“The fact is, I don’t know where my ideas come from. Nor does any writer. The only real answer is to drink way too much coffee and buy yourself a desk that doesn’t collapse when you beat your head against it.”
― Douglas Adams
i really dislike it when people don’t understand perfectionism.
like, it isn’t always “person who has tons of motivation and spends a ton of time making this thing *just* right”
wayyyyyy more often than not it’s:
”I know that if I try to make this thing, it won’t be perfect, so I simply won’t try.”
which definitely sounds bad, right? but when you realize that it doesn’t just apply to voluntarily making art, then you realize how perfectionism is not at all a good thing in any context.
“i know that if I try to work on this assignment right now, it won’t be good enough, so i’ll wait until the last possible moment so that I have something forcing me to do it.”
”i know that I should start going to the gym, but I won’t see any improvement right away, so I just won’t.”
”i know that i should brush my teeth tonight, but that won’t be good enough to undo the fact that i haven’t brushed them 4 days in a row, so I just won’t.”
perfectionism isn’t the uncontrollable impulse to make things “just right”. (although it can occasionally manifest as this.)
perfectionism is the absolute, psychological inability to accept the concepts of “good enough” and “better than nothing”.
Hey! Me and my partner have started a new YouTube channel where we post ambient walking videos from the places we visit on our travels!
I have found ambient walking videos to be really helpful when I am stressed out and need to focus on work, or can’t fall asleep. So if you, like me, would enjoy a virtual escape while you study, work, attempt to sleep or simply would enjoy a nice wirtual tour through different corners of the world, please consider subscribing to our channel.
I love little pootis so much, a fantastic series. If you haven’t seen it yet I really recommend it!! I bought one of the plushies for my little siblings for Christmas hehe.
I’ve been wanted to make some fanart for it for a while, but I wanted it to be special! Since it means too much to me and my family :3 so I tried my hand at digital painting again! Here’s my process:
First I started out with the sketch and putting in the values, (that image is the scene I was referencing.) and since I have absolutely no idea how perspective works I just guessed and went “eh good enough.” I also used my radical composition skills to give the whole thing some life! (Golden ratio my beloved.) I should have gotten some reference images, first mistake, but I was way too excited lol.
Then I duplicated the layer and started painting over my sketch using some painting and blending brushes. Unfortunately I forgot to capture any in-betweens of this process so it makes it a little hard to explain. But once I got my values down and my painting rendered to point I wanted it to be, we started coloring!
And oh god! This is why the painting took 30 hours! This was my first time painting using this method, so I was so not ready for the coloring part. I’m in a love-hate relationship with gradient maps so the coloring was mostly done with blending modes, I think I used the linear light mode?
After watching a stupid amount of videos by Marc Brunet I finally got it! Used just one overlay layer and adjusted my colors and values as needed for this one. Used a couple gradients and other techniques to get the snow and the water looking how I wanted, and we’re almost done!
My favorite step! Adding a bunch of textures and sparkly stuff! It’s not for everyone but I really like it. And congratulations we finished our first painting yippee! Thanks for reading :3
it was one of the most nerve-wracking experiences of my life. i felt ashamed. terrified. instead of sharing the news with family and friends, i hid it, horrified that if any of them read it, they'd finally realize what a fraud i was.
writers, you know what i mean. creative pursuits and imposter syndrome go together like jam on toast, or ketchup on hotdogs, or... well, you get the picture.
lately, i've been trying to develop a healthier relationship with my writing. a positive one. creativity dies with doubt, it dies when we refuse to believe in ourselves and attempt to bury our flaws. life is flawed. it's imperfect. but there's beauty in coloring outside the lines, and so this is me practising what i preach.
this is me turning over a new leaf.
last year, i published my first book; a collection of short horror. seeing as it's nearly halloween, it seems as good a time as any to do my first real plug for it-- even if that plug is a year late.
CROOKED ANTLERS is a compendium of dark fantasy and urban legends. it blends the stylings of neil gaiman, chuck palahniuk and frank miller with the 'found footage' vibe of modern creepypastas to create horror for the digital age.
is it perfect? nah. but it is damn spooky, and that's all it ever set out to be. so if you're looking for a fresh tome of ghost stories, look no further-- i've got you covered.
oh? and if everybody else could plug their own work on this post too, that'd be great. let's tackle this imposter syndrome thing together. show me what you're cooking!
Self-taught one work-in-progress at a time so that there’s some beginner stuff I don’t know and advanced stuff that I do know and I will forever be making silly beginner mistakes in complex projects that I’ll probably never complete :)
I’ve never had the chance to talk to another writer before recently and it’s so interesting to see other people’s creative processes. I’ve come across so many different way to write. And I know that might sound cheesy but it has been really cool. And even more interesting to me that my style is so different from the most common ways to write.