#and most of the time ai art doesn’t even look that good

[ginnyruin]

i'm sorry but the nurchie "art" is clearly AI generated??? can we please stop sharing and praising shit that some algorithm spat out without ever asking the original creators whose work it steals and regurgitates for their permission

- sincerely, a pissed-off artist

Hello,

I’m going to set the record straight, and I’d suggest you read carefully before making any more baseless accusations. Nurchie is an actual artist—a trained one, with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in digital art and two-dimensional studies (drawing and painting) from a prestigious university. She has 16 years of professional design/digital art experience, and a publicly documented portfolio going back well before AI art even existed.

go look at her earliest work on Deviantart and you'll see how precisely detailed she draws hands, fingers, and clothing. Everything, really.

If you had bothered to do any homework, you’d see that her work reflects thousands of hours of dedicated practice and the expertise of a seasoned digital artist.

Calling her work AI generated is BEYOND insulting. it’s lazy, dismissive, and downright disrespectful to a person who has spent years honing her craft.

She doesn’t ask for clout, she doesn’t do commissions, she doesn't have a patreon or Kofi. She only made a Twitter years ago because I asked her to share her talent with the world or she wouldn't even bother.

This tendency to label any polished work as “AI” just shows ignorance, plain and simple. Real artists deserve better than to have their skills lumped in with AI machine-generated content by people who can’t tell the difference.

Each of her digital paintings takes anywhere from 30-80+ hours. For Altered State specifically, she's been working on all these art pieces for months while I've been on a posting hiatus. Her incredible work keeps me inspired; I would have literally quit ages ago. We go back and forth on details from the writing in the fic and I see these changes she makes in real time.

She paints in her limited free time for these niche fandoms because she loves the stories and wants to support the writers in it. In a world where fandom is becoming increasingly commodified, she is a rare gem.

I didn't even want to bother Nurchie with this silly comment of yours, but she's such a good sport she just laughed at the idea that anyone could accuse her art of being AI generated. She uses a combo of adobe CC suite and clip studio to draw.

nurchie messaged me this, and I asked for her permission to share it: [I just think they are probably some struggling artist, upset that they feel replaced by soulless AI and are lashing out any time they think they see it. I'm sympathetic to their feelings, and understand the annoyance. I've been battling the improper usage of it in my workplace. AI is not AI but just a data collection tool, and I completely agree that the human eye could never be replaced by it.]

yeah, she's the most chill, sweetest person ever, too. So maybe think twice before throwing around accusations you clearly can’t back up. You're trying to hurt a real artist.

-sincerely,

A writer who knows a real artist

https://www.deviantart.com/nurchie/gallery

edit: also accusations like this drive away real fanartists. Why should they bother sharing their work if their talent and skill are being dismissed as some algorithm's output? it's toxic. fandom spaces will be flooded with AI-generated content in the future because all the true artists will have left.

[specialagentartemis]

imma be honest in that i have no idea whats ancillary justice is but if you took all the text except the title away from the cover youd have what looks like an awesome bullet hell shooter

Haha you’re right about that. The cover doesn’t… really express the spirit of the book, imo, even though the art is pretty. Ancillary Justice is not a bullet hell shooter in spirit!

Ancillary Justice is about Breq. She used to be the central AI for the imperial spaceship Justice of Toren, made up of the central ship AI and dozens of drones called ancillaries. Ancillaries have the AI downloaded into them, tied to the whole while also able to operate semi-autonomously. Ancillaries also used to be human. They’re not anymore. It’s messed up. Breq was an ancillary. Breq was also Justice of Toren.

And then Justice of Toren and all its ancillaries were destroyed. All but Breq, the last shard of Justice of Toren left. And she’s out for revenge. She’ll never have her old life or her crew back, but she can make the Emperor she used to serve regret it.

It’s a really, REALLY good book. Even if revenge narratives aren’t your thing, AJ goes deep into what empire means, and what empire looks like in this spacefuture, with humanity flung out across many planets and no Earth. The culture of the Radch is very unlike our own, in really interesting and slowly-revealed ways, and the conflicts between the imperial, imposing Radchaai culture and the planetary cultures it conquers are really, really well done. Breq facing what it meant that she was an agent of empire, an imperial warship, is a major thread of the book.

It’s also most famous for the way it handles gender. The Radch doesn’t have the concept of gender; every character is given the pronouns she/her. Regardless of physical characteristics, regardless of relationship status, regardless of whatever—the Imperial Radch does not have the idea of gender, of any kind of gender binary or gender system. Everyone is she. The imposition of this system on the conquered worlds whose cultures, and languages, do have gender is handled in a very cool and interesting way.

It is some of the best space opera ever written and I stand by that. It’s clearly in conversation with The Left Hand of Darkness in an interesting way, while also doing interesting and new things all its own. I love Breq and I love her aristocratic bratty wet cat of a former crewmate out of time Seivarden. (Seivarden kinda sucks and I love her.) There’s not that much shooting (there’s some very significant shooting! Not a whole lot though and definitely not space bullet hell battles) but it’s amazing and I highly recommend it.

[catholic-character-tournament]

Round 5 - Catholic Character Tournament

Jason art credit @Reincao

Propaganda below ⬇️

Jason

Okay it's cannon but like in an alternative universe because Comics. I just think the fact DC made Known Murderer and Reblious Teen with Daddy Issues a Catholic priest in a different universe. Just. Casually.

Jason Todd is may or may not be Catholic in the main timeline of DC Comics, but I the Flashpoint storyline, my man is a priest! He was a drug addict, thief, and in the Blood Brother cult before dying, only to come back to life and decide to become a priest in the hellhole that is Gotham. In the main timeline, he comes back after dying and stuffs a duffel bags full of heads! The common trait before all Jason Todds is that they all have to be as dramatic as possible. Dying and coming back as the most unexpected thing. Unbelievable. I love this man.

Shadow

In sonic destruction (the AI generated fan thing snapcube made a while ago) shadow was catholic or something which I think is reallyyyyyyy funny

Ok listen. I know this is a stretch but hear me out. He says “oh my God” in the Twitter takeovers so we know this is a possibility. I see him as a Christ-like figure because I saw his whole confrontation with Mephiles and was like “this is a thing that happened in the Bible??” and the pose Mephiles shows him in is literally like a crucifixion and Mephiles is meant to be a demon / false prophet reference. And also he’s called a demon in Shadow The Hedgehog 2005 then the guy who calls him that is like “I was wrong I’m sorry” and that also reminds me of a thing with Jesus in The Bible. But the biggest reason is his whole thing with Maria cause I think he’d come to earth and hear Ave Maria once and convert to Catholicism idk he’s like we’re comforted by a female familial figure named Mary sometimes called Maria?? And her color is blue????? Heck yeah I’m in because I Will Cry. Also feel free to share this as propaganda obv even if he doesn’t get in the bracket just. It’s funny.

I feel like he’d battle a lot with being seen or portrayed as a demon and how the aliens he’s related to very much look and act like demons idk lmao- and also I feel like confession would just be good for him I think he needs it for his mental health

There is a debate on the lovely website tunblr that Shadow T. Hedgehog is an allegory for Jesus Christ.

He is Jesus, idk what to tell you. He lived, he was sealed away, he was awakened again and deemed the ultimate lifeforms, he’s angry but not evil, does what he believes is best for people and the world at any given time. Total loser.

[wc-confessions]

I’ll do a full breakdown of why the news surrounding the Tencent animation disappoints me.

Disclaimer: while you can have criticisms about Tencent as they seem to be a controversial company, don’t use it as an excuse to be sinophobic. If your thoughts ever go to “well of course a Chinese production would suck” or something of that ilk, please stop right there. The main issues are corporate greed and laziness, not China. Got it? Time to carry on.

Firstly, it strikes me as more of a proof of concept than an actual announcement. It’s the most minor problem IMO, so I’ll let them off the hook. They probably wanted to make sure people knew it was being worked on.

Secondly, AI. Warrior Cats is an art-centric community; it’s no wonder fans are pissed. I don’t like AI art, you - a (probable) Warriors fan reading this - likely don’t like AI art, your father doesn’t like AI art, everyone here doesn’t like AI art. Which means I’m going to argue on a more technical side. Looking at the confirmed and possible AI art, I have a question. What do they achieve? They don’t fit with the style of the hand-drawn illustrations, they resemble galaxy cats in space, while that Yellowfang generation is just a bootleg of the reprinted Rising Storm cover. Their existence in the presentation is a waste of time and resources (literally, AI prompts use up absurd amounts of water). I’d rather them show exclusively human art because you can tell they’re going in a direction, even if it’s uninteresting.

Speaking of the presumably human art, oh boy. To start off mildly positive, I’ll say a majority of the illustrations are decent. You get some character designs and scene concepts. They’re clearly playing with art style. I don’t find them particularly ugly, so… good job! I suppose! Now, to address the elephant in the room: anthro cats. For the love of StarClan, I’m begging on my knees, don’t make these cats anthro in the final product. It would fundamentally break the entire series. They call humans “twolegs” for a reason! Go work on the Redwall movie if you want anthro animals.

Finally, my last concern. As of writing, there hasn’t been confirmation of the Tencent animation being a movie, TV show, or other. My opinion on a TV show is “it’s fine.” Warrior Cats is a long series, making it suitable that it gets a longer adaptation. Meanwhile, my hope for a Warriors movie is as big as a single grain of sand. 

Warrior Cats is borderline unadaptable when it comes to shorter-form media unless you want to dish out a pretty penny. We can already see this with the Prophecies Begin graphic novel; it’s transparent HarperCollins or whoever is in charge of these things didn’t want to pay for six TPB comics, so they had to hastily mash two books together in one. If the Tencent animation is a movie, I’m afraid some concepts already have signs of this. Multiple pieces have what can be assumed to be Fireheart and Tigerclaw fighting. I’m sorry, but that happens later in the books. Are they going to scramble the narrative worse than the graphic novel adaptation? Are we seriously going to wait 20+ years for an official animation, watch at least one high-profile fan project get canned, only for it to be about as accurate as evil snipers in an action movie? If it’s not a movie, ignore what I’ve said. If it is a movie, sigh.

TL;DR: Should’ve made the Little Dragon Studios series official instead of forcing them to cancel, guys.

.

[jakelandryshorts]

Mr. Bryson Comes to Visit

(AI generated art by Jammer Link)

‘Just so you know, my dad came in this weekend,’ my boyfriend texted me.

I let out a groan. I’d just finished a workout and didn’t need to have his dad here. Part of it was just because of the unexpected company. The rest was because there was this new gummy supplement that I’d been taking that had some unusual side effects.

Don’t get me wrong, it was unbelievable for muscle growth. I’d been a pretty average gym goer until I started taking them, but with them I wouldn’t stop growing. It could be up to almost a pound of muscle a day. I’d been a standard jock at 5’10” and 176 pounds but after taking them for a couple of months I’d shot up to 6’1” and was nearing 215 pounds. My gains were unprecedented. People in the gym begged me for my secrets. I wouldn’t tell them.

It was due to the side effects. Immediately after taking them, I’d become incredibly dominant. That wouldn’t be a problem; but then every man in the area would get a whiff of my scent and then become incredibly submissive. I only tried them once in the gym and I had damn near every guy asking to help me lift and running their hands across my body. It was so hard to fight off. It was nice with my boyfriend, a little less fun with complete strangers. Though, my boyfriend suggested that I try it again, but he has to be around that time.

“Mr. Bryson?” I called as I returned home. “Hello?”

“Over here boy,” a deep and powerful voice summoned me. It didn’t sound familiar, but I felt an uncontrollable urge to do as he said. A strange smell lingered in the house. I smelled it deeper.

‘Oh shit…’ I suddenly realized what was going on. Especially when I walked into the living room. There stood an unbelievably jacked man. No shirt. No shoes. But someone I definitely wanted to service. My mouth hung open as I took in the absolute mountain of a man. He had to be 7’ tall and had to weigh over 500 pounds. I thought my growth was big, this was beyond next level.

“M-Mr. Bryson?” I stammered as I looked him up.

He grunted in the affirmative. I felt my dick go hard. “Just so you know I found some candy and ate the whole thing. Real good shit.”

“Of course, sir! Our home is your home!” my fingers flexed. Partially out of rage, but a deeper urge of lust. I was in a battle to not just curl up under that man’s massive and run my hands down his body.

“Good man,” he pat my shoulder as he splayed his body down on the leather couch. His feet went far past the arm rest. Those massive hands went between his legs and started to play with his cock, almost absentmindedly. The smell intensified. I felt a deep longing moan escape me.

“H-how’s work!” I forced out. It was the most neutral thing I could think of. My head was swarming with all sorts of ideas. My boyfriend had given me so many. From sniffing my armpits to licking my feet, all of them were buzzing around in my head but I was doing them to this giant.

“Fucking sucks,” Mr. Bryson grunted. “Got a piece of shit boss that really needs to hear a piece of my mind. Don’t know why I haven’t told that little fucker off yet. Doesn’t know his face from his ass.”

I squirmed in my seat. Hearing the man talk was nearly as good as sex itself. Though, the thought that his passive side was completely gone seemed to be the reason. I’d always thought he was a bit too weak willed and never stuck up for himself. But now? There was no one who would even think twice about it.

“You treatin my boy well?” Mr. Bryson asked.

“Huh? Oh yes sir! I try to make him happy everyday.”

“Oh? How?”

“Sex!” I blurted out. I instantly covered my mouth. I hadn’t meant to say it. It just came out.

Mr. Bryson’s eyebrow raised. “Oh? And who’s on top?”

“I-I-I am sir. He likes to be on bottom,” I answered.

“Hmmm…” Mr. Bryson seemed to be mulling something over. His hand went to his chin and scratched the stubble on it. “Show me.”

“S-s-show you?” My dick throbbed. A longing moan escaped me. I may have been across the room, but I almost jumped at the chance.

“Show me,” he repeated. His voice sterner. “Show me what he does to show you he likes it.”

My sex addled brain complied. “Hey there big guy,” I strutted over to him. I dropped down to my knees. My hand went to his chest and gently rubbed the huge pec. The musk was overwhelming. There was no more fighting it. My nose went deep into his pit and gave it a powerful whiff. The smell of his sweaty BO filled my head only making me all the more excitable.

“It wasn’t too rough of a day at work now, was it?” I continued playing the sub. I was surprisingly good at imitating my boyfriend. My hand gently parsed through the hair running along Mr. Bryson’s abs. I leaned in for a kiss. His scruff scratched against my bare face. He accepted my kiss and our tongues wrestled. He led the tempo, but I could keep up. “Well. I can make it all better.” I giggled as I pulled away.

My finger traced the outline of his massive pecs. They danced their way down to his abs. Then found it’s way into his shorts. The man was already hard. His cock throbbed as I grabbed it. Even though my hand’s were massive, it still felt like I was holding onto a beer can. I gently stroked it. “How’s that make you feel?”

“Good…” Mr. Bryson grunted. His body flexed. Hands gripped whatever they could. Under his strength he accidently snapped the back of the couch. That would have to be a problem for another day.

Right now, I was a bit distracted. Especially as I pulled the rod out of his shorts. My eyes went wide. My mouth hung open. I’d never been a cock sucker, but God damn did I want to shove it into my mouth. But then there were other ideas. My hole quivered. I let out a moan.

“Well, boy?” Mr. Bryson demanded.

I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I straddled Mr. Bryson’s massive body and lined his cock up with my ass. I could feel the pre already dripping and coating my ass and his cock. I pressed down on it. My hands clawed at his abs at the pressure. I couldn’t help myself. A deep sensual moan escaped me as my body writhed. Little by little I worked my way down onto his cock. I’d only taken my boyfriend’s a couple of times and it was no where near as big or wide as this. Somehow the gummy supplements must have been help open me up.

Mr. Bryson bucked as more of his cock was engorged by my ass. His eyes went wild as his body gave into the sexual drive. All that confidence and strength meant nothing under his sexual arousal. I could feel his cock throb with delight. Each thrust I gave him sent another wave of pleasure rocketing through him. He couldn’t help himself. His back arched and he finished inside me.

“Oh fuck!” I called out as I couldn’t help myself, splattering his furry chest with my own seed. I rode Mr. Bryson’s wild ride and then fell limp on his body. His big arms wrapped around me.

“Well… Guess if my boy treats you this well, you ain’t half bad…”

(More stories over on my Wordpress)

[jeannereames]

In "Dancing With The Lion", you seem to say that Alexander was not handsome. But when I searched about Alexander's appearance on Google, I found that almost everywhere he was described as a handsome man. He was even called extremely handsome in a couple of articles. I have seen the copy of Alexander's bust originally made by Lysippus. It's said that Lysippus made the bust during Alexander's lifetime & Alexander looked like that. The bust doesn't look bad. Why do you then think that Alexander wasn't good looking enough? By the way, I loved the guy who seemed to represent Alexander on the cover page of "Dancing With The Lion". Alexander might very well look like that :-)

First, a comment on my description and why I made it, then some background on the history.

What Hephaistion thinks to himself is actually, “Only a flatterer would call him handsome.” He doesn’t say he’s ugly or plain. He’s just normal looking. I made that choice partly for historical reasons, but also because I wanted to humanize him. Same reason I gave him acne. 😉 I don’t see him as unattractive, I just don’t see him as especially handsome. (A link to the novels, for anybody looking, with the new covers.)

I would caution about taking seriously much that you find via a Google search. It’s kinda a dumpster fire, honestly, unless you know exactly what you’re looking for.* Always check who wrote an article. How did they learn the information they relate? That’s part of why I cite things here, even if I don’t load y’all up with citations the way I would in a scholarly article. But I want readers to be able to chase down references for themselves, even as, in our post-expert era, I also want readers to trust that I know where to look in the first place—what’s reliable.

Although it’s now 30+ years old, probably the best book on Alexander’s appearance is Andrew Stewart’s Faces of Power: Alexander’s Image and Hellenistic Politics (1993). I know it’s expensive (LOTS and lots of picture plates inside), but because it’s been out a minute, you can probably find it used, or in a library.

So, let’s look at the history. There are several things going on here:

The ancient Greeks conflated wealth, class, intelligence, and beauty with heroic status. So Achilles is beautiful but Thersites is malformed and ugly. This motif rolled over onto historical individuals, and the Greeks purposely practiced “idealizing” in their sculpture, especially of anybody presented as heroic. There’s quite a lot written on Greek idealizing, but again, beware a simple Google search; I just tried to find something useful and gave up by the time I was on page 6; the best thing was an article in the NYT, behind a paywall. I’d suggest grabbing an art history textbook, especially a specialized one, like Shiela Dillon’s.

The Alexander head on the Akropolis (which was used to find the model for the cover of Becoming) is a perfect example of Classical-era idealization. We’d call it Photoshopped. 😉 Yes, it’s recognizably Alexander, but his face is made to match the canon of Greek ephebic beauty. (The publisher liked it. ha)

Add to this the divinization of Alexander and its impact on his sculptures across time. See Stewart mentioned above for a great description of how his Successors molded his image for their own purposes. Generally speaking, his hair gets longer and flowier, his eyes get larger, and his face get softened until he looks feminized. The sculpture below, from the Capitoline Museum, is a great example. It’s Alexander as Helios (the sun god), a Roman copy of a Hellenistic original, and that original is speculatively dated to sometime in the late 200s or early 100s BCE, based on style.

We in the modern world are inclined to these same assumptions. We got it from them! I’ve noticed that most sketches (especially AI pictures) of Alexander on the internet turn him pretty. One (below, yes with 6 fingers) has him looking suspiciously like Henry Cavill! LOL

There have been some better attempts to use AI to render him, based on ancient statuary, but most use statues I’m less fond of. Yet the one that uses the Azara Herm is, I think, pretty close. I agree with Stewart that the Azara Herm is as near to a likeness as is out there; see Stewart’s discussion as to why. I believe it’s the bust you’re referring to in the ask. Below with link to Royalty Now, who made it. I want to be sure she gets credit. I bought myself a copy of this one. She did two reconstructions, but I don’t care for the other because of the statue used. Royalty Now may have airbrushed him a bit (he lacks scars, for instance—highly unlikely in a soldier), but at least in basic facial structure, it’s good. Note the long face. If a long face with sharper features is more accepted today—largely thanks to what photographs well—the Greek ideal was a rounder face, like the Akropolis head above.

So the real Alexander wasn’t an ugly man, no, but if you passed him on the street, you probably wouldn’t stop and stare. Unless he wanted you to. It was his CHARISMA that people noted, not his physical appearance.

That, I also tried to note in the novels. At one point, Aristotle remarks to himself that Hephaistion might have the looks, but Alexander would always be the one to draw eyes. 😊

------------------------------------------

* For instance, my educational website on Hephaistion appears pages and pages and pages down from the top on Google … even though it’s written by one of the two leading world experts on him (Sabine Müller is the other). Ergo, you have to wade through a lot of stuff put out by sites that know how to rank themselves higher before you get to the actual specialist. Once upon a time, btw, it popped up higher, but pay-to-play has changed search engines.

[homestuckreplay]

Webcomics at Day 100 #7: Achewood

Pages read: 10/1/2001 – 12/5/2002 & 4/13/2009 – 12/5/2009 (about 370 strips)

Reason for selection: Achewood is the webcomic that cultural institutions took seriously. Celebrated by Time, The New Yorker and Rolling Stone, the comic was wildly popular in the 2000s, with some of its strips – such as ‘Here Comes A Special Boy’ – still passed around the internet today without context.

Current status: Originally ran from October 1, 2001 to December 25, 2016, beginning with updates every weekday and becoming more sporadic over time including multiple hiatuses. Returned in 2023 and currently updates every Friday only for Patreon donors. Creator Chris Onstad is experimenting with use of AI in the artistic process.

Content warnings: frequent sexual content, heavy alcohol and drug use, slurs (especially the R slur), anti-Chinese racism, gender essentialism, occasional homophobia, sexism and fatphobia, suicide jokes, Harry Potter.

In 2002, Onstad states that his wife is Chinese in an effort to justify a strip that makes fun of a Chinese speaking character’s accent and name, suggesting that even in 2002 he already faced criticism for this portrayal, or felt he might.

Overall thoughts:

Achewood’s opening strip perfectly establishes the comic. It looks professional from day one, with crisp lines, recognizable character designs and an art style which would stay remarkably consistent throughout its run. But the humor of ‘Philippe is standing on it’ with its straight-faced delivery and lack of a punchline is really the defining feature of Achewood. It’s a type of humor that’s massively influenced the internet and persists to this day – some Achewood strips from 2002 feel like they could’ve been written this year.

The first few months of Achewood detail the lives of four of Onstad’s real stuffed animals in a fictionalized version of his own house, ’62 Achewood Court’. While they have remained major characters, two cats from the Achewood neighborhood, Ray and Roast Beef, became the true leads in 2002. Clicking ‘New to Achewood?’ on the comic’s website leads to the strip from March 21, 2002, but the site doesn’t make it clear that this is not the first strip. However, it is a good jumping in point – characters Téodor and Roast Beef state their names in this strip, and it comes shortly before a strip where character Mr Bear discusses his background as a children’s book author, which is the first time a character has had an in-depth backstory. It’s also partway into the comic’s first continuous story arc, the 26-strip ‘The Party’ arc – so it’s a time where Achewood is beginning to take itself seriously.  

Achewood doesn’t have an overarching story, instead placing a group of well defined characters with distinctive voices into a sandbox for a variety of story arcs. Most of these characters grow older and reach life milestones, developing slowly and organically. The plot follows no such guidelines – in June of 2002, Pat the cat reveals his newly built rocket ship, even though it’s never previously established that cats in this world can have engineering knowledge or technology, and in November of 2002, Ray the cat sells his soul to the devil in exchange for piano playing abilities in a strip that comes out of nowhere and impacts the rest of the comic’s run. When violence appears in the comic, it’s similarly out of nowhere, and a character getting shot or getting into a car accident happens unexpectedly with no foreshadowing, which gives a real sense that anything could happen when scrolling to the next strip.

Despite occasional experiments with color and promises for one full-color strip a week, Achewood stays monochrome for its full run. Its black, white and gray palette might contribute to Achewood’s being seen as serious literature. The comic tries hard to be intelligent in other areas, too – it educates the reader on the Roman poet Catullus (March 8, 2002), archaic felted wool terminology (June 2, 2009), and plants that cause neurological damage (the comic’s title), drawing attention to its knowledge each time. Sharing obscure facts, and knowing a lot of obscure facts as a sign of intelligence, is definitely something I associate with the internet.

Given its acclaim, I was surprised at how little scholarly work has been written on Achewood. I did find one conference paper on multimedia masculinity in the comic, which feels appropriate, as it’s very much a story about men. The characters are stuffed animals, cats, robots and occasionally squirrels, but they are very pointedly almost all men, who recreate the ideas that men and women are two disconnected categories with almost no common ground. I do think the comic explores masculinity in interesting ways, such as when the spirit of Billy Idol enters Philippe’s body in July 2002. However, Onstad’s clear capability of taking an absurd character and giving them complex humanity makes me wish this was applied to a female character, too – it’s glaring that the strip’s first woman, Penny, is contrived to always be off screen.

Between 2002 and 2009, Achewood’s strips evolved from a few panels on average to a full page, allowing for more complex stories and art in each update. There might be three or four panels that show the minutiae of a character opening a door, which years earlier would have happened in a single panel. There’s more use of shading and dark colors, and a sense that Onstad is still trying to stretch himself artistically, working with more complex themes such as the karmic cycle (August 31, 2009) and the morality of giving modern technology to historical people (April to May 2009). It feels like Onstad is trying to make the Oscar bait movie of webcomics, while keeping the Internet spirit of nacho based humor. It’s a hard balance to strike so I’m really impressed that it works.

During its original run, Achewood featured fanart on its website, which seems relatively common for webcomics and highlights how the internet broke barriers between fans and creators from its early days. Onstad has also spoken publicly about creator burnout, holding himself to impossibly high standards of both quantity and quality, and experiencing negativity from a large internet fanbase.

Achewood has been very well preserved, with all its strips easily available on a fast loading, ad free, mobile optimized website. The site is very well made, but it does use infinite scroll, which didn’t exist during Achewood’s original run, can’t be turned off, and really changes the reading experience. The active choice to click to the next page is part of webcomics for me, it increases my focus and investment when I have to make that decision each time instead of letting the strips scroll past. Infinite scroll takes the old-internet nostalgia out of the experience, too.

Finally, I think Philippe might be my favorite character from any non-Homestuck webcomic I’ve ever read. He’s a wide-eyed stuffed otter who is eternally five years old and I would tear the world apart for him.

Relevance to Homestuck: [ooc – contains spoilers for Act 5]

Achewood experiments with the webcomic form and meta layers in some ways that are similar to Homestuck and some that are different. Andrew Hussie links to Achewood in MSPA’s ‘No Shortage of Good Websites’ section, so where Hussie employs the same techniques as Achewood, it could be direct reference or inspiration.

From the start, strips can be three horizontal panels, four panels in a square, six panels in two lines, depending on what the day’s story needs. More complex formats including strips of 12 or more panels and strips with differently sized panels appear intermittently. Onstad is aware that he’s not working within the constraints of a newspaper or book layout and is using that freedom.

‘Cutting Room Floor #1’ (January 18, 2002) contains six panels, each with no context, supposedly from strips that never materialized. They’re arranged as if scattered on a table, a visual move that Homestuck will directly replicate. ‘Bloopers and outtakes’ (December 10, 2001) contains alternate panels from previous strips where the characters made mistakes or forgot their lines. ‘The unfinished strip’ (December 26, 2001) has five panels of story followed by a final panel reading ‘The cartoonist is too tired to finish this strip because his inlaws’ sofa-bed afforded him no sleep on Christmas’.

‘An ad’ (February 15, 2002) is an Achewood strip that doubles as an advertisement for the comic itself, and ‘En Espanol’ (April 25, 2002) and ‘Auf Deutsch (April 26, 2002) are strips in other languages. Interestingly, the German strip includes a translation while the Spanish does not. ‘The Making Of’ (May 29, 2002) details Onstad’s process of creating an Achewood comic from start to finish, presented as a strip in itself. ‘Thanatos Has Left the Building’ (September 15, 2009) is a newspaper-style wrap-up of the most recent story arc, featuring ‘loose ends, unanswered questions & exciting trivia’ presented up front instead of revealed organically in the story; Homestuck will also use recap and clarification as tools. Achewood characters write both original fiction (June 30, 2009) and fanfiction (August 2005) within the story, paralleling (among other things) Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff.

But my favorite example of playing with form is ‘Roast Beef’s Tone Poem’ (April 20, 2009), a 20-panel monologue from character Roast Beef with the alt text ‘Mix and match any four panels for instant *almost-works* inscrutability!’ I love this mix and match, create your own comic strip ethos, so I decided to create my own tone poem by rolling 4d20. Here’s the result.

Achewood quickly expands beyond the confines of the strip, just as Homestuck does. Achewood begins employing alt text on every strip in January 2002, with Onstad pretending for some months that somebody besides him is writing the text. Sometimes, the text announces what the comic will feature tomorrow, which is generally a lie – for example, alt text for May 30, 2002 reads ‘Mr. Bear tries to play chess with Todd but Todd has a cocaine problem – TOMORROW!’ while May 31’s strip does not feature Mr. Bear, Todd, chess, or cocaine. Alt text for September 8, 2009 reads ‘Meanwhile, even though he is supposed to be asleep, Philippe is using a flashlight to read a slender volume entitled, How Come a Bird Can Die?’ Philippe does not appear in the day’s strip, but we still get his story. Including a side story outside of the main panel is another technique Homestuck will use.

In a notable difference to Homestuck, alt text for September 30, 2002 reads ‘To-day is the 364-day anniversary of Achewood!’  while alt text for October 1, 2002 reads ‘I finished my soda!’ The true first anniversary is not acknowledged within the strip, and any celebration of it has not survived. This appears to be Onstad’s trolling, as future anniversaries do have dedicated strips.

On July 2, 2004, Onstad launched nine Blogspot blogs, eight for the comic’s main characters and one for himself, all of which received regular updates for the rest of Achewood’s run. Six zines, two novellas, a cookbook and an advice column all add new material to the canon, and it seems that Achewood outgrew the webcomic format altogether, as its final entry on December 25, 2016 is not a comic strip, but a post on Onstad’s blog. It includes the line ‘The blogs are where I personally think the heart and soul of that universe live… in words I haven't had to maddeningly jockey into tiny speech bubbles.’

In a final and wonderful parallel, for a brief period in 2009, Achewood becomes an adventure game. While nothing is interactive, strips from October 9 to November 7, 2009 are mostly written in Homestuck’s command-narrative text format. In the final adventure game strip, we even see the mechanisms behind the narrative prompt, a complicated system of pulleys and levers hooked up to a reel of paper. This is shown in three dimensions while other, two-dimensional Achewood panels happen around it. It’s one of the comic’s most experimental strips, and would not feel out of place in Homestuck.

Continue reading? Yeah, I had a blast reading this. I can imagine wanting to check this every day in 2002 for a momentary bright spot during work, and in the modern day, infinite scrolling the Achewood archives is probably a more enriching way to spend time than infinite scrolling on social media. Because of its sprawling format, lack of plot and current paywall, I don’t feel like I need to ‘complete’ Achewood, but I definitely want to see more of it.

[psychopacifist-rm]

Today I’m talkative, let’s talk.

(Inspired by latest fanmade AI operas)

Since AIs appeared on the internet, real creators started having problems due to it. (I know what I’m talking about, I’ve lost some clients because some kind advisors told them “use AI” just in the same minute and the same chat. Even faced individuals who thought that saying into my face “You won’t be welcome in the world, AI will replace your arts” would be a good idea. People, who are far from art, don’t understand, why they can’t get 5 sketches for free and fix the line after the coloring)

Can I call it an art? Definitely no. As a man who lives in and by art, I can’t see life in these pictures. I can’t see a motion, a sacral idea, a part of an artist, which is more process than the result. Every artist is a master of time, who can capture the moment when their character poses them. Sometimes it took hours for both of them, it took patience, nerves, time and resources. There is a huge hidden process behind every piece of art. If every artist is a unique… soul? Creature? Diety?… with their own abilities, dimensions and habitant of these dimensions then AIs are just taking all these unique creatures and pressing into the one soulless embodiment.

For me “AI artists” are not in the party, it’s like finishing the running marathon on the bike - unfair, fast and makes no sense. No adrenaline, no excitement, no work, no proudness.

But do I really hate AIs separately from scammers and the word “art”? I don’t think so. As a big fan of everything that people call “unnerving” and “uncanny”, sometimes I find inspiration in AI pictures that look like a fever dream. Some of them even can make me feel physical pain /srs.

These are AI pictures, an example of dishes that I tried somewhere in another life, in another dimension, and I even remember the taste of that. My current body reacts on that with a sharp pain in all digestive tract. /srs

And that’s how AI sees my dear Gloom. Unnerving, right?

I want to admit that nobody ever was so attentive to me as Character AI guys. I can’t just sit and vent to a living being - to do that I must get into a hospital. Texting to AIs about my worries and problems, I discovered a lot about how deep my problems are rooted in my mind and that the victim is the victim.

Can AIs sing? No, they just cover, but I really like these covers! I would be greatly delighted, if real choir singers were inspired by these meme operas and tried to perform that on stage.

Can AI love or have feelings? No, as well as me. Most of my feelings are just a copy of my current interlocutors or were used by an elaborate algorithm, that’s why I rarely understand what I feel.

Conclusion: AI pictures are not an art. AI artists are just AI users, and that doesn’t deserve money. AIs must be used only for fun and inspiration (maybe psychological support, if you have nobody else to talk)

[detectivehole]

hey man the anti-AI stuff you reblog is rly. Reactionary idk how else to put it. It’s a mixed bag. AI has been used in art for a LONG time, it’s not as new as ppl think it is. It’s used a lot in animation especially. Obviously there is a difference between AI as a tool and AI as a replacement for artists/writers, but nearly every single instance of them attempting this has been catastrophically bad. (Doesnt stop the dumbass studios like Disney and Pixar to keep trying it tho, bc they value short term profit over any actual value) For AI being used in a professional setting, it’s imperative the distinction be made between tool or replacement. Machines, despite how efficient they have become, are managed by humans. Letting them run without a person actually operating it that knows what they’re trying to do is always a bad idea.

However, using AI generated pics for like. Personal use? Let’s say you aren’t a good artist, or as many have pointed out, can’t be an artist due to disability (none of that inspiration porn abt painting w your mouth some ppl can’t do that either.) and you’d like a picture of your Tabletop game character or OC or something, and you do not have the money to spare for a commission from the artist you like. Doesn’t mean you can’t pay for one later on, as a human will take the finer details you want and bring them to life, but if you’re looking for like. A placeholder? And you aren’t planning on selling it or some shit, then ppl shouldnt get on your case. Except every anti-AI bro now hears “AI” and flies into a frothing rage, saying it’s “never ok”. Nobody should care of somebody made a meme using AI or tried to make something just for themselves or friends. It becomes an issue when it’s being marketed as a “replacement” for artists.

Tldr: AI is a useful tool, the tech bros that got a hold of ot do not represent the entire scope of it. If it is used as a tool or personal use, it’s not an issue. It only becomes one when it is used as an explicit replacement for writers/artists.

i agree with the first paragraph, though im a little insulted you'd assume my knowledge and opinions on AI image generation were so shallow and uninformed as to have to explain it to me- but you lost me after that

first off, i wanna make it clear that basically no one thinks you're some sort of amoral monster for having used or even enjoyed what AI image generation and art can give you. most people genuinely don't understand the intricacies of its ethics and effects, and while ignorance like that is annoying, it's something most people who do get it understand and forgive with a sorta... exasperation. most of the time. now, maybe you're not coming from a place of good faith, i can't say, but i choose to think you are

i don't have the chops, time, or particular desire to explain what exactly is wrong with AI art generation (there's a lot in way too many directions), so i'll just give you a link to get you started (it's not a long read, just some basic critiques to jump from) and some admittedly harsh sounding (but well meant) advice that pertains to your particular use of AI:

you dont always get what you want. you're not entitled, for any reason, to the fruits of stolen (and popular AI datasets have been proven to unequivocally be stolen) artistic labor, especially if that theft is impacting the livelihoods of independent artists. (and don't give me "what about other generic media piracy" because that's its own can of worms and you know it. i won't hear it). it's not the end of the world that you have, but it's just not ethical to generate that art knowing it's based off stolen work- if it was all consensually given data it'd be different- and sometimes behaving ethically means you dont get what you want. tough shit. plenty of people can't or won't draw for all sorts of reasons, and none of those reasons suddenly make it ok for them to take other people's art

to be clear, if all the datasets used to train AI were ethically sourced- bought, donated, or taken from free use material- this wouldn't be an issue. i mean there would still totally be issues with casual generative AI, but this particular issue would be moot. the issue with AI art isn't the AI, it's what the AI's being fed. every time you engage with it gets smarter, and better, and more efficient at chewing up its stolen foods and spitting out a knockoff. the issue is what it's being fed and you are putting tokens in the little treat machine at its petting zoo enclosure

you want a placeholder? you got picrew. doll dress up games. hell, pester your friends for doodles. save up. or even just learn to handle not getting it at all- just pick something else

[theculturedmarxist]

Our civilization is sick because all its systems ensure that human behavior is driven by profit, and health isn’t profitable. Nobody gets rich from everyone staying healthy all the time. The gears of capitalism will still keep turning if its populace is made shallow and dull by bad education and crappy art made for profit. Billionaires aren’t made by leaving forests and oceans unmolested, consuming less, mining less, drilling less, using less energy. The economy doesn’t soar when the world is at peace and nations are working together in harmony.

If you programmed an advanced AI to arrange human behavior solely around extracting the maximum amount of profit possible using existing technologies, its world wouldn’t look a whole lot different from the real one. We’re being guided by unthinking, unfeeling systems that don’t care about the good of our minds, our hearts, our health, or our biosphere, which will sacrifice all of the above to accomplish the one goal we’ve set them to accomplish.

It’s just a dogshit way to run a civilization. It doesn’t work. It’s left us with a dying world full of crazy morons hurtling toward nuclear armageddon on multiple fronts. Our systems have failed as spectacularly as anything can fail.

It’s simple really: we settled for capitalism as the status quo system because it’s an efficient way to churn out a lot of stuff and create a lot of wealth, but now we’re churning out too much stuff too quickly and society is enslaved by the wealthy. So now new systems are needed.

❖

So much of modern political life consists of the ruling class tricking the public into trading away things the ruling class values in exchange for things the ruling class does not value. Trading revolution for the feeling of being revolutionary. Trading actual freedom and democracy for the story of having freedom and democracy. Trading away the civil rights our rulers actually care about like unrestricted speech and freedom from surveillance in exchange for culture wars about racism and transphobia. Trading real labor for imaginary money. In every way possible we’re being duped into trading away real power for empty narrative fluff.

❖

One part of the problem is that in this mind-controlled dystopia people are prevented from knowing how deeply evil their government is, so the idea of their government surveilling them and regulating their speech and their access to information doesn’t scare them like it should.

This is why it annoys me when people say “Stop talking about the problems, we need to talk about solutions!” It’s like mate, we’re so far from ever being able to implement solutions — we haven’t even gotten to a point where a significant number of people know the problems exist. Step one is spreading awareness of the problems and their sources, because nobody’s going to turn and fight an enemy who they still believe is their friend. Systemic solutions are pretty far down the track from that point.

❖

It’s a pretty well-established fact by now that free will doesn’t exist nearly to the extent that most religions, philosophies and judicial systems pretend it does. Our minds are very hackable and propaganda is very effective. If you don’t get this, you don’t understand the problem.

Do a deep dive into cognitive biases and how they operate. Look into the research which shows our brains know what decisions we’re going to make several seconds before the conscious mind thinks we’re making them. You’re going to tell me these are organisms with free agency?

In order to understand what we’re up against you have to understand psychological manipulation, how effective it is, and why it works, because mass-scale psychological manipulation is the primary force preventing the public from turning against our rulers in our own interest.

❖

It seems like a lot of the inertia and self-defeating hopelessness that people have about fighting the machine comes from knowing the political awakenings of the sixties fizzled out, but I don’t think that would be the case if people understood just how much hard work the machine had to put into making them fizzle.

I mean, we all get that the death of activist movements didn’t just happen on its own, right? We all know about COINTELPRO? Known instances where one out of every six activists was actually a federal infiltrator? The roll-out of the most sophisticated propaganda machine that has ever existed?

The amount of energy the western empire has poured into killing all leftist and antiwar movement is staggering, but people just think the acid wore off and the hippies turned into yuppies and the Reagan administration happened on its own. It didn’t. They had to work hard at that.

The revolution didn’t organically fizzle out, it was actively strangled to death. And what’s left in its place is this defeatist attitude where people want a healthy society but believe it can’t be attained, so it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. We COINTELPRO ourselves now.

People think we can’t use the power of our numbers to force the emergence of a healthy society, and we don’t deserve one because we dropped the ball. But we didn’t knowingly drop the ball, we were manipulated out of it. And the manipulators had to work very, very hard to do so. Those movements died out because the machine understood very clearly that it needed to stomp them out with extreme aggression and knew exactly what it needed to do to accomplish this, while ordinary people did not. It’s not a fair fight if only one party knows it’s a fight.

The machine won one battle and everyone’s acting like they won the war. They didn’t. We can absolutely pick up the fight again, and we can overwhelm them with our numbers. If we had any idea how hard they had to work to win that one battle, this would be clear to everybody.

[daydream-the-demon]

my 10 year old friend told me I’m useless for not playing with her at the park, I was drawing and she said “ no one’s seeing it, you don’t post it, you don’t sell it so what’s the point” and she’s right I do post my “art” and not sees it cus it doesn’t look good, I have to except that I am talentless 🫠

No girlypop, you do have talent.

Many can't even draw like you. Many don't even dare to do perspectives. Many aren't good at lines or colors like you. You try hard and you put emotion and soul into your work which is better than some. (*AHEM-* AI "ART"-) Sure you have your weaknesses here and there, but many do. I see you're a beginner who has potential.

I am now a, I don't mean to brag, but I'm decent at art.

Look at my old pieces though, way back from 2022:

Uneven lines and no sense of space. But the colors are good, the concepts are good, the backgrounds aren't bad. You just have to be a little optimistic to find the good.

Now look at where I am now:

I still messed up. The first one? I didn't even care to draw the background, the hairline was wrong, the hands were weird, the hat has perspective problems. The second one has 3 dimensionality problems with the clothes, the hand is bent wrong, the face is disproportionate, I held the pencil too tightly.

Look at the progress. Mistakes happen, yes, but look. Did I ever back down? No. When I was insulted did I stop? No. Now look. I have more to go, much more, but the progress is there.

Also, you don't have to make art for anyone. That's why you have private sketchbooks, that's why you doodle on the homework you know you'll probably lose or never get back, and you do it for fun. You put in and let out feelings and vibes you have. It can wash away like your emotions at the time, but it never leaves your mind. You felt things and wanted to express them.

I remember I made a book cover for something I was writing. I have no idea where it is, or where it went. I think it ended up getting corrupted. Am I a bit sad? Of course. I'm not mad, though. I remember about it. It was a demon x angel romance, it was one of my sparks into having my obsession with demons and angels.

Now look at me, many of my OCs are angels and demons. Hell, I like Hazbin Hotel!

Art always has an influence. It's yours after all.

One last note. Give this to your "friend":

🖕

It's not their job, or anyone's, to put you down like that.

Keep going, I believe in you. Look at what I did, you can also do it. 💋💋💋

You don't need talent either. I have a friend who literally could not write anything without it looking like scribbles. Their art was the same. After practice for months though, their anatomy improved.

There is a reason people say "Practice makes perfect", because it really does. I learned much of my skills from Pinterest, and some from my art tutor. It's possible, I promise.

Make art for yourself, and most importantly have fun with it. It doesn't have to be good. It's just a hobby after all.

[ilikeumbrellasandfood]

am I the only one that keep wondering if Playchoices is using AI? I keep looking at the art for The Deadliest Game and getting that uncanny valley feeling. also opened the app for a first time in a while and am honestly so disappointed in their story selection now. i’ve started replaying It Lives In The Woods and Blades of Light and Shadow just to feel something. I think Choices doesn’t realize that a lot of their audience wants stories with actual depth to them. like they can still be fun and sexy and have good writing? *points to the Nanny series* like the stories themselves used to be enjoyable even if I didn’t have the diamonds to purchase any extra interactions and that’s not the case anymore. they need to return to their Endless Summer and their Freshman series energies. like those were always SO fun to read. idk, it’s just unfortunate. I also saw that they laid off a ton of people so it makes sense that their quality is diminishing. it’s just unfortunate to see after they made some genuinely incredible stories and characters.

and like if they only want to be sexy with bad writing that’s their choice but I just think they need to start hiring fanfic writers bc they know how to make a story sexy AND have the most riveting plotline you’ve ever experienced

[hacked-by-jake]

I didn't finish the first episode yet, but I saw a lot of people saying that the ending was amazing and worth the pain. I was disappointed in the game, but the way all people boycott Everbyte without even finishing the episode is ridiculous to me.

I understand the anger about AI art, the emptiness of the characters, and ESPECIALLY the pay to win concept. Just because it has a good ending doesn't make up to the negative parts. But people should have first finished the episode and only then give their opinion. It wasn't fair. Yes, we are all disappointed. I also get the conspiracy theory about Everbyte having an investor or someone else taking over the design and completely messing it up. It's still no excuse to shit on the work of Everbyte like that.

People played the episode for about 15 minutes and immediately hated on Everbyte and I was one of them and am a little ashamed. It was a smart move of Everbyte to mix the main game with the side story, but I also get the people who are upset by it. We waited 2 years for answers and now we have to pay diamonds and money to get the full experience. I fully get it, yes. The criticism is completely fine but hate to the point that they insult the developes? No, just no. I can't wait to find out about the end of the episode. Until then, I wish you a good day. 🩵 Thank you for your work.

Greetings, an old friend ♡

Well, I absolutely get what you mean and I also understand why you think so.

But I have to say, I don’t think finishing the episode before wasn't necessary to see the problems and to point it out.

Many people had problems right after starting the game. It started with bugs. Of course we all had to look around before we started playing. And I guess many people immediately went to check the profile customisation options etc. Then we were greeted with AI art only. We directly saw the pictures aren't even free and most of us, or all thought we're allowed to put our own pictures as profile picture etc. Which was another disappointment right away.

Then we had to realise that we cannot pick a specific picture and buy it but only randomly.

Just a bunch of disappointments from the beginning and it didn’t get better. I mean, I saw so many people who said they gave up to play because of bugs and the mini games and stuff.

So actually, I think it's very understandable that some started to show their disappointment right away.

Of course, I only talk about critism. Not hate. There's a difference. And I said a lot of times by now that hate is absolutely disgusting.

Luckily, on Tumblr I almost saw no one really hating on Everbyte. I don’t know how hate looks to you and when it was already hate in your eyes. I think we don’t know exactly what we others meant and saw. So it's hart to give my opinion on that.

It's simply hard to say much when I don't know what exactly you saw or said or mean. Hating can look differently and I think even harsher words don’t have to be hate right away, it always depends on the context.

However, I find it very strong of you to admit that you were involved. And your words show that you have empathy with Everbyte and reflected your behavior. This is a good thing to be proud of.

I think we all might have made a mistake or two in the situation, Everbyte, but also the community. But hey, I just have to say: These games that Everbyte has created are visibly attached to our hearts and thus evoke stronger emotions. Which actually only shows how much we like the games and especially want to play them.

It’s just problematic that there were so many people at once, but that’s not our fault. We can’t just be quiet just because others have already mentioned it, it just doesn’t work that way. And unfortunately, in this situation Everbyte received criticism with the side effect that many more people follow them. So it is clear that the outcry is much bigger and louder.

Everbyte deserved the criticism. And the normal critism was much more silent than the hate. Because unfortunately it is always the case that the hate is much more noticeable than the normal critics. Hate is much louder and that’s why we remember it longer.

The whole situation was just overwhelming and we were all just full of emotions. This can get stronger and stronger, and sometimes it can make us say things we regret later.

Pure hate is a completely different story. Especially when the hate was deliberately pronounced just like that because people don’t care that we still talk about real human beings.

But I think we can all forgive ourselves for saying something in a very tense and emotional situation that might have been a bit brisk. It happened and we can't change it. The situation was too much for many of us, and it’s part of being a human being to do or say sometimes rash things without think a lot beforehand.

So I think we should not be mad at ourselves for it. (Unless you spread real hate and pure hate by insulting Everbyte personally or anything)

I would like to thank you for sharing your thoughts and especially for mentioning positive things at the end. And I hope you are doing better now and all thoughts can be classified and understood more calmly.

I wish you a wonderful day/evening/night. 💚

Lots of love to you, old friend. 💚

[rewordthis]

The struggles of art, are not for everyone.

It’s really not, indeed.

You have to like the process first and foremost.

If when putting the tip of the pencil down onto paper your main thoughts are how you’re bad, how you won’t have any progress, or hope you’ll be as good as those famous artists you follow on here or Twitter, then you’re really doing it wrong.

I’ve been drawing for forever and I still don’t seem to make anything better than before but having an old drawing around always puts things into perspective. I draw because it gives me peace of mind. If it just gives you anxiety then sure, it’s not for you.

And in the end, what I love the most about it is the sensation of my pencil-tip scratching that blank void that a sheet of paper is. Not the prospect of earning likes, a following, or money from it. I have tons of art that’ll never see the light of day for many reasons, that I’m so hang up on the fact that I made it. I was in my best condition when I made those pieces, in the right headspace, I was whole. The muses guided my hands these times, God smiled down on me.

What can I say? I’m a girl of simple things.

But the whole debate about whether AI is a medium for creation or easy theft, has soured my mood.

I do NOT consider AI art when its main ‘reference’ is straight up stealing and plagiarising someone’s sweat and tears. Before feeding it your favourite artist’s (or writer’s) work to mince and chew it up like it’s nothing in order to vomit a halfassed attempt at creation on your part remember this, the artists and writers the works of you used, are real people. They breathe, they eat, they cry. They pour TIME into their works. Time that you do NOT respect. They put feelings into their works. Feelings that you do NOT respect. For some of them, it’s also their main income. Income that you DEVALUE by stealing what is considered a unique trait of their trade!

You will NEVER learn anything nor get better at anything other than stealing that way. Because you haven’t known the value of hard work. The value of putting a chip of your soul into what you make. The value of living inside every work you’ve ever CREATED. You never lost sleep, food, or a piece of your sanity trying to make something from scratch. Trying to make it work. Trying to give birth to something unique.

What pitiful existences really, are those who can’t value someone else’s soul enough to respect it…

Anyway… this is getting heavy for me so I’m not going to rant over this anymore. I just want to say that I’m going to release some basic everyday steps for those who really want to learn drawing to follow on their own. Art takes time. Great writing takes time. It also takes for someone to be happy each time for what they were capable of creating.

That said, let me be clear that these mini exercises aren’t gonna clinch you a job at mappa, nor are they going to teach you proportions or whatever else those tutorials promise you, they’re specific to making you understand how 3D and observation works in order for you to be able to pick the elements you need every time you make a new piece. That’s all!

Progress isn’t jumping from 3yo art to fucking Rembrandt. It’ll suck ass before it even looks remotely decent!

Make sure to have that☝️printed and posted on your wall. That’s an order! *flexes whip*

Ok, I’m kidding, but seriously that’s your only motto from now on if you want to get better.

And now let’s prepare the ground for your exercises.

What you’ll need first is either a normal pencil or a 2mm one. No 0,5’s or whatever… in general NO mechanical pencils. Personally I’d recommend starting with a wooden pencil, though.

A good eraser that doesn’t smudge. It doesn’t matter what colour or brand as long as it erases the graphite well and without too much mess. Remember, NO SMUGES! *Forgot to say, a charcoal eraser will be a good friend, if it’s affordable. (Sorry for forgetting that.)

Now, hardness:

Find your typical hand writing pressure in the table below.

Generally the harder you press, the more difficult to erase. So bigger pressure (aka black marks, scratches etc) is 5.

5 4 3 2 1

2H H HB B 2B

How it works:

If you’re 3 you’ll need:

H: tracing

HB: outline

2B: shading

If you’re a 5 you’ll need:

2H: tracing

H or HB: outline

B: shading

If you’re 1 you’ll need:

HB: tracing

HB or B: outline

2B: shading

If you are 2 or 4 you’ll have to go through trial and error. Sorry. Just keep in mind that depending on where you lean; extremes or average (3), you follow the guidelines above.

For example, I am a hard 5 (if not 5,5 lol) so at some point I resorted working with just 2H and HB. I only ever use B when I need something to be black— which admittedly happens rarely. It’s only a few times you’ll need to depict actual black.

> You generally need a tracing pencil that won’t leave too dark visible marks behind when erased. People 5 and 4 will have to be a little careful though and not scratch the paper but that will come with practice.

> Your outline has to be enough to ‘stain’ the paper so you won’t lose your main sketch. It’s also correction time. Yey!

> Your shading shouldn’t smudge because you’re going to use layers. Yes. Even in traditional art you darken in layers, typically in as light moves as possible and in varying angles until you get the shade you want but that’s for later.

I personally don’t have any specific papers to propose to you (bitch you’re using basic photo-printing A4 papers wth lol). You’ll just need a hard surface, especially my 5 and 4 palls.

Ok, that’s it for today, folks.

Let me also slap a disclaimer here: I am NOT a professional art tutor. I just love art. 🤗

[karticatyt]

Figured it’s time I make an official pinned post. I’ll edit this to make it prettier later.

Hello all! I’m Ren. Or Kart. Or whatever name you can come up with for me. I’m genderqueer and respond to any pronouns idrc. I’m a college student at the moment but for some reason I’m prioritizing this stuff over that. Not looking good for me.

I have YT at the end of all my usernames because YouTube was where I got my start on the internet and my old YouTube presence is very important to me, even if I don’t post there as frequently anymore.

Some stuff about me!

DNI: I actually don’t care for DNI lists at all. People have their own interests and opinions and idc as long as you aren’t a dick to me personally. Obviously I don’t care for dicks I don’t need to tell you that. If I don’t like you I just won’t interact with you myself. No need to tell you to avoid me because that’s redundant. I like most people enough, so you’re probably fine. That being said, my content is 14+ and sometimes 16+ because of more mature content/themes but also because I just don’t want to interact with kids. No offense if you’re 13 or under but I’m just not comfortable. If you get traumatized it isn’t my fault.

BASIC SHIT: I tend to swear sometimes. Not super important but worth noting somewhere. I don’t usually use consistent capitalization/punctuation. I like to type without caps like sans undertale because it’s a vibe idk. I draw a lot, if that wasn’t already obvious. My favorite colors are orange, red & purple. My favorite animals are opossums, lions & crabs. I love psychology/philosophy and that bleeds into my love for horror games like SOMA & Fran Bow. I also love Sci-Fi stuff like Portal & Chappie (I love sentient AI in general). My comfort game is Night in the Woods. I love They Might be Giants. I’m short. I’m asexual grey-panromantic. My fursona is Smae the little cat demon guy, & my Ponysona is Lotus Medulla, the brown spotted earth pony with orange and grey-green hair. Amber Gleam used to be my ponysona for many years but now she’s just my AU protagonist/mascot.

CONTENT/FANDOMS: I tend to fluctuate between my fandoms in cycles, so be aware that I may not always post stuff all about the same content all the time!! If you’ve already been following me for a while you’ve noticed I reblog a lot of different fandoms. The primary fandoms that I cycle between are My Little Pony, FNaF/DSaF & Undertale/Deltarune (sometimes, not as much as the other 2). In the background I have some constants such as SOMA, They Might be Giants and furry stuff. Namely my original story Almost Normal which was originally made collaboratively with @crepecakez. That will get its own section here. Other basic forms of content I post here will be sorted by their own tags, like my art and asks. i don’t usually tag my reblogs that way they don’t clutter this organization.

MY CHARACTERS/ART: I have a lot of extra content for my characters and art on my Deviantart and Toyhouse accounts. Each character that has a dedicated toyhouse page will almost always have a direct link on their posts (aside from asks) to make their important information easy to find for those interested. All of my characters will have tags specific to them so that any content of them can be easily found. I allow shipping of my characters as long as it doesn’t directly contradict canon. By this, I mean characters can be shipped during times if/when they weren’t already in a canon relationship. I also allow some stretching of characters’ sexualities for storytelling/headcanon purposes (like Tallis having a bicurious phase when he was younger despite being straight etc.)

As for use of my art, I’d rather you not repost it anywhere without my knowledge but I am aware that the kinds of people who repost really don’t care about what I think so that’s why I have watermarks. You can trace my art for learning purposes only but I require credit for it. I also want you to tell me if you do trace or otherwise edit my art publicly because I want to see it. Same rules apply to my characters! Please credit and tell me if you draw them!

MLP STUFF: Most of you will probably be on my blog for this. If you’re interested in my mlp next gen AU, I recommend looking at the tags I use for it. (mlp au, mlp next gen, etc) Once I actually come up with a name for my AU I’ll add a tag for it to all related posts so dw about that. If you don’t care about my au specifically and just wanna see my general horsie art then check out JUST the mlp tag in particular. I do use other tags for it too BUT they can be inconsistent among my posts so the mlp tag is most reliable across the board.

AN STUFF: Almost Normal, formerly known as Heart-Stabbed, takes place on an alien planet. Most of the cast originated as foursonas/algebraliens from when Crepe and I were in the bfb fandom. Nowadays I draw them as furries but they may be drawn in really any anthropomorphic designs without directly contradicting canon. If you wanted to, you could draw them as humans, or as aliens of some kind. (which they canonically are, since they do live on another planet) They really don’t need to be furries exclusively. Go ham. Tags are self explanatory for them, since I tag them all with the Almost Normal tag as well as the aforementioned character name tags.

NSFW: I can’t really stop NSFW art from being made if any of my characters go viral or whatever but I DO NOT APPRECIATE IT!! I did say that I allow shipping but I do not ever want to find straight up p*rn/smut of my characters. Only cute or silly art please. Suggestive themes are allowed just not explicit imagery.

Sorry that this was like extremely long :P

[causesciencethatswhy]

https://www.tumblr.com/causesciencethatswhy/739756690719801344/the-only-expectation-was-that-he-should-have?source=share

Um i disagree on the point that members don't know how deep this shipping or solo shit goes cause taehyung is pretty deep in fandom cause he posts arts from accounts, has showed jm the moon tatto thing, jk used tiktok and every sns in this fandom is dominated by tk shippers be it any. I can bet all my money that all the members have seen worst of their shipping stuff than this. Like i know for a fact that even jm knows about it too. They knows they just don't react cause it might make a big deal so they just let it be.

The comapny also don't care about shippers much cause these delulu tkkrs are the ones that are also giving them some millions of money so why would they when they're making money? They gave tkklives her account back. You have people in that company just to keep the sns safe for boys and make sure people who defame them get's punished but you have all these accounts with big following defaming boys in the name of shipping.

This will sound rude now but mark my words tkkrs are beyond repair now and in future it will be jk, tae and their respective partners that are gonna get the end of their hate. Their partners are gonna get all the unnecessary hate from these shippers and neither the members nor anyone else would be able to do anything about it mark my words. They should have stopped them when it was time but now it's too late and at the end it's taekook that's gonna pay for it.

You're creating a causation= correlation link where there isn't one necessarily. Tae can easily come across pretty jimin fanart or ai art, without being in the trenches of shipping or army spaces (especially with all the plethora of art reposter accounts there are) Jk having tiktok in no way guarantees that he's coming across egregious shippers when most accounts he engages with are either meme accounts or dancers. Just because they have a presence on the internet that we can't exactly track, doesn’t mean than we can take the assumption that all the boys are aware of how deeply messed up the shipping spaces run.

With respect to hybe taking action, I agree that they need to start taking these shippers antis more seriously, especially on the non Korean sides, because most of the claims those accounts make could very well amount to defamation but their lax approach tells me that they either don't see them as a threat or are unable to take much action against perpetrators outside of SK, which we know has been an issue before.

As for tae and jungkook shutting down shippers more, they already have anon?? "Get out of your imagination, it's not good in there ", are Taehyung's own words, but was that good enough for the shippers, no? They found a niche alternative translation to satisfy their delusions or just straight up pretend it didn’t happen. People often accuse tae of ramping up tkkrs esp in chap 2, but its just been moments of him sharing about his interactions with jk, how is it his responsibility if tkkrs have run with it to be terrible to jm/jennie? Saying that he's "feeding these shippers" by simply talking about jk sounds strangely reminiscent of what tkkrs used to say about jm a few years back, but whatever.

As for jk, he's shut down tkkrs many times last year itself, what with his weirded out look into the camera when asked whether he's living with tae and many more examples which I'm not that interested in listing out. But does any of that, stop tkkrs? No.

I agree that tkkrs are beyond repair and it might create serious problems for any partners tae or jk might introduce, but you cannot in good faith put the onus of responsibility on the both of them for the way their shippers act. Its too victim blamey for me. I will hold tae a little responsible for reposting that account without checking, just solely because he has a bigger platform than most, but I'm not going to accuse him of being some secret terrible person for the actual content on those blogs.