So, this is a picture made about…hmm…two or so years ago. I don’t know when I drew it…but considering that the style looks long and the character has a big nose, I’d say 2020-2021.
It is a picture of Zhan with an ancestral doll that I haven’t created a name for. It is powered by a button and plays music that sounds like a music box (it kind of is but I don’t know).
It is one of the objects an Adis uses to get to their micosi, i.e. dream-state. They press on the music their familial ancestor crafted for them and they appear. (There are other ways, but this is one I drew out). This one is supposed to mimic a figure—that works like an orisha—to sing to bring comfort. It kinda isn’t a doll but that’s what I called it. I guess it would be a sculpture or a music box. 🤷🏾
Anywho, this specific object is made by a distant ancestor (like a many great grandpa) named Hadorinal who passed it down to everyone else in his family and it got to Zhan after the dad stupidly gifted to his mom (because he liked her) not realizing she’d have his spawn.
In the micosi, Zhan usually reads the books prayed in by other family members (the spirits can be given food, books, so on) or he talks to the ancestor, Hadorinal, who I mentioned earlier. He has the ability to speak Adis (due to his father Lupita) so that’s who he talks to and he will talk to him about everything in his life.
Now, that micosi (I’ve painted the colors but not drawn it to look as is) has a very 2D appearance to it and also the characters rock as if they’re in a video game. The composed ancestral music constantly plays over and over (unless the person is intercultural with a culture with a quiet micosi or one that plays for a short while) and the characters, if able, may dance to it. The backgrounds are usually vibrant and have many shapes and have varieties of realism. Some of the characters, like Zhan, draw in the style of their micosi (albeit, not well, because Zhan cannot draw😂) while others don’t so much.
I probably would redesign the figure so it’s easier to draw and as well, make it look more creative (not the original isn’t, it just needs a different form). I think I may change the size too. [I have a bit more knowledge on designs after seeing some African statues, sculptures, and masks, so I have some ideas!]
My homework assignment in the baby stages. It looks goofy.
Anyway, I could lament about how this painting looks failed right now…but why?!☺️ I rather gush about mixed media.
I’ve never been much of a traditionalist when it comes to art, so particular notions mean nothing to me. People could guilt me for hours and I’ll feel bad, but I’d never change. Colored pencil and acrylic paint have improved my paintings and allowed me to do what I wanted to. Don’t get me wrong, I still love love love my watercolors, but other tools prevent me from giving up.
Colored pencils
So, I love colored pencils so much because they are still somewhat very transparent, but still have the ability to layer over things in a way that makes the painting look interesting. So, I can show you two paintings that were fixed by colored pencils.
Two friends hanging out and done with a fugitive palette. I still haven’t finished this dumb sketchbook.🫠🙄
The thing about watercolors is that sometimes it’s very difficult to layer and get soft edges when you’re a beginner and using cheap paper, so left chick was looking dull with a bunch blossoms on her face making it hard to see her details. She’s quite dark skinned so capturing light without making her greasy was a struggle! Something something lighting something ambient occlusion. It is a study on how to draw people in environments. Still suck at backgrounds though.
Here’s more expensive paper and test drawings. Observe how the painting is eh but there’s less lines. I hate this paper because it’s too flat and offers no granulation (what I like) so a mí no me gusta el papel.🤷🏾
How my paintings (watercolor) look raw
So, some of the characters move on and get older and have families of their own. This is Neloni’s son’s grandchild with the name of Damijo (like their great-grandparent).Verdaccio study that I took an L on by not understanding the idea correctly. It’s not bad, but it’s just…it’s just not right.🤷🏾Trying to design a look for one of the nations, but this looks like a soggy bread version of the Wodaabe (Fulani) and was abandoned by me.☺️Former picture of Adan before I changed their features. They are wearing men’s New Haden Adish clothes. The very casual ones that don’t look as geometric)So, this is Celesi. He’s dead on this picture and is in a Jinhi micosi (or dream state. It is a place to communicate with spirits, ancestors, and other Nini/Nene specific things. It deals also with memories and emotions as well). So, when spirits go into the micosi, they become translucent. This is in the perspective of Neloni, his husband, he sees a lot of information. His culture clothes (that I’ve changed), his inner color/favorite color which is green-blue (I haven’t really established it), and his age when he died. Y’all can’t see the detail here, but Celesi died at 35 due to a respiratory illness. He’s shown in the micosi as his best health (but didn’t get his hair back so he’s still bald. He cut his hair because he couldn’t take care of it.)Watercolors
Just colored pencil
Not in the mood to explain who this is bc the drawing makes me sad seeing it. It’s a lovely pic…but no.Adan in woman’s New Haden Adish makeup and clothes. I clearly cared more about the face so I will explain. Almost all Adis women wear too light foundation to the point of looking ashy because they want to accentuate the darkness on their limbs and other body parts. It also is an interesting look to them. The face, other than the navel are the most important areas. Next after those two are a very rich, dark skin tone.Hehe…ugh. It’s very hard to explain. So, this is Lupita, Zhan’s adoptive father. I have redrawn his face and appearance but here’s this one. Ignoring his giraffe neck, weak shoulders, and tunic, I will explain his makeup and the coat. So, the coat is Adis, but made for someone who is Sol. All the shapes correlate to that of a star or a sparkle. (Think about the Sun. The Sun is a star.) The colors correlated are red leaning in that culture. He’s basically dressed as a Sol. The makeup is theatrical, he just doesn’t have his group drawn on his face because Sol don’t do that like Bamy Adis, a group I haven’t named yet, and Bamy culture.*sigh* This is literally a limited palette study. I shouldn’t have rushed to color him.🙂 my coloring skills are questionable.
Acrylic Gouache, Watered down gouache, and the happs.
Some study I did painting a drawing I did of a Leonardo da Vinci’s drawing. Clearly, I’m not him. Don’t come after me (I really don’t care if so, it would be hilarious.)This one was mixing watercolor and acrylic at the same time.This is a very, very stylized picture of Feyondo and Noje. When I tell you I just wanted to try to color Noje enough to look dark, I mean that. I was trying to solidify their colors. Fey looks okay, but Noje is still too light for her description.🙁 I’m still trying to make her look dark.I mentioned this character a while back…This is Vivian. He is an android or some kind of automaton that is powered by an AI. As I am not an AI nor know how to program one like him, I cannot do his art. This is one of his friend’s renditions of him. Coming now with the climate of AI stress, this story is out of pocket. Him and his friend are completely different species and there’s a question or not if he’s truly alive or not. I’m personally not in the mood to argue with people. Anyway, he’s based of an artist and his creator, blah blah blah, he shares a personality with the woman who programmed him, and he is yellowish in skin tone because he’s colored to look like an oil painting. Anyway, the character is very cute.
Miscellaneous grouping
Do not come after my digital art skills. I have no name for her yet, but she’s basically a Bob Ross but also Jim Bakker. She is a televangelist/representation for Bamy culture, but was there to basically cheer people up during a long war between two different countries against Bamygdala. She is showing her one dimensionality here of only being happy. Of course the actress has a soul, but her on screen character is one dimensional . She’s either happy, elated, content, or manic. Not sad or confused, just happy. Sometimes she gets so happy that she cries and her makeup smudges or runs. She’s so intense that some viewers say they cry or they donate or send her letters telling her how happy she makes them. She’s basically a brainwasher. After watching her smile and paint and act quirky, some folks say they get dragged in and they binge watch her show to feel something.You’re probably going to be like, “Feets, if you don’t know what this painting is called, why are you posting it?” So, hehe…I don’t know who was the original that painted this, I just wanted to see if I could paint it and draw it. Funnily, I have enough of the paints and pigments to make it a bit more accurate but I don’t have the skill level yet. Tried to work on my lighting skills and object skills. Anyway, it’s patchy because it’s gouache and done by an amateur.
About that one character. If any of y’all had the experience of being with Evangelist groups as a child, knows how intense they can get and how they emotionally corner you sometimes to donate and/or do things that you may not want to do. This is also like Catholic Baroque art to people living in that time. It is intense. So intense, you might as well say you’re not thinking straight. Fascinating stuff. If anyone has some non-Evangelicalist experiences, do share. I’d love to know.
It was nice talking to you. I hope you stay healthy and hydrated. ☺️
When? “When” is the question, that many ask when asking for the next best thing or the end of the worst.
I ask, When will I be able to draw bodies correctly? When will I have the courage to attempt bodies, instead of sitting with my book drawing busts? When will this fear be over?! When will I practice anatomy? When will I complete my conlangs? When will I put a story together?
These are only in my control. I control when.
Drawing is not enough. Practicing other things are great, but they’re tiring or embarrassing…extremely embarrassing. It is extremely hard to post content that looks bad as it is extremely hard to take time on a picture that looks like absolute trash. By no means am I trying to achieve perfection, I’m trying to achieve completion or at least do something well enough that I don’t see immediate mistakes when I do it or it doesn’t make me stop too early.
I’ll show you some stuff that has me like that.
Trying to develop a particular character’s body. 🙂Pitri and Tatmtar. They’re very easy to draw out of the rest.Noshili (Tatmtar), a very unfinished picture of Zhan/Feyondo and Noje’s oldest Nijine as a small child. (I know he’s holding her line a doll. I’m stupid and that’s why I stopped drawing it. Also, there’s too much separation. Last person is Zhan. Who is holding his daughter.Pitri listening to someone. Her body looks JANKY, but I actually like it, but the head isn’t turned how I want it. She’s drinking a drink that has a lot of caffeine in it because she’s a caffeine addict. (So, idk if I’d worldbuild food or not, but it makes the job 100% harder. I’m into drawing, then worldbuild, then writing.)This lovely angel, Nejame is shown to be sixteen here and was first crowned Ut Ne (by the lazy drawn gold flowers in his hair). His name would be at the time Nedase A Leu Ne Nahande Ut Ne. Or translated That (important) Person from Ne Land Nahande Nedase. Ne Ut means citizen.Noje and trying to get her skin tone. (It’s not dark enough and her body is too thin here)Movement studies with pen and drawing bodies. (An L but it was fun)Unfinished pictures of bowls and ceramics. They cause me stress to draw, but if I want to be an illustrator, I have to learn. The problem is that if I want a still life, I have to craft all of these and my sculpting skills are subpar.S panicking and feeling guilty.This is a picture of Damijo (Neloni) and a character that I haven’t given a particular name yet (his cultural name is Solisi). I will call them S on the paragraph. It’s STIFF. Really stiff and stale!These are somewhat in order of importance and also sequentialness.
S is playing a Jinhi hunter and Damijo is playing the “evil” Jinhi. It’s somewhat early in Damijo’s acting career and he’s a horrible but cute acting character (he can act, he just doesn’t really fit in with the vibe and was placed there for nefarious reasons not of his own doing). Anyway, of the two scenes, a scene before makes S feel really bad for Damijo to the point that instead of drawing his sword (that I poorly drew), he drops it and walks to the Jinhi (again, played by Damijo) and nuzzles him.
S has a reputation of being sarcastic, brave, heroic, and insensitive (because it’s their culture to mimic soullessness or basically lack emotions because emotions are bad to them). Meanwhile, Damijo’s reputation is the opposite. He’s very sensitive, ditzy, silly, and humorous because he looks stupid to people and has a strange sounding voice. S basically feels bad for the in story character and also for Damijo and cracks into his inner suppressed self, Solisi.
S was born in the same small community— Sholi—as Damijo, but instead of being a Jinhi like Damijo, he is a Sol Solio. He, however, had a very different life then Damijo and was raised moderate poverty and lacked a citizenship to Bamygdala. He was scouted out by these people looking for an actor. He fit the idea when he acted, but his appearance and his demeanor was unfit. He is naturally timid, anxious, shy, and very emotional and will cry easily. They worked on him with that, but they also gave S plastic surgery to look more of the idea for Northern Bamy people, they were trying to push and made him bleach his skin and hair.
As sensitive as he is, it gave him an identity crisis and made him slightly dissociate. He sees himself as Solisi as his own, but S wants to take over his body and fight him. S is almost always referred to as the Almighty S, and even Solisi will call him that. Solisi refers to himself as himself and refers to S as someone else even though they share the same body and think similarly but differently. Solisi is very traumatized of all the chaos in his life and that’s one of the many ways he handles it (until he gets therapy).
Anyway, Solisi comes out of S in this scene and decides to not to harm the Jinhi. The director thought it was okay because it promoted a message he wanted. (That it was socially okay for citizens to buy a spouse that’s from one of the indigenous groups nearby.) Though, S’s mindset of doing that wasn’t out of romance. It was more out of frustration.
This one is the older version of the nuzzle. There’s nothing that bad about it but Damijo’s face isn’t the way I want it and S looks too flat, but otherwise, I like the emotions of the older one more. Damijo looks adorable (to me).
Anyway, this was a lot to write. I was a bit hesitant to write it, because it could be spoilers…but you know…👉👈. This comic or even storyline is unlikely to take off at the rate I’m going so I thought it would be more worth my time to just say it and move on and show you my oh so lovely art. (Not sarcasm, I do actually think my art is lovely.)🤷🏾It was nice talking to you. Have a nice day or night and make sure to stay hydrated.☺️
Nilili. (She’s the mom of Neloni and is around 28-34 here after tragedy in a Jinhi costume)Neloni (around age 15-25 with his hair straightened and cut. He’s wearing darker colors here. Wearing light and pastel colors would be equivalent of wearing black in Western cultures of this world)Noshili. You know. Tatmtar. I struggle drawing their face. They have a very thin top lip and drawing the shape is difficult difficult. The eyes are also difficult because all of them have to have the same eyes as Nilili. Of course, if I drew these particular characters more realistically, their eyes would be a lot different. I don’t think I would because it creeps me out. Seeing them doing more than just 🙂 or 😕 creeps me out.
I know I said I was going to do interaction pictures but I got the dumb idea to color. I mean, coloring is not bad, but I’m not a fan of coloring. I’ve never been a fan of coloring. When I was younger, it used to embarrass me how everyone colored so neatly and I’d color with lines everywhere going everywhere in different directions. As you can see, I still have a lot of that haphazard lines in my work and clearly struggling with hair.
So anyways, just random tidbits about these characters and how I draw them: (I slip up a lot, but it’s a one-man show)
Nilili, Neloni, and Noshili always have a side part to the right of their hair and have bangs that are all similar.
Neloni and Noshili wear girly and/or feminine clothes. Neloni likes tight clothes and hates certain fabrics and will go into a complete meltdown and take hours to calm down after wearing it. He hates wearing makeup and during his career in acting, he’d wipe his face a lot having to redo shots. He also struggles with nail polish but wears dark blue nail polish (a color his husband likes.) Noshili wears clothes that are considered frumpy and baggy. They will not wear tight clothes because they get uncomfortable seeing their body. They wear any kind of makeup and likes to look facially pretty and will ask Noje to do their makeup.
When Noshili has straightened hair, it’s usually a flowing mane, top knot (at home), or a low bun (when out). They always will have a piece of hair that reverts back in the front of their bang.
When Noshili’s hair is curly, they always wear it slicked down with their bangs pulled back, bun, or braids. (Because they have very tangly hair.
Unlike their brother, their hair shape is an upright triangular like 🔺. They have long, black hair and should always be colored with a yellow or green skin color to contrast the hair. (I color their hair the same color as Noje’s skin. Dark purple.)
Neloni is a natural blond. (I didn’t show Nilili’s first husband and Neloni’s dad because I haven’t drawn him, but he carries those genes, but it isn’t a gene that would cause red hair or other types of blond, most light brown hair.)
Neloni is always drawn with an oval head.
Everyone that shares traits with Neloni and Nilili looks either very stank, sad, or very goofy and dazed.
Nilili has jet-black hair but I didn’t draw it that way because 🤷🏾 didn’t know how.
Nilili has an internal color of red and shares that color with Neloni because they were close when she was alive. Meanwhile, Noshili has an earth green color.
Nilili and Neloni have a gap in their two front teeth, Noshili doesn’t.
Neloni and Nilili tilt slightly while listening to people talk and cannot sit still and will move around, rock, and bounce a lot. Noshili jitters and shakes a lot but will sit quietly and probably will sit in the same spot for hours.
Nilili and Neloni yell extremely loud when they talk and when theyre speaking in Kwadi, they talk very slow and have a drawl, but speaking in Jinhi, they speak rapidly fast and sometimes people think they’re yelling.
They’re also both very ditzy and can be easily swindled and are nice to people, especially family. They got lost easily and are terrified of dogs.
All of them enjoy singing. Noshili was taught how to sing by Neloni. Neloni was taught by Nilili.
Neloni named Noshili after his older sister that was taken from him at six years old. Noshili looks up to Neloni but is skeptical of his personality and advice.
Noshili talks very quietly but if they’re irritated they talk extremely fast and use a lot of expletives and threats.
All of them are very tall and bottom heavy. (Neloni is probably 6’5, Nilili is 6’3, and Noshili is 6’2. I’m horrible at catching heights of characters so I struggle.)
Nilili made sure her second husband promised to take care of Neloni and his half brother Nstaid when she died.
Nilili died on Neloni’s birthday when he was twelve and his father, Neshali died the same day when Neloni was six. Neshali was shot dead in front of him by the military.
Neloni nor Noshili do not celebrate their birthday for different reasons and when asked will have different responses. Neloni will get nervous but say something to take off the mood or won’t leave his room and Noshili will start screaming and will try to fight then get in a crying fit and throw up.
Neloni screams at the same time every morning and runs somewhere and either dry heaves in the bathroom or hides and cries and stopped it when he turned 60.
Noshili is terrified of being alone and in the dark and will cry and latch onto people nearby. If Noshili is yelled at, they will sit either teary-eyed or cry. Neloni will yell back and try to fight. (He hates being yelled at.)
Nilili doesn’t cook very well, but her second husband enjoyed her cooking.
All of them are attached to their hair and if it gets damaged or cut off, they will mentally shut off or declare enemies with whomever cut their hair.
Neloni has been arrested and charged with kidnapping even though he didn’t do it. (😂)
Have a nice day, y’all. Sorry for the filler. I am a hot mess.
What did you bring to the potluck? 