#I'm going through a difficult time in my life and drawing and painting is always therapeutic for me

[anneangel]

Aziraphale + Crowley = ❤️

[marvelseries19]

A CHRISTMAS IN NORWAY

Pairing: Leah Williamson x reader

Genre: Fluff

Summary: After two years of being together and on your second Christmas, you both decide to spend the holiday in your home country.

A/N: This is my first fic about real people, so please don't be too critical about it. I'm absolutely open to reading ideas, opinions, questions, etc. Just remember to be respectful. Be aware that I know nothing about Norway, and English is my second language. I know it's a little all over the place but I'm just trying to get out of the worst mental block I've ever had, also the ending might be a little rush, but I kinda ran out of inspiration at the end so, I just hope it makes sense.

Warnings: + 18, Suggestive

Word count: 0.9k+

[You do not have permission to repost or translate any of my stories or claim them as yours]

Your room is softly lit by sunlight that seeps through the open curtains, creating a gentle glow on your bed's white comforter and helping to wake you up. The warmth of the sunlight creates a cozy and peaceful atmosphere, making it difficult to resist getting out of bed.

When you come to, there's a weight over your waist that belongs to your girlfriend's arm. You gradually stretch and turn to face the blonde, who has a happy smile on her face. You are enthralled by the way the morning light plays on her cheeks and the fluff of her lashes as she wakes up. You can't help but feel a surge of love and contentment as you realize how lucky you are to have her in your life.

You extend your hand and run a finger along her sharp jawline, causing her to smile drowsily. You exchange glances and appreciate, in silence, the wonder of this moment: the beauty of the snow-covered Norwegian landscape of your hometown, the closeness of being enveloped in each other's warmth, and the quiet of the winter morning.

"Good morning, Elske." You said it in a quiet voice, not wishing to shatter the peaceful atmosphere you two had built. She mumbled a good morning as she drew closer and hid her head in the crook of your neck. You could feel her lips brushing against your skin, leaving gentle kisses.

"How did you sleep?" You asked while gently drawing random shapes on her bare back, neither of you bothering to put some clothes on the night before. "I always sleep great when I'm with you." You could feel the smirk on her face on your neck. "Cheeky." You chuckled.

Suddenly, Leah detached herself from you, straddling your hips, the sheet falling from her frame, leaving her bare under your waze. Her eyes sparkled with mischief as she leaned in closer. "I feel at disadvantage here." You uncovered yourself from the sheets as you met her gaze. A mischievous grin spread across your face. "Well, how about now?" The blonde couldn't hold it anymore, and she leaned down closer to your face. "Yeah, that works," she said while finally closing the distance between the both of you, locking her lips with yours. The kiss was electrifying, sending a rush of desire through your body. As your lips moved in sync, the room filled with an intoxicating mix of passion and anticipation. The world around you faded away, leaving only the two of you lost in the heat of the moment.

You spend the next hour just basking in the love and warmth you found in each other before you decide to take a shower and go out for breakfast.

--

Walking hand in hand, the sound of your steps blends with the far-off cries of seagulls and the infrequent hum of a passing bicycle. The aged wooden structures with their colorful paint jobs and ornate facades that evoke earlier times serve as vivid reminders of the past. A soft golden light filters through the narrow streets, casting elongated shadows that dance along the colorful walls. The aroma of hot coffee and freshly baked bread wafts from the surrounding cafés, tempting you to follow your nose to find the perfect spot for breakfast.

After a while, Leah started to feel the cold. Lucky for her, you found a cozy cafe. Its wooden interiors and inviting warmth make it a refuge from the cold outside. As you step through the door, the aroma of freshly brewed coffee mingles with the sweet scent of pastries, instantly enveloping both you and your girlfriend in a comforting embrace.

The place hums with a gentle buzz of conversation and the clinking of cups against saucers. Soft acoustic music plays in the background, adding to the relaxed atmosphere.

The menu boasts a delightful array of Scandinavian pastries—warm cinnamon rolls, flaky pastries filled with berries, and traditional Norwegian cakes—all displayed enticingly on the counter, enticing customers with their delectable taste.

It was an understatement to say that it was hard to make a choice, but since you would end up sharing whatever you ordered, it didn't matter that much. "This looks amazing; I don't know why we didn't come here sooner," Leah said while your order was placed in front of you. "I can't wait to dig in!"

"I'm glad you enjoy it, baby," you replied, eagerly grabbing your fork and taking the first bite. The food was incredibly delicious; Leah's eyes lit up with delight as she savored her first bite, her taste buds dancing with pleasure, and you couldn't take your eyes off of the blonde.

The start of the relationship had been a bit rocky, with both of you dancing around your feelings for a while. It took a rather harsh push from your friends to make you confess your feelings, and now you couldn't be more grateful for them.

"You're staring, you know?" She said it with a smirk on her face. "Well, can you blame me?" You replied, unable to resist her charm. "Thank you for coming with me, Elske." She grabbed your hand over the table, intertwining her fingers with yours. "There's no place I'd rather be, baby."

The rest of the day was filled with laughter, adventure, and kisses. You couldn't help but fall deeper in love with her while you showed her every place that meant something to you. As the sun sets, painting the sky in hues of orange and pink, you realize that you have found your soulmate. Well, rather confirmed that she was; after all, you knew that from the moment you met her. She was the missing piece to your puzzle. And you were hers.

[tokiro07]

Toki Reads Shonen Jump 2025, Issue #16: Yikes Week

Roboco: At the Kawasaki Frontale soccer game, the opposing team sabotages the Frontale, causing them to be late, forcing Roboco and the gang to play as substitutes. Now I'm no soccer fan, but I don't think you can order food to be delivered to the field during play

Sakamoto: Uzuki's plan comes to fruition - by overtaking the JAA, he has essentially overtaken the Japanese government as well, coercing the Prime Minister to distribute one gun and three bullets to every Japanese citizen to do with as they please without repercussions. Well, that answers my question from last week - the JAA was a secret to the public, BUT was also effectively a shadow government - I feel like that should have come up earlier; the fact that Uzuki seems to just want to see what happens rather than orchestrating a specific outcome seems thematically appropriate with his multiple personalities, as it's effectively win-win for him - either everything ends in blood and proves him right, he engineers a mutually-assured-destruction scenario and creates a peaceful nation, OR everyone chooses to be peaceful and proves him wrong

EluSam: Morofuyu praises Tokiyuki for his growth, revealing that he knew that Tokiyuki was actually training with his wives and musing that Tokiyuki is the type to gain power from love; as Tokiyuki asks for him to come back as Fubuki, Morofuyu retorts that his strength comes from eating - specifically people, such as his own sister. Given the timing of this reveal, I wonder if perhaps this is Fubuki rather than Morofuyu painting himself as more of a villain so that Tokiyuki won't want him as an ally anymore and will instead be willing to kill him? Admittedly I don't know Fubuki's character well enough to draw any meaningful conclusions

Witch Watch: As the student council president hassles Fran to join the council, she accidentally hits Jekyll with a device that reverses all of his intended actions; as he becomes Hyde and goes berserk, the only way to stop him is to destroy the device, which Fran begs Rabuka to use her magic to do; Rabuka joins the student council. I honestly really like Rabuka, and the development of her and Fran's relationship is always a nice little treat for me; if Shinohara doesn't give me poly, he can at least give me yuri

Blue Box: Taiki and Chinatsu discuss how their lives might be different if they had made different life choices, but conclude that they made the right ones; Chinatsu tries to work up the nerve to kiss Taiki, but instead kisses him through his scarf, sending him into a blind panic, as teenagers are wont to do. Watching these two gives me such a nostalgic feeling, flashing me right back to falling in love with my wife in high school...a nice little reminder that even if I'm not where I necessarily want to be in life, I must have done something right to be with her to this day

Akane: Issho informs Akane which three stories she needs to master to even be able to attempt Shiguma's Art, and derides her hubris for thinking she can achieve what better performers than her have failed to do; Akane laughs in his face, refuting that she has no intention on limiting herself by letting past performers continue to be "better" than her; in reality, this is exactly what Issho wanted, to light a fire in Akane; Akane approaches Shomei for the first story, God of Death, but he refuse to teach it to her. I like the idea that Issho has just been playing Bad Cop as a long con to find someone with the guts to surpass him

Kill Blue: Noren's realization that she loves Juzo makes it difficult for her to interact with him, prompting Otohime to drag her out class for some girl talk, suggesting that she face her feelings head-on; Juzo approaches the student council to learn how fierce his competition is. For as sure as I am that Noren is going to turn out to be an adult, I am also sure that Otohime will NOT, so it's definitely going to be a scene when she realizes she's crushing on a middle-aged man; I really like Otohime, though, so I'm probably going to be upset to see the state that she gets left in

Nue: Believing that Gakuro will get stronger if he has a girlfriend, Nue calls a meeting for all of the girls of Squad 6 to reveal to them that Gakuro plans (under Nue's coercion) to confess to one of them at the upcoming festival, a prospect that absolutely no one objects to; Shiroha decides to take the initiative and confess first, though she refuses to hear Gakuro's response until all of the other girls have had a chance to do the same; simply hearing this confession awakens a new power in Gakuro. Don't you bait me, Kawae! Give this boy super forms specific to each girl! I may not recognize literally half of them, but if you make them poly you can bet I'm gonna commit them all to memory!

Kagurabachi: The truth of the Seitei War's conclusion is revealed - as a treaty was ready to be signed, the Sword Master insisted on the nuclear option, and Magatsuma responded with its True Realm, Malediction, to wipe out the entire population of the enemy island; we also learn that if the Sword Master dies, so too will all of the other Swordbearers. Not a surprising outcome, but the exact circumstance being genocidal rage rather than pure political greed was a bit unexpected; Samura's plan to let the Hishaku get all of the Enchanted Blades makes a lot more sense now that he has a guaranteed method of taking them all out in one go, but obviously things aren't going to go how he wants them to

Chojo: Another old "rival" of Chojo's, Mikage, appears and near-instantly falls in love with Ippongi. Oh, we're still on this plot point from last week? Is Ippongi's love life going to continue being the focus for a while, or just the occasional gag when Mikage is present?

Astro Royale: As Hibaru and Shikaba fight, Shikaba muses on his philosophy of stealing whatever he wants, be it power or love, which Hibaru seems to be fine with so long as Shikaba stays by his side. I can't say I understand Shikaba's motivations even a little bit, but at least his imagery is kinda cool

Kiyoshi: Hydrako tries to defeat Kiyoshi with various poisons, but he tanks all of them to steal the antidote for her other victims; though he manages to defeat her, Kiyoshi gets turned into a baby for his troubles. I kinda liked Hydrako, shame to see her go so soon, but her role was clearly to nerf Kiyoshi for the arc, so at least she wasn't just there to kill time

Hima-Ten: The girls talk about romance while in the bath, though none of them admit that they like Tenichi, except Mayu who clearly says it to rile up the rest of them; after getting some couch time with all of the girls during a horror movie, Tenichi and Himari are sent on a snack run, where Himari proclaims she can't root for Tenichi's success with Honoka anymore; while looking at some beautiful scenery with the group, Himari gives serious thought to her relationship with Tenichi. Ooh, you wanna be poly so bad, ooh!!! That couch scene was so good, I know you can do it!!!

Ichi: The Bakugami Magik first appeared in the land of Bakugami, then Kagami, ten years ago to the princess, Richia, as she grieved her mother's death amidst a national economic crisis; with its power to instill joy, Bakugami gave the people the will to go on and attracted desperate people from all of the world, making Kagami a bustling tourism hub; as this story and Bakugami's importance are being relayed to Desscaras and Kumugi, Ichi and Gokuraku burst in to attack Bakugami. ...Shoulda seen that comin'; with the introduction of Richia, I'm wondering if the ally the prophecy mentioned isn't actually referring to Gokuraku...obviously he'll still be one, but there might be more to it, like maybe the entire Kagami nation becoming an ally to Mantinel once everything gets cleared up? Probably not

Shinobi: With comms back up, Op reveals that Kawasemi was supposed to have died eight years ago, and his fighting style seems completely different; no longer alone, Yodaka gets a second wind, and manages to take out Kawasemi with a pincer attack from Hibari. I'm guessing this isn't Kawasemi and is just someone using his name for some reason, but it may also be that he got brainwashed or something and needed to switch up his fighting style as a side effect? The latter feels pretty convoluted, but I assume that this mystery is going to become a major plot point either way

Syd Craft: Syd and Souffle tail a suspect in a drug trafficking case, necessitating Souffle to quick-change through a bunch of outfits to maintain cover; when her superior sees her dressing up, he mocks her despite her saving someone on the job, prompting Syd to chastise him and compliment Souffle on her looks; Souffle starts dressing more girlishly as she always wanted, catching Syd's eye. Probably won't amount to much in the long term, but nice to see something akin to character development

Embers: Haitani and Takami manage to outscore the A- and B-Team members, netting Haitani his first-ever win; because of his poor sportsmanship and teamwork, Inunaki gets booted from the A-Team, a decision he tries to protest, but Shizuki stands her ground despite him getting physical. As Shizuki says, people who want to be the best will always come back after a loss, so it seems likely that Inanaki's character arc will see him learning to apply his skills in tandem with others and coming back at a crucial moment

Beethoven: As Beethoven begins coaching Yaso, suggesting things like "try drinking alcohol" or "seducing another man's wife" so he can better understand his esoteric metaphors, he tries to remember his mindset when composing Appassionata, only to have his memories locked by what appears to be a devil; however, Yaso's playing manages to unlock one memory, of a meeting with Beethoven's "Immortal Beloved," seemingly to the devil's chagrin. I can't say I was expecting to see demons in this manga, but I'm glad that the mechanism of Beethoven's reincarnation is being alluded to early so it will feel less out of nowhere when it gets an actual explanation down the line; it's also an interesting way to sidestep the unknown portions of Beethoven's life, disallowing him from simply reciting information that the author can't possibly know while also establishing that such holes exist for readers that are unfamiliar with Beethoven's history

I considered naming this issue after all of the girls talking about their love interests in Kill Blue, Nue and Hima-Ten, but with six heavily inked dramatic moments between the reveal of Uzuki's plan in Sakamoto Days, Morofuyu's declaration of cannibalism in Elusive Samurai, Issho's subterfuge in Akane-Banashi, the Sword Master's genocide in Kagurabachi, Shikaba continuing his cycle of abuse in Astro Royale, and the literal Devil's unexpected appearance in Star of Beethoven, all I can say is:

Then there's Ichi publicly attacking Bakugami, Kiyoshi getting turned into a baby, Kawasemi possibly being a fake in Shinogi Undercover, Shizuki booting Inunaki from the team in Embers...maybe not as big of moments as the rest, but a lot of twists and turns to be had that also elicit a definitive yikes

This Week's Top 3:

Nue's Exorcist, surprisingly, for giving me a quality reaction image that I've been giggling about for literal days and also for suggesting that we might actually be going the poly route

Star of Beethoven for dropping a hint that both answers and asks more questions, while also fleshing out Beethoven himself

Hima-Ten for just being really dang cute this week, and giving Himari a moment of genuine honesty and introspection

Amazingly I passed over Ichi this week! I don't think I've done that since Undead Unluck ended, but it just wasn't that impressive of a chapter this week. It was good, certainly, but it was mostly exposition without actually revealing anything particularly noteworthy or furthering the plot in a way that was surprising

Kagurabachi similarly went in a predictable direction, though its presentation was definitely good enough to warrant being Top 3. I think it missed it because the dread of the Sword Master's mass murder just didn't resonate with me the way that Hima-Ten's moment of intimacy did

The reveal of Uzuki's plan in Sakamoto Days also sparked dread, and actually inspired me to think about it for the last few days, but I think the sheer number of "yikes" moments this week might actually be what's directing me towards the softer moments of the week; there's fewer of them, so they stand out more

Blue Box's cute moment was similar to Hima-Ten's, but I think the introspection on Himari's part was overall more interesting to me than Chinatsu's retrospection

Overall, this was another super strong week for me, and I think that the goal of this project is really starting to come to fruition! I'm feeling more motivated to revisit each series, even being prompted to reread older chapters that I don't remember, and coming up with issue titles helps me draw connections between the series within each week! This is the most engaged I've felt with the entire magazine in a long time, a feeling I was really worried I would lose after Undead Unluck's departure!

I'm even feeling more connected with the series that I'm not a particular fan of! I don't think I'll necessarily mourn them if/when they leave, but I'm glad that I'll be able to better enjoy them for the time that they're here

[rosesnink]

artist and writer love

i'm a day late, but let me love y'all anyways

starting with the writers-

@princess-geek & @missameliep - my sweet, beloved dani and debora, my closest friends in this hellsite. it's been almost six years since we became friends (where did the time go?!) and my, what a ride it's been! you guys have been my rocks for longer than anyone, and i can't imagine writing without telling you girls about it, and i hope that one day we may meet and take the writing world by storm! i love you both and i hope that more years are ahead of us

@storyofmychoices - sweet dani, you organizing this every year and making of this fandom something easier to make is no small feat, and i'm thankful i've been getting to know you personally and to call you a dear friend <3 thank you for not only giving us this, but also write such amazing cute little drabbles that just warm me on terrible days

@aria-ashryver - my beloved aria, getting to know you these past months has been the sweetest treat. you're not full of light because you ARE light itself, wherever you go, it seems to follow you, even across the sea, and despite going through it you remain kind and loving, which can be difficult. i really admire you and i hope to one day be half the woman and author that you are

@lilyoffandoms - lils, you have been there from the beginning of my fandom journey, and while we've had our bumps, you're a key part of my life, and i like to read your stuff from time to time, because it's seriously awesome, and your art?! it's so unique and really stands out from the others, to the point where i say 'oh, lily has posted new art!' without needing to double-check who posted what. thank you for putting up with me, which is no small feat, and to more years together! (also, maiele is next on my mcs interacting victim)

@thosehallowedhalls - queridisima cee, even though we haven't known each other for long, you've become so dear to me, and i confess i couldn't bring myself to write more of nerea's journey without you being here, cause it seemed pointless if i couldn't send you spinnets and gush over how nerea is slowly gravitating towards bas, but now that you're here... get ready, cause nere's story has just taken off, and things are about to get interesting!

@dutifullynuttywitch - cherie, your ocs are beautiful, your writing is simply poetic and gorgeous and you are such a sweet person, i smile when i see you on my dash, and even though you gravitate more towards rc these days (and i do not blame you, it's going to the dogs lately) i'm thankful for your presence and i hope we can begin properly talking this 2025! merci for everything, chou <3 (salut from spain!! and pardon my hyperbasic and terrible french lol)

@aallotarenunelma - sweet aallotar, i couldn't cap the writers section without finishing with you because it'd be basphemous. each of your ocs are so unique, detailed and perfectly written, and you give them a part of your finnish culture, which makes them stand out from the crowd, and are so richly-crafted, it's easy to fall in love with them. you are one of my prime role models for both as a person and creator, and i hope that one day we can meet and give you all the hugs you deserve, since i plan to study abroad in the north someday

and now, moving onto the artists...

@erixadraws - sweet erica, your art is outwordly, such a calming and colorful painting that i want to stay in, and raya is such a gorgeous and sweet girl, i enjoyed writing her with my dear brienne, and i love to gush over tfoa with you! thank you for your amazing drawings, which aren't short on magic. seriously, you should animate a children's series someday!

@oh-so-youre-a-nerd - queride elliott, your art is simply out of this world, and you always manage to take it to a new level i thought impossible, and your magic hands can do the most outstanding things i've ever seen in my fandom career, but most of all, i'm thankful for our friendship and how you've always been there for me in every aspect <3 thank you for everything, el <3

@cadybear420 - dear cady, your edits are simply fabulous, you always manage to outdo yourself and each of your mcs are so developed, so unique from one another and you add it a certain touch that always makes me go 'oh, that oc must be cady's!' because they all have that cady magic few can master, and your presence in the fandom is a much needed breath of fresh air!

@swallowandsun - lily, i know that you and i met on another fandom, but you being here makes me so happy, and your ocs, no matter the fandom, are always so amazingly made, and fit the narrative so well, it's admirable, and your gifs and videos?! chef's kiss. the fandom's not ready for you, girl!

@zhoras-bitch - i know that rn you're mia, but you're such a sweet person, and i think of your edits and ocs thrice a day, and getting to know you and see you grow has been a treat, and i hope i can see you again here, at your own time and pace ofc <3

and you, don't worry if you didn't have a shoutout from me, there's more days to come ;)

@choicesfandomappreciation

[inariporkka]

The New English Art Club Annual Exhibition 2024 is online right now (link here), so I wanted to go through it and share my picks with you guys.

The online exhibition is set up mainly to sell art, so there is very little information about the works on the website. There are no descriptions or artist's statements, so we are going purely on my vibes here. The selection and arrangement is also mine, so this post is in essence a mini-exhibition curated for you by me. I'm gonna call it:

State of the Art

A Curated Selection from The New English Art Club Annual Exhibition 2024

(Image descriptions in alt-texts.)

We start with my absolute favourite, "Natural History Museum, Oxford" by T. F. Ashley. (Link)

Pro-tip for any aspiring curators: you always lead with the strongest piece. If this was a physical exhibition, this would be on the poster, this would be hanging on the main wall of the space.

I am the kind of person who prioritises drawing over everything else in art. I don't mean drawing as a medium (though that is important to me too), but as an element of art. And this piece - while obviously being made in a drawing medium - also manifests the kind of drawing that I think is important. To me that kind of drawing is almost like thinking with a pencil in hand, making a thought process visual, visible.

This piece also has that elusive quality of looking tactile. I live a very digital life, and I have chased that vibe of "digital image that looks like you are touching it" for a long time - and this image nails it.

I am also drawn to this image for its content, as I work in a museum so the picture is relevant to my professional interests, too.

Rest of it is under the cut, because I am considerate of y'alls dashboards.

Landscapes

First we will have a landscapes section. Landscapes are not usually particularly divisive, so it's a safe choice to lead into an exhibition with them. They also have the power to be familiar: the viewers of the exhibition might know the place depicted in the works. Or, since a lot of places on Earth have similar vibes, a place might remind someone of a different place.

Melissa Scott-Miller: "Waterside Cafe, Little Venice" (Link)

For example this painting reminds me of Coventry, where I used to live, because Coventry has a river running through it, and the river has these kinds of narrow houseboats on it. I never had the opportunity to visit one, so this painting makes me feel some kind of a nostalgic longing or remembering a missed opportunity.

It leads us to the next painting: "Boating Central Park" by Ruth Stage. (Link)

This painting is done in egg tempera, which is not an easy technique, and knowing that appeals to me - I enjoy examples of humans being good at doing difficult things. The image is also beautiful. It doesn't look like anything I have ever seen. Like, I can get vibes of influences, but it doesn't feel like I have seen paintings like this a lot in my life. Also grey is my favourite colour.

Next we will have another unique-looking landscape, "Estate - The End of the Affair" by Andrew Torr. (Link)

The geometric shapes and planes of colour are approaching abstraction without crossing over to it. I also really enjoy mundane things being given the art treatment, because making a painting does elevate its subject, still. The area depicted in the image looks like somewhere people like me might live, in a way that "fancy" places don't, because I'm not rich or fancy.

Taidg O'Malley: "Piazza del Campo Rooftops, Siena" (Link)

Another landscape approaching abstraction, with the additional layer of an unusual point of view. I just really really love this, it is so inventive, and especially when "Siena" is the name of a place but also the word for the colour that is the most prominent in the image. The artist is using the medium of the painting to pass on that insight they have had about the association between the name of the place and the name of the colour, and it feels fantastic to be receiving that insight. For my personal art practice sharing insights and pointing out things I have noticed in the world are central motivations for me, so all sorts of synapses are firing for me right now.

And lets pair another high up view point with the painting above:

John Duffin: "W1A - BBC and All Souls Church, Langham Place" (Link)

This is an etching, which is a kind of print where you scrape the image onto a metal plate with a needle. I love a fine line and you don't get much finer lines than with etching. I also really love all printmaking. The mood in the image is also top notch, very dramatic and powerful, even ominous. The light is almost like a frozen explosion, and the tall buildings make me think of Batman the Animated Series. I also really like the use of the postal code in the title. Not sure why, but it's cool, interesting, I like codes.

We will continue the fine lines and meticulous details idea here, with Neil Pittaway's "Brunel City". (Link)

Something about the colours and the details done in white hark back also to the egg tempera painting of Central Park, but this one is a drawing done with pen, ink, watercolour, and "body colour" (???) The image is delightfully Inception-esque, and I really jive with this way of depicting a city.

We follow it up with "Wiener Jugedstil Palast" by the same artist. (Link)

More of this incredibly enjoyable line work depicting the kind of architecture I (and a bunch of other people here on Tumblr) like.

Portraits

It leads us neatly to our next segment: Portraits. Portraits are also nice and friendly for viewers, because we are humans and we know how to look at pictures of other humans. Of course the depiction of humans does bring in the possibility of viewer (and artist! and curator!) bias, bigotry, and sense of propriety (what if someone is naked? what is appropriate? where do we draw the lines?) so we run a slightly bigger risk by introducing the human element to our exhibition.

We start with Frederick Jones and "Hidden" (Link), as it carries a similar visual language as the above drawing.

This wood engraving might not be a portrait in the strictest sense, considering the person is obscured, but I don't subscribe to the idea that we can be identified only by our faces. Also the Rene Magritte vibe is strong here, and who doesn't like a good Magritte.

Michelle Maddox: "Self Portrait in the Studio" (Link)

Another portrait with an obscured subject, with nice geometric-ish surfaces of colour (check out those circles and semicircles on the twigs in the vase!), which this time add to the Magritte vibes.

Charlotte Sorapure's "The Lepidopterist's Dream" (Link) introduces another layer of surrealist inspiration with the trope of the reflection in a mirror reaching out. The vase with plants connects this one to the previous painting too.

The objects in front of and reflected in the mirror seem normal enough until you hang on a moment exploring the image and begin to notice that some of the butterflies have alighted onto mirrored images of flowers.

Then we use the profusion of flowers and butterflies as our link to the next painting, where the background has a profusion of organic elements.

Julie Held: Self Portrait (Link)

Something about the strangeness of the composition appeals to me. My eyes explore the background, trying to figure out what is going on (is it upside down?) before returning to the awkward, sketch-like figure in the corner.

Next up is Barbara Leidl's "Dominic (and Bird)". (Link) We continue the theme of limited palettes.

I love earth tones, and the bird on the figure's shoulder is absolutely perfect. The use of outline with minimal shading works so wonderfully well here. It's the drawing again.

Paul Gildea: "Boy with Necklace" (Link)

A slightly impressionistic treatment, which is an enduring trend in contemporary painting, but the subject punches it above the mass. It makes me slightly uncomfortable, because the subject seems so beautiful but vulnerable and uncomfortable too. My sense of propriety doesn't quite know what to do with this image.

Maxim Langford: "Arnold" (Link)

The shifts in value, light and line work in this one are incredibly satisfying to see, they scratch some kind of an itch for me. Also I am very partial to profiles, I just think profile portraits are the most interesting and beautiful.

Shadi Vahabzadeh: "The Daughter of the Sun" (Link)

We are once again nearing abstraction, and here I particularly like those pattern fills on the skirt and the vase, and the lighter area in the background. They connect well to the way the shirt and hair of the previous drawing were also only sketched out as shapes.

Shanti Panchal: "The Book of Revelation" (Link)

This one combines together a lot of elements that I find particularly enjoyable: the profile view, the combination of line art and subtle shading, surrealist influences, and even the combination of the yellow sofa and the grey background is right up my alley (because I run an aesthetic blog for the colour grey called @grey-in-color and my friend does one for yellow called @marigoldserenity and one year Pantone chose grey and yellow as the colour combo of the year).

And we close the portrait section with a painting that is only dubiously a portrait (though every foot fetishist worth their salt will tell you that you can recognise a person from their feet).

Sharron Astbury-Petit: "Reclining with Venus". (Link)

It connects to the above painting in several subtle ways: the style of line art and shading is similar, there are nude figures in both; but also the contrast between the flat grey background of "The Book of Revelation" and the profusion of colours and organic shapes in "Reclining with Venus" - which one might expect to find in a painting inspired by Indian miniatures. I also really enjoy the subtle touch of the bird tattoo on the ankle, which matches the busy vibe of the background.

Still Life

The next segment is paintings of objects, still lifes. We'll start with William Pierce's "Trainers" (Link), which carries us nicely over from the previous image of feet.

Here too the vibe is nearing abstraction and sort of impressionistic-ish, but what can I say, a trainer (sneaker, running shoe, tennis shoe, whatever you call it) is such an iconic object that it just always works.

Jason Line's "Bric-a-brac" (Link) also has shoes in it, and a similar sketchy feel.

I also find this perspective kind of strange and interesting, looking at things from above, as if they are laid on the floor. Like logically I reckon that is a table, but to me the feeling is of floor for some reason.

The next painting by the same artist continues the floor vibes: "Still Life with Shell" (Link)

But here more than the weird perspective vibe, I love the colours. Look at all that amazing grey, which is accentuated by the pink shell and the blue bottle (it's called "@grey-in-color" for a reason).

Claire Venables: Recreating the By-Product (Link)

Similar vibe here, with the way the shapes work, and with the colours. This is aesthetic manna for me. Also blue is my wife's favourite colour, so I do pay more attention to it due that. The subject is also fascinating, it is not common to see science as the subject in visual arts, especially in traditional mediums like painting.

Agata Smolska: Arrangement in Yellow (Link)

And here we have grey and yellow meeting again! But I just really find any and all colours in the same image with grey to be really compelling. Everything goes great with grey. The subject is also another great example of elevating the mundane, with paper cups and napkins (and a lemon for some reason? What are they serving?)

Misc

We finish this exhibition with a grab bag of paintings that don't quite fit any of the above categories. Which I think is important, you always need to have space for things (and people!) that don't fit into your neat little labels.

First we have "Not Forgotten" by Aidan Potts (Link) which could be a still life, or a portrait of a flower. That's actually something I have thought about a lot, plant portraiture.

By now you know my thing well enough to see it right away: I am here for the grey and the colours. I also love the challenge of the title, because a plant growing in a crack in the sidewalk is pretty near to being forgotten, despite still fighting. Which reminds me: Free Palestine.

Toby Ward: Bike Repair Station (Link)

Here again appears my beloved line art with lively flat areas of colour, and the elevation of the mundane. But I also love the subject matter, because bicycles have been important to me throughout my life.

And last, "The Bar at The Bull" by the same artist (Link).

We finish with a painting that I can't quite explain what it is I like about it, because it just goes straight into my feelings without passing Go. It reminds me of something that I don't have anymore, even though I never had it. This one for me connects to Harpo Marx and how important he is to my life, but the connection is too convoluted to try to explain. But what is more useful to explain is the fact that this connection exists and is the reason I am drawn to this painting. Because there's no way the artist was making this painting thinking that I would connect to it through some convoluted Harpo Marx connection.

Instead this painting being the finisher in my little online exhibition is an illustration of the fact that we see in art what we bring to it as much as what the artist and the subject bring into it. We mix it all together in our brains and get some sort of experience out of it. And that's pretty much all there is to art. It is a form of communication you cannot achieve with any other form.

-

Thank you for reading/looking, I know that was a lot and I did it mainly for myself, but I'm glad you were here along for the ride.

[manageddespair]

Let's Talk - Imposter Syndrome

What is Imposter Syndrome? Well Clinically it's persistent feelings of self-doubt, inadequacy, and a fear of being exposed as a fraud. Honestly it's much more than that!

I've been dealing with imposter syndrome for some time now, and it's really difficult to talk about because it brings up a lot of challenging emotions for me. Let me break it down and draw up an example: I've always been told I'm creative and I believe it - I have a wild imagination and I live to day dream - but what happens when I try to harness that creativity. Well I get this huge surge of motivation "I'm going to grab a canvas and some paint and I'm going to create a masterpiece because I'm an artist and it's what I do!" Then I rush to the store and I grab a beautifully sized canvas and a new brush (because why not, I need it); riding high at the top of a massive wave of inspiration and hey look mom no hands. What a rush!

Then I get home and I set up my area, and you know what I'm going to film it too because all of the artists I follow have these amazing painting videos and I want to put myself out there... but reality is not at all cooperating with the image in my head and I don't no where to start. Where'd my inspiration go, I went from riding the wave to an active wipeout and I just bought all this stuff. So I'll push through it because you can't always count on inspiration right?

But I haven't kept up with my artwork and now my painting looks rusty; the video is dark, the sound of my fan in the background is distracting, and this angle is not flattering. That's when the imposter sees it's shadow.

It's the intersection between where you are now and where you want to be, like standing at the bottom of a hill looking up at the peak after walking miles. What made me think I had it in me, I'm no artist, I'm just some loser who thinks they can paint.

I can't compare to the other artists out there, they actually know what they are doing. I have no idea what I'm doing! They understand color theory, they studied this and they've been at it for years and I'm just now starting out. I don't know anything! I'm late to the game, maybe if I would have started earlier I'd be where I need to be right now. It's too late! I can't do this, this is ridiculous. This is so stupid who do I think I am, I'm not an artist this is just a hobby, why am I trying to make it a thing. This isn't real life! The real artists are going to look at my video and they will know I don't know what I'm doing, they'll probably call me out for being a poser in the comments.

Even writing about imposter syndrome makes me feel like an imposter. Who the hell are you to create a blog and talk about your emotions, what do you know? It's my harshest inner critique. It keeps me away from my easel, because the fear of failing is stronger than the motivation to try. It kept me away for years! My imposter shadow switched my major from painting to graphic design in 2014. I graduated college in 2017 and my imposter shadow gave away my oil paints. I took a job in customer service to pay the bills and my imposter shadow grabbed a drink and settled onto the couch.

Today, I still struggle with imposter syndrome. It spread throughout multiple areas of my life. I feel like an imposter at work, I feel like an imposter at the gym, I feel like an imposter when I try anything new, somedays I feel like an imposter parading around town pretending to be an adult.

How do I manage it? I don't. I just take it day-by-day and when that feels like too much I focus on hour-by-hour. I stopped scrolling through social media in the morning and I started painting for an hour a day. I set a timer and I work on a painting, and if I hate it I paint over it the next day. I try new things and then force myself to take a break for a day, if I hate it in the morning then my instinct was correct. I try to recognize the voice and I don't ignore it; I listen to the comments and I try and understand what it is about what I'm doing that makes me feel phony?

What I find sometimes is that the voice sounds familiar; like the aunt who asks you sarcastically when you're getting married, the sibling who mocked you when you tried wearing something new, or the parent who gave up their dreams and tells you to give up the fantasy.

How does imposter syndrome manifest in your life, and how do you manage it; does it sound familiar?

[brightbeautifulthings]

Katzenjammer by Francesca Zappia

"They're all so dark, Dad said one day, watching over my shoulder as I worked at the kitchen table. Why don't you paint things like a blue sky, or a field of flowers, or a bird flying on a breeze? Something happy that your mom can put on the fridge. She can put these on the fridge, I said. Maybe just one flower? he asked. There are no flowers where I live, I said."

Year Read: 2023

Rating: 4/5

About: Cat has been stuck in School for as long as she can remember. The hallways slowly expand and contract with School's breathing, the showers run red with blood, and the students have divided themselves into changed and unchanged. While the unchanged hide in the fortress of administration, Cat and her friends haunt the courtyard and hallways. Her best friend is turning into cardboard, and Cat's face has become a cat mask made of her own hardened flesh. There are no doors or windows in or out of School, and something is hunting them down one by one in the hallways. To escape, Cat will have to understand why they're trapped in the first place. Trigger warnings: Some triggers are listed at the end of the review because they include spoilers. Character death, guns, violence, blood/gore, dismemberment, body/eye horror, bullying, slut-shaming, vandalism.

Thoughts: Thanks to @ninja-muse for recommending this book, since I'm not sure I would have found it on my own. This is probably my favorite Francesca Zappia novel to date, and one of the best novels on this subject I've ever read (more on that after the spoilers). However, I believe it's best to go into it not knowing much more than the description provides. This book works extremely well as a slow reveal. What starts out as a mindfuck becomes slow understanding as we realize more or less alongside Cat what is happening in School, and you'd be doing yourself a disservice to read the spoilers if you plan to read this. However, it covers a number of very heavy and potentially triggering topics (and it's difficult to gush about how I think it works without giving things away), so I'll include those thoughts at the end. I can't stress it enough though. If you're not easily triggered, stop here and go read this book!

This is also one of the best examples of uncanny horror that I've read in a long time. Zappia expertly manages to capture the quality of a nightmare without sacrificing the continuity. School is creepy and semi-sentient, and the changes it brings about in half the students are a study in body horror. Perhaps even more terrifying are the parallels it draws to some very real life horrors such as bullying and, indeed, I found the flashback chapters of Cat's surfacing memories of her former life of being targeted, bullied, and slut-shamed at school more difficult to get through than the surreal scenes of hacked up bodies or bloody showers in School. Real life horror always affects me a lot more than the supernatural, and Katzenjammer does an excellent job of balancing both. The ending is cathartic and effective, and there's less of a plot twist than a sort of inevitable, dawning horror-- which is honestly the best kind.

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS. TURN BACK BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE.

Remember how I said that real life horror is always worse than the supernatural or the uncanny? I stand by that statement. Zappia draws such excellent parallels to real life in her uncanny School that it's almost impossible not to realize before Cat does that the traumatic event that put them there was a school shooting. I've read a couple YA novels that handled the subject fine, but I don't think any of them capture it as well as this one. We need something like the supernatural School and the horror of bodies changing in ways we can't explain to fully grasp the senseless horror of gun violence. Killing children makes no more sense than hallways that breathe or girls who turn into their cat masks. It takes Cat the entire novel to understand the horror and absurdity of what's been done to her and to accept it-- that there are reasons but not excuses, and that we will never know all of them. I cried a little at the end, but I think the real life horror of it is too big for tears. Instead, it's a feeling that will sit with me long after I've turned the last page.

[eriexplosion]

Entombed, PHEE MY BELOVED.

Omega is having so much fun in the junkyard she finds extreme enrichment in being able to Steal and Scavenge. I love that Omega craves Treasure this season, it's for a sad reason (SHE HAS TO EARN HER RIGHT TO EXIST WITH HER FAMILY RIGHT?) but it's also delightful to watch. LET SMALL GIRLS STEAL ALL THEY WANT, IT'S IMPORTANT TO THEIR PSYCHE.

Bolo and Ketch at Phee's storytime is so cute

Tech you would only know the story changes every time if you were listening every time she told it (and remembering the details) you know you like storytime.

God Hunter has reached maximum tired dad in this episode like legitimately the most exhausted I have ever seen him. His completely tired voice on 'Those two will believe anything.' Tired glances exchanged with Echo. This face.

We have a bit to go before he gets to that face but I am fucking entranced by it. Haunted by it. God give him a nap.

Tech and Phee sorting through the garbage haul together. Date Night Ideas for nerds.

MEL-221 is SO cute I love the paint job

Tech absolutely wants to pick Phee's brain for more unknown systems he wants to put them on his map, he MUST put more systems on his map.

Hunter turning around while they're talking though like he senses a disturbance in the force and it's going to make his life more difficult isn't it?

God him doing grouchy knife tricks in the background watching Omega copy Phee like she used to do with him, Hunter is so mad that is HIS little sister and Phee is STEALING HER.

"Who'd wanna hide treasure here?" Echo let's be real, the best place to hide treasure is where no one in their right mind would ever want to go. It just makes sense. Their distaste for how much this place sucks is great though, Echo has two sides: One wants to be doing more to fight the Empire, the other wants to find a nice sunny spot and drink a margarita already. Notably NEITHER of those sides wants to be on Suck Planet looking for Supposed Treasure.

CUTLASS CUTLASS CUTLASS

"If I'm right, which is always~" I love her so much.

Also her dramatically like THIS IS THE ENTRANCE TO SKARA NAL! And Echo is just. The WHAT? Genuinely one of my favorite things is when someone says something and Echo's entire reaction is "What the FUCK are you TALKING ABOUT?"

Phee you need to be aware when discussing 'the ancients' that everyone besides you in this room is less than 12 years old and their entire culture began that long ago too, they have very little reference for ancient anything.

Omega <3 BABY GIRL IS SO SMART also I love laying the compass on Phee's lantern to make it a projector that is so good

Hunter sensing the creature coming before it growls, I always love to see some of his enhanced senses at play. AND WHY IS IT ALWAYS WRECKER ABOUT TO GET EATEN, WHAT ABOUT HIM IS SO IMMENSELY SNACKABLE?

"You're just making this up as you go" hush Hunter that is your entire MO and you know it.

"So we have to navigate this death trap without it?" "Good thing you have me :D" *HUNTER GIVES THE LONGEST SIGH AND DRAWS HIS GUN FOR NO REASON JUST TO EMPHASIZE HOW UNCOMFORTABLE HE IS*

I love the door opening with the SPINNING as it slides

Heart of the Mountain is so pretty I want it as a rock candy

I've noticed when they need someone to fall while they're dangling precariously it's always Echo that goes first, life is hard when you have one hand capable of gripping.

The interior when the... it looks like a tomb guardian from Jedi Fallen Order iirc... activates looks so good.

Phee protectively clinging to the Heart of the Mountain, she doesn't WANNA give it up! Fair, Phee.

Hunter saving her last minute is such a good moment too, honestly this is a fun episode and yet another one I can't understand why people hated it sooooo much. This fandom lacks joy sometimes.

Let me tell you this thing approaching the Marauder is still stressful despite knowing nothing happens to it because of my intense belief that the marauder is NOT making it out of this show in one piece.

Them all being in this thing as it randomly self destructs is a lot, WHY DOES IT DO THAT WHEN YOU PUT THE THING BACK IN

"This puts as at 0 for 2 in treasure hunting"

MEL being blown up so much that Phee keeps a backup of her on the ship is a great detail.

[claypigeonpottery]

Heyyyyy~ I'm just... So in love with all the work you do, they're all so precious and beautiful I'm in tears. Thank you so for what you do, can't wait to buy something you made soon :D

If it's okei, can you please tell the story of how you got into this and how did you progress from being babie artist to now growing artist and how long you've been doing this for? What's your top 3 fav works you've done? Did you eat good food today, if not please dooo. Thenks

thank you! that's very sweet x3 I'm excited to get more stuff fired and up on Etsy, hopefully before the end of June

.

choose three favourites of my work? oh, that is a difficult question.

one thing I really didn't like about my art when I was younger was that it was all very static. it was people sitting or standing, it was still life paintings. one of the things I'm really proud of in my work now is the sense of capturing a moment instead of someone posing, and/or giving a sense of movement

these two are just the opposite of static and I love them for that

and then there's this mug. the design is great, the details are great and I had so much fun carving it. it was honestly just delightful and I wish I'd kept it. I don't say that very often.

all sold

.

I'm putting the rest of this under a cut because I'm going to ramble

I started drawing because I was making silly comics about me and my friends in grade school and through high school (I assigned them all fursonas because I was a really cool 15 year old lol)

I got a little more serious about art in high school, but I never thought it'd be something I'd make money at.

when I was... in my early twenties? maybe 19 still? ah, memory issues, I went through a nine month art program, the 'Urban Canvas' project run by SCYAP (saskatoon community youth arts programming). the program is meant to support young artists, especially those with mental health or addiction issues. and it meant I got paid to draw and paint and create weird shit for 40 hours a week, for nine months. and then some (seven? eight?) years later I got to go through the program again which... honestly I'm so grateful I got to do that. (and SCYAP still supports me, they give me a table at their craft show every year and helped me with my first solo gallery show)

these are some of the pieces I made during my time at SCYAP:

and two very rare pictures of me, posing with two of my master studies. the left from when I was 20ish, and the right when I was... 27ish? (man I'm still proud of that Gentileschi copy)

.

it was after SCYAP when I started thinking that I could actually make money as an artist. so I painted more than a dozen murals, drew a 20-some page full colour comic, painted pet portraits, and sold my own paintings. commissions were more reliable than selling my own work for a long time lol

as for how I got into pottery, my mental health uh... haha. it took a nosedive about six years ago and during some of the worst of it, I was severely agoraphobic. my mom, who has always supported my art, offered to take me to pottery classes with her, in an attempt to get me leaving the house at least once a week. it did help (along with a lot of other things) and once I started exploring the surface decoration side of pottery, things really clicked for me

.

tangent: one of the things that really drove me to progress as an artist was having something driving my work. whether it was preparing for a gallery show or making a bunch of holiday cards or making piles of fan art because I was obsessed. every time I made something, anything, I improved. so when I had a goal that made me create more, I improved faster.

my unsolicited advice: make that weird fan art. it's good for your art. (I was really into tf2 lol)

.

I've tried tons of different mediums and I think it was a great way to help my style evolve.

when you're making art with a new medium, it might take awhile before you're making your own personal work. I, at least, find that I usually have to do some studies of other peoples' art and just try some basic creations before I do anything more personal. but once I'm ready to do MY stuff, I have a new repertoire to pull from. I wouldn't be the potter I am if I didn't have the experiences I got from other mediums

like acrylics (I did a lot of self portraits >.>)

paper flower making

watercolour

collage

cake decorating

(also oil paints, pastels, 3D wire art, crochet, linocut, stone carving, sewing, set painting and quilting. also my spouse and I like to make crafts together, like cutting-construction-paper, gluing-pompoms-and-googly-eyes crafts, because it's just fun to make stuff together)

I'm sure pottery isn't the last medium I'm gonna try. I'll probably get obsessed with carving tiny wooden figurines or making wax sculptures at some point. who knows!

.

and now I'm in my mid-thirties, making art pretty much every day. I've been doing this since I was a teenager, so almost twenty years now.

I never imagined I'd be satisfied with my own art, that I could look at most of my pieces and not see how I could have done it better, but hey, here I am.

.

wow that was rambly. the ADHD really comes out when I'm writing lol. and I did eat real food today! before having some freezies

thanks so much for your ask, hopefully I satisfied your curiosity

[byanyan]

CHARACTER INFO SHEET

TAGGED BY: no one but i've seen it a few times now and y'all know i love a good info sheet so i'm stealing it

NAME: yeong-hwan byun / 변영환

NAME MEANING: something to the effect of eternal shining or eternal brilliance

ALIAS(ES): byan

ETHNICITY: korean

PICTURES YOU LIKE BEST OF YOUR CHARACTER: i'm no artist so you'll have to accept some of my favourite fc images that exude byan vibes / energy / looks

THREE HEADCANONS YOU'VE NEVER TOLD ANYONE:

ㅤwhile english is their most used language, their phone's default system language is always set to korean because it's a bit more agreeable with their dyslexia than english has ever been. this also has a bonus perk of being a bit more difficult for most people around them to navigate, so nosy foster parents, caretakers, etc. have a slightly harder time trying to snoop.

ㅤrooftops are their favourite places to hide when they're distressed or running from something. they've always proven to be the last place most people look and, all things considered, it's pretty easy to lose someone by just climbing straight upward.

ㅤwhen taking their emotions out with violence isn't an option, byan takes to drawing instead. a lot of the drawings in their sketchbook(s) that aren't fashion or tattoo related are visual expressions of their emotions, and occasionally glimpses into some of the more traumatic scenes in their past — sometimes images as they remember them from the moment, sometimes from a more outside perspective, and sometimes even the end result they wish had happened. it's not always incredibly clear, sometimes the images are more representative of something they've been through, but the emotion behind it always comes through. this is one of the major reasons why they don't like letting anyone flip through their work. this was also the main and only real way they coped with their emotions throughout much of their childhood, and they still have some of the more violent scribbles they did at a younger age when their anger was a lot more repressed.

THREE THINGS YOUR CHARACTER LIKES DOING IN THEIR FREE TIME:

ㅤcrime. pickpocketing, shoplifting, vandalism, burglary, arson — you name it, they probably engage in it and have a great time in the process. breaking laws and causing trouble for others is fun, and doubly so when you get something out of it for yourself.

ㅤart. whether it's simply drawing, spray painting the blank wall of an alley, making or altering clothes and accessories, doing their makeup or painting their nails, or giving themself a new tattoo, they love being creative and expressing themself.

ㅤphysical activity. never one who's been able to sit still for any length of time, you'll always find them moving, even when they're not at track practice. they're regularly parkouring and freerunning across the city, are found getting themself into fights with just as much regularity and, once they're a more functional adult, they're going to the gym every day to burn some of their overwhelming energy (and maintain muscle ofc).

EIGHT PEOPLE YOUR CHARACTER LIKES/LOVES: sol, lena, ardaka, peter, claudette, kit, ...? —with the exception of sol, these are all cases of familial (specifically sibling) love.

TWO THINGS YOUR CHARACTER REGRETS:

ㅤblindly trusting anyone, especially those who should have had their best interest at heart, without first having them prove themselves.

ㅤkilling the man who assaulted them. and the fact that they even regret killing him because they know they damn well shouldn't. it was him or them, and he got exactly what he deserved.

TWO PHOBIAS YOUR CHARACTER HAS:

ㅤbecoming dependent on someone other than themself. allowing themself to rely on another is a recipe for trouble, they almost always end up with the rug pulled out from under them when they least expect it, left miserable and hurting and in a much worse position than they were to begin with.

ㅤlosing their freedom and control over their own life. no one who has ever had power over them and their life has used it to benefit them — only to hurt and use and control them. they are the only one who can be trusted with their own wellbeing; their control over their life and their freedom are the only thing they really have, and it's something they've fought impossibly hard for.

[elvenbeard]

WIP Wednesday

Thank you so much for the tag and reminder @kharonion! :D Gonna tag @pinkyjulien @humberg @chevvy-yates @theviridianbunny cause I haven't been keeping up with tumblr much lately and would love to know what you're all doing atm if you wanna share 👀

As always, I got way too much stuff at once I'm doing, and apartment hunting is awful and really robbing me of my motivation, so I'm doing a lot of low-brain-effort stuff that calms my nerves at the moment really. Let's see...

VP Stuff

Currently working my way through my "Vince through the years series" :D Two posts out (2067, 2069), one drafted and still needs some text, the others are still a work in progress XD While 2067 was a bit about Vince's home life, 2069 about his transition and time in Kabuki, 2071 is gonna have a focus on Jackie 👀

I should have it ready in a few days :3

Art Stuff

I actually had a little drive to draw something lately :DD working a bit on the comic I teased the other week, slowly chipping away at the lineart, but really enjoying it so far, even though my process is slow!

First page lineart done (for now xD I might go back and fiddle more with it). I am... very tempted to paint the background, but I think I will for once settle for the easy approach and fill in my backgrounds with modified screenshots for this. Cause why tf not xD If professional manga artists can do it, so can I for my silly fancomic!

Writing Stuff

I started chapter 8 of Love is Stored in the Olive Jar and I know it's gonna be a difficult one cause I've really been building up to it and now I got the "you gotta deliver now!!" anxiety XD But I'm still looking forward to finally getting to Mr. B's solution for V's Sun-Ending problem 👀

“So, she got any final words of wisdom?” Kerry asked, fingers gently drumming on the steering wheel. They had swapped cars at home, and with what Rogue had just said now V wondered if it might not have been better after all to use Kerry’s Aerondight to get here… But then again, if shit hit the fan in some way, he didn’t want any unnecessary negative attention drawn to Kerry. “Not really,” V shook his head, “Nothin’ I didn’t think of already at least.” “Told ya so,” Kerry shrugged, pulling out his cigarettes and only paused when he noticed V’s stern stare. “Ah, fuck,” he mumbled and then got out of the car. They had not only swapped cars but changed clothes quickly while they were home. As he slipped from the driver’s seat, Kerry’s wide black bomber jacket rode up briefly, revealing the gun kept in the waistband of his cargopants. “You shouldn’t do that,” V said as he got out himself, “Posers in action films keep their gun in their pants. In the real world that’s gonna get you shot in the ass faster than you think.” V closed the passenger side door with his elbow, flinching slightly at the pain shooting through his shoulder and chest. He took a deep breath, adjusted his own gun holster worn snugly under his coat. “Fiiine,” Kerry sighed, lit cigarette hanging from the corner of his mouth, and he put the gun into his jacket’s pockets. Not ideal still, but better. V smiled at him, and then slowly turned to look down the short, narrow side street they were parked in. They were close to the Santo Domingo district border, in the middle of the industrial area at the edges of the city. The location coordinates Mr. B had sent him lay not far ahead. A new, sleek white building, V guessed it around ten stories tall, rose at the center of what he remembered to be factory grounds formerly. It was far from imposing, a little bit lost on the large lot even, but it blended in well with the surrounding corpo complexes. The entire compound was fenced in, V spotted cameras and security turrets near the heavily secured entrance gate. No security staff though, not even mechs or drones, much to his surprise, at least not visibly out in the open.

Modding Stuff

I have a handful of things on the backburner... A very silly t-shirt (the replacer works already, but I wanna make it Archive XL!), band merch, and my custom hand holding poses... but with my anxiety-riddled brain wolvenkit is a bit too daunting at the moment, but I'm really looking forward to continuing all these projects :3

[anneangel]

Ineffable Husbands❤️

[anangelcalledinquisitor]

Thank you everyone for being so awesome to me and each other! Holding the World update under the cut.

Until then! Please listen to the most absurd song in my library, to celebrate my mom and a life well-lived!

So, as some of you know, I've had a very wild year since starting writing Holding the World. Ups. Downs. Losses. Gains. I've made so many friends, it's almost unreal! Seriously, I can't thank you all enough. Between the abscess recurring, COVID, my wife getting to visit in March, surgery, you all have been very gracious as updates have slowed to a crawl. I have managed to write some? but not much lately.

As some of you know, my mom lost her sudden fight with a cancer that no one saw coming. Blood work was fine in January. Beginning of May, she wasn't feeling well. I took her to the hospital the day before Mother's Day. I lost my mom this last Tuesday.

It's still so unreal.

Since joining this fandom, I have found myself a little bit of a family and I can't thank you guys enough for being so understanding. I want to thank everyone who has said such wonderful things and helped me in this most difficult time. I hope to get a chapter done here by the end of next week, but no guarantees--I'm... I'm still trying to get myself into a groove, ya know?

For the last year or so, I've spent so much time with her when she was living next door to me (it's a duplex). Not every day, but many days, and for a long time. A couple of years before that, she and I were cohabitating (she got out of a bad situation, I found it cheaper to rent with someone, I could bake, she could cook, and we managed to keep each other alive to the best of our abilities) for a couple of years, so we saw each other every day. My mom heard the bad D&D jokes, she made me and my wife laugh so hard we cried. She was with me when I wanted to cut off all my hair because of the cruel and thoughtless comments of other people. She was with me when I was getting on the plane to go see my wife to propose (technically my wife is my fiance). She picked me up when I got back in the middle of the night. She comforted me when my dog had to be put down. She comforted me through moves and school changes, the loss of pets, my accidents, my graduation, my first job, celebrating twelve years at my current one, through flat tires and dead transmissions, through ambulance rides, through first loves and heartbreak, through miscommunications and laughter and tears and a hundred million moments of my life where I just lived. She got me through my first drawings, my first stories, my first paintings, so many hobbies, so many firsts and lasts and made sure I was included in things. Yeah she irritated me from time to time, but whose parents don't from time to time?

Today, I made beef stew for the first time without her help. Today, I went to see a movie without her that she and I had made plans to see just back in April. Today, I resolutely forced my brother to take back the bag of clothing items he had left when he moved last year (a jacket, a blanket, and a few other miscellaneous things).

Today, I think my mom would've been proud of my progress.

I still wish she could be here with me. I still have so much I wanted to do with her first. Had I known this would've happened, I would have done so much more, so much differently. But that's the way it always is, isn't it? When it creeps up on you, when you don't know the end is going to be right there, you just tell yourself it'll be okay.

It will be okay.

Different... but okay.

Anyway, I wanted to just get that off my chest a bit. I didn't get to say anything at the memorial, just walked around and thanked people for coming and learned names, so it was nice to say a few things.

My favorite Lemony Snicket quotes:

"It is a curious thing, the death of a loved one. We all know that our time in this world is limited, and that eventually all of us will end up underneath some sheet, never to wake up. And yet it is always a surprise when it happens to someone we know. It is like walking up the stairs to your bedroom in the dark, and thinking there is one more stair than there is. Your foot falls down, through the air, and there is a sickly moment of dark surprise as you try and readjust the way you thought of things."

I'm still at this stage. Still finding myself going up the stairs and miscounting the steps.

“I will love you if I never see you again, and I will love you if I see you every Tuesday. [...] I will love you until every fire is extinguished and rebuilt from the handsomest and most susceptible of woods. [...] I will love you as we find ourselves farther and farther from one another, where once we were so close... I will love you until your face is fogged by distant memory. I will love you no matter where you go and who you see, [...] That is how I will love you even as the world goes on its wicked way.”

I have been here for my whole life. I love my mom. She may not be here to love me in person, but I know she loved me for me. She wasn't perfect, but she was warm and loving and an excellent mom to me.

[vallikesgivinghugs]

Ooh sounds fun let's do it!

Under read more because y'know don't want people to have to scroll through all of that if they don't care.

1. IbisPaintX, honestly it was my first art program I ever actually used but now I'm FireAlpaca's bitch.

2.Oooh I personally really enjoy/have an easier time drawing front facing characters, profiles are so darn difficult.

3. Big bright and noticeable eyeshines i guess! Always been a thing for me, so my characters always have extra bright eyes. Or i guess eyes in general are a thing I kept from my kiddie days.

4. Crystaline stuff and MAGIC. I love them both so much but god can I not draw them for the life of me. And hair! But hair i'm starting to figure out!

5. Now that I think about it's pretty darn close id I do say so myself! Like 40 to 45% i post online (mostly on discord) and then 55 to 60% i keep to myself!

6. When I draw cats it's a lot of inspo from different warrior cats fandom big names but in general anime is my big inspo!

7.Traditional painting! I tried painting and it's just not for me but I love the way it looks and how many thing people can do with it!

8. God the amount of stories and characters that I've just left as wips in immense. I have adhd, can't finish stuff for shit.

9. Usually if it's one character it's 'character name' and then you add a number or a descriptor (aka smile or smth). Otherwise it's just like 2 or 3 words of what the drawing is. And then I group those in like 'finished art' 'wips' etc!

10.Ooh tough one. I do enjoy drawing poofy sleeved shirts or like long flowy dresses/skirts.

11.Ranges from romance music playlists to true crime and everything in between! I just need a background noise honestly. Doesn't really matter what the noise is.

12. Face. I draw floating heads on the regular.

13. Junji Ito. His style is just so freakin' interesting and his grasp on anatomy is just amazing! But, personally I'm not the biggest horror/gore fan so I don't actually read his stuff. I just find his art nifty when I see it.

14.Polkadots or stripes. Love that stuff.

15.In my room personally but I used to go out to parks and draw there when I was younger.

16.Lineart. everyone is always sayin' stuff like 'Wow your lines are so nice and clean' and while I do agree that it's one of my strengths personally my lineart always looks rigid and wrong to me. I tend to prefer my sketches and nowadays I usally clean those up and use 'em as the lineart.

17.Nope. i completely forget that my body has bodily functions when i draw. I get invested X3

18.Not many! Honestly it's less that I break them on purpose and more that I'm clumsy and drop stuff all the time but on the regular I try my best not to break stuff.

19.Flowers and bushes!

20. Armor of any kind, love me some shiny metals and belts and buckles.

21. I really like the disney style (both 2d and 3d) and I'm really a big fan of 3d animation in anime (studio orange with Trigun Stampede and Land of the Lustrous have my heart)

22.none I live on the edge. (Don't do this, please stretch your hands I'm just a dumbass)

23.I use so many layers and so many of them are multiply and add it's not even funny.

24.Yes. stock images are really good for poses and stuff. I often makes collages of multiple of them to get what I want exactly.

25. Hmmm, i dunno if that's happened to me actually.

26.Nothing comes to mind but i'm sure it's happened!

27.I draw a bunch of circles. And sometimes doodle like different body parts or sonas of mine loosely.

28.I participated in the artfight of 2023! It was a good time.

29.live action tv shows and just non-animated movies/stuff in general! I can write fanfic wips for days but drawing them? Nah.

30.hmmm can't think of any? I probably have one or two that I wish got more attention but usually the attention my art gets is pretty on par with what I' expecting!

Weirdly Specific Artist Ask Game

Didn't see a lot of artist ask games, wanted to make a silly one.

(I wrote this while sick out of my mind last year and it's been collecting dust in my drafts, I might as well let it run free) 1. Art programs you have but don't use

2. Is it easier to draw someone facing left or right (or forward even)

3. What ideas come from when you were little

4. Fav character/subject that's a bitch to draw

5. Estimate of how much of your art you post online vs. the art you keep for yourself

6. Anything that might inspire you subconsciously (i.e. this horse wasn't supposed to look like the Last Unicorn but I see it)

7. A medium of art you don't work in but appreciate

8. What's an old project idea that you've lost interest in

9. What are your file name conventions

10. Favorite piece of clothing to draw

11. Do you listen to anything while drawing? If so, what

12. Easiest part of body to draw

13. A creator who you admire but whose work isn't your thing

14. Any favorite motifs

15. *Where* do you draw (don't drop your ip address this just means do you doodle at a park or smth)

16. Something you are good at but don't really have fun doing

17. Do you eat/drink when drawing? if so, what

18. An estimate of how much art supplies you've broken

19. Favorite inanimate objects to draw (food, nature, etc.)

20. Something everyone else finds hard to draw but you enjoy

21. Art styles nothing like your own but you like anyways

22. What physical exercises do you do before drawing, if any

23. Do you use different layer modes

24. Do your references include stock images

25. Something your art has been compared to that you were NOT inspired by

26. What's a piece that got a wildly different interpretation from what you intended

27. Do you warm up before getting to the good stuff? If so, what is it you draw to warm up with

28. Any art events you have participated in the past (like zines)

29. Media you love, but doesn't inspire you artistically

30. What piece of yours do you think is underrated

[midasmagus]

This was trending around bsky, so I ended up doing it! Might as well post it all here as well for reading ease. I'll leave my answers below!

Do you prefer traditional drawing, or digital Digital is my fav nowadays! I do have a warm spot in my heart for pencil and ball point pen sketches though

How long have you been drawing? My earliest memories are of drawing! I’d say… maybe 24-25 years?

How many classes have you taken? Outside of mandatory art classes in school, I took additional classes in printmaking, metal work and ceramics all in high school. I did have ambitions for going to college for art, but ended up unable to proceed due to money.

What is your favorite thing to draw? My favorite thing to draw is my OC’s! Been a big fan self indulgent drawing since the dawn of time. If I had to be specific -my faves are my persona, Katsuo and M’yareh uwu

How often do you use References? Not often enough! But I’m really trying to change that habit. When I look through my portfolio I can always tell my pieces made with references outshine the others.

Whats your least favorite thing to draw? Backgrounds!!! They make me cry even though I know they're important 😩

Do you draw professional, or just for fun? Pretty much just for fun! The tiny bit of money I make from my creative endeavors just goes to savings or a little treat for myself.

Are you confident about your art? As confident as I can be! I feel happy with where I am, but I've noted the things I could improve at

Do you prefer to keep your art personal, or do you like drawing things for other people? I mostly draw for myself, but I do find joy in drawing for others as well

Do you ever collaborate with others? It's pretty rare, but I'm not against it!

Show a WIP/sketch/something that never saw the light of day. 1st design I drafted for my persona, Midas! Completely different vibe, and funny enough waaaay closer to irl me visually 😅

How long does an average piece take you to complete? Probably 8+ hours if I'm putting my all in it. I work slower than I'd like to admit 😅

Do you draw more today than you did in the past, or do you draw less? I'm in my late 20's and my life has put me in various stages of creative rennisance and horrid Art block - so, depends on what age you're comparing me to? Overall, I think I'm pretty middle of the line now. I don't pump out a finished piece a day, but I also draw regularly enough that I'm happy!

What are you currently trying to improve on? I've been interested in creating on more illustrative works - so I've been digging back into strengthening fundamentals like values, color theory, and composition.

What is most difficult for you to draw? I love the human form - hate hands. like - I like having them, but they're frustrating to make look right and match my style cohesively lol

What is the easiest thing for you to draw? Faces and hair - which I'm sure surprises no one.

Do you like to challenge yourself? 50/50! Challenging myself is cool, but I gotta make sure to remind myself that I am good at some things when I struggle lol

Are you confident your are improving steadily? I'd say yes! Even just checking in with myself every so many months I find things I note to myself that I've gotten better at.

Do you feel jealous when you see other people's art, or inspired? I’ve always been inspired to see others art! Art is a language of the heart, and I love to see it spoken. I can’t ever recall a moment where I was ever truly jealous- if there was an aspect I liked from s omeone’s work I would just dive in and study it

Do you like to draw in silence, or with music? Music all the way - or at the very least a podcat/audiobook/video essay in the background

For digital art, what program(s) do you use? Clip Paint Studio is my go-to. I do look fondly back on Paint Tool SAI though.

For traditional art, what medium do you like most? (Pencil,watercolor, etc) My fave traditional medium would be Ink in like… it's forms. I love inking, I love doodling with pens, and I adored the process of print making (ex Linocut, Copper Etching, etc)

What inspires you to not just make art, but to be a better artist? Maybe its cheesy but connecting with people, creating friendships, and sharing parts of myself to allow those connections to flourish have helped me the most find the will to improve.

[potentialtomato]

Getting somewhere

It finally feels like I may be coming into some serious artist purpose. I think up until now I have really been creating with a loose understanding of why I do, and usually just trying to copy the astethics of what I liked. Illustrative, stylistic and surreal Illustration, with elegant line variation and play with color (usally of natural scenes).

This year how ever I have understood that art is a necessary meditation for me. something to focus on and an excuse to sit in a moment, making it so where ever I go, I have something to do. But Ive always struggled with what my art "means" what it "contributes" how to talk about it is a passionate way that is required to get grants or residencies. It is also difficult because I find it hard to do any self motivated project. Unless someone has directly requested it or I am sure it will improve my standing with someone I don't usually seriously create (besides small drawing in my sketch book).

I've also had in the back of my mind the truth that is how the world is made sence of through art. This has quelled my feelings of guilt when ever I think about how selfish it is to spend so much time creating. But It has never really worked, and i realize now that is because Ive never really been creating with a large concept I am trying to process my feelings/understanding of. So what do I want to unpack? what beauty am I drawn to. what has always calmed me down when the existential parts of the world are literally warped in my brain. The idea of being insignificant, in a good way. That nature keeps moving despite anything I do. Vasts amounts of stories and textures and chemical reactions, weather, layering, growth, decay is all happening all of the time, and is beautiful. I think thats why i'm always drawn to the idea of entropy, I like referring to my self and and unstoppable energy. The appreciation and attention to all the small parts that put together the bigger picture.

This also clicks with my recent success in creating paper with recycled scraps and natural materials (flowers, tomatoes, cacou beans). At first when my mind was just on sales the paper i was making seemed inadequate and a waste of time. I didn't have the right materials / know how to make a consistent, art material grade piece. It was to bumpy, thin, or had holes in it. Though Ive gotten better some of those problems still stand. buuuuuuuuuut, Ive been dreaming of sewing the pieces together and painting/ drawing something on them like a canvas. this would mean I would succeeded in making my own art materials, and would even provide and extra layer of texture that Im always trying to create in my work. not to mention it feels reassuring to know that just because i'm not working in a professional studio that I am not gate kept from learning and being a part of the natural dyes and fibers art community.

This was a long one, but it feels really nice to finally feel justified in spending all of this time in my life on art and design. And I have to acknowledged how important it was to watch and be exposed to my friends in other mediums (mostly music and film) as they forge ahead with a vision.