#i wanted to practice weird perspectives and shading

[hiirenvirnas]

King of the capybaras! 👑

[seungkw1]

sketchbook — xmh

♡ pairing: xu minghao x gn!reader ♡ theme: best friends to lovers, college au, fluff ♡ wc: 3.1k ♡ warnings: none

“why did i sign up for this stupid class?”

you mumbled it under your breath, but your best friend still heard it from across the room. he looks up from the book he’s reading, a concerned frown on his face.

“what’s wrong with the class?” he closes his book, his eyes resting on yours.

“the class is fine it’s just… i’m just bad at it.”

“i highly doubt that.” he gets up, joining you at your kitchen table currently cluttered with textbooks, homework, and various drawing materials. he reaches for your sketchpad. “let me see.”

“nuh-uh,” you say, closing the book. he grabs it from you anyway.

“minghao! come on,” you shout at him. he ignores you, flipping through the pages.

“most of those are shitty reject drawings that i started and gave up on, nobody needs to see those.”

he continues perusing through the book quickly, but pauses at a particular page. you take the chance and reach for the sketchpad again, grabbing hold of it.

“wait! i like this one.”

you glance at the drawing he’s looking at. it’s the side profile of a classmate, drawn as a warm-up exercise.

“what? that was just a warm-up sketch, and it’s not even good. it looks nothing like the girl i was drawing.”

minghao looks up at you. “that doesn’t mean it’s bad. art isn’t necessarily about drawing things exactly the way they look, it’s about your interpretation of the subject. that’s like the whole point.”

“i wasn’t interpreting anything here, i was literally just trying to draw her face.”

“but look,” he says, turning the book so you can see it. “look at the way she’s looking into the distance. she looks sad, but in a nostalgic way.”

you stare at the sketch. “i don’t see it.”

“but that’s part of it too - art isn’t always about knowing the exact meaning of the piece, it’s also open to interpretation on the viewer’s perspective. and i like the way you portrayed her emotion.” 

you narrow your eyes at him. “you’re just making that up to make me feel better.”

“i’m not! i promise. i really like your art style, y/n.”

you want to roll your eyes at him, but he looks too sincere. “okay but how can i have an art style if i literally started drawing two weeks ago at the start of the semester? i don’t even know what i’m doing.”

“look at all your drawings though,” he flips the pages one at a time. “you press really hard when you draw, so it gives everything a very bold, sharp look. and combined with the way you shade, it gives it a dramatic edge.”

you look at your sketches again. they’re still unsightly in your eyes, but you do kind of see what he means.

“well, that’s good to know i guess. but it’s still hard,” you mope. “i thought this would be an easy elective to get an A in but now i’m worried.”

“it’s an intro class - i’m sure the professor isn’t expecting you to be picasso on day one. just keep practicing and you’ll be perfectly fine.”

one of the many things you love about minghao: he always knows how to make you feel reassured. 

“you’re probably right,” you reply. “i don’t know what i should draw for practice, though.”

“well, what do you want to improve the most?”

you think for a second. “our next project is a life drawing, but drawing people is so hard. so maybe that but what am i supposed to do, just draw random people?”

“sure, why not?”

“because that’s weird!”

“okay, well it doesn’t have to be a random person. here, try drawing me.”

“you?? right now?”

“yeah.”

you open your mouth to protest, but you pause, realizing it might not be a bad idea. 

you shrug as you reach for your pencils. “okay, i guess. you can't get mad when it turns out terrible though.”

minghao smiles softly. he situates himself in the chair, focusing his gaze off in the distance. you pick up your sketchbook, holding it at a comfortable angle as you hold your pencil above the page. you think for a minute - you never know where to start when you have to draw a face. you glance back up at minghao, skimming across his features - naturally, you land on his eyes. you always forget how pretty they are: dark brown, soft, calm - giving him a permanent aura of being deep in thought. 

you look back down at the blank page, it's emptiness seemingly taunting you. with a sigh you touch the dulled lead tip to the paper, making your first stroke -  the curvature of minghao’s eyelid appearing on the page. you peep back up at your subject. to your surprise, your shape isn't too far off from reality. you continue, sketching his lower eyelid, his iris, his long dark eyelashes. you erase your marks a few times when they don't look quite right, but before long the image of an eye that looks mostly like minghao’s has formed. 

you move to his nose, drawing the line of its sharp bridge, sketching a circle to render its round, button-shaped end - bringing the shape of his face to life. you peer up at his face, your pencil continuing its strokes, but you pause as you arrive at his lips. they are soft, plump, perfectly formed, highly kissable. you sketch the delicate curves, emphasizing their pillowy nature. you find yourself absentmindedly in a trance when you realize you’ve been staring at him for too long - you’ve already finished drawing his mouth. you feel your cheeks turn warm, praying he can’t see you getting flustered out of the corner of his eye. 

you move on, sketching his soft but strong jawline, his ears - adorned with his usual jewelry, adding quick wispy lines to form the shape of his long hair. before long the essence of minghao has materialized in your notebook.

as you finish, you hold your sketchpad up to compare your drawing to your subject. you don’t love it, and it’s nowhere near perfect. but it is decidedly good enough.

“okay, i’m done, i guess.” you set the notebook down, hesitantly sliding it across the table toward minghao. he picks it up, turning it to face him as he looks at it for the first time. the edges of his mouth twitch upward into a subtle smile, but he doesn’t say anything.

“you hate it.”

minghao looks up at you. “what? no, i love it.” he looks back at the paper with a pleased grin. “i’m telling you, you’re really good at portraying emotion.”

“and what emotion exactly did i portray?”

he shows you your drawing. “i look wistful - like i’m caught in a daydream of unrequieted love.”

you feel your stomach do a flip, but you play it cool, crossing your arms and rolling your eyes at him. “well, i didn’t do that on purpose. but i’m glad you like it.” you extend your hand to take back the notebook, but he turns it toward him again, taking another look. 

“can i keep it?” he looks up at you, his striking brown eyes making contact with yours. you stifle a gulp as you reply.

“um… sure, i guess so. if you really want it.”

he gives you a soft smile, pleased at your response. “i really do.” he carefully tears the page along the perforation, separating it from its spiral binding. he closes the sketchbook and hands it back to you. you return it to its place in your backpack.

“well, thanks for letting me practice on you, i appreciate it.”

“of course. if you need any more practice let me know - since i see you most days anyway.”

“you’re the best.”

“i know,” he replies smugly. you pick up your eraser and lob it at him. he manages to catch it with one hand, giving you a sly look as you jump out of your chair, running from him before he can throw it back. he follows you, chasing you around your apartment - you shout at him, feigning anger, but your laughter gives you away. 

another thing you love about minghao: being with him is always so easy.

—

you didn’t mean to make drawing minghao a regular occurrence. but on one particularly crisp fall day, you find yourself absentmindedly sketching his features as you eat lunch together in the park. he’s reading for his literature class, and you’re supposed to be studying for your sociology course, but you keep zoning out. it’s not your fault that the text is dull, and that the cherub-like rosiness coloring his cheeks makes him look more ethereal than usual. renaissance paintings of angels have nothing on how beautiful he looks right now, you think to yourself. 

you also definitely didn’t mean to start falling for your best friend, but here you are.

delicate pencil strokes paint the wisps of his bangs falling over his eyes as he is studiously engrossed in his book, his long eyelashes peeking through the curtain of hair. you focus on perfecting the shape of his face - glancing up to compare your rendering to your subject - when you notice him looking back at you.

“what are you doing?” he asks, genuinely curious.

you’re about to shut your notebook in a panic, when you realize that would only look more suspicious. 

“nothing, just…”

he reaches for your notebook, his fingers brushing over the top of the page as he tilts it down so he can see. he lets out a soft chuckle.

“practicing again, i see,” he says, casually, but clearly teasing you a little. “i thought you were supposed to be studying for your sociology exam.”

“i am,” you insist. he raises his eyebrow at you. “i was just taking a break,” you add. the look on his face tells you he’s not convinced, but he doesn’t press you further.

“it looks good, i can tell you’re getting better at drawing from a reference.”

“i guess it is getting a little easier,” you admit. 

minghao smiles. “good,” he affirms, before going back to his text without another word. 

you find yourself gazing dreamily at the man before you, lost in aimless thoughts, imagining the feel of his hair tangled around your fingers, his skin softly pressed against your cheeks, his lips brushing against yours. eventually he notices, peeking up at you through his bangs. you swiftly return to your drawing, only to realize you've already finished. his portrait looks slightly cartoonish, and nowhere nearly as beautiful as the real thing, but you decide it's not half bad. 

you half-heartedly resume your studies, sneaking glances at minghao here and there. every glimpse makes your heart flutter - you feel like an idiot, you're in college for christ's sake, and here you are having an entire crush on your closest friend. 

just tell him how you feel, part of your mind tries to convince you. 

but what if it ruins our friendship? another part of you worries. 

you realize you're staring at him again when he looks up from his book, his gaze meeting yours. 

“hmm? what is it?” he asks you calmly. 

“i…” 

you hesitate. his eyes rest on your face attentively.

you let out a small sigh. “i’m getting cold. can we go inside?”

he smiles softly, marking his page as he closes his book. “of course.”

minghao walks you to your next class, which is conveniently located in the building next to his next class. 

“well, see ya later,” you tell him as you turn to enter the building. 

“y/n…”

you freeze as he grabs your arm. you turn back around, looking at him expectantly. he lifts his hand up to your head, tenderly reaching for your hair. you realize you're holding your breath. you exhale as his fingers graze your scalp softly, plucking something off of your head. 

he holds a small yellow piece up to you. “you had a leaf in your hair.” 

your panicking ceases, leaving you a bit disappointed, but you can't help but smile at him.

“thanks, minghao. what would i do without you?”

“walk around with leaves in your hair all day, probably.”

you playfully give him a light shove. he reaches for the door, opening it for you as you head off to class. 

“i'm coming over tonight, if that's alright,” he says as you step through the doorway. 

“of course,” you say, turning over your shoulder to face him. “though, i should probably start charging you rent as much as you're at my place.”

he smiles back at you. “see you later, y/n.”

he disappears as the door shuts quickly. you spend the rest of the afternoon in a daydream, impatiently counting the hours until you see him again. 

—

“how’s the studying going?” minghao asks from the other end of the couch. he sets his book down, pausing so he can take his hoodie off. his plain black t-shirt rises up as he does, revealing his entire midriff. you try not to gawk too hard. he stares at you as he tosses the hoodie aside - you realize he is awaiting your response. 

you look down at your notebook, where you’ve once again been sketching his face. “um… pretty good,” you lie. “are you hungry?” you ask, changing the subject.

“starving, actually,” he admits.

“well, i can offer you ramen, or… actually, that’s about it.”

he grins at you. “ramen sounds great. want me to make some-”

“nope,” you respond as you flip your notebook over, setting it face down on the seat next to you. “i got it.” you rise and head to the kitchen. 

you cook the noodles, serving them into two bowls and carrying them back to the living room. you set the bowls on the coffee table, reaching over to set one in front of minghao - but you feel your leg bump against something. you look down to see your notebook fall to the floor - landing right side up. before you can grab it, minghao has already picked it up for you. he goes to hand it back to you, but pauses as he sees your sketches. you go to swipe it out of his hands, but miss as he pulls back, looking at his own face doodled on your pages.

“you were drawing me again.” it wasn’t a question.

you try to quickly think of some excuse, anything, to get you out of this one, but your mind comes up blank. you decide to try and play it off.

“yes,” you reply with feigned confidence as you sit down next to him. he looks up at you, then back down to the paper. you stare at him, waiting for him to say something else, but he says nothing.

“i like to practice whenever i can,” you add with a shrug.

he flips through your notebook. “whenever you can, or whenever you’re with me?”

“um… i-”

“because these all sure look like me, y/n.”

“so?” you ask him. you meant for your tone to be casual, but it came out a bit more defensive than intended.

his eyes meet yours again. he looks at you warmly, but you can’t tell what he’s thinking. your heart beats rapidly in your chest. 

“so,” he answers as he sets the notebook aside. “i'm wondering, if…” he scoots closer to you, lifting his hand to your face, gently brushing your cheek with his thumb. your skin feels like it's on fire. his fingers tucked under your chin delicately, he draws your face in toward his. you gasp softly. 

“if you feel the same way about me, as i feel about you.”

your heart is racing. you feel dizzy. he's so close to you, a few more inches and your noses would touch. his plump lips wait enticingly. 

“and how do you feel about me?” you manage to ask, your voice barely more than a whisper. his deep brown eyes stare longingly into yours. you’re pretty sure you know the answer, you hope you know the answer, but you need him to confirm it. 

suddenly, he kisses you. 

he kisses you, setting alight fireworks inside you. his soft lips touch against yours ever so gently, his nose pressing against your cheek, his hand holding your face tenderly in his palm, then sliding to the back of your neck, drawing you closer still into him. your chest presses against his, his other arm wrapping around your waist, his large hand settling upon the small of your back. you kiss him back, your lips locked onto his like your life depends on it. you've thought of this, dreamt of this, so many times before, all the years you've known minghao - yet you never could have imagined how thrilling, exhilarating, freeing it would be to finally be here, in his arms, world stopped, nothing matters except you and him, so lovingly embraced - together. 

electricity pulsates through your skin, every nerve in your body dancing. slowly, minghao’s lips part from yours. you lock eyes with him - in all the time you've known him, he's always been a sentimental person, but you've never seen such love and adoration beaming from him like you see now. 

and it's all for you. 

a giggle escapes you. minghao looks at you, a wide grin spreading across his face. you run your hands through his hair, a sensation you've waited so long to experience - it's every bit as delightful as you imagined. 

“hao…” you start.

he plants another kiss on your lips. “hmm?” he asks, still glowing at you. 

“how long have you felt this way?” you ask softly. 

“i've had feelings for you since the day we met, and i've loved you more every day since.” 

you boop your nose against his, giving him a fake stern look. 

“and why didn't you tell me?”

he feigns a pouty face back at you. “why didn't you tell me?”

you blow a tiny raspberry at him. he smiles, pulling you into him, wrapping his arms around you tightly as he kisses your cheek repeatedly. you laugh, held in his warm embrace, overflowing with emotions. 

finally, you can admit it: you're in love with your best friend - and he just so happens to love you back. 

[mirkoluvs]

★ MHA CHARACTERS WHEN YOU WON’T TELL THEM WHAT’S WRONG

characters: midoriya, bakugo, todoroki

genre: fluff, kinda comfort !!

izuku midoriya

- i love him so much but he would be unbelievably awkward 💀

- you told him you were fine, but it was clear you were the complete opposite of that

- when he tried asking you the first time, you just brushed it off and brought up something else, practically forcing a topic change

- but by the time classes were over and everyone was back in the dorms, you still looked just as miserable as you did before

- he couldn’t just let you suffer alone, so he mustered up all of his courage and went over to talk to you

“uhm… y/n, can i talk to you?”, midoriya asked, getting your attention. “sure, what’s wrong?”, you asked, following him as he walked to a more private part of the common room. “i don’t mean to be nosy, but are you sure you’re alright? i know you said you were fine earlier, but you don’t really look like it… WAIT, THAT CAME OUT WRONG. i mean, you look great as always! wait, no. i mean, yes! okay, what i’m trying to ask is-“, “izuku, i get what you’re trying to say, relax”, you interrupted him from his rant, causing him to let out a slight chuckle of embarrassment. “okay, i may have lied a little bit. i just got in a bit of trouble with mr. aizawa for not doing my homework on time and it ruined my mood, i promise it’s nothing serious”, you said, reassuring him. as if he had been holding it in all day, he let out a huge sigh of relief, leaning against the wall. “well that’s reassuring. i was thinking it was something really serious… not that what mr. aizawa said isn’t important! if you want, i could help you with your homework after school, kind of like a tutor!”, he suggested, perking up at the idea. you as well liked the sound of that, thinking of the things that could come out of it. “that actually sounds like a really good idea! thanks, izuku. for checking up on me and offering to tutor me”, you smiled at the boy. his face going from normal to a bright shade of red in mere moments, he hastily nodded his head. “no problem!”.

katsuki bakugo

- we all know bakugo’s a perspective person, so he notices when your mood is off

- “oi, what’s wrong with you, moron?”

- instead of making a snarky comment like you always do, you just muttered a “nothing” and pushed by him, walking out of the classroom

- he knew you were lying and it pissed him off, but he didn’t bother since you were already gone

- now, you two usually walk together after school and you still did walk with him, it was just unbearably quiet.

- usually you would find anything to talk about the whole entire walk home, but this time you didn’t even make a peep.

- this REALLY pissed him off, but he didn’t just brush it off this time

grabbing your wrist, bakugo dragged you behind a building, pinning you against a wall, his arms trapping you in, hands laid against the wall right next to your head. “what the hell-?”, “alright, cut the shit. what’s wrong? you’re acting weird and it’s annoying as hell”, he said in an irritated tone. “i already said it’s nothing”, you repeated from earlier. clicking his tongue, he rolled his eyes, clearly seeing through you. “do you think i’m dumb or some shit? i can tell you’re lying. you aren’t leaving until you spit it out”, he told you. it really didn’t look like he was going to budge anytime soon, so you sighed, giving in. “okay, okay! fine. i’m just upset because i got a really bad score during training today and it just put me off because i worked so hard and i still did bad”, you confessed, looking down in embarrassment. the silence was loud until you saw him put his arms down, letting out a sigh. “that’s it? you’re dramatic as hell”, he said, his attitude-filled tone coming back. “wow, thanks”, you replied sarcastically, rolling your eyes. “if you needed help with training, you could’ve just asked. throwing a pity party isn’t gonna fix shit, so actually communicate with me so we can figure it out together”, he finished, his tone softening. it was rare to ever receive actual advice or even help from bakugo, even if he was a little harsh with it. you couldn’t help but snicker at his attitude change, causing him to whip his head around. “WHAT THE HELL IS SO FUNNY?!”, he shouted at you as you continued to burst out in laughter. “i-im sorry! it’s just i’ve never seen you be so nice before, it’s so out of character for you and it’s funny!”, you laughed, trying to catch your breath. “tch, whatever, idiot! you better take my offer or else you aren’t getting any help from me” he told you with annoyance in his tone. “i will, trust me! thank you, katsuki”, you smiled.

shoto todoroki

- this poor man 😭

- he doesn’t really realize realize that you’re hiding something from him, he literally just thinks you hate him

- usually he would be greeted in the mornings by you running up to his desk and talking to him about any life updates, but that didn’t happen today

- instead, you walked right to your seat and didn’t say a word all period and it stayed like that the whole day

- when he tried to talk to you and asked if you were okay, you just responded in small hums, making it seem as if you were uninterested

- after a while, he just flat out asked you

“y/n, do you hate me?”, todoroki asked, causing you to practically choke on the juice you were drinking. “what?! no, why would i hate you?”, you asked, clearing your throat. “well, you haven’t spoken to me all day, so i assumed that was the case. if it is, i will leave you alone if that’s what you would like”, he said, preparing his stuff to move to a different table. “no, wait! shoto, im not mad at you at all, it’s just been a rough day, that’s all”, you reassured him, pulling him back down into the seat by his shirt. “oh”, he stated dumbfounded, sitting back down. he felt like a complete idiot by not noticing that something may be wrong. it was hard for him to figure out other people’s feelings as he had that problem himself. “well, what’s wrong then?”, he asked you, showing full attentiveness. you sighed before continuing to explain how you got in trouble with your parents for “being too careless” when it came to doing hero work and how it put you in a bad mood for the rest of the day. he nodded, taking everything you said into account before coming up with something to say. “well, i think you are amazing when it comes to hero work, you just act quickly, which may be a bit risky sometimes, but heros have to take risk to save people, right?”, he said, trying his best to help you out. you cracked a small smile for the first time all day, appreciating how hard he was trying to make you feel better. “yeah, you’re right. thanks, sho! and sorry about earlier, i shouldn’t have ignored you like that”, you apologized, feeling guilty about how you made him think you hated him. “it’s alright. i was a bit worried, but now that you told me what was actually going on, i feel a lot better. just know you can always tell me when somethings wrong, i’ll listen”.

© mirkoluvs. please do not copy, modify, or repost on other platforms. thank you !!

[mywitchyblog]

Adressing the Race-Changing Discourse

It seems that a debate has been stirred up within the Shiftblr community, and my recent posts might have unintentionally added fuel to the fire. So, let me clear up where I stand.

First off, do I race change? No, I don’t. It’s just not something I’ve felt the need to do in my shifting practice. But do I support others who choose to race change? Absolutely, as long as they’re doing it with respect and not for some fetishizing bullshit.

There are two things everyone needs to keep in mind when it comes to this whole controversy:

Respect for Opinions: Everyone is entitled to their own damn opinion. If someone doesn’t like the idea of race changing, that’s their business. But what we can’t stand for is bullying, harassing, or insulting someone just because they see things differently. Everyone’s perspective deserves respect, even if you don’t agree with it.

Diverse Preferences: Just like some people don’t like using face claims or prefer not to mess with certain Desired Realities (DRs), some people don’t like race changing. And that’s perfectly fine! It’s called freedom of speech and opinion, and it’s a fundamental right—only limited when you start screwing with someone else’s rights.

Now, here’s where things get real problematic:

If you’re cussing people out, insulting them, or harassing them because they disagree with you, you’ve crossed a line. No one has the right to attack others over their opinions. Period.

To those who oppose race changing: I get it. I understand that you might feel uncomfortable with it, and that’s completely within your rights. HOWEVER, it’s crucial to recognize that not everyone who shifts to a different race is doing it to fetishize or sexualize that race. That’s a fact that needs to be acknowledged, no ifs, ands, or buts.

Yes, there are people who misuse the practice of race changing, but you’ve also got to recognize the other side of the coin—the respectful and beneficial aspects of this practice within the shifting community. Here’s the thing: nothing in reality shifting is inherently good or bad, black or white. It’s all shades of grey, full of infinite nuances.

And let’s be real—some of you are being downright hypocritical.

Yeah, I said it. You can argue or debate in the comments all you want, but the truth is, some of you are cool with people shifting to become Mermaids, Animals, Aliens, Na’vi, and whatnot, but then you turn around and label anyone who changes their ethnicity as weird or wrong.

That, my friends, is the textbook definition of a hypocritical double standard. It’s the same damn thing.

If I were to ask why you shift to become a Na’vi, a dragon, a god, or an alien, I’m sure your reasons would be rooted in curiosity and exploration—not to sexualize or fetishize that race, right? The same logic applies to those who shift into a different human ethnicity.

You can’t claim that one side of the apple is bad while the other is perfectly fine. It doesn’t work that way. If one side’s rotten, the whole damn apple is.

Yet, while shifting to become a fictional or non-human race is often celebrated as a form of exploration and creativity, shifting to become a different human race is slapped with labels like wrong or offensive. This criticism completely ignores the potential for personal growth, empathy development, and deeper understanding that comes from experiencing life through the lens of a different racial identity. Just like with age changing, race changing in shifting can be a powerful tool for healing, exploration, and expanding your consciousness.

The hypocrisy here is glaring: the same people who criticize race changing as cultural appropriation or fetishization often have no problem with the idea of embodying entirely "fictional races", which can involve similar, if not greater, levels of stereotyping and romanticization. Keep in mind that in the context of reality shifting it is not fictional nothing is.

Imagine if someone discovered that you shifted to be their race and they are discriminated and persecuted and you shifted because of it (looking at you Avatar shifters that shift to be a Na Vi you are litterally shifting to be Native american but with a blue paint on top be fucking for real, you cannot ignore the fact that they litterally inspired at 99% by Native culture and their struggle against colonial forces The remaining 1% is the fictional setting, remove that and its just human history from this reality).

If the argument is that adopting another race’s identity is wrong because it involves stepping into experiences not your own, then the same damn logic should apply to any form of identity transformation in shifting. But it doesn’t—and that’s where the double standard lies.

This hypocritical double standard also reminds me of how teenage shifters react when they hear about adults aging themselves down to be minors. They immediately assume the worst—yet have no problem aging themselves up to 30-something parents in one DR and then being 16 in the next. This inconsistency shows a deeper misunderstanding of what shifting truly involves and how it allows us to explore different aspects of identity and experience with respect and intention.

[tolbachik-art]

How does one become good at drawing planets

Hey, thank you so much for the kind words & the question!

I'm still definitely a beginner, and have a long way to go, but it really warms my heart to hear you say that. For starters, getting over any perfectionism you may have is a big must!

I know a lot of people always say this, but practice, time, patience, doing studies, and having fun are the most important ways to get better!

I'll walk you through my progress, and what I've done to get where I am today with things! I will warn you, it did turn out to be a long winded post. If you want the jist of it, you can scroll to the bottom!

So, I've been doing digital art since say, mid 2015 or so. I didn't have much of a grasp on art, and while I grew up loving space and space exploration, I didn't quite understand how things worked.

On August 2nd, 2015 (when I was just 15), I posted my first piece on DeviantArt.

This was my first foray into space art. It may not be the best, but I remember being very excited about it, and actually making a piece like that.

This first piece is a big sign of what issues I would face with space art until very recently; a lack of detailing, leading to a soft appearance.

This would plague me for quite some time; I would put very little effort into detailing, and wouldn't even zoom in on the canvas for quite some time. I would do things from afar, not wanting to zoom in for some weird reason. This can be seen in the following paintings, as well.

This one, also of Neptune, was posted two years after the first one. The framework is kind of there, but only barely. The perspective is off, and once again, the detailing is too minimal and too soft. On top of that, the shading isn't nearly as harsh enough. Compositionally though, I was starting to get a grasp of some basics.

There would be a brief artless period in my life from 2017 to 2020; every once in awhile, I wouldn't do art for a few years. Then, suddenly, I would get back into it and put out several pieces, all before growing quiet once more.

2020, once Covid-19 started happening, would see the return of me to the world of art now that I was suddenly without a job.

Once again, Neptune will be a demonstrator of how my skills changed.

I was starting to get there; in terms of composition, much better than my older works. Coloring is a bit off, but overall, I was starting to actually understand how art works, and why things like detailing were important. One big thing here though; I was still painting with color. That would be one of the last big things for me to get over, although I didn't even know it then.

From the period of 2020-2021, I made a lot of paintings and mission patches for my one friend's KSP youtube series (seen here).

Doing what were essentially mini paintings, I learned a *lot* about composition and detailing. I think the one I spent the longest on was Heywood, in which I did my best to follow imagery from Voyager. Looking back now, however, it isn't quite accurate; that's the south pole! I still had a lot to learn in regards to doing accurate portrayals of celestial bodies, down to inclinations and the like.

Anyways, doing all that really burnt me out, on top of doing free art for people I didn't even know. That's another big lesson; only do gift art if you feel up to it, and for a friend. Do not do it for strangers.

It wasn't until late 2022, in September, that I actually finished a piece again. My illness had been pretty bad, leaving me bedbound for quite some time. However, during that time, I hadn't lost my skills thankfully.

This would be one of my first somewhat decent portrayals of Jupiter and one of his moons, using SpaceEngine for getting reference images and making sure all the parts were in the right place. This would set the groundwork for later paintings, as I always use SpaceEngine now to make sure I have the orientations and sizes of things in the sky right! It's been an invaluable tool, I quite literally don't know where I'd be without it.

Anyways; after that, it was very sparse once more, up until quite literally this year. Sickness sprung up again, and I had a rough winter due to the loss of my grandfather to Covid-19, among other things.

2024 saw, in my personal opinion, the biggest and best change to my art yet.

PAINTING IN VALUES!!!!!!!!!

I cannot stress this enough; understanding what values are, and how to see them in every day life literally changed my entire perspective on things. On life! I cannot go outside anymore without comparing and contrasting values of objects and natural phenomena.

This was before values. Not bad, but still not great. Detailing was getting there. This is from March 27th, 2024, and was part of an art trade with @dan-asd of their worldbuilding project.

And this, this is 3 months later, from July 16th, 2024. Commission for @corvidist, my very first. This was a massive leap in the way I understood and processed the world around me, and in turn, what my art looked like.

Everything is in values. Your phone, with the seemingly pure black LCD touchscreen to the blue and purple phone case. The clouds, with their bright white tops and dark bottoms. The river, with the murky green waters contrasting with the bright orange stones. All values, just differing shades of gray with color added! Everything is light! Everything is the absence of light! Light is the entirety of your piece; you just have to understand where light falls, and where it doesn't.

Apart from that, everything is just rudimentary shapes and lines. The universe is made up of different kinds of lines and shapes. Entire worlds can be reduced to light and lines, people can be too. You just need to know what to look for, and how to process that into artwork.

I cannot stress how much understanding that, and doing tiny little paintings really helped me get a much better grasp on things.

Take some time, get a small canvas out, and paint your favorite celestial body. Take as much or as little time as you need, and just have fun with it. Play with color, play with values, whatever your heart desires!

Once you're done, take a step back, and compare it to the picture. Analyze what areas you didn't enjoy, and what areas you did. Look for what doesn't line up with the picture, and think of how you could better approach it. Think of how you can change the lighting to make it seem more real, what effects are needed to bring it to life.

Art is the process of taking what you love, and putting it to paper (digital or not!). Focus on what you enjoy doing; it will all come naturally with time. You'll start to pick up on things, big and small, that will bring your pieces closer and closer to what you want it to be.

And please, for the love of everything that is holy, have fun with it and don't overthink it! You will be so disappointed in yourself if you hype yourself up for a piece, only for it to come out not the way you expected. That's ok! That's part of learning! It can be disheartening, but if you take the time to look at how and why you don't like the piece, it'll come out so much better next time around!

Talk to people, too! Talking with my dear email-pal Eduardo was my first step into understanding astronomical art, and thinking on how to improve my work. He really helped me step into the right direction when I was just starting out, which I am still eternally grateful for to this day. I think of him and his work often; he really was a massive help.

In more recent times, talking to @whirligig-girl helped me to get a better grip on realism, and how better to portray celestial bodies. She was a huge help in giving me pointers for fixing up my View From Amalthea piece, as well as the ones that followed after. Talking to artists more experienced than you and getting critiques is always a huge help; it can really show you things in a new light!

Speaking of, don't be afraid to let a piece rest and marinate for a bit. A day, a week, or even a year. It doesn't matter. You will come back to it, and you will see new things you never saw before, and think of new ways to improve upon it. I have a piece that's been in limbo for YEARS, and I still have yet to actually get to paint it (the top one, the alien one (i will never finish that Uranus piece though lol)). I have it perfectly envisioned now, so waiting really did pay off in the end.

Essentially, it all boils down to this:

Everything is light, or lack thereof.

Don't overthink it, and have fun.

Do not do free art for strangers.

Everything is shapes and lines.

Step back and look at your pieces, deconstructing them in your mind or on paper.

Examine your everyday life, and see how everything interacts in terms of values and color.

Do studies, please god, do studies they're so fun and eyeopening

Warmup! Warm! Up! WARMUP!!!!! They are critical to getting your mind in the art headspace! You will feel less interested and less focused otherwise!

Don't worry about your medium, just do what you enjoy and works best for you! There is no such thing as a perfect brush!

Talk to other artists in fields you enjoy!

I love talking about art, I really could go on for hours, but I will stop myself here.

You decide what you get out of art; it's your skill, your time, so do what you desire! These are only anecdotes about my experiences with art; they aren't universal, but I do hope they've helped. If you have any questions, any questions at all, don't hesitate to reach out!

Lastly, here are two resources for you for any future artworks you may do:

I got this book many years ago, but the lessons it gave me were invaluable. I mean it; they helped me to understand the importance of doing studies, and for detailing!

Paid membership, but an organization dedicated to doing astronomical art. I have yet to join, but I've heard lovely things about it! Hoping to join later this year, funds allowing.

I will finally end this here. Thank you so much for the ask, and I hope you have a lovely rest of your day!

[hannahssimblr]

“Give me your artist's perspective, do you like this colour?” Jen wriggles her toes and fixes a small patch with her nail varnish brush.

“It’s black. It’s not a colour.”

“Black is a colour.”

“It’s the absence of colour, it’s a shade.”

“Ugh, annoying.”

“You asked for an artist’s perspective.”

“I’m sorry I bleedin’ did.” She rolls her eyes and lies back on her towel. “I just wanted you to say that you like it. It’s about time you learned about what women really want.”

“Well, alright then, I like it.”

She sniffs and pushes her sunglasses onto her face. They glint in the high sun. “I miss Michelle. She knows how to talk about girl things. You’re useless, you know that? She’d look at my toenails and she’d say, ‘wow, Jen, that’s a nice colour, it really suits you’ and I wouldn’t even have to ask her to do that.”

“Sorry for having a dick,” I say. “It sounds like it’s really hard for you to cope with.”

“Thanks for understanding.”

“Have you heard from her recently?”

“Michelle? Yeah. She we were chatting on MSN the other day. She’s having fun in Malaysia, and it’s mad hot and all of her dad’s family are nice so far. And she saw a dead dog in a bag in the river.”

“Nice, thanks for the update.”

“Why don’t you message her?”

“Because I’m not close to Michelle like you are.”

“I wish you were, she’s important to me.”

“Obviously yes, I know that. We just get on each other's nerves.” She thinks I’m annoying, I think she’s annoying, we’d just never really work as friends. Jen knows this, so I don’t know why she keeps talking about it.

She turns over to look at me, “Well I think you should give her a chance, because you have a lot in common actually, you’re both really good at drawing, and you’re both smart. Also you could really use some practice with being friends with girls, and I mean just friends, not friends that you eventually, you know, fuck.” She whispers that last word because it’s a scandalous thing to say. 

“I don’t fuck.” I hiss back. “I wish you’d stop saying that, people might believe you.”

She snickers, “But you do!”

“No! As far as you’re concerned I've never done it. And I don't really feel like talking about this, it makes me feel weird.”

“Well okay, but when Shell comes back, and when we go back to Dublin you should make an effort with her, and you should use her as practice.”

I groan. “What do you mean?”

“See if you can not seduce a girl who’s close with you.”

“Stop it, I don’t seduce either”

“The girls at school would disagree, you should hear how they talk about you in the changing rooms, it’s all ‘Jude did this, Jude said that, he touched my arm, oh he’s so fine, did you see his arse in those trousers?’ It’s actually disgusting.”

I squint at her, “My school uniform trousers?”

“I think so.”

“I can’t help it if I pull them off. I pull everything off, actually. And I also can’t help it if the girls I make friends with eventually fall in love with me, I’m just naturally very sexy, so I get if you’re nervous about Michelle, because you never know what she might see in me…”

Jen is laughing, “You’re ridiculous. It’s just that you have that slight hint of an American accent, and they go wild for you because they think you sound like someone from 90210.”

“Whatever, I make that work for me too.”

“Well you know Siobhán in Ms Daly’s class? She says that you-”

“Okay, okay, I don’t want to know what she says,” I snap, with irritation that surprises even me, “I’m tired of talking about this now.”

Jen frowns, “Well sorry. Moody.”

“I just don’t want to know all of the weird things girls are saying about me to each other. Would you like it if you heard of yourself being, like, talked about like you’re not even a person and reduced to just body parts? I don’t think you would.”

“Nobody talks about me like that, so yeah, actually, I wouldn’t mind it for once.”

“Well it feels bad. They all talk about me like I’m some conquest.”

“I’d rather be like that than like this.”

“Like what?”

She says nothing. 

“Like what, Jenny?”

She crosses her arms crossly, “Never mind. Just ask yourself, if I was straight, do you think we’d still be friends?” 

Then I frown into her face. I don’t like this question or its abruptness. “Of course we would be. Why would you say that?”

“I’m just wondering, like, in an alternate universe whether things would have gotten complicated between us and then we’d have had to stop being friends out of awkwardness.”

“I don’t think that at all. I think we’d be friends no matter what.”

She chews on her lip anxiously. “Yeah but that proves my point. You think that because I’m not pretty.”

“Come on, Jenny, you are pretty.”

“Uh! I’m not, and I’m also fat, so,”

“You’re not fat.”

She huffs, “Well, I am. It’s a fact. You don’t have to lie. I’ve heard it enough times at school by now to know that everyone thinks so.”

“I don’t know… this conversation is weird. I don’t know what you’re getting at.”

“Well… I don’t know either. You just didn’t get my point.”

“Is there something about being friends with me that, like, makes you feel bad about yourself?” Now I am cold and horrible on the inside. If Jen believes, even in some small capacity, that our friendship exists only because I can’t or won’t date her, then I’m sick with myself. As if I would throw it all away for some lame chance at romance, when really, I’d be friends with Jen no matter what, and forever. No matter if she were straight, or thin or in some way differing in her appearance. I’m friends with her because she’s the best person I know and we are good for one another, not because I’ve merely settled for her. I wish I could communicate this effectively, but I know I can’t, because every time I try to say things like this to people it inevitably comes out wrong and I end up looking stupid.

“I don’t know. It’s alright.” With hands that clutch at her arms she sniffs and looks sharply away from me, down the long strip of the beach where the land whittles down to a spit and tapers into the sea, “I wonder if I text Joe now will he be able to get something from his brother for me tonight. I’m starting to get so bored of being sober.”

My stomach tightens like a fist, “What do you mean? What do you want him to get?”

“I dunno, like something fun for later. Whatever he has.”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” 

“Uh!” She looks at me with mock incredulity, “Are you my da? I can do what I want, can’t I?”

“I suppose, but why? It’s just not predictable. You never know what kind of junk you’re going to get when you go to a guy like that.”

“I know but I like that about it,” she takes her phone out and starts texting, “It’s unpredictable. Russian Roulette, right?”

“Yeah… Fine. Whatever. Something like that.”

Beginning // Prev // Next

[wellthebardsdead]

Fools prayer pt8

Part 7 here

Part of this shows Vivec’s perspective from voryns dream visit.

———

Vivec: *tucked into his bed after nerevar finally left him to rest for the evening. His body still sore but healing, though the pain was greatly overshadowed by the immense sense of relaxation and exhaustion washing over him as his aching muscles felt the comfort of a warm, soft, cushioned mattress for the first time in so long*

Ordinator: *steps to his bedside gently taking the now empty teacup from his hand as he ‘begins’ to fade into sleep* did you enjoy your tea, Hla uripe? (Little amusement, insult implied)

Vivec: *so utterly exhausted for a moment he didn’t even register their words* hla uripe?… tea?… I didn’t drink any- *opens his eyes to see himself no longer in his bed, but another he’d once been familiar with long ago… when his reputation was little more than a concubine to the Hortator or whomever would feel the want to have him. The blankets and cushions in shades of dark blues, rich greens, deep reds and warm yellows, and the canopy above lined with glass and carapace lanterns illuminated in a rainbow of colours, all dancing off the thin veils of purple and pink silks, and shining through the heavy smoke of incense in the air* I can’t- move… *turns his gaze to his bedside as he sees a familiar figure from his path step into view from behind the curtains surrounding his comfortable nest* voryn…

Voryn: *golden skin practically glowing in the lantern light as he sits down on Vivec’s beside, a seemingly friendly smile on his face from the red of his lips, but lined with a cruel malice with the sharpness of his eyes as he admires the empty cup in his hand* of course you can’t. I drugged you. You wanted to serve Nerevar tonight, didn’t you?

Vivec: *seeing directly through the illusion before him. Having dealt with voryns tricks long before he’d become dagoth ur and the house of shadow turned his enemy, but deciding to play along to see just how far he’ll draw out this memory and see if he remembers just as much as he does* I did- I do- *catches himself off guard hearing how young he sounds before blinking once more and looking down to see a golden illusion over his blue dunmer half* I owe him my life, every thing I am belongs to him why did you drug me?! My body feels weird! *whines and tries to squirm, not to try and actually move, but to mimic the memory exactly as he remembers, seeing more and more cracks in the illusion as voryns friendly smile doesn’t turn to unfazed amusement, but a dark, cruel grin*

Voryn: shhhh. *leans down gently stroking his cheek* don’t fret. I merely wanted to have him for myself tonight. You serve him so loyally without rest, I thought you might benefit from my little trea-

Vivec: did you forget the part where you allowed the guards to rape me while I lay helpless as you walked away to seduce nerevar?…

Voryn: … *smirks dropping the illusion, his gold skin melting away in the smoke of the incense to reveal ashen grey beneath it, his third eye glowing bright as it stares down at him* hm… you always were so annoyingly clever. It seems not much has changed… except… well.

Vivec: speak.

Voryn: I seem to be overflowing with power with no one to care for, despite the villain you wish me to be. And for all the good you’ve done, you’re scraping for change in the dirt to feed those you abandoned-

Vivec: I abandoned no one! *snarls trying to move, to push him away, to strike him, and failing as his sleeping body refuses to wake for his dreaming mind* All of this! It was all your fault!!! If you hadn’t of-

Voryn: if I hadn’t of what? Vehk?… Ohh right. Become dagoth ur… and whose, fault, was, that? *leans in close as the vision of the bedroom around them gives way to the boiling interior of red mountain and the heart chamber where vivec enacted mephalas orders*

“VIVEC PLEASE!! DONT DO THIS!”

Vivec: *closes his eyes tight wanting to cover his ears as nerevars terrified and agonised cries echo throughout the chamber* n-no- no I I was just-

Voryn: listen to him vivec. Listen to him cry for you. Listen to what you did.

Vivec: *unable to escape the memory as he recalls so vividly in his mind how he cut down the man he’d devoted his life, his heart to* no! No I was only obeying Mephala! She tricked me! She lied to me! I thought I was doing the right thing!

Voryn: you murdered us… you murdered him, when all he ever did was love you. You condemned us to that mountain. You turned me into dagoth ur. You convinced him to leave me with that accursed heart!

Vivec: *sweat pooling on his brow and tears pricking the corners of his eyes as voryns words cut into him like knives and nerevars screams become deafening* IM SORRY!!

*silence*

Voryn: *gaze softening having gotten what he wanted* I forgive you, vehk. *gently smooths the younger mers hair from his face, holding his hand as he watches vivec breath deeply, so close to unravelling in his grasp* you were lead astray by the so called, good daedra… and they only made our sweet nerevar do their bidding further, not only against you, but me as well, and in turn, him too. You know better than anybody their cruelty, you know the pain I’m burdened to carry. No matter how much you may despise me… it is an agony we share… and when at last nerevar is at my side, I promise you, you’ll be taken care of…

Vivec: n-neht?… at your side?… taken care of?…

Voryn: yes, we will bring a new age of light to our people, the good daedra can harm us no f- ARGHH! *falls back in shock as Vivec finally pushes himself from his body and through voryn, right into nerevars mind* neht? *opens his eyes to find himself in the doorway of nerevars room, staring not at the Hortator passed out at his desk, but the golden mask on the floor by his safe*

Nerevar: *jolts up from his desk as he opens his eyes in fright* Ah- wh-what? I- huh- *pauses seeing him standing there* Vehk, what are you doing up? You need to be-

Vivec: *walks past him and his desk to the mask, bending down and picking it up to feel it’s very real weight and cool touch against his hands, sending dread deep into the pit of his stomach knowing that voryn was indeed here.* …Mephala… didn’t lie to me completely then… *looks to him with fear lingering behind his eyes* Dagoth Ur was never the true threat… it was Voryn. *sets it down on his desk and shakily hugs his robe tighter, feeling the shudder of fear and a cold sweat on his brow, even in his dream state* I expect you’re used to him coming to you in your dreams by now?…

Nerevar: *eyes widening in a mix of concern and suprise* he… came to you as well?

Vivec: he… *sighs recalling it* he did… I almost prefer my visits to cold harbour over his presence in my sleep… *meets his gaze as the Hortator stands and grabs his cape as he approaches him*

Nerevar: he didn’t hurt you did he?… *gently drapes it around his shoulders*

Vivec: *smiles from the gesture, his heart feeling a deep warmth that seeps into his soul, that they could return to such friendly, comfortable familiarity so quickly despite all that had happened* no… and I think that’s what scared me so much about it… I opened my eyes and he was at my bedside… he promised I’d be, looked after, when he’d at last he by your side again… so I pushed my way out of the dream and came to find you- *gasps as he’s suddenly pulled back from nerevars mind, and directly into voryns, the taller dunmer holding him prisoner from behind as one hand holds his arms, and the other his neck* Let me go!!

Voryn: Shhhhhh *leans over his shoulder kissing his cheek with a feathery, but firm touch* you’ve always been such a brat, running to tattle on me to nerevar. Can’t you see I’m trying to offer you a gift? I only want what’s best for you and our neht. *slides his hand further around his neck, his thumb and index finger grasping his jaw and holding his head steady* you want to help people don’t you?… you want to look after, your, people, don’t you? You want to be loved by them right? How can you continue doing that as you are now? Desperately hoping your mask will be enough to keep you going forever.

Vivec: *eyes wide as he tries to turn his face to look at him* how did you- ahh- *whines softly as voryn firmly holds his head in place*

Voryn: Because your heart is so, predictable in its kindness. *rests his chin on Vivec’s shoulder, loving how he struggles feebly against his grasp* you’ve seen it yourself, the good daedra have abandoned us, abandoned their people, the temple has become greedy, they abused your gifts, they abused your love. And now they abuse our poor sweet Nerevar as he tries to make everything better, Just join me at my side and we can make it right. Forgive our past and We can bring forth a new era, together.

Vivec: *wanting for a moment to give into him, knowing deep down his words are true. He’s powerless as he is now, and Nerevar is much the same, the temple is corrupt, the good daedra lead him astray, and the suffering won’t stop until change comes… but even then how could he trust him as he is now, after everything he’d done to him, after how sneaky and conniving he’d been with his intentions in the past* …No, I can’t- I won’t.

Voryn: *smirks letting go of his arms and sliding his arm around his waist as he whispers into his ear* perhaps you need more convincing then.

Vivec: I don’t need- *blinks and immediately pushes back into voryns embrace as overwhelming horror and fear shocks him to his very core. The void before him gone and replaced with the burning, crumbling magma of what once was the heart chamber in red mountain. And where the brass tower once stood, now replaced with mephalas still breathing, mutilated body. And from her open rib cage, the heart of creation, no longer just that of lorkhan. To it now bound not only Voryn, but so too now the lady of whispers, the lady of twilight, and the dark lady… the daedras forms and cries twisting in and out of the beating mass as they struggle to break free from their subjugation beneath Voryn Dagoth* wh-what have you done?…

Voryn: I punished them, as they did me. Isn’t it beautiful? Bound to the heart, bound to me, they will finally serve their people… *snickers and sighs fondly* and now, you can’t get rid of me like last time, because if you do. *nuzzles into his ear and whispers with a soft growl* They die with me. *bites his ear hard*

Vivec: *jolts awake and shoots upright in his bed, gasping for air and crying out in a mix of fear and shock, from both voryn, and the two ordinators at his bed side trying to wake him from his nightmare* n-nerevar! Where’s nerevar- *coughs*

Ordinators: shhhh lord vivec please breathe, here drink some water we’ll fetch him for you- where did this cup come from?

Vivec: *eyes wide, staring at the almost empty teacup left behind by voryn, filled with a now sold, black substance, ebony… his blood* v-voryn, he was here- he was here he was actually here nerevars in danger I need to protect him it’s all my fault I should have had more faith in Mephala I failed everyone it’s my fault-

Ordinator: shhh- shhh lord vivec we’ll inspect the area for signs of a break in-

???: Vivec?

Vivec: *turns his gaze to the door looking pale as a sheet, sweat coating his brow and body feeling cold and numb as he realises with mounting horror what his refusal to continue following Mephala had actually done* he actually did it…

we… we can't kill him.

Nerevar: what do you mean he did it?… what do you mean we can't kill him?…

Vivec: the heart… he bound the good daedra to it with him… mephalas plan. My actions… it was all for nothing. *swallows a lump in his throat* It's my fault… I should have never turned my back on her…

[felixcloud6288]

Fullmetal Alchemist Chapter 40

This chapter has everything a person could want: Maps, ruins, photographs, lore, background gags, and Alex Louis Armstrong.

How much might the story have changed if the Resembool Stationmaster greeted Ed by name while May was standing right behind him?

Armstrong was the one who silenced Ed when he was about to blurt out they were going to do an illegal border crossing. So Armstrong knows why they're there.

The villains are talking about the aftermath of the Super Heist. Gluttony and Envy are definitely upset over Lust's death. Father appears to be upset but quickly gets over it when Wrath says Mustang can open the portal. So yeah, Father doesn't care one of his kids got killed. We also get a shot of his back. All those pipes hook into him.

In the hospital, Mustang is yelling at Hawkeye for how she acted last chapter, and Havoc is yelling at Mustang for giving him burn scars, and Mustang is yelling at Havoc for being ungrateful for saving his life and...

I wonder what those bottles next to Havoc's bed are. Maybe they're urinary catheters?

Roy mentions how suspicious it is no one has tried to kill him and Havoc while they're stuck there, which was what Envy had suggested they do in the previous scene. Alphonse arrives and mentions he's being accompanied by Lan Fan for protection. It's such a minor detail this chapter, but it shows how close Lin is getting with the group that he'd have his bodyguard protect Al.

And we get a map of Central. Hawkeye tried to determine where that door they found was located and drew a circle of the possible locations. We don't get to see a full map of the city unfortunately. The two main things brought up are Lab 2 is within the circle and the President's Estate barely touches it.

By checking some shots of Central HQ in later chapters, I'm pretty sure the President's estate is in the Northeast corner of HQ, meaning Lab 3 is in the Northeast part of Central City.

Despite all the evidence they've found, no one wants to assume King Bradley is part of the conspiracy. But how much of that is because Wrath has done a good job creating an alibi and how much is it because no one wants to consider the possibility the entire government is involved?

We are now at the conclusion of the Super Heist. Roy says Barry was indeed the guy who attacked the penitentiary. So there was either a mistranslation or a mistake in chapter 38 when Roy said the attack had happened on the same day as the Super Heist. The end result is Mustang has discovered the conspiracy that killed Hughes run deep within the government. But it cost Havoc the use of his legs.

I wonder what the average temperature in Amestris is like if Ed never has issues from the heat there. I suppose there's enough shade and trees to make the place tolerable for him. Meanwhile, there's no shade or cool breeze in a desert.

The shot of Ed in the watering hole gave me a chuckle. Even one of the horses is weirded out seeing that.

Ed and Foo share legends about the origins of their Alchemy. In Amestris, a survivor of Cselkcess, called the Philosopher from the East, came to Amestris and brought the science of Alchemy. In Xing, they have the same story, but he's the Philosopher from the West. Foo mentions the Philosopher from the West mixed his knowledge with Xingese techniques to create Xingese Rendanshu. Breda doesn't understand anything they're talking about.

From an archaeological perspective, two countries sharing the same mythology about the origin of a shared practice is pretty cool. Disregarding the actual origins, this could imply Cselkcess was a cultural hub during its peak where scholars traveled to and from spreading research and discoveries to the surrounding nations. Two different cultures saying Cselkcess was destroyed in a single night would lend credence to some travesty happening that made the nation or at least the capital uninhabitable. A reasonable aftermath to the disaster would be refugees from Cselkcess would travel to surrounding nations which would cause them to gain some cultural and genetic similarities. However, aside from the common origin story of Alchemy, we haven't seen much in common between Amestris and Xing culture and phenotypes from what little we've gotten of Xing.

This is such a lovely shot.

And then Ed discovers the outcome of the Heist!

Alex Louis Armstrong is so emotional over their reunion that he takes off his shirt and tries to hug her. Maria Ross is having none of that. I know you're happy Major, but if you kill her here, everything will be for nothing.

Back in Resembool, Hohenheim has returned to find his house burned down. Pinako is looking through a photo album. There's a picture of Ed with his State Alchemist watch in October '11. There's Ed, Al, Wniry, and Den in April '03, meaning Den is at least 11. There's a picture of Den in December '06 with his automail leg, so he's had that for at least 8 years. There's a picture of a baby Al in '00 but we don't see the month.

When Hohenheim visits Pinako, a strong wind blows through the room, turning the pages back. In May '72, Pinako and her husband moved into Resembool. In May '73, they had a son. The last picture is Pinako and Hohenheim in '66. Pinako has known Hohenheim for at least 48 years and he still looks the same.

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Spoiler Discussion

It's appropriate the first chapter Hohenheim appears is the chapter called "Philosopher from the West." As we piece together details, we gradually learn that Hohenheim is the Philosopher from the West while Father is the Philosopher from the East. I would guess that Amestrisian Alchemy is most similar to Cselkcess Alchemy. Afterall, Father is not one to improve on any technique nor try to discover something new.

[geminid]

The other ask about college reminded me, I just brought a physical copy of superbright to my college professor, I took digital painting with him and now he's letting me sit in on his life drawing class. He did a quick flip through and he liked it! He also immediately said "yeah if you like this art get into the history, who did they learn from?" I've only been following you for 2ish years? And it's just been what's landed on my dash. But I looove your pieces, the coloring on the backgrounds versus how Leo and Takumi are drawn, and then the pieces like the mainly pink diner.

So yeah mainly wanted to say you're super cool! Things that you learned from would be neat to see but no pressure.

hi i was honestly very shocked to read that you would show this to your professor who is probably a really great artist but im glad he liked it? ???

i answered the rest of this under the cut

as far as my art history goes, i have no academic background in art so i'm just making stuff up. i think like a lot of kids I got my roots in wanting to draw like shoujo manga, particularly the big eyed round faces of the early 2000s. I would just try to copy the eyes or something. To this day I honestly don't really look at tutorials or watch speedpaints i kind of just look at finished art and try to emulate the things I like about them. It's very simplistic I think and perhaps means I don't make art that's as clean or efficient as people who actually go out and try to learn how pro artists actually draw.

i went on pixiv a lot as a teen and followed like 1000+ artists and looked at a lot of art all the time. I was really enamored by people who could draw characters and backgrounds, like fuzichoco. (this is a super weird fun fact but one of my favorite artists in like 2011-2012 who specialized in like drawing beautiful girls with beautiful backgrounds ended up getting into leokumi under a different name/account and i was their mutual! and i didnt realize this until rather recently. im too shy to share the name tho. my teen self is throttling me btw). I Really wanted to learn how to draw backgrounds so i had to go through the struggle of teaching myself perspective and later on downloading 3d software so i could see boxes on the same plane at angles lol.

When I see art I like I try to capture the essence of what it is I liked about it in a piece (maybe one time its desaturated colors, and the next its dramatically long legs, or adding blur to the foreground), and i decide if it worked out and I want to keep doing it. Some stuff i definitely continue to use is i draw upper eyelashes the way i do because of Sata (touken ranbu, feh artist) and i started drawing leo with weird non-blond hair colors because of Araki (the jjba mangaka, who often colors his characters in alternate palettes than their "canon"). Even though i think there are stuff im a bit rigid about, like i always kinda stay in the realm of anime style, I'm still trying to keep trying out stuff I see in other artists, not just even anime artists but everyone's favorite Leyendecker or Mucha, or I'll take photos of random stuff to file away as an idea. Like I have a photo of leaves my coworker collected that have a nice green to pink gradient that I took for inspiration.

As far as the diner picture goes I think to pull off that piece I needed to practice making art with less colors and also less contrast. Similar shades of pink take up most of the picture with teals being a secondary color and avoiding adding other colors in large amounts. I think the linework is doing a lot of work in that piece. I had to google a photo of a person sitting at a diner table for the perspective.

idk if this answers anything but it was fun to think about?

[mersei47]

You got any drawing tips?

I like to watch other artists' speedpaint videos and see how they draw step by step and imitate their techniques. probably the quickest way to learn how the arts got done

I want to suggest "fake it till you make it" when doing arts at first but I don't think it's gonna be very effective in the long run (but it might worked for some peoples I guess) . just try to learn from fundamental like drawing muscles, perspective, anatomy, shading (I skipped fundamental and I'm paying for it now)

I bookmark this a while ago. its an art resource sheet by PuccaNoodles. concluded of multiple tutorials, art reference and more if you guys want

if you are unhappy with how you draw its totally normal and can happened to anyone, I did too. just take a break for now and come back when you feeling better

I don't know how to phrase this but alwalys be open-minded and try something new with your arts (it might looks weird first try but if you continue on practicing you will start to see the angles)

[rewordthis]

Hazy Outlines: an impromptu Saturday art class

Saturday, friends!

Class is starting, even if there are still some things not running smoothly… I’m determined to do this anyway, so stick with me. Will overcome the obstacles together.

⚠️ (Apologising in advance because heavy text post with no pictures is boring af, but pics wouldn’t load for whatever reasons… Pff, bear with me, please. And if there’s anything you need to ask, please do! I’ll answer as quickly and as best to my ability! 🫠)

Now I’ll be handing out your first ever practical exercise fliers!

Well, technically not, since you’ll excuse me for making you go search for a square or rectangular box in your home... as this is going to be your assignment for the week. 😎

Yeah… you didn’t see that coming, I’m sure. Did I mention that this is a beginner’s exercises class?

I’ll need everyone participating in these classes to have a cube-like box or an object with 90° angles and straight corners and sides for this first exercise. It can be any material you got readily, any size (just… please not a trunk or something… 😑) a box of tissues would suffice. As long as it is square/rectangular with clean corners (not curved) and with no texture.

Well go on! Go bring it— I’m waiting…

You’ll have to place it in an angle and use a source of light coming from its left. You want it on the table while you sit down? You want it right in front of you, on your desk? You can put it on the damn floor for all I care— actually any weird angle will work better because the contrast will be greater… — all I’m asking, is you put it in perspective.

Now, all you’ll have to do is to decide on a spot to sit. But! Before we begin, I’d like to give some guidelines for the way we’ll work. Let’s go:

1. First of all, we will talk about the grip.

When you’ll be holding your pencil, you’ll have to keep it tilted in an angle. Not entirely parallel on the paper, but having the tip to be near-flat on it. For this, you’ll have to find a grip that allows your arm to move freely.

We won’t draw anything the way we write. Writing is a different function we do with our wrists (small clean lines) and drawing a whole other one we do with our entire arms (faint, broad lines).

Find how you are more comfortable holding the pencil without having your fingers brushing on the paper. Most of the times, the standard way is to use the whole grip to hold the pencil; this is the overhand grip but it needs a lot of time to get used to it and it’s better for fairly big areas. Another way is the loose grip. In loose grip, you hold your pencil way back (from the middle of it usually) and have the butt of the pencil resting on your hand like when you normally write. Personally I have a fairly different way of holding my pencil which heavily depends on the area I work in every occasion, but I just keep it from the butt and swing it when I need to do object placement etc. and then switch in a more steady grip as I add details.

Make lines on the paper. Try it out and see how it weights on the paper and your hand and see which grip feels more comfortable for you. Ideally you’d have to spent at least a couple days trying deferent grips in order to find what works for you. Don’t rush with this… it’s ok. The exercise is meant to be short so taking a few days off for this won’t have a negative impact. Quite the contrary, actually. 🤗

When you feel comfortable enough with your grip, make 6 boxes at one of your paper’s sides. Leave the first one blank. 👉 From boxes 2-6 fill the boxes with the pencils you have, starting from the bigger hardness. Aka, box 2: 2H hardness, 3: H hardness and so on. 👉 For the hardnesses you don’t have, use the closest hardness to fill, trying to keep deferent tones. For example; if you miss the 2H you’ll use the H with lighter strokes and then use it in its box adding one or two layers. Make sure there is a distinct deference in shade from box to box and keep the strokes facing the same direction. Think of it as the spectrum spread in shades of grey.

2. Now, it’s time to do the placing.

Observe the object and let’s try to measure it. In order to do that, you’ll use the tip of your pencil.

When you measure, you generally need to find a shape that is obvious to pick up, so you won’t miss your measurement later on if you forget it. 👉 Are there specific proportions by the object itself that you can use to divide it? This is the most preferable way, because you’ll learn to understand shapes. 👉 But, maybe there are shadows that create a clear division on it. This comes in volumes. 🔸 In any way, what you’ll do is to align your pencil over that shape — starting with the tip and at the end of it placing your fingernail to hold its length. After that, you move your pencil on the same axis to see how many times that shape fits into the object. Start either by the Y or X axis and once you find how many times it fits, try to divide your paper and fit the object on it by putting light marks for every division part and keeping it as centered as possible. Then proceed to do the same on the other axis.

👉 While doing this, hold your paper upright in front of you.

👉 Now it’s the time to connect the marks. This is the tracing phase so make as light marks and lines as possible! And as mentioned, draw the lines from your shoulder and elbow— not your wrist. The lines need to be continuous and decisive.

👉 When you finish tracing the object try to see if any side is bigger/smaller than what you see in reality.

After this stage, we’ll do the outline which will not be much darker because you’ll have to correct anything that is off. It can’t be perfect from the beginning, so keep in mind that you may need to measure again. You just need to define the line a bit more than before but it can’t be too bold. Correct the lines and begin to trace the outline. After that you’ll put in the shadows.

When you think that this is as good a transfer and positioning you’ve made as possible, we’ll start the shading process.

For the shading you’ll use as a guide the boxes we made at the beginning…

3. How to shadow.

During this process you will start by the lighter shade which you will apply to the object. 👉 White parts (extreme brightness) will not be covered, so keep in mind to shade around that (there won’t be too many spots anyway) — you can always use the eraser if you go over something however, so fear not. 👉 Your first shade should be done in one direction. 🔺 Do NOT cross-hatch the shadows. They need to be smooth. 👉 Add the second layer of shadows with a small tilt of the tip towards a slightly different direction (clockwise or counter clockwise it doesn’t matter; we only need a change in degrees like the clock hands from 12 to 1 or 12 to 11); that’ll it be enough. 👉 Keep adding layers to your shadows by slightly adjusting the tip of the pencil until you reach the darkest shade (deep black shades will also be very small areas like the light ones).

Good job! You finished your first practical exercise. That wasn’t so bad now, was it?

🔹 This exercise is best done slowly, and by this I mean take your time with getting comfortable with the pencil and making smooth faded lines throughout the week. It shouldn’t take you more than an hour daily and mainly about 15— 20 minutes. The drawing itself should not take more than an hour. There are tutors that insist on practicing everyday and doing lots of practice and exercises… 😮‍💨 but you really don’t. Not yet. First you need to train your eyes and your hands into what drawing actually is and overdoing it in the beginning may lead to learning things incorrectly or feeling burned out.

Anyway…

You have the whole week to make your first attempt at drawing something as closely to the real thing as you can. Try to recreate everything you see. The lines, the planes, the shadows on it, the shadows behind the object (I’m asking for the immediate background of the object so try to put it in front of something that is as plane as possible). 👉 If the object has too many colours/designs etc, cover it with something as plain as possible like a cloth. This’ll make it a little harder to draw, but you don’t want to be confused by anything more than shadows, volumes and shapes just yet.

🔹 You’re allowed to use only ONE paper. If you have a tablet, you can use that, too. This is you learning the basics after all, so feel free to present both your attempts.

🔺Don’t exhaust yourself, though! Like I said, this is a 1hour☝️exercise tops!

Now the technical stuff:

How this is going to work: ▶️ first of all, take a picture of the object from the same angle you’re going to draw it, so I can evaluate your try and give you tips to work on the next assignment! I’m opting for a tailor-made tutorial because everybody is different. ▶️ Then by the end of the week post the photo and your finished piece (the digital, too; if you do that) with either the specific tag or a mention at me. I want to see what you made!

There are no bad tries here, only things we’re going to learn and mistakes we’re going to fix!

Now, sketch! That’s it. That’s the exercise. Simple, right? :)

[northropi]

my art's been in a weird place forever because like... ok let's just talk about some stuff

as the name of the sideblog alludes to, i'm colorblind, presumably protanopia (all i know clinically is that i definitely have something but just qualitatively judging how things look vs how things look to me i think it's red-deficiency, so protanopia, the rare kind hooray!!!), and thus coloring is always a pain. i simply don't understand how a lot of that works and so kinda screwed myself in the long run i guess by never advancing past sketches with a lot of my art. my shading is lackluster and even if i had the colors right i lack the inuition for how lighting affects them.

only recently was i presented with the idea that just using patches in a translucent black layer was actually not good, and yeah that explains certain things that felt off, but... how does a linear flat decrease in light availability impact saturation? what? i don't even know whether the tip i heard recommended to make it go up or down and it's all really muddied by the fact that obviously everyone has different techniques like this one person who used bands of higher saturation around the main shading patch and when i HAVE to outsource my VERY PERCEPTION OF COLOR to OTHER PEOPLE that is REALLY CONFUSING.

One thing people say every time it comes up is "oh! art by someone who's got a skewed color perception would be cool actually!" And maybe as a one-off gimmick but for my entire generally sorta realistic/surreal body of work, no, no that'd just have tanks that are pink when they should be grey, that sucks and I'm not doing that.

but THEN come the actual problems with just how i draw. i'm really not in the habit of using guides, changing lineweights... like i recently read the Wikipedia article on Executive Dysfunction between projects at work and got to the part where it said the example of just turning in the rough draft as the final draft and i was like "oh. yeah. i do that." having pen pressure sensitivity is really all i have there because my brain just doesn't want to work that into how i function. perspective can be shaky but hey who's good at it anyways? i feel like i've got a good conception of form in spite of this and that probably is thanks to the fact that i was schooled as an engineer so like, yeah, that's... that's my job.

Part of these habits are certainly to do with my current life situation. I don't have the stability in my life to sit down and perform practice art, or to spend very long periods of time on one piece. I don't have the overall mental fortitude or whatever you'd call it to pick up an unfinished piece the next day after sleeping on it for a while so it's sort of do or die. I don't have the self-awareness in the moment to recognize I'm screwing up and I do not have and cannot afford the patience to slow down and fix things. Maybe there's a day some time soon, but never soon enough, where I'll really be able to dissect it all and come out better, but the prerequisite to that is to basically purchase my own fucking house and regain control of my schedule and space. It must sound like I blame a lot of my failings on that but, holy shit, this place just erodes me.

and then there's the fucking technical stuff. sometimes it really does feel like i'm playing catch-up to where i was on paper, and the fact that i don't know how brushes work, make little effort to optimize my brushes, and have never downloaded brush packs from anyone else (can you just use those? is there a credit thing????) probably really compounds this. making that animation stumped me on several levels because i had all the frames i needed but just couldn't put them together- and once i had them i attempted to change some stuff and it just broke things.

In honesty while I'm getting better at internalizing compliments it's very clear people like me for what I depict rather than my ability to depict it well, and I'm proud of that, but sometimes I start feeling old and like I'm never going to really learn anything from this point and that hurts.

[dzpenumbra]

5/28/23

Lots of progress made on the skull. :)

I don't really know what to do for the rest of it yet, still kinda feeling it out, but I'm really happy with how that turned out. Plenty of room left in the middle for that design when I figure out what I'm going to do.

I really built up that piece in my mind because... it's one of a kind. And very permanent. That was the skull of a living being, a soul, an individual. And ink is super permanent, no room for fuck ups. And it kinda got me.

Weird... how someone who spent a good 3 years of their life pursuing a tattooing career (only to be backstabbed by their own artist...) had hesitation and difficulty starting an ink piece on a non-living canvas. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

I remember doing my intensive apprenticeship thing so vividly. The most memorable being matching tattoos I did on a mother and daughter, on the tops of their feet. And they came out great, I really didn't have much hesitation with it either. In fact, I was the first to volunteer to ink a person for the first time - and inked one of my teachers. And don't get me wrong, there were nerves... but not this kind.

I guess that's more reason to keep doing pieces like this. It's a really important reminder that... everything is permanent. And every piece is one-of-a-kind. And... this is a tough one for the logical, controlling brain to really accept... there is no such thing as a fuck up. Not in art.

You'll always get people who argue that. I'll even argue it with myself. But man, if you can actually get yourself to accept that? It's so fucking liberating. There is no such thing as a fuck up. It's just... something different. If I intend for a brush stroke to look one way and I sneeze and it goes flying off in a different direction? That's simply... part of the piece's character, and as the artist, it's up to you to decide what to do with that. As a musician, if you're in the middle of an improvised solo and hit a D# when you're going for D? It's up to you, as the musician, to make that work. To make it make sense.

And here's a little hack. To any of you interested in nourishing your creativity. PRACTICE THAT. Practice rolling with the punches. Practice making it work. Practice improvisation. Practice the fundamentals too, if you want, I mean... it's all really whatever you want to do when it comes to visual art or music. You can go your whole life and never learn theory or learn how to read music, plenty of people have. You can be a legendary artist and never study perspective or anatomy or shading or anything. Study what you feel you need, what pulls you in. That adds tools to your toolbelt. And then... you pull those tools out to improvise. But if you don't know how to improvise, or you don't allow yourself to improvise? The tools are useless. And you go "man, I spent years training... what for?!"

It's the jazz approach, I guess.

I feel so blessed that I was introduced to stream of consciousness and improvisation at a very young age - around 16-17. And, interestingly enough, it was because I had failed an English class. XD And a history class! And history was my favorite course! The history teacher failed me, and also... somehow, even though it was against school policy... benched me all season in basketball, my favorite sport at the time... and I really have no idea why to this day. So they actually tried to flunk me out of high school, but I ended up in some special education program... which really kinda fucked up my head, to be honest. Just because someone is struggling in school doesn't mean treat them like they're broken and threaten to throw them out of school, that's super fucked up. But honestly, it ended up being one of the best things that ever happened to me. Because my english teacher at the special education program, he could tell I was just... bored... and completely uninterested in the bog standard "read 50 pages a night" english memorization and recitation grind. Because I got my highest grade of all time in Creative Writing. So... he introduced me to the Beat Poets. And gave me a copy of The Dharma Bums, that I still have over on my bookshelf. And it changed my life forever.

I hope I get to sit down with him and share my gratitude for that someday. I'm sure, as an educator, that would bring him so much joy.

So yeah, I caught up on sleep which is dope. But that meant a late start to the day. But I got a lot of work on the skull done. And the whole day was basically watching RP streams and working on that.

My jasmine is really close to blooming, which is really exciting. The buds are getting really big and changing color. I really wasn't expecting it this soon! I'm gonna have to go take care of my plants pretty soon here before I head to bed, the sun is pretty much fully up at this point. I'll squeeze in a tarot reading first before I go.

First Position - Past - Three of Cups, inverted (Celebration, calling in good fortune, joy.  Social gathering, a heartfelt belonging in a community.) Second Position - Present - Queen of Wands (Warm, dedicated, confident, optimistic. Focusing inward to harness creative energy.) Third Position - Future - XIX: The Sun, inverted (Hope, clarity, confidence.  Success, fulfillment, revelation.)

Alright, this one is a bit tricky at first glance. Again... inversions always make things messy for me. But I'm gonna try to just trust my gut and see what I make of this. The origin of the thread is the "party card", which is a very clear image to me, especially given how rare it has been in my life. But... it's inverted... So... something from my past that inhibited my ability to be part of a close-knit community? Or maybe... the ripples of a close social event gone wrong... That led to the Present, where my introspection and introversion are basically perpetual. The Queen of Wands, my first time seeing it, felt super relatable when I drew it. It really does often feel like all of my time and effort is spent on introspection in an effort to nurture inner creative growth, and stimulate creative expression. And this trend... in the Future... can lead to... a blockage in fulfillment. This is tough to see, and a little hard to read. The Sun is supposed to be a really nice card to see, clarity and success, but inversion (in how I tend to read cards) means blockage or dysfunction. Chaos vs. Order. So... what I'm getting from this is... some serious dysfunction from partying led to a deep introversion and creative growth... but... if I continue on that course, it will not lead to success or fulfillment. I will be missing something. Hmm... I wonder what that missing part is... could it be... the only other inverted card on the board? Could it be... a social life? Social belonging? Being part of a community?

Getting pretty big deja vu right now. :) I wonder how many thousand times I've come to this realization. XD Balance is really important. And as much as I'm obsessed with work work work and self-improvement and all that shit... I miss just having some laughs with friends. I miss going on a walk by a river or on a beach and just casually chatting. I miss playing Jackbox. I miss throwing back some ciders and smoking a hookah and playing Phasmophobia or Space Engineers. I miss getting high and playing Wrecking Ball in Overwatch.

Creativity and self-expression are crucial for me. Self-improvement and self-care are super important. But man, life isn't all work work work all the time. So yeah, that was a helpful reminder. Maybe I should reinstall GTA V and hop on that RP server and just go dick around with people. Who cares if they're not good at RP, I'll carry. I have some ideas.

I had one character I kinda wanted to play named Jack Lyer. And his whole thing is... a riff off the 90's Jim Carrey movie Liar Liar... So the first thing I was going to do was go to the hospital and report to them that I just got into the city and my doctor told me I need to let them know and get my records transferred that I was in a severe car crash and suffered major brain damage, and a byproduct of that damage is that I was incapable of lying. Set the foundation of the character with a physical record that can be verified if needed, so I don't have to backfill that if people try to RP check me. I figured a character that is biologically incapable of lying could lead to some really funny interactions since crime is everywhere and it's such commonly known thing that you don't talk about it. So if anyone asks him anything, he has to tell the truth without hesitation. I like the premise, but I'm a little afraid it might be a bit tacky, or it might just get my character perpetually killed... but like... if he is... he's just going to tell the hospital and the cops literally everything that he remembers. XD I don't know, it could be fun.

Another character idea is a really super friendly guy who latches on to the first person who befriends him, and very gradually he starts to change his appearance to look exactly like that person. Very subtly though, like... one article of clothing at a time... subtle gestures, like imitating the way they stand. Stuff like that. Maybe even spying on them and following them around and shit. So, after days of (hopefully) unnoticeably gradual change, I end up looking exactly like that person. And if they ever confront me on it, I become a complete asshole, gaslight the fuck out of them and find someone else to repeat the process.

It's a start. I'm still tempted to go back and reboot my only character I really sunk time into - Raymond Holmes - who, during the in-game day, wanted to be a YouTube stuntman, but by night reverted into the mental capacity of a 7 year old child. If I do bring him back, I'm bringing him back without the personality flips, just child-mode. But... I'm just on the fence about playing a mentally handicapped person. I don't know, maybe I'm just reading too much into it. Being stuck in a child-like state as a mid-40's adult is very clearly a mental health problem... at least it's very clear to me. And... I was always very... direct with that. Like... this dude is not just some quirky goofy idiot character, this trait of his has very clearly dark roots that he really did not like talking about. And I treated it very directly like an arrested development thing, I just acted like a child in an adult's body, like I was playing an actual child. I stopped playing because the other players were kinda doing fucked up things, and not even hesitating. People just kept giving me booze and cigarettes and weed, and getting me in really dangerous situations. And it really just... made me uncomfortable. Like... it wasn't really done in a funny way, it was very 1 to 100 and very like... high school bullies at a party getting the house owner's little brother drunk until he almost ends up in the hospital and thinking it's funny... kinda vibes... So yeah, I mean... I feel like I could play someone with a severe mental health problem like that properly, and accurately... and respectfully... but I don't really trust others to interact with him as such, and yeah... that turned me off of RPing for a while.

Anyway, it's getting late. Good progress on work and glad to have a bit of a new direction. I think RP is the way for now, if I can find a good place for it. The search continues...

[maybe-drawing]

Inktober 2022: A reflection

This year I did Luna ‘s (who is an amazing artist!! Check them out on Twitter!!) Inktober. Spoiler, I did not do all the days as I got sick halfway through and then just stopped lol. However, it was remarkable good practice and I learned a lot! One might say you can see me improving 👀 It gets better, promise!

Here the full prompt list:

by https://twitter.com/LunaIsAnArtist 

1. Sprout

yes this is bdubs fanart, (I’ll do a separate post with the fandom one and tag them there) Also learned about gradient maps!

2. Ladder

I cannot for the life of me figure out how to render stone, and it really shows

3. Glory

I do not dislike this one, however Clip Studio Paint's weird artistic render line feature really stole the show here lol

4. Investigation

Played with gradient maps again. The color is sure something!

5. Rosemary

At this point, I was wondering if a completely lineless painting style was something I even like? And honestly it has its appeals, and I think ill keep playing with it, but I missed having lines.

6. Home

Them <3 @liebesamateur​

7. Boots

I love this little buddy!! Look at them!! Lovely!! Also this was when I decided to return to a more painterly lined look for my art again :D

8. Voice

This is one of my absolute favorites!!! The light hello???? also the tiny pumpkin on the hat :D

9. Fragment

Did a study of a lemon and went you know what would be fucked up

10. Ranunculus

this looks so much better than it has any right to!! Indie game vibes hello?!?

11. Moss

Bdubs fanart again, but look at him, he's just a little guy! Very much based on countless designs I’ve seen all over. (if you know the OG lemme know) Certified creature.

12. Worth

I don't like this one... The concept is there, but the execution is sloppy and kinda off-putting. The only thing I kinda like it the blood at the very top opening. 

13. Float

I love this very much not anatomically correct baby!!!

14. Poppies

I mean long arms!

15. Zodiac

I’m torn bc on one hand the background is stunning, I love the colors. On the other hand, this would have looked too much better lineless, and the lens sky reflection is just lazy and doesn't fit with the rest of the style.

16. Evolution

GHOST CRAB!! I downloaded some new brushes, and it was just sooo much fun. 

17. Meadow

I really like everything except the “flowers”. The clouds and background/foundation is solid, but the weird flower brush is too sharp and it just doesn't work. Also, the colors of the flowers are supposed to be in shade and idk man 

18. Examination

Now this one could make more sense, like perspective wise and the highlights are a bit wack. However, it's really cool and I like it a lot. The bluish tint for the glass, the goldish bronze, the background yes!!

19. Reflection

The poses for this kept just not working out. I couldn't get the angles, nothing made sense, so I made them silhouettes! And it works nicely. I like this one. I am kinda starting to overuse that background contrast thingy, but it's fiiiiiinnnne. Also, the curtain??? The red pops so well hello, its just bam, and it deserves to do that. 

20. Bullet

It's a bullet train! Get it? Anyway, I really like the burn effect for this one and I wanted to make it a spooky train. One thing I'd improve is how the likes are fading into the smoke, it doesn't look quite right.

22. Bones

This is kinda my burnout point and it shows. The line thickness is all over the place, I didn't work on this very much and just slapped some things on there and put it up. I'd love to draw a proper pile of bones someday, but this wasn't it.

23. Mutation

I do kinda like this one, and I don't have any major complaints. I just remember not really feeling doing Art™ at that time.

29. Wyvern

I sketched this the next day and was so normal about it. Idk if this is really a Wyvern, but it looks cool! I really like the frame and breaking it. It gives a nice break and depth!

[empresstheresa-guide]

Cover number 4. It's the same drawing as the sepia one, but in full color. There seem to be two versions, one with and one without the cover text? Odd.

I feel like Norman bit off more than he can chew here. I suspect that like ET is the first book he's written, this is also his first artwork. Practice doesn't make perfect, but it can help a lot. I can see what he's doing, but it just doesn't work.

The color of her skin is fairly good - if patchy - but the texture is off. She looks like a hard, shiny porcelain doll. Her eyes are more detailed, but the expression is vacant. That adds to the doll impression. It doesn't look awful, though, especially compared to the lumpy version 2. But she doesn't look alive enough.

That microphone annoys me so much. Why does it have to be that shade of neon green that doesn't go with anything else? Why is it so thin? Has Norman never seen a proper, sturdy, black or white microphone? Maybe he has that green thing at home and thinks that's the norm.

I think that uneven colorful thing to the back is North Korean people coming in the millions to greet Theresa, when she's liberating them. (yeah) What I don't get is why the soldiers are only on one side. If the crowd is all around them, shouldn't the soldiers also be on all sides? The perspective is a good attempt, but Norman fails to properly understand the scale of things. The soldiers would still look like soldiers for a few rows. Are they even supposed to be soldiers in the back there, or are they just rifles lying on the ground?

The boobs are.. somewhat weird. I know people have all shapes and sizes of breasts, so I don't want to go too much into it. The way he draws them just always feels a bit off, like he doesn't quite know how to draw them. The rest of her body is completely flat, and her hands are not seen. She seems to have either very long arms or way too long sleeves. It gives an oddly helpless impression, like she's just standing there, instead of being active and doing something. The color of the general's uniform looks good to me, and adds a vivid point that pleases my eyes.

Norman commented this cover himself: "Theresa looked like a sumo wrestler!" Apparently he thinks he made her face too "fat". He is a very fat shaming dude, which I will probably mention later in other posts. Not a fan of his attitude on women.

Not as bad as the sepia, but not great. I'll give it 4,5 HALs.

[crying-over-cartoons]

NWOD ASK EVENTTTT

how do you choose what pov to write from? do you prefer the beginning/middle/end of a fic?

oh yay, an ask!

i always write in 3rd person. growing up, almost all the books i read were in third person, and that seems to be the default for fanfiction as well. to be more specific, i generally write in 3rd person limited, meaning that the story is being narrated by someone who can see inside the main character's head, but not anyone else's. POV can switch, but usually each scene only shows a single character's internal monologue. for my current WIP (my zane-centric whump series) this character is usually zane, but some scenes show the internal monologue/emotions of other characters, such as jay, pixal, and lloyd.

other types of 3rd person include: 3rd person omniscient, where the narrator can see into everyone's head at once, allowing for a number of perspectives in any given scene, and 3rd person objective, where no character's internal monologue is given, requiring the reader to figure it out from the dialogue and actions. i don't usually use these perspectives because i find omniscient to be a bit too much for me to juggle, and i find objective to be too limiting (people who can pull these off effectively, i am applauding you).

as for other perspectives, i'm not sure why i don't write in 1st person. it has similarities to 3rd person limited, but can add an additional layer of the character's biases if you do it right. i'll have to practice 1st at some point. with 2nd, in fic spaces, this is used almost exclusively for reader-inserts, which i neither write nor read (no shade to anyone who does, it's just not my thing). i did once read an excellent fic with a transmasc main character written in second person. with this POV, it kind of forced me as a reader to recognize what the main character was going through as a dysphoric, closeted trans man and apply it to myself (a mostly non-dysphoric transmasc nonbinary who didn't know half of those words yet). i read this fic before i really understood my own gender identity, and i think it helped me internalize some things i otherwise might not have gotten until a while later. i can't find the fic right now, which is really a shame... i know the fandom was Danny Phantom, and that the fic is several years old by now, but not much else.

another usage of 2nd person is in choose-your-own-adventure type stories. since the reader is an active participant in the story, 2nd person is a natural choice. i don't have any fics in this format that i know off the top of my head, but The Stanley Parable is an excellent example- it's a video game where the narrator continuously refers to you, Stanley, or the player. it's also just has really excellent writing in general. if you're into weird time loop shenanigans, i'd suggest giving it a try.

ok, i spent more time on that question than i meant to... as for the second, i usually start with wherever i have an idea for. oftentimes, this is the beginning, but sometimes its an event that doesn't happen until 2/3rds of the way through. my current WIP is a series of oneshots based off of 30 prompts, and i've been writing them in nearly random order. whenever i have an idea for a prompt, i write it down, and then flesh it out over time. i also have an original story that i've been slowly rotating in my mind for many years, and the scenes in that story are written in whatever order i come up with them in, and then shuffled around and connected until they make sense.

tangentially related, i have a document on my computer called "overflowing trash bin in the sky" (referencing a piece of advice from Spilling Ink: A Young Writer's Handbook, which i would recommend to pretty much anyone who wants to get started with writing fiction. it's aimed at kids, but i continue to use advice from it to this day). this document has everything i've ever cut from another document, as well as what it was cut from and why. sometimes you have to kill your darlings, but sometimes those darlings would be better off in the freezer until you find somewhere better for them- maybe with a few changes or adjustments.

thank you for the ask, hope you don't mind that i ended up rambling for.... a while, lol. i'm very passionate about this stuff, apparently.