#i should because I have a loooot of stuff to color

[theinconsistenciestherein]

Back to your (ir)regularly scheduled merm content

[thefaiao]

seeing your clowns made me go feral since my fixation is cringe and clown flavored

Who let you cook like that who let you cook AUTHHFFH UR ART IS SO COOL IM BEING DRAGGED AWAY

You’re hatching is so fucking inspiring since it’s soMETHING I try to do in my own work I LOVE UR ART

would it be fine to ask what brushes you use? I love ur values also, you’re so so good at shapes and form WAAAA I LOVE UR STUFF. I did dig up an old ask you made iirc, but I’m not sure if it’s changed

Hey! Thank you very much. I'll go through the brushes I use for each program: Drawpile

From what I understand most of these are MyPaint brushes... but I only know them as drawpile brushes because that's what I use. Main ones I've used lately is Irregular Ink and a default brush for coloring

I don't really change the size of irregular ink much and the pressure doesn't matter that much. It has high stabilization which I haven't changed, but I'm sure you could get away with lowering it. For the other brush I'm pretty sure it's a default one that I slightly tweaked (drawpile is a bit bad about communicating what brush exactly you are using to you.) I quite like it because it feels like playing with clay, makes it easy to map out the volume. I use it for those lineless pieces I do from time to time too. I change its size a lot while drawing. I've also used these two, one of the pencil brushes and a second one I stole from Jokioro that I have no idea what is called

I used the first one for the D'arce I did a while ago and the recent VTMB piece. It's great at emulating sketchy graphite pencils, I like layering it to do multi-colored hatching rendering. The second one I don't know how to use super well yet but it's probably my fourth most used as of late. It works very weirdly so if you wanna figure out how to make it work I recommend looking at how Jokioro draws. Clip Studio I bounce around a lot with all the brushes, but I use a loooot of stuff from the Frenden pack. Mainly Meeko Leako for lining and even coloring, it has a great texture to it, very fun

This has been my most used brush for years. It's great for super straight lines and produces a great difference in value between quick lines and thick lines. I haven't used it as much since I picked up drawpile more recently, but it's amazing! Other than that I use the default G-pen when I just want simple lines without much texture

It's a bit ugly at a glance but I think if you lock in it's great for super clean lines, just trying to get the point across without much noise. I also like coloring with it at times, when I'm going lineless. SAI Binary pen. Use the binary pen. It's the best brush ever made

It just feels super right to draw with it, it's so simple but it makes your lines look super slick, and it's just a binary pen. I guess they just got the behavior down perfect for it. But yeah, love this brush. IRL I've always used these archival ink pens in different sizes for basically everything I've done traditionally, and of course just a simple number 2 pencil for sketching and such. I've used a bit of charcoal recently, and been wanting to deep into darker pencils for detail, but this is still the default. I also will probably try out dip pens sometime

That's all I can think of immediately, but I always like to mess around to try and find another great brush, and you should do the same even if you end up using these a lot.

[spaceorphan18]

Top 10 WTF Kurt outfits?

You are asking me to remember 10 of Kurt’s outfits, lol 

Let’s do some digging and see what I can find...

ETA: I decided to go through my meta and see what I dig up.  It’s more than a 10 ten, but interesting to do! 

Season 1

Pilot

Iconic because it’s one of the first things we see him in, but this is a weird outfit. 

They were trying to make him as effeminate as they could at the beginning.  The character eventually kind of changes out of this kind of thing -- but the knee-length sweaters were a staple of season 1 for sure. 

Showmance

Kurt doesn’t usually do hot pink...

The outfit is fine, it’s the fannypack that has me curious

Acafellas

What is even going on here? 

Preggers

I really don’t know if this should be included or not.  It is weird when you first see it, but I’m so used to seeing this, it seems totally normal? 

Throwdown

Ug, this isn’t a good picture of it -- but the plastic rain coat is something else.  It works! But the ensemble is crazy

Wheels

Ngl, I think nothing about this really works, and I’m glad it’s not a look that really ever comes back again

Bad Reputation

I mean this is supposed to be ridiculous, so there’s that. 

Laryngitis

Again, this is supposed to be ridiculous on him.  Though - fascinating how ultra masculine clothing look just as off as some of the other weird shit he wears.

Theatricality

Again, it’s done on purpose - but man, there are heels with that ensemble. 

Sectionals

This isn’t really wtf, though I’m curious as to the texture -- is it a vinyl jacket?  But interesting because Kurt never wears this bright red color.  And also the make-up in the last few episodes of season 1 is very caked on, to the point that Chris looks translucent and sickly.  I’ve always wondered why. 

Season 2

Audition

I mean, this is here for the joke, but I don’t think it’s that outlandish? I think he was wearing more extreme stuff in season 1, tbh. 

For one - it’s bondage gear.  For two - this is around when he starts wearing that fox tale thing.  That’s... only around in season 2, right? 

Britney/Brittany

Most notable because he’s wearing a skirt.  

Prom Queen

I have a loooot of thoughts about this now that I’m doing this project.  This one is done on purpose.  But you notice -- it’s also Kurt comes back from Dalton, where he’s spent most of his time wearing a uniform? 

Funeral

I’ve never liked these pants, not because they’re wtf, but because they don’t fit him right. 

Season 3

Purple Piano Project

So.... what’s going on here? I mean, he totally sells it, but can you imagine anyone seriously wearing this in real life? (yes, I know he wore it in NBK, it’s just in a more outlandish ensemble here) 

The First Time

I realize this is iconic, but this leopard print sweater is actually knee length.  I mean talk about layers. 

Mash-Off

Okay, this one probably wins, because even Chris commented that it looked like Princess Leia in Return of the Jedi.  But I have heard some fascinating meta around it -- how this is after The First Time, and an idication that Kurt wants to cover himself, because nakedness is sacred to him.  And now that he’s allowing himself to be touched in a very special way, he feels the need to cover himself more.  He grows out of it once he’s more comfortable with sex.  

But I would love to know the real reason the costume designer picked this. 

Again, from the same episode.  Why the equestrian look?? Somewhere @snarkyhag is making commentary about Kurt liking to ride things. ;) 

I Kissed a Girl

This is another iconic one, what you can’t really see in this still, but it’s the half-sweater! I think they were still trying to play around with Kurt and gender at this point.  I’m curious as to when they ditch his wacky outfits for good and start dressing him more masculine, because there’s definitely a shift by season 4. 

I need to bring this up.  It is a little weird, yes, but mostly I wanted to say that I had a sweater just like it (without the weird arm holes) in high school.  

Hold Onto 16

I would just like to point out he’s wearing a Newsie’s Cap with shorts. This is also the era of Kurt’s bizarre headwear.  

Yes/No

The outfit is fine, the hat is weird though -- especially since they’re inside. 

Michael

Not fully appreciated in this still -- it’s a leather onesie.  That’s insane.  

Also Michael -- Not necessarily wtf, but doesn’t it look like something Blaine would wear? 

Big Brother 

Not necessarily wtf, but it does look like Kurt’s going to a gay club and not dance practice

Props

You know - he went a good chunk of the season wearing somewhat normal things with accents of interesting fashion.  And then they put him in this.  And I have to wonder if it’s because they thought it would work on Finn/Cory, too. 

Nationals

MC Hummel and his Bitch (again with the nightclub outfits) 

Season 4

Makeover

This might be the most outlandish thing he wears in season 4, tbh. 

Wonderful

Definitely not wtf - but I just noticed because i’ve been scrolling through all my meta -- this might be the first (and only?) time Kurt wears this color. It looks totally fine here, but I don’t think yellow is Kurt’s (or Chris’s) color. (Oh, I forgot, though, this is the episode where RM was obsessed with orange and colors in that spectrum)

Again with the color scheme that Kurt never wears.  Fascinating. 

Season 5 and 6

There are a couple of interesting pants with patterns on them in season 5 that are different - but I don’t have stills, and they aren’t that weird. 

The only notable thing about season 6 is 2009 where they try to shove Kurt back into his Season 1 style, with middling success.  

You guys -- I have a TON to say about Kurt and fashion now that I’ve scrolled through the entire series.  Let me know if you want some more thoughts! 

[killerlookz]

How did you get into writing/learn to write so well? I wanna but I am so bad lmao

aww well first of all thank you for saying i write well :) that means a lot!

and as for how i got into writing/ learning to write: soooo i guesss i've always been really into writing. not just fic-related material but all throughout school i've always enjoyed getting to write, so i kind of just channeled that love into writing for characters i also love!

as for like, actually committing and posting my writing, i think i "published" my first piece onto wattpad when i was like 16? and it was... not very good. so don't worry about quality! all of that comes over time :)

i'd say mainly what has helped my writing is just practicing a lot. i've taken a lot of creative writing courses, and have written a lot of short stories and it's most definitely helped me improve a lot over the years. i know its kind of a cop-out answer to just say "practice" but honestly it's true.

but- some quick changes to make that i feel like have improved my writing abilities would definitely be;

genuinely taking time to flesh out a character and get to know them, maybe even give them a past, maybe a favorite band, a favorite color, etc. even if that stuff isn't even going to be mentioned in your writing it really helps to create a really three-dimensional character.

don't over-describe things, description in writing is very good, but don't spend too much time describing every minute detail of what a setting looks like, or what your characters are wearing, (*cough* american psycho *cough*) because it can make your story awkward, and kind of boring.

if you're writing fic, take time to understand the characters you're writing for! rewatch scenes of them, or if they're book characters reread scenes of the book. study their speech patterns, words they use a lot, their body language. this helps so much to make your fics feel more authentic. i did this a loooot when writing for patrick bateman because he is such a complicated person to get down, and it really helped a lot.

and lastly, honestly, make sure you've got good sentence fluency and grammar in your writing. doesn't matter how good your characters or plotlines are, if your writing is clunky and doesn't make sense and you're using the wrong forms of words, it's not going to be very good.

i know this is sort of a broad answer... but if you are looking for more specific advice i can try and give some too just let me know :) but, i'd say if you want to write, and it's something you're interested in, you should 100% go for it.

[surveys-at-your-service]

Survey #223

“broken and sad, as the tarnish on your crown, nowhere to go but down.”

What’s your favorite chocolate in the valentine box? The one with fudge in the center. What color hair did your first crush have? Brown. What’s a condition you have that you haven’t been officially diagnosed with? Do not ever self-diagnose, ever. There's a quote about this that I love: Something along the lines of, "Your five-minute Google search doesn't compare to my doctoral degree." Something like that. Anyway, everything I have has been professionally diagnosed, though my therapist and psychiatrist both know I question if my bipolarity is actually borderline personality disorder. My psychiatrist doesn't see it, and my therapist says my level of self-awareness makes that highly unlikely. Idk though, a loooot of symptoms remind me of myself. What’s your favorite version of the Bible? None. Do you think pineapple belongs on pizza? Noooo. I hate sweet/savory combos. Which one of your parents do you think is smarter? My mom. My dad is smart in his own way, but if you're talking about textbook knowledge, yeah. My mom is smarter in that area. Which parent do you think you inherited your intelligence level from? I 120% got my total lack of common sense from Dad. Otherwise, Mom. Do you store your bike in a garage for the winter? I don't have a garage nor bike. What were your favorite gym class activities in elementary school? Okay, do y'all remember those rainbow tarps you'd form a big dome out of? I loved that shit. Even though all we did was talk once inside, lol. I also loved those square roller things. You know, the ones that put your fingers at great risk. Would you rather wear a tunic top and jeggings or a crop top and high-waisted jeans? Okay so I'd fucking love to wear high-waisted jeans w/ a crop top if I had the body for it. Do you think hoodies look better oversized and long, or cropped? Oversized ones are the best. Have you ever had a professional make-over? No. Have you ever had a professional photo shoot? No. Did you ever want to be a model? Noooo. What’s your anti-depressant? Vraylar + Lamictal lmaooooo. Do you stretch or do yoga? Not anymore. List all of the colors of dresses you have worn to school dances. I only ever went to prom. My first was maroon, the second black. Did you enjoy school dances? Here's the tea: they're overhyped, at least for my personality. It's loud as hell so you can't hear each other talk, and the music's shit. I only went to his senior prom and mine for the novelty of it. What is something you want to be for Halloween? I am very legitimately considering be a handmaid from The Handmaid's Tale this year. Read that fucking book, it's one of the best I've ever read, and fucking terrifying as a woman. Who is your favorite parent? I love both for who they are. Do you have chronic pain? Only in my legs due to muscle atrophy that I'm recovering from now thanks to school. What is your favorite part of going to the dentist? My teeth feeling especially clean afterwards. Have you ever not been able to see the big E at the eye doctor? Ha ha, yes. My vision is godawful. What’s on your wish list right now? Just donate to my tattoo fund, lmao. What are you behind on? Politics. What did you get rid of that you wish you had kept? I wish I'd kept Jason and mine's last prom pictures, but literally just because now, I think I looked gorgeous. Does your hometown have bad memories attached to it? The Bloods gang seriously tried to break into the house while my sister and her friend were home alone as pre-teens, guess. Does it irritate you when someone has a dream but does nothing to work toward it? I mean, yes? I feel like everyone should care about that to some degree. Certainly not to an obsessive degree, it's not your life, but you should care that people work towards their aspirations. Do you find the concept of colorblindness fascinating? Yeah, sure. Which site have you been bullied on the most? I wouldn't say I was ever really bullied, but I guess the closest was on an old RP site from one particular person. Who do you wish loved you? A few people. Not necessarily romantically. Do you know anyone who has twin babies or toddlers? Yes. I actually think she has two pairs. If so, what are their names? Idr. I only know them loosely through dance. Would you ever want to have twins? FUCK no. Who has the cutest babies on your Facebook newsfeed? My acquaintance Anastasia literally has the prettiest daughter ever. If you could have a car in any color you wanted, which color? Pink, duh. Or maroon. What is your favorite Avril Lavigne song? WHY'D YOU HAVE TO GO AND MAKE THINGS SO COMPLICATED What’s a song lyric that you like? Korn came out with a new album, and my favorite song's lyrics include "God is making fun of me," and it's my favorite thing ever. Would you ever hitchhike? Why or why not? NOOOOOOO, I don't trust people. What’s one thing you’ve done to celebrate Earth Day? As a kid, I made a bird house one year. There was this backyard decorating show on Animal Planet when I was little, and on one episode, they made one out of an empty milk jug and leaves, so I duplicated that. What color is your stapler? Black. Was your middle school crush the same as your high school crush? No. Have you ever been homeschooled? Towards the end of 8th grade, I was homebound. I was deeply depressed, and school didn't help. Have you ever completed a weight loss program? No. What was the last thing you were mad at a doctor about? I will forever and absolutely always despise my old doctor for putting and keeping me on a medication that resulted in me gaining around 150 pounds, and I wish I was fucking kidding, and blaming it on me the entire time. Where you live, is it possible to get sunburned&frostbitten in same week? HA, yeah. Do you ever turn your phone off because you don’t want to talk? No, I'll just ignore it. Do you like McDonald’s sweet tea? I hate sweet tea period. Do you like rap? Very little of it. Usually just some Eminem. Do you ever lay down and look at the stars? I haven't done that in a long time. Well, we weren't lying down, but rather sitting in chairs, but when Sara was here last summer, she, Mom, and I all sat outside one night making s'mores and having some drinks, and we looked up at the stars for quite a while. Don’t you hate when songs remind you of the person you’re trying to forget? There are a couple songs I physically can't listen to due to PTSD. Whose bed were you last in besides your own? Uhhh. I think my niece's, though I was just sitting on it. Who’s the last person you kissed? Sara. What’s your relationship with that person? We're really fucking gay for each other. Do you know how many people you’ve kissed? Three or four. I can't remember if I ever actually initiated a kiss with Girt or ever kissed him back, but I don't think so. Do you burn easily in the sun? Like toast on the whitest bread. Have you ever blacked out? I mean, I've fainted. Who do you hang out with the most? My mom lmao. Are you positive or negative? So in my FYS class (that is literally more like therapy), we very recently took an emotional intelligence test (it's like a scale that tells you your strengths and weaknesses in some major areas), and my optimism score was ABYSMALLY low. Like, as low as it could be. I've always called myself a realist, but this was a very detailed and professional test, so I'm taking my results into consideration. Do you believe life is fair? Ha ha, what a way to prove the last answer, but you couldn't possibly make me believe life is fair. It's chance and cause and effect. Have you ever bought a youtuber’s merch? LMAO YAAAAAAAAAAAAAA'LL I'm too embarrassed to ask for "unusual" things. Do you have any embarrassing health issues? One or two. I am a Walking Health Issue. What are you longing for? I want Sara to live here so badly. Distance is getting hard. Who was your first roommate? Jason, Amanda, and Jacob. Who lived across the hall from you your first year of college? I never lived in a dorm. Have you ever had a janitorial job? Omfg no. I'm a germaphobe. Have you ever worked in food service? Hell no. I can't deal with hungry people. What is your favorite flavor of frosting? I'm a chocolate bitch. What is your favorite type of donut? Depends on where it's from. Dunkin' Donuts, omlllll gimme a chocolate frosted (never with sprinkles, sprinkles are gross). Krispy Kreme, BITCH I will kill a glazed. What is the name of your favorite bakery? We don't go to any proper bakery. We just get stuff from the ones at grocery stores. What is your current favorite Starbucks drink? I don't go to Starbucks. When was the last time you wrote someone a letter? For a certain holiday for Sara. I think it was Valentine's Day? Do you write mostly in cursive or in print? It's some hybrid font of both, but mostly cursive. What do you usually get for your birthday? Meerkat-related stuff. What is a childhood dream that hasn’t stuck with you? I wanted to be a vet. Who was your first favorite cartoon character? Uhhh. Probably Ash Ketchum (I FUCKING WROTE "KETCHUP") or Pikachu. Who is your favorite Disney princess? It was Ariel as a kid, now I don't particularly care, but probably Snow White. Do you like Coca Cola? Hell yeah. Do you like McDonald’s french fries? Are you even human if you don't? Did you get your hair color from your mom, your dad, or a grandparent? My hair was dirty blonde as a kid, so I don't have a clue where that came from. It turned brown though, so I guess Mom, but hers is way darker than mine. What are some other names your parents’ considered when naming you? The only one I remember is Kathryn. Who was the last person you know who had a baby? Uhhh I think it was one of my high school friends. …And what was the baby’s name? Jaspen. If you had a boy and a girl, what would they be named? Alessandra is NOT up for debate (if I wanted kids, anyway) lol, and Damien. What color is your dresser? Brown. Have you found your first gray/white hair yet? WOW no that would be mighty depressing. Is your hair long or short? Short. …and which way do you like it best? I CANNOT believe I didn't go short earlier. Do you have a problem with needles? Nah. Have you ever had to use an epi pen? No, thankfully. Have you ever ridden in an ambulance? Also thankfully no. If applicable, what color are your glasses? Black. Do you like the name Addison? Yeah, it's cute. Have you ever made your own Halloween costume out of clothes from your closet? No. At least, not a *real* costume. I've just dressed particularly dark before. Have you ever gotten sick in the car? No. Do you enjoy editing photos? I do. Have you ever called the wrong number? Yep, oops. Do you usually pick Truth or Dare? Truth. I never pick "dare," actually. Do you like kissing? I mean yeah, if I love the person. Which Internet browser do you use? Chrome. When was the last time you read a whole book, to the last page exactly? A couple weeks ago I finished The Handmaid's Tale for school. How many times have you had sex within the past two years? Guesstimate? A big 'ole zero lmao. Has your boyfriend or girlfriend ever cheated on you? Were you mad or sad? No. Are you a superstitious person? Have you ever been superstitious before? No. When was the last time your area had a tornado warning, if ever? A few months ago. Have you ever had one of those major fights with your current bf/gf? When we were younger and unstable friends. Do you think road kill is gross? I think it's sad more than anything, but I mean yeah, it can be. But considering a personal project of mine is photographing roadkill to depict the brutality and sadness of it, it obviously doesn't gross me out all that much. Is it obvious when people hurt your feelings? I think so. How many teeth do you have? The normal amount. Have you ever lived outside of America? No. Do you get allowance? I'm 23, I obviously don't now, but I never have. Do you pop your pimples? Yeah, oops. Who did you last dance with? Sara. Have you ever wanted to kill someone? I think so. I wasn't going to like, actively pursue that, but I wanted her dead. Have you ever had braces? Yep. When you get married, do you want to keep your last name? No, please take it away. Do you shave your pubic hair? No. I'll obvious trim/shave along my upper legs in I'm going to wear a bathing suit or something, though. Have you ever seen a tornado in real life? Thank fucking god no. Do you have to plug your nose while swimming under water? Yep. I have zero clue how people stop water from going up their nose, even if they don't breathe through it. Do you like soft or hard pillows? s o f t What’s the last thing your parents bought you? Mom bought food, Dad bought me my laptopl. Do you know anyone who committed suicide? I'm 99% sure a pre-teen online friend did. I know some people loosely. When was the last time you cried out in pain? That's probably a TMI from having IBS. What do you say when you answer the phone? "Hello?" Do you ever get the feeling you don't belong? Belong where? I need specifics. Are you a timid person? Incredibly. Ever been in love with two people at the same time? No. Ever vomited because you were in shock? No. Do you think the world is a nice place or a horrible place? It's a hybrid of those. Ever had a rumor spread about you? The only one I knew of was one Jason's ex started in high school, that being that we had a baby. Despite the fact I was obviously never pregnant. If you found out you were pregnant how would you react? I'd be fucking terrified and incredibly confused because that's physically impossible. Have you ever been dumped by text? Did it hurt? More like over Facebook Messenger, and fuck yes it hurt considering I was literally madly in love with him and we'd been in a serious relationship for three and a half years. In your opinion what would be the worst possible way to dump someone? See above. (: How do you take out your anger? 99% of the time, cry. Have you ever snuck out of your house? No. Have you ever kissed someone of the same sex? Yeah. What’s the craziest thing you’ve done on a dare? Idk. I never did crazy dares. Have you ever cussed someone out? Yes. What’s the most trouble you’ve ever gotten in with your parents? Idk. My dad never really punished us, but rather Mom. I would say the time I texted her back "fuck you," but I was an adult by this point so she couldn't really do anything, but I do noooot want to imagine how she would've reacted if we were physically together. When she picked me up, she was furious, but I think she was more shocked I actually said that than anything. I don't remember that night much, surprisingly, considering I tend to remember awful days like that. Have you ever cheated on someone? No. Have you ever had a friend-with-benefits? No. Have you ever spread a nasty rumor about someone? No. Have you ever broken someone’s heart? I don't know. Have you ever been physically abused? Thank God, luck, Heaven, or whatever, no. What’s something you really regret saying to someone? I think more than anything, the time I sent something along the lines of "thanks for sending me to the hospital again" to Jason before I went to the ER for the bajillionth time. Doesn't matter if it was the first, fifth, or thousandth time, that was fucking evil and could've seriously hurt him. Is there something really bad that you’ve done, that only YOU know about? Uhhhh I don't think so, at least. Do you have a lot of secrets? It depends on who is involved. Mostly though, no. Does it take a lot to make you feel guilty? I don't know, actually. Have you ever broken a really important promise? I don't think so. Have you ever gone out with a best friend’s ex? More like mutually flirted with her boyfriend behind her back until he left her for me when I was 12. Fucking disgusting. Have you ever made out with someone who was just a friend? No. Have you ever cheated on a test? I actually don't think I ever have. Have you ever told someone’s deep, dark secret? No. I'm honestly very trustworthy with secrets. Have you ever gotten in a fist fight? No. Have you ever done something bad JUST because you knew you shouldn’t? Maybe as a kid? I don't think so? Have you ever purposely hurt yourself? Yeah. Have you ever pushed someone into a pool? I don't think so? Have you ever copied someone else’s homework? Again I don't believe so. Possibly once, idr. Have you ever kissed someone the same day you met them? No. What’s under your bed? A box of art stuff. Have you ever you shoplifted? No. What do you want more than anything else? Happiness. Have you ever tried coconut water? I have not. How many online accounts do you have? Or have you lost count? Holy fuck, there's no telling. Who was your first love? Jason. Are you the type to hold grudges? Definitely not. What was the last video game you played? I actually have World of Warcraft open right now, but that's a computer game; does that count? If not, uhhh. It's been a long while... I think maybe The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon. What’s your favorite flavor of vitamin water? Never tried vitamin water. Are there any bands/artists that get you all emotional? Ozzy Osbourne makes me so nostalgic. His music is so important to me. Have you ever been to a convention? (comic, Youtube, etc.) No, but bitch try to stop me from going to PAX East one day to hug God and cry for two hours in joy. What brand are most of the electronics in your household? I don't think we have a consistent brand for our electronics. It depends on what the thing is. What’s your favorite aunt or uncle’s first name? I can't remember my favorite aunt's name, but the only uncle I know well is Rob. He's hilarious. Have you ever smoked a cigarette? No. Who was the last person you invited into your home? Sara. Are you of legal drinking age in the country you live in? Yes. How old were your parents when they got engaged? I have no clue. Early 30s? Are your parents still together? Hell no. What flavor was the last ice cream you ate? Chocolate. Are you health conscious? To a degree. Have you ever done a first aid course? No. If so, would you be prepared to perform CPR if necessary? N/A Are there any songs that get stuck in your head very easily? A lot. Who was the last person to text you? Sara. If you found out you couldn’t have children, would you adopt? I'd be fucking ecstatic if I found out I was infertile, especially with how terrified and paranoid I am about being raped. I don't want kids, ever. Would you go back to your most recent ex? No; I don't like him like that. Do you remember the show Bananas in Pajamas? I don't, but I know my older sister was obsessed. If you could know how, when, and where you’ll die, would you want to know? Hell no. Are you really excited for anything? I'm probably going up to Sara's for her birthday and Christmas and I CANNOT wait. Have you ever eaten any type of insect? Not intentionally? I think a gnat or something flew into my throat once, but idk. I've certainly never tried to. Who is the most famous person you’ve ever met? Nobody lmao. Do you have trust issues? Oh yes indeed.

[salarta]

Hardcore vs Casual Comic Book Fans

I’ve had this kind of post in my thoughts for some time now. I feel like right now is a good time to make it. Bear in mind these are my thoughts, not universal truth.

I haven’t said it here much, but I used to say elsewhere fairly often that hardcore and casual fans have different approaches to things. Gauging what to do with a character is dependent on what you can get of benefit from both groups. I’ve mostly talked about this in relation to Polaris/Lorna Dane. This can be broader, but I’m still mostly concerned with the impact on her.

Casual fans

Casual fans are people who are pretty surface level about a character’s history. This does not mean they’re ignorant or have less interest compared to hardcore fans. It only means they don’t know as much about the character as hardcore fans do.

Casual fans bring a lot of enthusiasm for possibilities and directions things can go. What would happen if Polaris hung out with Wolverine more? Or Dazzler? Or Shamrock? What cool relationships and fights and developments can happen to this character that we haven’t seen before?

On the other hand, casual fans may not be aware of major problems with how the character has been treated in the past. Their newness can cause them to not see, as personal example, how Lorna has been treated poorly with Havok in the past and why time kept apart would be good for both of them. They might not know how a storyline where Lorna loses her powers could have a very real risk of her stuck without her powers for over a decade. They don’t know how Marvel thinks and acts, about ulterior motives, or how storylines have been handled in the past. They may only know cliff notes.

Another matter is that casual fans may have a harder time spotting the character. A casual fan’s familiarity with a character tends to be seeing their most common look. If you change that look radically, it’ll be harder. I’ve seen so, so many cases of casual fans (and even many hardcore fans) of mistaking pictures of Aphrodite IX, or Agent Brand, or a random Dungeons and Dragons mage portrait, for being Lorna just because they see green hair.

Hardcore fans

Hardcore fans know a lot of the character history. This means they’re more likely to be able to get feedback for when a certain direction is bad or dangerous for the character. They can be a guide toward the right path, because they don’t want a repeat of past mistakes.

They also know dynamics that haven’t been tried yet and are prime for pursuing. They’ve witnessed a sort of “trial and error” that demonstrates what storylines and developments have and haven’t worked for the character. That might sound the same as above, but it’s the difference between “this is stuff to avoid” in the previous paragraph and “this is stuff to keep doing” in this one.

However, there can be bias in favor of certain past treatments over anything else. That includes new ground.

Hardcore fan likes Lorna as Havok’s girlfriend? They may be staunchly opposed to her ever having any kind of romance with another character besides Havok, even though she’s never had a real relationship with anyone except him. Hardcore fan likes a certain costume, or look, or colors? They may really push for that specific look they like, even if it means casual fans will have absolutely no idea she’s in anything.

They may also be unwilling to really give potential storylines that were done bad before another shot. Lorna was treated poorly with Malice, Zaladane, and many others in the past. Hardcore fans may be unwilling to revisit those storylines, because they don’t think of it as something that can be rehabilitated into a good thing when given good, proper writing. They see it as something horrid that should never be used or acknowledged ever again. They’d rather cut it out of canonical memory even if it means multiple decades of lost story options.

This isn’t to be confused with things done bad repeatedly and recently. When you have a constant pattern that’s repeated in the past 5-10 years, trying it again isn’t “giving it another shot,” it’s trying to force something bad for the character on that character. Give it time first.

There’s preference for popular characters over all others as well. In my experience with hardcore fans, they seem to almost always stress dynamics with popular characters out of a view that it’ll boost the “cred” of their favorite. Emphasis seems to be on what’ll boost popularity over what’ll make for great stories.

Lastly, there can be baggage and lost enthusiasm. When you’re a hardcore fan, at it long enough and surrounded by other hardcore fans of all sorts, dealing with conflict among fans as well as creators/the company screwing your character over can be taxing. As a casual fan, you entered wide-eyed and wondering; with sufficient years, you start to expect that nothing you want to see will ever happen because there are others that put in a lot of effort to keep it from happening, or you just plain don’t care.

Balance

It’s very important to find a balance between the two, and what views among them are and aren’t taken up.

There are two default assumptions made that overly favor one side or the other.

The first assumption is that it’s better to court casual fans because they’re more willing to try new things/forgive mistakes, and there’s a loooot more casual fans than hardcore ones out there.

The second assumption is that hardcore fans take preference, because they’re loyal and know more and they’re more likely to complain a lot if something doesn’t go the way they think it should, which might turn away potential new fans.

In reality, both casual and hardcore fans have pros and cons. To give more weight to one than the other is a mistake. Listening to only casual fans can lead to wild, absurd directions with no real staying power, leading to fandom collapse when it’s lost its appeal. Listening only to hardcore fans can paralyze creators from doing anything new or different, also killing fandom and losing appeal because “Why bother reading about Polaris if it’s just the same stuff I’ve already read over and over?”

Pick up things from both. Find the good of each, ignore the bad of each.

[existentialburden]

World Wide Web Yellow, Shadow Blue, Electric LIme, Night Owl, Cornflower, Grasshopper Green, Tiny Toad Brown, Sunny Side Up, Kitten Gray, Rose Dust, Timberwolf, Freshly Squeezed, Tiny Teapot Tan, Pussywillow, Mystic Maroon, Petal Pink

World Wide Web Yellow: what was the last thing you looked up?

...”if your parents are nearsighted can you be farsighted”

sometimes when you’re writing. you forget how things work.

Shadow Blue: do you have a darker side to you that most people are unaware of?

not to sound edgy but I do get those occasional flashes of anger over the littlest things that I just don’t mention to people because what’s the point of bringing it up? it’s a me issue. maybe some of my older writing would qualify but besides that not really.

Electric Lime: what genre of music do you listen to?

think I answered this before- all sorts! mostly pop punk and classic rock. and whatever the hell Lemon Demon has going on.

Night Owl: describe a very interesting dream that you had.

one time I had a dream where me and a few other people were trying to save the world from some worm-like demonic being but the Grim Reaper was after our asses for some reason. we explained the situation and struck a deal with him (I may have flirted with him. it’s been a while but that sounds like something I would do) and then he joined the crew. I woke up before I got to see the result of it but the point is this is why I’m Taakokin.

Cornflower: what do you think about the most?

....my OCs, probably.

Grasshopper Green: describe the area where you live.

it’s not a bad place. there’s a park nearby so that’s really nice. there’s a river, too. it’s not too far a drive anywhere more interesting and you don’t have to take any more caution than usual when walking anywhere (but let’s be real I am Constantly Alert Just In Case). loooots of trees everywhere.

Tiny Toad Brown: do you find beauty in something that people consider to be ugly or undesirable?

I love toads, frogs, snails, slugs, worms bugs of plenty types, spiders, snakes, scorpions, rats.... I love me some “creepy” animals. also love my own scars and stretch marks and think it’s cool that people have them in general. also weeds like dandelions! I used to sit alone outside and talk to bugs when I was little so I vibe with lots of things. not just the pill bugs either, but the flies and bees and all that. I’m also going to stand by brown being a perfectly nice color and the name of this crayon made me very happy to read.

Sunny Side Up: do you like waking up in the mornings or would you rather sleep in?

think I’ve answered this before but sleeeeep.

Kitten Gray: do you have any pets? if so, describe them.

there’s my snake Calliope, who’s a normal ball python (black and brown, blank belly) and absolutely a sweetheart. she has a tendency to try and slither across people’s arms without wrapping. then there’s my cat Darkstripe, a brown tabby domestic shorthair. she’s an asshole and I love her. she likes to try and steal my soup and if I have two water glasses out she just KNOWS which one I care about more and goes right for it. she’s very cuddly though. and then there’s my guinea pig George (Theo) who’s an american guinea pig and an absolute BABY. he’s orange and white with a black patch on his butt and he whines whenever anyone so much as LOOKS at a plastic bag. he also loves cuddles.

Rose Dust: describe your aesthetic in five words or less.

chaotic brights and darks.

Timberwolf: do you give second chances when somebody has wronged you?

depends on what they did. sometimes yes, sometimes no, sometimes they use up the second chance in the same general “incident”. I try to, but more often than not that just makes me resent them and everyone around me who says I should give them another chance even though I’ve already given them more than one.

Freshly Squeezed: what excites you?

sunny days, cool rocks, cool pinecones, really dumb-looking stuff (I have this chair that I adore because it looks so stupid), seeing my friends online, seeing asks in my inbox, people paying attention to my writing, new writing ideas, roleplay ideas, D&D night coming up... all sortsa stuff!

Tiny Teapot Tan: do you consider yourself to be attractive/cute?

oh I’m cute as hell yeah.

Pussywillow: do you like being around others, or do you like being alone?

depends on the day and the people. I love being around people in... small doses. one or two people at a time, really. my friends yes. strangers no. adults no.

Mystic Maroon: what confuses you, and why?

people in general. like... why is eye contact such a big deal. why does everyone in my house think people can’t hear them through the phone unless they yell. people are fucking weird.

Petal Pink: describe your fashion sense as well as what you’re wearing right now.

fashion sense tends to be skirts and short-sleeve shirts. comfy pants. bright and dark colors, eye-searing designs... right now I’m wearing a plain pink-tinted white shirt with grey trim and a long bright blue- and teal-striped skirt with a cyan jungle leaf design all over it. same rainbow-striped glasses as ever. it’s the quarantine mood and this shirt is my “everything else is dirty” shirt.

[valamerys]

I really enjoy your blog so is it okay if I ask you top 10 pet peeves in novels? It can be tropes or even a niche moment in a particular book. I like writing myself and would appreciate the help.

hmmMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM sure, I can come up with some things! bear in mind I read almost exclusively fantasy, and mostly “low” ie not game of thrones fantasy at that, including a loooot of YA, so my items will reflect that.

Top (YA, Fantasy) Fiction Pet Peeves:

1) Unnecessary post-apocalyptic setting  WHY THE FUCK. DO PEOPLE KEEP DOING THIS. WHAT DOES THIS GAIN ANYONE. WHAT IS THE POINT. Red Queen, The Selection, The Queen of the Tearling, and that weird TV show The Shanarananaharahahananaaa Chronicles all do this. It’s, frankly, a cheap-ass bid for Dark and Gritty points, and also an excuse to set things in America But Fantasy, and it’s always bad and awkward. This isn’t planet of the apes, just make your damn fantasy world; you don’t have to try to make it more ~realistic~ by putting the ruins of the statue of liberty in the background. That’s stupid and you’re stupid.

2) One-note characters  Mostly present via The Bitch or The Bully stereotype, but also seen in The Bratty Brother, The Sweet Sister, The Spacey DGAF Parent, and the Eccentric Wise Elder. I get that there’s not time to flesh out every single person your protagonist comes into contact with, but certain archetypes are so fucking boring and done to death that I tune out immediately. It’s not 2004 anymore. The game has evolved. We can do better. We can be more interesting.

Related to the sweet sister trope, I’d like to bring up this text post from my other blog:

3) When the protagonists’ actions/ choices do not affect the plot  Alright, this one isn’t even a pet peeve, it’s basic narrative construction. Your story is supposed to be about your protagonist (or your two or three protagonists, in a multi-pov story, but for simplicity’s sake we’ll talk about one) and their arc, how they change and grow. a) If their actions never have consequences, how the fuck do they, like, learn things? and b) if their actions have no bearing on the climax of the story, how the fuck does the story demonstrate that they’ve changed, or come to a meaningful conclusion that’s related to that? Sure there’s weird literary exceptions, and certainly some fantasy in particular is more plot than character driven, but if your character is honestly never proactive, particularly through the ending of the book, uh, i have a major problem and so should you.

4) The Mandatory Feminism Stuff  we should all know these by now. “Not Like Other Girls” is bad. Hating on corsets and other femme paraphernalia is bad (and moreover i personally resent it because I love corsets). A book with a female protagonist and no other important female characters (or only evil female characters) is bad. A high fantasy series that builds its worldbuilding on a raging patriarchy for the purpose of elevating a few specific women into positions of power for superficial RAH RAH FEMINISM points while not addressing systematic oppression is really, really bad. Defining female empowerment as only one thing (IE picking up a sword and Proving Yourself just as badass as all those scoffing men!!!) is bad. I’m very tired and I want to read about women-- different kinds of women, with different moral alignments and interests and abilities and ethnic backgrounds and ages and sexualities and beliefs-- helping each other and being forces in the world and in each others’ lives. That’s it. That’s all I want. I have no clue why that’s so elusive.

5) Characters being flippant to the point of stupidity because........ that’s cool, i guess?  Homygod, I am so sick to my teeth of characters who would get their asses kicked IRL for being obnoxious and overly glib be appraised with “wow, you’ve really got some nerve! I like you, kid!” or some variation therof. Mouthing off to superiors/ royalty? Charging into a fight on a stray heroic impulse despite everyone with a brain and their mom telling you you’re going to die because you just picked up swordfighting on tuesday? flagrantly and thoughtlessly disregarding engrained cultural things because they don’t align with your conveniently 2017 sense of social justice despite you living in an analogue-medieval world? Not cute. It will get you fucking killed. If your character doesn’t seem to grasp that, I’m going to think they’re a dumbshit, and if the book rewards rather than punishes that, I’m not going to take it very seriously. (obviously there are exceptions to this, particularly if your world doesn’t take itself very seriously, but if you expect to instill a real sense of danger in day-to-day life, your protagonist doesn’t get to be exempt from that because they’re hot and witty.)

6) Also, characters being stubborn. This goes with my last point, because it’s another trait people seem to think is like cool, or something? That stubborn people are stubborn because they’re Strong? that it’s a flaw but it’s actually a Cool Flaw, like in job interviews when they ask your weakness and you say “i’m just TOO hard of a worker, ha ha ha”? U see this a lot in female characters written by people who are uncomfortable writing female characters, i think because, again, it mistakenly reads as Strength on some really superficial level, and because the banter and petty conflict that arises from it temporarily distracts from weak overall characterization. If you’re going to write a character being stubborn, that’s great! But understand that a) it’s a real flaw that can genuinely blind them to good ideas and cause unnecessary friction that shouldn’t be treated as endearing, b) it’s not a replacement for other elements of characterization!! and c) it’s the flipside of being assertive, which is a good thing: no trait is only a flaw or a strength, and so any trait a character possess in abundance should both help and hinder them at different times, with maturity level tempering the bad, to a degree. stubbornness is no different.

7) Sexual assault (or the threat of it) all over the fucking place. Do i have to explain this one? Of course ownvoices books about sexual assault survivors are good and necessary but we are all sick to death of "fun” fantasy worlds where the female characters exist under the constant and unending threat of rape, where sexual assault is common as window dressing and the love interests are Super Special Feminist Snowflakes for being so revolutionary as to take consent into account. fuck that. that should be the bare fucking minimum. i am so tired.

8) The Six-Pack Sex Appeal Golem  Honestly, I am not here to hate on love triangles, because I am ALL ABOUT the romance and the more the merrier. But what i do really, really loathe is the incredibly narrow parameters that have come to exist for male love interests, to the point where they all tend to feel like the same guy in need of anger management: a little broody, smart, serious, jealous and protective to a fault, if we get his POV we get real creepy sexual thoughts out of nowhere while he acts vaguely standoffish and probably a little patronizing to a woman whose Attitude gives him a boner. This man does not experience emotions that can’t be interpreted as darkly sexual, or possibly A Little Bit Vulnerable, just for that one scene of mandatory backstory reveal. I recently reviewed a real bad romance novel and described the hero as “a barely-consistent golem of toxic masculine ideals” and that’s what I’m talking about here. MAKE YOUR LOVE INTERESTS WELL-ROUNDED AND UNIQUE CHARACTERS LIKE ALL YOUR OTHER CHARACTERS. Forget what’s “sexy,” I wanna see the male love interests be Soft and Weird and cry in an unattractive way. For further reading/ a great case study of the Masculine Golem, please just read this article about how abysmal the romance in ROAR is. (For what it’s worth, I actually think SJM manages to avoid this in the ACOTAR series. Rhys and Tamlin suck but they are still mostly consistent characters, not just shells inhabited by the spirit of heterosexuality. your mileage may vary, though.)

9) Secret Superpower/ She Was The Missing Princess/ Queen All Along  I think this is a trend that’s slowly but surely passing from YA, but for a while you couldn’t throw a rock in a bookstore without hitting a trilogy where a long-lost missing princess was established in chapter 1 and you spent the whole fucking first book knowing the orphaned heroine with a murky past was gonna turn out to be the princess and you were always right. Queens are also a huge fucking thing right now, although they don’t tend to follow that exact formula. See also the character’s discovery of a superpower catapulting them into a new exciting life-- basically any discovery of a Cool Sexy birthright as a catalyst for a plot is kind of played out and boring, at this point in time? This ties into my earlier point about wanting characters’ choices to shape the plot; it’s so much easier to have them reacting to external forces, especially dramatic, aesthetic ones, i get that, but you’ll get a more original and interesting story the more you resist that urge. And everyone is fucking tired of secret princesses and can spot them a mile away, y’all.

10) OMG magic is outlawed!!! BUT WAIT THE PROTAGONIST HAS SECRET MAGIC! CAN SHE RISE ABOVE PERSECUTION AND HER PROBABLE ROMANCE WITH THE PRINCE OF THIS POORLY-THOUGHT-OUT TOTALITARIAN REGIME TO LEAD ALL MAGIC-HAVERS TO FREEDOM AND ACCEPTANCE???? If you do this i’m going to come to your house and pour a cup of soda on your head. This is dumb and I can’t believe I’ve seen it multiple times. I’m not even explaining this it should be obvious.

Honorable mentions go to: Excessive mentions/ descriptions of eye color, really tired ways of describing kissing, elemental magic is super fucking overdone, instalove, and Training Montages

[captainquestionart]

hey my man, amazin work on act omega- the team behind it is wonderful!! im lookin to make a fanventure myself, could you give any tips as to pixelling in gg and how to edit images? you know like basically any recoloured, edited clusterfuck of an image in homestuck that hussie does (planets, for example) + how you tilt to have them at different angles? sorry if this sounds like a loooot and you can completely ignore this ask(!), but im just clueless and motivated, my guy

Thank you for asking! I never get asks and I’m always glad to help with any questions like these.

…Anyway, the team behind Act Omega is definitely wonderful, take it from me. My job is typically to do all sorts of sprites/ sprite edits (like the ones in the [S] Resume animation) and I draw the characters and/or backgrounds for panels often enough, so I can definitely give you some tips on those things.

Most editing effects like the ones you asked about aren’t really my domain - a lot of them are done in Photoshop by (among others) our amazing art director @joyfulldreams (she’s seriously great go follow her please), so I asked her for some additional tips.

(This is probably going to turn out long enough to be annoying to scroll past, so I’m putting it all under a read more.)

First off, I have to clear up that when it comes to editing the typical Homestuck sprites (like the ones in [S]:Resume), GraphicsGale hasn’t been my main tool.

The first thing I did for Act Omega was drawing some talksprites (for Tumblr asks, mine were never actually used). I used to do that in Gale, but as soon as I tried it using Paint Tool SAI’s aliased brush (Legacy Pen) instead, I decided that was more comfortable. Most of my work for Resume, redrawing sprites from Collide we couldn’t find elsewhere, was done that way too.Pros of using SAI (and probably Photoshop too? Not 100% sure) for sprites compared to Gale include:

The layers are much, much easier and more intuitive to use than Gale’s. To me Gale’s layers kinda suck and using them is always a pain.

Using a sketch is easier too, and you can make it semi-transparent

Gale doesn’t really do pen pressure, which is most important in talksprites but still can be helpful for the regular sprites too.

That said, when I had to make entirely new animations (like the one above), I had to use GraphicsGale, with its handy preview feature, and it is perfectly possible to use only Gale for everything. Rotating things also had to be done in Gale and then manually cleaned up a little, since SAI will turn anything you try to transform into an ugly anti-aliased mess.

So, bottom line is, I personally prefer to use Gale and SAI in combination, but that’s not strictly necessary. If you’re going full-on Gale (and now I’m gonna assume you haven’t used it too much before), here’s

A few quick practical tips on using Gale I wish I had figured out earlier:

The default settings of Gale include a 1 pixel brush and a 3 pixel brush, but no 2 pixel brush. Since pen pressure won’t save you here, that’s inconvenient. The less you need to go back and painstakingly correct your lines to be the right size, the better. You’ll want to make that brush yourself by opening a new file in Gale, 32x32 pixels, and 1 bit (2 colours). Make it look like this and save it as a bitmap (BMP) image: 

And then find this option:

and put your bitmap in there. Gale will recognize that as a custom 2px brush.

If you want to make your images have a transparent background, make sure you tick that box in the options of the frame, not the layer (the little ellipsis button next to each Frame thumbnail -see below). Gale still has no way of telling if your BG is transparent or just white, so I recommend always working with a different color as a background. That way you can tell from the animation preview - if the BG looks white there, it’s transparent. Also make sure these settings apply to every frame by changing “current frame” to “all frames”.

If you want to change the opacity of something (like, say, god tier wings on a troll), you need to save the image as a .png first and tick the box “With Alpha Channel” underneath…

     …then open the image again. Only then will the transparency slider above the palette sliders actually work. You can also use the thick blue pencil button:

    …to set your pencil tool to opacity mode, which will make anything you draw over into the opacity set by the slider.

Now for some more Homestuck-specific tips:

You’re probably better off making sprites in separate parts (a layer for the head, one for the body, one for the arm(s)… from the start. It’ll save you a lot of trouble when you need to animate them. In fact, it might not be a bad idea to also put all of those parts into a neat spritesheet so you don’t have to look too far when you need to reuse something.

(I didn’t see this one all the way through because there was too much to do but you get the idea)

If you don’t already, make sure you have a big folder of references from Homestuck, both panels and sprites, just so you know how The Huss would have done it. That might be more important for Act Omega since we’re trying so very hard to be as close to canon as humanly possible, but it’ll be very handy regardless.

What else is there… well, I could say some more stuff about the art style itself but I figure if you want to start a fanventure you’ll probably have the basics of that stuff down already.

Now, for what Joy had to say about editing images:“Say you need for example a scene on Prospit or Derse, then the process goes like this:1. Find an image (or images) on google that are generally of italian cities and cathedrals. A lot of iconic “Derse and Prospit” images actually come from pictures of the roof of the Milan cathedral, but generally you should get the gist with the Florence skyline and by cobbling together a bunch of cathedral images. 2. You want to use Photoshop tools like the magic wand or selection tool to cut out the sky and anything else that isn’t the actual building. Usually anyway depending on the image. If you have a picture with a bunch of tourists you could just crop them out or use the clone stamp tool to make them disappear oooooo.3. Turn the entire image grayscale, and (optional at this point but you might want to do it eventually) bump up the brightness and contrast. 4. Then you want to eye-drop pick from a canon Derse or Prospit image the light and dark Derse/Prospit colors. For prospit its like a bright saturated yellow and a more dark orange color? You can actually play around with the two colors you use to vary contrast and stuff if you’re putting together a bit scene. 5. Copy the cathedral layer and lock the opacity, put it above the original layer, and fill it with the solid light color. Set the layer mode to overlay.6. Do this again but with the darker color, and put it below the original layer.7. Lower the opacity of the original layer. It should start to look how hussie makes it look.8. Sometimes to give it an additional rough pixellated look, I’ll go to image>adjustments>posturize and play around with it. It gives the image some of that gif-ified look.But basically when it comes to hussie-fying images these are some of the basic main principles you want to keep in mind. The posturize effect, using overlay layers, and finding images and mashing them together creatively.

Also another key thing to note is that when you resize or transform things, there are different transformation MODES. In order to transform pixellated stuff, you want to use Nearest Neighbor. That will preserve sharp edges, but sometimes it can distort things and make it look weird. In situations like that Hussie often uses Bilinear instead, and then sharpens the transformed part. He usually ONLY does this when he is making things smaller or rotating them, not to enlarge anything, because then the blurred/sharpened-ness of it becomes way more obvious.This is honestly the best advice I can give. A lot of it is kind of fucking around with blending modes and layers until you get the right LOOK lol.”

(-Joyfulldreams 2017, give her a round of applause)

…So that’s pretty much some general technique pointers. I’ll post them publicly in case anyone else would like to know.I hope I haven’t just been stating the obvious here, wasn’t entirely sure what I could say that would really directly be helpful, but in any case, if you have any more specific questions you think I might be able to help with, please feel free to send me a PM.

[blackthornings]

rules: you must answer these 85 statements and tag 20 people tagged by: @aryaes tysm! (not tagging 20 people) tagging: @fleurdalacour @fcyscnd @jemcarstoirs @fck-tamlin @nikolailatnsov @tibcrias @feysandsmut @nestarchron @mncmosyne the last … 1. drink: bubble tea :) 2. phone call: my brother 3. text message: my best friend. it was "hi, munchkin" 4. song you listened to: lust for life by ldr 5. time you cried: like yesterday? i think it was over adelina amouteru or niklas malikov 6. dated someone twice: hahaha no 7. kissed someone and regretted it: no 8. been cheated on: does it count if they cheated on me w/ a pinecone 9. lost someone special: yep 10. been depressed: not the mental illness but i do get sad 11. gotten drunk and thrown up: nah i'm an angel favorite colors 12. to wear - red, coral, peach, black 13. all the colours in the sky at dawn 14. iridescent siiiilver in the last year have you … 15. made new friends: yep :) 16. fallen out of love: yes 17. laughed until you cried: it's unavoidable when u have friends like mine lmao 18. found out someone was talking about you: yes it was awkward af 19. met someone who changed you: yeah 20. found out who your friends are: yeah <3 21. kissed someone on your facebook list: nope i hate facebook culture general 22. how many of your facebook friends do you know in real life: most of them i think? i haven't used it in agessss 23. do you have any pets: had three goldfish and two birds once. they're all dead. (do my plants count?) 24. do you want to change your name: yes it's never on anything in a gift shop 25. what did you do for your last birthday: eh 26. what time did you wake up: 10am lmao 27. what were you doing at midnight last night: ballet. i had a weird impulse to start doing plies 28. name something you can’t wait for: the day i finally get a life 29. when was the last time you saw your mom: she's sitting next to me right now in the car 31. what are you listening to right now: the rain on the car roof, the squeak of wheels, the occasional annoying comment from the satnav 32. have you ever talked to a person named tom: yes i know SO MANY TOMS why is this name so popular 33. something that is getting on your nerves: my brothers. they are driving me insane. they can't answer any question normally, it either has to be a bad insult or a primary-school-level joke 34. most visited website: tumblr 35. hair colour: blackkkk 36. long or short hair: longish 37. do you have a crush on someone: wish i did 38. what do you like about yourself: i haven't killed all my plants yet? 39. piercings: ears 40. blood type: no clue. the type that mosquitos love 41. nickname: january, jeanne, anna, jo, joanne, rhubarb, munchkin 42. relationship status: single till the day i die 43. zodiac: libra but i don't believe that stuff 44. pronouns: she/her/idiot 45. favourite tv show: shadowhunters (even though it sucks), stranger things 46. tattoos: not ever getting one lol 47. right or left handed: right 48. surgery: nope 49. piercing: ears (im sure this has been asked twice) 50. sport: netball n running 51. vacation: i wanna see america and the northern lights and visit russia and France and basically the whole world 52. pair of trainers: nike more general 53. eating: sushi 54. drinking: bubble tea 55. i’m about to: sleep or read or finally get an answer in my dms 56. waiting for: a lot of book releases. a life. 57. want: to feel happy when i wake up in the morning 58. get married: a loooot later in life 59. career: i'm taking gcses that will help me be an architect so that i guess 60. hugs or kisses: both but i wouldn't mind a kiss from the right person 61. lips or eyes: eyes 62. shorter or taller: taller 63. older or younger: the same age 64. nice arms or nice stomach: stomach 65. hook up or relationship: relationship 66. troublemaker or hesitant: hesitant 67. kissed a stranger: no lmao 68. drank hard liquor: no 69. lost glasses/contact lenses: yes. yesterday 70. turned someone down: yeah it was super awkward because he was rly cute about it but i just didn't feel the same way 71. sex on the first date: no 72. broken someone’s heart: yes (i'm SORRY) 73. had your heart broken: *angsty emo voice*: when was it ever whole? (sorry that was Fake Edgy™ but yeah lol) 74. been arrested: no 75. cried when someone died: yes. 76. fallen for a friend: yeah. do you believe in … 77. yourself: occasionally 78. miracles: yep 79. love at first sight: yeah 80. santa claus: no haha 81. kiss on the first date: na 82. angels: yes other 83. current best friend’s name: emily and she is an angel we should all protect <3 84. eye colour: sepia/mahogany brown 85. favourite movie: oh idk. all the hunger games?

[chelseaonjta-blog]

the 2 major Ms of my JTA: Morocco

woooo i’m back!

life update: it’s now UPF’s exam week(s), and i have 17 days left in barcelona! i dont know what to feel…now that i’m near the finish line, I feel like time flew by so fast. But I remember being in Feb or March and feeling like time was moving _soooooo _slow. and now that i’m about to leave, I’m starting to REALLY enjoy JTA. i’m starting to make new friends and be closer to them, going on trips i’m really enjoying, seeing a different culture, and being more excited for my classes even! (ok i was always excited about international journalism, but i found my 2nd wind for Spanish outta nowhere and i’m a nerd so i’m actually enjoying doing research for sociology class…)

but anyway. maybe i should look into that deeper. or maybe i won’t, because i’m always so scared of my own feelings hahahahhsskjdnkjsn

so. my 2 major Ms – Morocco and Madrid!!!! first:

Morocco

yo. I loved Morocco! what a different experience. I, being dumb, didn’t even consider that it wasn’t part of the EU. I knew it was in Africa, but for some reason I thought it was part of the EU???? i don’t know, man, i don’t know. i was suddenly hit by the fact that I was in Africa when I landed. About time, I know but…wow. this goes without saying, but being in Africa is so different from being in Europe. and I loved it. I loved being away from picture perfect Europe, where everything was so similar that it started getting boring.

Morocco reminded me a lot of Manila. It was hot, it was crazy, there were sketchy people and people trying to sell you stuff everywhere. It was Manila but in Africa. And I think that’s why I appreciated it a lot more than I would’ve if I had come in March or something. I think I came at the perfect time too because it was end of May, right after a slew of trips in Europe and I was starting to get bored with how old and stuffy Europe was.

I guess it made me miss home too. It was all so Manila-esque. Manila’s probably a little better than Morocco, but the vibe was definitely there.

oh and legina went with us too! so that was really fun. she’s a lot of fun to be with!

so the first day we went to this palace thing which wasn’t really all that great. i don’t remember much of it really…i guess i’m over the whole palace thing hahaha. then we ate some REALLY good food. i remember the food from morocco really well…

Tajine is AMAZING. its like chicken/beef/lamb roasted in vegetables and herbs cooked in this special pot. and it was heaven. so we had our first tajine then we walked around Jemaa Al-Fna and bought some really good shakes! Moroccans are extremely sensitive though - we bought from this one guy and on our way to his stall we ignored the neighboring stall. the neighbour started looking dirty at us and getting angry that we were taking pictures with the drinks and with our food stall guy named…Anas (I think that was his name). that didn’t stop us though – picturing we went!

couldn’t get a picture of the main square, it was so hectic but hahaha it was all very salmon colored and fruit stands.

what made this trip for me though was something that happened at night. Morocco’s predominantly Muslim, and they were nearing the end of Ramadan by the time we went. at around 6pm, we got hungry and asked the hostel lady if we could order dinner at the hostel. she said ok, but that she would only start cooking at 8pm, because before then she’d be preparing for the end of day Ramadan feast. and so we sat there while she prepared and converted half the lobby into a dinner area. and it was SOOO cool. at the end of ramadan there’s this really loud sound that goes through the entire city. it’s not a pretty sound, it sounds short of that emergency sound that means you need to evacuate immediately. and right at that time, it’s like everyone stops. we walked around on day 2 and 3 and really...everyone is QUIET at this time because they’re all eating. so the hostel people all gathered together to start eating. it wasn’t noisy or whatever, it was just a meal shared by people who worked together who had the same faith. it looked a lot like a family. everyone was just quiet when they ate, but there was an air of solemnity there. 

it amazed me how these people (and almost everyone in Morocco) could practice their faith without anyone telling them to do so. they literally dropped everything to eat at the end of the day (understandable cause they were hungry)...which meant that they really did fast for the rest of the day. and they weren’t just at home or whatever: they were working people. they had jobs. they got tired. they had to deal with their 37-40 degree heat and not eat a thing. they couldn’t even have water. what faith and loyalty these people had!!

day 2!

day 2 was alot of fun. we booked this airbnb experience thing - credits to bianca for always finding such nice and cheap things to do. 

we got to do a lot of fun things. i was wondering what to wear because the description said there would be a hike involved, but because of how hot it was i wanted to wear a dress (also cause i didn’t bring appropriate pants). i went for it. i wore the dress. and no regrets! 

it was an extremely fun day, and it was something i wouldn’t find anywhere else. our host, Ibri, was super fun and welcoming. he brought us first to this camel place. I RODE A CAMEL!!! which is a big feat for me because i’m uneasy around animals. we got to wear these cool costumes too.

it was pretty cool. then after our camel ride we had Moroccan tea. I love Moroccan tea now - it makes me relaxed. plus they like to put sugar so of course I like that too hehe. we then went to this Argan oil cooperative where we tried different sauces with our bread -- the sauces were Argan oil, olive oil, this peanut butter-y thing and honey. all really good, and even the olive oil tasted a lot richer than regular oil! i got some argan oil and argan soap too. can’t wait to try it!

^ our view otw to the cooperative. where else can you find places like this?!

we then went to start our hike. it wasn’t too hard, but there were some parts that made me lose my breath. but it was all worth it! we passed by a waterfall too on our way up. it was all so beautiful and real. i definitely wouldn’t have gotten this anywhere else. maybe for this one pictures do speak a thousand words:

the last one: Ibri’s view from his HOUSE TERRACE. beautiful!!!

then we had lunch at Ibri’s place. his “lovely mother” (as stated in the airbnb description) cooked for us. and wow...it was great.

yes, that last one is just monggo with...bread. weird but good! and that was an appetizer! it was an amazing experience, and i’m really glad we took it. i really would not have experience this anywhere else. and _that’s _the kind of feeling i was looking for when i went on JTA. after being around Europe and seeing the same designs and the same _vibe _from everywhere, I was relieved to finally be somewhere else. 

after lunch, we hiked backed down and said goodbye to Ibri. we then went to our hostel and rested for a bit (it was so hot). we then talked a bit with Bruno, a Portuguese guy who is super friendly but who was pretty talkative. he apparently travels a loooot. he came to manila, and he super enjoyed _Manila. _not Boracay, not Palawan (he went there too) but MANILA. what a guy. after Morocco, he was going to Madrid, then Norway, South Africa, South Korea...we all thought this guys was rich. we’re probably right. he was really friendly...for the other girls, he was a little too friendly. but i think that we’re just not used to this hostel kind of culture. it’s shocking for me, but to my merit (or detriment), i just go along with people’s trip. or better in filipino - hindi ako nagbabasag ng trip. which sometimes sucks for me because people are joking and i pretend to take them seriously on whatever dumb shit they’re doing and they think i believe them :< well . that’s what i get for being nice...HAHAHA well it’s not a bad thing. but i digress (as always!)

so anyway we went out again and tried some really good night market food. it was a lot cooler at night too, so it was enjoyable to walk around. it was a pleasant evening!

[dreriart]

Can you explain how you progressed? I know practicing every day but were there any specific things you can recall that you learned from more than anything?

Hey! Okay so first, the practicing every day thing is a must, but you should study from the right sources. I'm going to talk about my experience with figure drawing in particular, because it's mainly the thing i paint.In my personal experience, at first I experimented with basic shading and had absolutely no anatomy and structure until I started studying the fundamentals; read and copy Loomis books, Michael Hamptons, Vilppu, Bridgman (I studied this on an academic art atelier), after that you should do photostudies but while trying to understand what's going on under the skin based on those previous books. The rendering is a secondary thing once you have that solid basic structure going on :) Nowadays I study a lot from drawings from other people, study the rendering of other artists I like and try to apply that to my own work. I still do tons of anatomy photostudies too. Save a lot of art you like and aspire to imitate, and save lots of anatomical/color palette/fashion/face references and then use them for when you have to draw. Always use try to refs, even if you feel like you don't need them. Eventually you will memorize certain things that make you less dependent of references but it's never a bad thing to have a few just in case. In conclusion, don't expect a short term significant change, be patient with yourself, study a loooot from those books and anatomy references, remember that the rendering is a secondary thing: a polished turd is still a turd. Aaaand draw the things that you love while still going out of your confort zone every once in a while. Hope it helps, im shit at explaining stuff 💕😬

[brocolirose]

I have lost sleep.

So to speak. When I fall asleep, I’m a log for at least 8 hours. Such a waste of life. (Look at me, being an angsty teenager at age 27. That’s what 4:30AM sleep-deprived cynicism looks like.) But this pattern of not going to sleep before 4AM has been recurring very often in the past 2 or 3 weeks, and this time I mustered up the focus to write down those things that bug me, and those things that stress the fuck out of me. Hear Me Ramble.

One of the biggest challenges I face with journaling as an activity is choosing the medium. Putting pen to paper is the most satisfying, sensorially. Tracing the letters, forcing myself not to write in a jumble, whiting out mistakes and re-writing on top.... They’re the small, irreplaceable pleasures. Typing is a lot less about fine motor skills and less emotionally invested (at least in my case -- I put a lot of thought in the form and content of manuscript text) -- but it is much quicker, much cleaner, much more flexible, and above all easy to reference. I sometimes read my very old blog posts, and I wonder both at how much/little different I am from back then and at the fact I have actually journaled/blogged so little in the past 7 years. Where did my writing go ?

Well, to put it bluntly: it probably went in the sinkhole of Facebook comments, for the most part. I spent so much time fighting losing battles. Then you give up on Internet crusades when you burn out from the broken-record conversations. Anyway I don’t recall writing a lot more besides that and getting my college degree in Korean studies. Boy did I learn how to properly scratch paper in those 3 years. (Funny thing is: my laptop kinda broke down in the first year and needed to be constantly plugged in, so I couldn’t really bring it to campus and use it to take notes -- so I got really good at switching my color gel pens while scribbling.)

Anywho (I love this silly little word), writing used to be a way for me to process my feelings and thoughts, and somewhere along the way it just got dropped. There was also a time I took a lot of photos and went through the trouble of sorting my favorites, editing them and showing them (in my FB photos, ifyou’re looking for impressive). But one then the other vanished, mostly around the time I got a first boyfriend, and then when life became a busy whirlwind (to my standards -- I need a loooot of leisure time -- not having found my calling and whatnot). I’ve made a few feeble attempts at writing over the past year, to deal with my depression, in the context of therapy -- but I got hung up on the medium, and never could find consistency.

But fuck it. Pen and paper is a pain to carry around then review. Livejournal is as good as dead. So here I am, on my last long-standing blog. A kingdom of isolation, stranded on the far shores of.... well, Tumblr. Whatever that means.

(It’s a 5AM ramble now, woohoo!)

Oh I have a bit of that rice drink and matcha, let me drink that to quench my thirst. Yummy.

If you’re still reading this, wayward voyager, let me reward your patience now and tell you what has been stressing me out. See, I have been living and working full time in a different country than my own, living on my own (and then with a flatmate) for the first time in my life, making good money (considering the job), and getting a taste of adulthood I never had before. But this “time away” has not gone according to plan (life, duh) and shit started hitting the fan 6 months in. It’s been nearly 4 years since I realized I had nearly all the symptoms of chronic depression, and so far no doctor, therapist or counselor has contested this self-applied diagnosis (nor did they diagnose anything on top, which is a relief). But here in Cork I was suddenly forced to take care of it, and for the first time I had a proper network of support to guide me toward the help I needed. In Paris I never had the time or energy or interest to look up the help myself, and mom paid rent. Locked in a situation where I needed to provide for myself, but couldn’t carry out my work because of recurring breakdowns, and refusing to fold back onto my Paris mommy-shelter, I left myself few rescue routes: get better, or end it. You might have noticed I’m still here.

(or am I?)

Long story short, this year has really helped me tie up a few loose ends, and opened up the path to resolving other issues, instead of drawing a curtain on them.

- I mourned a friendship (or two); - I took responsibility for my feelings in general, and figured out the emotional hardships I was willing to tackle in a long-distance, polyamorous relationship (there have been many); - I started to really get the wisdoms of Buddhism and Stoicism, and it helped me keep a less dramatic outlook on life; - I Netflixed the months away, and caught up on a lot of shows I would have never seen otherwise. (honestly I don’t remember a fifth of it, and the remaining less-than-a-fifth is very unlikely to be useful in daily life or conversation, and I’m just not a TV-show-fangirl -- so we may bar this whole thing as a huge waste of time and money, but I’ll own this.) - I have never drawn so much in a very long time. I posted a lot of stuff on Instagram lately, relatively speaking. Paradoxically I got myself a new laptop in January to do more digital stuff, but ended up, over the last 6 months, filling out a drawing pad instead: twice bigger than the previous one, and filled twice faster. My brain’s a twat. Or maybe just my expectations are. Fuck me, whatever. - Now that I’m coming to grips with emotional hygiene, I’ll be able to start building some financial hygiene. Because I wasn’t able to save more than my ass’ skin and what it takes to keep it dry, warm, clean and peachy.

I’m also figuring out that instead of being a nice smart badass waiting for her chance in life, I am more of a wasteful cowardly fuckwit with delusions of grandeur -- while paradoxically knowing my life is shit, yes. (not top-grade never-getting-out-of-there shit, but still shit. Entry-level shit, if you will.) But I used to think that I deserved better and just didn’t get the starting boost I thought I had deserved by virtue of being born with whatever beautiful brain I thought I had been endowed with.

Truth is: although I’m human and thus inherently flawed, so far I’ve done a pretty terrible job of picking up the skills needed to progress in life as an autonomous adult. Just to say I’m not as smart as I like to think I am.

Somehow this thought is liberating. It’s good to be an idiot. To embrace being a dimwit. No need to impress anybody, even myself.

That doesn’t mean I will let everything go strapless and become even more thoroughly irresponsible and aimless than I already am. I simply want to acknowledge the very likely possibility that I’ve been setting the bar a little too high for myself by factoring in a stellar intellect that flirts with no other stars than those wriggling over the seabed floor.

So there: I’m stupid, and it’s okay. It just means I should get my sheep in a row and work harder, otherwise my peachy ass becomes crisp bacon. (hmmmmmmmmm bacon 🥓)

(It’s 6AM, I wouldn’t mind some bacon and eggs.)

Hmmmm I didn’t get too much into detail, and I suppose I’ve rambled enough because I don’t feel like going on. But it felt good. :) So I’m going to close off by saying that what stresses me out is that I may not be fully ready when the day comes that I have to fly back to Paris (July 5th), and I’ll have to leave plenty of stuff here because I didn’t move my butt to expedite my stuff back nor sell what I could. And I’m afraid of losing other friends as I figure out how to go about being a polyamorous, sliiiightly bisexual person with values that do not bar flirting with someone who happens to be somebody else’s “other half”. I’m also scared I won’t find a livelihood whose required work won’t drive me crazy or suicidal.

Because I’ve experienced these things. But I’m not afraid of going stag on a backpacking trip across Europe and more. Because, of that, I am clueless.

[toffyandsalt]

Tag time!

Rules: Answer the questions and tag 20 blogs you’d like to get to know better


Nicknames: Toffy, a-drift


Time right now: 20.08


Last thing I googled: flotilla 


Favorite music artist: So many! Joe Bonamassa, John Williams, Belle&Sebastian, Muse, Tim Larkin, Jack Wall and a thousand more


Song stuck in my head: Marcelo Camelo & Mallu Magalhaes - Janta


Last movie i watched: Miss Julie (it damaged my brain)


Last tv show i watched: I rewatched Almost Human the other day. But if meaning a new show, then True Detective was the last thing I watched.


What i’m wearing right now: My Harry Potter top tank and home pants


When i created this blog: ... so long ago. 5 years ago? 4?


The kind of stuff i post: FBAWTFT, Merlin, a loooot of fanfiction and random stuff from random fandoms of mine.


Do i have other blogs: Yep, a gaming sideblog & an art blog, which i don’t update as often as I should


Do I get asks regularly?: Often enough, but I always welcome more ;)


Why did i choose my url: I changed it a month or two ago because my original one looked like a bot lol. And now... well, because it works with my current interests :)


Gender: Female


Hogwarts house: Ravenclaw


Pokémon team: Alas, I’m not in the Pokemon fandom to choose


Favorite colors: Icy blue and dark red


Average hours of sleep: Depends! Mostly 7 hours these days


Lucky number: 6 :) Been like this for a long time, somehow


Favorite Characters: Oh I have a list *pulls out a 10 feet scrool*. Percival Graves, Ron Weasley, Daneel Olivaw, Elijah Baley, Max Frei, Sir Shurf, Merlin, Zoe Castillo, Mordin Solus, Fenris and so many more.


Dream job: Running a small business on something crafty.


How many blankets do you sleep with: One :D You should ask how many pillows I sleep with instead lol

I tag @gravesfrommacusa, @emthrys, @angst-wizard, @tssoni, @allofthethingsdivine, @soughs, @elvishflower, @luandachan, @waywardgraves, @djfatchip <3 Sorry if you’ve already done it and of course, no one is forced to do it :D

[ohsehunts-deerhan]

Once again: if you believe Lu Han is straight because he's nervous/awkward around most girls, remember he used to have (and still has in his team too) a loooot of female friends (with who he adored fangirling over DBSK, worshipping Kim Jaejoong who amost everyone will agree is at least BISEXUAL if not only gay = Yunjae) like a loooot of gay men (I  and some of my fellow shippers have got some gay friends for example) because there is no seduction involved. But ofc Lu will get awkward if he's forced to do GROSS FANSERVICE with girls lol. I also know that he probably got some gf(s) when he was a teenager but he said once it was a mistake and he could have experienced different stuffs because sexuality boundaries are not that binary. He also hanged out with lgbt people like himself when he was a teenager, he posted quite VERY twinky pics of him, he still has an addiction for Hello Kitty among many other things so there is NO WAY he became gay just for Sehun, he was gay before no matter how he was maybe not comfortable with it (and still not totally comfortable now because of the tradition and the pressure of society he's currently suffering of). Him being gay is MY PERSONAL OPINION but I obviously based it on facts and to be very honest, the way he looked at Oh Sehun is sufficient to say he's gay. And I know MALES who will agree that Luhan is gay too. I should add that a BIG part of his work (music for example) is related to Oh Sehun in a way or another (Winter song=Wu, Skin to Skin=Shi, Xplore= Xun, Wushixun=Oh Sehun for example and so many other things you need to know like expensive common jewels I could write all night on that etc etc), that the songwritter of most of his best songs (CMWIF, STS, On Call...) is a WOMAN and that it's obvious that these songs are written from a BOTTOM/woman point of view. That songwritter also wrote the lyrics for a BOYS LOVE drama ost song.  

One conclusion: don't be fooled by what the medias show (not all is fake but one gotta be careful) and only see the facts behind the cameras and Luhan's real playful and childlish personality next to him being a BOSS when it comes to his career most of the time (not all the time if he agrees to do gross disgusting fanservice though). I also hope Lu Han will continue showing his true self, his true preferences in styling for exampe (make up, shiny and colorful stuffs from woman's collection sometimes ON STAGE) and say a BIG F*CK YOU to mysoginistic and homophobic people who bash him for being "too girly" or whatever. Let that man do what he really wants damn. And yeah, HunHan is real at the end of the day, always.

[mommabearsdayoff]

1. Any scars? 5. Coke or Pepsi? 9. What’s your dream job? 12. Favorite color? 13. Height? 16. Hair color?*i don't know if you've changed it* 22. Nicknames people call you? 24. Favorite band? 26. Best thing that has ever happened to you? 30. Watch the movie or read the book? 32. Favorite show? 33. Best day of your life? 36. Any bad habits? 37. Ever had a near death experience? 38. Someone you can tell anything to? 42. Are you okay?

I was sitting around for a few moments after I reblogged these questions, and then I put my laptop down all sad like “darn no questions” and then i put it down and started watching T.V. and checked my phone and was like “HELLA RAY ALWAYS LOOKING OUT FOR ME LET’S OVERSHARE TODAY”

1.) A few! The only one that’s really stuck around is the one on my left hand, first knuckle. It’s just a little slit, probably a cute from when I was young, but I like to think of it as kind of my “Hiccup” scar. Y’know the one? On Hiccup’s chin?

5.) Oh, Coke all the way, no matter what. Pepsi is too sweet and it’s gross.

9.) To be a writer! Though, a more practical dream now is probably just to be a social worker

12.) Blues and greens!

13.) 5 ft 3 in!

16.) Brown, actually! Though it’s currently a yellowish green, mostly blonde.

22.) Shelbs mostly, though my boyfriend has me down as “Shel-babe” on Snapchat (never should have suggested it). But any variation on Shelby is a common nickname for me.

24.) Oh too many. I found a band recently called “Spoon” and their newest album is pretty addicting. Koethe has wrote some beautiful stuff though, including a song that was inspired by Life is Strange called “Price”.I’ve been listening to a lot of Rise Against recently, ‘cause Colton loves them (and I do too c:). Oh, and loooots of country music too.

26.) Best thing that’s ever happened to me? Hmmmm, nothing yet? Still got a bit of life to live.

30.) Oh, to be honest? Watch the movie. I read the book afterwords, usually. I don’t read much anymore, mostly because I just can’t find any good books xD

32.) Oh, hmm. The Blacklist, actually. Though I was addicted to Lie to Me for a while- *is currently watching Wakfu and sees a ship moment* Oh shit nevermind, Wakfu for life

33.) Oh, probably May 23rd ish? A couple years ago? It was an Imagine Dragon’s concert. I crowd surfed xD

36.) Nail biting? Scratching my ear? Humming? Just, lots of itty bitty stuff.

37.) Never really had a near death experience? I choked on an onion ring once when I was younger, but I coughed it up.

38.) @catsafarithewriter, of course! @raythecomputerart and @squidynk, I know I can trust you two, no matter what. I’m thankful for all of you in my life.

42.) I’m better, at least. Time heals all wounds, and I get over things quickly. Just needed a good cry and to keep going. Needed to remind myself of all of that.