FINALLY DONE! i'm really happy with how ethantember's been. i definitely had some works
i wasn't particularly proud of, but overall i've improved a lot since august august last year.
i'm a lot more satisfied than the end of august august. maybe it's because i do actually
feel proud of this last piece, and it feels a lot like a proper way to end it/close it off.
i wanted to do more for august august but i just wasn't feeling it.
i was actually just going to do the prompt normally without worrying about having to "finish"
it, but conveniently i hadn't done a "looking back at the viewer from a big cloud" composition yet
and i've always wanted to do that. i remember seeing an artwork by phimeirai (bluesky)
with the big cloud but specifically with pride flags and it really stuck with me. i tried to do something
similar though i'm not sure if it's obvious (transgender clouds and bisexual sky).
i've been posting these every day on bluesky, and it's really heartwarming seeing so many
of my mutuals comment on how they've been enjoying it and they're sad to see it end.
some have been following since august august, and i'm happy those of you got to see my growth
a year after.
i am really excited to finally get some rest and have more time in the day for my other
projects (and now, commission work), and i should really continue prepping all this sticker mail.
i hope you enjoyed this series!
third "ethan vaguely rule of thirds on the right side of the image", sorry. it's my
comfort composition and i was busy with other stuff, i wouldve stressed too much over
ethantember if i'd made it any more ambitious.
this was based on the aurora australis! (not that there's a difference in appearance, i think).
my friend in new zealand sent a photo of it and i was SO jealous. i was in sydney at the time
and you can't really see it from the cbd lol. i dont live in the southern hemisphere anymore but i see u.
the aurora isnt just up north. nz also gets way colder weather than sydney and im jealous of that too,
it barely got cold enough to wear my warm turtleneck.
my girlfriend really likes the ikea alien. ethan in here is probably dreaming while
hugging an alien plushie or something.
i don't really have much to say here i think. ethan is in the orbit of his home planet,
promise, which has an artificial sky and atmosphere (related to the grids in the sky).
the three towers reaching orbit are part of point city's space elevator, where the highest point
is a spaceport for ships to land. (if my girlfriend sees this please correct me if i'm wrong)
i was asking mutuals about sticker mail on this day so that's why my gf gave me this prompt.
it was actually somewhat reused from an old thumbnail of day 20,
but i really didn't want to think about perspective. sorry for the incoming 3 ish
days straight of ethan on the right side of the artwork btw.
it's probably not very obvious but ethan's pulling a letter out of his bag to give to someone.
i'm learning that cool colors are very fun. i think after day 4, something clicked and i realized
i could just Use green and lighter blue more often. i wasnt as worried about reusing palettes this time,
since i guess i've been focusing more on practicing storytelling in a single shot/scene.
can you tell i've been in a mood? i really like ethan ok. i think tank top ethan is wonderful
and i need to stop myself from drawing him so much (i like drawing his boobs)
i really like the colors of sunlight crawling on buildings, and the vibrant orange streak
between the cool shadows and warm light. it's pretty.
really big fan of ethan's fucked up nail polish. i have a friend who wears black nail
polish a lot, but whenever i see them it's usually chipped. in ethan's case he just
uses his hands a lot. i keep forgetting to draw the wounds on his knuckles (from racing) though.
the original prompt was "gig" but he's just playing guitar in front of some buildings
he's probbably just in a music video. it took me way too long to figure out the pose
and anatomy, and i spent maybe 30 minutes on the hands lol. not pictured is his left hand,
which i tried so hard to align with the frets and eventually just gave up and cropped it out.
it was hard getting inspiration for a bassist playing pose, a reference for it (without making
it too obvious that i was copying the pose), and a cool shot. the idea of drawing instruments is
nice but having to scale them and make them actually LOOK like theyre playing is a lot harder.
i did get some inspiration from
thornhill's arkangel mv [FLASHING WARNING], and color picked the background from one of the shots.
he's supposed to be using a fender vintera ii competition mustang (please dont ask me
about guitars, i asked a friend to assign ethan a guitar), but because i didnt want to draw
the entire guitar you can't really tell.
i think he could still also be a bass player, i think bass is hotter than the guitar
(biased, because i tried to learn the bass) and ethan is just a mix of my type and
"me if i was like 10000x cooler". but eve is also already my bassist oc that i (used to) project on
and i feel greedy and biased if i have more than 1 bassist.
a bit of a tangent, but i do find it funny my "trans guy oc i project on to" went from like,
a blonde 5'8 white guy to an actual short east/seasian guy (like me). that's a dog guy
and has a wolfcut (like me). And wow it's really easy to project on to him.
propeller hat, like the propeller hat dog meme. ethan and fiore are taking photos at a photo
booth or something. honestly i just wanted to make them look silly but unfortunately it kind of
goes hard. ethan in the propeller hat and lollipop is kissable (and it wasn't just me saying it this time!)
they look surprisingly good in overalls. not that i ever doubted fiore, but ethan is a very attractive goober.
i learned it was bisexual day so i added that to the prompt. my girlfriend said
ethan's thinking about how he could've driven instead of taking the train.
the cold counterpart to yesterday's hot day. i was kinda unmotivated today, i had a few
other composition ideas but none of them really inspired me. there was one i wanted to do with
august, pina, and akeno but i figured that miiiight be a bit too ambitious for a piece i
wasn't really feeling.
i think i'm starting to warm up to drawing more of the world's environment, though.
hot day. i like the colors here and i like ethan in a tank top. it took me a while to get the colors down,
i planned on stopping at an earlier part in the artwork but i'm glad i decided to keep going.
i was worried the background would be too bright but honestly? the bright colors helps sell the "hot day" idea.
also there's a bonus because i just wanted to draw ethan in a tank top all hot and sweaty with a popsicle in his mouth.
(this one was actually the first sketch, but i decided to draw the other one with pina instead. i cleaned
up this sketch after i was finished because i'm really attracted to ethan, okay)
every year, the last four cometwatchers meet up to pay respects to the ones that didn't make it.
the other two characters are aurora and pina! there's supposed to be a third guy but he hasn't
been designed yet. they're the last remaining members of their freearm group, which once had 12 members,
including august and akeno.
nowadays, aurora drowns herself in work and pina is still trying to quit her vices.
ethan has moved on and lives a much less eventful life (though he does still have to
take care of pina). only the last survivor is still out there seeking justice (or revenge) for
his fallen friends.
a bit of a quick one because i've been doing commissions the whole day and i kinda want to just get back to doing that.
(vgen plug)
my girlfriend pointed out yesterday (sept 18) that camille's face has always been obscured, which was not intentional!!! so
i made sure her face was visible here.
for every ethantember i've taken photos of myself for pose reference. i work much faster like that instead of relying on my,
admittedly very little knowledge of human anatomy. theyre not 100% accurate (refer to the previous sentence), but it's quicker to
do a photoshoot then just eyeball and copy it. it's also much harder when there are two characters interacting because i'll have to
piece them together in the sketch. there are maybe fifteen photos of me lying on a pillow in different poses just for this.
a mutual also asked me the other day about my process for ethantember! honestly i'm really happy to share it but i think i'll
do that in a proper blog post once this is all done.
these are all based on plushies my girlfriend owns. they're at a souvenir shop from the day 7
aquarium!
please don't ask how long drawing all the plushies took.
finally something without clear skies! fiore and ethan are in a clothing store (implied thrifting) while it raining outside.
this is inspired by a place i would semi-frequent during one uni semester, one of the staff members was #Filipino and we talked
to him a lot. they also had coffee and it was very nice (but australian coffee is usually nice anyway, coming from someone whos had
shitty, incredibly bitter, overpriced cold brew from the philippines).
i really wanted to add droplets on the window too but i wasnt sure how to go about it. this drawing is also slightly bigger than usual,
i'm not sure if i'll keep this up but i kinda want to make all my ethantembers a biiiit larger so the print size is bigger LMAO this one
is a6 size. i do still want to do different aspect ratios though, i really like wider shots.
i keep forgetting to draw their ear accessories. kemonomimi hearing is sensitive in promise.
day 11 called. it wants its palette baThey hit the what
ever since my last taiwan trip ive been wanting to draw mountain roads! while its not exactly what i wanted to draw
i think they look very nice, especially when they have lots of trees. it's been a while since i went to the actual, mountain
sightseeing parts of yangmingshan and it was pretty! got to see lots of buffalos and took photos of their big poop.
i was honestly a bit stumped for the palette because on one hand i wanted to do something different, but i really like
sunset colors and blue skies. also ethan is petting a brown tabby cat. you know who else is a brown tabby (its fiore).
my girlfriend gave the prompt the night before and i had a headache. thankfully it was gone when i woke up.
light sensitivity SUCKS though turning off the lights before sleeping with a headache feels very nice.
not much to say here, though this is the same kitchen from ethantember 13, pina and ethan's kitchen (see the fridge magnets).
i messed up the perspective so the table is higher than it actually is. he's eating the sinigang pina cooked on his birthday and trying every
solution he knows to get rid of the headache. paracetamol, caffeine, food and water (paracetamol because i personally
am allergic to ibuprofen).
the initial prompt waas run, but i couldn't think of anything for that so i kinda just. bent the rules a little bit.
it's the return of the blue-green parking lot. i like this one! i had fun with the contrast between the supermarket and the
parking lot, though you can tell i got kinda lazy when i reached the supermarket. i tried to draw the self-checkout machines
from memory, i dont. think thats what they look like.
ive been accidentally challenging myself with multiple light sources and well. god damn its hard. still proud of how
this came out though!
it's ethan's birthday, september 13! the date is pretty arbitrary, it's based on my own birthday but honestly i'm still kind of confused
how my girlfriend got that date from my birthday. pina prepared a surprise batch of sinigang, ube muffins, and a failed plate of pastillas
(some of them are stuck to the plate).
ethan wakes up early, pina stays up late - she probably spent the night making this to surprise him. i think ethan prefers smaller
gestures and more intimate celebrations. he's probably heading off to work after this, maybe he'll treat everyone to some food.
i accidentally spent too much time on this one but i think it turned out well! i was rushing towards the end
because my hand was hurting. i really like coffee! i was initially interested in coffee because i was obsessed with Enforcer from
Arknights but i actually ended up liking it a lot, after my friend introduced me to specialty coffee.
there was this cafe my friends, girlfriend, and i used to frequent. the baristas were very friendly and passionate about coffee,
i learned so much about coffee from them. the processing methods, how altitude affects taste, etc. sometimes they'd offer some of their
off-the-menu leftover or upcoming beans, the one i still think about is the malaysian beans that tasted a LOT like jackfruit.
ona's cafe/bar is supposed to be a tavern actually, so its not supposed to be modern with all this glass. but i wanted to have
a back light from the outside so pretend this is another branch or something.
did you know the shape of your coffee cup affects the taste?
i like this one. when my gf gave me the prompt this immediately popped into my head.
it's also an accidental parallel to an old artwork where i also have an sitting in a field of tall grass.
taiwanese guy oc #1 and taiwanese oc guy #2. except ethans also filipino so Hes Like Me for real
2023 art
i also tried to draw his car, an rx-7 fc3s but i got the proportions a little wrong. drawing cars is hard
ethan and his cousin! i was kind of stumped for this prompt but ive always wanted to do something with a claw machine so
i kinda just. squeezed that in. ive also been trying to figure out ethan's cousin's design! probably not final, i
unfortunately lost the first reference for his hair, so now im just giving him different hairstyles.
the little ethan and fiore balls are high speed regulation group merch, since theyre pretty well known racers. i spent a bit
too long on this so i rushed it towards the end, i'm kind of ehh on the colors.
how do you draw wet hair. this is hard but i hope it looks wet. i deflated his ahoge and everything. the bracelet is probably
a gift from camille. i wish the angle was slightly different i wanted to draw his chest LMAO. im proud of the water and colors though.
ive had a bad stomach for more than a WEEK now and the dr told me i should avoid any oily/fried/spicy food which is.
all the parts of my favorite flavored fries. so i guess i'll just experience it through ethan in the meantime.
i suspect i ate something bad because i wasnt the only person from that dinner that got sick that day.
anyway i really like the idea of snacking on fries while swimming. there's a resort with a bar inside the pool and i thought
that was so interesting. imagine sitting on a barstool while ur in the pool and getting snacks and drinks. i always looked forward to
eating fries by the pool when id go to the beach with my family. except they were always plain and not the ones with flavor powder OR loaded.
i like loaded fries
ethan and fiore at a night market, maybe an hour or so before ethantember 4 (parking). i always see these night market
games where you can win plushies and plastic toys, but i never tried them out (perhaps to save myself from the embarassment of being unable to
speak mandarin).
fiore's probably a good shot. she's trained in high speed pursuit but i'd imagine her PCDA (point city defense agency) training
prepared her for other situations. now that she's retired though she likes to show off. oh my god, is this ethan's or fiore's month?
fiorebruary next? (this is a joke i think 5 months is too soon for another oc art challenge)
i had something more envisioned for this, and while i didn't spend too much time on it, i was already getting frustrated with the programming
i was doing earlier in the day. i'm still trying to stick to my 1h30min time limit i had for august august though, but i tend to
forget to check when i start.
aquarium date! there were a lot of things i could do with fish but ive never drawn an aquarium date artwork of, anything i think?
there's starting to be a trend with these povs but i'm not sure what to call it exactly. i'm really enjoying making more, scenic pieces?
i feel like i can nail down mood and stuff a bit better compared to august august.
i worked pretty fast with this one LOL i was out the whole day and got home at almost 11. i usuallyu get prompts from my girlfriend,
and this time i kept forgetting what she told me so i only had time to think towards the end of the day. still very happy with how this turned out, though.
parking buildings are fun. my friends hang out a lot in there. i had other ideas like ethan and fiore just sitting down inside
and chilling, but i thought it'd be silly if i drew fiore trying to look cool.
me & my coworker not listening to the meeting. i think i could have done better with the composition, but
i'd already spent so much time on it and getting the faces right that i just wanted to be over with it.
i would've liked to draw august a bit more visible in the center and maybe someone walking into the meeting late.
i also wasnt very sure what to do with the colors LOL it feels like theyre in a lab or something
been forgetting to update this oops. this one's my favorite - i enjoyed the composition and colors a lot.
i made it a point for august august not to do any adjustment layers (or at least avoid them), i'm trying to continue
it for ethantember but honestly i don't care as much, i think i'm focusing more on storytelling and scenes when i can.
i was thinking about the last time i went to a night market while drawing this, the scene was kind of similar -
the stinky tofu was so good i bought two boxes of it, and i had to finish the second one before we got to the car.
ethan is also eating stinky tofu, hence why fiore's covering her mouth.
today's prompt from my girlfriend was "cooking". i wanted to make something a bit more eventful, like
the pot boiling over - either with ethan not looking, or a shot of him getting there just a bit too late
to uncover the lid. though i think this is silly too.
i forgot i downloaded a brush a while back so i used it for the steam effect on the pot lid. i also don't use
these colors much! i'm still very biased towards warm palettes but i am starting to enjoy making cooler ones too.
i saw a few pieces of fanart that used light blue instead of pure white and i was like "huh, i should try that"
and ended up just making the entire drawing blue-green. i really like the contrast between that and the warmer colors
for the skin and pina's highlights.
ethan's days start and end early. he wakes up before sunrise to get in a morning drive, maybe beat fiore's pb
before heading to work to get ready for the day.
here, he's tucking in his partner, camille. they don't live together, but he stays over often.
ethan stays in his own apartment along with pina, his former coworker (the cyborg girl from day 1).
camille is also filo, and the box by her bed is full of christmas decor from her parents.
ethan and camille are based on my girlfriend and i! all plushies (except for the ethan one) are real
plushies my girlfriend owns. the ethan plushie is discontinued cometwatchers merch, so camille has
a stuffed toy of her partner from ten years ago.
we're back to another monthly challenge! i find them more fun than things like
inktober etc etc because theyre a lot more personal to me (by that i mean OCs).
Anyway, here's Ethan and Pina setting up their Christmas decor for the start of the -ber months,
as Filipinos do.
ethan is standing on a stepping stool of course. pina can't really be bothered to wear an ugly christmas
sweater, so it's only ethan in the festive mood. also an accidental reference to
august august 21 - ethan is once again putting on a lightbulb. thing LOL
people with animal features usually wear some kind of ear protection or hearing aids if they
have two sets of ears, i think ethan wears something more subtle while he's out, and headphones
at home. he also only wears his glasses when he feels like, his astigmatism isnt very severe