#definitely planning some more similar digital art like this :)

[atsr-studios]

I decided to take drawing more seriously and try to make an actual complete piece. So here it is ^u^

More info under the cut!

While scrolling, I found some concept art of playable Cyber elf X, and fell in love xD

So I decided to draw this piece; it was mostly practice for me to test out the brushes and my digital limits. (I usually draw in black and white on paper, so this was tough, but rewarding -w-)

Originally, the idea for the background would be a void-like cyberspace bg, but a friend suggested a sunset.

The idea here is that Cyber elf x is falling from… robot heaven? Armed and ready. So ye.

Sketch and inspiration:

[gotham-daydreams]

Hi hi! It's good to see you back :D

Alternative idea. Artist reader, except more in a traditional sense. I.e. painter, digital artist, etc.

Like imagine a reader who adored making art of people specifically -- they've painted and sketched hundreds of people, except their sketchbooks are only filled with friends and strangers, no family.

And yeah, maybe there's an old sketch of some of the family members before things soured completely, but it's crumpled and torn, and the features are barely recognizable. And when the reader's kidnapped, they're just not having it. They absolutely fucking refuse to pick up a pencil to sketch or paint any of them. Over their dead body. They refuse to associate any of them with art, which is something so personal and important to them. The family don't deserve to be portrayed so intimately after everything they've put the reader through.

And they're petty, too. Like if Damian critiqued one of their pieces they've been working on, they completely ditch it because it's been soured in their eyes now.

Except (and playing off that last post), everyone's growing more and more frustrated, and the reader's not giving even an inch. And suddenly, people start questioning... well, if the reader won't share their art with the family, then what good is it to any of them? You don't wanna paint any of them? Alright, that's fine. They'll just break your arm! It's not like you were using it for anything important anyway. Maybe if you hadn't been so fucking stubborn, none of this would have happened. You brought this upon yourself. This is your fault.

And the reader's just crushed because that's their livelihood gone. I mean, they live to create art, it's the only thing that's kept them sane whilst kidnapped, and now they can't even hold their medium properly.

I can imagine some of the more delusional members of the family convincing themself that it's the user's art that's somehow driving a wedge into their relationship, and thus by removing their ability to create, they're getting rid of the obstacle in their relationship. And some of them are just bitter. Like you won't share this precious key part of your life with them? Fine. Then they'll just take that part away from you so neither of you can have it.

You guys have to stop reading my mind sometimes I swear to god... I didn’t even have Artist!Reader written in my notes yet.. what is this? LMAO

But all jokes aside, I have thought of an Artist!Reader and mixed in with a few other elements since my brains is so weird with ideas that are too similar, and believe me when I say that while it is a similar-ish conflict at the start, it does derail into its own thing- and I'll just say that, well, hurt people, hurt people.

Regardless! Before I spoil and give away too many of my own ideas and what I already have planned for such an idea, I can see that in a way!

Though, don't get me wrong, the family does collectively have a very strong resolve, and as good as they work individually - when they come together, it is truly a sight to behold. The reader will have to be as unwavering as them, and it'll take more than just the reader being unwilling to paint for them specifically for them to even consider physically harming the reader over it - even for the more impulsive members of the family.

However, if such a thing were to happen- depending on who it is... yeah, they'd definitely point the finger at anything but themselves over it. Though, I will also say that some will absolutely own it, and this goes for any reader and just hurting them too.

Like, yeah. They hurt you, but because you weren't listening. You weren't being yourself. You were going to hurt yourself- and they're just stopping you from doing that. They will do it again if you don't stop. So, get with the program, and no one will get hurt, okay?

Because you get what you give, right?

(Good luck trying to break or even sprain any of their arms to throw their point back in their face, its not happening - they've dealt with people twice their size, with powers, and more- and they not only have beat them, but the bat has plans to take care of them should anything happen, even if that is thanks to his paranoia. You'll be lucky enough to even get a lucky shot in no matyer your combat experience prior. It's not happening... not easily, anyway. Not as easily as they can break yours.)

Even then, I think they'd try to just 'temporarily' fracture or break your wrist at most over that, and even then the family member would have to be really pissed off and impulsive - especially to a point where they just won't leave the room to cool off.

I'm not about to say that it'd be 'deserved', but it'd take a lot for the family to even try to do something that they know will take away the reader's ability to do something they love so much. In an Artist!Reader scenario that you described, they'll definitely just try to get what they can - even if they can't get anything for themselves.

Really, I think something that'd make any of them sort of 'snap' like that is if the reader kept doing pieces of other people, and the family member's own jealousy got the best of them in that moment. Be it just the situation and reader's overall attitude n just little things building up, or a small thing the reader said that was just the straw that broke the camels back.

Would they feel bad? Absolutely, but depending on the person, would they lowkey view it as punishment for the reader being so stubborn and adament about not doing even a sketch for them? Most likely, if only a little, and even so they'll keep it to themselves, unless they've got a big mouth or are just that pissed off.

Honestly, I don't know what would push them to do a whole arm - but probably something similar to the OG limb removal post — just them being pushed to an extreme edge after such a long time.

I don't think they'd be that cruel, and if so then only in a fit of anger as that does tend to happen, but genuinely? No. Absolutely not. Maybe jealous because your attention is elsewhere, but to deem it unimportant because the reader isn't doing something on them? I don’t really think so, but maybe that's because I don't really see the Batfam being those kind of people, even on an off day.

They do enjoy whatever the reader is into as they can see it makes the reader happy, and even if some definitely feel like they should be the reader's biggest source of happiness, comfort, and all of those good things, they will ultimately let it be. If anything, they might find themselves enjoying the things the reader is into for one reason or another.. unless its dangerous or drives them crazy, which.. well, it depends on how you look at things if its easy to do that or not. They're selfish, yes, but I wouldn't say they're so overly sensitive? I'm not totally sure how to word it, but maybe what I mean will show more in the future, haha!

Especially since... well, Chapter 4 isn't going to help, but I'll be real and say that I don't really consider the Not [ ] Series to be my best work, even if I do enjoy it quite a bit. I could definitely do better, but I consider it more of an introduction into what I write, how I write, and things like that so... hopefully that shows in my other projects when i get to them as I finish up this short series!

[sunsetsands]

Almud Masterpost

Seemed like a good idea to create a place to compile information about the main planet project I have going.

Most of the pictures here are hand-drawn. I have slowly been improving at digital art, so I do intend on gradually replacing them with procreate recreations, but until then, have these messy pencil illustrations.

The planet’s name is Almud (pronounced “awl-MOO-duh” (yes, the D at the end is its own syllable)). It is the second planet from its star, an orange dwarf. Conditionswise, Almud is very similar to Earth, just a lot warmer and wetter, and without a single large moon. Instead, it has a somewhat recently-formed system of rings. These rings are made of the debris from the planet’s former moon, which floated in past the Roche limit a few dozen million years ago and got torn apart. Almud may or may not also have a smaller moon or two somewhere further out. I haven’t decided on that yet.

This is a map of Almud’s entire geography, which is slightly outdated. I’ll probably make an updated version at some point eventually possibly maybe. If you’re curious, those numbers on the continents were so I could keep track of continental drift to make sure everything made sense. I care way too much about tiny details.

This is a rough (and I mean very rough. Not proud of my craftsmanship on the outlines here) approximation of what Almud’s surface looks like. The foliage uses a teal pigment to photosynthesize, and the sky appears pink during the day. Obviously, not all of the planet is wetlands, but there are definitely more wetlands than there are on Earth thanks to the much higher humidity.

I have spent a lot of time trying to figure out what Almud’s animal-equivalent life should be like. After several failed attempts, however, I think I have gotten it to a point I am satisfied with. Below is a phylogenetic tree of all of the “animal” phyla present on Almud, and an overview of what each phylum has going on. I tried not to rip off Earth's phylogeny too much, but there are some notable parallels.

Vaxistoma (roughly "vaccine mouth"): Small fishlike creatures that feed through a proboscis with an extendible needle-tooth-thing inside of it. The rest of their body is covered in thick, hard scales. They mainly inhabit deeper waters where aquatic duossei are less common.

Duosseus ("two skeletons"): The closest equivalent to vertebrates. First members were fishlike, with calcified plates covering the outside of their bodies and rod-shaped bones supporting the inside. The outer skeleton atrophied mostly in the terrestrial members, but most classes do still have notable remnants, as shown in the small drawing above.

Limosus ("muddy, slimy things"): Soft, squishy creatures without much in terms of an internal skeleton, but most groups do have some external armor like their relatives listed above. Can be accurately summarized as "molluscs, but more alieny", though a few members are more like worms or sea stars.

Jocomodivirae (very roughly "funny little guys"): Small velvet worm-esque invertebrates with a thick, leathery pad over their back. A very diverse phylum with many, many members. Definitely not just insects with no exoskeletons.

Planagelattae ("flat jellies"): What if flatworms had three eyes?

Xenigmalus ("strange, mysterious things"): I can't think of a good way of describing these, which is pretty fitting for what they are. Body plans vary wildly here, but are almost always some combination of fins, tentacles, and a big translucent sack. Like the vaxistomans, they usually inhabit deeper waters.

Cornivermia ("horned worms"): Pretty self-explanatory. The flat, hard bits at the fronts of their heads help them dig through softer areas of soil. Some groups use these growths instead as something more akin to pincers, fins, hooks, or shells.

Carniherbae ("meat plants"): You know those animal-fern things from the Ediacaran era? These are just those, but not extinct.

Vivitria ("living glass"): Soft, feathery insides protected by a crystalline silicate shell. Many species in this phylum are colonial, which tend to look like colorful, floating geodes. These colonies often have surprisingly complex sensory capabilities, and some have been found to be about as intelligent as Earth cats.

Xylovitria ("wood glass"): Terrestrial relatives of the vivitrians, almost all of which are colonial. The defining feature of this phylum, besides their terrestriality, is their symbiotic relationship with a wide range of plant-equivalent species. The xylovitrian colony forms a protective, glassy wall around the plants' branches, as well as a system of feathery roots beneath the soil which serve to both gather nutrients for their plant partner and exchange gametes with other colonies to create new, empty xylovitrians for the plants' seeds to land in. In return, the plant gives the colony some of the byproducts of its photosynthesis.

Chiforma ("X-shaped"): Four-sided radially symmetrical creatures. Contains such captivatingly creative groups such as "squids, but four", "clams, but four", "eels, but four", and, most creataculiciously of all, "coral, but four". A shining example of the innovation that specbio nerds are capable of.

Nodovellis ("tangled hair"): Formless, sessile filter feeders. Basically a slime mold trying really hard to be a sponge, but the closest it could get was becoming a loofah.

(Feel free to give critiques or advice on the scientific names I made. All I really did here was mess around with google translate. I know there are guidelines and policies for what is and isn't an acceptable phylum title, but I've never been able to understand what any of them mean. If anything immediately makes you go "That's not how that works!", let me know)

For some additional information, I imagine that life on Almud began in freshwater rather than saltwater. This made the transition to land pretty easy for most of the animals, since they could afford to just flop around in muddy wetlands without any risk of drying out. This does mean that their skin is very, very sensitive to salt, however.

There is one sapient species on Almud: These slug things. Their actual species name is Akada, if that's important. Akada are descended from a social burrowing species that learned how to cultivate the many plants and molds that thrived in the dark, wet conditions of their tunnels. They are herbivorous, have a herd animal-like social structure, and currently have a level of technological advancement similar to ours. For more miscellaneous and mostly jokey info on them, please look here.

I will expand on all of this when/if I find the time and motivation.

[maniculum]

Bestiaryposting Plan

So the poll is still running, but I think I'm safe in saying there's sufficient interest, so I'm going ahead and typing up a "how we're going to do this" thing, which I will schedule to post after the poll ends properly. As of the time I'm writing this, over 500 people have voted for the "yes I want to draw things" option, and I had been expecting to get maybe a dozen, so we definitely have enough participants. Let's get started then:

Our Source

I had originally planned to translate an Old or Middle English bestiary, but haven't been able to find a good one -- the best option I was able to dig up only has thirteen critters, which I feel like isn't enough to really have fun with. I was debating the idea of translating a Latin one -- this would have been far more time-consuming since my Latin is terrible, but also I do need to practice it, so I figured it evens out -- when I found a solution that doesn't involve me spending hours and hours on translating.

It seems that when Aberdeen University created their digitized version of the famous Aberdeen Bestiary, they released it under a Creative Commons license. (Assuming I'm reading their copyright policy correctly; I'm not a lawyer.) It does not seem to specify whether the transcriptions and translations they attach to the scanned images are also covered by Creative Commons, but since all of those are already freely available online through their website, I can't imagine they would have a problem with me posting them here as long as I provide attribution (which I am hereby doing right here on this post) and am not using it for commercial purposes (which I am not).

The Aberdeen Bestiary is missing a few pages, but there exists a very similar manuscript, the Ashmole Bestiary (they're sometimes called "sister" manuscripts), which is not missing those pages. And I happen to have a translation of the Ashmole Bestiary in hardcopy on my bookshelf, so I can just use it to fill in the gaps. Edit: whoops, the one I have is the Bodley Bestiary. They are in the same bestiary "family", though, so it still works well enough. (I think that should qualify as "fair use", since I'm only taking excerpts and not using them commercially.)

The upside of using the Aberdeen Bestiary is that it means when I round up all the art of each critter, I can include their very nice illustrations alongside the reveal of what animal was being described.

The downside of using the Aberdeen Bestiary is that since it already is free online, people might be tempted to "cheat" by looking up the entries and finding out what animal they describe. For that, please see the next section...

Guessing the Animal

Guessing what animal is being described is not the point of the exercise. (Feel free to have theories and whatnot, but please keep them to yourself so as not to influence the artists.) If you see an entry and think, e.g., "oh that's describing a raccoon"*, and then you create a picture of a raccoon... well, you could have done a perfectly good raccoon at any point and didn't need this framework to do it. So just don't worry about what animal is meant, and do your best to draw (or paint or stitch or whatever else) based on the description! You're not getting ranked on accuracy and there are no prizes forthcoming, so... just have fun with it.

*Example chosen as something that will, for obvious reasons, definitely not be in a 13th-century European bestiary.

Edit after starting to type these things up: some of these are going to be super easy to guess, though, to the point where I don't know how possible it'll be to block out prior knowledge. Sorry about that.

General Procedure

I'm going to schedule a post every Monday (I'm thinking of queuing them for 6pm Eastern Time) with a new entry. It will be the translation of an entry from the Aberdeen Bestiary with all references to the animal's name replaced by a randomly-generated nonsense word. (Henceforth to be referred to as "nonsense-names". I'm Googling* each one before using them so I don't accidentally generate one that actually means something.) These posts will all be tagged maniculum bestiaryposting, so you can follow that tag if you want to make sure you see them.'

*Later Note: Did you know that if you search dozens of nonsense words within a short span of time, Google makes you prove you're not a robot? Repeatedly?

Anyone who wants to draw the critter being described should do so. (You are encouraged to describe your thought process re: why you've depicted it the way you have.) You can put it in its own post, or reblog the description with an image, or however you want to do it. Then tag your art with the nonsense-name I've given to the animal.This will let me and others find it. (You should probably employ copy/paste there to make sure the spelling is the same, since nonsense words are hard to spellcheck.)

A week after posting the bestiary entry, I'll go through that tag and round up all of the art contributed. Then I'll put the images in a big post (or series thereof, considering how many people might participate), along with an @ and a link to your original post.

If you want...

to not have your work included in the round-up post

to have only a link to your post included and not an image

to have me include a link to your website / other social media / etsy shop in addition to or instead of your tumblr

to have other information included alongside your work

anything else along those lines

... then just say so in your post and I will follow your instructions to the best of my ability.

I will also include, at the end of the round-up post, an image of the creature as depicted in the Aberdeen Bestiary and what it is actually called.

All posts I make on this will be collected at https://maniculum.tumblr.com/bestiaryposting so that people can look at previous ones without scrolling through the tag.

Various Notes

I'm going to trim out any religious digressions in the original entries -- bestiary authors had a habit of adding stuff like "and the raccoon is symbolic of god in such-and-such fashion, which teaches us...", and I just don't think that's relevant here.

The entries will also be presented in a random order. This is because they're sorted into categories in the original text, so if I don't change the order we're going to get stuck with, e.g., a few months of All Birds All The Time.

You should all be aware that the animals described are not guaranteed to be, you know, real. There are several entries describing animals that straight up do not exist -- some of which are mythical creatures familiar to most people, others of which are extremely obscure.

Explanations of the animal's name within the entries will be redacted.

If other animals are mentioned within the entries, they will not get replaced with nonsense-names. Originally, I was going to make the switch globally, so that if, e.g., the entry for "raccoon" read "a raccoon is about the size of a possum", and the random generator had decided that a raccoon was a balzikhear and a possum was a flunggrish, the "raccoon" entry would now read "a balzikhear is about the size of a flunggrish". However, I decided that it will cause more problems than it solves to obscure any comparisons to other animals -- so the name-switch is now localized only to the specific entry. A possum is a flunggrish only in its own entry, and remains a possum everywhere else.

I was originally going to do one post for every single entry, but there are a lot of them and they vary wildly in length & quality. So I've cut it down to exactly 52 posts, meaning that if I queue them up for once a week, this will run for roughly a full year.

Most of that cutting-down mentioned above was done by combining a bunch of the really short entries into categories -- the last half-dozen posts in this series will be group entries. You can choose to make art of any of them that strike your fancy, or do a group portrait, or just ignore them --I dunno, I'm not a cop, do what you want.

I did also directly cut some, mostly domesticated animals because there's a somewhat different approach to them based on author and audience familiarity.

So yeah, that should cover everything.

[hawkland]

Art Masterpost: Solitudes

Story by: ilovehowyouletmefall (@angelinthefire) Art by: sidewidner (@hawkland)

It's October and that means it's @deancasbigbang season once again! This year makes for my third time around for the event, although this year I only managed to participate as an artist (I'm still in a bit of writer's burnout since the summer). But, that meant I could put all of my focus and time into doing these four pieces for @angelinthefire's wonderful story "Solitudes." I'm gonna talk a little bit about my ideas and process and share some progress pictures behind the cut in a way that might be kind of spoilery, so if you want, just go read the story now! And then you come back here later to find out more if you wish. All works were completed in watercolor with some digital effects and filtering after completion.

I was really drawn to the imagery of the architectural elements of where the story takes place (an abandoned brutalist mansion) vs. nature and decay...plus the way light and shadow seemed to play such important roles in the visual descriptions. Dean and Cas spend so much of the story separated by supernatural forces even when they are in the same room I wanted to focus on that as well: being so near yet so far apart, not quite connecting or even able to look at each other without barriers.

I started on the banner art right away, thinking of Dean in despair (for reasons in the story) and Cas yearning/wishing he could reach him. Behind them both is the concrete wall covered in mold and moss (which was a LOT of fun to paint). The actual final watercolor painting came out as so:

(This is one of my favorite Deans that I've painted. His face can be SO hard to get right!)

Working with angelinthefire's suggestions I ran some different digital filters on the photo to desaturate/emphasize the light and dark for the final banner, and then with that in mind tried to keep the other pieces in a similar color scheme and tonal range.

The atrium painting was the biggest challenge. I knew I wanted to do a piece to capture the feeling of the house, the light coming in from an open skylight falling on brambles growing out of an old fountain spot. I was thinking of the Roman villa ruins I've visited combined with some actual Brutalist/modern homes I looked up. My original drawing plan was a bit more complicated and simplifying/taking out some elements definitely makes it more creepy/mysterious looking and less like a funky modern home.

You can see the vanishing/perspective point is right where Dean is looking at Cas.

The light falling down from above was partially painted with some interference/shimmer watercolors, but I amplified it (along with the shadows) with some digital effects at the end. This was before doing any digital magic:

Dean reaching for Cas: I made myself so sad working on that piece! It was also quite the challenge to get the likeness right at that angle and do the lighting the way I wanted, so again I used some digital effects at the end to really intensify it. Painting before filters:

I think my favorite part of that one is how I dry-brushed the ash wings in one shot and they came out just how I wanted! My main reference was, heh, that old classic shot of unconscious Cas being poked with a stick. I used my own hand for Dean's reaching out to what he sees through the harsh angled light.

The final piece is a direct companion to the one above it, and one I'd been thinking about for weeks, trying to map it out mentally before tackling it. Dean's face can be so much more challenging for me to try to capture well compared to Cas's and I really wanted to get his shock and horror in that moment while also being able to show (the real) Cas in the background/shadows...this was the third drawing pass before I finally started painting it. There's only a light bit of filtering over the final piece to push Cas back in the shadows (I didn't want to do with the paints for fear of muddying the colors...plus I was already painting Cas so small any wrong brush stroke could shift his likeness/expression.)

Overall I really like how unified these pieces all ended up feeling and I hope they manage to complement the story in a way that it deserves!

[jumpscaregoose]

how I make my manga patches: a shitty tutorial

figured I'd make a post explaining my technique for making the patches I put on my hororen jacket and other projects. because they're cool and more people should do them

here's how I turned this panel into this patch for my hao pants I'm working on:

you will need:

fabric to paint on (I'd recommend a white fabric without a lot of texture. I'm pretty sure the one I use is some kind of polycotton blend?)

basic sewing supplies (needle, pins, thread)

a laptop/tablet you can lie flat on your desk OR a lightbox + printer

pencil (the softer and darker the better, I use 6b)

thin paintbrush

acrylic paint

fabric medium (optional)

thick gloves (if you're tracing off a touchscreen you WILL need these)

pinking shears (optional)

scissors

decide the scale of your patch. for this project I made a digital mockup and then measured how big I wanted it to be on my project. I settled on 3 inches wide

download the image you plan to trace and either zoom in to the right size or scale and print it (I don't own a lightbox myself but using it should provide a similar effect to my method.

lay out your screen or lightbox flat on your workspace and put your fabric over the image (I'd also recommend ironing your fabric before this if you can). If your fabric is thin enough you should be able to see the lines through it.

this is where you want to put on your gloves if you're tracing off a touchscreen. without gloves, your hands can sometimes cause the screen to move or zoom in while you're tracing.

now you just need to trace the image onto the fabric with your pencil. this is the absolute WORST PART and to minimize suckage I recommend

checking you're aligned with your previous marks before you make a new one

tensing your fabric along the grain or crossgrain with your hand as you draw, so it doesn't shift (don't fuck with the bias that'll cause problems)

taking your tracing OFF the screen to add the finer details (tracing directly is most important for the big shapes and faces)

using a soft, dark pencil to avoid damaging your screen (you can also add a sheet of transparent plastic between the fabric and the screen, but I've found this makes the fabric slip more)

shading in the flat black areas so you don't forget them later

here's my penciling after finishing on the screen and fully finished

4. now it's time to paint over the pencil

I use a cheap, probably terrible acrylic paint and mix it with a textile/fabric medium. This makes the paint flow better and raises its longevity on the fabric. It's not necessary to use, especially if you don't plan to wash your finished project (acrylic paint is plastic once it dries, it shouldn't chip off too easily).

then you just. paint over the pencil. take you time and steady your hand on the desk. if you're worried about smudges work top-bottom and left-right/right-left depending on your dominant hand.

here's mine fully painted. once the paint is dry, I heat seal it with an iron (and a pressing cloth, so if it sticks I don't have hao fused to my iron forever)

5. cut out the patch. I like to use pinking shears to reduce future fraying, but if you don't have those you can either manually cut notches or fuck it we ball a straight edge.

then you just pin and sew it to your project. boom done

now you can make as many as you want and add them to everything!

I've used this technique for:

aaaaallllllllllllll the patches on my hororen jacket (took FOREVER don't try to hand sew through SUEDE kids)

tie-on pockets (EVERYONE MAKE THESE THEY'RE SO HANDY)

a cell phone pocket on my cozmez ita bag

painting my favourite manga pages directly onto a skirt (wip because that fabric is a nightmare)

you don't need to just stick to manga panels either, anything works as long as it has clean, defined lines (but manga/comic panels are definitely easiest). if you look at some of the patches on my jacket you can see I've used coloured screenshots and official art and just traced over them in black. would recommend colour correcting images like that to make the lines easier to see, though

I love this technique because I love dressing up for cons but I don't enjoy making cosplays themselves. so I just make an insane jacket wear it to a con and then wear it in regular ass life. shoutout to the three people who recognized my jacket at fanexpo toronto last august. highlight of my life.

[exandrothinadresseveryday]

um um um I'm back and I decided to analyze your art cause I really admire it :')

Honestly, I've noticed you use the same line width, if not similar line widths throughout the entire piece, which makes the dresses easier to swallow compared to how some artists draw, and I also think it goes perfectly with the overall simplicity of your art! While it is rather simple, it is also rather easy to add details into it to make it much more fun to do and gorgeous to look at.

I also love how you color things, as it is also pretty simple and goes with the line art, but it's also really easy to add details that you can overlook but still add to the drawing! Not even to mention how well the background goes with the outfits, especially in cases like the black hole dress or the white and blue angel dress (which both look amazing and are easily some of my favorite pieces ever)

Anyways once more, your art looks gorgeous and has given me so much inspiration and insight into my own art and how I can better it, as well that keeping things simple can totally help my art a ton!!!

um anyways sorry for the paragraphs but tysm for making the blog, it has cheered me up multiple times before and it probably will do it again countless times <33

This is so freaking cool to read, you absolutely hit the nail on the head with some of these comments :D Hope you don't mind if I add some insight on my part since it's so lovely idk if I could post it without anything to say.

But yeah, my usual choice in brush is literally a default CSP brush with the pen pressure turned off, and it tends to be 6-12px wide? There's nothing particularly special about it other than drawing with a smaller brush size helps me keep my canvas roughly the size I like (since I alter it each drawing), and I'm not a big fan of line weight in general lol. I'm definitely not the kind of person who will swear by a special custom brush or specific settings, I've always been the kind of person who will just make art with whatever the fuck I'm given.

If I can be honest, a lot of the time I just wing it with colours and the background- so you don't see it but there's a lot of me trying to slap a bandaid on a leak I created by not planning ahead. Sometimes things go smoothly, other times it doesn't.. For the record, an artwork will turn out wayyy nicer when you have a complete idea of what it's meant to look like. Do not aim to emulate me 100% I am but a fool in the grand scheme of things.

ANYWAYS, you wanna know something fucked up that might make ppl look at my art differently? This is my process for the latest drawing I did. I took my sketch, I drew it over it digitally and inked it, THEN I overlayed the sketch because I liked how it messed with my colours-

I paint OVER the artwork, realised my sloppy colouring makes the bottom part stand out so I add a shadow trying to adjust for this, decided I needed the artwork to be 100x more vibrant so I upped the contrast a bajillion times..

Then the rest was just shit i painted over:

I didn't even have lineart for the angel dress.. Check out this freak shit:

Have fun guessing what part of my artwork is what now,,,

[stoopystuppy]

crippling heathers headcanons 😭

this is just mostly the Heathers + V & JD ueueueue some of them may be OOC ueueueue

Artistic side

 ▪︎ McNamara:

- she'd be the type to have a cute cartoony and vibrant artstyle, and if it were the modern days, she'd definitely be an animation kid

- artstyle is very inconsistent, one second she’s doing an anime artstyle then the next she suddenly know how to draw semi-realism 

- uses pen, paper, markers and colored pencils but eventually switched to digital 

- isn’t afraid to try other mediums but she’s super comfortable with digital

- doodle!! doodle!! doodles!!

- vents via art

 ▪︎ Duke:

- she’s defo a painter kind of artist (more comfortable with oil painting), draws whatever she sees; objects, old pictures (she sometimes draw her gfs but hides it from them)

- experiments with different mediums

- she’s the type to say “lol yeah this is just a sketch” to a finished-looking output

- hates her works and probably burns them (the others cry for her but she’s like “lmao”)

 ▪︎ Chandler: 

- isn’t really the artistic type but since she’s surrounded with artists she kinda has those amateur artstyle that doesn’t look messy but has no knowledge in anatomy and such

- draws a lot of clothing designs (likes to draw floral designs)

- her gfs support her and they try to make her designs real and they wear it for her

- she just draws for fun or if she’s bored

 ▪︎ Veronica:

- can’t draw for shite, very messy and shaky hands because of coffee and little to no experience

- the type to draw pp for fun

- but fr, she would attempt to do realism and loves drawing with graphites

- does scenery artworks and portraits

- combines traditional and digital (linework in traditional, colorwork in digital)

 ▪︎ JD:

- the type to draw small edgy stickmen but when he draws seriously its like he's a facking god 

- draws in a monotone color (usually black)

- comfortable with using only charcoal and graphites

- throws his art away (the only thing he and Duke bonds over /j) 

▪︎ Martha:

- SHE HAS THE ANIME ARTSTYLE!!!

- loves drawing animals (especially ponies)

- she and McNamara do collabs together

Playing instruments

 ▪︎ Veronica: 

- plays the acoustic and electric guitar, maybe some drums but she likes playing the acoustic guitar more 

- plays the ukulele time to time

- she's also learning to play the bass (being taught by JD) 

- ironically plays the clarinet 

 ▪︎ McNamara: 

- just likes playing the recorder and drums, had lessons for both

- she also plays maracas and harmonica bc she likes annoying her gfs

- is being taught the guitar by Veronica

- loves learning different kind of instruments, although they don’t get used anymore once she finds a new instrument to play (tho if there are similar functions, the skill will go over it)

 ▪︎ Duke:

- was most likely forced to play the violin

- is learning other instruments via her gfs’ and recently fell in love playing the drums

- being taught the drums by both Veronica and McNamara :] 

 ▪︎ Chandler:

- more on vocal but was forced to play the harp or/and piano 

- does duets with Duke <3

- LITERALLY THE ONLY ONE THAT DOESN’T PLAY THE DRUMS BETWEEN THE FOUR OF THEM

- and also the only one that doesn’t have any plans on learning or hoarding other instruments because she’s burnt out with playing the two

▪︎ JD:

- pianist and a self-taught bassist 

- his mom was supportive of him playing the piano and he had piano lessons when she was still around but he stopped learning when she’s gone because he didn’t want to be reminded of her for the longest time

- bought his own bass with his own earned money to distract himself and learned it instead

- good thing for him too because it wasn’t as loud as the piano so his dad doesn’t scold him

- every single time he sees or/and touches a piano, he feels his mom around and would be emotional, he doesn’t have any plan on coming back but gets sentimental when he gets a chance to play it

Texting/Chatting style

 ▪︎ McNamara:

- loves using tone indicators and often uses them in her messages

- she types really fast and would make a lot of typos but fixes them 

- doesn’t care about punctuations and would elongate her words

- loves loves loves using emoticons because she thinks its cute :D especially these ones; ٩(＾◡＾)۶ , (ᗒᗣᗕ) ՞, (づ ◕‿◕ )づ , (⁄ ⁄>⁄ ▽ ⁄<⁄ ⁄) , (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

- loves using (yellow) emojis like; 💛✨🎉👑🧀

- enjoys keyboard smashing and using caps lock because she thinks it shows her excitement on things or shows how upset she is; "DHMJDKWODUQKOSHWJISJSJZ!!!!!!" and "hdjsksjnsnsnkz"

- laughs in either keyboard smash or “hehe”

- ex;

  Mac-a-: Guysssss i splled milk n the bed :((( /srs

  Mac-a-: spilled* on*  sowwy ╥﹏╥ fnkfianmkf /lu

—--------

  Mac-a-: UWUWEUUWEUWEUWUEWUEWUU✨✨✨✨✨✨

  Chandy: ????

 ▪︎ Veronica:

- uses tone indicator a lot for McNamara, Martha and JD 

- has good punctuation and grammar but does not give a damn about capitalization nor does she put periods at the end of her messages (unlike a certain someone)

- uses "lol" "lmao" and etc in a lower caps

- sends copypasta bc she thinks its funny

- the only time she uses caps lock is when she's screaming or laughing

- ex; 

  -Ronnie: is anyone up for pizza? /genq

  -Ronnie: no? well, that's alright /nm

—--------

   -Ronnie: cum

   Chandy: y am i dating u

 ▪︎ Chandler:

-  she isn’t really up to date with tone indicators and one time someone was ranting and she’s just “ok what the hell is a /neg” and then everyone just screamed at her (via chat form) and told her to shut up (only V and M did that) and that JD was venting lmfao

- she later was then taught about tone indicators and uses it sometimes (only with McNamara)

- uses emojis a lot and laughs with emoji; 😂😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣🤣

- T A K E S   H O U R S  TO RESPOND but expects you to respond to her quickly 😭 

- she’s too lazy to type so she either uses auto-correct/predictive text thingy to continue her sentences or she literally just have missing letters in her words and go like “wht u doin??”

- her texts are literally either “r u hre? ive been waitin 4 u🙄😒😪” or “Are You Here? I’ve Been Waiting For You 🙄😒😪” (auto-correct/predictive text)

- followed by that is 3791874218 missed calls from her

- IRONICALLY SENDS THOSE “GOOD MORNING” GIFS FHIWAINFISAF and McNamara’s the only one who hearts it and replies with a “GOOD MORNING!!!”

 ▪︎ Duke:

- talking to her would literally be like talking to a bot or reading a research paper, bc of that she’s such a dry texter

- girls got proper punctuation, proper grammar and capitalization, EVERYTHING

- often gets annoyed when she sees grammar mistakes and would fix it for the person

- will literally type a whole paragraph scolding you to type better 

- doesn’t laugh in “haha’s”, just uses “lol” in lowercase, uses "lmao" after every offense towards others or herself

- barely text/chat and would rather just vc and send vm instead and then McNamara and Chandler join her and they all just started sending vms (V: w..what?)

- ex; 

  Dandy: Don't forget, we have an assignment due later at 4PM.

  Mac-a-: waIT WHAT??!?!

—--------

  Dandy: I hate myself lmao.

  Chandy: dont 😐😘💞

  Dandy: K.

—--------

  Dandy: I want to kill someone.

  John Doe: same.

  Pony Martha: You guys are /j right? 😊😊

  Dandy: *seen*

  John Doe: *seen*

  Mac-a-: aRE YALL /J OR /SRS!??!!??!?!?!??!

▪︎ JD:

- types slowly and somehow still makes typos and he doesn't fix them

- he just lets other people interpret what he's typing because he doesn't give a damn about them

- nor does he give a damn about proper punctuation and grammar although he adds a period at the end of his messages

- just uses tone indicators for Martha, Veronica and McNamara

- uses emojis but only the edgy looking ones; 🖤💔🔪🔫⚰🥀

- laughs in “haha’s” and doesn’t use acronyms

- ex;  

   John Doe: wnns sese my hmsrerz.

   Chandy: what

   -Ronnie: sure

   John Doe: *sends pics of his hamsters*

—--------

   Chandy: istg ur worse than me

   John Doe: slay.

[gemorycave]

There will definitely not be an introduction post any time soon because I do neot know how to intro! But I have blogs ! I will share most and I will add on cuz I am kinda lazy and if I don't post this now I won't ever !! Anyway here some stuff

List of blogs!!

@gemorycave this blog, of course!! Mostly post art and random thoughts or just whatever in general :3 it is blog where I interact from too!! This basically just has everything I guess!

@gemorycave-artz Basically where I reblog all of my art from here, so people could view art without all of my nonsense posts and reblogs since I can get a tad bit silly with those and they end up taking over entirely teehe

@mossspeltwithc me but more problematic >:3 slash jay teehe. Auhm don't really knowwww how to introduce this one? It's just. Me. Like me me like uh mawce! Me I'm mawce! Teehe I might also get a little personall?? Think that's a word for it , since I might talk about source stuff a lot and share arts of it and just other things in general

Another blog I have kind of similar issues is @mephone4ii but I think it's a little less personal, perhaps but I don't use it so often like the other one

@loosepaige headmate blerp hiiii hi paiggeee I missssss youuu paappeerrrrr come backkk pappeerr hepllp sorry, Paper! This is paper or aka Paige!!! Uuhhm maybe active maybe not, he hasn't been fronting recently so not active sIGHS

@digital-lands floorphone side blog!!! No wayy?? I post allll about floorphone cuz it's on my mind so bunches I chat about so much laalala!!! Right now there isn't like any art at all but I plan on doing floorphone art on it! So floorphone sighhss I love floorphone!!!

@paintphone-ceo upcoming sideblog where I will post so much paintphone aka mspaint or aka digital art , whatever u wanna call it!!! But I just love it so much like floorphone so I wanna do paintphone!!

Now,

Tags!!

I might also add on to these, maybe! Since im so forgetful i might be missing some and if I come up with any more I definitely will add

#gem talks - basically for any post that includes me yapping or whatever just regular talking post!

#gemorycave art - pretty self explanatory, tag for my art! Could be anything from a finished product to work in progresses or just any quick sketch or doodles I may have!

#gem answers - basically just post where i am answering my inbox!

#mawce daily struggles - self explanatory too I think! I'm most likely complaining about something when I use the tag and I just happen to have it as a thing i deal with daily or just pretty ofetn!

#gem pinned post - might not actually be a currently pinned post but it might be important to me so I wanna have something to go back to it

[dawnthefluffyduck]

First project is done :D

Actually, even though I'm in two studios this semester, I'm likely only going to post class projects for my digital one, since the other is a figure drawing class, and I can't exactly post drawings of other real people (we will do a self portrait, so I *might* share that one if it doesn't turn out as inaccurate as the last one did).

Project notes under the cut as always (and bonus, I got some cut out! Picture below)

I can't lie, this isn't exactly how I wanted it to turn out. I actually started to hand draw in more complex shading, but when I opened the file this morning, everything I had done over the weekend was completely gone (weird computer issue, not because I forgot to save it). I ended up having to add in some reallly simple shadows at the last minute (just because some of these really needed some modicum of depth in order to work), and barely got this done in time. But, it's done, and it's turned in :)

This project was meant to familiarize us with using Adobe Illustrator; we were told to make a sheet of 6-10 stickers that represented a place we can't actually go to. I actually did a very similar project last spring; that time, we were told to depict a place that we wanted to go to, so a real place. This one was was a bit more abstract, and I'm in my baby-ex-christian era, so I really wanted to do heaven and hell for this. It felt like tasteful blasphemy, and it felt nice doing this for a prompt that implied that these places weren't real. Made me happy :D my professor loved the idea, so I took it and ran with it haha.

The class loved it; mine was the first one they wanted to discuss during critique after the only volunteer went, and it felt really nice. I put a ton of time into this so I'm happy to see it pay off even if it's not exactly how I wanted it to turn out.

I'll probably play around with it more? I won't be doing the complex shading I initially had planned because that was not a fun experience to have to redo. Some color and shape adjustments are needed for me to be fully happy with it though, so that'll probably be a "my personal free time" thing.

I went to war with the Cricut in the art building, but managed to get one set to cut well :D my classmates took some of the ones I cute out, which made me really happy. I'll be making some more to give to friends so I'll probably post more about my paper cutter woes on my alt within the next week haha

If anyone is interested in having some, lmk and I'll see if I can figure out how to mail them? I can't say for sure if I'll be doing that just yet, but if some people are interested I'll look into it!

Anyway, I'm still proud of these, and I think that even with the hiccups included, this still turned out light-years better than the last time I did this project (or, a veeery similar one). Will definitely be decreasing the detail scale on the next project though :')

[dreemingstar]

HIII! Im Addi and this is my first post in tumblr.

Having spent many years being part of the Undertale fandom, it definitely had a huge impact on me. I have been constantly inspired by so many talented artists and creative Undertale AUs. Most of them being popular series’ like X!Tale, Epic!tale, Underverse and so much more. Ive always wanted to create something similar and be like the artists i look up to. My friends and I have recently planned and created an Undertale AU of our own! Being huge fans of Underverse and XTale, We named our AU XVARSA!

Although heavily inspired by the works of Jael Peñaloza ( @jakei95 ), I promise this is not some cheap copy. My friends and i have carefully planned out our own storyline and are eager to share it with the internet!

This is the first page of XVARSA. I hope you all like it so far :D I am still relatively new to digital art and the clip studio paint software so I will definitely appreciate some tips or criticism!

My friends and I strive to improve and will do our very best on this project.

[20dollarlolita]

I want to make my own version of AP's 2022 lyrical bunny coat. I have an embroidery machine and digitizing software. I've already digitized the lyrical bunny patch. The other patch says Angelic Pretty. I don't want to put their name on something I made. I was planning on making it say just AP. Do you think that's too close? I could do LB for lyrical bunny or my own initials. I'm changing the colors of the jacket to what fabric I have in my stash, so it won't be identical to the real one.

For starters, copying existing things so that you can learn how to do something is totally legitimate. Referencing, especially when you're doing something complex like embroidery, is completely valid.

For people who don't digitize embroidery, it's a lot more complex than just vector art. There's a ton of stuff out there that no one's going to teach you how to do, and you have to learn how to render an image in thread by looking at how others rendered it in thread. Just looking at how someone draws it isn't the same, in the same way that looking at a photograph of a person isn't going to teach you how to blend oil paint on wood to perfectly capture their skin texture. "Learn how to make your own without copying," is not a valid argument here.

That said, you're completely correct in that copying a brand logo and trying to pass it off as legitimate is not the same as copying a brand to learn their style. I'd definitely want to do something to make it clear that it's not trying to be counterfeit.

You could easily get something that's similar looking, but upon inspection is clearly not the original brand. "Angelic Petty" kind of comes to mind.

You could also pick something that's absolute gibberish, but has a similar uppy-downy-curly-shape (some typography nerd please tell me what that's called) as the AP logo. Skerple brand sharpie markers come to mind.

You could also definitely just put your own initials or your own signature. You could make a patch with a shape that feels like it should match the bunny. You could pick something else from the release (I liked this key chain) and turn that into a patch.

But if you're asking if I think it's a good idea to just digitize AP's logo and stick it on a patch, well? It's not really doing anything morally wrong as long as you're exclusively using it for personal use and are not attempting to gain some kind of money or social status from it, but you have such a good option to make something to elevate the concept.

So, if you can, try taking the image in a different direction. What is something that you can add to it that makes it something no one else could make? How can you make this yours?

For further reading: I answered another ask similar before.

[dredgelord]

Hello! Could i get a bg3 matchup?

 I go by she/her and don’t have a gender preference. 

As for personality I am quite introverted and tend to love just chilling in my room. I do however open up around close friends and family where I can be loud, especially when talking about my interests.

As for hobbies I love digital art. I love digital illustration, making character models/art for game design, web design, graphics, and more. I love playing rpg video games, visual novels, otomes etc. I also love reading fantasy, classical literature, myths and folklore. As much as i enjoy spending time in my room with my hobbies, one of my favorite things to do is travel the world. I also love to bellydance to Arabic and Bollywood music. 

Likes: lil coffee shops, earl grey tea, chai, sushi, boba, purple, chokers, butterfly clips, people who value personal space

Dislikes: overly touchy people, suddenly deciding to switch plans, anything too crowded or loud

Id say my strengths are definitely my imagination and creativity. I tend to get lost in my head in made up worlds and use that for my art. Id also say that im quite good at being on top of things and will always finish all my work before play. 

For weaknesses its my pessimism. I get into ruts where sometimes all I see is a doom scenario. 

 Thats it! Thank You! 

Hi Danza, thank you for the request! Bellydancing sounds like such a fun, interesting hobby ! I had a friend who did some form of belly dancing before, too.

Taking into account you don't have a gender preference. I did some thinking on this one, and I decided to pair you wiiiith...

.

.

.

Karlach!

Now, hear me out. You say that you are mostly introverted, but you find it easier to open up when you're around loved ones - namely when you feel comfortable enough to talk about your interests.

Karlach as we know her is of course, the rambunctious, loud, cinnamon roll with the mouth of a truck driver - she's also very loveable and excitable, kind of like...almost puppy-behavior. In that same regard, she's fiercely loyal - so, Karlach is definitely dog-coded.

I think the two of you would make a good pair because personally I'm a sucker for those couples who balance the other out. You're quiet, she's not - you're introverted, she's not - but while you do have differences, you do have similarities.

If you're in a situation you don't entirely want to be in (i.e. the kind you just want to hole yourself up in your room), never fear, as Karlach will either help to physically remove you from the situation (whether it's coming up with a perfectly goofy excuse like, "Ah fuck. We left the uh...fireplace... on fire." Or, literally picking you up and physically removing you from said situation, literally (whichever your preference is, but I don't think so given you're not fond on touch). The two of you would probably have a "signal" or secret code word of some sort that you give each other for scenarios like this.

Either way, you can count on her to do all the talking so you don't have to, if that's what you'd prefer.

Regarding your weakness with pessimistic tendencies and thoughts, Karlach is an excellent comforter. If motivational words aren't really your thing (which she's great at. Maybe not the most eloquent but who cares? The girl can give a good fuckin' speech), she has plenty else to offer. Whether it's telling you stories or jokes to get you out of the rut, or offering the best hug you've ever received, she will be very empathetic to you during those times. She's there for you, even if you aren't in the mood to talk. Just don't shut her out completely, and she'll be there for you when you're ready.

With your hobbies, Karlach is your #1 listener. Whether you have a new idea for an art piece based off of something you'd conjured from your imagination and no one to share it with, welp, now you do - Karlach loves hearing what you have to say, and the best part: she listens. Not only that but I see her as more of a "visual" person so she would love to offer her own ideas if you're struggling putting something on paper. She gives a lot of, "What about this? How about trying this color?" suggestions to try and assist you.

Sort of the same when it comes to the books you read. I feel like she actually WOULDN'T be a big reader until she asks you about whatever you're reading at the time, and then she decides to give it a shot. Seeing as how you love it so much and it seems so important to you of course, naturally, she wants to at least attempt to read. Pretty soon you've created a monster, and she's throwing in some big words in between swears.

All that aside, I definitely see her as one who wants to travel the world with you, too. Making memories together and finding some silly souvenirs are great, but the best part of any trip is having spent more time together with you.

A relationship with her would be long, sweet, and caring.

[missevelynpierce]

The Brat.

I met him in high school so many years ago. He was popular and was kind of that classic “bad boy” out of an ‘80s movie. Think of James Spader’s character from Pretty In Pink. He was popular and would never be seen with someone like me. I was kind of like Molly Ringwald’s character. A bit nerdy and quirky and definitely not popular. He was kind of a dick, but he was hot - dark hair, dark eyes, and I sensed this other darkness in his energy that ignited something in me. He was in with the theater geeks and he was also a writer; he was the only one I knew that used a refillable Parker pen. I seem to remember these details.

An interlude in college where I got to be a bit of a bitch to him turned the tables and felt good. I was waiting for the bus and he complimented my pedicure. He asked if I had some time to hang out and I essentially rejected him. I still remember the shade of nail polish I was wearing from that day. The whole ride home I was a little flushed. And there’s the almost interlude a few years later when his book was published and I almost went to a reading at a local bookstore. I had my first aura induced migraine on my way there, so I went home. 

A few years later, through the magic of social media, he connected to me as all the high school friends that were long forgotten all washed ashore in the digital realm. 

He sent a message. I was living with an ex at the time in a relationship that was falling apart. He commented on my feet and confessed his years-long crush on me and never had the nerve to say anything about it. This made me really happy, and we continued to talk. The conversations getting increasingly explicit. One day, we made plans to meet up at a local bar and he called me and asked if I could just go up to his apartment so he could suck on my toes. Nope. I wasn’t going to do that. He got pissy and whiny and I was more concerned about safety - I hadn’t actually seen him since college, and it wasn’t my nature to just go to someone’s place. I craved authentic connection and didn’t want to be his kink dispenser. 

I got annoyed and unfriended him. A couple of more years would go by before it would really begin. 

I was in another relationship, and now he moved far away, and we picked right back up. There's something about physical distance that allows one to go harder and deeper when expressing desires. He told me the things that he wanted me to do to him. I told him some early childhood stories that involved feet, and he had similar experiences. We would soon call each other brother and sister. The conversations got even more explicit and I would be getting pedicures weekly, sending him foot pics, buying new shoes and sending video clips of me putting them on. I would get a thrill teasing him relentlessly. I had a boyfriend at the time and mastered the art of discretion and would thrill at rubbing myself thinking of the brat as the boyfriend snored beside me.

Soon, our conversations would run late into the night. He’d soon offer himself as a slave to me and tell me the stories of his earlier experiences as a slave. He had girlfriends who beat him and he loved it, he once had a Domme who was a well-known professor, a few pro-Dommes, and others from the club scene that he was gladly a human carpet for. He told me that it’s very rare to find someone with the raw energy and the natural propensity for kink that I have. That I know it’s not about pure impact; that the power of wordplay and the intuitive understanding of power dynamics and exchange is what makes me authentic. 

And this is what truly set me on my path. 

I would continue playing with the boyfriend I had at the time, and the physical kink that that relationship already had got amplified. I felt myself claim my power and then realized that I deserved a hell of a lot better than someone who was unemployed and who would never satisfy my needs. I dumped him then booked a flight to visit the brat. After 7 years of maintaining an online long distance relationship, I would finally get the nerve to play with him in person. It had to happen. There was no stopping this.

This was my rebirth. 

This was my transformation. 

When he knocked on my door, I hugged him. Tight. And kissed him, long. 

We just talked for hours, reminiscing and actually getting to spend time with each other, because despite all the years, we haven’t had any true conversations. It felt so good to talk and to feel understood. The familiarity and all the connections with people and places we grew up with. It was nice to share stories and connect. 

And once night fell, I would make him clean my sand crusted sandals and would press my feet into his face. He’d get super bratty and I’d slap him and spit on him, and all those things, until I finally sat on his face smothering him, making him eat my ass and my pussy. I was on the verge of climax and then he said:

“I dare you to piss on me.” Something about the dare, just did something to me. I grabbed him, went to the bathroom, commanded him to lay down in the shower, and then released all over him. I felt electricity everywhere out of every nerve ending in my body. It was intense, powerful, and I knew I was never going to be the same. 

This was only the beginning. And nearly 20 years later, he still frustrates the shit out of me, and despite time and distance, he always returns.

[mortimer]

honestly, I don't believe you should need a formal engineering degree to work with a cnc. like obviously there's basic knowledge and safety training you definitely should have, but that aside I think many people can and should use them! we actually had a 3 axis back at my secondary school and some of us (myself included) got to use it for text engravings, it was very educational! supervised ofc

also I recently saw a work where they cnc'd away the background of a picture of flowers, iirc it was done with a 3 axis but because they worked the design out so well beforehand, it actually looked a lot more intricate than what you can usually get out of it - all of which is to say, I actually think cncs and especially 3 axis machines can be an incredible tool for artists, just the right balance of precision and limitation, so I think it's great that you're coming at it from an artist background rather than an engineering one.

generally speaking, I'm a huge fan of doing stuff that produces physical results, be it crochet, wood turning or 3d printing but my weakness is that while I write and did theater and thus can by some definitions be considered an artist, I'm not very good at visual arts, especially 3d ones. closest I'm halfway decent at is pottery and you can't compare that to modelling 3d assets so when I print stuff I usually just use other people's stls or tools (eg I used heroforge and similar for dnd minis) and I kinda feel like if I got a cnc I'd fall into that same rut.

but say, as an artist with access to a cnc machine, if for some reason I were to get one, would you take commissions? I can't remember if there's a standardised file format for cncs but if there is, that would be really cool. this is not like a firm request and I probably won't get a cnc but like... would that be something you'd even consider?

yeah i am actually currently employed as a digital fabrication technician! my comment about the lack of engineering experience was more about being at a disadvantage for getting jobs than operating & doing maintenance on the machine.

and yeah i wouldn't be strictly against doing commissiony things with the cnc but no there is not a standardized format. The downside of anything with digital fabrication is that EVERYTHING is proprietary. I'm currently using shopbot and fusion360, but I'm gonna lose access to fusion after this year more than likely. You can generally bring in meshes to whatever CAD program, fusion or rhino or what have you, but since a CNC is going to make your part subtractively rather than additively you have to take that into consideration with whatever you're making (undercuts and 3-axis machines are not friends.) But once you have the piece you need to toolpath it, and whatever post-processing you use has to be specific to the machine you're using. And fusion is nice because you can do your toolpathing and post-processing all in one place, but iirc Rhino doesn't support that and you have to have a separate program to do your post. (<-- i could be making this up i haven't worked with rhino in a minute.)

But yeah basically. I would be open to it but because everything is so shop-specific I would almost rather manufacture shit myself. Also, on a semi-related note, I do plan on doing a soft-reopening of my store in the coming months and since I have some crochet stuff that needs to go, I will be selling those... and possibly commissions as well depending on scale etc.....

[fmpmelissa]

Week 02: Wednesday – Production and Research 

At the end of the previous week, I continued my work on sculpting, mainly focusing on the details of the body. These details were achieved using a tool known as stamps. I have used stamps in previous projects; however, those were stylized. Since I did not have stamps designed for realism, I searched online and found some named “FREE High Resolution Skin Brushes 30 For Blender” by (Arca IRTEM, n.d). Although these didn't help much with creating wrinkles, they did add more depth by creating pores. In future, I hope to discover more of these alphas and stamps to help push my design even further. 

I then received feedback from artists I know online through an application called Discord. This is where I discuss my work with other artists and receive feedback using multiple servers. One artist informed me that the creature could use more eyes to enhance its creep factor and emphasize its spider-like qualities. Therefore, I duplicated the eyes and made smaller ones that sat on the sides. I didn't have enough room for six extra eyes, plus it would stray too far from the original design, so adding an extra pair was more than enough. 

Research

Subject 1) Researching ArtStation for potential inspiration, I found a piece by 伞仙 titled “Insect Monster” (2017). I liked it because of the amount of detail put into the sculpt. As I am currently working on the sculpt of my model, I believe it is a good opportunity to begin studying how to add extra detail. I wanted to take into account how they added details such as random lumps over the skin and scales. They also had veins added to support the definition of the model. 

I would apply this to my own work by using Blender and its sculpting tools, utilizing the stabilized stroke option to create clean, sharp lines to define muscles and create veins. I’ll also use the dotting tool to create small bumps around the body, often referring back to this sculpture to get an idea of how they did it. 

Subject 2) Researching ArtStation for potential inspiration, I found a piece by Ilaria Baldassari titled “Locust - Gears of War - Fan Art” (2023). I was inspired by this piece because of the gif they used to show the process of layering, which provided a better understanding of how they set up their art. While my project focuses on creating and animating my artwork for the final project, I also want to showcase my individual artwork. This gave me insight into how to do so in Blender, where they then translated it to Photoshop to further edit by adding dust and extra lighting, which is much harder to achieve in Blender. I think this is a great way to save time and create a high-quality render and edit. I plan to do something similar near the end of the semester and upload it to my own ArtStation. 

References

Arca IRTEM. (nd) FREE High Resolution Skin Brushes 30 For Blender. [Digital Brush]. ArtStation. Available at: https://www.artstation.com/marketplace/p/2K9Na/free-high-resolution-skin-brushes-30-for-blender    伞仙. (2017) Insect monster. [Digital Art]. ArtStation. Available at: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/8dLex  

Ilaria Baldassari. (2023) Locust - Gears of war - Fan Art. [Digital Art]. ArtStation. Available at: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Keqqk9   Ilaria Baldassari. (2023) Locust (Gears of war FANART). [Digital Art]. ArtStation. Available at: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/VyE2dg    

Gantt Chart

Light Red highlights marks the day

This is in place to keep me on track what has been or needs to be done this day of the week.