#not too happy with my final photos

[marigoldendragon]

I did an oil painting of Jade! I wasn't sure who I wanted to paint, so I rolled a dice and Jade was the lucky winner. I had a lot of fun doing this one, I need to use my paints more often.

And I took a whole bunch of photos of the process, so you guys can see how it came into being!

First things first. Planning. Traditional painting doesn't have the luxury of being able to make sweeping changes as you go like you can with digital, so if you generally want to plan ahead.

Next I printed out my lineart onto some watercolour paper and taped it to a board. I then sealed the print/paper with some clear acrylic medium and painted my tape white because it was bright fucking green and would throw off my colour mixing. My set up is pretty simple. I have a jar of mineral turpentine with a strainer at the bottom to clean my brushes on, my palettes are just boards with wax paper clipped onto them (easy cleanup) and a roll of paper towels and some rags for cleanup. And I also use an medium that both thins out my paint and helps it dry faster, otherwise oils can take months to fully cure.

I planned out all my colours in advance, so all I had to do was mix up the appropriate shades and then pretty much play paint by numbers.

The general process is block out each colour and then do whatever blending is required. If you want a harsh shadow you dont do too much blending, if you want a soft shadow you use a fluffy brush and go over the area multiple times.

And then you just go around area by area filling it in as you go. Of course there's a whole lot of different techniques and processes for completing a painting. This is just what I did for this specific painting.

And he's done! He took a few days to dry, even with the added fast drying medium. There's a few areas I'm not happy with, but I would cannibalise any colour on my palette by mixing it into the next colour I was going to use. So sans re-mixing that exact specific paint, I couldn't go back in to touch up anything.

The digital planning stage was done the evening before, and the painting stage was about 6 hours? So all in all anywhere from 8-10 hours total for this.

If you guys have anymore questions (this was a pretty brief overview) feel free to dm me or leave a comment or whatever. I don't bite and am happy to help anyone out there looking to improve thier skills, or satisfy anyone's curiosity.

[sparrowmoth]

This was the kiss he’d been waiting for. It was a gunshot. It was prairie fire. It was the spin of Makker’s Wheel. Jesper felt the pounding of his heart—or was it Wylan’s?—like a stampede in his chest, and the only thought in his head was a happy, startled, Oh.

Please do not use, edit, or repost my art without permission.

[suddenly-frankenstein]

my stupid ass in my halloween victor frankenstein outfit (successfully stayed at home)

[elguritch-art]

more post session brainworms of the cowboy, things have not in fact gotten better and he's in fact more tired then he's ever been every single week <3 now with added trauma triggering!

Virgil Lawrence | He/Him | 212 Years Old | Ex-Sabbat Brujah Vampire

Session/Image Context below:

finally got his coterie mate's crazy tremere ex dead and gone, and then had to listen to a baby sabbat brujah's entire life and family collapse around her. also he got a new knife for free (by being stabbed)!

PoV you're the Boston Prince (who totally deserved this) and have been in office 100 years after your predecessor was also killed by being thrown off a building by the same cowboy.

PoV you're a coterie member who pissed off the already EXTREMELY on edge and furious brujah by rebuking his attempts to suicide bait you and he just drew his 10+ pool revolver.

damn hard to stay keeping it together when you see and hear the ghosts of your kindred loved ones all around you all the time and in the words spoken by those around you, without anyone meaning to do it

[fisheito]

emotional support wolf meets too-shy-to-live sneetah

[hide-your-bugs-away]

Quite a zoo you got there, Connie... 👀🐾

(more photos under the cut!)

[saturngalore]

SUMMER RENAISSANCE

[eighthwholove]

You can never go wrong with Withnail and I, so enjoy these as your Monday...present..

(Bonus Eight n Charley, it wouldn't be right without them.)

[not-poignant]

Hi Pia! You said that you need another vacation after this vacation, so I am not sure, how puppy situation, even if it partual custudy, affecting you ( may be you in panic when he is there and then recovering when he is not, and then round and round? ), but really, If you need another vacation, I hope you know we will be here to support you for it!

It's been nearly 4 weeks now since we got Toby so I feel like I can talk about this with a bit of a clear head.

(Talk of like an actual PTSD meltdown beneath the read-more, including self-harm mention - nothing graphic. There's zero obligation for anyone to read this, especially for folks who don't think authors should ever be honest about being people with issues):

So, I've been kind of quiet about aspects of this, but I have like severe treatment-resistant PTSD and C-PTSD, and puppies specifically are one of my triggers (especially if I'm responsible for them). The reason for that is kind of awful, and I don't really want to talk about some of the things I've experienced/been through that led to that, so let's just move onto the next part. You're kind of right anon, there has been panic while he is here lol.

As a result, I had a severe meltdown the first time I tried to adopt a dog many years ago now. Could not last 24 hours, needed weeks/months to recover.

But I've always wanted to share my life with a dog and I've been in a somewhat better space over the past year or so, and I thought I could maybe handle it better. I told myself 'if I can just get through that 24 hours I'll realise it's okay and it will all work out.' Anon I cannot tell you where this thinking came from, but it was wrong. Idk why past me was kind of naive enough to think this way but here we are.

No, after that 24 hours, it got temporarily better, and then I slammed into consecutive meltdowns, each one worse than the next, until the people around me were afraid for my life. I am still recovering from some of the harm I inflicted on myself during the last three weeks and likely will be for some time to come. The combination of a really intense PTSD relapse, as well as not being able to handle (as an AuDHD person) intense changes to my schedule basically compounded and I broke.

I made the decision to rehome Toby, and first contacted the people around me. Glen's mum said she wanted a dog, and had been specifically looking into dogs like Toby anyway, and so we decided this would be best because then I could still be involved (I love Toby to pieces).

After getting some space, I finally started to adjust, and have gone back to having Toby about 4~ days a week, with a view to going to about 6 days, with one day spent with my mum, or Glen's mum.

Today is the first day I was able to handle having him on my own for around 9.5 hours. And I'm here and able to write about it, so that's progress. He'll be here all day Sunday, and then Tues-Weds-Thurs-Friday. And from there a decision will be made as to where I'm at with my mental health etc.

I'm a bit more hopeful now that I might be able to keep him, but my PTSD is still very very bad. I'm having some nights where I'm simply not sleeping until 7.30am (even if he's not here), and my hypervigilance is crazy. Like, I am having so many auditory flashbacks it's stupid. So this is why I've been saying this break hasn't been very restful or productive. Because my mental health tanked like I detonated a landmine inside myself.

I didn't actually plan the two week break for Toby! That was just a coincidence honestly.

Unfortunately I have a lot of health conditions that respond very poorly to stress, so I'm dealing with those now too. And then additionally, in all of this, I had a breast scan / mammogram / ultrasound that has confirmed a suspicious lump I found a couple of months ago (breast cancer runs in the family), and I suspect I'm going to need a biopsy. I'll find out on Monday if that's the case. That's been in the background and hasn't been helping.

There's some other stuff going on that's not really worth talking about because these are the main things, but that's a good picture I think. It turns out 'just getting through the first 24 hours' doesn't magically make a severe PTSD trigger go away. And that forced exposure is not 'exposure therapy' - that's just reinforcing a trigger.

Anyway! I feel like I'm through the worst of it, and I am seeing glimpses of how my life could be richer if I keep getting through this. But...that's why I think another break. *smiles tiredly.* I have to wait a bit now for the PTSD / C-PTSD symptoms to settle down, and I also need to see what's kind of worsened after this. Realistically, with a relapse to this degree, it could take between 3-6 months to really start recovering, or to at least get back to where I was before December.

I hope with all my heart I can get there with Toby by my side. I love him so much.

(I want to add that Toby has never ever been in a position of harm at any point, and in fact I probably put myself in harm's way for his sake, because I wanted to provide solid continuity of care - in case anyone was worried about that).

Er so yeah! But I've picked up my writing again this week and have been able to do some like...things I'd been neglecting, and I feel more human again, I just hope I get some sleep tonight

[flamestar126]

Snuggling near the fire

Click for better quality

[neriyon]

Looking at Chili in the Clive outfit... sir those look heavy... do you need someone to hold them?

[messedupessy]

LOOK AT ALL MY BÖYS! UwU ❤

So was my birthday last week so I decided to order a Pokemon plush for myself, the Giratina who I been wanting for awhile, but then I found out about the Ceruledge plush and it's legit my fave gen 9 mon so brought it too! And today they both arrived and I am so happy with them!!! ❤ Ceruledge's limbs are even bendable so they gonna ride Giratina into battle!

3rd image is all my pokemon plushes I currently have, the Lugia and Sobble I brought this year too I think, the other two I got years ago during conventions! And lastly some FF14 art books etc I brought the other day while hanging out with a friend as I love that game so much!

But yeah just wanted to show off my growing collection a bit haha!

[flintbian]

Well, one year to go

[oneknightlight]

2 months of improvement dude. That’s fucking insane I’m so proud

[hide-your-bugs-away]

CALL MY ROOM A ZOO BECAUSE THERE ARE A LOT OF ANIMALS IN HERE.

[blackidyll]

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