#Or if it's your livelihood

[velnica]

I've been seeing increasing sentiment that gen AI is bad but using ChatGPT is not... Well here's your timely reminder that WRITING IS ART! It doesn't matter if it's published or not, fiction or not, hobby or job. It's the art of expressing yourself through words instead of visual medium. It's part of human creativity, so please celebrate writers—including the amateurs—as the artists that they are 💖

For some reason writers are always at the bottom of the fandom totem pole for and it's exhausting to try and defend that what we do is also art, honestly. IT ABSOLUTELY IS, and the quality of your writing does not dictate whether it is 'art' or not.

Do you write to evoke some kind of emotions from the reader? Do you write to express your emotion about something? And conversely, do people read to feel emotions? To be informed? To experience a story that just hits your buttons right? Then you're describing an art form.

Write good piece and bad pieces and exploratory ones. Write the most in depth investigation or the most unhinged dead dove. Write the same trope a million times. They're all ART because they're expression of your creativity, of your humanity. Don't let people bring you down because you chose to write instead of draw.

More specifically in fandom, I'd love to know why visual arts is held on such high regard but not writing art. Why is the fanfic space full of entitled readers and open season for criticism? You don't usually comment "your drawing sucks", you'd just keep scrolling. Yet for some reason people will correct your grammar all the time even unprompted... In a hobby space.

Is it because enjoying something visually is easier/requires less effort and it's easier to scroll away? Is it because writing is seen as essential skills and therefore 'anyone can write'? (for example I'm sure everyone who went to school have had to write many essays before)

Whatever it is, I'd like people to stop thinking that writing is not worthy to be called art. After all what are poems if not, at the core of it, someone's writing?

[foxaoxarts]

BEE KISS TOMORR- *dead* /j

If anyone wants to watch me drawing this like a little victorian child then the timelapse is below the cut 🤣

(FLICKER WARNING. It's all through out so be careful!👍 )

[holmsister]

You see i joke a lot about Chilbru but actually something that has been very interesting to me in every single type of media ive read including like. Russian 19th century novels. Is the contrast between the young intellectual idealist from a somewhat privileged background vs the older, more disillusioned working class activist. Big picture vs small incremental action. While this conflict isn't really explored in dunmeshi because tbh it is not really a theme in the work, a recent post by I think @tofixtheshadows talked about how kabru would be an environmental activist made me think of how easily it would be to imagine a scenario of like. Kabru and Chilchuck coming in contrast because Kabru is petitioning to completely lock whats left of the dungeon because it is basically still an active elephant foot of a place while Chilchuck is against that because he *knows* there's a wave of disenfranchised half-foots coming over from kakha brud and whatever dwarven tech and metal resources are left down there is how they will make their living. It's the type of contrast that I genuinely would like to see explored but also like. That's a fantasy Ken Loach movie nobody wants to read that shit

[utilitycaster]

I understand why people make posts like "would anyone be interested in (fic/art/meta concept)" but I cannot really relate to them. If I write meta it's because I wanted to and if I write fic it's because a ghost is holding my brain hostage until I finish it.

[sharkapology]

Heavily inspired by this post.

Your fear/disgust for an animal does not determine it's worth. All animals exist for a reason.

[chase-prairie]

Does anyone have any favorite internet resources on food forest movement stuff? Academic stuff is one thing, but I'm trying to find things that are keyed to the pulse of what people are talking about outside of academia. I know a lot of that gets circulated here in the general solarpunk vibes zone.

part of my frustration that i'm trying to pinpoint here with concrete sources is that there's a middle ground here that has to be found between oblivious optimistic radicalism and like, the actual work it takes to *run* a food forest. I just read Make the Golf Course A Public Sex Forest and some of it is good, some of it is just "wow you have never actually gardened before, have you?"

The resistance organizations like park districts and forest services have to these well-intentioned, poorly-researched efforts stems a lot from the very practical logistics.

Yes, wouldn't it be great if you could eat wild berries from your local park. How the hell are we going to remediate all the lead out of the soil so those berries are safe? Yes, wouldn't it be cool to turn parts of golf courses into community gardens. How the hell are we going to remediate the decades of literal mercury application out of the soil? Those lawns weren't pest-free by default! Yes, wouldn't it be amazing to have a orchards in the city parks? Who is going to do the INTENSE work managing those trees? Picking all the apples? Dealing with the wasps and the mess coating the sidewalks?

There's so much good work that can be done but making the connections between the dreamers and the actual do-ers is overwhelming. Not least because many dreamers just love to talk and don't want to do. Meanwhile, the do-ers are terrified of getting their asses sued because some well-intentioned foragers are ingesting heavy metals.

[vampirehayfever]

purple worm, absolutely decimating the rats' livelihood. this is no good.

[bonegloss]

You're not a failed artist.

After over almost two decades on the internet, entering various art communities and establishing my online presence, I've noticed something.

The persistent idea that you've "failed" as an artist if you get a "real job" will not go away.

This, for the longest time, permeated my electronic meat slab and nestled in deeply MUCH to my detriment . For years I fought with myself over this idea. Self-flagellating and noisy, negative thoughts were almost suffocating because I was unable to Do Art As A Job consistently and efficiently enough to maintain a living off of it. Between navigating life for almost 30 years not knowing I was autistic (and all that entails) and trying to turn something I love into something I could make a living off of, it was a vicious and repetitive cycle of trying something new, getting burned out, entering a depressive state, climbing out of it, rinse and repeat. This is clearly unsustainable, especially now that I am more independent in my adult life; bills aren't going to wait for me to get out of my depressive funks. Even having jobs and still making art on the side today, this idea is still nestled in there, nagging me sometimes.

Would I like to make a living off of my art? Of course! Would it be even better if I was supported from making stuff from my own IP's? You fucking bet. But I know how I operate, I know I can't personally do that (yet? maybe?). Now, I realize not everyone can just go get a job, and I don't want this to come off as a rally cry to Just Go Out and Work (I know many creative people are disabled or have other reasons they cannot work), but I do want to stress that its okay if art needs to remain more of a hobby than a job. It is okay if you cannot sustain yourself solely as a living artist. Over the years, I've burned myself out so god damn hard and have watched others work themselves to (near) death or can barely scrape by because of this incessant feeling that we need to be doing art 100% of the time to have "made it". It is hurting us both physically and emotionally to keep this shit up.

Going forward, we have to do better. There is no shame in having an income that is not dependent on the things you make. I think that it can help alleviate a lot of stress and fatigue that can become associated with creating (and thus, making it hard to do something you love). We need to learn to be kinder to ourselves and unlearn comparing our experiences to what we see from other creative peers on social media. Its hard, finding work sucks ass, and no job will be perfect, but if it can help you survive a little easier and rekindle your relationship for creating the things you love to make, it'll make a world of difference.

You are not a failed artist. You're doing what you can so you can keep doing what you love.

[heskynn]

Visual representation of nsfw creators all over the world being subject to USAmerican movements and having to just hold on and hope the US-only petitions make enough noise.

[sailforvalinor]

"We need not look anywhere but to the eyes of our Savior for our true identity, an identity which is profoundly complex, unfathomable, deep as the sea, and yet can be boiled down to one little word: beloved. That's it. And that's why it's so silly (and perilous) to use your gifting to clothe yourself with meaning. Those clothes will never quite fit.

I once heard someone suggest that in the new creation, the work of our hands will at last be equal to what we were able to imagine. But in the meantime, living as we do in dying bodies in a dying world, our best work always falls short of the initiating vision. Toil and trouble, thistle and thorn, we push through the brush and come out bloody on the other side, only to realize we've ascended a false peak. It's difficult, yes. But it doesn't change a thing about who we are."

-Andrew Peterson, Adorning the Dark

[theropoda]

The great thing about morrowind mq is i dont even have to torture my ocs the game is doing it for me

[eclecticopposition]

give meee... headcanons about the Sangfielle friends in the most boring AU you can imagine like. idk. office Sangfielle. grocery store Sangfielle. they all work at a movie theater. whatever sounds mundane as hell and you have Thoughts about :3

okay tumblr ate my fucking answer the first time. let's try this again.

the thing about these guys is that no matter how mundane you make it, they can make anything into a situation. that's just the guys they are. so we put them in a Walmart.

Marn is an employee with a great customer service voice. She's keeping it together in the face of some truly wild statements and requests. One man keeps asking for frootie hooties, a brand of cereal that he insists is real and everyone is just refusing to sell to him, and she's spent twenty minutes trying to tell him that they just don't have it in stock

Lye and Es are having an animated conversation in the clothing area, where she is examining various colorful dresses and he is distractedly picking things off of nearby shelves and putting them back down. The conversation started at how they got kicked out of dayward yve's novelty store and is now about whether stealing should be more or less of a crime than manslaughter, because it's not as bad as killing but it is on purpose. People are trying not to pay attention to them. Eventually they are asked to leave, at which point it is revealed that lye has about two hundred dollars worth of items in his pockets and es has some candles she liked and a new pair of shoes in hers. They are both barred from Walmart.

Duvall hates it here. It's loud, he hates the lights, the aisles make no sense, he can't find anything he's looking for, and people keep coming up to him to ask him where things are. He doesn't even work here. Why do people assume he works here? He's not even wearing any Walmart merchandise. Is that what it's called when you're an employee? Merchandise? Well, it's what it would be called if he wears it, which he never will, because he doesn't work here and never wants to. Have a nice day ma'am.

Pickman is slowly marching her way through the aisles one at a time, peering at her shopping list and holding a tiny shopping basket in one hand. She has to be very careful not to knock the shelves over sometimes. Just trying to get groceries. People are nervously avoiding her. Says "Hey, you" to some poor employee to ask where the milk and cigarettes are. Just grunts at everything else. When she's at the checkout, the guy there asks "Did you find everything you're looking for?", and she just says "No." and leaves

Chine comes out of the bathroom with a live rat in his hand. People scream. The manager finally comes up to him like "Sir, you can't have rats in here." They say "Oh, she's not mine. She was just having trouble opening the door." Gets a big meat on the bone at the deli and nothing else. When he asks how much it costs, they just say it's on the house and try to get him to leave as soon as possible. They go like "Oh, really? Are you sure? I have some money." and sound surprised but pleased, like they're being done a personal favor. The employees insist. He's like "Alright, thanks!" and then asks the rat if she wants anything

[rabbits-of-negative-euphoria]

feminists will be like "a man is not a plan" and then proceed to devote their whole lives to their male boss or CEO who barely knows they exist

[eggsistential-basket]

thinking about the person i could have been if i tried a little harder to find my own way

[maroonian]

tarot cards commission for @arachnostalgiac's campaign + tarots for the players in the campaign

the first four cards are npcs

KING OF WANDS - Molteneye (a bastard. minor arcana ass motherfucker) X. WHEEL OF FORTUNE - Disah the First (a lich, a stable paradox, and a problem causer. most powerful magic user in the world) I. THE MAGICIAN - Fana di'Ilar (my old friend....) III. THE EMPRESS - the queen of aeriskal. one of the most powerful demons. queen bitch. also the dragon in the devil tarot (ma'am)

next four are PC tarots: XIII. DEATH - Azhar Sinai - water genasi fishmonger (blood magic wizard. normal. dont worry about it.) - me, @eganov/@maroonian VII. THE CHARIOT - Merriweather Westerly - heron harpy swashbuckler rogue - @skrunglebeasts V. THE HIEROPHANT - Pavo Groveroot - swamp elf cleric (subclass undisclosed, "i built him as a bad cleric") - @snarkmodeactivate XX. JUDGMENT - Ixak - dragonborn kensei monk - @queenly-robyn

the bottom three rows are the main cards for the companions + their potential class choices

XVII. THE STAR - Bror Deathseeker XV. THE DEVIL - Warlock XXI. THE WORLD - Ranger (chosen class)

VIII. STRENGTH - Rinaldi de Gava a si Teverra IX. THE HERMIT - Ranger O. THE FOOL - Paladin (chosen class)

XI. JUSTICE - Sifa al'Akara XII. THE HANGED MAN - Monk XIX. THE SUN - Bard (chosen class)

[yallemagne]

I love drawing so much. I don't know why my brain keeps going "Oh yeah I'm gonna draw...", and then I blink, and it's 23:30, and I gotta get started, or else I simply won't have drawn that day.

I've been "forcing" myself to draw everyday to stay engaged. Forcing in quotes because, truthfully, it's not that much of a chore, but when something becomes a must-do task, my brain says "time to deprioritize this". And it isn't because the drawing itself is giving me trouble; I love what I've been drawing.

Wish I could do more commissions and have this sense of fulfillment more often. There's so much art I have in drafts that I cannot even be bothered with because finishing it wouldn't serve me right now. Or ever. I won't even get paid in exposure for finishing those iojegrpij.