#wand tool wasn't really adjusted

[darkdragon768]

🦷 Toothless 🦷

A Dragon a Week 8/52

[heart2beom]

open the door, mr. choi!

synopsis: going up to yeonjun's dorm, the man you believe to be a complete tool, and asking to use his shower isn't very fun.

genre: one sided enemies to lovers, fluff, angst??

pairing: yeonjun x f!reader

warning: very unrealistic writing of living on campus (i'm manifesting here..), a curse word here and there

author notes: this is so incredibly short but i like writing banter so..lol this really is just banter. reblogging is appreciated!

Transferring to a different college mid semester for better opportunities proved to be that mistake. The mistake you realize is going to be hard to top, the biggest one you've made in your entire life.

In addition to losing daily contact with your friends, you were in a complete foreign city, practically stranded. You had zero relationship with your professors, there were completely different material you had to learn to pass exams, and you had no time to make any friends. even after you decided to go through the on-campus housing route, You were only on friendly speaking terms with your roommate.

You wished you reviewed the dormitories, but you hadn't which then cost you to learn that the girls dormitory had constant complaints about water supply; it was either the sink, the toilet, or the shower — it would just decide to stop working.

Thankfully, the time you've spent living with your roommate, you only experienced one — the sink. There were problems with it practically every other day, ten times more constant than everybody else. Which caused you to naively believe it canceled out all the other occuring problems everyone else had.

So, imagine your surprise when you walk in under the shower head, butt naked, with not one drop coming out on your hair.

"Yunjin!" you yell out, panicking as you adjust the diverter still with no sign of water. "Yunjin is the water out!?"

You sigh when you can't hear a response through the door, and opted to step out the shower, and carefully walk towards the door. You slightly open it, making sure to only poke your head out as your eyes wandered around the dorm.

Great, there's no sign of her.

When you get dressed again, you throw yourself on your bed, staring at the time on your phone. 8:39PM.

Your roommate had helped you out with getting a blind date, in hopes of "putting yourself out there". Though at the time you didn't meet her with much excitement, pretending to despise the idea—Currently, you were practically a few seconds away from pulling out your hair at the thought of missing it.

For god sake, you haven't been on a date since, what, two years? And even worse, when you finally got a chance, you weren't ditching the date on your own accord, but because you couldn't shower!

"I'm gonna fucking sue them!" you shout, directing your pit of rage at your ceiling. Though, right after, you bury your face in your pillow, groaning like a little child, knowing that no matter how many complaints you submit, there would be zero response. So, at the moment, it felt like the best thing to do was give up.

Give up and ...reschedule.

No, you can't—you won't. You have to go on the date—today. An adrenaline-like surge of determination motivates you to shoot up from your bed, and quickly head to your bathroom again. You will go on this date, you owe it to Yunjin—and also, to yourself.

When you look at the counter, you immediately spot the magic wand practically ogling at you, begging you to use it. Your deodorant.

What other option did you have? When you pick up the deodorant stick, you shut your eyes, praying that the combination between deodorant and perfume could manage to make you smell good enough. You exhale, the gross thought making it hard for you to even lift your shirt.

You hear a ping of your phone, quickly opening your eyes, dropping your hand, which in turn also gets your hand off the piece of fabric you were holding.

When you look at the notification, you exhaustedly exhale, your shoulders dropping. It wasn't surprising to see it was him. Yeonjun—the guy you've been working on a project with for the past few months.

And also, the guy you've been trying to avoid ever since you got assigned the project. He was practically a mosquito, buzzing near your ears every waking moment of the day. It was easier for him when he got your number, as per your professor's request. According to her, it would be easier for you two to communicate with each other's contact numbers.

But you begged to differ, especially after these tortuous days of having your phone go off randomly throughout the day. All it did was tear away your focus from more important matters.

You opt to ignore the text, like you always do— and focus on your preparation for your date. That is, until a light bulb lights up above your head, halting your movement, as you furrow your brows in thought.

The boy's dormitory never had an issue with water, it was a usual complaint you'd overhear girls around you say in your morning classes. Their issue was odor. Which you would bet a few cents that that was specifically the consequence of the herd of men living in one space, but you digress.

Sure, you aren't very fond of the idea to go up to the man you find pretty repulsive—in terms of personality, repulsive. He was the walking definition of a douche, but you just got a date, in two years! Who knows the next time you'll get the golden opportunity again? So, you grab your towel and head out the bathroom.

You only hope that your lack of answering back texts wouldn't backfire on you.

Though it took him a few knocks, Yeonjun finally opens his door. His jaw slacks a little and brows raised, clearly taken back by your sudden visit. You wait for him to say something—or rather, you take the time to study his figure for a good second; your eyes instinctually taking in how...good he looks. His dyed hair subtly spiking his eyes, his lips looking a little more pink than usual, and the flowy dress shirt being down two button, exposing his chest—

"Y/N checking out Yeonjun part, what, a hundred?" he stupidly grins, leaning on his door frame with his arms crossed.

"Part zero." you deadpan, he was back to getting on your nerves.

"Right..." he purses his lip, which earns an audible scoff from you, his confidence was astoundingly high. Normally, you'd think it was a praiseworthy trait, confident people are cool, but Yeonjun was something else.

"Okay—look, I have no time to waste. I need your help." you say, cutting to the chase.

"Clearly..." Yeonjun says, his gaze falling to the towel hanging on one arm, and a plastic bag tight in your hand.

"First, sorry for coming here so unexpectedly—"

"Hold on," he raises up a hand to stop you, which is an annoying thing he's been doing to you lately. "Did you just apologize? To me?" he then puts a hand on his heart, pouting like a child.

When you try to open your mouth again, his finger was on your lips in attempt to shut you up — he was getting dangerously confident. You glare at him, which sends the message loud and clear as he drops his hand immediately.

"Look, if you're here for the project, I can't. I actually have a bedtime I have to follow through."

You furrow your eyebrows in disbelief. "A bedtime? What are you? Twelve?"

He clicks his tongue, shaking his head in disapproval. "Damn it Y/N, this was the part where you were supposed to prove to me that you're worthy of me letting you in my dorm."

"I'm not here for the project, Yeonjun." you sigh, your energy drained from all his talking.

"Then what? It's like—" he raises his wrist to take a look at his watch. And to your dismay, his smug smile prepares you for some more teasing. "My, my, my. Coming to my dorm at nine? So I see it you changed your mind about, you know..." he puckers his lips in attempt to make smooching noises, which only earned a judgemental stare from your side.

"We're never going to have sex—ugh, I just came to use your shower, the one at my dorm stopped working." you've learned to stop yourself from engaging with his antics, it only cost you more social battery after all.

"Ah." he says, biting his lip as he appears to think more of your request. "I'm sorry, can't." he concludes.

"Huh? Why?" you ask then immediately groan at a thought, "God, do you have a girl naked in there?"

"You don't realize it sometimes Y/N, but you are a slut shamer."

You deadpan, letting out a long sigh. "Are you calling yourself a slut?"

"Frankly, for your information, I don't have a girl in there. She actually left a few minutes ago." he says ignoring your question, though he couldn't be happier from the annoyed reaction he got out of you— which he was quick to love and appreciate the more he got it.

You roll your eyes, "So, why can't you?"

"Glad you asked," he says, reaching in his pockets to dig out something. He faces his phone to you, your messages open, only blue texts being on the screen. "You've been ghosting me for like, two weeks."

So your lack of replying back is biting you in the ass.

You didn't have time, dropping the plastic bag full of your date clothes, reaching out to your pocket to get your phone.

You quickly type up an 'okay' without reading the text, and hit send. When you hear the sound of a notification from his phone, you put up a tight lipped smile as you shove your phone in your pockets, picking up your clothes and pushing yourself in his dorm.

Yeonjun broke into a smile you don't catch, as he looks back to you. "Breaking and entering is a felony Y/N!" he yells out.

You ignore him, your attention more focused on how weirdly neat his place was. Was he a fast cleaner? Tidying up the place this fast after sex?

You guessed that was what a long duration of experience gives you — the ability to clean up in minutes. But then you noticed a computer open, with the desk it's on being surrounded with crumbled paper.

Odd.

You hear the door shut, guessing it was Yeonjun, which snaps you out of your thoughts as you immediately head to the bathroom. If you stayed a second later, there was a 50% chance he would've stopped you to ask questions.

When you enter the bathroom, and lock the door behind you, you're pleasantly caught by surprise.

The smell—the smell wasn't foul. You hate to admit, in the back of your mind, you'd always have this image of Yeonjun—a player who was gross.

You don't exactly know why you held onto it for so long since there were multiple, multiple times you got close enough, that your nose could pick up his cologne—it smelled really good, not too strong, just enough.

And when you stand there in his bathroom, weirdly finding yourself inhaling the scent of the air—it smelled pretty fucking good.

A loud knock on the door your back is leaning on startles you, making you jump. "Hey, hurry up! I'm giving you fifteen minutes."

Fifteen minutes? What a psycho.

You shake your head at your own ungratefulness—he was letting you borrow his shower, which you genuinely appreciated, so you undressed quickly in hopes of showering forty minutes max.

You didn't pick up your hair brush with you, so consequently you were spending a great deal of time untangling your hair with your towel—which wasn't very..effecitve.

You already changed, obviously, but your makeup was undone. Just lipgloss was all you had time to do, you thought in your head, disappointed.

Not to forget—Yeonjun has been talking to you through the door the moment you shut the running water—not proving the mosquito reincarnation theories you've been holding onto, to be wrong. He was driving you very close to the edge of insanity.

"You're taking so long." he whines for the hundredth time. "I have to show you something."

You groan, walking towards the door. You were clothed now anyway, if opening the door would finally fix Yeonjun's mouth being a broken record, you would happily do it.

He shuffles away from the door when you push it open, flustered as he clears his throat.

Was he leaning on the door?

"What do you want?"

You think you see his eyes scanning your outfit for a second, a hint of confusion overtaking his expression but he turns away to walk towards the computer—the one that was previously surrounded with balled up paper, so you ignore it. "You look hot but I'll decide to ignore that. I have to show you something."

You exhale, your hair still pretty untamed. "Alright, I don't have that much time though."

He let himself fall on his spinning office chair, as he gestures his hand for you to sit at the edge of his bed.

You clear your throat, waiting for him to stop stalling through his spinning.

And he does.

"Okay." he exhaled, a little shakily. Which was weird. "So, remember the text you sent okay too?"

"Yeonjun...that just happened. Like an hour ago."

"Yep, yeah. Cool, cool, cool." he repeats, opting to spin once more. You raise an eyebrow, is he trolling you?

"I didn't like—you know, read the text. I mean, I can."

"You didn't read it? You should. Actually—nope, no. You shouldn't. You should. Yeah, you should."

You knit your eyebrows together at his odd speaking patterns. Reaching for your phone, you click on the message icon—until a number pops up, calling you.

All of a sudden, you get nervous. Your hand getting all clammy as you swiped right on the call.

"Hi." you breath out, biting your lip in eagerness to hear your date's voice.

Yeonjun only watches you, cocking his head at the sudden mood change. No—he was tilting his head because of all of that. Your dress, the matching bag, your lipgloss.

He furrows his brows, still watching you stutter on the phone, and practically making a fool of yourself with the way you were stupidly, prettily smiling ear to ear.

You never did that with him. Okay, sure, he likes seeing you roll your eyes or scoff at his antics— it brings him pure joy! But god, thinking now, he would appreciate it a hundred times more if your reaction to him was a smile—that smile instead. Or a laugh. Or a hug, maybe a kiss—

Time didn't wait for anyone—connecting the dots unfortunately only happened the moment you hung up the phone.

"Sorry, that was my date. I really have to go. What do you want to show me?"

"Um—uh...gross!"

You scrunch up your face, taken aback. "What?"

"You—you have, like, spinach stuck between your teeth."

Your eyes widen in shock immediately getting off the bed, but then you halt, turning to look at Yeonjun. "But I didn't eat spinach today. Or yesterday." you mumble.

"Well, I'm sorry I'm not a professional chef that can tell what that nasty piece of green leaf is in between your teeth."

"God, is it that bad?" you ask in horror, not waiting for his reply as you burst into the bathroom.

Meanwhile as you check your teeth in the mirror, Yeonjun immediately grabs the phone you left on his bed, which was still open—letting him breath in relief.

He immediately went on to his name on your phone to open the messages between you two—it was ridiculous but a smile still tugged on his lips for a split second when he noticed his contact name was the one he typed in a few months ago, still 'hottest man alive'—he took it a sign you didn't disagree... or it could be that you were too lazy to change it.

But he immediately shook his head out of the thought — doing his job of deleting the message that you sent an okay to.

"What the fuck are you doing?" you say with wide eyes, snatching your phone away from the boys hand.

"Just checking the time." he says with an awkward smile, a little startled of your sudden presence.

"On my phone? You literally have a watch." you say, your tone laced with confusion. Which signaled Yeonjun to shoot up from his bed, pushing you out towards the door—there was no way out of this but to push you out, and hopefully the date being horrible enough for you to forget about confronting him about this tomorrow. And the day after tomorrow. Preferably, for the rest of his life on Earth.

"Time for you to leave!" he yells, finally getting you out of his dorm, and now out in the hallway.

Before you could say anything—for example, reminding him that 90% of the stuff you brought was still in the bathroom—he slammed the door right in your face.

When you recollect your shock, you scoff, your annoyance through the roof.

What was he looking at in your phone?

You open it, hoping to find the answer.

But you're only confused as you only see your chat with Yeonjun open.

And even more confused when the text length of the message before your 'okay' was way shorter than what you remember.

Meanwhile, Yeonjun was sitting on his desk chair, biting his lip as he hesitantly hit the delete button on the music project he's been working on.

ending a/n: i think i'm allergic to ending a fic with the two pairings getting together cz tell me why this was deadass just enemies to ????? T_T

[tnott]

Charlie: "Okay, I literally can't think of a single other person who might be interested in this for non-potions-ingredient reasons, but I found a preserved dragon scale that's got to be at least 2000? 2500 years old? Because that dragon breed has been extinct for a long time. It's carefully packed in some sort of weird reed-like paper that I did my best not to touch, if you'd be willing to take a look and identify it. It's practically glowing with magic but I can't tell how much of it is intrinsic and how much has been applied for preservation."

@bokketo

"You found it in Romania? Then it sounds like it dates to the La Tène culture," Theo said. "Not exactly my area of expertise; I haven't really done any work on the Continent. But I'm happy to take a look. It sounds fascinating."

She took Charlie through the garden gate and into the stone outbuilding that she'd converted into a workshop when she'd first started practicing magiarchaeology. Once they were inside, she lit the lamps, pulled two pairs of silk gloves from a box on one of the shelves, and offered the larger pair to Charlie before putting her own on. They had been Charmed to prevent contamination of spelled artifacts, and once she'd started allowing other people to observe some of her work, she'd thought it prudent to stock some in various different sizes.

Accepting the package from Charlie, she laid it on her worktable -- also covered in a strip of Charmed silk -- grabbed her loupe and a pair of tweezers, and set the tools out next to the scale, along with her wand. She wasn't going to unwrap the artifact just yet -- first she had to examine the spells that had been placed on it. Charlie was right that it was practically glowing, and when Theo waved her wand over it in a spell of revealment, it began to literally glow.

"Incredible," she breathed. "These are the strongest preservation spells of such an age that I've ever seen. Someone really wanted to keep this safe for a long time."

Switching over to the tweezers, she began to carefully unwrap the scale from the paper enfolding it -- though, as Charlies had noted, it was more like dried reed than actual paper. It was brittle, too, and she had work slowly and delicately to keep it from fragmenting. But finally, after fifteen long minutes, the scale was unwrapped and the wrapping remained in one piece.

"What breed of dragon is the scale from?" Theo asked. "I admit I don't know much about dragons; I only took the OWL in Care of Magical Creatures, not the NEWT."

As she spoke, she put on her loupe, adjusted the lenses, and began examining the wrapping while Charlie looked at the scale. "There's writing on here," she said after a moment. "Very faint -- some of the ink has worn off -- not a writing system I recognize. Judging from the sheer level of power radiating off of this, I suspect it's some kind of incantation."

[palimpsessed]

I Like Your Shoelaces—Agatha and Avoidance

Agatha never learned how to tie her shoelaces, only how to spell them tied. She was taught to rely on magic instead of learning how to do it for herself. As much as she believes that she’s distanced herself from her upbringing in the World of Mages, its influences follow Agatha across an ocean and a continent and prevent her from assimilating into the Normal community around her.

She still doesn't know how to tie her shoelaces.

Agatha's solution to the shoelace problem is to keep her shoes tied or wear sandals instead—her solution is to avoid. Agatha doesn’t consider learning to tie her shoelaces the Normal way—something that would objectively help her adjust to life outside the WoM and assimilate into the non-magickal community.

There are plenty of resources for learning to tie shoelaces. To paraphrase Agatha herself: YouTube. Exists. Why then does Agatha not consult any of the vast and readily available resources to learn how to tie her shoelaces (solve her problem) and move on (better assimilate to a non-magickal life in a non-magickal community)? The reason is that it's easier for her to wear shoes without laces (avoid the problem altogether) than to learn to tie them (confront the problem and take the steps necessary to work through it).

Shoelaces are a metaphor.

Agatha wants to leave the WoM behind, but she can't do that actually, unless and until she is ready to confront the realities of her life having been raised in it, and (at least begin to) work through the residual traumas resulting from it. She doesn't learn to tie her shoelaces because it's easier to pretend it isn't a problem and just find ways to avoid it, than to take steps to learn how to deal with it. The shoelaces are just one small example she gives of all the ways the WoM hasn't prepared her for a life on the outside of it ("magic separates us from the world"), of all the pieces of her past that she has run away from without the necessary tools to move past them and truly move on with her life.

Agatha wasn't ever free of the WoM, even in California. She knows this. She knows she'll never be a part of the Normal world she has always preferred, not because she can't learn how to fully live as a Normal but because she doesn't really try. She leaves her wand at home, but she continues to find ways to use magic. She doesn't need to rely on magic to light her cigarette (lighters. exist.) but she chooses to use it anyway. She is making the decision to keep her foot in the magickal world.

Agatha sees the places where she has knowledge and experience gaps and instead of doing something to fill in those gaps, she ignores them and finds ways around them. And she can't truly leave the WoM behind until she is ready to stop falling into the same patterns that she was taught by it.

I think Agatha goes back to magic and to Watford because she never actually left. She thought she wanted to run away from magic, but all the while she kept her magic alive, kept using it. In the climactic Nevada desert scene, she finally accepts that magic.

What she actually wanted to run away from wasn't a place or magic itself, it was all the WoM's political bullshit and the ongoing trauma it inflicted on her. She was never going to be able to move on from that as long as she continued to avoid the damage that world did to her instead of seeking out the tools she needed to work through that damage. As long as she surrounded herself with people she couldn’t talk to about what had really happened to her.

Something I kind of disliked about Niamh was how ready she was to dismiss Agatha’s personal experiences with trauma from all the kidnappings. But the more I read their conversations, the more I'm convinced that Niamh's reactions actually play the critical part of pushing Agatha to voice her trauma, to name it as trauma, to verbalize how fucked up it was, and how it fucked her up. To admit out loud that she's still not okay instead of pretending in California or standing in her childhood bedroom setting things on fire and very much not talking to anyone about what happened to her. (Avoidance.) If Niamh's dismissive response to Agatha’s trauma is wrong, then so must Agatha’s own dismissive response be.

In my opinion, by going back to magic (separate from the WoM—remember she decidedly turns her back on the WoM during the calving scene) Agatha is allowing herself the room to stop running. She doesn't have to run to live this time. She can let herself be as magic as she feels comfortable (trading her wand for a walking stick because it suits her better, because it's practical for more than magic). She can acknowledge her trauma instead of avoid it.

Could she have done all of this in California? Only if she wanted to. What matters is that she wasn't doing it. She was pretending none of it had happened and none of it had followed her there. That's not a way to live. That's a way to hide.

[wingsyliveblogs]

Eda noting on a moment of peace and quiet seems to be a sign that despite her chaotic rebel nature, looking after Luz is bringing out more of her responsible traits that appreciate when things aren't getting hectic all the time, which also manifests with her taking her teaching role seriously here for once, even if Luz cajoled her into it. She's just not caught onto this gradual change yet, but Amity's not the only one changing as a result of Luz's chaotic presence.

1. That is a really nice thought! Seeing Eda's brief arc in Episode 7 from being a reluctant babysitter to getting really invested in looking after her charges, it does seem quite likely that on a larger scale, she's been adjusting to Luz's constant presence in more subtle ways. I don't know if even Luz is aware of the effect she's having on the people around her, but it's good.

2-4. It's interesting to consider what Eda was thinking throughout the episode, since the focus wasn't really on her this time. She projected an air of confidence regarding what she was trying to teach, which gave off the impression that she knew more about the subject than she was telling Luz but wanted her to figure it out for herself.

...but that doesn't necessarily mean she did! She's good at false confidence. And the fact that she kept assigning Luz a variety of tasks does suggest that she wasn't entirely sure what method of connecting with nature would work best - either in general, or for Luz specifically.

(Ironically, I feel that if she'd been a bit more open about what exactly it was that she'd read about glyph magic, Luz might have been more inclined to actually listen to her. I get the impression that Luz can see through Eda's projection of confidence a little sometimes, and without sufficient context here it just seemed as though Eda was making stuff up and didn't really know what she was talking about. After all, that's what she does with the human junk she sells.)

Regardless, Eda was definitely putting in her fair share of effort this time. Even while she initially refused to help Luz, it was clear that she'd been responsibly looking into the workings of glyph magic, and it didn't take much to convince her to go the extra mile (literally) and take Luz halfway across the Isles for some serious training.

And yeah, I did feel that her retort to Luz asking her to take this seriously was basically her saying "hey, I am taking this seriously!" While I can't blame Luz for not believing her, it did sting a little. She was actually trying this time!

I do have to question, though, why she was putting off making this trip in the first place, since she's apparently been looking into ancient magic and glyphs even when it didn't seem like she was doing anything. Was she hoping to get a little more information before taking Luz out to the Knee? Did she think that Hexside would teach Luz everything she needed? Was she uncertain of her own ability to teach Luz properly, when she herself didn't have all the facts?

Again, since we don't have much on her perspective for this episode, it's hard to tell what her exact thoughts were. But I do wonder.

5. Fair point! (Though I'd say that in this particular scenario, Eda did everything she could to keep Luz out of trouble with the Slitherbeast. She just wasn't prepared for Luz's wand-stealing escapade at all.)

6. Oh... that's something I never thought about before! I'm still intrigued by the exact logistics of how the light glyph showed up on Luz's phoneshe watched the video she recorded quite a few times prior to the Owlbeast incident but the glyph became visible only after her screen got damaged, but now that we know that the light glyph appears wherever there's light, the events of Episode 4 make a lot more sense!

7. Yeah, I do think that Luz's arc in this episode directly ties back to her struggles in Episode 2. The temptation to speed things up and use an artificial tool to aid her in learning magic got the best of her again... but at least this time she got to see the tangible benefits of taking it slow and letting her knowledge of magic develop naturally!

The fireball spell is simple and flashy, and it really stands out in the snowy environment of the Knee. In a way, it's not meant to be there. By contrast, the ice spell is a complicated tool that lets Luz use the environment to her advantage in a variety of ways. Its presence in a cold mountainous region feels much more natural. Unlike with the fireball spell, Luz has to be very deliberate with how she utilises it to get any concrete use out of it, but she can do a lot more with it than she ever could with the "shoot fire at enemy" spell.

[izzy-hands]

Hi you are a big inspiration for me🥺💛 could you please explain (in as less time as is convenient for you I hope I'm not being a bother) how you got the honey comb gifs together in this amazing set ? (Like the template+ the gif size settings)

https://lamberts.tumblr.com/post/652817593863913472/much-or-little-i-inquired-too-well

Thank you so much I will be eternally grateful💛💛💛

ooh, boy, ok. this ended up a little long, so putting this under a cut -

so, let me first start by saying that while i've been using photoshop for the better part of 20 years, it by no means says that I have any idea what the hell i'm doing. 🤷 literally everything here is just my own silly way of doing things, and i'm like 99% sure that there are far better, more efficient ways to get this done.

now that's out of the way, ok! so let's start with our base gif -

I wasn't really sure where I wanted to add the honeycomb or how I really wanted it to look, so I started by adding a bunch of them.

there's quite a few ways of doing this. I personally took a shortcut using Illustrator - I did a quick google image search for ‘honeycomb pattern’, copied one of the results and used illustrator to convert it into a vector (paste the image onto illustrator and click ‘Image Trace’)

after doing that, click ‘expand’ - and you’ll get a mass of vector objects (some representing the white background, and some the black hexagons). double-click the image, select the white vector, and remove it. then, you are left with a bunch of black hexagons which you can copy into photoshop as a vector.

a lot of the times illustrator is my go-to when it comes to a bunch of things that you can do almost as easily in photoshop just because i’m used to working with it when it comes to drawing/vectors. if you don’t have illusrator, or simply want to do this is photoshop, you can just draw a hexagon using the polygon tool: (hold down shift while drawing to make sure it stays aligned)

then, you can simply duplicate the original layer and start placing them however you like on the gif -

once you have all the hexagons you want, paste the smaller gif you want inside them on top of your existing gif. copy the same number of frames you have in your current gif from the new gif, and click ‘paste frames’ in the timeline panel context menu (blue arrow). select all the layers you just pasted and put them in their own group (red arrow) -

move that new group around (or resize it as well, if needed), and put it sort of on top of the hexagon you want to enclose it (you can still move it later, don’t worry). using the magic wand tool, select the hexagons you want this gif to appear in -

click the ‘add vector mask’ icon -

and... that’s pretty much it! keep doing the same thing with as many hexagons as you want (you can keep some blank, like I did here) -

if you didn’t place the smaller gifs exactly where you wanted them, you can simply unlink the layers from the vector mask (that chainlink icon between the group icon and the mask) and then you can move just the layers behind the mask, with the polygon staying in place -

since all of the little hexagon gifs have their own groups, you can edit them all differently in any way you like. if (like me), you wanted them all to have kinda the same look (in this case, I wanted them all to be grayscale as well, and give them slightly different coloring than the original, bigger gif), you can then create another group and put all the hexagons groups inside that, and add whatever adjustment layers to color it. you can then select all the hexagons, and use them as a mask for this new group -

and lastly, hide the layer with the white hexagons - and you’ll be left with whatever adjustments layers you put into that new master group leaving these pretty hexagon cutouts on top of the original gif -

and done!

hopefully I explained this properly? I had to skip over a few parts in the screen shots in order to stop this from being like 50 images long, so let me know if something needs to be explained further. <3

[rtfmp2021]

Double Exposure Outcome 3

For my third piece I created something similar to the second outcome, but overall lighter and with an added new effect. What this represents is the LGBTQ+ community, and their equality struggles that need to improve completely. I chose and image by searching LGBTQ into pexels.com, where I found images of a man wearing glamorous makeup and outfit. Once again you can see confidence in his poses, which is how they should be able to feel just like any other unfairly struggling community. The man in the photos is also asian, therefore representing another group of racially discriminated people.

Although this piece is overall simple, I don't think it looks empty nor boring. If anything the simplicity allows the colours, patterns and imagery to really stand out, which is effective if it works and this outcome is a positive example. I think the repeating circular pattern really improved the piece, stopping it from looking too simple or uninteresting. Because I've used a white background the canvas doesn't look filled, and instead looks empty which is why I needed that extra detail.

To begin with I selected two images of a man posing in similar positions, this adds movement to the piece which is a perfect example of what you can do with double exposure. With these I repeated the same steps to cut them out, merge a background layer and overlap them with a lower opacity. Although if I was to go back I would have cut the hair out more, because the shape still looks a little blocky.

Next I played around with the blending RGB channels, to find that red and blue worked really well. However I was unsure which way round the layers would be coloured, so I asked my online friend Millie for her opinion and she preferred the first version. We discussed and thought the red stands out more, therefore this option looks more balanced and blends smoother with the other layer.

Once I saved the layer style I created a selective colour adjustment tool, here I edited every colour until I was happy with the vibrancy, hue and brightness of the art. It may not look so different but the subtle changes make all the difference, I controlled the colours by eye and looked out for what appealed me.

To create the circular pattern effect I first went into the 'filter gallery', here I selected 'halftone pattern' and set the pattern type to circle. I then adjusted the size and contrast of the circles, so they weren't large and thick lines but big enough to be seen. One I was happy with the pattern I selected any white using the magic wand tool, with which I deleted so it wasn't covering the image behind and broadened the blending options.

Finally I overlaid the same blue onto the pattern, rasterised the layer style and experimented with different blend modes. In the end I went for 'soft light' because it filled within most of the man, yet the light colours remained without. However the pattern was slightly too prominent, therefore I lowered the fill/opacity of the layer just to lessen the impact but not lose it.

[rtfmp2021]

Collage 2 - Celebrate Uniqueness

For my second collage I have displayed a man modelling, who was a skin condition called vitiligo. This is simply where the skin cells lose pigmentation, which often leaves discoloured patches around the body. The image was again found on pixels.com and I wasn't particularly looking for this, however as I came across the photograph I thought it had a unique and interesting look to it. The aim was to show beauty in our differences, many people are bullied, assaulted etc. simply because they're different. However I believe we should look at them as unique instead of separating them from the rest, because at the end of the day it's what's inside that counts and we should never judge someone on the things they can't control.

For the colour scheme I decided to keep it within skin tones, this is therefore relating to the focus of the piece instead of taking attention away. Overall the colours are rich, dark and luxurious which catches your eye instantly, however this also helps the man stand out in a really stunning way by complimenting him skin tones. Even though my colour scheme was made of browns and creams, there are a few pops of colour that come from blending colours and elements with each other. These however balance out the more subtle and natural colours well, without being too bright or vibrant.

Overall the piece is quite simple, and part of me wants to change that. However I think it's important to not take focus away from the main subject, and sometimes less is more.

To begin with I cut out both of the images with the polygonal lasso tool, however not until later did I realise I could've simply selected the background with the magic tool. Despite this I had full control which made sure everything was perfectly cut out, even the curly stands of hair. With this I played around with the lay out of the images, trying to find a creative way to connect them together.

I decided to connect the two through a curvy line which would cut off any straight edges, so using the pen tool I created a shape with the swirly line and filled it in bright green. This was so I could easily select the shape with the magic wand tool, and use the selection to delete both the man's chest and arm. I had to try a few times to get the perfect shape, but in general I'm happy with the shape of the collage so far. I then added a dark background to get an idea of what the piece would look like, and see the shapes pop out even more.

To gather some stunning brown colours, I went on coolors.com and saved any generated colours that struck out to me. This left me with such a beautiful pallet to use and incorporate into the collage, selected with the eyedropper tool. Next I started adding circles of these colours, one of which was placed to fit around the swirly cut out shape. I like this small detail because it shifts the weight of the collage completely, and it's pleasing to look at as it fits perfectly like a puzzle.

Although I was pleased with the shape, I noticed how the other arm was standing out a bit too much compared to the rest of the imagery. Therefore I cut out any of the arm that showed under the other hand, leaving me with a much more balanced and interesting shape. Then I involved the larger circle by placing it over the hands, and blending it in using 'difference' which inverted the photograph, but the rest of the original colour stays.

Next I repeated the process from the first collage of duplicating an object, completely distorting it through liquify and deleting any of the swirl outside the circle. I believe these circles are a clever way to connect all of the collages together, they all showcase coloured circles with faded swirls of which are main elements, but not overpowering. With this specific circle I first blended the swirl to be very faint and subtle, however I then duplicated it to experiment with other blending options. In this case I found the reaction of both 'divide' and 'overlay' creates a stunning purple and gold combination, straight away it caught my attention which is always a good way to know if something is eye-catching or not. I repeated this process with the other circle, using a different blend for a different effect.

Once I was happy with the circles I duplicated both the man's body and hands, merged them together and overlaid the light, cream colour. I then rasterised it so I had a shape of all the photography that I could use as one shape, it began with offsetting and blending it with overlay which only left a slightly lighter brown than the background. However I think this really does make a difference despite it being so unseen, because without it the piece looks slightly separated and empty.

For the text I typed out the word 'uniqueness' in a more fancy font, matching with the luxurious colours/overall feel, and purposely placed it over part of the man's arms so it would react together and be more connected. I then rasterised the type so I could edit it like an object, with which I blended and duplicated once again until I found something I'm happy with.

One thing I really like about the first collage is the text and how it's been distorted, however I wanted to keep the font because it matched well with the design. Therefore I took the darker drop shadow layer into liquify, and only stretched out this one. This way the original font remained the same and it has some more interesting shapes, the only thing left was to adjust the brightness/contrast slightly as the photos looked too light.