#I made a drawing of them together recently that I'm probably going to post in a day//a few hours or so

[shadowlikesvsynth]

Anyway here's Fuzuki and Piko

[lilia-calderus-pet-goat]

Found-Family headcanons for a³'s coven of chaos, part 3: (because they all deserved more time with each other)

(part 2, here.)

(part 1, here.)

There is, of course, a group chat. Billy initially named it, “Coven of Chaos💜” but Rio changed it to “sluts”

Jen immediately left the chat the second it was created, but Alice put her back in. There was a second escape attempt when they were all together, to which Lilia responded with an “🙁” expression, which was enough to convince Jen to reluctantly stay in the group chat.

Ironically, Lilia isn't even active on the group chat. She's terrible at texting & terrible at reasing messages. (“why is the print so small??”)

She is, however, surprisingly nimble with her phone outside of that. She needed to figure it out for business and stuff.

Sharon also doesn't know how to use the group chat. She had a flip-phone until recently—and only got a new one because Billy insisted she needed it. She keeps accidentally doing group calls by miss-clicking on her phone.

Sharon always calls Alice to “come fix her phone” because “it's broken again!!” Alice, each time, has to tell her that it's probably just out of battery.

Agatha is blocked on Jen's phone because she won't stop sending her spam, so they only ever text each other on the group chat, which Jen has muted.

Jen, Alice and Lilia have a separate group chat. Lilia hasn't even noticed, but they assume she has, because she leaves everything on read. In reality, she just thinks both group chats are the same group-chat and they always have to call her om the phone to make plans.

Alice wanted to add Billy to the second group chat too, but Jen told her that he'd probably be sad to not include the others so it's better that he doesn't find out.

Agatha claims she doesn't care what Billy does, but once she ran out of her house to his car because he forgot his jacket.

Billy made everyone friendship bracelets in prideflag colours, (like the ones agatha and rio wore in agatha's trial.)

“I hate bracelets” “don't wear it then” “fuck you, I'm never taking it off.”

“do you like it? :))” *chocked up* “it's fine i guess-”

Alice, Lilia, Sharon and Rio don't even play difficult, they just wear them immediately.

Agatha and Billy love doing matching Halloween outfits. Rio and Eddie would be offended, but like. They respect the slay.

Eddie would go as hulk (haha hulkling reference) and Rio would just wear a black t-shirt that says “BOO-bs” across her chest. And she'd draw nipples all over her body.

Billy makes them vote for best costume and he ALWAYS votes for Alice regardless of who actually has the best costume. Not because he's biased—just because hers are genuinely always his favourites.

Jen and Lilia will go shopping during the first weeks of October, when people start decorating for Halloween, and the moment Lilia spots a SINGLE pumpkin she starts bitching and moaning the WHOLE WAY HOME about how “the holiday industrial complex appropriates our culture through offensive stereotypes and absurd emblems and It's full of caricatures that stem from misogyny and female domesticity and villifying powerful women and AND there's so many racial micro-aggresions and it's all just exploiting us for profit and all these decorations and advertisements are just here to pressure people to buy products and--”

Jen stopped listening ten minutes ago. She SO regrets pointing and saying, “oh, that pumpkin is so cute!” as if she doesn't know who she's hanging out with.

So, obviously Lilia never dresses up for Halloween. Jen just dresses hot, so that Lilia won't be able to be mad at her.

Lilia has... No objections to that--

Rio's favourite thing during Halloween (but also just, always) is scaring the shit out of people.

They all have weekly movie nights :)

Rio picks “comedies” (Horror movies, psychological thrillers, slasher films, gothic fiction, dark comedies, survival horror, anything gruesome & grotesque & body horror & gore, post-apocalyptic fiction) Sharon “coincidentally” skips movie night whenever it's Rio's turn to pick a film.

Alice picked everything everywhere all at once during her last turn. Her and Lilia sobbed through it (for very different reasons) while hugging each other. Other than that, Alice usually picks action movies, crime films, and the occasional rom-com or coming-of-age.

Jen loves dramas. Any dramas. Unnecessary trope-filled miscommunication? Hit her up!

Sharon likes sitcoms and old hollywood productions with a romantic flair. She'll point at scenes and narrate stories about how, “me and my husband used to...”

Agatha watches a lot of reality tv because she loves to make fun of the people yelling at each other.

Billy will always pick musicals. (Lilia has forbidden a specific few—and I think we all know which few.)

Hilariously, Agatha uses her next turn to force Lilia to sit through Madonna's Evita.

Lilia herself hates historical movies and always points out the inaccuracies. Same with fantasy media, she just doesn't like it. She's the pickiest of them all with movies and she always chooses total obscure wildcards that nobody has ever heard before—and somehow they're always the best ones.

Billy's parents are very conflicted about these people. “How about you and Eddie just... Start hanging out with people your own age? Like!! Eddie's friend group!!”

Even when he starts hanging out with the Young Avengers, he still spends more than half of his free time with his coven of lesbian senior citizens. <3

[lostcauses-noregrets]

Not quite a question, but tbh I'm really frustrated that there will probably never been any canonical confirmation of eruri. I'm convinced there was smth between these two characters. And it's sad many ppl refuse to acknowledge the unique bond Erwin and Levi had, and refusing to acknowledge the romantic potential it had too.

So I’ve had a lot of asks like this over the years, and to be honest I’m always a bit bemused by them. Because, honestly, within the context of the story, what would “canon confirmation of eruri” look like, over and above what we’ve already seen? SnK is not a romance by any stretch of the imagination, although love is at the very heart of the story. This is a hill I will die on. However the way that love is expressed between characters is subtle.  It’s not all flowers and hearts and seagulls bluebirds, it’s more devotion and loyalty and sacrifice. And even when that love is made absolutely unambiguously explicit, as in the case of Eren and Mikasa, there are still those who refuse to recognise it for what it is and write it off as being “one sided” or whatever.  It really makes me wonder about some people’s expectations and experience of what love really is. 

So in the case of Erwin and Levi, what would canon confirmation look like?  They aren’t a pair of giddy hormonal teenagers, or star crossed lovers, they’re two 30+ year old war-weary veterans, who have lived lives full of trauma, violence, and loss.  We were never going to see hearts* and flowers**, and marriage proposals. And have you seen the way Yams draws kissing?? Thank the gods we were saved that. 

Instead we have a believable adult relationship, based on mutual trust, respect and understanding, which has grown and matured over the years. The foundation of Erwin and Levi’s  relationship is unshakable loyalty and trust, and when push comes to shove, the willingness to do everything in their power to help and support each other, even if that means making the ultimate sacrifice and letting each other go.   If that’s not the very definition of love, I don’t know what is. I’ve written reams about this over the years, which you can find in my Eruri relationship tag if you’re interested. 

I’ve said this before, but romance is rarely the most important or interesting aspect of committed, adult relationships.  However, when it comes to Erwin and Levi we do actually see lots of small, simple romantic gestures; quiet moments together, sharing meals, and clothes, gifts of small luxuries, private jokes and playful ribbing. 

I reblogged a lovely post about “true love” by @stellaluna33 recently and I’m going to share it again here because I think it bears repeating. 

In the older songs, "true love" is not some mystical quality, some type of connection that is magically better than other Loves. No. A love that is "true" merely means that your Love is "true TO YOU." "True" as in faithful and loyal and trustworthy. A lover who will stand by you and with you no matter what comes. True the way a good sword is True. True the way a good knight is loyal. The contrast is "False Love," which is a lover who betrays you, who cannot be trusted. "True Love" isn't something you find, it's a vow and a choice that you make, every day, to BE TRUE.

If people can’t see Erwin and Levi’s relationship for what it is, then I'm not sure I can convince them otherwise. That's their opinion and they're quite entitled to it. I just hope they are able to broaden their understanding of love one day. 

* I may have lied about the hearts…

** And flowers…

[sunsetvalleyblog]

Hi friends!

Today I was thinking of making a little post about an old online game from the 2000s called Bella Sara. If you're old enough, like me, *ahem*... ... you probably remember the cute little horse game where you had a stable, a cottage, and a biiiiiiiiiig collection of horses that you could take care of. Honestly it was so lovely and I made many so, so, so many good memories playing! If you remember Bella Sara, let's take a little walk down memory lane together!

First, the website looked amazing. As a little girl (or boy) you saw this and you instantly knew you were about to have a great time:

So of course you made an account, or got the help of a parent, and you were taken to this page...

Woah, your first horse! 😍 It was cute and you could take care of it!!! You could brush it, feed it oats and apples, clean its stable and hooves... Sadly I don't remember its name 😭 (edit: It was Peter! )

But wait til you find out that there are HUNDREDS of more horses... You just had to have them all!

And some of them could fly...

... while others lived underwater! How cool is that!

But there was not a moment to be bored, because you had a whole world to explore:

+ your own cottage, which you could decorate! All you had to do was earn some horseshoes and go to the bazaar and get a few items!

There were also mini games:

Psst!

You can find *playable* Bella Sara games at the end of this post!

There were many other cool things about Bella Sara, but it would be toooo many to list in one post...

The official Bella Sara website still exists today, but as most of you probably know, the flash game got taken down a few years back. 😥 I believe they currently only have an app called Bella Sara Cards available on iOS, but it costs $2.99 and it just a "Draw a Card of the Day" game. (P.S. I'm not affiliated with the company and I don't earn a commission from linking their stuff). Unfortunately I'm not sure how often the website gets updates, however it seems like a lot of the old stuff is missing.

Recently however, some of the original flash games have been recovered by a team of enthusiasts at the Bella Sara Digital Archive! To play the games, simply click on the Play button and you'll find the orinigal stables and some of the mini games! 😍😍 I have to say, I was very pleasantly surprised at how well the games have been preserved. So if you're feeling nostalgic, give it a go!

Honestly I could go on and on and on about Bella Sara, but I think I'm going to stop here 😄

Please like this post and follow me if you liked it, as I will be posting more of this kind of stuff. Don't hesitate to respost this or to get in contact, alright?

Happy Day / Evening!

💛

[urautismdiagnosis-wistie]

what do you think the Octonauts like to do in their spare time?

thanks for the ask!

Sorry this took forever to answer i haven't been well recently but I'm doing better

I've talked about this on some different octonauts octo headcanons posts but ill make a nice neat list! These are a mix of Canon and headcanon <3

Barnacles:

he enjoys attempting to play the accordian, traditional inuit soap stone carving (not something he does often, most of his room carvings are from his childhood), using charcoal and oil pastels to paint scenery as a way to wind himself down(sometimes he'll do people but they don't look very good), sport competitions and exercising, and writing small short screenplays about the characters hes made for his carvings <3 the screenplays are usually very soft and light hearted or deeply sad.

Kwazii:

ok our undiagnosed adhd boy let's go: anything competitive or exciting! I'm talking chess (with inkling), ping pong, any type of sports competition, board games, card games-

He also has a hyperfixation on historic miniature model ships- and some modern too. Bro also LOVES to cook with the vegimals! (Even if his cooking skills are... debatable) hell often teach them (the kid friendly) version of the shanties he grew up with. Funnily enough he doesn't really share his shanties with the rest of the crew,not really...

He does enjoy girls night, esp with jewelry and claw care 💕 dashis been showing him movies and teaching him stuff about pop culture and land culture in general

Also he loves comics <3 and book kwazii enjoys long baths so I gave him a whole long self care routine.

Peso:

making stickers 🥰 playing his xylophone <3 reading all the gossip in his family group chat and trading it with dashi <3 watching inaccurate medical drama shows and making fun of them with dashi <3 knitting !!!💕 he likes to make little stuffed animals and scarves <3 also hats sometimes

He likes reading chiikawa (kwazii recommended the comic to him) and talking to his mom about their favorite romance dramas together

This last one isn't really a hobby but he does enjoy listening to pinto yap about whatever video game he's hyperfixated on lol

Dashi:

Ok speed run, yoga, photography, making tiny dumb video games with tweak (they once made one where its just the gup b and it was basically like flappy bird lol), ROOM DECOR AND PINTEREST BOARDS OH MY GOODNESS (my friend is like that lol I love it when she sends me her stuff), SURFING, BASKETBALL SHES SO COMPETITIVE IN EVERY SPORT, listening to horror podcasts and cursed pov asmr at night <3, talking with shellington about tiny random creature species!!! Also stimming <3

Tweak

: LEGOS(miniatures of the gups) 🗣 CLASSIC VIDEO GAMES( stuff like the og metroid and space invaders) 🗣 NOT SLEEPING (gurl ur room is a depression cave PLEASE get a bed frame PLEASE (dashi probably)) 🗣 GUPS GUPS GUPS she lives and breathes em baby if she's not working on a gup she's developing an idea- 🗣 she really likes cute baby animal videos 🗣 reading alternative fashion magazines 🗣 MONSTER TRUCK LEGO 🗣 dying hair with dashi occasionally (this entire post is so dashi filled loll) 🗣 LISTENING TO MUSIC 🗣🗣🗣

Shellington:

He breathes his hyperfixation about creature species. He and tweak and literally EVERYONE is SO autistic and/or nuerodivergent in some way. Anyways so I'm talking drawing sea creatures (hes a pretty good artist ngl, barnacles could take notes), researching them, comparing them, studying their biological abilities and the chemical components and possibilities of it- literally his entire job is just him having an autistic blast like good for him

But most of his free time is very much spent with the vegimals XD whether its playing with them, trying to teach them things, or just talking with them.

He also loves drawing hyper realistic animal drawings saying very very stupid silly puns. The vegimals internally react to them like dad jokes but they pretend they're very funny cuz hes SO. PROUD.

Inkling:

He enjoys doing very deep dives into topics, deep cleaning, chatting with min on video call, conducting psychological social and behavioral experiments on the octonauts, competing with kwazii and the other octonauts to challenge them (he slays),

Journaling, and even his actual job of organizing their discoveries and getting them ready for scientific peer review as well as handling all paper work sides of thibgs

He really enjoys spending time with thr other octonauts, they are ALL his children(in a "my fascinating lil creatures!! I must teach them and challenge them so that they can grow!) to him and he adores them all immensely. He likes to make photo albums with dashi.

He also enjoys not having bones because apparently when mammals and avians get old their bones hurt all the time??? So he's pretty happy about that ngl

the vegimals all have different interests: whether its having certain genres of media they gravitate too, different aspects of gardening they enjoy,or joining different octonauts in their own tasks! But they'll always love making their own songs and working together <3 also experimenting in recipes lol. A few will often join the other octonauts doing their own hobbies or try to do the hobbies they see the others doing. They are kids after all lol

This could mean tominnow joining peso and dashi while they watch their dramas, barrot being very excitable while playing video games with tweak, tunip learning how to play chess with the professor, grouber being a little princess and enjoying self care, coddish trying to learn how to sword fight with kwazii pretending to be a silly monster, or halibeet curled sleepilu next to inkling as he reads and explains what he's learning- and so on and on and on.

:3

[arcadekitten]

Hi! Just played your recent game and wanted to say it's nice to play something light-hearted once in a while (I read in the older posts that you were nervous(?) posting this game, but you're not obligated to fulfill others' expectations and keep the horror bar or anything). Also really loved Zapper's design; I can tell from the amount of details that you had fun with that one (including the rest of the cast).

That being said, I wanted to ask some questions (warning: a few of them are a bit weird, but I only ask them because I'm naturally curious, not because I'm trying to catch you at something /gen).

Is Pidge a pigeon? And what's her coworker's name & species?

Who's PB people keep mentioning in OGT asks? This name rings some bells, but I hadn't been keeping track of your social media lately.

Is Maggie's name a pun on "maggot"?

Does Maggie still have Tourette's? I noticed you said she does in your older posts, but in the newer ones, you only mentioned OCD and autism even though she has a verbal tick. Was the idea scrapped? /npa gq

Are Zap & Mag just friends or...? And is it ok to use nicknames for them?

Did they eat vegan food at the diner? I was a bit surprised to see an option to order rolls in front of an eel. :D As well as some other choices.

I hope my questions aren't uncomfortable (my apologies if they are /gen). Feel free to skip any that you don't feel like answering.

Aww, thank you so much!! That really does mean a lot to me, I'm happy! ♡ I'll try to answer your questions as best I can!

1: Pidge is indeed a pigeon! Her coworker is a snail named Sheldon!

2: PB is another character of mine, a white rabbit! He's going to be starring in his own game I'm currently working on called Lucky Rabbit Club. The reason he gets mentioned in OGT asks sometimes is because I often draw him, Mary, and Maggie as a trio/friends! There will be more of this to come

3: Yes it is!! ♡

4: Yes, Maggie still has tourettes! I'm sorry if I didn't put it somewhere where it should've been included. Her major tics include her buzzing, rubbing her hands together, and shaking her head!

5: Canonically they are simply friends at the moment, but I can't deny I have been a bit swayed into shipping them! I'm still unsure of what their ship name would be though! Probably something like zapmaggie just to keep it simple...

6: OGT takes place in "proper" Noisrev, meaning all their meat dishes are made out of monsters, not animals!

[tinycrescent]

do you have any tips for learning how to draw? your art looks so free and expressive even in rough sketch form, and the colors are absolutely gorgeous, but i don't even know how to color normally and don't have the means to do it digitally, so i'll leave that for later haha. anyway just wondering if you did anything in particular to practice or to learn your skills. your art is just so good. sorry if you've been asked before. thank you for sharing your art with the dn fandom!!

thank you for your message!!! ♥︎ you're very kind. I hope what I write here is helpful, but this is sort of a complicated one for me to answer!

in all honesty, I struggle deeply with seeing my art as good enough. my relationship with my creative process is something I’d consider unhealthy more often than not– though I’d like to think it’s getting better as of late. :')

I wasn’t formally taught how to draw, but I was obsessed with hand-drawn media from a young age, whether it was comics, 2D animation, illustrations, etc., and growing up, I would try to emulate the artists I loved as practice. I was just using a cheap yellow pencil and notebook paper, but it was all I needed at the time. and I think that's a really good place to start! don't worry about buying a bunch of art supplies all at once; you'll naturally accumulate tools as you go.

I’d say look at art, a lot of different types of art, and study it to discover what you like, and equally importantly, what you don’t. drill into why. if an artist you love shows their works in progress or sketches, really take a look at those. it’s so much easier to understand a rough image and how it was drawn/what marks the artist used rather than dissecting a polished piece. 

if you have friends who like to draw, spend time drawing with them! make up stories and characters together. I drew all the time growing up. all the time. I was a super quiet, well behaved kid in school because I was terrified of getting in trouble, and yet I was constantly reprimanded for drawing during class. it was the one thing I was willing to get yelled at for. my point isn’t to get in trouble (lol), but more so– draw whenever you can, wherever you can. even when it’s mindless. keep paper nearby. doodle. draw what you see around you.

these days, it’s my perfectionism that really kills my love for drawing. it stops me from drawing at all sometimes, because I’m worried (before I even start!) whatever I make won’t be “good enough”, whatever that means. it got much easier when I stopped trying to keep a neat sketchbook and allowed myself to let go. draw quick, draw messy, draw “bad”. you have to make art you aren't satisfied with to get better. and it sucks! you might try something new and feel like, damn this looks so incredibly amateur, but it's an unavoidable part of the process. if you can look at what you made, accept it for what it is, and then keep going, you’ve already jumped the biggest hurdle.

when I’m stuck in a mental feedback loop of oh my god, I don’t know how to draw, why is my art so bad, I compare something I made this year to the year before. even if the differences aren’t immediately apparent, chances are you learned something between then and now– whether it be a better understanding of your personal taste/drawing style or composition or, like, how to draw ears. it gives you concrete proof that you’ve improved.

⬇ this is a Light I drew in 2022 compared to one from early 2024. even now, I look at the more recent image on the right and think, yeah I would probably draw that differently. but I'm also proud of the me back then who did her best.

really, truly, I’m still learning how to draw all the time. part of the reason I made this account and started posting Death Note fanart was because it was a low pressure way to be creative and let go and have fun. and maybe that’s my biggest piece of advice, simple as it is. enjoy it! draw self-indulgently. strive to improve, but also be lenient with yourself. if you find the love in drawing, it'll pull you through the times when it’s frustrating.

♥︎

[meanbossart]

Couple of asks about DU Drow's scars/teeth

Made sense to me to put these together in a single post, so here you go!

He did it to himself before being tadpoled, while active in the Bhaal temple. It was an impulsive decision likely spurred completely out of frustration; he needed to feel something and he needed to feel it hard, fast, and now. He's a bit of a pain-pervert!

Alas, he can't just get off on any sort or source of pain - certainly not self-inflicted. It hurt too badly/bled too much and so he stopped before he could "complete the job" (whatever that means - I don't think he knew it himself) Sceleritas had to come to the rescue shortly after.

And thank you so much!!!

Save for his forearms, all of DU drow's scars were done by Orin. their location has to do with the setup that would have been most "comfortable" for them to carry out these little rituals - likely with him lying down on his back and her hovering over/right on top of him.

DU drow left the placement of these scars up to her, and she never asked to do anything below his waist. On the day she offered to work on his back, she scrambled his brains and put a tadpole in his head instead.

He was definitely a little surprised LOL but just like with seeing his face and the rest of himself, that startle was probably quickly followed by an unexplainable familiarity. He didn't know why it looked like that, but on a subconscious level he knew it had been that way for a while and that he was "used" to it.

He's very good at rolling with the punches!

It was most of his molars! but the rest of his teeth were "fine", just permanently stained. This is a decision I made semi-recently, so, they might still be present in old art where I happened to draw the back of his mouth - assuming that ever even happened, I'm honestly not sure LOL

[trungles]

Processing Process, and More Processing

I made this post free and publicly readable on Patreon, but I'm reposting the whole thing right here too because, well, it's a free post, and I don't want to make you click away from your dashboard if you don't need to. But also if you want to support my work, here's the link to the post.

It's a little bit about cartooning, a little bit about drawing, and then it turns into a eulogy for a chicken.

I wrote “process” more than once, and now the word looks funny and is beginning to lose its meaning to me.

This post is about a few things, and it’s a little bit on the sad end of things. Nothing dire! No worries. There’s just a little mention of death, just as a heads up.

Before we get to that, though, I’ve been doing some work and had some thoughts.

I’m often asked about how I draw the noodle hair on my characters, and the answer is typically that I draw each and every line with my hand. But there are considerations of movement and volume that go into it beyond its texturally decorative purposes. I love being able to convey shape and motion with it. It’s less evident, I think, in my illustration work, but I think it’s much more obvious when I do sequential work. In the above image, you can see me working out a sequence of Angelica having a series of thoughts. Her head sort of moves, and her eyes follow. You can see I’d planned out the general shape of the hair and how I’d like it to move.

I wound up moving the drawings a little bit so that the readers eyes will actually follow the character’s eyes as it moves gently rightward on the page. The hair is there to accentuate the movement, like so:

It’s a consideration I employ in all my drawings, but especially when I’m drawing hair and fabric. I don’t use a lot of action lines, so this becomes an important way to give the reader the information that someone is moving through a space. Resistance, gravity, and motion are all things I have to keep in the back of my head when I’m doing these little drawings. I think the planning actually takes more time than the inking, which can happen pretty quickly once I map it all out.

In other news, I’m starting to take my extracurricular artistic development a little more seriously in the silliest way possible.

You wouldn’t know it, but I studied painting college—a medium I switched to after the printmaking professor and head of the Art Department at the time told me I probably shouldn’t be an artist (he gave me a hard candy for my trouble). I recently bought a bunch of little dolls, dressed them up, and am returning to my painting roots. It feels really nice to work in big blobs of color instead of lines. It’s an exercise I came up with in response to a common lament from art students.

One of the more aggravating generational tensions described to me by art school students is when professors describe a student’s portfolio as “too anime” without much explanation. I know what the professor means. They’re trying to get at how referencing your favorite anime or cartoons means that your style becomes a simulacrum, an imperfect copy of a copy, and you never learn to develop your own sense of judgment about where a line or a shape needs to go. And we can tell. It’s a way of working that is perfectly fine for cartooning because cartooning is closer to hand-writing than it is to drawing. I always turn to Charles Schulz’s work for an example. Those figures aren’t literally depicting children—with their little chessboard-pawn proportions and bread-loaf feet—but we read them as endearing children because we’ve come to a consensus between us, the readers, and Charles Schulz, the author, that those shapes mean those things. There are no whiskers or paws in the shape of the word “CAT” but you look at those three letters together, and you know the thing to which it refers. That’s an aspect of cartooning, too. Of course, what elevates it from mere writing is, in part, due to the fact that those little figures do not lose their meaning the more you depict them.

To really draw well, though, you have to do those fundamentals. You have to draw from life. There’s no way around it. It helps you develop a stronger sense of where you like to lay down your lines and shapes, no matter how stylized you like to work. It grows your judgment, and every artist’s best tool is their own well-honed sense of artistic discernment about their own work.

But that doesn’t mean you have to surrender the stuff you like or the things that inspire you to make art! I tell students that if they want to hold fast to their anime style AND hone their fundamentals to develop their eye as an artist, they should buy little figurines and toys of their favorite characters, prop those up against a light source, and draw them as still life objects. Like, yes, do the vases and the figure drawings and all those, I still think those are important. But if this is what you need to keep you interested in drawing from life, having some toys around is a great way to do it! Also, bless those sculptors and toy designers. They’re the best.

I think there’s something to be said about remembering to imagine the physicality of the things we draw, in all its dimensions and in the way it catches the light or casts a shadow. It helps sentimentalize things, too. Makes them feel more real, even emotionally.

Edwina died on Tuesday night, after a few final snuggles, surrounded by her favorite treats. She was about five years old, which is old for a chicken, and she had a very comfortable life. We buried her this morning. She was a good hen, J’s personal favorite.

It really feels like the end of an era. She was the last surviving member of our very first flock. After the other hens died, she really seemed to prefer the company of people over other hens. She is survived by Snooki and Nelly, our two other young birds who get along quite well together, actually.

A baby chick costs between three and five American dollars, typically. An egg-laying hen could be between twenty and fifty bucks, depending on the breed. There are roughly 26 billion chickens living in the world today, about 518 million of them here in the United States. They come pretty cheap. And a part of me was moved to cynicism, entertaining the thought that it might be strange to feel sadly over a little animal that, at most, might be roughly equivalent to the price of a fancy lunch and a coffee.

I watched the 1974 musical version of The Little Prince recently, and I remember it mostly because Bob Fosse was in it and scared the crap out of me as a kid—he played the snake that would take the Little Prince back into the sky when his body gets too heavy to take with him. Gene Wilder plays the Fox whom the Little Prince befriends and tames among a garden of roses. The Fox explains that he is like any other fox in the world, but he is changed—made special and particular to the Little Prince—with time, effort, and patience. So, too, is the Prince’s little flower special to him. Out of all the flowers in the universe, she was the one he watered and protected under a little glass jar. And that’s enough.

I knew my little hen would not live that long. It could be very easy to take a broad view of the life expectancy of a hen and distance myself from it by virtue of its mortality and its commonness. People who raise livestock do it all the time. But I also think it’s wonderful that we should all be capable of loving very small, very brief little things. Edwina is not, to my mind, the rough equivalent of a fancy lunch and a coffee. She was our little hen. For her whole life, she was ours. And I’m so happy she was here.

[1-800-cuupid]

5 non-sim interests...

Firstly, I'm sorry it's taken me forever to get to this. I was just getting my marbles together after I lost them. Thank you for the tags @aching-joints, @misspepeshi, @salemssimblr, @skaterboisims, & @rudezebrra <3 <3

Roleplaying (w/ AI) I know that like really corny but I really like it a lot esp considering I'm a very shy person. I refuse to elaborate unless someone asks me and then I probably will. My friend called me the master gooner for this one.

2. Degrees of Lewdity. I feel like I post about this pretty often for all of my followers to know what I'm talking about. It's a cute wittle erotic text adventure game. Sometimes I like to unwind and stress myself out dealing w/ my bby wraith. Apparitions of hatred and resentment need love too. My favorite dress-up game too.

3. Drawing. I don't post my art a lot because lord knows it takes me several business weeks to finish one but I like to draw and color (I'm 5!) even if I do fucking suck at it sometimes (my most recent arts don't suck that bad actually) :D

4. Visual Novels (Mainly Romance). I actually have a WHOLLEEE folder dedicated vns that I have waiting for me to play. I'm currently tracking a few that I hope will release (Cryptid Crush, Our Life: Now & Forever, Touch Starved...to name a few...)

5. Destiny 2. Uh, my relationship with destiny is complicated but I still play it every few months. I'll play it again soon now that the current season/episode/whatever the fuck is over. I just can't let it go, I made most of my friends on destiny so it'll always be in my life <3

Tagging: @lycheica @zynoox @gashface @grimmbats @hymless @queenofthedork @rudezebrra @elderwisp @bitingtrait <3!

[margindoodles2407]

I know you love Star Wars, but I’m curious: what are some other fiction series that you like?

Well, The Legend of Zelda is my other big fandom. I was actually originally a Zelda blog, and then I made the mistake of rewatching The Phantom Menace over Thanksgiving 2023, and then rewatching The Clone Wars for the first time since my childhood that December (I'm pretty sure), and things rapidly spiralled out of control from there.

In addition, I've always been a huge Marvel fan (particularly of the X-Men, I've actually really loved your recent posting about them, for the record); I grew up watching, in addition to Clone Wars, shows like Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, X-Men: The Animated Series (though I haven't had time to catch up on X-Men '97 since we got rid of Disney+ this past winter), the classic Spider-Man cartoon as well as Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends (featuring Ice-Man and Firestar), and Super-Hero Squad. Recently, I've also gotten way more into DC, especially Superman and the Justice League (and I can't WAIT for the James Gunn movie to come out this summer; my in-person best friend and I are going to go see it together in theatres!!!).

The world of Middle-Earth is very special to me as well, and I always think I should post about it more because it has such a dear place in my heart. I read The Hobbit for the first time, I think, in 3rd grade, Lord of the Rings in middle-school, and though I have yet to read the entirety of The Silmarillion, what I have read of that I've been astounded by. (I have cried over the fall of Numenor…….. too many times for it to be respectable.)

Other books have a dear place in my heart, such as Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, A Series of Unfortunate Events, the Wings of Fire books, especially the first two arcs (though I never did read Warrior Cats), The Chronicles of Narnia (which i really do need to read again this summer), The Boxcar Children, and lots of classic literature (my favorites being Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, Dracula by Bram Stoker, Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen, pretty much anything by William Shakespeare, and All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque).

And of course, Cartoons have played a huge part in shaping me into who I am today, especially Amphibia, Avatar: The Last Airbender, and, MOST especially, Gravity Falls (which was my first real fandom experience, got me into drawing seriously, molded me into a better person than i was, and helped me survive quarantine).

I could probably go on and on, but these are the main ones that spring to mind. Thank you for asking!!!

[spiritsglade]

the problem with writing jayroy (or them platonically because apparently i forgot how to write shipfic) is that for some reason i am so fucking bad at ironing out the situation they're in. usually with planning i go premise -> setting/timeline -> the nitty gritty bits of how the scenario comes together.

like with "scabbed over" the initial thought was just 'tim was a normal child for 13 years i bet he has a bunch of scars with the most mundane stories. all the visible obvious ones aren't even from vigilantism' and then it was okay. i'd just started reading batgirl 2000 recently so the tim & cass issue was on my mind. contrast with cass's fucked up scars and total lack of civilian life. where would this come up? during a spar. they're sparring because they're friends and how cass reaches out. awesome. we're riffing off of canon and exploring this silly thought i had and also injecting a little layer of angst in there because i an incapable of not adding that.

lies of omission was 'i've been seeing a lot of posts about how bats breaking into jason's safehouses is not fun and wholesome actually. also there's a fuck ton of headcanons for him i really like for him that he'd probably not tell the bats about. what if they find out.' the timeline took a while it was actually initially 10 months post-uth instead of 4 years. and then details have kept getting ironed out as i flesh out the story + have kept happening as the sequel's started crystallizing in my mind.

"casts and splints" was 'i wanna write a dick & jason hurt/comfort fic and also i've been thinking about the vigilante guilt complex when you fail to save people' so a fic centered on comforting around failing to save someone made sense. i'd also been separately thinking about jason failing to save sheila so it was an obvious choice to meld that fic into the universe of "compound fracture" and then from there i spent some time figuring out how to engineer a situation that would incur accidental deaths and also draw in more of those sheila themes.

jayroy. i keep bashing into a Fucking Brick Wall when i get to the timeline bit. rhato is bad so i need to actively rewrite like half the canonical timeline before i can even start thinking about slotting my shit in there. and because i prefer post-crisis characterization and story beats for both of them there's the whole bridging the gap between post-crisis and n52 thing, which is difficult!! because BOTH of these characters are in fundamentally different places in their lives before and after the reboot. nevermind they're literally just Different People entirely. and being written by lobdell. how the fuck do you smooth that over.

like. TOWER, TUMBLING's eventual sequel includes roy and i cannot for the fucking life of me figure out what state lian's in over there. nonexistent, like she is in n52? some 5 year old child, like she usually is in fanon? the blue-haired teen from rebirth that i know nothing about? dead??? the answer to this changes roy characterization, changes the character dynamic with jason, changes how we navigate between the core beats i want to hit for that fic. changes how i'm background-worldbuilding fitting rhato into the post-crisis timeline. what the hell man.

anyway this is just to say i have at least 3 jayroy fics (again maybe they'll end up platonic who the fuck knows. they're kissing offscreen in my heart. trust) at Various Stages in the works. may they escape wip hell eventually.

[yukidragon]

Can you analyze the new picture of nick sauce drew?

I presume you're talking about this one, right?

I actually did a mini analysis of this picture in a comment I made on the original post that everyone should check out directly, but I can expand on it here.

On the note of commenting, please consider leaving a comment of your own to Sauce's lovely art and let them know how much you enjoy it! Artists thrive on feedback. And since I'm plugging, consider joining the SnaccPop Studios Patreon where a very spicy picture of Jack got posted recently~

Now onto analyzing this marvelous piece of art. Remember, this is all headcanon and speculation on my part, but that's pretty much what you come here for anyway. It's going to be a while yet before we really know what's going on with Nick.

Let's start off with the obvious - expression. Nick is looking sideways at the viewer, giving the impression of being annoyed and tired. It serves as a contrast to how put together he is, dressed up in a cool and sexy outfit. It also gives a good view of his broken heart tattoo on his face. Couple this with the upside-down hearts in the background, it makes me think Nick has tried and failed to find love in the past, and it's exhausting.

What's also exhausting is his job. Nick is an online influencer and dom. He's always got his face plastered online. He needs to create content to draw people in, and a big part of that is his physical appearance. This is especially true when he's selling a fantasy to his followers on LonelyFans. Sex sells, and Nick knows how to sell it well, but it's also dehumanizing.

That's what I think the power strip and CRT scan lines are alluding to. Nick always has to be plugged in online to an audience, always watched through a monitor. He's popular, he's successful... he's a product. He's dressed up in a pretty bow for his audience, ready to be shipped through lines of cable to his customers' screens.

Nick presents such a shiny and beautiful life, all sparkly and alluring. He's a dom, seductive and in control. That's how he presents to the world, a pretty mask. It's what earns him a living.

But a mask is exhausting to wear all the time. An online influencer is having to wear that mask virtually every day as they churn out content, especially when they're the content being farmed out for engagement. It can be pretty dehumanizing. You can forget what it's like to have a genuine connection with people offline rather than through a screen. That's where I think the caption comes in.

You've been so out of touch.

I think it plays back to the interaction Nick and MC have at Yogurtopia. Nick presents himself as he actually is and not the mask he wears. He's a shy, awkward person looking for something sincere. He wants a genuine human connection, not someone lusting over his persona. He's probably been burnt trying to find that connection online, only for his fame to create this parasocial image of him that the real Nick can't measure up to.

It's so exhausting having to be so shiny and perfect. It's heartbreaking when you constantly let down everyone's expectations of you. When people see him as the cool influencer, the always in control dom, they probably were disappointed when they finally saw the real Nick behind his sparkling mask.

That's what I read into this picture anyway. I could be totally off base and it's just Nick acting all cool and disinterested while being dressed for succ-sex, hahahaha. I hope you enjoyed my thoughts!

@channydraws @earthgirlaesthetic @sai-of-the-7-stars @cheriihoney @illary-kore @okamiliqueur @kurokrisps

[sgtmickeyslaughter]

Art Tag

Thanks for putting this together @deathclassic! and thanks for the tag @spookygingerr

Have you always been interested in creating art? : Yes from day one

What's your favorite medium to use? If digital, what programs do you like? I use digital (procreate) most often now, not sure if it's my favorite but it's easier/cheaper than playing with all the mediums I like to use and allows for a little more freedom to play and experiment

Do you create outside of fandom? Yes! I draw and/or paint almost every day in my sketchbook and I work in architectural design so I sketch ideas with co-workers/clients

Share something you haven't finished and/or never got around to posting. Ooof so this haunts me - I have always always wanted to put together a full comic, so I had planned to make a comic version of my fic In Your Love, it's ultimately too much work ... so much potential, absolutely no time

Favorite piece you've made?

Sooo hard bc my favorite piece is for a fic I did but haven't posted yet... very soon though! Until then, my favorite piece is the watercolor I did for the fanart masquerade

Draw your icon in a minute or less - hey bud!

An underrated piece you've made in your opinion

Idk, I like this one and it doesn't have very many notes

Do you do art in a professional setting?

I do a lot of representational architectural drawings - like the Gallagher House drawings I did a little while back

A piece you don't like but did really well on social media. Honestly I really like all the pieces I've done - I either give up or gaslight myself into loving them

Post an old piece and compare it to your most recent, what are the similarities?

Honestly my style changes all the time but my skills have been pretty consistent so theres not going to be anything shocking

Have you ever collaborated with another artist/s?

I've only collaborated with a writer and created art for our gallavich summer camp bunk - which was really really fun

What piece has the most notes? Are you surprised?

Not super surprised, I think it's pretty lovely

Who/What is your favorite subject matter? I love making art that coincides with the fics that I write! after thinking about a scene or world or vibe for so long while writing I want to put it down on paper visually

Show us something not from fandom you've made There's so much, idk have some watercolor buildings, I'm too lazy to curate anything

Where do you like to create? At my table or couch, I don't usually draw out and about for some reason idk why

Do you have a tag that you use to group your creations? Tell us so people can follow it. No but all my art can be found here

Give yourself a shoutout, where can we commission/buy/follow you for more pieces? I don't take commissions or sell pieces, but follow me here on tumblr and you can probably talk me into drawing something you have in mind

tagging: @burninface @matt404b @deedala @doshiart

@heymrspatel @creepkinginc @suzy-queued

[karaokebearwithal]

Mutuals Mutuals Come one COME ALL!!!

Put your various sona's and appendages together for the unveiling of a lil' something I've been working on while being distracted from animating Dame Aylin's wings (Its long, hard, fun as all hell but the concentration required to do so seems physically impossible for a beast of my genus)

I drew all my moots tavs/pseudo-companions!!! It took a bit, but it was well worth it! Everyone's design is so unique and fun to figure out. (10 is a big number of moots)((which I am very grateful to have :3)) So without Further Ado!!! (there will be so much more Ado):

(page break cuz the images are 400x400 each but 10 times, I also go on for a bit about how much I like each Tav/pseudo-companion character) ((if anyone can give me tips on how to size pieces in a normal style digitally i'd be very grateful))

First of all is Sivvus the Fey Prince (he/him)! This elusive Eladrin Tav belongs to @thedomesticanthropologist! A gorgeous yet seemingly cold-hearted druid who tends to keep his cards close to his chest. Though if you want the challenge you can see for yourself if you can try and get close to him to see if Sivvus is as closed off as he seems to be. To be quite honest, Sivvus really grew on me. A very fancy Eladrin with a high society (fey society) upbringing ( with very good looking mood boards to match) and the like only for him to be thrust into the bg3 world with a worm to boot. He is charming! Also his backstory? <3 Defienetly go read it! 10/10 would draw the snob again :)

Second off we have Gum (He/They)! A Githyanki Cleric of Mystra. Being @piipaw's Tav you'd find this charming fruit lover trying to live a peaceful life after escaping from the creche that raised them. I like Gum a lot as the concept of a githyanki trying to find their own way in Faerun while also having no idea about any of the social customs is very gripping to me. I recommend greatly to check out the blog for Gum fics, fanart and a very cool moot . :)

Next is H'rayn of Verkos (she/her)! Now different from all the character's I drew, H'rayn is not a Tav! She's actually a pseudo-companion character with a lotta lore and history! She even has her own quest, party banter, approval and disapproval things. It's the whole deal!! @githkisser made an amazing post all about H'rayn . If you want a ton of indepth and fun info that's really really well documented, I cannot overstate how much you should it check out! I find myself going back to learn more about H'rayn as she really is as well thought out as in game companions! It's quite fun thinking up of ways tavs can interact with her and the art is mwah!!! very good indeed :3

4th! Tavern (Tav) the Bard! (they/them) This darling bard ran away from the circus.....from birth! Created by @avocado-writing, Tavern plays their way into your heart with their silly antics, warm heart and eldritch pocket dimension in their chest!

Tavern is a doll to doodle and I am amped to draw them even more in the future. The heterochromia and the inclusion of instruments does make them a fun challenge (i will draw instruments accuratley with these paws eventually). Go check them out!! :D

5th! Hvinidyr the Barbarian (he/him)! @star-bear-art (I just realised after all this we aren't actually mutuals. Which is funny since we kinda have the same name and theme with the bear thing XD) If you wanna see wonderous art of Hvinidyr as well as the other companions, go look right over here!

Winnie (Hvinidyr) has a lot of forms depending on the time period you wanna look at. The one I chose was the most recent with the large scar tissue all over the left (right? I'm horrible at directions, my paws don't make an L shape for me to tell). He was really fun to sketch out (and probably later colour in) and has a really unique design that I appreciate :)

6th Vierlin the Enchantment Wizard (and a lil' bit rouge)!!!(she/her) @sybaritick's Tav!!! Now!! This classic drow has a keen intrest in enchantment magic, teaching her crafts to nobles in Amn. After the whole tadpole fiasco, she also finds another use for her multitude of arcane skills. Most notabley depicted with a local wizard.

Now I won't get ahead of myself here but the fics that Sybaritick wrote about Vierlin are like....licking a warm pan of thickened maple syrup or a fancy meat meal with so much demi-glaze you're left smacking your lips for at least 20 mins after eating. Its indulgent. And I couldn't recommend it enough!! Read it!! (it took me a good 8 times to get the 'ie' part of Vierlin's name right, the letters look the same to me)

7th Fink the Spores Druid (they/them) belonging to @causticcontemplation! They're a pretty short Tav a 2.5ft and have a whole modern AU fic about them!!! You can read all about it here! (the pun name is amazing!)

I found it cool to use the fic to figure out how to colour them in, I ended up sending an anon ask instead and it helped great! Lovely Tav 10/10!

8th Korydass the Druid!! (She/her)!!! Conjured by @cfcreative, this seemingly non-emotive bronze dragonborn lights a spark in viewers as her tail and love for nature portrays otherwise. Art of Kory is many and also very good. Reading through her lore is fun watching her dynamics with the different origin characters change as she opens up to the party.

Now I do have slight bias, I like drawing Kory the most since her head shape is less humanoid. It's just so satifying, also her design is crazy awesome to work with so all around its great recommend I like her a lot :3

9th Asheera the Paladin (she/her) produced by @optiwashere.

To be quite honest I wouldn't even have a blog if it wasn't for Asheera's fics. They are EXCELLENT. If you want to go through a journey of a half orcs struggles, successes and gripping romance with Shadowheart, VAULT YOURSELF into Opti's A03 page and devour. You will have negative regrets about it just like I! Asheera is great I love her a lot I am the most normal about her.

(I'll keep it brief since this post is long enough to cross a river)

10th Quin the Bard (he/him) composed by @quinthebard (who'd have known?)

This darling plucky bard is the star of an ongoing comic that is very dynamic and very gripping. (My fave panel is this one). Despite being 100, Quin still maintains his joyful and kind nature when traveling with the tadpole gang.

Definetly one of the most friendlies Tavs out of all the ones i've drawn. (he was also the first i drew out of all of these!) He's a delight!! Go check him out! Thanks to all my moots for giving permission, having such great characters and being such lovely moots! <3 <3 <3

(Any pronouns or other changes that want be changed, feel free to DM about it. I love those! )

[jean47mclean]

hello hello now that I saw him in your tags I'm curious if you wouldn't mind breaking down yuuta

Omgs hiiiii! I would be more than happy to yap about Yuuta :3

How I feel about this character

In JJK 0 I related to him a LOT. Like, it was really bad. His more timid nature, protectiveness, empathy, and determination really hit home for me. Maki calling him out felt liker her calling me out T~T and it honestly wasn't even a surprise to later find out he's an INFJ, same as me. However, because of this, he doesn't really compel me. Is he nice, and a well written character? I would say so. And it is nice to have a character that I can relate to for sure. And I would say he's probably in my top 10 JJK characters. However I just don't find him as interesting because we're too similar, if that makes any sense

All the people I ship romantically with this character

Ehehehehe if you know me at all you'd know I'm a diehard Inuokko fan. I know they don't have a lot of "screen time", but their fight in JJK 0 and Yuuta's little line about "he [Yuuji] cut off Inumaki's arm, and for that he'll die" yeah that had me giggling a little even though he threatened my son. I love them a lot, they have a lot of unexplored chemistry I'd LOVE to really get into one day. I just have to stop thinking about Itafushi for more than 5 minutes, which is hard

Speaking of Itafushi, I've recently seen the Okkoitafushi poly ship going around and yes yes I can really see the appeal for that I am a fan and I support

Also I have kinda mixed feelings about Okkofushi. Like, okay. Itafushi is my OTP, I would sell my kidneys for them, I'd actually die for them. Okkofushi not really. BUT I think they're really cute together, and in a case where Yuuji's aroace and maybe Toge finds someone else like Yuuta then I'd be down for Okkofushi. I do headcanon that Megumi had like a hero-worship like crush on Yuuta when he first met the other, but it kinda fizzled out. I just think there's a lot of similarities in Yuuji and Yuuta, and it'd be funny if Megumi's crush on Yuuta helped him realize what he was looking for in a partner, which is how he knows that Yuuji's the one. I hope that made sense

My NOTP for this character

Yes I'm throwing this in but I really can't stand Yuutamaki they make no sense to me and every time I see someone draw or write them they make Maki this stupid basic girl that can't do anything without Yuuta and it makes me wanna vomit. They destroy both characters in the same breath. Sorry Yuutamaki shippers

My non-romantic OTP for this character

Funnily enough I like Yuutamaki as besties. I guarantee you Maki was threatening to sever Yuuta's limbs if he didn't confess to Toge, and she's always been his biggest supporter in everything. He's her go-to spar partner, and she's his go-to study partner. Besties Yuutamaki agenda owns my heart

My unpopular opinion about this character

Uhhhhhh I don't know if I have one. Maybe it's the fact that I actually don't find him to be a better MC than Yuuji. I know a lot of fans used to complain that they didn't like Yuuji as an MC, and when JJK 0 was released they liked Yuuta more. I don't know if this is still a thing or not but I prefer Yuuji as an MC.

If that doesn't count then I guess it may be that I liked the way his hair was drawn in JJK 0 over season 2/post Shibuya. He probably changed it because it probably looked too similar to Megumi's but I don't care I liked the fluffier look

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon

Uhhhh I wish we got more interactions with him and Toge! I know that's kinda basic but I don't feel like we got enough between them. I love them a lot (if it wasn't obvious) and I would love to see if he ever learned JSL for Toge or maybe even get his initial reaction the moment he learned Toge's arm was severed. I dunno SOMETHING to feed my Inuokko agenda