#perspective? proportions? angle? i dont know them

[massgrav]

He's clingy but it's in his doggy nature. don't blame him

[vyladromeave]

hi!! i absolutely love your takes on mcd, especially what you said about it inverting classic fantasy tropes while still very much being a fantasy series. what’s your take on garroth’s betrayal? personally i love that it happened, but the way we got there (the whole jealousy thing) was really weird, and just never felt like great writing. what would you have done? i personally would have brought more of the jury into the situation (and into the whole series, frankly, cause i love them), specifically lillian, who i feel like would have made an excellent spy. but what do you think would get garroth to betray them?

YES exactly. Like the fact that Garroth, the big classic knight in shining armor, is the one who ends up betraying them? Its perfect its incredible and it HURTS in the best way since he's been there by Aphmau since the beginning. Garroths betrayal is a really strong moment narratively, but why it happens and how they resolve it is... less lol. Mostly because they push the jealousy angle really really REALLY hard which liiike... while we've seen that he's a jealous person, I don't think he'd be the type to turn a blind eye to Phoenix Drop's war efforts and side with the person escalating things because of it.

(Ok post-writing edit this got so so long im sorry. I have a lot of feelings about Garroth as a character actually oops. just warning you ahead of time. also there's a readmore now.)

Theres a couple different angles i feel like you COULD go with instead. You're right in involving Lillian in things more for sure, because she actually was involved quite a bit originally, but the series did a really bad job of showing it. But it could be argued even in the original series that Garroth betrayed the others less because of his jealousy, and more because he felt like he was being lied to/left out/replaced by Aphmau. And while I feel like thats at least a more valid reason to betray the group, it also feels less strong narratively? Garroth's betrayal is strongest narratively when it's entirely his choice, and the Lied To By Aphmau angle only works when it's something he's being manipulated into believing by Lillian and Zane, therefore making it more of a misunderstanding than anything. And thats definitely not as fun.

The problem relies in being able to balance everything. Lillian and Zane working with him and manipulating him definitely should be a contributing factor to his betrayal, but it also still needs to ultimately be his choice and not something that can be cleared up with just a couple words. It needs to result in doing some truly terrible actions of his own volition, but also needs to leave him in a place where he can still be properly redeemed later. It needs to be something he would realistically choose for himself, and not something like jealousy blown way out of proportion, so building off a different flaw of his character would probably be a better choice, but what? and how?

I don't want to get too far into how I would handle it just because well. thats going to be going into my own rewrite lol, and i dont want to spoil it. but i will say that an angle of Garroth that people dont really cover well is how much of a coward he can be, especially when it comes to his own family. He's very scared of his father and the threat of O'khasis looming over his head. He doesn't want to see the people and places he cares about destroyed because of his own inaction, but is also too scared to confront O'khasis directly, meaning as long as he runs away from them people are going to get hurt around him regardless. And while we retroactively know that Phoenix Drop does ultimately overcome the threat of O'khasis, in the moments leading up to that war...

Well. Like. hold on. ok. lets look at this from Garroth's perspective.

Garroth has very personal experience with O’khasis, Garte, and Zane. He knows how they run things and he knows they won’t stop until they get what they want. He also knows that O'khasis' military force is much greater than Phoenix Drops. They sent a fraction of it to the battle and Aphmau had to scrape together forces from every single one of her allies to be able to even moderately match it (and it's likely that if they hadn't found Nicole in time and Scaleswind hadn't pulled out that Aphmau still wouldn't have won). He knows that even if, by some miracle, they manage to win the battle, they won't win the war. That O'khasis has the power to keep this going as long as they want, which is not something Phoenix Drop and their allies can afford. If his brother comes along and says hey, I can ensure your friends safety if you play along with me... If it seems like Zane is genuinely trying to help him and make amends with him, even after all their time apart... If the engagement really seems like the only option for peace, and if following Zane is the only way to get to that point safely... well. It kindof becomes this conflict of Garroth's fear vs his confidence in Aphmau, knowing that as long as he sticks with her things will only get harder to handle. And then being given the option to just have it all stop...

On top of all this, Garroth is shown time and time again to be a very compassionate and merciful person (which is another reason why the vengeance/jealousy angle doesn't work at all). I believe it's Laurance who comments on how this has been turned against him as a weakness before, Garroth is unable to fully stop Zenix when he threatens the village and likely won't be able to stop him in the future because he cares about Zenix too much. I think extending this mercy to Zane as well isn't something too out of left field for him, especially given that they're brothers and Garroth did kindof... leave him to handle Garte alone when he faked his death and ran. And Especially if teaming up with him does lead to the end of the war, because there's no way he can stand just watching the village continue to fall apart around him if he refuses. And if Garroth has to hurt the people he cares about a little in order to ensure that they will never be hurt by O'khasis again, well... Its a difficult choice. But it's one that I think he would definitely take under the right pressure.

(And as a sidenote, I do definitely want to bring the jury further into my rewrite as well, though they'd definitely need a lot more buildup to be able to start properly including them earlier. But also I'm not sure if putting a bunch of them into the S1 finale is the right option for me, again because that requires a lot more time and buildup for something that I think at this point would work better as the whole "looming threat who might be called in next if Garroth doesn't work with Zane instead" deal. Like you can't call in the whole force right away, two of them have already technically been called in to deal with the situation (Katelyn and Lillian) and thats already a lot. And I think I'd like to leave some of them as S2 problems to deal with, as I definitely want to get into Garte as taking up a more threatening role in S2, and control of the jury would probably fall to him with Zane missing. That's just me personally though more jury inclusion in general is always a good thing. I just gotta figure out exactly where and how to work them in ahdjfsgjhkdsfjgh)

[libelelle]

I love ur AU idea so much!!! Do u think u can teach me the ways of sonic fan art o wise one 🥹!

thank you!!! (!!)

boy i dont know if i should be pained that you asked this question ( I Am A Bad Teacher) or glad ( i actually have something to say)

so if you dont know, im a very new sonic fan. i've been drawing sonic stuff since august. Before this i had never drawn sonic before. like drew exclusively human people. this means that learning to draw sonic was a learning experience for me for sure.

so assuming you were asking for advice, im putting it all under a read more since it is a little longer than i intended. tee hee (also sorry if the advice is a little too basic! this is from when i first started drawing sonic stuff so)

now before i start like. i am not a professional by any means, i don't have the secrets of art, etc etc. you decide what you like in your art and my guidelines might not always apply to you, if at all. your art style is yours first, and you pick the rules.

alright! the first thing i had to figure out (and tbh still am) is proportions! having mostly drawn humans and having developed my entire art style around drawing people, sonic proportions threw me for a loop. i was almost. ALMOST tempted to try to adapt with what i already had.

the issue with that is that human proportions and sonic proportions are wildly different like. these are not compatible.

(also say hi to my oc! hi Eira!)

the proportions for sonic are, naturally, very cartoony. trying to give them more realistic proportions can make everything feel off and well... think about the og model for the sonic movie. overall when i draw sonic character (this varies!!) the head is either larger or equal to the torso. hand and feet are a oversized and eyes are. big. the short of this is study the proportions of a character! see how certain part of their body compare and don't be afraid to try a new style!

another thing i learned is for drawing their. uh. muzzles? face circles? idk. the part where their sily mouths and noses go. that part. the basic shape of them is like. an oval with three bumps on the top. like this:

when i first tried drawing sonic i noticed this right away and. stuck to it. too much. but it doesn't always look like that! there are a lot of things that can change its shape such as perspective, expression and, obviously, the character.

perspective can mess with how prominent those bumps are, as well as the shape of the oval, based on the angle.

expression will push and stretch this shape with the mouth (thinnk about how your cheeks move when you move your mouth!)

characters can have different shapes as well!! knuckles muzzle (the big bump) is more prominent when i draw him, because his snout is longer. i also draw tails with little sharper of a bump, not that its super noticeable

this is a super specific thing to talk about but im saying because it applies everywhere. nothing is going to be 100% static so have specific rules about how something looks isnt going to help you with drawinf the characters in new and dynamic poses. their eyes, bodies, ears, etc etc etc all move and are affected by movement. its a lot to think about at first, but work on understanding it all one at a time, then practice it in combo!

finally, since this is already so long, the tried and true and frankly mildly annoying piece of advice:

practice!! give yourself time to adapt to drawing the characters!! just by drawing them you'll see the way it looks evolve over time, from habit and from integrating new details and new ways of approaching it.

for reference, one of the earliest drawings of sonic in my sketchbook (Aug. 13) and one i did a few hours ago!

these were done ehhhhh 2 months ago????? has it been that much already?

point is: these are very different drawings, which comes from experience. i experimented a lot and also have years of drawing experience under my belt, so it came pretty quickly for me. its still not perfect, but via studying the characters (or spending all my time staring at silver idk its the same thing to me) and pulling at details from styles i like, i definitely have been and will continue to improve!

i hope this is helpful in some way, to how you draw the characters and how you approach art in general!! i also hope that this was clear enough guidance since it was just me talking about things i did for the entire time lmfao.

[shoezuki]

Unpopular perspective about the whole privatizing situation (feel free to disagree): I don't think that that’s a smart choice. Twt’s cancel culture tends to be v. self contained to its site. Unless someone did sth straight up illegal,nothing’ll happen. Now that Techno responded via YT,ppl outside of twt will become aware of the situation bc they're curious abt the en masse privatizing,leading to more gossip. Perhaps he could've deleted twts from before '18. Twt drama requires twt response. 1/2

Oh absolutely! Thats an angle i keep forgettin to get into like. Theres not many Good ways to deal w this beyond. Jus not dealing with it imo

Him deleting videos like this Could be interpreted as him hiding his past mistakes so he cant be held accountable rather than. What i think we're mostly agreeing on. which is that hes anxious about anything from his past being taken out of context or inflated into something Worse

I been thinkin n theres not really any 'right' way like. Twitter can interpret any actions against him. Deleting tweets? Hes hiding something. He deletes only the tweets in particular? He knows hes wrong but is a coward to admit it. He doesnt respond? Well he isnt sorry then. He says sorry? Itd be so easy to say his apology wasnt 'good enough'.

I think like. Best is either a quick 'sorry you dug up my posts to get angry at me' apology but maybe not like that sbsisgsj. Or just the Wilbur Soot method: delete twitter and go eat pistachios

The thing with twitter that like. Is never mentioned much. Is that yes. Theyre vocal and loud as hell. Yes. They 'cancel' people a lot. But honest to god. Its still an isolated community online.

They dont Really have the power or Reason to do major damage to techno with what they got. Hes not gonna lose any subs or like viewers. Literally everywhere Outside of twitter ive yet to see ppl looking at the situation and say 'yea thats totally justified and not blown out of proportions'.

Twitter isnt good. Its mentally draining and its like. Practically Structured in a way that is harmful yet 'addictive'. But the only way for the to Really have power over a cc is if the cc 'lets' them in a way. They may be loud and given a big platform but in the end. Twitter isnt the end all say all yknow

Tl;dr techno come to tumblr HSLDDGDKDVDJDV

[genderhoax]

I used to want to be an artist but then i stopped drawing for like 7 years. I want to go back but i'm scared and dont know where to start. So yes, i am interested in those drawing videos can you post them if you dont mind? ^_^

Of course!! I am in the same situation as you actually. I used to draw a lot in middle school (2010-2012) but my depression worsened during high school and in college, I’d only draw as a distraction, never seeking to study or improve. I decided to get back this year, since I decided drawing was the only thing I could see myself doing professionally. I felt very lost, because how do you get back? How do you know what’s your actual, current, art skill? What are your weaknesses? Your strong points?

That’s how I learned to study the fundmentals of art. Because visual art is not a skill. It is a set of skills, if you are very good at anatomy but not really when coming to painting your art is going to look differently than someone who learned anatomy in how to draw manga books but paint like a pro. I am going to divide this post in categories, Also, all the videos I link I also recommend all the channels they are from! My favorites are The Drawing Database, Sycra and Ganev, Sycra and The Drawing Databse have a little of everything and are great at explaining. Ganev is a bit sarcastic but I like the way he teaches. I took some parts of the text of this post from here.

How do I begin? How do you even get back at art? What tips should you use? These are general tips videos, usually nice to draw along. /the fundmentals and how to get started/ /5 tips for better drawing/ /perfect pratice/  /beginner’s guide/ /5 tips for digital art/ /10 tips to improve/ /why your drawings are stiff/ /what level is your art/ /improve your art fast/ /drawing basics/ /how to hold and control your pencil/ /intuitive drawing method/ /iterative drawing/

The Fundamentals: Proportion & Placement Proportion is relationship between one element and another. In the visual arts proportion relates most importantly to the abstract quality of scale and placement. You know how stereotypically an artists puts a pencil to their eye when looking at an object? They’re mesuring the proportion of the object in question and how to represent it corectly in the drawing. /principles of proportion/ /ways to create illusion of space/ /drawing the human figure/ /how to draw proportions playlist/ /how to use proportion in character design/ /basic anatomy and proportions part one/ /part two/ /part three/ /part four/ /proportion basics/

Form & Construction The idea of form is how we see the 3D objects in or world and transform them into 2D in the paper/canvas. It’s understading that eveyrthing is made up of basic forms. /dynamic sketching part one/ /part two/ /how to draw forms/ /structure/ /building form/ /another how to draw forms/ /how to visualize 3D forms/ /form study process/

Perspective & Depth Perspective is knowing that as things move away from the viewer’s eye, things seem to get smaller. Get familiarized with terms like horizon line and vanishing point. This is the basic that must be understood to learn perspective. Here’s a good article about this. /an intro video on the subject/ /step by step tutorial/ /perspective basics part one/ /part two/ /part three/ /part four/ part five /part six/  /another basics video/ /20 perspective lessons/ /eye level tip/  /linear perspective/  /simple form perspective/ /drawing the figure in perspective/

Anatomy Anatomy is something I think it’s one the most crucials things to learn in order to make your drawing look good. Once you understand how joints work you’ll be able to see how bones and muscles move. And this goes for anything with a skeleton. It’s one of those things of you learn the rules before breaking them. I am linking different playlists, since linking different videos on various parts of anatomy would take forever. Just study a body part at time: head, eyes, nose, lips, ears, shoulders, neck, hairline, breats, torso, hands, feet etc. /how to do an anatomy tracing/  /playlist 1 /  /draw the head from any angle/  /anatomy for artists/ /draw facial features/ /how to draw and paint/ /playlist 2/ /draw 3/4 head with loomis method/ /playlist 3/ /drawing a head in 3 hours (this one is great to draw along with the artist)/ /how to draw a body/ draw a head with loomis method part 1/  /part 2/ /part 3/ /decipgering bridgman’s anatomy/ /anatomy quick tips/

Gesture Gesture drawing is a method of capturing figures in exaggerated poses, usually drawn quickly. It is important to undersand that the goal of all gesture is to study the figure and see how it moves. I like looking at poses and copying them. Here’s a good article. /how to draw gesture/  /how to draw any pose/ /draw interesting poses/ /a guide on gesture drawing/  /tips for expressive dynamic poses/  /figure drawing tips/

Composition The overall layout of a piece is very important. Artists often consider things like the rule of thirds or the infamous golden ratio. Neither truly defines a composition, but they can both go into your decision making. /composition in art/  /understanding composition/ /10 composition tips/ /beginner’s guide to composition/ /art fundamental: composition/

Value Studying value is very much the study of light and shadow. But there is a technical side of light that you’ll want to pay attention to if you’re going for technical rendering. /guide on rendering/  /seeing light and shadows in daily life/  /10 minutes to a better painting/ /understaing colors and values/ /shading basics/ /ambient occlusion/ /shadow colors/ /tips on how to shade/ /draw shadows on objects and people/ /lighting tutorial/

Color Theory Color theory is understanding which colors go good with eachother, and knowing the pyschology behind it. (what are cool colors? what colors make someone feel comfortable?) It is fundamental in art for you to understand the relationship between colors and what makes them look good. Best color theory books. A comprehensive guide to color theory. /hue value saturation in photoshop/ /color theory for noobs/ /understanding color/ /what you should know about colors/  /warm and cool colors/  /the basic elements/ /choose colors that work/

Traditional Media If you draw in traditional media, all videos above can be used easily. These are just videos for general tips in traditional media, there isn’t many since my focus is digtal ^^’ /watercolor tips/ /draw with colored pencils/ /blending colored pencils/ /4 how to draw lessons/ /Block in colors/ /holding the brush/ /

Digital Media Digital art is how everyone’s been doing art these days. It doesn’t matter if you’re doing with your phone or your computer. I don’t do art on my phone, I know the most used app is mediabang for android and procreate for apple, and I think anyone who is able to do art with their finger is very skilled. If you are like me and prefer doing art on your computer, you probably have your tablet. If not, well you should have. Not having a tablet is not an option if you want to get better at art ^^’ Best tablet for beginners in 2020. Or you can just buy an old used one, if it still works, and you are a beginner, a small intuos is all you need. When talking about softwares, the three big ones I see people using are: Photoshop, Clip Paint Studio and Paint Tool Sai. The best one is CPS, but I find Sai easier to navigate, but CPS is extremely complete and I hope to be able to master it someday. CPS Tutorials. I don’t have much to say about photoshop, people use it mostly because they’ve been using it forever lol I divide my digital painting process in steps: Sketch/Lineart/Color Blocking/Shading/Blending/Color correction. Sketch is the basics, draw your idea. Lineart is to clean your sketch. Color Blocking is to color your drawing one color, so it’s easier to work in it. Shading is to understand where the lighting sources are coming from and apply them. Blending is to blend the colors of your drawing with brushes. Color correction is when I use filters of hue/saturation and others to make the drawing more appealing. These require understadings of the software of your choice which I am not very good at the moment so I can’t give you more tips than that ^^’ Hopefully these videos can help. /perspective grid/ /clean line art/  /coloring process/ /make lineart interesting/ /best brushes for digital painting/ /skin shading tutorial/  /lineart vs painting/ /art in clip studio paint/ /hair tutorial/ /3 tips for improving/ /10 digital art mistakes/ /color block tutorial/ /shading skin/ /from lineart to painting/ /cleaner lineart/ /add texture to your art/ /improve your art with better shadows/ /the importance of brushes/ /use layer modes/ /improve your lines/ /how to blend colors/ /another blending tutorial/  /color blocking/

Exercises It’s no secret that to improve on art, you must pratice. Everyday, even if it’s just a little! A great way to pratice is make use of youtube picture in picture function to draw along in your software of choice. /pratice drawing forms/ /proportion exercises/ /perspective exercises/ /value studies/ /creative drawing exercises/  /simple drawing esercises/

Resources Senshi stocks, a deviantart page full of poses photos. Quick poses,  pictures of models, contains nudes. Character design references DesignDoll, create a personalized sketch doll and make it pose.

Phew!!! This took forever to make and is way more than you asked for, but I decided to go all in so I can have a masterpost for me too and for anyone else interested in art. As soon you can understand the fundamentals, you can do your own research and study, youtube is really great for this. I hope this helps, let’s get better at drawing together!!! Ganbarimashou (ง •̀_•́)ง

[lemongogo]

HNNNNG ART ANATOMY STUDIES ARE SO FUCKING HARD. i can't fucking get it. just nothing looks right, i know you can only practise to improve but I'm not improving

All these artists talking about how anatomy just clicks after they've studied for a bit and proportions just come simply after a bit of studying, or how they study other artists and learn from them or just anything, I don't fucking get it, I don't get how to do it and I;m so frustrated and upset, idk how to get better from here. Obviously I need to practise but the practise always ends in my being upset and disappointed cause it genuinely turned out bad, either anatomy wise or just anything (2/2)

aa ! yeah i get you :-( its really frustrating coming from a place where it just doesnt click, like you said. i relate to u on a molecular level in the sense that. it just. doesnt make sense to me. i watch videos and read tutorials and people only ever talk about their visualization. how they See the body in their head, how they can Imagine the joints moving or how the body bends to accommodate certain poses based on what they’ve learned. but my!!! brain doesnt work like that !! i dont “see” anything. anything i try visualize is composed in mostly tangible thought (aka i feel it on my brain and the back of my head, i dont see a picture) and very abstract lines. 

i was just talking abt this with some of my friends and it kinda helped me put into perspective that we (assuming you probably have some different way of “seeing” or thinking of things yourself) cant necessarily draw or learn as a lot of other artists can. i  cant create an image in my mind, cant see anything imaginable in depth or be able to rotate anything to look at it from different angles. for me, it sometimes feels like im always playing a losing game?? and its really demotivating, i completely get that. i guess that just means u have to find a way that benefits how u more or less visualize and start adopting trends that make sense to u? revolutionize the way you study. if understanding the scientific aspects of it and applying it to form doesnt make sense, maybe look into sycra’s iterative drawing video.   or look at different gestures for a set amount of time (say, 1 minute) and then try to draw the pose from memory. compare to what you referenced it from and make notes on what to improve. for me i guess it just helps to draw a LOT of shit and just slowly get better. i dont have any foundational understanding bc i simply dont know how to achieve that but. over time i just kind of start to adopt what looks “right” to me. 

idk i wish i could say more to help u out :( i know its so hard. but youre essentially teaching yourself here when a lot of people who teach anatomy have been taught beforehand, have really good visualization techniques or understanding, and have been practicing soo much. comparison is the thief of joy !! u have to start somewhere and it might feel shitty it might look shitty but its necessary for u to be able to grow as an artist. i have dozens of sketchbooks full of. things that are Wrong or Bad. but i learned from those because i can see what i did wrong and try to work around it in the future. 

u only ever see the art people want to post ! its a curated feed; u never see the months or years of practice leading up to those drawings u know.

u got this !! i believe in u !! im sry i couldnt give u any concrete help as to how to learn anatomy (something i struggle w nearly every day) but i hope u can figure out a method tailored to ur needs that make it more accessible to u

[bigskydreaming]

A lot of the discussions about AoX and the stuff said about the X-Tremists has altered my view of some elements of all that, I’m not gonna lie. The X-Tremists definitely isn’t what I initially thought it was, and in the context of all the X-Men being heavily brainwashed and operating based on a selectively altered sense of self and reality, even if I still don’t agree with it, I GET the intention behind picking gay and bi characters to be the cast of this particular book. 

Like, I can understand how when focused on the end goal rather than the set up, there’s a satisfying payoff to it being gay and bi characters pissed at being shoved back into the closet who are the ones best positioned to figure out what’s really going on and fight back against it once they do. I can connect those dots, see how that story choice makes sense and has the sense of catharsis Williams talked about getting from writing it. From the angle of gay/bi characters fuck shit up because they’re not gonna take society or some higher authority determining who they can and can’t love, that fits.

In a lot of ways, its the compulsory sexuality story I’ve ranted for months about wanting to see in regards to Bobby’s situation and the fact that Jean’s actions are ultimately the reason he spent so long in the closet.

BUT. At the same time....that’s kinda the problem?

Because that story I talked about wanting to see with Bobby, it didn’t come from nowhere, I didn’t just go ‘oh hey what if.’ It came from just putting together the pieces that were already there. Everything needed to tell this particular story about being pissed at someone overriding your own sense of self and telling you who you needed to be for the sake of society, the timeline, whatever....it was already there. In the main universe. Already written. Every single element needed to tell that specific narrative was already in place.

Completely unacknowledged.

And I think that’s a big part of where my cynicism comes from, beyond just not trusting Marvel as a whole. Because the fact that this specific narrative was already laid out, already in play, hell, already the fallout of a Grey’s choices and mucking around with Bobby’s head.....without it ever being addressed, its hard to see how a five issue mini (that needs at least an issue or two to set up the revelations to the characters) can do for that narrative spread out among three gay/bi characters what nobody bothered to do with just one character in three years worth of opportunities.

(And if in the end it turns out by the time all of this is over NOBODY in-story has drawn the parallel between this and Bobby’s own narrative even before all this, like.....that’s gonna bug.)

But anyway. When you look at it from that perspective, as essentially the same narrative that was already set up and put in place and then completely overlooked for Bobby already.....then its hard to see this as anything other than gratuitous. Because that was already this same narrative, WITHOUT the fascist imagery and associations. Bobby already had every reason to be pissed - just needed those reasons to be raised and acknowledged - WITHOUT needing the trauma of being made unwillingly complicit in storm trooper actions heaped on top of how much he would already be fucked up from just the forced closeting. The painful catharsis of watching a gay hero push back against forces trying to make him something other than he is and wants to be, it was already locked and loaded ready to go - WITHOUT the trauma part of that narrative needing to be added to two other characters’ narratives additionally.

It just feels...unnecessary.

Like, I can’t stop fixating on that damn armband, is one of the things. I understand the in-story logic, that its ultimately one of the clues that makes them wake up to the realization something is very wrong, for Bobby to be wearing that. I understand that the intention there is for it to be a motivating factor for Bobby’s anger, making him intensely furious that this was done to him, put on him. But the thing I can’t understand is what makes the armband necessary to do all that?

Its not needed in order to leave bread crumbs for them to see how things are messed up and where. There are other options available, other ways to portray how things are different or wrong. I’ll never agree its necessary for THAT to be the thing that makes Bobby enraged. Like look at everything I was saying about his main universe storyline. Why not just use this to allow Bobby to have a different perspective on his lack of agency in all that and the how and why of his staying repressed for so long, have this second instance of telepathic meddling with his sense of self make the first more clearly obvious to him. Isn’t that already more than enough to make Bobby furious and intent on beating the fucking shit out of Nate Grey because he’s sick of not knowing how much of his sense of self is actually HIM and how much of it is the result of telepaths sticking their nose where they don’t belong, without any hint of remorse?

When its your perspective that the more offensive elements of this story aren’t necessary, its all but impossible to look at anything else. They’re the elephant in the room. The things your eye can’t stray from in those ‘what in this picture doesn’t belong’ games once you find them, because its so painfully obvious then that they don’t belong.

And the other thing, the big thing that I’m really upset at seeing so many other white LGBTQ+ readers dismiss or just trivialize....personally, I find it impossible to find empowerment in three white gay/bi characters who are used to police the romantic and sexual relationships of characters of color and especially LGBTQ+ characters of color. I get that this isn’t on Williams, that it wasn’t her choice to have the X-Tremists arrest Bishop and Bling specifically, that those happened in other books. But this is an area where editorial oversight - used properly - would not only be useful, but I honestly believe was NECESSARY. If you’re gonna tell a story like this, do an event like this, play with these themes specifically and talk about how its meant to explore intersectionality, about how intersections of power affect how an individual interacts with society and its institutions....you need to bring your fucking A game, and this event just didn’t. At all. 

You need to be conscious of the fact that Marvel has given its readers, particularly its most marginalized ones, NO reason to have any faith in them, give them any benefit of the doubt, after they’ve spent the better part of 20 years deliberately driving this franchise into the ground because they didn’t get any of the X-Men movie profits. Editorial absolutely NEEDED to be aware of the nuances of this story and be prepared to step in where necessary to prevent things like what happened with Bishop and Bling interfering with the intended point of the X-Tremists mini and costing it more readers. There should have been someone watching all the pieces, someone whose JOB it was to look at the script for NextGen and hand it back and say no, Ed, you can’t have the X-Tremists arrest Bling, you need to pick someone else, pick a straight white character. We’re not having three white gay/bi cops arrest a black lesbian teen for impure thoughts. Nuh uh, no way. Not happening. Same with Bishop. If he absolutely had to be imprisoned in order for the events of Prisoner X to unfold, there should have been a different reason, rather than a random out of the blue pairing with Jean Grey that gets him locked up and her a slap on the wrist. Like, how about the fact that Nate Grey - being from the Age of Apocalypse - is aware that Bishop being a time traveler enabled him to know the AoA wasn’t how events were supposed to happen, and preemptively locked him away because he was afraid Bishop would be similarly able to see through this altered reality and warn people?

Like, when you have a character LITERALLY playing God, as in that’s the entire narrative....deus ex machina isn’t a problem. It’s your actual story engine. You can set the stage however the hell you want and Bishop can be wherever the hell you need him to be with the only reason being Nate Grey arranged for him to be there because that’s where he wanted him to be, fearing he could be a threat.

But seriously, white LGBTQ+ fans need to shut the absolute fuck up about the instances with Bishop and Bling and stop talking over fans of color when they bring them up. Stop trying to minimize it or handwave it away as no big deal, like, that is ugly. That is just, plain UGLY. Stop telling fans of color and LGBTQ+ fans of color any issues they have with white characters arresting black characters for ‘impure’ and ‘barbaric’ thoughts and relationships...like, stop acting like these things are no big deal or that they’re not big ENOUGH of a deal to take away from the empowerment you get from three white gay/bi characters’ narratives. Stop saying the latter is what they should be focusing on, as if its the only variable here that matters, and that they’re just blowing things out of proportion.  Some readers developing a dislike for Bobby because they have to read and see him being depicted the way he is at the expense of characters of color - even if its not ‘his fault’ - like, some readers not wanting to read or see Bobby in stories for awhile or ever because they just can’t get that image out of their head, that’s a valid and understandable reaction to what’s on the page, what they can’t avoid if they want to take in this story on any level at all. Its a reaction EARNED by the narrative choices made overall, and if its not a reaction the narrative wanted to earn, different narrative choices needed to be made.

Honestly, the more I think about it, if this event was going to happen like it or not, if writers had to just make the best of it as much as they could, knowing editorial wasn’t going to be interfering on their behalf when other writers used their characters in ways detrimental to the first writer’s intentions....Bobby, Jean-Paul and Betsy should have been in the cast of Prisoner X, I think. Like, they shouldn’t have been the secret police, the guilty parties motivated by outrage at being used to hurt others like them, they should have been part of the ones who already had plenty of motivational outrage based entirely on experience with being told their love was impure and wrong.

LGBTQ+ characters IMO were already a natural fit for seeing through Nate Grey’s changes to reality, to be arrested for engaging in romantic and sexual relationships in defiance of society’s laws and arbitrary morals. It could have easily been built into the event itself that Nate Grey (who has never identified as anything other than straight) viewed the world through a heteronormative lens. And thus when ‘eliminating’ love and memories of it and things like that, he did so according to a straight person’s perception of what that looked like...and thus potentially overlooked where LGBTQ+ peoples’ experiences had taught them how to keep a secret part of themselves hidden away at the core of their being, their mind, where no one would stumble across any truths they weren’t ready to reveal. LGBTQ+ characters were already a natural fit to be caught breaking the rules of this society instead of keeping it to themselves and staying safe if they started to suspect something was wrong with the way things were....because they were the ones who had already defiantly pushed back against unjust rules and restrictions the first time they realized something wasn’t right with the way society told them they should feel.

The same is true of characters of color of any sexual orientation, given past laws against interracial relationships - I’m not expanding on that not to exclude them, but just because imprisonment narratives have a different context and history with characters of color and that’s not my lane.

But like, if the event was structured to remove the variable of mutant oppression and thus explore intersections of power when everyone was on the same field in that respect, its disingenuous to make up forms of oppression to highlight the flaws in a dystopian society when existing marginalizations already exist once the mutant metaphor is removed. Those already marginalized in our society should be the ones marginalized in that society, else you end up with a ‘what if straight white people were the oppressed and sympathetic’ narrative that nobody asked for. And I do suspect that part of the way AoX is structured IS intended to reflect that, to have LGBTQ+ characters like the X-Tremists and characters of color like Bishop play key roles in toppling Nate Grey’s dystopian vision....I just don’t believe making any of them the secret police works in FAVOR of that rather than against. If your marginalized characters are united by common experiences of being oppressed by straight white mutants once they in turn are no longer oppressed by humans, then you also eliminate the stuff I was talking about earlier, the issue of having an oppressed group fight to put things back to where they were more oppressed. Instead of SPLITTING your characters’ identities along different axes, with the world according to Nate Grey being better for them in the sense that they’re no longer persecuted for being mutants but worse for them because it tries to restrain their sexualities...they don’t need to prioritize between their marginalizations at all. These characters don’t have to ‘sacrifice’ a world in which they aren’t oppressed for one where they are, if they’re still oppressed by that society as gay and bi individuals even though they’re no longer persecuted for being mutants. That’s still messy as hell for a variety of reasons this long fucking post doesn’t need to see their unpacking added to it, but like....

Sigh. Thing is, I know I have a tendency to go off and running in some AU direction like “this is what I would do if I were writing this story” every time I’m critical of shit. Its honestly not because I think I’m the greatest writer ever or oh my ideas are so much better than everything else. 

Its just....I don’t know how else to say it, even though it fails to sink in every damn time I have a variation of this argument...I’m not critical so I can hate things, I’m critical cuz I want them to be better. I don’t come up with different ideas for how else to tell a story BECAUSE I’m critical of it and hate it as is. Its the reverse. I’m critical of stuff BECAUSE I can’t turn off my writer brain and I can see where things could be better or at least fail in new and different ways than the same old repeated mistakes (and thus at least get us closer to better, by eliminating more of what doesn’t work).

Like, I’m just so fucking tired of being talked about like I’m this bitter angry dude who just hates everything and is never happy with any content ever. I’m not angry and loud when I criticize shit because I’m thinking like “This thing you like offended these three people and thus its fucking terrible and you should feel bad!” I’m angry and loud when I criticize shit because I’m thinking “This thing you like offended these three people AND IT DIDN’T FUCKING HAVE TO. THAT CAN BE AVOIDED.”

I don’t posit all these alternative scenarios when I criticize shit because I’m thinking that doing it any way other than my way is bad, and I’m just an egotistical jackass who will never be satisfied with any work other than his own. (LMAO, hell no, I’m insecure as hellllllll about my work, like lolol. How critical I am of other shit is nothing compared to how critical I am of my own).

Point is, when I do that, I’m only doing it to say like....see, look. Here are alternatives. If I can find some, other writers can too.

But other writers have to LOOK for alternatives in order to find them. They have to have a REASON to write things differently than what they already wrote. THAT’S WHAT CRITICISM IS FOR. TO GIVE THEM THAT REASON. TO TELL THEM THIS DOESN’T WORK THE WAY IT IS, BUT IT COULD WORK IF YOU DO SOME OF THESE THINGS DIFFERENTLY.

And when people say “lmao some of you just need to go the fuck outside, like calm down and let people enjoy shit for a change,” what that ACTUALLY sounds like to some of us is “well this thing works for me as is, and thus I see no reason to care about it being better for the people it doesn’t work for or actively offends.”

It’s honestly depressing as hell how many people on this site smugly reblog that “I don’t know how to explain to you that you should care about other people” post, only to turn around and five posts later complain about criticisms of a show they like and are perfectly comfortable with as is.

Its not about telling you that you should never enjoy anything ever. Its not about saying well this thing offends us, and if we can’t enjoy it, nobody should.

Its just like.....its great that you enjoy this thing but wouldn’t it be better if you could still enjoy it and all these people who AREN’T able to enjoy it because of these reasons could now enjoy it more too?

People shutting up about the ways content offends or hurts them or people just settling for sucking it up and dealing with the microaggressions in a creative work, like those things shouldn’t be necessary in order for you to enjoy content or be comfortable with what you’re reading or watching. 

And if it is, that’s a you problem and if you could PLEASE stop projecting it on to people who just want things to be better and more enjoyable across the board - like that’d be great kthxbai.

[the-nysh]

I noticed you talking about horikoshi and his art improvement, and you mentioned a bit in your tags but I dont really understand what makes it better? could you please explain what the changes improved mean as a manga artist? genuinely don't understand, not trying to be funny

Ah yes! (referring to this post)Ok, I’ll try to elaborate further! :D The things I mentioned there may not be readilyapparent in that one example, since they’re more like passing observations I’vetaken notice about his artstyle in general. (Here’s another similar example!) While I’m not a mangaka, I am aformally trained illustrator, so what I recognize in his work are familiar changesand marks of experience I’ve witnessed happen many times before. (So it’s notjust Hori; the same process happens to pretty much every other practicing artist/mangakaas they hone their craft. Even Murata!)

Visually, it’s the result of ongoing, daily and diligent practice,leading towards becoming more comfortable with your own style as it graduallybecomes more intuitive over time. Ideas that once took conscious thought andperhaps even difficult effort to translate onto paper can now come out almost on auto-pilot. Speed markedlyenhances as muscle memory takes over. Lines drawn while sketching and inking cannow flow with deliberate intent and much more fluid confidence. Spatialawareness and a greater understanding of an object’s 3d form as it translatesto depth and 2d volume becomes almost second nature. To a mangaka,this growing familiarity also applies to the portrayal of the characters themselves.Where it’s not only mastering the process of drawing itself (in your own uniqueway), but also an awareness of capturing the characters you’ve created. Familiaritycapturing their particular look, while knowing how they’ve grown and developedover the course of the story too, all without losing that particular charm thatmade them them in the first place. (Include also the use of paneling and conveying expression/emotion/movement, and there are many other factors to consider when drawing a story vs a standalone illustration.)

As all of this applies to Hori, yes in the beginning hisstyle had a recognizable look to it too, that’s still present now. But what’s happened is his portrayal of form hasfilled out and rounded with more organic looking volume (some may say looking moreproportional too). His lineart has loosened out and become more confident/boldin their strokes with less jagged breaking points (now it looks even more streamlined). Compared to the earlier chapters,he used to have many more simplified sharp angles for people’s elbows and miscbody parts that gave off a slimmer, more janky feel in general. (Include thefact that many characters have physically grown and become beefier since thenas well.) And while what used to be more prevalent wasn’t bad by any means, especially if going for more extremestylizations, I can say that I prefer even more what I see from him now (and just how much more natural it feels). :DEspecially when he starts going ham portraying dynamic action shots with creativeuse of perspective and hyper-detailed focus on hands (holy hellllll) it’sextremely impressive! (Here’s a particularly inspired example, including theuse of paneling. Warning for season 4 spoilers!)   

While ‘better’ may be subjective to the viewer depending on howthey prefer his older look to now, to a trained eye, these subtle changes aretelltale marks of his work becoming stronger.Which is a delight to see happen toartists every single time, and well-deserving of praise. Just as I’ve been following hisstory, I’ve been fully enjoying witnessing his art evolve and improve alongwith it too!

[rib--leaf]

hi jay!

hi there !🌻

references I use frequently:apps - Handy Art Reference Tool, has lots of hand poses and some heads, all fully rotational and lighting and all that fun stuff !L'Ecorche and David Plasters are both made by the same people and aren't poseable, but are super useful for learning anatomy basics. L'Ecorche is rotational and has several views (there's proper terms for them but I don't have it with me rn omg, there's a blocky one, a skeleton, and one with labelled muscles ! super useful)

DesignDoll is really incredible ! it's free if you don't mind not being able to save your figures, and basically you can customise the figure to any body type you like, the posing is very fluid, there's a wire frame view too !

I'd also really recommend making an account on pinterest and following a ton of anatomy study boards (once you get going and look at the related/recommended pins you just end up buried in it). I think it's very worth being wary of random tutorials and really looking at the result to see if it looks Right to you, because some tutorials are actually really inaccurate lol but learning anatomy has so many small factors that you wouldn't even think about, and getting random related content often brings up helpful things (like I’m really focusing on improving overall proportions and form rn, but recently I’ve been seeing a ton of references for knees and leg muscles and it’s useful info to store away)

as for studying, the best rec I can offer is studying the Loomis technique (you can find a lot of this online, but you can get a download of his book here ! I really recommend reading the whole book, the techniques make a lot more sense seeing it page by page rather than random work sheets) and watching proko videos. that's really all I think you need to start out~ the book covers a lot of subjects (and is a pretty nice read, he says some v nice things ; ;) and the videos are cute and explain in good detail.

everyone learns differently and prefers different techniques when it comes to anatomy, but I really really do recommend as basic steps:- learning to view anatomy in basic shapes (boxes, squares, circles, squishy beans) and planes. this helps A LOT with figuring out why proportions look wrong and as you get more confident with anatomy you figure out your own way of simplifying the steps down to work faster - studying the skeleton and muscles A Lot so when you start drawing you understand why all those lumps and bumps are there and what they do when they're in action - however tempting it is, don't try and learn from drawing your bias however perfect they are. when you're learning rather than just drawing, you really need well-lit, posed for pictures where everything is clear and easy to follow💦- tracing is ok !! anatomy is complicated and frustrating and though you shouldn't rely on tracing, it's a good basis for helping you get the hang of something if it’s not making sense (bc proportions REALLY dont make sense sometimes when you’re doing it by eye)- literally everything is angles and measurements ! however you stylise what covers the skeleton, the basic way it moves, where parts measure up at rest or flex to, everything will be easier if you learn that first. perspective and complicated poses will be way easier when you know exactly how the body should be in the first place- something I only really came to terms with recently but is so helpful ! is to not try and create a perfect sketch. capturing the motion, getting the proportions right, adding your own stylising..all in the initial sketch (or even on the basic frame) is hard ! f. e these are my layers for the da hai art I posted yesterday (to scale, I draw way bigger than the frame n just use it as a ref)

I hope that helps !! please let me know if you get stuck anywhere or need smth specific~~ (●｀･ω･)ゞ