#and my art block is back so that’s also out 🥲

[ghoatinaytherealone]

THE SILLIES

Lil pixel art thing for @farfetchedshow

[cdlum]

I just wanted to say I think your art style is awesome! I was wondering if you had any tutorials on how you draw anatomy in your style (hips and legs especially)? Sorry if there's already one posted and I just didn't see it 🥲. Happy New Year :>

thanks for the kind words. i tend to draw people pretty stylized and then some so a good bit of artistic licence gets used. these tips are just what i use so feel free to take them with a grain of salt. with anatomy in particular you can kind of talk in circles because human/animal bodies are that complex so ill just zone in on the points you specified. here's a little image with a bunch of pointers:

the above image condenses a lot of the points I'd make, but basically the key parts are to start with the bare essentials and build up that complexity. using a line of action is a good way to get a quick, rough start. you draw a line out in the general direction of the pose and do your best to adhere to it to give the pose a sense of flow.

you can also draw smaller, thumbnail versions that throw a lot of caution to the wind but capture the basic energy of what you're going for. even having a tiny little stick figure version of your idea can make for a good guideline of where to take it forward.

when it comes to actual limbs, you wanna consider how they integrate and work together, kind of like how chains do. you can see on some of the parts of pear i've drawn out these wireframes to kind of portray how the mass of her legs works in a three dimensional space. for aspects like the waist/hips, i use that X technique i highlight above a lot, particularly for the lower torso. a lot of the times, even when drawing a character totally naked, imagining them wearing things like skintight underwear can help a lot to guide you in the right direction.

its also a good idea to consider things like gravity and weight to a degree. humans are essentially big meat sacks and gravity is always pulling down on that, but theres all kinds of aspects that effect that, such as character build or clothing. pear technically isn't naked in this, but i've tried to imagine her as such and take that into account.

if you are drawing digitally, don't be afraid to take advantage of the convenience you get with that workflow. you can retry and iterate on things a lot faster that pen and paper, and do things that aren't really feasible at all when it comes to editing and modifying your existing work. things like resizing certain bodyparts, instantly flipping the canvas, or using selection tools to completely adjust the positions of parts of your drawing. to give you an example heres a timelapse with all the little edits i made just to this demo drawing:

you don't have to use these techniques linearly, either. sometimes ill have a really solid idea for a piece in my head, and go back to basics with certain elements if they’re not coming out right or i just want to brush them up a bit more. some of the tutorial-y parts i added in i didn't actually use during the drawing but often do use so they're there just for demonstration. not every drawing i do starts as building blocks or a really basic version, often ill just start with a face and build it out from there.

i always encourage liberally using references (this can include yourself) and trying out stuff like life drawing or looking at things like existing photographs of real people/places/things if you can, the more you use learning material the better you'll draw up a mental inventory in your head that you can rely on more and more. some of these tips are things i've learned from other artists over the years (the chin one especially i remember seeing a tutorial about lol), so this is a lot of knowledge i've amassed from other sources over time myself. there are plenty of times ill use all sorts of reference material and its all in service of arriving at the final destination as smoothly as possible. learn by doing, as they say. hope this helps!

[elizakai]

i’ve been feeling the need to make some boundaries when it comes to private messaging…

i’m fairly chill about messaging but there’s a few repeated things i’m just not comfortable with…i don’t expect everyone to see this or anything but. just for anyone who does :))

—————————————————————-

ASIDE FROM MUTUALS-if you message me privately, please do so with a reason in mind!

what i mean by this is please do not slide into dms just to say hi every day and nothing else… (unless you’re a mutual that’s fine LOL)

it’s honestly uncomfortable and has happened somewhat often, that and an expectation to keep up the void ‘conversations’, it’s just awkward and sometimes frustrating when i ask ‘what’s up! can i help you?’ and i’m met with ‘ :3’

(this isn’t passive aggressive i promise <3 )

i do not mind dms, just please know why you are dming me first ૮ ˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶ ა

(maybe you have a question this isn’t catered for asks, or you want to do something art related for example! :D )

additionally in regards to dm’s…i know this is a harsh sounding one to some, but tumblr has an age minimum of 13 years old, similar to discord.

please please please, all i ask is that you do not message me privately if you are below tumblrs/discords age limit, this has happened too many times and it’s highly uncomfortable. i’m not here to parent/police anyone at all, just don’t PRIVATE MESSAGE me, please :)

im not thinking of anyone in particular when i say this, specifically if you’re a younger person and feel called out for some reason, know i’m not targeting you at all /100% genuine <3

PLEASE dont apologize or anything like that, i beg :,)

MY ASK BOX IS OPEN ! :D

if the above things don’t apply, my ask box is always open, it’s more public there🥲 i hope that’s understandable <3

(i may be additionally selective to what i answer as well :,) additionally, sometimes if i answer an ask with no sustenance to the blog i’ll eventually yeet and delete, it just makes me feel tidier LOLL)

(EVERYONE IN MY ASK BOX IS GONNA KILL ME AND MY LATE ANSWERS HAHA)

A D D I T I O N A L L Y, MUTUALS you can contact me for any reason. if i follow you it means i likely would like to interact with you :0 i’m just shy 🥲

for the record i also like interacting with people i don’t follow in case that’s unclear!!!!!!

if you come into my dm’s or asks with blatant, and unfiltered disrespect, don’t be surprised if i block you.

threats, or pointless insults, don’t be surprised when i block you.

if i see you attacking people, or are causing problems/drama on this blog, don’t be surprised when i block you.

THANK YOU TO ANYONE WHO CARED TO READ THIS💥 rare completely serious moment from me here on tumblr haha, back to our regularly scheduled bs and silliness!!😁😁🌸💫💞🪷⭐️

(i say scheduled as if i’m at all consistent sob-)

Love you all~🌸

[saintqueer]

I'm sorry you got harassed again just from a simple post with a (imo pretty valid) opinion. If that person is the same that answered your post by reblogging and repplying on their blog with unnecessary hate (apparently queer but a solo louie) then it's the one I just blocked. I love to currate my experience in this fandom. Anyway I just wanted to say, I used to love your posts in this fandom! I lost track of your blog and thought you'd disappeard. I'm glad to see you're still on Tumblr and enjoying other fandoms. I'm well aware of how toxic this fandom can get (between the hets, the solos often queer themselves but hating on queer larries and more, to many groups to count tbh, louis' attitude on social media ect), especially when you dare to voice an opinion, which I'm mostly don't lol. I'm staying for the art, the fics, the great memes and ofc the music and the people. You're "y'all" made me think 'I Hope she still got good times and friends out if it. I made some great friends in the larries bunch myself. Anyway sorry for the rant, I lost track of what was my point here. Just was happy to see you pop on my dash through a mutual and wanted to say so I guess?? So once again thank you for the fun times I had reading your posts back in the days; have a great time out here, enjoying your favs fandoms, you do you! Sending love xx

so i was trying to avoid posting any anons regarding prev fandom discourse but i opened this one and read it through and it was just so amazing i had to respond, not just in tags 🥹🥹

of course, it's lovely to hear that you liked my posts on fandom back in the day etc but what really got me was when you wanted to make sure i still got good times and friends out of it, that nearly made me cry

because YEAH I FUCKING DID 🥺😩🥺🥹🥲

blue ( @wastelandbabyblue ) is literally one of the coolest people i've ever known while also being one of the kindest and funniest. id literally kill to meet her one day in person. i still keep up with brenda and several others i met in her og discord, some of which are the only remaining 1d fandom blogs i still follow here - they are so kind and funny and i still talk to them occasionally in a fandom discord i stayed in because i didn't want to lose touch with them.

and 🥹🥹🥹

i met 8 of who i would consider my closest friends in the whole world through fandom. through the most insane wild and unruly fandom discord drama, i literally located my found family: wedo, nino, iza, katja, olia, hanis, chloe, and su

we talk everyday still even though we live all over the world and we talk about nearly everything except fandom nowadays and they've helped me survive living day to day through some of the worst moments of my life. i don't know what i'd do if i didn't have them in my life

last night, i had a bit of a shame spiral thinking about all the time energy money i devoted to the 1d fandom. i felt embarrassed for being so loud about something that ended in so much disappointment. it wasn't fun and i know it was probably triggered by being involved in some discussions i hadn't been in so long

so when i opened this ask, anon, it reminded me so much that whatever was lost from that time, so much more was gained. the embarrassment of remembering dancing around like a fool with a rainbow flag for someone who couldn't even say something as simple as "look at all those colors" pales in comparison to the lifelong friendship i gained with these 8 beautiful women all across the globe

nothing will ever compare to the people i met and the way they feel closer to family than any of my blood ever felt

i'm glad that you found so much goodness as well and thank you for reminding me that it was all worth it for what i got

[sparkykitsune]

DQB2ber 2023 - Week 2: Mischief

I had art block on figuring out ideas on this prompt but this was based off of some ideas in my head. I'll let your interpret what mischief Britney and Malroth were up to. I headcanon Britney can be a little mischievous at times (bear with me, this is the first time I've drawn Lucario 🥲). Also this is worth noting, this scenario is set after the events of DQB2, so Malroth gets his Illusion ability back.

Side note: a lot of Pokemon heights and sizes don't make sense to me, so I'm probably not gonna care about "height scaling" and draw Pokemon as tall as I think they'd be in my headcanon/interpretation.

Also announcement: I guess I have no classes this week but I do need to study, so I'll chip away at week 3 in my spare time, but I do have artwork planned this week (that I finished in advance).

[spockandawe]

hello! i came across your wips button and i wonder if youll ever go do them? the transformers ones sound super good!!

That.... is an excellent question and one I'm not super equipped to answer! The boring downer angle is that I've been horribly, immovably blocked on art and writing for a long while now, and it drives me nuts trying to shake that AND i rarely have any luck. I know i can write pretty darn well, and I can do it FAST, there was a hot minute where i successfully held myself to uploading at least one piece of art or writing per day. That pace was never going to last, my art got better and my fics got longer, plus i went from languishing in the falling action of grad school to having an actual job, which was both a less flexible schedule and also more money to explore other hobbies. But that period of my life really drove home how important that rhythm and periodicity is to me, and i haven't been able to recapture that in years.

As it is right now, if i manage to finish anything, it's only going to happen with either a fandom at the VERY very forefront of my mind (svsss or the raksura core au right now), or with an idea too fresh and good and crunchy to resist, independent of fandom (there's a dungeon meshi idea lightly haunting me). Transformers is a remarkably good playground, I love it SO much, but it's been years since I reread any significant part of it, so the ideas aren't flowing. I trust my old ideas, but if the canon isn't fresh, or I'm not actively talking about it, the spark is unlikely to catch. There's an off-chance of me reacting to an idea in some other fic via a medium of transformers smut, but I'm also struggling to read right now too 🥲

But! But!!!! A thing ive noticed and that drives me bananas is that when i move, the shape of my hobbies changes. I vibed really well with writing in NJ and MA, and COMPLETELY lost the ball when i relocated to VA. I cross-stitched in NJ, faded in MA, and lost it in VA. I bookbound like nuts in VA, but i just did a local move, and I'm no longer getting the reaction of 'I'm idle, I should make a book.' I don't know where things will go, first was a rush to unpack my boxes, then was a rush to learn to paint a room, and now my home is full of jumbled furniture and objects and I'm so overwhelmed that all I want to do is lie in bed and level grind in video james.

Teal deer, i can't tell what hobby is going to take center stage now, and it's driving me nuts. But it could be writing! I'm much more confident about my writing than lots of other creative endeavors. I also want to revisit canon for a lot of old fandoms. I think the wip list predates my cnovel phase, but i have two beefy svsss wips, and at least two short ones, and two aus I'd love to flesh out. I have raksura core writing. I have a tf bookbinding project that's been languishing for. 1.5 years. But if i can find my momentum, I'll be diving back into canon. And i really think 5-10k of hard weird emotional smut really is my wheelhouse. I wish so hard i could recapture that energy! This is a response much longer than it needed to be, but just imagine me as the WHY ARE YOU CLOSED meme at my own brain, and much more confused and frustrated than anyone else that I don't write anymore 🤣

[ya-bug-boy]

Im so glad I'm not the only one obsessed with the self aware reader and submas story! If you dont mind, please continue the story! Its the one thing that helps me stay sane these days 🥲

Submas x Self Aware Reader! part 6

You're lost in thought, hands protectively holding onto your backpack which contains the royal honey you needed for your potion. There's a good chance that the potion could have a potential poisonous element in its brewing, so you required the royal honey and spring water from the Forbidden Forest to negate its affects.

Similar to before, the train ride that would ordinarily take hours to reach your destination happens in only a few seconds. The three of you return back to the safe borders of Moondrop, safe and sound. The twins immediately exit the train first, turning their bodies around to face you.

"Thank you," You say politely as you step off your train. "The journey took much longer than anticipated. Why don't you two step inside to rest?"

At first the twins aren't sure what you meant by this but you walk to your train office, which was also your home. This was usually an area not implemented into the game! So the twins are very excited to see what your home is like.

You unlock the door and the player characters fight to pass through first, momentarily blocking each other before they're allowed in. To the twins, they see the train station, a momentary black screen, before they see your wondrous home.

Your home is actually many times bigger on the inside. An elegant home furbished with black plank floors and white walls, decorated everywhere with potted herbs and plants hanging in glass bottles. Your living room was also your kitchen, there was the ordinary wood-fueled stove with a mighty large black cauldron a few paces away. The most modern piece of furniture you have is what resembles a fridge but its appearance suggests it's from three decades ago. There were many bookshelves filled to the brim with ancient texts of the kingdoms that fell out of existence prior to Moondrop. Specks of radiant light shimmered in and out of darkness, much like fireflies.

The two walk around your home, taking in delight of being able to see this. Emmet excitedly points out a certain window, which is where you sold your train tickets. Ingo immediately runs over and tries to sit in your spot, to which Emmet whines about taking his turn. You can't help but to chuckle lightly, it's strange how the twins found you to be so interesting, but you're thankful for it.

"Is my life and home so interesting that you two fight over a chair?" You ask out loud, with a light laugh. You hear Emmet go "Mm-hmm!" in person as he finally gets a turn in your station chair.

"What is this statue?" Ingo asks out loud as he comes across a shrine in your corner.

The statue is a creature with numerous hands, all yielding a different mask. The creature itself is faceless. "This here is a shrine dedicated to appearances. It allows me to change how I look. Though it takes an even greater magic to completely change your body, which is what I've done several decades ago. This statue mostly allows me to change the length and color of my hair." You demonstrate by standing before the statue. You take off your train conductor hat. Your ordinarily short hair suddenly changes into two times its original length." You hear the twins clap and applause, taking in delight over your new appearance. This was technically considered new character art that they've never seen before!

"I normally don't really don't care much for my hair and because I'm always wearing a hat." You stop to pause, about to change your hair back to its original length when you turn to the twins and stare. You glance away for a moment, being embarrassed. "Well. Since you two take so much delight in it, would you two like to help me pick a new haircut?"

A "yes" or "no" box appears for the twins and they immediately click yes! You can't help but to smile and laugh with how eager they are, despite your limitations with them.

You stand back in the center of the sigil on the ground. "Very well. I will continue to change my hair. Simply raise your hand when you think I've found something suitable." For the next several moments, your change your hair into various styles. Women's, men's, androgynous styles all appear for the twins. Sometimes you see one twin excitedly declare a certain look to be good, but it leaves the other twin dissatisfied. Ingo seems to prefer you with a longer length of hair where Emmet likes it cut short. It's impossible for them to decide and you laugh when you hear them bicker in person. But finally, they do manage to find something that works. They fight over the color of your hair as well. Ingo seems to prefer natural tones whereas Emmet wants to see you in every shade of color before deciding.

Long black hair tucked into a bun with your bangs cut short. Your eyes aren't usually seen under the brim of your hat, so the twins both agreed to keep your bangs short so they can see it. Your face is clearly visible and your hair can adjust its length at your free will, tied up or left down.

The twins finish deliberating and conclude with this. "Ah, thank you. This feels refreshing," you say as you pat your bangs. You reach for your hat but realize it wouldn't work with your current hair style. And after all the deciding it took the twins to do to reach this conclusion, you find yourself not wanting to put the hat on. You put it on the counter of your ticket station.

"My head feels oddly light without a hat now," you confess with another laugh. "Perhaps I should look into a new one." The twins get excited over another possibility of being able to customize you again but the option never appears.

You walk away from the statue and sigil and peer into your cauldron. You hum in thought. "I'm feeling rather hungry. If you two don't mind waiting for me to cook something." But both twins immediately stand up again, their character models offering you crops from their latest harvest. This leaves you perplexed. They had their crops with them their whole journey into the Craymore Moutains? Is that...what they were eating to recover their health? Raw vegetables? When did they catch that fish?? Did they consume it whole, scales and bones? You belly laugh again as you accept their crops, taking it into your hands. This world was certainly strange, strange beyond words or belief. No wonder either of the player character looks injured.

"Well, this does look high quality..." you say as you examine the crops. "Would you two like to help me?" The twins immediately get excited, but to them this is just another minigame with a cooking theme.

You decide to make several dishes, while explaining to the twins in real life how to make the recipes. You make roasted sea bass, mashed potatoes, a light tomato pasta, and for dessert, you give both twins the recipe for your strawberry pie. You look at the dinner, it all looks amazing, the smell of the food wafted into your home, lingering in the air...but the twins can't eat this food. Their player characters can't eat this because they hadn't taken any damage yet, they were both healthy. You got carried away with cooking because there was just a profound sense of joy of being with others to cooking and sharing a meal. But you can tell that the twins are proud of themselves for doing a perfect job on the cooking minigame, as the food literally radiates a shining glimmering light.

You're about to eat when you hear it, there was another noise in the distance of the twins' actual home. There's a momentary pause of silence as both twins disappear from their computers. You're not sure what to make of this but the twins exit the game. Their character models leaving in an instant as well.

Since you're limited to this world and aren't really knowledgeable about the technology that binds you to them, you grow worried. You run to your crystal ball and once again pierce through the veil that was blocking you from viewing their world. An extraordinary amount of magic is required to do this but to them, you're using the camera on their laptops.

You see them with food of their own. Oh. They simply disappeared to grab food of their own. But then you see that it's nearly the same ingredients you used to make your dinner from earlier. The only difference being that the fish they were using was red in hue.

The twins disappear through a hallway of their home. Where were they going? Surely there was another way to see where they were going? Maybe the crystal ball can access another point of view? You immediately get up from your seat, knocking over papers and materials from your desk as you go to your potion cabinet. It is no doubt that you had magic, no doubt you were in fact the strongest mage in this world but you were limited to this game specifically. In order to interact into the twins' real world, you needed a boost, akin to a caffeine drink.

You uncork a glass potion and down it, the magical energy of the potion surges through your body and you swallow heavily. It burns as you drink it, bubbling with electricity. With your eyes open and dazzling a certain kind of light, you rush back over to the crystal ball. Energy manifests and swirls around your feet as you pierce the veil again but through another connection!

You were on their smart phone now, looking at them through the camera. The phone was propped up against a bag of flour so the twins can look at it. It looks like they're actually cooking the food they made in the minigame, but in real life. Your heart falters at this, a blooming sense of joy deep in your chest. They were making the food so they could eat with you.

But why? You were simply a character made for their entertainment. But then you take note of the kitchen interior. It's a modern kitchen, unlike yours but you take note of the aprons the twins were wearing. It had your insignia, your mark of The Golden Eye.

But then you see it. A giant yellow spider beast crawling on the ceiling. It approaches Emmet. He does not take note of it! The beast is unlike any monster you've ever seen, why was it in their home?!

"Emmet, EMMET LOOK OUT!" You scream into your crystal ball, before clamping your mouth shut.

[singsweetmelodies]

tagged by lovely @car-bo-hydrate to try this <3333

star sign: virgo

favourite holiday: new year

last meal: a hot mug of tea and some south african buttermilk rusks (comfort food breakfast!!! ❤️☕)

current favourite musician: probably taylor swift, but as always, it's hard to choose just one. OOOH! lately, dove cameron is high up on the list too

last music listened to: confetti (acoustic version) by little mix - LISTEN. ever since ms perrie edwards put out a tease that her solo music is coming soon, i have been on a big little mix high again, listening to all my old favourites and hyping myself up sooooo much for that perrie music drop 👀👀👀😍

last movie watched: my girlfriend and i rewatched shang-chi and the legend of the ten rings again last night for movie night <3 LOVE that movie, omfg. both my gf and i firmly declared all michelle yeoh's scenes our favourites 🤭

last tv show watched: you know, it's actually been really long since i've properly watched a TV show, so the answer to this is probably something silly like reruns of FRIENDS

last book/fic finished: 2 different answers here!! last book was iron flame by rebecca yarros (yes, i caved to all the hype and read it on the plane - yes, there were bits that pissed me off, but i mostly enjoyed it) and last fic was one of AO3 user venerat's landoscar masterpieces, "i'll kiss you first" <3

last book/fic abandoned: hmm... i tried to read this rom-com called "you & me: a mlm single dads romance" while on holiday in SA, and i just... couldn't make it more than 5 chapters in. the cringe (& the VERY american focus of... everything...) was just too much for me, especially because i tried to read this right after a super delightful wlw rom-com recommended to me by darling @duquesademiel. after that, this one just... couldn't compare. at all.

currently reading: well, i'm back to work, so my time for books has unfortunately dropped exponentially... all i'm actively reading rn is a bunch of f1 rpf fics, to be perfectly honest

last thing researched for writing/art/hyperfixation: "WHAT COULD CAUSE A SCANDAL IN THE REGENCY ERA" 🤣🤭

favourite online fandom memory: storytime sundays where we tell those long DM fics with @boxboxbrioche and @welightitup <3333

favourite old fandom you wish would drag you back in/have a resurgence: HMMM! i am mostly over all my old fandoms by now, to be fair, but if i really had to choose one... probably one direction?? because a proper resurgence would mean the reunion, right? (right?) ((so maybe i'm not quite as "over it" as i pretend 🤭))

favourite thing that you enjoyed that never had an active fandom: ohhhh, i can't think of a name immediately now, but it's definitely some or other book series that, if it had a fandom at all, was so tiny that i was practically the only person in it 🥲

tempting project that you're trying to rein in/don't have time for: LISTEN. i have had the most awful writer's block for months, and now that i can finally write again, somewhat, all that i want to write are the things that i should NOT be focusing on rn, because those things don't have deadlines but other things do *charles_wtf discord react*

prime example: about 2838474829 piarles smut WIPs and a/b/o and chussyverse explorations, instead of... my PWFE fic. some belated birthday fics. some celebration fics i promised nearly half a bloody YEAR ago. oops 😭😭 but, we'll get there. we will! just like this will be ferrari's year (i am delulu) xD

no idea who's done this yet and who hasn't, so i'm just going to tag some friends and hope i'm not double-tagging anyone - also, if i miss anyone, please feel free to say i tagged you anyway, because i'd love to see your answers <3 @boxboxbrioche @welightitup @hourcat @teamnick @sedicii @francophones @radiocheck, if any of you feel like giving this a go <3333

[nottooldtodream]

Hi! Not to turn into DeuxMoi but as an another former member of the Tracob nation (honestly it still breaks my heart a bit), I’ve always been curious their breakup. I assumed Easy was about T cheating in some way but then I heard Can’t Go Back, Baby and got confused. Maybe it just got messy towards the end 🥲

Also love the blog and all your effort 💙

Thank you for that !

I agree messy. I have discussed this with other fans and here’s maybe a theory ( I hope t isn’t on tumblr )

Theory 1

J and T having problems summer of 2019 we know this because he writes 10/10 and Take yourself home that summer. Possibly ccjtay… also I never felt good about the 73 questions shoot and that happened on or close to his bday and Go West Fest in June 2019. I felt there was tension between them, a stiffness from J who isn’t as good an actor as T. That said I believe there might if been “a break” during that time. Maybe that’s when T had an encounter or hook up. We know that they did try to reconcile and took that trip in October. I think what happened with J cheating must of been an affair something major because I think T was so in love he could of forgiven J for something slight. I feel like what ever happened T did not find out about it until later, I’m assuming some time around early/ mid December2019 because that seems to be when it all went to pieces.

The other theory is that both Easy and CGBB where written about J cheating and T just couldn’t bring himself to out J at that time so he wrote the details but from a different point of view. The interesting part is that the family continued to follow j online until after what ever happened after sept 2021 in NYC (“still got it” story) I feel like after Troye said no I can’t come back j was very hurt and it led to the blocking and mass unfollow.

I also kind of believe if there hadn’t of been Covid, T might if been week and taken j back, which if the cheating was real would of been a mistake. As hard as the break up was I think in the end it’s better. Did you read the article about J making T want to cry over criticizing his creative decisions and the bowl cut lyrics etc It wasn’t a healthy equal relationship. J had too much power and T was insecure. Which based on success and money it should of been the other way around. J was living a life he couldn’t afford and I think it made him resent T. T opened a lot of doors for J and it gave him opportunities. It’s better that J achieve those things himself so he can feel good about it. T needs to find someone who respects his intellect Jake was so pretentious about books, art etc Like Troye was some suburban kid who was basic, you hear it the lyrics: Ever book I read I read for you etc T is a brilliant lyricist and creative Look what he has done, the marketing alone in this album promotion was genius.

I have thought about this way too much 😳😂 really not my business I know I just want nothing but pain free joyful days for Troye!! I hope he finds his one!

[hummingbird-games]

Dev Diaries

March 5th, 2024

So. We're 3 months into the new year. Huh.

Updates from me? I started a new job! I've been reading/catching up on a toooooon of manga lately (I'm also sloooooowly making my way through a nonfiction read and can't help thinking how Corey would heavily sympathize with me. Sigh.)

I also got another free month of Spotify (lol, I think I'm the only person I know who only uses the free plan because I'd rather spend that money elsewhere??) so I've been on a listening spree and flagging songs for a writing playlist I will use for the majority of the HSDJY 2 drafting process moving forward.

I still have yet to play BG3. My family gifted me the physical edition, so I've been impatiently waiting for it to ship out. It's been 84 years JFJEHFJHJF!!

Hmmm...nothing else interesting has happened to me (that I can publicly share ☠️) so on with the game development updates!!!!!

What Has Gemini Been Up To? -> TKD (again)

March 16th!!! Y'all, this is the deadline the team and I are working towards for a finished and published game 😭 unfortunately my plans for full voice work won’t be realized by then (but they will be realized. Just in a few months. Honestly, it wouldn’t surprise me if y'all get the updated HSD 2 demo before the fully voiced TKD….)

What Has Gemini Been Up To? -> HSD:JY and Ko-fi

Ko-fi first!!

It’s only been a few months (since November??) but I’m super proud of my posting consistency! Granted, I’m a little anxious about how posts will look moving forward once I start moving major updates and general silliness to Tumblr. But. We shall cross the bridge when it appears.

March snuck up on me and I only have the free and any-paid-support ready, but the subbies are just There™️. That being said...when I'm quiet or posting non-Hummingbird content here, there's 99.9% chance I've made a free post on ko-fi.

Tumblr is looking like the other social media platforms right now with its flagrant support of AI, and it gives me a headache trying to decide how to keep everyone informed as well as share posts from my peers and new kids on the block. Anyhoo!!!

High School Daze goodies??

At the time of this post, a couple things have been happening that I haven't had the time (or the energy) to talk about. The obvious? HIGH SCHOOl DAZE: JUNIOR 2 HAS AN ITCH.IO PAGE!! I...have no idea when the full game will be out. I have an idea...but I don't want to say it and feel obligated to make that deadline just so I don't disappoint players. (I'm well aware that some people took one look at Crushed, went "Aww, that's nice, Gemini. Now where's HSD??" 🤣)

The first round of sprites have been commissioned!! If you peeped the key art (also done by my sprite artist, heehee she's lovely) you might notice some new outfits, some new hairdos. Fingers crossed I'll be able to update the page--to mirror the debut game's page--at the same time the new demo goes live (which will showcase all of or at least 75% of the common route of the full game. Stay tuned to find out if we'll focus on the friendship route or if I can defeat the Coding Monster to include all the variations for the romances too aha).

Writing wise? Five of the six total routes are outlined. (Florence's I've…barely started 🥲…this pre-production thing is kicking my ass). I’ve started drafting out the friendship route too, as seen by the random posts I’ve made about HSDJY 2. Well, a combination of friendship route + the common route with its lovely variations that aren’t a nuisance at all. Nope. *eye twitch*

I alsooooooo discovered that all the raw and edited music I created for HSD and for personal projects over the years using GarageBand were deleted. And I never backed them up. So. The tracks I made, the jingle for the splash screen, the main theme and it's 2 variations, and alllllll the little cute things I made that are as old as my own high school days are....gone.

Poof!

If I sound very calm about this, what an astute observation! But my anxiety is being used elsewhere, and I decided that I while I can't go back to the original files to tweak them, I've backed up the other files. And I don't mind starting from scratch with this.

But also y'all, please back up your shit. Please. Don't be caught slipping.

That poll I made a while back that now has results and I totally didn't forget about?? The boys won!! And I'm not surprised 🤣 I haven't decided yet if I'll do a live developer stream or a prerecorded one, but either way it'll happen closer to October, the 2nd anniversary date.

What Will Gemini be Up To?? -> Rest?!?!?

I assumed a lot of things about what would be done or not done by March, and that led me to loosely block out March as a 'rest' month. I wouldn't work on any projects, and instead would read, play console and computer games, and basically take the break I didn't take in December.

Well. The Knight Dance is still in production. And I commissioned sprites earlier than expected. And I didn't plan enough ko-fi content to be scheduled in my absence. LOL and I started a new job!? 🥹

But!!! But but but, I do need to take some type of break so I'll do my best to be scarce in this space (and lower the temptation to work because I see y'all are working LOL). Cool? Cool!

- Gemini 💛

[spaceofentropy]

tag game - stranger things edition

The lovely @dragonflylady77 and @harringrovest tagged me so here I am!

ride or die ship (your otp): Harringrove

most annoying ship: it's a tie between Steve/Nancy (those two don't work together in canon, they are like soap and grease, why even try to put them together AGAIN?!) and Byler (because Will deserves way better than Mike Wheeler, and he should realize it soon for his own good! T^T)

second favourite ship: Metalsandwich. There's something so fun in the ways those three interact and interconnect...

favourite platonic relationship: Stobin all the way!

underrated ship: Mungrove

overrated ship: Byler (again, free Will Byers 2023!)

one thing i would change in canon: ONE?! I get only ONE and I even have to choose which one?! How can I decide?! [Sadie Doyle voice] The utter inconsistency in how the UD works! No, Troy the little bully almost killing a kid and getting away scot free! No! El needing to be re-traumatized to get her powers back! No! Karen Wheeler noncing around unpunished! No! Eddie's stupid death! No! The rest of the party being shitty friends to Lucas again and again and him just going along with it in the end like it's no big deal! No! Nobody actually trying to pull the mindflayer out of Billy! No, just Billy's death in general!

something canon did right: quoting @harringrovest's answer, lifeguard!Billy. And Steve in that silly silly sailor outfit. Season 3 was a weird beast, but at least it gave us those two things!

a thing i'm proud of creating for the fandom PLEASE BRAG ABOUT YOURSELF I WANT TO SEE/READ YOUR ART: my metalsandwich long fic Of soulmates and colors and also my oneshots Come close and Amok which were banged out in a couple of hours each but I love a lot. And also What doesn't kill you makes you a monster, because writing demobat!Steve Harrington was fun as fuck! Yeah, basically I'm proud of each fic I published, thank you. And I'm also very proud of the shark glasses that led to THIS! beautiful, perfect edit by @imsodishy 🥲❤️

a character who is perfect to me (wouldn't change a thing): Billy Hargrove

the character i relate to the most and why: Billy Hargrove, because... well, personal reasons.

character i hate the most and why: Dr. Martin fucking Brenner, because he kidnapped kids, manipulated and tortured them, tortured El's mom until her mind broke, and the narrative wants us to... not hate him, not really, because after all he was right? He re-tortures and re-traumatizes El but it's for the greater good? Well, fuck that shit, fuck the Duffers and their whole writers' room, and fuck Brenner with a rusty pipe!

something i've learned from the fandom: as with anywhere else, there are lovely talented people in fandom that make great stuff, and there are also not great people (looking at you, assholes who wish harm on others because they like one character you dislike!), so the block button is your best friend. Also, squeeing in happiness at good art and fics is even sweeter when done in group! ❤️

three tags i seek out on ao3: I don't really have an answer, since I don't usually look for specific stuff; I more go with the flow or jump on fics that someone recommended/mentioned that sound interesting.

song i strongly associate with my otp/favourite character: Desire by Meg Myers is so Harringrove it hurts; and while Wolf by Yeah Yeah Yeahs is pure "Billy Hargrove after basking in Steve's love a little too long", Like You Better Dead is my favourite Billy-coded song, because, yeah, he can be as angry as he wants to be, just watch him burn!

I should tag someone, so... uh... argh! Hoping you've not been tagged, and begging preemptively pardon just in case... @salthat @destroya2005 @ariesbilly @suometar and anyone who sees this and wants to do it! :P

[eoieopda]

Hihi, Jade! Hope you’ve been well and are doing good hehe

I started learning the pre-chorus + chorus to Like Crazy and when I tell you it’s groovy as shit. Like damn. Though, if this doesn’t improve my hip-control, I genuinely have no idea what will 🤡

On another note, I’m meeting up with one of my friends on Monday! We’re going out for coffee and window shopping and I’m pretty excited because I haven’t seen her since the beginning of February of this year, and I’m excited to talk to her face to face (hah see what I did there ;))

I also did a little brainstorming for a story I’ve wanted to write since August of 2020, and I’m hoping it’s gonna help with my immense writers block concerning the idea itself lmfao

I was also wondering, but do you bake? I know it’s a pretty random question but a lot of my friends bake, and I’ve only ever baked once with one of said friends. We made chocolate muffins and, despite them being relatively messy, they actually tasted pretty good! I’m a bit sad we didn’t have chocolate chips though, I would’ve loved to take the famous(?) “you measure that shit with your heart” post as inspiration to make a mostly choc-chip choco muffin hehe.

Do you draw at all, either? I don’t draw much, and when I do I almost always draw exclusively doodles, but I’ve had a couple which came out pretty well. I drew this really tiny dragon a while ago (probably a few years back) which I thought came out pretty well hehet.

By the way, on a less random and softer note, I’ve been meaning to tell you but kept getting shy and insecure about how to say it, but I really appreciate you, you know? I know we don’t know each other super personally and everything, but our exchanges have been a consistent highlight to my everyday life since I’ve become your mutual.

Like, I can’t even begin to say how big of an impact you’ve had on me as a person just with a couple of our (admittedly short) interactions. Your posts brighten up my day, and I really love how full of love you are, and how you’re so unapologetically yourself. It’s really pushed me to become more comfortable in my own skin, which I couldn’t thank you enough for.

I know that probably went from zero (0) to one-hundred (100) real quick, lol, but I thought it was about time, you know? Sorry for putting something like this in an ask, I probably should’ve sent it in a PM but I thought, “I’m here, I might as well do it while I have the courage” 🥹

Anyway, sorry for all the blabbering xd.

I hope you have a wonderful day (or night, I’m not 100% what time of day you’re at rn)!

I hope this isn’t coming off as creepy as it’s starting to sound in my head 🥹 I admire you a lot is all; sorry if this makes you uncomfortable if it does lemme know pls. Okay bye ily 🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻

this is quite possibly the sweetest thing i anyone has told me in a very very very long time, and i am — OOF — misty in the damn eyeballs. like, i don’t even know how to thank you for that 😭🫠 i’m a whole mess omg. YOU ARE SO SPECIAL, LIL BABY HAN 😭💓💕💗🫶🏻

now i’m gonna stop wheezing and answer your actual questions and pretend i did not just fully tear up, lmao.

i do bake, but not as often as i used to? i kind of only do it when i’m home with my mom which is rare but will resume soon when i move back to my home state to be close again!! def prefer baking to cooking because there is some ridiculous disconnect in which i can do one fairly well but will burn the shit out of whatever meal i’m attempting and/or burn myself. i do not know why i am like this!!

i draw, but also not as often as i used to 🤪 like, i drew/designed all of my tattoos and used to be really into art, but my brain only lets me have 1-2 hobbies at a time, and this one fell by the wayside 🥲 rip art-phase jade.

and good luck with your wip!!! seriously, tag me in anything you post because i love FFF so much that i would surely love whatever else you write 💕🥹

[hauntingthechateau]

Sunday November 5th

High of 11 low of 8. Rainy morning but patches of sun in the afternoon. Clear evening (could finally see the stars walking home).

Yep, that breakfast at 9 again. Got up and got my start with a shower and chai tea at home and dragged my feet for a while before heading to the studios to kill a little time before breakfast. Breakfast is wonderful as always and its just great having all these wonderful new souls to meet and chat with about things big and small, heavy and light; I really feel some friendships coming on 🥲. I ate an excellent pastry breakfast which helped my poor upset stomach, and then took a second helping down to the stables as lunch so I wouldn’t have to walk back up in the hill in the rain mid day and interrupt my work flow.

Then I got to work.

I organized my space enough to get to work, finished hanging the rest of my panels, and then I grabbed a small one and got to work on it. All in all I got the first pass done on five paintings, and also blocked the dark darks and shadows into another seven. I was either stingy or forgetful when packing my fluid paints because I didn’t bring a yellow ochre or a burnt umber and I’m missing them both dearly, so I went down to the supply closet in the Chateau when I had a lull in my productivity to see if I could find myself some. Yellow ochre was no problem, I even found a large bottle of artists’ quality fluid yellow ochre which has been treating me very nicely. Burnt umber for some reason was more illusive! I found a very crusty, little old tube of Windsor and Newton and after searching all the bins, finally found a larger tube of Amsterdam. Gave myself quite a fright when I found that I had what appears to be either oil or slow drying acrylic on my hands while I was wearing my victorian tweed which in regular life I try not to even bring near the studio with me, but here I was wearing it absentmindedly while going through old bins of paint 😬. I whiped most of it off on my apron and it doesn’t appear that I got any on my jacket… Phew. Back at the studio, I found without real effort I couldn’t get the cap off the Windsor and Newton so I gave myself a glob of the Amsterdam and went back to painting… man what crap! The Amsterdam is hardly pigmented, its so translucent. I sometimes forget what a treat these Tri-Art fluid paints are, I’ve come a long way from when I was okay with using Amerstam paints and I had no idea, in my memory they weren't this bad! 

Anyway, I did all that painting and felt pretty satisfied by the end of then day. Headed up to the Chateau around 6:30 to chat with people until our 7pm meal time. Dinner tonight was a pork soup (that had some special French name that I admittedly didn’t catch), along with a greek salad, a carrot slaw, buttery rice and thyme roasted potatoes (and baguette with EVERY meal, obviously). The meat in the stew was in BIG chunks but shredded apart with a spoon. It was luscious and fatty and I think cooked with a healthy amount of white wine. The carrot slaw was also a pleasant surprise, I think I ought to start making that at home! For dessert was a big ole birthday cake for Claudio’s birthday! We sang and had candles and everything, it was great! The cake itself was a white coconut cake with white chocolate icings and a message written in chocolate chips, it was delicious! 

After dinner we stayed and chatted a while longer over wine, I got a nice cotes du rhone out of the wine cave that may be my favourite yet! It’s got a lute on the label and gold foil, so it feels fitting that this would be my wine. I excused myself around 9 so that Craig and I could watch taskmaster together. The walk home was clear and the sky felt HUGE with all the stars, so many stars. Got ready for bed and then we watched the show together over discord and that was really nice (good episode too). Good to see his face, I know he’s stressing about getting things done for their cabin weekend coming up this Friday. So long as its not cancelled, I know he’ll have a great time. I’m glad he gets to do some more camping and I can’t wait to see the pictures! I got to say hello to Shrew who apparently has been depressed since I left which just hurts my heart! I’m glad I at least have a cat to pet while I’m here.

Went to bed at a good time and could barely keep my eyes open while I was reading my book. I’ve decided to switch my journaling to first thing in the morning in my studio while waiting for breakfast and this tactic seems to be timing out perfectly. Back to a normal sleep schedule and a good routine! 

Xo

[solomons-poison]

Thank you 🥰

Yeah i’ve been thinking about it for a while i just hadn’t gotten around to make the blog lol, about the writing part the problem is that when i used to write people didn’t really give feedback they just demanded more and more and it got to the point where writing felt like a responsibility more than a hobby that i enjoyed so, i’m scared it’ll end up like that again 🥲 but when it comes to art i’m more inclined to post!

Also about that drawing of yours haha you should give it a shot again! i find that when i stop drawing for a long time when i try again i’ve gotten better somehow 🤔

and oh Im sure i’ll like it your writing is amazing 🥰

Yeah as I gain followers here for my writing, I also fear that same issue haha, and I've seen the same concerns/issues with some other blogs too 🥲 People aren't providing any kind of commentary or feedback or anything, they just go "part 2??" and literally nothing else, it's tiring for sure.

And yes I do want to get back into drawing! Shortly after I started my second job, I was dealing with art block and just general burnout. I got into writing last June to at least get ideas out in some kind of art form. But yeah seeing my mutuals post their art gets me wanting to draw again, so we will see lol

[sanchoyo]

My sleep schedule is messed up and I’m trying to fix it as fast as possible just in Case I get a call to an interview, I don’t want to be half dead and driving whenever that is bc I’ve been up all night obviously, but also? I always feel a lot better mentally when I have a nice sleep schedule where I’m not up All Night. Like, it makes me feel like a Regular Person when I can Sleep at night. Like yea this IS the Designated Sleep Time!! And I’m in bed for it, look!! Like people do!!! People Who Function Well can do this and I’m Doing it Too!!! Lmao

[ramadoodles]

Grave errors: Or how to learn an entirely new art movement in 30 days or so

Hi guys. Sorry about the month-long hiatus.

I have several excuses prepared for it which I will not bore you with, because I have figured out the reason why I was delaying my posts.

The reason I have been delaying the cubism series, is because cubism is hard. It's like an expanding book, the deeper i dive into it, the broader the field gets. And considering the attention span of people on the internet, I don't want to dive too deep and make the post too big, because I have grown attached to the amount of likes and reblogs I receive on these posts.

So finally I gave up and asked a proper professional for advice about how to go about learning an entire new field of art with almost prior knowledge. Here are the tips that I learned from them, which I hope I can pass on so that you do not make the same mistakes that I have made.

(Also in case the professional in question is reading this- in case I got anything wrong, please let me know!)

Tip 1: There are multiple levels to understanding an art movement.

Level 1- Conception

This level is achieved by the original artist or artists who start thinking "what if I take these disparate concepts and combine them into something entirely new and never before seen?" Think Picasso combining African masks and impressionist paintings (or, as it was explained to a nerd like me, think of Einstein wondering what light would look like if he travelled alongside it, a precursor to his developing the theory of relativity.) Understandably, we students can't achieve this level of understanding of an already developed movement.

Level 2- Style development

After Brach and Picasso developed their first line of funky new cubist paintings, a whole bunch of artists decided to copy them and understand how they were made. They were really focused on the nitty-gritties- a cubist painting is made of multiple distorted perspectives of an object, but how many perspectives? How much distortion? How much of the object is still understandable?

After they learned the exact technique that pucasso and brach had used, these artists started experimenting with the rules by adding more distortion, fewer perspectives, more color, removing all semblance of the original object, etc. From this level, two subcategories were developed, Analytical and Synthetic Cubism, but that's not really as important.

What's important is understanding how we, as students, can achieve level 2 understanding of any art movement- by understanding the exact rules of how these paintings are made, and then experimenting with them. That requires copying (ideally) many different paintings of a variety of subcategories inside the art movement. I'm currently doing this, and progressing much faster in three days than I have in the last three weeks.

Level 3- Mannerism

The basest understanding of an art movement. Imagine if you simply added a bunch of geometrical faces to a drawing of say, an apple, and claimed that it was a cubist drawing🥲. (I'd link my own apple drawing as an example, but I'm not going to shame myself that much.) To come back to my Einstein example from level 1, imagine if someone told you "Einstein is famous for inventing the theory of relativity, E=mc^2" and could not tell you what E, m or c were supposed to be. And the level of visceral rage a scientist would feel at that remark, is probably what an artist feels every time they hear about cubism being a bunch of blocks stacked on each other. I feel deep sympathy for artists now🥲.

Moving on from my self-pity, if you want to avoid falling into the trap of this style of art, then you need to draw as many paintings of your chosen art movement as possible. They need to be of a large variety, and also not too difficult for you to get discouraged. (Trust me, I learnt it the hard way.)

I'll put up a list of paintings that I'm going to start copying tomorrow morning. I should churn out one every two days if I regular about this, so hopefully you can expect regular posts from now on. Let's see how it goes.

Tip 2: Art movements tend to be reactionary.

That is, they tend to oppose whatever art movement came before them. To make it more understandable, you know how fashion always cycles every twenty years, and whatever was popular ten years ago is hated today, only to be loved ten years from now? Art has a similar concept.

How is this useful to us? When you're looking at an art movement, it's always a good idea to look at the movement which came before it, which it is now opposing. It helps you to get a better sense of the movement you're trying to understand. I haven't gotten far enough to try this out yet, but i'll make a post on it when I do.

That's all for today, i'm dead tired. Goodnight y'all.