#the artstyle is just everything i want it feels so easy and fun to draw

[k4pp4-8]

Blam more!!!!

[xxylan]

AI ART RANT!! TW: opinions

The whole thing with AI and art is honestly so disappointing. Art community is getting so icky and gross and it’s just people hating or accusing of AI usage 👎

AI isn’t even bad!! It’s how AI is used - using AI for ideation and guidelines is perfectly fine but the issue is when it’s presented as the final product.

You’re really going to post an image you generated through a machine that gathers human work and chews it up and spits out this beautiful image - yes - but then..what?

You’re really going to be proud of that? Don’t you feel cheap and tacky? An AI generated tattoo, an AI generated food ad, an AI generated animation.

AI streamlines work processes, it’s really good for increasing efficiency for example in technology consulting AI can cut down hours of processing into seconds. Totally fine.

But people don’t comprehend the process of art. Pick up a pencil and write or draw something from your bloody head. “Oh but I can’t draw or write and I’m using AI to generate something I imagined” perfectly fine. You can use that as part of your process - but the end product has to be your’s.

Even drawing fanart straight from an image makes me feel icky now. Not saying it’s inherently wrong (that’s how we learn) but I don’t feel original and I feel so disconnected from it. (Which is why i really want to work on my ocs and develop my personal artstyle separate from fanart..but also i started with fanart to grow my accounts because it’s so hard to gain traction on ocs alone)

Like I just felt like I’m starting to strengthen my art skills and style and it’s so demotivating to see how unstable it is if I wanted to pursue an art-based career or even just share my art for fun??

Everything boils down to being money-hungry. Wanting easy results fast. The art itself of spending hours simply pouring your blood, sweat and tears into your craft is dying. We just need to understand how to use tools (ie AI) to help us while still maintaining our own originality and hard work.

Also if you’re going to respond with anything below the emotional maturity of a 12 year old, don’t bother. That’s embarrassing on your part and I only accept constructive criticism and respectful debating. (Except i am too tired to debate lol i’m just going to leave this here and let it filter out people who don’t have the same values as me in regards to AI art)

[bluegekk0]

This might be a weird question, but what gives you the energy and motivation to draw?

I just don’t understand how people can make multiple high-quality drawings in such a short time

not a weird question at all! i've also used to wonder that a lot

for me, i think it becomes more obvious what motivates me to draw when you look through my art. my au is my primary inspiration for everything, i think about it all the time and whenever i see something cool or funny, i immediately start thinking of drawing something like that with my characters. that's why you'll see a lot of meme/photo redraws on my blog, for example. but it carries over to real life as well, like when i got a haircut and got inspired to draw fpk trimming grimm's fur. it's the little things that motivate me to get my tablet pen and draw, and being able to actually make what i'm imagining real is a great feeling

of course, this is not the first time i felt the urge to draw my favorite characters, i've had that every time i got into a new game or series. the difference being that, at their core, hk character designs are very simple and give a lot of freedom for experimentation, be it with original design interpretations, or more complicated compositions where you don't have to worry about too many details on the characters. this is what finally got me to focus more on painting and rendering, something i've struggled with for years before i got into hk

seeing the progress i've made is also a massive source of motivation. you don't notice it as you draw, but looking back you start seeing all the things you've improved and new techniques you applied, and it makes you want to keep going and get even better. i still have moments where i feel like i'll never be able to achieve the level of the artists that inspire me, but i want to try. at the end of the day, i'm doing this for myself, it's not a competition

and lastly, as toxic of a mindset it can be sometimes, the response and feedback i get from you guys also motivates me. i've never expected people to get this invested in my au, i honestly thought people would just ignore it, or call it dumb or worse. i don't think i would still be active on this blog, or really get far in my art, if it wasn't for the incredible response i got. sometimes chasing that high of having my art blow up gets toxic and it's something i'm trying to work on, but i can't also ignore the positive effect it had on me. i guess it's just a matter of finding a healthy balance

so in short, my advice is to find a character or two that you're really obsessed with, and just draw them. make it anything, it doesn't have to be the next mona lisa every time. draw them eating their favorite food, or give them a fun little outfit. you'll improve a lot with time, even if at the time it doesn't seem that obvious. from my own experience, using something like a meme inspiration as the base to experiment with your artstyle is another thing to do that serves as very good practice and keeps you engaged

it's not always easy, sometimes i lose motivation too, but having something to fall back on helps. just don't give up, keep drawing your favorite guy or gal, or anything else you enjoy, and it'll all be okay

[drawthething]

Welcome to DTT's gallery of useless text posts because I'm in the post-exam mood and bored!Today we shall discuss about:

"Obvious ways to NOT get scammed when opening commissions"

Now if you're a smart and capable human who's already so good at being an adult then you might not need these advices. But if you're kinda gullible and young and eat instant noodles for dinner sometimes like me, this post might be for you!

1. "You're up for commissions? DM me!"

See, these jerks probably follow the #commission tag on insta to find their easy target. You have the comm sheet right there clear as daylight and they STILL ask this thing in your post's comments. And they don't even want to DM you, YOU DM THEM! Absolutely horrible commission etiquette! I think it's best to ignore these comments even if you're not sure about their intentions.

2. Random acc with 2 posts and 200+ followers casually walks up to your DMs and says: "Will you draw my pet for 200$??"

Suuuper basic tactics for scammers to initiate their hustle. They're just soooo basic and soooo boring they can't come up with anything else for you to draw they HAVE to be like "I don't give a damn about what you usually do or what weird fandom hyperfixation pills you're on but here's an easy-to come-up-with art idea!". And a fricking fortune for pets portraits?? Come on.

Yes, check the account too if you smell something fishy. Even if it's profile is an innocent old looking lady who seems really rude at texting for some reasons, it's worth being cautious about.

3. "Aww man something's wrong with your PayPal link, can you send me your email name instead?"

Now of course I'm not saying everyone who wants a pet drawing is a scammer. If you're still unsure or see nothing suspicious about the client, feel free to continue the conversation!

But oh noooo, every damn time they seem to have some fricking issue with your PayPal link! They DEMAND to know your email! Or offer to send the payment in some really vague foreign way. Alrighty, no big deal yet, it's not like they want to know your Roblox password or GG search history right? Let's see what might happen next!

4. Nope, no payment sent, but oooo, new email! So fun, let's check!

BAM! An "official" mail from PayPal. Some weird issue occurred and *inserts bullcrap explanation* now you have to like, send them back 500$ out of nowhere! Wait, what?!

Calm down, don't do anything yet (even if the "client" is so rudely pressuring you cuz you 'own' them cash now) Go through everything as thorough like it's your life crisis and notice that this email has an embarrassing typo! Perhaps... this is not a PayPal mail? Well no crap! You know exactly who sent it you silly goose! Plus these losers do be using ugly ass fonts amirite? Smh.

5. They're so obviously not interested in your art

Some of these bastards are just so vague about what they want for their art, you know? Instead of going on and on about the details, like do they want it coloured or not, what the artstyle is, yada yada bla bla bla, all they're excited about is getting to the payment part! The fun part of the hustle, yayyyy!! Oh and they're oddly rude and distant in the way they talk sometimes. Unacceptable even for scammers! If you want my money at least be nice!

6. So what do you do with these guys?

Block, delete, report and run!! And if you're still mad at them for lying to you, don't forget to tell those mfs to get a life instead of trying to scam someone who already knows how to make terrible financial decisions!! (it's me, I'm someone)

Pls remember though, don't jump to conclusions early yet. Now you don't want to accidentally block an innocent respectful person, do you? Trust your instincts!

Aaaaand that's all I have! Thank you for reading this nonsense, you truly are a delight! Please be safe, be cautious and be a decent human being who don't try to scam people!

Love ♥��

[kllrorca]

TLDR;

- Hai!!!! I'm Orca also now known as Mylo (bc the name is pretty and i wanna feel pretty :3) I'm an alter who's LITERALLY our host but I also have some fictionkins I'll need to regulate later on umm!!!!

- I age with the body and rn, we are 17 :3 I DON'T HAVE A DNI (beside the basic one!!) I'm just existing ^_^ I USE THEY/THEM!!!!!!!!

- I CAN'T FOLLOW BACK!! This is a side blog and even tho host doesn't use tumblr to post, ik he wouldn't want any proshippers in his following so I'm gna respect that :3 (feel free to follow me anywhere else that DOESN'T connect this type of stuff)

- I AM A PROSHIPPER AND PROFIC(??! I need to search more about it but it seems fun :3)

Tsdr [Too short didn't read];

ITS ME!!! - KllrOrca :3

— Mylo/Orca ; Minor ; They/Them ; Headmate

- SIDE BLOG. Other socials will be put later!

- I'm usually fronting, if I'm not fronting u have the permission to ask about me!! The host might not respond but sooner or later I will instead :3

- I am a proshipper & Profic, I'm still getting used to being public about it so I'll put emojis down at some point!!!

- We are bodily Black & Puerto Rican :3 I WILL make jokes eluding to racism and slavery with friends, its something I picked up and will NOT let go!!! If that makes u uncomfortable just tell me ^_^

— Activity Varies depending on how much people perceive me ^_^ If you dont perceive me I won't be on for long, since I'll be bored!

- I USE MY HOSTS ARTSTYLE THAT SEEMS EASY TO USE!! I don't want to hurt my hands OR make others think my host is a proshipper when he's not 😞 I wanna get in drama for ME not him srry

- Everyone has full permission to draw my sona and use my sona in anything EVEN hate drawings :3 I love everything!!!! Give it to meee ^q^

— I'M NOT EXACTLY AGENDER BUT I DON'T EXACTLY HAVE A GENDER EITHER!! I guess I AM agender but on a more feminine + masculine side without the neutral ??? I don't really care :3

- My sexuality is... idk!! I haven't thought about it

- I AM APART OF THE LGBT THOUFH!! I KNOW THAT :3 Idk if I'm pan, i don't think so and besides; I wanna be myself !!!

- ANY AGE CAN INTERACT WITH ME BUT DON'T BLAME ME FOR ANYTHING I AGE RESTRICTED!!

— HAI thw main blog to get to any OTHER blog IS strictly [ANTI PROSHIPPERS] + variations, so I can't send it here :3 incase any anti proshippers want it to date back to my host (who rlly just wants me to stop bothering him about everything) then dm me and I'll send it!!! idm ^w^

- I'll make a carrd/rentry/strawpage at some point :3 maybe :3 idk .. maybe I shouldn't but also Should once I have all my socials ready

MY BOUNDARIES [IK, SHOCKING!!]

— I don't have a dni (beside the basic one!!) :3 You can interact with me idc! Even if its for arguing! One thing I ask though is that u DON'T attempt to dox me, bc at the end of the day I can just stop fronting snd you'll be doxxing an innocent person instead who got so tired of hearing me yap and yap!!

- I won't be doing the time, my host will :3 and it'll only traumatize us more!!! Don't be stupid :D

- ACTUALLY don't harass ANYBODY!!!! u can Harass ME but don't harass anyone else PLEASE!!!! I won't like talking to u otherwise sorry

— JUST BECAUSE I'M AN ALTER DOES NOT MEAN I WANT TO TALK ABOUT MY SYSTEM! Talk to me for me pls :3

- I DON'T CARE ABOUT SYSCOURSE UR ALL PEOPLE AT THE END OF THE DAY and I want people to talk to me ^_^ Talk to me Rachel...!! /ref

- IF YOU feel uncomfortable talking to me since im an alter (confusing but wtvr) DON'T FEEL FORCED TO INTERACT if I interact first :3

- Ai generators can kiss my ass also btw I don't like Ai but i can like the person typing the prompt in the computer if ur cool !!!!

MYYYY Final notes :3

— ANY ANON EMOJIS ARE WELCOMED TO ASK FOR A SPOT HERE OR A SPECIAL TAG :3 U can dm me and ask me abt things idm!! I have the mindset of NOT SENDING HARASSMENT OR hating on people who haven't done anything :3

- u can request me art from me :3 but know thay sending nsfw to minors IS illegal so I can't do nsfw!! sexual nsfw!

[zorosq]

paint ; god usopp

↻ fluff, enstablish relationship, reader is an artist, slight cussing, grammatical erorrs

↻ pairing ↬ usopp x gn!reader!

@oopsthatssalt​ asked: hi! i just found your blog and honestly your writing is rlly good :DD I wanted to drop by and uhh request smth :), I was wondering if you could do like a scenario with Usopp X Gender neutral reader ? The reader is an artist with like a unique?? Artstyle, like its not realism and they really like to draw usopp bcs they think it's fun. And like the two of them go on a painting date or smth yosh.

I hope this is okay <3 !! No pressure :D

a/n i'm sorry if this isn't anything what you meant 😭

“okay, i got this! just ask them out! easy,”

“what’s easy?” you asked. “y-y/n! will you go out on a date with me?!” he blurted out. his face turned into a deep shade of red. “oh,”

‘oh?’ what the fuck does that even mean?! you scolded yourself internally. “i-i mean, yes! sure, of course!” you stumbled through your words. “g-great! i’ll see you uhh... this evening!” the sniper said before dashing off. 

you could feel yourself starting to feel embarrassed. sure, the two of you are a couple, but this is the first time that usopp had asked you out on a date. 

.

the time you had been waiting for finally arrives. you waited on the deck of the thousand sunny, waiting for your one and only sniper boyfriend. while gazing out into the horizon, you hadn't realize that he had sneaked up on you.

“did you wait long?” he asked. “not at all,” you answered with a gentle smiled. he offered his arm which you gratefully looped yours with his. “t-then, should we go now?” you gave him an eager nod which he smiled in amusement.

he leads you up to nami's tangerine grove, making you grow even more confused. “what are we doing here?” you asked. he gave you a mischievous smile before saying, “you'll see,”

just as the words got out of his mouth, the sight before you leaving you in shock. somehow, he managed to arrange a small picnic in nami's grove no less. “it took me... days to convince her... i said that i would make her some new upgrades for her clima tact,”

you chuckled. “so basically, you bribed her?” he gave you an embarrassed smile. you look around a little, taking in what he had in store for you. “wait, is that...” you trailed off.

“yeah, i bought it when we docked at the island from before,” usopp said. you could hear the shyness in his voice. “y-you bought me a new sketch book?”

“you- you don't like it? it's fine i can just throw it away-”

“no! i just mean- thank you, i love it,” you thanked with a grateful smile. your old sketch book had already been filled with your sketches. sketches of him to be exact.

he didn't necessarily know about it. he had only seen you drawing your surroundings or just drawing some stuff that he never gotten to see. you sat down on the grass as he pulled the basket over, pulling out various kinds of food.

“i asked sanji to make your favorites...” he rubbed the back of his neck nervously. despite the braveness that he had gained for the past two years, he still finds himself getting nervous for what you might think of all of these.

the evening went by eventfully, until it was late till midnight. the two of had skipped dinner, which sanji didn't mind much since he had prepared enough food for the both of you till... who knows how long.

after being filled with sanji's delicious cook, you sat in front of him and started to sketch his features. “what are you drawing?” he asked, startling you in process. you quickly pulled your sketch book close to your chest, completely closing any sort of view that he could get.

“i-it's nothing,” you stuttered. you could feel your hands starting to get clammy from his obvious staring. but then he pouted. “you never show me much on what you're drawing... i want to know you... and i mean everything about you,”

“it's embarrassing to let you see what i'm drawing...” you muttered but showed it to him reluctantly. he continued to inspect your drawing, leading you to an ultimate embarrassment. you hide your face in your hands, not willing to hear what he had to say to your drawing. you could hear him gasp, probably in shock. “is... is this me?”

you nodded, still hiding in your hands. “it's really pretty...” he complimented. you slowly peek out of your hand, looking at him shyly. the red tint on his cheeks compliment his skin even more. from what you can tell, he was quite embarrassed.

after a moment of silent, he finally cleared his throat, holding your eye contact. “c-can i keep this?”

your eyes widened. “you want to keep it? you... you don't think that it's weird? about my art style?”

“what? no! it's really pretty! unique! i really love it,” he said genuinely. “plus, it's your drawing of me... i want to keep it close to me...”

maybe you should show him more of your drawings in the future...

[baconpal]

pokemon rant time

this one’s about the 2 new things, and is at least slightly intended for people actually excited/interested in them, click keep reading or perish

Gonna try and keep stuff short cus there's a lot of topics this time and I've already gone off about how pokemon Isn't meant for me or meant to be a good video game anymore, but gamefreak is right back on their bullshit, so I feel I need to at least point it out.

I'd like to preface all this with, if you are a fan of pokemon still, please realize you can ask for more out of this series. Expect perfection, even if you don't think you'll get it anytime soon. Pokemon won't go anywhere, the old games won't go anywhere, and gaming is a hobby, not a necessity; don't accept low quality products from a company just because you feel like you're supposed to.

With this next wave of pokemon games, gamefreak is clearly testing how little they can put in to a $60 game while still keeping the 2 major audiences they've cultivated. By responding to the most obvious and vocal complaints from the community, gamefreak is aiming to make games that seems like what most players want, without having to put in the work on quality products.

GEN 4 REMAKES Pokemon BS (I am not calling this shit BDSP) is intended for the audience that put up with let's go and RS remakes. The most vocal and obvious complaints for these games is their failure as definitive versions of the games they are remakes of, such as missing features/content, or drastically changed story/dialogue/style. In a way, the recent remakes are inferior versions of incredibly old games, which shows a lack of improvement in pokemon as a whole.

To address these issues, BS is very, very, VERY clearly aiming for a more 1-to-1 recreation of the DS games, but with fully 3d graphics. Clearly the map layout has been transferred exactly, and gen 4 already had mostly 3d environments to begin with, and everyone knows about the future-proof pokemon models at this point, so the amount of effort required to create something like this is absolutely minimal. Assuming dialogue, trainer teams, move lists, etc. are also lifted directly from DP, then this game could be developed in basically no time at all, leaving the team time to ensure the product is of decent quality and includes ALL of the content of the originals, if not more, like the earlier pokemon remakes did to ensure they were truly definitive versions of the games. That being said, it is unlikely the team behind BS has been making use of this saved time to improve the game.

One failing already clear is that the quality is not very good, at least graphical quality. The footage we have shows environments lacking in color compared to the original, with messy, unpleasant textures that contrast poorly with the simplistic environments. The characters especially do not work. As cute and fun the fanart of tiny dawn has been, BS dawn and all other characters look awful. They have gorilla arms that reach down to the floor and lifeless faces, as well as incredibly stiff/simplistic animations. As it stands, BS is a visually inferior game to DP, though most consumers will simply see it as 3D>2D without any understanding of what an artstyle is, so this might not be a problem for many, but that doesn't mean you should accept it.

What remains to be seen is what content will be added/missing from pokemon BS. It is very possible that massive parts of the game, such as the underground, variety of online modes, postgame areas, and content from platinum could be missing entirely. We also do not know if pokemon from after gen 4 will be worked into the region, or even supported. Gen 8 still currently does not support a large number of pokemon, and the remakes may continue this limited dex trend.

Even assuming the remake includes everything from the DS games and doesn't add anything that slows down the story or harms the experience, it will still only be an exercise in forced obsolescence. The main reason people can't really play DP still is that the online isn't supported anymore. If BS turns out to be exactly the same as DP, then you're buying the same game for at a higher price, only to play it until the online service goes away again, or the next game comes out, if both don't happen at the same time.

Don't let yourself buy a 13 year old game at twice the original price.

GEN 4 NOT-REMAKE KIND OF NEW THING On to legends now, gamefreak is targeting the people who put up with sun/moon and sword/shield. The obvious problem with those games to most people was simply a lack of change from the standard pokemon formula. Even when changing the gyms to trials or stadiums, most people still understand that the format and story structures are mostly unchanged. Of course, this problem has seemingly been addressed by changing the game structure a fair bit, but almost entirely by removal.

Trainer battles, and by extension, gyms and tournaments/elite 4 have been confirmed to be absent, meaning all battles are only vs single pokemon, in spite of the player likely having a team of 6 pokemon. Even if battle difficulty is increased to compensate (doubtful), this will still drastically increase the simplicity of combat and make it even less likely for the game to include any meaningful challenge. Exploring towns and meeting NPCs is also seemingly missing, as the game is confirmed to have only a single village, which frankly looks incredibly boring and we've yet to see a single NPC inhabiting the village.

Battles now use an ATB format instead of a turn-based format (for those of you who don't know what that means, it basically means nothing, it's still turn based, it just means the speed state determines who gets more turns instead of who goes first, that's it), but beyond that there seems to be no noteworthy changes, pokemon learn 4 moves with limited PP, type advantage will still definitely be the most important aspect to battle, and the player being able to walk around during battle provides no meaningful impact. While the little dash the pokemon do to approach each other is cool, it is already a sign that gamefreak will not be addressing the issue of lacking animations for pokemon battles, as they can't even be assed to animate and program pokemon walking around the environment during combat, and lucario doing 1 kick for a move described as a series of punches isn't a great sign either.

On the topic of lacking animations, the new "pet simulator feature" for legends seems to be an advancement on the ride system from sun/moon, which presumably people missed from sword/shield. Being able to ride on your pokemon to do stuff sounds cool, but in all likelihood, this system will be limited to only a select few pokemon who will each do a select few actions, and is not a reasonable replacement for all the other pet raising features that have been removed in the past. Similar to BS, the total number of pokemon included may also be limited arbitrarily, in spite of the fact that no new pokemon need to be added, as these games are not claiming to be a new generation.

The largest issues I personally have with this new game is the horrible technical quality and gameplay quality shown in the initial trailer. Unfortunately, these types of problems seem to be difficult to explain to the average consumer, even though the issues seem incredibly obvious and inexcusable to people like me.  Most people were able to understand the problem with the berry trees in gen 8, because it was easy to explain, "this tree doesn't look like the other trees, and it sticks out, isn't that weird?", and so gamefreak has eliminated any immediately obvious issues like that, sticking with a very consistent artstyle for legends, making it almost impossible to easily explain its faults to the average pokemon fan.

People have been really quick to compare legends to BoTW; the game that invented grass, trees, and mountains. In spite of these comparisons, nobody seems to point out that legends looks dramatically worse than that almost 5 year old game from the previous generation. Plants are stiff and lacking in energy, draw distances are poor, colors are drab, and textures are messy. Many parts of legends seems to ape BoTW on just the surface, essentially just following market trends. Even the controls seem to follow after modern 3rd person shooters/stealth games, including a seemingly pointless roll and a clunky looking ball lobbing arc that feels unfun before even getting to play it myself.

The largest issue, painfully obvious to some, and impossible to explain to others, is the framerate. The trailer clearly was ran on actual switch hardware, and not prerendered, which would be a good mark for gamefreak if it didn't result in a trailer that never once hit 30fps. Even with empty fields, with only 1 or 2 characters on screen, the game was incapable of meeting the target speed, and had to resort to optimizations like reducing the frame rate of pokemon only inches away from the player to stop-motion levels of choppy. If situations with almost nothing going on result in slow-down, how will the game perform during actual gameplay? Even though slow-down is something everyone can feel, many people aren't capable of identifying it.

The major things to wait and see for legends is if the removed aspects of the series are made up for by some additional systems or content, and definitely wait to see if the performance improves. As with BS, preordering a game like this only shows that gamefreak only has to market the game by saying it's different, not improved, like they've been doing for years now.

TL;DR FUCK GAMEFREAK One major thing of note is that gamefreak is releasing 2 games based on gen 4 at the nearly the same time, meaning they have no obligation to design new pokemon or even include pokemon not from sinnoh, and also that the sales of each game can be used as an indicator for which of their 2 audiences is more loyal to them. Both BS and Legends are in a position to be pushes aside if they fail, but if either succeeds, gamefreak can continue in the direction of the more successful game and reap the benefits, without any need to innovate, improve, or adapt to criticism.

The last thing I feel I have to remind people about is that gamefreak is a company; you don't need to be "grateful" to them. I've seen that word thrown around far too much by people who seem to buy pokemon games like its a tax, and not something they want to do. You don't have to suck up to a company that made games you liked as a kid if the games aren't what you want anymore. Pokemon is so wildly successful that it can't possible die, so don't buy the games out of pity, or out of some feeling of obligation. Buy the video games you want to play and nothing more.

Basically, if you are considering getting any of these new games, please wait until the games are out before purchasing them, and decide for yourself if they are worth your money, and more importantly, your time. Preordering these games only lets gamefreak know their audience will buy and put up with anything. They have no real competition at the moment, so the only thing the audience can do to encourage improvement is show some of restraint.

[theorangedeath]

Some webcomic recs

Webcomics are as underrated as they are varied. I mostly read printed comics now, but there’s no way I’d have gotten there had I not found webcomics before - believe me, I tried, but this damn hobby is super inaccessible to a beginner, not to mention expensive. Webcomics are like fanfics in that regard - hell, some of them are fan comics - in that there’s something for everyone, all within your reach, but in order to find something you like you have to either 1. Get very, VERY lucky, 2. Be prepared to read a lot of bad stuff in order to get to the good stuff, or 3. Hear about them from people you trust. 

I was a 2 - i would read anything, back in the day - and while i’m not as unconditionally enthusiastic as i was, there are still some gems I wish got the same appreciation as some talents in the industry. I’ll spare you the rest of the article (dm me for comic rants though), let’s get to it! 

note: all the comics are numbered as “1″ because tumblr messed up the google docs formatting 

Comics i still follow as they update because either tumblr starts posting about them right away or they’re on tapas

Check Please! 

https://omgcheckplease.tumblr.com/

I’m probably not the one introducing you to Check Please, as it’s one of the most popular webcomics out there, thank god. The parts of the fandom i’m familiar with are cool and wholesome, just like the work itself. It’s about a southern gay kid, Eric Bittle, who joins the hockey team in his college. It’s impossible not to love every single character there, the sports drama elements are great, and the format is like solidarity put into panels. The Samwell Men’s Hockey team’s motto is “we’ve got each other’s backs”, and there isn’t a single part of the comic that doesn’t 100% incorporate that. 

Heartstopper

https://tapas.io/series/Heartstopper

The 2000s so far have been a rough contest for the title of “sweetest ya romance” but guys, we found it, we can stop now. Nick and Charlie are in highschool, Charlie is gay and out (not by will), Nick plays rugby because apparently that’s what british jocks do. Can i make it any more obvious? It took me a while to fall in love with the artstyle but when i did i fell HARD - the creator is re-drawing some of the older chapters, though, so your experience might be different. The story’s captivating right away, and you want everyone there to be happy from pretty much page 1. The creator also writes ya prose, and some of her books are about other characters from the same school. I love all of them, but Radio Silence is my personal favorite. She also has two novellas about Nick and Charlie themselves, available as e-books. 

Charity Case 

https://tapas.io/series/Charity-Case

I rarely start new webcomics anymore, but boy, this one got me FAST. and that was even before I realized it’s a polyam love story, which i love but is surprisingly rare in webcomics - at least the ones i know. Julien, an irresponsible young musician, resorts to sharing an apartment with two roomates who are a couple. I fell for the unique, gorgeous artstyle first, and by the time i realized i’m also super invested in the story and characters, it’s already become one of my favorites. Plus, Julien’s hair looks so soft! 

The Property of Hate 

http://thepropertyofhate.com/TPoH/

THIS is what comics should be. There’s so much passion here, not just for the story but for the storytelling as well - and the two aren’t as separated as you might think. A young girl is recruited by a TV man to be a hero. The world they enter seems nonsensical and arbitrary at first, but as they travel she discovers its logic, stories and secrets. She will also, as her title suggests, need to save it. There’s so much i love about this comic that i don’t know where to start, so i’ll just say this: it’s absolutely inspiring, in every sense of the word. Also, read the creator’s duck comics, they’ll make you feel things. 

Webcomics i occasionally remember to catch up on, get blown away all over again by how good they are, vow to check them regularly for updates then forget. And repeat 

Wilde Life

https://wildelifecomic.com/

I think this is the first ever webcomic i read that had a plot? I got on the wagon at around chapter 1 or 2 and it’s hard to believe it but it only gets better with time, even though it already starts at 100%. Oscar moves to a new town and immediately makes friends with a ghost and a grumpy teen werewolf. It has both monster-of-the-week type problems and overarching plots, and reading it feels nostalgic and brand new at the same time. The fantasy world has this special feel to it, that makes me miss growing up in the american wilderness even though i, well, didn’t. Plus, the creator is cool as hell. I knit her a hat in high school in exchange for a commission. 

Sfeer Theory

https://sfeertheory.com/

This comic got me through a hard time and i’ll forever be grateful for that. Also, it’s really, really good. This is another case of a comic where you fall in love with the art right away and before long you find yourself caring very much about the characters and the story. You might also find yourself growing out your hair to style it like Luca’s. If you’re me it’ll be a lost cause, so, uh, keep that in mind. Luca works as a technician at the prestigious Uitspan university. A mysterious, powerful man is looking to change that. While the comic’s biggest strength is probably the gorgeous, fascinating worldbuilding - and Luca’s hair - the characters are also ridiculously easy to relate to, even if we don’t know anything about them. Even the most meaningless extras are somehow compelling thanks to the dynamic, rich art style. And did i mention the hair? If you like it, you won’t be disappointed by everything else Little Foolery makes. 

How To Be a Werewolf

http://www.howtobeawerewolf.com/

I almost didn’t read this one! My brain has decided i don’t like werewolves and i don’t know how to reverse that. But then i saw Elias’ body language and it was extremely fun and friendly, and so was the rest of the comic, and the rest is history. Malaya knows she’s a werewolf, but seeing as she doesn’t know any other werewolves, dealing with that is hard. That is until Elias discovers her and decides to help, along with the rest of his pack. It’s filled with family and solidarity feelings, some dark mysteries and themes, and the art is beautiful and expressive. 

Monsterkind 

http://monsterkind.enenkay.com/

Another case of read-everything-this-creator-makes-it’s-all-amazing! Wallace, a social worker, moves - or rather, is moved - to District C, which is mostly populated by monsters. His heart’s in the right place, and apparently so is his apartment, because his neighbors are cool as heck and agree, some of them reluctantly, to help him get his bearings. There’s a mystery to uncover, some monsters to help and a dashing tea octopus to woo - for Kip to woo, anyway - and it’s all a delight to read. Every single character brings their own lovable-ness to the table, and even with the darker parts, reading this comic kinda feels like being hugged. 

Comics that no longer update

The Less Than Epic Adventures of TJ and Amal - finished 

http://tjandamal.com/

Guys. guys! I’m pretty sure this is my all time favorite comic, web OR printed. I have the printed version, i still read it online occasionally, a lot of the songs mentioned in it are now saved on my spotify, i had it as my phone background for a good couple of years, the whole package. Amal comes out to his family and it ends with him having to drive to his sister’s graduation in Providence. There’s a guy in his kitchen who just so happens to need a lift there, and he’s willing to pay, and Amal’s too hungover to argue. What follows is the best roadtrip story ever. I’m seriously considering getting my license just to recreate that route. I just really love this story, okay? Oh, and if that wasn’t enough, the creator’s music taste is GOOD. 

Prague Race - to be continued in text 

https://www.praguerace.com/

The fantasy aesthetic to end all fantasy aesthetics. And the characters are good and interesting. And the world is well built and leaves you wanting more. AND there’s a cat. And it looks so good! Leona is irresponsible and spontaneous and gets her friends in some weird shit that leaves them trapped in a strange world, dealing with several curses, trying to survive and make sense of it all. I could spend a lifetime looking at the art and die happy. 

Shoot around - finished 

https://www.webtoons.com/en/drama/shoot-around/list?title_no=399&page=1

A girl’s basketball team and its coach, Jeff, deal with a zombie apocalypse. They make the most of the post apocalyptic world. There’s drama, friendship, found family, love and hope - it’s basically everything a zombie apocalypse narrative should be. And i love how the creator plays with the colors from chapter to chapter! 

Rock and Riot - finished 

https://tapas.io/series/Rock-and-Riot 

It’s cute! It’s fun! It’s a 1950’s queer ensamble cast high school drama! It’s what Grease would’ve been like in a better timeline, except we still got it in this timeline. The artstyle fits perfectly with the story and characters, but if you want to see what’s the creator capable of now, read their newest comic, Project Nought. It’s a cool sci fi story and just like in Rock and Riot, it’s super easy to connect to every character there. 

Alright there’s a lot more but i somehow wrote 4 google docs pages of webcomic recs in one sitting (this is what i’m able to focus on? Really, brain?) and i think that’s enough for now. Like i said, please dm me if you want to talk about anything here, rec some of your own, listen to my rants or tell me i’m a nerd. Or all of the above. I might make a similar post with print comic, but right now i have some dogs to pet. Keep being cool! 

[comicteaparty]

January 27th-February 2nd, 2020 CTP Archive

The archive for the Comic Tea Party week long chat that occurred from January 27th, 2020 to February 2nd, 2020.  The chat focused on HOPE KILLERZ by stc019.

Featured Comment:

Chat:

Comic Tea Party

BOOK CLUB START!

Hello and welcome everyone to Comic Tea Party’s Week Long Book Club~! This week we’ll be focusing on HOPE KILLERZ by stc019~! (https://tapas.io/series/HOPE-KILLERZ)

You are free to read and comment about the comic all week at your own pace until February 2nd, so stop on by whenever it suits your schedule! Discussions are freeform, but we do offer discussion prompts in the pins for those who’d like to have them. Additionally, remember that while constructive criticism is allowed, our focus is to have fun and appreciate the comic!

Whether you finish the comic or can only read a few pages, everyone is welcome to join and chat with us!

DISCUSSION PROMPTS – PART 1

1. What did you like about the beginning of the comic?

2. What has been your favorite moment in the comic (so far)?

3. Who is your favorite character?

4. Which characters do like seeing interact the most?

5. What is something you like about the art? If you have a favorite illustration, please share it!

6. What is a theme you like that the comic explores?

7. What do you like about the comic’s story or overall related content?

8. Overall, what do you think the comic’s strengths are?

Don’t feel inspired by the prompts? Feel free to discuss anything else that interested you!

SAWHAND

Ooh! The first thing I'm noticing about this comic is the colors, which are lovely!!

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

agreed! the characters designs made me laugh, too. Haven't finished it yet but will definitely pop in to say a few words when I do

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

I'm going through this too - what an awesome style!

RebelVampire

I'm a prompt kind of person, so I'm gonna answer this a bit going by those. XD I like how the comic opens up, mostly at the end of the prologue with the ominous phone message about Isa and Scotty being dead. Like, just when you thought things were ominous enough, there's already a quick payoff, and I like that about this story. It's not holding its punches. As for a favorite moment, I really liked the argument between Hodori and Behzad, because that moment didn't go how I expected. I actually thought Behzad would include Hodori, not go for immediate betrayal. So to me that was interesting and I like things that don't go with my expectations. This is why they are also my favorite characters to interact, cause I liked Hodori was also the one to know what was going on, and I can't wait to see how Hodori will react when Behzad's sort of betrayal is revealed. For a favorite character, at the moment Chaker cause I think Chaker is the most mysterious and I'd love to learn more about Chaker. Who doesn't like mysterious characters with secrets?

In terms what I liked about the art, I find the use of color interesting. I'm not sure I'd classify as like persay, but it's interesting to see how the colors are used to sort of experiment with the mood or each image. Which for me I feel is the comic's strength. Regardless of how you feel about the content, the comic is intriguing to look at and catches your eye.

Comic Tea Party

DISCUSSION PROMPTS – PART 2

9. Do you think what Behzad wants is justice or vengeance? How will he get it ultimately do you think? Overall, what do you think the story might show us regarding the line between the two and how the pursuit of either can change someone?

10. How do you think everyone’s relationships with each other will be challenged given both Behzad’s solo pursuit of the murderers and some of the team member’s withholding information? Will the team be able to survive the conflict?

11. Do you think the characters will be able to recover their hope after losing Isa and Scotty? Overall, given the themes of hope within the story, what do you think is the overall message regarding it?

12. What do you think the ultimate plan of 58 is? Why does it involve murdering Isa and Scotty and replacing them with doubles? Why do you think Behzad wasn’t killed yet, and what might the villains have planned for him?

Don’t feel inspired by the prompts? Feel free to discuss anything else that interested you!

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

I'm absolutely loving Hope Killerz! The artstyle is amazing, as everyone's said. I love how each panel sets the mood with its unique playing of color palettes! I am curious as to what the ultimate plan is, replacing Isa and Scotty with doubles and seemingly wanting to use this version of Behzad too. Perhaps... 58's plan is to create a team consisting of the most "bold" versions of each hero? Like, Behzad went off on his own rather than waiting around for an investigation - 58 wants a whole team of people like him. As for why... perhaps vengeance for 58 losing his own team?

RebelVampire

Vengeance is plausible. Although I kind of feel there's gotta be more to it than that. Since you can get vengeance without needing to create doubles.

I really like that this comic kind of explores the theme of justice vs. vengeance. With the rise of superhero movies and such, it's kind of easy to forget that there is a really fine line between them. Which in this case, I think Behzad definitely wants vengeance, although I don't think Behzad will get it. I think someone will knock some sense into the idea before it gets that far. However, overall though, I think the story does a great job that it only really takes one step to go from justice to just wanting to hurt people because you're hurt - even at the cost of your personal relationships. Which is definitely going to be a big thing. I definitely think the other characters, especially Hodori, is gonna feel betrayed by Behzad's action. Maybe empathetic, but no way there isn't a rift created. And as more comes to light, none of them will be sure they can trust each other, and that will make Isa and Scotty's loss even more poignant and bring up the question if the group can survive without them.

But I don't think it's all hopeless. I kind of feel that despite their feelings at the moment, time will heal the teams wounds and that they'll find the resolve to hope. Cause you can basically pull hope out of nothing.

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

Unfortunately I'm feeling a bit lost in the story. There are a lot of characters and a lot of scene changes, and I'm having a hard time differentiating the personalities of all the characters. Maybe I just wasn't reading closely enough? Or maybe the plot'll be more clear in the future? The story is just getting started, after all, so I figure the author is kind of front loading all the setup and character introductions. I do really like the art. It's fun and different. I stumbled across this comic a while ago but didn't read much of it, and the art was memorable enough that seeing it again in the bookclub I immediately recognized that I'd seen it before. 9) Both. Don't think he's really thinking straight due to his grief, and is mostly just driven by emotion right now. 10) Probably, just going from the tone of the comic and the art I feel like this will have a happy ending. I think this is an optimistic comic. 5) The author seems to have a love of drawing butts. I appreciate that. Particularly in the little end chapter sketches. 1) I liked everything about the beginning of the comic. Though it was very strong. Not often do you see a vigilante character feeling regret over their chosen path

Comic Tea Party

DISCUSSION PROMPTS – PART 3

13. What are you most looking forward to seeing in regards to the comic?

14. Any final words of encouragement for the comic?

Don’t feel inspired by the prompts? Feel free to discuss anything else that interested you!

RebelVampire

For this comic, I'm definitely looking forward mostly to finding out about 58's plan since there's a lot of directions the story could go at the moment. I'll be interested to see which path will be taken. Regardless, I hope the creator continues with the color experimentation in the comic since it makes it visually stand out, and it'll be interesting to see how this plays out when the comic is further along.

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

Yeah for Hope Killerz, what I'm really looking forward to is... more. Like the art is so unique and so stylish, and the characters have interesting motivations behind them, I'm just curious to see where this all pans out.

Comic Tea Party

BOOK CLUB END!

Thank you everyone so much for reading and chatting about HOPE KILLERZ this week! Please also give a special thank you to stc019 for volunteering the comic and creating it! If you liked HOPE KILLERZ, make sure to continue to support it via some of the links below!

Read and Comment: https://tapas.io/series/HOPE-KILLERZ

stc019’s Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/stc019

stc019’s Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/stconineteen

stc019’s Storenvy: http://stc019.storenvy.com/

stc019’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/stc019?lang=en

[kaibutsushidousha]

Artbook Data - Climax Inference

Content warning for fish gore, I guess.

The great stage where the whole crime is laid bare, the Climax Inference, has captivated players with its artworks by the famous Masaharu Shimizu. 

Masaharu Shimizu’s introduction: Shimizu here as always. I’m considering making a snazzy as heck Instagram to post the best of gourmet, fashion and cute selfies. I hope you see it! 

Masaharu Shimizu’s profile: Game creator and illustrator. Main character designer for Ginga Ninkyouden and Choujin Heiki Zeroigar. His timeless artstyle earned the support of the hardcore game fans and the works he was on are essential pieces of the gaming history.

General comments:

Original character expressions: As I already said before for every game, the drawings on the Climax Inference are images on the protagonist’s inner thoughts, so the character design here doesn’t need to perfectly true to the main story. These are the best work conditions I could ever wish for. On the other hand, since I have to base their expressions on how the protagonist is supposed to be imagining this situations, it takes me forever to decide what should I go with. Whenever people say “Doesn’t that means you can do whatever you want with the characters!?” when I bring up the “protagonist’s inner thoughts” point, I have no words to deny it (laughs). 

Since the theme for V3 is Psychocool, V3′s facial expressions as a whole are more restrained than DanganRonpa 1  and DanganRonpa 2. I read some opinions that they were more plain that in the previous games, but I actually did them like that on purpose, because if I don’t, I can’t stop laughing at them... Anyways, everyone has their different opinion on what the perfect balance between serious and goofy is, so art is hard.

Tricks to show the murder gimmicks: Since V3 had many points where I can explain the murder gimmick with an overhead or a sidescroller perspective drawing, I think they all turned out pretty easy to understand. I guess chapter 2′s trick was the most complicated one...

Character distinction: The higher-ups told me to always draw the villain (culprit) as the gray man, but I thought that was overdone, so and gave them a bluer tone to match the Psychocool style. Blue colors lower appetite, so I think that with this our fans can enjoy the game without having to eat.

Adding scenes you don’t see in the main story: Here, like in the other games, the Climax Inference was produced alongside with the main story. I had to work without knowing anything about what the CGs the main story are using looked like. Every animation and composition was made trusting only my animalistic instincts. But otherwise, I guess Spike Chunsoft leaving me in the dark about the CGs gives me the good kind of pressure and anxiety.

Panelization and animation: The main thing to keep in mind is that the Climax Inference has to work as a quiz, so I always have to keep what’s going on easy to understand. The next thing on the priority list is to include lots of cute, crazy and bloodthristy scene to stir the player’s emotions.

Favorite part: Obviously, everything!

Comments by chapter:

Chapter 1: Amami-kun dying as early as chapter 1 really caught me by surprise. Since his character was a big ball of questions marks, I thought he was going to survive until the end. But not doing what I expect is the Dangan spirit. Chapter 1 is always the hardest to work on because I’m still not used to the new characters. It’s so full of people and I’m complaining “Ggggggggg... I can’t fit everyone in this panel” all the time... All... the... time...

Chapter 2: I couldn’t use a texture for Toujou-san’s tiara, so drawing it literally killed me. As someone who never misses a documentary about fishes eating people (most of them are disappointing though. At least show sparkly the bones looks when they get exposed, damn it!), the part where the piranhas, my personal heroes, were on the loose made my day. They even got a little video. The way the piranhas respond immediately to schedule change in the magic is so professional.

Chapter 3: When someone holds a katana, they do katana poses even if no one is watching, am I right? That’s a normal thing to do, right? Too bad I barely couldn’t draw Shinguuji-kun with his own appearance, I think he was one of my favorites from this game... When I first saw his nutty design, I immediately thought “This guy is killing somebody”, and look at that, I was right...

Chapter 4: Aside from the 8-bit sprites we have in the game, I had no drawing references for the avatars, so I decided just to draw little faces on their base models, resulting in what you saw. Since I decided to save chapter 4 for last in the production order, I ran out of time... Drawing this one was quite a rush job, but since I’m fond of the chibi artstyle, so it was fun.

Chapter 5: Never overwork yourself like I did drawing Ouma-kun all the time... He is so cute, can take a hit from his fighting partner like a champ, and died young. Ouma’s so damn metal! I know this may sound a little, just a little, a tiny bit ill-tasted, but don’t you want to see what a person squished by a hydraulic press looks like? I would love to see a video of a person turning into something like an Enoshima Jianbing... 

Ah, I feel so good after a nice flush of the toilet. Huh? “Was this comment about Ouma being shirtless”? What, you can’t fool me... I know you’re thiking something dirty, huff, huff, (*´ Д `), aren’t you? I didn’t undress him because I wanted to! I was just doing my job!

Chapter 6: The unexpected chapter 6!? I had no idea we were going to have one until halfway through my work. I mean, it’s obvious we would have a chapter 6, we always have, but when I was asked about it, I said “Huh... What chapter 6?”. I immediately reread my contract in confusion and there said I was going to do chapter 6. I didn’t remember this at all. (My memory was sure that my job covered only chapters 1 to 5.) (;・ω・)

I was terrified at the thought that I had gone senile. It was not hard because it was pretty much a rehash of chapter 1, but until I read that to know, I was sweating and shaking at the idea that I would get the game delayed. My answer to the question of how is Shinguuji eating the spaghetti is magic.

[inknerd]

November Wrap-Up 2018

I’m a little late in posting this, but let’s go!

I have, for the first time, embraced non-fiction november; so the amount of non-fiction I’ve read this month - while perhaps not that many compared to others - is way more than usual.

VERY GOOD LIVES by J.K. ROWLING ★★☆☆☆ | 74 pages | 1 day to read | Published 2015

So, the only reason I read this was because it was in the pile of books I won a couple of months ago, also because it was non-fiction and very short. + So this was a speech Rowling apparently held some time ago at a graduation, and like, it wasn’t bad? - I’m not super invested in J.K. Rowling in general? But I still thought the speech would be more spectacular than it was.

NORSE MYTHOLOGY by NEIL GAIMAN ★★★★☆ | 235 pages | 1 day to read | Published 2017

Man, Norse mythology AND Neil Gaiman? It’s strange I haven’t read this before now. + First of all, I dig the cover. 10/10. This book is also hilarious, while still keeping it serious enough that it feels real. - I can’t say I can come up with anything super important to complain about; but there were certain things I’d hoped would appear in the book that didn’t, and I sort of wished for illustrations?

ZEUS GRANTS STUPID WISHES: A NO-BULLSHIT GUIDE TO WORLD MYTHOLOGY by CORY O’BRIEN and SARAH MELVILLE ★★★☆☆ | 304 pages | 1 day to read | Published 2013

I saw people talking about this on tumblr and desperatly wanted to check it out. Guess how happy I was when my local library had it???? Very happy. + God, it’s so funny! I especially enjoyed the part dedicated to Norse mythology. The illustrations were quite funny, too. - While it was super interesting to read about creation myths and stories from mythologies I haven’t really read about much, not knowing them beforehand made it a little bit harder understanding what was going on under all the jokes.

BAD FEMINIST by ROXANE GAY ★★★☆☆ | 320 pages | 5 days to read | Published 2014

This is a book I didn’t get myself, but I was still really excited to read it! (Mainly because it had sprayed pages that looked like marble) + It was an interesting collection of essays about a subject that’s always interesting to read about. Overall I think they all were good. - To me, there wasn’t really anything I hadn’t about (several times) already, and I sort of hoped it be a more fun/witty read.

MEN EXPLAIN THINGS TO ME by REBECCA SOLNIT ★★★★☆ | 130 pages | 2 days to read | Published 2014

+ Really interesting and meaningful read that at least made me feel like I was realising and understanding things I’ve already read about,because it was written in suck a good way. - I skimmed some essays in this collection - some where definitely more enjoying to read than others.

ILLUMINAE by AMIE KAUFMAN & JAY KRISTOFF ★★★★★ | 602 pages | 2 weeks to read | Published 2015

MAN, I’d heard so much about this book and how many people loved it but I had NOT expected to love it as much as I did! One of the best books I read this year, definitely. + The epistolary style doesn’t often do it for me, but I wasn’t bothered by it this time at all! I really liked the artistic choices they made to present the different types of text and especially the way they made the pages from the AI’s perspective. This book was also funny and imaginative while also being subtly terrifying the whole time. It’s a war-love-mystery story in space and also zombies and it works. - Nothing big I can think of. Looking forward to the sequel.

SAMLADE DIKTER by EDITH SÖDERGRAN ★★★★☆ | 187 pages | 2 weeks to read | Published 2014 (1949)

I’ve been thinking I need to read more poetry in Swedish and I already knew I would probably like Södergran’s poems, so yeah. + They are written so beautifully and some of them really stand out to me. I’ve read poems like Vierge moderne and Violetta skymmningar... before, but it was nice reading even more. - There were parts - or years - of the book that I wasn’t at all interested in, while some really stood out to me.

BYGONE BADASS BROADS by MACKENZI LEE ★★★★★ | 176 pages | 9 days to read | Published 2018

+ I actually loved this way more than I thought I would? The real reason why I gave it five stars rather than four is that the illustrations and the colours were just SO beautiful??? Like, everything just looked great it made the reading experience even better. - I can’t really think of anything obvious to complain about. The writing in this book is supposed to be witty and stuff, so if you’re looking for a more “objective” book about women in history this is not for you, but it was still fun to read.

NÄR HUNDARNA KOMMER by JESSICA SHIEFAUER ★★☆☆☆ | 301 pages | 3 days to read | Published 2015

So this is a book I read with the class where I have my teacher’s practice. Normally, I probably wouldn’t have picked this book up ‘cause it’s not really my style, but now I had to read it and it wasn’t BAD...more like OK. + Shiefauer is a good writer in general - she has good language and writes different perspectives good. The most interesting thing about this book is that it’s sort of based on a real-life crime that happened in Sweden some time ago. - idk, I didn’t really care much for the characters and the main romance had me very frustrated (but I think that was the point?), and while it might be a good book to read in class with sixteen-year-olds it’s not something I would read by myself.

MY LADY JANE by CYNTHIA HAND, BRODI ASHTON & JODI MEADOWS ★★★★☆ | 491 pages | 4 days to read | Published 2016

Ahh, I finally got to read this! I’d looked forward to reading this so much and after asking my kind library bought it in! + It’s just here for a good time, you know? I mean, it’s a story about a queen that sat on the throne for a couple of days, a king that’s deathly ill, and a guy that turns into a horse every day - and it like...works? I’m amazed. The story was fun and easy to follow. - I felt like some things were just unnecessary? Like, I understood why they had to do some things but meh. It’s also hard to take this book seriously, but that’s not really overly negative. Am looking forward to read My Plain Jane.

MEN WHO HATE WOMEN AND THE WOMEN WHO LOVE THEM by SUSAN FORWARD ★★★★☆ | 301 pages | 1 day to read | Published 1986

I have no idea why I started to read this. I saw someone recommending it in a tumblr post together with a link to the ebook and went like “oh” and read during the entire day. + It’s very easy to read while still keeping it professional. It was easy to see Forward’s reasoning and the stories she had about women stuck in certain types of marriages were so...sad to read? I also liked most of the conclusions she had. Overall a very interesting book to read. - I didn’t notice at first but by the ending I realised some things were sort of dated (this was released in 86, so not that strange) and then there were other stuff I sort of stopped at but then thought maybe it’s a cultural difference? Not really big things.

RESTORE ME by TAHEREH MAFI ★★★☆☆ | 400 pages | 1 day to read | Published 2018

MAN, I wanted to like this book. I couldn’t believe when I heard the Shatter Me-trilogy would get another set of books. I was so happy! But...meh. + I feel like I don’t anything specific to put here but like the book is still FINE. Juliette’s powers are still cool, more ‘interesting’ characters gets introduced and the language is still Tahereh Mafi, you know? - BUT I honestly think I got so frustrated by the characters because I had let this series go. I read the third book, was satisfied by the ending and now I sort of have to wake up the feelings for the characters that I used to have. But they are not there and I just...found myself incredibly frustrated by all the characters. ALL OF THEM. Also some plot-point just feel so...B. Just give me a book with Juliette destroying stuff that’s what I want.

MOXIE by JENNIFER MATHIEU ★★★★☆ | 340 pages | 1 day to read | Published 2017

Wasn’t planning to read this. I saw it at the library one day and just picked it up and started reading. + Very entertaining and frustrating at the same time. I think the idea of Moxie was pretty cool and they came up with inventive ways to fight back; like drawing stars and hearts on their hands to show support, or take on bathrobes to protest against the school’s sexist dress codes. A cool book. - I didn’t care much for the romance - Like I understand why it was in there and it gave a really interesting perspective of certain things, but it would have been just as good if they’d just been friends, you know?

GIRLS OF PAPER AND FIRE by NATASHA NGAN ★★★☆☆ | 336 pages | 1 day to read | Published 2018

I got this beautiful book in a fairyloot box and was so excited to read it! Sadly, some things just wasn’t as good as I’d hoped. + Listen, the worldbuilding in this? Cool. Awesome. I’m really fascinated by the country’s history, religion and myths, and the different castes and different demons that exists in this world. It also has a f/f main pairing, and honestly? I’m here for that. - I’m not kidding when I say that while I was reading I thought “I’m probably going to give this like four stars” and probably would have if I didn’t hate the ending as much as I did. It felt rushed, unrealistic and also just crushed some of the things I’d thought would happen because I was so certain they were hinting at certain stuff during the entirety of the book. But no, didn’t happen. Okay.

BEAUTIFUL DARKNESS by FABIEN VEHLMANN & KERASCOËT ★★★★☆ | 94 pages | 1 day to read | Published 2009

A graphic novel I read while waiting in the library. It was surprisingly good! + So weird, but also so entertaining, horrifying, and fun to read? I love the artstyle - which manages to be cute but still manages to look really creepy when it’s supposed to. - Sometimes I struggled with what this graphic novel actually tried to say. And why did they kill the badass warrior-lesbian with a scissor-sword OFF-SCREEN!?

[lia-snow]

I really think my art isn't good at all and everytime I look at it, I get depressed and I just give up, I think "I should just stop and let people with talent do it." I want to give up because my drawing skills are really bad, I know I need to pratice but it looks horrible and I keep thinking I should just try something else. But I want to draw the things I like and be proud of myself too. What is your advice, Lia-sensei? (I love youu and I'm sorry if it's too depressing, I'm just very lost ;;)

Hey Anon~

First of all, I want you to know that every artist feels this way one moment or another, and that’s because there’s always someone we look up to, that we think will always be better than us no matter what. So I think it’s easier when you come to accept that you may never be technically speaking “the best” , but that it won’t stop you from keep drawing what you want.

Sounds plain, I know, and a lot of people have said this before, but I really think the best you can do is to focus on drawing what you really want, solely because you feel like it, because you have an idea you want to share or because you enjoy doing it without thinking about the consequences (that is, people’s reaction to it, notes, shares, etc.).It’s not about “letting people with talent do it”, it’s about sharing something only you can do. There’s a story only you can tell and contribute to the community, that is for sure. The thing is getting it out of your head.

What I could advice depends on the approach you want to have with drawing.

• If you aim to dedicate yourself to art in the future, you have to get used to the idea of spending your whole time in front of a white paper (or pc?). So you really need to have an immense passion about art in general, meaning you will work towards polishing your skills e v e r y   d a y.

- If you have doubts (because it’s valid) or you want do it for a hobby (like is my case), I do recommend  attending art classes anyway. Not a degree or anything like that, but maybe a short (and less expensive) course so you can study from basic concepts. It helps A LOT. It gives you lots of tools to work with, that may be available on the web too, but sometimes it’s easier when a teacher introduces you to them. At least in my case, a teacher figure is important.

- And/Or, like I’ve adviced before, look up for LOTS of tutorials. Search tutorials for everything you can think of: human figure, dynamic figure, coloring in SAI, coloring in Photoshop, Manga Studio, lazy coloring, detailed coloring, hair coloring, face expressions, etc. etc.. There’s a lot of options, just save the ones you like and think you can follow. Then just follow the tutorial a couple of times for different drawings, and you’ll start mixing everything up and create your own style and method of working. It will simply happen with time.

^ Either of those optiones will take time, of course. And if you’re like me, you’re not even going to notice an improvement but after years have passed haha orzBut don’t let that stop you from drawing! The point is having fun and sharing the ideas in your head (be it original material or fandom-related) :)

And let me remind you that the practices and sketches you make are for yourself and don’t have to be art pieces (you don’t even have to share them if you don’t want).

Just remember there are mangas and webtoons out there with horrible drawings(??). Oops xD Nah but I’m serious… it’s okay if they don’t have the best artstyle or techniques, the important is they gain attention because the concept is appealing. AND you can actually see the artists getting better with time~

[ At least for me, I don’t consider myself having great drawings, but when people like them, I assume it’s because the idea is funny, entertaining or ridiculous (my speciality lol) to the fandom, not because they’re art pieces xD ]

I know it’s not easy, but you gotta keep practicing.

You can do it Anon, I believe in you~~ ٩(ˊᗜˋ*)✧

Sorry for the long reply, I probably didn’t say anything revealing or helpful at all lol I suck at giving advices…. but if you need more ideas, you can talk to me, okay? I’ll try to help! ( ´ ▽ ` )ﾉ

(Don’t worry about the message, I understand how you feel. And also, thank you! Ilu too Anon ❤ ❤)

[bluegekk0]

I like several things about your art & lore so a simple note doesn't do it justice i feel, i just hope tumblr formates it somewhat okay via ask lol. 1. How absolute soft and round you draw, you hardly see any edges or hard corners and i am at this point fully convinced you do this on purpose, even when it comes to Vyrm's sidespikes or any claws.

2. Being able to make all characters easy to recognize yet give each your spin, even if one were to fully color any character in your art black, you can still say whats going on and who is who. 3. Expand on "blank slates", while we got all these Lore tablets by PK, we hardly know him as official, public text written as the King do not tell how he was in Person, and I for myself have adopted a few things as my HC on how your Vyrm acts in that regard, even more with his relationship with WL. Same goes for Grimm, the aspect of an eternal, ageless god seeking a quiet life after tasting all the world had to offer is very, very nice.

4. Not restricting yourself to what the game shows us, that might be just Take 2. but i feel like this should be mentioned as well, you dont just say "everyone is a bug" you go with reptiles, mammals, bugs, birds, literally everything imagineable to fit your vision of characters, especially your design of Lurien shows that being both bug & bird inspired. 5. Also Dinosaurs. Your Baryonix picture is still one of my faves, not just because Baryonix have become one of my fave dinos thanks to ARK: Survival Evolved but in general, still close to one of the more accurate renders we have while also adding your own charm, love the light blue "crest" (not sure how to call it) you added on the head especially, not just stylish but a possible feature to attract mates. You make dinosaurs look soft but not forget they were dangerous beasts.

Oh gosh this is a long one, I really appreciate this! I'll try responding to each one.

1. It is on purpose, yes! Funnily enough, it's a complete contrast to my old artstyle from over a year ago. Using Vyrm's side spikes as an example, they used to be almost perfect sharp triangles. These days I try to make the shapes in my art very round and soft, so I'm really glad this is something you like!

2. Thank you, I'm glad you think so! It's something I've been a little conflicted about sometimes. On one hand, I worry that I changed them so much they might not register as the characters they're based on. On the other, I want to draw them like this, that personal touch helps me connect to them on a much closer level, and considering Grimm and Vyrm in particular are my comfort characters, I'm trying to get rid of that doubt so I can fully embrace it. Hearing that they're still recognizable really does help!

3. Ahh I'm so happy to hear you adapted some of my interpretations into your own headcanons! It's really flattering to know that my silly rambles might have impacted how others view the original counterparts/their own interpretations.

4. Thank you! I'd just be repeating what I said in the second one, but again, it's very reassuring that people are open to my interpretations!

5. Ooooh I didn't expect this one hahaha. I'm glad you liked it! Redesigning the Jurassic World Baryonyx used to be one of my favorite things, I'm not the biggest fan of the movie design and I always found it fun to tweak it in subtle (and less subtle) ways to make it work better as the animal it's supposed to represent. And yes, I believe crest is the correct term here, it's something the movie design didn't include but I think it gives Baryonyx a lot of personality.

Again, thank you so much for your kind words!