#been needing to practice pixel art

[eveh-koko]

Danmaca pixel art

[rugretti]

[soloavengers]

organized my worktop and this perfectly shows how i bounce between hobbies and rarely bounce back.

[sleepymyththing]

Ahhh- new hyper fixations am I right?

-click for better quality-

[pepprs]

STILL wide awake! i did not put down my phone! and now im hungry. so i will not be sleeping tonight ♥️

[clovermusic]

I need to

[hoshigray]

Pleasurable Practice

Here's what I got: when you're left in headquarters to study for an upcoming language skit, your boss and work crush, Miguel O'Hara, does what he can to help his subordinate. And he does, in more ways than one...

A/n: It's been a week since I saw the film in theaters, and my brain hasn't been the same. I tried very hard not to write for this man, but here we are. Sighhhh, I swear I wasn't this bad when playing EoT (curse you Oscar Issac, and the ATSV art department!!!). And it doesn't help that my social feeds are full of him...Anyway, I hope you enjoy this piece! It's WAY longer than I wanted, but I guess that's meant to show how much fun I had writing, hehehe~. Also, ty so so much for 600+ followers!!

Cw: Miguel x fem!reader - some ATSV spoilers so tread carefully - sexual context so minors DNI - fingering (fem! receiving) - cunnilingus - clitoral play (Miguel's fangs lightly brush your clit, but doesn't bite it) - praise - kisses on the stomach - pet names (amorcito/little love, mi alma/my soul; amor/my love; vida/my life) - sexual acts in public - outside intrusions, but you two don't get caught.

Wc: 2.8k

"Hey, Lyla. You sure you wanna leave me here?"

"Aww, you scared something would happen without me?" She chuckles when you shrug. "You'll be fine; everything's been taken care of for today. If something pops outta nowhere, you know where to find Miguel or give me a call. Alright, I'm outta here. Cya tomorrow~."

"Bye, Lyla~" With that, the pixelated woman signs off from your line of sight, and you slump into your chair with a sigh.

It's late at night in Nueva York. The Spider Society headquarters is still active, but fewer people occupy the halls and sectors in these late hours, you being one of them. You're sitting at a conference table by the teleportation room, taking in Margo's shift. But since things are quiet around here, you use this time to work on your homework.

Well, you would've if a pair of hands didn't suddenly come from behind and blocked your vision. "Guess who?"

You shake your head with a smile. "Aren't you supposed to be at Earth-50101 hanging with Gwen and Pav?"

The hands are removed, giving your shoulders a quick rub. "Can't say a quick bye before I'm off?" Hobie Brown walks from behind to sit on the table, avoiding the scattered papers on the surface. "What's all this? School?"

"Yeah," You pick up a paper with color-coordinated dialogues. " I got a reflection to finish and need to read this script for a skit in my modern language class on Wednesday."

"What language?"

"Spanish." You flip the script for him to look at. A giggle slips from you. "Suppose you can't help me, huh?"

Hobie grins. "Yo lo haría si pudiera." Your eyes go big. Of course, the guy who "doesn't believe in consistency" would know a thing or two about other languages.

".....Please stay and help me."

"Can't, perhaps next time." Another heavy sigh as the tall other gets up from the table and opens a portal to Pavitr's universe. "We'll save some snacks to bring back tomorrow. See ya then."

"Bye, Hobie." You groan with your head meeting the table surface as the portal vanishes with Hobie's dismissal. In despair, you lift your head up and proceed with your work.

It's about 11 p.m., and you were able to finish your paper in about two hours. It's now time to work on your Spanish script. Unfortunately, your class partner can't be here (obviously) to say his lines with you, but you two promised to highlight your lines and recite on your own downtime. So you follow through with the blue lines — your lines — avoiding the red lines and announcing all the words to the best you can.

After the third time around, you start to get to the rhythm of it. So in tune with what you're doing, you don't mind your surroundings as you circle around the table with your face glued to your script.

"What're you doing?"

However, it all comes to a halt when a voice startles you. So used to the silence and your own tone that you didn't notice a familiar man creep from behind you. Your eyes widen at the tall and well-built figure before you.

Miguel O'Hara, Spider-Man 2099 and the leader of the Spider Society — your boss who you have a major crush on and is still waiting for you to reply after nearly scaring you to death.

"O-Oh, Miguel, umm," you quickly straighten yourself up, but the heat in your face encroaches. "Sorry, didn't see ya there. I was just looking at this script."

"A script?" He slightly tilts his head, surveying your moves as you sit back at the table. He follows and peers behind your shoulder to see what you're working on. "For what?"

"It's for a skit in my Spanish class. I'm reciting my lines for Wednesday." He nods at your answer, glancing around to see you're alone. "Lyla signed off for a while, but she told me to tell you that if you 'need anyone to put a leash on you,' Jessica would answer the call."

The man narrowed his eyes and sucked his teeth, "of course she said that..." was all he murmured under his breath from his pixelated peer's words. With a heavy sigh, he turns back to the paper in your hand and extends out his. His silent request is answered when you pass him the sheet to skim. A brow is lifted. "Is the skit like some kind of married couple or—"

You confirm. "Yes. Our unit is on relationships, and my partner and I wanted to do a skit where the husband — my partner — comes home and surprises his wife with their favorite flower and then gives a nice speech on how much he loves her." Miguel still reads the script, but you continue on. "Luckily, our instructor said it's not our final where it's required to talk entirely in Spanish. So, we can say some English phrases or words if our brains go blank."

Miguel finally stops examining the script and eyes at you. "I can help."

Huh? "Excuse me?"

"You're the blue lines, right?" Correct. "Then I can be the red lines and help you practice."

Wait, no! "Oh no, there's no need for that, Miguel! I'm sure you're busy looking at the screens on your station and—"

"No pasa nada, Y/n," You gulp when he grabs a chair and sits close to you. "I'll say your partner's parts, and you reply with yours." There's no use in arguing with him out of this, so you just follow suit.

For the past thirty minutes, you and Miguel have been practicing. Sometimes he'll call you out on words you forget or mispronounce, which hurts your little heart being scolded like a child. But then there are times when he praises you for saying something correctly without second-guessing, or he'll ask for a pen to scratch off something and write a better phrase for you to say. And you can tell that your memorization's been improving thanks to his help. Maybe there was no need to be nervous.

The time is now 11:46, and you feel way more confident about this skit than before. Miguel can also tell by how much you've performed that you'll do fine on Wednesday. Guess that should do it. He puts the script down and gets up, heading back to his original post.

"Hey, wanna do the actual skit with me?"

Huh? "What?"

"Well, I was thinking," You squeak. "Maybe we can try acting out the skit without the paper now that I'm kinda getting the hang of it? But, I mean, that's only if you're okay with it, ya know..."

His brows trench down. Miguel knows he shouldn't do it; there are many universes in his post that he needs to keep an eye on in case anything pops off. He can't afford to just act out a scenario for some class. However, when he glances back at you, he faces mixed feelings. Your eyes look at his, nibbling on your bottom lip, and your fingers fidget with each other as you wait for his answer.

Miguel knows he shouldn't...but it won't hurt to comply this one time.

"Fine," your heart skips when he turns back to face you fully. "But don't mention it to Lyla or Jess. I'll never hear the end of it from those two."

"Of course!" You reassure him as you ready yourself, mentally calming the happiness brewing inside down. "You go."

He nods and plays the scene. He acts like he opens a door and holds an imaginary object. "Estoy en casa, cariño."

"Oh, bienvenido a casa, bebé!" You rush to Miguel and give him a hug. You feel him go rigid, and you freeze. Wait, he's still my boss and not my actual partner! Oh, God, I bet he regrets doing this now...Ughhh!! Commit now, cry later!

You quickly improvise and pull him by his spider suit to come close, placing pretend kisses on his cheeks. "Llegas pronto a casa, mi guapo muñeco. Is something wrong?"

Miguel stares at you for a few seconds before he blinks and coughs. "Ahem, Querida, vine temprano porque es tu cumpleaños. Y quería darte esto." The hand with the invisible object comes up, and you take it.

"Dios mío, ¿mi flor favorita en mi día especial?" You give the man a warm smile and place a hand on his cheek, stroking his skin lovingly. Miguel hitches his breath. "Eres demasiado buena conmigo, muñeco. Pero no tenías que regalarme nada."

It takes Miguel a moment, but he coughs once more and returns to the task. "Puede que la flor no fuera necesaria, pero tenía que conseguirla para ti, mi amor." He puts a hand on yours that's still on his cheek, now it's your turn to slow your breathing. "Cada vez que veo esta flor, sólo puedo pensar en ti. No sólo hoy, sino todos los días. Veo todo lo que haces por mí y nunca lo doy por sentado. You are my everything, Y/n. Tú eres mi mundo. Mi luz. Mi corazón. Mi… Mi…"

He stops, noticing your expression and shallow breaths. Your eyes never leave his, mouth agape, and your attention entirely on his words— no, on him. Even in this little act, you dare not move or say something out of turn. Listening to the man before you intently, your hand still in his.

He knows he shouldn't, but Miguel leans into you, and a small gasp leaves you before his lips press onto your soft ones. "....Mi alma."

Your brain short-circuits, the feel of his lips overtaking you. You awkwardly kiss him back, resulting in a moan from Miguel. He grabs your waist while pushing himself forward, making you walk backwards until you hit the table. The bump has you two break the kiss, forcing you back to reality.

Miguel says nothing, and so do you, your eyes honing in on his deep red orbs. Your thoughts go too fast that your head pounds. What? What was that? Did he mean to do that??

"Túmbate."

He captures your attention. "What?"

"Lie down, mi amor." He commands in a stern voice. Hesitance restrains you, yet you still follow orders and sit on the table with your back to the surface. A small smile creeps up on Miguel, and he leans down to plant more kisses on your sweet lips. "Good. Now, say your part."

Slow smooches from your chin to your neck leave you breathless. Although the heat in your face is unbearable, you play along and stick to the script. "My wonderful husband...Y...You are so thought—"

"Se supone que está en español, Y/n." He corrects you. Lifting your shirt to reveal your abdomen. Miguel kisses your exposed tummy while his hand snakes past your bottoms, pressing a finger down on the wet spot of your clothed vulva. Your toes curl as your first moan leaves puffy lips. "Try again."

You intake a deep breath. "Ere...Eres muy considerado con—Mmmm....conmigo." Your bottoms and undergarments are now off, your bare cunt out for Miguel to see. The older man props your legs upward with both hands as he brings his face close to your pussy. He lightly blows on it, and you bite your lip from the cold air. "Keep going, mi vida."

"Cuando....no haya luz en mi—Oooh!!" Miguel flicks your clitoris with his tongue before nestling it between your soaked folds, sucking and laving your essence. "Nnnmp! Mi-Miguel, I can't do thisss...Your tongue, it feels so, so—Oh Christ..."

His ruby eyes peek at your face. "But you were doing just fine, Y/n." The way he says your name feels so sinful, so forbidden. But so pleasing to the ears. "Repeat it."

His tongue goes back to torment your slit. The risque noises the wet muscle makes with your slick-covered chasm ring your eardrums. Ecstatic whimpers fill the space around you, and you grab tufts of Miguel's brown hair when his tongue flicks your clit again. He's impatient, so you concede.

"Cuando no haya luz en mi vida....Haaaahhh, sé que estarás ahí para protegerme." Miguel pushes your tender bud against his teeth. His canine brushing on your pearl, causing you to jerk. "Eres mi sombra...Mi—Ahhhh!....escudo....Mi rey."

He chortles, "Good job, mi alma."

Satisfied with your cooperation, the man sucks on your precious sex as his forefinger nestles between your folds, your slick providing lubricant to naturally push his digit through your entrance. You jolt with a sharp cry, tears falling from your beautiful face.

His tongue and fingers go faster, and your release climbs higher with every lick. The stimulation of your poor cunt and clitoris is hardcore that you come in a few seconds, the walls of your chasm fluttering around Miguel's fingers coated with your personal fluids.

Your heavy pants slow down to steady your body that subsides from the aftershocks of your orgasm. Miguel withdraws his mouth and fingers from you, standing upright to take in your figure.

He scoffs with a tiny grin, licking his lips. "Amorcito."

You open your mouth to say something, but a flash of colors and shapes captures the attention of both of you. Your eyes go wide. Oh no, someone's coming!

With haste, you immediately grab for your bottoms and underwear before taking cover under the conference table, using it to quickly put your clothes back on before someone enters through the portal. That someone was Jessica Drew, making her arrival known by revving her motorbike.

"Jess," Miguel puts on his usually serious face. But on the inside, he's almost as nervous as you. Because he swiftly pulls a chair out to cover his erection lower regions.

"Hey, Miguel! I thought I'd find you here." The woman addresses him when she's done a lap around the table. Her portal vanishes from the scene. "I've been trying to call you through your watch. You not wearing it?"

He looks down at his wrist where it was supposed to be. "...I was using the restroom, so I left it on my station."

"Mmm, I figured." Jessica then notices the paper and backpack on the table. "This is Y/n's stuff, right? Where are they?"

"R-Right here, Jess!" To her surprise, you come out from the table with your bottoms fully secured. "Sorry, I was looking for my pen before packing up." You smile to ease the awkward tension and your racing heart.

"Oh, okay then." Jessica nods to your words and turns to Miguel. "Anyway, I was calling you up because I need backup. The guy I was dealing with somehow switched places with another villain. Took care of the other one, but my guy's elsewhere."

He hums. "Lyla."

"That's me." The yellow-pixelated woman with pink heart-shaped glasses appears once more.

"Where are the coordinates of the anomaly Jess was handling?"

"I'm sorry, you want me to do what?"

"...."

"What's the magic word?" The tiny woman teases him while you and Jessica hold in your laughs.

Miguel's brows furrow with a slight pout. "....Canyoupleasesend—"

"Woah, woah, woah," Lyla gets closer to his face with each word, raising his irritation as she does so. "Little too fast there."

"Can you please give us the co—"

"Already gave it to Jess."

"Then what was the point—"

"You know how much I love to pester ya," her smile doesn't help squander his frustration, not when he also hears the exchanged giggles between you and Jessica. "And call that payback for not having your watch on you."

To avoid their eyes seeing Miguel's situation, he leaves and fetches his watch quickly after being repeatedly teased by the two women. He returns ready with his mask on and the device on his wrist. Lyla and Jess are waiting for him, same with you and all your stuff packed up. It's 12 in the morning now, you have to get home. "Ready?"

"Yup, see ya there." The woman on her bike starts it up. Lyla disappears when the dimension is opened. "Bye, Y/n!"

"Bye, Jess!" You wave goodbye to the woman, who does one final lap before entering the portal to her new destination. And now you're back to being alone with Miguel, who you find looking at you. You gulp and say your thoughts. "Don't worry, I didn't tell them! And, sorry that it happened. I was being a little too close to you in the first—"

"Hey." Miguel lifts a hand to stop you from rambling on further, and you listen. "Your skit. When is it again?"

It takes you aback that he asks, but you still reply. "Wednesday?"

"Hm. Alright then." And with that, he walks to the portal to his next mission. But before he exits, he peers from his shoulder and proclaims something.

"Tell me how you did on Wednesday, then we'll continue with this talk."

[blumineck]

question for you!! ive been doing some research on bows to draw and write about the character pictured below, the huntress from shattered pixel dungeon. i was wondering if you knew what type of bow would be closest to the one pictured in this art? i can't find any that curve so sharply that don't also have more than one string, and at this point i wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't one at all. thank you!!! i love your videos by the way they make excellent drawing practice :]

Ok, sorry @themichaelvan, I'm gonna piggyback a rant onto your ask.

One of the curses of being highly invested in a topic is that you start to get uncanny valley much more easily when you see it represented.

A lot of drawn or animated bows suffer from one of 3 problems:

1: the bow is shown at rest in a shape that just doesn't have enough length in the string/limbs to reach full draw (as in the above case)

2: the bow is shown at full draw in a way that could never return to a resting position (usually because the string is way too long, resulting from drawing the limbs too close to their resting position- see below)

Think about how long that string would be if it was straightened. There's no way the limbs of that bow are that long.

3 (usually in fantasy/gaming): the bow is designed in such a way that the limbs simply would not bend the way they need to (usually due to being unfeasibly bulky, or made of a material- e.g. A human spine- that just doesn't have the right kind of physical properties to make a bow from.

So, discounting 3., because people who draw those usually know they're ignoring physics and don't care (in which case: that's awesome, carry on!), how do you avoid this?

Let's look at the different stages of drawing a bow:

- at rest

This is a horsebow. It's 55" end to end. The string is completely taut at rest, and the limbs have a destinctive curve, which gives them enough length to reach a 30" draw. Bows with less curve (e.g. Longbows, and the one in the ask) would need to be a lot longer (68"+), to reach the same draw length.

- starting to draw

The limbs start to straighten slightly, but it's mostly in the limb tips, which frees up some string length.

-half draw

The ends of the limbs have uncurled significantly, but the curves closest to the riser (grip) are still mostly the same

-full draw (ignore my face)

The second half of the draw changes the shape more dramatically, as the central curves bend more sharply.

Notice that at each point, the tips of the bow reach mord than half of the length of the draw? If the string needs to cover more distance than the limbs, something's gone wrong!

...

...

...anyway, to answer your question, the bow in the picture is probably a recurve or horsebow, but it's a bit too small, and the string isn't far enough along.

[entiqua]

I love your artstyle!! Do you have any tips for drawing?

thank you so much! i'm really happy you like it!!💗 as for tips, what i would say would change drastically depending on what kind you're looking for, but some very general ones:

draw what you love and want to see most, regardless of whether anyone else wants to see it. if you don't enjoy what you're drawing it'll never come out as good or genuine as something your whole heart and soul is in. i mean you'd think this would be a no-brainer but sometimes i've had to sit back and ask myself 'if no one was ever going to see this except me, would i actually spend time drawing this?' and i was surprised by the answer

that said, it is also completely valid if your motivation for drawing is to draw for other people! there have been plenty of times where i was too artblocked to draw my own ideas but was still able to draw commissions or gifts and enjoyed it simply because making other people happy with my art makes me happy.

don't get too caught up in having a consistent art style. in my experience this 1000% hinders you

having your sense of anatomy degrade over time without you noticing because you keep drawing the same types of characters is a very real thing! if this is a concern to you be sure to draw a variety

follow a billion artists that you like the art of and you will have endless inspiration injected directly into your brain every time you open social media

my favourite practical tip for those who draw at a desk: keep a small mirror next to you at all times. absolute game changer for quickly referencing hands

if you're drawing digitally, make the canvas huge! in my experience this lets you draw messier/faster and you can't tell at all when you zoom out. if you tend to get stuck spending unnecessary amounts of time micromanaging pixels (me💀) keep it zoomed out while drawing

related to the above point, messy drawings can have far more expressiveness in them than neat and polished drawings. nowadays i never do lineart and go straight from 'barebones stickman pose' to 'varying-levels-of-coherent sketch' and use that as my lineart. sweet freedom from the sketch-looks-better-than-the-lineart phenomenon

if your goal is to improve, then you really do have to scrutinize your art, figure out what you're not satisfied with, and commit the time to focusing on it. 'practice makes perfect' kinda rubs me the wrong way because of how much i've seen it interpreted as 'just draw everyday and you'll magically improve' but genuinely it won't get you very far if you don't actively think hard about what you're trying to improve and take the steps to do it. is this a hot take idk. also hand in hand with this, not every artist is trying to improve and you shouldn't feel bad for this! maybe you just wanna make a little headshot doodle of your fave blorbo and that's your only drawing goal ever. awesome. maybe you know your art has flaws but it's passable enough to convey what you want and you're perfectly satisfied with that. (this is the stage i'm usually at). also awesome!

don't hesitate to draw something because you think it's out of your skill level. the worst that can happen if you draw it is that it comes out terribly but you learned something and can always redraw it better in the future. the worst that WILL happen if you don't draw it is that you'll never draw it. and then it will sit in the back of your brain haunting you for years. it's not like i'm speaking from experience or anything aha

look up 'hand stretches for artists' and do them if you draw a lot unless you wish to summon the wrath of the carpal tunnel demons

of course, these may not necessarily work for you, and most importantly(!) these are coming from the perspective of someone who is primarily a hobbyist. some of this won't be practical for people who need to build an audience, maintain a consistent style for work, etc. these are just things that have personally helped me over many years of drawing :)

[delta-gambit-au]

I've been holding this idea in the back of the head ever since my tablet stopped working this past week. I didn't commit to it until today and it took me many hours to understand how to do the animation properly and drawing Spam with pixels with the mouse and nervous clicks, and then doing the case... I was hyperfixated on this all day and it's almost 5 AM now sdkjhadfkhfgd

It's a charm of good luck, to attract love and kromer 😁 Use it wherever you want and might it bring you riches and affection 💌

I'll head to sleep... feeling so wasted but I guess this practice was worth it. Who knows, maybe I can make one for Swatch some day, but first I need to recover from this work hyperfixation 😴

(I saw a new attack on my Art Fight -- I'll get back at you when I get some rest)

[delliebre]

do you have any tutorials, methods or such that you followed/studies when learning the oil? like look of your Dutch paintings. I’ve only recently started painting digitally and I’m so enraptured by your style and how you managed to do it digitally.

thanks in advance! And I love love love your art so much

I recommend BoroCG for digital painting tutorials. You are talking about a painted look of the works? I am glad they look sort of like it I have been trying to achieve that style for a bit. I think beside the core fundamentals of painting like value, color, and saturation, for achieving stylistic render like those works there then needs to be changes in surface execution. I will detail a bit below.

surface executions like edges. When the elements of value and colors are understood well, to stylize their read, the subject, I think edges are the next step. Edges and shapes. I want to keep this short to not be annoying.

I can make a short tutorial as an image if that is helpful or wanted. But I cannot at the moment. If that would be better please let me know.

In real life, not everything is so sharp. Digital art is often really sharp. So sharp, that black and white on a canvas can meet at the pixel with no transition. This isn't how the real world looks, it is not how traditional paintings look either because simply we do not see in pixels. There is a gradient, however small, in vision, on objects, because we cannot view every side of an object from the same angle. If we want to create naturalistic paintings, we have to let go of so much sharpness and embrace transitional edges and values.

I recommend tinkering with the flow settings for your brushes instead of opacity. I also recommend, if your program has it, playing with mixer brushes. In looking at digital paintings I admire, I see the Photoshop mixer brush is used a lot. The Photoshop mixer brush is different from a lot of other programs' mixer brushes because it does not just sample color but the canvas itself.

Other programs have probably implemented this as well but I cannot name any.

Some methods to practice are paint-sketching with only the mixer brush, this makes it difficult to implement cutting edges and creating sketches with only the hard round brush, no undo, on one layer, and without eraser.

Also! I keep layers minimal. Though, I do have a lot of layers, it is usually the duplicate of the entire painting. So I do not separate objects to different layers like some artists do. This way just works better for me and allows me to keep the subject's edges grounded with the background. So it doesn't look like a sticker.

Tried to keep it short.. Thank you so much! I hope this helped a little. Have fun painting!!

[chronicbeans]

Sibling Time! (A Wally Darling x GN Reader Short Story)

You are trying to babysit your little sibling, but it seems like an odd puppet keeps showing up in their favorite show, Sesame Street.

TW: Obsessive Behavior, TV Hijacking

Your parents are out, once again, so you are now forced to take care of your five year old step-sister, Mary. It's always been a bit difficult to connect with her, considering that you are an adult and she's a toddler, but you both have one thing in common: you both like puppets.

As such, you don't mind watching her favorite show, Sesame Street, with her. Even though you are more interested in the puppetry than the characters, like she is, it is still enough to keep you engaged. Even better, it gives you some time to go on your phone, and look up your most recent interest.

You found a weird website about some lost media. It's a show called Welcome Home, which people are trying to recover. They've gotten a lot of stuff recovered, too! Old advertisements, interviews, art... though, there have been strange happenings around the website. Odd links, hidden pages, even secret messages. It's intriguing.

"Lala lala lala lala Elmo's World!" "Look, (N/N)! Elmo!" Mary points at the screen, grinning widely. She bounces up and down with joy in her seat on the couch. You chuckle, nodding and shuffling in your seat next to her "Yes, it is! I wonder what he's got in store for today?" You look back to your phone, looking at the Welcome Home website. The picture of Wally Darling on the homepage seems a bit off. It is almost like his smile isn't as wide as before. You pay no mind, however, thinking that it might just be a glitch or update.

Suddenly, Mary taps your shoulder. You look down at her, raising an eyebrow at her frowning face. "Is something wrong?" She nods, pointing to the screen "A ghost is haunting Elmo's home!" "What?" "A ghost with big hair! Look!"

You look at the screen, shocked to see that it's... glitching? There is an array of brightly colored pixels covering the corners of the screen. The show seems to be playing, mostly, as normal with Elmo chatting away. You can tell what Mary thinks is a ghost, though, as you see it move.

It looks like a show, or more specifically, a character is bleeding through the broadcast. You can't see the colors, but you can see the outline as is distorts the picture on screen as it moves. Everything within its silhouette is pixelated. Usually, you would chalk it up to a broadcasting error, like the show accidentally playing two episodes at once. You've never seen this character in the show, though...

Is this a television hijacking?

You don't know, it you don't want Mary to wait and find out. Most TV hijackings are a bit unnerving, weird, or overall just not appropriate for young children to see. You pick up Mary, carrying her to her room and saying "I'll figure it out. For now, how about you go draw a picture for Elmo?" She nods, smiling nervously. "Okay! I'll draw the ghostie, too! Maybe the ghosties just needs a friend?" "Sure! You can draw the ghostie. Be sure to leave the ghostie a nice message, too!" You drop her off in her room, hand her some snacks, juice, paper and crayons. Then, you go back to the living room to investigate.

Your eyes widen at how distorted the screen has become. It's practically just static, now, with the faintest silhouette of a character. As you step a bit closer to the screen, you feel your phone vibrate in your pocket. You quickly take a peek at the website, seeing that the homepage has now definitely changed. Wally Darling is now completely gone. There isn't even a black silhouette or cut out of him. It's like he was never sitting on the rock in that picture. Same with the cast all sitting at the bottom. Wally just... disappeared. Even the little pixelated Wally is gone!

You look back to the TV as you hear music. Your brain begins to put two and two together. As insane as it sounds, the only explanation you can think of is that the disappearance of Wally on the website has to do with the TV's glitching. Why?

Wally Darling has now appeared, clear as day, on your television screen.

You quickly call your friend, holding the cellphone to your ear as he picks up. "Ed, I have no time for hello. Turn on your TV to Sesame Street!" "What? Why?" "I need to check something. Turn it on!" "Okay...?"

You stare at the screen as the yellow puppet waves at you. You hear the sounds of Sesame Street from the other end of the line. "(Y/N)... It's just Sesame Street. Why did you want me to do this?" You grow quiet, realizing that it must just be your TV that is being affected. "I'm sorry... I just uh... I just wanted to see if an error I'm having is just me. Thanks for helping, though! Goodbye!" You quickly hang up.

"Hello, neighbor! Where's Mary?" Wally looks around, standing in a void of silent static. His voice is a bit muffled, almost like he is talking through water. When he speaks, you can also hear the faintest sound of the Sesame Street episode continuing in the background. In the static, you can see a few, vaguely silhouetted hills and houses fading into sight. You can just barely make them out, however.

You cross your arms, immediately growing defensive and concerned at the mention of Mary's name. Yes, it could possibly be a different Mary... but as far as you know, this broadcast is only being shown to you. You can only assume that, whoever is showing you this, is talking about your sister. You take a step back, getting ready to go get your sister and leave the house. The person showing you this most likely can't see you at the moment, so you still have time to leave and call the police from a safer place-

"Neighbor, where are you going? Don't leave me! I'm spending so much energy trying to make this work!" He lurches forward, placing his hands against the screen. You even hear a sound similar to someone hitting glass as his hands hit the screen, like some sort of window. You flinch away, shocked. "I need this! I know I can trust you to bring me- us back!"

You tense up. This is strange. Now that you know he can see you, tell that you didn't say anything... you don't know what to do. You swallow thickly, saying "You... who are you?" His grin seems to, somehow, grow wider. "Don't you know who I am, neighbor? I'm Wally Darling!"

He leans against the screen, his pupils widening as he stares at you. "You really should know who I am... You look at me all the time! You read about me all the time, too!" In the background, the familiar buildings of the neighborhood fade in. Home, Barnaby's house, Frank's house... they're all there.

Wally spins happily, before saying "I want you to be the first viewer of our reboot, neighbor! I trust you to have a good eye for content... You take care of Mary so well, so you must be good at knowing what is right for children, these days." "Why me? Why not someone else?" "It MUST be you! It can't be anyone else! I have been carefully looking through each person to see who would be perfect for this!" "Okay... But I'm not getting Mary to watch it." "That's alright, neighbor."

He steps back, clearing his throat. Then, he puts on a winning smile as he says the opening line "Hello, neighbor! Welcome Home!"

[slick-devon]

Musing out loud

This post may not be what you think. I just noticed a single negative comment in my feed for the first time in months. I can probably count on my hands the few times my 2,000+ posts have been criticized. Outside of our gay AI-generative bubble, there is a lot of noise around this still relatively new form of expression...the debate whether it's art or not or is the AI learning process actually learning or stealing from legit artists. The hetero creators seem to get more flack over their impossibly volumed busty creations. In my other life, I push pixels professionally with little use for generative AI (though machine learning tools in Adobe have been a lifesaver). My work hasn't been threatened yet. I chose to learn and embrace this technology so that when the time does come in my day job, I can adapt, rather than be left behind.

But here in our world of gay generative creations, we're having a lot of fun discovering what we can do. This is a new revolution that in many ways to can be compared to the tools Adobe and MetaCreations gave us years and decades ago with morph, warp, and liquify tools visualize our desires to share with others.

And there is room for this new form of expression without shoving out the works leading up to this point. HS Muscleboy's sketches are legendary and can still excite me! Silverjow will never be out-AI'ed (is that a thing) from their artwork that practically bulges off the screen without the need for 3d specs. And many, many others that I hope continue to create.

Back into the generative AI segment...I do hope that general consumers do understand that there are different levels of effort in this from casual or carefully worded prompts into MidJourney or Bing, to the works of those that train their own models and Loras, pushing and directing their creations via dozens of tweaks via ComfyUI, Automatic1111, and other emerging tools.

Myself? I fall somewhere in between. I'm not so good at training models which takes some patience and dozens if not hundreds of source images and coaxing. I do what I can and try to come in from the analog side of things and sketch the final touches of what the AI gives me.

Hey if you followed my musing this far...what do you think? I suppose I'm looking for some feedback. I wonder if this stuff is worth my time beyond just collecting likes. (I love the likes though and I like all of you back!)

[pokituu]

I’m so impressed with how many styles you have and that you use them regularly (realistic, semi realistic, 2d, and 2d, 3d & pixel animation)! How did you learn to balance this many and get so good in all of them?

THANK YOUUUU this compliment means so much to me because so often i feel so worried I will stagnate since I basically like to draw the same subject matter over and over again 😳 but I do like to periodically try new things that I'll become invested in for chunks of time.

i guess advice more than just 'practice' is to be willing to try out new things that you have an interest in, even if it doesn't work out at first and is frustrating. you gotta be persistent to learn something new BUT if you get bored then just move on! if it sucks hit da bricks.... I really like this bjork quote abt creativity

idk throughout my life in art i just try to learn about stuff i'm interested in and practice what i wanna practice. like i wanted to get good at pixeling when i was like 14 so i kept practicing and trying new ways to go about it until i started to figure it out. same with digital painting when i was 15 and i just kept trying again and again until it clicked, even though i was frustrated a lot, i never actually lost the interest when i saw people's pretty paintings and that feeling of 'man i wish i could do that!'.... so i literally couldn't stop myself from trying over and over at painting. it goes beyond just drawing too. planet earth is fun because ANYTHING u are interested in you can try........ i make fursuit heads and other crafts to see if i can! this year i started making my own songs and also learned leather-working because i saw a cool craft and wanted to try :3

part of it is letting yourself age too because as you get older you will grow interested in new things. i am 27!! i've been drawing since i could hold a pencil. that's a long time to encounter a lot of stuff to get obsessed about and wanna try out for myself. SUCCESS TIP!: i typically pursue things that are adjacent to other skills i already have invested in, like drawing to 3d sculpture to digital modeling, or start blending them like sculpture + coding skills = 3d animation rigging. The reason is because a lot of these skills are transferable and make it easier to pick up. like a skill tree in a video game... and you'll end up in weird places like sculpture to sewing to leathercraft. It's nice to have creative hobbies you can be sorta be mediocre at without attaching your self worth to it, but other people still often find it impressive anyways because it's stuff they've never tried to do. It's really healing and easier to like what you create And yourself by extension when you're just having fun and learning without having to worry about the end product being "good". Anything you try is not a waste because you are learning new skills and more often than not, something you've learned is transferable to some other area of your life!!!!!!!!! nothing is ever a waste of time.

this is also the secret cure to art block btw well actually there are two secret cures. a) is you have to embrace the art block and go get obsessed with some other creative thing for a bit. either that or b) go absorb other people's creativity to a bit and watch some shows and read books or talk to people. c) is a mix of both. eventually you'll return to art again feeling fresh and motivated if you're willing to give it a few months. I think art block really just means you're bored and need a change of scenery one way or another 🤔 that's just my onion though

TL;DR have fun pursuing things just because you like them. as you keep doing it you'll just get better at it through practice whether you really intend to or not.

[cjgladback]

So this blocking thing! It's good for more than just nuisances. I haven't knit a lot of garments yet with fiber that responds to blocking, and what I have has been like...socks where it seems unnecessary because the whole thing will be in tension while worn. But also I just don't have large pinnable surfaces, as one typically needs when the point is to soak a piece of fabric and then stretch it out to pose in the shape you want it to be until next soaking. What do I have? The ability to stack waterproof objects on a small patch of flat counter space. And thank goodness because that definitely saved this hat.

Anyway! I am happy to have used my extremely inconsistent first skeins of support-spindled yarn (see the post with them all laid out here) for a project I'll probably actually use once it's chilly again. It is comfortable, even if I'm a bit disappointed in the colorwork legibility. This is how the chart looks:

But I didn't quite manage matching gauge yarns, I'm low on practice/experience keeping tension for stranded colorwork, and probably just aiming for too loose a fabric anyway (should've found a path to increasing stitches and using smaller needles on that section) so it's very blobby.

I do have some of that green and "matching" oyster skein left, as well as a little of the finest oyster yarn I used for the ribbing. So if I use them together again, I'll probably hold the two oyster threads as one. Speaking of, I had way too much of the underplied lace yarn and wasn't happy with my first run at an even more open lace panel, so ended up frogging that back and making these sections with the lace yarn held double. Worth it! Much happier with this result. And I can see why underplied yarn has been said to do lace well; was cool how open it already was before blocking.

Image descriptions below:

[ID: Four photos of a slouchy, off-white beanie with some green colorwork being knit, blocked, and worn. The hat is constructed with a solid top of thicker yarn, strip of lace, a strip of green colorwork (meant to be jumping frogs), a matching strip of lace, and finally a long section of ribbing, broken into four strips by inverting the knits and purls.

In the first photo, with a blurred background, the beanie is still in process with a green string holding the live stitches while it's tried on, partway through the first section of ribbed brim; it fits like a misshapen mushroom, the top lace panel collapsing over the relatively tight colorwork, all under the lumpy increases of the densely knit crown.

The second photo also has a blurred background but shows the hat being blocked, gently stretched over a tower of stacked containers, widest at the top around the curved base of an upside down plastic coffee canister from crown to colorwork, the gradual taper of a hair bleach tub easing the lower lace panel into the ribbing before the very end hangs free around a peanut butter jar pedestal.

The third and fourth photos show the finished hat from the side and front, being worn by a pale-skinned brunette woman with a braid and orange t-shirt in front of painted wood paneling on an overcast day. The hat is slouched but not bulbous, blocking having stretched the colorwork horizontally and the lace vertically; a twice-rolled brim covers the lower lace panel but leaves the still not very legible frog colorwork visible. End ID]

[ID: Chart of green on white colorwork made in the Google Sheets spreadsheet software; a section in the middle is selected, though there are repeated motifs on either side. Every cell with an X in it is colored green and makes slightly horizontally stretched pixel art of a frog hopping from the right to the left; the rightmost frog is crouched under a flower or star made of four dots, to its left is a frog pushing off the ground and to its left a frog leaping horizontally through the air. The repeat is 39 stitches wide, 10 rows tall. End ID]

[kassymalone]

A Little Rant about Fun

Remember fun?

Remember when you could do things just because they were fun?

It keeps coming to mind recently, and it's starting to drive me nuts.

I've always done things with my hands - I used to do art before uni destroyed my love and confidence, I write things, I cross stitch, I make models, and I do these things because I enjoy them. Unfortunately I've come to hate talking to people about my hobbies because the almost always have the same response - 'what do you do with that?'

Do I sell on Etsy? No I fucking don't, this pattern took me 15 hours to finish, do you know how much I would have to charge for it?

Do I do freelance writing? No I fucking don't, why would I want a second soul-crushing job on top of my first soul-crushing job?

Why don't I actually get published instead of wasting my time with fanfiction so I can actually make some money off it? WHY DON'T YOU DO IT IF ITS SO FUCKING EASY

I've been thinking of making a quilt recently, with patches of all my favourite things, but I don't want to talk to anyone about it because I can already hear them asking 'and what are you going to do with it? Is this your practice one before you sell them? No, don't do it that way, that's the wrong way, no-one will like it!'

(Don't get me started on the 'you're doing it wrong' crowd, gatekeepers are a different rant.)

JUST LET ME DO THINGS. NOT EVERYTHING NEEDS TO MAKE MONEY. I know we're in a cost of living crisis right now, but I've been hearing this shit since I was a teenager, twenty fucking years ago! I still remember being talked out of singing lessons when I had a little extra money because 'what would I do with it?' Well fuck, my fat ass was never going to be the next Adele, but maybe I could have just had fun doing something I enjoy, but better?!

ON A RELATED NOTE!

You know what disproportionately annoys me? When people call the Nintendo Switch a 'toy' as if it's a bad thing. Like... yes? It's a toy? I play games on it?

'But the frame rate!', 'But the graphics!', 'But it can't run XX game!' WHO FUCKING CARES.

Yes, the xbox and playstation can connect to netflix and play blue rays and cook you dinner and raise your children, but they also cost a months rent and have all these bells and whistles to distract you from the fact that they JUST FUCKING TOYS. There's nothing either of them can do that I can't do on my PC, better and cheaper, and not have to turn on five different peripherals to make it work.

'But 4K!', 'But you can see the character follicles in this new game!', 'But the horses testicles react to the weather!'

Are you not having fun? Are you not enjoying playing your game? Never once have I been in the middle of a game and thought 'I'd be enjoying this more if it had more pixels.' I'm not even against other consoles, use whatever you prefer - if you like modern real-to life graphics then more power to you, but the amount of people who act like it actually matters somehow is concerning...

Yes, the switch hardware is behind what the xbox and playstation can do... but its a toy. Nintendo has never forgotten that it makes toys, and that's why I like it. It sits on my table, connects to my other monitor. I listen to long form youtube videos while I play TOTK. If I'm feeling sassy, I play it handheld.

My niece has one. We play Pokémon together and I let her win battles because the point is to be fun.

WHICH BRINGS ME BACK TO MY POINT!

FUCK the grindset 'but how can I monetise every possible second?' bullshit, FUCK the 'taking this thing that should be fun way too seriously' bullshit.

LET PEOPLE DO THINGS JUST BECUASE THEY'RE FUN.

LET THINGS THAT ARE SUPPOSED TO BE FUN BE FUN.

And now I've used the word 'fun' so much it's lost all meaning.

Much like fun itself.