#this was one of the things i doodled this morning

[cochart]

A recent OC doodle

————————

The freelance project I’ve been involved in just got pulled without any warning, so I’m unexpectedly free (and jobless) now. Clearly, it’s not a pleasant thing to suddenly have your source of income vanish, especially in this economy. Still, I kind of feel relieved too. I’ve been working without any legit break since 2021. I guess I had Chuseok and New Year breaks, but those are really short and for 2023 and 2024 I didn’t even get those. It’s not like I worked seven days out of a week, but it wasn’t an awesomely balanced life for sure.

I also hated working on the most recent project (this one Korean romance fantasy novel) so much that I’d go to sleep Sunday night feeling depressed that I’d have to look at that thing again next morning. I mean, some might find it weird that someone might find a novel so stressful, but it was such an… unpleasant work. At times, I found myself wondering how the publishers hoped to sell it to the NA market considering the novel’s rather blatant sexist contents and parts which were, well, slightly racist. And believe me, I’m not the most sensitive reader, so if I find something misogynistic, it is really problematic. If anyone wants an example of how this work was problematic, uh, the author often used attempted sexual assault as a way to show just how attractive and enticing the female protagonist was. And no, this was not an adult title but for general audiences.

That said, I’d really love to go back to teaching in uni. I used to teach drawing and comics before I was drawing commercial art and translating romance fantasy work. Not everyone likes teaching, but I always enjoyed working with students and see them go from nervous to confidently presenting their work at the end of the semester exhibition.

Maybe 2025 can be a year I start a new chapter in my life.

[msbutterfly5294]

Weird Writing Tips To Help Weird Writers Like Me

📝 Roleplay As / With Your Characters . This would help you get to know them better . Bonus Points if you style it as an interview .

👥 Take the ‘ 16 Personality Types ’ Quiz as your character(s)

🚨 Write multiple news reports ( or short segments of news ) about characters and the plot from the outside world’s perspective

🎶 This one is already used within the creative community but it still a good one nonetheless : make playlists / collections of your characters and world on social media . Whether you’re using Pinterest , TikTok , or another , save videos , pictures , posts , anything that relates to your character(s) + the world they live in .

🔦 Grab your character(s) from the neck , slam them into the wall , shine a bright flashlight in their face that would make them borderline blind , and ask them in the sweetest voice , “ So. . . Are you going to tell me where I need to go from here , or are you going to delay my process in writing ? ” 🥰

✏️ Keeping a mini stack of index cards with you so you can jot down any ideas or sudden realizations that finally clicked . Also , you can draw / doodle on the back of them ! : D

🎭 Method acting would help with writing ! If you are writing multiple perspectives , whenever you get into one character’s perspective , become that character , feel that character , think of that character . How would they write the chapter and present the facts or abnormalities ?

😭 Scream into a pillow after seeing what you wrote in the middle of the early morning and throw your book / computer / phone / whatever you write on ✨ out da windooooow ✨ ( don’t actually do it - ) , wait a couple business days , and come back to it again and start the process over because you lied in bed , staring through the ceiling , as your brain is trying to convince you that “ yes , that writing that very important thing in that moment while you are very drained and sleep deprived is a great idea ! ” . . . Just me ?

[clearancecreedwatersurvival]

I’m sorry your probably still up, I’m sorry you’re probably suffering and scared right now, but thank you for posting. Thank you for not giving into doom. Thank you for putting a little more love and hope and reminders to hold onto your community and survive into the world right now. I really appreciate it as someone who can’t sleep tonight. I hope you rest well and survive, even if it is mother fucking impossible thrive in these conditions. Sending you a guttural field to scream in together rn.

This is a very sweet message, thank you for sending it. And I hope you’re also able to find some peace tonight. Admittedly, I think I’m doing significantly better than many people right now, and to some extent I’m only as calm as I am right now because I very intentionally stayed out of the mire for most of the day. Instead, I read some stories that made me smile, and doodled some of the remaining fall colors, and later took a walk while the first snow of the season was falling, beautiful massive flakes coating the trees. I’m looking forward to drinking some warm beverages tomorrow while the snow keeps falling and getting to talk to my therapist. A blue jay came to my bird feeder this morning for the first time in a while, and perhaps tomorrow they will come again.

A couple hours ago I got the chance to video call a beloved friend who I haven’t talked to in a while, and it was really grounding to just catch up with someone I care about in the midst of all this. No better time to phone a friend and share the burden than the middle of a sleepless night.

I’ve spent a lot of time recently appreciating the resilience of my local riparian ecosystem. I live in the suburbs, but even in the middle of this heavily human altered environment, life still flourishes. Just this year I’ve seen owls and muskrats and turtles and cranes and raccoons and hawks and a very adorable juvenile skunk. I think when the storm is gone I will once again go out to pick up trash around the creek and do my part to help this little ecosystem thrive.

I think for anyone who is struggling right now or tomorrow or any of the days after, the best thing to do always, is to find someone to help. Yesterday (or the day before yesterday at this point I suppose), I helped one of my neighbors get through the aftermath of a domestic violence incident and find somewhere safe for her and her kid to go. Being able to provide support for someone who needed it in such a tangible way was really nice, and I know I can always look forward to finding more opportunities to help the people around me.

That’s what’s most important right now, I think. Helping your neighbors whenever you can, holding space with your loved ones to cry and laugh together, and doing something practical and tangible like cleaning up the trash by a creek.

[flowerakatsuka]

yotsubana florals' other frequent loiterer + a bonding moment between kuroba & ichimatsu.

[somegrumpynerd]

When your ruthless henchmen have pack bonded and continually lie in a pile like kittens

[cconfusedkat]

When you try to bump into your spouse cuz you cant find any other good excuse to see them during the day but your spouses spouse is doing the same thing so you both feel threatened by one another thus arguing

[askyofexplodingstars]

new doodle page, all derived from scenes from my recent x reader fic, our way (once again ft my farmer)

[slavhew]

28/01/2024

stars don't twinkle moon doesn't shine

big thanks to @nahrgles for finishing this for me after i hit a wall with colors bg and effects- chromatic aberration blew my fkn mind

pre edit transparent version under cut because i spent too much time cleaning it loll

[s1mpl3sp0ng3]

she's beauty and she's grace, she's got a sleepy face

[jazzzzzzhands]

Wally brought you a cup of sugar!

Like a good neighbor!

He also has an egg in his pocket!

If you know, you know!

[one-bunny-a-day]

10/12/2023

[wannabemasterofwindintraining]

Good morning everyone

[hplonesomeart]

Hey!! So turns out a video I made between a certain “well beloved but highly sensitive/emotionally reactive T.V” and an “orange haired inkling-turned-human” has managed to sweep my YouTube channel and accumulate 100k VIEWS!! THAT’S A LOT OF PEOPLE ACTUALLY?? My most widely viewed video EVER to exist in this moment in time?? AAAAA?? Not even mentioning the various comments and staggering increase in subs! It’s so much more then what I expected or even prepared for—might even be the most impactful thing to happen for me this year <3

…aside from graduating high school + the social connections I’ve been fortunate to make lol

BUT THE POINT IS I’d been closely monitoring the YouTube growth through the entirety of October. It’s make me smile like a dork, gawk in astonishment, dance frantically in my room from the energy boosts, and grow courage to stop being so selective/self-conscious with what I wish to share with the world! It’s kept my ambitions going!

I needed to find some way to celebrate the occasion and express my thanks—because I can’t NOT acknowledge this milestone jksjskp. Typically I try to avoid getting tunnel visioned focusing on the metrics/numbers. Mr. Puzzles had already demonstrated how much those things can mess with the minds of creatives. Caring too much about chasing views or placing your artistic value in attention seeking gets damaging. But at same time…it’s hard to deny the sense of pride the 100k achievement has filled me with. I understand that reaching 100k views doesn’t immediately make me any “better” or “worse” then I was before. I’m still just me! It only helps me feel seen by others—and that’s all I really needed. To hear some nice words & receive reminders that my ideas are cared about. So thank you SMG4 fandom for that, seriously thank you.

Please accept this Mr. Puzzle drawing as a way of sharing the happiness around. He’s so entertaining. Love him for simply existing. So glad we can all collectively be super attached to him (and the rest of the SMG4 cast of course). Can’t wait to see more incredible artworks from the fandom :)

Just incase anyone is confused by my vague description over which “animated video” I’m referring to here—hopefully this photo will help clarify lol. It’s this one!! Sorry about not outright stating the title at the start, I got carried away with writing!!

I’ve been in an odd place mentally when thinking about it. Wondering to myself if any of the attention is deserved considering it’s not even fully colored and could be dismissed as “low effort” content (despite taking several days making it). It’s easy to get into a trap of comparing yourself to others and questioning how much of the videos success is based on your skills, sheer algorithm luck, or only because you used popular characters and catered to a specific fandom. And then judging yourself by looking at other peoples videos. I’ve seen several artists post higher quality works then my own but it somehow gets less views. So why did mine succeed when others (who should have gotten just as much attention if not more) didn’t? Sometimes you feel like you’ve unfairly robbed them of that chance to be seen. However I’ve realized that I can’t ever expect views to be consistent—and comparing is pointless. So why worry about it or feel inadequate? I mean it’s pretty common for funny cat videos to go viral, so who am I to question the system lol. “Popular” YouTube videos can range from a passion project which took 7+ artists…to a clip of Toad singing Chandelier or a nonsensical Vine sketch. Anything can happen when it’s the internet! And just-so-happened my video was chosen. I should stay glad about that and get rid of all the overanalyzing. So that’s what I’ve chosen to do :)

[battle-of-alberta]

guess who's back at the tablet

what, me? be biased? in support of an edmonton franchise? why ever would you think that. calgarians go get your cookie beer doughnuts since for some reason they were only available on the yyc menu and none of ours at the time of posting, tsk tsk. (personal dp faves of mine are the bernadette and the vancouver fog - and i brought their fritters to my parents and they loooved them even though they got totally squished by airplane travel)

i went to krispy kreme in the early aughts when i lived in the states- we drove all the way to another city to try them because nowhere near us had good doughnuts. When those are the only doughnuts you have access to and they're hot, they're fine, and watching the big machine pumping them out is great entertainment, but honestly I do not care for them and i WARNED quatsch in toronto that they weren't that good.

but calvin of course LOVES soulless corporations, especially american ones :)

anyway the yyc dp logo is so cute i can't.

[kolkaslove]

Need to start using glitter pens in my notebook again.... looks boring and stale compared to my old ones sigh

I know haven't been using certain pen types as much because bleeds through the page or whatever and I have drawings but also I can just stick them on and stuff

I don't need to let the limits of paper define me!!!!!! Let that ink bleed as much as it wants if it's shiny!!!!! I need that blue glitter back!!!!!

[meadow-roses]

maybe this whole world is bent but it's waking up, and I'm waking up...

okay okay but the trope of the old hero learning what it means to be alive??? deciding to live???? breaking the trope that the mentor needs to die for there to be a happy ending hmmmmm it never gets old okayyyyy They don't win because they stop the bad guy they win because they save everyone that needed to be saved and I'm just. hhh