#i can't copy their caption for whatever reason so there it goes

[backmarkerr]

Kimi Raikkonen brought his son into our Monza garage for a seat fit in the W15 | via Mercedes AMG etc etc team | 2024

[dogsliampaynedoesntinstagram]

I think there's a possibility with the Pilates thing that's maybe being overlooked, which is just that the Pilates studio is run by some nice people who are generally kind and lovely but grew up and exist in a society steeped in misogyny and so have internalized a lot of misogynistic ideas and not fully interrogated them, and that when they asked Harry about using that clip of him he either didn't get a chance to see the ad copy past a general 'it'll be about how pilates isn't just for women!' (or most likely, someone who works for him saw it rather than him personally) or he saw it, wasn't comfortable with it, but didn't want and/or feel like it was his place to educate his Pilates instructor on misogyny and gender theory.

And I think it's a perfectly reasonable criticism to say that no, he should have either taken the time to educate the person responsible or he should've pulled his permission to use video of him in the ad, but also... I'm sympathetic to the fact that life is complicated, and there are plenty of people I have good, functioning, but very limited relationships with in life who I wouldn't necessarily go out of my way to educate. Especially if, as could very well be the case with Harry, in trying to explain and educate I might reveal something about myself that I wasn't ready to share with that person.

But in the end, like I said, I think the most boring scenario is most likely - Harry goes to that pilates studio, they asked if they could use video of him in an ad, he generally likes them so he said sure and then forgot all about it, some random person from his team is the one who got an email with the ad copy to approve and said random person signed off on it. I think there's a solid chance Harry has never even read that caption.

Oh anon - I feel like there's a lot here I could respond to, but I think where I want to start is this: Do you really think the way it works for use of Harry's image is that people ask him if they can do it, if he generally likes them he says yes, and the details don't matter?

Harry is a massive business proposition and his image is a very, very valuable commodity. Random people are not signing off content for Harry. The people who sign off content for Harry are doing so with an understanding of what matters to him and what he wants to see.

We have no indication that he's casual with how his image is used - quite the opposite. When was the last time he endorsed a business? Harry knows lots of people who he thinks are nice and could benefit from his image.

It's also worth noting that a two site Pilates business that has got coverage in Metro, Telegraph, Timeout, Telegraph and Bazar - isn't leaving it's marketing to the instructors. The idea that this is about Harry's personal relationship with his pilates instructor - completely ignores that this is a business deal on both sides.

I know this is a fraught thing to do - but I'm reading a lot of anxiety in this ask. The combination of the need to emphasise how great all the people involved might be and also that you've created this very specific scenario where in order to not have his image used Harry would have to educate people he had a personal relationship about why things are wrong. That's worry isn't about Harry, or anything we've seen about how he lives his life, or has any relationship to any publicly available information about how either industry works - and that does suggest that it's about you.

So I want to say to you - no is a complete sentence. If something makes you uncomfortable then you don't have to educate everyone around you as to why you don't want to do it (or even know yourself). Unlike Harry you probably can't just get your team to do it for you and never even have to have the awkward conversations. But you're much more important than Harry - and learning a good way of navigating the world for you is much more important than whatever dumb shit Harry is doing.

[jengarie]

#showyourprocess !

From planning to posting, share your process for making creative content!

To continue supporting content makers, this tag game is meant to show the entire process of making creative content: this can be for any creation.

RULES — When your work is tagged, show the process of its creation from planning to posting, then tag up to 5 people with a specific link to one of their creative works you’d like to see the process of. Use the tag #showyourprocess so we can find yours!

Thank you, @rinielle for tagging me! She chose the piece above (original post), and oh boy this one was a whole ass rollercoaster ride! Unfortunately, I hadn't turned on the timelapse feature for this but I'll try to go through each part of the process as best as I can!

The photos I'm gonna upload are gonna be a mix of screenshots and literal photos of my screen, because I'm taking some of them from my updates to friends, since a lot of the steps got lost in my painting process.

But before that, let me tag some other amazing creators!

@dragonji: this gif art!

@candicewright: this yibo painting!

@wendashanren: this gifset!

@mylastbraincql: this gif!

I haven't been able to keep track of who's been tagged so apologies if you've already done this! Also, no pressure to do it at all if you would rather not! <3

Planning

Sometimes, I get an idea first and find reference photos to go with that idea. But for this one, I sought out a reference photo first, and built an idea on top of it!

After that, I roughly sketch out the base pose. Usually, this looks very messy, but it doesn't really matter as long as I understand which part goes where!

The idea for the background didn't really come until the creation process because I don't think I really planned this to be a full piece.

Creation

Sketching

Honestly, from this point on, it's more of trial and error.

So, I redid the the initial base pose—made it cleaner and a little bit more detailed. See: the added definition in their arm muscles, the rearrangement of Wei Wuxian's legs, and Lan Wangji's hand on Wei Wuxian's back. If you look at the second photo, I also changed the pose a bit midway—I tend to edit as I go sometimes when I change my mind. (For this, I thought, given the Lan arm strength, it would be better to make Lan Wangji look more at ease carrying Wei Wuxian. This gets covered by the robes anyway though, so it didn't matter much in the end.)

I also started adding details to the base! I usually start with the face and then the hair! I usually go for the clothes next, but I dreaded the robes in this piece so I guess that's why I ended up with a basic idea of what I wanted for the background instead LOL I also figured out how I want the final crop to look like, so I blocked out all the other areas with an extra layer!

Okay, onto the part that killed me like ten times: the robes. There are a lot of interactions between their robes here given their pose, and not to mention they also have layers upon layers on each of them! So, to maintain my sanity and to keep track of which part is which, I color coded them into the most colorful sketch I've ever made.

Another reason why I filled in each layer of robe with a solid block of color, is so that all the lines underneath gets covered. Without all of the colors, the actual outline actually looks like the one on the right. What a nightmare!

I also ignored the crop again for this part, because it's always better to draw past your borders, in case you decide to rotate or tilt or whatever your piece later on. I didn't do the feet anymore though, because that I was sure wouldn't show in the final piece anymore.

After that, I did the sketch one more time and then started adding the base colors. (I didn't have a screenshot of just the base colors, and the final CSP file is a nightmare so I copy pasted the layers into a new canvas to show you guys :') )

By the way, I drew their robes flowing this way, because I wanted it to frame the lower arch of the moon behind them for the composition. It was a little frustrating that I couldn't get Lan Wangji's robes a little higher because of Wei Wuxian's legs but I later filled in the empty space with his forehead ribbon anyway, so it all worked out in the end!

Painting

Because apparently, I was a masochist back then, I merged the base colors all into one layer and started adding shadows to the robes. (These days, I add shadows first and then, merge. It's much easier this way.)

And then, I started painting! Again, I did the face first and then the hair, before finally the robes. This was my first time painting side profiles and honestly it was quite a pain to figure out LOL but !!! I think I did a good job and I'm proud of how it turned out. I again used reference photos for this one but I can't link any because they were just several random Pinterest photos that I didn't save.

Another thing to note is that I use the mesh transform tool a lot, especially on faces. That's largely why Lan Wangji's face looks so different in the latter two!

And then I went with the robes. Somewhere along the way, I realized I didn't like how I planned to do Lan Wangji's sleeves and the flowy part of Wei Wuxian's robes and I... decided, with much dread, to do them over. So I sketched on top of the painted layers and redid the robes, again.

It was at this point that I decided to take a break from this piece because it was honestly very draining! I think it took about three weeks before I decided to open the file again and continue it.

When I did, I just finished painting the rest of the robes and their hands. The blue details on Lan Wangji's outer robes were painted on a separate layer that I put on Multiply. I probably did more adjustments to the face and hair and stuff, because my painting process is honestly a mess :')

Final Adjustments

I added some correction layers on certain areas to fix some of the colors. See: Lan Wangji's sleeve becoming much brighter and paler; Wei Wuxian's legs having less contrast. And then I merged all of the layers (excluding the background) and added a bit of blur. See: Wei Wuxian's ponytail; the entire lower part; the flowing forehead ribbon. My reasoning for this is so that most of the detail (and therefore the flow of the eye) goes to their faces and expressions!

And then, I put a blue Overlay layer on low opacity to make Wangxian blend better with the background, added a bit of shadow on the inside and the lower sections and added the glowing details for the added flair. I initially wanted sparkles and/or stars but they didn't turn out as well as this did. I also upped the contrast by a little for the entire piece!

Aaaand, that's it! In truth, I did a bit more color adjustments to the whole piece, but I was a dummy who forgot to turn them back on before posting so ... oh well.

Posting

Before posting, I upload it either on my spare private Twitter account or on a drafted Tumblr post so I can check the colors on my phone. This is because the colors on different devices can look very different, and I would at the very least want all my pieces to look nice on both of my devices!

And then, once I deem it satisfactory, I just try to think of a caption and post! Some artists wait for a certain time where most of their followers are active, but I didn't have a lot of MDZS followers at this point so it didn't really matter to me.

It still doesn't really; I haven't actually been able to figure out when my MDZS followers are awake even now.