Magi👁️Crow

I often felt burnt out from rendering, so I became more experimental in exploring new artstyle, seeking something fun and raw. I usually start by experimenting on one piece, and if I feel fond of it, I keep developing that style. In the end, this process helps me learn more about myself, what I enjoy, what I prefer to study, and what I choose to let go.

So besides jobhunting my artstyle has split into 3 I guess:

1. I got the Disney vibe/Cartoonish style:

2020→2025

Disney 2d animation was a huge part of my childhood. They were so good at shapes, expression and gesture flow that I feel like the vibe grew into me over time. In this style, I let go of details and heavy shadows, prefer simplicity and dynamics, as an extreme opposite of my job hunting style.

Other than Disney, Pokemon is also a huge part to me. The TCG art and fanarts always blow my mind on how they draw a simple-shaped creature design with such dynamic energy. I had learn a ton when I illustrated the Twst x Pkmn Fanbook cover art which makes me believe that I prefer simplicity and dynamics way more than realistic rendering. Also sometimes cute stuff doesn't need much rendering, so I can switch styles if needed.

I think my early Azul and Kalim in these 2 drawings, and most of my very exaggerating expressions showed a lot of the cheekiness of this style too, maybe something that’s been deep down in me all along.

2. I got the Traditional-ish style:

2020→2025

I went back to how I used to color block without line art. In this style my main inspiration now is Kleiner Hai. I really like the heavy noise/canvas texture and brush strokes that looks like traditional painting, and I can just keep overpaint without caring too much on details. Also no heavy filter is needed in this style, just raw color sense.

If the Cartoonish style has exaggerating expressions, this style has only calm and relaxing expressions, because that's just how I feel when I paint with this style. It's like a tavern where I take a rest from a long journey and sip tea.

3. Combining all I learned to my personal style, and do more experiment:

2020→2025

Unlike my job hunting style, my personal style is more energetic, and emotional. I feel like jobhunting has kept me from expressing who I really am, so I pour all my heart into my personal style.

After recalling my roots in loving Disney’s gesture flow, I started paying more attention to flow in my art. It significantly changed how I draw Jamil's hair. It became so fluid now that I basically turned myself into a hair fetishist and have no regrets.

And after recalling the color blocking method I changed my workflow to "not everything needs to be perfectly drawn during lineart, let some of the hair strands or accessories be the final touch". It really helps alot.

And Sheya Chen and Redum are truly one of my art gods right now. Since last year I found out I am really really fond of China artists' color sense too, u can actually feel warmth through their color, so I studied alot of their art on Pinterest and set as my color goal. Some of my color art is finally heading in a direction I like

And now honestly it become some kind of a mix between rendering and personal style, cuz now I only render small focus point like hands, face or hair. I love that, that means I don't need to overburn myself to overrender everything again.

Also experimented alot on Jamil's face too(poor guy).. Sometime I want to know if eyebag or lower lashes looks good on him..Pretty or handsome.. I kinda want my version of him stay unique so I've been very greedy..

Yea I guess thats all about my overall style.

Basically I didnt really lock down what my style should stay, but I do have a clear vision of what kind of color moods that I like, remember whats my root as an artist, let go somepart to remain the part I prefer, stay experimental and learn new things, and try not to stay stubborn on one

Look at more art, seek inspiration, find a direction that may excite you, that's when you ready to learn new things. If your artstyle right now is blocking you from the new direction you're excited for, just believe in your new potential and turn it into a new one.

-Fffff where do I even begin with this? First off thank you for reading the whole thing. I can't begin to explain how this whole concept entered my head, and tbh I'm not sure how much it will end up being addressed within this story. But, if I keep at it, this means there's gonna be a sequel with undercover spy work and guerilla warfare and the works, so, fingers crossed there.

-Anyway, the opening lyrics are meant to be kind of an emotional reversal from the first chapter, because I'm seeing this as kind of a turning point in Jamil's feelings and perception of the octatrio. In chapter 1, Jamil is feeling like he's worth more than he's being given, that he's better than the people controlling him deserve. He's resenting and resisting the people around him and fighting for a sense of independence, of control over his own life. Now in these last two chapters, he's surrendering to a feeling of helplessness, he's been beaten down by recent events and falling back on the belief that he can only gain anything by being used. He's realizing that he's actually started valuing certain people, and perceiving himself as not worth enough for it to be reciprocated. Basically, Jamil is starting to give in to the prospect of being controlled by the only people he actually likes, because he's lost sight of any better alternative.

-That said, obviously his sense of pride isn't letting him give up the fight quite that easily. Jamil may get convinced to look down on himself at times, but that doesn't mean he thinks the rest of them are any better.

-I don't care about the canon dorm images. I have an idea in my head and I'm sticking with it.

-Fun fact, as a barista: If you tell us "surprise me" (unless we really like you), you're getting whatever's easiest at the moment/using up leftover ingredients laced with spite. Unless you seem chill enough to experiment on and the manager isn't there, then you're getting whatever weird flavor combo the staff has been curious about but not willing to try themselves. At least give a general range of flavor preference, or ask what we think is good. All that said, this is more proof Azul really likes Jamil.

-Mansplaining as a narrative device for exposition? In my fic? It's more likely than you think… (for real though, you can't have a story about villains without at least one monologue)

-So, moray eels shed and regrow teeth, which means I'm deciding that the tweels do too, which supplies some of the parts they're selling. So yeah I'm picturing Azul acting like the world's most awful tooth fairy and coming to collect whenever his boyfriends lose one

-Very minor but I imagine Azul is absurdly pleased with himself for coming up with a terrestrial plant metaphor to explain things to his terrestrial crush

-A while ago (when I thought the chapter would be written soon) I did a short poll asking folks on tumblr to vote on who got fridged for Azul's backstory, and his stepdad was eliminated …sorry Orfeo… (I'm gonna go into how I picked the name after a chapter where we learn more about him)

-TBH I feel like half of this lore was made up on the spot. I'm not sure if I'm sorry or proud of myself, but at least it's written down. It didn't hit me until I was done writing it out that environmental exploitation and human trafficking have always been such major topics growing up that they've really become go-to narrative conflicts in my writing

-I can't resist the concept of sirens having an inherent magical allure. I imagine it helps Azul with convincing clients and victims to agree to his inadvisable deals, and acts up more subconsciously when he actually wants to attract someone (like Jamil during class and in this chapter)

-I actually really enjoyed trying to depict Azul's feelings and motives from the POV of Jamil completely misinterpreting just about every cue

-A moment of silence for Jamil and what he thinks is normal. The idea that Azul might be upset for him has never crossed his mind (Azul: What's that? People try to poison you? Often??? I'm going to need a drink. / Azul: Oh so you… don't… get choices… in your line of work? You just referred to yourself as someone's resource? More wine it is. / Jamil: …is he mad at me?)

-On that same note, another moment of silence for when first crush anxiety meets massive paranoia. And the inevitable drastic misunderstandings when one party is accustomed to always being used and the other is notorious for always using people. Our boys are Going Through It

-Jamil can't tell the difference between a broken heart and indigestion tbh, and Azul's pretty sure he's poured his heart out on the floor enough times that he can't figure out what could possibly be left to misinterpret

Add warm and cool colors especially on skin.

Use pinterest. Always find more than one reference for a subject if you want to draw better than yesterday. Pure ref is a nice tool to gather reference on your pc. When i draw a single hand I had a lot of ref. (pose, color temperature, lighting, photos, artwork, all diff ref)

Color theory is so important I still struggle a lot. I highly recommend beginners start from practicing Marco Bucci's ball practice. After that slowly change to adding character into movie scene and photographs, the purpose is to adapt different color moods and learn the lighting from the image. Learn more from famous movie and cinematic. They did their best to nail the colors.

Anyway,

this is a long answer about how I color. My previous job influenced me so much on coloring so there's a lot of thinking and struggle on my colors.