#it’s kind of cool to be a professional artist by trade

[ponyboi-69]

More pottery from yesterday

[braisedhoney]

So what's your LEAST favorite pigment?

oooooh... let me see.

i don't think i have any one particular pigment that i dislike ALL of the time—watercolor can be temperamental, and the difference between using a transparent vs opaque color really can change the entire experience. they even dry differently, depending on what color you're using and with what materials. i can't really speak to oils or acrylics though since i've only used those in passing. (i do want to get into oils at some point... it's a gorgeous medium.)

if i absolutely had to pin down a specific pigment or pigment type that i don't particularly enjoy using myself, it... miiight be the cadmiums? yellow, red, orange, it doesn't matter. i know a lot of artists love them to death and they're even a staple on a lot of palettes, but the opacity and toxicity of them just puts them lower down on the list of the pigments i would usually reach for. (as long as you aren't eating them or inhaling the pigment itself handling cadmiums is usually okay-ish, but i prefer to err on the side of caution.)

that's not to say that i outright hate them, i've used them once or twice. but if i have an alternative to cadmium red (pr108) on hand like pyrol red (pr254) or something, i'd rather reach for that. especially since it can make cleaner mixes! (colors that are really opaque tend to get muddy easier, which is also the reason people hear 'don't mix with white, just dilute it' all the time. pyrol red is still opaque, but yk.)

for a while, cadmiums and the like were the only way you could get really true, lightfast and vibrant colors of whatever category they occupied, but there are so many other alternatives now that i find fun to explore and more comfortable to work with.

that said, it makes more sense in general to just play it by ear and see what colors speak to you. pr206 isn't exactly a perfect all-purpose mixing red, but that doesn't stop it from being one of my favorite colors of all time lol. and warmer reds do have a much smaller selection than cooler toned reds do!

(also, not a huge fan of colors that are incredibly hard to rewet, like true viridian (pg18) or potters pink (pr233) even if i do find their shades delicately pretty and really unique. working with them can be frustrating if you aren't using them directly from the tube. some brands are better about that than others though! and both of those are kind of bad examples anyway bc i think they're gorgeous when allowed to granulate on cold or rough press paper, in mixes or on their own.

ultramarine blue (pb29) sometimes has a similar issue actually, but the color is so intense that it remains a staple for me anyway lol. sucker for certain classics ig.)

[cer-rata]

Cerata's 2024 End of Year Artist shoutouts! (part 1)

Okay so this year was the first time I'd really participated in fandom in over a decade, but I'm truly glad I did because I met a ton of great people, and even got to work on projects with some of them. So I wanted to put all of the cool visual art that I've received last year, whether it be art trade, commission, part of an event, or...fanart? Because that happened somehow?

Anyway, there are a number of other people that I worked with last year, but a bunch of that art started near the end of the year, and as such is not finished yet, hence why this post will be two parts, one now, and the second when everyone else finishes up.

No particular order, all of these artists are great, and lovely people, so do go check out the rest of their work and tell them how cool they are, yeah? Also, some are currently open for commissions, so keep an eye out for that.

(Also, this is my first time trying to do ID text, so bear with me if they're a little rough, despite being a writer, I hate words?)

So first we have @fiyaharts with a lovely illustration of a number of the my favorite Krypton and Krypton-adjacent children. Shadi is lovely to work with and fast to the point where it spooked me a little bit, go off girl.

Next we have two pieces from my favorite Evil Woman Apologist, @vivictory-draws, one of a divorced Barbara and Kara being totally normal about it, and the other of my child and blorbo that haunts my waking hours, Conrad. Love N to death, which is why I haunt her with threats of commissioning Joker/Desaad Yaoi.

...Maybe for the next list, who knows...

So next we have the art created for the last @womenincomicsminibang (which is going to be returning with a reverse bang in a few months, keep an eye out on that.)

The lovely and evocative cover was done by the talented @breakingthespacetimewall, and the scenes of Cassie trying and failing to get her life together were done by the wonderful @soop-jpg

Working with them was a pleasure and honor, and their dedication and kindness really helped me through finishing that fic, and I remain incredibly grateful for that.

The first person I worked with this last year, and the one who really helped solidify the core of a lot of my projects, @nicodrawings drew a glorious cover for my mania-induced first longfic, and also a character reference for the aformentioned disordered young man who haunts my waking hours. She's a professional through-and-through, with wonderful instincts and great communication. She's also working on a fan-comic project of her own that I think is wonderful and am excited to see continue.

I lucked out and was paired with the super chill, super talented @byeara on my first fan project ever, and they hooked me up with this super fun and detailed cover for the fic I wrote for that one kon-centric minibang. I loved working with them, and would love to do so again, logistics willing.

This jerk @vnekey made me cry by drawing really sweet, totally unexpected fanart for that mania-fic I wrote. I'm still a little speechless really, I'd never gotten fanart of any sort for any reason before, and to receive something so lovely as the first thing really touched me deeply, and honestly kept me writing through some rough patches.

...Fight me!

My first ever art trade! Kind of! @spider-jaysart is super sweet and supportive and made my...second biblically (is there a Source bible? Are there religious Coluans?) cursed son and his hapless, frankly narratively cursed best buddy look so precious that they ALSO made me cry, can we stop that actually--

Speaking of my cursed son and his narratively cursed Kryptonian, @spicy-apple-pie created this really pretty piece that's...a number of weird deep cuts smushed together into something really specific, but neat if you have the context, which nobody does :3

She was so wonderful and patient and I really enjoyed seeing her run with her inspiration, the Kryptonian mural is super neat and not something I would have ever come up with on my own.

@mediaraiz Is really stylistically flexible, and their "Blob" style really scratched that itch I had for something cute and playful, and they were so game in taking on a larger project, and then went above and beyond in making my lanterns looks truly special.

Finally (for now), @riverdeansart drew a sweet little scene of two horrifyingly stressed totally fine spacebros chilling and chatting about how everything is completely okay!

I was super vague about this one and Dean did a great job getting the vibes right anyway, and with haste.

...So yeah, that's if for now! I'll circle back in a bit when I'm forced to let more artists out of my basement everything else is done!

[swallowedabug]

Case is plain-spoken about the financial realities of being a working musician; she said she wrote the book mainly because she needed another source of income while the pandemic kept her from touring. Later in 2025, she will also release her first new album in seven years, which she described as an explicit rebuttal to what she sees as the digital era’s dehumanization of her industry. She intentionally employed more musicians than usual; some tracks feature an entire orchestra. “I wanted everything to be played by real people,” she said, “to show how we fill space differently.”

Case’s brief forays down the music industry’s more mainstream avenues made her feel that she didn’t quite belong. In the book, she tells her side of a long-rumored story about the Grand Ole Opry. While playing an outdoor festival on its plaza in July 2001, on the brink of heat stroke, she stripped down to her bra. “It wasn’t an act of punk-rock defiance,” she writes. “I just had an animal need to cool down in any way possible.” The Opry management cut the power and after her truncated set ��delivered the classic line,” Case writes, “‘You’ll NEVER play in this town again!’” “I thought about what men had to do to get banned from the Opry,” she writes. Jerry Lee Lewis dropped an expletive on the air. Hank Williams got so wasted, he failed to show up. She eventually chalked the incident up to sexism, but she thinks the situation for female artists in country music is now “worse than it’s ever been.” “Women have actually been demoted,” she said at the diner, pointing to incidents like the so-called “Tomato-gate,” a 2015 controversy in which a radio programmer recommended limiting female artists’ airplay, likening them to “the tomatoes of our salad” in a trade publication. “It’s not true at all,” Case said unequivocally. “People don’t turn off their radios because women come on the radio.” But she has seen firsthand how difficult it is to challenge the full force of the industry. “The gatekeepers are so thick, and they’re everywhere,” she added. “I always feel like people just need to start a new country music.” Over the years she’s done just that, and beyond. Case’s songs have a spaciousness and a sense of possibility that far exceed the confines of genre. Her music is deeply in touch with the expansiveness of the natural world, and that gives her narration a kind of shape-shifting power: She has written songs from the perspective of killer whales and tornadoes, wronged, aching women and gruff, swaggering men.

But does she ever wonder what would have happened if she had been on that promised fast track to success? “I don’t think I would have gone very far,” she admitted, “because I just didn’t have the confidence or the skills yet. I wouldn’t have become really famous and gotten weird or anything. I think I just would have gotten kicked out early.” Instead, over the course of nearly three decades, she’s painstakingly built something more enduring and true to herself. “She’s a person who knows so deeply who she is, and makes no bones about it,” Khouri said. “She’s not a person who is looking at herself and wondering what the world is thinking of her. She’s standing her ground, looking out at the world and saying, ‘Shouldn’t we all be trying to do better?’

[tobiasdrake]

Watching episode 2 of Ranma reboot and it remains like a blast from the past.

Gonna be posting spoilers and screencaps to talk about it, so all of that's after the jump.

I'm sorry that I didn't appreciate the slapstick of the original manga because Rumiko Takahashi is kind of brilliant at it.

This gag sets you up to think Akane's about to hit him for yelling misogyny at her early in the morning, but then out of absolutely nowhere his fucking dad erupts from the aether and clocks him for it instead.

That's fantastic. It uses the familiar language not just of Ranma and Akane's established dynamic but of tsundere romances in general to set the gag up, and then hits it with a startling and unexpected swerve that still pays it off but in a way the audience didn't see coming.

Speaking of Genma, bits like this:

Ranma defeats Genma using the "Look, a distraction!" technique and it's funny because he won with what most martial arts anime would consider a cowardly tactic.

But it's funnier when you know the actual art he practices, 無差別格���流 musabetsu kakutou-ryuu. Separately translated as either "Anything Goes Style of Martial Arts" or "Indiscriminate Grappling". The latter of which is hilariously specific, as 格闘 kakutou can mean wrestling or grappling but simply refers to weaponless styles of hand-to-hand fighting.

He's a fisticuffs brawler by trade, contrasting the various adversaries he faces throughout the series who are mostly tool- or weapon-based fighters, to varying degrees of esoteric oddity.

But what makes this so funny in hindsight is the "indiscriminate" part. Ranma's martial art is built around the idea that there are no rules and whatever gets you to the finish line is fine. This distraction isn't Ranma being cowardly; It's actually part of his martial art. This is how he was trained to fight. XD

You know, I actually forgot that Dr. Tofu... existed.

But setting that aside, once I remembered who this guy is, I forgot that he's implied to be an exceptionally talented martial artist. Capable of masking his presence so thoroughly that even Ranma can't detect his movements.

That's really interesting. To my recollection, Dr. Tofu never has a single fight in the entire series. Instead, his expertise simply serves as an explanation for his familiarity with all the wild and bizarre mystical maladies that come his way.

It lets him be like, "Oh yeah, the reason you're deathly ill is because someone hit you with the 5,000 year old forbidden Chinese Slow Death Syphilitic Pressure Point technique. Here, let me apply the three-step acupressure reversal technique that was lost to history."

But now I.

I kinda.

Want to see him fight.

(Has this dude been like the DBZA Popo of Ranma 1/2 this entire time?)

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA She clocks him with the water kettle to make him respectfully bow.

I did not have the cultural context to understand that joke when I was young.

Rumiko Takahashi is so good at slapstick.

Yeah, okay, I don't remember half of what I said about Akane when I was young but I recant all of it. She is so fucking cool.

Imagine if you had to do this every single morning. Every morning. No exception. Just to get to school. At sixteen.

And keep in mind that this is sexualized violence. These guys are trying to overpower her because they think she'll have to be their girlfriend if they beat her up. Every single one of them is sexually harassing her. With violence.

Fuck this entire situation, y'all. I hope she gives them all life-ruining physical injuries that ruin their ability to get scouted as professional athletes at this critical age and turn them into bitter and misanthropic thirty-somethings whining on the couch about how they peaked in high school.

That's probably not how it actually works in Japan. My American is showing. But nonetheless!

She said "Kuno-senpai". She addresses him formally using his last name because that's a normal thing to do in Japan.

Subtitles, why are you changing the way characters speak to each other? The show is released with a dub and a sub alongside one another. If people are choosing to watching the sub, they don't need you to hold their hand and Americanize it for them.

She correctly calls him Kuno in the dub here. The dub is more accurate than the sub about this line. Don't. Do that.

This guy is such a dweeb he makes Jou-senpai look cool. They nailed Kuno, King Dipshit of the Jackass Mountain Akane has to climb each morning.

This is the guy who came up with the whole "Whoever beats the shit out of Akane may claim her as their trophy" thing. He probably watches Andrew Tate videos and writes internet screeds asking why women don't respect his authority and strength. Fuck this guy.

Seriously. He just. Said this. About some girl in another class. And the boys in the school were all like, "Oh, yeah, that sounds reasonable. First one to break her leg gets the girl! Thanks for showing me the best way to express my masculinity, bruh!"

A wacky setup for Akane's personal background but also a chillingly accurate metaphor for how the Manosphere functions.

For his part, it's pretty clear that what Kuno is attracted to is martial strength. He becomes interested in the "Mystery Girl" that appeared after Ranma "fled" pretty much right after she beats his ass.

He's kind of an interesting parallel to Shampoo in that regard. I never really thought of that before, but both of their interests are predicated on how strong Ranma is.

He also makes for an interesting dynamic for Ranma, from a gender perspective. Ranma's curse and the constant menace of Kuno forces Ranma to endure firsthand the kind of harassment that Akane has to undergo in her day-to-day life.

Of course, this being Ranma 1/2, Ranma's going to be getting that from both genders throughout the series. Rumiko Takahashi created a harem dodecahedron for her story, with Ranma and Akane being beset not just by rival suitors but also by rival suitors for their rival suitors trying to kill them and win the rival suitors' love.

Kuno's just one of the crowd.

But it was nonetheless an interesting choice to give Ranma a toxic male harasser as one of his suitors, that speaks to the interesting gender dynamics at play in the series.

One last thing. Something I really love about Ranma 1/2 is the way it uniquely changes the experience of just. Being around water. Like, the ever-presence of water especially in an island nation such as Japan is a constant threat.

You really don't think about how much water there is in everyday life until you have a Jusenkyou curse.

[littleeyesofpallas]

It's such a nothing detail at this point --after what almost 50 years now?-- but it always bugged me that Lady Shiva is called Lady Shiva... Like... Either do something interesting with her heritage to align her with the Hindi namesake, or call her by some kind of Chinese equivalent of the same Destroyer god. Or like at least tie the Indian epithet to her having learned Kalaripayattu or something. I dunno I just wish her name made a little bit more sense. Although so long as I'm griping about Lady Shiva stuff...

I'd actually really love it if they took her reputation as Master of All Martialarts to heart. It already makes for a great implied dynamic with Batman where he has a reputation that precedes him but by all rights isn't actually a master martial artist so much as just a very competent jack of all trades who supplements what he lacks in martial arts specifically with his deductive reasoning, broader situational awareness, and gadgets. But if her quest to master every martial art took her back to the cradle of civilization it'd make for a cool sort of feather in her cap. She could have more run ins with the likes of Sportsmaster to draw a line around Martialarts as sports vs martialarts as real combat, vs as art, vs as living cultural artifacts. She could have some back and forth with Vandal Savage as a guy who ostensibly knows more about lost histories than any other person on Earth.

Also dumb nothing side bit but how have we not had her do the full blown Bruce Lee, or Bruce Lee inspired blurry anime arms thing to match her Shiva title?

And like, as shitty as his plots have all been, there's just so much more that could be done with David Cain if anyone really gave a shit. I know it's super lame that he's literally named after Cain & Abel, but there's something kind of cool about the idea of a guy better known for training assassins than actually being one having this association with a mythical First Murder. Cain would just make for a much better codename than anything. It'd be really interesting if he was never a martial arts expert or even master assassin at all but just a guy dabbling in experimental operant conditioning and desensitization, trying to master The Art of Killing from the basest level.

Because really learning martialarts and bodily discipline as a first language fits Shiva's shtick better anyway. Cain's deal should be about breaking down the psychological resistance to killing and violence. Among other things there's really no reason for him to even be Cassandra's biological father. It would make way more sense to just make him a weirdo abducting or otherwise buying people's kids to try and get them as tabula rasa as possible. That being said he should also have closer ties to Damian specifically as the recipient of Cain's eventual perfected training methods.

(oh you know I don't know why I never thought of it but is he supposed to also be named after the biblical David? Like as a reference to David and Goliath? So he's named after two biblical guys who killed someone with a rock? Honestly the name David is so plain it never crossed my mind to even look for a connection)

But that all being said there's this implicit untapped synergy between the themes of The First Killer among men, and the Hindu Destroyer God that would be really cool to explore, obviously thru Cass and how she should be the marriage of their two themes, along with any siblings we want to acknowledge in any given timeline. Like, she should really be a perfect embodiment of bothe parents' ideals but also the perfect counter point or refutation of each. Like, I know we all love pure hearted Cass and the whole idea that she could just shake off her lifetime of training and condition to just know that killing is wrong, but I dunno it's a little corny? (I do like the idea that Cain's blindspot was that training her against professional killers meant she never learned the body language of fear in someone who can't fight back, though. That sort of culture shock is a fun part of that moment.) Instead it would be really interesting to acknowledge that, yeah, Cain's training worked and she can pretty easily take a life without much hesitation or guilt, but that doesn't mean she can't make the rational or ethical or moral judgement to not kill, it just means she isn't making it based on reflexive disgust or shame or trauma.

The loophole to her being a perfect killer and unmatched fighter being that if she's truly unmatched then other fighters don't actually pose a threat to her, and without her life at risk she has no actual motive to kill someone. In a way she should operate on a moral perogative more akin to Superman's than Batman's, just scaled down to a street level, or in the specific realm of martialarts.

Unrelated to really any of this while I do hate Cain's dumb "Orphan" moniker working with Mother, and especially the idea of Cass taking it, I almost would have liked if it had been that version of Cain that had had the weird eugenics program with his other kids. (I mean that it just ditch him and make Shiva the one with a bunch of protege kids, and instead of trying to make a perfect killer, it's just Shiva trying to make her perfect adversary) It would make more sense for him to have an entire line of failed experiments preceding Cass that she'd have to prove herself against.

But also if there was going to be a whole legacy of "Orphan" operatives, it would have been cool to make it a mahjong thing; there's a uniquely difficult hand in mahjong called The Thirteen Orphans, where the 13 tiles in your hand form absolutely no pairs, triplets or straights, despite those being the entire backbone of the game. You only get one pair to make it a winning hand and there could be a neat way to single out Shiva and Cass as a matched pair.

[shinesurge]

your custom cassettes are really really cool! ive been thinking about making custom cassettes for a bit, would you be willing to share what kind of paper you used for the label stickers and j-cards? also where do you get blank cassettes from? ive been looking at cassettecomeback but i was wondering if there was a better option.

Thanks a lot! They're really fun to make hehe

So full disclosure: I run a merch shop for my webcomic and I make most of my stuff myself in my studio. I've been doing this for the better part of ten years and over that time I've accumulated quite a bit of specialized, expensive equipment like the photo printer and cutting machine I use to make my cassette ephemera. THAT SAID mixtapes don't necessarily need all that!! Unless you're running a bootleg business on etsy or somethin I don't think you and your friends gotta run out and spend a ton of money to make these (beyond tracking down a deck and a player, obviously).

Unfortunately most of these items are found on Amazon because I'm a professional artist trying to Live, but if that's something you'd rather avoid buying through I'm listing the brick and mortar places I can find them when I need to for whatever reason!

My j-cards are just the 8x10 glossy photo paper from Pen & Gear, it's usually less than ten bucks a pack at walmart lmao. I use it with an inkjet photo printer! There are plenty of laser printer options out there though, which is probably the type non-artists have access to. Honestly I think the look of black ink on colored copy paper is super cool for handmade tapes, especially between friends.

My sticker paper was a bitch to find and I'm not sure if it would be useful without my specific equipment, but it's this glossy adhesive photo paper from some rando company called LDProducts. Literally just called "Sticker Photo Paper" pf. It's more expensive but I get it in stacks of a hundred because I print tons of stickers for my shop. Again, glossy adhesive paper might not be useful without a big boy printer but MATTE sticker paper is everywhere, that's also pretty common to find at walmart or at the very least at an office supply store; you can print on it or even get out some markers (not sure i'd suggest anything besides ink tho, I'd be worried it could come off and damage the player). I design the labels in clip studio and then load them into cricut so it's super easy to get the right shape every time, but if you're Determined you could get out a measuring tape and an xacto knife and get similar results.

I've only found my tapes on amazon unfortunately, and it's been a while since I bought any because I sort of inherited a bunch of sealed ones when my dad died and i'm still going through them lol. Almost all my custom ones are 90 minute Sony High Fidelity, last I checked you could order them in packs of five or ten but I'm not sure what the prices are like rn. If you REALLY want to get fancy with colored shells/custom lengths i did find this cool site you can order from, Duplication.ca, but the shipping is kinda rough. One of these days I wanna make some cassettes for my webcomic and I'll drop some money on some pretty ones then, but for now the Sonys are treating me fine so I haven't dug too deep.

I hope something in here is useful! I'm always happy to share what I know but again, I'm very fortunate to have access to quite a bit of stuff most people don't and I try to be up front about it alskdjf. Cassettes are best when they're sorta janky and handmade tho, it's kind of the whole point, and if they're just for you or someone you care about then marking them with a sharpie and masking tape is just as cool in my opinion. probably cooler. everybody should put music on physical media and trade it i think.

[chibishortdeath]

—Hello and welcome—

I’m an artist I guess, not professional yet, but trying to be. Your local accursed one. I guess this is a get to know me kind of thingy d(^^ ;).

As far as name goes, you can call me any part of my username :3. I’m not particularly comfortable disclosing my name and gender at the moment, but I’ll add them to this whenever I am.

Huuuge Castlevania (the games only) fan, so that’s mostly what I’ll be posting and drawing about. My favorite character is Simon Belmont, although I like most characters from the series :). I may also post about Fear and Hunger, Vocaloid, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, and whatever else I’m into at the moment (which I’ll add later if I do change or gain interests). I also have a lot of OCs and projects for them, hopefully those ideas work out eventually.

—Things I’m not cool with—

If I am uncomfortable with you for whatever reason, I will just block you!!! :3 But just in case—

DNI: pro/comshippers, maps, zoos, loli/shotacons, homo/trans/aphobes, terfs, general bigots and racists (might add more, we’ll see)

I am aware DNI lists don’t usually work for people, but that’s not exactly what it’s for since people in the above will probably get blocked once I notice them anyway lol. It’s more for people to know they’re safe from that kind of stuff here.

That being said, please be aware that I’ll primarily be posting art for horror games and media, so my art often contains some dark and violent themes! I try my best to tw, cw, or mature label things whenever it’s not in or common in any of the media I usually draw about, but some things do slip through the cracks. Just know this account is mature d(>< ;).

Please stay safe and block me if you’re uncomfortable with anything I post!!! :O

—Things I am cool with—

Comments are very cool :D! I have asks turned off because unfortunately I’ve been very stressed out lately, but I may still respond to comments and replies

I love doing art trades and collabs and other art challenge sort of things!!! I will also get very giddy if you draw fanart of my OCs or other fanworks, it means a lot to me. (TwT ) Tag and @ games are also cool. Once I’ve chilled out, I’ll be alright with doing ask games again.

I’m not doing commissions at the moment, but I might do doodle requests, and if this changes it’ll be in my description so it’s easier to find d(^^ ).

If there’s anything I feel like I’ve missed, I’ll add it later d(u_u ). This is kinda an ongoing changing kind of post anyway.

Welp, I’m back off on my quest, see ya! \(^w^)

[sherbovania]

WHAT HAPPENED AT THE CON?!? did people buy your stuff? were they weird as shit? give us the details expand on the horrors (pls)

many horrors occurred with me and my bestie @/z0mbieb0yx3 at galaxycon columbus from december 2-4 2022. the first thing to go wrong was me throwing up in his car at like 9am and looking back i consider it an omen

to answer your questions specifically:

did people buy your stuff?

no they didn't. i sold a grand total of $50 worth of stock. on saturday, which is supposed to be peak operating hours, i sold a grand total of 5 items and that just kinda made my resolve shatter. i remember crying about it on the drive back home, as well as panicking during day 3 about what my father would think of me after such a catastrophic and horrendous failure since he is both Business Man (man who knows everything about business) and expects perfection from me. my mom on the other hand was very understanding and kind when i turned up at our house at 11pm with bloodshot eyes and dried tears on my face so uh shoutout my momma yo

were they weird as shit?

most people were very nice fortunately! never once did i feel unsafe at the con. there was one guy who came up to our table that kinda skeeved me out but that's the most of it really. a lot of Autism (affectionate) was on display at da con which is always appreciated and i got to link up with some artists that i'm cool with now ^^

we were WOEFULLY unprepared. we didn't have enough variety in stock to make our booth look full AND we had no display equipment (stands, tablecloth, bins, etc.). our shit (respectfully) looked budget as fuck we were not big ballers

this was not helped by the layout of the exhibition hall being absolute doodoo garbage. you had to go WAY out of your way to even find the artist alley which was in the far back left corner of the room, you couldn't even see it from the entrance because of the 10 foot high Premium Vendor booths. there was NO signage directing you towards the alley or even saying you arrived at it so w/o a map you just had to stumble into it. right behind the alley was the bafflingly small food court (a subway, jet's pizza and chick-fil-a stand lined up next to each other) which didn't bring in any traffic from what i could gather

our booth was right next to this very nice couple who would check in with us occasionally and we learned thru them that everybody in the alley was getting no fucking sales! gee i wonder if the poor layout had anything to do with it. it's not a small convention by any means, which made the fumbles all the more shocking. they told us to not beat ourselves up over low sales which was really nice to hear and genuinely reassuring :] day 3 was basically everybody trading stock with each other since they knew it was absolutely and unequivocally joever

some of the horrors were my fault though. that weekend was the first time i drank a monster energy and i (a dumbass) thought it would be so awesome and so cool to drink it on an empty stomach. immediately i felt the repercussions and thought i was having my Jokar Moment until wingding suggested i eat some fucking pizza and suddenly i was like yeah this is fine i'm good now. who woulda thunk it. i did it again the next day and the same thing happened because i never learn. i also tried edibles for the first time on this Very Professional Business Trip and i instantly got scared. oops

in short: columbus ohio is hell. do not go there

[expressflamebunny]

This is a venting post, but I'm okay with people responding if they feel inclined.

Long story short: I'm struggling with facing the blank page and deciding what to work on. I only have myself to blame for this.

Prior to getting hyperfixated on a certain anime, I was starting to plan out a visual novel. I had some loose outlines, rough character sketches, as well as things link Pinterest boards and short Spotify playlists for the main characters. As someone who majored in English, is a web developer by trade, and has some small artistic ability, I thought this would be a good way to stretch myself. As an aside, I wasn't actually planning to try and make money off of my VN if I had succeeded in making it in part because it would be my first one, and thus wouldn't be very good, and also because my art isn't professional enough to sell IMO. I was starting to get into the habit of sitting down to work on the planning phase of it every night and was trying to get myself to shift into the writing phase. This was over a year ago.

At which point I allowed myself to get distracted from my original project idea by getting hyperfixated on a certain anime that will remain unnamed but should be obvious from my profile pic if you're familiar with it. I stopped thinking about my original work and started focusing much more on this anime along with fan fic ideas for it. My attempt to get into the habit of sitting down to do some creative work for myself daily also fell apart at this time.

Just to be clear, I don't blame that anime for this happening. The only one I have to blame for this is myself.

I want to try and get into the habit of doing some creative work on a daily basis, but I'm struggling to pick what to work on. I've completely lost momentum on my VN, but I have some fan fic ideas kicking around in my head, and then there's plenty of other abandoned original ideas of mine that I could try and return to as well.

While I do think that writing fanfic can be good writing practice and what not, I find that I'm hesitant to write it myself in part because it kind of feels like I'm neglecting my own children to fawn over the cool celebrity kids when I do. At the same time, I'm just not feeling the passion for my own original story ideas, and I do acknowledge that there are benefits to writing fanfic. I'm not used to other people looking at my work, and I think it's safe to say that it will be a lot easier to get people to read and give me feedback on a fanfic that I post than on an original work.

Anyways, I should probably be sleeping and not posting to Tumblr at the moment. This post is probably a bit incoherent due to writing it when I should be sleeping.

[xiaowhore]

jealousy hcs

includes: luke, artem, marius & vyn !

pronouns: gender neutral (excluding a mention of jiejie for the meme)

a/n: i've read other writers' take on this and decided i should share my opinion too

✧ luke pearce

unbothered king! luke doesn't get jealous easily.

why, you ask? that's because he sits at the top of the food chain, crowned with the title ✨ childhood friend ✨

he's immediately superior in every aspect. what, who cares if your boss is a respected senior attorney, or if you have an intelligent psychiatrist vying for your attention? pft, a world-renowned artist who also happens to be a ceo of pax?

even if you have all the money in the world, you could never buy the years you and luke spent together!

all jokes aside, luke never felt the need to be jealous. in the entirety of his younger years, he had the reassurance you would always be by his side. you were seen as a inseparable pair: detective pearce and his beloved watson, sticking together through thick and thin. he never doubted the bond you had, and he knew you felt the same even after 8 years had passed.

he trusted you to never turn your back on him, and well, if some guy is seriously trying to get you to date him, all luke has to do is assert dominance. he's plenty athletic, talented in some fields, and highly intelligent! he'll prove to everyone he's the best man worthy of you!

✧ artem wing

the jealous type, but prefers not to openly show it since he considers it shameful.

perhaps it's his inexperience in dating at work, causing him to fear you'd find a better man someday. he strives to be the kind of man you'd want to marry, but until that actually happens, he shouldn't let someone else steal you away??

he doesn't do it on purpose but he glares at anyone bothering you, scrutinizing every move they make. he only becomes more annoyed at each attempt of trying to get closer to you, and he has to remind himself to stay calm and observe first before doing anything.

you handle those kind of situations well, but if it escalates further, artem is quick to step in and get you out of there, grabbing your hand to lead you somewhere else.

he doesn't tell you why he grows quiet, why he holds your hand tighter and why he's reluctant to let go, but you immediately understand so you squeeze his hand back.

ps: peppering his grumpy face with kisses is always effective to make him smile!

✧ marius von hagen

as needy as he may seem, he doesn't actually require the entirety of your attention.

or maybe it'd be better to say he doesn't mind the presence of other men around you because the idea of trading him for anyone else was unfathomable; who could ever compare to the oh-so-great marius von hagen?

other people know it too. they instantly back down when faced with marius's intimidating smile, hovering behind your shoulder. they weren't aware you were acquainted with someone so... flashy. who has the balls to go against someone hot, rich, young and powerful?

however, even marius can be insecure. he knows he can act bratty sometimes, but it doesn't really hit him until a mature man comes along and impresses you. of course, your interests towards that older man are far from romantic and you only admire his professionalism, yet marius can't help but be envious of that cool and composed behavior he portrayed. marius supposes he hasn't reached that point of maturity yet, one that can only be attained through years of experience as a real adult.

...but until then, perhaps he should indulge in his child-like desires, such as demanding for your attention at every opportunity. yeah, that sounds about right. what was he holding back for?

he's like the kid who sat behind you in elementary school that keeps pulling your hair to make you notice him. underhanded, maybe, but he needs your eyes focused on him.

would definitely try to tickle you under the table or poke your cheek until you give in to his whims. if you don't, he's stuck pouting for the whole day looking like a kicked puppy. (please notice him, jiejie.)

✧ vyn richter

dear lord this man is possessive. easily the most prone to jealousy out of all the boys.

don't trust his straight face. he might be smiling on the outside, but his eyes are definitely not. an unamused vyn is terrifying, by the way.

actively interrupts any chances for other people to court you. ridding of persistent ones are quite troublesome, but he'll make it work. (that sounds bad-)

stays especially near when someone tries to hit on you. his reserved disposition is thrown out the window completely and he begins to engage in displays of affection, subtle ones like wrapping an arm around you or holding your hand that strongly imply he's your partner.

if you're enjoying a conversation with the other person because you're oblivious to their advances, he stays low. but if you look even slightly bothered, he's quick to speak on your behalf, hurling verbal attacks disguised as euphemisms towards the person getting on his nerves.

is definitely the kind of boyfriend who'd give you a hickey to claim you as his. no i don't take constructive criticism on this.

you're only expecting a backhug when he embraces you from behind but you yelp in surprise when you feel his lips touch your neck. to top it all off, when you turn around to look at him, he gives you an unapologetic smile. sly fucker.

[vorpal-fnord]

you clearly have no prior experience in art lmao

I write in my free time and have been commissioned to write stories for people several times. I also look forward to the day when GPT3's successor is able to spit out high-quality, coherent, novel-length text about whatever we want.

My partner is an artist by trade. I still think empowering more people to express themselves through prompt engineering is going to open the door to a lot of really cool stuff, even if some people will want to wait for generators that trained on art acquired in more ethical ways according to their personal moral code.

I'm not worried about humans being replaced by computers.

I think it sucks that the jobs that are most threatened by these new developments aren't the ones that had a lot of build up and anticipation around them like truck-driving or factory-line work. I think a lot of people were blind-sided when A.I. art turned out to be lower-hanging fruit than a dozen other kinds of menial jobs that might cause short-term disruption for the current work force, but which wouldn't lead to the tough questions about something as quintessentially human as art being encroached upon.

But what's hard for humans is not necessarily hard for computers.

I get why people, especially people who make their living from art, are worried. I'm not going to pretend that there's not a scary uncertainty hanging in the air right now.

But my hope is that this will be more like chess in the long term.

The average cell phone running the right software, is a better chess player than any human being on earth.

And yet, people still play chess. People still make a living playing chess. People still learn the game, and find it interesting to discuss, and go to chess clubs, and make Youtube videos about it, and fall in love with chess. The chess A.I. has even opened up amazing avenues nobody expected, like allowing people to examine games between grandmasters and see mistakes they made or alternate ways the games might have gone.

Don't misunderstand me. This new technology will be disruptive. When all the dust is settled, things will probably look quite different for artists in 100 years.

But humans still weight lift even though the ox is stronger than we'll ever be. Humans still sprint even though the cheetah is faster than we'll ever be. Humans still ride horses for the pleasure of it, even though cars will get you there faster.

I have a lot of friends who are artists, and I have been seeing a lot of them falling into despair about A.I. art. I don't want to be a pollyanna and pretend that none of the things they're concerned about will come to pass.

But the beautiful thing about humans is that we spend hours perfecting card tricks and sleight of hand. We do this even though there's certainly someone out there who will be better at it than us. We do it even though the vast majority of us will never be professional illusionists.

We write, and we paint, and we sing, and none of those things is a competition. The only race you're running is against yourself. We do these things because we are human, because we love to do them, and because we want to express ourselves.

I wish I could tell all my artist friends the things they need to hear to make them understand that this new world we're in isn't going to take their own art away from them. It's not an end for self-expression through art, and it doesn't make all the skills they spent years learning useless. It doesn't invalidate the time they spent sketching embarrassing doodles in a notebook instead of listening in class, or taking art as an elective a second time because their school didn't have any other art classes, or all the time they spent just trying to get hands or expressions or poses right.

I understand we're all living under the constraints of a capitalist society.

People need money to live, and if you have the means, I encourage everyone who's reading to commission their friends, become a patron of an artist you believe in, and consider filling your house with beautiful human-made art that has special meaning for you.

Until we have UBI, or luxury gay space communism, it will always be hard for artists, and I sympathize with that. I absolutely think everyone out there should be the change they want to see, and let this be an opportunity for human-made art to flourish. Commit to help your local art scene, go to an art gallery, and talk about human-made art with your friends. Don't just let your interest taper off in a few months, keep going back, keep buying and supporting it for years to come.

But I don't think it will be the worst outcome in the world if a teenager 100 years from now who is just finding their voice types a prompt into an ethically-sourced A.I. art generator, and gets a beautiful image that inspires them, that they craft their own meaning and mythology around, and which becomes a part of their life. Because that's human too.

[regrettablewritings]

Soulmate AU: The First Drawing You See From Your Soulmate is Tattooed on Your Skin

A detective having a tell would probably be considered inappropriate to most people. Detectives were supposed to read tells, not have them. But then again, Benoit had never been much for keeping up appearances. Besides, what was the harm in rubbing his thumb along his right wrist? It helped him focus; it helped him think.

Or at least, that was what he’d told himself. He wasn’t entirely lying, either, rather the larger whole of it all was more so that when he rubbed that spot on his skin, he felt calm. Composed. He liked to think that that was the feeling his soulmate had intended when they painted that image, whenever they made or would make it. Whatever it was. After all, it had plenty of blue in it.

He was pretty sure it was meant to be a pond or some kind of body of water; that might explain the blues and greens and maybe the bits of white that he could make out. And if he squinted his eyes a little, he could swear there were little flecks of gold. Goldfish, maybe? Honestly, he had no clue. Benoit wasn’t much for complaining or expressing a lack of gratefulness, but he couldn’t help but sometimes feel envious of those whose tattoos covered a larger part of their body. Not a massive amount, but at least just enough to be able to tell precisely what the heck their soulmate’s image was trying to portray. Clearly, the image was larger than what that patch of his skin could afford, and honest to God, he’d spent a good part of his life trying to make out what it was!

(The embarrassment of it all, he would sometimes muse deprecatingly: That the acclaimed “Last of the Gentlemen Sleuths” could solve the most absurd cases in the country, yet had spent most of his natural-born life completely stumped by what might as well have counted as a body part!)

And yet, Benoit could never stay frustrated about it; not when his thumb gently grazed against the image, imagining the smoothness of his skin ebbing into the aquatic swirls of the proposed water. But just for extra precaution, he saw no harm in distracting himself.

That afternoon’s distraction? A quick skim of the local paper, accompanied by a mug of hot tea. He tried not to think of how such a method revealed his age, instead snapping the paper open to a page discussing the local goings-on. It was the usual sort of content: The community theater’s spring production was seeking house crew members, a mom and pop-style restaurant was having an anniversary special . . . It was the same sort of thing Benoit had grown used to expecting.

But what his pale blue eyes landed on next didn’t make the rest pale by comparison -- it downright washed all else from existence: An art show.

Benoit considered himself a well-rounded person, but it was more so in an almost tongue in cheek sort of manner: As a detective, it was his job to be appropriately versed in an assortment of fields. However, a jack of all trades was never truly a master of none. Benoit’s experiences with art theft and forgeries had lent him a hand in only about as much observation as was necessary for the respective occurrences.

But . . . he knew those swirls. He knew that blue, those greens, that white -- he recognized how the gold was patterned! Sure, the cheap ink job of a colored newspaper picture might have dulled the quality ever so slightly but there was no mistake to be made: That painting was his. No . . . It was theirs!

You tried to make calming breaths without making your anxiety obvious. A nervous but otherwise acceptable smile twitched into place, fooling the guests as they wandered about the gallery. Or, at least, you certainly hoped it was fooling them; but it was probably all to be outdone by the fact that you’d been nursing the same champagne flute for the last half-hour.

Is this what “making it” feels like? you wondered. Because if it was . . . you weren’t too fond of it. You felt bad for not relishing this opportunity; the art world was highly competitive, and you were more than blessed to have had the chance to not only display your work in a showroom, but to have said room be dedicated entirely to your pieces. But in that blessing was also a curse: The curse of criticism, of weary eyes, of people both waiting to pounce on you with ribbings of how you lack the magnanimity of the classics or the free thinking of the contemporaries --

Shitshitshitsmile! You did as you were told -- both by your brain, and by your manager earlier when they walked you through how you were to compose yourself through this entire ordeal. Just smile, enunciate when spoken to, and let the potential schmoozing flow and oh god, that Karen-looking lady who definitely owns a house in Martha’s Vineyard for when she wants to get away from her husband for a day totally hated that piece you’d spent months working on, didn’t she?!

The thought made your stomach twist, your already awkward smile along with it. You inhaled sharply. You had to find something to distract yourself with. 

You turned and faced the painting nearest to you. Some might call it vanity, but you were actually quite pleased with this particular piece. That, and its blueness gave you a sense of . . . serenity. You imagined the ripples washing over you and into you, the scent and sound of the painted environment gently caressing your nose and drowning out both the stench of perfume and pretentious chattering . . . And also, apparently, the sound of approaching footsteps.

You hadn’t realized anyone had joined your side until the rumble of a southern baritone carded through the water.

“It’s gorgeous. Isn’t it?”

You hadn’t meant to jump and appear so clumsy.

“Oh, sh -- ” You cut yourself short as you eyed the droplets of spilled, room temperature champagne. If your manager found out that you had cussed around a potential buyer, they would’ve mounted your head on the wall. Thankfully, however, the stranger didn’t appear at all fazed. If anything, the chuckle he responded with sounded genuinely amused.

“Oh, my dear girl, I’m terribly sorry!” he insisted, holding up his left hand. “I didn’t mean to scare you; I can imagine most anyone would be mighty transfixed over a piece like this.”

You gulped as you looked up at your unintentional scarer. His eyes were the same blue as the one that brought you calm just moments earlier, yet they had the almost opposite effect to you now. As you looked into them, you didn’t feel calm; not necessarily: Instead, you felt your heart beginning to ripple the pattern of the painting, your cheeks burning as bright as the gold swirling amongst the little waves. And yet you found yourself transfixed by them, only offered freedom when the older gentleman offered you a hint of a smile. A warm one.

Crap! Uh -- Answer his question! Think of something to say! your mind scrambled.

“Uh . . .” you stammered. The only way to save what atoms of confidence you still had left was to turn your eyes back to the painting. “I -- I should hope so.” Smooth. You tried to remember your calming breaths. You heard the man hum, shifting his position ever so slightly in your peripheral.

“What can you tell me about it?” he asked, revealing just how close to you he truly was. You could feel the warmth of his person and the richness of his voice vibrating into you. Or perhaps it was butterflies? Maybe both? Well, whatever it was, it almost made you stumble over your words. You’d spent the entire evening up to that point rehearsing stories of your inspirations, recounting whatever education you had to people who probably didn’t give a crap.

But this instance was different: Maybe it was foolishness sourced from a sudden and sophomoric attraction, but you almost wanted to believe that perhaps this man genuinely cared. That he was genuinely interested in what you as the actual artist had to say and not you as some painting mannequin made to recite lines over and over.

The excitement of such a possibility broke through your nerves . . . and, unfortunately, right out of your mouth.

“I just really wanted to paint a mermaid in a mall coin fountain,” you admitted. You wanted to kick yourself. Up until that point, you’d been rather proud of your nifty little idea. But when you said it out loud, you sounded ridiculous! You could barely hide the reactionary wince, much less how your breathing hitched and hiccuped with nervousness. Just as soon as it had come, the hope that perhaps this man was different disappeared, leaving you awaiting his ridicule.

A ridicule that never came. Instead, there was quiet between the both of you. Perhaps he was at a loss for words?

“Mm,” he hummed, making you tense with expectation. You glanced at him just enough to see him nod, his blue eyes still focused on the canvas before him. “Go on . . .”

You blinked. Was he . . . for real?

“I . . . What more is there to say?” you wondered. The entire night, nobody had really asked for more on your part. They usually just took whatever purple prose you gave them and left it at that. Your initial assumption was right after all: This gentleman was cut from a different cloth from the lot.

He pursed his lips and shrugged. “What inspired this?”

“Oh, uh . . . Well . . .” Was it worth telling him? Aw, hell: you’d already made a bit of a fool of yourself being honest, so what harm was there in doing it some more? “I did it because I never saw anything about a mermaid that lived in a mall fountain, collecting the coins people toss in there.”

You didn’t even have a chance to worry about his criticism before the man’s features broke into a smile. It wasn’t like the others’ more courteous grins; this one reached his eyes, making their icy coolness warm and welcoming. You hated the cheesiness of it all, but for a very split second you wished that you could be a mermaid in them.

He chuckled once again. “Can’t say that I’ve ever seen anything concerning a coin-hoarding mermaid myself, let alone a professional art piece.” It was small, but the assurance made you offer your own smile.

“Well . . . But then maybe I have . . .” At that, your heart dropped. There it was: The anticipated criticism. He thought you were a hack after all: Uninspired, boorish, unskilled, whatever word there was to describe a person who didn’t know how to use a fan brush properly if any.

The wound stung as one so sudden should: Heavily and down to your core. You wanted the floor to open up and eat you whole. Or better yet: You wanted to climb into your apparently uninspired painting and drown in the mall fountain. But none of those could be an option, and neither was the possibility of hiding in the bathroom or an empty corridor. Instead, you had to put on a brave face and do your best to get through the moment.

“Oh?” you uttered. Your throat pained from the threat of anxiety. “Where do you suppose? I’ll admit, I’m not much into contemporary art so I don’t know the what’s what of what if you catch my drift.” You tried to weakly smile at your sad attempt for a joke. God, this so wasn’t what “making it” felt like.

But the man didn’t offer a courteous hint of laughter. Nor did he offer you a verbal response. Instead, he turned to face you. You did the same, even though you really didn’t want to. But it was the polite and expected thing to do when being confronted. Damn politeness and courteousness.

You weren’t sure how to respond when the man began to make work of his right sleeve, unbuttoning the cuff and beginning to roll the rest of it up. Your paranoia was unfortunately the first to respond due to your preexisting discomfort of the entire ordeal of an evening. You were just about prepared to scream, yelp, make any kind of distressed call -- only for it to trickle out into a gasp. An amazed exhale. The image the man presented to you on his wrist was small. Clearly, for it to be recognized for what it was, it needed a larger stretch of skin to belong to. But you knew what it was: You knew those swirls, the placements of those flecks of gold, those blues and greens surrounded by white.

For the umpteenth time that evening, your breathing changed. Only, you were pretty positive that none of your deep breathing would be necessary this time around; you would be more than happy to look at your painting on your soulmate’s skin for the rest of the night.

Epilogue:

“Mr. Blanc, please,” you insisted. “You’ve grown up with that thing on your arm, surely you’re bored with it by now. You can have your pick of the gallery. Hell, I’ll even make you something on request!”

Pickings hadn’t become slim, but the night had ended surprisingly successful. Well, surprising to you: You hadn’t expected anyone to buy anything of yours that evening, let alone six. You supposed that perhaps they just wanted to participate in the elitism brought on by owning newcomer art. Benoit, however, insisted that the buyers simply had functioning eyes. What a sweet-talker your soulmate was.

You watched as he shook his head stubbornly, eyes still fixated on the painting that adorned his wrist. He’d seen all the other remaining paintings, and even the ones that wound up selling by evening’s end. They were all gorgeous, he insisted, but . . .

“Benoit, if you will, Ms. (Y/N),” he corrected, apparently missing the irony. He gestured insistently at the composition. “And no. I . . . I truly would be quite satisfied with this one.” He heard you raspberry in defeat as you made your way back to his side, folding your arms in exasperation. 

“Seriously, though,” you sighed. “Is a painting of a mermaid dwelling in, like, a fountain you can find nearby an Auntie Anne’s really . . .” You waved a hand as if searching for the right word. “. . . Befitting? Of a detective’s abode? I was thinking more of a bucolic piece or like a portrait of some kind or . . .” You trailed off, only to be met with an amused huff.

“Some detective I am,” Benoit muttered. He broke his gaze back to you and placed his hands on his hips. “Took me well over a damn decade or two to learn what it even was. And only because you told me!”

[paintingdragonfeathers]

Whew! Survived Nekocon 2022! But no rest for the wicked—I immediately went home to finish packing things for the movers this weekend. Then I can get back to creating AAAARRRRTT.

Thank you everyone who stopped by the Painting Dragon Feathers booth in the artist alley and either taking home some art or signing up for commissions, and thank you everyone who came to the “Dragons, Cryptids, and Dinos, OH MY!” Panel. While it was only my second time ever vending at Nekocon, and my first ever pro-row booth, it was one of my most successful conventions to date! And thank you cosplayers for showing off your craft!

Special shoutout to my stellar friends and booth beard for all their help manning the booth and keeping us all sane over the weekend.

I also had a chance to meet some new faces and make some new friends. And I had a humbling interaction with a particular congoer—a young man approached my booth and said he came to the con specifically to see ME and my work after seeing it on social media.

This is already heartening as it’s proof my social media posts don’t end up yeeted into the void, lol.

Anyway, this young artist came seeking advice on how to pursue a career in the arts as he heads off to college. Now, I’ve looked out for and helped newbies and first-timers in artist alleys over the years, but this is the first time someone made a pilgrimage to talk to me. I can remember when I was in his shoes, and now with close to a decade of experience between college and cons, I had a split-section realization of “Oh crap…I’m an ADULT ARTIST and can offer this kind of advice.”

So, I didn’t sugar coat it—I was frank that I was very fortunate to have a foundation of supportive friends and family to pursue the arts in school, and as a career I’m at the point where it’s still feast or famine, but I encouraged him that perseverance is key. A lot of times something worth doing is a long gambit and requires patience since stuff rarely happens overnight. A typical rule of thumb I go by is for small businesses of most ilks (including creative work) they tend to either gain traction or “fail” between 4-6 years. Fun fact, until the pandemic hit and set EVERYONE on the planet back, I started gaining traction as a professional artist at years 5-6 of Painting Dragon Feathers. It’s good to be ambitious, and it’s healthy to be pragmatic; I’ve seen so many talented writers and artists flounder because they lack a lick of business sense and don’t know how to apply their skills. And that a lot of skills, whether creative or business-y, can be learned.

I told him that there are so many resources—books, online groups, etc.—that can help him make connections, study artistic principles, and learn the trade to make life as an artist easier. And when he showed me some samples of his art, I could tell based on his expressive line work and composition that he has the creative chops. I recommended him which digital art programs (something he asked about) and tools best emulate traditional media, yet emphasized that it is just a tool, and that you still need to know the principles of art—shading, hue, tone, composition, etc.—whether you’re picking up a paintbrush or a stylus.

All in all, I count myself blessed that I have had excellent guidance and mentors myself over the years from bigger, “adultier” artists, and that if I can hand down some of those sparks and advice to make younger artists coming after me walk a smoother path while I’m still learning and bushwhacking the road for myself, then I’m doing something right at the end of the day. I have no doubt that that young gentleman is gonna go on and create cool stuff.

Go forth and make cool things young artists. The world needs them, and you never know who’s watching your work. And my digital mailbox and art booths are open if you want some wisdom too. ;)

#nekocon #nekocon2022 #nekocon24 #convention #anime #animeconvention #artist #artistalley #cosplay #cosplayparade #costume #fursuit #furry #lifeadvice #paintingdragonfeathers

[alphagodith]

free art/trades!

yes i already posted about it but i'm super hyped so it bares repeating, and this time i’m including a full explanation for folks who don’t know wtf i’m talking about.

i am participating in artfight this year, as usual! my link; https://artfight.net/~AlphaGodith (i will be on team bloom)

for those unfamiliar, artfight is an annual, month-long art-trading event which takes place on artfight.net every july. the gist is that you make an account, upload your original characters, and then 'attack' other people on the site by making art of their own ocs for them. there are two teams, and you get points for yours based on how many attacks you throw at the other team (and how finished/good those attacks are- a sketch headshot does not earn nearly as much as a fully rendered fullbody). unlike traditional art trades, there is no need to discuss what you are making for someone before hitting them(character pages include permissions and such, tho you can of course ask for clarification if you want), and no real penalty for not drawing back. the whole thing is as intense or laid-back as you make it! theoretically you could join, post your characters, and never draw, and you might still get art just from people who liked your characters. i strongly encourage revenging tho- even if you don't think you're good at art, it's polite to try. on the flip side, please NEVER attack someone if not getting something back from them will upset you. we all have different comfort zones, schedules, and drawing speeds, so don't be a jerk! that said, many people, including myself, do hold ourselves to a promise of revenging every attack we receive! (usually limited to one per person but not always- more than one trade between two artfighters is called a revenge chain) you can check people's profiles to see if they are playing that way, and also check their battle ratios to see if they are likely to uphold it. battle ratio is a comparison of the number of attacks received (called defenses), and attacks given. battle ratios over 50% mean the person has given more art than they've gotten, which means they are highly likely to return fire! artfight is a wonderful way to; - get art of your characters without spending money - make friends - get more comfortable creating for other people (artfighters aren't allowed to be mean about art they receive, since it's all free) - practice your craft, including experimenting with new styles - find inspiration by browsing tons of cool characters and art styles - distract yourself from the state of the country/world all kinds of visual art are accepted- traditional, digital, drawings, sculptures! AND, there is no skill requirement. i suggest focusing your attacks on people of a similar skill level to be fair, but artfight is very beginner-friendly, despite being popular even among professional artists.

examples of art i have attacked people with in past years;

tldr; join artfight, attack me, i will attack you back, boom, ya got art from me without having to spend money :P

any questions, feel free to ask! this will be my fifth year of artfight, and i've learned lots of handy tips for having the best experience!                            

[numbaoneflaya]

8, 21, 22, 26 for Caz , 25, 27, 29, 39 for Felria, 23, 30, 40, 43 for Suds, and 21, 25, 26, 35 for Nirn? 👀👀

HERE THEY ARE IM SJORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG GDSHEDG...

Caz

8. How does your character feel about religion?

Not a big fan! Hates the chantry and Andraste and the Maker and the Qun. Being raised in the circle run by templars and nuns and seeing the corruption of the church firsthand from the inside really left a bad taste in her mouth for organized religion.

21. What are your character’s manners like? What is their type of hero? Whom do they hate?

She has the ability to flip her manners on or off depending on who shes with. If shes comfortable then shes going to be more crass and impolite, but shes capable of really cleaning up her act and pretending to be professional if she needs to be. Her type of hero is anyone who goes against the status quo and disrupts systems of oppression- She considers Thurwen/the HOF and Hawke personal heroes (if Hawke sides with the mages) as well as Anders. Has read all of Anders manifestos and reports on Thurwen and Hawke and would geek tf out meeting them.

22. Who are their friends? Lovers? ‘Type’ or ‘ideal’ partner?

Friends are anyone who accepts her for who she is and doesnt snitch on her, people she can trust to do the right thing or atleast try to, and people she can have a good laugh with. Lovers are only a couple in the past as she needs to get to know someone well/find them interesting to want to sleep with them. Her type is large, charismatic and rugged. Anyone who looks like a good brat tamer but is also intelligent and keen. Iron Bull.

26. What does your character’s home look like? Personal taste? Clothing? Hair? Appearance?

Everything is covered in tomes and journals but theres a method to the madness. She likes to keep her things organized, surprisingly. She likes cool colors like greens and blues, likes dressing comfortably. Oversized shawls that second as blankets and loose pants. Her hair she likes to keep down with the sides pulled into little braids in front of her ears.

Felria

25. What are their hobbies and interests?

People watching and painting! She knows how to blend into a crowd pretty well or how to find a hidden vantage point where she can just sit and watch people… for hours. She finds peoples behaviors/reactions fascinating and makes little journals of interesting things she sees. Finding how other people work differently than her is vital to figuring out how best to manipulate and control them and she loves learning new ways! And painting because she has an artist's eye and enjoys beautiful things. A few bottles of blood and a quiet evening in front of an easel is a great way for her to unwind.

27. How do they relate to their appearance? How do they wear their clothing? Style? Quality?

She relates her appearance with how easily she will be able to blend in or stand out of her surroundings, and how to dress in order to play the role she wants to play. Because of her line or work (professional assassin and information gatherer) she has to have a lot of costumes available to fit the personalities she plays. Shes a performer at heart but only for herself and the joy she gets in deception. Her own style, if shes not performing, is simple reds and blacks and silvers. She keeps her hair long so shes able to do more with it.

29. What is your character’s weaknesses? Hubris? Pride? Controlling?

Her pride could definitely be her downfall as well as her curiosity. She believes shes just better and different than everybody else and that its her right to play with people as much as she wants, I can see her eventually trying to play with the wrong person. She believes she can get out of any situation by herself without help and that she deserves the finer things in life, and if someone gets in her way, they deserve whatever harm befalls them.

39. What do they like to ridicule? What do they find stupid?

She will really ridicule anything and anyone because she finds most things stupid or benign. She likes to ridicule any of the gods and aedra, and anyone who worships them. She ridicules mortals and werewolves and any other creature that's not a vampire.

Suds

23. What do they want from a partner? What do they think and feel of sex?

Back in his youth he wanted spontaneous fun, a charming and outspoken person to sweep him off his feet. He always wanted someone to take him on adventures and be dangerous and in the moment. Now? Poor guy just wants commitment and someone genuine. Hes tired of charismatic liars who he always seems to fall for. He wants someone to help tend his garden and bond with the bees. He feels that sex is a sacred thing to be shared with people you trust, not something thrown around haphazardly. Relationship and trust come first with him, and he casually waves any flirtation most of the time as if he hadn't noticed it. He's been hurt too many times to trust easily like that.

30. Are they holding on to something in the past? Can he or she forgive?

Yeah hes holding onto a long ass past full of betrayal from the people hes held dearest to him :/ He by nature is a very forgiving person and believes one must be generous in forgiveness. Hes holding onto his past hurt from Felix and cant seem to get away from it- hes forgiven him many times and each time Felix just does the same things as before.

40. How is their sense of humor? Do they have one?

A little dual natured in this aspect. Generally pretty reserved and soft with other people and can seem serious to those who dont know him. Underneath that is his reputation as a trickster- fond of pranks and revelry. The little twinkle in his eye is the only thing that would give him away as the culprit when everyone is looking for who filled a bucket of mud over Nirns chamber door. His favorite kind of jokes are the really long ones, the ones that have a seemingly normal storyline and go on forever and then end in a way where the joke is really on the person listening. And everyone around goes “AAAUUGHH!”

43. Does your character have any secrets? If so, are they holding them back?

A lot of them! Hes a very good secret keeper as hes who many people go to with their problems. After being alive so long and being somewhat involved with politics he probably knows more than a few that could take down nations, and always seems to know whats going on wherever in the world. He has his connections, his mushrooms and his bees and such have eyes everywhere. And don't tell anyone but he is an ardent fan of juicy gossip.

Nirn

21. What are your character’s manners like? What is their type of hero? Whom do they hate?

Impeccable manners. The posture of a God, obviously. Always eloquent and polite, knows which spoons to use for certain dishes and common diplomacy practice from all over the world. Nirn has no heroes, hes never held anyone to a pedestal or been one for hero worship. If he had to choose hed say his mother, for how graceful yet ruthless she was in politics and trade. He also does not hate anybody, he considers strong feelings a weakness and to harbor such resentment would only make him act rashly. He dislikes the slovenly, though. Not the common man but the drunken aristocrat with wine breath who gambles his savings and acts impolitely.

25. What are their hobbies and interests?

Chess and games of strategy are some of his favorites in the odd chance he has any free time. He also plays the violin and the harp and the lute, instruments he's known since he was taught them as a child. Wine tasting as well! Hes one of those mfs who can just sniff a certain drink and say with precision the date time and location it was made.

26. What does your character’s home look like? Personal taste? Clothing? Hair? Appearance?

Everything is refined and elegant with a certain air of someone who enjoys the arts. Many expensive paintings and sculptures on display. He prefers the colors red and gold and white, sometimes a darkish blue or purple. He is always dressed to impress, satin and velvet and exotic leathers. He keeps his hair long to the small of his back, or tied up in a bun. In appearance hes intimidatingly tall and knows how to stand to look even taller, does not tilt his head down to you but moreso stares down his nose.

35. Do they always rationalize errors? How do they accept disasters and failures?

Failure is only a means to greater success to him. To win a game sometimes you need to sacrifice a few pawns, etc. Takes them calmly and with little indication that hes upset at all. He usually has four or five backup plans for any endeavor, so hes able to quickly jump tactics if something isn't working. In game or battle hes typically a good sport at losing, though he very seldom does. Hed be more impressed that someone managed to make him fail, and get to thinking on how to get them in his employ.