What's your opinion on Chameleon? (I'm still confused how he learned to read and write when rainwings don't have literature from what I remember, but apparently his handwriting is also horrible.)
Rainwings do indeed not have literature, or a concept of currency or wealth for that matter. But keep in mind that Chameleon was banished from his tribe and spent a significant portion of his life outside the rain forest. Presumably he picked up a rudimentary understanding of how to read while having to live within these new environments.
We don't really know where he went, if I recall correctly--outside of the fact that he eventually wound up in the Sky Kingdom, presumably after Scarlet found him and made him her newest toy.
While thinking about this question, I settled on a personal headcanon that, after he was exiled from the Rain Kingdom, he ended up in the desert at first. Either at the Scorpion Den, or some outlier Sandwing town that went unmentioned in the books (I like to imagine the continent bigger, with a lot of smaller dragon settlements dotted around in every territory in addition to the big ones).
In the desert, unsure of how to subsist in this unfamiliar climate, Chameleon temporarily got roped into the service of some Sandwing merchant who owned the dragon equivalent of a pawn shop/curiosity store. There he was taught enough to be able to read labels and sort merchandise correctly, and figured out the very basics of literacy from that.
As a bonus, this kind of background would also put him into proximity of antique items which might explain how he eventually came into possession of Darkstalker's scroll. It also introduces him to the concept of personal wealth (Sandwings being a particularly mercantile and materialistic tribe) and informs his later obsession with acquiring it. And lastly it tells us how he turned villainous, as being forced to work in retail for long enough will turn even the most patient and virtuous of souls to the brink.
this is the good luck wario reblog if you want money power and men
Darkstalker and Clearsight as they aged through the book.
It's gotten to the point that my phone no longer tries to autocorrect Darkstalker and recognizes it as a name.
I want to practice drawing baby chub on dragons. The darkstalker baby isn't very baby, really lean. Clearsight looks more like a baby but I think it's something I need to practice more.
oooh have you ever done a post about the ridiculous mandatory twist endings in old sci-fi and horror comics? Like when the guy at the end would be like "I saved the Earth from Martians because I am in fact a Vensuvian who has sworn to protect our sister planet!" with no build up whatsoever.
Yeah, that is a good question - why do some scifi twist endings fail?
As a teenager obsessed with Rod Serling and the Twilight Zone, I bought every single one of Rod Serling’s guides to writing. I wanted to know what he knew.
The reason that Rod Serling’s twist endings work is because they “answer the question” that the story raised in the first place. They are connected to the very clear reason to even tell the story at all. Rod’s story structures were all about starting off with a question, the way he did in his script for Planet of the Apes (yes, Rod Serling wrote the script for Planet of the Apes, which makes sense, since it feels like a Twilight Zone episode): “is mankind inherently violent and self-destructive?” The plot of Planet of the Apes argues the point back and forth, and finally, we get an answer to the question: the Planet of the Apes was earth, after we destroyed ourselves. The reason the ending has “oomph” is because it answers the question that the story asked.
My friend and fellow Rod Serling fan Brian McDonald wrote an article about this where he explains everything beautifully. Check it out. His articles are all worth reading and he’s one of the most intelligent guys I’ve run into if you want to know how to be a better writer.
According to Rod Serling, every story has three parts: proposal, argument, and conclusion. Proposal is where you express the idea the story will go over, like, “are humans violent and self destructive?” Argument is where the characters go back and forth on this, and conclusion is where you answer the question the story raised in a definitive and clear fashion.
The reason that a lot of twist endings like those of M. Night Shyamalan’s and a lot of the 1950s horror comics fail is that they’re just a thing that happens instead of being connected to the theme of the story.
One of the most effective and memorable “final panels” in old scifi comics is EC Comics’ “Judgment Day,” where an astronaut from an enlightened earth visits a backward planet divided between orange and blue robots, where one group has more rights than the other. The point of the story is “is prejudice permanent, and will things ever get better?” And in the final panel, the astronaut from earth takes his helmet off and reveals he is a black man, answering the question the story raised.
Almost didn't post this as it's just a WIP, but I'm not sure if I'll actually finish this and I like the body segments.
IceWings have a different body shape compared to NightWings. Hard
Love your art! What's your shading process / any tips? I really like how vibrant it is
Thank you!! also sorry this is a long post
I usually start painting the character after I already have a background, super sketchy or with a placeholder (a photo usually), just so i know what colors to use
I fill the character with a color from the BG or a similar color and use the multiply blending mode
then i paint the lights on another layer with the "add glow" blending mode (i also pick the color depending on the bg).
I add another multiply layer for anything that needs to be darker, like stuff under the characters clothes
I paint a line with a saturated color between the lights and shadows, for example i added a bright red for the cape and light purple for their skin (? this is subsurface scattering, it doesnt happen on every surface but i like how it looks so i use it on everything lol.
Then i paint the lineart a similar color to each part of the character or you can paint it all red and use multiply
that's basically it
some tips (these are just things that work for me)
I think is better to paint the lights, not the shadows. it helps to see the shapes of the thing/character you're drawing better (its what i did with lambert ⬆️)
Draw backgrounds, i think it makes every drawing look more interesting and its easier to decide the lighting for the character, if you dont want to draw anything detailed you can paint something simple and blur it
i really recommend to start with a thumbnail, experiment with colors, perspective, composition, etc. before actually starting the drawing thumbnails of this post
this tip is something that everyone has heard before but use references, real life references like photographs for perspective and lighting, 3d models for anatomy and perspective, paintings to see how other artists stylize objects, bgs or characters. use references for everything
this tip is super important for me: check the values of your drawing, (lower the saturation, with the lineart hidden) if it isnt readable/ doesnt look good in black and white it most likely wont look good with colors (this depends on artstyle and personal preference tho)
This scene from one of the Suicide Squad movies reminded me of team ENA so I had to animate it ✨This drawing helped me a lot with the posing of the shotgun!!
An OC of mine. I love all the tribes because I can explore their culture through my head cannons.
This man, he is a witch doctor. Not because he's a healer who uses plants but because of his morbid curiosity with aggressive or incurable diseases.
He will be moving over to the first continent soon to investigate their plants and illnesses. He theorizes that his continents compact population has cultivated more aggressive diseases so he should have immunity to the first continents sicknesses.
Perhaps we will see some of his drawings and notes on the new flora.
FISH! Maybe adopt??? ADOPTED!!
Thinking about making adopts soon. I want to make this guy an adopt but I don't really have a name yet. If someone wants him you can have him. He's free.
This is the fish I based him off of. A blue gourami. Not my photo, the name is in the bottom of the fish picture.
I like Wings of Fire and Cult of The Lamb. I like to animate and I'm still struggling to find my own art style
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