#alas my artistic skills are not great to say the least lol

[fiepige]

Okay guys, hear me out:

Sea Serpent Hobie!!!

Sea Serpent Hobie who sinks any superyachts he comes across!

Sea Serpent Hobie who uses harpoon spears meant to kill him as piercings! And old anchor chains as jewelry!

Sea Serpent Hobie who attacks big commercial fishing boats that are destroying the ecosystem by overfishing

But also benign Sea Serpent Hobie, who aids those lost at sea!

Who helps smaller local fishing buisnesses with sustainable fishing

Who looks out for this small fishing community and in return they warn him whenever hunters show up in the area!

Sea Serpent Hobie who is huge but still manages to hide perfectly in the kelp forests!

Who has bioluminescence and uses it both to terrify enemies and as a way to calm down people in distress, as a way for him to signal goodwill - and to show off when he feels like it!

Who can change his pigmentation similarly to octopi to communicate his mood and feelings! Or just to blend in with his surroundings (also as a nod to the way he changes filters in the movie!)

Sea Serpent Hobie who's frequently seen swimming with whale pods- Orcas being his favourites to hang out with (they sometimes go on yacht sinking trips together)

Sea Serpent Hobie who likes to give people a show and will show off by breaching right next to unsuspecting boats

DO YOU SEE MY VISION?!??

SEA SERPENT HOBIE!!!!!!💙💙💙

[syneilesis]

Thank you, @scorchieart, for tagging me! Answering these is fun.

What creation or accomplishment from 2022 are you most proud of? I'm proud that I've managed to write as much as I could this year. I wrote more words than last year (26k from 22k last year), and it means a lot to me. I could do it! Sort of! Yay!

Cut and paste some of your favorite reader/viewer comments on your work. We’re celebrating, people, and comments on your work is your champagne. It’s New Year’s, live a little. Every comment on my fics is special. Every time I see an ao3 email saying somebody commented on a fic of mine it makes my day. Same with tumblr. Most especially, to everyone who enjoyed and commented on Let It Stand – I love you, guys, y'all're the best ❤️

Special shoutout to Zigene for commenting on my Wasurenagusa fic! I honestly never expected anyone to take notice of that little fic, but hey – another Wasurenagusa fan! Hello! Hi! What a fortuitous unfolding of events! ✨

What stretched you creatively? I'm going to cheat here a little, because I'm going to cite a wip of mine. I have another Kicho fic that I originally planned on finishing this month, in celebration of his route announcement. Alas, I can't accomplish that. Because it's a fic with experimental writing. It's somewhat difficult. I always seem to exercise that when it comes to Kicho. It's okay, I love him.

What was the most difficult thing you created and how did you get through it? Writing excerpts of Chevalier's novel in Let It Stand was the main reason chapter 2 took a while. There's a specific prose style I envisioned for him, and honestly at my skill level it's impossible to pull it off lol. Originally there would be more excerpts but I chickened out hahaha. I even read a few literature that are close to the prose that I imagined Chevalier to have, to get in that writing state ya know? In the end I told myself, fuck it, I'll write something regardless of whether it met my style goal or not. (Also I have to vaguely outline the plot of the novel lmao, to at least know how the ending would go.)

What’s one thing you’ve never tried to create that you might challenge yourself to create in the next year? I guess longform fics, like at least a 20k-word one-shot.

What new fandoms did you discover over the past year? I fell into the Obi-Wan Kenobi series rabbit hole this year and hyperfixated on it (Vaderwan!) for a couple of months and read millions-of-words' worth of fic, neglecting my rl work, rofan comics I read regularly, and other hobbies. Listen, I'm only a casual Star Wars audience prior to watching it, but now I know more about Jedi culture than I cared for. I didn't regret it, however; I discovered so many great fics and writers and art and artists. It's just, Star Wars as a fandom is very intimidating and high profile. I'm just content with reading fics and admiring fanart from afar.

Also, rofan webtoons/webnovels have larger fandoms than I expected – at least at fic level. Who Made Me a Princess and Villains are Destined to Die have so many fics on ao3.

What fan-works created by someone else inspired/excited you? All the IkePri meta! I love reading them. As well as the ones for other Cybird titles, even critiques of the games. I'm always drawn to the meta in fandoms, because they make me think about the series in ways I haven't before.

I love all the fanarts too! And for fics, here are some: Pace non trovo by @dear-mrs-otome Change for the better by @scorchieart Chevalier as a father fic by @art-of-love-and-war The Queen's Command by @aquagirl1978

These fics make my heart go doki-doki. I've been slow to read fics these recent months due to rl stuff, but I want to rectify that come 2023.

What did you read or see that made you go, “I wish I had written/painted/created that.” These days reading and seeing other people's works I am just filled with admiration and awe, and they become my inspiration and motivation to improve my own.

But really it's the works of JP and KR artists lol

Who did you discover? Like Scorchie's answer, it's my following list :)

Spread the fandom love – who makes you smile? [Yes, it is totally valid to write “everybody” in this space] Everybody! I'm pretty sure everybody's already been tagged prior to me, but I just really wanna say I'm relatively new to Ikeseries fandom, especially here on tumblr, but I've been enjoying the experience! I really appreciate everybody in the fandom, and I hope to continue enjoying Ikeseries with you all 💖

If you've read this far, consider yourself tagged. Happy New Year to all! :)

Content Creators...

Thinking about 2022 as we wave it goodbye and send it into the past. Let’s do a little bit of navel-gazing and patting ourselves and each other on the back and realize just how much we’ve accomplished over the past year.

So, for your blog, please answer (all or some) of the following questions. I’ll be working on my own answers over the next day or so.

What creation or accomplishment from 2022 are you most proud of?

Cut and paste some of your favorite reader/viewer comments on your work. We’re celebrating, people, and comments on your work is your champagne. It’s New Year’s, live a little.

What stretched you creatively?

What was the most difficult thing you created and how did you get through it?

What’s one thing you’ve never tried to create that you might challenge yourself to create in the next year?

What new fandoms did you discover over the past year?

What fan-works created by someone else inspired/excited you?

What did you read or see that made you go, “I wish I had written/painted/created that.”

Who did you discover?

Spread the fandom love – who makes you smile? [Yes, it is totally valid to write “everybody” in this space]

Tag yourselves in! Share the love! Party! Toast! Hugs! Rainbows! Unicorns! And a box of kittens!

[syncogon]

i just realized that starting a music up 2 commentary is a really great idea. because i have a lot of thoughts and might as well compile them.

personally even without the rest of the backstory i think it’s SUPER funny and in character that jiang haoxu would spend x years obsessing over ye feng and ye feng literally had to do a google baidu search to figure out who he was (and he still didn’t even figure it out until halfway through the performance LOL)

ok TOP’s song kinda slaps. even though they’re still assholes. and the dancing is a bit wack. but their costumes are hella nice love how they’re all different to suit their indv styles but all fit the theme

im screaming at this “i wanna perform my new song” like BRO that’s not how it works?? the time to announce that was days ago not 3 minutes before performance?? you can’t just sight-read with 0 rehearsal and expect it to be good - yo it’s not even sightreading yall won’t even have music up there it’ll just be improv on a song you’ve never heard before arghhhhhhh that’s not how any of this works?? 

omg backstory. loving all these baby scenes. MAGGIE’S BABY VOICE HOLY CRAP. 

oh my god they’re all so cute i’m losing it. maggie’s missing a tooth. this is also pretty convenient how it all lines up but it’s super cute so i don’t care i’ll accept these scenes of first encounters

“why didn’t you say anything” BECAUSE HE’S A COWARD. wait hmm this “ctg is a coward” sure seems familiar huh wow continuity (jk there’s like no continuity btwn seasons as we’ve already seen but whatever i’ll point stuff out.)

man i hate this dude’s voice. i’ve had enough of this dude! they’re ugly bc they’re smug ass bastards. 

“7 years ago he beat me once” HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA ARE YOU KIDDING ME? HOW OLD WERE YOU? LIKE 9?? just imagining a fuckin 9 year old harboring such a deep resentment for seven years like god damn you’re a kid what the hell do you know

also like damn what’s with this obsession over new songs anyway? so risky, plenty of times artists have debuted a song to mixed reactions. it’s not inherently bad choice to stick to a classic everyone already loves? man maybe i just don’t know the competitive high school music band scene well enough :pensive:

have i mentioned how much i hate that they’re translating all the english things in the subs? OPEN is now “开门乐队” tf? bitch i’ll kill you. the whole point of OPEN was that it could refer to opening many things! like doors but also windows and hearts and minds and feelings. smh 

YE FENG IS RIGHT ARE YOU FUCKING EXPECTING TO SOLO THIS? BROOOOO arugh im dying here

oh my god what if you sang TWO songs. imagine. consider. revolutionary. or is that forbidden in the code of competitive high school music bands

aw the candy thing is kind of cute but would’ve been better if spaced out over more episodes and also feels super out of place with this music and tension hahaha. still it’s very earnest and honest-hearted and i respect it 

ok so this is super cheesy but also like THEY’RE FRIENDS i like this so much more than bs rivalry shenanigans like god damn they’re friends they’ve earned it let them be friends wahhhhhhhh and also like yf sending away everyone else prob bc he’s too embarrassed to show this side of him ahaha

big fan of seeing yf and cr together too ofc let them be a happy mutually-understanding couple 

(insert lots of pleading emojis)

i am also tbh a big fan of ctg using his piano/keyboard skills to make his song tho like - embracing and reconciling that part of yourself instead of wholly rejecting it! that’s char growth!

why is “self” “我的狂”???? damn they’re so unoriginal with all these song names

xiao yun is the only member of TOP that has any rights omg. you’re great and i love you. he saw through the plot all along! god im so weak for outgoing competent chars that are smarter and have more depth than they appear. you can be an asshole and still likable! god your seniors could take a lesson.

man if i wasn’t already expecting this ending to the ep i’d be super mad and frustrated. this is so dumbbbb and the cut is bad and unrealistic too i wanna hear the whole song! no one should have even heard the accusation and even if you do you still just gotta keep going show must go on come on! (tho the song isn’t my type... i’m less a fan of these kind of ballad-y songs. kinda too angsty. although that fits ctg lmaoo.) 

ok finally done! alas it was only 480p but at least i can browse the weibo posts now

i don’t even understandd tho like open is the only group here that’s a real instrumental band the others are like singing/dancing idol groups?? totally incomparable how can you do battle when you’re on like totally different planes?? is this also part of the competitive high school music band code??

[viggwigg]

Pretty Faces |  Chapter 1

Pairings: Tom Holland x Reader

Summary: You are a rising makeup artist whose talent is quickly taking off.  When one of your closest friends happens to be a big-shot director, you get the gig of a lifetime working next to him and his crew. No one could ask for a better workspace when surrounded by people you already love. Just what happens when the biggest crush of your life walks onto the set, ready for his close up?

Disclaimer: Cursing

A/N: OOPSIES totally my bad. Got kinda busy and put this off until now. But here it is! 🤩

--------

SFX, beauty, costume, you name it. You had done it all. No makeup challenge had ever held you back from a 110% attempt on your part. 

Even if you didn’t do so hot on your first try, you continued to perfect your technique with every opportunity you got. You had the kind of drive that inspired other artists to pull out their own strengths in their work. To take pride in their profession. 

Not to mention your humble personality about your talent. In your eyes, your abilities were earned through blood, sweat, and tears.

With how much fun you had playing around with it, it just made sense to enter into entertainment. You didn’t mind using crappy written tv shows to jumpstart your career. Nothing really slowed you down in your mind.

From weddings to the Halloween photoshoots, your name circulated around L.A. in a slow burn. And then an all at once fire.

Your credibility doubled as multiple directors could vouch for your performance. It took a load off their shoulders seeing their actor’s bloody lip look completely real.

You were called on last-minute set emergencies with how reliable your skills were.

And when your buddy Jesse came to you with a job offer, you knew that you were at least somewhat qualified for what he would throw at you.

It’s not to say you weren’t shitting bricks, no, of course you were. However, you would have to admit to yourself that you were doing significantly better than when you started out.

Due to how highly acclaimed Jesse’s movies were, he never offered you a spot on his team in the past. It’s not to say that he wasn’t impressed in your work; he definitely believed you would become great. But he didn’t want to hand you a job without you having earned it first.  

And with the last production you were a part of wrapped up, Jesse thought the timing couldn’t have been better.

He invited you to be an artist in his upcoming movie. Casting for the roles had just been finished and filming would commence within the month. 

He had a devilish laugh when you curiously asked about the casting list, yet he wouldn’t budge and insisted that you had to wait like everyone else to find out.

Being the director’s best friend seemed to have little benefit at this point.

You rolled your eyes as you thought back to your conversation with him. If he was gonna be stingy with his information, you were going to be stingy with your kindness.

Currently, you were walking with a multitude of bagels and coffee in your arms, on your way to the meeting point. The makeup artists usually weren’t invited to the production meetings but today they were assigning departments and groups to certain divisions.

This was the first day that all crews and actors would see each other. 

The treats you were bringing were for your fellow artists who you have met a couple times before today. You guys went over your individual techniques so that you could have a consistent result when the time came around.

Had Jesse not been selfish with his list, an everything bagel (bro I love these bagels so much) would have been delivered to him as well.

But alas, he would have to suffer.

Your arms were starting to cramp up at the odd angles you were holding everything at. The short walk from the cafe to the set proved a harder trek with the extra baggage. 

Although, thankfully, the doors to the right place were insight. Today’s meeting would be held at a regular building and later in the week you would move to the actual set.

Your heart was beating a little faster than usual. Your fellow beauty gurus were nice for sure, but who could tell how these next few months would go.

Still, working with your best friend was gonna be awesome.

You walked in and flashed your ID badge to the receptionist, quickly greeting her. It was surprisingly quiet in the building considering the whole place was rented out. 

However, as you neared hall doors, you could hear the muffled voices of everyone behind them.

You took a quick breath and turned the door handle.

The room was fairly large with little decoration. An elongated table sat in the middle of the room with many people around it. Some were sitting in the various chairs scattered about, but most just stood in a group of their respective departments.

First impressions were positive. Many smiling faces, a few dead stares, and a single person completely asleep on the table.

You could make out some well-known faces in the quick scan through you made.

Jesse looked away from the production manager he was talking to and caught eyes with you. 

“Y/n!!” His eyes lit up.

 The production manager was cut off mid-sentence. Jesse hit him on the chest playfully and excitedly in happiness. 

“Dude, this is who I was telling you about,” he said as he dragged you towards them.”She’s the leech that always hangs around me and my sister.”

“Ouch-and here I thought we had something special,” you said dramatically. 

The two of you paused and stared at each other before bursting into a fit of giggles. The excitement of working together seemed to hit both of you simultaneously.

The production manager just stared at you both before moving to introduce himself.

“Hi, I’m Justin. It’s nice to meet you…”

You shushed Jesse and offered your hand, “Y/n. It’s nice to meet you too-”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, we’ll get through intros later,” Jesse interrupted. “Right now there are much more important matters to attend to.”

He guided you both to some seats and began.

“Okay, so we’re just waiting on a few people before we begin. We should start- wait what’s with all the stuff?” Jesse gestured at the coffee and bags in your arms. His mouth began to water.

You made eye contact with the group in the back of the room and smiled, “Oh these are for the other artists actually.”

“Aw, how sweet of you! Where’s mine?” 

You moved your arms away just in time to miss his grabbing hands at the bags.

“Hands off, Jess! I didn’t get any for you.”

“Yo, what hell, y/n,” he whined. The sense of betrayal he went through could not be described in any other words than unforgivable. You knew this place had his favorite danish. 

You had to be the devil.

“I invite you to be on my crew, MINE, and this is the thanks I get? That’s it, we’re through. I mean it.” 

He huffed and turned away from you.

Justin looked at you with entertained admiration and chuckled to himself.

“Alright, alright, I’m sorry,” you picked up the coffee and pastries.”Just let me hand these out and then I’ll figure out how to make it up to you.”

“Whatever”

However, just as you began to stand from the chair, the doors to the room swung open yet again. 

A man tall man with glasses walked into the room. He nodded at the various people in the room and moved along.

A shorter man with chocolate brown eyes trailed behind. He wore some comfy joggers and had a cap covering much of his hair.

All eyes shot to the second newcomer, everyone unanimously recognizing the familiar face.

Jesse recovered from his depressive state and replaced it with a shit-eating grin.

Justin rose to greet the man and give him the rundown.

You paused mid-air from your seat with wide eyes.

Tom Holland stood before all of you with a friendly smile and wave, “Hey, guys, I'm happy to finally meet you all. Sorry I’m a bit late.” 

...What the actual fuck.

--------

A/N: My god this is so unrealistic. I literally don’t know anything about where they do all their meeting and how they film so that’s why its so vague. I am so uneducated on this 🤦‍♀️ Lol thanks for the love on the prologue though! 💌🥰

-------

Tag list: @greenarrowhead @diamonddia-mond @jackiehollanderr

[mihanada]

Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation Donghua Episode 1 (Pt. 3)

Alright, let’s finish this! I skipped a little more than the other parts so I can finish this live blog in this century lol.

Hey. Why is this transition so smooth. From a “Heh” expression to a slightly troubled one as he turns to watch Madam Mo yell at the Lan kids.

they didn’t do anything wrong. xD but, at least it’s a realistic reaction on her part, and they bite their tongues. they really can’t say anything in their defense that wouldn’t offend her, nor would she be likely to listen even if she was a more reasonable person.

HA WHAT IS THAT EXPRESSION. WHAT IS IT.

much better

I love it every time he slips back into his lunatic act, it’s so obvious and over the top, but everyone believes this super erratic behavior is just normal somehow.

I managed to pause at just the right time haha.

Anyways, I would like to take this opportunity to discuss the ghost hand. It’s interesting that they chose to keep it attached to the body here, most likely so it would look less weird than fighting a disembodied hand floating around. There’s the issue of how it moves around, and also doesn’t look as cool visually I guess as a zombie-corpse thing attacking. xD

The way it twists with total disregard for bones and regular anatomy was...great, i guess, if a little gross if those things bother you.

Then Wei Wuxian just awkwardly stands there totally unafraid of the corpse haha.

you’re really keeping your cover here

this is not a normal reaction.

this, however, is. xD

glad to know the donghua kept the gross-ness from the novel alive. albeit in a different way, but still.

how their magic/cultivation arts are displayed is quite interesting, a little flashier than the novel by virtue of the medium.

On this array, I think I spot the Four Symbols of the Chinese constellations (the tiger, dragon, red bird, and tortoise).

Isn’t Sizhui so cool here? This little speech is more impressive when spoken out loud than in written words.

I love his little tossing off his outer clothes sequence later, too, but alas I cannot gif so I’ll leave that up to someone else.

I can’t really get a good image of it, but I think that after the firework is set off, it leaves behind sparks in the shape of the Gusu Lan Sect’s logo.

lol they left out one of Wei Wuxian’s teaching moments (him pointing out the absence of the left hand)

he’s lucky they’re so distracted because his acting is wildly inconsistent xD

ick the sound effects when they try to pin Madam Mo’s corpse down and when the ghost hand attacks is just. xD well done I guess.

also a reason I’m not screenshotting as much: who really wants to see drooling shriveled corpses?

haha I do admit, it sort of is “in character” for him to tease the corpse now that it’s been “subdued”.

Jingyi is not amused.

haha his flailing around running like a chicken though.

he moves like a sim.

I dunno if these bear any meaning at all or if they were chosen randomly out of old texts or whatever, but here are the incantations on the Lan Sect’s uniforms. I spot a 魔王 that I can recognize in that script...

魔 = devil, evil arts, etc.; 王 = king or ruler; do they equal something like ‘demon king'? idk if it’s the same in Chinese even if the individual characters are the same

I like the soundtrack during the part where they fight the corpse off together. very fun, has a nice rhythm.

@extrapenguin‘s reaction to this episode reminded me that these two technically end up running around in their underclothes xD this white robe counts as underwear.

ehh action sequences are difficult to screenshot but they’re very nicely animated so far.

There are a lot of subtle changes of expression. I’ll have to keep my eye on them (particularly Lan Wangji’s - it’s basically the only way you have of knowing what he’s thinking lol)

Okay, I’ve been waiting for this moment to talk about this eerie red glowing eyes thing. Apparently this is how they’ve chosen to render demonic cultivation, which fits if a bit cliche and overly dramatic (though those giant arrays are no less dramatic). Interesting, similarly to Jiang Cheng’s lightning based energy from Zidian, the red demonic cultivation energy sparks red.

At least it gives some indication of him using a skill or technique of some kind rather than just speaking to corpses and having them move. idk how that even works but whatever this is cultivation magic.

lol Sizhui’s “Can it be...?” that turns into “nah, can’t be him.”

I’m glad they kept the part where Madam Mo recognizes her son even as a corpse. In the donghua it makes it seem like she’s possessed and comes out of it briefly, while in the novel it seems to be some strong instinct that compels her to fight even harder to protect her son though they’re both corpses.

hi dear friend

there are a lot of changes in perspective in this donghua. but alas I know nothing about cinematography so.

it doesn’t make me dizzy and I can keep track of what’s going on, so they must be doing something right.

Gotta admit, Lan Wangji’s entrance is pretty impactful, huh? The strum of the guqin’s strings (though it might be 100% a guqin, I’ve heard Chinese media often interchanges it with the guzheng which is similar but has many more strings) really resonates in this scene of him stopping the hand on time.

Lan Wangji is very pretty. But that extremely blank look in his eyes is somewhat creepy. It lacks passion, focus, every emotion you could possibly have during this scene. He doesn’t look that bored either, just blank.

ironic, for someone whose title carries the word “light”

aww the Lan kids seeing that they are saved!

In terms of artistic analysis, the shot of Lan Wangji’s side profile (pictured at the top of this post) is interesting. the light is behind him, and he is facing away from it with that extremely flat expression.

and lastly, we end with the last of the guqin’s notes as the camera pans over Mo Village.

FINALLY DONE. god. the next live blog will not be this ridiculous, I promise!

Next Up: Episode 2 ← back • forward →

[oktopuscomics]

Part of maturing in life is learning from your mistakes…and knowing when to let go. The biggest problem I aim to correct going forward is ceasing attempting to create any type of comic book series in real time (something that I’ve heard for years is a big no-no) because if life happens (it does) you suddenly have a delay between issues. All I can say is that my intentions were good—when the inspiration struck I didn’t wait around procrastinating. I definitely regret the delays but I’ll never regret finally getting my confidence back after a decade to just Go for it. Starting this series brought back the love I have for creating comics and that made it all worth it. But as I said, letting go is also part of the maturing process. A lot of sentiments espoused by @thedeathkit (a super talented comics creator and back cover artist to this #maadoktopus miniseries) echoed my own regarding this industry and my place in it. Going forward, I plan to do smaller comic stories, making more of an effort to refine my visual storytelling skills. Doing it for the love of it is great , but as satisfying as it is creatively, it can be very expensive print wise, etc. Combine that with me only being able to sell a handful of copies, and sometimes it can be soul crushing (there are times when I literally cannot give the comics away, lol). Anyway, I had always secretly hoped that some hats from the mainstream circuit might see some potential in my writing, at least—something. But Alas, no. And with that I fully let go of that dream. The great thing about this is that old dreams can be replaced with new ones.:) #newgoals #newcomics #farewelltofear https://www.instagram.com/p/CS8VtIesZIc/?utm_medium=tumblr