#still not near my graphic tablet :(

[ndvydual]

General art advice : if you are having a background, it shouldnt be an after thought .

[saiyanwitcher]

You clearly put a lot of thought into PoD, what is your favorite Easter egg? Or is there something you have planted that we as readers have not noticed yet?

Oh there are so many, I don't even know where to start, and I apologize for this long answer in advance!!🫣

I seeded/planted a lot of the endgame ideas for this story very early on that I think weren't noticed or are more there for like a reread when you know what is going to happen. Some of them haven't fully been revealed yet so I won't share, but others I can point out!

Chapter 6 had this line: "Only Max and Jos knew the truth about the demise of planet Toro, and he would take that secret with him to the grave." This has since been revealed in chapter 29 when Max tells Charles what really happened, but I don't think I got any comments at the time about that throw away line in 6. Chapter 14 also referenced Jos trying to get Max to beg again like he did for Toro with the line: "You think your pleas mean anything to me now after all these years trying to make you beg again?" And also later in 14 with: Without so much as looking back, Charles yelled out, “They're all dead because of you!” and the double doors slammed shut behind him.

Chapter 8 referenced the revelation that Carlos and Charles were half bothers with the line: "Be careful, brother," he warned, voice tinged with disdain like the word tasted bad in his mouth." And then another reference in 18: “Then why him, your Highness ? What does he have that I don’t? He's third-class, just like me. He—he's even worse than that . . . a fucking purge infant! A bastard. A symbol of shame on my house and family.”

Chapter 18 has this line: “It's a bracelet,” Charles began softly, his voice filled with a mix of hope and worry, “This one in particular . . . is supposed to keep the wearer safe. It’s something my father gave me before he passed away. He said it had been in the family for generations, always protecting those who wore it from harm.” This line is significant because as soon as Charles took it off and gave it to max, he was then hurt by George very shortly after, and Max was more unharmed than usual on his assignment. Also, since Charles has not been wearing it and Max has, Charles has gotten himself into all kinds of trouble . . .

Here are also just some general ideas behind some key moments that are worth of mentioning and my personal favorites:

The whole edit graphic for Chapter 8 still makes me giggle and it's where the chessboard parallels started for this fic. The photo of Carlos in a white shirt and Charles in a black shirt representing white and black sides on the board. White always makes the first move in chess and this alluded to Carlos being the older son/first lover of Max. Then the photo in the center of that graphic with the white king smashing the black king alluded to Carlos being a long standing opponent to anyone getting near Max. Carlos' later deeds with the camera and the anon report confirmed that.

Another fun one is George being revealed to have also been a stolen prince, just like Max, but claims that he gave up that title and old life in favor of fully committing to his new role and identity within the PTO. BUT . . . George still wears his mantel from Elysia as part of his PTO uniform 🤭 Chapter 9 has this line: Charles watched him tuck his tablet under his arm and retreat down the hall with a long light blue cape flapping behind him. Even Max doesn't wear his mantel from Toro, so maybe George hasn't completely given up like he thinks he has?

And alright, because I can't help myself, here are some lines that allude to later parts of the story coming up that maybe people glanced over:

Chapter 6: “This boost is also Jos’ greatest fear.” Alonso continued, drawing Charles confused gaze again. “Tales of a legendary Torossian warrior that would appear every one thousand years were known throughout the universe. Most of the knowledge around the conditions required to break through into the altered state were lost with Toro, but even Jos knew this warrior would've been able to challenge him.”

Chapter 6: "I'm not a good man, Charles."

Chapter 7: “On Earth, we have wish orbs that are scattered across the globe. When you locate all seven and bring them to a sacred temple, you can have a wish granted by a spiritual being that accepts the orbs as payment."

Chapter 12: The emperor’s most prized possessions from his conquests and victories were displayed prominently throughout the room. Heads of rebel forces and more than a few Torossian tails were mounted on the walls, trophies of his unimaginable cruelty. 

Chapter 12: Those familiar cerulean jewels that always made him smile and feel tingly inside, melted into molten pools of fire and rage. Max's eyes reflected back at him in the dim room like caged Hell, ready to be unleashed causing untold devastation. His wet hair, darker than its normal blonde, had even started to glow like spun strands of golden silk at the tips. 

Chapter 19: “A compatible match? What does that mean?” “It means that your energy frequency is on the same plane as the prince's. Another part of being an Eldri is that you can give part of your energy to your mate when they are in duress. I, myself, am unfamiliar with the process, but I’ve heard of it being done.”

Chapter 26: Walking closer, he had the feeling that he was being watched. Perhaps it was just his tired mind playing tricks on him, but he couldn't help but feel like eyes were following him.

Eyes that weren't the prince's.

[furiarossa]

The power of a Disney Song - I Am Moana (Song of the Ancestors)

Today I want to share something very small, but intensely beautiful, that I remembered.

It seems disconnected from everything I'm posting these days, but I need to tell you about it.

That song from Moana (did you know that the title of this movie, in Italy, is Oceania?) the one where the grandmother talks to Moana, made me cry the first time I heard it.

Obviously it was a soft cry, hidden behind clenched teeth, behind the tension of the cheeks, with eyes looking down... but it was a liberating cry, a cry of joy.

"Why do you hesitate?

I don't know"

When the song started, I immediately felt that something was familiar. It was as if something in those specific scenes was starting to be more engaging than the rest of the film, which is also beautiful anyway. The protagonist feels defeated, she thinks that her journey is over there, that there is nothing left to do: she has failed, her mission was bigger than her.

"I don't know" She says, when the grandmother asks her why she is hesitating.

I knew, why she hesitated: because when you feel like nothing I do will advance your journey, it's damn hard to wake up, shake off the fatigue and fear, and continue, because it seems like a behavior too close to madness: keep doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result. I hesitated. I hesitated. I didn't exist.

"Moana listen, Do you know who you are?" Grandma asks her, after singing what until then I had considered a song like any other, to cheer up the heroine. You know, right? The classic thing about how travel leaves you with scars that reveal who you are, the people who love you change you, things like that.

And I, at that time, had absolutely no idea who I was. I was trying to get out of a period of my life, a very long horrible period, in which I had to cancel myself, my tastes, my personality, to survive. Who was I? It was terrible, not having an identity, not knowing who I was and if I deserved to continue existing.

"Who am I?" The protagonist asks herself in a whisper, perfectly echoing my thoughts. As if it were me, in the same voice I had heard in my head.

"I am the girl who loves my island. I'm the girl who loves the sea... It calls me".

A shiver ran down my back, starting from my neck and running down my spine. I was born on an island.

When I was little, around twelve years old, my mother forced me to leave the land I loved.

I dreamed of it almost every night, for years: my streets, my buildings, my school, the faces of my classmates, the golden sun that seemed to amplify the colors and contrasts.

My island called me and more than a call it was a constant cry in my ears, there was nothing but my island, I dedicated my love songs to it.

And as I watched that movie, I had just returned home to my island. I had made it, I had made it, I was on my island.

"We are descended from voyagers

Who found their way across the world

They call me."

And my island has been inhabited by so many people, by so many peoples, by so many travelers... my city, near the sea, is and always has been a destination for ships from all over the world. Where did my people come from? We were Arabs and Normans, we were Greeks and Sicans. Why did I feel this enormous call to travel, a call that simultaneously asked me to return home and see the world? Was it talking about me?

"I've delivered us to where we are

I have journeyed farther

I am everything I've learned and more

Still it calls me"

I had managed to come home after a dangerous journey, after being away for literal decades, even though they had tried in every way to stop me, and all thanks to a small laptop, a scanner, a ballpoint pen, a cheap graphics tablet: My drawings (my pupacchiotti, "little puppets" as my parents patronizingly called them) had brought me home, had paid for my independence.

"And the call isn't out there at all

It's inside me It's like the tide,

always falling and rising "

My hunger to see everything was still there, inside my chest; To know, to know everything, to see and read and discover and travel, even if it was just with my feet because I have no money for anything else, even if it was just with my finger on the atlas. That's who I was.

That's who I am. I am the hunger for knowledge, the curiosity, the love for her land.

"I will carry you here in my heart

You'll remind me

That come what may,

I know the way"

My maternal grandmother died when I was very young. They tell me that she loved me very much. All I have of her are her recipes, some writings, a photo of her holding me. I don't remember her voice or her face or her smell. Even though I've seen her face, in photographs, I can't remember her closing my eyes. But they tell me she loved books, more than anything, and animals, and ancient stories and her land and me.

In that moment it was like I was listening to my grandmother's spirit. I would carry her in my heart, she would remind me that, no matter what happens, I know the way.

That movie was speaking to me.

When I listened to the song again, after that time, I paid much more attention to the first part too and, oh, I've carried it with me ever since.

"The people you love will change you

The things you have learned will guide you

And nothing on Earth can silence

The quiet voice still inside you

And when that voice starts to whisper

Moana, you've come so far

Moana, listen

Do you know who you are?".

I have nothing in common with Moana: not my ethnicity, not my color, not my family history, not my age. Nothing. Yet it felt like that song was about me and it resonated with me and my personal history in a profound way.

Closing my eyes, I could imagine it was about my sea, my people, my scars.

"Do you know who you are?"

Now I do. And it doesn't matter if it means a long, endless solitude... that song reminded me that there is a heroic beauty in being who you are, despite everything, in traveling alone, in learning from yourself as much as from others. Our ghosts, sometimes, are formidable compasses in the world.

And it's incredible that it should have been a song from an animated children's film that reminded me of this.

I felt like a hero for what I did. My journey was deserving of celebration.

"I know the way, I am ________".

(And now I stop writing because this should have been a short lil' thing to say "hey, I love that song!", but ended up being a journal page XD)

[owlbelly]

starting to wonder if the reason i've been scratching my head at how seemingly perfect everyone else's line art always looks to me...is because it's all been digital for years & i just didn't always know or recognize it? i'm starting to recognize fancy brushes that mimic trad media as brushes now, like i always assumed everyone was editing digitally like me but i thought a lot more people were starting on paper...

& it turns out if you draw digitally with good tools (an actual graphic tablet or iPad, stabilization, etc.) you can achieve clean, "perfect" lines that just aren't possible traditionally without being an inking master

the ability to immediately undo & rework things near-infinitely also brings out the perfectionism. granted i'm still just learning Procreate (or like. even how to use a damn iPad) but it's taking me a looooong time to draw because i can just fuss & fuss with it. there are things i really like about it but other things i know i need to watch out for. i wonder if it's gonna give me more of an appreciation for the imperfection of my traditional work

[peakwealth]

You Run

Vladimir Putin, flanked by airline cabin crew (reportedly Aeroflot trainees), shortly before ordering the invasion of Ukraine.

Two recent quotes stick in my mind. The first one was by an American woman who escaped from a mass shooting incident after the US Super Bowl in Kansas City. (One dead, twenty-two injured.) Interviewed minutes later on TV, she said: In this day and age, you run.

I forget where I saw the second quote but I thought of it after Donald Trump threatened to pull the plug on NATO, should he be re-elected this year: It's as if the devil had changed sides.

Near panic broke out across Europe. Trump was willing to throw European countries, previously known as America's allies, to the wolves.

Vladimir Putin, do as you please. Ukraine, prepare to be sacrificed. And by extension, Taiwan, your time is up.

I keep coming back to this: the West isn't what it used to be. I think of myself as fortunate to have grown up in a 'eurocentric' world order, or the outcome of the second world war if you prefer. It may have been delusional but it was printed on perfume bottles: PARIS - LONDON - NEW YORK.

In reality, eurocentrism and the colonial empires that created it were already faltering by the time I came into this world. It took, however, a long time to see and accept it. As for the 'American century', it ended in 2001 with the apocalyptic scenes of 9/11 in New York City. As the towers collapsed, the world pivoted into a new era. To put it differently, the world was changing hands.

---------------

On February 24 2022 I woke up in a small hotel south of Granada and went downstairs to have coffee at the bar. I flipped open my tablet and there it was:

RUSSIA ATTACKS UKRAINE

Until then I - we - had assumed there existed a fundamental contract with European history, immovably rooted in postwar reality and shared by all: never again, no more major wars in Europe. No one in their right mind would want to mess with that contract.

Except that Vladimir Putin had just ordered his army across the border into Ukraine.

Now I wake up every day and want to hit my head against the wall as the Russian war of aggression grinds on. Grind, meat grinder, human waves, trench warfare. The words are all desperately wrong.

After two years of daily annihilation, hundreds of thousands of lives casually erased or ruined, it goes on and on. Both sides, it has been reported, are running short of young men to waste at the front.

We do not know exactly what goes on on those front lines. We hear about Russian soldiers dispatched to their deaths as a matter of course. But we do not get to see that, nor do we get any real casualty numbers. At the beginning of the war, things were more graphic, the bodies photographed where they had fallen. Two years on, we don't know. But the broken, blasted cities tell the story, as they do in Gaza: not many people walk away alive.

And now no one seems quite sure what to do about Ukraine. The war looks unwinnable because Putin does not care about the cost in human lives.

Why fight if you can't win? Is a negotiated settlement still possible? Land for peace would mean the partition of Ukraine accepted as a fait accompli. But can there be peace without justice for Ukraine, which would effectively be sacrificed in the hope of keeping Putin's Russia in check? Putin, however, cannot be trusted, nor can Trump for that matter.

Should Trump return to the White House, a new world order might emerge overwhelmingly inimical to the west or what would be left of it. It might not even be clear where the USA would position itself. As for the loss of Ukraine, in whole or in part, it would be like small change.

You can go on like this, endlessly turning over the options and arguments in your head, none of them acceptable: Ukraine's outright surrender? Or an indefinite ceasefire that would humiliate Kyiv but leave it attached to Europe?

Faced with a historic opportunity to rewrite everything, a moment of dizzying recalculation of how the planet works and who's boss, it is hard to imagine that China would hesitate to seize the moment. Others would follow, like India, Indonesia, Nigeria, South Africa, Brazil, eventually lining up with Russia in an historic act of opportunism and Schadenfreude.

In this day and age, you run. The devil has changed sides.

A lot is at stake in 2024.

[keaalu]

WIP - ‘Kestrel Kestrel’

So apparently “WIP Wednesday” is a thing? Like I need any excuses to dump incomplete ficbits on the internet.

----

Still feeling sore and muzzy, with 55 lurking quietly next to her, monitoring her vital signs, she’d only been human again for thirty seven minutes but Kate was already on her third plate of sandwiches, crunching her way through Spacehawk’s entire stock of crispy snacks. 101 looked alarmed by how quickly his inventory was dropping but wasn’t hesitating at bringing more when she looked at him in a specific way.

“Growing a whole new skeleton really takes it out of you,” she said, accepting the offering when the zeroid trundled over pushing yet another packet of crisps towards her.

“That’s our last pack of those,” 101 informed her, trying but not quite able to keep all the reproach from his tone. “So if you need anything else you’ll need to pick something different. Like broccoli.”

“Sorry, hon.” She suspected it had probably been Hiro’s favourites she’d been happily munching her way through, if the zeroid’s manner was anything to go by. “I’ll send some more up on your next supply run.”

He chirped an acknowledgement and seemed mollified, for the moment.

“I guess it must have felt a bit like this when you got your body back after Zelda turned you into a cube, huh?” she wondered.

“Oh I don’t think my experience was anywhere near as bad as yours, ma’am,” he demurred. “Mine was more like… maybe just a very unflattering new set of clothes.”

Kate patted him on the head, anyway. “I bet it still sucked. And at least you weren’t a were-cube,” she joked, and winced.

“And it didn’t involve a trash compactor,” he agreed, and gave her fingers a bump. “Would you like a coffee? I just heard it finish brewing.”

“That would be amazing. Thank you.”

He squeaked another little nonverbal agreement, and rolled away to get it. (She wondered if she could get away with asking for more sandwiches when he came back.)

“Tea? Oh, yes please,” she heard Hiro say, and looked up to find the lieutenant in the doorway.

“I ate all your chips, so I think I’m in trouble with your little space husband,” Kate apologised, holding the open pack out to him. Even that small action made her shoulders ache. Perhaps she ought to forego more sandwiches in favour of sleeping for a few days.

Hiro smiled and took a single crisp, but otherwise waved her off. “I once told him I particularly liked these, so now he always buys far too many, then pretends they were on offer. Then we have to somehow store four cases of them.” He settled on the floor next to her, cross legged, and nibbled the snack. “I try not to eat them too quickly, because then he panics that we are running out and buys more.” A little sigh. “There are certain nuances to human behaviour that zeroids don’t quite get, yet, and striking a balance between foods we enjoy and sensible nutritional choices appears to be one of them.”

“Well, you have plenty of ‘sensible nutritional choices’ in the form of broccoli, apparently.”

“And why do you think we have plenty of that?” Hiro gave her an arch look, then relented and took another crisp.

“Yeah, I get it.” Kate chuckled, tiredly. “So do you have an update for me?”

“I do. Not much of one, yet, but we wanted to ensure you were kept in the loop.” He held out the tablet for her.

Kate stared at the confusing mosaic of… biopsy images? “What am I looking at?”

He tapped the first image and it enlarged to a graphical representation genetic data. “Initially, when you arrived and we took a skin sample?” At her nod, he went on; “We thought that Zelda must have done something structurally to alter your DNA, but when we analysed it, it was all still human. We could not explain it. How could you be human, but categorically not human, at the same time? So we did a visual scan of your blood sample, instead. And we found… this.” He touched the screen and brought up a new image.

It was some sort of microscopy of a blood film. Kate could recognise red blood cells easily. The irregular, blobby purplish masses were probably white blood cells.

She had no idea what the scattering of angular black flecks were, though.

She felt a set of cold fingers draw up the back of her neck. “The hell are those.”

“We are still working on our analysis, but they look like very small machines of some sort. They have proved hard to extract to get under the electron microscope. Kiljoy is still working on it.”

---

“The black dots.” She let out a breath in a very long exhale. “Can you remove them?”

Hiro’s silence was all she needed to know.

“We will remove them,” he hastily added. “I just don’t know how quickly we can do it, yet.”

“Can you block them?”

“I don’t know.”

“So what you mean is, I could turn back into a bird at literally any moment. Including at the worst possible time. Like… at the controls of an aircraft.”

He took her hand and squeezed her fingers, briefly. “I’m sorry, Kate.”

The two zeroids had both converged on her as well, leaning comfortingly against her.

“It’s okay, guys.” She forced a smile. “I know it’s not your fault. I just… oh, man. Just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse.”

[tiredpainednerdandveryveryqueer]

I've been practicing art on a graphics tablet for the first time in over 8 years.

And I HATE my work. I am so bad at art 😭😭

The fibromyalgia and the dyspraxia do NOT help. I haven't practiced anywhere near as much as I should and with dyspraxia I'm likely to need to practice three times as much to get half as good. But look... I'm still gonna try. This is not me giving up.

It'll hurt. And I know it's not good. But I'm gonna keep trying.

[hermitcatlongposts]

What is this game?

I mean it is a video game indeed. What does it really mean to me? What does this game stand for? Why is it being made at all?

What I'm about to say next is gonna be so hazardously cliche that you might wanna brace yourself. The journey of developing this game was a journey of self discovery. Yes I too am cringing at what I said. But not self discovery as in oh I didn't know who I was and now I suddenly do. I always knew who I was since young age. It's discovery of how intense the "who I am"-ness goes. In fact, someone more sane and reasonable than me would say it's so much that it's counterproductive.

I actually did talk about a platformer game I used to work on like a year ago at SubscribeStar. I gave up on it because I was making it just because I was told by my environment at the time that it's the best route for beginners. I like neither "minimalist" graphics nor platformer genre. Also making vector art was so painful for me.

So the significance of my current touhou clone project is that I said fuck you to "minimalist" vector art and started drawing normal, raster art with my mouse. Drawing with mouse was of course equally painful but the difference was that I tapped into my dormant passion for art, like not just a general loose definition of art such as banana taped on wall, but specifically "moving my hands around and laying pigment on a canvas". Digital equivalent, of course. Shortly followed by buying a drawing tablet.

So what this game initially was going to be was just a prototype purely for the sake of learning the ways of programming a bullet hell and a complete game (as opposed to gamejam). But the jagginess of a mouse drawn sprites were just too unbearably and physically painful to look at and it was nothing less than a necessity to redraw with my beloved drawing tablet so at least it'll have smooth edges, easy on the eyes.

hey, amazing opportunity to have a look at old artworks

But, even after all these years of being a game developer I was still hilariously naive. Technically the first game I ever made was in fucking 2015. The first one to be uploaded on the internet was in 2017. It's unbelievable how I still thought foolishly like "Oh yeah I can finish this game in just 3 months. Ha, see ya soon as a proud developer of a released title."

Anyways, the point is that after such a long time of working on it, I suddenly couldn't see myself just throwing it away as a prototype intended for no one to seriously play it. So the game evolved into "at least a proper game". Which was actually a great decision because, I could release an utterly bare bone prototype that only just serves to have the core idea of a bullet hell touhou clone in terms of programming. But if I did that, I would spend ten years on my second project because that would-be prototype is still nowhere near enough of a programming school. What I didn't realize in the past is how enormous the difference between just spewing out prototype code and meticulously developing a full game with all little mini-mechanics and mini-systems working in harmony. So by spending more time on my first project, I will be spending less time on my second.

I thought that's what the game was gonna be. Just a nice and proper game that I won't feel any shame about purposefully making it garbage like I was originally planning to. Someone sane might say that would be very reasonable place to stop but here comes the part where I expand upon what I said at the beginning about it being a journey of realization of the depths of my personality coming at a detriment of productivity, as in how fast I produce products.

You know how the dress of my player character looks. It's a reference to that platformer game. I am a craftsman through and through (please don't take it as I'm jerking my own dick, I'm just trying to communicate myself clearly). I have emotional connection to my creations for I see them as something that is real and has meaning. I'm not a producer pumping out products on a conveyor belt feeding the bottomless vortex of consumerism. So instead of completely cutting that old platformer game out of my life like it was nothing at all, I decided to pay homage to it as elements in my current game. Basically an easter egg that only extremely few, like 2 or 3 people will recognize. Although it was abandoned for legitimate reasons, I respect it as my first attempt at serious, non-gamejam game. And I immortalize it's legacy this way.

You might remember this flipping tile thing was actually made long ago. But instead of having just a random nothing as a texture, I made it a throwback to one of the key elements of Square Heart (the name of the platformer game, btw), the iconic blue crates and outlines that light up when the player walks over them. Btw the loading is intentionally slowed down to show the spinning border lights more clearly. It doesn't load that slowly in reality lol. Wait, that means players are not gonna really see the thing I spent so much time making...

This is how the player would respawn. Just pop right back up. I mean there is nothing wrong with it. It's a classic animation in all the arcade shooter games.

What I decided to do however is a throwback to how the player character of SquareHeart respawned.

This one is gonna appear in only one of the 5 stages because only one has a night sky. This is the iconic minimalist gradient trees that I tried so hard in SquareHeart to be the main attraction. I actually always planned to have no background at all in this game for the sake of not getting way too ridiculously ahead of myself for a first game. Just plop down the skybox I found on the Unity Asset Store. Now that I decided to do this in one of the stages, I have pushed the standard so I have to figure out something for other stages as well. Also the speeding up you see is not the default but just a short section. Inspired by stage 4 of Touhou 8: Imperishable Night, where the boss tries to run away mid-fight and you chase after them. "Chasing" as in just the background scrolling faster, nothing else really.

The bomb, or what's modernly referred to as SpellCard of the player is a legacy that's actually truly lost. Long long ago in 2019, there was an ancestral version of SquareHeart that featured a cutscene that focuses on this circle flower-like talisman thingy. Literally only one person might remember it besides myself.

This one is not part of the SquareHeart. But if you remember, before I actually started to draw, the player character of my bullet hell was a vector art butterfly. In fact, it all started from a game-jam I wrote a blogpost about right here on Tumblr a long time ago. In fact, if I remember correctly that blogpost is the very reason why I created a Tumblr account to begin with. So this butterfly too won't be forgotten. It's now on the other side as a mini-boss. And every other stages will also have butterflies of different design as their mini-bosses.

And, yeah et cetera. There is actually at least one more easter egg to make but I'm yet to come to a final design decision.

I want this game to be actually something more than "just a proper game for the sake of being a proper game", let alone a throwaway prototype. I want this game to have an actual self to stand solid and have meaning to me. And that meaning is that it's the first step of my journey as an artist ("art" as in a form of indie games, not just visual illustration) but also a rightful payment of respect to my first step as just game developer in general. The past should be put to rest respectfully so the future shall flourish in full force.

[mcslobby]

Here's a small dump of some of my artwork/sketches of an OC from my novel(s) I'm currently working on.

25th of January, 2023 I didn't really bother trying out some shading since this was really a quick sketch run. Although, I've gotta say, I got a bit lucky with the sketch.

Redraw - 30th of January, 2023 Original - 22nd of November, 2022 I decided to do a redraw of the original one to see how much I've progressed over those two months, which I do think I improved just a wee bit.

Of course, you can see that I made some adjustments to her design as well. I experimented a tad more on the redraw, since most of my other work don't contain much else other than a simple background.

(If you look closely at the objects further in the back, you may see that I gave up half-way through the greenery).

28th of January, 2023 Not much to say here.

5th of January, 2023 I focused more on the shading of the clothing, which worked out pretty well for once. I'lI admit, I could've chosen a different color palette here.

22nd of December, 2022 As you can see on the bottom right corner, this one shows her in December of 1999, which is closing near the end of the story of my novel(s).

Because of that, I considered both her emotional and mental state at that time and to depict it, I used much more muted colors and shades in this one.

17th of December, 2022 Here, I limited myself to using only black/white to try and push myself out of my comfort zone, which ended up somewhat okay in the end.

5th of December, 2022 At this point, I primarily used much more desaturated colors, especially when it came to the skin color.

This was mostly due to previous attempts at coloring the skin and then promptly shading it looking incredibly hideous to my eyes, which hindered me from improving.

10th of April, 2022 This is a very early simplified concept of Shinja where I was still getting used to using a graphics tablet rather than a pen or pencil on a sheet of paper.

Even so, my drawing skills were HORRENDOUS at that point of time and I mostly lucked out on this one. On this particular one, I used the forbidden power of VECTOR rather than the more common and popular raster way.

Either way, I liked the slick result I ended up with and tried out the vector thing for some time more before ditching it so that I wouldn't be too restrained by this type of art style in the future.

That's all, folks.

[eienshi09]

I'm replying in good faith cause I think this is worthwhile to point out. But I said comparable. Those specs will get you performance close to a PS4 and likely won't run this year's games at 60 frames even at 1080p on ultra high settings. If you want to get performance close to the PS5 or Series X, your graphics card alone is about as much as the console then another 100-200 if you get the absolute most basic for the rest. As for laptops, mine was about 1500 and still isn't comparable to the latest generation of consoles.

I agree with you that a computer is useful for a lot of other stuff, but a lot of that stuff can and are done on phones and tablets now. You'd be surprised how many people just do not have a personal computer and really only ever touch one for work. I have had SOFTWARE ENGINEERS ask if they could buy or keep their work laptop when they leave the company cause they had gotten used to having a computer.

Along those lines, you are also overestimating the technical literacy of the average person if you think putting together a computer is something that's "easy as shit." Near every day I have to show someone how to do something as basic as make a bookmark or find their S drive or how to use "Save as" versus "Save." So while I know putting a computer together is easier than ever before, I do not think it is something that most people would just be able to do.

All that said, I'm not here to say PC gaming bad or console games are the better way to go. The first of my points is, they are all options; options with various pros and cons that I won't get into here. If someone wants an out-of-the-box experience for not as much money, consoles are there. If they have a little more budget, then pre-built PCs or gaming laptops are an option. And of course, they can try to build one if they want to learn how. My other point is, no matter which option you go with, you should then be able to pick and play whatever game you want on that machine.

hearing "the ps5 is in the latter stage of its lifecycle" and laughing myself sick. NO GAMES

[frogsandfries]

The great thing about working on this graphic novel out of my own pocket (ie not being rushed by an employer and not answering to shareholders), is the turnaround from linework to colorwork can be years and no one will notice.

This also leaves me time to realize things like, I could put a funny or silly bit in here, or this scene needs more clarity, or I hate these frames and I can cut them.

The bad thing about this, though, is, I'm nearing my first thousand frames.

So if I want to add a new frame between frames 236 and 237, for example, I now have to relabel. Every........single.........frame.............. From 237 to whatever I'm up to, it's over 850, but I am just now getting a ton of frames cleaned up and organized--like, more than fifty, because I was having issues with Google drive and I like the convenience of using Google drive because I can quickly and easily move files from my phone to the drive and open my tablet to my drive, rather than the more time consuming option of either trying to fuss with my hard drive from my phone and then hooking it up to my tablet, or the more realistic option of using my laptop as the gopher.

I do also need to back everything up to my hard drive otherwise I'm going to have a mental breakdown if I ever have to re-photograph all my frames and/or re-edit them and/or re-name all the resulting files.

But hey, one great thing about paper is, it definitely survives better than technology. Even if Google shut off drive and photos tomorrow and threw it in the ocean, I still have my sketchbooks. Furthermore, I'm also making sure to label any frames that end up out of order, because I found this one frame in my sketchbook today that I hadn't documented (if anyone remembers, I think I mentioned months ago, I had to be out of the house for an extended period and I brought my graphic novel sketchbooks because I didn't have internet but I think I just ended up forgetting to photograph these frames). Anyway, the frame I found, I knew it didn't belong to the scene that it was in, but I had to wrack my brain to figure out where the hell it was supposed to go.

I'm definitely getting better at labeling my frames when necessary because I'm sick of having small crises like this, with out of order frames.

Anyway, so I had a small headache when I woke up, but it quickly devolved into a migraine. I took this new medication. It took longer to work than a Tylenol. But hey, look, I didn't puke it right back up, so it's a step up from the previous migraine medication. Plus, it's specifically for migraines, so it won't wreak damage on my liver. Maybe an extra hour of pain is the short term sacrifice?

With that being said, I need to get these frames reorganized. I honestly wonder if I should even bother fixing the numbers on my frames until the frames are colored and their order absolutely fixed. I know I'm going to add this one frame, and then within the next hundred frames, I'm going to add at least one more, but sometimes, I need to stitch in like, five frames at one time to make a scene more clear. And if I keep having to go back and re-number, re-number, re-number, I'm just going to shut down. It makes more sense to do it all at once.

[hntedhouse]

closed starter / luna @divinctions location / the hospital ):

in jason goes to hell ( otherwise known as friday the 13th part vi, which is somehow not the most convoluted entry in the franchise, thank you so much new blood and jason x ) tommy jarvis is so afraid of jason voorhees returning from the dead that he winds up indirectly causing jason's resurrection himself. it's sort like the call is coming from inside the house, but black christmas is a completely different franchise, so maybe drew is grasping at straws and he's actually some brand new, never - before - seen type of loser. he quit the graphic novel business, which he hopes will soften some of the shrapnel he's anticipating when luna dumps him. it feels inevitable at this point, but drew still walks into the hospital and asks for their room number. the untouched birthday cake and his tablet are stacked up in his arms atop, perhaps insanely, his clue board game. "swee — luna ? " he nearly grimaces at his own use of their actual name, now unused to hearing it in his voice. "i brought ... " he takes a few cautious steps into the hospital room, finds a clear surface, and clumsily sets down the stack of things he had brought to her. he stands there, nowhere near the bed in which luna is concerningly nestled even though he spots an empty chair right next to them. "are you okay ? " drew blurts out, surprising even himself. "do you want me here ? can i hold your hand ? i'm sorry. that was selfish. do you want me to just leave my tablet and the cake with you ? i'll go if you want me to."

[jon-mcbrine-author]

The work that goes into producing a full-length fiction novel is enough for a full-time staff with at least a forty-hour work week. For many indie authors, including myself, it is typically a one-person operation. There are authors with teams, helpers, and roped-in family members, but even for multi-person scribe-squads, the workload can be daunting. The tasks run from the actual writing/typing, editing, marketing, and, among other things, designing the art. When it came to my debut young adult sci-go superhero novel, Unsecret Identity: Eric Icarus - Book One, I ultimately ended up tackling these assignments solo.

Simply because I wear many hats when it comes to creating this particular story does not necessarily entitle me to any special treatment or extra credit. As previously mentioned, there are numerous writers who bear the work weight on their shoulders with not much assistance. My journey so far has seen numerous learning curve-balls thrown my way as I figure out this whole author thing on the fly. I still have miles to go before I can go around boasting about my writing skill—the biggest lesson so far is that you never stop learning. Trends change, tastes differ, and technology advances. As I continue to develop my techniques, I roll with more punches than I hand out hits.

Speaking of technology, my experience as a graphic designer has proved to be greatly beneficial when creating cover art. Utilizing software programs like Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign, I am able to format the manuscripts as well as include interior art. As of this writing, Unsecret Identity is nearing its completion in transitioning from being only available as an ebook to a printed paperback edition. I was prepared to cross the finish line when I decided to insert more illustrations as part of the book. It’s an exciting concept that could help set the novel apart and further express my vision of the characters and settings, but… it also means more delay.

This is where tech comes back into play. I’ve been drawing my entire life, but as pencillers know, the sketching process can be time-consuming. Digital drawing has changed the game for me: using the Apple Pencil on an iPad while running the Procreate drawing program has drastically improved my illustration process. Don’t get me wrong, I believe I will always prefer the traditional method, but using a stylus on a smooth screen not only allows me to zoom in for meticulous detail (along with an overwhelming amount of brush choices), but the slick glass surface is much more preferable for me. I’m not sure why exactly, but I've always had a sensitivity to the feel of paper. So, naturally my greatest interests are writing and drawing—two paper-based hobbies. Thanks to the digital age, the only limit is my imagination (and battery life).

Well, there is at least one other limit - my time. Similar to other self-publishing authors, my writing time is usually whenever I can carve out a short period throughout a typical day. As quick and convenient as tablet drawing can be, it’s still a matter of how exhausted I am after tending to “real life” commitments. This leads to the reason I do not simply outsource the jobs: cheap labor! I don’t consider myself a control freak, though saying that, it is a bit of a point of pride to be able to complete these mounting tasks myself. The entire book-making process is a gauntlet but it’s something I can use all talents for (opinions on the end result may have some questioning the extent of this talent, but, hey, like I said, it’s cheap labor!). 

As if performing all these duties with a lack of downtime wasn’t enough of a challenge, I intend on recording the audiobook version of Unsecret Identity myself. I am not sure if I’m a jack of all trades or a glutton for punishment, but regardless, I’m ready to DIY.

Stay in the loop for more details by following Jonfcition Blog on Substack and be sure to check out jonmcbrine.com for more info about this and all my books.

Unsecret Identity: Eric Icarus - Book One is available now from the Amazon Kindle store.

https://a.co/2XAtxvH

[fedor-bortnik-digital-media-blog]

7. How can creators use virtual reality to create?

Virtual Reality is still a relatively new type of medium in our existence, in which developers constantly create technological breakthroughs, by making devices require fewer and less of installations, making them smaller, faster and more accessible to the public. 

There are many definitions, for example - Melanie Chan wrote on her blog about virtual reality that “The term ‘virtual reality’ can be used to refer to computer-generated environments that involve some form of interactivity and immersion” (Chan 2014: 1). While I agree with this definition, I would say that many of us have different definitions of virtual reality. For me, for example - virtual reality is a digitalised, synthesised environment, with its own sets of rules, and such reality was created by both machines and humans. In this world, there are unique sets of rules, and anything can be possible.

With that in mind, How can virtual reality be used to improve, or even change the way the creators create?

One of the greatest powers of virtual reality is the ability to shape and construct an entire digital dimension in any way the developer pleases. In the real world, you must physically have the hardware, such as the keyboard or a drawing tablet - and adjust it to make it suitable for the task. In Virtual reality - it works differently: here, it can be done much faster, without obeying the rules of the real world. In other words - you can place your keyboard in any position you please, in mid-air - and it won't fall on the ground. 

I would like to take a quote from an article titled ‘Virtual Workplaces in the Metaverse’, which was written by Professor Gheorghe H. Popescu and other authors. In this article, Gheorghe H. states that “Virtually simulated environments can strengthen employee development by integrating quality tracking systems, spatial intelligence tools, computer vision techniques, and autonomous devices.” (2022, p.2). This quote proves to me that it is possible to apply virtual reality and it could benefit the users with a new, fresh point of view and improved productivity in new industries.

A good tool that could allow the artist to work in a digital environment, would be Gravity Sketch (Gravity Sketch Limited, 2017). This tool allows artists to draw in a virtual world and import images or graphics. You get the pretty familiar tools to draw with, however now you can do that in a 3rd dimensional way. 

When I had my own VR equipment, I tried Gravity Sketch (Gravity Sketch Limited, 2017) and enjoyed it, since the tool allowed me to sketch the environment I desired around me and let me be more immersed in the idea that I have.

The biggest challenge that the virtual world can have as a tool for designers would be the necessity of it. Virtual reality hardware can be expensive, it can be disorienting, hard to assemble and unnecessary, when you can have access to practically the same tools on a computer. However, the virtual world can still open and change the ways the artists work today.

Even though nowadays people in creative industries usually work on computers due to the efficiency of the system, I would say that it's pretty possible that designers today (and in the near future) would use virtual reality in some stages of work, due to the convenience or efficiency in this type of work. I myself consider using virtual reality, for example - to sketch characters and environments in VR to augment my emotional feeling of the ideas. But the virtual reality still has a lot of years of improvement and development to come to become a stand-alone tool for creativity - just like we use the computer today. 

References:

Gravity Sketch Limited (2017) Gravity Sketch (Version 6.1.9) [Computer program]. Available at: https://store.steampowered.com/app/551370/Gravity_Sketch/

Chan, M. (2014) Virtual Reality: Representations in Contemporary Media. New York, NY: Bloomsbury Academic.

Popescu, G.H., Ciurlău, F.C., Stan, C.I., Băcănoiu (Văduva), C. and Tănase (Veisa), A. (2022) ‘Virtual Workplaces in the Metaverse: Immersive Remote Collaboration Tools, Behavioral Predictive Analytics, and Extended Reality Technologies’, Psychosociological issues in human resource management, 10(1), pp. 21–34. DOI: 10.22381/pihrm10120222

[theboredasexual]

adding to prev bc he needs to be shamed. he was cutting towards himself. on cardboard. like a dumbass. that scar is from pure dumbassery and a lack of care for knife safety bc he got cocky smh

Mine would be two circle scars on my right elbow. Tw for like...slightly shit medical practices, and graphic-ish descriptions.

So I broke my arm when I was a kid, snapped the humorous right in half. It was nearly a compound fracture, and required surgery to realign the bones with these fat-ass tent-peg looking wires while they healed. Said wires were inserted through my elbow, with hooks on the outside, and then covered by a cast for three months.

When it was time to take them out, the nurse took the cast off and everything no problem, but taking the actual wires out was a wild process. I was given two tablets of PANADOL. while they pULLED TENT PEGS OUT OF MY ARM. I WAS ALSO EIGHT YEARS OLD BUT WHATER-

Anyways. First one came out just fine and didnt even hurt all that much but the second got Stuck. Real Stuck. So stuck that my nurse had to go around to the other side of the bed to brace herself against it with her leg, grab the wire with both hands, and tug so hard that she nearly fell back into the wall behind her. It was Agonizing and I was shaking for three hours afterwards from shock. ANYWAYS-

Now the second scar is bigger than the first, and both of them are basically dents in my arm? Like the tissue is raised but if you touch it is genuinely a hole still in my arm, just sealed. It's weird.

Bonus fun fact: I broke my arm running up a hill and around a sharp corner into a boy a couple years older than me and twice my height. he went flying down the hill and nearly cracked his skull open on a wall. I fell face first into gravel. Yet I was the one with the near compound fracture and he got off scott free. Lucky bitch.

npt: @spacer4t + open

Tag game? Tag game. Tell me about your most interesting scar. Mine is a dog bite from when I was very young. It Hines in my smile line and under my chin so you can't see it unless I point it out. My aunts dalamtion bit me for running in the halls and I had to get stitches.

No pressure tags @you-know-that-i-caught-it @dog55teeth @dumb-zombie-girl and anyone else that wants to join!

[sebastiangrad604]

1- bird bag full of pins made by other artists 2- Custom Furby by nz artist Sani - I love to support nz artists and have an interest in the more alternative style specifically in the way I dress/items I like to collect. 3- Fungi book promotional stand - A piece of design work that I collected from my job that both relates to my interest in books and in my interest in working as a designer possibly within the book industry. 4- Cat figurine - cats are my favourite animal, they inform a lot of my works. 5- 3DS - History with playing video games, relates to having done a game design degree in the past. 6- Crochet Axolotl by nz artist tempestscorner 7- Beetle and the Hollowbones Graphic novel - An area I would like to do illustration work within. 8- The hunger games - Formative book of teen years. 9- Gideon the ninth - One of the recent reads I throughly enjoyed - related to my interest in books especially science fiction & fantasy stories. 10- Animators survival kit - Relating to my first degree and my lifelong interest and inspiration in animation. 11- Lead type - interest in typography and graphic design, a more historical technique for formatting type and and interesting way to bring this interest into a physical representation 12- Mushroom Zines - Interest in both the zine space as a subculture and interest in the natural world. 13- Camera - from highschool, used to have an interest in photography, could I rekindle this? 14- Warrior cat zines - Related to the artistic community I have found myself within and have been in for the last 13 years. 15- Graphics tablet pen - Relating to my craft and how a majority of my work is done digitally. 16- DnD dice - interest in fantasy and creation of characters and stories like often seen in dnd. used to play, do not currently play. 17- Stamps from grandfather - he collected stamps and I have fond memories of looking at them, I also love going and looking at antiques. 18- Vintage cards from grandfather - Only item I recieved that was his after he passed. Have not got an exact date on when these cards would have been made/bought by him but may have been with him when he immigrated into new zealand or have had when my father was a child. Quite worn and missing half the pack - really interesting to me that the jokers are to the side and in near new condition. I have memories of my family enjoying sitting around and playing board games together. 19- Warrior cat book - Very formative book series - still relates to artistic communities I am in to this day. 20- Keychains from various artists