite in every movement, even when you feel the weight of the world on your shoulders pulling you down? Would you obediently empty yourself, giving up everything that keeps your cheeks fresh and rosy ? In the end, they won't see your pallor under the spotlight."

.

The first prompt is the swan princess, and of course I immediatly thought about the swan lake and ballerinas. I'm quite the simple mind in the end. The Sacrifice here would be the hours and energies put in the training, that must be quite a hard workout to keep the physical shape to be able to look so graceful and seem that every movement costs no effort at all. But of course like any type of discipline at a high or competitive level, the efforts can become unhealthy and toxic under the pressure to stay perfect and graceful.

Now it's important to not paint everyone with the same brush of course. I don't want to incentivate stereotypes with my art. Also these illustration are to be seen as metaphors. I'm sure the vast majority of ballet dancers and athlets are perfectly healthy people. That being said, when I was searching for references, I've seen a lot of very, very skinny ballet dancers...

About the illustration, wings are a pain in the ass. Why I decided to draw six of them? Masochism. Like all the future illustration is made with watercolor graphite, watercolor pencils, alcohol markers and colored pencils. I like my mix media if it wasn't obvious by now. And you know what I also like?? intestines. Teehee.