A Normal Interaction Betweeen A God And Its Puppet (part 1 Of 2)

Fishing trip

gonna keep it real with you all i mainly got into cotl so i could have better context to read the TROD fic .......

The Rehabilitation Of Death AU belongs to @bamsara the comic scene is from chapter 16 lol

Hello!

Your art is so gorgeous and inspirational!

Do you have any tips on drawing body horror and character design? When I've tried to design some characters with body horror they all end up looking rather friendly 😅

Hope you have a lovely day and thanks in advance!

Thank you! I'm happy to hear that! Here goes!

NEZ GUIDE TO BODY HORROR

(Disclaimer; this is my advice, not rules. Break them as you wish)

Despite not doing it on purpose, a lot of my art is tagged as body-horror. I've embraced it. Here are my 3 pillars for frightening art. I don't have to follow them all at once, at least one is enough.

Nature

Get inspired by nature. Not necessarily by gore and wounds, but by things that look normal in one context but might appear unsettling in another. A great example is my pumpkin creature; everyone has seen the insides of a pumpkin but adding that texture to a living body made everyone react more strongly to it. I highly recommend natural things with strange textures and patterns (especially seeds)

Book Recommendation; The Art and Science of Ernst Haeckel

I recently bought this for all the gorgeous pattern and creature drawings. It's a beautiful book for those who want to draw horror based on nature. Careful if you have tyrophobia, this has some INTENSE patterns.

Subtlety

In either execution or concept.

In execution; give the drawing other recognizable characteristics. The gore is NOT them, it's just part of them. An example would be my cowboy creature. They have the coat, the hat, the boots, the smile...and then you notice the heads. Give your character more than their frightening parts.

In concept; If you want the bright reds and obvious gore, follow one simple concept. In the example below, the concept was a wound surrounded by mushrooms. That is all. If I were to add 'but also mushrooms leave their eyes, and bloody tears fall from them, and they have gashes in their skin, and'' it would have made the impact of all of those concepts collapse. Like a bed of nails. The more nails you add, the less a single individual nail will hurt.

Feeling

It follows the theme above. I noticed horror works better when it's not an abudance but also when it's relatable. I've seen people react more intensely to an animated character brushing a line of yarn against their eyeball than an animated character having their head explode in blood, brains, and bone. You can draw from emotional feelings as well, turning your mental pain into a physical manifestation of it.

This is not a must follow because I do plenty horror art without being vulnerable nor making myself uncomfortable, I just notice people react when they can relate and feel it too.

I hope it helps anon!

been reading the Gormenghast books........so crazy. lots of scenes worth illustrating!

Look I know the toxicity and the tension is like the main appeal of Burned Bridges and it’s utterly delicious but

Have you considered. An alternative. That exists in my head.

Them representing the part of themselves that they actively suppresses to each other. One suppresses his emotions behind a mask of a lack of emotion(Smitten(overwhelming emotion) to Cold), while the other suppresses the part of himself that feels alone and empty, covering it up with all of the other emotions that he intensely feels(Cold(the emptiness and yearning) to Smitten). Masks of overwhelming positive emotion and no emotion to hide the depths of their emotions. Their vulnerability. They are each other’s tormentors.

Cold pushing Smitten’s buttons at first out of his own amusement. Smitten retorts back at Cold every time he provokes him and dislikes the realisation of how easy it is for Cold to push his buttons. And then. Emotional torment. Them showing the depths of their hearts to each other. Whether by complete accident or an action made by Smitten that had unraveled them both. Their vulnerability and the parts of themselves were shown to each other. Cold hits a realisation. Smitten sits in stunned shock. They realise there is more to the other than they originally thought.

Smitten being Smitten denies it at first. He denies how similar they are to each other and retorts with uncertain anger in a vain attempt to cover up the parts of his heart that he tries so desperately to hide. But how can he deny it anymore? When now the question swims within his head on the possibility that he may be wrong, and now everything that he has done within the construct is coming back at him at full force? When what he’s done in HEA and him being the reason why his beloved and the Decider are unhappy? Is he a good person? He must be a good person! He is passionate and full of emotion! But is he really? The heart yearns for companionship, and yet he cannot get it through the Princess anymore. She is gone.

Cold acknowledges their similarities. And yet he remains unchanged. Outwardly at least. His heart has been shown to Smitten. The depths of his buried emotion and passion, the feelings of betrayal from the Narrator. They find their way back bubbling onto the surface. His heart rages a storm. He continues to deny the emotions within the dam that he kept locked up. Another drop in a glass that is already spilling.

Their existence forces each other to look into themselves. Their existence forces each other to start their journey to grow and to face the parts of themselves that they try so desperately to suppress and hide. A seed of doubt planted into their hearts, and it will only grow further. And one day, they will be a devotion no longer blind, and a longing satisfied. It will be a long and difficult journey, but with guidance, one day they will be able to look at each other in acceptance and learn to love the parts they feared and despised.

a lot of stories treat romance like it makes the relationship between two characters self explanatory and to be honest it doesn’t

Daydreaming about my book:

Writing my book:

[So similar, yet so different]

how do you write a liar?

How to Write Liars Believably

Language

The motive of every goal is the make the lie seem plausible while taking blame off the speaker, so liars will often project what they say to a third party: "Katie said that..."

Referring to third parties as "they" rather than he or she

In the case of a deliberate lie prepped beforehand, there will be an overuse of specific names (rather than pronouns) as the speaker tries to get the details right.

Overuse of non-committal words like "something may have happened"

Masking or obscuring facts like "to the best of my knowledge" and “it is extremely unlikely," etc.

Avoiding answers to specific, pressing questions

Voice

There's isn't a set tone/speed/style of speaking, but your character's speech patten will differ from his normal one.

People tend to speak faster when they're nervous and are not used to lying.

Body Language

Covering their mouth

Constantly touching their nose

fidgeting, squirming or breaking eye contact

turning away, blinking faster, or clutching a comfort object like a cushion as they speak

nostril flaring, rapid shallow breathing or slow deep breaths, lip biting, contracting, sitting on your hands, or drumming your fingers. 

Highly-trained liars have mastered the art of compensation by freezing their bodies and looking at you straight in the eye.

Trained liars can also be experts in the art of looking relaxed. They sit back, put their feet up on the table and hands behind their head.

For deliberate lies, the character may even carefully control his body language, as though his is actually putting on a show

The Four Types of Liars

Deceitful: those who lie to others about facts

2. Delusional: those who lie to themselves about facts

3. Duplicitious: those who lie to others about their values

Lying about values can be even more corrosive to relationships than lying about facts. 

4. Demoralized: those who lie to themselves about their values

Additional Notes

Genuine smiles or laughs are hard to fake

Exaggerations of words (that would normally not be emphasized) or exaggerated body language

Many savvy detectives ask suspects to tell the story in reverse or non-linear fashion to expose a lie. They often ask unexpected, or seemingly irrelevant questions to throw suspects off track. 

How to show emotions

Part VII

How to show pride

standing tall

expanded posture, opening of the torso

lifted chin, head held high

big and confident smile

looking around to see if people recognize and admire what they are proud of

How to show enthusiasm

big smile and laughter

wide radiant eyes

raised eyebrows

jumping up and down or bouncing

clapping hands

big hand gestures

loud and high pitched voice

speaking quickly

How to show anxiety

not holding/breaking eye contact

fidgeting

heavy breathing

twitching in their face

often a blank stare or looking away

rigid posture

sweaty palms

bouncing their knees

rubbing palms against each other or clothing

How to show playfulness

laughing

giggling

grinning

using a playful tone

making a silly face

touching the other person teasingly

e.g. tickling, nudging, bumping into them

How to show being offended

stiffening up

hard line around the lips

frozen stare

narrowing of the eyes

Part I + Part II + Part III + Part IV + Part V + Part VI

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