#i may go back in a month for some added color and gradients but it’s cute

[fluttersheep]

i’m a liar. i postponed the tiktaalik tattoo and got the bosch bird demon tattoo instead 😔

#flutterspeak #i’d post a photo but the saniderm filled with blood immediately so it’s just a red mass rn #it’s rly cute tho #i may go back in a month for some added color and gradients but it’s cute #for being what it is lmao #it’s the one with the sign on his beak and floppy ears and the funnel hat #and ice skates #from the temptation of st anthony

[hyperfixated-homo]

The Disney Trivia

Ao3 Link (leave a comment if you wanna! it would make my day <3)

Summary:

It's been months now since the side's have made up, and started actually treating each other like family. Now, with everything back together, they have the brilliant idea to play a game of trivia!

In which, Virgil and Roman are the hosts (who knows more about Disney than those two?) and also may be dating, we'll get back to you on that one.

Patton and Janus are flirting the whole time.

And Remus just thinks Logan is neat.

A/N: Holy god that is the most I have ever written in a single session ever. I don't regret it at all, this was amazing asodijowajd. I missed a lot! But it was kinda necessary because the fic would have been hella long otherwise and some of it was contradictory. I hope you guys like it :)

Word Count: 5117

Ships: Mociet, Prinxiety, Intrulogical

Warnings: Mentions of Remus' heart squishing? I don't think there's anything to be really concerned about lmao

“Why are we doing this again?”

“Because DISNEY Logan!”

“That’s not exactly a sufficient answer, Roman.”

Patton smiled at the two of them as they started bickering. Even now, months after their little family sorted through their drama and everyone started getting along, it seemed like some things would never change.

The sides sat together in a large debate hall, apparently a dreamspace Logan had created a while back for a video with Virgil. Back then it had been the two of them arguing over Thomas’ negative thinking, but now it was being used for something much more fun. The side’s first ever proper group trivia!

It was an idea Roman had a couple weeks ago, during their family game nights (which mainly consisted of uncontrollable chaos). He had thrown it out there randomly during a game of Kahoot, but forgot about it shortly after.

It wasn’t until earlier that week that it was brought up again.

Virgil had come up to him shyly asking if he still felt down to do a proper game of trivia, and had suggested the first theme: Disney!

Roman had agreed instantly, and the two of them spent a couple days planning and researching for the game.

The two of them would be running the game as hosts, while the other sides were split into groups of two. Janus and Patton had been dubbed team Mociet, while Logan and Remus were in team Intrulogical.

Patton was more than a little confused when Remus started giggling at the names, but shrugged it off.

The room had been decorated more interestingly for the fun occasion. Roman and Virgil had stated that they wanted to go all out for this trivia, even if it’s more of a joke than anything else.

The curtains behind were closed, colored black as they were before, but now had added detailing that made it a less monotone background. They had strung up simple banners on the wall, and there were more than a couple new lights in the room that they wanted to use for aesthetic purposes. The floor had been changed to carpeting that had a full rainbow gradient from one corner of the room to the other.

But most importantly was the art.

Hundreds of paintings of Disney characters lined the walls. Different, stylised versions of every princess, prince and villain imaginable had been drawn on them in bright, vibrant colors.

Logan was very confused when he saw them, noting that they wouldn’t be seen much anyways since the attention would be on the judges and the stage, so he didn’t understand why they would put so much effort into it.

Roman said that it didn’t matter.

(The amount of fun that he and Remus had painting them together more than made up for it.)

It was a very neat set up! And according to the boys, there were a couple other things too that they hadn't even shown yet, because they wanted it to be a surprise for when the game actually started.

“Wow, they’re still going?”

Janus’ voice cut through Patton’s thoughts, snapping his attention to the snakey side on his left.

“Huh? Oh- they stopped arguing about the scoreboard ten minutes ago. This is a new argument.”

Janus looked at him with a deadpan expression that Patton couldn’t help but smile at.

“It’s not that bad. We just need to wait for Virgil to get the cards! He’s not going to take that long.”

Janus’ eyes softened quickly, and he turned to look back at Logan and Roman. “Yes… I suppose so. We’ll just have to wait.”

Then he turned back around, suddenly seeming a lot more competitive. “What’s our game plan?”

Patton blinked. He had absolutely no clue what Janus was talking about.

“The what now?”

Janus sighed, fondly exasperated.

“How are we going to win this Patton? You probably know at least a little bit about disney. I’m going to be fully honest, I know virtually nothing. I would say that the teams are fair in that sense except Logan’s a massive Marvel nerd and Remus knows almost as much about Disney in general as Roman, so it really isn’t. We’re at a massive disadvantage here.”

Patton blinked, again.

And Janus sighed, again.

“Do we not- is there no game plan?”

“Uhhhhhhhhhhhh,” Patton looked between him and Roman. “…be nice and hope for the best?”

Janus looked at him for a moment, then once again turned away, mumbling something about how hard it would be to gaslight Virgil into giving them points. Patton was about to make a concerned remark when the door slammed open and the anxious side himself walked into the room.

“Alright losers, stop the fighting. It’s game time.”

Roman audibly squealed, immediately stumbling over to his stand.

“Okay everybody stand in your area. Go stand- you too remus, you stand normally by your podium. We’re starting! Play the music! Why isn’t- LOGAN, THIS IS YOUR DREAMSCAPE, PLAY THE MUSIC!”

Logan rolled his eyes, but complied with the prince’s request, snapping his fingers. The Disney theme started playing, and suddenly the lights shut off.

As the music swelled, new, brighter spotlights slammed on, and the four contestants were surprised to see that they’d been changed into stunning suits and corsets, similar to their outfits at the courtroom but clearly glamorized by Roman. Their podiums had changed as well, the old wooden stands being covered fabric of their own colors with their symbols at the bottom.

Before they had time to even mention the change, another bright spotlight illuminated their hosts. Virgil and Roman were also wearing new clothes, much more layered outfits with more designs sewn into them. Virgil was sat down behind a tilted table that no doubt hid the question cards, while Roman stood in front of them.

The short intro theme faded into a bright show theme, something Patton vaguely recognised.

Roman jumped forwards, welcoming them to the show and going over a prepared speech that played in time with the music.

“Welcome everyone to the first ever Sanders Sides Trivia! Not about us, but being played by us! Today we have a very special theme, suggested by my darling emo nightmare behind me,” Virgil blushed and gave a little wave “DISNEY!”

Patton cheered. Remus joined in, and then all four of them were clapping for Roman.

His eyes were alight as he walked in front of them, posture bubbly in a way that it only ever was when he got the chance to be on stage.

“Thank you! Thank you all!” He took a mock bow.

“Today on the stage we have our two wonderful teams! First up, Team Mociet! Featuring everyone’s favorite father figure, Patton, and the slithery snake himself, Janus!”

Remus whooped from beside them, and Logan and Virgil clapped for them loudly.

Janus loudly said “Totally hate being here today, how dare you invite me.”

Patton waved at everyone, unable to stop himself from giggling.

“And as their competitors today, we’ve got our brilliant book nerd, Logan, and his partner in crime (who may or may not have actually committed some crimes), Remus!”

He and Janus cheered for them, and Remus laughed maniacally while the two of them waved as well.

“I am, of course, Roman Sanders, and this is Virgil! We will be your hosts today everybody!” he continued. The four of them together gave them a round of applause, Patton and Remus yelling out compliments over the loud noise.

“Thank you, thank you. And thank you all for coming! We’re going to go over some ground rules first, before the game can officially start, so we can just jump straight into it!”

He made his way behind the table, as he said that, sitting down. The next part was apparently Virgil’s job to present.

“We’re playing by a point system. You are given points for getting questions right, giving us a good argument or just being cool in general. We’d set better requirements but honestly, I’m sure that all of you guys would find a loophole no matter what rules we set. So we’re not doing that. Points are given based entirely on how me and Roman feel about your answers.” He leaned forwards in his chair, and rested his head in his hands, elbows on the table.

“We can also add points at any time in the game!” Roman chimed in quickly “Not just during question times! For example, padre, I’m loving the attitude right now. Plus ten points!”

There was a loud ring, and then the curtains opened behind them to show a big board, with the two teams' scores on it. Team Mociet had ten points.

Virgil continued. “We can and will take away points, too. Not for getting questions wrong, but for other things. Arguments we don’t like, trying to cheat, sabotage, all that good stuff. Like, say, that stupid hat Janus is still wearing. Minus ten points. Bad hat.”

There was a sort of power down sound, and they watched the points be erased and go down to zero.

Janus didn’t say anything. He just looked at Virgil with the most “are you serious right now” face he could muster. Patton tried his absolute hardest to not laugh next to him. He mostly succeeded.

Virgil was not phased.

“Also, fun fact, even though we can’t actually participate or win, me and Roman can also get points. Because we’re just superior to you guys in every way. We have pretty general rules here, no changing the answer, no physical fighting, no attempted murder, the usual things. Basically just don’t break our monopoly rules and we’ll probably be fine.”

“We’re also not going to win anything.” Patton wondered how long Virgil and Roman had rehearsed this for them to be this in sync. “This is obviously just for fun. No need to get too competitive. I’m looking at you Logan.”

“That’s bold coming from the guy who played checkers with Janus for five hours because he refused to stop until he won a game.” Remus called out.

“That’s not what we’re talking about right now.” Roman replied “And honestly, you would have too if you saw how close I was. There were so many times I almost won. We tied at least-”

“ANYWAYS!” Virgil interrupted him. If Roman started rambling now they would never actually play. “That’s all we have to say. We might add or change some rules later on if things are too chaotic.”

“Right, right. Okay! With that all out of the way, let the games begin!”

A happy little tune that sounded somewhat similar to the ending of a looney toons episode played, and the lights flickered on again.

There was silence for a moment in the debate room, and then Virgil spoke quietly.

“So… how was that?”

“Guys that was amazing!! Oh my goodness I loved it!!” Patton was practically vibrating on the spot from pure excitement over the performance that the two of them just gave.

“Oh I absolutely despised the personal nicknames. Horribly kind of you.” Janus couldn’t seem to keep a smile off his face, clearly also very hyped up.

“I was not expecting the lightshow, I will admit. It was a brilliant choice to use that blackout period to change the scenery, we were all invested quite quickly.” Logan commented.

“Very good idea. We all look hotter than a hooker on a Friday evening in these clothes!” Was Remus’ response. An interesting complement, but a complement nonetheless.

Their judges were clearly happy with the positive reception, Roman hardly able to keep still in his chair and Virgil’s eyeshadow glowing a bright, glittery purple.

“Then let us not waste any more time! Onwards, to the competition!”

Patton let himself relax into a more comfortable standing position, as the category of the first questions were announced.

They would have an absolute blast playing this, he was sure. He just wondered if it would get as chaotic as their previous family times.

———

Everything instantly fell apart.

Well, instantly was a bit of a stretch. Everyone behaved for at least five minutes, usually the game nights spiral downhill as soon as it starts!

Patton just needs to keep looking at the positives. If not, he might literally explode.

“THUMBS both ARE and ARE NOT FINGERS, ROMAN. Some people, especially those in the medical field, do refer to them as such for simplicity's sake, but the truth is that the answer to that question is SUBJECTIVE. They have a DIFFERENT ANATOMY, ROMAN. I DID NOT ANSWER INCORRECTLY.”

“LOGAN THE QUESTION WAS HOW MANY FINGERS MICKEY MOUSE HAS. IT ISN’T THAT COMPLICATED.”

“DEFINE A FINGER FOR ME ROMAN. DEFINE IT. TELL ME WHAT A FINGER IS. IS A THUMB A FINGER TO YOU? IS IT? DOES EVERYONE HERE CONSIDER A THUMB A FINGER?”

Remus raised his hand lazily, pretending to not find this entire situation hilarious. “I don’t think a thumb is a finger. It’s a digit.”

“REMUS STOP SUCKING UP TO LOGAN LIKE THAT FOR MORE POINTS-”

It was honestly sort of amazing that they’d managed to start screaming at each other so quickly. They hadn't even gotten to the actual “debate for points” questions. These were just regular trivia. And yet they somehow managed to start a debate. About fingers.

When Virgil said that they could gain points by “giving a good argument”, Patton didn’t think he considered how far Logan and Janus were willing to go to convince the others that they were correct. Maybe he forgot that one debated for fun and the other liked to pretend to be a lawyer. This was bound to happen eventually.

Although, Patton wasn’t really focusing on that right now, but rather the fact that Janus was trying to change the points on the scoreboard behind them again.

“Jan! Stop that!” He whisper shouted.

“Stop what? I’m not doing anything.” He lied. Like a liar.

“Stop trying to give us points, we’re tied already, it doesn’t matter!”

Indeed, the two teams were tied at 30 points each, after seven questions. So far, they had been pretty simple, and the reason that their team didn’t have more points was because Virgil had randomly decided to subtract five from them, because he “felt like Janus was up to something. Nothing in particular but… something.”

He was right, obviously. Janus was trying to steal the question cards from the host table with one of his spare hands. But Virgil didn’t know that.

“No, you're right. I’m sorry sweetheart. There’s no point in cheating this early in the game, it’ll just make the others suspicious and make it harder to do so later on. I’ll save that one for later” Janus winked.

“That is not what I meant and you know it mister.” Patton crossed his arms, as if that would make Janus take him more seriously.

“Do I?” His mischievous smirk only seemed to grow.

“Yes! You do!”

“Sorry about that darling. I’ll get it eventually, promise.” Even if Patton wasn’t literally face to face with him right now, he would be able to hear the smirk in Janus’ voice.

“That’s-”

“FINE. YOU GUYS CAN GET TWO POINTS. IS THAT OKAY?”

“FINE.”

“FINE.”

Roman threw his hand up and the scoreboard behind them changed to show the numbers 30 - 32.

All four of the other sides just stared at the two of them.

“Okay, Virgil, what’s the next question?”

He looked Roman up and down, squinted, and then looked away.

“Uh… when did snow white come out.”

“Alright. JANUS.” The deceitful side jumped slightly, then turned to Roman, smoothing out his outfit as if it never happened.

“Right. What’s the question?”

“Minus five points for not paying attention.”

“Wha- excuse me?” Janus stared at Virgil in shock. “That’s not fair-”

“Shoulda been listening dude. You keep forgetting that we can do that. Pay attention.” Virgil smirked at Janus’ barely concealed rage. “The question is what year Snow White came out.”

Janus rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. “Pfft, easy. 1957”

Roman stood up quickly, and in a dramatic gesture moved to point at Janus “HAH, WRONG! It was-”

“No, it’s not! It’s totally 1947! Are you just making stuff up to make me lose?”

Roman stared at him, immediately stumped. He spluttered out a “What? No! I promise it’s-”

But Janus was quick, and also an expert gaslighter. “Then did someone change the date on the flash card? Because it was definitely 1937! How could you get such an easy question wrong!?”

Roman’s mouth opened and closed a couple times, as if he was trying to refute the statement but couldn’t find the words.

“When did it come out then?”

Virgil rolled his eyes in response. “1937. Dude you were off by like twenty years.”

“No he wasn’t.” Remus’ voice. Yet again speaking purely to add on to this meaningless argument, adding flame to the fire. “He said 1937.”

Virgil looked at him like he’d grown four heads. “N- dude did you miss that entire conversation? He said 1957.”

“He did also say 1937, though.” Said Logan, as if he was helping them in literally any way. “Are we still counting it if he changes his answer before the actual answer is revealed? His final date was 1937.”

Roman just stood there, trying and failing to process their questions. Virgil answered for him.

“We. We’re not accepting that. Final decision. We’re the hosts here, and he’s not getting any points.” Then he turned to glare at Janus again. “Matter of fact, minus five points for trying to trick us.”

Now it was Janus’ turn to splutter, exclaiming various forms of “what the hell, Virgil?” and “why??? Just why???”

Patton sighed, leaning down to lay his head on his stand.

“Patton! This next question is for you!”

He snapped his head up to look at them, smiling on instinct. “Yeah! I got this!”

“I thought it was one question per team-” Logan tried to interject but Roman steamrolled over him.

“How many years was Genie from Aladdin trapped in the magic lamp?”

“Oh! Uhh… like a hundred thousand years right? It was a really long time!”

Roman looked at his card, then at Virgil. He just shrugged. “Close enough.”

The princely side turned back to Patton, a beaming smile on his face. “Great job popstar, 10 points for you! You’re doing fantastic!”

“Ten poi- he didn’t even get it right?!”

“Shush up Logan, he deserves it. Anyways, Remus!”

Patton found himself smiling as well. The fact that his kiddos would give him points even when he got it wrong, ah he loved them so much!

He looked over to see what Janus thought, only to see him quickly turn away to look at their friends. He caught a glimpse of a smile on his face though, a moment of fondness in his expression.

And then Patton found himself smiling a whole lot more.

It was nice. This was nice. Maybe a little bit chaotic, but when were they not?

Besides, it wasn’t that bad.

———

At some point during the trivia, Virgil and Roman had started to give themselves points. Which was fine, they had mentioned that they would do so at the start after all!

But then they started doing so increasingly often.

Like, every couple minutes often.

For things like how cute the other looked, or how smart they were, or how well they worked together.

And they gave each other a lot of points. Like, hundreds of points. Way too many points, considering the fact that it was over double the amount of points the two teams had combined.

So Remus and Logan, the competitive bastards that they were, of course immediately decided to comment on it and start a debate on whether it was appropriate to give each other points for things like “the color of their eyes” (Roman you can’t give your team points every time you look at Virgil because you think he’s pretty. If we could all do that then what is even the point of the point system in the first place?)

And the hosts immediately took offense, justifying it by saying that they were the ones in charge here, so obviously they got to decide what was and wasn’t a good reason to give someone points.

Which prompted Janus to start another debate about how unjust it was that the two of them were in complete control in this situation even though it was not through democratic election, thus making them the unofficial rulers of a self proclaimed biarchy.

To which they responded that since it’s not a government system, it doesn’t work like that.

And now they were talking about kingdom hierarchy, in the middle of a disney debate.

And yet again, Patton could not find reason to care, because Janus was once again attempting to change the scores in their favor.

“Jay! We said that you couldn’t do this!”

“We said? I think you mean you said, my dear. I never agreed to anything.”

Patton threw his head back tiredly. “Janus, that’s cheating. It’s not fair to the others! We aren’t even winning anything, there’s no need to keep trying to find ways to win!”

“Oh but Patton, I need to do something to assist you! After all, you’ve almost been carrying me this whole game!”

That was true. Virgil and Roman had tried their absolute hardest to find ways to discredit Janus’ every answer, and take away points from him at any chance they got. In direct juxtaposition, they gave Patton as many points as they possibly could, even for completely incorrect answers.

(Patton didn’t really know how to explain that the points didn’t really mean anything to him, and by now was answering wrong just to see how Janus would react when they gave him the points. The fact that they were somehow still above negative points was honestly just a bonus.)

“C’mon sugar, let me do this? Please?”

Well. If Janus was going to play it like that, then Patton was going to have to bring out the big guns as well.

He turned to him, opened his eyes, and gave him is best pouty face.

He saw the exact moment Janus’ face went from “smug flirting” to “oh no he’s cute”.

He had to fight to not blush at the way the snake looked at him.

(Janus couldn’t stop looking at his eyes, his lips, the soft curves of his face as he tried to win him over. Patton looked every bit like the sweetheart Janus kept calling him.)

He sighed, closing his eyes, and pretending that he wasn’t completely melting on the inside. “…I suppose it doesn’t matter that much. If it really upsets you, I’ll stop.”

Patton’s face split and without really thinking about it, he launched himself forwards to crush Janus in a hug.

Arms wrapped around him by instinct (too many arms for a normal person, probably, but Patton had always thought that more arms meant more comfort). He laughed out a small thank you, burying his face into Janus’ suit.

“Yes, yes, I’m amazing, I know. Go back to your stand, you’re making me look soft.”

Patton laughed at the comment, but did indeed stand up and go back to his podium (he didn’t mention the fact that despite the complaints, Janus didn’t try to separate himself from him until Patton did).

The others had been arguing for far too long now anyways.

“I’m just saying, we should definitely have guillotined more rulers! It would have fixed so many problems!”

Wait, what?

“Remus, that would be RIDICULOUS. They didn’t have the concept of free will, or rights back then. They just would have elected another bad ruler!”

“Guys what the hell are we talking about.”

The conversation died instantly. The four of them looked at each other, and then at Janus, and then back at each other.

“I uh… I have no clue.” Was Virgil’s reply.

Which was typical. And also understandable. But maybe not what they should be doing right now.

“…okay. Can we get back to trivia now. That’s… that’s like the only reason we’re here in this stupidly fancy room, still standing up, still killing my legs. Can we wrap this up please.”

Roman snapped into action, getting the cards and moving swiftly on to the next question.

“Right! Yeah! Y'know what, we’re going to do a couple flash rounds. Me and Virge will just call out some questions and whoever answers first and most accurately gets points. Good?”

They nodded.

The game continued.

———

“Order!” Roman called out in the loud room. “Order in the court! This is the FINAL question! Up for debate here my guys, gals and nonbinary pals. Completely subjective, alright?”

Everyone hushed up, ready to answer the final question.

“Who is the best Disney prince?”

“Flynn Rider.” Four voices called out simultaneously.

The hosts paused for a moment, before looking at each other, and then back at their contestants.

“Correct. Five hundred points for everyone. Good game!”

“Well, this was a miserable experience. I despised every part of it.” he smiled at Virgil and Roman, not out of mischief or irritation but of pure, unfiltered care. “Thank you for organizing this. It was wonderful.”

Patton nodded aggressively next to him. “Yeah!! We got super side tracked but by golly was it fun!”

Roman laughed, and Virgil’s eyeshadow seemed to brighten a few shades to match the pink growing on his cheeks.

“Yeah it was… it was fun or whatever.”

“It was enjoyable.” Said Logan from beside them. His voice was low, a little raw from how much yelling he did in the two hours they spent doing the trivia. “Even though it devolved quickly into something that was most definitely not trivia.”

“Maybe next time we should have another group host it.” Remus said. “Y’know, like the winners of this game get to choose a theme for the next time.”

All of them seemed to perk up a little at that idea.

“Who won?” asked Janus.

“Not you guys.” was Virgil’s immediate response.

Janus hissed at him. Virgil hissed back.

“Did we even count the points?” Roman squinted at the board behind them, as if closing his eyes would make the massive numbers on them make more sense.

“I believe you stopped trying to actually calculate it when you started adding thousands onto the board. Much less the millions.

Roman shrugged. “Eh. That’s fair. We don’t really know who won then. Maybe we can hold a vote or something.”

Logan hummed. “That would be appropriate.”

Patton felt a hand rest on his, atop his podium.

He smiled, and closed his eyes.

For a moment there was peace. The group was tired out, energy completely depleted after that rollercoaster of emotions.

“…Maybe Janus should be disqualified though. I would consider changing the question cards and the scoreboards quite an easy disqualifier.”

“He did WHAT.”

———

Maybe it was a little bit mean for Remus to tell Logan that Janus had cheated right at the end there. Everyone was tired after all, so there was no point in wasting any of their remaining energy on questioning how he did it.

But Remus was petty.

And Janus did try to mess with his score.

All is fair in love and war.

Besides, who would he even be if he didn’t try to cause a little chaos right at the end?

He looked over at the other sides from his spot in between his and Logan’s podiums, bent in a position that would probably be impossible, if he weren’t an imaginary person who could make his spine disappear if he wanted to.

Janus was trying to justify himself to a group of three angry light sides, although it was clear that most of that effort went into trying to explain his methods to Patton. Said moral side was making an attempt to scold him that would probably be more effective if he looked in any way mad, and not just like his kitty had clawed up his favorite couch cushion. Roman and Virgil were leaning together in their seats, heads leaning on each other and holding hands.

He turned to look at his teammate. Logan stood resting his elbows on the podium in a rare moment of relaxation. He was observing the “fight” just as Remus was before, but usual cold expression was replaced with a soft, happy smile.

Something about it made Remus’ heart squish strangely. Maybe he was having heart palpitations.

He untangled himself enough to poke Logan's leg with his foot.

“Psst.”

Logan turned to look down. The fondness remained on his face, albeit with a little bit of added confusion.

He looked really hot from down here, damn.

“What is it you need, Remus?”

“If you could see any marvel scene in real life right now, to study, what scene would it be.”

Logan furrowed his brow and tilted his head. “…Comic book or movie scene?”

Remus shimmied, moving around so that he could stand up.

“Either.”

Logan took a moment to think, looking away from him in concentration. “Hm… there’s a fascinating scene in the marvel comics where the Scarlet Witch removes the abilities of all mutants from planet earth, almost by accident, because she doesn’t want them and the humans to keep fighting. Although, I suppose that’s not exactly a visitable scene, since her powers are never really thought to be observable in that sense.” He looked at Remus again, who was now standing up. “I would want to see what Tony Stark’s lab looks like. I know most of the science there isn’t real by any means, but it would still be fascinating to see how he would theoretically create his suits and weaponry.”

That sounded really smart. And complicated. And like it would take a lot of effort.

Remus reached out and grabbed him by the hand.

And suddenly, they weren’t in Logan’s dreamscape anymore, but Remus’.

Although it didn’t look like what his dreamscape usually looked like.

There were tables and tables of tech all around them. Holograms and metal scraps and projects were laid out that looked incredibly similar to the ones in the original Marvel movies. There were some odd choices of weapons, for sure, some of them seemingly old fashioned and not at all what would actually be in Ironman’s lab.

It didn’t matter.

And it didn’t matter how much energy it took Remus to make the room. Or how much his head hurt trying to remember basic mechanics so that he could make anything here believable.

None of it mattered.

It was all worth it, for the way Logan screamed in happiness.

#sanders sides #sanders sides disney trivia saga #mociet #prinxiety #intrulogical #patton sanders #remus sanders #janus sanders #logan sanders #virgil sanders #roman sanders #shadow writes #fanfic #writing

[appledew]

Andi is all set!

Made for  Blshbker on Twitter!

Andi is made of Minky and custom dyed minky, and a tiny bit of short pile minky. There is a gingham patterned heart and has Birthday cake scented disc inside the plush from everyone’s favorite ursid-construction company! :) This plush stand at about 18 inches from the top of the head to the bottoms of the feet, 20 inches including the hair. The spots, feet and hand detailing, and face are appliqued and machine embroidered. The gradient on the base body is dyed on.

Andi is too cute! This little sweetheart took a bit out of me but it was totally worth it! *u *

The gradient on the back was quite a unique experience and more info on the can be found here!: https://ko-fi.com/i/ID1D8C6G7J This is something I plan on working on privately to iron (haha, pun) out some issues. One thing that does look a little obvious is the uneven dye. I’m not sure what exactly when wrong, but I’m assuming it has to do with the distribution of dye. Despite looking a bit uneven, I do really love the results! Especially since I actively avoid doing gradients on teddies. Its not something I’ll offer right away, but there may be changes in the future! :)

The pattern took little to no effort the change! I just elongated the neck a bit and resituated the arm slots! One things that didn’t pan out the way I wanted to was the hands. I was aiming to make them a little more tub like with the hooves coming in at a SLIGHT angle, but they came out a bit flat. :( They’re still pretty cute, and get the point across but I wish they would have been a bit different.

The embroidery was nothing too special, aside from a bit tedious! The embroidery took about 2 days of work, not to mention the time it took to make the files, but it was worth it! Unfortunately I skipped out on adding the cute little gradients on the spot since I couldn’t get proper color matches and transitions going. One small thing I wish I could have done was add, the blue-grey color transition to the back of Andi (the grey blue spots on the shoulder). Unfortunately I couldn’t figure out how to do it without absolutely eliminating a row of colors. and having to change the big warm purple spot to something else. Perhaps I was just over thinking it. ^^;

Moving on.. I did struggle a tiny bit color matching in general; the biggest culprits were the hooves and the green with the blue-ish tint color. I couldn’t get a neon-ee color dyed, specifically for the feet, as tempting as it was to look at overseas vendors of minky (not custom, just more options), I couldn’t justify the price and protentional months wait time. In the end, I like to believe that I made some at least... good choices for the colors. Oh! Back to the body! There was a slight oopsy when dyeing the gradient! some of the orange dye soaked into the yellow and stained it to be a yellow with a veeeeery slight orange tint. To be honest I rolled with it! I hoped that the other colors would balance it out, and it seems to have worked! In general, this little sweetheart came out warmer in color.

Aside from all that, Andi wasn’t too much trouble! There were some small hurdles that needed to be figured out, and I hope i jumped them all correctly! ^u ^

I’ve mentioned this once or twice, I’m absolutely LUCKY to have had a chance to bring Andi to life in teddy form and hope I did her justice! Qu Q My work space now smells like birthday cake, and I’m NOT complaining; she smells so good! <3

________

More intimate WIPs can be found on my Ko-fi!  :)  https://ko-fi.com/appledew

Twitter: https://twitter.com/AppleDew_

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/apple.dew

Tumblr: http://appledew.tumblr.com/

Furaffinity: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/appledew

deviantArt: https://www.deviantart.com/appledew

[taibu]

Amethyst

Hoo boy here we go, so...

First of all, big fan of the comic! Second, I decided to use the I Hope So patented bases since I'm not that good at drawing lions yet (plus I'm busy w/ my own comics atm and using bases saves me SO much time), but since using bases was deemed ok by the rules, I think it'll be fine haha.

Heres the link for the bases in case you need them as well:

As for the character...

Amethyst is meant to be a Thundering Mountain lioness, as seen with her name and darker colors (I noticed quite a lot of TM lions have very dark coats, and as I love dark colored lions, I had to make one myself. Plus I love gems XD), but of course the authors can use her wherever they wish, if at all! I also added teen and cub-versions in case there is a need for younger cameos.

I based the colors of the design from Storm's color-palette, as she is my favourite character so far. Being a fan of Vitani, I gave her hair-tuft on her head, though messier and crazier than Adamant's. I also gave her gradient on her paws and tail, similar to what Obsidian has. The scars are a bit light in color in this, mostly so they can be seen better as a reference. The over-the-head-scar is the only one she has on her teen-reference as she got that when she was a young teen. Of course I wanted to give her a bit of a personal-flare as well so that she just doesnt look exactly like Storm, so she has fluffy cheeks and some longer fur on her back-legs.

And now for details that are not integral to being a background-cameo XD

- Uses she/her pronounces

- Asexual, but not Aromantic.

- Anxiety and panic-attacks 24/7 especially in social situations

- messy af hair, hates it when her mom tries to groom it

- artistic and likes to draw on the sand and sing when no-one hears

- may be anxious when talking to people, but if the pride needs to be protected, she will fight bravely. Biting is easier than keeping up a conversation after all -3-

- doesn't want cubs and finds them annoying af. Would literally jump down the mountain rather than babysit

- got her scar from a falling rock when exploring the caves.

- collects gems and other pretty stones. Hoards them in her corner of the den.

- has a younger sibling who is the only cub she tolerates. I might design her later too, and submit her since everyone was allowed up to 2 submissions.

Aaand thats Amethyst lol. She is pretty much a I Hope So-sona since we have so much in common lol

Anyway, I wish everyone who joins this contest good luck!

#ihopesocontest #i hope so #lion #lionsona #ihopesosona

[lindwyrmrelinquished]

So....what are some of your headcanons for Ranbutler?

OHHHHHHHHHH BUDDY, YOU ARE OPENING YOURSELF TO A WHOLE NEW CAN'O'BEANS HERE

OKAY SO FIRST OF ALL-

(everything else under the cut because there is a L O T )

Butler's human form is predominant(which unfortunately means he does not have a tail :(), but he can make Ender noises/speak Galactic. He's got a bunch of stims and tics, and making the Ender noises is one of them! He often makes them to fill the silence, or in times of high emotion(positive or negative. just imagine a Butler bouncing on his toes while excited Ender chirps keep coming out of his mouth, or he's rambling about something and half of it is layered with Galactic). Following from that, Butler has something that Billiam calls the "monochrome form". If he's under high levels of stress, whatever dark tint of color is in his right side will start spiking into the left side, making his skin darker(and, if he has enough color in his skin from NOT FUCKING OVERWORKING HIMSELF, it can get dark enough to blend into shadows) and spreading from the little black scales on his neck and cheeks and hands(which are already claws, that's why he wears gloves), and if he's really stressed/pissed, little horns are gonna start poking out of his skull and he's gonna be completely gray/black, his teeth are already deadly but they're gonna get sharper and if you look him in the eyes he will s c r e a m and very likely tear you apart if Billiam isn't there to hold him back/calm him down.

Speaking of! Butler very much dislikes eye contact. It makes them extremely uncomfortable and the Ender part is gonna start screaming to attack attack attack and the pupil-slit thing is gonna happen. Unfortunately, he's frozen by the eye contact and cannot move of his own free will, it's all going to be instinct to either get away or attack, if he moves at all. And the moment the eye contact is broken, he starts to calm down and all the screaming in his head starts to dissipate, so he doesn't really get the chance to consciously act on the Ender side's instinct.

NEXT OF ALL, throwing canon out the window and saying BILLIAM AND BUTLER ARE FOUND-FAMILY. The way they acted in the episode is just that, an act. In reality, they actually Care each other Very Very Much and have adopted each other into their respective hybrid groups(i.e Endermen have their hauntings, Piglins have their sounders{that part's not canon to mc but i yoinked it from a fic}). Hubert jokes about how Billiam accidentally adopted Bu as his son, but both Bu and Bi deny this. Hubert also got Liaria and James in on the joke and now these two are being constantly triple-teamed.

ON THAT NOTE Liaria and James know about the Egg. It happened at the tail end of Bu's first masquerade when they started accusing Billiam of committing all the murders, and Bu kind of panicked and outed himself as the killer, he pulled out the knife and everything. Billiam admitted that he knew about this, and showed them the Egg as explanation. Now Liaria and James willingly give up their bought lives to the Egg on the regular(we might get into the lives thing later{it was also something i yoinked from a fic, and then I gave it more explanation}) to keep Billiam and his family alive, but they're not all that affected by it due to not even being near it half the time.

AND ON THAT NOTE, let's talk about Butler's relationship with the Egg! Bad. It's bad. Absolutely terrible, the two despise each other immensely. I like to say they're the closest thing to caliginous that a teenaged hybrid that lived off spite and an ancient crimson demon can be. The Egg's hurt Bu a lot, and honestly that's part of the reason his contempt and fear for it is so high. But that's also part of the reason why Billiam was pulled out of its influence despite living right above it. Because he cares for Bu, a literal child that's suffered severe mental and physical trauma at the hands(well, vines) of the Egg. Honestly? Billiam wouldn't be the way he is now if he didn't have to take trips to the Nether. Short explanation, too much time away from their home realm gets hybrids really really sick. So, about a few months or so after Bu arrived, he had to yeet back there for a week and just told Butler and Hubert to take care of the mansion. And you know what Hubert did, that bitch? He took advantage of both Billiam's absence and Butler's skill and pampered himself while throwing the entire load onto the child. And then like halfway through the week, he got the idea to introduce said child to the Egg, who before then has had no idea it ever existed aside from the crimson red aura around the mansion(it's a whole thing about Endermen and magic but again, another thing I might get into later). He hadn't even attended a party before then. So, yeah, Hubert just left him down in one of the old cells for three days. Didn't even check on him, that bitch. And then when Billiam game back, suffice to say he was PISSED. He may be a rich bastard who causes murders biweekly, but even he has standards, and hurting a damn 7-8 year old child that bad was not one of them. he can't be held responsible for child labor, bu followed him home by his own choice. again, another whole backstory thing

Bu's genderfluid! He usually switches between he/him and they/them, and the direction he nods is a little indicator of which one(up for gender, down for no), but sometimes he uses she/her. Adding on that, due to Weird Enderman Genetics, he can manipulate his hair to grow real fast and likes to experiment with it in the mornings for Maximum Gender Euphoria This means that one day his hair could be barely touching his neck, and the next it's all the way down to his waist. It's a fun little anomaly and sometimes Billiam likes to play with it when it gets longer :3 travelling on the lgbt train, Bu is also ace/aro! This doesn't have much impact story-wise(usually), but it's just a fun little tidbit :3 On other, more Ender notes, he has pretty much all the traits an Enderman does, even if he looks fully human aside from being 6 inches taller than Sir Billiam himself. With the eye-contact thing, I've got a headcanon that Endermen can kind of read minds to an extent if they look into another entity's eyes, but it gets loud and borderline painful if anything but another Enderman does the same. Meanwhile, Bu's about the perfect mix of an Enderman and a Human(later called Players and Villagers depending on their capabilities) to be able to take at least a few seconds of eye contact. He can also teleport! To about the same extent as Endermen, if not a little less. Unfortunately, spending too much time in the void between teleportations(i.e a few hours for him, though an hour in the void is a minute in reality. It's why teleporting happens in the blink of an eye to anyone but the user) has some adverse effects. Bu's either glitched, gotten some sort of void-sickness like a flu but worse, and/or lost large chunks of memory each of the separate times he stuck himself in there for too long. Pure-blooded Endermen have a longer tolerance, but even they can succumb to the void with enough time.

Bu's also hurt by water, and the first time Billiam really figured this out is when he dragged him to the roof because it was raining and for some reason, Bi really likes the rain. Bu, on the other hand, was hospitalized for a day once Billiam actually realized, "oh, he's burning" Unfortunately, Bu can still produce tears, so he's got some scars on his cheeks and hands from those, Luckily, though! Billiam got him some gloves and a facemask reminiscent of cc!Ranboo to hide those scars because bu's. really self-conscious about them :,D

But also he's got TOE BEANS,

[ahem] So Endermen are basically giant block-holding teleporting cats and no one can convince me very much otherwise. So on the one hand, they have giant hands shaped for holding blocks. On the other hand, T O E B E A N S

So Bu's got beans on the pads of his fingers and feet(which also end in claws with a black gradient because Peak Character Design <3). Billiam likes to hold his hands on the rare occasion he doesn't wear his gloves because mans likes to stim with those toe beans. Meanwhile Billiam himself has nicely-textured hands because of his Piglin hooves and Bu also likes to stim with them, so just. them holding each others hands for mutual stimmage

[ahem] anyway

Bu stims!! He flaps his hands and does thing really rapidly and harshly when he's really high-strung, which doesn't happen often, at least in front of people. Boy's got anxiety so he's had his fair share of panic attacks :,D he just knows how to disguise them so people don't see, but Billiam knows the signs at this point. But he also has a lot of vocal stims/tics, mainly lots of Enderman noises, some popping and a little screechy thing here and there. Sometimes he picks up a sound and then repeats it a whole bunch because it feels nice on the tongue :] there's also these poofs of particles that happen when he's happy, they look like mini purple fireworks and they're like an expulsion of magic, he can feel when they happen and it feels nice :]

(cw for self-harm in this paragraph and the followed copy-pasted convo)

[ahemhemhem] So y'know how Butler's an Ender-hybrid? His hands and feet reflect that(along with the ears, the eyes, the height, the abilities, but we're talking about about the hands here). Part of why he keeps those gloves on almost 24/7 is to dull his claws, which are not so much an intentional danger to others rather than an unintentional danger to himself. He's got tics and stims and is very neurodivergent and has anxiety(me projecting? noooo /hj), so he gets very nervous very easily. And one of his nervous habits rather than wringing his hands, fidgeting, and (if really bad)a heightened amount of tics, he tends to scratch at his arms. His claws can tear through the fabric easily, and more than one or two suits have been sent back to the tailors for repairs to the sleeves. However, having both padded sleeves and padded gloves nullifies that, so he always wears them special-made. If he didn't have that habit, he likely wouldn't have the gloves on as often as he does.

Friend Hey good headcanons 👀👀👀👀👀👀👀 Also ohhhh my god Billiam fussing over him and his gloves until he gets them to be the right amount of padded where Bu can still do things but also not hurt himself

Me gbfhdgbhgsfhbgsfdhdf He keeps examining them every time the tailors try but it doesn't feel right until That Specific Try so he just plops the gloves back on the counter and says "Do it again"

Friend They spend an entire day doing nothing but making gloves while Billiam & Hubert take turns watching Butler to make sure he stays safe

Me Absolutely Problem is Butler can feel eyes on him. And eyes make him nervous :,) so when he gets nervous. he starts to scratch at his arms again and anxiety is too much for him to ask them to stop watching him

Friend It ends up with them just having to hold his hands, looking at random things (they can go sit on the balcony or something so they have something pretty to look at)

Me That hold on actually that's adorable-

Friend Fhhdjdjdjsjsj they're friends your honor

Me Absolutely Even Hubert contributes to keeping him safe. And Hubert's afraid of even being near Butler

Friend And then we get bonding via the oh no Billiam is busy and Hubert has to take care of Bu for the next 3 hours

Me GHDSFGSHFGS THAT IS A GREAT IDEA Butler insists he can do everything himself, nothing's different about the routine, and then he has a mental breakdown when he tries to make food without anyone else in the kitchen- Cause usually Hubert's there, even if he's making something else. There's at least another presence, and that's the sort of thing that's calming for Bu. But Hubert's off setting up the table for lunch/dinner or something and Butler makes One minor slip-up and spirals from there until he's struggling even handling spice mixing The same thing happened with cookies one time, and both times Hubert found him borderline unable to function because he panicked too much and helped him out of it.

Friend Butler is just curled up in the kitchen, trying to have a quiet panic attack because he can't cause the others any more trouble than he already is, and Hubert is very quietly upset about helping him because he was doing so good at avoiding Bu but here he is again being the only thing that's letting this kid breathe

Me Absolutely

Friend Do you think Bu passes out on him? Like Hubert (probably reluctantly) gives Butler a hug cause those help, and Bu was just supposed to stay there until he felt better, but panic attacks are exhausting and he fell asleep at some point-

Me Oh my gods he would though, especially with the amount of sleep he gets He'd have to try so hard to even stay conscious, much less do things in the manner he usually does, and Hubert just quietly tells him that it's okay to sleep; he'll take care of everything. Hu never forgets that of course Bu's always in danger around him - he has fleeting thoughts and quite often knows how to act on them - but he stands up holding an exhausted child and takes him to his room so he can rest. Butler may want him to stay; Endermen usually want someone around when sleeping. It's the security of having someone watch for nightmares, but Hubert doesn't stay. He has to go back to the kitchen and finish that meal Bu was making. But if he's still asleep by the time Hu's done with everything, he might linger outside his door, listening in for anything bad.

(Okay the cw is over now, you may now go back to your regularly scheduled content :,D)

Also, one last thing: Billiam gives Butler a bunch of gold things(including the masquerade mask) because that's what Piglins do with their sounders, they cover them in gold to show they care. And after Bu finding out the reason why Billiam's been handing off a bunch of gold things to him he does not cry, because that would hurt his face, but he does feel quite a lot of things that make him want to because holy shit Billiam feels the same

Butler is Billiam's sounder and Billiam is Butler's haunting, they are family your honor

#mod note #mod post #ask #anon #tftsmp billiam #tftsmp butler #tftsmp hubert #this is a. R E A L L Y . long post #THANK GOD FOR POST CUTS HUH #good god there is SO MUCH content in here #i just copy-pasted all my rambles from my dms- #my friends must suffer and now you will too <3

[alaraxia]

Process Breakdown: Starfall

Since I got some positive responses to my question on process stuff I’m gonna do a behind the scenes breakdown for my most recent piece to help people see the process I use and how I problem solve. I didn’t plan to do this initially so I won’t have a ton of process shots but I did save a handful. There’s a few scattered hyperlinks to other pieces I reference too. Just a warning this is mostly train of thought so it’s super verbose.  

So base sketches were mostly focused around me defining the shape of the girl since she was the focal point and building the environment around her. Going in the things I knew I wanted were a girl precariously balanced on top of a massive capybara catching a falling star, while surrounded by smaller sleeping capybaras on rocks. I layered out a general forest scene surrounding it but didn’t really commit to much in the sketches. Messed with the angles of the large capybara a few times to make it feel less flat and more 3D in the space, used a lot of reference photos of capybaras and sorta simplified them to what I thought was cute/ what stood out to me as their defining features.

Skipping ahead a solid amount is midway through the initial lineart, with some areas just colored in to define them as separate. Initially this piece was supposed to be in a similar style as my “Stratosphere Dreaming” art, with a single uniform line thickness, bright colors, and no gradient shading at all, but I realized pretty soon after I finished the lineart and started coloring that I had done what I tend to do a lot and made it too complex to pull off successfully in that style so I had to pivot to using gradient shading and other non-cell style techniques (though you can see a lot of those methods still in the coloring of the girl). This caused an even bigger challenge as I was drawing on a large canvas with high DPI in Procreate which resulted in me having a cumulative 50 layers to work with at any given time (hell).

Now once I made that rendering style pivot is when the really hard part began, and why on top of my persistent arm injuries this took me about two months to finally finish.

1.) I had an extremely difficult time trying to figure out the color pallet for the piece. I had an idea of the values and general colors I wanted (you can see some pallets and random base color tests in the image above) but I just couldn’t get them to look right and I became extremely more aggravated as I kept trying new and different things. My biggest mental block was feeling like I was stuck trying to make the initial pallet idea work, but eventually I was able to bump it to a slightly adjacent pallet and it worked far better. Essentially a lot of angry experimenting and testing.

2.) I made the piece too complex for its own good when it came to the foliage and scene. After finding success with a very specific way to render foliage in one of my favorite pieces I started to use it as my standard, but that standard started to show cracks when I had foliage heavy scenes like in my Hollow Knight piece from last year. The rendering style became insanely too time consuming, and incredibly distracting when used in abundance, taking away from the focal point. I knew this but I still attempted to use the same style to render the foreground foliage MULTIPLE times in increasing states of frustration until I stepped back, evaluated it wasn’t working, and tested out a very similar style with the same effect but that I could throw together twice as fast without the aggressive distraction and minuscule details that were irrelevant in the scheme of the art. This frustration in the rendering not working was only exacerbated by the color pallet indecision making a lot of the attempts just look bad both color and style wise.

Due to the limited layers I had to finish rendering out the girl very early and merge her together to free up layer space, and couldn’t keep my lineart layers as separate as I would have liked to allow for quick line color swaps. She ended up being a key point in defining the rest of the color pallet of the piece. The dress shape was indeed inspired by the Lirika Matoshi strawberry dress, but with my own twist.  

Once I got a more solid color pallet down the rest started to come a lot easier and I was able to begin filling stuff in and doing general color adjustments to make the backgrounds darker and give it more depth. I don’t have any more process shots beyond the initial color pallet exploration unfortunately, but the last hurdle I hit was at the very end once I was doing final touch ups. I found that with the only light source/ lighter color being the falling star that it washed out a lot of the rest of the pieces and made the details I spend so much time on feel unnoticed. I found though that adding the bright orange stardust specks into the trees, the girls hair, and falling from the star itself gave the last bit of color I think it needed without completely destroying the atmosphere. Originally (you may see it in some of the process shots) there were going to be jars with stars already in them illuminating the bottom of the piece, but after multiple trial and error iterations it just didn’t work out and ended up taking the focal point away from the girl and the star too much so I scrapped it.

Finally once I got everything done I made a copy of the entire art file to save as a backup, then with one of the copies merged all the layers together. Once all merged I made a copy of the fully merged layer, and went and adjusted the entire layer copy using a Gaussian Blur, reduced the opacity of the blurred layer to a super low percent, and put it on top of the original merged layer. This gave it that ethereal sort of feel that is difficult to notice unless you zoom in but really helps soften the piece and make it more dreamlike overall. Then I merged that blur layer down, and turned on about a 3% noise layer on it all to give it a bit of texture.

But that’s enough rambling from me, hope this helps give a bit of background to my process and decision making and it wasn’t just a wall of random musings. 

My last piece of advice is if you’re looking to do art professionally, do commissions, or make a lot of pieces in a short period of time I would highly advise against directly copying techniques I use. Because while I’m always working to improve I do only do this as a hobby rn so I have the luxury of being able to invest a lot of time, energy, and details into higher complexity pieces that would take way too long in a professional environment. I can put a lot of time into making a single piece exactly as I want it since I’m not reliant on art as my sole income. As I improve I can make things faster, but it’s still an overall slow process and I just end up moving my quality standards up with any level of improvement anyway. Use stuff I do as inspiration but I cannot stress enough to learn as many shortcuts as possible (I’m still struggling with this myself).

If y’all have any questions about bits feel free to dm, if I do something like this again I’ll try to get better screenshots during the process n try to be less verbose.

#tutorial #behind the scenes #alaraxia process #process breakdown #starfall

[badjonesrising]

Work in Progress: Rainbow Plein Air Painting

It's raining cats, dogs, and chickens here in MD. In fact, I think it’s been raining for a straight four days, but I’ve lost count tbh. That horrible hurricane hit down South and now the storm is coming up the to the Northeast. I feel for all those people down there because if it rains here for more than 8 hours we are a hot mess- so I can only imagine. It has been so gloomy! And Halloween last night was just so cold and wet! I didn’t leave the house honey child! I had Chinese food, watched scary movies, and went to bed early. I woke up feelin’ good and super productive. I even set time aside to publish this blog post! I worked out and even made some art— new things coming to the shop next week!

I was trying to think of something positive to write and I do have lots of little things to be grateful for, but I will just stick to the art for now. We have had many great big sunny days in October and I have been lucky enough to catch most of them! At the beginning of the month, I decided to not waste my time indoors, thinking of what to draw and just went outside and painted my poor little heart out. The first big batch of fun were these old paintings from last year. I started them in the summertime and never did finish them before going off to NYC. There were in a great state, but of course after a year, my mind and feelings have changed. I am never afraid to paint over something, cut anything up, or destroy old art to make new. I used some of my power box paint (which has served me multiple times this Fall and I am so glad! Such a good investment) to just cover some boring parts of these not-so-exciting pieces. I usually like to add huge brushstrokes and swatches of paint once the first layers are dry, but there's something about exterior paint melting together into perfect gradients. The viscosity of the paint is different and gives the strokes a different kind of depth and texture that you can't get with usual acrylic. I also busted out some of Ben's old spray paint ( I never know how old or new some of these supplies are because we save ALL art supplies, no matter what) and I was pleasantly surprised to find some great, intense colors! I went with my favorites primary colors and did some light drips and splatters. In the end, I was so happy with the added stencil layers and white paint accents. Made me jot down new colors to buy!

I haven't touched these pieces since that day. They have made their way from floor, to table, to easel and back again, but I haven't figured out where I want to take them. It's nice to just have some nice abstracts and some good potential backgrounds waiting for me. I find joy and comfort (big word for me) in knowing I have unfinished work that I WANT to finish at some point, but there is no rush to do so.

Hoping this blog post brings some cheer, and please go over to instagram and say hi! I am posting there in my stories when possible and there are some big, fun projects posted that you may have missed. Hope you are well and staying creative. Goodnight!

#badjonesrising #art #mixed media #collage #artists on tumblr #studio #handmade #spray paint #paintings #abstract art #abstract #plein air #rainbow colors #rainbow #new work #work in progress #wip

[bad-at-bullet-journaling]

Habit Tracking:

So when I first started looking at ideas for pages to use in my bullet journal, I sort of dismissed the idea of a habit tracker. Partly because the idea of “tracking habits” seemed weird and abstract to me in a way that didn’t sound helpful, and partly because of what some of the habit trackers you look up online look like:

[Image Source: @seras.bullet.journal]

[Image Source: @bountifulcolours}

[Image Source: @knitashajanice]

These are all cute, to be sure, but to my probablyADHD brain, they seemed both tedious to set up and not specific enough to actualy be hepful (save the last one, it looks very specific, just tricky/time consuming to draw out).

However, acting like a functional adult human being is hard, and other things I’ve been trying to use to help me remember to do things (dry erase routine list on the fridge, phone alarms, etc.) weren’t very helpful. Then, this habit tracker caught my eye:

[Image Source: @ohayobento]

Yeeesssss. Look at that. So simple, so easy to set up, a crisp, clear visual way to make sure you’re doing the things you need to do. It’s like a sticker chart, but in your bullet journal so you can carry it with you anywhere. What could be better? This month I buckled down to try it, and this is what I’ve got so far:

So as you can see, my tracker is a bit haphazard. I started it on the 12th of this month, so there’s a big blank gap that I made look worse by putting an x there, I drew the lines without any ruler so they’re a bit wobbly, and I think my flair pens are a little two wide tipped to draw the numbers on the dates small enough, but I still really like using it.

Some of the things I track aren’t the things you necessarily see on instagram, but I sincerely do need the reminder to do things like brush my teeth every day and wash my face, and since starting this, I’ve been SO much better at that aspect of self care. Other things I track help me make sure I’m prepared for the next day, got everything I needed to do on THIS day finished, and keep me from neglecting projects that I’ve started (BABJ stands for this blog, Bad at Bullet Journaling, I don’t want to start this and then drop it after only a few days, as I’m known to do sometimes XD) 

Some trackers have more elaborate methods of marking off a day, but I stuck to the simple dots for when I do a task, and an X for when that tast doesn’t get done. My goal is to never have more than one X per day, which hasn’t broken yet, but we’ll see how the rest of the month goes. Every day gets a different color, and while right now I’m just kinda going random, for next month I think I’m gonna go for a rainbow gradient, or maybe shades of purple in the pattern  of the ace flag (any month can be pride month with the right colored pens) ((also I forgot to write “February” anywhere on the spread, so I drew a heart in the blank space next to goals. It counts! XD)). 

One thing I quickly realized this month is that I have even more stuff I want to track that I was concerned about fitting on one page in landscape view, so I drafted out next month’s tracker to take up two pages to give myself more room. This granted me some extra space in the margins, so I also added a goal section so that I would be reminded every day of what I want to work towards in the coming weeks. You can also see I used a ruler for these lines and color coded the habits by category; pink for hygeine, pale purple for other self care, dark purple for planning, and blue for chores. 

I recently Marie Kondo’d my way through all the rooms in our apartment, getting them all truly clean and organized looking at the same time for the first time since we moved in (this past June), and one of the things keeping this spread has been helping me with is keeping the rooms that clean; “clear living room” means put the remotes away in their proper place at the end of the night and take any dishes to the kitchen, “clear office” means putting away my strewn about office and art supplies, work laptop, and anything else I may have put on my desk, as well as, again, taking any dirty dishes away. Doing at least 5 dishes a day helps keep the volume down, plus once I start with the thought of “I’ll do at least five of them” I typically end up doing much more. 

For me, doing these tasks simply because they need doing is not enough motivation, and it can be easy to fall back into having messy rooms, but knowing that if I do them I can put a dot down on my chart, they suddenly become much simpler tasks, because there’s a clear goal and reward in sight. For anyone else who needs that extra bit of external motivation to get tasks done, I highly recommend a method like this. Sometimes I get apathetic towards my daily to do list, but when “complete the daily to do list” is a bullet on the chart, I’m far less likely to put them off for the ever elusive time of “later.” 

If you’re feeling particularly inspired to make a more elaborately designed tracker like the first few pictures from instagram, they definitely lok fun, and they can obviously be customized to track whatever you need. But if you’re like me and want to track several, more specific things in more minute detail, I’d suggest just the simple lines and dots. I’ll let you guys know at the end of the month my ‘stats’ with the tracker, which is honestly just one more thing that will help me stay motivated, but if you guys are doing similar trackers I’d love for you to check in at the end of the month too, we can all be like, accountability partners as it were! What sort of things do you/would you track with a system like this?

#bullet journal #bullet journaling #habit tracker #bad at bullet journling #my bujo #my bullet journal #bujo habit tracker #journal #notebook

[itslizmiller-blog]

How To Recover Your Hair Extensions?

We get that buying hair extensions is a immense deal which is why we're responding one of your most asked questions today... how to recover them. Refreshing your old set of hair extensions will assist to add endurance to your set and exchange the moisture lost to bring them back to life. Our extensions can last whatever from 3 months to a year contingent on how much you wear and heat style them but with this tutorial, you'll be able to make them last much longer.

 Today we're refreshing Christy's 16-18” Deluxe set in the shade Bel-Air which is round 2 years old. It has a lot of item for consumption buildup through the lengths and there's some heat harm from over styling. We're going to show you how to exchange the moisture and repair the hair in 11 easy steps.

 What you will need?

·       A sulphate free shampoo

·       Conditioner

·       Hair mask

·       Silicone Spritz

·       Wide-tooth comb or Tangle Teezer

·       Towel

·       Hair straighteners

 Step One

To start you want to fill a bowl or your sink with hot water and put on a few pumps of a sulphate free shampoo. We're using the Tigi Bed Head Colour Goddess as it is really nutritious and gentle on the hair. Next, you want to ritzy the shampoo into the water until it’s fully mixed.

 Step Two

Once you’re finished, you can then start wash your hair extensions. You’ll need to do this weft by weft while creating sure not to knot the hair in the water. The wash procedure can be a little time taking but doing it weft by weft will assist to get your set spotless without causing any tangles or knots.

 Step Three

Once your set has been shampooed you can then move onto the conditioner. You’ll necessity to fill your basin or bowl with hot water before adding two tablespoons of conditioner. We used the TIGI Bed Head Colour Goddess Conditioner from the same range as the shampoo as it's really nutritious.

 Step Four

Next, you’ll want to supplement a drop of silicone spritz into the water, this is astonishing at stimulating hair extensions and adds loads of dampness and shine. The boiling water will open the cuticles and wash the hair while letting the conditioner and silicone to intensely nourish your set and repair any damage.

 Step Five

You’ll want to place your set into the water using a spoon to make sure it’s fully flooded. You’ll then need to consent it in the water for 10 minutes so that the cuticles can completely open and the conditioner and silicone can sink into the hair.

 Step Six

When the 10 minutes is up you want to prudently take your set out of the water and place your wefts flat onto a towel. You then want to put on a nutritious hair mask to each of the wefts. We used the TIGI Bed Head Colour Goddess Miracle Treatment Mask which syndicates keratin, Provitamin B5 and natural oils. It’s significant that all the products you select are designed to add as much moisture to the hair as possible as it will really assist to recover your old set of hair extensions.  Once you’ve applied the mask to each weft you want to leave this on the hair for 30 minutes.

 Step Seven

Once your mask is completed, you can then wash each weft in cold water to eliminate the conditioner and shampoo. The icy water will assist to close the hair cuticles and cover the moisture from the conditioner, silicone spritz and hair mask that you’ve applied. Gently rinse each weft individually making sure to avoid tangling the hair in the water. Once you’re done you can then lay your weft flat on a towel before moving onto the next one.

   Step Eight

When all your wefts are spotless you’ll want to gently eradicate any knots using a tangle teaser or a wide-tooth comb. You want to start from the ends of the hair and work your way up to evade causing any harm.

 Step Nine

Once the hair is knot free you'll want to put on a spritz of silicone to give the hair an extra boost of moisture before leaving your set to dry immediate.

 Step Ten

In the morning, when your set is wholly waterless you’ll need to prep it with a heat protectant before you can style it. We love the Color Wow Dream Coat for this as it guards from heat and moisture while adding loads of shine.

 Step Eleven

To complete the refreshing process you need to uncurl each of your wefts as it will assit to seal in the silicone spritz and give you a really glossy finish. You're done!

 As you can see the hair looks insanely sleek, vigorous and completely recovered. This rapid tutorial will make such a big alteration and will give your hair extensions a new lease of life so that you can wear them for longer. If you need a more in depth tutorial then be sure to watch our video below.

 ARE HAIR EXTENSIONS EASY TO SEE?

Hair extensions are one of the most valuable style tools today. From average people to celebrities, anybody can use extensions to improvement their look easily and with little to no effort. Whether you are looking for something colorful, length, or some extra volume, extensions are the first place I would propose numerous people start. If you are anxious about selecting colors, my proposal is always to go a bit lighter than darker. Lighter colors are relaxed to blend by far and characteristically extensions are done in an ombre or a gradient which also aids in the natural entrance. But, there is so much more to extensions than just that. Below are some further details answering your burning hair extensions questions.

 IT IS ESSENTIAL TO CHOOSE THE RIGHT HAIR EXTENSIONS FOR YOUR HAIR

The kind of extensions you should get are all reliant on upon the kind of look you are going for. If you want them to look natural, the extensions should blend with your natural hair. Equally, if you want them to be bold, then find the brightest colors you can for that sole pop of color.

 CLIP-INS

If you are going for that normal look, clip ins are the flawless place to start. They are easy to use, take little to no time to style, and can lift your look in so many ways. Though I have heard many people say that clip ins aren’t natural, I would disagree. It is all based on how you “installed” them if you will. The most significant thing is to blend the extensions with the new hair. Starting in pieces (typically extensions come in packs of 8 or 10) and make sure you leave sufficient hair on top of your head to hide any clips. But also another misapprehension is the size of clips. Clips are much lesser and often blend with hair as well - particularly with darker colors.

 PONYTAILS

My first involvement with purchasing any sort of hair extension was a ponytail for a movie house show I was in. It was astonishing. It isn’t just easy to “install” (wraps around small buns or natural hair with a string that is easily hidden) but it also gives volume, length, and an easy style that anybody can do it. For anyone who is worried about not being able to use extensions or a wig, etc should start with the pony and before you know it you have crazy color extensions you are rocking on the regular.

 3 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW BEFORE BUYING EXTENSIONS

Enhance your hair and transform to gorgeous tresses within minutes with Clip-In Extensions. Here is what you need to know in order to find the extensions that are right for you.

 1.       Your desired length -  

It is important to be realistic about the length you want. To achieve the best results, start with your bio hair current length and then figure out how long you want or can go from there. If your hair is little (above the shoulder), you want to make sure you mix your length correctly so don't go too long... particularly if you don't have layers. The blunt cut will show up as a "ledge". We offer schemes with lengths that range from 14”-20.” As long as you have enough hair to hide the top weft, you can wear any length extensions that you wish.  If your hair is shorter you may need more pieces than what is accessible in a single system.

 2.       Understanding the systems

Each clip-in hair extensions set originates in dissimilar piece amounts, bases, and lengths. Measure your hair and the desired volume you'd like to attain with hair extensions. Some persons may be at ease wearing 4 clip-ins and some may be more at ease wearing 8-10 clip-ins at a time. Our systems can range from 1pc, 2pc, 5pc, 8pc and 10pc. The dumpier the hair the more pieces you’ll need for length and the longer the hair the less pieces you’ll need for capacity. The more pieces obtainable in a single system the less amount of hair offered on each weft. The less amounts of pieces offered in a single system the more hair you will have on each weft. So don’t be worried when you find that an 8pc system cost more than a 10 pc system, you now know it is because there is more hair in the 8 pc system. It's all about personal favorite and your desired look!

 3.       How much time you have for your hair?

Heat-friendly artificial or human hair... that is the question. Contingent on how much time you would like to spend styling, you may favor artificial over human hair. Heat-friendly synthetic infrequently needs styled other than to integrate your hair with your extensions. However, this fiber type does not last as long. Human hair is very tough and long lasting but will require heat styling every time you'd like to wear your extensions.

 Some Common Hair Extensions Horror

1.       Traction Alopecia:

This is the most mutual problem caused by weave in extensions. If the weave is too close-fitting, it would tug at the natural hair causing hair loss and bald patches

 2.       Contact Dermatitis:

This is an sensitive reaction caused by glue used for attachment extensions to real hair. Symptoms include itchiness, red rash.

 3.       Headache:

If extensions are involved too close to the scalp then it could cause recurrent headache due to natural hair being pulled too tight.

 4.       Inflammation and irritation of scalp:

Once the extensions become snarled or matted, they get caught in tines while brushing or combing hair resulting in inflammation and irritation.

 Always remember hair extensions manufacturing is unfettered and lacks the standards that apply to hair cutting and coloring industry. Hence, it is in your own attention to do as much research as possible

 What are Colour Hair Extensions?

Colored Hair Extensions are an tremendously popular hair/ fashion addition these days. At some point or the other, you would have also careful using artificial extensions to add bright colors or tourist attractions to your hair. Though no hesitation extensions are an easy and prompt way to add volume or color to your hair, it can harm your hair and scalp if dangerous caution is not trained.

 It is very significant to be completely aware about profits and hazards of any product before you start using it. It is all the more significant when the product narrates to your hair, as hair injury is very problematic and time consuming to repair.

 History of hair extensions

Hair extensions were first used during the Egyptian age by both genders as an decoration. Egyptian men used to shave their scalp but wear wigs as a safeguard from the dissimilar elements, infections, and lice.

 Extensions for women became popular in the early 19th century, when Edwardian women started wearing artificial hair add-ons to create the pompous hairstyles. By the Victorian era, hair extensions were being used lengthily. For most of the 20th and 21st century only rich could afford them.

 Many years later, Asian countries like India and China started commercially meting out and industrial hair extensions. This made hair extensions reasonable and opened the way for selling colored hair extensions and wigs all over the world. The mixing methods have also evolved over this period, where earlier plant raisin was used to stick wigs to the head now there are techniques like fusion, clip-in, clip-on, bond weaving etc.

#hairextensions #ponytailhairextension #clipin

[mysticsparklewings]

Spring Meadow

It feels like it's been ages since I've done a more scenic and spontaneous watercolor piece. And I suppose in some ways it has been, given the last watercolor pieces like this I did made were back in September, and then Inktober happened. Although funny I should mention Inktober, because this painting happens to be for a different kind of monthly challenge. Over on Instagram, a company called Art Philosophy is currently hosting the latest of their monthly challenges, this month's theme being "landscapes." Fortunately for me and my slow-painting self, their challenges are one prompt for every few days, instead of being one prompt every single day. The prompt for the 9th through the 12th is "Spring Meadow." Since my watercolor expertise only goes so far, I had to look around online for quite a while for inspiration, and even then I still did four smaller practice paintings before attempting a final one. Three out of four felt like hot messes to me once they were done, so I stuck to my guns as far as ideas went and tried to replicate the one that wasn't a hot mess for the final. From the beginning, even though the final image wasn't totally clear, I did have a general idea of what I wanted from a "spring meadow." Bright green rolling hills dotted with brightly colored flowers, classic blue sky. Maybe some mountains or trees on the horizon. My smaller experiments did teach me a few things; For one, I needed to do the ground/sprawling meadow part first, then start the sky with a gradient that started darker on the top and then after that dried I could start patchily layering more paint on to imply clouds and texture. And while I waited for the sky to dry, I put in some grass texture with a darker green and a fan brush. Then I added the faint mountains for more visual interest. Admittedly, I should've done the flowers in the grass next, but instead, I did the larger blades of grass that frame the painting along the bottom. Then I did the flowers. Which turned out better than I thought, considering they're just dots/splotches. Although the red looks a lot darker on the scan than it does in person.   After that, it was...fine. Good, even. But...empty. It was missing something. I started by adding in a few far-off birds, but then the balance was off. So I got the wild idea to try adding the silhouette of a plane or jet on the left--without first looking up some kind of reference!   That idea went south fast. I ended up trying to salvage it by making it into a blimp...that looked more like a fish than a blimp...which doesn't even make sense as to why 1. there would be a blimp flying over this meadow and 2. why a blimp would be a dark silhouette...and then I realized the horrible mistake I'd made, and I had to step back from the painting for a little while to figure out how to fix it. Eventually, I decided the best thing to do would be to put some tree leaves/silhouettes in the foreground to try and hide it. And while it may not make logical sense for them to be there and look the way they do, at the very least they did a good job of hiding the plane-blimp-problem. It has its flaws, but as I usually say, I am still pretty happy with how it turned out, given I think there was a little rust on my watercolor gears. The one other issue I had was that the tape I put down on the edges of the paper decided to not want to stick about halfway through the process after I'd taken a break to let the paint dry so everything wouldn't blend together. Because of that, the edges weren't clean in a lot of places and became even more lopsided/crooked/uneven than they already might've been. This is why this is one of few occasions where I've cropped out the white border even though it's present in the final IRL piece; it's irksome to look at the edges.   My goal is to at least try to get something done for the rest of each of this month's prompts, hopefully working off any lingering Inktober momentum, but we'll see. If it becomes too much, I'm not going to beat myself up over having to drop the commitment, y'know? If nothing else, perhaps it'll be an exercise in expanding my watercolors skills. ____ Artwork © me, MysticSparkleWings ____ Where to find me & my artwork: My Website | Commission Info + Prices | Ko-Fi | dA Print Shop | RedBubble |   Twitter | Tumblr | Instagram

#artphilosophynovemberchallenge

[twx-sid3d]

(NOT Reaper) Anne X Lia One Shot!!

I was bored so wrote this lol. Enjoy~!!

It was Mother’s idea to throw a party for her twin children for their sixth birthday. Of course, Father wasn’t happy with it, but there was one fact that he couldn’t deny: it would be a perfect time for his children to meet men and women for them to marry.

It may sound strange for a six year old to start looking for a potential life partner, but it really isn’t that shocking. Leic, my twin brother, and I grow at a far more accelerated rate than human children. We’re the children of a grim reaper and a demon. Father thinks we’ll slow down as we age. Mother hopes he’s right. Then her children will die even quicker than expected, leaving our two immortal parents alone and childless. Father would enjoy that, most likely, but Mother would miss us dearly. She adores us.

As it is my own birthday, I refused to dress as Father wished for me to. Of course he would want me to wear a traditional dress. Of course he would want me to do the things I despise. I hate dresses; they are itchy, uncomfortable, stiff, and so hard to move in. Mother vouched for me to allow me to wear a suit. If I am to marry a man at this party, I want them to realize that their wife does not wear dresses. I don’t want to disappoint. I don’t want to hear their whining.

Mother made me a wonderful suit that fits like a glove. It is without a doubt my favorite. Just feminine enough for Father with a frilly collar and cuffs, but still without a doubt a shirt and pants. I loved it. Mother helped me style my shoulder length hair, telling me stories of the woman I was named after. Father’s aunt, Mother’s friend. She said my hair looked just like hers, but my bangs are like Father’s. And I have Father’s deep blue eyes.

Nobody at the party knew of Leic’s and my own age. They were told the Phantomhive Twins were turning twenty-two. Well... One person knew of our real age. Leic’s and my own only friend, Lia Michaelis.

Lia isn’t a true human either. She’s the daughter of Father’s two previous servants. Kira Black is the magical princess of a world far away from this one, Sebastian Michaelis the ex butler of this manor and a powerful demon—we have a Sebastian at our manor, but he isn’t exactly the real “Sebastian Michaelis”. He is a different demon, one that got stuck in my father’s web and allowed Lia’s father out.

Lia accidentally came to this world a few months ago, and now she comes every once in a while to pay my brother and myself a visit. This is one of those occasions, and so she is currently staying in one of the many vacant rooms of the manor.

Lia is a strange woman. She always wears the cloak her mother made for her as a child, both an invisibility cloak and a safety blanket, that matched her dark purple eyes. She has a dark aura and very dark magic, but a good heart. Her personality is hidden behind her dark outer walls, but I can see it. She’s incredible... And the only person I can talk openly to.

I don’t expect her to attend the party. She despises crowds, so much that she had a small anxiety attack when she met my whole, small family. I don’t want her to come to the party, for I worry she will become anxious once more. I’m more than glad that she came anyway, if only to be with me on my birthday.

Leic too, of course.

Once the sun began to set, the party attendees begin to arrive. Father made me greet them, as the eldest child, with Leic by my side. Once all of the party guests have arrived, I greeted them all and welcomed them to my—our—manor. Sebastian—our Sebastian—then showed them to the ballroom.

Leic looked very nice in his suit. Father made sure to prevent us from wearing clothing too similar. One difference between the two of us was that he’s wearing a tie—red, for Mother wouldn’t let her children go without at least a bit of red—and I’m wearing no such thing. My red hair is enough for mother, and the frilliness of my undershirt is enough for Father.

Walking into the ballroom with so many men and women of my age was uncomfortable. Leic, with our mother’s charm, was laughing and smiling with the women. I envied him, and not only due to how easy this seemed for him. I would much rather be talking to my fellow women than these men. I feel absolutely no attraction to them. But I cannot let Father know this, for he would never approve. Mother, yes—she would be overjoyed if I were to come out to her—but never Father.

Sebastian makes his way to his perch on the musician platform, the only one we have, and begins to play his violin. I wish to dance with Leic, a sweet dance between the two birthday siblings, but I see him already dancing with a blond with fair skin and crystal blue eyes in a white dress. As I watch, spinning the blue diamond Phantomhive ring around my thumb, I feel a tap on my shoulder. I turn my head to see one of the possible “suitors” smiling sheepishly at me. It’s clear he can see my unhappy expression.

“U-Uh, Miss Phantomhive, you look very...beautiful tonight...?” the young man with neat brown hair and matching brown eyes said. It’s clear he’s very confused by my suit, and most likely intimidated by it. Good. One should fear the Queen’s Watchdog. My eyes narrow and I know I look just like my father. I may despise that man, but I cannot deny how alike we are. But our personalities don’t mix well at all, thus our poor relationship.

“Yes, my mother made my attire,” I say, deliberately disregarding his compliment.

“Well, it looks very...stunning,” he said with his sheepish grin. Stunning... Yes. Unnatural. I’m not stupid. I know that he doesn’t approve. But he wants my fortune, so of course he’ll play nice. Trying to play the game. The game my father is a master at, and the one I am slowly excelling at.

When I didn’t respond, he added, “Umm... Would you like to dance?”

Of course I don’t want to dance. Why would I? But I glance over to the other side of the ballroom and see my parents, my mother in her elaborate red dress and styled, long red hair, and my father in his cold and controlling stance with his useless cane out in front of him, both of his hands resting on the jewel at the end of it. He only carries that around for the aesthetic. He doesn’t need a cane. Clearly.

His single eye meets my own, and I know I have no choice but to agree. I look at the man beside me. He seems more boy than man.

I don’t bother smiling. I just nod. “Yes... Of course.” I hold out my arm to him and he gladly accepts it, and then he leads me to the dance floor and we dance.

There is no emotion behind it. Only me wanting to leave. That’s how it is with every dance I do this night, the faces of countless men fading from my mind once our dance has ended. I begin to lose track of what my younger brother is doing, having no time to watch him from how many men want to dance with me.

After an hour, I have to take a breather. Sebastian and Mother taught me to dance at a young age so I am far better off than Father was as a child, but I still dislike the action. I don’t see how Mother and Leic enjoy it...

At the “snack table” as Leic calls it, my deep blue eyes catch onto a shimmering purple gown from across the room. A beautiful, dark purple gown with pieces of shining plastic embodied into it to give the wearer the appearance of a dark, star filled sky with long sleeves, the gown exposing the pale collarbone of the woman who wears it, for the fabric cut across her upper chest and hung around her lower shoulders. No cloak is in sight, only her long, straight, raven black hair down for once and cascading down to her lower back. Her bangs are their strange color, white as snow but slowly gaining the gradient of purple at the roots to light blue at the tips, a phenomenon that happens only as the sun set over the land and darkness filled the landscape. Her dark purple eyes look almost frightful as they dart from person to person as the woman keeps her distance, staying in the dark corner of the room. Why... Why is she here...?? How long has she been at the party? Why haven’t I noticed her alluring presence??

I quickly make my way to my only friend, my quick pace allowing myself to meet her from across the room in only a few minutes. When her purple eyes meet my blue ones, she seems to calm in her contained, emotionless way.

“Lia, what are you doing here..?” I question softly, looking up at the dark young woman. She’s very tall, perhaps 5’10, while I remain an average 5’6.

“....I didn’t want to miss Leic’s and your own party,” she responded in her quiet yet silky tone.

I sigh, looking around at the party goers. “You’re even paler than usual. You despise parties... Why would you even come..?? It’s only harming you...” Another sigh escapes my pink lips—Mother insisted I wore some sort of lipstick, so I chose a skin colored one—and I take her freezing hand into my heated one as I silently pull her through the ballroom. I can feel Father’s eye on me, but I don’t care. I had to get her out of here... I don’t want her to be in mental pain because of me.

I take her out of the ballroom and sigh. She even got so dressed up... She’s beautiful, heart stoppingly so, but I can’t have her getting a panic attack in that party. I take her to the best quiet place I can think of: my study.

I shut the door behind us, the thud interrupting the quiet, as I look at her. I sit on my desk, something Father despises when I do it in his presence, and take her in fully. She’s so amazing, not only her beauty... She looks like the night sky, the beauty of the night, of darkness. As the Aristocrat of Evil, it is incredibly appealing.

But I’m not about to fawn over her when I’m furious like I am.

“What were you thinking?” I demand, my ever constant anger taking the best of me. “You and I both know that you despise parties..!! Why would you put yourself through that? Are you stupid??”

“...What I chose is my decision, not yours,” she says in her calm and contained manner, calming my anger with only a few words. “I knew full well what makes me uncomfortable.... I did it anyway to celebrate the birthday of my friends.”

One thing I have always admired about Lia is how she never ceases to calm my rage, how she always stands up to me and States her mind and why I need to shut up. Mother doesn’t fight me, Leic gets unnerved when I argue with him, and Father fights me to the point where it only angers me anymore, as if he assumes he is always right.

But Lia is different. She pushes against me, yes, but not because she thinks she is always right. She fights me to meet me halfway and calm me, bringing me back down to earth. It never ceases to amaze me how she does this...

“The party is only for me to find a future husband,” I say to her, my tone having drastically calmed to a quiet and more friendly one. I only use this tone to Leic and her... Everyone else, I play the role of Angelina Phantomhive. With her and my twin, I am Anne, their sister and friend. Not below them, not above them. We are equal.

“...There are two people celebrating their birthday today,” she retorts in her quiet and collected voice. She has a strength different from my own. She’s much better at being collected than I. I envy her ability to control her emotions so easily. Father wants me to learn how to do the same, but I just can never seem to keep my emotions in check.

I am quiet for a minute or so. “...do you wish to marry Leic?” I cannot fully hide the worry and pain in my voice.

She doesn’t try to console me. But her gaze does soften just slightly. “I didn’t say that... I came to see my only two friends. That’s all... Not to marry...”

I slip off of the desk and pace over to the bookshelf on the other side of the room, looking at the books. Hide my emotions as much as I can. “...did you speak to him?”

“...Yes.”

“And?”

“We talked of the party... He joked around about the women he had talked to. Still trying to see my smile... He offered to dance with me... I turned him down.”

“You wouldn’t dare dance in front of such a group. You wouldn’t want to have that much attention on yourself.” Why didn’t Leic see that...??

“...yes.”

I look back at her to see her staring at me. Our eyes remained locked, but not in the way Father and I do when we argue. She has said all she wants to. I have so much to say, but am afraid to speak my feelings.

I look back at the shelf and see a small box next to a book. I pick it up and smile gently. A gift from Mother a year ago for my birthday—a music box which played my lullaby as a child. She said that my grandmother gave one to my father, so it only seemed right for her to give one to each of her two children.

“...would you like to dance?” My voice is soft, a mere whisper, but I know she can hear me. “In here. Not out there. Safe in my office, with only the two of us knowing. No one will watch but me.”

I look back at her, my breath stuck in my chest as I awaited her reply.

“....yes. I accept. But I’m very bad at it.”

A soft smile spread across my lips as I walked to her after winding up the music box and setting it on the shelf. One hand laced its fingers around her freezing ones, the other pressed against her back. Her hand laid gently on my shoulder. I watched Leic closely during his dance lessons, so I was just fine with leading despite the height difference.

I looked up into her dark eyes and the music began, a gentle and slow rhythm. Then, we dance. Slowly, carefully, not wanting to rush and preserve the moment. Our steps move as one, our hearts beating in unison.

I am in love with her. I realize this now as we dance around the study, the room seeming to melt away into the night sky to match her aura and dress. I want to marry her... Allow her to work by my side. Work as a team. I want us to be a pair, both of us watchdogs. Her my advisor, me the voice of the two of us. We would be an excellent pair... She completes me, keeps me grounded and reminds me that I am not in a prison of my own making. I am not trapped in my father’s specially made hell.

After all, how can it be hell if this gorgeous, perfect fallen angel is here, dancing with me?

#anne phantomhive #lia michaelis #cute #writing #one shot #black butler #kuroshitsuji #grell sutcliff #ciel phantomhive

[punchmedanny]

How I Make My Edits

because @lesterluminous asked

First off, I have the most convoluted process ever because I use free/cheap apps on my phone for reasons. So, I'm not really the best example to follow, but here you go~~~

These are all the apps I use. The pink I use for almost every edit, the blue I use for color correction, and the purple are my go tos to make pics look cool. Everything else I use less frequently and only if I want a specific look

Here’s what I use each for

8Bit Photo Lab: easily my fave app for glitch effects

Afterlight: the best basic photo editing app I’ve found on android. Good if you’re in a hurry and just want like a filter. I rarely use this because I’m rarely in a hurry

Background Eraser: (from handyCloset Inc.) the best app of its kind I’ve been able to find. Very easy to use, minimal ads, and doesn’t lower the quality of your photo. I use this anytime I want to get rid of the background

Facetune: I mainly use this when I’m having trouble getting the coloring of the pic right in snapseed or if I want to color correct only part of the photo. The makers of this app have another one that is phenomenal called Enlight and it’s my absolute favorite editing app, but it’s not available for android

Glitch!: another cool glitch effect app. It can do some things 8Bit can’t, but it’s more random and I like ~control~ I mainly use it for GIFs

Glitcher: this one is ultra random, so I hardly ever use it. But, it’s good it you want a glitch effect, but don’t want to spend much time on it. Again, I mainly use it for GIFs

Layout: sometimes a bitch just needs a basic collage okay???

Snapseed: the first app I go to when making an edit. A lot of times the lighting in the boys pics isn’t great (especially in ig stories), so I use this to color correct and. It has the ability to edit using curves which is the best thing ever once you get the hang of it. It also has a bunch of features I never use, but they look neat. Also, it’s completely free

Autodesk SketchBook: tbh I never get around to playing with this, but it seems like it’d be good lol

ibisPaint: omg this app is sooo underrated. I use it for almost every edit and I also use it for drawing. It’s intended to be a drawing app and not an editing app, but it has so many features that are FREE. You can make a one time payment that gets rid of ads, allows you more layers than you’ll ever need, and gets you more brushes, but you don’t necessarily need that stuff. I’m honestly so shocked it’s free because it’s so, so good. It also has a monthly subscription with more stuff but I aint got a spare $2.99/month

MediBang Paint: I literally only use this to make gradients. I’m sure it’s perfectly good, but I like ibisPaint so much more lol The only thing ibisPaint can’t do that I wish it could was make gradients haha

GIF Maker: (by GIF Maker & GIF Editor & Video Maker) sometimes I make extremely shitty GIFs that may or may not work on desktop. This is what I use. It’s the least sketchy GIF making app I’ve found, has minimal ads, and plenty of features

Cute CUT: (by MobiVio Solutions) this is the best video editor I’ve found on mobile. I sometimes use it for editing video to turn into gifs and sometimes to work around the dumb way other apps do thing that’s too complicated for a basic overview haha

Glitchee: this app is really not user friendly, but it has some cool glitch effects. Good for GIFs because it allows you to edit/save video and not just pictures

DU Recorder: This is the best screen recorder I’ve found. Very reliable, non-invasive ads, etc. I use it to capture video I want to use for a GIF. I also used it to record my M&G

90s: (by ryzenrise) this has a lot of really cool retro and glitch filters, but it ONLY lets you edit video. I hardly ever use it, but it’s good for GIFs. I’ve also used Cute CUT to make a video file out of a picture as a work around

Easy Poser: for drawing, not edits lol

HUJI: for taking dumb photos, not edits

Kuji Cam:  my fave for making pics ~aesthetic~ It’s free to download, but worth paying the small amount for full features. The filters are so good and I use this very, very frequently. If I’m still having trouble with color correction after Snapseed and Facetune, this is often my saving grace

Pixel Brush: for drawing, not edits

Spark Post: this seems like a cool app if you want to make edits, but would rather have something simple than mess around with a ton of tools. But, the best thing about it is that it has easily searchable free photos! I just use this to find a photo for the background of an edit then save it so I can use it in other apps that I like better lol

My workflow

So, I am not a good person to emulate if you want to make pretty edits. But, I’ve never claimed to be a good example, so I’ll tell you anyway lmao

To begin with, I have a Galaxy Note8. This is important because 1) the screen is huge af so I can actually see what I’m doing and 2) it comes with a pressure sensitive stylus. I literally chose this phone for these reasons. These combine to make my phone pretty similar to a drawing tablet which allows me to be a lot more precise than if I were just using my finger.

I download pics and video directly off Instagram because I want to know I’m getting the best quality possible I use StoriesIG for their stories and  DownloadGram for their pics posted on Instagram (or i download from Twitter if the boys also put it there). I haven’t found a way to download photos from a photo set after the first one besides just screenshotting then cropping them.

From here, I color correct in Snapseed and Facetune, sometimes going back and forth between apps before I get it how I want. Then, I add any filters and/or effects I want. Next, I use Background Eraser to get just the boys. I determine what sort of background I want and I prepare that. I open a new canvas in ibisPaint and add any pics I want. Then, I get all creative combining everything together and making it look pretty instead of just slapped together (unless i want it to just look slapped together for a shitpost or something lol)

As for GIFs, I don't know how people who are actually good at it do it, but I acquire my video, use Cute CUT to up the contrast and saturation and mess with the color a little. Then I chop in into pieces that are about 3 seconds long and save each as its own video. Then, I put those into GIF Maker and maybe mess with the color again in there. Then I save that and pray to the patron saint of editing, Philip Lester, that I got the settings right and my file is small enough to upload. I rarely make GIFs because, using this method, they turn out very, very atrocious :)

And that’s it! 

If anyone is curious about how to do specific things or get certain effects or there’s anything else you want to know, feel free to send me an ask or message and I’d be happy to try my best to help

#tutorial #i guess? haha #not ph*n #punchmedanny

[wallpapernifty]

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[withinthescripts]

Season 2 Cassette 1: Tate Modern (1971)

[tape recorder turns on]

Welcome to the Tate Modern, of the former United Kingdom. I am Fiona Williamson, curator of the Remembrance Wing of this gallery. The Remembrance Wing was created to honor those that lived and died through the Great Reckoning, and the efforts made to ensure the new society is no longer in danger of such violence. We make an effort to host artists in this space whose work, at least in part, looks at our worldwide efforts to achieve and sustain a peaceful and prosperous society.

This year, we have decided to devote the Remembrance Wing to an artist whose work encompasses a wide range of life’s experiences. Looking at the dramatic social shifts taking place around the globe, while also examining the deeply personal realities of day-to-day life, the Tate Modern presents a selection of the work of Claudia Atieno.

As part of our ongoing efforts to promote and develop strong relationships within the artistic community, we put this exhibition together with respected artist Roimata Mangakāhia, who also narrated this audio guide. Mangakāhia spent time interviewing Atieno about her work in general, as well as the pieces included more specifically, and is able to provide invaluable expert opinions, as well as a glimpse behind the curtain of Atieno’s artistic sensibility.

The audio guide begins on the western wall near the entrance and continues through the entire wring. Key works discussed on your cassette tape will be marked with numbered red cards. Each audio description will end with a tone. You may then press pause til you come across the next numbered card. Thank you for your patronage of the Tate Modern.

Roimata Mangakāhia’s narration will begin after you hear the tone.,

[bell chimes]

One. “Still Life with Orchid”.

As I’m sure is true for many of you, my first encounter with Claudia Atieno’s art was with this painting.

I saw it featured in a magazine that had been discarded in a café, and I was immediately struck by the balance of color and light. The brightness of the pink orchid set against the withered darkness of its dying leaves suggests a tight anger, restraint under the illusion of cheer and tranquility.

This work was the first of Claudia’s to gain international attention back in 1962, although she had been well respected among her contemporaries for some years before. It was sold to a private collector for an undisclosed sum, but was willed to the Tate Modern, and has been part of their permanent collection since 1969.

I talked with Atieno about this painting only once, shortly after we met, a little over a year ago. She was, and still is, reluctant to discuss her work. But this, as her first well known work, seemed to fill her with a particular ire. Perhaps she had simply been asked about it too often. She felt it was often misinterpreted, that the decay creeping along the underside of the oranges symbolized the unavoidable presence of death. Not an unexpected interpretation, to be fair, but not what she had seen or planned when she made the painting. Atieno was thinking about the endless cycles all living things traverse, the Mobius strip of existence. The phases we see, and those we never can. To her, the painting was always about what is unknowable, rather than what is unavoidable.

Look closely at the oranges below the flower. What do you see? Is death present and unavoidable? Do colors dictate immutability? Follow the almost winding stem of the orchid. How many strokes are in such a thin stalk? Can wispiness be conflated with predetermination? Do you care?

You might say that what Atieno sees is immaterial. Once art has moved from the shadows of its creator’s studio into the bright uncontrollable world, it belongs as much to those who see it, as it does to the person who made it. For my part, knowing the depth of Claudia’s feeling about this only makes the work more incredible.

My feelings about it did not make any impression on her, of course. I attempted to describe the feeling “Still Life with Orchid” had awoken in me, but I was nervous, struggling to form the right words to perfectly describe the aura I had for this masterpiece. I wanted Claudia Atieno to know that I adored her painting, but also that I was a professional artist myself and that we were peers, that we could be peers, friends even. And in trying to moderate my tone and words, I talked too long. I mistook her intense eye contact for rapt attention, but it was not. In the middle of one of my many sentences, Claudia threw a plate at the wall of the café we were meeting in, and would not consent to any more interviews.

In helping pick up the broken plate, I saw it was hand-painted along the brim with rhinoceroses geometrically interlocked. It broke into three large pieces, and each shard was possibly worth more than I make in a year. I offered to clean up the mess, but the owner of the café asked me to leave.

I cannot blame Claudia for this. Creation is an exhaustive process, and once completed, it is difficult to return to the contemplation of what you have been pulled from. I, too, am reluctant to discuss my own work, but I admit to having been affected by her displeasure. When you have admired someone from afar for so long, when you have felt that the two of you would have a certain affinity if you ever met, it’s upsetting to have your first meetings go poorly.

But while Atiano’s annoyance was extreme, it turned out to be short lived. She invited me back to the café a few days later to finish my interview, and this time I asked beforehand if there were any topics that she did not want to discuss. I was happy to avoid anything that would upset her. After all, I was simply trying to ensure I could provide a comprehensive view on an audio guide about her work. There is no need to be contentious in this kind of setting. She said, “Absolutely not, I will discuss anything you like.” Her tone suggested that nothing had happened on our previous visit.

She was more affectionate the next time I visited, I think, than she had been before I brought up the painting. Emotional storms pass quickly for some people, I suppose.

Look at the billowing drapery behind the flower. Notice the gradient of the shadows in the folds. What do they drapes suggest to you about transience and unexpected connections?

[bell chimes]

Two. “House with Yellow Door”.

I wish I could see this house for myself. It seemed to be so important to Claudia, when we talked about this painting. But of course, the house does not exist anymore. Or if it does, it’s changed beyond recognition.

Once the old idea of family was broken down and rebuilt as this society, there was little need for houses like this. Houses that once would have been described as “a family home”.

The house is, of course, the house Atieno grew up in with her mother and two sisters. While it is a deeply personal picture, it is also Atieno’s first commentary on the changing landscape of our world. She was born in the dying days of the Great Reckoning, before the new society had been built, before its rules had been codified.

Count the windows on the house. How many do you see? There is a correct answer. How many windows do you need on your house? Do you even own a house? How many bedrooms does this house contain? How many parents share a bed? How does the idea of a heteronormative nuclear family make you feel?

Lean in closely, to examine Atieno’s careful brush strokes, along the greyish.. brown.. wooden.. siding. Do you feel safer, having seen this?

Atieno lived in the small home with her biological parent, in a way that once was considered normal, and she never forgot what happened to her before she was ten, the way all children forget nowadays. Our current system of disentangling patriarchy, matriarchy, and tribalism from the key developmental stages of adolescents wasn’t fully in place until Claudia was 13. So she was given a less intent version. She was encouraged to release herself from the ideologies and beliefs of her mother, given coursework and private tutoring on non-violent communal growth through one of the society’s growing network of schools. Claudia was not made to forget, but she was certainly urged away from her familial bonds.

“House with Yellow Door”, therefore, is a comment on what we lost in our efforts to rebuild ourselves, as well as being a simple recollection of one person’s childhood.

[bell chimes] [tape recorder turns off] [ads] [tape recorder turns on]

Three. “The Charcoal Dish”.

As I continued to meet with Atieno, initially simply to prepare for the recordings you are currently listening to, she grew more open. She seemed now to welcome discussions about her work and life, which meant that we also talked a lot about the formation of our new world during the first couple of decades of her life.

As the new society began to take its shape during Atieno’s adolescence, there were rumors of an enormous building being constructed on a human-made island, roughly the size of Malta, to house a secret government center. We know now, of course, that the rumors were untrue. There is no shadow government meeting in a vast campus somewhere in the world, but for a time, it was reported as a sure thing. Although no one could tell you where in the world something like that could even be built.

A decade after the mutual compromise of 1938, which officially ended the Great Reckoning, and well into the existence of the society, long after all the rumors had died down enough to be remembered with ridicule, Atieno began working on a piece that would become the painting you see here, “The Charcoal Dish”.

It’s a large work, physically. The canvas stands a full five feet high. It was a demanding task completed over the course of months. Atieno worked on it every day, all day. [music fades out] It was the most intensive painting schedule she’d ever kept. You can clearly see the vast, low gray building, curving slightly upwards from the ground on which it sits. It is monolithic and impenetrable. And though the trees surrounding it are taller, it seems to dominate and control them. Do you agree? Have I implied that you should agree? Do you have free will?

In the foreground, slightly to the left of the great building, there are people. They are dancing and eating from a feast laid out on a great red and white cloth spread on the ground. It may be difficult for you to see this clearly. This is one of Atieno’s most popular pieces, and if the gallery is busy, you my struggle to get close to the work. But I can assure you, the people are many, and they are happy, and they are free. Based on what you can see, what makes these people so happy? What makes them feel free?

Behind and slightly to the right of the building, notice other figures. They are blurry and hidden, almost in the shadow of the woods surrounding the astonishing structure. It is difficult to determine how many of them there are, or even if they’re fully human. Many people look at the painting and never even see them. [softly] But they are there. Look as neearly as you can. Without crossing the velvet rope. Really lean in there, in spite of the guard’s wary glance. You won’t hurt the art. How many people do you see? Do they look happy or free? What makes something human? Would you ever hurt an artwork, or eye?

“The Charcoal Dish” was generally well received when it was first unveiled, with one exception: Alphra Bond, former art critic for the Western European Times: London Edition, derided it as a cynical and weak attempt at iconoclasm. Bond was sensitive to people like Atieno, who she saw as overly critical of the society. Bond had lost much in the reckoning and interpreted any attempt to undermine this society as a core for continued warfare. Whether because that person was a nihilist, a cultural preservationist, or simply someone who financially benefited from war somehow. Bond believed all artists benefited from war and strife, as it gave them a more interesting story to tell.

“Why can’t a bowl of fruit just be a well painted bowl of fruit?” Bond wrote in an infamous review of artist Vanessa Wind’s 1963 exhibit “Still/Life” at the Manchester Museum. Of course the idea of a person desiring strife and struggle for themselves, or other people, simply so they might have a more interesting subject for their work is abhorrent and simplistic. Life is complex at any time, it does not need the embroidery of mass destruction.

Is an impressively large building a political statement? Look at the possible non-humans in the shadows of the trees in the painting. Can a bowl of fruit be a call for war?

It’s important not to assume from Bond’s interpretation that “The Charcoal Dish” is a political painting, and if it is, that it is a critical one. It can as easily be interpreted as a simple look at humanity, while some aspects of who we are dance in the light, we have secrets hidden. Barely perceived, but not far removed from the surface.

[bell chimes]

Four. “Woman in Bath”.

This exhibition includes the unveiling of Atieno’s newest work, “Woman in Bath” (1971). It is an awkward work for me to talk about, although it may not seem that significant to the naked eye.

It is simple, really, as you can see: the arm trailing to the floor, a pool of water forming below her knuckles along the tile, the dark hair coiled on the woman’s head. She is looking away from us. We can’t see her face.

Look at the side of the woman’s head. Can you make out any features? A jawline, cheekbones, lips, brow? Is the woman beautiful, do you think?

I had expected to meet with Claudia two or three times, over coffee perhaps, or over wine. A few hours on a few separate occasions, a handful of questions asked and answered. That was all that was supposed to happen. After our first meeting, which ended poorly, we met again at the café called (-) [0:22:47] near her home in Cornwall. We talked for a while. Claudia was expansive and communicative, eager to make herself understood and also somehow to understand me. The café closed for the day at 4 pm, and she invited me to continue our interview in her home, to stay for dinner, and if I needed to, to stay until the next morning.

I was unaware, when I agreed, that she does not live in the small village where we had met. Her home is a large, battered house that stands alone on a small island, away out to sea. She had a small motorboat tied to a small jetty, safe enough when you can see well, but ill-advised after dark. I had ended up strangely, unexpectedly staying. I ended up staying for a while. Secluded though her home is, there is often a lot of activity there, people come and go. Artists, writers, those who like being around artists and writers. It is a place I imagine where it’s difficult to ever be uncomfortable, as everyone there is so at ease with themselves and with everyone else.

The house is large and has been much neglected, but Claudia and her friends have successfully patched it up over the months they’ve been there. The one thing they did not have skill among them to handle was the bath, which was a rusted, leaky hulk. In its place, they dragged over a freestanding bath from the mainland. It’s possible the intention was to place it upstairs in the bathroom, but energies deplete quickly sometimes, and the bath only made it as far as the sitting room, where it sits in a corner, mostly covered by a screen.

I did not know at first that Claudia had started to sketch me, as I bathed the first night I was there. Artists do not, as a rule, enjoy being the subject of the scrutiny they deal out to other people. But Claudia is persuasive. So once I discovered she was marking me out to paint in oils, I could hardly refuse to let her. And so here it is.

Look at the painting, make your own judgments. [softly] I cannot say anything else.

[bell chimes]

Five. “Self-Portrait with Cat”.

I did not have opportunity to talk to Atiano much about this work. I could not stay in Cornwall for long, and she seemed reluctant to talk about this. She could not even answer simple questions about it. When I asked her about the cat in the picture, she said simply that she’d never had a cat. I told her I thought she would like one, cats are independent and require little emotional labor, which would suit her, I think. It is presumptuous maybe to claim that you know what a person would like after so short an acquaintance, but sometimes that is just how you feel. I had hoped there would be a kinship between the two of us – or something more. For the years I have followed Claudia’s career, I hoped we could meet, connect, share our works and our lives. I think – I have a feeling – that maybe that hope has been met. Will be met.

There is a spot on that island I found enticing while I was there. A low cliff on the south side of the island that looks out onto the ocean. That looks out into – forever. When the tide is high, it is a perfect spot for diving. [dreamily] You could throw yourself off and pretend you were falling into a world with no other people, and then easily swim to a bay around the corner.

When the tide is out, there would be no hope of diving, the shallow water gives way too quickly to the rocks. But that is when the view becomes interesting. A sand bar appears to the west, rocky and gleaming. [softly] The blue water gives back to cold slate like a slick of oil smeared over paradise. I would like to paint there, I think. Perhaps I will go back, for longer this time. Perhaps I will paint there. Perhaps I will take a cat. I feel like Claudia would like having cat. I feel like – I could belong there.  

[tape recorded turns off]

Within the Wires is written by Jeffrey Cranor and Janina Matthewson and performed by Rima Te Wiata, with original music by Mary Epworth. Find more of Mary’s music at maryepworth.com. This episode also features Mary as the voice of Fiona Williamson.

OK, our time is done. It’s your time now. Time to stop by the museum gift shop, grab yourself a souvenir book of paintings about [lungs in glass jars], pick up a poster featuring [owl genitalia], and buy aa commemorative vase made out of [your college diploma].

#within the wires #season 2 #season 2 tape 1 #tate modern (1971)

[j0sgomez-blog]

Todd Arndt backpacking the Grand Canyon’s Thunder River-Deer Creek Loop.

By Michael Lanza

This is, in a way, a story about addiction. Or a love affair. Or both. Because those are the best metaphors I can come up with for how the Grand Canyon consistently lures me back when I’m thinking about spring and fall hiking and backpacking trips. It is that rare kind of natural environment that exists on a scale of its own, like Alaska or the Himalaya. There’s something soul-stirring and hypnotic about its infinite vistas, the deceptive scale of the canyon walls and stone towers, and the way the foreground and background continually expand and shrink as you ascend and descend elevation gradients of a vertical mile or more—all of which validates enduring the wilting heat and trails that sometimes seem better suited to bighorn sheep than to bipedal primates.

I’m going to show you, in words and photos, why one or more of these Big Ditch backpacking trips deserves top priority as you’re planning for spring or fall trips.

Whenever I’m looking for a long, remote, incredibly beautiful, wilderness backpacking trip in the Southwest, the Grand Canyon seems to consistently emerge on top. Even though it lies a day’s journey from my home, I’ve been there numerous times, including four backpacking trips and long dayhikes in the past three years. And I have plans to return again both next spring and fall. It seems the more I go there, the more I want—or need—to go back, in spite of how hard it is (and maybe that’s one of the reasons I keep going back).

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  David Ports near Skeleton Point on the Grand Canyon’s South Kaibab Trail.

Perhaps John Wesley Powell, who led the first expedition down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon in 1869, put it best when he wrote: “The wonders of the Grand Canyon cannot be adequately represented in symbols of speech nor by speech itself… You cannot see the Grand Canyon in one view, as if it were a changeless spectacle from which a curtain might be lifted, but to see it you have to toil from month to month through its labyrinths.”

Okay, most of us don’t have months free. No worries: Each of the five trips described below can be hiked within a week. Each description has links to full feature stories about those trips at The Big Outside, which include many photos and my expert tips on planning and pulling them off—including how to acquire one of these hard-to-get permits. (Many of those stories require a paid subscription to The Big Outside, which you can get for as little as $5.)

Any of these hikes will thrill and amaze you, I guarantee it—and just may inspire in you an urge to go back again, and again, and, yup, again.

I’d love to hear if you’ve done any of these trips or want to suggest others in the Grand Canyon. Please share your thoughts in the comments section at the bottom of this story.

  Hi, I’m Michael Lanza, creator of The Big Outside, which has made several top outdoors blog lists. Click here to sign up for my FREE email newsletter. Subscribe now to get full access to all of my blog’s stories. Please follow my adventures on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Youtube.

    Hikers on the South Kaibab Trail in the Grand Canyon.

Grand Canyon Rim to Rim

If there’s an archetypal Grand Canyon hike, this baby is it. Crossing the canyon via the North Kaibab Trail combined with either the South Kaibab (one of prettiest of the 20 best national park dayhikes) or the Bright Angel Trail delivers the goods on epic scenery. You get views from both rims all the way down to the Colorado River, the canyon-spanning vistas of the South Kaibab, the Bright Angel’s huge panoramas and desert oases, a walk through the narrow, sheer-walled gorge of lower Bright Angel Creek, waterfalls, and airy sections where the North Kaibab was blasted from cliff faces.

Although most GC trails are quite rugged, these three so-called “corridor” trails, while quite strenuous for their vertical relief, have better footing, more reliable water availability at regular intervals, and much less of the loose terrain, quad-pounding ledge drops, and scary exposure of other canyon footpaths.

  Penny Beach hiking the North Kaibab Trail, Grand Canyon.

A one-way canyon traverse, typically backpacked in three days (in either direction), is 21 miles with 4,780 feet of descent and 5,761 feet of ascent via the South Kaibab and North Kaibab trails, or 23.5 miles with 4,380 feet of descent and 5,761 feet of ascent via the Bright Angel and North Kaibab. Shuttles are available between the rims, and you can also double the trip by backpacking across and back.

Another excellent—and popular—itinerary, especially among first-timers here, is to forego the long ascent to the North Rim, and instead hike 16.5 miles rim to river to rim: down the South Kaibab and up the Bright Angel. Many backpackers take two or three days, with one night at Bright Angel Campground on the Colorado River and a possible second night at Indian Garden Campground along the Bright Angel Trail to break up the long climb back up from the river.

  Do this trip smartly and safely. Get my expert e-guide to backpacking the Grand Canyon rim to rim or my expert e-guide to dayhiking the Grand Canyon rim to rim.

  Penny Beach hiking the upper South Kaibab Trail, Grand Canyon.

A permit for backpacking the corridor trails on any itinerary in spring or fall is one of the hardest backcountry permits to get in the entire National Park System, with upwards of three-quarters of applications denied; apply for one on the first day the park starts accepting applications for your trip dates. Plus, growing numbers of uber-bit hikers and runners knock off a rim-to-rim (r2r) or a complete rim-to-rim-to-rim—across and back—(r2r2r) in a day. Consequently, in peak weather of mid-spring and mid-autumn, don’t expect the solitude you can find on some other canyon backpacking trips.

But if you want to take one of the most unique and spectacular treks in the world, without attempting any of the other significantly harder routes, this is the one.

See my “Photo Gallery: Hiking the Grand Canyon Rim to Rim” and my feature story “A Grand Ambition, or April Fools? Dayhiking the Grand Canyon Rim to Rim to Rim,” and all of my stories about South Rim hikes and Ask Me posts about the Grand Canyon at The Big Outside.

  See my hard-earned advice on scoring a backcountry permit in popular parks like the Grand Canyon in my

“10 Tips For Getting a Hard-to-Get National Park Backcountry Permit.”

  David Ports hiking the Tonto Trail through Monument Creek Canyon, Grand Canyon.

Hermits Rest to Bright Angel

Outside the three corridor trails, the 25-mile hike from Hermits Rest to the Bright Angel Trailhead may be the park’s most popular, for many good reasons. Although it does not go all the way to the Colorado River—unless you take any of a few side trails off this route that descend to the river (each adding several miles round-trip)—this linkup of the Hermit, Tonto, and Bright Angel trails nonetheless offers an experience similar to a rim-to-river-to-rim hike that’s in many ways easier.

The Tonto Trail at Horn Creek in the Grand Canyon.

The rigorous Hermit Trail—the hardest section of this hike—snakes through one of the dramatic tributary canyons of the Colorado River, below colorful, striated cliffs of the canyon’s Supai and Redwall layers. You’ll follow a 13-mile stretch of the Tonto Trail across the gently rolling Tonto Plateau, where prickly-pear cacti and other wildflowers bloom and the views span from the rims to the river. That stretch of the Tonto crosses five major tributary canyons of the Colorado River, including passing directly below the tall, slender rock spire and soaring burgundy cliffs in the canyon of Monument Creek, and the mind-boggling heights and three-dimensionality of the Inferno.

One more advantage of this hike: There are three reliable water sources along or a short distance off this route.

See my story “One Extraordinary Day: A 25-Mile Dayhike in the Grand Canyon” about dayhiking Hermits Rest to Bright Angel Trailhead (a route I’ve also backpacked).

  Want to read any story linked here? Get full access to ALL stories at The Big Outside, plus a FREE e-guide. Subscribe now!

Jeff Wilhelm backpacking the Grand Canyon’s Tonto East Trail.

Grandview Point to South Kaibab

Like Hermits Rest to Bright Angel, the 29-mile hike from Grandview Point to the South Kaibab Trailhead provides backpackers with a full-immersion experience in the Big Ditch without as much elevation gain and loss as going all the way to the Colorado River. (In fact, this trip offers just one optional side hike to the river—down the South Kaibab Trail.)

My son, Nate, backpacking the Grand Canyon’s Tonto East Trail.

Descending the South Kaibab Trail as the light of early morning streams across the Grand Canyon is one of the most sublime hiking experiences in America, if not the world. And the Grandview Trail offers constantly changing perspectives of the canyon spreading out before you. This hike also traverses a long stretch of the scenic Tonto Plateau, with views reaching to the South and North rims and the river, crossing a handful of tributary canyons like Grapevine Creek, which itself is staggeringly deep and broad. All along this route, some of the canyon’s most distinctive formations, like the towering Zoroaster Temple, seem to grow and shrink as you approach and move away from them.

You can combine this hike with the Hermits Rest to Bright Angel hike (above), or partly overlap the two—going from Hermits Rest to South Kaibab or Grandview Point to Bright Angel. There are four water sources along this route, but only one is perennial (Grapevine Creek), so it’s better done in spring, when the other three creeks usually have water.

See my feature story “Dropping Into the Grand Canyon: A Four-Day Hike From Grandview Point to the South Kaibab Trail” at The Big Outside.

  I can help you plan these or any trips you read about at my blog. Find out more here.

  Jeff Wilhelm on the Deer Creek Trail in the Grand Canyon.

Thunder River-Deer Creek Loop

Accessible for shorter spring and fall seasons than most backpacking trips off the South Rim, the remote, 25-mile Thunder River-Deer Creek Loop off the Grand Canyon’s North Rim has become a prized destination for in-the-know backpackers and river-rafting parties taking side hikes, primarily for an unusual abundance of a rare element in the canyon: water.

Deer Creek Falls in the Grand Canyon.

The two fast-moving, perennial creeks and one river (in addition to the Colorado River) that backpackers hike along on this trip pour over some of the Grand Canyon’s prettiest waterfalls, course through spectacular narrows, and nurture oases of trees and vegetation. Your first sighting from above of the Thunder River can seem like a mirage, seeing it burst in a—yes—thunderous waterfall from the face of a cliff.

Although the upper parts of this loop are dry and nearly devoid of shade—they can be brutally hot—the vistas reach to the South Rim and for miles up and down the canyon, revealing its majestic breadth and depth.

This isn’t a trip for beginner backpackers or Grand Canyon first-timers: You’ll descend a vertical mile to the Colorado and climb back up again, on often-rugged trails, in heat that can push the edges of human tolerance. But backpackers ready to rise to the challenge will explore one of the most unique corners of the Grand Canyon.

See my feature story “Backpacking the Grand Canyon’s Thunder River-Deer Creek Loop.”

  Hike all of the “10 Best Backpacking Trips in the Southwest.”

  John Dorn in Elves Chasm on the Grand Canyon’s Royal Arch Loop.

Royal Arch Loop

I’ve saved the hardest hike on this list for last. Experienced, hard-core Grand Canyon backpackers ready to up their game will love the challenge and solitude of the very rugged, 34.5-mile Royal Arch Loop.

More remote and inaccessible than most backpacking trips off the South Rim, this trek from the South Bass Trailhead on the South Rim to the Colorado River and back up features just about every characteristic that makes backpacking in the Grand Canyon unique: sweeping views, intimate side canyons with lush hanging gardens nurtured by a vibrant stream, a high solitude quotient, and one drop-dead gorgeous campsite after another—including one of the best in the entire canyon, below Royal Arch (one of my 25 all-time favorite backcountry campsites).

  Read about how climate change is affecting the Grand Canyon and other parks in my book Before They’re Gone—A Family’s Year-Long Quest to Explore America’s Most Endangered National Parks.

  This hike isn’t for backpackers whose image of their own skills, experience, and nerve doesn’t sync with reality. The park’s website says it is “considered by many to be the most difficult of the established south side hikes” and it “offers about a million ways to get into serious trouble in a remote part of the Grand Canyon”—including very difficult, off-trail scrambling where you may sometimes have to lower backpacks, and one mandatory, 20-foot rappel.

A datura in Royal Arch Canyon in the Grand Canyon.

But if you’re ready for this caliber of adventure, I think you’ll consider it one of your best backpacking trips ever—and certainly one of the premier multi-day adventures in the Grand Canyon.

See my story “Not Quite Impassable: Backpacking the Grand Canyon’s Royal Arch Loop” and all of my stories about Grand Canyon National Park at The Big Outside.

  Tell me what you think.

I spent a lot of time writing this story, so if you enjoyed it, please consider giving it a share using one of the buttons below, and leave a comment or question at the bottom of this story. I’d really appreciate it.

  Get full access to my Yosemite stories and ALL stories at The Big Outside, plus a FREE e-guide. Subscribe now!

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[dawnajaynes32]

If You Really Like What You Create, It Will Sell

Sponsored by Adobe

Becoming a Freelance Stock Contributor

With every other creative career option at her fingertips, versatile Milwaukee-based graphic designer and illustrator Diane Murphy ultimately chose becoming a freelance stock contributor.

With a B.A. in fine arts from Carroll University, a private liberal arts institution in Waukesha, WI, Murphy has been an art teacher, a portrait photographer, a children’s clothing and giftware designer, a muralist, and an all-around freelancer doing logos, print collateral and apparel. She spent thirteen years designing large-scale graphics and signage for a Milwaukee interior design-build company that serves restaurant, educational and retail clients. After breaking out on her own in 2008, she became a self-styled “vector dynamo” who as “TeddyandMia” now makes two-thirds of her income from stock licensing and one-third from freelance design directly for clients, many of whom first saw and bought her work on stock sites. Murphy is one of Adobe Stock’s best-selling vector illustrators, and I was delighted to have this Q&A with her on behalf of HOWdesign.com.

Q: Diane, you’ve done many prestigious projects, including wall graphics for schools and fast-food restaurants, and logos and packaging for clients all around the country. What got you interested in becoming an Adobe Stock contributor?

A: When I worked at the interior design firm, although I love kids and schools, I sometimes got frustrated with the limitations in subject matter, so in the evenings I started illustrating other subjects that interested me. When I felt confident enough, I tried 99designs and had great success with logo design competitions. I then branched out more and applied to stock sites. I only draw what interests me now. Lots of retro themes, logo designs, holidays, font sets, and midcentury style patterns are some of my favs. I quit my full-time job when I felt confident enough I could make a living as a stock artist and freelancer.

Your screen name is TeddyandMia. Some artists want to be off the radar as a stock contributors because it’s a side gig to their full-time employment. I know that’s not your case. But is there a real Teddy and Mia? Do you have a partner?

It’s really just sentimental. And just me. No partner. Teddy and Mia were my Pomeranians’ names. And those names just seemed to fit. My work is lighthearted and all over the place, just like the dogs.

How did you learn what kind of images would be most saleable?

If you follow themes and styles of other contributions that are selling well, it won’t be satisfying. I don’t pay attention to the tab that sorts by “popularity.” I’m not interested in drawing icon sets or landing pages, one after another. And I don’t like flashy, techie gradients. I prefer flat colors, simple textures, and simple compositions. Less is more. If I really like what I create, it will sell.

What percentage of your income comes from stock?

I started in 2008, and now about two-thirds of my income comes from stock. The other income comes from several good, reliable clients. I also have a contract position with another stock company as a vector reviewer; I inspect files for technical and esthetic quality, and send them back if they don’t meet the qualifications so the artists can make corrections and resubmit.

That shows how really good you are. We love your fruit and vegetable backgrounds reminiscent of Herman Miller picnic posters from the ’70s. And your USA state travel posters. And the license plates and psychedelic backgrounds and all your midcentury modern stuff. You are incredibly versatile. Do you recommend that contributors offer a whole range of styles?

Versatility has always been part of my plan, and I definitely recommend it for others. I love trying new styles, and it always keeps it interesting. For example, the travel posters. Growing up, my family took many road trips around the county. I’m very nostalgic and started the poster series as a personal challenge. I’ve sold many extended licenses of those.

Do you also upload to other stock sources, like iStock or Shutterstock? If so, is working with Adobe in any way different or superior?

I upload to the all the major sites and a couple of smaller ones as well. My sales have noticeably increased since the Adobe took over Fotolia. That gives me incentive to keep up on new submissions and continuously offer different and new vectors. With some of the other sites, my sales go up more slowly.

What’s your favorite stock success story? For example, one illustrator made a series of simple borders that have been downloaded more than 10,000 times. Others have gotten large freelance commissions because a buyer loved their style and approach. What have you experienced that’s especially noteworthy?

I recently started working with a Vermont candle company, Aunt Sadies, Inc., that uses my state poster images on their candle canisters. I’m negotiating to create original designs for them in the future. A nonprofit organization liked my ’60s psychedelic-style images, like my Earth Day posters, and I’ve been creating posters and other print materials for them ever since.

Our readers are especially interested in “tips and tricks,” especially for people who’ve never thought about making their work available through stock sites. What do those illustrators need to know? For example, how often do you upload? How many images at a time?

I try to upload 20 to 30 images every month. I work on several ideas at a time. That way, when I’m stuck spinning my wheels on one image, I can put it aside and work on another. After a break, I go back to the first one with a fresh perspective and can move forward. It’s important to avoid frustration—and you have to to have faith in yourself that the answer is within you. Be patient until it comes to you.

How many vectors or illustrations need to be in your library for the effort and the income to pay off?

I started by uploading maybe 20 images, and on the third day online I made $11. I was ecstatic. As time went by I added more and more, and when I got to around 400 I consistently made a few hundred dollars every month. Certainly not enough to live on, but I was still working at the interior design firm and my freelance time was limited (but those few hundred extra bucks bought me a lot of shoes). After I left the firm, I worked hard to double my portfolio, and was making $1,500 to $2,000 every month. Adding more stock sites helped. One thing I know for sure, the more you create and upload, the more money you make.

What makes your illustrations stand out among others with similar subject matter?

I think of my images as tools for designers to use. The license plate set not only contains the complete character set, but several examples that show designers how the set looks in different color combinations. One way to stand out is to create a series of coordinating images that create a unified set, like the fruits and veggies. Often buyers will download the whole set. In the card series with the lightbulb numbers, I include the complete set of numbers along with the card design so buyers can easily use any combination of numbers.

How do you prepare the files so they will be the most user-friendly?

I don’t use a lot of fancy gradients, meshes, and complicated tools and patterns. I try to keep layers simple and organized. Buyers most likely have many different skill levels. I make my images are user-friendly for all levels.

What is your biggest piece of advice for a new contributor?

Set aside regular time to draw and develop images. Don’t try to churn out images for quantity. And don’t follow the herd. The world has enough icon sets. Take time to draw what you’re interested in and you will never be bored. You may not make a million dollars, but developing your artistic talents will eventually bring in enough money, and it’s a fantastic journey. Make sure you list your contact info on your portfolio page so future clients can find you.

We hope to once and for all remove the “stigma” from creating and buying/using stock. We’ve found several interesting advertising and marketing campaigns that use stock backgrounds, infographics and logo elements, but the agencies wouldn’t agree to publicizing them. What are your thoughts on this?

The agencies are not going to say they use stock, even if they do. Imagine what the clients would think! The good thing is that they’re using stock, and let’s hope that in time the stigma will recede. I don’t worry about it. Because of online agencies like Adobe, my images are sold the world over. I think that’s pretty cool. They don’t lead to big national accounts, but they do bring me many reliable clients like the candle company, a big carpet cleaning operation, and my favorite, the International Tea Sippers Society.

Thank you for your candid answers, Diane, and Happy New Year!

If you are interested in bringing your illustrations and vectors to a worldwide audience of buyers, sign up to become an Adobe Stock contributor today – it’s free to sign up! A sweet side gig—or possibly an almost-full-time career like Diane Murphy’s—awaits. Sign up now!

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