#im not a graphic designer anyway im an illustrator at heart. and my illustrator heart is super happy how this turned out

[tianhai03]

had to do poster making as an exercise and the theme was superheroes, so of course i drew mr. vengeance for it🦇

[inkdemonapologist]

nobody asked but since I've seen a lil chatter on the DCTL Graphic Novel on tumblr too, here's the thread I posted on twitter, speaking as someone who's done a little freelance work as a comic artist, under the jump:

Main thought about the DCTL graphic novel preview is: yeah, I've made designs like that when I was being paid by the page and expected to just throw in extra design work for free and I have a deadline and no time to scour the source material or really put my heart into the design No shade to the artist; every complaint I have about the pages we've seen is that this looks like someone who was just working (quickly) from a script. The artist is likely not a Big Fan, so they only know the info and descriptions they're given. And the artist's portfolio shows they're capable of the kind of designs and dynamics this comic needed. its possible they phoned it in for no reason, but feels more likely to be "not enough time/not paid enough/not given enough info to give it that level of care." Which, don't get me wrong; an important level of craftsmanship and care is missing and im not gonna blame the artist but i AM gonna be a hater abt it lmao It's not just about designs; the convo with Joey is another good example. It's a literal illustration of the things Joey said and did in that scene, but it's missing the point -- that scene is our introduction to the way Joey throws Buddy off-balance. That energy is missing. And that's the sort of thing that needs the script to convey this purpose well to the artist, that needs the artist to have time & freedom to invest in portraying it, that needs time & investment & knowledge to ask for adjustments at early stages and get the page right one more note: begging batim fans 2 think abt the plot of DCTL and realise why "maybe we will not make the creepy guy who dies at the end a black man in this" is perhaps a reasonable choice. like im a fan of poc norman headcanons too but pls recognise this would be a tough call!! anyway, genuinely cannot wait to see how off sammy is gonna be in this lmao. will he be a mid non-design like norman or will he be conventionally handsome or will he get graphic novel dave miller vibes b/c hes an antagonist? will we get the fabled black hair sammy??? i cant wait

TL;DR I strongly suspect this was an issue of not enough time/not enough money. That design looks nothing like the description of Norman, right? Like, there's hundreds of different AU designs of all shapes, colours and sizes that you could create that would still look like Norman Polk, but somehow they managed to make a character that isnt ANY of them, lmao??? So... how could that happen, unless nobody gave the artist a description of Norman? Or if they did, how did that design make it past anyone else, unless there wasn't time for revisions or a system worked out for revisions, unless whoever was managing the comic project thought it was fine if the designs didn't fit with the descriptions in the book? If everyone is doing their job, then the artist is given the information they need without having to go do unpaid YA novel research before they can start drawing. That's why you have a writer adapting it!!

("they should hire fans, a fan would've done a better job" OK BUT THATS B/C FANS ARE MORE LIKELY TO ALLOW THEMSELVES TO BE EXPLOITED AND DO EXTRA UNPAID WORK B/C THEY CARE!! THATS NOT A SOLUTION!!!! THATS A JOEY DREW STRAT!!!!!!!)

Anyway I could yell about this for 15 years so I'm going to shush for now BUT I JUST FEEL VERY STRONGLY ABOUT IT LMAO.

[with-the-same-tattoos]

I'm not trying to start tea but,,, big pet peeve is when people that aren't artists try to critique your work. Like okay? You do it then. Go ahead, draw something. We're waiting🙃

On a second note, sketchiness in art, especially when it comes to your pieces, is very stylized. Some people throw flicks of paint on a canvas and call it a day. I would call that the exact opposite of "clean". Anyways, I just really wanted to let you know that I always adore how flowy your style is and all the little hair strands that go every which way. And don't get me started on your coloring style and all of the pretty earthy tones you use. Ooof, I could go on and on about how much I love your art style! I tend to be very meticulous with my art and you've definitely inspired me to not worry as much about every little thing being perfect. It's alright to not be perfect!

; v ; hearTS HEARTS HEARTS I RLY APPRECHIATE THAT AHAH TYSM FOR THE KIND WORDS IT MEANS A LOT;;;;;

But seriously, I have to say, IN MY CASE, I don't mind nor should I mind critisism from anyone!!!!! As someone who is trying to do this professionally !!!! (Not that my slasher doodles are something im doing professionally, theyre my free time work & happyzone stuff) i want to work on genuine illustration & concept art and it is paramount (i hope im using that word right) to understand what people want and what I can sell etc. I want to do this for other people; i want to help others visualize their ideas, weather it's through graphic design or illustration, that is a genuine passion of mine. And i need to be able to take feedback and especiallu to understand how my work comes off to other people. Sure, it might feel a bit bad sometimes, there are some critiques ive gotten that have genuinely hurt me even though I know the issue to be real, but I love art and I want to get better at it, I want others to enjoy it, and i want myself to enjoy it. I need to hear critisism & opinions, and decide for myself weather it's a critisism i agree with or not. Eg, I don't agree with cleaning up my work, at least the stuff I draw for myself, because I personally enjoy it messy. I do agree that I should clean up my more professional work a bit, now that I've thought about it. But I also agree w a lot of the critisism that i do get and it helps me develop!!!! I dont care about the tone either; honestly, I quite like bluntness. I also like opinions from people who dont do art. Art belongs to everyone, its as much a visual media as a handcrafted one, and you can understand parts of art without making it.

However I AM SOMEONE TRYING TO DO THIS PROFESSIONALLY. I DON'T AGREE WITH PEOPLE BLUNTLY CRITIQUING PEOPLES ART WHO ARE JUST TRYING TO RELAX AFTER THEIR WORK / DOING IT FOR FUN. THIS IS A REALLY IMPORTANT DIFFERENCE FOR ME.

Because then the only thing that genuinely matters is what the person wants to do with their work. Not how it looks to others, not the traditional rules, not the time spent on it, not the- whatever, unless those things matter to the creator and developing with those things is a part of the enjoyment of their hobby. So this is not a call to go comment on other peoples art unless they have invited it. If people want to enjoy art, let them. Im someone who thrives off of multichrome interaction, but some people arent.

Sorry for rambling I just wannet to clarify my standbpoint ; v ;

[cowboyshit]

@adampage tumblr did a dumbass thing and messed up the read-more to where I couldn’t put it under one so I had to delete your ask and I’m making a separate post for this disaster of a ramble hoooo boy i hope you’re ready for what you’ve unleashed

adampage  asked: ma’am I know you’re high off your rocker but if you have time would you please critique hangman’s playlist for me bc I want to know your thoughts 🥰 anyway yeehaw

OH MY GOD yes???? yes I fucking WILL?????? let’s just pump the breaks on what i was doing right the fuck now, get his playlist in front of me (even though ive been listening to it nonstop and have so many things to ALREADY SAY) and talk about this shit. im sorry if this isn’t coherent im pry just gonna ramble. (edit to add now that I’m done: ITS FREAKING 3252 WORDS LONG LMAO OH MY GOD)

first and foremost. I Love It. let’s just slap that down. get that out of the way. ITS SO GOOD. SO FUCKING GOOD. also this is going under a readmore cause YEAH. it’s THAT LONG.

let’s start first with mr. adam ‘i taught graphic design when i was 20 and learned adobe illustrator and photoshop to design my own tshirts when i was an indie wrestler’ page’s cover image. wait. no. back up - look at the profile image he chose for his profile. it’s not a selfie. it’s not a picture he snapped with his camera. it’s a screenshot of the “has been drinking” moment on aew dynamite. what a lovable FOOL. he really saved that and put that as his profile pic im skjdfkjfd okay now swing back to the anxious millenial design with the signed hangman adam page for the cover. he designed that. I swear he did. I swear he did that. I could be wrong but I just feel it in my bones. that was him. also, THAT should have been the vintage shirt. cowboy shit is cute but ANXIOUS MILLENNIAL COWBOY? I NEED THAT AS THE SHIRT!

okay now let’s get into the songs. wait. before i go through it I do want to say something about the playlist overall.

I can’t decide if this is because he shares so many similarities to the character hangman adam page, but so many of these songs apply to his character like, this fucking playlist plays like a hangman adam page THE CHARACTER playlist. like this is the playlist i’d find on 8tracks back when that was the “thing” in fandom where every song makes me go “OMG THAT IS THAT CHARACTER” like. I don’t know if he did that purposefully as an extension of the character? or if it just happens to line up because of how similar he is and his story is to his character but SOME of these songs wooooo boy they get deep dont they? when you compare them to the character?

okay. songs.

so I know some of these, especially the classics, summertime of course, but for the ones I didn’t know I love them so much. they have such a vibe that just fits him, and they’re all so good???

rather low by nick shoulders is one I didn’t know and I fucking LOVE it. and look. it goes from Long Time Gone by the Dixie Chicks. Long Time Gone about being away from the country life, from home and if my THEORY is right about this playlist hitting the character, hangman is struggling with being lost, without a family. it goes from that to rather low, which talks about not being welcome at home. like “I told you once I told you twice, I’m steeped in verse and cursed in vice” ajdskjds GOOD lyrics. beat slaps. song slaps. I love it.

okay so we go roll on mississippi which is soft compared to the two upbeat songs that just hit us before. calms you down after that high energy beat rather low had. lets you breathe. AND it’s got a sad, soft, longing pull to it, falling in with more of those “lost” from home themes. “You're the childhood dream that I grew up on. Roll on Mississippi, carry me home. Now I can see I've been away too long.” UGH! and also, it’s just a good fucking song.

then we go to a song i haven’t heard and love, going places by aubrie sellers. it’s a little bit funkier, but still soft. also groovy as FUCK. and it obv talks about GOING places. so maybe the first three songs were about the home he’s left behind, but now it’s about where he’s going. and man this song just SLAPS.

A CLASSIC is next, 1970 something illegal smile by john prine. it has that classic soft croon, such a good country sound and it’s a little bit playful. it makes you wanna smile and sway back and forth. it’s a good song. fun. but it’s almost a little bit. dark? “ Won't you please tell the man I didn't kill anyone. No, I'm just tryin' to have me some fun. Well, I sat down in my closet with all my overalls, tryin' to get away from all the ears inside my walls. I dreamed the police heard everything I thought, what then?” it just makes me think of when his character “killed” joey ryan. I could be looking too far into it but, that’s what popped into my head.

OKAY NOW this next one. fuck yeah I DIG this song. I hadn’t heard this song and it quickly went into my liked songs. and if we’re following his character, the lyrics hit HARD. “ I've lost the will to try this worthless lullaby. Its melody won't fly me past oblivion. I bet it would be nice to find that paradise, a world of sparkling light beyond the setting sun. But I don't dream anymore” ugh !!!!!!! UGGGHH!! SO GOOD?? and even the slight upbeat to it. “would if I could but I don’t dream anymore” uuuuggghhh SO GOOD. love this song. one of my faves of the whole list for sure.

the next two back-to-back are CLASSICS and fit the hangman adam page character so damn perfect. i’ve even looked at lyrics from merle haggard’s i don’t want to sober up to night for adam in the past akjfdkjdsf it’s fucking perfect. and then followed by dwight yoakam’s honky tonk man?! amazing. we go from from fucking heart-wrenching lyrics if you think about them for him: “ I don't want to sober up tonight. I don't want to act like things are alright, and I don't want to change just to make you think I'm happy. That's my right, I don't want to sober up tonight. I want to keep my mind a little hazy. I don't care if all my friends think I'm crazy. The way I treat myself I might be a little crazy But that's alright, I don't want to sober up tonight. I'm here to drown another day of misery. I'm in here to spend one night without a mem'ry and the way I'm drinking now there won't be any memory. But it's alright, I don't want to sober up tonight” to HONKY TONK MAN. HONKY. TONK. MAN. “ Well I'm a honky tonk man and I can't seem to stop. I love to give the girls a whirl to the music of an old jukebox, but when my money's all gone, I'm on the telephone singing, hey hey mama can your daddy come home?” ajhsdjksdjkf like. look. partying hangman, drunk, swinging a girl around in the country bar???? cause he refused to sober up and just wanted to have fun? anyways regardless if there’s a connection or if im reaching, these are some good classics to pull out right here. honky tonk man will ALWAYS bring the party back up.

another song I didn’t know but now love? happy reunion by colter wall? this is a good freaking cowboy song??? and it’s a cute story???? about what a cowboy does during his day??? what the fuck? riding along the range with his dog, helping the cow, getting the calf back that’d gotten lost???? CUTE? anyways this is a vibin as HELL song and if it’d come out when I was still raising cows my ass woulda been blasting this shit as I drove to feed the herd for SURE. this song is a whole ass vibe and I’m digging it.

okay. walk through fire by yola? another i didn’t know (which - so far it seems all the songs that arent classics - spare dixie chicks - are from 2019) and I am obsessed with???? it’s so good? and fuck just such a good love song??? “Standing on the side of the river. Staring across the great divide. I'd give all my gold and silver just to get to the other side. Your love is like a rescue vessel, carries me through the night through these flames of destruction. I know you're gonna make it right. I know, I know you're gonna save my life.“ LIKE? HENLO????????? FUCK!!!! THATS SO GOOD. that whole song I could post all the lyrics tbh. and the way she CROONS it ugh. yeah. I love that song.

FUCKIN YES. DOLLY FUCKIN PARTON. youre not gonna make a country playlist and not include a dolly parton song boy i KNOW IT. and the song choice??? hm? remind you of a CERTAIN COWBOYS STRUGGLE WITH NOT HAVING A HOME???? “What difference does it make which way I go, got an empty feelin' down inside. Still I need to stay alive and who can tell what waits beyond this road. I'm a drifter” ajdfshjsd god I love dolly. and of COURSE he does too. i’m so pleased by this choice I can’t stop smiling. ugh. love this. love dolly.

sandpaper oneside, rubber other by the bobby tenderloin universe what do you know? another 2019 song I didn’t know and yet absolutely LOVE. I also am loving how he does a mix of classics with newer (but still almost classic-country sounding, maybe like. classic meets modern) country music in this playlist. AND WHAT A SONG. it’s so good? and again, just makes me think of the character. “there are two minds inside me. that’s one life too many. but i keep moving slow on both sides, strong as I can be.” tell me that doesnt make you think of hangman adam page. and it has such a... sad vibe. “i cant believe the things i am. as much a lion as a lamb” !!!!!!!!!!! ugh such a GOOD LINE. THAT SLAPS. LOVE THAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ugh this song. especially the back vocals of the woman that comes in later on? it’s like. ethereal. beautiful. fucking beautiful and almost haunting. paired with the sad lyrics? UGH. gorgeous.

long white line by sturgill simpson i do know and LOVE and it’s got a fun, uplifting cowboy beat following the more slow, sad croon of the last song. it’s SO COUNTRY. the way it’s sung? SO COUNTRY. and also ajdfskjsd adam. “I woke up my baby was gone without her I don't need no home” and “Gonna' push this rig 'til I push that girl out of my mind. If somebody wants to know what's become of this so and so tell em' I'm somewhere looking for the end of that long white line” kjdjkfdkjf this is just such a country song, and it fits SO well, especially after that previous pick.

now we go from two new songs to another classic. another (i think) 1970s country hit. lonesome, on’ry and mean is SUCH a classic country song. it has that good old sound, and the story it tells too. and just, I can’t stop thinking about hangman just “ Been driving these highways, been doing things my way. It's been making me lonesome on'ry and mean.” ajdskjflkf it’s fair to say that character IS lonesome, on’ry and mean right now. anyways, fun country song regardless and I DIG the addition.

okay back to a newer song and holy shit. this is my personal favorite of the new songs he introduced me to. this song I LOVE this song. fuuun FUN beat, makes me want to fucking GROOVE. I love love love this, and I love the way the singer sings? it just makes me wanna UGH. just wanna sway to it. the whine in the croon I just love. and the BEAT. the beat is so fucking good. and the lyrics? “I'm that wholesome Midwestern boy that you want to bring home to your mama. Even though I bring you joy, baby I'm not the toy you wanna play with at night. Too many things I've seen. Too many people and places I've been. I'm thinking about doing those things I shouldn't be doing. Something I've never done before. I want something to fuck me up. Need somebody to fuck me up. Everyone feels like it. Fuck me up, fuck me up, fuck me up” ajdsjkds I LOVE THIS SONG SO MUCH “Well I might go and get drunk and stoned 'cause it's better than being only crazy. If I ever come back, wherever I end up at is where I was supposed to be.” it’s so perfect for his character it drives me crazy. this is a song I’d listen to and first, groove to, and then be like THIS SONG IS HANGMAN. love this song. absolutely a favorite.

the next song though. the next song. fucking hangman adam page and his love of biscuits. southern biscuits by seasick steve oh. my. god. this BOY. THIS COUNTRY BOY. THIS BISCUIT LOVIN COUNTRY BOY. this is such a damn good addition. not only is it so fucking country, almost. spoken/sung? the soft hum with the fucking banjo??? and of COURSE of course he knows and loves this song I can’t with him. and it hits you with the: “ Southern biscuits, nothin' better in the world 'less they're made for you, by your southern girl.” and I go UWU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

two new songs so guess what? classic time. BALANCE. HE’S KEEPING BALANCE. I swear he’s done this purposefully and I could be crazy I could be giving him more credit than is due but I swear he’s picked the arrangement of songs too. because this is too coincidental. so, we’ve got our classic livin on the run by david allan coe. what a DARK song to go with. about a man who murders a woman and lives on the run (again, can’t help but think of the joey ryan murder thing, but hey. that’s just me grasping for straws) regardless if it ties or not, it’s a good classic and it’s fun to croon to even if its uh. dark but sung like. upbeat? almost???

okay, another classic and, to me, one of the sexiest songs on this playlist. I fucking love this song. it’s sexy with an underlying of dark. she literally seduces and knocks the guy out and robs him blind and he’s STILL craving her summer wine like. this song is SO GOOD. so fucking good. the way the music swells with the storytelling is beautiful. “Strawberries cherries and an angel's kiss in spring, my summer wine is really made from all these things. Take off your silver spurs and help me pass the time, and I will give to you summer wine” is just so ajkdfskjdfs ugh i love this song

and guess what? two classics so we’re swinging to a newer song. left turn on a red light by blackfoot. oof. I didn’t know this song and it hit me, it’s so good and I know im saying that about all of them but Honestly. “ Sun shines down on the desert, and it seems to make my life a haze, and I dream of my childhood sweetheart,and the freedom that I had in those days.” UGH. “ Will I always be a rambler? Will the ones I love always keep tellin' me, "You stare too long in the mirror, son, someday you'll be too blind to see.” HELLO???? those lyrics? SO GOOD. and again applying them to hangman just makes me FERAL SCREAM.

cowboys and hippies by cody jinks is such a hangman song it’s almost unreal. if I was going to REALLY reach I’d say it almost reminds me of the way the crowd pulls him back. “At some old honkytonk bar that I know by the smell, some old drunk on a barstool on a Merle Haggard tune. That's my kind of room. Raising hell with the hippies and the cowboys. They don't care about no trends, they don't care about songs that sell. Yeah, tomorrow I'll be gone, so tonight everybody just sing along, raising hell with the hippies and the cowboys” GOOD LYRICS. this has the same sad undertones too as a lot of these songs have too.

ugh. I love him sincerely for this next one. blue skies is one of my favorite songs, but blue skies by willie nelson? YES. my grandpa used to play willie nelson ALL THE TIME and I love this version. an uplifting song to follow the heavier songs. I’d like to think of a hangman who has the blue skies from now on. all of his blue days gone. this song is such a classic (cover) that just. good pick. I love this.

alright, so we’ve got a classic but he’s chosen the version from bojack horseman which makes me think that might’ve been the first time he heard it, but that’s neither here nor there. stars is a BEAUTIFUL song. and boy am I happy we had blue skies before this cause fuck. how sad? how emotional?????? “People lust for fame like athletes in a game, we break our collarbones and come up swinging, some of us are downed some of us are crowned, and some are lost and never found” fuck. fuck fuck fuck. and the last two lines, thinking about hangman? “So if you don't lose patience with my fumbling around, I'll come up singing for you, even when I'm down.” FUCK. my HEART. good pick but OUCH. good but ow.

summertime by orville peck is next BLESS finally an orville song I was gonna lose it on him if he put a playlist and DIDN’T include an orville song. interesting though he went with summertime, the newest, and not any of the ones off pony. but! it follows stars well. its soft, lull, and the lyrics are so hangman now that I put it in this context. “Catch 'em by surprise and chasin' the horizon, nothing holds me down. Askin', "Where the time's gone?" Dreamin' with the lights on, tryna keep your eyes on something along the rise" anyways I know YOU know this song well it’s so fucking good. has that same soft pull a lot of these songs have. the way that chorus swells though? the secondary vocals??? ugh. yeah this was a great choice, I’m glad he went with summertime. it fits the vibe of this playlist so well.

we’re ending on a song with such a country sound to it (i mean all of these do), a bit more upbeat, a bit more funky. “Some say I'm a wild man, drink too much nectar from the corn” and also “Oh the school, it wasn't for me. I earned my stripes a different way I learned to sing harmony and go play out on the stage” definitely makes me think of hangman for SURE. it’s a funky song to end on, and if you keep listening to the playlist on repeat like I do, it even falls into long time gone really well.

and of course this is assuming you’re meant to listen to them one after the other and not on shuffle. I’m sure it still works on shuffle but I LOVE the flow of this playlist listening to it one after the other.

love this whole playlist. and my identifying it with the character could TOTALLY be reaching, but of course I’m going to think of him and analyze his selection of *these* songs specifically to put out to all of us. out of EVERY song he likes. he didn’t include... hmm cowboy take me away, for example? shoulda been a cowboy??? the vibe of the overall playlist FITS “anxious millenial cowboy” it has an underbelly of sadness to it. and I dig the fuck out of that.

overall 10/10 I love this fucking playlist thank you goodnight

[stormbrvkers-archived]

the 20 Questions of Positivity

or lack thereof anyway~ got tagged by @bisexualthors (thanks naomi!!) to do dis, and i’m tagging @himboshapt, @nadjas, @damerondjarin, @inthorantine, and @caracynthiadune. no pressure ofc and enjoy! 1. name (4) fictional characters who showcase your personality the best; explanations are optional - (1) rosa diaz (b99); she channels my inner edge lord/ (2) toph beifong (atla); she could step on me for all intents and purposes but her sass is a total mood/ (3) san (princess mononoke); she runs with wolves, literally, the lifelong fantasy i’ve had since i was four/ (4) tsume (wolf’s rain); he’s got trust issues out the wazoo but he’s got a heart of gold underneath, also totally relatable to me now than when i was younger sdfkljds 2. aesthetic - the smell of fresh cut grass while there’s a cool breeze on a sunny day 3. favorite musical/ play - .. can i say Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream even though i’ve never seen a live performance? 4. what is the best compliment you’ve ever gotten? - that i look like my mom. it’s great when people i barely know but knew my mom say that, but it weirds me out for a sec when i see it in the mirror 5. how many times have you been in love? - im a libra how dare u   twice, i think. 6. embarrassing story or fact abt yourself that makes you laugh now? - can’t think of one atm sorry 7. favorite disney/pixar movie? - ogod how dare u make me choose  zootopia or brave 8. favorite flower or plant? - succulents (i have 2 right now that are on my mobile bg, named Merry and Pippin)! also wildflowers, and water lilies 9. what’s your favorite holiday? - halloween!! and christmas bcos i love winter and or winter clothes lol 10. name (3) things that made you laugh or smile this last week - (1) my dog woofing in her sleep, (2) finishing my Wolf’s Rain fic, (3) picking fresh fruit bcos it’s hot as hell here in the great country of TX and fruit is a must slkfjwd 11. what song would you play to introduce yourself to someone? - oh god that’s a thing..?  “killer queen” by Queen, or “the Chain” by Fleetwood Mac 12. name something that truly makes you feel peaceful even at your most stressed moments - watching videos of one of my favorite comedians on Youtube 13. what do/ did/ would you study at college? - i Was aiming to get an associates in Graphic Design and, briefly, i considered changing it to Illustration but i got lazy and saw the measure of a hassle it would’ve been to change my major so i was like Eh this works 14. (kinda) weird question! which outfit of yours makes you feel most like yourself? - a black hand-me-down tank and my blue Garfield pj pants, most at ease especially since i’m at home all the time (covid horseshit aside) 15. what is a quote you live by? - i don’t really live by (1) quote bcos i like a lot of quotes, but there’s one that shakespeare said, ‘Though she be but little, she is fierce’. mood  16. name the funniest playlist title you have - sldkfjwe welp i don’t rly have that problem bcos, meticulous as i am with playlist titles, i haven’t had the pleasure lol 17. make a reference to an inside joke you have with someone you love with zero context - HARBULARY (sdlfkjwelf) 18. what is a message you would give your younger self if given the chance? - fuck what people may think or say; be a better friend to your gal pals; ask Josh out in hs; appreciate mom more.. also dump whats-his-face asap bc hes a limp-noodle toolbag  19. who is your favorite family member (if your blood relatives suck then mention some1 from your found family)? - (1) my mom was amazing, total saint. (2) my dad’s pretty cool too, i get a lot of my mannerisms from him lol. (3) my grandpa (on my dad’s side) is like my dad lol but he’s always been my fave between he and my grandma as long as i can remember 20. what’s a secret dream of yours? - to make my own graphic novel someday? that’s all i can think of off the top of my head tbh

[comicteaparty]

February 17th-February 23rd, 2020 CTP Archive

The archive for the Comic Tea Party week long chat that occurred from February 17th, 2020 to February 23rd, 2020.  The chat focused on Crossed Wires by Iris Jay.

Featured Comment:

Chat:

Comic Tea Party

BOOK CLUB START!

Hello and welcome everyone to Comic Tea Party’s Week Long Book Club~! This week we’ll be focusing on Crossed Wires by Iris Jay~! (http://crossedwires.irisjay.net/)

You are free to read and comment about the comic all week at your own pace until February 23rd, so stop on by whenever it suits your schedule! Discussions are freeform, but we do offer discussion prompts in the pins for those who’d like to have them. Additionally, remember that while constructive criticism is allowed, our focus is to have fun and appreciate the comic!

Whether you finish the comic or can only read a few pages, everyone is welcome to join and chat with us!

DISCUSSION PROMPTS – PART 1

1. What did you like about the beginning of the comic?

2. What has been your favorite moment in the comic (so far)?

3. Who is your favorite character?

4. Which characters do like seeing interact the most?

5. What is something you like about the art? If you have a favorite illustration, please share it!

6. What is a theme you like that the comic explores?

7. What do you like about the comic’s story or overall related content?

8. Overall, what do you think the comic’s strengths are?

Don’t feel inspired by the prompts? Feel free to discuss anything else that interested you!

Alex_makes_comics

Just started on this comic. It's highly addictive. The art is super expressive ( I am always really jealous of people who can use dot shading effectively), and the story is fast paced. It keeps you turning pages. I did not see the twist of the vr helmet coming at all and I love that. I love thinking I am reading one thing and then finding out I am reading something else. It suddenly made the character design choice of having a dragon samurai as the MC so much more understandable. This choice was fun to begin with, but it so much more perfect when you realise it's an avatar. I'm only on page 25 and I have to get back to work,so it's early days yet for a favourite character. So far, I'm just annoyed at all the characters for talking in class

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

I made it through the comic, and it was a really fun read! I like how the mechanics of the universe embellish the concept of hacking without... making it "unrealistic"? Like, I often see hacking portrayed in media as just typing gibberish code and saying "i'm in", which is generally pretty silly. What Crossed Wires does is turns hacking into essentially real-world heists, where you need disguises and acting and people watching your back. Sword fights aside, that's actually way closer to how hacking actually works (like, it's easier to get someone to tell you their password than to crack the password database). My absolute favorite example of this is the ending of Chapter 02 (which is also my favorite scene of the comic). Michael has been built up as this absolute dirtbag, and the number of creeps he somehow has following him has made him nigh-unbeatable. I'm not going to spoil exactly how the gang gets to him in the end, but watching him get beaten down was one of the most satisfying things I've ever seen in a comic.

RebelVampire

I agree that story wise, the way it handles hacking is really unique. Which tbf to TV, real hacking is generally actually very boring. And as @snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights) says, there's actually easier ways like just getting someone to tell you their password that are way easier. In real life, even, the first thing companies who are hired to test another company's security do is just show up in person and try to trick their way past people. People are really the worst enemy of all security. But anyway, even though it's a bit weird, I definitely think turning hacking into this real life VR experience is unique while capturing the real life flaws that humans create for security ventures. I also like that the beginning really just starts right up with this premise without taking like 20 pages to exposition. Just gotta accept a fighting dragon, which works really well in this case.(edited)

My favorite moment in the comic so far is actually probably the one morning chat between Cass and VRRMN where they have a serious talk about their relationship and the future. I actually like that their relationship is built on the point that sorry isn't enough, and that while you can see VRRMN's sincerity, you can also justifiably see why Cass isn't going to forgive so easily. And it was just a very real and heart breaking scene since no matter the direction,, nobody was going to be happy. Which tbf, I also like this scene because Cass is my favorite character. I like that Cass is a smidgen more down to earth than some of the other characters so far, and I really like this dilemma where Cass wants to leave hacking, but keeps coming back. Plus Cass is cool and badass, so there's that too.

Ironically, though, I think I like seeing Cass and Alan interact the most. I like this kind of...brother sister relationship they have going on where Cass just wants to protect Alan who is way too eager to get over his head. So all their interactions are super cute

But lets chat about art for a second. I really like that the art style in this is like this interesting mix between modern and cyberpunk. When it comes to stories where you have VR or similar involved, there's a lot of directions to go. Some just use the same art style throughout, some drastically change it, etc. It all depends on what is being sold to the reader in terms of setting. What I like about the art, though, is that despite it really doesn't change much, I'm sold on both the modern real world and the cyberpunk sort of feel I get from the world of the hackers. I always feel like both aspects are unique and have a lot of character, which I don't find in a lot of other similar comics

Iris Jay

Iris Jay here, author of Crossed Wires! Thanks for the rad comments so far, it means a lot that y'all are reading my weird queer hacker comic. <3

And I'm glad you dig the worldbuilding!! XW originally started as a Hackers fan comic, and I wanted to capture the same general feeling of it-- a cyberpunk story that wasn't happening in some neon-lit future, but now, the present, albeit with slightly better graphics capabilities. (Of course, with VR technology rapidly catching up, it's probably going to be historical fiction by the time I'm done with the series, buuuuut what're ya gonna do...)

Cass gets a LOT of cool stuff coming up very soon in the comic. I'm super excited to show y'all where the story goes next!

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

Oh, one other thing I love - I really like how both of the main protagonists are trans. Like I really think it adds some interesting parallels and theming to the story - these are both characters who felt rejected by the world, they went into VR for escapism and for avatars that portrayed who they really were. And I'm interested to see how the theme of a person's VR avatar being very closely tied to their identity is explored further in this chapter (I'm guessing it will be, particularly with regards to Cass).

sagaholmgaard

Im only about 30 pages in but I dig the style difference between the digital world and the dots for shading, and the real world with the greyscale shading. It's really cool. And the use of big areas that are colored black!! Love that kinda stuff, want to get better at using that myself!

Comic Tea Party

DISCUSSION PROMPTS – PART 2

9. What exactly is the Amphisbaena Project and how does it work in a way that it physically affects a person? What is the goal of the people who revived it, and who revived the project in the first place?

10. Do you think Cass will ever forgive Vrrmn/Theresa for the events that happened between them in the past? Can their relationship be repaired, and how will their soured relationship affect their separate relationships with Alan?

11. Do you personally believe in the hackers’ mission in exposing wrongdoing despite it being illegal? In general, what do you think the story has to teach us about standing up for both ourselves and for society?

12. Overall, how do you think the events of the story will change Alan, his relationships with others, and his pursuits of hacking? How will the other characters change and grow as people over the course of their adventures?

Don’t feel inspired by the prompts? Feel free to discuss anything else that interested you!

RebelVampire

I feel like the Amphisbaena Project maybe started as like an anti-hacker measure. Since it's not like hackers are doing legal things, so it walks that ethical grey line of what is and isn't ok to do to law breakers. Like, if someone is invading your home, is it fine to shoot them. But now I think the people who revived it (which I have no guesses as to who yet), are using it to eliminate business rivals. Cause that sounds like something a corporation would do. As for how it works, I think it's just a simple matter of information overload to the brain, just on like...a brain-breaking level. Which this leads me into the moral quandry of, do I believe in the hackers mission. The short answer is no, because personally speaking I don't believe breaking the law is good in most cases, and often wrongdoing taints the results. However, I also emotionally understand why people would do this. The characters have made their personal mission sort of clear, and that makes me empathize with their plight. So all in all, I feel the story teaches us that standing up for yourself and society isn't easy. Whether it's an emotional or physical hardship, there are sacrifices and sometimes, you just gotta be ok with that.

Let me move onto character growth. I don't feel Cass will ever forgive Vrrmn, but I do think Cass will move past it to the level of being cordial. And I think Alan will be a big part of that, since both seem nice enough to not want to put Alan in the middle of their personal issues. So while the relationship will never be what it was, they'll probably be able to say How are you without Cass sneering. XD As for Alan, I kind of feel that the story will teach Alan more humility. We've already seen quite a bit of this, but I think his overwhelming confidence could still be more tempered as the story goes on. Not just because Alan will face strong people, but with more experience comes more wisdom. So at the end, Alan will be able to recognize that those boasted skills in the past weren't so great. As for other characters, I feel like I need to know them more before I can say.

Comic Tea Party

DISCUSSION PROMPTS – PART 3

13. What are you most looking forward to seeing in regards to the comic?

14. Any final words of encouragement for the comic?

Don’t feel inspired by the prompts? Feel free to discuss anything else that interested you!

RebelVampire

What I'm most looking forward to in the comic is probably just seeing more of Cass. I'm interested to see where Cass goes both emotional and physically as the hacking world begins to change somewhat do to the events of the story. Overall, this is a stylistically interesting comic that covers a lot of ground with lots of interesting visuals that complement the story well.

Comic Tea Party

BOOK CLUB END!

Thank you everyone so much for reading and chatting about Crossed Wires this week! Please also give a special thank you to Iris Jay for volunteering the comic and creating it! If you liked Crossed Wires, make sure to continue to support it via some of the links below!

Read and Comment: http://crossedwires.irisjay.net/

Iris’ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/irisjay

Iris’ Shop: https://shop.itsnero.com/

Iris’ Twitter: https://twitter.com/irisjaycomics

[tumblunni]

Okay I know that kingdom hearts has a bad reputation for sticking crucial plot information on obscure spinoff games but HOLY SHIT I just finally watched a lets play of the fuckin digimon tcg game and found out it ACTUALLY HAS A GODDAMN CONCLUSION TO ANALOGMAN FROM DIGIMON WORLD 1

like 90% of the damn game has no plot whatsoever let alone indicating its a digimon world sequel! and then suddenly in the last battle without being foreshadowed whatsoever analogman returns and gets possibly the best boss battle ever IN A GODDAMN TCG GAME

holy shit his whole fight is framed as ‘this is literally the same guy from digimon world 1, hacking another game’, the interface wigs out and a bunch of fake command windows pop up with rapidly scrolling code of the game supposedly falling apart. And then his boss battle flips the entire gameplay system on its head by giving him fourth wall breaking special moves that pull overpowered effects by “hacking the engine”, with cool animations to fit. Fuckin badasssss!!

and it also fuckin FINALLY EXPLAINS THE DAMN PLOT LIKE GEEZ

digimon world’s conclusion was so rushed, you never even meet the villain until the final battle and it ends all weird with just “something” going wrong that causes him to get sucked into a portal or something while screaming dramatically in weirdly high resolution terror faces??? the tcg game confirms that this was him attempting to flee back to the human world after you defeated him, but one of the stray attacks from the battle damaged his machine and it caused him to essentially commit accidental suicide when he turned it on.

and HOLY SHIT MY FUCKIN OBSCURE HEADCANON IS TRUE????

the game had some sequel bait hints that maybe analogman is somehow still around and that the portal explosion just turned him into “corrupted data” so he can never return to the human world. and i always thought it would be super ironic if he actually got turned into a digimon aka the thing he hates more than anything

WELL OKAY I GUESS CRITICAL LORE IN A TCG GAME IS OKAY WHEN ITS A BIG YES BUNNI U THEORY BE CORRECT

he appears in this game as a malomyotismon who does a damn good vexen face during the fight, lol. And he’s all “gahh that stupid kid ruined my plans but this accursed body at least improved my hacking abilities!” Tho its implied that his corrupted state is more like a bodyless cloud of data that can possess/copy different digimon, which would be REALLY FUCKIN CRITICAL to explaining the goddamn plot of Digimon World Next Order!

Seriously wtf is up with this series? Digimon World 2 is not the sequel to Digimon World 1, all the numbered games are entirely separate individual stories with wildly different genres from pet sim to roguelike strategy. The real sequel is fucking DIGIMON THE CARD GAME THE GAME and then Digimon World Next Order a bazillion years later for the ps4. In which i am STILL REALLY SALTY that they have a FUCKIN RAD remix of analogman’s boss theme yet he doesn’t appear in the game. The added context of this damn tcg game confirms once and for all that the Ambiguous As Fuck Ending actually WAS him appearing in the game, this unexplained “oh wait the villain was good all along and he was just possessed by an evil virus” was supposed to be corrupted-digi-analogman and seriously WHY DONT THEY JUST FUCKIN EXPLAIN IT!!! this tcg game wasnt even released in europe!! and even american fans probably had no clue it was linked to this entirely separate subseries! You have to friggin piece it together with context clues like the battle music and the fact analogman’s signature mon was machinedramon. I mean vjesus christ Next Order is a litera; sequel with the grown up version of Digimon World’s protagonist as a badass home ec teacher who still defends the digital world in his free time yet you couldnt spare ONE LINE OF DIALOGUE mentioning the name of the villain?? and summarizing the fuckin tcg game everyone missed??? AND CONFIRMING THAT THE VILLAIN IS INDEED MAKING A REAPPEARANCE POSSESSING THIS GUY??? oh god everything makes SENSE, thank you terrible card game adaptation. ehh but i do still love Next Order for making Hiro/Mameo’s canon partner Mamemon, he’s even more badass as this big tough bishie version of himself with a tiny adorable pal that can shoot rocket fists through space and time. (its funny tho cos the DW1 intro movie showed metalmamemon and metalgreymon and the american boxart flipped a coin and decided metalgreymon must have been the one the protagonist was using in that scene. Whoops!)

anyway even with the added context that IT WAS INDEED GODDAMN ANALOGMAN, the final boss fight in Next Order was as terrible as the rest of the plot. So I’m glad trash gramps got a suitably badass boss fight after all, even if it was a CARD GAME VERSION! lets all celebrate the awesomeness of this obscure fuckin spinoff game’s obscure fuckin intercontinuity cameo with the boss fight music that other game wasted

seriously fuckin hell the biggest challenge in that final boss was that i was so distracted by SHEER OFFENDEDNESS at the cool music not matching it that it was hard to keep focused

its not just a great boss theme for a terrible boss, its a really fuckin EMOTIONAL song for anyone whose childhood was fuckin defined by the first game!!!

and look you had a PERFECT FUCKIN EXCUSE for a REALLY GOOD boss battle against MY MAN GRUMPY GRANDPA OF THE COOL DAMN NAME. Seriously guys analogman was THE FIRST digimon villain! digimon world came out before the anime, digimon world was the BETA FOR THE ANIME! this was the first place they had the ideas for file island, so much of the areas in the game are awkwardly mistranslated versions of stuff that would later appear in the anime in a different form. before this digimon had never been anything more than a fuckin 2-bit graphics tamagotchi and this was (after the manga) only the second goddamn time these monsters had an actual full colour character design! all of those charmingly janky 90s gross out show styled tcg illustrations? that was concept art that this game was working from! fuckin hell this game thought up the idea for metalgreymon’s changed design that ended up becoming the iconic partner of tai in the anime. (you can also see beta tai in the manga with a beta veemon as a partner instead! o_O)

SO LIKE...

JUST....

I HAVE FEELINGS ABOUT ANALOGMAN OKAY!!! he’s a badly written guy with only like five sentences across all the videogames but fuckin hell he was such an Iconique part of the development of this series that they named him fucking ANALOGMAN

like dude you could have SO EASILY made me scream at my tv in a more positive way by bringing him out as the surprise villain and showing us wtf his deisgn is even supposed to look like cos god all we have is a blurry faceless early ps1 model buried under the glow filters of Mt Infinity’s funky background effects.

AND FUCKING

IF IT IS CANON

THAT MY FUCKIN

STUPID THEORY

IS CANON

slap a fuckin O on this man and LITERALLY LET ME BEAT HIM UP

like dont even give him a team or anything, just let me fight THE MAN HIMSELF

you canonically fuckin said he’s a digital ghost now and basically the same as a digimon

let me beat the shit out of a regular businessman in a suit and tie while he pulls his badass ‘i’m hacking the game i’m in’ bullshit from the GODDAMN TCG GAME THAT WAS MORE CLIMACTIC THAN YOUR SHITTY CASH GRAB FAKE SEQUEL

man god i didnt expect a fuckin TCG GAME to revive my righteous fury from back when i first played that piece of shit. i hate it cos Next order is so pretty and its gameplay is so good and i really loved my twin digis but there were SO MANY bugs and cut corners and missing content and really bad writing and GOD it made me so sad that the dub team really really tried, they tried so hard that they got fuckin renamon’s original voice actress back even though the renamon in this game has nothing to do with the anime one. THE DUB WAS REALLY GOOD BUT IT COULDNT SALVAGE THAT SCRIPT!! THE MUSIC WAS REALLY GOOD AND THE ART WAS REALLY GOOD AND THE DIGIMON THEMSELVES WERE MY BEST DAMN FRIENDS FOR THAT MONTH OF MY LIFE BUT THE GODDAMN FUCKIN SCRIPT!!! the postgame was MORE FUN because FINALLY everything opened up like the sandbox of the first game and you could just fuckin hug u digis without being distracted by constant cutscenes butchering your childhood nostalgia

man i wanted to write a fic/draw a comic about my headcanons on how to fix it but i never managed to do it cos holy shit it was basically “throw everything out and make a different game geez” I COULD RAMBLE FOR HOURS ABOUT THE ENTIRELY DIFFERENT SEQUEL THIS SHOULD HAVE BEEN!! and a fuckin!! tcg game!! was closer to that sequel!!!

and fuckin MY THEORY WAS RIGHT AND MY BETTER GAME IDEA ACTUALLY WOULD WORK IN CANON

fuck it im gonna do draw myself decking business gramps in the face

oh! and the female protagonist design! thats another rare good part of that thing! i loved the pixellization effect on her ponytal, way better than the male equivelant having a very ordinary costume design just with a pixel corner taken out of his jacket. also why did the plot never actually make a thing out of that? like you’d think that ‘unlike every other digimon tamer i’ve got this scar of my digitization’ would be a plot point. like they didnt give everyone else a cool pixel squares mark! they could have at least used it as an excuse why the protagonist is the Only Chosen One who can do all this plot shit. or if it was me i would have made it early foreshadowing for the Return Of Business Gramps, like you were partially infected by the Oooo Mysterious Unexplained Digi Virus (seriously why did they not just have ONE SENTENCE explaining its the fuckin original villain returning????) during the prologue and i dunno somehow that gives you powers to break analogman’s control on the digimon he possesses. or maybe the pixel thing is like a tracking device he put on you? or just give that cool design trait to the protagonist of digimon cyber sleuth instead, whose entire plot is that theyre a digimon human hybrid with literaly the power to pixellize themself into computers.

ALSO!!! actually do something!!! with mameo!!!

they really fuckin hyped up in all the prelease materials that the digimon world 1 protagonist was gonna be in this game and he’s all grown up now. and then he does NOTHING in the plot except babble exposition and stand around your home base. and has one line about how he’s a badass teacher now and his partner is mamemon but hey we made a bullshit excuse for why his digimon is sealed away and he never gets to fight :<

give me an actual cool teamup of new protag girl and her cool teacher dude beating the shit out of business trash with their bare fists and also their digimon’s bare fists while THE BEST DAMN MUSIC GOES UNWASTED

...fuck i sure do Feel Intensely about nostalgic games lol. i wonder if i’ll be so rambley when i play kh3? maybe itd be a really shitty lp, aaagh...

[georgesmithunit19]

10 Minute Lesson Project: Initial Ideas and Brainstorming

24.01.19

Our new project this time around is to use the skills we have learned and the research we have done on memory, learning and teaching methods, to create a resource using art and design to educate a chosen subject and demographic. We must essentially design and teach a 10 minute-long lesson about whatever we want. In this post, I will just be detailing my initial ideas and how I plan to do things. 

Initial thoughts

Initially, I must say that the thought of this filled me with dread, and I thought that I would never be able to accomplish such a thing. Though, at the very least, we are allowed to do it whatever way we wish. For example, I thought it over for a good hour and a half, and eventually came up with a decent idea with help from my tutor, which was to teach people the differences between British English and American English. My initial ideas were not really good, and I was just frantically searching around to try and find something to teach. My original ideas were to teach the periodic table(???), teach Japanese, which I thought would help me learn more if I were to teach it, but quickly dropped this idea as it would be just too embarrassing. Teach people to tie a tie, which would be incredibly boring and I would struggle greatly to reach the 10 minute mark. My final idea was to simply teach English, like the correct their, they’re, there, you’re, your etc. Again, I don’t think I could make a 10 minute lesson about something like that, since I don’t know how I would get my point across without it being a boring and talkative PowerPoint presentation.

The plan

Once settling on my (most likely) final idea, I had the idea to create a 3-5 minute animation essentially explaining the differences between certain words like pants, chips, faucet etc. using some nice graphics in Adobe Illustrator, quickly realising that it would most likely take far too long to create graphics for every single word + animate it with text, since I planned to use a lot of words in this (Still won’t completely rule out this idea though). Aside from the animation, I also thought that I would create some worksheets to hand out once the animation was finished, to see how much they remembered. That or they will be able to answer them immediately, since the topic is laughably easy for anyone who has been in the UK or US for at least 8 years, and already know the differences. The worksheet, by the way, will most likely be around 3-5 minutes long, much like the animation. The length of these things will all be decided once I’ve decided that the animation is long enough. To fill in the other 1-2 minutes or so, I plan on starting the lesson by briefly explaining what will be happening, and then at the end of the lesson, after the period where they must answer the questions is over, I will then display the answers on the board to let people mark their own work. I may or may not ask if anyone got full marks, though they most likely will. 

A change of heart

Anyway, instead of creating all those graphics in Illustrator, I thought instead, I would create an actual short movie-type thing in After Effects using either stock footage, my own footage, stock photographs, or my own. I will try and make it as cinematic as I can, using black bars at the tops and bottom of the screen, and have images/footage panning across the screen slowly. Then I would have it maybe blur in the background and then have text move onto the screen using some of the techniques and skills that I’ve learnt. You can bet that I will be trying my best to draw certain aspects out as long as I can too. I want to avoid talking as much as I can to be honest, and although the approach that I’m taking doesn’t really showcase my illustrative or digital art skills, it may do me good to try something new for once, and show that I can do other things. 

Content

I will be doing different categories of the differences. Below are the ideas that I’ve gathered for now, with help from this website:

Vocabulary - Pants-underwear-trousers etc., potato chips-chips-crisps-fries etc. (I’m not sure how I will be doing these first two ideas yet), faucet-tap, sneakers-trainer, cot-crib, fizzy drink-soda, sweater-jumper, mailbox-postbox, plaster-band-aid, drugstore-chemist, football-soccer, apartment-flat, holiday-vacation, the movies-the cinema, cookie-biscuit. 

Spelling - motorway-highway, color-colour, behaviour-behavior, theater-theatre, meter-metre, organize-organise, traveled-travelled. (I find it amusing that Tumblr is redlining the opposite spellings here, saying one is incorrect).

Prepositions - I plan on rephrasing these examples below, but you get the idea of what I will be doing. 

Past Simple vs Present Perfect - I may or may not use this category, but if I were, I would definitely rephrase them again, and they would most likely be at the end of the video, as well as the previous category, since they are a little complex, though if you can follow the pattern, you may just know all of them at once.

Regular or Irregular Verbs? - Another one that I may or may not use—these words may be way too easy, since there is an obvious pattern with them. But regardless: leapt, dreamt, burnt, learnt-leaped, dreamed, burned, learned. 

[artdjgblog]

​Innerview: M.P. / Undisclosed Design Student​

March 2008

Art: DJG, 1999-2002

Note: Email Q&A​

Question:​

hey man, my name is m.p. and i​'​m a graphic design student at UCF, I randomly stumbled across your page doing a search on cubism images on google for a project i am working on... I browsed through your extensive collection and found it inspiring and beautiful... I more or less have the mutual desire of wanting to design posters and art related to music in general, because music is more or less my life, im just not as good at it as i am at art ha.... Anyways I was wondering what advice you had if any in regards to your direction you have taken, how did you get started and involved in making show posters for bands like built to spill and etc... I am more or less clueless to the whole process, I understand networking is obviously a requirement, but are there any other suggestions you have or stories perhaps? Have you always been able to pump out mass amounts of artwork and turn them into such great aesthetic pieces... or is it a talent that you developed at a certain age and just ran with it... Im 22 turning 23 and often times feel like giving up and etc... anyways i understand if you dont have time to respond to random messages like this just thought maybe I could get some feedback from a stranger. take care​.​ ​Answer:​

michael, thank you for getting in contact with me and for the kind words. it means a lot to me that you found my work and took time out to sift through it all. did my cubism imagery help at all? that was for an old college assignment... i kinda pushed it a little bit. i looked at the typography in cubism. anyway... i hope you were able to navigate my site. it's in shambles a bit for now as i'm working on a new one. should be up in April. it's a long process and i'm not advanced in the technological realms and lots of road snares along the way. if you are interested in music and poster design and feel you are stronger in that area... then, just go for it. it's something that i wanted to do as well, especially after visiting design firms and coming back home empty inside for my future. it's great if you can find a spot in a real firm, but i tell people to follow their heart. it wasn't in my heart for anybody else to own my work/heart. indeed, there is no money in the area i'm at with the independent music design. but, i have freedom and am able to have pretty much full custody of my children. and i've for some reason carved some mild success. still, i have to work a day job. i've always managed to find jobs that give me enough free time and very low responsibility. jobs like janitorial / grounds keeping and right now, data entry. my main advice: just make stuff and get yourself out there... make the stuff that you want to make. it's easy to get overwhelmed/frustrated with it though, and i too get there at times, but as long as you are making the stuff that you long to make, then i would chalk one up for the win column. heck, i even had to take about a year off in order to get back in the game with what i'm doing so i wouldn't become burnt out. it was healthy for me. i don't do nearly as much work as i once did, and it's a hard balance as i can't stay up all night like the ol' days of design, and i'm married and have the responsibilities of adulthood and at times it's easy for me to be too self-involved with it all. i guess right now it's more a matter of spreading out the eggs i've been sitting on for seven years and learning to work smarter, not harder. i'm also just doing a lot of work that only i and the basement and the kitties will see. how did i get started on all of this? i had befriended several bands in college and just asked them if i could design for them. and they all said yes. and the work i was doing for them felt more pure than anything that i probably would be doing for an actual design firm. i dropped out of school and eventually moved in with a band in Kansas City, MO and started my paper trail. i then submitted work to magazines/competitions and started getting a little following. true, networking helps, but the majority has been word of mouth for me. now, i'm finally getting to the networking... have i always been able to pump out work? well, i guess so. i stayed in my room a lot growing up and even when i wasn't in my room, i was always making stuff on my farm that i grew up in. i enjoy being by myself in great measures. and with my head, every day is darn different, so i've never had trouble with the ability to always be working or making or thinking or finding new channels and avenues to lock into. always gotta be making or thinking or filling up the wagon behind me and then spitting it all back out into a ticker tape parade. inspiration is in all things. and i always say, if i'm not doing anything, then i must be doing something. at at this stage in my ball game, i play all positions and just making moves that aren't really pre-calculated, more like a third arm sometimes. just make, don't think. but, now you've got me thinking too much. and that can be a dangerous thing. my goal is to eventually be able to handle free-lance illustrating and music graphics full-time, and it's not too far off, and mostly been waiting on the arrival of my new site to sling my work from. but for now i'm just working away. and the past month i caught a new wind. i'm also trying to conjure up a book or something... among many other little things. actually, lots of things. just not enough time in the day, you know?! and it adds fuel when i find out that people are taking time out in this fast-paced world and getting a tickle out of my work. really, i appreciate it greatly. thank you. i hope i was able to answer your questions. sorry if this felt too rushed. shoot... i have to run up the street now to eat. just get out there and make some things! thanks again! -djg ps: do you have any of your work online?

[swampgallows]

i have 45 minutes until my alarm goes off but here i am awake for no reason anyway

i woke up thinking about how, out of all my boyfriends, it seems like my high school boyfriend was the only one who would tell me ‘sweet nothings’ as it were, tell me i was cute or something unprovoked. my gf and i did it almost constantly, always turning sentences into how much we loved each other, much like me and my high school bf did. even now, he is affectionate in that same way.

i started thinking about college since a friend of mine recently graduated from his, and how he said he learned zero. i feel like i did too. i tried to think of specific things that i did learn in college, things that werent just artistic practice, and one of them was indesign. i barely learned to use it, but its still a program i hadnt even heard of before my graphic design course. 

fuck. i wanted to take that bookmaking class. people actually got their books printed. and those accordion books too. there is so much in college that was available that i never got to do, that wasnt available to me. i wanted to take that underworld course. anyway.

i thought about that shitty graphic design course i took, how uncomfortable the instructor made me, and i thought about our final project. those years of college were the first times i started... “switching off”. or as my job put it, turning “inward” and being “not communicative”. our final project was supposed to be this big professional to-do “like a job interview” she said, like we were supposed to dress in business attire and all this shit to present our final project. and my computer was failing at the time so i couldnt do a lot of my work, i couldnt get to the computer labs when they were open (and i had anxiety about using the animation computers in a way i cant really explain) so i ended up having to make a lot of it in mspaint instead of illustrator. i fucked around a lot in that class. there was a time where i got on vent and was laughing and the instructor pulled something like “well you cant laugh like that and not share with the class” and i made up some shit about how i was laughing about godwin’s law on wikipedia. 

whatever. but during the final project i cant even remember what i wore, i just knew i didnt have any nice clothing with me and it was too difficult for me to go out shopping for some and even more difficult to go home and get what i had. so during my “interview”/presentation in front of the class i was just... practically nonverbal, could barely speak above a mumble, literally said tihngs like “i dont care” or whatever. i dont even remember what i was presenting. and i think i got a D in that class. i dont remember. i was just happy to get it over with, and i knew i wasnt taking any more graphic design courses. i was with my abusive ex at the time and was tired as shit always, i think i had been taking 5 courses at once, and i was disheartened about not getting into the bfa and had to take the graphic design course to pave my way to the regular ba. or somethign like that. i wasnt planning on taking it but had to. and the instructor told fucked up stories about how she fell off a roof—”well, i walked off” she corrected herself—and had brain damage so she had to learn to write and read and walk again. it made me severely uncomfortable and i thought it was totally inappropriate for a classroom environment. i was so put off by how buddy-buddy she seemed to try to be with me and she would invade my personal bubble a lot when talking to me. but i wasnt in the best shape to begin with. she seemed to really like me at first because i was funny blah blah all that usual garbage. but that final project is one of the first distinct times i remember going nonverbal and “turning off”. and i couldnt turn back “on” even if i tried. though i didnt care to try. when i feel like that i just want to get away from everything and go to bed. it’s too hard to keep up a facade.

i spent much of my college ‘career’ extremely unhappy and stressed out about things that werent schoolwork. schoolwork i can do, it’s exclusively the only guaranteed thing i’d been able to do for 12+ years of my life consistently. but i think the trauma was catching up to me and pulling me into the undertow without me realizing, drowning me, and the people i thought were saving me just dragged me under more. my gf, “tarzan”, my later abusive bf, the guy who raped me in my dorm room, my shitty invasive roommates who called me a slut for it (thought my screaming was me broadcasting how hard i was being fucked “like a slut”), my pseudo-boyfriend who i guess i was dating but i have zero memory of basically that entire year... that guy had a good heart, i think, but i was so fucked up in the head about everything, and about sex, and about college expectations or something that i couldnt be on his level. even 7 years later he found me in wow and was asking me all these questions about whether or not i got help or if im doing any better, felt a need to check in on me, said “you were so miserable” and “you were always suffering”. it didnt even feel like that at the time. i dont even know whether or not i knew i was suffering. if i felt sad. or if i felt anything. i dont remember. my livejournal entries from those years are sparse.

i dont know why i do that thing. that thing where i “turn off”. i dont really know for sure when it started or if i did it before i got to college..............

there was a time when i was.... i had to be in elementary school. there was a time at stephanie’s house—she was my best friend in first grade, before i went to another school—i think i ended up seeing her later? i dont think i was in only first grade, i feel like it was later in life, that i was maybe in 5th grade or something, and she asked me if i was sad or something, i dont remember exactly, and i had told her no. then, i remember, she asked “then why are you acting so glum?” and i have no idea what my answer to her was.

i want to sleep more but i have to get up soon. today will be fairly inconsequential in terms of work. i dont know if im going to “turn off” or not today, but it shouldnt matter much if i do because times running out anyway. im scheduled to be in the kids shop all day, which basically means im going to read wolfheart for 6 hours. i hope its good. im not a fan of knaak’s writing.

[bisexualwinry]

i know this is random but i just started my college research today and i realized that i am Lost and have No Idea what im doing? do you have any tips or suggestions for a potential art (animation or illustration? maybe) or biology student?? literally anything would help at this point (my grandpa gave me a starting list to look up but i have no idea what to do or what to look for in these schools and i would love to know about what i could really do w an art degree) thanks!

(forgive me, I’m typing this on mobile ;;w;;)

ahhhhh I’ve totally been there, darling!! when I was first getting ready to go to college, I was stressed abt it 24/7 and would cry every time my dad tried to bring it up sjsjfjdjdjdjd;; you are definitely not alone in this struggle, and I know a good number of people who are my age at 21 that are still trying to figure out where to go in life. I know this is a stressful time, but you have time to work things out, even if things don’t go the way you want them to at first

the good news is, you already have an idea of what field you might want to go into, so you've already gotten past the first step!

unfortunately I don't know too much abt career fields in biology. what I do know is that it's probably a wide and varied field like art is, and maybe it will make things easier to narrow down what job that requires biology you're interested in! if I'm understanding you right, you're already in the process of doing that, and all I can say is keep researching on that front and then once you know what abt biology interests you, you can start looking for those types of programs in colleges

for art school, I can get a lot more specific: I'm an illustration major, specifically interested in commercial illustration. commercial illustration is the kind of things you'll see as editorial drawings in magazines, book covers, greeting cards/stationary, illustrated advertising, gig posters/album covers, package design, some typography, children's books, public murals etc. essentially, if it's illustrated and it's advertising something or you can buy a product with a drawing on it, that's commercial illustration. very target market based, but contains a decent amount of variety and your creativity won't be limited if you can sell your enthusiasm to your client

but that's just my field--there are tONS of other art fields. you mentioned animation, which is great and has numerous opportunities like editing film footage/putting in special effects, advertising work, and creative media. it is extremely difficult and demanding tho. I was an animation major my first year at school and it is not for the faint hearted. they call it the "engineering of art" and they're not wrong hoo boy

additionally, you can go into something more graphic-design based. that's going to concentrate more on design, composition, and typography rather than image. you see stuff like graphic design in magazine layouts and websites. graphic design also ties in closely with illustration tho, so the two will probably overlap no matter what you end up studying

finally, what you should look for in a school if you're hoping to do art is that they offer you a major other than a degree in fine arts. I mean, if you wANT to go for fine arts, by all means, I don't wanna stop you, but from what you're telling me, you sound like you're more interested in commercial art, so!!!! look to see if they offer major programs in things like illustration/graphic design/animation. try to look specifically at art-based schools, too. if you're serious abt art, that may be your best bet. liberal arts colleges are also possibilities, but you might get less of a concentration on your major as you want, or at least that was my issue when I was searching for schools--most of the liberal arts colleges only offered minors in art

anyway, I hope that helps, hon!!! best of luck with the school searching, you're gonna be fine! oh, and feel free to ask me anything else if you need to!