#Because everything’s always Adobe

[absolutely-wretched]

omg this is so important. I just went through hell about Adobe when I signed up for a couple months for school even though I hate Adobe and their Blackrock monopoly bullshit, but I had no choice. So I had to drop out because of chronic stomach problems and I go to cancel my subscription. Oh no, you can’t without spending $100. Which was certainly not advertised. I’m pretty sure there’s now a class-action lawsuit about exactly what happened to me, I’d have to look into it.

I also have been looking for graphic design opportunities, and I’m locked out of all of them because I use Affinity instead of Adobe. Adobe is awful, price gougy, AI ridden, ran by Black Rock, a Million apps that do similar shit, can’t own it, etc. Affinity is a pricey-ish one time payment that’s often on sale for less than $50 per program (there are 3). Then I use Procreate for Illustration (one time $12 iirc)

Please let’s get away from Adobe. If we all collectively do so maybe people can get into art jobs or college without having to use it. (Luckily Affinity can convert Adobe’s file types so you can import it that way, but I’m not sure about exporting which would be needed to lie to work about what program you’re using. Not that it would be feasible anyway). Also please someone on Skillshare make an Affinity course cuz currently there’s little learning tools that aren’t the books, further forcing people back towards Adobe.

Wait new hbomb video??? When???

From his most recent Patreon post:

"...my next main-channel video, tentatively titled Adobe Must Die, should be out before the end of the year, but don't hold me to that."

I'm reeeeeeally looking forward to that one, I hate Adobe so much and I wanna see it burn 😤

[trkstrnd]

happy international rafael silva day

[hello-yue-here]

hi i hate adobe premiere and adobe audition thats all

[lifehacksthatwork]

Just a bunch of Useful websites - Updated for 2023

Removed/checked all links to make sure everything is working (03/03/23). Hope they help!

Sejda - Free online PDF editor.

Supercook - Have ingredients but no idea what to make? Put them in here and it'll give you recipe ideas.

Still Tasty - Trying the above but unsure about whether that sauce in the fridge is still edible? Check here first.

Archive.ph - Paywall bypass. Like 12ft below but appears to work far better and across more sites in my testing. I'd recommend trying this one first as I had more success with it.

12ft – Hate paywalls? Try this site out.

Where Is This - Want to know where a picture was taken, this site can help.

TOS/DR - Terms of service, didn't read. Gives you a summary of terms of service plus gives each site a privacy rating.

OneLook - Reverse dictionary for when you know the description of the word but can't for the life of you remember the actual word.

My Abandonware - Brilliant site for free, legal games. Has games from 1978 up to present day across pc and console. You'll be surprised by some of the games on there, some absolute gems.

Project Gutenberg – Always ends up on these type of lists and for very good reason. All works that are copyright free in one place.

Ninite – New PC? Install all of your programs in one go with no bloat or unnecessary crap.

PatchMyPC - Alternative to ninite with over 300 app options to keep upto date. Free for home users.

Unchecky – Tired of software trying to install additional unwanted programs? This will stop it completely by unchecking the necessary boxes when you install.

Sci-Hub – Research papers galore! Check here before shelling out money. And if it’s not here, try the next link in our list.

LibGen – Lots of free PDFs relate primarily to the sciences.

Zotero – A free and easy to use program to collect, organize, cite and share research.

Car Complaints – Buying a used car? Check out what other owners of the same model have to say about it first.

CamelCamelCamel – Check the historical prices of items on Amazon and set alerts for when prices drop.

Have I Been Pawned – Still the king when it comes to checking if your online accounts have been released in a data breach. Also able to sign up for email alerts if you’ve ever a victim of a breach.

I Have No TV - A collection of documentaries for you to while away the time. Completely free.

Radio Garden – Think Google Earth but wherever you zoom, you get the radio station of that place.

Just The Recipe – Paste in the url and get just the recipe as a result. No life story or adverts.

Tineye – An Amazing reverse image search tool.

My 90s TV – Simulates 90’s TV using YouTube videos. Also has My80sTV, My70sTV, My60sTV and for the younger ones out there, My00sTV. Lose yourself in nostalgia.

Foto Forensics – Free image analysis tools.

Old Games Download – A repository of games from the 90’s and early 2000’s. Get your fix of nostalgia here.

Online OCR – Convert pictures of text into actual text and output it in the format you need.

Remove Background – An amazingly quick and accurate way to remove backgrounds from your pictures.

Twoseven – Allows you to sync videos from providers such as Netflix, Youtube, Disney+ etc and watch them with your friends. Ad free and also has the ability to do real time video and text chat.

Terms of Service, Didn’t Read – Get a quick summary of Terms of service plus a privacy rating.

Coolors – Struggling to get a good combination of colors? This site will generate color palettes for you.

This To That – Need to glue two things together? This’ll help.

Photopea – A free online alternative to Adobe Photoshop. Does everything in your browser.

BitWarden – Free open source password manager.

Just Beam It - Peer to peer file transfer. Drop the file in on one end, click create link and send to whoever. Leave your pc on that page while they download. Because of how it works there are no file limits. It's genuinely amazing. Best file transfer system I have ever used.

Atlas Obscura – Travelling to a new place? Find out the hidden treasures you should go to with Atlas Obscura.

ID Ransomware – Ever get ransomware on your computer? Use this to see if the virus infecting your pc has been cracked yet or not. Potentially saving you money. You can also sign up for email notifications if your particular problem hasn’t been cracked yet.

Way Back Machine – The Internet Archive is a non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites and loads more.

Rome2Rio – Directions from anywhere to anywhere by bus, train, plane, car and ferry.

Splitter – Seperate different audio tracks audio. Allowing you to split out music from the words for example.

myNoise – Gives you beautiful noises to match your mood. Increase your productivity, calm down and need help sleeping? All here for you.

DeepL – Best language translation tool on the web.

Forvo – Alternatively, if you need to hear a local speaking a word, this is the site for you.

For even more useful sites, there is an expanded list that can be found here.

[indestinatus]

The silent art of gif making

The gif above has 32 layers plus 6 that aren't shown because this is part of a larger edit. I wanted to share it to give everyone a glimpse of the art of gif making and how long it usually takes for me to make something like this. This one took me about an hour and a half but only because I couldn't get the shade of blue right.

I use Adobe Photoshop 2021 and my computer doesn't have a large memory space (I don't know what to call it) so usually most of psds get deleted because I'm too lazy to get a hard drive. It doesn't really bother me that much because I like the art so when it's done, it's done. Off to somewhere else it goes.

Here are the layers:

Everything is neat and organized in folders because I like it that way. I prefer to edit it in timeline but others edit each frame. There's a layer not shown (Layer 4 is not visible) and it's the vector art. Here it is:

Now it is visible. I don't plan to make this a tutorial, but if you're interested I'd love to share a few tricks about it. I'm pretty new to the colors in gifmaking but the rest is simple to understand. Here, I just want to show how much work it takes to make it.

I opened Group 2 and here's the base gif. I already sharpened and sized it correctly but that's about it. Let's open the base coloring next.

Yay! Now it looks pretty! The edits are in Portuguese but it doesn't matter. There's a silent art of adding layers depending on how you want the gif to look but you get used to it. The order matters and you can add multiple layers of the same thing (for eg. multiple layers of levels or curves or exposure).

This was pretty much my first experiment with coloring so I don't know what I'm doing (this happens a lot with any art form but gifmaking exceeds in DIYing your way to the finished product) but I didn't want to mess up his hair, that's why the blue color is like that. Blue is easy to work with because there's little on the skin (different from red and yellow but that's color theory). I painted the layers like that and put it on screen, now let's correct how the rest looks.

I was stuck trying to get the right teal shade of blue so yes, those are 10 layers of selective color mostly on cyan blue. We fixed his hair (yay!) we could've probably fixed the blue on his neck too but I was lazy. This is close to what I wanted so let's roll with that.

BUT I wanted his freckles to show, so let's edit a little bit more. Now his hair is more vibrant and his skin has red tones, which accentuates the blues and his eyes (exactly what I wanted!). That lost Layer 2 was me trying to fix some shadows in the background but in the end, it didn't make such a difference.

This was part of an edit, so let's add the graphics and also edit them so they're the right shade of blue and the correct size. A few gradient maps and a dozen font tests later, it appears to be done! Here it is:

Please reblog gifsets on tumblr. We gifmakers really enjoy doing what we do (otherwise we wouldn't be here) but it takes so long, you wouldn't imagine. Tumblr is the main website used for gif making and honestly, we have nowhere to go but share our art here. This was only to show how long it takes but if you're new and want to get into the art of gif making, there are a lot of really cool resource blogs in here. And my ask box is always open! Sending gifmakers all my love.

[syninplays]

So uhm... I did a thing...

✨Character Info Template✨

UPDATE 11.24.24: this template now has a page theme version! if you're not a fan of templates, you can get the code to use it as an interactive multimuse page >here<

Been meaning to do this a long time ago (and actually started it but never finished it, lol) as a way to share some more information about my ocs without needing to use a custom page theme, but mostly because I haven't found any page theme that looks exactly as I want and allows this much customization.

There are two versions and both are almost exactly the same; but the example shown in the left has an 'appearance' section which is small and has few quick facts regarding the oc's appearance; while the example on the right has a 'moodboard' section instead which allows you to add more info about your oc.

You can change every section/title to fit your needs like I did in the examples below; I personally removed some categories as well and got rid of some connections as this oc doesn't have that many close friends/partners to fill the original template. However, I also included an extra separated 'connections' section in the download in case you want to add more people and more information.

I recommend you stick to square-shaped pictures so it's easier to fit them to each section. Also if and when you edit the information or section titles, please select only one line at a time to replace it so you don't lose the text format. (Titles shouldn't change because that's a single format/font within the same text box, but should it change you can always hit ctrl+z hehe) When you're done, I strongly recommend you save this as a .png instead of .jpg so it's the best possible quality!

Last but not least, this is a .psd file. So you'll need either Photoshop (I did this with Photoshop Portable, but it supports newer versions of PS and it *should* support older versions too) or Photopea to open and edit this file.

Credits: Adobe Photoshop, Inter font, Golften Vintage font

>DOWNLOAD< (patreon but free :p)

(note: I'm posting this with my gaming blog because I think my fellow gamers might be interested in this, but please consider giving credits to me if you use this template by tagging @synindoodles instead of this blog)

More info on how to use and edit this template below the cut!

Layers:

>Each layer is properly named and categorized. The general layers such as the background, the icon shape and background shapes are under the groups.

>If you don't want to see/don't need one of the connections' pictures and information, I recommend you find which one it is (1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6) and click on the eye symbol next to the layer to hide it so that way if you ever need it, it won't be truly gone.

>To edit a text section, simply find the layer (such as General Information>Left Column) and double click on the 'T' symbol next to the layer. That way it will open edit mode and allow you to edit the text, just don't hit delete or enter while everything is selected or you'll erase it :p

>Main text sections aren't separated, they're blocks of text. I recommend you don't remove the amount (for example, if you downloaded the version with the 'appearance' section, which has 5 sections of information, don't remove the fifth line.) Either leave it empty or replace it with another data, otherwise it will look weird. The 'general information' section might look good even if you remove a few lines, just don't get rid of the whole block of text.

Pictures:

>To add a new picture, simply paste it over this document and move it using the Move Tool.

>To frame it (so it becomes a circle or fits over the shape you want), make sure the picture layer is over the layer you want, then while holding alt click between the two layers. [For example, if you want to add a new main oc picture: 1) paste the pic you want, 2) move it with the Move Tool so it's covering the big circle, 3) once you've fully covered the shape (if it isn't you can resize it by right clicking on it then on 'free transform', sometimes you might need to hold shift to proportionally resize it) make sure the newly pasted pic layer is over the layer named "picture goes here", 4) hold the alt key and hover your mouse cursor over the line between your pic layer and the circle layer until you see an arrow going down symbol, once you see it click it and tah dah! your picture should now have the same shape as the circle! - you can further move it if it doesn't fit the way you want with the Move Tool (;

Others:

>You can change every color, font and section to your liking, just don't change the general layout of the template.

>To hide/show the guides (those bright blue lines all over the document), click ctrl+,

>'Inter' is a free font and you can get it in the link above (linked with the credits), Golften Vintage is not, but you can get the demo version >here< (just scroll down and click the blue download button under license). I will not tell you how to install fonts as it might be different for everyone (for me it's C:/Windows/Fonts and I just drop the zipped files (except the .txt one) there), but google is your friend.

>I can't think of anything else that needs to be said here, but if you have any other question feel free to send me an ask or dm and I'll help you out!

>Last but not least, a like is appreciated if you plan to use this plus consider tagging @synindoodles if you use it <3

[cosmicfunnies]

Working on new projects

Hey everyone,

Just a quick update to let you know I’m still around. I recently wrapped up my bachelor’s in graphic design and am set to start a master’s in digital marketing next month. In the meantime, I’m working on some new collections and comics for you, even though I’m wrestling with chronic fatigue and depression. Coffee hasn’t done much to lift this fatigue, but I keep drinking it, hoping it might give me a little boost.

I’m also aiming to reopen my store since many of you have asked for it. My goal is to have it up and running before the holiday season.

I’ve been working on some new patterns, and I want to share a bit about the process. I always start by drawing the shapes in black and white on my iPad Pro using Adobe Fresco. This isn't because I’m going for a black-and-white style, but because it's the first step in creating the pattern. Once I’ve got the basic shapes down, I transfer them to my Mac and refine the design in Adobe Illustrator, vectorizing the graphics to get everything just right.

After that, I bring the vectorized pattern into Adobe Photoshop, where I add the watercolor effect that gives the final design its vibrant, colorful look. The results are what you see here—whether it’s a backpack or a tote with a cosmic message, the artwork is full of color and life. The attached images give you a glimpse of how these patterns come to life on the products.

I’m not sure if I’ll be able to add new planners since that takes a lot of energy, but you can expect a calendar, some apparel, accessories, and stickers.

Thanks for hanging in there with me.

[crosshairs-dumb-pimp-gf]

Texting it out down here cause in video would go by to fast. Also the video for the sketch layer didn't save so it picks up at me starting on Cross's face. Not too much missed, I only rough out some shapes and copy/paste them where I want them from frame to frame.

It takes me about 2 hours or so to make one of these. I'm using a mouse rather than a tablet so you'll notice my style is more like carving with lines rather than drawing.

I fill my background and put down a very rough sketch. I keep it rough mostly do to impatience. The line work does turn out better if I do a more detailed sketch but that doesn't matter. None of this matters.

Things I always do that I know to correct in my line work as I go: "That head too big! Always too big! Eyes too! Shrink erything."

I do the line art in a free program called ProMotion. It's for animation but I don't care, I'm looking for clean sharp lines and tools that let me copy/paste and instantly make brushes of pieces that I highlight. Its a pixel based program and I would normally use it to make sprites for my RPG maker games.

IMPORTANT STEP: ZOOM IN AND OUT OVER AND OVER AND OVER TILL YOU DONT CARE IF IT LOOKS RIGHT ANYMORE.

Then we take that line art and shove it into Photopea for coloring. This is another free program that's a clone of Adobe because I like photoshop tools but hate Adobe as a company with a fiery passion.

Yes I just kind of choose whatever color. I could make a reference sheet with saved colors but TRUST ME. I wont use it. I almost never use references, i forget, okay. Mostly drawing from memory.

Each color gets a layer essentially and then I "paint" them with the burn tool. (Midtones 20%) Cross's armor gets highlights on the ridges with the dodge tool. (Also Midtones 20%)

Add Blush to the skin! Thin points like face, shoulders, finger tips. Blur Blur Blur till it looks right.

Also, remember how I said I was looking for clean clean lines with no blur? That's cause I just clean up the "paint" by selecting with the magic wand and deleting it.

I make my backgrounds out of stock textures mostly. Though this usually takes a little bit more collage work this strip is simple so I just used the gritty/tech wall texture. Blur that bitch. (Gaussian Blur under the filter tab, whatever looks right but the default 7 pixels is usually good for the BG)

To add motion I copy the bits I want to seem like they're moving and use the "Motion Blur" filter, then I put that copied color over the background line art.

Add shadows! Under the coloring layers, that handy gaussian blur again.

Add Lighting! I usually have the overlayer set to "Soft Light" and then I use the gradient tool to filter everything to look cohesive. (You might notice I keep their skin tone pretty dark but it might look different when I change the lighting.)

Warp the action words... just...whatever feels appropriate at the time and set that layer to "Color Burn"

I just use the Oval select tool with the feather set between 3-5 pixels to make word bubbles. Paint it in voila. Add Text. All done!

Cross x Tahny: +A Summary+

My philosophy : Style matters more than skill and you should cheat and cut corners as much as possible. Peace and Love.

-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-

Tags:

@feral-ferrule @eobe @ghostymarni

[blueskittlesart]

Do you have any advice on how to format and print books? That’s my biggest obstacle in my work. What do you use to format them? What’s your favourite way to bind a booklet?

well if you're anything like me you're not going to like this but the answer is indesign. adobe is evil but unfortunately their products really do work. indesign is the only program i have EVER used that actually makes formatting easy, and in the newest version you actually don't even need to adjust for print formatting yourself because there's a setting that will auto format your pages into a booklet when you print. it allows you to adjust the page size, create style guides, manage really large files with a lot of links, and is just. generally convenient once you get past the initial learning curve. Honestly, if you're planning on going into any field even publishing-adjacent you should learn how to do at least a few different things in indesign, because it's the industry standard. learn how to lay text, insert images, create style guides, and format whatever it is you specifically are making, and you're golden. there are a lot of settings that can help you with your specific niche--for example, I have my version set to always display my pages in spreads unless otherwise specified because i'm almost always working with spreads in mind. I am NOT an adobe shill i SWEAR and i will admit indesign has a pretty steep learning curve (as do most adobe programs) but it really is worth it because once you understand it it makes everything SOOOO much easier.

[stiwnty]

Theory time :) Victim's kingdom

10 hours before AvA 11 cuz yeah

I've always wondered how someone like victim ended up with Rocket corp. I mean, we still don't know how he escaped death but I am for sure that once he did, his life was anything but normal.

We as humans, get an introduction to society and how it works. We learn as we grow that there's an economy, that there's people around us, that there's education and fabrics and companies.... But victim didn't, we don't know how much time he stayed dead, but probably it was more than enough time to impact in his knowledge and learning once he revived.

Victim was launched into the world without a guidance, without a family, without anything. Hell I could even say he didn't even know there was a thing to get or something else than nothing... He knew NOTHING

This is one of the reasons I like the farmer! victim theory a lot. Because it could explain how victim learnt about the world around him, that means that there would be a guidance for him... But yet, I still can't understand how he ended up with Rocket corp.

----

Limited creations

Animator vs Animation is a series about creation, animations fighting their creators and more. And for that fight to happen there needs to be a tool to connect both the animator's world and the animation's one. It isn't just the cursor but the cursor's capacities, and Agent shows that very well:

He has a tool bar that I relate to the Adobe Animate one. But I've realized that even with all of that he doesn't have a pencil nor a "free-hand" tool. Just straight shapes and lines... It's like the capacity to create but with a limit. A creation with a limit in its existence... Also looks so... machine made

All of the workers at Rocket (Agent too) are all made from these straight lines. And even if there weren't that many in AvA 9, it was showed a lot more in AvA 10. Because almost all of them were built like that.

I like to think this as a fact of how they were created (you'll see what I mean right after), they are creations but their creator had a limit of his capacity. They are alive but they don't have that freedom in their movements in comparison with Second's creations... A limited creation.

----

Victim's creation

I've seen that a lot of people relate Alan's stick figures with creation and destruction. Second being creation, Dark and Chosen destruction. And I kinda think victim is part of the creators because since his begining he has found ways to create and invent new methods of survival. He used the clones, he used a brush as a bow, he drew a lot of weapons and could almost defeat the animator just as the victim he was and is.

Yet, he still created something. And I see the fact that he used the brush very interesting because I thought: If these two tools work similar why can Second animate but victim cant.

The obvious answer is because of the lack of powers. And while that is true. I think that this capacity of creation of victim exists and could also create life but in a very limited way.

In victim's office we get a look at the brush tool and to an odd looking plant, almost as if it was drawn. Almost as if it was created by someone.

I don't know how outernet plants work, but let me tell you that I am more than sure that THAT plant was drawn by victim, maybe thanks to the brush tool. Victim can create, and even if his creation is different and cant bring things up to life (because that plant could just be a lifeless drawing of a plant that doesn't grow) he can bring things into existence just as he did with the brush tool first back in AvA 1.

----

Probably by now you know what I'm about to say. But I'll do it anyway.... Victim created Rocket corp literally.

All from its workers, Agent to the plant and to EVERYTHING. His company literally builds machines and studies Adobe tools related to creation and to the creator (animator).

Maybe victim's creation is weaker than Second's but he has one. And as I said, I see straight lines as a limited creation and it could mean that... These straight lines could not only mean this but I was thinking more of this:

As I said earlier, I see really really unlikely that someone who was launched into the world naked could build an empire all by himself, not only because he doesn't understant the world (because he could have learnt to understand it) but also because of where he cames and who he is. Who would listen to a random Hollowhead? And also, how would victim build such an empire in so little time, because victim died in 2006 and 18 years is just a little of time to do so much

So, without anyone who would listen to him, victim decided to create his listeners and his kingdom all by his own. If victim wanted to create this, he would need to be efficient and its so much easier to build something out of straight lines than free-drawn ones, this if we use machines, machines victim sells at the Corp. He could have used machines to build it all and to draw each one of them. And as he didn't have that kind of power of creation, he used the little one he had GREATLY enough to build it all...

Now, more stickmans:

-----

I MADE UP THIS PROMISE, HELL YEAH I DID ITTTT YESSSSSS.

IVE HAD THIS IS MY MIND FOR SOOO LONG BUT I COULD FIND THE TIME. And this is an old theory, but it was ssoooo bad written before, pleassse do well little post, do wellll

[rookinthecrownest]

Hii, I hope you’re doing great and have had a wonderful start to 2025! You already know I love all your DA fanworks because I’m yapping about them non stop 24/7 but since you’ve been posting more art lately (that latest Lucanis study was SO AMAZING 10000 out of 10 highly recommend staring at it forever), I wanted to ask you if you had any tips you’d be able to share for someone who wants to learn digital art (my delulu 2025 resolution is to try my hand at it lol, we’ll see how that goes): from best apps to use to techniques or anything you think could be useful. For context, I’m familiar with sketching and drawing on paper, but have never done digital art, so my question is less about the mechanics of drawing and more about the medium, if that makes sense. Thanks so much in advance!

Thank you for the ask! <3

AND TYSM FOR THE LOVE ON MY ART IT'S SO APPRECIATED!! ;-; <333

I'm so glad to hear you wanna get into digital art for 2025! I'm happy to share some things that helped me get into it and bits of wisdom I've picked up from others along the way.

Digital art is an awesome medium that gives you a TON of freedom to basically create whatever (so does traditional but obviously with a few more practical constraints like materials etc.) - that being said when you're first transitioning from traditional -> digital it can be a bit finicky. Give yourself a LOT of grace/patience because just getting the hang of the basic mechanics of digital art can be a steep learning curve (at least it was for me).

I'll put everything below the cut bc this will be long and full of rambling.

App Recommendations

Recommendations for apps depends on the kind of digital drawing you're going to be doing. I have an iPad so I can only really recommend apps for iPad lol.

If you have an iPad, I recommend Procreate - I love it, it's what I've been using for the last year or so. It's intuitive and fairly easy to pick up for beginners (and there's a TON of tutorials on Youtube on how to use it/intro to the software).

It's easy to download custom brushes/patterns/textures into the app. Procreate also does this neat thing where it automatically records all of your brush strokes so you can make process videos without having to go 'oh, I should screen record myself drawing this so I can play it back later!' <- nice for someone like me who is very forgetful lol.

I tried the adobe one too (forget what it's called), and I think Autodesk Sketchbook as well a long time ago but I didn't love them. I always go back to Procreate lol.

If you have a computer/PC set up then I assume you'd be working with a tablet. Apps for this kind of drawing would be things like Photoshop/Paint Tool Sai/Clip Studio Paint. I'd recommend watching a few Youtube speedpaints by artists who use these softwares to see how they function and if they would be a good fit for you but I don't have a tablet myself so I can't offer much guidance there.

The Right Tools for the Job

I don't know if you've ever heard this, but I used to hear it all the time. The tools/software shouldn't make a difference, a good artist can work with whatever they have available and make a masterpiece.

And this is true! For expert artists. I've seen some amazing artists pull off masterpieces in MS paint without layers/brush pressure sensitivity/etc.

This is not quite so true for novices (in my humble opinion and heavily coloured by my own experience).

When I first started using procreate and was just using the default brushes I hated absolutely everything I drew. Nothing looked right. I couldn't even make a simple sketch without hating it. It took me a long time to admit that the default brushes in Procreate were just not helping me create what I wanted to create, so I caved and started buying custom brush packs made by other artists. I'm not saying if you use Procreate you'll run into the same difficulty I had, just that if you do find yourself getting frustrated with the default brushes being hard to master at first, don't be like me and feel like an utter failure instead of finding the right tools to help you succeed.

I really like Jing Sketch's brushes, I use them ALL the time.

And now that I'm more experienced, I can use those default brushes and actually prefer them in some instances.

The Right People to Learn From

There's a ton of great artists out there who make digital art/general art tutorials, who I learned a lot from.

On Youtube, check out:

Sinix Design

Marc Brunet

ChrissaBug

On Instagram, check out Derek Domnic DSouza (lots of great content about Procreate in particular, but also just in general very helpful with digital art tips). He also does free workshops sometimes :)

And that's about everything I can think of! Hopefully that answers your question! <3

[annawayne]

Heeeello Anna! :3 I'm back to pester you in the inbox!

You may not have seen this, but this artist ask game... I've got questions for you!

1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 14, 15, 21, 34, 35

(ahahaha... That's a lot.... Ahaha.... Welp ....?)

But! No hurries, and I'm sorry if this eats at your precious time but I'd be happy to hear you talk more about your art! (Can never get enough tbh :3)

Hope you're doing a bit better now, Anna, please take care and you're loved!

Oh, Moon T^T

Hello, and you're right, I didn't even see this artist ask game (maybe, some time ago, so I don't even remember...), and thank you so much for thinking about me and for asking all this stuff T_T I have a lot of fun answering it, and it really distracted me from everything else going on in life since last weeks are quite difficult. But I'll be fine, and thank you for all of these questions, I appreciate you and your attention so much!

1 what medium do you use most (if applicable, what software)?

As I'm drawing now digitally, so I draw in Adobe Photoshop. I'm familiar with this software since my early teens, so it's very comfortable for me :D

When I was drawing traditionally, I primarily worked with pencils. I tried watercolour a few times, too. I have a very soft spot for oil - and I hope to develop this one day, too.

3 your favorite piece(s)?

Oh, what a question... I guess, for now, these ones:

4 piece you wish got more love?

All of them :D

I guess, these ones:

5 how would you describe your art style?

(I really want to joke and just refer to 21 question but well, let's take it seriously :D)

I guess, I can call it "cinematic poetry" - there's a very long way to go to really match the title, but this is what I aim for.

6 favorite thing to draw?

Oh, good question, Moon! As for the sketch stage, I really love to draw clothes, and when it comes to the stage of rendering - faces (primarily, eyes and hair, but I love the whole process and always try to improve my face renders skills...) and backgrounds!

8 thing you struggle to draw?

I think, when it comes to the rendering - HANDS. I think, my sketches of hands are not bad, but when I render them, oh boi, here comes the struggle. As a result, it seems fine, I suppose, but it's always a product of a lot of swearing and redrawing :D

14 whats your favorite thing about drawing?

Telling stories though different dimension. I like to combine in drawing both cinematography and literature, and it sounds a bit funny, because it's two different art directions, but still, I want to tell stories though a lot of things which combine these arts: details, emotions, lighting, and as if when you look at the art - you can hear all the vivid noises around the characters of life going one around and of characters themselves speaking, but then, as if they were caught in a moment, and then, I try to show this moment in my drawings. Or, when it's more of conceptual art, it also can tell a story, but differently - not like a frozen mundane life moment, but rather like a whole story behind it, and instead of these frozen ordinary life moments where the story is also told, here, the story told through not so evident details, starting from the pose to the colour palette itself.

I know I have a long way to go with it, but this is what I'm trying to improve and this is what I always aimed for.

15 least favorite thing about drawing?

Hm, very good question, to be honest. I thought about it for a while, since I can't really grasp if I can name such thing, but I think that it's both good and bad thing - that it's a lifetime commitment, that you should accept that you will study the whole life. From one side, it's wonderful and it's the whole fascinating journey, on the other hand - it can be really frustrating and draining not to be able to transfer your ideas from your head into the actual image, and while a lot of artists realize it, it doesn't make it easier to get disappointed sometimes. So, I would say, it's both good and bad thing, and how we look at it - depends on us :D

21 what do you think your artstyle would taste like?

I won't lie, this question sent me into a great reflection, and then I ended up questioning my art style in general, ha-ha-ha... But alright, hm, I think, croissant with orange jam? Don't ask. Just... Croissant. That's it.

34 whats something you still like from your old art?

Oh... Hm, I think from the beginning, they had great composition. I try to improve it now, of course, but I guess it was from the beginning a very great composition and "camera" shot. So this, this for sure!

35 if you had one piece of advice to give your younger artist self, what would it be?

Come, and do it, you're much stronger and braver than you think you are. It counts for many things, to be honest, and not only art, but yes, I would just hug my past self and tell myself that you're much more than you think you are.

Thank you so much, Moon, for all of it - for these questions, for your thoughts to ask me this in the first place and for your interest and support T_T It's priceless, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

P.s. I learned with this post that the post has a limited amount of images you can add... I didn't know we could add only 10 images... Woah...

[cleolinda]

Weekend links, June 9, 2024

My posts

MY ABELIAS HAVE POWDERY MILDEW.��We have now acquired a fungicide and sprayed down everything in a six-foot radius of Patient Zero, a crape myrtle that had “mysteriously” not grown much foliage back this year. Thrilling, I know.

If you want to know what post-exertion malaise is, it’s me cleaning for an hour and then being laid out for three days. Coincidentally, I had someone else’s post about chronic fatigue and taking constant breaks in my queue. To round it off, here’s an old post of mine about giving yourself and your fatigue the same grace you’d give other people’s.

Side note, I have realized that mobile now cuts off my profile bio to 

She/her. Classy dame, sparkle consultant, vampire

New followers, I have some very disappointing news for you. 

Reblogs of interest

Pride Month: Spotlight on activist/drag queen Marsha P. Johnson

Related: I think the Pride Moth should become the next Tumblr Animal Mascot.

Great Uncles Angelo and Bill, a love story

The Hot Vintage Lady to Rule Them All: Eartha Kitt. 

Hozier Watch 2024: Here’s “Too Sweet” on--I nearly said “The Colbert Report” and I kind of wish it was. 

Dante inventing the circles of hell: It’s the “Thank you king I am commissioning fan art of you” that always sends me.

The flowered houses of Zalipie, Poland

I have had to get a few crowns because I grind my teeth, and I am very excited about the idea of this tooth regeneration therapy, which my dental insurance won’t cover either. 

Come for the five things food banks want most (money), and stay for the tale of the chaos penny drive.

“One of the most dangerous things we tend to do is treat insights as rules”

Translating Sappho is more complex than you might think

The more you know: a breakdown of the differences between “Rromani,” “Romany,” “Ro[u]manian,” and ethnic slurs in Dracula

Vampire Therapist, available to wishlist on Steam

1000 Books You May Have Actually Read: The implied “you” here is “U.S. readers,” I think. I hit 200 (”better than 86% of users on this list”) because I have read a lot of Shakespeare, “I’m Bella Swan and my hobbies are English class” books, and Stephen King. If you have read YA of the last 20 years, James Patterson, or Colleen Hoover, you will blow past me. 

Video

“The Golden Sandwich, made 95% out of aid package contents, 5% with love and resilience 🍉🚨” 

Hey, so, Adobe is forcing you to agree to let them go through all your shit. Adobe responds, and I don’t believe them. 

Philadelphia Flyers mascot Gritty raising the Progress Pride flag

A guy playing piano and the cat who loves him

“cut to me, playing my horror instrument at 4 am” Okay, but now imagine a hellhound nestled up lovingly against the player of this instrument. 

A roan, a rider, a pride flag, and no tack

The sacred texts

The duality of bun

“Poob has it for you” is probably too new to be a sacred text, but I’m investing

“why are you microwaving carbonated drinks” is not the shocking part

Personal tags of the week

Dune, for some reason, bunnying, and tumblr therapy, a tag that will just body you over and over. 

[elminx]

Things that I have learned this weekend:

Almost nobody talking about AI right now understands how AI works or how to read a Terms of Service agreement.

Ai is absolutely terrifying and I suggest you don't use it since it is almost all propogated by stealing from other people. That part is true.

But every system that uses AI or offers AI is not stealing your data and feeding it to their AI. A lot of companies that are currently offering an AI option aren't creating their own AI, they are licensing from an existing AI made by a third party.

If their user agreement says that they don't share your data with third parties, they aren't using it to feed an AI because the AI they are associated with is a third party. (unless you want to believe their Terms of Services is not true...and let's be real here, that gets into conspiracy theory territory really damn quick)

If you don't want your work fed into an AI, there are a couple of things that you can do RIGHT NOW to stop that.

Set every single thing shared on a Meta platform (Insta, Facebook, Threads) to private. Their Terms of Service says they will feed PUBLIC content to their AI.

Stop using Cloud Storage and store everything on your own hard drive. Some cloud storage seems to be safer than others - Docs does scan your writing to improve its suggestions to you, for example. But Adobe says it scans ALL items on its cloud. They say it's to check for illegal content. What you do with that information is up to you.

Change your Tumblr settings so that Tumblr can't share with third parties - Tumblr is selling your data, but there's an opt-out button. This is by far the best I've seen out of any of the "major" media options online right now. Tumblr already protects our work from being crawled by AI which is far more than other platforms are doing.

Read the Terms of Service on any sites you use. Yeah, this sucks. But that's where you are going to find out the truth of things. There's a reasonable chance that I could be wrong about something, or that information may have changed since I wrote this. You are responsible for your own data and making your own decisions. If you don't understand the legalese, find a reputable (that part is important) source that explains it well. TikTok is not a reputable source.

Remember that anything you put out on the internet can be stolen or copied - this has always been the case. If you really want to keep it for yourself, you need to keep it off of the internet.

[sunflowerquill]

Some (Free) Writing Resources I Use

I've noticed that half the writing resources I see recommended are usually pretty limited without paying, so allow me to list off some of the completely free ones I've used throughout the years:

Azgaar's Fantasy Map Generator

Literally amazing for creating maps, it's so detailed and has a wide variety of options. I made the map for my book using it by modifying one of its randomly-generated templates. You definitely don't have to be an artist to use it but I did personally add little details to mine via hand later. Nevertheless, highly recommend.

Scribus

If you're formatting your own book, Scribus is basically the free version of Adobe InDesign. It has a bit more of a learning curve and doesn't have all of InDesign's capabilities, but it's just perfect for book formatting. I formatted three whole books on it by myself and they came out great. You've just gotta have a bit of patience until you get used to it.

Fantasy Name Generators

Ok yeah, this seems obvious since it's a very well-known website. I often use it as inspiration without directly taking names from it (since the names I put into my books almost always bear some sort of meaning), but then I looked at the sheer number of categories and HOLY MOLY. It may be called Fantasy Name Generators but you'll find names for everything there.

PureWriter

Well, this is awkward, because this writing program actually has a premium version so it's not completely free... Should I feel like a hypocrite? Maybe, but I think the free version is more than enough for most writers. It's on mobile and PC; mind you, I've only ever used the mobile version, but I'm really satisfied with it. Even without Premium there are no ads, the formatting options are a delight, and it's just really handy for writing on the go (because Google Docs and Word are atrocious for writing on mobile, fight me on this). Anyway, very neat program.

WordHippo

By far my favourite online dictionary (aside from the more 'professional' ones like Cambridge) because it provides you with quite a lot of options: from synonyms and antonyms to words that rhyme with the word you've put in! As someone whose books include some lore-important poetry here and there, it's been a real lifesaver whenever I find myself stuck.

HeightComparison

So... this may seem weird. It's a really small detail, but since I am also an artist who depicts her characters, I think that knowing your characters' heights (especially in comparison to one another) can really help with writing all kinds of interractions. Like the classic "someone stands on their tiptoes for a kiss" or "this person has to duck when passing through a doorway". I used it to measure my characters' sizes compared to a building and then used that information to determine the size of another being that appears in the books. Pretty fun stuff.

Anyway, that's all. Speaking of free resources, I recently discovered Carrd and it's pretty neat for making a simple site to display your books. Check it out! :)

Toodles <3

[docholligay]

I don’t usually know exactly where I’m going. 

Wherever I’m staying, I look at a map before I run, and point myself in a direction. I have a good sense of direction anyhow, and in this daty and age it would take a significant amount of work on my part to get truly lost. It’s easy to remember where you came from when you run, too, noticing everything around you, shop signs and streetlights and the place you have to nearly jump over the buckle in the sidewalk. There’s no option to be buried in some post about various fandom crimes when you’re clipping down the street at 6 miles an hour, so I’m not. 

In the early morning hour, only rarely have I encountered anything that might be called a crowd. Even in the London financial district, most of my companions were pigeons and flower sellers setting up shop. Today, there’s no one, not even the odd dog walker, which does strike me, but, then again, I’m zooming through the historic Old Town of San Diego, and I’m not actually certain anyone lives here. 

But people did, even before it became the first place Europeans dropped anchor as stayed awhile in California. It’s not even a place for the American West--the history of this place is older still by at least fifty years. You can see the Spanish in every corner of this place, and I think of being a toddler, and of watching Zorro, that old black and white show in reruns on my screen. I can see Don Diego de la Vega standing in a tiny patio in front of an adobe house, even as my lap marker beeps in my ear. 

The secret to being utterly alonel, I have often found, is doing things other people don’t want to do. Old San Diego is opened up only for me, parrots screeching overhead, the cemetery the only bodies around. I’ve seen this in Boston, in London, in places all over the world, looping quickly through historic markers and old byways. I always love the feel of it, the way history seems frozen for me, here, because I’m running fast enough to catch it. I stalk it in the early morning hours the way someone might stalk a deer. 

I don’t have a good conclusion for this, because there isn’t one. I didn’t learn a lesson, i didn’t have a thought. I just have the sound of my feet on the pavement, and the drip of sweat on my back, and the peace of a moment without people in a crowded world.