#I hope this was helpful

[housederiva]

With the shadow dragons background, do you think there will be a difference between races? Since qunari and elves are looked down upon, will the “adoption” still be the same?

I'm putting you two together, I hope that's okay xx

I'd like there to be a letter/codex entry or a nonconsequential dialogue option for Rook or from someone in Minrathous referencing the Mercars and their reaction to whatever race Rook is but I doubt we'll see any of them. BioWare is leaning on Faction Dynamics for Veilguard, and unless Rook's family are Shadow Dragons too or at least enabling/helping Rook, I don't think they'll matter (would love to be wrong though) Maybe there'll be a small quest where a Mercar is mentioned/seen in something military related?

I have a personal hc that my Rook's elven mother was a slave who left her child in the Mercar's care so they could be free but, again, I want to get my hands on the game and any other info we can squeeze out before I settle on anything

[noodlehaku]

I love your mdzs avatar the last airbender au so so sooooo much!!! Do you have any thoughts on what kind of benders/nations the other mdzs characters might be? (Also your art is so wonderful in general I've loved everything you've posted for this fandom, thank you for sharing your art with us!)

I’m glad you like it!! ATLA and MDZS are some of my pieces of media, so I love being able to weave their worlds together. I struggled between whether to make Wei Wuxian an airbender or a firebender, and that really played into my world building for this AU. While I think the dynamic, kick & flip-heavy fire bending martial style (alongside their dress code) really fits Wei Wuxian, I decided to make wwx an airbender due to his carefree and fun-loving personality, and Baoshan Sanren being an airbender.

Backstory-wise, Baoshan Sanren is the leader of a small collective of remaining air nomads living secluded on a mountain. Air bender Cangse Sanren left to roam the world, and she eventually met Wei Changze, a water bender from the Jiang swamp tribe.

The Nie live in hostile mountainous regions and are earthbenders renowned for their extraordinary strength.

The Jin make up another part of the earth kingdom, and are specialty metal benders. They’re very affluent due to their weapons and jewelry trade. I like to headcanon the Mo clan being sand benders— for no actual reason. I just think sand bending is neat. If Wei Wuxian were to be reborn as Mo Xuanyu in this AU, that’d make him one of them.

The Lan are the equivalent of the northern water tribe; they live far north & are surrounded by snow and ice. Lan Xichen and Lan Wangji are the first and second princes, respectively.

The Wen are the fire nation— as much as I didn’t want to fall into stereotypes, it just works too well. They literally live on a volcano & attack the other kingdoms in order to “share their wealth of knowledge”. They have the Jin crafting their metal tanks because Jin Guangshan is a power-hungry POS.

Additional points:

I like to think of Meng Yao as a really crafty non-bender; constantly underestimated because of his perceived weakness. He uses that against them.

Nie Huaisang is an earthbender. He just pretends he isn’t. All non-benders in the Nie clan are still extraordinary warriors— like the kyoshi warriors!

The Meishan Yu tribe are firebenders; lightning benders, to be exact. Madam Yu is a lightning bender. I’m as of yet undecided on whether Jiang Cheng's bending takes after his mother or father.

Jiang Yanli is a healer!! A really good one!!

Wen Ning is a non-bender, but a very good archer. Wen Qing uses lightning bending to defibrillate people.

Lan Qiren IS master pakku.

Wei Wuxian can see spirits!! He is a very spiritual boy!! Instead of inventing demonic cultivation, he invents spirit-bending and learns energy-bending from the lion turtles.

Blood bending is forbidden in the Lan Sect. Lan Wangji's mother was secluded for practicing blood bending.

[mooseonahunt]

I keep seeing mouthwashing stuff from like. everywhere. what is mouthwashing about w/o too many spoilers if you can please ples pleas because maybe im gonna get into it or something idk

King. I just finished watching a playthrough so I’m like. Super stoked about it rn.

It’s about the team of a freighter spaceship in the aftermath of their ship crashing. The game skips around a lot tho so you have to piece the timeline together yourself, and you don’t always play as the same character. Very much you gotta piece together the narrative yourself, but I absolutely LOVED this about the game. And it’s psychological horror which is RIGHT UP MY ALLEY. SA is a big part of the story though so be warned that although it isn’t outright said, you are supposed to understand one of the characters has been raped.

[writing-for-whoever-listens]

do you have advice for a younger writer who is really just trying to find my community? ALSO ILYSM!!!!!!

hello!! i personally feel advice isn't my strong suit, but i will do my best <3.

as someone who started writing at eleven and only started sharing it in the past few years, i completely understand feeling out of place and unseen by people you look up to and/or admire. what worked for me was making my space in the writing world, writing things i enjoyed and sharing them. for example, i write a lot of fanfiction, and i have made a few life long friends because i shared it with the world.

engagement won't be incredible at first, but if you write something you love and are proud of, at least one person will find it and fall in love with it. that's what happened for me, and some of my writing friends have had similar experiences.

you have to start small! don't be discouraged by low views or little likes. it's hard to get started, but once you do, you'll be so proud of yourself!

i would also recommend engaging in other peoples' writing as well. leaving a comment, striking up a conversation, even just reblogging something you find great is a fantastic way to feel more included in a community.

i'm not sure if this is the kind of advice you were looking for, but i do hope it was worth the read! it can be scary entering a new space and trying to see where you fit, but if you carve out that space you want, others will come join you. that's what happened for me, and i hope it works for you <3.

[yasmeensh]

Amazing sketching pieces! I am in love with them. 😍✨🐻

If you don't mind me asking, are you a self learnt artist. I just want to begin Learning sketching. Can you tell me how can I take baby steps to start doing it?

Thank you so much!

Yes, I'm self-taught!

Sketching, for me, is getting the essence of a shape down, sometimes even with all the shadows and lights. No great attention to detail. If it's a living creature, start by learning the anatomy. If a plant, understand the parts of the plant, or if it's a landscape, learn about perspective, etc.

So how you do start? You don't need to start hardcore studying anatomy. Simply start by looking a the subject (pictures of it). Choose one to copy by hand. From there, as you face difficulties in drawing it, you will start to identify what you need to work on. In short,

you'll know what you need to learn by actually starting to draw!

That's the first step. Everything else comes naturally afterwards. You'll keep drawing and learning and drawing and learning all at once.

They will look a bit like trash at first but you'll get better.

Take this bear drawing for example. This was when I started Octobear last year:

By the end of the month, I drew a bear cub again, but you can see there is improvement. Because I continued drawing and observing. I didn't even learn any proper bear anatomy in that month. Just by continuously drawing and spotting mistakes, I began to know my shapes better.

I have since started learning bear anatomy, and I think I have improved even more this year!

[number-one-shadisper-shipper]

excuse me, sorry for popping here uninvited but, what was the point of that meme?

because, like, i can count on fingers the number of people in this website who actively criticize the idw sonic comics, so it's not like liking them here is a controversial opinion,

then i can only imagine it's all a big deal on twitter, as far as i heard every discussion is a big deal in there

Hey, no problem, all are welcome!

I would agree with you that most people are pretty good about the comics, which I am grateful for. But that being said, even on here I have seen a TON of complaints about them.

Idk why, but the recent Spring Broken one got a lot of people ripping on it, when I think the worst you can say is that it was a little meh (I liked it but I can see that some people would find it boring). And overall, I've seen lots of complaints about the characterization and about Ian Flynn as a writer. I'm perfectly fine with having a few criticisms, I do too, but I try not to let it get in the way of my enjoyment.

And again, I think most of the fandom here is pretty good. I probably wouldn't have made the meme if I didn't think that a lot of people would agree. I'm just sad that I've seen quite a bit of negativity lately. But the meme isn't aimed at anyone in particular or anything.

[aster-draws]

Hey so I love your writing so much and how you write characters a lot (they feel so alive and organic I love it) and I was wondering if you had any tips on characterizing?

Oh i did not see this until just barely so sorry for the late reply!

I love characterization so much, but as far as tips go, my best suggestion is... observation and practice, and a lot of cross-referencing with your past writing of that character, to create consistency. Having a clear understanding of their motives, their strong suits and their insecurities. I do just. So much thinking about my stories, I daydream. And I talk to people about them. for hours. it reveals things. Talk to a friend in a car for 2 hours in front of their house at 1 in the morning. You will have epiphanies.

As far as fanfiction goes, I think the best question to ask yourself is: what compels me the most about this character, or this character dynamic? and then really just get elbow deep in it. Right, how can I make these issues come to the surface?

And lastly, casual interactions are your best friend. The best way to make your writing feel grounded in reality is by... grounding it in reality? When your blorbos are seen doing sibling banter, or friendly ribbing, or whatever, your audience sees them more as real, alive, organic. And that loops back around to observation. Watch how real people interact. How you interact with your friends, ect.

I don't really know? Genuinely i just think about my stories so much like. they live rent free in my head 24/7.

[garden-bug]

Your Thrawn takes (concluding the debate)

From a poll I did yesterday. You can check out the post on my profile. I’m tempted to do a longer one to get a more accurate result… but that’s it for now! Thanks for participating.

100% people

No character, unless they’re a pure villain, is fully immoral. It’s an interesting viewpoint to take on a character like Thrawn who has undoubtedly done moral actions. Perhaps you view something he did as so immoral it negotiated all of this for you?

Another thing that people seem to not realise: ‘good morals’ and ‘good character’ are not synonymous. If somebody tells you a character that you like has done bad things, don’t take it personally! Nuance is what makes characters interesting. I love characters like Maul and Mahito (jjk) purely because they are completely selfish and atrociously evil. I’m not gonna get sad if someone says, ‘how can you like them they’re evil?’ A huge reason why I like them because they’re evil. Duh. Characters like that are fascinating. That person does not understand the implications of characters as storytelling tools (another reason I would argue it’s so important to analyse critically - you’ll take everything personally otherwise and not be able to appreciate this). Maybe you can help them realise that the character isn’t fully immoral, but is actually an anti-villain or an anti-hero. By having these discussions properly (instead of just getting annoyed and shutting them down) we will realise that, wow, 80% of people have the same view (that’s most of you).

I’m repeating myself again here, but I’d also like to stress the importance of expectations when people post about a story or character. Somebody who makes a post about one particular aspect of a story or character that leans towards more moral or immoral is probably not going to give a balanced judgement of the entire work or characterisation. You’ll realise by responding that, oops, they actually do understand everything you do, it’s just this post was about one small thing and you took it as their entire bias. My post criticising the Ascendancy’s use of child soldiers received a response generalising the fandom as people who are obsessed with analysing morality and think Thrawn is this horrific pure evil character. No… that’s not what I said! (And the morality part, that’s a bad thing?)

This annoys me people

7 people picked the last option, which does make me sad if it’s because they’re frustrated by the type of arguments that seem to arise from this topic and don’t want to engage anymore. Having these better discussions would probably help this. Hopefully they do understand the value of morality in literature analysis in general. It can be an important tool to assess whether one character is more effective than another, to illustrate the themes of your story, and much much more.

Some people view stories are purely for entertainment and not for any intellectual purpose, but I disagree and don’t understand this. I would find stories unbelievably boring that way. If you disagree that’s your personal preference, and I will not change my mind because this is mine, so DNI please.

Conclusion of the debate

The conclusion of the debate is… well, critical analysis (including of the moralality kind) is required to understand what really makes a character a good character.

Thrawn is such an incredibly fascinating character, I think, because of his moral ambiguity. Why does Death Note fascinate people? Take the moral debate out of Death Note and you render the entire story meaningless. There would be nothing. There wouldn’t even be a story. I feel like this is obvious.

[herbgerblin]

Hi Herb!! I was wondering if you had any advice on opening commissions? I enjoy your art immensely and you were one of the first people I thought of to ask since I know you do commissions on occasion

Sorry if this is totally weird, I am just at a complete loss! Thanks for taking the time to read this!

These are things I wish I had figured out when I started selling art commissions. Also, feel free to use my current commission form to pattern your own. (also if anyone >.> wants to commission me, I am open <.<)

Step 1: Write a Terms of Service

Good terms of service will manage the expectations of your clients, establish a level of professionalism, and protect you if someone tries to argue something already made clear in writing. You can keep your ToS really simple, but it's good practice to include the following:

What kind of art you will/won't do (I don't do nfts)

Estimated duration of the project (2-4 weeks is my M.O.)

Number of revisions (more than 3, I add a fee)

When and how often you will update the client

Rights that you retain as an artist/permit to the client

Note: This mainly applies to personal/non-commercial work. If you are approached to make art for a game/magazine/website, do a ton more research. You will need to write out a contract that makes things Boringly Clear, and you will want to retain all of your rights as an artist.

Step 2: PRICES (scream)

Everyone starts out underselling. I'm underselling (I'm trying to get better.) Just go at your own pace. Look at what other artists are offering, but don't just look at the quality of their work. Think about your turnaround time, your style, and your target audience. If you are a fast worker or very detailed, that's worth a pay bump. Niche communities will pay solid money for artists to cater to them. So for example, if you draw fetish art, you have more room to charge higher.

ALWAYS GET PAYMENT UP FRONT. You can offer half upfront and half upon completion. If it's a big or long-term project, it's okay to go 30/70. BUT NEVER START WORK WITHOUT SOME SORT OF COMPENSATION. I just had a client that has not paid me the 2nd half and they are blacklisted. This rarely happens but it does happen.

Once you think you've got a price chart you feel comfortable with, add $20. Do it, even if it feels wrong. You may have to pay transaction fees, or the work (often) takes longer than expected. It'll be a small mercy to yourself to account for these things. Raise your prices a little bit each year because you are growing in experience and inflation (scream) is a thing that affects the arts too.

Step 3: INTEGRATE AND AUTOMATE

I wish I had done this step years ago, but I slacked off, and therefore staying organized was a nightmare. The less "business" stuff you have to do manually, the more time you can focus on "creative" stuff.

Make a google form. Make it as easy for the client to input information as possible. In the settings, set it so that responses will go to an excel file. The questions you ask will be the titles of the fields, so keep them short and easy to read. Reference image attachments will save to google drive.

You can set it up so that you will get an email whenever you get a new response (you might want to make a separate email account specifically for commissions.) Prewrite confirmation responses and save them as templates so that you're not writing the same email to clients over and over again.

Set reminders for responding to clients, requesting payment, and finishing work. This can be through google calender or some other app. You are responsible for facilitating communication. Even if the email is just, "Hey, just letting you know the work is still in progress, I will send you a wip in 1-2 days." Client assurance is high priority.

I use paypal invoice for payments. It means I have to pay a transaction fee, but I factor that into my prices. It also ensures that I have clear documentation for orders, I can send reminders easily if I haven't been paid, and it just looks more professional overall. You can use whatever service feels most comfortable, just make sure you practice good bookkeeping (*stares at my taxes in horror*)

Step 4: Mockups and Descriptions

Provide examples of the work that you are going to. Make a mockup of busts/half body/full body, etc. Don't include anything you don't intend to actually produce.

Make sure that your form includes room to answer EVERY question about the commission that you might have. This will reduce the amount of back and forth you need to have with your client. You want to be able to get that request, confirm it, send that invoice, and jump on it ASAP.

Step 5: Start small, be honest, be firm

If you haven't done commissions before, have a limited number of slots available. Take break time after you've finished a certain amount. Don't languish over an art piece. At some point, it will be as done as it can be. Send it to the client, and keep rolling.

If you feel like you are getting overwhelmed, tell your client. It's bad practice to go on hiatus and not notify them while they're waiting on an update. If you genuinely forget to touch base with them, do so as soon as possible. Apologize, then finish the work as soon as you can. Refund if you think that's the most polite route, but completing the task is usually more appreciated.

Be cordial, but firm. People will try to bully you over little things, but don't give in. Ignore folks who say your prices are too high. Make it clear that if they ask for more than what is agreed, you will charge a fee. If you feel like a request is sketchy, get a second opinion.

obligatory paypal link: help me pay kravitz jr's vet bills

[yiffos-official]

I'm new to being a furry distro official, any suggestions?

-minix-official

bark. a lot.

or, i guess in your case, racoon noise. a lot.

[lack-a-lenierka]

I know you’re asleep right now but for when you wake up/when you get the chance, do you have any advice for drawing?

Good morning! Well afternoon where i am now-

I had whole paragraphs of replies originally written down. But then read those and realized “wait this is pretentious not helpful” so in the trash it goes and actual advice in 3 2 1:

-Draw the same thing differently. An example is how i learned (still am learning) to draw rocky, turn his head in different direction and angles and draw it to learn facial structure, expression and shape language. References are KING and if u need to take a selfie first of you doing the expression or set in the angle then do it! Infact i encourage everyone to always use references! Especially as a learning tool.

Dont know how to draw hands? Take a picture of your own hand in different positions and replicate that!

“I did that but it doesn’t look right and feels flat or wrong”

-shape language, repeats that 50 times over

Everything in art started out as a simple shapes and grew more complex overtime. Honestly tracy butler said it best in her tutorials!

Credit ofc goes to @lackadaisycats

Respective links: Bleep and bloop

These tips apply to everything, and the best part about learning is that you can stop at any point, as long as u feel u did something new today. No need to draw everyday, no need to grind out a 100 10sec drawings on a single page. Those are learning tools too! But they can be very intimidating and demotivating to someone not used to drawing a lot.

My process:

Honestly it’s as simple as, thats a funny cat picture, im drawing my favorite pyromanic cat as this now. Honestly i don’t draw cats or anthro stuff usually so just having fun with this new learning process is the greatest advice i can offer!

In short, youtube tutorials are the grestest gift to free recources online and looking up “how to draw xyz” has never been easiet thanks to it!

[robotclownindulgence]

genuine question, i thought bob bakish, the paramount ceo that made the pro-zionism decisions, got fired back in april?

To my understanding he may have been fired, but the statement affirming their support for israel still came from the company as a whole and to my knowledge has not been retracted as of yet. Even if these things were confirmed shortly before his firing, there has been not so subtle pro-israel messaging in their knuckles show and the casting of k*anu re*ves, someone who has recently come under fire for fraternsing with n*tany*hu in s*nic 3, is pretty indicative of their current mindset regarding the matte and the fact they did not.change or try to.justify any of this after the ceo was fired seems to me that they don't really care. So i don't think one person's firing changes much here, even if he had a lot of decision making power

[fox-mulder-gets-pegged]

Hi so your post about losing adult teeth popped up and if you don't mind giving advice please say, when I was told I needed one pulled my first reaction was people will be revolted when they kiss me idk maybe at least rambling will help even if it's a void

Hey there!

So like. I'm kind of the worst person to go to for advice. But I'ma keep it real with you anon. The people who are worth kissing? They won't give a shit that you're missing a tooth. If they do they aren't worth the energy.

When I lost two of my teeth I was so embarrassed and felt hideous I'm not gonna lie. Everyone loves straight white teeth, and here I am with a mouthful of ugly. It felt like a personal failure, like it was physical proof of incompetence and letting my mental illness win. But u know what? We just keep trying. Best time to start brushing your teeth consistently was 10 years ago. Second best time is today.

I promise you, you aren't less of a person if you're missing teeth. Your smile is beautiful because it comes from happiness. Be gentle with yourself. Keep smiling, bc ain't anyone else got your unique smile. And if anyone gives you shit for missing a tooth, that's their rudeness to unlearn and it isn't your problem. No one naturally has perfect teeth. Don't stretch for the unattainable. Just do your best until it becomes your normal.

[noxwithoutstars]

How do you create the color palettes for your flags?

It depends on the term! I also usually start with the layout of the flag, like stripes and shapes, before I do colors, so I have to think about where the colors go and which ones I'll have the most of.

For things that are related to some media, I usually colorpick for a general palette, then adjust/switch colors/etc. until I like how it looks:

Sensitivesongic: almost completely colorpicked from the album art -- Celestiaresortic: colors similar to the background of this level in the game -- Areaxlibric: less saturated colors from the book covers.

If there are colors already associated with some aspects of the term, I start with those and build from there. Different colors also add to the feel of the term!

Regifructorcic: Inspired by Hera/Juno, whatever you want to call her, and therefore colors reminiscent of pomegranates and peacocks -- Twilitstar: Blues/purples suggest stars and twilight, browns suggest bronze and make it feel more ancient -- Orderaromic: Dark suggests nighttime, and the pale pinks make it warmer, more familiar.

Otherwise, it's honestly just vibes. Or what colors I want to work with that moment. When I'm stuck, I just pick a main color or two and think about the complementary colors or analogous colors, then mess with the values (light-dark; always try to have variation in the values) or maybe the saturation (the greyness/vibrancy -- changing the saturation creates a similar but different effect to value).

Aurimellan: The saturation doesn't change mostly, but hue and value do -- Salicrystic: There's a shift in value and saturation together but not hue -- Midnightsunphraseic: Change in all three!

[bolontiku]

totally random, but what advice would you give to fresh writers on Tumblr/ao3?

I always panic when I get asks lol, I want them but then my brain goes blank!!! Idk if this is advice...

I guess... to give yourself some grace.

Not everyone will be rushing to read your writing, and even less will leave comments or share it. I've even been guilty of leaving no comments but I have tried to always share.

Write what you want, there will be those that criticize or judge. (Everybody has an asshole.) There will be plenty that have something to say but you will find your people and what THEY have to say will matter more. It's okay to be rude back when people are not so nice and if you are not built that way you can always block a bitch.

It's OK to close on a draft and come back to it. Type to type and let the gibberish flow. Write crack and step out of bounds, you can surprise yourself sometimes. Ask questions and don't be afraid to info dump on your friends!!! HIT THAT POST BUTTON EVEN IF YOU'RE NOT SURE someone will love it (sometimes it's 1 person, sometimes hundreds)

It's okay to not follow up. Fanfic is a HOBBY, do it for the fun and love of it. You owe no one your time or tears, just your own self.

I believe in you ❤️

[housederiva]

Can I ask what your plan is for when Halloween hits in regards to posting here? Whenever I get a post notification from your blog I get so excited. Will you be posting anything about your first playthrough?

Y-you have post notifications on for me?? Dear listener I don't shut up and have a queue going pretty much all the time, I'm so sorry

Ahhh anyways! I'm going to be filtering out every tag related to dragon age that I can think of like an hour or so before launch and disabling my 'for you' tab so I don't get spoiled for anything big before I get my grubby hands on the game. So once whatever is in my queue at the time runs out, that's it on posts that aren't mine till my first playthrough is finished (side bar, is play through one word or two? i don' actually know)

For the folks who follow this blog though, I'll be tagging everything I post as veilguard spoilers unless it's something a vast majority of players already know about. If anybody was following @tadfools when BG3 launched, I'll be doing the same thing I was over there where any post/screenshot/what have you from or about my personal game will be tagged as bee plays veilguard in addition to the spoiler (unless its just me yelling then the spoiler will be omitted) for your filtering ease. If I post screenshots/art/writing of my Rook they'll be tagged as Rue Mercar if no one wants to see them either xx