jarofglitter

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one of the deans in beijing dance academy rehearses with students

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Another finished commission! Thanks so much for commissioning me!

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A little belatedly perhaps in a Chronicle that's been running more than a year now, but here we go! A proper ref for Tosk's sire Reynard, who totally has no problems to deal with at all certainly.

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When I was a very suicidal trans activist in Texas, Benjamin Sisko saying “sure, you would [die for your people]. Dying gets you off the hook. The question is: are you willing to live for your people?” changed and possibly saved my life. It’s up there with “if we are going to be damned, let us be damned for who we really are” from Picard. Star Trek not only shows us a better world, it teaches us how to make it there

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Still collecting the full alphabet of the “live, laugh, love” variants if anyone has some good examples.

Bonus if they can fit the “We can’t ___, _____, ____ our way out of this.”

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There’s no fate but the love we share♥️

(still crying btw 🥲)

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*cackles*

The “Sumerian” Cuneiform in Wonder Woman

 As folks who’ve seen the 2017 Wonder Woman may have noticed, there’s a scene in the movie where Diana effortlessly translates a set of notes that contain cuneiform.  Fellow Tumblr Assyriologist-in-training @valarhalla even took a shot at translating the notes.  And as my upcoming SBL paper demonstrates, the intersection of ancient Near Eastern languages and modern comics is my personal catnip.

So it’s time for me to confess two things.  First, I’ve spent an embarrassingly long time looking at those notes.  Second, I still can’t tell you what they say, and I can’t afford to spend more time away from studying for my rapidly approaching Northwest Semitic comp.  But I figured that I’d dump the things I do know here, in hopes that some of you lovely geniuses can get any further.

First, here is a relatively high-resolution screenshot of the four pages in the movie.  I couldn’t find one anywhere online, so I had to (totally legally) make it myself.

Second, here is the relevant transcript from the movie’s official novelization:

“Cryptographers had no luck,” the man said ruefully. “It seems like a mixture of two languages. But they have failed to determine which two languages.”

Diana […] turned her attention to Maru’s notes. She scanned them. Oh. Why hadn’t anyone mentioned that before?  “Ottoman and Sumerian,” she announced.

[…] Diana scanned the pages again. The subject matter was more puzzling to her than that actual translation. “It’s a formula… for a new kind of gas…”

[…] “Hydrogen-based, instead of sulfur.” She was sounding out the words, interpreting them.

[…] Diana continued, “The book says they plan to release this gas at… the Front…”

Now, here are the things that I feel pretty confident asserting:

The notes are indeed a mixture of two languages.  Based on my difficulty extracting meaning from the cuneiform alone, I suspect that both are necessary for an accurate translation.

The cuneiform is in the Neo-Assyrian (NA) script.  While this script was never used for writing Sumerian, it is the most standardized and simplified version, and (more importantly) it’s the most widely published version of the time.

The cursive is an alphabet (or abjad) in the Arabic family, but it’s not Arabic itself, as evidenced by letters like چ (ç).

“Ottoman” is not a language, but Ottoman Turkish and Persian were both used in the Ottoman Empire, and both of them had alphabets that contain چ.  As I’m utterly unfamiliar with Turkish and Persian, and only marginally familiar with Arabic cursive, that’s the most I can narrow it down.  Regardless, given that Steve was literally on assignment in Turkey, it’s very surprising that neither he nor the cryptographers recognized the script.

Back to the cuneiform.  Although the cuneiform writing system originated with Sumerian, it was later adapted to several different languages.  I feel fairly confident stating that this is neither Sumerian nor one of the cuneiform alphabets (Ugaritic, Hittite).

Somebody with a rather careful hand wrote the top left page, although they made a few minor mistakes (e.g. the first sign on line 3, which looks like a defective “ú”).  Someone with a much sloppier hand copied that same text onto the fourth page.

On the third page, the thing that looks like an equation is one.  The symbols underneath the square root sign are nu, like the Greek letter, so it makes sqrt(nu + nu^2).  (The other sign there is šu.)  The Arabic letters are all common equation variable values, like y and z.

Delitzsch’s Assyrische Lesestücke was published in 1912 in Germany, and it contained a “Schrifttafel” that listed cuneiform signs (in Neo-Assyrian!) with their syllabic (phonetic) and logographic (symbolic) meanings.  I would posit that Dr. Maru obtained a copy of this book, memorized the cuneiform sign list, and used it as a personal code.

Although I haven’t been able to make meaning from it, one line contains the enticing signs “dingir ma ru.”  “Dingir” is a marker (like “Mr.” or “Rev.”) that indicates that the following name is a divinity.  Was Dr. Maru asserting her own godhood?  Or was she perhaps using dingir as code for “Doctor”?

If anyone has further contributions, I would love to hear them!

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Weird that I came across this blog post when I was studying for my History of Writing & Progress of Scripture midterms.

Regarding number 4; yes, Ottoman is not a language and yes, Steve Rogers and Bucky were in Turkiye not in the Ottoman Empire during WWII (1939 - 1945), possibly post 1943. By then Atatürk's Turkish Alphabet Reform was in place (thank goodness), Arabic influences removed and the alphabet was moved to Latin-based letters. Thus they would not have seen Ottoman Turkish or Persian during their time there unless the creators have taken artistic and orientalistic freedoms...

Excerpt from Wikipedia;

Ottoman Turkish script was replaced by the Latin-based new Turkish alphabet. Its use became compulsory in all public communications in 1929. The change was formalized by the Law on the Adoption and Implementation of the Turkish Alphabet, passed on November 1, 1928, and effective on January 1, 1929.

The “Sumerian” Cuneiform in Wonder Woman

 As folks who’ve seen the 2017 Wonder Woman may have noticed, there’s a scene in the movie where Diana effortlessly translates a set of notes that contain cuneiform.  Fellow Tumblr Assyriologist-in-training @valarhalla even took a shot at translating the notes.  And as my upcoming SBL paper demonstrates, the intersection of ancient Near Eastern languages and modern comics is my personal catnip.

So it’s time for me to confess two things.  First, I’ve spent an embarrassingly long time looking at those notes.  Second, I still can’t tell you what they say, and I can’t afford to spend more time away from studying for my rapidly approaching Northwest Semitic comp.  But I figured that I’d dump the things I do know here, in hopes that some of you lovely geniuses can get any further.

First, here is a relatively high-resolution screenshot of the four pages in the movie.  I couldn’t find one anywhere online, so I had to (totally legally) make it myself.

Second, here is the relevant transcript from the movie’s official novelization:

“Cryptographers had no luck,” the man said ruefully. “It seems like a mixture of two languages. But they have failed to determine which two languages.”

Diana […] turned her attention to Maru’s notes. She scanned them. Oh. Why hadn’t anyone mentioned that before?  “Ottoman and Sumerian,” she announced.

[…] Diana scanned the pages again. The subject matter was more puzzling to her than that actual translation. “It’s a formula… for a new kind of gas…”

[…] “Hydrogen-based, instead of sulfur.” She was sounding out the words, interpreting them.

[…] Diana continued, “The book says they plan to release this gas at… the Front…”

Now, here are the things that I feel pretty confident asserting:

The notes are indeed a mixture of two languages.  Based on my difficulty extracting meaning from the cuneiform alone, I suspect that both are necessary for an accurate translation.

The cuneiform is in the Neo-Assyrian (NA) script.  While this script was never used for writing Sumerian, it is the most standardized and simplified version, and (more importantly) it’s the most widely published version of the time.

The cursive is an alphabet (or abjad) in the Arabic family, but it’s not Arabic itself, as evidenced by letters like چ (ç).

“Ottoman” is not a language, but Ottoman Turkish and Persian were both used in the Ottoman Empire, and both of them had alphabets that contain چ.  As I’m utterly unfamiliar with Turkish and Persian, and only marginally familiar with Arabic cursive, that’s the most I can narrow it down.  Regardless, given that Steve was literally on assignment in Turkey, it’s very surprising that neither he nor the cryptographers recognized the script.

Back to the cuneiform.  Although the cuneiform writing system originated with Sumerian, it was later adapted to several different languages.  I feel fairly confident stating that this is neither Sumerian nor one of the cuneiform alphabets (Ugaritic, Hittite).

Somebody with a rather careful hand wrote the top left page, although they made a few minor mistakes (e.g. the first sign on line 3, which looks like a defective “ú”).  Someone with a much sloppier hand copied that same text onto the fourth page.

On the third page, the thing that looks like an equation is one.  The symbols underneath the square root sign are nu, like the Greek letter, so it makes sqrt(nu + nu^2).  (The other sign there is šu.)  The Arabic letters are all common equation variable values, like y and z.

Delitzsch’s Assyrische Lesestücke was published in 1912 in Germany, and it contained a “Schrifttafel” that listed cuneiform signs (in Neo-Assyrian!) with their syllabic (phonetic) and logographic (symbolic) meanings.  I would posit that Dr. Maru obtained a copy of this book, memorized the cuneiform sign list, and used it as a personal code.

Although I haven’t been able to make meaning from it, one line contains the enticing signs “dingir ma ru.”  “Dingir” is a marker (like “Mr.” or “Rev.”) that indicates that the following name is a divinity.  Was Dr. Maru asserting her own godhood?  Or was she perhaps using dingir as code for “Doctor”?

If anyone has further contributions, I would love to hear them!

[jarofglitter]

Solas before the rebellion 🌟

Inspired by these two outfits posted by @/elfbotanist on twt

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im normal

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Bat shorts with overskirt

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time loop

Guys, let's make a sandwich. I'll start:

Bread

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patron saint of stealing chips

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Made an illustration with my favorite lioness, Calanthe from the Witcher books, for Gwent contest. Absolutely loved her in the books.

Artstation/Commission me

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Hey guyz ,  here a little something I wanted to share with you about color organisation in photoshop and why the common understanding “upper is brighter in value” is wrong.  When tuning to black and white you can see that the normal “color square” is a complete value mess when you go to it’s top . It’s definitely something to consider when you pick color from it. The triangle version is from Magic Picker , but I’m quite sure there is some free photoshop plugin that can do the same .

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Hey, I recently found your tarot card art and love it all. If you don't mind sharing, what kind of brush settings do you use for them? I've been trying to make a few for me and my friends, but I have no idea where to start.

Ah! Thank you! Well, for those cards I’ve used mostly three brushes. I’ll drop them here as a toolset for anyone interested. I didn’t make any of them, and to be honest, I’m not sure where all most of these came from, they’ve just accumulated and are my favourites to use. 

I used the Flat Canvas brush for all the color blocking, and then I go in with the Painter’s Brush to clean up edges (flow at 60%), and then back in with the Rough Ink brush to roughen back up or add the “gold” details. For accents I use the Better Grunge Texture and Bristle Brush. My canvases are in the ballpark of 7x11in. at 300dpi, and the brushes scale up and down well enough at that size. 

The brushes I use are here, there’s literally like 6 or 7, but I only use those three for 98% of the card. (Note, it’s a toolset, so it goes in the tool preset folder and not the brush folder).

I hope that helps!

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Dragon Age Tarot Style Guide: Part Two

The second of my at least three part set of tarot tutorials. This sentence will link to the first one on composition if you haven’t seen it. It’s been a four year gap between these, and I apologize for that. To all you who messaged me and reminded me of this project, thank you. You kept me from forgetting and I’m glad. <3

It won’t be another four years until I post the next segment, which will be pattern and texture focused. It’ll hopefully be in the next month or two. 

This is going to be a long post, so I’m putting it under the cut. Apologies to the mobile users! 

Keep reading