#an assignment for one of my classes and I had to trace the image I chose (I don't really like tracing as I much rather eye ball it instead)

[that-one-guy-nobody-remembers]

The same hare but gotta restart again

[aaizawashouta]

Don't Blame Me

pairing: aizawa shota x fem!reader

word count: 1.8k

summary: aizawa indulges himself in you after a rough night.

warnings: smut (18+ minors dni) oral (f receiving)

a/n: this took on a life of it's own. sorry not sorry

The office is silent. Your fingers tapping along the keyboard and every tick of the clock the only sign of time passing. That it’s just you here. Every moment that passes stresses you out. Images conjuring in your mind of the disaster that was last night. It’s okay. He’s okay. Your eyes glance at his office door. He’s never late. 

It’s almost two in the afternoon when he walks in. Your eyes track him. Every movement is slow and calculated. As if he doesn’t want to waste more energy than he needs. Your brows dip into a furrow, relieved that he’s here but concerned nonetheless. He glances over at you, finally feeling your burning stare. 

“What?”

“You look like shit.” 

He blinks, unaffected. “I didn’t sleep last night.” 

“I know. I watched the news this morning.” His shoulders tense at your words. “You did good, you know.” 

He doesn’t say anything more. You keep your smile to yourself as he walks into his office but keeps the door open. It’s an invitation if you ever saw one. Only a few minutes pass before he’s looming over you, dark hair almost tickling your cheeks from how close he is. He’s staring down at you, a mixture of disbelief and what you can only describe as well hidden affection. His hands grip your desk, knuckles white. The air around the both of you is intense—so thick you can cut it with a knife. Slowly, you let your breath go, sending his hair into a flurry around your face. 

“You didn’t have to do that.” He says staring down his nose at you. 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” 

“No?” One hand raises, lifting to the back of your neck before threading through your hair. Slender fingers tangling into the roots and pulling tight, forcing your head back. Your breath catches, thighs squeezing together. “Where are class 1-A’s assignments?” 

You swallow around the large lump forming in your throat, doing your best to ignore the blood rushing in your ears. “Graded and filed back in their folders.” 

“Why?” 

“Because I want to take care of you. I want you to be able to rest. I want you to not have to worry when I know I can help.”

He groans at your words, fingers digging into your scalp. “So good to me.” You whimper at the action, causing his eyes to flare to life. Whatever energy he’d been saving when he walked in, it’s pulsing through his veins now. “Always so good to me, such a sweet thing. But do you know what I really want?” 

“What?” 

“My name on your pretty lips.” 

“Shota,” you whine. 

“There it is.” 

His office door is shut and locked. You’re bent over his desk with your head resting on your forearms while he’s rucking up your skirt. Calloused hands push and pull at your newly exposed skin. You can barely hear his praises over the blood rushing in your ears. You know how to push Shota’s buttons, of course you do, but you never expected this. It has you on edge if you’re being honest. 

“Shota,” 

He pauses in his movements, eyes meeting yours. You don’t miss the way he swallows, gaze sweeping over you before his hands squeeze tightly. He knows you, can read you like a book. When you’ve been working together for as long as you two have—and dating for just as long—he knows you’re wanting an explanation. His eyes break from yours, looking at anything but you. Sighing, you push back and stand to your feet. A gentle hand cups his cheek, thumb tracing the scar that runs under his eye. Was it something like that? You can’t help but wonder. That had been bad. When the students had been attacked, only him and Thirteen were there to protect the kids. You’d never been so stressed in your life. 

“You’ll have to forgive me if I’m being a little indulgent.” He states, warm fingers wrapping around your wrist. He brings your hand to his mouth, lightly kissing each tip of your fingers. “There was—it—a brief moment last night where I wasn’t sure if I’d come back to you.” 

Your heart drops. Breaks right through your ribcage and shatters. God, you’d already come so close to losing him. What do you say to that? He already knows. He’s a pro hero. You knew exactly what the stakes were when you started dating. There’s no going back. You can only move forward and be thankful for everyday that you have with him. 

“Shota,” 

“That’s what I thought of,” he says, cutting you off with a soft smile, “I thought of my name on your lips.” 

Your head tips forward so you and him are resting forehead to forehead. The tenseness is his body slowly melts away with each of your mingled breath. A warm hand has worked its way back up your skirt, toying with the hem of your panties. They’re lace, his favorite. Meeting his eyes you scoot back so you’re sitting on the desk. Both of you ignoring when a picture frame falls, glass breaking. 

“So good to me,” he mutters, pulling the lace down. “Never have to worry about you.” You whine as he kneels in front of you, shoving your underwear in his back pocket. “Are you going to be a good girl for me?” 

“Yes sir.” The answer comes out breathless, chest heaving as your fingers find their way into his dark hair. 

“That’s my girl.”  

Taking a chance you look down at him and his gaze is searing. You’re being burned and scarred from all the stars and galaxies that hide in the depth of his dark eyes. You could get lost trying to chart the constellations. 

A gasp cuts through the silence when his thumb pulls your lip free. You blink, mind hazy. How is he doing this? Just his presence is making you feel completely fucked out. There’s something about Shota Aizawa that you’ll never get used to. 

You’re so weak. God, you’re so weak for this man. 

Shota hums, pulling his hand away from you. Like you’re something delicate and he didn’t want to break just yet. 

“My good girl,” he repeats his words. His voice is deep, ran through gravel, but something about the words is dripping in honey. “Can I have a taste?” 

“Ple—” 

He’s smirking in between kisses that lead further up your leg. Teeth nipping at the soft skin of your thigh. “I haven’t even touched you yet, sweet girl.” The pet name has your head falling back. 

“Needy are we?” He questions, hands moving up your legs, thick fingers digging into the tender flesh. 

He runs his nose over your center, taking in a deep breath. His hands tighten on your thighs, as if he’s stopping himself from diving right in. You shudder, squeezing your thighs together only for him to pry them apart. 

You swallow, breathing shallow, taking him in as his large hand lifts one of your legs to rest on his shoulder. You’re a pathetic pile of putty in his hands. You can’t help but wonder if he knew he could mold you into anything he wanted. He could straight out ruin you and you’d thank him. 

His hand trails up your leg, rough calluses catching on your skin. There is no buildup, his finger running through your folds, a hum as he collects it before sticking the digit in his mouth. 

“You're soaked,sweetheart. Fuck, you taste sweet. But I bet your cunt is absolutely heavenly, isn’t that right pretty girl?” 

“Yes, sir.” It comes out in a sigh. 

“Shota.”

He gives nothing else before diving in. You moan, your head falling back, breaking eye contact. Only to lift it when he smacks your thigh. 

“Eyes on me,” he warns. 

You simply nod, biting back your whimper. His tongue is flat as it makes its way through your folds. Thinking about Shota having thoughts about face fucking you makes you clench around nothing. Your nails dig into the palms of your hands. 

“Shota,” you murmur, hips lifting to roll against his face. 

“Sweet girl.” He replies voice thick with amusement. You squirm at the feel of his breath against you. His thumb rolls your clit in circles as his tongue parts your folds. He slips a digit in before replacing it with his tongue. 

You grind yourself on his face, barely catching the feel of his nose against your clit. You whisper his name, a chant, a prayer. He holds you open and licks up the seam of your sex, you jerk, knee barely grazing his cheek. 

“Easy, now sweetheart.” 

He strokes and teases your pussy. Switching off between his thick fingers and his tongue. He has you quivering, your lip bitten raw from how hard you're trying to not draw too much attention. The sounds of you clenching around his fingers, his tongue are obscene and he fucking loves it.  

You feel like you’re out at sea. Every crashing wave grows higher and higher building a tsunami that can’t be stopped. You move with every flick of his tongue. Heel digging into his shoulder when he sucks your clit into his warm mouth. It almost sends you over. 

“You taste fucking devine. The best nectar I’ve ever had.” 

You can’t help but laugh. You’re on the edge. Just a push. A simple push and—you bite back a sob, tears pricking at your eyes as he draws figure eights with his tongue. The perfect pressure and you're flying. 

“Oh my god,” 

Shota groans against you, feeling your release. You clench tightly on his tongue as he fucks it into you, wanting to take everything you’ve got to give. He keeps up his pace, helping you ride it out. As your hips slow down he replaces his tongue with his fingers, his mouth going back to your sensitive nub. 

“No, no. It’s too much.” 

“Come on, be a good girl. I know you’ve got another one for me.” 

A chronic people pleaser, you bask in praise. His praise is far and between. Hardly given to anyone who doesn’t deserve it, and it shoots straight to your core. You’re desperate, small whimpers falling from your lips, your cunt pulsing and aching. It’s all burning heat before it melts into pleasure. 

You're dripping down your thighs. You know it’s all over his face. He catches your eye when he pulls away, a grin tilting his lips. A gift just for you. He’s shining with your release. Leaning forward he catches you by surprise and kisses you. Thrusting his tongue into your mouth, you moan at the taste of you. As quickly as it started it was over. 

He swiftly stood, pulling your pants back up. You watch him in a heady daze as he fixes your skirt. You don’t miss how he keeps your panties. Eyes trailing down you catch sight of the bulge in his pants. His thumb hooks into your chin. 

“Later. I do have to work.” 

You smile, watching as he goes to the office door and unlocks it. He leaves it open and that’s an invitation if you’ve ever seen one. You can wait until later. When you’ll have all the time in the world to show the man you love just how much you love him. 

[beartitled]

Content time fellas 🍄

We’re getting through my uni catalog 📒 /silly

🍄Mushroom lantern🍄

This project has irl backstory behind it, it will be under read more for ppl interested

This is not a real game 🫵 just some concepts smashed together to look like one

All pixel assets were made in about an hour or so

And afterwards I drew some additional art bc I liked the concept

The main heroine

Is a littol mushroom

I imagine her to be a fake fly agaric (I think it’s a real species, but I need to read more about it)

She basically imitates fly agaric in order to protect herself, bc she’s tiny and defenceless

NPCs

I don’t have a specific species for this one, so just the purple guys™️

I imagine them to be sentient pieces of a huge organism THE big purple mushroom lmao

Those are just random dudes you help with random quests, using the light of your lantern

The catch tho

The lantern

This is pretty much the characters soul

The fire you collect, helps you continue living

Something happened with lantern or if all light is drained = u dead

Not every species has it, but many use the lantern light as a resource

yea so by helping the npcs

you kinda

👁️👁️ actively die in the process

The Chanterelle Witch

This is where additional content begins >:D

I kinda imagine a mushroom city/town as a main location

The witch lives outside of it, isolated from other mushroom creatures

She decided to leave everything behind and live without any creatures around

~ because something mysterious happened 👀~

I imagine her being trans 🏳️‍⚧️

And of course

Mushroöm lesbiens ❤️🍄

Tall gorgeous woman x tiny smol little woman

I don’t really have a structured story for this world

Those are just some vague concepts floating in my bear brain

Which I may or may not develop in the future

Maybe someday I’ll get a random inspiration boost to do something with this💥

There are 2 pixel games concepts I did, so ya’ll see more pixels in the future 👾

Ok, so the backstory behind this project

Bring the tea fellas ☕️

Back in my uni days 👵

*dramatic bear coughing*/silly

Basically we had a subject “Game design”

The assignment was to create a pixel game concept: mainly just sprites, tiles and a “gameplay” screenshot

I will post the project I submitted later on (I need to keep u guys entertained while I’m on portfolio grind, so intrigue pauses ☝️)

This project however 🤨

Was a product of one interesting situation

I finished my project on time with no problem, but one person from my study group didn’t

They pretty much copied the sprites from an existing game (I believe they didn’t trace them, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they did lmao)

Professor found out

and said “you either do an actual game in 3 days or you fail this class”

How take a guess who came to me after this pathetically sobbing and asking for help

And I, being a naive idiot, made them an entire game in 1 hour

Completely for free

Thinking they will change and they were probably just too busy to do this assignment

I’m incredibly angry at myself, bc the same person submitted an AI generated image as their art project next semester AND NOBODY CALLED THEM OUT ON IT

BRUH

I’m still incredibly mad to this day

And I’m telling you guys that

Bc don’t repeat my mistakes

Many people will use your kindness and steal your art outright

Don’t let people like that discourage you

I did that mistake

But L to that person, I have the og files, this is my silly mushroom lesbians

🔫🐻‍❄️

So yea

This person did not deserve this (I hope they step on a lego in the middle of the night)

But I’m glad I did this project

“That’s free real ocs🍄”/ref

[aalissy]

Soulmate Markers

Just a short fluffy lil soulmate AU for today's chapter :). I hope you like it! I love writing my fluffy Adrienette hehe. Plus, I always loveee writing soulmate AU's. Lemme know what you think <3

AO3

Adrien lay flat on his stomach in bed, a smile slowly stretching across his lips as he watched Marinette’s doodles come to life on his own arm. He delicately traced over the little flowers and stars that she had drawn, breathing out in awe. 

Every day he was grateful that he had found her. That very first day when he crashed into her and found that the little sketches she doodled on her arm matched the ones his soulmate had drawn on his own arm was everything.  

After finding each other, the two could barely stop writing little notes and messages to each other. Most of the time it was Adrien teasing Marinette that she was late. Again.

He shot a longing glance over at Plagg, wishing he could transform and head over to see her. But, alas, his kwami was passed out on the pillow next to him, snoring as dreams of cheese were surely filling his head.

Not wanting to disturb Plagg, Adrien quickly grabbed for a pen, scribbling on his unmarked arm.

You seem to be doodling instead of working on our physics homework there, Mari.

He bit his lip to stifle the large smile as the doodles suddenly ceased. There was a slight pause before his arm began to tingle as Marinette began to write back.

How do you know I haven’t already finished it yet and am taking a much-needed break?

Adrien snorted at the idea of Marinette having already finished all of her homework. Usually, she waited until the last minute for the classes she disliked the most.

Do you mean besides the fact that I also haven’t finished the whole assignment yet? 

He took a short pause, letting Marinette read the words that he had scrawled across the inside of his wrist before he struck an even bigger point.

Or, how about the fact that you haven’t stopped doodling since we left school? Did you have time to even start the physics homework yet?

Shush you! I’ve only just gotten home! I don’t need to worry about the homework yet.

Marinette's protestations were met with a playful chuckle from Adrien. He knew her procrastination tactics well. There was a brief enough break from her scribblings that Adrien felt a twinge of sadness in his chest. It hadn’t even been five minutes yet and already he missed talking to her. He couldn’t imagine what life would be like if they didn’t have this constant method of communication.

Soon, though, the tingle on his forearm appeared again and Adrien eagerly stared down at the words that were slowly appearing.

Have you gotten the answer to number 3 yet?

Hold on!

Springing up out of bed, he raced over to his desk. Reaching into his backpack, he pulled out the piece of scratch paper that he was using to solve the equations. 

Together, they began working on the problems, their minds synchronizing as they tackled the physics problems. Adrien marveled at Marinette's ability to grasp concepts quickly, her work clear and concise even as they used their arms to describe the answers they were getting. Quickly, with both of them working together, the two finished their homework.

Great work, Mari! 

Can I go back to doodling now, teacher?

Only if you keep doodling on your arm so that I can see.

Adrien could only imagine the light pink tinge that would light up her cheeks and for about the millionth time he wished he was with her so he could see it. This time, no reply of words came from Marinette. Instead, just as he requested, a trail of doodles began to replace over the words that they had previously written to each other.

He sighed happily, rubbing his thumb over the tiny images that were blooming along his arm. His father was certainly going to yell at him about his soulmate's pictures again. Something about how it tainted his perfect skin, but Adrien didn’t care. Not with the way Marinette was currently sketching a tiny heart with the letters A + M scratched into it.

Adrien beamed before he gave a series of happy cackles. Every day he sincerely wondered how he had gotten so lucky. His soulmate was the best one of them all and no one could ever... would ever get in the way of that.

[hashipond]

I respect you（Damian x Jon fanfic）

On a sheet of paper, only the title is written. Jon shakes his head, saying that he can't just look at this for good. It is not like him normally to put on the brakes as soon as he tries to write a sentence.

The sooner he finishes his homework, the more time he has for the patrols he looks forward to each day. The images that popped into his brain were quickly shut down. The information about "him" was now reduced to the bare minimum for John. It is enough to know the name and several related items. It is not often that he can be so stubborn about him.

The fact that he is aware of it makes it even more difficult to know what to do. It's all because of the title written at the top of the paper.

It was a homework assignment given by my homeroom teacher.

It was assigned for the homeroom assembly, and when the whole class was discussing who to choose, Jon had only one answer. It had to be Superman, the symbol of hope for the world. In fact, I heard him say from somewhere that he would make a good-looking Superman.

Jon is always chasing after that glorious back. He was proud of Superman both as a superboy and as a son.

I'll write as soon as I get home. As John stood up, one of the students asked the teacher a question. Jon asked the teacher, "Sir, is it okay if it's family or friends?"

The word "friends" echoed in John's ears. The teacher's voice suddenly became distant as she smiled at the student. I have a lot of friends. They are all good friends. There were countless moments of kindness and fun.

Among them, the one that comes to mind is Damian, with whom I work with on our daily patrol. His blunt but earnest attitude toward helping people and the way he would quickly come up with a plan when an unexpected incident occurred are firmly etched in Jon's mind.

It's the same with Superman. It is only natural that Damian respects the Batman he aspires to be as well, since they share the same aspirations, even though they live in different places.

So it's no wonder that he cares so much about his nagging heart. It happens all the time to people we admire.

Jon finishes his daily patrol, faking the sound of his heart pulsing a little faster, attributing it to the incident. It is a relief that there are few criminals today. Jon goes home and pulls out a piece of paper with just the title written on it from his bag. Jon takes a deep breath, trying to control his rising body temperature while trying not to think about Damian as much as possible.

Hang in there, Jon, you can do it, Jon.

He somehow manages to pick up a pencil, mentally cheering himself on. What should I write out?

Rather than go round and round in circles, I thought it would be better to write it all down at once. Oh, let's just write it all down. Impulsively, Jon ran his pencil across the paper.

"…… someone you respect,"

Damian muttered to himself as he looked across at Jon, who was asleep at his desk.

While on patrol, I thought John was apparently distracted, so I put a trail on him. And here it is.

Damian shrugs and looks at the paper,

"It's just a school homework assignment"

For a moment, Damian's movements stop. Comparing the paper with Jon's, he takes a cautious step forward, trying not to make a sound with his footsteps. With his index finger, he carefully traces the words on the paper.

"My admirers are Superman, my mom and dad, and my friend Damian."

It was a very Jon-like answer, Damien thought, and he suddenly felt a sudden urge to ruffle Jon's hair as he watched him sleep.

Suddenly, he felt like stroking Jon's hair while he was sleeping peacefully. He wants to stroke Jon's hair until I'm satisfied. I don't care how he reacts. But if I did, I would never see this peaceful sleeping face again.

Jon's reflection in the window was so desperate that I was almost pushed by his spirit.

So Damian tore off a bit of Jon's notebook next to him.

He wrote just a few lines. He would really like to go on and on, but it is better to tell it directly to himself again.

He places the scrap of notebook next to the paper. Jon's bouncy hair sways a little. His bangs have grown a little longer, Damian touches them lightly.

It's a minute exchange. It's an innocuous action. Still, it's all Jon's fault that it floats in the corner of my mind.

Damian closed the distance further. As their shadows blended together, the sliver I had just written fluttered away.

"The people I look up to are my mom, my dad, and my friend and future lover, Jon"

[the-overanalyst]

ena shinonome character analysis

bc she's my favorite and i have some Thoughts

core desire: forever insatiable

it would be easy to dismiss ena as just an attention seeker, and while she definitely is to a certain extent, there's a lot more to it than that. she doesn't necessarily draw for attention, she wants attention for drawing. she clearly has standards, otherwise the clout she gets from her selfie account would be enough to satisfy her. instead, it's just a coping mechanism, something that gives her short term ego boosts while being ultimately unfulfilling. art is what truly matters to her, so it's the one thing she wants to be recognized for. not only is it her great passion, but it's what she pours hours of hard work into. more than anything, i think she wants her effort to be acknowledged (more on this later)

the "on this blank canvas" event story shows that ena has always had a bit of an ego when it comes to art, seeking and even anticipating praise from yukihira. this event was largely about her inability to deal with criticism. when her dad basically crushes her dreams, i think this is what he was (very poorly) trying to tell her, that she's too sensitive and it's going to hold her back. but of course, he only made the problem worse, making her even more senstive to the point where she ran away from yukihira's class, cutting herself off from further technical improvement. her desire for meaningful attention and validation of her efforts is at war with her fear of criticism and rejection.

self image: a blank canvas

being an artist is an inextricable part of ena's identity. her art is an extension of who she is as a person, so of course she takes criticism as a personal attack. wanting to be recognized for her art means wanting to be recognized for her true self. she tries to quit drawing upon hitting her lowest point in "insatiable pale color," but she can't. after her dad told her she should quit, it sent her into a crisis, and when yukihira assigned the prompt of "self," she couldn't think of anything to draw. if she's not fit to be an artist, then what is she?

but ena doesn't question her self image like that, instead she pushes back against those who questioned her. "now i wear this ribbon" shows her desperation to prove her father wrong because she herself needs to believe that art is what she's meant to do. it's interesting that before the incident, she seemed to take pride in being the daughter of an artist, but now she's very insistent on being noticed only on her own terms, for her own merit and hard work. she doesn't even want to link her art account to n25 because she thinks it would be an easy way out. she has a very individualist view of her success or failure as an artist, but that's understandable given how long she's worked and struggled and fought all on her own with no one she could rely on for support.

growth: beyond the morning

ena's character arc during the main timeline (as far as en server has gotten) can best be traced through the following three events

"insatiable pale color" gives us her starting point and, as i said before, her darkest hour. her crisis in this event is ena at her worst: clashing with her father and getting hurt because of it, not getting the recognition she wanted and trying to give up, lashing out at others and isolating herself. by the end of the event, her primary motivation is still to get validation, but she’s decided the validation she gets from the rest of n25 is enough. this is an important first step because, as i said before, feeling like no one in her life supported her was a big reason ena became so desperate.

"on this blank canvas i paint" is where ena achieves her biggest milestone: returning to yukihira's class. this a huge turning point because she doesn't do it for validation at all. on the contrary, she willingly subjects herself to the harsh criticism that made her break down back in middle school because what she wants now is to improve. she no longer lets her fragile ego hold her back from becoming a better artist and person. she recognized what her problem was and she's taking the steps to fix it.

since then she's been in a stable state of steady growth, and i think the event that best demonstrates that growth is "paint what i love," in which ena teaches honami to draw. there are a lot of little moments in this event that show how far she's come. she talks about talent and lack thereof in art without resentment. she's careful with her words so as to not hurt honami, despite having an impulsive nature, which shows that she's breaking the cycle of her father's harshness. perhaps most importantly, she's rediscovered how to actually enjoy the process of art instead of just doing it out of necessity.

parallels and foils

kanade: both are following in their fathers' footsteps, ena not well enough and kanade too well. largely because of this, they both have a slightly toxic, obsessive relationship with their craft. that's probably why ena doesn't resent kanade like she does mafuyu. they're both authentic and honest compared to the others in n25. ena's promise to wait for mizuki mirrors kanade's promise to save mafuyu.

mizuki: their most striking parallel is the idea of "running away" and how that's prevented them from getting what they want. ena ran away from yukihira's class and lost the chance to improve her art. mizuki ran away from school and basically all of the outside world and lost the chance to connect with others. if my analysis of ena's self image is accurate, she also shares with mizuki the desire to be seen and accepted for who she is.

mafuyu: these two contrast the most. ena is very sensitive and hot tempered while mafuyu is unaffected by everything amd never shows emotion. and as ena always brings up, mafuyu is naturally gifted but doesn't care while ena obsesses over her art but still isn't considered good enough. one thing they share is the experience of awful parents, but even here there's contrast. mafumom's expectations of her daughter are too high while shinodad's are too low.

akito: i swear they only hate each other because they're too similar. obviously they both believe they're not talented and need to work harder to compensate, and they'reboth uncompromising in the standard to which they hold themselves and others. however, they have contrasting responses when confronted with inadequacy, essentially fight or flight. he chooses fight, pushing himself to ridiculous extremes to get better as seen in "stray bad dog," while she chooses flight, quitting the class or trying to give up art. i'd say that he's internalized the idea of "not being good enough" more than she has. they're both pretty emotionally intelligent when it comes to other people, as he has shown with toya and an and she has with mizuki. they both have a gruff demeanor but are capable of acting polite when they need to.

◇◇◇◇◇

thanks for reading all the way to the end. here's my low effort, low quality take on the "blank canvas" event card, drawn from memory

[donnerpartyofone]

As a casual bystander, I see a lot of dialog about the economic aspects of AI art, and comparatively little about its actual artistic value--that is, what happens when the viewer consumes it. AI imagery can have a fun, surprising impact that I would compare superficially with broken english; someone who doesn't have mastery over the conventions of a language may come up with excitingly unusual expressions that would never occur to a native speaker. When I see AI art it seems like a lot of the action comes from looking at the prompt and looking at the image and kind of measuring the distance between them, trying to imagine the program's "thought process" if I can call it that. Sometimes these things have an interesting aesthetic too, but it's hard for me to tell where that comes from or how controllable it is (and I mean the real visual effect of the thing, not like "Oh I see, the prompt included 'comic book style'" or something). But the key difference between AI art and human art seems to be the physical presence of the person. I'm not even trying to be sentimental or something, I just mean when I look at most sculptures/paintings/drawings/installations/textiles/etc, I sense the person who made them. I get an idea about the physical energy and discipline and difficulty that went into the creation of the object, and I also get a feeling about what the artist meant by what they did. As a result of who they are and what they have experienced, they developed something that they wanted to say so badly that they were willing to undergo a major trial to say it in a highly specific way.

To be fair intentionality is really slippery and hard to prove unless the individual artist has been very explicit (and even then you can't always trust them, or you can decide their intention isn't as important as your interpretation), but to some degree the viewer is always helplessly projecting something about themselves onto the art and/or their personal construction of who the artist is. You look at art and you estimate what kind of experience that artist seems to have had, and your emotional and interpretive responses to the art naturally draw on your own feelings and memories. That whole part seems to be missing from AI art; of course there's the human composing the prompts, so there's a trace of psychology in that, but the actual creation of the work (as far as I can tell) is done by a program that is not reflecting on its own history, or the personal sacrifices that it made to build its skillset, or its feelings about its own social/political/historical context. Basically there is nothing the program is wrestling with, that the viewer might relate or react to.

Of course art is always a rorschach test on some level, and there is no law that says you have to view works of art as records of biographical fact. Actually there's a whole aspect of art history writing that totally rejects personal and psychological suppositions about art. One of my college advisors loved me when he saw my writing potential, and then completely turned on me when he realized that I was only interested in (or only capable of) a psychoanalytic style of interpretation (my thesis was on a selection of Crumb comics where the artist or his stand-in rides on or inside of powerful female bodies, driving them like tanks or jets, which I thought suggested fear, awe, and jealousy, not just garden variety misogyny). He was a pure historian; you were only allowed to do purely material investigations of the art object, and you could only talk about its larger historical context. He had done some big project on a famous painting cycle with an exclusive focus on the state of industrial paint production at the time of the work. In one of my first classes with him we all went to a museum where everyone was assigned a short essay on one piece there, and the rule was you could ONLY do a formal description, there could be NO interpretation. I wish I could think of the name of it, but my piece was just a clear plastic tube that was stuffed full of rubbish. Coming up with a compelling description of this thing was borderline impossible, I basically just had to list as many pieces of garbage as I could identify--which sounds sort of poetic and funny now, but I'm sure it wasn't when I wrote it. I don't know how much I learned from doing that, but I thought about this professor when I saw the Warhol Diaries docuseries recently. There's a late episode where they talk about Warhol's famous statements about wanting to be a machine and insisting that his art has no personal meaning, and a bunch of experts argue convincingly that his work is actually loaded with personal material, anxiety, longing, shame, etc--it's encoded with the things that Warhol was too afraid to say out loud in a literal way. One particular collector finds all of this totally repulsive and unnecessary, as if it's just a stain on the formal quality of Warhol's output. His way of seeing things is totally valid and not uncommon, but it's curious that he gets so angry when people see Warhol himself in the work. Now I wonder if and how this lens could apply to looking at AI art. Is it possible to do that same kind of purely formal analysis if you don't have an intimate understanding of the AI's mechanics? If it's not possible, and it's still IMpossible to view AI art the same sympathetic way we view human-produced art, what is left?

My question is not rhetorical, and I'm not saying that AI art can't be art because of the absence of human psychology; I don't know if I'm ready to make that conclusion. I think I'm saying that if AI art IS art, then consuming and appreciating it requires a really different philosophy than what most of us are used to using. It might even require a different definition of what makes something art. Maybe AI can produce art, but not art as we have known it. Are we sort of looking at AI art the way we look at shapes formed by clouds? That one looks like a heart. That one looks like a bunny. That one looks like a guy, but he's got too many fingers. My analogy is not perfect because there IS someone whose input inspires the shapes, but there is a similar entropic quality to what shapes are actually produced and why. If there is a God up there molding clouds into familiar shapes, then His thought process is probably beyond our comprehension. Our perception of familiar shapes may be pure projection.

[spareparts-vn]

Hi! I'm really enjoying Spare Parts. I really appreciate how it has so much heavy drama, but it never feels oppressively dour or meaningless. There's plenty of more comedic or otherwise lighter moments that don't feel out of place, too. Can I ask as a wannabe writer myself, do you have any tips or processes for writing such effective drama?

thank you! i'm very bad at giving writing advice. i've written and deleted this post half a dozen times already. it's pretty hard to lay my thoughts out since my process is so tangled up in my brain's very specific eccentricities. so here's some extremely scattered thoughts that loosely connect to how i write "drama," which in my mind is just an extension of any compelling relationship between characters.

1) "iteration" is my main thing. write a bad draft, then edit it to be better, then edit it to be better, then edit it to be better, then erase the whole thing and write another bad draft that's slightly better, then edit that one to be better, then edit it to be better, then do that 100 more times until you have an epiphany that ties it all together. it's not very efficient but it helps me identify what works and what doesn't so i can hone in on what's interesting to me. in the context of drama, that means i can write out an argument between two characters and ask myself if it hits on anything compelling. if it doesn't, i scrap it, but if there's some feeling there that i want to flesh out, i can restructure it to pivot around that.

2) similar to the previous one, but i try to start broad and narrow my focus over time. taking two characters' relationship as an example, i'll start from the most generic interpretation of how they relate to one another and start adding nuance/complexity over time. i think of it like a life drawing, if you've ever taken a class for that. you want to start with the gesture of the pose first, then start to fill in shapes and values until the foundation is solid. you go around the whole drawing adding details in bits and pieces, rather than focusing on one body part and fleshing it out to completion first. you can slowly choose where to exaggerate shapes or darken shadows to add a little more visual flair to it. in telling a story, these details can often play out and develop through the course of the narrative.

2.5) this is an aside, but during my brief stint in art school, i once turned in a self-portrait for a life drawing assignment that i was really unhappy with. i spent so much time working and reworking it that it looked really smudgy from all the erased lines, but i was too stubborn to start drawing on a new piece of paper. i was very anxious about turning it in for critique, but the professor surprised me by saying that he liked the ethereal quality it had from all the eraser marks. that there was something interesting in how obvious it was that i'd redone it so many times, allowing the evidence of previous attempts to leave traces in the final image. that comment always stuck with me. i think of life, and art by extension, as additive in nature. you can't completely erase the past, so as time moves forward your canvas become more and more dense with information, even if it's been scrubbed away. relationships are the same, which i try to convey when writing my characters. the longer you write them, the more friction and drama will naturally fall out of them. so don't be afraid to start simple, you might surprise yourself with the sort of feelings that appear without you realizing it.

3) i try to imagine a person who would become psychotically obsessed with every possible pairing of characters. what would they find interesting in this dynamic? how could i give them something to chew on? how could i surprise them, or entice them to think about their relationship deeper? in spapa's case, there's obviously a lot of interplay between the most central characters, but i have internal dossiers on every obscure pair of characters that most people won't think about. but that means i'm going to write more about them and flesh them out, so the web grows more complex and interesting. (i've developed a fixation on a secret ship that i'm hungry to explore, but probably won't get the chance to for a while. i'll leave you to speculate on what that is.) every character's growth and experience is shaped by their relationships, so tugging on those threads can reveal things about my characters i hadn't realized before. and sometimes those threads are connected to sticks of dynamite, which explode. and then you get lucy and melanie yelling at each other, even though their first interactions don't really suggest they'd end up there.

4) i'm the type of person who struggle to resist cracking a joke when i think of one, no matter how inappropriate the timing is. i've seen some critique of spapa that jokes occasionally feel misplaced in really serious scenes, but personally, i think they're important! people are complicated and can have multiple modes of thought/expression at once. sometimes when you're in the middle of the biggest sobbing breakdown of your life you'll think something stupid and mundane that snaps you back to reality for a second. sometimes you're having the best day of your life and you'll suddenly remember The Incident and have to just brush it off. i try to reflect those sorts of weird moments in my writing.

5) i lean a lot on my experience in writing fanfic/doing roleplay of characters/ships that i'm interested in. taking the dynamic that's presented in the source material and bending it to suit my interests more, or to flesh out ideas that i want to explore through them as a medium. every now and then it helps to take a step back and assess what parts of my story i've built i feel are most compelling or could use some more attention. what scenes i would write fanfic of, and how i can place them in the story itself or build up to something that paints those scenes in the reader's mind. i just love characters. they're little toys i can make do anything

6) i guess overall my approach is very naturalistic/holistic. i let characters develop themselves and create drama on their own, just by being complicated little animals and thinking about them a lot. then i can take those shapes they make and mold them into something more refined. i try to treat everything as a piece of the whole. let the threads get really tangled up and leave a lot of time for exploring what those knots look like and how you might try to de-tangle them. but meanwhile there's other knots forming too. there's no getting it completely organized but you learn a lot about the mess while trying to pull it apart. the process is essential. the end product should reflect that process in whatever ways feel appropriate. imo

i don't know if Any Of This Shit makes any sense or is helpful. like i said, i've rewritten this several times already, and i've gotta do other stuff today, so hopefully you could pull something useful out of it lmao

[ihavemanyhusbands]

Hi I have a writing request! Will Graham discovers that his girlfriend has a professor kink, so he invites her to sit in on one of his lectures. He asks her to stay after class, and they take advantage of the empty classroom. Thank you in advance if you choose to write this! I love all of your fics so much!!! ^-^

Honestly it’s a real crime we didn’t get more professor Will tbh THANK YOU FOR THIS AND IM SO GLAD YOU LIKE MY WORK AAAA THANK YOU!!! ❤️❤️❤️

——

The projector was the only light in the darkened lecture hall. You paid no attention to the images on screen, too enraptured by Will’s steady voice as he explained each one in depth.

You sat on the very front row, close to his desk, your chin propped on your hand as you watched him. You’d vowed not to distract him much, but you couldn’t help yourself when he just looked so good.

He was in his element, confident and authoritative, never losing his student’s focus. A couple of times, his eyes slid in your direction, and you were the only one in that room he would hold eye contact with.

You tried not to squirm in your seat any time it happened. Like he was speaking only to you.

When the lecture was over, you remained in your seat as all the students gathered their things and filed out. A couple of them approached Will’s desk to ask questions about an assignment, but he kept his answers short and clipped, not letting them dally. He occupied himself by organizing some papers as he waited for the last of them to trickle out.

And once they did, he said. “Close the door, would you?”

You tried not to seem too hasty as you complied, locking the door as well. Your heart was already racing with anticipation.

“Are we going to talk about my terrible grades, Professor Graham?” You said, half-teasing. “I seem to have a very hard time paying attention.”

“I can tell,” he said, rounding his desk and leaning against it. “Or at least, it’s my actual lecture you don’t find interesting.”

“I don’t know, maybe I should just start sitting closer. Right by your desk.”

You approached him slowly, stepping between his legs. His hands came to rest on your hips, bringing you even closer.

You smirked. “See? So much better already.”

“Careful. The others might start calling you a teacher’s pet,” he murmured.

“And what if I am?” You asked, leaning closer until your lips were a hair’s breadth apart.

“Well, then I better give you some preferential treatment.”

With that, he cupped the back of your head and brought you into his hungry kiss. You moaned as he bit your lower lip, chasing the slight sting with his tongue. He always knew how to make your head spin.

He pulled back only so you two could switch places, and he had you sit at the edge of the desk. He sank to his knees in front of you, pushing up your skirt only to reveal that you had no underwear.

He raised an eyebrow at this, looking up at you. “Eager for it, were you?”

“I thought I’d make my intentions clear,” you said with a lopsided grin, threading your fingers through his hair.

He didn’t need any more incentive, kissing his way up to the apex of your thighs.

And as you melted at the feeling of his tongue tracing your most sensitive spots, you decided that you’d be sitting in on his lectures much more often from now on.

——

[icarus-suraki]

Re: this post about AI and creators...

---

See, here's the thing: it's not about my (paid, regular) job. That doesn't exhaust me--not like other jobs I've had. That's not what I'm talking about when I say "work."

I mean effort. I mean that kind of work. What I really mean is

Not everyone is creative and everyone needs to get okay with that.

A lot of people in fandom/internet culture are creative--sometimes extremely creative. But there's a lot of us out here who just aren't.

I thought I wanted to be a novelist when I was in my teens and 20s, so I took creative writing classes and I hated every assignment. It was like pulling teeth: it was painful, it was difficult, and it took for-fucking-ever to get done.

Same thing with the studio art 101 class I took in college: every assignment I just wanted it done. The process fucking sucked and absolutely exhausted me. (I did a lot of tracing before that, which was also tedious but at least I knew I'd get a decent result at the end.)

It was agonizing. It was tedious. It was all, quite frankly, completely fucking boring.

It just takes so much effort and patience to Make Things and I just don't have either. The sheer amount of effort required to make one short story (let's say) does not equal whatever results I might get. The ROI is terrible.

I don't have "novel ideas" or "creative approaches" to things. I don't have the love or passion or drive some people have that can push them over the wall of required effort to make something. Hell, I don't even have the strength or patience to consume things. 20 minutes into a movie and I'm just like "This is so tedious. How much longer is this thing?"

The tedium that comes with trying to write or draw or whatever is just unbearable. I don't get interesting ideas and I don't have the drive to see them realized anyway. I can kind of do photography because that's just a matter of finding a subject lol.

So when it comes to AI, sometimes I'll just saunter up to Midjourney and be like "Hey, computer. Spit out something interesting to look at real quick." And then it produces an image that's an amalgamation of whatever it's been taught and sometimes it's a nonsense image, sometimes it's a surreal image, sometimes it's a dreamlike image--but it's always something I could never think of, so it's novel, so it interests me. No tedium, no agony, no exhaustion. The ROI is ideal.

Yeah, idk, this whole glorification of THE WORK and THE EFFORT and THE ACT OF CREATION seems like a lot of "creative types" are just closet masochists.

[transannabeth]

hi! i love your art style!! i was wondering if you had any tips on practicing figure drawing. i understand the like “a person is about 7 heads in height, and this is where joints should go on the chart,” but i find when trying to draw dynamic figures, i end up lengthening limbs to the point of uncanny valley. i know practice is Thee One Big Thing, but i was wondering if you had something more discreet. like practice is the staircase but are there any steps you’d recommend to getting to the top of the staircase, which has “get a little better at figure drawing” at the top? thanks so much!

ahhh thank you so much!!! i'm so glad you like my art!!

my advice for figure drawing is still 'practice' but maybe the advice i have for practice will help out a little? i guess we'll find out aldskfj

first though, proportion rules are super helpful for more static poses, but can definitely be harder to use in active ones. i actually learned most of mine from cyberchase (thank you pbs kids) hilariously enough, but others you can sorta figure out for yourself just by seeing what is (approximately) the same size!

for arms my big one is always that from your shoulder to elbow is about the same length as your head and neck. and then from your elbow to your wrist is slightly shorter than that. you can test this for yourself by holding up your arm and resting your forearm on your head, or touching your fingers to your shoulder! of course, this isn't always true for everyone, so you can play with that, but if your arms are looking too long, that's my big one!

for legs, i do something kind of similar, where if i pull my leg to my chest, for me, my leg comes just past my armpit, so my hip joint to knee is slightly smaller than my torso (and same for the bottom of my leg). again, this isn't exact, but i find it easier to do how bigger body parts are proportional to each other (sections of leg to torso, parts of arm to head) opposed to like 7 heads for the full body, and i find it a little easier to use for poses and moving limbs around

for practice i super recommend both references and drawing from life!! if there are any classes near you with a live model, i personally recommend it because i both think it's a lot of fun (i like the mindset long study sessions like that put me in) and i think that it gives you a lot of good experiences with body types and poses and angles you might not think of!

since those are not always accessible though, drawing from photos is also great! the site line of action is my go to, because it allows you to set different a time limit for your drawings and gives you options like the models' ages, genders, and if they're clothed or nude. since you have no other control over what images you get, it gives you poses that you might not've tried before!

(this site also has expressions (i love that section), environments, hands and feet, and animals!)

also reference photos are my best friend (i say, not using them as much as i should). there are SO MANY people who post reference photos for artists doing all sorts of poses, with all sorts of props, and it's great. the one that i can immediately find is adorastock which i highly recommend clicking through even for some inspiration!

if you can't find what you're looking for, taking pictures of yourself or people around you is always something you can do as well. i am constantly taking pictures of my hands because i can't figure out the right angle of everything. for the piece of leesia and teddy where leesia is lunging with knives, i took a photo of myself at like 3 am to get that one. for my final project in a drawing class, i took a picture of my sister wrapped in a bed sheet because i couldn't figure out how to make the fabric draping look right

piggybacking off that one, those final pieces were actually based on john william waterhouse's paintings. (the assignment was to i think remake/modernize a piece) i think doing studies of other people's art and even tracing sometimes, can be really beneficial. i know there are a lot of thoughts about tracing, but i think that if you just don't post it... it's fine. older, famous artists have studies and redrawings done all the time of their work (j.c. leyendecker is a favorite for people's studies)

so yeah!! that's all the advice i've currently got. and also... sometimes proportions....are a little fake. sometimes it's just your style. or it just kinda...looks better wrong. a lot of my drawings of people in long dresses have them with legs that are actually way too long because i like how the longer skirt looks. so none of the rules are hard and fast

good luck!! i hope something in this answer helps you out a little bit!!

[emily-farrington-cos-377]

Project 14 - Automatic Fish Feeder

Since the class has completed all the assignments from the Arduino projects book, we're moving onto more advanced projects we came up with on our own for the rest of the semester.

My first project is an Automatic Fish Feeder! This one is designed to release one feeding 12 hours after starting. Perfect for a weekend away to keep your fish happy!

expand the post to see how to make it. This one is really long since I'm sharing how I built everything as well as some of my thought processes.

Needed Materials:

Electronic parts:

• LCD

• 220 Ohm resistor

• Servo

• Potentiometer

• Capacitor

• Long Male/Female wire extenders

Building materials:

• Thin cardboard (I used a soda can box)

• Glue stick

• Bobby pin

• Adhesive dots

• Electric tape

• Printed decorations (Optional, just for aesthetics)

How It's Made:

Using thin cardboard as my main building material, I traced the footprint of the Arduino + breadboard base and eyeballed how tall the sides should be. I'll include measurements below so you don't have to guess like I did. I also made sure to leave room for the servo to poke out as well as a spot for the power cable to be plugged in.

I used an adhesive dot to stick the servo to plastic base my Arduino is on.

the front panel is a separate piece of cardboard. I traced the LCD's footprint onto the front and cut it out with a knife. The thin cardboard wasn't strong enough to hold the weight of the screen, so I made a second front panel and glued it to the first. I also left room around the edges when I was cutting out so I would have surface area to glue things together.

The food receptacle is traced from a pencil sharpener I had on hand, so I'll include the measurements in my mockup for your pleasure. It's just a rectangle with an open top and bottom. Just for fun, I glued a little strip of colorful cardboard to the bottom edge of the box.

For the trap door on the bottom of the food bin, I traced the bottom of the rectangle and cut out two. Cut the wavy leg off a bobby pin. Glue the remaining straight leg between the two cut outs, make sure it's off center(as seen in picture X). Use electric tape to secure the rounded part of the bobby pin to the little servo arm. Stretch the tape as you put it on to make sure it's secure.

Finally, I spiced up the outside of the build with some labels and pictures. I have a small thermal sticker printer, but any printed or hand written markings will do. I stuck the fish image to a cardboard scrap and cut it out before gluing it above the LCD. Having it come off the edge of the box adds a lot of visual interest to an otherwise boring build.

Graphic of build plus measurements:

Board:

The Code:

Once the Arduino turns on, it starts counting up until the dispense time - start time = 0. Then the servo will rotate it's arm to 180° and dump the food into your fish tank. The LCD screen will display a welcome message before showing the time remaining until the food gets dispensed. For the demonstration, I changed the code to dump the food after 10 seconds and display the time remaining in seconds. You can comment that out and comment in the 12 hour pre programmed time if you want to actually use this build.

Video:

Schematics:

and a picture of my fish because I love him so much. His name is Horatio

[horrorobsessor]

On the note of handwriting analysis, I just want to say a thing I think is neat.

If someone who knows a person very well and has seen their handwriting extremely frequently, I would trust that person to know what is or is not their hand writing.

Sorta like how if you live in a house where everyone has their own set of keys, you eventually can distinguish each person by the sound of their specific keys.

It's such a weirdly specific pattern recognizing part of the brain that when I do it I can in no way articulate how I know that it's the person I think it is, my brain just sees it and says "it's this" and is correct. Again, with extreme familiarity.

I took animation class and during it, we all got so familiar with each others art style and ability and how people shape the curves or points or where they go heavy/light in their line usage, that when we were doing assignments where we were supposed to draw the exact same character, on model, we could still easily tell who did which one.

Our prof had worked on Roger Rabbit and said if he watches the movie, he can still tell which artist drew which frame of Rodger.

It's so weirdly specific and happens on its own naturally in the brain that it's so difficult for someone like myself to articulate what it is that I'm seeing that makes me go "it's this person", and I'm actually happy to hear what the above commenter is saying about it becoming more standardized in teaching it because it is possible, but doing something consciously and knowingly vs a little alarm in your brain pulling up the image of a person are two different things.

I think it could be really fun for like looking at historical documents and letters and being able to trace back who wrote what if something wasn't signed, or being able to tell how many unique people had a hand in writing a work, or how many people worked on transcribing so and so many copies of a book before the printing press was invented.

criminal profiling is just astrology for cops

[kellyriosperezworkinprocess]

3/29/24

When reading chapter 10 it was interesting to see how the case studies are able to combine different concepts of typography and mix them into one image that takes more than one glance to actually understand its full meaning. When looking at the case study for the New Year's poster it was interesting to see how many elements alone were used to showcase the sky from the star alignments to pictures of clouds and how the combination of religious symbols was also included. I was fascinated by Malinosk’s work where the combination of simplicity and boldness could captivate the attention of the people walking by. Were a lot could be said with a little.

This week has been interesting. I am currently sick and I blame my sister for it so I've had very little energy but I've been able to make great progress. When presenting my poster in class I felt iffy about the way I had drawn the grass, so I have gone in and redid it and changed the color of the letters for National Park. In order to create the letters, I had done an initial sketch in my sketchbook and had traced them over in illustrator, I'm glad about the way they look on my poster and have added the A I had missed in my poster presentation. I wasn't able to go to the National Park again due to the heavy rain on Wednesday, but I have audio of the storm outside that I will incorporate through the second half of the assignment. Now since I've captured the audio, I want to see what it would look like if I took my Stillwater background and create droplets of supposed rain as it enters the Congaree wetland. Currently for my final project booklet I have created a layout that I am not so happy about since it follows the first booklet, I made this template so I'm planning on redoing it all and seeing if I can come up with something better.

[c-mccormick-svad-2022-2025]

Week 4: Project #3 - Flowering Typography

During Week 4, I spent my time working on Project #3. Our class was introduced to the concept of Flowering Typography in the previous week, where each student was assigned a different letter to create a unique flower design. We used the Monsterrat Black typeface and a color palette known as Italian primitive. These guidelines were created to help students choose their flower designs and consider the colors they could use in the final product. After reviewing several flower options, I selected the Lily of the Valley - a white, bell-shaped flower that grows in the hills and mountains of North Carolina during the spring. I specifically chose this flower for its whimsical and free-flowing shape, which aligns with the style I wanted to achieve through this project.

To create my design, I first selected one of the 16 sketches I had created on tracing paper using a light table and a mechanical pencil. Then, I scanned my final sketch using a Canon flatbed scanner and Adobe Acrobat software. I imported the PDF of the sketch into a new Illustrator file with a 5" x 5" artboard. After adjusting the placement of the shape, I created a new layer and meticulously traced the form using the pen and Pathfinder tools. After tracing all the shapes from my original sketch, I went back in with the pen tool and removed any floating or unnecessary anchor points. This process helped me to clean up the shapes and smooth out the lines, resulting in clean curves. To add line details in the middle of the shape, I clicked on "Object" and selected "Compound Path" from the dropdown menu and then clicked "Make" to remove the middle elements of my shape.

To complete the vectorized letter, I used the Pathfinder tool to merge all the individual shapes together and form a unified shape for the letter. After this, I filled in the color by entering the specific color code in the fill option of the color picker. For my final design, I picked the olive color from the class color palette to incorporate into the letter. During the design process, I tried out various color options (as you can see in the images above). However, in the end, I decided to go with olive color, as it resembled the stem of a lily of the valley flower and stood out from my classmates' choices. I made sure that all the shapes were perfectly aligned and that the file had the correct dpi (300 dpi). Finally, I saved the file in two formats - an active illustrator file and a jpeg - and submitted both versions of the file on Basecamp before the final due date.

After reviewing the critique of my flowering-type design, I have come to the conclusion that it wasn't entirely successful, especially when viewed from a distance. Comparing my letter with the other designs in the class flowering alphabet, I noticed multiple mistakes that weakened the overall execution of my design. Firstly, the swirls on the leaves were too large and distracting, which was probably due to the excessive amount of white space between the swirl and the leaf. Though the swirl was a stylistic choice, it proved too distracting, drawing the viewer's attention away from the flower itself. The design could be improved by either removing the swirls or making them smaller to avoid competing with the other elements. Balance is key! The flower itself doesn't stand out enough because the outline around the shapes is too thin and inconsistent. This makes it difficult to distinguish the negative space between the flower and other shapes from a distance, causing the design to look cluttered. It's also hard to identify the type of flower being added to the letter. Although the overall design is whimsical, the errors and inconsistencies make it look too simple. To improve the design, the outline of the flower should be made thicker and cleaner. Additionally, the flower should have been incorporated more effectively into the design, with greater emphasis on it rather than on the leaves. This would have made the flower the focal point of the design. Instead of simply placing the flower on top of the letter, the final product should have been integrated more fully into the letter itself. This could have been accomplished by either inverting the flower to create more white space or by using an illustrative style similar to that found in botanical or herbal illustration studies.

Main takeaway: scaling can make a huge difference. Something that looks great up close can look poorly when viewed from a distance. It is important to test if the design is legible up close and far away. Are the details neat and clear, or do they become lost?

In continuing the experimentation with letters, Project #4 aims to challenge designers to create new concepts for the potential 27th letter of the alphabet. The goal is to encourage the incorporation of the 27th letter into the English alphabet. This project serves as an introduction to serifs and sans serifs in text, providing a better understanding of the basics of typography. In referencing the textbook "Thinking with Type," "the purpose of typography is to help readers avoid reading…Pictures can be read, analyzed, decoded, and taken apart. Words can be seen, perceived as icons, forms, and patterns." Typography is not just a tool to make text more readable or practical. It's an art form that fosters creativity and creation. While there are rules to follow, these should be seen as opportunities to create interesting patterns and art on a page. Project #4 is an effort to find a creative solution for a potential 27th letter in the English alphabet. This project aims to explore what this letter would look like, and how it can blend in with the rest of the alphabet while also changing its look.

Lupton, Ellen. “TEXT.” Thinking with Type: A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, & Students, Princeton Architectural Press, New York, 2010, pp. 87–147.

[tish-creeativity]

Sept 18/23- ARDE 396

Today in Applied Arts 1 we went over part 2 of assignment 1. For this part of the assignment we are to design a metaphorical art & design poster. After we were given our instructions we were give class time to think of some ideas. I thought of some ideas and filed and then mentally filed them to work on at a later time. Since I had scraped the Korn album concept I began to come up with new ideas, but nothing was really catching my attention. I have ADHD so in order for me to really want to dive into something I have to find the subject interesting. I was stumped, but as I was watching The Reservation Dogs, one of my favourite shows on Disney+. The Reservation Dogs is drama comedy series that exploits the lives of 4 indigenous teenagers that steal or rob to save money to escape the rez lifestyle. I really enjoy this show because as a First Nations person I feel like I can really relate to the storyline & the humour that is captured on every episode. That’s when and the realized that I could probably use the main characters for an idea. First I found photos on google images, then on photoshop I made sure they were at 300 PPI. I then brightened and changed the contrast. Next I used image trace on adobe illustrator. I tried to find the closest typeface that I had that resembled the typeface on the Beatles album. Obviously I replaced “with the beatles” with “with the rez dogs,” and “mono” with “mvto” (pronounced muh-toe) because it means “Thank you” in Kiowa language, the language they speak on the show. I also changed the “Paralophone” to “Muskogee,” as that is the name of reservation that the characters and the show is based on.