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shirecorn · 3 years

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how about 17 and 24? what inspires you and how do you deal with art block?

Long post warning.

Art block...

I don't actually get art block, which is probably a combination of neurodivergence and drawing every day for the last 3 years

I wrote an entire tutorial about how to do that, but didn't feel like illustrating it. Would people want to read it even without visuals?

Maybe... I'll just start rambling.

There's a couple different types of art block, and it's really just a philosophy puzzle to get past them. I'm going to assume that the things I think of slow days, or art mud, is a milder form of art block and work through that.

Art block is a symptom, not a disease. You probably have something deep inside that you don't want to face, or don't know how. Sometimes you need to discover the cause, sometimes just power through.

Method 1: Rest

Let yourself just Exist. The act of consuming art is part of the process. Watching shows and playing games, taking a break and going gardening or focus on school. This is what you need for burnout-induced art block.

Method 2: Action

I always choose action, sometimes it means a tiny 2 min sketch per day. Ugly or super simplified. As long as I don't stop moving.

Toss everything. Start every piece thinking you will throw it away.

The act of drawing moves you forward; pinning it to the fridge does not. Don't work things until they are perfect. Work them until they are there.

Art block causes and solutions:

- No Inspiration

Not sure what to draw, nothing seems appealing. Art won't come out like it used to.

Do studies from life or photos. Sketch, paint, digital, traditional, doesn't matter. Rocks, fruit, figure drawing, landscapes, buildings, anything.

Study and copy professional's work. Old masters are best, like rubens, michalangelo (only his men tho) etc because they will teach you anatomy while you work. If you copy someone with a lot of flaws, you will repeat those flaws.

Trace to learn, not to earn. Trace photography and art from anyone you want. Don't post it unless you have the artist's permission or they are dead, whichever comes first. This is strictly work for yourself, on yourself. It's not about the finished drawing.

Find an artist with a fun style and try converting stuff into their style. Don't make that your new style though and especially don't start selling it. Your style is a chimera of everyone you love, not a clone of one person.

Take blurry photos. You don't need a fancy camera or good skills or beautiful subjects. Doing studies from your own photos can spark life into your workflow.

Make challenges for yourself. Randomly generate things to combine. Try fusing characters! Don't try to make it look good, just be fun.

Doodle patterns, swirls, lines, random stuff. Try looking up art warmups and doing some of those.

- Everything Sucks

You finally see how bad you are. Or somehow you got worse. Every piece is a fight and you spend hours trying to get something right only for it to be stiff and disgusting and STILL wrong.

Why are you trying to draw good? It's enough just to draw.

Accept that your art is bad. Every artist can see flaws in their work. Your problem is that those flaws outweigh anything remotely worthwhile and hurt to look at.

So what? You're in a period of growth, not a period of production. Keep that wonky second eye. Let them have hot dog fingers.

Show everyone! Show no one! No piece of art can ever be a reflection of the artist. Not their worth, not their skill. The only thing your art says about you is "Held and moved a pen for a bit."

Make bad art. It's ok. Most of the time, the pressure to perform and get things Right is what made them wrong in the first place. Relax.

- No Motivation

The #1 killer of artists everywhere. On some level you think you should draw, on every other level you think you should stay in bed.

You are not lazy. You wouldn't have read this far in a post about art block if you were lazy. You wouldn't CALL it art block if you were lazy. Laziness is wishing you didn't have to do anything. A block is wishing you were doing something. If you think you can namecall Yourself into productivity again, you're wrong and You need to unionize so that you don't treat You like that anymore.

Consider Mental Illness. Losing interest in something that brought you joy can be a symptom of depression. I know it seems obvious, but if you're waiting for a sign that it's "bad enough," it's bad enough. Seek care if you have the means. Forgive yourself if you already know this.

Selfcare. Examine yourself for neglect. Nutrition, exercise, enrichment, social need, and sleep are all part of the art process. Eat three meals and sleep 8 hours. That's your gaymer fuel. You deserve it, I promise. Depriving yourself of your needs will make your blocks worse, not kick you into making them better.

Identify potholes. Sketchbook falling apart? Tablet cord frayed? Half your pencils missing? Chair uncomfortable? Desk hard to reach? There's a lot of things that you tell yourself to work around and get over. Just because you CAN workaround something, doesn't mean you SHOULD. A difficult work environment can cause secret dread deep inside that you don't recognize and just think you're lazy. What you think of as "no motivation" might actually be "I don't want to deal with my tablet disconnecting every time I move it wrong and I have to wiggle it for a few seconds to make it work again." These little things are like potholes in the road. Sure you CAN still drive through them, but eventually you're going to look up and realize you haven't voluntarily left the house in weeks.

Repair potholes and roadblocks. You might feel bad about buying a new pencil, headphones, tablet, car, etc because technically the old one works if you hustle. But if you're running into so many potholes you've ground to a halt, it doesn't Actually work anymore, does it? Invest, save up, request, and require working equipment and suitable conditions. This stuff isn't just cushy privilege, it's an investment in yourself and your art. You are worth the effort it takes to clear the way. If you can't afford reliable (reliable! not perfect or luxurious) equipment, then say it. If cardboard is all you can afford, draw on cardboard. But know that you deserve canvas, and one day you might be able to make the jump. Acknowledge that sometimes, if you don't have it in you to smear burned twigs on wet cardboard, the problem isn't motivation, but opportunity.

- Haven't Drawn in So Long

A unique type of art block that self perpetuates. The thought of starting again is so stressful you can't do it. Or maybe you'll do it tomorrow. Yeah. Tomorrow for sure.

Face your fears. Are you ashamed of your lack of drawing? Are you anthropomorphizing your paper and thinking it's going to judge you, like "oh NOW you come back >:/" I internalize voices I hear and project them onto other people, concepts, locations, and inanimate objects. Your paper, computer, WIPs folder.... none of that is judging you.

Reframe your WIPs. Do you feel shame when you see "unfinished" projects? Why? Who says you MUST bring everything you start to Finish? You don't have to. A sketch is a finished art piece; it's called a sketch! If a sketch is a fully realized creation, pages that are half colored, 75% lined, or partially rendered are all fully realized creations too. Unless paid otherwise, art is done when you're done working on it.

Lower the stakes. Draw a chibi or grab some crayons. Get messy and slowly ease yourself back into the flow over the course of a couple days. It's fine.

Get a buddy! Find an art meme, do an art trade, get a study subject, or just wing it. Drawing art alongside someone can help you get past that block.

Pretend you never stopped. Don't think about the gap, how long it's been, or rustiness. As far as anyone knows, you drew the mona lisa yesterday and didn't break a sweat. Today, you drew a starfish on your hand with a gel pen. Keep up that streak, good job!

Just keep drawing. Make a goal to do one sucky drawing per day on the back of a napkin. Don't make up for missed days, just pretend they didn't happen. Who's going to judge you? The calendar? That's pieces of paper; it doesn't have an opinion. Draw a cat on it. Done. Keeping up the momentum is a great way to prevent art blocks in the future.

TLDR: Draw imperfectly and toss it. Selfcare is king. Draw often and don't judge yourself.

Art is a process, not a product.

#shire screams #art tips #ask #art block #long post

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elliotoille · 4 years

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Do you have any advice for understanding hands better? I’ve been practicing them for years but feel like compared to other aspects of anatomy it’s the one thing I haven’t seen much improvement in. I draw both from life and images and draw nearly everyday but nothing I’m doing seems to help

I personally get by mostly from remembering poses that I’ve already practiced a ton, like I figure out how to draw it once and am able to file that away in my brain and use it again later, and tweak bits of the pose or the level of simplification to suit what I’m drawing.

I’ve paid special attention to drawing hands for like.... most of my life so I have a LOT of poses I’m easy comfy with now, but when I need to figure out something complicated or new, I can usually work it out by breaking a hand down into shapes, remembering a few key points/”rules” from what I’ve learned about hands in order to help me break it down in a way that makes sense. And if that’s not enough either, then I take photo refs.

^^^ here is a pose I use a ton. I have a quick way of drawing it from various angles. the first time I had to draw a pose like this, I had to think and figure it out, but in drawing it a bunch of times and having to use various angles like this, I’ve eventually come up with a quick, reliable way to draw it from a few of the most common angles that fits the style I like to draw in. I’m blessed with a good memory for observations, so when I see a beautifully posed hand, I can usually really quickly analyze what I like about that pose and why, and that helps me absorb it so I can recreate my saved impression later. But I know not everyone thinks the same way. it might benefit you to quickly scribble down a study in a sketchbook when you see a pose you find beautiful and want to learn from for later.

^^^ here are some poses I had to stop and spend time figuring out, calling up the “rules” for how hands are built to kind of logic-out how they should look from angles I’m less familiar with. results can be mixed, but... if I end up with something expressive that fits the style of the rest of the drawing, I’m usually really forgiving of fudged anatomy or slightly wonky proportions. as long as the thumb is on the right side and there aren’t too many fingers, that’s a great start lol.

^^^ and here are ones I had to take reference-selfies for. I try to use this as a last resort because 1) it’s a lot of trouble 2) interrupts my drawing and 3) if I’m not careful I stick too close to the reference, and the drawing ends up with the hand looking referenced and the rest of the pose not, which is jarring to me. not to mention I have tiny manlet wrists that without fail, look horrific and emaciated in photos, and the lens distortion makes my fingers look scary too... ugh, photo reference has definite flaws. I actually don’t like the look of drawings for which I can Really Tell the artist drew from photo reference, because most often that means they’re taking the ref too much at face value and incorporating ugly lens distortions into their drawing. so I have to think extra hard not only about interpreting the ref, but also might have to make multiple passes just to get the hand to look normal, AND match the style of the rest of the drawing.

Anyway, here are some of the ““rules””” I mentioned earlier that I fall back on to help me figure out more complicated poses:

1. probably seen this before, but basic proportions. the palm is usually half the total height of the hand. obviously you can mess with this purposefully.

2. I think of joints as like, ball joints or hinges. I find that easier than trying to remember bones & muscles. here’s a drawing of the wrist as a hinge. note that when you’re thinking of it this way, it’s a shortcut, but a shortcut is only good if you use it with precision. notice the pin for the wrist hinge is not just halfway, it’s closer to the top of the hand. being precise about that is what allows this shortcut to work. the heel of the palm juts out, while the top of the hand transitions into the wrist quite smoothly.

3. simplified planes. planes are important yo. in super simple terms: top is flat, bottom is round. this works on the fingers too, actually. the tops are bony and tendony, and the bottom is where the fat is, so it’s rounder and soft

thinking of the hand as abstract shapes REALLY helps simplify the task of drawing hands, and is just as helpful even if you are drawing from reference. I can say “the palm is a box” and obviously the palm is not really as simple as a box, but if I think of the palm, wrist, and each finger joint as various shapes of box, then all of a sudden, psychologically, my task is SO much easier. I’m not drawing a Hand, which is hard, I’m drawing boxes, which is easy.

4. that prominent knob some people have on their wrist? that’s on the pinky side.

1. the knuckles aren’t really a flat row on top. the hand is like a cup right, so your palm can hold water and things. so we can think of the hand as a box to make figuring out the pose easier, but when it comes down to it, you’ll want to make it more of a curve. this curve is why you can see multiple fingers in a side view

2. when curled up, the fingers nestle together. the fingernails also turn slightly toward the center. even if I’m simplifying the hands significantly, I usually still draw the fingernails because they are SO useful for communicating the pose of the hand effectively.

3. lots of people suggest to think of the hand as a mitten, grouping the pinky/ring/middle fingers and singling out the index finger. this works great, the index finger is more independent from the other three. on the flip side, those three are really stuck together; if you’re drawing the pinky curled up all the way, then you better not draw the ring finger sticking straight up, cause that would HURT. anyway, singling out the index finger leads to more interesting poses in my experience.

1. this is another illustration of top = flat and bottom = curved. this is a really easy way to organize your line quality. straight lines and sharper angles where there is bone, and soft gentle lines where there is muscle and fat. your drawing as a whole will read very clearly if you find some guidelines like that to stick to, as it means all your lines are intentional and thoughtful.

2. this one’s about overlaps. when forms overlap, it makes a crease, and when you draw that crease you’re communicating which form is in front of the other. in the second drawing I reversed all the creases, and it looks.... messed up. think about how pieces connect.

so when you’re trying to make up a pose without using specific reference, I think it’s good to think about the.... flow of energy through the pose. honestly, I know it’s really abstract, but if I have an ability to make interesting poses that communicate weight and movement, the things that make people say your character feels ALIVE, like they really EXIST in a space... it’s because I started to think of poses this way. imagining streams of energy bouncing through the body, flowing down the limbs and out through the fingers. this is why hands are so important to me, cause they’re where the kinetic energy of the pose ultimately ends up. I talk about it when drawing the torso and arms and legs, but an interesting drawing has a bounce back and forth between opposites: for every curve, an opposing straight line, alternating back and forth down the entire body. if you’re sensitive to the energy of the pose, then even very simple poses will be interesting to look at.

anyway, with regards to hands, I imagine the energy getting sort of cinched in as it passes through the wrist, and then emanating out through the fingertips. I hope my drawing at least SORT of communicates this imagery. it makes sense because that’s BASically how the bones in the hand are anyway. and then the right side of the image above is just demonstrating some highly simplified gestures. see how the fingers fan out and curl in, rarely parallel to eachother. when you’re figuring out the pose, using a line to stand in for the row of knuckles is super valuable.

aaand finally, here’s two hands where I intentionally neglected correct anatomy and proportion because I felt it worked better for the style of the whole drawing. Left side: since this is a really simple and cartoonish style, I was thinking back to kids’ and shoujo manga I have read where the style was very solid and distinctive, but definitely NOT overly concerned with correct anatomy, or even really drawing hands, uh, “well” at all. to me, that sort of approach has a Look that I like to invoke sometimes, since for years I felt like I learned a bunch of anatomy and proportion and drawing from life actually in detriment to the liveliness and appealness of my drawings. this hand is mushy and makes very little sense, but it turned out as intended. Right side: sometimes I like to pretend fingers only have 2 bones in them, cause i am a Queen and i do what i want

and there you go. I hope that helped, like, at all? Look at real hands and photos of hands and hands in motion, but also look at drawn hands as well. find what you like, and work towards expressing that yourself. and remember the hand is part of the whole drawing. not only in the art style like I’d been talking about, but because the angle and placement of the hand is reflected in the angles of the arm, which in turn reflects on the angles of the shoulder, which affects the whole torso, etc etc etc. and the techniques you can use to understand and draw the rest of the body, works on hands too. as you improve everything else, your hands will improve as well.

DISCLAIMER: I whipped up these diagrams quickly, they’re not meant to be good drawings or accurate refs, just diagrams to illustrate my thought process lol

#god im long winded as usual #Anonymous

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kashuan · 4 years

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All right, there are quite a few things that come to mind with a question as broad as this, so here’s my best attempt to sum up what character design means to me in like 5 minutes :,D. I’m going to start with a few very quick sketches that talk about more my general approach to drawing, but I’m going to build up to how it all connects with character.

Step 1) Find reference! Whenever you can, use reference, it will always make your character’s posing look 100 times more genuine than anything you can pull from your brain, and that’s nothing to feel bad about. It’s not cheating because we’re not stopping at Step 2 either, which is where the misnomer comes in that you’re just ‘copying’ (protip: even step 2 isn’t a straight Copy; as long as you’re not tracing, you’re not copying, and even tracing has its uses for personal studies). I could do a whole answer of it’s own about picking your reference, but I’ll keep it short by saying: not every reference will fit every character. Keep in mind your character’s attitude when choosing your ref. Some poses are so generic they’re one size fits all, but even this very simple pose has unique character to it. The way the legs are posed, to me, gives it a young and girlish feeling, and depending how you played with the expression, you could even make it come off shy. An overbearingly confident character, while also taking an arms crossed pose, will likely position their legs differently, assuming a stance that takes up more space, etc.

Step 2) Draw pretty much exactly what you see first, but keep it simple. Think of the body like individual shapes; anatomy is not the focus right now, and you’ll actually hinder yourself if you hone in on that first. What you want to do at this stage is capture what the pose is generally doing; character isn’t involved yet Step 3) Now, working off 2′s framework, start considering body type. If you skip the previous step, you might have a hard time capturing the gesture correctly, since it’s a lot for your brain to juggle at once. When I sketched these two different body types, I built it straight off the first drawing, erasing lines as needed.

So the first image includes some extremely basic body type variations, this one pushes that idea further. 1 is the basic frame from the last image, while 2 is about playing with proportions. There are a lot of ways you can play with proportions, and as I’ll come to sound like a broken record about: make those decisions thoughtfully. For example, when I made this version shorter than the reference base, I had to consider exactly where I wanted her to lose that height. Here, I made her shorter waisted, took a little length from the legs, and gave her a squatter neck as well. You can do one of these or all of them. Just keep in mind those are all individual options. Letting your train of thought stop at ‘this character is short/tall so I’m just going to generally shrink/stretch their body’ means you’ll run out of variety pretty fast, and sometimes the overall proportions can end up looking wonky (though there’s always exceptions to the rule, remember that the individual body parts should remain correctly scaled in relation to each other). Image 3 is another approach to proportional manipulation, except rather than focusing on height, it focuses on fat distribution and to a lesser extent bone structure. Again, there’s so many individual places you can focus on here, make sure to mix them up. Arm size, shoulder broadness, chest and hip size, leg thickness and musculature, foot and hand size and so forth. Image 4 is a further exaggeration of image 3 and the lines have started to get a little more stylized. While image 3 is still reasonably realistic, 4 is just starting to cross into cartoon territory. Advantage of 4 is that when you are able to push the proportions further due to the leniency of style, you can sell a clearer idea and a clearer character. Downside is, well, it looks more cartoonish now, and depending on the needs of your image that might not be what you want ie: it can look like a mistake rather than a purposeful choice if everyone else around the character is drawn more realistically.

Also… I see variations on this general advice quite a lot for women, but don’t forget about doing the same for men. It’s great to see how eager a lot of artists are to experiment with the female form that is simply absent in a lot of mainstream media, but I find that men really tend to fall by the wayside here even though they often get equally shallow treatment in the mainstream. There’s usually like 2-3 ‘go-to’ body types for men and that’s it. Men’s bodies can have the exact same amount of variety as a woman’s, including the individual ways the fat can be distributed on it, and the assorted ways their proportions can be played with. Whenever I find an artist that does this it’s like striking gold to me tbh.

So there’s some very rough hows. But, perhaps even more importantly than any of that, is WHY you make these choices. This is going to get a little stream of consciousness, but with a question this broad, I tried to hit on as many general points I could think of in regard to my own process.

-When I start to design a character, I really need to have an understanding of them first. This includes things like backstory, personality, habits, so and so forth… Yes, all of this stuff shows up in their design, even if it’s just a drawing of them standing straight up. This isn’t just like ‘this character got this scar at age 7 so I need to know where it goes′, I mean in depth info about them. I touched on this a little bit earlier, bringing up the different ways a character would assume the same general pose, but let me expand on that. -What do I mean by personality? So there’s the most obvious answer, which is that a bubbly character will assume bubbly poses, a sullen character will slouch more, etc… But let’s take it further than that. This is a concept I’ve touched on in past tutorials, but here’s a quick recap. A character’s personality involves their opinions, for one; how do you make that show up in their design? Well, one of the most obvious questions I always ask myself is: what is their opinion on their own appearance (the thing we are drawing)/how do they want to be perceived by others? Consider a strong character. I see a lot of artists who take this thought as far as: okay, this character is strong, so I’m gonna throw a 6 pack on him, maybe a nice pair of guns, and call it a day. Which leads to like, nice art, but also...kind of bland? I think that’s because this is a rather half-baked approach. How can we take it further? Ask yourself more specific questions. Is your strong character concerned with being perceived as an ‘ideal’ sort of fit by others (the type you give that showy 6 pack to) or does that not matter to them? (more likely to look ‘chubby’ if not outright fat, though probably is just as if not more capable of actually doing some real heavy lifting than saran wrapped abs man). If they’re some kind of mystical being that can look like whatever they want (ie: the anime waif that can also lift 1000 lbs-trope), you should still take into account their personal perspective on appearance. Don’t just stop at ‘this guy/girl is strong so they’ll look super shredded’ or ‘they’re magic so I’ll do whatever’. Doing this, you’ve instantly lost a chance to inform the audience more about the individual there beyond ‘they’re strong’ -Break it down further with their habits. What is their daily life like? If they’re running ten miles every day they should probably have some strong looking legs. If their job involves a lot of lifting, maybe focus on the upper body more and leave the legs less defined. Do they eat a lot? Or drink? The way the fat distributes in both these cases will be noticeably different (and this isn’t even taking into account points like an endomorph vs an ectomorphs body, which I always suggest reading up on). I’d definitely recommend drawing as many different body types as you can just as studies, in order to add these variations to your mental library. I’m sure every artist has seen this popular athlete line up by now, but really study images like this. Don’t just mindlessly copy what you see when you create your own characters though; think about why those athletes have the bodies they have, what they specifically did to get them like that, and how that can apply to your character’s own life. -One thing that has always bothered me is how often artists are afraid to use the head (not the features; I’ll get to that in a second) as an extension of the body when it comes to imbuing it with variety and character. While it is absolutely possible to have a thin face and a fat body (as is any combo), it’s another missed opportunity not to experiment with chubby cheeks, a soft jawline, etc. It’s a cliche to mention him at this point as an inspiration, but one of my very favorite things about Mucha’s art was how he was able to make fuller faces look so beautiful despite being a rather nontraditional approach (so many art books try to tell you this is a big NO). example, example. These faces actually look like real individuals to me than a drawing that focuses too hard on being generically aesthetically pleasing. -So, facial features. A face with less traditional features isn’t just going to be more memorable than Stock Beautiful Face #73, but it’s basically a more zoomed in version of informing the audience about the character in the same way the body does. -Know tropes, play with tropes, do not rely on tropes. Sunken bone structure, long features-guy will always pretty much read like a villain (or at least someone off-putting), but find somewhere to make the formula your own. Give him thicker eyebrows or big ears. Give the girl with the standard doll-face a nose that sticks out a little more prominently or a crooked smile. -Speaking of are so many different ways to draw a smile, do not underestimate the mileage you can get out of this one feature alone. Artists tend to have a favorite way to draw smiles, in my experience, but remember your character. Would they have a big toothy grin, a handsome ‘cool’ looking smile, a small shy lopsided one, ones that touch the eyes, ones that don’t… This is probably a repetitive point by now but just do whatever you can not to draw the exact same feature on two different characters, and make sure to think through your reasoning for every choice you make. To me, it’s always immediately evident if an artist really knows their character or if they’re just trying to make something aesthetically pleasing. The former is always more attention grabbing in my opinion. -One of my favorite things to consider when designing a character who’s part of a family: genetics and how you can play with them to inform the audience more about the character’s story. Does this character take after their mother or father? How? Why? Why why, you might ask? This isn’t a photo of a real person, this is an illustration that you should be making deliberate choices about every step along the way. It’s one thing to draw a character that looks like their parent simply because logic dictates they should, another to make meaningful decisions as to where and why they do. Some examples: He has his father’s eyes because they carry the same intensity and other characters are a little put off by him because it (conversely, maybe he’s such a gentle character that this detail stands out twice as strongly). He has the same hair as his father, but he styles it differently to avoid the association. She has her mother’s nose which everyone compliments her on so shes happy to be seen in profile. She has her father’s broad shoulders and she’s a little self conscious about it so she tends to wear baggier clothing. Etc etc! In all these cases, you can communicate these details through even a simple drawing of the character standing alone, and should try to as often as you can. -In the end, the only way you’re going to know how to draw all these different details, whether they be different body types or different facial features, is by studying real people. Draw as many different kinds as you can, add them to your mental library. Your reference will never give you everything you need to work it, and I’m not sure if that’s maybe what this question as getting at-- if I have a reference folder of go-to ‘types’ or something. I don’t. I have a folder of poses labeled with characters I think they’d fit, and that’s about it. If you’re just imitating what you see in a photo, you’ll always be drawing That Person, not Your Character. So you are going to have to pull some of it out of your brain. Note, however, the important difference between just ‘making it up’ and recalling information you’ve studied in the past. That said, while on this last topic of expanding your mental library, that includes not just doing studies, but also learning and observing the ways other accomplished artists work. Here are some of my book recommendations when it comes to those which have most helped me in regard to this particular subject. This includes books that specifically tell you how to vary your body types, but also ones that just have a lot of examples of different kinds: Morpho: Anatomy for Artists Morpho: Fat and Skin Folds Famous Artists School Course in Illustration and Design (If anyone is interested in this one and has trouble finding a non $500 copy, hit me up and I’ll help you out) Spirit of the Pose Anatomy Lessons from the Great Masters Drawing People: How to Portray the Clothed Figure Figures from Life (my favorite currently; not the most varied array of figures but he goes in depth on how to successfully grow an academic study of a model into an illustration influenced by your own ideas and personal style) If you found this answer helpful, although it isn’t specifically about character design, I go a little more in depth about some of the topics I briefly covered here (such as choosing the right reference, good vs bad reference in general, honing in on shapes, pushing the pose, etc) in this short book of mine :>

#tumblr messed up the coding on the original ask so I had to repost this!#art tutorial #hope this helps!!#not sure if got a little too rambly #i wonder if it's hashtag justintpthings to spend 3/4ths of a post talking about how to draw by talking about thinking lol

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adoredontour · 5 years

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every fic that left a lasting impression with me this year. sorted in order of when i read them!!

buckle up lads, it’s a long one

nicotine by krisstylinson 32k

"We're two different types of people, Liam. He likes sex and drugs, I like theater and tea. Trust me, we'd never date." Except they would, they do, and neither of them plans on letting go anytime soon.

"Just because you can get me hard doesn't mean I like you," Louis whispered. The fact was, he didn't like Harry right now, not at all. Not even a bit.

"Yeah, yeah," Harry murmured, his breath fanning over Louis' cock as he spoke. "You done telling me how much you hate me so I can suck you off?"

like candy in my veins by littlelouishiccups 31k @littlelouishiccups

Basically the A/B/O, enemies to lovers, fake relationship, Christmas AU that nobody asked for

worth dying for by whoknows

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Louis says, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms over his chest. In the center of the table, a set of three glossy photos stares up at him, mocking him.

“A security detail is non-negotiable, Louis, you know this,” his mum reminds him, tapping the middle photo with two fingers.

Louis doesn’t look back down at the pictures, gesturing towards them wildly, over-dramatically. “This is not a security detail!” he protests. “This is a lanky college student. In what world do you hire someone like this kid to protect me?”

damn your love, damn your lies by ifthat

“Of course you’d use your free time to go to the gym.”

“Your idea of the best way to spend your free time is annoying your neighbors,” he laughs, dimples carved into his cheeks like marble.

No, Louis likes to annoy Harry. Everyone else on this floor is just an unfortunate casualty.

“No one has complained except for you,” Louis informs him smartly. Which is actually a good thing. If someone other than Harry had complained to him long ago, he would have unfortunately had to stop.

you came into my life by disgruntledkittenface @disgruntledkittenface

When the Queer Eye cast and crew sweep into Louis’ small town and fire station to make over his best friend and coworker Liam, Louis’ carefully constructed walls start to fall down and he has to face his fears – and the only guy he’s ever been able to see a future with.

a thousand miles from comfort by littlelouishiccups

In which Louis is a closeted gay actor and a recovering addict with a troubled past. Harry is the personal trainer who helps him get his life back in shape.

smaller than me by checkthemargins

Harry's just finished his first year of uni on his way to becoming Dr. Harry Styles, Neurosurgeon. He's young, he has endless potential, three amazing best mates, a new love and the world at his fingertips. The fact that his new boyfriend may or may not be a sex-worker, of course, throws a wrench into the works. But it's not true. Really.

Probably.

It most definitely might not be entirely true. And that's all Harry needs to know.

escapade (i was late to the game shut up) by dolce_piccante

In the grand scheme of things, finding a date for a wedding should be no problem for Louis Tomlinson. He's rich. He's handsome. He's reasonably well behaved. But when the wedding is for his lifelong best friend (and former boyfriend), and is happening in under a month, finding a date for the ceremony and accompanying festivities becomes more of an adventure than he ever could have planned for.

soft hands, fast feet, can’t lose by dolce_piccante

American Uni AU. Harry Styles is a frat boy football star from the wealthy Styles Family athletic dynasty. A celebrity among football fans, he knows how to play, he knows how to party, and he knows how to fuck (all of which is well known among his legion of admirers).

Louis Tomlinson is a student and an athlete, but his similarities to Harry end there. Intelligent, focused, independent, and completely uninterested in Harry’s charms, Louis is an anomaly in a world ruled by football.

A bet about the pair, who might be more similar than they originally thought, brings them together. Shakespeare, ballet, Disney, football, library chats, running, accidental spooning, Daredevil and Domino’s Pizza all blend into one big friendship Frappucino, but who will win in the end?

oh glory by alivingfire @alivingfire

Harry Styles is Team Great Britain's newest swimmer, and has spent his whole life training for this moment, a chance at the gold medal in the Rio 2016 Olympics. All his training, hard work, and dedication to no distractions is tested when he's assigned to the same Rio apartment as Louis Tomlinson, British gymnast and Harry's childhood crush.

it’s all brand new because of you by supernope

AKA, Louis starts a new job as a summer camp counselor at the local aquarium and Harry is a biologist who really likes teaching people about the ocean.

this wicked game by cherrystreet @cherrystreet

An AU in which The Bachelor is gay, Louis is a contestant, Harry is the bachelor, everyone drinks a lot of champagne, the entire world gets to watch them fall in love, and no one plays by the rules.

do not go gentle by afirethatcannotdie @afirethatcannotdie

When Harry Styles starts his first day as a surgical intern, he expects a lot of things: to treat patients, to observe a surgery, to feel a bit overwhelmed. What he definitely doesn't expect, however, is that the handsome guy he kicked out of his bed this morning is also an intern.

A Grey’s Anatomy AU where tensions are high, Harry and Louis are hooking up in secret, and no one has time for love. Or do they?

to brim with fright by hereforlou @hereforlou

The only reason he’s here is because it’s tradition. And also, Harry said it’d be fun to make Liam wet himself in fear and Louis agreed. It’ll be hilarious. He’s not an insecure new transfer anymore, thank you very much. It took him no more than a week to insert himself into a group, to get invited to his first party, and to start crushing on someone—he’s not what anyone would call socially impaired. He doesn’t need validation.

have you coming back again by whoknows

It’s five o’clock in the morning. Louis has a lecture at half eight. He could be using this time to study or to do his readings or to go to the gym, but - well. He doesn’t have any exams coming up, he’s not going to his seminar today anyway and he hates the gym.

Instead he’s using this time to fuck with Harry Styles’ poor little brain.

Louis jogs across the street and jabs the key into the car door. It opens easily, not that he was expecting anything else. He copied the key for a reason, after all.

He’s got Harry’s schedule memorized, more because the guy keeps following him around than anything, so he doesn’t bother looking around before climbing behind the wheel and setting his bag on the passenger seat. It’s a Monday, which means that Harry doesn’t even get out of bed before noon unless he’s planning on harassing Louis.

i put a spell on you by bethaboo @bethaboolou

A BBC/Secret Santa mashup featuring Captain Niall, our intrepid weatherman/amateur matchmaker, rather clueless sports reporter Liam, charming political analyst Zayn, and cheeky entertainment reporter Louis. Harry is the new fashion correspondent who prefers to dress like a flamingo. And pining. There’s a lot of pining.

naked & proud by kiwikero

In which Harry runs an organic store, not a nudist colony, and Louis doesn't know whether to be relieved or disappointed.

take me under the blue by objectlesson

Louis hasn’t even seen his legs yet. He doesn’t know how they work or how long they’ll be. Maybe they won’t suit the rest of Harry at all, and he’ll have to grow into them or something. It doesn’t matter; Louis has loved Harry for a year with scales, so he can’t imagine wonky legs putting a damper on his attraction.

He supposes he’ll just have to find out. In the meantime, he wonders how the fuck he got here, in his squelching wellies about to save the love of his life from the sea and take him to bed and bang him for the very first time.

It’s sort of a long story.

paint the sky with stars by kiwikero

the historically accurate Titanic AU with a happy ending.

truth be told i never was yours by justfortommo

(or the one where Louis and Harry have a complicated past, Louis is getting married to someone that’s not Harry, and the universe has decided to have a laugh and make Harry the wedding planner.)

into the badlands

Louis is Q. Harry is a double-oh agent who thinks that making knock-knock jokes around foreign embassy delegates mid-mission is a good idea.

swim in the smoke by whoknows

“What about this, Captain?” Liam asks, nudging the boy kneeling between their feet with the toe of his boot. The boy hisses and swipes at him, slurring out something unintelligible around the makeshift gag Niall had to stuff in his mouth. He misses by a mile and tries again, just as ineffectively.

Harry looks down at him, at the way the sun streams over his face and shoulders, at the way the gag stretches his mouth, lips pink and chapped. He’s lithe and pretty, smudged all over with dirt. They had found him tied up below deck, mostly unconscious, next to a barrel full of gold. He’s clearly a prisoner, but there’s something familiar about him, something that niggles at Harry’s brain. Something he can’t quite put his finger on.

“Put him in my cabin,” Harry decides, turning back to deal with the rest of the loot. The boys screams out jumbled curse words at Harry’s back, muffled by the gag, and Harry can’t understand any of it.

resist everything except temptation by domesticharry @domestic-harry

The one where Louis is the commodore's son who is forced to become a part of Harry's crew when he is captured.

pray till i go blind by el_em_en_oh_pee

Louis is (kind of) a preacher. Harry is (probably) a demon. Of course, nothing's as simple as that.

This is not a love story.

(your heartbeat) rang true inside my bones by flimsy @flimsi

Harry goes as Louis' date for a weekend wedding. He ends up taking the role a bit too seriously.

i love your demons (like devils can) by ariadne_odair

Harry didn’t plan to join the football team. She didn’t plan to sleep with the captain of the football team. She definitely didn’t plan to sleep with the closeted captain of the football team, who promptly acted as if nothing happened and left Harry a pathetic, pining mess.

alien roadtrip! by helloamhere @helloamhere

roadtrip with desert feelings, too much snack food, and empty motels. Harry is definitely absolutely not an alien. That would be ridiculous.

treat mothman with kindness by flowercrownfemme @lesbianiconharrystyles

In which Louis, Liam, Niall and Zayn are amateur cryptozoologists and Harry is the creature they find in the woods of a small north-western town. ft. lots of glitter and shrieking and a whole shed full of lesbian cats.

just me, you, and this box of matches by tomlinsunshine

Louis is fairly sure that his new neighbour is going to destroy him. And also their apartment building, and the dumpsters outside, and all the forests within a thirty mile radius. But. Mostly him.

close to nowhere by angelichl @angelichl

Louis and Harry are psychics who kind of hate each other. They go to Tennessee to investigate a haunting.

magical soup by gloria_andrews

Slytherin prefect Louis Tomlinson's seventh year at Hogwarts takes an immediate turn for the worse when he's made to be potions partners with Harry Styles, Hufflepuff's resident heartthrob and class clown. Louis has always considered Styles to be a terrible show-off who coasts by on his charm and good looks, but the more they work together, the more he questions that idea. As term goes on, will Louis be able to admit to himself that he might actually like Harry Styles after all... and maybe, just maybe, as more than a friend?

sainted taints and velvet vices by toomanytears

A self-fulfilling Hogwarts AU in which Louis is new to seventh year and Harry is the resident devil-may-care Slytherin set to make his entire experience a living misery. Due to less than favourable circumstances they're forced to forge an unwilling, tentative relationship for their own survival. Repressed emotions, decidedly unromantic ballroom dancing, Triwizard Tournament tasks, creative jinxes and twilight flying above the Forbidden Forest ensue.

run like the devil by benzos

Supernatural AU. Louis hunts demons; Harry's the strangest demon he's ever met, and he keeps fucking meeting him.

be with me so happily by briamaria

[aka Louis is the director of the Styles Elephant Sanctuary and really doesn't want to babysit his funder's spoiled lay-about son for two months]

come together by bottomlinsons @bottomlinsons

Harry and Louis slept together three weeks ago, and haven't talked.

Their coming group project is gonna change that.

what this world is about by isntrio @bloubird

An eighties American high school AU; there are first times, football games, and feelings.

Alternatively titled: the beginning.

once upon a dream by thedeathchamber

Louis is psychic and gets caught in the middle of a murder investigation led by FBI Special Agent Harry Styles.

aka. the Medium/Criminal Minds-inspired AU no one ever asked for.

led by your beating heart by missandrogyny @missandrogyny

(Or: AU where Harry's in One Direction, Louis isn't, and they reconnect over a game of 'Call or Delete'.)

forever and always by jacaranda_bloom @jacaranda-bloom (again, thank you!!!!!!!)

OR the one where Harry’s neighbour is a crotchety old witch who hates vampires, Niall is the unsuspecting human who ends up inhabiting Harry’s body, and Louis is the caseworker who is assigned to swap them back. How it ends up a love story is anyone’s guess.

sail your sea, meet your storm by kiwikero

The strangers to enemies to friends to pining to lovers fic where Louis is cynical, Harry is charming, and they have seven days to get their shit together.

tangled up in you by missandrogyny

Harry blinks once. And blinks again. And says, his voice dangerous: “Niall, did you get me a mail-order bride?”

Because what the actual fuck. It kind of looks like Niall’s just purchased a person. For Harry.

Niall blinks back at him for a few moments, before throwing his head back and howling with laughter. Harry throws a pillow at him. Hard. “No, what the fuck, Harry.”

“A prostitute then?” Harry also doesn't want a prostitute.

“Of course not!”

“A stripper?”

“No!”

Damn, he’s running out of ideas. He settles for launching another pillow at Niall’s head. Niall bats it away easily, still laughing. “Stop!”

“What did you get me, then?!” Niall must hear the tinge of hysteria in his voice, because he’s pulling himself together, trying to stop himself from laughing.

There’s still a big grin on his face, though, when he says, “I got you a professional cuddler.”

A professional…what. “What?”

i’d burn this city down to show you the light by you_explode

Harry's a sheltered rich kid and Louis's a punk with a heart of gold. They meet when Louis breaks into Harry's house, Harry obtains an instant and all-encompassing crush, and they spend the summer falling into a whirlwind romance.

sail your sea, meet your storm by kiwikero

Louis is thirty, single, and a bit of a workaholic. He's happy with his life, but then his mother decides to buy him tickets for a Singles Cruise. Appalled that his family thinks he can't handle his own love life, he steps aboard the ship determined to have a terrible time.

That is, of course, until a persistent brunet keeps offering him drinks.

The strangers to enemies to friends to pining to lovers fic where Louis is cynical, Harry is charming, and they have seven days to get their shit together.

bring out feelings in me i never show

“I really think you should stop reading,” Liam says, having moved to hover behind Louis’ back at some point. “I can already see the cogs turning in your head, Louis, and I don’t like this.”

“Shut up,” Louis waves him off and continues reading.

I can do these things, at your request: openly hit on other female guests while you act like you don’t notice; start instigative discussions about politics and/or religion; propose to you in front of everyone; pretend to be really drunk as the evening goes on (sorry I don’t drink, but I used to); start an actual, physical fight with a family member, either inside or on the front lawn for all the neighbors to see.

remember you well by fondleeds @fondleeds

“Um,” Harry starts. He looks out of place. Louis can’t really believe he’s seeing Harry like this, so unsettled, so unlike himself. He holds out his hands. “Should we–. Should I, um. Did you wanna, like, cuff me to the bed or something?”

Louis raises his eyebrows. “I don’t know. Do I need to?”

i love you most by stylinsoncity

friends with benefits has always been enough for louis. until, of course, it isn't.

ready to fall by whoknows

“Ninety and rising,” Nick says triumphantly, as though making Harry’s heartbeat pick up by thrusting an obscenely attractive person in front of his face is any kind of success. “Louis Tomlinson has just walked into our control room and suddenly our dear Harry Styles has lost all ability to speak. Could this be some kind of strange coincidence?”

“I hate you,” Harry hisses, forcing his eyes back into Nick’s direction, uncaring that the mic must have picked it up. “I thought we agreed that you were going to play fair.”

“I’m sure I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Nick denies, except he’s holding up a picture of Louis’ face now, sharp cheekbones prominent, soft lashes nearly sweeping against his cheeks as he looks down, and his fucking mouth –

“A hundred and two!” Nick crows, all but clapping his hands together in glee. “The highest it’s ever been!”

“To be fair, I did bend over the desk on purpose,” Louis’ voice comes crackling in the headphones. Harry practically breaks his neck whipping his head around at the sound of it, gaping at him through the glass panel. “You can’t really blame him for getting a little excited about that, can you?”

#rec

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broomballkraken · 5 years

Link

Title: In the Wake of the Verdant Wind

Fandom: Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Pairing: Raphael/Ignatz

Word Count: 1836

Warnings: None

Summary: Years after the war, Ignatz was as busy as ever, with a seemingly endless list of art commissions on top of helping his husband Raphael run the inn. Even so, they always did manage to set aside some time to just enjoy each other’s company, and reflect on just how wonderful their lives had turned out.

Written for @ferarepair-week 2019 Day 7, Prompt: Verdant

“You think the inn will be okay with us gone?”

“Ah, c’mon Ig! You gotta relax! Maya will take care of things for us. Besides, we’ll only be gone for, like, a week or two at most.”

Ignatz turned to look up at Raphael’s smiling face, golden eyes shining with an overwhelming fondness. They had been married three years to the day, and still the sight never failed to make his heart race. They were off on a trip to visit Ignatz’s family that doubled as a mini vacation to celebrate their anniversary as well.

“Man, am I hungry! Can we stop and eat now?” Raphael asked, laughing as his stomach growled loudly when he slapped a hand to it.

“You’re always hungry, dear. But, I could use a break.” Ignatz said, giggling as Raphael let out an excited whoop, grabbed Ignatz’s hand, and entwined their fingers together.

“Yes! This is why I love you, Ignatz!” Raphael gushed, and Ignatz felt his face heat up as they turned away from the road and climbed up a small hill, with a large tree on the peak that would be a perfect place for a picnic.

“I hope that’s not the only reason you love me.” Ignatz teased, and the absolutely distressed look that crossed Raphael’s face made Ignatz snort with amusement.

“No way!” Raphael said, dropping the pack that he carried so that he could wrap his arms around Ignatz and pull him into a bear hug. “I love everything about you! Your passion for art! Your pretty eyes, and really nice hair. I love your cute glasses and your smarts and your hugs and your-”

“Okay, okay! I get it!” Ignatz said, his voice muffled due to his face currently being squashed against his husband’s broad chest. “I was just joking, Raph.”

“Oh, uh, right.” Raphael said, a light blush appearing on his face as he released his hold on Ignatz and rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. “I knew that.”

Ignatz laughed as he and Raphael busied themselves with setting up a fire and cooking their simple meal of pheasant meat and eggs, and Raphael showered Ignatz with compliments on his improving hunting skills as they ate.

“You’ve really gotten better with a bow lately, Ignatz! I’m glad, ‘cause it means that I still get to eat fresh meat even when we’re on the road!” Raphael said as he happily shoved more food into his mouth. Ignatz sighed and rolled his eyes as bits of meat got caught in Raphael’s beard. Some things would never change, it seemed.

“Raph, dear, you’re getting food all over your face.” Ignatz said, chuckling as he leaned over to wipe Raphael’s beard clean. The larger man blushed as his smaller husband doted on him, and when Ignatz was done and tried to pull away, Raphael instead pulled him onto his lap.

“Thanks, Ig.” Raphael said, his honey colored eyes locking onto Ignatz’s emerald green ones as his arms wrapped fully around the love of his life, and he gently caressed Ignatz’s cheek with the back of his hand.

“Ah, y-your welcome.” Ignatz barely managed to squeak out in his flustered state. He recovered quickly though, and he was amazed that Raphael could still turn him into a stuttering mess after all this time. Ignatz giggled and reached up to cup Raphael’s face, his fingers setting in the soft hair of his beard. The content sigh that passed between Raphael’s lips was cut short when Ignatz kissed him, his hands moving to the wild hair at the back of Raphael’s neck as he deepened the kiss.

The feeling of Raphael smiling against his lips made Ignatz’s heart swell with delight. He never dreamed that he could be this happy, living the life that he always wanted. He was making a living doing a job that he loved, living in a modest yet comfortable environment, and every morning he woke up in the arms of the man that he loved the most. Something was definitely going right with his life when his reality was so, so much better than his dreams.

Ignatz tilted his head, his nose brushing against Raphael’s beard. He giggled as the hairs tickled him, and Raphael pulled away, eyebrows knitted with confusion. Ignatz laughed at how silly he looked, and he cupped Raphael’s face and ran his thumbs over his cheeks.

“Sorry, Raph. Your beard was tickling me. Again.” Ignatz said. Raphael smiled as he rest his forehead against Ignatz’s and let his hands slip around his waist.

“Oops! I guess that means that it’s overdue for some trimming.” Raphael said, a toothy grin crossing his face as he placed a light kiss on Ignatz’s nose.

“Hah, probably. You look even more like a sheep now that you’re beard is fully grown out.”

“You think so?”

“Indeed.” Ignatz nodded, and he pulled away as he ran a hand through Raphael’s hair. “I remember when I first likened you to a sheep. You didn’t really like it.”

“Yeah, I know.” Raphael said, reaching up to cup Ignatz’s cheek, and the movement knocked Ignatz’s glasses slightly askew. “I really like it now, ‘cause your eyes always light up when you say it, and the biggest smile always crosses your face.”

“O-Oh…” Ignatz said, averting his gaze bashfully as his face flushed a bright red.

“You know, I really lucked out, Ignatz.” Raphael said, his voice only a bit louder than a whisper and a tender look in his eyes, “Three years ago I married the cutest, most amazing man that I’d ever met, and we still have a whole lifetime ahead of us! I’m so happy, I think my heart might just burst from my chest or something!” Ignatz was stunned into silence by the sincere words, but he recovered quickly. A bright smile crossed his face as Ignatz wrapped his arms around his husband, his head resting on Raphael’s broad chest.

“I feel the same, Raph. I love you.”

“I love you too, Ig!” Raphael eagerly hugged Ignatz back, but then he suddenly gasped and pulled away, “Oh yeah! I almost forgot!” He turned to rummaged in his travel pack, while Ignatz watched with a curious eyebrow raised.

“Ah, here we go!” Raphael said as he pulled out a small box that was wrapped haphazardly in paper. “Happy Anniversary! I was too excited to wait until we got back home to give you your present, so I brought it with me!”

“You didn’t need to get me anything.” Ignatz said as he smiled and took the box. He chuckled at the giddy look on Raphael’s face as he watched Ignatz tear the paper away with wide eyes, and Ignatz could practically feel him shaking with excitement.

“Well, do you like it?” Raphael asked, waiting with baited breath as Ignatz examined the gift. It was a small carving made out of wood, roughly the size of his hand. It was him and Raphael, holding hands and looking into each others eyes. The carving was a bit rough around the edges and the anatomy was a little wonky, but Ignatz hardly cared as his eyes welled up with tears.

“Oh Raphael, I love it.” Ignatz said, removing his glasses so that he could wipe away his tears of joy.

“Oh, really? Alright!” Raphael said, letting out a triumphant whoop that made Ignatz burst out laughing, “I was really having trouble figuring out what to get you, but Maya thought that I could be good at wood carving, so I thought I’d try it out.”

“It really is an amazing first try. I’m impressed.” Ignatz said as he put his glasses back on.

“Er, well,” Raphael said, averting his gaze as a dusting of pink appeared on his cheeks, “This one is actually the...seventh try. I kept on breaking the wood in half so I had to keep starting over.” Ignatz laughed and shook his head.

“Is that so? Well, I’m honored that you would put so much work into a gift for me. I’ll treasure it, love.” Ignatz said. He then reached over to his own pack and pulled out a neatly wrapped package. “I got you something too.”

“Really?!?” Raphael exclaimed, his booming voice causing Ignatz to wince slightly. Raphael took the gift and ripped open the wrapping paper, and his face scrunched up in confusion as he held up a book.

“Hmm, a book?” Raphael said, tilting his head curiously as he scanned the cover. Ignatz smiled, and couldn’t help but think that his husband looked adorable.

“Yeah, it’s a cookbook.” Ignatz said, “I know you’ve been working hard to run the inn, so hard that you’ve been trying to learn how to cook. I thought this would be a good book to help you get a good start. Plus, this one focuses mostly on meat dishes.” Raphael was silent for a moment, and Ignatz was startled when his husband suddenly started sobbing uncontrollably. He pulled Ignatz into a bear hug, arms locking around the smaller man in a tight embrace.

“Ig! I love it!” Raphael said between his blubbering, and Ignatz struggled to wriggle free from the death grip he was in as he struggled to breath.

“Raph...can’t...breath…” Ignatz managed to choke out, and Raphael quickly let go of him, allowing Ignatz to cough and take a few deep breaths.

“Ah, sorry…” Raphael said, sniffing as he rubbed his face and composed himself. “I’m just...so happy, Ignatz. You really are the best husband ever!”

“I don’t know, I think you’ve already claimed that title.” Ignatz teased, and Raphael’s chest rumbled as a hearty chuckle escaped him.

“Aw, Ig. You’re too cute sometimes, you know? Actually, forget that! You’re too cute all the time!”

“That’s so cheesy…”

Laughter filled the air as the loving pair cleaned up their lunch and packed away their gifts. Ignatz frowned, not really wanting this perfect day to end with them back on the road quite yet. When Raphael moved to sling his pack over his shoulder, Ignatz placed a hand on his arm, stopping him.

“Hey, Raph?” Ignatz said, and Raphael gave him a quizzical look. “Would you mind it if we just stayed here for the day and moved on in the morning? I’m...not quite ready to leave this relaxing place.”

“Oh yeah! I’m totally okay with that!” Raphael said, nodding enthusiastically as he took Ignatz’s hands, fingers gently brushing over the wedding ring on his left hand. “If I had any say in it, I’d spend all of my time just relaxing with you in my arms!”

“I’d definitely do the same.” Ignatz said, smiling as he looked up into Raphael’s eyes. With that decided, Raphael pulled Ignatz into an intimate embrace as their lips met in a tender kiss. The light wind that blew across the verdant meadow around them cooled their flames of passion, but could never blow strong enough to extinguish the unwavering, unconditional love that they held for each other.

#ferarepairweek #fire emblem three houses #raphael kirsten #ignatz victor #igraph #raphael/ignatz #fanfiction #jade writes fanfiction

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cse6441-blog · 5 years

Text

Week 2 Lecture (Evening)

Confidentiality Continued

To start, we drew back again to covering different types of ciphers and encryption. More specifically, Richard touched on the following:

Vigenere Cipher (Caesar + password)

Enigma

OTP (One Time Pad)

Keys

Vigenere Cipher This cipher is a method of encrypting alphabetic text. Using a password, it does multiple substitutions on the plain-text following a encoder matrix (pictured above). Essentially for each letter, there’s a “new” Caesar cipher applied.

For example, take a password like swordfish. This can be converted to a numerical value which indicates how much to rotate the letter. This pattern is repeated throughout the plaintext, encrypting the message with the password.

For swordfish, the numerical set would be 18, 22, 14, 17, 3, 5, 8, 18, 7. Thereby encoding a message such as “HELLO WORLD” with this password yields: ZAZCR BWJSV (which is simply adding the password on top of the plaintext)

Back in 1999, Microsoft used "susageP”, which is Pegasus backwards to encrypt the passwords they stored (https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-defends-wince-nt-password-flaw/). Good stuff haha.

The strength of Vigenere Cipher is that it is not susceptible to a frequency analysis. However, the weakness of the cipher lies in that the password is echoed and repeated throughout the ciphertext. Thereby, we can spot repeated sequences which reflect common words in the English alphabet. Furthermore, by analysing the gaps between these common patterns, we can narrow down the length of the password. Typically, they are a common factor of the gap, so the longer the message, the easier it is to identify the password.

Bits of Security

In security, there is a useful measurement we can use to measure the amount of work an attacker needs to do in order to crack your cipher.

We call this, Bits of Security - which are useful in estimating how strong your ciphers are, and how capable attackers are.

Lessons from Exponential Growth

Exponential growth can be dangerous. It’s easy for someone to underestimate, but with its name, it starts off slow, and catches up QUICK. In the lecture, Richard illustrates this point by telling us a story about Marco Polo. In a seemingly innocent request for one grain of rice on a chessboard, and doubling that each time, you can see that it quickly goes exponentially out of control. (source: http://www.singularitysymposium.com/exponential-growth.html)

One Time Pad (OTP)

Another brilliant encryption method is the one-time pad. It’s proven to be virtually “uncrackable” as long as you keep your messages short and foolproof. In fact, mathematically they’re unbreakable.

However, they do have a limitation, in that there are only a finite number of pads that you can use! Re-using a pad will leave a trace which allows you to compare two ciphertexts and decipher the pad used.

Data Destruction

Where is the physical internet?

These things that we talk about in the software world such as The Cloud, have a physical entity in real life. They don’t ‘live up there in the sky’, but are just a housing of servers in a secret building somewhere. In the same way, all the data that you keep on your machines or online are stored somewhere on hard-drives in memory.

Thereby lies the issue, once we are done with these devices, how do we get rid of this sensitive information? In reality, we can’t just “delete things physically”. They exist in space and if not discarded properly, the information inside them can be recovered. Also, people tend not to ‘delete things’ as it is quite a lengthy process for the average person. In order to clean a machine, you may have to overwrite it many times. Especially with SSDs coming into fashion, data is automatically managed and spread across the drive, so there are always traces of your information still there. So naturally, people are lazy and tend to just throw their old things out.

Type 1 & Type 2 Errors

The main takeaway from this segment is that there are always two common errors that occur. Type 1 and Type 2 (False positive/negative). The distinction isn’t too important, but we should be aware that they exist and their effects on events that occur.

In practice, there is usually a trade-off between these two. In minimising one, you are increasing the other. It’s generally hard to minimise both and extremely costly - so it’s on you to prioritise what you think is important.

Another thing to consider is the perspective of other people. Depending on who you ask, they will have a different opinion on what THEY think is more important to minimise.

In the lecture, Richard recounts a story of an Indian lady and her boy coming in from Sydney airport. They both go towards the airport security gates - but by practice can only go through one at a time. The lady proceeds first, and passes without any issues. However, her child upon entering the gate, is aggressively beeped at by the machine. The security officer on standby sees this, acknowledges what has happened and lets the boy through anyway. No pulling him away, no further questions, nothing. He simply lets him pass and go on with his day.

Now why exactly is this the case? Why was the boy not interrogated further and checked thoroughly. Well, considering the circumstances: a) The boy was a very young child, and likely meant no harm b) The mother would have been distraught if they took her boy away c) It would have disrupted the processing of others and took a fair bit of time and effort, enough to be discouraged by

Therefore, from the perspective of someone who works there in that position, they would be more inclined to let these small affairs go with a good degree of confidence that things will be okay. They have to go through hundreds of thousands of incoming crowds every day - so it is within their interest to reduce false positives, and conversely increase false negatives.

To someone from the outside they might argue that false positives should be improved, and that security should be checking all these cases out because of that threat. But that would require them to stop each person every time and go through all that trouble for the slim chance that they actually pose a threat.

The Anatomy of An Attack

In this segment, Richard amuses us with a story of how a smart UNSW alumni hacked his way into a company.

To summarise, this famous hacker was challenged to penetrate a company. Eventually he achieved this by doing tons of research about the company and attacking a weak link and social engineering to gain access to the CEO’s computer.

Breaking this down into steps, we can see the anatomy of an attack:

Someone is targeted

Then made to do something dumb (Spear fishing)

Privilege Escalation

Using an exploit

Telegraph Poles

Let’s look at telegraph poles. Logically to be safe, they should be straight right?

Well in reality, sometimes there are poles which are wonky. This is because there is a wire pulling it one way, and not a counter-wire pulling it from the opposite direction. As such, overtime, the pole eventually drifts into the direction of the sole wire, making it crooked. Similarly, for a system to be successful, we should invest on making people work in their self interest. In this way, a system is able to thrive if you have people counteracting each other by working for their beliefs.

#week2 #lectures

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batwynn · 6 years

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Do you have any advice for those who want to learn how to do digital art but are starting from scratch?

Well, I think the first thing you should do is remember to allow yourself time to get used to a new medium. A lot of people get started with digital and expect instant results or little trouble moving forward. The trouble is, it can be very different from traditional media, especially depending on the tools you use. [For example: using an Intuos tablet is harder to adjust to after working with pen/pencil on paper vs. a Cintiq tablet.] Even if you don’t have experience with traditional art before starting with digital, a lot of the steps will be the same. The only difference is that you’re going to be applying a lot of the same things you would apply to traditional artwork straight to the digital world. [Things like: Studying anatomy, colors theory, shading techniques, etc.]

So my first piece of advice is:

This means exploring programs that you have/the trial versions, testing out settings/shortcuts for the buttons and keys, and even taking a look at some tutorials around the internet. Find out what things work best for you and your style, make sure your work space is comfortable and things like your keyboard is accessible while you work. You’ll find there’s a lot to discover about the programs and tools, and yourself. You don’t even need to draw right away, just play with brushes and tools, see what catches your eye and what doesn’t. As you move along and begin drawing, you’ll start to figure out what short cuts and buttons you will be using the most and what’s the best way to apply them. [Example: I have Control Z as a button on my tablet. Along with Copy/paste and other tools I use a lot. On my keyboard, I have a lot of different shortcuts I’ve created the suit my specific needs as an artist.]

A lot of working with digital is actually just remembering simple things like when to use your control z and when to erase, how and when to color your lines, how to layer your colors/shade layers, to put colors in your shadows, etc etc. All of these things can be very different than working with more traditional mediums. [Example: Working with watercolors and line work can be a very different process with your pencil lines, adding the color over them, then going over your lines with ink--compared to creating your sketch layer, draw over it with a complete line work layer, then creating a color layer under it, and removing your sketch layer.] You’re going to find things like ‘clip masks’/clip layers for shading or coloring lines, all your layer modes for lighting effects, and brushes. So many brushes. If you’re just starting out directly with digital, it’s a similar path of discovery. You’re going to find that some techniques are easier for you than others, and some might actually bog down your process than streamline it. [Things like: Different shading techniques, styles of rendering, lighting effects, etc.]

If you’ve drawn with other mediums before, you might see changes in your technique and style that you may not like or understand. You might even consider yourself ‘slipping back’ or ‘regressing’ in regards to technique/style. You may go more simple, or more complex with details. Some of it can be a product of the medium, some can be due to the ability to branch out with different effects and colors, and some can just be your style doing its thing. This is okay! Allow yourself some room to explore and get a feel for the medium. Things are going to feel and look a little wonky at first as you get used to it. If you’re pumping out full bodied professional work on your first try... well, I mean... kudos to you. You’re a genius who wears many hats. But this is not typical of people just starting out with anything. You’re going to stumble a bit. It is okay. If you’re starting out new, you might be nervous about how your style looks and how it develops. I think it’s something a lot of newcomers focus a little too much on, and I’d like to say that style is really not something you need to focus on in the beginning. I mean, to be quite honest, I never actually thought very hard about my style once in my entire lifetime. It just... did its own thing and went its own way, and I followed along. It changes with your moods, it changes with your mediums, with the weather, with the political environment. You’re going to have Bad Art Days that feel like you’ve slipped back into the dark ages. You’re going to have Good Art Days where everything looks so much better how did I even manage that and now I can’t do it again oh my god what was I doing right?! Don’t stress style. Seriously.

Other than that, I have one more thing to say. It’s what everyone says, and I know people are sick of seeing it as advice but there’s a reason for it.

Practice.

Trust me, it does help. It does move you forward. It may feel like a snail’s pace sometimes, but practice means effort means time spent means things learned means progress. Progress is always good. And while you’re practicing, please don’t forget to enjoy creating art. Having fun, even if the end product isn’t perfect or an absolute stunner, is a huge part of practice and being an artist in general. [Trust me, i’ve created some truly ugly things in my time, and I’ve learned from them and had a good laugh.]

So, go forth and create. Learn. Practice. Fail. Succeed. Enjoy.

#digital art #drawing #digital drawing #advice #how to #tutorial #Anonymous

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