#thinking of coloring and rendering this one

[alarajrogers]

I'm thinking this is actually a confusion about the term identity, not privilege.

You do not get privilege because of your identity if identity means who you are in your heart, or your genome, or who your parents were. You get privielge based on the identity that others perceive you as holding, which assigns you to an empowered group (or doesnt.) Privileges, like all other statuses in society, intersect, and can amplify or cancel each other.

So no, you do not get privilege for being a man. You get privilege for being seen as a man. And "passing privilege" (getting a privilege as long as no one knows the full details of your identity) is inherently much more stressful than privilege that doesn't require passing, and in some cases may be worse than the lack of privilege. (You can't blackmail a gay man who is out and proud with his gayness. You can blackmail a gay man whose status in society is entirely contingent on his passing as straight. The straight-passing gay man may have more societal privilege, but the cost he pays is so high, it might not be worth it.)

A trans man who is fully passing and thought to be a cis man by everyone around him has passing privilege, which, again, in certain circumstances may be worse than a lack of privilege. A trans man who is not fully passing does not have male privilege. Because only people who are fully seen as "men" have male privilege.

Your privilege does not depend on who you are. It depends on who you are thought to be. And the society you are in. An albino black person in the US might be able to pass for white, and thus have passing privilege over darker-skinned relatives. An albino black person in certain areas of Africa is literally at risk for being murdered for being an albino. (Yes, this happens. Check out Under the Same Sun for details.)

So no, men don't get privilege for having a male identity, nor is being male an immutable category of privilege. In almost all societies, being seen as male grants a high degree of privilege, though many other factors may turn this privilege into a negative in many circumstances. (A lot more black men are shot by cops than black women, and a lot more innocent black men get arrested, and black women have an easier time finding a job. But employed black men still make more money than employed black women. Women of all colors are more likely to suffer domestic violence, but men who do suffer may find there are no resources available for them.)

Do trans men get male privilege? Ben Barnes did, when neuroscientists reading his papers said he was better than his "sister" (his deadname identity from pre-transition). My housemate who has only so far socially transitioned and is deadnamed and misgendered by everyone who doesn't know him personally, and some who do, does not. Most trans men exist somewhere between the two categories. Trans men are more likely to be rendered invisible, while trans women are more likely to be openly demonized, and both are terrible. They are impossible to compare.

i’m not even gonna break this one down bc “male privilege isn’t a material benefit it’s just literally not being a woman” i think pretty much speaks for itself.

[i-am-but-a-beta-fish]

don't look at me

@the-elder-polls — hello! it is tcs friday, so i wanted to share this piece i made of my ldb road, who enjoys magic, extreme mountain climbing, and never talking about herself, ever. don't worry about it. she's definitely not lying about her name or her age or any significant personal information like that. the mask is just a fashion statement. don't—don't worry about it. 

(she's sixteen. she only started going by road because she thought she got carted to helgen for being an enemy of the thalmor, so when hadvar revealed no one had any idea who she was she was so startled she just blurted out the name of the first thing she saw. which was the road. somehow no one has caught on to the fact that this is a really weird and suspicious name for an altmer to have, even if their parents didn't like them very much. she's come to genuinely prefer it over her original given name, but she's been living in horrible teenage anxiety about it for so long that it hasn't once occurred to her that maybe introducing herself like that at this point is not, in fact, lying, and therefore road does not, in fact, have to feel incredibly guilty about it.

she still does, because she's a emotional disaster masquerading as a functional and mentally stable adult, but she'll get there.

…eventually.)

[periwinkla]

A word of advice to every artist out there who thinks they have to draw a certain way. I see things like this often: I hate drawing hands, I hate rendering, I hate linearting, etc., etc., etc.

One of my teachers in art school taught us something: if you don't like to draw something (regardless of how good at it you are) find a way to do it differently. Why draw if you don't enjoy it? Don't make your life miserable uselessly. He said, for example, that he really, really didn't like drawing hands. So he developed a style where his shapes were so stylized, and his hands so unlike anything you had seen. And, technically, his hands look weird. But! They are always consistent. You know it's intentional. It's his style. Weird is good. Weird will make you happy. (That doesn't mean he can't draw a realistic hand, it was his job to teach after all. But he just didn't like to draw them, and that's fine.) The same thing you can say with rendering, for example. You don't have to render! You can do flat color. You can do no color. Don't like to color? Black & White! Or cross-hatching. Or simply only lineart/sketch. Don't like to lineart? Do blocks of color with no lineart. Or just paint instead! Or use your sketch instead of the lineart. For myself, I don't like to draw detailed eyes, or noses. See how simple I draw them? That's why! I also don't particularly like to shade, and as you can see, my shadows are pretty generalistic and not very precise. Sometimes I do pieces where the light comes a bit all over the place and I enjoy that feeling of 'I don't know where this takes place, I'm disoriented by how this space works'. Sometimes I don't feel like linearting and I clean up the sketch with a soft eraser brush and that gives a different feeling to the piece, and I often like it even more. What I do focus on is color, because that's what I enjoy the most. Seeing all those bright colors together makes me happy!

What I am saying is, don't force yourself to do something you don't like to do. You'll feel miserable. Art is supposed to be fun. That's all. Happy drawing!

[vkelleyart]

💙🌊✨WHEN THE TIDES HELD THE MOON Endpapers Art Reveal✨🌊💙

It’s hard not to feel a little emotional sharing these endpapers for the hardcover edition of WHEN THE TIDES HELD THE MOON with you. We worked so hard to make this entire book feel like a time capsule from the 1910s, and I think we really might have pulled it off. Those of you who have seen or received the physical ARC might recognize bits of these images as graphical elements used throughout the book; they were hand rendered in pen and ink, then colored digitally in a treatment meant to evoke a historical age not quite so bygone as we might think.

When I traveled to Red Hook, Brooklyn last year to gather reference photos, I felt the weight of history press against my chest standing out there across from the Statue of Liberty, the once packed pier reduced to just a few pilings where only the floating Waterfront Museum now makes port for its seasonal run. It’s the spot Benny retreats to after work every night at the beginning of the novel, drawn to the water by a longing for distant shores and the promises of a statue that has “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” bolted to the pedestal. It felt fitting to honor this place and this moment by making it the first image you see upon opening the book.

For the rear endpaper, I opted for a side-by-side view of past and present Coney Island because this book is, in part, a tribute to everything Coney Island has represented over the last hundred+ years: a haven for the marginalized, an escape from labor/industry, a place where the conservative social norms that controlled everything from gender expression to who you were allowed to love could be left at the park gates. Coney Island has been through a lot since 1911, but it has managed to retain its beautifully diverse community — one I hope this book may help protect.

And as I did with the Red White and Royal Blue rear endpapers, I included Benny & Río’s kiss as a little treat to discover when you lift the dust jacket flap. :)

Endless thanks again to Erewhon Books and Kensington Publishing for the freedom to write and illustrate the book of my dreams. I can’t wait to hold the complete package in my hands — and dissolve into happy tears over it.

When the Tides Held the Moon releases on April 29, 2025. Preorder the book at a participating indie bookshop here and receive a free Benny & Río print, a “Love Rises” sticker, and either a signed book or signed bookplate 💙🧜🏼‍♂️🎡❤️🇵🇷🗽🌊🌕

[strangerthingsfanworkrecs]

Would love to nominate an artist: hearsegrrl Rachel is one of the friendliest artists I know. She is so supportive of other artists and writers, and although she's extremely busy irl, she still makes time for fandom and always drops the most iconic works. She's incredibly humble, and deserves all the love and recognition in the world.

This week, we're highlighting @hearsegrrl as an artist! All recs this week will be her art.

see the original here She answered some questions about her work under the cut

Why Stranger Things?

Honestly I had never seen it before season 4, but when it dropped I started getting a bunch of Eddie edits on my TikTok and was like “WOAH, I gotta know more about that guy right now.” I binged the whole season over a couple days, fell in love with his character, remade a Tumblr account for the first time since my early teens, and started drawing him pretty much immediately.

What's your favorite ship (platonic or romantic) to create for?

I love how much people love Steddie. I love a two himbos in love dynamic and I love their interactions in the show, even if they were brief they obviously stuck with people.

What's your typical drawing process like?

Oh jeez. Long. Once I have an idea I’m pretty eager to start on it asap, I collect a lot of references for what I’m thinking googling model poses, random band member candids, or taking weird self timer pics of myself posing in my kitchen and then cut and paste and collage them into something close enough to what I want and then kind of draw a “skeleton” over all of that just to save a couple hours, but that process still usually takes me about 2-3 hours to get it perfect. The piece I’m working on right now has a lot of little pieces in it and that part of the process took ten hours alone. Then I have a line drawing that I block base colors into, lock all of those, and then kind of fully render out each part at a time- skin, hair, shirt, pants, accessories, whatever else. I spend a good 75% of that process going “AHHHHH I DON’T KNOW IF THIS IS WORKING,” and then somehow it all comes together in the end. Sometimes depending on the piece, I’ve liked finding random stock images to kind of overlay in the background, it makes him feel so much more real and lifelike to me. Lately, the fully rendered stuff I’ve been posting takes anywhere from 12-20 hours of drawing. I tattoo full time 11-7 or later 5 days a week on top of drawing for appointments outside of work and usually only have time to draw for a couple hours at a time, or a little on the weekends so I try to be as efficient as possible.

Do you have a favorite tool for drawing?

I used to do a lot of painting for work and pastel pencil drawings for fun but I switched over to an iPad Pro a few years ago and it’s so much easier to be able to just draw on the couch and not drag out a bunch of materials and make a mess. I use Procreate for work and for fandom art.

Do you have any tips for drawing clothes?

Using references or making your own references to take pictures of! They’re a relief to get to because they don’t need to be perfect, unlike a face that is very anxiety inducing so don’t overthink it.

What has been your favorite project so far?

I really, really love the one I’m working on right now, I don’t know if I’ll post it (and if you’re reading this after Valentine’s Day you may have already seen it) because it’s a gift but it’s been the most fun and silly and therapeutic. But I love any “Eddie with an occupation” or AU moment, doing the baseball AU drawings for @brock-eddie was so much fun and I love how they turned out.

What has been your hardest project so far?

The Christmas Steddie one was kind of a pain in the ass because it took so long and had so many more little parts than just drawing one character, but I was happy with how it turned out. There’s a couple WIPs in my iPad that I would love to finish but they just weren’t turning out how I wanted them, I want to revisit them but I might have to scrap them and start over. Everyone is so nice I’m sure I could post them now and people would be stoked but things have to be perfect or I lay in bed at night and regret posting them for literally weeks.

Have you ever had a creative block?

Not really for coming up with ideas, but finding the energy to sit down and draw after working all day is hard sometimes. I have a weird thing where I don't want to draw for a little bit, I have to be in the headspace to work for at least 2-3 hours at a time or I just won't do it.

Is there a big source of inspiration for you? Books? Art? Games?

UGH, BEIN IN LOVE. Being a weird alt girl in Indiana. Eddie is so my type and for the first time I had a huge crush on a character that I felt like I could be his type too. I’m a tattooer going to metal shows in my free time in 🤠Waynedale, Indiana🤠, it is so easy to picture him living in my town and going the same places I do and through art I can make him real. There are so many talented writers on here who have brought him to life and I love and am inspired to draw by the fics that really flesh out the fact that he’s so earnest and has all these deeper feelings but he’s still a ding dong twentyish year old boy doing ding dong twentyish year old boy things. @jo-harrington's store manager verse, @wheels-of-despair's Evil Woman fics, and @courtingchaos's writings all fill me with DEEP, ACHING YEARNING for a boy like him, and no matter how sucky and unimpressive dudes in real life are, they make him so nice and funny, and I can dress him up however I want and draw him from the viewer’s perspective and there is something so therapeutic and comforting about that. I’ve been through a lot of dumb and mildly traumatizing stuff the last couple of years and reading fanfic again and drawing fanart has brought me so much peace and happiness in all of it.

What's your favorite way to get comments or interactions on your art?

I’m always really excited to finish a piece and get to post it here ASAP just to see everyone’s reactions. I’m so proud of the work that gets put into them but I’m never going to post them on a more public forum like my Instagram, I do them for myself and for the little group of people here I know it’ll bring joy to and it’s really fun to share that joy with everyone. When I’m sad, I go through the tags in the reblogs because people are so funny and sweet about them.

Is there an upcoming project you're particularly excited about?

Nothing specific right now, I’m about to get really busy with real work so I may have to slow down a little. I get a lot of ideas around the holidays/seasons changing because I love the more themed drawings, so after Valentine’s Day hopefully I’ll have some cute spring ideas to work on! I always like getting requests to see what people are wanting to see. I can’t always get to them because of work but sometimes they spark ideas for bigger projects.

Is there anything we forgot to ask?

I don’t think so! Love you all so much, for real. Time to write and draw more Eddie stomping out fascist weirdos. The world really sucks right now but everyone contributing to this fandom is creating a positive space and helping us get away from it all, I am so grateful for all of the talented people here for making life more bearable right now.

[yakowo]

Hi Fel!! I've been eating up your rdr content for a while, and God I am in love with your drawing style. Feel free to ignore if you're tired of doing tutorials, but if ever, do you have any tips on coloring? I'm just so obsessed with this "grainy"/textured aspect your rendering has!!!

(hope I'm not bothering! 🫣)

Have the best of days! 💫

Hello, Pine!!! Thank you so much! Your tags in rts always make my day, I'm so happy you enjoy my drawings <3

Well, my coloring process is pretty direct and simple, I think it's better to be shown on my skin rendering:

You can sum it up in 3 layers, all done with noise airbrush (for gradient - layers 24/23) and textured brushes (for shadows, impression of depth - layer 14).

To be completely honest you don't even need the exact brushes I used, I switch them up occasionally myself but the result stays the same! You can just find something to your liking (like graphite or pencil brushpacks) or make one yourself (for example adding a canvas or noise texture in settings).

I also like adding noise when I finish to make the drawing come together and give it that grungy look!

Clothes coloring process is pretty much the same, though I am not a fan of adding a lot of fold shadows! <:'D

And that's all to it! Have an awesome day! ✨

[puppppppppy]

tricky treats >:) 🎃🍬🍭👻🕸

treat!!! you get.. japanese emperor caterpillar

[chuffedtwobits]

HotGuy X CuteGuy :D

DDVAU is made by @kitsuneisi and @xmaruu11 go check it out :D

[cammy-mcspammy]

Time bomb except they're TOTALLY happy

[sunnyclovers]

i've been wanting to do a finished piece of them~ it's finally done :'o

[kokoasci]

colored them in !! for funsies

[hootyhoowoo]

A little 15 min doodle but first post of the year has to be Bingqiu!

[shroomerr]

portrait study but its kenny

[skipar00]

FINISHED IN TIME FOR LUFFY'S BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!

something something law's heartbeat again lol

[beriiblues]

Birth of a star ˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗

[critter-covenant]

ANYWAYS SDMSBnsbfns elaborating on the smiling critters but with bows thought

here's just one (1) singular of them for now: catnaps

Wanted to draw refs of all the critters all together but I'm impatient and busy so 1 by 1 it is instead womp womp, maybe I'll link them together as I go along yahooo