#do NOT look at the anatomy or anything too closely. i do NOT want critique please bruh im trying to draw again

[thebrainrotsreal]

Listen there's a half chance the hands and stuff do not work this way, but simply?? pretend they do ig ??? Had to get some Vlad out of my system, so behold my fav ghostie on the planet! Wine drinker, petty plotter, my love, haha!

[ailuronymy]

hi grey! i can’t even begin to find the right words for how much ailuronymy has meant to me, and just how much it’s added to my life over the years. it’s the reason i started using tumblr way back in early 2012! i came into your blog as a 13 year old curious about traditional naming, referencing your naming guide for all my oc’s, but my experiences here became so much more than that. as a kid, i definitely looked up to you (i thought you were very cool; still do!), and this blog was genuinely enlightening to me.

the critique you shared on the misogyny and ableism in the writing of warriors stuck with me from a young age and really opened my eyes; i started being very critical of that in writing. i wouldn’t realize i was disabled until years later, but when i did, i remembered that you were always on my side in that way—you stood up for us. i remember you once said that weed (heh) wasn’t a valid prefix because the plants may be “weeds” to us, but they’re still individual species of plants, and now here i am, memorizing plants i see out in nature, plant identifier app always at the ready and checking out books about flora! i probably would have always thought of them as weeds without you. once upon a time, it was ailuronymy, too, that introduced me to messybeast, where i dove head first into a special interest in cat coat and eye color genetics that ive had ever since! i look at the world through such a different lens than i would have otherwise, and it truly enriches it.

a long time ago, you commented on someone’s submission saying that there was no such thing as “biologically male” or “biologically female” and that anatomy is not inherently gendered. as someone who had just realized they were trans, and had never heard someone say that before, that just... changed everything to me. it was a game changer for my dysphoria, and something that still comforts me 8 years later. i never let anyone use those words to refer to me again. as a trans person, you made me feel supported—like you were always in our corner. someone that i had respected and looked up to for years stood up for me, and i felt seen.

and while i’m not much of a writer myself, i’ve always loved hearing what you have to say about the subject. if anything ever did inspire me to write, it was the advice and thoughts you shared about it here. you’re one of my favorite writers! the warrior cats fics you’ve written had a profound impact on me emotionally and i wish the books themselves could come close. i remember enjoying the tallstar’s revenge one so much, having not read the book, that i decided it would stay as the definitive version of it in my mind simply because i adored the worldbuilding. your interpretation of the warrior cats universe will always be a joy to read, because there is so much careful consideration behind it. it really comes through on the page, and you can feel it.

all this to say: thank you, grey, for all of the love you’ve poured into this blog. i wanted to tell you the impact you’ve had on my life, with even the most casual things you’ve said. it has all mattered to me, and it always will. it’s hard to say goodbye, but i’m excited to see where you go next, and i’ll happily be following solacefruit! you’re an inspiring and delightful presence in this world, and i know i would be the luckiest student ever if i had you as a teacher.

It was difficult to know how to reply to this message, because it’s one of those times where it feels like I can’t do justice in a simple “thank you”--but there’s also no way to really capture everything that I would like to say, so: thank you. 

There is so much here that I’m grateful you’ve shared with me. I am so glad I could be a supportive voice for you in times when that was something you needed, and I’m glad that what I’ve said here resonated with you and brought you solace and comfort and insight into your own experience. 

I’ve always tried to do what I thought was right by people here. And I think I often missed the mark, and made mistakes, and there’s a lot I wish I could redo in ways that were more inclusive and kind to begin with. But I am very very glad that, despite all my own imperfections during my time running this blog, that I was able to do so much right by you. That alone would make ten years of work worth it. 

I’m very proud of you. Being “different” in any way is an incredible act of courage, but not one that many people--queer people, disabled people, people of colour--get to ever opt out of. You have to be brave because if you want to exist, that’s what it takes. But I still think it’s something that should be recognised and honoured, and I am so glad that you’ve been able to discover so much about what brings you joy during your time reading Ailuronymy. It’s really something wonderful to know that this blog contributed in some small way to you becoming the person you are.

Thank you for telling me. Take great care of yourself. <3

[shadow--writer]

Hello there! I was wondering if you could headcanon a modern AU with Arsa, Julian, and Muriel being in their freshman year of high school and an older!MC (like, junior year) defending them from bullies, so the boys gain a massive crush on the MC but don’t say anything about their said crush until they find MC being bullied and just go “How dare they bully my future spouse!” Fluffy confession afterwards.

👀👀👀👀 why hello there. More modern au stuff? Heck yes this is my jam!

I hope you don’t mind me tweaking this a little bit for the guys + the beautiful Asra (who is non-binary so no gendered terms for this beautiful person! Just a reminder ^^ yes I use they/them and he/him interchangeably like the chaos demon I am it’s what Asra would’ve wanted) to be new in the High School but they’re all Juniors ^^ 

(sorry Freshmen x upperclassmen feels a little gross since Freshmen are right out of middle school, just feels weird to write so I aged em up a bit!)

I really did go bezerk today so much writing got done! I’m in class Wednesdays and Thursdays so nothing gets done haha :,) but today I got two things done! Requests are open check out my pinned post!

Also I went bonkers on these headcanons lmao enjoy! 

Julian, Asra, Muriel x MC highschool au

~~~~

Julian

He’s new to your school and in your human anatomy class (along with your theatre and art class)

He’s very shy at first 

Once he opens up he’s loud and the classclown

But uhhh some kids aren’t too happy with him gaining as much attention and love as you are

After class during your lunch period a group of kids go after him, taking his stuff

When they come across his notes on anatomy (and more science notes) and when they find his sketchbook things go from bad to worse

Julian is almost in tears when they laugh at him, tearing up his notes and his drawings

But he can’t cry, he can’t be going around school known as the kid who cried over this

He’s taller than these kids but they move faster, he seems like a calf who just seemed to walk chasing after them

You’ve had enough of this group of kids. They go after every new person and you’ve had it up to here with them

“GIVE HIM HIS STUFF BACK!”

Julian falls for you hard and fast, watching you chase after them, even getting into a fight with one

You got pretty beat up, cut your lip and you’re bruising. Since he wants to be a doctor and he’s pretty good with his hands and stuff he patches you up

You look so cool and badass wiping the blood off the corner of your mouth he could swoon right then and there

Don’t worry he takes you to the nurse

He now has the BIGGEST crush on you. Like it is huge

He draws you now, little doodles to help with face structure and anatomy 

He keeps drawing you after you got into a fight, he just loves how badass and amazing you looked

He’ll start to get closer to you after that, and you find out he’s actually really funny and cool

One day the bullies come back for a round two

This time Julian is ready, he’s been at this school for months he can deal with these guys now

They corner you two after school (y’all are probably going out to get ice cream with some more friends)

One tries to come at you but Julian punches them accidently yelling “STAY AWAY FROM THE LOVE OF MY LIFE!”

You’re...you’re shocked

Everyone is shocked

Julian is mortified. 

After you two scare the bullies away he mumbles his way through an apology and how that was wrong of him to say and it was an accident

But you thought it was cute

And you kind of like him too. .....you like him a lot 

You kiss his cheek to get him to stop rambling with a small smile. “I like you a lot.”

He grins and picks you up in a hug. “Really really?!”

More giggles. “Yes really really!”

He’ll kiss you so hard your cheeks squish and your teeth clash together 

Ice cream and homework can wait

Asra

Asra is a very shy person to start off with 

Doesn’t make friends very easily, you have to come to him first 

But once he gets drawn out of his shell he’s outgoing and fun

With bring his tarot cards in to do readings during lunch. The other kids love it it’s very fun

But there’s a group of people who don’t like him or his cards at all

So they corner him after school and take his cards 

Now tarot cards are expensive (I say this from experience of buying a deck)

So he’s in tears by the time they’re done tearing some of the cards up 

You’re on your way home from school when you see it happening 

Without even thinking you charge into the fray, yelling at the bullies and yanking the cards out of their hands

You bite the hand of one of the bullies who wasn’t letting go

They hurl insults at you and Asra as they walk away leaving the two of you with the mess of torn up cards

The cards that did survive were the Fool, the Magician and the Lovers

Asra is still crying over the loss of most of his other cards. He was very attached to them and judging by their worn corners and faded art he had them for a while

You offer to take him to buy some new ones

He jolts up to look at you, his tears startled away.

“O-Oh MC you don’t h-have to do that...I’ll be okay...”

You insist, and finally he gives in

They pick out a deck that he does admit is way prettier than his old one (this deck being the deck in the game)

You buy it and suddenly it has way more value to him 

He watched you fight for his cards and him

So he starts to fall for you 

You being oblivious but a sweetheart, befriend him and you two become very close

He only does tarot readings for your close friend group now

He doesn’t want to risk the deck you gave to him

One day you two are walking home to do homework and hang out 

But the bully you bit corners you and starts yelling 

Apparently they were embarrassed over the fact you bit them and now there’s a joke about how they got taken down by someone who bit them

So they want to get you back to regain their honour 

Asra sees and just heckin

Y E E T S

their backpack at them yelling: “IF YOU TOUCH MY CRUSH I’LL SIC MY SNAKE ON YOU”

They fall to the ground, Asra swipes the bag up and the two of you book it

You’re laughing really hard and he wonders why

Then you tell him about confessionsino and he about dies on the side of the road

Wheezing from being out of breath and laughing you kiss him 

“I like you too, snake lover.”

Muriel

Muriel is shy before and after you get to know him. He’s the new kid so you expect it but he never opens up

He no talk

Nope nope no he’s very tight lipped and will blush whenever he gets called on

He gets bullied for being too shy

Like looking at the size of him he should be on the football team but no he volunteers at the animal shelter and is in the animal science club

I’m sorry but hear me out here: Muriel with thick black glasses (I don’t make the rules or take critique)

He gets cornered by some of the spots teams trying to pressure him into joining during lunch 

He doesn’t want to 

Things get a little violent

You’re eating nearby, listening to music and trying to get some Zoology work done

Sounds of a scuffle get your attention, you’re a little pissed off since you want to get some work done in peace

Then you see the new kid (Muriel) getting roughed around by some of the sports kids

Angrily, you get to your feet and stomp over to them, yelling at them to stop what they were doing

They don’t listen to you and Muriel’s glasses get broken (someone steps on them)

You start fighting them, yelling at them to leave Muriel alone

Finally after a bit they leave, spitting on the ground at your feet

You yell after them (probably calling them lowlife lizard skin cowards) hands trembling with your anger

Taking a deep breath you turn to Muriel, helping him pick up his stuff

When he sees his glasses in pieces he nearly cries

You pack his bag, asking softly if it would be okay if you hugged him 

He nods slowly, and you wrap your arms around him, letting him cry silently into your shoulder

You stick near him after that, becoming his friend and fierce protector 

He gets this huge crush on you soon after that

Poor baby doesn’t know what to do 

He helps you out with your Zoology homework and you listen as he goes on about the dogs in the shelter he works on

You develop a crush on him after that

One day the sports kids come back for a round two after school 

Muriel is in the bathroom and you told him you’d be waiting in the courtyard

The sports kids were going for Muriel but seeing you alone was too good an opportunity to pass up

They start pushing you around and when Muriel comes out to see them messing with you he gets so angry

Seeing this 6′5 (he grows taller by the end of the year) broad kid walk towards them scares the heck outta the sports kids 

But they don’t back off until he stands over them, eyes dark with anger

“Leave my friend and crush alone,” he snaps

They scurry off soon after that

You’re standing there shocked at what he said

When he realizes what he says he melts down

You jump into his arms in a hug and laugh 

“You’re my crush too!”

He’s very shocked, you tenderly kiss him with another smile

You go to his house, hand in hand, talking about dogs, laughing, and blushing.

Maybe moving schools wasn’t so bad.

[guyghoul]

I try to write the High Guardian Spice story by memory.

I spent a lot of time watching videos that critique High Guardian Spice.

To my embarrassment, I feel that all of those videos taught me the whole story of that series.

Curiously, I try.

A Red Oni, Blue Oni (not literally) duo f girls start hinking of their futures in the academy then immediately say goodbye to their family. They tag along a goat and some flying chest while riding a carriage pulled by a couple of shiny brown Chocobo Cramorant. They then go to a train... bu the Red Oni decides to just use a flying broom and struggles to fly to the next destination wi the Blue Oni. They also get on a room-sized carriage pulled by a surprisingly normal, semi-shiny horse while a musclegut orc with a too-small suit rides on the back of the carriage. One Jetix-styled animation later, they arrive near the place and take a tram. The Red Oni wonders about how small their own town looks. The place itself is a city surrounded by a circular stone wall and led by the academy on a hill.

The duo meets a lesbian couple that leads them to the duo's bedrooms by conjuring a magic door inside the house. One nightmare abou the Red Oni's mother leaving her later, she wakes up then opens the window in joy. One lesbian gives them cookies; the Onis eat quite a few.

The duo then leave to wn, go through a market with oddly unmoving people and past a literal giant. The Red Oni swings her sword and accidentally almost hurts a Green Ranger, who becomes understandably jerky towards the duo. The Green Ranger leaves, then the Red Oni finds ome ferret snake with a rather slick mane.

Red Oni: 'Maybe it's got rabies!'

Blue Oni: 'Do you... want... rabies?'

Th is the first episode.

Somewhere, they meet with a Yellow Dwarf that looks and acts pretty close to Lotte Jannson from Little Witch Academia. They pass a partially-painted photograph of a lamppost befor entering the academy whic has a livin gargoyle in charge of a clock. There, they mee three old women, one who is trying too hard in being a likable jerk. They get oriented where they meet a lot of mundane teachers and a very fanservicey incubus demon. There is a Coco LaBouche teacher who tricks her students into drinking a mutating potion, but Blue Oni makes an tidote that cures everybody, thus teaching others tha they should not jus trust anything without verification. The Coco LaBouche also had a Venus lamptrap that disintegrates a nezumi and almost rots a student's head (who reminds me of Diana Cavendish).

There is also a bored student wh only bothers with attending voiced by a bored actor wh only bothers with attending. He i surprisingly good wi the harp, though. Tw others are Snapdragon and this jerk girl. They have problems wi their initial weapons. A teacher swaps the weapons, which no longer give them trouble.

Th episod ends with a surprisingly cool-looking scene where students make promises of their future then have themselves projected on the middle of a blue-lit platform... though they are actually reciting the school vow.

After that, there is an episode where the students have to go through an obstacle course. A Yellow Lotte goes down a slide with a fellow classmate... while their animation of sliding is actually their still images liding around the screen while changing size. Some Prince Charmles student is rather stuck up and misogynistic, bu the Red Oni keeps defeating and humiliating him, whereas the Yellow Lotte 'accidentally' drops her hammer on his foot. The swapping teacher laughs along the High Guardian Spice team. Meanwhile, the jerk girl suddenly uses R-rated speech (whic happens on occasion) while inside a maze. She then meets up with Snapdragon, who solves a puzzle. Then...

Jerk girl: Only girls have feelings! #Killallmen!

Snapdragon: I am a boy. I am tired of being forced to live up to society's expectations of manliness!

Jerk girl: ...

Snapdragon: Here. I solved your puzzle.

In another episode, the jerk girl also talks about drawing... 'intimate anatomy' on her notebook.

Each student (and the Green Ranger) gets their own plots, too.

The Red Oni gets two: one has a couple of mammalian owl steal her locket. Both Onis chase the mammalian owls to a tree then look behind a wall secretly. The mammalian owl se the locket in a treasure pile then do a mating dance. Afterward, both Onis ge the locket. Inside, there is a picture of cheesecake... which is folded in a way that hides a phot of the Red Oni's family... including her Missing Mom. Another has her mess around wit her sword (actually her mother' sword) and accidentally drop the sword, whic has the knob a the hilt of the sword break. The Red On i sad. The Blue Oni gets the Red Oni to Professor Callaway, the self-insert, who instantly fixes the sword. The Red Oni finds an album that shows her mother and a female Professor Callaway. Professor Callaway is revealed to be transgender, explaining tha to the Red Oni. Th explanation itself is actually fine (if a little jammed in th episode), but, somehow, Professor Callaway needs to take a potion monthly that restores a spell that gives Professor Callaway a male body, this being connected to hormones that real-life transgender people take.

The Blue Oni ends up conflicted between old magic (which is the traditional, brews-and-spells, equivalent exchange magic) and new magic (which is just magic without any restrictions). Apparently, her parents did not want her learning new magic, bu the lesbians encourage the Blue Oni to use new magic, anyways. After all, 'your mom wasn't always so conservative'.

The Yellow Lotte aces her blacksmithing class in jus two lessons, hence the blacksmithing leader just sends her on a quest where she needs to find a hammer behind a portrait then dig a tunnel by herself. She also ends up in a conflict with how she needs to take care of her huge family before she decides to be both a student and a family caretaker.

The Green Ranger also gets two: she has to fight an infection that is affecting her land. The Blue Oni makes a brew that gets on a cat, which turns anthropomorphic (actually a cat head and tail on a rather buff human body). The cat suddenly runs away, takes an arrow, slashes at a tree, then jams an arrow there before the Green Ranger uses her arrows on the cat, which turns back to normal. Turns ou tha the arrows were the cure to the infection, which was inside the tree. Another has her need to contact her parents. Despite the aforementioned lesbians being able to conjure a door, the Green Ranger needs to summon a (rather neat-looking) demon before being able to communicate wi them, instead. The demon, naturally, betrays her. She and Yellow Lotte fight the demon until the demon is bound in a web.

Demon: Hey, I know that I betrayed you violently even though you just wanted to contact your parents, but maybe we can...

Green Ranger: LOL NOPE *kills the demon*

...yes, there is quite a bit of killing here. Aside from the nezumi and the demon...

The Yellow Lotte kills ome Parasect.

Professor Callaway, after talking about being transgender, tells a story abou the Red Oni's mother killing a rather cool-looking manticore.

The High Guardian Spice turn into mermaids, accidentally gruesomely harm a sea dragon, and the Red Oni feels forced to 'Mercy' Kill the sea dragon.

They also kill an octopus, which wound has this purple, oily flow... because the octopus was actually a ship that Professor Callaway constructed. The whole thing was a test.

A big episode starts with a black cat spying on High Guardian Spice... excep tha the cat is actually a human in a cat magical disguise. She then talks with an evil spirit. Meanwhile, the Green Ranger needs to find a vial of precious medicinal water. Soon, there is a costume festival. The Red Oni s in a dragon costume. Both onis have a fight out of no reason. The human who was in a cat disguise then hands flyers to High Guardian Spice. Meanwhile, the actual cat consciously uses the anthropotion on itself then goes to the festival. Some transphobe tries to flirt with a mermaid until he finds ou tha the mermaid i Snapdragon crossplaying. Naturally, the transphobe reacts in disgust. The human who was in a cat disguise lures the Red Oni into an alleyway before getting into a figh that was, to my surprise, nicely animated... despite the lack of magic. Meanwhile, the Green Ranger has found that healing water in a nearby cave then helps the Red Oni... bu the human who was in a cat disguise takes then deliberately spills the water. The Green Ranger is distraught, and the Red Oni comforts the Green Ranger... instead of just going back to the cave and getting more. The Blue Oni, the Yellow Lotte, and the anthro cat probably helped ou the Red Oni, since the Onis apologise to each other later in th episode.

Human who was in a cat disguise: I am sorry. I am a good gal now.

High Guardian Spice: Okay; I believe you.

By the by, the Red Oni meets the lesbians with Professor Callaway. One of the lesbians is crossplaying a magician whereas the other lesbian and Professor Callaway are in rabbit dress.

Red Oni: 'So, how did you guys and Professor Bunny know each other?'

Professor Callaway: 'Oh, we uh... uhm...'

Magician Lesbian: 'We go to the same parties...'

...the lesbians and Professor Callaway are in a polycule.

High Guardian Spice decide to just go to the cave and get more. They manage to do so, though they end up reviving then riding a dragon... that flies to the air, ages rapidly, then disintegrates in fireworks. Even they are confused.

After the festival, the transphobe mock Spandragon crossplaying. Snapdragon then... 'snaps', beating up the transphobe.

(I just noticed tha the transphobe has dark skin. I am surprised tha this cartoon is actually making a dark-skinned person a bad guy.)

A this, Snapdragon vents to Professor Callaway.

Professor Callaway: Feel free to crossdress if that helps you feel good. You do not need to bend to the gender expectations of bullies.

Snapdragon: That is not jus that. I dislike how 'manly' my body is because my father and brother abused me because I was not 'manly' enough. I do not wan to be the same they are. Professor Callaway: There are many solutions to this problem, but I say that you might be transgender.

Spoiler: Snapdragon really is transgender.

That means that, according to thi series, the only reason why Snapdragon, a boy, has feelings is because Snapdragon is actually a girl.

(Somehow, despite Professor Callaway needing to take a potion every month, the cat can stay anthropomorphic forever, apparently.)

There is another episode where the goat mascot gets cloned and floats in the air.

There is another episode where some psychopath firs transforms into the Red Oni's mother... bu th is a trick. The psychopa then turns into then beats u Professor Callaway before transforming into his true form again. The Red Oni eventually defeats the psychopath... non-fatally, this time. Apparently, this caused a fire... which brought mundane firefighters using hoses instead of water magic.

Also, there is a stock photograph of bread pasted on the table somewhere.

The programm ends with both Onis, the Yellow Lotte, the Green Ranger, and mayb even the human in a cat disguise forming wha they are now formally calling 'High Guardian Spice'... even though I just remembered while typing this tha they are all named after herbs: 'Rosemary' (the Red Oni), 'Sage' (the Blue Oni), 'Parsley' (the Yellow Lotte), and 'Basil' (the Green Ranger). The human who was in a cat disguise also apparently does not have a name that is a spice or a herb.

Th ending has the Red Oni's mother actually not dead... but serving some obscure council of evil. Th is obviously going to be resolved in the next season... had not High Guardian Spice been pretty much cancelled due to its terrible reception.

[omega-deku]

So I would love to progress on my art and try comics any tips? ÙwÚ

Hi! I’m so sorry about the late reply. D: I hope you don’t mind if I take this opportunity to address all the anon messages about how we can improve as artists. 

I have a tough time answering this question because there is so much I need to learn. I’m super flattered that some of you feel that my art is good enough to ask me for tips, first of all!! So thank you, guys.

It’s a struggle because I only recently started taking up art again. So I’ve forgotten a lot of the things. So I’m probably not the best person to ask about this.

I used to draw all the time as a kid, but after high school, I stopped drawing. I stopped drawing for almost a decade, pretty much. I really regret it. I feel like I could have come such a long way if I did keep going. My parents really discouraged me from pursuing art, even just as a hobby, too. Even when I left home (I’m back now tho), my ex-spouse, greatly discouraged me from doing art too. I mean, “proper” art. They told me my art wasn’t “real art” because it’s not studio art, it’s “sellout” art, like anime/cartoons/fanart. I had even worse self-esteem as I do now, and I listened to them and gave up. I convinced myself I hated drawing. 

Please don’t deny yourself things that make you feel engaged and connected. If drawing makes you feel good, if it makes you not realize how much time has passed and makes you feel like you’re accomplishing things, even little by little, please don’t stop. Even if you suffer from depression and feel like things like this are pointless, remember that just doing things in general will help you. Drawing is an awesome way to get into the flow state. To me personally, it’s almost like a meditative state and I find it helpful in dealing with chronic pain and mental health issues. 

Anyways, I’ll try to compile some advice sort of things.

ART IN GENERAL

1. Draw what you enjoy! I think the most important thing is to draw what you like. It’s okay if it’s “dumb stuff”. Draw your favorite characters or pairings from your favorite tv shows if that tickles your fancy! You’re much more likely to be spending more time drawing if you’re drawing stuff you like. And as long as you’re drawing, you’re improving. (But still, challenge yourself and get out of your comfort zone!)

Especially for those of you who are planning to pursue art as a career, it’s essential that you don’t view practicing art as a chore. 

2. Draw from life. If you really want to take your art to the next level, drawing from life is vital! I think many of us have come across artists who are just amazing, but there are things that look a little “off”. For example, the anatomy doesn’t look quite right, or the perspective is a little wonky. Things like that can be a tell that they’ve learned to draw from other people’s art rather than from life. Or just haven’t practiced the basics enough. (My art isn’t amazing or anything close to that lmao, but it definitely suffers from this. I need lots of life drawing practice.)

There is nothing wrong with learning from your favorite artists, but to really train your “artist’s eye”, you need to strip away all the stylistic choices and go back to the basics. Training that Eye is one of the most crucial things you could do as an artist. 

Just take a piece of paper, a pencil and start drawing what you see. If you can, take figure drawing classes at your local community college, or draw the animals you see at the zoo. Sit on a bench and draw the scenery in front of you. Over time, you’ll start to recognize common patterns, simplify/think of things in terms of lines and shapes.

If you can’t afford a class or have the ability to go outside easily, drawing from photographs can be the next best thing. (See the Resources below for an online figure drawing tool.) I’m not experienced enough to definitively say why this isn’t the #1 idea, but from what I hear, there are things that you’ll miss out on, such as subtle shifts in shadows, colors, and other things that will happen from small movements in pose changes, a cloud moving, or whatever else. A different “feel”, if you will.

With the digital art boom, a lot of artists are learning how to do cool digital effects and fancy things, but forgoing basic anatomy, perspective, shading, etc. Which is all fine if you’re just having fun, but isn’t the best idea if you’re really serious about improving. Practice the fundamentals!

(If you have been dreaming about CalArts at one point like I did when I was in high school, one advice I came across from everyone who went there was to draw from life. All the time. It’s not an answer I expected from people who draw funny looking characters all day. You mean all these people who draw such simplified cartoon people and animals can actually draw like masters? Perfectly rendered bowls of fruit? I didn’t realize how much work goes into animating simple characters.)

3. Put in the time. 

It’s really easy to get suckered into just watching “how to improve” videos all day and thinking about improving. Watching how other artists work is an important learning tool, but you’ll never actually make progress if you aren’t practicing. 

Sometimes, the best thing to do is to not think about it. Just do it. 

It’s like when I’m spending a whole lotta time thinking about getting physically fit than just, you know.. just doing it. “Tomorrow for sure.” 

It may seem like it’s worthless, but doing those lame 5 push-ups a day instead of the 20-minute workout you wanted to put in, is better than nothing at all. You are making progress, no matter how small it may seem.  

Make it a habit to practice every day. That way, you don’t even hesitate. It’s as automatic as brushing your teeth.

All the artists you see who have fantastic, awe-inspiring art may seem like Unreachable Gods sometimes, but those artists didn’t just pull that out of their ass one day. They put in hours and hours and hours of work. Let’s not disrespect other artists by ignoring that and chalking it up to “talent”. No one is born with an innate ability to draw. WE can get there too if we practice!

I want to get good enough to draw the things I have in my head one day!

Some resources that may be helpful:

Draw a Box - This is a site for free lessons for absolute beginners. Look under “Lessons” to learn. The creator of the site is the mod for r/ArtFundamentals. You can post your work there to get critiqued.

Check out Proko’s videos on gesture drawing, art fundamentals, etc. Daily routines of successful artists.

Use this site to practice figure drawing, gesture drawing - Set aside some time to practice drawing people and animals every day. Start trying to see things as lines, shapes, and go big. Don’t get too caught up in the details, and tiny drawings. Learning to draw fast (not draw FAST as in speed, but as in capture the gesture in a post, the “feel” of the movement) will force you to do this more, and with more experience, make your figures less stiff looking. 

And it’s okay if you’re aren’t good at it. You’ll make loads and loads of shit drawings until you can get decent. 

I’m most definitely in this stage right now, trying to train my Artist’s Eye. As in, I can’t just draw a figure from memory. I don’t really know what goes where without a reference, or how they move, etc. You can tell by how stiff my drawings look.

Lulusketches How to Improve video - She has similar advice, but her point about looking at “Art of” books something I have come across from multiple professional artists; Her advice on worrying about finding your own “style” is really good too. Do challenges like she said!

Her playlist of art tutorials & advice is great. They’re short and sweet. Her beginner digital art tutorial got me started on digital art (the one with Ginny Weasley). 

Not free ($30 a month), but these online Schoolism classes look helpful. It’s run by Bobbie Chiu. I saw some great reviews and I want to try them someday. They’re taught by artists in the animation/film industry. But you gotta have a basic grasp on digital art/photoshop for many of the classes, I think? I’m not 100% sure. They’re pre-recorded video lessons. 

You can pay more for feedback from the teachers, but you can also just use it as a self-learning guide. 

This drawing faces from any angle video was pretty helpful for me. The artist has loads of other tutorials.

COMICS

I don’t feel qualified enough to give much advice on comics. I mean, I don’t even draw the lines for the boxes, haha.. However, these comic books are basically required reading for some courses:

Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics & Making Comics.

I can’t remember which one it is that I read, I think it was Making Comics? But wow, if I remember correctly, it was FULL of really useful things about how to make effective comics. I lost the book while moving years ago, but it was FANTASTIC learning material. I loved every panel of it. 

He talks about everything from perspective, placement of characters, speech bubbles, how big panels should be, etc. 

If you can afford it, get a used one and start reading! Even if you don’t want to make comics just yet, it’s super interesting. 

[bangtan-gal]

Nothing But Net (M)

S.cb

    Your body burned. Perspire slid along your hairline and neck. The sun tore through your skin as your shoes squeaked against the court. You brought your arm back, letting out a grunt when you put yourself into your hit. The racket popped against the ball and a familiar sound followed it as your opponent returned. You reached for the ball, feet stumbling over one another.

“Nothing but net!”

“Match and set!”

    You groaned and leaned over. Your hat fell off and tumbled to the green cement. A soft voice congratulated you as your opponent patted you on the back. There was a loud temptation to scream; two hours back and forth and you lost by two shots.

    You snatched your hat off the ground and stormed towards the sidelines. You ignored the amused stares of the Varsity boys team. There was no reason for them to be at your game, but there they sat, the five of them, eyes boring into you.

    There was an incessant pounding in your head. You were sure the sun did more than kiss you, if the feeling of fire along your arms said anything. You threw your racket on top of your bag and as you reached for your water bottle, another hand wrapped around it. You looked up in disbelief as Han-fucking-Jisung took a slow sip from it. He winked at you as he handed it back.

You chucked it to the ground.

    All five boys started to approach you, some smirking and others snickering. You could, unfortunately, name them all. Kim Seungmin (sophomore) and Yang Jeongin (freshmen), number one Varsity doubles; both were okay. Bang Chan, Senior, number three Varsity singles along with being the student  body president. Han Jisung, Junior, number two Varsity singles: your least favorite.

And then of course, “nothing but net” boy.

Seo Changbin. Number one Varsity singles and tennis captain.

Hasn’t lost a single match in all four years of high school.

Won state three consecutive years.

Smart, pretty, athletic, and unfortunately for you, a total sweetheart.

Just not to you.

To you he liked to pretend he was a walking male reproductive organ.

A dick if you may.

“You really seem to like the net, dolly,” he purred. His arms—goddamn his fucking biceps—crossed over his chest as he leaned against the pole.

Your lips stayed pressed together as you packed up your gear. Your face was hot, your hands sweaty, and cold kept sweeping through your body. You didn’t know how you lost; you always prided yourself on the ability to snatch the game in the first few minutes. Maybe it was because of the ten eyes you felt the whole time.

There was no reason to be stressed out by the boys. You were on two completely different teams. You could play circles around Chan and kick Jisung’s ass anyday. You and Changbin were always the honorary members at the banquet.   Jeongin and Seungmin didn’t count since they were still doubles players, although rumor said that both were looking to be the new Changbin.

As you started to walk away, a hand wrapped around your forearm. You were pulled back and a shiver ran up your spine as a cool breath ran down your neck. The grip loosened as their mouth moved towards your ear.

“I told you I’d reward you if you won, dolly, but how unfortunate is it that you lost,” he hummed.

You couldn’t reply as someone else grabbed your wrist and ripped you away from him. Your friend and fellow teammate, Daehyun, glared at the boy. She grumbled something about learning manners and understanding personal space. The girl offered you a ride home and you gladly accepted, following her to her beat up Subaru.

No one knew of your “relationship” with Changbin. Naturally, it was just sex buddies, but you weren’t stupid. There were definitely strings attached. The boy got annoyed when you seemed to close to other males, he didn’t like the stares, and he’d stopped paying attention to girls two months into your deal.

You couldn’t exactly remember how it had all started. It was before spring break your Junior year. It wasn’t even a party—it was just a couple of the tennis people getting together. You’d made some remark about how you deserve something every time you win. And Changbin had happily applied to be that something.

And it was good. You couldn’t deny that. The boy knew what he was doing and he had you wrapped around his finger (more like dick). It was fun, fast, and every time it was something different. Experimentation was his favorite. Seeing how long you could last, how far you could bend, and how loud you could scream.

But, he was always strict: you work for it.

You lose, you better try harder your next match.

⧪⧪⧬⧪⧪

You hated the tennis banquets.

    The coach would drone on for hours about how dedicated your school was to making honest players. You were forced to talk to scouts and pretend that tennis was your life. Forcing smiles when you were called up to receive awards and listen to your coach gush about what an amazing player you were.

You enjoyed tennis in highschool, you truly did. You’d met some amazing girls, it was a great way to waste your free time, there was a thrill every time you played, and you were naturally good. But, it wasn’t something you wanted to take seriously. Sure, you were competitive and you loved to win, but playing professionally wasn’t for you against everyone else’s wishes.

Also, you were forced to talk to the boys team.

    Chan was the easiest to talk to, with his charming smile and soft accent. Seungmin and Jeongin were both still trying to escape their middle school years. Baekhyun, one of the doubles players, was actually pretty nice. He didn’t annoyingly critique your playing techniques like Jisung and Chan.

    But it was nearly impossible to focus on a conversation with Changbin’s heated stare. The two of you sat across from each other, both of you pretending like the other didn’t exist as you exchanged phony smiles with others and carefully listened for your name as the coach announced awards.

“And we’d be stupid to deny that Y/N has the best serve.”

    You stood up, blankly accepting the plaque. The applause was annoying. You’d won the same award every year you were on Varsity. Only that award. You wished to win something else, instead of being the same repetitive person. Your backhand had improved miles over the years and you didn’t mean to be a bitch, but none of the other girls could compete with it.

You met Changbin’s stare as the coach stupidly explained the magic of your serves and how much better it had gotten throughout the years. You rolled your eyes at him and he smirked.  

The night continued on. You were bored out of your mind and Changbin’s teasing looks weren’t helping. You were anticipating something that you weren’t sure would come. Would he count that pointless award as a win?

Maybe you were pathetic for being so desperate, but the boy was your happy hour. And you hadn’t gotten any for way too long. You’d struggled majorly during state along with leading up to state. Nothing but net really seemed to be your motto.

“How about we escape?” He whispered as he stepped up behind you. You nodded subtly, letting the boy disappear before following after him several minutes later.

    He was parked at the far corner of the parking lot. You slid into the passenger seat, glancing at him. Changbin was silent as he lit a cigarette, he brought it to his lips and took a slow drag. Your eyes lowered to his hand that was tightly wound around the lower part of the steering wheel.

“You know, for a person who wants to play in college and go pro, you’d think you’d try not to destroy your body,” you hummed. He frowned at you before tossing the roll into an old, half-full Taco Bell cup.

“Get in the back seat,” he demanded.

    Changbin was already reaching for his belt as you vaulted over the console and settled back. He crawled over as well, running a hand through his hair. You pulled your dress off and the second it was over your head, his lips met yours. His mouth was hot and rough against yours, demanding.

    His cold fingers bit into your waist as he settled himself between your legs. He groaned into your mouth and then reached for your panties. He was wasting no time as he threw them off and then struggled out of his own boxers. You pulled back with a giggle, raising your eyebrows.

“What? No foreplay?”

“Four weeks is enough,” he snapped. He reached down and stroked himself until he was solid. He ran a slow finger up your slit and played with your bud for a moment. You gasped, juices already gushing out of you.

    It was one solid thrust that had him fully sheathed inside you. The both of you hissed at the feeling, obviously having the same thoughts. It’d been too long. His mouth moved along your neck and collarbone as he shifted into a better position. You steadied yourself, whimpering as he threw your leg over his shoulder.

You still weren’t that flexible.

    Seeming satisfied, his thrusts started. He didn’t both to go slow. His hips snapped deliciously against yours, grunting with the force of each one. He placed his hand on your stomach, grinning when he could feel the outline of his cock through your lower stomach. You whimpered, eyes falling shut as you let him take complete control.

    Changbin’s pace was fast and messy. He wasn’t focused on his show, he was focused on the pleasure that burned through his anatomy. His grip tightened on your thigh as he managed to speed up even more. You clenched tightly around him, already feeling yourself grow close. Had it really been that long that you could barely last ten minutes?

    He wasn’t faring any better than you. His hips stuttered and his moans grew louder. You knotted your hands in his hair as his head fell against your shoulder. His thrusts started to slow as he reached his high, his thumb finding your clit.You pinched your eyes shut and tightened around him. Pink flashed through your vision and you gasped.

“Fuck, I missed you,” you mumbled. He looked up at your through his eyelashes, gasping silently.

“I missed you too,” he whispered.

    Something wasn’t there. He pulled back, quickly pulling on his boxers and pants. He looked detached as he slid into the front seat. You sat there, in a slight daze, eyes narrowed as you watched him. An emptiness slid through you.

    All this time you thought he was the one falling for you. Maybe you were wrong. You got so used to the soft giggles and cuddles that would follow. The way his hand would card through your hair and how he would kiss your temple. The morning sun that would drift over your entangled bodies.

Maybe it wasn’t just him.

[abbyfreemansmind]

An open letter to Akihasu-Senpai, who has rejoined Tumblr despite hating it.

I’m fine without you. I’m thriving without you. I’m more than just surviving without you. If you thought I would regret what I did, you’re wrong. If you thought I’d want you back, you’re wrong. If you thought I’d ever look back, you’re wrong. You can come back on Tumblr* all you want. I honestly don’t care. At all. I don’t know if you’re trying to get to me, what with your comments about disliking Tumblr making your appearance here suspicious in that regard, but if you are, I assure you it isn’t working. But if you try anything against me and mine, I won’t hold back. I stopped the callout not once, not twice, but three times, because I didn’t want you to get hurt - because even after what you did to me, I still cared about you. Then you pulled that nonsense with my close friend, who has now gone into hiding. Like it or not, I can very easily go back over that and bring it back, and if I do, I will show no mercy. I can make your time very painful for you. If you thought I was a b-word before, just try me. And to answer your questions: 1 - No, I don’t actually love you - in ANY WAY (not even platonically anymore!). After everything, it’s quite the opposite actually. 2 - No, I didn’t steal my username idea from you. I would never stoop as low as to bring back painful memories and such to myself. That being said, I did yoink the url springwormwood because it’s funny to me. 3 - I hadn’t actually thought about you since your little outburst thanks to a mutual stalker of ours. Then you joined here, for some reason. 4 - Thanks to friends, family and therapy, I’m doing quite well. I very highly suggest getting a therapist. One might be able to help you with your obvious problems you have with everyone who even remotely critiques/criticizes you, your work and your behaviour - although I’d feel sorry for the therapist, considering you can’t take critique or criticism like an adult. 5 - You can’t claim to be an ally to nonbinary people and also disrespect their pronouns. You can’t claim to be an ally to WLW (lesbians, bi women, pan women, etc.) and fetishize them the way you do. You can’t claim to be an ally to intersex people and fetishize them the way you do. 6 - Welcome to Tumblr, where being a yandere gets you on most of the website’s Do Not Interacts and blocklists! So does making triggered jokes! So does supporting lolicon! So does intentionally triggering people! So does being blatantly aphobic! So does so much of the other stuff you do!

I was being nice. I was being mature - and not just because if I acted the way you acted I’d be the laughingstock of the situation (like you!). I genuinely am a nice and mature person. But if you do one idiotic thing, one stupid thing, one thing against me and mine, the flood gates will open and I will release my own callout detailing everything you did to me, what you convinced other people to do, how you manipulate people, what you did to my friend and all of those problematic little things you enjoy drawing and supporting with your... “art”. I also know a lot of people who would be very interested in you. :) many more than just the ones Squid knows, although I know them, too. I could make it spread faster and further than Squid could. If messing with us is what you’re here for, you’d better think twice. I have my friends and fans on high alert about you, not to mention you’re on a few blocklists as it is. 

Yes. Yes, that WAS a threat. And yes, I’m very open about blocking and banning you and your little friends. No secret there, like you tried to say.

Oh, and what was it you said about things posted on the internet when I (rightfully) hated that you posted that bikini underwear drawing of me (and it got reblogged to someone who openly reblogged mostly porn)? That once something was on the internet, anybody could do anything they wanted with it? Yeah, if you do anything, you’re gonna find those words to be mighty horrible. Again, just try me. Again, if you thought I was an absolute b-word before, I’ll show you what I’m really like in b-word mode.

Also, somebody unfortunately showed me your porn. As someone with a vagina, they don’t work like that. As someone with a basic knowledge of human anatomy, neither penises now vaginas work like that. As someone who’s taken several sex ed classes, nothing works like that. It’s gross aff. Also, I feel sorry for the spines on your ladies. They must’ve had some kinda back surgery at some point to support those grossly deformed and elephantiasis-ridden breasts. Oh, and nipples don’t work like that either. not without causing a lot of pain for the person getting a penis shoved in it. I’m genuinely beginning to doubt your lack of virginity and sexual understanding. And I’m a sex-repulsed virgin.

~Sincerely, one of the people you abused and the dear friend of another person you allowed to be abused to the point where the only option was to go into hiding

* - This is in regards to you saying you didn’t want to be on here because of me and mine, the ban of NSFW content (which still hasn’t been lifted) and the SJWs who hate on anything they don’t like (like your paedophilic “age up” art, thoughts on simulated cp, usage of slurs when other words are available after learning about how it’s a slur and fetishization of WLW, trans women and intersex women). You really do look shady like this.

[1dfangirls35]

Voir Dire- N.H.

A fake dating OU about contracts, soulmates, and risking it all for love.

Story Masterlist // Talk to me

eleven

warnings: some language and mentions of infidelity

They say that social media is both a blessing and a curse. To Kelsey, this statement had never been more true.

With the release of his newest single, "Put A Little Love On Me", Niall had spent weeks traveling around the world, doing all sorts of promotion. Including plenty of pap shots with Krystal. At the start of the promotional run, Becca, her resident aspiring entertainment journalist, had introduced Kelsey to both the blessing and the curse of Niall Horan fan accounts. In some lapse of good judgement, Kelsey had followed such accounts on Instagram, resulting in a flood of Niall pictures daily. Although she loved to see pictures of Niall when he was out and about promoting, it was his other companion who she was less than thrilled about seeing. 

Niall had been good about preventing Kelsey from being caught off-guard. Whenever he was set to make an appearance with Krystal he gave her a heads up, letting her know exactly where and what they'd been papped doing. And he was always right, with those pictures popping up on the internet later in the day.

Kelsey had quickly learned that social media was not ideal when you were watching a guy you were see date another girl in front of the camera. She soon discovered that the best way to move past the fact that Niall lived a completely different life in person than he did with her was to simply avoid social media. If she didn't see it, she didn't have to think about all the comments saying how perfect Krystal and Niall were together. She didn't have to be reminded that she wasn't getting to walk the red carpet with him or hold his hand as he walked through crowds on the way to his hotel for the night. She could, quite honestly, pretend that Krystal didn't exist.

But today, Kelsey was particularly bored laying on the couch. She'd had a long shift at The Manhattan the night before, and she'd decided that today was just going to be a day of relaxation. Niall was coming over later this evening and until then, she had nothing to do but rewatch old Grey's Anatomy episodes.

So when she picked up her phone and the glowing purple and pink icon of the Instagram app caught her eye, calling out to her on the bright lit screen, she couldn't help but click on it. Because what harm would a little mindless social media scrolling do?

She almost didn't recognize what it was when she first scrolled past it. A blingy new ring seemed to be a weekly occurrence for at least one of her friends. But then it hit her. Like all of a sudden she'd been hit by a bus.

Kelsey looked at the ring again. It wasn't small by any means. It's exactly the one they'd admired on Pinterest boards for years in college. It's the same one they'd looked at in jewelry cases at the mall just for fun. But when they had done all those things, Kelsey never would have imagined that the giver of that ring would be him. But then again, there's a lot of things that a year ago she never would have imagined happening.

Kelsey swiped left and there he is. His smile bright and his eyes crinkled on the sides like they used to when Kelsey made him laugh. His face pushed up against hers showing off the ring in her hand. Kelsey felt sick to her stomach. A year ago, Jessica was trying to get hints from Sam as to when he was going to propose to Kelsey and now...Jessica and Sam are engaged.

Her eyes become fixated on the photo. A picture that less than a year ago likely would have consisted of her face instead of Jessica's. Staring at it felt like Kelsey was holding her hand over an open flame; but yet, she couldn't seem to bring her eyes away from it.

She thought about the night at the beginning of senior year, when Sam had walked in on her dabbing her eyes at a wedding video on Youtube. He'd laughed at her at first, wondering how she could possible be growing so tearful from watching a video of two complete strangers. But then he'd crawled into bed beside her and clicked replay and they'd watched it all over again, this time with his arms wrapped around hers and her head resting on his broad chest.

"How're you going to make it through our wedding without crying if you can't make it through this babe? You know I'm gonna write vows a million times better than those," He'd said with a grin; the one where his eyes crinkled on the sides.

They'd spent the rest of the night critiquing the weddings of complete strangers. Laughing, crying, deciding that when they got married it would be in the fall because that's when the leaves were the prettiest and the air was cool enough that Sam wouldn't sweat through his tux, and that if they were going to have to have cake at their wedding (for tradition of course) it was going to be red velvet, because that was the only kind Kelsey would eat. Kelsey had warned Sam that when he proposed it better have meaning. It had to incorporate some piece of their relationship. Something that showed the journey they'd had together. No crazy flash mobs or impromptu dance numbers allowed.

And that's what really got her: thinking about the proposal she'd always dreamed about. She hadn't thought about Sam this hard in months. She'd said she had moved on, that he meant nothing to her anymore. But her she was sitting on her couching, staring at his stupid, crinkle-eyed smile and remembering every stupid little detail of the fairytale romance they'd planned out. And that almost stung more than him cheating on her with her best friend. Almost.

The tears began to swell in Kelsey's eyes, but she tried to hold them back. The last thing either of those backstabbers deserved was a single ounce of liquid to be shed in their name. Because she was happy right? She'd moved on.

Kelsey tried to scroll, as fast as she can to get to something, anything but the picture of her ex-boyfriend and ex-best friend happily engaged. It was only bad luck that she would happen to land on a picture from one of the Niall fan accounts, but this time, instead of a charming photo of Niall it's a picture that had been manipulated into a wedding photo of Kelsey and Niall. Taunting her as if Niall is just the next man on her list to lose to someone else.

Kelsey threw her phone to the other side of the couch where it lands with a thud. She didn't want to look at it. She didn't want to think about Sam and Jessica. She didn't want to think about Niall and Krystal. Was this what her life was coming to? Always being the other woman?

So Kelsey did the only logical thing she can think of. She grabbed a bottle of cheap Moscato from its place on the top of the refrigerator and pours herself a glass. And then another. Until slowly, she started to feel numb.

*******************

Niall could tell something was wrong the second he walks into Kelsey's apartment. He spotted the empty bottle of wine before he spotted her, laying on the couch with a bag of popcorn and The Notebook playing on the TV. He knew a woman with an empty bottle and  The Notebook was almost never a good sign.

Becca cleared her throat loudly as Niall entered, gesturing for him to come towards her. He slowly crept towards her, his brain racing through trying to think of what he may have done that would have sent Kelsey into such a downward spiral.

Becca didn't say anything to Niall. Instead, she held up the same photo that Kelsey came across hours before. To Niall, it looked like just another engagement photo at first glance. But judging by the way Kelsey was laying on the couch like she just went through a bad break-up, he could put the pieces together of whose engagement this was. It had to be Sam's, the guy that broke her heart.

Niall didn't know much about Sam other than the obvious. But judging by the empty wine bottle sitting on the glass coffee table, there was a lot more to the story than Kelsey has ever let on.

"She's probably nowhere near as perfect as you," Niall said as he slides onto the couch next to her. He hoped his words would give her some consolation, a little reminder that she was far better than any girl her ex-boyfriend could be engaged to.

But Kelsey's eyes didn't fill with relief or reassurance. Instead they shifted towards the floor as words are muttered from Kelsey's mouth that Niall never saw coming. "She was my best friend."

Niall turned his head to look towards Becca for confirmation of this new revelation. Kelsey's best friend engaged to her ex-boyfriend was a more complicated story than he initially thought, and it definitely explained the messy state that she seemed to be in. But Becca has seemingly vanished, leaving Niall to pry the details from an intoxicated Kelsey all on his own.

"I..." Niall wasn't sure what to say. Should he ask for more details in hopes that maybe with more information he can provide some comfort to her that it would all be okay? Or does asking questions just bring up old wounds, wounds that in the few months that Niall had known Kelsey, she had kept hidden? Should he instead keep quiet, knowing that she would tell him in time if she wanted to?

Niall didn't have to make a decision though because shockingly, for both Niall and Kelsey, she began to speak. "They'd never really been close you know, in fact when Sam and I first started dating, Jess hated him."Once the words left Kelsey's lips she couldn't take them back. It was like the wine has opened a gateway into her inner monologue and Niall was about to hear it all, whether she wanted him to or not.

"I was hopelessly in love. The butterflies in my stomach, heads in the clouds kind of love. And I thought Sam was too. There was never a bone in my body that doubted his love for me," Kelsey said slowly, and Niall can sense the ache in her voice even with all the alcohol.

Niall didn't say anything, instead watching as Kelsey shifted her gaze from the window to her nails, bringing her fingers to pick at the edges as she began to speak. "It was a few weeks into second semester. I'd been studying non-stop for the LSAT, partially because it was two days  away and mostly because after the news of my parents divorce I needed something, anything to get my mind off of things. I'd told Sam I'd be in the library all weekend studying. But I felt guilty that we hadn't spent much time together recently. So I decided I'd surprise him. It would make both of us happy, giving me a much needed break from studying and him some extra time with me that he'd been complaining about missing out on." Kelsey paused, taking a deep breath before continuing. "And so I went to his apartment, all dressed up. He didn't answer the door when I knocked, and I figured he was either sleeping or listening to music, neither of which was abnormal for him."

Kelsey noticed that her voice was beginning to shake. It's the first time that she'd told the story, the whole story, to anyone out loud. Niall seemed to sense her hesitance, reaching his hand to grasp hers, and offering a reassuring squeeze.

"So I let myself in," Kelsey continued. "And I walked to his bedroom, pushed open his door and found my best friend naked on top of him." The image still bore through Kelsey's mind. The guy dropping, chest stabbing feeling she'd had that day lingering now. "Nothing prepared me for that. Nothing prepared me for finding my best friend on top of my boyfriend." Kelsey looked at Niall, her eyes beginning to water.

"Sometimes I wonder, what would have happened if I had not just let myself in. Would I have found out some other way? Or would I still be living in ignorant bliss, working my ass off in law school while he fucked her on the weekends?" Kelsey spat.

"And the worst thing of all was that he knew what I was going through with my parents," her voice grew more angry. "He knew how fragile I had become, how much distrust I had in love. And then he went and shattered me while I was already broken. I couldn't come back from that, not for my LSAT that Monday, not for anything."

Kelsey began to sniffle, wiping a stray tear that had escaped from her eye with the pad of her finger. Niall instinctively wrapped his arm around her shoulders, bringing her towards his chest and rubbing her back in a smooth, rhythmic motion. They stayed like that for a moment, Niall not sure what he could possibly stay and Kelsey still trying to find her words while keeping her emotions in check.

"I searched the deepest corners of my mind for some red flag I missed, some sign that they'd been doing this all along, that I'd just been oblivious to their love. I spent nights laying awake running through every moment I'd spent with the two of them for any signs of attractions, I tried to recall every time that Sam had been late to answering my texts or hadn't let me know where he was. But I couldn't find anything, I still can't find anything," Kelsey said with frustration.

"But now," she began sitting up and wiping her eyes once again. "Now, they are engaged and that's the end of that," she smiled, but it's a smile Niall can see right through. It was one of those smiles you used to try to mask the fact that you were an emotional wreck. The kind that you think might make yourself feel better even though you feel like absolute shit. Those smiles never worked, and it didn't work for Kelsey in that moment either.

The truth of the matter was, whether Kelsey was ready to admit it or not, the roles of those two people, arguably the two most important people in her life just over a year ago, was over. There would be no glorious scene where Kelsey rushed into their wedding, shouting that this was a mistake and Sam suddenly realizing that it was Kelsey he had loved all along. Similarly, there would be no scene where Jessica came begging for forgiveness from Kelsey, and Kelsey would accept, realizing that what Jessica and Sam had was unlike anything Kelsey and him could have hoped for.

Kelsey began to think that maybe this utter despair, this feeling of rock bottom, this ache in her chest like her wounds were reopened, would catapult her into a place of healing. A new journey. Or maybe now she noticed all the scars she'd been holding onto for so long. Maybe her wounds were still there, and maybe this was simply making her realize just how fragile she was. Nothing in her life was certain. She didn't have her career path solidified, she didn't have her family, and did she really even have Niall? Or was that just a mirage as well? "What are we doing?" Kelsey said suddenly.

"What do you mean Kels?" Niall asked, taken aback by the sudden change in subject.

"I mean what are WE doing?" Kelsey said again, gesturing between the two of them. "What are we Niall? Just messing around for the fun of it? It's not like we can ever be something with all this sneaking around." Kelsey didn't intend for her words to come out so harsh, but it was what she was thinking. It was what she questioned to herself every time she came across a photo of Niall and Krystal. 

"We're getting to know each other Kelsey. We both agreed to take things slow, and you know I like you. I really like you..." Niall looked at Kelsey, his brows furrowed. "Is this because of the engagement?"

"Yes. No. I don't know," Kelsey threw her head into her hands. "I just," she paused again, her mind searching for the right words.

"I just think about how I'll never be able to post a photo of us snuggling on the couch, or how we can never go out to dinner or walk on the beach hand in hand. And I just wonder if this is even something. Or is this just us being stupid and foolish and thinking that this can go somewhere with all these limitations stacked upon us." Kelsey feels her cheeks begin to grow wet. Again. It had got to be the wine, because Kelsey didn't feel sad about this. She felt frustrated.

"And god, I just have this idea in my head that keeps playing over and over.  And all I see is you and her and you telling me that you realized it wasn't all fake with her," she let out, her voice beginning to crack. She didn't know if she could do it. She wasn't sure she was strong enough to find herself in the position of the other woman once again.

"Kels," Niall said softly, running his fingers through her hair. There was a phrase on the tip of his tongue. I phrase that involved the word falling and was almost as terrifying to Niall as being trapped in a small space for hours on end. So he pushed the words away, instead taking the tip of his finger and wiping a stray tear from Kelsey's eyes.

"You've went through a lot today, you're hurting. And honestly, I don't know if anything I can say right now is going to make you feel better. But all I can tell you is that I would never hurt you in the way that they hurt you okay? And this thing we are doing? This is more real than anything I've ever had. Okay?" he looked into her eyes, they're red and puffy, but they were still the most beautiful things he'd ever laid eyes on.

"Okay," Kelsey replied. It was no answer. It was no solution to all her doubts and fears. But for tonight, and for her wine-influenced mind, it was what Kelsey needed to lay her head on Niall's shoulder and drift off to sleep.

Tag List: @awomanindeniall​ @ihearthemcallingforyou @niall-is-my-dream

[sentientpaperbag]

Do you have the good stuff? (drawing tips)

I’m not good at giving tips but I can try???

-Always draw the circle for a head. You may not think it helps but honestly it does because then you can figure out where everything goes. I’ve been doing this since I got one of those crappy how to draw anime books in middle school and it was a game changer for me. No more lumpy looking heads.

-Draw often, don’t think about it looking bad just... draw often. But don’t draw when you’re supposed to be doing something else. And make sure that you don’t get to the point where your arm hurts because you will get carpal tunnel and I will feel bad.

-Look at references and use them. There’s nothing wrong with using references (I had to use several for a lot of my comic things, there’s no way in hell i could have drawn clembrane or bloaty the pizza hog from memory). Using a reference is not cheating. Hell, sometimes even tracing is ok as long as you don’t like... claim it or try to sell it. Because in the end it does help some. I’ve traced before, I just never posted it anywhere because it was like a training thing for me. Nothing wrong with it.

-listen to critiques as long as they aren’t “lol u suck stop drawing” because honestly good critique helps you grow. A critique I get a lot is that I make heads a little too big. I’ve been trying to fix that as of late because yes, I do make heads too big, it’s a problem I’ve had for like 16 years. But I’ve gotten better because of citique.

-Study human anatomy if you wanna draw people. I took a life drawing class and it changed my entire art style. The same can be said about anything. Study plant anatomy, animal anatomy, LOOK AT ROCKS AND THE SKY. Just... Look at the world and use it to your advantage.

-Don’t stick with one medium. Experiment a little. I paint and draw with pencil and paper too, not just my tablet.

-If something isn’t looking right in your drawing, step away from it for a bit. Sometimes your eyes just need a break and when you look at it with fresh eyes you can see things you didn’t notice before, like mistakes or places that might need more work.

-You are your worst critic, and sometimes you’ll think something is the worst thing you’ve ever made. Usually it’s not that bad and other people will like it.

-When you make art, try to stay as relaxed as possible. You want your art to not feel tightly wound, otherwise it’ll feel robotic and you won’t be satisfied with it.

-Draw for yourself! Sometimes having a drawing you made for yourself, or an art piece for yourself that you made, can really help you see how far you’ve come. You can look back on older pieces and compare to your newer pieces to show yourself that yes, you are progressing in your art.

I’m not sure how good these are. I’m honestly trying to figure out how to give good art tips. Some of this stuff is what my old art professor told me and I held it close to heart.

[p-artsypants]

Nine Lives (14) The Confession

FF.net | Ao3

Eventually, they were both discharged from the hospital, and taken back home to the Dupain-Cheng bakery. Adrien’s identity was not discussed again after that conversation. It wasn’t the most pleasant topic, and they had enough to worry about. Marinette made sure to call him Emile in front of everyone else. Though, when they were alone, she’d stare at him with this dopey little grin and whisper, “Adrien...” just like the old days.

The first night home, the little family sat at dinner, everyone happy to enjoy the moment. But then Sabine addressed the elephant in the room. “When you two feel better, will you return to superheroing?”

Adrien and Marinette looked at each other. In truth, they didn’t know. Marinette hadn’t even had the chance to talk to Master Fu since the fall of Hawkmoth. It was all up to him.

“For a little while, perhaps,” supplied Adrien. “Paris could always use heroes, and Marinette and I could always use our kwamis, but we will have to give them back to the Guardian at some point.”

“The person who gave them to you?” Tom pried.

“Yeah,” Marinette nodded, not really willing to give more information than necessary.

“Well…” Sabine looked to her husband, and they both nodded. “If you continue to fight crime, we’ll support you.”

“School comes first, of course,” Tom added.

“Just please be safe, and shoot us a text if you’re going to fight a criminal.”

Marinette stood and placed a kiss on each of her parent’s cheeks. “We promise, from now on, we’ll be safe.”

“…and up until this fiasco, we hadn’t really gotten hurt permanently in a fight.” Adrien rubbed his arm, “I’ll have a better temper against anyone else.”

Marinette gave a gentle kiss to his forehead. “No one blames you, Kitty. I certainly don’t.”

Adrien smiled genuinely in return.

The subject was dropped for the time being.

Marinette and Adrien returned to school, where they worked very hard together to catch up on their missing work. That first day back, they were showered with hugs and ‘welcome back’s. Alya had this twinkle in her eye looking at the duo, and Marinette figured it didn’t have anything to do with them holding hands. It was the twinkle of ‘now that you guys are up and walking around, I’m going to need a full interview’ and she supposed she deserved it, and their fans deserved it. People would want to have a first person experience of the defeat of Hawkmoth.

The problem was, the truth wasn’t something they wanted to divulge. ‘Yeah, Hawkmoth surrendered, but Chat Noir got angry and Ladybug ended up getting hurt instead.’ ‘Why did Chat get angry?’ ‘He just hates Gabriel Agreste?’

In fact, it might be better to wait until after Gabriel’s trial before they make any public statements. Perhaps Ayla would bite that.

Since Hawkmoth had been such a big threat and every akuma had been reported on, Gabriel was on his way to a speedy trial in just a few short weeks.

And Chat Noir and Ladybug were supposed to give testimonies.

“So the latissimus dorsi is covered by the…Adrien?” Marinette asked, as they were studying in her room. She sat at her desk, cross legged, while he laid stretched out on the floor, half a croissant in his hand. He had asked her to quiz him, but by the way he was drilling holes into the floor with his stare, she figured he had other things on his mind.

“Adrien?” She tried again.

“Mm? Oh sorry…I was…uh, where were we?” He started flipping through pages…in his history book. How long had he been zoned out?

“Hey, what’s up?” She interrupted.

“Oh nothing, why would you think anything was up?” He grinned sheepishly.

“Because you love anatomy, almost as much as physics. I have a hard time believing you got bored.”

He offered a thin lipped smile. “It’s stupid...”

“Minou, nothing that’s bothering you is too stupid to talk to me about. Are you feeling okay? Stitches bothering you?”

“No My lady, I’m healing just fine…” Still, he sat up and closed his book. “I just...I don’t know if I can testify at my dad’s—er, Hawkmoth’s trial.”

Marinette closed her book as well. There was no point in studying when this was way more important. “Why’s that?”

“I would be extremely biased…”

“But you’re also a key member in the investigation. I know he is, or was your dad. But, you can’t let that part of your life cloud your judgement. You have to judge his actions as Hawkmoth, not what he did as a father. For example…he was always very kind to me as Gabriel, a little cold, but he really got my name out there in the fashion industry. He complimented my work and gave me genuine critiques, just because he saw promise in me. But I have to put all that to the side, because I’m standing as Ladybug, not Marinette. I know it’s a poor comparison, but…”

“No. I understand what you’re saying…but I even as Chat Noir…I think I’d be even more inclined to put him away for life. Or worse.”

Oh right. They had talked. Gabriel had confessed something that had deeply troubled him. “Is it about his motive?”

Adrien only nodded.

“Dare I ask what it was?”

Adrien hunched his shoulders. “I don’t really want to say it more than I have to. So can you wait until we talk to Master Fu?”

“Of course.” She offered a smile. “Whatever makes you more comfortable.”

He sighed, his shoulders heaving. “One other thing…”

“Hmm?”

“I want to tell someone my identity.”

“Well…now that Hawkmoth isn’t a threat anymore, and several people already know, I don’t see a problem with it.”

“No, not my Chat Noir identity…”

She fell silent in thought. “Well…this is your secret, Adrien. If you want to tell it, then it’s up to you.”

“I’m…just kind of scared.”

“Do you love them? Do you trust them?”

“Absolutely.”

“Then I think you should.”

“I’m just…worried.”

“They might be angry for a while. But if they really love you, they’ll understand.”

He exhaled loudly and stood. “I’m going to do it now, before I lose my nerve.”

“Wait, now now? Kitty, it’s 10pm!”

“I know, but it’s not too late for Chat Noir.” And without further adieu he called for his transformation. He flexed his claws and rolled his shoulders. “Feels nice to be in the suit. It’s been awhile.” He climbed up the ladder to her bed, and then her latch. “Don’t wait up,” he winked.  And he departed into the night.

Over at Nino’s apartment, he was still awake, clad in pajamas and pouring over the same paragraph for history homework over and over, hoping something would stick. So far, nothing had. And he was desperate for a distraction.

Then, there came a sudden tapping at his window.

He swiveled in his chair to catch Chat Noir standing on the fire escape. He quickly got to his feet and opened the window, letting him in.

“Hey dude-er, Emile? Chat?”

Chat smiled. “Dude is fine. Are you busy?”

“Ah, just doing homework, but I could use the company.” He gestured to his bed for his friend to sit. “What’s up?”

“Uh…” now that he was here, he was finding himself surprisingly tongue tied. He sat, smoothing the green comforter absently. “You remember the first time I came here? Well, like when I checked up on you after…”

“Yeah, that was really cool of you. You didn’t tell Marinette about the—?”

“The crying? No. And even if I had, I know she wouldn’t judge you.”

“Well, maybe not for crying…but maybe for having you rock me like a baby…”

“You’d be surprised how many people do that during an akuma.”

“Oh yeah! He’s been arrested, no more akuma! You finally get a break!”

“Uh, yeah…” He released his transformation, and Nino only looked mildly surprised. “Break for you too, huh?”

Nino shrugged with an awkward grin. “So you know?”

“Yeah, just recently. And Rena Rouge.”

“Cool cool…” he nodded, a very turtle-like motion.

“So uh…how are you doing? Since last time?”

Nino deflated. “Man, I miss him. Like, a lot. Alya and Marinette have moved on, and I guess good for them, but I can’t…it sucks…but there’s nothing I can do about it.”

Adrien rubbed his face, feeling the guilt rumbling in his chest. “Listen…Nino…” He began, stalling.

The boy had his undivided attention.

“When you and Alya got together, you were originally on a date with Marinette, and Ladybug locked you and Alya in a cage together.”

Nino narrowed his eyes, suspicious of the topic change. But he continued on, regardless. “Yeah, pretty unique story. But we usually leave out the date part…how did you know about that?”

“I was hiding in the bushes giving you advice.”

“…no you weren’t? That was Adrien…”

Might as well plunge headfirst into this. He exhaled forcefully. “I am Adrien.”

Nino furrowed his brow, scrutinizing him. “That’s a low blow dude.”  

“W-what?”

“I wasn’t going to say anything, because I assumed you weren’t doing it on purpose, but like…you can’t just take his place.”

“I-I’m not!”

Nino poked him in the chest, hard. “Because you can’t be Adrien. If you were, it would mean that Adrien didn’t trust me.” He shrugged in a way that was supposed to be nonchalant, but his whole body was shaking. “It would mean my best friend, my brother lied to me…about faking his death! That’s so messed up! Do you see how messed up it is?!”

“I didn’t mean to lie to you…”

“You waited until the very last moment possible to tell me you were leaving for Germany! You may have well just told me on the tarmac!”

“I knew you would get upset! I didn’t want to hurt you…”

“So you faked your death instead?! And then hid the truth about it for months!? Months, Adrien. I’ve been struggling all this time, because Emile was like having you back again, and I was starting to…” He shuddered hard as he sobbed.

“Starting to what?”

“Starting to replace you! Emile was cool and funny…and he never had any obligations, so we could hang out all the time! Just how I had always wanted to with you!” He took off his glasses as he covered his eyes with his hand. “And all this time, you’ve been lying to me…”

“I didn’t know I was going to fake my death that day.” Adrien pleaded, his heart breaking. “I just took advantage of the situation…”

“Okay fine, so that was a spur of the moment decision. But why wait until now!? Was it not important to you? Am I not important?!”

“No! I mean—Yes! You are!”

“Then why the hell—“

“It needed to be convincing!”

Nino fell silent as Adrien just panted, trembling at his confession. It was the pure, awful truth.

“I needed to disappear. My father was sending me to Germany, against all my pleading and begging. And I knew he was watching me. If I were to run away, he would stop at nothing to find me. I had to make it so he wouldn’t look for me. And there couldn’t be any hint of doubt that I was gone. Everyone had to believe I was gone. If you…if you weren’t heartbroken over me, it would be suspicious…”

Nino’s shoulders tensed in anger, but he didn’t say anything.

“When Marinette jumped after me, I had already turned into Chat Noir, and I rescued her…but she turned into Ladybug in my arms. She was hysterical. She wept and begged me to do anything to save Adrien. She said she loved him…and I felt like the scum of the Earth…but I only just told her who I was when we were in the hospital.”

“How did she respond?” His voice was hollow, mostly neutral.

“She cried. She was disappointed that she didn’t notice sooner…but the scar threw off everyone.”

“Yeah…it did. The new kid, looked like a punk with a burn scar, piercings, an eyepatch and all black clothes. Who spat in Chloe Bourgeois’ face. There was no way you could be Adrien. You…you did a good job.”

“Nino, you know me. This is the real me. Adrien was the one that played by the rules. When I made Emile, I designed him off of Chat Noir. The person I can be when my actions don’t reflect on anyone. I hope you still want to be friends with this version of me.”

Nino was quiet before he inevitably sighed. “Yeah. We’re still friends…but I’m still hurt.”

“I’m really sorry Nino. You’re my best friend, you know? No, my brother.”

“Don’t use my words on me, jerk.” He scoffed. “You gonna tell Alya?”

“Eventually. I thought it was more important to tell you first. She’ll probably punch me in the face.”

He managed to chuckle. “Yeah, she would.” He stood with a sigh. “Well. I have to get back to homework, okay?”

Adrien took that as a polite ‘get out’. “Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Yeah. We have that anatomy test.”

“Anatomy! It was anatomy!” He cursed to himself. “I gotta cram!” Adrien called his transformation and leapt off into the night.

Now in silence, Nino fell with a plop into his computer chair. He glanced over to the picture of Adrien on his desk, with a candle next to it. He had seen something similar in Marinette’s room and thought it was a nice gesture.

With a smile, he blew the candle out.

Back at the bakery, Chat Noir crawled in the skylight, only to find the room dark and Marinette asleep in bed. He detransformed as he climbed down the ladder. He tried to weasel around her, without disturbing her, but found that she looked far too comfortable to resist. He’d cram in the morning.

Like a cat, he snuggled up against her back.

“It’s not that much later,” Marinette commented fondly.

“Yeah…it…didn’t go well.” He sniffed.

“Was it Nino?”

“Yeah,” he whispered. “He was really mad.”

“Well…you knew it would happen.”

“Yeah, it just…it sucks! I did this for the good of Paris! I knew there was going to be consequences…but it’s stupid that there are when I was trying to do the right thing!”

“Was it the right thing?”

“Yes! No! I don’t know!” He exasperated, his voice breaking.

Marinette rolled over to face him, blushing when she realized how close they were. Regardless, she reached up and touched his cheek.

He continued. “I ran away, and I lied just so I could have my freedom. Maybe the right thing would be to turn in my Miraculous and go to Germany…but god I get sick to my stomach just thinking about it!”

“You did what was right for you, Minou. I’m sure we could have found another Chat Noir, but he wouldn’t have been you. We wouldn’t have been compatible…and this moment would never happen.”

He moaned softly and let his forehead knock against hers. “I just hate that I keep hurting people…”

“We all hurt people, even those we love the most. But that’s what makes us human. And striving to heal that hurt is what brings us closer together. Like…like building muscles.”

He pulled away slightly. “What?”

“Sure! When you first start working out, your body activates actin and myosin to contract your muscles to work. But the more work you do, the muscles proteins get stretched thin and break, causing the body to create more proteins and strengthen your muscles, resulting in hypertrophy.”

“Um…that’s a bit of a stretch, don’t you think?”

She shrugged with a little smirk. “I was only trying to come up with an analogy using our anatomy study guide.”

“Oh I see, payback for ditching study time. Very funny.”

“I can be, on occasion.”

He hummed in her hair, nuzzling his nose on her scalp. “I’m sorry…for all the sleepless nights. And the heartache…”

“Adrien,” she said firmly, staring him in the eye. “I have forgiven you. You don’t need to keep apologizing for getting out of a painful situation. I love you, Kitty Cat. And I always will.” She kissed him tenderly, in a way he deserved to be kissed.

“Can I stay?” He whispered.

“You didn’t even have to ask.”

--

The next day, Adrien and Marinette came up to school, hand in hand. Alya and Nino were waiting for them at the steps.

“Well well Well, I have to hand it to you, Emile. Ever since you started living at Marinette’s she’s been on time.”

He smiled wickedly while Marinette paled.

“It’s because I actually pull her out of bed by the ankles.”

“And it was only recently that he actually would apologize for it.” She added, wearily.

Adrien glanced over to Nino, who had been quiet. “Ah, hey dude.”

“Hey.” He responded shortly, before walking right up to him and embracing him tightly. “Brother.”

Adrien returned the hug with gusto.

“Uh, what’s happening?” Alya whispered.

“Something beautiful.” Marinette whispered back.

Nino pulled away to look at his face. “Man, I still can’t believe you’re Adri—adic Sea is on the History Homework that I totally…ah forget it…” He tried to save, but totally failed.

The slip did not go unmissed by a sleuth like Alya. She released the sound of a dying whale, followed by a string of swears.

Adrien awkwardly rubbed his head. “Uh…I guess the…cat is out of the bag?”

She punched him squarely in the nose.

[theincitingscreenwriter]

Screenwriting Master Post

Online Outside Resources | These are websites that compile a lot of information for beginning screenwriters in the industry, have contests/other resources written within, and are just plain helpful and not really any place collected together. (Please let me know if there’s more because I’ve been collecting and learning for years.)

Screenwriting Contests/Representation

Writers Guild of America (WGA): Where writers for the industry work and organize, have contests, just general resources of information on questions on how to get started

Blacklist: Started in 2008, this website was a list of the most read scripts, represented and not represented scripts, that get compiled together for agents, producers, any other members to find stories on this website, it has been getting bigger for years, their twitter also posts stories from their submitted stories, always recommending one sentence stories that are popular from it

ScreenCraft: By far the most popular and stuck out contests, it has been getting bigger for years and the list of contestants give feedback for script submissions and different genre categories with industry lead ins for screenwriting contests

Women in Film (WIF): I only discovered this organization recently but right now they have a contest collaboration with Blacklist where they want more diverse scripts from women having labs for scripts for actors to read with industry lead ins so they are definitely a place to check out

WeScreenplay: This website was started by Ava Duvernay but it also has a lot of contests looking for diversity and is something to check out; also to submit scripts, you can get feedback at a small fee but I found this really helpful for anonymous feedback for my own scripts

Recommended Books

Basics

The Screenwriter’s Bible by David Trottier: This is what my screenwriting teacher recommended me to read first because it was a basic overview of the screenplay formatting, act structures, dialogue, story, etc for me and covers a lot of ground if you have never got started on this

Screenplay: The Foundations on Screenwriting by Syd Field: Definitely a useful resource that I still go back to from now and again if I have questions on what to do with my own scripts

Making a Good Script Great by Linda Seger: This was another read recommended to me and it still covers the basics of writing a story for movies from beginning to end

Story

Four Screenplays by Syd Field: Additional reading that helped me understand certain things to highlight such as character emphasis, themes that undermine characters and their actions, adaptations from a book to the screen, the challenges of it, along with the dramatic writing for an epic and how it was done

Bird by Bird by Annie Lamott: This doesn’t focus on screenwriting per say but I found very helpful to focus on why I’m writing on what I’m writing with her insight and come back to every now and then

Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting by Robert McKee: I haven’t read this all the way through but LFTS refers to this book all the time in his videos and I am confident that it would help anyone with this 

Character

Creating Character Arcs: The Masterful Author's Guide to Uniting Story Structure (Helping Writers Become Authors) by K.M. Weiland: Learned about this from youtube but come back to this book a lot of the time because it’s useful at understanding character arcs and navigate on how you want them to be in your stories

YouTube

Lessons From The Screenplay (LFTS): Love LFTS for all his work on movies because everything is beautifully done and still entertaining to get you inspiring to write scenes and why we write them a certain way, explores story, themes, dialogue, etc and always will watch

Every Frame a Painting: This channel doesn’t produce any more videos but the ones still on this website provide a lot of insight for movie techniques and everything is artfully done and entertaining

The New York Times || Anatomy of a Scene Series: Very useful insight into how directors purpose and story behind key scenes of current movies that I find very interesting while writing my own

Vanity Fair || Expert(s) Notes on a Scene Series:  Useful and insightful to watch directors break down why they choose to do certain things with the story, the budget, the effects, and learn something new

VF: Actor/Composers’ Career Timelines Series: This is still fairly new but I think it is amazing how each person gets to comment and reflect on what has happened so early and so far in their own careers and stories that occur behind the scenes of movies they made

VOX || Pop Culture & History: I originally watched this for the film technique series such as how The Wizard of Oz was being made in technicolor and how cinematography has changed dramatically for the better to capture wildlife we would never have seen 50 years ago but there are plenty of series in this entire channel that provide interesting bits and pieces of stories that make you expand your mind and provide entertainment and learning that I find useful still

The Cosmonaut Variety Hour: I give it to the main guy who writes these a lot of credit for providing insight on what he loves and talks about story, it is hidden behind a lot of sarcasm and tiredness, which I can relate to, and believe he makes a lot of valid points within his videos, he loves what he loves and I respect him for it for making me believe in movies a lot and also very entertaining

Nerdwriter1: I don’t always watch every single video but there are some good ones nestled on this channel as well; focusing on several different topics in story

Wired || Technique Critique Series: Love this series in particular because it showcases experts who provide insight and advice on scenes, accents, movie magic, and such

GQ || Iconic Characters’ Series: Even though GQ is meant for the “men”, there are still interesting stories the actors relate and show with their movies throughout their careers and I find it very interesting through the filmmaking process

kaptainkristian: Love this guy and the way he edits all of his film essays, provides a lot of insight in stories, themes, and choices for films

Wisecrack || Philosophy of ... Series: Love this series in particular because it can sprout from film, tv, books, and culture in general and they’re all interesting to watch if you’re ever in a halt

Just Write: Love this channel’s way of editing and exploring themes of movies and such too

Pop Culture Detective: This channel explores a lot of themes throughout tv and film which I find interesting and wish more of this existed on the internet because they are so damn well done for a wide range audience

Patrick (H) Willems: Love this channel as well because it expanded my viewpoint of why we make films, love them, and how we can go further with film technique and what we can do about it in interesting formats and such

Screenwriting Tips, Tricks, & Other Useful Things

General

Read as many scripts as possible, read your favorite movies, read scenes where you want to emulate into your own scenes, analyze why they work/don’t work and keep reading scripts to understand how past writers wrote something to borrow something for your own

Read theatre plays and attend them if possible because they provide direction and themes to works people have incorporated in scripts for TV & film

While writing drafts of films, tv, scenes, have a trusted reader or reading circle who can give you feedback and insight on what to fix, what’s missing, spelling errors, word choice, actions of a character, you’ll need this to make your scripts better

Follow a close, inspiring niche of artists, writers, producers, actors, fans, organizations of inspiration on social medias: Instagram, Twitter,  Pinterest, etc; this will provide insightful knowledge and information for you to work on your own stuff instead of just walking around in circles

Especially recommend Pinterest to create storyboards/mood boards that evoke the feel and tone of your stories such as the aesthetics of movies you enjoy, get influenced from, and aspire to make, these will truly help give direction to the characters, setting, background, dialogue, and such to your screenplays

On YouTube, create a playlist of videos that give you inspiration, this can comprise of film scenes that make you not give up on life, movie trailers I definitely recommend since they hype you in two minutes, film edits, tv scenes, monologues, anything that can be played at a moments notice for writer’s block; if they are very important to you, I would download them to refer for your personal viewings

Format

Celtx: You can make a free account on this website where you can automatically make the script format and produce scripts with whatever you want to get started on

Final Draft: Another screenwriting program a lot of people in the industry use and have automatic formatted screenplays

Script Examples

Film

imsdb.com: This is the biggest website where all scripts seem to end up on for people to read

TV

The 100 Writers Room: I love this show so when the writers release some jpeg glimpses of their scripts from past episodes, I think this is very kind and useful to understand what they write comes to screen

[qnqura]

Art resources and how to improve!

One year ago I started out with digital painting and made some decent progress (I think). Many people ask me, how I learned on my own painting in Photoshop in that time. For this reason, I’d like to share with you all my art resources, that I had been using and still often take a look into for repetition. If you have any other tips for us, let me know in the comments! If you don’t want to read all, just click the links! The Basics There is a ton of good tutorials on Youtube for the first easy steps in Photoshop. I started out with some, that I don’t consider good right now, so I want to recommend you another one, that I found much later. The tutorials of CTRL+Paint cover pretty much everything that you need to know about basic painting. They are easy to understand and follow. And they are completely free! https://www.ctrlpaint.com/library/ For the next step one should probably decide whether to go for a realistic look or going directly into manga/comic style. I recommend learning first the fundamentals of realism, before getting into styles. This way also your manga/anime art will look much more convincing. Starting with painting realistically The first tutorials I watched to paint humans (full body/ portraiture) were from Ahmed Aldoori (also having a great tutorial for blending!) and Jesus Conde (great skin tutorial and also environments covered!).

Ahmed: https://www.youtube.com/user/revolutions34/videos

https://www.youtube.com/user/JesusCondeArtStudio

Other great basic tutorials (but also some more advanced ones) you can find in Draw with Jazza, KNKL and Xia Taptara and Sycra. But be cautious: They are not realistic (some paintings come close though).

Xia: https://www.youtube.com/user/idrawgirls/videos

https://www.youtube.com/user/Sycra

In addition, I must say that some content is contradictory between these artists and I can just recommend to either try them out yourself and pick one or rely on only one source, that is most attracting you. I decided to rely more on Istebrak, I want to introduce as follows.

My main source for realistic painting though is Istebrak. She is doing some great tutorials, critiques and also has a google community where you can post your (realistically attempted) artwork to get critiques by her and the community. She might sound harsh sometimes, but her content is really professional and helpful. It is a great resource for beginners and advanced people likewise! I was mostly relying on her content to improve in painting and it helped me a lot! Try always to critique the paintings she is showing yourself and watch her suggestions after and you will learn a ton and also be able to train your eyes to actually SEE. Google: https://plus.google.com/communities/106157483273509078501 Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/Istebrak Comic Style For a more comic oriented approach I recommend Draw with Jazza and for a mixture of comic/anime styles KNKL. But I didn’t use their tutorials often.

https://www.youtube.com/user/KienanLafferty

https://www.youtube.com/user/DrawWithJazza

Istebrak also has one tutorial for a realistic approach for anime styled painting. Go and check it out!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CF05uz5fd90

I also like the art of Sara Tepes, but it is much stylistic, so I don’t recommend try out that style as a beginner. You can learn a lot from her but please stick with fundamentals first. Other than these I didn’t watch any tutorials on how to do anime style. If you have any suggestions, let me know!

 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWgMcluGLnaVpCWmscaFs_Q

Landscape For my first paintings I needed some information about painting landscapes. I didn’t get too much into it, but I was mainly watching Istebrak’s videos on this matter or Walid Feghali, whose environments look insanely good! And also Jesus Conde, of course. I also got a glimpse on Noah Badleys Landscapes tutorials, but you will need time for these!

https://www.youtube.com/user/Feroyn

https://www.youtube.com/user/noahbradley

Animals For one piece I had to get into painting a tiger. For this I used mainly the tutorials of Aaron Blaise. He works for Disney and can do both- realistic and also stylistic painting. He is a must to check out. https://www.youtube.com/user/AaronBlaiseArt

General (advanced) tutorials you should also watch as beginner

I LOVE Marco Bucci, but he dumped me unfortunately when I asked him to marry me (LUL). But his videos are SO much into depth, entertaining, short but really really informative. You must go check out his tutorials, like NOW.

https://www.youtube.com/user/marcobucci/videos

I also liked the tutorial on how to plan lighting by Tyler Edlin. And the Tutorial series from Swatches is just LOVE (especially the one on values is really valuable… Get it? :D) It is usually for 3D modeling in Blender, but here and there are really good videos also for us painting artists on the channel Blender Guru.

https://www.youtube.com/user/TylerE2284

https://www.youtube.com/user/AndrewPPrice

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiU1-5VronbfeScuABAJC4A/videos

If you are already more advanced it might be interesting for you to have a look at the levelup series on youtube. They have amazing content and feature many professional artists as well. https://www.youtube.com/user/levelupsessions/videos If you have the money and you want to get good at art really seriously, then you should consider paying for personal mentorship that many artists offer (Istebrak, Swatches, Bucci …) or to buy also purchasable tutorials. Tutorials you need to pay for

By now I only bought tutorials from Sakimichan and Ross Draws. I recommend Sakimichan, as soon as you got the fundamentals done. I don’t recommend starting with these tutorials, if you never ever painted before. It might take you longer to get things like anatomy, lighting and so on done correctly. RossDraws tutorials are more or less commented videos on his painting process, which is also really interesting to see of course. I am considering buying also Bucci tutorials and the artbook from swatches. I will update as soon as I worked with these! Getting critiques First of all I recommend joining Istebraks Community, because you can get critiques there quickly and all for free. Also, some other youtubers give critiques on Portfolios for free, but you must be really lucky to be “chosen”, e.g. Swatches (but these critiques are sooo good!). Getting critiques is really fundamental for improvement. So, you really should consider to get them, whenever you can. Depending on what you are aiming for I recommend getting one of the mentorships I talked about earlier.

Another way is to join an online class. I found some great looking ones on https://2d.cgmasteracademy.com/ where also my idol teaches. The prices are really tough though. I did not take part in these classes yet, but they look really promising. Resources that are not video tutorials

Another website I can recommend (to train many poses) is Posemaniacs. It will give you many random poses that you quickly need to jot down. http://www.posemaniacs.com/

I will also drop some links here of pages with tutorials that I looked through as well.

 https://design.tutsplus.com/tutorials/the-secret-to-realistic-painting-how-to-master-value--cms-23457

 https://www.creativebloq.com/illustration/13-ways-improve-your-card-art-41619873

 https://www.pinterest.de/characterdesigh/

 https://www.daz3d.com/animation-and-poses#p=7 (for getting some pose ideas)

 PortraitStudio by Istebrak (MUST GET) http://istebrak.com/store/portraitstudio General tips on how to improve (fast) First of all- ART NEEDS TIME. Stop looking for “how to improve fast” videos! And of course, you only learn how to ride a bike, by riding a bike and not watching others riding it. So, get on your bikes now! Painting every day is a must! But to my opinion there is no use to paint everyday only out of one’s head. So, my first tip is: 1. GET REFERENCE This is a lesson I had to learn much too late in my life. It always felt wrong to use references as if I was copying or stealing from others. But fact is: You need to learn seeing first and you need to see things before you can paint them. A dog without reference will never reach realism. Of course, you somehow can improve without referencing BUT it could take you years and years. Take the shortcut, look at references when painting. 2. STUDY It sounds obvious but studying (especially anatomy when painting humans and also doing form studies) is the only way to learn. Try to study everyday (by using references! GOD!), scribble and paint until your fingers start to burn! 3. GET (REAL) CRITIQUES Yes, you can show your painting to your mommy or best friend and they will tell you how amazing you are. But this won’t lead to anything. You need people to tell you what is wrong, what you need to improve. Not friends, artists. Go and ask them. I gave some suggestions in the text above. 4. SETTING GOALS You need to know why you are doing all this. What are you aiming for? Only with the right motivation you can get yourself into painting daily. Also pick some artists that you can set as your personal goal (Melanie Delon for portraiture in my case). 5. KEEP YOUR OLD ARTWORK Sometimes motivation can be a tricky thing so keep your old paintings so that you can see your progress! I even keep steps of each painting to see the progress within that painting! 6. DON’T COMPARE Motivation gets even harder, when you always compare your work to those of great or famous artists. You can get some inspiration from these or just enjoy them. Just stay on your track and focus on your art. Every great artist was a beginner once. 7. DO IT #NOEXCUSES #BECONSISTENT Last but not least, just paint, sketch and draw. Remember that bike thing I was talking earlier about? Yeah. EXTRA: Speedpaints As a general tip: Don’t waste too much time watching speedpaints. They give a REALLY fast insight in how a piece started out and developed, but you won’t know HOW they did it and WHY they made these choices. If you are liking one special artist, consider getting their more in-depth stuff from their patreon or gumroad. I know it is mesmerizing to watch, but you won’t learn much from it. And because they are so addictive, you might lose a whole day without realizing it. It is often good to watch a tutorial instead, but it is even better to just spend your time painting by yourself. Wow! You read the whole thread! GG! Thank you, for making it here. If you liked the content and want to connect with me, feel free to join me either on twitch or follow me on Instagram! https://www.twitch.tv/qnqura https://www.instagram.com/qnqura

[ninja-muse]

Science Fiction Recommendation Masterpost

$ for LGBT characters £ for characters of colour € for characters with disabilities * for problematic content ! for #ownvoices

(all based on my slightly spotty memory, so feel free to correct if I’ve missed something)

Does not include time travel, superheroes, or alternate history.

Classics

1984 - George Orwell

Winston is a patriot, until a chance encounter and his job altering history start him thinking. Big Brother, it turns out, isn’t acting in his best interests.

A Canticle for Leibowitz - Walter Miller

In the centuries after a nuclear war, a group of desert monks have devoted themselves to preserving scientific knowledge with the hope of someday rebuilding civilization.

The Chrysalids - John Wyndham *

In a Newfoundland rife with religious fundamentalism and genetic mutation, a boy, his cousin, and his sister must hide their telepathy or risk everything to live freely.

Dune - Frank Herbert $*£*

Even before fleeing to the open desert of Arakkis and its taciturn worm-riding nomads, Paul Atreides’ life was fraught with danger. Now he must use his understanding of people and politics to weather everything his world can throw at him, including sandstorms, a baron with a grudge, and those who want him to be a prophesied hero.

Foundation - Isaac Asimov

Hari Seldon has designed a program that predicts the paths of civilization. What better way to test it than to start a utopian colony at the furthest edge of known space?

Frankenstein - Mary Shelley

Victor Frankenstein is fascinated by anatomy and determined to prove resurrection possible. Once he succeeds, he’s equally determined to get as far from the sentient corpse as he can, when all the Creature wants is a hug and someone to talk to.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

When Arthur Dent woke up, he thought the bulldozer levelling his house was the worst his day could get. By teatime, he’s halfway across the galaxy on a ship that runs on probability, with his alien best friend, the two-headed President of the Galaxy, and a depressed robot—and things are just getting started.

I, Robot - Isaac Asimov

A series of short stories that outlines the evolution of robotic technology and society around it.

The Planet of the Apes - Pierre Bowles

An astronaut crashes on an alien planet populated by sentient, speaking great apes. They put him in a zoo until he proves he’s not an animal. A brilliant examination of race and what it means to be human.

Space Opera

the Expanse series - James S.A. Corey $£€

Humanity has colonized the solar system, but hasn’t fixed its other problems. The Belters are disenfranchised and preparing a rebellion. Earth and Mars are in a paranoid arms race. Corporations can do just about anything they want. Throw in a terrifying virus, an alien threat, and a space crew who do the right thing and damn the consequences, and things are about to get very interesting.

Fortuna - Kristyn Merbeth - $ - *

Scorpia Kaiser is a screw-up, the family pilot, and out to prove she has what it takes to take over smuggling operations from Mama. Corvus Kaiser, exiled from his family to fight a war he doesn’t believe in, is finally coming home. Then a smuggling deal goes massively south and suddenly, what was going to be a difficult time becomes much, much worse.

the Saga series - Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples $£€

An inter-species family flees the military powers tearing the galaxy apart. Their luck goes up. Their luck goes down. They meet the best and worst the galaxy can offer—and through it all, a little girl grows up. A nuanced look at prejudice, hope, and love.

the Shieldrunner Pirates series - R.E. Stearns $£€

A lesbian couple arrives at the pirate base on Barbary Station expecting a welcome to the crew, but are assigned to take out the murderous station A.I. instead. As much about social skills and interpersonal dynamics as it is about guns and hacking.

the Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold $*£€

How do you solve a problem like Miles Vorkosigan? He’s too smart for his own good, too impulsive and progressive for his military culture, surely too disabled to amount to anything. And he (and his accidental mercenary fleet) are going to prove everyone wrong. Dryly witty and generally feminist.

Horror, Apocalypses, and Dystopias

The Rampart Trilogy - M.R. Carey $£€

Koli wants more than his future offers, starting with becoming a Rampart, with control of ancient technology. His attempts to change his cards send him on an unforgettable journey of discovery.

Devolution - Max Brooks $£€

An elite sustainable community outside Seattle finds itself stranded after Mount Rainier erupts—and there are creatures in the forest. Hairy ones, with big feet.

The Girl with All the Gifts - M.R. Carey £

Melanie gets up, goes to school, eats her food, and idolises her teacher just like any pre-teen. However, when her school’s attacked by Hungries and she, her teacher, a doctor, and the surviving soldiers have to flee, Melanie begins to realise she’s … not exactly normal after all.

The Giver - Lois Lowry

When Jonah turns twelve, his regimented community assigns him to apprentice to the Keeper of Memories. The memories Jonah receives throw everything he knows into question, and he must choose between the quiet life laid out for him and the emotion and independence he’s discovering.

The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood

In a world where most women are sterile, Handmaids are stripped of their identity and given out as surrogate wombs. This is Offred’s story of oppression, resistance, and escape.

the Hunger Games trilogy - Susanne Collins £€

In an America where teens fight to the death for entertainment and the survival of their District, Katniss Everdeen volunteers—and finds herself the unwilling face of the rebellion.

Into the Drowning Deep - Mira Grant $£€ !

Was the terror on the Atargatis a hoax? Are there mermaids deep in the Pacific? A ship full of scientists has been sent to find out. They are not prepared.

the Newsflesh trilogy - Mira Grant $£€ *

A generation after the zombie apocalypse, humanity’s secure behind blood tests and heightened security and Georgia and Shaun Mason, and their Newflesh team, have been hired to blog the Presidential campaign, which is perfect until the first outbreak. Conspiracies, mad and sane science, and social critique ensue.

the Parasitology trilogy - Mira Grant $£€

Sal awoke from her coma to a family she didn’t remember, a body that wouldn’t respond, and restrictions on her autonomy that seriously chafe. Now she’s on her feet and resisting, but at the worst time. People are starting to die from their miracle-cure tapeworm implants and it’s looking like Sal’s implant might be … different.

the Passage trilogy - Justin Cronin £

A century ago, a virus turned most of humanity into bloodsucking monsters or food. Now the descendants of a group of survivors must strike out across a wasteland, looking for a safe new home. Better and darker than it sounds. Christian overtones.

The Space Between Worlds - Mikaiah Johnson $£ !

Cara’s climbed out of the toxic slums and into a job as a traverser, visiting parallel worlds and capturing data. She’s this close to having all her dreams—and then she uncovers a murder.

Other

Blindsight - Peter Watts

An independent observer is sent on a first contact mission, but the aliens and the secrets on board push him into a completely different role. About perception and ethics more than anything else, and I nearly “shelved” it in the horror section.

Congo - Michael Crichton £*

A team of scientists push deep into the African jungle in search of a society of mythical sentient gorillas, but the jungle pushes back.

The Diamond Age, or, a Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer - Neal Stephenson £€

An inventor misplaces a one-of-a-kind book. A girl from the slums finds it and it changes her life. A nearly Dickensian future full of hope, tenacity, vim, and nanotech.

Eifelheim - Michael Flynn

An alien ship crashes in the medieval Black Forest and the village priest, steeped in heretical philosophy and medieval science, must intercede between the survivors and the peasants who see only demons.

The Martian - Andy Weir £

Mark Watney wakes up to find he’s been left behind on Mars. Fortunately he’s a botanist, he’s smart, and he has potatoes. A thrilling survival story paired with hilariously explained science that will leave you believing it already happened.

Passage - Connie Willis €

Joanna Lander is a psychologist studying near-death experiences, which is hard when you never know who in the hospital will have one. When a new (and cute) neurologist finds a way to induce them, she turns to the closest subject she can find—herself. The most heart-wrenching of Willis’s novels.

Shine - Jetse de Vries, ed. £

An anthology of optimistic, uplifting science fiction, with stories ranging from space opera to solarpunk and everything in between.

Snowcrash - Neal Stephenson £

Hiro Protagonist is the hacker’s hacker. There’s a virus in the Metaverse that’s killing people and he’s on the case. At least when he’s not delivering pizza. Both glorious cyberpunk and a send-up of the same.

[xxreadersxx]

•1/3• hi,can I have a matchup for HQ!!,BNHA & MM?I'm heterosexual girl, libra and INFJ.I have dark brown eyes & mid-back long straight hair & a long fringe that covers my left eye.I'm really open-minded allowing me to have really wide variety of hobbies! From arts like drawing/singing to researching about anatomy(humans & animals)! One thing I'm known for by my family and friends is that I'm a huge nature and animal lover! Whether they're fluffY or scaly or "creepy", I really love them all!

•2/3•For teamwork/academics,I am seen as reliable, dexterous and a fast learner.However,due to my open-mindedness,I may be indecisive to others.I am also ambiverted;I need equal amount of alone time and hang outs/have periods of spontaneous impulses to take up a new hobby/being adventurous and sudden periods of quiet chilling.I'm actually rather insecure which causes me to overwork or stress but not many notice it unless they're really close to me.I would like to know some dating headcanons!!TY!

{HiHi, I only received part 1 and part 3? But I could still match you up, so it’s all good! Hope you like the match! Thanks for requesting!!~} 

Your Haikyuu!! Match: Nishinoya Yuu!

Noya happens to share a class with you, and since your deskis beside his, you two often share your lunch time together with Tanaka. Hereally likes that you always seem to have some new hobby or like when you cometo school. He always like to talk to you and enjoys your company. He’s good atguessing when you’re stressing out, and he gives the best advice. At first youwere worried that you were bugging him all the time with your stressing, ortalking about your interests, but all of that went away when he confessed hislove for you. He came up to you confidently and expressed how he loves when youtell him your worries and share with him your ever-changing interests.

*His favorite type of date is the ones that are spur of themoment, he’ll just take your hand and walk, sometimes through a park, sometimesa mall. When he found out about your love for animals, he took you to a pettingzoo one weekend, and another time, he took you to the regular zoo

*He understands when you say you need some space, so he justtexts, and if you want to respond you will. He can also sit quietly next toyou, enjoying the silence and watching you draw. He doesn’t want you to feellike you have to be a different person around him

*He reassures you every day that you are the one for him,saying things like ‘See? This is why you are perfect!’ or ‘You are so cute!’,he also likes to critique your art (not in a mean way, just a way that willhelp you to get better)

*He likes to hold hands and kiss in public, but is good at reading your attitude so he won’t make you uncomfortable, and he knows when it is not appropriate to kiss or hug

 Your BNHA Match: Mezou Shouji!

You were actually the one to approach Mezo first, his bodystructure intrigued you. He felt a little odd being looked at by you, butnonetheless, allowed you to examine his body structure. His cheeks heated upwhen you touched his arms, and you seemed to snap out of the zone you were inwhen he choked on his own breath. You giggled, embarrassed, and apologized. Hesaid it was no problem, and that you could do it anytime. Every day then, youtwo would talk about anything and everything. He really liked your open-mindedness,and how you always found something new to research. He appreciated the factthat you could be talkative one time, but then lull into a comforting quiet at another.He asked you if you wanted to go to the local festival with him, and youhappily agreed. While enjoying the festivities, he confessed to you. Now, hedidn’t have to go out fighting evil alone, he always had you to depend on forsupport.

*Likes quiet time as well, but is not against talking toyou, usually he only speaks when he has to, but you were different (as wasevident when his class was surprised to see him so openly talking to you)

*He likes to hold your hand when the two of you walktogether, he finds comfort in your touch, kinda like the first time you met

*His dates usually involve being in nature (the park, a zoo,mountain hikes) and he is reliable and strong enough to carry you if you gettired

*He doesn’t do PDA, the best you get is holding hands, hedoesn’t remove his mask unless the two of you are alone (if you want to see himblush, though, just kiss his cheek in public, boy glows red)

 Your Mystic Messenger Match: Yoosung!

This boy is interested in pretty much everything, too, soyou’re a good match! When you ended up in one of his classes, he noticed asticker on your laptop of a cute animal, and he called out to you. He startedoff by commenting on the sticker, but as the conversation continued, he fell inlove with your voice. It was a kind of music that he could listen to every day.Unfortunately, you guys only had that class two days out of the week, but bythe end of the second class, he asked for your number. You happily gave it tohim, but warned him that he’ll receive all kinds of animal pictures. He justlaughed and said that was fine by him. The two of you hung out, and when he askedif you wanted to come to his house for dinner, you accepted. He made you dinnerthat tasted pretty good, even if it did look a bit messy. He then confessed toyou, and you were relieved that he had the same feelings.

*Dates with him are usually spent at cafes, picnics on thecampus grass, or a walk to the dog park, he isn’t against just hanging aroundthe house, though, and the two of you just sit in silence at home sometimes

*He likes to watch you draw, and has tried to draw some,himself, but failed so miserably that he was disappointed with himself for acouple hours

*You have to watch out for this kid, he falls into trapseasily, and often complains about his friend, Seven, and how he tricked himinto doing something stupid

*He’s too timid to show too much PDA, so he’s thecheek/forehead kisser, and hand-holder

[jrvotaku]

Prices to Pay (recap+1)

Roman and Virgil have been together most of their lives. The shy and self-cold child of a ordinary house learned to open up to a outgoing and characteristic boy from a life of emptiness and unimaginable dull. Beginning as best friends in a school quarrel, Virgil was victim to depression and Roman on edge of collapsing individuality. Both indefinitely came to ones another’s needs and soon touched on what would later be true companionship. With two new friends in toll, Logan and Patton, their circle of trust and brotherhood was unbeatable. It wouldn't be until Senior Year of high school that all emotions would splur and coming-out love between them grew into our story, which takes place about a year later.

Fever in Inspiration

Virgil loomed over his thoughts on and on. He couldn’t stop envisioning the dream he’d been having since then, that dance, that moment. Tossing in his covers alongside Roman made his legs feel constricted and tried to break free. Finally launching himself out of the soft trap, his body hit like a thud on the carpet, causing him to moan in the surface. Roman shot up from his beauty sleep, face mask glowed ‘Don’t bother me, I’m Grumpy’ half strapped against his face.

“Gheeah! Hrrrrmm...Virgil?”

“Down here..” said the gloomed voice, reaching for the edge of the bed. “Sorry, I was-felt-nothing.”

“Must have been some nothing to fly out of bed!”

“Grrrh”

*yaawn* “what’s up, hun?”

“It..it was nothing. Just a thought.”

“C’mon, greys anatomy, tell me.”

“It’s too..embarrassing..”

“Your kidding. I’m presumed to be all embarrassing!”

“No! Like, embarrassing. Was about..me and y-you.”

“Oh?” with a smirk and a finger up and down Virgil’s arm, making him tickle and shiver.

“Ghaaa nothing like that!” Finally showing a smile wide enough to photograph. “It was about us. How we..love. I guess…”

“I think so.” Roman gazed his curious eyes over his boyfriend and soon-to-be husband, wondering where this hurt could be coming from. Though what he’s saying, it’s not hurting, but something else.

“Like, we’ve been us for a while now, and it feels fine. Great even. Everytime and day we’re together it’s a blessing, especially to myself, it just feels we-I...want more.”

“What are you implying?” Seeming hurt. “I’m not good enough now?”

“Hell no, Princey! No no no, your wonderful, good, loving, and nothing can change you! It’s what’s on my fault. My wants.” Why couldn’t he just say it? The one thing that could make their life better if it seemed so. The element of life he ever so desires for him and his Prince Charming…

“I want a kid!”

Silence between the angsty hipster, the royal spotlight and the faux-mink comforter fell swift as winter.

“Okay? I want a child, a somebody worth us and our relationship. I know we’re looking forward to sealing the deal and all, and we’ve layed our many things for each other, it’s just...just..I feel we need something more. It’s scared me through this progress for a while, and I don’t know how or why I feel this way-“

“Baby fever.”

“Wha?”

“That’s what they call it. Baby fever, the...the wanting of a child to think it would solve your worries between someone or feeling left out of a love.” Roman defined as smooth and crisp as how Logan would’ve. Virgil in turn started amazed at how this theater kid would be so sophisticated. “Trust me, I’ve been through it with my girl pals. They all say it would make them feel better and self-worthed with their partner, but it’s just what the mind and heart wants, not really themselves.”

Virgil then slumped and buried his red face in his palms, acknowledging his stupidity mentally. “I...I’m s-ss-sorry...Rome..” He then began to tear up in guilt, as he did when facing correction.

“Hey, now-��� Roman held Virgil close to his chest, rocking him soothingly, free hand searching through the purple dyed bangs with safety. He felt hurt seeing his one true love in despair, as it always had been, since middle school. Making a friend with the gloomy kid across the cafeteria, only changed his whole history.

“Don’t be sorry, love. You’ve nothing to blame. I think...I think it would be alright, amazing really, to have a kid. So let’s say this,” adjusting himself and Virgil cross-legged and facing each other in the eye. “We get married, first off, then we research some children who’ve no home. We’ll have to jump hoops I’ve heard to apply for adoption, but I’m sure it can work out.”

Virgil still looked down sad, but nodded along with the plan.

“Mmhmm.” was all he could reply with.

Roman sighed, and extended his hand to his partners face, lifting chin with thumb. Virge gazed up from the bed to the crisp hazel eyes, still upon a frown. The cherry-red haired boy looked on tenderly. “Close your eyes.”

“Eh?”

“Just do it, babe.” He did so, with a childish huff.

“Now forget what you see. What do you feel?” As he said this, Roman held Virgil’s hand, stroking it as he went to put it on the cocoa-eyes’ own chest. My crinkled sweatshirt, but he has it over my.. “My heart?” Roman replied with a nod. “And here?” ,stretching the cool hand on the barren pecks. Warmth, smooth, a bit rigid, a beating motion. His? “Your heart.” without a question.

“Ya see, we’re the same. One heart in the same patterns, the same person.” Poetic it may seem and somewhat cliche, Virgil thought, it worked out his worries. He did feel connected to Roman, the one true human being to come out for him out of a million. Dropping his hand, he wrapped his arms around the bare chest, head and ear nestled to hear and feel more of the heavenly breathing of what’s was his prince.

“Yeah,” he finally said after a moment. “The same.”

The figurative prince chuckled as he held him close, inhaling and exhaling to the others pleasure.

“You know what I mean? We are love, we are and can be or do anything when we’re together. If that means dreaming about a real family, one day and someday, it can be ours. In the time now, it’s just us.” Roman rested his chin on the others head, whiffing the hair that soothes his senses. Virgil peaked his eyes, content and full of hope now. Lifting his head to touch foreheads with Roman, he rubbed against it like a kitten. Rome obliged and turned to touch cheek-to-cheek, Simba and Nala like.

Maybe this’ll help Roman processed, as he let a soft kiss fall on the neck of his nightly-keen knight. Virgil let out a shiver of a gasp, scrunching his shoulders, but felt satisfied with the action.

Maybe this too,”Alexa. *bing* Play my theme” ‘playing your theme Chicago’s You're the Inspiration’ Virgil giggles at the choice. That was their song, that dance, that moment Virgil knew Roman was the one. When Roman knew this boy was his true love. Roman then grasped the others’ hands to ask for a slow dance off the bed. Virge accepted the invitation, and lifted himself off the edge. With a smile in both favors, the two men came chest to chest, in a circle of steps. Swaying with each drum beat, each chime of the piano, they breathed and lived in the moment. Through the chorus, Virgil was lost in the fantasy of being one with Roman and his analogy.

The heart thing felt familiar, but it did make him feel better on his proposal, having a child one day is another day, for right now was being one and one only. Being inspiration both ways made it work, and that’s what it will become sooner than they thought. The wall clock read 2:45 am, dimming street lamps glowed, two hearts swayed as one, and a dream worth keeping stayed awake for a while longer.

I really hope you guys enjoy and I’m happy to hear anything if you feel the need to critique. I can take it in pride :) see you in the next chapter with some more drawing examples

[mi4011annabodgal]

ANIMATION DAY - 31.10. 2018 

Task: Let’s create a spooky Halloween themed alphabet together, all the students, from all levels, like a big happy family what

Animation day is an optional program organized for all animation student from foundational year to masters to gather together and in small groups let’s do together a piece of animation by the end of the day. How you solve the lunch is your problem.

Egh… I’m not gonna lie, that was my first thought about it on that morning. Don’t get me wrong, just one day before I was head over hills by that idea, because I was pretty aware of how much I could benefit from it. Building connections, meeting with new people, gaining experiences, chances of free pizza and candy, yep, sure I wanted to dive into it, who doesn’t?!

Then on that specific day, somehow the exact same reasons become the cause of your anxiety because your lazy introvert mind recognizes what is it up to for real:

 Meeting with new people - greeeeat, I need to socialize, go through countless small talks to warm up to strangers, like I’m not doing that since the past 2 months heh?

Building connections - oh sugar honey ice tea, so I even have to do a good first impression

Gaining experiences -  aka showing how poor skills I have compared to demigod 2nd and 3rd-year peers

 Free pizza - Free pizza DECLINED… Oh…

So after waking up to thoughts like that, I don’t think that it’s surprising that I had even considered the idea of ditching that day because first, it’s optional, second I had so so so many other things to do such as finishing storyboards or updating blogs… but worry not, I go through thoughts like that in relation to almost everything, some call it worrying, I call it listing my options and the possible outcomes before I start anything. I usually have my priorities sorted out right, so a little social anxiety won’t stop me of living up all my possibilities, and also funnily, the exact same reason to cons can become a quite supporting statement to pros… I could put it on the blog…

Talking from experience, an attitude has a lot to do with how we handle stuff and what we end up with. So I walked in taking big steps, deep breaths, putting on a smile and deciding that I will do everything in my power to collaborate and make it as good of an experience as I can. I have to make the best of it. I have to make it worth it. 

And I immediately got much much more relaxed when I realized that there were others in nice numbers from my classmates who turned up too. Probably with the same bothering thoughts. And we stayed like that. Together. For some time. 

After the 3rd and 2nd-year students were sorted out equally for different letters we came to the part that where we had to sign up for letters. Now by that time excitement took over most of the place of my anxiousness so while some of my classmates decided to stay together and sign up for the same letter, I boldly chose a random letter with an unfamiliar name. Long story short, I ended up being in a group with a girl from 3rd year, two guys from 2nd year, and 3 other boys from my class to make animations for 4 letters. Now comes the interesting part, teamwork.

I have always found teamwork the most interesting but also the most challenging task of all. The basic concept is quite admirable, people with different views and ideas create something phenomenal by making compromises and working toward the same goal together. Now here comes the problem, the phrase “working together” has as many definitions as many people exist, that’s why sometimes it can result in a rather unpleasant experience. Who doesn’t remember from group projects from preschool and secondary school when usually one person did 80% of the work, one person ditched completely their part, and the others did only the minimum?! We are all one of them. It also hides lots of conflicts, tension, and disagreements of who wants to do what part, who’s idea are we keeping, who is the leader etc. I personally think part of the conflicts wouldn’t even exist if we didn’t take so many things personally. Look at the questions above, who’s who’s who’s. It emphasizes the importance of the person behind the idea. Change some of them to which. Which idea do we keep, which parts should be done, it’s not perfect but you get the idea of this phrase sounding more objective. It emphasizes the idea itself. Just because your idea didn’t make it, that doesn’t make you stupid. The decision is not against you, and not even against your idea, it is for a concept that will have the most efficient result.

 Every group needs a leader otherwise, it’s chaotic. We are humans, we don’t know it but we like to be told what to do. Let me give you an example. At the beginning of a project, the same question crosses through our minds, what are we doing? At a group project, the leader is the one who knows. They keep it all together, usually because they are the ones who know which step comes after what mostly because they have the most experience in it. They see the whole picture. They don’t oppress or boss around but supervise and make sure the group stays on track. At least that was how we sorted it out and made the girl from 3rd year - let’s call her A - the leader. We hadn’t had to discuss it really, from the first minute it was visible that she has the most experience and she had known where to starts and how to go. And we just naturally felt it right. Of course, it had to have to do a lot with the fact that we discussed everything together and everyone’s thoughts were listened.

First thing first was to decide if we wanted to do 2D or 3D. Who was not a newbie preferred the idea of 3D but we greenies were absolutely terrified of it. Given that we did not have any mentionable experience in using Maya and that we were a majority of the group, they ended up making compromises and agreed to do 2D or anything that does not include advanced software knowledge. Even tho they were incredibly nice and offered to help us learn to use the software or they just wanted to see us suffer as and I quote them: ”Maya is a special kind of hell”, we only had one day to make 4 pieces of 2-3 seconds of animation, it was pretty clear that there was just not enough time for that.

We chose to work with charcoal mostly in one paper for every animation because it has a special unique effect. Our teachers even suggested that we should shoot it on putting it on easels, vertically. Do you remember the part when I said an idea should be accepted when there are more useful things resulting from it than problems? Well… Now tell me how do you say no to a teacher, if you wanna build connections and you are also just a dummy newbie and it’s only been your first month here? Exactly, you don’t.  Well, it was definitely interesting and challenging to work on. I am not entirely sure if it was worth it, because we sometimes accidentally bumped into the easel so it moved a bit off place and we couldn’t put it back to the exact same spot it was so it resulted in small jumps in the animation, and also the camera was extremely close  to the paper for small details and high resolution so we had to work in a rather interesting poses, very very carefully. But one more experience to gain. Yay!

We decided to dissolve into smaller groups within our group so we can work on the animations more effectively. When we had some solid designs we discussed them together and gave critique to each other. Getting feedback from your peers is incredibly useful as they are also part of an audience you will want to make stuff for. I ended up being with A and we were given the letter “M”. Which was awesome because we know many words starting with M which had a spooky vibe. Monster, mystery, murderer, moon… And by saying moon I did get some extra knowledge about the course. There are 3 banned cliche things, that under any circumstances should not appear in animations, these are dragon, robot, and vampire. Vampire or werewolf, she was not sure which. That was one of my favourite aspect of it all, that we ended up talking about all sorts of kind of things, and not just with my group mates but with others too through them. I was disappointed in a pleasant way, I don’t know what did I expected but it was half as not friendly and open-minded as it turned out to be.

 We agreed on making a monster who has mad cow disease and committed mass murderer and adding mystery by it’s appearing from the fog.“A” did the design as I was pretty clueless of how this should look like or where was I supposed to start. Seeing my distress she asked me what were my specialties. I immediately said character design. She asked me if I do stuff like taking random words and design a character from them. And I said no, I meant humans, I draw human characters. Until that moment I did not realize how boring that sounds, but yes it is boring. Only humans are boring. Sure anatomy is important and gestures and poses too, and yes you can have a bunch of own humanoid characters with a whole storyline that you promised yourself to bring alive once you have all the skills you think are required to have before starting and concept arts and designs and mood boards, hell yes, of course, I do have, but you need to realize that they are incredibly interesting for you because you have a strong emotional attachment to them, because you created them, you know everything about them, you love them, and it could easily happen that strangers without that amazing backstory knowledge won’t find them as captivating as they are in your eyes. Additionally, it’s always better to be good in more stuff than just in one. You stand in more legs you have more opportunities, so just have the courage to move out of your comfort zone, it can only benefit you in the long run.

At the end of the day, which we previously decided to be 5pm, all the animations were done and we even had a look at them as a whole sequence. It turned out pretty amazing, seeing so many different styles and solutions was really fun.

To sum up, all, if one thing to learn from this day was to dare to move out of our comfort zone, whether socially or artistically,  chances are we are gonna end up with more benefits than regret. I know now that I have a lot to improve in terms of creative character design, need to leave humans alone for a while for sure. Also, let’s be brave enough to collaborate and get your ideas out, being wrong is not a failure. Doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will and a wrong idea written down whorts a thousand times more than keeping it in and contemplating whether it’s good or not. We can soon realize that something is off and it can give space for new ideas if it’s out early. If we keep something in for a long time we become over biased for certain concepts and don’t notice the black holes in it. We need feedback from the outside world because their opinion is objective, and that is something that every artist who wants to move an audience is in desperate need.