pride link 🏳️‍🌈

I prefer to draw Yashiki with pitch-black eyes, but I wanted to emulate the manga art style for this comic

Additional notes under cut:

The Mark Bearer found family will be real on Nintendo Switch

Also I named the place Rabbit Island so it's technically the spirit case Yashiki and Mashita were implied to have gone on in NG lmao

Is it already friday again? xD Hey guys, I hope you had a good week! Thank you so much for the many positive reactions and feedback on my last post!! <3 I was very happy that you seemed to like the GrandpaYashiki & BratMashita idea. ^-^ Today's post is less spectacular, but still took me quite some time to finish (at least half of it, haha).

As you can see I tried myself at traditional art again. I did the sketches digitally first, that way I could experiment with the composition and correct mistakes easier, before drawing them again with ink on paper. It was a lot of fun to work with ink again but damn, it takes so much longer to get it done - just filling the black space on one piece alone took more than an hour... 'xD And to be honest, when comparing both results, I find that I still like the digital versions much better. ^^' Though to be fair I have to say that the (bad quality) photos do not do the traditional pieces justice - I think they look better when you see them for real, but unfortunately I don't have any better way to show them to you now. ^^' 

There's not much to tell about these drawings, I was honestly just brainstorming for some interesting motifs/compositions for ink drawings (I wanted to draw images where I can fill a lot of space with just black, because I think it looks very nice). But there was at least some thought behind them.  About the first piece: I just wanted to draw Yashiki in a pose that shows him in despair, struggling because of something (a spirit most likely), and I wanted to put great emphasis on his hands - because I like drawing hands, they can be so expressive! I drew the "strings" in the background with the thought that perhaps they could symbolize Mary's influence/control over him. And just now I remembered that I had intended to add the Death Mark on his hand, but I forgot - whoops. Haaah, there's always something I forget... u_u'' Whatever, I think I'm gonna keep it like that. 'xD (also don't mind the crooked looking line of the black box in the backround, that's just because the paper started "wrinkling" (?) again because of the ammount of ink...) About the second piece: I've been wanting to draw another BlindYashiki piece for a while, so this was a good opportunity. I came up with this cute image with Mashita putting his hand on Yashiki's shoulder, and he turns his head towards his general direction with a fond smile - I just love to draw Yashiki smiling, he looks so cute that way. ^w^ I wish I could've added something that would've made it more obvious that he's blind there, but couldn't think of anything that would have fit. There was no space to add his cane in and since I wanted the focus to be on his eyes, drawing him wearing his sunglasses would have been kinda counter-productive. ^^' (what annoys me a little is that I messed up Yashiki's face a bit here - that's exactly the reason why I prefer digital art over traditional... ^^') Btw. I snug in a small extra detail to the traditional piece - I wonder, did anyone notice...? ^-^

Heeey guys, it's finally friday - I've been so looking forward to today! ^-^ The project I've been talking about is done and I can finally share it with you. Please note that the reading direction this time is from top left to down right! (I forgot to pay attention while sketching and accidentally drew it opposite to how I normally work... ^^') And once again I want to thank all of you for your support, you guys are amazing!! <3 All your comments and positive feedback are a big motivation to keep drawing! Alight, heading now to the section of my weekly ramblings: 

So, about this idea - I think I'm gonna call it the GrandpaYashiki/BratMashita AU haha xD - and how it came to be: I can't explain the complete process in my brain that lead to this, but one factor definitely was the recent discussions (on tumblr and the discord server) about Yashiki's age and that the game developers keep making him younger. I for myself would rather have Yashiki (and the other adult Mark Bearers) stay the same age or maybe even a little older, because one factor that made me like this series immediately was the rare circumstance that the main character here is an adult and NOT a kid or teen (as seen in hundreds and thousands of other Japanese Video Games/Manga/Anime) for a change. I might be wrong, but I had the impression that I might not be alone with that (or a similar) opinion. And before I knew it, this funny idea had formed, haha. (But I want to mention that other artist's works found on pixiv might also have had an impact on me to some degree. It was not recently, but there I've seen art depicting scenes with either Mashita or Yashiki turned into kids through unknown circumstances. Sadly I can't provide any links, it's hard to find them again on pixiv... u_u')  

The "story" of this idea: Yashiki and Mashita are conducting another spirit investigation, but the spirit is more powerful than imagined and they end up getting cursed again. Although, they don't realize it until later when they start to feel its effects. This curse is different though - unique - in a way, because it formed an invisible connection between them. It is stealing Yashiki's lifetime and adding it to Mashita at the same time. As a result Yashiki ages very fast - his hair is greying and his body turns into that of an old man - while Mashita is getting younger and eventually changes back into a kid, enabling his body to live through the same ammount of years again that Yashiki lost (his memory stays unaffected though). If they cannot find a way to lift the curse, it'd probably run for as long as it takes until one of them dies. But no worries, they'll find a way like they always do! ^^ I haven't put much thought into what kind of spirit would do this kind of thing, but it's probably the spirit of a vile person with a taste for cruel games. Btw, about their relationship in this concept: I kept it more like it is in the canon story, so they're not (yet) together here, but there's definitely some unspoken/unconfessed feelings between them. That's why Yashiki offers the guest room to Mashita on page 8, but Mashita (sincerely worried about Yashiki, but maaaybe also using this as a convenient excuse to stay with/get closer to him) comes back and asks if he can stay in his room. 

Even though the drawings make it look like the changes all happend at once, the original idea was that the changes happen bit by bit over time - and I'd rather stick with that one. ^^' The drawings look different because it was the best method to show the changes on Mashita's body clearly by making him tiny again (making his hair shorter on the first page didn't have the desired effect, and I guess it would have been similar with drawing him only a little bit shorter ^^') But what also played a role was that the drawing process went a bit chaotic, because I started sketching scenes randomly at first without a proper plan. 'xD Or rather, I did not plan to draw this many sketches. I was thinking to draw two, maybe three pages max. for this, and it wasn't supposed to get almost comic like but rather a bunch of sketches thrown together. But then the ideas kept coming one after another, haha. 'xD Eventually, after the flood had stopped, I decided to combine the sketches and create a series of pages in a way that each page can stand on its own, but when put together they all tell a continuous story (hopefully?). I focused mostly on funny or cute moments, because they were my main motivation for this concept. ^-^ Some more sad/dramatic scenes were planned as well, and I had a lot more ideas I would have liked to show, but I scrapped them for now because I didn't want to put even more time into this project. After several weeks of working on this, I just wanted to get it done already... ^^' Maybe I will get back to them some other time, it honestly depends on my motivation.

I had a lot of fun drawing Mashita as a kid - especially in his now very oversized clothes - he is such a brat, haha! (I do hope though that I did his character justice and his actions don't seem too out of character) It was so hilarious to imagine that scene from page 4, where little Mashita is trying to walk holding up his pants with his hands, while his jacket is dragging on the floor like a chapel train(?) on a wedding dress! x'DD And drawing Yashiki as an old man has been very interesting as well! I hope I managed to draw him like a proper grandpa, haha. Don't know if it's quite accurate, but I imagined he'd have to deal with a lot of back and knee pains and walk a little bent over because of that - the poor guy. And of course he's not as fit anymore, meaning less energy/stamina and the need to take a few naps in between - very much to Mashita's dismay. xD (I remember my own grandpa used to fall asleep a lot on his armchair, especially while we were watching movies). About the cane he's carrying in the later pages: I imagine it either formerly belonged to one of his ancestors and he found it somewhere in the mansion (I can definitely imagine this being stored away somewhere in that big old building) or maybe one of his friends gave it to him. 

About the coloring: Once again I'm not sure if I like it - is it too de-saturated/grey-ish...? I tried to keep it simple and use only two colors, to create a better contrast and make it easier to distinguish the characters and their speechbubbles. But - once again - I got carried away on the later pages and added more details and shadings than I originally wanted. 'xD I hope Mashita doesn't look too much like an alien with the green color, I was going for that Yashiki & Mashita "color sheme", using the colors of their jackets.

Ahhh, I made it!! Late, but still in time for Yashiki's birthday (at least in my time zone). I wasn't so sure if I'd have something to post today, because I had a hard time thinking of something to draw... u_u'' The image is not super great or really fitting the occasion but hey, at least I managed to improve the quality a little bit compared to last year! 'xD

So uhm, this miiight be the first and last post for this week, since my progress on the mentioned project is going not as fast as I'd like. ^^' I think I'm about halfway through polishing up the sketches, it depends on if I'm gonna add more drawings or not.

Hey, guys! Sorry for the delay, I've been sick last week therefore couldn't get anything done during that time. u_u'' But now that I'm better I made sure to finish these for today, I was so excited to show this to you! I believe I already mentioned last time that I was working on another crosssover-ish project, so here it is: The Mark Bearers with their own Pokemon-companions. ^^ I'm very curious what you guys think about this. The idea came to me through the discord channel, when I saw an art post with sketches of Yashiki and Mashita surrounded by Pokemon. The inspiration for something similar that had been ghosting around in my head some time before was reignited and formed the idea for this "project" - so a big thanks to @scorchdfeathrs for sharing their cute Pokemon sketches now on tumblr as well! ^-^ It was challenging but I wanted to draw every single Mark Bearer for this and I tried to pick a companion that fits in some way to their characters. A big thanks to @moonflowerwrites for helping me pick a few of them! ^-^ I'm gonna say a little bit to each of the characters, so this is gonna be a looong post again. ^^' So let's get started, these were my thoughts about this project: 

Mashita: For our favourite ex-detective with the sharp steel eyes I was looking for a Pokemon that immediately reminded me of him just by its looks. There is quite a few that have a similar intensive "steely" stare, honourable mentions are: Sneasel, Luxray, Houndoom or Zangoose that made it to the short list, but in the end I just had to pick Zoroark. It's one of my personal favorite Pokemon, but what's more important is that it has a face similar to a fox which I thought was very fitting to Mashita's character. Also, I thought it funny to give Mashita a comparatively rather big Poke-companion. He may not be the tallest adult of the group but he has a big Pokemon, fitting to his ego. xD I thought it even funnier in contrast to Yashiki, who is taller than Mashita but has very small companions. ^-^

Ai: She was the first one I drew. For some reason Staryu was the first Pokemon that came to mind when I thought about Ai - maybe because she's a "star" herself with being famous idol, haha - so I just stuck with that choice. The posture was a bit challenging, and I'm not sure I drew it correctly, bur I really like how it turned out.

Shou: For our very impulsive, hotheaded youngster Shou it had to be a fire-type Pokemon. Quilava not only fits the job description but also has a similar style of hair - spiky and short - I thought the two of them fit together perfectly. I imagine they go training together every day. Shou is secretly in a competition with Mashita, he wants his companion to grow strong and evolve fast so it can keep up with Zoroark, haha. xD

Tsukasa & Moe: I put them both together pretty much for the same reason as Suzu and Eita. Don't know why but I've always thought of them a little bit like they're brother and sister (and they have similar hair styles, lol). About Tsukasa: My thought process behind this was pretty simple - the small boy gets a cute teddy bear. But thinking of how Teddiursa's evolution looks like, it might be a good fit, because they both seem a little grumpy, don't you think? xD About Moe: Figuring out her companion was also a little tricky. Initially I was thinking maybe Morpeco or Espeon/Umbreon, but with Moonflower's help I went for Screamtail instead. (I like Screamtail's design better than Igglybuff, because it looks  more Japanese) I know lore-wise it doesn't make much sense that she'd have one since it's an ancient, extinct Pokemon that can only be found in that super secret Area Zero, but maybe she is one of the few lucky ones with a permission to go there. And to top it off she found herself a shiny (because I like the red eyes better than the yellow). 

Christie: A graceful looking Pokemon seemed a good fit for her, because Christie always appears very well dressed. It was thinking between Froslass and Gardevoir, but I chose the latter in the end because it somehow reminded me a lot of Christies looks. With her job as a TV reporter I imagine Christie is often very busy but her Gardevoir is helping out, noting down her shedule so she won't forget anything. 

Hiroo: She was one of the more troublesome characters to find a suiting Poke-companion for, but with the help of Moonflower I decided on this one. Hiroo can be such a silly character (in my opinion), so this silly Salandit fits just fine to her, haha. xD It's a bit mischievous and loves to play tricks on her.

Banshee:  As someone living on the streets I imagined it would fit very well to Banshee's lifestyle if he made friends with Pidove and Thrubbish. And yes I'm aware that my first drawn picture of him looked kinda similar, lol. 'xD  Tbh I find Banshee a very challenging character to draw, because I haven't fully grasped/understood his character yet. 

Suzu & Eita: I put the two of them on one piece because we see them together most of the time and also tbh I wanted to be done quicker, haha. About Suzu: I had a lot of ideas for Suzu's companion - mostly small, round baby Pokemon. But with Moonflower's suggestion I settled on Sylveon instead. It's colors and the many ribbon-accents fit very well to a cute little girl. Sadly I couldn't fit much of it in the picture. Because it's so small I went for a very close perspective, like a cat that is standing too close to the camera. About Eita: He was another trouble character for me, because I couldn't decide what could fit him best. Thanks to Moonflower for the idea of Wobbuffet, now that I see them I really think they fit together because they're both fun, goofy characters. Fun fact: the German name of Wobbuffet is "Woingenau" which can roughly be translated as "(To) where exactly?" which I always found very amusing. xD

Daimon: As a doctor I definitely wanted to give him a "healer"-Pokemon. But I didn't want to pick the "obvious" choice Chaneira, because it's already so prominent in the series and kinda cliché. So I settled on Audino. I like that it uses it's "antennae" on its ears like a stethoscope - just imagining the two of them tending to a patient together painted such a cute picture in my mind! ^w^  

Yashiki: I gave him two Poke-companions here because I couldn't settle on just one (and he's the main character, so he gets special treatment, lol). Litwick was one of the first ideas I got for him and it stuck. I knew I had to give him a ghost type Pokemon as a companion, that was just a given with his line of work as spirit hunter. But I especially liked the idea to give him a super tiny baby Pokemon, because that'd fit so well to his very underdeveloped sense of self-esteem and confidence. It's my headcanon that in the game series we only see glimpses of Yashiki's spiritual powers, because he doesn't know they're there or how to use them. I made the Litwick a shiny here because I'm a big fan of neon blue flame look. The other companion I see as a great fit for him is Chimecho. This rests heavily on my own personal opinion, but I always thought of wind chimes as very calm and soothing, which - to me - is the very essence of Yashiki's character. I see him as a very softhearted, kind and gentle person and I like to think that he has that kind of an invisible aura of calmness around him that makes other people feel more relaxed and safe when at his side. Similar to the soothing sounds of a wind chime. (Or maybe that's just my obsession with this character speaking here ^^') The fact that Chimechou is also one of my absolute favorite Pokemon is just another very happy coincidence. 

Saya: It just had to be a bunny for Saya. Sadly there was no black bunny Pokemon (that I know of). Scoppel seemed the best choice to me because it has a rather dark fur and is small enough to be carried around. It could have evolved a long time ago, but it chose not to because it likes to be held and carried around by Saya. ^-^ I couldn't fit it in here, but I also imagined that Saya and Yashiki both could have an Indeedee as another Poke-companion - the male one for Saya and the female version for Yashiki. I just thought they would be very fitting, because they (to me) look a little like small butlers/maids and  the Kujou siblings live in a big mansion. 

Yasuoka: This was one of the fastest and easiest picks. Just like with Yashiki it went without saying that Yasuoka would have a ghost type companion, and Mismagius seemed perfect to me. It has the look of a very wise, knowledgeful being which fits very well to Yasuoka who has a lot of knowledge and experience when it comes to spirits. 

To anyone who cares about my thoughts about the work process: I tried to keep the pictures rather simple with mostly flat colors. For the shading I copied a "technique" I've seen many other artists use that I really like and that is to paint all the shadows in black. I might have cheated a little bit by using other, very slight shadings, but I kept that to a minimum. I also lowered the opacity of the Pokemon's shadings a bit to create a contrast to keep most of the focus on the characters. The lines look very messy because I used a brush with zero pressure sensitivity for almost everything, meaning the line thickness does not vary. When coloring my goal was to keep each piece monochrome-ish and arrange them all in the order of a rainbow, maybe you've already noticed that tiny detail. Don't know if I did a good job there, some of the colors might not fit as great (had to get creative with some color variants, since we have more characters than colors in a rainbow). But I think it came out okay enough.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the results of this project a little. Thanks for taking a look, I hope you're gonna have a good week. Let me know what you think if you like and if you have a favorite. Until next time. ^^

Hey guys, good friday to you all! ^^ I'm sorry this is not what some of you might have expected after what I talked about last week. I would have loved to show you the new art project I've been working on, but once again I need more time to finish it. ^^' It grew wayy larger than I'd anticipated!! I've already got a pile of sketches and I'm not even done yet, not to speak of polishing them all up later. So it's gonna take me a little longer to finish that. But I hope you'll like this piece as well - I found it in my WIPs folder from last year and finished it for today. It fits perfectly into the line of my recent crossover works, haha. xD Which I wanted to thank you all for the positive feedback I got from you guys. Thank you so much for your support, it means a lot!!! <3 ^-^

I'm pretty sure the image motif here is easy to recognize, since the franchise is very popular, but in case anyone isn't familiar with it, this is a crossover with Five Nights at Freddy's, a well known horror game. The figure behind Yashiki is supposed to be Freddy, a bear-themed animatronic (from an pizzeria-chain called Freddy Fazbear's) that got possessed by the spirit of a child that got killed there (if I remember correctly). I've been thinking for a while that this would be a fun idea for a crossover, I could definitely see Yashiki investigating that case to bring the spirits of the dead children peace. I've had some other image ideas for this crossover that I never got to sit down and draw and I'm gonna share one here since I don't know if I'm ever gonna draw it: I imagined Yashiki and Mashita are asked to investigate one of the many pizza places, they don't know what they got themselves into but realize pretty quickly that they should run and hide from the animatronics. Inevitably they end up getting chased and, for the lack of time and a better place, they both hide in one of the many lockers that are conveniently placed everywhere. I imagined it would make a fun picture to see both of them squeezed together uncomfortably in that tight locker space (an image where the locker door is transparent to show what's happening inside). x'D A few curses slip out of Mashita's mouth until they hear the animatronic approach and Yashiki quickly covers his mouth with his hand to shut him up. They watch the animatronic nervously through the small slit in the door, nearly getting a heart attack when it peaks through it for a second. But it doesn't spot them and continues on its path. And then later Yashiki has that totally stupid idea to put on masks of the animatronics to fool them (like you do in the game). Mashita hates it and argues that it's never gonna work, but it does! x'D