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masterjedilenawrites · 3 years

Text

Blueberries and Cowboys: Chapter 2

A choose-your-own-adventure style fic. First, 2 platonic chapters for set-up/build-up. And then, the story will split into 2 paths depending on your romantic pairing preference: You and Thrawn, or You and Eli.

Chapter Masterlist

Chapter 2: The Plan

Pairing: None...yet...

Chapter Warnings: Mentions of bullying

Length: 2k

AO3 Link (In case you like it better over there, it’s okay, no judgement)

The rest of the week saw the three of you using every bit of free time outside your classes and studies to gather information for Thrawn to build a solid plan.

Eli tailed his pesky classmate Arden everywhere, even skipping a class one day to break into his dorm, trying to learn anything about the guy that could be useful to get him involved in the plot. Thrawn analyzed the simulation software and protocols that would be used to administer the tests, mapping out every possible way Commander Burdick could hijack it. And you were the one spying on the Burdick himself. Since the commander didn't seem too interested in your grades, you were able to shadow him without suspicion, and had been able to slip a bug into his offices to eavesdrop on any potential conversations about his plans for sabotage.

Your classmates and the staff were none the wiser. That was the advantage of being social outcasts. Half of them avoided you all like the plague, and the other half already thought you were weird people doing weird things. So it wasn't long before you'd all gotten enough intel to work with.

It was late in the evening at the end of the week. You found yourself in Thrawn and Eli's shared dorm, which looked identical to your own in the opposite wing, because the Empire couldn't bother with things like individuality or comfort. Eli sat on the edge of his top bunk, his legs swinging casually, and his coat unbuttoned to reveal a wrinkled undershirt you knew he hadn't bothered to wash all week. Thrawn paced about in the middle of the room, his long strides only allowing him about four good steps before he had to turn around. He still had his uniform on, boots and badges and all.

You leaned against the railing of the bed, watching Thrawn as he went back and forth. Sometimes he sat still when he was scheming, with his fingers steepled and his gaze seemingly reaching into some unknown dimension beyond your comprehension. That usually happened when he was running through variables that didn't concern you, at least from his perspective. You and Eli had accepted long ago there would always be parts of his plans he would never share with you. He was kind of a control freak like that.

But tonight, he seemed to be more welcoming of collaboration, hence his steady rhythm of pacing in front of you.

"Only one variable remains, as I see it," he was saying. "We understand how the commander will manipulate the system to cause a redundancy in the simulation, thus rendering the test impossible to finish successfully."

You and Eli shared a glance; the only person who truly understood how that was going to happen was Thrawn. He'd tried explaining numerous times but when it came to codes and tech, the two of you weren't able to fully keep up.

"We also know through your investigating," Thrawn motioned to you with what you thought was an impressed look, causing you to feel a little pride, "that the commander plans to only sabotage my test, believing it will be too suspicious if Eli also fails. He will also manipulate his false code to originate from the computer of his former lover Eva Carroway, who currently works in HR. So if an investigation does ensue, it will be traced to her and not him."

You and Eli chuckled under your breaths. It had been a little amusing when you'd discovered Commander Burdick was using this plan to not only undermine Thrawn, but also get revenge on his ex-girlfriend. But even more hilarious was how awkward Thrawn treated the subject. He had been quite perplexed to learn people could be so vindictive after a break-up. And any time he explained that detail of the plan, like he was doing now, he hesitated over his word choice. You couldn't tell if he only pretended to be confused about romantic relations, or if that was truly an area he found himself lost in.

If Thrawn noticed your snickering, he didn't respond to it, only continued to recap the plan. "We have also determined how we will expose the altered code naturally, so it does not cast suspicion on us... What was the word you used?"

"Backfire," said Eli.

"Yes. It would not due to have anyone suspect that we altered the test ourselves, or to have our concerns disregarded altogether. Thus, arranging for the maintenance crew to get a mild case of food poisoning so their performance checks are postponed to occur right before the tests will take care of that variable. At the least, they will fix the altered code and I will take the test as normal. At the most, they will report it and the commander faces expulsion."

"So..." said Eli through a yawn as he stretched. "What's left to work out, then?"

Now it was time for you and Thrawn to share a look.

"Were you not interested in involving your classmate, Arden Fey?" asked Thrawn in his soft, contemplative voice.

Eli shrugged. "Yeah. But Burdick's already got his scapegoat, his ex. So it'll be easier to keep him out of it. Whatever."

You could tell he was trying to be nonchalant. But just this morning, he had spent the entire walk between classes ranting about some new insults Arden had come up with, and how badly he wanted to show the guy up once and for all. You knew your friend wasn't feeling "whatever" about it.

"It's not a matter of ease or difficulty," Thrawn stated plainly. He had stopped pacing and was standing with hands behind his back, highlighting the broadness of his shoulders and the height of his stance. His presence seemed to fill up the whole room, and not for the first time, you were glad to be his friend and not his enemy.

"Yeah," you added in encouragement. "We just have to get creative. Find a way to make Arden a more appealing scapegoat than Burdick's ex. In fact...."

You trailed off as an idea occurred to you. You darted out of the room, surely leaving your two friends perplexed, but you would only be a second. You sprinted down the corridor toward the lifts, where a bulletin hung against the wall with fliers and pamphlets. One notice was a bit larger than the others, a promotion of an upcoming gala event to celebrate the Academy's anniversary. You ripped it off and went racing back to the boys' dorm room.

Eli had come down from the bunk and held a concerned look, probably prepared to follow you if you hadn't returned so quickly. Thrawn was still standing composed, but there was a curiosity in his eyes that made you smile.

You held up the poster in front of your chest. "What do you think the likelihood is of us playing successful matchmakers this week?"

Thrawn understood your idea almost immediately, looking down on you with a pleased smirk. It made you flush a little, to know the Chiss was impressed. You rarely had a chance to contribute good ideas when his mind worked so much faster than yours.

Eli caught on next, and he started to grin, the happiest you'd seen him in a while. His smile was infectious and you grinned back. Happy looked good on him.

"We know Eva's not shy with younger guys," you explained. "Before Burdick, she was fooling around with some intern in the med bay."

"And Arden's vain enough," added Eli. "If he thinks anyone's interested, he'll go for 'em."

"So we get him to ask her to the gala as his date...." you said.

"Burdick sees the two of them together...." said Eli.

"And realizes he can get back at his lover in another way, by pinning the sabotage on another student...." joined Thrawn.

The three of you stood together, proud and satisfied that yet another plan had finally worked out. It was almost worth the stressful studying and petty bullying and all the other unpleasant things you had to endure at this god-forsaken school, just to have fun moments like this with trusted friends.

"We should attend this gala as well," Thrawn said eventually, holding out a hand for the poster. He inspected it thoughtfully. "It is only a few days before the tests, so I hadn't planned to pay it any mind. But now...."

"Yeah, we should make sure Burdick's as jealous as we want 'im," nodded Eli.

You were secretly pleased. The plan was already a win-win, but now you would be able to go to the event yourself, too. You hadn't mentioned your desire to go to either of them before, figuring they weren't interested and not wanting to sound silly if you suggested it. But you did love dancing, and it was so very rare you got a chance to wear something other than your Imperial uniform.

"It's a dance," you noted, in case they couldn't tell by the details on the poster. "We'll need to go in pairs."

"I suppose it would make the most sense for you and Eli to go together," said Thrawn quietly.

You looked between the two, realizing both of them were flushed slightly. Eli's cheeks were dotted with pink, standing out amongst his dark brown features, while Thrawn had more of a purple tint to his face now, a color you'd never seen there before. You could feel yourself growing warm and uncomfortable as well. It was only a dance... only a way for you to enact a much more important plan... but it was the first time your trio had had to engage in anything other than platonic friendship. The balance of your group seemed to be shifting ever so slightly in this moment, and you had no way of knowing if it was for good or ill.

You cleared your throat, pushing away any feelings that might have been brewing in your chest, and instead calling focus back to the mission at hand.

"Actually, I think I'd better go with Thrawn. Whoever doesn't go with me would have to find their own date, and no offense Thrawn, but I think Eli has the better chance of asking someone else."

You hoped they hadn't noticed how hollow your voice sounded, how hard you were trying to keep yourself emotionless.

Eli was pinker than ever. "Uh, I highly doubt that..."

"You're not completely hated around here, you know," you said quickly. "Definitely not with the girls. You're not bad looking, you can be charming if you try, and you're... you know, human." You glanced at Thrawn and added again quietly, "No offense."

Thrawn shook his head. His color and demeanor had already slipped back into his usual neutral self. "No, I agree. Those are the dynamics of our peers and we must work with it. I will take you to the gala, Eli will find his own date, and all three of us will push Arden and Eva together as well. It's a good plan."

You all nodded in agreement. But there was a knot in your stomach, a nervousness you didn't quite understand. You cared very much for both Thrawn and Eli. They were your best friends, your only friends. As a group, you were bonded by your ostracism, protecting and supporting each other on your journey out of this hell-hole.

And separately, you had something special with each, too. You and Eli came from similar backgrounds, and had the same need to disconnect from your surroundings and just have a bit of fun every once in a while. The two of you had spent many late nights together, either hopping between bars, exploring the city, making each other laugh uncontrollably, or quietly sharing the honest thoughts you both buried far too deeply inside. Some nights you'd done all of the above, and returned to your dorm feeling both exhausted and renewed.

But Eli didn't always appreciate the finer things in life, and that's where you connected with Thrawn. He wasn't necessarily an optimist, but he had this way of noticing the beauty that existed everywhere around you, even in the most simple or mundane of moments. Everything had the potential to be interesting. His calm but strong presence had kept you grounded and sane throughout your studies here so far. Sometimes you would talk, other times you would simply be in the same space. And either way, you felt better about life.

You didn't exactly want your relationship with them to change. But you couldn't help but feel this gala would do just that....

Next Chapter: The Preparation >

Blueberry Path | Thrawn x reader

Cowboy Path | Eli x reader

#star wars #thrawn #eli vanto #thrawn x reader #eli vanto x reader #choose your own adventure #friendship #romance #friends to lovers #mitth'raw'nuruodo

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seulbby · 3 years

Text

until forever falls apart

╰┈➤ in which y/n has to figure out life without harry, and harry has never felt this way before.

╰┈➤ part two to someone you loved

⧖ harry styles x fem!reader

⧖ warnings: swearing angst, toxicity, reader is bi and if you have a problem with that: cry abt it i couldn't care less :), talks of anxiety (if that bothers you read something else i have written or request something!)

⧖ a/n: if you want, listen to the following songs while reading: me and my husband by mitski, as the world caves in by matt maltese, moral of the story by ashe! thank you!

masterlist

•°. *࿐

4 days after the breakup

y/n and harry. the perfect couple. that's what people pictured when they heard their names. they were seen as the perfect couple by everyone. it was a reality, until it wasn't.

every couple has their fair share of fights. it's unhealthy if you bottle anything up. y/n and harry didn't argue often, every once in a while. when harry was being to narcissistic or when y/n put her career first. it was perfectly fine. until harry had enough y/n guessed.

y/n had no idea what lead to the downfall of their relationship. they had been together for so long. y/n planned out their life together. growing old together. starting a family wasn't in the stars for y/n, she didn't not like kids, but couldn't see herself being a mom. that was the only thing that was stopping her from literally getting on one knee and proposing to harry on their third date. he's always wanted kids.

y/n thinks that this might be a blessing in disguise. they won't that unfathomable talk, "it's not you, it's me". she wouldn't be able to bear it.

as she was lost in thought, she heard a knock at the door. y/n was confused. after the fight/breakup with harry she got on a flight to new york and was staying at her apartment there, and no one knew she was here besides her mom. when she looked through the peephole she was sort of relieved, sort of not. she didn't want to see anyone, but if she had to she was glad it was her best friend.

when y/n opened the door, lily walked. lily has been her best friend since she was little. their moms were best friends forever also, so it was in the cards for them. she likes having lily by her side because she knows how the whole 'celebrity' thing works, being an actress and johnny depp and vanessa paradis' child.

so yes, y/n is getting better she supposes.

•°. *࿐

harry was having the time of his life. he can finally be with this mistress out in the open like he's always wanted. he keeps getting questioned on where y/n is and what happened to their relationship. which he has been ignoring. along with his friends calls wondering what also happened with the relationship.

harry has always been a private guy, so his fans, y/n's fans, and the media were confused on why he was being so open with his new relationship.

he was having the time of his life being free, or so he thought. after 4 or so days after the break up, he started to feel alone. yes, he had his mistress, fallon was it? but harry has never felt so alone sitting in his room in the house they shared. he knows it’s his fault. of course it is. he drove her away without a second thought because he wanted to sleep with other people. and he got the chance, it didn’t feel right to him. no one was better for him then y/n. now he realizes it. and now he doesn’t even know where she is and how he would fix this.

•°. *࿐

2 months later

y/n was feeling good. she’s back to work and is filming her new marvel disney+ series, nyx, about the greek goddess of the night. she’s back with hanging out with her friends again, and she’s done a few photoshoots for some campaigns and magazines. some say she’s doing the best she ever has been.

she hasn’t. y/n is missing something. she can feel her heart beating out of her chest and can feel her fingers get shaky. she also is religiously redecorating her new york apartment, something she does to cope with these new found things that are happening to her.

so after a night of redecorating her living room because she got a new throw pillow, she sees someone is calling her. it’s an unknown number.

she picks up, “hello this is y/n. who’s this?”. shes used to getting calls from random numbers, from getting callbacks to prank calls. so this is nothing new. “y/n? it’s- it’s harry lovie” thats when she can literally feel her heart trying to get out of her chest.

“harry? why are calling me it’s 2 in the morning” well, it is for her, its eleven for him.

“are you in new york? it’s eleven here.” that’s when she knew she fucked up. she didn’t want harry to know where she was, incase he wanted to plead his case (which was highly unlikely) or so she thought.

“im working on a project here. again why are you calling?” she knows she’s being mean, but he cheated in her so. karma.

“i wanted to talk. i know it’s late for you so i'll let you go” y/n wants to badly to hang up. to act like he never called, but that void in her chest is filling so she continues on with the call.

“okay, talk then” she wants to see what he has to say.

“okay fuck. i miss you. and i know this might sound utter bullshit. but i do. not like i ever have. i can’t do certain things because we used to do them together. i still can’t even sleep on your side of the fucking bed. that makes me sound like a pathetic idiot but it doesn’t matter. i’m sorry. i hurt you in the worst way, and i will hate myself everyday for it. i need you like i never needed you before. this is probably the hardest thing i’ve ever had to so because i hate saying i am wrong. but if it means getting to wakeup with you, and see you everyday that it’s worth it” after harry was finished with spiel. y/n is shocked. this wasn’t exactly what she was expecting.

she’s silent for a moment. “lovie, are you there?” harry asks. of course im still fucking here she thinks.

“i don’t know what you want me to say” y/n, in the first time in her entire life, it rendered speechless. “you cheat on me, tell me you no longer love me, and then call me two months later saying you miss me? your making no sense”

“i know lovie. i’ve been trying to figure out a way to say it the best i could but i got tired of waiting.” y/n is tired. she’s so tired and wants to go to bed until january.

“i have to go.” and with that she hangs up.

#harry styles angst #harry styles x you #Harry Styles #harry styles x y/n #oneshot #harry styles one shot #angst #fluff #fanfiction

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jocia92 · 3 years

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… So much of an actor’s craft is figuring out the “I want” of their character, but that’s got to be a little different with Tom since he states that he literally cannot want anything. What challenge or opportunity did that pose for you?

I think he wants to improve. I think he wants to calibrate according to Alma’s needs, wants, and desires. I think he’s very ready to learn and to understand. That was the kind of primary objective: listen, learn, calibrate, improve. That’s almost the track of each scenario. He just gets a little better each time, and the process gets a little faster. But certainly, in the beginning, he’s just delivering this sort of 20 classic chat-up lines that he’s been uploaded with and getting it all wrong. It’s fun to watch the machine learn and chart that progress.

On a practical or philosophical level, how did you approach the process of humanizing a character that’s an algorithm, or did you at all?

It was very much about charting with Maria exactly when we want to see the machine, when we want to see the human. Even playing with that ratio was really interesting and fun. It’s not so much about watching him play the machine, but watching a character try to play the human. Certainly, in the beginning, in some of the not quite so successful human moments, shall we say, we deconstructed what we regarded as the conventional human behavior in that. We looked at a lot of screwball comedies, like Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart, Katharine Hepburn movies. [We were] taking a move or a gesture, breaking that down, and just doing two of the things. It just suddenly looks very odd and wrong, and you’re like, “Oh, this is what a human does in this moment!” But it’s just off. It was really as much about looking at the human.

You’ve mentioned things like The Philadelphia Story as shaping the film and its central relationship. Was that to ground it in reality or further ensconce it in the warped reality of cinema? Grant and Stewart are recognizable to us as people, but things like that mid-Atlantic lilt were entirely manufactured for the screen.

That was a very key point for Maria in referencing Cary Grant. The hair color that we chose for Tom was very much like Cary Grant’s hair color, being a shade darker than is possibly human. And the skin tone being slightly artificial for Tom. You’re right, Cary Grant is often very heightened and mannered sometimes, and it works in the situation in the style of the thing that he’s in. But we quite liked the idea that Tom has been uploaded with some outdated versions of what a romantic lead was supposed to behave like.

It’s striking just how thought-out things had to be down to how Tom responds to dead air space in a conversation. What was the process behind those small moments that can make or break the believability of a character?

It was very fun to play with, and probably quite frustrating for a lot of the human actors. Maren was giving a beautifully naturalistic performance, and the conventional responses that there should be from her scene partner weren’t there. We deliberately strip those away—sometimes without telling her, sometimes without needing to tell her. It’s just the way that Tom was, so it was about pushing those moments into a space that became a little uncomfortable: not jumping in on the lines where you might normally jump in, sometimes coming in hard, sometimes offering a delayed response, sometimes none at all. Playing with those, and watching how comfortable or uncomfortable that made them both, was really fun.

Did that frustration, built in by the process, bleed over for Maren into the character of Alma, do you think?

Maybe for Maren. Certainly, for me, it was frustrating in that I would have to remember not to respond in the way that I might normally and remove some of those things. [I had to] really break down exactly what Tom is thinking, what his programming is doing in that point, how he’s responding and calibrating, and whether we see that or not. Choosing moments to show the human, to show the machine. Along with Maria, that was one of the great joys of the role.

How did you settle on the physicality of the character? Was it at all helpful to have done something like Beauty and the Beast in a mo-cap suit to be hyper-aware of how your own movements translate to the screen?

Very much so. In fact, in pretty much every role I’ve done since Beauty and the Beast, I’ve incorporated not always a movement coach, but I’ve definitely looked at movement theory and physicality in a totally new way because of the challenges of that role. And, I have to say, dance plays a huge part in that. Whether it’s incorporated on the screen or if it’s something that just feels as if it helps the role, I often find that a dance studio is a very fruitful space to discover things about your character’s physicality. Learning the rumba for this role was incredibly helpful because it’s a very precise, technical, almost robotic dance in terms of the laser precision that’s needed to get it absolutely right. I had a fantastically exact teacher in Berlin who was teaching me the rumba the whole way through the shoot. We shot that [one scene] quite near the end of the shoot. Just to have those lessons, that kind of physicality, and that poise with me the whole way through the role was really useful.

How did the role being in a non-native tongue affect the characterization of Tom? Was it all easier to make him seem slightly unreal given that the words might not come quite as naturally as they would in English?

I think it was a deliberate choice on the part of Maria to look for a foreign actor who could speak German. She needed somebody who could both get their heads and their mouths around the very technical German that was required, which, even for a German is pretty complex, but also who had that sense of otherness. I’m sure they could have tailored the screenplay to any number of nationalities, but I was very happy they came to me and made him British. It definitely helped with, as I say, the fact that he’s listening, learning, focusing, trying to improve…that was literally all I was doing last summer, every day.

How do you lock onto the frequency of German comedy, which isn’t always something people associate with that country or people? How is it different than doing something like the more mannered British wit of Blithe Spirit or the broad studio comedy of Eurovision Song Contest?

It’s not a country known for it, but I think they should [be]. I find Germans very funny. They have a very interesting sense of humor. What’s particularly delightful is the way that they can tackle really kind of big, sometimes weighty, issues with a certain wit and lightness of touch, which is not common to all countries. Physical comedy, I think, is fairly universal. I think there’s something almost farcical about some of the physical stuff that we managed to get in this. It was really fun to make people laugh in a foreign language. It was surprisingly delightful. It felt very unifying, somehow, to be able to get a joke across in any language.

#ich bin dein mensch #i'm your man #dan stevens #slant magazine #interview #long post

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yyparkq · 4 years

Text

hooked

characters: park sungjin x reader

word count: ~3.2k

summary: park sungjin is almost a perfect boyfriend for you...until he abruptly starts being emotionally withdrawn from you a few months into your relationship.

genre: fluff, smut

tw: mentions of anxiety, unprotected sex, slightly toxic relationship

requested by @parksungjinsfan

a/n: had tons of fun writing this really warm and cozy sungjin, thank you for the request!! tbh, i always see him as someone i’d be comfortable to share everything that’s on my mind. and i feel like he’s one of the very few people who will never judge you for your stupid mistakes but is also someone who needs to be taken care of. im blabbering too much. enjoy the story! :)

There was nothing special on the day you first met Park Sungjin. Like any other normal college student, you were able to find yourself a small circle you can trust and have fun with. Because of them, you have encountered the seemingly quiet and mysterious guy from the engineering class. He was best friends with the guy your close friend, Erin, was dating.

If first impressions last, like how they say it does, you’re fairly sure you would barely get more acquainted with a Park Sungjin. Unlike you, Sungjin is more reserved with a constant hang of serious air around him, like the type of person who barely laughs when someone makes a joke in front of him. He doesn’t always hang out with a lot of people but when he does, he’s always got an earphone dangling in one of his ears as if saying he’s only halfway present. He dresses neatly albeit casually—oftentimes in a plaid or button-down shirt and faded jeans with his dark, wavy hair falling shortly before his dark brown eyes.

He’s a pretty decent guy but not really the type you see yourself to be dating. But when you accidentally met him at the movie house alone and decided to grab dinner after, you two hit it off so smoothly. Turns out you both share the love for the book that was recently adapted onto the big screen. You two talked over dinner nonstop about the movie, how it varies against the book, the great and bad parts that were changed, the cast that played the role, the cinematography, the lines. Your exchange that night was nothing but informative and honestly, you craved more to be with him after that night so you asked him to hang out with you again. Sungjin already had a perfect proposal to invite you the second time if you didn’t ask. His mind worked extra hard trying to keep up with the conversation with you while thinking about how to ask you out for the second time at the back of his mind.

It was a ticket to an international classical play that he had up his sleeves which you gladly accepted.

One impromptu date was followed by a few more. After classes, you will meet over snacks or spend time in the library, reading and studying together. On weekends, you will try to watch movies you find interesting or go to museums.

You dating each other has not been a complete secret from your friends and you’re glad at how supportive they are to your new relationship. Somehow, you learned that Sungjin is actually an easy-going person, he talks and laughs a lot when he’s comfortable with the people he’s with. He’s knowledgable and he knows how to listen and strike up a healthy argument when needed even though sometimes he could be a little awkward and even seem standoffish.

Your friends think that your relationship is pure and innocent—almost platonic as one could say—but they couldn’t be any more wrong. Yes, you and Sungjin maintain a totally discreet relationship when you’re in public and with friends. It’s not like you have to tell anyone but you laugh inside when some of your friends ask about the status of your sex life. You never responded to such questions positively, not too comfortable in sharing such intimate details about your life with anyone, and somehow it painted an idea in their heads that you and Sungjin have never had sex yet.

The thing is, you two are fairly active in that regard. There is an unbelievably strong bond between you and Sungjin after the first date that is almost impossible for either of you to resist.

It was after the third date when you first give in to your desire. After spending time looking at ancient monarch artifacts and roaming around the museum, you were met with heavy rains the moment you stepped out of the museum building. Being in the middle of the summer, neither of you had attempted to check the weather that day for any sign of impending downpour that day. Your thin, white button-down shirt styled as a dress stuck to your skin as you both ran for his car across the parking lot, rendering your clothes almost transparent the moment you climbed into the passenger seat. The sight of you being wet and in close proximity with Sungjin didn’t help him control himself either.

“Would you like to come over to my place?” he asked coolly after giving you his spare jacket from the backseat to cover yourself. Even with his imaginations going wild, he’s still a gentleman in your eyes.

“Sure,” you nodded, well aware of what’s about to come next. It could be seen as taking things too fast but frankly, you didn’t care. You wanted this and it seemed like he did too.

You blushed when he flashed you that warm smile that reached his eyes before starting the car and driving away.

Sungjin refused to let you go home that night until you practically cannot walk. He fucked you senseless until you’re almost out of your wits, one orgasm after another until you’re quivering uncontrollably.

It has been five months since you started dating. Everything’s going pretty well in your relationship except that you are in no exception for fights and misunderstandings. Everyone says it’s normal in every relationship but for you who has barely had a serious relationship like what you currently have with Sungjin, it’s a foreign feeling trying to make amends with someone you’re romantically involved with and had to choose the next move.

This is the first major fight with him. The last five months of dating have been wonderful until weeks ago when you noticed that your boyfriend started withdrawing himself from you, physically and emotionally. This stressed you out though you still tried your best to be there for him. Whenever you two are alone, you couldn’t really talk to him about anything for more than five minutes. His mind obviously wandering off and he never realizes it when you stop mid-sentence until you’re parting ways. Whenever you try to ask what’s been bothering him, he just easily dismisses it off, saying he’s tired and he lacks sleep—which is also why you tried to limit your meetings after classes and dates, thinking it would help him a bit to spare a few more hours to rest. This side of Sungjin is completely new to you as you’ve known him for being so straightforward in telling what he thinks or feels and is usually logical with his actions. The fact that he no longer shares what’s bothering him makes you think of a hundred different reasons for being cold towards you.

Has he had enough of you? Did he realize you were too plain and boring for his liking? Were you not good in bed? Did he find someone else?

The blood on your face drained at the thought of Sungjin going out with some other girl. But you can’t stop him if that’s what he wants, can you? You can’t tell him how to feel. Of all the things, to be an obsessive girlfriend is one you’re dreading the most and after all the sacrifices and adjustments you made to try to help him with whatever burden he’s lifting, you’re determined to let him find the answers to his troubles himself. It’s not that you no longer want to help him, you love him too much, after all, but how can you help someone who refuses to help himself?

“Sweetie, have you tried talking to him again lately?” your friend, Yejin asked.

You glared at her and disappointment crossed your face. Has she really been listening to ask that question?

“No, I mean, I thought the last real conversation you had personally was like, what, almost two weeks ago? Did you try seeing him after class again after that?”

The three of you sat at your usual place in the coffee shop when your class was canceled by the professor to attend some personal matters.

Shaking your head, you reached for your cup and took a sip before answering. “I haven’t. He kept saying he’s tired and needs sleep so I gave him time to rest. And it’s been four days of merely receiving a text message from him. He won’t text me unless I text him first. I have no idea what’s happening to him,” you looked at Erin’s direction. “Did JB say anything?”

“That motherfucker doesn’t tell me any of his friends’ business, Y/N, but let me see if I can get anything.”

Even your friends who got closer to your boyfriend can’t think of him as someone who would cheat or be entertained by other girls. After a whole hour at the coffee shop trying to guess the possible reasons for Sungjin’s actions, they suggested a silly plan of making him jealous to see how he responds when you’re on the brink of being taken away from him.

You did not like the idea. It was ridiculous and manipulative. You’re no longer in high school.

“Come on, that could be a wake-up call for him. Just think of it as a social experiment and you’ll be fine,” Yejin tried to persuade you.

Ridiculously scary. Deep down, you’re also scared of how he will react to this plan. What if the situation worsens instead of getting better? He could just not talk to you again forever and you'll be dwelling in your own pain alone because of a stupid idea. But doing something is better than sulking and doing nothing, right? You’re young, and when you’re young, you can be stupid for free.

So you agreed and you started planning your own little scheme with your friends, hoping not to cause any further damage to your entire relationship.

For days, Erin made up stories about a guy from your class who is making a move on you and told her boyfriend about the plan to make Sungjin jealous. When JB said his best friend interrogated him about the innocent guy, she knew the plan will be going well so she came up with another without telling you.

As a celebration for the nearing end of the finals, your seniors decided to throw a grand party. Such parties should be considered a tradition already since almost everyone finds an excuse to get wasted after studying hard for the whole semester. You’re not one to miss such a celebration, especially when you ever really party during after the hell week.

Overhearing JB’s conversations with his girlfriend about some dude lurking around you has brought him back to his senses. For the last couple of days, he contemplated and reflected on his attitude towards you. He’s been a jerk to you lately and frankly, he didn’t know how to approach you again after that. He’s been too occupied in his own head that he forgot he actually has you now, someone who’s more than willing to share his troubles. Before he knew it, he was dashing through his car to the party where Yejin told him you’d be.

You came to the party to try to not overthink the problem between you and Sungjin. After surviving the finals week with emotional baggage, you know you deserve some booze to celebrate walking out of at least one thing alive. the last thing you hear about your little scheme with your friends is that Sungjin fired questions to JB. But he didn’t talk to you after that. Thankfully, you were also too busy to worry about your grades and it’s been a great distraction so far. Now that the finals are over, you’ll be damned again.

Sungjin found you scooping from a large tub of ice cream from the kitchen, bottles of beer and half-filled party cups surrounding you in the little space. There is a guy beside you laughing at the way you’re trying to scoop a frozen solid treat using a regular spoon. You’re too focused on what you’re doing that you didn’t see him come right in front of you.

To your surprise, Sungjin snatched the tub out of grasp and grabbed your hand. You needed a second to process what just happened but you are elated to see your boyfriend after nearly three weeks.

You let Sungjin pull you but were shocked when the guy beside you grabbed on your other wrist. What the hell? You didn’t even know his name. You saw Sungjin squint at the nameless guy and you immediately yanked away from him, wincing at the sudden jerk of your own hand immediately after.

Sungjin kept you to his chest as he waded through the sea of drunk people. All the while, you kept looking at his face. It felt months since you’ve been this close to him and at that moment, you were just ready to feed on whatever excuse he could say. He could lie to your face at that moment and you’d still be happy to welcome him back into your arms.

Merely a few feet from his car, you stopped walking and tugged on his arm. You slowly closed the distance between you two and encircled your arms around his shoulders when he turned to look at you.

Sungjin looked at your face closely, noticing you’ve lost some weight by the way the dimple on your left poked your cheek a bit deeper than the last time he saw you. His hands automatically found their way at your sides.

“I miss you so much,” you whispered while searching his eyes.

Sungjin leaned forward and kissed you feverishly. He guided you on your back until you are leaning toward his parked car. He pressed his body against you and you continued kissing until you both needed to gasp for some air. After resting for a few seconds, he began nipping and sucking on the sensitive area on your neck.

Proper communication be damned—you need him to touch you and you need it as soon as possible. You squirmed beneath him to try to close your legs when you felt wetness pooling in your panties but Sungjin’s left leg was pressed between your thighs.

He understood what you’re trying to do and immediately pressed a thigh against your core, amused to feel your wetness even through the material of your panties. His cock twitched inside his pants.

“I’m sorry, Y/N. I’m sorry,” he repeated as he embraced you tightly and kissed your temple before opening the door and letting you inside his car drove away.

Sungjin's hands quickly reached for the zipper of your dress, letting it pool around your feet, as soon as you reached inside his apartment. In an instant, his mouth was back against yours. He lifted both your thighs to circle his hips and your arms circled his broad shoulders for support.

You felt his hard shaft poking your entrance and you reached down to undo the fastening of his pants, pulling the waistband down just enough to free his throbbing cock.

Sungjin hissed when you grabbed his cock and spread the leaking precum over his tip. “Shit-”

You bobbed your hand up and down his length until you felt being laid down on the mattress, your boyfriend hovering over you.

He bucked his hips lightly to your touch and buried his head on your shoulders, to suppress his sinful moans.

You felt his body shake and he peeled himself off of you. “Baby, stop.”

Sungjin lifted his body and kissed the side of your head before reaching out to remove your soaked panties. He kissed and occasionally nipped the inside of your thighs before nudging the tip of his nose along your slit.

“Fuck, Sungjin stop tea—” you shrieked and were cut short when he licked a stip between your folds. Your hands immediately found purchase at his hair, tugging at it every time he licked your core and sucked on your clit.

“Language, baby,” he groaned hoarsely before inserting a finger into you. He continued his ministrations to your core, adding a second and third finger shortly after. “Need to stretch you up a bit more, baby. Damn, you got tighter without my cock deep inside you huh.”

You tried to stop Sungjin’s hands when you felt your release nearing. But he didn’t budge. He even picked up the pace and encouraged you to let go.

“Are you cumming, baby?”

You bit your bottom lip and nodded, unable to stitch words at the pleasure of having him between your thighs again.

“Words, baby. Use your words. Did you miss this? My hands and cock working on your pussy?”

“Sungjin—fuck, yes, I missed you and your cock inside me” you breathed and struggled to look him in the eye. “I missed you fucking me after classes.”

The memories of Sungjin fucking you in the most boring places brought you easily over the edge. In a few seconds, you are shaking uncontrollably and you felt your juices streaming out of your core deliciously.

Sungjin smirked as he leered at your pussy leaking out of cum. His hands didn’t cease its movements and continued to fuck you with his hands. Your whole body is almost quivering.

When he sensed you’re nearing your second orgasm, he grabbed his cock and positioned himself at your entrance. He coated himself with your juices before slowly pushing inside of you.

You stiffen for a short moment, trying to adjust to his size, and then slightly rolled your hips.

“I love you,” Sungjin whispered against your ear. “I love you, Y/N,” he repeated, this time against your lips, before bottoming out and sheathing himself inside you again.

You cried out in pleasure as he started to thrust into you harder and chased your orgasm.

Sungjin remained sheathed inside you even after shooting his load, his cock warming itself pretty nicely inside your pussy as he cuddled you on the bed.

Neither of you attempted to strike a conversation. You were not sure about him but the activity rendered you rather tired. A sound sleep while being cuddled would be much appreciated at that moment. Until you heard Sungjin sigh loudly. You looked over at him and saw his eyes being distant again.

“You have that look again,” you started slowly. You propped yourself in one arm, looked at him with adoration, and stroke his cheek. “Babe, you don’t have to tell me everything all at once. But please, don’t push me away. I love you and it’s hard for me to see you suffer on your own.”

He was fazed by the sadness in your voice. How could he ever deserve a girl like you? The last thing he wanted is to disappoint and burden you with his own problems and he thought at first he’s been doing a great job with it.

Sungjin took a deep breath. He reached for your hand on his cheek and kissed it, bringing your torso against his once again. All the major problems that took the most space in his mind were spilled. He told you the pressure his family is bestowing upon him with the graduation and board exams around the corner and also their expectations for him to continue the business his father started.

You listened to his troubles. At that moment you knew you just needed to understand him, to try to perceive things in his shoes.

Sungjin isn’t the type of person who openly shares every little trouble he has as he’s afraid to burden other people. He believes everyone already has problems of their own and own demons to fight and dumping his worries could just add to that. But, oddly enough, hearing himself talk about it kind of helped to look at the situation again and evaluate his feelings and actions. As he continued to tell you his worries, he realized that it isn’t so bad to share the burden with your most trusted person.

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neopuff · 4 years

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hello, i hope you're having a good day!! i was wondering, do you have any tips for making amvs? like, what programmes you use, how you handle the timing, etc. thank you for all the fun edits you make!!

hi!! sorry for the delay in answering this, i just wanted to take the time to answer it thoroughly and i kept forgetting lol & thank you! i already typed this once and tumblr made it disappear so i apologize if anything i say comes out short ‘cause i’m just trying to remember all that i typed before lol

ok so ill just go through my general editing process in Vegas, i dont know any other program well enough to talk about it at length:

(disclaimer: this is just how i do it, i dont watch tutorials and my editing friends and i don’t watch each other edit often so i would assume that my way is very different from other ways you’ve probably seen! i might even do something in a very stupidly hard way, please feel free to tell me if theres an easier way to do anything lol)

1. Song: So skipping past the “choosing song and ship/character/show” theme, I’ll dive straight into CUTTING THE SONG! I’m not about that Editing The Entire Song life, and neither is most of the editing community anymore, so I cut it up into a shorter thing that I’m better equipped to edit to. I’m just using a random example but here I’ve taken this long ass song and turned it into this:

(the next step just kind of depends on my mood, or ill do both, doesnt matter)

2-A. Subclips: if im making a shorter video or a video where i’m not 100% super familiar with the footage, i will immediately start making subclips using the episodes ive already pulled into the project. if it’s a ship/character that i’ve edited before, i’ll just go to Import->Media from Project and import the subclips i made previously. either way, subclips are there!

2-B. Sheets: for ships that i know very well/have a lot of footage/im concerned about potentially repeating something, i will go to Google Sheets/Excel and take the lyrics im editing to and put them in column A, separating by pauses in the singing. then i put corresponding footage i think will go well in column B! im often not super specific because i know the beats are gonna be different than i remember, so i usually stick to referencing whole scenes instead of specifics moments. here’s an example:

3. Clip placement: Then I start placing clips down! Below is how I organize my timeline tho I know a lot of editors who put the music on top, this is just how I like it. I also keep a single muted audio layer in between for the video footage’s audio and then I’ll delete that layer when I’m done (or sometimes I don’t, it doesn’t really matter)

I think it’s good to hit the beats as much as possible, it makes for a more dynamic audio-visual experience! In general I try to make my videos so that, if I didn’t add any zooms or typography or coloring, it would still be a good amv. And don’t limit yourself to just one layer, you can have as many layers as you’d like and put clips on top of each other (cookie cutter/changing the layer to dodge or add or screen or whatever) is a good way to mix things up

when I zoom in you can see I’ve got some variety already in my transitions, I know I use that motion-blur-zoom a lot these days but I still try to mix it up and keep my brain invested

4. Typography: After all the clips have been placed (or most of the clips, ofc sometimes I’ll want to add more later) I move on to typography! I’m lazy so the first thing I’ll do it just put down unedited text where I think I’ll want it to go. It just helps me organize myself. Then I’ll pretty up the text afterwards.

Typography isn’t necessary for a good AMV, but really nice typography can really spruce things up. I’ve only very recently gotten confident in my text editing skills, and I just kept watching typography done by editors I really like until I figured out what they were doing. My recommendation is to just KEEP ADDING EFFECTS! Convolution kernel, gaussian blur, mask the text so it appears from angles that the transitions wouldn’t be able to do - of course there’s gotta be a limit for taste, but just add stuff until you like how it looks. Also changing the blending style of the text layer is good, dodge and difference are my go-tos for typography layers.

5. Transitions: I don’t go crazy with transitions, but it’s fun to mess around with them. You don’t want too many crazy/different transitions, you want them to match the mood of the song and the type of beat you’re hitting. I usually ensure that all similar beats in the song have the same transition type on them, bbbbbbut that’s cuz I’m overly obsessed with parallel structure. There’s plenty of fantastic AMVs where they just go ham and do whatever types of transitions they want to in each part of the song and they make it work just fine

(next step, once again, kind of depends on my mood lol)

6-A. Zooms: Time for zooms! I usually just use the pan/crop for zooming, but often I’ll incorporate Sapphire FX BlurMoCurves or NewBlue AutoPan, especially if I’m trying to zoom typography with the footage at the same rate. I try to keep my zooms short and slower, I mean obv it just depends on the song but yeah. There’s a lot of different ways to do zooms so I recommend experimenting and just playing around with different effects

6-B. Zooms...but different: Another way that I’ll do zooms which is definitely pretty different (but this is what I do for crossovers like 95% of the time because I am laaaaaaaaaaazy) is I’ll drag the project into a new project timeline and start editing it there. It’s similar to how After Effects works and it makes it easier to put effects overtop of multiple layers without having to pre-render anything.

So you can see I’ve just pulled in the .VEG file and popped it in the timeline! So this way I can add zooms and transitions without worrying about layers. And if I see a mistake I need to fix, I can just go back into the original .VEG file and edit it, and it’ll be edited when I come back here. So it’s much easier than pre-rendering or trying to do zooms on a lot of layers. To be clear tho, this doesn’t work well if you have a lot of fade transitions, it’s best for sharp transitions and it’s great when you’re using Sapphire FX BlurMoCurves a lot.

7. Overlays: After that I’ll add more typography (or if you didn’t add any earlier, you can add some here overtop of the new project file) that kind of goes on top of everything. And then I’ll add any overlays or objects or whatever else I wanna add! I’m not someone who uses a lot of backgrounds cuz I don’t have a background-creative-brain so I stick to simple overlays at the most.

8. Coloring!!! This is very sad but I only JUST learned a few weeks ago that you can add coloring/effects to your entire video with this button here, so in case anyone else hates watching tutorials as much as I do here’s where I’m talking about:

This shit would’ve made my life so much easier throughout the years lol But alas. Anyway so for coloring there are some effects that are popular for any colorings you’ll find on YT (but you can certainly just download some, Riverdale editors in particular share a lot of really great colorings but you’ll find them anywhere in the live action editing community):

Channel Blend, Color Curves, Color Blend, Color Balance, Convolution Kernel (best for live action footage or footage that isnt very crisp), Color Corrector Secondary

These are all just fun to mess with. Channel Blend in particular is something of a mystery for me, I haven’t studied it fully to understand what I’m doing so I mostly just mess with it randomly until I like what I see lol

9. Render time! First render, anyway. Usually there’ll be some random problem in the footage or something and I’ll have to either go back into the project and fix it OR if I’m feeling particularly sour (or maybe if I’ve rendered like 3-4 times already) I will just take the finished render and manually remove any errors, stretching out the good footage to cover my tracks. You’d be surprised how often I end up doing that lol

And then it’s good to post! I primarily render as .WMV but I also go for .MP4s every once in a while. If I want to upload it to Twitter I’ll do an .MP4 but it’s a new thing for me so I’m still stuck on .WMV mostly.

Anyway I hope this answered your question at least a little bit, I can go into more detail about certain parts of this if you’d like!

#anon asks #carro answers #sony vegas #magix vegas #editing #long post

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crazyspookies · 4 years

Text

ZRS7M33-34

Ah yes, RECAPS, IMPRESSIONS, OPINIONS, THEORIES click here to get ur fix ---->

M33

1) SAM YAO: Okay, Five, you’re approaching Pittaway Farm. It was a fungus farm owned by Comansys, the company Moonchild used to run. So yeah, sorry. With this and the Glass Protocol, it’s been like a revisit of your greatest life traumas. But we think Moonchild’s gone now, right? Or just along for the ride.

TRip down memoery lane eh. But Honestly if it were me i would have asked her to call herself a different name and change her voice?? I know we players like moonchild in a way but lets be fair, if brain moonchild says she’s not like the original one anymore then im pretty sure it would be much less damaging to have her in Five’s mind as a new person and not, you know, a constant, inescapable direct connection to their trauma. The literal voice of the source of their trauma.

Like, i’ve always imagined this whole thing with brain moonchild to be the worst thing they could have done to five when it comes to moonchild? And even if your five still hears her for trauma reasons, like they’ve heard sarah before, they at least would have the knowledge that its their own head playing tricks. But in this case? There’s a literal, alive entity inside five’s head. and she still can just, control their body if she really wants to! The threat that their autonomy could be taken away at any moment by the voice of their abuser. Imagine being unable for your very thoughts to be private ever again. I dunno, i think it was a really shitty thing to do.

2) Obviously, I saw that present he sent you, Five. Amazing! Heart’s desire stuff. Did you know he sent Janine Field Marshall Montgomery’s actual desk to say sorry for rogue ANNIE? [laughs] She can’t fit it in her office, so it’s sitting in the greenhouse now.

The idea that valmont sent us presents is so weird and not in a good way. Don’t trust a bitch.

3) MOONCHILD: Five, I never like to interrupt. I’m a very peaceful person, but -

4) MOONCHILD: Those lights are going to erase some of your memory.[...] The bulbs burn out every six days, so someone else has set them up here recently

WELL, GREAT. As i don’t have enough people i suspect with no evidence except extremely vague clues i have never felt so undecided about.

6) an enormous AK-47-style Nerf gun? MOONCHILD: Sorry about that, Five. When we get that memory retrieval device, you’ll understand why you’re holding it.

(can we all just take a moment how dope and funy going around with an ak-47 NERF GUN is because i def would want one)

7) There are 12 levels of that building, Five,

Oh my god. It’s like a videogame. Each level is different, nice pixel art, whole building filled with spores and shit, five with a ak-47 nerf gun dealing with the things they find in the building and the weird things they encounter that are part of it.

8) MOONCHILD: [...] are hallucinogenic if I know my shrooms, and you know I do.

9) "If you knew what you’d seen here, you’d want to remember it.”

WELL YES IM SURE I WOULD HOW CONVENIENT THAT YOU CAN’T TELL ME. Why Can’t she tell us though? Did the thing that just happened mess with our minds in some indescribable way with the effect of messing moonghost up? Or was it the UV lights that had that effect instead? That would be weird, moonghost can rememebr and know things five can’t so i don’t see what could interfere with Her process...does it mena there could be a way to render her mute for good?

10) “But that one is still thick as two short ones. It’s going to walk straight into that spilled liquid”

Nononononononono we shouldn’t be ANYWHERE close to that thing this is a bad idea why do we always do this

SAM YAO: And there it goes, into the puddle! Oh crap, Five. Five, you have to get out of there.

NO SHIT HONEY

SAM YAO: Yes! It’s killing the V-type. Wait, no. No, it’s not. But the V-type definitely doesn’t like it. It’s recoiled like a cat when you spray it with water

WEll at least that’s useful??? Could come in handy later. Also if we keep in mind the thing about the giant fans veronica found out, maybe we could use something like that as a weapon to slow v-types at some point in open field.

M34

1) COLONEL SAGE: Thank you, Sam. It’s good to be back in the field and running alongside you, Runner Five.

He’s...so nice and polite......maybe....im wrong about him.....

2) Jones asked me to pass on his sincere and heartfelt apologies for being taken in by that rogue element in the ANNIE device. He has good in his heart, but he’s suspicious where he should be open and trusting where he should be cautious. I’ve had a chance to talk with him as he works on the cliff excavations, and I think he’s understood where he went wrong. I’m sorry you went through that, Five. I’m pleased to see you.

I mean. The man IS a bit of a wild card...a bit too instense...could have been a trap..or not???? But it COULD. I’m usually so sure about who is a villain but this time i keep goig back and forth not being sure. Like, the whole annie thing felt SO much like being herded towards a death row like sheep to the slaughter by jones it was uncanny....But Sage always sounds so considerate of other people...hnggg. Jones is so intense that maybe he just sounded creepy?? Sage’s way of thinking is useful but something that could so easily be turned into cult blabber. So, either a) Sage is deceptivly nice and actually a cult leader and told Jones to do it, b) Jones was acting by himself twisting what he learned from Sage , c) They are both innocent and something else is to blame (meh).

3) SAM YAO: Still, lots to celebrate today. Veronica’s got some good leads on the V-type problem. The country’s coming together at last, and the Exmoor Militia are welcoming the Undaunted home.

AwWww They deserve it, its been so long and they’ve had such a hard time, it’s nice that they’re finally together :’) Not that there won’t be trouble, of course... Like, there’s only 2 options: cute fluffy mission where you enjoy the party and the problems are minimal like, ohno the champain’s beens stolen! or it will be the kinda missino that goes oh no there’s assassin’s on the roofs!. We’ll see.

4)COLONEL SAGE: Yes, and I -

JULES: Five, good to see you. As for your company, any friend of Abel’s is… allowed within our borders.

safsdafsfsdafsd is it bad that i felt so smug about this lol. The game has been trying to make me love sage and everyone has been singing praises of his numerous kindnesses and i’ve been both charmed and been a bitter peter about him but it just feels terribly funny that jules is completley unaffected by him and is like��move over My Friend FIVE is here and we don’t know you or care much about you” and it’s so terribly delicious i feel like an old rich woman being shown favoritism and being all smug about it

#zombies run #zrs7 #zrs7 spoilers #fennel's zr recaps #i always forget i have these in my drafts #mostly because i forget Drafts EXIST

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comicteaparty · 4 years

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February 12th-February 18th, 2020 Reader Favorites Archive

The archive for the Reader Favorites chat that occurred from February 12th, 2020 to February 18th, 2020. The chat focused on the following question:

When applicable, what about a creator’s art might convince you to check out their comic?

carcarchu

I like a wide range of art styles so it's hard to pinpoint specifics but if an artist is able to draw very attractive looking characters (recognizable character designs, outfits that don't look like they came out of 2004 gap catalogue, characters that can still be recognized even when they change their hair style) then i find that very appealing. beyond that how well an artist can integrate the characters with the actual space they exist in is something i find very important as well. a bunch of floating heads can only carry a series so far. if the artist can make the characters feel like they properly exist in the space i think it can really elevate the series although in practice this is something very difficult to do.

Deo101 [Millennium]

For me, honestly some art styles are very inspiring to me and that will sometimes get me to read just because I want to see the art more and learn from it. Things like textures, colors, character design... It can draw me in just by exciting me as a learning opportunity

chalcara

For me art‘s the hook and story the line. Come for the art, stay for the story, you know?

Funnily I‘m looking less for pretty art and more for good visual story telling. I want the art to show whats going on without having to rely on dialogue.

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

I'm honestly very picky about art styles when it comes to comics, and that's a personal issue It has some to do with art styles being attractive to me, but honestly, the most important aspects of a creator's style to me are (1) consistency of style and anatomy, (2) level of completion, and (3) clear communication of what's happening. When it comes to whether or not I check out the comic initially, the main things that come into play with the promotional materials, covers, and/or thumbnails are contrast of the image and cleanness of the rendering. Of course, obviously, my personal tastes play into it. (I tend to like semi-realistic styles, sort of anime-ish but with a twist, or painted styles that may resemble concept art.) But honestly, probably more important than grabbing me initially to begin reading is readership retention. And that's where the 3 qualities I look for come into play: (1) Consistency of style and anatomy: This is probably the most important part for me as a reader. If I can't tell who is who because the characters change appearance from panel to panel, I'm ducking out, because that affects the clarity of storytelling. I also cringe everytime I see a particularly egregious anatomy error. I know what people look like. I see them every day. If I feel pain from looking at an artist's work, I'm not sticking around. (To be fair, everyone makes some kind of anatomy mistakes, but really it's if the anatomy mistakes are really awful to me and aren't as a result of a deliberate style CHOICE. Keyword, C H O I C E.) (2) Level of completion: This really just means that if it looks like the artist rushed through the panels or they were being lazy, I feel like their comic isn't worth my time. I mean, if an artist themselves doesn't care about their work, why should I?(edited)

. (3) Clear communication of what's happening: Once again clarity of storytelling is absolutely essential. If the composition of a large portion of the panels don't clearly show the actions of the characters, I can't follow the story. Aaaaaand as a bonus: Please, please, for the love of all powers that be, please, make your fonts legible. If I can't read the comic without squinting because your text is too tiny or hard to read, I'm not going to try. I have bad eyesight as it is. Take pity on your readers. I'm not going to suffer for your work. I have dropped far too many comics to count because the creator didn't care enough to make sure that the font was legible. And this applies to both desktop view, mobile view, scrolling format, and page to page format. Just.... Make your fonts big and clear.(edited)

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

That's interesting to think about how recognizable characters are when their hair style changes. I might try to use that as a character building exercise

Deo101 [Millennium]

Solid excercise: can you tell them all apart when they're bald and naked?

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

OoooooooOOOOOOOOOOHHHH

Might partake that challenge

Deo101 [Millennium]

Also it's really fun to draw characters in all sorts of hair and clothes so idk what id do if I couldn't tell them apart when doing that!!! That's like 40% of my art!

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

This just convinces me more and more to do AU art

Deo101 [Millennium]

Yeah aus are another 20% of what i draw LOL

Look im drawing the comic most of the time so I wish to partake in non canon things the rest

carcarchu

@sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD) i've read series before where the character gets a hair cut / dyes it and i'm like WHO ARE YOU? IS THIS A NEW CHARACTER?

Deo101 [Millennium]

Oh another good excercise is drawing your Characters in many different styles and seeing if they remain unique when not in yours.

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

I want to do all of this

This is stuff I hardly ever have time for

So I am extra attracted to it

Also, there IS a time later in the comic where a certain character's hair gets partially burned off

And then he cuts it pretty short to get rid of the singed edges

And I feel like his hair is like 80% of his character design

So I'm just a little scared about that

Deo101 [Millennium]

Also, @Cronaj (Whispers of the Past) , I am unsure what you mean by "readership retention" with something that makes you interested in a comic, could you explain?(edited)

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

By readership retention, I mean aspects of the art that decide whether I'll continue reading past the first few pages

(obviously story comes into play as well, but I won't pretend that the art in the first few pages of a comic don't contribute)

Deo101 [Millennium]

Oh okay, I thought you meant like how many readers have unfollowed or something

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Nah

More like, "oh cool! Your cover and blurb seem interesting. Lemme check out the comic!"

And then after reading the first few pages/chapter:

"ah... Not for me." Or "Nice, I'll keep reading!"

Deo101 [Millennium]

Gotcha

Capitania do Azar

Ohh I don't feel like dissing particular artsyle choices, but I know a few aren't for me. I'm no big fan of ultra realistic, hyper detailed stuff you usually see in super hero comics (other genres pick that style too sometimes and I still don't really appreciate). I particularly like artstyles that are distinct and recognizable, I have a hard time with stuff from different authors that just looks... Like a carbon copy (sometimes, the style being referenced is waaay too obvious and that is always a big no for me) Good use of color is key. Give me some good values too. I want colors to make sense and I am very tired of pink. I also appreciate consistency. If you give me artwork with a more paintery style but then the comic is cellshaded, that might tip me off. But not necessarily (tho I appreciate inner consistency inside the comic itself). Rushed stuff, like mentioned above, is also not a good look, but only insofar as it distracts me from what's happening in the story. Consistency is a very important word here, because I love seeing a common line that is able to take in all the differences that are necessary in character design and backgrounds, but also make me believe that they all could live in the same world.

Oh! And also: if the artstyle involves using lineart, I am really fond of sharp, clear lines with weight variation

sagaholmgaard

I'm curious about what you guys mean with consistency- do you guys not like if an artist's art style changes over the several years it might take to make a finished webcomic? Is it that it peeves you when the backgrounds are done in, say, a painterly style while the characters are done with lineart? Is it when the artists makes ordinary illustration work in a completely different style from their comic pages? (This is genuine curiosity I hope no one's feeling attacked rn ^^)

carcarchu

i personally really like seeing an artist's skills improve and evolve over the many years it takes to draw a series

even at the expense of a more "consistent" final product

sagaholmgaard

Yeah me too, it's one thing i really like about webcomics

chalcara

Can‘t talk about the others, but I get thrown off when one page is sprite comic, the next painterly, third cell-shaded without having a in-story-reasons for those style changes, like flashbacks or pov-changes. But more commonly, the issue’s the classic „comic‘s usually coloured, but oops, this time you only get the pencils because I had no time to update“. If that happens too often and/or doesn‘t get fixed for the archive I just lose investment in the comic.

Art evolution is natural, both in webcomic and published work with a dedicated artist.

Ah, that‘s another source of inconsistency - people switching colourists or even artists around. Once in a while is fine, but if it happens every month or so, I tend to get annoyed by it. It‘s actually why I killed my first webcomic twenty years ago; it was a collaberation and life kept getting in the way forcing me to switch colourists every five pages or so.

carcarchu

oh actually i have read a webcomic where they changed artist's 18 chapters in. i really fell in love with the magical and dark tone of the original artist and was engrossed in the world that they set up. they had a painterly style and it really set the atmosphere of the entire series but then the new artist had a super clean and cutesy art style and the sudden tonal shift really threw me off. in the long run the new artist was actually extremely consistent and better at actually releasing long chapters and very good quality chapters and the writing actually improved too because of it but it was never able to recapture what it was that i really loved about the original art style. also the new artist changed the character designs a little so the heroine was no longer even recognizable as the same person

since it was relatively early in the series i definitely would have preferred if they just got the new artist to actually redraw the first 18 chapters in the new style just so the change wouldnt be so incredibly jarring

chalcara

Any harsh breaks like that will cause some people to break away from the comic, I found. I dumped one of my favourite-for-years comic because the creator got bored by their main character and completely sidelined her in favour of a group of minor characters I had absolutely no interest in.

Didn‘t mean the comic got worse - by all accounts its still beloved by quite a sizable audience - it just wasn‘t for me anymore.

sagaholmgaard

Ahh that I can relate to. I get super attached to the main character and usually have a hard time getting into any spinoffs with the rest of the cast, even if I want to (and im a hypocrite because i also want to make spinoffs for ever side character in my own comic LOL) i guess if the style changed a LOT from page to page that would throw me off too. that feels like the artist is trying to experiment, maybe making sort comedic comic strips would be more acceptable then? Every style would at least be contained to one strip at least

DanitheCarutor

That's... actually a really good question. I don't really go for a specific aesthetic. Sometimes what's going on in the thumbnail attracts me, or it could be the use of color, the style, a character design. I'll check out a comic with just about any art style. I guess maybe if I have an idea of what the creator is going for with their art? Like, the art may have a lot of kinks, but maybe being able to tell what style they're trying to go for makes me want to check out their work? Honestly, I don't have a really strong art bias, as long as the comic is readable I'll go for almost anything. Maybe I won't check something out if the style looks extremely uninspired... like if it were the most generic, based off Japanese cartoons, style ever then I might give it a pass. But even then I do sometimes check it out anyway, so I really don't know! This question is surprisingly hard to answer! To give my last quip about last week's topic, since I don't want to derail the current one. I feel the creator's personal life is no one's business. I understand if they're a legit bad person, but digging into a creator's life to see if they qualify to be supported is... I dunno. This mindset makes me feel that if someone who liked my work ever tried to get to know me, they would be doing it solely to see if I'm good enough for them, which feels really invasive and predatory. I fully understand most people can't just enjoy something, that's how the world is, it just kinda sucks sometimes. The world kind sucks sometimes. Alright! I'm doing with giving my final thoughts on that subject.(edited)

Deo101 [Millennium]

The question is specifically about what draws you to art, rather than what turns you away so if you don't want to rag on any art styles that's not what it was asking for I think! Though yes it's very closely related (and it's not bad to say what you don't like)

Eilidh (Lady Changeling)

I definitely am more likely to read a comic that has a distinctive style - no particular style preferences, really. Interesting use of colour/value is definitely a bonus. But as long as it's engaging and the composition is good/readable, I don't really mind whether the art is "good" or not.

DanitheCarutor

@Deo101 [Millennium] I wasn't trying to rag on anything. I couldn't specify what about someone's art would draw me to their comic, it was easier to the one thing that might not, but I still said that I may be drawn in regardless. Sorry if I came off like a douchebag, totally not my intention. <_<'

Deo101 [Millennium]

No I know, someone earlier said "I don't feel like dissi g particular styles" I'll be honest I was typing my post as you were and so I didn't even read yours til after I said something(edited)

Just kind of a general thing! Feels like it went to what turns us away instead of what draws us in so just kinda a reminder of the op

sagaholmgaard

Readability is definitely important for me to want to continue following a comic, but what about the art that makes me want to read something...? I definitely have a preference toward cartoony styles overall. A solid character design will make me wanna check out a comic. If the main character has a recognizable silhouette and interesting shape language. I also love really bold lineart, especially if it's used to create shadow and contrast. Interesting color schemes too. I think how the background is drawn can really make me want to read something as well. I know BGs aren't people's favorite thing to draw but to me if the setting looks very well though out and designed, that definitely motivates me to check something out. And awe-inspiring sceneries are always hella cool! I read a lot of things outside of my artistic preferences though, but I think these are the things that might make me pick something up based only on the art itself.

keii4ii

I think I tend to find more appeal in certain compositions, which is a more subtle aspect of style. I am a major sucker for evocative use of backshots/ not-showing-the-(whole)-face, for one thing. Compositions that make full use of the three dimensional space around the figure(s) is another (this doesn't necessarily mean putting a lot of stuff around the character; you can have a mostly empty space and still make it feel very 3D).

(I hope both of those things show in my own works... I just love those things soooo much )

Deo101 [Millennium]

Oh I LOVE when a panel like... Cuts a face. Something about it makes me lose my mind every time

DanitheCarutor

@Deo101 [Millennium] Ooh! Lol sorry about that! I was so caught up with off computer stuff that I didn't notice anything else typing while I was. I haven't read the whole conversation yet, but I can see how it would turn to that. "What draws you in" is a hard topic to stay on. At least I imagine it would be since it's hard for me to talk about.

Ah! I admit I really like shots focused on scale, specifically ones were you can feel how tiny the MC is compared to what the camera is focused on. Does that make sense? Like the panel shows this ginormous thing, and it has the MC in it to show how massive it really is. That's awesome when done right.

Deo101 [Millennium]

Tiny little person. Yes. Very good

DanitheCarutor

Tiny people in giant worlds are the best!

keii4ii

I love those too!

DanitheCarutor

Oh, also this isn't a webcomic, but I've been interested in reading Vinland Saga after seeing this page on Twitter.(edited)

Something about extremely hideous expressions on semi-realistic faces jives with me.

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

What draws me in easiest is the design aspect of characters, environment and the webcomic title! It's a bit of a turn off when the title doesn't look polished. That's one of the main draws for me is an intriguingly designed logo with a catchy name that follows through their chosen aesthetic. I've seen many comics that stand apart from the title image they chose and it's a bit jarring to see! Great examples of wonderful execution of these aesthetics are BlackOut City, O'Sarilho, Sink Your HookTeeth and Shadrunners(obvs there are many more) I have to agree with @sagaholmgaard about backgrounds! There are quite a few creators who avoid them and stick to simple colours and gradients that just dont keep me in the comic- though my fave genres include a lot of world building, so BGs in a romance may not be emphasized as much. Lastly, dynamic character design!! I love a wonderfully crafted cast that allows me to read the characters easily no matter what setting or outfit they're in. Also it's really random but i do love an artist who can draw really good shoes?? That is always a draw in for me (edited)

Capitania do Azar

Oh I meant it in the way that if you spend a lot of time experimenting with different styles and techniques, you'll never be good at any of them. Style and approach changing over time is, imo, inevitable and good :) @sagaholmgaard(edited)

@@FeatherNotes(Krispy) I constantly think my logo looks like crap next to other webcomics', so thank you (edited)

DanitheCarutor

Oh god, @FeatherNotes(Krispy). Titles and logos are legit my weakest point, that part of the comic creation process is the worst! I have this cosmic-horror/fantasy comic I've been developing since 2005, and it took me till just last year to come up with a decent title. It'll probably take another 14 years to come up with a passable logo. Lmao!

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

It is really hard! Because that image/logo and name represents the body of work so firmly, its also got to stand strong with what it's representing and stand up to other titles too! Basically, i like to think of something that will help generate top results when i search on google for the title, which to me helps it stand on its own on the web, and sound catchy enough for pitches in person! I don't want to steer the convo away too much from the prompt, but there is definitely more to discuss about titles and their chosen aesthetics

varethane

@DanitheCarutor have you read Golden Kamuy? If you love hilariously hideous expressions in manga, it seems like it may be your jam lol

(it's also set in a specific historical period and contains a lot of really interesting material about the time/place it takes place in)

Also I feel like I have never, even one time in my life, come up with a good title for anything-- both Chirault and Wychwood are placeholder titles that I used just to kinda name the story for myself, which I initially intended to change when something better came along, and then nothing ever did

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

I know I'm generally drawn into a comic if it's just... generally a visual feast? And it doesn't even have to be a beautiful feast - just... a feast! A super intriguing artstyle, beautiful or not, is something for my brain to pick apart and enjoy. Detailed backgrounds, intricate costumes, fascinating presentation/layout... all the way to crazy expressions and fun asides, and even some gory or scary bits to make me go EEK. Basically, if I'm reading it, and my hand is twitching with the prospect of drawing fan art, then I'm in for good.

DanitheCarutor

@FeatherNotes(Krispy) Urg that is such a nightmare! And there are only so many different styles you can do for a logo, and so many variations of words, it's like how there aren't any truly original stories anymore. I got lucky with the title for my current comic, it's the most generic thing ever, but fits in a tongue-in-cheek way. @varethane I've never heard of it, but the face compilations I'm seeing are intriguing! Man, I love stupid facial expressions.

Capitania do Azar

@varethane golden kamuy, I see you are a fellow of taste as well

varethane

(I love it so much)

Capitania do Azar

@DanitheCarutor oh idk about the "only so many things you can do with logos", I've seen amazing things in this world, if there's a limit I'm not seeing it

varethane

(I can always tell exactly when I was binging it because there's a big chunk of my phone's photo gallery that's all screencaps of Asirpa making dumb faces)

Capitania do Azar

@varethane guys shooting each other in the woods? I'm always in for that

DanitheCarutor

@Capitania do Azar Lol I guess? I can't see how you can have an infinite number of designs for writing, while still trying to keep it vaguely readable. But I really don't like lettering, so my imagination is hardcore lacking in that department.

Capitania do Azar

Lettering and logo design are their own fields of expertise, it's ok

meek

Hmm I'm similar to a lot of previous responses where I can't pinpoint a specific style or trend of art work that draws me in because the styles of comics I read differ incredibly. That being said, there are some things that I do look for to keep me coming back: 1) Consistency of style/anatomy: unless there's a specific reason for the general art style to change (not including semi-deformed or chibi versions of characters), I appreciate characters staying proportionate or just otherwise consistent throughout the comic. And art evolution isn't something that's at odds with consistency, it can actually help that by making characters more distinct and easier to distinguish from each other. 2) Potential for art evolution: Almost the opposite of the previous point lmao but if I find a new comic and I see the latest page is of a much higher skill level than the first page, I'm immediately hooked. I want to see the journey. And I want to see how far that journey goes, even past the point where the art "gets good". There's at least one comic that I can think of where once it hit the style that it wanted to, the art has stayed consistent for the past several years but so much so it's almost plateaued and become stagnant. It's still good art, by all means! But I want to see it grow and evolve more. 3) Good panel/speech layout: Okay it's not quite art in the same sense but someone else mentioned this above and I think it's important too? There are so many comics I can think of that I couldn't read or I dropped off at a point because reading was a chore, either because of giant or unsightly speech bubbles, tiny or ill-fitting font, a combination of the two, etc. Sure, graphic design and layout is a skillset completely different from pure illustration, but it's one worth knowing because otherwise you could do a disservice to your art and your story.

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

@meek Seriously, the text is so important to me, and I consider it a large part of page layout and design

meek

Agreed!! It's something that bothers me with printed comics all the time. I've tried to read so many "classic" graphic novels and I just.. I can't get past the giant text boxes with small font with miniscule kerning and ESPECIALLY if they then add color to it. Please, keep in mind your readers with reading difficulties But to turn this into a positive One of my favorite things that also helps make a comic feel more personal is when the creator turns their handwriting into a font or otherwise have FUN with the speech bubbles

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

YES. As someone with bad eyesight, typography is one of my favorite aspects of finishing a comic page.

Deo101 [Millennium]

It also is super important for me with ADHD, reading is hard enough as is! so bubble layout and clarity can really bring the whole thing together and elevate a comic

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

I tried that but got the feedback that my text is hard to read and the way i format my speech bubbles is distracting (: But some people have said they really like it so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Though I do think I could have done better with the font. I have good eyesight and bad handwriting do I think i have a much easier time reading weird text than many. Since you guys care so much about text, would you mind taking a quick glance at my comic and telling me how readable it is? It'd be nice getting feedback from random people as opposed to only my readers who felt strongly enough to leave a comment unprompted

meek

Oh man I have this specific panel in mind from some early 2006 Avengers comic of like.. what not to do Basically it was a bright yellow text box with this white/light blue font. It was just. It was a nightmare to read Oh sure!! Definitely send me a link

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Yep! Send me a link too! I'd love to help you out

I also have a good typography book to recommend if you're interested. I can drop it into #art_resources(edited)

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

Here is link: https://www.webtoons.comen/challenge/puppeteer/list?title_no=290620

Thanks for taking the time to give me critique!

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

The link's not working, but I can probably find it on Webtoon

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

And I think i dould find a typography book interesting, so yes please do send the link

Sorry, i think the link is missing a slash

Did we both delete the link

Deo101 [Millennium]

did we both delete a

yah

i got it

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

Lol

Deo101 [Millennium]

https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/puppeteer/list?title_no=290620

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

Thanks

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

I found it

(The font is a bit small on mobile, but the font is fine?)

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

Wait can we move to shop talk?

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

(maybe we can have this discussion on shop talk channel? )

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Sure

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

OH LOL

DanitheCarutor

@Capitania do Azar Oh god, they so are! I envy anyone who enjoys that craft, I'm a lot better than I was, but lettering is still so hard. ;v; At least the fancy stuff is hard, regular speechbubble lettering is easy as long as my hand cooperates.

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

There's a book I had to read for a web design course I took, and it is seriously a life saver

It put text in a whole new perspective

DanitheCarutor

I do all my lettering traditionally, but maybe that book would be helpful, I legit hate doing it no matter what medium I use. (sorry for continuing to derail the channel.)

Capitania do Azar

@DanitheCarutor i used a website that converts handwriting to fonts + font forge for tweaks to get personalised fonts

DanitheCarutor

I used to type bubbles out, and I've thought about it for my current comic but I mix up words and letters really bad, and I forget to add words entirely while typing. It wouldn't be so bad if my brain saw the mistakes while rereading everything, although sometimes it takes a couple days or another set of eyes for me to actually see them. When I write the bubbles in with a pen I make a lot less mistakes since it takes more effort to write out each letter, also my brain can keep better track of the ones I do make. I feel like that's an excuse that makes no sense.

Deo101 [Millennium]

no it totally makes sense

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

I can't say I'm ever especially drawn in by art? Besides the sense of "it looks like a lighthearted action story and I like lighthearted action stories", not much catches my eye. Though, I will drop a comic if I'm put off by the art. Like I can forgive if some things look janky at the start of the comic, but if that jankiness doesn't improve over time, I'll drop the comic. I'll also drop the comic if the character designs are bad (i.e. indistinguishable from each other, or in rare cases just too gross to look at). But again, I can't exactly say "good character designs draw me into the comic" because a lot of comic banners/thumbnails don't really show off full character designs.

chalcara

Varied bodytypes are catnip for me. And I like comics with expressive characters over comics that limit expressiveness to keep the characters pretty.

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

Oh, definitely agree with that second part. Comics where it looks like everyone has had a ton of Botox is a huge pet peeve of mine

Like, eyebrows are not the only part of the face that can move.

Do more

renieplayerone

Yeah i agree with the janky art thought. I think it helps me follow through the jank if i see that the later pages, the artist has shown growth, and i dont want to force anyone into a "gotta redraw it" loop if thats not something they want (of course everyone has their reasons and theyre also valid af) Ill tend to be more forgiving about the jank if i know its someones first webcomic or first comic in general, because you cant learn how to make comics without actually sitting down and making the dang thing. So yeah, the jank can be a double edged sword(edited)

What super draws me in is comics with a great sense of color. While i love anything vibrant, if the softer watercolors are done well, they're chefs kiss. Prime example of that is Stand Still Stay Silent

mariah (rainy day dreams)

I've been thinking about this question all week and I think I finally boiled my answer down to something short, sweet, and to the point. It's gotta be some kind of spooky and some kind of cute I have a pretty broad range of art styles I like and I definitely also read stuff that doesn't fall under those categories, but I think my favorite stories or artists are some blend of those two things. I don't really have a preference between color and greyscale. Like I definitely love a good color feast comic, but if you know how to use your grey tones or even just black and white well it's just as good for me. Maybe that's also just me trying to justify being mostly a greyscale artist to myself TuT

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

@mariah (rainy day dreams) devils candy would def be up your alley then!

mariah (rainy day dreams)

Devil's candy v good

renieplayerone

Devils Candy is amazing

mariah (rainy day dreams)

I love to combination of cute monsters and action also.

DanitheCarutor

@renieplayerone I'm not sure if it fits totally with your preference, but if you're looking for watercolor Lost Honey is gorgeous! https://www.losthoney.com/

mariah (rainy day dreams)

Lost Honey is another great comic great to look at, really interesting world

DanitheCarutor

It's one of my faves! ;v; There is another comic that was half watercolor half digital that I used to love reading (if I remember right pages set in the current time were digital, and backstory stuff was in watercolor.), but it has been discontinued for years now. It was called Toilet Genie/D00R, a comic about a genie who was locked in a public toilet and was awakened by a pug that got thrown out by her owners. It was so pretty, with such an interesting style!

mariah (rainy day dreams)

Oh wow I haven't thought about that comic in 5 years! X'D I didn't read much of it, because I don't think there was much of it available at the time, but yeah, that one was also very pretty (edited)

renieplayerone

Oh those colors are really pretty!!

DanitheCarutor

Right? Lost Honey is total eye candy. @mariah (rainy day dreams) Yeah, it's sad the creator never got to finish it. I think about it every so often since it's one of the extremely rare (semi)watercolor webcomics out there.

Also I'm extra attached to traditional mediums since I work in a traditional medium myself.

mariah (rainy day dreams)

Same. Got that ink wash/watercolor bias.

Eilidh (Lady Changeling)

My current comic is marker shaded but I so want to do something with ink wash after this one...

DanitheCarutor

Yeah, right now I'm working with color pencils since they're cheap but I want to give gouache or acrylic a try for my next project, depending on which story I do.

Kabocha

Hm, the question is... a lil' challenging to answer. I think in a lot of cases, the art isn't necessarily what gets me, but when it does -- Sometimes it's when someone uses a resource I like/made and I can go "OOOH! I know that thing you used!" Screentones are another one that gets my attention pretty quick. Sparkles... And probably effective spot color use. As much as I enjoy many full color webcomics, there are many that get tiring to try to read for one reason or another (usually it's either a font or a saturation issue - too many similarly saturated colors near one another gets tiring to read). Also, soft coloring. Oooh, just... when the art feels like it ought to be printed on those soft-touch covers... Yeah, that gets my attention. ...and watercolor/inkwash, too. ... okay that's a lot of things that grab my attention, but tl;dr: oh hey look at all that cool stuff that people can do!

mariah (rainy day dreams)

That was part of what was so hard for me thinking about this question cuz really, a lot of things get my attention X') and the more I thought about it the more I was like "I like when a comic is like X, but oh also Y is great and I do really enjoy Z as well!" I just ... like so many things. But I think that's better than being really picky. I've meet some folks that are super picky about art and basically only like one style and I'm just like... you're missing out on so many amazing things!

Kabocha

Right? And heck, even in some comics where the style would normally be unappealing (to me), there's just something about the art and the aesthetic that clicks to make it all work together for that project.(edited)

I do think, though, that there's always going to be a special place in my heart for greyscale or screentoned comics. There's just something about art that knows how to effectively make use of shading and contrast to make their work... well, work for me.

kayotics

Art is probably the first thing that draws me in to read a comic. The top, top tier thing that gets me to pay attention to a comic is really strong inks. I love inking, and unusual inking styles. To those who know me, that's probably incredibly unsurprising. I also love really angular styles. Some other stuff I gravitate towards: cartoony styles, expressive faces, and kind of ugly characters. I enjoy seeing characters that might be described as plain or are drawn in a bit of an ugly way. The last thing that draws me in? Hands. If an art style pays attention to hands, then I'm all for it.

mariah (rainy day dreams)

Does a comic have characters with big, crooked, toothy grins? I'm down for the count X'D https://media.tenor.com/images/618576ebcc4f6d2a12438624be77c54f/tenor.gif

varethane

oh hey, did someone mention webcomics done in ink wash/marker?

Chirault was that!

1367 pages of..... ink with greyscale marker..........

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

honestly blows me away that you toned it traditionally like, all of GJS is inked trad, but to ink AND tone in marker is just.....damn

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

I love ugly characters

RebelVampire

When it comes to art, I'd say there are about four factors that will draw me in. First, readability. Can I visually follow wtf is going on in the comic? I have no interest in the visuals if I can't understand what action characters are taking. So the first point is always for if that is true. Second, character distinguishability. Can I tell one character from another? I am notoriously bad even in real life at being able to tell people apart, so when reading for fun, it's super important to me that I don't have to put a lot of effort into telling characters apart (exceptions for identical twins, of course). Third, personal appeal. Do I think the art is pretty or cute? Like, obviously this is subjective so I can't really put into words why I'd find one style appealing and the other not. But ya know, I like stuff I think is pretty to look at. Fourth, backgrounds. If a creator puts a lot of effort into their background scenery, I'm very sold on it. I love beautiful backgrounds, and the effort put into them give me an overall better impression of the comic as a whole. Since it takes some real passion to take care with backgrounds. All this being said, I'm not much of a stickler for art. If a comic is well-written enough, they can fail all these points and I'll still read it. This is just a list of what aspects have to be in the art for it to draw me in.

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

My points are pretty much the same as Rebel's, with the addition of a few things: I adore comics with dramatic facial expressions and consistently excellent anatomy. Also, if the art style is unique? If I feel like I've never seen someone draw that way before? That's ++. So good. I've read comics where I thought the art was good but the story was mediocre, but I've never read a comic where the art met all my points (and Rebel's), where it made me go, "holy fuck," audibly, and then had the story disappoint. Comics where the art made me go "holy fuck" audibly: Excecutioner's Academy: The art is so pointy and colorful and detailed and weird. It's full of personality and life and so are the characters. Warning: hiatus comic ): https://tapas.io/series/Ex-Ac Ava's Demon: You guys know about Ava's Demon, right? With original music and animations ending every chapter, this might be the most effortful comic I've ever seen. https://www.avasdemon.com/pages.php#2611 Sfeer Theory: Everyone looks so different from each other, it's fantastic. Some characters are not conventionally beautiful, yet they're still so appealing. And backgrounds! And a thought-out and unique magic system! https://sfeertheory.com/comic/01-00/ Electric Bones: Backgrounds! Banter! http://electricbonescomic.com/index.php/comic/page-001/ I also loved Prague Race, but unfortunately it was cancelled ):

If anyone else has recommendations for comics with amazing art, I'd love to hear them!

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

For me, it just has to be an art style I like to attract my attention. I generally like realistic art, stylised art, or pretty much any style that hasn’t been done to death (like generic anime art; much as I love manga, I’m really tired of the over-saturation of bland and soulless anime-inspired art). Pretty much anything unique and well executed will grab my attention. I especially like greyscale and limited palettes.(edited)

And just to clarify, I do like anime-style art when it has expression and/or skill behind it; just not when it looks generic and manufactured. Overall, though, it’s the writing that’s ultimately the most important thing to me in a comic, so I’ll enjoy comics for their writing even if I’m not a fan of the art.

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

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pyrodarknessanny · 5 years

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the forbidden knowledge

an excert from some randomness im working on. bare in mind this applys only to a very specific OC universe

1950s style educational video media . the presentation opens with a crackled audio soft music plays as the narrator starts . the irken military department of education presents “WHAT’S IN A SHMEET” our programme today will arm you with everything a model citizen needs to know about where shmeets come from in our fabulous modern world . now you might think , what would the average worker drone need to know about this ? shmeets come from the incubation machines , well curious young ones that wasn’t always the case. before the glorious industrialization of the empire Irkens , like many other primitive races manufactured their young organically. now this grotesque but important duty wasn’t assigned to just any old irkens , no sir’ree. the irken race had a special class who’s only job the colony was to create shmeets. now let us observe these unique individuals. *the footage shows a somewhat gangly irken who awkwardly stands out from a group of much shorter ones* the gangly irken waves at the camera here we see the irken Alatae , isn’t she something, notice that she is taller than the workers around her. Not so tall as to be mistaken for the tallest mind you ha ha.

Unlike the worker females her antenna are un coiled with the end buds feathered. this unique adaptation allows her to sense and send out special pheromone signals.

These coded messages will tell her when it is time to begin the mating rituals.

Look at her back, *the gangly irken turns around to show a set of wing buds*

In time she will undergo her nuptial moult her wings will be fully developed, and she will have grown in size to prepare her for the ordeals ahead!

*the young Alatae looks markedly concerned now*

this fine specimen along with her sisters will have the honoured opportunity to help the colony grow in numbers but

She wont be able to accomplish her mission alone however. To create shmeets organically she is going to need a bit of help.

Now let us observe the male breeding drone.

*the camera pans over to some random irkens crowding a snack bar , most of them scamper off as the camera operator and narrator approach, one irken remains, he leans back on the counter and makes finger guns at the camra with a click click noise trying to be cool, his antenna are also feathered and stand erect unlike the regular irkens he was surrounded by* this chipper fellow is one of many special drones, unlike his fellow workers and soldiers this fine specimen has a set of organs that they don’t have. the gonads, yes these organs will allow him to mate one of the female Alataes giving her the necessary genetic materials to build a shmeet. But only if he has luck on his side!. because these special organs also produce behaviour changing hormones the male drones are violent toward one another. Fighting often breaks out among their ranks. *anther drone is forcibly pushed in shot , off view of the camera they are both handed knives, the first drone shrugs and initiates the fight, the 2 brawl whilst the narration continues* these fights can last hours and often end in death for the looser. but that’s not the only danger these able bachelors will face. the footage changes to live action documentary footage of a praying mantis eating its mate. if dissatisfied with the males approach the female may cannibalise him! the footage changes again to show the mating habits of honey bees a successful mating however will also lead to great pain and eventual death for the male. after completing his part of the ritual his gonads will explode causing internal bleeding and eventually death, do not mourn for him tho , through his sacrifice our great race will birth the next generation. the footage now changes to show a post mated Alatae undergoing a horrific molt .

Ah yes here we see the miracle of life under way having mated successfully our alatae *it’s the same gangly irken from early in the presentation* is undergoing one last molt , her body must change drastically now as she gets ready to lay the eggs that contain our shmeets.

*the alatae shrieks in agony as her wings drop and her whole body starts to swell and pulsate, her old skin drys out and tares as she metamorphoses in to something horrible. the footage then cuts away to a termite queen laying eggs before we see the end of the irkens horrific transformation. * for the rest of he life the new queen mother will lay eggs day in day out she will be horrible screaming pain but this is necessary for the continuation of the species.

The camera shows a small irken child

"I thought the shmeet fairy broughted me?" Chuckles "No little one. THERE IS NOT SMEET FAIRY AND YOU'RE WRONG!!" Someone stamps "Defective" on the small irken and she is dragged away screaming, robot arms bring in a smaller cuter irken, the smaller irkern shouts “LEARNING ROCKS!” with both fists in the air

Now aren’t you glad that technology has rendered these barbaric practices obsolete ? with the power of science shmeets are now born in a cleaner , safer environment and giving the ridged structure they require to become model citizens . without it the shmeets become feral , primitive creatures lack the good morals and sharp dress sense of todays irken! now that you know what “it” is , don’t do it. the video ends with a warning card sanctioned by the military under order of a past tallest that engaging in, or conspiring to participate in activities relating to organic reproduction are offenses punishable by exile. The print in the warning is very fine and almost unreadable.

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haeroniel-doliet · 2 years

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Turns out its a helluva mess when i start messing beyond flat colors!! Might be a sign to not do so much again (but yet .. practice to get to where im one day happy??)

Like ive done as much as i know how to do at this point in time to the portraits (still gratuitously bloody shame on me :') ) oh except for a background bc WHAT does one DO for a character shoulders up portrait background??? Settled for now on a gradient old school photo style lmao

I like the fix it one as is, a lot (but also i liked the lineart for the portraits better i think) and idk, imngonna try give it a light bit of shadows and lights, maybe step away from a lot of blending bc i think i think thats where i went wrong on the other one

Like, they look fine, but they also look. Meh. Like ive used too much blur tool (i havent, i tried using kritas wet brush thing and it looks....ok close up but the effect is no good when zoomed out like posting size APPARENTLY) and its all noncommittally washy.

(cont'd over thinking)

Am i gonna 'render' them a third time??? Do i have the mental strength?? Bc i think maybe trying for something not so, "realistic" could do me better, like a little more cell shady. But also i dont?? I dont know how to cell shade? I dont watch anime or cartoons v much and my style isnt that cartoony or clean lined?

Maybe on the fix it i can try a more....... Conservative and less blended shade/highlights? (And if i like it/learn smth new go back and re re do the portraits same style) I also just. Idk. How does one make it not look so. Flat and meh?? Im doing basic color stuff ok i think, ive got a bit of texture but its still? Eh???

Honestly i could just post them and move on but i dunno, i have the energy to problem solve a lil bit so why not?? (Not tonight. Im gonna sleep on this all)

Why post shit im not 100% proud of? (Ngl kinda been in the mood to take down that first sketch of the fix it bc it looks nowhere near as good as what i fixed it up to but ....... Ah fuck it i was happy w it when i did it so eh)

Why why why oh why is art so hard?????????

I wanna try and become one of those cool artists who post multiple fun things yknow, like u get inspired and can draw it beginning to post in one evening! Im probably way over thinking and pushing myself to some standard of unrealistic perfection i have for myself...

(also i like thumbnail doodled out like, all these things i wanna draw for a really nice fic i read and even after editing some i have like 8 bits i wanna draw?? 4 as like a mini comic bc i havent done one since i was a child and i think itd be kinda rad if i learned to draw short comics for fic scenes i like??? But yeah basically in one inktober post there would only be 5 ideas (a lil more complicated on average i do give for granted but like. Those took me WEEKS) but yeah i just. I wanna draw them. Even if itll probably take me for fuckin ever... (And i didnt even finish off the last two inktober batches, oh. And i have a uni thesis to do ew) .... I wanna push myself to draw faster (less iterations to get it right) and so i can have rly solid and good and quickly done drawings to then color in as i learn to for future?)

Ugh man. You know what i need to do/shouldve been doing before i jumped into coloring original stuff?? I shouldve done colored studies. Like ive been drawing scenes both from reference and original on the inktobers and i think thats why my drawing/character stuff has gotten decent. I really should just whip out like prettily colored movie screencaps and work on painting studies of them. That would really fix up why i cant figure out lights and shadows and blending in coloring! No horrid tutorials just figuring out how can i make it work for me

And you know? You know what it is okay to have pieces that are from before i figured it out right? Im gonna try a slightly different thing for the fix its (if i hate it, theyre good as flat colors too) and yes they dont have a background either please love of god someone tell me how to add random backgrounds bc im not in the mood of scene building further but they float in off white space atm.

If i learn smth ground breaking and can QUICKLY do a bette rendition of the portraits, sure the perfectionist wins. But maybe just maybe. It would be fine to post them as they are. Yea, they look roughly as lifeless as my first big painting/that dinluke poster redraw. And maybe thats okay. Because hi if i do dedicate to doing like a good few color focused studies of star wars scenes as a treat i can come back stronger and have a better piece???? Its about growth babes. YEA

Alright i said to myself thats it in gonna go sleep on it and continue tomorro but. I thought id slip in here a secret surprise for anyone unfortunate enough to have clicked read more... And i got a little whiplash opening the picture bc it looks. SO WRONG but the more you look at it its like ... Fine. Ok judge for urself and tell me pls, first and second attempts at 'rendering' the portraits (the darker bground was the first attempt just going by gut, the lighter one after trying to watch like 1 tutorial and using more brushes and just generally trying rly hard!!)

yes ive clearly fixed issues in the sketch differently in both so they... look... like different expressions?? idk man idk idk idk see now this small they look differently off!! god the curse of the zoom in and out and perception.

#art woes #but make it extra long because im DISTRESSED at not being able to just whip out ideas from my brain to page and it look good in one try #long and rambly and probably doesnt make much sense no pressure or expectation for anyone to read lmao #love yall kiss kiss time for bed itll be easier after sleep #did include a pic of current progress at the v bottom eheheheh

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reviewkpop · 4 years

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UNLOCK by DAY6

tl;dr, I don’t remember where I was when this first came out because I was on a break from kpop social media but, however, I do remember where I was when I first listened to I Just (the only song to ever exist), as it was an extremely transformative experience for me. This is such a well-rounded, clear, diverse album that keeps Day6′s usual style while adding extra juicy elements for the more hard-rock inspired Japanese market.

Vara’s rating: ✭✭✭✭✭

without further ado here’s why I love ever single song on this album, written like ive been imprisoned inside stan twitter for 5 years and can’t get out unless i review this album

Live Your Life: day6 japanese songs hit differently they really do. this one is an a1 prime rib example. the rolling drum (?) woosh sound right before the chorus is so sos os nice and all of the parts of this song are different feeling but still fit together completely seamlessly as expected. LISTEN, HOW THEY HAVE A GUITAR SOLO? WITH THE WOAHHHs at EVERY chorus. jae’s guitar is the backbone of this album and our society as you will read about further on if you ever get to my review of i just…….. and this song is NO different. also the lyrics are so pure. thank u kings of confidence. i gotta also talk about the outro to this song its so fucking beautiful. all the voices singing together is such a chef kiss mwah

Breaking Down: ive seen a lot of ppl (more than i expected?) cite this song as their fave day6 song and i mean valid. its day6’s harder rock side.. its reminds me a lot of how can i say and its very very good if thats your thing. also everytime mr k does the IM BREAKING DOWWN live its . very lovely thank you. its so so angsty i can feel the angst for miles with this one. when jae says “hearts never break the same” mkmfdnjgajk. yeah. this is one of the songs where u think its over but it ISNT!!!!!!! the guitar muting in the bridge fake outro whatever is so delicious i am a sucker for a good guitar muting rhythm technique can someone pls tell me what thats called im illiterate anyways it STARTS UP AGAIN the hecking guitar solo….. ladies and gentlemen…..

Stop the Rain: instrumental wise, this is a really really fun song… the scale up and down or whatever it is with synth + guitar in the verses and at the end of the chorus… very spicy indeed. i honestly think wonpil is the star of the show in this one bc its a really not aggressive but beat heavy?? song and wonpils softer voice really contrasts it nicely i think. i also love love LOVe the second verse with the minimal instrumental (of course i do) and then it goes into guitar solo mode.. i feel liek this album more than any other day6 album goes the hardest with the guitar solos thank you jae. also this song has wooaahs. guitar solo ✅, instrumental space ✅, woaaaahs ✅ but theres no guitar muting we’re almost there..

Say Hello: this song makes me smile. the punchy guitars, bubbly drums, wait actually the first time wonpil says “my girl” i teared up a little ouch…….. :((((((((((((((( so cute…. the bright lil woo ooooh ooohs in the chorus SO cute… its such a dreamy song and the lyrics are so nostalgic feeling its such a sweet song in general its abt like letting go but finding peace with it and wishing the other person well and its a really beautiful meaning. omg its like the opposite to hi hello njsdfdnkj theory?????

Everybody Rock: we are now in the ROCK zone everybody now . now COME ON keep it going now !!!!!!! 1 2 3 go!!!!! i absolutely adore the way the guitars fade out in the verses when the vocal lines start and its just a lil bass a lil drum. if theres one thing i love more than guitar muting its silence in music.. it really really makes songs great when theres some space left over i truly believe that. anyways this song has both thank u kings. jae’s prechorus with differnet members joining in is so nice as it gradually builds up more and more. extra important detail all the lives i can find of this they look like theyre having so much fun. also dowoon….. i truly believe i can be a rockstar bc of him. im in tears. the ending just lets it all sink in the extra 8 bars or whatever of extra instrumental very very nice addition thank you

I Just: i am truly sorry in advance for this im not gonna stop talking. musically,, this song is pretty simple (except for the guitar in the chorus, i’ll get there) but tonally, vibe-wise, on the feel good scale, this song is a 35 million absolutely fucking fantastic song. i love this song perhaps a little too much. i would like to speak briefly on jae’s guitar fill. if i could name my firstborn child after a sound byte it would be that one and you all know it very well. if i ever meet jae im gonna personally thank him for this and ask if i can get his guitar’s autograph. the fact the guitar gets louder in the last chorus with the vocals overtop of it too yum.. this song makes me miss a lover i nevr had or something but also feel like im falling in love and rolling down a grassy hill and staring into a sunset at the same time its like every single possible positive emotion for me. THE HEYYYY AHHHS . make me so inexplicably happy i love them with all my heart. ALSO you know how i said i love silence this song has it too!!!!!!!! with the faded guitar right before the last instrumental break !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! also again not to be a young k stan but u know i need to plug the 18125 i just nagoya young k fancam its in my genetics i will not apologize. he looks so happy i love . i listen to this song on a daily basis and you cannot stop me from doing so. if i get cloned and u have to figure out which charlie is the real one see which ones heartbeat starts getting faster by hearing the guitar riff then youll know.

Nobody Knows: the beginning of this song is the true modern mona lisa. i could listen to the guitar and drum before any vocals hit forever i am not gonna lie. this really reminds me of old 5sos in a way and i really like it.. gives me a lot of nostalgia from being a 14 year old (no i’m not a 5sos stan but listen to their new album it’s really good). absolutely very fun but probably also really sad if the lyric “please i dont wanna cry” says anything … yep ok. i forgot how much i love the bridge of the song listening to it now its really different to the rest of it its so so nice. very very good. i dont listen to this one as much as some from the album but i still love it a lot,, theres something about it thats a little haunting in a good way its like that buzzfeed unsolved episode where the ghost named apple tater visits them.

Falling: this song gets you because you think its gonna be a full soft ballad but it still has a rock heavy influence! this album is a LOT of more hard or classic sounding rock and i really like the direction they took it in! can i please talk about the bass riff RIGHT before the end of the verse its those little extra bits that are added in that make a song so much better and thats prime example. I’m not the biggest fan of the chorus of this song for some reason i feel like theres a little bit of something missing but the haunting synth that kicks in and gets more prominent all the way through the song is very very nice and adds to the whole acoustic rock (somehow??? they have the Range) vibe.

If ~また逢えたら～: this song was their debut japanese song and she has a very special place in my heart. it reminds me of a very specific time in my life. also its a fun one bc i always try to guess whether its the instrumental or the original version when it comes on shuffle (i have both saved lol). i love love LOVe the guitar at the between vocal lines in the chorus its so fucking juicy… you know what else we have is rapper k which as u know i go crazy over.. the instrumental version is young ks rap karaoke version. very very good. i think this passage from my old review of this (if you know, you know) sums it up ladies: and i honestly think youngks rap part just brings the song back to day6′s style!! like i dont think many other bands would have brought it down to that u know??? and i love it…. the instrumental in this is also so crunch !! its so aggressive but like the type of aggressive that snowstorms are on a weekday… bc they basically just showed up without warning, rendered us immobile,, but all in all we’re PUMPED that it happened.

Baby, it’s okay: this song is not my favourite song of day6’s, i think it’s lacking in some oomph for my ears, HOWEVER !! and this is a big however I really love the bridge and the lyrics and that makes up for it. also the “i want you to be happy” and “ill always be here for you” is so adorable truly.

anyways we all know this day6 has no bad songs, unlock is no exception.

- vara

#day6 #daysixnet #unlock #this is my grand return to tumblr perhaps?#review: vara #review

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patriciarpeterson · 5 years

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Designer of the Month: Annamarie McHugh

A variety of materials go into the pieces made by Annamarie, including silver and enamel, with the designs in her handmade jewellery collection being inspired mainly by fantasy and faeries. In the following Designer of the Month interview, we spoke to her about her background, what she has learnt from her time as a jeweller and more…

Let us know a bit about yourself, detailing your background, study and training in the jewellery making industry.

My working background is within the corporate sector. However, I’ve been making jewellery as a hobby for many years – beadwork, wire work and simple silver designs, but there is only so many presents you can give to the same people over and over! In 2015 I tried to start my current jewellery business whilst still working full time in order to minimise the risk of a new enterprise. However, the nature of my work and the hours were not conducive to any consistent or sustainable outcomes for my little enterprise. So, in mid-2017 I left my role as Operations Director to finally pursue my passion full-time and Jewellery by Annamarie was born. Not sure whether my subsequent conversion to vegetarianism was an ethical decision or a consequential financial one!

Anyway, as I have been making jewellery for years I am largely self-taught but have augmented this with part-time courses at the Birmingham School of Jewellery and the Midlands Art Centre, concentrating primarily on traditional silversmithing techniques and stone setting.

Tell us about your work – are there any particular materials or techniques that you favour?

This is where I am going to make an effort to be concise as I love learning new skills and having my work evolve with them, and so could go on and on. The challenge is to stick to my business plan and know that there will be new collections to come, with which I can incorporate more and more techniques.

I love reticulating silver and predict that featuring in a future collection.

I love silver and gold – in the form of wire, sheet and metal clay. One thing that excites me is the symbiotic potential of using all three mediums to make something beautiful, detailed and unique.

I also love colour, and have started using vitreous enamel. Whilst my current work is predominantly silver, future collections will incorporate more colour and when I have the money I will hopefully be booking myself onto a course with Ruth Ball.

How would you best describe your design style?

Away with the faeries! Just joking.

I think that style is innate – some more distinctive than others – but this means that whatever you make, it is in your own style.

The type of jewellery I make is mainly whimsical – some of which is detailed and smaller pieces a little more simple. I make faery houses and doors and little toadstools – some not so little! Tiny little toadstool house charms hanging from mirror finished bangles and earrings in the shape of a rolled newspaper engraved with the words Faery News.

I am currently working on a new collection, Ould Man Oak, which will include oak leaves, a green man, acorns and little green gemstones – a mixture of Peridot and Chrome Diopside. They will be ready for the British Craft Trade Fair at the start of April.

As a jewellery maker, where do you like to get your inspiration from for your pieces?

My inspiration is mainly drawn from nature and my imagination – which is a place of magic and fantasy. I am a prolific reader and, amongst others, one genre constant is that of fantasy…this also feeds my imagination.

That being said, the shape or flow of a piece can be influenced by the curve of a railing which catches my eye or a Christmas bauble – so there is magic to be had everywhere.

Do you have a piece that you have made which you favour or are particularly proud of?

I oscillate between love of every piece I do and hyper-criticism which renders none of them any good. I’m sure other designer makers go through similar emotions…or at least I hope I’m not the only one!

If I have to choose one, it is probably the first faerie house on which I used a little vitreous enamel – I think the colour made it ‘pop’ a little. The house has a leaf roof and the use of transparent enamel allows the natural leaf vein structure to remain visible through the colour. The little toadstool on the doorstep has a door and window to house a tiny family of sprites and is highlighted with opaque red enamel. The house (pendant) hangs low on a substantial chain which avoids being chunky with the use of various chain types, little beads of Peridot and chalcedony and small silver pieces; flowers, a dragonfly and butterfly.

What is the one item in your jewellery making workshop that you could not live without?

Hmmm…just 1?

Well, if I can have only one it will have to be my polishing motor – both my Dremel and my stand-alone motor. Oops…did I sneak in 2 there?

There are so many tools that I can’t do without. However, these tools save me so much time when sanding fiddly little areas, in polishing or frosting. I am currently thinking about buying a new pendant motor tool ‘just in case’ because if anything happened to my Dremel, I would be hard pushed waiting for a replacement to arrive.

What upcoming trends do you see being popular soon?

I think CAD is becoming more prevalent and also more acceptable. By that, I mean that it is becoming accepted by designer/hand makers as a way of augmenting some designs, but not taking the place of the bench work that is so loved.

I also think that metal clay, whilst it has been around for over 10 years, is now becoming more popular with jewellers who appreciate the quality of what can be achieved. More makers now see it as another medium rather than a pseudo product.

With regards to what is selling – anything with a nature theme seems to be eternally popular. The latest fashion editorials have predicted that big, statement jewellery will be the pick of 2019, with colourful and quirky jewellery being a hit. I hope so, as this would suit my work…I don’t make many huge statement pieces but I make very few tiny pieces and most of my work is definitely quirky.

What is the most valuable lesson you have learnt from your time in the jewellery making industry?

Plan…plan…plan.

You know that old chestnut…’Fail to plan and you plan to fail.’

There’s a balance to be had between artistic pursuit and business plan outcomes. I can easily be drawn away to try new ideas and techniques – some of which come to fruition and others which…don’t! This is where the balance comes in.

I would happily pursue every appealing design thought that pops into my head and if I see an Andrew Berry YouTube video, I just want to get on with trying out a new technique straight away. I think it’s important to make time for this because it can lead to good things, but it’s a balancing act. I always ask myself – does it contribute to this year’s business plan? What outcome will be achieved? How will it benefit?

Of course, it may not contribute or add value straight away, but I look at the potential, either immediate or long term, and plan accordingly. Well, that’s the plan! And, I do my best to stick to it.

Do you have any particular advice that you would give to up and coming jewellery designers, or someone interested in getting into jewellery making?

Write down a little reminder of something that puts a smile on your face or a feeling of joy/pride/success in your heart. Keep it near. When times are tough – look at it and keep going.

Listen to the valuable advice of others but only take on board that which fits with your journey and strengthens your plan….it can be easy to lose your way…so when you have your nose to the grindstone, working hard, lift your head regularly to check you’re going in the right direction.

Give it time – it won’t happen overnight, just believe in yourself and your product.

…and finally, time for a bit of fun in our quick-fire round! Tell us your favourite…

…drink – pina colada

…book – Lord of the Rings

…gemstone – Peridot

…sport – swimming

…animal – wolf

For more details on Annamarie’s work, you can visit her website, or feel free to check out her Facebook page, Twitter profile or her Instagram page.

Source link

The post Designer of the Month: Annamarie McHugh appeared first on .

source https://jewelryexchangedallas.com/blog/designer-of-the-month-annamarie-mchugh/ from Jewelry Exchange Dallas.com https://jewelryexchangedallas.blogspot.com/2019/02/designer-of-month-annamarie-mchugh.html

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xoflin745434687-blog · 6 years

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ProPublica Skillfully Slaps Back At Sean Spicer For Calling That A 'Left behind.

This is a comprehensive manual for the PlayStation 4 Much like with intermittent consumer electronic products, Sony's PlayStation 4 is actually additionally dealing with a handful of inaccuracies as well as issues. I confess, that had not been as intense as Having Switches was actually-- considering that publication one included a quad and also nothing can beat the warm and also sexuality of that-- but that's just like delightful, impactful and garbled in each the methods J. A. Huss creates her publications. Magnificently rendered landscapes creates severe exploring less from a duty in a game that's essentially Undiscovered without any from the fight. A true and more accurate comparison would be actually to match up the top quality between an PS4 video game as well as an PS3 exclusive like MGS IV or Uncharted. 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vitalmindandbody · 7 years

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If not my surname or my husband’s, could we announce our child after a New Zealand volcano?

Franki Cookney and her husband didnt much like one another surnames, so now theyre having a baby theyve decided to pick a brand-new one

When my husband, Rob, and I marriage last year, the question of what to do about our surnames just penetrated our debates. We are both scribes, so our mentions are on every piece of work we do. That we would impede our own seemed a rendered. There was just one niggling disbelief. What would happen if “were having” children?

I had always had considered that we would just lodge both our appoints on the birth certificate, but I knew this didnt quite resolve the problem. Whose refer would go first? And which identify would end up being used?

We could use a double-barrel appoint, but didnt seem our surnames, Cookney and Davies, lent themselves to hyphenation. Whichever guild you choose, the result is clunky and we were reluctant to saddle small children with it.

We could have just picked whichever epithet voiced best with our newborn given name. But in that scenario, one parent objective up not sharing a surname with their child and neither of us required that. Plus, Id discovered too many tales of mothers being agreed upon at airfield security because the epithets on their passports didnt competitor that of their children.

The conventional option of taking my husbands surname was never on the table. Fairly apart from the feminist principle of not wanting to abdicate my identity for his, I wasnt keen on the name. Rob supported this and was by no means offended. The hardship was, he wasnt a fan of my appoint either. Its exactly a bit unwieldy, he said. Its virtually Cockney but not quite. Youre constantly having to spell it out. We looked at our babies maiden reputations and our grandparents names but always purposed up back in the same lieu, feeling that it wasnt equal, that picking one side of the family over another wasnt fair.

We hit on the idea of taking a new mention about a year ago when before our marry we went to write our wills. As we chit-chat to one of the attorneys, it transpired that he and his wife had done precisely this. Theres a fair fleck of admin, but its good, it drives, he said , nodding decisively. Abruptly, it didnt seem so outlandish. This wasnt some foolish rebellion or bohemian pretentiousness, this was something lawyers did!

We mooted it with friends, who were largely unfazed. What call will you go for? was the thing they were most strange about. Good topic. Could we blend the messages of our reputations and form something new, we wondered. Directories were built: Gouges, Cave, Devine, Kinsey, Dacovnicks Cookies? Nothing of them quite hit the mark.

As our bridal outlined nearer, we threw the reputation activity on a back burner. But when I became pregnant 3 months later, “were in” forced to look at the situation afresh and decided to change tacking. How about a place? I suggested. Somewhere weve called that we loved. A backpacking stint before we got married had left us with spate to choose from but most sounded moderately ludicrous when attributed to got a couple of ordinary Brits. Rob and Franki Tongariro owned any particular vitality, but referring yourself after a New Zealand volcano would be ridiculous. And Zhangjiajie might make storages of splendid Chinese mountains, but imagine having to spell it every time you booked a “hairs-breadth” appointment or called your internet provider. For a while Salento and Chaltn were on the roster, after places in Colombia and Argentina. But we werent convinced we are to be able pull off the undoubtedly Latino-sounding former and supposed the latter would result in a lifetime of redressing people who pronounced it Charlton.

Then Rob said, What about Stone Town? The beautiful age-old city of Zanzibar City is where he had asked me to marry him. It instant appeared right. Stone was straightforward but significant. It resounded good with both our first names and after a few weeks of trying it on with other refers would work well with almost anything we decide to for our baby. It was perfect: a solid name( with a potential for puns that was not lost on us) that felt like a constructive solution to our trouble. We would maintain our original surnames for production and accept this new family name for our personal lives.

By law, all you need to do to change your mention is, well, change it. Simply adopting and using your new epithet is enough. Informing your details and records, however, requires a document of proof such as a wedding certificate or, in our case, a deed poll. There is no official lane of acquiring a deed poll. You can write one yourself applying free templates from the internet, but need of lucidity about the relevant procedures outcomes in some institutions asking an original certificate despite the fact that no such concept exists. You can either fight it out or you can do which is something we did and offer 15 -2 0 for a company such as the Deed Poll Office to draw up the letter on your behalf and publication and stomp it on watermarked article. Generated the roll of bodies and organisations you have to notify and the potential arguings over what constitutes an original certification, this seemed a reasonable compromise.

Perhaps it was naive, but we didnt expect to meet with resistance. Uncertainty, perhaps. Intrigue, for certain. When it came to getting married, we had trenched virtually every habit get, prohibiting the union itself, and no one had interrogated us. Surely this too would be seen as a modern updated information on an outdated habit. But when we announced our decision to our families, the reaction was mixed.

Franki and Rob. Picture: Christian Sinibaldi for the Guardian

While they understood our quagmire, the common restraint was that the child would lose the connection to its family history. Try as I might, I cant know what this is. To me, family history departs far deeper than ones identify. Its in the way we live, our values, the knowledge and shared event passed down through generations. It is part of the storytelling our parents did and its in the floors we, more, will tell and the beliefs we will share.

Our springs are not in our identifies, they are in our mettles. My grandmother, whose surname was Jones, is important to me not because of her identify but because of her love. My great-grandmother, a midwife I never even convened, let alone shared a epithet with, forms a part of my gumption of identity. Why? Because of the style my own mother talks about her, because of the pictures she has covered in my heads of state of that life, that kinfolk, that time.

Interestingly, the identify itself has also testified a sticking point, with a few people commenting that its carrying. Youre doing this really unusual thing but youve picked a really everyday refer, said one colleague, as though by doing something different “weve been” obliged to go the whole hog and call ourselves Rob and Franki Thundercats.

In fact, the accessibility of the appoint was something we pondered would be used sell the idea. It is about to change we were naive there, more. My father, a former primary school teacher, insisted that someone called Stone would be teased. Another relative described it as a dead weight of a name.

In my experience, minors will come up with names no matter what. I invested much of my school years known as Franki Cookie while my first name was routinely elongated to Frankenstein, Frankincense or Frankfurter.

Never tell people your identify picks in advance, admonished one pal( too late ). Its as if telling people in advance is inviting a exchange or consultation!

While my familys seems undoubtedly are important to me, I suppose she might be right. Eventually, this is our decision, based on our requires, and I hope they will come to see it as a practical and positive step , not an reckless one.

Its almost impossible to get everyone on board, adviser another friend, who changed her surname by deed canvas in 2004. The thought upset my grandma but my pa, her son, understood. When I wedded my husband, he took my identify. Im still not sure his brother was 100% behind us, but when we had our first son, he was the first to be born into our empire. Im so excited that we are the first in our tree!

This is exactly how I experience. I affection the idea that our newborn will be born into this new, specifically opted and carefully thought-out family name. And if the working day he or she decides to change it either to something new or to one of our age-old family name we will fully support that.

Even when you change names, ancestry going to be able be traced and, if nothing else, I like to think we will be examined back on as all those people who tried something new; who instead of clearing do with an unsatisfactory situation, guessed creatively about how to solve it. Thats their own families bequest Im happy with.