𝒱𝑜𝓁𝒹

So, Jax is a closeted transwoman. This is undeniable, incontrovertible. She's also a trans experience I found spoke to me unlike most other stories I've read: through the series, she was generally comfortable presenting masculine from what I could read (even talking about being the peak of masculinity if memory serves), but after some panic and stress did end up feeling better presenting and identifying as a woman.

Which is why it infuriates me to no end that she doesn't get to transition in any way, shape, or form. She ends up stuck in a body she can't feel comfortable in, and is still referred to with he/him pronouns, now without the ability to ask otherwise. Drifting through life in an identity you hate, but unable to change. Locked in the closet, so to speak. It stuck out to me as a horrifying element of what was, for all intents and purposes, a happy ending, especially since other characters got to decide their identities explicitly.

Does this ruin the show for me? No, I think it's an interesting addition that not everyone gets the happy ending, especially contrasted with the one person who didn't deserve one (Caine) redeeming himself and earning it. It just sticks out to me like the most sore thumb I can imagine.

Day 47(?)

I've been taking a break to think things over. Life is getting busy, I'm running out of drawing ideas, so I'm pivoting for now.

Day 46

At last the girl, indeed. I'm really happy with this one! I feel like I have enough stylistic choices to pull through on some of the flaws. Generally speaking, I think it speaks for itself, with Noelle's fate split between love and LOVE, falling in love with Susie on the normal route, represented by the ferris wheel ride and being puppeted by us in the weird route, represented by the thorn ring, with the thorns replaced by the shatter effect.

Day 45

I feel like this is the low point of the prophecies. I didn't know exactly what to do and was just winging it. I was inspired by the depiction of dark and light in balance in one of the prophecies and chose to use it here. It's Kris and Susie by the water at Hometown since I think it's a nice location, with Ralsei being alone literally in deepest dark. Now I think about it, I should've drawn his Castle Town room.

Day 44

Sorry I didn't post anything yesterday, I ran out of paper! I'm using some old art paper I found in a drawer for this. It's interesting to use. As for the piece itself, I'm not too proud. All the ideas were there, the execution is just off.

I picked Susie carrying the Tenna TV since, with full context, it's one of the most hopeful moments I think she has. No matter what happens, Susie immediately tries to help and recruit everyone. Hope that Tenna can pull through crosses her heart and if you play the game well, he survives with only minor battle scars.

This also plays into the theme of rewriting the prophecy, as well as something I discussed on the bonus piece on day 11, with Ralsei thinking that being kind enough can change fate and the prophecy. While Tenna is 'cleaved' no matter what, which follows the prophecy, his survival can be changed. Even if the prophecy can't be changed, even if it is set in stone, it can still be reinterpreted.

Day 43

I feel like I just didn't do enough with this one? I don't know how to describe it, it just feels empty. I could've done a sort of split outfit thing like day 10, but I forgot. I'm happy with the effect around the soul, though!

Day 42: No art today

I know I've skipped days in the past and tried to make up for it, but today I'm clarifying that I'm not making a piece today. Not only is life getting busy for me especially on Tuesdays, but today's also my birthday so I'm going to use what time I've got today to celebrate that how I can. Take a Rawring Knight edit in the meantime.

Day 41

I'm mixed on this one. I tried putting the Fun Gang in a more simplified style, which I don't think works. Meanwhile, I think the Knight and the general framing looks good for me.

Day 40

I think this is the piece I'm proudest of so far! The double outline is something I'm really happy with, I got to use the correction fluid I got a while ago. There's also the writing, which although the word blackened is squashed, I'm happy with the effect of. The arms are weird, but I'm still happy with everything!

Day 39

Whaddya know, I'm still bad at drawing Susie. I decided to put them in their light world clothes because it just occurred to me that I haven't yet.

I wanted to experiment with that miniature style I did i did yesterday, and I did with Kris. I also experimented with shading a little after I accidentally used the wrong colour for the stripe on their shirt for the back.

Then I tried making Susie and the drawing got way too big. I'm still not good at getting the face right. I wish I had a paler blue for the shirt (the darker parts in the actual sprite are blue), but I'm happy with the clothes.

Day 38 (+37)

Sorry I missed yesterday. As I mentioned, we're getting a new dog (I was sadly outvoted on calling him Ralsei). I hope this counts as two pieces and is enough to make up for it.

I just can't seem to get Noelle right, especially when it comes to the face. She has very distinctive eyes and I usually don't have to draw them (Ralsei has glasses so I don't need much other than the pupils, Kris has a lot of hair, Susie I can make the eye with two extremely smushed parabola), but the way Noelle's eyes are designed is difficult for me to recreate. Plus I made the face way too small for the main drawing.

I figured I'd also experiment with making the characters smaller, to experiment with eking out as much detail as possible in a small space. I also kind of like what I did with the eyes on it, even if it's too small to see well, curving it around to make a loop. It forces her to look in one direction, but it's nice.

Back when I was middle school I decided that my art was too bad to keep doing. My friend was really good at art and I saw all these artist on the internet that were way better than me. I saw people laughing at bad art online. I accepted that I’ll never be good. 

Then I see AI finally a chance to express myself. ANd artist come out of the woodwork all of the sudden saying that you can practice and get better and to pick up a pencil. WELL WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME EARLIER??? I thought that you needed a magical thing called talent and you were instantly good. Now I’m 19, I’m legally an adult, if I draw badly I’m just going to be seen as a cringe loser. So I lashed out at some random person who was drawing bad because if I’m not allowed to make art no one can.

I accept your apology. It's all good.

I'm sorry you feel you'd be cast out by art communities. I also felt kind of anxious about posting some of these drawings at first, especially anything to do with Susie since I couldn't get the shape of anything right. But even if they weren't good, I had fun making them. If I didn't like making these drawings, I'd have stopped at like day 20. There's no shame in quitting, whether you're posting online or just trying something as a hobby. Just don't quit because you think you're 'bad'.

Aww, it's so sweet that someone's finally taken the time to write a hate ask! That's how you know you're getting popular.

I know people say don't feed the trolls (which I don't understand what they get out of this anyway), but I figured I'd use the chance to say something about talent. Not anything about "it's not intrinsic", but that it genuinely doesn't matter if you're talented if you're just doing it for fun. I already know I'm untalented, but I find joy in putting my thoughts about a character on paper, doodling them and writing a quick sentence or two. Even if we ignore the problems with generative AI, I wouldn't get that fun or that time to think if I just typed in a few letters.

Day 36

Just realised i haven't drawn Noelle yet. She's weirdly both tricky and simple to draw: with the Dark World version there's a not much detail but that makes it hard to distinguish everything. The light world version has a lot of complexity in the vest from what I remember trying to make a 3D model for her, but I figured it out.

It turns out I don't have any good pale yellows, the 'pastel yellow' in my set is what's used for the darker part of the hair, whereas the lighter part is allegedly pastel green. I also wanted to test out putting an outline of colour on the robe since otherwise it'd look bland. I like it.

Day 35

I'm not too happy with the group one. I feel like I had more space to put in detail with the higher sized ones, so I might stick to individual drawings. Kris' pose doesn't feel dynamic enough for the swing, I'm still not good at drawing Susie's head, and Ralsei looks like he has the inverse of a hunch.

If anyone's curious, the weapons they've got are the Black Shard, Axe of Justice, and the Scarf Mark (wrapped around Ralsei's arm). Kris' pose is based on an actual longsword theory pose, the Zwerchau. It could be illustrated better, but oh well.

Day 34

I still don't think I'm good at drawing Susie. Regardless, I'm getting the hang of it! The armour here feels a little too sparse, more applicable to a faster knight like Kris than an unstoppable force like Susie.

The outfit swap trilogy is now technically complete, but I kind of want to put them all in one drawing together just for the fun of it! I'll get a chance to work on the flaws of each, and try out an extra pose for everyone!

Day 33

I'm really happy with this one! The left (their right) arm is too thick and the head feels too small, but I love what I've done here! As I mentioned yesterday, I want to do all the outfit swaps, so this is Kris styled as Ralsei! I got to play on some of my armour knowledge by putting them in a surcoat (would've been gambesson but that has sleeves) with chainmail underneath (using a layer technique that I don't think shows up that well on camera) and using the scarf as a cape!