#the colors and the enviornment and the emotion are just SO GOOD in the piece WOW ; w ;

[tangledinink]

?!?! THIS IS BEAUTIFUL!? I love your art style and how you depicted this it works SO WELL for the scene AHHH I LOVE IT THANK YOU!?!?!? ; 0 ;

TW- DEPICTIONS OF PANIC ATTACK, OVERSTIMULATION AND DISSOCIATION, BRIGHT COLORS, also I vent a little :)

In honor of my most recent new rock-bottom record, decided to draw this scene from @tangledinink fanfic :)

This scene hit really close to home, I’ve just never seen overstimulation and panic attack described so well, it made me feel like maybe im not that odd and there’s actual people who know what it’s like. I dunno what that means for me yet but I feel seen so maybe it’s a good thing or maybe it’s the opposite and it’s just ANOTHER rock bottom I just hit lol

Screenshots of the scene under cut! That way u can c what I mean when I say THIS WRITING IS SO ANGELIC AND IT FEELS LIKE A GENUINE NEW TMNT GENERATION AND UGHHAHAHWHJZNSZ

DO YOU SEE WHAT I MEAN.

[rowanwritestoomuch]

How to Describe a Room; Rowan's Way

I have a few cardinal tips for description, and I will share them with you here.

First, try--- just not. Literally, just don't do it. I have asked lots of readers and most skim descriptions unless the author is obviously putting alot of effort into what they need to show. Even in fantasy enviornments, minimal description in later chapters will allow your reader to fill in an image with their mind's eye. Not every reader wants to be bombarded with visuals, some want to create it themselves. Placement of objects and doorways, interactable items within a scene, simple settings, all can be used effectively to give your reader what you need without bashing them in the head with it.

If you have to--- keep it contained. A good rule of thumb is to maintain the bread and butter of descriptive text to the beginning of a piece, or new scene. However, readers will often just miss the descriptive bits at the beginning of a chapter in order to get to the juicy action. So try to put easy limits on yourself for these things; for me, its a maximum of 8 sentences. If these sentences are all together, I will make sure to focus on character actions and expressions in the scene, to not bore or double down with needless text. But my preferred method is to disperse those 8 sentences throughout the chapter, as the character sees or interacts with new information. Sometimes it can be a nice break in the midst of a tense or anxious interaction for your character to ground themselves by viewing the world around them, and this can be a niche moment to add description as well.

A step in the right direction--- be active. Use the things in your scene. Recently, instead of describing a room, I had a character pace around it in a fit of frustration wherein his thoughts overwhelmed his perception, but still he interacted with the furniture and layout of the room by avoiding bumping into those objects and it made the scene more dynamic without being pandering, as I had only briefly mentioned a few of the objects before. Paint the scene slowly, let your brushstrokes guide the reader as they are your partner in this dance.

Always remember--- use it wisely. If you must describe the wallpaper, make it as chaotic as the turmoil in your character's mind, or shaded with a color that lends to the deeper emotional moativations of a character within that space. Focus on things of need or importance, and consider what feelings are evocative, what thoughts might come along with such things. Often when you enter a room in real life, you simply register it without thinking, so focus on the things that stand out, or are mundane in a meaningful way, perhaps something with far deeper importance or symbolism later on. And assume your reader is as wise as you are, they will remember, so do not buckle down on unneeded motifs-- once we know the wallpaper is red, we don't need to be reminded, it makes the reader feel spoken down to and encourages speed-reading.

I usually do not keep the reader much in mind when I write, but description is for them alone, as I can see the scene clearly in my mind but I must project it into theirs. It doesn't have to be perfect, like a room of artists painting the same model, we can each have our interpretation. I always keep in mind then what is most important for the reader to see through my eyes, and the character as well, and it is often more fun to leave things unnoticed that do not have significance at the time for a greater reveal, or to mention things in off-handed ways that grow more and more present as they gain interest.

Description can be your friend. If the characters are your voice, the scene is your instrument. Do not create such a crescendo that it is a clangor, instead consider what sounds would compliment the melody in creation, and use only those.

You got this.

Always remember, write because it hurts if you don't.

[thekingofwinterblog]

Ok so, having seen the Gameplay trailer that Bioware pulled out of their ass in the aftermath of possibly the worst videogame trailer in history, i have to say im not impressed... But i almost am.

Because they ALMOST got it right. Like all the building blocks are there, but it's always just one step off from being great.

Like the character models dont look anything the like the complete joke that was the fortnite DA trailer... But while you can tell the animators put their heart and soul into the models, they still look awful.

And it's ALL the lighting and coloring's fault.

The thing is, the models and enviornment doesnt look terrible in a vacuum... but the problem is that it ALL blends together. It's all just a mixmatch of colors and shades that makes the entire thing look like an uncoordinated mess with no rhyme or reason behind it.

Take this shot of minarathous. It's not just grey, on top of grey, but it sure looks like it. The colors, rather than contrast and embolden everything to make it look striking, instead makes it one, big, sloppy looking mess.

Here is one, single shot from Inquisition to illustrate the poiny. Notice how everything is very grey here too, but the way the lighting is, you can easily differentiate between everything, every character sticks out so much better and looks infinitly more interesting and memorablr just by virtue of not looking like they're part of the background.

It's not a coincidence that the only part of this gameplay showcase that looks absolutely stunning is Solas, because he is the only character who actually has the lighting to stand out, both when illuminated by the blue magical energy withouth the purple, white and blue mess that is now how magical energy looks, but also in the shots where he's illuminated by the veil.

I can tell you why it looks like this too.

The lighting and colorists of the development team was trying so, so very hard to make the concept art lighting translate to 3d models and enviornments... And it just doesnt work.

Maybe there is a way to make these pieces work in 3d, but this sure aint it.

Maybe the enviornments that are set in the daylight will look better, but i can tell you, that with this engine and style, every single nightshot is going to look absolutely atrocious, regardless of wheter the models look better than that horrible fortnite trailer.

Then there is the dialogue.

Now there are a lot of complaits that a lot of the dialogue is the usual by now terrible Marvel "banter" that the MCU unfortunately popularized.

You know, the quirky, dont take itself too seriously style of writing that almost never works outside the MCU pre Endgame.

But that's actually not my main vomplaint with it.

My complaint is how... Lifeless the voice actors sounds.

I just listened to these lines, and the thing that struck me is not that they're bad, but how i KNOW both Varric and Solas Voice actors are so much better than this.

"People are dying right now! You need to listen!" "People are always dying. It is what they do."

Like... These lines SHOULD work.

I know the common joke is that this is the usual terrible dialogue in the vein of "My face is tired from dealing with you", but the fact is that it's actually good on paper.

Varric here should sound like he's pleading, making one, last, final plea to his old friend Solas, reminding him that people are fucking dying all around them(Though the rest of the scene dont exactly convey that).

A plea to his humanity.

And solas throws back that he knows. He KNOWS people are dying. That's what they always do.

For anyone who knows Solas at all, this is such a good line. You dont need him to go into a spiel about how his entire reason for doing this is so that people no longer have to die all the time, that the entire reason they do die is because of him...

It should work... but it doesnt.

Solas Actor is NOT giving it his A-Game. At all. And neither is Varric's.

He doesnt sound like the emotional Solas we saw in Inquisition, and frankly neither does Varric. Any and all charisma both had are seemingly gone, replaced by two actors who make the characters sound like themselves, but eithouth the emotion that made them work.

Just hearing Solas telling Varric that this story does NOT end with his downfall just makes me think that the actor either didn't give a shit, or was bored... Which was just hammered in further when Solas just gives a pathethic scream of "Noooooo!" When his big plan is foiled.

Maybe it's that the rest of the writing is just so bad that they just gave up, or they had the same level of quality for their voice director that george lucas gave his actors during the prequel triology filming.

Either way, this really just hammered in the point for me of kind of game we're getting here... And i didnt even touch the gameplay in this post.

[soakinforsif]

I made an anti-anxiety spell jar

So, lately I've been dealing with more heightened anxiety and loneliness. I'm also no stranger to scrolling through witch tumblr when I'm not feeling well, so I thought I'd try to make a spell jar to counteract and better understand these negative feelings. As a disclaimer, I should mention that I've always been either on the fence or all out in disbelief of anything even vaguely occult and/or supernatural, but witchcraft has always been intriguing to me, regardless of whether any magic is taking place. The way that witch-hood advocates for being free spirited and empowered, especially for women and people who have been disadvantaged in their lives is incredibly inspiring. Additionally, this spell jar is not intended to have any actual magical influence, but to be a methodical activity for me to put thought into the messages and energies I want to carry with me from this point forward.

First, I picked the jar. I picked a small, purple glass jar because the colour purple has always been both somehow both calming and energizing to me. It's a very positive color and has associations with both male and female genders, so it seemed like a good base.

The first thing I added was 3 fresh peppermint leaves grown in my Mom's garden. Mint has a lot of associations, one going back to ancient greece with hospitality to guests. Since I've been feeling lonely and trying to stay in touch with friends through out the summer, having increased hospitality in my life is more than welcome! Peppermint also has many medicinal benefits, some of which are reducing migranes, stomachaces, and nervousness.

Next I added a sprig of dried lavender broken into three pieces. Some of lavender's associations are peace, love, protection, and clarity of thought, which are all some of the things I'm trying to focus on.

Next, I added three dried rose petals. Despite the well known associations with love and protection (which are both important and reasons I included it), rose is associated with purity and motherhood in the Christian faith, and innocence in the Jewish faith. Roses are also associated with the water element, which I've always related to strongly and carries positive connotations with me.

I put these things all in in threes because the number three has a lot of different associations, mostly positive and tied to different religions. (as well as my favourite shape, the triangle!)

Next, for a personal connection, I added dried crumbs from my most recent baking project (almond cranberry peanutbutter quickbread). Baking has always been calming and stress-reducing for me. It's something I strongly considered pursuing for a career, and feels like a very personal and dare I say sacred space for me.

For a liquid I wanted to add rainwater to connect it to my enviornment, as well as because rain symbolises rebirth and cleansing, as well as being simply pleasant for me. However, it has not recently rained, nor will it anytime in the next fortnight or so. I ended up adding a drizzle of honey for it's positive associations, and it's association with Aphrodite, the greek god of love and beauty, as well as my own personal addociation of it with teamwork and energy from the creation process.

After I added all the ingredients, I sealed the jar tightly and wrapped a blue headband around the seal. This may seem mundane, but O wanted something to visually symbolize that the jar was sealed, and I chose a headband because as vapid as it sounds, my hair has always been important to me for reasons I cannot fully explain, ans playing with it/pulling on it has always been a stress reliever for me.

After I sealed it, I repeated positive affirmations over it that I use to both deminish and rationalize my anxiety and other negative feelings in place of an incantation.

After it was done, the next issue was what to do with it. My two real options were to either bury it or leave it on my alter, based on the connotations. In my research, I learned that when you bury a spell jar, it means that the goal of the spell is usually to banish negative feelings, but my motivation is not so much to banish anxiety and loneliness (if anything rexuce them) but to better unferstand and deal with them because I acknowledge and appreciate the good that comes from so called 'negative' emotions; how feeling anxious helps me regulate my actions and decide what's important in my life, and loneliness helps me realize the importance of having company and feiendship, even if it looks different to my companions than to me. So, the logical next choice was to leave it on my alter, which symbolizes something the caster is ongoingly working on. Unfortunately, as I am not a practicing witch and I made the spell jar on my kitchen table which leaving a jar full of herbs on would be difficult to explain, I opted to leave it on my windowsill, a secluded place I rarely open where natural sunlight reaces a lot of the day, which just feels right for this project.

Overall, I'm still on the fence about the occult, however, a hour and a half of self reflection and thought into the messages of different ingredients (I did a lot of research!) Is a pretty amzing result regardless of what else comes from this!