the aug-chive

something tells me the august august calendar i've been wanting to do won't be finished by the end of the year, and i don't want to risk losing all the notes/write-ups i've done on cohost. (i have all my cohost data downloaded but the easy method of going to my cohost profile [link will not work at the end of 2024!] and copy-pasting the descriptions is not going to be an option soon.)

texts is identical to the posts in cohost, apart from the alt text which has been made more consistent (always has descriptions for the bottom labels, uses proper capitalization and grammar, made more concise when possible, and now uses character names)

august august 1

View of August and Akeno's room during the sunrise. August is by the window adjusting his tie, Akeno is by a doorway flipping a calendar to reveal the new month, 'August'. Labelled: August wakes up on August 1.
3 days late but ITS AUGUST which means i will be drawing august for every day of august. i call it august august
other notes (i actually did draw this on august 1 i'm not late i swear) my girlfriend is the one giving me the prompts and i have a 1.5 hour time limit for each drawing! it's pretty much just august (and other alternate versions of her) in situations.

this is pretty much just for fun i wanna try experimenting more stuff with my art without trying to be a perfectionist about it (hence the time limit). hopefully i beat my record of 3 days from last year..

i WOULD like to do one drawing every day so maybe i'll post the rest in bursts rather than once per day but we'll see i guess!

august august 2

August standing inside a train holding a grab handle. Labelled: August in public transport.
on the train
additional notes since my art is gonna be at like different crops i realized maybe it's better if i just post them one at a time (which i'm doing on other sites too so i didn't wanna leave cohost behind!)

also making a #hal's august august tag for organization later on

august august 3 (implied drinking and vomiting)

A dark bathroom with green light from an open door. August is hunched over the toilet, shirtless. Cecelia is behind her is holding his hair back, looking at the viewer and grimacing. Labelled: August drank too much.
this one is my favorite so far (as of day 4)
fun fact! august is a lightweight

i'm also not sure about warnings so i'll put one here for implied vomiting just in case? but please let me know if there's other tags or better warnings i can use
additional notes my girlfriend told me to do this as a joke but i thought this would be a funny idea... she also told me to use "brat green" as one of the main colors. i also havent decided on augusts tattoos yet so theyre still scribbles for now LOL

anyway the character with altgust doesn't have a name yet, or at least one that isnt a blatant arknights reference yet (also where she got the horns from). altgust is an alternate timeline august where he goes universe hopping with this girl to look for a universe where her (referring to august) and akeno end up happy and safe btw. august is also on hrt (estrogen)

august august 4

August and Akeno at a grocery store being viewed through the gap in a shelf, while Pina's hand in the foreground takes an item. August is picking up something from a shelf while Akeno is doing a wheelie with a shopping cart. Labelled: At the supermarket.
girlfriend gave the word grocery for today... and with that i'm caught up for now
additional notes i took really long with this one, restarted twice because i could not get the perspective/angles right so i went with something a bit safer. i wanted to do a kind of bigger thing with 4 characters but i was worried i'd lose motivation if i took too long and i didnt wanna lose steam this early on

i think the hand is a little distracting so i might go back and remove it. the hand belongs to pina btw

august august 5

August and Pina standing in front of several food trays. Pina is pointing to a dish, arm interlocked with August's. Ethan is sitting in the background, eating from a bowl. Labelled: Restaurant.
day 5 today i almost didnt make it (i had class, napped, went out for errands and then lied down in bed for another 2 hours after getting home)
additional notes nothing much to say here, i think i couldve done better with the lightning but i was pretty satisfied with how quickly i was able to do the sketch so yay. i really enjoy doing these "quick" 1.5 hour doodles, it's a lot nicer for me to look back at these versus like. sketches on a white background.

august august 6

Sword and Lily next to a motorcycle. Sword is inspecting the motorcycle while Lily is leaning on it, talking. Labelled: Swordlily's motorcycle?
day 6!! this is hard because ive Never drawn a motorcycle before. i went over my time limit again whoops
additional notes i asked my girlfriend for help with the bike and she sent me a link to the ARCH motorcycle website. this one is a very very simplified version of the krgt-1 (i think). i lost track of time and went overtime again, which ive noticed i has happened whenever i draw something new.

there were a few references/stock images that were perfect but i tried to stop myself from directly copying the pose and angle, even if i did just slightly change it a bit. i think the proportions of sword (character in front) are a bit off, but thats something ill probably change another time...

august august 7

August doing maintenance on a handgun, a Five-seven, with a lamp shining on her table. Cecelia is watching him from a doorway behind. Labelled: Gun maintenance.
almost forgot to do day 7, but this marks one week of august august!!!!
additional notes not very happy with this one because most of the time was spent on the lineart and i didnt really have a nice idea for the colors. which sucks because i really liked the one yesterday. i didnt have a good idea for the background from the start so i kind of just built around the foreground, but it definitely feels a bit low-effort and empty.

fun fact! altgust's codename is five-seven. there is another character named five-six. these characters are called calibers and their codenames are from. well. gun calibers.

one of these days ill draw altgust taking her estradiol

august august 8

Sword and Lily standing at a rocky coast in overcast weather. Labelled: Peaceful swordlily.
day 8 i almost completely ignored my gf's original prompt whoops
additional notes i kind of cheated on this one LOL it's based on a photo i took in taiwan in yehliu i think(?). it's near this really good seafood restaurant where they have really fresh sashimi and the best fried rice ive ever had. please dont ask me what the name of the restaurant is though i just know it as "the seafood restaurant with fried rice"

my only vacation photos from the last time i visited taiwan were pictures of the beach and rocks here. and some food

i think everything looks a bit too shiny for a cloudy day though

august august 9

August kicking a humanoid figure in the face. Labelled: August kicking someone in the face (Ruina style).
a little late and a little more time spent than expected but here's day 9
additional notes this one is based on the card drawings in library of ruina! i'm definitely not used to drawing this desaturated dark and i feel like it's probably easy to tell LOL

i watched a few videos on question mark kicks so i could figure this out but i don't think it was executed as good as i would have liked. this is my FIRST first time drawing something with actual action/impact, ive only ever done stuff thats like. a little dynamic.

(pointing to self in mirror) august august is about learning new things august august is about learning new things august august is about l

august august 10

Altgust and Cecelia in a portal, Cecelia holding it open. Altgust holds out a Five-seven that pops out of the artwork frame. Behind them is a bright orange light. Labelled August doing the Yoru Valorant teleport thing.
my girlfriend had to show me a valorant cinematic so she could explain their teleportation powers. i mean its technically not august doing the teleport thing but its a group effort
additional notes i lost track of time AGAIN (forgot what time i started) so this one is kind of a cheat day. i feel like this was way over 1.5 hours but you know what. i had fun. if i wanna draw stuff for my gfs universe i need to draw guns more. august, codename five-seven and her five seven, his signature weapon.

the other girl, if you haven't seen day 3, is altgust's (work) partner who helps him travel between universes. they have a fun student-mentor never meet your heroes dynamic that i enjoy. her current name is cecelia, named and designed after the arknights npc cecelia (but you know. an adult). i havent finalized her design so she's still subject to change

august august 11

Sword and Lily sitting at a low table, food on metal trays and mre packaging on the table. Labelled: Swordlily with an MRE.
motivation is low... i couldnt think of anything particularly interesting for this and it was already getting late.. though i was also playing a game while working on this so maybe i shouldnt do that
additional notes not a lot of comments on this one, i watched a few steve1989mre videos before doing this but no cool colors or anything came to mind... i tried to salvage it with shading but. ehh... this one got me a little artblocked. i don't dislike it though! there's always tomorrow

if you're reading this, check out my day 10 art up there! i think that one is still super cool. i'm also linking one of my favorites the day 3 art (warning: august is hunched over the toilet & implied to be vomiting due to alcohol). if you want to see swordlily with a bike look at day 6

august august 12

A view from the inside of a microwave. August looks through the glass at small a plated pizza. Labelled: August microwaving.
i almost didnt make it im not gonna lie i had to reroll todays prompt from my girlfriend
additional notes he original prompt was august packing a suitcase and i wanted to draw him packing in either her room or a laundry room but the camera angles were fucking me over so bad... i lost track of time again for this one because i had to restart but oh well. we move. i also almost didnt make it today but I FINISHED 8 minutes before august 12 ended

i wanted to draw august microwaving buldak noodles with cheese or something bc my gf and i had some for dinner but if i drew a bowl it was gonna cover her face... (august is korean-german btw!!!)

still a little unsatisfied with colors. i wouldve done a blue window but it was too eyestrainy for me it was hurting to look at

fun fact i dont have a microwave at home, my first time using a microwave was in my dorm 3 years ago (Woah... its been 3 years already) I LOVE MELTING CHEESE IN THE MICROWAVE

august august 13

An angled shot of August, Pina, and Ethan eating spicy noodles at a bar. August is enjoying it while Pina and Ethan are reacting badly to the spice. Labelled: August eating spicy food.
this took way too long i need to keep my perfectionist brain in check perspective is killing me (but i like how it turned out)
additional notes been doing a bunch of food related prompts huh. i think my girlfriend is hungry

ive always wanted to do some kind of shot like this with characters eating at a bar. one of my main inspirations was the limbus company liu ishmael art (click for the image), where she's also eating noodles at a bar. ALSO who knew perspective with bowls would be so hard. i spent 2 hours alone on the lines which is. way too long. and then another hour was spent on the coloring + shading.

i dont draw august smiling enough, i need to do this more shes so cute. theres no specific noodles, i was vaguely thinking of buldak noodles when drawing this because my girlfriend and i had some last night. i wanna build my spice tolerance up again. also akeno is not here but he would also have high spice tolerance like august, but he'd overreact to the spiciness for the bit

august august 14 (eyestrain)

August standing behind someone tied to a chair, staring at the viewer as he holds a knife to the victim's throat. Behind them is a bright blue background. Labelled: Interrogation.
this one was quick today! been wanting to do more stuff with bright bg + dark foreground. featuring random freearm guy getting interrogated
additional notes mentally im still on day 13 i LOVE how that one turned out

akeno probably doesnt agree with augusts interrogation methods but he lets august do what she wants anyway. the original version i finished with is different but my girlfriend told me to give august eyes so i did that and added a few more details.

idk what else to say i've been wanting to use this bright shade of blue for a while. i also had changsha style stinky tofu today it was good. i burnt my tongue a bit on the sauce. i still prefer the taiwanese kind because i love the picked cabbage but the texture of the changsha stinky tofu is SOOOOO much better than the taiwanese one i tried here.

august august 15

A reflection in the water of August and Cecelia sitting at a campfire at night, roasting marshmallows. Leaves are scattered across the water. Labelled: Camping. An upside-down version of the previous image.
halfway there!!!! more cecelia and altgust today. plus an upside down version that's easier to look at
additional notes i started out not really liking this when i was doing the lineart but i think the coloring + shading made me like it a lot. i think at some point around last year when i started using hard shading and messy lineart instead of soft shading and clean lineart i started having a lot more fun

i did blue and orange yesterday too but i'm letting it slide because ive had too many orange drawings

my friend was saying (jokingly) "i wish i had your power" when i asked them which ones they'd want as a card.. my august august strategy is:

draw small on a big canvas. dont zoom in a lot or else i WILL focus too much on small details. something like this (but i draw with a gray canvas so my eyes dont hurt): A screenshot of an art program with the artwork, significantly smaller than the canvas.
  • coloring is the fun part, mess around. i've been playing around with a lot of complimentary/near complimentary colors (blue and orange) or some kind of group of warm colors
  • time limit (even though i dont follow it most of the time) because a time limit is better than none at all.. if i give myself unlimited time i think i'd get too ambitious or just Not do it at all because it becomes way too daunting. this kind of ties in with the "draw small" because it makes me feel like im doodling on a sticky note
  • prompts (from my girlfriend) for what to do for the day, usually given the day before so i can think about it passively on the day itself
  • compositions aka vaguely estimated rule of thirds
  • references for perspective, but try not to directly copy any images (unless its photos of myself). ive used some stock photos to help with perspective and getting started (ESPECIALLY DAY 10) but once i get down what i need from it (hand reference, perspective, etc) i just close it and continue on my own
  • for backgrounds, especially emptier ones like the sky/water, i mess around with close colors and different brushes for a bit of texture, like in today's
sorry it's long today i like talking about how i draw. this also mostly applicable to my style but i hope it's still something!

august august 16

Sword points a finger gun towards the viewer, a bullet flying in the direction she points. In the distance behind her, Lily's figure stands atop a building, implied to be the one who fired the gun. The buildings in the background are overgrown. Labelled: Swordlily combo attack.
sword points at you with a finger gun while lily fires an actual gun from at least 2000m away
additional notes this is my girlfriend's new favorite

the swordlily combo attack involves sword fighting hand to hand on the ground (her legs transform into. well swords). the finger gun (optional) signals lily to shoot using his gun arms so it looks like sword is shooting people with a regular finger gun. august and akeno also used to do this. there's a whole action sequence my girlfriend has thought about too

i feel like the month is way longer because im doing august august instead of playing video games and scrolling social media which is good i think. this month i'm the drawerrrr

i couldnt have done this without taking photos of myself for reference otherwise the perspective was going to mess me up so bad. i think it could use some work but definitely better than if i tried to do it without ref. also the buildings are supposed to be overgrown and stuff but i'm not sure if it's obvious. i had to fix em a few times so they're not too distracting or flat but its hard. i think they could have a bit more depth ngl

the lore reason for the overgrown buildings is that there was a big war against space beasts that wiped out most of the population on the planet, so a lot of places are abandoned or almost completely vacant

OH i also had a different idea for the colors which was way more dramatic (purple and yellow only instead of a regular day) but i think this would be business as usual for swordlily, so it's mostly just the lighting that makes it a little dramatic. because its like. the last thing youd see before they kill you

august august 17

Cecelia lying in bed, sick, holding a cup of tea. August sits by the bed, looking at her, worried. Labelled: Altgust takes care of Cecelia.
"coughing baby takes care of nuclear bomb" -my girlfriend
additional notes unrelated but i've been listening to a lot of underscores and torr lately (philippines mentioned) loansharks and selfdestruct have been on loop for the past few days

this one was tough. i did a few tries to get the right angle but i got so frustrated i went to cook dinner before continuing. this perspective is simpler than what i originally wanted, but it was much easier to draw.

the original idea was the camera was higher and angled downwards towards the bed, and altgust would be sitting on the edge of the bed instead, meaning i'd have to draw him in perspective. tried similar ideas a few more times before ending up with this.

i also wasn't sure what to do with the colors, so i ended up being a little safe with it and just going for warm colors again whoops. i think it turned out pretty okay. the time limit is becoming more and more of a suggestion

august august 18 (blood)

A front portrait of a August walking beside a line of trees, adjusting the collar of her coat. His face and clothes are covered in blood. Labelled: August in a park.
i may have put this off until like 10pm. i always wanted to draw dappled light with like. leaves and stuff but i could never figure out how. i think the light could be improved a bit though. also not sure if the blood warning is needed so better to be safe
additional notes nothing much today! i actually had a lot of time to do other stuff on my computer so i kinda put this off a bit too late. this is august walking in a park after killing someone

also i made a big batch of adobo so ive been eating it for the past few meals... i also accidentally bought spiced white vinegar instead of regular white vinegar because i wasnt looking

august august 19

August and Akeno in August's office. August is sitting her a desk, writing on paper. Akeno is standing on the right, holding a stack of papers and a mug. Labelled: Paperwork.
my wrist started hurting towards the end but i made it. a little late though
additional notes A black and white drawing of August sitting, floating above a chair, a reference to Lowry sitting down in Mystery of the Druids. i found out last year's august august day 11 was this and i was GOING to make a 2nd version but i didnt wanna think about perspective too much. also the way i draw august has changed so much. i actually forgot how to draw akeno's hair

i was initially going to finish this without the picture frames and apple but my gf wanted me to add more "worldbuilding" to the scene so i put those in

august august 20

A mirror shot of August brushing his teeth. Labelled: Brushing teeth.
day 20!!! 2/3 of august is now complete
additional notes chat i am losing steam but maybe its just that i didnt have many ideas for today. anyway here's august brushing her teeth. i was going to draw akeno somewhere too but i couldnt fit him anywhere. hes probably like. sleeping or something

august august 21

August and Ethan standing against a dark background. August is changing a lightbulb, the shine obscuring her face. Ethan is covering his face with his hand. Labelled: Changing a lightbulb.
late for day 21 because i had class today. ethan is wearing his glasses on his face for once
additional notes tired today... had class and then another class and then helped my girlfriend cook dinner so it's Pretty Late whoops

i had to take so many photos of myself just for the perspective... its hard

august august 22

Front view of August and Cecelia in a van. Cecelia is asleep leaning against the window. August is driving, a slight smile of content on her face. Labelled: Driving.
starting to finish on time again
additional notes short and sweet today i didnt get enough sleep and my heads been hurting the whole day. luckily todays wasnt too hard and i went easy on myself with the coloring. i kinda wanna change cecelia's hair color but i dont know what color to change it to

since these two never stick around a place for too long they tend to switch between cars. also ill make a cecelia oc tag sometime when her concept is changed to be less similar to the arknights character

noticing that ive been going back to a few palettes/lighting...

august august 23

Side view of Sword and Lily, a sunrise behind them. Sword is in a wheelchair, hand held out as a skua flies from her hand. Lily is standing. More arctic skuas are flying in the foreground and background. Labelled: Swordlily w/ birds. The previous image but with color adjustments. Shadows and birds are slightly redder.
never mind i did not go back to finishing these on time. based on this shot from the third jujutsu kaisen opening. birds are hard to draw
additional notes i broke my "eyeball every color & use minimal blending/effects" rule for august august with this one, but i'll post both versions anyway. i do like the edited version more because its more vibrant/less gray.

i think i was subconsciously imagining the shot from the jjk opening when i was thinking about the composition because it was Exactly what i wanted. i didnt wanna copy it exactly though so once i got the perspective/bg down i stopped looking at it.

i also realized ive been drawing these smaller and smaller over time so im trying to make the frames bigger again

sword uses a wheelchair! i forgot the details but it has to do with her mechanical legs... they can transform into well. swords but she cant use her legs normally outside of that. on the other hand lily's arms are just Way Too Strong

also i ran some errands today, i have acquired a silhouette cameo 3 (thank you facebook marketplace guy) so now i can make sticker sheets at home and experience more con crunch in october

august august 24

August hunched over a laptop, viewed through a doorway. It's dark, the only light is coming from the laptop screen, lighting up August's face. Labelled: Staying up late.
tired today so this ones quick. check out day 23!
additional notes kinda demotivated to august august, or at least i'm running out of time to think of something, so very quick today.

nothing much today! i was pretty busy, got on the wrong train and then stood around in the hot sun (with sunblock! always wear sunblock) so i'm really tired... managed to not take a nap when i got home so i was able to work on some assignments and stuff

august august 25

A close-up of Cecelia carrying August. Both of them are soaking wet. Behind them is an aquarium, glass broken, water flowing out. Labelled: Underwater.
this one was kind of fun, i wouldve added fuller colors but figuring out the lineart tired me out. they broke out of an aquarium or something idk
additional notes nothing much today, assignments are starting to come in BUT august august is almost done... however. this means that i need to get to making merch designs

cecelia and august are so fun to draw together. love their dynamic

i know this isnt "underwater" but i couldnt think of anything for anything underwater so this is like. what happened to them being underwater.

august august 26

Sword and Lily drinking tea, viewed from a kitchen counter. Sword is staring up at Lily, who is holding a broken cup with cuts and tea on his face. Labelled: Drinking tea.
lily drank tea too hard
additional notes errands again today so i wasnt able to do much. i forgot if ive already talked about it but lily's arms are prosthetic and also really strong so he probably like. slammed the cup into his face. sword on the other hand has heavy prosthetic legs, and when her legs arent in sword form she uses a wheelchair

ive been neglecting to update previous posts for the link to the "next" august august post whoops

august august 27

August, Pina, and Ethan at night, illuminated by a pink light. August is in front, handing her ID to a gloved hand. Pina and Ethan are behind him in a conversation. Labelled: ID'd. The same as the previous image, but in the daytime.
two versions because i didnt really like the lighting of the first one
additional notes it's a good thing august august is ending soon because holy shit my assignments are piling up. i did the night scene originally but i redid the colors with the daytime one. i wouldve done the day one first but i already kinda did that lighting with august august 6 (swordlily bike)

1st is id'd because they're going out and second is because they're working probably. i was debating whether to do cecelia and fiveseven (altgust) where altgust was trying to hide his cometwatchers affiliation, but my gf said to do past august. now that i think about it though, fiveseven august would probably have an updated id with heavensent instead of cometwatchers. i was also really excited to draw ethan i think he gave me couvi

august august 28

Sword riding piggyback on Lily. They are illuminated by the sunset. Labelled: Lily carrying Sword.
this one is very rough today (this is because i have an assignment due friday and i have barely touched it)
additional notes i ended up playing games with a mutual after dinner and it was like 11pm of the 28th when i stopped... i did a bit of my assignment before drawing this until 1am. dont do what i did i have class at 9 in the morning

lily is helping sword look around or something i guess

august august 29

Altgust and Akeno leaning on the railing of a bridge at night, their eyes cropped out of frame. Altgust faces forward, lit cigarette in hand. Akeno's back is to the camera. They are lit by a nearby street lamp. Labelled: I miss you.

august august 30

An orange sunset lights up an abandoned office. Sword and Lily are inspecting the items left over. Labelled: Old office.
sword and lily reminisce about their past life.
additional notes mistakes were made. i really shouldve done the assignment earlier i crammed for like 7 hours straight. my head hurts but i didnt wanna postpone this until tomorrow. i will proceed to not learn from this (has another assignment due sunday 10pm)

august august 31

Art of several photographs of different versions of August. Labelled: August.
that's a wrap! no special big illustration unfortunately
additional notes i wanted to do something a bit more special but its hard and i didnt want it to feel like a chore. i wanted to finish before i went to sleep so its still "august", i really didnt want a late one. also im sorry shes facing the same way twice here LOL

this one was already definitely rushed just because ive been staring at this for way too long.... i did WAY more than whats in the frame but the perspective was weird and i didnt wanna have to redo everything. i really do wish i could have done something special buuuuut i need to work on uni stuff

if you got this far, congratulations! august august was really fun, and i'm very proud of my work even months after (which is a little rare for me). here's to hoping i'll be able to do august august next year (and maybe even other characters!)