#<- for categorical purposes

[sanctus-ingenium]

the sphinx

[thatadhdfeel]

i know people like to dunk on it but personally i do i find that the whole “take a deep breath” thing can actually be very useful.

reconnecting with your body when you’re overwhelmed is very important (especially if you’re someone who has PTSD — from experience, it helps bring me back to the present.)

take deep breaths for one minute. tap on your leg for a bit and concentrate on the sensation. if you’re physically able to, get up and stretch. this isn’t me saying it’ll work wonders for everyone — but it has a lot of potential to be helpful, if it’s something you have the capacity to do

[kingofthewilderwest]

We need to start questioning the conflation of "maturity" with "increased stakes."

It's not to say higher stakes is always a bad choice. The first half of the How to Train Your Dragon book series has an endearingly whimsical, child-like feel. Hiccup's issues in the first half of book one are an obnoxious, cat-sized Toothless pooping in his helmet. The movie adaptation might have made the book and its counterpart distant cousins, but it was a thoughtful move to alter concepts to the appropriately theatrical: books and movies aren't the same medium. Hiccup riding alone on Toothless, exchanging fire blasts with a mountain-sized dragon, and losing his leg came off as well-done storytelling.

Hiccup staring at a prosthetic never happened in the book. He didn't lose his leg in his encounter with the Green Death. It was, as the creative powers behind the movie said, a result of the increased stakes. They didn't do this just to be more dramatic; they did it because it seemed that, based on how their narrative was going, this made sense. And this was a soft, quiet, shocking, breath-taking scene that instilled how good the movie handled its stakes. It gave us a reflective reaction to consequences that audiences might not have expected. This movie understood timing, pauses, quietness, narrative arc, poignance, reflection, emotion, love, and heart.

We know about the conflation of live action as "more mature" than animation. But a medium doesn't change maturity levels. We all know that's bogus, and many analyses have been given on that. Disney live actions add extraneous gunk, down to Gaston having a past relationship with war (so I've heard, from the people who actually watched the movie), and Disney giving us the sad scoop on why Belle's mom isn't around. Furthermore, lots of times, when I see the conversion of animation to live action, I notice creators feel a need to "raise the stakes" -- in line with the erroneous view of "giving maturity."

But "higher stakes" often means inserting action in place of mindful interaction. I feel today's Hollywood movies, in their treatment of "action," don't let movies pause and breathe anymore - ergo, they don't let us think. Isn't it more juvenile to actively avoid thought in favor of "hey look I made the building go boom"? There may be less "stakes" in introspection and mindful dialogue, but that's what gives it its maturity. That's how we went from Iron Man 1, with its grounded treatment of war and abuse, to the mindless high spectacle MCU is today.

Snappy one-liners or moments that clap at contemporary issues don't substitute for maturity. What can make a story mature is characters grappling with issues in a natural narrative through-line. A snappy one-liner is its own form of speedy spectacle.

We know about the conflation of "gore and sex" with "mature audiences." I believe they're right that graphic sex and gore is designed for adults. But that doesn't make it mature, and that doesn't make it the only way to target a medium for adults.

"Realisticness" isn't maturity. Per above regarding animation: realistic visuals are nothing. And if you think that putting more Debbie Downer material into your adaptation makes it more adult, you have to ask yourself why the themes that spoke to people's souls got muddled in its midst. We weren't mature enough to interact with the most subtle, nuanced, and impacting voice of the story. But hey! Look! There's more corpses, I guess!

It's not the visuals, it's not the events. It's not the "things." It's not the basic insertion of the external. Get past the superficial, get past the top layer of presentation. It's the mind. It's the ability to think. It's the ability to be still. It's the ability to be interested and attentive when something is slow or quotidian, because we can understand why that is important for narrative growth or arcs or themes or commentary on the human condition. It's the ability to know when and when not to include something. It's the ability to make resonant impact. It's the ability to be deep with your emotions or your themes. It's the ability to take what you have and grow it in a way by which we can derive something deeper.

Maturity is critical thought and well-conducted, appropriate responses to content of any kind.

As DeBlois tells Empire, the move to live-action brings a different emphasis to How To Train Your Dragon; a new heft, both physically and emotionally. “It’s so dialed-up in terms of stakes — having a fully credible, photo-real dragon stomping around trying to kill him,” the director says.

And maybe that DeBlois quote is taken out of context. Maybe there's more going on than that one sentence conveys. Maybe Empire is making their own erroneous assumptions. But "so dialed-up in terms of stakes," isn't, on its own, a good appeal. The animated movie already dialed things up - and knew when to include or not include something. A live-action that imitates the visuals of the animated movie exactly, as if no independent thought has been done to its unique adaptation, to the pros and cons of the medium, to what a independently-presented story needs and doesn't need... It has to make you wonder: how many conflations of "maturity" are going on?

How long are we going to keep making our own conflations?

[definitely-mothman]

Small Gravity Falls AU(?) Stuff

I like Reverse Falls as a concept but think it’d be more fun to do a role swap without a personality swap- so I’m throwing up some doodles/references for that. Probably going to just refer to it as Antigravity Falls for now since idk if that’s taken already.

Notes on the AU:

Stanford and Stanley switch the conman/cryptozoology theme, with Stanford running the Mystery Shack (A magician roadshow of sorts) and Stanley running the Gravity Falls Visitor Center + Cryptozoological Center

Bill acts as kind of a stagehand to Dipper and Mabel’s magic act.

Pacifica was forced to get a summer job, and picked the one that seemed the easiest, not guessing Stan would actually be dragging her out into ‘field work’ every other day.

Gideon was a child actor when he was a bit younger, but isn’t anymore. Took up the offer to avoid helping his dad with the Car Lot, and figured this would be interesting at least.

One of Stan’s eyes got clawed out by a gnome.

Robbie is a wannabe ghost-hunter-YouTuber, hence working for Stan of all people.

Gideon and Pacifica are still wealthy as far as this AU is concerned, but not as much as in the original storyline. It just doesn’t come up much since they’re boarding out in the woods with Stan.

Fiddleford is the one who’s stuck in the Nightmare Realm for 30 years.

If there’s anything else you want me to expand on with this Au, feel free to just ask! It’ll let me ramble more and even brainstorm if it’s not something I’ve thought of.

[sporesgalaxy]

OPTION TO SEE REBLOGS (with content additions in the body) IN SITEWIDE TAG SEARCHES NOW. TWISTED. FRIGHTENING

AND THE DEFAULT STATE IS ALLOWING REBLOGS IN THE TAG......I DONT WANNA SEE THAT THATS SOMEONES PERSONAL BUSINESS

[d8tl55c]

oh boy !! ! ! ! !!! ! thANK y0u all for the kind words on my last art posts. you all get it and i was/still am so happy about it

as promised, here's some close-ups of the comic for image quality's sake, and other screenshots i rescued from the community whiteboard (and something else)

first up another sketch of mystery gender-ambiguous being. (please send me more name ideas for them if you got one- i like to hear em! (reminder it's the side character that appeared for <10 seconds in AvM Ep. 30))

a few fav scenes

emotional support cwab

they weren't meant for this purpose exactly, but i do have countless "fluffy sticks" loose in my notes and homework sheets from the school years.

papery critter.

even when i wasn't confident in fur or feathers, they helped me practice posing and create some satisfying gradients/flowing poses. (im a sucker for good tail poses) (oh yay! i found a good pic...)

and finally, little sneak peak for you for reading so far ;3

i realized that whiteboardfox is pretty great for my working needs. simple and to the point and all. feels nice with the mouse and the tablet.

so i started hashing out a big project idea just to see if it holds up and

[

several hours later ...

]

oh

oh man

it's a little bigger than i expected

<next>

[unbranded-chaos]

HLEP ME TODAY AT SCHOOL I WAS PLAYING KAHOOT IJ HISTORY AND I PUT MY NAME AS BILLFORD AS A JOKE AND THE KID SITTING NEXT TO ME GOes “i understand the reference but i won’t say it out loud” SSKSJSJSJSJSJSJSKWJWIWJEO AHHHHHHHHGGGGG

[mewvore]

Hella thick thighs?

I'm out of drawings, heres an irl

[karkart]

happy pride month @brogatory (please note cws and 17+)(older ones under cut bc i realized i never posted them LMAO

[orykorioart]

Here's an incredibly self-indulgent piece of my fave dragon boys (and Leon) in áo dài since its Lunar New Year and Year of the Dragon 🐉!!

[buryam-soul]

Predictably, I am immediately fond of the cat duo

Bonus:

[azure-clockwork]

How Does it Feel to Read Classic Sci-Fi?

Orson Scott Card: Two of the most interesting books you’ll ever read if you’re willing to look past a handful of things. And then you find the planet of Chinese people who worship having debilitating OCD. And the Mormonism. And the fact that the author is wildly homophobic and ought to read his own books.

Robert Heinlein (or at least the Wikipedia Summaries): I guess that’s a neat concept—oh, it’s a sex thing. Um. Gotcha.

Ray Bradbury: Man, I gotta read this thing for class huh. Well here’s hoping it’s good! *three hours later* oh. that’s why he’s famous. this will stick with me forever and I will never look at the phrase ‘soft rain’ the same again. christ. And then repeat 3x.

Isaac Asimov: Wow, this is such an interesting concept! I wonder how the exploration of it will influence the plot! Wait, hey, are you going to add any characters? Any of em? No like, with character traits other than ‘robot psychologist’ and ‘autistic’ and ‘woman’? None of em? No, ‘detective�� isn’t a character trait. Those are all just facts. Aaaand now I’m bored.

Ursula K. Le Guin: Hah, get a load of this guy! He’s never heard of nonbinary people before. Lol, what a riot; how dumb do you have to be to comprehend that these people aren’t men *or* women actually? Oh, wait, what’s happening. Oh shit, it was about society and love and learning to understand each other? And now I’m crying? And perhaps a better human being for it??

Andy Weir: Alright, this guy’s a really good writer. Funny, creative, knows so much engineering stuff…ooh, a new book! …I guess he can’t write women. Well, he wouldn’t be the first sci-fi writer…ooh another new book! And it’s more engineering problem solving and—wow. It’s not just women he can’t write. Please stop letting your characters talk to each other.

Lois Lowry: Oh, I remember this being fun when I was a kid! Wouldn’t it be fucked up to not see color? …upon reread, it would be fucked up to have your humanity stripped away, replaced with a tepid, beige ‘happiness’ for all time. Yeah.

Tamsyn Muir (let me have this ok): Haha, “lesbian necromancers in space” sounds fun. Lemme read this. Oh wow, yeah, this is right up my alley. OH GOD WHAT. NO. FUCK. OH SHIT WHAT IS EVEN HAPPENING AND WHY IS IT REFERENCING THE BOOK OF RUTH AND HOMESTUCK BACK TO BACK!!! AHHHHHHHHH!! Now give me more please.

[plushieanimals]

aurora palm pals 🫧 flapjack stingray

[craftingcreatures]

I feel like if God didn't want us messing with His creation He wouldn't have made the code open-source

[radioactive-earthshine]

Legion of Super-Heroes (1989) #86

The Legion, the speedster that (should) have been a part of the Legion, and Superboy who spent more time with said Legion than Bart did.

I just think about them so much.

[koipepo]

Woodkid: 2022 (first design) vs 2024 (current design)

looking at the comparison i can see that i erased way too much of the wooden, bark textures from the old design.

it was always a struggle to draw him consistently since the textures are quite complicated and he doesn't have any real facial features for me to anchor when i draw him in different angles so.. i gave him a nose. a herbivore looking nose but still a nose.

but the more i draw the newer design, the weirder it feels. it doesn't sit right with me. the new design doesn't solve my problem, in fact it creates entirely new one because i swung too far to the opposite side: he now looks way too simple and too cartoonish! the textures are wiped clean and his mouth-less, lower face looks way too jarring bc of this oversimplification. his features looks like sticker being painted on top of smooth wooden mask, and that's not the kind of design i want.

so, the journey of re-designing Woodkid continues... 😂

hopefully i can marry the old and new designs and arrive at something satisfactory and easy to draw frequently