#now you all know what my traditional art looks like
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The end of the year can be tough for a lot of people. My goal is to make it a little bit brighter! Announcing once again the return of..
The Portal Holiday Spirit Initiative!
To help bring a smile to people's faces this year, I am sending FREE Portal-Themed Holiday Cards to anyone who requests one!
This year's cards follow the same format as last year: there is only one card design, this time featuring artwork from your's truly! The cards are still customizable to any Winter Holiday of your choosing, but you'll have to wait for your card to arrive in order to customize it (the method takes cues from the Portal game's sense of humor, and is very much on-brand).
This year is PHSI's 6th year! I'm so grateful to everyone who has participated over the years, whether you've reblogged and shared, requested cards, helped with artwork, or helped in other ways. You all are so amazing! Thanks for volunteering your time, talents, and support to help make PHSI a special fandom tradition!
If you would like to receive a Portal-Themed Holiday Card:
Visit bit.ly/PHSI-2024 ...
Answer the questions in the forms...
Wait for your card to be sent!
It's that easy! Card Requests are now open, and close on December 20th in order to give me enough time to make and send all the cards before the end of the year. Please submit sooner rather than later so I have time to finish them all!
Also, please don’t be afraid to request a physical card if you don’t live in the US! The card service I use says they ship worldwide and, while it might take a bit longer for you to receive your card depending on what country you live in, the cards will get mailed to whatever address you provide, domestic or foreign. Last year I mailed/emailed a total of 111 cards to the United Kingdom, Canada, United States, Brazil, Romania, Poland, Australia, Germany, India, Japan, and New Zealand!
I’m glad to be a part of the Portal Fandom and hope to bring a smile to others in the Fandom this year, just as in years past! Designing and emailing Holiday Cards takes time and effort, and sending physical cards is expensive. While it isn't a requirement to receive a card, I would greatly appreciate if you'd like to give $4 to cover the cost of your card or someone else's. Please visit ko-fi.com/247testing and click the Donate button if you want to help out. Thanks!
Answers for common questions and concerns below:
Worried about providing a mailing address, for whatever reason?
PHSI has an eCard option! All you need to provide is a name for me to call you by and an email address to receive your card!
Worried about requesting a card because you don’t live in the US?
PHSI mails to any address provided, whether domestic or foreign! However, please wait patiently for your card, due to the current global rate of shipping.
Worried that you can’t give $4 to cover the cost of your card or someone else’s?
Requesting a card from PHSI has been and will always be FREE! However, giving $4 to the initiative helps me pay for the printing service and postage to mail physical cards. I gratefully appreciate any contributions received, even if it’s just a comment saying thanks!
Worried because you don’t know how to support the artist of the card you received?
The artist’s social media is listed on the back of every card featuring their artwork. Look them up, commission them, reblog their art, and support them however you can!
Worried because you haven’t received your card yet?
Double check your email inbox and junk folders. I send everyone an email that either confirms your Holiday Card has shipped or includes your eCard! Physical cards take 1-2 weeks to arrive. If your physical card fails to show up after the first week of January, please reach out to me and I’ll send you a replacement eCard!
Worried because you received your card and don’t know what to do now?
Make a post about it! Include pictures, videos, or anything you’d like, and tag me in the post (@24-7-testing) so I can reblog it! If you don’t want to show your card off, that’s ok too!
#PHSI 2024#portal holiday spirit initiative 2024#6th year of phsi!#psa#please boost#portal fandom#still alive#aperture science#aperture laboratories#portal#portal 2#fandom tradition
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oh gosh (ok long post)
That isn’t even all of them. First of all your enthusiasm for some random sketches is unbelievable. I’m going to cryyy
Ok ANYWAY
I don’t have any story ideas for this. Like, I’m not even settled on these designs, they keep changing. I don’t even know what splinter or April would look like. Again, I did this for fun. Sorry these are very sloppy lol
Leo is a diamondback terrapin, and Donnie is a freshwater terrapin. They are drastically more colorful than the regular green turtles, but…I dunno. This is more for the hardcore tmnt fans who love giving turtles markings and whatnot. Leo looks a little too…young and childish to be a leader? But at the same time, I really wanted to pass the “irregular teeth” baton to him. I thought maybe nobody would be leader now, and just be starting out their whole “ninja vigilante” thing.
I want to be new with each character as much as possible- and for Donnie, I decided he’s the “almost never talks” type. Just big, observant autistic eyes. (Think ferb from phone as and ferb.) don’t worry, he’s still a evil scientist like every other Donatello out there.
Raph is a map turtle, and Mikey a bog turtle.
I’m not too happy with Mikey’s design, being to similar with rise, but I still wanted shape language and color that matched him (which rottmnt did very well.) Mikey is again a living incarnation of ADHD, I just can’t take that away from him. Always wearing around headphones to keep him busy.
Raph is short again, and now looks like a weird 2012/rise hybrid. But again, those shows are good for a reason. I didn’t even mean to make him so similar. Also adhd type, but he’s prone to getting impatient and angry over insults. Troubled soul, he doesn’t actually want to lash out when he’s overstimulated. (Definitely not a self insert, nope haha)
every turtle is an artist of some kind- Donnie obviously rocks machines. He also does all that hacking jazz, scamming scammers, and programming. Leo is an AVID writer. I’m talking an entire library of TV show fanfiction that’s quite popular. Even original stories. (I actually got this from rise Leo, which people tend to ignore his fascination for “betrayals”. Also he wrote gram-gram a mini book.) Raph is the artist again, digital and traditional art. He could totally makes sprites for games to collaborate with Donnie’s coding skills. Mikey is into making music too, mixing preexisting music and playing instruments.
Their gear outfits wouldn’t be worn as often as casual hoodies, trenchcoats, and human clothes. I don’t think ppl in NY would even care and probably think they’re furries 💀
…I think that’s it. Oh and sketches.
thank you for coming to my Ted talk
I know that tmnt peaked at rise,,, but what if I made my own version. For fun. I have ugly sketches available for those who are interested
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ok fuck it. system tinder post. yes this is cringe. no i don't care i do what i want forever. NOT a joke post at all (it is a little silly though.) our protectors only let me get away with this because they think it's funny. mostly i just think it's funny because it makes me feel like i'm trying to convince you to adopt us, which is accurate. anyway enjoy my sales pitch
also sorry if this clogs the tags (feel free to block us. there will be no hard feelings) -cass
System Tinder Post
System (20) seeking Partner System(s) (18+)
Are YOU& over 18 and seeking a NEW QPR/PARTNER SYSTEM?? Look no further than US, THE COSMOS. Interested? Have more questions? Want a follow-up interview? Just want to say hi? That's all great! Send an ask, DM, or reply to this post.
We are: American, white, collectively nonbinary and transmasculine, disabled, autistic, OCD, polyamorous, objectum (but not POSIC), kinky, therians General interests: Minecraft & Hermitcraft, Baldur's Gate 3, art, writing, space and astronomy, disability activism, cartoons, sleeping, some bugs, clowns, original characters Ask privately for: fandoms, other interests, any more specific details (trying not to dox us too much here bc this is a sideblog)
What we NEED in a partner system: covid-conscious, anti-zionist, anti-transmedicalism, endo-friendly What we would PREFER in a partner system: having literally anything in common with us in terms of likes/identity What we are interested in: whatever the vibes are (platonic/romantic/sexual/whatever)
Love language: does not speak unless spoken to, but when spoken to, will NOT shut up ever. at first, needs constant reassurance we are not bothering you. our host gets b&w thinking VERY easily so you might need to be persistant in checking on us, however we will do the same for you. would love to get to know you and eventually maybe video call. will send you cool pictures and stuff that reminds us of you.
Trivia:
collectively a gemini
ate our twin in the womb
sleep with dozens of plushies on the bed (all of them are named)
have known about our plurality for over 8 years
currently have about 40-ish members but we are not counting
have had at least one in-system wedding
have had the same special interests for several years now
our regular pizza order is a cheese pizza plus pineapples, onions, and green bell peppers
we cover everything we own in stickers
our christmas tradition consists of making hot cocoa and watching the same movies every year
we are REALLY good at making kandi but we don't normally wear it
red knows how to play a kalimba/thumb piano and a ukulele (but he hates to admit it because he had a cringy soft-boy phase a few years ago)
jam can juggle!
crush makes his own plushies
several of us can code HTML/CSS
caspar and red can often be found watching bluey together when cass is regressed
avid players of Pokemon Go (have caught 2 shinies!)
we each have a favorite pokemon!!! ask what they are
we collect a lot of stuff (pins/buttons, keychains, plushies, mugs, hats, stickers)
ok if you read this far i feel like you are at least obliged to say hi in the notes
#💙 cass#endo safe#pluralgang#pro endo#plurality#partner system#plural4plural#t4t#sys4sys#plural system#actually plural#system stuff#plural community
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Mixed media Roddi coming your way!
#transformers#art#maccadam#fanart#transformers art#maccadams#idw rodimus#rodimus#tf rodimus prime#tf rodimus#idw mtmte#tf idw#tf idw1#i haven't done one of these in a while#now you all know what my traditional art looks like#i exclusively do mixed media oh no
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Publishing has always been a fucking nightmare, but now it’s a layer of hell. It’s not enough that writers be good at what they do. Writers have to maintain an active social media presence and cultivate a following. Be available.
They have to be conventionally attractive enough to look good enough to see on a screen, aesthetically pleasing, kind, funny, up-to-date on trends, socially aware but not so controversial that they turn off a brand from California from slapping their discount code on a video promoting a book.
They have to do all of this with no media training, with little help from the companies that are supposed to be doing this for them.
Of course, a lot of this isn't possible for say, the 40-something mother of two who teaches English at a school and writes on the side. She’s boxed out of an already complex industry that already has enough walls.
On some level, I think authors have always marketed themselves a little, but we’ve reached such a crazy point where we’re demanding the author become the influencer. Accessibility in publishing has narrowed from an inch to a sliver. And that inch was hard enough to get in as is.
#This is about traditional publishing but there’s pretty privilege and ageism in self publishing too#I can’t think of the last time I saw an up and coming author recording videos who was over thirty#And frankly that’s a shame#It could be that I’m not looking hard enough#but it’s more likely that algorithms are trained the way they are#truly I don’t think they should have to do any of that at all#And forgive me but (and I know it’s rich because I’m an artist on a platform) but art shouldn’t be at the mercy of an algorithm#Now there’s also something to be said about self publishing becoming easier and easier to achieve success in#And doors opening because of influencer status is real and makes publishing wider in a way#But that doesn’t mean it’s accessible#I’m not gonna plaster my health issues over the wall but that life is certainly not accessible to me!#are you healthy enough to write and make sure people on social media still want to like your stuff#are you mentally well enough to be your own pr#I’m sure people who have studied this have more to say and have said it better but this is what I’ve observed#writing#publishing#publishing industry
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might have accidentally cooked up another AU
but hey, it’s sonic related and it is Friday, so why not
For context they are these things called Marble Critters I made a long while back, basically just pokemon but instead of pokeballs you use magical marbles, totally not an outcome after little me made too many fakemon and came up with the idea to make them their own thing
Sonic is a bunkgehog, which are supposed to be skinny and practically rabid, but made an exception for Sonic since I had no other hedgehog marble critters, so no need to worry about cannibalistic tendencies, yet
meanwhile Tails is a Kitdrop, which are supposed to have three tails, so technically in this au the twin tails are a downgrade, at least the little dude can still fly, so he has that going for him
I’m still developing this AU and honestly planning to have it be somewhat of a crossover instead of a roleswap like I usually do, to include regular marble critters and other characters from the original thing
I’ll probably post more about this some other time when I have more drawings to show, until then, have a great weekend
#My childhood comes back to haunt me#/j#little me was pretty messed up#I kind of enjoy revisiting this old thing#gives me liberty to be evil with this one since MC be like that#shadow is totally not gonna end up in the main villain’s hands#what are you talking about#I have no good bunkgehog drawings#all the old ones look wonky#I do have one from inktober but that one has to come with a blood warning#debating if I should post about the source material sometime#I’ll probably have to anyway for context#don’t got much else to ramble about for now so normal tag time#sonic the hedgehog#sth#miles tails prower#sonic au#unbreakable bond#sonic appreciation friday#sonk#don’t know if including tails messed it up#marble critters#bunkgehog#kitdrop#traditional art#marble critter au
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HEY
#art#my art#artists on tumblr#digital art#oc#pink space#i really like the subtract glitch i've been doing recently - so here's some of that again lol :3#the way it interacts with their palettes is so fun i like it a lot ehegh :33#//anyway do you ever consider just tossing out any part the human body you've learned to draw and just drawing dumb little guys with arms#like pipecleaners forever or what hfhs#//oh this is was doobled in traditional originally#i need to digitize more of these. Because#though aura's hair was more extreme in the second panel in that version - i'm tired though and 3 days ago it was the same so no feelings to#change that lol :)#also i didn't shrink the noise enough so it didn't look right - and i was not going to reimport it so Bon Voyage my dude hfhs#was Supposed to fit on a 900x900 canvas but i made the panels a liiiiitle bit too big so it's 950x950#which is Fine it's a round number but it's not a Round-Round number so [gesturing]#1000x1000 was way too big for this little thing so she sits at a pleasant halfway point :>#//anyway i was also up til 3 a.m. last night doing ?? something ?? i genuinely don't even know what lmfhsbvh#nice though maybe my brain'll get a reset lol :3#stay up really late some random nights and jumpstart your brain!! it's foolproof!! never fails!! [<- these statements have not been reviewe#by the FDA or the Center for Sleep Control]#//ANywho now i'm going to be on my way#/oh i also forgot to post the oath n aura refs i made for artfight lol-#i'll prolly put those up w/ the kira and hid ones though :>>#i like to have the whole ensemble :D i Do feel bad when one of them gets left out hghsfh - like forgetting a stuffed animal somewhere#even though they're all together for small portion of the story it still feels off lol#i should prolly introduce the rest of the cast at some point. .... ......... ..........hm yea prolly. maybe one day hfhs#//anyway NOW i'm going i've run out of tag space i think hfhs - toodles !! :>
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fish......
#art#traditional art#watercolour#embroidery thread#oc art#ocs#oc group: unsorted#oc: unnamed#i gotta name him. my guy whos secretly a school of fish pretending to be human#this was another study i made for class along with a few other doodles of this guy. then i got kinda roasted by my TAs lol#wasnt their fault i think they were just tired and stressed. plus theyre like the same age as me. i know what its like being 25 LOL#it did discourage me a lot in the moment because despite the everything about me thats probably apparent both through my blog and irl#i keep my art passions really REALLY closed off irl LOL so at the time i was like just barely stepping my toe out and showing my truth:#that all i do all day is draw dorky oc stuff HDKJSDS i did kinda immediately get called cringe in all but the actual word orz#it was a bummer but i think i feel better about it now. especially because again my TAs are the same age as me or younger than me#and im not gonna let a 25 year old calling me cringe get me in my head HKFSKJFDSd plus again i think they were just stressed and in a mood#because other times theyve been chill even when giving a harsh critiques so it mightve just been like. something in the air#but you know. isnt that a bit of a milestone in its own right. being called cringe in your fine arts class critique <3#but i still like my funny guy from my dream. hes just a normal ass looking guy. who is made of fish :)
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@katkastrofa: *writes a single throwaway line in one chapter of Lost and Found that is never referenced again*
Me, completely randomly and with no prompting: Alright, bet–
#my art#artists on tumblr#the legend of korra#original characters#as if I don’t have enough of those already#I really don’t know what possessed me here. I mean. sometimes my mind did drift to this mention of Zaheer’s sisters#because broken bonds is my absolute favourite LaF chapter. but I ever really thought of them that much since Kat never brought them up agai#and then about 24h ago I randomly remembered them again and was like. hey. p’li and ghazan’s sisters play a huge role in our stories#and ming-hua is an only child. so what of zaheer’s sisters? what are they like? do they ever cross his mind? are they aware of his crimes?#and in the afternoon I went digging through my art supplies bc I felt like painting and found my old 2020-2022 sketchbook with 2 empty page#so I thought. why not. it’s been a while since I’ve done traditional art. so I pulled up a reference of rich EK outfits from the artbooks#and got to work. drew this up in about half an hour? traditional sketching is a lot faster than digital for some reason#then took a picture and cleaned up and coloured in procreate. and I’m really happy with the end result#this was hella fun to do as well so.. win-win?#alright enough backstory rambling. on to the characters themselves#I looked up Zaheer’s name and apparently that particular spelling is urdu in origin. so I went off that#the article I found was written edited and fact checked by three pakistani women so I think it’s about as trustworthy as these things go#summiya means ‘a woman of proper name’ and aiza means ‘respected high place in society’. which I thought were fitting for noble girls#for outfits and hairstyles. like I said. I turned to the avatar artbooks. those things are life savers. I just played around with colours#looks wise I colour picked from zaheer and then shifted around a little so they look similar enough yet not like clones of each other#but they’re also teenagers here so they wouldn’t resemble book 3 Zaheer much anyway#kat never mentioned ages but since their mother was looking for matches I assumed they were older than zaheer#he ran off at 11 or 12 iirc. so I decided they would have been 16 and 14 respectively#though in their community matches are probably made much earlier than actual marrying age. still.#if it was such a pressing matter that their mother was ‘preoccupied’ with it. then they were probably teenagers right#that’s what I’m gonna go for anyway since currently I have no information to disprove any of this#oh yeah Kat btw if you did have images of Zaheer’s sisters in mind before this then you don’t have to replace them. I just filled a blank#we’ve never talked about them so I assume there’s nothing. feel free to correct me. maybe someday we’ll discuss their personalities/lives#all I have is that they probably weren’t too close with zaheer. and their lives now are all about husbands kids and status. but we’ll see#hope you like them anyways <3
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Trying? Trying??? By learning. By succeeding!
(about this and my text under the cut)
this is very nice actually thank you so much <3 <3 and like, i probably do need to give myself more credit in general but also i am still very much learning and stumbling and figuring digital art out (and for the most part it is so fun)
I’m gonna ramble about this a bit so bear with me and also i apologize lol, but that art was done after a month of getting increasingly more frustrated with everything turning out so badly and eventually realizing that I was trying to 1. copy a certain look/style that i’ve internalized is what fanart and digital art should look like and is very far away from my style/comfort zone 2. i was trying to do everything digital allows without being comfortable with it or understanding it
so (and this took me a month to realize ? ??) i did what i already knew from doing acrylic and oil painting in the past and could somewhat easily transfer to digital without having to know more than the basics, like i didn’t use a lot of the things digital provides or allows for. i used layers for my own peace of mind but without actually needing them and did some color adjusting (honestly, the color adjusting digital lets you do is such a blessing to me) but the only fancy way i really utilized the medium was making it a gif (which is so fun and a lot easier than i would have thought, like honestly watch me make any future art into gifs too) but there are so many things you can do with the medium with settings/effects, different brushes, tools to use in the process etc that i just do not understand what they are or how to implement them so i am very slowly learning digital art as a whole new medium rather than just being able to use it to adapt what i already know
#sorry you just wanted to say a quick thing and i went on a whole rant (welcome to my blog tbh)#like i'll watch tutorials and they'll be like 'and i just did an overlay and then a multiply layer in a good color (:' and im like ??? wdym#'a good color' what color is a good color? like i can put those effects on my work but that's just me clicking a button without knowing wha#will happen really and like i watch speed paints and see them do stuff and im just ? HUH? what was that and why?#i also do not understand a lot of these concepts with traditional art tbh like people will talk about under paintings and im like yeah sure#i hear you however i also do not- i just place a color where it should be and that's that which i know is why my colors often don't feel#cohesive which is also something i need to learn which is blah- im basically just saying i actually do not know any theory or technique#even with traditional it is all just vibes and hoping for the best which in the long run just makes me very confused about what i am#actually doing and not confident at all i'll be able to do it again so u know#we're out here literally just raw dogging art without any thought#but it's also just i do not need to do all those fancy things but i would like to understand them and i am excited to see my progress now#i just really had a shitty month of making ugly things up until now okay so i was a little fragile when i posted that#but people have been so so nice about it and ive been crying for two days straight#also people have been so lovely about the colors and colors are deadass the hardest part about digital like with paint you often buy a set#that already match and then mix them if needed and they'll look nice together but with digital you're just on your own- no training wheels#ask#anon
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what's your favorite part about making art?
Getting it out of my head (lol)
To give a more complete answer haha, each step has its own charm! Sketching is nice to have it Out of me, alleviates the itch of having a Thought or Feeling that just needs to be Out and onto paper already
If I'm drawing digitally, lining has gotten rather meditative, or if my sketches are particularly scribbly then it's like a puzzle haha
Toning on paper is a fun exercise in tool usage - I have specific pencils I switch back and forth between to get The Effect I'm looking for, or filling in with the same pencil for the whole piece is nice to just have it done all at once, it's satisfying both ways
Editing has kinda fallen by the wayside for me lately (as evidenced by my lack of uploads - I keep wanting to share, but there's a stopper in my brain that says "No, they're Not Done!" which is like......half correct? It's done when I say it's done, but they haven't been edited "properly" so) but it also has its good points! It took a bit to find the fun again because editing is definitely Not my favourite part of the process - it's not Creative or Exciting or Expressive in the same way as the other steps but it is something I can do for my art that makes it appear how my hand, eye, and brain want it to - my hand is messy, my eye is very particular, and my brain parses between the two, takes away the lines that muddle the final image until there's only The Picture left :) And sometimes it's all I have the energy for! Sometimes all I can do is take my backlog and make it pretty rather than make something new - but it's still Making Art :)
The only part I really don't like is scanning lol, it's just annoying, why can't my pictures be uploaded in perfect quality directly from my sketchbook to my computer haha
And most of this is to do with drawing since it's still my main art form, but a lot of the same applies to writing and papercraft and whatever else I try my hand at - it's nice to Have and Do and see where it gets me :)
I'm doing well! I've been writing more than - ever? I think? I think this is officially my up-to-now peak of Finished Writing by wordcount and time spent on it lol, it's been very fun!! And also a little overwhelming haha I still haven't quite found a New Normal about it, it being The Most haha, but I want to work towards that balance! More practice means more time to implement it so lol
#July's had it's ups and downs - as any month lol - but yeah the downs have been noticeable#But they helped me reframe my thoughts about editing :) So I'm happy to have those thoughts in my back pocket#And hopefully I can get my doodles to a point where I'm ready to share them again soon!#Doing all this writing not tag-style or like data gathering or liveblogging - actual creative writing#I feel like I've improved a lot in a Very short amount of time and I'm deeply grateful for the experience <3#If you know you know hehe <3 <3#I still have a lot else I want to work on too! Other kinds of art!#I've been looking to try embroidery lately and actually kind of excited about it so yeah! Art is just - cool#Making something and then Having it - it's cool!#I don't think I exactly have aphantasia - I can hold images in my mind alright but they're kinda murky#But for a long long long while I've just set my hand loose to express whatever Feeling I've got going on#There are specific techniques that I enjoy practicing! I like improving based on what I can see :)#But I haven't had An Image In My Head That I Can't Get Out in ages#That's been a very fun thing to develop over time as a - cartoonist? Both traditional and digital artist lol#Now it's moved on to other mediums! Now I have A Plush or A Papercraft in my head that I get to be disappointed by! :D#Haha#Anyway ♥ Ty for the ask and checking in <3 Very sweet of you <3
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The thing with the Mari Lwyd, though, is that it's being... I don't know, 'appropriated' is the wrong word, but certainly turned into something it isn't.
Thing is, this is a folk tradition in the Welsh language, and that's the most important aspect of it. I feel partly responsible for this, because I accidentally became a bit of an expert on the topic of the Mari Lwyd in a post that escaped Tumblr containment, and I clearly didn't stress it strongly enough there (in my defence, I wrote that post for ten likes and some attention); but this is a Welsh language tradition, conducted in Welsh, using Welsh language poetic forms that are older than the entire English language, and also a very specific sung melody (with a very specific first verse; that's Cân y Fari). It is not actually a 'rap battle'. It's not a recited poem. It is not any old rhyme scheme however you want.
It is not in English.
Given the extensive and frankly ongoing attempts by England to wipe out Welsh, and its attendant cultural traditions, the Mari is being revived across Wales as an act of linguistic-cultural defiance. She's a symbol of Welsh language culture, specifically; an icon to remind that we are a distinct people, with our own culture and traditions, and in spite of everyone and everything, we're still here. Separating her from that by removing the Welsh is, to put it mildly, wildly disrespectful.
...but it IS what I'm increasingly seeing, both online and in real world Mari Lwyd festivals. She's gained enormous pop-culture popularity in recent years, which is fantastic; but she's also been reduced from the tradition to just an aesthetic now.
So many people are talking/drawing about her as though she's a cryptid or a mythological figure, rather than the folk practice of shoving a skull on a stick and pretending to be a naughty horse for cheese and drunken larks. And I get it! It's an intriguing visual! Some of the artwork is great! But this is not what she is. She's not a Krampus equivalent for your Dark Christmas aesthetic.
I see people writing their own version of the pwnco (though never called the pwnco; almost always called some variant on 'Mari Lwyd rap battle'), and as fun as these are, they are never even written in the meter and poetic rules of Cân y Fari, much less in Welsh, and they never conclude with the promise to behave before letting the Mari into the house. The pwnco is the central part to the tradition; this is the Welsh language part, the bit that's important and matters.
Mari Lwyd festivals are increasingly just English wassail festivals with a Mari or two present. The Swansea one last weekend didn't even include a Mari trying to break into a building (insert Shrek meme); there was no pwnco at all. Even in the Chepstow ones, they didn't do actual Cân y Fari; just a couple of recited verses. Instead, the Maris are just an aesthetic, a way to make it look a bit more Welsh, without having to commit to the unfashionable inconvenience of actually including Welsh.
And I don't really know what the answers are to these. I can tell you what I'd like - I'd like art to include the Welsh somewhere, maybe incorporating the first line of Cân y Fari like this one did, to keep it connected to the actual Welsh tradition (or other Welsh, if other phrases are preferred). I'd like people who want to write their version of the pwnco to respect the actual tradition of it by using Cân y Fari's meter and rhyme scheme, finishing with the promise to behave, and actually calling it the pwnco rather than a rap battle (and preferably in Welsh, though I do understand that's not always possible lol). I'd like to see the festivals actually observe the tradition, and include a link on the booking website to an audio clip of Cân y Fari and the words to the first verse, so attendees who want to can learn it ahead of time. I don't know how feasible any of that is, of course! But that's what I'd like to see.
I don't know. This is rambly. But it's something I've been thinking about - and increasingly nettled by - for a while. There's was something so affirming and wonderful at first about seeing the Mari's climb into international recognition, but it's very much turned to dismay by now, because she's important to my endangered culture and yet that's the part that everyone apparently wants to drop for being too awkward and ruining the aesthetic. It's very frustrating.
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I don’t remember when the last time I drew a traditional peridot :|
#or any traditional fanart in general#bc I like#do a lot of trad life drawing#TRADLIFE#if you will#I don’t know if it even helped all my stuff looks scribbly or unfinished#the art journey never ends#what do we think of peridot in a non stick figure evolution style#id like to think I don’t want to purposefully develop a style#but I’ve always wanted to draw peridot more realistically#or w more . detail#her body is too big for her head nooo#this post is ugly to me now I am 3 seconds away from HIDING IT
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hi, i ireally love your work and i don't know if you've answered this before but, what kinds of studies do you do or how did you learn color theory? i wanna get better at rendering and anatomy but im having trouble TT TT
Hi! Long answer alert. Once a chatterbox, always a chatterbox.
When I started actively learning how to draw about 10 1/2 years ago, I exclusively did graphite studies in sketchbooks. Here's a few examples—I mostly stuck to doing line drawings to drill basic shapes/contours and proportions into my brain. The more rendered sketches helped me practice edge control & basic values, and they were REALLY good for learning the actual 3D structure behind what I was drawing.
I'd use reference images that I grabbed from fitness forums, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, and some NSFW places, but you could find adequate ref material from figure drawing sites like Line of Action. LoA has refs for people (you can filter by clothed/unclothed, age, & gender), animals, expressions, hands/feet, and a few other useful things as well. Love them.
Learning how to render digitally was a similar story; it helped a lot that I had a pretty strong foundation for value/anatomy going in. I basically didn't touch color at all for ~2 years (except for a few attempts at bad digital or acrylic paint studies), which may not have been the best idea. I learned color from a lot of trial and error, honestly, and I'm pretty sure this process involved a lot of imitation—there were a number of digital/traditional painters whose styles I really wanted to emulate (notably their edge control, color choices, value distributions, and shape design), so I kiiind of did a mixture of that + my own experimentation.
For example, I really found Benjamin Björklund's style appealing, especially his softened/lost edges & vibrant pops of saturated color, so here's a study I did from some photograph that I'm *pretty* sure was painted with him in mind.
Learning how to detail was definitely a slow process, and like all the aforementioned things (anatomy/color/edge control/values/etc.) I'm still figuring it out. Focusing on edge control first (that is, deciding on where to place hard/soft edges for emphasizing/de-emphasizing certain areas of the image) is super useful, because you can honestly fool a viewer into thinking there's more detail in a piece than there actually is if you're very economical about where you place your hard edges.
The most important part, to me, is probably just doing this stuff over and over again. You're likely not going to see improvement in a few weeks or even a few months, so don't fret about not getting the exact results you want and just keep studying + making art. I like to think about learning art as a process where you *need* to fail and make crappy art/studies—there's literally no way around it—so you might as well fail right now. See, by making bad art you're actually moving forward—isn't that a fun prospect!!
It's useful to have a folder with art you admire, especially if you can dissect the pieces and understand why you like them so much. You can study those aspects (like, you can redraw or repaint that person's work) and break down whether this is art that you just like to look at, or if it's the kind of art that you want to *make.* There's a LOT of art out there that I love looking at, probably tens of thousands of styles/mediums, but there's a very narrow range that I want to make myself.
I've mentioned it in some ask reply in the past, but I really do think looking at other artist's work is such a cheat code for improving your own skills—the other artist does the work to filter reality/ideas for you, and this sort of allows you to contact the subject matter more directly. I can think of so many examples where an artist I admired exaggerated, like, the way sunlight rested on a face and created that orange fringe around its edge, or the greys/dull blues in a wheat field, or the bright indigo in a cast shadow, or the red along the outside of a person's eye, and it just clicked for me that this was a very available & observable aspect of reality, which had up until that point gone completely unnoticed! If you're really perceptive about the art you look at, it's shocking how much it can teach you about how to see the world (in this particular case I mean this literally, in that the art I looked at fully changed the way I visually processed the world, but of course it has had a strong effect on my worldviews/relationships/beliefs).
Thanks so much for sending in a question (& for reading, if you got this far)! I read every single ask I receive, including the kind words & compliments, which I genuinely always appreciate. Best of luck with learning, my friend :)
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──𐙚 special present- Jungkook birthday special!
────୨ৎ────
content: Jk´s birthday, lingerie, passionate sex, praise regarding body, fluff, vibrator usage, oral, cute dinner date, aftercare talks, established relationship, shit ton of kisses, petnames galore
note from cherry: HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOYFIE U R 27 NOW!!! i love my sexy man guys help .... ignore typos thanks ily!
────୨ৎ────
first september 2024, Jungkook´s twenty-seventh birthday.
On this day, 27 years ago an angel was born, a lover, a gentle heart with a passionate soul. He was given to this earth as a gift, someone to create happiness through art, someone to share laughs and looks with. Someone that has been by your side for four years now, blessing your every morning with his face and little kisses, blessing your every night with his arms and whispers
There is nothing that comes close to being loved by Jungkook, nothing that remotely compares to the feeling of his reassurance, his little messages throughout your day or the flowers he would bring home because they reminded him of you.
Equally, there is nothing that you wouldn´t do for him. He´s your entire heart and you´re his, his smile, his reason to keep going when he feels less than enough.
In comparison to what he does for you, standing in the kitchen for hours on his birthday just to cook him a nice pasta and lots of side dishes plus some little deserts is not nearly as difficult
It was your idea to cook for him, knowing how much he loves at home dinner dates with a cozy movie, he refused at first, not wanting you to push yourself for him
He knew all to well you would go all out for this occasion,
"Lets just go to a restaurant ma, i want you to relax"
Managing to persuade him with the mention of traditional carbonara and oreo cream cookies, he still had to attend a photoshoot before returning home
six hours later, the kitchen is set, candles and a big box on the table along all the delicious food, moodlights on
Jungkook hates the big overhead lamp, so you turned that off immediately
Now it´s time to rush for a shower, quickly drying your hair and putting on the smallest amount of make up to look extra cute, even though you know he loves your bare face the most.
"Baby! Happy birthday kook!" your grin spreads over your lips, jumping to hug him as soon as he comes through the door, his woody sweet scent staining your sense
he hugs you back, wrapping his strong arms around your delicate body, smiling to himself like he had never been happier,
"thank you angel, smells so good here" he replies, holding on to your waist and nuzzling his nose to yours
you kiss him gently, savoring the softness of his lips on yours
"mhm, I hope it tastes good too" you hum, stepping into the kitchen to take out some champagne from the fridge, he takes off his shoes and jacket, coming behind you to wrap his arms around your figure again,
his head drops to your neck, burrying himself in your scent and velvet smooth hair while you fill two glasses with the sparkling alcohol
"I´m sure it does, you´re the best cook cutie" he mumbles into your hair, kissing your cheek while rubbing your sides softly
"let´s eat, you must be so hungry kook" you giggle, turning around to cup his face
The both of you spend the next hour or so eating the home cooked goods, his little stims and groans of appreciation lighting up your heart, the way his large, veiny hands grip the tiny chopsticks, flinging them around with the first bites to show how good it tastes to him
With a few last bites on the vanilla lotus cake, he sighs, rubbing his stomach
"Woah, I´m so full. Thank you angel, come here" he smiles, patting his thigh
You walk over immediately, plopping down on his lap with your arms around his neck, one hand caressing his cheek softly,
"so glad you liked it baby" you say, kissing his nose to which he scrunches it up, placing a kiss to your lips instead
"Wanna open your present?" his brown doe eyes light up, his head nodding excitedly,
the black, ribbon wrapped box is already in his hands before you can register what´s going on, slender fingers moving to unwrap it while both of you stare in anticipation
The box opens, two things inside and the look on his face is priceless, weeks of saving up and hiding your little secret is finally worth it
He gasps, taking the expensive film camera out of the box,
"there´s no way" he says, stars in his eyes shining when he spins the packaging around, setting it down on the table and cupping your face
"My baby.. you really got me this? But that´s so much money my love"
you nod, smiling and caressing his shoulder, "Don´t worry about that.. look how happy you are! that´s worth every cent"
He starts kissing you with the same grin still planted on his lips, moving his mouth against yours sweetly,
"thank you, you're the best" he whispers, resting his forehead on yours
"There´s one more thing in there" you gesture to the box, he hums, taking out the stüssy hoodie you knew he had been eyeing, eightball logo as the backprint on the black, comfy material
He folds it back up, with a peck to your nose his hands wander back down to your waist
"thank you cutie, I´ll wear it all the time and think of you"
the sounds of kissing fill up the kitchen, softly savoring each others company and leaving behind the rest of the world when you keep feeling his passion grow in the kisses, moving his hands to your ass, squeezing it firmly and moaning quietly into the desperate kisses
" I have something for you" he says suddendly, pulling away from your lips, glazed swollen mouth luring you back in
Confused, you tilt your head, playing with some of his strands,
"For me? On your birthday?" you frown, but he just kisses it off, making both of you giggle,
"Let me show you" with that, you're hoisted up in his arms, his hands full of your ass and your legs snug around his slim waist, walking up the stairs to the bedroom
He gently sets you down on the bed, moving over to his closet and pulling out a shopping bag from behind his jackets,
"Jungkook.. why?" you pout, his selfless nature making you feel terrible but loved all at once,
with a sly look, he hands you the bag,
"Look inside, it's a present for myself but with your help" his arms lay back, tricep flexing while his gaze sharpens when you pull out a tiny, fluffy white set of lingerie
Your mouth is hung open, looking at him with pink cheeks and disbelief to which he smirks,
"Come on, baby, there's two more. Pick you're favorite so i can fuck you in it" he says, watching as you nervously pull out a trqnsparent pink nightdress and a black, shiny bralette with matching lace bottoms
"Kook oh my god" you giggle, hiding your face beneath your hands,
He responds by prying your hands away immediately, his eyes burning through you with lust, lips finding your jawline
"Tell me pretty.. which one?" he repeats in a sweet whisper,
"You pick...s'your birthday" already begining to moan and crave his touch more,
He pushes you down onto the bed, sliding down your pants and panties,
"Pink.. you look so good in everything but fuck, when i saw that little pink dress i knew i had to buy it for you" he mutters, pulling your shirt over your head before lifting your torso to unclasp the bra you're wearing
Bare, needy and flustered sprawled out on the bed before your fully clothed, erect boyfriend.
He groans softly, running his hands down your stomach, "you're beautiful, i need you so bad baby, you have no idea"
You've never felt more beautiful than in this moment, the love and adoration in your boyfriends eyes making you feel like there was no one who could compete, naked and vulnerable but secure and cared for all at the same time
"Kook.. please, i need you too" you're rubbing your thighs together for the tiniest bit of relief
He reaches back to the pink lingerie, "arms up angel"
You listen well, he pulls the soft fabric over your body, stopping right below your feminity
The fabric is see through, round breasts on full display below, the curve of your waist exentuated by the flow of it,
"You can't even imagine how beautiful you are, you make me crazy baby"
His lips muffle your moans, making out slow but intense while he explores what he has come to know better than anything else the past years, running his hands all over your curves and finding your stiff nipples to rub through the fabric
"Nhmm kook.. please take this off" you mumble between whines, tugging at his shirt
He smiles, "anything for you" discarding the calvin klein top somewhere on the floor, followed by his jeans that are dragged down, leaving him in his grey boxers that posess a small patch of precum
"You're so pretty" you tell him, genuinely in awe at his state, messy long mullet making his doe eyes stand out, honey colored skin decorated with tiny moles and that unfairly small waist,
Muscular thighs flexing when he crawls back over you, his tattooed arm reaching down to caress your inner thighs,
"thank you sweetheart" he says, pressing a kiss to your lips before his head hovers over your chest, looking up to you
Your head is tilted down, keeping eye contact while your lips quiver and your hands get lost in his hair,
Slowly, his tongue darts out, licking over your clothed nipple and monitoring your moans become louder, the heat rushing to your face
"Mnhm!" you whine, shutting your eyes but he only latches on more, sucking with a satisfied smirk, alternating between breasts to distract from his hand that creeps to your wet cunt, cupping it with little rubs
"Wanna pound this little pussy" his words shoot to your core, raspy and desperate in the way he says them
You nod pathetically, not in the state to give proper replies anymore
He manhandles you to be pushed back legs up on his shoulders, exposing yourself to him entirely
He smiles down to you, pumping his length a few times before lining up to your soppy entrance,
"Ready angel?"
you give him a reqssuring smile to which he kisses your lips while pushing himself in inch by inch, gliding his whole cock desperately into your wamrth
"so tiny, so snug everytime" he says, licking over your lips while slowly thrusting into you,
"you feel so good kook, faster please" you're whining, nightgown bunching up with every thrust, the see through material making each rock of your body look like a work of art, complentary to your skin tone, pointing out the blush on your cheeks
He looks down at you, one arm steady on your hip while the other is caressing one of your legs on his shoulder,
"You're so beautiful, i can't last long like this baby" he's a mess, moaning loudly and fully entranced with your body and voice, the clench of your cunt sucking him in, his tip is throbbing, hitting deep within you
Jungkook already feel his orgasm about to hit him, just when he wants to pull out to pleasure you instead, you stop him,
"Please kook, cum first, cum all you want, keep going until you can't" you're whining, looking at him with pleading eyes and he can't help but curse, continuing to fuck into you harder,
His cum splurts inside of you, he pushes it in with a couple more strokes, panting while his cock is still hard and pulsating in your cervix
He pulls out, leaning down to kisw your clit
"Let me make it up to you pretty" reaching for the nightdrawer, you knew exactly what was about to happen
With the small pink toy between his tattooed fingers, he tells you to sit on his cock,
You let yourself down on him with a loud moan, this new angle making you feel him even deeper, desperate to start grinding on him
He's moaning too, still sensitive from the prior orgasm, nonetheless, one hand grips your hip as you start rocking back and forth with his dick stuffed deep inside you
The other one switches on the toy, pressing the buzzing nub to your clit
"Oh fuck kook" you're a mess now too, rapidly humping on his dick and rubbing your clit against the little vibrator on it, his eyes close, feeling your walls clamp down on him with every hasty roll of your hips
He's groaning, moving the hand from your hip to one of your tits, playing with it
"Gonna cum! S'too much baby i'm gonna cum" you warn him, grinding having switched to bouncing up and down on his thick length, his cum from earlier covering his cock, spilling down from your pussy along with your own slick
He feels his own high approaching, encouraging you to keep going a little longer while he keeps pressing the toy on your abused little clit
"Okay..okay cum now baby, cum with me" he whines, once he feels you loosen around him, a string of whimpers leave your lips aswell
He switches the toy off, snapping his hips into you from below and finally cumming himself, filling you to the brim with all that he has left in him
"Mhm.. god that's so good.. so good baby.." he says, chest rising from the intensity,
You collapse on top of him with a weak, satisfied smile,
"Awh... pretty girl" he coos, flipping both of you to the side so he can wrap you in his arms and pull out,
Your head nuzzles back from him to look at his pleased face, stroking his naked chest with your small fingers,
"I love you so much" you tell him, pressing sweet kisses to his neck,
He feels heavenly right in this moment, wrapped up with the love of his life on his birthday, pleased and in the confines of his own home
"I love you more angel..thank you for the amazing birthday" he says, stroking your hair and pressing small kisses to his head
"Happy birthday baby, you deserve it" you reply, smiling against his skin
You can feel the cum begin to run down the inside of your legs, sticking to your skin,
They feel weak and sore, so you do what you usually do,
"Baby? Do you mind helping me clean? It feels sticky" you cringe your face Upwards, upon noticing it he smiles, nodding and moving to lay you flat on your back, pulling the nightdress down after
You think it's because he's gonna dress you in your pj's after cleaning you up, instead, his hands fumble with the fluffy white lingerie
"Kook?" You ask curiously
"What's up angel?" non chalantly, he moves over you to dress you in the small panties,
"What are you doing?" you're kicking your legs, chuckling at his behavior
Should have known he isn't done after you only came one time
He smiles too, holding you still and struggling to put on the panties to your body,
"There's two more sets baby, let me eat you out nicely, you only came once" he says, kissing your ankle
without wanting to protest and just getting ready to recieve your pleasure, you smile, already spreading your legs for him to creep in between
"You drive me crazy" you tell him with a lick of your lips
"If only you knew" he says, moving to work himself up to put on the matching bra
#redcherrykook#jungkook fanfic#jeon jungkook#jungkook x reader#jungkook smut#bts jungkook#jungkook x y/n#bts fanfic#jungkook x you#jungkook fluff#happy birthday Jungkook#jungkook oneshot
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normal people: struggle to let their new s/o get close enough to break their heart the way a former s/o did
me: struggling to accept the generosity and mentorship of a fella should it result in the way I disappointed my former mentor into no longer speaking to me🫠🥴
#this fellas teaching me a type of art that I was introduced to at my former museum#and he’s so happy that I care about what he does and he’s very proud of my interest/efforts#so he keeps telling ppl he’s teaching me and showing them my progress#bc he’s just very excited#(even tho I’d prefer to keep expectations low and not have everyone in the world know/expect something from me)#but my point is it’s 🤢 that I occasionally wonder if he’s told museum paul or someone he told then told museum paul#and I kind hope he has 🤮🤮#idk#one of my favorite compliments of all time#was my former/favorite coworker saying that if anyone was going to replace museum paul and match his level of enthusiasm it would be me#and idk idk idkdkiidkd idk#I’m just a little bit like mp look my interest is/was genuine I really care look and I’m doing my part to carry the tradition on look I was#the admin support for these traditions and came to you with zero knowledge they even existed and look I’m so ingrained in the community now#that one of the best guys alive doing it is teaching me look MP look#😕😖🤮🤮#anywya really though#this guys so incredibly kind and he’s so enthusiastic about me learning#and it’s wonderful but a little part of me a little deeper down is like okay but just be prepared to not be surprised or crushed if you do#fail him or fall out one day#bc MP is still the most sincere person I’ve ever met and the current state of things doesn’t cancel out anything but#all that sincerity all that mentorship all those positive things also don’t cancel out the fact that we are at 180 degreees from where we#used to be#mp#anyway
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