zym

Achilles & Patroclus (2021)

Of all the art I've made, this is one of my most beloved pieces. I also created a plate version for a double-sided acrylic standee that had one side in the red-figure and the other in black-figure style painting.

lately i’ve been feeling like my lineart is lacking personality, and my art as a whole is looking too digital…i learned to draw almost exclusively digitally so it hasn’t bothered me in the past, but now that i’m dabbling in comics and graphic novels, i find myself wanting more of a traditional look in my inking

so here’s a quick sketch of my New Favorite Guy™ that i made using a textured ink brush, trying to mimic the look of traditional media

some more notes:

i initially planned to do this drawing with actual ink on actual paper…5 minutes in i messed it up beyond salvation (as i tend to do with all of my traditional inking) so i gave up and did it digitally :’)

i also wanted to give him a more distinctive face, perhaps more fae-like features to hint at his true identity (er, spoilers…) maybe it lost some of the “pretty anime boy” appeal, but personally i find distinctive faces more interesting to draw and look at. i’m always trying to vary the faces i draw (though tbh genshin is not a great place to turn to if you’re looking for variety lol), so what do u think? should i lean more into this departure from canon when drawing genshin characters in general? or stick to the mostly-similar anime style faces i’ve been drawing til now?

i’m interested to see what a sketch in this style would look like in color…i’m pretty committed to using black ink in my comics, so it might be a challenge to make the colors look vibrant. that, plus there’s a ton more detail in the lines, as opposed to me painting in most of the detail during the rendering. i think this lineart stands quite well on its own compared to my usual lineart…the intended effect, i suppose, to shift most of my effort to the inking stage rather than the rendering, which’ll save time overall when making comics

I have three jobs that are all unstable. I live in complete poverty as a sole provider to a family of three in the global south. I am on maintenance medicine for hypocalcemia, type II diabetes and hypothyroidism for the rest of my life. My mother is a full time wheelchair user with very low movement, my father is managing a chronic kidney disease, and my sister is autistic with a low frustration threshold. I am their sole provider, and now dealing with nerve damage post surgery- a quarter of my face, and nearly my entire neck has not healed properly- its numb and painful and makes it hard to work for me as it limits my own movement somewhat. If you've ever taken joy from my art or little posts, I would love your help. I am grateful for this second chance at life, I would like to stay healthy and keep living. Thank you so much!

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