#Eights

[popculturetarot]

The reversal of the Eight of Pentacles is a collection of failed ventures, usually because you create your own problems, usually your own ego and applying your energy in fruitless pursuits. It is a warning that you can be your own worst enemy.

[fablegate]

Oh wow I just remembered Eights, hope the goober is doing well!

The goober is doing very well! Him and CW have been chilling in the back of my brain, sipping martinis and relaxing

[chimeowrical]

Long time no see 😊 How are you and Tau squad?

Hello!!! I am good and Tau Squad is wonderful as always!!!

[mysticsparklewings]

Obscutober 2024 Day 14: Octonary 8️⃣

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Octonary (adj.)

relating to or based on the number eight; consisting of eight; in sets of eight

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Yet more evidence I did not arrange the prompt list as carefully as I could have. 😅

BIG missed opportunity to make this the word for Day 8, or at the very least Day 16 (because multiples of 8, etc.) 

Oh well! 🤷‍♀️

Click the "Keep Reading" and we'll talk a little more about my thoughts/process for the art...and some frustration caused by the posting mishap I got started with today. 🙃

⭐️ Like My Art and Want to see more of it? Here's All My Links! ⭐️

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You were going to get a nice, properly typed description for this piece today, but then Google Chrome decided it hates me and crashed with no warning whatsoever and DeviantArt's new Studio Submission Portal has the exact same STUPID fatal flaw that kept me using the Sta.sh Editor to get art submissions ready for years instead of the standard submission portal—It either can't or won't reliably auto-save as you type. 🤬🤬🤬🤬 [Context: I start typing out these long descriptions on dA first since that's been my primary posting place for years and I'm used to their font, formatting, and emoticons; And only semi-recently I started copy & pasting them over here on Tumblr, which is why this rant is still relevant here.]

Just when I had about warmed up to the "Studio," here I am FURIOUS all over again that DeviantArt, in all their infinite wisdom and updates no one asked for, STILL cannot be bothered to program freaking auto-save into the submission portal AND they took away the ability edit text in Sta.sh so you don't even have an on-site alternative option that will auto-save anymore.

I'm so mad. I'm SO mad. At the core I'm not even that mad specifically about the content I lost today, but the everything else it represents and is conceptually tied into. And I so don't have time to really get into that right now because I have to re-do something for this description other than just being angry because I have other things to do today and this has already set my schedule back badly enough as it is.

Allow me one more moment to scream in frustration:

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARARARARRARARAAAAAGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Alright. Now then.

You get a very basic bullet point list actually about the art because that's all I think I can manage through my ire at the moment:

This prompt, much like Day 11 serves as more evidence that I didn't curate the list as carefully as I could have. There was very much a missed opportunity to make this the word for Day 8, or maybe at least 16 or 24 since those are multiples of 8.

I opted to keep things simple for the mandala. Not as simple as just using the "8" shape over an over because I thought that would be too limiting and boring. I Googled "Octonary" to see if anything visually helpful would come up and found this webpage talking about "Octonary" paths that the Knight piece might take in a Chess game.

After starting with a big Octagon as a base, I took inspiration from the diagrams on that webpage to fill the space. I started with a big 4-point division from one of the diagrams that resembles the iron cross, but ended up modifying the lines into more of an 8-point star shape because the 4-point divison wasn't working for me with all the other 8-based motifs.

And I did still use a fair bit of those 8-based shapes to try and bring in some more softness since the Chess-inspired bits were all very straight and angular.

In general I tried to work in 8's where possible, but there were some things that slipped through that I'm purposefully not going to call specific attention to beyond this sentence acknowledging they exist.

More interesting that the mandala itself is probably the color scheme. How do you make a color scheme based on the number 8? 🤔 Traditionally, that would've been more difficult to answer. But digitally, I was able to take advantage of hex codes. I specifically looked up colors that only use the number 8 and/or 0 and started with those, and then at the very end added in two light grays that also add B and E because I needed some additional lightness I just wasn't getting with the 8's and 0's alone.

More specifically, if you're curious, my exact color palette was:

#888888 - Base medium grey for the whole thing

#000888 - dark blue

#800008 - darkish red

#080808 - near-black

#888000 - dull "gold"

#B8B8B8 - lighter grey

#E8E8E8 - lightest grey

I did toy with #088888 (teal-ish) and #800080 (dark fuchsia-y), but after reviewing my options for what I might use as a song pairing on Instagram (remember I mentioned that being a unique challenge with these on Day 12), they felt a little too at odds with the color scheme made by the others.

I do think the dark blue made this color scheme come out a little more similar to previous days that I really wanted, but by the time I realized that I could not be bothered going back to change it, so it is what it is.

If the coloring looks a little funny otherwise, I tried to add the colors still using just figure-8 shapes and then blending/blurring the splotches out to get better coverage. Probably kind of pointless and uncessary considering how the final product looks, but I couldn't help myself.

I don't think this is the strongest piece of the month by a long shot, but as I've said before they can't all be super complex or amazing. [And for the record, I thought that before the lost-description mishap.] In any case, I like my solution to the color scheme "problem" and there are still some good ideas/motifs within the mandala, even if the whole package maybe didn't come together as nicely as it could have.

...I think that's everything I wanted to mention. It's hard to tell after being so thoroughly derailed from my original thought-flow. 😠

But that's at least all I can think of at the moment, so I should probably leave this here and get on with cross-posting. Cross-posting is normally my least favorite part of the process and starting off with such a bag experience trying to get this far does not feel like a good omen for how that's going to go.

Wish me luck and happier thoughts, Sparklers—I'm going to need a lot of both. 😤

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See the Prompt List

Artwork © me, MysticSparklewings

Obscutober Concept Inspired by nikolas_tower

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⭐️ Like My Art and Want to see more of it? Here's All My Links! ⭐️

[inkeyjay]

🔥🌼🌸Good luck babe 🌸🌼🔥

[bacchuschucklefuck]

couldnt draw my thang for mid-autumn so treated myself to a calne redesign instead

[inthewindtunnel]

Shady Cove

Eights

Part II

-album-

[asthevermincrawls]

I think this person on reddit summed up the youtube adblocker situation perfectly. my reaction to this is not "oh man guess I'll watch ads." its, "well, I guess I'll just do something more productive with my time." I highly doubt any adblock user is going to willingly go back to watching ads. so what actually happens is youtube loses a functionally tiny amount of its userbase--because adblockers weren't even losing them a significant amount of money in the first place(!)--and a bunch of adblock users move on to something else. what a fantastic waste of time and effort

[ourladyofomega]

[cgclarkphoto]

Dead man's hand -  cg photography

[classicalliberalleague]

‪Pity comes to late for the reversal of the Eight of Wands is jealousy, conflict, and stagnation being to bitter to move out of the basement of your life. ‬

[popculturetarot]

The Eight of Pentacles is about taking time and effort to learn or acquire a specific skill to become the best at what you do. ‬

[rosielindy]

Today years old for me. My favorite number since I was a kid. Turned on its side, it’s infinity. ♾️

[chimeowrical]

How r the boys 🥺

Oh they’re so good, as usual

[alternativeulster]

dont let anyone ever tell you the doctor who tv movie (1996) sucks. this is literally the best scene in all 60 years of doctor who