#hopefully ill be doing better things with better art

[cleavetheclover]

Hiiiiiii i have a cyphmen sketch for y’all

Late nights in the base with cypher being a chatterbox and omen just knitting

Can’t tell if this is still a WIP or if i should consider it complete lmao

[viridian-house]

I want so desperately to finish this one, but life has other plans for me this month. I learned a ton while working on it, so fingers crossed I can pick the momentum back up in the future

sakura, from my fic series the slug & the stars

[sesamenom]

hoping to get my maedhros maglor week pic up tomorrow if the tech side of things runs smoothly

[seventh-district]

several days and 15 thousand words later, i am relieved to report that the suffocating urge to Write Something has been sated and no longer has me in a chokehold

[the1trueanon]

sometimes your brain needs you to sit back for several days, take care of yourself properly, eat food and sleep good, practice self care, the works

and then sometimes your brain needs you to eat 3 bags of M&Ms and hyperfixate without looking at social media for 2 days, and instead focus on doing several pages of doodles XD

[deathisamotherofbeauty]

been a while since I made a post complaining about things🫶

need help bc why am I making this public when I could be writing in my diary but idk if someone else is going through the same thing so sometimes it helps see other people going through the same things you know

anyway still frustrated bc I'm basically getting nothing from the jobs I've been applying to. trying to be hopeful that stores will call during sale season but I'm pretty sure that's the delulu mind at work :'/ and it's frustrating bc I'd actually like to work at some of these stores bc I do think the products r nice but anyway. It's just frustrating bc I think I am realistic with a lot of the jobs I apply for, like I'm basically fully qualified for these entry level jobs and yet I'm just not getting called, not even for interviews:/// and people have seen my cv and told me it's good or like normal. not that excited to see some friends bc I always feel like they r judging me for not doing anything currently but they're also basically unemployed or got jobs bc of other people recommended them. and I'm definitely grateful to have been offered jobs but it all feels like jobs that I just don't feel mentally capable of doing. I know of another friend of a friend that could recommend me to their questionable company but I'm so scared of that type of thing bc then if I say no to the job I feel rlly bad like I'm letting people down and wasted everyone's time but anyway 🚬 really wish I could get a job by myself but I do think most places just want to do whatever is easier and r always asking their workers if they know anyone for the job so that's the only way someone is able to get a job

enough word vomit for now, can I please get called for an interview just to feel something pls. also the motivation to apply for jobs is slowly fading again which sucks bc I had actually entered a good groove

also wish I could do some things that I want to dooo but I low-key feel frozen and I'm not letting my body start any new fun activities, even though one of them is volunteer work so maybe it could be good for me in several levels but anyway when the weather gets better I'll contact the place😤😤 <- has been saying this for ages and the weather has gotten better several times

[localsharkcryptid]

...

[thepandalion]

just had a random video essay about whether retcons by the author should be allowed in my recommended stuff on youtube. anyways there's like maybe 3 comments on the video and they're all in consensus that the story belongs to the author and that it's as simple as that

meanwhile, me, currently a literature major, can very easily point to roland barthes "death of the author", which I did read in full last year and actually highly enjoyed (I actually really enjoyed all the barthes stuff we read, even though I hated the course I read them all through because it had a test at the end that effectively required you to memorize a good 30 essays or so, the shortest of which being 5 pages long, and the longest being an upwards of 70, but my gripes with the history of literature and culture in the 20th century are a story for another post, maybe)

anyways this is a post about how if anyone ever tells you something is clear cut and there's no room for argument, and they're not joking (I have, previously, made jokes about "no no everything is clearly black and white", and sometimes they fell flat, but that then turned into really interesting discussions so I guess it's worth it), they absolutely do not know enough about that subject to comment on it

[mauricemylittlemeowmeow]

gonna doompost a bit

[phagodyke]

now having the exact OPPOSITE problem I had yesterday bc I pulled out the spectrum red instead of cad red to try and get a richer final shade instead of orange-y but it's settled too dark and it looks like dried blood..... kind of a vibe but maybe not the one I was going for 😭

[menhera-info-archieve]

Why Menhera is about Mental Health, not Mental Illness

I think a lot of people get confused about what the difference between these two things is, especially since it's common to use these phrases interchangeably. Technically speaking though, these terms have different meanings:

mental health: a state of mental well-being that enables people to cope with the stresses of life, realize their abilities, learn well and work well, and contribute to their community

mental illness: [medical] conditions that affect a person’s thinking, feeling, mood, or behavior

It's important to note that mental health doesn't exclusively pertain to people with mental illnesses. According to Christopher M. Palmer, “The term ‘mental health’ implies the absence of illness or disorder. But there are a lot of ways people can be mentally healthy or ill, just like there are many ways to be physically healthy or unwell.”

Focusing on menhera, part of the reason the movement is about mental health is because of Japan's culture and the fact that diagnosis isn't as common/emphasized there. This is something that has already been better explained than others, so rather than trying to reword them I'll give a few articles that help explain this

mental health ≠ mental illness

The origin and birth of Menhera

Menhera as Art and Subculture

What I think I can break down is how much different the movement would look if it was only about mental illness vs how open it is when we talk about mental health!

If the movement is only about mental illness, then we are claiming this is a space only for people with a diagnosis/ labeled mental illness. This can lead to arguments about the validity of self diagnosis and whether or not you need official diagnosis to take part in the community, something that can be observed in other mental illness related communities/tags. Even if we try to be open and say all those people are allowed, people will likely feel anxious and think things like "am i mentally ill enough to call myself menhera?" It also means that as people recover, they may feel forced to move on from the community as they stop meeting the criteria for their diagnoses (if they do).

But because the menhera movement is about mental health we don't have to worry about formal diagnosis at all. Menhera is a community for anyone who has struggled mentally in any way ever. Of course people with mental illness are still welcome and will make up a significant part of the community, but because it's open to all, people can focus on their recovery without feeling like they'll be pushed out of the community because they "don't qualify" anymore. It also allows people with a variety of different situations to join, such as (but not limited to):

lgbtq+ people, people of color, physically disabled people, and other minorities who don't have mental illness but experience pain and mental health struggles due to discrimination.

people with chronic illness/physical conditions, who may struggle with mental health due to physical pain, discrimination, and other struggles that aren’t mental illness.

people who have trouble with symptoms, but don't meet full criteria for any official diagnoses (ex: people who struggle to focus but don't have ADHD, people who benefit from DBT skills that don't have BPD, etc.)

people who probably have a mental illness, but can't afford to go to therapy, aren't ready for therapy, don't have access, etc.

people who are considered "weird" or "sick" by society (think like how kink is a theme in menhera because kink/sexual desire are stigmatized)

young people who are struggling because growing up is hard/they have heightened emotions/etc.

people dealing with normal stressors (work, school, etc.) but need an outlet or place to vent

and plenty more i'm not thinking of, I'm sure

Hopefully this puts some perspective on the difference between mental health/illness and why menhera focuses on mental health!

[caelyne]

Whats your characters heads look like before hair and eyes? Im trying to learn to be better at drawing beyond the basics by studying your art style, and my main issue is the head and distributeing the fluff with out over doing it.

admittedly, im a big offender of just doing this:

there's DEFINITELY better ways of drawing heads. like the whole shape construction thing where you can do something like this

of course what i did here is still very basic and ill probably have people who know actually know and study this stuff at a level higher than me laugh at me butchering the idea but.

Yeah I totally understand the difficulty with what you mean! a lot of the stuff i do is just using shortcuts to get around certain details. but i mean my style and the way i draw is pretty simple for the most part so, i think whatever works and looks good is good enough sometimes! but there's also always room for improvement too! anyway hopefully this helped a bit

[also i havent answered your previous ask becus things have been a bit busy, but i'd like to give that a shot at some point! maybe!!!]

[triptrippy]

do you have any tips for keeping faces consistent? i really envy your ability to do that in your art (i stare at your dunmesh expression sheets constantly) — i feel like i have eyes and face shapes down, and sometimes noses, but once the character turns at an odd angle it's all So Over. and im never sure how to approach someone facing front in a way that looks good, or still stylized! sorry if this is an odd question or one that is too taxing of your effort, and thank you for your time.

i feel honored to be asked! thank you for enjoying my stuff! drawing different angles is something im currently practicing/playing with a lot, so ill try to share what ive learned so far ill tell you how EYE attempt to keep my faces consistent, i break down my designs into parts in my head. i took a 3d modeling class years ago, which i think has helped a ton with being able to visualize things in a 3d space even if i hardly ever model anything anymore. ive also played a LOT of the sims over the years LOL

(this isnt what i do when i draw, but this hopefully shows what i do in my head when im thinking about face shapes and breaking them down and rearranging them when drawing a different angle) When i draw a character my headspace is "pose-able figure" and figures have solid shapes, so something that might help a lot is finding the definitive shape of your characters features and practicing what that simple shape would look like at weird angles. weird angles are fun. use 3d models with light sources that you can turn yourself and look at reference images of those features youre drawing from different angles. trace peoples heads at weird angles.

and heres my personal preference on drawing characters head on. an easy trick to drawing faces head on is to just flip half of the face to make the other. i wouldnt do this! all faces have an inherent asymmetry to them, so i never copy and flip unless its INTENTIONALLY flawless. make your head-on faces lopsided. i think it looks better personally.

dont know if this helps you but thats just what i could think of as far as how i Do things. just try to obsess over the beauty in shapes and look at references of real people and trace over 3d models and make a lot of bad art as quickly as you can. i love you

[indieyuugure]

Hiii! Im doing a essay about ROTTMNT and TMNT do you have any ideas whatt ill do?

lol 😂 oh dear this seems a tad urgent.

Hm, well personally I would consider covering the both positive and accurate homeschooler representation in TMNT. It’s often overlooked but is really actually incredibly good and a deeper topic than maybe like art style.

A lot of media paints homeschoolers extremely inaccurately and often negatively. I can’t tell you how many times the “homeschooled” character’s in media are 2D friendless plain toast people with personalities that are literally just that they don’t go to school and it’s so incredibly insulting! But TMNT doesn’t do this!

I’ll tell you, as a homeschooler myself and having met NUMEROUS others, homeschoolers are wild, they’re full of personality and big dreams, often they have no interest in attending “normal school” and are usually better educated, they’re best friends with their siblings and very close with their parents, and actually tend to have more meaningful and lasting friendships than other kids.

All of these things is the TMNT is and it makes me so happy to have good representation that’s not loud and preaching but just subtly there because THAT’S HOW IT IS.

There are exceptions to everything I just listed—I can think of one person for just about every exception—but TMNT does a fantastic job of explaining in a lowkey way that homeschoolers aren’t aliens from another planet, they’re kids just like everyone else.

So anyway 😅 now that I’ve written my own rant, hopefully you’ll find that useful at all.

Other good topics could be the franchise’s themes of acceptance and learning to see beyond an outer appearance which as a show targeted towards children is a very good thing to learn (seriously children are the judgiest little things).

Another could be the franchise’s history from gritty young adult comics to colorful children’s cartoons.

You could also do something with the shows portrayal of positive familial relationships since most television often depicts siblings as annoying irritants and parents as unfeeling dictators, and while those are aspects of family life, they never show the positive things like unconditional love, and loyalty and understanding and very deep togetherness.

Hopefully any of this is useful, I’d recommend maybe asking a few other people for ideas (if you haven’t already) so you can get a wider selection of view points and of course more ideas 👍

[canmom]

altered states of mind explored so far

LSD ✔️- currently a favourite after two trips. highly sensitive to input, needs to be treated carefully with a degree of 'ritual'. benefits a lot from interesting company and artworks to look at.

mushrooms ✔️- only done once but great fun in company

other psychedelics - todo. wanna go to a rave at some point

weed ✔️- it's nice to vibe on with friends, not particularly inclined to go out of my way to get it otherwise

alcohol ✔️ - it's ok, but i really do not see what the fuss is about, except that i guess that it's the only popular drug that's legal for weird historical reasons.

adhd stimulants❔- not been allowed a high enough dose to be effective. hopefully will get a better try in glasgow

ssris ✔️- still on these fuckers, i go a bit mental whenever i forget to take them and not in a fun way sadly

'sub space' ✔️- recently found out how fun this is, need to explore this one a lot more :3

'top space'/'domme space' - todo, doesn't come naturally (you'd be shocked to hear) but want to explore when i have more exp

hypnosis - todo, learning about this one recently, seems very promising

roleplaying games ✔️- it's not usually thought of like this but i think getting really into character or really creatively vibing as a DM/MC is an example of an altered state of mind, and a really fun and often meaningful one. probably related to...

adhd hyperfocus/'creative flow' ✔️ - wrt computer games, programming, writing, playing music, doing maths etc. - absolutely great when you can figure out how to activate it. very unpredictable. does not always fixate on what 'you' (see: mild plurality question) would want it to, so it's not exactly a superpower. but tbh the things that activate this are what my life revolves around.

social connection ✔️ & loneliness ✔️ - the last few years prior to moving here I was very isolated, and my landing in Glasgow was kind of rocky. the contrast makes it really noticeable how much an evening with friends will change my mood and feelings about the world. not having enough irl social contact reliably leads to....

getting really neurotic about stuff/emotional flashbacks ✔️ - a frequently recurring state of mind, and sadly not a fun one. much more likely to end up here with ssri withdrawal. recognising it as a state of mind is helpful though because i can then think about what activates it/how to transition to another state

movement ✔️ - cycling, flying a glider (years ago now), going on one of those fairground rides that spin you around really fast, dancing, roller skating, tai chi - it feels really good to move, and be in control of that movement through space, to tie it to other stimuli such as music, etc etc. movement in a virtual space is pretty good if the interaction is sufficiently textured, but irl movement hits more of your senses including your physical sense of acceleration/proprioception, and is thus more powerful.

encountering art ✔️- this covers so much. but think of 'getting lost in' a book or 'getting really absorbed in' a film. for a time you are caught up in a flow of emotions and connections driven by the provocative thing you are encountering. this is a big reason why we do it, after all.

intense fever ✔️- illness can be a pretty intense drug (c.f. 18ft leash - scouts honour)! it's funny to talk about 'being high on covid' but the analogy is there, thanks @cean-untitled for pointing out the analogy. since you don't get to choose when you go on it or prepare in the same sort of ritualistic way and your body is usually in a bad way at the time, the results are often less fun, but can still be pretty dramatic and powerful.

sleep ✔️ fatigue ✔️- as xkcd put it, to 'go comatose for a few hours and hallucinate vividly'; fatigue is also a common and very abruptly arriving state of mind these days.

lucid dreaming - todo

i'm sure i could think of more, or divide these up more granularly, but i think this serves to illustrate the unifying frame here.

[miss-ali-lawliet]

Meet my mouthwashing oc, Margot! Down below I will put down her info for you to get the gist of her character! She's my main oc in the fandom, and I adore her greatly.

She is endgame is Curly/Anya but pre-during game she finds herself stuck in a toxic relationship with Jimmy unfortunately, but depending on the verse she's in, she's able to break free and to pave a better future for herself (and a possible child she may have)

General info

Name: Margot

Nicknames: Maggie, Mags, May, Mar, etc.

Age: Early-mid thirties.

Gender: Female

Pronouns She/Her

Sexuality: Bisexual / Poly

Height: 5'3

Extra: American

Looks

Hair:. She originally has brunette hair with a slight wave, but she dyed her hair to be a much lighter brown/almost blonde. Her darker roots show though. She also tends to style it via tying it in a low ponytail.

Skin: Margot has fair skin with freckles dotting her face and body.

Eyes: Her eyes are a pretty blue, looks gray in some lighting

Body type: She has a feminine body, her stomach isn't the flattest as it's a bit soft. But her time on the Pony Express has her losing weight over time.

Style: She wears the standard uniform like the others, but she likes to wear silly earrings and chokers to add more of a flair of her personality. Her favorite earrings are her strawberry ones.

Extra: Has a nose and ear piercings.

Background

The gist of Margot's backstory is that she grew up relatively well. She had a good upbringing with her family for the most part, and once she was old enough she would go to schooling for psychology and teaching. Initially going to be a therapist/counselor, she would get her main job as an elementary art teacher and a counselor that was willing to help her students. 

She LOVED her job and students very much, she even had a great reputation in the school and despite being the art teacher, a lot of students would end up going to her for support, to the point she was offered to be a secondary school counselor of sorts. Unfortunately, after years of her dedication to the school, things wouldn't last. Some issues occured to the point that she was let go from her job, likely issues with some parents or the school-board and district itself, or even worse it seemed to come out of no where. 

It absolutely devastated her, losing her job. It led to some rather poor coping skills afterwards as she tried to find work, but thankfully she would find herself in luck as her father knew someone who worked for the Pony Express company, getting her a recommendation and suggesting to her that this was a good break she needed to figure herself. It gave her a good payment at the end hopefully, and some time away from home to try to get herself back in order mentally so that when she came back, she could get back into the groove of things.

How could she say no to that? 

 Misc things

Likes: Food, she loves having sweets and healthy food like fruits and veggies or something with meat, she tries to eat healthy at least but she has her weaknesses. She likes funky jewelry and accessories and appearing nice/presentable, animals, having a connection with someone in some way (as friends or more), giving a voice to the voiceless. Sometimes questionable taste in people. 

Dislikes: Being alone for long periods of time, bitter tasting food, the taste of alcohol even if she drinks it sometimes, not being understood, making others feel negatively, feeling way too much or nothing at all. 

Bad habits/coping skills: Smoking, sleeping with others to try to feel something, drinking at times. Margot even tries to make herself look better than she actually is feeling for the sake of not causing issues/concerns for herself.

Fears: On top of the basic fear of death, she fears failure/being stuck somewhere she hates. She also fears not being there to help/do something when she can. She also has a fear of fire. She even has a fear of losing control over herself and situations.

Mental illness: Depression and anxiety are the main ones she's suffered all her life, it's only worsened after losing her dream job. Also has BPD (undiagnosed).