blankstray

[blankstray]

Helping my friend

https://www.gofundme.com/final-expenses-for-sue

A friend and her family needs some donations to be able to pay off some expenses after the passing of a loved one from SMS and to buy the house they are renting .  Any donation amount is appreciated, or if anyone knows a better site to upload this towards too, message me.  Thanks.

#donations #charity #gofundme #sma #spinal muscular atrophy

[blankstray]

I’ve been asked a lot about how I draw hoods, mostly Talon’s hood, so I hope this helps a little? Just a pretty basic thing but hey there ya go

Hoods are pretty cool, they usually have a lot of variety in how they can look (and sometimes people even wear two hoods at once) so just get creative with it and have fun

[blankstray]

Anonymous asked you:

Are you going to do a tutorial of your current coloring style by any chance ? I’m in love with it *w*

Hi anon!! I did this quickly in hopes it will prove useful! ;; i really want to be of help??;;;

Nowadays i really cant be arsed with alot of layers and blahblah so recently i have been doing one/two/three layer pictures. It’s usually sketch(or lineart)—> all colour on one layer —> random touchups and done :(;;; i don’t know, playing around is very fun and helpful!! so i guess that will be good to do… etc

[blankstray]

Hello! Would you mind doing an example of not using filter words in a first person point of view? While I know that you can just switch out the pronouns for I/me/my, I just want to see it in action and when you should (and shouldn't) use the filter words. Thank you!

Hi there! I would love to! I think I’ll start out with an example with filter words and then cut out the filter words to show you the difference.

For those of you who haven’t seen my post on Filter Words.

Now, for the example:

I felt a hand tap my shoulder as I realized I had made a huge mistake. I knew the consequences would be unsettling, but I had no other choice. I saw the light of my desk lamp bounce off of the officer’s badge before I had even turned around. It seemed like I always found my way into trouble.

It was the first thing off the top of my head, so it’s a bit rough sounding….

Now for without filter words (And a bit of revision):

A hand tapped my shoulder as it dawned on me: I had just made a huge mistake. The consequences would be unsettling if I didn’t get out of this mess, but I had no other choice. The light of my desk lamp bounced off of the officer’s badge. I always found my way into trouble.

By taking out filter words, you get right to the point.

I’d also like to add a few more notes that I didn’t have the chance to post previously.

Some Examples of Filtering:

I heard a noise in the hallway.

She felt embarrassed when she tripped.

I saw a light bouncing through the trees.

I tasted the sour tang of raspberries bursting on my tongue.

He smelled his teammate’s BO wafting through the locker room.

She remembered dancing at his wedding.

I think people should be kinder to one another.

How can you apply this?

Read your work to see how many of these filtering words you might be leaning on. Microsoft Word has a great Find and Highlight feature that I love to use when I’m editing. See how you can get rid of these filtering words and take your sentences to the next level by making stronger word choices. Take the above examples, and see how they can be reworked.

FILTERING EXAMPLE: I heard a noise in the hallway.

DESCRIBE THE SOUND: Heels tapped a staccato rhythm in the hallway.

FILTERING EXAMPLE: She felt embarrassed after she tripped.

DESCRIBE WHAT THE FEELING LOOKS LIKE: Her cheeks flushed and her shoulders hunched after she tripped.

FILTERING EXAMPLE: I saw a light bouncing through the trees.

DESCRIBE THE SIGHT: A light bounced through the trees.

FILTERING EXAMPLE: I tasted the sour tang of raspberries bursting on my tongue.

DESCRIBE THE TASTE: The sour tang of raspberries burst on my tongue.

FILTERING EXAMPLE: He smelled his teammate’s BO wafting through the locker room.

DESCRIBE THE SMELL: His teammate’s BO wafted through the locker room.

FILTERING EXAMPLE: She remembered dancing at his wedding.

DESCRIBE THE MEMORY: She had danced at his wedding.

FILTERING EXAMPLE: I think people should be kinder to one another.

DESCRIBE THE THOUGHT: People should be kinder to one another.

See what a difference it makes when you get rid of the filter? It’s simply not necessary to use them. By ditching them, you avoid “telling,” your voice is more active, and your pacing is helped along.

The above list is not comprehensive as there are many examples of filtering words. The idea is to be aware of the concept so that you can recognize instances of it happening in your work. Be aware of where you want to place the energy and power in your sentences. Let your observations flow through your characters with immediacy.

Ok, sorry for the lengthy answer, I know you just wanted an example…. sorry!

If you have any questions, feel free to ask at my ask box

[blankstray]

How to price your commissions

1. Set a monthly target.

How much do you want to earn in a month? Lets say you want to earn £400. Base this on your bills and living expenses, things you’re saving up for, etc.

That means each week you want to earn roughly £100.

(monthly target) / (four weeks) = [Weekly Target] £400 / 4 = £100

2. Determine how much time you are going to devote to commissions per week

For this example, lets go with 20 hours!

Also you’ll want to figure out how many hours per day that is so you don’t overwork yourself. There are 5 working days in a week, so thats four hours per day.

You don’t have to follow this exactly, but it’s good to know so you know when to stop and call it a day.

I suggest between 18-30 hours a week, and no more than 40.

(hours per week) / (5 days) = [Daily Hours] 20hrs / 5 = 4hrs

3. Calculate your hourly rate

To earn £100 in 20 hours, you need to earn £5 an hour.

NOTE: the numbers chosen are for the sake of an example, you should not be working below the minimum wage.

(weekly rate) / (number of hours) = [Hourly Rate] £100 / 20hrs = £5

4. Calculate how long you spend working on a piece.

this includes time spent researching, anything like getting used to a character’s design to finding references is labour that the commissioner is paying for, not just the final piece!

If you’re a digital artist, you can use Cash Clock to help with this!

it will track how long you are focused on windows you choose, and stop counting if you’re idle for a set amount of time. It’ll also do the next step for you. [http://www.online-stopwatch.com/download-stopwatch/]

for this example lets say you spent roughly two hours researching, doing practice sketches, etc., and then 6 hours on the final piece.

5. Calculate your price quote

(hourly rate) x (time spent) = [price per commission] (monthly target) / (price per commission) = [number of commissions]

for our example this is £5 x 8 hours = £40 per commission. to reach the goal of £400 a month thats 10 commissions a month.

Do this for each type of commission you offer! Lets say a sketch takes you 2 hours of research + 3 hours of drawing. That’s £25 a piece (16 sketches)

Tips:

- when you finish timing yourself working, add on an extra hour so you have some buffer time to polish and fix things. You’re likely to be spending longer on your paid work, so account for that!

- You ever notice how your first few doodles aren’t as good as what you draw after you’ve scrapped a few?

Keep that momentum, when you’ve finished sketching a piece, even if it’s not a sketch commission stop and continue on to sketch a different commission.

When you’ve finished sketching, do this again with the next stage in your process like flats or inking.

This is a more cost effective way of working - working in batches like this is commonly used in comics to maintain consistency between pages!

- don’t be afraid to ask for tips! 

Include a link to https://ko-fi.com/ or https://paypal.me on your commissions page. Some people might not be able to commission you, but they might still have some money to spare!

[blankstray]

How to Make Your Art Look Nice: Lighting

Think your drawings are lacking that extra “oomph”? Maybe adding a little bit of lighting can help!

_________

The “How to Make Your Art Look Nice” Series

Flow and Rhythm | Thumbnailing | Mindsets | Reference and Style | Color Harmony | Contrast

[blankstray]

5 min tutorial for trcelyne, hope it helps! 

[blankstray]

As promised, here is a very brief overview of transparency art! Thank you all for your interest! Note: the images are transparent too!

Below the cut I included a sort of walkthrough of one of my transparency pieces!

Firstly, thank you for your interest! I will give a walkthrough of this piece here!

As a short disclaimers, I just want to say that this is my way of doing it, and there are many other ways different artists may make works as well, and all ways are correct! I’m just showing you how I do it!

Secondly, I’m specifically talking about photoshop CC, which is the program I am using. The concept itself is the same, but how to implement these features may vary program to program. 

Lastly, I still consider myself sort of a beginner, as I have not done transparency arts for that long, and I still have a lot to learn, so take these tips and walkthrough with a pinch of salt!

When deciding what to make, I wanted to go with the concept of a background inside someone, and the idea of the ocean and Lance hearing it through a shell kind of came to me. 

I first started with the lineart of Lance! It was initially drawn on white:

Then, I made a pure black background layer on top of the white background layer. That would be to see the white! Following that, I solid colored lance with pure white. It’s helpful to make the background color semi transparent so you can see both the black lineart and white. 

The use of layer masks was key to making these kinds of transparency works. They allow shades from black to white to be drawn ‘normally’ on the mask and translate them into levels of opacity! 

In this image, for demonstration, I made a bunch of rectangles on a mask layer over the plain white layer. The rectangles were drawn with different shades, but because they were on a layer mask, that translated those shades to opacities. White = completely solid Black = completely transparent

Using layer mask, I made the gradient for the ocean. 

The next was drawing the ocean and sky. I made these with pure white at different opacities. I tended to alter the opacity of the brush a lot to achieve the different variations of white. These were done on many white layers on top of one another.

I continued doing this and layering whites on top of one another until it resembled an ocean, then went back to the original white layer and added shadows using layer masks again! I repeated switching between layer masks and drawing on top with white these until they look satisfactory! 

I also used the voltron symbol and colored it pure white and added it in! Along with stars and other sources of light! I used a blurry brush with a low opacity for the ‘glow’ around the clouds and the icon!

Lastly, I opened Lance’s eyes! They were ‘drawn’ just by erasing the bottom white layer with the pencil tool I used for the lineart, but they could have also theoretically been done using layer masks too.

And he is done! 

Important: When saving the image, ensure you are saving it in a format that preserves opacity! For example, in photoshop I save it as a .png file! Make sure that you get rid of the background so you are left with nothing there! 

On photoshop it looks like this:

I hope this was helpful! Depending on the type of art, the techniques used in transparency works may vary! Sometimes I use mostly just solid erasing rather than layer masks, other times, like this, I use a lot of masks and layers. Often if you are doing works with gradients, varying levels of grey, shade and smaller details, masks are better, while for the type of “disappearing/changing” parts of linearts, erasing is better. This is only one way of doing it - the potential in this kind of art is endless!

I hope this reads okay, and if you have any other questions, you can always message me! If you got through this long walkthrough, thank you very much for reading!

If you are interested in seeing more transparency works, I made a blog dedicated to them @transparent-art and if you make transparency works, show me, I’d love to see them! (I love this type of art so much!) Have fun experimenting!

[blankstray]

What to do if you suddenly find yourself homeless

FOOD

Find your nearest food bank or mission, for food

grocery stores with free samples, bakeries + stores with day-old bread

different fast food outlets have cheaper food and will generally let you hang out for a while.

some dollar stores carry food like cans of beans or fruit

SHELTER

Sleeping at beaches during the day is a good way to avoid suspicion and harassment

sleep with your bag strapped to you, so someone can’t steal it

Some churches offer short term residence

Find your nearest homeless shelter

Look for places that are open to the public

A large dumpster near a wall can often be moved so that flipping up the lids creates an angled shelter to stay dry

HYGIENE

A membership to the YMCA is usually only 10$, which has a shower, and sometimes laundry machines and lockers.

Public libraries have bathrooms you can use

Dollar stores carry low-end soaps and deodorant etc.

Wet wipes are all purpose and a life saver

Local beaches, go for a quick swim

Some truck stops have showers you can pay for

Staying clean is the best way to prevent disease, and potentially get a job to get back on your feet

Pack 7 pairs of socks/undies, 2 outfits, and one hooded rain jacket

OTHER

first aid kit

 sunscreen

 a travel alarm clock or watch

 mylar emergency blanket

 a backpack is a must

 downgrade your cellphone to a pay as you go with top-up cards

 sleeping bag

 travel kit of toothbrush, hair brush/comb, mirror

 swiss army knife

 can opener

[blankstray]

Adulting Posts

Adulting 101: The post that started it all! Discount cards, xmas lights, and general food advice.

Adulting 102: Cacti, electric bills, and some inexpensive cleaning advice.

Adulting 103: Peeing after sex, chalkboard paint, and why you need scented trash bags in your life.

Adulting 104: Electric bill budgets, lint drawers, and why mixed greens are more trouble than they’re worth.

Adulting 105: Paper bills, Yankee Candles, and where to purchase postage stamps.

Adulting 106: Scented tampons, dishwasher pods, and why you should live next to a fire department.

Adulting 107: Command hooks, inexpensive bathroom decor, and why organic cucumbers are overrated. 

Adulting 108: An Adulting post dedicated entirely to apartment hunting!

Adulting 109: Cleaning your shower head, condiments, and why you should never buy Dollar Store paper towels.

Adulting 110: Food hygiene, Airborne, and automatic payment advice.

[blankstray]

my parents aren’t teaching me life lessons.

#i need some adults to TEACH ME SHIT ABOUT LIFE

[blankstray]

dealing with the worst case scenario

your condom breaks

you feel a lump on your breast

your friends are ignoring you

you’re stranded on an island 

you got rejected by a crush

you get into a car accident

you got stung by a bee/wasp

you got fired from your job

you’re in an earthquake

your tattoo gets infected

your house is on fire

you’re lost in the woods

you get arrested abroad

you get robbed

your partner cheated on you

you’re on a ship that’s sinking

you fall into ice

you’re stuck in an elevator

you hit a deer with your car

you have food poisoning

your pet passed away

you fall off of a horse

you or your friend has alcohol poisoning

you have toxic shock syndrome

your house has a gas leak

[blankstray]

dealing with the worst case scenario

your condom breaks

you feel a lump on your breast

your friends are ignoring you

you’re stranded on an island 

you got rejected by a crush

you get into a car accident

you got stung by a bee/wasp

you got fired from your job

you’re in an earthquake

your tattoo gets infected

your house is on fire

you’re lost in the woods

you get arrested abroad

you get robbed

your partner cheated on you

you’re on a ship that’s sinking

you fall into ice

you’re stuck in an elevator

you hit a deer with your car

you have food poisoning

your pet passed away

you fall off of a horse

you or your friend has alcohol poisoning

you have toxic shock syndrome

your house has a gas leak

[blankstray]

Animation techniques and effects from the classic era. For more vintage movie geekery, check out my Old Hollywood Special Effects, and my Early Color Film Processes posts! (And while you’re at it, take a look at my art blog, why don’t ya?)

[blankstray]

[blankstray]

Baking by Lori Stern on Instagram

Follow So Super Awesome on Instagram

[blankstray]

Trying to find something to motivate myself and I found this little line from Van Gogh

#vincent van gogh