#drawing an interior and actually put effort

[tyrantisterror]

I decided to spruce up the Thorn and the Spectre today - one of the problems when you have a big art project that keeps growing despite your attempts to end it because you're having too much fun with it is that your skills grow with it, and eventually you look back on the first parts of it and being like, "Uh, yeah, I think we can do better than we did." This is why Tyrantis's soft sculpture model has two whole remodelings.

The Spectre's touch-ups were somewhat minor. I added more transparent material to the interior of her skirt so she feels a bit more substantial, and then, uh... cut off her face for the second time and gave her a third and final one. This time I used the technique I first tried with the Beast of layering the foam rubber on her head so she has naturally sunken eye sockets and cheeks, then covered it in a thin layer of fabric so the seams aren't as noticeable. It worked, I think she looks much closer to the cute ghost she is in the game! Also now she has her old face as a fun accessory.

With the Thorn, I decided to do something I had initially intended to do, but decided against because it seemed to have a bad ratio of "insane amount of fiddly intricate detail work" to "things people will actually notice and give a shit about. Namely, cutting out a bunch of tiny little thorns to put on her vines and gluing them all on individually. Even now I can feel Dennis Nedry waving his hat around and saying, "See? Nobody cares!" about all the effort I put into this, but dammit, this is the Thorn! My favorite princess! She should have her namesake! I also made some extra vines to put in her hair to make her more canon-compliant, which of course meant I had to make even more tiny little fucking thorns no one will notice.

It's ok, she's worth it. She's worth it.

Oh, and I beefed up her legs a bit with some more fabric. Her original legs were too twiggy and it was really noticeable whenever I stood her next to the other princesses, so now she's got stronger gams.

...and since I had the hot glue gun anyway, I decided to make one last new princess. As a treat! The Princess and the Dragon is one of my favorite routes of the game, and it can result in one version of the princess who's, like, color inverted - where the other princesses look like cross-hatched pencil drawings, this one looks like a cross-hatched chalk drawing, and it's just a really cool effect that I wanted to try and figure out how to do. I... I'm kind of ok with the result? I like the felt I got for the hair, it's dark gray with streaks of white and really feels as close to the chalk drawing looks as I can probably get with that material. Unfortunately, the white-ink pen I got to try and do detailing on her face did not show up as well as its black-ink siblings have - you can kinda sorta see the lines I drew on for her lower lip and eyebrows if you squint, but yeah, bit of a disappointing result, especially since I was hoping to be able to use it to give her skin some of those faint chalk cross-hatching lines that make her look so cool. Still, she looks nice next to her fellow princesses!

I imagine if I was good with paint there'd probably be some sort of fabric paint that would work, but I can never use the stuff without it globbing everywhere.

The funny thing is, while I think she's one of the most visually striking princess designs, the ending that gets you the photo-negative Princess isn't my favorite for The Princess and the Dragon route. My favorite is the one where you and her get out of the basement and just lay on the grass together. Sure, her design isn't as striking in that one - she's almost identical to how she appears in the beginning of the game, just missing a hand and bearing an x-shaped scar on her heart - but it's such a sweet, tender little moment, and I savor those in the game. Definitely the least interesting P&D take on the princess to make a doll of, but perhaps the one that's more dear to my heart.

...

but I did say this would be my last one, so...

[zooliminology]

Hey ! Love the art!!! Was wondering if you can share your painting process or your creative process!! In love with how you paint! ❤️ 💙 💜 💖 💗

[Sure! Also, I just realized that using brackets would be easier to differentiate when I'm 'in character' so I guess i'll type like this and a little more freely for non-in-universe asks from now on.

I'm not really sure how to describe my creative process because it can differentiate between each drawing and sometimes the process is really stupid

I'll usually come up with a creature or environment first. I'm inspired by a lot of roblox games like the liminality zone, and @thatonegaycactus has also given me an amount of great creature ideas a few of which i still need to get to. But Golbo was inspired by that one image of the deflated horse if you know it

Coming up with the goobers first is even variable then, either I'll draw it out beforehand or have a good idea of how to put it into a drawing, but once I've came up with the creature as I was drawing the actual drawing (not good!)

I also like to utilize Minecraft when drawing because otherwise trying to do geometry/interior perspective is a great pain and I'm not particularly great at drawing straight lines.

Here's a timelapse saved from my program to hopefully give a better idea of how I draw bc honestly im not great at explaining my processes. Especially because they uh... change with my mood and what I'm trying to do]

[For Golbo I've drawn a concept of him beforehand, and you can see me momentarily pull up a stock image for a split second before deciding to go with minecraft lol, the start of the trend.

You can also see me do the thing in black and white first which helps with the values. But as you can see.... the thing that took the longest was the grass. Despite this being the most popular zooliminology entry, it was by far the most annoying one to draw LOL. but i've been told the extra effort is visible

You can also see in the newest one I'm trying to draw (exclusive sneak peek time) I'm still using minecraft lol

But I guess fun fact about the one I'm working on as of 1/6/24, this idea LITERALLY came to me in a dream]

[pokeballvictim]

Hi n@! What types of heroes make the best victims?

Hiiiii Aria my friend Aria!!!

This is such a good question and I think I have to break it down a bit. The first part is "what actually makes someone a hero" which is such a pain in the ass for me specifically to answer that I don't want to. So, instead, let's review a couple different TYPES of heroes, and then we'll discuss how each of them is as a victim!

Type 1 is, of course, Heroism Through Innocence. This is a very typical kind of hero. They believe that everyone has the potential to be good. They think all struggles can be overcome with effort and love. They believe in happy endings, in redemption, in good and evil, and in the triumph of the former over the latter. You know the type.

Type 2 is the Antiheroic CryptoHero. This one actually has a lot of similarities to the first kind, just buried a little deeper. This hero will be more familiar with tough choices, with failing, with things ending badly. They might drive people away from them with a gruff exterior, or pretend to refuse to help people. Scratch the surface, however, and they're a softy. They feed animals, they want to help people, they still draw their strength from their indomitable spirit and compassion. Their cynical exterior might be real and legitimate, but its all to cover that true-blue-heroic interior.

Type 3 is the Misanthropic Hero. They actually have almost nothing in common with the previous two, despite how they act. This hero might be grizzled and standoffish, or they might be a beaming paragon of goodness. What makes them a type 3 is that their true, internal thoughts are cynical and bitter. They despise the people they're helping, despise the structures of power that exist, and are often slightly megalomaniacal. They might be putting on an act, but they HATE you. What makes this one a hero is that ultimately, their actions and beliefs are for the greater good. Maybe they save the world because their favorite minions are in it. Maybe they hate everyone because they've been disappointed by how people fail to be good. Maybe they do it because they have to. I love this kind, personally, for reasons that I don't care to unpack. My heart goes out to Grisia Sun...

Type 4 is the Depressed Hero. This one is a bit odd, because they're fundamentally NOT heroic; they're a machine running on expectations. Unable to set down their burden, these heroes no longer feel anything but exhaustion. They're often isolated and traumatized, but don't know any other way to live.

I'm sure there are more kinds, but let's go over these four! Starting with type 3, they can be a lot of fun to corrupt, but I don't think they make great victims. Even if they're NOT sadists or narcissistic, they have a certain smug sense of superiority that you can't shatter without ruining their character. They look best when you've earned their willing submission, but that isn't easy! Type 4, on the other side of the spectrum, will practically fall into your hands with the barest bit of effort. Give them an alternative. Find the seams in their mentality and give a little push. Type 4s are so reliant on a single concept or idea that if you can topple that, then they have no defenses. Types 1 and 2.... depend on your preference. Type 1 is easy to break and look good doing it. Show them that their actions are meaningless, show them how they've been taken advantage of, and they'll either rise up with new determination or instantly Fall. If you like seeing empty, mind-broken eyes, then go for a Type 1! But be careful! Type 2 is interesting because they're already half-broken already. Their innocence has been shattered, but they persist. They're probably the type that you actually have to put lots of work into breaking. You have to destroy everything around them, everything they've built, and then defeat their last stand. And then their next last stand, and then their second wind, and so on and so on. Torture won't work. Pleasure will give you a bit of an in, but not very much of one. The exact approach depends on the hero, but you WILL be destroying them and remaking them in your image.

So, in conclusion, I'd have to say the best ones are type 2 and 3. Type 2 for the effort it takes to break them, for the true experience of shattering a mind and turning them into your adoring pet. Type 3 because its a battle between... not equals, but someone who knows what you're doing and is trying to do it back. Type 3 will be a fight for your fucking life that might end with you becoming a "reluctant" hanger-on, confused and trying to figure out how you accidentally spent the past year as a heroic companion.

[lilybarthes]

brief and disorganized thoughts upon watching outrageous (britbox) part 2

becauseyoulisten said "i welcome your future spoilers" so brace yourselves, for i have now seen... most episodes

long post under the cut

as the show progresses, it starts to draw more on actual quotes from the family (letters, statements to the press, etc.), which makes it that much more enjoyable to me personally

i don't hate the — numerous! SO numerous!— shots of "the mitford window" (you know which one) but i see right through them

i feel like they've gotten better with recreating the family photos, tho, which i appreciate

not sure if the costumes are getting better or if i'm just getting used to them

(Nancy, i will avenge you still) (Bessie Carter this is nothing against you, you are a darling)

i maintain that Nancy should be A LOT meaner

i totally forgot about the Debo/Derek connection lol

the character i assumed was supposed to be Evelyn Waugh is Jewish, so ig not Evelyn after all, but i appreciated his story about his family and assimilation

i tentatively think the show should explore the topic of antisemitism in the UK/among the English upper classes a bit more because you know the BUF didn't exist in a vacuum

missed opportunity to show Diana coming to Italy only to realize that Baba is there with Mosley and spend 3 days in the darkness of her room with a concussion while the two of them frolic around the Mediterranean

Shannon Watson ur a star! definitely a standout performance of the show for me

that said, i still resent the fact that the show is putting so much EFFORT into Solving the Problem of Unity and humanizing her with the whole "starry-eyed AuTistIc-coded tEEnAgEr led astray by stanning the wrong person" approach, when she was a lot more irredeemable than that (the newspaper letter, yes, but also being besties with the publisher of said newspaper, the way she got her German apartment...)

especially when i feel like the show is not giving Decca nearly as much grace, screentime, or interiority, even tho my girl has been... right about pretty much everything so far

maybe making Decca less of a """sjw"""caricature would require taking leftist ideas more seriously, and pop culture tends to be dismissive towards those? (or am i the problem because i don't find that actress compelling?)

THAT said, i appreciate that the show is still trying to have those conversations about radicalization, etc, however hit-or-miss those attempts may be—there were some pretty poignant moments in that Christmas dinner scene a couple of eps ago, and the sisters' conversation in the Hons' cupboard, i thought

atp Esmond better turn out to be the most handsome, charming, charismatic dude on the show the way they've been hyping him up

[myownperceptions]

Minions: The Rise of Gru- details, trivia, goofs, random notes (Pt. 7)

First Part Previous Part

Nunchuck's fine. Somehow. But she's understandably angry.

Belle pulls herself up the chain to get to Gru. JC is struggling at the back there cause he doesn't try skidding on his shoes like Belle.

Belle tries holding on once the jet activates but is thrust backwards by the forces.

JC looks concerned before jumping and trying to use his claw to slow down the bike.

That claw is strong enough to dig through concrete and generate sparks. It seems to hurt since he yells in the effort. Jean's shoes also look kind of purple here, but it could just be the lighting.

This link breaks, the rest of the chain shortly follows.

Belle manages to stop herself rather gracefully. Jean, not so much. He's thrust forward by the change in forces and donuts across the road. That's roadburn and broken bones. Loses his hat again.

I uh, recommend pausing during this part. It has some funny shots.

The shop in the back, 'Osiris' is named after the Egyptian God of resurrection and fertility mainly. Not entirely sure what it means in this context.

No chainbelt.

Chainbelt. Honestly quite an obvious error.

Random note: JC's Breton top has navy stripes, as per a traditional mariniere.

Claw also has a metal hinge inside it. If you watch his face, he puts visible effort into shattering the concrete in his claw.

Svengeance still has the door stuck on his head. Some spikes and an outline of him crashing into it is visible.

This is just a good shot.

Song that plays here is 'All the Young Dudes' by Mott the Hoople, released in 1970.

That chest hair is totally drawn on by the way.

'Worst villains in the world'? I get the meaning behind it, but if you remember, Bratt describes Gru as the 'world's worst villain' in DM3, so... it would make more sense to describe the V6 as the best since that's what he means.

Bob pets Kyle.

Pet Rocks were created in 1975, so an apt reference. The 'creator' of the gimmick, Gary Dahl, made a bloody fortune off of these things. They were a very short-lived fad, but they're actually coming back into popularity, if you can believe it.

It's possible the googly eyes on the rock are a reference to Everything Everywhere All At Once, especially considering the main actress, Michelle Yeoh, voices Master Chow in this movie.

Watch this minion, he's vibrating in the background. Because of his jackhammer, obviously.

Gru packs Sticky Fingers with him.

This scene is honestly kind of sad. I mean, we did just see a child get kidnapped.

Wild Knuckles' house is shaped like a WK of course. It's been theorised that Gru lives here in the future, in the rebuilt mansion we see in all the DM movies, which would place the events of the main movies in San Francisco.

WK's house being so obvious raises questions. Like, can the AVL not just arrest him? Did the V6 not think to loot his house or something after they 'killed' him? We see it's not filled with booby traps like Vector's, so what gives?

Gru saying Belle Bottom's name is the only time in the movie any of the V6's names are said, other than Wild Knuckles.

Is that a guitar-axe?? Hardcore.

Love how you can hear Steve Carrell laughing through his line here.

Wild Knuckles' had a few house & interior designs, here's a select few:

I believe he was originally intended to be Chinese, but this was changed when Alan Arkin was cast. The final design has more of a medieval angle, with all the weaponry and suits of armor around. [Click here for more].

Man just broke the balcony.

Gru's screams and begging actually sounds quite realistic here, it caught me off-guard the first time I heard it.

Gru shakes his head like 'what do you want me to do?'

Gru uses his fingers to try and remember his home phone number.

Concept art.

Some things on the board include: UFO sightings, a bag of potato chips, a police report, a drawing of Gru on a boat, an insurance policy paper, a picture of the Orlando billboard from Minions, and my personal favorite:

WHY

Also this minion eating popcorn as everyone else panics.

And no, Frighton and Northgomery aren't real places, so that's not useful in telling us where Gru currently lives.

Big henchman is poking Gru in the background and Gru bats his hand away.

Green Street is an actual place in San Francisco. Not 6830 though.

Gene Simmons from KISS.

Next Part

[turboputt03]

Pssst hey tell us about your ocs.... (I ask because I kinda wanna draw somethin for you)

Okay I'm gonna give a VERY basic rundown lest I spend hour on this. Picrews for reference! (I'm also right about to go to bed so forgive my ramblings)

Xacova: First OC I've ever made, based on mcyt fandom. She is a siren hybrid (bird, not fish). Due to hybrid trafficking and some magics with Phoenix tears, she still has her wings but they have heavy scarring at the base where it meets her shoulder blades. Long, dark brown hair and sad eyes. Likes to listen to music. Does not talk much. Likes purple. loves lightweight zip up jackets

Mara: Current OC that I'm obsessed with! Based in a world of superheros. She is a villain against her brother, Martin. All her life she's been looked over in favor of Martin. Had a lover, but they were killed. Looong story. She has light brown hair with an undercut. Her favorite color is orange, and her favorite jacket is green with a fluffy interior. Her villain outfit has a gas mask and victorian/masquerade inspired clothes

Alia Autumnleaf: Started as an OC who got turned into my Tav for Baldur's Gate 3. I consider her story over since I finished the playthrough, but I still recognize her roots as my OC. No need to draw her, just thought I should mention.

???: My newest OC! So new that I haven't chosen a name or made a picrew. They're based in the JRWI Riptide world. A shape-shifter forced to work for Niklaus to get their memories back. Lost them in the first place to lose their true name forever (of course, they don't know that). Once I've got Mara's story written out, I'll probably share ???'s story.

Those are my main OC's that I've actually put effort into! All my other ones are one off or I haven't actually given them a story. If you want more descriptions or for me to expand on a character let me know!! I love rambling about OCs!!!

[sangfielle]

would love your take on the saarebas as a part of DA canon (until recently i guess lmao) because they're a piece of qunari worldbuilding that i am oddly besotted with, but they also feel to me like another one of those details added to make qunari seem more "barbaric", which was then given some cursory nuance to try and make it not look as uniquely bad (for example, you can draw a comparison between the abuses circle mages suffer in kirkwall and the plight of saarebas, but the visual language of one group being confined to barracks and the other being chained and collared like animals is still going to have someone engaging with the work associating some very fraught traits to an arvaarad that they then wouldn't to a templar). i don't really know how to work with them in a fanon context for my own enjoyment that doesn't feel like uncritically leaning into the most racist parts of how the qun is presented, but deleting them the way DATV did feels worse. what do you think?

also you made a post abt them all being Government-Assigned Nonbinary that gelled with my interpretation of them lol

i sat with this for a little while, because i wanted to have something better to say than "i basically agree with you about all of this", but the problem is that i basically just agree with you and there's not that much you can say about saarebas that you can derive from the actual text of the games. they're categorically denied depth and we're refused any insight into qunari society and, like, the non-antaam qunari mind (sten and the da2 arishok, specifically, i guess -- inquisition doesn't want you to consider iron bull qunari so i won't, tallis is semi-useful as an insight into the position viddathari are forced into when speaking to those outside the qun but that's it [just in da2, i thought about revisiting redemption in case it would provide any insight but i feel pretty confident every character in that show is one-note without re-watching it], i guess you can have that one conversation with ketojan before it* kills itself?) (tevinter nights would have been a great place to put a story from the perspective of a saarebas but that didn't happen, so whatever).

i don't know how much help i can be of in terms of "how do i engage with this in a non-racist (etc) fashion", because i think the answer might be that you can't? i think that for basically everything surrounding the qunari, it's very difficult to not play into the bigoted stuff baked into them without doing a ground-up rewrite of the entire society. you're right that totally ignoring the bigoted writing and just hoping that works like vg does isn't really a solution either though. my suggestion would be to just go into whatever you're doing aware of the politics of the depiction of the saarebas and be mindful to not act like their treatment is uniquely barbaric relative to circles. if the thing you're doing isn't solely focused on qunari, spend some time looking at andrastian treatment of mages and make a point of comparison? if you're writing, make an effort to treat any saarebas and arvaarad as, like, people with interiority in the same fashion as you would templars and mages? if you're an artist, uh. it is much harder to get away from the imagery. i don't actually know what to tell you about that.

that's very basic advice but i don't have much specific rewrite advice besides "probably be mindful of and utilize the fact that in-universe it's implied that ketojan's treatment was extreme and not the typical way saarebas are handled (the specific visual language of the stitched lips are supposed to be a second-to-last resort handling method, not typical practice. i will say that i really deeply dislike the stitching scars that people love to put on their tal-vashoth mage ocs. that's probably more personal preference and me being anal about minor lore notes, but it feels to me like it leans into the idea that qunari treatment of mages is worse and more damaging than andrastian methods, especially when people don't really treat tranquility with the same weight despite that being... worse, probably). iirc saarebas (redemption) was treated notably harshly throughout its* life in the qun but didn't bear any specific visual markers besides the collars that would imply that it was held on a particularly tight leash. again, didn't rewatch redemption for this and it's a pretty vauge memory in my head, so i'm less sure about saarebas (da:r) than i am about ketojan and hissera (and i admittedly don't know jack shit about saarath, but there's very little to know, it seems like?). hissera and saarath have the stitches, but i'm pretty sure that's because they wanted to maintain a visual continuity with the saarebas more than anything else, because hissera isn't noted as being a mage that needs to have a close eye kept on it*, on account of... it's allowed to travel around thedas by itself under its own supervision. so i guess that's another thing worth keeping in mind, that a few saarebas are trusted to just be by themselves and do whatever, like wynne is with the circles? actually probably the most straightforward comparison in terms of level of treatment of the typical saarebas would be to fereldan circle mages specifically. if you want something to use as a yardstick for their treatment (similarly to andrastian circle mages, though the chantry will less readily admit it than the qun, is that the primary role of a mage is being a tool of war). also worth being aware of the fact that unlike thedosian cultures, saarebas are specifically noted as being revered in the qun to some extent. people don't... hate them, probably. the qun is too much about anti-individualism and living as a part of a whole for that to be the mindset about people who are occupying a very restrictive role

*i mean, you saw my post about it. i feel like the -bas suffix denotes a set of pronouns and a gendered role.

[redteablogger]

Art rant advice repost

im deciding to post how I do some breakdowns and some art critiques I've done in the past. feel free to reach out to me if you want me to talk about how to understand the subject you're trying to draw I also have a discord server with a bunch of art resources I might also try to start streaming about it if people would be interested in talking about developing art skills with me. This post is otherwise going to be not to the point because I'm sad today and saying things about art tends to make me feel better.

this is a basic breakdown on how to relate a bit of average proportions to anatomy without getting too bogged down in the details. I think most people's place to start is anatomy and overlook the importance the rythym of form (like underlying 3d structure or the balance/weight of a figure), if it isn't anatomy it's often the proportions and learning proportions makes people think there's only one way to properly draw humans when that is very rarely the case. While anatomy isn't the...worst place to start I wouldn't really recommend it when it's seeing the details before the foundation. Like thinking about the interior decorating before the walls of the house have even been erected. Like interior decorating without a house it's especially difficult when you don't know what the space is supposed to be or where anything fits, and the end result isn't gonna come out the way you imagined because the couch you wanted to put in the space can't really fit when you didn't know where the doors or windows were supposed to be when you picked it out. That's like putting all the work into drawing the face and then the rest of the body looks weirdly less detailed or awkward because the face was your sole focus and you ran out of energy to put as much thought into the rest of it. I know it. I can tell when that's the case. It's practically always on the face or the clothes or a torso with arms not properly attached to it. I see it! AND I KNOW YOU'RE DRAWING IT A PART AT A TIME INSTEAD OF SEEING IT HOLISTICALLY!

Breakdowns that give you a sense of volume, ignoring the details like clothes hair and specific facial features can be a really helpful tool to understanding what is actually important to getting a peice to look right without commiting too much effort into it. Also seeing stuff like it's 3d can begin to give you an idea how light behaves on it because it looking at your subject like an object than simply lines on a 2d page.

some extra examples of figure breakdowns it's good to do it on references and it's good to try to imagine it like this so you can pose characters with dimension even if not all the limbs are visible and visually proportionate because of the viewer's relationship to the subject...or in a simpler scarier term the PERSPECTIVE.

understanding perspective is one of the biggest reasons why you can't rely on proportions to inform you on how to make the cool kind of art you wanna make. What I often see with it is that people jump straight into perspective thinking that it's just about making hands or feet really big and the rest of the far away stuff small for no reason while still having a weak understanding of the logic of why "close thing big, far thing small". They wonder why their art looks kind of weird and janky struggling with one of the most obtuse and difficult thing without asking the easier more relevant questions. What do I think is the easier more relevant questions to figure out first? What is the question so many artists starting off fail to answer?

~drumroll~ What are you trying to draw? That's the golden question and so many artists can't fuckin answer it. Hell even I struggle to answer it sometimes and when I do those are the art peices that end up being the biggest pain in the arse. How does one figure out the answer to it? well you draw a lot of trash really quickly and put something together when you find something interesting in the shit sketch bin and then expand on it until you like it AND THEN you move on to really rendering it, this is what a lot of people will call thumbnailing OR you find references and mash it together until you get the vibe of what you're going for. Really good artists will do both. This stage can be super fun but it's not necessarily making the prettiest looking art ever out the gate. It's a stage I'm stuck on a lot.

Because it's the part of art that I can figure out what I wanna say with a piece and really play around with how the viewer looks at it or how to pose a character without getting bogged down on the details.

I'm an artist with commitment issues to rendering I jump from sketch to sketch because I can't stop comming up with neat lil ideas I get enamored with and it's the reason I can't make anything social media worthy and is why I'm a unknown nobody with the art I make. despite that it's probably why I've been pretty decent in my general development as an artist and I maintain the motivation to keep at it because art to me is just a process of getting the idea down and getting better at getting the point across with it. And really that's the only the point of learning through all specific art skills, it's to be more effective at getting the idea across. Not just for drawing hands "correct" as it is to get the point across that what the view is looking at is a hand. Regardless of if it is funny lil animal crossing ball hands or a monsterous pile of limbs.

anyways this is probably a decent spot to conclude this particular artsy rant. Key takeaways -don't get caught up in the details -focus on the point you want to get across than the quality of art -good lessons to learn first is the foundational stuff like 3d forms and gesture (stuff like anatomy, perspective and proportions are hard without a good understanding of those two) - be ok with sketching a lot of shit really fast it's part of the process - I wanna rant about references in another post -I'll probably rant more about perspective and composition in another post -color too that can be a different different different post. -I'm sad and talking about art makes me feel better it hasn't solved my problem but i feel a little less shitty about it now.

[maridiayachtclub]

let's try documenting a big Satisfactory project!

so i have this facility called SPINE. it's a multi-function structure with a stupid (but cool) name. pics under the cut because they're big:

it's bad and it could stand to be renovated.

it was one of the first large facilities i built. it was conceived as a centrally located factory that would gather in resources from the surrounding area, use them to manufacture various fundamental parts like iron plates and screws and whatnot, and then funnel them outward to specialized factories. where possible, additional functions could be built within what felt at the time like a roomy interior, and the structure could be extended upward to make more factory space within.

in addition, it was built on legs, making space underneath for three purposes:

allowing tractors and other vehicles to pass through (at the time, i had an automated tractor running stuff back and forth between a few buildings, and anticipated having a fleet of little wheely friends going to and fro)

making space for ceiling-mounted conveyor belts that would not just move materials through the building but provide the means to deliver them up into the building's interior for processing

room for aminals to wander through :)

so, seeing as this was going to be the center of a general stream of many different products needed throughout my growing factory-city, it seemed analogous to a a spinal column. hence, SPINE, or rather, S.P.I.N.E. what do the letters stand for? i figured i'd think of an appropriate combination of words eventually, but i never did. the name nevertheless stuck

SPINE has been doing what i have asked of it for a while now. the inside chambers mostly look like this

anyway, as mentioned, this was made early on, and while i think the concept is sound, the implementation has ultimately proven insufficient. the space underneath ended up being too small for the variety of materials i require to move through, as well as all the necessary branches needed to move things back and forth between the transport space on the bottom and the factory spaces inside. here's what the underside looks like:

seriously it fuckin sucks down here bro

i can't just keep extending the conveyor lines further down from the ceiling; making enough space to move all these materials and move them up into the factory requires all sorts of stupid twisty turny conveyor belt tricks. the backside, where everything funnels in, is absolutely embarrassing. wizard-of-oz-man-behind-the-curtain bullshit. glasgow willy wonka experience-ass levels of fulfillment. slapdash mickey mouse duct tape effort. real "I didn't do my homework and now i gotta make up this presentation live in front of the class and they can see me sweating" energy embodied.

the horrid tangle running through SPINE is complicated by its output, set up so that it delivers things to my central storage barn. things need to leave the facility in a very specific way, like so:

this part, at least, works fine. this massive vein of conveyor belts is a bit ugly but it works very well. i put a lot of time into designing my central storage barn (there were spreadsheets involved) and it paid off. look at this shit, look at how neatly everything gets sorted into easily accessed bins

i love it. the power fantasy of living in an organized environment, realized here in digital form!

unfortunately the clean functionality of this building just draws into stark relief how bad SPINE is. even if I spruced up its exterior, fully finishing the walls and adding fripperies such as signage and doors and lights, its core functionality is insufficient for my needs. SPINE was conceptualized and built far in advance of my understanding of what i would actually need it to do and i can't stand it any longer! no more!

so, i'm planning to tear it all down and replace it with a bigger, better-organized SPINE. in addition to making it look nicer, it could actually be expandable without adding another strand into its already tangled guts. it would give me an opportunity to incorporate the functions of numerous smaller satellite facilities, cleaning up the surrounding landscape a bit and making room for other factories i know i will have to build in time. it would, potentially, allow me to incorporate a train station or two, so products could be picked up or delivered as needed... not something i need at this time, but even if i never do, having the capability of entertaining visiting trains is a worthy goal in itself.

anyway i haven't started on that yet. SPINE 2.0 is still in the planning stages, and i'm leaving on a trip in a day or so so i'm not gonna be able to start on this project in earnest for at least a week.

i might keep documenting the project here for funsies. i love Satisfactory; it's a perfect vehicle for one of my favorite things to do in a game: turning nothing into places. if you're in a video game and you see a bunch of hills and trees and rivers and piles of iron ore and other natural features, it doesn't really mean much on its own, but spend enough time there and you grow accustomed to it. you put together a mental map, figure out whatever routes you're going to be taking through it, learn how to navigate it quickly and efficiently, and soon that random bit of wilderness is a place. the rocks you have to navigate around and the rivers you have to jump over become familiar sights. and if it's a building kinda game, and you're populating this unsullied wilderness with the mortal profanity of civilization, that place is even more place-y than before. i very much like the places i have built in Satisfactory, so regardless of how this is received, it's fun to talk about it, get some of my internal thoughts on this project down in a format that can last. at least until tumblr shutters its doors and gets sold to some venture capitalist vultures in 2026

[things-about-cars-in-posts]

You know a lot about cars so I figured it wouldn't hurt to ask: How hard would it be for me to make up brand new cars and 3D model them? The stuff shown here looks fun, and I want to give it a go sometime. (p.s as compensation for submitting an ask not focused on a thing about a car: the interiors of the Italdesign Orca and Mazda MX-81 Aria are silly looking things that everybody should get to see.) (p.p.s i don't understand cars or 3D modeling but i believe it'll all work out fine)

If you want encouragement: every single 3D car shape you've ever seen, from videogames to renders to cars on the street, was either drawn with 3D modelling or with something even harder - and none of those people have a significant genetic leg up on you. You're too short to play basketball, you're too fragile to boxe, you're too heavy for marathons, but you're not too anything for 3D modelling. The only thing it takes is effort.

If you want a warning: effort it does take. 3D modelling is deceptively complex - you think you can model a radio no problem and an hour later your work amounts to a volume knob and you realize you're gonna be here a while. I've studied it for a semester and would be pretty lost if I had to draw curves as complex as a car's, although had I had your interest I would've likely dug deeper on some specific aspects on my own (and actually retained all the lessons on complex curves :/) But yeah, holy hell are cars complex. Nowadays especially, but in general - the lights, the vents, the seals, the panel gaps, all things that are incredibly minute yet essential details that can make or break a design, even at the lowest detail (because of course modelling difficulty varies wildly with the detail level you're targeting). Modelling a car from scratch, I'll be astounded if it takes you less than a year. But by the end of that, any car you model will no longer be from scratch, as you'll already have built the knowledge base!

If you want advice: take your time to learn the tools before you try and tackle any big project. For one because naming your first 3D model "car" and messing around until you have a car is like taking your new bicycle to the bottom of an alpine pass and messing around until you're at its top: you'll be there for as long as it takes you to give up, accomplish nothing and leave feeling useless. For two because starting a project without all the knowledge base it needs will just mean its quality will suffer from the start to the points of the project where you pick that knowledge up. For three because starting a project knowing what to do and how to do it speeds up the process massively and provides a massive boost in confidence and motivation because you know what is ahead and how to tackle it - there's nothing more demoralizing than closing up the day with no idea of how to progress from there. For four, because you need to make sure you like the tools. Modelling a car in abstract is "making a car" or "expressing your vision" or whatever poetic way you put it, but in practice it's using a piece of software for a troubling number of hours. If using that software is a chore to you you're never going to push through the learning curve involved in modelling a car, and that's for the best as modelling a car would be a miserable time.

If you want guidance: here's a Volvo wagon. Their boxiness is nigh on legendary, in the car community the "brick" nickname is nigh on a synonym for Volvo. And this is the 960, the boxiest Volvo that ever boxed.

Look at all the curves. The rear windshield curves forwards and the side windows curve inwards, making the angle between them curve diagonally (how pronounced are those curves? Are they constant?), the entire side of the car has a gentle curve to it, and the fenders flare outwards with a smooth blend between their slope and the body's (what do you suppose the radius of that blend is?) - to say nothing of the hood, the rims, and my God, that mirror is a positive sculpture! And also, the end of the rear door is tilted forward - why do you suppose that is? Well, it's clearer in the much older 240...

...you can clearly see the rear door's window frame is following the lower, downward-sloping roofline of a sedan, indicating the sedan's doors are being reused for the wagon. But now that you looked at the Volvo before, you can see the shape is more bare, more simple -free of the indentation that circled the 960's body, for instance- but much more soft and rounded, with the taillights curving inwards (how much?), the rear windshield having rounded corners (and perchance a rounded top to match a curved roof?), hell, the curve of the rear angle kicks outwards at the bottom to meet an inwards slope that goes from headlight to taillight!

This is how you have to come to see cars - by which I don't just mean noticing these details, but this analytical look being how your eye approaches a car shape. Because you can't learn to write without the ability and interest to read, if you catch my drift.

Once you've got a grasp of the tools involved, a nice idea could be to get a 3D model of a car (I recommend starting with a very boxy one and potentially working your way up), deleting a part (like a fender, or a door) and trying to recreate it yourself by eye - see what challenges you encounter, what you struggle with creating, how the result looks compared to the original, and such.

Also, a thing I would advise is to look into cutaways and diagrams and such, just like you learn anatomy when drawing humans because if you don't you'll end up with something that looks awkward and unrealistic and you will not know why. For example, these two designs seem starkly different, don't they?

And yet, if you overlap them...

...the driver seat is at exactly the same place. Why? Because that's just as far forward as you can seat a person before the crumple zone either is insufficient to absorb the force of a high speed impact or begins including their legs. This is just one of plenty aspects but I've gone on long enough already.

If you want a challenge: set a reminder for next year to come back here and show me your progress. Even if it's not anything close to a car yet, if -as you should- you set some intermediate goals that stimulate and excite you, you can still be back in this askbox with something to be proud of and I'll go wooo!!! I remember you!!! It's so cool you stuck to it and have now made this thing!!! That's great! and you'll feel SO good about yourself. Deal?

Oh about the concepts, The MX-81's steering wheel... sidewall? always made me uneasy, it looks like it's coming off (and like some airport surface that has been touched by too much gross stuff) but I do dig the CRT right in front of you! The one that's going in my car is black and white and a lot smaller than that, so a tinge of envy is there.

Also, if you like the Orca's steering wheel, you may well enjoy the '88 Grand Prix and Citroën C4/C4 Picasso's! Ride, Pontiac Ride! Or transform and dance, that's cool too!

[firexima]

Process and Thoughts while creating:

Gonna start giving some more info of the process/thoughts of drawings and thought it would be great to start with this!

Usually I don't do this much planning for a drawing but this was a huge occasion and honor and wanted to put a lot of effort.

Time taken: 35h 15m in tracked time and 2h more for the guide of all references.

.

The process for this drawing actually kinda started almost 3 years ago when Technoblade died in 2022.

Immediately I knew I wanted to make a big project with as many references as I could fit.

At first I intended this to be a bigger piece that I would have to separate into 3 or 5 that together would make one big artwork.

Unfortunately, my need for this to be good enough made it so none of my sketches felt right, or never had enough time to really try making it. But above all, constantly brainstorming for this and imagining it bigger and bigger was also a way for me to process the grief and facing it to sit down and finish it was too hard for too long. So I continued making smaller fanarts with the idea that one day I'd make it, with nothing pushing me to actually do it- until now.

.

When I was contacted to make a new fanart for Techno's 20 mil celebration video, I took out the paper, tried finding any past attempts of ideas and started sketching ideas for potential ways I could make a drawing with as many references as possible- while not being as huge of a project since there was a deadline.

After having enough rough ideas of how it could work, I moved on to redo a list of as may potential references for me to include so I could start planning exactly what the drawing would need.

Once that was done I just had to tie down a final sketch made while looking at the list so I could plan where what would go so the composition would be built to accommodate as many references as I could reasonably fit.

Originally I almost went with this idea of having Techno in an open field by an old temple, encircled with little statues of his characters. I'd have references engraved in the pillars and far in the sky and clouds, as well as his dsmp snow cabin and antarctic empire castle far in the distance between mountains.

But I didn't have enough space within the pillars without both making them look too oddly detailed while also crowding too much there risking too many references being indistinguishable. I also didn't want to crowd the sky since the composition needed negative space to breathe. And lastly the whole idea of the setting felt too odd without enough coherence in what the supposed "scene" or "story" of what's going on was supposed to be. I wanted to lean away from having all the stuff be there just to put references and nothing else.

So I tried again and I knew my best bet would be an interior of a building since furniture, books and stained glass windows etc... have much more potential to fit stuff in them and have it make sense than an exterior in nature.

It was a little intimidating and there was a reason why I didn't initially want to lean into this because honestly, I feel like I kind of suck at buildings. I can't hide my struggle with perspective as easily, I have such a hard time designing interiors that look decent and I just don't have practice doing them at all.

But I knew it had a much better chance of turning out well than anything else, this piece of any would deserve the extra effort, and I really didn't want to put in the time just for the end result to look bad.

While doing that, I was also forming a big pinterest folder of references for everything I wanted to do-- hair, clothes, couches, windows, books, pillars, railings, stairs, ceilings, capes, armor, folds rendering of jewels and metals etc...

With a good plan to what I was doing done, all that was left was putting in the hours and hours of drawing.

I put the initial traditional sketch into the canvas and made a new sketch from that, adding a rough guide of the lighting to make sure that would also work.

After the rough digital sketch, I made a cleaner sketch with my list of references beside me to start fitting as many things in as I could. I was going to try making every book another reference, add more in the carpet similar to that in the railing, and make Techno's clothes and the desk and lamp more intricate but I knew if I did I wouldn't finish in time.

Then it was just lining everything and coloring. Coloring honestly gave me a bit of a heart attack because it scared me into thinking it would ruin it and not work but I just went through with it and trusted the palette I had chosen based off image inspirations and hoped I could bring it all together when I did the lighting and rendering.

Aaaand that's it! I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. It's not one of those where I am fully proud and I feel like I still could have done better but I'm still satisfied. It's still good enough that I didn't feel frustrated that that's the drawing I submitted.

I might still make another piece like this in the future since it still doesn't feel like enough but I really do hope in my efforts it shows how much he meant and still means to me. He has built a piece of who I am now and has helped me through the years to stay resilient through mental and physical health complications. He inspires me and provides me courage and strength now to get through college despite my chronic illness that just seems to keep getting worse.

I don't think I'm great with words, so instead I hope I can show this through my drawings.

👑🐷⚔️ Technoblade never dies o7

PS: This is my first time sharing more about the thoughts and process behind my drawings so if this is something you'd want me to keep doing, let me know!

WE WIN THEEESE!! 20 MIL :D

I had the immense honor to be asked to make this in celebration for Techno’s 20 mil milestone (and birthday!!) He has been a huge source I draw strength from to get me through a lot of things and keep me fighting and for that I will forever be thankful.

I’m adding a guide to all the references in the read more for anyone that wants to try and find them first :)

Believe it or not, I was wanting to add even more references but I was running out of time and had to wrap up to finish for the celebration video on his channel !!

[bitegore]

#i know youre right but its Scary

the trick is that if you want to draw a type of background, there's usually like one trick to it that will get you through 85% of that picture.

I'm going to be deliberately pulling out simpler/"lower-effort" stuff here but it's not because I think this is 'lazy', it's because I want to show that it doesn't need to be done super hardcore to work.

for plants it's being able to draw squiggly lines and stack them - this shows it off the most clearly because it's meant to look like paper cutouts so the shapes are simplified and the shading is also simplified

generally if you put lumpy shapes in there and occasionally break them up with sticks or other types of shapes, it looks really passable.

They don't even need to be lumps sometimes - you can get away with just wiggly triangles or something.

after you get comfortable with that you can go on to add details and textures and stuff but 90% of the time it isn't necessary.

(I'm also assuming generally that we all know how to draw, like, flat plains/hilly landscapes, but if not, that's basically the same principle, just... like... wider and less lumpy)

For outside of buildings especially but also sometimes inside them, depending on what you're doing, it's most important to get a sense of perspective in and a sense that the angles are mostly/all right angles... which is easier to fudge than you'd might think. Both of these are really lazy with the angles, but application of (halfhearted) one-point perspective - which just means "the lines kind of all point toward the middle" in these cases - gets it to look pretty decent.

please do me the courtesy of pretending these aren't all at least a bit effortful, i don't usually draw exteriors of buildings unless i really really really want to.

For interiors, even just a few suggestions of furniture goes a surprisingly long way. This is as simplified as it gets because it's for an animation with multiple shot changes:

and, honestly, that lighting fixture is doing a lot of heavy lifting.

"suggestions of furniture" and "suggestions of perspective", when applied together, makes things that look really good (admittedly, the color is doing a lot of heavy lifting here too) without actually requiring you to put in that much effort. And I really do mean suggestions of perspective - look at the angles of the flooring tiles, the kitchen sink, the shelves over the ovens, and the kitchen island and i think even a layperson could acknowledge that those are all kind of not right. But it looks good anyway and people said very nice things about this drawing.

i have to go to class and tbh i could devote an entire post to water and how to lazily make it look good and make people go "wow you did that in 20 minutes? you're a fucking magician" and its more about color and shading than it is about basic structure anyway so ill save that for now BUT 🫡go forth and make something cool🫡 every artist who doesnt know how to draw backgrounds and decides to learn is stronger than any us marine 🫡

eta: all of this also 100% works with traditional art, I just have a way harder time making my fully traditional lazy art look good comprehensible on a screen. Here's some medium-high effort stuff that can be properly interpreted instead XD

honest to god I don't think I've ever posted any fully traditional buildings i drew and then finished, so I can't share them because I don't have them XD but the last picture in the building section was drawn traditionally on a piece of paper! I just colored it digitally.

you. artist. learn to draw backgrounds. everyone around you will go 'holy shit you're a fucking wizard' whenever you halfass it because everyone else is petrified of complex backgrounds

[cynicallyneutral]

A lil date 🍅🍥

[maaagic]

How to recognize ai art in 4 simple steps! (Because apparently this is a thing now don’t worry it’s not very hard but god it sure is a pain)

Detail: not everything that is detailed and immediately realistic is going to be ai, BUT ai is much more likely to be detailed so it can be worthwhile to zoom in and check. This is a good stepping off point to examine further but NOT a reason to harass real artists that have put years into their skills and hours into this piece

Texture: zoom in on sections that appear to be very intricately textured, in ai art textures will often overlap in ways that are not necessary or possible.    Ask yourself: is there any real world texture that matches this? And if there isn’t, would a human make it look like this intentionally?

Unnecessary Features: ai art cannot do cartoonish well because it does not understand what is and isn’t necessary for an image. In more detailed pieces look for extra bits of the drawing that just don’t need to be there for you to understand what it is.    Ask yourself: would a human feel the need to add this?

Physics: this is more applicable when fabric is involved, but is everything generally following the laws of physics, in artwork that is as detailed as ai there will be conscious effort to make things fall and bend realistically, in ai there is not.    Ask yourself: does this look like something I could touch? Something that could actually exist in front/around of me?

The best question you can ask is “would a human do this?”. You don’t always know but it is better to trust your gut. There’s a lot of examples of ai art in fashion and aesthetic interiors so be very aware when looking at these. If there’s no artists credited it’s probably better to just stay away even if it’s not ai

good luck in your art appreciating adventures 👍

[phoenixyfriend]

Worldbuilding: The ASPIRE Method

Part 2 - Arts

Now available on Patreon!

I'm including the first third of it here on tumblr for free. The rest is available on Patreon for as low as $1 to access all posts.

A – Arts

When physically visiting a society for the first time, Art will be one of the first things a person encounters, namely in the form of fashion, signage, and architecture. When studying a culture from afar, it is often among the last. In that regard, the order in which your story takes place will have varying degrees of exposure to the culture’s art.

In a visual medium, art provides a subconscious element of worldbuilding that can help set tone without having to take up time in the dialogue. Background characters and so on can inform the world in a colorful manner, suggesting elements of culture to the viewer while the foreground conveys the story itself. In a written narrative, mentions of art and artistry take up time and space by nature, and so you have to pick and choose which elements you talk about. The mention of a single form of art is used to suggest a much deeper background. In both cases, determining which art exists will help you decide which you display to the audience in pursuit of telling your story.

Which forms of art are most common?

Some cultures have very elaborate architecture. Others don’t put much time and effort into architecture, but do a lot with textiles. Paintings are going to be more common in regions where canvas or paper are easier to make. Some regions will have a focus on wooden or stone carvings that are unlikely, or even impossible, in others. Most have music, but frequently different kinds. All of these are forms of art, but not all of them are necessarily going to be common in the world you are building.

Ask yourself which of these forms and mediums of art are ones your culture puts time into, and why:

Architecture: stone, wood, or other

Painting and drawing: on canvas, on stone, on paper, on vellum

Sculpture: stone or wood, clay, metal (wire or mold), rubber, glassblowing, etc. - This includes aesthetic pieces, but also things like functional ceramics and furniture crafting

Textiles: fashion, tapestry, beadwork, interior design

Literature: written or oral, includes prose, poetry, and nonfiction

Film and Theater

Music and Dance

Culinary arts

Cosmetics

And when you decide on them, ask yourself why? What is it that has your culture focusing on one thing at the expense of others? For instance, if your culture is one where inclement weather is a major problem, then architecture may focus primarily on durability, and less so on visual appeal; in turn, the actual focus of artists is more likely to be an indoor activity, like storytelling or music. However, the primary dictator of what art people do is what they have to work with.

What tools are available to your artists?

The further in the past your story is set, the less likely your culture’s people are to have access to a wide variety of pigments and materials. Natural sources of pigment are limited, especially when there are low levels of trade. The local community is also likely to prioritize certain kinds of crops over others, which has a direct influence on the accessibility of textiles and paper.

A culture with a short growth period will likely prioritize food over any form of creative resources; textiles will likely be livestock-derived (like wool and skins), rather than cotton or linen, and will also have much less availability of plant-based art supplies like canvas, paper, and so on. They may focus on pragmatic art forms, such as teaching tools, or styles that can be built into things that are already being crafted, like weaving patterns. Their themes may also be influenced by having more free time in the winter.

Meanwhile, tattoos are popular across the world due to only requiring pigment and a sharp implement… and the knowledge of how to not get infected.

A more modern artist will have access to a wide variety of tools and options, including things like cameras and recording equipment.

Consider these elements:

Which pigments are available? How are they sourced? Which can be safely used for paint, textiles, construction, and cosmetics? - Pigments can be derived from plants, minerals, animals, or synthetic processes. If your world has low trade, figure out which ones are common in the area. Some pigments can be used in paint but are less functional for dyeing. Some can’t be ingested, and so aren’t safe for culinary arts, but are very good for oil painting. - A paint that is toxic to the skin may be used in cosmetics and textiles (see: lead face paint, which was used even when knowing the toxicity), but is much more likely to be used in painting and construction.

Which plants grow nearby? What can they be used for? - Are the trees suitable to carving, to steam bending, to architecture, to weaving? - Can other plants be processed into textiles, pigments, food? - Is there something unique and interesting, like a bioluminescent algae that can be used for glowing paint?

Which animals are available? Are they domestic or wild? How are they used? - Animals can be used for enabling other arts, such as oxen pulling plows to grow basic crops. - Some can be trained to perform, for dance and theater. - They can also be raw materials. This includes wool, feathers, furs, leather, vellum, horns, bones, silk, and even skins for glue. Some are hunted, and some are cultivated. - Note that antler, certain feathers, and wool can be harvested without harming the animals, and would be useful for a society that tries to abide by pacifist or vegan principles. - Others can also be gathered after a natural death, like bones, horn, and skins. The only ones that require a forced death or harm are vellum and certain kinds of silk, though natural death may impact the quality of other materials, like skins and furs.

Which raw materials are inherent, which need to be gathered, and which need to be cultivated? - A person’s own voice or body does not need to be gathered. A dancer or singer does not, for the most basic forms of art, need tools. - Sand for glassblowing does need to be gathered, but occurs naturally. - Flax for linen needs to be cultivated before processing, with a dedicated growth period in temperate climates (helpfully, it also produces food).

For a few historic examples, consider that Tyrian Purple is an uncommon color in textiles before the introduction of aniline dyes, and so Tyrian purple is often limited solely to royalty in period works. This includes the classic Roman example, but also the use of ‘Royal Purple’ and related shades in England after the introduction of a sumptuary act in 1463.

Since the Iron Age, darker, less saturated shades of purple could be achieved through mixing red (e.g. madder) and blue (e.g. woad, indigo), but are generally less intense, and still expensive due to the need for two forms of dye. Meanwhile, common colors in Medieval English art included, among other things, ochres, woad, madder, and chalk.

How intense is the processing period for materials?

How many people need to be involved in that processing? Can it be done in one day, by one person?

Weaving a basket from reeds is relatively centralized. One person can gather materials, cut them to size, and produce the final product.

Synthetic materials require oil drills and chemical production plants, employing hundreds of workers.

Creating a wool and linen dress requires: - farmers (both for sheep and for flax) - processing to clean and spin the raw materials - weavers to make the base textiles - dyeing vats to add color - a dressmaker to actually put together the final product - The support for this process also includes someone who makes buttons or other ties, someone who crafts looms, someone who makes barrels, and someone who breeds dogs for herding those sheep.

Is it theoretically possible for someone to unilaterally do everything from start to finish with no outside help? Yes. Are some of these elements vertically integrated? Probably! Is it likely, or a good idea, to handle everything from start to finish? Not for most scales of production. While farming and spinning are often done by the same people, it’s more likely to be a family business than a solo one. One farm can include the process from start to finish, but your couture dressmaker isn’t very likely to be your shepherd.

Human history is a patchwork of people specializing their skills in order to maximize productivity so everyone can have more free time at the end of the day. If one person has the loom best suited to making linen bedsheets, and another has a loom better designed for woolen cloak fabric, the individuals will produce more fabric in total if they each specialize on their looms, and then trade the results, rather than swapping looms or buying their own. This subject will be touched on in greater detail in the Economics section.

[quickdeaths]

It wasn't worth explaining, she thought. Not the whole of it, at least, and not when Sonia Nevermind had made clear her feelings on the matter already. Yet, to Shinobu, it was obvious, self-evident, what punishing her and her companions would do for the world. No, the lived they had taken would not be returned, and the lives they'd destroyed would not be rebuilt, but the people of the world would see in the execution of the sixteen remnants of despair a kind of justice. The world had cheered, decades ago, when dictators and drug kingpins had been killed, and their deaths would have been no different. No lives would be bettered or improved, but it would be enough for the world just to see the limp bodies of those who had hurt them.

Whether they would get those limp bodies was another matter entirely, and Sonia seemed very convinced, or determined, that they would not. If that were the case, then who was Shinobu to say anything against it? She'd already made her promise to live, as well as she could, and so if it was the opinion of the courts or tribunals that she not be put to death, so be it. Soon enough, she'd be sent to Japan to find out, and whatever followed from there would happen as everyone else willed it.

"It's fine," Shinobu murmured, nibbling on a scone, forcing herself to take tiny bites, even when she didn't especially feel like eating, so as not to waste Ayaka's efforts. "It isn't as though I expected them from you, Nevermind-san. They're an inefficient food, anyway - too much trouble for the taste." They could only imagine that the sense of guilt festering in the pit of their stomach at even this spread would be amplified were someone to go through that much effort on their behalf. "One has to take them down daily to encourage proper development of the jammy interior, and discourage wrinkling or mold. It's unnecessarily complicated work."

Her mother had said something, once, about them being the perfect gift. Even a small box of self-made hoshigaki showed an incredible amount of time and care, like any handmade gift, but unlike a blanket or a painting, a gift of food didn't insist upon itself. Once eaten, the box could be discarded, the gift savored and taken in the spirit it was given, without breeding resentment, unlike the sort of thing that demanded prominence, and permanence. Then again, her mother had said a lot of things about a great many topics, few of them with any sort of expertise. Besides, when again would Shinobu Yaguchi, murderer that she was, be in any position to give, or receive, any kind of serious gift? As she was now, all she could do was make crude pencil drawings when the mood struck.

It was a struggle just to keep her head upright, and Shinobu was grateful that Sonia's attention seemed to have shifted, even if only temporarily, to Ayaka. "Yeah. Nice to see you too, Nevermind-san, I guess," Ayaka murmured, her speech a little muffled as she stood, awkwardly, at the side of the table without sitting down, but also without making any movement towards leaving. "And, it's fine. I was going to bring it out for everyone later anyway, so." Even Shinobu could tell that much was a lie, given how the items in particular were chosen with her taste in mind. The compliment, meanwhile, went unacknowledged entirely.

But Sonia had more to say, more to ask, and it seemed to Shinobu that Ayaka wasn't sure what to say in response. "If you want something for your scone, you should just ask for it instead of forcing yourself to eat something you don't like," she finally said, having apparently settled on chiding the princess in a grumpy tone rather than actually answer her question. "It's not like I don't have things in the kitchen." Shinobu hadn't noticed any dissatisfaction on Sonia's end - not that she was paying especially close attention - but perhaps Ayaka had, or, more likely, she was using it as an excuse to put some distance between herself and Sonia for the moment. "Don't eat that until I come back."

It was a warning delivered in a particularly serious tone of voice, before Ayaka turned and made quick, hurried steps back in the direction of the kitchen, surely in search of something that Sonia could apply to her scone. Surprising even herself, Shinobu couldn't help but give a small chuckle and a weak smile before biting into a rice cracker. "She's amusing, isn't she? Ayaka." Although, if Sonia hadn't known Ayaka before it all, Shinobu wasn't sure she'd find it as funny. "She's hardly changed at all."

It was comforting. Shinobu herself had changed. There was as much difference between herself now and that cold prince as there had been between the cold prince and that warm, precocious child. But Ayaka, even with the pain she'd endured, the physical and emotional scars inflicted upon her, was still quiet and thoughtful, warmhearted beneath a prickly exterior, and unable to resist stepping in on behalf of others, even while complaining about it the whole time. She was still so similar to that girl whose face had flushed at the prospect of having her first kiss stolen during that asinine game of Anzu and Miss Hanasaki's, and who had whispered, in private, her appreciation for Shinobu pressing her lips to her forehead instead.

Why, of all things, that memory was so strong, Shinobu couldn't say. Perhaps because it had been a night that so many of them had been together? Herself, Anzu, Tsubasa-san, Ayaka, Miss Aoyama, Miss Hanasaki, Miss Nakagawa, Miss Kamiya, and Miss Aoi. With the simulation designed to remind of their shared class experiences and friendships, they supposed it only made sense that such a memory would be preserved so well. She snacked upon a small handful of peanuts and forced herself to take a single bite of melon before setting the rest down on her plate. Even eating this much seemed difficult, but to waste Ayaka's efforts was an impoliteness she couldn't abide.

A minute or two later, Ayaka returned with a small mason jar filled with orange-yellow jam, and perhaps the dullest plastic knife in existence, smacking them down on the table in front of Sonia with an audible thump. "It's mango jam," she mumbled, pulling her hands back and crossing her arms over her chest. "We don't have any commercial pectin, or other additives, so it's just mango, lemon juice, and sugar. If you know what you're doing, it sets decently, though. And it's sweet, so it complements the tartness of a lemon scone."

Shinobu wondered if that was her way of answering Sonia's earlier question - commercial ingredients, things that couldn't be easily made from the meat, fruit, vegetables, and simple seasonings they had on hand. If it was, it was obtuse enough that she wasn't sure if Sonia would pick up on it. "Shinobu, is there something else you want?" For her part, Shinobu shook her head, having nearly finished her coffee, but still left much of her food untouched. "Ah, no, I'm just not very hungry. Besides, I regret troubling you already, Ayaka, so there's no need to do anything else." That answer didn't seem to be acceptable to Ayaka, who clicked her tongue dismissively, looking first to Sonia, then to Shinobu, as if to try and rope the princess into things. "I'm the person who brings you your meals, so I know how much you're eating. You need to get your strength back by eating more, and eating better." There was a flicker across Ayaka's face that Shinobu recognized as the impulse to turn away from her own words, to brush them off in some hot-and-cold kind of way. It was a testament to their friendship, then, that Ayaka looked to quash that impulse. "Take better care of yourself, and stop pushing yourself so hard."

"I am glad to hear it, that you wish to continue on living after everything that has happened," Sonia told her sincerely as they climbed the few steps it took to reach the Hotel Mirai's front door. What had once been an elegant tropical getaway now served as a refuge for those most hated in the world, and the peeling paint and creaking floorboards were evidence enough that maintaining the buildings were the last thing on the minds of those in the Future Foundation. Of course, plenty of Makoto Naegi's most trusted friends had enough to handle on a day-to-day basis, but Sonia had trouble believing that none of the personnel in matching dark suits and grimaces couldn't be bothered to pick up a paintbrush or carpentry tools for repairs. The cabins, she knew, were in even worse shape, with porch steps that had succumbed to mold and bug damage as well as leaking roofs. Two things that needed to be seen to that she was forbidden from assisting with. A matter of personal health and safety, her staff had said, the moment she tried to reach for a hammer.

It had been suggested that she should leave it to Hajime Hinata, or someone else far more qualified to make cabin repairs than she was. But in turn, it had left Sonia feeling rather restless. Until she could find new problems to sort out, that is: Shinobu's concerns seemed like a good place to start. "But Yaguchi-san," She started, handing Shinobu the can of cold coffee before they found a table to share while they enjoyed their drinks. "This so-called 'deserved punishment' you believe you must suffer: what sort of positive change will that bring to the world? Those who have lost people dear to them...sentencing you to pain and hurt shall not bring those people back to them. If you were still dangerous I could understand such needs to keep you isolated and restrained, but I think anyone who spends even five minutes in your company would see that you do not wish to cause harm anymore."

Surely they could repent for their crimes without needless suffering. Justice was a tricky thing as far as The Tragedy was concerned, Sonia thought as she sank into her seat and took a long sip of water. The former Class 77-A was prodded, cajoled, bullied, and likely blackmailed into being a part of Junko Enoshima's grand plan for a tragic future. They'd caused disasters and crises around the world, to the point most countries needed to be rebuilt and restructured in their wake. And yet, with every former Remnant she'd spoken to (she hadn't been given much of an opportunity to speak with Masuda: he'd proclaimed his disdain for her the day she'd arrived and hadn't budged on that opinion), they regretted their actions deeply. They wished they hadn't done it. If only an Ultimate had invented time travel and things could've been different.

A thought that made her melon soda taste a bit bitter: if only things could've been different. Then, she thought as she glanced at Shinobu across the table, she wouldn't need to have buried her resentment. There would be none to speak of: she wouldn't have fallen in love with her, her heart wouldn't have been broken. Something far more selfish and less important than The Tragedy, Sonia grimaced at the thought. It had no place here.

"Hoshigaki?" Sonia repeated, grateful for the change of topic. Even if the woman sitting across from her had no idea what was on her mind. That was for the better, really, if Shinobu never knew: she didn't need anything else to trouble her, she had enough to contend with. "I think so. I might have had them before, once or twice, but it has been many years since then. Unfortunately, I do not have any aboard my ship." Something she was sad to admit: if Shinobu had named something in the ship's storerooms and refrigerators, Sonia would have brought it no matter how many complaints she received from her staff.

It wasn't as if she'd have any luck drying them out on the island either, if what Ayaka Sato said was true. She'd made her entrance at just the right time, right before Sonia had opened her mouth to tell Shinobu exactly what she'd thought regarding the food supply on her ship. Saved from embarrassing herself, Sonia thought as she smiled at Ayaka. She couldn't know how grateful Sonia was to her in that moment. "Sato-san, it is good to see you," Sonia replied, nodding to her. "And thank you for preparing this snack. You are very kind."

She then surveyed the tray: melon, rice crackers, peanuts, and scones Sonia doubted were too sweet as they lacked a sugar glaze as well as chunks of fruit or chocolate in them. This was made with Shinobu in mind, Sonia realized as she gave Ayaka a small, secret smile when she felt sure Shinobu wouldn't notice. Her friend needed to eat, far more than Sonia herself did, but she also didn't want to offend Ayaka and not indulge in one of the scones. Her compromise was to choose the smallest one on the tray, alongside a slide of melon, for her plate.

"How are you feeling today, Sato-san?" Sonia asked, splitting the scone with ease. Even if there was no marmalade, jam, or curd to be had, that didn't stop her routine movements when encountering a common tea snack. "Please, if there is anything you need that would make life easier, or at least more bearable, here, I would like to know of it, if I am able to assist in some way."