#so have these shitty photo manips instead

[ineffable-romantics]

The Final Fifteen as 12th Doctor quotes

[jebentnietalleen]

By now most people have read and seen a lot about the convention already, but since I said I would write about it (and because I like to be able to look back on my own experiences later), I'll ramble on for a bit...

First and foremost, it was a pleasure to meet and see other Tumblr users and fans of skam in general, I loved being in a room with so many like minded people 💖����🥰 . I've never been to a convention before so it was truly special. I wanna give a special mention to

@chelouelou

​, meeting her was one of my personal highlights and I am so glad we hit it off just as well as we did online. She is the sweetest person and a ray of sunshine, and we had multiple laughing fits for no good reason. All lovely things imo 🧡😍🙌✨

Some random facts:

I almost drew a braincell at La Petite Ceinture so I could write 'the skam france galaxy braincell' but I chickened out last moment because it felt like sacrilege

Every time we saw one of those step scooters we felt triggered

Every time we saw someone carrying a baguette we laughed

Elise brought everybody clown noses

La Petite Ceinture is absolutely calming and just a great experience to visit 

About the convention:

We arrived around 9:00, and because we already got our passes the night before (the organization for that was also shitty, we arrived at 17:30, which was suppose to be the time that they would open up for the passes, and left at 21:00. They were not prepared, everything arrived in boxes through out the night, we had to wait a long long time) we didn't have to wait in line and sat on the floor for a bit while we waited for everything to start. We sat next to a large glass window, and suddenly we heard some fans shrieking in excitement. We looked up and saw Maxence walk past us, and let me tell you, that alone was quite an experience. Mannequin elite, indeed. There is just something so alluring about him, it's even more apparent in real life. We were all very nervous and also excited about the whole day, and this hyped us up even more ngl. We saw more cast members come in, Coline, Paul, Robin, Leo, and probably more that I can't remember. We got called into the big room where the panels were held, at around 10:00.

After a short speech by the host, and a video introduction of all the casts (which was lovely and I might post later, I don't know if anybody posted it yet? I haven't seen it) the cast of skam france came on stage. The crowd went wild, naturally. They got a standing ovation. The energy was buzzing. Axel was joking around from the first second, he was talking with Maxence and with the boys and with Zoe, making jokes the whole time, even gave the host what looked like a slap on the ass hahah. He looked very hyped up. The whole cast looked very happy to be there.

The duo photoshoot was suppose to start 10:15 but started around 10:45 instead. So the day already started with a delay, and because a lot of events had some overlap (for example they couldn't start the group photo shoot if a few cast members were still busy with their duo's) it had a sort of domino effect throughout the whole day. There was a lot of waiting and a lot of standing around. When I was in line for the duo photoshoot, Axel and Maxence were both hugging fans they met before (even though it wasn’t allowed, which I still don’t understand tbh) and one girl wanted to do the Polaris hand holding bit with Axel and he went with it and looked at her so softly it was a lot okay, I hope that girl is still alive. I saw Maxence do the same thing with another girl during the same shoot, so they stood back to back with the girls in question (the picture later became famous because of the manip smh) And just before it was my turn, Maxence draped himself over Axel and they hugged with Maxence standing behind Axel and Axel reached up to touch Maxence's arm. This wasn't for a photo they weren't even facing a camera, this was just them being their caring selves. They were really sweet together the whole day, as everyone has seen by now.

We had to wait a long time for the panel to start, and they started way later than planned. Maxence was still busy with his duo with Rocco and Assa and Lais also came in later. Everything was in French and the host translated. I considered going up to ask a question (tell us more about the 90% social media content that Axel wanted to do that went too far lmao) but the queue filled up so quickly and I knew there was a limited time for the cast, so I didn't. In the end it's probably for the best seeing as they went on for a half hour longer because Axel is the literal best and I will not hear anyone say anything different. I thought the host did a good job, but I still think a lot of details got lost in translation because he obviously couldn't translate every single thing word for word. I cackled because when he talked in English he pronounced Axel and Maxence's names very Englishy. I thought it was cute that Axel kept shouting for Maxence to come join them when they started, and that when Maxence came in he sat in front of him. I sat pretty close to the stage at that point and saw that Axel explained to Maxence that he yelled his name hahah. That whole panel was golden, loved hearing about their fave lines and upcoming projects, plus they were all so sweet to each other, ugh, name me a better cast istg. Some of the other highlights for me were how adorable Axel and Leo were together and how Moussa and Lais are integrated into the whole cast and got along with everyone. Seeing Lais and Maxence interact got me thinking about seeing Sofiane and Eliott together on screen and now I want it even more tbh. Of course everyone knows that Axel ignored the rules and insisted on talking to everyone who had a question, went off stage and talked to the people who were left, tried to include everyone, in general he had a really big role yesterday. I got an ask saying he is a true born entertainer and that's true, he really is (I will answer that ask later I promise, I am just way behind tbh sorryyy).

After the panel was the group photo with the skam france cast. The chaotic energy was off the chart. Especially Axel and Maxence, I saw Maxence bite some girls tag that was around her neck for the picture lmao. They kept cheering the people on who came for their picture, it was adorable. When it was my turn I stood between Axel and Maxence and ugh, just, it was great okay. I said thank you when I got my picture, and Maxence went: nooo, thank yOuUuU (you know the voice he sometimes uses? Yeah) what a sweetheart tbh.

After this there was a looooot of waiting for me. The only thing I had left was the autographs and selfies (this was one event) and that could not start before all the group photos were done, and they went on for way too long. That just means the organization sold too many or didn't calculate the right amount of time it would take. I managed to catch some of the skam og panel and italia, but not all of it, and tbh it's all a blurr because I was busy with processing everything haha.

Finally it was time for the autographs, and the line was looong. I had the pleasure of seeing Axel carry Lais to the tables up close and personal, what a legend. The times I fondly shook my head with a grin on my face yesterday because of that chaotic king are countless. Just before I was almost at the end of the line, they cut us off because they needed to start the closing ceremony (for lack of a better description). Luckily they wrote numbers on our hands so we didn't have to wait all the way back in line again, because after the ceremony they would get back to it. This wasn't in the schedule, it was suppose to be over, hence closing ceremony, so the skam france cast stayed behind way longer than planned. The closing ceremony was very emotional, most of the cast got tears in their eyes as people shared their stories. Not everything was translated but you could still tell it meant a lot to them. Not to mention the amount of money they managed to raise with the convention. Truly amazing. Of course we all saw the cast go absolutely nuts to one direction lmao, that was a treat to see after such a long day. Idk how they kept up their energy, especially Axel who seems to be inhuman tbh. He never seemed very tired, you could see it a bit in his face but he powered on and I love him for that. The rest of the cast was definitely more visibly tired, some more than others of course.  Finally we got back to the autographs, and still it was a long wait. I think we were there for nearly 2 hours and I only got to Marilyn, Lais, Axel and Maxence. By then it was 21:00 and I could barely stand. I only ate two mini croissants for breakfast and had a few handful of nuts during the day. I wasn't hungry but that still probably wasn't very smart of me. I kind of regret not staying to get the other autographs as well, but I was truly spend. Lais is as much a ray of sunshine as he is on TV, he is super nice and thankful, as is Marilyn. They were kind to everyone. That's something that I can say about the whole cast: everywhere I looked, I saw happy cast members who were touched by every single person who come up to them. Amazing really.

I'm not gonna lie, I was looking forward to getting to Axel the most. Anybody who follows me will not be surprised by this. So let me tell you a little bit about it. Axel gives the best hugs, is kind, is soft, calls you by your name, explains to you that he will read your letter later and carefully because he reads every one of them (I assured him that I am aware of that and very thankful) and that he wants to take his time with it to be able respond to it (which is not something I expect or even want, I just wanted to thank him and tell him how great he is, no response necessary). When I said it's been a long day he said no no no no, it's been a cool day, and I think he really means it. He was so full of energy after that long a day. He is so happy whenever he sees someone he remembers. And when I asked for a hug he said pffff of course!!! Did I mention he winked at me? Yeah. I really thought I could not love him more than I did but I do. I'm so grateful to have been able to meet him and talk to him and ugh ugh just, I can die happy now.

Maxence was really tired and stressed by the time I got to him and he took a smoke break just before. They warned us to keep it short because it was taking too long, so I did. I gave him the letter I wrote and he thanked me and we took some selfies. He was very nice but you could tell it was a lot for him, and that's very understandable.

After that we went back to the hotel and I literally could not even form proper sentences anymore. We didn't get any dinner, we just talked for a bit to let it all sink in and then we went to bed.

Tbh, it's still a bit like a dream when I think back on it. It's a good thing I have pictures because otherwise I wouldn't believe it myself. I love this cast and this show and the crew too of course, I am so happy I went and the next time I get the slightest change to see them again I will take it without a doubt. They are all amazing. 10/10 would recommend.

PS: if anybody has any questions don’t hesitate to ask, although I might not know the answer or remember haha.

[c0ffeebee]

hi! i've always wanted to ask how you got into doing art / photo manipulations in the way that you do? your style is so unique and beautiful, i was wondering if you took inspo from any other sources? hope that made sense, have a nice day!

hi! thank you so much for your kind words about my work and my style! ❤and this is seriously the most interesting ask i’ve ever gotten in my entire life, so thank you so much for that too, anon! it’s a pretty long story, but i’ll try not to ramble (and if i do i’m sorry)

first thing you should know i was drawing since i was a little kid, literally no other activity could occupy me that much, so i basically taught myself to draw (my whole family draws, but it’s more of a hobbie for my parents and my brother and they never really taught me, just gave me freedom to try)

i’m saying that just so you know i had a major traditional drawing background before i’ve tried anything digital 

then when i was like 15 i entered my first ever fandom, which was twilight and i’m not ashamed (maybe a little), and in that time in fandom one the most popular activities was - doing fanfiction cover for other people’s stories, and so i thought i want to be able to do that! and i’ve started to descover for myself what photoshop is

and for the next few years i was teaching myself to work with this program and at first, of course, it was A BIG MESS:

but i’ve managed to understand what works and what not, and people started to request fanfic covers from me, so i made them (it wasn’t like commission because at this point fandom didn’t figure out we can do that yet), it was something like this:

so for all those years i taught myself how to work with colors, croping, textures, text, everything, but i never added drawn details to it because i’ve never knew what a drawing tablet even is

but for all those covers it was often necessary to make manips and i’ve started to learn how to do that too and (as with everything) it was a… not good at first, i mean look at it:

as you can see it was… a journey

then one day i’ve discovered what a drawing tablet is (when i was in glee fandom a few years later and everyone was drawing digital stuff), so i begged my parents to buy me my first drawing tablet (i was a shitty one let me tell you and it died like a year later, but that’s not the point)

and with it i’ve started doing what oh so many people on the internet do (which was the first step towards what i’m doing now), i took different pictures, maniped them together and TRACED all the lines on top of it with the new layer, and then just blurred the original pictures that were still on the bottom layer, and i wasn’t telling people about how i did it, so they thought i’ve drawn it all from the scratch (don’t do it, people, just say you traced it, no one cares):

so it looked… ok? but now when i look at it i think it’s all messy and… yeah, no, it’s not good at allbut for all those years i was watching so many people who photomanipulated pictures too (in a very different style than i do, but oh so beautifully), it wasn’t like one or two artist that i admired, it was seeing those thing now and then, and mostly in the works of people who were still doing all those fic covers, but were getting better and better at it

and then i saw that some book covers look like that too, like those amazing smooth manips that i’ve always wanted to know how to do

what i didn’t understand back then was that i’ve already knew, i’ve already done that, but i’ve messed it up every time i was tracing over my manips trying to pretend it’s a drawing, instead of just working on the pistures i’ve manipulated and try and make them look more whole and realystic

at some point i even made a few manips that looked distantly like what i’m doing now:

and i just sort of rejected this idea of doing manips, because i wanted to teach myself to draw digitally, not photomanipulate

and then i started to try and make manips like those (like i saw on book and fic covers) for the covers i was making (still) and it worked and i liked how it looked:

so i thought why not try to do that not for a cover, but just like an illustration, and i made this one piece and it changed everything:

you can find it here on tumblr

i saw people talking in the comments and tags about how it looks like a picture and like a drawing at the same time and i thought: ok, maybe i’m onto something here, maybe i do want to make stuff like that

and so i did

and in the middle of making the second one of these i’ve lost my first tablet, i finished it using mouse (it was hell) and it turned out looking like that:

you can find it here on tumblr

and then a few month later i got a new tablet (which i’m working with to this day) and i’ve just started to make things like that more and more, it felt like i finally found my style, but it was taking me so much time to make each one of those that in a year all i’ve made was:

7 pieces… ok i’ve also made some gifs and i’ve tried drawing chibi for the first time that year too, but you get the point, it was hard for me to learn how to do it quickly, but at the same time be satisfied with how each finished piece looks

and then it was just hours and hours and hours of practice and pain (kidding about the pain, but not really, it was tough) and here we are now, that piece i’ve made last week for will tudor’s birthday has 5 characters on it and it took me like two and half days (?) to make it, if you’d shown me this manip a few years ago when i’ve just started and told me i did it in such a short time i would never believe you

so everything comes with practice, and if you want to be able to do something - be curious, try things you were afraid to try before, look at the other people who does it (but not too much, because you have your own style and your own road to it) and most importantly just… just make something, even if at first you’ll thing it looks like a mess, trust me, i know what a mess is, it gets better ❤