#I'm still figuring out how to draw em but it's going

[gumibuki]

[bonestrouslingbones]

i finally got an idea to make fluff's outfit just a little more "papyrus" (aka just a bit more faggy) but i haven't even tried to draw it out yet because i cannot for the life of me figure out how to represent low-rise pants with fishnets underneath on a fucking skeleton

[ezlo-x]

Some Ganondorf pose practice

(under cut is me rambling I should actually go to bed)

helloooo it is time for the lovely late night posting from meee

lately ive been feeling frustrated on how i draw anatomy. i want it to be simplistic like idk 2000s MTV or Adult Swim cartoon show art style I'm very tired and sleepy but just know its part of that era of art that I've been searching inspo for. but honestly i feel like i havent done proper body drawings in a while and I love doing it. idk why i just felt motivated to practice drawing ganondorf, I've also been feeling frustrated that the way i draw characters posing has gotten really stiff. so ig the perfect storm was created and a combination of things happened when drawing and i gotta say im pretty proud of it

i took pose refs cause i havent done that in a long while. I took the way i draw totk ganondorf and used certain traits and give em to LF ganondorf and i really love how it turned out. Im also trying to figure out still on how to use my new tablet cause this is actually the first time I'm properly using it (classes didn't gave me much time with it). my mind just went blank i was gonna say more anywayz uhhhhhh imma let this be rebloggable cause i liked how it turned out, IM very shy abt sharing stuff like this but i will share it to you all

enjoy topless ganondorf <3

[sparklykat-hideoutenthusiast]

Hehe >:3

I love going to your blog through my inbox.

Like- no- I don't look up their username, I'm a normal person, instead I go to my cellar (inbox) where I keep many prisoners including myself and ask for directions (click on your profile) 😌

ehehehe i love opening this app to see that you’ve been perusing my blog it’s such a fun little surprise

[readerstories]

what about nr 3 on the list with deadpool & wolverine? with who is up to u

Okay so this got away from me a bit lol, but anywho, here's some Poolverine x gn! reader :D Drabble requests with the latest reblogged prompt list open until the end of the weekend!

Prompt: 3) “How do you feel about adding another person to the mix?”

Warnings/tags: established relationship, pre-relationship, polyamory

Wordount: 815

Logan is still not quite used to being around a lot of people without it being a bad thing, but Wade's friends (and by now, his) filling the apartment are kinda nice. He most likely will get overstimulated at some point, but for now he's relaxing on the couch, beer in one hand, the other arm thrown over the back.

“How do you feel about adding another person to the mix?” Is the first thing Wade asks when he flings himself down onto the couch next to Logan, and bullies his way into his side. Logan grunts, arm moving from the back of the couch to curl over Wade's shoulders.

"Not that I don't think you are enough, but I think it would be really hot to have some more filling in this sandwich! Or for me to be the filling between two hot bods! Or you between one hot bod and one half-rotten bod." Logan growls at the insult Wade hurls at himself, but that's something to take up and argue about later, not right in the middle of all their friends. Which by the way, Logan is happy none of them have enhanced hearing (that he knows of), because of course Wade had chosen a chaotic moment to bring this new topic up.

"Who?" He's not unfamiliar with polygamy at all, it can be a lot of fun, but he's picky (he can allow himself to be that now, in this universe).

"I'm not going to point, so look over towards the snack table, but try to be subtle even if that isn't your strong suit, my little brute." Logan looks around the room, pretending he's just letting his eyes wander, before they settle at the two people standing and chatting over there.

"Dopinder?" Wade groans, hitting his head against Logan's shoulder.

"Yes, Dopinder, straight as an arrow Dopinder, who is disgustingly in love with a woman. No! The actual cutie chatting to him, you fool!" He figured Wade meant you, but fucking with Wade is fun, even in small ways. He lets his eyes wander all over you. You are indeed cute, but also hot. The clothes you are wearing look comfy, but also good, like you put effort in even if you were only seeing friends that no doubt have seen you in worse.

You catch him staring, his gaze almost like a physical weight. You give him a little smile and wave before turning back to Dopinder. You shake your head with a smile at something he says, Logan wonders what about.

"I can hear your gears turning in that not so little head of yours." Logan turns to Wade, who's watching him with big and eager eyes. It would be a lie to say he hadn't looked before. He had looked since he first saw you at the first party Wade did after Logan moved in.

Well, it wasn't the first time he had seen you, but he was a little preoccupied to notice how good you looked when you were crammed into the polaroid that Wade had waved like a shield in the Honda.

He had never planned at doing more than looking, happy with having just Wade, but since the man is offering…..

"Yeah." Wade grins at him, leaning forward to plant a wet, but quick kiss on his mouth.

"Fucking knew it. Their charm is irresistible." Wade glances over to you, clearly checking you out while Logan checks him out, squeezing his shoulders.

"How are we doing this?" Logan asks, drawing Wade’s attention back to him.

"Well, I think you should get up and get over there, work your irresistible charm. Conveniently, you need a new drink." Logan looks at his still half full beer, but before he can say anything, Wade snatches his drink and downs it in one go. He wipes his mouth with the back of his hand, and it's through sheer will that Logan's thoughts and blood doesn't go straight south.

"Now up and at 'em' tough stuff." Wade pats his cheek, Logan snaps after his fingers, but gets up. "And be a dear and grab me some snacks. Some actual ones, not just the one we are trying to get into the pants off.” Logan rolls his eyes, starting to walk over to the snack table where Dopinder is showing you something on his phone now. Your mouth is full of food, so you cover your mouth as you laugh, your eyes connecting with Logan's over the edge of your hand.

Logan hopes this goes well, he's rusty flirting with anyone else but Wade (he doesn't think the threat of stabbing you would go over well). But he doesn't worry too much as you keep looking at him as he approaches, and then draw him into the conversation as he nears.

[gingerale13]

I churned this out so fast excuse the quality.. anyways there's a cheesy ass note to my mutuals + followers under the cut bc I love you guys 🧡🧡

This year kinda whizzed by for me! A lot happened in my personal life that I don't want to share online, but throughout all of the highs and lows I was always able to come back to this wonderful fandom. It's been a huge comfort seeing other people theorize and discuss my favorite characters!

I've meet a lot of awesome people through Tumblr & Ao3, cosplaying, and various TF2 groups. As of writing this post I've got a solid 260 followers, which is an insane number to me when this blog simply started as a place to organize my creative works 😭

All of the little tags and comments on my stuff have seriously kept my life whimsical (for lack of a better term) and I would like to shout-out some notable people and works that kept me going through 2024!

First up, and probably the biggest one, is the lovely @aussie-bookworm and their fic, Going Through The Motions. These updates seriously made my day, and I couldn't have been happier you accepted my offer to proofread. It's been super fun discussing the differences between our countries, yapping about the Mercs, and different AUs. I hope to read many more of your works in 2025 B)

Next, another fanfic author, is AhChunta! If you like slow burns, mystery, and Speeding Bullet, I would really recommend Stolen Pieces. It's a super cool crime boss AU that I've been enjoying this year. Plus it deserves more attention!

Another awesome artist is @800db-cloud, who is honestly CARRYING the Freak Fortress fandom. I love how silly your depictions of those freaks are 🧡 and also YOUR ARTSTYLE IS SO COOL AND SATISFYING TO LOOK AT ARGHHH.. You're just super awesome 👍 also shout-out to @riskreward1, my chillest mutual. I think your Getting Milk comic series is hilarious and amazing, but seeing all of those other fandoms you draw is like a gateway drug to me because it's drawn in your KICKASS artstyle‼️plus you like The Mountain Goats and that's based

@thechocolatearmor!! The other Medic Cosplayer I met at my first con!! My friends still mention the in-character convo we had, you were hilarious and I'm so glad I got your Tumblr because I love reading all of your takes on reblogs. I hope I see you again so we can be insane together again 🔥

also @mikimel, I admire how silly you are 😭 I still have that little doodle you drew at the con, and I wish your Tomodochi Miis well <3 AND THE SOLLY FIGURE. He's beautiful. Your fashion sense is fire, and I hope to see more of your cosplay projects! :0 (specifically Soldier Miku. If that's still a thing hehe)

@ivvyzzspark you. You know what you did.

Another HUGE thanks to my very very patient proofreader @emiette for helping me make Crates readable! Em dashes are my new favorite form of punctuation.

And lastly I would like to thank @mvabank because you were the one who made me start rotting over TF2 in the first place 🫶 Magmas were always so fun with you and the image of your little sona with the big ass eyes is forever seared into my brain <3

Maybe it's because 2025 is divisible by 5, but I have a feeling this year is going to be a good one. Stay safe out there, people! Cheers 🥂

[mae-lou-ron]

::steps up to @gargothnightzine altar::

Am I doing this right? I can’t draw for kriff, so I’m writing something. Humbly presenting an excerpt from my first stab at a ✨GAR Goth Night✨ fic!

Mae Ramble™: I love the goth subculture. it's steeped in so much history- which I could go on and on about how it has evolved over the decades... but I won't. I'll stick to the art and aesthetic. The Crow is an incredible addition to this vast genre, and one of my favorites. For this fic, I'm specifically referencing the graphic novel by J. O’Barr, and the 1994 movie starring Brandon Lee. I wanted to make a little Star Wars play on that for some 'original' content in this story.

warnings: clone x f!reader fic; reader has long nails; this "excerpt" is like 1,000+ words, mentions of grief and loss, flirting, story will have eventual fluff and smut. This is painfully a WIP. Also, I glossed over a lot of the darker stuff in 'The Crow', so if you are interested in checking it out, please consume at your own risk. I recommend reviewing the content for any triggers. It's a beautiful story with beautiful art, but it's full of 'em.

(working) summary: The irony isn't lost on you — being the only actual goth-adjacent one in your friend group. Yet, they coaxed you out of your apartment to a goth-themed night at a bar. A bar for the clones of the GAR, of all places. At least you brought a book to read as you waited for your friends to show up…what you didn’t expect was to pique a certain clone captain’s interest in the process.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A knowing smirk told you he'd caught you staring.

The teal patches on the clone's leather jacket caught your eye from a couple seats down the bar. Quickly, you glanced back down at your novel, still feeling his gaze on you. When you looked up again, however, he had vanished. As you scanned the bar for those distinctive flashes of teal, a warm rumbling voice sounded at your side.

"What are you reading?" The voice was soft yet distinct from other clones you'd spoken to before — a smooth, gruff curiosity that caught your attention.

It was him.

Molten amber eyes found yours, the neon lighting of 79's gleaming off his perfectly imperfect swept back hair. Teal accents standing out boldly against the black leather had your eyes wandering over him with intrigue. There was something disarmingly sweet in the way he tilted his head towards the empty barstool next to you, silently seeking permission to join. His entire demeanor radiated a quiet confidence that put you at ease, despite the pulsing music and crowded atmosphere. There was something intriguing about a man who would approach someone reading alone at a bar, especially on a night like this. Eyes drifting between your face and the book in your hands suggested true curiosity rather than some pickup attempt.

"Uh..." Caught a little off guard, you weren't opposed to people approaching you necessarily, and while being the girl at the bar with a book had its advantages, your friends were proving to be late— yet again. There was no point in being rude when he seemed sincerely interested, so you patted the stool next to you and closed the book, keeping your thumb between the glossy pages to show him the cover art.

"It's 'The Keerdak,'" you replied eventually, turning the worn binding so he could see the other side — a dark figure outlined against Coruscant's neon-lit skyline. "It's a revenge story, about a Mandalorian warrior who returns from death to avenge his lost love. Set in the lower levels of Coruscant, actually. Pretty melodramatic stuff," you added with a slight smirk, curious to see his reaction to your choice of reading material.

"Sounds pretty romantic for the Mandalorians I've met... may I?" He looked hopeful, glancing down at the text with an open hand before his eyes landed on your face once again. A soft smile formed at his assessment, handing the book to him so he could appreciate it more closely.

"What?" he asked, his quiet confidence faltering at your smile for a fleeting moment as he took the text from you.

"It's just most people don't consider this romance... it's so dark."

"I wasn't aware they were mutually exclusive..." a dark eyebrow arched up at you playfully, "...and we're here at a goth night at a bar, aren't we?"

"True, though I would hardly call 79's romantic..." you laughed softly.

"Okay, fair..." His smirk was charming as his eyes scanned over the stark black and white illustrations depicting the shadowy figure clad in all black beskar'gam moving through neon-lit streets, the dramatic panel layouts emphasizing the noir atmosphere. A flying beast with its wings spread in the moonlight circled the warrior. A silent guardian.

"Oh—" you said, tapping a perfectly manicured stiletto nail onto the figure. "That's the keerdak... she's like a warden in the world between worlds. They're connected by some kind of bond that tethers the Mando here even in death. At least until the warrior can exact his vengeance, of course..."

The clone's eyes widened slightly at the intricate artwork, fingers hovering over a particularly striking splash page showing the protagonist perched atop a skyscraper, his black cloak billowing in the wind. "Wow..." a genuine sigh of intrigue caught you off guard. "I've never seen anything like this before..."

Fascination was written across his features, and it wasn't the typical polite interest you got from most people when they saw what you were reading — this was different, almost childlike in its wonder. Something about his earnest reaction made you want to share more.

"My favorite is the helmet..." You leaned closer to him as the song changed into something with deeper bass— a little of his cologne floating over to you as you did so. It smelled of bourbon and burning wood... deep and rich and making you want more. "There's a scene where he paints it..." you murmured close to his ear, noticing how the warmth in his cheeks spread to his neck at your proximity as you flipped to the respective page.

"Like a death's head..." he mused, tracing the illustration with his fingertip, the white paint standing out against his black armor, a floating omen of death in the darkness. The symbolism clearly not lost on him — a warrior marked by loss— his grief and his armor indistinguishable from one another. The clone's eyes lingered on the stark contrast of black and white, seeming to understand the beauty in such a clash of opposing forces.

"So... what made you want to experience a 'Goth' night?" You asked him, curious but clearly not disappointed. He chuckled with a sigh. "My men dragged me out, but it looks like my second has already fallen in love with someone..." he thumbed over his shoulder. "They’re good men, they deserve a little fun..."

Following the gesture, you spotted a clone dancing enthusiastically with a Twi'lek woman, both of them completely lost in the music and each other. Something about watching these soldiers find moments of peace warmed your heart. Turning back to your companion, you found his gaze already fixed on you, warm and intent. He returned the book, his fingers ghosting against yours in a touch that felt both accidental and deliberate.

My men.

Not being in his armor kit meant you couldn’t easily tell this clone’s rank. It wasn’t something that mattered to you in the least, but upon closer inspection of his handsome and weathered face, you realized this wasn’t some shiny cadet whose attention you caught. His honeyed eyes held a hardness that spoke of battles fought and experience earned, set deep in a face mapped with a light scar that splashed across his left cheek. The roughness of his jawline and the slight creases in his forehead and eyebrows hinted at countless hours spent in the unforgiving glare of distant suns, commanding troops across war-torn worlds.

The clone beside you had caught you staring once again. Heat pricked your cheeks when he turned his body fully to face you, extending his arm.

"I'm Howzer..."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Honestly, I wouldn't last 5 minutes at an event like this IRL before I got overstimmed, but if I did, this would be me. I’m 100% that chick who brings a book and headphones to a bar…and has massive rbf looks kriffing hot while doing so.

Thank you @ghostymarni for sharing this incredible idea with us, and for all the artists and writers adding their own take on gar goth nite. @lonewolflupe & @gargothnightzine thank you for organizing a place to keep track of all the amazing contributions. I love seeing all the new lore being added by everyone! It's a fresh shake up as we sprint to spring.

GAR Goth Nite frequent flyers who might enjoy?: @eobe @eclec-tech @skellymom @returnofthepineapple @crosshairs-dumb-pimp-gf @wings-and-beskargam

[astro-inthestars]

THANK YOU CHIP I LOVE YOU SO MUCH AND HOW YOU DRAW HANDS

Me when I fall asleep! Hi bestie, I just wanna know... How do you draw hands?? You have a certain style to it, that makes it look so shaped yet still fluid like... I can't describe it, but what's your process when drawing ✨hands✨ (...of tiIIIME– sorry.)

Huh! Well I guess I never really thought about it... I kinda just auto-pilot when I draw hands now that I think of it, so I don't really have a "process" But I'll try to explain the best I can regardless!

Though not what I always do(sometimes I just wing it), I start with the usual shape base for the palm! Though sometimes I forget it's the palm and just use it as a base- and it's not a strict base! Don't gotta follow it 100%, if you gotta break it to make the pose work better, do it! I always have an idea of where the fingers will be when I draw the base, so I don't really map em out at all like others would with the circle thumb trick n all. (nothing wrong with that trick of course, just never worked for me)

More under cut!!

During the sketch I usually just vaguely map out the fingers like this, like mittens! And honestly, more often than not I keep em like that in the final product, lmao.

Don't be afraid to merge together two or more fingers if it helps get the pose across better! Just make it obvious it's not one huge finger by adding bumps or a line where the fingers would usually split.

I always add a curve to the base/fingers to make the poses less stiff! No matter the pose, I try to avoid straight lines on the hands! Even the slightest curve is enough for me. Though that doesn't always fit! Sometimes you gotta have a straight line or two, especially if it suits your style more! Nothing wrong with that.

Remember that the thumb and the index finger are attached! Try to make their lines flow together when possible.

Also, when I draw clutched hands, I make the index finger poke out a bit!

I don't usually draw hands with wrists attached now that I think about it(I like drawing long sleeves,,), but when I do, I make sure there's a clear dividing line between the wrist and the palm, so they don't look merged together!

Use reference pics when needed! Pinterest is usually my best bet for quick and easy hand ref pics of all kinds! Though you can also use your own hand! Whether by taking a pic or just posing it long enough. You are your own free model or something rejiagdlzf BUT if it's something simpler, I usually just pose my free hand under my desk and feel it out/imagine the hand and go from there.

And of course, the thing everyone says...

Practice makes perfect!

Though I suppose if I'm being completely fair, I never really followed that and just drew for 7 years and hoped something happened... I still struggle with hands ALLLL the time, but these are some things that I learned over the years that made em a bit easier! I guess my number 1 tip would be to just- not stress about it! I don't pay attention much when I draw hands and just let my brain go off while I think about I dunno Hatstache or something LMAO

But uh! Yeah! I hope that helped and was at least a bit comprehensible! Hope I didn't forget anything- If you need something a bit more specific then I could whip somethin up for ya real quick! Just ask! ^ This also goes for anyone reading- if I can be of any help, I'd love to try my best!

[get-rammed]

The idea for this AU comes from the games, but mostly follows after Shadow Generations with some modifications, hence the AU part. It's mostly self indulgent since he's always been my favorite, and I saw an excuse to draw body horror :}

Will contain spoilers for Shadow/Sonic Generations. But whomp whomp, more information for my version of Shadow/the basis of this AU below.

So the main idea for this AU is that Shadow didn't lose his Doom Powers after he defeated Black Doom. He overcame his violent angry nature to remain a morally grey good guy. Who just happens to have sick ass extra powers now. I am unfortunately a sucker for "I was born to be bad, and I do the wrong thing sometimes, but I want to be good and I'm trying my best."

Another large change for this AU is designs and heights. They're super powered aliens. Let em be a lil bit bigger. Plus that's just kind of what I specialize in :')

--

When Black Doom and the Time Eater were defeated, it caused various rifts to be left open with nobody to close them. Which in turn allows anomalies into Shadow and Co.'s world. They can range from simple items (pens, cups, occasionally buildings, things of that nature), to lost and confused people/animals/what have you, to large dangerous beings from other worlds and timelines.

Sometimes the things that comes through the portal, don't want to go back through it, so that's where Shadow found his purpose. He gets to fight and devour the anomalies that won't go home :)

Shadow uses his Doom Morph to consume dangerous anomalies, absorbing their energy in the process. When he's in this form, he's far more reactive and hostile. So they have to clear the area before deploying him. There a handful of people he won't outright attack even in this form, but Rouge is one of the few who can calm him down if he starts to slip too far into the darkness. Because I am a sucker for their friendship :')

There are a number of agencies and world governments who call upon Shadow now for help. Basically if they send Shadow after you, you're not surviving. In a way he does absolutely hate becoming an attack dog for all these agencies, but he also knows he's the only one (sometimes with help) who can stop some of these anomalies.

That being said, if he doesn't agree an anomaly is dangerous, he will not fight as strongly or destroy them. He still maintains his idea of what's right and wrong. It's Shadow, he's not going to blindly follow orders.

--

Shadow has become a little more open after finally getting to properly grieve the loss of his family. Finally got to process everything. He's still standoffish and slow to trust, but he's at least willing to try to trust more people.

--

With his Doom Powers remaining, he has to constantly fight the urges to commit to the chaos and violence he was born for. Most times it just gives him a headache to fight back mentally. But when the urges are very strong, he has to fight the internal war much harder. Which is where he ends up with bloody noses.

The bloody noses can happen suddenly, and be rather aggressive. In the cases of bloody noses, he'll chaos snap out of the room and try to find somewhere quiet and dark until his internals heal themsleves.

It's basically a case of his blood pressure spiking insanely fast and bursting a bunch of delicate vessels in his nose. Also the idea of the darkness inside of him just kinda. Chewing away at him metaphorically and physically.

He's had enough time to figure out what sets him off, but occasionally random things trigger a nose bleed. This has forced him to be more delicate with how he responds to things, but also has forced him to be a bit more open about what's wrong with him.

The bloody noses also help act as a power balance thing so Shadow isn't just all powerful all the time. If he's not careful, he can go too far and hurt innocent people. Which he'd rather not do. It's an indicator of sorts that he's leaning too far in the wrong direction and he needs to check himself.

Lack of inhibitor rings. With the retention of the Doom Powers, Shadow has more going on internally to help balance his chaos energy. More in tune with himself, but not fully connected if that makes sense. Not wearing some of his inhibitor rings allows him greater access to the Doom Powers at all times.

It also happens that if he wears his wrist rings, they limit too much energy and he becomes sluggish and tired. He now requires more energy to function, and all 4 inhibitor rings limit too much.

He keeps the ones on his ankles on as he does still need some kind of a blocker so he doesn't burn himself out. Only having 2 on is a good balance so he can function and fight.

[egophiliac]

I was wanting to try doing an art piece in the style of the signature spell poster art pieces you create. But I’m not really the best at coming up with a composition for such a thing.

Do you have a process for how you come up with the compositions for them?

oh, awesome! it is an INCREDIBLY enjoyable style to work in; I hope you have fun with it! :D

I'm not great at putting my thought/art process into words, so my apologies if this doesn't make a lot of sense, but I'll try! my first step is always to do a LOT of thumbnails to figure out both the idea and how I want to show it; not trying to do a real sketch or anything, just little doodles to figure out what exactly I'm trying to portray. (I also call these "garbage passes" because they're not meant to be any good, they're just there to throw things out. aha. ha. ...anyway.) I think it's important during that first stage to really focus on the idea and the layout and not to get too bogged down in the actual drawing yet!

I tend to save my final thumbnails, so I'll use 'em as examples (I posted the ones up through episode 5 here if you're interested!) (and, uhhh, spoilers through episode 5 also in this post, hopefully that won't be an issue!)

the main thing I try to think about in composition is balance -- not necessarily in terms of symmetry, but in where each element is placed and how much space it's taking up. remember, empty space is still space! it's also really important to think about the parts that don't have anything in them, as much as the parts that do!

personally, I like to divide things up roughly by both halves and by thirds -- there's a lot more in-depth info out there on why the "rule of thirds" in particular works well visually, but in short, our brains tend to focus on things that are placed closer to imaginary division lines, instead of in the exact center of an image. so even when I'm doing something that is very centered and symmetrical, I try to keep that in mind and generally aim around those for landmarks like faces/eyes (or...where they would be, anyway) and other focal points.

it's not a formula of "the character's face should be in this division of this grid" or anything, more like "our minds like to focus on these areas, let's think about how to use that", if that makes sense! and of course rules are made to be broken, art is lawless anarchy, and so on. but it can be a good starting place for deciding where you want to put things!

(blue - thirds, red - half)

and against the finished versions, because they do usually end up changing a lot (including the empty space of the border):

(...these actually lined up a lot better than I thought they would. :') it makes me look like I do things way more intentionally than I do.)

other stuff I just try to keep in mind is that our eyes like following arcs and paths, which can be a good way to guide the eye:

and frame and control the focus:

honestly, composition is one of those things I feel like I struggle with a lot, so I'm not sure how much of this is helpful or actually makes sense outside of my head. but hopefully it helps a little! it's all just stuff to think about while drawing and not anything hard-and-fast, so don't, like, stress out about making sure things are lining up exactly on the thirds or anything. again, it's more "our brains think these are the dopest parts of the rectangle" than anything else! take advantage of the cool parts of the rectangle!

NOW GO HAVE FUN DRAWING seriously though, it is always super cool that other people like this idea and style enough to want to do it themselves and for other/their own characters! thank you! ❤️❤️❤️

[lunar-wandering]

so i very quickly wrote out something for that "Kokichi was the trial/prototype for the Izuru Kamukura project" AU i mentioned a few days ago. because i'm possessed. i'll probably turn this into a longer fic i'll post later, cause i definitely have more ideas, but i wanted to get this out NOW.

-

There was a kid in that room. 

For a second, Hajime froze, staring at the small figure through the door’s equally as small window. 

A purple and golden glare met his eyes. 

Hajime was being prodded in the back, the people around him drawing his attention away as they continued to lead him down the hallway. 

Still, his mind drifted back to the child, sitting in that dark room, alone. 

He hadn’t been able to see them clearly, but they hadn’t looked well. What was a kid even doing here? 

He glanced at the stone faced people around him, wondering if he should ask about it. 

He didn’t. 

~

Izuru Kamukura was led down a hallway. 

He stared resolutely at the ground. He didn’t care what was around him. 

And yet, still, his attention got drawn to a door. 

Almost as quickly as it had happened, his eyes drifted away. 

It was nothing but an empty room, after all. 

…Boring. 

~

He couldn’t remember his name. 

In the dark, he stumbled down the street, focusing only on the sidewalk in front of him. 

…He could hear voices. 

Quickly, he turned towards an alleyway- 

His leg gave out. 

He let out a muffled yelp as he slammed into the ground, scraping his hands and knees and sending a stab of searing pain up his already injured leg. Stupid fucking bullet wound…

It had only been a graze, but it still hurt. 

“Shit!” Someone yelled, and he immediately went still. Footsteps sounded, hurriedly growing closer, and despite his body’s shaking, he tried to push himself up off the ground. Movement out of the corner of his eye indicated someone kneeling down beside him. “Hey, kid, are you okay?” 

He kept his face tilted toward the ground, purple bangs covering his eyes as he gave a silent nod, hoping that his injury had not yet visibly bled through the makeshift bandages he’d made. It seemed like it hadn’t, considering neither of the people beside him had said anything about a hospital yet…

“What are you doing out here so late at night?” The person continued, “Do you have someone we can call?” 

No. No he didn’t have anyone they could call. Not that he could remember at least. 

“Hey man-” Someone else said, “Even if the kid does have someone, based on the look of ‘im, I don’t think it’d be a good idea to send ‘im back to ‘em.” 

…Yeah. He’d really rather not go back to the people he’d been with initially, thank you very much. 

He started to tune out the discussion going on above him, thinking back to the lab he’d woken up in. How long had it been since then? He couldn’t remember. He’d lost track of the days in that dark room, even when he had been perfectly keeping time. 

He barely fought back a flinch as someone gently placed their hand on his shoulder. 

“You listening, lil’ guy?” They asked, waiting until after he’d given them another nod to continue, “Would you be alright coming back to our place for the night? You can’t exactly stay out here.” 

Their place? 

…It would do no good to trust people right out the gate. He’d only just barely managed to escape from there- he didn’t think he could pull off another escape attempt from a completely different place. 

But then again, it wasn’t exactly like he had anything to lose from this. 

He gave another silent nod, and reluctantly accepted help to get up on his feet. Another stabbing pain shot up his leg, but he steadfastly ignored it. 

“Don’t worry lil’ guy, it’s not very far- just around the corner, in fact.” 

That was fortunate. He didn’t think he’d be able to handle walking for much longer. 

The walk was filled with the two people chattering beside him- occasionally trying to ask him a question that he didn’t answer, until they stood in front of a building that looked like it had used to be a fire station. 

One of them stepped forwards, turning the door handle (who leaves their door unlocked at night?), swinging the door open before turning back to him with a wide smile. 

“Welcome to DICE headquarters!” 

[subway-boss-jericho]

Fuck it. Silly post time

My doodles from my class notes this + last week. I have been struggling to draw my guys on model lately so you can see some of the Struggles. go ahead, look at em. i am so human but watch me go. Anyways, these are in order from oldest to most recent (the ones I did in class today.) Trying to figure out how i want to draw them again, because it seems I can never quite do it the same way twice. Mildly frustrating, but it does leave space for silly posts like this. I hope someone else finds as much amusement in offended tynamo as I do.

AUs include spirit keeper (I've forgotten how to draw??? his hair??? which is like his most identifying feature???? don't know where THAT muscle memory went but it is GONE) and also Steady Tracks Ingo (who I have Never figured out how to draw in the first place tbh). Also pictured: an intentionally rare little ingo appearance. Also noticed I've been drawing more canon-compliant doodles than I normally do, so that's neat! Top right image (the third one) is my INSANELY botched attempt at drawing the One Move twins. Literally turbo fucked that one. look at ingo's face. Unrecognizable. Will I stop using an ink pen? when I die maybe

Anyways. God be damned I am Having Fun. Wanted to offer you my doodles in the hopes they make someone else smile too today. Oh the train is just a train, I just figured you guys would like that one. Even though I'm struggling to keep my pen steady or my lines consistent, I am still very happy with several things here. The smoke on the train, and the two middle Emmets on the very last image in particular I really love

silly post complete. have a great timezone

[disgruntleddemon]

It's better world Emma-May time! (although this design is also my design for her in cannon lol)

she's def a character i'm still very uncertain on. she has even less to go by than Tate, which is saying something! literally all we know is her name, that she left Fiddleford at some point, and a drawing of a picture of her.

i've decided to have her work making arcade games. partly cause i wanted her to also do something computery, and partly cause i thought it'd be funny if she worked for the same company that made fight fighters. i gotta figure out more personality, but i do picture her smart and funny. curious enough to go against her better judgement sometimes, and lots of random little talents.

i also like the hc that her family used to be cihpertologists. i'm going w the idea that her family left when she was too young to really remember any of it. she know of it, and how it affected her family, but doesn't rly have any memories of it.

anyways, i am once again letting the characters be a little ooc. there isn't rly a way to make Emma in character, but, Fiddleford and Ford will be a little bit, cause they end up deciding to tell her everything. or at least a summery.

basically, now that Ford and Fiddleford are officially together, it means Ford actually has to make the trip to palo alto w Fidds to meet Emma and Tate. tbh, this probably would have happened regardless, with McGucket living w Ford, but all the same lol.

obviously, they are ridiculously stressed. and with the fact they'd like Tate to be able to stay in gf sometimes, they realize they Emma deserves to be in the loop. especially cause she'd probably find out eventually anyway, they might as well get a chance to explain themselves first.

suffice to say they're not exactly making the best impression lol. and she's, very reasonably, pissed. but despite herself, she is kind of fascinated by Ford having dealt with Bill. the world's most bizarre case of 6 degrees of separation.

i think she can't help but be interested in the supernatural stuff. i kinda picture a gag where literally everyone handles the supernatural better than Fiddleford hjkjhjk. she moves closer to gf at some point, so i kinda need a reason for her to do so.

that being said, at least for awhile, she doesn't want Tate going. the Tate situation is kind of all over the place for awhile. mostly until Emma is certain he'll be safe and taken care of in gravity falls. at first, Fiddleford has to make visits to californa, then she makes a few visits to gf with tate, then she lets Tate stay without also going, and eventually, she ends up moving closer.

anyway, up until this point there's a running gag of Fiddleford insisting it was a society, not a cult. unfortunately, it's hard to argue w Emma on this one lmao.

Fiddleford fucked off to the middle of no where, started getting more distant, randomly dropped off the face of the earth and stopped contacting his family, and is now finally trying to fix things. suffice to say he really has to prove he's committed to actually doing so.

as for Ford, his social bumbling actually helped him out in his first meeting. yes, he's tripping over his words and clearly anxious out of his mind, but he's obviously trying so so hard lol. i think him and Em would have been friends in better circumstances. she can't help but find him endearing, even if she thinks he's a dumbass.

i'd like for her to at least be on neutral terms with everyone so she can pop in for an adventure here and there, but i also thinks she deserves to be pissed, and make things harder for Fiddleford. local man actually has to face consequences instead of escaping to a literal cult he started, y'know?

[brawlstars-dragon-au]

Sketch dump time! A whole bunch of requests from the crazy ex-bird app

In Order: Maisie, Pam, Colette, Buster, Chester, Chuster ❤️🧡 (and a teeny Gus), Leon and Sandy (Leondy 💚💜), Bull, El Primo, and Mandy!

Extra notes about each sketch:

Maisie:

Her breath attack is a condensed foam material, similar to that of a fire extinguisher. Using a gas similar to a pressurized CO² (based on gas-based fire extinguishers!), she shoots it out at high speeds. These hits can potentially cause frostbite and even severe damage to the body if left unattended. She's quite powerful in this AU due to this ability 👀👀 being able to put out the fires and overpower another dragon's breath? Now THAT'S some queen moves right there! She can also simply spray out the foam substance at short range without that pressurized gas. This helps with more close range fire fighting work.

Her right wing and front leg were undeveloped, a disability she'd had since she hatched. However! With the help of mechanics, she uses these prosthetics to help her fly. Still gotta test out how to draw it to make sense, as well as sort out how it stays in place. I've been using inspiration from Toothless (HTTYD) and his tail that Hiccup made.

Pam:

Pam is a bulkier dragon, very much on the larger side of all of them. I'm at odds with myself to figure out whether ot not she'll have wings 🤔 so I had two copies there! Perhaps her wings may be a bit smaller if I do give her them.

Pam spits out molten magma that's stored up inside her as an attack. However, it can also be chunks of scrap metal that she stores up. Otherwise, it's just magma.

Though I didn't draw this, I want Pam to be very resilient to fire in general, as her species/family of dragon use their ability to spew this magma (technically Lava after ut leaves her body? I'll do more research on this...) in order to craft and shape metal. While other dragons need to spend some time to build up a fire hot enough, the Junker family line is able to do this much more easily. (Amber is a close second, though)

Her skin has the ability to crack and seep up lava out of it, potentially coating her body in this to give herself a temporary lava shield, something extremely hard to break through. (In the future, little Jessie may also be able to do this... however, Pam doesn't think she's ready at the moment and avoids the topic or any ideas of teaching her how.)

Colette:

Colette flies in a sort of funny way, twirling around and flapping her wings to maintain somewhat of a chaotic flight pattern. Think of a snake slithering through the sky, but with large wings and the grace of... a teenage dragon (not much, but it does work).

When she gets better at flying...pray and hope she isn't able to catch up to her favourite brawlers cause she isn't ever gonna let go of them 💀 It makes for a great attack, actually! Charging at enemies and coiling around them like a snake to prevent movement, like a big hug ❤️ she just loves everyone SO much 😍

Buster:

Finally kinda set on a design for this funky guy! He's a larger dragon (smaller than El Primo or Frank, but still definitely up there in size)

His wings never quite grew fully, so he wouldn't be able to fly 😔 however, that'll never stop him and his dreams of being a cool movie star 🧡🧡

Buster, at the heart of it, is an unstoppable force when he sets his mind to something. He'll charge in with the same ferocity as his favouite protagonists, rivalling the audacity and hard-headed nature of even Bull! All while doing so for his friends 💪 we love Buster in this AU frfr

Chester:

Chester always has theatrics when he flies. Flips, spins, and fun aerodynamic movements up in the sky! He's gotta compensate for his lack of speed compared to other wyverns after all, but he thinks he's pretty great 😎

Loved drawing this kinda unique pose tbh! That's what I loved with these drawings, I got to experiment without really thinking too much for em with how polished and clean that look. It was very fun! 🔥

Chuster ft. Gus❤️🧡:

We love some goofy gays here 🥹❤️🧡 I just wanted to let em have a little nuzzle + smooch! Dragons don't necessarily kiss, but little side boops like this are the equivalent of a cheek kiss.

Also, a little Gus on the side 🥹🥹 I love this sort of found family dynamic that have! Buster being the cool dad vibe/big bro to Gus, and then Buster being in a relationship with Chester so that he's also a cool dad too 😎 Gus loved these two guys from the very start, they're funny 🤭 never a boring day for these silly lads.

Leondy 💚💜:

My beloveds 🤲 I really do cherish the ship, as well as strong friendship Sandy and Leon have. (Btw in my HCs, Leon and Sandy are 13 & 14 respectively, just to clear that up!)

Sandy, I've mentioned a few times, is very inspired by Capybaras, so Leon finding one is just perfect 🤭 silly little deadpan face lads.

Bull:

BULLDOZERRRR- What a lad! Bull is inspired by- uh, Bulls! Great creatures, large bodies and thick necks to support those headstrong charges 🐂 I love making his posture all confident, strong steps to say, "Yeah. You TRY and stand up to me. I DARE you." Don't wanna mess with him on most days 🏃‍♀️💨💨

El Primo:

Still figuring out a full-body for El Primo, bit he's roughly the same size as Bull! (Maybe a bit bigger)

El Primo has got really small wings, similar to his El Dragón skin. Even his scales and horns are inspired by that mostly! Love when characters have preexisting dragon themed skins 🤭 makes it a lot easier to make ideas!

His "mask" is actually just body paint. He has similar paint on his body, really showing off the vibrant colours and persona he puts on for the crowds.

He WILL beat up his enemies into a pulp in matches. Thank goodness there's the gem powered regeneration and the respawn system in place 😭 I plan to give him a very strong body and tail, enough to support him when he needs to go on his hind legs and overpower his opponents. Buster is designed in a similar way as well!

Mandy:

Last but not least, the Queen of Candy herself. Not even the Dragon AU let's her escape fast food work 😔😔

Her super attack is purely a magical sugar-based rainbow blast, as shown in the sketch. Also, I'm now realizing that I forgot her red spots oml- No wonder she looks so empty 💀 uhh sorry about that, lads 😭 I'll redraw her one day to show off that glowing effect of her spots 🥹🥹

And that's all! Thank you for reading if you made it this far! Hopefully I can make more of these sketch dumps 🤭✨️ maybe take reqs from here too! We shall see. Take care y'all!

[mostlysignssomeportents]

A year in illustration (2024), Part one

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/12/07/great-kepplers-ghost/art-adjacent

As I go into my fifth year of writing Pluralistic (!), I find myself increasingly reflecting on the unexpected pleasures of creating the collages that head each post. I am by no means a visual artist – my drawing skills are sub-stick-figure, and my spatial sense overall is remarkable terrible. I can't solve jigsaws, I get lost in hotel corridors, and I can't find things that are right under my nose.

But addressing the challenge of illustrating extremely abstract ideas related to tech policy, corruption, monopoly and other hard-to-visualize ideas has awakened some kind of latent, heretofore unsuspected interest in visual communications in me. Relying exclusively on Creative Commons, public domain, and extremely solid fair use claims in selecting my source materials adds a spicy challenge that makes the whole thing even more engrossing.

I've written about my process in finding and preparing these sources before. Here's 2023's notes and highlights:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/21/collages-r-us/#ki-bosch

And here's 2022:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/25/a-year-in-illustration/

This year saw some new, exciting discovering and challenges. First and foremost is my switch to kagi.com as my preferred search-engine, which is like having access to a time machine that's connected to pre-enshittificated Google:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/04/teach-me-how-to-shruggie/#kagi

Kagi's image search is amazing, far better than Google's, and it has great copyright-based filters. When combined with tineye.com (for finding high-rez versions of images that might not be correctly tagged for rights status), it's even better. Even so, often Kagi will surface thumbnails of images Tineye can only find as high-rez on proprietary stock art sites like Alamy, covered in gross watermarks. These images are still in the public domain, watermarks or no, but erasing the watermarks is a lot of work. However, Alamy is a pretty good source of bibliographic information about the original sources of these images, for example, which issue of a 19th century boxing magazine they came out of, and then Kagi can find me high-rez scans of these sources, at the Internet Archive and/or the Library of Congress. I snag those PDFs and import them into the GIMP (which I use for editing) and pull, clean and crop a new high-rez version of those images for my own use. This year, I got much better at saving and organizing all that work on my laptop, but next year I'm hoping to get into a rhythm of uploading my high-rezzes to Wikimedia Commons so everyone can use 'em.

Getting better at collaging isn't merely getting better at using search tools, of course. Knowing what to search for is even more important, especially given the constraints of only using public domain/CC sources. The Library of Congress is a wellspring of visual material, but its own search tool is sadly lacking; however, Kagi's image search comes to the rescue again, thanks to the "site:loc.gov" flag, which restricts results to the LoC.

It was through these searches that I realized how many of the source images I was pulling down were the work of Joseph Keppler (1872-1956), an American political cartoonist who worked extensively for Punch:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Keppler

Keppler was called upon to illustrate many, many political issues that have parallels with the modern competition, corruption and geopolitical stories. A scant few of these remain in the periphery of the public's imagination today, most notably "The Bosses of the Senate," quite possibly the most significant antitrust cartoon of all time:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bosses_of_the_Senate

But Keppler is a wellspring of great public domain images, and I've been drawing on them heavily. It gives me great pleasure to do so, not just because they're so well-suited to the stories I write, but also because his posterity deserves it. He should be in the American illustrator pantheon alongside the likes of Norman Rockwell!

Besides my search engine and my sources, 2024 saw one other gigantic change in my collage-making: I had cataracts removed from both my eyes in September, and my ophthalmologist implanted lenses that corrected my severe astigmatism and permanently focused one of my eyes at 23" and the other at 25' (this is called monovision). My new eyeballs are still bedding in, and there are days when my vision is severely subpar, but I'm experiencing continuous improvement, and I think this will be a game-changer for 2025.

2025 will also see the long-awaited Version 3.0 release of The GIMP, the free/open image editor I exclusively use. GIMP (Generic Image Manipulation Program) was first released a quarter-century ago, and it's been in version 2.x for twenty years, so this is a big milestone. I can't wait!

https://lwn.net/SubscriberLink/998793/6c8d00bd1b2a7948/

Well, enough forematter. Let's get into this year's best illustrations. If you want high-rezzes of these (or any of my other collages), you can get them at full rez from my Flickr gallery of Pluralistic collages:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/doctorow/albums/72177720316719208

Someday, we'll all take comfort in the internet's "dark corners"

This one combines three sources: a public domain image of the Las Vegas sign, a CC 0 image of a western ghost-town, and a fair use gank of Mark Zuckerberg's metaverse avatar. I spent a lot of time hand-cropping the blades of grass around the sign's footing to create the illusion that it was planted in the ground. I'm also pretty happy with the dirt effect I managed on the sign.

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/23/evacuate-the-platforms/#let-the-platforms-burn

Vice surrenders

I got these cover images from a gallery of old Dutch government workplace safety poster; they're delightfully gory in a way that rests comfortably in the cannon of Dutch bluntness. I did a lot of futzing with the Perspective tool to get the alignments right, atop the actual magazine covers (I believe they were Italian fashion magazines).

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/24/anti-posse/#when-you-absolutely-positively-dont-give-a-solitary-single-fuck

How America's oligarchs lull us with the be-your-own-boss fairy tale

Man, I wish this one had a higher-rez original. The 19th century painting of a kid being read a bedtime story by her kindly granny was perfect, except it was only 804 pixels wide! The grinning Uncle Sam is from Keppler (Keppler's Uncle Sams are many, varied, and great). The grinning kid is from a 19th century collection of photos of child laborers, and I love his expression (he's a newsie). I think I did a really good job blending the US $100 (works of federal authorship are all public domain) with the bed curtains. I was disappointed with how the gold brick that granny's foot rests upon game out. I even followed my friend Alistair Milne's tip of cropping the brick, desaturating it, and putting it atop the gold texture in overlay mode and tweaking the curves. It just wouldn't pop the way it did in my mind's eye.

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/16/narrative-capitalism/#sell-job

How I got scammed

This one uses some public domains stock art of a hacker in a hoodie, an online make-a-custom-credit-card generator, and two of my favorite visual tropes. The first is the 'code waterfall' effect from the credit sequences of the Wachowskis' 'Matrix' movies, which I use whenever I'm trying to illustrate something with a nexus with the digital world. I have a folder full of these, generated with this code waterfall generator:

https://github.com/Rezmason/matrix

The other element, of course, is the eye of HAL 9000 from Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey'; there's an SVG of this on Wikimedia Commons by a user called 'Cryteria,' licensed CC BY 3.0, which I use whenever I want to illustrate a harm caused by computers:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/05/cyber-dunning-kruger/#swiss-cheese-security

(Image: Cryteria, CC BY 3.0, modified)

Solar is a market for (financial) lemons

I often write about scammers and hucksters, casting about for good visual representation. It wasn't until late January 2024 that I thought to look for an image of a carny barker and turned up this picture of WC Fields in full flight. He makes a lot of appearance after this point!

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/27/here-comes-the-sun-king/#sign-here

(Image: Future Atlas/http://www.futureatlas.com/blog, CC BY 2.0; J Doll, CC BY 3.0; modified)

Boeing, Spirit and Jetblue, a monopoly horror-story

I was really determined to get the right aircraft for this story about Boeing 737s, but that meant cropping out the plane from Vitaly Druchenok's photo and then painstakingly recreating the Spirit Airlines livery. In the original version of the image, the airplane was sticking out of the roof of the Supreme Court, but my wife (wisely) vetoed that as suggesting a terrorist attack on the court (I wanted to imply that the court had caused the airline to crash).

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/22/anything-that-cant-go-on-forever/#will-eventually-stop

(Image: Vitaly Druchenok, CC BY-SA 4.0; Joe Ravi, CC BY-SA 3.0; modified)

Tech workers and gig workers need each other

I cropped out these two women strikers from an early 20th century photo of a picket line and superimposed them on a photo of a massive union rally from the same era at (I think?) Madison Square Gardens. I am really chuffed with how nicely the (public domain) hacker/hoodie stock image and livery of a gig bike-delivery rider (fair use, ganked from a gig company's promo materials) blended with the strikers.

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/13/solidarity-forever/#tech-unions

This one is in the running to be my favorite illo of the year. I knew it was going to slay the minute I found the image of the U Illinois campus secret society (spears! fezzes!). There's a really good public domain SVG recreation of the "Think Different" wordmark on Wikimedia Commons that I used here, spending some time getting the overlays and textures right:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Apple_logo_Think_Different_vectorized.svg

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/12/youre-holding-it-wrong/#if-dishwashers-were-iphones

End of the line for corporate sovereignty

I use this ogrish rich-guy-in-a-top-hat image all the time to represent the thuggish application of wealth; he comes from a delightful Soviet editorial cartoon called "Capital Controls the Government":

https://craphound.com/images/ussr-capital.jpg

Putting him behind the podium in a UN plenary room with a UN crest in his hand worked really well, though in hindsight, the cropped version I used for the post's hero image is even better:

https://craphound.com/images/27Mar2024.jpg

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/27/korporate-kangaroo-kourts/#corporate-sovereignty

(Image: ChrisErbach, CC BY-SA 3.0, modified)

Conspiratorialism and the epistemological crisis

Another "thing at the front of a big room" image; this one works better that the UN one, I think.

Both of the sources for this have weird CC characteristics. The hearing room image comes from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, a federal agency, and I am 99% certain that makes it public domain; however, whoever managed the NRC's Flickr account in 2014 applied a CC BY license to it, so I did the whole attribution for it, even though I think it wasn't needed.

The crumbled cardboard box image comes from a British company that sells cardboard boxes; they upload product shots to Flickr under CC BY 2.0 and require that the attribution string include their store's URL (not necessarily the URL of the image), presumably to get SEO backlinks. This is fine, but the CC BY 2.0 licenses have a serious defect in that a failure to correctly attribute them can give rise to serious ($150K!) copyright liability, something that a group of "copyleft trolls" have brutally exploited:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/02/commafuckers-versus-the-commons/

Which makes this kind of funky attribution a minefield. I try to touch all the bases by attributing to both the store's URL and the URL of the image. The real solution to this is for Flickr to finally update its CC licensing to push all its images up to CC 4.0 and push a notice to all users with CC images telling them they either have to consent to upgrading to the latest licenses, or have the licensing on their images reverted to "All Rights Reserved" (maybe with an asterisk explaining that they still have irrevocable but dangerous CC 2.0 licenses attached to them).

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/25/black-boxes/#when-you-know-you-know

(Image: Nuclear Regulatory Commission, https://meanwell-packaging.co.uk, CC BY 2.0)

Your car spies on you and rats you out to insurance companies

I had so much fun with this one! Check out all those gracenotes! Munch's (public domain) "Scream" reflected in the mirrors, the windscreen, and the dashboard. The 'You Wouldn't Download a Car' parody reflected in the blade of the giant knife sticking out of the steering wheel!

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/12/market-failure/#car-wars

(Image: Cryteria, CC BY 3.0, modified)

Wellness surveillance makes workers unwell

I love how this one turned out. The labcoated figure is actually a dentist from a gallery of images from the National Museum of Health and Medicine. The little flying guy in the back kills me.

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/15/wellness-taylorism/#sick-of-spying

(Image: Cryteria, CC BY 3.0, modified)

Amazon's financial shell game let it create an "impossible" monopoly

I love this one. First of all, Hieronymus Bosch's 'The Conjurer' is a great visual representation of a slickster pulling a fast one on gawping yokels. But once I added Doc Searls' great shot of Jeff Bezos in mid-crazy-laugh to it (from a 2010 Techonomy Summit) it became perfectly trenchant. This was part of a short series of images that I added extra fingers and pupils to after someone scolded me online because they (incorrectly) believed I'd generated a collage with an AI image generator. Thankfully, that kind of absurd witch-hunting seems to have waned in popularity. What a ridiculous waste of everyone's time!

(Image: Doc Searls, CC BY 2.0, modified)

Part two

Part three

Part four

[eschergirls]

November 2024 Escher Girls Updates & Patreon Thank You!

Hi everybody!  It's November, so it's time for a monthly update and to thank all our wonderful Patreon subscribers!

For a quick update about Tumblr, if you've been following the blog you probably noticed that in late September/early October, the Escher Girls Tumblr ran into the infamous "shadowban" bug, which is not actually a shadowban but just a bug that happens to random blogs on Tumblr (more info here). After bugging Tumblr about it a few times, they finally fixed it, which means everything is back to normal and I can send and receive DMs and messages as normal on Tumblr (just in time for the Caption Contest which was handy for giving out prizes to the winners!)

I appreciate everybody who helped me figure it out and especially @haveievermentioned who messaged me to let me know that they weren't getting updates from the EG Tumblr! In the future if you run into any issues with Tumblr or the main site, please don't hesitate to let me know!

Also, if you missed it last month, I've been fixing up the main site and I updated the submission guidelines and also the submission form which now lets you choose a name to submit with and also let me know if it's okay for me to reply to your email address if I need more info about your submission. The new and improved form can be found here: https://eschergirls.com/form/submit-content

And, all new posts on EscherGirls.com now link to the corresponding Tumblr post so site users can easily navigate to the Tumblr cross-post and see what Tumblr users are saying. And when I fix up old posts, I'm now fixing up the Tumblr version as well and adding a cross-post link. It's twice the work but given that many people still view the site on Tumblr, I figure it's worth it to everybody. :3 There are some posts without a Tumblr cross-post link because the Tumblr post has been deleted/hidden because of Tumblr's mercurial algorithmic flagging which can't tell the difference between stuff like a coloured body suit and nudity.

As usual I've spent a lot of time this month working on fixing up old posts, restoring broken images or finding higher res versions of old images, and fixing broken links, etc, also fixing all the formatting of older posts and finding sources.

Here are some of the posts I fixed up this month (for any that want to check them out, the links to the Tumblr versions are included in every post):

This "How To Draw" book depicting women's waists as a ball joint (which explains a lot about why artists think women can just swivel around like rotor blades), and an associated post with that infamous Jennifer Blood cover

The infamous "muscleboobs" how to draw page depicting women's breasts as muscles 

Two different Soul Calibur posts: one with Talim in a boobs and butt pose (and a redraw fix of it), and another with Xianghua, Talim and Ivy in various states of rubberization

Black Canary described by my friend as a miracle of modern plumbing

War Goddess giving up War Goddess-ing and instead going into the butt-selling business

The infamous Glory/Avengelyne cover (the first time I posted Liefeld on this blog after the first 800 posts without him to prove a point that it wasn't just him putting out the insectoid women art) and an associated post

And a caption contest with Avengelyne and Ravyn in pretty hilarious poses and also the winners of that contest

And now I want to give a big thank you to Escher Girls' Patreon subscribers for October!

Thank you so so much to:

Anne Adler Cat Mara Chris McKenzie Em Bardon First Time Trek Greg Sepelak Ken Trosaurus Kevin Carson Kim Wincen Kristoffer Illern  Holmén Leak  Manuel Dalton Mary Kuhner Max Schwarz Michael Mazur Miriam Pody Morgan McEvoy randomisedmongoose Rebecca Breu Ringoko  Ryan Gerber Sam Mikes Sean Sea SpecialRandomCast  Thomas 

And a very very special thank you to JohnnyBob8 for buying me a coffee on Ko-Fi!!!

Thank you so much for helping to keep the site running! The Tumblr technical issues and algorithmic flagging are reasons why Escher Girls has a dedicated self-hosted site, and why I appreciate the support on Patreon and Ko-Fi so much as it helps me pay for hosting, domain costs, and site upgrades and keep the site running.

And thank you to just everybody, all of you interacting with the blog on both Tumblr and on the main site, and who participate in caption contests, and submit things to me, or just generally send me kind words. Thank you all! You make running the site so worth it. :)

Ami

PS: As a reminder, we added a button that links to the Escher Girls Tumblr and to our RSS feed for those who want to follow that way. (For newbies, RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and is basically a feed you can read using an RSS reader. Simply copy and paste https://eschergirls.com/rss.xml into an RSS reader and it will keep you up to date on Escher Girls!)

Make sure it is eschergirls.com and not eschergirls.tumblr.com, as that is Tumblr, and not the self-hosted site.

If you have any issues with the site or suggestions to improve it, please do not hesitate to contact me and let me know!

If you wish to support Escher Girls, you can subscribe to our Patreon at: https://www.patreon.com/ami_angelwings or donate through Ko-Fi at: https://ko-fi.com/amiangelwings.