#branch hole

[bequietandobserve]

European honey bees in an old branch hole. Nikon D200, 300mm, f/5.6, 1/250s, ISO 640.

[iwasbored777]

Sjsksjskksksk I love them so much they are the best trio

[quillpokebiology]

Something I find very interesting as a researcher is the fact that all pokemon (accept Nihilego, maybe) have their own 'languages' and cultures. Weavile draw symbols on trees to communicate with other Weavile, and I don't think we tall enough how big of a deal that is. These pokenon have their own writing system, and we're NOT talking about it?

Tinkaton make little towns out of discarded metals or on mountains and even have scheduled gatherings where they trade metals with each other.

Bisharp have their own groups and may even have a writing system, just like Weavile. They make tools like baskets and use their claws to give messages.

I know it may not seem like much, but it's just so interesting to me. I tried asking Joker (my orbeetle) about it because Orbeetle are really smart and he has found ways to communicate with me via telepathy, but all I really get from him are things about pokepuffs or wanting to rewatch A Bug's Life. But, one time, I asked him about Orbeetle Culture and he said something about space. Granted, I caught him as a young Blipbug so I dont really know how much he knows, but I'll take it!

Anyways, I'm probably going to make a series explaining different pokemon behaviors and all of that, lol

[hey-hey-j]

forever thinking about the reason why Clay and JD butt heads so much being because they're so similar to each other

[rottmnt-residuum]

Sorry if this is too unrelated or something, but do you have any tips for comic composition? I absolutely adore how you frame everything, from the backgrounds, to the bubble placement, to the way the colors seem to fit together in each panel, and I've always been curious about how you do it

if this is too vague/overcomplicated I understand, I love your work and hope you're doing well <3

Hm... well. Honestly, most of my composition comes from transcribing the animation of residuum that's happening in my head. Which is why, if any of y'all've noticed, residuum is framed a bit like a movie. So if you're looking to do something similar, I'd recommend either studying camera techniques, or watching movie analysis with a focus on camera work. I'm unfortunately a bad person to ask, as a lot of what I do just comes via practice that's turned to instinct.

This is a really good resource on page compositions in general, though I mostly do panel by panel stuff for my own ease:

The background style is actually directly inspired from @meandtheyeehaws, it's fast, easy, and doesn't require too much thought on my part. You spend a lot of time on comics, so you take shortcuts where you're willing to.

Bubble placement... I've noticed that people tend to laser focus on dialogue. So, the dialogue bubbles are how you lead the reader's eyes. They are the very base of the reader's eye path. All this means is that you should just map the eye path you want and then frame everything else around that. Either to bring notice to stuff or to hide something in plain sight.

Honestly, I have no idea for the color thing. It's one of the things I actually wish the comic was better with. All I do is have set color swatches for characters, and do a transparent color mask to the background color. I love to color, but color itself isn't really my strong suit.

[mispatchedgreens]

more tre shounen manga chapter covers!

some notes: 1. xu da's blade here is the dadao, or the big sabre. i swear this isn't a pun, it's different da characters. 2. the background is refencing a specific early 13th century painting, ma yuan's 'scholar viewing a waterfall'. (go look at the original, zoomed in, at the met museum site). 3. the abacus and the suanpan coexisted historically across the world from each other, but if one inspired the other is unclear (according to my shoddy research)

[cattimeswithjellie]

The more I think about it, the happier I am with this final choice for new hermit. Joel is a fun guy and a wonderful builder who will fit in beautifully on the server, but I think we also needed something extra for Season 10. Nobody could ever fill TFC’s shoes, but I think it’s very appropriate that they got somebody who isn’t primarily a builder, who has excellent vibes and an appreciation for all the amazing builders around him to take his place. Welcome to Hermitcraft, Skizzleman!

[serpentface]

Palo and Tigran standing casually in place to provide an outfit reference.

They are wearing the most typical day to day clothing for Galenii monks. This consists of three main parts:

-A simple, ankle-length sleeveless robe (white in initiate monks and black in the fully initiated). -A dark woolen cloak, which doubles as a blanket. This cloak is the foundational item of clothing throughout much of Imperial Wardin as a whole, and worn by all social classes. They tend to be cut shorter and highly decorative in the upper classes, serving only the practical purpose of shielding the arms from the sun. Poor laborers may wear only the cloak and a loincloth and nothing else. In the case of Galenii monks, it is standardized, simple, and dark blue-gray. -The sash. This is a very long scarf that is the primary visual signifier of a Galenii monk. Its open ends drape down the front side of the body and are tied at the chest. It is slung over the shoulders and hangs in a loop around the back. These sashes are dyed an expensive royal blue, indicating the significance and relative esteemed status of this religious order.

Additional elements:

-The sign of the horns: a small iron pin used to fasten the cloak. This is the symbol of the Lunar Face Of God (the specific aspect to which the Galenii are devoted, which is primarily associated with fertility and the cycles of sacrifice and rebirth). This is very common among monks but not standardized wear. Galenii priests wear the sign of the triple horns (though more commonly as an amulet).

-Ear piercings: Galenii monks and priests wear thick earrings of dark meteoric iron and stretch their earlobes. One is added to each ear for each year of the initiatory process. Palo is a year in, and Tigran is fully initiated and has five bands per ear. Body modification is exceptionally rare in Imperial Wardi culture, largely in relation to taboos surrounding body integrity. The exception here is done with great significance and care- these earrings can be made only with true meteoric iron, considered to be the blood of God Itself. Permanently marking their bodies with this metal signifies this priesthood's integral connection to maintaining the continual cycle of sacrifice/rebirth that is believed to keep God's domain stable, and binds them to this role.

-Sandals: usually very simple in construction. Monks are often expected to go barefoot, but the cities are quite dirty so most prefer to avoid this if possible.

-Ceremonial dagger: a sign of a fully initiated monk. It is curved and its sheath is decorated with a tuft of lion's mane (a signal of the Galenii order's close connection to the Odonii order). Most of its uses are ceremonial, but it will be periodically used to perform animal sacrifices. A smaller razor blade is kept in the home for personal bloodletting.

-Hair: Fully initiated monks shave their heads, while those in the process of initiation have relative freedom with hair dressing. Palo is wearing his hair in a single braid tucked around the front. Broadly speaking, braiding the hair is associated with female beauty standards throughout much of Imperial Wardin (though generally in two braids). There is no cultural convention Against men doing so, but it is regarded as mildly effeminate (particularly in the south and southeast).

-Lore Friendly Sunglasses: Palo has photosensitive epilepsy. No effective treatments for epilepsy exist in the setting (most 'treatments' in Imperial Wardin are alchemical in nature, ie: ambiguously helpful at best or literal poison at worst), but understanding of the Nature of epilepsy as a neurological disorder is relatively accurate, and the concept of photosensitivity is loosely understood (though not with great accuracy, it's assumed to be caused by light in General). Palo had this pair of (VERY expensive) sunglasses commissioned as a youth, which Do slightly reduce the frequency of his seizures. Devastatingly stylish as they may be, his glasses do not offer much visual clarity so he only wears them in bright conditions.

[lesamis]

Please may we have some regency recs from the local lyres book club? 🥺

ohh you mean regency romance? i'm not super In The Game as it is, but i can absolutely tell you my favourite one and the one i've most recently finished!

i think everyone who feels the feelings expressed in this post should read a seditious affair. everyone. it's well-researched and class-aware and well-executed. silas is an excellent character. if you're into 1810s radical politics, this book is for you; alternatively, if you could take or leave 1810s radical politics but enjoy a slow burn during which the characters are hooking up literally the entire time, it is also for you. (a gentleman's position from the same series is very good, too.)

a couple of days ago i finished letters to half moon street, a regency romance with a fantasy bend, and it was very sweet. i like when self-esteem issues are at the core of a plot's conflict, and this really hit every branch on the way down the Issues tree. its tone is warm and its protagonist is a fairly loveable wet cat of a man. recommend, even if i do think it could have fleshed out its love interest a bit better.

honourable mention: miss percy's pocket guide for the care and feeding of british dragons, which is not a romance and which i am of many minds about, but it still deserves a shoutout for having a dragon hatchling in its quaint and sensible little world.

hopefully there's something in here that sounds good to you, anon!

[thorninyourside05]

I saw him before I fell asleep last night and now I'm brainrotting. I want to do more with him, but I have so many projects ATM so I'm gonna try do stuff when I have time. Anyways, the silly. I have tons of ideas and stuff so if you have any questions lmk

[pikachu-deluxe]

hey, image of my beasts coming up sometime tonight in like a few hours, if not check back tomorrow in my art blog, it should be there by then

[bludinkdragonz]

finally got around to finishing these humanish broppy practice poses... expressions? 😅 Ugh I was struggling so much with Branch but I'ma take the L and move on, as for Poppy I actually do like how she came out so far. One more note, originally did not want to go for a denim vest on branch but since Floyd is basically emo I can't unsee that he'd own one of those lmao. Enjoy!

[giftedpoison]

no cause we can shit talk tiktok all we want but oh my god what creators are doing with Operation Olive Branch is living in my head.

A creator by the name of Erin Hattamer started doing a "pass the hat" thing where content creators can fill out a form and they'll be assigned a Palestinian family's go fund me and their entire job is to keep posting about that family until they meet the money goal.

and I have seen so many goals being met???

And like at first Erin was reaching out to major content creators to try to get people on board, but after those first couple she got so many people willing to continuously help and "adopt" more families after they reach the goal.

And on top of that her and a lot of creators are donating all their tiktok earnings, and taking donations on their venmos to then send to gofundmes (some people can't afford the five dollar minimum) and those doing that are genuinely showing proof of where that money is going.

And it is so fucking wholesome and it's made it a lot easier to manage than looking at a spreadsheet and getting decision paralysis. Now I can just boost videos I see and donate where I can

[andersam5]

i know this comic most likely isn’t on your mind at the moment but will don’t look down ever be coming back?

Oh trust me, I'm very aware of how unfinished Don't Look Down is. I did have the entire script written out (I'll have to try and track it down in my files) and when I was writing it I was experimenting with a different workflow. It obviously didn't completely work out lol

I think I also got too far bogged down with the mechanics of the story and trying to find that balance of "Make things threatening but the status quo is to stay more or less unchanged by the end" If that makes sense. I'm still very much learning by ear how to write stories for comics. I feel like I'm much better writing straight up stories/fics and I've been having trouble translating those skills into writing for comics,

I'm definitely keeping all the notes and scripts I wrote and would love to return to it someday once I can break out of the perfectionist nature I seem to have gotten locked into while I was making it

[doriantomybasil]

i don’t know what this says about me as a person but when i was like five my family and i went christmas tree shopping and i convinced my parents to buy the ugliest tree because i felt sorry for it and the thought of it not being chosen made me cry and then i also made my dad dig it out instead of cutting it down because i didn’t want it to die and then for years we went back to that same place for christmas trees and the hole was still there

[maretriarch]

how goddamn stupid do you have to be to get the pastel horses from the baby show personalities wrong and how do you people do it every day and how do i stop getting mad about it