#PROTIP

[todays-xkcd]

We were going to try swordfighting, but all my compiling is on hold.

Crowdstrike [Explained]

Transcript Under the Cut

[White Hat is addressing Ponytail, who is crouched on a moving office chair, holding onto a rope tied to Cueball, who is riding an electric scooter.] White Hat: Hey, aren't you supposed to be working on the— Ponytail: Sorry, that's all on hold today because of the CrowdStrike thing.

[Caption below the panel:] Protip: as long as you're not actually in charge of fixing the CrowdStrike thing, you can use this excuse for pretty much anything you want to do today.

[ghoulish-art-tendencies]

“Two star-crossed lovers reaching out

To the beast

With many names”

- He Is by Ghost

[saylenatseaart]

TW: BLOOD!!

friendship is nothing without creativity!!!

[stevelieber]

Thoughts on giving critiques to comics artists.

Seeing lots of discussion from students about sour experiences with an unhelpful art teacher, so here's a long, long post about giving critiques.

NB: I have no formal training as a teacher, but I was a student, and I've spent decades giving artists feedback on their work.

When someone brings me a portfolio, I like to establish my limitations & clarify my perspective. My work is firmly rooted in traditional US comics storytelling (i.e., not manga or art-comics.) I can give feedback on other approaches but they should know where I’m coming from.

“We've only got a little time for this, so I'm going to spend that time focusing on things to correct. That doesn't mean you're doing everything wrong, or that there’s nothing good here, but it’ll be more helpful if I identify some problems and show you how to fix them.”

Why? Because for many young artists their entire sense of self worth is wrapped up in being good at what they do. (It was for me!) In school they were probably the best artist in their peer group. But now if they're hoping to turn pro, they’re at the bottom.

Sometimes you know what’s up when you see page 1, but try to keep an open mind. Some build their portfolios by sticking new pages at the back & don’t weed out the old stuff up front, so the work gets better as you go. When it’s like that I ask: “Show me your best 8 pages.”

I ask questions: "What's the goal? Do you want to be hired to work on someone else's project, or to get the story you're showing me here published?"

If 1, I steer towards a portfolio that'll showcase hirable skills. If 2, I look for what tweaks will make that particular story more effective.

"Do you have teachers giving you regular feedback? What are they telling you?" Sometimes a student is getting bad advice. In cases like that, I'll do my best to be extra clear WHY I'm giving them advice that's 180 degrees from what they've been hearing.

“What artists are you looking at? Is there someone you admire or try to emulate?” This often helps me understand choices they're making, and I can sometimes incorporate things those artists do into my suggestions.

I ask myself questions about what I’m seeing. First: Is there a narrative? If not, I make it 100% clear I'm not speaking as any sort of expert. I'm good at critiquing storytelling, but don't have anywhere near as much to offer illustrators or designers.

Can I follow the story? Or am I confused about what's going on? Are the characters and settings drawn consistently? If not, is the artist at least making use of tags (distinctive clothing, hair etc.) to keep the characters recognizable?

Does the artist demonstrate a good command of basic academic drawing? If not, Do I think they need it? Do I focus on "how to draw" or on "what to do when you can't draw?" Is the artist putting the viewer’s eye where it needs to be to tell the story effectively?

(At this point I’m usually doing little doodles to go with my instructions. I scribble out ugly little 5 second diagrams that I hope will clarify what I’m talking about. Or they might make me seem demented. Hard to say!)

Is the artist making choices that are creating more work than necessary? Is there a particular weakness? I once spoke to an artist with a portfolio full of great work when he was drawing animals and monsters, but his humans were amateurish in comparison. I spent that critique talking about drawing people.

A crit can be a grab bag. In addition to big-picture advice, I'll point out tangencies, violations of the 180-degree rule, wonky anatomy, weird perspective, places where the artist neglected to do important research, odd choices in how they spotted black, whatever catches my eye.

I also try to make a point of defining the terms, so that jargon like “tangency,” “180-degree rule,” and “spotting black” don't go over their heads. Find simple, concrete ways to talk about these things, & clarify why it's a problem when they aren't done correctly. Draw diagrams!

Recognize that even a perfectly phrased explanation might not sink in. Some lessons can only be learned when a student is ready, and it might take a year or two of work before they can understand what you were saying. It's good to plant seeds.

Are there other artists who are particularly good at solving the problems the student is trying to solve? I steer them towards that artist's work. And I always recommend life drawing & the use of reference to give work specificity, variety, and authority.

Despite what I said earlier about focusing on what's wrong, I try at the end to find something encouraging to say. And if I’ve really piled on the criticism, I emphasize that I only spent the time and energy to do so because I take their efforts seriously.

If I've done my job right, they'll leave my table with tools to make their work better. And maybe in a few years they'll be looking at some younger artist's work, surprised to discover just how much you can learn when you're asked to teach.

[otiksimr]

Fight fight fight!

[lazyyogi]

Yogi Protip #88

We all need to get out of our head sometimes and there are many ways to go about doing it. Playing a game, physically exercising, and enjoying some art or entertainment are just a few options. 

But there is also a simple mindfulness method that can be helpful and even profound. And you can do it at an moment.

Instead of getting out of your head, you go into it. Specifically, you shift your attention into embodying the physical sensation of your head. 

The practice itself is simple but the actual application of it may be challenging, depending on your personal tendencies. An actor or a dancer may pick up this method a bit more readily but if you persist with the practice, you will get the hang of it. 

The technique:

Feel your head from the inside-out. Shift your attention to feel as though you are occupying the space of your entire head. For example, if you were to do a similar practice with your hands, then you would feel your hands as if you were wearing them like gloves.

Be present in the space of your head and allow whatever sensations you notice to be there with you.

You may notice that there are certain parts of your head that you can feel into quite easily while other parts that may feel numb. This tends to correlate with the parts of our body that most often engage with sensations of touch. Feeling your ears from within the space of your ears may be more difficult than feeling your lips or tongue from within.

One way to help orient your attention to embodying the space of your head is to feel your awareness from the center of your head. The center of the head is not in the brain but actually more like at the base of the brain near the back of your throat/nasal passage.

I could write more but really this is a felt practice that you learn more by doing rather than reading. Intellectual understanding will only be so helpful.

Throughout the day, take a few pauses to feel into the space of your head. Remember to be relaxed as you do this. See how much you can incorporate into the sensation of embodiment: the mask of the face, the eyes, the teeth and tongue, the ears, the scalp and back of the head. And don't forget the brain too!

This can of course be a full body practice as well. That is what somatic spirituality is all about. But even just playing around with this method in the space of the head can be helpful in disrupting compulsive thinking and draining mental patterns.

Much love.

LY

[helioscopepdx]

Jesse Hamm (aka @hammpix )essay on Alex Toth and cartoon realism, archived at the wayback machine.

[eldraws03]

collage of each tour they had + some photocards + the blessed golden pig > : ]

(click for better quality)

[phanthoughts]

wow Dan tells Phil not to eat glue multiple times in the glitter faces video and Phil still didn't listen

[odinsblog]

This resonated with me sO hard, because I’ve been here on tumblrdotcom for a good long minute now, and I’m always amazed at the absolutely drop dead gorgeous people who lament about their looks—especially women, non-white women and people who identify/present as women. These people aren’t fishing for compliments, they’ve somehow been genuinely convinced that they’re mid when they are everything but. Look, I understand that society and unrelenting, aggressive capitalistic marketing contribute to this, but please dO appreciate yourselves and what you have now. Your youth won’t last indefinitely. Eventually it will pass. Fuck the haters and enjoy whatever you have while you still can. Carpe diem. Carpe diem at every age, but especially now, today.

[groovyace]

I STILL LIKE DC AND DON'T WANT THIS BLOG TO DIEEE ARGGHHHH abt to make the comeback of the century... when im less tired

[asmileforyourscrapbooks]

me once again On my way! to comment "dont cry, craft" + "protip" on every single youtube video ever

[zackbyychocolate]

I can’t believe I got a dan and phil crafts notif in the year of our lord 2024

[catgirldjh]

WHAT THE FUCK DID I JUST WATCH ????????

[stevelieber]

Here's another thread I don't want to leave languishing at the old site. It's tough to start a career. I had good mentors and I'm grateful and want to pass it on. These are some notes I made on ways to do so.

1. Promote artists a generation younger than you. Share your platform. RT them, mention them in interviews. (This means being aware of what younger artists are doing!)

2. Hire them if you can. Pin ups, commissions, variants, fill-ins, assists, anything. A small gig can be what helps them make rent.

3. (The same applies to creators a generation older. Many of them helped develop the visual language, the audience, and the industry infrastructure we rely on. Tell your reader how these artists' choices informed your own. Help your fans see what you saw in your influences' stories.)

4. Support anthologies. They've always been a key place where new and marginalized talent can incubate, & established artists can try something new. (They certainly were for me. Many of the big leaps I made as an artist happened on anthology stories where I had freedom to experiment.)

5. Mentor new artists! Even if their subject or style is different from yours, you still have much to offer. Just be sure to frame your advice in terms of goals & principles rather than "the right way" or "the wrong way." You want to help them find their own voice, not echo yours.

6. Suggest strategies for dealing with challenging clients or collaborators. The industry may be very different from when you broke in, but those young artists are still going to face the many of the same problems you did.

7. Steer them towards someone trustworthy when they need a consultant. It's not easy to find an accountant, an agent, or a lawyer who understands what we do. Your contacts are valuable!

If nothing else, make them aware of Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts. https://vlaa.org/get-help/other-vlas/

8. Share your understanding of industry standards for pay rates & professional practices. This doesn't mean posting your rates in public. The main that does is anchor your position when negotiating rates with a potential client. But in private, TALK. This benefits ALL your peers.

9. There will be times when you can't answer a question. It happens all the time. No one knows everything! But you probably know someone who *can* answer it. Use your network of connections and make the introduction.

10. And finally, take questions about the art, the craft, the culture, and the business on your social media. Answer them as honestly as you can.

-end-

[lessamazinglucy]

don’t cry, craft ! ! !