#drawing to scale is a bit of a struggle still but I'll work on it ���

[w1lmuttart]

The lake town

[yolaines-world]

Ver "We are the Dreamers | Fifa world cup 2022 | Vamos Argentina #fifaworldcup #fifaworldcup2022" en YouTube

[skrunksthatwunk]

damnnn that manga about making manga got me acting funny (making 5 year plans)

[parisoonic]

I just want to say I love how you do your lineart, it looks so good! ahhhhhhhh!!

I'm gathering a lot of advice about the topic of lineart and I just wanna know how you get it to look like that? My line weight is getting better but the drawing itself just comes out a bit.. weird.

Thank you so much! Lineart is probably the thing I've been working hardest on as I am not a lineartist (and still struggle a lot) but it's something I really need to get better at for my job. UM there's honestly so much that could be said on the topic of lineart. Big things for me are:

Weight -> Use line weight (aka thickness) to describe form, lighting, contact and scale. Thick lines imply shadow, contact and nearness-to-camera. Thin lines imply tension, recession and light.

Straights vs Curves -> Use straight lines against curved ones for maximum interest. This is partly a character design thing but as we're using lines to describe our characters it's worth mentioning :)

Complex vx Simple -> Use complex lines against simple. Faces are always complex so therefore the backs of heads should always be simple. Chests are quite complex so backs should be simple. Dorsal sides of the arms are complex (Delt, tricep, bicep) whilst the ventral side is more simple (tricep...mainly) etc.

'Think in Ink' -> Lower your sketch layer almost to 0% opacity so you're not getting hung up on how nice/energetic your sketch look and instead are approaching the piece from an ink mindset. BUT it's digital! So if there's something in your sketch that you like just bring it forward (copy and paste) into your ink layer. I sketch and ink with the same brush so I can use this workflow

'Confidence' -> small hesitant feathery lines will look nervous compared to big swooping lines. Less is always more. I'll redraw arms/limbs until I can get the appearance that it was done in one brush stroke. Again it's digital so you can erase to cheat this look : )

MISC 01: I always hear 'draw from the shoulder'........meh............it's digital so draw from your wrist...it's fine honestly. If we were working at A1 in a life drawing class then we could get some shoulder action going but most of us are hunched over 16inch tablets. I think this advice aims to pull people away from feathery-nervous lineart honestly which you can improve on without relearning how to draw from your shoulder.

MISC 02: For a 'smoother' look do your lineart at a larger canvas size than you need. Once I'm happy with a sketch I usually double the canvas size and do my lineart then.

MISC 03: In PS (at least) anti-aliasing goes funny at any zoom level that isn't in the 5 times table. So try not to look at your canvas when you're zoomed in to 87% or 71.39% or something crazy. Just stick to 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% if possible.

UNFORTUNATE TRUTH: Lineart is incredibly based on raw draughtmanship I've discovered. When you're working with colour you can hide a lot in rendering (shadows, highlights) or post-processing (depth of field) but in lineart all your mistakes are just...there for people to see. There's ways round this...which I use A LOT. 'Flourishes' (I use 'flourishes' to mean over-confident lineart where it veers particuarly thick or particuarly thin in contrast to your approach in the rest of the image) can sort of trick people into thinking you're more confident about an area than you actually are.

As well as leaving 'breathing room' within your lineart instead of actually...resolving the area. I do this the most around the face and hands.

Hopefully some of this helps? Honestly there's a lot of deep dives that could be done into indivudal things and there's also the massive caveat that all of these are 'guidelines' and not strict rules. I also favour a more...concept-arty? animation-y? storyboard-y? look to my lineart which favours flourishes and breathing room for a incomplete/work-in-progress feel which would make methodical colouring (ie: for a comic or something) a pain.

Keep up pratice is the main thing and doing studies of artists who you like that have great lineart - you'll pick up draughtmanship skills along with the lineart studies. Here's some of my lineart from a year or two ago...it varies between very 'standardised' (which makes it difficult to read volumes and to be honest, it's boring) and 'TOO EXCITING' (which...also makes it difficult to read volumes and for the eye to rest).

I'd like to share my brushes at some point as I've found 3 that I really like and use for everything more or less. I discovered that a shocking low amount of people use PS on tumblr (shocking to me I guess as i'm so used to PS being the standard) and everyone seems to use Procreate or Clip Studio Pro...so I want to check that the brushes are Procreate compatible at least before I share!

[post-apocalyptic-fantasy-au]

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Tango started sneezing about twenty minutes after leaving the lab. By the time they reached the city's outskirts, six hours later, he was a sniffling mess, eyes burning and nose running, throat tight. Every part of his skin not covered in scales was covered in rashes. On top of that, his legs felt like jelly, there was a sharp pain tearing his sides open, every step hurt his feet and his lungs felt like they were on fire.

"Maybe we should stop for a bit," Torchy suggested, concerned. The little dragon was flying around Tango's head since his touch irritated Tango's skin even more.

"We should... get somewhere less... open... first." Tango was gasping, every breath a struggle.

But he refused to stop. It was just allergies and a lack of exercise, it would all calm down once his body got used to being outside the lab's sterile walls. The best thing to do was to keep pushing, keep, walking, force his body to adapt. He would survive allergies, he would survive being unfit. He wasn't sure he would survive what wandered around out here, beyond the city limits, where laws barely applied and civilisation ended.

Sometimes, when the scientists in the lab worked late, they'd come into Tango's room at night and he'd light a little fire in the middle and they'd sit around telling scary stories. He was told it was a human tradition older than time. Far too often, those stories included werewolves who refused to abide by the palace's laws, vampires who were so consumed by their bloodlust they'd lost all their humanity, human-born sirens who had forsaken community in favour of luring travellers away from their paths.

Cub had once sworn up and down that a garden faerie had tried to gouge out his eyes, killing every plant in a ten-foot radius in the process, and to this day he still didn't know how he'd escaped intact.

Doc had then scoffed and claimed it was all hearsay, but the tale had stuck with Tango. He was rather fond of his eyes, and preferred not to risk losing them.

"I can keep going," he said to Torchy. "I can... I'll be fine."

They had barely walked another hour before Tango was forced to stop by his feet - which were dragging on the floor - hooking on a rock, sending him plummetting with a yelp.

"Tango!" Torchy gasped, swooping down to join him on the ground.

"I'm- I'm fine," Tango assured him, running a hand across Torchy's scales. "I'm fine."

Tango allowed himself twenty seconds of rest - he counted each one - before pushing himself back to his feet.

"Just a little further," he told himself.

He could see a small copse of trees in the distance. If he could just make it that far, he'd be fine. It was close. Just a little further.

When, after a few seconds, it became clear his feet weren't moving any time soon, he sighed and sank into a crouch, absently itching his arm.

"I'm fine," he whispered, staring at the trees, like repeating it will make it true.

He shook his head, shaking that thought out of it. He was fine. This was just a normal bodily reaction, and it would pass. It wasn't like he was dying or anything. He was fine. He just needed a few more seconds to rest. Then he'd be able to command his legs to move again, and he could keep going.

He was fine.

That was when he heard the voice: "Hello! What do we have here?"

Tango leapt to his feet, twisting around and staggering back and falling onto his butt as he yelled, "Hagagah!"

Hovering in front of him was a garden faerie with pink hair and eyes, and a dress made out of a brown leaf that seemed to be clinging to life by the fingertips - leaftips? The creature was a little more than three inches tall, his hair short and messy.

"What're you doing all the way out here?" he asked, flying a little closer to Tango's face.

Tango squeaked. "Please don't steal my eyes!"

"Steal your eyes?" the faerie chuckled. "Why would I do that?"

"I don't know!"

The creature laughed again. "I'm Zedaph. What are you?" He spoke the question slowly, drawing out each word.

"Don't you mean who?" Tango couldn't help but ask.

"Nope!" Zedaph flew a few laps around Tango, faster than he could follow. "I've never seen anything like you before!"

"I'm Tango."

"RIght. Aaand, what's a Tango?"

"Well, me, obviously!"

"Right! Of course, why didn't I think of that?" He was laughing again.

Zedaph's voice was strange, quiet and high-pitched and buzzy, and he spoke English like his mouth wasn't meant to ever have any of these sounds in it. And yet, every single sound came out clear and amost easy. Sure, he spoke slowly, drawing out most of his words, but he never faltered and stuttered, only paused and hesitated now and then.

"And this is-" Tango paused to sneeze. "-Torchy."

Torchy landed on Tango's head, peering at Zedaph through the flames. Zedaph grinnged at the little dragon.

"Very nice to meet ya, Torchy!"

"Of course it is," Torchy muttered, getting comfortable on his perch.

Zedaph's grin faded and his tiny features twisted into a frown as he looked at Tango.

"Hey, you don't look too good," he noted.

"I'm fine," Tango insisted again. Then immediately was wracked by a sneezing and coughing fit, barely managing to find time in between to breathe. When he emerged, his throat hurt more than ever, his eyes itched like they were full of powder and his chest burned. He leaned over his knees, which were pressed against his chest, and panted for breath.

"Yes, I can see that." Even when he was concerned, his voice seemed to carry a laugh, like he couldn't help but find a joke in every detail. "Hey, I think I know something that could help!"

And, before Tango could say a word, the little faerie flew off.

"Well, that was... weird," Tango said to Torchy, who merely grumbled. He'd been thrown off Tango's head during the coughing fit, and was instead curling up on the rock that had sent Tango crashing to the ground minutes ago. Tango poked him. "Don't get too - ACHOO - comfortable. We need to get moving again. Just cause this faerie didn't steal our eyes, doesn't mean the next one won't."

"He's fetching something!" Torchy protested, like he was settling down for any reason that wasn't bedtime. "We should wait for him!"

"He's probably fetching a swarm to pick us apart piece by piece. We can't just hang around here." He glanced up at the trees. They just had to make it to there.

"Just a little further," Tango pleaded.

"Give me ten minutes," Torchy insisted. Seconds later, he was fast asleep.

"Oh you-" Tango reached out to grab the dragon by his tail to shake him awake, but was interrupted by Zedaph's voice.

"Here we are!"

Tango looked up to see the faerie flying over, his wings struggling to lift both his own body weight, and the small glass vial he was clinging to.

The vial was a good inch taller than Zedaph, and filled with a dark purple liquid. Tango didn't know where he'd gotten it, and he wasn't sure he wanted to know.

"What's this?" he asked instead, holding out a hand to let Zedaph drop the vial and land, giving his poor wings a rest.

"Medicine!" Zedaph looked proud of himself. "It should fix you right up!"

Tango frowned, looking at the liquid sceptically. "You want me to... drink it."

"No, I want you to pour it on your toes. Yes, I want you to drink it!"

Tango sighed, lifting the vial with his other hand so that Zedaph could stay where he was. He sniffed the medicine. It smelled... bad. Fake. Human.

He sighed. What did he have to lose, at this point? After only a second's hesitation, he downed the whole thing in one gulp, trying to get it out of his mouth as quickly as possible. Zedaph flew off his hand as his entire body jerked involuntarily at the taste of the stuff.

It tasted, somehow, even worse than it smelled. Like every piece of artificial food he'd been given over the centuries rolled into one disgusting mixture. Tango shuddered and hurried to pull a flask of water from his bag to wash away the taste, first rinsing his mouth and spitting out the water, than swallowing to clear his throat, as well.

"It's not that bad!" Zedaph protested in that strange, laughing voice of his.

"It definitely is that bad." Tango coughed. He didn't feel remotely different, better or otherwise. If anything, the swallowing had made his sore throat worse. "And it didn't even work!"

"Well, give it time!"

Tango huffed and started trying to get up again, but Zedaph flew right into his face.

"No, no, stay down until it kicks in!"

"I need to keep moving."

"We can keep moving in about twenty minutes. You might fall again if you get up now."

"I'll be fine."

"Tango."

Tango sighed. Closed his eyes. Took a deep breath that was sliced to pieces by another coughing fit. Wiped his runny nose. And leaned back onto his elbows.

Zedaph stayed with him, chatting away about something Tango paid no mind to. He was too busy trying to breath without coughing his guts up to listen to a word that was said.

Until finally, slowly, the pain lessened. His throat opened up entirely, all pain vanishing, and his nose dried up and stopped running. When he breathed, it was without the constant scratching he'd been dealing with all day, and he didn't even nearly cough.

Tango let out a jubilant, incredulous laugh. It had worked! It had really worked!

"That sounds promising." Zedaph flew back up to his face. "Feeling better?"

"Loads. How did you do that?"

"Secrets of the trade, my friend."

When Tango stood up, the only shakiness came from the exhaustion of walking for a full day. When he crouched down to wake Torchy, he didn't nearly collapse at all. Somehow, in twenty minutes, Zedaph had fixed him completely.

The faerie accompanied them when they started moving again, Torchy flapping along sleepily beside Tango's head.

The excitement was short-lived, however, because halfway to the trees, without any change in the weather, Tango was suddenly freezing. With shivering hands, he grabbed the coat that was still draped over the bag and pulled it on. Both Torchy and Zedaph watched him, confused.

Torchy settled on Tango's head, leaning forward so his face was upside down in Tango's vision. "Tango?"

Dragon's weren't built to be cold, and Tango was no exception. He could feel himself weakening by the second.

Zedaph went to land on Tango's hand, but quickly shot back up into the air.

"Holy moly! You're boiling!"

"N- no?" Tango frowned. "I'm freezing! Hence the coat, genius!"

He just had to make it to the trees. He could collapse there, when he wasn't so in the open. Just a little further.

"Maybe you should sit down," Zedaph suggested.

Tango shook his head, then stumbled, losing his balance. The whole world had tipped, leaning wildly to the right for a second.

"Maybe you should listen," Torchy told him, his claws clinging into Tango's scalp to stay on. He was still upside down.

"Just a little further," Tango muttered, his words slurring together. "Juss a lil-"

A figure appeared at the treeline, all the wrong shapes and sizes, built all wrong. It seemed to watch them, though it was impossible to tell properly from so far.

Zedaph spotted the figure at the same time as Tango, announced, "I'll go get help!" then zipped off at top speed towards the figure.

Tango took one step after him, then another, then went careening wildly forwards, just barely catching himself before he splatted. Torchy shrieked as he was flung off Tango's head, flinging out his wings to stay in the air.

Just a little further.

The next step had him falling to his knees. The world was still dancing circles around him, and now its corners were fading away to blackness.

He struggled to get back to his feet, but the best he could do was one foot before falling to the side as the world gave another sickening jolt. He stomach turned, and he leaned over and emptied its meagre contents onto the ground.

He was vaguely aware of someone calling his name, then two someones, as his vision faded completely to black.

The last thing he heard was a feminine voice gasping, "I'm sorey I took so long!"

Then everything stopped.

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[sug01s3al]

I'm curious, you did say that you created puppet designs for the rest of the Spiritfarer cast correct? If so, 1) can we see them, and 2) will you ever revisit those designs one day to make them reality? Love the Gwen puppet by the way.

My sketchbook ended up being a total of 195 pages so I think I would explode my tumblr if I uploaded everything for every character plus the npc's 😅 But I can share a few of my favourites- granted the art is a year old at this point so don't judge too harshly I promise I can draw much better now ^u^

My design process basically went: pick a character -> make a moodboard -> sketch ideas & explanation -> puppet and puppeteer designs -> puppet schematics (this was only for a few of them that I had time to get to, I did get told off by my tutors for doing to much planning because I couldn't settle on who I wanted to actually build). Given the time and resources I'd love to revisit building one of them using what I learned but at the moment I am seeking theatre jobs (not too fabulous in my area sadly) so I only have my spare materials to work with at the moment and many sets of dice to make :'''). I still don't really know who I'd want to make though, even now they all seem so fun to make because not all of the puppets were in the style of Gwen's so each one poses a different challenge to tackle.

It goes without saying but spoilers for Spirit Farer below, ye have been warned~

I should also mention that with curriculum stuff I wasn't allowed to simply replicate the designs so you'll see quite a bit where I talk about changing and adapting the design for stage so if you wonder why its changed thats why :') (I'm aware Gwen doesn't really deviate much from her design but she was supposed to come with a fully sewn costume too which I sadly didn't have the time to make)

I was quite a big fan of the npc designs

Our boy Alex as imagined as a segmented puppet in the style of those wooden hand crank puppets. I think he'd be really easy to make in EVA I want to see if I can replicate the mechanism.

Hades was a particularly fun design to do too

I 100% am gonna reuse my design for Hades for an oc later down the line, that being said they already look a bit like a love child between my oc's Lazarus and Aster :''). I designed Hades to be a giant team puppet with the main actor (above design) pupeteering the head and voicing the character whilst the rest of the body was made up of actors who blended into the puppet whilst still having their own unique costumes. Hades is by far my biggest design, in scale and also with the amount of actors playing him because I really wanted to get that omnipotent, ethereal, imposing vibe down.

As for individual puppeteer designs :3 ->

I won't bore you with the character analysis pages for Jackie but he had a similar puppet design to Gwen.

(That is gold ink on the final page I promise you 😅)

Controversial opinion but I actually love Bruce and Mickey, I know they're the heels (well Bruce at least) but they're such a brilliantly layered character which is probably why his design got a lot more analysis then some. My thoughts are mostly there on my notes but I'll write it out so you don't have to squint at my awful handwriting. Bruce and Mickey are another really interesting character in that Mickey isn't really there at all (spoilers) as Mickey passed away in an accident before Bruce did so as Bruce takes focus in the game (speaking for both and doing the character interactions) I wanted him to be centre stage as the only puppeteer. Mickey's death was in a car accident that left him in a coma, if i remember correctly, Bruce blames himself for so I had this idea for the puppeteer (just like Bruce in game) to literally carry the Mickey puppet around the stage like a physical burden, a physical manifestation that the pain of carrying his brother's death weighs on him. And this idea of a struggle of grief, paired with Mickey being represented by a bull gave way to the idea for their puppeteers costume design being inspired by a bull fighter, a hybrid behind this teddy-boy greaser and bull fighter - of course the colours being big and bright and bold as their personalities.

Cw: Cancer. For Summer I wanted to use a lot of organic colours, shapes and textures within the puppet and costume design because of her love of nature and gardening (I still tear up everytime I play for my crops and she isn't there playing along). Summer, as mentioned in the game, was the girlfriend of Stella's Aunt Rose and inspired Stella's nursing career after witnessing her battle with cancer; in her minigame event you face off against a giant serpent that is 'infected' in a way, it has veins of ores running through it symbolic of the cancer running through her body. Which is why for her puppet design (a long with being able to conveniently hide how she moves) I wanted her puppet to be literally intertwined with her costume. The Klimpt inspiration for her scales I can't really tell you why I picked that other than Klimpt is one of my favourite artists and I thought the organic shapes and motifs in his work would suit her :').

Plans for Buck, my best friend.

Stanley I would say was the closest competition to Gwen and probably the one I would want to make the most if I was able to pick this back up. He was designed to be a smaller marionette style puppet so you could get those large, exaggerated, energetic movements from him that you do in game (for reference he does a lot of bouncing and jumping along with launching himself at Stella when he hugs her which is absolutely adorable). Like Buck, Stanley was planned to be a mixed material puppet, mostly cuddle fleece for body with different textures for the embellishments, like mushroom gills and his spot patterns. It was important to me to try and have an element of sympathetic movement in each design so the puppet was constantly moving in someway. Bonus picture of the costume design ideas for his puppeteer- if it wasn't feasible to have him as a separate puppet I liked the idea of Jacob (his pet beetle) being included in the design somehow which ended up being either as a hair pin or brooch :3.

I'll finish off with Stanley, I have designs for Daria, Astrid, Giovani, Alice and Atul but I'm not as happy with the old art so I'm not going to post it. The Beverly update hadn't been released at the time of this project so she never got a design :')

As for who I wouldn't make it would have to be Atul- for as much as I adore his character and love the design I drew for him having to have a giant Atul hanging around my house would make me sad, he makes me feel like this

That being said I do have the plush of him sat on my bed rn :')

I could keep yapping but this post is long enough lol

Also merry christmas everyone!!

[uboat53]

I saw a take on Tumblr recently that really resonated with me and I wanted to take a bit of time and explore it. Anyone ready for a LONG RANT (TM)? (TL;DR: at the bottom)

INTRODUCTION

The alleged killing of Brian Thompson by Luigi Mangione has been in the news a lot recently, I'm sure you haven't missed it, and one of the interesting things to note has been the disconnect between the universal reporting of the event in a negative light and the fact that a significant minority of the American public, over 15% in a recent poll, find it to be acceptable or are at least as concerned about Thompson's actions as they are about Mangione's alleged actions. For the record, that 15% is still less than the number of Americans who believe that they will have to resort to violence to resolve political issues, yet we haven't seen the same level of sustained, negative coverage of that issue. One might say, "oh, but we haven't seen any specific acts of political violence", but, of course, we have; two people attempted to shoot president-elect Trump during his candidacy this year, Trump himself incited a mob of his supporters to storm the US Capitol less than four years ago, vigilantes like George Zimmerman, Kyle Rittenhouse, and Daniel Penny have been killing "suspicious" or "unruly" people in public for years, and, of course, the recent killing of UHC CEO Brian Thompson was, itself, an act of political violence.

This brings me to the take I read recently, which made the interesting point that this particular killing and the way it has been covered brings together both left-wing and right-wing grievances. Specifically, the left-wing grievance of class conflict, that the majority of Americans have been taken advantage of by those with wealth and power while opportunities for redress have been systematically closed off, while the coverage of it has also brought up the right-wing grievance that the media does not give voice to broad swathes of the American public. You should read the post itself, it's not very long.

THE LEFT-WING

It's pretty well-known by now, so I'll detail the left-wing side of this fairly quickly. Basically it goes like this: people with wealth and power are able to influence politics in such a way that they can manipulate the law to keep themselves in power and to draw even more wealth and power from the system and keep them from others. It's not widely discussed in political debate except as an applause line to incite anger in people, but I'd say that's a fairly widely held view; the only difficulty in addressing it is that people have widely disparate opinions on how it should be addressed.

Mr. Thompson's killing is an extreme act and one that I disapprove of, but I also can't necessarily find fault in the reasoning that apparently was used as justification. Mr. Thompson's actions weren't illegal, but they also caused pain and suffering on a scale that actual criminals would struggle to match. The fact that his actions were impossible to address in any legal way does emphasize the way that the wealthy and powerful have turned the law into a tool to protect themselves and leaves only illegal acts as recourse.

THE RIGHT-WING

I've talked a lot about right-wing media and the way that conservatives/Republicans view the mainstream media in the past, but this take was particularly interesting, so I'm going to quote directly from the post I linked above because I think these are important points.

"A lot of them come down to lacking a legitimized voice. There's no John Oliver out there who will elequently express rural American frustration where the nation is willing to listen. They have to settle for clown shows like Fox News, then get mocked for watching the clown show. A lot of right-wing anger comes of being constantly told the world works one way, while their everyday experience hammers in the opposite reality. (Like hearing "No one can live on $8/hour!" while your life is shattered by the loss of an $8/hour job that moved overseas.) Everyone knows the biggest media outlets are corrupt and out of touch. But I think this is the first time most white leftists in the US have experienced that dissonance so viscerally. Every time a news anchor mentions the public outrage over insurance… then pivots smoothly back to rehashing the manhunt as if anyone still cares about police proceedural bullshit, it's like we're being slapped in the face with a $10,000 silk glove."

As the above points out, FOX News and right-wing media in general are a terrible substitute for mainstream news, but if mainstream news is reflecting 0% of your lived experience and even mocking it, a "news" source that reflects even 5% of your own perspective can seem better than nothing. For the most part, white liberals who live in the kind of reasonably well off urban/suburban areas that are shared by the majority of American journalists have been able to see a good proportion of their worldview reflected in the news. Now, on the other hand? Let's face it, most liberals like myself, even if we disagree with the killing itself and find it unacceptable, at least have sympathy for the reasoning behind it.

Guess what you won't find any real coverage of in any significant mainstream media outlet?

THE MEDIA

Here's the thing about the media, we still have this idea that it's run by journalists, but that hasn't been true in a long while. It's certainly the case that media executives used to view their news divisions as a public service (though I think we can agree that other prejudices still limited coverage of a good deal of issues), but the last several decades have seen increasing commoditization of the news media. I don't think at this point that any news provider other than non-profits like PBS, NPR, and ProPublica can genuinely be said to be covering the news with a commitment to actual information.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think many of the journalists themselves are deliberately trying to promote the greater agenda of the owners of these outlets, but it's been hard to miss these last few years how wealthy owners have intervened in coverage decisions and the workings of editorial boards. Some of these interventions are about profit and some are about ideology, but it's hard to argue that any of them contribute to better coverage of the issues of the day. Against the desires of an owner who demands a certain type of coverage or even a lack of coverage, there really isn't anything an individual journalist can do.

I've also written before how specific journalists I follow because of their insightful reporting have vanished from mainstream news sources. I've been tracking this for a while and it's definitely the case that the scope of debate and discussion in political media has shrunk, but what's interesting is how it's shrunk. Partisan issues are still widely discussed and even racial issues get some coverage, but you don't see any discussion of class issues anymore. Specifically, you don't see any discussion of wealth inequality, income inequality, or systemic issues that are affecting the ability of Americans to make a living.

And you may say "hey wait a second, I see lots of news coverage about how hard it is for Americans out there" and you'd be right, but how much of that coverage actually reports on stagnant wages? How much reporting do you see on wage theft, by far the single largest type of theft by dollar value in this country? How about wealthy people who refuse to pay on contracts and settle for pennies on the dollar? The president-elect himself is particularly famous for doing this. You'll also almost never see coverage, and certainly not sustained coverage, of market consolidation like the fact that only two companies control over 80% of the market for diapers, four companies control over 85% of the market for US beef, or how six companies control the vast majority of media outlets in the US. This type of market consolidation is referred to as an "oligopoly" and it's pretty similar in the way it destroys market economies to a monopoly.

In other words, you see a TON of coverage about how Americans are struggling, but you almost never see coverage of WHY they are struggling. Workers are struggling because there are fewer and fewer employers which are larger and larger and can dictate lower wages. Consumers are struggling because there is less and less competition in the vast majority of products they buy, allowing companies to raise prices without consequence. Small companies are struggling because larger companies are increasingly able to elbow them out of distribution channels by using their size to demand exclusivity contracts or their market share to dictate prices. Individuals are struggling because the wealthy and powerful have turned any avenue for possible redress into a long, drawn-out legal battle so that only those with the money for years of lawyer's bills have any hope of even getting to court much less having any wrongs righted.

None of this draws any significant media coverage and it's hard not to notice that drawing coverage to it would negatively impact the interests of the wealthy and powerful people who own those outlets.

THE CROSSOVER

And this brings me to the crossover between liberal complaints about corporations and the wealthy and conservative complaints about media bias. Conservative elites may complain about the supposed "liberal agenda" of the mainstream media, but if you ask the average conservative about their issues they're more likely to talk about how the media serves corporate power and buttresses a system that keeps average people down. It's an interesting complaint to liberals who may note that right-wing media is even more solicitous and supportive of the interests of the rich and powerful, but just because they haven't found a good solution doesn't mean that those on the right don't have a point.

This event in particular has highlighted how the mainstream media controls the scope of allowable debate and closes off topics related to economic and political power that are of particular interest to lower and middle class Americans across the political spectrum. The bias here, then, is not political in the sense of partisan politics, but political in that it relates to who is allowed to wield power and how. I think, because of the way the political parties have shaken out, liberals have been far more aware of this particular bias in government and conservatives have been far more aware of this bias in media.

PREDICTIONS

Look, I think if this shooting is a one-off and there are no further incidents that expose this particular fault in our political system, then this will probably die off and we'll go back to our usual political corners. That said, I don't think it will be. The fact is that the widespread economic problems are becoming harder and harder to ignore and, as they affect more and more educated people, more people who are able to trace their systemic nature are going to be radicalized. More to the point, these kinds of incidents tend to spur "copycat" attacks and it seems likely that that will be the case here as well.

If more attacks occur and if they are covered (or not covered) in the same way by the mainstream media, it will likely increase the movement of Americans, particularly younger Americans to alternative sources of news such as podcasts and social media. This movement will make it more difficult for wealthy and powerful people to control the scope of political discussion but, as we've seen, it will also hasten the epistemological crisis we have as a country.

(Normally I don't like to use jargon like "epistemology", but in this case it is simply the shortest way to describe the issue we are having where people don't agree on basic facts. When you hear "epistemological crisis", don't worry about the big words, just think about how Americans can't agree on things like violent crime rates, immigration statistics, or economic data and how this makes it impossible to agree on policies that would address issues that the data would show.)

Long-term, I think it's likely that, at some point, pressure will build to the level that requires some of these problems to be fixed. Ultimately the fixes to those problems will come from the left; the only solutions that the right has to offer at this point have been to cut regulations and lower taxes and, let's face it, if those were going to work one would think that corporations making record profits would have already done so. I'm not sure which of the left's solutions will ultimately be adopted or which of them will actually be successful, but it's fairly clear to me that at some point at least some of them will be passed into law if only to attempt to stem the increase in violence born of desperation.

TL;DR:

The killing of a health insurance CEO and the coverage of that incident have revealed an interesting crossover between liberal complaints about corporate power and conservative complaints about media bias. We've seen media coverage overwhelmingly ignore, minimize, or portray in a negative light the millions of Americans who have been less concerned about the killing of a health insurance CEO than about his actions while alive.

While murder absolutely should be covered in a negative light, the broader story of how this particular murder came about is also important and the particular issue here deserves to be covered objectively and in detail without minimizing the concerns of those on one side of the issue; coverage we are definitively not getting from the US mainstream media. Given all of that, it sure sounds like the complaints of liberal and conservative Americans (the voters, not necessarily the leadership, elected or otherwise) are just facets of the same issue. Maybe there's room for common ground after all, though I don't think American political and economic leaders will like it.

[thebiggerbear]

Hey there!!

Happy New Year 🎉

For the Artist and Fic Writer EOY Asks game, can I ask:

5. A scene you enjoyed creating

6. A scene you struggled with

7. Comfort character to create for

and

8. Most challenging character to write or draw.

💖

Awww thank you, my friend!!! Happy New Year, I hope yours is a wonderful, safe, and healthy one!!! 🥰

5. A scene you enjoyed creating - oooo that's a good one! The first one that comes to mind is one I did with CJ Braxton and a reader for a prompt response that I haven't posted yet but have previewed. It's filled with a lot of scenes I had fun writing but there is one that I particularly liked because it delves into the history of CJ and the reader (within that setup) that I very much enjoyed coming up with. Since I haven't posted it yet, I don't want to spoil it but when I do, I'll note which one it was if you're interested. 😉

6. A scene you struggled with - Hmm, I would have to say the scene I struggled with this year is the wake/funeral scenes in I need your hand but I don't want to burn it. I think because that story was so intensely personal for me and I was modeling it after my own experience this year (that was the first time I ever experienced that kind of grief on a full scale if that makes sense), I kept avoiding it. And full disclosure, I'm still struggling with those scenes and I'm still avoiding it lol. I'll be honest and say I don't know when I'm going to complete that second part due to those scenes. In two months, it'll be a year and I've had a lot of time to process and get to acceptance, so maybe I will try again then and see if I can finally complete them. I really, really want to post the rest of that story. That's another goal of mine this year.

7. Comfort character to create for - Beau Arlen was always my go to 😉 but these days I find myself leaning more towards Joe Velasco from L&O: SVU than anyone else

8. Most challenging character to write or draw - Boaz Priestly is definitely one because I don't feel I have a good grasp on him yet and I want to get more into his rhythm and mindset before I post any finished works for him. The other I would say is Beth Dutton from Yellowstone. To me, she's quite the challenge for me to try and capture her essence and attempt to portray her accurately for a couple of works I'm currently writing that involve her. I know this sounds a bit much but I think I'm a bit obsessive when it comes to this in writing (which is part of my problem LOL) because I want to get them 100% right but I'm also my harshest critic who just happens to be a little bit of a perfectionist in this area. 😂 I'm a weirdo, I know it, and I fully embrace that LOL.

Thank you so much for the asks, lovely!!! 💖💖

[arcadechan]

Hey! I just found your art and I adore it! I don't mean to be a bother, but how do you draw hands? They're so amazing and I struggle a lot with them!

Hello there, thank you so much~! It's no bother at all, sorry it took me a little while to respond (I came down with a cold and wanted to reply properly!), but check under the cut for a quick rundown on how I do hands and some general tips!

So I generally draw hands in four steps. First, I draw the block of the palm (which depending on the angle of the hand will typically be either a squarish shape or a wedge shape). Then I place the MEAT, that good chunk that's basically part of the thumb, if it's visible for the pose.

Next is the fingers. If the knuckles will be visible I usually circle in a KNUCKLE GUIDE, it helps me space out the fingers, follow the curve of the hand, and can sometimes make some nice shapes for me. As for the fingers themselves, I'll either just draw straight lines to start, or come in with big blocky shapes. I've found sometimes it's easier to erase the shape of the fingers than to draw them outright, especially in the sketch phase where I use thicker brushes (on purpose, so I don't worry about detail too much). That's my usual process!

I make frequent use of reference - normally I use my own hands. Either looking at them as is or taking a picture, I do both all the time

working digitally is GREAT for learning to draw something you struggle with, especially hands. sometimes I'll draw them very large on purpose and then shrink them down, or I'll zoom in while I draw them. big hands.

looking at how other artists draw hands can be just as helpful as looking at real-life reference, especially if you have a more "pushed" style

when drawing complicated hand gestures, I usually stick to simple shapes (at least for the sketch phase), because then I can at least get the idea down.

using the eraser or a brush on transparency to find the shapes of the fingers for you is a gamechanger, erasing can be drawing too!

I let the character decide the finger and hand shape

knuckles still don't make much sense to me (that's why I often use a KNUCKLE GUIDE, sometimes I'll just partially erase the circles to make the knuckle shape for me and call it good)

Nothing...hugely revelatory. Hands can be pretty intimidating, they're comparatively small and full of bits and bends...and you can always just kind of tell when a hand isn't "drawn right". Practicing drawing singular hands on a larger scale really helped me, as well as focusing on "shapes" over "details".

One thing I've been really trying to remind myself of lately is that I can draw things how I WANT them to look instead of how I think they SHOULD look; looking good or cool vs "right" or "correct". This is especially helpful with drawing hands, as they can be so expressive and articulate and weird in their own right, that ignoring technical correctness in favor of GOOD SHAPE, LOOKS COOL can really help you land somewhere a bit more satisfying.

[sometimeslapine]

It's not about quantity, it's about quality. Even if they arent the same scale, I'm sure I'm not alone in saying they would be appreciated.

And I'll be honest, engaging in a dialog about kink that is just ping ponging ideas back and forth sounds fun. Sometimes you don't need one massive work to lay out like a blanket to cover all the reasons and facets and quirks you like about a certain kink. Sometimes you don't even need a patch work quilt that you build upon. Sometimes you've earned the Worlds Worst Bonus from your job at the Cotton Ball Factory and you're just throwing little ball after ball at the topic, not caring where they land or if you've hit the same aspects again and again, and then you look back and see you've done a pretty good job covering the topic anyway.

Even if you aren't writing a novel, with your art you do a great job of making kink... I hesitate to say Feel Real but you make it Make Sense in a Real Way. Like of course if you lived in a world with Boob Growth Lotion, you can't just rub it in with your hands or else you'll get Boob Hands and that's Fun because Of Course that would happen. And I just kinda wanna see what you can cook up if you didn't have to find a way to visualize and show and make it look good.

bit of a delayed response to this one while turning over possible replies in my head... struggling to explain a few more conceptual blocks. writing's always been a weird subject matter for me, in one way or another. pls bear with me

so like. comparatively, inflation kink fics span back a good two decades, at least. there's an established pool of tropes, visual metaphors, ideal pacing or story beats to hit, tones or themes that set the mood, key phrases that really get at the brain, and points of finality that overall mesh really well for a good story. not to say there's no originalities to be had in this space anymore, but there's a lotta prior work to draw from, were i to need assistance filling a void in a sentence or two.

but the thing is, with the more nonsensical stuff like That Comic Thing You're Referring To, there isn't a lot of pre-existing stuff i can reference! i often find that i completely lack the language framework needed to put those weirder scenarios into words. i'm just making it up as i go, after all! and so drawing it out in some loose manner becomes infinitely easier than trying to capture all the nuances of it in a paragraph or two, because i get to lean a bit heavily on the storytelling mechanic of "Show, Don't Tell" as support.

though these scenarios being physically sketched-out-on-paper may end up leaving them a bit more concise than intended in their delivery, i'd like to think the concept i'm exploring's still getting conveyed effectively (even if i can't put the scenario to art in the way I'm /fully/ hoping to, whether due to the limits of my artistic skill, or just other general constraints of anatomy & form in a physical space) because ironically, despite a "concise" delivery, a drawing still remains open-ended enough to have its blanks filled in by the viewer's own preferences/themes/biases in enjoyment (in the same weird way the sketch of a piece can sometimes look more visually interesting & carry more emotion than that piece's finished lineart would) with the open-ended nature guiding one's thoughts to what potential fun lies outside the final panel. as you experience art, art experiences you, etc. etc. etc.

as for making it feel "real", honestly sometimes it's less about realism and more about exploring the fun and wild "consequences of over-indulgency" (said with as much love and appreciation as possible, just so we're clear!!); it's acknowledging the dangers of going wild with a Topical That Changes You without hesitation, it's of not thinking it through before leaping directly into in the path of that TF raygun beam, it's of playing with dangerous and ancient magicks because the spellbook had funny drawings that poked at the kinky parts of your psyche, it's of getting too lost in the sauce to have an escape plan.

consequences, for lack of any better word, can help ground fantasies into something more tangible! makes it feel more Real, despite very much being weird fantasy nonsense at its heart

anyway. run-on-sentences and streams of consciousness aside, i appreciate that my weird brand of nonsense is enjoyed all the same

[nocek]

Hello, do you have a guide to drawing faces? I'm going through an artstyle revision to be more soft around the edges and less sharp and I've always struggled with faces...

oh my... that's a very broad question to ask and hard to give any usefull answer without actually seeing your work. But it's good that you have concrete goals and can pinpoint what exactly you want to change about your work. It's a very professional attitude.

Which is why I may be a bad choice of person to be asked for advice. Because I'm not a professional and I want very much for drawing to stay just my hobby to keep me sane. I never consciously thought about my artstyle beyond maybe making it less manga (but residue it's still there, art teachers were right lol XD). It's about having fun in the process for me.

That's why I can only give you some fun things to try out. Maybe one or two will work for you.

If you want to soften your faces in generally paintery way best way I tried is to gradually unblurr your picture. Like take the most basic round brush with soft edges and make it very big. Turn down the opacity a bit and try to sculpt basic shapes of the face using the main limited pallette colors of your reference. Then use slightly smaller big brush to add bit more details. Then gradually make the brush smaller and smaller. And gradually add new details and colors if necessary.

This actually does wonders because helps you stop being precious about some sketch details because there is no sketch. It helps you stop seeing face as face so you don't draw what you know but what you actually see.

Actually speaking of that. Another great trick is to put your reference upside down. Our brains are lazy and just extrapolate the information and our brains are great at face shapes so it's actually harder to draw them. But if you put them upside down you actually need to focus on proportions of this new unknown shape. It actually does wonders!

When it comes to lineart (because after all this rambling I figured that's most likely why you've written to me, sorry) i have 2 suggestions.

Try to figure out if you draw with only your wrist. It doesn't decide if you draw more in straight or in curved lines (I guess in that department we have opposite problems :D) but it's good idea to try consciously draw using more of your elbow. It works well with bigger canvases and actually taught me to draw really long straight lines (yay architecture, it was useful for that and learning how to do really tough boxes XD) but actually it's about stability which is crucial in doing curved lines too.

On smaller scale try using different media or have fun with new pens. It will help you get out of your used path and is an excuse to raid nearby cheap art store.

I guess many people would recommend doing lineart with brushes. The varying thickness will encourage you to use more round lines and so on buuuuut.... actually I think brushes are very discouraging when you don't have the muscle memory to control them properly. My advice here would be to use felt tip pens actually. They are more springy thus more forgiving. Try the ones that are soft and more spongy than actually felt. Idk how to describe them. If that's something you think may be interesting let me know and I'll try to dig up the ones I used.

Generally let me know if you want more details in certain direction because all above is kind of rambly stream of consciousness answer and idk how usefull it actually is but I prefer to post it that way otherwise I'll get stuck in perfecting the reply limbo >.<

[jaderimehardt]

👋🏻 So, I ended up not drawing anything for that character's birthday.

I did think of a pose about a day and a half ago but that isn't enough time for me to actually get anything drawn out and colored. I'm too slow and I set myself to too high of standards. Plus factor in irl things and my lack of motivation... 🫠 *shakes head*

If I feel bad about it, it's for a couple of mutuals who like him as much as I do, or more- even. I've kind of grown super attached to a certain B🔹L🔹E🔹A🔹C🔹H boi, to be completely honest with you (I'm bypassing the tagging system with the 🔹's).

They still draw him every year on his birthday, and one even bi-weekly almost. She has supported me every time I draw him by re-tweeting my artwork on Twitter. Probably the only person who acknowledges me like this on a regular basis. The other person supports me also on a bit of a lesser scale, and she draws him often too, but I think she struggles with confidence in her art like I do.

It's not an easy thing... "having confidence" in one's own art. And when you don't see likes or favorites on your art, that confidence drops tremendously. You feel like you've done something wrong. You try to figure out 'what' you did wrong, and when you can't find it- you just want to give up. It's a sinking feeling.

But inevitably most artists pick up the pen or pencil again and draw once more because it's something we love to do. The thing is, this time we're less likely to share it because of that lack of confidence. This is what has been happening to me slowly over the past couple of years (and to a couple friends of mine as well).

People don't seem to realize this.

"Where did all the fanart go?"

Well, you all got so picky with favoriting things, they lost motivation and stopped posting. What did you expect?

If and when I post things, I have a fear of tagging it. 💠 Well if you don't tag it, no one is going to see it- and then you really won't get likes/faves. ⚜️ Yeah no kidding. but then I have a logical reason for WHY no one likes it. Like Twitter, I get under 10-30 impressions on most my posts even with tags. At the very least if it's posted, it's on record/in my portfolio of sorts. It exists in my history somewhere.

I removed all of my stuff off of my DeviantArt a couple years ago. Now I'm sure when I post things people question if I'm genuine or not because they have no history to look at- no 'portfolio'. Though if they went to my Wordpress Blog, they'd see that I've been drawing and posting my stuff for a long time. But no one is going to go and look into me that far in-depth. "Guilty until proven innocent" means nothing when all they want to do is prove you guilty.

That makes me even more hesitant to post things- but I do have all my PSDs with individual layers, so I can always provide proof whenever necessary. And I know where my posts are, with timestamps and dates. I can defend myself. That's all that matters to me.

I made this blog to "be more creatively unhinged" and to "be ramble-y". That includes putting my thoughts out into the open, "having proof on paper", so to speak.

I also want to show people the path that I'm taking, so if they're interested in taking it- they can. But everyone learns differently. Everyone has a different style. I may absorb information one way and apply it in this manner, while someone else may learn it in a completely different way and apply it in a polar opposite format. It's all a matter of who you are, perspective and variables.

So... one day (or a string of days), I'll post a bunch of videos. I did this a few days ago actually, lol. These are learning tools. Other days I may make tutorials (I used to make a lot of these but then I deleted that blog). Some days I'll promote my Etsy shop (this might happen the most, tbh)- featuring a lot of my Resin things, and graphics I'm working on. And on rare occasion some fanart because I'm at the lowest of low with that atm.

If I do anything fanart I'm thinking my OC's... 🤷🏻‍♀️. People dislike OCs, I'm aware of that but it's not like many people (if any) like my stuff anyways. They say to draw for self-satisfaction. I think it's time to follow that.

And I 💓 H🔹I🔹T🔹S🔹U to death, but his hecking fluffy hair man 🫠. I did my best with his hair in my last fanart- spent hours perfecting the lineart... honestly I was so proud of it. But apparently it wasn't everyone's cup of tea 🤷🏻‍♀️. It is what it is. (I'm still happy with it. I love his hair, please never change it Kubo-san 💝)

I might doodle a lot of the Loomis Method heads cause I like drawing faces. Poses/bodies not so much. In time I'll work my way to the poses but I just want to mindlessly doodle. (I hate drawing hands 😒)

Btw here's another vid on that, and I like this one so much better.

I also want & need to do a full graphic image for a puzzle. My Mom and my Step Dad are really big into puzzles right now and they're just passing them around with all their friends. Like some puzzle group, lol 😅

I think it'd be cool to actually design one myself, buy it from my Partner- Printful, gift it to them, they can complete it and then they can pass it around.

Mother's Day and Father's Day isn't that far away. I just have no clue what to make the graphic, lol. All the things they like are copyright and I'm not crossing into those waters.

I need to find something generic 🤔💭

[ejthenobody]

Random thought about Pokemon:

I love how the Normal-type sort of represents the limitless potential of your Average Joe. Hear me out and look at the line-up of Normal-type Pokemon: you've got what you would expect from a seemingly boring gray-colored type. You've got a whole variety of cats, rats, dogs, whatever Linoone is, various birds- well you get my point: it's a whole lot of early game, relatively normal-looking creatures, most adorable, some...Off-putting. Looking over at you, Patrat. However, along that same line up, you get stuff like Kangaskhan which is an incredible hard-hitting powerhouse, the HP brickwall/natural nurse that is Chansey, and professional Massive Motherfucker Snorlax. Oh and don't forget what's at the top end of weirdness and in-universe power in the Normal-type lineup like Ditto the adorable but still bizarre and failed copy of the fucking embryo of all life that is Mew; Porygon, the first artificial Pokemon made of bits and bytes, and it's upgrade and corruption of Porygon2 and Porygon-Z; Eevee and its unstable DNA; fucking REGIGIGAS, the Pokemon that supposedly moved continents and created the other Regi's; and oh yeah. GOD. GOD IS A NORMAL-TYPE. And that's just the mons, because the Normal-type moves do the exact same thing of having a massive bottom end where there's just so much of what you would expect to see is a Normal-type move or stuff that you just see in action and you're like "Yeah, okay," but then there's a smaller top end where shit just gets fucking crazy for no apparent reason. For example, on the bottom of the scale you've got stuff like the basic stat-altering moves like Growl, Tail Whip, Howl, Focus Energy, Harden; and alongside those you've got the basic attacks like Pound, Scratch, and Tackle. Going up by a notch or two you get stuff like Quick Attack, Fury Swipes, Swift, Rapid Spin, Echoed Voice, Sand Attack, Helping Hand (assuming doubles), and Bite. Going up further you get stuff that can make more ridiculous things possible like Baton Pass, Belly Drum, Double Team, Roar, Protect, Body Slam. And all the way at the top you have stuff like the Hyper and Giga and Mega moves, you have Tri-Attack which is basically three types in one move, you have Swords Dance, all of the good shit basically. And then the absolute top of the scale is shit like Judgement, the signature move of Arceus AKA God, which I don't know if it's good but it sounds and looks dope as hell, and then there's the bottom of the scale with Splash. And Struggle if you want to throw that in as well. At least Struggle does something. Anyway, my point is, it's wild what Pokemon considers as "Normal," and because of the massive variety that is under that banner I can't help but see the type as a whole as representing the idea of potential, both in people and in the mons that represent it. Sure, a lot of those mons aren't great and could only really go the distance if you put an unreasonable amount of effort into making them do work, but hey: no one said that bringing out someone's true potential was fucking easy. If it was, everyone would be doing it, and last I checked there aren't a ton of people who look at mons like Zigzagoon and say "Yeah, this fella will be on my team to tackle the Elite Four." And now that I've typed all of this out, I kind of want to draw a little guy that just represents the type as a whole. Not like a Pokemon, just a guy, who represents both the top end and the bottom end of the Normal-type. Maybe I'll do that later today on a doodle sheet.

[glorious-blackout]

Introduce yourself! What’s the story behind your username/what should people call you? 

Picked the username Gloriousblackout for my fanfiction.net account at the age of 15 because those were my favourite Muse songs at the time. Twelve years later, I'm simply too attached to bother changing it 😅

(I also answer to Rachel)

How will you be participating in the Shadowmonkeys Big Bang 2024 (e.g. organiser, artist, writer, artist, reader etc)? 

I'll be a writer, and also looking forward to taking part as a reader 🥰

What are your favourite fic tropes? 

I'm a sucker for a good 'Friends to Lovers' fic or anything with a 'Sharing a Bed/There was only one bed' trope... I also just love angst and hurt/comfort in general more than I should.

If you’re a writer/artist, what’s your favourite piece of work you’ve created for this fandom? Feel free to link it! 

It's been a long time since I revisited it so I'm not sure how well it's aged, but I'm still very proud of my 'You've Always Been Here' series for being my gateway into writing for this lovely fandom and for marking the first time in many years where I was writing a fic purely for sheer self-indulgence. The fact that other people seemed to like it was a lovely surprise 💖

What’s a fic/piece of art in this fandom you’ve loved recently?

I absolutely adore 'Four Walls' by @uhbasicallyjustmilex which I recently binged while stuck in bed for a few days with a chest infection - it was a beautiful, gorgeously written distraction which I was very grateful for and can't wait to read more of 💖

Can also highly recommend 'Maybe Tomorrow' by @applysome which is the most recent fic I read - it's such a beautiful little piece 🥰

Do you prefer reading/writing from Miles or Alex’s POV? 

Don't have a strong preference! I have more multi-chaptered fics written from Alex's point of view so I suspect I'm more naturally drawn to him, but I've finally broken that pattern with my Big Bang fic 😅

What’s an album that you love reading/writing/drawing to? 

'Songs of Leonard Cohen' was an album I kept revisiting during the writing of my Big Bang fic, but my writing playlist changes with every fic. 'Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino' has been an endless source of inspiration in the past and I find classical or instrumental music quite helpful as there's no lyrics to distract you from what you're writing.

Here are some of the songs I listened to on repeat or referenced during the planning/writing of my Big Bang fic 💚

If you’re a writer/artist, what do you struggle with most in your creative process? Is there anything that helps? 

Mostly just motivating myself to write that first paragraph - honestly that stage alone can take months. Once I've gotten over that hurdle I tend to really enjoy the planning and writing process and working through the first couple of drafts is enormous fun. The stage I'm at right now (i.e. the final few edits) are when it starts to feel a bit like a chore - the novelty's worn off and my eyes are more drawn to the flaws in the text rather than anything that makes it good 😅 Chatting with other writers certainly helps me though, as does creating a good writing playlist that fits the mood of the fic.

Have you participated in a fandom big bang before? 

I have! I wrote this fic for the last Shadowmonkeys Big Bang which was immensely rewarding, not least because it inspired the cutest artwork ever from @rock-n-roll-fantasy:

On a scale of one to ten, how excited are you for the Shadowmonkeys Big Bang 2024?

9/10. I'm docking a point for the fact that I'm also a little nervous after working on my fic for so long and the fact that the week I want to start publishing it is a nightmare in terms of my work rota 😅

✨ SHADOWMONKEYS BIG BANG GAME ✨

As we're now officially into the second posting window and the gloomier half of the year, we thought we'd share something hopefully a little fun to keep everyone feeling motivated!

If you're taking part in this year's Big Bang in any way (whether that's as an artist, writer, beta-reader, or just as someone who's going to be reading and supporting the collaborations when they're posted!) and feel like sharing a little about you and your relationship with fanfic/fanfart then please reblog this post with your answers to the questions below 🥰

Introduce yourself! What’s the story behind your username/what should people call you? 

How will you be participating in the Shadowmonkeys Big Bang 2024 (e.g. organiser, artist, writer, artist, reader etc)? 

What are your favourite fic tropes? 

If you’re a writer/artist, what’s your favourite piece of work you’ve created for this fandom? Feel free to link it! 

What’s a fic/piece of art in this fandom you’ve loved recently?

Do you prefer reading/writing from Miles or Alex’s POV? 

What’s an album that you love reading/writing/drawing to? 

If you’re a writer/artist, what do you struggle with most in your creative process? Is there anything that helps? 

Have you participated in a fandom big bang before? 

On a scale of one to ten, how excited are you for the Shadowmonkeys Big Bang 2024?

[missamyrisa2]

I’ve been brought to gigglegasm with just tickles under the arms. 🙈 any chance I could ask for a story like that? You’re writing is amazing and you seem so sweet ❤️❤️

Awwee! Thank you so very much! <333

If I wanted to fill your cup with simply tickles in those adorable arm dimples, I do believe I would want you gently bound to a soft purpley bedspread ~ and by gentle, I mean you are certainly, absolutely bound under my whim but those sweet arms can pull and wriggle just a bit, just enough to give you a little movement and yet never fully cover your underarms. The lacy cuffs around your wrists will be such a cute reminder of your sweet sweet predicament my angel~

And I'll certainly be wearing a silky smooth flowing mermaid-y top over black leggings, just a little flirty sporty outfit I love to put on when working with such a delightfully specific tickle spot ~ maybe because it puts my material sensations right within eyesight and reach but completely out of your touch as we go exploring. Ahh, but I'm here to tease your hot spots. "I dooo believe I shall start at your fingers." Adorable little digits, wiggling as I trace each one up and down. You know where I'm going and yet you have such a sweet surprising reaction as I slowwwly work my way downward. "Such a silly spot no? The palms of your hands? I can just flutter my nails riight on those lines and you pull so helplessly with your sweet giggles. Oooh babydoll, you just have nooo idea." I'm floating close to your ear as I work your hand, chuckling and smiling and letting my cascade of hair graze your neck. "Aww, does that tickle?"

My nails trace downwards and probe along your wrist, working down your inner arm. "Hmmm hmmm hm~ nice soft arms. Cute skin too. Oooh look at your twitchies! Are you getting goosebumps? Goosebumpies? Bumpy bumps? Mmmps?" I make myself snicker and exchange my fingers for my soft lips. I make a muah sound at you before letting my big lower lip graze your heightened skin, up and down, back and forth. I start planting little kisses along your inner arm to your elbow and further up your bicep as my fingers wander around both arms with little flighty tickles. "Coochie coo on your armyz arms. What a delightful little reaction. You can't stop the tickles. They're coming~ ooh yes they are, all the tickles for you my special little giggle bug~" I position myself over your upper body and smirk, my wiggly fingers now drawing inward together, making to arrive at your exposed underarms both at once. "Here they comeeee tickle fingers~ tickle tickle fingers on your underarms~ you can't laugh! I'll bet you can't not laugh when I get in these wonderful tickle pots!"

I taunt and tease, holding my fingers above your underarms, faking you out a few times before finally diving in and wriggling them madly. I start at the outer fringes, working around in circles getting slowly closer and closer until my spidery tools are in position. I keep my thumbs grazing the center of your armpits, working back and forth as my fingers dance above, keeping with you through every squirm and struggle. "You can wiggle all you like my little worm, I'm still gonna tickle you~" Once I get you good and laughing and bucking under me, I plop to one side and purse my lips, holding your arm steady. "Cover me tickle sarge- I'm goin' in!" I squeal with glee, muahing over your tender crevice, sealing with my lips and blowing raspberries between little teasing kissies. I flip my tongue at you and dive into the over armpit, lickling around with my darting tongue tip. Whichever armpit is getting my lippy attention, the other is treated to flighty finger tickles. I exchange back and forth, pausing between to ask you questions. "Which armpit is more ticklish? The left or the right?" "On a scale of 1 to 100, how much does it tickle?"

I work your hyper sensitive skin endlessly until I finally break to plant a kiss on your cheek, and whisper teasingly in your ear. "I know what these tickles are doing to you my adorable cutie. It's okay~~ just let go, let the tickles cover you, let allll those wonderful feelings and sensations in, and I promise I'll tickle you all the way through. Oh yes, all the underarm tickles for you my sweet sugar cube" I grin and lean up, reaching back for a pair of tools. You can do nothing but squirm and giggle and blush as you watch me pull on a pair of pink gloves adorned with little hearts and stars and moons. "I love this design, because~ well, you see..." I muse, clicking my fuzzy gloves into action, which begin buzzing gently. My smiling face descends as I begin briskly rolling my thumbs in your underarms, the soft surface of the gloves vibrating the fuzzies on your tender skin. "I'm gonna send you to the moon with these babies~"

I keep my upgraded fingers working your hot spots, not pausing for a moment. My snickers and smiles and knowing gasps imitating your reactions all rain down as I buzz your erogenous zones to only one end ~ the gigglegasm. And true to my word, my hands and kisses and lickles never stop all the way through as you start bucking madly. "Tickle tickle~ ahhh ahh oooh there we go, look at you my adorable giggle girl, did you just gigglegasm for me? Awww, just from some armpitty tickles? Yeah? Well you know there's more where that came from~ Tickle tickle! You can't not gigglegasm, no you can't not when Amy's playing with ya!" <333