I have a fairly big to-do list in regards of my OC's and plot development but I don't tend to notice these lists in Drive (it's too out of sight out of mind for me) or if they're written on scraps of paper (too easily lost among the history books/magazines I'm reading for plot research). There's a fair bit I want to do and I often forget what else needs doing once I've completed a task and I notice to-do lists up on TH since I come on this site so often.

I don't expect any comments on this post since it is purely for my records however if you have any questions/comments about stuff on my to-do list or about any of my OC's and their related plots I am always happy to answer them!

Plot planning progress:
Sci-Fi plot [Digitalis 'verse]
Note: Plot spans over a 3 year period.

• General plan for Year 1 pretty much covered, I just need to solidify the ending for this section. 
• I have a rough idea for how Year 2 starts that needs to be explored further.
• Plot points For year 1 are mapped out.
• Oscar/Jasper/William/Friedrich poly dynamic development mapped out.

WW2 plot

• Basic rough timeline written. Heavy WIP.

WW1 plot
Note: Though these characters end up in the Digitalis plot they are active in their intended timeline from 1914-1916 so they get a decent amount of screentime in their intended time period.

• Basic rough timeline written. Heavy WIP.

Age of Sail plot
Note: Plot runs from 1802 to 1805.

• Detailed timeline written out for 1802-1803. 
• Started to write out a timeline for 1804 and 1805 though these are a WIP and missing a lot of events.

OC's needing a design: Wes, Frankie, Evan and Lukas
Note: Focusing on Lukas for now since he's plot vital to the plot whereas Wes isn't so I can put him on the back burner for a bit.
The initial design I had for Wes looks similar to Friedrich's WW1 era design so I need to re-draw him and compare.
I'm unsure of keeping Evan and Frankie in the WW2 plot so I'm not touching them until I have that plot mapped out. 

OC's needing designs solidified/updated: Oscar, Cardinal and Werner
Note: Werner's design is current, I just want to see how he compares to Cardinal as they're similar concepts.
Oscar and Cardinal's designs are still current though I need to make sure I still enjoy drawing them because I haven't drawn either properly since 2017 oops.

OC's needing current art: Lucian, Oscar, Cardinal, Werner, Beck, Sparks, Max, Jasper, William, Friedrich, Francis, Archie and Sandy
Note: I'm probably going to continuously rotate this one since when I was doodling over my work rotation I found I worked better writing out a list of who I'd drawn recently then crossing names off until I'd drawn everyone rather than hyperfixate on Hendrix, Jasper and Francis as I have done in the past.
Not counted OC's I'm unsure of keeping and don't have designs for.

OC's not yet posted to TH: Cardinal, Wes, Evan, Frankie, Friedrich and Lukas 
Note: Friedrich's next in line to be posted since I have his design solidified, I need to figure out his personality a bit more before I can post him since I don't quiet have enough info on him to fill out a temporary bio.

OC's on WIP bios: Werner, Sparks, Max and Sandy
Note: These will be expanded and developed into full bios. All of these OC's are currently sitting with a half-filled out full bio though I'm having trouble expanding on what info I have so I put them up on temporary bios so they have a TH page.

OC's needing ref sheets: Raven, Lucian, Oscar, Cardinal, Werner, Hendrix, Beck, Sparks, Max, Wes, Evan, Frankie, Jasper, William, Friedrich, Lukas, Francis, Owen, Archie and Sandy
Note: Jasper does have a ref sheet but I don't like the art on it anymore and can't decide how to format the bloody thing.
Ref sheet making is an art form in of it's self and I respect anyone who can make nice looking ref sheets (also how do you do it lmao). 

Other tasks:
Figure out what the to do with concepts "Sykes" and "Jasko" I have floating around. These are highly likely to be played in SWTOR as an Imperial Agent (Sykes) and Sith Inquisitor (Jasko) pair.
Decide on if "Frankie" and "Evan" concepts are going to be in the WW2 story or not. 
Write out and tidy up fics written over last work contract. 1 is completely done and it's a NSFW fic lol. Another WW1 era fic is a half-written WIP. There's 25 in total to tidy.
Finish up older fics that are still considered canon. Probably not going to post any more fics for now, at least until I have my plots 80% developed and I know what I'm doing with them.

Had a really early start date for my Summer contract so it’s work hiatus time again.

Will be on hiatus from May 31 to Sep 1 though I’m presuming I’ll have a night flight back from JFK at the end of the contract again.

I’ll need a week or so to get back into the swing of things.

As is my habit now, here’s a WIP.

I wanted to try to get a design for Friedrich, the German POW William grabs on a raid down. He does get a tattoo about a year into the sci-fi plot but I was pushing it with time to sit down and solidify the design. Admittedly I did put off designing Friedrich because he grows his hair out and experiments with dye in the sci-fi canon he needs 2 designs but he’s coming along nicely. I should not be finishing up linework when I have to be up at 4:45am to drive down to the port but artists amirite?

Idk if I’ve drawn him in the correct uniform, it’s shockingly hard to find good refs for German WW1 uniforms. I’m not 100% sure what his rank is yet either I just know he’s an Eastern Berliner in an Infantry regiment.

Goodreads

I recently set up a goodreads account in an attempt to keep track of the history books I have so if you're curious about the books I use to research my plots my account is here! What I have/haven't read isn't accurate, I joined on desktop where I could only sort books into bookshelves if I'd marked it as read. I have enough books covering different subjects that I do need to be able to sort them to make keeping track of stuff easier. I'm trying to get in the habit of rating stuff I've read but the account is intended to be more of a log of what I've got. 

Spitfire sit-in!

My Christmas present was a hangar tour of Biggin Hill and a Spitfire sit-in which was really awesome! Couldn't stop thinking of Hendrix and Beck the entire time I was in the cockpit of RW382. Even though Hendrix and Beck are in a fictional squadron, I base a lot of their activity of Biggin Hill ops so it's kinda close to heart. I def want a Spitfire flight, it's no 1 on the bucket list and the sit-in has solidified the idea in my mind. I'm currently saving for a Lancaster taxi run which is frankly much more do-able on my current wages so the flight will have to wait a bit. 

I'm looking into opening real currency commissions to contribute towards a flight though I'm still trying to get to the bottom on if debit cards are secure on paypal or if I need to get mum to open a credit card on her account but in my name (my bank thinks my job is too irregular for me to open an account myself even though I've been doing the same seasonal rotation for 3 years and have 2 more contracts coming up) which is why I haven't done anything yet. I'm also looking into paypal alternatives like Square which I happen to know do accept debit cards.

Photo under cut!

How do you come up with poses? 

I've been feeling stuck and pretty insecure on posing lately. I feel like a lot of what I produce is very same-y pose-wise and tbh it kinda is because the bulk of what I have up in my galleries was drawn with the intention of getting character ideas down. When I'm drawing new OC's or trying to nail existing designs I do tend to stick to very simply posed stuff that doesn't show a whole lot of character because at that point the character isn't very developed so there's not a whole lot for me to go off. When I was shifting styles I used to stick to simple throw-away art where it wouldn't matter if the drawing didn't work out over if I'd done something more involved and awkwardly posed. I'm starting to feel like I'm recycling the same poses and honestly it's getting kinda boring and I'm so ready to move past that.

Trouble is, I find coming up with natural poses as well as dynamic/awkward poses very hard, if I draw with the intention of something different to what I've already got in my gallery my brain kinda freezes and I end up defaulting back to the very simple character design-ish poses I've been drawing the past 4 years. It's pretty much ingrained in my mind at this point, I know my visual library is severely lacking as far as poses go but I'm not sure how to build on that.

My question for you is: 

How do you come up with poses? Particularly dynamic/awkward poses or poses where the characters are actually doing things? Do you have any tips for my situation? 

I also posted this to the creative corner forum if you'd prefer to answer there.

My plots have flipped about a bit and I've added a few since I joined. I'm not sure I put an up to date write-up of what I'm currently working with on here? At present I have 5 plots. There's another plot that exists within my sci-fi universe I'm semi-playing with but I can't figure out what exactly is going on so it's on the back burner for now. I'll probably work on it more once I've developed my main sci-fi plot a bit further.

I have 3 historical plots. I enjoy researching the periods I write for and I like having somewhere to dump what I learn. I prefer to watch anti-war drama and I'm also very interested in human psychology so when working with historical plots I'm generally more interested in the psychological impact of war. 

Sci-Fi [Digitalis]:
Super simplified, my sci-fi plot mainly deals with an areal survey crew tasked with mapping a largely uncharted fictional planet called Haal. There's a lot more going on with glitchy digital overlays that can impact reality (think of the market scene in Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets and you're pretty close to what I'm aiming for) and little pocket universes but it's difficult to explain in a brief sentence. 

Status: Semi-active but being re-worked. Now I've got a base idea down I'm starting to headcanon within this universe again. I'm still working out details regarding the digital overlays and figuring out how the pocket universes work as well as tweaking some character roles. I haven't gotten as far as figuring out stuff like WHAT in the real world can be affected by the digital overlays go or how you access them. Once I have all those details figured this plot will go back to active status.

Associated Characters: Raven, Lucian, Oscar, Cardinal, Werner

Digitalis/WW1 Crossover
An AU that's veering very close to becoming canon because I really enjoy the idea and it gives me more material to work with. 

The crossover happens just after the Somme for my WW1 OC's so they get a decent amount of time in their intended setting. Otherwise it's largely the same as the Digitalis plot just with an added layer of the historical crossover and the psychological impact it has on my WW1 OC's. 

Status: Semi-active. Much the same as the main Digitalis plot, still working out a few details but starting to headcanon more within this universe.

Associated Characters: Raven, Lucian, Oscar, Cardinal, Werner, Jasper, William, Freidrich

WW2
Follows Hendrix and Beck from enthusiastic rookie pilots to jaded Spitfire aces. 

The pair eventually transfer to Lancasters where we meet Max, a German navigator fighting for the Allies and other characters I haven't yet created or named. The boys must integrate into a new group dynamic and make it work if they want to survive but when you're used to being the only one in the aircraft that's not exactly easy.

Status: Active. At least the Spitfire portion is, I don't understand enough about Lancaster ops to do much with it so that's something I'm currently researching. I haven't yet made the remaining 4 members of the flight crew, I'm not really sure what I want from these 4 characters yet so I can't begin to figure out group dynamics or write stuff with place holder personalities for the character driven side of it.

Associated Characters: Hendrix, Beck, Max

WW1
Follows Jasper and William through the war. Assuming the Digitalis/WW1 plot becomes canon, the wartime portion of their plot runs up to 1916, just after the Somme so the boys get a decent amount of time in their intended setting.

Friedrich is a German POW William grabs on a raid who tries to defect and ends up tagging along into their adventure into the Digitalis universe.

Status: Active

Associated Characters: Jasper, William, Friedrich

Age of Sail:

Follows Francis trying to survive long enough to make Admiral, Owen and Archie trying not to kill each other and Sandy who just wants a quiet life in a peaceful profession.

There's one Admiral who knows Francis talks shit about him and is waiting for Francis to make the tiniest fuck-up to bring a shitstorm down on his head. 

Watch your back, boys.

Status: Temporary Hold. Currently waiting on a period accurate seamanship book to arrive that I'm probably gonna want a bit of time to study that a bit before I fiddle with the plot any further. I'm also re-working the canon dates a little since I realized the fic I uploaded that's set within this plot went by a slightly older timeline rather because it's an older fic than the updated one I'm currently working with and I somehow never caught the discrepancies, oops. I will eventually go back and edit that fic so everything adds up but I wanna get all my dates sorted first.

Associated characters: Francis, Owen, Archie, Sandy

End note: As Francis and Hendrix won the poll I'll make both of them a completely new drawing and fic. Current project is getting a few ref sheets done so I'll make their new art after that. Ref sheet queue currently stands at William being the current WIP and Hendrix being the next in line. Drawing will be a half body integrated into a scene or the characters interacting with something and for the fics I'm aiming for a minimum of 1,000 words. It might take me a bit of time to get the fic done but I will do it!

We don’t get into our UK home port until tomorrow which is a few days earlier than expected. Work do occasionally fly you home after the first day of the next cruise so I didn’t question it initially but this time it turns out there was a slight error with the contracts. I’m still getting paid until the 5th because that’s what the contract says, it just means I’m disembarking a few days earlier than planned. It was an interesting one in the sense I was the only lifeguard on the ship, the good thing is I’ve done the job for long enough that didn’t phase me and I found it to be pretty chill. I did miss not having other people in my own department to interact with so I didn’t get a chance to socialise as much as I usually would. I still made friends easy enough, just their hours often clashed with mine so I didn’t see a whole lot of them. Christmas is def more enjoyable on ship, it’s more about having a good time and isn’t commercialised. New Year was wild, I was in Amsterdam overnight which was awesome and not quiet what I was expecting. If I don’t get a Christmas/New Year contract this year I might look into visiting Amsterdam over New Year. 

It’ll still take me a few days to get back into the swing of things though, always does.

OC vote

I totally copied someone I watch with because I’m curious. Most voted for OC will get a new drawing and a new short  drabble.

If you want to know more about my OC‘s or have a prompt request I am totally open to that too, I am always happy to answer questions and talk about my OC’s, which sometimes is easier to do in fic form.

Currently only have OC’s with finished profiles in the poll but feel free to ask for anyone not yet submitted.

New Year goals

Studies

• Get a high enough math grade to get a cadetship for navigation officer with the company I currently work for. With my current adult ed tutor who is great at teaching people who are dyslexic and really considerate of that, this might just be doable this year. It could still end up being something I end up continuing to work towards but I’m feeling pretty good about smashing this goal this year.
• Continue learning German (and practice more because I def got lazy between my Summer and Christmas contracts). I’m planning to take actual classes to help figure out the grammar (which I’m finding hard to self-teach) this year! I’ve got about 500 words down now but because I’m not even close to being conversational due to not understanding the grammar I can’t use what I know to interact with people. I have improved though, I understood the majority of a few Rammstein and OOMPH! Songs and when watching German drama I understand every 3rd and 5th word and sometimes it’s enough to get the gist of a sentence.

•  Finish profiling all my OC’s and get them all posted here to TH. I only have 4 of my 13 OC’s left to do so that won’t take long.
• Draw my OC’s more before calling their designs finished. I know I got lazy with this last year, I’d make an icon of the character call the design done and never settle on a design because I only made that one little headshot, this happened with my main kiddo and icon OC Hendrix.
• Make everyone ref sheets. I know I’ve been saying this for literal years but I’m determined I’m going to sit down and start doing it this year. Y’all might not see them individually posted since I’m planning to recycle the same pose for speed I’ll be submitting the sheets to a private tab then making it public.

• Continue working on anatomy, volume and other technical aspects of art. I have this problem where I learn anatomy for something say the forearms and forget anatomy of the neck so I really want that to stop being an issue. Neck anatomy is something in particular I need to work on because I keep forgetting it no matter how many times I go over it. I think half of it comes down to me not knowing how to practice effectively, I’ll learn say forearm anatomy, apply it to a drawing requiring an OC’s forearms to be visible and that’ll be that.
• Work on expressions, I did fall into same face syndrome of expressions last year.
• Tidy up and start posting those 30-something WIP fics I have been sitting on.
• I wanna draw my OC’s interacting and doing things more. Done a lot of simple and reference-y white void pictures for getting designs down especially whilst figuring out how to shade so I want to start drawing my OC’s doing stuff and interacting with things/each other this year.

Unless my contract is extended I'll be on hiatus as of tomorrow tomorrow, December 17th until January 5th. It'll probably take me a week or so to get back into the swing of things after that.

I can still be contacted during this time (though I will be slower to respond and I won't be logged in to ship's wifi until the 18th), I just won't be posting OC's, art or fics during this period.

I managed to be packed by 9:30pm which is a marked improvement over finally finishing packing 2 hours before I'm due to leave LOL.

I'm hoping to get one more Jasper drawing tidied up and posted before then but I'm usually too antsy to properly focus on art the night before I leave and I have to be up early to get to the port so idk if I will manage it. 

Hope you guys have a good Christmas and New Year!

Hivemindz > RU-HX

Had the Hivemindz handle for 5 years according to DA but never liked it and never did anything about it because I couldn't come up with something that was available across all platforms I use until recently. I've had the Hivemindz handle for so long that whilst it is nice having that fresh start feeling it is gonna take a bit of getting used to.

New user is more personal and derived from my icon character/sona's name, RU from his first name Ruben and HX from his surname Hendrix, which he is more commonly known by.

I want to change my username across all platforms I post to but I don't have a credit card (apparently the merchant navy isn't considered regular employment to be approved for one even though I've been doing my job for 2 years on a regular cycle rip) and I'm out of DA points. I will draw for DA premium. Link to commission thread.

Will delete journal later!

I'm looking to RP short scenes, long term plots, headcanon or simply to gush about OC's and fandom! All OC's are open for RP at this point.

Things to know:

• I'm in GMT 000 (UK time) though this does change with work.
• Allow me 24 hours to reply, 48 if I'm on ship.
• I'm dyslexic AF, I don't always catch weird wording so bare with me.
• I'm a beginner at RP, I don't know what I'm doing. Anyone wanting to RP with me must be willing to give critique or be wiling to tell me if I'm doing something wrong.
• NSFW/mature content OK if discussed before hand.
• Discord and TH worlds are preferred methods for as these are accessible to me whilst I'm on ship. 
• Ships won't be exclusive, most OC's are already multi-shipped in their canon and I have no problem with multi-shipping with other people's OC's.
• The few RP's I've attempted in the past I've found I do like to talk OOC. 
• I am learning German but I am not competent enough to RP in the language yet. English only for now! However it'd be awesome to reach out to more German speakers to practice with (though my understanding of German is super basic and broken). I hope to become fluent enough to RP eventually though!
• I expect to be told if you're not happy with how the RP's going or you want to drop it. I am happy to try out alternate ideas or start over!

NO's

• I do not RP with or talk to minors (people under the age of 18) on a casual 1:1 basis. Why? It makes me feel gross, simple as. Lying about your age to RP with me, especially to RP adult content will result in a block. 
• Likewise I will not RP with characters who are minors or are mentally at the age of a child. 
• I do not RP incest. Close brotherly relationships are hella cute but when it gets romantic/NSFW that's a no from me as it's something I personally find disturbing. 
• Whilst there are some kinks I am into there's others I'm extremely repulsed by such as daddy kink, omegaverse, vore, scat, inflation, or any kind of kink involving bodily fluids. 
• I find anything involving pregnancy triggers gender dysphoria so please don't try to bring that up.

THEME

• I'm up for most themes, (alternate) history, diesel punk, sci-fi, post-apocalyptic/survival. 
• I am not a fan of high-fantasy/medieval and steampunk themes though.
• I fucking love ANGST and HURT/COMFORT.
• Whilst my OC's have set plots, you will be RPing with an AU of that character (meaning what we RP won't become canon for my OC) which gives me the freedom to dump my OC's in any setting, including fandom. 

FANDOM

• I'm not a fan of AU's, I strongly prefer to stick to the material provided in the movie/show. Alternate canon/endings to make up for the pain original canon caused? Heck yeah! Coffee shop AU's? Sorry not my jam.
• I strongly dislike genderbending or this theme of age regression that seems to pop up a lot in Star Trek fic.
• I do not tolerate ship drama. If you contact me just to talk shit about my ships or give me a lecture on why Reylo is good and pure and Kylux is wrong and gross to ship then save it, ship drama is an automatic block boot.
• My main fandoms are Star Trek (TOS & Reboot), Star Wars and Dunkirk. 
• The characters I have the most headcanons for and am willing to RP:
  • Star Trek: Jim, Spock and Kirk; they have a great dynamic. I ship any combination that can be made out of those 3.
  • Star Wars: Kylo Ren and Hux (the dynamic fascinates me endlessly and yeah I highkey ship it).
  • Dunkirk: Farrier and Collins. I OTP these two. The way Collins reacts to watching Farrier dogfight gets me wondering a lot about their dynamic and hits me right in the feels every damn time. I also have a few headcanons for Peter and Gibson.
  • Generation War: Wilhelm and Friedhelm. I don't ship it since they're brothers and shipping it would be gross but they're fascinating characters to me, how the dynamic shifts and characters develop is super interesting. 

• Can draw: humans, humanoid, male or female (I'm better with males), flight rising gijinkas, human forms of animal/furry OC's
• Finds hard but will draw: object heads, females, complicated markings/clothing
• Won't do: (closed) species, fan characters, weird anatomy (multiple eyes/limbs), child characters, animal/furry, nsfw/fetish art, hate art, couples, mecha

You may see me drawing NSFW/fetish art for myself but I'm not offering it as a comm type because I'm still getting comfortable with making that kind of art Also, there's only certain fetishes I will draw for (mainly bondage and BDSM) so it's easier to say no across the board. I don't draw species OC's due to past drama with adoptables so nowadays I just stay out of it completely. I can't draw animals or furry characters but as above I will draw a human(oid) form of your animal/furry OC.

Requires: 

• A ref sheet or at least a digital half body for waist/thigh up comms. I can work from traditional drawings but colours are likely to be off especially if the scan/photograph is poor quality. Your OC must have a design, I cannot work from written description alone. 
• A link to your OC's info is also super helpful but not required.
• A prompt, it can be simple as reading and irritated. 2 words (an action and an expression) that's all I'm asking for. I find it tough coming up with ideas for my own OC's and having something to aim for helps greatly. 

Rules/TOS: 

• I may refuse a commission if I don't think I can draw your OC or you haven't read my info. 
• I may use art I make for you to promote my commissions/trades; you retain rights to your OC.
• I do not do private work and reserve the right to post all paid work/trades to any of my online galleries. 
• No refunds, all sales are final. I'll only refund if for whatever reason I can't complete the drawing. 
• Art may be re-posted with a link back to my gallery. Do not claim it as yours. If posting to toyhou.se list me as an onsite artist.
• Minor edits such as details I forgot (though I will try my best to stick to your OC's design) may be requested until flat colour WIP has been approved. Edits requiring portions of the drawing to be re-drawn will incur an extra fee.
• Do not ask me to imitate other styles, that's disrespectful to both to me and the artist in question; you are paying for my art and my style.

Art Trades: 

• Info above also applies to art trades. 
• I prefer to wait until you've finished your half or you have at least sent me a WIP. However if you have a similar clause for your trades I can compromise and send WIP's to prove I'm working on my half (though I will want to see WIP's in return).
• Similar or better skill level to my own is desired but I like a wide range of styles from western cartoon to hyper realism and any kind of style inbetween. However I am not keen on anime especially shoju styles (though some anime influence is 100% OK).
• I don't answer all trade requests unless I have time to do the trade. There's a chance I may come back to you later!
• I am open to receiving NSFW art but I am picky both in terms of style NSFW is drawn in and which characters are featured. ASK FIRST!