#but I can’t upload my own artwork now | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

batshaped · 2 years ago

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twitter stop fucking up for one second challenge (impossible)

well,

here’s the thing. it feels like social media is changing lately. every social media site seems to be fucking up or getting worse in its own special little way. i recently read and thought a lot about this article which coins the term “enshittification” and describes the process by which every social media platform eventually becomes so greedy as to become unusable. it makes me wonder if the social internet is due for a big shift in the near future.

for a long time, twitter was the best place for me. for all its issues, it had the audience that i could reach the easiest, that was the most invested in my art. i got (still get) a lot of awesome replies and really great analysis of my work on twitter, which i didn’t receive on any other platform. i was able to encourage those readers by retweeting their comments and theories to show that i liked hearing their thoughts. i could use the Moments feature to organize my art and make my comic easily readable in order. and anyone could look at my twitter, account or no.

ever since the site was bought out, twitter is getting worse. i can’t use the app on mobile anymore because every reply section is drowned out by blue checks and choked with ads. the Moments feature was disabled and people couldn’t easily read my comics in order anymore. and this is without even touching on the bigger/more serious issues the buyout has brought to the app. these are just the ways it has made my personal experience of being an artist on there worse. and now, apparently, you can’t even look at my work unless you have an account.

it’s been pretty common in the past year for the new management to implement a bad feature and then undo it after backlash, and maybe this too will be reversed. but even if it is unimplemented, the platform will continue to get worse. all platforms are getting worse right now. all of them are becoming untenable to use without 7 bespoke browser extensions to block ads, hide specific unwanted content, force chronological order, and so on. on mobile i don’t even bother. apps are unusable.

on top of that, i have the personal issue of not being the type of creator who is particularly good at staying on top of more than one or two platforms daily. twitter has been my main for years now, so i’m pretty good about updating it very regularly. instagram is trailing behind, i usually remember to post there daily (especially as i’m remaking mine right now and posting my entire backlog) but sometimes i forget. and that’s kind of my limit. every other site falls by the wayside because i just don’t want to spend my whole day or life updating platforms. i know there are tools that can do it automatically for you but i don’t want to do it that way and then i’d have to figure out a new tool and get yet another account on yet another app and install yet another extension to use it.

i just want to draw. i don’t know how we arrived at this place where we need to be 700 other things when we are just artists. i draw and write, isn’t that enough? if i wanted a presence on tiktok i’d also have to be a video editor who pays close attention to trends and makes sure to transform my artwork into something people on that app are interested in. even if i just wanted to have a strong presence on say, twitter/instagram/tumblr/tapas/webtoon i’d have to take on another (unpaid) job as my own social media manager, meticulously managing my uploads across 5+ apps and making sure everything is up to date and tailored to what “works” on each particular platform. i already have a day job—i’m a storyboard artist. the art i post online is supposed to be made and given freely for my own enrichment first and foremost, and for the joy of sharing with others as a close second.

i wonder if we’re due for a mass rejection of this increasingly draining cable-wars-style model of spreading ourselves thin across multiple platforms just to reach the exclusive audience each one provides. i’m starting to feel done with that concept, but i still want to share my art. i want to hear my readers’ thoughts. i want to create things that connect with others. i want to do it without these ever-mounting obstacles.

what i’m doing about it is creating my own website at my own domain that belongs to me. i doubt i’ll be quitting social media when it’s done. social media is still where the audience i cherish lives. but you can bet that when that website is ready to be shared, i’ll be talking about it on every social media account i own. i’ll be telling everyone there’s a place to look at my art where you don’t need an account, you don’t have to struggle through a morass of ads, and you don’t have to line the pockets of a billionaire who bought a social media app on a whim. it’ll just be you and my art. alone together.

by the way, to @whatthehelljake i apologize for writing a fucking SAT essay on a screenshot of your reply. any exasperated tone here is not directed at you at all. it’s directed at this sea of obstacles that disrupt the simple concept of “i made art and i want to share it with you.” your reply is how i found out today that twitter made this change. i cherish the fact that you want to connect with my art so much that you alerted me to this. i wish that wasn’t necessary. i want to make my work on my own terms—and want you to be able to experience it on YOUR own terms.

all that to say, i think the website is going to be the main answer to this issue. i don’t see myself having the energy to update tumblr that much more often than i already do, though maybe i’ll try to pick up the pace a little now. we’ll see. holy shit if you read all this go drink a glass of water or something get up and stretch. ok thank you bye <3

#not art #fucking essay length thing under the cut #i don't know what else to say just read it if you want to know LOL

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taybatwo2 · 6 months ago

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Monster High IDW Comics Review: Part 5 of ?: Monster High Pride 2024 Issue (“I Put a Spell on You”)

Okay, now we can actually look at the comic. Bring it in boys!!!

Beautiful! Thank you boys.

Part 1:

https://www.tumblr.com/taybatwo2/754406016295321600/monster-high-idw-comics-review-part-13-the-fcbd?source=share

Part 2:

https://www.tumblr.com/taybatwo2/754406053729452032/monster-high-idw-comics-review-part-2-of?source=share

Part 3:

https://www.tumblr.com/taybatwo2/754555603918127104/monster-high-idw-comics-review-part-3-of?source=share

Part 4:

https://www.tumblr.com/taybatwo2/754946130507333632/monster-high-idw-comics-review-part-4-of?source=share

First off, the info:

“I Put a Spell on You” is written by Megan Brown (she/her, has her own website and is on “x” @ megan_mb. She has done a lot of other writing on IDW comics). The art is done by Bowen McCurdy (she/her, her BEAUTIFUL artwork can be seen on her Instagram @ bonesbunns).

The fantastic coloring was by Bex Glendining (she/they, they have their own website, and you can see their artwork on Instagram @ Igions). The front cover’s art was done by Céli Godfried (they/she, they have their own website, are on tumblr @ pianta)

None of these people worked on the previous IDW Monster High comics.

Both this and Summer Fangout and the IDW Free Comic Book Day comics had Kielamel Sibal as the letterer (she/her, another artist on Instagram @ labis_lemaleik), Riley Farmer as the editor (she/her, I think, I can’t access her LinkedIn profile), and production and design done by Johanna Nattalie (she/her and has worked on a lot of IDW Sonic titles). All three had worked previously on the FCBD issue.

It is 10 pages long Vs the twice as long “Summer Fangout.” Which is a shame.

Synopsis (spoilers below).

“I Put a Spell on You” has Spelldon try to become friends with Draculaura on his road to bettering himself. He is so upset by her not wanting to fang out with him that he asks Spelldon to remove all of his love emotions through a potion. They track down the three ingredients, Valentine catches feels for Spelldon (who already had them for Valentine) and last minute decides he doesn’t need the potion. Spelldon drinks it and tells him it was just a “murktail” (“mocktail”), and they begin dating (YESSS).

My personal thoughts/feelings/breakdown and more photos under the cut:

Like the previous comic, I will be whiting out the speech bubbles to try and circumvent the copyright on these pages I’m uploading.

On with the comic!

page 1:

It starts off with Valentine talking with Whisp (whom he’d become friends with in his SDCC doll diary) about how he wants to turn his life around. The first step is asking Draculaura if she’d be friends with him and he’s SO NERVOUS (Look how is hand is shaking! Fangtastic detail). So nervous that he walks head first into a locker (can relate - that hurts). Whisp sees this as a perfect opportunity to duck out (I love her so much).

Pros:

(Most of these are just going to be me gushing over the artwork. I absolutely adore it and REALLY wish the other IDW comics had her as their artist and kept the same colorist).

I like how his voice’s accent shows through the writing and “turning over a new grave” is a great pun. The reactions are pretty good too (the RIP sound effect, mwah).

And the angle on his face while in the floor is beautiful! He even has a little nose scrunch.

Call backs:

They mention him getting knocked into the pit of “eternal body odor” again (I believe he also dealt with those ramifications in his diary).

I already mentioned it, but I like how he is friends with Whisp in this (like in his SDCC release/diary).

Other:

They did lightly alter Valentine’s outfit (I assume so it was easier to draw -it had a lot of detail on it in his 3D model and SDCC doll), his sleeves are a bit shorter, he is missing cravat, they gave him black nails and more maroon colored hair instead with some reddish streaks instead of pure black with red streaks. :)

page 2:

After being knocked on the floor, Valentine rights himself and quickly asks Draculaura (first in his normal accent and then in his southern swagger) if she’d like to be friends/see a show together “to rekindle our- er-our friendship.” She says she can’t (it sounds like she’s not necessarily against it), she has a full schedule. I saw someone mention that they took at as her trying to blow him off by mentioning all these things, but I read it as she was actually that busy *shrugs.* And Valentine takes this really hard, because he’s replaying that conversation back in his head in class.

Pros:

Again, I love all the facial expressions! Also, look at those hands! Look at the use of shadow and they even painted both of their nails. FANTASTIC!

Also, good use of paneling to show that was a flashback.

Call Backs:

The inside of the school looks like the webisodes’ school interior (so maybe these are not following the IDW comics? They used the CGI model of the school).

But, Draculaura being overwhelmed with duties/work does sound like it’s keeping in line with this G1 “Once Bitten” canon.

Nitpick…kinda:

Valentine is REALLY taking it hard that Draculaura is not wanting to hang out with him right that second. Is he just overthinking it? Does he think she’s blowing him off? He probably feels like he keeps failing and can’t make up for his past misdeeds.

Not that the comic has any room for this, but what if the first scene stayed the same, she tentatively says, “yeah, I think we could try being friends.” Then it’s a montage of him trying to fang out/help her and he has just the worst luck (he interrupts her in the middle of fear practice and it topples their human pyramid, he knocks over a vase of flowers he brought her all over her creative writing assignment, maybe he’s forgot how she reacts to blood and gets her some chocolate covered blooded jelly truffles)??? After a week of mess ups, and Draculaura not answering his texts anymore (because she feels overwhelmed-but he doesn’t know), then he can feel like he majorly blew it (but maybe that is too much of a retread on what happened in “Only Have Eye for You”).

Maybe he is overthinking it because his emotional vampire side is hangry (his SDCC diary mentions that he gets energy off of people’s love -more so if it is freely given - so maybe he’s running on low. I know I get a bit dramatic and paranoid when I’m low on fuel).

Valentine is drawn a bit too short/Draculaura is too tall(Draculaura’s head shouldn’t reach above his shoulders and her lipstick and fangs are missing).

page 3:

He is snapped out of it by Spelldon. After Spelldon takes one of the roses, Valentine laments to Spelldon about his lack of emotional intelligence and how his love for others have only brought him “pain and suffering.” AND he tells Spelldon he no longer “like likes” girls. Which is really sweet, but again, I would love it if in the PRIDE ISSUE we could get a full on: “I am GAY Spelldon.” Instead of a “You know what I mean!!”

Pros: Valentines’ face in the sixth panel is well drawn.

Valentine being over dramatic is a nice touch. Kid is spiraling. Maybe he’s hangry…? The background continues to be great. I like the background posters of the fanged mouth.

We get the long awaited appearance of SPELLDON. I really like his design (how he has black features, his pointed ears, his outfit, his sparkly shirt). I would love to break down his appearance in another review, and compare it to how fanon (and Garrett Sander) had designed him (and how it’s evolved over the years).

Call Back:

Spelldon apparently likes black roses. :) Which is great because those seem to be Valentine’s specialty (besides in the movie, those were pink).

They name drop “lap dragons,” which are one of the pets that Valentine took care of in his SDCC diary for Mrs. Goblin (which ties back to him wanting to take an interest in Biteology to be a vet).

page 4:

Spelldon (begrudgingly) is talked into making a potion to make Valentine stop feeling all the feels.

Pros:

Spelldon is so much taller than Valentine (“he sure is big,” isn’t he Valentine?).

The passing of time is well done in the paneling (and the zoom-in to the book is also great).

More great facial expressions and HANDS!!

There is some great foreshadowing with the book. See how Spelldon’s right hand is covering most of the page (like he doesn’t want Valentine to see what it says), and Valentine is not paying attention to the title of the tome? Well, the tome says: “Party Potions,” which doesn’t sound like a title heavy enough to contain an emotion erasing potion.

It also implies that this comic takes the span of about a week.

Nitpicks: Valentine calls Spelldon a magician? Hahaha, sounds like he does stage magic. Just call him a witch Valentine. :)

page 5:

Valentine and Spelldon go to the store to get a “Hydra Heart Scale.” Apparently they are both Elissabat stans and go to see her movie off screen-err page (I would have LOVED to have seen this).

Pros:

I love the look of the background of the store. It’s nicely faded out, the casual inclusion of rib cages (symbolizing where the heart lays and the other new character that had appeared in “Why do Ghouls fall in Love:” Cupid), bat wings, and even some hockey masks like a certain mama’s boy, camp serial killer might be known for wearing.

This conversation on how much they should get is done SO MUCH better here than in Clawdeen’s/Toralei’s previous short story (in my opinion).

Spelldon looks really cute in the third and forth panel, and Valentine looks really good in the fifth and last panel. I like the hatching they add to Spelldon’s hair shade. I like that they have a little lore drop in here as well about what Spelldon is good at (top of the class in Potion-Crafting) and what Valentine is (really) good at (Biteology).

Call Backs:

The goblin lady he helped during the summer is from SDCC diary and the “unfortunate birthday party incident (is from “Why Do Ghouls Fall in Love?”). Honey, you almost made Draculaura an empty, unfeeling husk FOREVER, I think that would be a bit more than unfortunate.

Nitpicks: Apparently Elissabat the Vampire Queen and movie star is taking up sponsorships for Fake Blood Murktails (I’m not really feeing that pun….?).

And while Elissabat is a fun cameo, it feels a bit off here, but I know they already wanted to hint at Murktails being a thing.

But, why murktails? Are mock-tails popular with today’s youth?? Why not smoothies…boo-thies? I know flavored/carbonated waters and energy drinks are popular…

Maybe have Elissabat in a new costume in a promotional outfit for the “Cracking Dusk” movie mentioned here

(I would have loved to see a new design on her, like they did for her Vampire Heart movie poster in “Frights, Camera, Action,” and the Draculaura Maul Monsteristas dress).

Also, I wish that the last speech bubble in the second panel was moved over and down a bit more, so you could see Valentine’s hand counting down “two” (I saw their line art on the artist’s page -serious check out their Instagram and I think it’s a shame to cover up such lovely hand artwork, also, you can see how the background line art doesn’t touch the character’s line art, helping them not get lost in the panel).

page 6:

The next thing they have to get is “Himalayan Ice Malt from the Lair or a Yeti.” Valentine and Spelldon….well I actually don’t know what happens. I originally flipped back and forth several times to see if I skipped a page because it just didn’t seem to flow as well, and what happens to cause a distraction for the yeti to leave his office -and his malt- is a bit unclear (to me).

Spelldon mentions that having skates would ruin the plan, Valentine trips stepping forward, but then looks like he’s falling back and the next (BEAUTIFUL PANEL) he’s kneeled down,

gripping his shoulder in pain, leaning over Spelldon, while Spelldon is laying under him (I LOVE his pose), and an explosion is going off. Did Spelldon sneak over to the fishing hole and summon the sea monsters/put an explosive potion in the hole?? Unknown. Then the panel jumps back up and see a bunch of monster fish trying to come out of the fishing hole.

Am I missing something??? Anyways, the Dreddy the Yeti is distracted and both boys run into his unprotected office and steal the malt.

Pros:

Dreddy running out to fix the problem has some funny dialogue and I love Spelldon’s and Valentine’s conspiratorial look they give one another.

Again, lovely shading (on the neck, cheeks, and hands especially), even the way the clothes lay on them is great (look at those clothing folds).

I like the Yeti’s design (the horns, furry arms and legs, the tail is cute, but I’m not sure if it fits….maybe he has some Norwegian Troll blood in his veins). His cardboard cut out is really fun.

Nitpicks: The colorist forgot to color in Spelldon’s jacket’s studs.

page 7:

“And a grave chalice to drink it from,” is the last ingredient. Before they do, Spelldon slips into his Southern twanged accent and Spelldon questions him on why he does that, he doesn’t do it around him. Valentine shrugs and says he doesn’t know but maybe it’s because he feels more comfortable around Spelldon. Spelldon and Valentine go to a mausoleum to get the chalice and instead of Scarah coming in clutch to scare Valentine into Spelldon’s arms, Spelldon somehow trips and bonks his head.

Pros:

I love the Chibi art for them! It’s so cute!!

Scarah shows up!! I wonder if she could hear Spelldon’s feelings for Valentine and wanted to help?

I love the opening panel. It’s very lovely, and I love the coffin lights and the soft glow they emit (it’s handled here much better than the coffin lights I the previous short).

The part where Spelldon questions Valentine’s accent is a nice addition and fun to see. I like the idea that Valentine puts on the southern gentlemanly air because he thinks it makes him cooler, is funny and the fact that he feels so at ease with Spelldon, he doesn’t bother with it, is also sweet.

I had headcanoned that when going to school in Transylvania, Valentine was getting crap for being a new world American vampire -so uncool and uncivilized for the Transylvanian pure breed Vampires. He was (literally) starving for love/friendship, so he adopted the “perfect” romantic, southern gentleman person. Roughly akin to southern gentleman trope maker: Rhett Butler from “Gone with The Wind,” (it doesn’t really fit with that time period of Valentine living Transylvania being Edwardian/Victorian -the movie came out in 1939- but was one of the highest grossing movies ever and really catapulted the southern gentlemen into public conscious and Monster High timelines are a mess anyways). And it worked great in giving him all the emotions he could feast on.

Nitpicks:

This one I like better than the previous page, but I still feel like it’s a bit out of order. I feel like the panels where Spelldon is asking Valentine about his “bad southern accent” should have been right under the first panel. Then it has Valentine asking Spelldon “what’s the plan?”.

page 8:

It cuts to them finally mixing all the ingredients together in the library, Valentine second guesses and then decides against drinking the potion and Spelldon chucks it back.

Pros:

Once again, I love the opening panel (Valentine’s face is great on the opening, fourth and seventh panel).

You get some close ups of that rose he took from Valentine’s bouquet as a bracelet and it hasn’t died yet. :D

And Spelldon still has his poor head wrapped.

Call Back:

I like that Valentine says he has been bettering himself after the “incident” (in which he nearly made Draculaura an emotionless husk).

Nitpick:

Valentine mentions he already considers Draculaura a friend here???? So he IS just upset that she won’t hang out with him/is really busy? >:P

page 9:

Next page! Spelldon reveals that it’s just a Murktail and that he cares for and “likes hanging out with” Valentine. Valentine admits he likes fanging out with Spelldon too and then THIS CUTE PANEL where they flirt. Aaaaand no kiss….again!!! >:/

Pros:

Again, I love this artwork (Spelldon looks down-right gorgeous in that last panel) and the two boys admitting that they like each other.

Their facial expressions and how Valentine grabs Spelldon’s shirt is just SO GOOD.

Nitpicks:

Also in that last panel, it looks like the three “…” were accidentally copied into Spelldon’s bandaged head. Haha.

I just wish they were more blatant and we got a dang kiss!

page 10:

The last page again fast forwards again to sometime later and Valentine and Spelldon are holding hands down the hallways of Monster High. Draculaura runs up and apologizes to Spelldon on how much she thinks he has the wrong impression, she does want to be friends, she just has a lot going on (what’s going on with you in this TIMELINE ghoulie…??!?).

I do like that Valentine catches himself slipping back into his southern drawl (I like that it’s pretty obvious when he falls back into it- but does anyone else have a hard time trying to remember what his voice sounds like without it or is that just me).

It ends on a great note (calling back to how Valentine does have friends now - with Whisp calling him to ask about his new boo-friend and Spelldon asking how he’s feeling now).

Pros:

THE ART! All the art. It’s all so good!! The hands in the first panel, the shading on all of them! The little heart drawn on the bottom of Valentines’s shoe. <3 Valentine’s realization he’s slipping into past habits in the third panel. So good!

Nitpicks:

Valentine DOES think they’re already friends, so maybe Draculaura should have ran up and said she thought about it and he does seem to be turning over a new leaf and she does want to fang out with him and maybe try being friends. If he would like, she’s free on -insert day here- maybe even for a double date. Valentine blushes and says he would like that. (CAN YOU IMAGINE A DOUBLE DATE WITH THESE GUYS?!?)

Spelldon’s jacket studs are missing in the fifth panel.

Draculaura is still draw a bit too tall here.

Overall:

I’ve already said it a million times, but I think the artwork is SO MUCH better in this comic than the others. The emotions seem to flow better, the characters are not as stiff, the line work varies, the color story is complimentary, the space doesn’t feel empty, the paneling flows together better. Just on a whole other level than what the previous comics are doing.

The colorist did an AMAZING job on the whole short story, she just elevated the already great line work. It’s FANGTASTIC! I’ll be curious to see where the characters go from here and if they will get dolls (please oh please oh please oh please) or at least another doll that is SDCC exclusives only…

I LOVED seeing Spelldon. Spelldon played more of a supporting role here to Valentine, but I think it worked well as an introduction. His personality seemed a bit quiet and mature, very observant and kind, and he has some wit and sarcasm to him. It’s a nice contrast to the more emotionally turbulent Valentine. I still wish it was longer, and Valentine getting upset over the fact that Draculaura is friends with him but is too busy to fang out with him (but she implied she didn’t know they were already friends: “of course I want to be friends with you!”) is a bit “eh.” And I would have liked to see at LEAST one kiss.

I could see this short story fitting right into the main G1 canon (even with Draculaura still being suspiciously busy and not her bubbly self, which seems to be part of the new-“Once Bitten”/IDW comic-G1-verse canon).

This took a lot longer than I thought to make, but I managed to do it!

I’m still thinking about maybe doing a Spelldon fanon to canon evolution post, but it might take awhile to compile stuff. I find how the whole fandom basically willed this character into existence and all the different interpretations fascinating. Perhaps I will read the new issue of the IDW comic when it drops in August and make a post (to give the comic an actual fair chance). But I can’t see myself doing it to every issue due to me not collecting floppies (I’d rather wait for them to be all collected first, my cat has already stepped on and badly wrinkled my Pride Comic).

Maybe I’ll begrudgingly picking up the new “Once Bitten” book (I’d really rather get that on a super sale then give them full price for THAT) and report on that. TT^TT

What were your thoughts and feelings? Did I miss something? Have horrible takes? Did I mention the beautiful artwork too much?? Let me know. :)

#Aleta’s review #spelldon #kieran valentine #spelltine #idw pride comic #idw monster high #idw monster high comic #IDW monster high pride comic #monster high #monster high g1

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thdramas2 · 1 year ago

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I just wanna rant about the most stressful thing that happened ever happened to me on TH lmao

This happened a little more than a year ago,,,

I’ve had my account since 2017 but didn’t use it until 2021. I’ve never uploaded my sona who I bought from a popular artist back in 2014 on Furaffinity since i have so much art of them from back in the day and can’t seem to find majority of the artists and I just never bothered to upload them. One day I’m browsing TH and I look up the pop artists name to see what other designs of theirs was on TH and I see my sona under some random persons account with over 300 favs and 46 artworks that I have not commissioned/drew of my character. I looked at the OG Image and it’s watermarked with the original auctions prices (it looks like it was cropped from the auction post) + it was poor quality

I looked at the ownership log and the character was uploaded by that person and didn’t have any transfer history. I immediately message them asking wtf is this all about

After some stressful back and forth basically they said they couldn’t find the owner (me) and since it’s been so long they thought the character was “abandoned” and thought it would be ok to “claim” the character. They had the audacity to compare it to squatters rights and basically since I wasn’t using the character and they’ve “owned” it for a year it’s theirs. Which funny thing is I have a suit of the character that I wear to cons and there’s literally multiple pictures of me in my suit at these conventions that happened only a few months ago, I commissioned multiple pieces of art and had a plush in the making,,, all of this at the time of the incident. So the character wasn’t “abandoned” and after some more back and forth and them trying to guilt trip me into doing a co-own and getting the admin involved my character was taken off their account and I now got +46 art works of my character. I did pay $50 for the art cause at the time I did feel a little bad but ultimately they are the one who got themself in this situation. I now have all of my characters uploaded and heavily watermarked so hopefully this doesn’t happen again :’)

theres no such thing as an abandoned chr if it ISNT uploaded somewhere

its like trying to steal undertale chrs bc toby fox "hasnt done anything" with them

#vent

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linkles-art-blog · 1 year ago

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Today on “Cherish crossover artworks that literally no one asked for expected and AUs I will probably never write”, I would like to present y’all with this artwork based on The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, which has had me in a very powerful death grip ever since I saw it in theaters with my father on November 30th.

I may or may not be reading the entire book series now thanks to a new friend’s kind uploading of photos of their copy. Help.

Anyway, because I can’t get away from the constant pain and angst that torments me on the daily, I decided to make this cute little drawing of Paul as young Coriolanus Snow and poet Arthur as Lucy (or Lucien, I guess, given the genderbend) Gray Baird.

(If you understand the significance of me choosing Lucien as the genderbend name for this in the context of these two, I love hate you. 💖)

Do not repost this artwork anywhere without my explicit permission or claim it as your own. See F.A.Q.s for details.

Songs I listened to while drawing this:

My Cherish Playlist (the public and currently only partial version of which you can listen to here.)

At All Costs — Chris Pine and Ariana DeBose

Nothing You Can Take From Me (Boot-Stompin’ Version) — Rachel Zegler and the Covey Band

The Ballad of Lucy Gray Baird — Rachel Zegler

The Old Therebefore/Singing at Snakes — Rachel Zegler

Pure as the Driven Snow — Rachel Zegler

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thoradvice · 2 years ago

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Hi! Is it okay if I can request a positivity post for people who struggle with ptsd? ;-; I keep having flashbacks and I am constantly dealing with multiple triggers 24/7 for the last few months now and I’m so scared that I’ll never get better. I only get a few hours of sleep every night because I’m so anxious and on “high alert” all the time, I’m jolting awake gasping and then I can’t fall back asleep. I’m shaking everyday because my brain is always like “look out for the danger!” And I’m unfortunately in a position where I am unable to avoid my multiple triggers (certain clothes, certain colors), and the person who gave me this ptsd is someone I accidentally see online at least once a week, even though I’ve blocked them, they are a very popular fandom blog and they frequently buy commissions of themself… like maybe 15 to 20 commissions per month from all different kinds of artists. So I’m always seeing my abuser’s commissions, visual images of them floating around everywhere I go :( I tried taking time off of tumblr for 8 months, but my ptsd didn’t improve, I just felt lonely and I really missed uploading my own artwork ;-; but now I’ve stopped drawing entirely because I don’t find joy in drawing anymore.

I am surrounded by these reminders of what happened to me, and my only hope is to someday reclaim the triggers and to see them as normal things again, but I don’t know if that’s possible when I feel so incredibly broken and I see my abuser so often. I’ve never had to deal with this kind of thing before. I wish someone would sit with me and tell me everything will be okay, even if it might not be true. I went through all of it completely alone for a full year, and now I feel so numb to anything around me. Going to movies, restaurants, concerts, all of it feels so empty to me. I’m sorry for the vent, you don’t have to reply to this if you don’t want to ;-;

hi there, sweetheart !! first off, i'm so sorry that you're struggling so hard right now, and that you can't seem to escape anything that's making life so much harder. i have never personally dealt with ptsd in that sense, but i do have an ample amount of trauma, and you have my every sympathy.

i'm going to split your ask up into a few parts, if that's okay. i completely understand the fear of never getting better. dealing with so much mental anguish for so long is a trauma in of itself, and i'm so sorry. please know that there is a "better" for everyone. everyone's looks different, and comparing yourself to others who recovered quicker, or more easily won't help - because your situations are always going to be different. but there /is/ a better for you, and anybody else reading this. it'll take time, and will happen slowly, but you'll get there. i also really struggle with sleep, because of intense anxiety / nightmares. there are a number of OTC medications that you can try, have you? i know it sounds silly, if you're struggling so much, but sometimes simple answers help the most. i'm not sure where you are, but if you're in europe, you can order melatonin from the us, and of course in the us it is OTC. there's also a number of medicated syrups (nytol / night nurse / etc). melatonin can occasionally create nightmares, so please be sure to start on a tiny dose. if you have already tried these, speaking to a doctor may really help. i completely understand not wanting to bring up your ptsd, but there are ways to build up to it - including merely mentioning sleep issues first, and building a rapport with the doctor over a few weeks / months. sleep is so key, and getting something that helps you get rest will be instrumental !!

i'm so sorry your abuser is so popular. that's such a uniquely awful pain that i cannot even begin to imagine. is it possible for you to blog them, and the people creating art of them? it'd probably take a while, and be a bit taxing at first, but eventually you may see that your dash has less and less of them. i understand losing joy in the things that you love. it'll take a while to find the joy again, but this is something i have also experienced, and things will make you happy again. i don't feel equipped to advise on managing triggers surrounding things you love. but it may be worth trying to sketch something small and unrelated to fandom. is there a pretty tree you can see from your window? a cool house down the street? a cat lounging around? perhaps taking art away from the online space and the person who hurt you may make it feel more "yours" again. i'm so sorry that you've been going at this alone. no one ever deserves that. i don't know you, but i'm sitting with you right now, telling you it's going to be okay. there is more to life than this pain you're feeling right now, and there always will be. you will find joy in the things you loved again. you will be able to exist without reminders from your abuser, or if they happen, you will be equipped to deal with that. you will build a network of people to lean on, and that love you, and will be there for you. you deserve more than the hand you were dealt, and i hope you get that someday. emotional numbness is perhaps one of the most taxing things to deal with, but please know that this grey won't last forever. colour will bloom into your life again. there is more than this, and you deserve more than this. i am here with you, and you'll get through this.

#ask #anon #thor gives advice #ptsd #trauma #recovery #i truly hope you can heal from this #<3

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krowjet · 2 years ago

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Okay completely random but now I can’t stop thinking about it because I have classmates/friends who vehemently disagree with me on this, but I don’t think AI art is a good thing, and shouldn’t be accepted as something real or of equal value to human made art.

Point one- copyright and Creative Commons rules. A lot of the time, these AI art programs either ignore or don’t properly follow these rules and regulations.

Very often, these kinds of programs don’t pay attention to these and violate these agreements, and often don’t credit the artists who’s work they’re using in their databases.

Another is something I kind of got an idea of from working with HTML and CSS. You can make it so that your pages and websites pop up if you search certain key terms. If you search for the listed topics on your page, you can probably scroll through enough of google’s search results to find said page. These programs kind of use this same method to organize their art to pull up to mesh together the final products they present.

So not only is it just theft most times, like using art uncredited on a YouTube thumbnail without permission (which is a huge issue and artists constantly deal with and have to report for theft and lack of credit), but also it’s not an original idea. Just because you search something doesn’t mean it’s an original idea or your search is unique. You’re search a database and get a mix of the results they pulled together, often mashed together poorly which is why faces, close details, and hands, or just anatomy in general, is such a struggle for these programs.

It’s not original work in the slightest, just a cesspit of uncredited art slapped together by an emotionless computer. There’s no thought, creativity, time, labor, anything.

It’s just a google search page crumpled up in different ways. Doesn’t mean anything is new, just cut up and glued together.

And then people will take credit for it and call it original, when it’s far from that. Just because I search in google ‘birds’ and I see a screen of links doesn’t mean this is anything new or it’s my work. No, it’s someone else’s and they just happen to have tiny pieces of the page displayed.

It’s not original that you put words into a search bar. It’s not your art. It’s other people’s art.

I’d have less issues with it if it wasn’t such a blatant theft or violation of copyright laws. It would still morally be wrong because it’s not human made and thus not really something considered art.

I’d be way more fine with it if it was used solely as a reference, with a page devoted to crediting all the artists, the individual pieces, and links to their pages to further explore their artwork. I’d have more acceptance of it if it was clearly something meant to give you ideas and cool prompts.

If you upload a piece of your own art and you have an AI change it up, that’s cool because the base is your own with your consent, and thus doesn’t steal anything (as long as the art it’s referencing to create that version is credited properly), and you can do what you want with it.

Using AI has a like a reference image isn’t my problem. It’s treating it like it’s something cool and new and something to make profit off of.

But it’s like having an AI make essentially a rip off of Harry Potter, publishing it, and taking full credit for what’s essentially Harry Potter if Harry Potter was in 2020 and he had a cool fourth friend. Just because it’s got some bits of new details doesn’t mean you didn’t blatantly plagiarize. The original author is still gonna come after you and sue you for copyright infringement and plagiarism.

This is exactly why fanfic is not exactly marketable unless you change the story details to make it your own (ie 50 Shades of Gray being a Twilight fanfic being sellable because it’s so different and changes things to such an extent it’s not Twilight and clearly something new). The difference is when copyright is up and it’s now public domain and anyone can do anything with the source material. This is something else.

But with AI, it’s just someone putting this stuff on a database (or making a program take things from the web and upload it to the site to work with, which is equally just as bad), and then essentially shoving it in a blender. Why do you think there’s watermarks, clearly an attempt to prevent stuff like AI or human theft.

AI art is just plagiarism. You essentially keep stealing from the same articles to make something fit your little idea over and over and while yes, certain info or images with repeat because humans tend to have similar ideas sometimes, you aren’t going to get the same results every time.

AI art isn’t original, new, or something you made. You put no effort into it, no thought, time, labor, or even any care. No part of the work is yours, except that search bar’s search history, and just like google just because you searched it doesn’t mean the pages popping up are yours. It’s just plagiarism you made excuses for.

In summary, fuck AI art, you suck ass.

Sorry for repeating the same stuff over and over again, I’m tired and honestly this is just my impulsive reaction to a small realization. Have a good whatever time it is? I’m going to bed.

#ai art generator #ai art #ai art theft #ai art is fake art #ai art isn't real art #ai art is theft #ai art is art theft

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weirdthoughtsandideas · 9 months ago

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You’d think arts was my favorite subject in school, but when I think about it, it kinda wasn’t?

- First of all, my class was NOT artsy at all, and they spent most class not knowing what to do. This lead to them always asking for more time on our projects, one extra lesson or something. And I, who completed our assignments early, had nothing to do!

- My art is a lot more unrealistic and simple, and we focused a lot on drawing realism. I felt like I was really bad at that, also that my own personal art was ugly and undetailed in comparison.

- I just sat there and drew most of the time, and while it was a bit soothing to not care so much, it also felt like… what am I doing here? Can’t I be more ambitious?

- In high school, arts was an optional class, which means everyone that took it was actual art kids. Only that this made me compare myself to everyone else and feel like I could NOT do the same nice art as them.

At the same time, I DID learn things in arts class

- We learned how to make a comic strip, including how to make stylesheets. THIS has been really useful.

- All the ”drawing our surroundings” drawings, while I always felt like I sucked at them because I felt like I made everything in the wrong proportions and made it too undetailed, has also helped me.

- I learned a LITTLE bit of animation!! I’m too lazy to make a lot of animation but I’ve at least done some attempts at it. Not to mention we once had an assignment in high school to make a stop motion film. Here is my masterpiece called ”Overrun Barbie” in which Barbie gets hit by a car but survived.

- Our HS art teacher asked us to take pictures of every artwork and progress we made and I didn’t really see the point at first (the point was that we were graded on how well we reported the progress, since you can’t really grade a student for their art abilities as it’s so personal, so you grade them on their reports + participation in class). But, in retrospect, it’s so fun looking back at it. I still laugh so much about this drawing of the ”shapes” of objects in front of me.

I have NEVER drawn such a thick butt again ever.

- THIS DRAWING that I thought was so bad when I did it?? IS ACTUALLY KINDA GOOD FOR ME BEING 16-17 AT THE TIME SEE SARA YOU CAN DO SHADES YOU JUST NEED THE CORRECT TOOLS

- Art does take time! I can sometimes cringe over drawings I uploaded over 4 years ago, but like !! I’m evolving all the time! And that was the best I could do then. It just means I have gotten better now, and the more I draw the better I’ll get in the future.

So, I guess what I can conclude here is, art does bring me joy, and sometimes it was fun in school. But art in a school environment also gets you a lot more pressure and insecurities. Now you can’t really be allowed to be as personal, because they want you to follow a certain type of art. And you get graded on your performance, too. It just brings stress. And art teachers have been the ones I’ve felt the most annoyed with out of all teachers. Cause art just does get so personal with me, and so it crashes when I’m in an environment where the art is supposed to be in a certain way, be documented in a certain way and made in a certain way, and I also get graded on it.

And I have learned a lot from arts class afterwards. But it was not always the most fun when you were in it.

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mariaperera-mga3385 · 1 year ago

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WEEK 8 - ASSIGNMENT!!🤖📝🖊️✨

Time for the assignment update!!! Like I mentioned in my previous post, we had to individually work on generating our own images through AI, finalize the design, compile everyone’s images together, upload it to stable diffusion, run our own prompt and see what happens!🤷‍♀️

So, I was feeling 🎄Chrismassy🎄 The spirit of Christmas hit me early. (What can I say? I’m a sucker for the most wonderful time of the year❤️✨) I decided to create Santa’s Workshop with the Studio Ghibli art style. (I’m a sucker for Christmas and Studio Ghibli movies so of course I would cook up this ✨Golden Combo✨)

Christmas and Studio Ghibli Films go hand in hand (Fight me) Both are comforting , nostalgic, magical and make me holly jolly. So why not try to combine these 2 and create something right?

Anyways, moving on from my yapping…I started running the prompt for ‘Santa’s workshop in studio Ghibli art style’ and my goodness….it took so much trial and error to get to the image I wanted.

At first I decided to add elves to the workshop thinking they would be cute, but the AI gave me creepy deformed munchkins that will forever LIVE in my NIGHTMARES!💀💀💀 (Like I said…AI’s a work in progress) Moving on from that, I had no choice but to scrap the elves. I figured it would be better just to have a workshop with lots of Christmas decor, presents and warm ✨magic in the air✨

This is the final image I decided to go with for the assignment. Even though from afar it looked pretty good, the closer you looked at the image, the details were not visible. The ‘Warm, cozy background’ prompt I added made the image blurry. But I was able to solve that by doing some edits on Photoshop, upload the image back to Stable Diffusion and then ‘Upscale’ the image.

( I have to admit, it probably took hours for me to get the right image. So much of time, patience and editing goes into this)

After everyone got the images they wanted, our lecturer compiled all of them into one on Photoshop like this.

Now it’s time to show you the final result I got after running my prompt for this image! ✨TaDa✨ (Now ik it isn’t perfect, but the amount of detailing is crazy! It’s quite hard to design something like this in a traditional or even digital art form. The results were interesting)

Now as someone who does traditional and digital artwork, who has now learned what it’s like to be an AI artist…. I want to give my opinion on AI art.

I know it’s quite a struggle to work with AI and running and changing prompts over and over again isn’t easy work. However, I still can’t except AI art as real art. In my eyes I see traditional and digital artwork as ‘real art’ because the artists have to have the artistic skills to draw something. The time dedicated is also valued more. But with AI art, it’s like anyone who hasn’t even dedicated time to learn art can be labeled an artist and that’s unfair in my eyes.

That’s it for week 8! Week 9’s work is coming up soon!

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unexaltedonewhoisnotking · 8 months ago

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Big copy-paste explanation I prepared incoming

Where it’s hosted:

ArtFight is hosted on its own website: https://artfight.net

You’ll have to upload your characters there in order for them to be attacked - if you don’t have a character on the site, you can’t be attacked, but you can still attack others. A few people choose to remove or hide all of their characters specifically so they only give attacks instead of getting.

Technically you can upload a ‘character’ that is just a link to something like Toyhouse where you’ve got other characters hosted, instead of putting that information specifically on ArtFight, although there are some people who won’t attack characters that require them to go off-site for information.

How to join:

First of all, make an account on the site!

Second, you can’t play until you get on a team. You can start uploading your characters and bookmarking other people’s characters, but you can’t attack anybody and nobody can attack you unless you’re assigned to a team. That means that if you decide not to participate one year, nobody can attack your OCs against your will, since by not choosing a team you simply won’t have made yourself available as a target.

How do you get a team, then:

Well, you can’t yet.

You’ll notice that if you make an account right now your username is grey, indicating that you aren’t on a team. A lot of users currently have pink or blue names, which represent the teams from last year (Vampires and Werewolves, respectively). Don’t worry, you aren’t being held back from anything - those team colours don’t mean anything for this year! The themes for the year should be announced in June and then team picking will become available.

What if you’re late to join the fight:

No worries! On my first year I only heard about it a couple days into the fight and thought I was too late to start… and then I realised halfway through the month that I was not, in fact, too late. You can make an account and join a team right up to the last day of the fight, so don’t feel scared of a late start! You won’t be prohibited from joining and you can still probably get a lot done. There’s no minimum number of attacks required, unless it’s just a goal you set for yourself.

The only thing about joining late is you’ll have missed out on the ‘early bird’ team picking - you’ll just be randomly assigned to a team instead of getting to choose. That said you’ve got two chances each year to ‘reroll’ if you prefer the other team. Personally, so far I’ve been excited to get randomly assigned, and last year I specifically waited for the fight to start for that reason instead of getting in on the early bird choice.

What the team themes do:

…nothing really, they’re just for fun. Each year the theme changes and like I said above, we’re still a while away from hearing what they’ll be for this year.

You aren’t required to make your OCs or profile or anything match the theme, although some people do like to. One type of OC you might see is the ‘ArtFight sona’, which is, y’know, a sona inspired by your team for that year, uploaded as a character to be attacked.

Submitting a character:

At the top of the site there’s a button that says ‘Submit’, and then gives the option of ‘Submit a Character’. That button’s available year-round, during and outside of the fight.

ArtFight’s a bit finicky about image sizes, which can be annoying when uploading characters. When you’re uploading a character initially you can only add one image, but if you then go to edit the character you can add more images, up to 6 total.

Like I said up above you can technically link off site instead of writing a profile for a character on the site. You can also put multiple characters in one slot on ArtFight, if you consider them a package deal.

Personal opinions/advice for uploading characters

You don’t necessarily need a full reference sheet, but at least having a fullbody artwork makes it a lot easier for people attacking. There are some people who won’t attack without a reference sheet, and others who won’t attack unless you have some non-ref sheet artwork to show your investment in your own character - honestly, just put what you want to and what you think is worthwhile.

Make sure to use the tagging system! A character can have up to 10 tags which make it easier for people to find them. Some good things to include would be like genre/aesthetic - ‘fantasy’, ‘steampunk’, ‘superhero’ ‘modern’ - and, in the case of fan OCs, the original media. Tag if they’re a human or another species, and tag if they’re anthro or feral for furry characters. And if they have some distinct feature or motif tag that too! Maybe tag a distinct theme colour if they have one. You might not be able to fit everything in that tag limit, but those are ideas.

I’ve seen someone ask how many characters is a good number to have. Honestly, the answer will vary. You can have up to 100 at a time on the site but some people use that ‘link to Toyhouse or somewhere else’ idea to functionally add more. Personally, I’d say it’s just nice to give people some options when they want to attack you, so at least two or three… past that put as many as you like.

You can re-order your characters in the ‘manage characters’ page. A lot of people make sure that the characters they’d prefer to get art of are at the start of their list, and of course it’s handy to group characters from the same setting together.

Submitting an attack

An ‘attack’ is an art piece of another user’s character or characters - making attacks is how you earn points for your team. Again, use that ‘Submit’ button at the top of the page, and then choose ‘Submit an Attack’… Bear in mind that this option is only there during the Fight and only if you’re on a team!

Each character on the site has an ID code, which you’ll paste in when submitting an attack, to indicate what character it depicts. Then you’ll have to rate your attack in a few categories: Basically, you’ll give yourself points. When submitting an attack you’ll have to rate it in a few categories: how much of the character is visible? Did you use clean linework? Is it fully coloured and shaded? Is there a background? All of this works into the score that the site will display. The site has guidelines for attack rating with examples, but they change a little from year to year so you’d be better off looking for those than me trying to explain it here.

Friendly fire:

You usually attack the opposite team… but you can also attack people on your own team. It’s just worth fewer points - 20% of an equivalent attack on the other team, specifically.

Revenge:

When submitting an attack, if the recipient is somebody who already attacked you this year, you’ll see an option to mark the attack as revenge. It doesn’t impact the points, but it means that the two attacks will have a link to each other at the bottom of their pages.

Users can create revenge chains by repeatedly revenging each other. Some people make it a goal to create a long chain, others would rather leave it at one and done so they can focus on other people as well. There’s no obligation to take revenge, so don’t feel pressured.

Revenging is fun, but I’d recommend against saying that you will always do it. If you wind up getting burnt out or just get more attacks than you can deal with you might wind up breaking that promise.

Mass attacks:

Mass attacks are attacks that feature multiple characters - of course, more characters means more points! You can include your own characters in these, too.

Unlike revenge, mass attack isn’t an ‘official’ term and there isn’t anything to select when submitting an attack that will label it as a mass attack. You’d just keep adding more characters to the attack by the same method as normal - put in their ID and mark fullbody, halfbody or simple shaped for each one.

For a mass attack you designate one person as the main recipient; they’ll be the only person who can officially revenge it, although the others might still decide to attack you back as thanks.

If the main recipient is on the opposite team, you’ll get full points for the attack, regardless of the teams of the other characters in it. And likewise if the main recipient is on your team you’ll still only earn 20% regardless of the other characters.

There’s an upper limit of 100 characters per attack.

Finding characters to attack:

The first place to look is that ‘Browse’ button up at the top of the site. That can take you to a random character’s profile, or a random user’s profile. You can see all the most recently uploaded characters. And best of all, you can search for characters by their tags, like I mentioned.

And honestly, just trawling through the site, from the profile of someone who was included in a mass attack with you to an attack they made on someone else to a user that person was attacked by... something is bound to catch your eye

I lowkey wanna join art fight this year but have no idea how it works 😭

#long post #artfight

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voretober · 2 years ago

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OFFICIAL VORETOBER 2022 PROMPT LIST!

Voretober is back!

...kept you waiting, huh? Here comes another month of delicious words to tickle your cravings for challenge! And as always, you get a headstart so you can plan ahead. And again the choice of how, when and where to make use of each prompt is yours. A challenging marathon of one drawing a day? A leisurely stroll through the prompt list? A cherry pick of your favorite inspirations? All of this is possible within Voretober! Enjoy~ This is now the third year where we accept audience submissions for prompts and number of suggestions has yet again increased. Thus we strived to give user suggestions an even bigger representation in the final list, whether it be through direct inclusion or adaptation. We are proud to make the challenge even more of a community effort and we are thankful to everyone who shared their words!

You know the drill

- Create artwork every day (or whenever you want, really, have fun) - Any type of art, tool, technique, medium and genre is welcomed - Upload your creation online - Tag it with #Voretober #Voretober2022 As always, you can join our official group; there you can get all the latest news, share your thoughts with other participants, brainstorm about puzzling prompts and most of all get honest critique and priceless art help from peer artists.

Official Voretober links

DeviantArt .•|•. Tumblr .•|•. Twitter .•|•. Telegram group .•|•. Discord Server

Usual FAQs

1. Do I have to keep up with the pace to participate? Nope, nopety nope, nope. You keep up when and if you want, it's just a suggested challenge to yourself. Everyone is free to participate at their own pace. Art can't be rushed! 2. Do I have to follow these prompts? It isn't mandatory per se: we are happy to encourage any and all art endeavours, thus we will always support any artist who decides to challenge themselves, whatever prompts they choose to follow. 2b. Does my artwork have to be vore-related? Actually, no! Since last year we opened the challenge to submissions of any theme and kind. (It's not like we could stop you anyway!) 3. But Fyre, "Voretober" is a bad name and I hate it! Oh noes... Anyway... 3b. But Fyre, "Nomvember" is a better name! Ok, but Voretober is in October, genius. 4. But Fyre, the prompts are bad and I hate them! Ok. 5. But Fyre, you are an evil person and I hate you! *Yawn*

#voretober #voretoberofficial #voretober_official #voretober2022 #voretober prompts #promptlist

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dokidokitsuna · 2 years ago

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Just felt like writing out my thoughts on the online art community being attacked from all sides as of late...it’s kinda been one thing after another over the past year, tbh. ^^;;;;

And recently I’ve been thinking about why I, personally, have been feeling anxious and stressed out about it. Because, logically, I shouldn’t really...

I think the people being hit hardest are illustrators: people who just want to draw cool pictures and share/sell them to the public. More than any of us, they’re increasingly being told that their work is worthless and disposable...and I don’t mean to scare anyone, but if AI-generated art survives the legal battles that will be coming for it in the future, I think it’s entirely possible that illustration is going to go the way of portrait painting in the 20th century: a niche novelty, that the average person can’t expect to find customers for anymore.

However...I am not an illustrator. I try to be; it’s what most people expect a visual artist to be, and I’d still like to get better at the act of illustration, if only to help my own work look nicer. But generally, 90% of the drawing that I do on a regular basis is a means to an end. I draw a character so I can construct a design for them, or better understand their personality, or just show how they move and behave. There’s always something bigger I want to do with a drawing, a larger story I want to tell or a larger idea I want to portray. Rarely do I draw something that’s just meant to be beautiful in and of itself (let alone try to sell it...).

Which means I don’t have that much to lose, with the way things are now. My focus is on webcomics, novels, and recently YouTube; even if DeviantArt and Twitter both completely self-destruct tomorrow there aren’t many aspects of my life that would change. I’d be very sad, yes, but I could very easily just move on.

So why do I still feel like I’m being stifled, like I’m stuck in a locked room that keeps getting smaller every time another company publicly declares their total disdain for visual artists in some way...?

Well, I’ve finally figured it out: it’s because I need the rest of you guys.

I need illustrators and other visual artists to exist; I need for there to be giant, thriving, active showcases of their work all over the interwebs. Even if I never participate in them again, I need them to be out there. Because they’re my inspiration.

The biggest reason I’d be sad about saying goodbye to Twitter isn’t the followers I’d lose, it’s that I won’t get to spend hours casually scrolling through my peers’ beautiful artwork anymore. I barely even use DeviantArt these days; I never browse and the last time I uploaded artwork was in September...but the thought of artists feeling the need to delete their entire galleries and leave out of sheer distrust still breaks my heart.

I don’t want to imagine a world where people stop wanting to just...draw. I definitely don’t want to imagine a world where artists feel the only way their work will be seen is if they try to become 1-man entertainment companies the way I do. ^^; I’m insane; what I do isn’t for everyone and it shouldn’t be.

And anyway, I wouldn’t have the strength to do what I do if it wasn’t for the other artists around me, the ones who just draw cool pictures and do it so well that I look at them and think about them for days...the ones who constantly remind me of the beauty and wonder that I’m striving for in my own work.

I know they’re never truly going to disappear...no matter what certain people think, we as artists are not going to be driven extinct; not now and not ever. But it’s still worrying to think about being thrown out and scattered to the wind at any given moment...like many, I just want us to be able to have a home.

#musings

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babycharmander · 4 years ago

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If you think you have never stolen artwork, read this post.

So, art theft. If you've been a follower of mine, you've heard my barely-coherent rants about this before, but I thought it might be more productive to make a more coherent post on the subject.

If you're wondering about the title of the post here, it's because I feel like a lot of people aren't really grasping what exactly art theft is, and a LOT of people, even well-meaning ones, do it without even realizing it.

"But wait," you say. "I would never STEAL from an artist!! I never claim it as my own!" And that's all fine and good, but you're missing something here.

To start things off, what IS art theft? (It's not what deviantART said it was several years back, I'll tell you that much. *cough*)

We all know what art is, so let's talk about theft. Dictionary.com defines "theft" as "the act of stealing; the wrongful taking and carrying away of the personal goods or property of another; larceny." Okay, makes sense, but what about that other word there, stealing? Dictionary.com defines "steal" as "to take (the property of another or others) without permission or right, especially secretly or by force."

From those definitions, we can go on to define art theft as, specifically, "taking art without permission or right." In the context of art, that typically involves reposting it (not reblogging--reblogging is different) or using it for other things.

And there, my friends, is the issue.

If something is taken or used without permission, it is stolen. Permission is the important thing here--if an artist says "oh yeah, you can go ahead and use this!" then it's not stolen. You have their permission. But if you DON'T have that, then it IS stolen. It IS theft.

"But I'm not claiming it as my own!" you say. But you don't have to claim it as your own--the act of taking it in and of itself is an act of theft.

"But I said 'credit to the artist!'" The "credit" thing is a whole other conversation, but here's the short of it: The entire point of credit is to direct people to the source of something. If you are not directly linking to where you got the art from, you are not giving credit. "Credit to the artist" is not actually credit of any kind whatsoever. (Also, Google and Pinterest are not sources.)

"But I DID link back to the artist!" Okay, now this is where it may get confusing, because you may think you're covered because you actually did give credit. Here's the problem: if you reposted it or used it without permission, regardless of whether you gave credit or not, it's still stealing.

I'm bolding this because it's a point that a lot of people get tripped up on. Let me explain it this way: If you went into your neighbor's house and took something of theirs without their permission, but you told people "oh yeah, I got this from [neighbor]'s house!" that that would still, of course, be stealing, and it's no different for art.

Another thing is that even when you credit, people don't always check the source. Very recently I found a case where someone had reposted a piece of artwork of mine to Pinterest that was deliberately made to look like it came from the source material (it wasn't meant to confuse anyone, though--the description of my original post made it very clear that it was fanart). The person who reposted had linked back to my original post. The problem? The comments had people asking if this was official, where it happened in the source material, etc. Despite the fact that the source was right there, no one thought to look at it.

Even if you link back to the source, if you did it without the artist's permission, it's still stealing, and still causes problems for us artists.

"But I just posted it to my Pinterest--" DO NOT DO THIS. DO NOT POST AN ARTIST'S WORK TO PINTEREST IF YOU DO NOT HAVE THEIR EXPLICIT PERMISSION TO DO SO.

"But this artist friend of mine says they're okay if I post their work to my Pinterest so long as I link back to them!" Good for your friend! But the fact that your friend is okay with it doesn't mean that all artists are okay with it. For me, personally, I am very not okay with my work being posted to Pinterest, and say as much on my art blog description and posts (which people tend to ignore).

The problem with Pinterest--and reposting art in general--is that we artists don't know when it happens unless we're told, or unless we find it ourselves. It causes us to lose control of our art. And because of this, our art can spiral further out of our control, because when our works get posted to Pinterest or other similar websites, people who have no grasp whatsoever on how art works will just take it as "free art" and then use it for whatever they want.

That's how a piece I spent 20+ hours on was used as a poster for a paid event, without my permission, and without any payment or credit to me.

If an artist has said nothing about Pinterest (or other similar image sharing sites), your default should be to assume that they don't want their artwork posted there.

"Well I didn't repost someone's art, but I did use it for my avatar/RPing icon/video/fic cover/photo edit--" That's still stealing. If you're using it without their permission for any reason, that is stealing. Not to mention, the artist may not be cool with what you're using their art for anyway. (Looking at you, people who use platonic art in your shipping videos.)

“I MEANT to ask them for permission, but I forgot!” This can ONLY happen if you used the artwork BEFORE you asked for permission. You can resolve this by asking for permission BEFORE you use it, rather than assuming the answer will be “yes” and using it before asking.

"But it took me a really long time to make that icon/video/cover/edit!!" How long do you think it took the original artist to draw their piece? It doesn't matter how much work you put into modifying someone else's art--if you're doing it without their permission, you're still stealing.

"But I couldn't find the original artist! I tried to find them, I really did, but I couldn't. Is it okay to use their art then?" No, because you still don't have permission, and by reposting it anyway, you’re continuing to make the artwork spiral out of their control.

"What if I found the artist, but they speak a different language from mine? I can't ask them for permission, so is it okay if I repost their art anyway?" NO!! DO NOT DO THIS!! If there is a language barrier, use Google translate or find someone to translate for you and get a hold of the artist that way to ask them for their permission. The language barrier is NEVER an excuse to steal artwork. There are plenty of non-English-speaking artists who have taken ALL OF THEIR ARTWORK OFFLINE because the art theft was completely out of control. (And this isn't just exclusive to English-speakers stealing art from people who don't speak their language. It happens artists who don't speak English stealing art from English-speakers, too, but as this post is written in English it doesn't do much good for me to rant about this here.) If you can’t ask their permission, do not use it!!

"But what about reblogging?! Isn't that the same as reposting?? Should we not reblog art at all then?" No, reblogging (or retweeting) is not the same as reposting. If you reblog art, you keep all the information that we attached to the art, including our blog name and the description attached to the art. Reblogging/retweeting actually helps us artists A LOT, so as long as you're reblogging from the original artist (and not someone who's reposting their art), by all means, reblog our art!

"What if I just want to share someone else's artwork on Discord or show it to a friend?" This one's a bit different and is not actually as problematic. If you want to share our work on Discord or whatever, just link directly to where we posted it. Please don't post the art itself, unless you're doing it alongside a link because Discord won't show a preview or something.

"What about a forum or a site like Reddit?" This one's a bit different, since due to the way Reddit functions, if you LINK to the art, you have to go directly to the artist's original page to view it. (At least, that’s what it’s like the last time I was active there.) In a way it's roughly the same as with Discord--be sure you're linking directly to the actual post rather than just uploading the art on its own--but I would also ask the artist if they're okay with it, because they may be a member of the subreddit or forum and want to post it themselves, or they might not want their work shared to specific communities. (Some communities have a function where a bot will repost the artwork to Imgur, and some artists don't want that done with their art.)

"What if I'm saving it to my computer/phone to look at later, or making it into my desktop/phone wallpaper?" IMO this is fine, since your computer/phone files aren't public, and neither is your wallpaper. It's only a problem when you post it to public places without our permission.

"What if it's art I commissioned?" Well... like... in that case, it's art you paid for, so unless the artist you commissioned laid out very specific terms for you, you should be good to use that art. Like, at most, the artist may ask you to credit them somewhere in your blog description if they drew your icon or something, or credit them in a fic description if you commissioned a fic illustration from them, or something to that effect. It's really something you should have already worked out with the artist beforehand, but for the most part you should probably be fine to use art you paid for however you like.

"What about art I requested?" This is a bit different from commissioned work. Just because the art was drawn at your request doesn't mean it's explicitly yours (unless it's like, a drawing of your original character or something). Some artists take requests more as suggestions, so the art they draw in response to a suggestion or request is still theirs. Treat this as you would any other artwork and ask the artist for permission first before you do anything with the artwork you requested from them.

“What about NFTs?” ... Okay this one I can’t really go over too much because I barely understand it in the first place, but NFTs are BAD for artists and are a form of art theft. Do not turn people’s art into NFTs. This is a crappy thing to do. (If you want more information on this one, you’ll have to look it up yourself. It’s a form of cryptocurrency and it’s confusing.)

“If you don’t want your art stolen you shouldn’t post it in the first place.” This is fascinating logic. Try applying it to something else and see how it holds up. “If you don’t want your merchandise stolen, you shouldn’t open a booth.” “If you don’t want to get poisoned you shouldn’t eat food.” “If you don’t want to get punched in the face, don’t walk outside.” Yes. Flawless logic. Truly.

"Why do you care so much, anyway?! I'm sharing your art because I like it! That's a compliment! Shouldn't you be happy?" Well, we're certainly glad you like our art, but the problem is... as I've said before, reposting our art causes us to lose our control over it. When we lose control of our art, that damages our livelihood. As I said before, other people have made money off of my artwork. As well, some artists lose jobs because when their potential employers check out their portfolio, they may find artwork that's been reposted everywhere online, so they cannot hire the artist because they believe they may have stolen the artwork in their own portfolio.

Your reposting an image you thought was cute to Facebook or Pinterest could cost an artist their job. Think about that.

So, tl;dr, keep this in mind: you need the artist's permission to repost or use their artwork. If you do not have it, it is stealing, even if you credit the artist.

I know this post is really harsh in places, but this is such an important thing for all artists, and there's so many misconceptions about art theft online. And I feel like one of the biggest problems is that when some people see posts on art theft, they ignore them, because they think they've never done it or would never do it, so that's why I worded this post the way I did. I'm not trying to hurt anyone--I just want people to understand what art theft is, how it affects us artists, and how you can avoid it. Thank you for reading.

#long post #psa #drawing #art theft

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