Mel Blabs - Blog Posts

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You are a doll and I appreciate you! 🥺❤️

comic update preferences

Still slowly chugging away at a comic project between everything else I've been posting here (sterek ofc, i'm a one-track-kinda person) - curious what y'all's preferences are when it comes to updates though! I know some post a page whenever they finish, others do a couple and some do 4-5 at a time - what do you prefer?

(While it's subject to how busy i am on other fronts in life, right now I'd guesstimate i can do a page every 1.5-2 weeks. First couple of pages are really busy and are taking longer but the plan is to bring that down a notch lol)

For the Artist Ask game! 6 & 24 😄

(i accidentally saved this to drafts and didn't notice for a couple days, sorry!! thanks a bunch for sending them in <3)

Artist ask game

6. favorite thing to draw?

Other than hands and dynamic full-body poses mentioned before, I really like drawing noses! It's fun to make them unique to each character if I'm drawing art for something that isn't live-action (aka giving characters a big ol' beak 9/10 times) I'm weirdly particular about getting noses and ears 'right'/consistent lol

24. whats a compliment about your art that has always stuck with you?

My sister says she can tell when I've really had fun drawing something! And someone online once said I have a knack for making bodies have volume and feel 'heavy' if they're lying down 🥺 Both meant a lot to hear and i regularly think about them!

Hello~ I am late to the party but for the Artist's Asks, 3, 4 and 14 :D

Hi Ella! o/ <3 Never too late, thanks for sending them ♥︎ Artist ask game

3. your favorite piece(s)?

The piece I did for Actions Speak Louder than Words still holds such a special place in my heart, being the primary drive for starting to draw the boys - the rough sketch for this was the first teen wolf fanart I'd done in more than 10 years! Also my first time drawing Derek ever haha. It took a lot of practising especially Stiles before i was able to finish it, but for the better part of a month I'd keep going back and working on it bit by bit.

The Heart Boner drawing gets a special mention just because it went from idea to finished drawing in just over an hour (the song came on and i put it on repeat until i finished) and perfectly encapsulates the kind of intense focus I've been enjoying since mid-december haha. It's also just the right amount of silly and tooth-rotting cute for me!

4. piece you wish got more love?

Honestly, none - I'm still completely taken aback at the response to everything, I was expecting maybe 5 people to interact! If you've ever reblogged more than 1 of my drawings with a comment in the tags, you best bet I recognize your handle when it happens, I get so excited every time LOL

14. whats your favorite thing about drawing?

There's the fact that I get to create whatever silly little thought comes across my mind, however niche - sort of in extension of that I love that drawing is for me, with no outside expectations or deadlines. I get to have this one thing that is subject only to my own whims: whether completely redo a piece, leave it for a month and then return, even just abandon it - I am free to do so. I can choose only to draw things that make me happy and that is amazing! It's really nice to have a hobby that's completely separate from my professional life - although it did come in handy for some very over-the-top diagrams for a couple exams, especially neuroanatomy lol

Artist questions:

5, 6, 25

Artist ask game

5. how would you describe your art style?

Attempted to answer Ren here ♥︎ If anyone has a better suggestion for how to describe my style I'm all ears haha

6. favorite thing to draw?

It's a toss-up between hands and dynamic full-body poses! (:

25. what size canvas/paper do you use?

I usually start with the standard 'square' or A4 resolutions in procreate, so around 2000 pixels for the shortest width. Drew in paint tool sai for years and picked up a terrible habit of working on small canvases because the texture of the brushes didn't scale well. So until relatively recently i worked on like 400x600 pixel canvases LOL

For the art questions:

5, 21, 32!

Artist ask game

5. how would you describe your art style?

Hmm. Semi-realistic.. Solid? Soft and silly? (help)

21. what do you think your artstyle would taste like?

Banana.

32. have you done a lot of collabs?

I think I've done like...... 3 or 4 in all the years I've been drawing because I've been too shy to reach out ∠( ᐛ 」∠)＿ But I really loved the ones I've done - especially swapping lines/coloring is super fun! Been toying with the idea of uploading some lines for others to color, but any mutuals who'd be interested in some sort of collab are always welcome to send a message ♥︎

with how much this site loves its writer ask games, im astounded ive never seen one for artists, soooo

ARTIST ASK GAME!

1. what medium do you use most (if applicable, what software)?

2. most popular piece?

3. your favorite piece(s)?

4. piece you wish got more love?

5. how would you describe your art style?

6. favorite thing to draw?

7. easiest thing for you to draw?

8. thing you struggle to draw?

9. whats something you always come back to when drawing?

10. how do you deal with artblock?

11. do you listen to anything while drawing?

12. describe your process while drawing

13. talk about a wip you like!

14. whats your favorite thing about drawing?

15. least favorite thing about drawing?

16. how do you motivate yourself to draw?

17. what is something youre confident about in your art?

18. something you feel like you need to work on?

19. where do you find inspiration?

20. is your workspace, digital or not, organized (not neat, organized)?

21. what do you think your artstyle would taste like?

22. do you have a favorite color palette to work with?

23. how many artstyles can you work in confidently?

24. whats a compliment about your art that has always stuck with you?

25. what size canvas/paper do you use?

26. what do you physically draw with (pencil and paper, tablet, etc)?

27. do you ever have multiple wips going at once?

28. whats a piece you would like to redraw at some point?

29. do you use a lot of references while drawing?

30. whats something youre proud of about your artstyle?

31. which fandom have you drawn the most for?

32. have you done a lot of collabs?

33. have you taken a lot of classes for art?

34. whats something you still like from your old art?

35. if you had one piece of advice to give your younger artist self, what would it be?

(remember to give the person you reblog from an ask!!)

You are faced with some random problem and the only person who can help you is the main character from the last piece of media you consumed (you can also do favorite character if there are multiple main characters). You can stay in this universe or be in the universe of the character, whichever you prefer, but the problem remains the same and the only person who can directly help you is the main character. That character can call on the help of those they know in their media, but when it comes down to it, they are the only person really helping you. How do you react to this situation?

Spin to find out your problem:

People l'd Like to Know Better

tagged by @wolfspurr, ty (◡‿◡✿)

Last song: The, uh, the slur song

Last movie: The 2nd twilight movie courtesy of my friend K lol

Last tv show: Murder Mindfully / Achtsam Morden, huge recommend! pls more people watch it and hit me up with your thoughts, it's so unhinged and whimsy it's incredible

Last thing googled: a very exciting "person leaning on edge of pool stockphoto" for reference purposes

Looking forward to: going to the gym tomorrowwww

no pressure tags, i am shy pls: @renmackree, @isthatbloodonhisshirt

webcomic hosting sites

i am tinkering with the idea of starting what'd be a longer comic, but i'm out of touch enough that i am only now finding out that smackjeeves shut down ages ago despite having a comic i updated weekly for years on there LOL

whether you're a reader or creator - any recommendations to hosting sites?

y'know the good thing about posting fanart of a show that ended several years ago is i don't have to fear anyone involved interacting with it - had enough of that dread in my sherlock days lol

“Sorry,” Stiles said, unsure of why he was apologizing. “I’ve never heard that song before. Did you write it?”  Derek looked uncomfortable, maybe a touch embarrassed, which was answer enough. “It’s good. I like it. It’s calming.”  The small smile he got in response melted his heart a little bit. Fucking hell, he was so gone for this asshole. Stiles didn’t know what he was going to do. He wished he’d never realized how much he loved him. Wished he’d just continued to think they were best friends and nothing more. It was slowly going to kill him being so close, and yet so fucking far. Clearing his throat, he brought the book back up to continue reading, muttering that Derek should keep playing. He did, his fingers plucking gently at the strings, filling the loft with soft music. It really was calming, and soothing. Stiles really liked it. He liked it even more when he realized Derek could honestly express himself with the guitar. It still wasn’t a voice, but it was something, at least. 

Actions Speak Louder than Words (ch18) by @isthatbloodonhisshirt

This fic is what spurred me to start doing sterek fanart back in the beginning of december - magic!stiles, cursed!derek, stiles/jackson terrifying everyone else as friends - an incredible 430K story with a completely endearing slow-burn and slowly unfolding exploration of the characters and their relationship, made complete with the perfect bow of cursed-mute-Derek because 'Derek's eyebrows have a language of their own but only Stiles is fluent' is my favorite and this author does it SO well. And gives Derek a guitar. Derek plays a guitar!!

Ella, consider this my loveletter to your works - they all, this one in particular, buoyed me through a tough time in my life and brought me back to a love of drawing that I haven't had in years and a fandom that has been so generous in their support of my silly art. Thank you for sharing your works!

And a huge thank you to everyone's support so far - the sweet comments in replies, the unhinged all-caps tags, yes-and'ing my silly ideas and headcanons, i'm just over here kicking my feet and giggling and definitely not getting teary-eyed over it no siree no lacrimal action happening here

My subspecialty, i guess you could call it, is chronic pain - i did my master's thesis on sleep disorders in patients with chronic pain - so i've got a LOT of thoughts about the concept of 'stealing pain' in teen wolf.

The current definition of pain is

"an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with, or resembling that associated with, actual or potential tissue damage"

because pain is not purely a physical phenomenon, it's an experience not necessarily tied to any physical damage.

Of course you can delve into the different types of pain and argue that nociceptive and neuropathic pain is due to biochemical triggers (inflammation/tissue damage and nerve damage, respectively) as opposed to nociplastic pain - but even those are heavily modulated by how we perceive them.

In one of my psych classes we were shown a powerful example: In a segment from a local news station a lady had won a competition and as a reward she got a handful of minutes to 'empty out' a kitchen supply store - after all the excitement was done and she was being interviewed post-haul, suddenly a bystander points out that she's standing in a large puddle of blood. She'd dropped a knife into her foot at some point, resulting in a quite large gash. She'd felt nothing until someone pointed it out - endorphins, adrenaline, the works. (She was immediately attended to and recovered completely).

Studies show that pain perception increases dramatically in young, healthy subjects who were sleep-deprived even just for 24 hrs, and in the same vein stress, anxiety and distress also increases pain perception.

So where does that leave the idea of stealing pain in teen wolf? Rather than taking a physical representation of 'pain', maybe it's more stealing the perception of pain, the fear and distress?

Kind of a romantic notion, isn't it?

My 'casually watched s01-02 of teen wolf back in 2012 and forgot 70% but indulges me', 'derek hale has babygirl-vibes', 'hey draw this pic of ariana grande but its derek' friend - let's call her K.

Me: I irritated some joints in my hand yesterday so I'm on a self-imposed drawing break today

K: okay but picture this: the spidermonkey scene in twilight but it's derek and stiles

Me, having never seen or read twilight: the what

rewatching teen wolf a decade later with most of a medical degree is an... experience

Mostly in how it takes me from how does the wound healing work, if the cut goes past the dermis it'd scar if it were just a sped-up process of the normal healing but could be the cells knitting back together and how could that work on a cellular level to oh my god if their bodies heal all minor trauma would that mean that they don't form calluses which means all the wolves have super soft hands and then snort-laughing in public