#i would like to thank canva and google for all of their help

[tarjapearce]

Lips anon! AHHHH Baby Benji's first words 😭 😭 😭

That situation reminded me of a story my mother told me. Apparently when I was a baby, my uncle wasn't paying attention and put his tequila on my high chair, and I took a sip of it. I cried and pushed it off. She got really mad at him for that obviously lol

Pfftt, Gabriel pulling the same thing when he visits for the first time in forever.

I was given a beer when I was 5 😂. Just a sip though. Latino dads and uncles are terrible 😅.

OMG GABRIEL. Brief Tension undercut

Benjamin certainly adored his blocks, but adored even more when you gathered to play with him after lunch. It helped him to make his digestion better and sleep at ease. Gabriela was still in school.

Evening slowly transitioned into night and you were preparing dinner. Gabi had just finished her homework, Benji was on his little jumper, stretching his legs, and Miguel was setting up the table.

------

Dinner was lovely as usual, Miguel picked up after everyone as you cleaned Benjamin, his face a canvas painted with the smashed food. He adored when you'd mash potatos and carrots and minced tiny bits of chicken just for him. You then cleaned his chair and Gabi was ready to watch some TV with Miguel when the doorbell rang.

"The Neighbors maybe?" Miguel and you looked at eachother with confusing stares. Not that you weren't friendly among the neighborhood, you just simply stuck to yourselves, it was rare when someone knocked on your door past the 7 pm.

"I'll get it." Miguel rose on his feet and opened the door.

"Hey, Miggy." Gabriel's voice froze him in his spot. A little luggage bag next to him.

The coos and laugh of Benjamin snapped Gabriel's attention inside.

"May I come in?"

"... Sure." Miguel mumbled, still in his shock, he stepped aside and let him in.

Gabriel looked around, a typical domestic life that suited his brother all too well, despite him initially opposing to such things saying that his career was first.

"Guess you swallowed your words, huh Miggy?"

Miguel just stared at him with aprehension, he didn't know how to feel. It had been years since he saw Gabriel. 6 years to be exact. He had just left after a bad fight. And ever since then, their relationship had been strained.

"Is that-"

"Miguel? Who is it?"

Gabriel's eyes twinkled with amusement at your voice, then looked at little Benjamin that stared back at him to then look between Miguel and him. A bit confused.

Gabriel was shorter than Miguel, reaching his ears, his hair shorter and slicked back, a few strands poking out from the googles he wore ontop. Green eyes instead of maroon, a more joyful and amiable expression in his face, body less formidable than Miguel's.

"Can you come here for a sec, Mi amor?" Miguel spoke and Gabriel just chuckled at the endearing term. Gabriela poked her head out of the couch to look at them.

"Remember Gabriel?."

"Oh yes, of course. It's good to see you again. Hope everything is going well " You shook his hand with a smile. Miguel barely spoke about him, and if he did, it only showed that they still were at odds despite the amiable act the both put up. They were good at masking their feelings.

His hand was strong but still he was gentle.

"Un gusto verte de nuevo, cuñada" He spoke and you couldn't help but giggle. (Nice to see my sister in law again)

"Would you like something to drink?"

"Hm." He nodded but then his eyes stared at Benjamin, who went quiet upon Gabriel approaching.

"And whose this little handsome man?"

"Benjamin." Miguel spoke as he rubbed his face and held his waist. You served him a bit of Horchata. Benjamin just stared at him and cooed.

"Thanks. He looks like a mini you, but he definitely got (Name) 's eyes. Where is Gabi?"

"Gabi, cariño, come say hi to your uncle." Miguel held in her arms and Gabriel couldn't help but gasp.

"Gabi?! No way! Look at you, Pulguita! You have grown so much!" (Little one)

Gabi smiled nervously . She was only four years when Gabriel left. Gabriel and you barely interacted beyond pleasantries. He was always respectful when it came to you and kept his distance.

"Got you guys something. Wanna see?" You put Benjamin's spider pacifier on his mouth and Miguel took him out of his chair. Gabriela followed her uncle and you couldn't help to look at Miguel tensing. You had noticed that he was keeping his distance.

"Are you okay?"

Miguel nodded and sighed.

"Is he staying overnight so I can prepare his room?"

"I... I honestly don't know. I will do it anyways."

"Are you sure that you are OK?"

"Just feel a bit of headache coming." You'd rub his back softly he then joined Gabriel with Benji in his arms. You cleaned up.

Gabriel opened his luggage case and pulled out a little soccer t-shirt signed with some famous players.

"Para mi Pulguita" Gabriel smiled upon hearing Gabriela gasp and squeal in happiness. Miguel’s look softened. (For my little one)

"Look Papa!" Miguel nodded and smiled softly at her, she then ran to gush at you about the shirt.

"And since I wasn't sure how old mini you would be-"

"Benjamin."

"Right. Benjamin." He nodded, his freckled face scrunching up a bit, trying to suppress a chuckle.

"Since I wasn't sure how old little Benjamin would be, I got him some toys and this." He showed up Miguel a little green pacifier, a little goblin in a deeper shade of green imprinted on it.

"You can put liquids on it, designed it myself."

"Pretty ingenious." Miguel nodded, watching the little thing.

"And this is for you." He pulled out a small fancy box with a bottle in it. The label bright with the words "Amarás Logia, 25 años". twenty five year old brewed mezcal.

"Thanks." Gabriel sighed at his tone. Not that he blamed him though. Both brothers had said things that never should have left their mouths.

"You staying?"

"Nah. Just wanted to say hi. But... wouldn't mind a drink or two with you before I leave." He pulled another bottle, Don Julio's brand splattered on the tequila bottle. Miguel just chuckled.

"Just one."

"I know. You're a family man now and all that." Miguel put Benjamin on his chair again, Gabriela was taken to bed. Gabriel poured a couple of drops of tequila on his pacifier and approached Benjamin.

"Just a little tradition between O'Haras, little man." You and Miguel snapped the attention to Benjamin as he started crying after throwing away the pacifier.

"What's wrong?!"

"I just gave him a pacifier, nothing too bad."

You rushed to Benjamin and looked at the pacifier, a watery and all too familiar liquid oozed from it.

"You gave him tequila?!" You quickly pulled Benjamin out of his grasp and Miguel towered over him.

"He didn't drink! I promise! Just thought it was fun for him to smell it."

You rolled your eyes and took him away.

Miguel couldn't help but hit his head.

"¿Estás pendejo o qué?" (You stupid or what?)

Gabriel laughed at Miguel's hit.

"Relájate, cabrón. No bebió nada." (Calm down you dipshit. He didn't drink anything.)

"¿Te vas a quedar o no?" Gabriel chuckled and sighed. (You're staying or not?)

"We gotta talk anyways, and it's not precisely a short talk." Miguel just nodded and rubbed his face.

"You better apologize to (Name) in the morning."

"Ya sé, ya sé. Perdón." (I know, I know. Sorry)

Miguel prepared the guest room, as Gabriel poured two shots of tequila.

Alcohol would be needed, he couldn't be sober when all the pain would be out.

#miguel o'hara #miguel o'hara x reader #💋 anon #miguel o'hara x you #atsv miguel #gabriel o'hara #gabi o'hara #Benjamin O'Hara #soccer family ⚽🕷️ #t writes✨

[mo49ko]

hi, firstly, i love your art so much!! fengqing make me so weak ;-; secondly, do you have any tips for lack of motivation/fear of failure? like that feeling when drawing seems scary because you’re not sure if it’s going to look the way you want it to or it’s hard to get yourself to produce something just because drawing is difficult?

hello!! thank you for your kind words 💖✨ fengqings will always be here for us!!

i think that if you are not motivated to draw, there's no point in forcing yourself just to produce something, because pressuring yourself will just make you stressed. i think you can get more motivation in many ways, but you should just give it time.

for me, even doing something unrelated to drawing can give me motivation/ideas to draw!! for example, if i go shopping and i see some cute outfits, or a nice cafe, or i went somewhere fun with my friends, it will make me want to draw my fav characters doing it too hehe🤭🤭 in any case, you dont have to feel bad about not drawing. not drawing for 6 months can seem long, but its nothing in comparison to all the years that you are alive 🫡🌟

for the avoiding failure part, you can consider that a drawing doesnt ever have to be finished. one secret about drawings is that you can fix them how many times you want and you can spend months on one drawing if you want !!

i think it's the best thing to accept that you will never nail a drawing in one try. if the arm looks wrong then it just looks wrong and you can just draw over it again. if the face looks bad then you can just erase it and redraw from scratch how many times you want. in my case, i will absolute have like 60 layers of sketch before i colour lol

me duplicating my layer and redrawing each part until i get it right (2)(2)(2)(2)(2)(2)(2)(2) etc. etc.

you can't fix a thing without putting something down on the canvas first so i say just draw it however. then you can see what looks bad and fix it one by one. just work towards making it look the way you want it to.

i often post a "finished" drawing, and then come back to it months later and redraw some parts and post it again. i just think it's nice to think that you can always decide that you can still work on it!! my drawing is a dear plant that i grew myself by watering it and giving it sunshine over the days. 🌿

for a concrete advice, i would say to look up references even for things that you think you know how to draw.

it gets soso more easy when you stop relying on your brain waves to hallucinate a picture onto the canvas. if you don't know how to draw a hand holding a phone, just google "hand holding a phone stock image" and then copy the position!!

i drew both of these in under 1 minute ↓

seeing the reference pic made it easier to identify where is mistaken, and helps you improve the drawing easily.

it doesn't have to look exactly the same as the ref, but it helps you visualize better.

ALSO!!!! i will never stop recommending "PureRef" to everyone!! (a software to paste all your reference images to have them on your screen while you draw) !! you can move around the little board window and no need for a second monitor 🌟✨

in any case, keeping yourself interested in a lot of things will also make it easier to find reference pictures (by searching more precisely) + have more ideas/inspirations to draw!!

in think overall you should just let let your interests take you where they will.

happy drawing !!! 🤭💖🌟

#moko replies #anonymous #one thign about me is that i have sketching disease bc when i took a design course they forced us to submit 30 sketches before we can start #and then you realize that your first inspiration that you thought was good is never actually good #i guess i want to say to just let go of every little sketch #some of them just exist to make the “bad drawing” exit your body before you can make a good one #wow i keep talking for hours HAPPY SOUTHERN GENERALS SATURDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! #i like talking about drawing with my friends on tumbleerrrrrr

[miwtual]

hey kai if you want could you do a tutorial on how to put gifs inside shapes (like your MARGOT ROBBIE as HARLEY QUINN in the DC EXTENDED UNIVERSE) it looks so good

howdy anon! i’ve answered something similar to this before, but i figured that a proper tutorial would be nice, so thank u for sending an ask about it :) 

as per usual, you will need basic giffing knowledge for photopea, as well as the website itself, to complete this tutorial. this tutorial is also very wordy, but i do have some images to help with the process. if you have any questions about the process, please feel free to send in another ask.

without further ado, let’s go!

so, when making your gifs, the first thing you need to do is make sure that they are the same amount of frames. otherwise, your gif will end up looking strange with one gif looping faster than the other one. 

once you have all of your clips you want to use for the gif you’re making (i will be using two, but you can use more than that!), decide which one you want to be in the shape that you’re going to be choosing. for the sake of this tutorial, i am going to be using a simple circle shape, but you can use any variety of shapes however you’d like. i have some notes below about different ways to get different shapes:

on your left toolbar, directly under the “move” tool, there is the option for a “rectangle select” tool. right clicking this option also allows for you to choose ellipse select for circles. by adding a new layer to your canvas (on the top options, go to layer > new > layer), you can use either of these shapes to make a rectangle or circle, which you can then fill in by going to edit > fill…

on your left toolbar, above the “zoom” and “hand” tools, there should be a rectangle. right clicking this should give you the option for other shapes, such as ellipses, lines, and custom shapes. depending on what you want for your gif, you can choose any of these options for your own gif shape, but beware that these shapes are all fairly limited to what photopea has to offer.

for other shapes that photopea doesn’t offer (like the starburst shape that mattel uses for barbie edits, for example), i will go to google and just look up things like “mattel logo shape png”, or whatever other shape i’m looking for, and try to look for a transparent png. while this does give you a lot of options, you may not be able to find a transparent option (i use remove.bg to help with that!) or you may have to do some editing around the edges to get the shape the way you want it (many of the mattel logos have a big MATTEL in the middle that ruins the edges of the starburst shape, so you’ll have to fix that, for example)

more notes about choosing your shape:

if you get a shape off google, make sure that your cropping fits that shape! if you have a shape that is some weird dimensions that arent a 1x1 ratio, your gif cropping will have to reflect that so it fits in the shape.

you should also know how big you want your shape to be on the finished product — for me, the entire gif canvas is going to be 540x540, so i’m going to make the shaped gif 240x240 so that both the big gif in the background and the shaped gif are visible in the final product. this will all depend on what you are doing for your gifs, though, so play around with different shapes/sizes in another canvas the size of your final product.

first thing’s first, make your gif for within the shape however you want. as you have (probably) seen from other gifsets of mine, there’s multiple ways you can choose to make the gif within your shape: you can do like this edit and have a colored overlay, or you could do like this edit and have normal coloring with a pop of color, or some other thing that you’d like to do! for this edit, i’m going to keep the sanji gif within my shape colored fairly normal with a pop of blue to match his shirt. my gif, as of now (without the shape), looks like this:

from here, add your shape on top of all your layers (as i said before, your gif should be cropped so the shape fits perfectly within the cropped gif!). go to the very bottom of your gif frames, and put that shape directly under the first frame (which is likely titled “_a_Background” or “_a_frm0,50”, depending on how you gif your gifs) while still within the gif folder you most likely have, especially if you follow my tutorials. this part is tedious, but starting with that first frame, go through every frame of your gif, right click, and select the “clipping mask” option. because you have that shape at the very bottom, every layer above it will follow the same clipping mask to put the gif within the shape. after your done, your frames should look something like this:

and now my gif looks like this: 

which isn’t what i want, because i want that blue color in the shape with the rest of the gif! there’s an easy way to fix this, if you’re like me and have that gradient color: click and drag all of your adjustment layers into the folder with your gif (i know, goes against everything i’ve said before in my other tutorials, right?) so that you can do the same thing you did with your frame layers and create a clipping mask for those gradient color layers. you don’t have to do this for the other adjustment layers for your coloring, by the way, just for the gradient color layers! now my gif looks like this:

much better! and now that we have the shaped gif finished and in its shape (make sure you save the psd!), you can sharpen and export your gif by going to file > export as > .GIF and you’ve made your shaped gif! 

now you can make your other gif to be behind the shaped gif; i won’t provide a tutorial for how i made this gif, other than it follows my usual coloring + a gradient layer to make the entire gif blue:

now that you have both of your gifs, we can move on to putting them on the same canvas!

after putting both of your gifs on the same canvas, position the shaped gif wherever you’d like to place it on the canvas. you can center it, place it in a corner, whatever you want! it’s your gif, your choice. i placed my circle sanji gif towards the bottom left corner of the canvas because i wanted to be able to see both the little gif and the larger gif clearly. :) 

from here, you can do a number of things to make the shaped gif stand out; what i did for mine is add a shadow behind the gif and an outline of the circle that’s off centered from the circle gif itself. here’s how i did both of those things:

shadow: double click the shaped gif’s folder to open up the “blending options” pop up menu. check the “drop shadow” option towards the bottom of the list, and adjust it to how you want it to be. once you’re happy with how the shadow looks, click “OK” to close the pop up menu. below are my settings for this particular shadow on this gif, but this may change depending on your own gif (feel free to play around with these settings!):

off-centered outline: this is specifically for circles/rectangles; if you have another shape that you got off google, for example, this part of the tutorial will not work (but if you want to know how to do something like this for a shape like that, i can create another tutorial! just ask <3). create a new layer (layer > new > layer through the topbar menu) and create an ellipses the same size as the circle i created earlier. from here, go to edit > stroke… to make the pop up menu show up (you will not be able to preview this when you edit this layer, so if you’re unhappy with how it looks once you click “OK”, use CTRL+Z to undo and try again!). once you have the shape as you want it, go to select > deselect on the topbar to deselect the section you just made, and use the move tool to move the shape around however you want. if you want to make the shape less intense, change the opacity located near the layers menu (i put mine at 30%). below are the settings for my shape, which you can of course play with as you'd like for your own gifs:

now that you’ve done that, do anything else you’d like to do to your gif — add text, put a watermark, whatever you’d like! after you’re finished with that, save your psd and then go to layer > animation > merge to merge all of your gifs together before going to file > export as > .GIF. and then you’re done! congrats, you’ve just made a shaped gif in photopea! :) 

#kai.answer #anonymous #mystuff #mytutorials #photopea tutorial #photopea gif tutorial #photopea #gif tutorial #completeresources #usergif #userars #userlace #tusersai #tusergeo #usernaia #hopefully this helps anon!! again feel free to send another ask for clarification :)

[kirathehyrulian]

♥Help Milana Auction Winner for Art Offer #1♥ (placeholder): 🐟Ocean Fishing🐟

*Do not Repost, Alter, or Use without permission of @wetsammywinchester.*

This work was inspired from @wetsammywinchester 's J2 fic Enthrall (For better viewing on desktop, click the image, then right click the enlarged image, and then click "open image in new tab".)

For more stuff from me please check out my “myart” tag here on Tumblr or my AO3.

👇( wip screenshots and notes below the cut) 👇

For more detailed notes: [AO3 link]

Art Notes:

In early Oct 2019, a section of the creator community held/organized a fandom charity auction to help out a fellow creator who had fallen on hard times (for more info on the past auction click here). I offered three commissions towards the auction. Paula was gracious enough to bid for and win my 1st offer for $30.

The details of that offer was: One title card and one illustration for a fic.

Because life events and burnout got in the way we didn't finish talking out all the particulars, but I just decided to go ahead and make two illustrations for now, and if the particulars ever get fleshed out in the future, I'll do the official title card and illustration that more closely fits the story of the scene and overall feel that Paula would like to be depicted from the fic.

So these works are more a placeholder. I made these because it's always been in the back of my mind for 5 years now to complete the offer because that was 30 dollars donated with nothing given from my side to show for it. So at least now it has something to show for it even if it's not the official work that was supposed to be done.

WIP Screenshots:

This was the first sketch idea that I abandoned because I felt like I didn't know how to actually make it and Jared's face would be mostly hidden, which was not a good thing in my book. I succeed more with Jared's face than I do with Jensen. So I had no confidence going in for this idea:

I ended up settling for a sketch of mer!Jared in the water and then I later thought that just doing Jared wasn't fair so I made another canvas for a Jensen fisherman companion piece to the mer!Jared one. Also, I tried to make Jared look 14-ish because I was told Jensen was around 18 in the fic, but up to the view if the attempt translated well. And this is the wip of both of those:

The mer!Jared illustration obviously was more intricate so that process took longer and had more wip screenshots than the Jensen one. I admittedly was getting burnout when working on Jensen's so I took some shortcuts with the t-shirt decal and the bags and containers surrounding Jensen. I just found some images on google and traced them instead of eyeballing it which saved me time and effort that would have made the burnout worse to the point that I might have finishing this work a lot later than now. So I'm not upset or ashamed about doing it for that reason.

I started this project around Feb 8th this year and finished it all March 14th (today). And that's it for now. Thank you for getting this far and-

Enjoy, if you can!♥♥♥

#j2 rpf #spn rpf fanart #mer!jared #teen!j2 #supernatural rpf #mermaid au #jared/jensen #summer moods #help milana #myart

[nescaveckwriter]

Smoky Old Barrooms, Saving Grace & Guitars - Chapter Three

A/N: … Y'all this one is just so Awwww we find out what's the matter with Grace, we meet her sister Kelly and her fiancé Benny, and then we see what Dean is feeling and the rest is just beautiful but sad moments. I hope y'all like it, also just a little side note, the song/poem that was used was written by me. Okayz that's it for now my bugs, I hope you enjoy, let me know okay. Love y'all, bye-bye Warnings: 18+ Only Mentions of a medical condition, bit swearing, heartache, Characters: Dean Winchester, Bobby Singer, Benny Lafitte, Grace Tucker, Kelly Tucker Words: 1474 Cover & Pictures: Pinterest, Canva, Google Side Note: Please check out my Masterlist for more, epic stories

Also song is: Charles Esten "Out of the blue" - Yes I am struggling with my Signal, some stuff works the rest doesn't. Xo but anywayz love y'all.

There's melodies playing over the radio station as the Chevy Impala roars down the road, Dean hums with the Led Zeppelin song, as he takes in the early sunrise, he always tries to drive out to the spot where he clears his mind, sometimes with some black coffee, other times with some beer or bourbon, it just really depends on the mood. But this morning he feels lighter, after the last couple of weeks, he met that beautiful woman again, turns out she was the other artist Bobby wanted him to sing with, not that he's complaining, there's something about her, he just can't explain, but her light is so contagious, she seems so carefree so happy. Oh damn and her voice, she sounds like an southern angel. The Radio presenter breaks his deep thoughts.  "And now, what we all have been waiting for, Ladies and Gents, Cowboys and Cowgirls, the one and only Grace Tucker" Dean immediately turns the radio up, what are the odds.

Her sweet voice comes over the speaker, "Howdy Rick," she let's out a soft giggle "I'm so honored to be here with y'all, thank you for having me"

"So tell me Grace, how did you manage it to bring out two albums in a year?"

"I've got a great manager and producer, Kelly, my sister, and if the creativity has a hold of you, you got to run with it"

Laughing now, "It must be fun working with your sister?"

"Yes, she is amazing, she keeps me in line and helps me remember the important stuff, I love her so much, and wouldn't be where I am today if it weren't for her, and all of you of course"

"You don't see family working so closely together anymore, so tell me Grace, do you think your new album with reach platinum status?"

Laughing, "I'm not sure, I guess it depends if the listeners will like it"

"Tell us a bit more about your song's please"

 "Well Rick I draw inspiration from everyday situations and experiences, it's mostly about things about the heart you know, we all take it for granted sometimes, but its one of the most complex parts of our human existence"

"I have no words Grace, that is enough to make some of our listeners cry so early in the morning"

Grasping "Oh my, I'm sorry, not my intention, but I love it when it awakens everyone's emotions"

"Miss Tucker, that's the one thing all of your songs, does, so without further due, would you please sing us a little something"

"Oh I would love to, thank you, y'all will be the first that hear my new single" Picking up the guitar, adjusting the microphone, smiling "this one's called, 'No Good No More' I hope y'all enjoy it"

I heard the news today

No use for any further delay

My heart's no good no more What else could I ask for

A few more years Without all the heartaches and tears

A few more memories A few more stories

Could someone please tell me why Why I should leave And say goodbye Help me to believe

In something more than just me Leaving behind what I know, how can this be

I've gotten the news today And there's no other way to say

My heart's no good no more It will never be the same as before

So with one last wave I ask you to keep this memories save.

I will walk away right about now Before this heartache starts to show

The moment her sweet voice stopped, the were hands clapping over the radio, Dean sat there, looking out over the city on that hilltop, he felt mesmerized, that felt so personal, so real and authentic, the question is who would break her heart.

As she walked out of the studio, to the parking space, that's when she felt the old familiar wooziness, heart beating rapidly it feels like a drummer's trying to figure, if he's playing a rock or a love song, dryness in her mouth, croakiness in her throat,  the ground and sky is spinning in front of her eyes, a total blur in front her eyes, trying to get something to hold onto, to steady her in place, but nothing it didn't take long for her body to plunge towards the ground, she just sat there in the middle of the road, trying to find her balance, find strength to get up, but the exhaustion took over, placing her hand over her chest, trying to calm it down, she used the other hand to pull out her phone, pressing down '1' she's got her sister on speed dial, it felt like the phone was ringing forever, her voice friendly "Hey Gracie, what's up? Done at the studio?"

She can barely form audible words, "Kelly, help" is all she could get out, before her world turned dark.

"Grace, Gracie, come on, open your eyes for me please sweetie" Kelly pleaded 

Her eyes started to open slowly, glancing into her sister's brown watery eyes, her voice hoarse "Hey sis, you came" 

Overjoyed "Of course, I came you called, you scared the hell out of me, you know that?"

Coming up to her elbows, realizing she's in her sisters bedroom, the only noticing Kelly's fiancé, "Oh hey Benny!, didn't see you there" looking in her sisters direction again, "I'm sorry Sis, I didn't mean too"

Benny just nodded, when she said hello, but he stays quiet for most of this, he struggles to find the right words, how does he comfort the love of his life, when they all know the inevitable, its  only a matter of time, before Grace says goodbye forever. It broke Kelly when Grace told her, she's in her final stage of heart failure, the doctors said she had a year left, maybe! He's the one who hold's his bride to be, sobbing in his arms every night. This is supposed to be a joyful time for him and Kelly, but instead their heartbroken, he's known Grace for ten years and she's like a little sister to him. He can't deny it, the moments when he's not around Kelly or working he would occasionally break down as well, due to the fact of how unfair life is. No one deserves it, especially not her. Kelly's voice shook him out of his deep thoughts. "Baby, could you please grab a glass of water" nodding "On it darling" Benny said with a small smile curving on his handsome features.

"Grace, you need too take it slower, please, you need to get enough rest"

She just faintly nods, her voice brittle "I'm sorry, I will I promise" Kelly sits down on the bed, wrapping her arms over her sister's fragile body, kissing the top of her head, saying softly "I love you Sis"

Tears streaming over her cheeks "I love you too!" trying too clear her throat she breaths "I'm scared" 

Kelly thumbs away the tears, trying to cover the pain in her voice, "Me too sis, me too" 

Seeing the old man, with his ball cap sitting at the table busy with the contract that was sent him, for Dean's and Grace's duet. 

"Hey Bobby, how's things looking, when can we start with the tour?"

Irritation clear on the old features, "I am not sure if this is going to work boy, Grace's manager has stipulated that the two of you can do the show together, but there will be no touring"

Confused "But why? I thought the whole point of this, was to release an album and do a country wide tour, maybe even world wide!"

"Exactly, I will get on the phone and set up a meeting with her immediately" 

"Thank you Bobby, I really want to make this album with her, I've even started working on a couple of new songs"

Bobby just smiled and nodded.

"Speaking of songs, do you know if everything is alright with Benny, he just ran out, after he had a call from his fiancé and I haven't heard a word from him yet, we are supposed to work on that new song?"

Bobby just shook his head and went on with reading the contract further, making notes about what he wanted to remember. 

Dean just walked out of the office, humming Grace's new song to himself, it's stuck in his head but he doesn't really mind, everything about her is burned into his memory, her sweet angel voice, the stage lights dancing around in her eyes, her strawberry hair flowing in the night sky, and then her lips, wondering what it tasted like, knowing he probably shouldn't , but he's falling in love with her, he felt alive for the first time in so long, new music is running through his veins, as for his heart, it was somewhere between beating rapidly and coming to a stand still. Wondering if she might feel the same.

#smoky_old_barrooms_saving_grace-guitars #nescveckwriter #dean winchester fanfiction #dean winchester x reader #spotify #benny lafitte

[bluebellowl]

Your art is absolutely beautiful. I'm currently working on my own story, and want to draw a comic for it someday. I want to improve my drawing, what steps would you suggest I take?

First of all Thank you so much WCEOIEWN!!!!

Oh that's a good question. For overall improvement if you wanna draw people I'd always suggest practicing by taking photos of people, best in poses, finding the anatomy in them and seeing the way clothing and stuff looks on the body, influences shape. These practices can be really fast and simple. I keep suggesting using Line of Action for that since it sorta forces you to draw fast, makes you figure out these things quickly and even teaches you the basics as you go and it's free!

Here's one of the sheets I filled using the website:

For comics the way I go is to draw down a bunch of things that I want to happen and then I try to move them around and push them into panels, making in-between panels for a better flow (my flow needs serious work). When I'm unsure how to pace something or how a scene should be built in comics to make it more readable, I look at other comics from for example Marvel and DC or other artists i really like.

Also REFERENCES!!! Find a way to hold referenc images. Every artist should use references, it's not a shame, it's a MUST!! (at least for me). On PC I use PureRef which is a programm that gives you a canvas to drag and drop you pics. It's free but if you donate you get a cool doggo gif. For finding and saving good pics I use Pinterest a lot. If it's something very specific I just google it.

I see you work in traditional, so I suggest first write down what you want to happen and then start sketching panels very lightly to figure out where goes what and go from there.

I hope that helped! If you got any more questions, my dms are wide open! If you want me to look over a piece of yours or even that comic and give you pointers, that's cool too!

Have a great day!!! :D

#answering question #art tips #comics

[20dollarlolita]

Hey! I’m hoping you might have a suggestion for fabrics; I’m looking for a thick cotton to make a petticoat style skirt (like those oldschool ones made of cotton with pintucks and insertion lace). I want it thick enough that the white skirt isn’t see through and it stays stiff enough to provide volume if I use it as an underskirt, but not so thick/rough it’s uncomfortable or that I can’t gather it to be frilly. There’s so many words out there- duck? Broadcloth? Canvas? Twill? I’m not sure how to describe what I’m looking for in a Google search. All I know is I definitely don’t want quilting cotton. ‘Burberry’ (which I see a lot of brands use) just turns up plaids a la the high fashion brand. Any help would be appreciated! Thank you so much!

Anyone who is interested in burbery in the lolita context should talk to @babelglyph aka burberryglyph. The short version is that burbery is a lightweight cotton twill used in a lot of old school pieces, and B.Glyph knows where to get it, as well as can provide info about why they know that the fabric they recommend is true burbery twill, as well as why it's called burbery. I remember that they know all of this but can't remember the actual answer to any of it.

As for other fabrics you mentioned: All duck is canvas but not all canvas is duck. Duck is a plain weave and other canvasses can be a twill weave of some kind. Either way, the heavier yarn and overall thick construction is what makes canvas canvas. Fun fact, "duck tape" predated the term "duct tape" and referred to tape made of duck canvas. Broadcloth is usually interchangeably with quilt cotton, though "quilt cotton" is generally a more specific term. Broadcloth can be pretty much any fiber but quilt cotton is expected to be cotton. Some people think that broadcloth has to be a single color. Twill is a weave structure, so the words that predate it are important. "stretch twill" is going to be different from "suiting twill" or "heavyweight wool twill." If you want to see a twill weave structure, generally the most accessible example of a twill structure is denim. Look at some blue jeans and you can see how there's that slanting pattern caused by the blue threads passing over 2-3 white threads before going under a white thread? That's a twill weave structure. (You then have to have it be cotton and have the two color setup to be proper denim. Technically black jeans aren't denim, they're just twill, but no one wants to get into that fight with me.)

If you're looking for cotton fabrics that aren't quilt cotton, but tend to be in that sort of lighter weight area, I'd look for:

Cotton sateen: This is cotton fibers woven in a satin weave. This has a really subtle luster and will drape better than quilt cotton,

or

Cotton poplin: poplin has what's called an unbalanced plain weave, so the threads are woven in the same pattern as quilting cotton, but where in quilting cotton they are the same thickness vertically and horizontally, they're different thicknesses vertical vs horizontal in poplin. This means that it hangs better, and also that it has a different drape depending on if you're using lengthwise grain or crosswise grain. Poplin is used for shirting a lot.

If you need to get thicker, you will probably want to look for lightweight twill. I'm trying to not get too into textile science, which is hard because i LOVE textile science. So stick with me for a second:

The "higher quality" a fabric generally feels, in quotes there because quality is subjective, but through history we have associated finely spun yarns with a higher quality. Thinner yarns are harder to make, and you need to use more of them to make the same size fabric as you'd make with thicker yarn. Thinner yarn has to be structurally better constructed to take the force of being woven into fabric, versus a thicker yarn. So, when we want something that feels like quality, we look for fabrics spun with a thinner yarn. This is why expensive sheets are measured in thread count: more threads per inch is a better quality sheet.

However, the problem comes when you want a thicker fabric made of thinner yarns. If you've ever had a potholder loom, you understand a plain weave: a yarn goes over one yarn, under the next, over the next, and so on. Thinner threads in a plain weave will make a thinner fabric.

However, if you start using other weave patterns, you start changing fabric properties. In a twill weave, a thread will go over two or more other threads before going under another thread. One of the side effects of this is that it's possible to fit more threads into the same space than you could fit in a plain weave, meaning that you can make a thicker fabric with thinner yarns going into the construction process.

And this means that, if you're judging a fabric thickness by weight, like you know how many ounces a yard of fabric is, a twill fabric will be made of finer yarns than a canvas fabric of the same weight.

In addition to being "higher quality", we like thinner yarns in garment construction because they're more flexible, so they make the fabric hang more like a garment and less like a canvas sack.

As a final note, when you say "provide volume as an underskirt", a twill skirt with pintucks and insertion will have some volume, but if you're doing a lolita fashion look, you'll also need petticoats under that. Some fashion styles, that added volume will be enough, but in lolita fashion, if you can get the hem of your skirt to be 10" away from your legs in all direction, you're probably approaching the correct level of poof.

(But for what it's worth, if you're trying to add some more volume on a cotton underskirt that's not for lolita fashion, pintucks will make the same skirt have more volume. Creating that rigid-ish line that goes in the direction opposite of what the skirt would naturally want to fold, especially if you make several of those lines in a close spacing, will hold the skirt out and make it have more lift. Just a fun fact there. If you want to get as much volume as possible out of this, you will want to use many small pintucks, as well as the stiffest insertion that you can find. Skirts want to be small and make lots of soft vertical folds, so applying horizontal decoration that makes that folding harder to do will add volume).

I don't know how much of that was answering the ask and how much was just Pink Loves Textile Science 2023(tm)

#ask #textile science

[mr-k-legit]

I love your art so much, the shapes are so neat and the style feels so visually interesting!!

I was wondering what software you used for the Spamton artwork? And what effect did you use for the Caine poster to create that old print effect? It looks amazing !!

Have a great day/night ^^

Edit: apologies if its weird im on mobile T_T

Hi! Thank you so much, i rwally appreaciate your kind words♡ they really help to keep me motivated it!

To answer your question however!

I use both illustrator and photoshop! Illustrator is used for all my drawings and photoshop for textures ☆

if you ever need the link for the free """"""version""""" *wink wonk* feel free to dm me!

For how to actually put textures!

1st! Open photoshop

2nd! Make your graphic or import your image, here i just made a quick smily face

3rd! Import your texture! (You can easly find them by putting a word plus texture i.e. photocopy texture on google) and scale it to you preference, i normally just fit them as big as the canvas itself

4rth! Blending modes! This is kinda experimental so feel free to browse all of them to see what fits better, in this case i use "lighter" so only the texture will be seen on the graphic, kinda like a layer mask

5th! Displace filter! Im not sure if other programs have this filter, but in photoshop basicly takes the texture of another photoshop file, and whatever things has on it, it applies it to the graphic (lets say that you have a photoshop file with a crumbled paper texture, the graphic will take the texture of this, giving it a more realistic look) akso i recommend converting the graphic to a smart object, so if youre not satisfied with it you can easily change the settings

You will get this little square thing, im not going to lie i dont really know exactly what it is for LMAO but, the numbers the bigger they are, the more dramatic the texture result will be

Then this window will pop up, it basicly tells you to choose the file you want, at the end i will tell you how you can make a displace file! And you click open:

Results:

Then if the background looks a little flat you can copy the texture above your graphic, put it below it, inverte it and choose a blending mode, here i use multiply:

And thats how you get that sort of printed like texture!☆ you can use this method to get every variable of results, i hope you find it usefull hehe!☆ below the cut are the steps to make the displace file, just so this doesnt get too long haha

How to make a displace file:

1st! Choose your texture and open it on photoshop directly so the image is the background

2nd! Without doing anything youll just click on file>save as

3rd! Save it as a psd document

And there you go! You have a ready to go displace file so you can spice up your work☆

(I would put more pics but??? Appearently there is a 10 image maximum? Wtf?))

#mr k' s talk #thank you so much for the question! i hope you find this useful :D #texture #tutorial #graphic design

[aurosoulart]

Hey, sorry if this is bad(?), but I was wondering if you had any advice for getting into the xr world/career. I think I've seen you mention the topic (encouraging others to join the field?) at least once, but I don't know how to even get started. Thank you for your time!

(If you could answer this not publicly I would appreciate it, but it's fine if you do, or like, if you don't answer at all)

not a bad thing to ask at all! I've actually been in the middle of writing a guide about this for some time that I will.... hopefully finish sometime soon ghskgh.

I hope you don't mind me posting this publicly - I ended up writing a short novel and figure it might be useful to others who are curious as well! anyways, the advice I give to people with a background in illustration is to start out with a Quest 2 headset. they retail at $300 new, but you can get them used via eBay, Craigslist, FB Marketplace or someplace like that for around $200 or under. the Quest 2 works without needing to be plugged into a PC, though you will probably want to buy a more ergonomic head-strap to make it more comfortable. (the head strap that Meta sells is overpriced, but this third-party one is really good) if you're interested in working with augmented reality (the type of work I do!) and have the ability to save up some extra money, I'd recommend waiting for the release of the Quest 3, which will launch this fall and cost $500. totally not a requirement at all to start learning, though.

other than that, I'd recommend starting out with free art programs like Open Brush and Gravity Sketch to familiarize yourself with creating in-headset. both of these programs have a large amount of tutorial videos up on YouTube - as well as an active community of other artists who are all generally very friendly and eager to help people learn. VR Art Live and The Spatial Canvas's Discord servers are the communities I'm part of. :)

after that, it all just comes down to posting your new artwork online to as many platforms as you can mentally handle (this is the hardest part for me, ghsghs), and also looking at paid XR artist programs/gigs. Mozilla Hubs, Horizon Worlds, and Figmin XR (that's me!) all have some creator opportunities where they pay people to create things on their platform.

you can also find work doing XR concept art, art performances, and I've even seen grant programs for XR artists from art galleries. these things are harder to find, but if you make a LinkedIn page and a modest portfolio of your XR art, chances are high that you'll get some eyes on it.

it's ridiculously easy to be a big fish in a small pond right now if you have any kind of skills with these programs. I will say that there does seem to be a push towards people who can create things that are interactive and can be shared with others (like AR Snapchat/TikTok/Instagram filters, experiences created and published to platforms like Mozilla Hubs, Figmin XR, etc.), so that's something to keep in mind while learning - but not something that should stop you!

going from 2D illustration to creating things in 3D space is a whirlwind of learning new skills that can often feel overwhelming, but the most important thing is that it should feel fun and enjoyable to you. I started out by just listening to music while painting in Tilt Brush (Tilt Brush was the original version of Open Brush, before Google made it open-source) and creating whatever felt the most fun in the moment. everything else just came from natural curiosity and connecting with other artists in the space.

lastly... I have no technical (coding, traditional 3D modeling) skills. I am a 2x college dropout with chronic mental illness, and prior to my current employment I was never able to hold a job for longer than 3 months. and yet....... this new industry has changed my life completely, and at 29 years old I finally feel like I have a purpose. I'm somehow a software developer now, without needing to know anything about software development. that's wild!!!

this is why I'm so excited for the future. if this brand-new technology (still in its infancy! viewed as frightening by so many!!) was able to help me in such a radical way... what will that mean for even more people discovering it as it becomes more accessible?

I don't know the answer to that yet... but I do know how wonderful it is to see people learning about all of this for the first time. helping with that alone is more than enough for me 💖

#auropost #also if any artist who sees this wants a free key to download figmin xr on the quest store i can give that to you #you can just dm me for it #i would give headsets away too if i could... but alas i don't have THAT many connections. yet. #i am just!! so enthusiastic about encouraging other people to make this type of art!!! #xr #vr #virtual reality #augmented reality #and lastly #apple just announced their headset #it's coming out next year but has like no interesting software yet #so there is about to be a huuuuugeee demand for people who know how to design spatial experiences/worlds/art/ANYTHING #things are changing so fast in the digital art world right now #but despite everything i think the demand for artists is only going to increase #people will quickly realize that ai cannot create anything new #and art made by humans will only become more valuable #more than anything i want people to use all this new technology to create what they personally love #because that's what will carry us forward

[sarah-in-disguise]

Home

Pairing: Jake Jensen x Female Reader

Warnings: pregnancy, faked death, hurt/comfort

Summary: Falling in love and planning your life with Jake was almost too easy.  After Jake goes on a last-minute mission, what does the future have in store for you?

Word Count: 2032

A/N: This is my first time writing and I’m posting this one-shot as a participant in @syntheticavenger​‘s Writer’s Camp.  Thank you so much for your help, guidance, and support, Synth!  You made this process so easy and fun and took a lot of the stress about posting my first piece away with your encouragement.  I hope you all enjoy and please comment/reblog/like!

Disclaimer: I do NOT consent to have my work posted, translated or published to any third party site or app.  This is a work of fiction and I do not own any characters in this story.  By reading beyond this point you understand and accept the terms of this disclaimer.  Moodboard was created by me and picture sources are Google and Canva.

Make sure to check out my brand new masterlist!

Sitting on your front porch rocking chair, you close your eyes and breathe in the sweet, lilac-scented air on your family farm.  It’s almost summer, and a gentle kick to your stomach reminds you that it’s almost time to meet your baby girl.  Rubbing your hands over your belly seems to calm her down for the moment, but you know that soon it’s time to go back inside and start your nightly routine.

You’re not supposed to be here alone, but that’s how you find yourself this unseasonably warm spring evening.  Closing your eyes, you try to recall a memory of Jake sitting here with you.  It’s getting easier to stomach those memories these days, but when you open your eyes to find an empty chair next to you - a chair Jake was supposed to be occupying - you know someday your daughter will sit with you while you talk about the future and share memories of a father she’ll never get to meet.

You met Jake about two years ago after he literally came back from the dead.  Working in the same office as Pooch’s wife, you were a shoulder to cry on and support system when she got word her husband was dead along with the rest of the self-proclaimed “Losers”.  You were with her the night she went into labor, and on a whim decided to stick around in case she needed anything.  That night, the Losers showed up in the pouring rain and a certain Jake Jensen stole your heart in the waiting room through a relentless string of dad jokes.  His mood could brighten any room, and while you typically found that quality entirely too draining, he made it more endearing every minute.  A few dates and Petunia’s games later, you knew he was the one to match your extremely competitive nature while also counteracting your sarcasm with his consistently sunny outlook on life.

After seeing what his family and friends went through losing him once (and with a newly minted girlfriend he found himself planning a future around), Jake decided it was time to stop going on missions and stick to overseeing things in the control room from home.  While he trained two new recruits to take his place on the team and adjusted to his new supervising role, you grew closer together.  Thinking about and planning for the future used to scare you, but with Jake, things seemed to fall into place almost too perfectly.  When Jake got down on one knee to propose on a late summer night in front of your families, you sank to your knees with a smile, a kiss, and a “yes”.

Plans fell into place at a fast pace after the engagement.  You grew up on a family farm just under a half hour outside of the city, and you always knew you wanted to get back to that lifestyle to raise any future kids you may have.  With the announcement of your engagement, your grandma decided it was prime time to move off the family farm, leaving it ready for you and Jake to move in.  The main house would need a lot of updates, but it gave you plenty of room for a home office for Jake, a sewing and crafting room for you, and enough bedrooms to start planning for any Jensen babies you would have after you were married.

Things came to a crashing halt when Jake’s recruits were out on separate missions and the Losers needed him to come back for a last minute mission.  They were following a lead that had gone cold so many times before and they knew waiting until one of Jake’s replacements to get back wasn’t an option.  It didn’t make the situation easier when you found out he could be gone anywhere from a few weeks to several months with little to no contact.

Jake loved this life and future you had built with him, and for the first few hours after the briefing, you didn’t think the Losers would convince him to go.  He tried his hardest to get someone else assigned, but in the end you made the decision together that he needed to go on one more mission.  

It soon became clear that your plans that once fell easily into place were just as easily going to be changed.  Since getting rare updates from the CIA during the mission would be much easier as Jake’s wife, wedding plans were made in a few short days so you could be married before he left.  It wasn’t the wedding you’d dreamed about as a little girl, but the small gathering of family and a few close friends was more than enough for both of you.  Instead of leaving on a honeymoon the morning after the wedding, the two of you spent a day with a contractor speed picking flooring, paint colors, and bathroom finishes so you could oversee the house updates while he was gone.  You also made the joint decision to stop your birth control the week before he left.  You both knew you wanted to start trying for Jensen babies when he came home, so it made sense to let your body adjust while he was gone - but that didn’t mean you didn’t try to perfect the process a few times before he left.

Jake left on a crisp fall morning and you quickly threw yourself into supervising the home updates and unpacking where you could.  While you could never forget the lovable goofball you called your husband, it was easy to remember why you fell in love with him with every sticky note with an “I love you” or dad joke written on them you found while unpacking.  It was also hard to forget him when you missed your period and morning sickness came with a vengeance a few months after he left.  A test and trip to the doctor later, you decided to tell both your parents and his parents after they noticed you not feeling well at Thanksgiving.

December came and construction finished on your home.  You had hoped to have your husband home for the first Christmas in your new home and to celebrate your baby, but your favorite holiday came and went with no Jake in sight.  Hiding your baby bump was getting harder every week, and you wanted him home so you could tell him the exciting news before others outside of your family found out.  After all, he should get to enjoy some of the pregnancy, too - but instead, you resorted to a nightly routine of playing a recording of Jake’s voice to your belly.  You were starting to feel little flutters each night as a signal that your baby was missing their dad.

But, like many things in life, things seem to go great until they don’t.  A knock from an upper level CIA officer on a bitterly cold January morning brought with it your biggest fear.  Jake’s mission had been compromised and none of the Losers made it out alive or back home.  Things were a blur from that moment until you watched an empty casket get lowered into the ground, but a gut-wrenching scream seemed to pull you out of the fog.  It wasn’t until you sank to the ground and the sudden cold hit your legs that you realized the scream was coming from you.

You did your best to seclude yourself after that day.  Ever since Jake’s obituary stated he was survived by his wife and unborn child, you couldn’t stand to endure the looks of pity aimed your way.  Without your Jake-sized ray of sunshine, it was easy at first to live in a state between constant pain and numbness.  After the funeral, you found out you were going to have a baby girl, and with each passing day, it broke your heart more and more as you started to realize your growing baby was a daddy’s girl.  While you actively tried to avoid any voice recording at first, it was hard to ignore the kicks of excitement from your little girl every time she heard him speak.  Soon, even talking about him brought fluttering kicks from your daughter.

The minutes went slow but the days went fast, and many spring nights you find yourself here - on your front porch in the set of matching rockers you’d planned to share with Jake.  After listening to you talk about growing up and watching the sunset with your family on the front porch, he knew he wanted to keep that tradition alive with your new family.  Now, you rocked and thought of the arrival of your daughter who would someday sit beside you instead.

You’d get to meet your baby girl in just a few short weeks, which is part of the reason you were enjoying this peaceful night watching the sunset.  Your mom was scheduled to temporarily move in later this week so she could be on hand when you went into labor and for the first few weeks at home after the baby was born.  Thinking of the future, you closed your eyes, took a deep breath, and tried to picture all the happy moments that would soon be coming your way instead of the heartbreaking ones you knew would come with them in the form of both you and your daughter missing Jake, but crunching tires on the gravel driveway snapped you out of it.

Looking up, you see a yellow Hummer park in front of the house, but you knew better than to get excited at the sight of Jake getting out of the front seat.  More often than not, these days brought dreams of sharing special moments and conversations with your late husband that you’d never really get to see, and it seemed like your lack of sleep had you falling asleep on the front porch this evening.  You feel like this dream is different, however, because Jake seems stunned to see you instead of being his usual, energetic self.

“Hey, Jakey,” you greet softly with a small smile.  “I’ve missed you.”  Reaching a hand over to the empty rocking chair, you pat it to invite him to sit down and enjoy the sunset in your dreams.  Jake, however, has different plans.  His steps quicken as he gets closer, and as he reaches you, he drops to the ground on his knees to feel your very swollen stomach.

“Sweetheart,” his voice cracks as tears start streaming down his face, “I didn’t know you were…” he trails off without finishing his sentence.  A gentle pair of hands placed on your stomach bring your daughter’s kicks to life.

“That’s funny,” you say while glancing down at his hands, “I’ve never felt her kick when I’ve dreamed of you before.”  Your head snaps up as a watery giggle falls from your husband’s mouth.

“We’re having a baby girl?  That’s my baby girl in there?”  Jake's hands move to cup your cheeks before he continues.  “I can’t believe I had to put you through this on your own, but I promise to make it up to you, sweetheart.”  His forehead touches yours as you move to grab his wrists to keep him there in your dream as long as you can.

“I love you, Jake, but even the dream version of you in my head shouldn’t make promises he can’t keep.”  Tears fill your eyes as you pull your forehead away from his to meet his line of sight.  “It might make this dream easier, but it breaks my heart when I wake up and you’re not here with me.”  With that, your husband gets that mischievous look in his eye before he pulls a hand away to pinch your arm with all this might.

“OUCH!  What the hell was that for?!”  It takes a moment filled with your sweet husband’s giggles before your pain changes to complete and utter shock.  “If I can feel that,” you whisper as fresh tears stream down your face, “then that means…”

“That means I’m home, sweetheart,” Jake says with the biggest grin you’ve ever seen on his face while wiping your tears away.  “That means I’m home.”

#jake jensen x female reader #jake jensen x you #jake jensen #reader insert #jake jensen fanfiction #synth's writer's camp summer 2022 #jake jensen x reader #jake jensen x plus sized reader

[treasureplcnet]

do you have any drawing tips? i'm just starting out and your style inspires me to keep going fr!!

HIYA !!! thank you that is so kind of you, i would say to keep drawing with references and do studies!! typically art studies (in like art school lol) are of old masters (da vinci, etc) but doing studies of styles that you like, like trying to copy a certain artist you like, also helps you develop skills !!

for example, lots of people (especially fanartists lol) do studies of artists like leyendecker while making the models their favorite characters/ocs, so it helps to make studies fun. literally look up leyendecker study on tumblr dot com and you will see hundreds.

(gets a bit long and rambly so i've thrown it under the cut :')

style studies can be anything! above was done while watching wolfwalkers, just loose sketches that copied the style as the movie went along. i love the design and style in that film, wanted to incorporate it in my character design work, so i tried it out myself! it let me know the kinds of shapes used in the construction, the way it moves (wrt to animation) and silhouettes. by copying something, you learn how to do it on the way (so the kinds of colors used, what works best with shading, etc) it's like. reverse engineering

even very loosely copying something to identify what you like about the style helps! these were modelled after the way slimsense on ig paints (her work is 2nd + 4th examples below, my attempts at 'paint' 1st and 3rd lol), but doesn't really look like her work. i'm not necessarily trying to make perfect copies. i liked that her paint didn't blend perfectly, was blocky, and the additional lineart over the painting, so i brought that into my own art. i tried to create a painting style that was 'my own' off of lots of trial and error, and seeing what stuck!

also find brushes you like! adobe has a bunch on their page (if you have photoshop, but i know there's some for procreate and other programs) and if you want the adobe brush files, lmk. i will send a drive link to you LOL (sketches of the same characters, using different brushes below. the two i used the most often, one being a solid inker and the other being a paintbrush)

generally doing figure drawing is good too. i've heard advice about art where you can only start breaking the rules after you understand them, and a good grasp on anatomy, proportions, etc is definitely a good place to start! good sites to use for this are line of action for poses, and the morpho books (if you need pdfs of this let me know, though you should be able to find them if you look lol) !

i would also say learn perspective early on. i have no tips for you here i am so sorry. i didn't and now it bites me in the ass, but there has to be a youtube tutorial for this out there that can help you AND me. same goes for color theory. quickly dropping my favorite van gogh quote of all time:

(quote is from a letter to his brother) just everyone needs the fundamentals first. don't worry about a personal style: that just comes naturally as you develop as an artist, and i was certainly inspired by a lot of the things i watched/consumed and artists i admired which absolutely shows in my work i think (manet. western comics. fma. avatar. pjo fanart. there are tells. you know how it is.)

also flip your canvas !!! like see below ... frankly this marcille is so lopsided (her entire face should shift to the left) LOL !! flipping horizontally makes the anatomy mistakes obvious, and shows you you what you need to fix. i should never have posted this as is but sometimes it works for humor and an artist is lazy </3

AND ALWAYS USE REFERENCES WHEN YOU CAN!! i should use more references tbh!!! it helps with posing, getting anatomy correct, etc, and my friends use pinterest a lot, though i tend to just google when i need to LOLLL

also draw what you like. there is genuinely nothing that is better for your art than getting into something REALLY BAD and then non stop drawing it. time + practice will lead to improvement no matter what the subject is!

i hope this was not too much information all at once !!! and some of it is helpful!!! it's a lot of basic improvement tips that i try to practice and use when i can :) so sorry that this got so long!!!!

#everyone and their mother is doing leyendecker studies like i should do one too #i would also kind of say 'find out how you like to draw' #i feel like lots of artists start by thinking you have to be able to do perfect realism but its not necessarily true #realism ofc helps. like ive said. its the foundation to start and it's good to know proportions and such #but if you realise you like to paint more like a impressionist than a preraphaelite . then its fine! just keep creating! #textposts that are like 'you should be creating for yourself and possibly 5 others who are into the same niche shit as you' #its true!!!!!!!! #this is actually so rambly. if this is not what you meant please let me know #i am also still learning and trying to get better. grind never stops. the only grind im happy to keep going at #answered #anon #also ok not sure also if there are manet tells . like there honestly arent but still. his art changed me. #ok goodnight. i shouldnt be awake. best of luck anon :)

[pixpirs]

Hi!! Just wanted to say I love your art so much!

Especially what interested me was the land of the lustrous fanart involving the wires. Is it okay if I know how you achieved that retro old computer effect with your art?

Thank you so much!! I appreciate that 😭💖

And ofc!! ^_^ I use procreate but all of these settings are in other software or easy to replicate

These steps are in no particular order (except the curve tool), I kinda just go with whatever my brain decides to use first

So here is my unedited piece when I finished the drawing itself, I used a really small canvas size here but this will all work for any size:

Next I used the "noise" filter, I more or less use the settings in the screenshot but I play around with it, too

The use of the "multi" here is important especially, it gives the noise just a little bit of color that makes a huge difference

Next is "Chromatic Aberration"

chromatic aberration creates an outline of color around your artwork, it replicates a color distortion cameras can have when the lens isn't focused (according to google). I use the settings in the screenshot but I only move it just a littleee bit, overdoing it here can really overpower the picture so I recommend being cautious!

(Optional) Sharpen

Sharpen adds this jpeg effect that I really like, I say it's optional because sometimes it can be a little overpowering like chromatic aberration can be or just not needed at all (IMO🥸👆) I use this one when I'm going for like, a super compressed jpeg look (better example⬇️)

And finally, the adjustment curve

I'm paraphrasing what I read on reddit about this, but moving the color adjustment curve on "gamma" and bending it down toward the bottom left just a bit moves the colors closer to what old camera colors looked like. All of the other steps can be done in any order, but I recommend doing this one last.

That being said, go about this how you would want! I hope this helped :-)

#asks #anon #my art part 2 #I'm not an expert so take this all with a grain of salt #im kinda obsessed with older aesthetics so im always praciticing how to make my art look more like it fhcjd #correct me if i am wrong abt any descriptions or definitions or smth

[mostlyinthemorning]

Trivia Wednesday

Or...How to Waste Your Time Making Graphs

Creators: give a “behind the scenes” look at one of your works. This could be things that got removed or changed, the origins of ideas/details, whatever you like!

Tagged by the lovely @lizzie-bennetdarcy, thanks! 💖

It took me a while to figure out what I wanted to share for this, but I thought a little rundown on how to pull together data from AO3 might be something that at least a few people would be interested in. Here are some of the tools and strategies I use to make graph sets like this. 

1. AO3 Search. The first thing you need in order to visualize data is some actual data (obviously). AO3 search is great because you can mix and match different variables. I think a lot of people don’t realize how powerful AO3 search is, or how easy it is to use. Pro tip: Any wrangled tags can be searched in the “Other tags to include box” while other search terms can be searched at the bottom in the “Search within results” box. Search within results searches the title, tags, author, summary, and notes, but it is extremely specific. For example, “snow” and “snows” will generate different results. 

But that’s not all! AO3 also allows for a number of hidden search operators that can help refine your search even further. These go in the ‘Search within results’ box as well. 

2. AO3 Metadata. One of the nifty things about AO3 is that all of the metadata is right out on the surface where everyone can see it. Which means that if you want to, and you’re not adverse to a little data clean-up, you can cut and paste stats right from the webpage into a doc. 

But wait! There’s a better way. A wonderful person has created a little tool that will extract 1 page of AO3 results (20 fics) into a spreadsheet at the click of a button. This will work on any AO3 page, including your history or bookmarks.

Simply go to their site and click and drag the button for the tool into the bookmarks list on your browser. It will look like a link in your bookmarks, but it’s not! Go to any AO3 page and click on your new bookmark. The tool will generate and download a CSV spreadsheet of the AO3 results on that page. Viola! Instant data. 

3. Excel. I am not, by any means, an Excel expert. I can do some things pretty well, but I know I don’t even scratch the surface of what’s possible. However, Excel has a nifty tool that allows you to combine spreadsheets that have identical column headings. This is very useful if you’ve downloaded lots of data at step 2. To combine multiple sheets, put them all into a single folder. In Excel, open a blank spreadhseet and go to Data and choose New Query > From File > From Folder. Select the folder to combine. A window will pop up. Choose Combine and Load from the bottom left hand button. Click okay on the next window and your data will populate to a new spreadsheet. 

4. Graphs. Now you need to make some graphs. I’m assuming if you’re still reading, that you probably know how to manipulate your datasets to get some totals and other data that you can use to make a graph. I prefer using Google docs to make graphs, in part because you can directly convert a graph to a PNG file, so I typically cut and paste whatever data I have in Excel into a Google sheet. Make some graphs, and be sure to change the colour palette from the terrible default palette. A tool like Coolers will generate some nice colour palettes and give you the Hex codes to input into your graph. If you’re not sure how to do this, go to the colour tool in the toolbar, click Custom, and paste in the Hex code. And there you have it! All the colours you could want. 

5. Canva. Over time, Canva has gradually been getting better and better, and other than a few minor things, for basic usage, it rivals (and is much cheaper than) Adobe Illustrator. If you’re doing any graphic design work at all, I recommend getting a free Canva account and playing around with the different tools. Once you get the hang of it, you won’t go back. 

This post is already too long and there’s lots of little intricacies that I didn’t cover, so if anyone is still reading and has questions, just let me know!

Tagging @blackandwhiteandrose @weathereyehorizon @alysiswriting @missgeevious @likerealpeopledo-on-ao3 @carolrain @stereopticons to share a deleted scene or other behind-the-scenes content from their creations. 

#houdini talks data

[kayleenakaproject]

Tumblr Update #5

Hi guys! Hope everyone's projects are going okay! Here's my update for the week!

What's been happening over the past 2 weeks?

The past two weeks I've been focusing on producing content for my Instagram page. I've been creating my posts for the week throughout the week, spreading out the work, and following my schedule. For my first week my posts focused on the topic of K-Pop and it gained a little bit of interaction from people that I know and fellow classmates. I just started week two this week and it focuses on anime culture.

What's coming up for the next 2 weeks?

For the next two weeks, I plan to continue to create content for my Instagram page. Week 3 of my posts will focus on jazz music/dance and week 4 of my posts will focus on Chinese brands such as Shein or Temu that sell products for a cheap price.

Hiccups/Hurdles/AHA Moments

I think the only hurdle was what I spoke about in my last post on here. I realized that aesthetics-wise, my Instagram page would look better if I post 3 times a week instead of my original plan of twice a week. So, I decided to add in a post on Wednesdays that asks a question to my followers relating to the culture of the week. It has actually helped me gain much more follower interactions as they actually comment on the post and answer my question.

Any deliverable drafts to share? Visual documentation?

I'll post below pictures of my Instagram. Here is also a link to my Canva so you can see my post editing process. I've also been having to research a lot for each culture so I've been creating Google Docs with links to my sources for each week. When creating my vlogs, I work on Adobe Premiere. I'll post below what my editing timeline looked like for my most recent vlog.

Where are you on your timeline?

I am almost half way done through my production phase. I plan on doing six weeks of cultures for this Instagram and I am currently on week two.

Thank you guys for reading through all of this! Best of luck to everyone on their projects!

#senior project #senior capstone

[aeirithgainsborough]

would you be willing to share some tips on gif making? your gifs are always so pretty i feel inspired to start making my own, but i dont even know what program to use 🥲 please master yoda, teach me your ways 🙏🙏🙏

ahhh thank you so much, that’s so kind of you to say. i can share some tips sure yeah! first of all i use photoshop, their most recent edition, I think it’s 2020. i pay for it cus i keep meaning to find a download and not doing so but you can find them sometimes in the tumblr tags but it might be an older version!

in terms of tips, the main one is to always use high quality clips when you screencap! you should be aiming for 1080 but if the scene is well lit then you can get away with 720. my top trick here is to use Firefox because you can actually record directly from proper streaming sites without it being blacked out eg netflix apple prime etc etc. On a PC you can hit the windows button + g and it brings up a control panel which allows you to screen record. I’m not sure how you do this on a Mac but I’m sure there’s a way. I never torrent episodes to gif, I always do it like this and the quality is extremely good. But if you’re able to torrent, that’s another option too.

mostly really it’s just about playing around in photoshop until you get comfy with how it all works. the more you play about in it, the more each adjustment you can use makes sense instead of being overwhelming. my way of making gifs is just using adjustments to increase/decrease brightness/contrast/colours until i like the way it looks and that’s really the most important thing, finding your style and what you like! i can honestly pick certain gif makers out without seeing a url by seeing how the gif is coloured and sharpened. for me, i really like strong a strong contrast when im colouring, so i play around a lot the brightness/contrast and levels adjustment layer to get the contrasts where I want them to be. the adjustment layers i tend to use the most are the aforementioned ones and then colour balance/selective colour/vibrance. really, just play around and it soon becomes less overwhelming and starts to make more sense. also if you’re ever stuck tumblr has a wealth of tutorials! I usually just google what I’m specifically looking for and so many come up.

in terms of how i make my gifs, i always load my caps (cap using potplayer and again you can find so many tutorials on how to do this and what settings to have but if you want I can share my settings when im on my computer next - just shoot me another ask and then load them in using ‘load files into stack’ in the windows menu in photoshop) and then crop, colour, sharpen. some ppl sharpen first and then colour - again it just depends on what you wind up preferring! for cropping, don’t use the change image size, always change the canvas size to what size you want your gifs to be being mindful of tumblr sizes (if you Google tumblr gif sizes a lot of templates will come up showing you what sizes to stick to but in general one gif should be 540 in width and if you want 2 side by side it should be 268). from there you can hit the shift + t button and then adjust your gif to how you want it to look without messing up the proportions.

always always sharpen your gifs! you can do this in so many ways and again it’s about finding how you like it to look in terms of what sharpening settings you use. again there are so many tutorials out there explaining how to do this and the different settings you can use so really it’s just again playing around until it makes sense and you find the way you like it to look! i actually use a sharpening action i found on tumblr that i use twice on all my gifs but i can’t find the original place i found it now but you can search ‘tumblr sharpening action photoshop’ and they will come up.

im sooo bad at explaining things which is why ive suggested googling for tutorials because there are so many people who have such useful and well written tutorials that helped me so much when i was trying to learn things on photoshop. i found it SO overwhelming at first but the more you use it, the easier it becomes like anything else, so my main advice would be don’t be intimidated and just play around and have fun. the more you play and click around with things, the more sense it will start to make and you will find your style and way of doing things!! if you have any other questions, feel free to shoot me another ask and i will try to help 🩵

#ask #anonymous

[roselightfairy]

I saw the tags on one of your last post as "non-driving life." I also want to live the non-driving life... Any advice for managing things like regular errands and stuff when you haven't got a car?

Hey! I don't know if I'm really the one to talk about this, because my non-driving is slightly less a choice than a necessity - I have a visual impairment that, while it doesn't legally prevent me from driving, makes me feel that driving would be an unsafe choice. So for a lot of the things that really require driving (trips out of town, big grocery trips, etc.), my life has involved getting assistance from other people, especially now that I live with someone with a car. Unfortunately, there are just some things that it's hard to manage via transit.

That said, here are some of the tips I have from my general life:

Take a backpack! @daisyfornost mentioned once, and I hadn't noticed until she said it (though I had been doing it, too) that not having a car necessitates having a backpack you can carry around with you, because of all the things that people with cars can just . . . leave in the car!

Transit. My ability to live without driving is entirely dependent on living in an area with public transit. Learn what you have available, learn what your routes are, and get a pass if you can, so you can have freedom of movement.

Note to this one: Google maps, and other map apps, have a "transit" option so you can get advice for how to get where you're going using transit. It goes specifically to times, even: catch this bus, get off at this stop, walk a block to the next stop, wait five minutes, catch this bus to this stop, etc. - it'll give you step-by-step instructions the whole way.

If you are able to drive but don't want to have a car, check out the car sharing services your area might have! Where I live, there is a service where you can sign up on an app and then do short-term rentals to get from one place to another.

Figure out what your nearby grocery stores are. If you're walking or taking transit to the grocery store, you'll probably have to do more frequent trips. I use a basket rather than a cart when shopping at the store so that I know what I'll be able to carry home with me. I also have a really good canvas bag that I bring shopping with me and load up with my groceries.

A weird one: not driving frequently involves some carpool contortion - and also sometimes sleepovers, if you have to coordinate getting a ride from someone to one place and then a ride home the next day. This is also where having a backpack comes in handy.

Also a portable charger. @deheerkonijn gave me one for Christmas last year, for which I can never thank her enough. It's great to have something to backup charge your phone when you're on the go, especially if you're using navigation apps to get where you're going.

For extreme backups, it's probably good to have a rideshare app or something on your phone, or an awareness of a place you can call - just in case you do get lost or stranded somewhere!

Again, I don't know exactly where you're coming from with this question - if you're a driver trying to move away from it, or if you're a non-driver looking for tips on how to navigate the world - but here are just a few little weird things I've gotten from my experience! I feel weird about sharing this - as if I can have impostor syndrome over being a transit user - but hopefully it is helpful or at least interesting to read!

#ask #anonymous #nondriving life