#this is a youtube problem not an art tutorial problem i think this is probably the case for every difficult skill

[necromancelena]

Looking up art tutorials on Youtube is the worst because for every video that has a nice descriptive title like "tips for doing x thing" or "drawing x tutorial" there's a dozen other videos titled shit like "you SUCK at drawing x thing!" and the thumbnail with have "This one mistake is RUINING your LIFE" in big red text and there will be an arrow pointing at some art labelling it "fuckhead idiot drawing made by some dipshit" and then you click on the actual video and it spends two minutes going "boy i sure did struggle to draw before i knew this one tip. drawing was soooo hard. My life would have been sooo much easier if i knew this thing" and then when it gets to the actual tip it's always just some variation on like. "heh. you gotta practice lots 🥴".

[splatoonpolls]

I can't really take "media literacy is dead" that 100% seriously ever since it became like a "pop psychology" term. It just sounds like everyone one day woke up for forgot the most basic of basic things. “Media literacy is dead” and they don’t add a because or due to. They show an example and sometimes refuses to expand on why it is dead. It shows the consequences but not the cause or the action.

Because like. It is already dead. It has been dead for a long time for a certain group of people. People always had shitty opinions on media. As long as it has existed. The thing was, they didn't just have access to express their opinion you know. Before it was mainly professional critics and academia. Now with social media, everyone can say shit. And that includes people who have shitty takes. It is no different than a nonartist trying to insert themselves in an artist centric situation. Most people will never be an expert unless they have spent hours upon hours learning about something. And that is where i think the problem comes from. Beginnner hobby artists saying "Klein's blue" is nothing special and they can do it. People have always joked about people viewing themselves as Scott Pilgrim or Patrick Bateman, and do not forget about how every year, a myriad of young inexperienced authors go "i don't like reading but I am creating a next Harry Potter" while storming writing forums.

I think the problem isn't inherently "media literacy is dying". But rather it has become increasingly harder for people, especially those new to a certain field to properly differentiate between a "good" and a "bad" analysis. It is the exact same reason youtube has put literal banners saying "hey, this news station is a public broadcasting company beloning to XZY" and "this is a registered medical professional from XYZ". Why you can look up to see if someone has a masters or PhD in something. Humans are gullible creatures and they like to just think the best of things. Why do you think so many beginner artists fall for Kooleen's art "tutorials" (oh yeah, Kooleen is a troll everyone)? Because sometimes, we are just too quick to trust anyone.

The problem isn't that media literacy is just died one day. But rather that media literacy is a zombie apocalypse and many are listening to the zombies instead of the doctors when it comes to opinions about media. And that the antidote (actually looking deeper into things in an academic level) is seen as "boring" or "not needed because i have youtube/tiktok/instagram" or whatever. And if people trust the zombies, they are going to become zombies. Media literacy is still alive, the problem is just amatures, beginners, whatever you may call it acting like professionals and trying to act like they have the same agency as everyone else.

So yeah, before you see like a take by a random person called "childesfangirl" or whatever using a random anime clip in the bakgrund while having text to speech read up their bad take. Remember that they don't have an essay in english, art history, film, and biomed. They are probably a 14 year old who will think about this take in about 4 years and just cringe.

What should worry us is how people are turning away from actual experts in a field. People becoming lazy and rather taking a cheaper option to affirm their thoughts rather than listen to someone who has the credentials to prove it. People would rather watch 4 youtube videos on something before checking in on what a professional has sad. Social media has allowed people to be lazy when seeking stuff. And that is the scary part.

TLDR: people have always had shitty opinions. But in a field of experts and a sea of inexperienced idiots. In a dopamin chasing landscape like social media. People will seek the quicker and faster option. The one that fulfills their biases. One that pits them against them vs us. Which is a problem that has existed even before social media, think the satanic panic where people would read a novel by a random paster on how DnD made your son worship satan than actually see how the game is played. The problem is, SHITTY OPINIONS ARE MUCH MUCH MORE AVAILABLE. And some people do in fact believe that YouTube is a replacement for school (I could make a whole rant about how children's entertainment has been ruined by youtube but that is for another day). Which it isn't please give some love for for teachers and librarians in these trying times okay.

[emptymanuscript]

Hmmm :/

Just got this from infostack.

It’s hard to believe how quickly things changed. One day, AI felt like a distant dream. Then ChatGPT arrived… and suddenly, there’s a new AI tool popping up everywhere you look. If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably wondered: Which tools are worth using? How do I even keep up? Here’s the reality: AI is reshaping the way we write—forever. And while you could keep doing things the old-fashioned way… But let’s be real: why spend days (or weeks!) researching, editing, and revising when AI can streamline it all? That’s where the AI Writing Blueprint 2.0 comes in. I created this game-changing guide which I believe is your shortcut to mastering AI tools without losing your creative spark or unique voice. Here’s what makes it a must-have: No fluff: Skip the endless YouTube tutorials and scattered advice. Comprehensive yet simple: Demystifies AI in just 15 minutes—even if you’re starting from scratch. Versatile: Whether you're writing novels, crafting blog posts, or creating marketing copy, this blueprint has you covered. And the best part? It’s completely FREE. Click here to download your AI Writing Blueprint 2.0 now! But don’t wait—access will be limited soon, and you don’t want to miss out. Happy writing!

And... I don't know. I keep waffling about whether to look into AI writing at all.

I definitely do NOT like the social and environmental costs of AI. I am fairly dubious about how helpful it can be.

But I'm also an intensely slow writer who does not have an overload of ideas or work at the moment. Or, at least, I don't have an ACTUAL overload even if it FEELS like an overload.

And it's not particularly smart to give up a tool set, sight unseen, that is helping a lot of other people in your field.

I want to know HOW MUCH it helps in terms of HOW MUCH it costs for the help. Which includes environmental damage and social decohesion, not just some monthly subscription. And I know no one wants to tell me that. I doubt anyone actually knows, if I'm honest. And I can't even answer the positive side without trying it.

So...

I dunno.

If anyone has any starry eyed "It's amazing, it really helped me, even though I can write a book on my own just fine, it's so worth it" I guess I'd love to hear it.

Otherwise I guess I'll ignore this and just keep on doing my best to ignore my creeping FOMO. Because I don't dislike AI because I think it CAN'T EVER do what I want. I dislike it because I think it can if I pour a significant amount of work into it but that the costs for the benefit will significantly outweigh that benefit. I've seen what I would consider real art made with AI. Stuff that is impressive, beautiful, and has something to say. That's not the problem. The problem is that it is going to drink all the water and strangle everyone's future employment. It's a little help in exchange for extinction. And I need that formulae to change before I use it, I think. But the FOMO is very real.

[makorays]

Hey, so I'm the same guy (at least presently lol) who asked you the recent hrt question, and I'd like to let you know that, despite discovering you from your Blender tutorials, I really resonate with a lot of your struggles. Your struggles with mental illness, your relationship to femininity and trying to make do with a less-than-ideal body for obtaining the look you want, all the existential shit, I find it all deeply relatable. I've never non-anonymously interacted with any of your works, but I feel like they've helped me understand that I'm not alone and thus helped me understand myself a bit better. This isn't some parasocial bullshit, you don't know me and I don't know you, but I want to thank you for creating the things you do. Your online presence has positively impacted me, and tbh if I ever do go full girlmode I think it will have been, in some small part, thanks to watching you experience similar problems and insecurities from afar. It feels worth a thank you. Thanks for making the art you do.

"trying to make do with a less-than-ideal body" you people are just so flattering

but for real though, yeah, like. if i weigh anything other than barely above the threshold of being underweight, all of the fat goes to my stomach (though it used to be even worse before HRT). it's just so not fair compared to other peoples' genetics...but i still got to a place where i'm happy with my body, because if the only way for me to go full femboy is to have a skinny twink bod, well, i guess i'll take it. (not recommending anyone ever go underweight here by the way, i'm still in healthy bmi range and don't plan to go below it.) all that to say: work with what you've got and you can probably get something going. everyone looks different, and the power to slay asks something different of each of us.

it does kinda blow my mind how many messages i've gotten like this, though. for the longest time i've wanted to touch people and help them figure themselves out with stories and games, but it seems like even just me blabbing my mouth on youtube has managed to be helpful, which is a really validating feeling. thank you for reminding me i'm on the right track with that.

[icyll]

Some Thoughts About Sam Yang's Art

First of all, as I'm going to be mostly critical of his work, I would like to make it clear that I'm not saying these as an artist, as I'm obviously nowhere near as good or skillful as him, but as an observer. Also, as a big part of the online art community and Sam's audience are young people who might be passionate or even sensitive about the subject, I would like to point out that nothing I say means anything about Sam, and to take that further it might not even proof anything about the art made by Sam neither! It is simply my impression of it, and me, if anything, is what you will learn the most about!

So you probably know Sam! If not, he usually goes by SamDoesArt on most platforms, so you can look it up and check his art out. He has an interesting style, cool forms, a few OCs that he likes to draw, nice colors and all! He is also active on Youtube where he makes reaction videos and pretty decent tutorials, which as someone that's trying to learn art I can't say I haven't learned a few things from.

Now while writing this and reflecting on the subject, I came to realize that my issue with his art is not rooted in something solely related to the art, but also a certain approach to art in general! So the next two paragraphs deal with that.

I sometimes see artists treating art in a way that I would describe as too "technical." It is as if their emphasis and efforts in art are focused on and revolve around a lot of theory, technique, structure, and know-how. And this, in my opinion, is not the best approach to have. To my mind, this is an extension of the process of making art into a craft, and by that I don't just mean trying to make money out of your art, but rather turning it into a profession, a thing that you can do, which at the end would add up to a bunch of procedures and skillsets.

This sort of attitude, this treatment that has such an industrial and production-oriented view of art, does not seem right. Sure, technique is required. For the expression of one's artistic ingenium an efficient instrument is needed, and that would be the properly trained and developed mind and body of the artist person. But currently that doesn't seem to be the reason the majority of artistic activity is focused on this aspect.

Now as for Sam's art, traces of the same tradition can be found. Everything is good. Things look nice, art is well done, but then what?! What's the substance, the value, the meaning behind it all? What does it add up to? What is pointed at by the art? Sure, there are multiple answers to these questions that I too can think about.

Not all art has to be meaningful, as not all art has to look nice. But, here's a thing, wouldn't you prefer that the art both were meaningful and looked nice?! Also, to compare art to a person, most people would agree that they have met good looking people that quickly became no more fun to be around because of how shallow or indifferent in their personality they were at least once! It's the same with Sam's art : It's NICE, then it's nice, then it's alright. Now what do I mean by meaning in art and how do I not perceive it in Sam's art?

First, I want to direct your attention to the backgrounds. They're usually the most ordinary, not at all out of this world backgrounds. Store, road, train-station, sky, etc. Now the problem with that is it does not tell a story at all; it only shows us what we already know about! Everyone has seen cities and the sky. Lack of any clue to anything beyond keeps the art from separating itself from the world of our experience and telling the story of something else. It is on the same level as anything that we see in our daily life.

To clarify this point, think of any movie or story that happens in the same world as ours. Now if that movie shows us a few hours of strictly the same things that we always encounter in our daily lives, we won't walk away from it thinking it was a good one. There is something about realistic movies that separates them from the 'real,' and that is what I'm saying is lacking in the art of the guy we're talking about.

There is so little other than a person (who is again most ordinary and typical, to add to the previous point) in a piece of his work that each piece feels more like a pose, a gesture, than a work of art. Rather than feeling like a captured moment of a dynamic world, it comes off more as an image of a statue somewhere. It ends in itself, there and then, and is done.

Moreover, I don't know if he is of the type to sometimes use photos for objects in the environment or all of the background, but often the environments are way more realistic in their style than the characters. This itself sticks out as a symptom of a lack of imagination in creating the backgrounds and on a deeper level the whole piece itself. The contrast between the realistic environments and the cartoony characters gives the art a commercial look, and is reminiscent of the cartoon face filter that would transform the person but keep the background. Is it meant to appeal to the same audience that liked that?!

So why does any of that matter? Because I think it matters what we call art! I do really think that there is a duality of what we may call productivity and creativity, of craft and art. I may talk about that more later, but here I just want to say that at this point, other than maybe the style which may be a bit creative, although I don't know how much of it is original, this is production, not art.

Additionally, I would also like to make it clear why I wrote this… article?! and why I thought this should be talked about. I think it is good for things to be known for what they are, and so in the same way it is good that people be known to do what they do, and not what they don't. Sam does draw, but does Sam art?! Not as much.

Finally, as a sort of disclaimer, I want to add that I do realize that Sam is not the only artist that I think these things are true about, and that there are artworks done by him that are not how I described. It's just that those are few, and I know Sam somewhat more so there's also that. Plus I like the guy :D❤

[corvidcall]

okay!!! (rubs my hands together like im making an evil little scheme) (because i am)

first off, im gonna suggest Sagan Hawkes, who does retrospectives on indie horror stuff. my personal fave videos are There Will Never Be Another Petscop (which is about two projects that started as Petscop knock offs but developed into really interesting art in their own right) and Diminish: The Rage Game Lets Play About Loss (about an unfiction series where a man is playing a game his late twin sister made for him).

next, Jacob Geller has a voice that i think is really unique in the video essay scene. A lot of his videos are really... idk how to describe it. Poetic? Lyrical? Artistic in their own right? They seem very reminiscent of the way people write personal essays, which imo sets him apart from his peers (who seem to lean more towards a less personal, more documentarian style). I've recommended one of his videos on my fallen london blog before!! The Golem and the Jewish Superhero is really good, as is Who's Afraid of Modern Art. and his video Fear of Depths is great if you wanna think too hard about dying in a cave and then get oh so scared

in the opposite stylistic direction (imo) is Dan Olson, who makes really thorough and compelling videos about movies and culture, and has recently been focusing a lot on debunking the tech hype cycle. His video about crypto and NFTs, Line Goes Up, may have quite possibly influenced the crash in the NFT market?? But Line Goes Up is pretty dry, so I would probably suggest A Lukewarm Defense of Fifty Shades of Grey (this is actually part 1 of a series where he talks about all the 50 shades movies and the books, and theyre all great. the videos i mean. 50 shades is pretty bad) or That Time Geocentrists Tricked A Bunch of Physicists (which is about a documentary that featured a bunch of physicists seeming to say that heliocentrism is wrong and the sun actually orbits the earth, and about some really crazy tradcaths). In Search of Flat Earth is really good, too, but its kind of a bummer because its about Qanon

Big Joel is also one of my faves (both for his videos, and because i think its very funny that his youtube channel is named "big joel" even though he isnt big and his name is not joel). Trash Disney Remakes is fun, and you might also enjoy A Reality TV Dystopia: I Wanna Marry Harry

...oh my god this post is already way too long and ive only suggested three people. i am so sorry. god made me wrong as a joke. lets do the rest of these much faster or your flight will have landed by the time im done talking. speed round.

I Debunked Every "Body Language Expert" on Youtube by münecat

European History is Not White History by Shaun

MyHouse.Wad - Inside Doom's Most Terrifying Mod by Power Pak

Why Is Conservative Comedy So… Not Very Good? by Some More News

also, i cant recommend any specific videos, but you might enjoy PhilosophyTube (talks about philosophy, obviously) and Well There's Your Problem (a "podcast with slides" about engineering disasters)

to round out my excessively long list, theres a bunch of commentary youtubers who arent doing video essays qua video essays, as their videos are more focused on being funny and less on being informative, but i think theyre sister genres, and i enjoy them very much, so heres some good ones if you want a chuckle:

I followed a bunch of tutorials on how to get taller by Drew Gooden (the guy from the road work ahead vine)

I Tried Ghost Hunting To See If It's Fake by Danny Gonzalez

Alpha Tips & Tricks by Chad Chad

The Worst Talk Show Is Still On The Air (Maury) by Jarvis Johnson

I Drove to Every Rainforest Cafe in North America by Ted Nivison

I ate at every Rainforest Cafe in the County by Eddy Burback

anyway. uh. sorry about all this lol. i almost exclusively watch youtube every day all day and i have many thoughts and opinions. this isnt even everyone i watch and enjoy. this was me attempting to curate my recommendations.

I have a 4 hour flight this weekend so if anyone has any video essay recommendations for me to download on my phone feel free to tell me

[luminarai]

family saturdays ☼ i once read a thing about nicky learning to do nile’s hair which to me sounds exactly like something he’d do and i have a lot of feelings about chill immortal bonding time

[iraprince]

If you're sorta making this into a vtuber account i might as well ask you, with those pngtuber models, do you have a guide on how to get started with them? Also, do characters need to have humanlike face proportions to be able to like, work correctly? What if you wanted to make a bird, where the mouth is like really long and beak shaped? Would that be a problem for the honk stuff?

God this looks incomprehensible, sorry

not incomprehensible at all! whenever i get a chance i would definitely love to put together tutorials, both quick step-by-step guides and longer videos (bc idk about you but for me, the ideal is when BOTH types of tutorial exist lmao!!!)

in the meantime, there are tons of tutorials that already exist on youtube for pngtubing, and a few for setting up in honk specifically, but i'm not sure how many exist for best ways to actually draw the model and organize parts (layer organization etc) and stuff like that bc i didn't look for those when i was getting started. when i get around to it any guides i make will probably be more about that than the tech stuff, bc other people already have the tech covered!

honk has documentation/guides of its own, and the community page on itch.io can be really good for troubleshooting specific issues. honk is my primary recommendation if you want to get into pngtubing -- the program is paid ($12 USD) and model setup is a bit more laborious, but only in the beginning, and i think the liveliness of the lip sync and the eye tracking is well worth it! a downside is that honk doesn't currently have gif support, which a lot of other pngtubing programs do have, but there are plans to add it in the future.

this is the method i've used for setting up a discord reactive pngtuber (the second method on the page, "stream kit reactive images" - i know it may seem like a lot of steps, but if you take your time and follow the instructions closely it's not so bad! i am NOT tech savvy and still figured it out, so anyone can.) you only need discord and OBS to run this setup, and you can fiddle with it to do collabs (multiple people's pngtubers all on screen at the same time, lighting up and talking while you're in a discord call! fun for multiplayer games), but of course it can also be your main setup with just you alone in a private voice channel as your mic input.

and a good middle ground between honk and the discord reactive setup would be a program like veadotube mini! it does the same thing as the discord reactive setup (display a talk sprite when you're talking and a silent one when you're not), but in a self-contained program on your computer just like honk. i haven't used veadotube myself, but i see other pngtubers mention it as their program of choice.

i do have one video up of myself rigging my model in honk -- i wouldn't call it a guide or a tutorial though, because it's very informal and we also ran into a pretty annoying bug that made the process go less smoothly than i would have hoped :') (also the first few mins of video are muted bc my music got dmca flagged lmfao but the important stuff is all there!) but anyway if you just want a quick look at how a model looks getting put together in the program you might find that interesting.

you could ABSOLUTELY do something like the bird u described in honk, it's really really flexible. the way honk works is u just have to have different images drawn for different lip synch mouth shapes (try googling "animation lip sync mouth shapes" and check out the image results for an idea of what i mean), assign them to different consonant/vowel sounds in the program, and it automatically matches it up for you with voice recognition. so imo the challenge in that case would be an art challenge (figure out how you want to draw lip sync shapes with a beak), not a technical/program-specific challenge. but if you didn't feel like fucking with all that, you could just repeatedly use the same open beak image for all the sounds, and it would just make the beak open and close when you talk!

i haven't tried making a honk model where the mouth breaks the silhouette, which might be the case with a bird character like that depending on how you have the head angled, but theoretically i don't see why it would be an issue. a regular pngtuber would be really straightforward as well!

[meruz]

once again i am answering asks in a big compilation post. included is... gotham, patrick stump, tips about drawing backgrounds, tips about drawing in general, links to my faq, and infinity train

like.... the tv series? No... I’ve drawn dc comics fanart before, though. But it’s been years since I’ve been really into it. I like jumped ship like 10 years ago when the New 52 happened LOL.

AFJHDSLKGH I’m sorry I (probably) won’t do it again??

Actually full disclosure I have a truly cringe amount of p stump drawings/photo studies in my sketchbook right now LOL. He’s just fun to draw... hats, glasses, guitar, a good shape... but I don’t think I’ll rly post those until I can hide them in another big sketchbook pdf.. probably Jan 2022. Stay tuned........ (ominous) 

(ominous preview)

These are all sort of related to backgrounds/painting so I grouped them together even though they’re pretty much entirely separate questions.... ANYWAYS

a) How is it working as a BG artist? Is it hard? What show are you drawing for?

I think you’re the first person to ever ask me about my job! Being a background artist is great. It’s definitely labor intensive but I think that could describe pretty much any art job (If something were rote or easy to automate, you wouldn’t hire an artist to do it) and I hesitate to say whether its harder or easier than any other role in the animation pipeline. Plus, so much of what truly makes a job difficult varies from one production to the next, schedule, working environment, co-workers etc. But I will say that I think while BGs are generally a lot of work on the upfront, I think they’re subject to less scrutiny/revisions than something like character/props/effects design and you don’t have to pitch them to a room like boards. So I guess it’s good if you don’t like to talk to people? LOL

A lot of my previous projects + the show I’ve worked on the longest aren’t public yet so I can’t talk about em (but I assure you if/when the news does break I won’t shut up about it). But I’m currently working on Archer Season 12 LOL. I’m like 90% sure I’m allowed to say that.

b) ~~~THANK YOU!! ~~~

c) What exactly do you like to draw most [in a background]?

@kaitomiury​ Lots of stuff! I really like to draw clutter! Because it’s a great opportunity for environmental storytelling and also you can be kind of messy with it because the sheer mass will supersede any details LOL. 

I like to draw clouds... I like to draw grass but not trees lol,,, I like to draw anything that sells perspective really easily like tiled floors and ceilings, shelves, lamp posts on a street etc.

d) Do you have any tips on how to paint (observational)?

god there’s so much to say. painting is really a whole ass discipline like someone can paint their whole life and still discover new things about it. I guess if you’re really just starting out my best advice is that habit is more important than product. especially with traditional plein air painting, I find that the procedure of going outside and setting up your paints is almost harder than the actual painting. There’s a lot of artists who say “I want to do plein air sometime!!” and then never actually get around to doing it. A lot of people just end up working from google streetview or photos on their computer.

But going outside to paint is a really good challenge because it forces you to make and commit to lighting and composition decisions really quickly. And to work through your mistakes instead of against them via undo button.

My last tip is to check out James Gurney’s youtube channel because hes probably the best and most consistent resource on observational painting out there rn. There’s lots other artists doing the same thing (off the top of my head I know a lot of the Warrior Painters group has people regularly posting plein air stuff and lightbox expo had a Jesse Schmidt lecture abt it last year) but Gurney’s probably the most prolific poster and one of the best at explaining the more technical stuff - his books are great too.

e) Do you have tips for drawing cleanly on heavypaint?

@marigoldfool​ UMM LOL I LIKE ONLY USE THE FILL TOOL so maybe use the fill tool? Fill and rectangle are good for edge control as opposed to the rest of the heavy paint tools which can get sort of muddles. And also I use a stylus so maybe if you’re using your finger, find a stylus that works with your device instead. That’s all I’ve got, frankly I don’t think my drawings are particularly clean lol.

f) Tips on improving backgrounds/scenes making them more dynamic practicing etc?

Ive given some tips about backgrounds/scenes before so I’m not gonna re-tread those but here’s another thing that might be helpful...

I think a good way to approach backgrounds is to think of the specific story or even mood you want to convey with the background first. Thinking “I just need to put something behind this character” is going to lead you to drawing like... a green screen tourist photo backdrop. But if you think “I need this bg to make the characters feel small” or “I need this bg to make the world feel colorful” then it gives you requirements and cues to work off of.

If I know a character needs to feel overwhelmed and small, then I know I need to create environment elements that will cage them in and corner them. If a character needs to feel triumphant/on top of the world then I know I need to let the environment open up around them. etc. If I know my focal point/ where I want to draw attention, I can build the background around that.

Also, backgrounds like figure compositions will have focal points of their own and you can draw attention to it/ the relationship the characters have with the bg element via scale or directionality or color, any number of cues. I think of it almost as a second/third character in a scene.

Not every composition is gonna have something so obvious like this but it helps me to think about these because then the characters feel connected and integrated with the environment.

Some more general art questions

a) Do you have any process/tips to start drawing character/bodies/heads?

I tried to kind of draw something to answer this but honestly this is difficult for me to answer because I don’t think I’m that great at drawing characters LOL. Ok, I think I have two tips.

1) flip your canvas often. A lot about what makes human bodies look correct and believable is symmetry and balance. Even if someone has asymmetrical features, the body will often pull and push in a way to counterbalance it. we often have inherent biases to one side or another like dominant hands dominant eyes etc. you know how right-handed artists will often favor drawing characters facing 45 degrees facing (the artist’s) left? that’s part of it. so viewing your drawing flipped even just to evaluate it helps compensate for that bias and makes you more aware of balance.

2) draw the whole figure often. I feel like a lot of beginner artists (myself included for a long time) defer to just drawing headshots or busts because it’s easier, you dont have to think about posing limbs etc. But drawing a full body allows you to better gauge proportion, perspective, body language, everything that makes a character look believable and grounded.

Like if you (me) have that issue where you draw the head too big and then have to resize it to fit the proportions of the rest of the body, it’s probably because you (I) drew the head first and are treating the body as an afterthought/attachment. Sketching out the whole figure first or even just quick drawing guides for it will help you think of it more holistically. I learned this figure drawing in charcoal at art school LOL.

oh. third mini tip - try to draw people from life often! its the best study. if you can get into a figure drawing/nude drawing class EVEN BETTER and if you have a local college/art space/museum that hosts those for free TREASURE IT AND TAKE ADVANTAGE OF IT, that’s a huge boon that a lot of artists (me again) wish they had. though if youre not so lucky and youre sitting in a park trying to creeper draw people and they keep moving.. don’t let that stop you! that’s good practice because it’s forcing you to work fast to get the important stuff down LOL. its a challenge!

b) I’ve been pretty out of energy and have had no inspiration to draw but I have the desire to. Any advice?

Dude, take a walk or something.... Or a nap? Low energy is going to effect everything else so you gotta hit that problem at its source.

If you’re looking for inspiration though, I’d recommend stuff like watching a movie, reading a book, playing video games etc. Fill up your idea bank with content and then give yourself time/space to gestate it into new concepts. Sometimes looking at other art works but sometimes it can work against you because it’s too close. 

Also something that helps me is remembering that art doesn’t always have to be groundbreaking... like it’s okay to make something shitty and stupid that you don’t post online and only show to your friend. That’s all part of the process imo. If you want to hit a home run you gotta warm up first, right? Sports.

I should probably compile everytime i give tips on stuff like this but that’s getting dangerously close to being a social media artist who makes stupid boiled down art tutorials for clout which is the last thing i want to be... the thing I want to stress is that art is a whole visual language and there are widely agreed upon rules and customs but they exist in large part to be broken. Like there's an infinite number of ways to reach an infinite number of solutions and that’s actually what makes it really cool and personal for both the artist and the viewer. So when you make work you like or you find someone else’s work you like, take a step back and ask yourself what about it speaks for you, what about it works for you, what makes it effective, how to recreate that effect and how to break that effect completely, etc. And have a good time with it or else what’s the point.

for the first 2, I direct you to my FAQ

For the last one, I don’t actually believe I’ve ever addressed artwork as insp for stories/rp but I’ll say here and now yeah go ahead! As long as you’re not making profit or taking credit for my work then I’m normally ok with it. Especially anything thats private and purely recreational, that’s generally 100% green light go. I only ask that if you post it anywhere public that you please credit me.

(and I reserve the right to ask you to take it down if I see it and don’t approve of it’s use but I think that case is pretty rare.)

a) @lemuelzero101 Thank you!!! I haven’t played Life is Strange but actually  that series’ vis dev artist Edouard Caplain is one of my bigger art inspirations lately so that’s a really high compliment lol. And yeah I hope we get 5-8 too...!

b) Thank you for sticking around! I’ve been thinking about Digimon and Infinity Train in tandem lately, actually. They’re a little similar? Enter a dangerous alternate world and have wacky adventures with monsters/inanimate objects that have weird powers... there’s like weird engineers and mechanisms behind the scenes... also frontier literally starts with them getting on a train. Anyways if anyone else followed me for digimon... maybe you’d like Infinity Train? LOL

c) @king-wens-king I’M GLAD MY ART JUST HAS PINOY VIBES LOL I hope you are having a good day too :^)

a, b, c, d) yessss my Watch Infinity Train agenda is working....

e) aw thank you!! i think you should watch infinity train :)

[five-rivers]

Hobbies

Phic phight! @idiot-cheesehead-archenemy

A series of vignettes about Danny having various hobbies.

(Master the Orb)

Danny exhaled slowly as the ice built up between his hands.  Each new layer glittered in the ghostlight cast by the overhead ambient ectoplasm, embedding complex patterns in the overall piece as new layers built up over it.

“Very good, Great One,” rumbled Frostbite behind his shoulder.  “Your control has improved immensely.”

Danny inhaled equally slowly, examining his work so far but not adding to it quite yet.  “I don’t know.  It looks a little lopsided.”

“Mmm, it looks fine to me.  Especially for such an early attempt.”

Danny sighed, exhaling the ice he had built up with his breath.  “So, it is lopsided.”

“Consider it practice,” said Frostbite, encouragingly. “It takes time to master art of any kind.”

“Humans do ice sculpture, too,” mumbled Danny. “They get really good, too.  I’ve seen pictures.  And videos.  They don’t even have ice powers.”  He rubbed his thumb over the surface, smoothing over a slightly rougher patch.

“That may be true,” said Frostbite, “but, again, you just started, Great One.  You have only had your powers for a little while.  Give yourself some support.”

Danny shrugged.  “I guess it isn’t something my life depends on, so I can relax about it.” He built up another layer of ice. “This is oddly therapeutic, and I don’t say therapeutic lightly.  You know Jazz.”

“I do indeed,” said Frostbite, somewhat ruefully, head half-bowed.  

Jazz could be a force of nature, even more so than ice powers.

He held the ice orb up to the light.  It caught on the patterns he had placed there. Fractals were the easiest.  He was hoping that if he got better, he’d be able to make real sculptures with patterns in them, instead of just orbs.  

But, first, he had to master the orb.  Just like how when drawing you had to do circles first.  Circle. Orb.

Ooorb.  Yep.  

The controlled application of ice.  The evenness of the internal patterns.  The solidity, density, and durability.  

His orb was… not very orblike, despite what Frostbite said.  Frostbite probably thought he was making so flat on purpose.  

Yeah.  He was terrible at this.  

He was having fun, though.  

.

.

 (Furnace)

“You’re taking up glass blowing?” asked Tucker, surprised.

“Yeah?  Is there a problem?” asked Danny, reaching over to stop his friend from accidentally drawing a line of orange sharpie across his poster on the themes in Macbeth.

“No!” said Tucker, quickly.  “But, like, why?  It just seems… unlike you.”

“Exactly,” said Danny, nodding sharply.  “It has absolutely nothing to do with my powers and nothing to do with my family.  Plus, I had a coupon.”

“For glass blowing?”

“It was a groupon,” said Danny.  “For making Christmas tree ornaments.  I’m going to do it with Jazz.”

“But, Danny,” said Sam, looking over from where she was working on her own poster about Twelfth Night, “glass blowing, uh, involves a lot of heat.”

“Sure?”

“Danny, you have an ice core.”

“Ah,” said Danny.  “Well.   I’ve got to use that groupon.  If it doesn’t work out, it’s only the once, right?”

.

“Oh my gosh,” said Danny, wringing sweat out of his t-shirt.  “That was awesome!”  He giggled to himself and peaked into the annealer again.  “So awesome!”

“Uh huh,” said Jazz.  Her attempts had been… rather less successful than Danny’s, partially because she was trying so hard to make them perfect.  But she had managed a few little baubles, nonetheless.  “I think these’ll all be good for the tree. Assuming we get one.”

“And it isn’t set on fire.”

“Oh, yeah, that was a bad year.”

He squeaked open the annealer again, only closing it when the instructor lightly scolded him.  “They’re so terrible and lopsided,” said Danny.  

“Hey,” said Jazz.  “Mine are fine.”

“I know!  I was talking about mine.”

“Ah, okay then.  I agree.”

“You aren’t supposed to agree.”

“What, you want me to lie?  And after you said it first?”

“No,” said Danny.  “But you could be nicer about it.”

“I’m your sister, what do you expect?”

.

.

 (Lung Capacity)

Danny let the last note trail off to complete silence. He stared apprehensively at the assembled student body.  Curse Mr. Lancer’s extra credit talent show assignment.  Any minute now, they’d start laughing at him.  

What was he thinking?  He’d just watched a few YouTube tutorials on breath control, and he thought he could come up here and sing in front of people?  He was a moron, and—

Sam and Tucker started cheering wildly, followed rapidly by everyone else in the gym.  

Okay.  What?

Sam and Tucker, following impulses known only to overexcited teenagers, swarmed up the stage and attacking Danny.  

“Why didn’t you tell us you could sing like that?” demanded Sam.  

“When did you learn?” asked Tucker, doing his level best to noogie Danny.  “Why did you learn?”

“I wanted to improve my, you know, wail,” muttered Danny, “and all the breath control YouTube videos either had to do with diving or singing, so…”  He did a little head wiggle to illustrate his point and also dislodge Tucker.  

“I just can’t believe you kept this a secret from us,” said Sam.  

Danny snorted and took a sort of half bow before attempting to leave the stage.  “My dudes, I am basically made of secrets.”

“Encore!” screamed someone who clearly hated him.  

“Oh, no,” said Danny, bracing himself against Sam and Tucker who were pushing him back into the middle of the stage.  “No encore.  I don’t do encores.”

But now people were chanting.  Chanting.  

“Come on, Danny,” said Tucker.  “Just once!”

“Yeah, these are your fifteen minutes of fame!”

“I had those already!  Multiple times!”

“That was Poindexter.”

“And now it can be you.”

Danny reluctantly took the microphone back off the stand.

.

.

 (Letterhead)

The ink was thick, almost creamy, and paint-like. It was the ectoplasm mix, which also gave it a rich, rosy glow.  

Danny was practicing ghost calligraphy.  Well, one particular subset of ghost calligraphy, one which put special emphasis on the color of the letters as well as how they fit together.  

It was a totally useless hobby.  But it was… not exactly calming.  No.  He’d gotten way too angry about poorly formed arcs and crooked lines a couple of times.  So. Yeah.  Not calming.  But… meditative.  Meditative. And there was something satisfying about seeing the finished product.  

Plus, if he framed his better finished work, they made for good presents for weirdo ghosts.

“You misspelled this,” drawled Ghost Writer.  

“No, I didn’t.”

“Keuwii only has one kei.”

“This is only one kei.”

“What’s this, then?”

“It’s a flourish.”

“A flourish.”

Danny rolled his eyes.  “Everyone’s a critic.  If you don’t want it—”

“I didn’t say that.”

Danny raised an eyebrow.  

Ghost Writer made a show of rolling his eyes. “Very well.  Do you have one for my half-brother Randy.  Perhaps one that says something along the lines of ‘idiot?’”

“I’ll see what I can do.”

.

.

 (Babies on Fire)

“Danny,” said Jazz.  “What are you doing up at three in the morning with a lighter? And… yarn?  Is that yarn?”

“Dad wanted me to learn how to sew,” said Danny, “but I don’t like needles, not the sharp ones, anyway.”

“You get stitches every other week,” pointed out Jazz.

“Exactly,” said Danny, gesturing with the lighter.  “So, I decided to look into, you know, knitting. And I was on knitting websites, and having, you know, a pretty good time with that, but then I found out about the babies.”

“The babies.”

“The babies,” said Danny, seriously.  “And the blankets that are on fire.  It depends on the yarn, you see.  If the yarn is the wrong kind of yarn, if it catches on fire, the blanket can melt onto the baby.  It’s terrible.  Just terrible.”

“I kind of think that if the blanket is on fire you have bigger problems,” said Jazz.  She took a step closer to her obviously insane younger brother.  “Are you… testing the yarn?”

“I have to, Jazz.  It’s for the babies.”

“Alright,” said Jazz.  “You are going to limit it to just the yarn in our house, right?”

“But we don’t have any babies.”

“Okay, that didn’t answer my question, but, like…” She pinched the bridge of her nose. “Since we don’t have any babies here, why are you testing the yarn?”

“Because we might have babies here in the future,” said Danny.  “Or I might knit something and give it to someone as a gift and then they give it to their baby.  Oh my gosh, I’d feel so guilty.”

“I’d be more worried about the toxic waste in our basement,” said Jazz, which was exactly the wrong thing to say to a sleep-deprived half-ghost on the edge of an Obsession-fueled breakdown.  Danny vanished in a blur, trailing yarn behind him. Jazz, who had only gotten up for a glass of water, cursed under her breath.

.

.

 (Before the Ball)

“I’m so, so sorry, Dora,” said Danny, holding back something adjacent to laughter.  

Dora laughed, more openly.  “It is fine, Sir Phantom.  Even now, you are better than my brother.”

“Am I really?  Your brother?  Who was raised to do this?”

“Well,” said Dora, letting go and stepping back out of the range of Danny’s feet.  Which were, evidently, both left feet.  “No, I’m afraid, but it is amusing to say, isn’t it?”  She pressed her fingers to her lips, suppressing more laughter.  

“Yeah, it is,” admitted Danny.  

“In any case, you are far more graceful concerning your mistakes than he ever was.  More gallant. A better representative of chivalry altogether.”  She patted the shoulders of his shirt.  

“Thanks,” said Danny.  “Do you think that I’ll be, uh, ready in time for the party?”

“It’s more than a party,” said Dora.  “You’re being officially knighted.  You’ll be a peer of the realm.”

“Aha,” said Danny.  “Yeah.  I don’t… what?  Really? That’s a thing?”

“You thought I was joking?”

“No,” said Danny, drawing out the word.  He had, in fact, thought she was joking and only accepted her offer to teach him how to dance because he thought it sounded like fun and like it might take his mind off his problems.  “Of course not.  So. Dancing.  Important.  For first impressions?”

“Everyone already knows you, Phantom,” said the knight assigned as Dora’s bodyguard.  “But dancing is surprisingly useful for swordplay.  Which you need all the help you can get at.”

“You said I was getting better.”

“That doesn’t mean you’re good.”

“Ouch.”

.

.

 (Time)

“I don’t have time for a hobby,” complained Danny through the Fenton Phones.  “Maybe if the ghosts let up a bit—” He zapped one of said ghosts.  

“Danny, are you fighting ghosts right now?”

“Yeah.  That’s my point.”

“Oh my god, get off the phone.”

“No way!  This is the only time I can call you, what with all of your classes.”

“Danny…” said Jazz, clearly exasperated.  He took advantage of the lull in the conversation to blast a few more ghosts.  

“I’m fine Jazz.”

“You are not fine.  You are, like, ten thousand miles away from fine.  When was the last time you even slept through the night?”

“Eh,” said Danny.  “Recently?”

“You need to take more time for yourself.”

Danny sighed and captured the last ghost.  “Maybe catching ghosts is my hobby.”

“Catching ghosts is your self-imposed penance for doing something that isn’t even your fault.  Not a hobby.”

“Okay, okay.  I’ll talk to you on Wednesday, same time.”

“Danny, don’t—”

He hung up.  

“Ugh,” said Danny.  “I guess I need to find a hobby.  Have to find time to find a hobby.”

“Perhaps I could be of help.”

“Ah!”  Danny jolted forward, dropping his phone.  

Clockwork gestured with one hand, and the phone dropped back into Danny’s hands from above.  

“Ohhh my ghost, why are you here?”

“You were just talking about finding time.  And now I’m here.”

“Good timing, I guess?”

“Only the best,” said Clockwork, evenly.  “But we were speaking of hobbies.  Might I suggest ice sculpture?  Your friends in the Far Frozen would be more than happy to teach you...”

[monsterqueers]

Semi-Liveblog of Xenogears

Finally getting around to this crunchy 1998 jrpg, watching it on youtube because ive been told the UI and game mechanics are really ass in places, this will be copypasted from my carefully largely spoiler free discord ramblings to my platonic partner in batches so no spam.

I know a few spoilers for this that were specifically why I wanted to witness it- IE that I can ‘Same Neurotype!’ a character, and its Really Dark. The Mindfuck stuff goes without saying its the monolithsoft staff.

Copypaste from last night under the cut

Ohhh man the screen resolution and menu sound effects very crunchy ps1 shit The low res anime&cgi  cutscenes with 90s dub voices... -chefs kiss- Very crunchy Man I think I recognize this fucking random extras voice.

(...)

but the dubbing pool of voices in 98 was pretty small so chances are I HAVE heard it but oh man this is a tense moment and the VAs sound like they are discussing the weather this is great

-juicy Space Bullshit happening- Some dude: Im evacuating the ship (said like im ordering coffee)

The graphics are pretty impressive for the ps1 I think. The cgi is hysterical tho Im sure it looked better on a crt tv because the spacing and blurring or the lights makes the shading look less fucky on a lot of older stuff The detail on the 2d animation is really good tho for a ps1 anime custscene

oh naked lady dubiously censored naked lady yes this is a xeno game there must be boobie. Contextless boobie Oh man now I gotta read a lot of white text on black screen lol but the music is nice never heard it but it sounds nostalgic 'look at this cute village with cute music!' ok 'it is now on fire!' That sounds about right oh my fffuninkg god that screen transition windows movie maker shit ohhh yes this is good the screen is still wobbling and flashing oh lord the eyestrain lol

First thing the protagonist does is swear we are getting off to an excellent start Awwwe he paints thats cute

oh god the iu direction hud THATS AWFUL(complementary) thats very 90s 00 Weird Shit Before They Codified Whats Expected With A Hud design

Fei(Protagonist) has a sparse room with just a fuckton of art supplies in it where he seems to be only drawing self insert fanfic lol. Hes got his priorities in order. oh man that low poly cow

They did good to make a fully 3d  'move the camera around' game in 98, as low poly as it is I can see the 'sort of squeezing out everything you can out of the game engine' effort that went into xc1 in this

This girl and also this whole village totally has death flags I can smell it on them they are to happy and cosy Fei dodging conversation he doesnt wanna have like Naked Dunban

Oh what the shit you can talk to an npc while you talk to another npc??? lmao CRUNCHY gameplay that sounds like you can cause problems for the ui and fill the screen with textboxes I hope they thought of that and don let let you endlessly add more text boxes this town music really sounds like music ive heard a million times before for hours but I know ive never played this game maybe its background music for some video essayist or something very cosy tho

KITTY OMG IF YOU TALK TO THE CAT IT MEOWS??? CAT SPOTTED AND IT IS ALSO GREEN FOR SOME REASON KITTY KITTY they better not kill the cat (they will probably kill the cat) you can make him(the protagonist not the cat) jump in a well for no reason lol OH PUN "'well' done! you found an item!" "Alls well that ends well." Ok this is a good localization

'bearcows' Oh so that isnt a cow its some fucked up chimera thing oH GOD ITS MOUTH OPENS LIKE A BEAR GOT IT OK

its got canines..... This animal is almost certainly one of the most dangerous.... Bulls kill so many people every year and this one has TEETH

'We got -list of a bunch of combo fruits and veggies- and turnips!' turnips, the universal constant I guess

no dont drink fertilizer fei apparently drinking miracle gro will heal you Dont Worry About It

The space lazer sounds for messing around in the menu lol

There is just no combat tutorial AT ALL HA oh hes got voice acted lines in battle lol!!! Thats a higher voice than I expected

completely incomprehensible battle hud fans really werent lying there it is Super Crunchy Can barely read this lol and at the speed the person playing is buzzing through it I cant tell if its turn based or not Dont know what that bar is either I THINK its turn based with a time limit? Yeah seems to be Head so hard you can kill a wolf by headbutting it I guess sorry its a two tailed jackal lol thats cool monster design tho

its a chicken in the house how cute! -talks to the chicken and it makes a horrible staticky noise- ah Fei, while pleasant bg music plays: hm wonder where the doctor is :) -explosion noise- -all music stops-

found him!

Ah yes For No Particular Reason This Is Shaped Like A Cross And Has A Winged Person Statue In It

This game is under NO CIRCUMSTANCE epilepsy or motion sickness friendly lol

Also yes the windows movie maker wobbly screen effect is EXACTLY what dissociation feels like thats right.

Knowing the special spoiler that I do about this game makes this part unintentionally funny. Dude its your alter. Crack ur plural egg. The childs VOICE ACTOR OH MY GOD LMAOOO OOF Things are already going ‘fun’ directions

Oh I think im getting whats going on with combat, you do fucking button combos in your turn??? is that whats going on? Oh GOD the platforming..... Oh thats the real content warning for this game.... Oh wow. Thats really bad. oh! Is that a conlang or another real language I cant tell its cool has anyone tried to make a language bible for it if its a conlang? conversations like Fei: If ur gonna kill me at least try to aim for the vitals attempted murderer: What The Fuck We finally get a full name for our protag! Rejoice! HAHAHAHHA OH MY GOD WHO IS THE MCS VOICE ACTOR LMAO OH MY GOD THIS IS VERY MUCH EARLY DUB HMGJFDjgh

oh hey his va was an extra in avatar the last airbender

The voice cracks in the kid version of the character ohhh my god this is excellent horrible 00s english dub

the music is really good though very nice atmosphere

Yeah it seems to be different button presses use some energy on the bar and you combo them in an attempt to puzzle that together for your turn with some combos being special and will do lots of damage or something???

Also you can really hear the music vibe being very xenoseries. Them violins set to mental break downs <3

'the lip synch in xc2 is bad' Observe Xenogears Lip Synching in the anime cutscenes Oh man its Bad Lip Synching (in a good way)

wow thats a lot more blood than theyd get away with in a t rated game today! well its 2d so probably actually thats fine but

Jesus christ Feis english VA is unintentionally hilarious Its a 14 year old anime boy voice and hes Beefy Like it would be one thing if it was a good 14 year old boy voice, but it sounds like a grown man trying(badly) to do a 14 year old boy voice for a beefy man which is why its funny good thing hes mostly crying and screaming in the cutscenes and not talking

Random t rex in a xeno game we meet again!

LMAO deus es helicopter

Dropkicking sharks in the desert... Yes. Normal activities

Ahhh yes, time for the talking about god again! This is a xenogame AND a jrpg after all. Gods are hunted for sport. I think I kinda like the 1.25 speed versions of some of these songs more than the regular version but that might be because ive now listened to them that way for 2 hours

Oh yeah this is a game that if you played high would be a very bad time. Some real mindfuck shit is happening (complementary) HIM! The dude the internet really likes! Blonde himbo spotted! BART XENOGEARS,,,

wow the doctor guy can do a full split his wife must like that

HHHEXCUSE ME???!?! Word for word quote: 'Is there anyone who is almost dead, with no arms and legs, or in need of an abdominal operation!? No one...? Well that's depressing..."

LMAOOOO We found a dude in a cave who doesnt believe in evolution and thinks space aliens brought humans to the planet and hes probably right lets be real this is a jrpg. (edited) Guy In A Cave: -proceeds to belt out straight up bible stories when asked about what ‘myth’ he believes in- Ok this is a xeno game he is almost certainly right if hes yelling about god

Just three dudes in a cave, two himbos with hair past their ass and an old man yelling about god and his skull collection. Lovely.

There is one brain cell in the party and our other guy has it who isnt in the party right now. We are talking to the old dude. We should not be talking to an old dude who collects human skulls even if he is friendly but thats just me

This customization menu is atrocious oh wow INCREDIBLE,,,

Wow Bart really is proto-Zeke from xc2 no wonder xenofans are rabid for himbos. WHY must the customization window zoom to the asscheeks of the not-gundams every time you refuel them What, are we piping fuel up the robots asshole? Is that whats happening?

Oh new himbo is kind to children no wonder people think hes husband material lol

-insert 'sand is coarse and rough and gets everywhere' star wars joke here- also new guy has pirate music and pirates are cool so like.

its a fucking prOJECTOR HEHEHEHEH LIke the ones that project light on a viewscreen from above omg you can taste the 00s

Man I can see exactly why xenogears people are so obsessed with Bart. Pretty, beefy, friendly but distinctly weird to mildly unhinged, pirate-cowboy-prince, whips. wait a minute wait a minute. Robots, mindfuckery, sad protagonist who Doesnt want To Get in The Robot.... When did NGE come out old on- I thought so it came out in ‘95 I feel this is a bit of a love letter to NGE

omg omg Bart does a little hopping animation when hes excited thats adorable

does... does this bad guy really just straight up have a giant cross tattooed on his face??? Theres heavyhanded symbolism and then theres whatever that is (edited)

ok I have to stop watching these and go to bed but thots so far: - The fandom darling is as good as advertised. Excellent man lemmie give him a headpat I want to eat him like a croissant. - Charming and Weird And Fucked Up in equal measure which is good - You can smell the crunchy 90s sci-fi emanating from this game(complementary) - The music sounds deeply nostalgic like ive heard it for hours a million times before but ive 100% never heard any of this game. Good stuff. - I am intrigued how the funny 'jump in the well' gag has progressed from funny pun hole with items in it if you jump down it a few times into using a well to sneak into some shitheads lair and unkidnap a little girl. Wonder if this is gonna keep being a thing.

[earthnashes]

How do you get over art block?

Welp! This is a very tricky question because there’s really no right or wrong way to do it, but I think it helps to maybe trying to identify the source of your art block. What I typically try to do, is identify my own artblock based on two archetypes: the Skill artblock, or the Creative artblock.

-Skill Artblock is when your eyes have leveled up in their understanding in how they see art, they are always the first to grasp said understanding before anything else. You are able to see mistakes you previously weren’t, you’re able to grasp concepts you had trouble with in the past, and you’re able to decipher how to break things down for easier drawing. Problem is, you’re drawing hand, your muscle memory, has yet to reach enough experience points to put it down on paper. Everything you draw seems wrong in some way or shape or form; it could be how you draw hair, or maybe how you draw hands, the anatomy, the way you paint shadows. Whatever it is, you feel like you’re doing something wrong, and that leads to being unable to get out something satisfying to you in your art, no matter how much you’re actually inspired to make something. 

With this sort of artblock, I think it’s the perfect time to simply create what you want, whatever’s “wrong” with your art be damned. Who cares if that hand is wonky? Draw what you want, let that creativity go crazy! It’s probably a point where you have a fuckton of ideas but can’t seem to get them down on paper in a way you think is correct, so get them down on paper anyway. May as well, right?

-And then there’s the Creative Artblock. This sort of artblock is when you’re satisfied with the way you draw, at least for the most part, but for some reason you can’t think of anything to draw. No headcanons are coming to you, no scenes or instances you think could be interesting, nothing seems good enough in your head. It’s just a dried up well. SO! A good way to combat this sort of artblock is... art studies. It’s a good time to just sit down and do stuff that doesn’t take your brain working hard for creation purposes: if you’re doing a study, it takes away the step where you have to think of what to draw because it’s already in front of you. Just draw what you’re looking at. This is a great way to learn more about your craft and expand on your skill without just sitting on your ass and pouting at that blank blank sheet in front of you. Draw what you see, not what you think.

Ironically, doing this helps balance out the other: if you get a Creative artblock, doing art studies and such helps combat Skill Artblock. In the same breath, putting your ideas to paper despite feeling like something about your art isn’t up to snuff helps with Creative Artblock because you’re drawing what comes to your head, skill level be damned.

-It is very possible to get both at the same time though, and that typically means you’ve reached a point of Burnout. Burnout is something you’d like to try to avoid but sometimes it happens regardless of what you do. If this is what you’re experiencing, the best way I’ve found to combat it is... well. Taking a break. Burnout means you’re exhausted in some way, usually mentally, and trying to push through the burnout honestly just makes it worse in the long run. It might help in that very moment, but when it comes back, it hits harder. 

So take a break. Step away from art entirely if you have to. Do anything else you enjoy: listen to music, play video games, watch a movie; what personally helps me when I get this way is still doing something artful that isn’t actually drawing. That’s why I fuckin love my guitar; I’m learning a different artform, I still get to be creative, but in a completely different way. If you’ve never tried traditional painting, try it! Try sculpting, or knitting, or sewing, or whatever else you’ve always wanted to try but never found the time to. If you wanna try to stay on top of your craft despite unable to engage in it, listen to art tutorials and art advice on youtube, read them, read “Art Of” books and take in the process someone else takes to make their artwork. Rest is good, but active rest is arguably better, since it’s still expanding your understanding and knowledge on something without you making your exhaustion worse.

Hopefully this is helpful!

[emblazonet]

A Rant About Drawing Faces

I don’t post much about art on here but I really feel like I should because ... uh... that’s all I think about most days lmao. 

I hate drawing heads.

If you’ve been working on art, or, unlike me, can see the obvious, you’ll know that faces draw the attention first in most pieces of art, especially pieces of art that feature characters prominently. Humans, so I am told, are very drawn to faces and facial expressions first and foremost.

 This advice and bit of common sense has the uplifting effect of making me feel inhuman. 

Part of the problem is that I am slightly faceblind, or perhaps, face-impaired… I have trouble recognizing faces, although it took me about twenty years to realize that’s why I never had any idea who half my classmates were, or why I was hesitant to greet someone I thought I knew (I can’t easily pick my mother out of a crowd, except by her hair). I struggle to watch liveaction movies and keep people straight (which is one reason I’m a fan of diverse casts and period dramas, but really I’d rather most things were 2D animation, which is my favourite). Honestly, since I hit 25, I’ve actually gotten a bit better at processing faces, so that’s a big benefit to aging.

But in general, I don’t have a lifetime’s worth of studying faces because I was always more interested in hair, clothes, accessories, etc—stuff that actually helped me distinguish one person from another. And in art, I don’t always look at faces first. I find whatever is in highest contrast, especially if there are jewels involved. (Magpie instinct!) So I think this puts me at a natural disadvantage, and makes me more inclined to gloss over the face when drawing.

This means I have the opposite of the classic sameface problem. Every face I draw looks different picture-to-picture, even when I’m trying to create a consistent character!

I’ve done a couple rounds of Ahmed Aldoori’s 100 Heads Challenge, taken Marco Bucci’s heads class, done skull studies, viewed probably hundreds of online tutorials and books (hi Loomis!) and YouTube videos and so on…. only to feel continually frustrated and like I’m missing something in the structure. It’s not that I don’t want to draw heads and faces well! I very much would love to, to bring more veracity and life into my character designs. But something’s just missing, some intuitive puzzle piece that would make it less frustrating and wonky. I just don’t know what it is!It’s so frustrating because I love drawing bodies. I love me a nude! I love muscles, and bones, and how the skin smooths over to create these flowing elegant gestural lines that make my heart go pitter-patter. Bodies are beautiful, and faces are a pain in the ass.

To me, faces don’t have gesture. They don’t have elegance (except when other people draw or photograph them well ofc), they’re just so blocky but then sometimes bits are soft, and jawlines never seem consistent when explained, and everyone keeps going on about eyebrows but I don’t even notice eyebrows in real life, how am I supposed to know what eyebrows mean on characters beyond cartoony expressions? It’s so overwhelming. The body is something less overwhelming than the one tiny stupid braincase on top of the structure!

I guess that means I should draw them a lot more than I do, but my goodness, drawing heads or portraits is the most disheartening thing. I guess I’ll just have to figure out how an Amber can draw a head, rather than a Loomis, Aldoori, O’Reilly…. so far, the answer to that seems to be ‘poorly.’

But I’m not going to stop trying!

[eintsein]

After a few years of trial and error, I think I've finally found the perfect organization method.

In the early years of high school, I had a bullet journal. I was an artsy kid who found a way to combine art with organization in a way that benefited other parts of my life.

However, as I approached the end of high school, my schedule got busier, and I was involved in a lot more things, so owning a bullet journal was less practical. Because of that, I switched to an app called Edo Agenda.

I continued with digital planning in college since I knew I wasn't going to have as much time. But all the apps I tried out—Taskade, Actions by Moleskine, Any.do, Todoist, Wunderlist—weren't suited to my planning and organizational needs. They didn't have the specific functions I required and didn't incorporate an organization system I liked to use. The predefined apps were too restraining, but the more customizable apps weren't customizable enough.

So then I switched to a bare bones, uber minimalist bullet journal method. That worked pretty well my second semester. It was simple, portable, and most importantly, flexible—all the things one could wish for in a planning system. However, it wasn't always the most convenient to use since I couldn't effectively integrate all the different aspects of my life, which, to no surprise, is mostly recorded digitally.

There was just one huge problem with my digital organization system that made me hesitant to switch back in the first place: everything was fragmented. Notes were in Google Docs. Financial records were in Google Sheets. To-Do Lists were in my bullet journal. Team projects were in Trello. My poetry was on Bear. Things I wanted to try are carelessly pinned to random pinterest boards or added to my YouTube "watch later" playlist. It was a mess.

Over the summer, I found out about Notion from a friend, and I thought, this has so much potential, it could even be exactly what I need. It's essentially like an empty notebook on your computer with functions that make it 10x more powerful. Notion allows you to integrate all aspects of your life and work into one app. Some of the advantages that have made me partial to Notion are:

Even greater customization level. Notion is a blank canvas with tons of predefined blocks and different file types. You can make databases, spreadsheets, Kanban boards, to do lists, etc. Also, you can remain connected to other digital services. You can link websites, collaborate with other users, use different structures (e.g. documents, databases, tasks), embed images and videos, etc. There are also tons of formatting options, e.g. text color, highlight, heading v. body text.

Better organization. Notion allows you to have pages within pages within pages within pages—an infinite hierarchy that you can organize with tables of contents. These pages are made of blocks, e.g. tables, checklists, boards, databases.  Both pages and blocks can be rearranged by simply dragging and dropping them to where you want them to be. In other words, I guess it's kind of like building a website to organize your life. Plus, their database feature is especially powerful as it allows you to connect all your data and get into as much detail as you wish (each entry in a database is its own page).

Templates. There are tons of templates created by both Notion and the community that you can use. These are especially helpful in the beginning since Notion does have a rather steep learning curve. There are template for almost every category: personal, planning, finance, job applications, design roadmap, etc. Check out their template gallery, this medium article called "10 Notion templates to inspire your use", or read on for my own examples!

Shortcuts. This makes typing and documenting so much faster. Notion uses Markdown, which is a text-to-HTML conversion tool, e.g. # = Heading 1, *, - = bullet point, etc.

Notion has some pretty awesome features, but how does one actually use it? Personally, I have four top-level pages: my planner, my personal journal, songwriting, and blogging.

Planner

I've been using my planner to, well, plan and track my day to day activities as well as my week and month. The way I've structured it is a calendar or monthly overview with links to pages of weekly overviews, and if needed, daily overviews within the weekly overview. This links things up so nicely, i.e. I don't have to be constantly flipping pages in my physical bullet journal or planner to find what I need.

I also have entertainment lists, which is mainly a table with all the shows I want to watch, the books I want to read, etc. I keep track of whether or not I've watched them, as well as my personal ratings. What I love most about this is that each entry is its own page, so I can type my notes for each book, show, or film and easily find them in the future. (Also the reason why I have plural “lists” instead of just one entertainment list is because you can filter entries by type of entertainment, e.g. movies, tv shows, books, articles.)

Personal

For personal notes, goals, journal entries, etc. This is kind of like an extension of my daily journal and just where I dump all my thoughts and keep track of the different aspects of my life: mental, emotional, spiritual, social, physical, and travel.

Another page I have is called "Stray Thoughts" and, well, it's pretty self explanatory. It's a lot easier to dump all my thoughts as they come and reorganize them later. Of course, this requires sacrificing the rawness of journaling, i.e. when the thoughts come and how you process them, which is why I still keep a regular journal that I write in daily.

Songwriting

I've been writing a lot of music over the summer and it's often hard to keep track of all of my songs and how far I've gotten in the songwriting process. So I created a table of songs - each entry of a song is a page with its lyrics. These are then tagged with the status of the lyrics (i.e. completed, in progress) and the status of the music itself (i.e. melody only, instrumental, mixing, mastering, revised). Eventually, I'll include demos in the database by embedding audio files in the document.

I have a separate section for inspiration and ideas, which is a kind of brain dump, e.g. words I think would make a good song, a certain theme for a song, a melody that's been stuck in my head, a vibe I'd like to try out, etc.

I've also been watching a lot of tutorials for music production and there's a section where I write my notes for that.

Eintsein

The last section of my Notion app is for this blog. Which has pages for

New posts. These are ideas for future posts, asks that I think would need longer answers, as well as posts that are currently in the draft stage (like this one was before I posted it)

Design assets. This is where I put all the visual branding material for Eintsein.com to be used in posts and any visual material on the blog.

FAQ. Having an FAQ document just makes it so much easier to make changes to your existing FAQ. Plus, if you ever change your FAQ theme, you just have to copy and paste what you already have.

Post directory. I keep track of all my previous masterposts, infographics, and generally longer and more comprehensive posts. It's the exact same as what you see on my Navigation page. And yes, the document contains direct links to the post.

New theme. A project I've been working on the past couple days is trying to create my own theme for my blog. This is where I put all my outlines, brainstorming notes, design inspiration, code snippets, etc.There are some pretty awesome features I’ve made use of in this page:

As you can probably tell, I'm absolutely obsessed with Notion since it has such awesome features and endless possibilities for customization. So far I've been using Notion for personal projects, which, since they are quite big in scale and have no set deadline, are important to organize well. My summer courses were only 6 weeks and weren't difficult to organize.

The formats above are just how I personally use notion. You could make some of your own, or if you don't think you want to build your pages from scratch, there are tons of templates to choose from. Here are some I think I'll be using in the near future and may be helpful for others as well, especially students like myself:

One drawback, however, is that Notion has a rather steep learning curve, but there are tons of tutorials online (especially YouTube) and I guarantee you it's all worth it.

Notion is not just a productivity app. It's a way to concretize your entire life.

Notion is free to use, but there are higher tiers that allow for more blocks, greater file size, etc. I use a personal account, which is $4 per month with unlimited block storage and no file upload limit (although I got it for $33/year). Personally I think the free plan would suit most people's needs, especially if you're not uploading large files.

[keikoh]

In terms of shinigami abilities, what are Keiko's strengths and weaknesses? (and maybe likes/dislikes -just because they are good/bad at something doesn't always indicate if they like it or not)

STRENGTHS:

Keiko's extremely brave, to a fault perhaps! She'll face down bullies and stand up for others, she doesn't shrink down or shy away. Rangiku's shown her how to perfectly punch motherfuckers in the face without breaking a nail.

Sharp! She's a fast learner and absolutely talented in her observational skills -- being able to catch onto patterns and other details within moments of it appearing, an active and honed mind, making her also better equipped to unleash some lethal sarcasm and wit at the drop of a dime.

She's an agile little fucker, slippery, hard to pin down or catch because she zips around so quickly. This translates over into Keiko becoming excellent with Shunpo once she learns and grasps the art.

To follow in her dad's footsteps, Keiko focuses a lot of her training around kenjutsu, and while she's relatively sloppy with it when she's younger, she refines this as she ages and turns her relentless charging tactics of her childhood into a terrifying flurry of quick attacks which can easily overwhelm

Basically, she's a speedy gremlin

WEAKNESSES:

Kido. One hundred percent it's Kido. She's awful at memorizing those long incantations and sees no reason in stopping, pausing a fight, leaving herself vulnerable, only to fire off something that probably won't even be strong enough to hurt her enemies. Her low motivation to actually master this art leaves her fairly vulnerable in facing against Kido, too, as well as generally not coping well with scenarios that call specifically for Kido. She knows basics.

Keiko isn't physically strong, at all, and it'd take maybe one decent hit for her to be down and out. She really needs to work on her durability.

Can become highly emotional, riled, or otherwise discouraged during battle. Keiko has some insecurities about being able to measure up to her parents, who are both titled Shinigami, whereas she feels like nothing truly special beyond her lineage. It's a sore spot, leaving her prone to acts in attempts to prove herself perhaps falling flat on its face, shattering her self-esteem.

Over-compensating independence: she'll isolate herself unnecessarily or face things alone without reasoning beyond 'I can handle it' and a blood-given inability to ask for help.

LIKES:

Food. Snacks. Especially things to munch on, specifically if it's junk food from the human world. Her parents live a fairly traditionalist lifestyle, so Keiko enjoys stuffing her bag full of convenience store snacks to bring back to Soul Society with her during World of the Living visits.

Tech, namely her phone. She has an iPhone 6s that Gin gifted her for one of her birthdays via Urahara's shop. It's in pristine condition, despite now being several years old, and runs smoothly. Keiko guards it carefully. She also enjoys video games ( Hotaru showed her them, and she got hooked; she likes either simply watching or playing them with others, she doesn't like solo-playing them ) and watching Youtube, especially hair and makeup tutorials.

Winter festivals, particularly when there are firework shows and games. It's a tradition in her family to go to them yearly, and they always make her feel warm, safe, and nostalgic. She likes getting prettied up for them, too, even if she initially didn't like the yucky kimono when she was younger -- too busy trying to emulate her dad. Rangiku's helped her with embracing femininity a lot.

Training with Gin, in any setting. She feels like these are the cherished moments between just the two of them where she can ask him anything and he'll answer. The bonding and experience she gains from each session makes her ready to break anyone's nose who tries to badmouth her father.

DISLIKES:

Being coddled. Even if she wants it, she hates the feeling of being babied or being sheltered away from the truth. She doesn't like it when her parents use that hushed tone around her, the 'we'll talk about this later when she's not here' voice. It grates at her trust and makes her feel like they're keeping secrets from her, like she can't handle them.

Cowards. Anyone who talks shit but then scrams as soon as the threat of getting hit pops up. People who have no problem making assumptions and accusations at her and her family while thinking they can just run away from consequences or cry out if she strikes at them for it. Keiko'll get in trouble again and again because of these loud-mouthed babies, and she has no shame in it.

Mayuri. What the actual fuck is that guy? He looks like a clown from those scary haunted movies she's discouraged from watching ( but she definitely snuck out and watched ) and now she has nightmares that pop up every now and again about his weird painted face and lipless mouth.

KIDO. Seriously, she hates this shit. Why is it a required skillset in the Shinigami Academy? Most of the Shinigami, even seated officers, almost never use Kido in battle!!! This isn't fair!! Who has time to shout a paragraph at someone!?

[currywaifu]

𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐥𝐞: that’s pretty knit 𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩: rurikawa yuki/reader 𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: sfw 𝐰𝐜: 1.9k words, 1 image

𝐚𝐧: yuki birthday month, yuki fic. ahaha i am very direct with my titles again. what’s new? because of the research i did, i’m probably gonna go order some knitting materials online now

Perhaps you spent too much time at the nearest arts and crafts store. For a dozen or so minutes you stood in one spot, unmoving unless someone needed to pass by you, your eyes flitting up and down, left and right as you debated over the different assortments of yarn.

You already had an inkling the different colours would overwhelm you— with so many different colours and different shades each, how could you possibly limit yourself to just one? You didn’t expect to be this troubled with choosing among different yarn weights, too. Why did the store give you 7 different choices? How were you supposed to know if choosing light yarn was better than choosing bulky yarn?

… you seriously should have done more research, but the prospect of finally having free time to visit the shop overshadowed any semblance of rationality you previously possessed.

Look at you now.

Alright, Plan A— scope out the area for the friendliest looking employee and muster up the courage to ask for help, plain and simple.

Except things don’t always go as planned.

When you hear your name come from a voice behind you, it was impossible not to figure out who it was that caught you. You’re just a little bit upset and a little bit tense because of all people to come across at this moment, it had to be Yuki? It’s not that you dislike him, rather it’s because the opposite is true that you found yourself more pressed than you should be.

It was like buying a surprise gift for someone and that exact someone seeing you buy that gift… actually, that was pretty much the situation— the only differing variable being that the gift hasn’t even been created yet.

Seriously, you just had to come across the very person you were planning on making something for?

“Yuki-kun! What are you doing here?”

He gave you a blank stare, as if waiting for you to realise how dumb your question was. Rurikawa Yuki? In a crafts store? Unless you wanted something specific, the answer should have been plenty obvious.

“Hah? I want to buy materials to make clothes, obviously,” he replied, tilting his head to gesture towards his shopping basket filled with various beads, lace, and… were those feathers? Was he just replenishing stock and were those all for one outfit? Curiosity was getting the better of you, mouth already poised to ask a follow-up question before he interrupted you.

“Shouldn’t I be the one asking you?”

To any deities out there, grant you a smidge of acting prowess, or at the very least the ability to make some half-truths and get away with it.

You awkwardly let out a laugh, your eyes leaving Yuki as they dragged themselves back towards the shelves.

“I’m supposed to make a scarf for someone,” an omission of information, but technically the truth, “but I don’t know which yarn to pick?”

For a few seconds Yuki stared at you with narrowed eyes, ultimately letting out a sigh as he placed his own items on the tiled floor, facing the same direction as you.

“Any colour you want?”

Taking the opportunity to resolve one of your main problems, you quickly told him that he could choose any colour he wanted. Haha, you were so slick getting Yuki to choose the material he’d like the most. If you somehow screwed up the knitting process, at least he’d like the colour, right?

“Didn’t you do any research?” Yuki asked, sifting through the pale pink yarns to look for the appropriate weight.

“Not really,” you admitted sheepishly, “I mean, I just saw the steps were easy enough and decided to give it a try.”

“I-di-ot~” he said in a sing-song voice, but despite the nickname you knew there was underlying affection there somewhere, “one skein of super-bulky yarn would be the easiest to work with, then you probably need a crochet hook and 9 mm knitting needles too…”

You follow the green-haired boy as he moves to a different aisle, picking up the supplies you inevitably would have had trouble choosing between.

“Really, you could have just asked me, if you’re so clueless. I’d help you out.”

“No way!” you suddenly exclaimed, earning yourself front row tickets to Yuki’s look of confusion, “I can do it myself!”

You hoped your sudden outburst didn’t come off as rude, but he seemed to just push the matter away nonchalantly.

“Suddenly getting so loud, what’s with you…” he muttered, dropping the things he picked up for you atop your waiting hands, “but that’s fine. The scarf won’t be as cute as if I helped you, but maybe it’ll turn out decent at least.”

You clutched the materials to your chest, already anticipating being able to prove Yuki wrong. How would he react the moment he knew the person you were knitting something for was him?

“I’ll show it to you when I’m done!” you promised, “I need your seal of approval, after all!”

He’d probably point out any issues regardless, so you just had to make sure you did your absolute best!

Knitting took a lot more effort than you anticipated. First of all, you had to do something called a cast on around the needle? Apparently the wrap cast on was great for beginners, but you weren’t gonna lie— it did take you one whole article from some “The Queen of Yarn” blogspot and one 5 minute YouTube tutorial just to make sure you were on the right track.

One. Slip knot: loop the yarn around your fingers clockwise, the yarn attached to the ball going under the loop, slid off your fingers and slipped onto the needle.

It wasn’t that the steps were particularly difficult. Rather, it was constantly making sure you weren’t accidentally skipping any steps or areas due to not paying too much attention.

Two. Open the loop to make a stitch: hold the empty needle with your dominant hand, and the needle with the slip knot in the other. Slip the empty needle into the first loop— from front to back.

Still, it was difficult to stop your thoughts from wandering— perhaps you should have chosen to listen to some kind of tea spill or podcast or comedy routine or anything with words instead of the LoFi ChillHop live stream playing from your phone. You were going to give Yuki a scarf— then what?

Three. Wrap the yarn: go counter-clockwise, the working yarn sliding between both of the needles.

You had a crush on Yuki, plain and simple, but it’d be embarrassing to just admit it! The amount of courage you had still needed replenishing, what with the amount you used up to just go up to him and try befriending him a couple of months back. What if you confessed, and he decided not only was your scarf ugly, he wouldn’t be friends with you anymore as well?

Four. Turn the stitch: slide the dominant-hand needle from the back to the front of the other needle.

But would it be enough to just pass off the garment as a, “thank you for being my friend” gift? Especially when there was no real occasion, and the hours you put in into making him something— would he question it?

Five. Finish the stitch: slide the dominant-hand needle up so that the first loop on the other needle slides off. Move on to the next loop, do the same thing, repeating until you are out of stitches.

Well, even with all of Yuki’s bluntness, he was still kind so he’d probably still be your friend! It’d still really hurt if he rejected you though, so maybe you should put off implying anything more than platonic between you two for… a while. Maybe it was too soon?

Looking at the progress you made, you were unable to hold in a groan of defeat. The pale pink yarn against the bamboo needle looked pretty and neat; there was an issue though.

One row. You were only able to do one row so far.

Your phone clock said it was still pretty early into the afternoon. Well, a few more hours wouldn’t hurt anything except your hands, right?

A hand therapy site told you that pain brought by needlework was probably due to repetition of motion, bad posture, and or general fatigue. Not gonna lie, you probably fit into all three— the last one maybe more so than others.

How long one took to knit varied— some dedicating days, while others were able to crank out 5 scarves a day. A part of you was proud to be able to procure something presentable and wearable in one sitting.

…

You’re just choosing to omit the fact that that one sitting lasted until 3 am, but what Yuki doesn’t know? Won’t hurt him.

Thanking your singular brain cell right now that you decided to do this project over the weekend instead of during a school day— you’re unsure if you’d even be able to survive at all if you actually had to do maths and stuff the day after.

Deciding to just go with the flow, you found yourself folding the scarf as neatly as you could, gingerly placing it inside a paper bag. After all, you agreed to “have him judge” your creation today.

In all honesty, you thought you had built up the confidence to confess your crush to Yuki. If he reciprocated, good for you! If he didn’t, well, either you take it cooly or go ‘I said I liked you as a friend thing, silly!”

Standing in front of him though, his orange eyes scrutinising the pale pink scarf, made you lose your words, hesitation standing in its stead.

“Garter stitch…”

“What do you think, Yuki-kun?” you asked, peering at the green haired boy curiously as you impatiently awaited his verdict.

“I’m honestly surprised you made something nice,”

“Hey—“

“But for beginner, it’s pretty good,” he complimented, “actually, I can see myself wearing it when it gets colder—“

Even with such simple words, you felt your heart swell in happiness. Not only did he say he liked it, but he even went as far as to say he’d wear it? There were so many ways to get your gratitude across, to tell Yuki your true intentions in ‘asking for his approval’. With all of your options, you went with

“If you like it, it’s yours!”

“Hey, you…”

He looked like he didn’t know how to respond. Actually, you can relate to that because even you’re befuddled by your wording. Didn’t it make it seem like you gifted it to him as an afterthought?

“I mean, well that’s not what I meant,” you hurriedly followed up, “I wanted to give it to you from the start? I didn’t know if it’d be nice though so if you said it was ugly I would’ve hidden it from the world? You said you would wear it though so—“

“This won’t do…” Yuki replied, interrupting your impending rambling. Before you could ask him what he meant, he pulls your hand to lead you inside the dormitories.

Unbeknownst to you, pink the same shade of your... his scarf painted his cheeks. If only the weather was fit for the garment you gave, he’d be able to blame the sudden colour on the cold.

“Come on, I need to get your measurements.”

It was difficult to keep the silly grin off of your face afterwards.

want to order again?