#getting started

[fixyourwritinghabits]

How do I write relationships of deep loyalty/devotion without it having weird romantic undertones? I have a couple cousin OCs that have a prince and hound/soldier and sword dynamic and act more like close siblings but worry that it can come off. Weird. Or should I just stop second guessing myself?

I'm going to say, as gently as possible, yes, you should stop second guessing yourself. You can't live in fear of future writing missteps or flops that keeps you from actually writing. You gotta get out there, make mistakes, and know that you can fix it.

That said, as someone who's lived in fandom as long as you have (probably longer tbh), nothing is going to stop those little gremlins from shipping anyone who's shared a single glance on the page, Prime bless them. Once you release something into the world you have no control how people react to it, but you should also feel free to shrug your shoulders at it and keep doing what you're doing.

Trying to stick to some sort of "norm" list when it comes to non-romantic relationships is just shooting yourself in the foot, because everyone is an individual and how they carry out their friendships are their own damn business. Write what feels genuine to you.

[polycraftory]

Getting Started: Junk Journaling

So you want to get started with scrapbooking/junk journaling? This is a craft, like many others, that you can get started on with very little supplies! However, we'll get a little deeper into stuff as well for some additional tips and supplies that might be fun or helpful.

What You Absolutely Need

Scissors / Cutting Implements - If you can, buy a nicer pair of scissors for your own sanity, but any scissors will do starting out! Detail scissors specifically are really helpful. Exacto knives can also be helpful, but you'll also need a cutting mat if you don't already have one. This category is worth investing in because dull scissors are a nightmare.

Adhesive - ZipDry is designed for paper so it doesn't bleed through thin stuff and it dries quick and clear. Double sided tape rolls are also very helpful, especially with large areas or gluing a bunch of stuff quickly. This is an area worth investing in earlier! Thin paper and magazine paper will have bleed through with certain glues.

Notebook/Paper - Use what you have! If you, like me, have a million journals lying around, use that! As you get deeper in, you might find it helpful to specifically look for notebooks that lie flat when opened. You can also use sheets of art paper if you want to go more independent collage style rather than journaling. Watercolor paper/notebooks are nice because they are thicker, but you can use whatever.

Materials to Actually Cut/Glue/Use - Okay, here's where you really can do whatever you want forever and spend as little or as much as you want. You can cut up books and magazines you have on hand. If you have a printer, you can print stuff out! People sell really amazing curated mixed packs of materials (you can support some great shops on etsy doing very cool and niche stuff! If you are really on a budget, amazon sells some bulk packs as well).

Material Tip

If you don't have a husband that works in a mailroom (we are very lucky) and you don't have a lot of magazines on hand, try going to your local post office and dig through the recycling bin! A lot of people will throw out magazines/ads/catalogues there and you might find some gems. You can also get a free trial for some magazines and just cancel once they want to charge you money. Nic finds Vogue and GQ helpful for people. National Geographic can be helpful for backgrounds and animals.

Leveling up details below the cut!

Level Up

Slide Cutter - Make sure you get one with a replaceable blade! Super helpful for bulk cutting out big shapes.

"Okay, but I see people online with fancy stuff and I want to get in on that action!" you may say. Here is some fun stuff to play with!

If you see someone whose junk journaling content you like, you can also just reach out to them! A lot of people are happy to share links to the stuff they use and a lot of junk journalers online run their own shops/have affiliate links to the stuff they use!

Fun Junk Journaling Variety Packs - truly this is where a lot of people spend a lot of money because you can buy all sorts of fun niche packs depending on the vibe/focus you want to go with. You can also buy packs of quotes / letters / sayings. This can be helpful especially when doing character focused stuff. My wife really likes the packs from PengellyCrafts on etsy.

Washi Tape - People really like using washi tape, especially the transparent ones. These can be surprisingly expensive.

Transparent Stickers - These are fun because you can get a lot of detail and layering without intricate cutting. If you are careful with detail cutting you can cut the white border on normal stickers if you can't swing transparent ones.

Stamps - Like transparent stickers, this can add fun depth and layering, though with perhaps slightly less detail. The best part about stamps is that they are infinitely reusable and you can get all sorts of stamp pads. The downside is they are surprisingly expensive. You can even get stamps that help you make backgrounds like stars or wood texture. There are also "container" stamps like jars and bottles that you can put stuff in!

Embossing Powder - You can pair stamps with a glue stamp pad (or get glue markers) to use with embossing powder and a heat gun to create embossed details that add depth and texture. Make sure you are careful about what order you do things in when using heat!

Distress Ink (or Distress Oxide) & Blender/Diffuser - Make things look aged! This is a stamp pad you can use to make any paper or image look older than it is. Make sure you also get the little foam blender they also sell for application since it'll go on too thick if you try to use it directly on the paper.

Wax & Wax Seals - Wax can be fun to play with because it is both an adhesive and also adds dimension. Note: a lot of embossing or wax in a journal can make it hard to close a notebook.

Old Books - You can buy used books or use books that you don't want anymore for backgrounds to cut out words. Things like recipe books and encyclopedias can be especially helpful/vibe-y.

Fun Edges / Frames - You can get scrapbooking scissors or edge punches to add fun details and shapes to paper edge. It just depends on whether you like that look! Something like a simple round edge punch can be helpful.

Have Fun With It

Do you do other crafts, like painting or cricut? You can pair so many different crafts with junk journaling to make a cool multi-media piece. The most important thing to remember is to use what you have and have fun with it! Don't put off starting because you want all the bells and whistles or think you have to spend a bunch of money like the people who create junk journaling internet content! Create joyfully and lean into the chaos.

Please let us know if this guide was helpful and if you'd like a more specific buy list or tutorials on anything! We are here to help make crafting more accessible <3 You got this! Go junk journal!

If you want to see Nic's junk journaling, we are going to queue some in the next few days. Check our pinned post to find our junk journaling tag for inspiration!

[ashs-nerd-den]

A basic ADHD study kit

Snacks and a bottled drink. Something like dried bananas will have a consistent texture, only need one hand so you can keep working while you eat and provide stim, are nice and has is good for your brain. Caffeine relaxes ADHD brains making it easier to study, but please be careful of your caffeine intake, caffeine overdoses are real and can be very dangerous

Stimmy stuff. Hair ties, bracelets or squishy stuff. Something to do with your free hand.

A high stim playlist (post about this with options)

An app/site blocker, where you can ban distraction sites and apps for a time period of your choosing, (I prefer freedom, but here is a Masterlist of app blockers) Coloured pens and highlighters for notes and practice qs

Exam practice questions. Active recall is great and being able to physically see what you've accomplished gives you dopamine and many exam paper books have spreadsheets where you can mark off or colour in the questions that you've done

Flashcards, so many flashcards

A study space - a clean desk, a comfy couch/bed, a library, whatever works for you

Get started

[thismommyisforreal]

My dears I wish you a weekend full with Fun and Joy 🤩

[pkmnirlevents]

Please remember to be respectful of your fellow roleplayers! It doesn't matter if you personally do not like the muse they are playing, you should never send harassing asks to another person out of character. Always ask for clarification before sending upsetting in character messages in their inbox. Communicate with members of your community.

Often many of the roleplayers you see are talking extensively behind the scenes before making higher stakes posts, only the tip of the iceberg may appear on blog. These are rarely spontaneous, unplanned things, and if they are the person will often say as much on their profile. Never assume someone is automatically okay with this kind of behavior. Remember these blogs are run by real people.

Be kind to one another.

[askagamedev]

Hi GameDev! I'm working on a game in my spare time that I'm pretty happy with. It's a 3d platformer with low poly graphics. I'm releasing a demo on itch tomorrow for Halloween.

Would it be weird to share my game with other indies and YouTubers who do 3d platformers? I'm a nobody, but I'd love to get feedback from other people who love 3d platformers.

It would not be weird at all. I would try to get your game in front of as many people as you can, get all the feedback you can, and do what you can to improve your game. Get your friends to play it, get your family to play it, get as many people as you can to play it. And then ask them about how they feel about it, what could be improved, how to make things better.

One of the bits of feedback I got for a game I built in my university days has stayed with me for my entire career - a friend of mine said "I was playing your game with my friends and it made me miss dinner." That really made me feel great - I made a game that was fun enough that they would rather play than eat (at that moment). That bit of feedback was a big part of how I knew I had found my career.

[Join us on Discord] and/or [Support us on Patreon]

Got a burning question you want answered?

Short questions: Ask a Game Dev on Twitter

Long questions: Ask a Game Dev on Tumblr

Frequent Questions: The FAQ

[live-emotion]

Guide - Downloading and Getting Started

1. Follow one of the guides here to download the game on either iOS or Android devices.

2. Once downloaded, open the app and you'll see these two options. Select "Start from the beginning" for a new account.

3. Agree to the game's terms of service.

4. Enter a player name. This will serve as a username in game that other players can see.

5. Enter your birthday. Month on the left, date on the right.

6. Enter the main character's name. This it the name the characters will call you by in the story mode, and can't be seen my other players. By default it is set to 'Nanami Haruka.' Last name in the box on the left, and first name in the box on the right.

7. Select one of the three idol groups when prompted with the choice during the introduction story. This doesn't have any impact that I know of other than selecting the opening video that you see.

8. The game asks for confirmation to download the short opening video. *Opening movie prompt and video shown will change depending on which group you selected. You can watch them all afterwards.

Then you're in! Have fun with Live Emotion!

More guides coming soon~

*All English text and images shown were typeset by me as a guide, and are not official translations or from an English version of the game. Please direct people to this post rather than spreading the images around. *Text added for context are in square brackets. Original JP screens shown for reference.

[queersatanic]

heyo! what can i, a teen in a really boring wealthy neighborhood with no queer community, do to combat fascism/make people aware of how wasteful and bigoted they are/generally fuck things up?

thanks so much!!

Before we get into the meat of your question, one thing we're hearing from this ask that you're going to want to keep an eye on is the idea that you know more than other people and need to educate people from a place of superiority over them. This is something that liberals do quite a lot, and while there's not a lot of reason to be sympathetic to reactionaries, something they are justified in responding negatively to is the patronizing idea that they just lack awareness of how wasteful or bigoted they are (in reality, they have a different set of values, and those values lead them to reasonable, but harmful, ends).

That is not the main point of your ask or this answer, but just watch in yourself the urge to view your self as better than others, speaking down to them.

OK, to the main point of your ask: A really important first step is going to be honestly evaluating the level of risk you're willing to take.

If you are a teenager in a wealthy family, this is probably the time when you are least likely to be meaningfully punished for, for example, breaking laws. However, there will may still be consequences for you that you don't like. Do you have parental support? Do you rely on them for your finances, or do you have some independent income? What is your support network like in general in case you make some of your peers or authority figures upset with you? Etc.

So that's the first thing: think about what sort of consequences you are currently prepared to deal with, with the understanding that may change later for you.

To give you one example: graffiti is great. The one that will probably get you in the most trouble but has some of the highest utility is spraypainting. Of course, if you don't already have artistic hobbies, it may be obvious if you go out and buy a bunch of spraypaint cans then tags start showing up all over your neighborhood, and this might be something you want to keep in mind. But there's also slap stickers, mop markers, wheatpasting. Actually, @crimethinc has a few guides on this already.

That's one example of an area that you can start doing things in with minimal resources and without needing a large group of people. It allows you to get started, which is the important thing. You are transformed by your practices much more than your plans for future practices, and you'll learn lots of things with real understanding that you only learned about from reading or hearing someone else talk about it.

But you do probably want to do things with other people, and most of them will be initially constrained by legality, so start talking to your peers if you aren't already. Don't lead with, "Hey, do you want to do illegal things together?" (and again, that may not be what you're ready for now, anyway). However, you do need to find other people who are interested in the same sorts of things that you are, and face-to-face conversations are the best way to go about this whenever possible.

You said you're a teen, so the assumption is that you're in school. If so, is there an issue on your campus that lots of your fellow students have a grievance against? Can you organize against that?

For example, is there a tardy policy that people feel is unfair? Can you work toward a collective protest by making everyone be tardy to class for a period, a whole day, a whole week, to overwhelm the system? Does the school have rules that are queerphobic? Is there a perhaps smaller group of people who care about that who can organize a walkout?

If you're out of school and at a job, do you have a union there? Do you have a groupchat that excludes management in order to complain about scheduling or unsafe duties or wage theft? Since it sounds like you still live at home, you're probably more willing to take risks at work than people who rely on jobs to pay rent and avoid eviction, but you likely share some concerns in common you can act on.

You're going to best know the issues local to you, but it's a place to start and get people in the practice of self-organizing and acting directly against hierarchical power.

In doing that, you're going to find other people who are perhaps willing to do illegal acts like graffiti with you. Or who have completely different skills and interests, for example cooking. Meals are a good way to bring people together and bond, and can also be extended to others who need it. By getting to know someone who knows how to cook, you can learn skills that help you later, like starting a local "Food Not Bombs" group for folks who would otherwise miss meals.

There's a lot of things that you can do, can do yourself, and can organize with others directly. It is not easy, but it's often very fun, and it will give you skills you can use later in life, as well as open the imagination of lots of other people about what can be done and how.

CrimethInc again has lots of other resources that you may want to become familiar with:

("Theory" and "praxis" aren't really in tension with one another. You read things other people have done to take advantage of their mistakes and experiences, but you still have to go out and do things yourself to really understand it for your situations and yourself.)

[yourultraarchive]

Understanding class assignments in UA and Japanese schools in general

In the Student Template Questionnaire, there is one particular question I realized had never been addressed, that I think a lot of people should understand the nuances of!

What school/class or organization do they belong to?

This is the question that fills out the "Affiliation" line of the "Personal Data" section student template:

So, if your character is a student, what class should they be a part of?

First of all, let's talk about structure:

Japanese high school is only 3 years, unlike American high school which is usually 4. (I'm sure other countries are different too, but I'm assuming most of the people who visit this blog are American-centric.) Given that, that means Izuku and his friends in their first year of high school are actually in the equivalent of American 10th grade, which is usually in the 14-15 year old age range.

Unlike American high school, where students are separated by class schedule and students have to leave the classroom every period to physically go to their next class (ie. you have Chemistry in first period and History in fifth period, but your friend from Chemistry in first period could have Art in fifth period instead), with the class rosters changing every semester, Japanese high school students are assigned one class (like 1-A or 1-B, or so on) which they stick to for the rest of their school career. This means they have the same classmates every single year, which is why the homeroom teacher is so central--they ALSO stick around for the entirety of the students' school careers! Homeroom teachers are more than teachers, they're more like parents or guardians relationship-wise, and keeping the same one throughout the students' school career lets them build trust, enough so that if the student is having any personal issues, they'd feel comfortable talking to their homeroom teacher about it. (As an aside, as well, usually these classes stay in one single classroom too, with the exception of classes that need special facilities like PE or Home Ec, which really drives home the idea that "Homeroom" really is supposed to be "home" for both the students and teacher! And unlike in American high school, the students don't change classrooms every period--the teachers do!)

The classrooms are not actually physically labelled, so 1-A is not a classroom number assigned to a specific room. The names of these family-like classroom units are designated by the YEAR the students are in, with the letter just being their assigned grouping. (AKA they're the first 20 students so they get "A", and the next 20 students get designated "B", and so on.)

Student numbers (ie. Izuku being student no.18) and seating order are determined by alphabetical order. Specifically Japanese alphabetical order.

So what does that all mean for Class 1-A?

Formally, they're not actually called Class 1-A, they're actually just Class A. They're 1-A because this is their first year of high school (which, as mentioned before, is the equivalent of American 10th grade, but if you were going to use American terms, it'd be more accurate to call them "freshmen" instead of "sophomore" like 10th graders are supposed to be), but when they move on to the next school year, they don't keep that name. In their second year of high school, they'd be Class 2-A, and in their final year of high school, they'd be Class 3-A!

So, for example, the Big Three being in class 3-B? That means that when they were first-years, they were in class 1-B! (That being said, the "A" and "B" and so on are not the designation of student ranking, like the UA entrance exam scoreboard might lead you to believe--I had a few friends who thought that, but it's not actually the case that 1-A has stronger or smarter or just overall higher-ranked members than 1-B. It's random, just like any other high school rosters are made! It just seems like 1-A has a lot of powerhouses because they're the main characters, but that's not to say 1-B is any less skilled or powerful than them. If this all was the case, I highly doubt our esteemed Big Three trio would have been in Class 1-B all the way up to 3-B!)

This also applies to the other classes, like the Support Course or Gen Ed. They may be labelled "1-C" or "1-E" or whatever else, but again, those Letter designations are just their grouping, not their ranking within the school, especially since it would have been really hard to quantify if the Support Couse was less powerful than the Hero Course. UA just happened to designate the first 40 students as Hero Course, the next 60 as Gen Ed, and etc etc for Business and Support too.

As for the student order within the classrooms themselves? Again, not a determination of power, it's just a simple matter of alphabetical order by last name. If you're standing at the front of the classroom looking out at the desks, the seating arrangement starts at the leftmost side of the room ("A" names), going front to back (not left to right like Americans might!), and then going to the next row to the right, and so on. (In the following image taken from the MHA wiki, the "front left" of the classroom is Aoyama, and the "bottom right" is Momo. Though keep in mind that the alphabetical order here is based on the Japanese alphabet, not the American one.)

Now, what does that mean for YOUR characters?

Well, if you want to have your characters be in the same class as the canon characters, certainly feel free to put them in 1-A or 1-B! (Keep in mind though that class sizes in Japan tend to stick around 20, but you can play by your own rules for your own story/rp/whatever.) However, if you want them to be in the same class as the canon 1-A but you've listed your character as 17? They wouldn't be in 1-A, they'd probably be 3-A. (17 is a bit of a nebulous age though, so it depends on what year you'd have them in--if they're "seniors", they'd absolutely be in their 3rd year, but if you think they have another year of schooling ahead of them, maybe put them in 2-A?)

If you want to put them in their own class entirely instead of bunching them in with the canon 1-A or 1-B? Make a whole new classroom if you want! Assign them to 1-C (and push back the Gen Ed Course and the others another letter, if you plan to involve them) since the courses seem to be grouped together and it'd be weird to have a new Hero Course be assigned 1-L or something when the others are A and B--though you could do that if you want to! Up to you!

Similarly, if your character isn't in the Hero Course at all, assign them a different classroom like 1-C or 1-H or whatever! (I don't remember which letters were assigned to each course, but I'm sure you can look it up if you really want to know it rather than making up the assignments for yourself.)

Also, if your character doesn't go to UA at all? The same rules apply. Shiketsu High School and all the rest have their own 1-A, 2-B, etc. And even middle school has the same structure, since like high school, it's also 3 years! Izuku and Bakugou would have been in year 3 of middle school at the start of the series.

Finally, regarding the seating order: I see a lot of people put their characters at the end/last row of the classroom, should they be added to the canon classes, which is totally okay of course! But if you want your character to be there from the start, they'd probably have their own permanent seat number. If you plan on using the Japanese alphabet arrangement, just look at a Japanese kana chart and see where they would go in the roster--for instance, if Kojiro Bondo from 1-B were in 1-A, his seat would be right between Bakugou and Midoriya (because "ho/bo" comes after "ha/ba", and both of those come before any M names).

If you don't plan to use the Japanese alphabetical order, then you can feel free to use the English order if you like (especially if you're not mixing with the canon classes which already have their own established orders you may not want to mess with) or, as with American high schools, don't use an order at all and let the students just sit where they want. Up to you!

Hopefully that helps you understand how to enroll your character in school!

One last note? This is specifically for character designing more than development, but each department has its own school uniform! It's very subtle, but the epaulettes (I think that's what they're called?), lapels, and cuffs of the uniform jackets all have different stripe designs and arrangements/number of buttons!

That's all for now. Hope these tips help!

[headspacedad]

so you're ready to socialize

You've got your blog set up. You've posted or reblogged something. Your icon isn't a faceless orange shape. You're no longer in danger of being blocked on sight as a bot.

Now what?

I recently got an ask in my inbox for help with this whole 'tumblr' thing. The person that asked me had a lot of the basics down so I focused on expanding your social circle - except it took me so long to write that I saved it in my drafts to add to and only then found out that once its in your drafts you can't reply privately.

so - Imma post it here without the actual ask so if the person didn't want to be mentioned they won't. Let's go!

First off, doing what you're doing right now by sending me an ask is a great way to get the ball rolling. Reaching out to other people and engaging them is a big part of how you can build a circle on tumblr.

You can do that with inbox messages.

You can do that with DM/PMs (the box that pops up to the side where you can have real time text conversations).

You can do that by reblogging other people's posts and leaving notes in the tags commenting about the post (most posters read these, though they're more for your followers to get your thoughts on a matter, like whispering in a movie theater except without the dirty looks)

reblog their post and add your own comments in the body of the post, basically chaining a response to their post, usually used when you've got something that adds to the original post like a continuation of the joke or more facts, etc.

and you can comment on the posts via the little speech bubble next to the reblog button, which is kind of like replying personally to the post (interacting with the poster themselves).

Not everyone will automatically engage in response. Some people are just here to chill and don't want to be social (some days I know I don't have the brainpower for it). A lot of people do want to be social though and so the more you comment outward the higher your chances of finding other people you can jive with. A good way to make your chances better at finding someone that will back and forth with you is over shared interests. We're a very interest based site. So find something you're excited about - maybe its a hobby like knitting, maybe its a streaming series like Good Omens, maybe its hamsters, maybe its Elizabethan neck ruffs! Whatever it is that you're interested in punch the words that will get those kinds of results into tumblr's search bar and look at the posts that come up. I tend to search by 'newest' instead of 'most popular' because it guarantees me people that are currently interested in whatever I am, who are actively putting their posts out there for others to find. Often if you start reblogging someone's posts, they'll see it and check out your blog. If you really want interaction though, the best way to go is one of the above bullet points, especially inbox or speech bubble commenting. It shows you want to talk about something they want to talk about too. A lot of times this is a great way to get more interaction with others and widen your circle (as well as find new stuff about something you enjoy). It might be slow going, I still haven't figured out what the magic is that gets someone a blow up of followers overnight, especially not the all important holy grail of Interactive followers but slow and steady still builds a good group of people you can enjoy sharing things everyone's interested in and it keeps growing over time.

This also works in reverse. A good chunk of my followers (friends honestly) come from my days in the Voltron fandom. I was VERY active making posts while the show was airing. Lots of fanfiction, lots of meta, lots of speculation, just lots of being loud and excited (and then loud and not excited). A lot of other people were interested in VLD too at the time and they found me and bounced off my ideas with ideas of their own and things really ballooned. To this day, a huge hard core of my social group are ex-VLD fans who have moved on to other things (mostly) but still hang around because we built that core and we enjoy seeing what the others in the group have moved onto and found to share with the team. So, again, find your interests and make posts about them so that other people with the same interests can find you. The more popular something is the more attention its going to get - but also the easier it is to get lost in the shuffle of everyone talking about a thing. Not every post is going to get responses. Sometimes I'll post something I think people will enjoy and get crickets. Sometimes everyone and their cousin jumps onboard. Don't get discouraged. DO use the tags. tumblr sucks when it comes to finding things in the tags but its still worth doing because sometimes, randomly and with no pattern, it doesn't suck. The first five tags are the really important ones. Make sure you put the biggest details there. For instance if you're making a post about the One Piece live action from Netflix your first five tags should be something like: one piece, opla, netflix, zoro, swords are cool. You want people looking for One Piece posts about Zoro and his swords to be able to find you easily. And, once they find you, hopefully to engage you about Zoro and his swords.

There are a lot of ways to find other people to interact with on tumblr. One of the pleasures of the site is you get to take things, for the most part, at your own pace and level of comfort. Just remember, the more active you are interacting with other people and their posts, the wider your circle will grow. Its not a 100% success rate, like I said, a lot of people are just here to vibe after a long day of having to be socially 'on' all day, but a lot of people are happy to find other people to get to natter about interests with. Do what you're comfortable with and before you know it, you'll have a group of people that interact with your posts, and you, regularly!

[olszewskisworld]

Portrait

[howifeltabouthim]

'Give me an intermediate goal. What can I try to do that I might conceivably manage to do?'

Iris Murdoch, from A Fairly Honourable Defeat

[dipschitt]

(I've never used Tumblr before and by myself I am not great at navigating it so I am very greatful for @quillibop ! Thank you for explaining everything and helping me get set up :])

Hello Tumblr! I had an idea to share 2 ocs in the form of short comics, and random yap seshes at 2am haha. I absolutely will be using this as my notes app if thats alright (hopefully I can organize it so its not everywhere tho ^^")

Getting set up was not too bad and we are already looking nice!

I hope to share and interact with anyone interested in these two :D as well as hear about anyones ocs! Maybe be moots!

[istandonsnowpiles]

I've been inspired (in no small part due to your photos) to get a camera and start doing some photography. Do you have any tips for a beginner? Good cameras to get, things you wish you had known, that kind of thing? Your photos look so good!

Heyo! Welcome to the photography world! I'd glad I could inspire you a bit.

A few tips I've learned recently:

For buying gear, the actual camera doesn't really matter for beginners. Any camera will take good photos, even old ones.

If you're feeling sociable, go to a local camera store and try out some used camera. Pick one that feels good and fits your budget. Brand doesn't matter.

Last, if you get a camera with interchangeable lenses, spend more on a lens than the body. High quality lenses will continue to be great on newer, better camera bodies & make cheap bodies take amazing photos.

I've got two posts for more tips, check 'em out!

Okay, we've made it to the bottom of the post. My starter camera recommendation has always been a Panasonic G or GX body (GX1, GX7, G7, GX85, or even a G9 or GX9 if you're feeling very spendy) + a Panasonic 25mm f/1.7 lens, which is still one of my favorite lenses of all time.

Prefer a mirrorless camera over a DSLR. DSLRs are cheaper, but harder to learn. You can adapt DSLR lenses to mirrorless if you like using cheaper DSLR lenses.

[princesscolumbia]

Artists of Tumblr: Help starting, pls!

So years and years ago (an uncomfortably long time, IMHO, that I'm not fond of telling) I put my pencil and sketchpad away for the last time. There's a lot of reasons why that was (most of them having to do with a certain ex that I Do Not Like) but prior to splitting into a system a few weeks ago it felt like that would be it. I did occasionally break out a piece of blank paper and sketch some stuff out, and I guess a part of me was always kinda pining to get back into art because I bought my last three phones I got specifically because they had styluses (stylii?) and when I got my current convertible laptop I also got a stylus for that.

Well, after the split, it seems that except for writing I got the creative drive! We're getting a guitar down the road (leaning toward a used electric to start, but there's something attractive about plucking away at a classical acoustic...anyway!), but now I'm looking to get back into art, and I wanna do it digital! Yeah, I've got a scanner and a camera on my phone and yadda so I could just get a sketchpad, but that's not a challenge and is just frustrating. I want to flex and learn and grow, and to do that I'm learning how to use my convertible laptop and stylus and a digital art program. I picked Krita because it's open source and well reviewed, but the problem is...uhm...I haven't the first foggy clue how to use, like, most of it.

I went to the "Tutorials and How To's" on the official website and...

Yes! These are things I know how to do and make complete sense!

(...the hell's a 'clipping mask'?)

(Why is speed painting a 'common' workflow?!)

(...WHAT DOES EYE TRACKING HAVE TO DO WITH ANYTHING?!?!?)

So, yeah...little help? Anyone know a good starting place? Something that doesn't assume I know All The Things™, please?