#so it's not even like i don't know the material or i don't understand it like it's my own fuckingg fault

[the-delta-quadrant]

a genderqueer musician can literally say "i've been gendering myself as masculine for a year" in french and english-speaking news outlets turn it into "he's been a man for a year" and then the nonbinary wiki uses that article as a source to list this person as a genderqueer man without looking at the actual source material or getting someone who speaks french to look at it. it's really obvious what he said, especially if you know that masculinity does not equal manhood. he never said "man".

this may be hard for english speakers to understand, but in very binary languages, it's not uncommon for nonbinary people to use binary terms and pronouns because everything else is considered socially unacceptable or doesn't even exist. not everyone wants to go through the hassle of explaining neopronouns all the time, so they may just opt for the binary option that hurts the least.

like, my native language is german and while i don't like to, i sometimes refer to myself with masculine terms too because using gender-neutral language is so highly controversial that it might literally be unsafe or at least uncomfortable.

"using masculine terms" and "calling yourself a man" aren't necessarily the same thing either, btw. in german, i'm talking about nouns that describe a person: student. citizen. player. eater. literally everything. in french, adjectives are gendered too. so you basically can't talk about yourself without either gendering yourself as binary or using gender neutral language and risking a very negative reaction. i sometimes talk about myself with masculine terms, but i never call myself a man, a boy or similar.

and the people from the nonbinary people should really understand that if pronouns don't equal gender either.

#genderqueer #nonbinary #exorsexism #this is about christine and the queens btw #nonbinary wiki have done him dirty

[daenysx]

here's a little appreciation post for ewan mitchell because i love him so much

okay so ewan mitchell looks like the babiest babygirl of all time with all his looks, his soft hair, and his big blue eyes -i would willingly drown in them- but then he starts speaking and his voice is so silky smooth with this dangerous tone i can't really explain- it's so deep and so flawless, he could literally bring people on his knees just by using that voice

his face expressions are always so deep!!! i mean the way he widens his eyes, or the way he curves his lips?? and his cheekbones (don't even get me started on them) i feel really happy when i see his face because he always looks so charming and attentive- he's literally so effortlessly cool all the time

-and the way he knows his shit? he is aware of everything about aemond. he just does it so well, talking about aemond with all the knowledge and logical explanations. he makes me feel so safe about it. understanding a complex character like aemond is not easy but listening ewan talking about him, giving us reasons and motivations, it's so amazing (he's so clever it messes with my head)

and um- he's so tall and handsome as hell. you know what that means. boyfriend material.

#ewan mitchell #house of the dragon #aemond targaryen #aemond targaryen thoughts #hotd #aemond one eye #prince aemond #house targaryen #house of the dragon thoughts #team green #ewan mitchell thoughts #hotd aemond #daenysdreams

[writingquestionsanswered]

I think my ego is getting in the way of my writing. It's confusing, because I doubt my ideas and writing, but I still feel competitive in a way. I don't like reading about others' WIPs, I avoid reading the genre I want to write, and I automatically dislike authors who's already published a book similar to any of my WIPs. I quit the ACOTAR series because the themes were too similar, and I'm scared of Priory of the Orange Tree because the worldbuilding has intense good praise. I need an egodeath.

Case of Strong Ego or Low Self-Confidence?

If you're doubting your ideas and writing, I would question whether it's actually your ego getting in the way and maybe not just good old-fashioned low self-confidence. The reason I wonder is because your dislikes and aversions all sound fear-based to me. For example, if your ego were an issue, you probably wouldn't dislike or avoid authors who did something similar... you'd more likely scoff at their relative inferiority and boast that you did it better. You wouldn't be afraid of a book because its world building received good praise... you'd roll your eyes and say you don't know what people are going on about, because your world building is so much better.

Dislike and aversion instead seem to indicate jealousy and self-doubt. The good news, however, is that low self-confidence is actually pretty typical for writers and it's something that gets better with time.

Here are some things I hope will help boost your confidence, or at least give you hope that it will get better:

1 - Writers with big egos probably aren't as great as they think they are. In reality, storytelling is a craft no one can truly master, because reader appetites, story material, and even mechanics to a degree all evolve over time. What makes a good story is also very, very subjective. There are people who consider Jane Austen one of the best writers to ever grace the Earth, and there are people who think she's one of the worst. I think truly good writers can know that they're good without thinking everyone else is beneath them.

2 - You can't doubt your ideas and writing without understanding where you want your ideas and writing to be. In other words, you know what good ideas and good writing sound like to you, which means your taste and style are intact... you just have a little bit further to go to get your own ideas and writing where you want it to be, but that's okay. Going back to #1 a bit, writers don't hit some magical peak early on and level off at greatness. There's a lifelong upward trajectory with each book being a little bit better than the last. And sure, it's not a perfect upward trajectory. You can have periods of leveling out or even dropping off, but most writers will continue to get better over time. So, again, it's okay that your writing isn't quite where you want it to be, because it's that feeling that drives us to get better and better and better. This shows you're on the right track!

3 - Those similarities aren't the big deal you think they are... I've been at this a long time, and I'm going to tell you right now: stop worrying about "similarities" in other books. I've posted about this a lot because it's a common concern, but similarities are a dime a dozen in fiction. For every book about a high school girl who falls in love with a vampire, there are a dozen more. For every book about a woman who quits her big city job after a divorce, moves home to her small town, and falls in love with her childhood nemesis, there are at least twenty others. There are countless stories about young women getting wrapped up with fae princes, sad boys/men whose lives are invigorated by a Manic Pixie Dream Girl, murder mysteries set in quiet fishing villages, horror stories set in dilapidated old mansions someone just inherited from a long lost aunt, kids or adult who learn they've secretly been magic all along and get roped into fighting a Big Magical Bad. There are over 100 million books in existence, and that number increases by hundreds of thousands every year. You're never going to write a book that doesn't have similarities with dozens of other books, so stop worrying about it. Remember, it's not the similarities that matter... it's everything else... all the things that only you can do.

4 - Similarities are actually a good thing. The truth of the matter is, similarities are actually a good thing. That's why you can look back through cinematic history and see major trends... monsters, westerns, musicals, disasters, sci-fi, action, epic adventures, rom coms, superheroes... It's why when a book about a young woman toppling a dystopian regime becomes massively popular, dozens of other dystopian books hit the shelves the following year. It's why we gravitate toward favorite genres and tropes and comfort shows. Its why we go to the same restaurants and stores over and over again instead of going to a brand new one every time. Humans like a bit of repetition, and if your book has similar world building to Priory of the Orange Tree, that's a bunch of readers who are going to gravitate toward your book.

5 - There's only so much material to go around. I was interested in the fact that your concern about ACOTAR was that the "themes were too similar," but I promise you, those themes are in a million other stories. When it comes to tropes and themes and character arcs and magic systems and settings and... all of it... there's only so much material. Themes aren't something that are created from nothing. You can't make up an original theme that no one else has explored. Themes are inherent to human existence. They're truths about humanity that beg to be examined and explored. It's not the themes that matter so much as how they're explored and what you say about them, and even if there were similarities there, odds are there were far more differences.

I hope this resonates and helps. I hope I was right that it's more of a self-confidence issue than an ego issue. And if I was wrong, maybe something here will still resonate. You might spend some time in the "writing-related fears" section of my Motivation master list to see if anything there resonates, too. ♥

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

♦ Questions that violate my ask policies will be deleted! ♦ Please see my master list of top posts before asking ♦ Learn more about WQA here

#wqaadvice

[whateverthought]

I know most people don't like Beelzebub/Queen Bee's design and don't understand why she's part fox but I think it works or would have worked better if it was allowed to tie into the world building.

Now listen, the flies to bee thing is fun, its the type of taking the source material and making it yours that I adore, but something that didn't make sense was the fox part. Now Vivziepop mentioned that it was to set her apart from the Hellhounds, which made me reexamine the Sins, their connection to their realms, and the Hellborns born there.

So, it's been implied that Imps are from Wrath originally, Sinners spawn in Pride and if Bee being surrounded by Hellhounds is anything to go by, it can be assumed Hellhounds come from Gluttony.

Stay with me here, when talking about the Sins yet-to-be-revealed, Vivziepop mentioned that some would be more stereotypical looking, Satan was one of those. Now, popular media Satan to me is Big Red Guy with Horns and a Pointed Tail, the Ultimate Demon/Devil. And if he looks like that, similar to the Imps, and he runs the Wrath Ring then that would give a visual connection between the Sin of Wrath and his Hellborns. And Pride being the Ring of Sinner Demons headed by the First Sinner(s), also connects the titular Sin with Their subspecies of demon. So, Beelzebub being part fox makes sense in this regard.

Unfortunately, this does fall apart thanks to the Succubi/Incubi and Asmodeus. I understand wanting to make something easily recognizable but something I had a problem with since the beginning is just how hard it is to tell them and the Imps apart! Even looking up source material doesn't help because both can have the exact same features! Imps can have wings, Succubi can have stripped horns, both have pink to red skin, and hair can be dyed! It's another mark against Vivziepop's abilities as an artist, someone who constantly creates cluttered designs overly saturated in red.

#the succubi should've been similar to Ozzie #it could've worked! #if she stopped for a second and planned ahead! #helluva boss critical #helluva boss criticism #hazbin hotel critical #hazbin hotel criticism #vivziepop critical #vivziepop criticism #vivzipop critical #anti vivziepop #helluva boss queen bee #helluva boss beelzebub #mine #my post

[theresattrpgforthat]

Any ttrpgs with a distinctive “grunge” aesthetic?

THEME: Grunge

Hello friend, I’m really glad you asked this question! Grunge feels like it fits indie ttrpg design so well, because so much of it emphasizes low-budget, DIY and messy styles. As a style of music, I understand grunge is about being dissonant, dark, and “ugly”. As a theme, what I understand about grunge is that it’s about alienation, isolation, and disenchantment with how society is right now, which is so so relevant to how we feel about our current quality of life right now.

That being said, there’s so much that can be explored in grunge, I feel like there’s a lot of different pieces that could make a work “grunge’. So while I think the games that I’m presenting here all fit some element of grunge, some of them might not fit the elements of grunge that you’re looking for.

Games by Adam Vass.

Adam’s games are often nihilistic, horrific, and creatively designed with mixed media, visual distortion, and a focus on the grotesque or the weird. This includes No Future, a time loop game about punks throwing one last party, Born To Die, a pamphlet ttrpg about anthropomorphic animals in a post-human waste world, and Cybermetal 2012, a lo-fi metal cyberpunk game about surviving in an isolated city of warped technology.

If you love horror as well as a bit of a dystopian edge, you’ll probably want to check out Adam Vass’s work.

Here, There, Be Monsters, by wendi yu.

No matter what they tell you, there’s still weirdness and wonder everywhere. You just have to know where to look. At the edges and cracks of ‘normal’ life we exist, we persist, and we resist: the monsters, the magicians, the anomalies, the freaks, and the outcasts. We gather in the shadows, trying our best to live our lives in a world that, when it doesn’t exactly fear or hate us, doesn't even believe in our existence.

But we’re still here. We’re not going anywhere. And we fight back.

While the layout and art direction of Here, There, Be Monsters is purposeful and cohesive, the goal of this game feels very grunge in the sense that it is meant to acknowledge the messiness and unapologetic anger present in the monster characters. There's a lot of bodies in this art, and these bodies are meant to challenge you - if you find them difficult to look at, that's a you problem, and that feels in tune with the spirit of grunge.

I feel like this game is probably more on the border of punk and grunge, but if what you’re looking for is a game that feels chaotic and embraces the dark and “disgusting” material that grunge is known to celebrate, than this might be worth checking out.

Dead Mall: The Last Great Beast, by Hunter J Allen.

They built us altars only to abandon them. Now they sit as dying, empty relics. No matter what they tell you never forget: These are our relics, not theirs. Don't let them pass gently into that sweet goodnight. They were made for profit but they remain as our playgrounds. If we choose to let them.

This here is a mini-zine and Bingo card about the American shopping mall and its relationship to us, our collective nostalgia, and the significance of cultural ruins.

This is more of a solo bingo game than a roleplaying game, but I think it might be an interesting way to build a modern “dungeon” for something like Liminal Horror. The zine also re-contextualizes a piece of American architecture that was so ingrained into the middle-class experience of the 80’s, 90’s and early 2000’s. I’m intrigued by how you could use this idea of decay and neglect in other urban fantasy and horror games.

MÖRK BORG, by Ockult Örtmästare Games.

MÖRK BORG is a pitch-black apocalyptic fantasy RPG about lost souls and fools seeking redemption, forgiveness or the last remaining riches in a bleak and dying world. Who are you? The tomb-robber with silver glittering between cracked fingernails? The mystic who would bend the world’s heart away from it’s inevitable end? Confront power-draining necromancers, skulking skeletal warriors and backstabbing wickheads. Wander the Valley of the Unfortunate Undead, the catacombs beneath the Bergen Chrypt or the bedevilled Sarkash forest. But leave hope behind - the world’s cruel fate is sealed, and all your vain heroic efforts are destined to end in death and dismay. Or are they?

This is a black comedy style of game that I think has a lot of overlap with the grunge aesthetic. It’s received a number of awards for its art style, which is chaotic, monochromatic, and as best as I can describe it, “sludgy.” Then again, you might look at Mork Borg and feel like it’s more metal than grunge: it’s not casual, but rather designed for shock value. The world is destined to end, and your characters are futilely trying to make a difference in it; a lot of the cues seem to point to your own characters being not necessarily good people.

The Prophet, by The Punk Theologian.

The Prophet is a solo-journaling role-playing game. It requires a tarot deck and can be played in as little as 30 minutes or over days.

Receiving Revelations: Turn over a tarot card and let the prompts and the card image be the revelation from the deity that called you. Navigating through visions of struggle and cries of despair, following the guiding flames of insight, to help turn your people’s trajectory towards justice and equity.

Overcome Events: Flip coins to find out if the people heed your warnings and are aided by their deity in overcoming enemy invasion, surviving a great earthquake, or a raging fire, or are crushed by the weight of divine condemnation reaping upon themselves the consequences of sewing the seeds of inequity.

When it comes to aesthetics, The Prophet feels very DIY-inspired, and when it comes to design, I think the fact that it’s a solo game contributes to the feeling of isolation: your status as a prophet may separate you from your peers, and if your predictions go unnoticed, you could feel even more alone. The inspiration of the creator is defined as “punk,” but since punk is a genre that grunge pulls a lot of inspiration from, I don’t think that this necessarily disqualifies The Prophet from being a “grunge” - style game.

#iHunt, by Machine Age Productions.

#iHunt is a story telling game about killing monsters in the gig economy. In it, you play millennials scraping by paycheck to paycheck to make ends meet. A gig app called #iHunt offers them more money than they've ever made to hit the streets and kill vampires, werewolves, demons, and anything else that goes bump in the night. 

The base game of #iHunt centres around the soul-crushing nature of the gig economy, which in and of itself I think is a great focus for a grunge-style game. The supplemental zines created by the designer have a very chaotic and collage-like look, taking photos or public domain art and re-mixing them to create something new. If you want to get really grunge, you might want to check out The 90’s Sucked Ass Or Whatever, which is focused on the specific events and details that would affect your disillusioned monster hunters during the height of grunge.

#tabletop games #indie ttrpgs #game recommendations #dnd #asks #indie ttrpg #grunge

[getvalentined]

I really love all your Vincent analysis, I get very excited whenever you post them. I was wondering something, Grimoire has always seemed a very distant figure in canon, (yet he affects so much) and it is very likely that his and Vincent's relationship wasn't the best. But I am curious as to what you think his reaction to the experiments Hojo and Lucretia put him through would be if he was informed? Especially given that Grimoire knew Lu well. (I know this is completely non-canon)

Believe it or not, way back in 2011 I posted a hastily-drawn Ask Vincent Valentine entry that addresses exactly this! It's been a really long time, and my opinion there hasn't really changed, but I'm more than happy to expand on the concept in more detail now.

We don't actually have a lot of information on Grimoire as a character, and even less on his relationship with Vincent, so most of my opinion here is definitely headcanon, and I'll be tagging this post accordingly. That said, we do know a few things, and establishing the details of their relationship as I understand it is pretty integral to my opinion of how Grimoire would handle Vincent's inclusion in Lucrecia's terrifying thesis project.

First, Grimoire and Vincent seem to have had some kind of falling out in the past. Although it's impossible to say what caused it or how recent this was, it's fairly clear based on Grimoire's last words being a request for Lucrecia to apologize to Vincent on his behalf, and Vincent being unaware of the circumstances of his father's death until finding his file open on Lucrecia's computer. (I've seen it argued that Vincent may not even have been aware that his father was dead until that point—I don't generally subscribe to that idea, but this may actually be the case.)

Secondly, although this is more up for interpretation, Vincent's feeling toward his father appear to be somewhat...harsh? I reach this conclusion based on the word he uses to refer to him in the original Japanese, which is 親父 (oyaji). While this is a term for "father," it's also colloquially used as equivalent to "old man," and is kind of a catch-all term for middle-aged men in general. It's pretty rough in comparison to other terms that could have been used here, and also seems fairly out of place for how Vincent speaks otherwise, making it seem to me that he uses this harsher term in order to indicate either a lack of formality or a lack of respect for his father.

In headcanon territory, my take on their relationship has always been that Grimoire is extremely disappointed in Vincent for failing to pursue a career in academia, opting instead for the Turks—a role in which he excelled to such a degree that the Turk Vincent sim battle in Dirge PlayOnline indicates the assessment and training records he set were still standing when the Crisis took place. We know that Vincent is intelligent and highly educated (there is a complex series of interconnected equations scrawled on the wall of the Shinra Manor basement in Rebirth that was canonically written by Vincent, he's obviously very smart), so he could certainly have pursued the same career path as his father, and for whatever reason he chose not to.

One thing that isn't up in the air is whether or not Grimoire loved his son. Vincent was the last thing on his mind, as Chaos ate away at his body and ripped him apart into pyreflies, the last thing that mattered was that Vincent know he was sorry. Grimoire loved Vincent, even if they didn't always get along.

But Grimoire was, unfortunately, a Shinra scientist. According to Dirge PlayOnline, Grimoire was the first Shinra scientist to theorize about using foreign energies and excavated materials in the creation of an otherwise human child, with the goal of creating a hybrid able to communicate with humankind with ease. Grimoire loved his son, but he was comfortable with the idea of turning someone else's into a monster in utero if it meant that science could progress. This hypothesis is probably one of the leading reasons that Lucrecia volunteered for her role in Project S; she loved her mentor very much, and what better way to honor his memory than to prove at least one part of his theory right?

At the end of the day, it's the expansion of human knowledge that mattered to Grimoire. He would have been thrilled to know that he was right—proven with Sephiroth, with Vincent, and eventually with Nero. The three of them exist, even if only in part, because of Grimoire's thirst to understand the world beyond humanity, and all three of them changed the face of scientific progress. Sephiroth and Vincent's projects both helped to facilitate the creation of SOLDIER, while Nero literally proved the existence of a secondary plane of reality which had only ever been considered theoretical—if not simply written off as a myth—prior to his birth. That's amazing. That's wonderful.

The only problem Grimoire would have with any of it is that it was his child in the tank. Also unfortunate is that the other two were technically his grandchildren—Nero is pretty much undeniably made from genetic material harvested from Vincent, and my headcanon for why Vincent was assigned to Nibelheim at all is that Gast also wanted some way to honor the memory of the late Professor Grimoire Valentine, and selected Vincent to be the "sire" to the main subject of Project S. Vincent was never meant to know, and Lucrecia was never meant to care. It did not work out that way.

Grimoire would initially be horrified to realize what Lucrecia had done—and then fall right into complete understanding, because she did it to her own child too. She experimented on Vincent, yes, but it was in an attempt to save him! Who could blame her for using what she learned in her thesis? Two birds with one stone, salvation and enlightenment both from a single questionable act. He might disagree with her methods, with her disorganization and her lack of foresight, but he couldn't blame her.

He'd be devastated to know how his theories had ruined his child in every possible respect—but only because it was his child, not because of what was actually done. He'd grieve the loss of those grandchildren that neither he nor Vincent ever had a chance to know—but only because they were Vincent's children, torn away before he ever got to know they existed at all.

And, deep down, Grimoire would feel the slightest swell of pride that the only subjects that worked, the only ones that survived and excelled, the few that could literally call themselves gods even if only for a short period of time, were part of his bloodline.

It turns out that Valentines are amazing at anything they do, whether they choose to do anything or not. Vincent rejected science, and science took him anyway, because science is what Valentines do. It's what all of them do, and they do it better than anyone. How could he not be proud of that?

#headcanon warning #fandom ramble #grimoire valentine #vincent valentine #lucrecia crescent #sephiroth #nero the sable #dirge of cerberus

[wombywoo]

I absolutely love your OCs. I love how you're able to immerse your audience into their lore despite not having prior knowledge about who they are as you would have with fanart. With fanart, you know the characters already, but with original characters, you have been able to make them feel complete and naturally human. I love them with my whole heart and I can't wait to learn more about them. Also baby Quinn 😭 is so sweet. I love the contrast of him in the 2000s and Vincent in the 1910s, like yeah, they're from two completely different eras but they make it work and it suits their vibes so well? Like I can't imagine their roles being reversed.

I love this little world you've created for them

Thank you so much, this is so lovely (and reassuring) to hear! Tbh, I've been viewing this little project of mine under the hypothesis of: a 'fandom' can exist even without the source itself, lol. It's like what you've said about fanart--most of the time, you already have an understanding of the characters so when you see them depicted in art, it's more of a 'hey, I know those guys!' reaction. I think what's fun about the OCs is that no one knows anything about them (except me, muahaha) but there's still enough there to catch someone's interest. This doesn't even necessarily have to be OCs, I've seen whole fandoms built on the assumption you don't even have to engage with the source material (side-eyeing cod fandom...) But yeah--I definitely think it's a cool idea for me to share bits and pieces of my characters and lore, and have my 'fans' discover things about them as I go~

#asks #quinncent #I also appreciate what you've said about my boys--that they're so clearly from distinct eras 🥰 #there's no way a certified emo boy™️ could thrive under the restraints of 20th century etiquette 😔 #though now that you mention it...it would be kinda hilarious to do a role-swap au at some point

[yourmaidsp]

Hello, I’m inlove with your art style and how you draw sceneries!! I really wanna try learning how to draw backgrounds more often, do you have any tips about drawing background? Thank you!

Complete guide to Background painting:

So um thank u for asking me Caleb- chan (˃ ⌑ ˂ഃ )! Im glad u trust me on this! But I'm not actually that confident about myself on this, and as a chaotic anarchist, I'll just dump everything I know about this topic to u...

There's so much to talk about background painting, so this is going to be very long, pls bear w me here n forgive me for the broken english_(:зゝ∠)_

It's better to demonstrate with an illustration, so I'll be using this colorkey for that upcoming animated project as an example(two versions for different methods).. along with some other old pics of mine and this sketch I loosly built.

(Also just like I've mentioned in the color tutorial, this would be the only time I explain the theories n tricks, bc it takes too much time to make these.(；′⌒`) I hope ppl r okay w this?)

Purpose and rules

Well for me personally, I'd like my paintings to be rich in storytelling and emotion, rather than a pure decorative picture. So I'm providing two basic methods here, one about realistic background, another about surreal background.

We'll talk about these two in later chapters, but first, preparation.

Preparation

Like I mentioned in last tutorial, gather information before u start any project.

Some irl images —— for real life physics, I'm studying mostly reflections here.

Refs from the original material —— Ofc

Illustrations —— once you studied the irl physics, check out how other ppl deal with the same situation for inspiration, but pls don't just copy them.

Movies —— I think they're just neat (for a nice overall tone, and that helps making your work more)

You could start by painting characters on existing photos, it's a nice exercise.

Realistic

Realistic background requires the understanding of a lot of things, for me personally, proportion is the most important, bc it's the easiest mistake your viewer could spot.

If u check any tutorials on this they'll say u need to use vanishing points to create invisible grids and , I loosly made these to show u how they work

most of the time u use vanishing points to set up the whole scene, two would be enough most of the time.

( Well, or three points, if u want to do something more dramatic, fancy. Or 5 points if u want to do something even more dramatic. )

( For a more lens based logic, 3 or 5 points work best for a mock up 15-35 focal length shot.)

Do a grid using these points. and build environment following the grid.

Put your character in this environment, and their vanishing point will match the one with this environment.

Determine the lighting for your environment, one lightsource first.

Then do the shadow for your character.

(If you don't want a very detailed background this would be enough? Normally I don't do sharp and clear perspective for a more chaotic and hand crafted aesthetic.)

But again, sometimes u just need it to be extremely accurate.

So I made a model for my animation scene, it's widely used by concept artists, so if u're interested, try it out:

u don't have to make a complete set, just boxes would also help.

Surreal

No need to think about actual background this time, just do whatever u want that makes it look good in 2d composition.

u could check out my tutorial on composition on this.

For topics and ideas to put in these experimental surreal paintings, u could try thinking in a "meta" way?

Like this one, I compositioned it from the understating of texture and material : glass.

all the strokes r square-ish, making everything looks breakable.

and the composition is also square-ish, u see sharp edges for the silhouette

Um... it's something I can't explain to the fullest, but u'll get it one day...

Demonstration

And now, the demonstration: I've painted this twice, this one using Blender as the assisting tool:

My logic here is using a mild color scheme over an existing environment, using strokes following the structure.

I made mock up lightings in my model, so the lighting is easier.

the rest is just putting Butters in this set.

And this one just traditional method + eyeballing: (what I've been using recently)

Since I'm not painting over model, eyeballing the set or use the vanishing point+ grid method from earlier... then set the main tone for it (this time it's blue)

I went for a very saturated blue compairing to the other one.

Then paint the light out, for a main light source. I used yellow for a contrasting effect.

The rest is basically the same, but since it doesn't have a model under it I don't need the strokes to tenderize the solidness of an existing model...

Anyways...

I'd suggest u use whatever method that is more comfortable to you, bc I might not be that good at doing it most effectively_(:зゝ∠)_ and I'm sure you're going to find your own unique way!)

Recording of these two paintings is here, hope they're helpful to u:

Exercise and Summarize

So um, after each painting u might want to summarize. One thing I would do is to remove saturation and check if the grayscale looks good-

check what colors u used the most-

check what angle (or shots or framing) u like better-

check what lighting suits your atmosphere-

these are good for u to develop a style-

There are some tutorials on the internet on more of this topic, I'm sure ur able to find them, they'll do a better job for me I think~

And I'm sorry this came out so late! a lot of things have happened...

Hope u have a good time creating art, and have a nice day Caleb-!

-Maid

#doodle #maid's requests #art theory #art tips #sp fanart

[angorwhosebabyisthis]

[pericky; a look into ricky's head during their meeting.]

---

"I'm glad you came, I wasn't sure you would." The wine pours, the sound of it drowning out the missing word in that sentence: back.

Of course, is the response, and the part of Ricky that's spent twenty years tearing itself apart to understand why vibrates with relief. It doesn't matter anymore. Of course, of course, he thinks giddily along with the words. He never needed to wonder why Pericles wasn't coming back in the first place; he was always going to.

I'm happy you invited me, and of course he thinks again. A lifetime of pretending he wasn't always going to either falls away. However harsh and lonely the world has been, all's right with it again; and the shy voice of the boy inside him that he's tried so hard to kill says, so quietly, I missed you.

#sdmi #scooby doo: mystery incorporated #pericky #ricky owens #professor pericles #anyway fucking end me actually. lay me down to die #i said i was gonna write more pericky and by fucking god i did #the 'why did you do this to me' to 'oh thank god you didn't actually do this to me' pipeline of abuse folks 🥲 #which like. their last conversation is yet another devastating example of ricky finally standing up to pericles' bullshit Too Late #ricky denounces him in the strongest terms he knows; based on his own feelings and opinions and the way he sees the world #(which: even then he can't bring himself to say 'i don't love you anymore') #(the closest he can get is 'i chose you and i can't take it back; the only way i can imagine not loving you is if i never had at all') #and pericles tries to go 'nyeh nyeh whatever i don't care' (and does a real bad job of pretending he is not obviously hurt lmao) #and ricky doesn't try to understand his logic; he doesn't try to reconcile a world where pericles didn't *really* mean to do anything wrong #his response is MAYBE YOU *SHOULD* CARE. #pericles' view of the world and what's right and acceptable are warped and *wrong* and he's the one who needs to get his shit together #'you shouldn't have abused me you shouldn't have killed cassidy you shouldn't have murdered a child in cold blood' #that is MASSIVE and i think it is really telling that pericles' response is to shut him down with force instead of trying to argue any more #and that in the end is the real true fucking tragedy of it all #ricky is making huge strides one after the other to take back his freedom from pericles emotionally #....and materially it makes no difference to improve his situation in the moment; because pericles doesn't have any less power to abuse him #he never has a triumphant moment where he Overcomes His Abuser and Breaks Out of His Control #there's nothing he can do to fight back until pericles is too Literally Dead to control him anymore #it is one of the rawest depictions of the reality of abuse i've ever seen and just. God. i love it so much #(at the same time i REALLY want to explore a version of events where he got the chance to expand further on that growth) #(the 'all witches are selfish; make all things yours; i have a duty' speech from the wee free men comes to mind) #whosebaby makes things #whosebaby writes #SDMItag #dyn: when i die i want you to die too

[braemjeorn]

the thing about lucas' departure from wayv-nct is that... unlike woojin or b.i, SM still manage him, he didn't move into another company or anything.

the separation is awkward rn but i'm just saying, if he appears on the next smtown, you know taeyong or kun will just pull him into the row of boys that is comprised of neocity-riize members without blinking.

#unless sm is being careful and petty and cowardice #so they will just exclude him #while other sm artists performs #cowards i tell you #COWARDS TO MAKE THE TRUTH CLEAR BUT NOT ON PUTTING THE BOY OUT FOR MONEY #i will say that until they proove me otherwise #were they this clear-foggy about taeyong as well?? #i need to review things again gosh #concerning the text statement: the possibility of taeyong not giving a fuck and doing just that is very high #like even raiden came to smtown #and he's not that much on the hot kpop sphere #if any of raidens fans reads this #please be understanding i did not mean to undermean him in anyway #lucas wong #nct lucas #wayv lucas #...i don't even know if i can use those tags but how else do i say its that lucas #lucas renegade #i feel like this is thought material for twitter instead of tumblr but i deleted my twitty so anyhoo #i am asking for chaos by asking this #go on give me that slap #lucas' eyes are just so somber nowadays dude #i just...let him go to the weishenies please

[graciousdragon]

I FUCKING DID SOMETHING FOR ONCE LET'S GO!!!

ok so i was listening to this song like a week ago and i saw this animation clear as day in my mind and i knew i had to try and storyboard it out while i was thinking of it. i wanna do the full song at some point because it is So Very Them-coded but i do not have the time rn and will not for a while (i barely had the time to make this) so for now i just made sure i got the really complicated part out of the way. figured i'd post it because. why not lol

anyway. this is for my Darkest Desire AU story!! it's called Glitching Fates!! i am so normal about it and i have been for years now. it is. so far removed from the source material but i do not care it is very special to me :]

as a sort of summary for what's going on here, the night guard and Will used to be really good friends but they both ended up getting busy with their own lives so they couldn't interact as much, and then the whole Glitchtrap possession thing happens which reunites them but also drives a wedge between them since Will is blindly following Glitchtrap while the night guard is trying to find a way to stop Glitchtrap.

i am so not fucking normal about these characters you all have no idea. oh my god. they have permanent residence in my mind rn. i need people to ask me about them or else I Will Become Violent (/j)

hope y'all liked this, or at least i hope y'all found my passive-agressive notes to myself funny lol. under the cut i typed up all the handwritten ones in case y'all want to read them but can't make out my handwriting

a fuckin uh.. pillar or somethin idk

ooh cool scene transition

how do i convey that he's walking onto a train

dismissive wave

hair is longer to indicate passage of time

pretend this shot doesn't look like total dogshit ok?

hey how did my anatomy manage to get That Much Fucking Worse this far in

there is Something wrong here. i just cannot tell What

that is. so much better what the fuck

ok that's all thank you for looking at my post :]

#rys.txt #rys draws #WAVING MY ARMS AROUND WILDLY LIKE ONE OF THOSE WACKY WAVING INFLATABLE TUBE MEN COME HERE AND LOOK AT MY POST PLEASE!!! #I FINALLY COOKED SOMETHING!!! #i finally figured out how to draw decent side profiles that don't look like i'm totally ripping off jamie hewlett's art style i'm so happy #on the topic of my au being super different from the source material. let's be real for a second #does anyone out there have a darkest desire au that isn't totally different from the source material? do those exist? #i don't think i've ever seen one everyone's always taking a ton of liberty with it. and that's okay! :D #anyway. these two are everything to me you don't understand #please. if anyone seeing this wants to know more about my story PLEASE ask me about it (no pressure) #my ask box is open you can ask me anything about this and i will answer happily (or in the notes here is good too) #even if you have no clue what the fuck is going on here. if you don't know shit about fnaf or darkest desire i will explain it for you #glitching fates #glitching fates au #dawko #dagames #night guard dawko

[chthonicrose]

hot friendship tips: randomly meet someone who has the same reference pool of internet culture and media as you on tumblr and then live together for ten years so you've inflicted everything you care about on each other so they always know exactly what you're talking about even when you're completely incoherently trying to describe something you only half remember and sound insane

#just thinking about how much alex Understands me #and how wild it is that I randomly met someone so nearly exactly the same kind of Terminally Online as me #like that doesn't sound that weird I know but it kind of is. #we're three and a half years apart in age and grew up across the country from each other there is no reason we should know the same shit #particularly when most people I encounter do not know that shit #also we even have similar tastes in stupid harry potter fanfic so we read/have read a lot of the same things #and I do not know ANYONE else who has even the slightest desire to read something like switched by pseudoleigha #anyway. I'm love him he means a lot to me. I am gonna miss him when he moves to canadia. it's coming fast. #stuff and nonsense #also please don't judge me for the hp fic thing I hate jkr as much as anybody #reading extremely trans/queer fanfics that think she's stupid does not materially support her

[queenofmalkier]

I will not go on a rant about adapting books to tv shows. I want to, I’m just irritated enough in general due to lack of sleep to do it, but I know better. I really do.

#posting as a reminder to myself to Stop It #because I already know the people who hate the show or complain about it regularly #don't really want to have a discussion or hear counter points #they just want to bitch #and say the show is Bad and Wrong and misses everything there is to love about the books #which is so frustrating #do you know how long I've wanted people in my life to understand my rambling about WOT? #nobody I know will read the series because of the length #full stop #and nobody I know would watch a show that was crazy long and included every book detail #because attention spans aren't what they used to be #but also because for a show the format doesn't need as much detail #sorry but it just doesn't #it can be condensed and still maintain the feeling of the source material #but guess what? #I got my entire family to watch the show #several friends #and even coworkers #a few of them liked it enough to then PICK UP THE BOOKS #so I'm sorry it isn't a page by page recreation #but I'm not sorry with the interest people in my life now have in book series I love #and frankly? #I like the show #I do think it maintains the spirit of the books #but that could be because I wasn't primed to hate it #and I understand how adaptations work #goddamn it I am ranting aren't I? #it's tags they don't count

[the-busy-ghost]

Knowing very little about clothing construction beyond the basics of how to hand sew in a straight(ish) line, combined with machine made fast fashion garments that fall apart easily, means it takes me waaaay longer to fix a button or a ripped pocket than it really should

#Everything's always hidden by something else #I'm not undoing an entire lining just to get at the back of a button so yes this piece of clothing now will never sit right I'll live #Also my dad's stuff is mostly tennis clothing and WHY IS THERE SO MUCH MESH #WHY IS THERE ALWAYS MESH STUFF OVER EVERYTHING THERE DOESN'T NEED TO BE #I can't fix a pocket because there's mesh in front of it #And the pocket was already going to be a bugger because it's that awful stretchy wafer thin sporty material #That rips if you so much as look at it #I don't know enough about clothes for this I just want to salvage a perfectly good coat or pair of shorts #I understand hiding the constituent parts of a piece of clothing if it's good quality but if you haven't sewed the buttons on properly #Why the hell did you even bother covering them up I shouldn't have to do open heart surgery on a cheap jacket #Rule number 1 should really be if it's poorly made it should be easy to access the bits to fix it #But that would be too much #Obviously this is not the machinist's fault they're doing their best at probably shit wages and again they have a machine #Something which I am too scared of to even use let alone buy #But it frustrates me #I have to fix all this by hand it takes time I can't just rip out a lining for a button #Literally the only thing I own that doesn't make me want to rip my own arm off when attempting to fix are denim dungarees #Like the only piece of women's clothing that are easy to repair and even better if I do a shit job it's still fine because they're dungarees #They're sort of supposed to look patchy and worn

[lock-my-feelings-in-a-jar]

how did so much of today’s music become what it is now when there was such a good foundation in the past 

to me, it feels like if you made a building and made the bottom of it really sturdy with the best building materials and then built the rest with marshmallows

#me #again there are exceptions because there is SOME good music still #most of it is hidden and i probably don't even know a lot of it exists #also it's a matter of opinion but this is my opinion #anyway #LIKE all music has always been the product of inspiration from something else #RIGHT? #how #what happened #there's SO MUCH to take inspiration from #from the past #and it's like #how can you #not #i #don'T EVEN KNOW HOW TO WORD IT #i just don't understand #there's so much material to take notes from #and i don't even just mean metal or rock #because there are different tastes and all #most genres i've heard from the past have all been pretty good all around #but now it's like #no #okay i'm done venting about this again #honestly i just feel like i'm one of those old people that hates everything new #just because it's different than what i'm used to #like when parents wouldn't let their kids listen to rock music

[dimiclaudeblaigan]

So I just updated Heroes and saw that they changed the characters on the downloading screen to match the new CYL

and once again

they still have Ike

good. for. them.

#you know how they always use 3d3lgard for promotional stuff? #BUT THEN THEY ALWAYS PASSIVELY USE IKE FOR EVERYTHING ELSE??? #it's like this lowkey understanding that 3d3lgard makes them money lately #but Ike is and always been the most popular character that people adore and want to see more of #so they put him everywhere else bc the KNOW he's so popular but it's almost like they don't wanna admit that #he's not controversial like 3d3lgard #so she's their waifu promotional material but they know Ike is actually more universally loved #at this point him being on the download page is as much of a staple as the actual Heroes characters ajkfhgjsgs #it's funny but also endearing bc it's kinda showing that they're aware how loved he is #it's really sad that they haven't released a PoR port on the Switch bc there are so many newer fans to FE #who can't play PoR bc you have to Be Rich to buy it (or at least have a WHOLE lot of extra spare money #that could buy you like six Switch games at their standard price #and I'm not even exaggerating about that like you could straight up buy six or MORE Switch games at the standard sixty dollars USD #for one USED copy of PoR) #or you have to emulate it and some people don't have computers that can run it well. if they can emulate it they PROBABLY still #can't emulate RD which is the direct sequel bc you kinda need a pretty good or a gaming computer for that #I have a pretty standard computer and it can run PoR OKAY but it can't run RD well AT ALL #and sometimes I enjoy using cheats and messing around in those games bc I own the physical copies and #I play them so often normally on the consoles so like I don't need to emulate them but enjoy it sometimes #or sometimes I'm not at home like this one time I wasn't home for a very extended period (three months) #and all I had was my laptop and not my GC/Wii or desktop so I HAD to emulate it to play it and it rly comforted me to have it there #so many people WANT to play the Tellius games and get to know Ike bc ppl want to know why he's basically a legend to older fans #but Nintendo like refuses to touch the Tellius games with a thousand foot pole. probably bc they sold like shit tbh #which is 100 percent their fault for not marketing those games AT ALL. the franchise has a massive fanbase now tho #I remember this one interview or smth where I guess someone involved in Gaiden's remake mentioned he'd like to remake FE6 next #but like... yeah okay I admit that one needs a remake it's p bad in some areas... but AFTER PoR maybe? #I feel like PoR would make them so much money and I'm sure previous players would BUY IT AGAIN just for the port! #also it would be probably a standard Switch game price and NOT 300 or more USD so... new and old players alike would buy it #they keep plastering Ike's face everywhere bc he's so popular but they won't port the damn games jfkgsajdgsa #DCB Heroes Stuff