Sally Acorn - Tumblr Posts

As a preview for this week's chapter of Falling into Darkness, here's the chapter illustration!

Played around a bit more with coloring styles trying to find a system I like best. I'm not sure I'm there yet (I'm winging all of this, after all, seeing as I'm entirely self-taught with the aid of various online tutorials over the years), but I'm still pretty happy with this one.

Chapter 2 is now posted!

As a preview for this week's chapter of Falling into Darkness, here's the chapter illustration!

Played around a bit more with coloring styles trying to find a system I like best. I'm not sure I'm there yet (I'm winging all of this, after all, seeing as I'm entirely self-taught with the aid of various online tutorials over the years), but I'm still pretty happy with this one.

Here's the preview for the upcoming chapter of Falling into Darkness. Keeping with the grey theme, because apparently all my illustrations for a while are in Robotropolis.

This chapter just has one illustration, and our first proper full-body look at roboticized Sonic. I drew some inspirations from the design for Mecha Sonic (roboticized Sonic) in the Archie comics, such as with the gold elements, but also wanted this design to be its own thing (and needed certain design elements to be present for...reasons). I also really like how the shape of his curled hand became so much clearer to read when I colored some of the incidental lines to be closer to his "skintone."

As for Sally, her overall design is inspired by a lot of things. I'm not great at drawing her SatAM incarnation, and have honestly been a lot more influenced by how she looked through the bulk of the Archie comics (thanks to reading that for a while in college, and from the sheer amount of fanart of that version I've seen). I tried to tweak her look my way to have her fit in with the Sega-styled characters, without just resorting to her post-reboot look from the comics. I'm pretty happy with it.

I didn't originally have a background sketched in for this picture. It was just Sally and Sonic facing off against each other. I started painting random fog around them, which looked fine, but then decided I wanted to take a stab at painting the scrap yard behind them instead, very roughly with a painterly brush. (By the way, I cannot recommend Jazza's digital brushes enough; I'm very happy with how they feel to work with, and they're what I'm primarily using for all the shading and effects and the like, save for the edges of these illustration blocks.)

Anyway, see you Monday with the chapter link!

And now the chapter is up! I hope you enjoy!

Here's the preview for the upcoming chapter of Falling into Darkness. Keeping with the grey theme, because apparently all my illustrations for a while are in Robotropolis.

This chapter just has one illustration, and our first proper full-body look at roboticized Sonic. I drew some inspirations from the design for Mecha Sonic (roboticized Sonic) in the Archie comics, such as with the gold elements, but also wanted this design to be its own thing (and needed certain design elements to be present for...reasons). I also really like how the shape of his curled hand became so much clearer to read when I colored some of the incidental lines to be closer to his "skintone."

As for Sally, her overall design is inspired by a lot of things. I'm not great at drawing her SatAM incarnation, and have honestly been a lot more influenced by how she looked through the bulk of the Archie comics (thanks to reading that for a while in college, and from the sheer amount of fanart of that version I've seen). I tried to tweak her look my way to have her fit in with the Sega-styled characters, without just resorting to her post-reboot look from the comics. I'm pretty happy with it.

I didn't originally have a background sketched in for this picture. It was just Sally and Sonic facing off against each other. I started painting random fog around them, which looked fine, but then decided I wanted to take a stab at painting the scrap yard behind them instead, very roughly with a painterly brush. (By the way, I cannot recommend Jazza's digital brushes enough; I'm very happy with how they feel to work with, and they're what I'm primarily using for all the shading and effects and the like, save for the edges of these illustration blocks.)

Anyway, see you Monday with the chapter link!

Next chapter preview. It's a two-illustration week again!

I'm not entirely sure about the coloring job on the first picture, but I had to tell myself to stop fiddling with it or I'd never finish it. These are supposed to be quick-and-dirty illustrations, after all. Not slow-and-dirty. But hey, playing with some starker shadows to imply a harsh single light above them.

The other picture, by contrast, was much simpler. Just three sections to shade, only two of those to add highlights, and then playing with some overlays and coloring the lineart before quickly painting in a background.

Tune in Monday for the chapter link!

Wouldja' look at that? It's a chapter link! Appropriately titled "Answers" because I finally give some (though props to anyone who guessed beforehand).

For anyone curious, this story was initially based on a dream I had way back in high school that stuck with me. More below the cut to keep this from being too long on people's dash.

For anyone who isn't aware, I'm on the older end of the Sonic fandom. I was almost into double digits when the first Sonic game was released. I grew up with the franchise, and my favorite piece of media (aside from Sonic 2, which I got pretty darn good at even without memorizing the cheat codes for level select and Super Sonic) was the Saturday morning cartoon, Sonic the Hedgehog, also known as "SatAM." At some point I had a weird dream that involved the basic premise of the answers in this chapter (I won't go into details because you should really read the chapter first). That idea stuck with me, and after I was introduced to the concept of fanfiction in college, I decided to finally use it in a story. I changed a lot of the surrounding details, but that core premise remained intact, leading to this story here.

Next chapter preview. It's a two-illustration week again!

I'm not entirely sure about the coloring job on the first picture, but I had to tell myself to stop fiddling with it or I'd never finish it. These are supposed to be quick-and-dirty illustrations, after all. Not slow-and-dirty. But hey, playing with some starker shadows to imply a harsh single light above them.

The other picture, by contrast, was much simpler. Just three sections to shade, only two of those to add highlights, and then playing with some overlays and coloring the lineart before quickly painting in a background.

Tune in Monday for the chapter link!

Hey hey preview time! This is the last of the one-illustration chapters (the rest have either two or three).

Can't say as I'm super happy with this, but I had to tell myself to stop touching it, so it is what it is. Again, I blame not having formal training (I make do with online tutorials and fudging around with Photoshop settings). I do like how the "lighting through leaves" effect worked on the tree trunk. Wish I was better at it on other surfaces. Oh well.

Say hello to two of my chao (yes, I have them in my SA2 Battle chao garden)! Angel is the neutral flying chao attached to Knuckles' leg, and Frost is the hero swimming chao in the water.

The next chapter is posted! It's a short one this week.

Also, "fun" fact (that's also in the notes for the chapter): this chapter is the last one I wrote and posted during the story's original run before going on a ten-year hiatus due to losing steam, getting distracted, general life stuff, etc.

TEN YEARS.

Don't worry, I'm not doing that to everyone reading now. The story is done. Has been for over a decade now, so there's no reason not to keep up the posting schedule. You don't have to wait ten years, just one week.

But yeah, I wrote this chapter, posted it, and then...got married, had three kids, graduated college, moved states twice...lots of things.

So if you see a marked improvement (I hope!) in the writing for all the following chapters, that's why.

Hey hey preview time! This is the last of the one-illustration chapters (the rest have either two or three).

Can't say as I'm super happy with this, but I had to tell myself to stop touching it, so it is what it is. Again, I blame not having formal training (I make do with online tutorials and fudging around with Photoshop settings). I do like how the "lighting through leaves" effect worked on the tree trunk. Wish I was better at it on other surfaces. Oh well.

Say hello to two of my chao (yes, I have them in my SA2 Battle chao garden)! Angel is the neutral flying chao attached to Knuckles' leg, and Frost is the hero swimming chao in the water.

Two preview images for this week!

Both of these turned out pretty decent. The spotty leaf shadows on Knuckles look better than my previous forested images, so I call that a win. And the scribbly shading on the scenery works.

As for the other, I'm glad the shading still shows through because I like how the shadows on Snively turned out. I shaded it normally and then used a gradient fill layer to mostly colorize everything red like "robot vision," so the colors of everything kind of disappeared (except for where I very specifically faded out the gradient). I also had fun with the interlacing lines and messing with the text (it actually says stuff, but I used a symbol font to obfuscate it because it was distracting in readable English).

See you Monday with the chapter link!

Hey hey, it's Monday!

Knuckles needs to work on his communication skills something fierce.

Two preview images for this week!

Both of these turned out pretty decent. The spotty leaf shadows on Knuckles look better than my previous forested images, so I call that a win. And the scribbly shading on the scenery works.

As for the other, I'm glad the shading still shows through because I like how the shadows on Snively turned out. I shaded it normally and then used a gradient fill layer to mostly colorize everything red like "robot vision," so the colors of everything kind of disappeared (except for where I very specifically faded out the gradient). I also had fun with the interlacing lines and messing with the text (it actually says stuff, but I used a symbol font to obfuscate it because it was distracting in readable English).

See you Monday with the chapter link!

Here's a treat this week: three illustrations! Including one that is my absolute favorite of the set so far. (More info below the cut to keep the later reblog short.)

So first we have just a simple Freedom Fighter meeting, but I like it for the quiet moment it shows (with a soft gradient in the background to help sell it), and a good image of Bunnie as well. My color choices for these illustrations have been a little bit SatAM, a little bit Archie Comics, but Bunnie's colors are pretty much all SatAM because I love her colors there. Also don't worry about the blue bird guy. He's just a random Freedom Fighter I drew to fill space.

The second image is the one that's my favorite. The colors and the lighting turned out so nice, and I love how the background texture came out. I originally contemplated skipping over this lineart (I drew a fair bit more illustration sketches than I ended up inking for coloring purposes), but I decided to keep it because I wanted a nice contemplative picture of Sally, and it turned out spectacular in my opinion.

Finally we have a mirror to the "robot vision" illustration from last week, but things are a bit more...chaotic this time. It's the fault of the events in Chapter 10, especially the...repairs. But hey, the glitch effect was fun, and the words in the border weren't part of the original lineart, but were scribbled in digitally.

Tune in Monday. The pace is going to pick up again!

Here's your chapter link for this week!

Appropriately titled "Despair," we're at the nadir of the story for our characters.

Here's a treat this week: three illustrations! Including one that is my absolute favorite of the set so far. (More info below the cut to keep the later reblog short.)

So first we have just a simple Freedom Fighter meeting, but I like it for the quiet moment it shows (with a soft gradient in the background to help sell it), and a good image of Bunnie as well. My color choices for these illustrations have been a little bit SatAM, a little bit Archie Comics, but Bunnie's colors are pretty much all SatAM because I love her colors there. Also don't worry about the blue bird guy. He's just a random Freedom Fighter I drew to fill space.

The second image is the one that's my favorite. The colors and the lighting turned out so nice, and I love how the background texture came out. I originally contemplated skipping over this lineart (I drew a fair bit more illustration sketches than I ended up inking for coloring purposes), but I decided to keep it because I wanted a nice contemplative picture of Sally, and it turned out spectacular in my opinion.

Finally we have a mirror to the "robot vision" illustration from last week, but things are a bit more...chaotic this time. It's the fault of the events in Chapter 10, especially the...repairs. But hey, the glitch effect was fun, and the words in the border weren't part of the original lineart, but were scribbled in digitally.

Tune in Monday. The pace is going to pick up again!

Chapter 14 previews! With SPOILERS! (Sorry not sorry)

First up, I'm pretty happy with all three of these. Funny how working on your skills over the course of several related images can result in improvement, no? ;)

The lighting in the first picture turned out really nice, I think. That single warm shaft of light, and the orange and brown tones I got in the whole picture. I didn't draw quite the right angle on Sonic's quills, but oh well.

The second picture's lighting turned out nicely too. The dappled light from the tree leaves came out pretty good, and the spotlight effect on Sally. It looks cozy despite featuring what is technically a killer robot.

And the third...hey look, I get to paint Sonic in his normal colors instead of the slightly desaturated robot colors! I also ended up dialing back the smoke effects in this one because they were too much the way I initially painted them. 'Sfine.

It's Monday, and that means chapter update! We're at 14/15 now, and winding down from all the action.

Chapter 14 previews! With SPOILERS! (Sorry not sorry)

First up, I'm pretty happy with all three of these. Funny how working on your skills over the course of several related images can result in improvement, no? ;)

The lighting in the first picture turned out really nice, I think. That single warm shaft of light, and the orange and brown tones I got in the whole picture. I didn't draw quite the right angle on Sonic's quills, but oh well.

The second picture's lighting turned out nicely too. The dappled light from the tree leaves came out pretty good, and the spotlight effect on Sally. It looks cozy despite featuring what is technically a killer robot.

And the third...hey look, I get to paint Sonic in his normal colors instead of the slightly desaturated robot colors! I also ended up dialing back the smoke effects in this one because they were too much the way I initially painted them. 'Sfine.

It's the last previews for Falling Into Darkness!

Important note before I go into some details on the pictures: I will, in general, not be doing this for other fanfics I post. The main reason I did this series of illustrations was as something of a treat for finally crossposting this 10-20-year-old story to my AO3 account. I don't really plan to draw a ton of illustrations for other fics I do.

That being said, I may do occasional images that will be posted with future stories on AO3 (I have a quick one for the first chapter of the next fic I plan on posting, for one), and if I do other fanart, related to a fic or not, I still plan to post art here.

But I'm glad for all the kind comments and everyone enjoying this series of illustrations with me. :D You guys are awesome.

With that, description-stuff (including more behind-the-scenes than usual) below the cut. 'Tis long; be forewarned.

First up, arguably the easiest illustration to do in the whole set. It's a silhouette, so the foreground wasn't really an issue (other than trying to get the edge glow just right, and I still don't think I quite managed but I'm definitely telling myself not to mess with it any further). The background was already painted for the second illustration in the whole set:

I just fixed up the paths and the treetops and added a little lookout stand to the building on the right, now that Sonic and Sally weren't blocking those spots. After all, it's supposed to be the same view anyway, so I figured I'd make it easy on myself and not have to completely repaint the scene.

The second image employs some little cheats here and there. Here's the original sketch from my sketchbook for comparison:

Very loose, lacking detail. Straight lines are more like suggestions. The robots are spiky blobs. I have a literal note next to a stick figure and a hollow shape telling me to get some references. There's the barest hint of the alcoves the robots are standing in.

I didn't show this level of behind-the-scenes off with other illustrations in this series (though I suppose if anyone's ever interested, I could do a process post about how I worked on these), but one of the first things I did with this series of illustrations was sift through the roughly fifty individual sketches I'd drawn to illustrate various parts of the story (not counting redraws of portions), ranging from vague shapes to much more detailed drawings, to narrow it down to the ones I was actually going to finish for this project. I ended up with 27 total images, including the two I'm previewing today, focusing on having at least one but no more than three images per chapter.

Once I'd determined which sketches, like the above, were going to become a finished piece, I then went through each and every one of them in Photoshop with a sketch pencil brush and filled out the sketches to a point where I could reliably ink them. That meant things like swapping out figures that didn't work with redraws of them or making size adjustments, like so:

The first image is the second illustration, and you can see I redid Sonic because his initial pose didn't work. The redraw was actually a pose of him I did to draw his post-Mobianization robotic elements from the end of the story, but the stance was actually good for what I needed, so I Photoshopped it in and then sketched the rest of the replacement drawing digitally. The second image is Sally watching Knuckles walk away, and you can see that I changed her left arm, and also reproportioned her body prior to inking (bigger head, smaller body).

And for pieces like the final one in this illustration series, I sketched in all the details that were missing from the initial sketch (which, as I said, was pretty barebones; in my defense, it was the last one I drew, and by that point I was pretty tired of drawing robot hedgehogs so Sonic was something of a stick figure in most of the last chapters' sketches).

And here's where one of the cheats comes into play. I drew one robot hedgehog. Specifically the one you see the most of, near the tip of Robotnik's cape by the drafting table. I drew it on its own layer in Potoshop, then copied and pasted it into all of the other holding bays, erasing parts that wouldn't be visible as I went along. I also went and found those references I needed for Robotnik and Snively and drew the two of them properly.

And then, because I much prefer physical pen-to-paper inking over digital (my tablet is not one of the fancy screen ones, and I've yet to really get comfortable digitally inking with it, despite owning it for nigh on twenty years), I colored all of the sketches red, assembled them in groups on letter-sized images, and printed them out onto cardstock (my preferred medium when I'm going to be traditionally inking). I inked them with my various inking pens (some Sakura Microns, some Faber-Castell PITT pens), scanned each sheet back into my computer, and cleaned up the lines in Photoshop (the reason for the red printout was to make it a bit smoother removing the sketch from the inked lines, though it wasn't as clean as I would've liked; oh well).

That left us with the above. Because I inked them each by hand individually, the robots don't look copy-pasted, because it was the underlying sketch that had been, not the ink work. The tables and holding bays also have straighter lines thanks to using a proper ruler for those (though I didn't concern myself too much with things like perspective and right angles), and after drawing the straight line, I went back freehand over spots to give them a bit of that hand-inked wobble.

From there it was a matter of laying down the flats in Photoshop, then shading, adding effects, etc. I like the cold yellow light I've got on the robots, and the overall shading on the yellow cape. Also that sense of satisfaction when I called this one done, because it was the last one. Huzzah.

I'll see you on Monday for the last chapter!

And here we are, the final chapter of Falling into Darkness. Thank you all for reading along, and I'm glad you enjoyed!

Like I said before, I won't be posting illustrations for every chapter of future works, and won't even be posting an update here for every single chapter upload (I did it this time around because of the included illustrations), but I will be posting an announcement for the first chapter of any new story I upload, and will also be sharing any art I happen to do (with or without a chapter link included).

I've got another story waiting in the wings and ready to post, so that'll be next week, or possibly the week after if I take a short break from my consistent posting schedule first.

Cheers!

It's the last previews for Falling Into Darkness!

Important note before I go into some details on the pictures: I will, in general, not be doing this for other fanfics I post. The main reason I did this series of illustrations was as something of a treat for finally crossposting this 10-20-year-old story to my AO3 account. I don't really plan to draw a ton of illustrations for other fics I do.

That being said, I may do occasional images that will be posted with future stories on AO3 (I have a quick one for the first chapter of the next fic I plan on posting, for one), and if I do other fanart, related to a fic or not, I still plan to post art here.

But I'm glad for all the kind comments and everyone enjoying this series of illustrations with me. :D You guys are awesome.

With that, description-stuff (including more behind-the-scenes than usual) below the cut. 'Tis long; be forewarned.

First up, arguably the easiest illustration to do in the whole set. It's a silhouette, so the foreground wasn't really an issue (other than trying to get the edge glow just right, and I still don't think I quite managed but I'm definitely telling myself not to mess with it any further). The background was already painted for the second illustration in the whole set:

I just fixed up the paths and the treetops and added a little lookout stand to the building on the right, now that Sonic and Sally weren't blocking those spots. After all, it's supposed to be the same view anyway, so I figured I'd make it easy on myself and not have to completely repaint the scene.

The second image employs some little cheats here and there. Here's the original sketch from my sketchbook for comparison:

Very loose, lacking detail. Straight lines are more like suggestions. The robots are spiky blobs. I have a literal note next to a stick figure and a hollow shape telling me to get some references. There's the barest hint of the alcoves the robots are standing in.

I didn't show this level of behind-the-scenes off with other illustrations in this series (though I suppose if anyone's ever interested, I could do a process post about how I worked on these), but one of the first things I did with this series of illustrations was sift through the roughly fifty individual sketches I'd drawn to illustrate various parts of the story (not counting redraws of portions), ranging from vague shapes to much more detailed drawings, to narrow it down to the ones I was actually going to finish for this project. I ended up with 27 total images, including the two I'm previewing today, focusing on having at least one but no more than three images per chapter.

Once I'd determined which sketches, like the above, were going to become a finished piece, I then went through each and every one of them in Photoshop with a sketch pencil brush and filled out the sketches to a point where I could reliably ink them. That meant things like swapping out figures that didn't work with redraws of them or making size adjustments, like so:

The first image is the second illustration, and you can see I redid Sonic because his initial pose didn't work. The redraw was actually a pose of him I did to draw his post-Mobianization robotic elements from the end of the story, but the stance was actually good for what I needed, so I Photoshopped it in and then sketched the rest of the replacement drawing digitally. The second image is Sally watching Knuckles walk away, and you can see that I changed her left arm, and also reproportioned her body prior to inking (bigger head, smaller body).

And for pieces like the final one in this illustration series, I sketched in all the details that were missing from the initial sketch (which, as I said, was pretty barebones; in my defense, it was the last one I drew, and by that point I was pretty tired of drawing robot hedgehogs so Sonic was something of a stick figure in most of the last chapters' sketches).

And here's where one of the cheats comes into play. I drew one robot hedgehog. Specifically the one you see the most of, near the tip of Robotnik's cape by the drafting table. I drew it on its own layer in Potoshop, then copied and pasted it into all of the other holding bays, erasing parts that wouldn't be visible as I went along. I also went and found those references I needed for Robotnik and Snively and drew the two of them properly.

And then, because I much prefer physical pen-to-paper inking over digital (my tablet is not one of the fancy screen ones, and I've yet to really get comfortable digitally inking with it, despite owning it for nigh on twenty years), I colored all of the sketches red, assembled them in groups on letter-sized images, and printed them out onto cardstock (my preferred medium when I'm going to be traditionally inking). I inked them with my various inking pens (some Sakura Microns, some Faber-Castell PITT pens), scanned each sheet back into my computer, and cleaned up the lines in Photoshop (the reason for the red printout was to make it a bit smoother removing the sketch from the inked lines, though it wasn't as clean as I would've liked; oh well).

That left us with the above. Because I inked them each by hand individually, the robots don't look copy-pasted, because it was the underlying sketch that had been, not the ink work. The tables and holding bays also have straighter lines thanks to using a proper ruler for those (though I didn't concern myself too much with things like perspective and right angles), and after drawing the straight line, I went back freehand over spots to give them a bit of that hand-inked wobble.

From there it was a matter of laying down the flats in Photoshop, then shading, adding effects, etc. I like the cold yellow light I've got on the robots, and the overall shading on the yellow cape. Also that sense of satisfaction when I called this one done, because it was the last one. Huzzah.

I'll see you on Monday for the last chapter!

Summary: A series of moments in the lives of Sonic and Sally, showing the reflection of their childhood selves in their later relationship. The more things change, the more they realize what they had all along. Continuity: Sonic SatAM (with a little bit of game stuff where it fits) Tags: Fluff, Friendship/Love, Then and Now, Slice of Life Relationship Tags: Sally/Sonic

1: Age Sonic the Hedgehog is incapable of acting his age (and maybe is a little wise for his age too).

Hey hey, it's a surprise fanfic project! I saw the Sonally Week prompt list and wanted to participate this year, so I'll be posting one of these a day for the next week (progress willing). This will not interrupt my usual posting schedule for Awakening, for anyone who follows me on AO3/FFN already. :)

Enjoy!

Summary: A series of moments in the lives of Sonic and Sally, showing the reflection of their childhood selves in their later relationship. The more things change, the more they realize what they had all along. Continuity: Sonic SatAM (with a little bit of game stuff where it fits) Tags: Fluff, Friendship/Love, Then and Now, Slice of Life Relationship Tags: Sally/Sonic

2: Scenery Robotnik's reach is felt even as far as the Great Forest, but the good thing about wounds is that they can heal.

Here's the second installment of the Sonally Week prompts!

Summary: A series of moments in the lives of Sonic and Sally, showing the reflection of their childhood selves in their later relationship. The more things change, the more they realize what they had all along. Continuity: Sonic SatAM (with a little bit of game stuff where it fits) Tags: Fluff, Friendship/Love, Then and Now, Slice of Life Relationship Tags: Sally/Sonic

3: Fashion A little bit of care goes a long way.

(There we go, got the link to render properly.)

Summary: A series of moments in the lives of Sonic and Sally, showing the reflection of their childhood selves in their later relationship. The more things change, the more they realize what they had all along. Continuity: Sonic SatAM (with a little bit of game stuff where it fits) Tags: Fluff, Friendship/Love, Then and Now, Slice of Life Relationship Tags: Sally/Sonic

4: Direction One of the hard things of leadership is trusting others to listen to direction.

(Ok, so AO3 is having server issues since yesterday that are making the link not render quite right. I'll see if I can fix it later, but in the meantime, the link above should still work, and if for some reason it doesn't, you can find the story mirrored to my FFN account. And if you missed the post yesterday, Prompt #3 is up too.)

(Edit: link properly inserted now.)