Dinahbabs Doodle

i am slightly artblocked 😓 but once i’m done w all the end of semester shenanigans i’ll try to pump out some art :]

idk if it’s just the side of tiktok i’m on but shalom harlow has been trending, mainly her old runway clips and an interview clip where she goes “my name is shalom harlow. i’m a model, a muse.” and im just taking this as a reason to share the fact that shalom harlow is my main reference when i draw viper :D

i actually have a small twitter thread explaining my references for whenever i draw viper if anyone is interested :3

I see a lot of confusion on why calling Damian Wayne "feral" is racist/problematic, so here's a rundown.

There's a difference between calling your child or your younger sibling "feral" and calling a character like Damian "feral." You know your child/sibling/niece/nephew etc. They're real people, and unless they have a problem with it personally, then there's nothing wrong with calling them feral as a joke. It doesn't (shouldn't) affect their perceptions by other people. It doesn't become a label that follows them.

Damian al Ghul-Wayne is a fictional character. A canonically mixed Arab/Chinese/Jewish White character with a history connected to some of the most prominent Arab comic book characters, who themselves also get insanely mischaracterized.

He's constantly whitewashed. He's been written with racist undertones (the suicide bomber vest). He's had his character development and progress backtracked time and time again by DC. DC treats him weirdly most days and completely shitty in the worst stories.

A good majority of fanon hasn't done any better than DC. You cannot pat yourselves on the back for being more inclusive or mental health aware than DC when you call a mixed Arab/Chinese boy "feral". It's constant. You can come up with various titles and nuances for every Bat-character, for every Robin.

Tim can be smart, a skater, a genius, the one holding everyone together, the little brother, the one who needs love. Jason can be cool, morally "right" or "wrong", unstable, PTSD-stricken, the one who was betrayed, the one with Shakespearean tragedies. Dick can be fun, happy, the first one, the prodigal son, the one with complicated history and the big brother.

You give them room for exploration. Love and care and attention and research. Many headcanons. You either comply with canon or you don't, but there's substance to their character.

What does Damian get? He's feral. He's rabid. He's a gremlin. He can't be reasoned with. He has no self-control, he's impulsive. He's hurt others, and you can't forgive it. Sometimes he's homophobic. Or classist. Or plain mean and rude to your favorite boy. He's always carrying a sword. A psychopath with no regard for another's well-being (usually Tim in a lot of fics). He can't be taught what's right.

I've seen people cry that Damian needs to punished or kicked out or treated the same way he's treated others. He needs to be brutalized or talked down to. He can never grow as a person, because he's mean to Tim or Jason, and you need him to exist as the abuser. His first move is always violent.

Fanon compares him to an animal often; he bites, claws, hisses, growls. Bruce or Dick or Jason or Tim have to wrangle him, tame him, civilize him the white man's way in lieu of his brown mother and grandfather who "clearly" raised him wrong. You don't see the issue with that? The issue with always labeling one of the few major brown characters in Batman comics as the unreasonable animal? That the child of color is always the abuser, the instigator, to older characters?

And even if you don't see him this way, you don't write him this way - then are you giving him the care and attention you give for other Bat characters?

Do you know anything else about him other than his "anger"? Because he isn't always angry. In fact, he's typically well-mannered. Quiet even, when he's not being provoked. DC's writing will always vary but whenever Damian lashes out, he's usually written with a reason to act the way he does.

Are you making him intelligent like he should be? A hard believer in redemption? A neglected and abused child who isn't meek or crying or closes himself within? Are you willing to explore that he's always exhibited the "wrong" kind of trauma responses - lashing out, being snippy, ruining relationships, refusing to admit weakness?

Do you write anything about him without making his mother and grandfather comically abusive and violent? Will you give him the supporting cast/friends he actually has? Can you write his dad/siblings interacting with him without making them white saviors or therapy pets? Can you write him without a ship or his love for animals or being vegetarian overshadowing everything?

Is he a character to you at all other than a glorified plot device with a sharp tongue and the convenience of being violent?

hc one of deadlock's hobbies is bouldering / competing in paraclimbing (AU1)

+ she ropes skye neon clove and fade into it

refs: mario persing (onearmed_climbing on IG), janja garnbret, natalia grossman, tomoa narasaki

translations:

taena ang hirap pala = fuck it's actually hard

kaya mo yan bhe = you can do it [girl] / afaik 'bhe' is a variation of gay slang 'bes', short for best friend

how do i get more valorant oomfs on here…..hello valorant enjoyers you should follow me especially if you like viper bcuz she’s all i rly draw these days :DDD

might render this later :P

nemesis sketches :]

really wanted to draw some women so i made my instagram suggest some

i was gonna do just the black and white like the cass here but then i had to color kori and then i had to colour talia and then the b&w didnt look right with diana,,,, and then i had to go back and colour cass lol

Sage and the pressure she's under

Y'know, something interesting I noticed while scouring agent voicelines—as I do—is the way the other agents talk to and about Sage. What really got me thinking about this was Waylay's voiceline about her: "Their Sage is good, but she is so stiff! I just wanna go over there and shake some fun into that girl."

One could argue that this is in reference to Omega Earth's Sage, who seems to be more ruthless than Alpha Earth's, but I feel like that doesn't hold up considering this could be said by Waylay regardless of whether she's attacking or defending. Technicalities aside, though, I got curious, and noticed that the other agents seem to (intentionally or not) place Sage on a pedestal.

I've mentioned in a past post that Sage has a very noticeable tendency to take on more responsibility than she should, which is very evident in the way she talks to the other agents and about herself. A few examples:

"I will defend you all with my power and with my life." "I wasn't strong enough before. But now, now I am strong enough for us all." "I will do anything for you all. I will subvert the flow, I will hold back the tides." "I will hold up the sky." "Trust in my healing."

Now, a lot of her voicelines are very team-oriented; encouraging other agents, boosting morale, highlighting teamwork, rallying cries, etc. I suppose these lines I quoted could be her attempt at reassuring her team and reaffirming trust, right? It's still a bit concerning, but maybe it's nothing all that deep.

And then I looked at what the other agents say to her. Most of the time, agents will get a wide range of voicelines about them, anything from wariness, to playful and impressed compliments, to talking about plans for off-field activities. Sage should be no different...except that she is.

One glaring common thread that nearly all of the ally voicelines toward her share is expectation.

Astra is quite literally the only one who doesn't have a single line putting pressure of some sort on Sage. Other than her, every agent talks about/to Sage almost like she isn't human, or like she's above them somehow. Most often, when agents compliment or commend her, there's either a sense of awe or lack of surprise. It's not like they're saying, "Woah, that was cool, good job!" It's more like, "Wow, how are you real?" or "You were incredible—just as I knew you would be."

Here are some examples to hopefully make my point a bit clearer:

"Sage, you're working miracles." "So, Sage. You can bring people back from the dead? Anyone? No constraints? Interesting." "Sage, you are truly limitless." "Glad you're here Sage. With you we can't lose!" "Everyone just learnt what I already knew; you're wild Sage!" "Damn, Sage, you do everything. Why are the rest of us even here?" "Sage, "healer," what an understatement."

Even when they AREN'T commending her, there's this strange trend of the other agents still placing responsibility on her, whether that means literally ordering her to help them or reminding her that she is meant to be a powerful leader. Again, some examples:

"Sage, if I die out there, you're in charge. Someone has to look after these knuckleheads." "Sage. Keep me alive. I still have things to do." "Stay sharp, you don't get a second chance in combat, unless Sage is involved." "Lead the way, Sage." "Keep those heals comin'!" "It is strange, Sage. Where I'm from, you're no medic, only a weapon." "Yo, doc! Keep us topped up!" "Sage, let's keep everyone alive." "Sage, protect the others." "Sage, you're the only one who can keep us alive. Don't fail us now like you failed me then." "Show me what you got, Sage." "Stand strong, Sage."

To be clear, I'm sure some of these are meant to be playful and innocuous! But even with that in mind, it doesn't change the fact that almost every single agent treats her as "other." More often than not, she's reduced to her radiant abilities, and even when she isn't, she's shoved into the role of "strong, reliable leader." They don't treat her like just any agent, they treat her like she's a symbol, or something akin to it.

She's there to heal them, to support them, to lead them. It's not about who Sage is or what she wants, it's about what she can do, it's about the role she plays in the Protocol. It's almost worse that so many of these voicelines are thoughtless, because that means that this is such a deeply ingrained opinion that the other agents don't even consciously think about it. It's just a fact in their subconscious.

When everyone talks to and about her that way, it's easy to see how the others are likely reinforcing her savior complex. Even her voicemails to Brimstone (there are only two) are about OTHER PEOPLE. In the first she talks about approaching Deadlock with an offer to heal her arm, and in the second she talks about empathizing with Omen and wanting to help him. She even explicitly says, "If I know his pain, maybe I can heal it."

Every single thing she does is for the sake of others. Her worst fear is not being enough for them, and that's just...painful. Hell, even in the Die For You music video her worst fear is implied to be losing the ability to heal and therefore being useless to her teammates. And then what does she do? Heal Brimstone and run straight into enemy fire.

Going back to Waylay's voiceline about her, though, it somewhat surprised me that someone is acknowledging/noticing how stressed Sage is all the time. It's not the first time someone has, as Astra has a voiceline saying, "Mad love, Sage. Come on, girl. That win's gotta be worth a smile!" and Skye also tells the others to bother her instead of Sage, but still.

Anyway, this is just my interpretation and analysis of things, of course, but I thought I would share my findings. Justice for Sage :(

Okay so for the artist ask game you reblogged, I'm curious about 4, 11, 12, and 30 :DD (Also sorry this is somewhat late, I meant to send an ask when I saw your reblog but then I totally forgot about it lmao)

omg no need to be sorry at all!!! you could’ve asked these questions 20 years from now and i’d still be so appreciative :DD

4. piece you wish got more love?

a few came to mind! i wish this (& this!) oc piece did better. i rly like how the face turned out :DD i also wish this viper sketch got just a bit more love only bcuz its my fav viper drawing ive done!! i don’t think i’ll ever be able to draw her face so perfectly again GAH!

11. do you listen to anything while drawing?

yea absolutely!! i can’t even imagine drawing in silence LOL. i used to mainly listen to music while drawing (id just loop whatever song was stuck in my head at the moment). thennnn i started listening to video essays more or id put my fav youtubers on in the background while i drew. nowadays i mainly put on twitch streams in the background while i draw but sometimes i’ll still listen to music or youtube :D in fact i’ll even bounce back and forth between twitch and youtube or twitch and music

12. describe your process while drawing

my process is 90% scrolling through pinterest and 10% actually drawing LMAO. i really will spend an hour minimum scrolling through pinterest before i actually draw 😭 i’ll find several pics i wna reference and then i get straight to drawing! im terribly lazy as an artist so i don’t wna spend energy warming up (though i probably should OOPS)… if im attempting to do a fully rendered piece the process is: pinterest for 50 million hours —> sketch —> flat colors —> paint over sketch and flats —> get lazy and never finish

i HATEEEEEE doing lineart GRRR sometimes i’ll clean up my sketches and that’s basically the lineart step for me. very rarely do i actually attempt to do proper lineart its just SOOO TEDIOUSSSS and a lot of times i like the messiness and texture of my sketches way better! i feel like whenever i do lineart it just looks so bland and lifeless <//3 that being said i actually do wanna practice doing lineart bcuz there are so many artists i like that do wonderful line work (alex raymond, takehiko inoue, and hirohiko araki just to name a few of my favs :DDD) and i wna be able to do cool line work too!!! i just get very frustrated with it a lot of times LOL

sorry that ended up turning into a ramble about lineart i hope you don’t mind 😭

30. whats something youre proud of about your artstyle?

this one is actually a tough question! i’m not even the biggest fan of my own art style but if i had to choose something im proud of how i draw faces :]] faces are my fav things to draw and i think im okayyyy at diversifying the features i give to characters though that’s something i def gotta work on more :D

does that even count as an answer….i didn’t rly single out a particular feature of my style…in fact im not even sure i know how to idk what the hell defines my style i wont lie 😭 i hope the answer satisfies you though :]]

thank you so very much for the questions i rly enjoyed answering them!!!! :DDD i hope you don’t mind the ramble-y answers LOL