#take multimedia arts course they said

[eo03o]

shang tsung save me

i have 5 pending drawing plates due next week

[sassyjoy]

unplanned sleepover

genre: smut

word count: 1.4k

⋆｡˚ ⋆ ☾

"You can sit on my bed," Sooyoung told you upon entering her dorm room. It was quite spacious, you thought. The two beds certainly caught your attention, their neatness contrasting against the cozy disarray of the rest of the room. Posters of romcom films adorned one wall, while a whiteboard covered in colorful sketches and project ideas took up another. On the study desk, a jumble of art supplies mingled with a laptop displaying a digital design in progress. The room felt like a creative hub where the worlds of multimedia arts collided in a harmonious chaos curated by two distinct personalities.

"Do you want anything? Coffee? Juice? Water?" Sooyoung asked as she placed back her roommate's gaming chair near where it belongs.

"No, I'm good,” you replied, casting your eyes around the room, taking in the unique blend of multimedia arts influences in the shared space. You noticed a film camera on the desk and asked Sooyoung if that was hers.

"It's Wonwoo's," Sooyoung responded with a smile, gesturing towards the camera with a hint of admiration.

"Wonwoo? Oh, the guy you've been crushing about?" 

Sooyoung snorted. "That's Jaehyun, dumbass. You never really listen to my stories, don't you?" You laughed when she threw a hoodie at you in which you caught. You knew it was Jaehyun, you were just messing with her.

"Wonwoo's my roommate."

"Oh, I didn't know men and women can share the same dorm room," you said in disbelief, as you knew it was not allowed in most dormitories.

Sooyoung shrugged, unfazed. "My landlord is cool with it and besides, I don't really mind sharing the same room with the opposite sex. As long as they're clean and mindful in their space, I won't have a problem with them. And Wonwoo's really nice. He's neat. We also share the same course so we really get along with each other!" As she spoke, Sooyoung picked her pajamas from her cabinet, preparing to change into sleepwear for the night.

"Why isn't he here though?" You asked as you lay on her bed, getting comfy. The bed felt nice and soft. You noticed some polaroid pictures of Sooyoung with friends near her bedside table. It was cute to see familiar faces from your shared circle of friends since high school.

"Org duties, I guess. He said he'll be home late," she shrugged.

"I'll go get changed," Sooyoung said before heading to the bathroom. You found yourself scrolling and watching tiktok videos on your phone on her bed. It was kind of funny that despite being friends for years, it was the first time being alone together. You usually never had this chance due to various reasons.

Your stay in her dorm wasn't planned. Your car broke down, and with heavy rain outside, the mechanic couldn't come fix it. Luckily, Sooyoung's dorm was nearby. It became your refuge from the storm. Without her help, you'd be out in the cold.

~

You were sleeping in one bed with Sooyoung. It wasn't supposed to be like that but you've had sleepovers with your circle of friends before. Sleeping in one bed shouldn't be a bad thing. 

What's bad is that you're lusting over her. It shouldn't be like this. You know that yourself. 

You wished you didn't enter the bathroom earlier. If you hadn't, you wouldn't see her dirty laundry. It wasn't your fault that you saw her undies lying there. It wasn't your fault that you had the urge to pick it up and smell it. But you did pick it up and smell it. The thought of Sooyoung wearing it just turned you even more and caused tenting on your sweatpants. 

Here you are, lying on your side with your back to her. You're trying your best to fall asleep, but it seems impossible. Sooyoung, on the other side of the bed, keeps shifting and turning, making it even harder for you to find rest. You just want to get off this feeling. 

'Should I just jerk off in the bathroom?' You've been asking yourself this question for the past 30 minutes now. But the bathroom's kinda far from the bed. 

The room was dark. The only sound you could hear was the rain outside. The gentle tap-tap-tap against the window filled the room, creating a peaceful atmosphere. You're finally getting off that idea in your mind until you heard small soft whimpers. 

You changed your position, now you're facing Sooyoung. You waited for that sound again, because you thought that your mind is just messing around. Was it Sooyoung? Or maybe that was Wonwoo? Her roommate, who's sleeping soundly on the other side of the room. Nah, it won't be him. It sounded like a girl's, you thought. 

You were about to sleep when you heard something again, and this time, you were sure that it was Sooyoung. 

The room was dimly lit, but when you adjusted to the darkness you saw Sooyoung rubbing herself. The hem of her dark blue night gown lifted up to her thigh. Your heart beat went crazy, not knowing what to do.

"Ohh," she moaned quietly. You can't stop watching pleasuring herself. It's a new sight for you. You've known her for years and you never knew she has this side of hers. You were always bickering with each other but you always thought that she was all this innocent. 

You felt hot, wishing Sooyoung won't notice. 

You slightly moved, turning yourself more towards her, to watch more clearly. Sooyoung stopped for a second, scanning your face before going back to rubbing again. 

You can't help it anymore, and moved again, this time your arm flinging over to her side making sure to lightly brush her thigh before resting your arm on her stomach.

"Shit," she whispered to herself, not being able to continue anymore. You felt her try to pull your arm away but you just changed your position, your leg now brushing up to her thigh. You can feel her body heat and heaving, getting turned on even more. 

You felt her stop for a few minutes. 

She then finally rested her hand on top of yours. 

You found it cute not until she lifted your hand and put it over her wet pussy. Your eyes instantly opened, obviously shocked at what she did. Damn, she's not wearing an underwear. 

"I knew it, you're awake." She whispered, you tried to pull your hand away but she gripped it tighter. 

"Can you help me with this one? Please?" She begged as she bit her lip as she guided your hand to her cunt. You gulped. With shaky hands, you found yourself messing with the hem of her sleepwear.

'Why are you nervous? She literally asked you for this.' You thought. Sooyoung squeezed her clothed breast as she waits for your next move. You were contemplating for a second before whispering "fuck it" under your breath and placed your hand over her shaved pussy. 

You traced her vagina with your middle finger. You pressed it between her folds, finding her clit with ease. 

"Oh- fuck... this is way better than using my own fingers- god!" You watched her covering her mouth with her own hands, feeling the sensation you've been giving her. For some reason, you liked how's this going. 

You circled her clit. You can feel how warm and wet she have had become. Sooyoung was trying so hard not to make a noise when you added another finger inside her. Her breathing became heavy and a little unsteady. You placed your other arm underneath her to pull her body closer to you. 

"Does it feel good, Sooyoung?" You whispered in her ear that earned you a grip on your forearm. 

"Feels so good," she croaked. The rain was too loud. Wonwoo won't probably hear what's happening between you two, right?

You placed soft kisses on the side of her neck as you increased the pace of your fingers. You can feel her body wriggle from the pleasure. You loved how every time you went deeper, her grip on you got tighter. 

"Just like that," she whispered. You kept hitting the spot she could barely reach with her own fingers. Sooyoung arched her back, palming her tits as she grinds against your fingers, trying to reach that delicious high she's been aching to have. Her breath quickens as you hit the spot inside her, your fingers scissoring her tight hole. 

"Ohhh," then she exploded. Sooyoung's cum wets your fingers. It took her a minute to calm down. You caressed her thighs as you wait for her to calm down from how she fell apart from the build-up you managed to give her.

"You owe me one," you told her, whispering in her ear while still stroking her soft skin. 

[hees-theman]

MOONSTRUCK

Title: Moonstruck

Pairing: Heeseung x f!reader

Genre: Romance, fluff, stranger to lover

Word Count: 5.8k

Summary: When Heeseung and Jay need help organizing a university festival, Jay enlists the talented Y/n to help them. As they plan and prepare, their bond deepens, and one of them eventually fall in love. Y/n thinks that their time together is just a fleeting chapter, not knowing that it is a start of a love story. Amidst cultural performances and late-night planning sessions, they discover that some connections are destined to be more than just a festival fling.

A/n: This wasn't proofread. Hope that you will love this as it's been so long since I wrote a fluff romance. Thank you for reading!

—

“No offense, but elementary kids can do better than this.”

Jay slumped against the chair and let out a whine. Heeseung, who is leaning towards the computer with his right hand on the mouse and the other on the top of Jay’s chair. Just shook his head.

“I tried my best, okay. It’s not my fault I don’t know how to design posters,” Jay grumbled.

Heeseung let out a soft sigh. Being a committee member to an event is not an easy job – especially when you were appointed to be the leader.

Both Heeseung and Jay are students from Faculty of Performance Arts. Annually, the faculty will hold an event where there will be performances, food stalls, etc. The purpose of the event being held is not only to promote the faculty, but it is also one of the major subjects that the sophomore students must passed.

Just like past years, all the sophomore students of the faculty will become the committee members. This time around majority voted for Heeseung to be the leader of the event. Heeseung is someone who will do his job properly. The type of guy to put his efforts into something. For him, it’s all or nothing.

As a result, 90% of the preparation is done. Everything has been prepared according to its plan. Decorations are done, food stalls are secured, performances are ready. The only thing that is left is the designing part.

He did ask from the other committee members if anyone has experience in designing. However, they already have their own part to settle. Not to mention that some of them are also part of the performers. So, they barely have any time to commit to other job.

That’s how Heeseung end up with Jay. Jay is the next in command of the event. Ever since they were freshmen, Jay had always been there for Heeseung whenever he needs help. Jay and Heeseung are technically partner in crime.

Well… except when it comes to designing of course.

“I think we need to ask for help,” Heeseung whispered under his breath.

Help. Help. HELP!

Jay turned the chair slightly towards Heeseung, notifying him that he is looking at the leader.

“We need help, right? I know who to ask for,” Jay said with a grin.

“Who?”

—

“You guys really don’t have anyone good in designing?”

Jay just nods his head as you and him walk side by side across the hallway to meet Heeseung in the committee room.

“What can I say, we perform arts. We don’t design arts,” Jay said with a shrug.

You are one of the students from Faculty of Multimedia and Publicity. Both you and Jay happened to be high school friends. But you were not close during high school. You and Jay belonged in different group of friends back then. You do talk from time to time, but that’s all that you guys did.

However, things changed after you and Jay enrolled in the same university. Considering that you guys only know each other on the first day of university, you decided to talk more often to each other. At least both of you would have someone to befriend with outside of your faculties.

After few minutes of walking, you and him reach the room. Jay turned the doorknob and invite himself in before looking at you.

“Come on in.”

As soon as you step into the room, Heeseung lifts his head up from his phone and look at you.

Breath taking – that was the first thing that came up into your mind when you look at Heeseung for the first time. It is an understatement that you felt that way because Heeseung looked like he was blessed with good features here and there. You silently thank his parents for sleeping late that night.

Heeseung stands up from where he was and walk towards you. With a smile, he held out his hand to shake yours.

“Hi, I’m Heeseung, the leader for the Performance Arts’ Annual Event. It’s nice to meet you.”

Trying not to make your admiration for him obvious, you take his hand in yours and shake it with a smile on your face.

“Nice to meet you, Heeseung. I’m Y/n, multimedia students.”

Both of you let go of each other’s hands.

“Come with me,” Heeseung said as he guides you to your seat. “I believe Jay has informed you on the things that we need, right?”

“Yeah,” you said while nodding your heads. You unzip your bag to take out your laptop and mouse.

“Is there any deadline that you want me to follow,” you asked Heeseung. Both him and Jay are now sitting across you.

“Considering that the event is next week on weekends, is it possible to settle everything by next Tuesday,” Heeseung asked.

You look at both guys in the room, and with a confident smile, you said,

“Leave it to me.”

—

Ever since then, you, Heeseung, and Jay have been staying over after classes to finish up everything that is needed to be done. From time to time, Heeseung will come to check on your progress while checking up on others as well.

The time spent with Heeseung has been increasing day by day. Whenever you and Heeseung are on break, both of you will chat with each other, getting to know one another.

That’s how you know that he is the youngest child, he has a perfect tone, and he likes to eat ramyeon.

“Really? That’s your favourite meal?” You double confirmed Heeseung, letting out a chuckle.

Although Heeseung’s eyebrows creased slightly, a grin plastered on his face.

“What? Ramyeon is good, okay! It is also easy to make,” he said.

“Whatever you say Bambi boy,” you replied with a playful smile before turning back to your laptop and continue your task.

Ever since they day Jay introduced you to him, his instinct told him that it won’t take much effort to be comfortable around you. In fact, he thought that you are beautiful the moment he laid his eyes on you. He had a lot of crushes on different women before in his life, but none of them looks like you. You are on another level of beauty. It felt as if you are destined to be his and only his.

Heeseung is not the type to be comfortable around people easily. Yes, he talks to people, but that doesn’t mean that he can talk about anything with other people. However, with you, all the conversation run smoothly. He doesn’t need to think much about the topic to talk about with you. It always came naturally.

Not to mentioned there were also times where Heeseung purposely sat too close to you, both of your knees touched. He was waiting for you to at least move your knee away, but that action never came. At least now Heeseung knows that you are comfortable with him.

And just like that, his crush on you grows as day passed by.

—

The day of the event is finally here. You are dressed in a simple sweater and jeans, standing at the entrance of it. You look at the banners hang around the venue with a proud smile.

It came out so well, you thought. Of course, who won’t be proud if their artworks are being showcased to the public. Furthermore, designing is not something that just anyone can do. Without creativity and original ideas, you could barely make a small poster, let alone a huge banner.

“Y/n!” A voice called out as he runs up to you with a huge grin on his face. Despite being sweaty, you must give credit to Jay for still looking good like he always does.

“You came!”

“Of course I came. I designed all of these for you, duh,” you said with a teasing tone. Jay laughs at your remarks and turns to look at the banners.

“Yeah, it’s okay, I guess,” Jay replied with the same playful tone as yours.

You look at Jay for a quick second and pats his shoulder. “You’ve done a good job, Jay.”

Jay scoffs and wraps his arm around your shoulder. “Thanks to you as well. People won’t know about this event if it’s not for you.”

Suddenly, everything came into your sense. Right, you were here just to help Jay and Heeseung with the event. Things will go back to its original place once the event is over. Going back to your usual schedule means that no more spending time with the performance arts’ students, no more playing fight with Jay, and finally, no more being close to Heeseung.

You’ve thought about it since the day you met him. You’ve always known that whatever happened between you and Heeseung will come to an end. You thought of him as your wildest dream. Now that the event has been successfully held, your time with Heeseung is up.

“Hey Y/n!”

As if on cue, Heeseung is now standing in front of you while waving his hand in front of your face. “Are you okay?” He asked.

You don’t know how long you were lost in your thought, but it was enough for the man to appear, replacing Jay’s spot.

“Oh, I’m okay, but where’s Jay?”

“Ah, he said he needs to use the washroom. He will come back later.”

You just nod your head at his words. Before allowing yourself to overthink again, you look at Heeseung with a smile.

“Congrats, Heeseung. You’ve done a great job for this event.”

Heeseung smile sheepishly and scratch his non-itchy nape, clearly feeling embarrassed. “Thank you. You also made it happened.”

Now, it’s your turn to blush at his words. Funny how with just a simple compliment from him would make you shy. If it was other guys, you would just throw another smart remark. But Heeseung is different.

Heeseung is the type of guy who is not afraid of communication – be it positive or negative. Being around him make you feel at ease. Both of you can sit in silence for hours and it will not ruin the vibe. It will still be comfortable.

“Come, let me show you around,” he said.

With a smile on your face, you nod your head and walk with him to explore the venue. Well, since it’s the last time you’re spending time with him, might as well use this moment to collect more memories before it ends in a few hours.

Or so you thought.

“Oh, will you come to our party tomorrow at my house?”

You turn your head at the question he threw. “Me? But I’m not one of the committee members.”

Heeseung laughs softly at your remark.

“You might not be the official members, but you helped us a lot. It’s fair for me to still consider you as one of us…”

He stops his words to study your reaction.

“… Besides, everyone is asking for you to come…”

Once again, he stops his words to rub the back of his head and turn the other way.

“… I want you to come.”

Cute, you thought. Your lips slowly curve up into a smile and give in to his request.

“Okay, I will be there.”

—

“I can’t believe that this time YOU are the one asking me to go on a party.”

You just shrug your shoulders with a small smile on your face at your best friend’s – Yuna – remarks.

You met Yuna on the first day of the class. Ever since then, both of you go everywhere together – even the toilet. Girls’ thing, you know. Yuna is also the one who introduced you to home parties.

Everytime there is one, she will invite you to go to one. That’s why she was quite surprised when you were the one who invite her first this time. You are not really a goody-two-shoes. You just prefer not to go to parties because most of the time you don’t know what to do. In fact, 99% of your time were wasted with drinks and observing people. That’s all.

“Well, we are not a freshman anymore. Somethings must change, right,” you said as you take Yuna’s hand with yours and walk into the entrance of the party.

Like you expected, the party is filled with people here and there. Some are talking, some are playing games at the center of the room. One thing in common with everyone is that they all have drinks in their hands.

As you walk across the rooms, you noticed a few familiar faces. Of course, it is a party to celebrate the success of the Faculty of Performing Arts’ annual event. The event that you helped in terms of designing. The event that allows you to meet the man – Heeseung.

“So, which one is him,” Yuna asked as her head turns left and right, searching for the man that you’ve been telling her about.

Of course, being friends with Yuna, you must tell her about Heeseung. During the period that you helped with the event, once you reach your room, you will call Yuna just to talk about him.

Honestly, Yuna was so happy the first time she heard you talking about Heeseung. She loves how happy you sound. The way you talk about him is so pure and innocent. It’s almost like you went back to high school. That was how cute you sound like.

As if on cue, Yuna saw two men walking towards both you and her.

“Hey, you made it,” the guy with one ear piercing said with a smile.

But what caught her attention is the guy next to him. He has a very cute face compared to the other one. Anyone who saw him for the first time might think that he is mad, but the moment he smiles, oh God isn’t that the cutest smile Yuna have ever seen in her entire life.

“I see you brought a friend,” the man Yuna is staring at spoke.

You look at Yuna, standing as if she just saw an angel from above. You bite your lips to stop yourself from laughing at how stunned Yuna looks.

“Yeah, this is Yuna, my friend. I hope you don’t mind me bringing her along to the party.”

The cute man nods his head and hold out his hand to shake Yuna’s hand.

“Hi, the name is Jay,” he said.

Yuna clears her throat and take his hand with hers. “Yuna.”

You and Heeseung looks back and forth at the other two, who are just standing there with their hands intertwined with each other. You look at Heeseung with the corner of your eyes just in time with Heeseung doing the same to you.

Both of you throws a knowing look to each other.

Heeseung clears his throat before patting Jay’s shoulder, waking him up into the reality.

“Y/n and I will grab some drinks. You can accompany Yuna,” he said. Jay’s eyes twinkle at the thought of being together with Yuna. He replies Heeseung with a small nod.

You go next to your friend’s ear and whispered, “Behave, okay?”

Yuna just roll her eyes at your words before mouthing I know at your way. With that, you and Heeseung go and grab some drinks, leaving Jay and Yuna in their own world.

—

“So, how do you know Yuna,” Heeseung asked, initiating a conversation with you.

He leaned his back against the counter of the kitchen with a drink in his hand and his eyes fix on you. You on the other hand just finished pouring yourself a drink. After that, you copy his stance next to him.

“Well, on the first day of freshmen, we sat next to each other. We talked and figured that we clicked. Since then, we became friends.”

Heeseung nods his head at your replies. He taps his finger against his cup before facing towards you.

“So, are you available tomorrow? I’m planning to go to a musical and I’m hoping you can join me,” he said.

“Musical? Where is it,” you asked despite your heart beating faster than it should be.

“At the university’s theatre. A friend of mine is one of the performers. So, I want to go and support her,” he answered.

You nod your head in understanding manner. You almost thought that he is asking you to go on a date. Turns out he just wants to watch his friend and bring you along with him for God knows the reason.

“Yeah, I’m available tomorrow for the musical.”

Heeseung’s lips curl up into a wide smile. “Thank you, Y/n.”

“No problem.”

For the rest of the night, you and Heeseung just chat normally, getting to know each other even more. Just like that, both of you find comforts in random conversations in the kitchen.

Little did you know, your heart is not the only one beating irregularly fast that night.

—

After around 10 minutes, you’ve finally arrived at the theatre. There he is, standing by the door, waiting for you while looking as good as he always does. It’s almost amusing to you on how a guy in denim jacket and pants can still be attractive. The look is effortless and yet he managed to make it looks exquisite.

You walk up the stairs and stand in front of him, making him looks up at you.

“Did I make you wait for a long time?” You asked with a smile on your face.

Heeseung blinks his eyes and absent-mindedly study you from up and down. If he thought that you are beautiful before, tonight, you look mesmerizing to him.

He looks up at you with a smile and shakes his head. “Nope, I just arrived not too long ago as well.”

You nod your head at his words.

“I wouldn’t mind waiting either, if it’s for you,” he muttered under his breath, but enough for you to hear.

Your cheeks slowly turn bright red as you listen to his thoughts. You thought that he accidentally said it out loud, so you decided to pretend you didn’t hear it. But, if only you look up at his face, you can see that he is covering his lips with the back of his hand shyly – even though he intentionally said what he said out loud.

“Shall we go in?” Heeseung asked. For the nth times of the night, you just nod your head without saying anything and follow Heeseung inside the theatre as he leads the way to your seat.

 —

“So, how’s the date?” Yuna asked as you walk into the room.

Well, to be fair, you don’t need to say anything to let Yuna know that everything went well. She knows about it by the way you haven’t stop smiling since you open the door. She might even say that you look so madly in love right now.

“It’s not a date. He just needed me to accompany him and support his friend’s musical,” you said, still with the same smile.

“Still sounds like a date to me.” Yuna shrugged her shoulder and continue typing away on her phone.

You look over at Yuna, who is now laying on the couch. You tilt your head a bit when you hear her giggles now and then.

“Who is making you feel all giddy?” You playfully asked Yuna with your arms crossed against your chest.

Yuna sits up on the couch and turn to you, before flashing a sheepish grin towards your way.

“Jay asked me to go to the music festival together with him next week.”

Your jaw drops at the reveal and take a sit beside Yuna.

“That’s so great! You should totally go.”

Suddenly, her grin disappeared, and it is now being replaced with a pout.

“But what about you? We promised to go together.”

“Oh, right.” You puff out your cheeks at the thought of going alone to the music festival.

Before you can be sad further, Yuna looks at you with a wide grin and twinkle eyes.

“Why don’t you ask Heeseung? Maybe he wants to go as well?” She suggested.

“Do you think I should?” You questioned her. It’s not that you don’t want to. You’re just not yet confident to ask him to go out with you casually.

“Of course he won’t mind. He invited you to the musical first. I bet he would be thrilled if you invite him to the music festival with you.”

You thought about Yuna’s words for a while before opening your chat with Heeseung and send him an invitation to the music festival. You don’t know why your heart is pounding so hard it could burst out of your chest.

Will he accept it? Will he say no? What if he declines? What if you are too rushing that it made him uncomfortable?

Just before you can overthink about it any further, a notification pops up at your phone. You open it, and just like that, your worries got washed away.

[Heeseung: Sure. Let’s go to the festival together :)]

—

Your eyes move left and right, searching for Heeseung. After a few seconds, you finally spot him and he’s already looking at you, waving his hand up in the air. Your lips curl up into a grin and waves your hand back at him.

As you walk closer to him, you saw another woman beside him. The grin that you had earlier slowly fading into a small smile.

Who is this woman? He didn’t say anything about bringing another person along. Does he like her? You thought to yourself.

“You’re looking beautiful, Y/n,” he said with his unnecessarily beautiful smile.

“You’re looking good yourself Hee,” you said, still with the same smile before your eyes turn to look at the woman next to him.

“Oh, this is Yeji. I bumped into her while walking here.”

“Hi Y/n. It’s nice to finally meeting you. Heard a lot about you from this guy,” Yeji said before playfully nudging Heeseung with her shoulder.

“Hey, behave yourself,” Heeseung told her off with the same teasing tone before they share a laughter.

Seeing them being happy together makes your heart ache bit by bit. God knows how long you can stand this situation before you decide to walk back home and cry yourself to sleep.

"The event is starting soon. Let's go there now," Heeseung said to both of you. You just nod your head and walk with him and Yeji towards the audience spot.

The whole time you are at the festival, you only face the stage simply because you don't want to witness how close Yeji and Heeseung. Every now and then both of them would scream their hearts out and honestly, that annoys you.

They look so happy together that anyone at the festival might as well think that they are a couple - and you're just a third-wheeler. Well, maybe you are. So, for the rest of the night, you just stand there beside Heeseung, waiting for everything to end.

—

After what felt like forever, the festival finally end. Yeji decided to go back by herself and leave you and Heeseung alone, currently walking through the university park.

You told Heeseung that you can go back by yourself, but he insisted to walk you back home, saying how it's already dark and anything can happen.

As much as you'd like to feel flattered by his gesture, you can't help but thinking that he's just doing all of these because he is just nice to everyone.

Like, who are we kidding? Heeseung has the looks, the personality. He is also funny in his own way. He can get any woman he wants. Someone who is prettier than you. Someone who is better than you.

"What's going on in that pretty mind of yours?" Heeseung asked, pulling you out from your thoughts.

You shakes your head at him before both of you continue to walk in silence.

"Yeji is very pretty, don't you think so?" It might sound like an innocent question for Heeseung, but for you, it's a way to figure out whether you should continue your feelings for him or not.

Whatever he answers, you are ready to listen. If it goes bad, well, at least you've had your share of university romance with him, even if it's one-sided.

Heeseung nods his head. "Yeah, she's pretty. My brother is lucky to have a wife like that."

Ah... He agreed that she looks pretty-

"Wait... Wife? Your brother's wife?!" You look at Heeseung with shock expression.

"Yeah, she's my brother's wife. They got married after they graduated from this uni. Didn't I tell you that earlier?" Heeseung blinks his eyes at you.

God knows how you are holding back from kicking him at his ass for leaving out A VERY important detail when he introduced Yeji to you earlier.

"You didn't tell me that was your brother's wife! You only told me her name." You huffs out and cross your arms, your eyebrows knitted slightly.

Heeseung bite his lower lips, trying to hold back a laughter looking at how cute and adorable you are while throwing tantrum. If he didn't know any better, he would say that you are jealous. Very very jealous.

Heeseung walks in front of you and held both of your arms. "I'm sorry I forgot to tell you who she was. Please forgive me."

Your eyes turn to look at him. You didn't say anything but your eyebrows are no longer creased and your cheeks are now puffing air.

Heeseung should be awarded with 'the gentleman' award because if he didn't hold back, he would just grab your face and make out with you instantly just to show his true feelings towards you and you should not be worried about anyone.

But, he knows he can't do that.

Yet.

"How about this? In two weeks, Jay and I are going to the beach and spend the night there. Why don't you and Yuna come along with us?"

Your eyes twinkle at the suggestions. Call Heeseung a simp because God, he would do anything to see those eyes sparkles all the time. That's when he knows he's so so down bad for you.

"... And I'll make it up to you as well. How does that sounds?"

You hate Lee Heeseung. You hate him so much because he managed to melt your heart easily. It's as if he has known you so long enough to know where to hit the spot.

"Promise?" You lift up your pinky finger in front of him.

He takes your finger with his and smile softly towards your way. "Promise."

Just like that, both you and Heeseung continue to make the way to your house, with both of your pinky fingers still intertwined.

—

"It's the beach!" Yuna screamed excitedly before grabbing your hand and pull you together with her towards the ocean as the two men watching while laughing.

"Honestly man, I didn't think we would come here, with not only one but two women," Jay said as he turns his head towards the man beside him.

"Well, sometimes difference is good." Heeseung said, eyes still watching the view in front of him - specifically you.

As cliche as this would sound, Heeseung has never met a woman that could fill his heart the way you do. Looking at you being happy with your friend is enough to make himself smile.

It feels like an achievement - and he wants to do it again, and again, and again, until death do both of you apart.

"So, how's the arrangement for tonight?"

Heeseung turns to look at Jay with his eyebrows creased. Jay scoffed looking at his expression.

"I'm not dumb to know that you're up to something. My instinct is telling me that I will be left alone, if it weren't for Yuna joining us as well."

"Well, I guess I can't hide anything to my best friend huh," Heeseung said as he wrap his arm around Jay's shoulder.

"I'm planning to have dinner together with Y/n..."

Jay looks at Heeseung with his eyebrow lifted, waiting for Heeseung to continue his words.

"... and I will tell her, tonight."

The man doesn't need to explain more about it. Jay understands what he meant. His own lips curl up into a soft smile as his hand reaches up to pat his best friend's back.

"Good luck man. You can do it."

—

"Sit down here, but slowly," Heeseung said as his hands cover your eyes.

You let out a soft chuckle before slowly taking your seat as you were told.

Back in the room, you were weirded out at the fact that you are the only one who is getting ready, while Yuna was still on her bed, focusing on her phone.

When you asked about it, Yuna just told you that something special is waiting for you at the lobby. As you reached there, you saw a familiar guy. It's no other than Lee Heeseung.

Now, here you are sitting on what felt like a cloth with your eyes covered by Heeseung's hands.

"Are you ready," Heeseung asked.

"I'm more than ready Mr. Lee," you answered.

The moment you gave your answer, Heeseung uncovers your eyes. As you open your eyes, you let out a gasp when you witness the view in front of you.

In front of you, a few foods laying around on the cloth, showing that this is not a normal dinner, but more like a picnic at night. However, it doesn't stop there.

Your eyes are also served with the view of the ocean at night. Not to mention that it also happened to be a full moon tonight. The light from it illuminate the water beautifully. Nothing can ever beat the sight that you are seeing right now.

"Do you like it?"

You turn to look at the owner of the voice. Your lips form a smile before you nod your head.

"I love it."

Heeseung let out a sigh, loud enough for you to hear. "That's a relief."

You let out a small laugh as you look at the man next to you. He looks so concern that you find it a bit funny.

"Why do you look so worried Heeseung?"

"How can I not be worried, when I keep on thinking about what if the woman that holds my heart doesn't like all of this."

The laughter that you had earlier died down as you listen to his words. You search for his eyes to make sure that you heard him correctly.

Heeseung moves closer towards you before he reaches for your hand and hold it in his. His touch is so gentle and delicate, enough to make you warm and comfortable. His gaze never settle on anything else but you.

"Y/n, I'm not good with words but I will try my best to say it to you," Heeseung said.

His other hand reaching up to your cheek, caressing it softly as if he's holding something that is so fragile.

"I like you Y/n, a lot."

His words make your breath hitched. You can't believe that the man you have been crushing on all these while is actually confessing his heart to you right now.

As if his confession is not enough, the light from the moon decided to shine upon the side of his face as well, making him look even more gorgeous than he already is.

"The first time you stepped into the room, I found you so so beautiful. I thought that I'm just attracted to you in that moment and everything will fade away..."

Heeseung let out a soft chuckle.

"After that we talked to each other more and more. The more I get to know about you, the more I want to be closer to you. Before I know it, I found that I want to always be with you. Whenever I have time, I want to spend it with you. I want to go wherever you go. I want to do whatever you want to do. I want to protect you. I want to care for you. I want you."

Heeseung's hand on your cheek is getting warmer and you lean more to his touch unconsciously.

It's not fair. It's not fair for Heeseung that you look so mesmerizing right at this moment. You have always been beautiful, but something about this moment just enhance your visual in his eyes.

With a deep breath, Heeseung gathers his courage before finishing his thought.

"I love you, Y/n. Will you be mine?"

You bite your lower lips. Your eyes look into his and all you can see is his sincerity. You felt like you're in a dream. The man of your dream just confessed his heart out.

Obviously, you are not saying no. No one knows how long your heart has been yearning for him except from you. All of those moments you had together, spending time with each other, everything has led both of you here.

Your hand reach up to his cheek, mirroring his move.

"You know, during the event, I thought that we will not be in touch with each other as often. I thought I have to give up my first ever university romance."

Your eyebrows crease lightly at the thought of it happen.

"But, what happened after that made me grateful. I'm glad that I get to keep these feelings. Whenever I'm with you, it felt like it's only both of us in the world. Everything seems so peaceful and somehow it's easy with you. I never believe in fate before but, look where we are now."

You reach for his hand that is on your face to hold both of it with yours.

"I love you, Lee Heeseung. Thank you for making me happy - and I will be happier to be yours."

Both you and Heeseung's lips curl up into a huge smile. Without a second thought, Heeseung grabs you by your shoulder and pull you into a hug.

You let out a soft sigh as you enjoy the warmth of the man in your arms. Heeseung's hug feels so warm that it could melt you and make you want to stay in it forever.

However, before you could indulge in the warmth more, Heeseung pulled away slightly. His eyes move from yours to your lips and back to your eyes again.

"Can I..."

The sight of him is enough to make your tummy turns. You nod your head as an approval to him.

Slowly, he leans closer to your face as you close your eyes. Before you know it, his lips is sealed with yours. Heeseung pecks yours a few times before biting your lower lips lightly, asking for you to open up.

And who are you to deny such request? Once you give your permission, what started off as innocent kiss slowly turns into a heated one.

Both of you refuse to let each other go. In fact, somewhere along the moment, you were pulled to sit on his lap, lips still glued to each other.

It is safe to say that the foods are long forgotten. What matters tonight is the love that both of you have for each other - and the moon are your witness.

[fossilprep]

There's a lot this article touches on, but the parts about fossil preparation are kind of in poor taste. I'll go over some of it under the cut.

There's a reason we usually don't publish on things we prepare. They say it right here - we can literally, whether purposeful or accidental, modify fossils as we see fit. We could imitate pathologies or create marks with air scribes or picks that are misinterpreted as pathologies, remove or obscure parts of a fossil that may be diagnostic, etc. (Of course we don't endear to do these things, they're just possible).

Whether through inexperience or poor dexterity some budding preparators can cause damage that only someone with a trained eye could notice. Preparators aren't always required to be trained in the sciences or have thorough anatomical knowledge, and thus can reconstruct things wrong, without scientific guidance. Like filling holes where there's supposed to be… holes! Like a fenestrum or foramen, for example. This is why we have references, but more importantly, we do the minimum unless instructed to do otherwise by a supervisor or exhibits team - one of a few scenarios where a curator can rightfully step in.

This is why we're trained to preserve almost any bone we see. Often there are small isolated bone chunks hovering in matrix that are thrown in a box with the specimen. A lot of pieces can't be reattached because they're too weathered or of indeterminate origins (“IBF’s” for short).

"Creating" something "artistic" is another way of implying we're making it up as we go.

If someone hands me a fossil and tells me to look at this "multimedia sculpture", I'd be confused. It's a fossil, not an art project.

Academic fossil preparation is fundamentally a scientific endeavor that also requires artistic abilities, but not creativity. We use various methods that are tried and true (and sometimes experiment with new ones) to expose an element from matrix.

The act of preparing a fossil is not providing new data. The fossil itself is the data. We just make it available. That being said, if we provide measurements, take and analyze samples of the matrix for various analyses, then that's providing valuable data. Would that warrant an authorship? Maybe.

This raises another question though. If anyone who worked on a fossil gets an authorship, then can authorship compound?

The person who found the fossil but didn't do anything with it afterwards - just dug it up and sent it to the lab, for example. Do they get to be an author? On our field crews we have up to 30 people over the whole season. 30 coauthors and 99% of them are not scientists.

The collections manager who just painted a number on it, catalogued it, and put it away?

How about the curator who allowed a researcher access to the collection who didn't collect any data but just answered some emails and opened the drawer for it to be studied?

The land owner who gave you permission to dig?

Finally, the preparator who just exposed it from the rock. They do more science inherently than the others, but if no parts of the scientific method were conducted and no data was produced (save for the fossil simply being brought back into the world), do they get an authorship?

tl;dr We don't need authorships for the act of preparing fossils unless we provide data and go through the scientific process (like what's usually required for any authorship). Many parts of the process is not science. Just acknowledge our work in your paper and we'll be more than happy.

[meruz]

hello! i'm a big fan of your work! i noticed youre a risd alumnus, and i just wanted to ask: as someone currently working in the animation industry, how was your experience with risd? i'm having to choose between risd and a school that's popular specifically for animation, and was wondering if you might have any info that could help.

thank you, i hope this ask isn't any bother!

ooh I actually love this question because theres SO MUCH I wish I knew about the RISD animation program ahead of time and I'd love to give people a better idea than the one I had going in LOL. disclaimer that because I went a while ago (a whole class of college students have come and gone since I've graduated!) some of this info may be outdated. also this is purely my personal experience. BUT hopefully it helps

I want to say upfront that I loved my experience at RISD. I attended from the years 2013-2017. Like all private art colleges it was way too expensive (worth noting I had a significant need-based scholarship) but I worked my ass off and I learned a lot about art and I made friends there that I wouldn't trade for the world. As far as an art school experience goes I would tentatively say it was "worth it". However, I went in as a freshman hoping to major in animation and I came out with a BFA in illustration and this is a large part of why: RISD doesn’t have a good animation program for those looking to go into commercial animation. And I don’t think this is a grand statement like I think most of my fellow alum and teachers would agree. The thing is it’s kind of intentional LOL?? And the keyword here of course is “commercial”. Culturally, RISD is kind of a fine arts school first and I wouldn’t say they’re hostile towards industry work but it’s more often treated as secondary or like something unfortunate/dirty you have to do to make money so you can focus more on your “true art”. I have a tweet about this that went semi-viral a while ago actually…

I’m not gonna say everyone at RISD thinks this but it’s pretty prevalent. I'm honestly not outside the opinion lol. You can call it integrity or pretentiousness or whatever but without going into whether this is good or bad it really orients the curriculum and priorities of the school. It’s hearsay so take it with a grain of salt but I’ve heard that on occasions where RISD has been offered opportunities or partnerships to make the school into a pipeline for big studios (like making work specifically to cater to those places and funnel students through the door right after school) they’ve always stuck to their guns and said no to preserve their independence. 

The animation program at RISD is actually called FAV (sometimes stylized as F/A/V) for Film Animation Video and is… as one would guess..a mishmash of animation, film, and experimental video. Multimedia, experimental work is highly encouraged and overall the work and structure is a lot more geared towards submitting independent short films to film and animation festivals than it is towards building a portfolio to secure industry or client work. I didn’t major in FAV but I was on the FAV thesis track for about 3 years and I’d say the amount of help I had making an animation industry portfolio from my experience with FAV classes is close to none. At least for the thesis program we were never required or even asked to do anything such as design character turnarounds, bg designs or paint, even storyboards. And to be fair a lot of that pre-prod work that fills industry portfolios is a necessity of large commercial crews that need to coordinate over disparate departments and studios, not so much for independent single-animator projects. 

But as a result, a lot of RISD students with ambitions to go into animation/video games/ entertainment industry art in general actually major in illustration. Myself included. It’s not a perfect 1:1 match and even within the department there’s conflict as to whether there should be more of a focus on traditional editorial illustration or otherwise but it’s one of the broadest majors at RISD because past sophomore year it’s 100% electives and there’s more classes oriented towards technical drawing and painting skill, concept, story, and communication for client work in a very all of which funnel rather neatly into commercial animation. It’s also a good route for exploring your options like if you’re stuck between wanting to do children’s books, TCG paintings, and comic books you can explore all those at more or less the same time. The downside to this is that in order to get what you want you really have to build your own curriculum. I definitely think it rewards the proactive.

So while nothing at RISD got me to build an animation portfolio I took a lot of classes that I think were fundamental to developing those skills. Ie I did actually take a storyboarding elective, painting classes that focused on color, illustration concepts classes that formed critical thinking and seeing, a sculpting class that trained anatomy and 3d construction skills, Barbara Meier teaches a 3D animation class at Brown that RISD students can cross-enroll at that’s pretty good? None of these are substitutes for a holistic animation curriculum but I think the education I did get was a lot broader and just as personally fulfilling. At the end of the day, I'm glad I wasn't so focused on animation that I was still able to explore illustration, comics, painting and sculpture. I led a student club that coordinated Brown and RISD students to work together and make video games every semester! I take the skills I picked up from these things into my animation career all the time.

Also the nice thing about animation jobs in the U.S. is that you don’t actually need to have animated a whole kickass industry-standard short film to be hireable. The pipeline is so compartmentalized and jobs so specialized that bg designers really just need to be good at environmental perspective and linework, and bg painters don’t even need to worry about that they can just be good at color and light. And almost no one at least in the U.S. animation industry actually needs to know how to animate LOL. Am I being reductive? Am I downing a heavy dose of copium for going to the school that I did? Who knows. Midway through my freshman year I was seriously considering transferring to a school with a better animation curriculum but I never completed those applications because I took a class during the winter semester called Science-Fiction Fantasy Illustration and midway between designing shitty aliens and my new best friends falling asleep on me during a 2001 Space Odyssey screening I was like. This isn’t so bad. Anyways, it turned out ok, we all have jobs now. 

All that aside, Providence is a beautiful little city. There’s an arts and alternative culture there that feels completely different from those in places like NYC and LA. Chris Van Allsburg the writer/illustrator of Jumanji and The Polar Express was a RISD illustration alum and he based a lot of the imagery of Santa's Village off of Providence. This drawing I did is literally a view from Benefit st that I would walk from my off-campus housing to campus everyday:

There’s a lot of stuff that goes into whether a school, or any school, is the right fit for you. Sorry for rambling but I tried to answer this quick because ik college decisions can be time sensitive. Good luck with your decision making!

[mwolf0epsilon]

I caved and recently bought myself a tablet (Wacom Intuos Pro) and I was wondering what program I should get. Do you recommend Photoshop, Clip Studio Paint, Krita or SAI? Also what is the best and worst part of digital drawing in your opinion?

Oh! Welcome to the digital art world, Anon! I myself have an older second-hand Wacom Intuos.

As for program recommendations:

I only used Photoshop in school when I was doing my Multimedia course. It's versatile but I wouldn't waste money on Adobe... The company freaking sucks ass.

I have never used Clip Studio Paint or Krita but I think a few friends of mine use those and don't seem to have any complaints? I'd look into it more honestly.

I have used SAI in the past and I quite liked it, but I have no idea what the new versions are like. Nowadays I use Firealpaca which is virtually the same, free, and comes with a ton of free brushes you can get from the brush store that's incorporated into the program itself.

As for best and worst parts of digital drawing...

The best parts are definitely sketching out the idea, coloring and rendering. Working out and then bringing your vision to life is an absolute joy to experience!

The worst is lineart... It can take me a ton of hours to get lineart to my satisfaction due to my shaky hands, and it's a pretty mind numbing experience overall for someone with a pretty short attention span like I have. That said, a lot of people consider lineart relaxing, which hey! Power to them!

[quoteablebooks]

Genre: Fiction, Adult, Paranormal, Romance

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Content Warning: Sexual content, Blood, Kidnapping, Confinement

Summary:

Cassie Greenberg loves being an artist, but it’s a tough way to make a living. On the brink of eviction, she’s desperate when she finds a too-good-to-be-true apartment in a beautiful Chicago neighborhood. Cassie knows there has to be a catch—only someone with a secret to hide would rent out a room for that price.

Of course, her new roommate Frederick J. Fitzwilliam is far from normal. He sleeps all day, is out at night on business, and talks like he walked out of a regency romance novel. He also leaves Cassie heart-melting notes around the apartment, cares about her art, and asks about her day. And he doesn’t look half bad shirtless, on the rare occasions they’re both home and awake. But when Cassie finds bags of blood in the fridge that definitely weren’t there earlier, Frederick has to come clean...

Cassie’s sexy new roommate is a vampire. And he has a proposition for her.

*Opinions*

Tl:dr - Absolutely delightful and compulsively readable rom-com 

This is another social media influence and I needed a bit of a palate cleanser after a couple of fantasy novels back to back. I then proceeded to read this entire novel in two days and had a wonderful time with it. If you want a romance with a strong plot, this is not the book for you, but if you want a story that reads like a 90s sitcom romance, complete with scenes that feel as if they should have a laugh track in the background, I would recommend this novel highly. As I said above, it was extremely delightful. 

As one might guess from the title My Roommate is a Vampire, the plot of this novel revolves around Cassie Greenburg responding to a too-good-to-be-true ad for a roommate on Craig’s list and moving in with a centuries-old vampire, though she is unaware of that at the time. Part of the charm of this novel is that the reader is well aware that Fredrick is a vampire, so watching Cassie navigate his interesting personality quirks is more endearing than the reader screaming at her to see all the signs. I also appreciate that Levine also had the big vampire reveal about 35% into the novel. After that, it is a series of rather comical scenes of Cassie attempting to teach Fredrick about the 100 years of etiquette that he missed while he was asleep. Again, the plot in this is very light and it is more watching Cassie and Fredrick dance around each other while denying what they feel for one another. The ending was highly ridiculous, but somehow fit the overall tone of the novel so it didn’t bother me too badly. 

Cassie is a rather relatable character in a romance, which I appreciate. She is in her late 20s, early 30s creative that is cobbling together part-time jobs in an attempt to survive while working on her art. She takes public transportation, collects trash for her multimedia art, and lets her attraction to Fredrick cloud her judgment on a couple of occasions. While her bad past with a couple of other relationships is hinted at, whatever happened in those relationships is never elaborated on in this novel. I like how her story ended, but it was a little too butterflies and rainbows that I would usually enjoy. However, this whole book was just so lovely that it was the perfect ending. 

We get to know very little about Fredrick other than the text messages and journal entries that are at the beginning of the chapters. He was a bit more of a caricature than an actual character except when he is being exceptionally sincere with Cassie. He is so interested in learning about her art and praising her for things that she doesn’t see in herself that it is swoon-worthy. Now, I heard rumors that this might have started as a Reylo fic, but truly I didn’t see it in the relationship. I did not picture Adam Driver when reading Fredrick’s description other than the focus on how large his hands are, which seems to be a physical attribute that Reylo writers seem to focus on. Well, that and how large his chest was, but that can be any male love interest. 

The romance between the two of them was rather sweet, though not super deep. The first time they kissed and the makeout session in the bathroom had me kicking my feet in excitement. Again, as this is a lighter romance, the discussion of immortality and its complications were glossed over. Also, there is no lore given for vampires and only a vague mention of some of the rules around them. Still, there was something charming about Cassie’s unending patience and Fredricks's earnest love of her that I couldn’t stop reading. The way that Fredrick’s need for blood and the sex scenes were handled was also done well. 

Overall, this is a fun and light read that is light on plot but still a compelling read. Levine hints in the novel that there might be a companion with Reginald and his human accountant, but I am not sure I care enough about Reginald to check it out. This is a 3.5 read rounded down to a 3 because while I really enjoyed it at the moment I read it, I doubt a lot of it will stick with me and this is probably not a story I would read again. Still, I highly recommend this if you like romances and enjoy a story that doesn’t take itself too seriously. 

[keamyeon]

state of mind at 110723 0:20

getting anonymously acknowledged while staring into space during online classes for an essay i wrote weeks ago triggered my ego a bit. these days, i had been thinking that i had good potential of being a writer, despite my poor vocabulary skills. having billions of thoughts about my own life and being able to put them down into words gives me a sense of satisfaction, being well-aware that what i just said is self-explanatory and 'normal-human-being' understandable. i do not have sentiments over the course subject nor the professor at all, but i only liked the ideas of personal essays. it asks you questions that nobody actually asks but you'd love to talk about. you want me to know my ideal marriage and family? i'd gladly tell you. i could write a 100-page essay if you required me to (don't though, please). anyway, the moment made me dive into another essay i made talking about my vocational path story, and my november 7th self just finds my previous self's mind so genius.

so what should a girl do?

create a blog to post the essay alongside many others soon, where you have the full permission to be completely serious without feeling the need to insert humorous side comments to lighten the tone in case an irl reads it and thinks, "wow, this is so different from how she expresses herself in reality".

given my self-proclaimed smooth introduction to this blog, i will now be leaving the oh-so-relatable essay... because i wrote it myself.

Ever since I was a child, I was always fascinated seeing people older than me find their passion or calling in life. Whatever path they took, I found them cool and wondered how I would eventually find my own someday. I didn’t think much about it, brushed it off, and thought that it was my older self’s problem to worry about. As I got older, I was only living and enjoying life with what was given in front of me. During my early teenage years, I found it difficult to join school clubs because I really didn’t know what I wanted to do and ended up joining wherever my friends went – so at least I wasn’t alone. When it was time to choose a strand for senior high school, I chose to go for the strand that was aligned to the path that my late father took, initially wanting to honor him in that way. Then came the period where we had to apply to universities and colleges with our decided course. As I didn’t grow up wanting to become something or even be part of a certain school, I was confused and lost. While pondering over this, I thought about the path that I told myself I would take to honor my father – which was becoming a programmer. I hesitated to take it – I thought that I wouldn’t truly enjoy doing it. I looked at my friends in that same path and I saw that even though they would complain about the hard work, it was still something they stood by for and never gave up on – because of passion, perhaps. I felt different, and so I was made to look back at my past and question myself if there was something I really loved or was interested in – something that I thought I had potential in, with hopes of finding what would be worth taking. It was then when I remembered that during my childhood, I always loved playing with pictures, graphics, and videos. I enjoyed editing for fun – since I was just a little kid who stayed at home, always stuck with their family computer as a way of passing time. I really enjoyed doing that and explored multimedia arts. Realizing how interesting it was, I thought that maybe if this is what I took, it would be something worthwhile. As I am now writing an essay under this course as a student in this college, you may now predict what happened next. However, I chose to make that decision roughly three years ago. Being seventeen and twenty is totally different – especially when you get exposed to such talented, skilled, and hardworking art students. I knew from the start that I lacked the artistic skills – making this decision was all based on a phase that I had from my childhood, and never chose to pursue or develop during my high school years. Today, I will admit that I have doubts about this path I took. While this course is so much fun, and most of the time the hard work is worth it, given my progress and skills, I don’t know if this is something that would help me last long and sustain myself in the future. Nonetheless, there are things still clear to me. First of all, it is given that I have a trait of being indecisive, but as much as a human can do, I can only do so much. Secondly, I may not have a practical dream as people around me have, but I do have a dream of what type of life I want to live.

I dream to be one of the cool adults that my childhood self looked up to – independent, passionate, and hardworking. I want to enjoy whatever I decide to do from now on – whether I will focus on a path in multimedia arts, or even if I deviate from this. With much more importance, I just also want to choose the path where God directs me to be. Surely, that way will lead me in fulfilling the purpose ultimately designed for me and help me become what I wish and need to be.

[ervinafindy]

Dismantling the creative process of Denny Ja: Recreation of the stunning painting of Andy Warhol

Denny Ja is a multimedia artist who has produced spectacular works in the world of fine arts, thanks to a creative touch and the ability to see opportunities from everything that is unique. One of Denny's most interesting works is a multimedia art that takes inspiration from Andy Warhol's iconic paintings. The artwork, which was exhibited in several places, successfully recorded public attention. Then, how did the multimedia art work created? What is Denny JA's creative process in producing stunning works? We can start by observing the painting of Andy Warhol who inspired Denny JA. Warhol's paintings are known as Pop Art art that shows the figure of Marilyn Monroe in five different colors, complete with black and white contrast around him. Denny JA then took the painting as a basis for producing several Pop Art art works. One of the works is Warholization paintings, which turn a person's photo into a work of art by using techniques as used by Warhol. However, Denny JA did not stop there. He took further steps by creating a multimedia art installation that took inspiration from Warhol's paintings. The creative process of Denny Ja actually begins with the idea of making art that results from facial recognition technology, where a person's photo can be converted into a work of art easily through a software. Although the idea might look like a simple task, Denny Ja saw a greater potential in it. The process of income of multimedia art like Denny Ja to require collaboration from several devices and software. He uses a face recognition application and through more sophisticated technology, he built a very unique image art installation. Visitors who come to the exhibition can make their own images that use their face photos as objects, then this time it was built like an isolated graph in the gallery room. Visitors can also use remote control in the gallery to adjust the various colors and styles of multimedia art objects they make, so they can produce very personal works and match their tastes. Of course, the results of this Denny Ja art work are not only beautiful artwork, but also a very dynamic interactive technology. Denny Ja combines the concept of warholization with reinforce and expansion to create a unique work of art, and produce an interactive experience that is very stimulating. Visitors can feel the beauty of art as a complete experience, which combines interactive technology, fine arts, and personal experience. The success of multimedia art produced by Denny Ja actually lies in his skills to integrate the concept of warholization with the personal experience of visitors. He succeeded in taking the mainstay art of art by Warhol which was produced from Marilyn Monroe's photo material, then applied sophisticated interactive technology to make interesting personal artwork, and provide an unprecedented multimedia art experience. With his spectacular work, Denny Ja has shown the ability to innovate using Grab and software technology to produce very unique and stunning art. He dared to take risks, explore the limits of the latest works of art, and present multimedia art that can really be said to be unique. As a multimedia artist, Denny Ja has shown how far technology can produce extraordinary artwork. The latest multimedia artwork is of course proof of how a pleasant interactive experience can be integrated into beautiful art.

Check more: Dismantling the creative process of Denny JA: recreation of the stunning painting of Andy Warhol

[oathkeeperoxas]

Codywan Week 2022 Fic Rec List

Wow, there sure was a heap of works uploaded for @codywanweek this year! (approximately 140 on AO3, by my count) If you’re looking for somewhere to start browsing through all these awesome works, then please see the below list for some of my favourite fics from this year, and give them some love! 💖

Could We Start Again, Please? [2.1k] by @daughterofdungeonbat

Fic summary:

The war has ended, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Commander Cody have become much more serious in their relationship, and they've spent the last day moving Obi-Wan's things into Cody's new apartment. All is going well, until Cody tries to lighten the mood and misses Anakin's frantic attempts to stop him. Or- Obi-Wan has an extra lightsaber. It is not his.

Fic rec: Really loved the character voices here, and the post-war set up and pay off really works well! Has some funny and great lines too

at the horizon’s edge [2.2k] by @inkformyblood

Fic summary:

The bed is larger than Obi-Wan is used to, even now, even after sleeping in it night after night since the day after the war was declared finished. They had made do for so long on the narrow GAR-issued cots or the cramped bunks on the ships that a large bed felt like an indulgence, something to mark the official beginnings of their relationship even though they wound up curled together more often than not. On the floor, beneath the cascade of blankets, Cody’s chest rises and falls beneath Obi-Wan’s hand. There is a hitch to his breathing, an unsteadiness that only grows as Obi-Wan shifts, skating his fingers up over the cool, bare expanse. (Cody has a nightmare, and some things cannot be faced alone.)

Fic rec: emotional and soft and intimate, with some great pose and interactions between codywan

setting sun [2.4k] by @milfmisspiggy

Fic summary:

"Fuck." "You may wear that word out if you aren't careful." "I'll switch it out when something else expresses my feelings better."

Fic rec: BITING AND CHEWING THIS. Absolutely lovely and hot smut with some Tatooine codywan!

Panacea [4k] by @missypup

Fic summary:

Cody has been falling for his General for two years. Two long, war filled years. But he's been able to stay in control of his feelings by just not acknowledging them. But having to share a bed with the man he's been daydreaming about for two years makes Cody so tense Obi-Wan decides to give him a massage to help out. Obi-Wan would certainly be the death of him.

Fic rec: I am always down for codywan massages and Cody getting some love and attention, and this provides in spades! There’s also some very sweet lines here that I loved a lot

Through An Artist’s Eyes [1.1k] by @yellowisharo

Fic summary

Another pass of his charcoal over the paper to emphasize the slight curve of the bottom of the ribcage, following the path Cody's eyes take over Obi-Wan's body.

Fic rec: artist!Cody my beloved! This fic is multimedia, and the art throughout the fic adds to the atmosphere and tone of the story in a great way

A Fool’s Errand [3.1k] by @itsgoldleaf

Fic summary:

“I killed you.” “You missed.” “I never miss.” “It was never you.” “This isn’t real.” “If you believe only one thing, believe that I am here and I am with you, and that this is real.” The second worst part is his rotten luck in having his General come back from being murdered and being so nice to him about it.

Fic rec: oh my god yall the way I am not kidding when I say this one drove me crazy... the PROSE the CHARACTER the INTERACTIONS the METAPHORS. This one really does have everything!!

Fear is a disease; hope is it’s only cure [9.7k] by @nimue44

Fic summary:

“The Sith has been hunting you and he hasn’t found you,” Ahsoka said. “Please keep it that way. The underground networks were hand-fed this intel, Obi-Wan. He wants you to know. He’s laying a trap.” “Of course he is, my dear,” Obi-Wan sighed. “And he’ll already know I’m coming.” “Obi-Wan, don’t, you’re safe here” Ahsoka pleaded. “Cody wouldn’t want you to walk into a trap just for him.” “No, he wouldn’t,” Obi-Wan agreed. Cody had raised an eyebrow at more than a few of Obi-Wan’s schemes in the past. Yet despite any of his reservations about a given gambit, Cody would join Obi-Wan on the front lines every time, even when he could have led from the fleet and let Obi-Wan clean up his own messes. “But I’m afraid his sound strategic reasoning hasn’t always foiled my plans to single handedly save the day.” OR: Two years into his exile on Tatooine, Obi-Wan comes across something in the desert that sets off a chain of events that may allow Obi-Wan to finally reclaim some peace. But first he'll have to rescue a purge trooper from the grips of the Empire.

Fic rec: I am just ajkhkfjg this one is SO GOOD. How Obi-Wan thinks/feels post O66 is so rich, and his refusal to let Cody go is just so everything aaaa. Great characterisation choices here alongside excellent writing.

Is there so much hate for the ones we love? [1.9k] by Xenomorphic

Fic summary:

Ben, his right hand tightly grabbing at the door handle, blinks, and the red eyes blink in unison barely two seconds later.

Fic rec: I can’t say anything about this one or it’ll spoil it - just go and dive into the mood and roll around in the choice atmosphere that is whipped up so deliciously by the author!!

Is That My Jumper [1k] by @crownprincecody

Fic summary:

Obi-Wan never thought he'd be in an established relationship. He's very glad he is. 

Fic rec: some very soft modern AU established relationship with great character voices

The Force Of Reunion [4.4k] by @wixiany

Fic summary:

Years later, on a random day, in a small town on Tatooine, Obi-Wan meets Cody again. 

Fic rec: everything I wanted from a fic set around the Kenobi series!

the memory of light [8k] by @wrennette

Fic summary:

The stormtroopers drown when Obi-Wan lets the ocean into the underwater hallway beneath Fortress Inquisitorious. PT-2224 washes out to sea. Cody surfaces from the depths.

Fic rec: Another great ‘what if?’ story that riffs off what we got in the Kenobi series. I especially loved the screen time that Cody and Reva got together in this.

The Force’s Favourite [2.7k] by @singing-stripper-pirates

Fic summary:

“How could you misplace General Kenobi's lightsaber?” Echo chided as they both crashed back into Rec Room-Leth.  “I misplaced it? I somehow remember General Skywalker asking both of us to return it.” Fives snapped back.

Fic rec: I loved this and laughed so many times throughout it! Funny, smart, and great character interaction kept me hooked throughout.

Between The Breaths Of War [3.6k] by @theedwardianone

Fic summary:

Three more days they would be staying here, hanging in orbit as they waited for the recipients of the supplies they had been tasked with delivering last-minute. Obi-Wan wasn’t going to keep his men cooped up in the ship and its endlessly recycled air while there was a perfectly good moon down there for them to relax, get some fresh air and spread their wings without having to worry about the war for a few days. They were all still so young, after all, some even younger than they should have been, so let them enjoy that youth. Soon enough it would be back to the harsh realities of war.

Fic rec: a moment of soft, established relationship codywan during the war that I really enjoyed!

The Raephens’ Gifts [8k] by @lttrsfrmlnrrgby

Fic summary:

After the end of the Empire, after seeing the remaining clones and Jedi and a rebuilding Republic to something stable and close to real peace, Obi-Wan and Cody take some time away from their duties and take a vacation on a backwater planet in Wild Space to rest and recover. They sleep a lot, catch up on the last decade's books, go for long walks, and work to enjoy just being them, instead of Generals on whose shoulders the galaxy rests.  They also make friends with some smart local birds.

Fic rec: ohhhh my god I am looking at this. The worldbuilding is an amazing backdrop for the soft codywan moments as they recover after leading the Rebellion and overthrowing the Empire together. Love, love, love.

[nn-ee-zz]

wait multimedia art? that's a course I've considered taking 😭 i heard it's very heavy on 3d stuff tho. id love to hear about your experience

Multimedia Art! I studied in University of Fine Arts of Lisbon (or as it's called here; FBAUL) My experience there, alongside everyone in my year, was very unique since the curriculum changed mid course and a good chunk of our final semester was spent in quarantine.

A good summary of my college exp was building the ability to do projects from start to finish. Photography, animation, comics, games, audio and video editing, drawing, etc. Alongside the mandatory classes, I've had optional ones. Mandatory classes didn't required me to do 3D work. You could pick optionals that focuses on it, however. So in my experience, it was not heavy on 3D unless someone seeked it out.

I'm gonna be honest, college was gruesome for me (maybe the daily 3 hours of traveling in 3 different types of transportation sunk me in) but I really cherish the things and experience I got within in.

Here goes advices to have an easier experience in college

Learn from everything

Every class has something to learn from and apply to your work. We had drawing classes in which we had to draw a massive pile of random projects set in the center of the room. I've seen some people question as to WHY we are doing something so random. Who will ever need to draw a pile of random stuff? However, it's not about the pile. In that class I reinforced my skills of composition, scale between elements, how to accurately represent man-made items with the dynamic of an illustration. Enjoy and soak in, even seemingly random assignments can have a purpose.

It was also in that drawing class that I learned one of my fave advices ever. I had discarded a drawing and said that I ruined it when the teacher asked why. He replied ''If it's already ruined, then ruin it further''. That loss of high expectations allowed for more freedom, and the result made was much better than anticipated. It happens A LOT when I do ink art. I ruin things, and in an attempt to fix or 'go with the flow', the result turns out much better than the initial plan.

Note: Model drawing class (censored cuz idk how tumblr would react) and statue drawing. The graphite work I did that year made me so bold with shading, both irl and digitally.

Not your magnum opus

None of the projects that you make need to be done at the highest of your skill. I've ALWAYS said to my classmates that we are there to learn the step-by-steps of projects, and try to make a solid one ourselves. Just a solid one, not a perfect one. That being because I've seen it often that projects would start out hyper-detailed and incredibly worked...only for the deadline to approach, and suddenly things aren't as of quality as they were in the start, and the student feels like a failiure over it, and their motivation sinks, and they likely will never attempt it again outside of college. Don't fall for it! You're there to learn what it takes to create a project, and then attempt it at your highest quality in another context.

My example with this were comics. I made comics, animations, games, photos from start to finish. Were they amazing? No. BUT I now know what is needed to make them at full skill outside of college.

Note: Comic class! First one was made based on a sentence prompt (the dialogue). Second one was a re-draw of Pop Team Epic. Made my teacher say ''shut the f*ck up and die'' out loud hsjdhask, she was so hesitant)

Know your limits (and use them for your advantage)

My biggest advantage in college was making my lack of skill seem like a stylistic choice rather than....lack of skill, haha. A massive example of that was my animation project. I didn't have the time to learn software skills nor the time to polish them into smooth, colorful animation. Knowing that I'm unable to do beautiful animation, I decided to use my low skill for full advantage. Now the colorless characters with shaky linework and animation were an aestethic, rather than a flaw. Settle your goals in clever ways that make you look like you're in control. That will also push you out of your own style and reveal some really interesting results.

Note: I animated a short vocaloid MV (Panda Hero by Gumi, with the english translation by vgperson on youtube) A nod to my advice above aswell; this looks messy but it was made from start to finish, and allowed me to learn what it takes to make a MV. I had planned doing another, outside college, but the idea faded.

A GREATER example of this would be the things that made me most popular online; my character design. We were told to design characters based on chess pieces for our weekly Concept Art assignment. I wanted to do fully rendered, beautiful work, but time and SKILL limitations pushed me to settle for ink AND to shade it in a fitting, inky style. I didn't plan on posting it online, but did out of random impulse and it changed my art career forever.

Remember, one of your biggest limits is also the deadline. Don't leave your work for last minute. Unlike high school, the stress of late college works is much, much worse...

That is all, for now. Thank you so much for reading this far.

As a final note, please take care of your health. College is difficult and strains some more than others. Be kind to yourself and to your work.

[we-are-inevitable]

hi i just want to ask if you have any modern college-era headcanons? like, what would they study? who would room w who? how long would it take for jack and davey to realize they're in love (/hj) and what would that confession look like? just. college newsies brainrot.

oh my FUCKING god okay this is everything to me and i have discussed this IN DETAIL so many times with so many different options,, here's my personal definitive list!! no au to go with this, this is just ?? a list of things i like JEJGJSJD

that being said, i'm going to focus general info- feel free to send more asks about more specifics like relationships and stuff though!!

Jack Kelly:

Major: Art Education

Minor: Public School Support Specialist for Children At-Risk

Roommate: Charlie Morris

David "Davey" Jacobs

Major: Political Science, Pre-Law

Minor: Social Justice (like Katherine)

Roommate: Sean "Spot" Conlon

Charlie Morris

Major: Animal Science, Pre-Vet

Minor: none, he's more interested in internship opportunities

Roommate: Jack Kelly

Antonio "Racetrack" Higgins

Major: Aerospace Engineering

Minor: Mathematics

Roommate: Patrick "Finch" Cortes

Albert DaSilva

Trade School Course: Automotive Technology

Roommate: Stays with an older brother, but is at Race's dorm 90% of the time.

Katherine Pulitzer

Major: Multimedia Journalism

Minor: Social Justice (like David)

Roommate: Sarah Jacobs

Sarah Jacobs

Major: Psychology, Pre-Med

Minor: Gender and Women's Studies

Roommate: Katherine Pulitzer

Sean "Spot" Conlon

Major: Physiology, Pre-Med

Minor: none, he's more interested in research opportunities

Roommate: David "Davey" Jacobs

[1ddiscourseoftheday]

Wed 9 June ‘21

Multiple pictures and video of Louis from out by the recording studio a few days ago were posted, HAPPY DAYS! This (the fans gathered getting pics with him) would be the fuss the man saw out his window (that we saw in his out the window pics) before he popped out to get in on the picture-taking action, it’s no wonder he recognized Louis; I’m guessing the fan crew followed the usual strategy of waiting until he wasn’t going to be at whatever location every day anymore to publish and that’s why we got them now rather than when they were taken. Anyway; pictures and video of Louis! He’s cute, he’s Louis, it’s wonderful to see him and even better to hear him! And there were pictures of him in red from a different day as well that win for cutest probably, him and the fan flipping off the camera together is excellent, and she got to tell him her story of how Just Hold On saved her life and show him the JHO tattoo she got to commemorate, also wonderful. LT Tour added a festival show for September 22 in Italy, presale starting today

Niall said if he gets bumped up 185 slots in his spotify ranking he’ll do a dance half naked (haha is the ‘half’ because he’s hedging his bets in case it actually happens?) on tiktok, and he and Anne Marie posted more behind the scenes pics from the music video shoot, but where’s the bts video? I don’t know, but I do know where Niall is-- LA! I mean we already knew that but it was confirmed when a fan took video of him out for a hike today.

Liam’s Lonely Bug promo is really kicking into high gear with all the creators posting talking about it and clearly press releases went out cause there were a bunch of articles- Lonely Bug is of course his semi-autobiographical animated NFT, or to quote the press, “the artwork... is aiming to reflect the childlike state that many people returned to during the pandemic, [and] is multimedia with music from DJ Zedd, animation from Gabe Damast and spoken word from Gary Vee.” Also it is apparently actually a series of NFTs rather than just one, so yeah, that clears it all right up for anyone who’s still confused right?! Haha. Anyway we got a first look at the title character based on Liam’s art today. And there’s more! Steven Bartlett (entrepreneur, guy Liam flirted with for 90 minutes while spilling his guts the other day) says that as part of the NFT launch there will be a dinner in Las Vegas with him and “crypto celebrities” Mike Novogratz (another entrepreneur), Brendan Blumer (this guy’s wikipedia genuinely just says ‘entrepreneur’), 3LAU (DJ! And also entrepreneur), Christian Angermayer (‘entrepreneur investor’), NFT dealers Duncan and Griffin Cockfoster (...can you guess? Yep they are also entrepreneurs), Paris Hilton (she is selling NFTs of her own, so yes indeed; she’s an entrepreneur now too), and Liam, so if Liam is enough to make that actually sound appealing to you rather than like the seventh circle of actual hell, all you have to do is be a winning bidder for one of Liam’s NFTs and you will get to not only “own” the digital artwork but also attend that dinner.

Liam also liked a tweet wondering whether the reason he liked the Ron’s Gone Wrong movie page was that it was the movie he had mentioned last year writing a song for, ALL RIGHT THEN. Confirmed, I guess! And he posted a video (with his newly shaved eyebrow slash and diamond necklaces on) where he said he rolled his knee in jujitsu today, oh nooo. Meanwhile his discord broke out into ugly arguing over new fandom names (the long list of rules forbid mention of so many hot topics, such as shipping of any kind, but you just can’t stop fans from fighting); Liam commenting on the thread being shut down, “too much passion.” Well, he’s not wrong! Paynedora’s Box indeed- I told ya, full of demons.

Today in MP filming, there were cupcakes with the director’s face on them (this shoot is really into little cakes huh, love that for them), plus someone from the set said blurry tiny pics they posted and said were Harry waving weren’t Harry they were just fucking with people. Wow you...really showed us? I guess?? The yellow shorts pics were really him though! Gucci posted some old pics from the fragrance campaign.

[jerryb2]

I mean….you all knew this was coming ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ : the Star Wars Art of one Mr. Drew Struzan. 

And look, the man has done so much and has such a diverse portfolio that Star Wars is only one very small part of his career. If you want to explore some of his other works, then might I suggest that you check out his website. 

As for me here, we’ll be sticking strictly to his SW art. Now, with that out of the way, here we go…

*cracks knuckles*

I have to admit that before I really started to dig into this, I didn’t realize just how many Bantam Era (and beyond) Star Wars books this man has illustrated. Nearly 50 titles, ranging from novels to comics, short stories & even an RPG supplement. 🤯 

And so, after much consideration, I decided to just pull all the titles that feature his art off my bookshelf and take a few pics for you guys:

First off, I just want to point out that I don’t have every book he’s ever illustrated. Some of them are just harder than hard to find, are hilariously expensive, or I just don’t have an edition that features his art prominently - you’ll see what I mean. Right off the bat though, you can see that he was really hitting his stride in the mid-90′s, with all but a handful of these coming out between ‘94 & ‘99. One of the highlights from this time for me, is The Callista Trilogy.

I just want to stress that The Callista Trilogy is a highlight for me only because of its gorgeous cover art. 🤣 Other than that, this book series needs to go lay down. 

Anyway, the designs are all really striking and even after all these years, absolutely iconic. And you can really see Struzan’s distinct visual style at play here; not a painting in the same vein as something from Dave Doorman, and not a simple trace. Rather, something that is stylized in a very particular, very subtle way, almost to the point where it appears photo-realistic at first glance. Beautiful.

Next up is this trio of trilogies (good use of words, me), collected in these Science Fiction Book Club (SFBC) hardcovers: 

Once again, these covers are just striking, particularly The Black Fleet Crisis. This is actually what I was referring to when I said that I don’t always have the best editions for a Drew Struzan appreciation post. 😅 

Because these are hardcover collections of paperback books, we actually miss out on a good bit of the art. For these SFBC special editions, the publisher just took all three and basically photoshopped the best bits of each one together. The one that suffers the most here is obviously The Corellian Trilogy, where they didn’t even try to blend everything together, and instead just separated everything into columns. I don’t personally mind it (and I do love having the hardcover editions of these books) but if you want to see the covers as they were originally intended, just pickup those mass market paperbacks. 🙂

There’s a lot more to get through, so I’ll just hit the highlights here; even though he didn’t illustrate The Thrawn Trilogy (that was Tom Jung, who I personally think did an okay-ish job at best), he did an absolutely amazing job with the follow-up, The Hand of Thrawn Duology in ‘98 & ‘99:

I’ve always loved these covers. And narratively speaking, they really do serve as one last hurrah on the Bantam Era. Oh, and also please note, Mara Jade on the cover of Vision of the Future, just as Zahn originally described her. ❤❤❤

If you step back and look at Struzan’s work as a whole, it’s all incredibly unified. I bring this up here because even though some of these are books relatively ‘meh’ worthy, Struzan maintained a level of quality that belied the mediocrity contained within. And also to say that he was definitely busy, particularly in 1994:

That’s right - all of these released in ‘94, within a few months of one another. These covers man… *chef’s kiss*

And look I’m sorry, I just can’t help myself: The Crystal Star was a hilarious joke until we all realized they were serious about it. 😳

Alright, that’s a little on the harsh side; it’s not nearly as bad as most make it out to be, and Waru as a source for unlimited power (citation needed 👀😉) isn’t any more ridiculous than the 50 other post-Palpy, hair-brained Imperial schemes that everybody else cooked up, so I guess it fits. And besides, I really wanna be nice to Vonda McIntyre here, but this book was just so so boring. 😴

*clears throat* Moving on, here we have a couple Barnes & Noble hardcover collections of The Jedi Prince Series:

The same thing applies here; cover art photoshopped from across 6 different YA novels to get these. They don’t look bad, far from it. But rather this series has some things that people would rather forget about, namely a supposed son of Palpatine (spoiler: he wasn’t) named Triclops who had - wait for it - 3 eyes. 

Like Tien. From DBZ. Yep. 🤦‍♂️

Moving further down the list, we have yet another pair of iconic cover designs, being I, Jedi (the only Star Wars novel written in the first person, and an appropriate riff on Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot - yes ladies & gentlemen, that is as clever as Star Wars gets) and The New Rebellion.

Classics, no doubt….but for reals, did anybody else ever wonder why the X-Wing on the cover of I, Jedi is missing an S-Foil? Or how that one slipped through??? 👀

Ah, at last we arrive at what is arguably Struzan’s most famous work; the covers for Shadows of the Empire & The Star Wars Trilogy: Special Edition.

It’s hard to overstate just how important Shadows of the Empire really was for Star Wars as a brand. In an era where SW books were already extremely popular, the Shadows of the Empire Multimedia Project basically served as a breakout hit and reignited interest in SW media across the board. This was in no small part due to the striking imagery captured on its cover - are you seeing a pattern here?

This success actually renewed Lucas’ interest in a theatrical re-release of the OT in 1997….which of course, feature more beautiful art from Drew Struzan:

These are my OG Special Edition VHS tapes from back in the day. I watched these so damn much as a kid. In fact, they’re basically the whole reason that I’m here, annoying the shit out of everybody today. 😁

After the Bantam Era concluded & the Star Wars publishing license went to Del Rey, Struzan did progressively fewer pieces for SW media. Here we see his contribution for the latter half of the Last of the Jedi YA series, and his kick-ass cover art for the Darth Maul comic: 

And when I say that Struzan did progressively fewer pieces for Star Wars, I am of course omitting his turn as the poster artist for the freaking Prequel Trilogy: 

Say what you will about the films, but these poster designs are nothing short of genius. 

Look guys, it would be pretty easy for me to downplay Struzan’s Star Wars portfolio as just one small part of his incredible career. But my dudes, this is literally just the tip of the iceberg. The man has been a professional illustrator for over 50 years, and his art has delighted and inspired generations. From Star Wars to Indian Jones, and from Back to the Future to Blade Runner - Drew Struzan has played an integral part in shaping popular culture. 

Here’s to you, sir. 🍻

[fatehbaz]

It is story that weaves our experiences into the landscape and ties us to place. The Zuni maps, to this point, hold a question: To what extent do such stories and myths of place have to be deeply specific to place? There is a tendency in a globalized society to assume that knowledge is open and accessible, able to be reached across the world [...]. In many ways, of course, this is greatly valuable. But the Zuni maps suggest that stories of place -- the ones that really and truly connect us to the lands outside our own front doors -- cannot be downloaded [...] or read in a book. They suggest that the stories that are particularly rooted in the land can only be discovered by taking the dedicated time and attention to encounter the land itself -- over long periods of time, through many seasons. Perhaps stories and myths of place need to have been spun from the threads of this landscape. While it seems easy to believe that what is at the core of any relationship to place is and must be universal, perhaps the language and the telling cannot be universal at all. We are far less likely to care for places if we have not bothered to know or understand them.

Jim Enote, a traditional Zuni farmer and director of the A:shiwi A:wan Museum and Heritage Center, is working with Zuni artists to create maps that bring an indigenous voice and perspective back to the land, countering Western notions of place and geography and challenging the arbitrary borders imposed on the Zuni world. [...] In his map of the reservation lands, Ho’n A:wan Dehwa:we (Our Land), Ronnie painted places and waterways of cultural significance tied to the A:shiwi migration history. His painting features snow-capped plateaus, ancient farming villages, buttes, and lakes [...]. Ho’n A:wan Dehwa:we looks nothing like a typical road atlas. [...] It is full of [...] story [...]. The A:shiwi have been in present-day North America for thousands of years. Twelve thousand members of the tribe live on the Zuni Reservation today. Their sacred lands reach far beyond the reservation boundaries -- trails of prayer snake and meander through the history [...], from the Grand Canyon [...], paths of song ascend the high buttes and tumble with the rain through the arroyo. [...]

Non-Zuni names became canon.  [...] For thousands of years, the names of places were interwoven with experiences and stories of the landscape.

After their lands were colonized by the Spanish in the sixteenth century and later claimed by the United States, Indigenous peoples of the Colorado Plateau were left in a deeply familiar territory of unfamiliar names. “The names are in English or Spanish, and so they completely leave off the meaning of the place, and its essence, too,” says Jim. In the 1862 publication of the Johnson Family Atlas, the aboriginal lands of the A:shiwi and the Dine are stamped as the “Military Department of New Mexico.” Even “Zuni” is a foreign word. [...] [A] red flag marks the location of Fort Wingate in northwestern New Mexico, a few miles north of the Zuni Pueblo -- a site established by the United States government in 1860, in part as an effort to displace the Dine people. “‘Fort Wingate’ just tells us that there used to be a fort there that was built in the 1800s,” says Jim. The Zuni name for the site, however, is Bear Spring. “That says something about the environment and the resources, especially the life-sustaining resources, that are there.” [...]

In March of 1877, less than two weeks after his inauguration as the nineteenth president of the United States, an executive order was issued from the office of Rutherford B. Hayes [...]. Over a billion and a half acres of indigenous lands were seized by the United States government between 1776 and 1887 [...]. Once an order had been issued, government surveyors were dispatched to carve out the territory. The maps that resulted from such orders -- atlases, political maps, topographical maps -- became [...] lasting truths of ownership [...]. Such maps are widely assumed to convey objective and universal knowledge of place. They are intended to orient us, to tell us how to get from here to there, to show us precisely where we are.

During the winter solstice, the prayer that relates the Zuni creation and migration history is told in its entirety. Mallery Quetawki grew up on the Zuni Reservation, hearing the prayer every year in the short days of winter. She did not, for a long time, think of this prayer as much more than a beautiful poem. Of a younger generation, Mallery did not grow up speaking Zuni fluently [...].  When the prayers were incorporated into the Zuni maps, however, Mallery was able to relate to them in a way she never had before. “It’s a really great learning experience to actually visualize these prayers, to put prayer into art and into a literal map. [...]”  “I was selected to paint our connection between our village and the Grand Canyon area.” [...] Grand Canyon is a map of a traveled landscape, the journey from creation to home. [...]

“It’s place-making power, said by prayer, now that we’ve made it visual,” says Mallery. “It’s an actual map. It made me appreciate where I come from even more.” [...]

The Zuni maps are, first and foremost, for the Zuni people. [...] The maps are in many ways an invitation: How would you map the places that live in your memory? What are the voices of the land that are forgotten, unheard?

-----

Captions, photography, all text published in multimedia project: Chelsea Steinauer-Scudder (writer). Adam Lofoten (director, producer). Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee (director, producer). ‘Counter Mapping.” Emergence Magazine. April 2018.