Kota.cod - Blog Posts

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target destroyed.

😠.

Cowards 2

Lovely request from Glorybean, thanks Glorybean...☁️🩵

🧼🩷

💀🩷

kill or capture

*whispers* Ghost & pierogies

*whispers back* what about Ghost as a pierogi

“Cheers, ya slag.”

all my photo studies turn into ghost one way or another

sometimes you just gotta design a t-shirt for yerself

Normally I have a cool title or something.

Uh, not for this one. I don’t know what was going through my mind when I made it.

Self-care

I finally finished the Soap card ! Not completely satisfied with the background but I'm gonna leave it as that or it'll end up being a WIP forever

Detected 👁️

And closeups I like

Loss.

Flashbacks.

Thinking of Ghost carting around a tiny notebook, it’s basically a keychain that hangs from his belt loop. The kicker? It’s cute. Like, uncharacteristically so, for a man like Ghost that is.

It’s fucking pink. With goddamn glitter and a cat on it. With a small, pink pen to match!

Everyone who’s seen the keychain all think they’re having a damn stroke seeing the stupid thing for the first time. It’s so small, like if was meant for a kid, so what the hell is a Lieutenant doing with a fucking keychain notebook?

The purpose is debated to this day. To keep track of all he kills in the field? Marking losses? Reminders for the future? Fucking journaling his feelings?? No one even know if Ghost ever uses it, but are well aware that the man is strangely protective of his notebook, like some sort of rabid dog. snapping at anyone who tries to take it, and god forbid someone touches it. At least they know he’s aware of the pink notebook.

But the real reason Ghost even has it? Why would he even carry such a dainty, childish thing like that? How could he even manage to write so small with such large, almost clumsy fingers?

It’s where he writes his jokes.

It’s his fucking personal joke book.

Ghost sketch work

I did promise to show my process of making backgrounds so here it is 🙆‍♀️✨

to start off--here's the line layer before I begin adding anything:

I still think this composition is a bit weird, but...eh 🤷‍♀️

next, I compile all of the references I've spent numerous hours foraging for:

these are all from basic google searches; for this piece, I looked for images relevant to the theme, so we have some vintage military manuals, illustrations, even a real army application form that I filled out in Johnny's name 😅 sources for these can vary, but I've had good luck perusing ebay listings for a lot of these scans 👍

next, I kind of just...scatter them around the page, seeing what fits where, keeping the figures as the focus but letting the background fill out around them:

I then start adjusting them more, utilizing various overlay options (hard light/ pin light/ multiply/ color burn are usually my go-to ones in PS) it takes some fiddling to see what looks best:

then I add a few more personal additions for flavor ✨

next, I adjust the colors a bit:

then I adjust the colors even more, bringing out the electric blue and pink to make it pop

here's the full bg without the figures:

and here's the completed piece:

as you can see, I did add a few more elements in the end, as well as adjusting the colors further with the addition of the fully rendered figures 🙆‍♀️

all in all--this is pretty much how I create all my backgrounds, like a fun little scrapbooking project~

Overseas 🇺🇸

ghost page that i drew today :)

hawk.

more retirement doodles 💕

It’s finally time to share this year-old piece made for the GhostSoap Zine

soap: i once had a haircut that i deeply regretted

ghost: is it the one you have now?

soap: no

ghost: it should be

love this guy I'm just like him not because I'm 6'2 but because I'm also British