#i should really put more effort into making my art look appealing instead of drawing raw emotion in shitty quality and calling it a day...

[gunstellations]

to love and be loved

#haikaveh #my art #sorry the color value and quality is so bad it started out as a random little doodle on the corner of my canvas then i got attached.. #im obsessed with their canon relationship and absolutely adore the dynamics and also i want to see them in a loving marriage together!! #i should really put more effort into making my art look appealing instead of drawing raw emotion in shitty quality and calling it a day... #genshin impact #alhaitham #kaveh #i tried my best to show it but kaveh is smiling i hope its legible...legible?? seeable? the art form of readable #wait i can just say readable #is that a word.. #some parts of this sketch is bothering me so much like some of alhaithams hair #and bits of the scarf especialy but im learning to let things go.... #and also the cloth on his arm being folded just wrong fuck. ok maybe if i colour this later ever ill fix those.. #sorry abt the rant as always have a great day/night and i love you

[darkdumbass]

Hi there! This is random, but I really really love the way you do line art! I love how simple, clean, and direct it feels. It has great energy and feels really appealing! I’m trying to improve my own line art right now… I feel like it takes me a long time to choose the “right” lines and end up with clean finish. What to you think has helped you get up to this point with your line art the most? Do you have any suggestions of ways to study and practice? Any favorite artists you look up to for their lines?

I love your work ❤️ thank you

Hello! Thank you for the kind words. I enjoy doing linework a lot, so this is nice to hear :)

These days my line art is more of a "clean drawing" rather than what one usually imagines under traditional line art, which would be opaque lines with varying weight. Right now I like to use a brush that doesn't vary size with pen pressure but varies opacity only. It gives the lines a very soft feeling that I've grown to love.

I browsed through your art, and I was a bit blown away actually, because I think you have a fantastic energy and expression in your drawings, which is something I aspire to have myself. You are very knowledgable about line weight and shapes, so I won't bore you with explaining any of that, haha.

I think good line art comes down to confidence. Obviously, an artist needs a confident hand to avoid shaky lines, to lead them exactly the way they want to, to give them an energy. This sort of mechanical skill is acquired through experience.

But! I've always felt there is a sort of a mental side to this as well, which is best observed during traditional inking. You have to commit to your lines, you have to trust them. You have to sit back and give control to your hand, because with the experience it has, it also has a mind of its own. This sounds pretty out there, but it's about letting go and not overthinking it. I realized this when I looked up to Jim Lee's work as an older teen. There's a lot of videos on YT where you can see his process, which looks utterly effortless. Take this one for example. It's quick, so it's a bit rough, but it does look like his hand is just doing whatever!

I fostered that approach in my art while doing daily drawing from life - straight to inks without sketching. The drawings look wonky a lot of the time, but it gave me confidence where it mattered later. To this day, when I do clean lines in digital too, I adopt this mindset of letting go, which gives the lines more leeway, which also means that if the line doesn't go exactly where it should according to the sketch, I can still trust it. (Although contrary to this, I still put a lot of controlled effort into faces, and this approach comes more easily while drawing bodies and clothes.)

As for suggestions for practice, as I've already mentioned, drawing from life straight to inks (I recommend this over going straight to inks from imagination as that's extremely difficult, at least for me). Have a fast hand, and do long lines even if they come out wobbly. Try to let your hand roleplay Jim Lee here and there - let it do that flick that crosses a line it shouldn't have, let it make a turn with an accidental squiggle, let it pool a bit of ink at the end of the line. Fake it till you make it. At first, I suggest trying this on subjects that aren't your expertise (eg. in my case, draw a bottle instead of a person), so you don't subconsciously compare this to your best work, but make sure you're still having fun :)

Of course, it helps to like doing line art too. I don't know what your relationship to it is, but if it suffers, I suggest busting out the traditional inks with dipping pens, wodden skewers and brushes. It connects me with the process like nothing else.

As for my favorites, I can recommend one of my favorite manga artists - Satoru Noda. Superbly confident and energetic linework. Check out his series Golden Kamuy or Dogsred :)

I hope this will give you a small idea of how I approach my line art. It might be a mess… If you have any more questions as a result of this, or related to anything else, don't hesitate to ask!

#ask

[facelessxchurch]

Alright, now that we got the basic unbiased info established and out of the way, here are my personal thoughts:

First Impression: That cover is ugly as Hell. It has the same pale blue I disliked about the HBL cover but has swapped the ugly neon yellow with a somehow even uglier neon green. And randomly threw in a neon magenta for the secular title.

This is visual vomit, my eyes feel assaulted and I am sickened to my core.

Regarding the story, I'm very unhappy that it's set after UtE. For all I'm concerned the last book ruined the universe and made Val too OP for there to even be a chance for any story set in that time period to be even remotely good.

The title is so fucking generic too.

The Artwork: I don't like it, especially not the cover. I know I said I really wanted an SP comic, but I said that under the assumption Todor Hristov (the Grimoire comic artist) or someone with a similar style would be drawing it. Instead we get this.

It's this cheap classic American comics style which I despise so much and not the more 'painterly' European graphic novel style I much prefer. This is ironic bc the main artist is from Northern Ireland. I do get that Landy likes this style bc he's probably nostalgic for it, but quite frankly, the classic comic style is a big part of the reason why I never really got into comics.

I would have loved to see how Todor Hristov draws the nasties, but I dread to see how THIS artist would draw them.

While this is mostly a personal taste thing I also see a few things I would say are art sins. Like the shading on the lower part of the hair. Why would you cross hatch/texture shade there. The shading lines should go with the flow of the hair like it was done for the top part of the hair. One eye brow is thicker than the other. And the way the nose is shaded makes it look like the face is looking to the viewers left while the nose seems to be pointing towards the right?? The nose shading is super weird in general. No idea what's going on there.

And I dislike the way the skull was stylised. Too long upper jaw, to short lower jaw. And why is his jaw so wide??

Considering that Landy is writing this and he's going full control freak on it again, the art is the only thing an SP comic would have going for it. And so far, I don't like what I'm seeing.

They could have at least put more effort into the cover art considering that's what makes people pick up a comic in the first place :/ (comic cover art is often not done by those that illustrate the actual comic)

Regarding the TheBookSeller Article (there is alot to unpack here)

" The 144-page, full-colour graphic novel Bad Magic will be a completely new “self-contained story” which builds its own distinct lore separate to that presented in the book series."

I'm ok with the selfcontained part. But why does it have different lore from the main series?? It's not only set in the same universe it's the same goddamn characters!

"The author explained: “I didn’t want it to be just for the hardcore [Skulduggery] reader or even the casual reader. You can pick it up even if you’ve never read a Skulduggery book."

Yet ANOTHER entry to the series. A sure sign that things are going well regarding this IP. (sarcasm)

"Introducing a graphic novel to the universe was then a “natural fit” for a Skulduggery story and tied with HarperCollins’ desire “to lead the market and do different, new, exciting things”."

"Bad Magic arrives when graphic novels, spearheaded by Alice Oseman’s record-breaking Heartstopper series, are becoming increasingly popular [...] Yet the timing is, in part, due to luck: “We sort of loved to say that it was a clever plan, but it also ended up being serendipitous,” says Lake. Landy concurs: “The new emphasis that is now on graphic novels ever since Heartstopper is fortuitous; it’s not the impetus [for Bad Magic], it’s not how it started.” 

"Bad Magic will undoubtedly tap into the pool of Skulduggery readers while hoping to entice new ones and appeal to the growing graphic novel audience."

Landy might have been wanting to do an SP graphic novel for a long time, but I'm sure that the reason HC greenlight it as bc comics are currently THE thing. In their minds anyways.

Seems like HC wants to use the current trendy thing to breath new life into Landy's dying IP.

"Readership has always been at the centre of Landy’s ethos: he will always add an extra element, such as an extra chapter or a deleted scene, to every new edition of his books."

Oh please, if he respected his fanbase his writing in phase 2 wouldn't have been so goddamn lazy. Every fight scene that was meant to be one of the big ones was either vaguely described or not at all. The pandering is half assed and ill-informed and releasing the Grimoire in the state it was in was an insult to his readers. Not even the bootlikers could bother faking liking it.

And adding 'something extra' to new editions is the exception, not the rule. Plus, I know examples of deleted scenes/What-Could-Have-Been, but I'm not aware of him adding new chapters to books?? Do they mean the short stories?

"Unlike other prequels which act as an opening into the world, Hell Breaks Loose requires the reader to have already read the entire series. [...]“If you’re a fan, even though it’s not book 16, you need to read it.”"

That's in direct contradiction to how HBL is marketed as entry point for new readers tho.

[source]

"It [HBL] definitely hinges on reading all 15 books, because it deals with a piece of the series’ history, [...] The novel promises to reveal two things “that will blow the fans’ minds"

"Bad Magic and Hell Breaks Loose are the first steps in an extensive publishing plan for the Skulduggery universe. “The excitement doesn’t stop after 2023,” Lake notes, with plans for the 20th anniversary of the first book in 2027 and into 2028. A redesign of the backlist can be expected, alongside “very, very, very secret things”."

Ah, so this is the rebranding Landy was talking about. So all new covers will be a fucking eye sore. Great. Amazing. Can't wait to bleach my eyes out.

I thought it was finally over with phase 2 but they have plans at least 5 years into the future. How are they still going?? Globally phase 2 is a complete failure. Despite multiple attempts SP never became popular in America and I know that at least Bulgaria stopped translating and in Germany the book stores have like 2 SP books max when there used to be big displays for every release. And the fandom is pretty much on life support. Half of it hates Landy's guts anyways.

#skulduggery pleasant #SP Bad Magic #SP Hell Breaks Loose #SP Comics #rant #long post #art rant #Landy Interview

[excitedlysuffering]

Green With Envy

It’s past 2am and my eyes hurt so it’s unedited for now sorry y’all😅

Original Request (from Wattpad account): What makes the boys jealous, if possible?

Guest stars: Sasori and Sai!

Masterlist     

Naruto~

Oh, this boy… he’s too oblivious sometimes he doesn’t even know to be jealous. He was at a hot spring with friends once and someone says, “(Y/N) is so hot…” Naruto just grinned and said, “Yeah, she really is.”

But that doesn’t mean he won’t protect your honor. If someone says something a little too… risque like ‘Yeah, I’d tap that’ for example, get ready for more Narutos than you can count all charging you with a Rasengan.

He will not stand other guys cozying up to you. He’s the one who should be blessed with your hugs and cuddles. Won’t hesitate to cause a scene and yell to the entire world that he loves you and won’t let any other guy make a pass at you.

“Naruto, you didn’t need to go that far! You blasted him through three walls!” He’s endearing, really.

Sasuke~

Is jealousy an Uchiha thing or just a Sasuke thing? One of life’s many mysteries. Anywho, unlike Naruto, the second your name is brought up in conversation, he goes on guard and he’s listening closely.

If anything is said that he deems inappropriate, whether it be disparaging or otherwise, Sasuke had better be held back or he just might punch you into next week.

“Sasuke, calm down! He just said I had good taste in clothes!”

Even though he can easily get jealous, he knows the importance of freedom and he trusts you. He won’t come guns blazing (or sword slashing rather) and drag you away unless you need it of course.

The last thing he wants is for you to feel like you’re dating your dad or something. He’s very blunt and if he becomes uneasy with the way another male is talking to you, he’ll let said male know. Maybe after scowling with his Sharingan activated, however.

Neji~

Neji doesn’t really get jealous per se, more like offended on your behalf. Because of his upbringing, which taught him manners and the utmost respect, he really can’t understand talking about girls like they’re objects? Will never refer to a woman as ‘hot’ or anything like that.

If someone even dares speak of you like that, (even if you’re not necessarily together yet) he will fight them, and they will experience the 64 palms technique.

He especially hates people in your personal space. He really does trust you, just not others. Is not afraid to embarrass someone on your behalf. Half the time his glare is enough to scare them off, but some people are just clueless. (They wake up in the hospital)

“Neji! You can’t just throw me over your shoulder and leave! And that guy looked like he had seen a ghost?!” Needless to say, even cool, calm, and collected Neji has his limits.

Shikamaru~

Shika is too laid back to get jealous over little things. Somewhat like Neji, he doesn’t get jealous. He might feel threatened on your behalf, but never jealous. He can trust you with his life why shouldn’t he trust you with your relationship?

However, if someone is clearly harassing you or just generally making you uncomfortable, he will not hesitate to step in and make them leave. He won’t resort to physical violence (too much work), but he will intimidate them or put his genius to use and play some kind of trick on them.

He honestly has endless patience and at the same time no patience? Patience with you if you’re having a pleasant conversation with someone, but will go from 0-100 (or 50, really, anything more is a lot of effort) real quick.

“Shika, that guy thought he was really paralyzed, thanks to your shadow possession!” Being jealous is a waste of time, but clever revenge is always a treat for Shika.

Kiba~

So. Jealous. So. Easily. Kiba is naturally animalistic (in the best way) and just like a dog, can be very possessive. If explicitly asked, he will try to tone down his jealous fits, but will still be protective. If he does have free reign, however, oh boy…

No chill at all, whatsoever. Whether it’s absolutely destroying the object of his rage or just simply making out with you right there. No matter how annoyed he may get, he respects you with every fiber of his being and would never tell you to change or try to control you. He wouldn’t ever embarrass you (unless Kiba and Akamaru pummeling a room full of guys is embarrassing).

Just let him FIND OUT someone is making you feel the slightest bit of unease. One second, they’re chatting you up and then BAM! There’s a flash of white and a huge dog ready to maul them.

“Kiba, what do you mean they all looked at me for too long?! We walked in the door, of course, they turned to look!”

Gaara~

Gaara is a bit of a conundrum, but in a way that makes sense? Like, he doesn’t feel the need to get jealous of guys because when you leave, he’s going to be kissing you goodnight, and he’s the one who gets to spoil you.

However, he will get jealous of little things. Oh, you’ve spent a good amount of time playing with an animal/pet? Be prepared to walk in on Gaara giving them a stern lecture on stealing you from them. Gaara knows he has any potential suitors beat, but tiny adorable animals and children? In his mind, he can never be too cautious.

He gets a little pouty but that can easily be cured with cuddles, sometimes with that evil little pet that stole your affections from him. He can never stay jealous for long, he views it as an unproductive waste of time. He could be actively trying to get your attention, but instead, he’s going to be sulking in a corner? Yeah, no.

“Gaara! Stop scolding my cat, that’s not doing anything!”

Sai~

On the rare occasion that this cinnamon roll gets jealous, he’s confused and shocked. Like just imagine the surprised Pikachu face and that’s him. He knows what jealousy is, he can identify it just fine, but he doesn’t know why he’s jealous.

You aren’t doing anything, all you did was laugh at someone else’s jokes, but still… do you find them funnier than him? Are you going to leave him because he’s not that funny?! Cue the slow onset into insanity… Poor Sai is losing his mind to paranoia and made-up scenarios.

Will most certainly drag you away (gently) from whoever is taking your attention and leave. He doesn’t even bother with a fake smile, they don’t deserve it. He’ll explain to you calmly even though he’s panicking on the inside. Once he is back to normal he’ll show you his nearest artwork.

“What the-! Sai, you can’t just draw caricatures on people’s car!” You don’t even want to know how he figures out which car is theirs...

Kakashi~

Too cocky to be jealous. He has the right to be though because one glance at him without his face mask can cause instant pregnancy. Anywho, he knows you love him and some guy trying to hit on you like some high school douche isn’t going to change that.

He does like to intervene, however, just to flex like ‘yeah, I’m the boyfriend, now get lost’.

He’s not big on PDA, so he won’t start kissing you to ward off strangers, but he will wrap on arm around you or hold your hand and ask who your ‘friend’ is.

When there’s that one stubborn person who won’t take a hint, Kakashi doesn’t mind rocking someone’s world or getting kicked out, he needed to perfect that one offense technique anyways. He’s pretty laid back though, so it has to be somewhat drastic for this though, plus he knows you can handle yourself.

“A thousand years of death?! Isn’t it weird to be poking old men in the butt?!

~Akatsuki~

Pein~

Pfft. Who does he have to be jealous of? He’s a god among mortals, after all. To him, you’re a goddess and as such you belong with someone like him, not the peasants around you.

But on the offhand chance that someone doesn’t heed his godly status, he will not hesitate to pull you into his side and yell ‘Almighty Push’ and totally obliterate that loser. (A/N: Holy crap I think that needs to be a one-shot cuz, wow, Pein being all protective is making me swoon?)

If it’s not a big deal, he’ll easily let you take care of it. If you’re strong enough to catch Pein’s attention, you’re more than strong enough to deal with some lowlife. That doesn’t mean, however, that they won’t feel his wrath too.

If you ever want to witness a true royal rumble, dare someone to mess with Pein’s S/O. It’d be an epic tag team match (slaughter, really) for the ages. One would d be surprised how quick he can lose his cool when it comes to you.

“Pein, that’s the fifth time this month! Kakuzu is going to murder me if I ask for money to fix this wall!”

Deidara~

Need I even say it? Jealous boy all the way. You’re his favorite masterpiece so why should let an uncultured swine who doesn’t even understand your worth touch you? Rhetorical question, he wouldn’t.

He is not above fighting or placing a bomb on someone who gives you one too many glances. He’d make sure they knew it wasn’t art, they weren’t good enough for that, before blowing the offender up.

No one and he means no one gets to talk bad about his S/O. If someone insults you in his presence they might as well as swallowed one of his explosives and trusted him not to blow them up.

Will one 100% hide you from view if you look too appealing. He thinks you look ravishing, but he’s the only one who should be able to think that, in his opinion. Don’t worry, no one’s ever gotten close enough to harass you with Dei around. His one-eyed scowl is a great deterrent.

“Deidara! You blew up my favorite restaurant! He didn’t even say anything to me!”

Sasori~

Would rather die before admitting he was jealous. As adamant about not being jealous as he is about art being eternal. That’s not to say that he won’t take action though. He will use chakra strings to make the perpetrator walk away, meanwhile making them bump into literally everything in the general vicinity.

The two of you don’t leave the base all that often so it’s unusual to see an envious Sasori action, but it’s a real treat when it happens. After he deals with whatever idiot crossed him, he’ll be a bit more affectionate that day/night.

Not huge things, but instead of working on puppets all night, he’d be more apt to hold you that night. Average people hitting on you make him insecure because he realizes he’s not that great at normal relationships but he still doesn’t want to lose you. That feeds into his jealousy and he figures the only way to get rid of it is to make sure those other guys can’t offer anything he doesn’t have.

“Sasori! If you wanted a hug, you could’ve said that instead of treating that guy like a ball inside of a pinball machine!”

#naruto x reader #sasuke x reader #neji x reader #shikamaru x reader #kiba x reader #gaara x reader #sai x reader #kakashi x reader #pein x reader #deidara x reader #sasori x reader #naruto scenarios #jealousy #naruto shippuden #request

[eirian]

a few thoughts on Doppelgänger (the danny phantom fancomic) from a creator’s perspective

hey its 5 am and i cannot sleep and this has been plaguing me for the past like three hours so i figure if i want to sleep i should get it ouf of my brainspace so here i go

(for context if you arent familiar, a few years ago i made a comic about a danny phantom au i was invested in where dan escaped the thermos, came back for revenge, and instead kind of got thrown into a reluctant redemption arc thanks to jazz. the comic took place after d-stabilized and replaced phantom planet completely. you can read the full comic at @doppelgangercomic !)

so its probably weird to do a review of my own comic but idk. i do have some thoughts after looking back on it years after its completion and i feel like sharing them!

i’ll try to keep this relatively short i guess so here we go

first i’ll address the story. i wont even front guys im still really proud of how i wrote it. i think the pacing was pretty good and the flow was decent and the characterization/dialogue was good too imo. but having said all that i think it would be a bit confusing to first-time readers who arent familiar with the au which is literally only set up on my old dan ask blog--actually im very certain it confused a lot of people judging from the comments i got over time lol. so i do apologize for not explaining the au better in the comic’s context. i think that would have helped a lot more than the single spread page vaguely explaining how dan got to where he was at that point in time

what i really wanted to talk about though was the art. honestly? the first chapter and a half still hold up imo. sometimes i look back at the early dpg art and think wow..why did i stop drawing like that LOL. because after a certain point (and i can tell you it was 100% after a year-long hiatus i took from the comic) the art kind of..took a nosedive, i’ll be honest. the explanation i’ll give is that during that year i took off from the comic i ended up getting into dragon ball which completely threw out my interest for danny phantom ngl. but i was still determined to finish what i started, and at some point i decided that getting the story out there was more important than putting all my effort into making the art look good. so, i ended up rushing the last few chapters of the comic, and its kinda obvious.  on top of that, i was going through a major style shift and i hadnt quite gotten the hang of it at that point so it looked really janky. basically the combination of loss of interest as well as changing art styles made for a really rushed and sloppily-drawn ending to the comic

however im still proud of what i put out overall. i think people enjoyed the story for what it was and i was able to get across my vision more or less and im happy about that!  ive tossed around the idea of a sequel to doppelganger and ive been on and off about it tbh. im not sure i’ll ever be as hype about dp as i was when i started the original comic, and i have a ton of other stories i want to make.  but...idk. it might just be a passing thought like it has been many times before, but the idea of revisiting it just to make a sequel to dpg and get the rest of my ideas out is really appealing to me rn. so idk. i’ll say its still a possibility :)

#long post /

[maybe-homestuck-now-or-something]

I wanna connect the ideas in this post with the ideas in this post because they seem relevant to each other.

to give a basic idea of what's in each one, the first is a post that talks about how homestuck is notable as a creative work that effectively uses the language and format of the internet, in a way that resonates well with people who grew up online. my addition extrapolates to talk about how this quality also made homestuck's style of content creation appealing for others to use, and spawned a lot of creativity from the fans. basically, homestuck is a collage, not just of images, but of methods for delivering information to the audience. it uses a broad variety of experimental techniques, but the purpose of them is to make storytelling accessible. in order to convey an idea, you can use any method you want... whatever suits your purposes. by constantly varying the type of art, writing, and formatting that the story uses, it keeps the story from getting boring for the author and the audience. varying the quality and style of the visual art also implicitly accepts and encourages any kind of artwork, at any level of skill or effort, from fans. and at the same time, the story pioneers new techniques that I legitimately haven't seen used before. at some points it even leverages the design of the web page itself to service the story... it's awesome. this gets people thinking about how to tell stories in non-traditional ways, and further encourages the act of being experimental with your storytelling methods, and having fun exploring your chosen medium.

the second link is mostly just me talking about the merits of homestuck's early acts, and at one point I put a particular focus on the idea of science in homestuck. specifically, I was talking about how homestuck handles science in a way that feels very childlike, which is a positive remark. when you're learning about science in school as a kid, efforts are made to present the material in a way that is fun and interesting... and you're given a lot of tools for exploration within the context of science classes, which a lot of people don't really experience having outside of a school setting, if they aren't going into some branch of science for their career. I was observing that homestuck's aesthetic kind of calls to mind the feel of learning about science as a kid... something about the stark readability of the objects and characters, and the bright color coding of things that are important.

the connection I want to make between these two posts is that homestuck hinges a lot of its interest on the concepts of exploration, and creation. it holistically includes a lot of different themes and ideas, and it does it in such a way where the characters don't have to make it explicit... more often than not, you'll end up thinking of it yourself. homestuck simply introduces elements, and lets you form your own ideas. it puts a lot of stuff out there, and links it all together in this messy web of interconnectivity.

for example, check out this post where I added some commentary about the punch card alchemy system, and how it links the concepts of technology and philosophy. the idea is that captchas determine your humanity... but unlike real captchas, which do this by making you read something that a computer can't read, it instead makes you think in a way that a computer can't think. in order to give you access to items, this crafting system requires philosophical justification for the creation of said items. grist isn't just made up currency that exists to make you work for what you make... the amount of it that it takes to make something is only high if you think that the object you're making should be too powerful or important to be gotten for cheap. you prove your humanity by having a psychology that can assign the object meaning, and thus, value.

or what about the broader themes of biology and mythology in homestuck? there are many mentions of genetics... the goal of the game is to produce a universe via breeding, and there are the origins of each of the kids, or the fact that the chess pieces that fight on Skaia's battlefield are made in test tubes in the labs in the furthest ring... etc. but this theme also exists symbolically in the players of each session. they are people who bring their identity with them into the process of making a new universe. each player is given their own planet, which is responsive to the person it's meant for, and features a personal quest for them. and once the new universe is made, the players will preside over it as deities, and help define its culture with their values, interests, and personalities. in this way, homestuck blends the concepts of biology and mythology. in a biological sense, the kids provide the universe with traits. if they are strong/adaptable/resourceful enough to win their game, they get to pass on their influence to a universe of their own. this is why it is relevant that all the players' chumhandle initials are some combination of A, C, T, and G, which are the letters denoting nucleotide bases in DNA. but this concept also applies to heroes going through trials or completing quests to prove themselves worthy of being known as heroes. SBURB's lore automatically mythologizes the players in the role of legendary heroes to the consorts and carapacians, which pushes them to step up to the task of earning their title, and in doing so, complete the game's objectives... and the game gives them the tools to do it.

really, science, mythology, and religion all wrap into each other here in terms of the way things are named and explained. the punch card system and the frog breeding are both referred to as "alchemy" at various points, which indicates both magical and scientific roots. and the highest title that the players aspire to obtain in the game is "god tier" which implies a sort of religious connection between the players and the game's native characters who know them as legends. the magical abilities that the characters display are ambiguous as to whether they are magical, divine, or something else entirely. a lot of them are defined heavily by a character's personality and identity. the malleability of the different elements that homestuck juggles works entirely in its favor... and all of it is geared towards this sense of growth and creativity.

in homestuck, these things exist on micro and macro levels. the growth of one kid into a slightly different person as they get older, vs. the growth of an entity that will encapsulate the universe. the creation of a piece of music, a drawing, a story, a machine, a person, a plan, a planet... it all just keeps escalating, but it's all rooted in specific characters doing specific things, so we don't get lost in it all. the characters bring it all back around, letting us focus on their smaller actions while the bigger plot remains in motion. and all of this exists at the same time as all the surface level reasons to enjoy homestuck. the comic is funny, and charming, and made to be enjoyable as that. but the fact that the broader elements color the tone of it all, leaves you with the impression that there is a lot of potential in every situation. potential places for the characters to go, or things for them to do, or people for them to talk to, or things for them to make, or even ways to grow and change themselves.

and there's potential for you too. you could throw your ideas at the wall to see what sticks in this exact same way. part of reading homestuck is feeling a sense of recognition and identification with the characters. many of them are based broadly on the kinds of people who make up homestuck's audience. with interests in things like music, art, writing, RPing, programming, playing games, watching movies... they're meant to represent you, in part as parody, but in part as a way to make you feel seen and included in this narrative. as lofty as some of these concepts may seem, the people who engage with them in the text are a bunch of dumb awkward teens. you are at least as accepted as they are, and people love these characters a lot, often in spite of/because of a lot of cringey qualities or major character flaws. homestuck is here to tell you not to be self conscious. play around with your world. make your art. write your story. think your thoughts. be funny and laugh at stuff. don't be afraid of doing it badly.

this is what an accessible creative process looks like.

#homestuck #my rant

[itstheelvenjedi]

Abled people quit acting like disabled people are automatically inferior and need “fixing” just because we can’t do things you do/do things different to the way you do them challenge

Ableds will deadass go “I don’t mean to be insensitive and offensive but...” and then immediately say something, shock horror, insensitive and offensive.

Example, because this is brought on by a convo I had with a friend who I am sure was well-meaning but here’s the thing bc to disabled people it doesn’t come across that way and you ableds need to learn that bc you keep doing it and it’s so annoying:

Talking to a friend about art stuff etc. they immediately attempt to suggest that because I shake so much & holding pen(cils) - including tablet pens - is both painful and impractical for me, I should do x, or buy y, z thing to “help” me draw with a tablet pen.

This might seem like well-meaning advice to you if you’re able-bodied and haven’t had to go through the struggles I have to learn to do art the way I do it and then on top of that to like the art I make, but let me break down to you why this is actually a very bad thing to say.

I’ve practised, learned and to the best of my ability perfected the way I draw with a mouse for oh...about 12 years now. And it’s taken me at least 7-8 of those years to

a) stop comparing myself to other artists who are able-bodied, more skilled than me, or both of these things

b) develop a style of my own that is aesthetically pleasing enough to get me a little bit of interaction/comments/whatever, and not totally drain every spoon I have in the process of doing so

c) after all of that, not over-criticise and belittle the hard work I did put into a piece, such that I break it down so much that I hate it enough to never want to make another piece of art ever again

I’m not selling my art, and again, it’s taken me at least 8 years to make peace with the fact that because of my limitations (& my shitty self-esteem caused by them) I will never be able to sell my art.

But that’s okay. I don’t really want to sell my art anymore. I make it for fun. I make art because I enjoy making art. So, I don't need to be "better at art" than some other artist, it's not a fucking competition & I don't lose anything by drawing in the medium I've got the most skill & practise in. So, if my goal/reasoning for making art is to have fun and enjoy what I'm drawing, then why in the ever loving fuck would I want to put the 12 years of hard work I put into it in the garbage and go all the way back to square one (including hating the way everything I draw looks so much that I want to cry and feeling so unhappy with it that I never want to draw another piece in my life ever) just because someone else thinks It Would Look Better if I did.

Now, imagine all of that, and then an able-bodied person comes along and says:

“well it’s good, BUT it’d be better if you learned to use a tablet-” or “have you considered trying x instead of your current drawing method because that would be better”, or variations thereof (and I’m not saying that you have to like my art style, you might not, and that’s okay! Everyone has different tastes and some things will appeal to one person, but not to the next one etc.) *

But you really have to be a special kind of priveledged to look at someone’s hard work that they are proud of for what it is and then go on to do nothing but tell them what’s wrong with it according to you. Would you go to a rock concert and then complain about the music being “too raucous because you like classical music”, for example? I don’t think so. I mean, you’d be pretty stupid if you did (and also an asshole), So stop doing it to artists, especially disabled artists. I am begging you.

*And I am not saying “don’t ever provide (constructive) criticism to disabled people’s art” either before some abled clown jumps on that. There’s a big difference between “hey I noticed this particular thing in your art/style and I think if you tried to do more of x thing differently or added a bit more of y thing it would look more (anatomically accurate, atmospheric, highlight a part of the piece well, whatever)” - I’ve received many criticisms of this nature that have been very helpful to me over the years and my art has definitely gotten better by taking it & applying it to my drawing process - and “well able-bodied artists who draw with tablets do this infinitely better because they literally have physical abilities you don’t and therefore that invalidates any number of years or amount of effort you’ve put in to make something that you’re happy with because it’s not perfect enough”

or, and this one bothered me the most today

“I hate knowing that (because of your disability affecting your ability to hold pen(cil)s) causes issues with your art skills”

Note the particular words I’ve highlighted in this case, because the thing is, with this wording, this is what that sentence sounds like:

“Oh wow, you must feel SO bad that you’re not good enough! You definitely shouldn’t feel happy or proud of the progress you’ve made, because it’s not as good as an able-bodied artist’s work and that must be TERRIBLE.”

Kinda a douchy thing to say when you put it like that, huh? YEAH. THAT’S THE POINT. When you make comments like this, it implies that any progress I have made over the 12 years I’ve been practising and drawing things for fun because I like doing it, doesn’t fucking matter because I don’t match up to some arbitrary standard of “How Art Look Good” set largely by, abled people. You’re calling the HOURS of time & effort I put into getting myself this far a fucking issue as if it’s something that is inconvenient or in the way and not an achievement I’m allowed to be proud of because it’s “Good Enough” according to The Ableds(tm).

Bitch, NO, I’m PROUD of how my art looks and I’m fucking sick and tired of abled people coming in with their “well meaning” comments like this.

It’s not well meaning, it’s insulting. Fucking stop it!

Or I’ll start hitting you with my crutch and telling you to stop complaining that it hurts because it doesn’t hurt me when I hit you with it so you know, it can’t possibly be painful for you, and see how you like it.

This one got very specific relating to art/the convo I had, but I feel like the basic principle can be applied to any situation, really.

As a mildly-tangental closing note: Also, if a disabled person responds to a statement of this sort saying something like “well actually I don’t really think it’s a problem that I need to fix because I’ve put a lot of effort into getting as far as I have and I’m proud of myself for that”

For the love of all that is holy, do not then start your abled pity party of “oh my gosh I’m so sorry!! I feel so awful!” and “I feel guilty now, I didn’t mean to offend you!”

Why? Because the Laws of Social Decency dictate that if I say “well you should feel guilty, because what you said was shitty and it did offend me, actually. Stop doing that.” then I am the asshole because I hurt your poor widdle feelings.

So what do I then have to do? Immediately pander to your feelings by saying “no no, it’s okay!” and “I get what you were trying to say, it’s fine, it wasn’t offensive” (even though it was incredibly offensive!) just to defuse the situation and not look like a dick.

If you didn’t want me to call you out on it, maybe you should check yourself before you start shit and make yourself look like an ableist dick.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

#a talking post #elven rants #tw: ableism #long post #hi i'm salty and therefore i must yell about it

[tangerinegod]

Hello! I am sorry to bother you but I am a senior getting ready for college this year. I am in the US and I wanted to major in the same thing you did, do you have any possible tips for me? I still haven't even looked for colleges that would be best for animation majors so I figured if you were up to giving out any tips/saying any basic ideas if you wanted to/if you had the time to then maybe I'll have a better idea! I apologise for if I sound weird! I'm tried to word it correctly but I can't 😿

hi!! i’m totally down to share my experiences! someone else also had some questions so i’m going to put them all together in this post haha, hopefully this helps! it’ll get pretty long so apologies ahead of time but art school is a lot to think about so i wanna be as helpful as i can around it, its a lot of time and money. I’m gonna put it all under a read more cus it is really really long!

i wanna start off with the fact that I had the privilege of attending school in a financially stable environment, my parents were/are really supportive so w merit scholarship i only came out with around 20-30k in debt and i also had housing support my entire time in school. they were ok with me focusing on academics so i didn’t hold a retail job unless i was out of school like summer/winter break. Ofc though i regularly take commissions/do merch/cons to try and pay for all bills that arent rent cus i did want to be financially independent where it was possible. I also did try and work during the semester but everytime i did my body would deff start to breakdown from the fact that i didnt wanna compromise schoolwork with jobs.. so just read ahead know this experience is from a student who was able to attend focusing only on school work for most of the time!

the biggest thing is knowing art school is not required to become a professional in either freelancing or industry! there are a huuuge amount of online tools and classes these days that provide the exact same education and for cheaper too. i think it depends on what experience you prefer/can handle/want but it’s definitely possible to make art/animation art your living without higher education. the thing that college will for sure give you though is the ability to meet deadlines, work even when you dont want to, and connections with peers+teachers. i think the connections part is invaluable because you’re basically coming out with a network of people you already know and who know you! 

also its good to know if you want to attend/can handle art school! it’s a lot of time and energy and students get burned out really fast. the best piece of advice i got before going was ‘if you draw every single day, even if its for only like 5-10 minutes or a doodle for a whole year you should be fine’ consistency is super key because you’re attending school to draw, and you’ll have to create work for stuff you aren’t excited for at some point or another. burnout is extremely real and the only reason i didn’t experience it was probably because i got super into drawing naruto fanart again inbetween sophomore and junior year! it helped give me something to draw seperated from school which is the only thing i was drawing for since i had entered rip. a heads up id also consider myself a workaholic so i fit in ok with the ‘art school’ environment but it is suuper unhealthy. if you are fantastic at managing your schedule then it’s definitely possible to take care of yourself! freshman year i got 8 hours a sleep a night and only pulled all nighters for some second semester finals at the end. sophomore year + up though i ended up prioritizing hw over sleep and like for sure, definitely shortened my life span. there’s another q down below where i’ll go more into detail but ya, be careful w ur work balance!

another tip especially for animation is knowing for a fact what type of animation you’re looking to go into, and what the school is offering. I didn’t think i’d get into art school at the time so i only applied to two places + decided if i didnt get into either id attend community to get credits out of the way while building portfolio. honestly? i did not do a lot of research LOL but like i did end up having the chance to tour and stuff! just know that each school will have a very different curriculum. The main differences are schools that prioritize 3D (cg animation, cg modeling, ect) and 2D/traditional (hand drawn, ‘oldschool’, digital or traditional based) this is a huge difference so make sure you do research for it! in most cases a 2D/traditional program will also offer 3D since it’s at the forefront of the industry animation wise rn. My school taught 2D but like hand drawn on physical paper 2D, frame by frame. while it was a good experience it’s super outdated because digital tools make it way faster + easier! i’d recommend looking for a program that is digital 2D over traditional 2D. 

if after your senior year covid is still affecting campuses in the US to keep them shut down i’d recommend attending a community college to get credits and then transferring into school. one of the negatives is paying money for gened classes when ur not there for them; if you can get them out of the way sooner and cheaper there is absolutely no negative + you could graduate earlier or use the extra time for better work or to work a job! 

these are all the general tips i think i’d give on like a broad basis of attending or not to think about? let me know if u have more q’s! someone asked q’s im answering below that go more into personal experiences + work culture so heres those:

- how many hours a week do u spend studying, in class, otherwise making art? like how much of ur life does it consume?

I was basically working on art.... 24/7! since i wasnt working a job at the same time i crammed as many credits as possible into my schedule so on avg i did 18 credit semesters (around 6 classes) art classes go for 6 hours and non art go for 3, so i’d spent around 30-35 hours in class a week! hw wise it varied on the class but combined it would be around 35-50 hours a week... im guessing? on average studio classes would have 8-10 hours of hw, maybe 5 for a light week, and gened classes 5 hours w them all combined. or this was probably how things were before junior year? junior+senior year i had thesis + everything else ontop.. i’d spend around 30-40 hours on thesis a week with other classes ontop of that bc my film was super long cus im a dummy! 

- is it hard going to art school n realising that altho u were probably quite talented… so is everyone else? Like. all of a sudden. ur not special and everyone seems as good as u, you know? More generally, how do u deal with comparison?

kinda?? i think instead of the idea of like you vs others it feels more of like a competition at first to be the best. this varies hugely on school culture though; my animation year was really friendly with each other and get along extremely well, so my answer to this is v different than some others who attended different schools. i think that the idea of ‘comparison’ only lasts a portion of the first year because at some point you realize that it’s not a who’s better as much as its a ‘these are my coworkers’ type thing? like healthy competition 100% because we’re all working to improve but i think most of us learned pretty early on that viewing each other as peers going into the same workforce helped a lot. also at some point everyone develops their own style/starts to develop their artistic preferences so there isn’t a way to compare whos 'better’ anymore? i dont think there ever is tbh because style is appealing based off of an individuals preferences. If anything realizing everyone else is also amazing makes you wanna work harder ig? or thats how i felt! it’s inspiring to be surrounded by so many people who create such amazing work. 

- is there a lot of workaholic culture? all nighter culture?

100000% there can be a workaholic and all nighter culture. i know people who avoided it and thats honestly fantastic because i fall super easily into that pit. sometimes i’ll pull all nighters on a personal project just because i really want to finish it... i am definitely considered a workaholic all the way through and its not healthy rip... i’d estimate at the worst i was pulling 2-3 all nighters a week and only 4-5 hours of sleep on the nights i didn’t? that was only for one year tho, after that i was like yeah ok this is really bad for my health in the long run LOL so i tried to cut it down to one all nighter a week and around 5-6 hours of sleep the rest of the week! by senior year my decision to cram in full semesters paid off and i was able to consistently get around 7 hours of sleep a night + no all nighters minus finals since my schedule was lighter despite thesis 😭 while there is that culture i don’t think people view it as like a badge of honor or something to be proud of anymore which is good, we mostly view it as a flaw of the art school system and something that needs to be fixed!!

- are you glad u did it? how did u know it was what u wanted?

i am glad i did it! i’m definitely in a limbo right now of if it was worth both my time, money, and my parents money rip but i think with what i got out of it i definitely wouldn’t be as far skill wise or knowledge wise when it comes to the art industry. i would say it was only worth it for be because i had so much support going in though so i was able to focus so much on improving. if i had only been able to put in part of the effort and not make full use of the resources provided i would honestly have a different answer.. 

i knew it was what i wanted when i realized i really couldn’t see myself pursuing a different profession happily! despite all the bumps and stuff im fully in love with drawing still and feel honored that it’s a field that can provide a living. my second profession choice was to go into culinary school? and third option i think going was into music cus i was also a band kid hehe.  

- how do u cope with ur hobby becoming ur job? how do u deal with art going from something u do for fun to something u do on command constantly?

i think seperating work art from personal art is important! in my case im doubling naruto into being personal work so i have something to fall back onto that isn’t work related. its been a hyperfixation for 12+ years? so drawing it at this point is just like personal art imo. some people have hobbies outside of art and only draw for their job! i think after attending classes for so long the idea of hobby turning into job feels extremely natural? also i enjoy doing it so thats a huge plus! 

sorry this is SO long but i hope i answered your guys’ questions! if you have more just lmk!

#anon #ask #long post #im so so sorry this is like long as shit #ill literally tell you guys everything though art school should not feel like a mystery esp if ur planning to go into it! #Anonymous

[nobodyfamousposts]

Felix Culpa First Impressions - Marinette

It was his first day and already he wanted the entire year to be over.

He agreed to their petty requests. To go to this school where the children of the acclaimed attend. To come to Paris and play the part of the dutiful son in the public eye. He even agreed to do a few cover spreads for the Gabriel line because that was what his dear mother wanted. All while trying to convince himself it wasn’t a complete mistake or utter waste of his time. So he had left for the first day of school with a vague promise that he would at least try to make friends.

Fifteen minutes in and he already hated his class and everyone in it.

Well, almost everyone.

Felix looked to the girl who was to be his guide to the campus. She was clearly nervous and a babbler, the latter likely due to the former. Not that he could hold that against her since she was at least trying. There was a sincerity in her efforts, even if she was nervous and uncertain how to proceed. Then there was the matter of the scene he had first walked in on. She may very well still be stressed from that.

He probably hadn’t helped matters, not that he felt particularly inclined to apologize for speaking up, regardless of whether she appreciated it. It just hadn’t set right with him to see her pushed to the back like that. It wasn’t necessary and no one had even asked for her input before making decisions for her. He knew all too well what that was like and sympathized with her. A part of him may very well have projected his own troubles onto her.

Not to mention that he knew an emotional appeal when he saw it. While it may have been fully possible that the other girl in the class had been genuine in her offer to give up her seat at the front, it still would have been little more than a pity party she was throwing for herself. Whether she was intentionally manipulating others to get her way or “martyring” herself simply to gain sympathy, it was still distasteful of her and Felix found it questionable which reason he despised more.

This girl—Marinette Dupain-Cheng? She at least didn’t buy in to it so much as she seemed pushed by everyone else’s reactions. She seemed one to care what others felt. There were also indications from that initial meeting as well as her presentation since that she was a friendly sort who would certainly go out of her way for the sake of others.

He wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not.

It was better to observe for now and reserve judgement for when he had more information. So he chose to stay silent and simply follow her as she showed him around. There was also the added benefit of having more time away from that classroom and the pointless drama within.

This was why he wanted to be homeschooled, but nooooo…

“So Felix,” Dupain-Cheng said, pulling him out of his thoughts, “what school did you attend before? This may not be all that different.”

She seemed to be looking for a point of correlation. It would be a useful way to connect through. She was looking to utilizing a common point to build off of in introducing him to his new school. A pity.

“None actually. I had a private education.”

Her eyes widened in interest but not surprise nor expectation. She likely knew someone else who had been homeschooled previously and had at least some familiarity. “Oh really? What brings you to Francoise Dupont at this point in the school year?”

He felt his hackles rise but tried not to show it. She was trying to get to know him, he reminded himself. She isn’t digging for dirt, she is just being friendly.

And it must certainly be unusual to have a student transfer in the middle of the school year. The fact that he arrived the same day as the Rossi girl’s ‘return’ no doubt didn’t help matters. Nor did his initial introduction to his new classmates.

“My parents wished it.” He replied evenly. There was no reason not to tell her, after all. She didn’t need the whole story, but a simple answer would suffice.

“Oh.”

Except in this case, it did more than suffice if her sudden change of expression to something more pensive was any indication. He was confused by her response but didn’t show it, simply looking at her and waiting for her to speak whatever she clearly wanted to say.

“It sounds like something you didn’t get much say in.”

...Perceptive. She wasn’t wrong.

Felix straightened at the answer. That was a surprise. She was able to read into his statement and pick up on his feelings rather keenly. And true to his initial impression, she seemed concerned. Her words and tone held sympathy on his behalf rather than not-so-subtly pushing him for private information about his family or to open up when he gave no sign of any desire to. She was worried for him, for all that they had only met that day.

It was kind of her, though it wasn’t necessary.

“I’m making the most of it.”

He’s trying to, at any rate. It was evident he was not off to the best start. His new class was already proving to be a considerable strain on his patience for all that he hasn’t even had a full class period with them yet. He couldn’t say he was sorry, as he honestly didn’t care. And none of them really stood out to him as people he should want or need to interact with if he could help it.

Perhaps if he claimed they were unapproachable, he would be excused for simply ignoring them for the rest of the school year?

He noticed she maintained a certain distance from him, and given her expression, it seemed to be more for his comfort rather than her own. While she clearly wanted to reach out to him, she refrained from doing so, which he appreciated. She seemed respectful of personal space and boundaries, at least. He would give her that much.

“So hey…”

And here it comes.

“I know it’s your first day and the situation you walked in on wasn’t...the best.” She finished with a small wince.

That was putting it mildly.

“It’s hard starting someplace new, especially if it’s not something you really had a say in and didn’t want to do in the first place.”

It seemed she could read him rather well then. He listened, curious. She seemed to be speaking from the heart. Or perhaps from experience?

“Please don’t let these circumstances dictate the rest of the school year. You may not have a say in being here or who your classmates are, and I know things don’t seem that great right now…” She was babbling and seemed to realize it. “But you’re ultimately the one who can decide how this year will go for you.”

That was true.

She looked up at him, smiling. “I’m hoping that you can find something you enjoy while you’re here. There are plenty of good things about Dupont.”

“Such as?” He asked, actually curious rather than incredulous.

She seemed to brighten at that. “Well, we have an art club for starters! I’m part of it! So are Nathaniel and Alix! We each have our own focus, of course, but the teacher offers us a place to practice and useful guidance to improve.”

That was interesting. “You do art?”

Dupain-Cheng nodded, blushing somewhat. “I’m really into fashion design. I draw out and make my own clothes and accessories.” She explained, giving a brief gesture to her outfit as well as the purse she was carrying.

That was...rather impressive for someone her age. He glanced over her outfit in consideration. The materials weren’t quite the best quality and the stitching appeared uneven in places. But for the most part, it was holding together and appeared to give the overall look she seemed to want. Her purse in particular looked well-made, and with the design, he could have mistaken it as a logo for an official brand if he wasn’t already familiar with most of them to realize otherwise.

She didn’t seem eager or showing off. She wasn’t looking at him with anticipation. Nor did she appear to be expecting anything. She hadn’t even been inviting him to inspect the outfit, merely gesturing to her look as an example of something she made that she likes rather than a display of her talent to impress. Which was unusual. Normally people would be bragging or pointing out the “intricacies” of their designs or the techniques with the materials. They would play up their designs as the “newest trend” or the “next big thing”. And of course they would be making plays at him to try to get his interest and see if he wouldn’t be willing to spend just a bit of his time to see what they come up with and if they can’t tailor something to him personally. If she was a fashion designer, surely she would know about the usefulness of building connections.

Unless she didn’t…

He paused.

She didn’t know who he was.

He shook it off.

Whether she knew or not, it didn’t matter. Not to him, since he had no interest regardless. And it appeared to not matter to her either, as she proceeded to move on rather quickly from talking about herself or her creations to instead expounding more upon the new institution he happened to find himself obligated to attend.

“We’re bound to find something that you’ll be able to enjoy while you’re here!” She insisted, now appearing quite determined to help Felix have a good school year.

He wasn’t so sure, but didn’t feel inclined to argue. If they could find some manner of activity or purpose that could offer him something to look forward to, he was hardly going to reject it. That would simply be foolish, and while he wasn’t happy about being there, he wasn’t nearly that spiteful.

The library, at least, sounded interesting. And it appeared quite large from the look he was able to get when they passed it as they started to make their way back.

“And...about the class…”

He stopped.

“They’re good people, really.” She tried to reassure him. “They’re really nice and often helpful to others. You may get along with them if you give them a chance.”

Reading between the lines, he could hear what wasn’t said. Being helpful meant that help was often provided specifically more to those they thought needed it. And if the Rossi girl’s behavior was any indication, they appeared to be fooled into trying to help someone who didn’t actually need it at this point. And with Dupain-Cheng appearing to oppose that attempt to help, regardless of the overall poor way they chose to go about it...

The scene was making more sense now, but still was not an improvement from what he had initially observed. It only meant they were fools on top of being domineering.

As if she could tell where his thoughts were going, she waved her hands. “It’s really not as bad as you think.”

“That remains to be seen.”

He didn’t know enough about them to fully judge, but so far, what he had seen of the class had left him less than impressed.

But he’d also gotten a glimpse at the Class Representative for his new life away from home. And while a bit naive, she seemed rather polite and personable—one would dare say genuine and friendly. She was empathetic and could read people, and was able to read him well enough to respect his boundaries and address his points of frustration about his current situation.

His first impression of Marinette Dupain-Cheng…

…she was tolerable.

#ml au #felix #ml felix #felix culpa #marinette dupain cheng #ml fic #chameleon au

[thirdchildart]

Hi there, I love your art/boards a whole lot!! I really want to be a storyboarder once I graduate, but sometimes I find it hard to create interesting/visually appealing boards, instead they look a bit flat and lifeless. Any tips on how to incorporate interesting perspective/composition?

So! Composition! I’m gonna start out with a disclaimer: any of these suggestions can be broken for artistic expression. These are starting points when it comes to building an interesting dynamic scene! BIG POST. CLICK THE READ MORE!!!

Composition is the arrangement of SHAPE, LINE, CONTRAST, or COLOR that leads your eye in a path around the screen.  You don’t want the audience to search the screen for info--they should find and follow easily.

FIRST THOUGHT: Where in the frame?

Where does your eye go on each of the following images? And why? Can you connect them to a sensation or emotion?

Faces will draw attention. Movement will draw attention. Bright against dark will draw attention. Dark against bright will draw attention. And, despite size, we will look at in-focus items first.

Avoid creating static, balanced shots ON ACCIDENT. Avoid straight lines, perfectly stiff characters, and perfect shapes.  Let your characters lean, slump, slouch, reach, stretch. Act in a mirror!  Act out your boards. Now, you can use precise/stiff drawings and symmetrical shots for style on purpose (it’s Wes Anderson’s signature). But if you don’t make an effort to put flow and rhythm in your composition, it will feel static and dead.  Organic, living, designed shots will have imbalance, they will have weighted area of the screen, and interesting use of blank spaces.

The movie screen has 5 specific areas most action takes place in: upper right, upper left, lower right, lower left, and dead center.

Since the point of a film is to cut from one shot to the next to the next to the next, we don’t want our audience to work too hard searching around the screen for their next point of information. So to avoid static, square compositions, story artists will think of the screen split into thirds.

And keep our points of interest along those lines, and those dots.

You can break out of this of course, but be kind to your audience. If you direct them to the far side of the screen, be kind and bring them back! Even with messy, simple drawings, I can help your eyes follow a simple story: Person lights a lighter.

We look at faces first--even ‘symbolic’ faces.  Those two dots? You know they are eyes.  You probably looked at the face first, then traveled down to that NEW blue spot in frame two, so I took you in for a closeup in panel 3 to get more information about this point of interest.  Did I leave the new point of interest in the same spot?  Nah, I bumped in a little closer to frame center.  This leaves your eye readier to jump to my next shot more easily.

SECOND THOUGHT: What’s the Line of Action?

When you looked from the eyes to the lighter in their hand, you followed my Line of Action for that composition.

Line of Action in an art sense is the path your eyes travel to gain the information in an image.  We usually start at the point of highest interest (a face, a bright spot in the dark, a green stone on the yellow sand) and then look around the frame to see what else we can learn.

When I storyboard, I focus on 4 basic lines of action: vertical, horizontal, diagonal left and diagonal right.  Below are some examples from movies.

Your eye can travel up and down one character, move back and forth between two points, or following around the screen to gather multiple pieces of info.

Put the characters in a clear and interesting distance from camera. How much of the screen does your character fill up?  Do we need to see their face, their body, or the set they are standing in the most clearly?  Does their body language act more, or subtle facial cues? Here’s those same shots with JUST the characters blocked in.  To you, what different information does each piece represent? What does the feeling of someone very far from camera say vs a face SO CLOSE we can see their pores?

Things moving through frame can also follow these lines!   Having something move closer or farther from camera can give you more interest.  

THIRD THOUGHT: How do my shots stitch together?

For very short shots cut close together, I use my line of action to make sure your eye is heading towards the next point of interest after the cut.  If the eye is moving left, the next shot should have focus on the left side of the screen.

Mad Max: Fury Road has lots of beautiful, varied compositions--but always keeps the point of interest super close to DEAD CENTER, so eyes don’t have to travel far at all to follow the fast action!

 In a slower scene, with longer cuts like a conversation, I’m fine with letting the audience bounce left and right, like watching a tennis match.  BUT I want each of those slower shots to be something slightly different and interesting either by changing the composition or acting (but this post isn’t ABOUT acting, so none of that today!!!!)

Hey, guest star time: Every Frame a Painting, can you talk to us about shooting conversation basics?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UE3jz_O_EM

(ALSO WATCH ALL OF TONY AND TAYLOR’S VIDEOS TO LEARN SO MUCH MORE THAN WHAT I COVER HERE)

A simple scene doesn’t mean complete repetition of shots. You can have similar compositions with slight differences that make them more interesting. AND we’re gonna back that up with an example drawn by one of my favorite board directors, Johane Matte.

Original found here: https://www.deviantart.com/rufftoon/art/Last-Airbender-Spoilers-02-170233494

Now, if your interest is built off of acting, repeating shots is a-ok! 

Take this sequence from the West Wing.  If you are unfamiliar with the episode, it’s Thanksgiving and Charlie, the President’s aide, has been trying to find a new carving knife for President Bartlett. Charlie has presented MULTIPLE knives throughout the episode, and the President has turned down every one so far. 

  https://youtu.be/LQlUVfz_qbg?t=21

I’d split this scene into 3 parts, plus a transition out.

Part 1: President and charlie banter, same energy level as they enter the scene. It’s a classic walk-and-talk that West Wing fans know--they switch around spots as they walk, are sometimes close, are sometimes far. It’s fun and interesting!

Part 2: The characters plant, and have a small face-off as Charlie respectfully confronts the president. Most of the shots are the same--it’s a shot reverse shot with the patter-patter-patter of the dialogue driving the cuts.

Part 3: When the emotion gets more intense, we cut in CLOSER and really let the actor reactions land.

Transition out, they say goodbye and Charlie walks away.

Now this is a simple scene driven by dialogue and the personality of each character. We don’t need EXTREME shots or incredible close-ups.  This scene has solid blocking, clear compositions, but isn’t flashy--it doesn’t need to be.

So...when is it time for flash?

THOUGHT FOUR: ACTION AND FIGHTSSSS!!!!!

LINE OF ACTION. SO IMPORTANT.  You want your action to happen fast? Lots of cuts, lots of motion, lots of EMOTION!??!  Guide the eye!!!!! GUIDE the EYE.

Here’s a breakdown of a short fight sequence from Voltron. This features only the silhouette of the two characters, and how much of the ground we see. Forget the story and characters for the moment--focus only on these two enemies andthink of the following questions: How much of the screen does each character they fill? WHAT side of the screen are they on?  How does their size or position change from shot to shot? How does their size or position change INSDIE each shot? If the camera were held by a real person, how high or low would it be?  

FIGHT SCENE!!!!  

Now watch the screen and ask the same questions but add in this: How long does each shot take? When does the camera move, and when does it stay still? And what emotion does that convey?

FINAL THOUGHT: How to apply...?

I’ve asked a lot of questions throughout this post.  Now it’s your job to ask yourself those questions every time you storyboard a scene.

#long post #animation #storyboarding #storyboard #composition #otternauts

[leafbladie]

for the ask meme, top 5 favorite animes?

5. Cowboy Bebop: Kinda hard to talk about this classic without repeating all the points everyone else has said. It’s a very amazing anime that is able to mix so many different influences into a truly unique thing. I’d say it’s mandatory watching for any anime fan.

4. Garo: The Animation: Honestly, if someone put this on their favorites list for the two OP’s alone, I’d entirely understand. Divine Flame and Bloody brother are the perfect blend of animation and music. The show attached to it is almost as amazing well. You don’t need to have any knowledge of the Garo series to understand what’s happening, I sure didn’t. It just tells a very compelling story about what it means to be a knight, a king, and a protector.

3. Sword Art Online II and Alicization: I don’t have much love for the first season of SAO (Aincrad and Fairy Dance), but once Sinon is introduced the show has a pretty dramatic climb in quality. While quite messy at times, I always feel the passion behind the exchanges all the characters have, and it’s really hit home with me on several occasions. Episode 19 of Alicization is still one of the episode of anime that has left me entirely breathless and crying. I can’t wait for Progressive though, so people can have a better introduction to Aincrad, and it’ll probably be my recommendation for where to start the anime from here on.

2. Kino’s Journey (’03): My favorite character Kino is in it, and they’re someone I find endless intriguing, but I should probably explain the draw of the show instead. The appeal of Kino is that it’s like the Twilight Zone, but instead of a narrator being the connecting force for these vignettes, Kino is. It was one of the first anime to do such a formula that was later taken on by Violet Evergarden and Mushishi, and while I like those, I still think Kino’s Journey is the best at it. While the production values don’t look as impressive as the other two, I think its rougher look conveys a thematically fitting style to the show, one that I still feel fondly for to this day.

1. Madoka Magica: I’ve already gushed super hard about it many times before, so I guess I’ll talk about what makes it unique compared to my other favorites. It’s one of the few anime that motivates me to seek content from it beyond official sources, but actually engage the fan communities around it to see even more. It makes me actively want to see it succeed further, and wish Magica Quartet/Aniplex had made a stronger effort of marketing it in the west. I still think if Kirara Magica had been released her, we might’ve had something to keep fan communities active between Rebellion and MagiReco, so that it didn’t become dormant. I want all the best for Madoka.

#ask meme

[baconpal]

pokemon isn’t for us anymore

ya that’s right it’s time for a daytime juvenile rant cus i’m angry and finally think i can put my thoughts to words, 

if you like the new pokemon then this isn’t really for you, cus pokemon is still for you. enjoy it while you can. otherwise click that read more

i’ll start by making my opinion and background immediately clear, so you have something to compare to and such. I loved Pokemon as a child, and for a long while afterward. I think the series’ highest moment was black and white in terms of art and story, and the gameplay was at its best in black and white 2. Gen 5 is also the gen where I have the most competitive experience. 

And my opinion is that every single thing that’s been shown of pokemon sword and shield is really, really bad. Not even as a hyperbolic statement of “wow i hate new thing!” but as a fan who wants nothing but for the series to realize its potential, not one thing they’ve done has made feel anything besides disgust and disappointment. But this is not a normal thing, this isn’t what everyone thinks, i’m not preaching to the choir by saying i hate sword and shield. I’m the contrarian, i’m the one whose saying shit nobody agrees with, and I’m the voice who will be ignored. And that’s because pokemon is no longer being made with someone like me in mind. 

The question then becomes, what is pokemon now? What did it used to be? What should it be?

POKEMON AS A BRAND

Pokemon today is not a game series. It’s a brand, a franchise, something that has weight simply by existing. Of course pokemon has been more than just games for forever, the shows, the toys, the side games, everything about it is marketable and marketed. But the main line games were separate from that to an extent. They were the new bits of source material thrown out into the world without concern for how it would all fit together. A video game was made first, and was then marketed to whoever would buy in whatever form hey wanted.

Today pokemon games themselves are a tailored product. People of today don’t care about the actual video game, many wont play it, and many won’t even realize when it comes out, but gamefreak doesn’t need the game itself to sell (though it will), they just want everyone on earth to know about pokemon and to be excited about it, it’s advertising for their brand. As long as people know pokemon exists and is out there, it will make money. 

So instead of holding their cards and releasing a video game to let people mess around in, the entire game is drip fed to us on social media before it’s even out. The days of korokoro leaks and blurry photos of pokemon are over, the discussion of what they might be or do is over, and a joy in the exploration of the unknown is gone. Instead, a trailer will be split up in to a chain of individual tweets, all tailored to be as easily digestible as possible. Videos or photos that require seconds of attention, and descriptions of characters and pokemon that make it easy to form a shallow attachment, enough to repost it and say “oh that’s so me” or “love this kind of character”, and that’s free advertisement. the kinds of people who live on social medias will translate genuine advertisements into a form of speak their friends will appreciate and thus engage with the advertisements further. The job is done and pokemon is making more money than ever. 

POKEMONS ART DIRECTION

Again, something many disagree with, the art is fucking awful in the new games. But that’s because its not art meant to impress me, an artist with his own design sense and standard of quality, the art only needs to be serviceable, enough for someone who can’t draw to appreciate. The standard of what will be accepted is never actually very high, but pokemon no longer makes any effort to exceed passable. Fanartists will be essentially forced to draw better versions of all their characters since pokemon is once again the hot new thing, so the actual quality of the original art will not be reflected in peoples perception. The model quality as also awful, every design manages to look even worse in motion and in game. But since the goal is not to make an enjoyable game, this is again not a problem. 

POKEMONS SETTING

This extends to the clothing the characters wear as well, but pokemon no longer is its own universe. It is doing all it can to act as if it takes place in the real world, and making the clothing its characters wear bastardized versions of modern aesthetics, instead of the unique and simple sudo-sporty aesthetic the other games had, where clothing was cohesive and sleek, looked fit for various kinds of weather, and seemed generally comfortable. The new gym leaders for example, wear horribly messing and unneeded sportswear based mostly on real life soccer clothing, but without any of the benefits, as they are also loaded with unneeded accessories that go in direct contrast to what they’re supposedly doing. Nessa is the worst offender to me (and what do you know she’s the most popular), compared to misty’s attempt at being part time swimmer part time trainer, nessa looks absolutely ridiculous, and not prepared to do either swimming or pokemon battles. She wears a swimsuit, but not an actual swimmer’s suit, and she’s covered in jewelry, accessories, makeup; things that would ruin any attempt to go swimming even casually. And yet she doesn’t look like she could comfortably go on an adventure or catch and raise pokemon. She is a bland aesthetic mess of what people want a cute swimmer girl to be.

Custom trainers are a whole different problem in that no game with custom characters actually has good ones. The best result you can have is funny looking characters, which is actually a pretty good goal, but gamefreak still wants everything to be samey and appeal to broad aesthetics so people can post their own characters and share some feeling of attachment. 

POKEMON THE VIDEO GAME

the quality of sword and shield from a technical standpoint is clearly very low, and this is one of the few things people have been willing to call out. The model quality hasn’t improved, the animations are sparse and bad. The wild areas are a mess and run terribly, the game crashed trying to handle multiplayer bosses live on stream. The national dex has been removed for literally no reason. The gyms have been completely gutted and reduced to just the fights (which are still nothing but bland checks for type advantage) and the new gimmick is just “make your guy strong” and is obviously best used in response to the opponent using it. the pokemon wonder around the open area and yet wild grass is still there, there’s no option to approach pokemon peacefully and capture like in let’s go, so even the few out there things they’ve tried aren’t going to be used in any meaningful way. But repeat after me, the game doesn’t matter! As far as gamefreak is concerned, the game could crash 40 minutes in and they would have done all they needed to do.

THE GOAL IN POKEMON

so i’ll end this stupid rant with something the new pokemon games don’t have, even the ones I really like don’t have em. Multiple goals to achieve, multiple ways to approach the game. Even the originals didn’t truly have multiple ways to play, but they started you off by presenting you multiple goals, which were tangled together to start but by the end of the game would become 2 very seperate things, becoming champion and completing the pokedex. Johto did it best, to complete one goal, you had to make a pretty good chunk of progress on the other, it was impossible to not “beat the game” if you actually wanted to accomplish either goal, but after that you were free to tie up whatever goals you had left. It was primitive and mostly meaningless, but it was there. The shows and the manga also put a lot of emphasis on the fact that every trainer can do something different, and their own ultimate goal is completely different from everyone else. 

The closest the games come now to this idea is having your rivals go off and do something else other than fight the elite 4. Some of them aren’t even actual rivals and just like pokemon, like lyra from HG/SS. But there is no pokemon game in which you, the player, are presented a goal other than to beat the game, winning the elite 4 and defeating some evil plot along the way.

For me, an ideal pokemon game would be about giving complete freedom, start off with some explanations of what all the possible goals are, completing the dex, becoming champion, winning all the contests, defeating the evil organization, exploring the world, anything. And once the player gets an idea of what they want to do, they’re set free into a world where they can find pokemon and do whatever they want, working towards whatever goal they want. Other aspects will naturally come into play, battling pokemon and making them stronger would help you catch more pokemon, learn moves for contests, explore more dangerous areas, beat stronger trainers. So no matter what goal you have, you’d still interact with many of the systems and areas in the game, and make progress on all goals at the same time, but ultimately feel satisfied when you accomplish your own, personal goals, instead of following the straight line gamefreak set for you.

Obviously that sort of thing will never happen. That’s just what I think pokemon has the potential to become, but pokemon isn’t made for me, anymore.

Thank you for reading.

#juvenile rant #pokemon swsh #pokemon #and ye that's that feel free to disagree but atleast take a moment to really think about what pokemon is to you

[wavemaker9]

first of this batch of rare pair fics, it’s Day 1: Magic

Title: Sparks Characters: England (Arthur), Belgium (Camille)

The sparks that come to life on his fingertips are nothing compared to the way her eyes light up at the sight. It's not too much effort to summon a flower into his hand, but Camille's smile still brightens like it's some grand gesture as she watches. Once it settles between his fingers and the glow fades from around his hand, he offers it to her. His head nods in combination with the move, a further gesture that it's hers to take if she'd like it.

She would, so she does. There's a hint of hesitation, and she spends the first few moments looking over the item as if inspecting it, though more in fascination than doubt. He can see the hint of red on her cheeks, though, as she then folds it under her palms and against her chest. She thanks him for it and expresses her interest in the small feat, trying to hide her pseudo-flustered expression at the flattery of the gift.

Arthur reassures her that it's not too much of a trouble. A simple spell really; not the very easiest, but usually one that can be learned fairly easily. It's only moving an item from one place to another. That's easy enough to do without the flashy show. The magic only saves a bit of time, really.

She waves off his dismissal of the act, though, trying to reassure him in turn that she doesn't know how to do it, so it must not be that easy. She expects it to be dropped at that. For him to acknowledge the statement, the gratitude, and move on with his show. However, his brows drop a bit and his lips purse ever so slightly in that thoughtful way she recognizes of his.

"Would you like to?" he finally asks, then a half-second later, adds just in case, "Learn how to do it?"

She can't help how her eyes grow just a little wide in a touch of excited surprise. "Do you think I could?" she questions, keeping her voice cautiously optimistic. She wouldn't expect that he could teach her the whole spell quickly enough for him to justify suggesting it, but she'd be lying if the thought of being able to do what he'd just done didn't appeal to some part of her. "I mean, I'm not exactly a magical sort," she admits.

His arms cross and he shifts his weight from one foot to the other, letting his head tilt slightly in the direction he moves. "I'd argue that. I've had the food you make. Even I can't do anything as marvelous as that." He doesn't try to dodge it when she reaches out, batting a hand on his arm in light protest of the level of his compliment. Instead, he chuckles and shrugs, adding, "Besides, you don't need to be inherently magical to do a great deal of magic. It helps, sure, especially with the bigger spells, but it's definitely not a requirement. I mean, this isn't Harry Potter or something." He falls silent long enough to think it over, before nodding his head slightly. "Yes, I'm sure it wouldn't take much time at all. I could get you at least close before I have to return home."

His lip cracks up into something of a smirk, as he further admits he'd managed to teach some of his younger siblings a handful of things back when they were still colonies. He'll acknowledge some of them have resisted use or even forgotten in recent years, but the teaching itself wasn't an issue. "Believe me, if I could teach Alfred how float things, Matthew how to make small flames, or the Oceanics...," his words drift for a second in consideration before he shakes his head a little with the slightest of dismissing shrugs, "anything really, I can teach you this." Then his arms unfold, right hand reaching for her empty left and taking a palm in fingers, letting his thumb run softly on the back of her hand. "I know you're brilliant. You shouldn't have any trouble at all, especially with me teaching you."

Something about her seems to brighten at the compliment, even just a little, before she moves in a sharp turn to the counter near by. She sets the rose down, next to a bag of flour and a measuring cup they still had yet to put away from their earlier baking. It feels like a safe enough place to rest it while she works with him on this miniature lesson to pass the five or so minutes left until their batch of cookies is ready.

When she returns to facing him, he takes her hand again, then the other, and lifts them both up between them. He helps mold them into a cup-like shape, curling his own around hers to support them. The actually formation of the hands isn't as important, but he's found it's harder to control where an item arrives on early tries, and having the hands positioned like so should make it easier to catch. He shows a warm smile to her when she gives an uncertain one to him, and he speaks up to reassure her at the look of uncertainty slipping onto her features that there really isn't much to it. No special stance or gestures or words or anything. So far, she's already doing quite well.

She offers that she'd expect a bit more. Most media that speaks of magic portrays it as a difficult art to learn. If it's not something you're born with automatically, it's something that takes practice and practice and more practice to get the steps perfectly right.

He nods in confirmation, admitting that practice and care are important, and that the more complex a spell is, the more steps required, usually. The more that can go wrong if one does make a mistake. He also adds that if they were trying to summon something larger, that'd be more work, too. Size and energy and a number of other factors can make the effort required for the spell increase greatly. "But we'll just start with something small," he tells her, letting his expression soften for a second before it suddenly splits to release a sharp laugh. When she lifts an eyebrow at him, he notes that he had some bad experiences in the past with trying to summon more advanced things and he thinks it's better for both of them if they avoid that for the future.

Camille smiles in the way of one understanding an inside joke has been made, without having the experience to fully understand it, and nods back in confirmation. "That seems like a good idea, yes." She turns her eyes from his and back to their hands then, consciously having to resist the urge to keep readjusting her feet into what she'd picture is a more proper stance. "So... I cup my hands like this, what next?"

He tells her to take a deep breath and then close her eyes, before doing the same himself. It's a step that's not as required for him due to his practice, but he remembers it made things easier when he was first starting out. After a few seconds, he cracks an eye back open, just to confirm that she's followed his instructions, before letting it fall back closed again. His voice remains low, gentle in volume but otherwise firm. He acknowledges how he's noticed how intuitive she can be sometimes, so he expects the next part to come more easily to her than he's seen it for others.

At this, she's the one who cracks an eye open, raising an eyebrow, too. Her lips twist ever so slightly, a frown falling onto her face as she tries to consider what he might mean about that. She knows she's relatively good at reading people, at knowing just what to say to make a person feel better when she wants to help them, but she wouldn't expect being a little more empathetic with people to be a key factor in magic, at least not for summoning inanimate objects. Still, she keeps doubt out of her mind as she closes her eyes again. Arthur's clearly mastered the skill, or at least learned it well enough to be teaching it anyway, so she trusts what he says even as she waits for him to explain.

"You see, a lot of people don't realize this- don't want to or just can't -but there's magic practically all around us." He continues, talking about how there are obviously some places where it's stronger than others, ley lines and the like, but there are small deposits of it everywhere if one just searches for them. "Most miss them, though. If people can't see it with their eyes, they like to believe it's not really there," he adds, allowing a little bit of judgement to pepper his words, before he makes his tone ease again.

Camille questions if she'll need to sense the energy then to do the magic. It's a little needless; she can guess as much from what he's said so far, but she also wants to be sure, just in case an assumption has led her astray. His smile grows again, though, this time in a little bit of admiration, as he confirms that's exactly right. He explains that the body has its own natural energy and that attuning it to the magic around one's self is needed to properly guide the magic towards the desired use for it.

"I've always found it to be a lot like breathing without actually breathing- not that you shouldn't breathe while doing so, but that-," he falters as he tries to find a good way to explain what his thoughts are. "Take another deep breath in, slowly, and hold it for a few moments," he instructs, waiting until he can hear the sound of her inhale to continue speaking. "Do you feel how your chest expands out, how you can feel the pressure of the air spreading through your lungs, filling them up, waiting with a growing eagerness for your exhale? It's like that, but not just your lungs. It's your whole body you're filling up this time.

"You open yourself up to the energy around you, you invite it, you draw it inside you, and you hold it there, in the core of you, until you are ready to breathe it out again. The exhale is the spell, summoning an item or creating a spot of light or warming a cup of tea. You release that energy, that magic, and let your preparations guide its function."

"Preparations?"

He spares a chuckle. "I didn't mean it like that," comes the reassurance, acknowledging the word choice could imply there are steps still to be done. He reminds her that he'd said different spells required different levels of steps, but the one they're focused on only requires thought. "You do have to keep a clear focus on what you want, picture it in your mind, but we won't have to go fetch any candles to light or anything," he says with a breath of a laugh.

She questions what she should picture, getting a somewhat simple response that it could be almost anything, provided it could fit in her palm. He also recommends something close, citing that closer proximity to an item lowers effort as well, so something in the same room might work best. He offers up a few simple suggestions, a stirring spoon sat next to the sink or one of the mugs stored in a cabinet nearby. He says it should be something easy for her to think of, though. If she can hold the image of it in her mind, imagine what it would be like to carry its weight, feel its texture against her skin, it'll be that much easier to focus the magic onto the exact item and where she wants it to be.

She falls quiet in thought and he takes the chance to lift his eyelids again, watching her consider her options. Her face has scrunched up slightly, really pondering what a good choice would be. It's only after she takes another deep breath, before her own eyes snap open and she smiles. "I've got it," she declares, nodding her head a little with a bit of resolution. She closes her eyes again when Arthur nods as well and instructs her to give it a shot, then.

He keeps his eyes open, though, still watching her focus. He notices she finally can't help it and moves her feet slightly to fix her stance. She takes another breath, slow, holding it, before releasing. He can tell she's trying very hard to find a balance, a stiff focus on the image in her mind while keeping herself relaxed enough to reach out to the magic and wrap herself up in it. She takes another breath to try again, then another, and another still. It's after that that she speaks up, and he has to answer her on when she'll know that she's actually drawn in magic and not just air.

He thinks for only a moment. "It's warm," he explains, before further clarifying, "but not hot. Like holding a hot drink on a cold day, you'll feel it seep through you. It's... this tingling sort of comfortable heat, like...," he trails off again, trying once more to consider his words before settling on a better option, "like this." His experience does not require deep breaths or closed eyes to better picture making the energy around them just a touch more detectable. It doesn't require too much focus, he's only amplifying what's already there. If he can make it a little stronger, make it a little easier for her to pick up on, he hopes it will help her on her own. After all, it's much easier to look for something after being able to see what one should be looking for.

With his eyes still on her, he can notice her body shift in recognition of the extra sensation, before her mouth opens into a grin as she laughs. He laughs too, quieter, but still finding hers contagious. He remembers the first time he really felt that as well, and it's a good memory to come back on even just in the moment. He lets the effort linger a few more moments before allowing it to wane, easing its presence in the area back to normal. It's as he does that he can pick up on her immediately trying to lean further into that feeling. She's attempting to hold onto the rope of it and pull it back from where it's being dropped, and his smile holds from that, pleased to see her able to so naturally make that effort. It takes a few moments, but he can feel that energy growing across from him, being gathered up little by little, strands plucked from the air around them and intertwined piece by piece into something more substantial.

Her voice is quiet when she speaks next, daring not to go above a whisper lest she lose her concentration and all the effort of drawing that energy towards her. "I just picture it, then?"

He nods as he continues to watch her, then remembers himself and speaks aloud, confirming her statement as correct. She takes another breath and her smile grows once more, and this time he breathes deep as well and can smell the scent in the air, too. It's not hard to guess at what she's settled her thoughts on. He keeps his voice low as well, not wanting to break her focus either, but reminding her to hold on to that image of it in her hand. If she's held it before, she can hold it in her hand again, it should be so easy to do so, right? She can make that happen, he knows she can.

Sure enough, a few more seconds pass and he can see sparks appearing over her hands, too. They're not quite the same. His are quicker, sharper, they burst into air with a bright flash of light and then fizzle out just as quickly. Practice makes perfect, but practice often also makes hasty, and the lack of effort on his part turns the whole thing into a flash in the pan sort of ordeal. But for her, the sparks bubble into existence, growing and popping like water just beginning to boil, before fading back into the slowly building glow overtaking their palms. When they flicker away entirely, a cookie is left in their place that falls into Camille's hands with a faint thwump of a noise.

It's immediately followed by a yelp of surprise as she instinctively draws her hands inward a bit, before trying to bounce the cookie between her palms in a way that won't let its harsh heat touch her palms for too long. She turns towards one of the cabinets, but Arthur speaks up, directing her attention back as he waves his hand, following through on the motion until a plate appears between his fingers. He sets it on the counter to their side and she drops the cookie onto it a moment later, before quickly turning her attention to her hands, shaking them slightly and trying to blow on them to ease the slight ache.

"Here," Arthur announces as he reaches for her hands yet again, looking over them himself while starting to rub thumbs in circle patterns over the hurt spots. He can feel her twitch back a little in surprise when his touch becomes ice cold for a few moments, but she allows herself to ease moments later, enjoying the soothing touch. "Are you alright?" he questions, waiting for her to answer either in the affirmative or direct him to where the most damage has been done. The response he receives instead is not exactly matching his expectations.

"I did it...," she says, a breath of a sentence, and it gets Arthur's eyes to lift and meet hers. There's a smile growing back onto her face, and there's that shine in her eyes once more that has him mesmerized all over again. "I did it!" she declares again, excitement building as it sinks in, before her expressions falters long enough to ask him to confirm he didn't do anything for her. When he answers, immediately waving off the very idea of doing such a thing, that elation comes back even stronger, and she bounces on her feet, declaring again, "Then I did it!"

There's always something about her that makes him want to smile, and that's never more true than when she is wearing a grin, too. Her joy is always infectious in its strength, and he finds himself watching her celebrate for a few moments more, contemplating about how beautiful she looks when she's like this. "What did I say?" he asks after another beat, "You're brilliant."

Her smile withdraws just a little, and she shakes her head slightly, nodding back to him. "I couldn't have done it without such an excellent teacher," she teases back, before leaning in to press a kiss to his cheek.

It's the ding of the kitchen timer a second later that pulls her back. She starts to turn back to the oven, but spares a big hug and a quick word of thanks before she goes, said with an emphasis to ensure he understands how much she appreciates the effort spent on her. He answers that he was happy to, would be happy to further their lessons again later once they have the rest of the cookies out. She considers, ultimately agreeing she thinks she'd like that, too.

It's not as quick without magic, but it only takes a minute or so to fetch the oven mitts and pull the cookie sheet from out of the oven. Camille has taken up a spatula and started to slide one of the cookies off when she remembers the plate already set out now to set the treats on. She asks if he can bring the plate over, looking over her shoulder just in time to catch him popping the last piece of the first cookie into his mouth. She makes a little sound of surprise, before shooting a pseudo-scolding look at Arthur, even if her lips still show a smirk.

He shows a half smile back at her, not exactly trying to feign innocence, but not remorseful either. Instead, he lifts his hands, waving them a bit in the classic show seen in most media of magicians and other showy mage types. It immediately gets a bout of giggles from her as he answers simply, "Look, I made it disappear."

#aphrarepairweek2019 #engbel #ignore this #yay story time #misskhep

[comicteaparty]

December 25th-December 31st, 2019 Reader Favorites Archive

The archive for the Reader Favorites chat that occurred from December 25th, 2019 to December 31st, 2019.  The chat focused on the following question:

While being respectful, what’s a comic you think is objectively great but is just not to your subjective tastes?

carcarchu

the first one that comes to mind is purple hyacinth https://www.webtoons.com/en/drama/purple-hyacinth/list?title_no=1621&page=1 by all means i should love this series. i think the art and premise are great but for some intangible reason it just doesn't jive with me for some reason. i still recommend it to others and it's not like i don't read it but personally it just didn't make it feel anything

snuffysam

Honestly? Most of the comics I've read as part of #week_long_bookclub and #comment_storm fall under that umbrella. The vast majority of comics I've been introduced to through the CTP activities are really quite good (there's been exactly one in the book club that I couldn't stomach, and it was because of content/writing i personally found overly edgy & distasteful) - but for one reason or another, they're just not the type of comic I want to keep up with regularly. Too slice-of-life-y, too sad, i couldn't visually distinguish the characters that well, a super-sporadic update schedule/is on hiatus/is getting rebooted, the parts of the story I liked are clearly not things the author wants to focus on moving forward, a non-functional/poorly organized website, etc. All very good in their own right, but for one reason or another is not something I'd want to read one page at a time.

Eightfish

@snuffysam I feel similarly that most of the comics in the book club are not my cup of tea (haha). I wonder if it would be different if some of the comics there were reader suggested instead of author suggested?

keii4ii

I think CTP should remain author-submitted. Readers could suggest to the authors to submit their comic, though.

the majority of comics I encounter everywhere aren't my bag of tea, TBH. And that's probably a big part of the reason why I'm making my own. Gotta feed my inner reader's needs, one way or another

A lot of Western-written comedy, specifically, are lost on me for cultural reasons. Often they seem to be referencing something that I'm not aware of. Or they have to be read in a specific tone that's lost on me, and probably would make a bit more sense to me if voice-acted. Things like that.

Cronaj

For me it's usually art style. I'm pretty picky about art style, and I know for a fact that I'm missing out on a lot of good comics simply because the art styles are not to my tastes. Any style that's too cutesy, simplistic, or "generic" anime just doesn't call to me. There have been outliers that have managed to draw me in anyway, despite the art style, but not a lot. I also just tend to not like gag-a-day comics or slice-of-life. If there isn't a larger story, I get kind of bored. That being said, I also don't tend to enjoy most superhero/ strictly action comics, simply because I can recognize the tropes from a mile away. Not that they're bad, just... outdated? In fact, I LOVE superhero movies, but most superhero movies have adapted the tropes into a new form for the big screen. Here's an example of a comic that I've seen around, laughed at a few of the jokes, and then never felt the desire to consistently read it, just because it's not my style. Brutally Honest: (https://tapas.io/series/Brutally-Honest)

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

I find myself having the same problem with webcomics that I do with other media - I like to feel like I’m escaping reality. Stories set in our world are hard for me to sit through comfortably. That automatically makes general slice-of-life and romance stories hard for me to get into, unless there’s a strong fantasy/supernatural/sci-fi element to them. That already puts a lot of webcomics out of my range. Because there are SO MANY high school slice of life romance drama webcomics out there. Some of which I know are very highly rated and probably great. They’re just not what my brain craves

Tuyetnhi

strangely enough anything with western high fantasy elements I usually don't read as much compared to romance or slice of life comics lmao

kinda in the same spot to what keii said: a lot of western themes get lost for me and I feel like I need to put my own spin on things if that make sense

Nutty (Court of Roses)

To be fair and honest... I don't really have comics I don't enjoy, or I guess fall too far outside my tastes? Out of the ones I've read, anyways! My reasoning is that I just don't have TIME to read too many comics out there, so when I decide for myself that yes, I'm going to sit down and commit myself to this comic, I look for and find things to enjoy about it, even if it's not normally my cup of tea. The story, the art, the style, the jokes... I try to keep an open mind and enjoy whatever I have the chance to get into, because as an artist I think about the person behind the comic and what kind of story they're trying to tell. I just... really like comics ahahah I wish I had more time to read more!!!!(edited)

FeatherNotes

I agree with @LadyLazuli (Phantomarine) on the 'set in our world ' bit! I find it difficult as well to immerse myself im stories that are in our world with exceptions of an alternate reality or large enough twist that would really differ from what the setting is. Slice of life doesn't really appeal to me, mainly because many comics don't have very stand out designs/personalities for characters that i would gravitate to. To be more specific to the question however, there are certainly quite a few amazing looking comics that don't really float my boat simply bc of style or execution of story or whatnot! Ive been reading one recently that hasn't really stuck to me or left any impact character/story wise, but.....im still reading it! so there def must be something!

Octoflamingo

There are a lot of comics I like but I find myself not reading them after I get to where they last update. I just rarely check in afterwards and usually by the time I do I’ve forgot the plot. I feel that every time I go back to a comic I have to read it all over again to get back to where I was. That can be really time consuming the longer the series is. I also try not to pick up long story oriented series if they aren’t finished because I know I’ll never get to the end of them.

Bear

I say this as a person in the LGBT+ community: I’ve become very tired of comics that centre around a person coming out. Which sucks because they’re super important! But I’ve lived the struggle, everyone close to me has lived the struggle. It’s tiring. What I want is genre stories where the characters are LGBT+, but that’s not necessarily the focus. Luckily in webcomics that’s easier to find. I still have to dig through coming out stories to find them though.

Deo101

Gotta say, super agree with that one Bear.

Eightfish

Same. I like stories where characters are just casually LGBT. Even to the point where they won't even mention that they're gay or lesbian and instead just show up in a gay relationship or naturally bring up their attraction to the same sex. Steven Universe does this really well, I think.

Oh and speaking of suggesting authors to sign up their comics, I think I could have a lot to say about @LadyLazuli (Phantomarine) 's Phantomarine (: Maybe in a few months when the comic gets a little more ahead in the plot?

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

@Eightfish I may submit it after this chapter is done around the beginning of February! I do wish I were further ahead, but there will still be plenty to say after this one wraps up. Thank you for the encouragement!

RebelVampire

If I'm just speaking in general, usually comedy and slice-of-life comics will fall into this category for me even if they're fantastic. I am very, very particular about comedy and slice-of-life. Especially comedy, as I'm usually very specific about the sort of stuff that actually makes me laugh and entertains me. So honestly, a lot of comedy in comics is just not my jam. In a more specific comic sense, Kamikaze to name just one of many: https://kamikazeanimated.com/comic/ The art in the comic is fantastic, the characters really fleshed out and interesting, and even some of the comedy I like. Objectively, I think this is a fantastic comic with a ton of effort put behind it and one everyone should give a chance. That being said, for me personally, I just can't get into the pacing. It's a bit too slow for me even if I think objectively it works fine. So while it's a comic I might enjoy in bulk reads, as a page-by-page thing I just can't do it.

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

To be honest, I can’t really name any comics? I tend to like just about any comic that’s really well done. Obviously I have my preferred genres, but I simply don’t seek out comics that aren’t my thing. If I do read past the first few pages of an objectively well-made comic, chances are I’m going to stick around snd keep reading.

Eightfish

Maybe my own comic? Not that I think it's objectively great, but it is of course more completely to my own taste than any other comic out there. Yet if I try to read my own comic I can't glean any enjoyment out of it over the overwhelming feeling of hearing my own recorded voice played back to me. Anyone else?

keii4ii

That's an interesting answer! I can't say I feel 100% the same, but I can relate to perhaps a facet or two of it.

I don't really read my comic either, after all, even though it's an honest reflection of what I want to read.

Eightfish

Thing is I have another short comic from about 6 years ago that I am now far removed from enough to read objectively. And I notice things I think are well done that I didn't notice before and big flaws that I haven't considered 6 years ago. So I'm worried since I can't read my current comic objectively I don't know what I need to improve on

keii4ii

That's definitely a struggle for me as well. It's what constructive critiques are for, BUT it's not easy finding someone willing, able and well suited to critique your work.

I used to actively solicit concrit on my comic. While I appreciate that every critic spent their time and effort genuinely trying to be helpful, the actual critiques weren't always helpful. You have to be a good critic (it takes skills), and you have to be the right critic for that specific story.

🌈ERROR404 🌈

I totally agree on that keii, a lot of people see concrit as the solution for every issue, but that's just bound for trouble. There are a lot more bad and mediocre critiques than well stated and usable ones

keii4ii

Yeah. There's a reason why the services of a good editor are so highly valued!

Cronaj

I think the problem is that most people who offer critiques are trying to shape the story in a way that they themselves would enjoy more, and not necessarily an objective improvement to the existing story. Offering a critique that also preserves the essence and heart of a story is extremely difficult.(edited)

Eightfish

Also when critique is contradictory- " I love how your comic gets right into the interesting part" vs. " I was really confused by the intro " But I don't know what side I would be on if I was a reader because as the author I would never be confused by my own story.(edited)

keii4ii

Yeah, and even when you get two crits on the same "side" it's possible that it's just skewed data due to small sample size. Like, maybe both of the critics are simply not your target audience. I've found that it helps a LOT if you ask specific questions, instead of just asking for a concrit. Coming up with good questions can be very difficult, though! One I've asked in the past is "did you lose interest while reading the comic? If so, at what point(s)?" and I got helpful answers from that, even from people who weren't the target audience.

Kelsey (Kurio)

I admit, I’m not the best at critiquing, like trying to bring to mind things other than “art looks nice” or “I like that joke” or whatnot

Though I guess it gets easier the more I read and mull over something

🌈ERROR404 🌈

it's sometimes hard to find something good and worthwhile to critique LOL

Kelsey (Kurio)

And of course, how does one define “objective improvement” with works of art/media? Outside of things like improving grammar, but what about in cases where it’s like that on purpose? It’s real hard to be totally objective with criticism when you think about it, even when you try to be objective

keii4ii

This might be getting off topic for the channel, but I think it's better to think of it as "effective for the goals of this work" rather than "objective." If you do X in your work on purpose, but X is not appealing to your target demographic, that's not effective. You need to either not do X, or re-define your target demographic. (Not necessarily the only options in that situation, but you get the point.)

Cronaj

I definitely think that "effective" is a better word for what I meant. It's all about intent. For example, most people generally agree that art style should be consistent in a comic, BUT in some cases (especially in comedy) switching up the art style for a scene or a panel to emphasize a point or subvert expectations (thus making the scene potentially funnier) is a very "effective" inconsistency. Basically, if something is effective for telling the story or instilling a mood, the objective view basically becomes null.

DanitheCarutor

I can get into almost anything, there are very few stories I have trouble with, even if it's a genre I wouldn't normally like. Although there are a couple that I'm really picky with, and that's gag-a-day comics or general comedy. The only ones I can think I've actively read off the top of my head are Oglaf, Perry Bible Fellowship and more recently, Woman World. Other than those few the genres never catch my interest, I'm more for story/character driven comics, with plot and stuff like that. Sometimes a comic doesn't click regardless of genre, for example: Homestuck I tried sooo hard to read this one to see what the hype was about, but the farthest I've ever gotten was maybe 50 pages after several attempts, and that's not because it's bad! The comic just didn't click, and regardless of my taste I probably would recommend it to someone who likes those types of comics.

#ctparchive #comics #webcomics #indie comics #comic chat #comic discussion #comic tea party #ctp #reader favorites

[ginnyzero]

Trivialization of Writing in Today’s Society

Writing is an important skill. Writing is more than the ability to write the alphabet and string the letters into words. Writing is the way we express ideas. It is an important tool in our society from writing business letters, making deals, interviews, pitching projects to writing sermons and stories.

Schools would teach creative writing in the lower classes. But then as students got older, this was phased out in favor of business writing, pitch papers and essays. These pitch papers and essays were touted as important skills that students needed to learn to survive in the university environment and the bigger world. And the ability to tell a story, which is what the basis of these essays and pitch papers were really about, became lost and ‘less important’ in the scheme of things. (The structure of an essay is just as important as a structure of a story.)

Writing, storytelling, the ability to string words together into a cohesive, coherent whole with a beginning, middle and ending isn’t valued. The idea that writing a book is work is actually laughed at. Writing if it isn’t journalism or scientific papers is not considered a viable career. We recommend our children become doctors and lawyers. People who follow protocols and rules, instead of encouraging to be creative and think freely.

For some reason there is a prevailing attitude in our society that anyone can write a novel and be good at it. Media encourages this view. I can think of two shows that I like off the top of my head about how Doctors, a Medical Examiner and a Forensic Anthropologist are both writers. Media has pushed that these two fact loving rational people have the creativity to write novels and write novels well that apparently have emotional appeal that connect to audiences. (I am still trying to figure out after 11 Seasons of Bones when Brennan actually has time to write these novels. And I’m not sure now when Maura has time to write her novel.)

They put forth this message that writing a novel is relatively easy and fame is assured once you’re published. However, I find it hard to believe that both of these very analytical characters are able to connect to an audience. With Brennan they try to explain that Angela is her “human editor” and comes up with the scenes that aren’t fact driven. It really burned me that they showed Clark Edison getting a novel deal while they used excerpts on how horrible writing was for laughs. They also cut out the fact he'd need an agent, not go to the publisher's directly. They made it seem even horrible writers could easily get a book deal. Thankfully, this was never brought up again. (Maura got a critic from her editor that her characters were flat and her setting didn't come alive and I cheered. Yes, constructive criticism that made sense!) Even the procedural Castle, who was about a writer assisting a homicide detective, used a writer who was already successful and just suffering from writer’s block. At least he seems to understand story and has emotional grounding to connect to an audience. But they still avoided that it takes time, effort, talent and learned skill to write a novel. (Castle always wrote off screen.)

There are a lot of people who believe that they can write a novel despite not having done any creative writing since third grade. (I think I may have done some creative writing in ninth grade for class but I went to a private high school.) A lot of people think that they have a novel in them. Without thinking through the entire process or knowing how a novel is structured. And if they’re willing to take the time to learn about structure and put the effort into sitting down and writing. Then more power to them, yay, more people being creative. However, most people do not have the fortitude or the desire to write novel even if they think they can. So those that do take the time and put forth the effort to write a novel, even if it isn’t the greatest novel aren’t taken seriously because “anybody can do that.”

No. It takes skill. It takes knowledge. It takes a certain amount of talent. And it takes practice. You have to learn to do it by doing it over and over again. I started writing in seventh grade and my first story was a horrible piece of shit that had no conflict and no hardship. For a very long time I was so conflict adverse, I could barely put it into my stories. I have chapters and chapters of stories on my laptop that have great characters, great worlds, but are in the end boring because there was no conflict. Dialogue, conflict, action, world building, characters, each of these ideas takes a certain amount of time and ability to do properly. It doesn’t come easily or naturally. It can be tiring and difficult and depressing. One has to learn to do it. Sometimes you get it right. Sometimes you fail. It’s work. (And I find it fun, oh woe is me.)

I’m not a lawyer. I haven't learned the law code. I wouldn’t want to represent myself in court. I’m not a doctor. I don't know more than super basic anatomy. I wouldn’t perform surgery on myself or anyone else. I’m not a plumber. I can’t fix the leaks in my pipes. I haven't learned that skill. And I don’t expect my plumber, lawyer, doctor to be able to write even as I value their services as plumbers, lawyers, and doctors.

A doctor can heal your disease. A writer can take you to a far away place on a journey of your imagination for hours on end and distract you from pain and disease both emotional and physical.

But we aren’t given the credit we deserve. There are places where writers are barely given credit at all; movies, video games. Things that hinge on having a good story. Having a good story to hook your viewers and players into your game is just as important if not more important than having a good visual look and good game play mechanics. But who gets the credit if things go right for a movie? The director and the actors. Who gets credit when things go badly for a movie? The director and the actors. Who gets credit for a game outside of the studio? The guy in charge of the studio or the game director.

Writers aren’t really on the sets during the filming of movies. If a book writer has their property being turned into a film or television show. They don’t get to adapt it themselves. They don’t have a say in what gets changed. They’ve basically sold the rights of their own intellectual property away and have no control on how it is presented to the public. When a screen writer writes a scene that is important to the plot of the movie and the director or the editor decide to cut it for whatever reason, the screen writer doesn’t get the chance to protest that the story will no longer make sense. There are writers who get no credit for working on the script at all. They are called script fixers and it is their job to take a script and make it better.

And you would think that in fandom circles where it thrives on the exchange of free ideas it would be different. At one time, it was considered taboo to make money off of anyone else’s intellectual property. But changing times and trends and a more Japanese view of copyright began to infiltrate fandom as fandom has become more accepted and less secretive. Huge companies are turning blind eyes to copyright infringement as it brings more attention to their brand that they don’t have to pay for. There isn’t as much fear of being sued. It is almost considered normal now in fandom for artists to take fan art commissions to earn a little extra money to get through college.

But fan fiction commissions? Blasphemy. You “don’t do it.” You don’t talk about doing it. Fan creators still get greatly uncomfortable with the idea that someone could pay another person to write them something. Despite the fact it takes time and effort and talent to write as much as it takes time, effort and talent to draw. I am not saying that fan fiction writers should be paid for their work. That's a different kettle of fish. However, like a fan artist who takes commissions, there is a double standard if a fan fiction writer can't do the same. Many fan fiction writers wouldn't dream of trying to make money off writing fan fiction, just as many fan artists wouldn't dream of making money off their fandom art. However, it is an acceptable practice for artists to do so and unacceptable concept for fan fiction writers to even think about it. But, there is also now a dialogue about it in fandom circles and eventually capitalism will determine if it happens or not.

Writing is an important skill and a learned skill. The ability to tell a story in a cohesive, concise and coherent way is important in all types of work. It is too bad that our society doesn’t see it that way.

[4colorrebellion]

4cr Plays - SteamWorld Quest: Hand of Gilgamech

Swedish developers Image & Form have taken on a variety of genres with the versatile SteamWorld setting. SteamWorld Dig and Dig 2 were gorgeous, polished takes on the sidescrolling action-adventure. SteamWorld Heist presented an addictive take on the turn-based strategy game. SteamWorld Tower Defense was, well, a creative take on its namesake. 

Now, Image & Form are back with their most ambitious release yet. SteamWorld Quest: Hand of Gilgamech is the studio’s riff on the RPG genre, with an addictive card-based battle system.

Read on for my impressions.

SteamWorld Quest places you in the armor-plated shoes of Armilly - the grocer’s daughter, who dreams of living up to the legend of her hero, Gilgamech - Copernica - a college dropout who wants to bring alchemy to the people - and Galleo - a craftsman looking for a way out of his mother’s basement. Their little village is attacked by an army of mechanical monsters, and the professional adventurers prove to be completely useless. Suddenly, Armilly, Copernica, and Galleo find themselves in the spotlight, as the only ones who can repel the invaders and save the world. 

The plot of SteamWorld Quest is essentially the hero’s journey at the heart of many fantasy novels. It’s a fun ride, and the charming dialogue really carries the experience. I fell in love with the characters from almost the start - you can’t help but love Copernica’s sarcasm and Armilly’s sheer, puppy-like earnestness. The general tone of the game is perfect. It’s a little tongue-in-cheek, and throws a few fun winks at the player without getting obnoxious. I expected finely-tuned gameplay from Image & Form, but was genuinely surprised how much I enjoyed the writing too. 

SteamWorld Quest is presented as a series of chapters, each essentially a sidescrolling “level” to explore. Whether forest paths, a dungeon, or a damp cave, you move between a series of rooms full of enemies, characters to talk to, merchants, and obstacles. You can destroy items to collect gold, and search for chests full of items. Your map shows the rooms that you’ve explored, and indicates missed paths. Of course, there are also hidden rooms not indicated on the map, so there is incentive to explore each area as much as you can. 

If you get close to an enemy, combat begins. Battles are turn-based, alternating between groups - that is, your party takes a turn, then the enemy party takes a turn (rather than alternating between individual characters). Combat is card-based. Each of your three party members has a deck of eight cards, which are shuffled together to form your deck. You draw a hand of six cards at the start of the battle, and draw back up to six each turn. On a turn, you may perform up to three actions. You could play three cards, or use up to three items - like health-restoring potions - instead. 

The actions you can choose are determined by your SP - “steam points”. Each character has cards that represent basic actions, either simple attacks, stat modifiers, and such. Basic actions are weak, but they cost nothing to use and grant you one SP. More powerful cards - attacks, healing, powerful spells - cost one or more SP to play. SP is held in a shared pool for the party. When choosing skills, you need to decide whether to focus on one character’s cards, or whether to spread actions between party members. If all three cards belong to the same character, you get to execute a special fourth action for that character. However, some skills are more powerful if paired with another character’s abilities. Other times, it might make sense to pair one character’s mighty attack with another’s healing touch.

Using a card takes it from your hand to the discard pile, putting it out of play until the existing deck is used up. Fortunately, with a combined deck size of 24, it is never long until discarded cards come back into play. You can also freely discard two cards each turn and draw replacements immediately. This is a great touch, helping you get out of situations where you feel “stuck” and allowing you to gamble on a definite - but weak - turn versus a potentially great turn. Since you get cards back eventually, you have a lot of freedom to try to manipulate your hand.

Each character has their own specializations, strengths, and weaknesses. Armilly is your standard “knight”, excelling at physical attacks and defense. Copernica is the “wizard”, with elemental magic attacks. Galleo is your support character - your “priest” - with healing skills, the ability to inflict status ailments like poison on enemies, and stat manipulation abilities. This impacts the kind of skills they each bring to the table, and what you can expect out of them in combat.  

Each character has stats (the typical RPG ones, like strength, magic, constitution, etc.). Armilly is good at physical strikes, Copernica is not. However, Copernica makes up for a lack of strength with powerful element-based magic attacks. You also equip weapons and accessories to improve your stats, and attacks do damage based on these stats. For example, an ice attack that does 120% magic damage does 12 damage if your magic stat is 10. 

You can have three party members at one time, and eventually do meet more characters that join the adventure. Like Armilly, Copernica, and Galleo, each additional character brings their own unique twists to the combat formula, and it is worth experimenting with part composition to find the one that works for how you play the game. Unfortunately, only the active party members gain experience, so unused characters quickly fall behind. 

Each character has their own deck of cards. You find new cards throughout the world, and defeated monsters yield materials that can be used to craft new cards at the merchant. Very quickly, you end up with many more cards than can be used in your eight card deck, and choosing the right cards becomes an interesting optimization problem. You have to consider not just that character in isolation, but also the decks of the rest of the party. Galleo might not be the strongest attacker, but you still might want to include some of their attack cards to not end up in a situation where you only have healing cards. However, reasonably frequent save points and the ability to resurrect enemies give you a lot of freedom to explore different deck configurations. 

The battle system is incredible. I have had a blast experimenting with different party and deck configurations, and the element of random draws adds a lot of interesting little surprises and chances to plan out a series of actions. There is a huge amount of depth to each aspect of combat. Yet, at the same time, the system is easy to immediately understand. You never feel lost in a series of dense mechanics. It’s a wonderful case of “easy to understand, hard to master”. 

SteamWorld Quest is also a gorgeous game, especially on the Switch’s tablet screen. The art has a hand-drawn, painted quality to it. The blend of steampunk and fantasy is really appealing - mixing traditional concepts like wizards and knights with gears and bolts -  and I love the interesting little details in all of the character designs, like how the cards look like old-school punchcards. There is a nice variety of environments to explore, and the developers have made great use of color to present a richly detailed world. I have played almost entirely in portable mode, but the game looks wonderful both on the TV and on the go. 

SteamWorld Quest is one of the most enjoyable RPGs I’ve played recently, and it’s easy to get sucked into. Once again, Image & Form have put out a wonderfully polished, creative take on a well-known game genre, and I think they’ve outdone all of their past efforts. If you like card games or RPGs, you should definitely give this a go.

This review is based on a copy of the game provided by the developers.

Official Website

Nintendo eShop

#video game #review #steamworld #steamworld quest #nintendo #nintendo switch #switch #rpg #card #greg4cr