ive had weirder dreams. I think the best weirdest one was a reoccurring nightmare I used to have as kid. do yall wanna hear it
ok *cracks knuckles* here goes.
DREAM 1
when we first moved to my childhood home, the house was already kinda old. (it used to belong to my dad’s boss) the house already had a couple of furniture including some beds, dining set etc. Except for the bedroom, the rest aren’t really important so here’s a little sketch of a part of the house’s floor plan
we turned the smaller bedroom into a guest room and the bigger bedroom into a kids’ room so we moved the bed to storage and replaced it with a bunch of smaller beds.
Anyway, one of the first nights, I had a dream where I was standing in the bigger bedroom with a bunch of people in uniform. The big bed was back where it was but there’s a pool of blood in it. I overheard one of the cops mentioning something about a body not being found. Suddenly, I looked at the open door and saw the mirror in the guest room. In the reflection, there was a girl lying on the floor staring at me.
Since then, I was always afraid of the guest room.
I hated the house at first. I always thought it was haunted. There was also a giant tree in front of the house that was believed to be housed by spirits. (While playing there, I was told by some guy.. I think he was a gardener.. he saw my mom offer the tree some home cooked meal as a sort of peace offering but that’s a story for another time).
DREAM 2
For some reason, I was standing in the laundry room. I heard someone say “hey” and when I turned around, someone was hiding behind one of the clothes.
she continued to say “hey” as I started to approach her but then I woke up
The girl somehow started appearing in some of my dreams and every time she was playing a different role: a neighbor, a classmate, a friend, a stranger. She was older and had long black hair. She was always wearing white. At that time, I never even noticed how often she occurred in my dreams. I kinda just accepted it.
DREAM 3
The cops were back, walking around in my bedroom. The girl wasn’t there. I realized I was late for class so I ran outside. The street was littered with mutilated hands.
For some reason, I picked up one of the hands and tried to wash it with a gardening hose until it stopped bleeding. I don’t remember the rest of the dream.
DREAM 4
Remember I mentioned there was a large old tree in front of our house? It more or less looked like this:
I used to be scared of it especially at night because it looked like a giant hand in the darkness. Behind it was a wall and on the other side of the wall was a river. I always wondered what the river looked like but I never found until I was in high school and I was finally tall enough to see the other side (while standing on a chair).
Anyway, it was summer vacation and I had a dream where I was in my room. The girl was outside standing on the roof peeking through my window and was calling me to come outside. We went to the tree and I noticed the tree now looked like it was split in half. There was no wall but just a vast expanse of water as far as the eye can see.
I still remember it vividly. It was one of the best dreams I had.
DREAM 5
I had a dream where the river overflowed and flooded the whole neighborhood. I thought my parents were somewhere in the neighborhood basket ball court so I swam there but when I reached the area, there was nobody there. The creepy thing was that the whole time, I was being followed around by some guy I didn’t know.
DREAM 6
Near our house was an old factory. I used to hang out there with my other friends until our parents forbade us cause it was dangerous (obviously). One night, I dreamed I was walking by the factory and I heard someone call me from way above on the factory rooftop. She was sitting there by a really long ladder and urged me to climb on top.
When I reached the roof, suddenly there was just a land of rooftops that stretched towards the horizon. I followed her into a rooftop window which lead to the inside of the factory. Inside were just some machinery and a pier leading to the ocean in my last dream. There was a large chain (the ones you see on large ships) attached to the pier leading to something that looks like another factory in the horizon. She mentioned something about going there by walking on the chain but then I woke up.
Although she still reappeared in a lot of my dreams, I don’t really remember them as much as I vividly remember these ones. The last vivid dream I’ve had of her, we were classmates. She told me to be careful.
DREAM 7
this wasn’t really much of a dream but more like a dream where you’re awake?? I’m not sure what you call it. I was just under the sheets and I heard her whispering close to my ear that my mom is heading to my room and that I should get up soon.
Soon after, my mom opened the door and told me to get ready for school. I don’t remember how or at which point I woke up.
DREAM 8
I was walking home from school when I saw the man who was following me in another dream just standing there on the side. He was holding a knife.
I avoided his stare and quickly walked past him. I noticed he was starting to follow me so I ran. Before I knew it, he caught me and there was a knife in my back. I woke up.
That was the last vivid dream I ever had involving the man.
Okay, so years and years after. My dad finally retired. We wanted to move to a new place in a better neighborhood that was nearer to the city. It was a long process which involved lots of packing. I didn’t realized we had so much stuff and we had to leave some of our things behind. Strangely enough, our fridge suddenly stopped working. After that, two of our air conditioners. Our tv, then the couch suddenly split in half. We ended up leaving them all. My mom, like a passing thought, said maybe the house spirit was finally retiring too and I looked at her like she was crazy. Then my brother said “oh thank god. I thought I was the only one who thought there was a ghost in here” It turned out, we were all aware that the house might have been haunted but nobody wanted to point it out.
On the day of the move, we all said goodbye to the house as well as the “house spirit”. I called out to the ceiling that the house spirit could move in together with us if they wanted.
A few months later, my brother and our dad went to the house to check up on it. He said he overheard one of my dad’s friends mention that nobody wanted to come near it. It just gave off that weird feeling. Like someone was staring from out the window. The house is gonna be torn down soon.
The girl stopped appearing in my dreams since then.
ALRIGHT SO my pal @kalreyno wanted help with drawing fat characters and as a fat artist i felt like i could give a bit of helpful insight on that. there’s also been a lot of complaining about “boo hoo fat characters are hard to draw so i can’t include them in my work Ever” goin on lately so if that’s your case then this is for you too!! and also just for anyone who would like help with fat bodies in general, ofc. anyway, let’s get this show on the road!!
let’s start with some common misconceptions. these are the two main attempts at chubby bodies i run into, so i’ll focus on them.
the Anime Chubby i see everywhere, and it’s just……so wrong in many ways. first of all, there is almost no additional body fat compared to your average thin character - except for where it’s added in “attractive” places (breasts, hips, thighs). the breasts are way too perky, and don’t have the realistic shape fat would give them (though how to draw accurate breasts is another tutorial all on its own lmao). there is still a thigh gap, which usually only happens in very thin people, and bones are still visible on the surface of the skin, which also rarely happens in fat people.
the Michelin Man is better in some ways, but still not that great. it’s a slightly better attempt, but basically all that’s done there is taking a thin character and blowing them up, while giving no thought to fat distribution. the thigh gap is usually still present, and they look a lot more hard than soft - and fat is very soft and pliable.
here’s a chart on how fat usually distributes (if you can’t read my messy writing, “1. next to no fat, 2. moderate amount, 3. most of the fat distribution”). basically, the more muscle an area has, the more prone it is to develop fat, such as the abdomen, thighs, and upper arms. it’s important to note that fat sits on top of muscle, and that it does distribute in different levels, and not evenly across the body as shown in the Michelin Man.
now, here’s an accurate fat body with all of that kept in mind!! notice how the fat isn’t only kept to aesthetically pleasing areas, and how it sits realistically on the character’s body. their breasts sag a lot more, which happens even in thin people with larger breasts, and the nipples are pointing more downwards than straight out. there is no thigh gap in sight, there are no bones in sight, and most importantly, they have fat rolls, which are very important in drawing a convincing fat character!! as far as i know i’ve never met a single person with no rolls at all, and everyone has them, whether thin or fat - they’re just more prominent and more consistently present in fat people. pay close attention to where they are and how they’re shaped.
here are a couple of drawings showing how fat is affected when sitting vs stretching. as seen in the first, the fat specifically on the stomach is distributed a lot more evenly and stretched out, so it becomes “flatter”. the love handles are still pretty visible, though, as well as the fat on the thighs and arms. the breasts are raised with the shoulders, and the fat on the shoulders and near the neck forms rolls as it’s being pushed together.
in the second, there is a lot less room for distribution, so the fat is all pushed together. the breasts sag and the stomach forms rolls and spills into the lap. a good analogy for the way fat works is to liken it to a water balloon, and thinking of how its shape would change when resting flat on a surface, hanging off of a ledge, held upright, etc.
here are a few extra tips i find a lot of people miss!
first on the top is the hip/pubic region. the first circle is showing the way the bellybutton is folded in fat people, as opposed to stretched out in thinner people. the second is the stomach fat spilling over onto the pubic region and creating a separation in the two areas, which is something that’s missing in a lot of art. in addition, the pubic mound also gains fat, making it round as seen in the profile drawing i did up there
(i’ve heard people refer to it as fupa?). the last in the hip region is the lack of a thigh gap. i can’t stress this enough!!!! if you’re trying to draw a convincing fat character, make sure their thighs are pretty much always touching!! for reference, mine literally don’t separate until my feet are about 2ft from each other.
the bottom right is showing the double chin, which a lot of people are afraid to draw!! fat does distribute itself here too, and there’s nothing wrong with it, so don’t feel like you shouldn’t give fat characters a double chin in your work for fear of it looking like a caricature.
in the bottom middle, it’s showing how fat affects different types of breasts with the presence of more or less breast tissue.
lastly, at the very right are stretch marks with their usual locations and directions, which i also can’t stress enough!!!!! i sometimes forget to add them honestly, but they’re so important in accurately portraying fat characters, as they literally come from the skin being stretched from fat being gained (and they’re also just rlly neat lookin like why wouldn’t you lmao). some people have less and some people have more, feel free to experiment with them!
the last thing is body types!! there isn’t one single way for a person to be fat, so feel free to experiment with shapes once you’ve learned the basics!!
so there you have it, a tutorial on how to draw chubs!! now go forth and make some accurate fanart or some rad fat characters, because the world could always use more of both. hmu if you have any questions or concerns, and thanks for reading!!
EDIT: someone pointed out the bad wording in the tutorial. thank you for bringing it to my attention and sorry for offending anybody. i’ve updated the tut, so please reblog this one!
Thanks so much for your ask! I’ve meant to do a tutorial like this for a long time. This is the way that I draw big girls, though it’s quite a short and basic tutorial. I hope it helps!
the “area of gain” part was pretty much taken directly from -here-, a VERY informative and helpful tutorial. Here’s a couple of tutorials that I think are pretty good: link and link.
