rather early, my 2026 month-long oc art challenge. i wasn't going to do this originally
but i didn't wanna miss the opportunity for alliteration (fiore february, shortened to fiorebruary,
with fridays as fiore february friday). additional commentary & other thoughts below these pieces.
(total time does NOT include thumbnails btw, but you can probably add 30 minutes to an hour for most.)
i may or may not do another challenge later this year.
post-fiorebruary note: i was planning to write a theme for this page and i'd still like to,
but ive grown to like this simple HTML page and i'll probably keep it like this, i'll just have an alternate page
if i ever get around to it.
you might also notice the time taken gets shorter over time - i don't think i got any faster, i was just tracking my time taken more precisely.
before day 20 i think i was just checking the time before and after i started working, so the time taken included any breaks or me dilly
dallying between. to help myself focus i started using the pomodoro technique and i just tracked my active working time,
not including breaks or thumbnails.
and we're back, only five months later LMAO. i did this on impulse, as i do, so now i'm
stuck here for the next 27 days. i mean i CAN stop if i really have to, but the fun
of these challenges is seeing it to the end. at least, it's fun when you look back.
i'm going with a wide movie ratio for these (2.39:1, but some are 2.35:1 oops), i've been
watching jjk season 3 and it's kind of inspiring. i'm also inspired by
largeonions' 100 days of arknights challenge, who also used movie aspect ratios for their pieces!
these are gorgeous and i hope i'll be able to achieve even half of what they can do.
different kinds of waking up. ended up going with the first one because it was the easiest & the composition looked the nicest. the second one was my other choice because i wanted to draw a face closeup
fiorebruary 2: sunbathing
time taken: 4 hours
i once went to the beach as a kid, and while playing in the sand, saw the wind
take my beach ball into the sea. i tried to run after it but my parents stopped me.
i felt so bad, they were telling me dolphins were playing with it to cheer me up LMAO
so the original prompt is sunbathing but i ended up just going for a general beach theme.
the idea came quickly, but this involved a lot of perspective and angles ive never really
done before. i spent most of the time drawing out fiore and ethan and i think they still
look a little bit off. there was an idea of a background in the thumbnail but i was so tired
at that point that i kinda just drew whatever.
i also didn't have a set palette in mind, only the idea of how i wanted it to look (bright
beach day). i didn't really know how to start so i just did base colors and a shit ton of
adjustment layers. it definitely turned out better than i expected, i'm not used to
trusting the process. for this challenge, i think i'll let myself have fun with adjustment
layers and focus more on mood & composition to make these pieces feel more movie-like.
it kind of annoyed me that the fiorefeb with ethan was my most popular on bluesky (as of writing this),
but i do hope it's because the colors and the scene are nice and fiore is in a bikini,
NOT because ethan is there. it's FIORE FEBRUARY please comment on ethan AFTER noticing fiore.
they are friends though so i will keep drawing them together.
i had this idea already locked in so no extra thumbnails here. i probably couldve planned the bg better LOL
fiorebruary 3: shark
time taken: i don't remember lol maybe 3-4 hours
i think this one is fucking awesome but there is some background info you need to fully appreciate it.
(not that i know a lot about cars, just enough to come up with this idea.)
fiore's car is a
bmw 6 series e24, which is also known as the Shark
because of its sharknose shape. my girlfriend wrote this into fiore because of couurse she would be a bmw driver
and also because having a car called the "shark" is fucking awesome.
i was SO happy to see this comment on my fiorefeb entry. i love the idea of easter eggs
and references that specific people would enjoy, i was so excited reading this. i hope D4RKN55 is having
a great day.
i thought this was a cool composition. the big shark in front of the little shark,
and fiore posing coolly next to her car. i was thinking of yuki tsukumo's leather fit
while drawing this but gave her a different style of jacket instead. my girlfriend also told me
to give her red jordans.
i think the shark couldve been a bit more detailed but i was kind of losing steam by the time
i got there. it wouldve been nice to have the wall looking more like. a wall, with the text
and shark looking more painted. maybe another time. i'm proud of the contrast though with
the red and cyan though.
was figuring out scaling here. i only realized later on that shes way too short for her car.
fiorebruary 4: [mirror]
time taken: i also dont remember i think 4 hours
drawing out of my skill level today. this turned out okay and i think the
colors saved it. i tried to do some kind of two point perspective/fish eye thing
but it kind of just looks like a roundabout LMAO
ive had this idea for a while of fiore and camille's reflections on a convex mirror
at a mountain road but i dont think it translated very well from my brain
to the tablet. i had trouble drawing the plants and it kind of killed the last bits
of motivation i had to do this.
i've been thinking about this since june i think? when i went to
yangmingshan in taiwan. i think mountain roads are really cool but the idea of
driving there is terrifying to me.
i enjoy the small detail of the bite marks on their chests very much
though and i'm kinda sad the mirror blur makes them harder to see.
fiore being shorter than camille is also very cute. their height difference is only
supposed to be 3 inches but i like it when the shorter one is more dominant.
the other thumbnail was related to a prompt my gf gave which was window. never ended up doing it though. my girlfriend said the first thumbnail looks like a scary face
fiorebruary 5: wire
time taken: maybe 3 hours
full disclosure this is fueled by my desire
for fiore and is part of my personal fiore fantasy of coming with her to settle
things in her hometown, despite her being against it and not wanting to put me
in danger. yet she is smiling at me warmly, tiredly, and thankful that
i'm here with her.
anyway this was an easier one for today, simple centered composition with simple
background, and just a bust shot. simple but effective, the rim lighting really
brings it all together. i really like this one. i hope i can think of more
simple to execute artworks that come out really nice.
i also really like fiore in armor. i hope my girlfriend designs more armor for her.
God fiore's so hot
i dont even remember what the prompt for the first thumb was. maybe park or something?
fiorebruary 6: camille's birthday
time taken: maybe 4 hours
it's camille's birthday! didn't have time to make birthday art so camille is the
star of this fiorefeb entry. i went on a date with my girlfriend on this day so i ended up finishing pretty late.
not my best work, i took longer too because i was watching the new jjk episode.
theres always tomorrow, i don't really think i need to spend more time than i should
trying to perfect every single piece.
the scene was inspired by
underscores' wallsocket album video. when i was younger i always wanted to ride
the back of a pickup truck (i have, but in a place with a low speed limit). i also thought i was so cool
and awesome that i jumped out of a moving car while trick or treating (at maybe 5 kph or something,
not fast enough to be that dangerous). knowing me i probably ended up with a bruise though lol.
the figures take me the most time so i end up doing them first, but then if i spend too much time
i get too tired to do the background details. aghhhhhhh. i also had to fight the temptation to make
this a beautiful blue sky + rim lighting again because that is my absolute favorite kind of sky and lighting.
i'm boring, i know.
by the way i'm having so much fun with eleventy. these entries are all written in separate files and i feel so
neat and organized.
perspective is hard.
fiorebruary 7: park
time taken: maybe 3-4 hours again
another artwork above my skill level. the vision is THERE but i cant execute it well,
much less with a "time limit" - i use this loosely because i know my ass is not setting
a timer nor checking the time, just doing this start to finish in one sitting.
this is how they turn out more high effort but also take a lot longer than i'd like.
i saw a photo of a cat in a flower field and i've been wanting to do something similar
since. i also saw this really cute artwork of saber(?) from fate in a sunflower field,
i can't find it anymore but this was the reason i went for sunflowers.
i was imagining a scene where fiore's back in aqmara strolling around in a vespa
in a flower field.
the first one was the easiest so i went with that. the others still have potential and ive had this composition floating around for a while, maybe ill save that for another day.
fiorebruary 8: hotpot
time taken: 2.5? hours
been having hotpot a lot lately. i didn't expect to like haidilao so much but GOD
the tomato broth fucks so hard. anyway fiore and ethan are not having hotpot here but rather
malatang. i thought the classic "characters having hotpot together" would be a nice scene
but i thought about how much id have to think about scaling and perspective and drew two sketches
and decided i'd just draw them in front of some sauce station or buffet. and then i remembered
malatang exists.
malatang, as ive experienced in sydney, is where you fill up a bowl with a bunch of raw food buffet-style,
pay by weight, and then have it cooked by the chefs in a stir fry or soup of your choice. it's good,
very nice for the colder seasons in sydney, and for eating out with your friends where you need to split
the bill. i remember my friends got theirs a little too spicy and they were sweating in the restaurant.
the last time i had malatang was right before my girlfriend and i got covid. we both thought we had food
poisoning until we took a covid test. afterwards i lost my sense of smell and taste for at least a month and it was
probably one of the worst feelings ive had in my life. the texture of burgers is kinda gross actually and
i avoided eating them for a while even after recovering.
we have malatang in the philippines now and ive been meaning to convince my family to try it,
but i havent been craving it enough to bring it up. i have, however, been trying to convince them to try haidilao
but no luck so far. i NEED to have that tomato soup again.
tried to do the classic hotpot table but perspective was fucking me over. before i went to malatang i thought about them at a sauce station, because last time i had haidilao with friends they asked me (the token taiwanese) to help them assemble their sauce.
fiorebruary 9: cheese
time taken: 2 hours 10 minutes
i was out for most of the day today so i went with something simple.
breaking away from the "movie stills" theme because im lazy as fuckkkk and i couldnt
really think of a background for this. i mean i COULD but i just wanted to get it done quick.
from what my girlfriend told me bast maran, fort aqmara is just made up words. fiore is
sponsored by her hometown's cheese because i thought it was cool there was an olympic gymnast
sponsored by parmesan cheese. this is actually the first sponsor/logo for fiore's racewear
(and still is one of the ONLY logos).
i like cheese so she gets a comically large wheel of cheese, and also because my reference
was an in-room photoshoot of myself holding a large tomato pillow. there were actually several poses
buuuut i wanted something easy
adding this in from day 25. goddd this sticks out like a sore thumb. i shouldve added a background.
fiorebruary 10: pool
time taken: 2 hours 30 minutes
this one has a matching one for tomorrow (if i manage to push through with that idea).
i caught up to star strike it rich recently and my girlfriend told me to draw back muscles.
still not the best at them, i should do proper studies sometime..
i've only been working with my girlfriend's prompts half the time so far? maybe it's decision
paralysis.. i keep asking her to reroll prompts for the day because i can't come up with anything.
though that's also led me to being able to come up with some myself. ideas seem to come to me
before i sleep so i have to tiredly get up and type something on my phone before trying to
fall back asleep.
i'm happy with the time taken for this! though it's also helpful to have a simple pose, background,
and perspective. i think with these, drawing the character usually determines how long i'll take.
complex poses take MUCH longer because i'm a master at neglecting studying anatomy and proportions.
i don't worry too much about backgrounds and props' perspective, as long as it looks believable it's good for me.
the imperfections give it character. or something. but if the character looks off it kinda
takes away from the piece, at least to me.
i usually do these after 10pm when i put on my tgel (because i shower + dry hair + brush teeth)
but i ended up drawing a bit early and doing my routine in between. time taken is always an estimate
though, i really cannot be bothered to time it accurately.
fiorebruary is so blue. i think the contrast is very nice between the blue scenes and her red palette.
i also just really like the color blue.
the snacks were not there in the thumbnail.
fiorebruary 11: blood
time taken: 4 hours 10 minutes
not sure if the parallel with yesterday's comes across very well. its more in the
composition I GUESS when i was imagining it. maybe i shouldve made the glass in the shape
of a pool floatie and gave her fries. though i think i'm a bit too harsh on this one. the
dead guy is just someone in a suit and armor. i was figuring out how fiore's pauldron works
when she lifts her arm up so i was watching
this video [youtube]. a pretty helpful but in the end
i asked my gf and she said "yeah its really supposed to poke her in the face". then ended up drawing the
person in the video's armor on the body.
i have another version below, i actually made this after because i was worried the main version was too
red. but my girlfriend likes the intensity of the main version so of course i will listen to my princess.
she also asked whats wrong with me because it wasnt an immediate top 3 when i finished it but i think
my opinion is changing or will change soon enough.
talking to my girlfriend about my fiorefeb art and her favorites, and seeing so many people comment
on the bluesky post has made me realize maybe ive been relying too much on contrast for my pieces.
maybe its a bit of the social media/artist alley "need to make this stand out" brain? i thought
parts were too hard to discern, glass was too messy, and the red was too intense. but i think im
wrong and i should do more red/warm palettes again. ive got to stop relying on blue
all things considered im pretty happy with it! my wrist was dying when i drew the glass. Fiore's so
hot man. i really like that she enjoys the act of killing for no reason other than the love of the
game. i do wanna draw her more like this, covered in blood and smiling and killing.
fiore's unarmored lower abdomen/thigh is my girlfriend's absolute territory
morning edit: i woke up to this comment from a mutual,
soumic (check out his art! i
bought merch from them and
pxlpastry a while back, their art is sooo fucking cool)
and it made me so happy to read!
while it doesnt encompass the entire promise aesthetic i'd say it applies heavily
to most of the current/ex freearm characters (the cometwatchers, fiore, etc).
just as the cometwatchers had made their way up, eight of them died. ona lost her husband and almost killed her sister.
camille worries about ethan even making it home for the day.
threats aren't just human either, the promise universe has a lot of demons and space monsters
around (think chainsaw man or project moon).
overlaid this and the previous day's thumbnail for perspective and parallels.
fiorebruary 12: bathroom
time taken: 3 hours 30 minutes
i merely live in the shadow of fiorebruary 11. anyway here's more fiore
covered in blood. i think i colored this one in too dark so it might be
hard to see.
girlfriend suggested another idea for another two-part artwork with fiore
getting the red out of her hair and putting the red in her hair but i forgot
about it while doing the thumbnail and only remembered right when i was gonna
post it on bluesky.
i like that genre of artwork that's like, character in front of a bathroom mirror
covered in blood and it's in a cyan/green palette. i am partial to cyan and bluer
colors so i went with that, though i'm a little unsatisfied. i think the
biggest influence for me liking a piece is the colors, actually.
here's the version with less filters. i like this one too, despite being a little bit flatter.
i was really struggling with the perspective. i tried drawing over photos of public bathrooms but i couldnt get the scaling right, and ended up just doing it by hand.
fiorebruary 13: garden
time taken: 3 hours 30 minutes
happy fiore friday!
had hotpot today with my girlfriend. its pretty good but i think haidilao is still
the best local one of out of the places ive tried. i cannot get enough of the tomato broth
oh my god. this place also had tomato broth but it was lot oilier than i'd like.
we went on a walk and passed through this alley full of plants, eventually leading to
a conversation about a potential in-universe HSRG hotpot collab with home-grown tomatoes
from fiore's garden
(like the arknights x haidilao collab [youtube link]).
fiore is very passionate about food and gardening (my girlfriend says it balances out
fiore's violence) and would probably love to nerd out about her plants and recipes.
killer girl loves cultivation. what did fiore mean by this
this one's also got an alternate version. i like to make my girlfriend do spot the difference for me
and tell me what she likes better. she says the main version feels more like a movie shot while
the below version feels more like an artwork. i think i overdid the lighting on this a little,
but overall im proud of it.
with fiore i can't really do much canon lovey dovey stuff
because she doesn't currently have anyone to do that with. maybe camille? my first
thought was the trunk of her car full of flowers, but the angle i was imagining
drawing it at wouldve probably killed me.
my second thought was unfortunately fiore and ethan making out, so here we are.
not sure how hot (as in temperature) it would be to wear their racing suits
plus bulky jackets on top but the fits go kinda hard. especially fiore's.
if i was a girl i would love to have her fashion (joking. id still wear
what she wears and the jacket she has is based on my own milsurp/secondhand flight jacket,
just with an added fur collar)
i also have another version without the drool and implied kiss, and more implied
fiore ragebaiting ethan. i think its also nice but my girlfriend wanted the drool
so i listen to her as a boyfriend should.
also releasing today is the release of the dusk till dawn zine by amp zines (18+)
[itch &
ko-fi]! it's a collection of OC pinups of over 50 artists,
i'm one of them! everyone did such a great job, i'm so excited for it to come out! it was awesome seeing
everyone's pieces come to life, i'd always lurk the WIP channel for updates LOL.
i of course drew fiore and ethan. so predictable. the link will be available
when i'm asleep so i'll edit this tomorrow with the proper itch.io download link. all proceeds will go to
crips for esims for gaza, a crowdfunding campaign to provide esims for people in gaza.
another side view, slightly obscured faces piece for this challenge. i thought about doing the first thumb, it was much easier but i was convinced to draw the second thumbnail because it was hotter. i struggled a lot with the poses. so glad i decided to make fiore lean into ethan more, is it hot in here or is it just me
fiorebruary 15: wash
time taken: 3 hours 20 minutes
the prompt for this was "wash"! she's hungover after valentines
doing laundry. I think she's hot as shit.
Do not ask me about the angle holy
shit i used ONE reference for this because i could not be bothered.
i ended up doing three passes of the lineart and i don't think im completely
satisfied even now. you can really tell from the feet that i didnt wanna think about
perspective, one is hidden under the bench LOL. the laundromat
also feels a little empty, i probably couldve added more props.
this also has a second version. and a third. i'm kinda indecisive
even after asking my girlfriend.
not sure if i like the dryer or fiore as the focus.
there's also a bluer version because of course there is.
the other prompt for today was "gig" because my girlfriend and i were
watching our
friends' band play today. i did have an idea and i asked another friend for
a drum assignment for fiore but i only had the thumbnail for the laundromat so i went
with that instead
(their words: "bass drum + rack & floor tom, snare and 14" hi hats.
lowkey she'd go crazy on just a china and crash ride cymbal combo").
there's a joke somewhere i could make about fiorethan and hair of the dog
i do think she has a washing machine at home i just like laundromat scenes so i can make her more relatable to me. i make a lot of 'safer' compositions but i usually end up going for the more complex one bc its way more interesting
fiorebruary 16: break day
time taken: 2 hours
still going for drawing fiorefeb every day, took it easy with something simple.
it's a "break day" because i didnt have any ideas for today. i hope its not art block
though, i've still got two weeks to go.
my girlfriend said to make a "break day" doodle with a cat version of fiore but i ended up having an
easy to draw idea for this. she looks so cozy. i hope she turns down her phone brightness.
i wanted to give her the evil red iphone clock thing but i also wanted a bit of light
from her phone.
while writing this i realized i forgot her blanket design. pretend it's in the wash or something.
my 1 month hrt check-in is also tomorrow! i'm considering switching to injections once my
gel runs out, but aghhh i don't like the idea of having to inject myself. it's cheaper though (i think?).
semi related, someone from my recent artist alley actually reached out to me to ask about access to HRT
in the philippines which i thought was a very nice interaction. him and his girlfriend are t4t too
that's so cute. i hope he starts soon.
honestly i prefer the angle of the thumbnail, i only realized it was different halfway through the lineart so i just went 'fuck it' and kept going with this.
fiorebruary 17: happy LNY
time taken: 3.5 hours
happy lunar new year! introducing the new HSRG horse character, now we have the
primary colors. i will flesh out the racing friend group soon enough.
my original idea was them having hot pot together but i ended up saving it for
the day after, i just wanted to draw them watching fireworks lol.
the food theyre eating is dan bing (fiore), youtiao (ethan), and doujiang (horse).
one new years' eve, my family drove out to get breakfast food and we went to watch
the taipei 101 fireworks from afar (never really felt the need to watch the fireworks
up close). it was nice and REALLY cold. i kinda miss that cold, it was a lot warmer this
time around. we also stayed home this year
i might as well use LNY to force myself to make an extra kemonomimi oc for the OCverse
because i know i dont usually design new ocs unprompted. horseguy has been forming
in the back of my mind for a while now, and his design probably isnt final. aurora
started this at the start of 2025 for a stamp rally so i decided i might as well
keep this going. i'll be in my 30s when this is done
horseguy also became a unicorn while drawing this because i was thinking about
celese deadlock [deadlock.wiki], i really like her design and accent.
also the trans guy asking about HRT apparently went in yesterday for his first appointment!
really happy for him. he's tabling at an upcoming artist alley, i wanna drop by and say hi,
and maybe bring a gift.
i went with the second version bc i didnt wanna design 2 outfits nor draw fullbodies. but i think the vibes wouldve been nice.
fiorebruary 18: hotpot 2
time taken: 4? hours
fiorebruary is the month of me being hungry as fuck apparently. funnily enough,
i dont think i feel much of that T hunger anymore. i did for a while but it mellowed out
to my normal hunger levels i think. T libido is a different story.
been on a hot pot kick, here's the HSRGlings having a hot pot lunch. fiore is enjoying
the very long noodles. this took a lot longer than usual because i was kinda not feeling it,
i also kept jumping around different parts of coloring every time i'd tab back in to my
art program. i hope i have better ideas soon i'm really hoping its not art block.
honestly i did not like this at all until i added a bunch of adjustment layers to fix the
mood/color. bright and warm lighting saves the day again.
what's your usual hot pot sauce? mine is kind of plain. i do satay + peanut sauce + soy sauce
+ a LOT of garlic, cilantro, and green onion. if they have raw egg ill add it too.
i snack on it while waiting for the food to arrive so by the time i can eat anything half of it is gone. but its good
more horse guy facts: his number is 7 like how the horse is the 7th animal in the zodiac.
ethan's and fiore's are kind of boring/not as meaningful, it's just the first parts of their
names in leetspeak (37han, f10r3). the highlights of horse's hair are based on the coat of
Przewalski's horse, my girlfriend and I saw it at the zoo and wanted to turn it into an
oc.
if you're curious, their hot pot soups are probably spicy mala (extra spicy), tomato, and milk/mushroom/some non
spicy milky soup.
this was supposed to be for yesterday but i wanted to draw fireworks yesterday. it's actually crazy how many times ive typed "fiore" instead of fire
fiorebruary 19: lock
time taken: 3.5 hours
august august was a practice in color. ethantember was a practice in storytelling and composition.
fiorebruary is a practice in hard bright lighting and foreground blur. it's fun though. it's also
a practice in drawing cars, please don't ask me what fiore's exact car model is because
i used references for the interior from every possible year. also planning to ask my girlfriend for
help in adding the aftermarket parts for fiore and ethan's daily drivers.
the initial idea for this was ethan getting locked inside a car like a dog on a hot day
but i realized 1) that's not possible because hes a human and not a dog and 2) even if
there was reasoning for the door to be locked from the outside (which i did, thank you oh-koh),
i don't think i could figure out the visual storytelling for it. (wooooowwww visual storytelling)
but i really wanted to make a joke about locking ethan in a hot car.
you can tell ethan thinks he genuinely deserves to live
i'm also back to using prompts from my girlfriend. i had another idea but luckily i had one for
lock. you can see in the thumbnails (which i'll add at a later date) the remnants of fiore locking
ethan inside the car, i wanted to salvage that into her being locked out but her car is not right hand drive
so the keys wouldnt be visible. honestly i couldve just flipped the canvas for this piece and it wouldve worked
goddammit. i think the depth and ethan drooling in the foreground is kind of funny though. also wouldnt've
been able to have this fiore gif.
while i didnt end up doing this i'm saving this and keeping note of it for later. so glad i have help from the expert
on locking dogs in hot cars
today is also my girlfriend and i's 9th annivesary! my gift is still on the way and will be late but i'm very excited for it.
she reads these so i have to be vague
after day edit: the replies i get from D4RKN55 warm my heart so much. i didn't know she used to own one of
these and i think its one of the coolest things ever. i hope she's doing great.
i'm kind of starstruck and really touched! i was so excited showing this to my girlfriend
was trying to figure out how to show fiore being locked outside. i started off by modifying the first version were ethans locked inside, but i couldnt figure out a way to show the keys so i begrudgingly switched povs. i think the foreground ethan is much more interesting
extra thumbnail gif version. theres a bit more charm in the roughness of the thumbnail.
fiorebruary 20: stream
time taken: 2 hours 50 min
wonder what she's doing walking into a waterfall like that.
my original plan was to draw her without her helmet so she looked like a wet cat but if
she was awesome and not pathetic (i also forgot she has a helmet). the cat ears
aren't actually part of her helmet but i thought it would make the silhouette nice.
i dont think i can imagine fiore as being pathetic. like she can
have bad or unfortunate moments but not like. pathetic or anything.
wasn't really sure how to pull of the rushing waterfall, ended up hitting it with my usual
market brush + rake brush. i also pulled out some of my marker brush
for the blending on the rocks. i think i couldve shaded the rocks better to make them
look more like rocks. i also forgot to add some depth to the parts of the
waterfall that fiore is breaking through, oops.
this is funny to me because in my head i can imagine some hard as fuck stock photo like
this with this exact composition and concept.
i started off with "stream", with my train of thought ending on a waterfall. i was initially leaning towards the first one, but my girlfriend said the waterfall was hard as shit (and it ended up being easier to draw)
fiorebruary 21: 'roast'?
time taken: 3 hours 30 min
she is so beautiful and handsome and gorgeous. bugs when you lift up a rock
etc etc
another fiore in tomato plants. i think my type in women is
slowly bleeding through the more i draw fiore. i keep making her muscles bigger
and putting her in more handsome outfits.
the prompt was "roast" but i got from there to
tomatoes because my girlfriend roasted tomatoes recently. this made me want tomatoes
so i convinced my mom that we should get another 4kg of tomatoes (it was 180 pesos!)
if youre in the philippines i like buying produce from rural rising,
a program to support local farmers. they have these "rescue buys" where you can buy large amounts of fresh produce for reasonable prices.
i like checking their site to see if they have cherry tomato rescue buys.
they also recently updated their website!
i'm writing this the day after so things arent as fresh in my mind. the outfit
is based on the code vein fiore but i wanted to add her pauldron because its
so damn cool. i added the embroidered gold and changed the colors a bit in the artwork
because i forgot, i think it looks cooler. ive also been leaning towards
giving her a bulkier collar/choker because i also think its cool. i'm realizing i also
forgot her earbuds again.
rim lighting is so fun. i will not stop adding dramatic rim lighting and glow
and foreground blur. idk it makes it feel more cinematic. i was imagining an
anime opening while drawing this, like a 1 second shot of fiore looking through
the plants in the anime op sections where they show off all the characters
in a scene.
the lighting came after the thumbnail actually, i figured since there wasnt much background
anyway i could just turn it into bright light and add a glow in all the gaps. i really like it.
also been checking the thumbnail previews (like when sending an image/posting) for values
and clarity and i think it kinda helps?
i went through a bunch of sketches before settling on this one, but a lot of them were just fiore floating in a void so i didnt bother adding it. i wanted something easy (bust shot) and i wanted to frame her face with tomatoes.
fiorebruary 22: lamp
time taken: 3 hours 45 min
who else cheered for beaten up fiore again. I DID!!!!!!!!!
sometimes all the first aid you need is a cig and a six pack of beer before you get back into the fight.
in promise people are a lot durable but also i think it would just be nice in general
for ethan to help out fiore when she's got the shit kicked out of her. my girlfriend was saying
"this is the kind of shit that happens before a character dies". if youre reading this DONT kill her.
i just want her kneaded like dough but still smiling, fire in her eyes still roaring etc etc.
my girl will not go out just like that youd have to put her through the heat death of the universe
to fully kill her
ethan himself doesn't smoke but he keeps a pack on him for his friends. his loser chainsmoker roommate (pina)
and everyone else. in promise they also probably have like cigs that arent as dangerous to your health
but that doesnt really matter to pina, she just has to clean her cyborg lungs or something.
im working on adding more subtle texture to things while also sticking with my usual brushes.
i kinda like how i did the wall, i think i underuse the rake brush but i also worry
that it looks out of place when it's too visible. there's also no visible lamp here but
theyre illuminated by a street lamp nearby or something.
this took really long for me because of the poses, never ask me to draw people sitting
on the floor next to each other again. i dont usually like redoing lineart so i can work fast
but i did it for this one bc i couldnt for the life of me figure out how to fit them at first.
i considered doing the further angle thumbnail midway through but i did want to draw their faces.
i also think i couldve done the lighting on ethan and fiore better, it looks a bit off when looked at from afar. oh well.
i'm happy with the wall lighting though.
guy who doesnt smoke or drink but likes the vibes of it in fiction (me. ethan drinks). sorry for being boring i just like caffeine and
staying up late
editing this a couple days later to say godddd this is really hot i hope they fucked
afterwards
middle right is probably the closest to the original prompt, i was thinking of having her posing on a sofa next to a lamp but i couldnt imagine the perspective in my head. the rest is fiore beaten up and ethan helping her out. my original idea was her playing games on her phone but i like the closeness of him offering her a smoke.
fiorebruary 23: destroy
time taken: 3h 20min
this one was fun. simple and easy, most of the detail went into the background.
i especially appreicate that after yesterday's. though i definitely have a bias
for right side rule of thirds artwork, even during
ethantember.
i keep forgetting to add figures and figcaptions, sorry! this one's the alternate
color version that's a bit more daytime leaning. i like the intensity of the
nighttime version, but the colors of these hit a nice spot in my brain.
the prompt was "destroy". i interpreted this in past tense though,
i couldnt think of anything interesting where something is being destroyed.
originally, i was going to frame Fiore between gaps in an
a destroyed/abandoned building (as seen in the thumbnails below). while
sketching out the thumbnail i had an idea to frame her with broken glass shaped like fangs
(because its fucking awesome),
and quickly drew up a sketch for that too.
the initial building thumbnail gave off the feeling of fiore being hunted,
especially with her looking so small. i dont think she would do that.
i wanted to change it to a closeup of her looking cool and a little menacing,
as if you're the one being hunted, or something that highlights her dangerousness.
i'm pretty happy withh the blood-covered fangs. my girlfriend interpreted it as a general
"fiore's job is dangerous but she enjoys it" or "the city she lives in is dangerous"
which i do kind of see more. willingly put herself between the jaws of death but
she's having the time of her life or something like that. there's something you could
say about the broken glass also being dangerous etc etc.
i put more thought than i normally do into this and i like how it came out so
i'm happy. i hope one day if i get to draw game cutscenes, people will notice
the small details and symbolism i add.
no particular reason for the retro tvs, they were in my mind while drawing the thumbnail
so i just went with it. idk what theyre doing in the far future.
maybe they're replicas?
i did draw the stores in the other side of the street for the reflection btw,
here's the clearer version below.
i didnt know how much i was gonna blur the other buildings so it's fairly detailed, except
for the middle building (this was where the glow was gonna be anyway). i probably couldve added a reflection to
the TV below
i realized yesterday's time might be off (originally 4h25m), i gave in and started using the pomodoro method
to keep myself focused on fiorebruary while letting myself take breaks. this took ~8 pomodoros and i was about to
write 4 hours but i forgot about the breaks i took in between LOL. i was wondering why it felt so quick
but somehow still took so long. my math is just wrong oops.
five more days! at the final stretch now.
i thought the framing with the fangs was really cool. i like squeezing in fiores lioness, shark, and/or tomato motifs whenever i can
fiorebruary 24: lose(?)
time taken: 2h 27min
more astr-hal rim lighting when will it END
its been 9 days since her last laundry day its time to wash her clothes again.
she enjoys the "getting blood on her clothes" part of fighting but not the
cleanup part. i get her though i hate laundry too.
ever since i started doing pomodoros to help myself focus better on
fiorefeb, my overall time per piece has gone down a lot. or maybe im actually
just accurately timing these now. or maybe im underestimating.
it started off as "lose" because i wanted to draw her losing (or looking for) her sock
in the dryer. then i remembered the day 15 laundromat so i decided to add the
bg to reflect that, and make her crouch down into a washing machine instead.
the details matter to me!
the other idea for "lose" was a counterpart to day 14 where
fiore's the one coming on to ethan because he won. i couldnt think of anything that
wasn't extremely close to the previous one, and i dont want to make these pieces
*too* sexual (i post these on my SFW art accounts and my anatomy is balls).
i also just want fiore and ethan to fuuckkk
not much to say today so here's a bonus doodle of fiore with piercings.
something easy today bc i couldnt think of anything LMAO. started off as fiore looking into a trash can and then evolved into her sticking her hand into a washing machine.
fiorebruary 25: route
time taken: 2? hours
fiore and ethan got on the wrong train and now theyre late. i really wouldve loved to
do more environmental storytelling with actually having station names
and the map. maybe some ads on the walls too but i was just NOT feeling it today.
i gave fiore snakebites though because she looks hot like that.
no more rim lighting at the cost of art today i dont really like.
law of equivalent exchange or something. 24 was good but that means 25 will not be as good.
its much less detailed than what i usually like doing - i kind of just
wanted to be done with it. this is probably the first out of the entire fiorefeb
where i didnt really have an idea for the word. my girlfriend said "route" out loud
when she gave me the prompt so it was either "root" or "route" - and ive already done
two plant-related ones so i wanted to give that a rest first.
i'm a little worried for the last day, i want to make a nice ending piece
like ethantember. worst case scenario, i'll have an extra day because i do all
my pieces on the midnight of instead of the midnight after.
i was really stuck with the thumbs today actually. i had a lot more sketches but the vision wasnt that great for them, the bottom two are the only somewhat clear ones from the sketch pile.
fiorebruary 26: fish
time taken: 3 hours 39 min
fiore goes to an aquarium. getting a lot of mileage out of the shark theme with her car.
i think i over-rendered this one? i struggled a lot with the vibrant colors +
cyan tones and relied a lot on adjustment layers. also extra difficult because
fiore and her car are both red. also not super happy with her face
but ehhhhhhhhh its whatever. im also kind of bothered by how flat the shark looks
compared to the rest of the piece aghh. happy with the waves though,
been enjoying my marker brush a lot.
one thing thats stuck in my mind is kendrick lamar's 2025 superbowl outfit,
particularly the gloves + jacket combo i think thats awesome as hell. like im not
even kidding this is why i like drawing ethan and fiore with full gloves instead of
fingerless. i would wear them too with my bulky jackets but i dont think i could
pull it off well. and its hot in the ph
i like fiores shark teeth they are a charm point to me and very moe. i think its
much more interesting than her just having fangs. can she bite me
was pretty indecisive with the thumbnails, ended up going with 1 because it was the easiest. 2 was another contender. i actually started drawing 4 for a bit but i realized i didnt feel like drawing the interior of her car so i changed it to 1 so i could draw less of it. i feel like i lost the vibe of thumbnail 1 somewhere along the way, it has a different feel that i kind of like more.
fiorebruary 27: drink
time taken: 1 hour 51 min
a quick one today because i wanted to save my energy for tomorrow (writing this from the 28th though).
i was also really excited to finish a commission and wanted to do that instead.
i had another thumbnail prepared, but i asked my girlfriend if i should save it for
the last day instead and she said yes. so i ended up with another prompt list to pick from
but nothing really struck me. i also didnt want to end so late so i settled with
frame-within-a-frame fiore in a cup of black coffee.
the new jjk episode came out and unfortunately i watched it after i finished
fiorebruary, so i wasnt able to get inspiration from it. funnily enough i considered
drawing fiore in a bathtub, then when i watched the episode there was a shot of
higuruma in a bathtub that was exactly what i was imagining. wow!
was kinda stumped. i wanted to draw her admiring some cars across the street but i didnt want to draw three fiore side profiles in a row, and idk i didnt think it was very interesting. not that todays was very interesting either, i think its a rather weak one.
fiorebruary 28: free
time taken: 5 hours 15 min
fiore, finally free, takes a moment to reflect on everything that's happened.
i'm also FREE from drawing every day. what a way to start my birth month!
(well, its still the start of the 28th here.)
i spent much more time on this than usual.
i actually had a different thumbnail prepped yesterday but decided i wanted to add her car in so of course
i made like five more LMAO.
i like the colors on this! i have a soft spot for the greens here, i dont get to use them a lot
but i think theyre very pretty as grass like this. the water in the corner ties the whole piece together nicely
with the red-green-blue palette. i also remembered
i can use 3d models for reference [sketchfab], this helped a ton.
took a lot of screenshots of different angles and just copied them as best as i can because i didnt want to trace.
for a bunch of parts i had to estimate because i was not gonna put in the effort to get the perfect angle LOL
maybe this is post-fioregame on the outskirts of aqmara. my girlfriend was saying she still probably
goes back and forth between aqmara and point city (she called her the batman of aqmara). she sent me some
quick writings on fiores return home and theyre awesome i had no idea fiores story was like this. i would
attach the quotes but it's not very fitting for an ending-like scene like this. its like shes going
maki mode on the zenin clan.
adding the car was also partially dedicated to D4RKN55 who is an awesome car girl who came across my day 3
fiorebruary and has been really supportive on my artworks featuring the e24. she also used to own one which
i think is super awesome. even if my artworks touch the heart of even just one person i'm happy, her comments
mean so much. semi-tangent, since starting fiorebruary ive come across like 2 80s bmws in my city.
i mightve mentioned this previously, i saw what i think is a red e30 parked by the road and all i have is a blurry photo
because i got too excited LOL. the other one was in a parking basement but i didnt get a good look at it
i think this is what pushes me to actually become a car guy. my girlfriend has accidentally made me into a pre-2000s car enjoyer.
like fiore, i will reflect on fiorebruary. i will do a proper reflection in a blog post or something maybe,
and not put it off like i did with ethantember. if i'm not lazy and if i clean up my room a little
i might print out some of the fiorefebs and stick them on my wall. i would like to also mail them out to
friends like i did with ethantember, but i'm a bit wary of trusting phlpost again, my friend in the USA had a bunch of issues
receiving her letter last time.
i am overall pretty happy with how everything came out, honestly a lot better than i thought it'd be. i was a lot
looser with the rules for myself and i had a lot of fun. i definitely noticed when i'd gravitate towards doing easier/safer
things (with time constraints it was hard not to) and i have learned a lot about compositions and my art process.
1 was the original one i kept from yesterday. 2 is supposed to be her car in shallow waters, i like the scenery of salt flats, it feels so dreamlike and surreal.
to be honest i did trace a model for thumbnail 4 to see the composition, but ended up redrawing the car anyway for thumbnail 3, sorry. since my comms queue was almost cleared up i used the day to thumbnail a bit more and start on it way earlier. i wanted something contemplative and a bit peaceful to close everything off. i held on to the outstretched hand pose for a bit, i like it when characters cover their eyes from the sun with their hands.
after consulting my girlfriend i settled with 4 and modified it to get 3, redrawing the car and interior by hand. since shes under a tree the hand didnt really make sense and i just made her rest it on her stomach, then put it in her pocket bc i didnt wanna deal with references for the pose LOL
end
if you made it this far, thank you so much! i hope you enjoyed reading my thoughts
and process. i have made a lot of good memories this february. i can taste fiore
in every bite of hot pot. i feel an intense yearning whenever i go to haidilao.
![Comment from soumic on Bluesky: I'm so obsessed with this diptych I've been thinking about it all day…
What if you lived in luxury by way of your job where you very well might get killed, would that be fucked up or what..... awoooooooooooo
great work as always loving the fiore series :]](/assets/imgs/funstuff/fiorefeb/awesome_comment2.png)
![fiore holding an onion from an artfight attack by etthn [img link]](/assets/imgs/funstuff/fiorefeb/poster.jpg){kind=link}