Axona's Writing

Do I? *rubs hands together deviously* Why, yes, my dear. Prepare to be amazed.

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Yuriyuu Fanfic Recommendations:

1. Permanent Ink by @mak-ka-chin~50k words | Soulmate AU, Angst, Slow Burn | E RatingThis is definitely one of the longest Yuriyuu fics out there. Viktuuri is also present in the fic as Yuuri has two soulmates, but it has really great Yuriyuu development, and I love how the author weaves it all into the plot of the anime.

2. Coup de Foudre by @mak-ka-chin~4k words | Fluff, Canon Divergent | T RatingSame author as Permanent Ink. Yuuri never meets Viktor at the banquet, so years later, he sees Yurio perform and becomes inspired to choreograph his new program. It’s very cute, great writing style, and Viktor plays a surprisingly entertaining role.

3. Wildflowers by @axon-a~70k words | Slow Burn, Mutual Pining, Altered Ages | T RatingWhat Yuriyuu fic list is complete without Wildflowers? This fic is even longer than Permanent Ink and really does well on showing their feelings develop over time. There is some Phichuuri and Otayuri along the way, but we do get to Yuriyuu by the end. A good solid read. 

4. Be Patient. It Takes Time by Denymore~15k words | Fluff, Angst, Viktuuri Breakup | G RatingThis is a very cute fic that follows Yuri and Yuuri after Viktuuri breaks up. (Just a warning: The writer is not a native English speaker, so there are a lot of grammar mistakes, but I think it’s definitely worth reading) It’s a really beautiful, heartwarming story and portrays the Yuriyuu relationship very well.

5. I’m Jealous of the Way You’re Happy Without Me by @ochoth~3k words | Angst, Character Death, Mourning, Unrequited Love | M RatingThis fic is not for the faint of heart. I cry like a baby every time I read it. Not only is it sad and heartfelt, but it also shows a lot of deep characterization of Yuri and Yuuri. The story felt incredibly realistic, which made it all the more painful. It hurts you in a good way.

6. Yuri Plisetsky, Foulmouthed Guardian Angel by istillfearkanna ~8k words (ongoing) | Angst, Fluff, Potential Viktuuri, Hurt/Comfort | T RatingThis fic isn’t finished yet, but it has a very promising start. The writing style is nice and there’s a good mix of angst and fluff. It definitely leaves you on the edge of your seat. I really like how we see Yuri’s vulnerable side in this fic.

7. His L Words by quixotic_writes~5k | Hurt/Comfort, Polyamory, Side of Platonic Otayuri | M RatingThis one is actually Viktuurio, meaning Viktor x Yuri x Yuuri. I don’t read a lot of these, but this one is very special to me. Yuri has a great friendship with Otabek, and he pines after both Yuuri and Viktor, though it takes him a while to discover what his feelings mean. Even if you’ve never read Viktuurio, I recommend giving this one a try. It captured my heart from the very first moment.

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Welcome to Rare Ships!!! on Ice!

This is a fanworks gift exchange celebrating rare relationships in YOI fandom. Both gen and shippy relationships are welcome. Participants will create either 500+ words of fanfiction or a piece of fanart for their assigned recipient. Learn more about the exchange here.

RSOI is run through our AO3 collection, with main announcements on the DW admin comm. You can follow this tumblr for cross-posted announcements. And here’s the schedule:

I’ve been getting a lot of asks lately about the brushes and textures I use in my work, so here’s a BIG FAT REFERENCE POST for those of you who were curious! Bear in mind that I’m really lazy and don’t know what half the settings do, so don’t be afraid to experiment to figure out what works best for you :>

BRUSHES

Pencil I use the pencil tool with SAI’s native paper texture both for sketching and for applying opaque color with no blending. Lower opacities give it the feel of different pencil hardnesses, while full opacity makes it more like a palette knife, laying down hard-edged, heavy color for detail work or eventual blending with other brushes. Ink Pen Mostly made this because I’m lazy and I didn’t want to have to keep turning my textures off/opacity up when I wanted to ink something (even though I don’t do it very often), or lay down flat colors. I find the line quality to be much more crisp than Photoshop, and you can manually adjust in-program stabilization to help smooth out hand wobbles. Round Brush The plain ol’ brush tool acts as sort of an in-between for me in terms of brush flow. It’s heavier than my usual workhorse brush, for faster color application and rough blending, but not as heavy as the pencil tool, which has no blending at all. I like to use the canvas texture on this brush to help break up the unnatural smoothness that usually accompanies digital brushes, but it works just fine without. Flat Brush A brush tool set to flat bristle (try saving this bitmap file to your elemap folder if your version of SAI doesn’t have it) is by far my favorite to paint with. I don’t use any textures with it because I think the shape of the brush provides enough of that by itself. I use it for everything from rough washes to more refined shaping and polish. It’s just GREAT.

Watercolor Best used for smooth blending, washes, gradients, and smoky atmospheric effects. Cloud Basically a grittier version of the watercolor tool, because too much smoothness weird me out. Good for clouds and fog, as the name suggests, or just less boring gradient fills.

TEXTURE OVERLAY

To further stave off the artificially smooth look of digital painting, I almost always overlay some sort of paper texture, and it’s almost always this one, which I scanned and edited myself. You’re all welcome to use it, no permission required!

Using overlays in SAI is just as easy as using them in Photoshop. Just paste the texture into its own layer above everything you want it to apply to, and change the layer mode to Overlay. That’s it!

Want a more prominent texture? Up the contrast. Something more subtle? Lower the contrast or reduce the layer opacity. You can also use a tinted overlay to adjust the overall palette and bring a little more color unity to an otherwise disparate piece! Just be aware that too much texture can hurt the readability of the work beneath it, so I’d err on the side of subtlety.

Hope that helps!

After much ado, I’ve rummaged around in my program folders and found an image in SAI’s elemap folder called Flat Bristle.bmp that you should be able to just grab and use! I edited this link into my original post as well, but it’s gotten so many reblogs I don’t know how helpful that will end up being…

In any case, I’ve also taken the liberty of zipping all of my blotmap, brushtex, elemap, and papertex folders and hosting the file on my site just in case whatever borked version of SAI people are encountering are missing all this basic stuff. There’s not a lot in there, but the settings in the original post don’t make any sense if you don’t have them!

You can download the zip file here.

Happy painting!

a character gets a sick burn and doesn’t realize it immediately, at some point later there’s just “HEY WAIT A MINUTE”

the double take. this one’s an oldie but a goodie

the injured character makes the killing shot that saves everyone else in a dangerous situation

a character who isn’t speaking is doing something weird in the background, it’s subtle and never acknowledged it’s just there for those who notice it (pulling another character out of something they got stuck in, making a huge sandwich, etc)

the beleaguered assistant inches away from smacking their boss

“quick act natural”

in that vein, the leader character was just in a shouting match with someone and when they come back the rest of the team scrambles to look like they weren’t listening at the door