Teanam
patreon
Chapter 220
🕑 Added 2022-03-04 10:47:00 +0000 UTCWhile Fen and Aura had traveled to the former elven village that was inhabited by a group of the fox beastfolk, the cats were still busy in the magic academy. Some were just busy catching up on sleep, though.
“Haa…” Sophia let out a yawn while her group was walking around in the backyard of the school building. “I’m tired…”
“How?!” Ari just had to retort. “You’ve been sleeping the entire time!”
“Have you ever slept so much that it made you tired?”
“I have not!”
“I hate when that happens.” Anna sided with her fellow tiger.
“Thank you very much for the backup, princess.”
“Gladly.”
“Haa…” The jaguar could only rub her temples in return.
“We sure have it rough with our girls, don’t we?” Maya sympathized with her.
“Seriously, why are tigers so easygoing…?”
“A good question…” Naturally, Maya had no answer for that. For various reasons.
“By the way, where are we headed to?” The most easygoing tiger of all, the blonde one, suddenly turned around while looking at the other three girls of her group while they were following some students in the schoolyard outside.
“We’re going to the training grounds adjacent to the academy. It’s time for the magic lessons.” Ari answered her. “Something you would’ve known if you had been awake earlier.”
“I see!” Sophia simply ignored the scolding tone in the jaguar’s voice. “Sounds fun!”
“Does it?” Maya eyed her. “Although without the constraints of elements, it’s still going to be regular magic.”
“Ah.” The blonde stopped walking for a second. “I already forgot about that…”
“More napping?” The cat-girl was still looking at her.
“Hmm…” She needed to give it some thought. “No, I think I actually slept enough today.”
“Wow, I never heard that one before.”
“Hehe.” Sophia had to chuckle at her reaction. “Ari, do you want to listen to Eluna’s lessons, or should we do some chantless magic training on our own?”
“Eh?” The jaguar hadn’t seen that one coming.
“Well, she’ll mostly explain how elements won’t matter for chants and activation words, maybe. No student except you can use chantless, so there’s no real need for you to learn what Eluna’s going to teach.”
“I-I see… It’s an interesting suggestion, but I’d first like to see how her lesson goes before taking you up on that offer.”
“Sure~.” Sophia didn’t mind her reply.
----------------
Once the class had arrived at the training grounds, it immediately became noisy once the first students spotted Eluna standing there. As everyone in the academy knew her, the excitement for her lessons was apparent because the horse-woman was a bit of a celebrity in the capital when it came to magic.
Sophia didn’t have any interest in any of that, but it had a positive side-effect for her, as well. Everyone had stopped stealing glances at her, and she could take it easy now because her hard-earned ice-queen wasn’t at risk right now.
The blonde walked away from the training grounds a couple of steps and quickly found a row of benches where she sat down. Watching the class for around an hour, she was slowly getting bored. Luckily, that seemed about to change, though.
“It looks like you’re getting used to wearing a skirt, huh?” Ari had appeared in front of the properly upright-sitting tiger, who had also neatly crossed her legs in a way that made any possible way of stealing a glance between her legs inside the skirt impossible. “Your skirt also isn’t askew or rolled up in the slightest, either. As expected of the ice-queen of the academy, nothing gets past your defenses.”
“Ahaha…” Sophia awkwardly scratched her cheek. “I have an image to uphold, you know?”
“Good job.” The jaguar only smiled at her.
“No… I’ve worn the uniform the entire time since you lent it to me, even at home, and I’ve gotten used to it now. Quite honestly, I really like it. I’ve always been wary of skirts because I like to move around. Still, if you combine them with opaque tights and adjust your way of walking a tiny bit, it’s actually the best. It feels so free and unrestricted~.”
“Good~.” Ari’s smile increased even more.
“What’s up with that grin?” She didn’t like her reaction.
“It’s nothing. I just don’t feel bad anymore that Maya, Anna, and I unanimously decided to put you in a skirt when we go shopping for winter clothes together. It fits you way too well for us not to use this chance. If you like it as well, I won’t feel bad that I had no plan for caring about your input on the matter.”
“Ahh…” Sophia scratched her cheek again. “Yeah, Maya already implied something similar the other day. “As long as you girls don’t overdo it, and I’m allowed to wear tights or leggings underneath, I’ll most likely play along with it.”
“Great~!” Ari was happy about it.
“By the way, how much do you like wearing tops with spaghetti straps? While we’re at it, what about midriff?”
“E-Eh?!” The black-haired jaguar turned white.
“Hehe.” Sophia liked her reaction. “I was just joking.”
“T-Thank goodness…”
“It’s becoming winter, after all.”
“H-Huh?!” That wasn’t Ari’s main gripe with this sort of clothing. “I-I have nothing against looking at those, maybe even wearing at home to some degree… b-but it’s really not my style, okay…?”
“I know, don’t worry~.” The tiger showed her an innocent smile and patted the place next to her on the bench she was sitting on. “Here, have a seat.”
“T-Thank you…” She sounded relieved but still ever so slightly wary of her.
“Got bored of Eluna’s speech?” She waited for the jaguar to sit down before facing her.
“A little… You keep mentioning that I’m able to use chantless magic wasn’t that compatible with her dissolute speech regarding the revolutionary new way of using chants and activation words…”
“I can imagine…” Sophia got bored just listening to Eluna from a distance, after all. “Wanna chat a bit instead?”
“That sounds lovely. Any suggestions?”
“Anna~.”
“N-Not here!” Ari’s face turned crimson in an instant.
“Oh?” The tiger’s ears perked up. “That reaction means something good~.”
“M-My reaction doesn’t matter!” The jaguar raised her voice before she immediately placed her hands on her mouth after noticing how loud she’d gotten. “I-I mean, even though they are a bit away from us, there are way too many people here. I really don’t want anyone in the school to find out what is going on…”
“Aww…” Sophia started pouting. “Fine… You’ll be coming over to my house and tell me all about it soon, though!”
“Y-Yes…” She just resigned to her unavoidable fate. “Well, I could use some help, so…”
“Yay!” The tiger sounded the happiest yet today.
“Alright, change of topic, please!”
“Sure~.” Knowing she’ll get her sought-after girls-talk soon, the blonde happily complied. “Oh, how about we have some magic lessons on our own?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, we are in the prestigious, or whatever, magic academy, so how about I teach you some chantless magic in the perfect environment for it?”
“Really?” Ari wasn’t sure how to feel about it yet.
“Sure, why not?"
"In theory, gladly, but... won’t that be way too flashy here?”
“When did I ever do anything flashy?”
“…” Ari didn’t feel like answering this question.
“Fair point.” Sophia also didn’t need to hear what she wanted to imply. “So, that’s a no?”
“Hmm…” She paused for a moment. “What do you plan to teach me.” The curiosity got the better of the cat.
“You already know how to use, uhh… water magic, was it?”
“Yes.”
“How about I show you how to do it chantless?”
“Okay… I want to see already whether I really can use chantless magic after you gave me some of your power. You also can’t really cause any catastrophes with water because it’s a gentle element.”
“It’s refreshing how little you know me.”
“What was that?” Ari stared right into the eyes of the tiger.
“W-What do you mean? I didn’t say a word just now?” She turned her head away in response.
“That’s what I thought.”
“Well, even I know that flooding a school would be bad…” Sophia sounded oddly serious while saying so.
“Do you think I could get Maya to teach me instead? I’m getting slight doubts here.”
“Sure, I can ask her. She also finished restoring our garden to its former beauty after she blew it up the other day. She used too much power on the magic ore, and it was glorious, so she is also free.” Sophia wasn’t sure how that would be relevant in this conversation, but she wanted to be the one to teach Ari.
“You two are such a weird but also sooo fitting couple!”
“Thank you very much!”
“Fine…” The jaguar gave up. “One chantless water magic lesson, please.”
“Yay!” She sounded happy about it. “Have you tried anything yourself in that regard ever since the accident happened already?”
“No.” Ari shook her head. “I have no idea what I’m doing, after all. That’s way too risky for me… Who knows what could happen if I were to simply start experimenting while everything is an unknown variable to me?”
“How did we become friends again?”
“I’ve asked myself the same question, too, bestie.”
“Ehehe~.” Sophia really liked the very last part of her statement. “Alright, let’s get to it!” She energetically raised her arm while saying so.
“Y-Yeah…” Ari still had some slight doubts, though. She was still looking forward to it a little, and the two started preparing for their own demonstration and training.
----
----
Author here.
Nothing will definitely go wrong here~
-
I felt like making a note here because I needed to vent a little... I just met the most pretentious artist since I started doing commissions.
Me: The cat-girl's hair is a bit too gray.
Them: No, it is not.
Me: Eh?
Them: I took the color from your references but because it's shaded, I don't know what the base is.
-- The darkest spot of shaded hair is the base, I guess--- The more you know.
Me: Could you at least add some more shine during shading?
Them: I apologize, but is this your first commission? I mean, all your revisions feel like I have to draw 100% similar to the reference image you gave me. That is no different than tracing.
-- Matching colors is tracing now--- The more you know.
Also them: Now I'm confused and scared because maybe you will make revisions during the shading process, even though the shading process itself comes from the imagination of each artist and cannot be revised.
-- I guess they know better how the characters I created have to look than I do. Of course, every artist should have their own style, but the character should still have the same properties... ---
Me: Sure... Do what you think is best during the final shading.
Them: Okay, I'd better trace it directly from the original image so the result will be exactly the same.
---
I didn't respond to that and will just wait for the final thing and be done with it. I mean, I admit that I'm picky, but that's just too much for me...
The illustration still looks good, but something like that really kills the motivation...
Comments
Teanam
Yeah, seems like some " went missing there, thanks.
Anderz Draconian
Also the way that conversation with artist started (or where we enter) feels annoyingly similar to conversations I've had with one of my co-workers... "Person who created the character": thinks one part is colored a bit off Artist: claims creator is wrong and that it's the right color Artist: admits to not knowing how to build the color it was supposed to be because of shading, but does so in a way that it sounds like it's supposed prove they used the right color.
Anderz Draconian
Possible correction? When Sophia is asking if Ari wants to have a lesson on chantless magic: "Sure, why not? Won't that be way too flashy here?" Shouldn't this be: "Sure, why not?" "Won't that be too flashy here?" The way it is makes the rest of the conversation flip speakers so it sounds like Sophia is the one asking if it's too flashy, while Ari denies ever being flashy. (Until the speaker is re-identified).
Black Unicorn
I think it would be good to ask her to make you up a color palate, even more so if she's your main artist. That way others can match her stuff while adding there own flair to the work (and anyone that can't do that is an over-glorified copyist not a real artist.)
Teanam
I might actually try and ask my fav. artist, who did all the illustrations with the more complex BGs to add a color palette the next time. Coincidentally, she's about to start on a group illustration with all 4 current girls together including their new hairstyles. Might be perfect for that. Too bad I didn't think about that for the new girl.
Black Unicorn
yes, for them I bet it would, but a good artist would see it as you setting them up for less work as you don't need to say "that hair color is to dark" or "the skin should be darker", that is the worst thing an artist can ever hear, and I've heard it a few times when doing faces...
Teanam
Also, judging by their replies, giving them a color palette would've been the same as tracing, as well...
Teanam
That's fine, a bit of insight is always nice. You do have a point, and my main issue definitely was how they reacted to my revisons.
Black Unicorn
Sorry for the long spiel but it's a big thing to artist's. On the other hand this is a NICE chapter and I hope you can find a few artist's you like to work with as they really make your characters come to life.
Black Unicorn
OK now I do have to play devils advocate as I am an artist as well. The base color isn't the darkest part but if the dark parts are more common or shaded in an odd way then it can be hard to find it and that will make it hard on any other artist, best to give reference pic's with an obvious light source and light to medium amounts of shading so it's easy to see the highlights and shaded spots. Another way to do it and the way I liked best is to give a color palate with room to work with. What I mean is not just telling them white hair as that isn't something we can understand as we know there are more then 10+ different shads of white and it's not something most people can see easily, I would say make a base palate of like hair color and give them like 5-7 shades that you think of when you think of her hair, and do that with skin and eye color as well. This will save you and them a lot of headaches later. Now back to normal me he sounds like a second rate artist that's good enough to make good art if he copies someone else's work but doesn't have the skills and the imagination to make his own original works. That kind of man is the worst type for you to pay to make things for you. The bast way to know if a person is like that is to look online for other art work that looks like theirs but is older while only using key words, if you find that a lot of there reference works are just little tweaks of older works them DON"T have them make you anything.
Teanam
You are right for the most part. It's just that I have lost any motivation to put any more effort in them... Also, in the end, it's not a bad illustration, so I can live with it.
Jessy
Not to mention that you have previous examples for them to see how you wanted it done. If they put them not doing it right to you being wrong in what you want, i would leave them scalding reviews and ask for a refund. If they cant deliver a product that satisfies you, which is their job, they shouldnt be doing the work.
Jessy
Still, even if they have the money, if they dont want to listen to the person paying them, you should be able to refund. They should be listening to what you want, not assuming and drawing it how they want.
Teanam
Well, what can I say, that's how it seems to work. Some do as you say, 50% after the sketch and the rest at the end, but it's mostly payment after the sketch. Not few do payment first before anything else. It does kinda make sense. I have no idea how many would run once they have anything that looks good. The artist do have references for you to see their quality, but you as the buyer usually have nothing. Unfortunately, references, no matter how good they look, don't include how it -should've- looked and the way the artist does things.
Jessy
Should pay for the sketch, then pay for it being coloured in. since you never know how they will colour it.
Jessy
That sounds like a horrible way to do it. the colours are half of what you are paying
Teanam
The issue with dropping them is that they're already paid. Most of the time, you pay after the sketch is final and that usually doesn't contain any colors...
Jessy
Just the fact they had the gall to insult you by asking if this is your first commission is enough to not even pay them in my eyes.
Jessy
Honestly, you should just drop them. Its not their place to decide how something is drawn, down to even colours. They are being paid to draw something you want, not something they want
