#mimicing this art style is hard okay

[allthepandasintheworld]

so after watching a couple ryan benjamin vids about inking i decided to give his style of inking a shot, and it's pretty good? i think i did some of it wrong though so my lines came out a bit chunky in places... just takes practice i guess?

(please do not ask for the context of this i added the background after i finished the piece and i have no clue what he'd be doing that would cause stuff to rain from the sky)

#superman #clark kent #dc comics #dc fanart #dcu #doodles #digital art #i rescued my terrible mimic of ryan benjamin's style by doing my pretty okay coloring #im pretty happy with how my rendering is coming along tbh #i stole some style elements from leyendecker (the hatching paint mostly) #so its very nice #i enjoy it #i also stole some stuff from.... the colorist whose name is really hard to pronounce #they always make clark rosy cheeked and a bit tan so i was like hell yeah im doing that too #and of course the king dan mora is the inspiration for the cape and hair #i think slowly... slowly... im starting to develop my own style again #i had my own style for a long time but i got a bit sick of it tbh bc it felt like i stopped improving #so here we are

[marchy-emmet]

UM... SO YOU KNOW WHEN I HAD A PHASE OF MIMICKING PEOPLE'S ART STYLES? YEAH I'M BACK AT IT-

@choochooboss Come pick this up... I totally found this on your secret side blog!!

OKAY... OKAY FOR REAL THOUGH........

I assumed you colored certain comic pages with a select tool, so that's what I did -- and I tried to mimic the style of how you use colors, too! Changed my own brush style in an attempt to make it look as close to yours as possible.... The eyes WERE SUPER HARD FOR SOME REASON.

I'M REALLY PROUD OF THIS I DON'T KNOW HOW I DID THIS KA DSFGHFDSKFK

#submas #subway boss ingo #subway master ingo #ingo #ingo pokemon #pkmn fanart #choochooboss #got your art style hehe #pokemon #pkmn bw #pkmn bw2

[cosmica-galaxy]

Okay, so I feel the need to post SOMETHING despite my time with midterms. So I'm gonna post some very crude art I did while working at the writing center today!

I'm planning on reworking the original image that features the Camera Mimic, as I was pretty much stumbling around in the dark without a clue on what to do back in the early days of this AU. The image above features the pack-levels in a Camera Mimic pack. From Peon to Alpha, as well as some digigrade leg references.

This image reveals environmental variants of Speaker Mimics! Depending on where the mimic lives, their body will adapt to survive in that environment with some unique changes to the frill especially! For example, water-dwelling speaker mimics will have fin-like frills and colder-dwelling speaker mimics will have long frills and fluffy fur on their body!

This is a variant chart of TV Mimics and their unique styles that can appear on their heads. It also shows the types of hinges that TV mimics can have, from horizontal, vertical, and the rare "cross" hinge. They also spout more limbs the older the mimic is!

--

Sorry for the meaty post! I just needed to share this info and prove that I am STILL working on ideas and world building for the mimics as a race!

Hope the traditional art wasn't too hard to look at. XD

#haxorus imp #hax speaks #cosmica galaxy #cosmica-galaxy #skibidi tag #skibidi toilet mimic #skibidi mimic

[zkbigbang]

Hello! I'm interested in joining the BB as an artist, but tumblr's recent move to partner with ai companies has me concerned about using tumblr as a place to post my artwork going forward. Would posting the finished art on tumblr be a requirement, or would it be okay to simply post to ao3 instead?

Hey, anon! Your concern is completely understandable, and I hate that AI is something we have to think about at this point. And for the record, use of any AI text or art generation is contrary to the purpose of the Big Bang and isn't welcome in this event. We'll be updating our event guidelines for this year to reflect that soon.

I did talk it over with the rest of the mod team, and for now, we are still requiring that art be posted to Tumblr. We want everyone to be able to see our participants' work on a common platform, and for better or worse, Tumblr is the platform that works the best for us. AO3 is amazing, but it's not a place where people tend to look for visual art, and any images you see on there (aside from profile pictures) have to be hosted on another site anyway since the AO3 servers aren't set up to handle image hosting.

However, we have no problem with artists taking other precautions to protect their work. In fact, we would highly encourage it. You can opt out of Tumblr's third party sharing under the visibility section of blog settings on web, which should theoretically block AI companies from using your work - we opted out of third party sharing here on the event blog as soon as I figured out where the button was, but it's hard to say how much that will protect the people we reblog from. We'd encourage everyone to opt out on their personal blogs and sideblogs to be safe. And as an extra precaution, you can always run your finished art through Glaze to cloak it from any bots that might be trying to mimic your style as well as Nightshade to poison the bots before posting. We're running this event for the human Zutara fans who want to spend their time and effort with us. If a few AI generation models get hurt along the way, that's a bonus!

PS: this information mostly applies to visual art - we do welcome other types of art in the Big Bang, but posting requirements and precautions against AI may vary by medium. Let us know if you have any questions!

#zutara #zutara big bang #zutara big bang 2024 #zkbigbang #zkbigbang2024 #zkbb #zkbb2024

[whackacole3]

do you have any tips for new writers? you write fast and your fics are pretty damn good so i thought it would be good to ask you!

omg yeah, i can try! here’s a few things that come to mind. this stuff is mainly for writing fanfictions, but i guess it can apply to books as well?

reminder this is just what i suggest, if you think differently that’s okay! every writer is different.

and if anyone has any more suggestions, feel free to either comment and/or reblog with your suggestions.

(also idk what speed has to do with anything but that just comes with practice and motivation 😭)

1.) stop caring and stop worrying. i know this might sound counterintuitive but it's really not when you look deep into it. once you sit down and decide to just have fun is when your best work comes out, at least for me. writing is supposed to be fun, you’re supposed to enjoy it. if you find yourself stressed and dreading writing you’re doing it wrong. remember to take breaks if you need it to refresh yourself. writing is extremely hard, but i believe in you. just try to have fun!

2.) find more ways to come up with ideas. i think most people would agree that prompts are hard and many people don’t know how to come up with them. personally, i use quotes. if you know anything about me, quote fics are my fucking life, man! you can use lyrics from songs, a funny moment that happened in your life, a saying your parent always told you while growing up, literally anything! go wild.

3.) find your unique style. when it comes to writing, everyone has a style just like when it comes to any other art form. i write in a more casual, organic style because that’s what comes naturally to me. don’t try to mimic other’s styles because you think yours isn’t “good enough” or something of the sort. you can take inspiration, but don’t forget to be true to yourself and your own style.

4.) write how you want. piggy backing off the last one, don’t let anyone tell you something is “improper” or whatever. if you think adding a million commas best suits your story, then so be it! i use dashes, ellipses, and semi-colons like my life depends on it. it’s an important part of how i write and that’s that’s okay.

5.) make sure to commit to it. while it is important to not push yourself too hard and to take breaks if you need it, don’t forget to commit to it. try and write everyday. whether it be only a paragraph or the entire story in one go, every little bit helps. it gets you into the groove, basically! i’ve heard some people say that 250 words should be your daily minimum, but personally mine is 100. so it’s whatever works for you.

6.) don’t expect it to be easy. writing is hard, that’s just the case. you are making up your own stories (with already set in characters or not) and coming up with things is hard! it’s going to get confusing at points, it’s going to get frustrating, it’s going to make you want quit sometimes. this will happen especially if you write longer form content.

7.) don’t give up and always believe in yourself. feeding off of the last one, no matter how hard it is, don’t ever give up. take breaks for however long you need, but never give up. you can do this. and if no one else believes in you, believe in yourself. you are what matters.

8.) don’t forget to edit and revise. you don’t exactly need to go over your work once you finish, but it’s a very good practice. if look through it at least once or twice: you’ll find mistakes that you maybe didn’t notice; you’ll notice scenes/sections that you can elongate to better serve the purpose/narrative; you could find things don’t matter and can be removed; and so much more. you don’t need to go crazy over it, but it’s definitely something you should do.

9.) don’t forget/be scared to ask for help. everyone needs help from time to time, even the best authors/writers need guidance from others. ask your friends to help with a scene/part or two if you need it, if they’re willing ask them to edit/beta for you, and so forth. you’ll never get anywhere without the help of others, you can’t do this on your own and that’s okay. you might want to be independent and get there by yourself, but that will be ten times harder than if you just ask for a little bit of help.

10.) write for you and nobody else. i would say this is probably the most important one. don’t worry about what others think, story telling is for you! yes, you might share it with others (directly or by posting it online) but at the end of the day, it’s for your enjoyment and no one else’s. if you want to write an OC and canon character, do it! doesn’t matter if no one cares about your OC other than you. YOU ARE WHAT IS IMPORTANT!!!

#cole talks #cole rambles #writing #writing tips #writer #author #fanfic #fanfiction #fanfic tips #fanfiction tips #tips

[arudoe]

Ok, first of all I have to say that I love your art style, it's just so comforting idk how to explain it but it's really really really nice

Also I saw your bruise wallpaper hc and you are so right, but which other hc do you have of them??

OMG ueueue thank you so much that is so sweet of you 😢😢

and also im soo glad you liked my silly hc hehe because i have so many its not normal actually

i made a post the other day with some of my hcs (this one) but i have plenty more!! so um enjoy 🦈

- they are both autistic (i infected them /j)

- my jay is transmasc ! (cole too sometimes depending on how i feel)

- they dont rly do petnames only like mean nicknames that are said with very much love and affection (like dummy stink fartface yk…)

- i feel like they do everything together like train play video game even when theyre doing separate things theyre tgt… like its always cole AND jay and never just them seperate… always team up for missions and everything… when they arent together the others will go wheres your other half haha stuff like that also they bicker all the timr and never say anything to each other but when the other isnt around they always talk so fondly about each otjer and 😭😭 it makes me wanna puke /pos

- they have very different music tastes (i hc jay listens to kpop and cole to 80s rock & new wave) and theyll always talk about how bad the others music taste is but secretly they actually like it… (jays kpop playlist got a save once and he was trying to figure out who it was and cole was like whoever it is has the worst music taste in the world) (it was cole who saved it) (also vice versa)

- they play every game and watch every show together and when one of them starts something without the other they get offended 😭😭

- speaking of watching cole cant handle anything scary at all but sometimes jay will somehow convince him to and always puts on the scariest stuff because he thinks its cute when cole jumps 😭

- jay still sleeps with his plushies so when they cuddle jay is spooning his plush and cole is spooning him and sometimes cole lays on jays chest

- they playfight and wrestle a lot and sometimes get seriously hurt while doing it

- they play dancing games tgt… like just dance and ddr

- also i think jay deffo dances to stim (totally not self projecting here) and his dance moves are always a bit silly so cole will copy them and jay is like are my making fun of me >:( and cole is like yeah maybe i am

- on the topic of stims they deffo mimic each other a whole lot in the sense theyll copy each others vocal stims and it annoys the hell out of everyone else because theyll say the same silly phrase over and over again for weeks 😭😭

- i also hc them both as chronically ill (jay is hypermobile and cole has arthritis) and sometimes after especially hard training days they will give each other back rubs/massages…

- they arealso borh very smart separately but when you put them together they become super stupid and lose all their brain cells

UMM okay this is kinda long so ill leave it here i have like a million more but id sit here forever writing them so 😭😭😭 once again im rly happy for ur question im kind of obsessed with them if u cant tell but um yea… enough yapping from me… adios..

#ardosyapping #bruiseshipping #IM KIND OF EMBARRASSED POSTING THIS HAHA #but its okay i love them sm… #ty for ur question op gives you a high five

[popculturebuffet]

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem Review and Analysis: This Films What Makes Me Feel Alright

Hello all you happy turtles! It's time to grab some pizza and party sized cool ranch doritos and pull your old high school sketchbooks out of some ancient backback in your closet, it's time to talk TMNT: Mutant Mayhem. As a massive TMNT nerd who was beyond hyped for this film coming from the powerhouses of both Point Grey Pictures and one jeff rowe, how did the film stack up? How did it spin kick on it's own? And why did they think Bebop nipple piercings were a good idea? All this and more under the cut, with FULL SPOILERS so if you haven't seen the film, you've been warned.

A New Coat of Ooze: Mutant Mayhem's story of how it came to be is oddly familiar: a massive movie company who has an iconic IP has no idea how to use said IP on it's own, and taps creators who have had some recent noticable and well loved succeses to make them a hit.

If that sounds familiar.. it really should as it was sony's creative desperation to get something spider-man centric only they would get profit from out that lead to Into the Spider verse and i'ts sequel. So it's funny and endearing to me that a film that wouldn't of gotten away with it's utterly unique and grungy art style without spider-verse.. happened for pretty much the exact same reasons.

Like with spidey, Paramount.. really didn't know what to do with TMNT for a while. And it's weird because when they first aquired the heroes in a halfshell from mirage, they had a pretty solid plan: the 2012 show, while messy as it went on, started out really promising and was a huge hit. The IDW comics prior to it were a massive hit for the company and are STILL around today, having outlasted other long term idw liscenses like transformers and having kept a consistent continuity for a decade while also leaving room for crossovers with ghostbusters, the mighty morphin power rangers, the goddamn batman and now street fighter.

So what went wrong? Simple.. they tried WAY too hard to mimic the transformers formula with their theatrical film, Ninja Turtles, not only not getting that audiences were tired of "Micheal Bay makes a weirdly sexual comedy about your childhood and it may have robots", but what really made the franchise work. The sequel from what i hear is slightly better but it just wasn't enoguh. Not helping is they quickly lost their shit on the tv front, as after the 2012 series concluded, they launched the creative, hilarious, and gorgeous Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.. which proceded to last only two seasons because it wasn't an instant hit, aka the same issue most nick shows fell into, not helped by the fact that Nick also seemed to pick up Cartoon Network's bad habit of hating action shows. We DID at least get a really good Rise film that gave the series a nice epilogue, but it's still sad it sputtered out so fast.

So Paramount turned to something they really weren't using.. their film animatoin department.

Paramount Pictures Animation is neat to look into as it had a steep rise.. then fell right off a cliff. It was a bit spottier at first, producing two of the charlie brown films, Bon Voyage Charlie Brown (And don't come back) and my beloved Race for Your Life Charlie Brown... mostly for this theme song.. okay ENTIRELY for the theme song.

And scattered experiments like Cool World, which was so good Ralph Bakshi punched a man over what they'd done to his idea, Bebe's Kids, and Beavis and Butthead Do America.

It wasn't till the late 90's and the nick boom they really started seeing success with the rugrats movies, jimmy neutron, spongebob and even the failures like Hey Arnold and Wild Thronberries were still neat. And yes i'd like to talk about any and all of these films at some point, they made up my childhood etc etc.

Eventually they got a cushy partneriship with dreamworks, still releasing the ocasional original effort like Rango, Barnyard and TinTin (The last of which I WILL be covering next august, I simply didnt' have room in pirate month this year. Once dreamworks left.. it seemed like Paramount genuinely had no clue what to do with the animation divsion. We had things like Sherlock Gnomes or Wonder Park, and the ocasoinal spongebob movies but it's clear that with Nick constantly cutting itself off at the knees they had no idea what to do. The closest they got was the turdtastic loud house movie and the totally awesome Rise of the TMNT films on netflix, but they just had no idea what they were doing. I mean it's telling that their trying to get extra paw patrol tickets by promiting a double feature with saw X. I.. I wish that was just some stupid joke I made as it's comedy gold. Eventually they came across an idea: Stay the course in focusiong on ips they own.. but bring in someone who knows what their doing to create something truly jawdropping.

So for Mayhem Parmount brought in two proven successes. The first were producers Point Grey Pictures, helmed by friends, writing partners and permenant teenagers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. Rogen has made quite the name for himself as a producer. While Point Grey started as mainly a way for Rogen to produce comedies starring himself and a pre-outing as a sex monster james franco, over time Rogen has proven to be REALLY good at making adaptations, with point grey having had a hand in both the Boys, which I haven't seen but seems to be a MASSIVE improvment over the original comics , which isn't hard but it's still nice they tried, and Invincible, one of the best superhero shows PERIOD and a fantastic adaptation that changes what needed it, moves around pieces and ultimatley creates something really special. So tapping him to adapt a big property like this was a no brainer. He even had animation experince thanks to Sony Pictures Sauage party and while this was Point Grey's first family production, it's clear it wasn't too hard for Rogen to adapt. As for their director they picked a hell of one: Jeff Rowe. For those not familar with him Rowe helmed the Mitchells vs the Machines, sony's first post spider-verse success and the film that helped codify the 2d on 3d style that spider-verse made popular and peanuts pioneered. And it was clearly just ont hes trength of word of mouth alone as Rowe went right from machines to mayhem and only got better. From interviews, the two worked really well together: Rogen was hands on but didn't make the mistakes lord did of being way TOO hands on, simply pitching neat ideas, adding to the film and clearly being heavily involved, while still letting Rowe steer the ship. Rowe in turn learned to have a good work life ballance and give his employees one, preventing the kind of nightmarish working conditions present on other flims such as, sadly, Across the Spider-Verse.

For the direction of the film Rowe was a fan of the franchise as a kid, specifically the toys. He recalled a really sweet story about he and his dad spent a saturday trying to find Tokka and Rahzar and really loved the toys designs and uniquely grungy astetic. As such Rowe really didn't lean into or heavily research the rest of the franchise. Which set off my alarm bells when I read it in a review close to release: after all a LOT of bad adaptations come out of the person adapting it not giving one iota of a shit about the source material. Eventually though I realized I was .. over panicking. What jeff meant was more "I don't want to be overly reverent to the material and see what we can do on our own with the basic concept' rather than "THE TURTLES ARE GOD YOU FOOLS GODS. GODS I SAY!". There are still little nods in there and bits taken from other series; There's a mention of the turtles taking in a knicks game (something that happened in out of the shadows), April's design borrows heavily from her design from Rise while still being unique, Donnie has glasses like the bay movies, there apparently was a miyamoto usagi sticker on a notebook (thanks tv tropes for noticing), and there's a TON of refrences to the 87 continuity as it's clearly the one rowe knew best. And while I do get a LITTLE tired of that being the one continuity most creators seem to lean on the most, I don't hate it and plan to binge the whole giant thing soon I just feel there's a LOT more turtles to pull from, paticuarlly the idw comics, the nods are neat stuff like them having their belts form that series, the various obscure mutants. The Ninja Rap even shows up. Rowe and Rogen clearly love them some turtles.. they just wanted to do something new with it and I completely love and respect that. The biggest swing and the one that's paid off the most was leaning on the teenage aspect. Rowe and Rogan were baffled that no other version of the franchise had done the obvious: Have actual teens voice the turtles. There are reasons for that: For the various tv shows it's simply easier to know the va's wont' age out of the roll, and to the 2012 and rise series credits, they both still tried to make the turtles feel younger and had va's that still made them sound sorta like teens, paticuarlly rise... but it's not at all a bad concept and i'm shocked it took this long for someone to try it.

Another aspect was having the boys all record in one booth. Rogen had the idea.. but Rowe had to explain that it'd be a sound mixing nightmare.. but eventually agreed to it when they tested it out and he saw how much having the four actors playing the turtles riffed off each other and just how much material they got out of the boys adlibs. It adds a natural feeling to the boys conversations: it feels like four teens riffing who just happen to be turtles. It was indeed an audio nightmare.. but the nightmare was worth it and Rowe was greatful and apologetic to his sound crew.

The final bit was simply taking from teen movies, the film even outright has the boys watch Feris Buller's Day Off, which gives me one of my faviorite lines in the film, courtesy of Raph: "Being in high school means you can hyjack a parade whenever you want. "

There's more to get into as we go but with the film opening decently and paramount being so confident in the film pre-release they announced a two season tv show and a sequel, the future looks bright for the green machines. So now we've seen how the pizza gets made let's see how it came out

Perfectly Sketchy: Rogen and Rowe's "Teenage Energy" philosphy went into the design. Rowe wanted to find a unique look for the film, but it was a bit of a puzzler at first: There's SO many incarnations of the tmnt, which one do you pick for this? Do you go with the mirage comics, the 87 cartoon? 2003? the next mutation if you huffed some paint? In the end Rowe decided

Instead he made a brilliant decision: if the film was going to feel teenagery, then why not have it look like the sketches teenagers make in their notebooks? It's an idea that just oozes brilliance and still fits the franchises history like a razor decked claw glove. Part of what made the early comics stand out was it's sketchy, frank miller-esque style, and the toys stood out for largely echoing that as much as you could in three dimensions at the time. So it still fit.. but did something entirley new with it. As as a result the film has a look that simply nothing else has: porportions on most things are off, the backgrounds arne't hugely detailed , did you when you were a teen?, but still pop gloriously, and the characters all have SOMETHING that would be off model anywhere else. One of the thugs in the turtles first act of vigilnate justice, for instanc,e has a weirdly crooked head with indents. It's a look that's perfectly stylitic, fits the series history, and it's a kind of weird that perfectly complintes a series that was already having our heroes fight space dinosaurs by the third issue. I especially love how the shurikens are not even yet still throw perfectly and Mikey's hey arnold head. It's a look that pops with creativity and the crew really took to playing with. It's a style that will, much like spider-verse lead to this, undoubtly lead to more unique swings and I cannot wait to see what people come up with as a result

Protecting a World that Hates and Fears Them

The film's core comes from a rather genius decision to simply pick apart a key part of the franchise... the fact Splinter keeps the boys isolated from humanity for most of their lives and encourages them to stay hidden. Now credit where it's due some continuties justify it well enough: sometimes splinters hiding from shredder, or already had a sweet rent free sewer apartment he set up for no reason, trying to find his lost son and complete his family while avoiding a mutated alley cat or simply was waiting till the boys could defend themselves. They often have a lot of enemies... but even that shouldn't mean they can't get an education or have friends. April and Casey stick by them no matter what. They should be able to at least try for a normal life or the idea of them WANTING more than hidnig all the time should really come up more. The only ones that have really tapped into this are the IDW continuity which is just now having the boys integrate post armageddong game, out of the shadows which from what i've read has a throughly intresting subplot about the boys wanting to become human and leos' resistance to the idea (which also makes him come off as a bit of a jackass honestly as it's not his choice and "We're turtles end of story" is not an excuse). We've had the turtles say move into an apartment but this is the first to just flat out ask: why CANT the boys at least try to live with humanity instead of under them? And if so why did splinter keep them apart?

It's part of what really grounds the boys in this incarnation and makes them feel so damn real. The other of course was the decision to have actual teens play them and riff off each other. We get them making unteiotnally douchey digs at each other, such as the other three mocking Leo attempting a batman voice, casually talk about how they'd like to meet drake or have brunch with tom brady, which leo no you can do better man, or do some goofy shit while april marvels at their stupidity.. and then double down when told it might make people like them less. By making the biggest attempt so far to make the turtles FEEL like teens instead of young adults, an evolution the franchise has been undergoing since the 2012 cartoon and honestly reaches it's apex here, it makes us feel for them that much more; These are just kids who simply want to be loved and accepted, like any teenager. That awkwardness, wanting to fit in, wanting to simply belong.. it's one of the most painful parts of a teen and transplanting that to the tutles wa sa brilliant move. One of the earliest scenes is what sells this the most: the boys going to see Ferris Buller's Day off.. and just wondering what it'd be like to be normal. That lost shot of them sadly returning to the sewer... looking on screen at something they only wish they could have... it's so heartbreakingly beautiful.

The reasons WHY Splitner restricts their time in the outside world and refers to humans as "the demon scum of the earth. They lust to destroy that which is diffrent than them"

Giving Splinter a deep fear of humans is a brilliant move. It's something that really coudln't be done in most incarnations as he's been the pet of a martial arts master who treated him well, said martial arts master living in a sweet sewer apartment after being clumsily blamed for murder, got reincarnated as a rat after dying in ancient japan, a martial arts master who turned his back on his heritage because his clan let his family die, became a movie star, fucked a spider lady, had said spider lady put him in gladatorial games, then got depressed after becoming a rat but gladly adopted his sons. Here they strip that away and we're left with a splinter who was just a rat who was yelled at by other animals, shooed by humans just for trying to survivie and whose only friend was a cockroach.. who he ended up eating after humanity killed the poor guy. Finding the boys also abandoned in the sewers and covered in ooze, as oozual, not only made him into a rat man.. but also gave him the one thing he never had: a family. We also get a REALLY adorable montage set to de la soul's eye know that makes me REALLY glad the copy right hurdles around them are gone so we don't have another spider-man no way home situation because the song both slaps and has a nice soothing tone that really fits. We'll get more into the music on i'ts own later, I just really love this montage.

It also makes what follows..

We see that Splinter GENUINELY tried to go out into the world.. and the result was humanity throwing things at him despite carrying 4 small children and said children nearly being hit by a car. It's a really unsettling sequence. While yeah everyone going "rat man" and throwing things is a bit on the nose... given how a LOT of humanity acts to LBGTIQ+ persons, People of color, diffrent religions I could go on but i'm depressed enough as is, it's not really that much of a stretch that they'd throw things at a rat just trying to show his sons the world. It reminds me a LOT of the x-men and it's honestly weird to me that the othe rbiggest mutant franchise int he world HADN'T taken a page from them sooner.

It gives the film nuance: Splinter IS objectively prejudiced, leo even says so directly, but you can see how those prejudices formed and why he's so terrified for his own kids. He's worried a world that hates and fears them will also hate and milk them.. a runner that while awkwardly phrased, I don't think Seth or Jeff have heard of the term milking before, is hilarious, especially the usual refrain of "we don't even have nipples. " He just wants them safe and happy and you can tell he really does love them. He taught them the martial arts to protect them.. and the how is also really clever and a really fun idae: instead of "I learned it from a book" Or "I happened to be owned by a ninja master" or "I was reincarnated" we instead get him teaching them.. via martial arts films, instuctional videos, and the ocasional youtube thing. I love it because it honestly makes way more sense than it should as shown in the animation: splinter watched the films, learned the movements himself and then taught the boys. It's also a nice bit of meta text as Jackie Chan himself is a practicing martial artist who makes martial arts films and did his own stunts. One of his films is apparently even in the montage. It's one of my faaviorite takes of the film.

One of my faviorite scenes is Splinter's biggest pet the dog moment: the pizzza party. Splinter brings in a bunch of pizza hut pizzas

It's neat because it both clearly misses the point, Splinter really dosen't seem to get that simply bringing down a bunch of pizzas to have a human style prom and having kelvin captain kirk cutout won't fill the void inside. I mean I could think of a lot of uses for a chris pine cutout, i'm not saying it's a bad gift and it's sweet he's trying SO HARD to get his boys to open up and Jackie Chan just nails the dad energy on this one. It's just clear that they don't want to stay there there whole lives as safe as that is.

What brings it to it's head is one of the films more brilliant decisions. Originally, while I haven't found many specifics the film had other antagonists: Baxter Stockman was originally the boys teacher (they went to school during the course of this film in this draft) and became the fly again, while Shredder was TCRI"s heavy in earlier drafts. Both were nixed, the former likely due to abandoing the school plot and the latter for the entirely on the mark decision that it was just too much. Shredder.. is THE arch enemy to the turtles. The one constant in every universe. So it makes way more sense to save him for a sequel and let someone else take the reigns. As Rowe has teased Shredder's going to be a bit of a wakeup call: just as the boys think they have it figured out .. in comes shredder to kick their asses. Which really has happened A LOT across the franchise, with it being a regular tradition that the shredder beats the shit out of the turtles the first time they fight. Even in IDW where they do rally and turn the fight on it's head.. he still easily handles them all one on one before they rally as a team. It makes sense to save their ultimate test for a sequel while still giving them one hell of a trial by fire

Instead we got Superfly, who better fit into the fantastic racisim narritive. If the boys want to get love and acceptance by fighting for a world that hates and fears them x-men style.. it only makes sense they have a magneto on that other end.

Like Magneto Superfly has a tragic backstory behind his hatred of mankind.. Superfly was the creation of Baxter Stockman and what they did with Baxter both completely floored me.. and drove me to tears. Instead of what he is normally, either a put upon target coerced into villany who strikes back at both the turtles and those who wronged him, or a narcsitic monster who will gladly do whatever he wants and kill anyone in his way, here... Baxter is just a deeply lonely old man who just wants a family. At worst he steals from TCRI.. but given we see their a horrifying company who wants the mutants as weapons and will gladly torture teenagers for a buck, it's not hard to side with him. It's really nice ot see a heroic baxter.. and sad to see him go so quickly.

It puts Superfly's hatred in perspective: like splinter he saw just what huamanity does and how his kind is treated and grew up having to raise his younger siblings. Like Splinter he seems to really love them. And like splinter his attempt to take his siblings topside.. went horribly wrong with them being chased by an angry mob for just..c oming to a snack bar. But it's right after that we get the clear diffrence: Splinter just ran in fear and while he trained the boys ot protect themselves, he just wants a line between himself and humanity. Superfly.. wants them all to pay. He wants to mutate the world that killed his dad and drove him and his siblings into hiding. The only way they can be accepted.. is if humanity is mostly gone and what's left are enslaved.

IT's that sadistic streak that ultimately defines him as a villian: the turtles just want to be accepted, splinter just wants to be loved, the rest of the mutant "cousins" just want a home and have been indocrinated and browbeaten into thinking there isn't another way. Superfly.. wants things his way: he wants blood, he wants revenge and if anyone stands in his way no matter their age or being his family he will kill them. It's that anger inside that makes him a true monster.

And that extends to his own family. Superfly's an abusive parent to Splinters flawed but loving one: The rest of the mutants turn stone quiet when he subtly/notsubtly threatens the turtles if they happen to disagree, and during the chase not only are they all desperate to get the thing back but Wingnut in paticular gets the most telling line

Wingnut: Superfly's almost here and he's not going to be as nice about this! Leo: You're not being nice! Wingnut: He'll be less nice!!

While the other mutants SEEM jazzed during the bowling alley scene, it's very clear later none of them were that enthused about the idea. Both sets are afraid to speak to their parental figure.. but the diffrence is clear in motion: the boys hide from splinter because they know he'll say no, it's a standard teenage thing and as seen with the pizza party when Splinter finds the various knick knacks they've picked up on their heroic journey, his response is to try to bring the surface to the sewer. It's awkward as hell and dosen't remotely work.. but it's still a sweet gesture and you still feel bad for him when the boys quickly leave to finish their half assed plan. Splinter ultimately wants what's best for his kids and even if he's not always right in carrying that out, I never doubted he actually loved his children.

This all brillantly comes to a head towards the end: While Splinter plans to just.. isolate the turtles after their nearly milked, the one time he seems GENUINELY angry the whole film, he still wants to save April, the one good human, who warned him the boys were in danger in the first place.

This leads to a touching bit in itself: the boys COULD fight the other mutants, their trying to do a genocide after all.. but instead the boys.. just talk them down. I mean i'm used to this kinda thing by now, most animation these days is about forgivness, but it still works: earlier when meeting each other the turtles gladly bonded with their cousins, who i'll talk about in more detail later: Mondo and Mikey were both chill, raph finally found some people who liked to hit stuff, presumibly while blasting Limp Bisikit, it was really sweet. THeir relutance to stop them added a nice dimension to things: they UNDOUBTLY want to stop superfly's plan.. but they genuinely like their cousins and see them as good people in a bad situation. Likewise the cousins are utterly destraught at the fight afterwords and miss the turtles. These are simply at the end of the day teens 20 somethings and whatever scumbug is who just wanted to not be chased iwth torches.

So it's utterly heartwarming when the turtles and splinter simply offer their home. They may not have humanity.. but they'd have each other. It's also YET ANOTHER idea that seems obvious in retrospect but most turtle series never really thought of: why.. can't other mutants stay with them? They usually order suplies and stuff descretley anyway or in this case take them out of nescsity, if they can afford pizza for 5 people reguarly, why NOT let other smove in. I mean I get it meta wise, you dont' want to overcrowd things. But it's a nice thought i'm glad gets realized: that the boys aren't alone and now have a whole new family to lean on.

And of course Superfly can't take that. To him there's only one way to go: never stop making them pay. I'll also say I like just how poweful superfly is: he's got strength inunerablity, and super smarts, which I thought was a nice touch. I assumed he woudln't have baxter's intellegence and I'm glad to be wrong. He's only stopped and only then breifly by sheer numbers.

What follows is a LITTLE on the nose, with superfly just.... saying outight he and splinter aren't so diffrent, down to both having said "You'll be safe if you just LISTEN TO ME".

That part.. dosen't quite work for me. What does work is the animation on splinter during the struggle between everyone else and superfly.. the dawning realization of what he is as Superfly states the obvious and his determination as soon as Superfly says "the diffrence is i'm not a punk". Superfly just wants to get revenge on a world that hates and fears him.. Splinter just wants his sons to be happy. And he finally realizes that even if there's a lot of risk involved, they DESERVE to live out there with everyone else. There is something better than hiding or murder.

I also like how Superfly.. drops the pretense: once his plans done he just goes on a massive kaiju attack: I also like how fucking horrific his form is: the whale part's a bit goofy at first.. but then you see how much STRENGTH that gives him as he destroys it. Even if we get the ocasional joke (I didn't need that horse is gold), for the finale Superfly is just a nightmarish, imposing threat that threatnes to run our heroes lives and also maybe end them. The glee he takes in crushing the boys alive... it's fucking terrifying.

I also love the bit of the boys panning... seeing all the destruction.. and seeing the media blame them too. Their trying to HELP people.. and get blamed. I'd suggest moving to krakoa but a lo tof shit has went down and living with one old man full of fear and regret is what started this whole caper. And the boys.. fight on anyway because it's the right thing to do. Despite all the hate... someone has to stop superfly. And in doing so.. April makes sure they get the glory and praise they deserve anyway.

Finally I love splinter's turnaround right before the final fight... where he admits he was wrong.. but hasn't FULLY turned around on humans. He's simply realized he can't let his baggage with humanity weigh down his sons. And it pays off brilliantly during the time square fight, as when Splinter is downed.. someone helps him up. And what I love is that while it COULD just be someone who saw April's newscast clearing the turtles and other mutants.. it's left ambgious. As far as we know it was just a nice guy and gal helping an old man up regardless of if he was a giant rat or not. It dosen't paper over all the films flaws with the rat man mob scene but it does help quite a bit.

The film brillantly tackles prejudice and I like how unlike most films.. there's no easy answers. Our boys have to do something big and loud to get accepted and it's not guaranteed to shield them, as seen with the stingers. THey find friends , activites and get what they want.. but it's likely not the end.. but that's okay. The important thing is for the first time the turtles are out of the shadows and into the sun. And it suits them. Seriously this last twist was brilliant and i'm shocked it took a tmnt this long to just.. let them be public since 87, and since media has evolved, it means when we get to the series we can actually explore what that means: how will they adapt? will everyone accept them? will april realize Leo is into her and it wasn't just a friend thing? there's a lot of questions I can't wait to be answered.

Change is Constant

I didn't have a good segway so.. CHARACTERS! MY WHEELHOUSE. LET'S GO.

Starting with the boys, their more of a package deal here. They still have unique deisgns, takes on the cores of their personalities, all you'd expect from a good tmnt adaptation.

What changes it up a bit is the recording together: while most sets of turtles have great chemistry, this one.. really feels like their brothers thanks to the shared recording: they talk over one another, dunk on each other and goof around. This has always been a thing, and part of the franchises charm, but how they do it here feels more real, helped by the fact they clearly took some adlibs in. Both the BTS bit where they try to comfort Donnie only to both mangle the lyrics and writhe in pain and the bit with the new york accents both sound like the boys just started riffing on the prompt given, didn't stop and they rolled with it because it was comedy gold. It also means a LOT more pop culture refrences.. but it works. It dosen't feel like too much

Admitely I don't know how current the refrences are to ACTUAL teens, but they work well enough and don't feel like their horribly date the film. Plus it'd be.. weird to have a turtles work that didn't reflect it's era in some way, as all 4 cartoons and most films and comics reflect their time either in writing or in the general vibe.

The downside to this is the turtles indvidual personalities, while present.. get kinda underplayed. Leo and Raph make it out fine enough: After the radience that was Rise Leo and ben schwartz being at his peak slacker doofus (while also still being badass), we're back to Leo being Teachers Pet. But thankfully like the 2012 film they play with it: like that Leo his brother's don't really respect him as a leader, but rather than the usual raph snarling at him like wolverine, here it's more just their his brothers, they woudln't respect him anyway and benig their dad's mouthpiece just makes them ignore him harder. He's the dutiful son but he's simply outnumbered. Raph dosen't get a ton of spotlight, but gets enough to be a fun little murder baby and probably my faviorite of the 4. Instead of the usual brooding loner, sometimes ultra violent sometimes just sassy, often both, here he's more an obnoxious older brother who picks on leo the most, is happy to do dangerous stunts and badly needs therapy. He's essentially Reese from malcom in the middle as a ninja turtle. He still loves his brothers and loves a good scrap, but he's got some issues to adress.

Mikey and Donnie likewise aren't bad but kinda one note: Mikey gets it the worst: he's a bit goofy.. but since they ALL are this incarnation it dosen't stand out as much. He gets some nice bits and one hell of a impariment shot, but not much else.

Donnie fairs better, but suffers from the unintended consequences of a good choice. As part of grounding things a bit, Donnie isn't a super genius. He's just a snarky little otaku who does really like tech, but on the resonable level of a teenage boy. As a result he dosen't get as much to do as most donnies as he's not hotwiring shit as often or making super lasers. It works for me, it's intresting to have a donnie whose just a normal kid who happens to be really nerdy, but it means plotwise he dosen't have as much to do as Raph as the ringleader to the boys mischief or Leo as the leader of the band during hero stuff. I get why: they only had a hundred minutes and it's remarkable they crammed as much in as they did, but it's something I really hope the series can course correct. I don't mind the boys riffing and hope it continues, but I also hope we get them more as their own people too.

As a final note I love Leo's crush on April. IT feels like a better realized version of the Donnie one from 2012. Instead of waffling over wether april notices or just dosen't want to turn him down which..

And then having it go from cute to "spiraling obessive dickhole", here April notices something's weird, but is clearly more intrested in the "giant talking turtles who can help my rep" thing and thus dosen't really pry. It only REALLY crosses into that at the end when he transparently asks her out.. and she waits till prom to ask "wait this is a friend thing right". But that could be nerves or her being just as scared of her feelings as he is with his. It also helps that while he's intrested in april romantically the two do bond: out of the four he' sthe most empathetic at her barf reputation, priortizes her not out of his crush but because she asked for their help and later works with her at her club. It's still somethign the series could work on, but for "a way to both mine jokes and get leo to go against his dad's wise council" it works fine. It's better than "how dare you ruin my ship you bastards" and "Mikey stop being a sex creep. "

So moving on to April herself, I mostly like this version. She's the third time this franchise has gone with a teen april and the third to have her POC. I've liked the turn to teen april as instead of being a big sister to the turtles, and essentially another authority figure when they already have their dad, she's on their level and it opens up fresh possiblities. Mayhem is the first with this take on april to have her be a reporter again, and it's honestly nice to see that work at a school level, having her TRIED to be on their equivleant of channel one.. and end up puking. And i'm not a barf joke man but walking back into the theater after a bathroom break to see her ralphing to "UnwritteN" may be one of my faviorite cinema moments of 2023, up there with walking back into Barbie to find she and ken now had cowboy outfits they'd apparently stolen.

I also love how it gives her a personal stake: she just wants to be loved same as the turtles and like them realizes this isn't WHY to do this. She also provides a nicely needed straight man to the goofier brothers without being reduced to the old sterotype of "Joy killing female foil. ", something her fellow teen aprils and most aprils in general have thankfully achieved. April is just a person and reacts with annoyance to the boys because their going on a 4 minute tangent saying new york sterotypes while mike does a rumpshaker.

We do have to unpack that mostly though and that comes from April being kind of a dick at time's. She's pressuery when the boys are undercover with SUperfly's gang.. even though she can HEAR what their saying.. and thus hear that he's clearly indocrinated the others and that the boys may not want to harm THEM. I get her not wanting Superfly to succeed, his plan is fucking horrible, but even for a teen it's weird she dosen't see the nuance. She can also be a bhit short with them, though the latter I acknolwedge in hindsight as being like the boys: she's a teenager and teens aren't perfect. This is still a great april and continues Ayo's streak this year of great voice acting roles.

The other mutants are great. I was worried: While the cast for them is fucking stacked and Seth called in a lot of his rolodex to fill it out, and himself as credit where it's due he tends to show up in shit he produces and bring his absolute best rather than showing up because he can, i've seen plenty of films fall flat because they tried to add too many characters from the source. Just this year I felt one of the biggest issues with Transformers; Rise of the Beasts is that they tried to jam so many autobots and maximals in, a total of 10 but didn't bother to give any of them but optimus, bee and mirage an actual character.

Here while the characters are one note, they have charming designs and work more as a unit like the boys, but are still friendly and likeable enough that your fond of them like the turtles and happy when they join the family. The breakout is easily natasha dimoscu's wingnut. I already loved wingnut, but this is easily the best verison: she's cheery kind and gets some great subtle jokes, the wifi one is fucking great as is her swiping Donni'es akira voices. All of them are pretty charming though. The only one to not really feel like a character is Hannibal frog, a sad waste of hannibal burgess, but everyone else gets something fun to do: Bebop and Rocksteady are rageholic morons who then get a sweet character arc as they realize their rage is because Superfly ENCOURAGED them to be constantly angry, and it's fun to see a version of them that's genuinely heroic. Not so fun is Bebop's pierced nipples.

I am genuinely baffled by this design choice. I don't doubt Bebop would get pierced nips, it' sin character. But why Seth thought anyone would want to see that, why he made HIS CHARACTER HAVE THEM, OR WHY HE MAKES IT SO PROMINENT will be a question that will haunt me for years to come. Or until we get creators commentary to explain why he hates viewers eyes. For the record I have nothing against nipple piercings, I just question why anyone thought giving them to Bebop was a good idea. OR their so large or

I also like Scumbug and i'm happy to see Splinter in his first relationship where his partner hasn't died horribly or put him in gladiator games. I did not need to see them make out with clone high level tounge. I"ll let this discord conversation with my good friend @kammieceleek handle the heavy lifting.

I mean their a cute couple but please, NEVER AGAIN. NEVER AGAIN. NEVER AGAIN. NEVER AGAIN. NEVER AGAIN. NEVER AGAIN. NEVER AGAIN NEVER

Anyways capping us off we have TCRI, who are decent enough. I like remaking them as this sort of paramilitary goon squad that shows the worst of humanity. Cynthia herself.. is fucking great. I like that to anyone familiar with Krang, it's DAMN obvious who she either is, or is a stand in for, with the name, apperance and Maya Rudolph somehow doing the Pat Fraley krang voice and tics while also doing a thick german accent. She's a brillaint combo of over the top hammy.. and an utterly sadstic monster, shocking the boys just for speaking, not carring that they don't really belong to her, and willing to kill them just to get her super weapons. She's what a remade krang should be: still over the top.. but also dead seriously terrifying. My only complaint is she's a bit OBVIOUS as a sequel hook. Like Rowe was really banking on that sequel and i'm never a fan of when films do this when they don't KNOW this story will continue. It is clearly, with the film slowly picking up more and more money and more than enough in merch, but he coudln't of known that.

So with that we just have one bit of buisness to wrap up

Yo Jeff Drop the Verse

The soundtrack for this flim is liquid gold. It's so good to my ears and full of such nice cuts. Guardians cemented my love of needle drops in film in tv: If you can pull it off well do it. And this film does it so damn good. The film skews to hip hop, likely due to wanting a "Tony Hawk Pro Skater" vibe, which really does fit teendom well. I will admit it's also pretty explicit here and there, so kids may be disapointed to find they can't stream these songs, but it's still a stacked selectoin

So before I break it down track by track, something I regret failing to do with spider-verse as like this reveiw it was massively behind, I whipped up a playlist as Parmount's own leaves out several tracks. While I get the what's going on bit being left out as that bit is a good suprise why it has'nt been added weeks out from the film I don't know. You can find it here

Ante Up is a song i've heard maybe once or two here, but is a perfect gag for the opening grocery run, while still showing off just what our boys can do.. even if their doing it for some party sized cool ranch doritos. Which is still a great reward.

Danke Scheon shows up in the clip of feris buller. This dosen't really count but I do think the film is a perfect fit, since John Hughes was an inspiration for this film, and it's an idealized version of the freedom the boys desperately want. Not a John Hughes film I was ever a huge fan of, but it works and that "You can hyjack parades whenever you want" joke is so damn good.

Now we come to a track I wasn't familiar with but is easily my faviorite now: Eye Know. I"m glad more films are using De La Soul's music, mostly because it makes ME want to know them better as I haven't heard much and even after really enjoying three is the number, thanks to the weird rights limbo it wasn't avaliable to stream ad nauseum when No Way Home came out. Thankfully just a few short months ago, the whole De La Soul catalogue is up. This song is a really gentle, really fun love song with one heck of a chorus, and it nicely meshes with Splitner raising his adorable little children. It's one of my faviorite scenes of the movie.

The next track is another perfect selection but for something more hilarious and badass: While Push It To the Limit verges on a parody of training montage music it works for one where we find out the turtles and splinter learned ninjitsu from movies,, instructional tapes and whatever they could scrounge up. HOw their learning is awesomely rediculous, so it needs backing that's cheestastic.

Love is an Illusion by Ronnie Walker was nice for Leo falling for APril. It's a really crisp, dreamy love song so it fits.

Okay look i'ts only there for a second, but I can't tell you how much I love Ninja Rap making a cameo on this soundtrack. The soundtrack is cheesy good and one of the more iconic ninja turtle songs for a reason. It's not as good as say Pizza Power or the various awesome theme songs, but it's goofy fun that fit the film it was in. It's also one of Vanilla Ice's better songs, though that isn't huge compettion especially since he made a weird as fuck sequel I still can't comprehend that was also compeltely ninja turtle free for some reason.

Cavern By LIquid Liquid is fun, a nice chill beat to meet turtles to.

Dance by ESG is already a fun song and fits the boys going full blast on their plan well. THat's.. about it. THankfully I have more for unwritten. I'm not a fan of Vomit humor most of the time unless you have a paticuarlly inspired twist like say. a mad scientest making everyone in the room vomit at a bar as a thought experiment leading to an image like this

That's just beautiful. But i'm just not a gross out guy, so this gag working for me was a lot... setting the most embarassing moment of April's life to FUCKING UNWRITTEN, a song I heard 998 times over the course of the 2000's as every fucking movie and tv show overused the hell out of this throughly mid song, it was transedeant. First and only good use of unwritten. Well done.

Now we come to what's easily the best musical bit of the movie. And it has some steep competition from Eye Know and another song we all know is coming, but the No Diggity Scene is just one of those sequences that once you see it you know "This shit is iconic". This is a scene that's now etched in tmnt lore and for damn good reason. It's also a brilliant way to get up to the chain to superfly and have a few weeks of sluthing and our heroes getting better pass as our heroes easily blaze through some goons and those shots of EACH turtle getting to burst in and lead the assault?

And look I admit this montage hits a sweet spot that was also started by guardians: setting an action montage to music that somehow fits despite having no right to. In this case a mellow smooth as hell jam perfectly complmenting some frantic action. So fucking smooth.

Wake Up in the Sky grew on me as let's face it, a song that has bruno mars saying fly a dozen times nad saying he's super fly works. I just don't like it a lot because trap is'nt something that fits me musically. I prefer more intricate beats or at least a really solid one thorugh the whole thing. The more relaxed beatwork here isn't for me, but I can't deny it fits Superfly's big debut well.

Fitting me much better is the use of Shimmy Shimmy Yay for the bowling scene. It's fucking great, a song that's never not awesome and that's also a bit low key while being way more my speed.

The use of BOTH major versions of What's Up? .. is an easy close second for best use of music int he film and one of the most brilliant masterstrokes. And this all comes to Seth Rogen. When the chase scene wasn't quite working, he suggested the slackcircus version of he man. It's also awsome in that the song's themes of isolation PERFECTLY fit what the mutants are going through. So not only did they manage to stick one of the best meme songs in human history in a feature film.. but they did so with it being ENTIRELY relevant. The switch from the 4 non blondes version to slackcircus is fucking genius and the song adds nice manic energy. It'll also hopefully give this song a rightful ressurgence as the heman cover is , while hilarious, also GENUINELY good. The original ain't too shabby either.

The boys version of butter is hilarious and got me to listen to the original which is alright. Mr. Lonely isn't a bad song, and perfectly fits Splinter's mope session.

Finally we have can I kcik it, an objectively awesome song. It fit the trailer perfectly and it fits our ending as our heroes are finally allowed to mingle with the surface adn get their happy ending beauitfully. A beautiful ending to a beautiful film.

So overall mutant mayhem is fucking awesome. If you haven't seen it after all this go see it, support the hard workers who made this film possible by supporting the ongoing strike and thanks for reading.

#teenage mutant ninja turtles #tmnt mutant mayhem #mutant mayhem #leonardo #donetello #raphael #michalangelo #april 0'neil #screwloose #superfly #bebop #rocksteady #jeff rowe #seth rogen #nickelodeon #scumbug

[candyheartedchy]

30 and 35 for the artist ask meme!

30) Whats something youre proud of about your artstyle?

I feel like my original style is always changing and then there’s the fact that I mimic styles, so I feel as if I have an style identity crisis at times, but I enjoy how much drawing facial expressions improved in my art and how fluid it looks nowadays.

35) If you had one piece of advice to give your younger artist self, what would it be?

To not be so hard on myself, and not worry about my stuff being perfect or not, to allow myself to make mistakes and to be okay with it.

#bananahkim #💌 letters 💌

[mithclearwell]

Just out of curiouse, do you have any tips for beginner artists? I would really appreciate one

Of course! ^-^ I'm more than happy to help!

Let's see...without the ability to have a conversation, I'm not sure where exactly you are in skill level, so I guess I'll start with some basic quality-of-life tips.

General:

You don't have to go to college to get good at art. I didn't go to art school!

Watch youtube videos from good artists, or those you admire!

What kind of art do you ultimately want to produce? This isn't an instance of "I can only pick one thing", it's more like...each type of art requires different skills, and if you know ahead of time what you want to do FIRST, you can narrow down what you have to learn.

learn proper sketching and use of circles and other shapes to build the figure, don't just jump in making the final lines right away! It's not a "cheat", it's proper technique. It's "caring about your work".

Same for references. Google up some images of what you want to draw and look at them while you draw your own picture. It's not only okay, it's what professionals do. You need to train your EYE as well as your hand.

It's okay to mimic styles you like! But be aware that each artist may stretch or squish or exaggerate proportions to fit what they personally like to see. This is why it's IMPERATIVE that you learn realism alongside any manga style you want to try. Once you learn where the eyes sit on the face, the different facial planes and what bones they relate to, and different sizes and builds for the face, you can then manga them up to any style you want!

For real paper:

Use a protector sheet, or wear a glove on your drawing hand. You want to make sure you don't get graphite or colored pencil on the side of your hand, and then smear it on your drawing. Placing a piece of paper under your hand will protect your work!

Don't touch your art with your fingertips. Fingertips have oil and gunk on them, and will smudge your drawing. (If you're working with charcoal, this could work to your advantage! But you're probably not using charcoal. It's messy and usually limited to college art students.)

Get the right tools! You can buy a small eraser set in the art section of Wal-Mart for like $3 -- it has a polymer eraser, a smaller white eraser, and the all-important KNEADED ERASER. This thing can be squished and torn apart and it'll pick up graphite like a champ! Do not bother with hard pink erasers, they're trash.

You don't need special paper to learn. I used to draw on the backs of my dad's extra math photocopy papers. Copy paper is smooth and not too fussy and I like it. "Sketch pads" usually have a rougher grain, and I hate the way the paper feels. Also there's a lot of ugly white spots when you try to shade or use colored pencils. Only use that if you're keeping a cute little book or using pastel crayons or something (or it's all you have). Don't fuss over it too much while you're learning. It won't make much difference until you're ready to specialize!

Blending stumps are cool and even pros use them.

Get a small electric pencil sharpener. They're less than $10 at places like Dollar General, and those stores are literally everywhere.

If you get a manual sharpener in an "art set", that's fine, too, but it hurts my hand to do it manually. I like the ones that have little covers.

It DOES matter what kind of ink pen you use. Gel pens will smear. Most markers are washable, and you better believe they will run at the first hint of moisture. India Ink also smears and runs with water. I recommend Sakura Micron pens, Zig Mangaka pens, or my favorite --- the Kuretaki Bimoji felt tip brush pen. You can get all that on Amazon, and it's like $6. I got the superfine tip.

LET YOUR INK DRY BEFORE YOU PUT MARKERS OR WATERCOLOR OR ANYTHING AT ALL OVER IT. It takes maybe 20 minutes.

If you don't plan to color it, you CAN draw with a ball point pen and it'll look just fine.

Do a tiny little water streak test with any markers you plan to use with watercolor. Just brush a tiny bit of water over the mark after it's dry to see if it bleeds. I use that bleed to my advantage sometimes, but you just gotta be aware of what's what.

Digital:

You can buy a small, cheap tablet from HUION for less than $40. MAKE THE INVESTMENT. IT'S WORTH IT.

Clip Studio Paint is EXCELLENT. Well worth the $50-$60 price tag. I think you can try it before you buy it, too. It gives you access to the Asset Store -- which is the single greatest artistic sharing tool I have EVER seen, and I've used SAI for ...probably a decade... I've used dozens of custom brushes and even made my own, and I just can't even believe what is available with CSP. Do yourself a favor and get it.

"But I can't use a tablet! I can't look at a screen while I draw!" Yes you can. YES you can. Yes you can, if you'll just try it. "but I tried once and it didn't work" Well YEAH, if you only tried a handful of times, OF COURSE it didn't work. Do you know what practice is? HUION screen tablets are over $300!!!!! Do you have that kind of disposable income lyin around? (plz donate some to me if you do lololjk =u=; )

Start saving a folder full of refs.

Ask people to tell you what to draw. Let them request something for free. This makes you draw things you wouldn't normally draw, and there is INCREDIBLE value in stepping outside of your comfort zone. You will level up in no time.

Whew...that covers most of the basics, I think. If you have something specific you want me to go into more detail on, please let me know! I love helping ;w;

#mithart #tips #art help #asks

[apompkwrites]

Frick I’m so bad at recognizing and remembering faces and appearances and I’m trying to put together who is who in your drawings and it’s painful for me. It’s not your art that’s making me confused, it’s my own brain :( Sometimes I have to wait to hear my brother’s voice to know who he is. Sometimes I have to see how my brother’s girlfriend acts when she puts on makeup to know if I recognize her. I kinda have to rely on same hair styles or accessories like jewelry in order to recognize things/people sometimes.

It’s also okay if this is too much to ask, but could the black sheep maybe have accessories that could help keep track of who is who? Maybe the accessories could be the only thing of color besides the text? Ex. Lil lion having a hair band or hair clip that is dark yellow. Lil Al Asim having some kind of body tattoo/ink that’s dark red around their neck area. Things that’ll fit into their character but also the colors being that of their brothers’ dorms? Again, it’s totally okay if this is too much! It’s just hard for me to keep track of things >.<

- Heartbeat Anon

waaa dont worry i get it!! tbh the designs for the black sheep were just kinda on the fly? but now i have an excuse to make proper refs :D

++ giving them lil accessories would def help with differentiating them, esp when im drawing their sibs :O

fun fact, this ref sheet actually has 8 designs! one lil black sheep has an extra design that i won't be showing until much later ;))

so here’s the og 7 plus my little design notes for them utc ;) gonna use these designs from now on for drawings only, so not in fics and stuff <33 so stuff, esp skin tone, are not canon to the fics

rosehearts (lil rose):

gotta go with the obvious of giving them a rose :D the placement could change but for now its in their hair :)

and i wanted to lean more into a hearts aesthetic without making them blend in with heartslabyul students like ace so i put it on their neck! thinking like albedo's design but its a lil heart instead of a star <3

kingscholar (lil lion/cub):

so i already had markings on their face since their first appearance in the comic just bc i liked the look of it? but i did add the marks closer to their nose in this new design.

thinking about adding a lil feather behind their ear/in their hair. mainly them post mwezi miji because i can see nuru giving them one of his feathers :)

also i made their hair short! i liked the idea of how leona and (probably) falena have longer hair that (name) cuts it after running away.

ashengrotto (lil octo):

so obv they have the same lil beauty mark as azul <33 i also wanna make it clear that they don't all have the same body shape? just used a pose that i use to get a full look at a character's design. so, yes yes, lil octo is on the heavier side.

also their accessory is the shell from the movie! got inspired by the anon that talked about it keeping their human form :)

asim (lil scarab):

I GAVE THEM HENNA-LIKE MARKINGS LIKE ASIM AND NO ONE CAN STOP ME >:))

so they have very intricate design on their neck/collarbone area but bc it wouldn't be visible a lot, i gave them lil dots under their eyes :) i did steal lil bits of kalim's design because i thought it would be fitting :D

schoenheit (lil gala/galaling):

so they have the unqiue eye shape where i gave them lashes :) ofc because they would have 11/10 lashes like vil :D ++ eye shadow but that's only in colored drawings.

i gave them the hair clip with a lil mirror design to hold back their bangs :DD and a ring because i like to think they would wanna wear lil rings :)

shroud (lil flame):

so gonna address their skin color first. i made their skin a bit more gray to mimic how the overblot characters look? i mean, they live on the same floor as the overblot monsters so i feel like it makes sense for their appearance to also be affected by them?

also!! their flame hair is dimmer than idia and ortho's! i thought it'd make sense for it to be like that to mimic a sort of dimmer light? like how they're slowly deteriorating or smth. ++they have an ahoge that i wanna draw in diff poses depending on their emotions >:)

gave them a mask that kinda mimic ink/blot? wanna stick with that motif for them :)

draconia (lil dragon):

so i wanted to keep a close resemblance to malleus? bc i feel like the idea a lot of people have come with where lil draconia doesn't entirely understand that their related despite their very obvious similar appearances.

the main factor i wanted to tell them apart from the others was lil scale like things on their face? idk i just liked the idea while browsing for refs. it was that or!! more branch-like horns?? idk we'll see :)

#a pompk answers #black sheep #a heartbeat anon's rambles #a pompk's art

[epickiya722]

Hello, can I ask from this ask game :

https://www.tumblr.com/threecheersforinking/677824836625694720/anime-ask-game?source=share

For anime/manga : Sk8, Demon Slayer, BNHA, and Jujutsu Kaisen.

Thanks 🌻

I guess so, Anon! 😆

**

SK8 THE INFINITY 🛹

Favorite Character: Reki, hands down it's Reki. He's just such a great character to me, honestly a little bit of relatable (both as someone who isn't sure of themselves and having siblings).

Favorite Arc/Episode/Scene: The beach episode is definitely my favorite episode. But I gotta say the epilogue scene he has with his family is one of my favorite scenes because it's so damn cute!

Favorite Ship/Pairing: Reki/Langa is my favorite! They're just so cute!

Character I Think is Underrated: Oka is one, Sketchy is another. But a really underrated character? Miki. She's the green haired woman seen in the first episode. Made a post about how she should be a more major SK8 character. I like her design very much and I just think she should be a bigger part of the cast as a skater.

Character I Think is Overrated: Ooh, it's like most of the main cast... Reki is definitely one, Langa is one, too... Shadow is more underrated though... but it's definitely Joe and Cherry!

Something I Love About the Show/Movie: What mostly drawn me in to the show was the vibrant colors. I love colors and the aesthetic of the show is a bonus to me. Also, I love that Reki isn't like some big shot protagonist where he can outskate everyone and anybody. Really like it took an opposite approach, and hone in that he was the more creative type.

**

DEMON SLAYER 🗡

Favorite Character: Tanjiro! He is just so precious, kind and badass! (And it will always gets me how he got that hard ass forehead he got from his mom.)

Favorite Arc/Episode/Scene: Just any time he interacts with Nezuko will always touch my heart. One scene I adore a lot is from the Swordsmith Village arc when Tanjiro braids her hair to mimic Mitsuri's style. It was just too cute. Ooh, but overall my favorite arc so far has to be the Entertainment District arc. Gyutaro and Daki actually became my favorite antagonists because of that arc. And the opening for that arc in the anime is one of my favorite songs.

Favorite Ship/Pairing: I actually had to stop and think for this one. "Do I have a favorite ship here?" Okay, I gotta admit Tengen with his wives are cute. (Watching the anime in dub though becomes something else when you also watch JJK in dub and realize Sukuna and Uraume are married here.)

Character I Think is Underrated: Hmm... I wanna say Mitsuri for this one. Every since the Swordsmith Village arc came out, everywhere I turn there's some video on how Muichiro put in work in his fight scenes, and he did. I applaud that precious little misty guy. But I don't see a lot or even a little praise for Mitsuri and she was whipping that sword!! If anything, that is very impressive that she has a sword like that!!

Character I Think is Overrated: Ah... I gotta say it's tie between Uzui and Rengoku. But before anyone gets on my ass, I do adore both characters very much. (Remember seeing a post that had the absolute nerve to put Rengoku on the list of "frauds".)

Something I Love About the Show/Movie: That anime definitely deserved the animation award. But for me, it's definitely the character designs. The art style makes those designs pop and a lot of the way the characters look pleases me. Like the demons? They don't look like your average demons. One of the reasons why Tanjiro is my favorite is because of his character design.

**

MY HERO ACADEMIA ✨️

Favorite Character: If you have been following since forever, you already know I'm going to say my favorite two are Miruko and Midoriya. They're both my #1s.

Favorite Arc/Episode/Scene: The first half of Miruko's episode. I'll be honest... while I do like Kaminari, every time I rewatch that episode I just watch the Miruko parts. Another episode I really like is the dorm episode because it's mostly like a feel-good episode for me.

Favorite Ship/Pairing: It's Burnin/Miruko for me. "They haven't inter---" Ah! I am allowed to ship characters who haven't interacted and I adore them. Right now, they are my top ship.

Character I Think is Underrated: A lot of them. 😭 First person that comes to mind is Rock Lock. I would question, too, why kids are at a meeting about a dangerous situation. He's a husband and a dad and he loves his family! Of course, he would ask that!

Character I Think is Overrated: In-Universe, Hawks. I'm sorry, but every time there is a scene that showcases how he has many fans I just make this face 😐. He's like that famous gut almost everyone and their mama loves but you are just like "... what's so great about him". I mean, I get it, I do and I like Hawks. But... Also by the fandom, other than Hawks, Dabi and Bakugou. I feel like I don't have to explain here. Again, characters I like, but they are overrated. "But, Kiya, you like Midoriya!" I do! And I don't know if there is another popularity poll coming up, but if he doesn't get #1 on that I will scream. Come on, 9th poll? He is the 9th OFA user?

Something I Love About the Show/Movie: Definitely the range of quirks here. Some quirks, Horikoshi definitely got creative with. Also, say what you want, I like how some of the common tropes are here, but not exactly. Weird thing to be happy about, but I was happy I had to guess who the protagonist was because Midoriya didn't look like the typical one. (I didn't watch the first season first.)

**

JUJUTSU KAISEN 😈

Favorite Character: Yuji Itadori! He is my sunshine! Also a little feral and will take your kneecaps. Like Midoriya, I find he's not really the typical protagonist. He has some traits, but others you don't see too often in protagonists.

Favorite Arc/Episode/Scene: I do like the Shibuya Incident and Culling Game Arcs. Personally, for me, and yes I'm a little bias, my favorite scenes are those with Yuji. My favorite fight scene is his fight against Choso. Now, for the Culling Game Arc, I really enjoyed the fight between Uro, Ryu and Yuta. Mostly because Uro was the best character for me there. But fight scenes aside, I gotta say that other scenes I enjoy are those scenes Yuji has with Megumi and Nobara.

Favorite Ship/Pairing: ItaFushi is the first ship I got into! It's just... it makes me want to cry. Also, NobaMaki! Oh my gosh, that scene they have after the small confrontation with Mai? Love that scene!!

Character I Think is Underrated: The Kyoto students as a whole. My favorite out the bunch is Kasumi Miwa. She's just so silly, kind and come on. I know she says she's frightened at times, but she's also really brave to still fight. I admire that.

Character I Think is Overrated: Once season 2 came, I swear Toji has been a favorite almost overnight! Don't blame the fans, of course. And, no surprise, Gojo and Sukuna.

Something I Love About the Show/Movie: If I need a story to break my heart, I know I can just look to JJK! And I mean not in a dramatic way, I mean like "I'm watching a horror movie and the character I hot attached to too fast dies". Okay, for real though, one of the strongest points for me is the characters. I find a lot of the characters entertaining and intriguing. Even if it's a character I don't practically like. When it comes to the characters, I actually don't get bored of them. There's probably a couple I don't really care for. Also, unpopular opinion, I do like Akutami's art style from the beginning and to end. The style before has this charm to it I just like and it's the same for the style now.

Anime Ask Game

#kiya answers #bnha #mha #boku no hero academia #my hero academia #sk8 #sk8 the infinity #jjk #jujutsu kaisen #demon slayer #kny #kimestu no yaiba #jjk spoilers

[fangaminghell]

Nothing Fancy

Summary: Cande never grew up with a lot of money, only enough to get by. So when they realize they need to give the two of some of the most important people in his world a gift, he starts to wonder if it's "fancy" enough.

Notes: Part Two! The final part!! This one is a bit more comedic and focused on both Sara ( who belongs to @tired-needs-sleep) and Asra.

Cande slammed the door open to their respective room in Asra's mansion. Inside is Gabi and Xia, Gabi playing video games with Xia happily watching. Before she would have been bed ridden, only able to move slightly. Now she's practically bouncing in place, talking Gabi's ears off. It's enough to make Cande cry, but they were already doing it.

" Hey! Team Huddle!" Cande gets the attention of his two younger siblings. Xia immediately gets up, while Gabi gives Cande a look, before pausing his video game. Once all the attention was on her, Cande clears her throat.

" Okay! It has come to my attention that today is Asra and Sara's birthday!" He starts off. Xia gasps excitedly, while Gabi whistles.

" Really?!" Xia exclaims, sparkles practically in her eyes.

" They didn't tell you? Sheesh," Gabi mutters, and Cande looks at him with teary eyes.

" I know right?! How can they not care about something so important!" Cande sighs, shaking her head, " But that's in the past. Right now we need to get them presents!"

" Presents!" Xia mimics happily, while Gabi simply raises a brow.

" You have no idea what to get them, do you?" At that Cande falls to his knees, head hanging in shame.

" No…."

He can practically feel the eye roll Gabi gives her, and looks up to see Gabi giving Xia a little nudge.

" Xia, can you get your art set out for us? We're gonna make our friends some presents,"

Xia gasps happily, immediately running to get her things. Cande heart swells, and before Gabi can react, Cande already puts him in a bone crushing hug.

" Aaaaah, Gabi, you're a genius! My smart little brother!"

They can feel Gabi start to squirm.

" Candeeee stoooooopp!!"

~~~~

They trio spent the rest of the day making two gifts for their friends. During that time, Cause got a text from Philomena. It was a picture of her and Sara going out together, possibly coming out from a movie. Cande can't help but chuckle at the idea of Mena's dragging Sara out of the mansion for a birthday trip.

His gifts to his friends were almost done too. Xia, Gabi and him made Sara a custom bracelet together. It…wasn't exactly Sara's style, per say. Very colorful and very choppily put together. But it was made with a bunch of love, so she can only hope Sara loved it. Xia and Gabi certainly did.

As for Asra…well.

" Ow!" Cande hisses, pricking their finger on the needle again. She quietly thanked Arceus that this was one of the final stitches for Asra's little doll. It wasn't anything special really. It was made up of leftover materials that Cande found in their old closet, nothing like those fancy dolls he would see in stores. His heart sinks a little, deep in thought. Would Asra even like this? It's nothing like those fancy stuff they have in their mansion. And Sara, that bracelet doesn't match them at all! What if she doesn't like it? What if this isn't enough-

" Hey," Gabi pokes Cande's cheek, gaining his attention.

" Wha-"

" You're overthinking again. That's my thing. Stop it," Gabi huffs, " They'll like it. Sara likes you a lot, and Asra is pretty much whipped for you, so it's not going to be hard to impress them,"

Cande blinks, taking in her little brothers words.

" A-ah, well I guess you're right- WAIT WHAT DO YOU MEAN ASRA'S WHIPPED?! HUH?!"

" That means Asra and Cande are gonna get married! Gabi said so!" Xia giggles, and Cande feels like their going to be knocked out.

" HUH?!"

~~~

Ignoring….all of that, Cande decided to give Sara her gift first. She's….gonna need some time before getting to Asra.

" KISARAGI!" Cande yells, kicking the door open. He immediately finds his friend who….oh wait, has she been crying?

" A-ah! Sara, what's wrong, are you okay?!" Cande's bravo washes away immediately, now replaced with a big brotherly worry seeing Sara's puffy eyes. When Sara looks at her, they seem to choke up even more.

" Oh no, did I scare you? I'm sorry, I was being dramatic-" Cande rushes over to Sara, a million apologies spilling out of her mouth only for Sara to continuously shake their head.

" N-no! You didn't do anything wrong! I just- I'm really happy right now!" Sara clarifies and Cande let's out a sigh of relief.

" Oh thank goodness," he sighs, before giving Sara a big grin, " Well, let's hope this makes you even happier!"

Cande takes out the homemade bracelet, presenting it to Sara with a sheepish grin.

" Happy Birthday, Sara! Me, Gabi and Xia made it! I hope you like it…."

There's a silence between the two, Sara only staring at bracelets. Worry and doubt creeps in once again, causing Cande to stutter.

" I-It's okay if you don't like it, I know it's not-" Before Cande can finish, Sara grabs the bracelet out of Cande's hand, and puts it on immediately. They then stare into Cande's soul.

" I'm keeping this. Forever. "

Cande blinks, processing what just happened. And when he does, his smile becomes as bright as the sun.

" Okay!"

~~~

"....Are you still mad at me for not telling you it's my birthday?" Asra asks carefully, just when Cande enters their room. He quickly clicks in the new painting over their wall- Sara no doubt.

" ….A little. But that's in the past now," Cande says quietly, walking towards Asra to give them their gift. A Gothic doll, to match their general style. Well. As Gothic as Cande herself can make it with the material she has.

" I know it's nothing fancy but-"

" Oh Cande, I love it," Asra says breathlessly, gently taking the doll from his hands. Cande heart soared seeing the way Asra looks at the doll.

" Really?"

" Of course," Asra sighs, smiling, " It's wonderful, Cande. Thank you,"

Cande can't help but blush at the smile Asra is giving her. Can't help the raging emotion that's within their chest. He doesn't process when he moves on his own, when he bends down and gives Asra a small kiss on the cheeks. Moving back, he sees Asra staring back at him with wide eyes, and a hand on their cheek. Their face is turning red. Adorable. Cande smiles, bright as the sun itself.

" Happy Birthday, Asra!"

#:D #and that's that! thanks for reading! #oc: asra 🌂

[lilliths-httyd-blog]

Okay, the lighting in those two pieces you just showed looks fantastic! I’ve been struggling with how to work out lighting on original pieces. Any tips?

learn how to effectively use colours and how saturated and vibrant those colours should or shouldn't be. set your layer types to funky shit like "hard light" and "soft light" and "glow" and "overlay". make sure you're using the right colours for the right purpose like blue/purple shadows and shit is pretty standard but also break the rules if you want. learn where shadows should go. make your entire character shadow and then erase where the light should go. know where your light source is. fuck around and find out. that second one? i tried so much shit that didn't make it into the final image. keep going until it looks right. watch how other artists do it and mimic what they do. stare at the composite makeup of shadows and work with them based on what you want to accomplish. shadows in anime art are way easier than in semi realistic and are harder than certain cartoon styles iykwim. i honestly dont know.

[triple-mayday]

Okay if I see a motherfucker promoting/using AI for “art” I’ll break their jaw. Fuck off. Literally fuck off. Don’t you dare steal labor and passion of real human beings for profit, you shitstains.

This is incredibly discouraging, to be an artist and wish to share your work with people, and spend every moment fearing that it can be stolen by some piece of shit to feed an algorithm.

People are getting hurt. People are scared, devalued, belittled, and humiliated. The AUDACITY some have to rip off the fruit of years of hard work to generate a Frankenstein-esque abomination. I don’t see beauty in AI “art” despite its superficial appeal, I see thousands of people getting robbed and losing their creations to corporate greed.

And don’t you tell me that it’s “inspiration” and “transformative”. Fuck you. Manet was actually inspired by Titian, he studied his work, he practiced his art, he used creativity and years of practice to breathe life into his art. I am damn aware where my inspirations come from, I can ramble for hours about how much I love Junji Ito and Kohei Horikoshi’s art styles, or how I’m absolutely in love with Edgar Degas and Ivan Aivazovsky. I’m a slut for Impressionism and proud of it. Loudly and lovingly. Mindless uploading of content into a program and mix-and-match automatic production is *nothing* compared to the journey the artists go through. There is no creativity, transformation, or inspiration. There is no effort. Just a machine following a command and chopping up millions of works and glueing them together to mimic a prompt.

I went to school to study art, I’ve had a pencil in my hand since I was a toddler, I practice and practice and practice my craft. I love what I am doing. I hate that I cannot share my work as freely as I once could. I will never consent to having my creations used as fuel for a soulless machine. I know how much it hurts to lose a job to AI, to have your effort devalued and looked down upon in the era of instant gratification. I also know how much artists love to create, and that human beings physically cannot stop themselves from getting inspired, falling in love, creating. That one thing that keeps me going. I will not accept AI as a tool for as long as it is used to abuse and exploit the art community.

Pay artists, report art theft. Tell the companies who decide to replace artists with AI to go fuck themselves. I’m not spending a single penny on generated and almost certainly stolen mangled bullshit. No books with generated covers. No movies that replace makeup artists with AI. Nothing. Capitalism only speaks the language of money, so SPEAK UP

#ai art debate #ai art theft #art #art community #digital art #traditional art #fuck ai art

[kodzumie-archived]

im not sure if i even remember the pseudonym i had on this blog, nor if i want, but all i know was that it was on the emoji display of your regular anons wall. that might serve as some sort of identification

though it mightve been the purple pixel alien, i can't be sure

regardless, time moves on; we've all progressed in our lives, we've grown. yet i cannot help but think about you, and what happened to you. you remained one of the most impressionable authors to me thus far; your articulate prose was a contributing factor, yes, but you were just so... kind. and sweet to us. it stuck to me like honey, never of the saccharine likes-- only that which was unbearably hard to wash off my skins surface

i don't know what happened to you, and i wish i knew-- it might be a bit selfish, or intrusive, given how we don't actually know each other, but gods... sometimes, in the back of my mind, i recount all the people ive come to be estranged with and i know your vague visage one of them, one of those i worry for. i hope you're okay. i sorely wish you're okay and well and alive

and i really, really wish that the possibility you're dead is false-- i almost need it to be, you had come to feel like a friend to me; your disappearance happened in early 2021, when covid was still relatively rampant. if what i fear has presumably happened, then you mightve contracted covid and passed. you mightve had your life unfairly reaped by others, too soon. that's what i thought had happened-- it's the only conclusion i have at my disposal, how i not, being honest?

maybe you felt burdened, maybe you ran away because of an external cause. that mightve been better, knowing you're still out there, somewhere, with a chance at happiness

if you're reading this, if you're alive and well (i hope you are. i wish you are), just... hell, i don't even know what i want you to know.

just know i care for you-- undoubtedly so. many people who have come to know you care for you, and i can bet some people on this blog alike i, care for you dearly, and wish the best.

p. s. ive recently discovered my penchant for literature, and i sorely want to ask you for advice on prose. on writing. on everything there is you could provide an answer to. some days i return to your published works and i attempt to mimic your style; is it because i envy you? because i want to be as good as you are?

or because i want to preserve you in some way-- in the thing i use daily? in poetry and art, that which i love the most?

... sometimes i beat myself up for being no where near your level, but how can that be reasonable? i just recently started practicing, and it's clear your work has had years of effort dedicated to honing your craft.

and i think, "they seem around college age. they've so much infront of them; i hope they've successfully chased their aspirations"

and i think, "i can be good. i can grow to be good. it will be okay"

and i think, i want you to be okay. of all things, above all things.

i want you to be okay.

i wish you were here

First and foremost—thank you.

Thank you for keeping me in your thoughts. Thank you for your concern. And, of course, thank you for your kind words.

I’m truly blessed to have had such kind individuals to support me and my work two years ago. Please know, even in my absence, you’ve (all) been in my thoughts.

So, at the very least, I hope I can provide closure to you, in addition to my apology for leaving you with your worries for so long.

I am alive! Evidently.

Although a lot has happened since I left this blog—my mental decline culminating in an eventual breakdown and hospitalization—I’m better now than I’ve been in, well, ever.

So... Yeah! It’s been a bit of a ride on my end, and I’ve grown a lot since 2021.

The most obvious change being that I’m no longer the angsty fourteen-year-old I was when I used to run this blog—trying to grow up faster than I should’ve.

I still write (because without it, who am I?), and I still am present on Tumblr.

I’ve shifted my interests, I’ve been practicing diversifying my writing style, and it makes me beyond happy to hear you exploring literature as well!

I’m not sure how I can properly convey with words how thrilled I am to hear that I’ve been a source of inspiration for your pursuit of writing, but please do know that—from the bottom of my heart—I’m cheering for you!

Writing is hard.

It’s difficult, and it’s easy to feel like the expectations you set for yourself aren’t being met, and it’s so, so easy to give up.

But know that your words are true.

You can be good, better than good—you can be great.

And I hope, someday, I can be given the chance to read your work!

Truth be told, I struggle reading my older works, seeing as my style’s changed a lot since then. And, sometimes, it’s difficult to read my current writing.

We’re always looking for ways to become the best we can be. But isn’t that what’s so inspiring about creatives?

I remember our conversations!

(If you’re recalling correctly—then I do genuinely remember and hold dear the conversations I’d had with you, 👾 anon! I fondly look back on the drawings you’d send, and vividly recall how in awe of your talents I was).

I care for you. I’ve cared for you. And I will continue to care for you.

It’s a bit funny to think about, actually—how you look back on my writing and emulate it when, truthfully, I’ve always kept your drawings in mind and, too, have tried to emulate your talent in art!

I guess it goes both ways, our appreciation of one another, and it warms my heart to hear it.

Thank you for the fond memories.

Although I don’t plan on creating any new content for this blog, and I’ve passed from my interest in Danganronpa—you’ll forever hold a place in my heart!

I’ve decided against deactivating.

I’m too attached to completely sever the relation I have with this account and the people I’ve met (mutuals and anons alike).

So, if ever at any point you'd like to contact me, feel free!

Regardless of the reason, I’ll always be happy to hear from you. Even if we’re just friendly strangers online and don’t know each other beyond that, perhaps we can come to be close friends.

I’m sorry for vanishing, and I’m sorry for having worried you.

I hope, with every fiber of my being, that you’ve been alive, well, and happy. I hope you’ve been pursuing your passions, and that life has been treating you well.

If nothing else, know that—even in my absence—I’ve kept you in my thoughts.

Thank you for everything.

I hope we can meet again, my dear.

[mknlm]

Choose Your Own Adventure

Luis Barragan's Home and Studio

For my Choose Your Own Adventure I visited Luis Barragan’s home and studio, a lovely example of Mexican mid-century architecture. 

On my last trip to Mexico City, I had wanted to take the tour, but had no idea that getting tickets would be harder than getting tickets to a Harry Styles concert. They are only only released two weeks at a time and they sell out within minutes. 

From the outside, the house is non-descript, not uncommon for homes in Mexico City. The only thing that pops out is the yellow door. The magic unfolds as soon as you walk in the door and escape the hubbub of the city in a small, pine paneled foyer illuminated by a single light in the corner. 

Barragan’s houses have so many memorable moments. They really feel like an experience, as opposed to a dwelling.  What was most memorable to me was how there were little nooks where you could rest before moving on to the next room. For example, the entry way is a quiet wood paneled room that allows you to shut out the city and take a pause before moving into the expansive house. Before you move into the living room, there is another nook that has a statue of an angel that is illuminated by a floor light. It provides a quiet respite before moving into the expansive living room that has a floor to ceiling window that frames the garden outside.

Barragan also used partitions through doors and screens  in rooms to further separate spaces and give privacy. In fact, there were three doorways and partitions that set his bedroom apart from the upstairs hallway. 

What I was very surprised about was the mix of clean lines of modern architecture and design with traditional religious artifacts and objects that represent Barragan’s strong religious faith. I normally think of religion and moderns totally  independent fo each other. The juxtaposition of the two create a space that feels very layered and multi-dimensional. For example, the paintings of Joseph Albers with multiple squares is undoubtedly as modern as art comes. Barragan’s dressing room with its wooden statues of saints is the opposite.

My favorite piece of artwork was the Mathias Goeritz gold leaf painting that hung next to a window at the top of the stairway, reflecting the light from the outside down the stairs, illuminating the room below. Barragan chose this piece as a nod to his Catholic faith. It immediately reminded me of the Cathedral in Mexico City, dripping with the gold that the Spaniards stripped from the “New World.” At first glance, the painting can’t be seen as anything but modern. However, when one digs a little deeper, it’s hard to miss that the work is a beautiful meld of Barragan’s traditional faith and modern aesthetic. 

I consider myself religious, but I prefer to announce my faith discreetly. In my home that means whispers of elements that nod to my faith…a ceramic angel hanging over my bed, a brightly painted wooden cross that belonged to my grandmother. What I didn’t like was Barragan’s bedroom. Despite a large window that frames the lush greenery of the garden below, the abundance of wood and religious icons make the room feel closed off and is reminiscent of a room in a monastery. The narrow twin bed contributes to the feeling of isolation and loneliness.

When I visit house museums, I always have my eye out for how I can find my own style for decorating my own house. I can’t rework the bones of my house, but I do a lot of things by feel, and I can replicate a feeling.

-strategic lighting at or below eye level

-natural materials such as pine furniture and natural stone.

-the use of color to illuminate parts of a room

-carpeting that mimics grass of the moss of a forest floor.

Overall, the house just really just brings me back to the idea that if you fill a space with things and elements that you love, that your house will turn out okay!

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