#and they'll have reblogged a bunch of art

[mdrarw]

I feel like a lot of non-artists don't understand how defeated some artists feel when they look at ai art. For some it's because they think that ai art is better than their own, for others it's just the sheer disgust they feel when they look at ai art. AI art has been turned into a joke for many people, but looking at ai art is genuinely demotivating, and atleast for me, really fucking annoying.

And then there are people who'll go on about "oh but midjourney was already taking your art" okay, and? Is it not disgusting how Tumblr was aware of AI taking their artist's art, and instead of trying to implement some rules to stop this, they decide to make money off of it? And no, I will not leave Tumblr, because this has been the best platform for me to post art on, but Tumblr has now consciously decided to ruin that. I mean, where do you even want to go? Twitter's dying, TikTok is a hell scape, deviant art is also doing AI bullshit, and Instagram is just downright ass.

It makes me feel very defeated to think about all this, and I don't think anyone who doesn't know how this feels like should be telling artists that it's "not that bad". Please, for the love of God, shut up.

[punkitt-is-here]

Read These Frequently Asked Questions Before You Send An Ask!

Patreon | Ko-Fi | Youtube

Heyo! I get a TON of asks each day, so I'm making this post so that folks know what's already been asked so my followers don't have to see the same stuff over and over, haha.

Hi! I'm Punkitt! I'm a game developer, artist, editor, director, and a bunch of other stuff! I'm working on an RPG called Astral Guard, a platformer called Susan Taxpayer, and I have a couple more fun projects in my pocket like Happup and Super Mario Death Row.

Did you know you look like weird al?

YES jesus fucking christ i get told this every day. if u send me a message in my inbox saying i look like weird al im killing you with like wizard spells and shit.

Why do you have so many hats? Do you know you have that many hats?

ye i like hats. :) free tumblr badges for one pea i like one piece and took as many as i could. free.

Where can I find your art/game development/horsecomix?

Great question! Everything I make that's my own and not a reblog is under "my posts", every bit of art I do is under "my art", any game development I do is under "gamedev", you can find all my MLP art under "mlp, my art" or "horsecomix" for the best stuff. I also have an "animations" tag and a "shitposts" tab. I also properly tag all my asks to be asks and write out the asker's name, so if you don't wanna see those just mute the ask tag.

Do you have a Patreon or a Ko-Fi?

I do have a ko-fi here! I also JUST launched a Patreon, which you can find here :)

What do you use for your art?

I use FireAlpaca and Paint.net for misc. effects!

What are you using to make your games?

I use FireAlpaca do make my assets! Astral Guard, Happup, and any other top-down RPG games I make are all made in RPGMaker 2003. Susan Taxpayer is made in SMBX2 Beta 4, a Mario fangame engine with lua support!

Why are you using a 2-decade-plus engine to make games?

It's fun!

Do you have a sideblog or something for your art?

Not right now! What you see is what you get. I do have a sideblog for Astral Guard though, if you want to follow that game specifically! @astral-guard

Can I make an OC based on your work? ABSOLUTELY!!!!!!! THATS THE COOLEST THING EVER!!!! LET ME KNOW IF YOU DO!!!! I WANNA SEE!!!!

Can I do dubs/redraws of your comics? As long as you credit me! I get a ton of notifs each day, so if you wanna show me (and PLEASE i so do wanna see fun dubs and redraws!!!) tag me or DM me!

Can I use your art as a PFP? Sure! Just credit me somewhere. :D

Are you the one who trapped her coworkers in a room and made them listen to TF2 lore?

Yep! Everyone had a blast actually. :]

Did you make that comic where Fluttershy eats the weed brownie/Rainbow Dash has a male living space/someone has a cutie mark that says they'll kill Ronald Reagan?

Yep! That's me.

Where are you in MLP right now?

Currently just finished Season 7! Haven't watched the movie yet.

Have you watched Equestria Girls?

Yep! Thought it was super cute. I watched up to Rainbow Rocks and plan on watching more.

What's your opinion on MLP so far?

I love it! I think it's cute. I really don't agree that there was some sort of huge quality drop after season 2 or whatever.

What do you think of G5?

Not my style! I don't really like either animation types and it just seems like I'm not in the audience anymore. That's totally chill, but it just doesn't grab me!

Have you watched any other MLP stuff from previous generations?

Nope! But I did see a compilation called Minty Being Autistic for Six Minutes Straight that I loved. she's perfect.

Favorite pony?

Don't got one, I love all the Mane Six a LOT, but I'm particularly fond of Fluttershy, Applejack, and Rarity!

Favorite episode/season?

I'm so bad at picking favorites! But any season past Season 1 I have a blast with because I feel like it's just more my style. I don't have a favorite episode, but the most recent one I can remember LOVING is the one where Starlight bottles up her emotions because it was REALLY funny.

Do you like Pony.mov?

Nope! And stop saying my stuff reminds you of it, it's a lil annoying!

Have you watched the Mentally Advanced Series/Friendship is Witchcraft/Other fandom vids?

Probably not! My interaction with the MLP fandom prior to last year was pretty minimal, so I'm making my way through the show first!

What do you think of Fallout: Equestria?

I think it's super weird but really fun because of that. I've never properly read any of it but it's very fascinating to me.

Are you transgender?

Yep! I go by she/her, I'm a trans woman. Have been for many years, but I only recently came out online!

Are you a lesbian?

Nah, I'm bisexual!

Can I commission you?

Yeah! I only have my commissions available on my Ko-Fi at certain times though, so keep an eye out! I usually announce slots being open at least 12 hours beforehand. Slots are usually first come first serve, but we'll see.

Can I use your art as a Discord emote?

Yeah man i'm not scouring every discord on the planet to find stickers of my work. i think it owns if people take my stuff and make it stupid injoke emotes between friends that makes me very happy.

Can I send you an ask inquiring about gender dysphoria?

I feel like this is beyond my capabilities of advice! I'm actually very comfortable with my body and I have been for many years, so I don't know if I can give any good or helpful advice on that front. Apologies, but there are many resources out there where you can ask about those things if you look for them, like Discord channels!

Favorite Color?

I'm a sucker for blue!

Favorite coffee?

Can't drink coffee, my stomach is cringe.

Favorite tea?

I'm lame and can't drink most tea but I love this one orange-flavored tea a lot. I also LOVE ice tea.

Can I say you're horsegender/punkittgender/a little gender goblin void thing?

Well, I can't stop you, but I'm kind of beyond that phase now! I really am a boring ol' plain she/her girl, and I like it that way. It's not much, but it's honest gender.

What's your favorite game series?

Mother, Kingdom Hearts, Mario, and I USED to say Fallout, but I found out I'm really only a big Fallout New Vegas fan.

Favorite game from those?

Mother 3 is one of my fave games of all time! I love KHII, and I'm tied for SMB3 and SMW. Also Fallout New Vegas fucks hard.

Any other favs?

Bug Fables, SLARPG, and TF2!

Favorite Movie?

Everything Everywhere All At Once, no question.

Oh, are you going to college?

Yep! I'm a film/theater major.

Do you have a YouTube channel?

Yeah! Click right here for it, I stream there and upload footage of my games/animations/my film projects + other stuff.

What is that little orange creature I see?

That's bweenop, my little persona that I use when I'm feeling a little scrunkly.

Do you have a ponysona?

Yep! Her name is Star Magnolia, you can search her on the blog to see art of her.

When will Susan Taxpayer/Astral Guard/etc. be out?

No clue! I take things slow, that's just how I am.

How do you work on so many things at once?

I make small, satisfying amounts of progress! I never try to complete one giant thing all at once, I just like doing small bursts of fun stuff. I got ADHD, so I learn to work with it.

Did you know you look like Weird Al?

Im going to run you over with a clown car watch out

WHY do you work on so many things at once?

Fun! I like learning, I like making cool stuff, and I like showing it to people :)

Do you need any help with your projects?

Potentially! I'll probably put out a post asking for help if I need it.

If you could be a horse, would you?

You kidding me? Several ton beasts with the frailty of a sickly Victorian boy; my clumsy ass would never survive.

Are you some sort of...furry?

yeag

Why do you reblog so much?

Brother I LOVE posting. that's just how it is.

Fav music artists?

It changes literally ALL the time but I will recommend ANYTHING by Vylet Pony, its music is incredible and probably the reason I'm a weird niche microcelebrity now.

Why are you like this?

theater kid + having a lot of fun on the internet makes you a bit silly hehe hoo

SUSAN TAXPAYER QUESTIONS

Is it out? Not yet! But hopefully sometime in the next year. I dunno! I take things at my own pace and keep stuff fun. :)

What are you using to make it? SMBX2! It's a free fangame engine for Mario episodes, but it's incredibly versatile and has a wonderful community, so I decided to make Susan Taxpayer in it.

Is there a demo? You betcha! You can find it right here. I'll also probably put it up on my itch.io.

How do I install it? I made a post here about how to run the SAGE '23 demo!

[thedeerman]

Spam blogs in the Hazbin tags

I posted about this once before and it seemed a bunch of people had gotten similar messages, so I'm compiling a list of the AI art scam blogs that I’ve come across so far. (Details below- Full list at the bottom of the post)

So the scam goes like this: The blog follows you. Shortly after, (sometimes a few minutes, sometimes a few days) they will send you a generic greeting, ask how you're doing, etc. They'll sometimes ask about favorite characters and OCs as well. They then ask if you'd like to see some of their art (which is generally AI made), and afterwards will offer to make you something. Whether they actually deliver on this 'art' or not I have no clue, but when you tell them you don't want a $40 commission, they start asking things like "Why? Is it the money? When do you get paid next?"

It goes the same every time and there are several repeated names in the blog urls. Whoever this is is very bad at scamming, however, and I honestly originally thought they were a bot. Either way, looks like they don't like lizards...

(RUDE)

Anyway, these blogs are extremely easy to pick out once you've seen them, they're practically all the same. They'll all be very recently made and have no content other than 5-20ish reblogs from Hazbin and Helluva tags. They also sometimes post AI art with big 'PREVIEW' bars across it and these blogs then share and compliment each other's AI art (seriously, how do they find the time??)

If this has happened to you and they aren't on here, please feel free to reblog with the url or send me a message (I'll add the blog to the main list once I take a look and make sure it's not just someone being a jerk and handing over a real person's url)

And whoever you are that’s doing this, please do us all a favor. GET A LIFE AND STOP TRYING TO SELL AI IMAGES GO TAKE SOME TIME TO PRACTICE ACTUAL ART INSTEAD OF WASTING YOUR LIFE BEING A JERK

scuse my rudeness there, anyway:

The List

artistloona

Avadaisy

brooklynsage

calantheee

Cameron198

Daisythomasworld

daisythomasart

Danijohnsworld

Dannyarts01

davidmillers-stuff

Eliastonny

Harrison2020

Innercherryblossomvoid

Jacksonharper90

janniferjenn

jennyheather89

Kimberleyk

leahmartin2

leahmartin8

lilliebanson

Loonaartist

Lourasarts

Lunajames251000

Melinack

Mia-artss

Miraxmichael98

moxxiedollsstuff

Nyraozzy

Nyraozzyofficial

Oliviasaysblog

ozzynyra

Quinnart78612

Spookyyouthtriumph

stelliaarts-world

wisehelluvalove

Please, if you get messages from these blogs, report them as spam!!

[jojo-oliver]

How to tumblr for artists… my own version

A collection of things that have been working for me, but may not work for everyone

~~~ your posts ~~~

!!!reblog your own stuff!!! you need to reblog your own stuff, there is nothing morally wrong with reblogging your own stuff regularly. in fact, it is morally right to allow the chance for more people to see your artwork.

~~~ queue it!! ~~~ my queue is 500 posts strong. maybe don't try to make your queue hundreds of posts strong in the same day omg but like… once every month or two i'll go through my whole blog and just scroll and "add to drafts" to every one of my own posts i have. then i'll use the "mass post editor" to add content warning tags. and add to queue, and shuffle. and then I write down what the date was for when I last added my posts to be reblogged on queue. this is helped by turning on timestamps for posts in tumblr "dashboard preferences" settings.

queueing is necessary and life saving for me. It takes out so much work with decision fatigue and the anxiety around posting. It also guarantees that even if I suddenly need time off or away from my phone, I don't just disappear and lose all traction. It also breaks the instant-gratification cycle that you expect when you finish an artwork. It's hard to keep creating when you post something and, when you're expecting to get that gratification, you get none... If you queue your new artwork to come out at a later time, you've separated that expectation - with time. It hurts less and contributes to a more consistent gratification thing instead of peaks and troughs.

~~~ tag ya stuff ~~~ when you're making a new post, the first 20 tags are what gets put into the searchable tags. do not feel shame for using lots of tags. shame is the mind-killer. tags are hard. hard to know what to tag a post with. hard to remember the tags. so I found some ways to help myself. maybe they'll help you too. dedicate some time towards just figuring out what tags you want to use. i have a list in my phone notes that i add tags to and reference whenever i'm making a new post. i have the phone right beside the laptop while i'm tagging so that i can just look at it and scroll. tags are the only way for people to find your artwork, other than people manually coming to your blog because they saw you somewhere. there is no algorithm. posting without tags, until you have an established fanbase, is throwing something into the void.

When I'm doing tag research, I look at what people seem to use - when you put something in the search bar, tumblr recommends you some that have a higher following, typically. Looks like this on desktop:

if you like one tag, look at what other people who use that tag also tag their posts with. Observe and learn how this tag is used. search through a bunch of them and write them down.

here's what i got in my notes, for the specific kind of art I post and look for:

these tags are sort of specific to me and the kind of art I make. You'll want to research your own tags, but this is an example of how I keep them organized to make posting more effective. I generally only write down a tag when it's got more than 2k followers. You might be tempted to use the tags with millions of followers, but I've actually found those a lot less functional for small artists. If your stuff doesn't immediately get a bunch of notifications, you're drowned out and pushed to the bottom much faster. But the bigger tags are better than no tags, so I keep them if I can't think of anything else to tag something with.

~~~ post at the right times….? ~~~

fridays and saturdays is when I post fresh new things... usually. every website has it's own peak hours, and you can find those hours in many different online articles that try to sell you social media growth services. tumblr is unique in having later hours.

here's some random graph from google images:

please don't over think this. please don't let this consume the idea of when to post, preventing you from posting at all. it doesn't mean too much - if you post during very active hours, maybe your art would just be pushed down the feed faster. if you post at the end of hours, maybe everyone's going to sleep… if you post at inactive hours, maybe there's less 'competition'… if you post at the beginning of active hours, maybe that's just more time for your post to circulate for the day, if you have enough people reblogging it once it drops....

this also is in EST. So fuck the other time zones, I guess. I'm over here in europe knowing that the "best" time to post would be like 2-3am or something. It's like this for most english-speaking majority sites - higher traffic in north american time zones.

it's also worth mentioning that this is scattered as heck, compared to other social media sites. and it's not like, the activity times of your followers. it's not the best time to post for your niche. this is just tumblr, broadly. all of tumblr.

~~~ Plan ahead for annual dates ~~~

Your artwork will get more circulation if it's posted on a celebratory day. You could just put them on your calendar and if you're wondering what to make, look on the calendar for what's coming soon. For example, asexual awareness day, trans day of visibility, location-specific holidays, etc. Here's my phone notes thing with my own recorded annuals:

I got these dates from googling and reading different articles, but I find that I still miss dates, and then I add them for next year. If you know of some I missed, tell me and I'll add them please <3

~~~ reblog other people's stuff ~~~

tumblr is sorta about ecosystems. things get passed around within groups of people that are all following eachother. to enter this ecosystem, you must engage and reblog other people's stuff too.

if you reblog other artists' stuff, sometimes they'll come over and reblog your stuff too. sometimes they'll follow you back. this is called becoming a mutual. I'll search specific tags for the kinds of people I want to follow and the kind of art I like - those are listed in the screenshot of my tag note under "Tags for finding new people".

I see a lot of blogs out there that are very clean, posts are tagless, and are only for the artists' content. like scrolling through a portfolio. I imagine this is good for people who are migrating to tumblr but already have their own established fanbase from elsewhere.

you don't need to do reblog other people's stuff on your art blog, you can do this on a separate blog. but if the two don't look very closely correlated, it's hard to tell who you are when you're interacting. and hard to make sure people know that you are the same person as your art blog. and you gotta remember to promote yourself on your personal blog.

~~~ have an art tag ~~~

make your blog easy to search!

if i go to your blog, and you've written 'artist' or 'sometimes art' in your bio, i wanna see it… it make me so sad when i don't get to see it. i want to reblog it. please let me reblog it :(

to make a tag on your own blog searchable, you don't need to repost it to add a tag. you don't even need to reblog it. you can actually just go back to the original post and edit it to add your tag. I've seen post people just have their art tag be something like #(blogname)art . you can see my own in my tags image above. if it's very unique, then it'll work tumblr-wide. I think that's good, since the tumblr search function is really weird. Otherwise it should still work if it's not entirely unique, people just have to make sure they're searching specifically your blog to see only your stuff.

I like to have a link in my pinned post where people can click to have immediately searched for my art tag. Convenience is king. Keep in mind that most people are on mobile, and if something isn't immediately clickable, they often won't find it.

~~~ be consistent and be patient ~~~

!!!this time will pass anyway!!! how many notes you have is not correlated with how good you are as an artist. wanting to earn something from your art means you essentially have two jobs. two potentially full time jobs. this shit's difficult. most of the job is promoting yourself. don't undersell how hard it is to do… don't feel bad for not immediately succeeding. I would write about how hard it's been to promote myself, but it would just be long and sad I think.

This isn't a full guide, please feel free to add more!!

I'm sure in another year I'll disagree with a lot of this, it will become irrelevant with time, and I'll have a lot of different opinions. Chip in and share what you've been doing? Teach me? This is very overwhelming. Don't do it all at once, just like, try one thing at a time, and see how it works for you. Your niche might be different. One size does not fit all. If you're confused about some of the things I talk about in here, you might be on mobile. I do most of my queueing and posting from the desktop browser version.

I will update this with more as things change, but I think you'll have to click through to see the updated post

[time-to-write-and-suffer]

free art time

ArtFight is over but I still feel like drawing other ppl's OCs, so until tomorrow, August 11th, let's say 19:00 CET (so 24 hours from now), you can leave an OC of yours (or multiple, idk) in a reblog and I'll spend the next week probably going through as many as I can and draw little portraits/sketches of them!

Can't guarantee that I'll get to everyone, depending on how many notes this gets, and I can't promise they'll all be a consistent quality, so please submit at your own risk! I'll also prioritize drawing at least one OC per person, so if you post a bunch, it's more likely that I'll just pick one of them, and maybe get to the others if I have time and only a few people reply.

Also, please leave as many references as you can, that will increase the chances of me picking your OC because it makes it easier for me to get an idea of them! Pinterest boards, descriptions, Picrews, other art, everything will help. Also, please do only original characters from original works, I don't wanna do any game OCs or fanwork stuff. Thank uuuu.

Uuuh yeah! Other than that, let's do this thang!

[rolloollor]

Do you have any Twst Rollo fan artists you follow on Tumblr or Twitter or wherever?? I'm in desperate need of more art. The lack of art on the Eng fandom is criminal 😭😭😭

As far as tumblr goes, I reblog 'em when I see 'em, so they'll pop up eventually if they haven't already.

I follow a ton of 'em on my lurker twitter account. (Sometimes I think I should make a not-lurking account and talk to people there, but what if twitter dies the next day? ugh)

Anyway, here's a selection of the Japanese artists I follow. Be aware of spoilers for book 7 if you're wary of that, since they're Japanese accounts that stuff is all over the place.

First, this is a doujin event account where a bunch of the followers are going to be invested in Rollo. Good place to comb through the followers/retweets for Rollo artists. Hello Rollo

And in no particular order:

Bluebell

Rabi

Sadokiri (Sadokiri also runs a Rollotsum specific art account)

ge_temo_

suzuko

hitsuzi

mitsu

maretororo

taiyaki

leoco

I definitely suggest sifting through their likes to find more artists if you still want more. Also, search for stuff like マレロロ or ロロ・フランム . Don't forget about pixiv either, there's a fantastic mallerollo artist that seemingly only posts there.

[fans4wga]

Thanks, mods, for running this blog and helping folks stay informed and sort through a lot of misinformation/confusion about how to support the strikes.

One thing that I think is confusing a lot of people: the guidelines on what “influencers” should and should not do are for *influencers who are in SAG* and operating under the SAG Influencer Agreement contract, or have the kind of career where they know they may be eligible to join SAG soon. This is a very small group of people (you have to have an LLC or be incorporated to sign the contract) who are professional influencers as their primary career. It’s not just like, anyone who has a bunch of Twitter followers.

It’s also my understanding that the “no promotions” rule is *for SAG members* (some of whom may be influencers) and specifically involves PAID work. Fan activity like fic, fanart, cosplaying for fun, reblogging/retweeting things about your favorite show/movie (even if those things come from official studio marketing departments) is not what they’re talking about. That’s all fine as long as you’re not being paid by an AMPTP company to do it.

Signed, a non-union sometimes film worker who wants everyone to support the strike but not lose sleep over whether it’s okay to reblog a gifset of your blorbos

Absolutely, and thank you for bringing this up again—it's causing a lot of unnecessary headaches among fans who just aren't the target for those influencer guidelines!

Where it can get confusing is that it's not necessarily paid work, it could also be unpaid work to promote studios, because unfortunately a lot of big cosplay/fan accounts wind up doing unpaid promo work just for the exposure. So SAG-AFTRA is also asking those influencer accounts not to do any promo work, paid or unpaid. But absolutely this doesn't apply to fans doing art and fic.

It was helpful for us to thoroughly read the SAG-AFTRA Influencer Agreement Fact Sheet here. It defines the SAG-AFTRA understanding of an "influencer". Once most fans read that they'll understand that they are not nor will ever count as influencers!

We're really hoping that the vast majority of actual influencers will support the strikes and not scab—and not only because it's the right thing to do to support current SAG-AFTRA members, but also because it's obvious that it will affect their future careers (and potential future membership of SAG-AFTRA!)

[sandwichboiscum]

*takes in a deeeeep breath cause I've got a likely unwanted opinion heh*

So here's a bunch of ships I like for Tf2 characters (don't hate me pls) also a lot of these are about Medic. No he's not my favorite character you can't prove anything >:0

Medic/Heavy (Red Oktoberfest) Classic, they work well together and are heavily implied in the game with achievements and voice lines. They were the first ship I heard of when I joined the community.

Medic/Engie (Science Party) They both have scientific minds, and in one of the catch up comics they implant a brain into a pumpkin together. Not much to go off if, but I guess you have to be pretty close with Medic to stand him messing around with brain matter. Obviously they get along well, and one of my head canons is that they'd bond over the fact that a lot of the time they don't get acknowledged for their help.

Sniper/Spy (Bloody Suit? I think) Another classic. They seem to both appreciate being kinda alone, so why not be kinda alone together? Also, the fact that Heavies and Medics typically work together and Snipers and Spies typically work against each other makes it kinda interesting. They also don't really get thanked enough for their help. Another ship I heard of when I joined the community

Medic/Sniper (Bushmedicine) To me it makes sense. Obviously in the comics Medic brings Sniper back to life, so there's that. My head canon is that Sniper doesn't call for Medic often (that I've experienced) so I'm sure whenever Sniper gets healed he's really grateful and would do his best to help Medic, especially by helping headshot direct dangers like Heavies and other Snipers.

Soldier/Demo (Boots n Bombs) Come on. Explosions. And the fact that RED Demo and BLU Soldier are/were friends (correct me if I got the colors wrong) they seem to get along pretty well

Sniper/Spy/Medic (Support Sandwich) This one I like for a few different reasons. 1. Medic needs people to bring him down to Earth sometimes, and Sniper and Spy tend to be pretty down to Earth. 2. Sniper and Spy are like the introverts with a single brain cell, while Medic is the extrovert with no braincells. 3. Medic does understand the importance of quiet sometimes, and I headcanon that when they all feel like being quiet they'll sit together and just chill. 4. They're all Support classes (obviously) and again, they might bond over complaining that their teammates don't thank them enough

Heavy/Spy (Spoovy) I see a lot of people who ship Bushmedicine also shipping Spoovy. In my brain it makes sense. I headcanon that Spy would likely love any type of literature, and considering Heavy has a degree in Russian literature, it just logically fits together.

Ok. That concludes with my list of ships that I particularly like within the community. A lot of these I know don't have great reasoning behind them, but eh.

I know this is a COMPLETELY unwanted opinion but it has been bouncing in my brain FOREVER and I felt like I needed to get it out before I exploded. Please feel free to reblog/comment with your opinions, but at least try to be nice.

Also I'm gonna try and post another meme/art soon

[sapphire-heart-tippy]

I don't wanna change my url ever, but I do have a slightly useless side blog named @cool-ice-canon-husband

It's where I rb my own art and writings to keep track of them and to compare my old art to my new art! (I haven't really used it in a while, but I recently just reblogged a bunch of stuff)

You can follow it if you want, but it'll pretty much just be stuff you've already seen before, I'll forget it even exists, but when I do remember it exists- it'll be flooded with a shit ton of reblogs of my own art and writing

Oh yeah! Also, Bel has a blog of their own too! Although, he's been pretty busy with work lately... but I'm sure xe'll come back soon once xe gets a little break! @the-beleza-muscadine

They usually just post about makeup and stuff, but they'll occasionally answer some asks as well 🩵💙 give him a follow if you're interested! ✨

[erdariel]

Hi! This is a bit random, but I’m always really interested by your Finnish posts, and was wondering if you have any recommendations for learning more about your country?

Any stories/bits of art or music that are particularly special?

No need to answer this if it’s intrusive or anything, of course!

Hello! Let me see... This post gets quite long, so I'll put my recommendations under a readmore! To be honest, most of them are just random Finnish stuff, not necessarily specifically oriented to teach anything about Finland, but it's something.

Any other Finns can reblog and add stuff if you've got better recommendations than I have, btw!

Music-wise I suppose it depends on what kind of music you like - if you're into metal music, there's a lot of Finnish metal bands and I think some of them even sing in Finnish, but it's not a genre I personally listen to a lot. What I myself listen to is frankly a mess that doesn't make any sense, but here's a couple relatively well-known Finnish songs that I personally occasionally listen to (the method of choosing was random "whatever comes to mind first"):

Autiotalo by Dingo

Rakkaus on lumivalkoinen by Yö

As for stories - I have to admit I read shamefully little Finnish literature. One thing that comes to mind, however, is Maria Turtschaninoff's Red Abbey Chronicles fantasy series! I heard of them from a friend and read them some years back, and personally I really liked them. I don't know that they'll tell you particularly much about Finland as a country, but I like them as books. And Moomins, of course - I haven't read the books since I was a child, and I've never seen the entirety of the 90s anime adaptation because we didn't have a tv when I was a kid, but they're lovely stories, and if they don't tell you about Finland as a country as such, they're still a big part of Finnish culture.

I suppose I could also point you towards some classics of Finnish literature (Seven Brothers by Aleksis Kivi, The Unknown Soldier by Väinö Linna, that sort of thing) but I also don't read a lot of classics, and I try to keep to a rule of never recommend books I haven't read and/or don't like personally, so I can't actually recommend them as such, all I can state is that they are classics of Finnish literature that exist and are set in Finland (of the two I mentioned, Seven Brothers is set in the 19th century in rural Finland, it's fairly comedic in tone, and generally held to be the first novel actually written in Finnish, while The Unknown Soldier follows a machine gun company throughout the Continuation War; so in terms of that, expect a number of violent deaths and all of that) and I'm relatively certain there are English translations of them (though whether those are easily available anywhere, that I cannot say)

Speaking of classics, there's Kalevala. You should be able to find one or two different English translations of it in Project Gutenberg. Now, with Kalevala there's a whole can of worms regarding cultural appropriation of Karelian culture and stories that I do not understand thoroughly enough to explain it properly, but I don't think there's any argument that it shaped the Finnish culture and national identity when that was still in the process of being created in the 19th century.

As for artwork, I don't have a lot of specific ones in mind, but you could take a look at the Finnish National Gallery's website and see what stuff there speaks to you!

You can also search for specific artist's works on the website, so here's for example pictures of the works of Akseli Gallen-Kallela, Hugo Simberg, Albert Edelfelt, and Eero Järnefelt, to name a few of our famous painters (note: i haven't refined those searches beyond selecting for a given artist, which means the search result includes a lot of sketches and stuff, but if you like, you can further refine the search to only show you paintings, for example).

Personally, I quite like the bunch of Hugo Simberg's paintings that portray Death (as in death as a character, pretty much the black-robed skeleton type). The most famous of those, I think, is this one, the Garden of Death:

[ask-the-unlucky-few]

Intro Post!

This blog is an ask blog for 'The Unlucky Few', a DND party that takes place specifically in the Icespire Peak Campaign. This is this friend group's first attempt at hosting an ask blog, so bear with us! We'll also be reblogging any stuff associated with these guys. (art, writing, memes, yada yada)

Rules:

No NSFW asks, 3/4 of us are minors, so if you did.... that's weird man. not ok.

Be patient with us, we're doing this for fun.

Don't be rude about our art/characters, it's unneeded. Preferably don't insult in character if you actually want to be answered, lol.

Do be silly! this is a silly concept in general so.

Trigger Warnings will be updated when we find the time, but be warned that most of these guys have pretty dark backstories.

Anyway, with that boring stuff out of the way, time to introduce the characters! (If this goes not-terribly, we'll add more!)

Pangari Caldwell

(She/Her, 29, Human Warlock, Asks are Answered by mod M)

Best (affectionately) described as your local disaster goth girlfriend, Pan is probably the most likely to answer questions. (The truth of the answers... well... they'll depend on how deep your questions are.) Charismatic (but also very petty), she takes on the role of face of the party. She... uh, doesn't like Kev very much. Her and Elpis get along well, though.

Kevvoril Sebastian

(He/Him, 29, Half-Elf Monk, asks are answered by Mod A)

Dry and dull compared to Pan's charisma, Kev plays the literal (British) straight man to the rest of the party's shenanigans. If you manage to get him to respond (he's not exactly... talkative), he'll at least respond honestly, but maybe with a bit too much detail or general brooding. Probably both. As stated above, Kev and Pan do not get along. The characters he's closest to are Sasha and Henry (neither of which are askable.... atm.)

Elpis

(She/Her, 26, Tiefling Bard, Asks answered by Mod P)

Despite her devious grin, Elpis is probably the least intense out of the bunch. She's introverted, so getting her to answer an ask might be a little bit difficult. She'll be answering pretty honestly. Probably. She's definitely pretty silly, though. Her life has been rough but she's less outwardly depressed about it. Fair warning, though, she's loosely based off of hit character Patroclus from hit piece of literature The Illiad. She's just waiting for her Achilles to be able to be asked things.

Zephyrine Cirrus

(She/Her, 19, Air Genasi Rogue, Asks answered by Mod M + Mod E)

Zeph is a fairly relatable character for us tumblr users. A fairly moody teen, who would much rather be reading than actually socializing with people. She'll answer your asks, but will seem generally bored of them unless they're about a favorite novel, or something similar. She's not exactly the most fleshed out of these guys, but she's chilling.

Nemorae Alloway

(He/Him, 17, Air Genasi Ranger, Asks answered by Mod E, and I promise the second version isn't his design. usually. you can request it though)

Nemo, the poor little sad guy he is, will probably not answer incredibly clearly. He's that kind of pathetic teenager that you see frequenting the 'not very cool kids' table. He's not horrible to be around in the slightest, he just makes you consistently sad. His problems are of a different variety to Pan's, Kev's and Elpis', but they still make you feel bad.

More will come! Eventually. Eventually....

Here's a quick intro to the mods: - Mod M (she/they) (the one writing all of this! woo!!): I'm Pan's player, and I'm the main manager of this. (I helped draw the icon!) - Mod E (She/any): Drew Pan and Kev, and will be acting as assistant manager basically. She's the player behind Nemo, and is probably the most passionate of all of us about this blog. - Mod A (He/him): Kev's player, but only sometimes will be answering these. He'll answer pretty exclusively for Kev. He doesn't draw, so it'll prob be Mod M or Mod E drawing responses. - Mod P (They/Them): Elpis' player, and the one behind her art. They'll probably be drawing Elpis (and their other characters) if you send any of em any asks. They're the only one without tumblr.

[coulsonlives]

Mkay, I saw this a few minutes ago and I'm so angry about it, imma make a post. Because this is not okay.

I don't care what your identity is! You are not an artist just because you make ai generated things, and you're hurting real marginalized, queer, disabled artists in the process! You are actively profiting off their time, their energy, and their resources, but they get none of the reward. You are charging well above min wage to go on your computer and type in a prompt, switch up the wording a few times, to make something using other peoples' work where the entirety of the artist work was done by a computer and or a person (and hours of their manual labour) that wasn't you.

And check out the first pic. This person claims to be in a 'collective' who is 'looking to advance the field of ai generated art as ethically as possible'. But their whole blog is full of art which makes NO indication that..

1) the artists whose content was scraped get any kind of royalties whatsoever

2) the artists whose content was scraped get any kind of credit

Because they don't know what artists they were scraping!! Because this is not ethical at all!

If this person is trying to evolve ai to be more ethical, where are the signs of that beyond a throwaway line or two? They give no info on how they're doing that. And if they want to be ethical, why are they still posting ai things with zero credit?! If these images were ethical, someone would be excited to share the details with everyone, maybe say they only use royalty free content to generate the images, some kind of library or something! But they say nothing about where they source content anywhere on their blog, which is very very suspicious

Not only this, but none of their posts even have 'ai' or 'ai generated' tags, or any mention of 'ai' in the descriptions, so if people reblog the posts and someone sees those reblogged posts, they totally miss the fact these are ai generated things!

On further investigation, I found the 'code of ethics' for their 'ethical ai group':

You can immediately see why they were unable (or unwilling) to explain how exactly they're 'ethical' on their blog. This code of conduct says nothing about preemptively avoiding art where they can't contact the source artist, aka they'll use whatever art they want, and the onus is all on the source artist to point out their art was being used, even in the tiniest amount, in these ai generated pieces!! How many artists are actually gonna a) find the ai generated stuff and b) see their art in it, and contact them? What happens if the ai piece has been circulating, sold, etc, and is unable to be removed from the net? What happens then? The artist has no recourse because they had no say in whether it was put out there in the first place. Even if someone was using a 'generative' ai, that ai needed to be trained using art. And all those artists still didn't get royalties, credit, or recognition of any kind

And while this code tries to emphasise how 'corporations' can't use their ai generated content for profit, they totally encourage people to sell the 'art' they generate for personal profit. The bottom line is still money and profit, and none of it goes to the source artists, whether their art was scraped, or used as base resources to train a generative ai

Also notice how there's no apparent obligation to use royalty-free images

It's all a smokescreen meant to make people feel better about the art they are stealing

It's a beg forgiveness rather than ask for permission mentality, and that's incredibly scummy

There's a bunch more that's wrong with this, but imma leave it at that because I need to go outside and get some air

TLDR: fuck ai art. There is no such thing as ethical ai art unless you literally paid and attributed all the artists involved AND got their permission to use aspects of their work (either going personally to each artist, and or using only free-use, open source content). Blogs like this are a huge fucking sham, especially when they use their identity/disabilities as a way to somehow validate/excuse their use of ai and theft, and I'm calling them out

[chaoskirin]

The Newest AI Bullshit

So now techbros are flooding short story publications with AI-generated writing. It's not just one or two magazines, either. It's all of them.

I'm just going to fucking scream. This is what happens when you pull art out of curriculums. You have a population who both thinks art is "too hard" and also believes it's "super easy" for the people who do it. We have a bunch of assholes who think artists who've worked hard to learn principles of design, color, and composition are gatekeepers if they tell people to stop using AI generation for profit.

I just don't know what to say anymore. I've gotten so many hate anons and braindead comments on my AI posts that I can't even fathom the true depth of hate techbros have for people who create art--whether that's visual art or writing.

And I know... Deep down the people who regularly use AI don't WANT to create art. They want to AVOID creating art. They know AI generation has nothing to do with their own creativity. What they want is something for free, even if it's mediocre or lackluster, and they definitely don't want to learn how to make those things on their own. They want it handed to them.

Worse, they don't even care who they hurt to do it. There's no appealing to their better nature. Artists on the internet are only vague concepts to them. The other day, someone RT'd my "how AI-image generation works" post and discredited my argument by saying I'm a "30-something game grumps fan..." As if I didn't work my ass off my whole life to become an expert in my field.

These idiots also don't realize that I have literally studied computer science my whole life, I'm getting a master's degree in it, AND my job description is literally tech support and software maintenance for a whole department.

But techbros don't actually know how technology works. They think it's a cool toy that they get to play with and make money off of and that's where the buck stops for them. I can no longer even count the people who've looked at my anti-AI posts and told me "NO THAT'S NOT HOW IT WORKS" with a billion different excuses that come in waves.

First, it was "It's just like a collage, and those are legal!"

Then, "Stop gatekeeping!"

Then, it was "It's just a computer being inspired like a human!"

Then "It's not anything like a collage!"

Then "Datasets don't actually store images!"

And the same argument comes from multiple people at the same time, as if they'll try to convince themselves of anything except that it's fucking theft and they're bad people for abusing the technology.

I'm not tagging this because it's just a personal rant. Feel free to reblog, though.

[navelgazed]

Charging $10 for commissions not only undervalues yourself and your own time, but that of the entire artistic community. Please consider raising your prices. Your time is worth more than $10!

Hey there anon, my prices are $10+ and anyone can pay what they like--I also have more expensive options and have charged up to $200 for commissions before. The sketches take maybe an hour or so, they're not that difficult and I'd much prefer a bunch of sketch comms over a more difficult comm that takes me more time even if I get paid $80 for it, especially if that's all my clients can afford.

Additionally...I'm not really getting commissions. The last time I had one was months and months ago, and if I had higher prices I likely wouldn't get what little business I *do* get, which is mostly from my personal friends who can't afford really expensive stuff. Trust me, I'd love to be able to live off my art and charge high rates and get lots of business, but my patreon failed, my attempts at selling prints, stickers, and other merchandise failed, and atm I can barely pull in one or two comms a year if I'm lucky. The sketchy options are a really simple way for someone with a bit of pocket money can get a little something, and maybe they'll like it enough to spend more money on a more finished piece when they have a little extra cash.

Tl;Dr I've been attempting to monetize my art for about a decade and it has never really worked out, but having cheaper options does help me pay the bills even if I'd like to be making more money. If you'd like to help me out, take a look in my #LC arts tag and reblog some of my work! It's not very popular!

[sleepsentry]

every time I scroll through ur blog I'm like "man I should send an ask to tell this person how amazingly pleasing their art is to me" but I can never find the words so I always just rb a bunch of stuff instead. the way your poses flow and are so round and dynamic?? and your coloring??? it all fills me with so much serotonin and I have your notifs on so I can see when u post :)) sorry this got rambly I just wanted to say I really like ur art

Thank you!!! Don't worry about not finding the words, I have that when answering asks, worried they'll be too repetitive.

Thank you very much for leaving a message! ^^ And for reblogging. :]

[killerzebras]

Hello, new people!

I got a bunch of new followers after DD and Neil reblogged that thing about getting to spend my childhood wandering around instead of shut in the house. Exciting!

I don't often make my own posts or even comment on things, I usually just reblog a lot of random shit. But what I do try to do, for no other reason than I like it, is keep a few themed days in my queue: purple Tuesday, art Wednesday, and cute Thursday. So, the posts will (usually) be there, the tags are there. I also use "this is my tag for funny things" for posts that make me laugh (no guarantee they'll make you laugh, of course).

Anyway, hi, welcome, hope everyone is having a good weekend!