#this drawing took 44 minutes

[wawapiggy]

@themortaldraw’s turnip four has been living in my head rent free XD

[heatwa-ves]

maybe you could draw 12? (LOVE your artstyle btw)

thank u anon 💖💖💖 not obsessed with how this turned out but I don't hate it I just always struggle with drawing real people lol

[dontsmokedontdrinkfuck]

Cogito ergo sum "I think therefore I AM AM"

I AM

[valzangel]

Simon Henriksson my bae 🫶🫶 This was originally meant to be a doodle to pass the time but ended with a finished drawing, 12 layers total (including background and sketch) and took an hour n 44 minutes to complete

I haven’t posted on tumblr in like a million years D:

[jomunson]

50 ed headcanons i been thinking about

1. washes his hair with bar soap

2. doesn't like coffee

3. his father is in jail and his mother passed when he was 11

4. secretly gets really scared when it storms

5. says "hubba bubba"

6. gets super miserable in the summer, he burns super easily

7. swims with goggles and a snorkel

8. wears his hair in a towel when he gets out of the shower

9. super good and confident with flirting with men but really awkward and flustered with flirting with women

10. will say "is this guy bothering you, babe?" if you ever run into furniture

11. love language is words of affirmation, he wants to know you don't see him as a freak

12. sleeps with a garfield plush he's had since he was a boy

13. really bad at fishing, like he'll actually catch a boot when he goes on trips to the creek with wayne

14. burps the abc's

15. took his driving test drunk

16. when he gets home from school he's tired from being a tough guy, he reads a book and smokes before falling asleep

17. thinks people are pranking him when they ask him out

18. wears silly red and pink heart designed boxers

19. really sweet with the kids who live in the trailer park

20. will leave a handful of change as a tip

21. can only cook spaghetti. only spaghetti.

22. biggest fear is the koolaid man coming alive

23. minute man munson (iykyk)

24. will ask people to name 3 songs if their wearing a band tee

25. put lipstick on one time and felt pretty

26. prefers apple juice over orange juice

27. absolutely loves halloween

28. extremely competitive

29. hits people when he's excited/laughing

30. sits really close to the tv like an ipad kid

31. moans while getting beat up to make it awkward

32. extremely allergic to cats but loves them to death

33. birthday is april 19th 1966

34. has skinny dipped w his bros in lovers lake

35. fein for chocolate chip pancakes

36. eats skittles for lunch

37. tried to do a karate kick and ripped his pants once

38. calls his van his baby

39. lifts his leg when he farts and thinks it's peak humor

40. won a goldfish from the fair and fed it crushes doritos for 4 months and cried when it died

41. writes reminders on the palm of his hand and it gets smeared on his face

42. always cuts his face when he shaves on accident

43. when he draws and has to erase he does it so hard it rips holes in the paper

44. feels cool because he doesn't carry around a backpack at school

45. scared of moths

46. has lost pencils in his hair

47. flips his boxers inside out so he can wear them longer

48. has to be told to shower

49. tried to pierce his ears and sobbed and then they got infected

50. his nose gets the brightest red in the winter

[melit0n]

I made a little comic based on a convo a few friends and I had.

Time taken: 6 hours and 5 minutes.

What took the longest? Slide 7. Those book designs brought me to the brink of insanity (1 hour and 44 mins).

(Notes under the cut)

Before anyone asks, yes, I know Canus Major typically appears behind Orion, however, I was running out of space, so please forgive the inaccuracy.

For anybody wondering what on Earth the third drawing is, it's a interpretation of NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft's Pale Blue Dot, which was taken on February 14th, 1990.

Slide 8 represents the red string theory. In most literature, the red string is attached to two people, typically romantic lovers, who are intertwined by fate to meet. However, it can also just be a string that connects a person and all the people they'll connect with in life. It's an embodiment of fate; everybody is interlinked.

Slide 10 is one of my own photos taken from my bedroom window. I originally planned on drawing it out, however, after two hours of fiddling about and trying to make it look right, I gave up and just put the photo there; I hope it fits in fine.

@moonchild-in-blue @tonguetyd @hookedhobbies @branches-in-a-flood thought you four might like this!

[the-name-is-z]

SKELETONS | ch. 44

daryl dixon x f!oc

masterlist

a03 link

Summary: While in pursuit of the vehicle that took Beth, Iris and Daryl encounter another group of survivors with unorthodox methods. Warnings/Information: AMC's The Walking Dead OC Insert | 18+ Advised | strangers to lovers; the slowest of slow burns; gore; angst; horror; humour; m/f; threats; sexual harassment; injury; discussions of maiming others; general discomfort

Chapter 44 - Alone, Not Alone

Iris and Daryl ran for hours. The sun had risen and they were still running down the dirt road in the direction Beth had gone. When they got tired, they jogged, and then walked, but they did not stop until it was well past noon. They met a four way intersection, the road to the left intersected by train tracks. Both of them were dripping in sweat, panting, their fear palpable. Daryl dropped his crossbow, plopping down in the middle of the road. Iris knelt beside him, a hand on his shoulder.

“We can’t stop.” She said softly. There was no way to know which way they went, but they had to try. “Make our best guess.”

“Our best guess?” Daryl yelled, looking up at her. There was fury in his eyes, but behind it was just sadness. Iris knew his anger was not directed at her, and she sighed, head hanging.

“What the hell else can we do?” She nearly whispered. Daryl dropped his head too, adjusting something on his boot.

-

Iris had sat down beside him after a few minutes, hugging her knees to her chest while she waited for him to get his bearings. If they didn’t move, they made no progress, but at least they weren’t losing progress. They sat there for about half an hour, Iris realized as she glanced halfheartedly at her watch. 

She stilled, however, as a loud group of slow footfalls echoed down the road. They were loud, slow, but not dragging, and accompanied by soft muttering between men. Not walkers. There were six of them, and as soon as they got near enough, surrounded both Daryl and Iris. Neither of them made any movements, keeping their heads on as they silently assessed the situation. Perhaps these were the assholes that took Beth. 

One of them, presumably the leader, stepped particularly close, a shotgun hanging from a strap over his arm. He didn’t aim it at them, but he had no need when the five others had their own weapons trained on them. At least two were armed with compound bows. Iris inwardly frowned. A bullet would hurt less.

“Well, lookie here.” The first man said, calling to the others. “Hello there, kitten.” He took two steps closer, bending down to pick up the crossbow, when Daryl socked him across the face. The others surrounding them raised their weapons, but Iris and Daryl were already on their feet. Iris had her knives at the ready as Daryl knocked the man down, peering down the scope of his crossbow. “Damn it, hold up!” He pleaded, holding one hand to his bleeding nose.

“I’m claiming the vest! I like them wings.” One man called, adjusting his bow.

“You’re claiming the vest? I’m claiming the girl.” Another called, his eyes raking up and down Iris, even as she bared her teeth at him. “I like her spunk.”

“Oh, she’s gonna like my—“

“Hold up.” The first man repeated firmly, wiping the blood from his face. He started chuckling, laughing loudly as he pushed to his feet. “A bowman! I respect that. See, a man with a rifle, he could have been some kind of photographer or soccer coach back in the day. But a bowman’s a bowman through and through. What you got there, a hundred fifty pound draw weight? I’ll be donkey licked if that don’t fire at least 300 feet per second. I’ve been looking for a weapon like that. Course, I’d want one with a bit more ammo, and minus the oblongata stains.”

“Get yourself in some trouble, partner?” The second man, the one with the bow, chuckled, the one who wanted Daryl’s vest.

“You pull that trigger, these boys are gonna drop you several times over.” The leader warned nonchalantly, staring down the loaded bolt. “Though, then I’d have no control over what they’d do to your woman, there. That what you want? Come on, fella, suicide is stupid. Why hurt yourself when you can hurt other people?” Iris’ lip curled at that. “Name’s Joe.”

“Daryl.” He replied lowly. Daryl slowly lowered the crossbow, the other men turning their guns to Iris.

“Put the knives down, sweetheart. Don’t wanna ruin that pretty face.” The third man suggested, taking a step closer. Iris was thankful Daryl stood steadfast at her back. She lowered the knives, flipping one in between her fingers before sheathing it, a small, silent threat. The others lowered their weapons, Joe smiling and nodding as he stared at them. 

-

Iris and Daryl did not sleep. How could they? Even when the little group set up a camp in the woods, surrounding themselves with barbed wire and tin can alarm systems, even when every single one of the bastards went to sleep around them. Daryl tried to convince Iris to close her eyes, but she refused to leave him alone with them. Not when they were the type of people the two of them suspected they were. It wasn’t exactly safer for them to stay with this group, but they would. For now.

In the morning, they stepped out, leaving the most of their things with the group. Iris followed Daryl as he trekked, not far, to find something for them to eat. She almost stayed with their things, to make sure they wouldn’t be stolen, but she had a feeling Joe wouldn’t allow that. And she had no intention of placing herself among them, alone. 

Just as Daryl loosed his arrow into the rabbit they’d found, a second arrow whizzed past the both of them, spearing the rabbit a second time. Iris whirled, scowling at the man with the compound bow.

“What the hell are you doing?” Daryl barked.

“Catching me some breakfast.” The man replied with a shrug.

“That’s mine.”Daryl countered, stepping forward and grabbing the rabbit.

“My arrow’s the one that hit first.” The guy argued. “Cottontail belongs to me.”

“Been out here since before the sun came up.” Daryl continued.

“See, the rules of the hunt don’t mean jack out here.” The man said with a scowl, brushing past Iris to face Daryl. “Now, that rabbit you’re holding is claimed, boy.” Iris looked at the back of the man’s zip-up hoodie, eyes zeroing in on the biker gang logo on the back. Motherfucker was wearing a white supremacist confederate gang logo. He was also still wearing a wallet chain, which said more about him than Iris ever needed to know. “Claimed whether you like it or not. So if I was you, I’d hand it over, now, before you get to wishing you ain’t never even got out of bed this morning.”

“It ain’t yours.” Daryl said simply, walking over to face him head-on, a deadly look in his eye.

“You know, I’ll bet this bitch got you all messed up, hmm?” The man asked. Iris raised an eyebrow, seconds from acting on the murderous thoughts in her mind. Daryl didn’t respond, walking back over to Iris quietly. “Am I right? Got you walking around here like a dead man, who can’t get himself a piece of tail. Must be a good’un. Tell me something, does she get wet even when she say she don’t want it?”

Iris felt nothing but fury, but Daryl acted before she could. He had his knife out, cocked above his shoulder and posed to descend into the man’s clavicle before he spoke another word. Joe appeared suddenly and stopped him, just barely, inserting himself between the two before they got a lot bloodier. 

“Easy, fellas, easy.” Joe called, even as the man laughed, staring hungrily at Iris. “Let’s just put our weapons down, see if we can’t figure out what���s really the problem here, huh?” He turned to the man, who slung his bow over his shoulders. “You claim it?”

“Hell yeah.” The man replied.

“Well, there you go. That critter belongs to Len.”

“So let’s have it.” Len said, putting his hands on his hips. Daryl made no move to hand it over.

“Looks like you may be wanting an explanation.” Joe proposed as if he was the most generous motherfucker to grace the earth. “See, going it alone, that ain’t an option nowadays. Can’t keep your lady safe, hmm? But it still is the survival of the fittest. That’s a paradox right there. So I laid out some rules of the road to keep things from going Darwin every couple hours. Keep our merry band together and stress-free. All you gotta do is claim. That’s how you mark your territory, your prey, your bed at night. One word, claimed.”

“I ain’t claiming nothing.” Daryl spat. Joe raised an eyebrow as Len rubbed his hands together.

“You sure?” Len asked, licking his lips and making vulgar gestures toward Iris. “Gotta teach him. Rules say we gotta teach him.”

“Now it wouldn’t be fair for us to punish you for violating a rule you never even knew existed.” Joe offered, hands up.

“There ain’t no rules no more.” Daryl grumbled. Iris watched with sharp eyes as Len paced back and forth impatiently.

“Oh, there are. You know that.” Joe stated, shaking his head. “That’s why I didn’t kill you for the crossbow.” He reached around, grabbing the other end of the rabbit from Daryl’s hand.

“Hey—“

“Easy there, partner.” Joe soothed. The rabbit was pulled taut between them, Daryl refusing to let go. Joe lifted his other hand, armed with a knife, and sliced the rabbit in half. Daryl took his half, and Joe haphazardly tossed the rabbit at Len, not shy about spraying innards and blood across his clothing. He looked between the two men before Len stormed off. “Claimed. That’s all you got to say. Ass end is still an end.” He gestured down to the rabbit before following after Len.

“I might cut all their hands off.” Iris whispered into the ether. Daryl hummed in agreement, looking down at his half of a rabbit.

“You okay?” He asked softly. Iris nodded, looking over at him with a gentle smile.

“These dumb fucks are nothing I can’t handle.” She replied. “I’ve got knives upon knives hidden everywhere.” Iris joked. 

“Can’t be tamed.” Daryl said with a quiet huff of laughter.

“Can’t be claimed, that’s for sure.” She grumbled, looking off after Len and Joe.

“If those sons of bitches ever lay a hand—“ He started, but she put a hand on his arm.

“We’ll burn their bodies together.” She agreed, earning a huff in response before they trudged off back to the campsite.

The group meandered down the train tracks in a shamble, Joe hanging back with Iris and Daryl at the end. Some of the guys chatted up front with each other, but they kept it quiet.

“So what’s the plan, Daryl?” Joe asked.

“How so?” Daryl replied.

“You’re with us now, but you ain’t soon?”

“Yeah.”

“So what’s the plan?”

“Looking for the right place.” Iris said when Daryl didn’t reply.

“She speaks!” Joe called enthusiastically, turning halfway toward her as he lit a cigarette. “We ain’t good enough for you, kitten, is that it?”

“Some of you ain’t exactly friendly.” Daryl pointed out defensively. Joe chuckled, shaking his head.

“You ain’t exactly a friendly pair yourselves.” He replied. “You know you need a group out here.”

“Maybe we don’t.”

“No, you do. You should be with us.” Joe insisted. “And if your woman is claimed, no one’s gonna touch her.”

“Somehow that doesn’t inspire much confidence.” Iris grumbled, earning a grin and a shrug from the sleaze-ball of a man. A single walker snarled up ahead, and Iris pondered for a moment if it would make better company. 

“People don’t gotta be friendly.” Joe mused. “We don’t have to be nice, we don’t have to be brothers in arms. We just gotta follow the rules. You claim. If you steal, you keel. I know that sounds a little funny, but nobody laughs when something goes missing. And you don’t lie. ‘Cause that’s a slippery slope indeed.”

“What happens if you break ‘em?” Daryl asked.

“Oh, you catch a beatin’.” He answered with a shrug. “The severity of which depends on the offense and the general attitude of the day. But that don’t happen much 'cause when men like us follow rules and cooperate a little bit, well, the world becomes ours.” He stopped, letting out a whistle to the men ahead. He pointed to a rusted train garage on the side of the tracks, probably once used to house cargo of whatever sort alongside old train engines. “Right there. It’s our abode for the evening.”

“Hey.” Daryl called after him. Joe turned around. “There ain’t no us.”

“You leaving right now?” Joe asked. “No? Then it sure seems like there’s an us.” He walked a few steps ahead as the other guys scoped out the garage. “You a cat person Daryl? I am. Loved ‘em since I was three years old. Vicious creatures. Anyway, I’ll tell you, and this is true. Ain’t nothing sadder than an outdoor cat that thinks he’s an indoor cat.”

The men filed into the building, guns at the ready, Daryl falling in last. They put their weapons away at the sign of no immediate threat, Joe motioning for Daryl to close the door behind him. They all looked around, finding the warehouse to not house trains or cargo, but cars. They were dusty and in okay shape, though who knew what parts they did or didn’t have.

“They ain’t here.” The sleaze, who first tried to “lay claim” to Iris, announced. “Nobody’s been here a while. Whoever was, they got all the gas.”

“That don’t matter.” Joe shrugged. “We’re getting closer, I can feel it.” Iris’ eyes trailed to the sweet Cadillac in the corner, black paint job a little faded, a little chipped, but good enough. Len had his hand on the locked door handle, and she let the knife fly between her fingers. Coincidentally, the knife found its purchase hilt-deep in the steel of the door, right between Len’s fingers. He whipped around, looking at her in shock as she straightened from her follow-through.

“Claimed.” She said simply, offering the smallest upturn of her lips as Len sneered at her. Joe chuckled.

“Kitten’s got the right idea.” He mused. They erupted into chatter, picking various cars and “claiming” them. Daryl walked around, getting cut off by one of them each time he tried to place his things near one of the cars. Within seconds, the other six cars in the room were under new possession. Daryl very nearly put his bag on the floor before Iris nudged him with her elbow, jerking her chin at the Cadillac. 

“C’mon. No need to sleep on the floor like a dumbass.” She said quietly, her frown morphing into an amused smirk. He followed her with his head down as they walked past the others. Iris grabbed a piece of thin sheet metal from a street sign with a notch at the end, using it for a slim-jim and easily unlocking the car door. She unlocked the other side, the two of them sitting down before locking the doors again. “Safe enough.”

“Thanks.” Daryl grunted.

“Of course.” Iris replied, shaking her head before adjusting the seat to sit comfortably. “Not better than a casket, but better than the floor.” He hummed his agreement, laying the passenger’s seat flat and pulling a cinnamon stick from his pocket before lying down. He had the crossbow still tight in his grip, and Iris kept her eyes on their temporary companions.

-

TAGLIST:

@heidiland05

@ryoujoking

@catlalice

@maxinehufflepuffprincess

@lowkeyhottho

@fadingpalacebonkpsychic

[spacenintendogs]

Hi! I love your art and I’m so curious to know what your art process is like!

i've been trying to figure out how to answer this & i've honestly realized that my process is a mess LOLOL i did record myself!!! drawing fishlegs bc he is the fave & easiest for me to draw! i hope everything i explain under the read more makes sense!!

it took me over 44 minutes to draw & the screen recording in the art program i use (autodesk sketchbook) brought it down to about 7 minutes and 25 seconds. i didn't wanna speed it up even more bc it'd be way too fast & jarring i think but!! i've uploaded the video to youtube (with some animal crossing music <3)!! i will still try to explain what i did here tho!!

my initial sketches are EXTREMELY loose! i start with the head by drawing a circle & extending past it for the chin of the character & proceed to do the nose, eyes, & mouth!! hair is next, but if there's a helmet i need to draw, i'll do that before the hair!! then i'll do the body starting from the shoulders & going down!! for the hands i just do circles/a general shape! no details!!

the sketch layer is a layer of black for the brush color with with lower opacity

i immediately do lines on top with the same brush but with black at full opacity on the kayer above!! this time i actually take my time to be more careful with details BUT i am still very sketchy & if smth isn't 100% accurate after i try a few times, i leave it be! hands however...

i almost always end up taking a photo of my hands using the front facing camera set to a 5 second timer on my phone! i also draw using my phone so it's literally having everything i need all in one place lol!! i do trace my own hands but obv i adjust based on what i'm drawing!! fish's hands are def gonna be wider than mine!!

NOW for color i color pick directly from screenshots!! however i use it mostly for flats & then pick my own for shading!! let's focus on the flats for now!! i start with the skin always!! the skin is going to have color layers above and below it, so it's easier for me to see where everything else will go if i've got the skin all settled. here you can see my color layers!! these are ALL flats!!

shading & lighting i don't rlly... focus on being accurate 100% but i try to do it based on where a shadow would absolutely be/to give the appearance of some type of depth (my art is very flat either way tho!) like where his lower hand is cupping i'll shade but leave the top of the upper hand unshaded for the most part! i lay out everything in a multiply layer first (can be any color u want based on the vibe u want!!) & then use a smudge tool to blend it out!! same goes for the lighting layer!!!

my art overall is a lot of scribbling big lines & curves then using the lineart to do the same but slowly make adjustments until it looks acceptable to me. it's SO much erasing & reshaping & i always have sketch lines everywhere but i like how it looks. it looks like i drew it, u know? plus the httyd books art style is a HUGE inspiration to me, at my core. i didn't even realize it was until ppl on here pointed it out :') i also enjoy drawing fast & moving on!! which is just smth i've trained myself to do since my star fox days (the reason i draw in the first place!!)

thank u!!!! i hope this made sense!!

[himawari-candyy]

why does it take me so long to do drawings fr 😐 i only get the head done and i look over and it took me 44 minutes and i’m like ?????? what made it so that it took me that long? 😭 am i a sloth? am i spacing out a lot without realizing?? am i time traveling??? there is no way… oh my god i’m completely screwed if i’m going to do artfight this year 💔 it’s taking me double times longer to draw than normal

[cherishbendy]

Bigger Body Craftycorn

I drew this some days ago! I decided why the hell not draw her. I based her off the vrchat avatar I have. It was hard as all I had as references was a terrible pic I took of me and flutter as her (Craftycorn), and some low quality images on safari.

This also took over a whopping 6 hours and 44 minutes! Almost 7 hours! Wow! Didn't finish in one day though. Started in school near the end of the school day and finished it in school.

Also sorry for randomly disappearing! I just didn't want to post no more. Completely normal for me! I can leave for a year and come back like nothing has happened >:)

(I'm the one in front. Flutter is in the back. I had to advance the image as it was to dark)

I'll be posting randomly now just a fyi!

[bopinion]

2024 / 44

Aperçu of the week

"I think artificial intelligence will eventually lead us to our doom!" "I think human intelligence is already doing that!"

(Dialogue in a drawing by German cartoonist Klaus Stuttmann)

Bad News of the Week

Georgia has voted. I'm not talking about the early voting in the southern US state, but the elections in the former Soviet republic in the Caucasus on Europe's easternmost border. In the run-up to the elections, the forecasts were clear and the opposition could safely assume that it would replace the existing government. Even on election day itself, the monitoring at the polling stations painted a clear picture: the pro-Russian party "Georgian Dream" (Kartuli Otsneba / KO) would lose its power, the country would move closer to Europe and shake off Russian dominance. Then came the official result. It was a shock.

The electoral commission declared that the Dream had received 54% of the vote and that the government would therefore remain in power. There was not only a huge outcry among the pro-European opposition. The OECD election observers also came to the conclusion that there were "massive allegations of manipulation that cast doubt on the legitimacy of the elections". And even President Salome Zurabishvili, who was directly elected by the people, spoke of fraud, saying that her country had become the victim of a "Russian special operation". The fact that the neighboring superpower, which still has troops in the secessionist provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, supports the strange private party KO is entirely official policy.

And "Georgian Dream" is indeed strange in many respects. It was only founded in 2012 by oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili, who made his billions in Russia, as an electoral alliance with the sole purpose of replacing President Mikhail Saakashvili. The plan succeeded, there was no other political program. The KO sees itself as a "conservative political platform", with the sole aim of supporting Vladimir Putin since the beginning of the Russian attack on Ukraine. In view of Georgia's historical experiences with him, this should actually be a no-go.

The people of Georgia are fed up and are taking to the streets. They are largely pro-European, the prospect of EU membership had caused just as much euphoria here as in Ukraine and Moldova. Now they are gathering in front of the parliament again, the media report, singing the European anthem and waving the blue European flag with the yellow stars. "The government has not only stolen the election, but the future," says a politics professor at Georgia's Ilia University. The Dream is still at the levers of power. Which many now only perceive as a nightmare.

Sidekick: In the region around Valencia in Spain, heavy rain has caused a flood disaster of unprecedented proportions. Several hundred people have died and immense damage has been caused. Here, too, the authorities have to face some unpleasant questions.

Good News of the Week

Spot the mistake: among others, Die Zeit publishes a group picture with Pope Francis from within the Vatican. Of the 86 people in the picture, he is the only man. Period. We are talking about the Catholic Church - this picture is a sensation. The World Synod met in Rome for four weeks. It was attended by 462 participants, including those 85 women. Unbelievable for this reactionary organization called the Catholic Church, which has always found the role of women... well... difficult. Let's get one thing straight from the start: The priesthood is still not open to women. And there is still no equality for same-sex partnerships. But that was not to be expected.

Nevertheless, this World Synod - a kind of self-positioning of the Church - took place under completely new auspices of openness and transparency that had never been seen before. The procedure alone: A motley crew of a dozen participants sat around a round table. In the first round, everyone had three minutes to speak. Then three minutes of silence "for the work of the Holy Spirit". In the second round, everyone could respond to everyone else, followed by silence again. And finally consensus and voting. 155 defined topics were dealt with in this way.

The Pope's declared aim of bridging the gap between clergy and laity in the Church was also remarkable. With a clear message to his own management: the bishops should no longer condemn or devalue other ways of life, they should respect people as they are. Boom. The formal conclusion of the World Synod fits in with this. Francis declared that there would be no papal letter on the subject, that their own text would apply. The synod members applauded at this announcement.

Yes, a lot still needs to happen. For example, not only one active participant thought it was a shame that no victims of abuse had their say. I went to a convent boarding school myself. And I actually experienced the two sides of this coin myself. I myself and my two children are not confirmed - and that is no coincidence. But I also know that change takes time. And Francis himself wrote in his recent encyclical that "it is difficult for us to trust because we are wounded by so much deceit." In my view, this is nothing less than an admission of own fallibility. And that from the Pope. Wow.

Sidekick: The run-off election for the presidency has taken place in Moldova. And the incumbent head of state, Maia Sandu, has clearly won. That's good, because she will undoubtedly continue the pro-Western course of government - after all, that's why she was re-elected.

Personal happy moment of the week

I have been writing this blog for almost five years now. In the beginning, I wrote extensive monthly reviews of books and music albums and only short statements on current political issues. These became more and more extensive and required more and more time. As a result, my funny posts such as "Just asking for a friend...", "Inconvenient truths", "Rules that should be laws" or "Breaking news" eventually died out. Now I've received an email from Tumblr congratulating me on 500 posts. I would like to thank you for that. To the readers who give me a few minutes of their time every week to find out what a Bavarian and European thinks about globally more or less relevant political issues. Thank you very much! PS: Maybe one day I'll find the time again to be culturally critical or simply funny ;-)

I couldn't care less...

...that "Hello Kitty" is celebrating her 50th birthday. My daughter is now 21 years old. So I no longer have to buy pencil cases, rucksacks and T-shirts featuring the admittedly rather cute cat. And don't make a Japanese licensor for around 50,000 products (!) even richer.

It's fine with me...

...that my children are indeed responsible for some downloads and uploads, because compared to the official average figures, they actually seem to be below average. Young people in Germany used the internet for a total of 63.7 hours per week in 2023, with the renowned Postbank study only counting time spent online on smartphones, tablets and mobile or desktop PCs. If you add gaming consoles and smart TVs, the numbers are even higher.

I think these are incredible figures. However, I have to admit that my personal media usage has also changed. I now spend more time on news and media websites than on paper newspapers and magazines, which I still subscribe to. If I then add to that the time I spend online for work - collaboration tools, online editing, communication, server use, etc. - as well as streaming services and other media and portals that I consume in my free time, I'm probably not far off.

As I write this...

...I'm quite afraid of the night ahead - it's November 5th. Because I still remember 2016 well: when I went to bed, all was still right with the world. I should have stayed there. Because when I got up and read the first news, I vacillated between incredulous amazement, fits of maniacal laughter, hysterical fits of weeping and blunt unconsciousness. This time I know that it can actually happen. And what it would mean. And that scares me.

Post Scriptum

The 29th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change - or better known as COP29 - will take place in Baku, Azerbaijan, the second half of November. Quite the whole world has this event on the agenda. But there is a little sibling to this conference that already took place last week in Cali, Colombia: the COP16 of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (UNCBD). Why haven't you heard anything about it? Because there is hardly anything to report. Because the results are unfortunately, to put it mildly, "manageable".

After tough negotiations, the delegates failed on what is probably the most important issue: how species protection should be financed. The conference had already been extended once. But on Saturday, the Colombian environment minister and president of the conference, Susana Muhamad, had to announce that there were no longer enough participating countries present to continue the negotiations. A few small partial successes remain, such as the appeal to the pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries to pay into a fund that benefits the countries that supply the basis for their products. Or the establishment of a body to represent the interests of indigenous peoples. Better than nothing. But not enough.

[joasis00]

Never posted this but it took me 14 hours and 44 minutes to draw this. I love it.

[mewnia]

wait whys tales sunday ending? not trying to pressure u into drawing or anything, but did i miss an announcement about it or something? ive loved seeing ur art and reblogs for it :D

No worries! I kinda figured with all the new followers I've been getting lately that I would get asked this question! I can't find my initial announcement which means I probably had a "delete later" tag on it so really I can't blame anyone for not knowing

In this post over here someone was wondering about my OC's, which is the only post I can find where I followed up with the whole "Tales of Sunday has limited time left."

Why Tales of Sunday is over:

I'm tired, it's been a whole year, haha! The reason I initially started Tales of Sunday was because I had noticed I barely if at all posted any content of the Tales series during my last year of college. (Which was understandable, I was very busy and thinking about other things) So, Tales of Sunday was a way for me to make up for that and give me a small challenge each week.

It was also a great way to play around with my style! You've probably noticed, but my Tales of Sunday posts have gotten a lot better in terms of quality compared to the first half. I was getting better at drawing, that's all :P it's a really good exercise, I highly recommend it to others to try and draw something in less than 2 hours. (most drawings took 90 minutes tops)

Another thing was, when I was about halfway into drawing for Tales of Sunday, I had a realization. "There's no stated end to this." I like to tell people when exactly to stop expecting something. This is just coming from me personally, as someone who has been excited for things from other creators and one day they switch on a dime with no warning. Sometimes people follow you for specific content and drop you when you stop. It's fine, they shouldn't feel bad about it, I do the same thing. A year seemed like both a long and short enough deadline :P

This one's more of a smaller reason, but there was less interaction as time went on. The only asks I was getting were character requests, and.. I love the Tales fandom. But a lot of people, when requests open, get very... entitled. I made announcements towards the beginning asking for requests, and, unfortunately, when I would draw a request I would get a spam from what I could only assume was the same person asking for the same character over and over. Or even a "not this character this week? :(" or any ask that would raise a red flag in my head. I was hoping Tales of Sunday would help inspire discussions, interactions, and even others to join if they wanted! It didn't, really, but that's life sometimes. I'm not heartbroken. It wasn't going how I expected, so I grabbed the first few requests that caught my attention and scattered them through future entries. I even kinda.. stopped putting the ask in the drawing. I noticed it wouldn't bring up the post in the search option if I did that.

So there you go! It was still a lot of fun, I enjoyed it, and I enjoyed drawing Tales characters I wasn't used to. The self-indulgence part of it was also very refreshing :3 Thank you to all who supported me throughout!

And hey! I drew 44 entries!

[kararii]

Its only took just under 12 hours, but happy Riolu Day!

This took incredibly long, especially since I drew everything. That includes completely obscured parts of the designs featured. Expand for individual versions of every riolu here, along with their owners

I wanted to draw way more than this, but like this took 11 hours and 44 minutes (not including time spent idling), and I think I'd die if I did more. Anyways can't wait to suffer again when I do this next Riolu day. See you next year lol

[historical-fangirl]

Coming in to Land (Annie Park, Masters of the Air OC)

England

Spring 1945

Days tended to be uneventful now that the end of the war was imminent. A far cry from how the busiest days of ’43 and ’44 had gone, with a seemingly never-ending stream of airplanes taking off every morning, Annie watched as Major Cleven’s plane took off on its milk run followed by several others in a neat line, leaving the runway quiet and empty in their wake.

Lord, guard and guide the men who fly through the great spaces of the sky. The brass believed the Germans should (hopefully) honor the proposed truce, if they had any decency left in them at all, but after reading the newspapers recently Annie privately thought that decency was a virtue that German high command was not at all blessed with. She didn’t trust them.

Not that anyone was asking her what she thought, of course.

Letting out an almost inaudible sigh, Annie reached absentmindedly for the pad of paper and pencil on the desk next to her. She found herself sketching more and more these days, mostly to fill the endless, monotonous hours in the control tower. Never quite sure of what she was going to draw until she had finished it, Annie found herself rapidly outlining a B-17 mid-flight. She sketched for a few minutes before she became conscious of someone walking up behind her, who she assumed was one of her fellow control tower operators.

“One second,” she said without looking at them. “I’m almost finished.”

“Nice drawing,” the someone said directly over her shoulder, and Annie instinctively swatted at the man’s arm.

“Seriously, Major Egan, I’ve told you before not to crowd me like that. And what is it with you and your flyboys and sneaking around anyway? You’d think you were all spies with the way-” Annie cut herself off as she realized what she was saying, and more importantly who she was saying it to. Whirling around in her chair she was greeted with the face of John “Bucky” Egan, sporting a Cheshire-cat grin. He looked a bit older, a lot skinnier, and there were bags under his eyes, but he was alive and he was here and he was smiling.

“Oh my- Egan!” Annie jumped up and threw her arms around him in a hug which he returned with a soft laugh.

“If I’d known getting taken prisoner was all it took to make you this happy, I would’ve done it back when we first met.”

“You’re an idiot.” Suddenly conscious of where they were (and that they weren’t alone, although none of the other operators seemed to mind given their barely concealed smiles) Annie let Bucky go and took a small step back. “Um, if you’re looking for Major Cleven and the others they just left. Milk run, though, so they should be back soon.”

“Yeah, they told me when I got here. I came to the control tower to see you.” That same grin was back. “And to ask a favor.”

[pink-strawberry-kissess]

we love supporting small streamers ;) so here’s a highlight of katy’s stream with nick as a guest! 

nick might cosplay as re4r leon, he’s too busy right now

he loves doing emotional scenes

nick got to write a lot of his lines in re4r (this kind of tracks that some of the lines may have been different from what was originally written in the script, but he implies that the lines he was allowed to write were more of the one liners)

two of his favourite lines were (that he wrote), “you wanna get ugly, let’s get ugly,” and “tell someone who gives a shit.”

he was in japan recently for 8 days (just for fun)

he does a lot of travelling for fixers tv (to help with villages or towns, there are 30 episodes or so)

he(Nick) was not approached to reprise the role of Leon for Death Island (he thinks it makes sense to get Matt Mercer for Death Island since it’s a sequel to Vendetta and Matt played the role then)

he’s into metal

he is trying to get into a convention in ireland (but it is not confirmed)

he is trying to get into conventions, they (the cast) are not getting invited as much as he thought they would. he thinks that he will be in more cons in 2024 as most of the guests for 2023 were asked back in 2022.

he has a con in a sacramento and maryland coming soon (most cons that are inviting him are anime related so far)

he loves doing motion capture and he gets to see a version of leon when he’s working

nick likes oreos and will eat an oreo whenever he or the person playing dies lol (44 minutes in ish)

he did the hot ones challenge (it was for charity) it took him about a day to recover (he almost went to the hospital that night)

he googled “can you burn a hole into your stomach with hot sauce” “can i die from hot sauce”

he does not want to do another hot wings challenge

he gifts some subs at 51 mins

ronnie shows up and asks a question at around 58 min (the cosplayer) to ask about fine arts

1hr02 while they’re having a nice speech about being true to yourself

nick is not a dancer

nick thinks if leon was a gamer, he would be good at survival horror games lol (he said maybe he would play fortnite but he’s not into it)

(yes they save the dog)

he has slowed down with his art and hasn’t felt inspired in a while. he’s not sure if he would do an art stream because he feels like he draws so slowly

he does struggle with streaming and talking to chat, so that’s why he also has mods and other guests to keep the stream more lively

he might be interested in doing streams with wood work

he likes peanut butter and mint oreos right now

1hr14 he talks about durian lol he says it tastes like a creamy garlic spread

(he really sounds like a foodie which is nice, yes he will try almost everything with food)

nick is a big coffee drinker and he likes dirty martinis and negronis (slightly bitter)

he lives with two cats and he pets them, he would call himself a dog person though

he says for his one year on twitch he will maybe do a 24 hour stream