#books as artistic medium sometimes

[themirrorofink]

Dennis Cooper has put together a collection of book related art that is impressive in variety and quantity. Talking about it takes away from the experience of it instead of adding to it. (There's one piece that could be considered body horror, but it's also a cake. So I'm not sure how to tag that.) Please go look is so neat.l

https://denniscooperblog.com/book/

[cyrsed]

you ever think about how mainstream gaming is the way it is bc it evolved from arcade games?

[franeridan]

man I just !!!!!!!! ADORE comics they're a whole pain in the ass to make and I curse my way through the process 90% of the time but there was really no other way for me to tell stories like there was really no other path nothing makes me as happy as a well crafted comic not even good animation there's no better format than comics for me

[artificial-ascension]

I hate people who trash on a medium of art because they don't understand or resonate with it. "Cartoons are all stupid and childish" "Webcommics are all slop" "Movies are so boring just watch a show" Shut uppp just say they aren't your preferred art medium or you lack skills/interest in dissecting them. I am not particularly interested in paintings and I'm utter ass at anything related to music. This is not to say paintings or music are stupid and vapid art forms it's me being more interested and well-versed and analyzing different forms of media.

[peapod20001]

When I love a song, I’ll love it forever

[fataldrum]

Dorian Gray is queer art, period.

Apparently Netflix has decided to make an adaption of The Picture of Dorian Gray with Dorian and Basil as siblings. Unless they're planning to go the gothic horror incest route, they've completely missed the point of the relationship between these characters.

If you haven't read the book, Basil is a painter who becomes infatuated with a beautiful young man, pouring his feelings into a painting. Dorian becomes jealous of the painting's beauty, realizing that he will never be as young and unspoiled as the version of himself on the canvas. He finds himself wishing that the painting could age instead of him. His wish is granted, allowing him to stay young and beautiful until the end, with his moral and spiritual decline reflected only in the painting.

I cannot overstate how queer this book is. Dorian is so beautiful that their first meeting inspires a wave of existential terror in Basil. Dorian changes Basil's entire understanding of art and beauty. This book is so queer it was used as evidence at Wilde's sodomy trial.

The existence of the portrait itself is tantamount to a confession of queer desire. Basil tells his friend, Lord Henry, that he can't exhibit the painting because "I have put too much of myself into it.”

Lord Henry (who will later lead Dorian into a life of vice) laughs, but Basil explains:

“[E]very portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter. [...] It is not he who is revealed by the painter; it is rather the painter who, on the coloured canvas, reveals himself. The reason I will not exhibit this picture is that I am afraid that I have shown in it the secret of my own soul.”

This is how he describes meeting Dorian:

When our eyes met, I felt that I was growing pale. A curious sensation of terror came over me. I knew that I had come face to face with some one whose mere personality was so fascinating that, if I allowed it to do so, it would absorb my whole nature, my whole soul, my very art itself. [...] I have always been my own master; had at least always been so, till I met Dorian Gray. Then—but I don’t know how to explain it to you. Something seemed to tell me that I was on the verge of a terrible crisis in my life. I had a strange feeling that fate had in store for me exquisite joys and exquisite sorrows. I grew afraid and turned to quit the room. It was not conscience that made me do so: it was a sort of cowardice. I take no credit to myself for trying to escape.”

Notice that turn of phrase--it was not conscience but cowardice that made him attempt to flee. Why would conscience factor into his decision? Because he felt shame at his reaction to Dorian's perfect, beautiful face.

Lord Henry is shocked to discover Basil cares for something besides his art.

“He is all my art to me now,” said the painter gravely. “I sometimes think, Harry, that there are only two eras of any importance in the world’s history. The first is the appearance of a new medium for art, and the second is the appearance of a new personality for art also. What the invention of oil-painting was to the Venetians, the face of Antinous was to late Greek sculpture, and the face of Dorian Gray will some day be to me.

Basil goes on to confess, "I see everything in him. He is never more present in my work than when no image of him is there."

Lord Henry still doesn't understand why there is too much of Basil in the painting, so Basil explains:

“Because, without intending it, I have put into it some expression of all this curious artistic idolatry, of which, of course, I have never cared to speak to him. He knows nothing about it. He shall never know anything about it. But the world might guess it, and I will not bare my soul to their shallow prying eyes. My heart shall never be put under their microscope. There is too much of myself in the thing, Harry—too much of myself!”

Lord Henry asks how Dorian feels about Basil, and his response is absolutely tragic.

The painter considered for a few moments. “He likes me,” he answered after a pause; “I know he likes me. Of course I flatter him dreadfully. I find a strange pleasure in saying things to him that I know I shall be sorry for having said. As a rule, he is charming to me, and we sit in the studio and talk of a thousand things. Now and then, however, he is horribly thoughtless, and seems to take a real delight in giving me pain. Then I feel, Harry, that I have given away my whole soul to some one who treats it as if it were a flower to put in his coat, a bit of decoration to charm his vanity, an ornament for a summer’s day.”

Any adaptation that ignores the way Dorian's existence and beauty utterly destroyed Basil is doomed to be shallow and insipid. This is not just a book about a magic painting. It's a monument to queer longing.

[tofupixel]

I recently started learning to use rpg maker (vx ace!) and as a result have become increasingly interested in pixel art. I hadn't really done pixel work since my teens - I do more digital painting and vector art - so while I'm a little familiar and can do passable editing, there's a lot I don't know.

One thing that's kind of perplexing for me is understanding the differences in style between two creators of pixel art. I studied art history and I'm used to the differences being things like brush stroke length or degree of realism... I feel like I'm lacking in lexicon in this new frontier lol

What nuances of an artist do you think are most important to style in pixel art?

This kind of stuff is not really officially studied (yet) so it's all a bit of opinion from me.

Usually in pixel art the biggest differences in styles are which limitations the artists choose to impose on themselves; colour count, resolution, palette... Or more stylistic choices like hue shifting, anti-aliasing style or no, dithering or no, etc.

I personally think there are a huge variety of styles in pixel art, as it's literally just a medium, and I hope you'll agree by the end 8)

Also (imo) there is some seperation between the styles of art for art's sake, and art for videogames, where things have to be clear and readable to be actually playable.

🎮 Old school games:

Sometimes referred to as something like '8-bit' or '16-bit' (relating to the NES era / SNES era consoles), these artstyles usually follow the rules and limitations of the hardware at the time.

This all falls under retro art, most popular styles include: NES, SNES, GB, GBC, C64

Notable artists: Nickwoz, Sandy Gordon, Franken, Cisco

📚 Old school art:

There were also events called Demoscene (still are), where developers would go to a big convention and share their demos. A lot of pixel art competitions were held here, where artists would draw live.

Generally they used to favour a high realism/semirealism style, with lots of texture/dithering, fairly high resolution (if the hardware allowed for it), and adjacent pixels mostly being different from one another.

There are even older styles than this but they are fairly niche and I'm not that well educated. If interested look into some of the old PCs/consoles.

⭐ Modern pixel art:

Usually using more colours and higher resolution, larger clusters of pixels instead of individual ones. Strong use of art fundamentals.

Artists to look at: Adam Ferguson (yes it is pixel art), Snake, Slym, 6VCR, Yes I do Pixels, Gijotto, SovanJedi, JoeCreates, Franek, @8pxl

the rest below are "modern" pixel artists too but I think they have other things in their style that are a bit different!

🎨 Painterly:

Some artists choose to emulate the natural brushstrokes digitally, and keep their clusters large and loose. Usually don't focus on the minute details as much.

@makrustic, @hexh-pixel, Umbohr, Gawrone

🟦 Dithering

These artists all use dithering / texture in ways that make their styles totally unique.

Deceiver, Night, Reo,

💥 Experimental

These artists are always trying new things and honing in on their unique style.

AJ, hby, @ilta222, Alphons

I could really go on for ever, there are so many different styles, cute pixel art, horror pixel art, 1bit (2 colours only), and then adding animation takes it even further, but I think you get the idea

If you want to learn more, the Masters of Pixel Art books have works /interviews from pixel artists of different eras, including demoscene and contemporary.

😊👍

[mossandb0nes]

feelin’ poorly? Here are some ideas :)

low spoons:

-cuddle with a partner, pet, and/or friend. Platonic cuddles are very good for you (looking at that specific person, you know who you are)

-watch or re-watch a movie or show you really like

-order something tasty for yourself (yes, it may not be “healthy” in the conventional sense, but some things are really healthy for your mental state)

-listen to music you really like

-got a hyperfixation or special interest? I’d love to hear about it! My asks are open :3

medium spoons

-draw a bath, maybe you could light candles or add a bath bomb.

-make a mug cake. I’ll link some recipes

-discover some new media, like a book you haven’t read or a music artist that seems interesting.

high spoons

-dress up fancy, even if you’re just going to stay at home. Sometimes it’s just fun to look nice.

-change your bedsheets! To me, it feels really nice to have clean bedsheets.

-write a love letter to yourself. Just tell yourself all the things you appreciate about you.

-make some art, be it visual, performative, or musical! It doesn’t have to be ‘good’, it can just be about the process.

-make yourself some comfort food.

reblogs much appreciated!! Lmk if you have any ideas you think I should add.

[dimensionzero]

yet more frame-by-frame atsv analysis, art style edition!

I still cannot fucking figure out what art medium earth-50101 is supposed to be, my best guess is, like, paint/maybe markers over linework? in any case there's the fun little detail that even though pretty much everything in mumbattan has very distinct outlines, the colours aren't perfect --- sometimes they go outside the lines or don't fill the whole space inside the lines.

like, look at how the colours of the clothes and scarves bleed out past their outlines here! and check out the outlines vs. the shading of the background --- they don't quite match up. the somewhat messy colouring only seems to be for colourblocking/base colours, though. that horse's finery is very detailed and looks very precise!

here's miles crashing through the street a couple seconds later for comparison:

look at him and his sharp outlines and crisp colours! it's subtle enough that it's not distracting, but miles is still very obviously sticking out from the rest of the crowd here

something else I noticed just now: miles still has his comic-book shading dots where the light hits him, which no one else has

on the contrary, the place where the light is coming from (the right side of the frame) has some darker lines staining it --- I'm no artist but I think they might be simulating the look of art done on a canvas rather than on paper?

gwen does not seem to be retaining her watercolour anywhere except her own universe, but although she adapted to earth-1610's style before, she's apparently keeping the comic book look in mumbattan too. didn't know you could do that! (she's even got the comic-misprint motion blurs!)

then we've got pavitr, who actually also has the comic-style shading dots (which is admittedly a little confusing since nothing else in his universe has them?). other than that though he follows his universe's style pretty much exactly --- very distinct outlines, messy colouring but precise details. you can see it most clearly on the close up of his mask, where the outlines of his eyes are perfect but the red of the mask bleeds out into the background.

(another miles for compare/contrasting!)

oh wait are pav's shading dots supposed to be the "canvas" showing through the lighter colours?

I think they are! you can see it much more clearly here, it looks less like dots and more like a crosshatch kind of texture --- I think it is canvas. mystery solved!

[charlieg1rl]

⤜ ˚. ✦ ⸝⸝ ֙⋆ 𝐜𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐞, 𝐬𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐬 ＆ 𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐬 ᳝ › 𓈒 ୨.

𝐩𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠: 𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐣𝐢𝐬𝐮𝐧𝐠 𝐱 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫

𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞: 𝐟𝐥𝐮𝐟𝐟

𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲: 𝐚 𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞-𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐢𝐧 𝐚 𝐜𝐨𝐳𝐲 𝐜𝐚𝐟𝐞́ 𝐬𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐬 𝐚 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐲/𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐣𝐢𝐬𝐮𝐧𝐠.

𝐦𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭

𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐣𝐢𝐬𝐮𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭

𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭: 𝟎.𝟓𝐤

Late-night coffee shops have a certain ambiance that Y/N craves. The soft hum of conversations, the gentle clinking of cups, and the warm lighting make it the perfect space for her creative escape. She settles into her usual corner, her sketchbook already open to a fresh page, pencils and erasers scattered across the table. Tonight, she's working on a design for her art project—an emotional piece, that would capture the moods and struggles of a student, as in herself.

Across the room, Han Jisung sits with his headphones on, completely absorbed in his work. His laptop screen flickers with soundwave patterns as he listens to a beat he's been refining for hours. Occasionally, his lips move, silently mouthing the lyrics he's mentally crafting, and his fingers tap out a rhythm against the table. Y/N can't help but glance over at him from time to time, intrigued by the intensity in his eyes. There's something captivating about the way he's lost in his world, much like she is in hers.

It’s nearing closing time when Y/N starts packing up. In her haste to gather her supplies, her sketchbook slips from her hand and lands with a soft thud on the floor. She kneels down to pick it up, but Jisung is faster. He grabs the book, and before handing it back, he quickly glances at the pages.

“These are amazing. Are you an artist?” he asks, his voice soft yet genuinely curious.

Y/N blinks, caught off guard. She hadn’t expected anyone to notice her work, let alone compliment it. “I... I guess you could say that. Just some art project, i’m trying to accurately capture emotions in a piece.”

Jisung holds the sketchbook out to her, but his eyes linger on the pages for a second longer, as if appreciating the effort behind each stroke. “They’re really good. It’s like you’ve created a whole mood.”

She smiles, a little flustered by his unexpected praise. “Thanks. I try to bring concepts to life, I guess. What about you? What are you working on?”

He shifts slightly in his seat, scratching the back of his neck as he smiles sheepishly. “Oh, just some music production stuff. I’m a producer... and a rapper too, sometimes.”

Y/N’s eyebrows raise in interest. “That’s cool. I always thought music producers must have a crazy creative mind to build something out of nothing.”

Jisung chuckles softly. “It’s not that different from what you do. You create moods with your designs, I create spaces with sound. Different mediums, same concept.”

She pauses, taken by his words. He’s right. The connection between their crafts is more similar than she’d thought. “I like that perspective,” she admits.

The conversation flows naturally from there, light and easy. They talk about their creative processes, how late-night hours seem to bring out the best in their work, and how cafes like this are their personal sanctuaries.

As the barista announces the shop’s closing time, Y/N gathers the rest of her things, giving Jisung a small smile. “Well, I should get going. Thanks for saving my sketchbook.”

“Anytime,” he replies, his smile warm and genuine. “Maybe I’ll see you around?”

“Maybe,” she echoes, a hint of playfulness in her tone.

As she walks out of the cafe, she can’t shake the feeling that this meeting was more than just a coincidence. There's an undeniable spark, but neither of them is ready to acknowledge it—just yet.

tags: @jeonginsbaee, @therealmsbahng, @omgsecretsecret, @amarecerasus, @estella-novella

[monstersinthecosmos]

It kills me that Anne Rice never like spoke in depth about who Marius actually is, and I'm sure a lot of it is just being like an artist keeping it close to her chest in some ways but also I wonder sometimes if like the brand of VC was too wide spread to ever really go into detail and nuance. Like, she never stopped referencing Marius as "wise mentor who is so nice" in interviews and whatnot, same as how Lestat talks about him, except she writes an entire book (B&G) about how he's actually so petty and imperfect and a fuckup and he knows it. Like I'll never stop searching for interviews where she really unpacks this and it's fascinating, especially when she was an intuitive writer who made a lot of subconscious decisions, like if she based Marius on her dad and on Stan and so on the outside always pulls for them but then in the moment writing she's like "actually they're both patriarchal jerks and Marius will behave accordingly!" I think the closest I've heard is I saw an interview where she talked about how Marius & Pandora were based on her & Stan and how they could have explosive fights over dumb shit but it was because they were too passionate and they still loved each other so much. (Put a pin in this point too because like reading her diaries at Tulane was like, wow Stan was a fucking asshole to his wife.) It's such an interesting exercise in love and empathy, too--even towards my personal feelings of like, how he's my favorite character ever in anything and I adore him so much but he IS petty and imperfect, I like him BECAUSE he's petty and imperfect, feels relatable lol--but she writes this whole book about how often his bad decisions caused him pain and how he's struggled being present in his relationships and how he's completely aware that the person he projects on the outside is a farce but then every time Anne Rice talks about Marius it's "Lestat's wise chill mentor!""

like PLEASE i need to ask her 1000 questions we gotta hire a medium

[monstersdownthepath]

Herald of Zon-Kuthon: The Prince in Chains

CR 15

Lawful Evil Huge Outsider

Inner Sea Gods, pg. 314

A great many Heralds in Pathfinder have backstories that are only alluded to, while many have no backstory and were simply woven into life by their god. Some are lucky enough to have entire histories explaining their origin and ascension to status of Herald, but to call the Prince in Chains "lucky" would be a grave and insulting mistake. There are few beings in creation quite as pitiable as the Herald of Zon-Kuthon the Midnight Lord, the Prince beginning his existence as a powerful and free spirit wolf filled with boundless love for song and life, and if you read that sentence and then flick your scroll wheel up a little bit, you can probably see where this story is going. But rest assured: It gets so much worse.

You see, the artist-that-would-come-to-be-known-as-Prince was once called Thron, and Thron loved nothing more than frolicking along Golarion, siring countless spirits of art and beauty in his wake with his many lovers. Two of those spirits would eventually come to be known as Shelyn and Dou-Bral. Yes, this unfortunate beast was Dou-Bral's father, who eagerly awaited his son's return from the far reaches of space, and ran up to greet Dou-Bral Zon-Kuthon when he finally came home. The feeling of relief and happiness upon seeing a beloved family member was not mutual, and the Midnight Lord swiftly bound his former father in razor-sharp chains, spending the next several centuries slowly, carefully, meticulously destroying everything about Thron and leaving behind nothing but a roiling nexus of hatred and pain with no memory of the ball of sunshine and song he once was.

It's easy to feel sorry for the Prince in Chains, but don't let what he was distract you from what he is now. He is among the most powerful of the Heralds, and instrument created to inflict as much pain and misery on as many people as he possibly can, and is used by Zon-Kuthon to hunt down, torture, and sometimes provide the mercy of death to those who displease him. When left bereft of orders, the Prince lazily wanders the twisted halls of Xovaikain, Zon's primary base of operations, searching for any creature in need of either enlightenment or motivation, both of which are provided via the same method and medium: chains, teeth, and powerful spells cast upon screaming flesh.

Unlike with many Heralds who may be focused on a mission and thus unwilling to pause it to roll initiative, a party of adventurers encountering the Prince in any environment is unlikely to resolve the meeting peacefully, as it relishes any opportunity to spread pain, even to innocents. Even fervent followers of Zon-Kuthon are likely to be 'tested' or 'blessed' by the Prince in a way that leaves them on the verge of death, with the rest of the party not being anywhere remotely as lucky. So let's see just what an unlucky party is up against should they hear the howl of the Prince in Chains...

Well, first of all, you're not going to get accurate stats from the Archives of Nethys. For whatever reason, the AoN still has the Prince's stats from the 3.5 version that appeared in Curse of the Crimson Throne instead of updating it to its modern portrayal in Inner Sea Gods, a source of infinite frustration for me because it means I need to keep the book open to constantly look back and forth! Ugh! I wouldn't be complaining so much if the differences between its 3.5 version and proper PF version were bigger, but unlike many other Heralds who were powered down in order to fit properly into ISG, the Prince actually got more powerful.

The biggest and most obvious jump in strength comes from looking at the Prince's melee attacks: a bite and two lashing metal tentacles. The Prince's bite is a terribly powerful strike dealing 6d6+9 damage before making an automatic trip attempt against the target, while the tentacles deal 3d6+4 damage per strike, giving the Prince one of the highest damage potentials among the Heralds. Adding onto it is Vicious Critical, turning all confirmed critical hits into an additional 2 Constitution damage as the savage attack rips away at the target's flesh; there is a small mercy in that none of his attacks have an augmented critical hit range, nor does he have Improved Critical, meaning Vicious Critical is only likely to happen once or twice in a given fight.

Unfortunately, that's the only part of the Prince's kit likely to not affect a given battle. The rest of it is geared to take as many player options away as possible, with both his unique abilities AND his list of spell-likes each capable of crippling or killing the party in unique and terrible ways. When he tires of a specific creature or find them annoying, he can use Slay Living 1/day to blast 12d6+15 health out of any creature within his 10ft space/10ft reach. With a similar amount of dismissal, his 1/day Blasphemy is likely to be used to clear out the chaff than to as an actual offensive option, the single word ending the lives of any creature not worth the Herald's time and leaving behind only those who'd survive his twisted "affections" for more than a few seconds. At 3/day he has Bestow Curse and Blindness/Deafness in case his Eyebite and Crushing Despair fail to significantly impact his foes, and an emergency toolkit in the form of Shadow Conjuration to either create disposable minions or raise illusory impediments to hopefully make enemies hesitate approaching... or escaping.

No, the Prince doesn't want anyone to escape the torment he wants to share. Any creature that meets his Unnerving Gaze is staggered if they fail a DC 22 Will save, preventing them from easily running away or fighting back, and further complicating that is his terrifying Chainstorm, a 15ft sphere of whirling chains and strips of spine-covered flesh that automatically deals 1d12 damage to any creature starting their turn in it. Failing a DC 22 Reflex save allows the chains to dig into the victims' flesh, entangling AND anchoring them to the Prince, leaving them open to being torn apart by his teeth or spells.

The Prince in Chains is almost all offense, prompted to get right into the middle of an enemy team and begin ripping into them, and he is rewarded for doing so. He is immune to both critical hits and Sneak Attack damage, denying most bursts of damage from weapon attacks. He is protected by DR 15 which requires only a Good-aligned weapon to bypass, though his unique Exaction ability heals him 10 HP at the end of any turn he managed to damage anything. Notably, this ability is indiscriminate and doesn't specifically state he needed to damage a creature, so a DM going by Rules-As-Written basically allows the Prince to have Fast Healing 10 so long as he takes a moment each round to stomp particularly hard onto a floor or walk into a swarm of flies, and cathartically ripping apart some furniture (or particularly resilient dog toy courtesy of Zon-Kuthon) after battle lets him rapidly heal to full.

Thankfully, his physical resistance just barely hides a vulnerability to magic. Only Cold stands out as his true immunity to magical damage, and he is just as vulnerable to any Save or Suck effect as any other Herald, provided the effect can pierce both 27 SR and his +17/+12/+8 saves (look at that pathetic Will save!). You know, provided he hasn't used Greater Invisibility (3/day) to tiptoe into melee and trap the casters in his reach and follow it up with a walloping against everyone's flat-footed AC, or used his at-will Deeper Darkness on his own space to prevent line-of-sight from being drawn. He doesn't have See in Darkness, but with Scent and 60ft of Blindsight, he can track foes shrouded in the darkness just fine.

The final trick the Prince has, however, is both offensive and defensive, serving just as well to shield him from harm and harm others at the same time: Howl of Despair. This incredibly dangerous ability can be used every 1d4 rounds as a standard action, blasting every non-Evil creature within 60ft of it with 6d6 points of Sonic damage if they can't succeed a DC 22 Will save... but the damage isn't the important part! The important part is that a single use of this ability at the start of the encounter, before anyone can move away from the Prince when he pops into melee distance with everyone, can spell the doom of any party member within 10ft. Any creature within that distance who fails the save against the damage is rendered permanently insane, forcing them to lash out randomly at their allies, attack themselves with their own weapons, or otherwise waste half of their turns until the condition can be cured.

The cruelty of this ability comes from trying to cure the ailment in combat, as the Prince can simply re-apply it when the ability comes back off cooldown (provided the victim fails their Will save again), as there's no 24-hour immunity clause. This essentially means all the melee fighters will be at an enormous disadvantage for the entirety of the fight, being entangled, insane, and almost constantly prone. Possibly even cursed, blinded, and/or deafened! And the Prince is both swift (40ft) and can fly (50ft), so even keeping your distance to pelt it from afar is frustrating! Fitting that fighting the Herald of the God of Pain is so agonizing, really.

You can read more about him here, but the AoN has not updated the Prince's statblock from his 3.5 version.

[bughugz]

DNI minors, zoos, pedos, transphobes, homophobes, racists, eating disorder blogs, self harm blogs, cishet men, 'men dni' blogs, ableists, blank and ageless accounts there's probably more if any of these things are you or you give off a not good vibe or whatever i'll block you

hiiiii you can call me bug, bun, or wyrm! it doesn't much matter to me which of these you use for me i'm a 20 year old 2spirit gnc trans man i only use he/it pronouns (on t!) please perceive as like effeminate boyish and creaturelike with some sprinkling of cultural and spiritual context to confuse the masses i'm also neurodivergent and chronically ill please be patient with me and maybe use tone tags

i am in a very monogamous relationship with my owner @bugfuckz who i love to post about ! i am vry queer and t4t and you'll find me posting about attraction to all genders though !

dms and asks are open i love interacting with y'all always down for friendly chats but not interested in flirting or anything sexual in dms unless you intend to pay me (bughugz on venmo or cashapp) consent is valued i will not tolerate disrespect or unsolicited pics

i'm basically a subby bottom bitch boy the vast majority of the time who is occasionally feral and sadistic and will dom bottom if i feel like it i find more power in being the one receiving sooo yeah enjoy

kinks & limits + terminology and petnames + some stuff to get to know me outside of kink below cut:

key to my heart as a sub is petplay (mostly bunny sometimes puppy) but here is a way too long list of other things i like and may also post about in no particular order:

intox (420!)

cnc (might include uncensored use of the word rape)

overstimulation / edging

bondage / restraints

praise / degradation (not of looks)

crying

sadomasochist

dumbification

manhandling

impact play

spanking

breeding (not pregnancy)

biting / scratching

marking / bruising

free use / public play / anonymous sex etc

group sex / gangbangs / spit roasting etc

objectification !!!!

limits ie things i won't be posting about or engaging in for my safety and comfort but to each their own

abdl / ddlg / other variants

scat

beastiality

vomit

race play

oviposition/eggs

detrans / misgendering

etc

if you're curious to know more of my thoughts on something that is or is not here send me an ask or dm!!!

terminology and names for me include:

chest, tits, t/dick, cunt, hole (bunny, puppy, or boy prefixes are fine ie puppycunt, boytits, bunny hole)

bunny, puppy, mutt, bitch, angel, baby, good boy, love, slut, whore, (fuck)toy, pretty boy, sweetheart etc

i also like masc compliments and being called pretty! i honestly just i love most pet names i do not like little one, the word girl, or princess !!!

get to know me outside of kink:

i'm an herbalist and i love plants and ethnobotany especially

i'm in college slowly working towards an environmental science degree

i love bugs and crystals and anything miniature

i like cozy games and fashion and books

i'm a fiber artist and like to experiment with lots of different mediums and styles

i like to roller skate badly

exploring in nature is one of my favorite pastimes whether it's tide pooling or admiring all the little things in a small stretch of forest

this is 100% a horny blog and i will be spamming my silly horny and sometimes non horny thoughts so often that you might hate me not great with words mostly rambling. but please don't hesitate to try and befriend and get to know me and ask me about any of this stuff i like dms just so long as you're respectful i do have social anxiety so i may not dm first!

pics of me are tagged #wormy pics

audios of me are tagged #wormy audios

original text nsfw and sfw is all mostly lumped into #bun ramblings

asks are #wormyasks

anons: 🌸, 🦊, 👾,🪼,💀

[nicklloydnow]

“About a decade ago, I ventured my opinion that the adult multitudes queueing for superhero movies were potentially an indicator of emotional arrest, which could have worrying political and social implications. Since at that time Brexit, Donald Trump and fascist populism hadn’t happened yet, my evidently crazy diatribe was largely met with outrage from the fan community, some of whom angrily demanded I be extradited to the US and made to stand trial for my crimes against superhumanity – which I felt didn’t necessarily disprove my allegations.

Ten years on, let me make my position clear: I believe that fandom is a wonderful and vital organ of contemporary culture, without which that culture ultimately stagnates, atrophies and dies. At the same time, I’m sure that fandom is sometimes a grotesque blight that poisons the society surrounding it with its mean-spirited obsessions and ridiculous, unearned sense of entitlement. Perhaps this statement still requires some breaking down.

(…)

Quite liking comics, aged 14 I thus became a comics fan with my discovery of British fandom, which was then still gummy-eyed and fresh out of the egg. The first convention I attended in London, in the basement rooms of a Southampton Row hotel in 1969, was tiny and inspiring. The attenders barely totalled a three-digit number, almost all of them some few years short of legal drinking age. The comics companies, having no monetary interest in a handful of penniless teenagers, went blissfully unrepresented, and the only industry celebrity that I recall was the sublime and sweetly unassuming genius Frank Bellamy, passing Dan Dare or Garth originals around, appearing wonderstruck that anyone had heard of him. The only thing uniting the assembly was its passion for an undervalued storytelling medium and, for the record, the consensus verdict of the gathered 15-year-old cognoscenti was that costumed musclemen were the main obstacle preventing adult audiences from taking comics seriously.

Of that hardly-a-hundred schoolkids, office boys and junior librarians, the great majority were actively involved in their pursuit, publishing or contributing to a variety of – for the most part – poorly duplicated fanzines, or else going on to work professionally in the field, such as Kevin O’Neill, Steve Moore, Steve Parkhouse or Jim Baikie, all of whom were downstairs at the Waverley hotel that weekend, keen to elevate the medium that they loved, rather than passively complain about whichever title or creator had particularly let them down that month. Of course, this was the 1960s and the same amateur energy seemed to be everywhere, spawning an underground press, Arts Lab publications and a messy, marvellous array of poetry or music fanzines that were the material fabric of that era’s counterculture; flimsy pamphlets as important and innovative today as they were then, although considerably more expensive, trust me.

Soon thereafter, caught up in the rush of adolescent life, I drifted out of touch with comic books and their attendant fandom, only returning eight years later when I was commencing work as a professional in that fondly remembered field, to find it greatly altered. Bigger, more commercial, and although there were still interesting fanzines and some fine, committed people, I detected the beginnings of a tendency to fetishise a work’s creator rather than simply appreciate the work itself, as if artists and writers were themselves part of the costumed entertainment. Never having sought a pop celebrity relationship with readers, I withdrew by stages from the social side of comics, acquiring my standing as a furious, unfathomable hermit in the process. And when I looked back, after an internet and some few decades, fandom was a very different animal.

An older animal for one thing, with a median age in its late 40s, fed, presumably, by a nostalgia that its energetic predecessor was too young to suffer from. And while the vulgar comic story was originally proffered solely to the working classes, soaring retail prices had precluded any audience save the more affluent; had gentrified a previously bustling and lively cultural slum neighbourhood. This boost in fandom’s age and status possibly explains its current sense of privilege, its tendency to carp and cavil rather than contribute or create. I speak only of comics fandom here, but have gained the impression that this reflexive belligerence – most usually from middle-aged white male conservatives – is now a part of many fan communities. My 14-year-old grandson tells me older Pokémon aficionados can display the same febrile disgruntlement. Is this a case of those unwilling to outgrow childhood enthusiasms, possibly because these anchor them to happier and less complex times, who now feel they should be sole arbiters of their pursuit?

There are, of course, entirely benign fandoms, networks of cooperative individuals who quite like the same thing, can chat with others sharing the same pastime and, importantly, provide support for one another in difficult times. These healthy subcultures, however, are less likely to impact on society in the same way that the more strident and presumptuous fandoms have managed. Unnervingly rapidly, our culture has become a fan-based landscape that the rest of us are merely living in. Our entertainments may be cancelled prematurely through an adverse fan reaction, and we may endure largely misogynist crusades such as Gamergate or Comicsgate from those who think “gate” means “conspiracy”, and that Nixon’s disgrace was predicated on a plot involving water, but this is hardly the full extent to which fan attitudes have toxified the world surrounding us, most obviously in our politics.

Elections that decide the fate of millions are conducted in an atmosphere more suited to evictions on I’m a Celebrity …, in which contestants who are insufficiently amusing are removed from office. Saleability, not substance, is the issue. Those who vote for Donald Trump or Boris Johnson seem less moved by policy or prior accomplishment than by how much they’ve enjoyed the performances on The Apprentice or Have I Got News for You. And throughout the UK, we’re now familiar with what a Stephen Yaxley-Lennon fan convention looks like.

An enthusiasm that is fertile and productive can enrich life and society, just as displacing personal frustrations into venomous tirades about your boyhood hobby can devalue them. Quite liking something is OK. You don’t need the machete or the megaphone.

Candidly, for my part, readers would have always been more than sufficient.”

[imperiuswrecked]

AI being using by comic artists is going to kill the comic industry.

Comics are very much a visual media, and art being original and unique to the artists working on the books is a huge part of why people buy and read comics. Learning that an artist I enjoyed was using AI art somewhere in their process is pretty devastating to me, and truth be told I wish I had listened to my suspicions earlier instead of ignoring them, but the fact that I will never know for sure until the artist actually admits it is enough to make me stop buying their work. People have been warning others about how AI art is killing art, and for a medium like comics where art is integral to the story, I do not want to be spending what little money I have for my hobbies buying AI. It's scummy for an artist to do that to their fans.

I know there's been lots of comic art scandal since forever in comics, I know there's artists who trace porn, I know there's artists who steal from other artists, sometimes from the very same company doing the same books, I know there's artists who frankly shouldn't be given work because they cannot draw, yet because they knew the right people or something they get work that I know a lot of other artists could do better.

I know the comic industry has a lot of issues, especially in regards to how the companies treat their artists. I know the struggle artists & writers go through for their work, and I've always tried to support my favorite creators. I know that artists are under a lot of pressure, and deadlines, and that they are very underpaid. I know they are exploited by the comic industry. I think it sucks. I think they should have better working conditions and pay, I think there should be regulations, I think we should blacklist art thieves, but people who are a lot smarter than me and more experienced in the comic industry and understand the situation better are the best to listen to when it comes to this issue.

I know all of this but I won't accept it as an excuse to use AI.

I feel very strongly that any comic artist who uses AI at any part of their process and leave it in the end result shouldn't do that, and I won't support it. I can only hope that this doesn't become a common thing, because I know companies will jump at the chance to cut out artists even more and use AI for comics, anything to make themselves more money while leaving artists with nothing. Then they'll bring the artists back in to "clean up some AI work" and sell it. That's what the comic industry will end up being if the companies or artists use AI in their work.

[dreamtydraw]

do u have any advice for someone starting to draw?

Hmmmm I have a bunch of advices the thing is they worked one me and might not work on everyone but let me share things that helped me in my art journey.

It’s a long post with advices and resources so i hope it can be helpful.

On advices :

Accept the fact that not every art you'll make will be good. Unless you're a full on professional with years of experiences you'll always need to learn things and so, often you'll find flaws in your art. That where it's important to remember to have fun , art shouldn't stress you into making flawless products.

Doodle often. Again you don't have to daily make detailed artworks but doodling will help you progress and helps with creative process.

Find an art format you like. Just like you can't ask a guitarist to play piano, every art mediums are different with their rules. I would advise you to experiment until you find something you're the most comfortable with ( ex i like markers, color pencils and digital art but I despise oil painting )

The quality of your material does matter. It doesn't matter on how well you draw but it does matter in helping you work better so sometimes it's worth saving up for better materials ( do research on what seems the best for you ). This apply for digital tools too ! I only like one app and it's ibis paint...

Copy. Now this doesn't mean blindly trace or steal but find artists or artworks you like and try to find WHAT you like in it and then try to copy it on your own. This goes for anything you want to reference visually, find what you like in it and copy that, if you just copy the reference you don't do much more than being a printer.

Flip your canvas or use a light tablet to turn your sketch. This help you notices anatomy errors more visibly so you can correct them before starting the clean up.

Don't sleep on cartoon. A lot of people say "learn realism before finding your style" and I'd say that not for everyone. If you want to get professionally into art or works on your anatomy then yes you should learn realism because it's the fundamental of anatomy but that not an obligation. One thing you can learn from tho regardless of what you try to do is cartoons. Cartoons are exaggerations of posing, expressions and designs and learning some cartoons rules might help you understand a bit better some notions ( mainly shapes languages and expressions )

Find something that motivates you to draw. Draw for fandoms, draw your oc, draw for yourself but having something that makes you want to draw is important. It's very important that you don't base your motivation on other people's opinion of your art.

Get inspired by other medias. Search about symbolism in other art form, get inspired by movies, books, videos games, people, objects, design etc… Humans are good at making creative stuff, it feed the spirit.

Now on ressources ( That i use or have used )

My personal pinterest board for visual reference

Scan of morpho, a good morphology book

Scan of morpho, about fat and muscles

Post with resources about fat

Tips about character design

Links to Kasey golden Chanels for cartoon inspiration and material review

Post about shapes designs

Hope this can be of help !!