#though preferably less saturated lol

[soosoosoup]

sunset serenade

[cosmicsimsi]

Tutorial: How I edit my pics (Photoshop)

A not so helpful guide by me~

(orig. post)

For the beginning: I use my own Reshade and use only Photoshop to edit. (for videos I use Premiere Pro/After Effects)

Ingame: I use SRWE with the profile 3840x2400 to get it already in a better qualitity. For this pic I also used ReLight.

In Photoshop:

I start with using Topaz Clean with these Settings:

Next I make a Vignette ("Filter"-> "Lens Correction") with these Settings:

After that, I start making a bloom you can use this tutorial for that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMxnXfN7ZDg

Before and After

Now I put a filmic grain on it . For that I go on "Edit" and click on "Fill"

you want it to look like that

The pic will turn gray but thats normal!:)

Now I convert it into a smart object by right clicking on the layer.

Next I change the layer to "Overlay"

I continue with going to "Filter" and click on "Noise" -> "Add Noise"

The window will look like that. I like to put the Amount to 8 but that's all preference:)

That's it for the filmic grain. (I made it into an Action so it's faster)

My next step is to put a Curve to make the pic a bit more moody.

I don't put too much though lol, it also changes depening on the pic.

After that, I put a Color Lookup to change the color a bit.

For that I click on the little half moon bottom right.

I like to use on of the first 2 Kodak LUTs (Kodak 5205 or Kodak 5218)

I put the Fill of that layer around 40% to make it less strong.

Next I draw hair! (still a noob at it...) I use this Brush "Kyle's Real Oil Round Flex Wet" that comes with Photoshop:

Before and After

For the next step I use 2 Hue/Saturation Layers also on the little halfmoon bottom right.

With that I draw Shadows and Highlights!

For Highlights For Shadows

After that, I click Ctrl+I to invert the Layers and start drawing on the mask layer.

Before and After

The pic is in an area with lots of colored lights, it would naturally reflect on the Sims, so I put some pinkish and blueish colors on highlights like this:

Now to the effects to make it look more fun!

3 of the Sims are using water guns and they splash with it ofc! So I added some water splashes with a brush and put a slight motion blur on it.

and since it's a lot of people, water splashes everywhere. Because of that, in some areas I added some water splashing effects (Photoshop Brush) that are making it look like there is movement.

looks way more alive now right?

It still felt a bit "empty" though, so I decided to put a picture of a moon in the sky and added some bubbles (Photoshop Brush) around.

fun fun

Now I put a light leak overlay I found on the internet over the pic.

I put the Fill of that Layer on really low though, so it has a “soft“ effect.

At the end, I made a chromatic aberration (color distortion)

For that I make a Layer copy of the pic and double click the new copy layer and a menu should open.

Under channels uncheck G and B. After that close the window and just resize the Layer a bit.

And that's it! Hope it was helpful somehow:)

[aeternallis]

Kim’s Redemption : A Rant

I think one of the things that I tend to question and kinda struggle with at times being a KP enjoyer is the fandom’s general tendency to soften certain aspects of Kim’s personality and his actions as a way of redeeming him, either due to the influence of Jeff Satur’s media personality and/or when he’s compared to Vegas and Kinn.

And before I say anything else, this is not a jab towards anyone in particular, it’s just me ranting about my favorite character, so you can go on about your day if you don’t wanna read what I gotta say. 😆

I think part of my struggle comes from the fact that since Kim barely has any scenes in the show that lasts longer than 2-3 mins, I’m also somewhat constricted from the few assumptions I can make in how I interpret him, especially when I’m writing fic (which I am doing atm). Which in and of itself isn’t totally a bad thing, at least I don’t think so; if anything, I think that makes it a lot more fun as a challenge.

For example, if you were to ask me how do I think Porsche would react to finding out Kim had used and manipulated his little brother, I honestly couldn’t tell you. Kim and Chay’s storyline was so cut off from everything else in the beginning that ngl, it was a bit of a whiplash once their narrative finally began to intersect with the main plot, lol I can't really see Porsche getting angry, if nothing else due to his ignorance of Kimchay's situation (which also imo, isn't really a bad thing), but I also don't know if I can see him being lenient towards Kim, because he's also overprotective of Chay.

So in the end, I just choose not to think about it, and work within that framework instead~

But anyway, I digress!

Jeff's media personality and its influence on how Kim is interpreted as a character, that one is pretty much unavoidable, since the two men share the same face and body. XD Some can differentiate between the two much more than others, some tend to meld them as a sort of hybrid and use Kim as the container of a Jeff-esque fantasy, and all in all, that sort of thing is entirely dependent on preference and said fantasy, yknow? So it's just one of those things that I tend to scroll past or move on.

What truly gets me so befuddled though is when Kim is compared to Vegas and Kinn, and between the three of them, somehow Kim is taken to be the least problematic of the three, in terms of how they treated their romantic interest. And I'm not really sure how that conclusion came about, lol. In fact, I even remember reading a meta on here somewhere saying something along the lines of, compared to Vegas and Kinn's actions towards Pete and Porsche respectively, what Kim did to Chay was somewhat lenient and doesn't warrant that much groveling.

And I agree with that, at least in regards to the technical details, because OP was right. Kim never blackmailed Chay, nor assaulted or threatened him; in regards to physical intimacy, Kim never touched Chay in a way that was non-consensual.

But be that as it may, that way of thinking comes from the audience's POV, not Chay as a character.

And it really doesn't, right?

Chay doesn't know--or at the very least, we have no confirmation he's aware--the extent of what Porsche suffered through during the beginnings of his relationship with Kinn; he knows they're together, but I highly doubt Porsche told Chay he was pretty much sexually assaulted that first time. He REALLY doesn't know what's involved in VegasPete's relationship, much less their BDSM proclivities. Lol XD

In other words, Chay's actions and feelings post break-up with Kim (as well as the subsequent reconciliation) are and would be entirely based on his own experience, as they should, not based on the assumption that, when compared to Porsche and Pete's experiences with their respective Theerapanyakul, he got off lightly.

I think personally, something that often tends to be forgotten when Kim is made a lot more soft uWu babygirl than (imo) he really is is the fact that what Chay went through emotionally is, in and of itself, also a form of trauma. Sure, Chay was never physically hurt by Kim, but I don't think the emotional damage Kim dealt him is something that should be taken just for granted either.

There's a reason why this boy spiraled right after that devastating break up, and why he cried out the way he did. So how you interpret and imagine what Chay's next course of action would be if/when forgiving Kim is entirely up to you, including how he would respond and deal with the emotional trauma of that break-up. That scenario would come about based on your own interpretation of the show, your own preferences, and frankly, your own beliefs and life experience. If you think Chay is the type that needs some groveling/begging from Kim in order to heal, go for it, that's completely valid; if you think he can get over it easily enough, that's valid too.

It goes without saying, but just in case~

I stand by what I said before that although Kim has not physically harmed Chay in the way Kinn and Vegas has with Porsche and Pete, he's just as capable of doing that as his brother and cousin. And honestly, that's what makes Kim and the rest of the characters such an awesome bunch to me; a character doesn't have to be morally good in order to be a good character, yknow? Besides, I think that's what makes all three love stories strong enough to stand on their own: these Theerapanyakul men can love fiercely, but they can and have hurt and manipulated the people they love just as fiercely.

The physical and emotional wounds Porsche, Porchay, and Pete have suffered in varying degrees is incomparable, because by doing that in the first place, the characters' agency in turn is taken away.

And don't get me wrong, if you genuinely see Kim as a soft, uWu babygirl because that's how you HC him, go for it and more power to you! XD But if you HC him as being soft, uWu babygirl because he never physically assaulted Chay when you compare his actions to the shit Vegas and Kinn did, well...more power to you too, although I imagine this rant probably feels like a personal attack. Sorry about that~

But for my own interpretation (and limitation I admit, as well as it not being my preference in general; Kim can be soft for Chay and his family, but otherwise, there's a reason Korn doesn't trust him and in the books, is secretly made the true heir), I guess the reason I'm not inclined to see Kim as having a lot of the softer edges fanon!Kim has to the point that it's made part of his overall personality, is because, for me, it almost feels like I would be trivializing Chay's emotional trauma, just so they can quickly get together again and share in the fluff and puff, yknow? Almost like trying to resist the urge to think, "in order for Chay to be able to handle Kim, you gotta soften him up a little bit."

Because then I would be doing a disservice to Chay's character, who imo is more than capable of handling Kim's problematic tendencies. This boy had no problem blocking Kim's ass and pulling away from him, he can handle himself~

And just so we're clear, I'm not saying those fans who do see Kim as a soft, uWu boy with stunted emotions is doing just that, not at all. Just that for me personally, that's kinda the mental block in my noggin. XD Besides that, I'm just a sucker for angst, man.

But meh, at the end of the day, to each their own, yknow? XD That's what makes fandom so much fun, you can pick and choose what you want to engage with.

As an artist / fic writer, I'm just grateful I can feed myself the food I want to see~ Hehe!

[aihoshiino]

Can you tell us more about what you think of real Nino vs script Nino? I think it's so interesting that you said Nino's timidity might be an act (or a choice) on her part... I find her so so interesting, in the sense that (at least in the script) she considered Ai as someone who took away things that were "hers". And that included fans and interestingly, Takamine's attention. (cough lesbian cough) But then that to me at least doesn't really fits into what the actual Nino said (ie normal jealousy vs thinking so highly of Ai but also resented her...?) Nino definitely has a lot of pent up emotions, and unresolved feelings, I think.

Script Nino (& Script Takamine to an extent) both definitely feel like caricatured, exaggerated versions of the girls as they were back during the movie's time period, so while the details are blown up and hyper-saturated for Movie Drama and should be taken with a grain of salt, the emotional broad strokes are probably true enough. We sort of get a tongue-in-cheek nod to this idea with Takamine being all omg was i really like that no way!!! and then immediately codeswitching and barking orders at Nino who just goes along without protest LOL

Seeing that interaction repeated with the real Nino and Takamine feels like a soft confirmation that their dynamic was more-or-less what was see in the movie though probably without as much overt hostility. Takamine definitely gives me the energy of a person who means well but has a really 'my way or the highway' approach to things which manifests in her being bossy and controlling and Nino is comparatively more of a passive person, both in the sense that she prefers to keep her head down and not rock the boat and that she's passive aggressive, the type to just stew in all her negative feelings rather than voice them or do anything productive with them. 45510 lays her feelings out in a little more detail, where she seems to have some self awareness about her behaviour but surrenders to it regardless, recognising Ai's talent and charisma even as she hates her for it. So she was already sitting on a bunch of really complicated feelings even before Ai died.

There's also the complicating factor that, like you said — I do genuinely think and have for a long time that Nino probably has some sexuality hangups that she has not started working through and is probably pretty deeply closeted. 45510 is where this initially jumped out at me - her going on and on about Ai's beauty, her "complex feelings" when Ai dismisses the idea of her being in a relationship that are left suspiciously vague, her possessiveness... Hell, even the hostility she displays towards Ai; it's an unfortunate reality that a lot of closeted women will excuse away or express their attraction to other women as dislike and hostility to try and ""explain"" the nature of their supposed fixation. Nino is this to a T for me.

So imagine all this already cooking your brain and then the woman You Definitely Hate And Are Not In Love With gets brutally murdered and you suddenly have to try and untangle and unfuck those feelings all on your own, dealing with the guilt of how you treated her and knowing that you'll now never be able to make up for or take any of it back while going through the process of grieving for her and scrabbling to keep your career afloat in her absence and your boss has just vanished... no wonder went full Toxic Lesbianism about it all.

[elizakai]

Hay :D

Can you tell us what do you use to color your drawings on traditional? I need some tips •́⁠ ⁠ ⁠‿⁠ ⁠,⁠•̀

why hello!! Sorry for such a late answer!!

so, I’m a fun little something we call ✨inconsistent✨(sigh) so while I may not be the best person to ask…but here’s things I commonly use color wise (favored art supply dump)

Alchohol ink markers

I use these most, they are a beautiful thing, my favorite are Ohuhu as they are high quality and a much lower price then brands such as Copic. (Can you taste the salt.)

They have less blend ability in comparison to Copic but are overall a much better investment if you ask me! They are great for a more smooth look! Another one I have around that I use for less saturated colors is touch youch youch

I very much prefer brush pens over the chiseled ones, for a paint like experience, and more dynamic application! Again these are just personal preference!

(I have a bad habit of opening ink capsules and painting with ink. I would not necessarily recommend this.)

Watercolor

There’s lots of pretty nice watercolor you can get for a pretty cheap price! The ones I prefer currently are MeiLiang, I got them online for a good price and they are very nice!

That said I do mix around different brands and such, whatever is on hand.

Gel pens

I love gel pens, even if you just have like one or two it’s such a difference!! I love just having white ones for adding little details and such to drawings! You can also get colors if you like! I use the Jellyrollers!

Colored pencils

a lot of people hate colored pencils which I get, but I find them very helpful for detailing (when I have motivation to do so lol) I often use them on top of drawings I’ve layed down a base of alcohol ink with! That way it has a clean base and can add the fun texture and stuff afterwards!! Those smooth looks can be achieved with pencils alone, I often just don’t have time for that :) it’s very fun though, layering is key with pencils

I do very much enjoy prismicolor colored pencils!!! It’s an investment I don’t regret lol, although I’m sure any soft core colored pencils would have the same effect!!

Posca

occasionally I use posca markers for large poster sized drawings, esp for the ink capsules. I like the paint coverage!! That said they can be a pain to work with.

it’s probably not good to be like me and use all of this on sketch paper. (I know. I’m aware that that is psychotic.) but I do normally use sketch paper, getting some multi medium paper might be good if you are interested in paints inks and pencils though, that way you can use it for all of the above :))

Color wise that’s what I commonly mix and match with, when it comes to pens my FAVORITE pens to sketch or do lineart with are Tombow calligraphy pens. Simple brush pens, it makes detailing harder but I enjoy the dynamics. There’s lots of micro pens you can find for small details as well!! I also prefer to use mechanical pencils for sketching, simply because the mechanical lead stays thin and sharp instead of getting dull. That said, I use very cheap mechanical pencils, and sometimes you need a full pencil depending on the project.

There’s a little mini rant on the art supplies I use color wise, again these are just my preferences from what I’ve tried!! I’m by no means a professional haha, i very much experiment and make a mess of things!

Traditional art can become…quite the investment. Especially when it comes to buying all of the art supplies as your resources dwindle. I have to buy new art supplies much more often than I’d like to admit.

All that said, I am a firm believer of art being able to be formed from any medium!! >:D

be it a simple 2b pencil, a ballpoint pen, or crayons products, I think anything can be used to make something really pretty :))

Only real advice I have is don’t be scared to mix and match, get messy, and experiment!! Do whatever’s most fun, and don’t think you can’t make something great from something simple!! There’s no real rules. Only techniques and suggestions. It can be daunting because there’s no undo button in traditional art, but I think that’s a really good way to expand your abilities :0 it teaches you to roll with mess ups and learn how to work with them!!

Most importantly, let yourself learn from others, but NEVER let people force how you use your supplies, don’t be scared to beat them up if that’s what you need (the art supplies not the people.), and don’t think you need the fanciest things to make nice things >:D

if you want more specific tips and such feel free to ask, I’ll do my best to answer :,)

[skitskatdacat63]

what is your favorite color family?

I will answer this by using color palettes 🙏 I would say my two favorite families would be this range of bluish-grays and then red/white/black:

I think it's a bit less obvious in my fanart cause I have to stick to other preexisting colors(yknkw racesuit color schemes) but my preference are soooooo obvious when it comes to a lot of my ocs. Like look at them cmon, can you tell what my fav color schemes are???

Lol though ig you can kinda see it a bit with fanart bcs I love to stick with the red/blue dichotomy. And if I can, I always want the background to be black and the most saturated red ever

[sencubussubs]

Okay, after reading your response to my ask (which was very helpful btw, so thank you so much for that ♡ I WILL stop overconsuming🫣) I couldn't help but wonder about something. So ofc, manifesting magical powers is possible too, so I'm wondering if manifestation would be made much...idk easier if a person were to just manifest a superpower like Essokinesis (the ability to control reality... like, Idk the Scarlet Witch with her chaos magic or something idk anything about her besides that lol) which SOUNDS REDUNDANT I KNOW. But it just seems like having that power would help you change anything, be it you/your 3d right before your very eyes, WITHOUT having to saturate your mind at all. AND I'M NOT ssaying this 'cause I'm lazy to put in the effort or anything, I'm just wondering if manifesting a power like this makes sense, so you can get whatever else you want from that point on🤷 I'm honestly surprised I've never seen anyone talk about doing this before.

Haha honestly this may be a controversial belief (idek why) but considering anything is possible i agree and believe it is possible to manifest powers. That being said, (this gonna make me sound so boring) i personally don’t really feel like having powers, so i can’t say i have given this much thought.

If you are at the point that you wanted to and feel capable of manifesting magical powers just to help you manifest and revise, i personally feel like you could also just put that belief into your manifestations being instant cause then you’ll also see the 3D change instantly/ in front of your eyes (it not entirely the same way though, idk depends on the person and the manifestation.)

Like honestly it is just what you prefer, and if it’s an avenue you feel like going down, go ahead!

I do want to point out that the more you manifest the less you have to saturate your mind because you get used to desiring, deciding and receiving, so if that’s what puts you off, manifesting doesn’t have to be hard work at all. I also really enjoy the process of saturating my mind so i am quite biased.

Love,

Saph

(i feel like that is such a formal outro for how casually and informally this post is written lol)

[cassynite]

now that i've officially done them all properly, here are some Fun Facts about the tarot series i did for Sparrow bc i cannot shut up:

I'd originally wanted to each act to be a minor arcana card from each individual minor arcana house (wands, cups, swords, pentacles) and then have the act 5 one be a major arcana card, but unfortunately Sparrow just had Too Many Swords energy and not enough Cups. Four minor and one major is still pretty good, though.

While i originally did this out of art envy of the dragon age inquisition tarot cards i ended up drawing more inspiration from the actual tarot cards in terms of composition inspiration. less overt shapes and more direct symbolism

easiest tarot to draw was act 2; the hardest one was act 5's BY FAR which is why it took so long to shit out

one of the reasons WHY act 5 was so hard was because i wanted to do a "clever" thing by making sparrow only show one eye in each tarot (either by being in profile or by having her hair hide one) and then in act 5 have her fully facing the viewer with both eyes exposed. that ended up locking out a bunch of poses i would have preferred and made me scrap like seven compositions before settling on the final form lol

Act 5 is the only tarot with cool tones! sparrow's a very warm-toned gal but this series ended up pulling toward warmer saturated tones to indicate fire or distress, so getting her in cool purples, blues, and pinks for the final one is meant to indicate the major departure she finally has as she finishes up her canon character arc

If i ever redid these i would go Hard Mode and actually try to get them to fit in tarot card dimensions (i didn't realize until after the first one that it was too wide and by then i decided to just commit to it). i'd also give them proper borders so it looks like actual tarot cards instead of just tarot-inspired paintings

[2n2n]

The anime kinda sucks but the op and the ending slap

I'm a fan of the anime! Though it doesn't really reflect the sheer beauty of Aida's art and color sense ... I do appreciate that it does try, and has very unique color for any anime, and is faithful to panels as best as it can be. I've seen much worse adaptations, much more generic flat anime (for shounens especially..) ... and it's sadly not as if Aida-sensei can personally do color keys for every episode ... it has better color than most anime. Jewel-toned, saturated, vibrant, I can tell they did all they could manage on their budget to follow the vibes of Aida-sensei's vivid covers.

My only like "augh" about the anime is just the kind of hyper-focus the fandom puts on only the anime's scenes, depictions. It's harder to find a good discussion about later arcs that isn't just reactionary!

I love the voice cast, I love that the twins are voiced by the same person, and Ogata-sensei is quite hype about her role as the Yugi, seems friendly with AidaIro-sensei... I like that she was directed to sound "more ghost-y" for Hanako, I love the delivery, and I love the difference in Tsukasa's higher, more perky tones. I'm sure given Ogata-sensei's prominence as a VA, that she was very specifically sought out by AidaIro-sensei.

Meanwhile Nene-chan's VA sings the ED, which I do adore ... it's very sweet that her VA can sing, and I wonder if AidaIro-sensei specifically wanted someone who could, given Nene-chan does like to whimsically sing little songs... Nene-chan's VA actually does like, singing in some sort of idol app game .. though she specifically sings like, lullabies.... ??? (its been a while since I looked though, so forgive me if details are off).... fascinating stuff. As a result, I look forward to future Nene-chan singing scenes being animated... and I wonder if other EDs would have her singing. I like the symbolic simplicity of the ED animation... very lovely.... very thoughtful.. it reminds me of how perfect some of the stage play's scenes are orchestrated, really thematic, really respecting the story's intentions...

I think about ED songs I like, vibes like this one....

OP tend to often be high octane so I rarely ever like them ... Brotherhood has the kind I like-- slow going into an emotional intensity-- focus on hands, gestures, love the shot of Riza in bed, would die for a vibe like that for JSHK... but even Brotherhood's later OPs are more action-oriented and don't work for meee.... ><;;; what I really like about Aida-sensei's art is how much she cares about gesture, expression, composition of a shot, specific lighting conditions ... I find the series so romantic, I wish the OP focused on that.

I don't actually like the OP of the anime LOL, and I feel like fkldsjsdkl; animating Aida-sensei's horny splash page image has genuinely poisoned the fandom into thinking about Tsukasa as some sexual predator WAY TOO MUCH (because they have to justify it as something other than a fun horny illustration, meant to draw in the proper audience.... ) ... again stuff BEING ANIMATED AT ALL means everyone, kind of, obsessively inflate the importance in their brains it feels lol .... I don't like the song really either, I prefer moody or somber OPs...! I would like something romantic and nostalgic.

I've been kinda hoping the announcement of new material is an OVA, because I would actually personally prefer less anime but a higher budget, getting to really explore a single arc, really get to see the faces rotating accurately (the anime never has as pretty of profiles as Aida-sensei draws;;; it kinda defaults.. the front-facing shots are accurate, but others are sortof 'whatever'....)

my favorite thing about Aida-sensei's art is the facial proportions... they look downright ah, weird, from many angles, bugeyed, tend to have an overbite, smooth muzzle.... extremely distinct

My Little Pony snouts.... gelfling..... cute upper lip....

I like Aida-sensei's art so much, that I doubt any anime would really have a high enough budget to do it justice ... but I don't dislike the anime we got, and just hearing scenes voiced is lovely. There are a lot of lines I am eager to hear aloud ... I think about getting to hear this aloud...

Ogata-sensei would crush it... mnnngh

[50chickens]

The babies are getting so big! Shiro’s been really good with them, even though he prefers not to dad if possible. We believe we’ve got 2 boys out of the batch but we’re not quite sure yet.

One “boy” is very vocal, very whiny. Also the biggest. Has a larger folded comb growing in and long thick legs. Stilts is the name that’s stuck. Frequently gets ‘lost’ and alarms at everything. Will scream bloody murder if handled. lol also pretty curious and is often first to find new things. Funnily enough. lol

The other “boy” is less vocal. Likes to play, first to try to challenge you. Also on the bigger side, appears to have a shorter face, must be common among the Cemani breeding pool as one of shiro’s sisters had it. Hubby has named this one King or Kingu. Sweet and easily handled.

The littlest one is doing great! They’re very smol. Very sweet, usually will like to come over and sit with me. Handles well. The funniest part is if she gets scared or accidentally stepped on or something *everyone* else will come over and get ready to fight whatever it is. They protect the littlest sister. I’ve named her Sobi.

The other three don’t have names. They exhibit hen like behavior, very food motivated. There’s Pink Band who is the largest and was one we initially suspected might be a boy. Smaller comb and thinner legs than the other two. Surprisingly long face though. Most food oriented. They will destroy you for a grape. Also frequently afflicted with the zoomies and spars with King from time to time.

Blue-and-Purple Bands is like Pink but toned down a bit. Likes food. Will frequently sit with you. Smaller than the boys and Pink. Not quite as high energy. Will hide food.

Blue-and-Pink Bands is an interesting one, she seems to have the most saturated coloring of them with dark dark eyes and the characteristic dark tongue…. All except one tiny spot on the tippy tip of her toe which has been left pink. Nicknamed ‘Pink toe’ but I think the name Sakura was thrown out. Sweetie though. Also handles well.

All n all they’re all very personable birds, what we expect from cemanis. All have figured out they have wings, again expected of cemanis. They like up.

[survey--s]

672.

At your part of the world, is it summer now?: No. It's autumn going into winter. We've had snow on the fells over the past week too.

What’s the warmest it can get over there? How about the coldest?: It got to about 34 last summer which was insane for around here, we were on an Amber warning. On the tops it can get to -25 easily, but in our town I'd say about -5 or so as we're by the sea.

Is there a bad habit you’re trying to break right now?: No.

Is it easy to find a job in your preferred field in your home town?: I run my own business in my field and it wasn't hard to get customers. That said, there are three of us now and I think if there were too many more, the market would be a bit saturated.

When is the last time you went to a fun fair?: Years ago. Whenever we went to Blackpool.

How about an amusement park?: Same as above, I think it was about seven years ago now. The one that comes to our town is for little kids really.

Did you/will you take part in your city’s Pride parade this year?: No.

If not, why not?: Because we don't have one. The nearest is over two hours away.

Ladies: Would you ever consider proposing? If not, why not?: Sure, why not?

Gentlemen: How would you feel, if you were proposed to?: .

Have you ever played the original Mass Effect trilogy?: No.

If so, which Shepard and who do you like romancing the best?: -

Let’s say there’s a person in need. They need money which they can’t make. Would you be more likely to help them out, if a celebrity asked you to?: No.

When you go to a restaurant, do you have a go-to dish?: I definitely have favourites that I order at chain places, yeah. All the local places here change their menus regularly so I just pick whatever I fancy at the time.

Or do you always try out something new?: I'm quite particular about food/flavours/textures so I tend to stick with what I know.

Would you rather live next to a kindergarten or an old folks’ home?: Old Folks' Home. Much quieter and less traffic.

What was the last game that you played?: CountryStar.

What do you know about Finland?: Not much, ha. One of my friends is from there though and whenever she goes back to visit it always makes me want to go. It's gorgeous.

Where was the postcard from that travelled the longest way to you?: New Zealand to England.

Have you ever made jewelry?: Just kids ones.

Have you ever upcycled anything? If so, what?: Yeah, most of our furniture is up-cycled.

Which app do you use the most on your phone?: Facebook or TikTok.

Did you learn to play an instrument as a kid? If so, which one?: Yeah - recorder, piano, guitar and cornet.

What is the best part of your most ordinary day?: Getting home from work to my animals, or getting into bed at the end of the day.

If you learned that you suddenly needed an aid of some sort to do something that you normally don’t need (glasses, hearing aid, etc.), would you comply or would you put it off until there was no choice anymore?: I mean, I've been wearing glasses since I was seven so obviously I would just comply, lol. I don't understand why you wouldn't.

Do you enjoy being on your own?: I love time on my own. Honestly, I'd go crazy without it.

Or are you happier when there’s a crowd around you?: Definitely not. I find crowds REALLY stressful.

Have you ever been to a zoo? If so, which one(s)?: Loads of zoos - off the top of my head, South Lakes, Colchester, Banham, Edinburgh, Whipsnade, London, Woburn Safari Park, Melbourne, Berlin (I think?) and I'm sure there are others. I loved going to the zoo as a kid.

How about petting zoos?: Sure, loads of times.

Have you thrown your “winter coat” off yet?: No. We're only in November.

Do you ever look up what foreign idioms mean?: Sometimes.

What’s the strangest saying you’ve come across?: Nothing in particular is coming to mind right now.

What’s a First World problem that you have?: Meh, I'm sure there are plenty.

Do you use food products that are advertised as more healthy?: No. I just buy what I like, I don't really pay much attention to how it's marketed.

Does it matter to you if the produce you use is organic?: Generally I avoid organic food.

If so, why?: Because organic is generally overpriced and pointless.

What has been the worst sort of physical pain that you have felt?: Sacroiliitis or a wisdom tooth infection.

Are your pains generally more acute or chronic?: Chronic.

Do you collect anything?: Wax melts, sweaters, cosy socks, fleece blankets.

If you could be doing absolutely anything right now, what would it be?: Sleeping.

Do you read any web comics?: No.

Which social media platform do you use the most, if any?: Facebook and Instagram.

Have you ever made a parody version of a popular song?: I mean, randomly off the the top of my head, sure.

Which game did you play the most as a kid during recess?: Cops and Robbers.

[khizuo]

two whole mutuals liked this post so here we go!! (@nougatto @smaragdine this is for u)

i like a floaty pastel-colored hanfu as much as the next enthusiast but i love love a hanfu with more saturated colors and heavier fabrics. sometimes i feel like the lighter/sheer fabrics that a lot of hanfu comes in doesn't drape super satisfyingly. for me a hanfu piece doesn't need to have elaborate embroidery to be interesting as long as the drape of the fabric is pretty, and usually that requires a fabric that isn't like, paper-thin lol.

a lot of the time i look at the sleeve area of a hanfu to really determine if i love it. like for example, i way prefer a sleeve that drapes like this:

over this:

(though both pieces are beautiful in their own ways, i'm just stating my personal preferences lol)

same thing with hanfu skirts — thicker fabrics!! the sheer, layered look is really popular and i think it's pretty but personally i love a hanfu that looks like it weighs more than 5 ounces. ofc mamianqun tends to be made of thicker fabrics and i love a good mamianqun, but i want to see more ruqun skirts in thicker fabrics too!

oh and — more daxiushan in heavy fabrics would also make me so happy.

for hanfu colors, the turquoise + red + orange combination is always always going to be good. a white hanfu has to be really special in order for me to really like it lol, most of them I just scroll by. dark green is an extremely underrated hanfu color. brown, dark red, orange, and yellow hanfu (autumnal colors basically) generally also catch my eye a lot. in general, i think we need more hanfu in heavier, more saturated colors. i won't call light colors overdone, i'm just less into them.

also. historical recreation hanfu is the best genre and i dream of being able to have a historical recreation hanfu someday. pls i want one of those dunhuang recreation pieces. that's all.

who wants to listen to my hanfu hot takes

[alkalinefrog]

I also have the little watercolour set by Windsor Newton. I've been thinking about buying some colours for some time already (like some brighter colours, like pink perhaps?) but I'm so unsure of which ones to start buying to complete the palette. I fear finding out I actually could make/work with some colour I already had and regretting the choice. Can I ask, since I'm sure you've used it more than I have, which colours did you miss the most in the palette? Do you have some colours do you recommend adding to it? Thanks!

OOOO I gotchu anon! "A few extra colours" was a bit of an understatement, I've doubled the number of colours, and I can recommend which ones I think would really add to your collection!

So the thing about mixing paint is that it’s always going to be additive colour. What that means is you can predict what colours you can mix by the pigments already existing in your paints. (You should probably look into the term/theory a bit on your own to fact check!)

You know how sometimes you go to mix a secondary colour like green? Just yellow and blue right? But it comes out looking like absolute barf regardless of the quality of your paints? Well that’s probably because you’re mixing a “warm” primary colour with a “cold” primary colour! Usually when you buy paints they’re rarely a “true” hue of that colour. Even the primary colours can contain pigments of each other!

Therefore, mixing say a warm indigo blue (that inherently has red in it) with a cool lime yellow (that inherently has green in it) will mean that the two complementary colours within them begin to neutralize each other, giving you that added grey pigment into the mix. This can be used to your advantage though, if you need to desaturate a colour!

If you want to mix a really rich hue of colour, make sure you’re putting two “warm” primaries together, or two “cool” ones!

Knowing all that, I recommend that you add both a warm and a cool shade of every primary colour to your palette. For example, a “warm” blue would have more red pigment in it, so that’d be like an ultramarine-leaning-near-indigo. Conversely, a “cooler” blue would lean further away from red in the colour wheel towards a greenish tint. If you get confused on what’s what you can always refer back to the handy colour wheel!

On to specific colour recs:

Having a good stock of yellow ochre is always a safe bet, I love using it as a wash in almost every warm painting I do

I prefer to mix my greens, so I opted to just swap out the unused paint square thingys (idk the term lol) for more space to fit some more warm blues/teals

same with the browns, who needs those lol

Having a cooler red shade(like a deep maroon) really helped, that way you can get rid of the purple in there too lol

If you want bright/nearly fluorescent colours then it’s a good idea to invest in hot pink, bright yellow, and a bright teal blue (CMYK)

I personally like having a black in there because it just saves time when I need to have a more dark/neutral shade of a colour. You can mix your own black and it’ll probably look better yadda yadda OR you can just add colour to it and call it a day if you’re not in the mood lol

I don’t use the white much but I like having it in there as a safety net. With watercolours you’re supposed to work light-to-dark using the white of the page, but I’m not proficient enough to pre-plan all that yet. Be nice to yourself and use some white sometimes to lighten a pigment a bit if you can’t judge how much of it to lay down on a page sometimes lol (it will come out less saturated than a pure thin wash though, don’t get me wrong)

EDIT: OOH WAIT WAIT Prussian Blue is a MUST HAVE!! It’s very dark and rich and you can often swap out a neutral black for it to give your neutrals more depth. Highly recommend, can’t go without it.

Other than that, I just collect some pretty colours that catch my eye here and there. But that’s my core foundation!

Hope this helps!

-Alka

[spectral-coyote]

dude ur art is so so cool. do u have any tips 4 drawing in mspaint (im pretty sure u use mspaint?) i use it too and the way u use the 1 pixel brush is so impressive

tysm!! i have a lot of fun making it :D

I do use an mspaint, but with an emulator cause i’m a mac user (jspaint.app)!

and uhmm as for tips, 

- I like to sketch in saturated colors to get neat undertones when i go over it. I forget to do this a lot though haha. But it usually shows up less well the cleaner your sketch is

- To get that scratchy look i almost exclusively use the 1 pixel / pencil brush along with flood fills, You might be tempted to use the bigger ones for thicker outlines but i way prefer how going over it a couple times with a smaller one looks. Helps with the faux pressure sensitivity look too.

- I also like to do some dithering and screentone by hand for the good texture :) ( You can see the former very clearly on the davepeta and roxy one lol) i try not to leave too many blocks of color wholly untextured.

Thats all i got lol

i could throw together a step by step if anyone would be interested in that

[twopoppies]

this may be an unpopular opinion, but I prefer an artist that’s on social media less?

yes, harry could be doing a *bit* more and it’d probably make a huge impact, but I think it’s probably better for an artist to be on social media less even though people claim they want it more. firstly, I think it creates a healthier balance in terms of parasocial relationships by reminding fans we don’t know what harry is up to 24/7 (nor are we entitled to know). I also think it helps fatigue on both ends— obviously harry doesn’t seem to like social media all that much, but also it’s very easy to be over saturated and tire out your fans if you update them on your life/projects constantly. when artists go live on instagram every other day, eventually people stop watching them as much.

and tying into that last part, I think a bit of mystery keeps him interesting. it builds so much anticipation for his projects when we simply have no idea what he’s up to or when things are coming, and that shows every time he releases something new or has a special event and fans go crazy trying to see what’s new or guess what’s next.

tl;dr: I think for a long term career, it’ll do harry better to have less presence on social media, because that keeps people coming back. plus, it’s definitely healthier for him. and the “aloof rockstar” image falls apart as soon as harry gets on stage and hams it up over dads in golf shirts 😂

LOL! That's very true. Anyone who pays even the smallest bit of attention to Harry can see he's a complete nerd and not cool at all. But yeah, I really do agree with you. It may be because I'm a lot older than many fans here, but I grew up before social media was a thing and we were just as fanatical about the bands we loved. We just didn't know much about their personal lives except what was fed to us through Tiger Beat or whatever. But we still bought albums and concert tickets and merch... and man, we went hard for the artists we loved.

[satohqbanana]

hi. can i do a total cop out and pick every single emoji on the sweet asks list you reblogged bc all of those questions are so fun owo

Took me about an hour to type out all my answers lol so uh, I'm not gonna format this anymore.

🦋 - where is your favorite place on Earth? Answered.

🧸 - how tall are you? I'm considered tall or taller than average here in the Philippines, but internationally I'm at average height.

🌸 - what is your favorite season and why? The cold December to February season, which may be winter for northwesterners.

💫 - what is your sun, moon and rising sign? No offense to those who like these kinds of thing, but I'm not into stuff like these.

💞 - what is your Myers-Briggs personality type? No offense to those who like these kinds of thing, but I'm not into stuff like these. But the test I was forces to take told me I was INFP/INTP.

💝 - what was the last song you listened to? Anna ni Issho Datta no Ni by SEE-SAW. (I was on a Gundam roll.)

🍰 - do you like sweet or savory food more? These days it's savory.

✨ - whats your Hogwarts house? I don't read Harry Potter.

🍬 - what food is most nostalgic for you? Answered.

🍄 - do you have a favorite video game? I have to pick between Spyro 2, StarCraft, and Witchtooth.

🎀 - what is your go to comfort movie? Spirit Stallion of the Cimarron and Adolescence of Utena :'^)

🌼 - what is your favorite color to wear? I often get the ones in big bright colors not only because I like saturated colors, but also because it makes it easy for people (like drivers or my folks in a crowd) to find/see me.

💖 - if you could hug anyone right now who would it be? My SLHB friends. 😭😭😭 I yearn to know them in personal.

💐 - do you sing or play any instruments? I'm a soprano :D and ocassionally I'll relearn notes to write songs and music tracks for fun.

🌾 - what foods would you bring on a perfect picnic? I don't enjoy picnics so I'm not bringing food; I'm bringing stuff like rubbing alcohol, sanitizers, tissue, wet wipes, itch cream, and such.

🌷 - when life becomes stressful what helps you to relax? Procrastinating? XD Talking about stories and listening to music.

🐥 - do you collect anything? if so, what do you collect? Answered.

💕 - what was the last movie you watched? did you like it? Lupin III The First. Heck yeah I did; it had a simple but on-brand story and its use of 3D was so beautiful, very stylized and feels less off than most other uses of 3D in animated series both Western and Eastern.

☕️ - do you prefer coffee or tea? Coffee. I do drink tea though.

🌤 - what weather tends to be your favorite? Rainy for sleeping; sunny for doing various activities.

🍓 - what is something you are proud of? My skills in writing.

🥞 - what is your favorite thing to cook/bake? Our home style "carbonara", which is actually just bacon, cheese, and cream sauce. I also enjoy sauteeing bitter veggies with tomato, egg, beef, and mushrooms.