#river rambles

my intentions with this list is to only spread love and light. this list includes mooties and people i love, so i’m unsure of the boundaries of everyone with being tagged like this. let me know if you would like me to remove your section :)))

@batwngs

dc - fave work: collapsing hands gently ; j todd x reader

i’m lucky enough to call z a moot of mine, her kind words are consistently an inspiration for me. i always find myself enjoying their work so much it’s insane. they’re really good at setting a scene and pulling into the world of the characters. my beloved jaybird gets often mischaracterized by the fandom and shit, even dc itself, but he’s in good hands with her. <3 you bunches.

@filmcamerasanddice

dc - fave work: ive got you ; j todd x reader

okay so final jaylad rec but i love this fic SO much, jay is such a big ol’ softie here and it’s so endearing to me. sometimes ill say im picky but truly i just want to be taken care of, and this fic feels like a warm hug.

@amaranthinespirit

cod - fave work: simon helping you ; s riley x reader

i adore how elizabeth writes si, and the sweet loving moments that exist in domestic life. i also love love love how she writes scenarios for each cod character, making them precise and fit each character is more difficult than one might think (for me at least, idk about elizabeth).

@angelbabykei

mha - fave work: do your job! ; k. takami x reader

okay so listen a guilty pleasure of mine is any kind of dynamics that are violations of labor laws. i love a happy end massage type thing or in this case, reader is keigo’s doctor while he’s in a rut. this is so far up my ally i can’t even. the writing is gorgeous. and the dirty talk action is immaculate.

@ketamiis

dcu - fave work: shhhh! ; j todd x reader

yeah i’m absolutely feral for this man, don’t know if you could tell. i love me an older jaybird, and him features here is truly phenomenal. “open, ma” yeah, riv’s over and done for.

Embrace as much or as little masculinity as you want. Embrace as much or as little androgyny as you want. Embrace as much or as little femininity as you want.

It fills me with so much joy when poc transmen/transmascs be pretty and cute and GNC. I've been having such a tough time feeling like I can be pretty while also being transmasc, so I just wanna uplift everyone else so we can all feel good about ourselves. Let's be pretty together!

I'm wondering what brushes do you use for backgrounds, do you use references, and how long does it usually take for you to finish them? Thank you!!

I get this question semi frequently and I literally never know what to say because my answer is super underwhelming (usually it's just "idk lol" so I don't answer), but since you asked specific questions that helps a lot!: -I only use 3 brushes that I made a post about 5ever ago, I have the settings screenshotted for other SAI 2 users but you can also probably recreate them in other programs. I only use the first two brushes on there for backgrounds but yeah- I never do backgrounds with big bold outlines like the characters that exist within them. Honestly I feel like as fun as 4093284329 custom brushes are, you can get choice paralysis super easily and NOTHING gets done. So for this entire decade so far, I only used my three favorite brushes and a few effects tools occasionally just so I'd know how to use them better than a shit ton of brushes I only kinda know how to use. SAI 2 is incredibly limited in comparison to other programs so it wasn't hard to pick the few good ones lmao

-Backgrounds take a good bit of time the very first time I draw them, I try to start with establishing shots with a bunch of features in them so I can copy+paste it onto another panel and reference it for every new shot. So for that first establishing shot, it could take like 40 minutes, could take a few hours, but due to my shit attention span and the nature of comic panels being looked at for less than 20 seconds apiece, I try to not linger too long. I add only what makes the space not look empty, because I know I'll have to come back and redraw it over a dozen times. When I do the establishing shot first, the next panels will take 15-30 minutes apiece generally.

-I don't generally use references unless I'm really struggling, in the past I think the only times I had to look up references for colors/atmospheres were for kinda pastel soft environments? I have an abandoned Heket + Lamb comic I can show, I lost the reference photos but as shit a site as Pinterest can be, it's really good for looking up reference photos because it shows you visually similar things to what you're already looking at. I mostly struggle to integrate green into my art because it's the color I worked with the least before hyperfixating on a very nature-heavy game, so I had to look up a pink sunset next to a lake with grass visible for this comic.

The panels are gonna be out of order but maybe this thing stayed a WIP specifically so I can show my process a bit better???

So here's what a sketch usually looks like, very simple and generally I only draw key elements because the sketch (usually) will never be seen anyway so I feel it's pointless to anything past a vague suggestion of a background:

Then, what I'll do is go over it in colors with a big brush to block out where colors will go:

And here's what the establishing shots look like (not fully done but they're 90% done I'd say):

That above comic had like a million layers for each panel, which is maybe why I abandoned it because I found that colors are so much easier to work with when you do them all on one layer. I did that for "have to act like it doesn't bother me" and that one got finished, so maybe it was a skill issue and I should revisit the above comic? Here's what drawing on one single layer looks like:

It's messier, sure, but I prefer the messier painterly style and it was WAY easier to get a harmonious color palette that I don't usually work with.

Characters always get colored last no matter what, I can't color a character unless I know the environment they're in and I feel like a lot of beginner artists that struggle with color theory/making their own Signature Color Palettes could benefit from coloring their characters last, but then that'd mean they have to make a background first and I know backgrounds are like one of the most hated things to draw. I *CAN* draw backgrounds, it's just a pain in the ass most of the time!