#not gonna post it because i was sorta half following a tutorial so it's not really my art

[luminescentmoth]

*deep breath* i am autistic with significant fine motor problems it's okay if I'll never be as good as professional artists. I am working within the confines of my ability and that in itself is enough. I don't need to be a miracle inspiration pushing past my limits I can just MAKE ART!

[phosphorus-noodles]

Hi everyone!!

Lots of people asked for the pattern I used for my Joel and Lizzie dolls, but due to my mental unwellness, my "pattern" was actually a chaotic blend of multiple patterns, as well as my own spontaneity.

Nonetheless, I am going to attempt to explain the method to my madness in this post! (Fair warning, it will get long.)

(If you actually want to try to recreate this please PLEASE reach out to me!!! I can go into way more detail and do diagrams and whatnot if you really wanna see the full idea!!!)

I'm gonna do my best to divide this up into sections based on how I made them, but because I modified a lot of things and Joel and Lizzie are clearly not the same, it may get a little muddled along the way, but here goes!

The Bodies

First thing's first, this is the link to the tutorial I used for the basic body shape. Super great video, easy to understand, fantastic starting point for any doll!! :D

For Joel, I followed the tutorial pretty exactly, minus that middle seam for a belt. I changed colors for the boots, pants, and coat and kept all the measurements the same.

For Lizzie, I modified her pattern to be a little bit bigger bc haha funny tall wife. On parts of the pattern where the stitch count stayed the same, I added a few more rows to make them longer. I added 4 rows to the legs, 3 rows to the chest, and two rows to the arms.

Like this!

listen I had to visualize it somehow-

I also did a gradient for Lizzie's arms/legs/tail! Here is the video I used to figure out how to do it (I don't have the measurements for where I changed colors I'm sorry I'm goofy </3)

Also, here is a link to a post where I half-heartedly liveblogged the early stages of making them. You can kinda get a rough idea of where I changed colors for different parts of their outfits, etc. but I only got two steps, really- oops.

The Clothes

Now, this is the part where I documented virtually nothing, but honestly, it still turned out just fine!

For Joel, I made boot and sleeve cuffs by just single crocheting a chain to fit around his arm/leg and adding a couple of sc (single crochet) rows. Then I sewed the ends together with a long yarn tail, used thinner gold yarn to add some detailing (look up backstitching! it works really well!!), and sewed the edges on.

His coat ends were made in the same way, but bigger, and instead of sewing the edges fully together, I only connected the top stitches when I was attaching it. And because I'm a messy sewer, I easily hid the seam with a black sc-chain belt :)

The gold details of his coat is also a sc-chain just sewed on. The edges at the bottom... were sorta a sc-hemming type deal-? I don't know, I winged it and I don't like how it turned out </3

The shoulder pads I actually can tell you! It's 5 sc in a magic circle, sc around, and then I picot stitched around in each stitch. Then I tied off a long tail and sewed it onto the top of the arms before I attached them. The badge/flower is the same pattern, but without the sc round in between the mc and the picots.

The sash was a little wonky doing it as a full loop the whole time, so it was basically a long rectangle and when I was attaching the ends together I did it under the shoulder things so it wouldn't be bulky and ugly on top. I think it's decently easy to understand from the pictures in the original post, but if not lmk! (if any of this is coming across at all then bless you tbh.)

The collar is just two rectangles I sewed side by side, they don't continue to the back at all bc they were ugly /lh

And this is the tutorial I used for the crown! I threaded a little piece of green yarn through to make the jewel and tied a knot in the back :)

For Lizzie, I literally made the skirt up as I went along, but it was roughly based on this video. I started with a sc chain to get the right size, then made it a rectangle for a couple of rows (maybe like four?) before joining it together. (That way, I could make the skirt separately and still be able to get it back on her when I was done without being too tight!)

At some point, I picked a stitch as my "center point" and started going back and forth from about that point instead of completing the full circle, doing half double crochets close to it, then double crochets, then triple crochets, then back to dc and hdc as I got close to it again. I think I did about 6-8 for each stitch type section? The GOAL was to make the skirt's hem asymmetrical, which worked, but it's hard to explain bc I literally made it up.

Then I made another sc chain for the belt thing after I attached it :)

The top detailing is also a sc chain, but with some joined yarn above the arms for extra color. There's also bits of yarn that are supposed to be straps, but you can't really see them in any of the pictures, so that's optional rip.

For the frilly hem, I joined the yarn at the "center point" and basically just worked around the whole hem repeating (1 dc, 2dc inc) to make it all wavy and fun!

The Hair

The pattern I based the hair off of was from this kpop star doll that I was originally going to base my entire Joel doll off of.

The difference is I changed the lengths of the strands (I did it based off looks, so all of them are slightly different in length to look more natural) and also color changed the very front few strands of Joel's hair to be green. I also put two strands in a few of the back stitches instead of just one so they completely covered the back of the head (so there are 15-16 strands instead of 14.)

To attach the hair, I used pins to mark out where I wanted to place each strand. Here's a quick progress shot I sent to my friends:

Now, I wasn't smart, and used long pieces of thread from tying off the "hair mop" to sew all the strands onto the head individually. It took forever and make it kinda messy in the back because of weird overlapping. If I could redo it now, I'd use fabric glue or something to glue each strand so it lays flat, although if you don't have it or want to avoid the potential mess, sewing it does in fact work just fine.

Extra Bits (mostly for Lizzie)

Lizzie's tail is more or less the same as her arm, but it starts thinner and goes for longer at the end. For the frilly edge, I remember using a crochet beta fish fin design, but I can't for the life of me find it in my history now?? But it was essentially joining the yarn a few stitches from the point and crocheting (hdc, dc 2x, tr, dc 2x, hdc, dc 2x, tr) and mirroring it on the other side so it looked like this:

Here's a closer view of both the tail and the skirt's hem.

Lizzie's fins were made by making a magic circle, chaining 4 and sc-ing back, and slip stitching back into the circle three times to make the three points. Then I joined onto one point with the lighter color and sc-ed along to the other point to make it more detailed.

Here's a cursed image I sent to my friends of bald Lizzie and her fins.

Lizzie's space buns were a fever dream to me because I made them at 1 am, but I did something that looks similar to this puff stitch flower with only three "petals." I attached it to the head and then used a short chain of another color to add some color and detail.

Here's a view of a bun from the top.

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I think that's just about it! If I missed anything or want to know how I did something better, please please PLEASE reach out to me!!

I'd love to go into more depth on things, but I predict this post will top off at 5 notes so I don't really want to spend hours explaining something that'll go completely unseen /lh

Nonetheless, I hope you enjoyed this little insight into the inner workings of my brain! Feel free to share and tag me in anything if you decide to try to do this yourself.

Cheers!! <3

[lulusoblue]

Headcanon: Casey Jones being on the Autistic Spectrum

I see plenty of neurodivergent headcanons for the turtles galore, but never for any of the human characters. In all honestly, saying one of the turtles is on the autistic spectrum is iffy and uncomfortable to me at least because it’s sorta implying that said autism would be the result of a mutation caused by an external element. Because it’s not like we’ve had shit over some dickhead portraying autism as a side effect of vaccination rather than it being a mental disorder that’s as embedded in our genes and beings as internal organs and a massive part of who we are as people. also fuck you wakefield

And so thinking about it more, it just clicked that Casey could fit an autistic headcanon. So here’s a list of things about his character I believe fit such a headcanon based on personal experience and from other autistic people I’ve known:

• Apparently the writers put him at around 17 years old, a year older than April, with some intent that he might have been held back during his education (probably to tie into him seeking April for tutoring). I don’t have any knowledge of American education beyond secondhand information I may see on the internet or pop up on my dash, so my only knowledge of being autistic in a learning system built around neurotypical students is from brief personal experience. Neurotypical education sucks when there isn’t enough awareness of learning difficulties or the teachers don’t have enough training to know how to handle it. Casey might have trouble with his education because he may have difficulties trying to pay attention and absorb information without the tools or support to help him focus. This can get you labelled as just bad behaviour or being dumb/stupid. I sure as hell wasn’t able to follow lessons in school until I finally had someone who listened to why I didn’t like lessons and found them hard to understand. We don’t have any clue as to when Casey was held back if this concept still applies in canon, but being held back might not mean he just didn’t care to study or doesn’t have the smarts to pass. Granted it gets harder to care about learning when you have trouble understanding and your educators don’t bother to help you so much as call you lazy. Which brings me to my next point.

• Casey’s interests and knowledge in gadgets, vehicles, and metalwork. The boy knows his stuff when it comes to Mad Max-looking makeshift weaponry and devices, which is clear from his decked out bike and the crude taser that he’s managed to strap to his arm without frying himself. He worked with Donnie to rig up a supercar as a hobby and helped pimp up the Party Wagon. And he’s still flunking trig. (so’s April but shhhhh that was just a Season 1 thing) Casey seems like a very visual learner in this case: he picks up on things through observation and is self-taught on what interests him. For all we know he figured out cars while being cooped up on a farm with nothing better to do while one of his terrapin friends was in a coma. I’ve ended up doing that with some programs I use or with life stuff in general. Manuals are boring and slow and easy to lose focus on. Maybe look up a couple of video tutorials for something but most of building skills and interests is self-teaching and trial-and-error. (my experience of video editing and art programs is “what’s this do and can i figure out what makes it tick without looking it up”, which is an approach to new interests I think also fits Casey). Likely not something specific or common in autistic people, but figuring things out in such a way has been a thing that popped up for me and a couple of old friends. What I’m saying is Casey made that new mask after half-watching a couple of cosplay tutorials and winging it with some scrap.

• Casey wears those gloves and that headband all the damn time. Even when he’s eating pizza, he’s eating it wearing gloves that have probably been worn working on his bike, wielding a hockey stick/baseball bat that’s likely bashed sweaty heads in rain two weeks ago without being washed, and just the day-to-day things that would get those gloves sweaty or grimey or icky. He wears that headband at all times, even when he’s wearing a mask thank would probably fit better if he took that band of material off of his head. What do his headband and gloves also have in common? They’re articles of clothing that usually have elastic to stay in place. Sure canonically they’re just there to fit his grungy look (get to that hoodie in a second), but digging myself deeper into this headcanon i got to thinking they might also serve sensory/stimming purposes. If there’s something that I think is one thing autistic people have in common or a feeling they share, it’s fiddling/fidgeting and certain sensory things to some level: e.g. I usually wear loose tops because i like fiddling with the hems and corners of my clothing. Some people wear tight or loose clothing based on how they process the sensation of skin against different type of clothing. Casey never taking off his damn gloves or headband could be seen as him liking the sensation of the elastic in them around his wrists and forehead. He probably pings the elastic as well because that’s fun too when you’re bored and need to fiddle.

I refuse to believe that he has never washed that hoodie. I mean yeah the turtles have smelt worse living in a sewer but Casey is a Human who has spent most of his life around Humans and his Human father would probably have burnt his clothes by now if Casey never washed the stink out of them. That and Casey is a hockey player, and I imagine stinking clothes is an annoyance that comes from most sports. Those paint stains on his hoodie I think he’s leaving there on purpose, like he’ll wash his clothes but no dad his clothes get washed separate because he can’t wash his clothes with your clothes because you use stuff that lifts stains and that’ll get rid of the paint splats that he likes on his clothes and why does he want paint splats because he does and they look nice and he probably won’t get the same splatter pattern again if he tried and shush dad this hoodie stays the same because it has to because shut up. We don’t really see Casey tagging anything regularly so unless it’s because they don’t change the texture on animated models because what’s the point it’s not a cgi blockbuster we’re making here Casey probably keeps his paint splattered hoodie like that because it looks nice and it’ll stay nice dad. It’s a Thing.

• Casey constantly refers to a love of heavy metal music. Too much sound for an autistic person can end up in sensory overload and that fucking sucks. And in general just the world around you can suck and you wanna shut it out because ugh. You know what helps? Headphones and really loud music. What genre has really loud music? Yup.

Casey having a social battery. He just pops in and out of the show all the time because the writers dunno what do with him shrug so yeah. Autism likes to play up the variance of a person’s social needs and wants and limits. You want to be friends but you just can’t be asked to be with people right now. You get this surge of wanting to hang out with friends and be loud for a bit, and then you have this mood where you just want to not exist or just not do things. Basically like this:

“raph great to see you i love your face” “whatever weirdo”

[dude where are you] [home] [you’ve been at home for three days] [i’m waiting until i stop hating faces to talk in person again]

If anyone has any other things to add to this headcanon, please do share/add onto this post. Now if you’ll excuse me i’m gonna dig myself further into this headcanon.

EDIT: I forgot another point I wanted to put in and also @a-specforest added some cool addon tags so broski if you don’t mind imma put them here too

• #okay so one symptom of autism is speaking in ’pre learned phrases’ #and casey has a ton of catchphrases • #sometimes speaking in a tone that doesn’t match the conversation? #casey does that a lot too • #he seems to have a few hyperfixations #in season 2 he’s practicing hockey late by himself #and the working on cars that you mentioned

1) how else would he come up with Goongala of COURSE!!! That and pre-learned phrases are great to have when spontaneous speech is a bitch and you trip over words and stammer. not that i would know anything about that nooo We’ve already heard him muddle up words in the moment (I think he said jumbled up “racism” later in S4)

2) Tone control is something I’ve dealt with, too. Apparently I have resting bitch voice so I’ll say something and get asked if i’m in a bad mood or snapped at for “being rude”. Also knew other autistic people who would have ranges of tones in certain convos too, e.g. one always sounded happy and chipper and laughed a lot even when something wasn’t particularly funny, one person’s tone of voice went everywhere it was hard to tell what their feelings were even with the context of conversation. Casey’s attitude and tone in conversation, even serious ones, might be an indication of that, I agree.

3) Oh yeah, he definitely fits hyperfixation. There’s his hobbies, and also there’s how he sees his future. When he and April are in the park for their first study session, he’s got two clear ideas for what to do with his life; Hockey Star or Bounty Hunter. With him immediately trying to play hero when confronted with a walking talking tank of organs his bounty hunter fantasy may have something to do with it. He’s reckless and headstrong, but it also lends to his fixation on one of his dream careers; if fighting a monster that he’s confronted with something he sees as a step to bounty hunting, he’ll likely put up his dukes and get melted because ACID HANDS I have definitely known people who were determined on doing something because it was what they wanted. It might’ve come across as stubbornness or rigidness depending on what it (even something as simple as just doing something like a chore a certain way), but in context of ambitions and their future they were pumped as hell to take the steps they needed to take to do what they liked and what they wanted for themselves. They didn’t care about what people thought of them even if they didn’t pass as neurotypical and would get stares on the street. Not sure how they would react if say culinary career path involved fighting mutated food, but considering the show itself is an action-adventure cartoon with mutant turtles I think we can give Casey a pass on that lack of realism there. we begrudgingly give the writers passes all the time so why stop now

Aaaand the point i forgot to put in my original post:

• Casey’s less-than appropo reactions or attitudes in situations possibly links to difficulty reading people, being empathetic or understanding social cues/priorities. Reading and understanding facial expressions and body language can be a bitch if you’re autistic. There’s even a learning software program a couple of students from my school would use in one-to-one sessions that specifically addresses this for those who find it THAT hard to tell what another person is expressing. It’s especially troublesome because empathy can be a confusing thing too, because it can go from you not really having any empathy to you having so much that you think you’re hurting the feelings of a pair of shoes because you chose to wear something else that day which totally isn’t the extreme i experience at all hahaha help i’m mentally apologising to a boot Casey doesn’t appear to take things seriously in dangerous circumstances the majority of the time, nor does he appear considerate of others at other times. It’s a lot of confidence and certainty that things will turn out OK (with a heaping spoonful of “self preservation instinct what self preservation instinct”). It’s not always an appropriate attitude to make jokes and quips and tease and make jabs at people, but he HAS taken things seriously and shown worry/sadness at appropriate times. He’s really quiet and almost numb when the subject of his family’s fate comes up in Invasion, and he was surprisingly the only one to be most affected after watching someone get mOLECULARLY RIPPED APART. From experience, both personal and through observation, figuring out how to react and respond to things when you don’t really know how to is a pain in the ass and often distressing because you feel bad for not knowing. Sometimes you resort to humour to lighten things and try to ease tensions, sometimes you have an internal screaming match with yourself and panic and go through an archive of potential reactions because what the fuck would apply here, or sometimes you just shut down or just don’t react like it’s not really a big deal or even happening. Or you end up going through verbal barfing and dig yourself deeper into a hole of instant regret because you’re making yourself look like an ass when you don’t want to why is this so hARD. I think Casey would fall into the “address things with confidence and cockiness” kind of reaction pool, because it’s an attitude he’s comfortable with and how he better deals and processes things. It’s not to say he doesn’t have some empathy or disregard for other people’s feelings (hello Buried Secrets), it could be that it’s not comfortable territory for him even when he wants to be serious/emotionally supportive. did any of that come out right fffffffffU

• Casey’s small social circle and it possibly being by choice. His best friends are the girl who he met through tutoring in a subject she was failing before and four giant turtles who are trained in ninjutsu. He only mentions having one friend before, a friend with whom he had a falling out, and he didn’t seem to like Irma all that much (you can say it’s because “she’s a third wheel on dates” but even outside of that he didn’t seem to get along with her much). With things like hyperfixation and the like making a vast group of friends is tricky. Being autistic might mean the friends you choose to make have lots of interest in common with you rather than just being someone you get along with. Not to say being autistic means you are limited to a few friends. I’m no expert on autistic social lives, I can only draw from firsthand experience. I found trying to maintain a number of friendships difficult and often overwhelming so at some point in school I stopped trying to make friends, with the exception of a couple of people I liked and had common interests with. I chose to keep my social circle small because the thought of making lots of friends and keeping in touch with them all and remembering who likes who and what overwhelmed me and made me nervous as a child. Still kinda leaks into adulthood because I don't have many friends outside of the company I keep on tumblr. In this autistic headcanon, Casey’s very small social circle could be by choice. He doesn’t mention having any other friends besides one previously, fixates on April (and yes I am knocking the romantic aspect out the window for this) after approaching her for tutoring because he found her cool and likes hanging out with her (and probably saw kicking a mutant’s ass as common ground/bonding too), hung out with her even when a person he wasn’t keen on (Irma) was also there, and even when he’s introduced to the turtles and befriends them he still appears to be platonically closest to April arguably, depends on how the writers want to write him that week. Considering how the love triangle bullhockey has been given little to no reference as of late, his concern for April in Tokka vs the World and his annoyance at Leo’s teamup picks in Tale of Tiger Claw might be more because he can’t be with his favourite person. (and yes that can be a Thing too) He might also fixate on having April’s company because she isn’t much of a social butterfly herself outside of the friendly neighbourhood mutants living in the sewer. Compare how many times we see him hanging out with the turtles minus April versus when April is present.