#you don't know how many times I have used the ruler tool in this drawing

[shiny-heart-tree]

Electric living triangle

[theelvishfiddler]

AN ARTIST'S GUIDE TO HANDS

No, sorry it's actually not an artist's guide to drawing hands. Those are just warmup studies (which I'll talk about in this post.)

This is a guide to Your Hands and how to take care of them when making art.

No one ever sits down and teaches artists how to take care of their hands. They didn’t even teach me this while I was in art college. This is just what I've learned myself through years of pain and scouring the internet for advice.

This is going to be a long one and geared towards illustrative traditional/digital/pen/pencil artists specifically, but artists of other mediums and crafts should take care of their hands too! Well, we all should take care of our bodies in general, but this is about hands.

(advice is below the read more)

First off I'm not a professional or anyone with actual medical advice. I'm just some guy with chronic hand pain who makes art. This advice is free for you to use or discard.

WARMUPS!

Ever sit down in the morning to draw and wonder why your art is so stiff and looks so much worse than what you were drawing last night? It's because you didn't warm up!

You know how for physical sports they all warmup and do stretches before getting into the actual sport. To prevent injuries and all that? Yeah, it's good to do that for art too.

One way to warmup is to just draw lines. Try to keep them as straight as you can. Going up and down and diagonal. Draw squares. Big squares. Small squares. Circles! You are warming up, keep it loose and relaxed! Basically just scribble away.

(examples. I usually keep going until there is no paper white left. This can double as practice for drawing straight lines without a ruler, which is a great skill to have when freehand city drawing.)

Before hopping right into drawing people you can try doing some quick gesture drawings. Line of Action has timed sessions with a large variety of clothed or nude models. I usually do the 30 min class as it has a nice balance of short and long timed poses. The point isn't to draw nice art, but to warm up. Try to get the basic form down, not the details. I find that doing a full class session can really help my drawings feel more loose and grounded in reality for the rest of the day.

Some examples I found in my folders. I suggest looking into what a line of action (not the site) is and giving it a try with some of the studies!

COOLDOWNS!

For sports it's to return your body back to your everyday baseline after a workout.

Example; you are working on a big project! A masterpiece! It's detailed and cool! You have been focusing on this for hours and drawing so intensely. But you need to stop working for the day.

A cooldown is for winding down out of the go go go mindset. Put away the big project and do a couple small doodles and sketches. You are relaxing your hand and letting it stretch out. Keep the sketches loose. Let the art happen slowly. Don't polish anything, that can happen another day. Just ease yourself out of drawing.

...

Cool! Now we get into the meat of this thing.

HAND PAIN

How to avoid it and how to manage it if you already have it.

I love you artists and creatives, I am begging you to please take care of your most important creative tools. I really don't want this to sound like scare tactics like "oooh you better do this or blah blah!" Nope. I just had to learn all this the hard way and I'm extremely passionate about it.

Take this advice or don’t ╮(ﾟ～ﾟ;)╭ I can't tell you what to do, I'm not your dad

Adjustments and Small Solutions

If you are feeling physical discomfort while drawing there are many different solutions to try! Here are some suggestions that may or may not work for you.

Hold your pencil more loosely. Stop gripping that thang so tightly!!! Relax that hand! They make these… squishy pen grip things... I think they are called Adaptive Pencil Grips or Adaptive Writing/Drawing Aids? They stop your hand from being all cramped up by making your drawing tool wider. It's going to take a bit of time to adjust to drawing with it, but it's worth it for those who hold pencils too tightly.

Don't press as heavily. For traditional art, if you find yourself pressing really hard to get darker lines try moving to a softer pencil. Most standard pencils are HB, the B pencils have softer graphite. Experiment until you find the right one for you. For Digital, adjust your pressure settings so you don't have to press as hard to get thicker lines. You should not be pressing so hard all the time, it wears out both your hand and your tablet! It takes a bit of time to adapt to pencil or pressure changes. Try doing some unimportant sketches, they don't have to be good. You are just training your hand and mind to adjust using less pressure.

Draw with your arm and not your wrist! It's small repetitive motions that cause the most strain. You probably hear this one a lot, what does it even mean? It means moving your arm with the motions of your line, and trying not to make too many tiny movements with your just your fingers or wrist. This one is hard! It takes time and conscious thought to change the habit. Tips? Work bigger. Zoom in more. Use bigger sheets of paper.

(Motions exaggerated for a clearer example)

Change the angle of your drawing surface. They make angled tablet holders, angled desks, angled desktop raisers. Experiment, find and angle that is comfortable and the one that causes the least pain. (It's also good to make sure you don't have to hold your head at an uncomfortable angle when drawing. Staring straight down or hunching over a paper flat on the table can cause pain!)

Compression Glove? Wrist brace/tensioners? Some folks use them and I've been thinking of getting one for years now. I can't give advice on this one, because I don't have experience with it. Look into it if you want!

Managing Pain

First things first.

IF YOUR HANDS START TO HURT WHILE YOU ARE DRAWING. STOP! Put the pencil/pen/paintbrush/whatever down. The art will still be there for you to continue tomorrow.

I know from experience that it's extremely hard to pull away when you are hyper focused on an art piece. It's hard to remember all sorts of basic needs like food or bathroom when hyper focused. But you Need to stop when you feel that pain. (Preferably even before the pain…)

Take Breaks! Let your hands rest when you can. Just like a machine, if you don't schedule maintenance, the machine will schedule maintenance for you. Often that means having to wait a few days for it to return to functional. Best to take a day off from heavy usage or take an occasional 30 min break throughout the day to let your hands rest.

Stretching is important! Full body stretches are good; your arms, shoulders, neck, and spine are all connected, but I'm specifically talking about HAND and wrist stretching. There are a lot of stretches and massages for carpal tunnel and arthritis out there. I find they work for hand pain in general. Move into and out of each stretch slowly. Do not push a stretch if it hurts!! Be gentle!!

I am not a qualified professional and I will not be giving out specific stretches (that is beyond my personal comfort level). There are other artists out there who have made helpful stretching info-graphics which are cool, but I will not be because i don't want to be responsible for someone accidentally hurting themself. Ask your doctor for stretches & advice or look some up on your own.

Don't feel bad about forgetting to stretch frequently! Of course it is good to do it regularly and frequently, but I would be a hypocrite if I said that I remember to stretch daily. Setting timers for stop and stretch sessions can work for some people, but also doing stretches whenever you remember is fine! If you are sitting on the toilet you can idly do some hand stretches. On the bus? Laying in bed? At the beach? Do a couple stretches! Even just once a week is better than… nonce a week.

Using Cold or Heat to treat pain. If you really overdid it, put your hands in some cold water or wrap a cloth around an ice pack and apply it to your hand. Cold works best for me, but warmth works for others. This is just pain reduction and reducing inflammation from overuse! This is not a permanent solution.

If your hand hurts a lot! Frequently! Talk to your doctor? Idk mine has never given real advice. Just gently poked my hand and told me there isn't much to be done about it :/ but there are really good doctors out there who will care and give helpful advice!

Again. IF IT HURTS TO CONTINUE DRAWING. STOP DRAWING! This is not a "no pain no gain" type situation. Drawing so much that you hurt yourself isn't noble, it's just… limiting yourself. You only get one set of hands. These things are very handy to have.

Other Advice

Things I couldn't figure out how to fit into the earlier sections.

Your other hand can't handle the strain! Lets say you hurt your drawing hand... the other hand is right there free to use for art. Right? Wrong. Your other hand can't keep up with the demand, it hasn't been trained to the same extent as your dominant hand, it does not have the built up muscle. If you want to use that hand for drawing you are going to have to use it s l o w l y and train it bit by bit over a long period of time. When I tore a tendon in my right hand I decided to just keep drawing with my left and I got Really Good at it. It only took like two months before my left hand hurt too much to move. Then I had 0 functioning hands to pull up my pants. Not fun!!

People who draw on phones. That is extremely impressive! I'm amazed by the things people can create on such a small space. But phone artists are the ones I see most frequently mentioning hand pain. please please please make sure you are taking breaks. Would a stylus work instead of using a finger?

Outside of Drawing. Sometimes it's things outside of drawing that are causing the pain. For me there are multiple sources, but I also have tiny baby hands. Holding a phone too long causes pain. The handheld mode for my Switch causes A Lot of pain. The way my hand rests while typing on my laptop hurts! Playing tense videogames for too long hurts! Find the source of your pain and make some changes. The same things will apply to most; take regular breaks, do some stretches, and find soft things to prop up or rest your arms on.

Change your Artstyle. This one is more of a last resort. You might have to change your art style if you are getting sharp pains every time you draw. I loved drawing tight clean lines and many small fancy details, but drawing like that left me in so much pain at the end of the day. In 2023 I had to take the better part of year off from illustrations just to learn how to sketch and draw more loosely. I had to learn how to be gentle. To stop gripping my pencil so tightly. Learn! Adapt! You might discover a new style that you love even more!

A lot of this stuff gets more complicated in a work setting where you have to draw fast and long in order to get paid. Things like reducing your workload can help, but that can be... financially rough. But outside of that, it’s ok to be a slow artist. Going full steam and hurting yourself is not worth it.

Aaaaaanyway, thats all folks. Today's rant brought to you by me! The guy with chronic hand pain who always forgets to stretch! The guy who got frustrated with a sketch yesterday and decided to push to keep drawing for just one more hour! The guy who woke up this morning and had to spend 2 hours massaging and stretching their hands. The guy who probably shouldn't have typed all of this out because ooww ow ouch

If your hands do hurt, it's going to be ok! You don't need to be a speed demon who draws all the time. It's ok to take your time and take frequent breaks. You are going to do great things! Just be gentle with yourself...

[kozachenko]

[Click for better quality]

Ok so as a sort of followup to that Yachie drawing, I did one of Yachie as well. I already had a pretty solid idea in mind (though tbh drawing her wasn't as fun as drawing Saki) but I'm overall pretty happy with this drawing.

Artist's Notes;

So I knew that I would never forgive myself if I completely missed the oppurtunity to give Yachie face scales, which is something that I haven't really seen many people do yet. I do feel like I could've pushed it a lot more, but I'm liking the direction my take on her is going.

I also wanted to take this opportunity to talk about some of my headcannons for how Hell's fashion works since I've had this on my mind for a while. So ever since I refined my own design for Zanmu, I really liked the idea of having there be some connection between her and Satori in their clothes because they're both the defacto "leaders" of their respective Hells, and then I had the idea of having Hell's fashion trends mimic real life history where it mimics whatever the upperclassman are wearing in someway? I've always been really fascinated with the idea of how Modern Hell works as a society and also how Old Hell was impacted by it's abandonment, and while I am aware that the animal realm isn't exactly Hell and is moreso it's own thing right next to it, I imagine that there would be some overlap in the fashion and culture due to their close proximity to each other. Of course, I still kept a lot of elements in from Yachie's original design, the only thing I really added to the outfit was the jazzed up sleeves and the bottom of her shirt as well as those cool triangle things ZUN added to her shirt in 19. I also have her some nice and sharp nails since I thought they fit her. I also tried adding some scales onto the tips of her ears though tbh IDK how well they read. Her colour palette also ended up becoming a lot more teal than I had anticipated, but I honestly like it as I love it whenever people make Yachie's colour palette and design a lot more teal. I also wanted to try and differentiate her face from Saki's, though I do plan on experimenting more on how to avoid same face syndrome, as it's a problem that haunts me in my dreams. There's not really much I can say here aside from "hee hee clothing rendering go brrrrrr" and how the Clip Studio Paint charcoal brush is really all you need for any given piece and it is literally the only brush I use aside from the occasional airbrush for lighting (sometimes) and the blend tools. I've been doing a lot more simple character art recently and I've just been waiting for a cool enough idea for a full blown piece.

Though now that I've talked about some of my headcannons about how Modern Hell works, I really just want a Touhou manga spinoff about Modern Hell. Like, please ZUN I'm begging you, just do it, it would be so fucking cool because Touhou 17 is literally the only time in modern Touhou when we've been to Hell proper, does modern Hell have any settlements of Oni and other Youkai? Does it have cities? Towns? Villages? What's the technological level of Hell? How do they keep sinners from pulling a Touhou 17 and summoning a fucking god to save them? Where do all the characters associated with Hell as of right now fit into everything? You can't just drop a character like Zanmu who is stated to essentially be the king of fucking Hell and then not elaborate further on how she fits into the general framework of Hell! Is she officially the king or is this more of a "true mastermind using the official king/ruler as a puppet" type deal? How does the Animal Realm fit into all of this? Did Hecatia purposefully create Hell so it would be right next to the Animal realm? Did it just appear there on it's own once Buddhism started popping off on Earth or was it established once Zanmu established Modern Hell? How long was Keiki a problem for, and how did that affect the rest of Hell? Seriously there are so many unanswered questions here and I don't know if I just need to read an interview Zun had where he was asked these same questions and if so please tell me because these questions have all been stirring in my brain for quite some time and I really wished we'd just get a new fucking manga instead of going over the same settings in Gensokyo over and over and over and over again dear god. Like, I get that there's still a lot to explore with what we already do have, but it would just be really nice to see the Animal Realm get a little more explanation as to how it fits into the overall grand scheme of Gensokyo's worldbuilding because that would just make such an already interesting idea for a setting in Gensokyo so much better.

I'm hoping to get the drawing for Keiki done before Touhou 17's 5 year anniversary, though I am willing to postpone that and take my time on it and I also have something coming up where I won't have access to my main drawing tablet for a while so it might be a while until I post again, maybe, who knows, consistent posting schedule? Who are they, I've never heard of them. I do fully intend on talking about my thoughts on Touhou 17 though, even if it's a day or two late, it's Touhou 17's birthday month so it still counts! Also because out of all the Touhou game anniversaries, this is the one I care about the most because Touhou 17 was the first Touhou game I played and 1CC'd(???) on normal, and even though it has plenty of flaws (i.e. the many missed opportunities for it's gameplay, how unbalanced the mechanics are and also screen visibility), I'm always going to have a bit of a soft spot for it and I think that the game's strengths make up for some of it's weaknesses in my opinion.

[eepybubble]

tell me about stained glass

yay!! it's so fun i can't wait to do it again i'm gonna tell you the whole process

so first you need to pick out your pattern/draw the design, make sure there's no weak points (lines directly through the entire piece etc)

once that's set you get to pick out your glass :D some glass is thicker than others but it doesn't matter too much unless you want it to be all the same, there's lots of different textures as well whcih can look really cool

next step is to trace the pattern into the pieces, you wanna go for the edge of the glass to save as much as possible for future projects, and if it's too opaque you need to either use a light box or cut out that part of the pattern

when it's all traced you're gonna start cutting. so get your little tool, make sure you're standing in order to get the pressure and right angle

this is the glass cutter ^^

now you gotta smooth that shit down so here's this guy

he's a glass grinder he sands down the sides into the right shape and makes sure you don't cut yourself as much. the bit is in the middle and you hold the glass with ur fingers and press it into the bit to grind it down

next is foiling but before that is cleaning bc the grinder has water in it and it mixes with the glass particles and makes it all icky so get some glass cleaner and wipe it down with a cloth

now time for foiling

this is copper foil, it comes in rolls with different thicknesses. generally one size fits most glass but thicker ones need thicker foil so it covers the side and equally on the front and back of the glass

i tend to start near a corner, then you're going to wrap it around being careful that the glass goes in the middle of the foil. once it's wrapped around once make sure it overlaps with the beginning about 1/4-1/2 inch, here you cut it

press the foil down on the sides and top and bottom of the glass, then get some kind of tool (can be anything tbh even a pencil or ruler) and rub the foil into the glass so it is fully pressed down

(random piece i found on the internet with foiled glass)

onto soldering :D

once it's foiled you're going to put the pieces together how you want them to lay in the final product. first is tacking, aka putting a small amount of solder on the intersections of glass. before soldering anything you need to put flux on the section you are soldering. (btw solder only sticks to foil not glass) flux basically is a liquid that prevents oxidation on the copper foil, making the solder stick.

there's lead free and leaded solder, i've only worked with lead free but many professional stained glass artists use leaded. it acts a bit differently when soldering but works just as well.

after tacking is the actual soldering. basically you take a stick of solder and a soldering iron and hold the solder right behind the iron so it melts and sort of drips down the edge of the iron onto the foil as you bring your iron across the foil. once you solder one side, flip it over and do the other, then the sides which is a bit different, with more tacking

after soldering you gotta clean it cuz it's dirty again so head to the sink and get some soap and a brush and scrub that shit off

then if you want you can add patina which can make the solder black or other colors i think

then there's polishing which you just scrub on with a cotton pad, you can buff it after this with just a cloth to make it extra shiny but yeah that itttt

ty for letting me rant about this if you have any more questions lemme know <3

[esshetic]

GEMINI SEASON: Jigsaw Pieces

Gemini season bounds in, bright-eyed and with a mischievous glint, and boy, will we be having a good time in our personal lives or within our intimate selves.

The energy of Gemini is like battery being recharged, which makes the pursuits we have been doing get a boost of energy and jubilation.

Not Like The Other Astrologers.

I have been contemplating what place Astrology and spirituality/wellness have in my life going forward. Truth be told, I have been doing really well without it. I don’t know if I have needed these tools; maybe I just needed the confidence in myself and to focus on developing a strong sense of self through my actions, trials, tribulations, and life experiences. You know when the sun comes out and we stop being depressed? This is also where some of you may find yourself, too—considering what life you want to live and what things, coping mechanisms, tools, and comforts are slowly losing their importance and value in your life as you outgrow them.

Puzzle Pieces Don't Fit

The piece of the puzzle was fitted in wrong and needs to be removed to allow other pieces to come together. Social justice upheaval and change is becoming more and more a focus how can we be in community with each other, help and lift others, the me me self of capitalism is getting put in a trash bag and thrown out. I am seeing power to the people, and the fall of celebrity culture in the West due to the consistent exposure of corrupt people causing harm. The war in the Middle East takes a surprising turn, and the powers, or perceived powers, shift toward those who are continuing to fight for the Palestinian people who are resisting the genocide and removal from their homeland.

For months, many of us have watched powerless, detached, desensitised, and numb, but are we growing collectively towards overthrowing the big bad wolves that have dominated and controlled our societies for as long as we and our ancestors can remember?

There is a force that tips the table over, shakes it down, and the result of this is not as expected, which shifts our collective perception of ‘power,’ force, and control.

Let's see what Gemini season is presenting to the signs.

Gemini, Happy Birthday!!! It's your season finally!! (as you roll your eyes at me). You are not Leo or Virgo or Scorpio who feel superior when their season rolls around. For you, I see you more focused on a mission, a side quest, a secretive task, putting the clues and pieces together. This has been going on for a while—since Capricorn season, I believe. This is where your focus is. You are trying not to draw attention to yourself through your Birthday Season, and you won’t rest until this quest has been completed.

Cancer, how are you feeling? Jubilant? Jupiter, you're benefactor, is opening you up through Gemini Season. Let go of wearing black and embrace colour in your wardrobe. Bejewel your life, adorn yourself in gold and glitter. You are being inspired to glow up a bit for Summer.

Leo, the sun, your ruler, is hanging out in your 11th house of community and connection. You're not feeling like a social butterfly or looking to make superficial connections just for the summer. Leo is in mourning. You finally feel safe to let go and cry out grief from the past that has been frozen in time. You are feeling more reclusive than extroverted, and that is fine for now.

Virgo, the sun is visiting your 10th house of career, and I am seeing career victory, achievement, or recognition. This can play out externally, but I am seeing this internally. You may have achieved a personal career goal you set for yourself, even completing a study or project that feels satisfactory. You may have completed your degree and got the grades you wanted.

Libra, the sun is in your 9th house. I am seeing a theme of partnerships and romantic relationships for you. I see you getting into a new relationship with an existing person who may have been breadcrumbing you, or vice versa, with both of you being indecisive about what you want. This time around, you will reconnect, but for how long?

Scorpio, the sun will be in your 8th house, your traditional space and home. This is a time of friction for you. The sun will be illuminating a part of your soul that you wish to remain hidden. You don’t like being exposed; however, you will be exposed here with this transit, and it's not under a controlled perception as you would prefer. The sun in Gemini is allowing others to view you with their own eyes and not the eyes you want others to see you in, and it's too late to spin the narrative. You have to relinquish control.

Sagittarius, the sun is transiting your 7th house this Gemini season. It's about you, you, you. Even though the sun is in your place of others and partnerships, I see this as a time for you to take control of your life and your destiny. This season has you looking to broaden your horizons and make future plans—not just the big plans, but also the smaller plans like holiday plans or buying a bike or car. Future fun stuff.

Capricorn, the sun is transiting your 6th house—work, work, work. All things work, which is very Cap. We are exploring your boundary issues with the work you do. Being people-focused and facing, how much access are you allowing people to have? You can say no as many times as you say yes. Does working all the time really make you happy? Are you afraid to switch off and not be in control?

Aquarius, the sun is transiting your 5th house through Gemini season. This should feel like fun—summertime, festivals, dress-ups. I am seeing huge metallic butterfly wings and silver lipstick in a space-themed party. This time, let your inner child be free and play. Do what they want to do. Be the freak. Things may be a little serious around you, but don’t buy into it.

Pisces, the sun is in your 4th house this Gemini season. I am seeing this like a plant getting the sunlight and nourishment it needs to grow and fill up the pot, growing taller and bigger. This is you unknowingly pouring back into an area of your life that was squeezed, causing an imbalance. The 4th house means to me self-nurturing or allowing others to nurture you (I don't believe you can do that). The focused attention on your home life is doing you the world of good. Stop running forward or chasing—less action, more being lazy.

Aries, the sun will be in your 3rd house, the traditional ruler of the house. I am seeing much ado about nothing for you with this transit. Like a bamboo tree swaying in the wind is you're temperament and experience of the season. You are looking for peace and silence in every moment and yearn to carve it out in your days. You are tuning out the chaos, drama, and unhappiness of those around you, forgiving yourself and others, and actually learning to collaborate instead of oppose others. This is where I feel the harmony arising as you are learning to commune with people more easily.

Taurus, the sun will be in your 2nd house, giving a beautiful sunset for Gemini Season for you. I know how much you like to rest and do nothing, be in your hammock and watch the skies turn from pink to purple. Gemini season will inspire you to paint a portrait with the colors, with a creative boost and an artistic rejuvenation of a once-favorite hobby.

[switch]

How much do you know about FGO E-sports (F-Sports, if you will)? Do you have any general tips for team-building?

i am fgo esports. it’s what i do. my sheer love for it is damn near the only reason i still play the game and don't just look at fanart.

general tips are sort of... difficult to give, because different servants and different fights can have very different needs, especially as we’re going to approach the super high difficulty 1 million+ HP quests next year. the best general advice i can give is units who don't have card based buffs that i consider "esports units".

if you gave me a more specific unit or a specific fight, i could give much more targeted and less... insane-sounding advice. honestly, in a lot of ways, planning is more vital than teambuilding. you have to plan ahead of time to be able to teambuild successfully in a lot of fights.

depending on what unit you're using for damage, identify their best universal support, and then go down the list of more situational supports. obtain or use as many of them as possible. if you're doing esports with vlad, you want castoria, then oberon, then avalon, then johanna, then tamamo, then douman, etc. if you're doing esports with moriarty, you want koyanskaya, then oberon, then merlin, then douman, then skadi ruler, etc etc.

gamepress' command chain calculator isn't... 100% accurate or ideal, but it will give you a good idea of what supports/CE you need, or if the fight is even possible, and if it is, exactly what needs to happen for it to be possible (what cards do you need to draw, and when? when do you need crits? do you need a high roll? does a support need to die on a certain turn? etc). if you're not sure about a fight, test some possibilities in there. it's a useful tool even if not ideal.

if this is something you want to do more than just once or twice, do your damnedest to NP5 your damage unit, and 3 append them or 2 append them if they're a zerker (WITHOUT spending money do not spend a cent on this game). you might be able to fudge the NP level if they're a strong unit with super effective damage like scathach or kriemhild, but you may still hit a wall if you want to do the 1 million HP fights. it sucks if they're not free, but i failed the beni-enma new years CQ just because my moriarty wasn't NP5. nothing else in the game scales as well as a servant's core np damage modifier, and it will save you a lot of damage RNG. basically, you have to carefully save and plan your rolls for non-free damage units and supports.

get in the habit of under-leveling your support units, and saving multiple copies of welfare supports (unless said welfare's most valuable buff is tied to their NP level like santa martha, but this is rare). my castoria is only level 70, my koyanskaya will also be. my lady avalon will only be level 50 because her third skill offers no offensive value! if you're doing esports, you want to create as many opportunities for support units to die as you can, and prioritize a support unit's offensive skills. sometimes you may be up against an enemy that can't even kill a third ascension bunyan, so you'll need a spare bunyan who's only level 1. units who have a strong offensive support skill in their first one or two slots (avalon) are a godsend.

plan ahead AT LEAST by one year by looking at the fgo wiki for more specific needs. do you want to do 7 turn kiara? you'll probably need asclepius and reines, so figure out a good time to roll for them. regular or super high difficulty anastasia? you need invuln pierce, try to find a way to get your hands on calamity jane or make sure you have origin bullet. regular or super high difficulty junao? look into your options for anti-divine and anti-lawful damage. you may not be able to do everything if you're f2p, so try to prioritize fights you care about or ones that never rerun (e.g. kiara is always available, so you can always build towards her).

the best scaling buffs in the game are NP damage, super effective (vs class, attribute, etc) damage, and then crit damage.

your best CE's will be either NP damage or SE damage ones. as long as no funny business is going on, nothing beats even a non-MLB black grail. sometimes you'll need 50% starting ones, sometimes you'll have to use 0% starting ones to maximize damage. similarly with support servants, identify your best damage CE's, level them to 100 or whatever highest level you have on them, and then go down the list. look up how to make CE EXP bombs if you have to. assume you'll probably need a pierce invuln/defense CE at some point, as well as anti-divine.

other general "esports supports" (for the value of their buffs and optionally ability to be underleveled) include chiron, bunyan, santa nightingale (she's damn near mandatory for 7 turn kiara), santa martha, nobukatsu, mozart, gong, lanling, jane, xu fu, rider vinci, and paracelsus. they're good for cost.

you're probably going to be relying on a mix of crits and NP damage most of the time to clear an esports fight, unless you get into the extremely high difficulty shit, in which case you're going to have to lean more on NP damage and/or SE damage.

get oberon.

[lilyfailstodraw]

Fundamentals time.

Fundamentals are what applies to any image no matter what technique was used, what style, materials, medium - it does not matter. You can analyze any image through those fundamentals.

Each fundamental contains multiple skills. Each of them have infinitely large skill ceiling.

It would be stupid to not use someone's knowledge about the subject, so I'll just find some good article by experienced active artist and write my thoughts about it.

This will be good enough for start.

I guess, I'll need to break down each fundamentals in smaller details under close inspection later.

So. David Revoy has good and easy to understand article.

For now, I cannot train each of the fundamentals separately. I need to get a basic understanding of applying every one of them simultaneously and thoughtfully. Later I can concentrate on some specific things. David says so too.

I won't copy the article one-to-one but capture my thought process while reading it.

Being an artist in visual field is based on techniques of creating visual illusion. Which are based on rules of perception of human eye. Idea is to trick eyes so when they see that illusion, it feels natural and meaningful for them.

For convenience and ease of understanding i separated fundamentals into technical and expressive as they even if connected, need different approaches to learn and use.

So, fundamentals

Technical fundamentals.

These are skills that on the most part are purely technical. That don't require expression of emotions, story or anything that is traditionally associates with artistic expression.

They don't require much choice and operate by sets of very strict rules that are dictated by our perception of environment.

Geometry, Physics and Math define and describe how technical fundamentals should work. Which you need to follow if you need your art to be technically correct.

Artist's journey from technical standpoint is to understand rules of nature and figure out how to use them for their advantage.

It's important to know that strict set of rules equals easy predictablity of outcomes. Which means that there are a lot of grids, rulers and another guides that you can simply follow and it will look right.

Structural fundamentals.

These are sets of rules for creating objects in scene. And to make them look right from constructive point of view.

For them, in theory, you can use any material or tools to train or show them, as these are purely structural and don't need more than simple lines to work.

Idea of structural fundamentals is that they are purely a structural carcass of an art piece. These are the main culprits of tricking the eyes and brain into thinking that they see something three-dimensional and with volume even without shading and color.

1. Perspective

Eyes have certain rules of perceiving depth. To simulate that depth perception on two-dimensonal plane, you need to use rules of perspective.

There are a ton of guides, grids and other helpful tools for perspective that artists invented. While learning, start from most basic concepts like grids, how to use them, and how basic shapes act in perspective.

2. Proportions

Proportions are a weird one. I think David made them into separate fundamental skill as many artists orient themselves by proportions in the process of drawing.

Right now I think about proportions more like of combination of fundamentals like: visual library, composition, anatomy and communication. Just because proportions are never the same and can mean too many things at once. And proportions of all things are the most manipulated thing in art. Yeah, there are golden ratios and ideal proportions in anatomy that you better know. But it's more of visual library thing in my head than anything.

But, I'm not professional artist or expert so.

Proportions are relations in size between anything. Between different parts of the body. Between negative and positive space on canvas. Between objects in the scene.

There are numerous things that are easily recognizable for their proportions. Aaand I lost myself trying again to separate proportions from visual library. Proportions are like sub-class of visual library that includes stereotypical sizes and relations that you just remember. Anatomy includes learning proportions too. I dunno why it is separate.

Okay... If we separate remembering of proportions from methods of using them... that will kinda work as separate fundamental skillset. Does not matter how many proportions you remembered. It matters how you can apply them into your work.

3. Anatomy

Structures are complex objects that consist of other simpler objects.

Anatomy is a study of how those structures function. If you understand how object works and what parts it consists of, you can create more believable image of this object.

Anatomy includes basically everything mechanical about any structure (humans, animals, mechanisms, plants, etc) and how parts of these structures connect, look, what shapes are they, how they work together and etc. (Bones, joints, muscles, shapes, how they change)

Readability fundamentals

These are for effective delivery of specifically visual information. Structural are more about geometric/wireframe side of things and expressives are for delivering the idea. Readability fundamentals are there so your image is easier and more intuitive to read.

4. Composition

Composition is basically how you place your elements on canvas. These elements can be grouped not just by objects but by color, level of depth, distance and really any other way.

By separating and grouping elements, your piece is easier to read and it generally gives more expression. If you can say what happens in the picture by little thumbnail - that's composition that works.

Learning composition is more or less visual library thing plus ease of reading on par with meaning.

5. Lighting/Shading

Shading is a term I like better.

Shading is a skill that communicates lighting though different values/shades of color. Proper illusion of light is the goal here.

This skill is vast in theory. You need to learn how light works, how it changes with intensity, multiple light sources interaction, how to cast shadows properly, light bounces, how different materials interact with light and most importantly, how to deliver all that through different values of same or different colors.

6. Edges

After infinitely large skillset to not so vast in size.

Edges are how you split shapes and silhouettes from each other. That's it.

You know, when two same colored objects overlap from your point of view, it's kinda hard to know when one ends and second starts sometimes. Just because they lack a specific edge and blend into each other. Yeah, you can separate them with composition, but sometimes it kinda ruins everything so you need to solve this problem with edges.

Overlapping is fundamental rule of perspective, so by splitting objects with hard edges you not only make things more easy for eyes but make closest object pop. Or you blend them with soft edges, it's your choice.

So, for paintings these are edges(hard, soft, lost) and for line art are line styles(weight, speed, ghost)

Expressive fundamentals

Thing is, with enough understanding, any fundamental skill can be used in expressive way by changing or even breaking the rules in meaningful ways to express your idea more clear.

Expressive fundamentals are for delivering idea or emotion to the viewer. Mood, message, flow, energy, symbolism, taste, invention, associations - all these are expressions of artists' mind in the first place.

7. Colors

Why is it in expressives, not communicatives?

In short, you use colors as emotional information transmitter or as an aesthetic choice. Lighting will make basically any color work, so choice of color from technical and readability point of view is insignificant.

People associate different colors with different things and emotions. Just by placing couple of colors near each other will tell some people a clear message or association.

So, learning colors is basically learning different color systems, how they look together, subcontious meanings of them.

How colors change in different lighting is more of shading thing.

8. Gesture

Gesture is a weird one when you hear about it.

Gesture as an exercise is quick rapid sketching with no little to no restraints with next in mind:

Gesture as a skill is about transmitting dynamics(movement, tension, flow, expressions, actions) and capturing "life" in static image.

9. Style

Style is a series of aesthetic and technical choices to "sell" particular artwork to specific audience in appealing way.

It covers all aspects of life. From clothing to way you move. Traditional, symbolic, expressive... Anything can be merged into style. Also anything can inspire it, from movies to music to everyday life.

Fashion is a good synonym for style.

10. Concept

Development of an abstract design in visual form.

Basically, taking any kind of idea and developing its visual. Making something new.

More you know about ideas, their realization in real life and how things work the better.

Anyway, it's purely creative process and it's implied you'll have some happy accidents. If you have some idea - draw it. If it's not really what you wanted to draw - you now have something that captures that idea(even if poorly) and now you know what you need to learn to make a better idea or capture it better. Win-win.

11. Communication

Storytelling through image.

Sometimes it's much easier to show than tell.

You can encode a message or story into image. You just need to learn the nonverbal language.

Effectivity fundamentals

Okay, these have nothing to do with David's article but in my head these are still essential skillsets that every artist uses.

There are million ways to draw and paint. So there is always easier or faster way to do anything.

These skillsets will make you more reliable, faster and overall make your life as artist easier over time.

12. Visual library

It does not really matter how vivid your imagination, if you have aphantasia and cannot visualize things or really bad at remembering things. You still can develop a visual library.

Visual library is a collection of objects, styles, compositions, proportions or anything visual that you remember in small details and can recreate at will. Things from this library are drawn Intuitively and waste no brainpower to do so.

To add an item to visual library you need to learn everything you can about it for some time. Then draw it from every angle possible. Once you don't even think about how to draw this thing - it's safe to say you're finished with it. More knowledge about this item like its purpose, how to use it, what materials and whatever you can imagine - the better.

13. Simplification

Making things simple have many purposes. Simpler things are easier and faster to produce. Also it's harder to lose track of things if they are simplified. It's easier to communicate with simpler things. And you always can make simple thing more complex. Thing is, it's harder to make something complex and working from the ground up than from something simpler.

All this relates to your process, thinking and everything you make on canvas equally.

From two equally skilled artists, best one is who thinks in simpler terms. One who's process is so simple to him, so easy to navigate, he can replicate any thing he's done before. One who can explain his process so it's easy for his listeners to do it themselves.

14. Stealing

Well, analysis is a better term. But stealing is more motivating way of thinking about it.

Best way to understand how to steal properly is by learning how to use references. And what people generally mean when they say it.

When you look at reference, analyze it. What do you see and what can be the idea behind it? Why is it that way? The way it looks. The way it's constructed that way. You will have some suggestions, no matter what you look at. Only problem is putting it into words. From answers to these questions you will have some idea.

Some idea you can freely steal. And realize it on paper or whatever.

It works not only for new concepts but as learning tool too. Its easier to learn general idea of any thing before learning/practicing it's exact realization.

And yeah, it's kinda wrong to steal realizations rather than ideas. And counterproductive in the long run from the perspective of being able to learn/express yourself

Fundamentals rely and interact with each other. If you break one thing, you probably break many of them. Same with success - if everything is good about one fundamental in the piece, others are easier to work with.

Also, it's important to point out that your whole drawing process can be founded by one fundamental in particular. And it can be any one of them. If you prefer to use construction grids to build your image from ground up and have no understanding about any other fundamental - you still can make a masterpiece if you master your process.

Some workflows may just have no need of some fundamentals whatsoever.

[artwithlifestyle3]

Easy Mandala Art In Circle: How to Draw Them

Learn how to make easy mandala art in circle! In this drawing tutorial, I'll show you how I made the vivid mandala you see above. Even though it seems challenging, it's actually rather easy once you know the steps!

What is the Mandala Art Called?

A mandala is an intricate abstract design that frequently has a circular shape. In Sanskrit, the word "mandala" really means "circle." Mandalas frequently have a centrally located point that serves as the starting point for all other symbols, shapes, and forms.

Both natural and geometric shapes can be seen in mandalas. They might also contain recognisable images that are important to the person who created them personally. In essence, mandalas represent the connection between our inner selves and the outward world. It might be energising and restorative to create your own mandalas.

What are Mandala Art Designs For Beginners?

Making complicated geometric patterns in the shape of circles or other shapes that are utilised for meditation and other spiritual pursuits is known as mandala art. Many different materials, including pencils, markers, paint, and even computer tools, can be used to create mandalas. Mandala art can be a simple and enjoyable approach for novices to explore various patterns and designs, as well as to develop focus and awareness.

Beginner mandala art designs can be made by first drawing a circle in the paper's centre, then dividing it into sections with straight lines or other geometric forms. Then, utilising geometric forms and repeating patterns, kids can add shapes and patterns within each piece. To keep the shapes and patterns symmetrical and to make complex designs, a compass and ruler are essential tools. The depth and intrigue of the mandala can be increased by using various colours, textures, and mediums. Take your time and enjoy the process, keeping in mind that mandalas are designed to be meditative and soothing.

Make your Own Mandala Art Designs

As you create your own mandala, think of it as an expression of your spirit. It can be a highly interesting personal experience when you go inside of yourself and discover the shapes, colours, and patterns that reflect everything from your present mental state to your deepest longing for yourself, for a loved one, or for humanity.

To symbolise the mental state you desire, you can make a mandala. Mandalas are great tools for improving meditation and self-awareness. Mandalas are a popular spiritual tool that have been used by many different civilizations throughout history.

The nicest aspect of making your own mandalas is the freedom to choose any shapes and colours that you think best express your sense of self and your viewpoint on reality. It is your mandala, so you are free to utilise your creativity to create something that is uniquely you. With each new mandala you make after you've learned the foundations of drawing one, you can experiment with new patterns and colours.

Materials Needed:

You don't need a lot of materials to learn how to draw a mandala. All you need is paper, a pencil, a ruler, and an eraser. If you make a purchase after visiting one of the links below, I may receive a small commission.

To adorn your mandala, you can use coloured pencils, paint, crayons, or any other colouring tool. You can also use a compass; instructions for doing so are provided in the steps that follow.

Visit our official website to discover more about Mandala Art Designs For Beginners.

[sadlysoulx]

HAIKYUU CHARACTERS GOING TO IKEA

Part 2 (w/ Hinata, Kageyama, Sakusa, Oikawa, Ushijima and Tendou)

I really really like the idea of haikyuu boys going to Ikea, the part 1 is on my account so pls feel free to read it. As u can see. . . Double post😏😏😏 I want to spoil y'all coz ur my bbs😌✨ please enjoy ❤️ THANK YOU FOR 49 FOLLOWERS 😭💓✨

Hinata

Please this ball of sunshine's never been excited to go to a furniture shop

He likes it because he loves picking up mysterious tools.

GURLLL, THE MOMMENT YOU STEPPED IN IKEA HE GOT LOST😭

You got so nervous coz you can't find your boyfriend in the sea of people.

That is until the speakers blared out, saying:

"L/N Y/N, please come to the office, your child has been found,"

And you were like: wait I have a child???👀👄👀

But then you figured it's probably Hinata

So you went in the office to see Hinata pretending to crying his eyes out

And then when he looked up, he said to the staff:

"yeah. . . That's my mom,"

You:👁️👄👁️

Employees:👁️ᴗ👁️

Hinata: 👁️〰️👁️

After that, you made sure Hinata doesn't leave your sight.

He sat in that cart where your supposed to hang the yellow ikea bag.

Hinata likes to point to things you don't need and tries to convince you to buy them.

"Y/N. . . Please! Look it's so cool, you just have to spin this and then your pencil would be sharpened!"

"Ooooooh! Y/N we need to get that folding table!"

"WOW! Y/N, Y/N, babe! Look at that sofa that can turn into a bed, let's have one!"

But ofcourse you didn't buy them🙅

After buying things you need, you went to the Ikea food court to have lunch.

This baby likes the kiddie meal where you are given a colored plate filled with nuggets and french fries.

Please, Kuroo and Bokuto had a huge influence on him since they also like kiddie meals.💀

He also likes the Ikea meatballs<3

But then after that, he convinced you to let him go to the Ikea Kid playground.

Since he's a small baby, the Ikea staff let him in😭😭😭

(pretend there's no height limit)

Your watched through the window outside as he played.

He settled in the pool of plastic balls playing with other kids.

And then he went up climbing the big dust pan with those ropes and surrounded by plastic balls😖

He watched cartoons with other kids❤️

But then he immediately went out because he made a kid cry by accidentally cursing at them💀

Hinata may be a fluff ball but sometimes Tsukishima is a bad influence for him 🤦🏻‍♀️

Kageyama

ಠ_ಠ expression always on

When you wanted to show him something and ask if it's nice, he would nod and just be like: ಠ_ಠ

Seriously, when you show him a kitchen knife, he would nod and say:

"It's nice you should buy it,"💀

When you show him a useless kitchen tool, he would nod and say to buy it.

Help this boi✋🏻😭

He doesn't know how to shop😭

Buuuuut when it comes or the bedroom area, he would sit on it and lay down.

Kageyama would drag you on the bed and make you lay down beside him, not caring if people gave you weird looks❤️

He keeps on insisting to get a new matress because the one he's laying on is soft.

And then he mentioned how you need to buy a new bedframe because the both of you broke the ones in the house.😃

BECAUSE YOU WERE JUMPING ON THE BED SEEING WHO CAN JUMP THE HIGHEST.

He was bored whenever you stop by to check something out

So he stands behind you like🕴️

And one time he accidentally made a kid cry😭

He just tried to make the baby laugh with "funny faces"

But then he ended up making them cry¯\_( ˘_˘)_/¯

You know that part of Ikea where there are really tall shelves with full of boxes?? Yeah that one

It's so adorable how he looks up at them with his chin up in the air like how a child would look up on an airplane 😖❤️

Oh yeah and he insists on buying those cute tent playhouse 🎪. 😃

He even begs on his knees for you to accept to buy it.

When you stopped to eat, he wants to push the food cart for you, he find it exciting to out on the trays of the cart😣

he always go back to the line to get another carton of milk

He came back 3 times, back and forth just to buy another milk🤦🏻‍♀️

Kageyama likes the yogurt that Ikea sells, he likes the strawberries and berries decorated on top of it.

He doesn't have his own plate of food, he wants to share with you✌️

Sakusa

He doesn't want to go

But reader-senpai is so stubborn so you insist

He didn't want to go so you finally gave up, leaving him in your shared apartment.

But then at the last minute, he said he wanna come.

Yoomi-bby doesn't want people to touch you or even ask for your number.

What's his is only his so no SHARING 😤

He always scolds you on stop picking up things on everything you see.

So every time you drop the item, he sprays your hands with alcohol

Coz he doesn't want his baby to be sick😪

But when the both of you reached the bathroom/toilet models, he literally switched.

He finds them interesting😃

Like how the bathroom models are beautifully designed.

He finds it funny when the inside of the toilet is covered with plastic, so no one would really poop or pee in it

He laughs so cute 😖❤️

He laughs for straight 2 minutes and you don't really care, he's just adorable.

Please he collects Ikea pencils 😭

He takes more when he saw another Ikea pencil and ruler stall.

And then take some random paper and draws on it out of boredom.

He drew you😞

It wasn't the best but it's cute how he tries hard.

Kiyoomi also find the chair sections interesting.

He likes the rocking chairs and said that he would get one

How could you say no?❤️

He payed for it easily and it would be delivered in the apartment this night.

💸RICH BOI 💸

When you are in the rugs and mats section, he likes touching the furry ones

"Look Y/N! it's really soft. . . Touch it,"

But then he told you to leave the area immediately because it smells weird👁️👄👁️

It came from those leather and those cow skin looking matts💀

When lunch rolls by, he likes to watch kids playing in the playground 😣

He eats fancy so don't be surprised if you see him use knife and fork so expertly and eat steak with some sauce.

He gets so excited when going home because he can finally set up the rocking chair 💀

Oikawa

He loves shopping!

I can sense it, he radiates the vibes, you can't change my mind.

He picks up everything he sees and put in the cart.

And you have to get those things from the cart and put it back because you don't need them💀

He whines about how he needs all of them

And you have to remind him that they would just stay in the storage room like how the other things ended up he brought last time.

But nuh-uh

🎶He sees it, he likes it, he want it, he got it🎶

🎶I want it, I got it, I want it, I got it🎶

"Y/N-chan, I'll buy it with my own money! You don't have to worry about it!"

You know what are the things he buys?

A whole chandelier, an emergency lamp that charges by spinning the ledge, a WHOLE cabinet, some kitchen utensils–he doesn't cook💀 and some more things. . .😐

He actually bought the whole Ikea 😭

But then he came up to you and ask if you can buy him those dog stuff toys.

He pouted for it.

You gave in and bought two stuff toys for you and him❤️

And then you remembered why he asked you to buy it for him when he had no problem to pay the expensive things he wanted.🙄

"So that it would be special, Y/N, look it came from you!"

He likes the candle section.

He specifically likes the scented ones.🕯️

Oikawa keeps picking them up and smelling them😭

He ended up adding to cart once again🤦

He made a delivery truck deliver all the things he bought to your house.

Ofcourse he would, he 💸rich💸

After that you both ate

And he just had to insist on you feeding him because he wanted to make the lonely teen across him jealous 😭😭😭 slskskjfgh

He likes the bread bowls

No he doesn't put soup in them

He just likes the bread.

You don't have to go back to Ikea for a whole year because you remembered Oikawa bought the whole store.

Ushijima

He just follows you everywhere, stoic and not saying anything 😐

When you stop to check on something he'll be like🕴️behind you

He also picks up some things that interests him😖

And if her finds something weird, he'll pick it up also and try to find out how to use it

But he ends up breaking it, so he quickly put it back and walk back to you😭

He holds your hand and look around as if he's a lost puppy ❤️

Waka-waka takes those paper rulers and roll them into a tight roll💀 please I do that everytime

He also collects those Ikea brochures and still takes another one even though you have a lot at home 😃

You know those yellow banners that hung from the ceiling with the prizes labeled on it??

Like kenma from part 1, he jumps and hits it with his fingertips aww

He's a huge baby🤭

Until he breaks it and made it fall on the floor💀

The both of you quickly run away before a staff scolds you both

Everytime other time, out of the blue, he would hug you, telling how much you mean to him😢

You know those fake windows in house models where it's actually just wallpapers lightened up from underneath??

He thrash talked about who taught about it because it didn't look too realistic 💀

He likes the kitchen section because the kitchen tools amazes him nd he cooks in the house,sooo¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Ushijima points at the things he find interesting and talk about them to you

"hey. . .Y/N. . . That thing is so cool, it can turn into a bed from a sofa. . ."

ANDDDD

He also likes the outdoor/garden section.❤️

He has his mini garden and he plants succulents😩

So he puts soils and other plant materials he needed for planting like pots and shovels.

He buys you plastic flowers too💀

It's not real but hey! At least it came from someone you really really love😏

He buys you unnecessarily a lot of those too😃

buys you things you needed, anything you want, he'll buy for you. . .

He'll just take out his credit card💳

When lunch comes, he always take the fruit salad because he likes it.

He would also feed you his own food•//////•

Ushjima always likes the fish with that kind of sauce

He shares food

So take it or leave it 😤

Tendou

Baki Baki ni oreeeee~

I love this boi, I don't get why people see him as a monster😤

Oki oki, he is sooooo excited to go around ikea

He takes a lot of the Ikea magazines

"it's free! So why not take many?"

He literally skips around beside you and gets excited over small things

"Ooooooh, Y/N! A rechargable light bulb!"

"Y/N! Y/N! Come here! Look, it's a chandelier that opens and closes!!"

He is very curious about things so make sure you stir him away from the kitchen section because that's where most of the weirdest things are.

Somehow you'd still end up in the kitchen section

He saw this weird looking scissors and he doesn't know what are the other features for.

You told him to drop it because he might hurt himself.

But no, he just had to figure out what is is for💀

He ended up hurting himself from toying around a scissors that separates each leg so that it can become a knife.

Of course he did hurt himself🤦

He run up to you, whimpering

And you just have to scold him😐

One time he got so curious about what that heavy door was for and he opened it

The alarm started going off🚨💀

IT WAS AN EMERGENCY DOOR

You made sure you don't let Tendou out of your sight again

When you stopped for lunch, you let him control the food cart.

But he accidentally pushed an old lady infront of the line with it.

Don't worry Gran is fine👵

What's with Haikyuu characters always liking kiddie meals?!😭

Yeah yeah he likes them❤️

But then when you two settled down to finally eat

He screamed why is his plate color is green, he wants red😭

You told him to finish his food quickly or else you'll leave him there

So both of you finished quickly and Satori wants to go home as fast as possible because he said he has a concert in his shower💀💀💀

My hands hurts😐

Anyways thank you for staying till the end❤️

Every like, reblogs and follow is appreciated 😏

This is my work so please don't steal in any way, not even turning it into a tiktok😐

REQUESTS ARE OPEN

[dimonds456]

Do you have advice for young artists? (If not, it's fine)

Sure thing!

To any young artists that follow me or happen to see this post, be you an actual young human being or an older adult who's only just starting to draw, all are welcome.

This is going to consist of general advise like learning more art and using tools to actually giving some art tips I've seen in amateur artists (including Little Me).

Long post ahoy! But hopefully a helpful one!

General Advise

1. Everyone learns at a different rate. I cannot stress this enough. If you and your best friend start drawing at the same time, your friend will more than likely not learn at the same rate as you. You might go faster, or maybe they rocket past you. This says nothing about your skills or someone being "better" than the other. That is just how you learn, and is 100% valid.

2. Don't compare your art to others. Like I said before, we all learn differently. If you see a peer's art and wish you could draw like that, that's fine, but don't let those kinds of thoughts drive your entire motivation. You will get there with time and practice. There are plenty of people that I want to draw like, and I'm practicing to get there. Slowly but surely.

3. There's always more to learn. No one has "mastered" art. There's always a new thing to learn, a new medium, new techniques, ect. Even the best artist to ever live had more to learn.

4. Use your tools! Be you a traditional or digital artist, there is no such thing as "cheating" on your art. Tracing and other forms of plagiarism I'll get to in a sec. But if you want a straight line, use the line tool or grab a ruler. If you want a bright light and you're on digital, use the Add tool or Hard Light. Watch a YouTube tutorial or get objects to trace around. The idea you're "cheating" by doing that is dumb. Don't listen to them.

5. Plagiarism stuff. Tracing is not plagiarism. If you do it for practice, that is perfectly fine! If you post it, make sure you credit the original piece (and it's not a bad idea to ask the original artist before you post it). It's when you don't credit the original artist that it becomes stealing and not okay. Make sure you leave enough tells that anyone could find the original art you traced if you post. If you don't post, then you're fine. You may still want to ask the original artist first, but again, just be careful about it. - On that, not all artists will agree with me, which is why I say to ask first. Some will be cool with it, others won't be.

Art Tips

1. Warm-up sketches are your friend. I know you got that idea in your head and the pose and lighting is super cool. Sketch that down so you don't forget it! But, don't make that sketch your final drawing. Draw circles, loops, straight lines, facial expressions, whatever works for you to get your brain and hand warmed up first. Otherwise, lines may be shaky, poses may be stiff, and expressions may be less expressive than they would be otherwise. You don't need a lot, just a few. Then you can start working on that masterpiece you saw in your head!

2. REST. PLEASE. I struggle with this one. If you love drawing, then you do it all the time. But here's the thing; your hands are a tool. Getting to be good at drawing is the same as an athlete training their body to run or swim. This means you NEED to take care of your WHOLE ARM, not just your hand/wrist. Rest it. Massage it. Warm it up first. You could cause permanent nerve damage if you're not careful. This goes for musicians, too! Please take care of yourself! If your hand starts hurting, rest it.

3. Find a subject. I don't see many people recommend this, but I've found it helps a lot. Find something you like and draw it over and over. If you're neurodivergent, this shouldn't be a problem- draw whatever you're currently hyperfixated on, lol. This means, yes, DRAW FANART. The design is already done! Now you just mold it to your will! Do screenshot redraws! Draw your fav hanging out with another fav! Use that muse to practice poses and expressions! Trust me, it helps!

4. Fame isn't everything. Follower count means nothing. It comes down to luck on the internet on whether or not people find your art, and on Tumblr, it has to be "good enough" to get reblogged. So if no one is finding your art, don't be discouraged! Again, don't compare yourself to other people. Draw for yourself. If people like what you do, they'll start trickling in.

5. Artstyle???? Okay, this one is weird. Having an artstyle is not something that you can decide to have, nor something that just comes naturally, but it also is both of those things? Basically, the more you draw something and then start doing so from memory, the more aspects of them will start changing over time. The way you draw hair will be influenced by other hair styles you've seen in the past that you liked (i.e. anime, cartoons, realistic, ect.). Same with eyes, hands, body shapes, and more. You can purposefully add in elements you like, and eventually a version of that will just become how you draw now, but even then, you will naturally add your own "spin" on it.

Take me for example. I am currently hyperfixated on Steven Universe, and have been since late 2019. I tried mimicking the show's art style, and it worked! I can draw pretty similarly to the show! Problem is, now it's taken over how I draw other things, too. Not completely, but elements of that style are still there, like eye shapes, hair, mouths especially, and noses. I can draw other things and outside of that style, but I have to actively decide to do so. SU is just part of my artstyle now.

6. Self-Improvement / Criticism. Okay, what's the difference between "Wow, this took forever and is a nice composition, but the lighting is a bit odd" and "Wow, this took way too long and the end result didn't pay off at all because that stupid light is overtaking everything"? That's right- attitude. When trying to improve, it's good to look for areas where you're struggling, but instead of hating those spots, try to focus on them. Look up lighting tutorials and tips on YouTube. Maybe lighting isn't the problem, maybe it's shading? Point is, always put a positive spin on it. Remember, there's always something more to learn.

7. Tracing / Redraws. Bringing this back up again, it is A-okay to do these things for practice. Tracing can really help teach you how anatomy works, how to do fun poses, or how to draw a character you really like. It's useful. But remember, if you post it, ask permission first and ALWAYS give credit. Same goes for screenshot redraws. If it's not yours, let people know what you were redrawing, and if it's a piece by another artist, show them! More than likely they'll love that you redrew their art, but ask before posting, and ABSOLUTELY give credit! If the artist wants you to link back to their original post, do that! Don't be afraid to do these things, just remember to be careful.

8. Drawing Fanart. I already said it here, but PLEASE go draw fanart. Drawing your favorite characters is already fun, and will make drawing even more fun overall, but it also teaches you so much. If you're looking to gain followers, drawing fanart for a show that has a big fandom is a good way to do it. Remember to tag your art so people can find it, and so people can block it if they don't like that character/fandom. Tag the fandom and the characters specifically. Trust me, this helps a lot! And again, it's just fun. I got started drawing FNaF fanart, and I loved it. It got me into video editing, music videos, and eventually writing stories and comics. Depending on what you do, drawing fanart could tell you anything you want to know. These are pre-established characters so you don't have to start from scratch. It makes everything so much easier.

9. Someone's being a meanie-head / criticism. If you get hate for your art, it's going to hurt, especially at first. Unfortunately, this is a downside of drawing fanart, since you're more likely to draw in those kinds of people. But don't listen to them. If they just want to ruin your day, spite them by drawing even more. Block them.

However, that said, criticism is NOT hate. If someone is criticizing you, you can choose what to do with that. If you're not in a good space to get that criticism, ignore it. That's valid. If you are, listen to what they're saying. If your line art is shaky or your lighting is weird and they tell you that, ask them how you can get better. Chances are they want to see you become a better artist. But again, it's up to you. You do NOT have to listen to these people if you don't want, but I've found they can be extremely helpful.

10. Okay, cool. How do I practice? Excellent question. I'm still figuring that one out. But something I've been trying recently is a little game I came up with. Find a playlist of songs you're familiar with and put it on shuffle. For every song that comes on, draw what that song reminds you of. But, you have until the song ends. This is good for warm-ups and for getting better at quickly slapping out ideas. You can put a spin on it and draw specific characters or prompts, too! Have fun with it! Other practices include* fanart, figure drawing, lines of action, quick draws, tracing, silhouette work, and far more.

And that's all I have for now! If you have questions or want to talk about some of these tips, send an ask my way. Inbox is always open! Have a good one, and happy drawing!

*Each of these tips gets explained below. - Fanart: I already talked about that one in-depth - Figure Drawing: You have a model and try drawing the pose they're in - Line of Action: Imaginary line running down the spine. Use it to create dynamic poses. Here's a really quick vid that explains it. - Quick Draw: Not sure if there's another name, but it is what it sounds like: draw something you see very quickly. Get it as accurate as possible with however much time you have. - Tracing: Can help with poses and anatomy, always credit - Silhouettes: Draw the outline of a character and see if you can't tell who it is. Or, draw two ovals together and make an eye/eye brow expression from them together.

[morimakesfanart]

Sindria's Prophet #13

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12]

[AO3]

((edited because I figured out to add some more history facts that I think are important))

~POV Sinbad~

"The Kou Empire, huh?"

"That is going to make things risky."

With all of the Generals caught up with what happened in Balbadd, they needed to start planning for King Sinbad's trip to the Kou Empire, as well as catching him up with everything that had happened in Sindria while he was gone.

"LadY YamuRAI H AA AA A" A yell came from the hallway accompanied by the sounds of running.

((Sinbad is hidden on the left. There's a hint of him poking out.))

A panting magician gave apologies for disturbing their meeting and ran to the head of Sindria's magicians. "I wish I knew you were here so I didn't search the tower first~" Then he started explaining about some magical proof. Most of his words sounded like gibberish to the rest, but it was clear that he had made some kind of break though.

Yam jumped out of her seat. "How did you finally figure it out?! Who figured it out?!" She whipped her head to her King, "Sorry your majesty," and then looked back to the other magician.

"It was the work of the Prophet!” the magician answered. "We were talking about her illness and she pulled out scrolls that- you just have to read them for yourself!”

Mori had said that she had written other scrolls before she started coping down Fate. This must have been what she was working on.

Both magicians bowed out to go test out this new information. Before they could leave, Sinbad ended the meeting; there was no way he was going to wait to learn what other information Mori had blessed them with. Ja'far followed as did a few of the other Generals.

When they got into the court yard, the doctors that had been sent to take care of Mori were already pushing their supply cart back to their main building. The magician that had stayed behind spotted them and raised two scrolls up triumphantly. "She let me take the scrolls!"

---

News of the scrolls written by a Prophet spread throughout the Black Libra Tower within an hour. Yamuraiha and the doctors explained their significance to King Sinbad.

If even a fraction of the theories in the scrolls proved true it would completely changed their understanding of how illnesses work. If Mori wasn't sick she would undoubtedly be swarmed with questions and demands for proof. According to the magicians, nothing in the scrolls went against any known information. Instead, they gave explanations to why certain things that had been attempted in the past had failed. What she wrote about 'cells' was what really caught the eyes of the white magicians and doctors. As an example, according to Mori's writing there were blood types and most couldn't mix; that would explain why most past attempts at blood transfusions had failed.

The 2nd scroll showed a break down of even smaller particles, and how the structures of different particles made up everything. This was going to bring alchemic magic to a whole new era. Sure, such things would most likely be limited to high magicians, group efforts, and the Magi, but it looked possible now. A lot of common magic of the current day took extreme amounts of magoi in the past because they hadn't found the right formula yet. Mori's writing -if true- could easily be used as a guide to finding the right order of commands for many spells.

And even more than that, Mori had said that she had even more information to share; she had just ran out of scrolls and ink.

Mori's presence in Sindria, and everything that went with it were Fate and the Rukh's guidance. King Sinbad could see it -the future he wanted.

---

~POV Mori~

In Sindria's Palace there is a Great Bell. It is rung during celebrations, and to signify the King returning home like it did earlier that day, but it's main use was to ring every 2 hours to tell everyone the time since clocks weren't invented yet. So even though I was a sick person trying to rest during the day, I was woken up by the Great Bell every 2 hours... which of course is also situated right on top of the guest tower.

For obvious reasons, I was awake again.

I wish I knew how the others responded to the scrolls. I really wanted to know Yam's opinion most. Those scrolls basically gave away the secret to Yunan's signature alchemy magic.

I still had the first scroll I had worked on -the one on the science behind blimps-, and the last science scroll I had started. That one was on DNA, and reproductive systems. It was the last one I started in Balbadd. I hadn't started working on it until sunrise on my 2nd sleepless night and it showed; there were missing words everywhere, many incomplete sentences, and I couldn't stay in topic.

These mistakes were too great to fix with an ink knife. Editing was going be super annoying and time consuming since I couldn't work digitally. I'd have to physically cut up the first draft to put everything in the right order before making the next one.

Wait- Did this world have scissors???

Back home the first evolution of shears that could be labeled as scissors was in Roman barber shops in the last hundred years or so before Rome fell. China would spontaneous also create something akin to scissors not long after. Reim and the Kou Empire seemed to line up with Rome and ancient China for the most part, so I tend to use them to place the time period, but the dress Princess Dunya wears is centuries off and throws all historical accuracy questions out the window. Rome was long gone by the time boning was added to women's undergarments, and that dress had all the signs of boned corsetry.

Fuck it. I'll ask for scissors and if they don't have them I'll just invent them myself. I had been drafting professionally for the past 4 years. That may have been for microelectronics, but it uses all the same skills; I could do this. I needed to get a ruler -or at least a straight edge- and a drafting compass which they probably have based on the look of maps in the series, and pencils, or at least colored inks if they had them. I probably needed to reinvent the French curve(stencil tool used in art & drafting)...

Since I was struggling to fall back asleep I moved to the table and pulled out my test scroll. It was full of random marks and some of my early drawing attempts that I used to practice with the dip pen -it's also where I wrote down the dreams from the Rukh. I'd write the list of things I needed, rip the section out of the scroll, and pass the list to someone who could get me what I was asking for. I added some living necessities too like sleep wear and a comb.

The maids that came to give me dinner, and next dose of medicine were not pleased that I wasn't in bed -I was an important guest who was sick after all. And I wasn't pleased to have to drink more of that bitter medicine, but we can't have nice things all the time, now can we?

My voices was strained but I managed to communicate enough. I gave them my list, and laundry (the clothes I wore on the boat) before they left. They'd get me the things the next day. I was instructed to sleep until someone brings me breakfast the next day... which is what I was going to do anyway since the sun was practically gone. I might be a bit of a workaholic but I'm not going to let myself pull an accidental all-nighter when I know I'm still sick. I'm far more self aware than that.

And besides, the Great Bell didn't ring at night.

---

Maids brought my breakfast (& meds) the next morning and let me know that my clothes would be cleaned and dry by the end of the day. I guess they didn't use magic for everything.

They also gave me all of the drafting and inking supplies I asked for except for scissors. In one of the omakes Sinbad was shown cutting his hair with a knife as a part of his normal grooming. I had hoped he was just old fashioned.

For the greater good and the future of my own hair care, I drafted up detailed designs for a few different types of basic scissors. They wouldn't look fancy, but hopefully I had put enough of a detailed explanation on everything for the smith to figure out what I was asking. Steel wasn't developed until the middle ages and some of the counties of this world matched that so I hoped

that God and anime were on my side. I really wanted scissors that would be a good quality.

And if that didn't work I'd just have to get used to using knives and bladed rollers like a regular person.

The Great Bell rung for 10 am. There were at least another 2 hours before someone would show up, to give lunch, that I could ask to take my draft for the scissors to a black Smith.

I should be resting as a sick person. I should be more exhausted and in pain as a sick person. What was making me recover this quickly?

I still didn't feel like laying back down, so I decided to start drafting up the materials and equipment for proving everything I had written in the scrolls I gave the previous day.

Globally, micro-organisms, viruses, and bacteria were not really accept or proved until the late 1800's. Since Magi seems to take place some time around our 100AD-1300, and Yunan hinting at chemical compounds was seen as shocking by Yam, I knew that my bio scrolls were probably causing an uproar in the Black Libra Tower. I refused to use actual people or wait for an outbreak to prove it like how it happened in history -like how John Snow proved it when finding the cause of cholera outbreaks in 1848 and 1854 England. No, I needed to show how to prove these things in a lab, and to do that I was going to need to explain how to keep samples and invent a way to see microorganisms.

First was for a glass petri dish and other containers for samples. I'd need at least 3 -preferably more. I know glass works have been around since BC, and that this world had glass windows in some scenes, but I worried about the quality of the glass contaminating the experiments. I was going to have to boil them beforehand to sterilize them anyway.

Gosh I wish I had access to nonporous, air tight containers, and a temperature controlled environment. The heat and humidity of Sindria could easily mess everything up.

Wait... I suddenly remembered a scene from the Magnostadt arc when they showed how a sample was being stored. They already had good enough glass. I knew there were magic bio experiments but I had no idea how they worked.

With the realization that I was getting ahead myself, I switched to writing about how to use the scientific method to test for germs. It was basically the bread in a bag test to teach young children about germs but with petri dishes. I also wrote about how to analyze samples with a microscope to see micro organisms so I was going to have to figure that out next.

Lunch came as the perfect break.

Just thinking about reinventing this thing made me nervous. I knew magnifying glasses existed in ancient Rome, but they would be nothing like what I was used to. I had to explain how light moves and made multiple diagrams showing how concave and convex lenses affect light as well as the material of the lens. I ended up also showing how to make a telescope even though I knew Yam already had one.

Magicians were the only ones shown with glasses. Maybe now the rest of the world could have them too.

4 o'clock came and so did 3 doctors and a magician. It was less than yesterday, but still more than necessary to treat or analyze one person. I only recognized one of the doctors from the previous day. All of the new faces looked nervous. None of them looked young by any measure, so I really doubted this was their first time treating someone.

They weren't happy to see me at the table and made me return to my bed -their loss.

The doctor from the previous day was the one doing most of the talking. "Your recovery is amazing. You will most likely be better in another 3 days at this rate if not sooner. It's practically a miracle."

I smiled. "It's pretty shocking for me too." As long as I spoke quietly and kept my comments short, I found I could talk again for a bit.

The doctor was silent for a moment before changing the subject. "I know you need rest, but would you be willing to answer a few questions about those scrolls from yesterday?

The 3 other men looked expectant. This was why they were here.

"I don't mind as long as you don't make me talk too much."

Then came the question I was expecting since I had first made the scrolls. "I know you are a Prophet and the information came from your visions but is there any way you can prove what you wrote?"

I pointed to the table with the scroll I had started earlier. "I can't prove it with the current equipment I have, so I've been drafting up the needed equipment and processes for proving it."

They all turned to look at where I was pointing.

I added, "It's not done, but you're welcome to read what I have so far."

I was thanked as they went to the table they had called me away from when they entered.

'He called it 'visions?' Really?' I had to ask Sinbad later what he was telling his people about me so I could keep the story straight.

The magician confirmed for the others what I wrote about light bending. There was magic to do that, but not everyone is a magician. I had just invented a way for non-magicians to bend light.

Just wait until I show them a prism that can split light into colors. Or teach them how light is perceived in the eye. Or even better, show them the double slit experiment that proves that light is a particle not just a wave... Did they know light was a wave yet?

"Lady Prophet."

I was pulled out of my thoughts.

"You said this isn't finished and there is plenty of space in this scroll for more, but would you let us take this back to the tower so we can get started?"

I wanted to say 'no.' I was still coming up with things to add to it, but I also knew that holding things back because I wanted to save paper was a fool's game. Besides, I could always add more to it later.

I nodded and they thanked me before making me promise not to leave my bed. They were grateful for this new scroll but not at the expense of my health -they were doctors after all.

And then they left.

It was probably about 5pm if my internal clock was on schedule, so I had about an hour before the next ring of the Bell.

Even if I wasn't a man of my word, I would have lost the motivation to work with my current project taken from me while I was still in the middle of making it.

So, I did the thing I grew up doing when I was bedridden from illness: I looked out the window. From the bed I could only see the tops of the buildings on the other side of the courtyard. The Tower that was just poking in from the left had to be the Black Libra Tower.

The waves in Sindria were calmer yet stronger than those in Balbadd. It was probably due to Sinbad's influence. He brought stability and security to his people. I could understand why so many chose to follow him or ally with him. But I knew where all this would lead. As he obtains more power and influence he will stop being able to see himself from the pedestal that he and everyone else put him on; his greed will make him blind to the wants and needs of others, and like a middle aged parent that isn't ready for their child to leave the nest he will take out his frustration on the world that was moving on without him. When Sinbad dies at the end of the manga, Drakon realizes that they all put too much on Sinbad's shoulders.

To change Fate, I was going to have to make sure I never put him on that pedestal nor rely on him for much. And I was going to have to convince the 8 Generals to do the same -or at least to start pulling more of the weight.

The 6 o'clock Bell came faster than I expected, as well as my dinner not long after. They brought my clean laundry, a sleeping gown, and some other common clothes and things for my convenience.

I would have preferred something much shorter for the night gown since I hate having a lot of extra fabric around my legs when I already have blankets. I was not going to risk being walked in on by doctors or whoever when sleeping naked, so I would make do for now.

There was no way King Sinbad wasn't going to reward me for those scrolls. If it was some kind of treasure I'd sell it and buy a new wardrobe for myself that actually suited me, and if the reward was a request then I would ask that he pay for everything directly.

The light coming in my windows changed, and I watched my 2nd sunset in Sindria.

When Sinbad found this island 10 years ago, he completely terraformed it. He didn't get rid of all of the vegetation that was here, but he did break down one of the sides to allow for easier access by boat. The side he carved out faced northish towards all of the other known countries, so no boat would have a reason to circle the island. It was a decision that would benefit the merchants and make it easier to defend.

It also meant that my windows faced west, so I could watch the Sun set every day. I couldn't help but see that as a blessing and a curse. Sure not getting the sunrise meant I'd need to put more effort into

waking up in the morning but that wasn't the part I was worried about.

See- The thing is... I have synesthesia (having 2 or more senses overlapping). I see sounds, letters, and numbers as colors and textures. I have it mild enough that I can normally block it out so it's not too distracting (thank God because music is a main stim), but sometimes I'll hear something and get overwhelmed by how it looks.

Each letter and number is a color. So every voice can make every color, but language, pitch, tone, and accent all affect the colors and textures I see from a person's voice like a filter. There have definitely been some people that I struggled to give my full attention to when I first met them because I was entranced by how their voice looked. The more I hear a person's voice the more I'm able to move its visuals to the background so I can focus -desensitizing myself to it.

Luckily, Sinbad's voice is normally not so distracting that I stop paying attention. Since it's like a merger of every voice actor I've heard play him (All the characters I had met so far were like this.) I'm already desensitized. The similarities across all of the VAs meant that his voice looked like a sunset -full of deep purples and magentas, and bright reds, peach, and gold, and with a smooth and flowing texture like painting in acrylic with a wet brush -like a painting of the last moments of a sunset.

His voice was as pretty as he was.

I hadn't actually gotten to see or hear him for a whole day. But I'd get to look at his voice's equivalent every day while living under his protection.

It was frustrating to admit -I barely knew him as a real person- yet I couldn't deny that I missed him. I feel asleep watching the sun set.

((I wasn't going to write about my synesthesia, but this is my fanfic and I thought it might be fun to reference the colors peoples voices make when the characters talk. I'm not going to paint every VA and head cannon, but I will describe them as I go. Ja'far's Japanese and English VAs have voices that look very different so finding the middle ground is proving tricky.

Also, anyone who noticed that the purple I see in Sinbad's voice is the same as the purple I've been using for the illustrations and comics is super smart and cool.))

[flowerbloom-arts]

A rather unneeded apology, don't you think?

Progress shots and thought process below the cut (warning, it gets heavy on pshycological analytical nonsense and spoilers for Exploits of Moominpappa/'s Memoirs, and it's really long):

Ah yes, Muddler angst, something that should be one too many yet you can't quite get enough of it-

So it all started with this little metaphor from this post I made a while back and I thought "Hmm... I should really make a follow-up for that!" so I did, and here it is.

This was originally gonna be a lineless painting but then when I started to do that I thought about how much of a drag it would be and scrapped that for my regular style but with cooler shading and coloring. I'm happy with it, it's been a while since I've done a full illustration and I'm proud that I managed to make this in like... (Checks timer on my drawing app) 2 hours and 25 minutes? Huh.

Anyway, this whole illustration is more or less just a metaphor going on in Muddler's head when he's cracked under stress, it's the "boat floating on your own personal ocean" metaphor like the post I linked above, it is indeed a constantly raging sea of stress and change and mental/lifestyle instability that's going on in Muddler's head and he's on a houseboat floating on it trying to balance and protect itself from the tides. It's always rocking back and forth but it's been doing that all the time for so long that it barely registers for him anymore, so he's living in this unnerving calm where the calm is not serenity perse but a lack of terror, yet, sometimes that raging sea manages to break through a window or two and flood the place as a good reminder that he isn't immune, he can and will drown for as long as things are like this.

The sea isn't a place of good memories for Muddler in either version of the book, like, the sea is so big that it's general emptiness on the horizon tickles his eyes. Before that he painted the boat red and got it all over himself and then painted his tin with the leftover paint, needless to say he had a rather traumatic night where the paint never dried and it got all over his food and bed and whiskers which drove him insane (or plume crazy I should say). He also had a rough time in his tin while packing for the riverboat and being swept away by the flood caused by Edward the Booble, he said his nerves (and his button collection) were all unsorted after the rest of the crew managed to get the tin on board. Then other stuff happens- an awful Hemulen Aunt boarding the ship (he literally wished death upon her, a rather extreme gesture especially for Muddler), the Hemulen Aunt being taken away by the Niblings (and the ensuing guilt he felt when he felt that it was his fault since he wished for her to be eaten), a rough and sticky night, being the first to realise the boat was setting off to sea unintentionally in the middle of the night, having to sit through a gale in which he got very sick- and that's just stuff that happened on the boat! He also had to suffer the likes of the revenge of the forgotten bones! The Ghost painted Muddler's tin and he cried about it, thinking it's a warning sign that he'll never marry! And he's the only one who was legitimately terrified of the Ghost, imagine being one of like, a 4 person friend group and being the only one scared of a real scary thing that directly affected you in one of the worst ways possible- vandalism of your own home. And don't even get me started on the fact that he lost his parents during spring cleaning and still believes they're alive.

With that being said, I believe we all understand that Muddler has been through alot, he had a revelation that adventures cause nothing but trouble for the poor guy in the middle of the book. And seeing how he cried at the idea of never getting married, we can presume he just wants a normal life after that. Thankfully, Fuzzy provided that through marriage and kids, even though they lost one of them by accident.

Now with this in mind, I have implemented a few elements from the book into the illustration. I've also followed some color-coding rules I've made up for myself;

Blue=Safety and comfort (Hodgkins is his uncle and is canonically blue-colored for the most part, not to mention that his Maxwell House Coffee tin is blue aswell, both are sources of safety for Muddler)

Green=Protection (Joxter is usually depicted in a green dress/hat, he stood up for Muddler atleast twice in the book and we can presume these weren't the only times he does it. Joxter is rather confident in his abilities despite being lazy and Muddler would rather admire that)

Yellow=Achievement/accomplishment (nothing much here, just uhh... Gold is yellow-ish and gold usually means you've accomplished something)

Red=Stress/general negativity (This is mostly coming from the red paint incident)

I've also added some small references and details. I've avoided using the ruler tool on my lineart to give it less solid feel to the backround and everything, showing how it's not supposed to be a full representation of reality, the pictures being faceless also adds to that. I drew an interpretation of the Muddler and Fuzzy wedding photo found in the moomin theme park, the gold medal on Hodgkins' portrait says "you helped" and it's supposed to be the medal that Hodgkins said Muddler deserved for helping him figure out the propeller (accidentally) in the Exploits version and I like to think he has that thought always in the back of his mind as one of the few times he's felt genuinely useful since he got so happy from it. Oh! And the picture almost completely hidden by the curtains is a portrait of his father and that's Joxter at the bottom looking like he's peeking over the curtain when really he's not. The curtains are green because they protect him from the red outside world, the suit and yellow dead flowers being darkly colored are supposed to represent a sense of meaninglessness or general distain, the red liquid is supposed to be red paint, not blood aaaaaaand the window is a slight shade of blue with a screen overlay.

"Apologies for being weak-minded" is supposed to be a rather insincere but tired quote from Muddler, he doesn't really want to apologise for cracking under pressure and having a literal breakdown but he feels like he has to because I think he just feels like a nuisance alot of the time and being so negatively emotional just makes things worse, so he has to come up with an apology rather than tell the person he's talking to the reason why he broke down, and belittling his own feelings by calling himself weak-minded. He knows himself to be "too" sensitive.

Anyway, that was too long a ramble. Just know that I'm not trying to take myself too seriously here, it's a silly amount of thought put into this but eh, I enjoyed it, and I thought you might want to read about it and if you made this far; thank you.

[catgirlwheels]

Ok so I'm American, and I grew up with the imperial measurement system. At some point, I think in a science class, I learned about metric and was like, this is great! Why the heck aren't we using this?

The one thing that bugs me about it is the lack of a good analogue to the foot (if you don't know how long a foot is, you can honestly just imagine it being the length of your own actual feet. They're probably shorter than a foot, but it'll get you close). A foot is super useful in everyday life, and a meter is kind of just too long to use in the same way, and decimeter is way too many syllables, even if you do happen to be talking to someone who knows what that means. I don't really think this is a good enough argument to not use the metric system, but it does bug me.

But anyway, that's not the point of this post. The point of this post is that I have been converted. I'm totally on board with imperial system now, at least for measurements of length on the scale of like, objects in your house. (Metric is still far superior for anything very large or very small, and probably for measuring anything other than length (and maybe volume? I haven't thought about that as much. Oh wait, volume is just length cubed. Yeah, volume too), but this post is about woodworking.)

I watch a lot of woodworking youtube, and some about machining, and comment sections on videos made by americans are ALWAYS full of comments about how dumb imperial is. And at first I was like, "haha, yeah, we're dumb, sorry."

But then I saw this one comment. The person in the video was measuring something and casually said something like "1/16 of an inch, nice round number." And this person in the comments was like "haha, look at this dumb american, saying 1/16 is a round number, wtf." And I just. I could not agree with this one like I had the others. It opened my eyes.

And the more I think about it, especially as I have been getting back into woodworking myself, the more I appreciate the conventions of imperial measurements for length.

1/16" IS a nice round number. 16 is a power of 2. In imperial measurement, when we need something smaller than an inch, we don't typically use decimals, we use powers of 2. Cut a thing in half 4 times and you have 1/16. That's really useful when you're making things in a subtractive medium, especially making things like furniture, where precision to the millimeter is completely unnecessary. I wouldn't use imperial for 3d printing, but I no longer have much interest in metric tools for my wood shop (which is good, because good ones are fucking hard to find).

And this isn't just about powers of 2. I see you metric people out there, ready to type angrily about how 12 inches to a foot is stupid. No. 5280 feet to a mile is stupid, I won't argue that for a second. But 12 inches to a foot is fabulous.

Base 10 is stupid. What do you do when you need a quarter of a centimeter? You only have to divide by 2 twice before you have to start drawing between the lines on the ruler. Quarter inch? It's on the ruler. Quarter of a foot? 3 inches. Quarter of that? 3/4" is on the ruler too.

"Why are you cutting everything in quarters, what the heck are you making?" No, little strawman, that's not the point. The point is it's really easy to think in halves and quarters and eighths instead of doing fucking long division with decimals. Don't even get me started on thirds. Base 10 is useless at thirds. Third of a foot? 4 inches. Easy.

And you're already doing it. We measure hours in base 12 and minutes in base 60 (12x5).

Anyway, metric needs to adopt the foot, weeks should have 12 days, and we're not counting time wrong, we're counting everything else wrong. Thank you for coming my to TED talk.