(Mike, in his own sexual fantasies, sees himself get absolutely demolished by Will btw <3)
Some close ups <33 also I want to add that this one has a bunch of tiny details so if y'all want, you can zoom in on those. Like especially all the little hearts and movement lines and the little droplets on their skin and dripping off Mike's hair
More close ups are under the cut ^^ + me rambling about my art and pointing out my favorite details again <3
I think my own personal favorite parts of this art are first of all all the poses and how dynamic they are. I used a bunch of reference pictures for this one (and changed/added some of my own stuff to some of them) and I feel like whenever I do that it always turns out so nice and looking very lived in. Like just in general I'm so proud whenever my art doesn't look stiff and instead is so full of movement and I think that worked out really well here. I also love the detail of Will pulling up Mike's sweater while Mike is leaning over him and the way they're like ear to ear in that drawing and how you can see a bit of Will's hair peek out behind Mike's sweater. Also the way you can see Will's stomach peek out between their legs. Another part I love is the way Mike is basically sitting On Will's stomach in the middle left drawing and similarly to the hair, Will's knees peeking out behind Mike a little. I also like Will's sketchbook design that he painted on it himself AND I'm very proud of the shadow under the sketchbook, like the way the sketchbook throws a shadow onto the couch. It's only a small thing but I like what it does for the perspective <3 Also in that bottom drawing Mike has his one leg kinda crossed under the outstreched one. Idk if that is understandable how I'm describing it but yeah. I also love the little stars at the top and Mike's open mouth there, plus his foggy glasses look so cute and his hair is supposed to be like wet with sweat. Also a detail that probably nobody would notice if I didn't point it out is that I made Will's hair a little longer in the back, so that it peeks out more and covers more of his neck simply cause I think that would look so so cute and pretty on him!!<3 also in the drawing where they kiss I wanted it to look like Will is pulling up Mike's sweater to undress him, that's why I wrote the "pull up" there lol. Also Mike in Will's lap!!! I love that!!!!! Makes me very happy ^^
Lastly I'm seriously just so so in love with the colors and how vibrant they are, it makes it all looks so nice and bright but also still intimate cause of the shadows. Also I'm really proud of how the colors blend into each other a lot, especially for the background. I think it makes it look nice because everything else is so full and so the background being just one plain color wouldn't have looked good. Like it would have looked empty in comparison to the rest. And the way I drew it here it also gives the drawing so much nice texture. Yeah, I'm just very proud of the colors <33
Bonus: the two color palettes I mainly used for this one and the ones I've just in general been using a lot for my byler fanart <33
Basically all the colors except for hair and skin are from one of these two palettes (especially the bottom one). Also the elmax one is one I use for El and Max as well whenever I draw them cause I think it fits them :>
no but seriously though this is so sad that his mind goes to the worst possible conclusion, which is "i'm greedy and i'm never satisfied". like booooy, you're not greedy, you're in loveeeeee!!! wake up, sunshine!!!!
Exactly!!!! He's beating himself up before he can sit with himself and actually figure out what ELSE might be the reason for his actions. Such a quick resort to self hatred :'((
I think its really engaging in this fic how much internal turmoil Mike has about the trajectory of his relationship with Will without it being centred on internalised homophobia. I love how other stories have explored his character in that way, but this one is a really good take thats different in seeing him though the lens of "If Mike were to struggle with his feelings for Will without his own issues with being gay, how would that go down?" His issues with their situation are turned in on himself and how wrong he's going about it rather than the queer nature of their relationship itself and its soooooooo sad but its soooooo good.
mike ur so close to understanding, please, its one step please mike. You wanna wake up next to him, you don't want other people to date him, you want to kiss himmmmm, mikeeee smell the fucking roses and get your mannnnnn
This thing between them, the thing Will won't say, the problem they fall back to that Mike can't name or understand. He's said everything under the sun that defines it to himself, how much he wants Will's time and his affection and to care for him. How much he does care for him. How he always has. Change to him means losing Will to college and the rest of their lives ahead, but to Will it means confessing and becoming more to each other. He doesn't want things to change, but if change means he gets to stay with Will, he's okay with it.
Maaaany more versions + my favorite close up + me pointing out my favorite details/some of my thoughts I had while drawing are under the cut. Also if you like my art then I would love a reblog <333
Okay so this one is just a version with different pillow colors cause I liked both and couldn't decide. I only picked the green for the first picture of the post cause it makes the background look more coherent. Also under that are just the two main versions without the polaroid part of it:
These two are without any of the shadows (lighting is still there tho) because I really like how vibrant the colors are, also I feel like the details are more visible here:
Then lastly I wanted to see what it would look like to give Willow some grungy, kinda smeared makeup and it's messy from like sweat and kissing and all that good stuff and yeah I liked that too so here have two versions of that ^^:
My favorite close ups:
Okay so some of my favorite details are: Willow's eyebrow cuts; all the piercings but especially Willow's nose ring and Michelle's eyebrow piercing (pls zoom in on that one, it's pretty tiny); Michelle's nailpolish that has hearts and one star on each nail; I really like Willow's socks and the design of Michelle's shirt; also Willow in pretty little underpants with lace on the edges; Willow's birthmarks, especially the small one on her ear; I did give Michelle freckles all over her body but that too is only really visible if you zoom in, also I always really like to give Michelle a few birthmarks in addition to the freckles cause that feels realistic, also I'm pretty sure Finn has them too; I love love looove how Michelle's hair turned out, all messy and curly spread over the matress and blanket and peeking out from under Willow's legs; I really like the shape of Willow's eyes and lips; as always All The Hickeys!! One on Willow's neck and then some on her thighs and a few on Michelle's stomach, I also gave both of them a few hickeys that are supposed to look a more faded, there's one on each of Willow's thighs but they really are pretty faded already so you probably only see it if you know that it's there; I gave Willow arm and leg hair because Yes also both of them have pubic hair but I think Willow's might not be too visible because the shadows are so dark there; also the writing is supposed to be in this glitter gel pen because I always think that's a very cute detail to add, also Willow would looove to put glitter gel pen on Everything; I also really like the patterns of the blanket and the pillow with the dots, I think those turned out really nice; I really like how Willow's watch turned out; pose-wise a detail that I really love is Michelle holding on to Willow's leg and then she has her other hand kinda lying on her own chest (maybe like doing the dino arms a little hehe); also I like how Willow's feet are positioned to be resting on Michelle's shoulders, idk I feel like little pose details like this make it all look more realistic and like they're actually interacting with each other; also Willow's hand in Michelle's hair; also I love how the part of Michelle's face that we do see turned out and especially the depth of her nose, like the way it doesn't look flat yk?; and the same goes for Willow's nose, I like how you can see the depth of it; oh also last detail: the writing underneath the picture is supposed to look like the "pretty face" was written there first by Willow and then the "(sit on it!)" was added in after by Michelle, which is why the spacing looks like that and also why the handwriting and the pen that was used is different for each
Some more thoughts on this drawing and the way I made it/what I wanted it to look like: In general I'm just very proud of the pose and the perspective here. Because I wanted this to look like a polaroid picture taken in the moment I wanted it to look a little more realistic which is why I put more focus on the depth and the shading than I usually do. Like I used a little bit of a different artstyle for this one. For example I don't usually blend a lot of my shadows but here I did and I did a mix of blended softer shadows and harsher shadows depending on how the light would hit the place that I'm shading. I think it worked out the best on Willow's shirt, like how it's shaded really makes it look like it's going down, if that makes sense? I also just have so many layers of shading for this. Like at least 10 layers of just different kinds of shading in different colors and with different opacities all laying over each other to make what it looks like now (I usually have like 1, maybe 2 layers of shading btw). Then on top of that I have like 4 more layers of different types of highlights, which I also think turned out so good. Like that's a detail you will probably only notice if you get a comparison of the drawing with and without the highlights but it does make such a difference and those subtle highlights are something I'm very proud of here. I also didn't put in some of the bright highlights or movement lines I sometimes draw, again because I wanted it to look more realistic and like an actual picture that was taken. Tho I did add in some very subtle movement lines cause idk, I like to add them, they're fun. I also put some skin texture on both of their skin to make it look more realistic but that also isn't too visible I think. I also adore the hickeys, like they are always just so much fun to draw but for this one I'm genuinely obsessed with how they turned out. I think they look more realistic than how I usually draw them and especially the different stages of faded turned out so nice. And now I have my own color palette on procreate just for different kinds of hickeys lol
Anyways that's it for now, I hope I see a lot of "Don't save Michelle, she's is right where she wants to be" comments under this because she truely is Exactly where she wants to be!!!
max keeps this photo in her wallet until it's old and torn and so bleached out that u can barely make anything out- but u can still see el's smile long after anything else.
