#unsure what to tag this as

[obliqueblade]

A Post from a Friend

Hello, everyone. I am not Obliqueblade, and for those who have been here before, I’m sure you know what that means. For those unaware, or those stumbling across this blog in the future, I will explain. 

The original owner of this account, my best friend, has died. 

I didn't even know that she had a Tumblr, nor that she had planned to leave it with me after everything. It breaks my heart a bit to see her updates and talk about her prognosis as she did. 

I’m sure I’ll have more to say, eventually, I do plan on doing as she asked, completing her work the way she wanted- but for now, I want to grieve my friend. Then, I want to talk about who she was, explain just how much this community meant to her, and generally just talk about one of the greatest people I’ve known. 

She did leave a message she wrote a month ago, about a week before she passed, and I would like to share it with you all now. 

Feel free to leave comments, I’ll be back to answer soon. 

Thank you. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I have been putting this off for quite some time, but I fear I have no more time I can delay. Despite everything, I’m still a procrastinator at heart. I have spent far too much time thinking of how I want to address those who have stumbled onto my account and on my writing, but I fear for all my writing I am not sure how to word what I feel. 

Rather than continuing to wait, I have decided to write what I have collected of my thoughts thus far. I deeply appreciate those who have left likes, comments, and reposts of my writing- even those outside of “Who are you, really?”. When I started this journey, I had not anticipated it taking as long as it has. I also did not foresee what would occur at that time. I had thought I would live to see the end of my fic, but that can no longer be the case.

But that is the way life works, I suppose. Most people are not dealt the hands they deserve, nor are they given nearly enough time. 

I have always wished to help people- I had hoped that I would be able to achieve that in my life, but I am not sure I can say I have. Regardless, I am grateful for those who were able to contribute to my happiness these past few years. 

Recently, I have to admit I took a step back from writing, as well as watching Hermitcraft. I fear my heart may not be able to take not knowing what I will be left never to know. Waiting on those cliffhangers of “what’s next”- when I do not know if I will wake up tomorrow. 

I am satisfied with what I have seen so far, and as of writing this, Joel has announced his own TCG common card. I have asked the friend I have left this account for to get one on my behalf to join the others I have. I would like them, as well as all the merch I have to be with me. It feels important that even though I will no longer be here, those stay with me. 

While I may not be watching Hermitcraft as I wait, I am pleased with the memories I carry—the joy they bring me. The edits, art, and stories this community has created supported and distracted me in some of my darkest moments, and I truly regret that I will not be able to finish this story, with my own words, the way I had intended. 

Finally, I want to say, thank you. Even if you are discovering all of this after my passing, I am grateful to all those who have stumbled into my little corner of the internet. Just because I am gone, the things I have gotten to create will forever remain as moments captured from a different time.

This was truly the happiest few years of my life and in the words of Technoblade himself

 “I hope you all go on to live long, prosperous, and happy lives because I love you guys”

~ObliqueBlade Out

[autistic-wolf-pack]

Little disclaimer about endo “syscourse”. Mild TW!for brief mentions of $H and Su1cid3

Okay, as an anti-endo system one thing we feel the need to address about “syscourse” is that when people say they’re anti endo or try to educate someone, that is not anyone trying to invalidate anyone’s experience. It’s just when you claim a trauma disorder can form without trauma and then go around spreading misinformation it creates a stigma around the disorder that impacts so many people with dissociative disorders, even if they’re not part of a system. Your lived experience ARE valid, HOWEVER, there are other explanations for what you’re experiencing, a lot of which don’t require trauma. It’s okay to be wrong but it’s not okay to create a stigma around already heavily stigmatized disorders and mental health conditions. Even when it comes to things like IFS therapy, there’s an important distinction that it’s not the same as an actual system, yes the parts are valid and real, but nowhere near the same, and in all honesty just because the s stands for systems, doesn’t mean using that terminology and other terms created for/by systems doesn’t do genuine harm.

The first people to popularize the concept of having this disorder without trauma were not professionals, one of which had the disorder but denied it and refused to take any treatments, and the other didn’t have it but claimed he did because he had some dissociative symptoms, even though you can dissociate without trauma and have some other dissociative disorders without trauma(some require trauma, some don’t, but for all o them it’s more likely to be developed with it). Both of these people created very dangerous stereotypes about systemhood, both encouraging the stereotypes we are dangerous, and just spreading a lot of misinformation and even encouraging su1cid3 and $H. Additionally, tulpamancy and religious beliefs are not the same as being a system. The DSM (and I believe the ICD as well) specifies that. So please stop using system terminology or claiming to be one without trauma, your experiences are valid, but that doesn’t automatically make you a system. Please do some research.

With that said, any repeated or prolonged trauma is “enough” to form the disorder, and it doesn’t need to be super severe on the brink of death abuse or anything like that. Medical trauma is a valid, emotional abuse/neglect is valid, sibling trauma is valid, your trauma is valid even if it “wasn’t that bad”. It does need to be during formative years to form a system, but what you went through, no matter how old you were is still valid, and no one is trying to say it isn’t. It IS possible you don’t remember your trauma, but dont force yourself to remember it without professional help, and don’t claim to have a trauma based disorder until you’re sure you have trauma.Thank you for your time reading this.

also this is the one post we’re not putting anti endo tags, outside of this post and conversations that may stem from this Endos please DNI.

[ganondoodle]

twitter VS tumblr :,)

i dont want to seem like im complaining, as i dearly love tumblr and the awesome people here, but this is a reason why i am so anxious about twitter dying; to be fair, this is by far my most suddendly and most popular art tweet (i am unsure why) and in no way the norm over there (my usual art gets rarely if ever above 1k) and im well aware of how differently these two platforms work

still sometimes its pretty hard to not worry about it, tho i dont want to sound like im not appreciating the people that do interact with my stuff here, i am very thankful for each and every one

im afraid im not eloquent enough to properly express how i feel about it all, but anxiety is definitely one of them

(edit: im not trying to farm attention to that post or something, just the comparison of the extreme difference how the same fanart posted around the same times of a pretty popular character atm got attention on those two sites is making me worry? anxious? feel weird?)

[driftwooddestiel]

hiii. im normal (audio from peep show)

[i-spit-blood]

Question 🙋

Not sure anyone will answer this lol but I’m curious on the sugar baby community. I’m not sure where to look to understand more about it. I want to avoid misconceptions. Soooo if anyone knows much about it or where the best place to look up info it would be helpful :)

I honestly have a lot of questions! 😶

[spearxwind]

what do you think the leviathan forms of the fish gang sound like/what do leviathans sound like in general? are they like whales, do they roar, etc etc. also u feed my need for deep sea beasts a lot thank u

It depends heavily on what kind of leviathan they are honestly, sounds can be really varied. Some leviathans dont make any sounds, but in general the most common ones are chittering or clicking calls, and longer drawn out err.. wails? whatever the hell noises whales make. That kinda stuff. Roaring as we know it is fairly uncommon, I'd say?

As for the fish fam, Talas sounds very similar to thick ice breaking. Like if this noise was made by a creature the size of an airliner:

Graves makes sounds very similar to dolphin calls and chitters, though they can also just hiss really loudly:

its apparently pretty hard to find actual footage of the sounds i specifically imagine, bc most 'dolphin sound videos' are copypastes of the same soundbite from 1990 or whatever that every media has overused. Either way, Graves kinda sounds like this, probably combined with a few other cetacean calls?

Hades is probably the most intimidating one bc i feel like he probably sounds like a gator

[beepostsdaily]

certified bee post 🐝

Friendly Bees from Old School RuneScape

[steakphonophore]

Hello, how are you? I hope you are well. I am Seline from Gaza. I started this campaign to raise money to help me rebuild my family's life after losing everything in Gaza😥. All that remains of our house is the rubble and our memories that have turned to ash💔. My family and I barely escaped with our lives, leaving behind everything we owned. Now, we are in Egypt, struggling to rebuild our lives from scratch. The war left us with nothing but the clothes we wear and the painful memories of what we lost We need your help to find a safe place to live, to provide for our children, and to start over🥺.

With your support, we can restore our hope and rebuild our family's future. 🤍

Please consider donating to our campaign🙏🏻.

Your generosity can make a big difference in our lives.🙌🏻❤️

.

[wormtoxins]

Some sort of color and environment study. Maybe three hours

twitter | bluesky

[duskythesomething]

love that i called off and told specifically the opening manager (because everybody else does NOT need to know my shit going on rn) and THEN when she didn't end up opening i said something in the manager chat to make sure the agm had been told.... so why is gm getting mad at me for not telling her specifically?? woman i do not trust you w anything do you really want me to look at you and admit i made myself sick mixing painkillers during a breakdown last night and needed to sleep and eat real food today??? i haven't called off in MONTHS leave me tf alone.

[spaghetticat3899]

In honor of the theme poll coming to a close soon, here's a fun game! What teams would you be on? Make sure to tag us - we'd love to see your picks!

[alfheimr]

My Favorite Cheap Art Trick: Gradient Maps and Blending Modes

i get questions on occasion regarding my coloring process, so i thought i would do a bit of a write up on my "secret technique." i don't think it really is that much of a secret, but i hope it can be helpful to someone. to that end:

this is one of my favorite tags ive ever gotten on my art. i think of it often. the pieces in question are all monochrome - sort of.

the left version is the final version, the right version is technically the original. in the final version, to me, the blues are pretty stark, while the greens and magentas are less so. there is some color theory thing going on here that i dont have a good cerebral understanding of and i wont pretend otherwise. i think i watched a youtube video on it once but it went in one ear and out the other. i just pick whatever colors look nicest based on whatever vibe im going for.

this one is more subtle, i think. can you tell the difference? there's nothing wrong with 100% greyscale art, but i like the depth that adding just a hint of color can bring.

i'll note that the examples i'll be using in this post all began as purely greyscale, but this is a process i use for just about every piece of art i make, including the full color ones. i'll use the recent mithrun art i made to demonstrate. additionally, i use clip studio paint, but the general concept should be transferable to other art programs.

for fun let's just start with Making The Picture. i've been thinking of making this writeup for a while and had it in mind while drawing this piece. beyond that, i didn't really have much of a plan for this outside of "mithrun looks down and hair goes woosh." i also really like all of the vertical lines in the canary uniform so i wanted to include those too but like. gone a little hog wild. that is the extent of my "concept." i do not remember why i had the thought of integrating a shattered mirror type of theme. i think i wanted to distract a bit from the awkward pose and cover it up some LOL but anyway. this lack of planning or thought will come into play later.

note 1: the textured marker brush i specifically use is the "bordered light marker" from daub. it is one of my favorite brushes in the history of forever and the daub mega brush pack is one of the best purchases ive ever made. highly recommend!!!

note 2: "what do you mean by exclusion and difference?" they are layer blending modes and not important to the overall lesson of this post but for transparency i wanted to say how i got these "effects." anyway!

with the background figured out, this is the point at which i generally merge all of my layers, duplicate said merged layer, and Then i begin experimenting with gradient maps. what are gradient maps?

the basic gist is that gradient maps replace the colors of an image based on their value.

so, with this particular gradient map, black will be replaced with that orangey red tone, white will be replaced with the seafoamy green tone, etc. this particular gradient map i'm using as an example is very bright and saturated, but the colors can be literally anything.

these two sets are the ones i use most. they can be downloaded for free here and here if you have csp. there are many gradient map sets out there. and you can make your own!

you can apply a gradient map directly onto a specific layer in csp by going to edit>tonal correction>gradient map. to apply one indirectly, you can use a correction layer through layer>new correction layer>gradient map. honestly, correction layers are probably the better way to go, because you can adjust your gradient map whenever you want after creating the layer, whereas if you directly apply a gradient map to a layer thats like. it. it's done. if you want to make changes to the applied gradient map, you have to undo it and then reapply it. i don't use correction layers because i am old and stuck in my ways, but it's good to know what your options are.

this is what a correction layer looks like. it sits on top and applies the gradient map to the layers underneath it, so you can also change the layers beneath however and whenever you want. you can adjust the gradient map by double clicking the layer. there are also correction layers for tone curves, brightness/contrast, etc. many such useful things in this program.

let's see how mithrun looks when we apply that first gradient map we looked at.

gadzooks. apologies for eyestrain. we have turned mithrun into a neon hellscape, which might work for some pieces, but not this one. we can fix that by changing the layer blending mode, aka this laundry list of words:

some of them are self explanatory, like darken and lighten, while some of them i genuinely don't understand how they are meant to work and couldn't explain them to you, even if i do use them. i'm sure someone out there has written out an explanation for each and every one of them, but i've learned primarily by clicking on them to see what they do.

for the topic of this post, the blending mode of interest is soft light. so let's take hotline miamithrun and change the layer blending mode to soft light.

here it is at 100% opacity. this is the point at which i'd like to explain why i like using textured brushes so much - it makes it very easy to get subtle color variation when i use this Secret Technique. look at the striation in the upper right background! so tasty. however, to me, these colors are still a bit "much." so let's lower the opacity.

i think thats a lot nicer to look at, personally, but i dont really like these colors together. how about we try some other ones?

i like both of these a lot more. the palettes give the piece different vibes, at which point i have to ask myself: What Are The Vibes, Actually? well, to be honest i didn't really have a great answer because again, i didn't plan this out very much at all. however. i knew in my heart that there was too much color contrast going on and it was detracting from the two other contrasts in here: the light and dark values and the sharp and soft shapes. i wanted mithrun's head to be the main focal point. for a different illustration, colors like this might work great, but this is not that hypothetical illustration, so let's bring the opacity down again.

yippee!! that's getting closer to what my heart wants. for fun, let's see what this looks like if we change the blending mode to color.

i do like how these look but in the end they do not align with my heart. oh well. fun to experiment with though! good to keep in mind for a different piece, maybe! i often change blending modes just to see what happens, and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. i very much cannot stress enough that much of my artistic process is clicking buttons i only sort of understand. for fun.

i ended up choosing the gradient map on the right because i liked that it was close to the actual canary uniform colors (sorta). it's at an even lower opacity though because there was Still too much color for my dear heart.

the actual process for this looks like me setting my merged layer to soft light at around 20% opacity and then clicking every single gradient map in my collection and seeing which one Works. sometimes i will do this multiple times and have multiple soft light and/or color layers combined.

typically at this point i merge everything again and do minor contrast adjustments using tone curves, which is another tool i find very fun to play around with. then for this piece in particular i did some finishing touches and decided that the white border was distracting so i cropped it. and then it's done!!! yay!!!!!

this process is a very simple and "fast" way to add more depth and visual interest to a piece without being overbearing. well, it's fast if you aren't indecisive like me, or if you are better at planning.

let's do another comparison. personally i feel that the hint of color on the left version makes mithrun look just a bit more unwell (this is a positive thing) and it makes the contrast on his arm a lot more pleasing to look at. someone who understands color theory better than i do might have more to say on the specifics, but that's honestly all i got.

just dont look at my layers too hard. ok?

[gin-juice-tonic]

last time i post manga screenshots I prommy

[itslilacokay]

new au idea

[aceofstars16]

I know I’m gonna forget some cause I literally don’t know half of them lol

I’m also going to *attempt* to explain the AUs in case you don’t remember/don’t know what they are (if I mess one of them up it’s cause I don’t know that AU very well 😅)

Timestuck - Mabel gets stuck in the past with mullet Stan (variations can include Dipper also getting stuck in the past, or one or both getting stuck with Ford, basically any AU where the twins meet/get stuck with younger versions of one or both of their grunkles)

Drifting Stars: Mabel gets sucked into the portal at the end of “Not What He Seems” and goes dimension hopping with Ford (meanwhile Dipper and Stan are having a horrible time)

Reverse Falls: The twins and other characters swap personalities, where Mabel is more introverted and Dipper is more extroverted and same with the Stans…I think? (there is also an AU where I think maybe Gideon and Pacifia are good and Mabel and Dipper are bad but I genuinely can’t remember what it’s called, I’m sorry if this is what that AU is called but I don’t *think* it is?)

Relativity Falls: The twins roles are swapped, so Mabel and Dipper are older and Stan and Ford are the kids, visiting “Grantie” Mabel while Dipper is in the multiverse

Monster Falls: The characters are monsters instead of humans. I genuinely don’t know much about this AU but lots of people make the characters different monsters so there are probably a bunch of variations

Reverse Portal: Where Stan gets pulled into the portal instead of Ford. I know there are other AUs probably more popular than this one, but like I said I’m not the best as remembering AUs 😂

[nebuladreamz]

SECURITY ALERT.

felt. silly and wanted to do a little something more for my birthday besides the birthday comic so woe, starlit eclipse be upon ye except it's me fucking around with how to do uv lights (I FUCKING LOVE UVLIGHTING!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

CLOSEUP