#but it is the foundation of all my digital art knowledge

[illjustpretend]

I still remember everything I learned in my high school Photoshop class

[asphodelles]

Hi, I found your work on Twitter last year and I really love and look up to your art. If you have the time, I wanted to as if there are there any study topics, artists or techniques that have significantly influenced you :')

I'm at a bit of a complete loss on what to study presently so I thought I'd ask my favorite artists, thank you for reading and I completely understand if this is too open ended a question

Thank you!

This isn't the first time I have been asked this question and I suspect this won't be the last so I'll just lay everything out here. Go to a cafe or get a blanket or something because this will not be a short read:

Foundational:

Anatomy: A lot of my foundational anatomy and clothing illustration knowledge was gained from taking classes and doing observational drawing. Because of this, I'm not going to have the best book recommendations but top 2 books I can recommend for getting Started started are Andrew Loomis or RockHe Kim's books on anatomy (huge asterisk here: they're good at teaching you Basics basics like muscle groups and turning forms and extremely general proportions but will not help that much with making your figure drawings less stiff or how to draw fat or especially in the latter's case how to draw women not built like stick bug anime girls but uh I heard the Morpho books are pretty good. genuinely everything I know about drawing fat is from observational drawing/studies because at some point I got sick of my school for only hiring skinny models in their 20s-30s). I have some diagrams drawn by my friend who studied the hell out of these guys below:

Clothing: I don't know any books that can really help on this front I apologize if I find any I'll update this post but pretty much all of my knowledge on drawing clothes boils down to the following rules: Where are the tension points, how stiff or soft is the textile, how is the form underneath the section of clothing behaving, and don't make even spaces between fold groups

All of this is kind of moot though if it isn't applied through study or observational drawing though

Design:

I have to be really careful here because I don't want to deal in absolutes, the only absolute I'm confident espousing is that anyone who tells you there is only a small selection of methods you should follow to execute a specific type of design are objectively incorrect and just haven't figured out alternative if not more effective design solutions to a common problem. The only real Worst Thing I think you could do as a designer is create a pinterest mannequin devoid of a story, disconnected from its context in the world, and lacking in a clear purpose/personality but this too could be easily be disputed if maximising a character’s aesthetic appeal serves a purpose in its context, and my opposition to this design approach is my personal bias as a character designer for entertainment where emphasizing a character’s function and their relationship to said function is usually the goal

I think the 5 best pieces of advice I've ever received when it comes to designing characters are the following:

Try and follow the rule of thirds/general gestalt design principles of contrast

Always consider what it is you're trying to communicate with the character

Create believable transitions and reinforcements between points of interest

(Entertainment related) KISS principle/Keep It Simple, Stupid is your friend, the way a character wears or wields what they wear or wield will communicate their role in the world (who are they?), their relationship to their role (do they like their job? are they good at it? are they a part of an organization with the means to provide them things to perform their role more effectively?) effectively enough. Excessive information that bloats and conflicts with the communication objective weakens design (example: My favourite childhood toy for years was a pokemon plushie. Would I as a stay at home digital artist be wearing it as a keychain on my crusty paint stained polyester pajama pants when I'm at my desk working my job? is wearing it relevant to my character as a person who both no longer is invested in pokemon and is in this context focused entirely on comfort and doing my job? (no)). I think Elden Ring is an excellent example of a game that has visually complex designs but pretty expedient storytelling with its characters for worldbuilding

Study things that aren't just character design, to borrow from Lynn Yaeger borrowing from Sally Singer "If you're interested in fashion learn everything except fashion... Politics, art, painting- anything except fashion". Because people in different disciplines who work with different mediums or fields of study approach problems in different angles you may not have considered which can help give new ideas + often times the stuff you like was inspired by stuff that isn't at all what you would expect or enjoy yourself (To pull from a very popular example, Arcane is a League of Legends joint which was highly influenced by Warcraft which was highly influenced by Warhammer which was basically a giant response to western pop culture of the 1960s and the history of European warfare something something coconut tree).

Character design is kind of a hard thing to Get Good at considering how much of the actual process is super psychological/not bound by a *ton* of absolutes and has to account for medium and function (you kind of just have to have The Sauce) so I don't recommend Just studying independently only (possible, just very difficult). If you can and are interested in learning more about the specifics take some classes taught by people whose styles you fw who both know what they're doing and are good at explaining their process. For design for entertainment you can always check out Concept Design Academy or The Workshop Academy and see who's teaching there

As far as artist inspirations are concerned I think looking up the artists who worked on projects you like are a good starting point to figure out how you want to stylize. Going off of that at least currently my favourite designers/illustrators for entertainment with The Sauce are probably Evening Monteiro, Sergey Kolesov, Mindy Lee, Tonci Zonjic, Sasha Tudvaseva, Claire Hummel, and Yoshitaka Amano

My favourite book currently for tackling character design at least from a narrative consideration is probably Talking Threads: Costume Design for Entertainment Art (one of the authors is my friend and an excellent teacher!) and a lot of the stuff they espouse really helps to take into consideration individual and external factors when designing a character/how they can be used as vehicles for both individual storytelling and worldbuilding, gigantic reference point for my most recent casual project

Besides that the only other way I can really recommend studying character design is to just look at art, history, architecture, nature (pretty much Everything) and think about how ideas and concepts from those things can be applied to or communicated through a design or figure out what it was about a design or designs you like made it appealing

uhh tldr this is just how i as one among millions of artists got to where i am today as of January 16th 2025 my word is not gospel the advice I espoused here may very well spell my downfall tomorrow

[cheezybiscuits]

Alright it's time for the SCP crossover stuck in my head ever since I finished this show.

Anderson Robotics holds the monopoly on robots in this one. And the foundation were the ones in charge of experiments to make the patch, with facilities on every exoplanet humanity settled. They even made special security drones just for the foundation to use.

Also when solver infected drones first appeared, the foundation assumed it was a slip-up between the anomalous and non-anomalous robots, since the company has its beginnings with magical robots. After the company cleared it up with foundation, they began a somewhat low-priority investigation.

At first the hypothesis was that the solver's anomalous properties were Mechanite in origin, and after they discovered its biomechanical nature, maybe it was Sarkic in origin. It was also suggested that this anomaly was a rare combination of magic from both rival religions. Others suggested it was [REDACTED].

Then the solver got to its second and third phases and it all went rapidly downhill.

Further info below in the fashion of SCP documents+art.

                                      Status Update: Personnel Demographics

               D-Class:          73% drone   25.5%human     1% Thaumiel Class SCP    0.5% Anomalous drone

  Security:       50% drone     40% human    6.5%Thaumiel Class SCP   3.5%Anomalous drone

Tactical Response:  34% drone       65% human    4.8%Thaumiel Class SCP   0.2%Anomalous drone

            Field Agent:  88% human     9% Thaumiel Class SCP      1% anomalous drone

Mobile Task Force:  90% human    9.5% Thaumiel class SCP     0.5% anomalous drone

Notes: The agreement between the Foundation and Anderson Robotics has eliminated any chances of another D-class shortage. Despite the approval from the ethics committee, there are growing concerns about the possibility of drones “waking up” and achieving sentience. This has been a concern since Anderson Robotics released their first non-anomalous worker robot to the public, but sentient or not, the foundation requires sacrifice to learn more about SCPs, especially world ending varieties.

Test subject requests, 002:

Stereo system [APPROVED][DENIED]  Kitty eared headphones [APPROVED] Digital copies of albums from the bands: "Babymetal"   "Linkin Park" "Sabaton" "Korn" "Ghost" [APPROVED] Digital copy of a library of video manuals on various martial arts styles [DENIED]   Art supplies [APPROVED]  A "Sword and rematch with SCP-076-2  while kickass metal music plays in the background" [DENIED] Visitation for SCP 079 [SUPER DENIED]      

048:

Digital library of arcade games from the 1970s-1980s [APPROVED] Digital archive of Russian and Soviet tanks + blueprints [DENIED] translation: "Make [test subject 002] keep it the fuck down over there" [SURE]

    Note: MK Excorcist test subject 002: Test subject’s requests for visitation with keter class SCPs has increased in frequency. Subject has grown more hostile, attempting more containment breaches, and violent altercations with security personnel. Test subject continues to regain knowledge of these SCPs despite deletion of memory files. It is recommended to keep it occupied with media such as anime and video games. Suggestion to only allow anime that requires hundreds of episodes to finish, such as “One Piece” and “Jo-Jo’s Bizarre Adventure” Pending.

Addendum 468395-17:

If you are reading this, you are either an 05 council member, A high-clearance survivor, and reading this from the moon, or one of few clones for the personnel shortage after the core collapse.  A few years after this event, we lost contact with exoplanets one after another. We did the math and the time lines up with how long it takes for a ship to get to those planets. There’s not really anything we can do about that while there’s a fucking hole in the earth, but you’re probably aware we’ve prepared for worse. For now humanity will lay low and look for an opportunity to terminate the Solver with sunlight or other means. Of course, the damn thing is aware of this and has thick clouds block the sun as part of its third phase. Not to mention it can just absorb that light by spawning black holes. We’ll be laying low for a while.    

   Addendum 468395-18:

On [    ]/[  ]/[     ], the singularity ceased all activity for twenty seconds. Investigators noted the illumination on the tendrils “flicked off”. After twenty seconds the singularity returned to its normal behavior for 9 minutes and 23 seconds, after which the singularity proceeded to [REDACTED] before permanently ceasing activity. The foundation was able to begin the planet’s recovery process in a few months. SCP 2000 got to work with the cloning process, but with the state of the planet there’s no chance to restore earth to its original condition pre-core collapse. Right now all we care about is coming back from the brink.

               After activation of SCP 2000, attempts at contact with the exoplanets will commence. As a host for the transfer of several Keter-class SCPs, and the last known location of the latest host of SCP 468395, contact with Copper 9 is a priority.

[thatonegayship]

This probably feels weird to ask

But I love how you draw dipper in general and your art in particular! Is it possible you could do a little tutorial on how your process goes?

If you don’t want to, I understand completely. I felt really hesitant asking this lol. Anyways, love your art!!!

I'm not the *best* at talking technicality, and certainly not about drawing Dipper; I have three distinct styles when dealing with him, that being Billdip Dipper, Canon Dipper, and AU Dipper, all of whom have entirely different purposes both visually and narratively. This results in some pretty inconsistent representations:

That being said! I'm totally cool with going over my process with you! Layout, technique, brainstorming, all that.

Generally speaking, I like to start my digital work on paper. Nothing crazy, just a basic idea that captures the pose, expression, and clothing (these things are destined to change by the end).

Notice the cloud of dirt kicking up at his feet. Look how I position one arm out while the other pulls farther back, and his hair blows from his face. There's a clear emphasis on motion here, both in body language (feet turned against the force) and added attire (Pinetree cloak flowing back, dust cloud at his feet, etc.)

This design is destined to change, but for action scenes like this, it's good to begin with an expressive foundation, so that once we start chipping away at and remolding our concept, we're building off of a design that encapsulates the *scene* we're wanting to convey. That is, no matter how much we shave off, we still have a strong foundation to reference towards and lean into for inspiration.

The next step is transferring our rough sketch into a digital setting.

This is where I tinker with the lasso tool, maybe take reference photos of the exact pose I had in mind. Here, I'm just breaking down my original sketch on a tablet. I readjusted the feet's position, pulled that other arm in to his chest, and straightened his arm out for a more powerful pose.

The next step focuses on pushing the pose and correcting anatomy errors.

Alright, cool! Now he's not just bracing for action, he's *jumping* into it. The back arm's pulled in like a fist, his shoulder bunched up close to his ear. We see how his body's twisted at the torso, chest out, legs stretched, arm extended.

Notice too how I utilize my shapes to empower the pose. Front arm and leg, extended. Lots of straight lines. It *curves* because of muscle and fat, but outside of that, they're pointed in a distinct direction. Contrastly, his right side curves at the hip and follows subtly up to his chest. This helps emphasize his lean into whatever he's attacking, sort of like a bow.

Now we've added details! You'll notice I've changed a lot of my initial design from my rough-sketch to fit more into the style and personality of Dipper in this setting. Since he's, you know, a "Pinetree," I figured his clothing should reflect it. I'm still working in pencil at this point, blocking out the general shapes of what I want, but not really exploring my options.

The cloak follows a slight gust, his hair flows back, the mushrooms on his shoulder lean out from the action, but these are still only guidelines. Keep it loose! Explore things! Have fun with it!

Next step, Inking. Digital art is *very* forgiving, so I'm a lot less concerned about moving forward without a full idea of my vision. This is usually the step I'm most inspired at because it allows me to go back over my loose sketch and add those minute details that excited me so much. I do not recommend moving forward without full confidence in your initial sketch when using traditional art! YOU WILL CRY!

Clothes: changed. Pose: changed. Details: expanded on.

This is where a bit of knowledge in anatomy is really going to serve you well. Bridging the gap between sketch and ink has always been very difficult for me, and it's due in part to those uncertain, not-quite-right bits I have to build off of from my initial sketch.

It's good to keep your rough draft light and fluid so that they capture the emotion and general pose of your character, but it's also important to keep in mind how you'll have to balance *maintaining* that level of expression while incorporating more realistic aspects of their design.

Take for instance Dipper's left foot that went from being tucked up under his butt, to being in a more braced position- like he's about to land, or skirt to a halt. As a loose sketch, it captures the motion very well. However, incorporating muscle and kneecaps and detailed shoes brings out a lot of the visual flaws. Proportion and angle become a serious issue if you aren't entirely sure how a particular body part would flex/squish/shorten in a particular position. The more realistic you go, the more jarring your mistakes.

This is, of course, not me saying you're forbidden from drawing your characters with a leg under their butt with big, meaty thighs. It's *actually* me letting everyone know that I tried working with the pose, building on it looked weird, and I decided to take a different approach. You are 100% allowed to try something else if your initial plan doesn't work out.

This step is where we adapt and improve. Our digital rough sketch didn't really capture the full power of his motion. His cloak kinda billows out like "Yeah, I'm a cloak, I billow gayly." It's flat, hollow, uninspired. Here, you're looking at photo references of Pinetrees, both real and not-real. You're gonna have to make it look like needles and branches, while *also* being a flowy bit of clothing.

For this, keep in mind how *cloth* moves with a more exaggerated, majestic rough sketch to overlay atop our failure of a branch jacket. Die.

See how despite the spikey pine needles, his cloak follows a distinct pattern? Additionally, this coat works in 3-dimensions. There's an outside and an inside, and it curves like a dome around him. It floats behind him, curves in front of him, lifts up, dips down. Really, it's up to you, but always consider your work on the third plain.

ALSO! Very important: Keep an eye on your line weight! Seriously, this took a long time for me to get a firm grasp of. Not *shading* really, but put a bit more emphasis on those bent spaces with darker lines. See that bold line connecting his thigh to his glutes? And the one behind his knee? DEPTH!! IT ADDS DEPTH!!

And *here* is the final product! This is the shading section, arguably my favorite and least-favorite part about my drawing process. Working in black and white, you don't really have to worry about getting every little shadow on your character. Just shade what needs emphasizing; everything with a shadow gets an added layer of depth as well. This is the part that gives your work an additional POP.

Consider too that shading isn't just solid black, even if you're working in black and white. His arm and under his hood are pretty solid black, but the interior of his cloak is far more textured and light. We see where it's darkest at his sides, but leading out, it lightens into distinct markings that (in my opinion) are visually more appealing. Using this tool is ultimately up to you, though.

Okay, the end!

[archandshri]

9th feb '24 - [arch] characters, interactions and emotion - making a mini webcomic

Gahhhh Shri this has been an absolutely crazy couple of weeks!!!! Hope you are doing well :)) First of all, WOW! You have a lot of goals, and I’m sure you’ll get them done! I’ve worked a lot on my graphic design during the process of making Winter Wellbeing. If you wanna see a blog post dedicated just to that, I can do so! It would be cool to compare notes on the approaches we take for graphic layouts. If you wanna share your knowledge of camera skills when you build that up that would be awesome 😭😭

It’s been a tough few weeks, art wise. I have been reflecting on my process, motivations to create, the ego and all the baggage that’s lumped into the creative process for me. It turns out there’s a lot. I took some space from my illustration practise (literally for a weekend!) and began to realise how dysfunctional it is. I’ve been writing a lot about that so there may be a larger piece of writing coming about that at some point (no promises!!)

But for now, let's talk about little successes!

I’ve been playing with some characters for a while but I’d hit a bit of a block with the plot. I realised the expectation of having a finished project of high quality soon is unrealistic, and an unhealthy expectation to put on myself. I rarely give myself time to play with concepts for a long time and let the characters, plot and interactions evolve naturally. Maybe this in part came from sticking to the short university module turnaround. I noticed that that short turnaround was causing a lot of block, so I have decided to bench it as a comic for now and focus on using it as a playground - falling in love with the characters, creating stories and drawing them for fun. Maybe years down the line I’ll make them into a comic - we shall see! 

I *tried* to do hourly comics day this year and it didn’t quite work for me. I think I made 3 comics? And then got distracted with a bigger project that ended up taking a week or so to complete. Let’s have a look at it, shall we?

[you can find the full version here]

First of all, it’s based on an unfinished fanfiction I started a couple of months ago, which was mostly bad, but there was one nice scene that I liked and wanted to expand on. I started by having a look at the script I wrote and thumbnailing on the iPad. I’m away from home at the mo and usually would prefer to do most of my artwork traditionally, but because I don’t have access to a scanner, the whole process was digital this time. A lot of the pages got scrapped because the dialogue wasn’t necessary, and I’m not drawing pages that aren’t necessary.

some more development screenshots

I thought a lot about posing during the process, acting the scenes out in my mind and sometimes physically, really understanding the emotions of the characters, why they’re saying what they’re saying, their tone and how to convey that though their body language and expression (i find grian really annoying normally [affectionate] but I want this grian to step on me).

Pearl was hard with this because she’s quite erratic and unpredictable in this series, so I wanted her to switch from raw explodey anger to playful jabs at Grian. I’m hoping this comes across as somewhat insane, rather than tonally off and inconsistent. I did super enjoy drawing her and her explosive nature though, especially in comparison to Grian’s coldness.

I played with levels and monotone colour too - I’m not working with multiple colours much at the moment so I’m able to focus on things like values composition, characters and backgrounds. My skills limit the kind of stories I can tell currently, so I’m working to improve those foundations. Maybe when I’m back in the riso studio I can play with colours a little more.

Colours - despite the simple pallete it gets a bit nerdy here.I stuck to specific flat percentages for most of it - Pearl’s hair and Grians jumper are 60%, Grian’s hair and Pearl’s cloak are 20%. Then I added a 14% layer for shadows, using a ahrd blend eraser tool for highlights, making the images quite dark. I fill a layer with texture from Forystr’s riso brush for procreate, and turn it into a 40% opacity colour dodge layer. This gives it some much needed texture and makes the lighting feel low and nighttimecore. It also pushes the values to look really nice - I tend to be too scared to push them by myself.

I tried a few different colour layers to get a *vibe* but settled on a low percentage riso blue in a colour layer. All layers besides the riso blue are in a riso black, colour picked from a riso colour pallete. I learnt these tools - using percentages to get good values - from working with risograph. I really recommend having a look at these techniques and doing some monotone work. It's really improved by character designs, page layouts and compositions.

That's all from me today, though I have had MANY other thoughts over the past two weeks about creating, but perhaps we'll dive into them another time. If you (or anyone else) has any questions, hit me up with a reblog or an ask and I will get right to it. Lovely to hear from you! Hope your art is going great too :)) Arch :)

[allproducts81]

Level Up Your Online Business with Internet Millionaire Digital

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[krtnaart]

ADV4310: What I Know and what I question?

When thinking about digital media, the first thing that comes to mind is the ever-evolving landscape of social media and the constant emergence of new technologies. My basic knowledge of digital media revolves around the dynamic interplay between creativity and technology.

Foundational knowledge has solidified around the art of storytelling across diverse digital channels (social media platforms), the pivotal role of captivating visuals, and the strategic integration of data analytics. Yet, as I stand at the intersection of academia and industry, questions about the trajectory of digital media persist in my mind. I know of the significance of compelling storytelling across various online platforms, the power of visual elements in capturing audience attention, and the critical role of data analytics in shaping targeted and effective campaigns. All of the above is just a small fraction of what I think digital media is and what it looks like.

One aspect I find intriguing is the rapid evolution of technology and its impact on media consumption habits. Many of us have probably become aware of the recent rise of AR and VR and the exciting possibilities it presents. However, regardless of how catchy this all might sound, I wonder how these advancements may reshape user experience and influence content creation.

Something I have been eager to learn is media production skills and UX design. One reason for this is my passion to become a Product Designer or UX Designer. UX goes hand in hand with digital media since oftentimes you are designing digital experiences that are user-friendly and engaging. I want to explore concepts of usability, accessibility, and user interface design.

I would also want to learn more analytical skills since it seems to be getting more and more important within the marketing and advertising fields, especially in digital marketing. I'd like to learn more about blogs and how to write them, how to have better presentation skills, and just a better outlook on digital media in general.

[thewakingcloak]

Thanks beyond thanks for the reply - you'll definitely get credit (or at least a big tip if i can ever finish this project and get it out there), because you're among those I've learned from, and coming from a position of zero education and no modern programming knowledge, I can assure you: it's been difficult to piece together an education in game design with an improvised curriculum, so every little bit helps. While most people who get into this come from a programming background end up needing assistance with the art and music ends, I'm coming at it from the opposite side of the spectrum: I've been composing, recording, and engineering music since the magnetic tape era and doing digital design/animation for just as long, so it's just the coding I have to really apply myself to and make myself learn. I won't lie: it's been frustrating, trying to figure it all out by reading manuals and various youtube videos, reddit threads, and yoyo forums because while I'm able to learn the functionality of the code easily enough and there are a lot of helpful resources out there in that respect, context is everything and it can be maddening, trying to figure out how to apply what I've learned in useful or practical ways. For example, I've figured out enough to know that data structure grids can probably help me overcome my current problem with collisions (like you, I began building my 2.5d environment from that exact Matharoo video and even managed to write a pretty decent place-meeting-3d script from the ground up... until, like you, I hit my current impasse of being unable to figure out how to handle multiple collisions at once... but, unlike you, every alteration i make to my code only creates more problems), but while I understand how ds grids work, I can't figure out the proper context in which to apply them as a solution to my collision problem. So, I'm giving up and resorting to reverse engineering - when it comes to a lot of things, I can usually figure stuff out if i can just see it working under the hood, so i hope that's true for ds_grid collision implementation. I'm telling you this because I downloaded your suite of 3d scripts and intend to try and figure out how to implement them, working backward. I honestly don't mean to steal all your work, as you've been more than generous in helping people like me by sharing it in the first place, but it's hard to resist using it as a basis for my education because the physics of your project and your design process and ideas (like self-skinning objects) are so similar to mine. I can assure you, though: I won't be simply copying and pasting your functions, because I have no idea how to use them or from where to run them... it'll be trial and error (already, in trying to structure a Shaun Spaulding-style collision code (might as well start with what i know and see what works!) using your version of place_meeting_3d, I immediately encountered a "variable not defined" error in the instance-place-3d script it calls... maybe because I'm substituting noone for null, which is a variable gm doesn't appear to recognize, or maybe not... this is gonna be fun). At any rate... thank you. Sooner or later, I'll get past the physics and into the familiar territory of writing, drawing, and composing... but without your scripts, who knows how long that would take me! Shoulda gone to college... oh well.

You're welcome, anytime! Gamedev is such a multidisciplinary thing that it's a LOT to try to do all at once, whether you're coming from a programmer position and aren't good at art, or an artist who doesn't know programming yet. College helps with foundational stuff, but what you're doing (researching and learning yourself and putting it into action) is a pretty powerful method and will carry you a long way

You're right, null is a macro I created to stand for noone. Hard to break my day job coding habits haha. It sounds like you're somewhat familiar with the debugger, but I highly, highly recommend learning it more (especially breakpoints and such) for figuring out stuff like "variable not defined". The GameMaker debugger can be a little misleading at times, but it's so much easier than all the guesswork. It's improving a lot in the latest updates too!

It's been a while since I've looked at my 3D collision stuff in depth (it kind of scares me now lol), but yeah, learning how the ds_list stuff works should help. It's basically just (if I remember correctly) grabbing a list of things the object is colliding with, and then checking whether or not they match up on the z axis. I don't want to necessarily say "collide" because it's not using the built-in GM functions for z-axis collisions, but it's checking the z position, height, and seeing if either intersect.

So basically: get a list of collisions on the normal x, y coordinates as a ds_list, then loop through the list and check for intersection on the z axis. If so, there's a 3D collision!

Gamedev is no joke, but you've got the right approach and you're making great strides, keep it up!

[priya-joshi]

Becoming a Full Stack Developer: My Roadmap to Mastery

Embarking on my journey to become a full stack developer has been nothing short of a thrilling adventure. It's been filled with moments of incredible learning, personal growth, and a profound passion for creating digital solutions that truly make a difference. From the fascinating world of front-end design to the intricate workings of back-end development, let me take you through my personal roadmap to mastering the art of full stack development.

Defining Full Stack Development

At its core, I see a full stack developer as a tech-savvy magician who possesses the unique ability to bring both the user-facing magic of the front end and the powerful machinery of the backend to life. It's not merely about coding; it's about the art of crafting seamless user experiences while skillfully managing the complex infrastructure that makes it all possible.

Self-Assessment

Like any journey, mine began with self-awareness. I took a close look at my existing skills and knowledge. I uncovered my strengths to build upon and identified the areas where I needed improvement. This self-assessment became the bedrock upon which I constructed my roadmap, allowing me to set clear, focused goals for my full stack development journey.

Front-End Development Skills

Mastering front-end technologies proved to be a thrilling challenge. Moving from the foundational HTML and CSS, which provide structure and style to web pages, to delving into the captivating realm of JavaScript with its dynamic interactions, each step forward brought its own set of revelations and challenges. My journey was marked by moments of both frustration and triumph as I evolved from crafting basic layouts to creating intricate user interfaces that sprung to life at the simple click of a button.

Back-End Development Skills

Transitioning to the backend was like stepping into a whole new world of data management, server intricacies, and complex logic. Learning languages like Python, diving deep into databases like MySQL, and exploring frameworks such as Flask and Django became the building blocks of my backend journey. The sheer satisfaction of watching my code efficiently manage data and orchestrate complex operations fueled my determination to keep pushing forward.

Bridging the Gap

The leap from front-end to back-end wasn't a smooth one. Bridging this gap required not only the acquisition of new technical skills but also a shift in mindset. The challenges were numerous – learning to handle data securely, optimizing performance, and orchestrating intricate processes. I adopted various strategies to make this transition seamless, eventually allowing me to unite my front-end and back-end skills into a unified full stack approach.

Full Stack Development Frameworks

The full stack development world introduced me to a plethora of frameworks designed to streamline the entire process. Frameworks like MEAN (MongoDB, Express.js, Angular, Node.js) and MERN (MongoDB, Express.js, React, Node.js) became my trusted companions. They not only accelerated development but also offered valuable insights into the best practices of full stack architecture.

Building Projects

Knowledge truly gains momentum when it's put into practice. Building projects became an essential part of my journey. These projects provided the practical experience necessary to solidify my skills. Whether it was crafting dynamic e-commerce platforms or developing interactive web applications, each project served as a canvas for innovation, experimentation, and continuous improvement.

Continuous Learning

Full stack development is an ongoing journey without a defined finish line. The ever-evolving landscape continually demands learning and adaptation. To stay updated with emerging trends and technologies, I relied on online platforms, coding communities, and valuable resources like full stack developer course and blogs provided by ACTE.

Challenges and Rewards

This journey had its fair share of difficulties, of course. Debugging cryptic errors, optimizing code for performance, and keeping pace with rapid technological advancements were just a few of the hurdles I encountered. However, the rewards far surpassed the struggles. The ability to transform ideas into functional applications, the satisfaction of solving intricate puzzles, and the sheer joy of witnessing my work in action were the driving forces that kept me moving forward.

Networking and Community

In today's digitally connected world, networking is an invaluable asset. Engaging with developer communities and attending meetups opened doors to fresh perspectives, exciting collaborations, and invaluable insights. The support and camaraderie of fellow developers served as a constant reminder that I wasn't alone on this journey.

Becoming a full stack developer is about more than just acquiring technical skills; it's a transformative journey of self-discovery, overcoming challenges, and embracing growth. To all those aspiring full stack developers out there, my advice is to wholeheartedly embrace each challenge as a learning opportunity. Your roadmap may take unexpected turns, but with dedication, resilience, and a deep passion for innovation, you too can navigate the path to mastery. The world of full stack development awaits – so go forth and code boldly!

[yassifiedwelder]

I have been brainstorming soooo much for this #Spidersona thing I have been doing research and working out character arcs and designs and back stories with friends. I really want music to have a major roll in this. I’m thinking I could create a playlist and mess around with those Spotify codes to create a code in the book each person could scan and that song could play as they read through the next couple of panels.

I think I’m mainly posting about this to record it. I’ve never felt this was about a project or idea and I really think I could flush this out into something tangible. I technically have all of the knowledge and skill to work through this and create a physical copy of this graphic novel/idk “interactive” multimedia experience lmao.

Anywho, if anyone happens to see this please drop some songs/playlists for inspiration below. Go obscure, I’m talking like 3 weird recordings on YouTube from a German club obscure, but also I don’t mind the classics (I do plan to have a badass helicopter scene involving all of these mutant freedom fighters to #CCR .)

Here’s some songs I have ideas for rn

THESE ARE THE VIBESSS!

If anyone bothers to read this far hello! Welcome to this virtual project log. I have a tendency to ramble when I’m in a creative mood so after I have that time I like to sit back and reflect on what I’ve learned and write it all down and share it looking for comments questions and ideas. So I hope you like it!

The first video is the amount of pages so far, (the post right before this) I am planning on trying to digitize and rewrite the first “Issue” as a readable post on here so I’m gonna get started on that’s soon. I’m taking a lot of inspirations from Zine culture and alternative comics, body horror ideas from things like the Fly and Johnny the Homocidal maniac, all set to a soundtrack built off of the foundations of rock and the oddity’s of today. The color palate is as if the album cover for the Mountains Goats’ “Goths” came to life, with a formatting similar to one of my favorite books “My favorite thing is monsters” (look it uppppp)

Also, HEY MR. MOUSE! I’m not trying to make money off this, I’m just trying to make some fun art and share it with the world. BUT if you wanna use my characters,hmu (I am delusional) we can work out a deal, have your People call my people.

But that also goes to anyone else out there who wants to work together, my dms are open . . . (Mostly to bots rn)

OH Kay back to it . . . .

In the next pictures are some character designs that are very very very very much inspired by my friends. They’re strange enough that unless you know me by name then you would never get it Lmao . . . But the characters are kinda cool. I really tried to use actual habits and adaptations that these animals have in real life compared to how the human body would have to accommodate for its ability to defy nature. Planning for this to be kinda gory. I’m excited.

Also PSA I know I’m not an amazing artist, I’m going more for story and style over photo realism idk, this is just for my enjoyment, thank you for your time 💖💖💖 to help keep track I’m gonna tag all of these with #OnetaAquatica I’m excited to explore this story and world.

[tempest-toss]

!! !! !!

Mx. Helium, Mr. Gravity, Ms. Lake

[TW: Mention of attempted murder with Ms. Lake and a list of injuries] (Send an ask if I need to tag anything else)

Mx. Helium, Mr. Gravity, and Ms. Lake are part of the second batch of the New Generation of Little Misters

Mx. Helium and Mr. Gravity are part of the My Best Friends Package while Ms. Lake was part of the Little Environment Helper set before being removed.

Mx. Helium is one of the few Little Misters to undergo an appearance redesign, having been made initially to be a clown. However, their design received a negative response from test audiences, and they were remade into a more modern design They now sport a yellow raincoat and boots, which appears in their promotional art, but they also wear what looks like an oxygen mask and wear a tank underneath their raincoat. They take on the appearance of a twenty-three-year-old. Their Little Mister tattoo is hidden on their right palm

Mx. Helium gets their name because most of their insides comprise of helium gas. To prevent accidental floating they wear weighted clothing and to prevent accidentally overexposing people to helium they wear an oxygen mask.

Their primary task is to fill up helium balloons, although they tend to get lost in their own world, allowing them to be contained rather easily.

~~~~~~~~

Mr. Gravity, unlike his experimental brother Mr. Astro, does not have a spacesuit. Rather he has a more digital cyborg look, with a few part so his body (mainly his feet and some fingers) being mechanical, an eye that is digital, and the rest that appears human. His Little Mister tattoo is located on his left knee

Mr. Gravity has the ability to change his own gravitation at will, with a particular focus on changing it constantly from no gravity to Earth's, all of which can be toggled whenever he puts his fingers together. He has demonstrated in Foundation custody that he likes to "hover" by quickly touching his fingers together. Researchers are debating on whether this is a form of a nervous tic or the act of stimming.

Mr. Gravity has been confirmed in evaluations to be jealous of his siblings that can fully fly. Unlike his older brother Mr. Candy, his jealousy does not lead to anger; it manifests as sadness. When presented with the knowledge of not being able to actually fly he has been known to enter a period of silence and attempt to leave the person who brought it up.

~~~~~~~~

Originally Ms. Lake had a calming design. She wore a blue cardigan and pants, brown boots, and long wavy blue hair. She was complimented by many for her unique use of her hair: It would cup around and form a small pool with small versions of small aquatic lake life, which would distract from her exposed Little Mister tattoo on her upper back.

Ms. Lake was pulled from service following an incident at Lake Cuyamaca. She was teaching the children of the family she was with, and had suggested they split up to search for crawdads. In her search, Ms. Lake came across a man and a woman. Unbeknownst to her, this couple were murderers, using the lake to dump bodies. When Ms. Lake called out to them to ask about crawdads, the couple worried that Ms. Lake had found them out. To make sure Ms. Lake wouldn't say anything, they tricked her into going near the lake's edge and proceeded to drown her.

Upon finding out through Ms. Lake's struggles of survival that Ms. Lake was not human, they decided to go all out on her, landing blow after blow before leaving her to die. Using the mental link* Ms. Lake bid her siblings and father goodbye. Around this time she was found by a foundation agent and sent to a nearby site for help.

Nowadays Ms. Lake is back to a new normal. Some aspects of herself physically have yet to be able to be fixed, including:

A section of her spine shifted upwards A bent right knee A locked left elbow A missing eye Scarring around parts of her scalp Inability to produce creatures in her hair pond Inability to maintain hair pond

She has also developed an extreme distate for people with the following:

Short, Black hair Pixie cuts Brown ear piercings Opaque black shades Sleeveless white shirts Beige cargo shorts Silver necklaces Black-Red lipstick

Ms. Lake refused to comply to interviews whenever the interviewer had one or more of the above. This dislike goes deep enough that she drowned an interviewer by tackling them and producing water from their hand to silence them.

[seoclasses]

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[jcmarchi]

Jean-Louis Quéguiner, Founder & CEO of Gladia – Interview Series

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/jean-louis-queguiner-founder-ceo-of-gladia-interview-series/

Jean-Louis Quéguiner, Founder & CEO of Gladia – Interview Series

Jean-Louis Quéguiner is the Founder and CEO of Gladia. He previously served as Group Vice President of Data, AI, and Quantum Computing at OVHcloud, one of Europe’s leading cloud providers. He holds a Master’s Degree in Symbolic AI from the University of Québec in Canada and Arts et Métiers ParisTech in Paris. Over the course of his career, he has held significant positions across various industries, including financial data analytics, machine learning applications for real-time digital advertising, and the development of speech AI APIs.

Gladia provides advanced audio transcription and real-time AI solutions for seamless integration into products across industries, languages, and technology stacks. By optimizing state-of-the-art ASR and generative AI models, it ensures accurate, lag-free speech and language processing. Gladia’s platform also enables real-time extraction of insights and metadata from calls and meetings, supporting key enterprise use cases such as sales assistance and automated customer support.

What inspired you to tackle the challenges in speech-to-text (STT) technology, and what gaps did you see in the market?

When I founded Gladia, the initial goal was broad—an AI company that would make complex technology accessible. But as we delved deeper, it became clear that voice technology was the most broken and yet most critical area to focus on.

Voice is central to our daily lives, and most of our communication happens through speech. Yet, the tools available for developers to work with voice data were inadequate in terms of speed, accuracy, and price—especially across languages.

I wanted to fix that, to unpack the complexity of voice technology and repackage it into something simple, efficient, powerful and accessible. Developers shouldn’t have to worry about the intricacies of AI models or the nuances of context length in speech recognition. My goal was to create an enterprise-grade speech-to-text API that worked seamlessly, regardless of the underlying model or technology—a true plug-and-play solution.

What are some of the unique challenges you encountered while building a transcription solution for enterprise use?

When it comes to speech recognition, speed and accuracy—the two key performance indicators in this field—are inversely proportional by design. This means that improving one will compromise the other, at least to some extent. The cost factor, to a big extent, results from the provider’s choice between speed and quality.

When building Gladia, our goal was to find the perfect balance between these two factors, all while ensuring the technology remains available to startups and SMEs. In the process we also realized that the foundational ASR models like OpenAI’s Whisper, which we worked with extensively, are biased, skewering heavily towards English due to their training data, which leaves a lot of languages under-represented.

So, in addition to solving the speed-accuracy tradeoff, it was important to us— as a European, multilingual team—to optimize and fine-tune our core models to build a truly global API that helps businesses operate across languages.

How does Gladia differentiate itself in the crowded AI transcription market? What makes your Whisper-Zero ASR unique?

Our new real-time engine (Gladia Real Time) achieves an industry-leading 300 ms latency. In addition to that, it’s able to extract insights from a call or meeting with the so-called “audio intelligence” add-ons or features, like named entity recognition (NER)  or sentiment analysis.

To our knowledge, very few competitors are able to provide both transcription and insights at such high latency (less than 1s end-to-end) – and do all of that accurately in languages other than English. Our languages support extends to over 100 languages today.

We also put a special emphasis on making the product truly stack agnostic. Our API is compatible with all existing tech stacks and telephony protocols, including SIP, VoIP, FreeSwitch and Asterisk. Telephony protocols are especially complex to integrate with, so we believe this product aspect can bring tremendous value to the market.

Hallucinations in AI models are a significant concern, especially in real-time transcription. Can you explain what hallucinations are in the context of STT and how Gladia addresses this problem?

Hallucination usually occurs when the model lacks knowledge or doesn’t have enough context on the topic. Although models can produce outputs tailored to a request, they can only reference information that existed at the time of their training, and that may not be up-to-date. The model will create coherent responses by filling in gaps with information that sounds plausible but is incorrect.

While hallucinations became known in the context of LLMs first, they occur with speech recognition models— like Whisper ASR, a leading model in the field developed by OpenAI – as well.  Whisper’s hallucinations are like those of LLMs due to a similar architecture, so it’s a problem that concerns generative models, that are able to predict the words that follow based on the overall context. In a way, they ‘invent’ the output. This approach can be contrasted with more traditional, acoustic-based ASR architectures that match the input sound to output in a more mechanical way

As a result, you may find words in a transcript that were not actually said, which is clearly problematic, especially in fields like medicine, where a mistake of this kind can have grave consequences.

There are several methods to manage and detect hallucinations. One common approach is to use a retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) system, which combines the model’s generative capabilities with a retrieval mechanism to cross-check facts. Another method involves employing a “chain of thought” approach, where the model is guided through a series of predefined steps or checkpoints to ensure that it stays on a logical path.

Another strategy for detecting hallucinations involves using systems that assess the truthfulness of the model’s output during training. There are benchmarks specifically designed to evaluate hallucinations, which involve comparing different candidate responses generated by the model and determining which one is most accurate.

We at Gladia have experimented with a combination of techniques when building Whisper-Zero, our proprietary ASR that removes virtually all hallucinations. It’s proven excellent results in asynchronous transcription, and we’re currently optimizing it for real-time to achieve the same 99.9% information fidelity.

STT technology must handle a wide range of complexities like accents, noise, and multi-language conversations. How does Gladia approach these challenges to ensure high accuracy?

Language detection in ASR is an extremely complex task. Each speaker has a unique vocal signature, which we call features. By analyzing the vocal spectrum, machine learning algorithms can perform classifications, using the Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCC) to extract the main frequency characteristics.

MFCC is a method inspired by human auditory perception. It’s part of the “psychoacoustic” field, focusing on how we perceive sound. It emphasizes lower frequencies and uses techniques like normalized Fourier decomposition to convert audio into a frequency spectrum.

However, this approach has a limitation: it’s based purely on acoustics. So, if you speak English with a strong accent, the system may not understand the content but instead judge based on your prosody (rhythm, stress, intonation).

This is where Gladia’s innovative solution comes in. We’ve developed a hybrid approach that combines psycho-acoustic features with content understanding for dynamic language detection.

Our system doesn’t just listen to how you speak, but also understands what you’re saying. This dual approach allows for efficient code-switching and doesn’t let strong accents get misrepresented/misunderstood.

Code-switching—which is among our key differentiators—is a particularly important feature in handling multilingual conversations. Speakers may switch between languages mid-conversation (or even mid-sentence), and the ability of the model to transcribe accurately on the fly despite the switch is critical.

Gladia API is unique in its ability to handle code-switching with this many language pairs with a high level of accuracy and performs well even in noisy environments, known to reduce the quality of transcription.

Real-time transcription requires ultra-low latency. How does your API achieve less than 300 milliseconds latency while maintaining accuracy?

Keeping latency under 300 milliseconds while maintaining high accuracy requires a multifaceted approach that blends hardware expertise, algorithm optimization, and architectural design.

Real-time AI isn’t like traditional computing—it’s tightly linked to the power and efficiency of GPGPUs. I’ve been working in this space for nearly a decade, leading the AI division at OVHCloud (the biggest cloud provider in the EU), and learned firsthand that it’s always about finding the right balance: how much hardware power you need, how much it costs, and how you tailor the algorithms to work seamlessly with that hardware.

Performance in real time AI comes from effectively aligning our algorithms with the capabilities of the hardware, ensuring every operation maximizes throughput while minimizing delays.

But it’s not just the AI and hardware. The system’s architecture plays a big role too, especially the network, which can really impact latency. Our CTO, who has deep expertise in low-latency network design from his time at Sigfox (an IoT pioneer), has optimized our network setup to shave off valuable milliseconds.

So, it’s really a mix of all these factors—smart hardware choices, optimized algorithms, and network design—that lets us consistently achieve sub-300ms latency without compromising on accuracy.

Gladia goes beyond transcription with features like speaker diarization, sentiment analysis, and time-stamped transcripts. What are some innovative applications you’ve seen your clients develop using these tools?

ASR unlocks a wide range of applications to platforms across verticals, and it’s been amazing to see how many truly pioneering companies have emerged in the last two years, leveraging LLMs and our API to build cutting-edge, competitive products. Here are some examples:

Smart note-taking: Many clients are building tools for professionals who need to quickly capture and organize information from work meetings, student lectures, or medical consultations. With speaker diarization, our API can identify who said what, making it easy to follow conversations and assign action items. Combined with time-stamped transcripts, users can jump straight to specific moments in a recording, saving time and ensuring nothing gets lost in translation.

Sales enablement: In the sales world, understanding customer sentiment is everything. Teams are using our sentiment analysis feature to gain real-time insights into how prospects respond during calls or demos. Plus, time-stamped transcripts help teams revisit key parts of a conversation to refine their pitch or address client concerns more effectively. For this use case in particular, NER is also key to identifying names, company details, and other information that can be extracted from sales calls to feed the CRM automatically.

Call center assistance: Companies in the contract center space are using our API to provide live assistance to agents, as well as flagging customer sentiment during calls. Speaker diarization ensures that things being said are assigned to the right person, while time-stamped transcripts enable supervisors to review critical moments or compliance issues quickly. This not only improves the customer experience – with better on-call resolution rate and quality monitoring –  but also boosts agent productivity and satisfaction.

Can you discuss the role of custom vocabularies and entity recognition in improving transcription reliability for enterprise users?

Many industries rely on specialized terminology, brand names, and unique language nuances. Custom vocabulary integration allows the STT solution to adapt to these specific needs, which is crucial for capturing contextual nuances and delivering output that accurately reflects your business needs. For instance, it allows you to create a list of domain-specific words, such as brand names, in a specific language.

Why it’s useful: Adapting the transcription to the specific vertical allows you to minimize errors in transcripts, achieving a better user experience. This feature is especially critical in fields like medicine or finance.

Named entity recognition (NER) extracts and identifies key information from unstructured audio data, such as names of people, organizations, locations, and more. A common challenge with unstructured data is that this critical information isn’t readily accessible—it’s buried within the transcript.

To solve this, Gladia developed a structured Key Data Extraction (KDE) approach. By leveraging the generative capabilities of its Whisper-based architecture—similar to LLMs—Gladia’s KDE captures context to identify and extract relevant information directly.

This process can be further enhanced with features like custom vocabulary and NER, allowing businesses to populate CRMs with key data quickly and efficiently.

In your opinion, how is real-time transcription transforming industries such as customer support, sales, and content creation?

Real-time transcription is reshaping these industries in profound ways, driving incredible productivity gains, coupled with tangible business benefits.

First, real-time transcription is a game-changer for support teams. Real-time assistance is key to improving the resolution rate thanks to faster responses, smarter agents, and better outcomes (in terms of NSF, handle times, and so on). As ASR systems get better and better at handling non-English languages and performing real-time translation, contact centers can achieve a truly global CX at lower margins.

In sales, speed and spot-on insights are everything. Similarly to what happens with call agents, real-time transcription is what equips them with the right insights at the right time, enabling them to focus on what matters the most in closing deals.

For creators, real-time transcription is perhaps less relevant today, but still full of potential, especially when it comes to live captioning and translation during media events. Most of our current media customers still prefer asynchronous transcription, as speed is less critical there, while accuracy is key for applications like time-stamped video editing and subtitle generation.

Real-time AI transcription seems to be a growing trend. Where do you see this technology heading in the next 5-10 years?

I feel like this phenomenon, which we now call real-time AI, is going to be everywhere. Essentially, what we really refer to here is the seamless ability of machines to interact with people, the way we humans already interact with one another.

And if you look at any Hollywood movie (like Her) set in the future, you’ll never see anyone there interacting with intelligent systems via a keyboard. For me, that serves as the ultimate proof that in the collective imagination of humanity, voice will always be the primary way we interact with the world around us.

Voice, as the main vector to aggregate and share human knowledge, has been part of human culture and history for much longer than writing. Then, writing took over because it enabled us to preserve our knowledge more effectively than relying on the community elders to be the guardians of our stories and wisdom.

GenAI systems, capable of understanding speech, generating responses, and storing our interactions, brought something completely new to the space. It’s the best of both words and the best of humanity really. It gives us this unique power and energy of voice communication with the benefit of memory, which previously only written media could secure for us. This is why I believe it’s going to be everywhere – it’s our ultimate collective dream.

Thank you for the great interview, readers who wish to learn more should visit Gladia. 

[seeyatellite]

Personal venting because sometimes it sucks talking only to a therapist and community based in professional psychology driven toward healthy conversation and human connection:

I think the chasm between mine and some family’s understanding is so vast because I’m not facing the world from their level of wealth.

I’m facing the world from a position of utter poverty and that’s where my values originate. I don’t see an absolute need for a bed, a car, a pretty dresser… I see needs for blankets, a pillow, shoes and a bag or crate to store my clothes in. Those are my foundational desires.

From there I begin working toward functional accessories like kitchen essentials, cleaning essentials, body soap and hygiene essentials.

I have let go of all need to maintain an image beyond anything but survival and capacity which is normal when you make a fixed, unchanging $1,500 per month under significant spending restrictions due to guardianship, making some things more expensive than others since the modern world makes things cheaper through digital means, erasing a paper trail and limiting in-person service to cut employee costs.

So, I prioritize survival. I don’t care to find a wife or settle into a marriage or raise kids. I care about art and celebration of the art of other people. I prioritize celebrating life in terms of flourishing life; nature, human collaboration and compassionate connection.

Yes, I may be absolutely terrible at a great many things including those which deepen my connection with people who share my values. I also am willing to learn and adapt which is a much easier process with absolute accountability, awareness of exactly which influences shaped me and what seems to hold me back or limit my receptiveness.

These are core values and principles for me. I have been raised mostly by external community, not family. In fact, most of my life it was family who constantly handed me to someone else and blamed me for their decisions to do so.

I am naturally inclined toward accepting others and being curious about them. I never developed the sort of attachment love that comes from consistency in nurture and healthy protective parenting.

I’m probably polyamorous or I’ll either feel insecure and unfulfilled in a stagnant monogamous relationship or even possibly cheat… which I’d imagine is a stretch. I’m more inclined toward self suffering than causing that kind of pain especially if my partner and I agreed on mutual exclusivity.

My point is, I think I understand where my family and I clash. They have core positions of comfortable and self-sustaining wealth with values and principles rooted in systems of belief and community governing their choices and actions which I have had very little significant experience with.

Yet they expect me to have the ability to act on knowledge I never truly received through means I never experienced. I was not raised in the same way, by the same hands or even toward the same goals. My entire life has been focused on healing, not thriving… and I’ve even been shit on for trying to do that.

Our society seems to separate the struggling from the “successful” and it has various methods of shading and shadowing the divide between these groups. We’re often taught to suffer in silence, to keep quiet so people don’t know you’ve felt pain at all… we’re told to learn and work in secret so we only share our success for contributing to collective surface-level harmony.

Thing is, life is not just a solo artist’s song… it’s an infinitely evolving orchestral assembly complete with every instrument we’ve ever known and many we’ve never even heard of.

So, yeah… I get why I don’t fit into the family’s collective narrative.

I wasn’t even written with the same ink.

You have money; boats (plural), cars (plural, houses (plural), an inherited lake house, hundreds of thousands if not millions invested in your sports cars, jet skis and massive Star Wars fan cave basements… that’s an assload of material wealth.

…and you judge me for what? Not finding that stuff important enough to protect over truth and compassion for people and acknowledging the differences in conditioning experiences here.

You call it love to say the words and offer me a seat for dinner or the occasional barbecue. You don’t act like love is a verb. You act like it’s a noun.

To my father, you say “you know I love you,” then cause emotional and physical harm and deny the reality we both shared. You deny responsibility for your own actions and call me selfish or needy and want me to lie for you.

You race across the US to drive Pikes Peak with your Viper buddies and host an annual “kennonball run” event from the Chelsea Proving Grounds to your inherited lake house… with your son nowhere in sight as I suppose I’m an embarrassment on disability income who can’t legally own a second car so classy to show off… because of legal restrictions you introduced me to.

I have nothing. You own 3 houses and a condo, 2 classic cars, a performance car and a pickup truck, 2 boats and two jet skis kept in a marina and a lake house inherited from your father who built it with his bare hands. Your father also built a house in that same neighborhood for your disabled brother and nurtured a family relationship with beautiful people who cared for him.

…and you just placed me on disability income at age 15 then abandoned me at 17 to live with beautiful strangers, my girlfriend and her family.

On the note of disability, you also frequently deny my lived experiences through childhood and teenage life; relationships, exploration, extremely active lifestyle… we had to visit our family-owned glasses place a few times per year because I always recklessly busted my glasses from ridiculous levels of natural activity.

You defend your disability decision against the truth of lived and shared experiences with vast social groups outside your domain of community.

Who’s the problem here?

Because therapy and professional help are telling me it’s not me… and I’m finally coming around to wholeheartedly believing it.

Where’s the “truth” and what does that word even mean to you? Is truth just a narrative support mechanism for maintaining your position and respect? Is “reality” just your story written to make you the infallible protagonist?

To the rest of the family and friends dazzled by his shiny toys and pretty boats and cars… how the hell can’t you see this?

[jeonhaeunlasalle]

CTS A | WK11 Summative Assessment Prep — Session 2

Today's CTS class allowed me to focus on areas where I need growth and reflect on my experiences. The mind-mapping activity helped me draw connections between CTS and my other modules, considering both my challenges and progress.

For example, my habit of organizing references from my CTS classes and mind mapping my work before diving into it has helped me a lot in the studio and CPJ, and the work I did in the Craft Workshop module in week 2, using Chinese ink to create patterns, was new to me, so I struggled with using art materials I wasn't familiar with. What helped me was that I remembered the 'FAILURE AS NECESSITY' that I learned from Pooja Nancy's video in the CTS class in week 1, where she said that failure is a necessary part of success and nothing is perfect, and I was able to complete my craft work. Similarly, in the photography class, we were given time to take photos and present them, and it was awkward at first to tell my friends that this aspect was good and that I needed to improve. However, based on the 'Relationship management' I learned in the CTS class in week 3, I gave my friends detailed feedback while understanding the other person, and they gave me good feedback, so we were both satisfied, and I was able to analyze the photos objectively and understand the visual composition more deeply. 

In Digital Skills, we were tasked to create an app icon. Initially unsure about the design, I recalled a Week 5 CTS class where we photographed product packaging and redesigned it, sparking inspiration. Analyzing app icons I liked and disliked helped me develop my icon design, and I was pleased to receive positive feedback.

This mind-mapping exercise reinforced that CTS connects to all subjects, fostering reflection, analysis, and creativity. I learned that knowledge from each module is not confined to a single class but serves as a foundation that enriches work across other areas.

(333 words)

[flashseo]

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