Query: I got an anon message asking if I’d post the folklore AU on Ao3 as a ‘not-fic’? That’s where folks post ideas or something, right? Or ??? Is that a thing that I should do?? idk, man. TELL ME THINGS. I’ll open up an answer box? Yes?
Anyways, here are some replies to the ask box, because I am super bad at remembering to do that
d2cm asked: hi! big fan of your comic and your folklore AU for TW. Since Stiles is a demigod, does that make his Dad the god? I’m really loving your AU and illustrations. Keep it up! ;D
I’m actually inking the thing that talks about his parentage right now! Though tbh I have alternate versions for who is the god, and it was a matter of picking which story I prefer. So ~*YOU SHALL SEE*~
minorlytwisted asked: Hey! Completely and utterly in love with your Stiles Stitching Derek’s Pelt picture <3 Think you will write more for that verse, and draw more? :)
The goal is to draw more! I’m sort of running out of things that I have ideas of to draw though, so it’s just going to turn into me drawing the AU versions of them doing dumb things, eventually, rather than stories;;
jabletown asked: omg i love your folklore au series. it’s absolutely amazing. are you writing any stories for it as well, or just providing backstory for the art? (the art is fantastic btw. i just love your style.)
Thank you! *u* I actually do have ideas for how some of the plot goes, but I’m not a writer at all, so these drawings are pretty much just going to stick to backstory. If I were to write, I’d be that fic author that has really interesting summaries but then you start reading it and you’re like oH GOD WHY (but you end up reading it anyways, as if you’re punishing yourself)
I know that feeling about fic. It is a terrible feeling.
dreamingrain asked: I just want you to know that I’ve had this blog open in a tab for about three days. Every time I go to close it I worry that I’ll forget the name of your blog so I won’t be able to look at your art anymore - which is completely ridiculous I could just bookmark it - but there you go!
fjsdkfds oh gosh hahajhdsa tHANK YOU
sometimes i consider changing this username to match with some of my other stuff, but then i go NO ONE WILL EVER FIND ME AGAIN (I lose track of so many cool people that way, augh), so i am down with being hydrae forever. *u*
randomaiko asked: Oh god, I know they probably already said this to you, but your art style is sooo gorgeous and unique and inspiring! And even if i love teen wolf so much ( sahjdka you hurt!styles pieces, yeah i’ve a thing for those ) it would be wonderful to see more original pieces from you! Keep going, hope you don’t mind the little likeandreblogandfollowingandstuff i’m doing here, yeah.. sob…. Bye <3
randomaiko asked: Ah and of course it wasn’t a critic or anything that teenwolf/more original stuff, i don’t know if it may sound like one but really it wasn’t *awwwkward i meant, moore original stuff in the future, i found you because of teen wolf but i like your originals and other fanarts too! and yeah this is getting more and more awkward as i write i should probably shut up and like/reblog your art and just love your skills and go.. away…. byeskkfhg <3
Haha, I understand! I haven’t really felt like finishing any of my original stuff tbh;; I have a bunch of sketches! There is even something waiting to be inked! But I’m feeling weirdly self-conscious about my original art, and I don’t know why! I even posted some original stuff for a grand total of five minutes but then promptly took it down because I immediately felt embarrassed. I just need to suck it up and deal. :(
Anonymous asked: your art is AMAZING. how many followers do you have?
I’m 3 followers away from 2k! I’m actually drawing a thank you thing right now shhhh don’t tell
mapsoftasmania asked: HI! your mithology au is the best thing ever!! not only your art is beautiful the story is super interesting! thank you very much for doing something so great :) have a nice day!
fjdhskjds thank you! I’m glad that folks seem to be liking the story/lore-ish bits. ;u;
angryblaineandbowties asked: So I’m completely in love with your folklore au and I just wanted to know if you had any plans to write a fic for it or something or if you were just gonna stick to doing the artwork with the descriptions. Either way, keep up the amazing work :3
I’m only going to be drawing things and writing descs, sadly! I am a terrible writer and I absolutely have no patience for it. I wish writing was a thing I could do sob sob. I must rely on others for all ficcage.
kisu-no-hi asked:I just wanted to tell you that you have a wonderful art style, I love the way you use colors (especially the red lineart) and how clean everything is,I could easily imagine your drawings as book covers! That’s it, have a good day~ ♥
djahdksa tHANK YOU. I have a stupid amount of fun with red lineart as opposed to black!
castielxfood asked:i love your folklore au plz never stop ok bye
confession time: I’M RUNNING OUT OF IDEAS FOR DRAWINGS
Anonymous asked: did that anon ever write more fic for you mythology au.
Nonny wrote parts 4-10, but 5 & 6, I think the numbers were, never came through! I sent the parts I got to them and they’re writing more, so. :D Nonny has asked me not to reveal their identity, though.
duckyreads asked hydrae: Augh, I’m the worst at remembering when I’ve asked something properly vs when I’ve just contemplated asking it, so I apologize profusely if this is a repeat, but – would you consider doing a walkthrough / tutorial on any of your art pieces? I’m curious to see what your process looks like. I understand the cellphone-pics-to-Sai in theory, but seeing it somehow would be really cool (esp if you ink in raster, or lineart layers – & how you choose colours, & so on…)
I CAN CERTAINLY TRY!! But it’s really not anything special or interesting;;
So this is how I do art things!
I actually draw on any paper handy because I’m pretty much out of Bristol, which is what I generally like to use when I want to ink by hand, and I haven’t felt like shelling out the money to buy a new pack. So instead I’ve been drawing in this shoddy little moleskine sketchbook I’d gotten in a pack of three for some holiday or another.
So when I go to start drawing, a cat shows up and lays down right on it.
Once I get the cat to go away, I do some dumb sketches. They vary in size because it doesn’t really matter since I’m just going to end up inking over it digitally anyways.
This is what the sketches for Derek and Stiles looked like.
(I finished sketching Derek way earlier, hence the lighting change;; Also Stiles was originally supposed to be with a living wolf but then I wanted to use the skull again, soooo. ALSO I DON’T KNOW IF YOU NOTICE but stiles was originally facing the same way as Derek, but I flipped the sketch later)
My sketches vary between kinda neat and hella messy. Oops. ANYWAYS.
I never feel like digging out my scanner (usually there is a cat on it. I HAVE THREE OF THEM, THEY ARE ON EVERYTHING), so I just take cell phone photos and email them to myself. I change the sizes & dpi in the Change Resolution tab in SAI, and then inkkkk.
The blue parts in the Stiles one and the white lineart in both were done in different layers, but I’d merged them into one after I finished. Also, I generally don’t ink using black! I usually use a colour, so I can mess with it in Filter > Hue and Saturation.
After that, I usually do the skin, but these had limited colouring, so have the lineart & skin of that Stiles & Lydia thing
With skin I just mess around with the Water and Marker tools in SAI until I get what I want. There’s not really any method to it, at all;;;;;
Then I do the rest of the colouring!
I already knew what colours I wanted to use because of the beasties I’d chosen for them (Moddey Dhoo has red eyes, the Leshy has blue blood and a red scarf).
I really don’t need the sketch layer anymore, but I keep a dark bg so I can see what’s going on. I usually bucket tool all the white, which inevitably bleeds under the lineart, and I’m planning to make them transparent anyways so I open them in Photoshop and drop a stroke.
Layer, I mean. Not an actual stroke. That would be terrible.
SAI sadly doesn’t have a stroke tool (as far as I know???) and also no text tool, so pretty much everything after this is the most basic stuff in Photoshop (which is still a mystery to me, hence why I use SAI for EVERYTHING).
(Also I could just go in and erase all the bits of the white bg that bled through, but aesthetically I like the stroke more, so!)
I usually leave it there, but this time I selected the white bg and filled it in with the pink & blue for.. some reason. I don’t know, it was after 4am and I can’t be held responsible for my actions. But then after that it was just the text and trying to move the words around to try and get them to fit, which probably took me the longest and was the most frustrating thing ever and I’m not bothering to screenshot it augh.
And then I just removed the gray bg so it’s transparent and uh.
what are your brush settings for lining? your lines are gorgeous
tbh I only use the default pen settings in SAI;; The only thing I change is the size! I used to not like digitally inking because I could never get them as neat as I could with a pen and I’m a stickler for line cleanliness. I think the wobbly lines had somewhat to do with the lack of traction on the tablet surface or something, but! BUT THEN I realized this existed
IT IS A LIFESAVER. It keeps your lines nice and smooth. S-2 is what I usually work with, though the higher the settings get, the slower your pen will move. I’m pretty sure Photoshop has a similar feature, but I don’t know where it’s lurking.
Anonymous asked hydrae: wow, your artwork just blew me away. i’m sure you get this a lot (heck, i saw your answers page, you DO), but your lineart skill is wonderful! consistently the lines are super smooth - even on all the rounded edges or long lines! but the one thing that i think i enjoyed the most was the way you draw hair. it just flows really well and looks natural all the time. do you mind if i ask how you learned to draw it like that? whenever i try to, the lines never look like they’re placed correctly!
jdshkfds thank you! Q__Q UM!! I can’t really describe how I draw hair because I’ve been drawing it like that since I first started actively drawing, pretty much! I wish I could explain, but I really don’t know how to.
Though it’s likely because some of my formative influences in art were Revolutionary Girl Utena, the Sailor Moon manga and way old school CLAMP because I was a giant weeaboo, and all of those were essentially love sonnets to ridiculous, flowing hair lbr.
On if I’m taking commissions, since I’ve gotten a few asks about it: I’m not right now! I’ll definitely make a post whenever I do again (though it’ll likely only be for a few slots at a time), but at the moment, I’m not. Q__Q Sorry! I don’t think I can be trusted to finish them right now, since I am having trouble with even my own art. Thank you all so much for your interest, though!!
Ask box answers under the read more, as usual
Anonymous asked: You have the best art. Seriously, so fucking good. I love the your Stiles so much! Thanks for sharing all of it with us. <3
ianboner asked: so um i’ve sort of fallen in love with your art
mmmessyart asked: Oh mamma jammas I really love your art! Very unique style you have going on; makes me want to roll around in it *V* heh keep it up and can’t wait to see more!!
Anonymous asked: You have the best art. Seriously, so fucking good. I love the your Stiles so much! Thanks for sharing all of it with us. <3
unicornachos asked: Sometimes I just come to your blog and cry happy tears about the amount of symbolism and lore in your artworks /gross happy sobbing/
jfdshkjfsd gUYS. thank you so much hsfhsdsdhf it really means a lot to me. ;u;
Researching about folklore and mythology and symbolism is one of my most favourite things, and I end up putting off drawing a whole lot just because I get wrapped up in reading articles.
p.s. i can’t stop giggling over ianboner hELP
patron-saint-hunter asked: Are you going to write the Stiles and Lydia demigod and goddess fan fic or is it just connected to the fan art?
I am a terrible writer and you don’t want to me writing anything ever. There is a nonny who has been writing the au, though! In fact they’ve sent me more recently. :D I need to get around to uploading them, but tumblr posts are hella finicky for me (even making this took me way too long. TEXT KEEPS VANISHING OR NOT FORMATTING RIGHT)
miss-fifer asked: ((I saw your Alan Wake art, and I really love it. Alan Wake is one of my favorite games; I’m still working on achievements for American Nightmare, but I have only one left in the main game itself. I’d like to say very well done with the art, it’s complex and beautiful.))
Thank you!! :D I forgot how much I loved the game until recently and I felt compelled to draw a bunch of art for it. Not nearly enough people played Alan Wake
imakegoodlifechoices asked: I love your Prepubescent Wolf art! Baby Team Human is adorable and heartbreaking all at once.
IT’S GOING TO GET WORSE BECAUSE I’M DRAWING TERRIBLE THINGS RIGHT NOW (which you can partly blame renqa for shhhh)
