#literally the hardest angle to draw

[imminent-danger-came]

Not to me, not if it’s you.

[sequesteredsnake]

I think she deserves a little something after all that hard work 🍃

[wolfatemybaby]

Only posting these on here because I want to redo their sheets sometime in the future

CW: OLD ART EWWWW

Eurylochus - 6'5

Odysseus - 5'5

Polites - 6'3

Ctimene - 5'6

Telemachus - 5'8

Penelope - 6'1

————— EURYLOCHUS ODYSSEUS POLITES —————

The EuryOdyPoli were designed by Saxon (TWINN!) I just added a few twists here and there.

I struggled a lot with Eurylochus' pose. It was originally going to be him unsheathing his sword from his back but it would’ve been out of place for only him to have a weapon. I much prefer this shy-ish pose anyways. Also the usual hand on hip was not working so he’s cunty w it.

Odysseus is a small man. He’s below everyone he faces in the musical in some way.

Polites has a sleeper build made for scouting. He absolutely abuses his natural strength for suffocating hugs.

—— Hair headcanons

Eurylochus buzzes it all off over the summer after everyone gets used to it

Odysseus' hair is as soft as feathers

No one knows how Polites dyed/bleached his hair ginger, he just did one day and never stopped

—— Scars

Odysseus was the one to give Eurylochus the eye scar. When they were younger, they were having a heated battle and Athena offered Odysseus some power, (similar to in Little Wolf) but it nearly caused Odysseus to fatally injure Eurylochus. Since then Odysseus has been trying his hardest to make amends for it (not really), but all Eurylochus can see is the boy who nearly killed him.

About Eury’s top scars + Mini BG: Eury’s family kept trying for a son but gave up after five daughters. But in still wanting a son they made Eury take responsibility as one, and it helped him figure out who he was. Coming out in his mid teens then transitioning when he was of age.

Odysseus' thigh scar is as faded as the ones from the war. That’s how long it’s been. A scar that cut so deep when he was young, couldn’t be differentiated from war.

—— Clothing

Like most transmen, Eury prefers the baggiest of clothes known to man. He and Ctimene have a matching set of earrings that he fiddles with them when nervous. It was a wedding gift from Ody and Pen.

Ody's clothes have an inverted colour pattern, to tell apart the king from the rest of the crew. He was given a red cape and owl pin by Athena before going off to war. He also shared his ankle strap with Polites because Poli uses his as sleeve garters.

My clone told me to give Polites a green headband instead of the red, but do not worry! It’ll be stained red right after I make some panacakes. When Polites’ glasses are hit at the right angle his hazel eyes look red

————— CTIMENE TELEMACHUS PENELOPE —————

Ctimene’s feathers usually grow at the base of her head. She used to have more but they were clipped, literally, from the drawing and in the story. She had to clip her feathers so she doesn't get outcasted + they're itchy.

Telemachus got his vitiligo from Penelope and she got it from her dad. I made Telemachus’ vitiligo go around his chin to look like a beard because, (if I remember correctly) I heard in the Odyssey, Odysseus said that Telemachus will become king when he gets his beard. Tele's vitiligo is reminiscent of a wolf's spotted fur. Telemachus has luscious hair for no reason, all he uses is coconut oil. He’s also trans because we say so. It took me ages to find a good pose for him.

Penelope's skin is very translucent at some parts to showing off the blue undertones. Her vitiligo is supposed to represent fish scales. AND HER FUCKING POSE OH MY DAYS I CANT DRAW STAGNANT FRONT VIEW CHARACTERS FOR THE LIFE OF ME

—— Clothes

Ctimene has the matching earrings and a red shawl given to her by Ares. She’s barefoot because she doesn't like shoes since her feathers get caught in the straps. Also she has a toe ring like Zeus. She gave one her bangles to Telemachus and even pierced his ears.

Penelope is elegant as always and her outfit drops to the floor. You’d imagine the white being on the lower half would turn muddy from being dragged along but she’s not going anywhere. She’s cooped up in her room, weaving.

Ctimene’s and Penelope’s head wraps are the blue the soldiers wore to war, to honour them in some way.

[celaenaeiln]

Am I interested in Dick Grayson's innovativeness and how that makes him a terrifying opponent?

Nah, not really, no, it's no- EXCEPT THAT I AM!

I love your analysis and honestly, I always surf through the dick Grayson tag once a day to see if u have posted. Pls drop the innovatiness wala analysis. I would absolutely eat it up

ADSAJHFGAJLHADJLHA YOU CAN'T SEDUCE ME LIKE THAT-MY HEART CAN'T TAKE IT!

But I am here to deliver *bows*

Let's start this off with a bang

Dick is completely naked except for a towel and with one (well defined) leg he hooks the handle of the beer bucket and sends it smashing into Midnighter to stop him from using the knife on another person.

Pure. Fucking. Platinum.

That move was so delicious, there's an ease-fluidity-grace-to that split second movement. Also notice how accurate his aim is despite swinging it with the arc of his toes. The bucket slammed right into the medulla oblongata, or more specifically the pyramidal tracts which are crucial for controlling voluntary muscular movements. Nerves from the brain cross over at that area as they go down and then synapse onto other nerves that are responsible for controlling muscles when they leave the spinal cord. The precision at which he aimed the bucket is glorious. And with what? His feet.

The only reason Midnighter wasn't injured is because he is a meta which is the point. Otherwise Dick wouldn't have aimed there unless he was fighting an enemy.

Oh that brings me to my next point.

Dick has extraordinary control of his actions

He's so right though. Nightwing doesn't need to kill because fighting is too easy for him. I swear he has some kind of messed up idea (aside from his need to be absolutely good) that killing someone with a gun would take the joy out of fighting. He loves to live life on the hardest mode only.

The rapid fire throw of the gun, calculating the distance, time, velocity of return, and angle? I mean I studied physics and calculating even half of that on paper is a headache. The fact that he did it in one second? It's extraordinary. Things that are pure, dumb luck to literally everyone else is carefully calculated at a speed faster than light, making it look like luck. Damn.

Yeah.

Forget Slade. Midnighter is my new favorite nemesister.

DO YOU SEE WHAT HE FOUGHT WITH?! WHILE DEATHSTROKE AND BLACK ADAM WERE FIGHTING WITH META POWERS AND A CURSED SWORD, HE FUCKING WRAPPED CHAINS AROUND HIMSELF LIKE A BOSS AND WHIPPED THE SHIT OUT OF THAT MAN.

Please take a moment of silence to relish in this sight.

Dick's innovativeness is a formidable skill when fighting allies.

Dick and Ras are evenly matched in sword fighting.

Wait, wait. I don't need any doubts about Dick's strength in sword fighting so I'm going to include a couple panels here:

Dick fights Azrael to a standstill which is absolutely incredible because Azrael solos. He's gone through many upgrades and skills and is one of the best fighters ever. He's even defeated Bruce.

He also defeated Jason and Tim together in Batman and Robin Eternal.

This is just another point towards the fact that Dick actually won in his fight against Bruce before going into Spyral. They weren't holding back.

Oh yeah. Ra's vs Dick panel, Dick and Ra's aren't going anywhere because Dick is a swordsman equivalent to one of the best in the world. So how do you win a draw? By one upping the opponent. He swings his foot up in midair and completely defeats him. "But that isn't a defeat...Ra's just stopped fighting!" It was complete defeat because Ra's is intelligent and knows when he can't win. Also they have been fighting for a while until they reached the breaking point in the battle. This move is a show of how Dick has that just one inch more that will lead him to be a victor.

Ra's honors Dick so much he tried to give the sword he used to fight with Batman because he thinks Dick is worthy of it. Can anyone receive a higher honor than this from that man?

He'll also use the broken glass of a car window to take down his opponent. If that's not innovation, then what is?

But one last thing since a car door cannot be considered innovative these days.

sticks. He literally took two twigs off the ground to use as weapons against his highly skilled, one of the best assassins, great-grandfather who is fighting with daggers in his hands and all over his body.

But you know the best part?

He draws his opponent to a tie. A tie? Not a win? No it was win after, considering he used his relative's falling body as a launching pad in the middle of the air when they were falling off the bridge to grab onto the bridge with the help of his friend. So it was his win but it's insane how incredible Dick's skills are.

It's really innovative because who thinks of using twigs and winning? Let me also clarify another point. Dick could've used the knives he'd gotten from his talon suit and thoroughly won because when he was brain washed he almost killed Red Condor from how skilled he was but he conscientiously chose to use twigs. In a sword fight. This man.

His improvisation is an asset that many have come to know him for and classify him as dangerous because he can fight with anything, anywhere, and win.

Something I want to end with. Dick only fights people who are stronger than him. I know he's fought mob characters and stuff but his enemies? They are all metas, assassins, skilled fighters, Russian Black Ops, and more. Essentially, people who are the top of the class in their categories and him defeating them equally and fairly is the reason why he has the respect of his enemies. He's just that good.

[spookemsdukems]

KICKS DOWN THE DOOR After a long while of my computer being in the shop I gots it back and what did I do immediately?? DRAW MORE FAN KIDS, I ended up getting so invested in them that I did not make any actual fan kids from MTAS and just fellow pals OCs asdfghjkl BUT HERE WE GO!!! AHEM AHEM From Left to right Boulder (the Onyx x Builder kiddo) @florisam

He's a happy go lucky lil man who hides his eyes cause they spooky a lot of people, just like both Mom's <3 He likes scarabs and beetles and collects bugs and is very good at building little houses for them!! My soft son with sharp teef

Alouette (the Aerie x "Builder" kiddo) @illusidy

She is a chill girl, just likes laying on rocks and watching the clouds go by. She's a bit quirky?? Tilts her head at unnatural angles when no one is looking and just stares... a lot. But she's so cute : D so don't be freaked out when you see her glowing eyes at night.

!!DOUBLE TROUBLE!! Maverick and Calla (the Aka x "Builder") fan kiddos @oxalisworks

The names are place holders cause I dunno how to name kids asdfghjkl but BOY ARE THEY PRETTY!!! Mave is just a suave but terrible at being genuinely normal, he has weird hecking hair like his pops and is more cunning then anything. Calla is a grumpy baby girl who wants to adventure but has 0 sense of direction and gets lost ALL the time. She has a lil whistle to blow so that people can come find her lmao Anemone (Skye x "Builder) fan kiddo!! @neonlightsblog Let it be known she doesn't hate you, she just has RBF and doesn't want to talk to you unless you talk to her first. A picky girl who loves Moms but also gets tired of how weird her eyes are because of them. Tries her HARDEST to be super normal, but let's be honest she probably has some weird traits to. (Def licks rocks and the air sometimes to figure out if its going to rain)

Noelle (the Daeth x "Builder") Fan kiddo! @tyesteban

She hates you actually. Literally do not talk to her unless you are her dad or mom. Sunburns super easy and gets heat stroke even easier. She is rather delicate but also grows to be pretty tall?? She is the western goth we have all been waiting for. She prefers wearing black because it traps the heat in and she likes to be warm like Mom, but doesn't want to be caught laying on a rock or the roof. Carmin (the Valentine x "Builder") Fan kiddo!! @sunstream7 Perhaps the most ENERGETIC of the bunch!!! He loves running around in circles and loves loves?? Ok, he is the kid who meets you and says "Bye I love you have a good day : D" he's got a bit of a lisp cause of the teeth! A charming goober who needs to have eyes and hands on him at all times or else he will be found in a tree or on the roof or- OH mY GOD GET OFF THE STATUE OF PEACH???

LET IT BE KNOWN!!! All these kids?? Eyes glow in the dark. Is it freaky?? Yes. Is it just like mom?? Also yes :>

[berylgrace]

final episode review

this show has been... a rollercoaster to say the least. some thoughts (good and bad) under the cut.

the fight with ares... loved seeing percy come into his own wrt his power, wish the fight had lasted longer than literally thirty seconds... i know the idea was drawing first blood but that scene made it look easy, which it WASN'T, because he's the GOD OF WAR

olympus looked really cool

love love loved the poseidon scene, which surprised me after i was so disappointed by ep7. although it was a weird choice to have him just immediately come in and surrender, i guess we're going with the angle that he trusts percy enough to know there are bigger things at stake. still kinda weird for a prideful god tho

it's more afterwards that i enjoyed. as i said to @posallys literal minutes ago, he tells percy that the sea does not like to be restrained, while the two of them have an exchange that reads, very emotionally, as two people trying their absolute HARDEST to restrain themselves: poseidon being bound by godly rules and unable to say directly what he wants to, and percy holding back on asking the questions he's wanted to ask his entire life, being respectful, calling him sir

mixed feelings about the luke thing. i liked the atmosphere of the scene, the fireworks and celebratory vibe juxtaposed against the darkness and percy being alone with luke, but the way it played out didn't make sense. he (and annabeth) were certain it was clarisse, and had no reason to suspect luke, but we had a case of "inexplicably percy knows everything" yet AGAIN as he just... connects the dots? except there WERE NO DOTS TO CONNECT?

luke's explanation being that he didn't report clarisse bc of her supporters and needing proof - completely believable! absolutely no reason to question that.

which brings me to annabeth being there. she's supposed to be keeping an eye on clarisse, so what prompted her to follow percy and luke to the woods instead? she trusts luke, she doesn't trust clarisse. make it make sense

thankfully i don't think this will affect her defense of luke because although she heard it all (...okay), luke attacked after percy mentioned hermes. annabeth had already warned him about that, going as far as to shut off the iris message before he could mention him. so i guess in her mind she can justify the attack that way (unlike she would've been able to with the scorpion but... rip that i guess) and still believes luke is good, just misguided

"I'm here to recruit," line went hard as FUCK

the bait and switch with the sally reunion only to turn into kronos? that was rude to do to me at 2am. did not see it coming. kinda cool

postcredits with gabe just... everyone else has said it better yeah but the whole point is that sally CAN'T divorce gabe, this is her only way out without being completely ruined financially, it just takes away so much from her character. like? if she could've divorced him all that time why didn't she? i know abusive relationships are complex and people stay for certain reasons but sally only stays bc she cannot leave financially. he literally had to DIE and her to sell the statue in order to barely afford living on her own (bc in SOM, percy talks about how they struggle with money, and the skateboard shop is a treat)

so... out of 10 i would give this show like, a 5. it was just frustrating at times, paced weirdly, and i would like to see a season 2 and hope for improvements. also a big shoutout to leah's hair at the very end?? so cute i nearly cried

[cakebatteronabrickwall]

Sure, “the cycle is cycling” is a fun and cute thing to say but in all honesty? To me, the succession ending sort of accidentally broke that logic. Can you really draw the logical conclusion that the siblings end up like Ewan and Logan? No, because what was the reason for their estrangement? Ultimately, Ewan resents Logan for letting himself become the person he died as. Why was Logan like that? Because of the company (very simplisitc, there is more here obviously). Shiv literally takes that possibility away from Kendall by voting against him.

Does that mean being “out” magically fixes their shit? Of course not. Here is the thing. Kendall will always be trapped in the cycle of thinking he was meant to be CEO, it was instilled into him as a child! Part of him will always resent Shiv for her vote and will always come back to this formative moment. But. Does that mean he can never care about anything else, doomed to wander around as an empty shell? I don’t think so, we’ve been through the epic highs and lows of corporate fuckery with Ken, he somehow always returns to himself in the end, partially because of his siblings.

Shiv will always be stuck knowing that her being a woman plays a major part in the way her father and every other man in her life treats her. That resentment won’t go away either, it may even take a new shape with motherhood mixed in. But also, she is probably working a new angle with Tom as we speak. Maybe she’ll return to her political roots, who knows, she certainly will do everything to not become her mother even if she jokes about the opposite at the funeral. But the most important thing to me is the fact that, even in her resentment towards Ken, she tells him “I love you, but I can’t fucking stomach you”. The first part did not need to be there. And yet.

And Roman (always hardest to talk about for me, lol). Well, he will always look for guidance outside of himself, he will always need his family. His ending is lonely on one side, but there is a quiet beauty in it as well. After everything, there is a moment of solitude and being able to breathe, even reminisce. He just started really grieving and wherever the path leads, it will never lead back to Logan. It can’t. He will always love his father (and I need to take the moment to say- that is totally fine, we as observers have a different view on their relationship than him), but his father will never be able to abuse that or hold it against him again. The wheels have come off the cycle and the engine is dead. The entire fourth season can be seen as an attempt to keep the cycle alive, because it is comforting in a way. But it doesn’t work, because, I repeat, THE ENGINE IS LITERALLY DEAD.

See, succession clearly has shown that whereas Logan and Ewan had no desire to be a family, the sibs always find their way back to each other. After Ken’s season 1 bullshit. After Ken’s press conference. After the confrontation with Logan. Ewan tells people at the funeral “I loved him I suppose, but-” but none of them would ever say that. The love is so clearly, inarguably there and maybe that is the real tragedy; that in another world it could have been a much easier kind of love (but it rarely is, for most of us anyways).

[angiethewitch]

Hi Angie!

I hope that you've been doing well. I've got two things for you.

1. Happy belated birthday! I'm sorry for missing it

2. YOU DID BLACKSMITHING???? THATS SO COOL!! Would you mind sharing a bit of how it works? While I doubt I'll ever get the chance to make something in a smithy, I'm curious about the process of forging things.

That's all, take care!

hello! thank for the birthday wish! and yeah an acquaintance owns a forge and he was doing a black friday deal for a forging experience, so for my husbands Christmas present, I booked us a 3 hour experience at the forge. ive actually used a forge before in uni, to make jewellery, but my husband always wanted to try one.

it was interesting actually because in uni I learned how to use various cutting machines and stuff, whereas Aaron (guy who owns the forge), uses traditional methods that are largely dying out. he literally just gave us a bar of steel, we heated it up, then we got hammers and he directed us to an anvil and we just started hitting the metal. it took a long time, and lots of work, but it was so rewarding. we used nothing else, just a fire and a hammer. to start with we shaped where the blade would start by holding the piece of metal against the edge of the anvil and angling it and hammering down to cut into the metal a bit. it took a lot of hammering and then as the metal cooled, putting it back into the fire, and then hammer again. then it was laying it flat on the anvil and turning it from a thick bar of steel to a flat piece of metal about half an inch thick, which literally just involved smashing it, watching the metal spread. he called it the drawing down, because as you hammered, the metal spread upwards.

I found the hardest part to be shaping the handle, because that was such a delicate process to get the swirls. metal doesn't always do what you want it to do. to make the spiral we did use a vice and just strapped the hot bar into the vice, and grabbed some tongs, and just walked around the vice and twisted the bar. very cool.

these days, metalworking uses a lot of different tools and shaping methods, it was super cool to use techniques that dated back hundreds of years. it was so fun!

Aaron is a professional in his craft, he gets commissioned to do swords and shields for re enactment groups and stuff. he even made a set of wrought iron gates for someone. every hunk of metal in that place had a story, we ended up staying for 4 hours because he was so excited to talk about his stuff. im definitely going back, I want to save up for his sword making experience.

[sundaysstrawberrykombucha]

Beep Beep, trying a new sona out...

So... It's weird. I LOVE skunks. They are cute, dapper, curious little critters that have a reputation. I love they're little faces, I love the patterning of their fur, and I love just literally everything about them... Hell, Belle is a skunk for all of these reasons!

So... It made sense that maybe my fursona should be a skunk, right? I've done a whole comic about turning into one, and I absolutely adore them.

But... It just doesn't feel right. Belle served as my sona for a LONG time now, but since I've kind of come out as plural, and we've decided that she's her own person... It kinda took my sona away. So I thought "That's alright, I'll just make another skunk sona that's me!" But... it really wasn't. There's something off, or missing from it.

So the other day, as I was thinking about it, and trying to figure out where I was going with my Skunk HRT comic, I was thinking about WHAT I wanted to do... I've had some ideas, but none stuck out to me, except this idea. This is what I wanted to sketch yesterday (but had no time to do so, actually)

So the top is just a Mewtwo off of reference. I wanted to get the reference out because I wanted to be sure I could figure out how to draw a believable Mewtwo that I could then modify and push to fit what I was hoping to get. The bottom is modified with a small vision I have of... Maybe myself? I'm not sure, but I wanted to keep the skunk patterning, but get more of the form of Mewtwo in there. There are still some things that I think I'll tool around with, like maybe hair. Also adding clothing and the like.

But... Why Mewtwo? Well... It's my favorite legendary. It may be a basic "gen one-er" fave, but it's true. I've always had more of an affinity for the psychic type pokemon in general, my favorite gym leader is Sabrina (Flannery a close second, but just because she's hot), Abra was a small obsession of mine, and Mewtwo is just kinda rad.

Plus, with how powerful Mewtwo is? That gives me the freedom to really live out a few other fantasies that being a skunk wouldn't allow. Like, flying, and breathing underwater/in space. Even Transform into different things! (Since Mewtwo is based off the DNA of Mew, and Mew can transform, I don't see why not) These are things that I could feasibly see Mewtwo doing, and things that I wish I could do.

Plus, immense psychic power to help defend people? The ability to be places instantly? Be... Kind of a Superman-like character. That sounds nice too.

Anyway. A little more about the sketch. I LOVE how the angle of the head turned out. It's not perfect, but getting the underside of a head, and figuring out how necks connect and stuff is something I tend to have difficulty with, so I'm glad that it actually looks like it turned out better. Also, trying to find a way to feminize the form while not turning it NSFW is a small challenge. Not the hardest, but there is a bit of "how much can I push it before it becomes too much?" And while I know it's rather unnecessary, there's still a euphoria I get myself seeing me depicted a lot more feminine physically, and I do want to depict that. As I said, I may try adding hair, which is a major deviation from Mewtwo, but it's another euphoric thing about myself that I want to depict, but I'm not sure how it'll look, so it's possible it won't make the cut.

But yea, if you read all that. Thanks! It's weird not having a fursona, honestly. Belle has been that for so long, but now it feels weird to say that about her. So it'll be interesting to actually continue figuring stuff like this out about myself, seeing where I want to go. I have some other ideas that I might sketch out, just to see how they feel as well, but as I said, this was the most prominent one.

[inkbeanjo]

For edgy OC ask: 10. What's an AU that would be interesting to explore with your OC? 14. How does your OC want to be seen by other characters?- for Moni. 4. When scared, does your OC fight, flee, freeze or fawn?, 23. What emotion is the hardest for your OC to process? How about express? - for Retro

ouGH 10. I have a small handful of AUs i've slotted moni into, whether because i've been prepped to play a table game and thought it might be fun to explore some of her isms from new angles/perspectives, or because i found a setting interesting on its own enough to write or draw art of her within it to explore new angles. The biggest one i've wanted to draw more things for has been a Changeling: the Lost AU that's been rattling around in my head for a year + now, changeling is just such a fantastic setting to play with ;;

14. [QUERY SENT] 4. The crux of Moni's existence is contradictions; for as anxious as she is and for as much as she might not want to get into fights, Moni is a creature of raw Id and impulse, an adrenaline junkie at worst. If she gets into a fight, things invariably lean hard into overt violence with increasing tempo- if scared, lashing out or collapsing under the weight of stress are quite literally a coin toss from one another. 23. Retro was played by a friend of mine, who I got to play through a ton of shit with that basically constitutes the shit I want to convey and depict as the comic goes on- though I can try to answer this from what I got to see of her! Imo at least, retro had the greatest difficulty processing like... rejection, if that tracks? at multiple points in play and personal vignettes we'd done, it felt like retro absolutely didn't want to be left alone by those that cared about her- whether that was rejection by a weird digital doppelganger Moni had been trying and failing to cope with herself, rejection from a close friend of hers she'd crushed on for years who himself had failed to recognize and acknowledge those feelings, or in the more abstract sense of just... her life situation overall, as a kid orphaned by circumstances her parents had zero control over and bounced around foster care. Expressing is a harder one to answer as a third party- I would say anger with regard to the above, or grief, but those are as like... a fellow player/writer/friend as opposed to knowing exactly what was going on in retro's head.

[forffax]

🙃🎁🎼✨🌊

🙃 Which is easier: faces facing left, right, or front view? facing left </3 i have to make a conscious effort to draw facing right bc i just default to left skjdfhs. and i don't draw front view super often but it's not too bad i think! 🎁 Do you prefer drawing fandom stuff or your own characters? i'm kinda 50/50! i dunno if i'd call it like. fandom stuff but i have been doodling pokemon since i was literally 9 years old and that has not stopped once. but also looove drawing my ocs <3 i have so many i just need to draw them all more tee bee ach... 🎼 Your favorite music to draw to right now? anything I can just turn my brain off to! although sometimes that's not music and it's just vods of streamers on low volume skdjfgs. been listening to the Ci Flower Masterpiece album lately and also assorted Touhou stuff ✨ How often do you draw? i try to draw or at least doodle daily! need to get the images out of my brain so they don't ferment up there 🌊 What’s the hardest thing for you to draw?  already answered! but i will add. legs at weird angles have been vexing me nonstop lately. like just imagine a guy sitting down manspreading with one leg pointed towards the camera. i think i just need to look at more references </3

[vryfmi]

Talk Shop Tuesday!!! What is your favorite thing to draw? (Hands, hair, buildings, etc.) What is your least favorite? Similarly, who are your favorite and least favorite characters to draw?

i really like drawing people or characters and putting them in situations. sure, they can just stand there but what if they had a specific posture, or they were fiddling with something. drawing heads and expressions at different angles is like crack to me, i can't explain it. maybe it's about dynamic of it idk. but i still really struggle with hair and making it somewhat coherent with everything else in my style (and outside of it).

and stairs. oh how much i hate drawing stairs and every time im back at complaining how annoying it is to figure out perspective, proportions, lighting, line weight and everything else that could piss me off. you'd think that stairs are easily avoidable in a drawing but nooo. it's also very plausible that im overthinking it.

as for characters, L&Co gang takes the cake, its my 4th years of posting them on here. maybe it's because im mainly drawing in my style or bc it has literally been years, but they are mostly easy and enjoyable to draw. but lockwood is the hardest one to draw, he has such a unique energy that is really had to capture. and i don't have least favourite characters, just ones that i haven't got a grasp on drawing yet

[tokiro07]

Cipher Academy ch.53 thoughts

[Solve. Die. Repeat.]

(Contents: reminiscing, character analysis - Omomuro and Iroha, thematic analysis - victory, speculation)

Oh man, this might just be my favorite chapter so far, and none of my best girls were even really in it! We love a good bookend in this house

I'm actually pretty miffed that Nisio included a Kogoe Lesson to explain the parallel to the Q5, it doesn't leave me with a lot to talk about. Maybe that's supposed to be insight into Kogoe's character, but it kind of feels like Nisio wasn't confident that people would remember a chapter from literally a year ago

But I do remember that chapter and I remember it very fondly. Q5 was the first puzzle I actually tried to solve in this story, and I got really into it! I got a pencil and paper, I did research, I tackled it from every angle I could trying to understand it. Sure, I ended up being wildly off base for the actual method of solving it, but for a moment, I was just like Iroha. I was just as invested and had just as much fun trying to crack the code by myself, of my own power. If I hadn't gotten hung up on one little inconsistency in my own logic, I might have actually been able to figure it out too! I still wouldn't have been able to figure out what the answer meant since I wouldn't be able to translate it, but it ended up not mattering anyway, the act of solving it was what mattered in this instance

This chapter is my favorite because it's a beautiful little benchmark for how far we've come. Iroha isn't the one struggling to solve the question, he's the one posing it and was able to think of it practically on the fly rather than taking several hours to do so. Maybe only a couple months have passed in story, but Iroha has grown so much in the last year without ever losing what made him who he is: he's confident and clever now in a way he never really was back then, but he's still just as kind and honest

Like Iroha says, it was because of Q5 that he was able to make it this far. With the exception of Q3 (which Iroha didn't solve at all), the first four code were all solved using the Glasses Weapon, which makes sense on the basis that Iroha was only just starting out. Q5, easily the hardest code he'd faced yet, was the first one he had to solve completely on his own, and it showed him both that he was capable of solving codes and that he enjoyed doing so, a crucial part of his success going forward. There were very few codes that he ever used Glasses Weapons to solve after that, the only ones I can immediately recall being the dancer and the maze to decide the brackets for the CLP tournament. Other than that, he's made every effort to solve codes honestly, which allowed him to grow in a way that using a cheat system never would have

It also makes sense that Iroha looks up to Omomuro so much specifically, even ignoring how she inspired him with Q5. They're pretty great foils for each other: Iroha is a feminine man with the drive to be a leader but still often has to rely on his followers, Omomuro is a masculine woman (a lot like Amvicious) who only sees herself as a follower but often insists on acting alone. Even now, Iroha is fighting to make sure everyone makes it out in one piece, while Omomuro is letting herself fall to pieces so that one person, Toshusai, can succeed. Iroha wants no sacrifices if he can help it, but just like Omomuro, he's the type who will throw himself into the line of fire if it means giving someone else the chance to survive. The key difference, though, is that Iroha isn't throwing himself away when he does that, he's just putting himself on the line with the hope and confidence that he can make it to the other side unscathed, while Omomuro isn't concerned with her own wellbeing at all

Finally, the result of this code battle is the diametric opposite of the previous as well: Iroha went over the time limit, but still solved the code, technically making it a draw, while this time, Omomuro solved the code flawlessly but admitted defeat, technically meaning that both sides won. A stalemate on a technicality and a victory through mutual benefit; we may still be in the Friendship arc, but Nisio won't shy away from discussing the theme of Victory

Since this isn't the first time that Iroha has won through the opponent solving his code (ch.13, Iroha tricks Nohime into apologizing to Toshusai), I'm getting the feeling that the Victory arc of this story is going to pull similar tricks along the way. No-win scenarios for Iroha or others, Pyrrhic victories, hidden safety nets; the possibilities are endless, and Nisio is rarely, if ever, going to be straightforward with it, but as he's been saying the entire series, it's only a victory if everyone makes it home alive

I hope everyone loved this chapter as much as I did, and I hope to be able to touch base like this with our cast next year

Until next time

[sublightdrive]

I've always been a fan of the invention of non-Euclidean geometry, and how it relates to MC Escher's art. Warning, big math post below.

The gist of it is basically this: Euclid, like two and a half thousand years ago, decides to unify all known mathematics in a book he calls Elements. He's wildly successful, it becomes the foundation of all modern mathematics, its basically still taught today, blah blah blah etc.

Anyway, while he's writing it all down, he figures out that if you start with 5 basic postulates, you can build your way up to whatever math you like. The postulates are: • You can draw a straight line between any two points. • All lines can be extended infinitely. • A circle is described by a point at its center and a radius. • All right angles are identical. • If you take two lines and then draw a third line that passes through both of the first two lines, then on one side of the intersection measure the interior angles there, and they add up to less than two right angles, then those first two lines, if extended, will eventually cross one another. If you noticed that one of these postulates is not like the others, you're not alone. I'm playing it up a bit here, but this is more or less exactly how Euclid wrote it. The fifth postulate, which is usually just shorted to the parallel postulate, annoyed the shit out of mathematicians for literal thousands of years because I mean like, look at it. It's like ten times longer than all the rest, which are otherwise so nice and neat and simple.

So generations of mathematicians tried their very hardest to prove that the fifth postulate is true using the first four, rather than assuming it was true as a starting point. And they couldn't do it. Pretty much no matter what you end up stuck in a loop and the only way to break out is admit you have to have the parallel postulate as one of your initial building blocks.

So that was it. The parallel postulate is ugly, but whatever, we're stuck with it. And despite many, MANY attempts, that the belief for thousands of years... until the mid to late 1800s. At this point, a few mathematicians (Carl Friedrich Gauss, Franz Taurinus, János Bolyai, among others) said "well, what if we just ignore it?"

Which is patently absurd, if you're going off of physical intuition. Like, how on earth could you draw two straight, parallel lines so they eventually meet? How do you draw two straight lines that aren't parallel in a way that they don't eventually meet? If you never lean on that intuition, though, never point to it as a justification for anything, you can still have a fully consistent, non-Euclidean system of geometry.

Nothing breaks in non-Euclidean geometry. The math just keeps on mathing, but... you sure aren't going to use it to plan a building or divvy up a sheetcake anytime soon. A few of those mathematicians (Taurinus, in particular) basically said "Sure it's interesting, but it's not useful, or real."

Except that it absolutely 100% is, and we'd been doing it for a long time!

BEHOLD, SPHERICAL GEOMETRY

If you do geometry on the surface of a sphere, instead of a flat infinite plane like Euclid assumed, then it turns out almost all the rules are the same, except for the parallel postulate. Start with two parallel lines at a right angle to the equator, and if you follow them up far enough, they eventually meet at the north (or south) pole. The one big difference is that lines aren't exactly lines in spherical geometry- they're circles. But look back at our postulates. All a line has to do to qualify as "straight" is connect two points and be infinitely extendable. Check and check.

Another example of non-Euclidean geometry is projective plane geometries, which is sort of like if you looked at everything end-on. From this perspective, parallel lines get closer and closer together until they meet on the horizon, at the point of infinity. This kind of thing had been well-understood in the art world for centuries by this point, and had some math built up under around it, but non-Euclidean geometry created a formal language and strong foundation for discussing and exploring it more thoroughly.

All these new geometries and more were being slowly mapped and explored over the coming decades, eventually leading us to MC Escher.

Escher was a contemporary of the mathematicians who were formalizing all these ideas in the mid 1900s. Though he didn't think of himself as a mathematician, he was fascinated by these developments, especially the ways of visualizing infinity that mathematicians were inventing.

On the left, art drawn by Escher. Right, an illustration of the hyperbolic plane (another non-Euclidean geometry)

He was even in direct communication with a few of the people who were coming up with all this kind of stuff, essentially trading notes on ways to visualize and depict these "impossible" geometries. MC Escher is still probably one of the most recognizable artists in the world today, all because way back in the 1800s, some dudes were like "this rule we've followed for two millennia is is hella ugly, what happens if I just ignore it."

Math, I think, is really cool because yeah sometimes it IS an incredibly intricate, logical, rational system of rules, but it's a shockingly resilient one, even when you start picking at threads. What might seem like an obviously necessary rule can turn out to be totally superfluous. And beyond being unnecessary, adhering to that rule only ever held us back from deeper understanding.

The development of imaginary numbers is a similar story of being brave enough to abandon common sense in search of deeper understanding, though that story is good mostly because everyone involved was a complete freak.

It's so funny to me that people think of Math/Mathematicians as being hyper-logical and rational. Like, have you seen some of the wild things hiding in the Math?

Did you know there are non-computable numbers?? (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaitin%27s_constant)

Did you know that there are things that are true, but we can't prove them??? (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6del%27s_incompleteness_theorems)

Did you know that we can prove that something exists, and yet never actually figure out what that thing is?? (https://mathworld.wolfram.com/NonconstructiveProof.html)

Math is crazy. Math is wild. Math hardly makes sense, and when you think you understand the weirdest parts of it, everyone who hears you explain it to thinks you're a gibbering lunatic.

"In mathematics you don’t understand things. You just get used to them." - von Neumann

(please share more unhinged math with me, i want to see more scary math)

[cobi-4056]

[E01] camera controls

Pictures

frozen motion;

blurred motion;

min. depth of field;

Writing

frozen motion;

During the last moments of her life, Lena walked around the room. She felt that time stopped around her. The air didn’t hit her the same way, she didn’t feel the effect of gravity on her body and the room didn’t have any sounds, save for her own breath. As she walked, she saw her mother crying by the bed, her hands covering her whole face and her body curling up to get as close as possible to Lena’s. She hadn’t felt the pressure of her mother’s torso on top of her own. She did her absolute best to reassure her mother, but no matter how hard she tried, her body had already stopped living. Now, this still moment was all she would ever see.

blurred motion;

It was way too late for him to be walking home. The night was only painted by a couple flickering light poles. There was no moon to guide his way. With every step he took, it felt like the lights behind him stayed as if to protect him from the darkness that insisted on enveloping him. He closed his eyes and tried to keep a steady breath but failed. The longer time dragged on, the more it seemed that some copies of his body dragged behind him. Some of them reached out to him to try and make him stay still, but he knew he had to get home as soon as possible, no matter how many figures around him tried to stop him.

depth of field;

Miriam forgot her glasses at home. She hadn’t noticed until she tried to read the sign at the entrance to her workplace, which meant she would have to act like a big girl and move on from it. She could always squint. 

To make things worse, they had to decorate the office for some stupid, unimportant celebration that she didn’t quite get. To her, it was torture. Being as much of a perfectionist as she was, she couldn’t just blindly set up the balloons and streamers wherever she wanted, she had to make sure that they looked at least symmetrical from every angle. She spent at least two hours fixing streamers, walking away, then squinting enough for the edges of the decorations to become less muddy. Whenever she noticed something off, she went back and repeated the process. At the end of the day, all of this adjusting and re-adjusting her eyes to fit whatever she needed caused her to have the worst, most constant headache.

challenges; –What difficulties did you find when trying to apply the three photographic techniques to writing? Writing this assignment was hard because I felt like I kept being too literal. I noticed that I’m not great at drawing comparisons (or metaphors, or similes, or literary devices in general), which made it very difficult for me to not erase everything I was writing for this exercise. The one that was the hardest for me was blurred motion, I kept switching ideas because I wasn’t satisfied with the way I was describing scenes. One of these ideas was about a ballerina that moved really quickly, so no one in the audience could see what she was doing. I’m really sad that I couldn’t make it work, because it could’ve been something gorgeous.

–What limitations did you find when you tried to apply these techniques to your photographs?

I have very mixed feelings about frozen motion. I think it can look really cool, but since the shutter speed has to be really fast, it’s really tricky to capture the right moment. These pictures also come out looking too dark or too bright, which is frustrating to me.

For blurred motion, I had trouble deciding why I would do that instead of trying to get a clearer picture. I stopped thinking about it that way after remembering The Making of a Perfect Martini by Guy Buffet. Now I’m leaning more towards the idea that movement/motion is worth capturing, since we don’t ever see someone standing perfectly still. Blurred motion is more similar to my eyes than frozen motion is.

As for the depth of field, I feel like I didn’t have much trouble. I love playing around with the lens and figuring out what you can and can’t focus on. What frustrated me a little bit was that sometimes I would see the perfect image through the viewfinder but the picture itself would come out blurry and not very good. 

[or0ch1maru]

𝟭𝟴+ 𝗺𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗿𝗻 𝗮𝘂

𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗜 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵 𝗔𝗸𝗮𝘁𝘀𝘂𝗸𝗶 𝗺𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝘄𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗰𝘁 𝗶𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺 𝗻𝘂𝗱𝗲𝘀/𝘃𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗼𝘀.

(𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳 𝗽𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴, 𝘁𝗼𝘆𝘀, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝗲𝘅𝘂𝗮𝗹 𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀)

•

𝗛𝗶𝗱𝗮𝗻:

-if you were in the compound, he’d hunt you down and finish what you ‘started’. Will literally snatch you away from a meeting if he ever so pleased.

-has an entire private album of pictures that he’ll pleasure himself too when you’re not around.

-no matter where he is, he’ll pull out his phone and stare at them, knowing that’s all his and can’t wait to get a moment alone with you so that he can see the real thing.

𝗞𝗮𝗸𝘂𝘇𝘂:

-would definitely be the type to print out a picture and keep it in his wallet. Getting a constant reminder of what’s waiting back at the compound for him.

-as much as he enjoys the photos, he loves getting videos. Will walk off without saying anything to a private area so he can take the time to watch the entire thing, relishing in the sweet whimpers and crying his name in peace.

-no matter how far away he is from the compound and you send him a video, he’ll turn right around and come back for you. Not being able to contain himself from feeling you.

𝗜𝘁𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗶:

-tries his hardest to remain calm but becomes easily flustered. He’d leave whatever he’s doing and find you. Would be the type to take the photos for you, help position you certain ways for the best angle.

-if he’s around people and you send him a pic, he’d do a double take, trying to inconspicuously turn his phone to look at it.

-his favorites are the ones that have your face in them. Loves to see the excitement on your face, cheeks pink from your arousal.

𝗞𝗶𝘀𝗮𝗺𝗲:

-he’d make it a bit obvious; staring at his phone for long periods of time and smiling. If someone was trying to talk to him, he’d blatantly ignore them.

-just like Hidan, his private album would be full of your naked form. Keeping it for times that you’re not around. Will find any empty bathroom to stroke himself to your pics. Would be the type to send videos back to you.

-loves pics from behind or underneath, where he can see your lips poke out a bit or when you’re on full display.

𝗗𝗲𝗶𝗱𝗮𝗿𝗮:

-he already considers you a form of art, so when you send him pictures he melts. Being able to see his own little art show, and it’s all for him.

-definitely becomes bright red and shy. Will cough or cause some kind of distraction around others to draw his behavior away from focus. Will disappear to find you during the chaos.

-his favorite pictures/videos are the ones where you use toys. Especially when you’re riding the dildo he got for you to use when he isn’t nearby.

𝗦𝗮𝘀𝗼𝗿𝗶:

-didn’t understand the excitement about receiving naughty pictures at the beginning but when he realized how artistic they were, he’d do anything to receive more.

-would send you dirty little texts to make you wet, and wanting to see how flustered he made you. Sasori would tell you what to do to yourself and would ask for pics/videos of you pleasuring yourself.

-he’d use your pictures as inspiration for drawings. Has an entire album in his room of sketches based off your photos.

𝗣𝗮𝗶𝗻:

-as tough as this man may seem, receiving anything mildly inappropriate from you sets this man off. Pink face and flustered. Not thinking any coherent thought.

-is very specific about the videos you send him. Prefers the ones where you use your vibrator, moaning his name as you cum over and over again.

-doesn’t have a special album for them and will never allow someone to touch his phone, not even to make a call.

𝗞𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗻:

-unlike her partner, her poker face is unbreakable. Nobody would know that she’s staring down at an up close and personal pussy picture.

-would praise you through text, saying how pretty you look and how much she misses being inside you. (Owns a strap and you can’t tell me otherwise), She would also send you messages that tease you, causing you to cum, and sending her a video of your juices dripping.

-she favors the nudes that you take while the two of you are being intimate. Whether that’s a pic of Konan’s hands wrapped around your breasts or a video of her fucking you.

𝗧𝗼𝗯𝗶/𝗢𝗯𝗶𝘁𝗼:

-despite his usual hyper behavior, nobody would know any different from how he reacts when you send him something dirty. Since he wears a mask, no one can see how red his face turned.

-if he’s around his comrades, he’d make up some stupid excuse to leave, just so he can come to your shared room and ogle at you. He enjoys watching you take the pictures, it’s a kind of teasing he enjoys.

-would become a turned on puddle and would send messages back. Telling you how much he craves you and his need to be inside you. Turning into a bit of a sub as he begs to be used.

𝗭𝗲𝘁𝘀𝘂:

-stays utterly silent as he stares at the naughty picture that popped up on his phone. Casually fades away to find you, or an empty area if you’re not close by.

-FaceTimes you so that the two of you can cum together, getting off as you watch the other pleasure themselves to you.

-as he waits for you to send another picture/vid, he’ll send an audio message of him moaning and whimpering as he strokes his hard cock, staring at the picture of you with your fingers deep in your little hole.