#bc i have the tendency to paint bigger than i want to

[viktorbf]

gonna try to paint hannibal and will as samson and delilah (basically repainting peter paul rubens work but with hannibal and will in it) cause why not and i was being all professional and made a whole grid and pencil sketch and put fixative on it and then when i put an oil wash on it it almost completely disappeared. nice. anyways this what i got so far

[gone-series-orchid]

if you could make one change to each of the gone books, what would you change?

ooh, hi! that's a good question. if i could change something from each of the books:

GONE: okay, so god, i was looking at the summary and i was bowled over by the sheer amount of stuff in the book--and this first book is arguably the most compact and coherent, plot-wise, imo. my original thought was basically "leave the supernatural stuff to subtext and focus on the battle over who's going to lead the fayz," which is...basically what the first book already does, oops.

there's some gaiaphage-related stuff in there, like drake getting his whip arm, but other than that (and the mystery of little pete's creation of the fayz), the supernatural conflict is really kept restrained. now i remember why i think the first book is so good! the gaiaphage is a danger, but not the main antagonist, which is drake and caine.

so, i guess, if i had to make a change to the first book, it'd probably be to elongate the pre-coates conflict in town. i think caine and the coates gang should be left for later in the plot than they actually appear, mainly because when they arrive things get a lot more one-dimensionally antagonistic. i'd argue that, in light of his character arc later, orc should be a bigger antagonist in his own right without being mostly relegated to a toady of caine's after the latter's introduction. i know, i know, i'm very biased in this regard, but still, i think it would be a good idea! develop orc as an antagonist before developing him as an anti-villain-whatever-he-is.

that, or, or, i'd like astrid's power not to be retconned and for her manipulation of sam to be more evident, bc no matter how much mg tries to paint astrid's actions in the first book as, i just don't see it. that's sad, bc i do like that idea! i like the idea of astrid being a little morally ambiguous and to have a little more intrigue surrounding her. it'd also retroactively make her relationship with sam more understandable if she's at least somewhat playing into sam's crush on her in order to gain protection for her and little pete.

that, or i'd include a scene where astrid and orc interact one-on-one after sam and co. see his mutation for the first time. it'd be a nice way to fill an arguable plot-hole/character inconsistency re: orc not taking any action to save astrid despite knowing how much of a sadist freak drake is--i mean, orc got beat up by him! even pre-character development i don't think he'd just leave her to be hurt.

but if orc and astrid had a scene where orc acknowledges the bruise astrid gets on her cheek thanks to drake's slap, and astrid plays up her delicate suffering (which, to be fair, she did suffer) in order to make him feel guilty and maybe convince him to join the good guys, i think that can seed a lot of stuff in the future. it could remind the audience of 1) orc hating drake, 2) astrid hating/being afraid of drake, 3) seed her dynamic with orc, 4) her manipulative tendencies in general (if her thing with sam is emphasized), 5) seed orc's character development, and 6) reinforce astrid's trauma regarding the "slap" incident, something that she refers back to as an intensely traumatic experience in later books.

HUNGER: i honestly would probably have drake be more of a hindrance at the beginning of the story. i mean, diana's been caring for a disabled caine and we're told that coates has been horrible under drake's rule, but we get no evidence of that. i'd love for thet to be more of an actual conflict instead of just kinda hand-waved away once caine wakes up.

LIES: i'd love for the human crew to be more of a big bad? sure, they're probably at their worst here and in PLAGUE, but i wanted more. i think it'd be kinda fun if astrid had to deal with zil screwing stuff up just as sam had to deal with caine, on top of everything else. also i genuinely like zil and the human crew as "lame" villains and i want them to have more screen time. maybe there'd be tension within the ranks bc lance decides he'd be a better leader than zil? or someone else? idk. i just want more from the human crew.

PLAGUE: i honestly don't really know bc i really love this one. i'm sure it's got some minor flaws that i'd want to correct, but i can't think of them right now. maybe extend the coates scene™? not just the horrible parts, but i like the idea of astrid, little pete, and orc going on the lam in a sort of group self-exile. i wish they could have been explored more as a group dynamic as they hide at coates. like a twisted play on the nuclear family: a boy, a girl, a baby. lp is not a baby but you know lol

FEAR: i'd love it if kids start losing their powers here instead of LIGHT. or i'd explore orc's redemption through christianity more. newly christian orc and newly atheist astrid should have talked to each other more. orc probably should have apologized more coherently about him almost committing sexual violence on her in the last book

LIGHT: i'd have little pete and astrid have more of a goodbye together. their dynamic is so underused in the series, and in the later books, they have so much potential

sorry this ask got progressively choppier as it went on, the GONE section really took a lot out of me for some reason. probably because it's stupidly long ����‍💨

thank you so much for the ask!! please feel free to send more!!!

[blackwoolncrown]

But isn’t it lonely? To disconnect in that sense (or I’m probably misunderstanding your words) but don’t we as humans want to be part of a group? Then again, you’re right. I’m not even out as bi yet I cling to it so strongly that it can feel crippling sometimes, because it’s the only identity of mine that I gave acceptance to on my own terms compared to my really conservative culture and religion in which I was raised and forced to practice by other people. Idk what my end goal is anymore tbh

“Last anon and honestly I most likely just didn’t fully understand your post but now I’m sitting here just questioning my existence lol it’s tiring to live for others constantly. I wish I can disconnect from everyone but that will never be an option for me and I’m trying to find the positive in that instead of feeling so depressed this late at night“

Okay just on a skim you’re totally missing my point. I never said this was about apathy.

We’re all already part of a group. That’s the point. The group is humanity. The group is ‘all beings on earth’. 

Every other ‘group’ is illusory or at the least inherently fractured. You wanna join a group based on the media you like? Fine but then you’ll also find issues of race, or religion, or politics because the group wasn’t based on being like-minded in those aspects. Wanna join a group based on  your sexuality or shared experience? Ha. Which shared experience? Because not all people in one part of the Venn Diagram are going to line up exactly where you do, and it is in those gaps and mismatches arguments occur.

The human tendency to form groups starts with tribalism, but from there on out struggles to maintain group identity. If I wanted to ally with all Black people based on Blackness, I run into bible thumpers, transphobes, classist white ppl wannabes. Because we are all multifaceted beings, every attempt to connect to humans via one specific facet will inevitably lead to disharmony. It might work with isolated or limited population sizes but in the world we are now living in, we see how antiquated the notion is. That’s what’s tiring.

We cannot expect to find any real meaning in these subjective, surface parts of our humanity when our being is quite bigger and deeper than any of them. We were born human, made of the universe. Everything we learned after that was subjective cultural data. Everything you learned about race, religion, sexuality. It can be validating and emboldening to find acceptance, and I’m not holding that against anyone, but it’s like a training wheel, and eventually you realize that clinging to the acceptance the group once gave you at some point hinders your growth.

Furthermore the thing is, back when this instinct to group had more to do with tribes and territory, that was a tangible and easily identifiable thing. But now we’re grouping (and fighting) over ideas. There’s no actual way to enforce these things! I could have told you once my people’s land was from here to the river in the East. We, sharing the reality of that, can at least both see exactly what I’m talking about- even if we disagree and you want to share or even fight over that territory.

But even race and nationality has shown itself to be more idea than reality. And this is driving people nuts, inciting Fascism and Nationalism because the ideas are fragile and breaking and people whose identities and notions of self are based on them are terrified of losing what they feel to be their identity. But race and nationality are nebulous concepts humans made up. So too for sexuality. In a world without persecution, what is there to be persecuted? Basically every identity we’re dealing with now originates in a  false and imposed binary of ‘right and wrong’. My blacknesss is created by whiteness. Both are myth. There are just differently melanated types of human beings. My gender only exists in a social lexicon that assumes ‘heterosexuality’ is meaningfully real, and the norm. But that’s a myth. My sexuality is absolutely average and unimportant for a human being as an organism, but within culture it is seen as a ‘thing’ secondary and abnormal– but that, too, is a myth. Myth as in an idea, a story, a concept of human making.And in order for me to find pride and validity in any of these identities, I must simultaneously validate, re-experience and identify with my suffering and the opinions of my oppressors. The ‘black struggle’ and LGBT oppression become my story. Now, the thing is I can’t opt out of the reality that I am indeed seen a certain way and treated a certain way. Unlike some people, it doesn’t actually matter whether I divulge my identity to the world, I can be persecuted on sight. But what do I do when that happens? I can accept that I’m being persecuted because I’m black or LGBT….or I can see that people are suffering in their identities and projecting that on me.

White people suffer in their identity, cis people suffer in their identity, religious people suffer in their identities, this happens because each identity is ultimately so much smaller than what a person is in sum that it restricts, and unless it’s cast off (i.e. unless that person no longer holds that identity as fundamental to their being) cognitive dissonance sets in and they seek to reinforce the identity by projecting outward violence upon those who are ‘other’ so that they can validate their selfhood.

So cis people attack trans people bc the trans identity showing that gender and identity are not what they were told makes them uncomfortable. White people attack nonwhite people because our existence and successes threaten the myth of white supremacy. So on and so forth with oppressors and the people they oppress.

My point is not that discourse and social progress is pointless, but that these issues are not fundamental and operating within them still operates within a cultural norm that is self-validating. In the end people who do not know who- or what- they TRULY are are pretty dangerous because they will fight to assert their identity to avoid what they feel is loss of self.

The grand joke is that there is no self.

Let me ask you this, anon.

If you were born in completely different conditions, you would still be you- you understand that there is still a ‘you’ in this picture I am about to paint. So think of this– without your name, because your name could have been different, without your race, because race is a myth, without your orientation/identity, bc those are based on heteronormativity (another subjective myth), without your nationality, religious affiliation, job description….

Who are you?

Find that out, and operate from there, because whatever you are? Everyone else is, also. This is not about apathy at all. It is about much greater compassion.

[sarinataylor]

Joger ask: how would they cope with Roger having a crisis about the fact that John has written hit singles including their biggest ever hit and he has yet to pop his a-aide cherry? Is he rubbish? Is he really just a pretty face? He knows he brings lots of musical input & the sonic volcano & ‘the girl for everything��� for the band but really, who is he kidding? And John can’t deny that he aced his degree or does the finances or wrote hits... Thankfully Radio Gaga comes along and all ends well...

hmmmm ok. this got? long. very ramble-y. apologies

so like. roger is so fucking proud of john y’know???? and it’s not john’s songs being more successful than his which is cutting deep (because, well, commercial success is somewhat ehh to roger now that they’ve already made it big. the music he’s writing and creating, off on the side, is more about the music than anything else), it’s that he didn’t see it coming

100% did not see aobtd being a hit. hated recording it with his drums taped up, and thought the whole thing was a waste of time which.... it obviously wasn’t because john’s latest royalty cheque was big enough to have even freddie blinking in surprise

and. well. roger’s kind of always been the one with his finger on the pulse, so to speak. roger was riding the early waves of punk before the sex pistols had so much as looked at a safety pin and thought, “hmm, i wonder”. and his ability to keep up with, stay just one step ahead, of the trends has been invaluable in the past and now.... he might be slipping behind?

because even though he fucking hated half of the lines in ymbf he... he knew it was going to be a hit in the US. that sort of soft poppy feel, with a funky little bassline? the american’s eat that shit up in spades. of course it was going to be popular.

but, yeah, he didn’t see aobtd being a hit and now he’s starting to wonder if maybe the reason he isn’t writing hits isn’t because he hasn’t been trying to appeal to the broader audience, hasn’t been trying to write songs that will get massive air time or be played in clubs, but because he’s got no fucking clue about what people want anymore

‘girl for everything.......... except knowing what people want’ doesn’t, uh, sound as good

and it’s not? it’s not a Big Deal, not really. he just gets a little quieter about voicing his opinions on tracks because, well, maybe he doesn’t actually know what the fuck he’s talking about?

and so, hot space

brian’s losing his gd mind arguing with everyone and everything because he feels backed into a corner, freddie isn’t playing the peacekeeping role he usually does, john is being Just a Little Bit of an egotistic shit, and roger is........... not getting involved. which works kind of awfully because both brian and john take his silence as tacit approval of their position, which boils over into a lot of misunderstandings about just what it is roger thinks about what’s going on in the studio

(and mostly what roger thinks about what’s going on in the studio is that this album is going to be a Fucking Disaster because instead of ripping apart one anothers songs and building them back up stronger all they’re doing is ripping into one another and calling it creative differences)

and he tosses up a couple of songs and lets them do what they will with them (and oh my god if you haven’t listened to action this day performed live???? do urself a favour and do it oh my god i fucking hated that song until i listened to it live) because well. they probably know better than he does at the moment, because he doesn’t quite trust himself. and tensions are high enough that inserting himself into the cockfight when he isn’t actually Sure about his opinions just seems an unnecessary risk.

and. uh. hot space...................................................... does as it does

and john is pretty mortified about the whole thing because.... ???? all of that work and fighting and it’s flopping which is. made all the more worse by brian’s oh too casual sympathetic comments during the press junket, and then even worse by the way that roger. doesn’t seem surprised?? because. well. even when it was a love song written about roger roger was honest about what he didn’t like about it, but now there’s a whole fucking album that john pushed really hard for and roger a) didn’t like it and b) didn’t tell him

he thought they respected one another more than that. he thought they were more secure than that. 

which sort of........ simmers uncomfortably between them as they gear up for the tour and sort of. explodes when roger starts making suggestions for changes to some of the songs for the live performances that. annoyingly sound much better and why didn’t you bring this up when we were recording the fucking album, roger (look aight atd sounds SO MUCH BETTER LIVE, IT’S BEEN MONTHS AND IM STILL SHOOK)

and roger’s sort pussyfooting around it because oh well... you know you and freddie really wanted to this one as a sort of concept album..... and brian and i didn’t want to interfere...... (brian: very much did want to interfere) ............ so ya know................ it’s not really my style so i didn’t wanna stick my foot where it doesn’t belong.........

and john’s like???? its music what the fuck are you Talking About? you know music you know what sounds good and what doesnt and it’s not like you’ve ever been shy about voicing your opinions before, so forgive me if im a bit confused about the sudden reticence 

regardless, it’s Not a Big Deal. no really. roger will insist this til the day he dies

and things calm down? they take a break and, as they are wont to do, the tensions of the band slowly start slipping from john and roger’s day to day lives? like, when they’re not living in close quarters and feeding off of the energies that brian and freddie and mack and everyone else is putting out. it’s just them, yeah? 

but anyway, roger’s still been writing music and ha enough for a new solo album so he’s like. yeah. think imma do that and john’s a bit taken aback because? fuck, you’ve been busy then you said you didn’t have much of anything for hot space??? and roger’s like. uh, yup. been busy. busy bee, me. ya know. while ur out painting the shed i gotta keep myself occupied somehow

except. well. john’s obviously lending a hand with bass and mixing, and brian’s in and out too, so’s freddie and. it’s freddie, actually, who picks up that roger had been working on the beat of  I Cry for You (Love, Hope and Confusion) back in the studio when they’d been working on hot space which.   doesn’t make sense, because he definitely hadn’t shown them it to them which is odd, because roger usually shows them everything he writes in case they want it for queen? 

and then brian chimes in because, actually, he recognises the lyrics for killing time? 

and john is like what the FUCK is going on because this is just? weird? 

so john ends up lowkey cornering him at home in a totally not cool sneaky fashion (read: he gives him a fucking mindblowing orgasm and then is like [head propped on roger’s chest] SO)  because???? ofc he supports rog’s solo career but also? why didn’t he share what he was writing with him? what’s going on? music’s always been a language they’ve shared, even if they tended towards different dialects, and now it... well it doesn’t feel very good that roger seems to be inching him out of something that john knows is so very important to him

and roger’s like huh no idea what you’re talking bout. been really busy writing recently. shame though, means i might not have much for the next queen album

and john’s like? do you want to leave queen, if that what this is about?

and roger’s horrified because what the fuck no i’m just not sure i’ll have much to contribute is all which has john like?? because. it’s roger of course he’s got something to contribute what the fuck are you talking about

but roger’s like oh well ya know nothing im really writing at the moment is much of our current style so. that’s cool, though. that’s fine

but john is confused bc well. hot space was a bit of a failure so they’re probably headed back to more consistent waters so that’s not a problem, and hey, maybe if roger had injected a bit more of his style into the album things might have been better right?

ANYWAY basically john’s like yo my man like. if u dont wanna write any material for the new album that’s? fine ig? but we kinda Need You to be a little bitch about the things u dont like because.... things work better when ur being a nitpicky little bitch than when ur being silently supportive of me :) though that was sweet

and rogers like oh i was 100% not being supportive of either u or brian’s bullshit tbh i just. disco isn’t my forte ya know i didn’t wanna chat shit ab smth i know nothing about like, god, imagine if you’d listened to me about aobtd????????? 

which. john’s like. i? i mean, i did. fuck sake, the whole thing got rewritten to be about our dog (steve) bc u made a joke about it? i.     i did listen to u about aobtd

and john has honestly NO IDEA what any of this is about? because roger has an awful tendency to sit on things until they’re Much Bigger than what they were to begin with. like, john’s actually not great at that? he’s not very good at hiding that he’s angry or upset, not for the long term. roger’s a lot better at it in the worst kind of way, because unless you pick up on it right at the beginning by the time you’ve figured out something’s wrong it’s months down the track and so many micro interactions or events have been tacked onto the Original Problem that it’s a sprawling mess of “i dont want to communicate that im feeling vulnerable about something so instead im gonna try and turn my vulnerabilities into armour” - like deciding to turn all of your writing, not just the stuff that won’t fit on your main project’s albums, into solo material because your solo stuff doesn’t have to be successful 

but also, ok fine. 

and so he sort of? lets it go? because tbh once roger latches onto something, when u havent go in there early enough? your best bet is to just wait for him to.... get over it. which he generally does. he doesnt have the patience for decade long grudge matches, not really.

and then it all comes to a head when brian writes and shows them all machines (or: back to humans) which obvs came about from an idea of roger’s and. well. freddie thinks its amazing, john is nodding along even as he sends him small little side eyes and well. fuck it, right?

and so the next week he comes in and slams down the first rough draft of radio gaga, the music heavily influenced by I Cry for You (Love, Hope and Confusion) which freddie had been complaining about being used up on a solo album 

and then he goes home and tops the hell out of john, the end.

[countlessimagines]

heya there! i was thinking of requesting for a match up request for Stranger Things (S4 WAS JUST TO AWESOME) and maybe from TopGun:Maverick if it’s possible! i am a straight and go by she/her pronouns. tysm!

🅐🅟🅟🅔🅐🅡🅐🅝🅒🅔

short :p

light-tan ish skin (it kinda glows in golden hour🌞)

black hair (shoulder length) and it’s very thick and goes straight to wavy (and very smooth and soft)

dark brown/black eyes

my lips are in this mauve-peach color

people say i look youthful, hence i even look younger than i am!

🅟🅔🅡🅢🅞🅝🅐🅛🅘🅣🅨

extroverted but a teeny tiny bit shy, but i mostly like my voice to heard in situations

confident and charismatic: i feel like i can take on any challenge even though i might not succeed. i’m most likely to take a stand when others don’t💐

charming 🌝

hilarious 😎

i like to say witty stupid comebacks when in an argument. for example when my friends are fighting i love to yell “AYEE what’s the tea the girls are fighting”

i do good in school, so i’m happy to help others who are struggling

fav subject: science and math

fav classes: ela and social studies bc they are CHAOTIC

i go with the flow but at the same time i’m stubborn

people tell me i’m too “preachy” but i’m just speaking my mind + saying what you can’t when i stand up for others

i won’t persist until a task is done

i’m great at detail and even better at seeing the bigger picture. i can see multiple perspectives which can lead to me being indescive.

in romance you have to keep stimulating me other wise i’d be bored and leave you in the dust (sadly). i like the feeling of wanting to know more

i like to chase and to be chased. it’s fun to be unpredictable and to switch things up 😋

my love language is quality time, physical touch and teasing someone lmao

i like being the life of the party, i always know the tea

i have a loud cackling laugh and hehehehe high pitch laugh 💀

i kinda get annoyed easily but i brush it off. same thing with anger i blow up but forget unless you truly did something so bad, i’ll hold a grudge for like a week maybe.

🅗🅞🅑🅑🅘🅔🅢

drawing, painting, coloring 🌈

reading (sometimes)

napping

socializing

watching stan twitter - i know a lot about pop-culture

playing my flute

trying to participate in various sports even though i suck lol

learning new stuff

annoying someone

🅢🅣🅨🅛🅔

i love the preppy, vsco, indie, Y2K and sometimes vintage style

i love going all out for parties. gotta dress to impress 💅🏼

i like listening to rap and pop music mostly. my favorite artists include: ariana grande, nicki minaj, doja cat, little mix, 5th harmony, 1D, harry styles, drake, mgk, eminem, pitbull, Britney Spears, taylor swift, selena gomez etc.

🅦🅗🅞 🅘 🅕🅐🅛🅛 🅕🅞🅡

JOCKS/SOFT-JOCK: omg there’s just something about them which makes me go DJFOSKGISKGGISKGJFI. traits include: popular, playboy, arrogant, risk-taking, humorous, aggressive but also a huge teddy bear

nerd/dork

idk but someone who is serious, assertive (traditional?) but also patient and warm in the inside

🅞🅣🅗🅔🅡

mbti: the last time i took the test i got ESTP-A but i do have ENTJ tendencies too.

my enneagram is 7w8 but i also relate to 3

capricorn sun: hardworking, determined, independent

libra moon: flirty, charming, social, adapt

leo rising: dramatic, generous, flamboyant,humorous, bossy, attention-loving

i’m currently listening to Flawless by Beyoncé and Nicki Minaj and CHEFS KISS

i was also listening to DOLLA SIGN SLIME and i totally vibe with megan’s verse

“they can’t stop me

say i can’t do it, bitch watch me

all you lame hoes turned hatin’ to a hobby

damn, watching me gotta turn you on

i should have my own category in p***

ooh, i’m just such an obsession

tea about me in IG suggestions

thick, no add-on prosthetics

everything about me came from genetics”

that’s it! thank you so much!

STEVE HARRINGTON

[tired--nb]

Fun facts about the trolls?

Oook its undercut bc its long af i got ten each

Little tw for self harm, guardian death, and abandonment

Lime

Loves to cook! (isnt great at it tho)

Loves to sew (once again isnt really good at it)

Has a small red crush on purple (i mean that girl is strong afff and hot)

Sheep mom is actually only a little bigger than a normal sheep

Lime is only 5ft (their also 6 sweeps old)

their always tired but its the tired where you have way more energy than you should

they were born female

Their jade binder was bought by bjade 

they (as ive said) disguise themself as a olive blood but they keep their sign as lime and when people ask about it they just say that if their sign was olive you wouldnt be able to see it

their voice is really beautiful and it has a feminine tone and can calm down just almost anyone

GJade

by god she is amazing at sewing

shes strong and toll (like 6′ 7) (shes also 8 sweeps old)

Shes writes fanfics about her friends and will never tell them

does way too much research on what shes writting

shes good at her normal jade blood job but she doesnt super enjoy it but she doesnt hate it

she and lime rasied gold after they found her gold’s lusus died

shes vry motherly and vry caring despite how she looks

50% limes impulse control

o v e r t h i n k s

puts a cold facade on so high bloods leave her the f u ck  alone bc she hates at least 50% of them

BJade

Anxious and depressed child

got top surgery about a sweep ago and he is so happy about it

p r o c r a s t i n a t i o n

hes legit 7′4 and the tallest of all of them also vry clumsy (hes also 7 sweeps old)

always tired his paranoia/anxiety and depression keep them up all night

hes good at painting and doesn’t mind that its practically processed blood

He tries to keep up with commissions but currently he is about 4 commissions behind the schedule lime made him and hes trying to hide the fact form lime

he used to cut before he met lime but now that he has the other 5 with him he doesnt anymore and tries to focus on the happy parts of life even if its hard

hes naturally pale for everyone bc he wants everyone to be happy but sometimes it doesnt work (cough cough gjade cough cough)

bun dad is huge and soft and when bjade is anxious he just climbs on top of him and takes a nap

Purple

She spends a lot of her time exercising to help distract herself from her murderous tendencies.

the other 50% of limes impulse controll

lime is 110% purples morals

Her lusus raised her but once she was 4 sweeps and able to fairly defend herself they left, she doesnt remember much of them

she seems very composed but oh man shes so anxious and hates crowds help

is more pale with lime than but bjade

sometimes has pale jams with bjade on bun dad and sometimes bjade, purple, and lime all nap on bun dad when they just need to relax

shes 7 ft and and 7 sweeps old

shes amazing at parkour and but normally does it where no one can see her so only a few people know this

oh man yall shes so strong she can lift lime bjade and glime at once

GLime

She’s really good at art but doesn’t like how paint is made so she uses chalk

She makes her own chalk and its from all natural sources! (not trolls!!)

Borderline pale/red with bjade but neither of them wanna talk about it

hella pale with gold

5′ 4 and 6 sweeps old

cant stand her lusus because their overbearing but deals with it none the less

Has glasses she doesnt wear and golds always worried shes gonna hurt herself

here and lime were born on the same day and they arent dead because gjade smuggled them out before they could get culled and then gjade found them lusii

Takes commissions but not many people want chalk art bc it can be erased or smudge easily

she saw the leia buns in *insert the troll equivalent of star wars* and now puts her hair in the all the time also she loves the show 

Gold

Her lusus was killed by a high blood that needed to feed their lusus and the only thing she remembers from the whole ordeal is looking the purple blood in the eyes, their eyes were stone cold, while she was sobbing

gjade and lime adopted her three days after the incident while they were looking for stuff to make chalk with for glime

She can hear some of the voices of the soon to be doomed and it often scares/worries her and tends to desolate a lot bc of this

pale with gjade and glime

used to have a red crush on purple now she has a red crush on glime

really bad abandonment issues

she was very close to her lusus and her lusus was very protective over her

She is very bad at controlling her psionics (and her colors are a dark green and dark purple)

 very very tired but cant sleep for long periods of time so she tends to take frequent naps and gjade to carry her a lot

shes 5′ 2 and only 4 sweeps old

Anyways!! I love my kids and i love talking about them oml sakjhfdhsfdlgj

[kidslovetoys]

What our children’s art can teach us

All children love to draw and paint, but why do they do it and what can their creations tell us about them? Dr Helen Jones explores the meaning behind the art and explains how to help your child’s creativity flourish:

Table of contents:

Art is personal

Realism vs expression

Modes of expression

The cross disciplinary nature of art: how it teaches us about other subjects

Final word

Art is personal

At the very earliest stages of evolution our forebears were making art. 

In 40,000 BC, creative symbolic artworks were being handcrafted from shell, stone, and primitive paint by homosapiens. But it begs the question: why?

Why has there been an enduring drive, spanning our entire existence, to leave marks, to make our trace in the world, to create?

It is one of the few things which distinguishes us from animals. We have this wonderful yet mysterious power to create distinctly personal and individual remnants of our existence and personality.

Art is a discipline that champions our individualism. It allows us to show and share our experiences of life, without hiding who we are.

‘As we have changed, our art has changed, and how we have defined our art has changed, but that fundamental instinct to play experiment, repurpose, test and reimagine has always been central. Just as play is a deliberate pushing of the boundaries, so art has refused to be solely defined by one idea or one set of people.’ (Michael Rosen.)

We’ve all heard ‘No one is you. That is your superpower.’ As an artist, and head of art, I’d argue that nowhere is this superpower more visible, than in our visual creations.

Art prizes the original. It prizes the unique.

It says if you don’t comply with a conventional norm, then good on you. I love telling children in my lessons, that in art there is no right answer or wrong answer.

Yet very often we can act, even subconsciously, as if there is. Forcing our children into a straightjacket of neat and realistic depictions of reality. 

Parents will ask me why one child can draw so much better than theirs, when perhaps they should be asking why we assume that child’s style of drawing is better.

There is a deeply-entrenched tendency to measure children's drawing by its ‘lifelike’ standards. But as John Matthews suggests in Drawing and Painting: children and visual representation: ‘The idea that the representation of objects is at the heart of drawing is completely wrong.’

Art is a cacophony of ideas, expression and imagination. What would the world be like if it were all logical, realistic drawing? Salvador Dali, Picasso, Pollock, Hirst, not to mention thousands of other artists, would never have dazzled us with their unique ways of seeing.

Perhaps we need to consider representation as ‘re-presentation’. Because as Matthews asserts: ‘what is ‘realistic’ to the child changes with age and context.’ Perhaps it is important to your child to draw you as a humongous, overly tall figure, because to them, you seem much bigger. Thus our adult definition of art doesn’t always align with our child’s way of seeing the world.

What’s more, there are many more forms of drawing than we often realise. Drawing through stitch, drawing in sand, drawing with a sparkler, drawing with wire and so on. Contemporary artists make drawings in all sorts of ways, in non traditional media, with unconventional tools. This allows them to express things they couldn’t have in any other way. 

Realism vs. expression

Simply forcing children to draw from life doesn’t aid artistic expression. We need our children to communicate what they are thinking, imagining and feeling in many languages, verbal, spatial, gestural, musical and visual. We want them to embark on a ‘representational adventure in which meanings are given sounds, actions and images.’ John Matthews

I tell my art students ‘a camera is for capturing a realistic copy of the world around you. Art is for capturing your interpretation of the world and for expressing your unique individuality’. Often this falls on deaf ears, so prevalent are beliefs about the hierarchy of representational depiction. But what is realistic? How do things look really? Unfortunately our fixed assumptions to these questions can, at best, hinder learning possibilities, or at worst, damage our children’s self-efficacy[LINK]. So often children have fallen prey to adults working from a deficit theory - looking for what’s ‘wrong’ or ‘missing’ from their artworks. This can really corrode a child’s confidence, but more than that, it’s not necessarily right.

We unconsciously place realism at the top of the ladder, and all the other steps below it are often relegated as scribbles or ‘nearly corrects’. As children climb this ladder, (often in standardised educational settings), they get less and less opportunity to draw freely. Spontaneous drawing which serves the intentions and interests of children is becoming increasingly hard to find in schools.  According to Matthews,  this is detrimental to children’s emotional and intellectual development, ‘The child's own spontaneous visual representation and expression has been devalued in favour of a fixed, acceptable, cultural standard’

So how can we avoid this?

Perhaps we should spend more time listening to what their drawings tell us. Just as we as adults use hand gestures, facial expressions, tone range and movements as we talk, children use these features in their artwork.  For instance, mark making can represent experiences of hide and seek, people leaving us and coming back into our lives, movement, such as going through tunnels, hiding underneath something, the feel and motion of swimming, and, importantly, it can reconcile traumatic encounters.  Art is a processing of these happenings, through thoughtful gesture and mark making, which is quite different than mere representation. Thus the ‘re-presenting’ might not look like what the child is responding to, but what is occurring is a significant translation of that event.

Modes of expression

Children capture different types of information, often following different intentions or modes of thinking in their work, some of which I have simplified for ease of understanding. 

Intellectual realism.

Sometimes children draw unrecognisable shapes and claim they are a certain person or object. While this may not be realism in the sense we know it, it could be ‘intellectual realism’ in that for the child it represents their internalised view of that object or person.  It shows what the child knows, rather than what the child sees.

Symbolism and representation.

The vast majority of learning is based on signs and symbols, such as language and maths for instance, and even social interaction. Drawing is an idealised way to grasp this nature of symbolism. Discovering that marks on paper can stand for things turns a cornerstone in one's mind - a huge developmental shift.

Emotional.

Art and feelings go hand in hand. Matthews says: ‘Children’s drawing actions are sensitive to fluctuations in mood, both their own and those of people around them. The child imbues drawing with emotion and representational possibilities.’ Perhaps this is why art therapy is so successful - emotions are made tangible as they are inflected on the surface of the paper and the surface of their minds.

Grouping.

Children might group together different types of marks such as dots or dashes or marks at the beginning or end of these lines - separating out their shape vocabulary and becoming adept at matching their actions to shapes. By grouping marks according to type, he is beginning a process of classification. This is the start of maths.

Art as play.

Art can be nothing short of imaginative play. Sometimes there is no intention, other than sheer joy and exploration. I often see children use three-dimensional objects and toys in a similar way to how they use drawing - reconstructing comparable scenes and dealing with related issues. This shows that mark making is tethered to all of our experiences, especially play which has creative overlaps.

The cross disciplinary nature of art: How it teaches us about other subjects

If we listen to our body closely enough we know what it needs. I also believe if we listen to our mind closely enough we know what it needs. And children are no exception, in that they subconsciously know what they need to learn. 

‘The child is constantly, actively, purposely, seeking out those particular experiences which will promote growth.’ John Matthews

Children are always in pursuit of learning, whether they realise it or not. For me, nowhere is this more visible than in their art. It makes their learning observable, and holds the power to teach a range of subjects and disciplines, and to make them fun.

Music and sound.

Listen to your child as they are drawing - what sounds do they make? I’ve seen children blend sounds and drawings together time and time again. My daughter's experiences with music - the tempo, beat, and patterns within the song - form a backdrop to the patterns and pulsating lines she produces.

Body awareness.

‘Proprioceptive’ information about the position of our joints and limbs, balance, posture and stance are heightened in art making. When making with our hands we learn how things move, how our body moves, and how shapes can be coordinated and controlled in a dynamic, swiftly changing format. Although I would argue that not only does art make us more aware of our physical selves, it helps us reveal our inner souls.

Mathematical.

The American professor of maths John De Pillis writes: ‘‘When learners have the opportunity to use their artistic skills and draw scenarios, they can more easily visualize and figure out math problems.’ Angles, geometric shapes, measuring, proportions, ratios of paint to water, scale and perspective are some of the mathematical gifts of art.

Linguistic learning.

Art is a visual language. A universal language, that anyone can speak. We all recognise certain shapes and symbols and know what they represent. Learning the language or art support language learning in all other areas. Being able to speak visually goes hand in hand with general communication.

Science.

Children can grasp some quite unfathomable scientific concepts in their art. For example, by attempting to represent invisible events like wind, music, suction, or showing clouds moving, rain coming down, spilling from a cup, or documenting movement trajectories. They learn how to organise space, time, patterns and sequences of movement which share characteristics with what they see in the outside world. They can translate experiences of crawling through tunnels, pouring liquid through tubes, looking through cardboard rolls, into their art. Children explore and rationalise all this through drawing.

Perspective.

In more sense than one. Children can gain mental perspective on the bigger picture in life, on personal issues and dealing with trauma, as well as exploring physical perspective. As you draw ideas occur, whether that’s how to deal with or respond to a certain situation, or logical constraints such as how things get bigger towards you, and smaller further away. This shouldn’t make sense in the minds of our little young ones, but through art it does.

Final word

Perhaps we need to ask ourselves what we believe is the major endpoint in drawing or painting. And not just to consider the destination but the journey. Realistic drawing is one way of approaching art in a multitude of possibilities.  So let’s stop looking for it as a ‘what’s missing’ from our children's art and encourage some freedom of expression for all.

When I consider my daughter's mark making, I can see that each image is saturated with communication, thinking and emotion. And that, for me, is far more valuable than a ‘picture perfect’ outcome.

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