#but i'm using it as an example to illustrate my point bc i don't have anything loaded skdjfhs; i haven't thought too hard on any of that)

[astarab1aze]

Do nightfolk have... lawyers?

yes! they're still people, of course, and they more or less live similarly structurally to humans (a lot of wild differences, but still). in the us, their lawyers are usually tommy-knockers (who also help the gilde family run the banks), but really, they could be fey, goblins, vampires, shifters, at one time there was a barghest (how? magic), another a beholder, etc etc. nightfolk aren't exactly the most strict when it comes to who can do what, so long as so-and-so can actually perform the job functions (and are certified, depending on the field).

nightfolk lawyers are kind of- cut-throat. the lawyering game is just as messy and convoluted as it is in a human context, worse actually, and there aren't very many to go 'round so they're very expensive. in most cases, any who can't afford them have to represent themselves, one won't be provided by the state except in very 'particular circumstances' (where it pertains to really old laws like, er, consider laws like 'the law of surprise' - stuff like that, weird laws, binding vow removal too (that entire process is a paaaaain in the ass)). it seems cruel and unusual, but nightfolk are taught throughout childhood all about the legalities of their society since it's still adapting to human expansion and industrialism, modernizing, balancing their own traditions, ways of life, in some ways protecting humans from them and the monsters and such that still very much lurk in the world and one world-ending cataclysm after another-- they have to know everything, they have to be prepared. whether they end up needing to use any of that information is irrelevant. anyway-

you could theoretically divorce a god and it be totally accepted legally by everyone involved, few questions asked. attitudes about wacky, surely mindboggling stuff, are by and large best summed up as a roll of the shoulders most of the time. they all hear wild shit all day, every day, so lawyers, judges, and all kinds of legislative types have an easier time being objective and decisive, er, pragmatic (as well as being corrupt, but that's not what this post is about!).

as i think on it now, how one would become a lawyer is by apprenticeship. you work with a lawyer, they teach you everything, you learn, you take certification classes, the nightfolky bar exam lol, and there you go i guess. it takes a good long time, cos you need your mentor's approval and recommendations from several other supervisor types, character letters, and then you have to go through extensive background checks, take an oath, a binding vow to your firm as a condition of proper employment (and to the department of regulatory sorceries)-- and so on. it's an enormous pain in the ass to become a lawyer and that's why it's an undersaturated field.

[kiddycup]

hi!!! i wanted to ask you if you had any tips for going about choosing colors? your art provokes very distinct feelings/atmospheres via the colors & i do hope to do the same someday ^_^

hello! thank you... i'm actually quite insecure about my colouring, but i think a big thing that helped me was putting down one base undercolour that i base all my other colours around and not just picking random colours from wherever (sticking close to it on the colour wheel)

i'll use these colours from my comic as an example bc it has 2 different schemes for mood change effect:

the left panel is kinda goofy or whatever, so i chose that green/yellow in the bg there to have a happier/sillier tone. their skin/clothing are still around that colour, though.

this is for ena's (girl on left) skin tone and shirt respectively:

the top half of that colour preview is the undercolour i used, and the bottom half are the subject colours. you can see that if that shirt colour is isolated, it's orange; but put on top of this green, it looks red. you can also see that i dont deviate too much from that undertone on the side slider.

you can see the same thing done w the right panel, which a red tone was used instead of the green/yellow (because red=scary/tense) etc.

these are for clare's (shocked one) skin tone, and then renee's (girl on her right) shirt colour.

you can see that for the left panel, i tended to stay on the upper yellow, while for the right panel i stayed more within the bottom red range on the slider. for both of these, i stayed within the top left of the picker area--thats where the earthier/soft look comes from. it would be different if i strayed further right, which is much more saturated and bright.

i also usually like to choose a less severe line colour, in this case its more of a very dark brown instead of black. i find that it tends to compliment these colours more with the same reasoning as everything else i talked about.... and it kind of gives it a faded vintage look?

anyway, im usually more of a sketcher than an illustrator so take it as a starting point... and don't hesitate to colour drop drawings with colours/moods you like and see how they interact with each other on the sliders/wheels. that's how i learned when i started out.

also, a little colour overlay on top of your drawing is an easy cheat to get your colours more cohesive--i still use it at times. learning the ins-and-outs of how it works without resorting to it is still useful though, and in my experience it makes your colours more specific and stand out

i hope this makes sense and/or helps!!!!

[naturecalls111]

i love your drawings so much<333 your art is so perfect like the anatomy looks so beautiful!!!! how did you learn to draw that anatomically correct? like do you use a lot of references or do you just know how to draw bodies atp? bc im struggling with anatomy lmaoo

Wahhhhh!!! 🥹 Thank you so much!!! I'm holding this praise very close to my heart right now!!!! I've spent a lot of time over the years doing studies and having images of muscle group diagrams open while drawing, so I'm super happy to hear it paid off!

So I don't really use references anymore when I start drawing and composing the pose, but I absolutely still reference diagrams of muscle groups when I find myself hesitating with the way certain parts of the body may appear. Something like this, for example:

Something that gives me an exaggerated idea of what that part of the body looks like so I can soften it to my liking. My main goal when using reference isn't to do a 1:1 replica, but rather understand What I'm Drawing while I'm drawing it. At this point of my art journey, I'd prefer having more practise in manipulating these muscles than just practising drawing what I can see.

(Worth mentioning I absolutely still practise observational drawing, and it undoubtedly aids this aspect of my drawing, too. I used to use fanart specifically to practise it, but this year I've taken to separating my fanart from my study art because I find that it allows me to be less miserable when it doesn't come out good LOL now I just do oil painting which helps me focus more on general shapes and values)

Using these types of categorised diagrams has also helped me simplify that initial structure of the body when I'm sketching. Having general markers of what muscle goes where definitely helps me set the position of the body in the long run.

I very, very highly encourage the use of references always, but especially when still learning to get more confident with anatomy!!!! Me not using references for poses is very much at the cost of having anatomy that could be even More accurate LOL I merely know where to place the lines to make things look Passably believable. Buuuttt that's also just the process of improving. Imagination is a muscle that has to be trained too. What's been helping me find a happy middle nowadays is drawing with references that cover small parts instead of using the reference for the whole illustration. FOR EXAMPLE!!!

I had drawn this much of the catlaila I recently posted without a reference before I was like.. Huh. I can't really figure out what I want to with the arms, but I also don't know what is Physically Possible to do with the arms here, so I'll experiment with my 3D poser (WHICH BTW I LOVE AND USED TO USE RELIGIOUSLY FOR EVEEERYTHING SO!! GO DOWNLOAD LOL it's called MagicPoser) and I had adjusted the models up to this point before being like, ok yeah this is enough for me to go off of as something that is physically feasible. So the posing of the rest of the models is whatever because I just needed to know what Laila's arms would look like. This was the final linework:

Like, it's still not a 1:1 with the reference, but it's just enough that it seems feasible !! My personal opinion is that sometimes reference doesn't capture the Shapes that I want it to, even if it's more realistic, so it's ok to break rules and just go with your flow lol... It's shocking how many times I've thought references of real human bodies look unrealistic and ridiculous HAHA Hence focusing more on learning the muscle groups/shapes so that I can adjust to my liking without sacrificing the integrity of the anatomy...

Also, not necessarily on anatomy, but I use plenty of references when I need to see things like how tight shirts stretch over breasts, or how cloth sits at a certain angle, or, honestly, hands. I almost always draw hands by looking at my own. I cannot stress enough: I use plenty of references. I am not a magician and I don't have perfect memory, even after four/five years of studied drawing x)))

Anyway. I've yapped so much. I try to be detailed in my explanation of anatomy because god knows how much I struggled with it!!! I STILL do. If you ever catch the link to it, I often stream these drawings and you'll see how many times I duplicate these layers so I can erase whole sections and try again, or how often I'll attempt the position of a leg over and over before I feel its right. The final product is so quick to digest but the process is frustratingly finicky, I promise, LMAO.

I hope this wasn't too convoluted and long, and I wish you the super best on your anatomy journey! If you ever need help and catch me at the right time, I'm totally open to giving any work a second opinion ! :3c

[vilevampirez]

long list of funny things abt my experience doing emote commissions for mike

first of all I wasn't expecting to get commissioned at all (my commissions weren't even open, I just made an exception for mike) let alone by MIKETHELINK of all fucking people, so I had nothing prepared. I had no portfolio, commission sheet, nothing. I had never made any twitch emotes, so I had no examples to show either. meaning that when barbmine showed up in my dms asking if I took emote commissions, first I lost my fucking shit, then I panicked and rushed to find the most recent emote-like illustrations I had, including animation, and the most recent animation I had on hand happened to be a viewtiful joe one lmao. the animation in question 👇

(the usernames on the watermark aren't even accurate anymore..)

I have some experience taking commissions but they'd always been for friends of mine, this was my first time getting commissioned by a real "client" and the client was fucking mikethelink tazercraft of all fucking people . I know he "found" me through Mine, she sent me a dm first asking for commission info, saying she would show it to mike later. the thing is that when she said that she also implied that she was in touch with other artists too, so I was like "oh ok I'll send my stuff but I probably won't get chosen lol" and then a few hours later I got two twitter notifs, one saying that mr. thelink tazercraft was now following me and another was his DM. to say I almost had a heart attack would be an understatement

later I found out Mine had made a tweet asking for artists to reach out/people to rec artists for mike's twitch emotes. that post had around 40 comments. many people had been recommended more than once. I wasn't mentioned by anyone once, and in fact, I had no fucking idea that post even EXISTED until way after the fact. I have no idea how I ended up getting this job

mike happened to contact me on a day where I was severely sleep deprived. our entire business conversation took place while I was half-panicking, half-almost-passing-out. I don't know how I survived

at many points during our conversation I gave a lot of leeway for mike to give up on commissioning me, implying multiple times that he would be better off commissioning a different artist. and it's not because I lacked confidence (though a bit of that too, of course), but because of my lack of experience. I was very open about that to him, so many times I expected him to second guess his decision to commission me. unexpectedly, he was really insistent. I think partially he didn't want to go through the trouble of finding and contacting a different artist, but also I guess he just liked my art that much (??!?)

I definitely undercharged him lol. it's not that I don't value my work, it's just that I was absolutely not prepared for any of this shit to happen and didn't have enough time to think

I use adobe after effects for animating mike's emotes. I already knew how to animate (though I had never animated anything big), but I had never used after effects before. I even told mike this before accepting the commission, but he just said it was easy and I could totally do it, and I was just like "fucking hell. fine". and look, I know my limits, I knew I'd be able to learn after effects with relative ease. if I thought it'be too much for me to handle, I wouldn't have accepted the commission. it just that to this day I'm still shocked that mike commissioned an artist who HAD NEVER USED THE TOOL NECESSARY FOR THE COMMISSION HE WANTED.

due to the point above I was pretty apprehensive about animating the emotes, but now I'm glad I got this opportunity bc it reignited my passion for animation that had been dwindling for a long time and I've been learning a lot while working. also with every new emote I figure out how to use a different feature of after effects and it makes the job a little bit easier

before giving my payment information I came out to him to avoid confusion with my legal name being different from the name on my socials. he was very chill about it and always used the right name and pronouns for me whenever he mentions me on stream

fun fact: I was reached out to by another big (brazilian, not in qsmp) youtuber for a commission but I had to refuse because I had too much on my plate already (still do..)

my favorite emotes are the devil one and the nerd one

I made his twitch avatar and banner too! I'm really proud of the avatar. the banner was absolute hell

I'm a lurker (and nowadays a vod watcher since I've been busy w/ uni work) but I do watch every single one of mike's streams, so just know that I'm always seeing you guys use the emotes :3

[lionheartedmusings]

i saw a post earlier that q!tubbo is the only "moral" character even after purgatory and it's kinda kept me awake, not because i don't agree with the sentiment (i do) but because the idea of morality as intrinsically important in fandom / character analysis is fascinating to me, *especially* when we're talking about the morality of someone who's basically just spent two weeks in some eye guy's budget hunger games.

first off, while i fully agree that by the end of this q!tubbo *is* a character that tried at every turn to be kind and generous even to his own detriment, how does that make him more or less "moral" than q!phil or q!fit? he still killed, the same as them. he still strategized to beat his friends, has blood on his hands — why is he marked above x, y, or z in the moral scale?

well, one could argue that he did what he did for his team, for the eggs, and because he was forced to when he was put in the game in the first place, yeah? it's not his fault he's in this position, and he's doing his best to survive it. i personally think that's totally valid and justifiable, but it leaves a huge elephant in the room.

what about everyone else?

i'm going to use q!bad as an example because he's my main pov, and before i go into this analysis i want it known i'm very much playing the devil's advocate and illustrating a point — i am not saying his actions are "good". good? good.

okay. so, q!bad. here we have a non-human father who was told by his missing child to win regardless of the cost, or whomever he had to run over. he had to win. is it immoral then for him to take that to heart and play the game the way it was presented? is it immoral for him to kill for his child, or to be determined to win even in detriment of others? to want to use the same strategies in the battlefield that everyone else would, even if they're not kind or polite?

i don't fucking know, because morality isn't linear — this situation *isn't* linear bc if people will go on the record saying they would kill for their child and are praised for it, what makes q!bad's actions in the universe he's existing in any different?

you can even say that by some perspectives, q!tubbo extending so much kindness to his competitors over and over again was at times (or could've been) detrimental to his team ergo their childrens' lives and yet he still did it. is it more moral to save children or be nice to someone else?

my point being, i feel that the morality argument while very very interesting is kind of irrelevant bc when push comes to shove, characters aren't compelling bc they have more or less morals — i genuinely think a lot of media / character consumption has *actively* been harmed by everyone's need to have the thing they enjoy be "good" or "moral" or "right" bc if it isn't, what does that say about us?

the answer to that one is: absolutely nothing, but man do i think sometimes people in fandom feel guilty if they like or prefer an immoral or grey character vs a "stereotypical" moral one.

anyway, all this to say that i think by the end of purgatory, q!tubbo is the character that was most true to himself and his values from start to finish, and it's been a great watch. is he the most morally correct? eh. who the fuck knows.

[nigelgraz]

hello! i have been following you for a while now and i want to tell you that im in love your illustrations and your drawing style! (literally, im in love with your men, specially alucard) 💞💞💞 and I wanted to ask since I’ve been wanting to draw lately, do you have any advice for those of us who are just starting to learn?

have a nice day :) ♡

Hii!! Thank you so much for the kind words snd support, it makes me so happy to know you like my work this much🥹❤️❤️

My advice would be to try to find a balance between drawing fun self indulgent things AND all the boring difficult subjects and studies that might be less enjoyable and engaging to do but will help your foundation and painting skills a ton in the long run! For examples i used to pretty much only draw heads in 3/4 angle with a white background when i was starting out bc it was my comfort zone and i was pretty good at it, but i realized i was rlly lacking in all the other aspects like anatomy and backgrounds and lighting and wasn't learning anything new! Always make time to do anatomy, lighting, shading and color thoery studies and if they were too boring for you, try to combine the studies with subjects and characters you like :) personally i'm still lacking in Anatomy but i've been doing some anatomy studies with my favorite characters as the models lately and it's way more fun and motivating.

Another thing is to always look at a ton of art by different skilled artists and analyze and study their work and try to find the purpose behind their color choices and brush strokes, how they stylize features, how they draw some parts of a painting very detailed and leave the rest with minimum rendering to draw the attention to the focal point, etc. Doing this makes you see things with a fresh pair of eyes and you can even spot your own mistakes and correct them instead of repeating them over and over because you don't have any other point of reference other than your own work. I've definitely been there :'D

These are the tips that would've helped me a lot when i started properly painting, i hope they can help you too! Good luck and i hope you have fun drawing❤️

[ozwuv]

How did you learn to draw hands?

HANDS I'm a freak who loves drawing hands... This is going to sound odd, but it's another thing that ties into being autistic for me kfdsjkfsd I have poor facial recognition skills and generally avoid eye contact, so I tend to identify people by their hands. I couldn't reliably visualize my own mother's face if my life depended on it, but I sure do know exactly what the back of her hands look like. As a result, I have hands burnt into my memory lol. But more importantly, I love to draw character interaction, and hands are sooo integral to that. If I force myself to enjoy something or at least hold a lot of interest in it, it'll be easier to learn long term and I think that's something a lot of people can relate to.

More under the cut bc I'm longwinded

The other thing is something nobody wants to hear, but tbh just studying them lol. Short gesture drawings are best for this (think 60 seconds max), but tbh Mochijun's way of drawing hands really inspired me when PH was still running in the last quarter of the manga. I wouldn't suggest studying purely from one person's illustrations, but it helps to pick out a few artist who draws hands in a way you love. Nowadays Hoshino's (DGM's mangaka) way of drawing hands inspires the heeeell out of me.

Like are you seeing this shit? The way she draws hands fucking rules lol

I wouldn't stick to 100% studying irl hands or 100% studying drawn hands -- a mix of both is great, bc you can have all the knowledge in the world of how to realistically emulate hands, but studying how others stylize hands can be helpful for actually drawing them. This goes for anything in general because not having an idea of how to incorporate something you're studying into your art can be really frustrating. For example, the thing I enjoy most about how Hoshino draws hands is how the fingers are not just straight lines -- they have dips and jut out to indicate knuckles/joints and such. I find the way she draws hands to be so expressive, unique, and beautiful.

Another thing to keep in mind: don't focus on the details. Just get the general silhouette down for a bunch of different poses -- details can come later. This is why gesture drawing is so useful, it forces you to get the key points down so you don't over-detail something you don't fully understand yet and wind up making things look awkward/stiff.

Also, never forget you (most likely) have two hands right in front of you that you can reference any time! Take pics of your own hands from various angles if you must. Really useful!

Btw: Quickposes a really useful resource for gesture and figure drawing. It has options specifically for hands (!), humans, animals, landscapes, etc, with time intervals as short as 30 seconds, and an option for custom intervals. Line of Action is also great, but it's limited to just human options.

I haven't used either of the above in a while since I'm too lazy to draw anything but anime lol but if they're still as good as I remember, I would highly recommend them.

OH ALSO SONIC FANART you have to git gud at drawing hands if you want to draw sonic characters they got bigass hands. Sonic also taught me how to draw shoes kfjDOIWGJI

ALSO PT 2 just trace shit. Literally. People act like tracing is evil but it's a great way to learn. You can even trace other artist's work, just don't post it and claim it as yours lol

[visualsandvoices]

I think we're in the midst of a new genre of 4th wall breaks, for lack of a better term, where the character isn't actually speaking to the audience, but the writer is.

Marvel, disney shows and remakes...it feels as though the writers are so hyper-aware of the audience, so hyper-cautious of coming across as pleasing and so crystal-clear to the viewer, that it feels disingenuous.

I don't want to watch something that feels like a training video HR told corporate to show in the boardroom -- here's how women prefer to be spoken to, here's how parents can nurture their children, here's how women can learn to be leaders. You're lonely? Here's an example of a dialogue about how to discuss your emotions with a friend -- All to be performed for you in a hastily written skit that illustrates the point only vaguely more engagingly than a basic power point would have.

Listen. my guy. People so rarely say exactly what they are thinking or feeling. Usually we layer our speech with subtext.

Think of Andor, which uses environmental story telling (set design, colour palettes, costume design, lighting) as well as camera work/editing, music, and physical performance to say so much without a word spoken.

Or Wall-E. Literally Wall-E. Very little dialogue, so much story.

And then you watch the new Thor movies and it's just...I'm so sorry to be a party pooper but it's frustrating the way we are hand-held through every emotional beat.

Good dialogue is not on-the-nose all the time.

Same with the second season of Good Omens. Season 1 was riddled with feelings not verbalized but understood, both by characters and the viewers, and season 2 bulldozed that and put it all into dialogue...which was not only pointless bc like we just did all this in season 1 (I don't care if it's a "bridging season" that's such a weird excuse), but it's the perfect example of feeling the angst along side characters vs. being told by the dialogue--the characters themselves telling us--that they are angsty. You know the writing advice "show don't tell"? yeah, this is that. "Say it" without actually saying it.

I just...I don't know how to wrap this up except to say that i'm tired of being excited to watch stuff only to be disappointed by feeling like i'm being introduced to a new Emotional Experience and they wanna make sure I've wrapped my lil noggin around it. You can hit all those same beats, explore all those themes and emotions, but write a good story. That means stop leaning on dialogue so heavily, and if you must use dialogue it can be indirect. Let Michael Sheen do all the facial acting if that's what it takes. Just stop piling every thought you have while writing into dialogue because my god it's so wooden.

Maybe this is to do with the writer's strikes that has gone on, in all fairness. I understand writers are badly paid and are under stupid deadlines, so you gotta spit out what work you can under those conditions. I do get that. But...yeah. Just had to shout this into the void before going to sleep.

[beatcroc]

Okay I finally generated an ask for you!!!!

What is your favourite genre of music? Or if you don't know how to categorize the music you listen to (like me), what is your favourite song? Or band? Or album? Something like that.

ohhhhh #1 question i am categorically incapable of being normal about <3

i typically just define my favorite music as "loud" or "aggressive" or "abrasive" bc most stuff that fits those descriptors will be in my faves regardless of the genre.

a more specific answer is that there are 3 main things i've noticed that will typically make me go apeshit without fail and they are: 1. hardstyle/gabber/industrial hardcore- sorta basskick 2. sickass metal guitar shredding 3. huge dramatic grandiose orchestral

if something has 1 of these i will probably like it, if it has 2 it will be a top fave, and all 3.... well i have yet to find it yet but im sure i will Ascend. here are examples of said top fave combos.

laur covers hardstyle+orchestral and i Cannot Get Enough of his shit man it goes so fucking crazy hard

metal+orchestral is unquestionably ruled by nightwish, but theyre not on bandcamp and i dont feel like finding other links so this one goes to the still-very-fucking-awesome runner-up, POWERWOLF

riikira and rabbitjunk hit metal+hardstyle, though it's less strictly hardstyle and more just general hardcore* electronica. if its got crazy amens its enough who cares. i put the ones that use actual kicks for the sake of illustrating the point here but these tracks are both pretty far from my faves from each lmao *hardcore referring to hardcore [edm] in this case, even though the genre these belong to is called "digital hardcore", which instead refers to hardcore [punk]. it's a mess out here. did you know theres two completely different things called doomcore where one is derived from metal and the other is derived from hardcore. and you never know which itsd going to be when you click on something in the doomcore tag. im dying squirtle

anyway on the other side of the hardstyle+metal combo is kobaryo [with his alias blaxervant], who's much more about the hardcore side of things and just has the metal as flair, but it is still: the best shit ever

laur also on occasion hits this side of hardstyle+metal becaue he just likes using whatever the fuck instruments

there are of course many other things i love a lot, primary examples being ambient/atmospheric, folk, and anything with a lot of Texture. im not gonna get into all that but i do have an extended list of faves/recs from the last time i was asked about this and went insane abt it. it took forever to make and my actual recs are not entirely the same as my Faves so im putting it on here too.

i keep these curated to the top of my bandcamp profile so they're the first things that display there. it's a bit old by now and some have since been shuffled out, but it's still like 80% accurate.

as for the actual recs: the angel's message is there because it's my fave brand of intense and chaotic stuff and want it to kill you full force. it already has some tracks up there so im not re-linking it

this one i recommend just because i think it's really interesting and out there and i'm curious what other people think of this sort of stuff. it's also the prime example of what i mean when i talk about Textures in music.

wolfgun is an actual rec for being genuinely just really good music. probably the most objectively cool/platonically enjoyable thing in my library

[godtier]

"op sec (operational security) is something i'm extremely passionate about. if anyone wants a full-ass post about that, i'm more than happy to throw one together."

yeah please

(only took me 3 minutes to read u actually bc i'm a quick reader and yet i took my time)

dank, this is what i like to hear! (also it's good that you were able to handle the tl;dr bc this post will probs be a lil tl;dr too lol)

i'll try to go over this point by point.

#1: don't use the same usernames on every single platform.

this is one of great contention nowadays because people like to have "brand recognition" of sorts. they like to be discoverable. they like their friends (and in some cases, fans) be able to find their posts across multiple platforms. this is all well and good if you are cultivating a specific type of experience. for example, if you're a content creator, it makes total sense.

most people online are not content creators, though. if you have no desire to be a content creator, try segmenting your experiences. that is to say, have ONE account with a username for your personal/IRL posts, and ONE account for your fandom shitposts. make them completely different. don't use the same user icon or whatever. don't use any PII (personal identifying information) on your fandom shitpost account.

even IF you would like to be a content creator, i would still suggest segmenting your experiences. if you manage to strike it big in a content creation space, think of this: eventually, you'll get crazy stalker fans. you may get people in your DMs asking invasive shit. prevent this from happening: have a contingency plan in place. this means, again, having SEPARATE usernames for your different purposes. is this annoying? sure. but it keeps you safe.

to illustrate what i mean, let's say you do want to be a content creator. your creator name is "mcguffinthecreator" (that's what it is now, you have to use this, it's the rules). you can have your content creator twitter, tumblr, facebook, insta, tiktok, whatever else have the username "mcguffinthecreator" for brand recognition purposes. for your personal shit, make up something totally different for each one that cannot be connected back to the mcguffin personality OR to each other. "anonsworld" for one. "ilikepencils" for another. so on and so forth.

#2: don't reuse passwords

this is a basic one you may have heard and most people shrug it off because it gets difficult to remember multiple passwords when every fuCKIN WEBSITE these days bullies you into creating an account.

but you don't have to.

use firefox and it'll generate passwords for you and save them to the browser. and if you ever need to copy and paste the passwords into another browser for whatever reason, you can do that by going to about:logins in the browser bar on firefox. and, if you make a firefox account (yeah i know aNOTHER ACCOUNT), any instance of firefox that you log into will port those passwords over, even on mobile devices. this is also a function on edge and chrome, but i highly recommend firefox over those two browsers for security reasons.

#3: don't use your real name on any account that you want to do fandom bullshit in

(or really in general, but i know that's not gonna happen for most people)

if you really wanna be low-key, don't give your real name to anyone online that you don't know IRL. yes, it is 100% possible to make real, genuine friendships with people online. i've known @sapphire-weapon for like, 15+ years and we've yet to meet in-person. i know her real name, she knows mine. but we never use them, anyway. we're just "ash n sirea" in any online shit we get up to, and it'll stay that way forever.

that might sound strange to a lot of people, but it protects both of us to do that. if we just started using each other's real names in tumblr posts, for example, that opens us both up to weirdos tryna find us. it sounds paranoid and it probably is, but we both grew up during a time when the internet was just getting big. both of us remember a time before having a personal computer in the house or everyone having internet at home or everyone having a cellphone. and we were both taught to never give out your real name to anyone online, ever.

this protects us from shit like... yknow... people calling our places of employment to tell our bosses that we're horrible people, actually. which is a thing that people do like it's normal nowadays since it's so fuckin easy to find information on more normal people. you say one wrong thing and it's easy for someone who's got a chafed enough bhole to find your deets and start harassing you IRL. keeping your PII close to the chest is the smart thing to do if you plan on getting involved in any online discussions these days.

#4: don't post any identifying pics on your fandom bullshit accounts

this means selfies, pics of your house, pics of places around your house, so on and so forth. again, this sounds restrictive, but it's extremely easy to find where people live that way AND it opens you up to AI photo manip bullshit. if you must post a pic, be sure to strip its EXIF data before posting it. you can find steps on how to do that here. and just... don't post selfies publicly. at all. even if you strip the EXIF data before posting, that doesn't prevent people from taking your selfie and running it through either a photoshop manip or an AI tool. share selfies only with people you absolutely, 100% trust. this means locking down instagram accounts where you want to post selfies, for example. this goes back to having multiple accounts for different purposes.

#5: inform your friends that, if they know your fandom bs accounts, to NOT tag you in posts that they think you would like

this is a huge hole that people often overlook. let's say you have some IRL friends that are also into fandom. let's say you've been doing your due diligence and keeping your experiences segmented. you've got different usernames, don't use your IRL info on the fandom account, you're all good.

you share these accounts with your IRL fandom friends because maybe you post insightful stuff, funny fandom memes, or maybe you're an artist. you figure "they're my friends, they're not gonna purposefully expose me."

problem is, a lot of people these days don't really "get" the concept of keeping your info on lock online. you can't assume that they'll look at a situation the same way you do.

so let's say your friend finds a funny meme for the fandom you're in. they know you have a personal account and a fandom account. they figure "well, i'll tag the fandom account because this is fandom-related." so they do.

here's the problem: let's say you've pissed off someone who's hate-following you. they see someone's tagged you on a post. maybe the friend even uses your real name rather than your handle because why would they use your handle? they know you IRL. to the friend, it's harmless and makes sense to use the name they've always known you by.

but to the hate-follower, they've just been handed a juicy dish on a silver platter. now they can use a few tricks to find your actual personal account. for the sake of clarity, let's use twitter as an example. let's also assume that on your IRL account, you're using your real name. and let's ALSO assume that your friend doesn't lock down their account because most people really don't.

they go to the friend's account who tagged you.

they look in their following list.

they look for your name.

they find the account.

they see your personal deets just sittin there, ripe for the picking.

they can now harass you and stalk you with more precision than if they just had your fandom account handle.

for that reason, you have to make a call here. do you share your fandom account with your IRL friends that you trust to not fuck you over on purpose? or do you keep that private from even them to protect yourself from unintentional exposure? depending on your friend group, some may be more diligent than others when it come to keeping your accounts properly segmented. you can tell your friends that have the account to never tag you in anything and to just private message it to you. that's one option. the other is to just never reveal that you have a fandom account and interact with fandom on a very, VERY surface level degree on your IRL account. the last is to just never post anything on your personal IRL account and/or lock it to friends only.

#5: "commit to the bit." don't break "character" if you meet someone in fandom who seems really cool

now, i say "character" as if you'd be acting differently, but what i really mean is your handle and username set-up for your fandom bs account. if you meet someone really cool, don't get starstruck and answer any question they pose to you like "what area are you in?" or "is [handle] your actual name?" because these are dangerous questions to answer when you don't know what the intent is. again, it sounds paranoid, but assume everyone you meet online could potentially fuck you over in the end. it took me a very long time to tell my closest online friends my actual name and location. i've met some of them IRL and i've sent letters/packages to others. it's not unheard of, but it's not something i do lightly. if you are REALLY keen on becoming pen pals with someone, set up a PO box.

this also protects you from common scams like pig butchering or revenge porn. online dating is more ubiquitous than ever and who wouldn't want a bf or gf who's into fandom like you are? problem is that you can open yourself up to trouble if you meet someone who's really really interested in your personal life when you're on your fandom bs account. don't give up your IRL account for anyone who asks, just because you're into them, romantically or otherwise. most people who are looking to scam or troll don't tend to pull a long game. this means being pals with someone for an extended period of time before opening up any further.

#6: don't give away personal troubles to anyone in fandom

this means shit beyond like "my mom is being an asshole" and going into providing detailed backgrounds on your tumultuous family relations. this gives people ammunition. if you're in DM with someone and it comes up in conversation, don't go into detail. treat it like a work relationship: coworkers don't need to know your personal life and neither do fandom friends.

and that's what i got for now. there's a lot to go into regarding PII opsec. there's a subreddit called /r/privacy that i'd recommend perusing for more ideas on how to protect yourself online. they tend to go into things like online tracking, advertising, VPNs, and so on, but they also have discussions about just keeping yourself as anonymous as possible online in relation to your IRL self.

i hope this helps! feel free to share it to any of your pals if you like and if you have more questions, just let me know!

[just-antithings]

https://www.tumblr.com/just-antithings/724299265801961472/behold-terfs-having-nuclear-waster-tier?source=share

I have. So many comments to make on this person's points.

Not everyone who write fanfiction is writing it as 'practice' for 'real writing'. Most do it because they enjoy writing it?? And of course they're going to improve! The only way to improve in writing is really to just...write?? You'll improve faster by incorporating other things like editing outlines etc but like what is their point??

'All fanfiction writers write the same' proceeds to give the most generic two word examples that illustrate nothing. I'm sorry but 'she murmured' is not indicative of a generic style it's just two words

I like how they basically say you shouldn't have fun writing/reading content??

If I wanna pull out a card this person has likely used, I'd say they're 'terminally online'. You think FANFICTION is the reason media literacy has gone down and there is a rise in generic quick content? Grow UP omg. Fanfic is more prevalent than it once was, but it's still a rather niche interest. They only think it's the reason bc they spend so much time in fandom oriented online spaces. The fault (imo) lies with major publishers/production companies/etc that are valuing that content and flood the market with it bc of profit reasons. Idk just my opinion.

Blatantly ignoring jkrs transphobia/other issues and glossing it over as like 'oh she just controls her own content!!1'. Stupidest take ive heard.

Tldr ig not liking fanfiction is fine just don't make up some moral crusade against it that boils down to 'I don't think fanfic counts as REAL writing so anyone who enjoys it is an idiot and a sheep and I will blame things on them'

My dudes (Gender neutral) I am so tired

.

[povestotrischane]

gawaine from the uhm. mecha vn adaptation. just dropped + a gringolet sketch (not to scale) bc i wanted to include it buttttt really didn't want to commit to a design quite yet or spend an excess of time on something that really just exists to sit on the side and justify the image dimensions other than the need to prevent this from becoming sfw gawaine

lore notes under the cut

- it's not really that clear based on this illustration but the armored parts of gawaine's plugsuit are actually meant to be a sort of science fantasy material similar to a clear acryllic, with gold + green paint on the inside . i'm genuinely considering learning to make resin molds just so i can have a real life example of the effect i'm going for just to reference it bc i have absolutely no idea how to begin to properly convey this

- this isn't actually the (in-universe) intended design of a plugsuit. remember what i said the other day about arthur's kingdom being well past its prime and most things being in a state of disrepair? yeah this is a big example of that. the means to produce plugsuits are long gone and so instead of each knight getting their own proper one which covers everything, is tailored to fit and looks a lot more like an actual medieval suit of armor, they just wear the most important pieces bc the vast majority of plugsuits haven't survived the test of time in their entirety and. as previously mentioned. are tailored to fit their original wearer. and thus cobbling together pieces wouldn't exactly work.

- the not-quite-acryllic plugsuit pieces actually connect to the mecha (which is why wearing the biggest pieces are important, as the connection can still be achieved without a full suit if the major connection points are intact)

- plugsuit pieces are harder to come by than actual mechs themselves, knights will fight tooth and nail for the minimum number of pieces, force them to fit just well enough to not fall off, comfort be damned (the big example of this is lancelot bc uh. sorry babe but the big tits ascribed to you by the vulgate aren't doing you any favors here), and then just show up at the nearest liege lord's door and immediately get the job + a mech bc they're in such high demand.

- under their plugsuits, knights usually just wear their uniforms. they didn't used to but uhm. judging by the fact that plugsuits used to cover "more" rather than "less", times have changed. the uniforms themselves are very thick, almost like cloth armor.

- the uniforms worn under plugsuits are changed out with whichever region of arthur's kingdom the knights are in, largely according to dialect changes, which is mainly just my way to lend a nod to the slight distinction between, say, gwalchmai and walewein (welsh gawaine and dutch gawaine 4 when i inevitably throw this at my main which has a higher population of mecha fans than med lit enthusiasts) with a visual queue which goes farther than just the name switching i mentioned the other day

- gawaine has a helmet i just forgot to add it anywhere. it's fine its only worn while actively piloting

- mechs are mainly piloted with a system than relies heavily on pulling on different ropes. this is bc of the whole. horse thing.

- if you look closely (please don't) you'll see that the sword gawaine is holding is dinged up. once again, everything in this kingdom is well past its prime, his... everything is in v good condition bc he's Literally Arthur's Heir. once you get to say, aggravaine (who is, if i may reiterate, 3rd in line for the throne after gawaine and yvain), you start to see damage to plugsuits and it just gets worse from there on.

- gringolet is a biomechanical organism but most mechs aren't, it's just particularly special

[moe-broey]

I do really want to buckle down and get my old WIPs presentable though, even if I do resort to just cleaning up pencil sketches (though ideally I would like to ink and color -- or even just settle for inking).

I talk a lot about my concepts and I feel bad/frustrated that I can't present them...

I would say the Veronica focused comic is like a one-shot, initially planned to have two pages (though only one was sketched/written out).

Meanwhile I have a long ongoing plotline that started off as a non-serious, silly comic, that I ended up having Strong Feelings about actually, which eventually would kick off all of my Askr sibs/Alfàr thoughts. There's a short interlude with Sharena and Lif as well in the og silly comic as well, as I was drawing parallels/trying to grasp the vibe... this comic did actually reach coloring stage, almost all character illustrations are fully colored, bg blank (which. The art is so old. I almost just want to leave it.)

And I guess that Is the nice thing about doing all of this as a hobby, like, nothing Actually has to be done perfectly, it just needs to look presentable. I can take as many or as few shortcuts as I want, and learn in the process what works for me.

Like, actually, I feel like my Henry/Libra/Nowi comic is a fantastic example of that -- the bg is extremely basic (borderline looks childishly done), and I Know I could do way more than that, but. All I really wanted was to draw something quick and fun that was exclusively focused on the characters, the joke, and the actions taking place. The background only existed for the purpose of Making it work -- you need to see that there's a river, that Henry is currently dragging Nowi towards as if he was disposing a body. And later, you need to see the river still, when Libra picks her up and throws her into it. Core point, it doesn't have to Look nice -- it just needs to perform a function.

Something else nice that I learned in letting myself do it poorly is that watercolors are really good for broad quick coverage. Which IS something I knew and was going to utilize in some Genshin comics, which ultimately got abandoned esp bc I lost the interest -- I just haven't actually Used the method in a larger piece. Which! I think is actually what I'm getting at.... being able to draw something small, not serious, with the lowest amount of effort required to serve its purpose, actually helped a lot in conceptualizing how I can approach future projects. And likewise, how I can approach cleaning up older ones that don't quite stand the test of time.... but again, I may just opt for filling in the necessary blanks (fully coloring The Characters if it got to that stage) and cleaning up what I can with updated art (which would end up being pencil sketches).

Another thing is I really want to organize everything somehow, beyond my art tag. Especially because a lot of these thoughts are interconnected, even in the case of the Veronica one-shot. And of course, the other WIPs, while disconnected at first glance, Are the jumping off point for a storyline that has A Lot of different parts. Plus, on top of all that, I actually have a lot of comic/story ideas for my summoner OC. Either to present characterization/parallels, or to be a part of another broader storyline that's interconnected as well.

I think. Maybe the main thing to get sorted Is whatever is closest to being finished, and starting from there. Which also means I'll want to figure out a navigation system..... hgnghghnhghbngh......

[revasserium]

Do you have any tips writing childhood friends to lovers? I'm trying to get it sweet and nostalgic but it's just ehhhh not working.

Also do you watch daiya no ace?

ohhh!! i love childhood friends to lovers :)

i guess the biggest thing is to really lean into the "childhood" part -- and i always love writing kids bc the way the look at the world is so "new", right? they're always encountering new things because their world view is literally always expanding. and love to them is such a basic, obvious thing, because (hopefully), they're born into it -- they should know love implicitly from their parents, and so when kids love something, it's a pure, almost overwhelming kind of thing --

think about when you'd love stuff as a kid -- it was your whole fucking world!!! and it's all-consuming bc you don't know any other way to a feel a thing. you only know huge happiness and huge sadness and HUGE HUGE HUGE good and bad things!!! and you don't have the words to explain it all but you feel it. and that's what i love about childhood friends bc the love is so unbiased and unabashed and so, so true.

you can write a love that's the purest form of love, without any ulterior motive or nuance.

in terms of technically writing childhood friends, i like to keep my language simple and the concepts simple. put yourself in the mind of a kid -- you only have so much vocabulary to explain the things around you, so you gotta make do. you can also get away with absolutes, like "momma said its true so it must be true" that kind of thing because to a kid, if an adult and esp a parents says something is true, then it's like... law. so you can play with concepts that way.

and then as you track the development of the childhood and the growth and the friendship, i like to focus on the complication of emotions as the characters learn to process them -- ie, when someone's 7 vs when they're 13, the way they think and feel about a thing is totally different. the feelings of a 13 year old are much more faceted and you can start to have actual conflict.

also, if you're really going for the nostalgia factor, put in repeating jokes! develop it into a theme and then use it as a recurring thing in your fic! there's no better way to show the progression of a relationship than to use literally one or two "stationary" points and show how both characters change in their relationship with "the thing". in haikyuu, for kageyama -- it's the whole "king" thing.

for childhood friends, it could be as simple as sharing icecream -- having that as idk... a way for character A to apologize to reader via offering them icecream. and then build the entire fic around that. then the icecream becomes a metaphor, it becomes something more than itself.

mmmmm let me know if you need more concrete examples, anon! :) i'm happy to try and dig through my own childhood friends to lovers fics to try and illustrate, but yeah! idk if this advice will do you any good but!!! i hope it kinda helps! :D

[theplanetprince]

Unpopular opinion, but some characters who are just jerks, don't need a redemption arc. They don't need it. Like there obviously aren't more prominent examples to illustrate my point, but what I'm getting at here is that unless a character cares about forgiveness or other characters opinions its not really a redemption arc. The closest thing I can think of is how Akira Toriyama writes Piccolo and Vegeta. Theyre aliens who want to conquer earth who are then spared by goku and later form a bond through being shown kindness by goku and his son gohan. Granted for Vegeta he never really softens up until he meets Bulma and has a child of his very own, and even then unlike Piccolo he seems to have challenges with emotional intimacy.

But what I find particularly compelling about these two characters is that they never feel the need to turn to the audience and apologize for their past behavior. Even though they did commit murder, like a lot. Their pride just won't allow them to do it. However, by the time Vegeta and Piccolo are sacrificing themselves on planet Namek to spare Gohan and Krillen a few seconds from Frieza-- you don't need to be convinced that these are "good" people.

Whether or not your character is a Vegeta depends on if their goals just so happen to align with the morally good, this one instance.

Obviously, this comes back to our culture and especially fandom's culture with moral goods and bads. Theyre a very nuanced topic. It can feel unfair when a character whom you think bc they made a slight against the protagonist you've parasocially bonded with and projected onto, so, of course, you want the apology.

But even then, there are so many inoffensive characters who are used by the writer to create speed bumps in our protagonist's lives, most of the time unknowingly, so do they really have to go through a redemption arc?

[brickdykehouse]

"who is currently colonizing" fucking america bro. america literally owns colonies right now in real life and not even close to the only ones. coming from a pro Palestian PLEASE stop making us look stupid by pretending colonizing isnt happening anywhere else. "tell me who and ill boycott them too!!" you sound like a 4th grader seriously. just bc you apparently dont know or care abt the plights of any other oppressed and colonized modern day peoples doesnt mean you have to broadcast it. seriously you make it look like you only care abt this cause for brownies points bc you get to call people colonizers online without actually lifting a fucking finger to help anyone.

First of all, I'm disabled and half the time I'm bedridden from pain, so there's not much I can do to help, but I do attempt to support local action in my area, when I can, which I don't talk about because I don't really like to tout my own ongoing contributions for fear of doxxing.

Second of all, yes, America has other colonial projects too. "Tell me who and I'll boycott them too!" was a rhetorical question to illustrate my stance, of being against all forms of colonialism, imperialism, and oppression. In the past, but not on Tumblr, I have spoken in extent about the Afghanistan war, the iraq war, and the plight of the west papuans. I am WELL aware that there're other struggles across the world, and I am staunchly against those, but the reason I'm mainly focused on Palestine & Israel right now is because it's the most destructive example currently and needs the most energy to end it as fast as possible to stop the constant murder of civilians with fucking airstrikes.

Look, I'm a simple girl, and while I try my best I struggle to focus on more than one thing at once so give me a fucking break because I'm focusing on one big issue instead of all the other, very important, human rights issues which I also am vehemently in support of ending, just not actively because, as I've mentioned, they're carpet bombing cities of civilians in gaza and that has my focus. So sorry that my best attempts to contribute aren't up to snuff, I'm doing simply what I can.

Your ask reeks of the kinda "stop making us look stupid", rhetoric that comes from moderates. Fuck that, who cares if you're stupid if your hearts in the right place.

And before you ask about if I've donated anything: Poor.