#people really liked my last pixel art so have another one!

[cleolinda]

Weekend Links, March 17, 2024

My posts

We have had another Trespasser Weirdness Incident at my house, so. Suffice it to say that the Hot & Vintage Movie Women tournament is my primary coping mechanism at this point, and bless @hotvintagepoll for all their work. All 257 polls are up, although many of them have already closed on a rolling basis these last two weeks. Hedy Lamarr vs Sonja Henie was the very last one, and it is a blowout like I have not seen since the time I asked if people throw away their movie theater trash. I think round 2 starts a week from Monday? I would like to apologize for reblogging every single poll, except that I’m not the least bit sorry. 

I posted propaganda several times--sometimes just because a contestant didn’t have much and I wanted to chip in (still in play: Juanita Moore and Martha Sleeper). But I also showed up specifically for Norma Shearer, Claire Bloom, Tallulah Bankhead, Deborah Kerr, a little bit for Joan Fontaine (poll here), Julie Christie (on my mom’s behalf), Gene Tierney, Paulette Goddard, and Ava Gardner. My loyalties will shift as we see who progresses, but I'm wearing the Ava jersey at this point.

Reblogs of interest

A couple of serious links:

The Jewish filmmakers who won an Oscar for The Zone of Interest, a Holocaust film, used their speech time to condemn what’s happening in Gaza. (It helps to read the quote as “as men who refute {their Jewishness and the Holocaust} being used as justification.” “Refute their Jewishness” jumps out weirdly at first glance and confused people.)

I can’t tell if the JKR defender/Holocaust denier in this ask knows they’re lying or just really didn’t know that transgender health books and surgery did, in fact, exist, and that the Nazis targeted them. If you need photographic evidence for future discussions, here you are. Side note: Don't believe everything your favorite childhood author tells you.

Posts that are not serious links or hot lady polls:

Of course, this week we celebrated the Ides of March. (Happy birthday to... Chocolate Guy Amaury Guichon??) Featuring:

Southern Mark Antony

If Mark Antony was Gen Z

“Oh not you as well, Brutus!”

Also, happy birthday this fine St. Patrick’s Day to Hozier, who was on the Wiggles once, and has a new EP coming out this Friday. Please join me in not being the least bit normal about it. 

The bredlik that the Fairy vs. Walrus debate needed

“Started tone matching my Iraqi corner store guy,” bless everyone involved

A fanfic summary that will hit you like a brick to the face

“Intrigue, Ink, and Drama Grip the Fountain Pen Community”

The Arthur Conan Doyle approach to fic comments

The Kate Middleton Mysteries (”The extent to which this is not Philip Marlowe’s problem is unbelievable”)

Noted power couple/chaos elementals Merchant Ivory

Help improving color in your art

Doggust 2023: the art of Jonathan Wesslund  

Video

Honestly the best part of “I’m Just Ken” at the Oscars for me is Margot Robbie fighting for her life not to laugh

This domino project is honestly really upsetting to me, lmao (THE TIME IT MUST HAVE TAKEN!!)

Death: the bees told her

Puma chirps

A seal’s relaxing ice bath

The sacred texts

The reason we celebrate the Ides of March on Tumblr

Happy birthday to the Old as Balls gifset

A cat’s dating profile

Personal tag of the week

pixel art, because there are some incredible artists on here.

#weekend links #odds and ends #linkspam #special tags for: #holocaust denial #jk rowling #book burning

[ottiliere]

hello! ur posts on the vagus nerve and its connections to digestions have encouraged me to do a lil mini dissertation thingy kinda focused on it/around it, ur big thread on PVT and everything really piqued my interest when i read it and i just held onto it for like a year or smthing until like last week when i started the project. Ik u said recently in one of ur posts i believe that ur not going to post the big dirk PVT post and im not here to be like yo post it because i also think u said that ur kinda moving away from like hs/dirky stuff rn ?? (im forgetting if i saw that sorry) but yeah i just wanted to say thank u etc etc, like ive never done an ask before so sorry if this is phrased weirdly but ur blog is just like one of those blogs that fundamentally changed how i view certain things in life for the better lol, like whether its ur beautiful representations / depictions of mental health in like just beautifully painted art (seriously the way u make it look like idk how to word it cartoony/really 2d but then it stands out against the background + if u zoom in and see the tiny pixel details == it makes me mad) or just like the huggeee long form posts that i like to chew on and save cuz theres so many details that AFFAAT like the way you talk abt the topics u portray has made me concious of how i would want to do so in the same way ig u get me. anyway this got really long and idk if i come across coherently, but ur just a random person on the internet whos art and written thoughts that u decide to share makes me happy when i see it == makes me pace around my room and distract me from this fat essay lmao so tldr: i really appreciate what u do + i hope like that ur doing well and that u keep arting and thoughting no matter what it is that u choose to focus on

(uve made me comitted to reading jthm, playing psychonauts and giving jjba w/ dio another go lmao) 🫶🫶

Hello! I’m sorry this reply is coming so late, this ask in particular is very sweet and has stuck out to me.

I’m really happy to have introduced you to PVT, this is something I’ve heard from a few different people on here and it’s very sweet… I did my thesis on it in college and the time really flew by while working on it, things you don't think could possibly attributed to "nerve issues" being nerve issues is always an eye-opener, isn't it? being able to research things that interest you & access information in general really is a privilege in this day and age.

“The topics [I] portray” are very important to me, so it’s heartening when others take interest in spite of the obvious deterrents. A lot of what I love making art about is unpalatable to most, and while I do understand the reasons for that on principle, it can make things feel a little insular. I genuinely believe there’s a lot of value in depicting tableaus of misery.

The last year has brought a lot of very unforeseen changes, and my life is quite different from when I initially made this blog to post about him! That’s also part of why I’ve been so sparse here…though I’m working to change that quite soon. I love sharing my work, and I’ve had the privilege of meeting some truly wonderful people through this website. That said…with where I’m at now, I’m not sure I’ll be posting the Dirk essay anytime soon, I’m afraid.

I’ve undertaken a few ongoing projects, one of which in particular is an original project I plan on sharing publicly here hopefully within the next month or so. I hope it’s something you & anyone else who’s stuck around with me here will enjoy, but failing that, I’ve really enjoyed working on it thus far.

Thank you for the sweet ask, take care, and good luck with your project!

#ask #I'm not afraid to admit that my fondness for dio is entirely contingent on things I made up about him in my head over the years. #there's a draft here filled with thousands of words about him that I started writing up in response to some ask I got earlier this year #but I never finished it... :( and I also never posted the dozens and dozens of pictures I frenetically drew of him either. maybe someday #on another note: I did my yearly reread of johnny the other month. I'll do something big with him one day but this year is not the year #similarly sasha answers in the queue. I'm glad you enjoyed psychonauts it's one of the greatest games ever visually and re: gameplay. etc #lucy art

[inthelittlewood]

Any plans after Rats SMP ends? Solo content? Find a new SMP?

I've been getting this question a lot since the Rats end was confirmed and it's very reassuring that I've put my best foot forward this past month or two (I'm glad you've enjoyed it all!)

Currently I've no plans. That's the honest truth.

Rats episodes will likely see the YouTube channel through to mid January and streams should last until early Jan, at a guess

But then, it's a big unknown...

The next Life series has no date but Grian has said 2023, that can be as short lived as 6 weeks so that's more of a flash in the pan project than a proper SMP

I don't have another SMP to transition to (and I stress this every time, PLEASE DON'T pester people in existent SMPs to add me. That won't achieve anything and will likely only put them off the idea entirely)

I'd love to make some content themed around Blockbench and coding. It will be January after all, it's almost tradition at this point that I go on a development binge haha

Those videos wouldn't be tutorials but more 'making your comments in Minecraft' type ones instead

As for episodical / long form content, I'm clueless. I'll have to do some research over the holidays and see what others are up to to try and draw inspiration then calve a niche so I stand out

Vault Hunters? Too grindy from what I've seen / been told

Hardcore World? Unless I'm missing something, are these literally just single player world series people do and there's the risk I lose everything (no thanks!)

I've done some build homework recently for Fwhip and Sausage. Those were really fun exercises and something I'm going to keep up with because historically I've always had minimalist / ugly bases and I certainly feel behind my peers on that skillset, so I need to brush up!

The truth of it is.. The Rats SMP is perfect for me. A little building (leaning in to pixel art which is my only slight artistic capability), a unique environment to explore, unfamiliar dangers, plenty of room for light roleplay and improv comedy, all wrapped up with a light overarching narrative. It's now my favourite MC experience ever (yes, even moreso than the ADVENTure)

So there you have it. I'm reinvigorated and more in love with Minecraft than ever before but have absolutely no clue how to apply myself!!

I plan to do a community post on YouTube and vet my chat / discord on content preferences as we have to remember, this is a job at the end of the day. Gotta please the people, but I certainly won't be making videos for the sake of making them. They won't have that same spark if I do.

If you've any thoughts, comment away 👋

[cleothelittlerockstar]

=×⭐Aren't they gorgeous?⭐×=

Who? The new Starmaker?

🌟 Yes

🌟⭐ Them.

🌟⭐♥️ I mean..

🌟⭐♥️⭐ Just

🌟⭐♥️⭐🌟 look at

🌟⭐♥️⭐🌟🌟⭐♥️⭐🌟 them...

🌟⭐♥️⭐🌟🌟⭐♥️⭐🌟🌟⭐♥️⭐🌟

=×=×=×=×=×=×=×=×=×=×=×=×=×=×=×=×=×=×=×

🌟

\___________________♥️_____________________/

,,I mean, I guess they are."

/+\+/+\+/+\+/+\+/+\+/+\+/+\+/+\+/+\+/+\+/+\

(Click the image for best quality)

I decided to change up the formula for this post because I am just so fuckin proud of how this turned out so a rant about my progress and work on this peice under the cut!

HAZAH! BEHOLD!

FOR I BRING ANOTHER DRAWING TODAY!

This one is called The new Starmaker!

It is based off of an AU/HC I had for a while based on the fact that the more Crowley (as an angel) began to question things during his conversation with Azi his wings turned darker and darker.

Sooo...

What if, days, hours maybe even moments before his fall...

His wings became a galaxy, an omen of hope for him that maybe he was doing the right thing questioning things before God struck him down.

But yeah! All in all, I am really proud of this one♥️, it took me half a day to finish in total because Pixel studios kept crashing on me. Fuck you Pixel Studios (I love you) and I actually did two vers of the BG on this one!

So let's look at it together!

So this is Ver. 1

-Basically just a void behind him, I thought it added a nice contrast and people I showed it to seemed to like it but when I came back to look at it I dunno

-It just kinda felt bland, ya know?

-Like yes the colors do contrast nicely and the lil stars around him pop more but eeeeeh

-I dunno, I just didn't vibe with it with that bg

So I went to Ver. 2!

-I liked this one a lot more than the original one because why yes, I am a sucker for color

-Oh and it gave me the chance to test out the brushes Pixel has to offer

-I really like the cross looking ones!

-Okay but back onto the art

-I just genuinely liked the vibe of this one more than the last

-(Also got to give my boi a halo so WAHOO)

-And I got to play around with a lot of details for the bg and stuff

So with that out of the way, as a closing touch I wanna just show off some of the bits I had the most fun with while doing this!

(Again, click for better quality)

So first off! I had so much fun with the bg gradients it isn't even funny. Like the lil pixels scratch my brain just right when I drew them.

Oh and the wings. They were REALLY fucking fun to draw.

Love em, need em, gonna do more of them soon ^^

But my most favourite part of this was ♥️Crowley's hair!♥️

Like I just zoned out for a good forty minutes, made the hair look like a galaxy on accident, had the program crash on me and erase all the progress and do it all over again.

But like.

In my not so humble opinion (because I have the ego the size of a blue whale, deal with it) I think it turned out TERRIFIC!

Like I just MWAH!

I love how I drew it!

===×=×==×

But yeah, that's pretty much it! Thank chu for reading my art rant and see you on the next post, baiii!

#good omens #crowley #<3 #art #good omens s2 #good omens 2 #ineffable husbands #digital art #starmaker!crowley #angel!crowley #Art rant #fanart

[theambivalentagender]

I love your comic!! What inspired you to share Zekes story?

There's a lot to this answer so buckle up.

I've always been a writer, ever since I was a little kid telling stories has been my entire life's goal. But its been a struggle, and for a long time I've felt kinda lost in trying to survive taking soul sucking desk jobs. It honestly destroyed any desire I had to create.

And then at the beginning of 2022 I got abruptly fired (for what I don't think are honest reasons but that's another story). And then I found myself just not being able to land a new job no matter what I did - I worked in a tech-adjacent industry and know others in similar positions also have had these issues. Weeks turned into months, and my mental health took a nosedive.

That summer I noticed one of my long time close friends kept popping up on steam playing Stardew Valley at odd hours in the morning. I'd heard of the game before, I loved farming sims, and I really needed a distraction. So I finally bought it.

Long story short, several hours into the game this motherfucker hits me up with this line:

So you can imagine what that did to my psyche. I got so god damn invested in the game. Like I do with any game, I started modding the crap out of it, mostly to add more lines for Shane. And then I found myself imagining my own little story with my farmer.

For a good while this was just a dumb headcanon story I had every time I played Stardew. But then I found myself actually plotting things out, connecting different aspects of SDV that were "unexplained" or "implied" with the story I was developing in my head. And then I realized - I was making a story again. I was feeling the exact same way I used to feel when I would plan out and write a play, or a short story, or one of my many unfinished novels. It was such a good feeling, and I started coming around to the idea that I shouldn't just keep this story in my head.

I dealt with a lot of self doubt over it of course. The last time I wrote anything like fanfiction was when I was 10 and it was a HP fanfic where I misspelled Slytherin in five different ways. Some part of me felt like it would be wasting time because I wouldn't make money off of it. Another part of me worried I'd be mocked for writing an entire self-indulgent story about a borderline self-insert character romancing a grumpy pixel man, when I was nearly 30 living in an apartment with a long term partner and shouldn't be doing such *childish things*.

I lurked around the SDV fandom for a long time before actually posting anything, and seeing other people, often people close to my own age, doing exactly what I was afraid of because fuck it, we're adults and we get to decide what that means, really helped. It also helped to see a positive community praising and supporting creators of all skill levels.

As for the money thing, I ended up "justifying" it to myself that if I made myself draw just about every day working on the comic (since I had decided to make it a comic rather than a fanfic), that would help me bring my art skills up to par with my writing skills. And, well, it would probably help my mental health if I had something productive to work on while I still looked for a job, because there's only so many times you can rotate between various video games.

I honestly didn't expect the comic to get as much attention as it has. But I told myself even if nobody cared about it, I'd make it for the one person who wanted to see this story play out - me.

#personal #asks #valley echoes asides

[sojrner-fishsticcc]

Haiiiii

I love ur work so much omg

I just came across ur stuff on my dash

How do you practice pixel art? I have tried makin fur on my mc skin but it never works well

oh hi!!! first of all, a lot of my work is through just... doin it a lot. i've been doing modeling n texturing for a lil over a year now so i have a lot of practice with it. but i can give you a few lil tips! there's basically 2 mistakes i see a lot of beginners make, and that's using noise and not hue-shifting their palettes.

noise is a way to add randomness to textures by randomly makin pixels darker and lighter. uhh... do not do this. noise tends to look messy and disorganized, i'd *highly* recommend you do your coloring by hand/paw (whichever you have!) with your own color palette. below is two versions of a basic skin, just the front of a torso with grey fur and a white chest. the left version is done with noise, the second is done manually.

doin things manually adds SO much detail to your texturing. it helps things feel more cohesive by giving it order. there are a lot of lil things i've picked up with how i texture that are just things i've learned through practice. try this out! try different patterns and see if you like how they look. if you look closely at my texturing you can see a *lot* of little repeats with how things are textured.

hue-shifting is basically addin some color - or 'hue' - to your palettes! this is another thing noise does poorly- noise tools usually just make things straight up darker or lighter which looks really boring! here's an example with the palettes i just used. my palettes use 5 colors, but you can use as many as you like. on the left are the ones the skin already used, they just get directly darker or lighter. the ones on the right add some hue in there! the creamy tones for the chest use start dark with an orange hue but shift towards yellow as they get brighter, and the darker fur goes from almost purple light blue. hue shifting adds a LOT of flavor to texturing, add a lil more than you think you need- you can always tone it down later.

and here's how those colors work on that example from earlier!

mwah! this isn't perfect, it's just a quick example i threw together for a test, but it's a big improvement! as one last lil tip specifically for mc skins- USE DETAIL LAYERS!!! those are the layers that hover just above the skin. they can add a wonderful amount of depth to your texture work. avoid using them in little random dots because it can make the texture look messy- try grouping them together in patches to make things feel more connected. as for other stuff- follow tutorials! this is a very brief lil explanation of some of the biggest mistakes i see, but there's so much more material online! one of my fav texture artists Jingles makes really wonderful vanilla skin stuff, and teaches a lot of similar stuff to this! the biggest thing you can do to improve your art, no matter the medium, is to practice!!! do it a lot!!! i have a lot of experience with this because i do it a lot, and i've picked up a lot of lil things with time. awawa apologies for this being sorta scattered n all over the place! in the future i ought to make some proper tutorials to direct people too, but i hope this helps for now! i wish you a lot of luck on your modeling journey!!! awooo!!!

#soj asks

[triflingshadows]

Self-Rec tag game

Tagged by @dungeons-and-dragon-age and @oopsallmabari !

Rules: Share five of your own fanworks (fic, art, etc.). Then, tag five more people to share the things they’ve made.

-

1- Something you absolutely adore:

The wayfarer mass attack from last year’s artfight is still one of my favorite pieces I’ve done overall. I don’t think I’d have been able to do it for another fandom just because of how involved I was in the wayfarer discord+artist circles back then, and how small the fandom is compared to, say, dragon age. This one^ was literally all the wayfarer characters *on* artfight, including mine (5th from the right) and one who hadn’t been uploaded to artfight just yet!

2- Something that was challenging to create:

My piece for a gift exchange a while ago, the pose and the bg were hard as was figuring out the composition in the first place…this one went through so many iterations. Shocked I drew the bottoms of the feet so well first try. Also thank you again to I believe rowen for lending me your hand as a ref

3- Something that makes you laugh/smile:

One of many stupid ideas I have which either get drawn or languish in my big drawing ideas note forever

4- Something that surprised you:

The pixel wrath characters! Didn’t expect to finish the set or for them to turn out so well. Honestly very similar to the pieces I’ve been doing recently as commissions in terms of bright colors and the poses…hmm

5- Something you want other people to see:

Azata yuri!!! Arueshalae’s armor is so hard to draw, also I still really like the faces+lighting effects…butterflies are also hard to draw…link here

Taggingggg…. @ahvene @arcturite @brother-genitivi @brainwormterrarium @brainrotdotorg and anyone else who wants to!!

#misc #tag game

[sharky857]

At last, my "Proper Farmer™" got her own actual profile! 😭

Many thanks to the "Farmer Portrait" Picrew for the portrait (duh!) and the "SDV Dollmaker" mostly for the sprites (though I would appreciate if they could be saved in a bigger size 😅).

Also, many, many, many more thanks to @d-structive for the lovely commission! 💖

Here's the original pic:

I only have an extra bit to drop: Melly's recurring theme is "apples".

Hence why the farm is named "Honeycrisp", while Melly's actual name is "Melinda". in addition, her clothing colours is supposed to recall the different colours of the apple fruits while not being an eyesore. And I know: it is quite ironic for someone so apple-centered to have not a single apple listed anywhere in the "gifts".

Another fun fact about Melly is that the light green gilet is an old gift from her grandmother, who had a huge passion for knitting (and sewing). Melly's been cherishing and treating that clothing item with utmost care, also considering it as some kind of personal lucky charm.

And now, if you made it thus far, inb4 anyone may jump at my throat for what I wrote under "relationships", the fourse horsemen of "avoided like the plague" all have a specific reason each to be avoided:

Haley: Merely commented one time too much on Melly's look. The last straw was her subtle-but-not-really taunt at some sleeveless gilet "so out of style".

Alex: Asked Melly if she wears any bikini. While they didn't even know each other that much. Melly sputtered, panicked, balked and ceased any further attempt at socialising with him since then, in that precise order. 💀

Shane: At first it had been his severely unsociable demeanour to make her desist. After incidentally learning about his struggles with depression, Melly is now low-key scared shitless concerned to say or do something wrong in his presence that might potentially worsen the thing. He is not really a full "ALTP" like the former two, but she'd rather keep her distance until feeling ready enough to attempt any new approach.

Penny: This might come as a surprise, considering how she always seems so sweet and kind and polite and etc. when interacting with her. However Melly came to quite a rough halt with Penny's interactions the day they ended up talking about children. Some farmer has just never really forgotten that "if everyone thought like that, humans would die out" very quick and negative judgement that instantly drove her up a couple walls. 🙂 On the other hand, if Penny will ever reach out with the due apologies, Melly may consider forgiveness; she's too good to hold grudges even after an apology.

As for all the unmentioned NPCs, they are either in the "mutual tolerance" or "neutral" category. The latter would also include people Melly has yet to encounter (kinda hard to have an opinion on someone you've never seen before).

P.S.: The actual profile may be slightly updated in the future, depending on when and if the creator of that specific Picrew will ever include more items (the current portraits desperately needs for eyewear and I'm not that good at pixel-arting to add them myself 😔).

#stardew valley #sdv #stardew farmer #sdv farmer #farmer stardew valley #farmer sdv

[lemmilemura]

Besides Simon, I (surprisingly) have many many more characters that I am just so in love with. Here's a list of them:

Literally the love of my life. If he was real oh my god.

LISTEN. I KNOW HE'S MADE OF PIXELS. BUT I DON'T CARE. The origin of my love for badboys fr

I mean do I really have to explain?

SPENCER. MOTHERFUCKING. REID. The only reason I even watched Criminal Minds and I'm not even gonna pretend he wasn't.

Connor Murphy. I sadly don't know the credit for the art, if anyone does, please do let me know!! Connor fits into my type of "weird sad wet cat guys"

Absolute angel, deserves HOURS of screentime. My fav part of the movie ngl

I only really care about one FinalFantasy game and it is 15 and it is 1000000% because of Prompto. Sunshine child. I adore him.

Another one I probably don't have to explain

One of my longest fictional husbands. He's just.... PERFECT????

Listen usually I'm not that into...... """"DILFs"""", but Reaper is an exception.

Baby. Sweet angel. Can do no wrong.

I know he's gay but PLEASE. ONE CHANCE. PLEEEASEEE

He used to be my second favorite, but after a recent rewatch (that I'm stll in the middle of) he jumped right to the top.

Look I like em traumatized okay? xD

I know a lot of people don't like him, but I loved him from the start, day 1 of the game.

Again, "sad wet cat" vibe

And, to end the list, we go back to the 'first' 3 fictional men I loved

He's probably the origin for me liking dudes with fangs and red eyes xD

First of all the glow up??? HELLO????? This man has made me cry SO MANY TIMES

Last but not least, "Why fuck sans when you can fuck his dad?" There's a story behind Gaster that I'll maybe get into another day xD (also sadly don't know the credit for the art)

I know most of yall probably don't care, but hey, my blog I can post whatever the fuck I want.

#f/o #fictional crushes

[theeclipsedcrown]

Yo, how do you make your pixel art? The Magolor sprites you've done look fabulous and I want try getting better at it (i've only made a few Undertale Magolor sprites so far)

Ah thank you, I'm flattered you think my pixel art looks that good! I'll try my best to explain what I do for my pixel art, though part of it is just old-fashioned trial and error before you really understand how it works. My process under the cut (Lots of images and quite text heavy.)

A good first thing to consider is how compressed you want to go, I aim for 32 x 32 (as shown with the lines), but the canvas itself is actually larger so I have more room in case the sprite just looks better a bit larger.

The first part is just getting the basic shapes and colours. No need to go for anything fancy this step since there will be plenty of time for that later. Some people find it easier to do a sketch layer before blocking out the colours here, but I don't find it as helpful unless it's a more complicated pose. Just get the basic silhouette done and some minor cleanup for pixels that look particularly lumpy. The amount of pixel cleanup you want to do here entirely depends on what kind of pose you want here. For more dynamic poses, less cleanup is better or they start to look too stiff. Otherwise for the crisp game sprite look you want to make sure the pixels look neat.

First pass of details can now be added. Lines are going to be tricky here since you have to consider between the two options.

Here is just a convenient example of usage of two different kinds of lines in pixel art, "diagonal" where all the pixels are purely diagonal (makes for very crisp and thin lines, but it means you do have to clean up all the stray corner pixels whenever you draw a line.) The other type of line is where all the pixels are directly touching each other, this is typically what you get when you draw a line with a pixel brush and can work in some cases where you need just a slightly "thicker" line. (It's still technically also a one pixel wide line, but just gives off the illusion of being thicker.) The whole line situation thing here doesn't have any clear rules, it's just a matter of seeing if it looks better one way or another and going with that.

Now you can technically consider things finished in the previous step, but otherwise here is where you do last second cleanup and shading. There aren't really any special tips for the shading here besides what one would do on a normal sized canvas. After that then you should have a finished sprite!

(Miscellaneous tips I couldn't find a good place for.)

-Try not to cram in every single detail, even major details can get lost in the compression here, so aim for trying to get it to roughly look like what you're aiming for at a glance. The brain is fantastic at filling in all the missing information as long as you give it a solid start. -It also helps to consider if the width/height of the sprite is on an odd/even pixel. The symmetry you get is different and can drastically change the look of a sprite. (For example, circles often look much better on an odd number of pixels.)

-I highly recommend keeping a limited colour palette, otherwise it gets far too busy to look at very fast. (For shading try to limit yourself to one extra shade per colour, only going up to two for a highlight and a shadow if what you're drawing is very shiny.)

-Lastly, references. There's nothing that quite helps as much as just observing some art carefully and seeing what techniques were used for what. Hopefully this made some sense or at least helped in some way!

#eclipse answers #long post #My art

[jimmyandthepulsatingmass]

Jimmy’s 4th Anniversary

It’s been four years since I released Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass.  I don’t have much to share about Jimmy; I’ve already talked at length about it numerous times.  It will always be my first big commercial release, the game that started my career in game dev, and will always occupy a big part of my heart.  But, I wanted to use this time to talk about my new game, which I hope to have an official announcement about soon.

I just posted a bunch of stuff on Twitter, and I’m going to share that here for the people who don’t have a Twitter, but I’m going to share a few more thoughts on my upcoming project since, frankly, I just like tumblr’s interface way better.

So, first off, I wanted to share some concept art:

Her name is Shear, and she’s one of four main characters from the game.  At the start of the game, you get to choose between one of the four main protagonists.  When you finish their story, you get to choose another character and experience their story.  Your time playing each character’s story matters, meaning you’ll open up areas on one game that you might explore on another, or you might level up characters that can be used on another protagonist’s game.  There’s are basically four full-length RPGs here, so there’s a lot of meat on the bone (and that’s why development’s taking so damn long)!

This is Capella, another of the four main protagonists.  In addition to these four characters, there are also close to 40 different mercenaries that can join your party, each with their own motivations and biases.  They’ll react to different moments in the story differently.  This doesn’t just mean unique dialogue; the characters might leave your party if they disagree with you, they might get paid by adversaries to fight against you, they’ll have moments of growth that both affect them from a writing perspective and mechanical perspective, and so on.

This character, Pox the Vile, is going to be one of the two playable main characters that will be in the demo.  Each of the character’s stories are fully unique and occur mostly in unique parts of the world.  There’s going to be a huge, strange, insectoid world to explore.

This is the last of the main characters: Phlegm.  All of this concept art was done by Cubesona (Twitter: https://twitter.com/Cubesona).  He’s one of the two artists I’ve hired for this project.  Right now, he’s handling both the design and the pixel art in the game (the other artist is handling animations).  I’m really looking forward to sharing some in-game footage, but I want to wait until I have a Steam page up so that people will be able to wishlist it whenever I post about it.

Anyway, I think that’s about all I’m going to share for now.  Hopefully, I’ll be able to share more about this project in the next few months, including an official announcement, trailer, demo, and kickstarter.  Jimmy was a personal game that I’m very proud of, but, with this game, I want to show what I can do with that same amount of passion and an actual budget.  Stay tuned for more announcements in the near future.  This game’s really going to be special!

[fairymatchmaker]

people i’d like to know better

Thanks for tagging me @moominofthevalley . I'm late since I'm a bit hesitant because I'm not really good in replying or answering... like it would took me forever lol but I'll try my best 🫡

Okay here we go.

last song:

Hmm out of all songs I've listened to, the last one was probably "Better Man" by Taylor Swift. I love most of Taylor's songs ever since I was a kid.

favorite colors:

I actually don't know 🤔😅 I love all colors. All colors are giving me different vibes, feelings and emotions that explains why everything's so amazing and beautiful.

But if we are going to talk about the color especially clothes, I mostly prefer darker colors or just the plain ones.🤔

currently watching:

Ohh ...an on-going K-drama "Marry My Husband". Even though I already done reading the manhwa but I wanna know and see the difference. 😅

I noticed there are some changes of the plot from manhwa to K-drama and I really like it so far 🫰

last movie watched:

Movie?? I can't quite remember of it😭 but I think "Hercules (1997)" and Indian movie titled "Taare Zameen Par" .. dang I remember I cried watching the movie without everyone getting noticed.🥹🥴

currently reading:

None so far.

Unless my study lessons are considered.🥹

sweet/spicy/savory:

All of it🥹🙌

last thing i googled:

The correct pixels, good ratio, size of canvas for digital art🥹

current obsession:

Well ... Seeing different cool poses of models as my future references for fan arts.

Likes it, saves it, and..... forgets.....sometimes

currently working on:

Hhhmmm... A comic based on canon. I have a lots of pending arts, in laptop and even on my phone. I actually don't know what WIP art should I continue because I'm planning to make another one ... Again..🥹

Aside on getting busy again with my school works. I wanna capture the particular feeling or mood and find more inspirations before I can proceed to create an art again. I'll try my best on not adding unfinished WIP arts 😅

tagging:

I don't know who am I going to tag but everyone is very welcome to participate 🤍

#people i'd like to know better #moominofthevalley #guhitnijoy on tumblr

[amysnotdeadyet]

2023 in review

Just the fannish creations, thanks. I don't want to think too hard about how fucking weird and stressful the year was outside of that. XD

I found some old 00Q art hiding on my hard drive and posted it in Feb.

I wrote a short Inception ficlet for @ladyprydian in April to try to jumpstart my muses. It didn't work.

I binge-wrote a whole-ass Sandman fic with (gasp!) fade-to-black porn in it in May.

July brought the Stony games! I was much less prolific than last year, but I managed a few things, starting with 3 little drabbles about perception.

I did a giftfic for the games! It starts in media res and I, being a troll, titled it In Pornia Res because yeah, this one's just pure porn against a background of worldbuilding.

I posted a longstanding WIP that was 100% self-indulgent trash, with Tony and Steve getting Bucky as their new sugar baby and treating him them right. Absolutely just the fluffiest of trash, but 66K of it!

I posted another longstanding WIP that's really pre-slash (I KNOW so weird) but involves catboy Tony, catboy Bucky, and a puppy Steve who's gonna get both (after the fic anyway).

My last little Stony Games fill was 8-bit pixel porn, because of course it was.

Later in August I did the "write what you want to see" thing and banged out (heh) a very kinky Stranger Things fic with Steve/Eddie and a leather bar. Somehow, it's still extremely fluffy.

I drew! Fanart! With pens and shit! Also Steve/Eddie.

And then I made pixel art of them, because why not.

Another Steddie fic, this time a modern AU with 'lost touch' feelings and also banging the rockstar in his hotel room.

And finally, my MTH2021 fic is posting a year late, and will continue on into the new year. It's all done and edited, I just like the daily posting method for getting drip-fed dopamine and also sitting there posting 29 chapters at once is no bueno.

You can find all of this stuff here, so I'm not link-stuffing the post: https://archiveofourown.org/users/swtalmnd/works

What's Coming in 2024 (besides my blorbos)

I have a few more Stuckony WIPs waiting in the wings, including my MTH 2022 fic, which I hope to finish in time to actually participate in 2024.

I have at least 1 novel coming out and maybe 2? I didn't publish ANY original fiction last year (gah), but I finished 1 draft (the sequel to Hive) and am plodding along on 2 more (Julian 4 and something new). I am so slow these days, tho, gah. I have no idea how some people put out multiple books a year, year after year.

I've got a few more Eeveeon arts to share, which I always forget to do on Tumbls.

I might actually open commissions next year (for art, I don't enjoy fic commissions).

I'm gonna a Stuckony Valentine thing, so you'll get at least one short fic from me in Feb.

I'm hoping something new will sweep me into its fandomy arms, because while I do love my current blorbos (MCU & Stranger Things), neither one is really doing the full fixation dance in my brain and that's sad. OTOH I'd like to finish my MCU WIPs before that spark fully dies ahahaha haha ha.

As far as art goes, I'm keeping up my Patreon sketch cards and not a ton else, but my new-new meds are helping me Get Shit Done, so I'm really hoping that I can get back into larger-than-a-playing-card artwork, both fannish and non.

I'm still gonna do more of my 8-bit bullshit, though.

#2023 in review #my post #my art #2023 will have been a thing i lived through that's for sure

[cmdonovann]

quantum break appreciation month: a quick retrospective

so, first of all, wow, it was WAY more effort than i thought to just POST SOMETHING EVERY DAY. i put a lot of pressure on myself to only post The Good Stuff to this blog, and boy golly is my standard of "good stuff" higher than it ought to be! so this has been great practice for me in "finished is better than perfect."

second of all, i wanna put together a quick rundown of everything i did this month!

Announcement post

April 1st: My Bleeding Clock (My Immortal AU) fanfic for April Fool's Day

April 2nd: Playlist to go with My Bleeding Clock

April 3rd: Sketch of 2010!Beth

April 4th: Sketch of Jack and Beth

April 5th: Reblogged my old post about last year's anniversary zine, as well as a new little sketch to celebrate the 7th anniversary of the game's release

April 6th: Doodle of Beth in a skirt (with pockets!)

April 7th: I literally just posted a passage I like from the QB:ZS novel

April 8th: Started posting old art... completed set of the halo series here!

April 9th: More old art (Jack/Paul this time)

April 10th: More old art, LNEHH edition

April 11th: More old art, Will Joyce edition

April 12th: Some Jack/Paul art to celebrate me and my husband's anniversary :3c

April 13th: QUANTUM BREAK HOMESTUCK AU!!!

April 14th: Surprise! it's even more old Jack/Paul art!

April 15th: Wow! I can't believe it's more Jack/Paul art!

April 16th: Apparently I was busy this day because I just reblogged LNEHH, lol

April 17th: Quantum Break characters, but as Skyrim characters

April 18th: Some blinkie gifs I made using blinkies.cafe

April 19th: A sweater I made using the linocut stamps from last year's anniversary zine

April 20th: Another blinkie gif, hehe

April 21st: Meta post about color palettes and color usage in Quantum Break

April 22nd: A little QB divider I made for my fansite (WIP)

April 23rd: Some terrible glitter gifs, also for the WIP fansite

April 24th: Minecraft skins of a bunch of QB characters!

April 25th: I was also apparently busy this day, cuz all I did was make a stupid phone background for myself XD

April 26th: Took a swing at pixel art

April 27th: A promo for the Quantum Break Discord Server I run!

April 28th: Wrote another chapter of My Bleeding Clock...

April 29th: Art of Jack and Paul :3

April 30th: Started a new longfic: The Symmetry of Fear!

holy shit. that's a lot. i am retroactively impressed with my past self for doing all this, lmao. nice.

third of all! i wanna note that i started several projects this month that i have yet to finish. of course i'm not confining my quantum break posting to one month of the year (impossible) but i will take my time finishing the... uh... three fics and two meta essays i have unfinished, as well as the fansite i am working on. i want these to be GOOD, so i'm not going to rush them. i'm glad this month gave me to juice to finally get these projects started, though!

and lastly... why did i even do this project/event in the first place?

well... good question. i imagine i'm not the only one who has been Going Through It for a while now, and i just... really needed a big project to focus on for a while. and quantum break is like, one of the only things that i never get tired of thinking about, so... are you seeing my logic here?

all that said, i do genuinely want to work on putting more love out into the world. and i love quantum break! i want other people to love it too! (or at least, i want other people to look at my passion for it and be like "i dont go here but you keep doing your funky little thing my man," you know what i mean?)

so, big thanks to everyone who has encouraged me this month, whether it be in reblog tags, in the quantum break discord server, or elsewhere. also, big thanks to my husband, who i would not have married if not for our mutual obsession with quantum break, and who is always down to listen to me talk about my various theories and fic ideas. and finally, a big thanks to remedy, for making this dumb game that i love so so so much.

#quantum break #quantum break appreciation month #thanks yall for putting up with my qb posting seriously #i know thats not what most of yall are here for #but thanks for humoring me anyway! #i WILL make more people love this game so help me god

[blueberry-lemon]

What I Did In 2023

Ever since finishing school in 2017, I've always had a hard time feeling like I've "accomplished anything" in a given year. The months all blur together, and it's crazy how quickly I will forget something that happened or something I did.

To help myself with this, I wrote up a post last year of What I Did In 2022, which honestly felt good. So I figured I'd try again.

Sorry if you find these kinds of posts obnoxious. Hidden under the Read More just in case you do!

A few things I accomplished in 2023:

I wrote some stuff

I wrote Chapters 3 and 4 of Soul Symphony: Abandoned Encore. This is a sequel to a webcomic called Soul Symphony that I made and completed from 2010-2015. Olivia Myers, former music maestro and magical-girl adventurer, lives life as a depressed freelancer after quitting her teaching job. I think literally only like 2 or 3 people are even reading this, but good enough!

I wrote about JOMO, the Joy of Missing Out, when players have to work with different characters and resources in games.

I wrote a review of Bittersweet, an album by Jamie Paige.

My big piece of the year, which I chipped away at for months, reflected on nostalgia in culture and our personal lives.

I wrote about Cozy Games, which bizarrely was recognized in a Critical Distance weekly roundup.

I wrote about my fear for the direction of art and social media, a review of the writing in Sea of Stars, and other Cohost/Tumblr posts, which you can find in the #blogofkylelab tag.

As usual, I've continued my work as a Writer working on Rhythm Doctor, detailed below.

Art and Game Dev

Another sad year of barely 👏 drawing 👏 anything 👏 which is a huge bummer but I'm coming to terms with it.

Don't have anything finished to show for it, but doing a lot of messing-around in Twine and RPGMaker, which has been good for practice at least.

I funded the guest art and music for an upcoming card game, Isle of Swaps. I commissioned around a dozen artists, who I think drew around 50 total cards. Getting paid work as an artist is getting rough out there, so I wanted to help freelance artists the best I could.

Still working on Rhythm Doctor and A Dance of Fire and Ice at 7th Beat Games

We released Act 5 of Rhythm Doctor, which was our huge undertaking of the year! I co-wrote this with fizzd, and for the first time we were working with a completely blank slate with no levels made beforehand. I was recently looking through my Google Docs and was reminded how many different drafts and outlines I had come up with for this Act, some of which were long before the "athlete" story was even decided upon at all. I eventually helped come up with the character of Lucky (designed by our pixel artist Winston), and we got it all built out from there. I had a part in almost every sentence you see in the Act, I believe. I think I did an okay job, and players seem to really like the story and characters of Act 5, so that's a big relief.

Other Stuff

I've been running IndieGamesOfCohost for more than a full year now! I hope people have been enjoying this. It's been really tough to make the spare time for it, especially getting multiple developer interviews up per month, but I'm gonna keep pushing forward. Maybe "one interview a month" is a better goal to aim for. It's hard to tell how much people enjoy the efforts, but people do keep Liking and Sharing and Following so hopefully that means I'm doing something good with my spare time lol.

My partner and I moved! Aside from Act 5 of Rhythm Doctor this was probably the biggest thing. It was my first time apartment-hunting, as well as finding and paying for a moving truck and buying big furniture, getting renters insurance and all sorts of annoying stuff. In past apartments, I was lucky enough to be invited in as a roommate after the place was already set up. I also helped my parents pack up to move from the house they lived in for 28 years. Lots of moving. Hopefully no moving in 2024.

I hope your 2023 was bearable! Take pride in the little things you were able to get done. Let's all push through 2024 together.

#blogofkylelab #gamedev

[therichantsim]

So for the last few days my daughter has been either home or coming home from work early. She’ll call ahead asking me to turn on her laptop and game. We’ve been simming together at the office table. We chat, enjoy our snacks, and pixel people. I still haven’t figured out which mod needs updating that’s preventing her sims from sleeping but for now she queues up naps or cheats their needs. Anyway, this has been fun. However, my little brownie is a Leo and has strong main character energy. So as nice as this quality gaming time has been I can’t get any real progress done on my story or my gameplay.

TO READ THE REST SEE BELOW THE CUT.

She doesn’t have TOOL mod so the apartment I built for her simself still has the mouse holes and leaking pipes. So I said just move to a nicer apartment in the art or fashion districts or a house. I showed her the San Sequoia house I did that looks like a townhouse. She loved it. I said pack your sims things in the household inventory, delete the kitchen and baths so get the money and sell what you didn't want to keep. That way you can furnish the house with the items from the household. She damn near deleted everything except their beds and one sofa.

I’m like… “THATS NOT WHAT I SAID DO!” So she begs me to furnish the house. She goes on about building and decorating is NOT her ministry. She’s a CAS and skill building game player. I sigh and give in and slide my laptop to the side and began to quickly furnish her house. I’m not trying to get lost in the details of clutter and wall art. It can looked like they just got settled in for awhile. I finish and resume my taking pics for my story so I can go play on my gameplay save.

DO YOU KNOW SHE ENDED UP SAVING AND CLOSING HER SIMELF SAVE JUST TO OPEN ANOTHER SAVE INSTEAD!!

I look up and she’s playing the Sims I built that huge Alto apartment for. Planning their wedding and she asked if I had a wedding venue in the gallery. I said no but I follow enough builders that do so go look at theirs. She says but I want a RichAnt original. I said what difference does it make only you will see it. You don’t even take pictures. So anyway, she’s at work today and I think she has clients all day. But I get a text asking me if I could dress all her male sims for the bachelor party and wedding because I was so fast and decisive. Also, could I build a modern house in the Pinnacles for them to live in after the wedding? ON THE 64X64 LOT!!

This is not the quality time I was hoping for but she did cook some really good curry chicken for dinner. Everyone knows good food is my love language.

#richant's rants and randomness