#and also i've basically never done this style of shading before i was using all new brushes for this

[pasteilian]

Do you have a recommendation when designing a black character? Or tips, or maybe pages you visit for references?

Suck at explaining stuff but I’ll try

‼️ Ethnic Features ‼️

So, the art world is in a very weird place when it comes to ethnic features. The conversation was about how using POC ethnic features as an insult in media was damaging and needed to stop, and that somehow morphed into people being scared about drawing people with those features.

Black people have big ears, big noses, and big lips. That's not the problem. The problem was that media was using it to make us look like giant ape, monkey, monster creatures. It's okay to give them these defining features.

Also, remember that brown people have lighter pigment under their feet, hands, and bottom lips. 🌸 (didn’t really know where to put this but drawing mix people is basically a spin the wheel we come in all different shapes and sizes and features. There’s really no wrong way to draw a mixed POC.)

‼️ It's Just My Style ‼️

I'm so goddamn tired of hearing this goddamn excuse. A style does not mean you can't properly represent POC. I would even go on to say that if your style is stunting you so grossly that you can't draw a proper black person, you have a bad art style. Sorry—not really.

Media has shown us that style does not stop representation. The only thing stopping that is your ignorance and refusal to improve. Great examples of ranging styles still being able to represent different POC are "Adventure Time," "Disney's Soul," "Proud Family," "Afro Samurai," etc. I'm just saying this because I've seen this excuse be more prevalent in the art world, and it's just better to nip that in the bud.

‼️ Whitewashing + I Don't Know How to Use the Color Brown ‼️

I've seen people make the excuse that the skin color is lighter because they use a pastel style, but they never bring up the fact that the only color in the art that's lighter is the skin tone. 💀

Also, the whole thing about people saying they don't know how to shade and color brown palettes is just completely bullshit. I would even say that trying to shade pale colors is harder than shading darker colors. Additionally, there are multiple artists and tutorials showing you exactly how it's done. You have no excuses other than you just don't want to.

YouTuber Sinix has a great video on painting skin tones!

‼️ Black Hairstyles ‼️

I love dreads. Dreads are a very pretty hairstyle. However, we have more hairstyles other than dreads. If you're going to draw black characters, I would encourage you to branch out and explore beyond dread heads. There are so many unique black hairstyles out there. We need to move on from just focusing on dreads.

YouTuber Ari has two wonderful videos on black hairstyles in video games. I would recommend checking them out.

‼️ References ‼️

I love referencing old black media such as "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air," "The Proud Family," and "Little Bill" (before all the Bill Cosby stuff came out). I also appreciate how "House of the Dragon" implemented black people into the lore. Other references include "BOTW/TOTK Rottmnt," etc.

Some artists I reference all the time are Mohammed Agbadi, who doesn't do many art tutorials anymore but often discusses black characters in media, and his art is still amazing. Ethan Becker has a very interesting video on the racist triangle that I recommend checking out.

On Instagram, I love the art of Jojo.Dreamie, Chibichanga12 (holy shit, love their art), Bruniosktch, and Caw.Chan. I also just reference my family a lot. 💀

This is a lot of rambling, but what I’m gonna say is don’t stunt yourself by tricking yourself into believing that your art can’t include POC 🌸🌸‼️💌💖💌💌🎀💕💘‼️🧁

#rottmnt #rottmnt fanart #rottmnt mikey #pastriesart💌 #pastrieschat💌 #this was long but hope I got my points across #as a Afro head I challenge dread heads to a duel

[charmixpower]

⚡ Tec hairstyles ⚡

Oh my god this one was so hard. There are only so many ways to shave your head and long hair on Tecna is the devil speaking. I will only tolerate it on pre-highschool Tecna. Yeah, that middle row is just Tecna though middle school. You can see her gauges get bigger. Piecing like this are super common on Zenith, and I don't think earlobes would be hard to repair with magic. So her getting them wouldn't be a big deal me thinks

Anyways on to my thought process

Standard Tecna: the way I usually draw Tecna with the shaved head. With a simple cyber top. Fun fact! At first I thought her head was shaved and her earrings were gauges before I really looked at her, and I thought the shaved head and gauges looked cooler so I kept them. Another fun fact, I was originally going to give Tecna cyber bite piercings, but I decided they didn't look all that good on her so I settled for the far weirder looking dimple piercings

Alternative: This one was also called "Misses steal yo girl". Hide your girlfriends and wives

Classic Tecna: Tecna's canon hairstyle. Nothing against this beauty. She's sleek, pretty, and classic for a reason. Hats off to you ma'am

S8 hair color: I've made it no secret that when making Tecna's hair violet or pink from her originally magenta, I'll pick pink every time. So I thought it would be funny to include the later seasons shade of purple hair that Tecna has as dyed hair for Tecna. This is baby baby Tecna right here, with the classic Tecna earrings, and no interesting piercings bc she's literally a baby. Outfits based on the Zenith outfits that one of my followers forcefully decided to shove at my eyes, whyyyyy

First shave: the one time I will allow long hair on Tecna. She's a baby and she's still learning her style, she's trying it out before she decides she hates it. This is her first time shaving her hair, and those are her step one gauges. Baby's first foray into being alt and she will never look back. Bonus extra shoulder outfit, for the vibes

The mullet: THE MULLET!!!!! this is right before she went to Alfea and got her signature style, bc she didn't think the mullet fit her personality well as a standard look but she loves the way it looks so dearly. Which is why her beloved mullet comes back in her Enchantix. The horrible mullet will never leave no matter how much you want it gone, she loves it and thats everyone else's problem. I had to include her amazing back to school outfit somewhere. Made it blue tho

School formal: the pixies cut I've always wanted to put on Tecna. It looks a amazing. Like I prefer the asymmetrical look bc it's more girlie looking??? Can't explain. But this is still super pretty. The flat side swept bangs is because I thought it would be funky to give Tecna bangs. It's a litt odd looking on her bc I'm used to her not having them but they don't look bad

Eraklyon ball: Extra pointy Tecna. I actually really like this for a fancy Tecna hair cut. But it's a whole new shaved hairstyle. Ig that wouldn't hard to deal with? Bc she could get her hair magically lengthen, reshave, and then do it again to put her back?? But that's a ton of work. It still looks p good imo tho

Shaved Tecna: I uh didn't have anymore hairstyles ;-; I had one final fucking hairstyle, and I didn't wanna do a pixie cut because I had already basically done that for the school formal or a undercut bc I wanted that one to be exclusive to Musa. So I gave up and shaved it. Plenty of alt bitches shave their head, it's fine, it's fine. Also yeah this space outfit from s8. Every now and then my eyes are assaulted with s8 images, wow images, and fate images, and I thought this outfit looked dope on Tecna so it can stay. She probably fucked up her hair in some way and decided to shave it all off. It will grow back soon

#winx club #winx tecna #winx fanart #winx headcanons #winx redesign #rus doodles #rus chatters

[someonelookingpraediti]

OwlCrate Unboxing

Relics & Ruins April 2023

Unfortunately, the book this month is by an author I've read before, and absolutely hated! Even more unfortunately? Two boxes this month feature this book. Even more unfortunately?? Next month the exact same thing is happening - two boxes with the same book by an author I didn't like.

The featured book is "Silver in the Bone" by Alexandra Bracken. I was really looking forward to this from the description, until I found out who it was by. I've only read one other book by this author, but it was absolutely awful. Considering how she butchered Greek myth, I do not want to know what she's done to Arthurian legend. But the exclusive edition is nicely done. The cover is far, far better than the original. There are gilded edges, foiled endpapers, and the most absolutely gorgeous hardcase artwork.

The first item is the first in a new collectable series, a story doorway. It's basically a display piece, which can also double as a bookend, featuring a door from a book. This one is Bag End from "Lord of the Rings". It's a nice design, and I guess I could use it as a bookend, but it's not really my style, so I don't particularly want a set of them.

Next is a travel pocket, otherwise known as a coin purse. It's inspired by "A Darker Shade of Magic". It's nice, and it seems sturdy. No one uses cash anymore, so... I guess I could use this for hair clips or something.

And there is an embroidery kit, inspired by "The Buried and the Bound". I'm not a fan of these crafty kits, but this is a little different from those I've had before, because it makes a bookmark, which is useful! But I never bother doing these. I might try to persuade someone else to do it for me.

The final item is a set of goblet stones, based on "A Game of Thrones". I have never wanted goblet stones (which are, essentially, reusable ice cubes) but now that I have them, I realise I've been missing them all my life.

This month's pin is from "Sorcery of Thorns", and it's a grimoire design, which is probably my favourite so far from this collection.

It's not the best box I've had from OwlCrate recently, but it's definitely ok. I'm gutted that I'm not going to read this book, the smart thing for me to do is to sell it. Will I? Let's see.

#unboxing #owlcrate #relics and ruins #silver in the bone

[viveela]

Hello, I wanted to point out that the skintone you used was inaccurate and not as dark as Becky is in Wordgirl. I understand these are very desaturate colors, so it might of been an accident but while you can use desaturated coloring you need to keep the same value as the original skin tone (and it looks ashy) I doubt this was intentional but please fix your colors and refrain from doing this in the future. Thank you for your time.

Oh my god... excuse me?

...well this was bound to happen at some point! Fun fact these are not hand picked I used real saturated/dark colors and then turned down the opacity...when resorted to their original no transparency forms they're much more accurate.

Now I hate to show my art process since it's messy and frankly embarrassing but here we go

Here's the before:

Here's the after:

Its a simple drag of the opacity threshold I was just going for a soft light look with these colors so I wouldn’t have to focus on making them on model, so yes they're not 100% accurate but she's definitely not made lighter. I do this for Miss Power as well.

Also I would never whitewash her and I've never drawn her that way either. She was one of my few brown girl reps growing up, it was so wonderful seeing someone who looked like me on tv. It's heartbreaking to be accused this way.

Erm and... 'ashy'?? I mean. Maybe I can understand it feeling that way to you but these are accurate colors done for me by the opacity slider and basic color theory really. All colors are lighter not just her skin. But thanks for the concern I guess..?

I'm sorry if the color style isn't your taste but the second part will be done the same way it saves time. You are free to not check it out when I post it if it upsets you.

Lastly, in case there's some misunderstanding with color theory I'll include what you've requested so you understand why her skin is this shade:

As you can see I've used the original full opacity shade and it looks extremely strange. Everything else is light desaturated and pastel while her skin is not. This requires color adjustment, in order to make it fit in it needs to be the same as the rest! That's a basic application of color theory.

If you need further explanation I'd be happy to provide it just please don't point fingers and be so quick to call my art 'inaccurate' next time.

#veeanswers #wordgirl #controversial topic #i guess. #heartbroken #didnt think I'd ever get this kind of ask.

[ginga-snappd-offical]

Do you have any tips for practicing facial expressions? I always seems to struggle with em and can never quite get the expression I’m visualizing down on paper.

Okay so:

Let's break this down based on stylizations. Before anything else, you need to keep in mind what style you're drawing in. If you are doing something rendered, realistic, or a cartoon style that's more realistic like a lot of the DC cartoons, then you need to use references, and break things down by facial muscles and bone structure. Where as if you're doing something more simplistic, exaggerated, or shape based, you want to turn up those rules to an 11 and really lean into the rules of squashing, stretching, and follow through.

Let's start with realistic styles.

Let's use an example. Here's Mrs. Stock Image.

We want to draw a character with a similar facial structure to Mrs. Stock Image. We want to start with a Red Lining, to break down her facial features into it's core shapes, to help us as we look over our reference. I've blocked out the core shapes, and drawn arrows that help show me how the face squashes and stretches into her smile. I've also blocked off the hairline a little bit.

Now that we have a breakdown of Mrs. Stock Image's face, we can use that as a baseline for other expressions. I've done some explorations of how her face could potentially contort or change based on this information. Some things I keep in mind- when a character's mouth opens, their jaw opens so that needs to stretch every time, even if it's just a little bit. Eyebrows communicate a majority of major emotions. A person can smile when they're crying or frown when they're happy, so the eyebrows usually communicate a majority of emotional intent.

It's also important that the irises sit inside of the eyeball rather than on top of it. This helps with believable dimensions and perspective.

this is correct.^^

this is incorrect (for a realistic style) ^^^

There's a lot more that goes into realistic styles- dramatic lighting and shading can also help shape a character's expression and intent. Let's use Mr. CSP Head.

This is a completely neutral looking guy.

BUT WAIT!

Now he looks like he's emerging out of the darkness! What sinister intentions does he have?!

Oh wait.

now the lighting is soft, coming from below. Like he's being illuminated by a soft candle light. Look at how serene he looks now.

Lighting and Shadow can have a big impact on the tone, which is why a lot of cartoons will omit strong shadows up until very intense moments. There's plenty more I could say about realism, but we'll put a pin in that for today and stick to the simple basics for now.

Let's move onto cartoony styles. Since you asked me this question specifically, I'm guessing you're asking about the styles I tend to draw in. So I'll cover those for the most part.

I balance realism with exaggeration. Here's some of the exaggerations I tend to use a lot:

For simpler emotions, I tend not to exaggerate too much. There's still obvious emotions here, but it's not STRONG emotions. These would be expressions used during conversations that are pretty neutral. However, if the scene was more intense, then I'd exaggerate the emotions even MORE, like so:

The teeth are more exposed, the facial muscles are contorting more, even in this more exaggerated art style I'm still relying on the rules of reality as a jumping off point. Something else that I do that's more of a stylization choice is the inclusion or exclusion of eye shines to indicate emotions as well.

I usually use eye shines when a character is feeling a stronger emotion, and omit them entirely when a character is tired, depressed, or too empathetic to feel anything at all, like below.

Something else to keep in mind is that the iris should always be touching one of the eye lids, unless you're trying to make the character look inhuman, unhinged, or caught off guard by something shocking.

You can also play with how much you want to exaggerate an expression depending on how much energy you want to put into the character's face.

Hope this was helpful!

#art tips #art tutorials #drawings #facial expressions

[boneheat]

POV: it’s your turn to tell the weird kids who spend all their time holed up in the occult section that the library’s about to close, even though you suspect they’ve somehow been getting in after hours regardless

(also this was very directly inspired by this great scooby doo fanart i saw on twitter so i want to link it)

#danny phantom #danny fenton #valerie gray #tucker foley #sam manson #dp fanart #my art #oh BOY is this a big one #first off it's a much more complex scene than i typically draw #and also i've basically never done this style of shading before i was using all new brushes for this #but it was actually a lot of fun!! and went surprisingly quickly #also i imagine them as like seniors here which is why they look Tired and Cool and slightly older #all the librarians know of them and a few are totally convinced they've been breaking in after it closes sometimes #but like there's never any evidence of them messing with the locks or windows or anything so they just don't know how #🤔

[radiation]

gonna post progress pics from my volo painting and write a bit about my process since some1 asked for them!

excluding adjustment layers this has 20 layers in all. i wont show all of them bc some of them just have minor differences but ill show my general progress

sketch. just super loose but has enough visual clarity to be able to work off of and not have to fix issues caused by poor anatomy etc later

background color + painting under sketch. to choose colors, i go on the color wheel and just kinda choose colors freely and almost randomly & paint w them by very lightly pressing with a hard round elliptical opacity brush set to a large size, blending other colors on top of them this way. i dont use this brush the whole way through but honestly i couldve and it still wouldve turned out good

a lot of trial and error but because were doing it so loosely its pretty easy to find something that works quickly (also sorry the painting is so dark at this point oops)

developed painting a bit more and upped saturation in some places using an adjustment layer.

to get a lot of the color variations im getting here, i colorpick from other areas of the piece, ie colorpicking from the face and using it as subtle lighting for the hair, seeing i like how those colors look, and using that as a jumping off point and using a more intense pink for the hair shading. you can also see i got some of the yellowish on the sleeping bag or whatever tf he has on his back from the hair/hat/etc, just brushed it on there really lightly and it looks cool. another place i like to colorpick from is where the sketch overlaps with the colors underneath, it creates some interesting desaturated colors.

you can also see im developing linework a tiny bit here, its pretty early on and a lot of it will be painted over later anyways but i start being like, okay the 3d forms i've been making are working, let's draw on top of the sketch a bit to encapsulate those areas

but yeah uhh definitely a lot of this is just testing stuff out when i'm this early in the painting, i am aaaalways in motion, never stopping and just working off of instinct and what looks cool. and if i mess something up, i can just erase it and i'll have the layer underneath to fall back on.

also im just straight up not thinking about anything at this point unless im trying to closely replicate a reference image, which i didnt do very much. i use reference for eeeeeeverything i make. i took a pic of myself at a similar angle to this and then loosely based the sketch off of it, looked at pics of volo, later on looked at some reference of how ppl paint fabric, grabbed some pics of how i drew one of my ocs who makes a similar expression w his eyes, grabbed images of other digital paintings i'd made! because i wanted to work in a certain style i'd done maybe only twice before. for reference images, i use pureref, which i would highly recommend to any artist, especially ones without dual monitors (like me). basically just allows you to make a reference board and pin it on the very top of your screen

just developed more in the same fashion, then threw a couple adjustment layers over it. i toned back some of these adjustments later but yeah. you can see the lineart really starting to come together, a lot of the color variation on it colorpicked from accidental overlapping colors that ended up looking cool. btw i need to make it clear i do lineart and rendering on the same layers. also i did the stripes on the pack just by using a multiply layer, then giving it more love on the layer immediately above it so it doesnt look cheap

more rendering, got a vignette going w a multiply layer. actually started using reference for fabric folds. theyre really simply done honestly and dont look like. amazing. but they work

painted over the vignette in the background to make it a bit more interesting & not just a gradient, more rendering as usual, threw in some subtle highlights to make it a little more interesting! i probably couldve gone further with them honestly. also decided to do a really subtle outline around him cuz it looks cool. lineart is basically done at this point and this is where i started to think i was just about done

desaturated it a little bit, re-added some details i forgot about, generally fiddled with stuff and corrected some mistakes, added signature. and its DONE. i think this took me about four-four and a half hours? yeah something like that

other general notes:

-probably favorite part of this is the sleeping bag or whatever the hell that thing is on his backpack

-not entirely happy with how i did the fluffy part, it has some really cool color shifts but it doesnt feel like a proper 3d form all the way through to me. definitely pretty 2 dimensional in spots, but i was like eh i dont care enough to fix it

-although i think the pose works well enough, its definitely another example of me using pretty static poses and basic composition in my art. which isnt too terrible but i really need to start getting outside of my comfort zone on that stuff. this definitely couldve looked cooler if i developed the pose more and did better foreshortening but i didnt cuz that shiht is hard to me. im really awful at foreshortening

-on that same note, i worked off of the first sketch i made and didnt warm up beforehand which you do NOT want to do. thumbnail stuff out and make multiple sketches. 80% of the time the sketches following the first one will be better

-IM NOT AN EXPERT lots of stuff i still need to learn dont follow this 1:1

OVERALL im really satisfied with this though especially for how quickly it took me to make it. & i hope this was interesting, lmk if you have any more questions on my process !

[thewolfmanslayer]

Honestly the amount of people who say artists and writers should do stuff for free, or try to rip them off on comissions still royally piss me off.

I think the worst part of it is the entitlement, I dont want to make this too much about generations but a lot of commissioners are millenial/Gen z's who grew up on the "steal and pirate everything" mentality, take everything that you can because no one else is going to hand it to you. which I can get behind, when you are screwing over MULTI BILLION DOLLAR COMPANIES. NOT THE STRUGGLING ARTISTS AND WRITERS who are trying to keep food on the table as desperately as you probably are!

It's simple, you wouldn't walk into a restaurant, order food and tell the server "sorry I don't have any money, but I've got like a few thousand followers on social media, I can get your name out there, get the restaurant some exposure" NO! They don't need "exposure" they need you to pay the damn bill!

On top of that, most of these artists and writers ALREADY HAVE FOLLOWINGS. They already have thousands of people following them, waiting for the chance to get a commission, who are willing to pay for said commission, they don't need "exposure" when they're already out there! He'll even the artists and writers with a few hundred don't need it, they'll get more followers as time goes by, their skill alone will see to it.

And what is with people trying to get free art and writing? It's not going to work! You can't harass someone until they cave, trust me, you'll be long since blocked before you even have the opportunity. I don't do comissions, online anyways, but my own friends and family, people who actually know me STILL PAY ME whenever they ask for me to do art for them because they KNOW it takes TIME AND EFFORT.

How many times do we need to have this discussion???? Like when is it going to finally click that people who need to pay their bills just as much as you do AREN'T going to do this shit for free!?

Here's the thing about art and writing, that you've heard a billion times but still aren't getting; IT. TAKES. TIME. AND. EFFORT. TO. GET. DONE. the art isn't going to magically appear and the writing isn't going to suddenly write itself, if either were so convenient YOU WOULDNT BE ASKING AN ARTIST OR WRITER IN THE FIRST PLACE!

Look at that, you see that? The first picture I did back in 2012-13, the picture beside it? I did that TWO YEARS AGO. I didn't suddenly know exactly what to do, or had anything close to a god given talent for drawing (I'm not that talented). The first picture WAS THE ABSOLUTE BEST I COULD DO AT THE TIME THAT I MADE IT. In the time between these two drawings I admittedly took a break from art, but then I got back into it four years ago. EVEN STILL that was four YEARS of starting over from the basics, relearning everything, learning new things, wanting to actually improve my art.

Which, guess what, DID NOT HAPPEN OVER NIGHT. It was HOURS UPON HOURS of my limited free time as an adult drawing over and over and over and over again, every single goddamn day to get to the point that I was able to make that redraw look as good as it does in comparison. He'll, my art now puts them both to shame! Because I spent the time improving my quality!!

Now look at these artists doing comissions, they've probably put EVEN MORE of their time to get that good! They've put in LITERAL YEARS of sweat, blood, tears, frustrations and dedicated hardwork. Some did the same as me, self teaching and lots of practice, others probably had to go to school, which definitely wasn't cheap. But all of us put in that time and effort TO REACH THESE POINTS. Of being better artists, developing our styles, getting faster at drawing.

And maybe you think that this is super easy, right? That I or every other artist can just fire some art off and boom its good and done in like an hour?

FUCK. NO.

Even now it takes me several hours a day OVER MANY DAYS to make something exceptionally good! It doesn't matter how good an artist is, it still. Takes. Time.

Maybe the issue is that you don't understand how much actually goes into art, let me break it down for you, the steps that most people follow to finish ONE drawing.

-Rough draft: general character outline, get a feel for what I want to draw.

-Rough sketch: I start doing a bit of pencil to start filling in details like mouth, nose, eyes, hair, clothes. Ect.

-Penciling: I go over the rough sketch and clean everything up, maybe do some editing, this is when you can start making out all the details.

-Ink: I trace over the finished pencil with a pen tool and actually have the line art, everything looks clean, presentable, it actually looks like a character now. I'll spend time editing this and possibly redoing the inking many times over to get to a point where I like it.

-Flat color: I decide on which colors to use for skin tone, clothes accessories. Ect.

-Shading/highlights: I figure out where my light source is and how strong it is, I then apply the correct amount of lighting and shadows to the color to give it depth, I also have determine the texture of skin, clothes and accessories to make everything look real and natural.

-Blending: I smooth out the shading and highlights so that it looks more natural and isn't too hard (noticeable difference between color) so that it looks as natural as possible.

-Finish: I go over last minute details, finish any editing or corrections that need to be done. Once it's good I call it a day.

Each process is longer in length then the previous, with the exception of the final editing (as long as everything looks good) and even the rough draft can take some time. Over all this is SEVERAL HOURS of work for a SINGLE DRAWING.

So is it sinking in yet? How much is put into doing even a single character drawing? God forbid if its done with background. This isn't a "scratch a pen around and be done with it in ten minutes" kinda deal, no, this is SEVERAL HOURS OF SOMEONES LIFE BEING PUT INTO THIS

And if you still have the AUDACITY to try and wrangle free art from an artist then there's no helping you, you're just a selfish piece of shit, no question and I want nothing to do with you.

Someone might say "But I got free art/writing from.-" look I don't give a shit if someone did something for you THAT ONE TIME, these other artists and writers? Totally seperate and different people. You're one freebie experience does not, and should not apply to other artists and writers.

"But what if I really want this commission but don't have the money right now?" Well, that's tough shit. Save up and properly commission them when you can, it's not their problem.

"But what if I'm in a really bad financial situation and really want it?" That sucks, and I'm sorry, but again, not their problem. Chances are this is their only source of income and they need to make money so that they don't end up in a similar situation.

"They have a gift! They should share it!" What kind of cheap ass- LOOK, just because someone is talented or really good at something does not automatically obligate them to do anything for total strangers in anyway shape or form. These are living, breathing people, the same as you. They need to eat, they need to pay rent/mortgages, they need to pay vet bills, send their kids to college, do their taxes and everything else that YOU YOURSELF need to do. Asking anyone to spend their time doing something for free, when that something is how THEY ARE SURVIVING is beyond asinine. Not only that, this obviously isn't a hobby to them, it is very clearly THEIR JOB. Would you want to do a job where you didn't get paid at all? Doing a shit ton of work for absolutely nothing? No? Didn't think so.

"It shouldn't be about the money!" Well unfortunately, as with almost every other job, it is. We live in a world where we desperately need to make money in order to survive. That's the painful fact of the matter. If money never had to be an issue ever again then this would be a very different story. But it's not, plain and simple as can be.

Look, these people are just like you, artists and writers who are just trying to get by in a shitty ass world, using the one thing they have that let's them have an income. Leave them be, don't try and trick them, guilt them, or cuss them out when you don't get your way. Either properly comission or leave them the hell alone, plain and simple.

#artists #writers #art #writing #rant #comissions #people

[belle82devart]

73 Question Tag Game

Thank you to the lovey @thewanderer000 ❤

On a scale of 1-10, how excited are you about life right now?

I would say a 6 or 7. Life can be so fucking scary (as well as people), but it still has it's charms and quirks that make it enjoyable and something to look forward to.

Describe yourself in a hashtag?

[#scared of everything] or [#justneedsahug]

If you could do a love scene with anyone, who would it be?

Jeffrey Dean Morgan. He's got the swagger, the sweetness and the salt and pepper look isn't helping sway my opinion at all. Plus he's got strong arms, perfect for cuddles.

If your life was a musical, what would the marquee say?

(I hate to admit this, but I had to look up what a fucking marquee was.) The anxious and the strange.

What’s your wakeup ritual?

Get up, shower, have a little time for self loathing and negative personal views. Then go for the self affirmation card and continue the day.

What’s your favorite time of day?

Morning. Most days, the morning is where it all starts. Where the hikes in the mountains begin or where the next big projects begin.

Your go to for having a good laugh?

Crack videos of whatever fandom I'm obsessed with at the time. Or cat videos.

Dream country to visit?

I know it's not a country, but Europe in general. If it had to be a single place, Poland.

What’s the biggest surprise you’ve had?

Finding out while my mother threw up on the side of the road that 'hey, you're gonna be a big sister'!

Heels or flats/sneakers?

Combat boots. Now I can do heels, and I can do sneakers, but boots, especially combat style are my favorite.

Vintage or new?

Vintage all the way! It's oleasing to be able to experience something old and make it new in your eyes. I guess that's why I own a Polaroid camera and Walkman.

Who do you want to write your obituary?

My family. All of them.

Style icon?

My father. I've basically stolen all his band shirts and old biker vest/jackets. Sooo yeah.

What are three things you can’t live without?

Music, art, and friends/family. What's life without companionship? What's life without some sort of art? The world wouldn't suevibe without music, and I can't survive without any of the listed.

What’s one ingredient you put in everything?

Ketchup for most things, but not all.

What 3 people living or dead would you like to make dinner for?

- Vincent Price

- Bob Ross

- Anyone else who wants to eat my shitty cooking.

What’s your biggest fear in life?

Well, I absoluty am scared to death of spiders, but that's not my biggest fear. Failure and letting those I care for down... That's my biggest fear. I fear that I will never make anyone happy, that I can't do right...

God, this question called me out hard.

Window or aisle seat?

Window all the way. Give me the view !

What’s your current TV obsession?

- The Walking Dead

- The Witcher

- and The Boys

Favorite app?

Autodesk Sketchbook Pro

Secret talent?

For some reason, I can put people to sleep really easy when I pet their hair.

Most adventurous thing you’ve done in your life?

Went to Washington D.C. I got to see so many museums and cool little places.

How would you define yourself in three words?

Anxious. Sweet. Creative.

Favourite piece of clothing you own?

My leather jacket.

Must have clothing item everyone should have?

Fuzzy socks. Evwryoje deserves to have warm feet!

Superpower you would want?

Teleportation. I can go anywhere I want but also I can leave undesired sistiations when they get overwhelming.

What’s inspiring you in life right now?

People, music, books, movies/shows/games. You name it, i'll get something out of it.

Best piece of advice you’ve received?

Never give up, even when the odds seem stackwd agaisnt you. Always keep pushing forward and remember that there will always be someone in the world to fall back on when it gets to be too hard.

Best advice you’d give your teenage self?

You'll see and hear a lot of shit in life that'll being you down, that will make everything seem so bad... But it will get better. You'll make it to the next day, and you'll one day see yourself as a good person, even if you need that little push and reminder from your friends.

A book that everyone should read?

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

What would you like to be remembered for?

Being kind and helpful.

How do you define beauty?

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so it truly can't be defined generally without personal opinion slipping in.

What do you love most about your body?

My eyes. I really don't see anything worth while besides my eyes.

Best way to take a rest/decompress?

Curled up with my cats. I may be allergic but i'll be damned if I don't get a good rest without them.

Favourite place to view art?

Anywhere and everywhere. Sometimes it's fun going to a gallery and seeing the art others have created.

If your life were a song, what would it be?

Ça va ça va - Claudio Capéo

If you could master one instrument, what would it be?

Drums or the marimba.

If you had a tattoo, where would it be?

Upper arm or as a 3/4 sleeve.

What’s your spirit animal?

Maine Coon

Best gift you’ve ever received?

A small box made of cedar from my mother for my birthday. I don't know why but I was a sobbing mess when I got it.

Best gift you’ve ever given?

A 4ft x 6 ft painting in dedication to my aunts and their family after their car crash.

What’s your favourite board game?

Risk, Pandemic (Ha! Ironic), Monopoly, and Sorry!

What’s your favourite colour?

Blue and all shades of blue.

Least favourite colour?

Yellow.

Diamonds or pearls?

Neither. Give me some good old fashioned gemstones like quartz and I'll be happiee than a pig in mud.

Drugstore makeup or designer?

Drugstore. One, I don't have the money for designer makeup. Two, you can use drugstore and dollar store make-up to achieve the same look. And three, I don't wear makeup too often, so what's the point od paying top dollar for something I'll only use here and there?

Blow-dry or air-dry?

Either. Depends on how much time I've got on my hands.

Pilates or yoga?

Haven't done either but I would love to try yoga.

Coffee or tea?

Both!

What’s the weirdest word in the English language?

Hullaballoo.

hullaballoo. noun. 1. Sounds or a sound, especially when loud, confused, or disagreeable: babel, clamor, din, hubbub, noise, pandemonium, racket, rumpus, tumult, uproar.

Dark chocolate or milk chocolate?

Both, but also white chocolate!

Stairs or elevator?

Both

Summer or winter?

Both. I love the storms during the summer, and the snow during the winter. Especially New York winters (Buffalo in particular).

You are stuck on an island, you can pick one food to eat forever without getting tired of it, what would you eat?

Chicken parmigiana

A dessert you don’t like?

Anything with Nutella.

A skill you’re working on mastering?

Welding. This year i'll be starting the rest of my classes to get certified in it.

Best thing to happen to you today?

Nothings really happened yet, but that can always change!

Best compliment you’ve ever received?

"Wow, you've got some talent" when it comes to my art or writing.

Favourite smell?

Rhododendrons and the forest floor after a rain storm.

Hugs or kisses?

Both! And at the same time makes it so much better.

If you made a documentary, what would it be about?

Paranormal locations along the Blue Ridge Parkway or how religion ties in with art.

Last piece of content you consumed that made you cry?

A poem about beauty in death and how the earth always reclaims what has been taken. The poem was truly amazing.

Lipstick or lip gloss?

Both.

Sweet or savory?

Both!!!

Girl crush?

Kate Beckinsale

How you know you’re in love?

I truly have no idea! I mean, I haven't been in love before...

Song you can listen to on repeat?

Fistfight by The Ballroom Thieves

If you could switch lives with someone for a day who would it be?

Mads Mikkelsen. He's classy, he's goofy, and who wouldn't want to?

What are you most excited about at this time in your life?

Persuing my passions. I'm on the road to become a Graphic Designer, and that's just so exciting to me!

------------

Tagging: @whitecrawace-mind-palace / @rosadiazbiqueen | @johnlocklover221 | @yancy-trash

#get to know the blogger #get to know me #tag game #73 questions #Spotify

[reidsaurora]

emmy hi!!

28, 56, 119, 123

hi, Natalie! i've never seen you in my box before, so welcome!! ❤️

28. Favorite movie? ⇒ my all time favorite movie is The Princess Bride. i associate it with so many happy memories from my infusion days (#justsickgirlthings lol). it's truly the definition of comfort movie for me. other than that, I love Monsters Inc. (another comfort movie), A Week Away, and the Kissing Booth movies :)

56. If I could meet anyone on this earth, who would it be? ⇒ aaahhh, i hate this question because there's so many good options 😩 something in me wants to say MGG, but i feel like i'd freeze up and forget every word in the English language 🤣 same with JarPad, i'm trying to meet him in September but I'm literally so nervous bc idk what I'm gonna say lol!! uh, i guess my serious answer would be Bailee Madison. she's pretty much my main acting inspiration. she stays true to herself and continues to be kind and humble no matter how famous she gets.

119. Learned another language? ⇒ i technically have. i learned Spanish in freshman year of high school, but i probably couldn't form a single Spanish sentence bc i was basically teaching myself (#justhomeschoolthings). i would love to learn actual Spanish and Italian though if i ever get the chance!

123. Dyed my hair? ⇒ i have... many many times 🤣 i've done green twice (it was at this point that i learned NOT to use kool-aid), blue twice, purple (also learned NOT to use Splat brand dye), i once dyed it back to my natural color on the ends. that might be it? i actually wanna do this to my hair when i get some money, but with this shade of pink, i also wanna do the same hair style with the bangs but like this for SPN Con in September bc me and @bfunsolvedboys are cosplaying Daphne and Velma :)

These were super fun! Thanks for all the questions (even if my answers were long lol)! ❤️

ask me some of these questions 🤗❤️

#asks #inbox #anons #anon ask #anon asks #thanks moot! #emmy interacts

[digiphotograp-blog]

SELF PORTRAIT EVALUATION

The final product that I have produced is a polygon type self-portrait with half of my face in the polygon style and the other half being unedited. I chose to use this style after researching into how game designers used to design graphics in the Tomb Raider games and other games of the time.

Research

Before doing this assignment, I researched into two different branches: video game graphics and abstract self-portraits, David Schermann (https://www.davidschermann.com/m/low-poly-portraits) in particular as he has done a lot of low poly photo portrait designs. There were two games that I researched in particular which were the original Tomb Raider and SuperHot; one being old and the other relatively new.

David Schermann & Abstract Self Portraits

A self portrait is a photograph taken by the artist of the artist often done to showcase hobbies or personality. A self portrait is the most common form of photography in the new digital age after the evolution of the “Selfie” camera on smartphones.I first found David when looking for ideas on how to go about creating a low poly profile shot as I had seen it done to a lot of objects and animals and in the digital world in video games and assets but never really people. David has a unique way of creating the effect where he chooses to extract areas of interest and “low-polyfy” them. In much of his work the person seems to be fading away with only the top of their shoulders to their head being shown. I was influenced by this design choice and therefore cut off the bottom of my photo and chose to only low-poly to the bottom of my neck leaving my hoodie normal.

Tomb Raider

The original Tomb Raider game came out in 1996 the technology at the time wasn't able to render a lot of things at once in real time as 3D technology in games had just come out. During this year a lot of companies tried created 3D characters such as Mario in Super Mario 64 and Lara Croft in Tomb Raider. These characters had to be very simple and therefore were fairly boxy, the characters and levels themselves were all created from “polygons” these objects were made using a variety of sized triangles to create the desired effect of a 3D character. Below is a very good example of how this technology was very good for its time but massively limited in terms of level of detail.

Superhot

Technology and graphics in video games have improved immensely with objects being made from polygons so small and detailed that they cannot be seen however, Superhot is a great example of how the style has evolved overtime from a hardware problem that had a workaround in the shape of triangles to an art style that many people seem to enjoy and get nostalgic from. The art style is often referred to as minimalist and retro and is very popular at the moment currently making a come back in big titles such as Super Hot VR, Grow-up and Astroneer just to name a few. 

Planning

After researching the styles I was influenced by I started working on the planning for the self-portrait and started plotting out how my ideas were going to create a finished product. To begin the planning stage, I filled out a worksheet with brief descriptions and basic information about my ideas and which I was going to expand on further and which I was going to experiment with. After completing this worksheet, I started experimenting with shadows and the lighting situation in my bedroom. I decided to take the self-portrait here as I liked the darkness of the room when the lights were off, and the blinds were slightly open allowing the natural light to enter the room. This is where I first got the idea to edit shadows from a closed blind onto my self-portrait as I liked the effect that it gave to objects in my room and wanted to display the same effect on myself. I think the ideas that I have are all good and if executed well I believe that the final piece will be to my liking and look well done.

When taking a few of my self-portraits I decided to face towards the window to get my face lit up and some away from the window to allow the light to come from behind me properly outlining my head allowing for easy editing, the latter of which was the case for the self-portrait I eventually used for the final piece.

Editing

When it came to editing the self-portrait I used Photoshop as I’ve had the most experience in the program and prefer it to the other image processing applications that Adobe has in their creative cloud I also own a license for it and therefore could complete a lot of the work in my spare time on my own computer.

Using Photoshop I completed the self-portrait using a technique that I found online whereby you create a new layer and then essentially draw lots of triangles using the polygon lasso tool, selecting a colour using the eyedropper tool and then the paint bucket to fill in the selected area. This technique although simple took a long time to achieve and a lot of effort as I had to essentially recreate the right side of my face using small triangles. Having an extra layer is extremely important and useful as it allowed me to hide and view the layer to see if the intended effect was working and to trace around my face and head using the polygon lasso tool.

I think that the final product I have created is good and the technique has worked well to get the effect I was looking for. The work showcases the digital side that I have as well as including what I like to do in my spare time. I believe its the strongest self-portrait I created and therefore chose it for the final piece.

Experiment - Blinds

The first photograph that I edited for this project was vastly different to the final piece. To experiment I had chosen to create the effect of a set of blinds casting a shadow over my face. To create the effect, I created multiple layers on Photoshop, each of the layers had different roles to play in creating the effect. Firstly, I had to create the rectangular shadow shapes that were mimicking a set of blinds after this I masked around myself to give the shadows more of a realistic and 3-dimensional look this way the shadows appeared to be arching around me and not flat on the image. I liked how the effect turned out but thought that it was very basic and that I could create something much more elaborate and showing of my personality so created the final product using multiple triangles filled with the common colour in their surrounding area creating a polygon look.

Problems

I have had a few problems with the work I've done on the self-portrait artefact. Most of the problems that I had with the final piece was getting the hair right on both my head and face as in many areas the colour and length of hair looked “off” when compared to the original taken photo. I had a big problem when recreating my eye as the colours and size of the triangles weren't allowing for the detail needed to recreate a human eyeball well without it looking like a mess of colours. I left the eyeball to design last and figured out that to resolve this problem I created large triangles for the whites of my eye shading the colour whiter than suggested then used much smaller triangles for the different shades of blue and green found in my iris and the darker shades in my pupil.