#Illustrator is a difficult program for me to use still...

[jukeloxing]

Some little guys I made for a project!

[monster-noises]

Like.. genuinely, very genuinely.

Where and how to do hunt down events in your city? Like places and groups and activities where people who like the same things as you gather and hang out and do social stuff?

Cause I do follow like.. local game stores, comic shops, book shops, galleries/art programs, concert halls, the 1 gay bar in town, queer group pages, the library, and at least one local zine making group whose events never line up with my schedule except the 1 time it did and i went and it was very awkward for me so idk how good that one would pan out if I kept tryingggg-

And while a lot of these places host events semi-regularly the year a lot don't appeal or apply to me so I'm just at a Bit of a Loss for where to find events where I may connect with other people..

So like if ya'll know of some secret search term of webbed site or what have you IIIIII'm open to suggestions!

(and lets just completely ignore the fact that they're all going to be scheduled during my working hours anyway and I won't be able to go, I'll breakdown about that one later. I need to delude myself at least a little bit or else I'll Implode)

[lazycranberrydoodles]

I am now opening custom Ace Attorney sprite commissions!

I have 3 open slots.

Depending on how the initial slots go, I may or may not offer more. DMs also welcome.

>> Commission form! <<

Details

What exactly will you receive for $60?

Two 12fps looping .gif files in an Ace Attorney style, one talking and one idle, of the character of your choice from the waist up. They can be in pretty much any still position, but I get final say on whether something is too difficult or too complex. I will work to make the sprite as accurate as possible while adhering to the style.

What will you receive for $20?

Either a short 12fps animation of your character or another two looping gifs (talking and idling) in a different pose/emotion. An animation can be combined with talking. For example, this Wei Wuxian MDZS would be $80: $60 as a base price (standing still and talking) with $20 added for his hand gesture.

This set of Lan Wangji MDZSs would be $100: $60 (base price, neutral animation) + $20 (happy) + $20 (displeased).

What counts as a "slot"?

Art of one character, no matter how many pieces I was commissioned for.

For more examples of my Ace Attorney-style work, here is the masterpost for my MDZS x Ace Attorney crossover series, which I have been adding to for a while now. Here are Kabru, Miku, and Hela Vitrum (my most recent commission). They are a good example of the base commission -- a looped talking gif and a looped idle/blinking gif.

Policies (read this before filling out the form!)

I am not affiliated with objection.lol. The sprites *can* be used in the program to great success. However, I will not guide you through creating a case in objection.lol. There are a lot of tutorials available. I am selling animated illustrations of your character and nothing else.

I am not affiliated with Capcom or Ace Attorney. My work copies the style of original games. In many cases, I have referenced pre-existing animations or sprites.

Just in case, I'm limiting the max number of pieces for a single character to 3 poses and 1 animation ($120) (so I don't get bored drawing them over and over again). One person can commission me for multiple characters but they will count as different slots (i.e., you may commission the max amount of work for Blorbo Bingus ($120) and also commission two poses for Dworbo Dingus ($80) for a total of $200, counting as two slots).

It is my privilege to take or refuse commissions at my discretion.

Depending on demand, I may adopt a first-come first-served waitlist system, but I really can't know at this point.

Payment depends on the price of the commission, but in general I will not start the piece until I am paid via Paypal. Venmo is a secondary option. My prices are in USD.

Once I get started, I work quickly, so any changes should be requested at the sketch stage. I will work with you to get it right. Once I have started work a piece (once planning is finished) I will not give refunds. Finished piece(s) should be done within a month of finalization (you giving me the go-ahead to start).

Filling out the form does not mean I have accepted the commission, but it does mean that I will contact you in a routine way about it.

These commissions are intended for personal use. The pricing reflects that. Tell me if you wish to use a commission in a monetized way, as that will require renegotiation.

If you wish to communicate with me about commission work without filling out the form, my email is lazycranberrycomm@gmail.com. I am not planning to offer commissions other than Ace Attorney sprites at this time. I will reply within the week.

Communication via tumblr DMs, asks, or comments is welcome!

[hellenhighwater]

Hello!

I was wondering if I could ask your advice about pivoting from an art BA (illustration in my case) to Law? I love art a lot but I yearn for a Stable Career that’s still complicated and interesting, and I was wondering what your decision making process at the time looked like?

Im sorry if you’ve answered something very similar to this already, the tumblr search system remains… mysterious. Thank you!

Mostly I hit a point where I realized that living off my art was sucking out any enjoyment I had in it, and also that if I was going to be doing boring office work, I wanted it to pay a little better.

I pretty much told myself that if I could get into law school and not pay for it, I'd go. A large chunk of law school scholarships are based on your law school entry exam scores (the LSAT) so I signed up to take the test. I took a 'study program' leading up to it that honestly I did a very poor job paying attention to, but which did prime me for the specific way that the test is framed; it's a logic aptitude test. Not necessarily difficult, but it is a most correct answer test, and that can feel very subjective. Questions look like this (pulled from the LSAT website):

And if you're not used to this sort of test, doing practice tests is very helpful in adjusting to what they're looking for. It's worth spending some time and even some money prepping for the LSAT, because law school is expensive and if you can get scholarships, that makes a big difference.

I got the score I'd aimed for; I had already finished my BFA with high honors, and that landed me a full ride to law school. I kept doing graphic design to pay the bills through of law school (eventually turning legal internships into paid roles so that I could cut back on that; I did three internships before I finished my JD).

If it's something you're considering, it's worth putting some work into taking the LSAT and seeing what kind of scholarships you're looking at.

[balrogballs]

queen of ai art <3

I genuinely have no idea what the fuck is in the tap water right now considering these all came in the last ten days from what I suppose are different people considering I blocked the first two… either that or it is one very persistent person or the collective actions of what I assume is probably the world’s most depressing groupchat. Incest anon, come back, I miss you on hindsight.

I don't normally answer mean-spirited questions but these pissed me off recently because of the nature of the accusations. So, let’s get into a long, illustrated lesson including a WIP gallery as to why you shouldn’t rely on “gotcha” AI logic and/or be a little twat, with tips on manual digital scaling, presented in classic Balls style.

Now, the vast majority of my art is traditional, many are quick ‘challenge’ sketches—they are drawn or painted on paper. With many of them, there are progress shots. Sometimes multiple, including fucking gemwork. Sometimes I do silly sketches. I have also been quite open that I’m really focusing on exploring varying styles of portraiture at the moment after an artistic background in watercolour landscapes. A number of you follow my traditional art blog where said landscapes were posted, and you know they’re banging.

Now, I’ve posted *checks notes* like five digital pieces last year from the time I owned a tablet (after which all my work has been trad due to being indefinitely parted from said tablet), and none of them are what you’d call professional quality, considering most of my work is traditional/realist and I am still not very good at stylised or digital drawing. I’ll choose my “best”/most detailed one for the purposes of this impromptu demonstration using the files I do have on me at the moment.

Due to my background in traditional art 👆🏻I always and without fail do my initial sketching by hand, because I find it difficult to get perspective and proportions correct digitally, because I learnt various pencil angling tricks etc… so anything I have drawn digitally that includes people/buildings, I’d do a sketch on paper and scan it, and do the lineart from there.

Here is the sketch, the sketch cleaned up into lineart, shaded values, and a portion of the colour-blocking stage, where I checked to make sure the major colours don’t clash at the borders, thanks to Thingol’s bright orange outfit from hell.

I assume what has been done here is that you or whatever program you’re using has picked up on the below little noisy bits, threads and spirals and decided they’re AI. Let me introduce you to the magic of textural overlays, aka texture stamps/brushes, which I get so impatient with that it becomes quite obvious they’re on there… which works in my favour right now lmao.

Here is me sliding the opacity on and off sections, so you can see what exactly is going on (pillar with marbled effect, thingol skin texture, elrond jacket texture, elrond's remarkable forehead, and the marbled archway):

These aren’t overlaid by my mystery robot sex toy, they are done by hand and there’s around 20-30 different ones in any given piece, some of them (eg skin texture or leaves) are repeated 10-15 times. Using texture brushes or stamps is not a cardinal sin, they are literally sold on this website by the artists who make them. Here is a clip of me just selecting them all in one go, if you’d like that proven for your face eyes as well.

I have no excuses for overblending my colours or leaving sections choppy, I’m just lazy to do painterly detail on stylised digital pieces, and usually just stop after a couple rounds of blending. But if laziness was a crime then most nation-states in this world would not have a functioning government.

Now, the final two stages—because the base for these images are usually scans or photos of my sketches and thus not exactly at the best of resolutions, I upscale in Lightroom. Amusingly, image upscaling is actually normally done by AI either built into Photoshop or plugins—this isn’t exactly generative AI, it’s more an algorithm that breaks down your existing photo and “reconstructs” it at a higher resolution. Hence, many upscaled images are flagged as AI regardless of the manner of upscaling.

I am too stingy to purchase Photoshop, the above plugins can/do use your art to train generative AI even if it doesn’t use it for your image, and I have Lightroom Classic already—upscaling is relatively easy to do here and does not train AI. Here’s a walkthrough:

Open Image > Denoise > Play with Slider > Save as TIFF > Open TIFF > Develop Module > Enhance > Save DNG. Then, work on DNG image re: adding noise/brightness/contrast whatever.

Just a note that the ‘Super Resolution’ feature does actually use (algorithmic, not generative) AI so don’t click on that, just do the normal Enhance. This will increase your image size and resolution without sacrificing detail. However, the file itself would be fucking enormous by this point so you can either compress it yourself or use Canva or whatever.

If you don’t mean those and instead mean these fucking things, jesus fucking christ they’re free graphic design templates with free Illustrator vectors, get a fucking grip, ten days in a charity comms job and you can make these in your sleep while moving the mouse with your pussy.

Here is a collage of some of my other digital works at various stages as well, including pencil/pen sketches, to help you sleep at night:

Please remember that I stopped posting digital art except one charcoal+digital work after I was parted from my tablet in December. If I was really iBalls, I would have continued churning them out surely 😇

Writing

I am not going to even take this seriously because there is clearly no way to explain the concept of writing something in advance to people who clearly type out and immediately send every half-dusted thought the moment it farts itself into their brain.

However, if you are actually sitting in your home in the year 2025, when there is almost definitely litter in your neighbourhood that needs picking and dogs on the Rover app that go unwalked, feeding my fucking writing into whatever fucking AI detector you have that is, in turn, training whatever fucking AI generator it is linked to, simply because of whatever robot you have created in your brain that somehow knows very niche facts about the lifestyle, dialect, speech patterns, culture and politics of a frankly irrelevant town in 1970s Kerala, I genuinely do not wish you a single moment of joy in your life

I have already or will soon be privating some of my artwork considering there are people cheerfully sat there feeding my work to Musk’s field of cows in order to get yourself a good old gotcha against some random Elrondfucker on the Internet — I’m obviously not going to do that to my writing at the moment but please stop letting your actions be driven by your asshole instead of your brain.

As for this one, I initially thought of not being so cocky in my response but considering I either get a version of this like once a month or some fucker goes to another person’s blog to ask them if I’m not tired of people kissing my ass, let me tell you something:

I am not whatever hockey-playing girlboss it was that was a bitch to you in high school and you are now afraid is intruding into your fandom space. She must have sucked I am certain. I am very sorry you had to deal with her. But I am not her. She is not me. I can assure you of this. If you must know, I was a netball girl. In fact, I was netball team captain. If it actually was me, I sincerely apologise for accidentally on purpose fouling you in 2014 because I wanted to win the intra-school friendly and I promise I won’t ever do it again.

And just in general, let me please remind you that I did not curate this audience through purposeful posting of art and literature and tasteful selfies, I did it via the 'Lindircident' post, aka accidentally holding my asshole wide open for the light to shine through two weeks after I made this account and remaining in the same doubled-up position for the six months since.

Tschüss! 🖕

[maletofujoshi]

I dont think it's worth dooming about AI art because largely i still think audiences that are invested in art largely are compelled by process about as much (and sometimes more) than end product, and i'm not sure that AI models can really catch up with process. even when people cared a lot about AI images during their sorta bizarre nonsense era, it was kinda because of the inscrutable process creating works that were like. fun to think about. like remember 2021 neuralblender and the like?

this was fun because it was the kind of image that like... only an AI model would think to make, and there's elements of it that would likely be difficult for human artists to replicate-- not impossible, but like, difficult. as such this image was and is captivating to many people. current AI image generators are basically trying to imitate either photography or, especially now, particular illustrators or particular styles of art. except like. it skips past the process, or like, the process is completely different and like. not i think especially compelling? ppl might think differently about that but there's something about like a heavily rendered AI anime girl that is less interesting to me to an otherwise heavily rendered anime girl. i remember coming across a dark fantasy genre artist on tumblr, and i was about to send them an ask about how they got a certain texture in what looked like digital work-- before i looked closer and realized "ah, this is AI, they can't give me a replicable answer." that dampened my enjoyment of images that were otherwise fun to look at. this maybe sounds bad, but without process, an object becomes kinda kitschy to me. the art-object itself is more functional than anything at that point, like how "fountain" is interesting because of the presentation of it as art, though a urinal is just a urinal otherwise.

thinking about it with games, i think there's a lot of interesting lines people draw there: what elements of development would you have a problem with if you found out some developer used AI for them? image generation is particularly useful for textures, but texture work is something a lot of people care a lot about. people care about photography, painting, and image editing... but what about like, generating a height map for that texture? what about photographing a texture, and then asking like some AI model to make it tile better? different people care about different things more or less. there's games out there who's textures tell like, interesting stories, "Sonic Adventure"s developers went on trips to places in the real world and took photos and used them in the game. that's like, really very appreciable, and makes me admire that game more-- but like also. there's a lot of games where i kinda either don't think about the texture work at all, or only really admire it for obvious observable qualities- the end product.

Using AI for code is another thing. I think like, it's kinda obvious that people would do this. programming is like an obvious use case for a language model, and i think it's questionable when people get up in arms about it. programs like RPGmaker are kinda highly appreciated for essentially taking out "programming" as a required skill to make games. this enabled a lot of artists and writers to create games, with mostly 'readymade' tools, which led to a lot of interesting art... obviously there's still programming work involved, event scripting, custom mechanics, but like i think that's similar to having to think about scripts at least somewhat even if you're getting some AI model do a lot of the work of implementation for you... but then again, there's games that are beautiful for systems that are programmed, and thought up by highly skilled people.

basically i think a lot of AI takes away the work in areas people don't necessarily care about. and that's a subjective thing. there might be a lot to care about in those areas. it makes me feel kinda bad seeing like, clipart go away in advertising. like. i saw some ad that had this AI generated art of a bowl of noodles, and it was passable from a distance, but there were a lot of problems with it that annoyed me, mistakes a trained human illustrator wouldn't make-- bad tangents, lines that didn't actually flow. but also like. okay. so what. like that's not art i necessarily care about being good... but like otherwise. process is literally cool and a lot of process will kinda have to remain human. i'd be weirded out if i saw some major company using a shoddy generated image like that because it'd feel cheap. similar to how it's a bit cheap when a game opts for 'readymade' assets.. if there's still some interesting process elsewhere there, interesting thought, that still creates intrigue. but i wouldn't be interested in like, an asset flip without ideas, lol.

tldr; i dont think writing, art, or programming are dead forever now, but like if ur writing copy, making illustration, or doing amateur work or something you will probably struggle with finding cheaper clients. which does kinda suck tbh. finding an audience that appreciates ur work and the process behind it will probably just be as variable as it always has been, though.

[styxxsyringe]

OK so I'm feeling some guilt I started to draw cartoony like you but I get frustrated because it does bot look perfect like yours it's mostly small stuff like colors and clothes I love making cartoony body's sometimes clothing but I have color picking because I'm still new to art that has colors is my feelings normal or is it wrong of me? And how do I pick colors because it frustrated me to no end and made me stop drawing for months anyway in short summary how do I color the right way like I guess I know skin tones but anything else goes wrong and the other summary is how do you draw clothing because I can't for the life of me get clothing right

don't worry - it's normal to get frustrated when drawing. i know i've literally quit and deleted entire illustrations in the past because i didn't like how the colors came out, and i can spend whole hours just choosing base colors TwT i think the important part about learning art is not to rush. i'm seriously flattered you see me as inspiration, but what worked best for me back when i heavily referenced other artists was "mixing" styles together to create a "new" one - so i'd recommend studying and copying multiple artists you like and trying to blend their styles into one if that makes sense! ^^

hating color picking is completely normal when you're first starting out, and even late into art like i said before - i've been making original digital art on ibispaint for about 5 years now, and it's still difficult. but it's easy to make it fun, and the best way to do that imo is to experiment! i'd recommend studying color theory on a larger scale, and understanding how certain colors might look completely different based on where you put them. or maybe make an illustration and color it in a bunch of alternative ways! also, having "bad" or "awful" color skills starting out is OK - i still think my colors suck sometimes even now lol.

anyway, the best way for me to color pick is to just use that color for whatever the OG artist used for their art. let's use alex ahad as an example because i find his art and color use super interesting -

i don't usually color pick, but when i do, i typically start with picking the eye color. then, based off of the eye color, i chose a base color based on the character's color pallete (easier of the eye color is already close to the main color of the character, which for clyde is turquoise).

then, i pick more colors directly from the reference, for stuff like skin. at this point i have a good idea of the colors i want to use and stop color picking from the ref, but there's no shame if you still feel you need to.

after that, based on the colors i picked, i'll color in the rest of the piece. i usually end up changing the colors that i did take from the reference due to experimenting - for me, i just use color picking as a sort of stepping stone for when i'm not sure how to color a piece the exact way i want.

eventually, you can learn to color pick by eye rather than with the picking tool in your art program, tho that takes a lot of knowledge on color theory.

really there is no "right" way to color, especially for skin imo - don't limit yourself to just peach, tan and brown. clyde's skin is bright white, but i still used a yellowy color here because it was relative to the other colors in the piece. i've also used "alien" tones for human-toned characters in the past before!

and about clothing folds - i can make a full post on that if anybody else is interested OuO

[scottoro-ramblings]

I've been working on a series of tarot card illustrations for the various fantasy races in Dungeon Meshi (I'll post all of eventually) which accompanies mechanics I made to play them in the fantastic indie TTRPG His Majesty the Worm. Each of the Kiths (basically races) in that game come with a few pages of lore about thier culture, so I've also basically interpolated the official lore into a something that works like that for each race, which I'm attaching to each image in this series

In cases like the kobolds where the official lore is pretty light a lot of it is wild speculation. I'm curious what people think, so if you read the section below and have any suggestions or notice any lore inconsistencies let me know!

Kobolds

Pushed to the margins and left to fight for scraps, most kobolds live harsh lives in the Western Continents wastelands. But better to live free than die a slave.

Across the Northern and Eastern Continents there are rumors of a kingdom of talking dogs, and in major ports of these far off places you might even see one of these dog men, tied up in a slaver’s cart or bound in service to a noble with a flair for the exotic. In their homelands of the western continent kobolds are far more common, but still massively outnumbered by tall-men.

Never holding an empire of their own, kobold history, as told in howling sagas under the harsh desert sky, is one of desperate defense and bitter resistance against encroaching human nations. While their chances would be better if they could stand united against their neighbors, kobold society is built around familial clans to which fierce loyalty is the norm, making any greater organization difficult. Especially given that many clans have gotten used to enriching themselves by selling captives from rival clans to slavers.

Origins of Kobolds

Most kobold clans worship some form of the Moonmother, a goddess of light who was said to have given souls to the loyal wolves who guarded her as she shepherded the stars across the sky. With these souls kobolds learned to sing and teach, and could stand equal to the other races.

Naturally this explanation is given little credence among human scholars. Instead they compare the demi-human kobolds to the demi-human monsters that roam dungeons, like fishmen and mermaids, supposing that they were also made by magic in the ancient past and merely escaped into wider world. This conveniently means they’d have no true homeland, further justifying removing them from any contested areas.

Desirable Captives

While the near constant border skirmishes ensured that kobolds were always featured in slave markets, the last several decades have seen increased demand. A well disciplined kobold can be cute and exotic addition to a nobles retinue, with their variety in coat color allowing one to selected for particular styles to to match a beloved family dog. Kobold’s difficulty speaking the Common Tongue is widely considered a benefit as it makes it more difficult for them to conspire with other slaves. Even kobolds who are too old or strong-willed to obey are desired as gladiators, as they always put on an impressive show, fighting tooth and nail once their weapons fail them.

Places which have long have long kept kobold slaves have even started breeding them to suit certain tasks, or meet particular fashions. Despite the health problems these breeding programs can cause, these “domesticated” kobold lineages are highly desirable in the markets. After all a decade less of service is a small price to pay for style and obedience.

Kobold Names

Kobold names tend to relatively short, with sounds that are easy for them to pronounce. Because most humans do not understand Kobold, kobolds in their societies are normally given names which are easier for them to remember and pronounce. While kobolds have names for their clans, they do not introduce themselves with clan names like tall-men do with surnames, showing clan affiliation primarily with clothing style and fragrances.

Personal Names

Adara, Anat, Gefen, Jawdat, Karam, Liron, Lishan, Moran, Ohpir, Ravid, Rotem, Safa, Shamira, Shams, Shav, Simcha,Tamar, Yodan

Assigned Names

Bandit, Bard, Bear, Brute, Chips, Daisy, Hunter, Jaws, Kuro, Leo, Luna, Maron, Maru, Pochi, Quiet, Shadow, Snow, Spot, Velvet

Clan Names

Aidi, Barak, Borz, Colli, Cuvac, Dachs, Dain, Hygen, Laika, Lobito, Malakli, Pila, Saluki, Shai, Shar, Shiba, Tang, Tazi, Tosa, Vizsla

Kobold Kin

Kobolds have largely similar strengths and struggles across their entire population, but do vary significantly in both build and coat. There is incredible variation among them, but they fall into one of the following five categories.

Brushwood

The northernmost group of kobolds on the continent, the Brushwood kobolds inhabit a dry forest where they live as semi-nomadic hunters. Brushwood kobolds have the largest variation in size, and a sizable dewlap which resembles a ruff around their neck. Some clans who live higher up into the mountains have thicker coats to protect them during frigid nights.

Frostridge

Despite living at a subtropical latitude frostridge kobolds dwell in high altitude mountains where heavy snowfall is common. They have sharp wolf-like features and thick coats that offer good insulation during storms. After a difficult past, this group of kobolds has a better relationship with their neighbors than most, and they often ferry messages and supplies from the central coast to inland settlements over the snowy mountains.

Sandsea

The largest group in terms of area controlled, though not population, the sandsea kobolds live in the vast interior desert. Tall for kobolds but whip thin, sandsea kobolds can race across dunes and drylands at impressive speed even without horses.

While historically composed of feuding nomadic clans, 30 years ago they were united by Sultana Shamira of clan Tazi. So far the kingdom of Ardtazi has been stable, thanks to royal warriors keeping a strong boot on clan politics, if not particularly tolerant. The kingdom has recently sent messengers to clans across the western continent offering protection and unity in exchange for tribute, an offer which is being seriously considered.

Midgemire

The southernmost kobold kin, and the only one to hold a coastal territory, midgemire kobolds live as fishermen, lagoon farmers and hunters in a vast swampland. The region is host to swarms of biting flies, but kobolds are able to weather them due to their innate disease resistance. Midgemire kobolds tend to be small, with thin coats, or for a few isolated clans no fur at all.

Due to plentiful fishing and the protection afforded by the insect swarms, this swamp is host to the only proper kobold city. Razrani is a deary place, built on wooden pylons driven into the mud and said to be host to every illness known to human-kind. But it’s also the only place to resupply along the midgemire coast, so business is good. The sailors rarely stay, but that’s how the locals like it.

Domesticated

Kobolds which are the product of generations of slave breeding vary dramatically in build and coat, but free kobolds say they all have an unsettling doughy look around their eyes. What portion of that is genetic and what portion is just the obedience conditioning is anyone’s guess.

Most of these domesticated kobolds pride themselves on their service, and look down on free kobolds. Free kobolds view them as tragic deranged beings, to the point that they kill any encountered during their border conflicts, viewing that as a mercy compared to continued servitude. “Feral” domesticated kobolds, who escaped on their own volition, are given more respect, but still generally considered mind-sick and treated more like pups within kobold society.

*Below are the His Majesty the Worm Game Mechanics, so if you are just here for the headcanon feel free to stop*

Kin Talent: Dogged Resistance

Adapted to deal with the multitude of poisonous beasts and venomous serpents that call the western badlands home, Kobolds are functionally immune to most natural poisons.

You cannot be poisoned or suffer additional wounds from venomous attacks. Additionally you get one free charge whenever you take the rest and recover camp action to cure a non-magical affliction.

Arete

Kobolds gain arete by performing the following deeds:

Freeing a captive

Defeating an extremely dangerous foe with teamwork

Having a song composed in your honor

When a kobold accomplishes all three arete triggers, they gain the following talent:

Kobold arete talent: Packbond

Kobolds fight best and fiercest when they have trustworthy allies by their side. In a challenge you can spend a swords challenge card as a minor action to have a guild mate attack, and they can spend their swords challenge cards to have you attack, provided your bond with each other is charged. When you do so you can burn the bond to give your guild-mate’s attack favor.

Kobold role-playing concepts

Kobolds inhabit a world which they know views them as lesser. Some kobolds internalize this.

Many humans think kobolds are cute because of their dog-like features.

Kobolds struggle to speak most human languages, and tend to speak in broken phases even if they can understand it well. This causes many to underestimate their intellect.

The kingdom of Ardtazi offers a chance for kobolds to stand on equal footing to humans, provided they submit to Shamira’s rule. If this kingdom will survive beyond it’s now elderly founder, or if her tyranny is preferable to that of non-kobolds, is a matter of debate.

Most kobolds do not choose to leave their homelands and clans, and fewer still would choose to join outsiders on their quests

Did you choose this life?

What do you think of the clan you left behind?

[artsekey]

Procreate Dreams

I've been playing around in Procreate Dreams for about a week or so now, and I think I've got enough of a handle on the software to offer a fair review! If you're interested in hearing my thoughts, click the read-more below.

A little context before we get started; I have two degrees in animation, but they're both in 3D. My personal specialty is tech and articulation/rigging, but I think my background puts me in a unique position with Procreate Dreams; I know all of the theory behind animation, but I'm not going into Procreate Dreams and comparing it to a professional-grade software I generally prefer to use (like Toon Boom Harmony, for example).

So, let's get into it!

First Impressions

I hated it. I opened the software, it crashed. I couldn't figure out how to enable onion skins. I couldn't increase or decrease the exposure of my frames. I couldn't figure out how to swap to the eraser. I was confused, I was frustrated, and then I realized that I was expecting to jump in and animate without taking the time to learn the software first.

Once I stopped trying to strong-arm it and started looking up documentation, things got a little easier.

Re-Thinking My Approach

Procreate Dreams isn't comparable to any other animation software I've used before. The UI is different, there's a focus on gesture over buttons, and everything about it is meant to be minimalistic. None of this reflects poorly on the program, in my opinion. It's different. You can't go to Procreate Dreams and get mad at it for not being like the other software out there in terms of how it's used. In fact, I think one area of Dreams that should be applauded is the sheer ambition on display. It's a hybrid of traditional frame-by-frame animation and offers a slimmed down version of some of After Effects' most useful compositing & motion graphics tools. That's just plain cool.

The Good

For those of you who've used Procreate Dreams, you may find it's a little... difficult to see all the good it has to offer through the muddied waters it's launch-day bugs kicked up, but under all the grime, there's a little bit of gold.

Dreams is a one time, $20 USD purchase. That's huge in terms of affordability and accessibility in the software market right now.

The "Perform" option is great, and I think we'll see the longer that it's out, the more creative people are going to get in using it. I've already seen people create gorgeous parallax on their illustrations.

Simple compatibility with Procreate is a huge win. I'm finding my pipeline uses both software together.

The UI is a mixed bag overall, but I find the ability to move between flipnote mode and timeline mode to be great. It keeps the screen free, but I can still access the features I need while doing frame-by-frame.

The move/filters option is a great way to add a little compositing magic to your work.

The Bad

The "bad" here exclusively covers issues with the software as intended. Bugs will be covered under "The Ugly" below.

The lack of a lasso tool is a huge setback. I've seen people saying that it doesn't make sense not to have that feature at launch, especially when it's part of Procreate, but I understand why it may have been difficult to implement in conjunction with the move/perform/warp options. If you save a warp on top of an illustration, then cut and move part of the drawing, how is the warp/local translation data applied to that image? Does the pixel remember it's movement, or is it applied on top of the drawing? There's a lot to consider.

Similarly, the "reference" tool in Procreate would be an excellent tool to add color to layers beneath current layers. "Add Reference Track" would be great! That said, I think this conflicts with the move/warp tools like the above.

The timeline is a time sink. I should be able to adjust the exposure of my frames easily and consistently. As of right now, I have an 80-20 shot of selecting my layer or grabbing the handle for exposure. A small button on the edge of each frame (like a dot) would improve this considerably.

As far as I can tell, you can't mask a group onto another group.

No double-tap on the Apple Pencil 2 to swap to the eraser. This one I'm not sure about; it runs in Procreate, it seems simple to implement here... though it'd be great to see it customizable.

The Ugly

This includes bugs and other issues that are separate from the features (or lack thereof) of Procreate Dreams.

Crashes are frequent. I haven't used the software reliably during any of my sessions so far, but Dreams' autosave feature is extremely strong and very forgiving, so I have lost no work.

My pen pressure become erratic at times, necessitating a restart of the software.

Sometimes my pen will stop working, though other features in the app will continue to run.

The good news is, I think that Dreams is overall a huge win for artists and animators worldwide. Everything that's not working about Dreams will hopefully be resolved in future updates. I'd encourage anyone who wants to try animating for the first time to pick it up-- with the understanding it might take some time to get used to/master.

[skaruresonic]

Hey, I know it's not the same thing, but I'm proud of you. I followed your studies on Tumblr, and I'm very happy that not only you graduated another year, but you illustrated a whole book. I'm sorry that your aunt didn't show you the love and pride that you deserve, but here we admire you for undertaking this challenge :)

Nyà·węʔ. It gets really lonely sometimes and I know it might be hard showing support for a language that essentially doesn’t exist anywhere else, but I really do appreciate your support.

It's such a mind screw because she seems to support me, but then she just... does and says stuff that implies resentment, maybe, or jealousy. Like when I showed her a cartoony picture I made and all she had to say was "the nose is too round." Huh? You couldn't say anything nice, or like... realize the nose is supposed to be round because it's a cartoon?

For real, I'm not looking forward to showing her that book because she'll probably say similar stuff. Except this one has the additional thorny layer of inter-tribal politics: fun.

The gist of it is our clan, Sand Turtle, is said not to exist - and I mean this stuff causes old men to scream and rant in Longhouse, where you're supposed to approach such matters with an open mind.

Even though originally I depicted a Sand Turtle in the book, the director made me change it to a regular snapping turtle instead because, in her words, "our culture has nothing to do with sea turtles." Essentially saying, once more, my clan doesn't exist.

I had no choice in the matter. Not looking forward to explaining that one to my aunt. >.>

This is what I mean by no support irl. The language program is always stressing the importance of a support system, and it just...depressed me, hearing classmates mention how their families aided them along the way. Meanwhile, my family thinks I'm a sellout or something.

It's sad because sometimes strangers in our community will treat me better than they do. One woman said my mother and grandmother would be proud, while another complimented my pronunciation. I just wish my aunt had decided to stay, but ig she had to go. But still, she could have stuck around a little.

I also heard my cousin seemed angry. That's another kettle of fish. She says the program director stole her mother's job, and she called it a "slap in the face" that we weren't using her mother's work in our curriculum, as if A.) something that happened when I was four lies within my control, and B.) she couldn't just ask. When I offered to look at her mother's notes, she declined. Apparently she also recalls the time I said her pronunciation of a certain word was "wrong," because my instructor then gently chided me.

Fuck me, man, my instructor sympathizes more with my language struggles and he knows how often I eat shit. We all received dictionaries as gifts, and in mine he wrote

Wá·kkę· hà·neʔ tyúʔręʔ θaʔnuryáhnę· nę́·kwer, účʔaht íhskah eθatúręhęk, saʔniʔθhę̀·nyęhs stí·yu·.

I've seen that you have sometimes struggled too, but it doesn't put you away (you don't let it defeat you), you prevail (master; defeat) it instead.

And I started crying because even such a little bit of encouragement goes a long way. It is difficult. There is never going to be a point where it's not difficult. It was just nice to hear "your efforts are seen." It can be easy to forget why you started, and maintaining language learning is especially emotionally-charged for us because many of us do share similar stories of language loss through boarding schools. I recognize that my aunt and cousin are having what are essentially trauma reactions, but that doesn't mean they have to take it out on me.

This program is important to me because it’s a lifeline to my culture, especially as more of our elders pass away. Beforehand, I was near-suicidal because I mistakenly believed I had nothing to offer the community, no future, no prospects. As a mixed Native, I can't have kids, which is a big thing here. But I see now that blood doesn't matter; it's the heart that pumps it which matters.

We have two words for heart: awęryáhsę, the muscle, and haʔ kęʔ kę́·theʔ, where I reside.

My great-grandmother had the language beaten out of her. I think about how much had been taken from us in the span of only two generations and how much work it'll take to reclaim what was lost. Because she was too traumatized to speak, she never passed it down, and my mom was only able to teach me a handful of words as a kid. And now look---full sentences! Not without struggle, ofc, but sentences!

Even if I never have kids of my own to teach the language to, even if the outside world never offers the chance to speak it, it is a part of me. This language is where the core of me resides. It feels so much like the kind of home we should have had when I hear it spoken by our most fluent speaker that it makes me cry.

So, in that sense, it's fitting how the last word my mom ever taught me was elderberry, which has the word for "heart" in it. Čawęryahskáhręʔ.

<3

[noodler1]

I keep saying I’m reluctant to share entries from my personal journal, but lately I’ve been getting “hunches” that I’m supposed to share some of them. This entry is from this evening.

It is 8:30pm on Sunday, May 11, 2025. I am alone in my condo, once again sitting in the recliner chair I inherited from my mother. As it happens, it is Mother’s Day. I just logged another inking session, this time a 40-minute one, on the 183rd installment of my comic strip, Ramen Noodles.

This installment is turning out to be very difficult for me to execute. I wish I weren’t so hard on myself about it. In fact, I recall that the May 9th message in the devotional JESUS CALLING by Sarah Young, which I prayed with at breakfast Friday morning, begins with these two sentences: “Don’t be so hard on yourself. I can bring good even out of your mistakes.” In spite of this blatant signpost indicating I should react otherwise, I’m almost angry at myself for my inking performance on this strip. The truth is, I’m not doing such a terrible job inking it. Lots of people couldn’t do a better job. I’m inking a lot of visuals I’m not used to inking - a natural landscape and a lake, to name two. Further, I’m inking a challenging angle of a pretty young woman jogging by the lake. The obsessive-compulsive part of my mind wants me to be spectacular and fast as a cartoonist. It probably doesn’t help that today I reread another portion of a biography I own of legendary adventure strip cartoonist Milton Caniff, creator of the features TERRY AND THE PIRATES and STEVE CANYON. I look at his amazing work, which he somehow churned out seven days a week, and I shake my head in bewilderment. How was he so good and so fast at his craft? I know he worked extremely hard, but that’s a given. A strip cartoonist of that era producing work of that quality HAD to work hard. There were no scanners or computer illustration programs in the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. I realize he employed various assistants throughout his career, but still. Anyway, here I am, doing exactly what I shouldn’t be doing: comparing and despairing.

[codeandcanvas]

Log 003: The heart of the matter

Writing about this is difficult; I can’t pretend it isn’t. Studying Csíkszentmihályi’s book “Creativity” alongside Newport’s “Deep Work” has sort of answered a question I’ve had since at least 2019: Why aren’t there more graphic design students on Tumblr? And now I realize that this question is just a version of the more obvious question: Why aren’t professional graphic designers more active on social media? And I think I understand now why. I am reading these two books to reconnect with the deep satisfaction I felt working on my bachelor’s thesis, which was difficult for two reasons: it was heavily theoretical, and there was very little time left to write the thesis. And somewhere along the way, I started to realize something about social media—two answers to my questions. Professionals simply don’t use it that much to talk shop. Unless what they talk about sells a product. Social media is marketing. That is easy enough for me to accept. The second answer is more difficult for me to accept: professional graphic designers are not more active on social media because neither their (deep) work nor their study is a good fit for social media. By and large, they are simply too busy doing the actual work to be interested in writing about it on social media, worst of all, maybe even on some sort of schedule. Professionals, in short, are either out of the office or available for business. And I think that is also why most professionals are hard to reach and come by, why so many of them become seemingly absent from media: they are deeply involved in their work. And I feel that this is a fair price to pay for professionalism, for flow states, for deep work, for becoming so good they can’t ignore you. I, for one, still struggle with doing something without then telling someone about it, be that a person or on social media, and this series of posts I’ve been doing lately illustrates this issue quite well. Of course, I can tell myself that I want someone to be inspired by what I write here, but that is not really the truth. The truth is that I have accepted the social programming of social media to such a degree that I’ve started finding it difficult to simply do what I do and do what I want to do for the sake of doing it. I am a temporarily inconvenienced influencer, just 99,930 followers short of 100k, on average. And by knowing that about myself and telling you about it, I am forcing myself to accept the deal to turn pro, instead of turning myself into an influencer whose racket is graphic design or into a person who can’t focus on work. I don’t know where that leaves my social media accounts. And for right now, it doesn’t need to be addressed or solved. If you ask me, go out and find these two books and read them. That is all I can say right now. I don’t even know if this post makes sense. I’ll have someone look it over without touching its Flesch-Kincaid score and then read through it a few more times. How can you write about something when the central point is that publishing it is an issue?

Impostor syndrome is just a poser’s guilty conscience, you know?

[drawpaintwritemakethings]

Art Gift Box Number 1

Making an art gift box — a collage painting on wood panel, two cigar-tin stories, a figurine glass art object and some extras to pad things out. The painting is a bit mad; it’s an ink transfer onto kleenex/tissue that I pressed into gel. The one cigar-tin story is different endings, while the other one has some kind of prose poetry … barking stuff, fun stuff, there’s one I like called Ending for a Movie About Dragons and it goes — The dwarves never make it to the Golden Peak. They never even make it to the Whispering Forest, or to the Desolated Plains, or even to the Struggling Station. Deep within the tunnels of the Mountains of No Tomorrow, lost and starving and half-mad with fear, abandoned by the Wizard of Grey Space, they are surrounded by an immense horde of goblins, a vast swarming of yellow eyes, their teeth red and terrible, and within an hour dwarf skulls are being used as trophies and footballs, the look of horror and surprise frozen on their disembodied faces, so amazed they are at the utter corruption of their magical belief in a quest based in honour and promises. The art object is essentially a snow globe without any snow, just a tiny man sitting on a boulder of acrylic strips, trapped under glass. The whole set is meant as a gift for someone to decorate a new cubicle or old desk or a busy bookshelf. I think it’s just nice to have interesting things within reach when you’re trying to think. If you like this set, drop me a line. I am happy to gift-wrap it, put in a note from the sender and deliver it to someone’s doorstep (if they live in the area). 

Art Gift Box Number 2

Let's make another art gift box! Start with a box that you saved for some reason, some box that made you say, This is a perfectly good box! Of course this kind of thinking is a product of aging, this compulsion to save things, hang on to things, but let’s leave that discussion (diagnosis?) for some other time. First thing into this gift box is a small collage on cradled wood panel, four by six by one and three-quarter inches, a collage in taupe and Prussian blue in distressed layers, big graphic type mixed with instructions from a vintage (sixties?) computer programming textbook, plus details from medieval illustrations. Because why not. Without Even Your Melancholy Fire this painting is called, also for reasons that now elude me. Next thing to add is an ink drawing of a jazz-age bather, black on white with a spot of red for her bathing suit, on photo paper. I like her smile. Almost demure. Then an art object, a figure sitting on a mound of acrylic strips, trapped under glass, she's wearing red as well, perched there contemplating life, on the lid over her head it reads: an Idea. Next up are four mixed media illustrations on playing cards, four portraits of characters, with the titles: I Can Hardly Remember Them Now, I Find It Difficult to Believe, That These Were the Reasons, and These Four I Loved the Best. You could display these together or spread about a room. Next we have a print on found paper called I Want to Kiss You So Badly. This is wax monotype, one pressing only, using a derelict ink jet printer, literally on its last legs, with the surprising advantage of it printing completely random colour combinations, especially when fed sheets of wax paper. This is a still from the movie Imitation of Life, with the incomparably troubled Lana Turner. And then an ink drawing, again with a spot red, of a young girl addressing her seated doll. As one does. Next into the box is a cigar-tin story, the booklet inside has a series of endings, on the cover is a painting of blonde lady in a cap, surrounded by blue. Next up is a hipster (meaning: homemade) notebook, pocket-sized, with an ink drawing of a lion on the cover. Last but not least is another collage painting on a cradled panel, in various reds, with the word POEM in prominence. The colour scheme for this gift set is various shades of red, from crimson to cinnamon, with some items in blue and taupe for contrast. Meant as a travelling art assembly, some plug-and-play, for someone with a new room, bookshelf, cubicle or mantle, someone who appreciates real things made by humans. Everything is varnished or otherwise protected and meant to be picked up, examined and handled. If this interests you, or you have someone in the Kingston area who needs this as a gift, then drop me a line. I can gift wrap it, add a personal note and deliver.

[kutpot]

Hello! Firstly, your art style is so adorable and warm. It's such a delight every time you post (especially Foggy, be still my heart). Thank you for the time and effort you put into creating them!

Secondly, I've been inspired by your art among others and decided to ask artists their tips for starting digital art. I have zero experience with art as a whole. I'm armed with a tablet and pen but have no idea how to teach myself to actually draw. I welcome any advice you may have, but don't feel pressured to answer! I hope it isn't rude to ask artists for advice, but if it is, please let me know!

Hi! It makes me so happy to know that there are people who like what I do! I'm so grateful that my drawings inspire you.

Especially Foggy. I have no idea when I'll stop drawing him. I love what I do and I believe that's the magic.

I'm honored that you asked me for artistic advice, I really am. But I'm sure that countless qualified artists can help you learn drawing techniques that will be extremely useful.

So feel free to ignore everything I'm going to say here.

I took art classes when I was younger; I studied techniques and I studied art history, etc. I forgot most of the technical part and will possibly never use it in an illustration. But those little pieces of advice, that human and simple part I never forgot, and that's what I'm going to tell you about.

First of all, have fun 💚

If you are making a happy and colorful drawing, imagine yourself there. Or if you are drawing something sad, feel the pain of what you are doing. Be it a sad character or even a dark and lifeless scene.

Be there. Your drawing is an extension of you. Your drawing is your friend.

Smile with them, Be afraid with them. You are there; this helps you visualize facial expressions and gestures.

Be generous 💚

Draw people you love. Gift people with your drawings. This helps you improve your art skills and besides, you will feel great making someone happy.

Don't be embarrassed if your drawing doesn't turn out as good as you'd like. Sometimes the simplest drawings are the ones that people like the most.

Draw every day💚

Even if just a few minutes a day. Make it your goal to learn how to draw hands, eyes, trees, etc... things you might find difficult to recreate. And every now and then redraw old drawings, so you can see where you've made progress or need to improve.

You can find lots of drawing tips and poses on Pinterest

Don't be afraid to try new things 💚

There are lots of tutorials on YouTube for beginner artists, check them out.

Procreate it's a great drawing program. There are many tutorials on YouTube teaching how to use it too. But always use your imagination. Be yourself, put your personality in your drawings. Don't be afraid to use colors that don't match each other. And again, have fun.

I wish you good luck and hope to see a lot of your art out there. (Especially Foggys, lots and lots of Foggys)

[sukeart]

CODFISH your splatoon ocs are so ADORABLE! I just love your art so much you have some incredible talent. I always struggle w/ translating Splatoon character proportions into my art style and you do it so effortlessly :,,D. I wanted to ask, what software/app do you often use for your illustrations and what is your go-to brush(es)? It's an experimental thing, I'm asking other artists what they use and I'm trying to find a medium I really like. If you're not up for sharing, that's totally fine!

Also (abt the twitter tag post) I'm not entirely sure what you mean by "vibe" but piercings and jewelry spawn in on almost all of your characters. Very flowy and vibrant artstyle!

oh thank you so much!! ;; i'm really glad you like my ocs!! i actually still struggle a lot with splatoon proportions myself ;v; lots of tweaking and resizing when i sketch, I hope to be able to draw them more naturally eventually ..! But i'm glad I can make it seem like it's natural, because I put a lot of effort into it 😭🙏 Currently I use paint tool SAI ver.2 for about 95% of my drawing process. I eventually hop into CSP v1.13 if i need more specific tools or brushes (mostly for background or effects) My go to brushes in sai2 is the effect pen tool for sketching and rough lineart, and I use the brush tool for coloring and rendering (alongside the default pen and airbrush tools)

I've been using sai for over ten years now.. its very simple and clean UI allow me to focus entirely on my drawing. I've tried switching to CSP for maybe 2 years, but still ended up going back to sai, because the wide array of tools and brushes etc. that csp has just kept distracting me (think of it like forcing yourself to use a ballpen to draw instead of a pencil and eraser, with which you end up trying to correct every single small mistake you make) (i tried to simplify csp's UI to mimick sai's but it was still overwhelming for me) Good luck on finding your soulmate art program and brushes!! It can be difficult but definitely worth the experiments

And thank you!! I do really like piercings, so I'll make sure to give that new oomie some :^)

[lowreyglobalconsultants]

Broadening experiences

On a personal note, I really feel that I enjoyed a large growth as a language facilitator over the last 5 years. By taking on new experiences and prodding the English language from different angles and opening up to new experiences, we can grow our awareness and become better teachers, coaches and vessels that help to transport our charges through language acquisition.

The 4 and half years I spent as an instructor working from within a Japanese company helped to give me a more practical experience of how English is experienced in an international company. I could find some areas that English training could be useful that I hadn't considered before and how to prepare my students better for international communication or travel. COVID 19 really shifted that whole scene, which I have touched on before, but business travel is still needed.

One of the most unique experiences I took on in that time frame was developing a curriculum for an English Communication School that wanted to operate in a VR environment using Microsoft's ALT Space. Sadly as my contract finished, Microsoft shuttered their venture into the metaverse and when I offered to adapt my plan to a different platform, the company did not seem interested.

We used the MEXT website as a reference and found the target vocabulary and grammar points and developed a fun program for grade 3 students. One idea was using mini stories to illustrate the targets to kids in a fun way. I was able to record the voices for the characters and it was really fun to develop.

The best experience helped me to finally collaborate with my sister on something.

For the program we wanted to use songs, but the staff said that due to copyright issues, it was difficult, could you make songs? Sure! I thought up lyrics in each unit as I made the course plan and after that was done, I set out to think up a tune. With my iPhone, I recorded some sketches that fit the rhythm and the lady in the staff actually had some musical skills so helped fix them so they were more technically sound. They wanted to use an AI singer but I suggested using my sister as the singer as she has some experience with singing. I was quite proud of the results. Unfortunately only about half of my songs were recorded.

The first two songs had a few hits in the first few weeks, but seemed to stop getting interest soon.

Every program needs a hello song. We used a traditional tune but it still came out alright.

Sadly, I thought this last song was the best one but it had only 230 hits. I learned a lot about naming. If I named the song Colour and fruit song, it would have 1000 times more hits.

That was a great, fun experience and I learned a lot about thinking about an entire language training program, even if it was just for 3rd graders.