#the crayola boxed set

[eggonicayto]

THE MARKETABLE CRITTERS ARE HERE!!

(Finally)

————————————

{BorderCoily}

“Meet the overly bouncy BorderCoily,the optimistic leader of the Marketable Critters! Though his coiling abilities turns him into a bit of a show-off, he’s still a good and reliable pup whom the others depend on to keep them entertained and happy through the bad times. He’d stop at nothing to ensure the safety and happiness of those closest to him. Even if they wish harm on him.”

INFO-

PENDANT: Canadian spring leaf

SCENT: Sandalwood

OBJECT/TOY: Slinky dog

———————

{Catrillon}

“Catrillon is a nap time hotspot for any exhausted patron in the premise due to his melodic music that plays from his abdomen. It’s his personal duty to worry about his friends whenever their sleep schedule is destabilizing, and he swears he’ll get them back on track in a soft and gentle way.”

INFO-

PENDANT: Musical moon

SCENT: Catmint

OBJECT/TOY: Music box

———————

{PosyPony}

“Always down to pose for portraits or photos, PosyPony sees the beauty in all art forms, mainly illustrations. She finds there’s a great importance in being forever immortalized in a picture frame so others don’t ever forget her features. She believes it is her only purpose to appear in frame, and greatly fears being forgotten due to her bland appearance.”

INFO-

PENDANT: Yoga lotus flower

SCENT: Crayolas

OBJECT/TOY: Drawing mannequin

———————

{Ms. Bobhugs}

“A sweet and clingy gal, it’s Ms. Bobhugs duty to hug everyone and everything, happy or sad, living or nonliving. Friends would describe her as a treehugger, which only intensifies her wants further, as she sets off to be the world’s #1 hugger. Worryingly, it’s suspected that her clinginess are signs of touch starvation.”

INFO-

PENDANT: Heart bow

SCENT: Strawberry

OBJECT/TOY: Voice boxed Teddybear

———————

{Pickie Banky}

“What’s more important than unnecessary house decor and doo-dads? Living a financially balanced life, of course! Pickie Banky believes in the value of money saving, which only fuels her desire to help the others cut down their spending addictions. Friends can always count on her to keep their money secure, and their futures ensured! Her favourite meal are couch nickels.”

INFO-

PENDANT: Money symbol

SCENT: Copper

OBJECT/TOY: Piggie bank

———————

{Winddy Crankstotch}

“Excessively energetic to the twist of a crank, Winddy Crankstotch is the social butterfly who’s unafraid to make unnecessary commentaries at inappropriate times. Though she calms down on these erratic behaviours when winded down, she’s still overly snarky and is always down to a challenge regardless.”

INFO-

PENDANT: Crank

SCENT: Ink

OBJECT/TOY: Wind up toy

———————

{Calculant Tackyphant}

“Calculant Tackyphant is the precisionist of the group. Built with a voice automated tacky calculator in his stomach, he’s always quick to answer any mathematical equations handed to him. He is cocky as he is knowledgeable, as oftentimes he will jump to correct anyone who dares to get even the smallest of details wrong. It seems he despises the thought of being wrong.”

INFO-

PENDANT: Multiplication sign

SCENT: Chalk

OBJECT/TOY: Calculator

———————

{HeelyTickin}

“This is HeelyTickin, the supposed law enforcement of the group. He’s always quick to lecture others on the morally incorrect actions they choose to partake in, and won’t hesitate to put them behind bars. Though, he enjoys to participate in the risky stunts, and will join friends in sports and races, if they’re legal.”

INFO-

PENDANT: Wheel

SCENT: Gasoline

OBJECT/TOY: Pull-back Toy Car

———————

If nobody knows what im talking about, here;

[super-lovely-star]

Jelly Glue Bookmarks: a craft for Middle Regressors and Dreamers

This is a simple craft that I recently rediscovered. You don’t need much to make it, and it’s great if you love to read.

Here’s what you will need:

Elmers glue, white for a milky effect or clear for a crystal effect

Crayola markers

Glitter (optional)

A rectangular plastic or metal pencil case

A toothpick

Scissors

A lot of patience

To make these, first

set out your rectangular pencil case and open it.

Now select the colors you like from your marker box.

Scribble with the markers inside the pencil box in the design you want the bookmark to be. Don’t do anything too intricate, because it will bleed together. Also, don’t worry about staining, the glue soaks it all up.

Now, carefully fill the pencil case with a shallow but substantial layer of the elmers glue of your choosing. Make sure it is an even layer. It will soak up the color from the markers- it’s almost like magic!

You can use the toothpick to swirl the colors together if you like, or just to get the bubbles out.

If you are adding glitter, you can sprinkle it on now.

Leave it over night.

The next morning, try peeling off a little bit. If it breaks, it’s not dry yet, so put it back and leave it till it all comes out in one piece.

Trim the uneven edges, and voila, you have a bookmark!

Another good use of these is to use them to mark pages in your agere journal. Happy crafting!

[arctic-hands]

I didn't want to clown on the gift donation for kids post and this might be a little late anyway, but if you're going to donate art supplies, or even give some to kids in your family, please think twice before getting those art kits that come with everything, even the ones that do come in fancy wooden boxes. They're almost always terrible in quality and even as a little kid you end up feeling frustrated by them and feel like you're the one doing something wrong or you don't have talent or something.

I get it, they're usually cheaper than buying even student grade supplies individually, but I remember getting one of the fancy wooden box ones at like thirteen then after a while getting (secretly, as to not upset the person who got me it that Christmas) because I felt I wasn't good enough at art to warrant such a gift because I couldn't get the pencils or watercolors or oil pastels to behave like how the books and videos told me they would behave. And even getting the plastic box ones as an even younger kid left me feeling frustrated. Because the kit ones are all full of cheap filler and less pigment as a cost cutting measure. And the paper that came with it was no better than printer paper so the watercolors disintegrated it.

Anyway I'm not saying you have to buy a one hundred dollar professional set of paint or something. And even student grade does add up. But a decent sketchbook (I recommend Canson XL Mixed Media, because not only is it cheap but the paper is great and there's like sixty sheets it), and maybe just one type of art supply instead of buying a whole studio's worth. Decent sets of artist pencils of different lead types are easy to come by. Or even just a few tubes of primary colors acrylic paints (I've been using Arteza acrylics and I like them a lot), or a box of decent oil pastels or a small watercolor pallet. And you can find decent brushes, even in packet sets, just make sure they're the right kind for the paints you're getting (and there are mixed media brushes too) Avoid at all costs the Crayola brushes with the thick plasticity bristles that are the bane of children everywhere tho.

TL;DR honestly, if you have the chance to know what the child likes in art supplies, just get them a decent set of that instead of one of the frustrating art kits that give you everything but for a lesser quality

(ALSO: make sure art supplies geared to younger kids are nontoxic, and if giving to an older kid who knows not to drink the paint water, make sure they know if there's anything toxic even still. This isn't too much of a worry these days unless you're getting really expensive pro stuff, but look out for warnings anyway)

[livwritesstuff]

part 3 to eddie’s tattoo saga, feat. girl-dads!steddie

part 1, part 2

The first time Eddie’s oldest daughter draws on his arm with her Crayola markers, Eddie immediately gets it tattooed onto him permanently. 

She’s barely two so it’s mostly scribbles, but she’d never done it before, and she’d looked up at him with this big, proud, cheesing smile when she was done, and Ed had been caught so off guard with just how insanely much he loved her – that indescribable love parents felt for their children that, before becoming a parent, Eddie had thought he’d be able to beat the stereotypes and describe, but Moe proved him to be incorrect just about the second she came along – and he hadn’t known what else to do. 

He doesn’t even really think about it, just takes a photo so his artist will get the colors right and has her put it in an empty spot on the sleeve he’s been working on for years.

With Eddie and Steve’s second daughter, Robbie, it goes mostly the same. She's just about two years old and draws a collection of swirling scribbles on the back of his hand. Steve advises him to not get it tattooed in the same spot, and Eddie can understand why it might not always be opportune to have permanent child-scribbles in such a visible spot, so, again, he has his artist use it to fill in a gap in the sleeve on his left arm.

When their littlest girl, Hazel, is born, Ed intentionally leaves a spot on his bicep open for whenever she feels so inclined to draw on him like her big sisters had. She takes her sweet time, so much so that Eddie starts to get nervous that she might never end up doing it at all, and he wasn’t going to ask her. It had to be a natural thing, obviously. In the end, she’s nearly five years old, sitting in his lap with a pack of markers while he reads a book to her (Charlotte’s Web, because it was the first chapter book he’d read aloud to both Moe and Robbie, and now it's Hazel’s turn), coloring inside the lines of the tattoos he already has when she gets to the empty space on his arm he’d left just for her. A little bit later, it’s filled with a marker drawing of a blue house next to a green tree, with a yellow sun above the chimney.

“It’s our house,” Hazel tells him.

Eddie calls to schedule the tattoo session the second he finishes the next chapter.

He gets the okay from his artist to bring Hazel with him to the appointment, which he hadn’t done with Moe and Robbie because they’d been too little. They hadn’t had the disposition for it either, but Hazel is their sweetest baby, all solemn and shy, and the session is right before her usual naptime, so once he’s in the chair, she just sits in his lap and quietly watches his artist work until she dozes off about halfway through the process.

Eddie spends much of that session lost in thought – he’s becoming introspective in his old age (forty-five and some change).

He’s thinking about all the tattoos he’s gotten, all the spontaneous ones he’s gotten for Steve and for their girls. He’s thinking about what that means. 

In the family that Eddie and Steve have built, Steve is the one taking all those pictures and home videos and stuff. He’s the one who gets photos printed, framing their favorites and hanging them around the house and setting small ones on side tables, sticking others to the fridge with little magnets they’ve collected over the years, storing the rest in overstuffed shoe boxes he swears he’ll organize into photo albums someday (but their life is so hectic he probably won’t ever get around to it).

This is Eddie’s version of that.

This is his way of displaying to the world how much he loves his family, this thing that he’d spent years pretending he didn’t want because that was easier to sit with than the belief that it wasn’t even attainable for him, that now he gets to have.

It’s fucking incredible, is what it is, and it deserves to be documented.

[cherubic-cherry]

His eyes almost closed before he saw a small stack of paper cross his vision, accompanied with a large box of thin-tipped crayola markers.

“Just a bit longer,” Bruce muttered to him, leaning out of his chair to whisper directly into Tim’s ear. He must’ve noticed Tim almost nodding off.

He was ashamed, Bruce had brought him to Wayne enterprise after Tim showed interest in his work, going out of his way to feed into Tim’s curiosity.

And what does Tim do? He spaces out the entire time and probably has embarrassed Bruce in front of his employees.

Tim hated it, but he couldn’t help it, something about the boards words made them slip out of Tim’s brain like sand. Tim’s body was beginning to feel weighed down, the extra sounds was turning out to be quite the affective replacement for a white noise machine.

Bruce didn’t seem exasperated, not by any means of the word.

“ Bernie tends to take up 85% of these meetings droning on, and 50% of that is just talking about his cat, once he wraps up we’ll be almost done. Try drawing something for Damian, he’ll appreciate the gesture.”

Tim was sure that somebody at the table heard what Bruce had said; he was not great at whispering, but they all willingly ignored it. Even going so far as to turn their heads away from Tim and Bruce.

Tim allowed himself a quiet giggle at the joke, making sure it was not loud enough to disturb. Looking down at the papers that were set in front of him and was scandalized by the concept.

It was another remainder that the Wayne’s had yet to grasp what was age appropriate for a 9 year old. For goodness sake, Tim spent his time trying to hack into the Bat-computer, not coloring.

It was juvenile, as well, that Bruce had packed the markers in his bag meant that he had premeditated the fact that Tim would use eventually get bored and need them.

Tim would be wounded from the assumption if it wasn’t proven true.

The young boy subtly took out three markers: yellow, green, black and red. He would make Damian a drawing of the Robin symbol just so he can show Damian and see him try to hide the pride off of his face.

Given how easily Damian is impressed by him, he’ll make comments about its accuracy and detail.

Tim carefully traced the edges of the design, it was image Tim was easily able to conjure up in his head.

He shaded it in carefully, making sure that the colors didn’t blend together; he became so engrossed in the task that he didn’t notice that Bruce took off his suit jacket and wrapped it around Tim’s shoulder.

He did, however, notice that the extra warmth added on to his drowsiness, making it all the more easy to allow his head to sink down onto the paper.

The voices of the board became more and more distant, slowly fading to a whisper.

Tim was able to catch a few words, something about wrapping up and Tuesday and ‘getting the kiddo home’ or ‘getting the kitten home’ either one didn’t make much sense.

He tried to put together the words, like pieces of a puzzle, but they all fleeted away the moment he heard something else.

He felt a heavy weight on his shoulder, a pleasant one yet it attempted to pull him away from his light slumber, which was something that Tim was adamantly against at that moment.

“Abba? ‘m tired,” Tim mumbled groggily, feeling Bruce’s arm wrap around him. He curled into the extra warmth, desperate for anything that will imitate the comfort of a mattress.

“We’re going home now Tim,” Bruce said softly, so soft that Tim wasn’t able to register what Bruce had said and wake himself up for the trip home. Instead he left Bruce with all the complications and allowed himself to slip into that last layer of sleep.

Read the story here:

[desirfictional]

Desirchild/desirpermachild tips please?

ofc! i hope these help:

♡ wear oversized clothes to make yourself feel smaller

♡ swear as little as possible

♡ buy stuffed animals! give them names and personalities and play with them a lot

♡ buy other kids toys too

♡ drink caprisuns, koolaid, juice boxes, glasses of milk/orange juice, or other drinks children usually drink

♡ buy crayola crayons and draw with them, including buying childrens coloring books

♡ watch kids shows like gravity falls, my little pony, littlest pet shop, adventure time, bluey, etc

♡ read books for kids like warrior cats, wings of fire, percy jackson, etc (or books for even younger kids, like how to read books)

♡ instead of buying things or going to places yourself, ask someone else to take you places or buy things for you

♡ set a bedtime for yourself and try to make it pretty early (like 6 or 7 pm)

♡ buy onesies to wear as pajamas, especially onesies that are themed after animals

♡ try to mention your chrono-age as little as possible, only mention it if its necessary

♡ ask your friends/family/partners/etc to treat you like your intra-age

♡ when celebrating birthdays, celebrate your intra-age birthday instead of your chrono-age one

♡ remember to always be safe about transitioning, dont lie about your chrono-age in any sort of legal contexts (like medical forms, relationships, etc)

[spectrechosts]

If Anything Could Ever Be This Good Again - Chapter 2

If you liked the horny stuff in the first chapter then I regretfully must inform you that there is actually not any more sex in this series, it is in fact just about judicial reform and how superheroes are essentially cops.

Sorry.

ALSO KITTEN CRUSADERS MENTIONED LETS GOOOO

Full Series

Turquoise (Not Turquoise, not anymore, just Phoebe, fucking shit) sat bundled in blankets on Tara's couch, her body wracked with chills as her power gem sapped away heat like a black hole fused to her chest.

Megavolt had picked her up just a few blocks from Shining Ranger HQ. Keeping tabs on the rangers was basically her job, and it turned out that when you see one of them haul ass out of HQ in a panic and get on the first bus they see and then one minute later the whole place is on high alert because someone's been murdered ("Not murder," Tara had told her, "Manslaughter, it's ethically and legally distinct, you didn't mean to.") it's not too difficult to put two and two together.

"I made you soup." Tara said, and placed a bowl in front of her, the liquid inside icing over almost instantly. "Hhh. Okay. Listen, Pheebs- I have to go run interference, there's an entire fucking crayola box set of magical girls looking for you right now. Are you going to be okay if I leave you alone?"

"I feel like I'm dying." Phoebe groaned.

"I know. It'll pass, I promise."

"I want to make everyone who did this to me feel this fucking awful." She continued, and Tara sighed.

"That won't, I'm sorry."

"This is bullshit, this whole thing is bullshit-" Phoebe said, anger that wasn't hers but wasn't entirely foreign welling inside her as the temperature in the room dropped further. "Scarlet is an apocalyptic bitch to everyone forever and I snap at her once and my gem is fucked?"

"I know."

"Whoever made these things is going to answer for it, believe me. Scarlet's fucking pure of heart and I'm a villain. She's lucky I couldn't make it slow."

She clutched her head, sickened.

"Oh god, oh god I don't know where that came from, is that really how I feel?"

"I don't know, I'm sorry." Tara said. "Phoebe listen to me. You need to try and stay calm and ride this out. Maybe turn the stove up and try just eating the soup out of the pot? But I have to go make a scene before anyone can track the temperature distortions you're causing. I love you, okay?"

"I killed Scarlet…" Phoebe whined.

"I love you more for killing Scarlet, she was the worst and magical gems are not the arbiters of morality." Tara touched her own gem, and transformed into Megavolt in a shower of sparks. "I'll see if I can steal your shit from HQ. And some space heaters."

~

The tradeoff with emotion based powers is that, while she did feel stronger than she was before, it's very hard to do anything when your heart's not in it. Megavolt didn't want to be out blasting power lines and taking potshots at distracted rangers, she wanted to take care of Phoebe, to stay with her through what had been the worst experience of Megavolt's own life and would probably be the worst experience of hers.

But worry was not a conducive emotion.

Becoming corrupted hurts, not that anyone feels much sympathy for you. She was the only person who could be there for Phoebe, and she wasn't, she was abandoning her like she had been abandoned, and once again it was all the fault of the fucking Shining Rangers.

She could work with that, get mad about it.

Still, there was only so much one girl could do. Flitting from place to place trying to cause enough chaos to overwhelm one of the most numerous magical girl forces in the country was a losing battle. She needed to finish up and get the fuck out, figure out a place for them to lie low out of town for a while.

"Hello, Megavolt."

She froze, 90% through sneaking into Turquoise's window at Shining Ranger HQ.

"Azure."

The leader of the Shining Rangers stood in the doorway, her lit cigarette glowing faintly in the dark room.

"I think it's time we had a little chat, don't you?"

"Can I say no?"

"I wouldn't."

Megavolt slipped her leg through the window and crossed her arms, her back against the wall.

"What would you like to talk about? Boys? Gossip? You know," She said, lowering her voice and putting a hand to her mouth conspiratorially, "You didn't hear this from me, but I hear Kitten Crusaders Calico and Tortie broke up."

"We know she's with you, Tara. We're not stupid."

"I'm not so sure-"

"I would really take this seriously if I were you." Azure said. "For her sake."

"Is that a threat?"

"Yes." She said, and took a long drag to let that hang in the air before continuing. "We know she's with you, we know she's draining heat like nobody's business. Tara, she's showing up on the fucking weather channel. We don't know exactly where you live, but we'll figure it out. She murdered Scarlet."

"You can't seriously believe-"

"Doesn't matter what I believe. A jury would believe it."

"You fucking cop!" Megavolt said, and electricity danced across her hands as she balled them into fists. "You know she wouldn't-"

"Oh, I don't know shit. Her gem's corrupted, her powers are out of control, she could be capable of anything."

Megavolt fumed.

"You know, I was genuinely worried I wasn't mad enough to kick your ass."

"Well, we're not done talking so you'll have to wait."

"Oh, we're done talking!" Megavolt snapped, charging up for an attack.

"Come quietly and we stop looking for her."

She faltered, lightning fizzling out.

"We all know you did this to her," Azure continued, "I figure without you in the picture, maybe she fucks off to a life of petty crime and isn't our problem. You, however, are determined to be my problem. Give us a week and we could take both of you in, but I don't want to deal with more bodies. Call it a win-win."

~

"Authorities are still at a loss as to what's causing the continued drops in temperature on the outskirts of the residential district, but the Shining Rangers have assured them they're looking into it. In other news, notorious supervillain Dark Ranger Megavolt has been taken into police custody following the murder of Shining Ranger Scarlet. Leader of the Shining Rangers, Ranger Azure, was unavailable for comment-"

The television was silenced, pierced by a massive icicle erupting from the floor. Phoebe screamed her throat raw, completely overwhelmed with sadness and anger and hate, hate for the shining rangers, hate that bubbled up from her icy core until there was no room to feel anything else.

The temperature plummeted, pipes burst and windows shattered from the thermal shock. Phoebe's heart was a bundle of exposed nerves, a void from which no warmth could escape, and Tara had been stolen from her again and she was in agony and everyone needed to feel her pain.

And so, half-dead, wrapped in a comforter and clad in a sweater that was too big for her, she set out to destroy her enemies.

She could come up with a villain name while she walked.

[jerzwriter]

Something New

Book:                   Open Heart (Post-Series)

Pairing:                Ethan Ramsey x F!MC (Kaycee)

Rating:                 Teen

Category:            Fluff

Summary:   Kaycee takes matters into her own hands when Ethan won't follow doctor's orders.

Words: 918

A/N: Day 8 of @creativepromptsforwriting 's 30-Day Writing Challenge: Write about finding a new hobby. Also participating in @choicesjanuarychallenge Day 7 - Hobby I didn't have time to edit - be kind ;)

Ethan x Kaycee Masterlist 30-Day Writing Challenge Masterlist

The early summer sun was beginning to set over Boston. Its pink and purple hues filled the condo with magical light, luring all those present to watch. Kaycee finished up the last dish in the sink and dried her hands as little Emma babbled in her highchair nearby.

“Abababaaba-gooooh!” she gurgled, earning a bright smile from her mom.

“Is that what you think?” Kaycee grinned. “I agree with you, Princess Emma. That is the most beautiful sky.”

Unstrapping the toddler, she lifted her to her hip and walked over to the floor-to-ceiling windows. 

“Look,” she pointed. “Can you purple, Emma? Pur – ple.”

“Pupuhpuh, abababbaba-gooh!”

“Yeah, well, I understand,’ Kaycee laughed. “Abababbaba-gooh is such a cool word. I probably wouldn’t want to say any others for some time too!”

Kaycee looked at her watch and then shot an anxious look down the hallway. It was getting late, and Ethan should have been done by now.

“Ethan,” she beckoned. “Baby, why don’t you come out here. Emma and I have something we want to show you.”

“I’ll be out in one minute, hon,” he hollered in reply. But, twenty minutes later, Kaycee placed a sleepy Emma in her crib and walked to Ethan’s study.

His eyes lifted the moment she entered the room, a contrite expression on his face. 

“I was longer than a minute, wasn’t I?”

“By at least twenty,” she confirmed. “Ethan, you’re supposed to be relaxing. The doctor said….”

“The doctor exaggerates.”

“Really?” She admonished, her arms crossed in front of her chest. “Dr. Reynolds is one of the best we have to offer! You know that. How would you feel if you knew one of our patients was home poo-poohing our advice like you’re doing now.”

“Poo-pooing?” Ethan chuckled.

“Don’t change the subject! I can’t help it if I’m picking up the old-lady language! How long have I been with you now?”

“Ouch!”

She headed for the door and motioned for him to follow. “Come on, Ethan. To the bedroom.”

“Well,” he hummed, pushing away from his desk. “Don’t mind if I do!”

“Relax, Romeo,” she teased. “It’s not for that.”

“No?” he frowned.

“No!” She chuckled with a glint in her eyes but soon backpedaled just a bit. “I mean, maybe later.”

“Better, much better,” he said, throwing an arm around her shoulders as they walked to their room.

“Now, sit!” she ordered, and he quickly complied, taking a seat in the easy chair next to the bed.

“Are you sure we’re not doing that?” he winked.

Kaycee shook her head with a smirk. “No. Not now. You’re here to make a decision.”

“A decision?”

“Mmm-hmm,” she hummed, placing three parcels on the bed before him. “You’re going to make a selection: box number 1, box number 2, or box number 3.”

“Can I at least know what’s in them first?”

“I suppose,” she said, proceeding to help him open each one. 

The first contained a moderate-grade camera with a sleek design. The second was a potters wheel; the last contained a box filled with assorted paints and brushes.

“Is it arts and crafts day at Emma’s daycare?” he asked.

“Sure, because these look like they were made by Crayola, dear,” she dismissed. “No. They’re for you. You’re going to pick one, and then we’ll get you more supplies because you need to take up a hobby.”

“Kaycee,” he groaned, “is this about….”

“Dr. Reynolds is worried about your stress level, and he said you need to pick up something relaxing, a new hobby. Since you weren’t taking any steps to do that, I needed to take action.”

“I have hobbies, Kaycee.”

“Your work is not a hobby.”

“I also have….”

“Writing your next book is not a hobby.”

“Well, there is also you,” he leered.

“Trying to be cute and insinuating that fooling around with me is a hobby will not get you out of this. Now, pick one!”

“Why these things?” he asked.

“Well, you’ve mentioned wanting to learn to take better pictures. You love visiting that pottery shop down on the Cape, and last time we were at the beach house, you said you wished you could have painted the sunset. Like the one you just missed watching with Emma and me because you couldn’t tare yourself away from work. So… pick one, Ramsey!”

“I love it when you’re bossy,” he growled.

“Ethan!”

“OK, OK! I guess I’ll try….” He pointed to the paints. “Those.”

“Oh, OK.”

“You seem disappointed?”

“Of course not! It’s got to be your choice.”

“But?”

“But… I was sort of hoping for the potter's wheel. I thought it would be, you know… kinda sexy.”

“Sexy? Rookie, you’ve watched Ghost one too many times.”

“I have,” she giggled, sitting on his lap in the chair. “But honestly, the idea of you at an easel, well, I’ve got to admit, that’s got me a little hot and bothered too.”

“Oh, does it now,” he breathed, nuzzling his nose against her neck. “The idea of the photos I could take of you with that camera is sort of doing things to me, as well.”

“Are you saying you’re going to pick up more than one hobby now, Ethan?” she laughed.

“Maybe,” he said, lifting her as he stood and placing her gently on the bed. “But for now, I’m only picking you up. Is Emma asleep?”

“Sure is,” Kaycee grinned, and a devilish look came over her husband’s face.

“Good. You get the camera out, and I’ll lock the door.”

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[watchmenanon]

The Wild Story Behind the 'Stranger Things' Upside Down Tunnel Drawings

By Matt Patches

Published on 11/20/2017 at 12:35 PM

A mosaic of psychically illustrated drawings depicting the interdimensional tunnels under a small, Indiana town doesn't just crayon itself into existence, you know. Someone has to draw it.

In Stranger Things 2, that someone is Will Byers. While obsessives of the Netlfix series are eagerly awaiting Stranger Things Season 3 and some firm answers on what (or who?) the Mind Flayer really is, why it's obsessed with the nerdy kid, or what its master plan for our Earthly plane will be, one thing they did learn in the series' second installment is that when a shadowy monster gets in a person's head, the host becomes a prolific, Crayola-wielding Willem de Kooning.

Throughout Stranger Things 2, Will cranked out our first glimpse of the "shadow monster" along with hundreds of other expressionistic drawings, bits and pieces of a larger piece that his mother, Joyce, her boyfriend, Bob, and the other Hawkins boys eventually paper on the walls of the Byers home. Though the show is filled with blockbuster-worthy special effects and some of the finest under-20 acting of the last decade, the wow factor of Stranger Things is in the details, with the drawing-covered set standing as the show's pièce de résistance.

Prop people are sticklers for details, and Reiss, whose credits include American Beauty (where she found the iconic plastic bag) and True Detective (where she made Rust Cohle's clue board, which she notes did not include yarn), lives for burrowing down into the lives of her characters and sculpting out their histories through a materialistic lens. Stranger Things is cluttered with details, from '80s-authentic props that require months of Ebay-ing to source, to every mysterious newspaper clipping shuffled through in the hunt for answers. Reiss tells Thrillist to look for photos of the convenience store owners that Eleven encountered during her first Eggo raid, and "missing dog" ads that line up to animal bones found in both Season 1 and 2. "[My biggest fear is] that Reddit will come down and go, that doesn't make sense," she says.

Stranger Things 2's lengthy shoot ran from November 2016 through the first week of June 2017, and the drawing project took about four months of work. When Reiss and her team first began imagining a house cluttered with creepy, crayon drawings, they only had the Duffers' story arc to go off -- the scripts weren't done. Working with concept artist Jenny Birdsong, who was also responsible for turning pre-visualized Shadow Monster effects and photographs of the Byers home exterior into Will's haunting rendering of the Mind Flayer, the prop people toiled over exactly what kind of images would emerge from a young man grappling with otherworldly forces, and what it would look like assembled on the walls of the house. Only after settling on colors and patterns did Reiss receive the script where Bob discovers that the pages form a map of the Hawkins tunnels.

"Scale wise, my job was to get it all dialed in correctly," Reiss says. "Bob would have a map on the table and they'd go around tape measuring. But if anything was truly to scale the map would be 196-feet wide. That's why there's a line in there, 'It's not exactly to scale…'" Reiss rejiggered her concept to include lakes, rivers, quarries, and other landmarks to give the scribbles clear dimension. They had to be jagged and visceral, but also identifiable enough that Bob could sniff it out. "The logistics got very intense."

Six 800-crayon Crayola bulk boxes, from which Reiss only took the blues, the blacks, the browns, and the teals, provided them with a total of 1500 crayons used on all the illustrations.

Paper was a greater concern: how much blank white paper would Will really have at his disposal? According to Reiss, along with a traditional paper stock, viewers will also notice three-lined notebook paper, colored construction paper, wrapping paper, brown bag paper, and even pages from a 1983 Sears catalogue and a 1983 Indiana phone book. "I ripped out those pages, double-sided copied them, then ripped the sides so they look like they were ripped out," she says. Details.

Reiss charted the winding course around the Byers house with Post-It notes to allow the Duffers to pick patterns and settle on a density of images. The finished pieces were both precise and erratic; black scribbles would run one direction, teal another. And each piece overlapped, sometimes askew, instead of connecting like a puzzle, to ensure that the finished wall art would feel like, as Reiss puts it, "this giant insanity."

The assemblage of drawings had to survive two months of shooting, according to Reiss, and there was no time to take anything down. To work around the hectic schedule, the team essentially built panels of paper illustrations slapped together with packing tape, which could be manipulated as necessary (and in the case of more abused sections, completely replaced on the fly). Reiss says, of her four-person drawing team, two would remain on set with with new Scotch tape, old Scotch Tape, and two of each crayons to repair any roughed-up illustrations. Don't worry, Redditors: all the front-facing tape Joyce uses to put up the in-world drawings is period accurate.

Reiss, who recently added director to her resume, aims to efface what she does from the finished product audiences eventually binge-watch. You're not supposed to notice the variety of paper on which her team of artists drew monstrous tunnels upon, you're supposed to feel the lived-in mood they create. When she steps back from the problems at hand, like, say, mounting a giant wall maze across a multi-room Indiana home, the details make the design-driven answers easy to find. There's just one part of the Stranger Things job hasn't gotten easier: the Eggos.

"We just went with Eggos in Season 1," Reiss says. "We didn't ask for any. But in Season 2, Eggo and Netflix came to some fabulous agreement with each other. But I'm still paying for Eggos! I have to physically go out and buy Eggos! Why don't I get free Eggos?!"

[prettylittlelyres]

Drawing the Sandalwood Girl

An experiment in drawing with my non-dominant hand

In the last few years, I've been having trouble gripping pens and pencils, because the top joints in my fingers are weak. I have Hypermobility Spectrum Disorder, and although physiotherapy has helped with a lot of the resulting joint problems, there's not much I can do to stabilise my fingers. I could wear finger splints, or use pencil grips, or both, but these are quite expensive options. I opt for pens and pencils with thick bodies, because I don't have to pinch them. After work one evening - I work from home because it’s best for me with my changeable health - I decided to sit down and try it.

I did write (type, rather!) a whole 1,500 word essay with my left hand in my first year of university, because I dislocated my right arm 24 hours before the deadline and didn’t know how to ask for help, so I knew it wouldn’t be as hard as that, but… still quite a daunting thought. Picking up the crayon to make the first mark on the page was scarier than I expected it to be; I was quite shocked by how nervous I was.

Knowing I wouldn’t be able to do GCSE-level artwork with my left hand, because I can barely hold a pen with my left, I decided to be kind to myself and do something very simple. I got an old favourite book from my childhood (“The Sandalwood Girl” from the “Puddle Lane” series by Sheila McCullagh, Ladybird edition) and used one of the illustrations as reference.

I have a box easel that gives me a tilted surface to work on when I don’t want to (or can’t) spend an evening hunched over the table, drawing, and I have a big crate of about 150 Crayola wax crayons, plus lots of watercolour paper, which creates the most beautiful relief texture. I set my lamp and my easel up on the floor, got a cushion to support me, and started drawing with my left hand. I found I had to hold the wax crayons so peculiarly (relative to my right-hand habit) and couldn’t put much pressure on the page, but going over my work again and again let me build up the colour with a lot more control than I have in my right hand.

This is what I came up with - about an hour of drawing, I think, although I didn’t time it - and I’m so pleased with it!

My left wrist hurt a bit, but I thoroughly enjoyed this drawing, and I’ll definitely be drawing more with my left hand in future. I’m determined to make more visual artwork, but it’s not always possible with my hypermobility - my right hand takes a beating when I use my walking stick - so maybe this will help me do more of what I love. I also really liked the challenge of drawing with my non-dominant hand.

If you're an artist looking for a new challenge, this is exactly the kind of thing I'd recommend. (With apologies to my dear ambidextrous friends, this may be less of a challenge for you than for others.) I'm really looking forward to trying again!

[ormspryde]

@magicmetslogic was interested in seeing my art supply hoard, so here we go. (I have more art supplies, but they're various kinds of paints and are in a different location)

So here's my colored pencil collection. The picture on the left has my box of cheapie pencils that I mostly just use for coloring books, a box of a few random metallic and black colored pencils, and my plastic crayons. The one on the right has my pencil case of prismacolors, a case of colored pencils that I use for more 'serious' art endeavors, a set of woodless pencils, some prismacolor art sticks, and a set of crayolas that I bought because I have no self-restraint.

The picture on the left is of my various kinds of stick charcoal, my charcoal pencils, and my pastels. The one on the right has my prismacolor markers, sharpies, and my various paint pens.

The picture on the left is my eraser and sharpener hoards (I get so many erasers and sharpeners with pencil sets) as well as my box of random art supplies. That includes a pad of sandpaper to put points on my pencils, some reed pens, a stone pencil, wax resist crayons, a pencil lengthener (to put pencil stubs in so you can still use them), an ink well, and eraser pencils. The one on the right is my set of oil pastels. I like oil pastels because they're like crayons only creamier.

The picture on the left has my pencils in various hardnesses as well as my box of various pens, including brush pens and fine point pens; there's also my bottle of white ink. The one on the right has my protractors and rulers and a little drafting set I got a while back.

And finally here's my various watercolor pencils and my singular graphite wash pencil.

I hope this was at least mildly interesting lol.

[nopizzaaftermidnight]

Here are "Voll-E Ball Comix" from 2006 & 2007! We played a lot of volleyball in PE around that time. The original comics were allegorical about my friend and this boy in our class who was annoying. However, I didn't draw them to look like the real people at all, and the characters soon took on a life of their own. This was also during the time I thought huge square glasses were soooo cool.

The truth is, I just spelled volley wrong. But I blamed it on my buffoon character. 6-26-06

I drew his hair with those specks in the first panel to copy the bully Moe from Calvin and Hobbes. Also: "aide," another word I couldn't spell. In subsequent comics I think I continued doing it wrong on purpose because I thought it was funny. 6-26-06.

6-26-06

That "PE BOSS" is kind of scary. Of course, you fix nets with net tape. 6-26-06

I either made a lot of these in one day (very possible), or I forgot to change the date when I was scanning these. 6-26-06

This might have been around when I saw Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Thus, holding up the helmet faceplate. Here you can see I needed an extra panel in the bottom row. Crayola markers don't stay on white-out very well. 6-28-06

Good comedic timing on this one! 3-2-07

The joke is that she knew if she left him alone, he'd tell the audience his secret defense--which in this case was... nose reinforcements. Then she dashed back and doofed him before he could put it back on. She's a meta-fictional mastermind. 3-3-07

His plan was to simply make any noise besides "doof." 4-8-07

I really worked hard to make those grapes the right color. I might have busted out my other marker set. 4-8-07

I was so close to correctly spelling "although." Althoguh, I still got it wrong. 4-8-07

4-9-07

The kid volleyballs we used in school were pretty soft. I never tried to cut a hole into one though, so I don't know how they'd be as boxing gloves. 5-26-07

I had this  habit of spelling out super weird speech patterns that made sense in my head, and perhaps might have worked out loud, but look pretty weird on paper. 7-10-07

[betaot4]

you ask if i’ve prepped an emergency survival kit for my home i say yes of course, you look inside to find an impressive stash of glue sticks, construction paper… wacky shaped scissors & hole punchers… pipe cleaners… markers, paint sets with lots of brushes (varied in thickness just in case) crayola 152 ct crayon collection box (with sharpener, wouldn’t want to be ill-prepared)

[papillionsoul]

General Information about Yuuki

GENERAL INFO

NAME: Yuuki Cross FAMILY: adoptive father ( Kaien Cross ) AFFILIATION: Cross Academy guardian YEAR: 1st year: Day Class student HEIGHT: 152 CM ( 5’0) WEIGHT: *** kg AGE: 18 years old ( verse dependent - once I get around vampire! yuuki it can be 10000+years old ) SEX: FEMALE Hobbies: Parfait tasting, mainly drawing sketching. Food trips w/ YORI Sleeping... Fashion !!! Esp when getting clothes for Zero Practicing with naginata.

Appearance

Body

Type: Mesomorph Yuuki is known to be a big eater; thanks to her metabolism & being physically fit, it doesn't show. Although she lacks muscle, her legs and arms have definition due to jogging & naginata practice. Hair: Chestnut brown. w/ red/dark brown hues. Shoulder-length with a fridge. Eyes: Brown With a tint of red. Height: (5'0) 152 cm Weight: unknown Complexion: Warm Ivory to eerily pale...she doesn't have the best skin...

Interests

Parfait tasting

Yuuki has a natural palate for sweets but holds PARFAIT above all else. Since Kaname took her to a nearby cafe, Yuuki has been hooked. ( so, did her dentist appointments grow) Her favorite is the Yogurt base parfaits & her preference leans on the fruit-oriented types. She tolerates granola as an aesthetic accessory to the dish, but an over-kill of cookies, chocolate bars, wafers & not to mention cereal will piss her off. Yuuki believes that parfaits should only be decorated using flavor; putting all those things in one parfait makes it seem like you're compensating for something. Beware, for this topic should ever be opened, Yuuki would enter her serious mode. Tread lightly.

Physical activities

Lacking in the...intellectual department, Yuuki naturally gravitated towards P.E. being her strongest suit. Her best practice besides her Naginata training was running, hiking, and swimming. ( that she never took seriously; she just wanted to have an excuse to practice with Zero and finally have a weapon that could his head. ) Vaulting the box during P.E. is her favorite exercise.

Drawing

Letting Yuuki have 100 color set of Crayola when she was six was a genius breakthrough for Kaien due to finally instilling life into Yuuki's vacant expression in her early adoption days. This was also an opportunity for the father-daughter bond to grow. Bad news, though, for the walls. So after three nervous breakdowns from their caretaker, Kaien presented Yuuki with a sketchpad to vent all her ideas into. Since then, Yuuki still has the pad with her; the practice carried over to her teenage years.

FOOD !

Ginger stir-fry Set has to be Yuuki's ultimate favorite food! Whether cooked by her favorite beef-bowl restaurant downtown or prepared by Zero, this would be the ultimate bribe for her. Too bad it doesn't help you get past the Night Class gate. Aside from this, Yori brings delicacies whenever she comes from her home. They also eat out every Sunday. Her Instagram feed is full of Food porn that no one suspects is a personal account.

Personality

“The Campaigner” (ENFP-T)

The Campaigner's personality is a true free spirit. They are often the life of the party. Still, unlike types in the Explorer Role group, Campaigners are less interested in the sheer excitement and pleasure of the moment than in the social and emotional connections they make. Charming, independent, energetic, and compassionate, 7% of their population can undoubtedly be felt in any crowd.

DETAILS

Mind -This trait determines how we interact with our environment. 90% Extraverted, 10% Introverted

Energy - This trait shows where we direct our mental energy. 84% Intuitive 16% Observant

Nature -This trait determines how we make decisions and cope with emotions. 10% Thinking 90% Feeling

Tactics -This trait reflects our approach to work, planning, and decision-making. 21% Judging 79% Prospecting

Identity -This trait underpins all others, showing our confidence in our abilities and decisions. 46% Assertive 54%Turbulent

OTHERS

Alignment: Lawful Good (slowly develops to Neutral Good ) Yuuki is raised by Kaien, and his morals of right & wrong are embedded in Yuuki's core. This makes her an effective guardian that upholds the Academy's laws; unfortunately, this also earned her the hatred of the ever-growing population of the fanbase Night Class has to offer.

Sexuality: Hetero.

Strengths: Curious, Observant Energetic, and Enthusiastic. Excellent Communicator Know How to Relax, Friendly

Weaknesses: Poor Practical Skills, Finding it Difficult to Focus, Overthink Things, Highly Emotional

Abilities

Physical

Strength : ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Agility : ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ (for a human that is )

Coordination : ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Stamina : ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Vitality : ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆

Intelligence

Interpersonal : ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Kinesthetic : ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Visual : ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Naturalist : ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Intrapersonal : ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Musical : ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆

Linguistic : ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆

Logical : ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆

Biography

Yuuki's earliest memory begins with snow. A five-year-old girl left alone in the middle of the SHIGA HIGHLANDS, which used to be a destination spot for skiing that became desolated after the 13th Human-Vampire war decades ago. Without any means of protection or recollection of how she got there, Yuuki was an easy target for the roaming rogue vampires. Seconds from being bitten, KANAME KURAN came to her aid. The pureblood was tracking down the vampire that Yuuki attracted ( the vampire was a part of his household that went berserk due to being banished for a misdemeanor ), effortlessly dispatching the enemy due to being focused on Yuuki's Blood. Cold and traumatized, Yuuki enters an almost catatonic state of silence as Kaname brings her to the authorities. They tried questioning Yuuki without any answers to their inquiries of who she was and where her parents were. Due to the vampires present in Yuuki's case, the Hunter association quickly pointed out that perhaps Kaname was the mastermind of this. At the same time, the Vampire council was quick to protect their "royalty" by stating Kaname was the savior in this scenario. Although Kaname saw what was really happening, politics. He quickly contacted a person with the compassion to care for the lost child & power that would render the hunter's association mute & strength to strike down any vampires that would pursue Yuuki. The most lethal hunter in history. Kaien Cross. He's retired, though. December 18 was the day Yuuki was found. Using their connections, Kaname assisted Kaien in adopting Yuuki, and by December 23, Yuuki Cross was now his daughter.

[rainbowsandalchemy]

Color Response 5: 27 and Me

Response to TED video-Angelica Dass: The Beauty of Human Skin in Every Color

After watching Angelica Dass share her personal story and the incredible photography she created for her Humanae project, I really started to think about the technical aspects of rendering and representing human skin tones. I recalled an interview with Bisa Butler on Debbie Millman’s “Design Matters” podcast. Bisa, who originally studied painting at Howard University before becoming a quilter, described the many colors she used to create rich and nuanced skin tones in her portraits. I immediately felt ashamed because, for most of my life, I begrudgingly accepted the orange-peach “flesh tone” crayon which seemed like a sad afterthought and didn’t match any natural skin tone that I had ever seen. 

The Humanae Project struck me as such an ingenious way to document the unique traits of each person’s skin tone and celebrate a subject’s natural beauty. I also wondered how useful the relatively new skin tone colored pencils produced by Crayola and other manufacturers would be in producing this diverse set of natural skin tones on paper. So, I borrowed two boxes of skin tone colored pencils from my kids’ art supply stash (minus the ones that have disappeared into the couch cushions) and began experimenting. 

The Crayola pencils were much cooler and less saturated than the Mudpuppy pencils. After comparing all options, I decided that an artist would be unable to rely on a single pencil set to create an individual’s skin tone and would likely need both sets of pencils to achieve a realistic result. I then attempted to approximate my skin tone by matching the color I observed in the  rectangles of my optical mixing self portrait onto the sketch paper. I chose the Mudpuppy pencils as a foundation since my skin contains quite a bit of red and is much warmer in temperature than any hue featured in the Crayola “Color the World” palette. Ultimately, I got somewhat close to a match but it was a frustrating process. Neither pencil set permitted the degree of blending and layering you might see in a set of Prismacolor or other high end pencils. 

My ultimate conclusion is that the new skin tone pencils and crayons are a giant step in the right direction, but their capabilities need to be expanded. I am so happy that my kids have more options to select when depicting figures in their coloring books. However, I would like to see continued investment in improving these products so that they can be added to the many tools an artist has to celebrate a subject’s skin tone and represent it accurately using fewer pencils and fewer steps. Until then, YouTube creator and artist Gemma Chambers sums it up quite nicely, if you want to portray skin tone (or any hue) with any level of precision, you have to “look at what you’re drawing and look at what colors you actually see.” There are no short cuts. 

[ask-robbie-axe-boy]

*slides a box of 64 crayola crayons and a sketchbook towards Robbie*

Wanna draw?

"ooooo! yayayayay!!!! yes please!"

Robbie sets to work drawing for around 1 hour till he rips the page he was drawing on out of the sketchbook to show it to you

"The guy is trying to slay the dragon but its fighting back! of course he wins in the end!"

[i got the new survivor erliy due to getting his s tier... MY FIRST ESSANCE S TEIR BTW... hes adorable but also.....]