#it's been great so far i've been doing a lot of sketches like these

[lexicog]

some doodles from recently

[theereboseffect]

art vs artist 2024!

i used sooo much blue and yellow this year, maybe next year ill branch out to more colours but i cant help that blue and yellow are just the best colours for drawing.

here are my favourite works for each month of 2024!

january:

I used colour layer modes instead of colouring 'organically', but this was the first time I made a drawing in full colour and actually really liked it. this was before i started painting colours directly into my drawings but its a great effort and i learned a lot about colour layer modes here!

february:

didn't make much great art this month but this sketch scratches my brain correctly. the contrast the hatching the lighting!!!! this was where i started being obsessed with the different forms you can manage to portray with just a little rimlight

march:

possibly one of my favourites of the WHOLE YEAR. Inspired by Andrew Salgado's work, I'm a huge fan of his stuff. In this I learned that colours are literally stupid and if you don't care about logic, you can actually make something very distinctive and somewhat abstract work. Kick-started my whole journey to learning colours so this was probably one of my most important pieces i've ever made

April:

again, not much good art but this is nice I guess. drew this for the anniversary of senna's death, i like the polaroidy feel

may:

I LOVE my may era. Most of everything was done with this oil painter brush I found and it just went very painterly and kinda abstract with strokes and colours, was a month of experimentation for sure

june:

I didn't like this very much when I made it originally, but looking back I love the kinda creaminess of this piece. I haven't really been able to recreate that effect so far though, so this one stands out to me for sure

july:

Not a fantastic art month for me, but I was experimenting with textures in this piece and learned a lot of what I SHOULDN'T do. Very useful

August

I made this piece because I hadn't spotted any other lesteban enjoyers in the wild. Idk the colours in this just came out very easily which is always enjoyable

September:

GRAHHHB the colours in this have me in a CHOKEHOLD the DESATURATED BLUE SHADOWS and PINK CHEEKS!!! This definitely isn't my best of the month but it BRINGS ME A LOT OF JOY OKAY I suddenly turned into an Esteban superfan in theast fiveish months of the year. so dumb that like one of my favourite pieces ever was a shitpost

November:

the textures the eyelash shadow. PERIODD!! the first of my f1 x gladiator series, i just love this a lot even if it doesn't look like max

december:

one of the best of my whole year tbh. Like the final boss where you use all the stuff you learned throughout your journey. The jewellery okay divaaa

okay very long post but i hope you guys like it!! thank you everyone for the support i've received this year you guys are the best

[grison-in-space]

Hi fellow neuroscientist and animal behavior observer! What's up? It's a weird ass time to be a scientist in the US right now. Like there's the doom and despair taking up most of my brain but also I have a lab presentation in 1.5 weeks and my committee meeting two weeks after that. How do you make yourself focus on lab/science stuff?

I'm so sorry it's taken me a while to get back to you; I've been rotating this ask in my mind for over a week now. I hope your lab presentation went well, and I hope your committee meeting does, too. Bear in mind that I am reeling as much as anyone else, but... well, I have had a lot of things happen during my academic career, and I have had some practice with this by now. I was displaced from my home three or four times during grad school, and all but once that was because of climate change related flooding. (I actually cannot remember offhand. That kind of thing fucks with your ability to reckon in chronological time, which is why no one has been able to work out how years work since 2020 at latest.) I did my PhD in Texas, too, which gave me some exciting experiences around campus violence and guns.

But maybe the biggest thing for me is that I started grad school in 2012, right in time for the government sequester of 2013. That was the year Patty Brennan (of corkscrew duck penis fame) published an article in Animal Behaviour laying out helpful tips in case your research is targeted as "wasteful spending" by members of Congress seeking to reduce scientific funding. Brennan's work legitimately is groundbreaking--I started out close enough to her field to be able to say that almost no one was looking at vaginal anatomy when she started and she's really driven the field of reproductive conflict forward by systematically looking at methods by which females exert "cryptic choice" to control their own reproductive futures. But it sounds silly at first blush in a sound bite, so she immediately became a target when her work went viral. And that paper came out a decade ago, and we are no better than when we started.

I've gotten pretty good at working through grief and fear, and I've tangled with burnout more than once. So how do you handle it when everything is overwhelming and frightening?

You sketch out the work you can do, and you do it as best you can. Same as anyone else.

Here's the thing. You're a budding scholar. Whatever your field is, you probably know more about it than anyone who isn't a scholar in your field already, and you care about broader justice or you wouldn't be asking me this. This makes you a precious potential resource for whatever activist cause is nearest and dearest to your heart. You are placed, as a person whose career is focused on the pursuit of knowledge, in a position of great authority. Yes, even as a PhD student, although I do agree that having the PhD makes the things you say even more impactful. But you'd be surprised how far even just "PhD student" can go when you're making a stand.

You are a valuable voice when it comes to the intersection of your expertise and your community--and by that, I don't just mean your discipline and your geographical location; I mean your lived experiences and your identities too. If you burn out, your voice and effort may be completely irreplaceable. So make sure you don't burn out, but don't waste your potential to speak out, either. You can do that by working out what your "beat" is: pick one to two things you care really deeply about working on in the world, that you want to make better, and focus on those. Use your authority to make changes.

Currently, my "beat" is focused on disability justice (especially in terms of neurodivergence) and sex/gender, because those are communities I am part of and that I think deeply about. My work there can take a lot of forms: shoving hard on the pernicious medical thought process that tends to conceptualize disorder and disease as a deviation from a uniform functional population; pointing out the complexity inherent in sex differences and sex itself; building relationships with disabled academics to make networks for one another so that we can better support trainees as well as ourselves building alliances between disability justice scholars and researchers tackling these topics with an eye towards integrating the comments and interests of disabled people into the field of study that theoretically focuses on us. These are topics that tie into my research interests (context dependence, decisionmaking, strategy, developmental plasticity, etc) but also into my sense of justice and the communities in which I spend my life as an autistic queer butch.

Think about the things you care most about making better, and think about how those things intersect with your research interests. Is there a bathroom bill you could write a deposition for explaining how complicated sex actually is? A local news reporter who could use a scientist talking about the long term climate impacts of the new fracking project up the road? A new policy on immigrant familial separation that is going to lead to kids with major attachment issues down the line and increase the odds of terrible outcomes? Creative ways to send promising undergrads from underrepresented backgrounds on for new opportunities if you live in a state where DEI initiatives have been banned? (Man, that was an exhausting conversation to have with the North Carolina folks at my last conference. And the Floridians.) Where will your voice carry the most weight for the amount of energy you allocate to it?

Here's my best stab at practical advice for junior trainees:

Figure out what your limit for practical engagement is and defend it viciously. The thing about being in academia, and about having the PhD for that matter, is that it gives you a lot of leverage for speaking authoritatively about problems in your field and in your community. This, too, can be a form of activism and shaping the world. But if that's the weapon you are making out of your career, you can't also be an effective organizer on the ground for eight different local causes. You can't do everything at once, so pick a limited subset of things to focus on and work on those. Like academia, public impact will suck you dry if you let it, so you have to set boundaries and you have to be clear with yourself about that.

As always with research, your topic should be something you're interested in. Apply your priorities as a human being to your research. Move your project in directions you really care about and which are aligned with your values. Talk with your mentors about how you pitch that to other scientists in your field, of course, but if you're really shaken and scared by the political climate... well, better to apply that to your work than to not be able or interested in focusing on the work at all.

Look for things to celebrate and militantly celebrate them, even if it feels silly. You submitted a manuscript? Make a special dinner. You survived your committee meeting? Meet up with a couple of friends for coffee and cheering. You need things to cheer about, and your job is not going to naturally provide them, so lay out things you can celebrate and celebrate them even if you don't feel like you really achieved anything. (Your PI should help with this, but a lot of them don't. If your PI is absentee, try to find labmates or colleagues to celebrate when you can.) Joy and pride fuel us to keep going; make sure you are feeding them. You do not need money to make this happen, either: there are inexpensive ways to make things feel special, even if your stipend doesn't stretch nearly far enough.

Especially if your lab isn't full of people in your corner, make some friends who feel the same way you do about your "beat". Fellow activists (or just people who care) about your biggest priority are a great choice. Back in the day, I would have exhorted you to join Twitter to build that network; these days, I think most everyone is on Bluesky or Mastodon. You need people who get you and who are in your corner, and you need people who don't have power over your career to help you weather it when the storms rise.

People in the midst of despair don't know the future, either. There will be victories to come moving forward. It will be impossible to imagine them as you are today. The future is murky and uncertain, and you never know what battles you can win until you pitch them. Don't let anyone tell you a battle has been lost until you fight it, and don't make the mistake of thinking that what you do today doesn't matter intensely.

Life is iterative: it always starts from what you do today, and small aggregate decisions have a lot more power over the whole than any individual large one. If you don't like the direction you're going, you can always change direction for a while and see where you go. The best time to plant a tree was ten years ago; the second best time is now.

Find ways to take breaks completely from the political situation. Currently, I have just gotten into Minecraft for the first time, and I am playing a lot of stupid pixelated escapism games. You have to have time to recharge yourself away from all of it. Whatever that looks like to you is good enough. I need, personally, to get back into going for long walks in the woods; that one is one of my old reliable helpful ways to think without getting overwhelmed about it.

So. I don't know if anything has gotten better or worse for you over the last couple of weeks, but I hope for better for you. As for me... well, it's probably time to go back to my grant. We're short on funding going into this mess and who knows if the grant I'm writing for an explicitly DEI-oriented program will survive the coming hammer blows long enough to get it in. Even if it doesn't, I have a couple of book pitches I'll write up and a couple of suggestions for jobs along the way I can take. I can always redirect my effort to a new direction.

Take care of yourselves, friends.

[tinydumpsterdiver]

So I've been thinking about Axle's early past a bit.. uhhh

Yeah here are a few doodles and a sketch. Along with a small bit of Axle's early childhood life. I got carried away

Just some simple doodles of Axle's childhood. He technically grew up in a lab although he wasn't born in captivity. Most of his early childhood was doing puzzles or tests, lots of observation as well.

His development is similar to that of a human in terms of brain growth and physical form. He grows at about the same rate as a human just on a far smaller scale.

For the most part in his younger years he mostly did cognitive testing and development. They mostly used simple tests, and some general animal psychology experiments. Such as seeing what he did for fun, for food, and some logical reasoning.

The odd time the scientists still would do a surgery or two on a young Axle, but it wasn't the norm at that time.

However as time went on they began to do more invasive tests.

Axle had always liked the scientists growing up, as he was younger he'd seen them as a sort of family, having favorites and having preferred caretakers. But at the age of about 12 years old even the nicer caretakers had begun to grow sour.

People were being more careful around him, using gloves more often, constricting his movements more often, and other things of the sort which Axle noticed.

The experiments eventually began to get more invasive, such as when he was 13 he had his first brain vivisection specifically. It was a procedure to place wires into his brain to do more invasive tests on his nervous system.

He tried asking more questions, which quickly he learned would get him nowhere. Soon even the nice humans he'd barely see anymore or they would just leave all together. It was at the age of 13 he'd decided he didn't like the humans or how they kept him captured. He didn't know what else there could be, but he knew from the little bits and pieces he was able to listen to that there had to be more than the lab.

At the age of 14 Axle was being treated more like the mice he'd been raised with than a person that the scientists would talk to passively. Axle only grew more resentful as the months went on and the rotation of scientists got more harsh.

At 16 he was being treated as though he was completely feral. He refused to cooperate with the humans but they would refuse to let him feel like he had any form of control over the situation whatsoever.

Ok so this was just a doodle that got out of hand and colored. It's not great but it's the best I got rn. I'm pretty stressed out lol

Anyways. Axle had a pretty traumatic upbringing, but it did teach him to never trust humans which was probably the best thing he could have learned for when he did eventually escape one day.

He did have his mother with him at one point in captivity, but one day she disappeared and he never really figured out what happened to her. Current Day Axle likes to think she managed to escape one day and was free somewhere.

Axle after that day grew up around mice, usually a circulation of mice that were young enough not to be a danger to Axle. But this really took a toll on him when eventually all his mice friends would get taken away and he'd have to get attached to new friends all over again.

Sometimes the scientists would have him do experiments alongside grown mice, sometimes he would remember them but usually not. Under normal circumstances the mice were never aggressive with Axle, but were usually more curious about him.

Ok my unorganized ranting is over. I'm not sure. I think it's fun to share my silly cringe lore.

Thanks for reading it! Or thanks for just looking at the art ^^

Sending positive vibes y'all

Till next time

[eldritchscythe]

a little update

heyyy, how's everyone doing?

it's been a while since I've posted anything and I have quite a lot of followers here now so I felt like you guys deserve an update on what's been going on lately and why the lack of the new art.

the truth is that I became burnt out of doing the same type of art. Discovering the world of collages and photo manipulation was an incredible way for me to dip my toes into art 4 years ago, but I'm at a point now where I don't feel like I can create anything else in that medium that will keep me motivated. A lot of times I have a great idea for a piece but photos can only take me so far in bringing that vision to life, so I just stopped doing it.

What I have been doing in the meantime though, has been learning how to draw. I've always been one of those people who said "I wish I knew how to draw but I can't even draw a stick figure". So when this burnt out happened I figured "Why not actually learn how to draw?" and that has kept my artistic flow going even if I'm not posting anything on here.

Here's some of the stuff I've drawn since I started learning during these last couple of months:

day 4:

day 7:

day 14:

day 20:

day 27:

day 33:

and today I made a simple sketch of one of my own artworks:

I would like to get to a point where I can draw and illustrate my own space landscapes. I still have a lot of ideas and my love of scifi and retro futurism is still the same :)

In the meantime, I might still do a few collages when I feel like it.

I could also start showing my drawing progress here if you guys would be interested in that? Let me know! :)

Thank you for reading!

[brakken-spideyverse]

Hi, first things first I *love* the whole Makeoververse premise, I've browsed through the page and many of your ideas seem so fresh for these characters, accompanied by the great art. So it got me wondering, are you mostly done with this AU? Like, don't, get me wrong, I see you've been still posting some stuff lately, like the F4 redesigns or other fun little arts, but you didn't really do much posts about the lore or story of this 'verse like you did in the past. If you feel like you've told in this regard everything you wanted or just don't have that much time to do that anymore, I must respect it. But damn, would love to hear more about the lore of this Spider-Man again someday, especially since you've said you thought of this as a story with an ending planned. Anyway, keep up the great work!

Thank you for the kind words! It is genuinely so heartening to hear that my AU has made an impression on you.

Am I done? That is a good question - sorry it took me a bit to get to it. The short answer is that no, I'm not yet done with this little 'verse - or at least don't want to be. My mind is always orbiting Spidey, and I have sketches to spare of various characters and comic ideas.

The longer answer is that this year has been pretty tough for me so far, in some respects. I had my askbox closed for a bit while I was busy managing other projects and some life stuff, and just when I reopened it with the intent of a nice big return, I got hit with what may have been the most stressful months of my life - which culminated in an unexpected moving of house, and the internet dropping out for nearly a month.

Not to dwell too much on frustrating stuff, but it was pretty upsetting to not be able to come back full force like I'd intended. I still want to get to people's requests, and finish up my set of Sinister Six strips, and also would really like to try streaming as a frequent thing.

So it's been a lot, and there are continuing things I'm managing, but I still enjoy developing this 'verse when I have the time, and to interact with folks here.

Ideally you'll see things pick up more steam in the near future. At the very least you should see more of the occasional design pop up. Glad for folks who continue taking a look :)

Keep climbin', keep swingin' 🕸🤟

[weirdly-specific-but-ok]

south africa but i've never been there also i'm drinking

HELLO MAGGOTS this is the good omens mascot here hello hello. my psychiatrist just spent today telling me how I won't be able to be out in college when it starts in May and I'll be misgendered etc etc it's all a good time. So my solution:

My darling cousin @imchronicallyonlinesowhat (the one who thought Sir Terry Pratchett looked like Sudha Murthy, was a kindly old woman and was married to Neil Gaiman because their book cover fonts were similar, OG maggots know the PAIN) who lives in South Africa asked me to make a South Africa post. FYI, she's moving to Australia for college, so you can be assured I shared my Australia posts with her she is SO prepared she won't say marmite instead of vegemite and she knows the Wibbles are inherently sexual. SOUTH AFRICA (I've only had a teeny weeny bit of cheap ass wine so far):

There a lot of white people there it's ineffable. There are enough of them there that my cousin regularly talks about not ever marrying someone who doesn't have some masala.

Afrikaans is a gorgeous language. I thought my cousin was showing me her Afrikaans notes once. She wasn't. It was her English notes, she just has the most illegible yet neat handwriting in the world.

They don't say yo but they say YOH and it sounds very much like a bass drum.

People at my cousin's school pump their hands in the air while saying jesus-jesus.

There's a trio of white boys that rule the school kind of like a genderswapped mean girls. They all look the same haircut-wise, they're Catholic and they're called the Triumvirate.

I'm realising here that my knowledge of South Africa is limited to cuzzy's school. But the wine is shit and I promised my blood-relative so I am continuing.

The books are fucking expensive and so everyone has to pirate shit. This sounds like the US.

Everyone is TALL. Like VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY TALL. The standard of height is insanely different from India. TALL.

If you don't have a last name you're going to get into legal trouble.

The no hat no play rule applies here as well as Australia apparently.

The wine cost like 2.5 dollars in USD if my conversion rates are correct, it smells like battery acid and tastes of rotted grapes. Nothing to do with South Africa, it's just that I cannot remember a single other thing about South Africa other than it's a country in Africa that's presumably in the South.

My braincells are already frying. For my cousin's sake, I'm going to compile all my Australia posts here so that she knows what to expect! Australian maggots your continent is about to be graced with the Good Omens Mascot bloodline. Notably the one with the Sudha Murthy fuck up so that's doubly fun. @howmanyholesinswisscheese, @im-a-sentient-magic-carpet, @madfangirlontheloose @obsessed-sketches @drconstellation and any other Aussie maggots be prepared and welcome her.

Toot Toot Chugga Chugga by the Wiggles is an Ineffable Husbands Song

Deaths in Australia in 2015, an ask

VEGEMITE IS NOT MARMITE, another passionate ask

Pt I Australia but I've never been there

Pt II Australia but I've never been there

Oh I hate cheap wine. @imchronicallyonlinesowhat I hope you appreciate this, blood of mine. I'm such a great cousin.

[late-draft]

Hello! I just saw your posts about the Last Air Keyholder AU and—dear Agni!

Listen, this is beautiful. This is awestriking. This is *chef kiss*. I've always loved the initial sci-fi designs for ATLA, so it's incredible that someone's using them as a base/inspiration for an AU.

Also—your unapologetic, deliberate use of tropes? This is something extremely rare to see in narrative (tropes being intentionally used as a device) and I can't wait to see what shape they take here. Count me in!

I love this AU so far and have so many questions!

What is the vibe for the Fire Nation here? The vibe for the cities, the architecture, the worldbuilding, the culture—things like that. From the brief description we got, some parts of your world reminded me of Neo Tokyo from Akira, but maybe that's not what you're going for.

According to your previous sketch (and my inner romantic); is ZK going to happen in this AU? How do you see a possible relationship between them developing here?

Are you planning on adapting major canon plot points moving forward?

I have, like I said earlier, a lot of questions about this! But I don't want to smother you so this is all I'll ask for now. Can't wait to see what you show us next.

Have a nice day!

Hello! Thank you!! Yess a good usage of tropes is like running into a song you love that you heard many times, and still you crank the volume up! The fandom is like 20 years old, is it possible that not much stuff has been made for the sci-fi idea?

You're absolutely right, I gotta lean onto the king of megacities Neo Tokyo from Akira, but I wouldn't have the aesthetic be completely identical to it. There's mystical aspects in this AU too, and here's my initial attempt to throw together a fast vertical slice.

Light conditions are really important in a setting and in this AU I'd have a lot of the runtime happening during dawn or sunset. There's an aura of orange light floating in but very rarely direct sun rays due to the high buildings. There should however, be lots of traffic lights of all kinds. I'm already immersed in quite a few projects that feature megacities, but each one has a different flavour and I'd be overjoyed if I manage to correctly convey each one. In this ATLA AU, there's no specific time period from IRL that would be used as a reference. All nations are grouped and mixed similar to Republic City from LoK, but this AU is noticeably way more sci-fi than the 1920s LoK. There's a large focus on all kinds of transportation and roads/railways that accompany them. Highrise buildings are specifically Fire Nation in design and ownership (usually). Lower levels have a mix of everything but they do use leftover materials and mostly cement and metal. Ground and below ground levels are brick and a maze of pipes, through which strange disused cables snake. Sometimes they tangle in great masses…

I'm certain important characters from canon will appear, but I'm definitely not gonna follow the canon plotline strictly. Stuff like "Well there was a village being attacked by Hei Bai, so this AU has to have a village being attacked by Hei Bai…" nothing like that. I'm taking way more freedom in this AU to ensure that characters go through specific things that would be very useful to them and which allow the natural usage of respectively fitting tropes. But I'm not treating this AU as exclusively mine and nobody else's, so anyone can give suggestions! (please give suggestions!!)

Katara and Zuko first meet "racing on the opposite sides" of Aang. From starting out as Katara on her bike assisting the Avatar during chases while the banished prince is attempting to capture him, they sort of move into situations where they race each other. Zuko figures out that Katara is a major reason why all of his attempts thus far failed so he tries to change strategies and trip up Katara in whatever non-harmful way he can imagine. He's convinced, he must demonstrate, that her speed on a bike is not unreachable to him on his rollerblades. And if he shows off a couple of tricks along the way, so be it. :)

More stuff coming up

[nikanono]

I know I'm not active on here anymore, but I need a place to get this off my chest.

And Tumblr is where I found my creativity so I guess it fits

It has been so difficult to create anything as of recent. Ive lost so much confidence in what I do with so many shortcomings with my art. And I feel as if part of it is my fault- other parts its completely out of my hands.

Yes, Ai art and the industry tossing creatives aside hasnt been the most encouraging thing in the world. Its a good reason as to why i've been feeling not so great with creating things.

In 2022, I suffered a really bad art burnout. I didnt draw anything for a year. I started to kick it back up again in 2023. I found a lot of comfort in spending a lot of time drawing my OC's- which was far different than what I used to do- which was a shit ton of fanart. It definetely ignighted my spark and I really started to draw what I loved.

I really felt I was diving back into what I was really passionate about.

But I guess i could never escape how badly I relied on external validation for things I make. Because if I truely reflect, I've mostly drawn things for others. And I kept tellling myself that that was something I found comfort in. Getting feedback from an external source is where I grounded my validation for so many years and I really need to break out of that habit. And I'm back in a rut where I'm not finding interest or enjoyment in it anymore.

But its rough- I know OC content doesnt get much attention online, not compared to fanart at least. But seeing numbers dwindle on social def hit the brain a little to hard. I know I cant ever beat the algorithm but it still does suck a whole lot

The art burnout at the start of this year hit me so hard like a 500kg Eagle Strike. I can tell that im forcing any art that I put out. But I look at the recent stuff i make, wether it be a sketch or an illustration, and just feel so disheartened. I dont hate it, I dont critique it- I just feel disheartned by it.

And I know its affecting other parts in my life. Im a lot more moody and irritable, and I have this lingering worry that its starting to affect my social circles. I do my best to check in with my friends and partner but anxiety really just isnt kind at times.

I know time is going to be my friend in overcoming burnout- I know I've overworked myself. I just hate how I'm starting to resent the things I was so passionate about.

But really, I needed to get this off my chest somewhere.

Thanks for hanging friends

[transmascaraa]

bf!lyney headcannons!

you've been in class for a while now and your boyfriend texts you saying that he's "bored" ... what shall you do to help him?

bf!lyney x m!reader

author's note: i knew this would win the poll. anyway, have fun reading this cuz it was fun to make<3 (btw this might be a start to some spiciness which might make me less embarrassed to make smut in the future)

"now that class is over, let me have my fun... "

-it's like the middle of the lecture and both of you are clearly bored

-he's spent the last 10mins trying to get you to look at him using some type of telekinesis (which of course didn't work cuz you were too focused on biting your pencil)

-and you've been scribbling in your notebook(you've been sketching lyney<3)

-suddenly, he decides to text you

-"hey, mon amour, what's up??? :))"

-and you can just feel his gaze on you as you see the notification

-"nothing really, i'm just bored and yeahhh just drawing smthn"

-"what are you drawing??? is it meee?????"

-you practically just know that he's seen your sketch by now. it's not like you two sit that far away

-"maybe" you reply to his text, turning off your phone, thinking he he'll stop texting you

-but then, you get more notifications. a lot. you turn off your sound for notifications and open your messages with lyney.

-oh boy, he surely was clingy.

-not that you had a problem with it

-the messages went like this:

-"yeah well i'm boreddd"

-"should we do something??"

-"mon cœur???"

-"hello???"

-"bonjour?"

-"did i do something?????"

-"[name] i'm boredd"

-"oh dear boyfrienddd"

-"i wanna kiss you so bad rn"

-you finally calm down your blushing face and reply to him

-"bro we're in class"

-"idc let's talk over text<33"

-he's so persistent but you can't help but put a little smile on your face

-"fine" you replied to him

-"yayyy" you looked at him and he was smiling like an idiot at you

-you roll your eyes and text him again

-"anything specific you wanna talk abt?"

-"hmm yeah but how long until it rings"

-"idk like 10mins. possibly 5."

-"great then!"

-"why"

-"i have my plans ;)"

-that was the line. you blushed and hid your face, but you made it look like you were "focusing on the lecture"

-he smiled at your reaction and texted you again

-"c'mon the teacher said 2 more mins"

-you just look at him and nod, as a sign of a "yes" and also a sign for him to stop texting you so he nods in return

-after those 2 mins, and the bell rings, you two meet in the bathroom, well, he was waiting for you there first

-"what did you want, lyney?" you ask him as you walk into the school bathroom

-"just... you~" he pulled you into one of the bathroom stalls and held you by the waist, his hot breath against your neck

-"dear archons... i've missed you for these 45 minutes..." he chuckled breathly into your ear, sending shivers down your spine while he smirked against your neck

-he kissed it softly and gently, making you squirm a bit

-soon enough, he was very touchy and very needy, all thanks to you.

-"this is what you get for biting that pencil so attractively~..."

-you had only been hoping that nobody caught you there.

~~~~~

oh how i love this oneee it's so cute lmao

thanks for reading and imma be on my way now lol

thanks to everyone who reads my work at all<3

[dunmeshistash]

G'day, I hope you're doing well on this fine Saturday!

A while ago, I began writing and sketching a Dungeon Meshi OC by basing him/her (haven't decided, though I might take the liberty of making it a guy) on my own characteristics, continent of residence and my play style in games like D&D to see what race, country and occupation would best fit that description in the world of good ol' Dungeons & Diners. In all honesty, the parallels I drew are somewhat superficial, so I could technically bullshit my way into being one of many things, but it's been a very fun way to kind of craft an OC that I think fits me the most regardless.

BUT, I have run into an epiphany! I need a hero, a guiding light, an archiver of Dungeon Meshi trivia! I need someone to save me! Super Meshi, will you answer my call for help?!

You see, I settled on making my OC an elf as I drew the most parallels with them on all fields and so far my characteristics are translating over quite well, but the problem lies in the fact that I'm above average in terms of tallness, but I don't really know how much I'd need to shorten this feller to make him pass as a right proper elf, y'know? I have dark hair too, I suppose, but you already answered a question regarding that a while ago. However, I can't find anything here on tallness other than a chart for every story character's height and that Mithrun's teammates are all taller than average, which... well, almost answers my question! Almost.

I guess I could just wing it, but with how much thought I already put into this character, I felt it was a good idea to ask you this; how tall can the average elf reasonably be based on all the information we have? Is it at all possible for them to reach or exceed tall-man heights or would that be far too unusual? Lycion is roughly 170cm, but I can't remember if any elf is taller than that, and while I've perused a great many ancient scriptures in search of precious knowledge, I believe you might be the hero I need to solve this relatively minor conundrum that may not even have a clear answer! I think the question might be a bit silly, but I hope you'll indulge me regardless. You'd have my infinite gratitude! I uh, I prolly coulda and shoulda condensed this ask into a single sentence. Pleasedon'tkillmethanks-

TL;DR: How tall can elves reasonably be based on what we know?

Oh, while I'm at it—and I say this every time I'm here and will continue to do so 'til the cows come home—your blog is a blessing. A wonderful, nice-looking, tidy blessing. The fact you're maintaining all of this is a boon to all of us. Thank you so much for keeping this up! I hope you have a delightful weekend!

Hello! That's really cool! I thought about making a Dungeon Meshi oc based on myself too before (a dunmeshisona?) but then I didn't lmao. Making characters is hard

Anyway I think "how tall can an elf be" is pretty subjective cause even irl humans vary a lot. I think one way to guess would be to do what people tend to do with their ages and compare the average proportions??

Average Male elf is 155 and Average Female Elf is 150 Average Male Tallman is 180 and average Female Tallman is 170

I did some doubtful math and came up with *0,86 for male and *0,88 for female (that's for tallmen height to elf height, if you want to calculate from elf to tallman it would be *1,16 for male and *1,13 for female, both of them you can round up the result)

I don't think that's very correct tho cause using that math on the tallest elves, Lycion who is 170cm and Cithis who is 165cm, it puts him at 197cm and Cithis at 186cm as tallmen that doesn't sound right but maybe it is. (Edit: I got flamela's height wrong she's 140cm I was still asleep I guess, changing it to cithis who IS 165cm I double checked)

It probably doesn't really work cause tallmen average in dungeon meshi is WAY taller than irl human average (google tells me the global average is 171 for men, and the average where I live is even shorter than that) and also cause the height difference between male and female elves is really small, which fits with how androgynous they are in general, there's not much difference between male and females so as a tallmen might be way taller than you'd expect for a woman but for elves Cithis and Lycion being so tall is probably about the same amount of striking.

I ended up rambling but this might help somehow? or just make you even more confused. Anyway I wouldn't worry too much about how tall to make your elf, if I were to make one I'd just make it like a bit taller than average cause that's what I am irl. I'm really bad at explaining math but if you need me to I can try (I tried and ended up making the post double the size and I don't think it made any sense LMAO)

And thanks! I love reading your comments it's very encouraging!

[jeannereames]

Hii Dr. Reames, I hope you're having a good day.

I've seen the claim several times that Hephaistion's funeral was the most expensive (or one of the most expensive) in history or at least of its time, how true is that? I'm curious to know how much money Alexander spent and how much that amount would be equivalent to today

Hephaistion's Funeral

Making comparisons between ancient and modern costs is tricky because it's not one-to-one. Accounts say Alexander spent 10 or 12-thousand talents on Hephaistion's funeral. It doesn't specify of gold or silver, but silver is probably to be assumed if gold isn't specified. As of today (12/7/24), a gram of silver is worth $1.00, US, and an Attic talent is estimated at about 26 kilograms. I'm using Attic, although archaeologists DO actually know the silver weight for Macedonia in Alexander's reign...but I'm not sure where to find that (without a lot of digging), so Attic will do as an estimate; it won't be enormously far off.

26,000 grams of silver = 1 Attic talent. Multiplying that, we get $260,000,000 for 10,000 talents.

BUT the real question is what will that buy? That's why one-to-one conversion is meaningless. For instance, a cheap t-shirt in the US is under $10, more if specialized or nice soft cotton...but a cheap wool garment (chiton) in Classical Athens was about 20 drachmai or 10 days' wages. Linen was at least twice that. (Why clothes were made at home.) The standard wage for a skilled laborer was 2 drachmai a day. A single talent = 6000 drachma, so a skilled laborer earned a talent in a little over 8 years, if he worked every day, 8.5 if he took off for holidays.

(An article on the cost of common items in Classical Athens.)

So, Hephaistion's funeral (low-end) cost the equivalent of 1 year's wages for 80,000 people, or the entire population of Kalamazoo, Michigan (minus temp college students), and then some. Or you could buy 13 million wool chitones. The entire population of modern Greece in 2023 was not-quite 10.5 million.

Whether that's the most expensive funeral in history, I don't know that we have the data to say...so avoid hyperbole. We CAN say it was hella costly.

BUT I'd also caution that we must take these numbers with a grain of salt--just like the supposed cost of Boukephalas, Alexander's famous warhorse, at 13 talents. Whatever the funeral actually cost, it almost certainly didn't cost 10K talents, much less 12K.

By the Roman era, Hephaistion's funeral had become the ne plus ultra of "excessive grieving" = lack of sophrosune/self-control = A BAD THING. The "moral of the story" was that, in his final years, Alexander had lost it...excessive wealth leading to complete immoderation. IOW, Alexander the Great = Elon Musk.

It's also important to point out that, whatever it did cost, Alexander was not the sole donor. Both people and cities in the empire sent money, some to honor Hephaistion, others to avoid Alexander's ire or to gain his favor. We have no way of knowing what percentages were, but it's worth noting a general outpouring of financial contributions.

There is also disagreement as to whether the whole thing went to his funeral pyre, or to a monument (like the Mausoleum), or to a mixture of monument and pyre. I'll go with door #3, btw.

Whatever it was doesn't seem to have been fully completed by Alexander's own death, 9-10 months later. Diodoros gives us our fullest description, but he may have been working from plans, not the completed structure.

(Sketch below: Quatremere de Quincy, publ. on Magasin Pittoresque, Paris, 1849, available from Getty Images.)

[fallenangels-cb]

The Angels have posted!

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Mingyu.Kim: It's been a great couple of months for me actually. The coffee shop has been doing really well and the new hires are great and friendly. Humans really are diligent is what I was able to realise after hiring them. Hoshi convinced me that I could trust them and work 5 days, instead of 7 days a week and that honestly has been great for me. How have you guys been since the new year?

Jeno.Lee: Fashion week has been excellent so far! I'm mainly out here collecting information and inspiration for myself since Sana has asked to see some designs from me for the new line! It's definitely inspiring to be out here and I've been sketching a lot after each show. Hopefully Sana will like my designs!

Kwon.Hosh: It's been a busy couple of weeks with a couple of my cases having their hearings in January. It's funny to see the same lawyer colleagues day in day out at court. We're each fighting each other for more than one case so tensions are high but it's all in good spirits! It would be great to get a couple of wins this month, December was a bit disappointing with my win rate but that's just how it goes sometimes. Is anyone else's work really busy in the new year?

Chan.B: Christmas was so good! I spent some time with a couple of my producer friends and really enjoyed the quieter period since most artists aren't looking for new songs over Christmas. Things have really ramped up since then and I'm working on I think 4... different tracks at the moment. One of them I'm really hoping the girl group will select it because it's made with their style in mind. We'll see how it goes though haha

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[glitchpirate]

Another year, another same template.

This Last year was pretty packed; I managed to get back into commissions (still catching up with waiting list though) and draw some gifts for friends. ^_^ While still being able to draw for myself!

Happy new year y'all. May your dreams come true and all. I'm not big on speeches. No talking, only ART.

Or, well. Some talking. Ramble again, like last year, under the cut.

January: ko-fi limited palette sketch commission overdue many years of mutual's OC. <3 Thankfully everyone's been so patient with my lack of speed. I'll do better next time, I promise!

February: COTL brainrot... I had an Anassy art I was thinking about putting in here but COTL was really so big in my life in February, I had to put my low-effort fanart in there... which surprisingly blew up in numbers. (Thank you 🛐)

March: didn't really draw anything in March except this OC art and a small fanart doodle, so decided to go with this one, with which I experimented with textures. I haven't shared this before and I don't think I will (sorry), but it's on Dia's (depicted OC) toyhouse.

April: birhday gift for friend I haven't talked to in years. This was a perfect opportunity to get back in contact and it worked out nicely. ^_^ In the art are her OCs from her story still in progress. Lineart and painting together works surprisingly well!

May: fun little drawing I had depicting my inkling OC as a human. ^_^ Sorry not sorry for the eyestrain-

June: boy, this month was THE OC month. I created so many here, I don't know what happened. The characters in here are one of them, my beloved Mortis Twins. They are an asura (Guild Wars 2) musical duo who play darkwave music about death and dying. ^_^ (<-Glitch stop writing this emoticon every time pls) Goth siblings beloved. This art is a promo shoot for their new era and album. Get yours signed at a local show now!!!

July: another birthday gift for a long time no contact/talk friend/mutual! Was super happy how this came out and for the recipient's reaction. <3 It's her VTuber! (Check her out at ChiikaboomTV on twitch)! I prefer not uploading birthday gifts and only sharing them privately to who I'm drawing them for but I might share this one sometime cuz I'm really prou of this one. I experimented with a new shading technique even, and it worked out just fine~

August: would you guess it? Another birthday gift for a long time no contact- ok you get the drill. Same shading technique, same-ly happy friend. ^_^ It's her main OC, Persephone Eddington, whom I love very much. <3

September: another overdue ko-fi commission! Despite the overwhelming details, I like how it came out~ I've always been so bad with great amount of detail and mecha stuff. x_x

October: birthday gift for my bestie leeche, depicting their Dragon Heist dragonborn character, Nephintaad Morzavur, whom I also love very much. <3

November: Guild Wars 2 Tyria Pride giveaway art! I offered a bust and wanted to go back to painting again, and the recipient loved it very much. The biggest compliment. <3 Included a lot of things important to the "commissioner's" player character and had a blast!

December: normal commission! I'm finally catching up with the waiting list. A bit saucy hehe but that's just icing, I swear!

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Aaand that's it. Thank you for reading if you've reached this far and once again, Happy New Year!

[taylor-titmouse]

Julia is sick of working late. She's sick of being disrespected, and most of all she's sick of her boss. Lance is a burned out, smooth-talking playboy, but he also happens to be the son of the CEO.  When Lance pushes her buttons once too often, Julia is tempted to put him in his place – but is it worth throwing away her career for a moment of satisfaction? Content: -F/M -dom -degradation -small penis humiliation -directed masturbation -power play 5k words,  EPUB and PDF format Only $3, Releases later tonight! you can go read the first two pages on the shop page!

i've mentioned a couple times now that my editor and the author of roger crenshaw: the dogs at duskfall @mortalityplays is now available for freelance work for people other than me, but i don't think i've made as big of a deal how he's ALSO going to start releasing his own smut shorts on the last friday of every month! he is SUCH a talented writer on top of being an excellent editor and it's my absolute delight to work with him on the cover for his first release. FINALLY i have a great answer when asked "is there anyone else writing smut like you?"

and since this was the first time in a while i went through a cover design process that wasn't just me making one for myself, i thought i would go into how it went!

The Prompt

R/L wanted something that didn't visually describe the characters, because he had deliberately avoided that himself in the text. these characters are archetypes, ideas of characters: a woman who works in an office and her playboy burnout boss. for an erotic fantasy scenario, not going into detail can be ideal, as it allows the reader to project their own fantasies onto the characters. but what does that mean for a cover, when showing off the characters is often the point?

The Thumbnails

it means silhouettes, babie! if you're a reader of romance you've probably seen this approach a few times. silhouettes allow you to give the impression of a character without actually specifying them. HOWEVER! that can only go so far. note the female silhouettes in the left and right thumbnails--one with a pony tail, one with her hair down. these two very minor design elements say completely different things about the character, and pin her design down into something specific. (there is a whole line of feminist thought about this, that there is no such thing as an "unmarked" woman, or rather a woman whose presentation does not say something about her, ie a woman not wearing makeup is not perceived as neutral the way a man not wearing makeup is).

so anyway including her in the cover in full doesn't work for the prompt, because how she wears her hair or how she dresses would say something about her that we don't want to say. thus: we chose the middle design!

a man in a shirt and tie are super archetypal, and """neutral""" enough to not say anything specific about lance, our male protagonist, other than he has a job and is of average size (which are of course not technically truly neutral, but for our purposes, are functional as symbols). and while a long, narrow, leg does still say something about julia, it is abstracted enough to simply represent the concept of "woman" without projecting an overall image of her in the reader's head. she has a leg, and she wears high heels. that's all you get!

The Sketch

now we can move on to the sketch stage! this is the point at which the palette and text are figured out. i tried a few fonts before landing on one that had the retro paperback all-caps feel that i liked, and i used what i believe to have been a risograph print texture from retrosupply.

we went with the text up top rather than at the bottom, because it lends weight to the shoe and balances out the blacks in the pants. it also allows the figure to take up more of the cover, which is ideal. honestly, not a whole lot to say about this bit that i didn't cover in thumbnails: which is the point of doing thumbnails in the first place!

The Finish

well you can just scroll up to see that one. the final colors ended up a little less saturated, a little cooler, to bring it home to the retro paperback look i was going for and tie the colors together. i'm very pleased with it and had a lot of fun. cover design is one of my favorite parts of putting out books, and it was especially fun working with someone else to bring their vision to life.

anyway, you should go buy this book! it's only three dollars and i want to make more covers for these! your purchases would prove that i am a very good investment as a cover artist >:)

[stupidgalaxybrain]

If there's one thing I'm proud of as an artist, it's the fact I'm a style chameleon. I decided to sit down and recreate 4 artists I really love, and who better to do it with than with the most varied character in the entire franchise: King Dedede! This isn't just for appreciation though, but a study on how other people translate DDD's design, since character design is a passion of mine!

Let's start with @miniiieevee!

Oh my gosh their art is super great, and I think the most important part of getting the style right was the sparkles. I have never seen someone do highlights this way, and it's both super recognizable and super cute! For the King himself, we have a nice round beak, visibly blue eyes, a distinct head, pointed crown jewel, an undershirt, and stripes along the top of the belt. Like most of us, they use the (owo) kind of mouth and really fluff up the coat. Separate fingers can also show up for posing, following Spongebob physics. The stitching on the gloves and the little round eyebrows are another really cool touch! Out of all of the styles I looked at, this one has the most pastel colors.

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Next is @das-a-kirby-blog!

Das-a-kirby-blog has such a cool variety in their work, from really shapey sketches to super abstracted color schemes, which while super amazing, didn't provide me the best ref material. The colors here are frankensteined from a few sources, so I hope they capture their actual base color palette. They go for the pin-shaped route for body shape, with the undershirt (though sometimes there's no under layer), typically black eyes, extra belt stripes, and a chunky diamond shaped crown jewel. My favorite touch is the cottonball on the crown. Like I said at the top, they excel at shapes in their art!

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Third is @jojo-schmo!

I've been silently reading their roleswap comic, but I should've been loudly reading it because I super recommend it! I'd also say design wise their Dedede is the most unique! Besides myself they're the only one here to pick the kimono, they have a single blue stripe at the top of the belt, a triangular jewel, and the coolest element of the style, spirals! I've not seen anyone stylize the trim this way, and it's so cool in execution. Another unique element that really adds to certain expressions is the spiky teeth (which matches real life penguins! ...Don't look it up).

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Last but not least, @cosmicwhoreo!

God, their art is everything. The flow of the lines is so clean and smooth and everything they draw is super expressive. Their Dedede is by far the hugest, and also marks the 4/5 DDDs with a separate head, and 3/5 with black eyes. We have the belt stripes, occasionally a shirt, and a smooth tear drop jewel, but a uniquely shaped crown band. This design sees a lot of influence from the anime unlike the others here, so the color scheme is the most unique.

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As a conclusion, it's really cool to see all the different design elements that we pick and choose for DDD. Some give him his smash outfit. Some people give him a body type closer to K64 or KATFL. Some people draw his eye color, or separate eyebrows, and others don't. There's no detail that's the same across every version, but they're all our lovable king. If you don't recognize one of these artists, check them out! I can only do a fraction of the incredible work they do, and let me know if there's any other characters or artists you'd like to see this exercise with!