#wait i have a redbubble i can just do that

[shirecorn]

Your reindeer designs give me such childish joy I can't wait to see the rest. What's your process (aka any advice) for designing from scratch with something like just a name or concept?

Redbubble (buy reindeer swag) || Patreon (see all early!) || Ko-fi

See more free tutorials!

You can see my process unfold in real time by joining any tier of my patreon discord. Which doesn't even have to go through patreon! If you want, you can just pay me $20 and let you in for a year (and then lose track and probably keep you anyway)

Here's a preview using comet! (nevermind the preview thing I wrote you a whole lecture lol)

initial sketches in 2021:

Revisited in 2022 and 2023

I was constantly asking which design was the weakest, why, and how to fix it. Whenever I tested without the magical comet behind it, people could only guess who comet was by process of elimination.

I didn't want to rely on throwing icons into the design. I wanted each one to communicate through shape and silhouette alone. It would be like drawing a little cherub with a bow and arrow floating along with cupid. If you have to include a nametag to communicate, your design can be improved.

So I tried a few different strategies to say "comet" before I realized I could twist the antlers into any shape I wanted. I was worried I would have to discard the drawing and restart from scratch! Which is what I did for rudolph about 6 times before I had a breakthrough.

Then I gave my patrons a brief lesson in antlers to explain where and why I was placing the tines. When I stray from the caribou structure, I do so knowingly in order to achieve something that cannot be achieved within the caribou shape, like dancer's tutu. Know the rules before you break them. My goal is to make animal nerds (myself chief among them) happy when they see species-specific anatomy instead of cop outs.

I tried a few things before figuring out antlers could become comet

Another thing that often caribou have is an unsymmetrical "spork" that comes forward off only one antler. I figured this out by looking at hundreds of reindeer pictures and saving them to my reference folder. A few of my designs have this, that's what the little spiral is in the final comet antler design.

When I put comet in my lineup, I realized that the antlers I drew were way more stylized, chunky, and "tribal" than the others. I had already changed the proportions on one of my designs to match, so then I had to hack away at the basic comet rack to make it look natural.

I already knew that comet's colors would be easy because a basic reindeer already Has the big comet on the shoulder. But here's a peak at all the reindeer images I posted for my patrons to look at.

As you can see below, I chose reindeer markings for all my designs instead of other deer or animals. Even vixen is tied to actually possible reindeer patterns rather than copy-pasting a fox. Almost all of my designs have light-colored anklets on dark colored legs, which is very common with caribou of any color. This is the sort of thing no one tells you; you have to observe it yourself.

Ft cupid's early design! I was continually testing out my reindeer silhouettes and colors on new people, taking their feedback, and fixing what wasn't clicking.

I know I could have made vixen sexy and curvy to play into a recognizable trope, but I really wanted them to be scary and fox-like. Sometimes you gotta do what you want and not what you think will appeal to audiences. Reindeer Days is a purposeful exercise in audience resonance. Most of my art is 100% me and what I feel like doing with no regards to anyone else. So it was a fun challenge!

My patrons also got to see me making fun of corporate designs for recognizably/cliches at the expense of literally anything good

One of these is going to get a lot more "that must be vixen!" results from people who aren't constantly thinking about animal colors, markings, hunting strategies, and teeth.

And one rocks.

Vixen changed the least from the initial 2021 concept!

A Vixen is a female fox. In english slang, it means a cunning, fierce human woman, and sometimes sexually attractive or promiscuous. Quite often an insult to someone because she won't date you!

But to me, a vixen is an animal. A predator.

When designing to reference something, I like to hit it at multiple angles, referencing obscure trivia about something to delight and educate. This is done by researching a topic deeply, far below surface level and beyond what you think you need to make your design. Or in my case its just knowing a bunch of animal trivia already.

After researching/dredging your knowledge, sit there and Think. Don't draw anything. Come up with several ideas and then throw them all in at once for the ultimate trivia design.

Trivia about red foxes:

They have Long bushy tails

They have teeth that include large sharp canines, flat incisors, triangular premolars, and chunky molars with points on them that slide scissor-like with the molars above to cut meat via chewing

They hunt rodents in burrows under the snow by jumping into the air, arcing, and slamming down with their face through the snow

They are orange

They have a dark vertical stripe on their snout

They have black legs, with the backs and bottoms being orange

Translated into the design:

Pose based on a fox jumping, about to land in the snow

Antlers twisted to resemble teeth

Long (for a reindeer) bushy tail

black mark on snout

Some adjustment to the pose to be at the top of the arc and flow better.

Tinkering with the design to make it recognizable but not 100% copypasta fox

I was finally happy with a design that absolutely showed "fox" while still being creative and plausibly caribou shaped. This would absolutely communicate who it is! I thought!

The most obvious one of the bunch! After all, everyone knows what a vixen is!

Nope! No they do not

Want to be part of the design process, help me with WIPs months before everyone else, see exclusive doodles every day, and join a funky little community?

(you also get to see photos of my dog)

Connect your discord to your patreon and join any tier to automatically get added to the server. Not a fan of patreon or monthly subscriptions? message me here, on ko-fi, or via email (shirecorn.art@ gmail.com) and ask if you can pay $20 to get put in the server for at least a year and longer if we work it out later!

This was supposed to be a preview to get you to pay me but instead I wrote an entire lecture for free because I can't help myself.

Want to thank me for the free info? Tag me when you use what you learned! Comment and give feedback! If I could pay rent with attention I would never need anything else in life.

You can also thank me by tipping my ko-fi! I use it to buy pens since I die if I have caffeine. But could you imagine??

#shire screams #shire draws #art tips #art tutorial #character design #character design tutorial #tutorial #behind the scenes #design tutorial #design tips #reindeer days #ask #ramble machine

[jullbnt]

I just received some amazing gifts through the mail 😭

I’m flattening them with LoZ artbooks! Epona is a 40x40 cm print and the Hero of Time one is 60x60 (was curious to see if it would pixelate at that size but it doesn’t!)

I am SO HAPPY!! They’re going to need frames 😍

I also tried a few other things:

A notebook I'm in love with, an iPhone case for my sister, a print on metallic photo paper, a sticker and a magnet! And I'm still waiting for a few other things :)

The sticker and the magnet came out a bit blurry (my phone makes it worse haha), maybe because of the noise effect I applied to my files. I think it looks good on screen but maybe not that much on paper, especially in the case of small prints. That's what it looks like on the biggest one:

You have to look closely at the print to see it but I think it can be a problem. I'm going to attenuate that effect before I make the prints available, just to be sure.

All of these are from Redbubble but I only had the time to order them before they were deleted from my account. Looks like you can sell LoZ stuff on Redbubble as long as the main characters are not depicted, or something like that (Korok stickers for example). I think I’m going to try Society6 instead, they do sell Zelda prints.

I also got approved on Inprnt! I ordered samples from them too but it looks like it's going to take a while. Now that I’ve seen the Redbubble prints I think I'm going to get started anyway.

I'll tell you guys when it's done :)

(Those are my Linktober drawings, masterlist here)

#loz #loz fanart #art prints #zelda #linktober #linktober 2023

[pterribledinosaurdrawings]

Hi! I'm sure you get asked this all the time, but I was hoping you could put up the comic with the dinosaur buying fabric and then waiting 8 years to use it. It would be perfect to put in my sister's sewing room. If it's too big of an issue, I understand. Love you art!

Hello! Put it on Redbubble? Sure, I can do that, here it is!

(link to the original post)

I do get requests to put things on Redbubble sometimes, and I am willing to, but unfortunately I am very very bad at getting tasks done and I keep forgetting what's in my inbox, so there are a lot that I haven't gotten around to adding. (Especially the old crunchy jpgs that I'd need to completely re-draw, but this one just needed to be rearranged a bit and to have the writing redone to fit better.)

#redbubble #sewing #ask

[thessray]

Finally finished! Here's my ode to Control. I had a blast working on this (except the text. Fuck Clip Studio's text editing), and I hope you like it too! 

This is also available on my Redbubble in various forms; I personally think it makes a pretty sick poster. Get it here: "REDACTED" Poster for Sale by TheSSRay | Redbubble

Have a fun time playing Alan Wake II if that's your jam. I hope it's a delightful capstone to your spooky season! And remember to you are a worm through time.  The thunder song distorts you. Happiness comes.  White pearls, but yellow and red in the eye.  Through a mirror, inverted is made right.  Leave your insides by the door.  Push the fingers through the surface into the wet.  You’ve always been the new you. You want this to be true. We stand around you while you dream. You can almost hear our words but you forget. This happens more and more now. You gave us the permission in your regulations. We wait in the stains. The word that describes this is redacted. Repeat theword. The name of the sound. It resonates in your house. After the song, time for applause. We build you till nothing remains. The egg cracks and the truth will emerge out of you. You are home. You remind us of home. You’ve taken your boss with your boss with you. All hair must be eaten. Under the conceptual reality behind this reality you must want these waves to drag you away. After the song, time for applause. This cliché is death out of time, breaking the first the second the third the fourth wall, the fifth wall, floor; no floor: you fall! How do you say “insane”? Hurts to be happy. An earworm is a tune you can’t stop humming in a dream: “baby baby baby yeah”. Just plastic. So, safe and nothing to worry about. Ha ha, funny. The last egg breaks now. The hole in your room is a hole in you. You came and we let you in through the hole in you. You have always been here, the only child. A copy of a copy of a copy. Orange peel. The picture is you holding the picture. When you hear this you will know you’re in new you. You want to listen. You want to dream. You want to smile. You want to hurt. You don’t want to be.

#zentangle #artists on tumblr #control remedy #alan wake #video game fanart #digital art #poster

[shinonart]

Giving up on Redbubble

Redbubble recently rolled out an update that introduces tiers for its creators. Based on your tier you may or may not have to pay an account fee. Redbubble already has a very low revenue to begin with so these additional will significantly impact the revenue of small creators.

You can read more about the update in this blog post.

I was, for some reason, given a fee-free tier but I still decided to go and make my entrie gallery private. The reason I’m not entirely closing right away it is that I still have some earnings I haven’t received because I haven’t met the payout treshold (20 usd) so I’m just waiting to get my pennies first. It’s a matter of principle. I have been on Redbubble since 2017 and during all these years I made a few dozen bucks so closing my shop is honestly not a big loss.

I liked having the shop because it made it possible for people to get products of my art that I don’t have resources to produce and sell in my own shop, such as canvas prints, but given that I haven’t really had time or interest to update or advertise my Redbubble I decided that it’s time to let this one go and focus my attention more on INPRNT and my own Etsy shop.

I will be updating more of my works on INPRNT when I have the time. If there is a specific piece you want as a print/some other merch and you can’t find it on my Etsy or INPRNT let me know and I will see what I can do!

If you want to support me or my work you can do so via

INPRNT for gallery quality prints and fair payments to the artist

ETSY where I sell a larger variety of my works and you buy directly from me

Thanks for reading and thank you for everyone who has been supporting my work and showing love!

#text post #redbubble #print shop #non art post #update #inprnt #etsy

[nochiquinn]

In November 2023, my friend and roommate Sam was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia. She was in the hospital for two months, including a week in a medically induced coma following an allergic reaction to her chemo and another week in physical rehab. Since she came home in early January they've been back at the clinic in Northside Hospital almost every day for chemo treatments and other procedures. It's been a bumpy road, dealing with medication allergies and debilitating side effects, on top of the lost muscle definition from being in a coma for a week.

Sam's husband David is now our sole regular income. His job has been very gracious in letting him work from Sam's hospital room or do split shifts when he needs to so he can drive back and forth to the hospital (an hour each way, in Atlanta traffic) so he can keep up 40-hour weeks on top of everything Sam needs. In an otherwise normal situation, that might be enough. But add in his and his daughter's diabetic supplies, treatments for his anemia and blood pressure, and having to pay Sam's insurance out of our own pocket, and it's Not Great, Bob.

We're working with hospital financial aid and other assistance orgs, but they're a long-term plan just based on how long it takes to make it through the system. We need help in the right now. So many people have been so helpful so far and we appreciate it so much, but it's still a long road ahead and something seems to happen every other week to try to knock us off of it.

These are ways you can help, if you can/are able:

GFM

Paypal

Cashapp ($ceraphena)

Venmo

Redbubble

Teepublic

Amazon List (for help with groceries)

Linktree of digital gift cards

+ if you'd like to send digital gift cards from somewhere that lets you send them via email, you can address them to [email protected]. Places like Walmart, Kroger, and Publix are great, as well as gas stations like Racetrac or QuikTrip.

If you want more regular or direct updates, you can follow David on the clock app here (@/bubofinis).

I do want to emphasize how grateful we are to everyone who's donated or helped in any way; y'all have paid Sam's insurance. You've bought insulin. You've bought CGM sensors and transmitters. Hell, sometimes you've even just bought dinner, but sometimes that's all it takes. Thank you all so much, for everything.

Here's Sam's kitten Hancock waiting at their bedroom door for Sam to come out.

#mutual aid request #signal boost #medical fundraiser #pinned post

[possumsinpeoplesuits]

At long last, my Our Lady of the Passion cosplay is ready for cons!

Based on this picture from Pinterest (google is finding fuck all elsewhere, but if someone knows the source I'll add it.)

The tank top is from Lockedtombmemes' Redbubble store.

The jacket is here, though I've painted the back with some fabric paint. I used the non-heat treating kind and just sort of sketched out the letters with a dark pencil to make sure the placement wasn't too awful.

The dog tags I'm not quite satisfied with because I put too little information on them, and an updated one is still waiting in the mail (I wanted to put the Wing and Cell on it, and had to reread some chapters to verify) There's loads of places to get them, but I used these.

The machetes I don't have many pictures of (I don't have a full length mirror to show them properly strapped to the legs.), but I went a little overbudget to the point it would probably have been cheaper to buy real machetes (but not as welcomed at conventions!) Still, they were from here, in case anyone wants some big ol' 27 inch props instead of the dinky ones from Spirit Halloween.

Gloves were these ones, and they fit my big ol' butch hands just fine. Nothing special there.

For my TACTICAL BLOOD OF EDEN FANNY PACK (which I already wear all the time, but changed colors to match the costume anyways) is this.

The boots are fairly ubiquitous and seem to come from various online sellers, sometimes in men's sizes, sometimes in women's, but this store has them up to a women's size 12, which I needed because I'm lorge.

Now, the mask I'm most proud of! I don't have any experience making costume bits, but I found this one meant for airsoft, which has TWO FUCKING FANS?!?! hidden in the filters to cool my face in the sweltering 80 degree Texas winters.

But! You'll notice the goggles aren't tinted, so I had to figure out how to do them myself to hide my glasses, for REASONS, but this little kit was pretty simple. There's a gluey side, so you just spray the goggles with some water, then slap them down and spend like... a fucking hour or two squeezing out the air bubbles, but aside from a single wrinkle, I think they turned out great! The red also provides some good contrast.

Now, the pants were pretty simple. These come with knee pads, and the black camo looks really nice with the gray coat and black shirt. It did take two attempts to get some that fit (One seller had the XL listed as having a 44 inch waist, equivalent to a women's 18, but labeled elsewhere with the true size of 36 inches, the bastards.), but where I got silly was the straps.

I got this tactical belt, which seems to have tipped the number of tactical things I can search for before search engines decide you're a bootlicker, and intended to use a single bike strap on each leg to hold the other end, which, well... two problems.

The blades were now being bent by my massive fucking quads because I've been doing a shitload of exercise to get fit, because apparently all I needed to get into the gym five times a week was wanting to look like my specialist book blorbo.

I couldn't bend my fucking hips.

So! I ended up ordering a total of SIX STRAPS for my legs, pairing two up high to fit the wider part of my leg, and a single one down near the knee. The upper ones I later looped through the belt to hold them up, which also doubles for making the trousers into a fucking cod piece, which, hey, some people like that. The lower ones were led up by the knee pad, so I had a somewhat stable set of six straps and one belt, which is dangerously close to becoming a Nomura-era Final Fantasy character, but hey, I gave myself carpal tunnel marathoning all the Kingdom Hearts games last year, so that's not a problem.

All in all, it probably cost me... well, more money than it should have, but it's all pretty quality stuff that I'm sure will be very toasty if we ever happen to have another winter down south.

Also, last note... boots of any kind are so much more comfortable with insoles. They don't have to be expensive, but your feet and knees will thank you at conventions when they have a good cushion under your heels.

That's about all I've learned putting this together! I'm 5'9 and around 250 pounds, give or take, so most of this is men's garments, which means the pockets are DEEP AS FUCK. Perfect for collecting small rocks.

Just something to keep in mind.

(See y'all at the conventions. I promise my Yorkshire accent will be less goofy by then, but I can't promise I'll be as nasally as the audiobook.)

#the locked tomb #cosplay #costume #blood of eden #our lady of the passion #our lady of the passion tlt #nona the ninth #halloween

[veeeffvee]

Hello, Vee. I have been silent for a couple of months already and I apologize for that, I was planning on returning soon and thanking you for making that absolutely beautiful Nancy & Henry drawing/GIF as per my request (I really really do love it and appreciate it immensely, thank you so much), but right now I have something urgent that I need to show you and inform you about that cannot really wait. I only just discovered it and needed to let you know ASAP.

A "shop" on RedBubble is listing one of your Christopher drawings (at least I assume / feel rather confident that this is your art, however please do correct me if I am wrong) as one of "their designs" (along with numerous other very obviously stolen artworks) for sale. I have no idea what can be done about it in order to get them to take it down or report them, I have never dealt with anything like this before, but I just needed to let you know.

I am absolutely disgusted by people who do this. I really hope there is a way to stop it somehow...

Oh, I almost forgot, here is the link: https://www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/156424861

(The Shy & Awkward & Anxious Anon)

Ah. This is unfortunate to hear.

Yeah, that's my art. People steal that particular drawing all the time across different platforms, some people thinking it's GHOST's art so it's okay to repost

I saw the report form to potentially take it down, but it requires me to provide my full name. And if their policies are anything like YouTube's, which is what I'm afraid of, then I don't want them getting a hold of my real name

I'll try to find a way to email the people who run the website instead, maybe that'll work. Thank you for bringing this to my attention.

#anxious anon #Well. At the very least the merch looks stupid #Like who on earth would want to buy that

[saveraedae]

WHY THE TMS MERCH STORE HAS BEEN ON HIATUS FOR SO LONG + WHEN TO EXPECT ITS RELAUNCH

Wanted to be transparent with people since I know some are out there who've been waiting for the TMS merch store to come back for awhile. This will be a long post, so look at the red text for the key points in case you wanted to know something specific.

Q: Why did you take it down in the first place?

A: I was using Teespring (Which I'll refer to as Spring as that's what they rebranded to,) and it's quality, in my opinion, was BAD. I did not do research before choosing them as a POD service. I've had people who have ordered who told me their apparel DISINTEGRATED after barely any washes. I own a sample from them, and I can confirm. While their shirt and print quality is decent at first glance, after washing your apparel, the print will soon begin to disintegrate. I'm not sure a better way to illustrate this with text, but it reminds me of those Thanos Snap "I don't feel so good" memes from a couple years ago. Yeah, it looks like THAT after washing. Not to mention, their payment process is shady. I know 100% that some people placed orders, as they had shown proof, and it did not show up in the dashboard. I wasn't worried about making money off of it at the time, because I just wanted to provide people with merch of their favorite characters, but there was no excuse for this.

Q: Why don't you use a service like Redbubble or something else?

A: While it is true that there's lots of other options available for POD merch creation with built-in storefronts, I took the hiatus to do research, as well as included past experiences I've had with other services to support my decision— (which I'll state further down below—) and Redbubble's quality is also not good in my opinion. I've owned shirts from them before and they have a weird sticky feeling to the print that I don't like, it's not very appealing in my opinion. But this isn't only about Redbubble, other merch services I've come across don't have the quality as the issue, they have the PRICE as the issue. I am not about to make ANYONE pay $40 for a damn T-shirt even if it lasts longer than the other services. TLDR for this: It's always a mix of services having bad quality, too little options, or being way too pricy.

Q: So what are you going to do now? It looks like they all aren't for you.

A: I've come to the conclusion that I'm going to have to run my own store. No, I won't have all of the stock on me. There will be a few items that I'm responsible for packaging on my own, but the majority will not be shipped by me. I have to use POD services that do not have built in store fronts, which means that I have to import your order to them before they create it. This is unlike POD services with built-in storefronts, which handle everything themselves and (are supposed to) pay me after you receive your order. So this means going forward it will be more hands on for me. I've been working on building my own store for a few months now, and the pieces are finally falling into place, so I'm excited for what's to come. :)

However, there has been a bit of a roadblock.

I was really close to being able to do a soft-launch of the new TMS merch store, but unfortunately I'm unable to do so. Why? Because I went to create a Paypal business account specifically for TMS funding (to better keep track of funds that will get put back into the production and seperate everything from my personal expenses,) and when I created the account I got flagged as 'being under 18' when I'm 20 years old and my ID clearly indicated such. After repetitively getting put on hold by Paypal customer service I was told "It is just a generic email, YOU actually need to be 21 because you live in Mississippi." ...Which is ridiculous in all honesty. Through this Paypal adventure I learned that there are only 3 US states where the age of majority is not 18, and I just so happen to live in the state with the highest age of majority. ...Great. At the very least, I turn 21 in a few months, only then will I be able to link the account to the store.

As for a launch date, I do not have an exact date, but I have a rough, definitive one...

Expect the TMS merch store to re-launch sometime early 2024!

(Plushes will also move from Ko-Fi to the new site when it launches.)

:)

#the mark side #tms #saveraedae writes an essay again #announcement #important

[volturialice]

Do you have any dark gothic/horror book recs? I’m trying to get out of thrillers at the moment. also looking for some dark classics. any ideas?

I was waiting to answer this until after the Bella's Book Club summer reading reclist went live and now it's live!! and I must say, full of some Choice gothic recs. But I'll list my personal faves here!

Dark™ things from my part of the BBC reclist:

Jamaica Inn (and My Cousin Rachel) by Daphne du Maurier - iirc I described Jamaica Inn as gothic + adventure in my recs, and yep, that's what it is. definitely part of the specific "the book cover shows a woman in a nightgown running from a scary building" gothic heroine tradition. I also gave a brief nod to My Cousin Rachel because it's another of du Maurier's works which I think is underrated (that one's more of a slow-burning gothic mystery featuring a hero of the 'little wet babygirl' variety.)

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno Garcia - Also as I said in my recs, it's very like Jamaica Inn in structure and genre, though of course the writing, the specific characters, and the central mysteries are different. But MG is (of course) Mexican and has more fun Get Out/Ready or Not vibes with its themes of class and ethnicity.

Girls Running from Houses by tanaudel on redbubble

Perfume: the Story of a Murderer by Patrick Suskind - Villain protagonist villain protagonist! This one I love mostly for its flowery prose and sheer aesthetic commitment. You're telling me this 18th-century French serial killer turns his victims into perfume?? Say more

The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey - Seriously the most underrated YA series of all time. Also so gory and terrifying I sometimes cannot believe it's YA. To this day some of the scariest written horror my eyes have beheld, not to mention it's got banger prose. Most people know Rick Yancey from The 5th Wave which is such bland cookiecutter 2010s YA dystopia love triangle nonsense that I just want to shake everyone and go NO, READ THIS BRILLIANCE INSTEAD! ngl the last book in the series is Not Good (you can 100% tell he had switched all his energies to 5th Wave, which is a shame) but the first 3 are absolutely good enough to make up for it.

Other people's reclist recs that I too have read and enjoyed: Rebecca (Daphne du Maurier), We Have Always Lived in the Castle (Shirley Jackson), Dracula (Bram Stoker), Frankenstein (Mary Shelley)

More classics: The Turn of the Screw by Henry James (short and easy read!), The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (a must-read for aesthete gays everywhere. I mean cmon it's Oscar)

Extremely melodramatic "classics:' I loved reading Louisa May Alcott's little known "flops" A Long Fatal Love Chase and Behind a Mask (short story collection.) I might make Book Club read Love Chase at some point because I think we'd have way too much fun with it. We'll see.

My personal favorite that I think everyone should read: The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter (short story collection of gothic fairytale retellings!)

Not exactly what you think of when you hear 'gothic' per se but definitely Dark and it's my OTHER favorite: Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer (I never shut up about this book and it's for a reason. Very different from the movie, which I also love!)

My favorite gothic/horror authors:

Shirley Jackson - I've definitely talked about her before but both The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle are straight bangers (and short, easy reads to boot!) Do NOT think you can watch the Mike Fl*nagan Hill House show of the same name and call it a day—they're completely different stories. (also let the record show I'm censoring his name out of personal dislike he hasn't done anything 'problematic' afaik calm down)

Stephen Graham Jones - Insanely good writing oh my god. I have so far only read the My Heart is a Chainsaw books but his entire oeuvre is on my TBR because he cannot lose. Also he lives in my town and I'm starstruck just knowing this fact. Indigenous (Blackfoot) author who writes about indigenous characters!

Kelly Link - Writer of banger short fiction. I particularly enjoy Pretty Monsters because it's 100% written for the Twilight girlies and clearly made with love and silliness

Grady Hendrix - I didn't loooove Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires, but I adored Hörrorstör and especially My Best Friend's Exorcism, which is a total masterpiece IMO. Another writer whose entire oeuvre is on my TBR.

#asks #books #bella's book club

[elskamo]

More Shitty Life Updates

TLDR for those who wanna know but don't wanna read the whole thing: Mum forced me to reveal trauma that I wasn't ready to share, followed by getting Sciatica then being made redundant the next day. In pain, need money, you know where this is going.

The whole thing: I've been struggling a bit (okay, a lot) more than usual over the past week or so, yet again I've had quite a few negative life events one after the other. I am in the process of getting help for everything happening right now, I'm doing all I can to take care of both my mental and physical health.

Last Monday Mum realised my mental health has been getting worse again and refused to leave me alone until I told her what was going on. She kept badgering me for information and making up random accusations about what could have happened. She also kept sneaking into my old bedroom and looking through my belongings to try and find... fuck knows what honestly.

I've recently started delving into a past trauma with my counsellor that I'm not ready to share yet with anyone, let alone my mum, I will not be elaborating on it any further than this. Eventually it got to the point where I was forced to tell her, she cycled between being disgusted, accusing me of making things up, getting mad at me, and attempting to be supportive for a couple days. Frankly I feel violated as hell and it made my mental health nosedive even further.

By Wednesday morning I suddenly started getting shooting pains from my lower back going all the way down my right leg. It got to the point where I collapsed from the pain and had to be sent home from the office early. It took hours getting bounced back and forth between 111, the GP surgery, and out of hours care. Eventually they diagnosed me with Sciatica and managed to arrange for me to pick up some prescription painkillers the next day. The pain is nowhere near as bad as it was last week but I'm struggling to walk because of it and I haven't been outside in days.

The nail in the coffin came on Thursday morning when one of my bosses called to check up on me. He let me know that at the start of the week three of the staff had a meeting where they agreed that when my probation period finished at the end of October they were gonna let me go because they've decided my position at the company isn't what they need right now. Since I had to go off sick from the Sciatica they said they'd instead just make me redundant now.

It really came out of the blue, especially as I've been uncovering a lot of marketing, commerce, and general technical issues since I've been employed there and there's definitely no shortage of work for me to do. My mum is convinced they're lying and don't want me because of my health issues but there's no way of proving that. It does mean that I'm unemployed again and need to go through a few meetings with Universal Credit who will want me to get a new job ASAP regardless of my health.

So yeah, right now I feel like garbage. I've got help from one of my friends to sort out the UC stuff, particularly with proving my health issues. I'm still waiting to find out what I'm getting paid for work this month, since the phone call last Thursday no one has reached out to me to discuss pay or handing over tasks or logins. When the Sciatica isn't affecting my mobility anymore I'll be able to start reaching out to my contacts again and get help with job hunting and networking.

As usual all this means I'll probably be cycling between being ghostly silent or desperately looking for comfort content. Hopefully it's not gonna take another half a year to find a new job but if anyone is able to please donate on Ko-Fi or buy something off Redbubble or Ebay (the latter is UK only right now). Etsy is still pretty barren as things got kinda manic while I was setting it up but it should be properly up and running soon now I have a lot of time to spare again. I feel crappy to have to keep doing this but please do help if you're able to!

#update #ronnie rambles #unemployment #sciatica #health problems #trauma #ko fi #ebay #redbubble #etsy #donate #donate if you can #please donate #donations

[torchsart]

★ COMMISSION INFO ★

Almost everything is detailed below! Also available in carrd format or on Ko-fi!

I only have 5 slots at a time so make sure to check my carrd or bio to see when comms are open/closed. Also listed on my Trello queue! I have certain discounts available on my carrd & I may occasionally run sales so keep an eye out!

Below the cut is a summary of my ToS & an order form. For the extended ToS, click here!

Order Form: Optional as long as you provide all the info listed!

Username: Commission type: Payment method: (PayPal, Ko-fi) Character references (links are fine!): Pose/expression: Preferred background colors/patterns/etc: Can I post it online? If so, would you prefer to be named or anonymous? Would you like a timelapse of your commission? (May need to be sent via email) Other details:

Terms Of Service: By commissioning me, you state that you've read & agree to these terms!

I reserve the right to decline or cancel a commission for any reason. Rude or inappropriate behavior, or otherwise breaking the ToS is cause for cancellation, likely without refund.

I prefer to work with clear, visual references. The more, the better! I am willing to try working from description for people I know.

My turnaround time tends to be fairly quick but the estimates given are best-case scenario. I ask for at least 2 weeks or so for your commission to be completed, accounting for things like days off & breaks. I'll occasionally be taking the weekends off which may add to the wait time.

I will send a rough, colored sketch for approval before moving on to other stages. This is the only stage where I'll do major changes! After that, I'll ask about last-minute changes but those are limited.

Ko-fi commissions are paid 100% upfront so they get priority! If you'd rather use a 50/50 method, either through PayPal or Ko-fi tips, DM me!

If you'd like a commission but don't have PayPal, I may accept alternate forms of payment, listed here.

Usage Rights & Ownership:

All art is strictly personal use only & may not, under any circumstances, be used for monetary gain.

My art may not be used for N/F/Ts or A/I in any capacity.

You may repost your commissioned works with credit! Either to my Ko-fi or Toyhouse (Torchiiko) or my Tumblr (TorchsArt, Torchiiko).

Barring commissions requested to be kept private, I may share the work as I please with credit to the commissioner. If requested to be anonymous, the commissioner will not be named.

With credit, you may:

Use commissioned art freely, including as a profile picture or header, or just posting it online

Make minor edits such as profile picture borders

Print or otherwise obtain a physical copy to keep for yourself or share with friends, as long as you're not profiting from it

Add the value of the art to your character, even if you may sell them in the future

Even with credit, you may not:

Edit the art in a way that hides or removes my watermark

Involve my art with AI in any way

Heavily reference, copy, or trace my art

Attempt to profit from it, including but not limited to: Using it as an asset in videos/streams/games Uploading it to sites like Redbubble or otherwise producing items for sale Minting it as an NFT or trading it for cryptocurrency

Please feel free to DM me with any questions! I'm most easily contacted through Tumblr, but Discord is also an option!

#updated jan/07/2024 #commissions #commission sheet #commission info #comm sheet #comm info #commissions open #not art #info

[comet-wire]

Hey! I hate to ask for handouts and don't mean to come across as such, as that's not what this is for necessarily. I've been meaning to work on commissions, as in actually setting it up and working on the info itself and with the unexpected passing of my father on Jan 30th, I'm going to try to do just that when I have time or if it comes down to it, if we're stable before or as I'm getting a job it'll be different, there's a hiring freeze at the place I'm trying to get into so the guy will get back to me whenever he can. Right now I'm spending time with family during this time as my mom and I figure stuff out during our free time. My dad was the one who covered the mortgage payments so I just want to help my mom pay for it so we have a roof over our heads, I don't have a job yet and am waiting for a slot where my parents worked and my mom is taking time off and using vacation/sick time to be paid before she has to go back. Issue is, her last paycheck is coming up. We're also trying to figure out stuff with a grief counselor, but I digress. It's only my mom, me and two cats now. The mortgage is a little over $700 a month and I don't want her to do everything by herself and be alone. So, if I open commissions and I'm still drained as it's been hard for me to even pick up a pencil I will start off with small things (like sketch comms, MLP comms, etc) just to get things started. I still have to figure out if I want to open a shop of my own or mess with sites like redbubble, I'm still figuring out Kofi for tips and payments there. I will update with the full information soon once everything is settled if I can. I'm just tired and mentally exhausted, possibly still going through shock, so I haven't felt the energy to keep up conversations so if you think I'm ignoring you, I'm not! I apologize if it's ever come off as such, things have been hectic. Anyways, I wish you all the best and hope all is well!

#comet rambles #does this need a mutual aid tag #i genuinely dont know #because its just a post prior to anything i set up because we're still going through financial stuff like insurance #so im waiting to figure stuff out before absolutely anything/gen #this will be in queue so idk when it'll post #but i genuinely just dont want my mom doing stuff alone and if i have to set up commissions for scrap money before #or even during getting a job then i will #i have been looking for a job for a while its just that a bunch of shit keeps having hiring freezes or is only seasonal #and im not doing seasonal to be possibly be laid off of a job #one of the two places in question i have to wait to even attempt to be hired for is in the summer if anything #putting in queue to deploy later #note my grandma is helping us i just dont want to be too sure that we are financially stable or not so if i have to open comms then #im mostly worried about my mom rn

[chaikachi]

A quick question cause I was looking through your blog just now and saw the post regarding concerns w/ inprint… would buying from inprint help you sooner than if I contribute on Patreon or Ko-Fi?

Awe thank you so much for your message 🥺💕

There isn’t any big rush, but generally the quickest way for me to receive money would be Ko-fi and Patreon being pretty much instant, where INPRNT is a 1.5 month wait at minimum.

I know that INPRNT and commissions are the most popular options because folks get a product from it (hence why I'm looking to start a Redbubble if tECH SUPPORT EVER GETS BACK TO ME >:O) but I don’t currently have the bandwidth to do commissions or open up an indie shop of my own.

I do have a tier on Patreon/Ko-fi that offers high resolutions files you can get printed at a local shop for much cheaper than what INPRNT offers, but I’m a bit behind on uploading them as there hasn’t been much demand for that tier.

I’m also happy to chat 1-on-1 with anyone that wants a print res file of something for that purpose! I just don’t know how to advertise that aha 💦

#as an artist I love the subscription platforms #but as a consumer I get not wanting to sign up for another membership #hence why I’m p felxible abt these things right now #it’s just not easy to advertise aha #ask #asks #yukiyuuki

[lazydoodlesandfanfic]

Yeah well even if that happens, itd be a bit of a piss-take if they gave you grief about it considering it's their fault to begin with 🙄 but yeah it honestly sounds like you ahouldnt get much trouble for It regardless, plus it sounds like your mentor is doing a real good job helping you out with it, as they should haha

I'm so happy for you!! I'm so glad everything is going so well (disregarding the licensing hiccup of course); look at you go!! And I cant wait to see your own tattoo, that sounds so exciting!!

Yeah, my mentor fear/hates the council since at the shop he worked at before, they came in and fined them a few hundred pounds for having a plug in a sink, so if they come in and try to fine us for me not having my license on display... I think he'll fight them lol. He said, and I quote "I paid for it, I did the paperwork, it's out there... if they get mad they can go fuck themselves"

My mentor is honestly so kind and supportive. He's helped me make stickers and stuff to promote my Redbubble, when I first started, someone else tried to get the apprenticeship but was just a little too late, and their family member started badmouthing me on the Facebook page and he immediately took down their comments and had a go at them in PM's for it before I'd even seen the comments. He brags to all his clients about me to see if any would like to get tattooed by me.

Can't wait to show my tattoo off, it's actually the 5th one I've done, but definitely my best so far I've done on myself! :)

[feral-babe]

I finally got started on a project I’ve been wanting to do for a while, a bug tarot with lots of bugs people don’t think about or straight up hate. (Instead of just all butterflies bees and dragonflies and stuff even though those are all awesome too) This first one is just a simple little saturniidae larva but I had to go with it cause caterpillars are nature’s fools ☺️not the stupid kind- the ignorant kind cause they’re just starting out 💕

The Fool generally means a beginning of a new journey, one where you will be filled with optimism and freedom from the usual constraints in life. When we meet him, he approaches each day as an adventure, in an almost childish way. He believes that anything can happen in life and there are many opportunities that are lying out there, in the world, waiting to be explored and developed. He leads a simple life, having no worries, and does not seem troubled by the fact that he cannot tell what he will encounter ahead.

Prints are available on Redbubble and Inprnt

Instagram

#artists on tumblr #insects #illustration #bugs #tara jillian art #nature #redbubbleartist #inprnt #tarot art #bug tarot #insect tarot #divination #tarotcommunity #inverts #invertebrates #the fool #saturniidae #caterpillar #tarot cards #invertefest #insect art #invertblr #big bug gospel