#i'm tempted to just buy plain ones in every color there is

[invinciblerodent]

it's been a real struggle to find notebooks that I actually like, but I think I have found myself at a crossroads where I must ask myself--

am I the kind of person who would put function above form, and use the lovely, though plain notebooks from the office supply store

or am I the type to say fuck it, form over function, bitch, and order a custom-made one with a collage of my blorbo on it strictly for the meme

[siriannatan]

Charms od Accidents chapter 2

I re read chapter 1and went 'I should put Pix and Sausage in this au', so I did

https://archiveofourown.org/works/53291311/chapters/141388864

Pix was not doing great if anyone asked. He was absolutely not lonely. Last break up didn't still weigh heavy on his shoulders. His work was going great. He was absolutely never tempted to strangle anyone. His family trying to pressure him into a marriage absolutely had nothing to do with his foul mood. Nothing. At. All.

He just needed a break. Couple days off to run some errands in peace. To go to bed earlier and wake up later. Maybe he could go out for drinks… alone. It could still be fun. He could meet someone new, no?

Yes. He just needed to unwind. Which is why, after getting some time off work, totally not being let out earlier by his boss. Not at all. He just went to a park. To sit and enjoy nature for a bit before he went out to eat. He could treat himself every once in a while. Even if he'd be self-conscious of being out somewhere even remotely nice alone. But he could do it. He was a grown ass man. He could handle some awkwardness. Not like anyone would be paying him much attention anyway.

But first the park and enjoying nature. If he could only enjoy nature in peace. Almost since he got there and found a free bench he could feel someone staring at him. He had thought of finding whoever that might be and giving them a piece of his mind. But decided not to. If they had nothing better than staring at a lone barely not middle-aged business man then so be it. So he just tried to relax.

Until someone approached and Pix regretted not just leaving. The handsome, tall tan man with a wild mane of chocolate brown hair and pretty eyes and smile was clearly not a human. It was just Pix’s luck that an Other Worlder would approach him. Of course no one but an Other Worlder would have tattoos that shifted colors as they moved.

“Umm, sorry, it's probably rude to ask but would you be willing to pose for me for a painting? I promise it's just a normal painting, no magic involved,” the man asked, waving his arms around. Sunflowers tattooed there shimmering a whole rainbow.

Pix just blinked at him. He? Posing for a picture? Now that was rich. He didn't really know what to say. “Buy me dinner first,” he joked before he could stop himself.

Before he could even clarify the guy was agreeing. “Of course, it's no problem,” he nodded enthusiastically. Pic felt bad for him.

“I was just kidding,” Pix sighed. “Why would you even want to paint someone like me if you don't have any ulterior motives?” He asked as the man's smile dropped slightly. What a shame. First time he talked to Other Worlder and not to mention a really handsome one, even if it was rather dangerous to think so, and he had to disappoint him. What a shame.

“I don't really know, I just got the urge to paint you,” he shrugged. “And I really don't mind treating you to dinner if you agree,” he grinned, clearly not put off by Pix's gruff demeanor.

Pix sighed again and looked at the guy a bit closer. He looked to be around Pix's age but with his kind you could never be sure. Really well built and handsome. Dressed in denim overalls splattered with pain and a plain beige shirt with like all of its three buttons undone and already struggling sleeves rolled up. And the pant legs of his overalls were rolled up too. Showing miss matched socks. And his converse were also covered in paint.

With one more sigh Pix decided he didn't really have much too loose. “Fine, but dinner first and no muse paintings,” he agreed. The enthusiastic nod he got in return was almost worth possibly losing his soul.

“Ummm, should I change first? I'd rather take you somewhere nice if I'm taking away your time, we don't have to do it all now actually, but…” man rambled.

“Calm down. How about tomorrow? We can meet here and have brunch instead of dinner?” Pix offered. “I have some time off work anyway so you're not really wasting it,” he shrugged just then realizing he never changed out of his suit. He must have looked so weird.

“That sounds great, I'm Sausage, please don't laugh, I have o idea why you humans think my name is funny. You don't have to give me your name if you're uncomfortable with that.” Pix had a feeling the guy was a talker.

“Should be fine if I only give you part of it, no?” Sausage nodded enthusiastically. “Just call me Pix then,” Pix returned the introduction. Not like he'd be seeing Sausage after tomorrow. “I'll see you here at ten then?” He added and they separated. No need to exchange numbers for a one time thing, right?

When waiting for Sausage, Pix thought himself dumb. Why did he dress up for this thing? Like. He put on his best casual clothes. And he wasn't even fully confident the guy would show up. Other Worlders were known to be fickle like that. At worst he'd sit there a bit and go have brunch after that. No big deal. At least he had an excuse to leave his apartment.

“Sorry I'm late,” Pix was genuinely shocked when Sausage showed up. Five minutes late, yes, but he did. “I really hope you didn't wait for too long,” he added with a pretty mile as Pix collected his jaw off the park pathway.

And here he thought he was overdressed. But Sausage seemed to put even more effort in with a baby blue polo shirt with darker blue checker pattern and jean under the knee shorts and freaking loafers. Pix and his nice summery button up didn't compare.

“No, it wasn't that long,” Pix shook his head. Focusing on the tattoos to remind himself who he was really dealing with. Getting involved beyond what he was already doing was dangerous. “Shall we go?” He offered to break the awkwardness.

Sausage took him to a seriously nice brunch place. And refused to let him pay for anything. “You're doing me a favor so please pick whatever you like,” he grinned as Pix pouted over the menu. It seriously was feeling like a date.

So Pix ordered some nice pancakes with all his favorite additions so it was quite the order, Sausage got waffles. And a dark coffee. Sausage got some sweet coffee concoction. And then they both had some brownies and ice cream for dessert. Pretty nice brunch if anyone asked.

And then they went to Sausage’s place for the painting process. Was Pix a bit freaked out to go to an Other Worlders home? Yes, but he trusted this one about enough to not be too scared.

“I apologize if it's messy,” Sausage said at the very entrance.

It was certainly cluttered. With little knick-knacks everywhere. Like little pots with succulents and cacti. Framed pictures mostly of just Sausage. Some mugs that looked like they were just left there after someone finished their coffee and no one bothered to collect and return where they belong. Those quickly started to float away as Sausage muttered something. Magic, Pix thought with a shudder. What kind of Other Worlder did he stumble upon?

“I hope I'm not rude but… if I could as wha…” Pix started.

“A sorcerer, though I got a bit bored studying magical tomes and picked up some crafty hobbies,” Sausage explained with no issue.

Pix nodded. So not too different from a human, he told himself to calm his nerves.

He followed Sausage to his art room where an easel and a seat, small comfy looking chaise, were waiting. It was getting real.

“Get as comfy as you need, this can take some time,” Sausage chuckled nervously.

Pix nodded, glad he wasn't the only one stressed, and lay on the couch, supporting his back with pillows. “I think I'm ready,” he said once he was as comfy as he could be considering the situation.

Sausage nodded. “Feel free to have a nap, I promise you're safe here,” he said and focused on the canvas.

At first he observed the sorcerer work. But eventually he got tired and fell asleep.

He vaguely remembered dreaming about sunflowers when he was shook awake. “Hmm? Yes?” Pic yawned looking about the room, slowly remembering where he was and why.

“It's been a couple hours, I thought you might want something to drink or a snack?” Sausage offered with a sheepish smile. Pix's half awake smile thought it was adorable.

Pix welcomed a break and snacks with open arms. Sadly in just a few more hours Sausage was done with enough of the painting to not have to take up any more of Pix's time.

As disappointed as he was to not see him again, unless their paths crossed by accident, Pix went home. Sausage even paid for a taxi to take him home. Well, at least one day of his time off was nice.

The next morning, as he was getting dressed Pix froze. Why was there a red eye on his hip? He never got any tattoos. Ever. His thoughts instantly went to the pretty sorcerer. Could it be an Other Worlder mark? Was he now bound to Sausage. “I have to find him now,” Pix whined but deep inside felt giddy to see him again.

He got dressed and, forgetting breakfast and morning coffee, went to the park. Chances of Sausage being there were slim to none but Pix knew A way to his apartment from there. Well, more precisely from the brunch place.

There were no pretty Sorcerer's with artsy hobbies there so Pix went to his apartment. He was pretty proud he didn't get lost. And that he remembered which floor and door Sausage was.

With a beating heart Pix rang the doorbell. He really hoped he was right and that Sausage was, unknowingly, behind the mark.

“Pix?” Sausage was shocked but it wasn't what Pix's mind focused on. No, it focused on messy, fresh out of bed hair and white, definitely too tight white tank top and too short for his health shorts the sorcerer was wearing. “Wha…”

“We need to talk,” Pix said, dragging his mind out the gutter. He could drool over Sausage's physique later. After they talked.

“Come on in,” Sausage nodded and yawned as he stepped back to let Pix in. Pix marched in and as soon as the door was closed turned around lifted his shirt.

“Was this you? It wasn't there when I went to bed,” he asked sternly, forcing his eyes to stay on the sorcerer's face.

Sausage paled at first and then blushed like mad. “Oh my… I'm so sorry Pix, I didn't mean to… I have no clue when I would even,” he rambled off in that cute way of his while leading Pix to a couch, as coffee made itself judging by aroma filling the place.

Then Sausage called someone and Pix listened, more amused than worried for some reason, as he slipped his coffee. “Gem please tell me they came up with a way to remove a mark in the last… Yes I did, can you… I don't care what fWhip did, I have a crisis here… What?... If you can't help then… GEM!!??... She disconnected on me,” Sausage stared at his phone in disbelief.

“Care to explain what's going on?” Pix asked, setting his mug away. He decided the shock woke Sausage enough for explanation to be requested.

“Well, at some point yesterday, I have no clue how, I was never interested in it, I marked you as mine… I'm really so so so very sorry, and I promise to take responsibility if we can't undo it…” Sausage apologized more than explained as he knelt next to Pix and rested his head on Pix's lap.

“Okay but what does this mark mean exactly?” Pix pushed for some actual explanation. “I know very little about your things,” he added as Sausage whined out another apology.

“It's meant to tell others of my kind you're mine, under my protection and care and all that. I thought they only happen if you get… you know… physically close. Like really close…” Sausage finally said something with some sense. “I guess the closest equivalent from your world would be marriage…” he added, a bit quieter.

Pix froze. Married? He was not ready for that. Not in the slightest. “And there's no way to undo it?”

“As far as I know? No. I asked a friend if she knows a way, but she said she doesn't and she's coming anyway but likely more to laugh at me than to help,” as Sausage rambled, Pix struggled with the urge to play with his hair.

“So if we can't get rid of it… what does that mean? I can just go on living like normal, no?” Pix tried to calm Sausage down a little.

Or hoped to. It seemed to not work out as Sausage suddenly moved to sit next to Pix and took both of his hands into his. “Technically but I promise to take responsibility for my lack of self control. It'd probably mean you'd have to move in here, but I think it's the safest thing anyway, there are people who would hurt you to get to me… but I promise to protect you. If you'd rather you can just laze about here, do anything you'd like… I… I'll take care of you.”

Pix's head was spinning. So it really was like marriage? And Sausage was asking him to move in? “Isn't it all a bit sudden?”

“I can free up a room for you if you'd rather have your own space?” Sausage instantly jumped to answer.

Pix was about to poke more when the doorbell rang just for the door to open on its own.

“Hypocrites,” ginger haired woman in a purple sundress practically sung as she walked in. Her green eyes instantly fell onto Pix. “Aren't you two just adorable, couldn't you have been more like this brother?” She looked at a man who didn't look too different from her. Ginger, pale, dressed in a suit with sunglasses on and a cyan haired man holding his arm.

“Can't you just leave them be?” He asked with a groan.

“You two had a lot to say about me and Pearl, so no. I plan to laugh at you two for as long as possible,” sh declared. “Welcome to the family,” she grinned as both Sausage and the man, fWhip?, groaned.

[toastedbuckwheat]

Hello! May I ask how you draw? I'm currently learning how to myself and would be highly interested into a step to step process by you! Like from sketch to the done thing (no color necessary)

Hello there!

I dunno how I feel about showing how I work/giving advice to someone who’s learning (and I say it as a pro artist who went through years of traditional art education) because when I do the illustrations you see here on my tumblr I BREAK THE RULES you’d learn though life drawing routine, and give in to bad habits, and my methods are rather unplanned and chaotic which makes it difficult to pinpoint significant stages. But I used my portable potato to take some photos during working on my last piece, so I’ll throw it here with a bit of an explanation of what’s going on.

Before I begin - and because you’re about to look at a mess of a WIP - I’d like to give you some general advice that generally makes life easier when you draw (again, things that I learned in traditional arts education - another artist might advise you the complete opposite, dunno!)

Work holistically. Forget them satisfying-to-look-at clips on instagram showing someone produce a hyperrealistic portrait starting from an eye, with each and every element emerging being finished before they proceed to another part. It takes a lot of talent, yes, but these are ppl redrawing a photo in a kind of a mechanical manner. Most artists don’t work this way. Especially if you’re working without a reference, or if you’re doing a life drawing - your process will be layering and changing and finding what works best to give an impression of what you’re drawing rather than reproduce the exact image, and your artwork is likely to look messy most of the time.That said: don’t start with the details. Don’t spend too much time on a particular part while neglecting others. Your goal is to keep the whole piece at the same level of ‘finished’ (even though it’s unfinished - do I make sense?) before you’re confident that everything is where it should be and proceed to the details. So sketch out the composition first. See how things fit, what’s the dynamics. You’ll save yourself from limbs sticking out from the frame, odd proportions etc etc.

Because it’s a game of relationships between different parts of the picture/scene. I ask you not to worry about finishing a single element before laying out the rest because you’ll find that said element will look different once the other part appears! For instance - you might think that the colour you picked for a character’s hair is already very dark. But once you’re done with the night sky background, you’ll find that it’s in fact too light, and doesn’t work well with the cold palette. You’ll have to revisit different parts of the image as you go to balance these relationships and make the picture work as a whole.

Give an impression of something being there without actually drawing it ‘properly’- because details are hard, mate. You’ll see that my lineart usually has hardly any, and my colouring is large unrefined stains, but the finished thing looks convincing. Like, fuck, I can never focus on how Crowley’s eyes are really shaped. So I just turn them into large glowing yellow ellipses crossed by a line, and heard no protests so far.

Don’t panic if you messed up (you probably didn’t anyway). It might turn out to be a completely unnoticeable mistake - because, remember, things work together to balance each other, so another finished off prominent element will probably drown that badly placed line that looked so visible and out of place a second ago. 

It might not look good before it’s finished. I’m mostly immune to it after years of drawing, and my recent illustrations all follow a specific method (ykno, my sunset glow effects and all that) so I can kinda predict the next stage. But I do my linearts on a specially picked crap paper, I don’t bother erasing the smudged graphite, and it looks messy af until I make the background white in Photoshop. Conclusion: you might have a moment of doubt as you work through a piece, but try to break through it - I often suddenly start to like what I cursed a minute before! - and try to finish it even if it’s meant to be bad. This way, looking through your past pieces, you’ll see the progress. And trust me, I can’t even look at my art from literally three months ago. It’s normal.

Now, pics! The sketches are paler in real life, but I increased the contrast a little so you can see something.

1. Laying out the composition! 

I wanted to just show them kissing, but I got carried away due to some Art Nouveau inspiration. As you might have noticed, most of my illustrations are quite self-contained (ykno - they look like a sticker on a plain background). So I wanted a tight swirl bordered by Aziraphale’s wings creating a sort of rounded, yin-yang like bubble around them. Consequently I made the whole composition revolve around their heads. 

2. Adding more details to the sketch. It’s messy af. It will be messy until I’m done. It’s fine.

3. These are the fineliners I use for the linearts! They are made by Uni-ball and come in light and dark grey. I also sometimes use the guy on the left - ‘Touch’ sign pen by Pentel, when I want more brush-like, wider strokes. I work in grey because when I scan it and do my usual boring trick with sunlight highlights - which is an Overlay mode layer in Photoshop - the highlights ‘burn out’ the lines too and make them vanish a little, and the lighting effect gets more striking. I also like to use the light grey ones to make something look pencil-y without actually using pencil, because pencil fucking smudges.

4. It smudges! So because I am right handed, I start inking from the right hand side, no matter how tempted I am to do their faces first.

5. You can see the composition directions here. I made it intuitively, but ofc some ppl actually use grids etc to lay out their drawings.

6. See how pale ans thin the lineart was at first? I kept adjusting it as new inked parts were appearing. It starts to look nice and consistent now! 

7. Finished lineart? There are some mistakes which I later corrected in PS. Notice that Aziraphale’s face has hardly any details on it - I tried to make the drawing suggest his expression rather than risk overdoing it. 

8. Photoshop time!! You can totally do what I did here even if you don’t have a graphic tablet. I used Curves tool to enhance the lineart, then Quick Selection Tool to select the background around around my sticker-like piece and filled it white (on a new layer ofc). I keep this white layer on top of the layer order so it works as a mask as I colour. I decided I did not like the hatching shading underneath Aziraphale’s halo, so I erased it with a Stamp tool (because I wanna keep the textured grey fill my crap paper naturally gives me!). It’s done roughly but won’t be visible once the thing is coloured. 

9. And the reason why I keep the grey shade instead of easily getting rid of it by using Curves/Levels is because when I set this layer to Multiply mode and colour underneath, it gives me this nice desaturated look like from an old cheap paper comic page. It works as a natural filter! But of course I can’t do bright colours this way, so all my glowing highlights happen ABOVE the lineart layer - on a separate layer in Overlay mode! 

Finished thing here!

_____

Commission infoBuy Me a Coffee - help me with my transitioning expenses!Prints and stickers and things on my Redbubble!

[driedfruitflower]

14 November

Day 2 (after 48 hours)

Today’s Weight: 120.6 lbs / 54.7 kg (weight as soon as I woke up) and 118.8 lbs / 53.9 kg (weight right before I went to sleep)

Difference compared to yesterday: no idea

Difference compared to start: - 1.8 lbs / - 0.8 kg (lost during the day)

Water consumption: 5 liters (I count tea too)

Calories consumed: 373 calories:

82 pieces of chewing gum (for anyone wondering… it's 2,044 kcal/piece of extras bubblemint) - 168 kcal

2 cups of plain green tea (2 teabags) - 2 kcal

600g of crushed tomatoes - 168 kcal

200g shirataki noodles - 20 kcal

1,5 celery stalks- 15 kcal

Sleep: 16 hours (I have missed a lot of sleep for a long time now, so I’m tired)

Overall Review

I ended up eating more than I planned and felt out of control.

Weight Loss

Because I didn't weigh myself yesterday I have no idea how much I've lost.

I just went to the toilet, haven't drank anything yet and the scale is in the exact same place as before but I now weigh 121 lbs/ 54.9 kg. How can I have gained weight? I'm gonna say I still weigh 20.6 lbs/ 54.7 kg (the weight when i first woke up) and we'll see what number I'm at tomorrow.

Hunger

It's morning and I feel slight to mild hunger but nothing I can't handle.

It's afternoon and I feel a stronger urge to eat but I know it'll pass. Days 1-3 are usually the hardest in terms of food resistance, and it’s already towards the end of Day 2. I'll just have to hang in there 1 more day. (But every time I heavily restrict or fast is different from my last experience.)

It's still afternoon and the hunger got worse before it got better. After about 1/1.5 hours and tea the hunger did pass. I now feel fine. Now it's just a mild hunger but I can definitely stand it :)

It’s evening and I’m kind of a little hungry but I feel good! Really good!

Energy level

It's morning and I feel kinda lazy today, but I have lots of energy! I woke up happy because I didn't binge yesterday and I feel like I can actually reach my goal weight!

It's afternoon, and I have showered, listened to my audiobook, colored and watched youtube. I need to go out and buy a present for my dad (he is the best person I know in the world) and start doing homework.

Mental clarity

Better than usual. All that sleep really did me good.

Other notes

That I was so tired from the previous day helped me from eating anything more! Instead of giving up my restriction and eating something more, I went to sleep because I was exhausted. The tiredness made it easier to prioritize sleep instead of food.

When i woke up this morning and knew i had only eaten 74 kcal yesterday i felt more motivated today to keep up the restriction. I know I can do it, to get to my goal weight. I have already made it this far, and for me at least, the first 24 hours are the hardest. After that restricting this heavily goes wayyy smother!

Another thing… I have a love hate relationship with bubblemint flavored chewing gum. The taste kind of makes me nauseated now, but at the same time I like it.

Update from me in the future, bubblemint flavored chewing gum is now starting to taste like puke (I don't know why). I'll not be chewing any more of that today.

I've never tasted monster energy and I'm kind of tempted to buy one. If i keep up the restriction I'll allow myself to buy one soon. (I'll probably buy the wite one because most people seem to unanimously think that that one is one of the best tastes.)

Update from 44 hours since I started my restriction; I'm so happy! I'm thinking of going to sleep rn (update from the future: why the fuck didn’t you? You’ll regret this!) and I'm not hungry in the morning, which means that it'll be at least 10 am until I'm hungry again, and by then 60 hours will have passed.

45,5 hours since I started: I'm HUNGRY. but I can handle this. I can handle this. I can handle this. I can handle this. I can handle this! Okay yeah. I'm gonna drink some water and listen to an audiobook until it passes and then I'll go to sleep. (Haha wow, update: just 5 minutes later and I'm not AT ALL as hungry! My stomach just hurts a little, nothing in comparison to how ravenous I was just 5 minutes ago.)

Update 15 min later: hungry again. Fuck. I decided to eat 600g of crushed tomatoes, and I feel like shit! (It didn’t even taste good) Fucking shit! I hate myself! Fuck. That’s 373kcal total for today, fuck! Fuck. Fuck! And eating just made me hungrier than before. Fuck. Why did I eat this much? I’m gonna go for a 60 min walk now, which should burn at least 150 kcal.

Audiobooks, music and youtube are gifts from above!