#for those that prefer this format

[lets-steal-an-archive]

I doubt this'll get far enough to reach anyone who might have anything kicking around but yelling into the void has worked before (e.g. Supernatural, The X-Files, bonus X-Files):

Back in June 2024 TV Writing added a nice little set of 12 Xena: Warrior Princess scripts.

I made the four scripts Cousin Liz shared many years ago into pdfs and sent them to TV Writing, they were added in October 2024.

In December I stumbled on a new upload of the 2008 Photobucket images of "The God You Know" shared by LadyKate63 and made the draft where all of the page numbers were visible into a pdf. I sent that along with the first and last of season one to TV Writing:

Xena Warrior Princess 1x01 - Sins of the Past (READ NOW)

Xena Warrior Princess 1x24 - Is There a Doctor in the House (READ NOW)

Xena Warrior Princess 6x12 - The God You Know (READ NOW)

Finally, my question:

In celebration of the pilot first airing on 13 March 1995, is there anyone out there who still has any of the Creation Entertainment scripts from Xena: Warrior Princess kicking around that they'd be willing to email* to TV Writing, XenaGabrielle, and/or me?

—

Update 02/23/2025:

We're up to 42 Xena scripts, 6 Hercules (crossover episode) scripts, and 3 Xena outlines/beat sheets!

Beat Sheets, Outlines, Misc. Unproduced:

Xena: Warrior Princess 2x00 - The Last Days of Socrates (Unproduced Episode Outline)

Xena: Warrior Princess 4x07 - Locked Up and Tied Down (Outline)

Xena: Warrior Princess 6x11 - Dangerous Prey (Beat Sheet)

Xena: Warrior Princess 6x00 - Fallen (Unproduced Episode)

—

*If you send any you'd be willing to share directly to TV Writing he won't tell who donated what (e.g. less than a month after he added almost all of the remaining the latest drafts of the Supernatural collection, someone scanned and emailed Supernatural 6x01 and he hasn't shared who donated it to me, one of the original lunatics who started building that collection in 2019 and retired the project in 2024).

**The owner of XenaGabrielle will also change the contributor info to me, when I cold email fan collectors working on a public script collection I use the old project account.

[doodlebloo]

I missed simple Third Life rules so badddddd man I'm like binging everyone's videos.. I forgot how addicting this series could be

[likeabxrdinflight]

tired of early 20-somethings acting like harry potter was never good or had no value in its day like shut the fuck up half of you weren't even there when it peaked

[randomlyandrogynousfox-blog]

back to owning and curating mp3s

i've decided to go back to own and curate my own library of mp3s. currently i'm in a transitional period where i still subscribe to spotify as well (will stop once my student discount runs out this summer).

how am i going to do this?

1. acquiring mp3s: mostly through a combination of ripping cds (it turns out my ten+ year old bluray player actually has a functionality to rip cds and save the files to a usb stick at 192kbps and my library has a large collection of cds), buying mp3s (itunes store & bandcamp), internet archive for bootlegs, or ripping it from video files. i'll mostly reserve buying cds for music that has changed my life.

2. curating my collection: i'm currently using itunes (aka music) for the curation. i'm sure there are better apps out there, but that's where all the music i gathered throughout the years currently still resides and i'm familiar with it. might change in the future.

3. listening: i bought the last generation ipod touch a few years ago, so i'll be using that mainly and my phone as a backup for when i forgot my ipod at home. i might resurrect my old ipod mini and ipod classic in the future. but that's a larger project for later

i know there are well thought out and sophisticated systems for managing your own mp3 collection and listing, but these are all tools i already have, which takes away the part where i have to invest time and energy into building up the system. this cobbled together system allows me to start right away.

i'll also be going through my old collection and konmari-ing the shit out of it. and also re-ripping cds that teenage me ripped at 128kbps where possible.

[balkanlila]

fighting the urge not to make this post. tags it is.

[therealslimshakespeare]

That’s the thing! How does Gale react to it? We know he has objections (ignoring which is a bad thing to do -thats obvious) but I always was under impression that he was fond of her and would welcome a lot more of her advances if it wasn’t for their situation (first army protocols and later on stalag). Her ignoring or dismissing his boundaries is not a good thing to do, but it’s clearly not as easy as it may seem. They end up in love, there must be something there to build upon (even if it’s not easy due to their respective traumas). If they are able to build rather happy life post war that speaks volumes on how well they must end up understanding one another (because we must remember that this is a generation which was denied proper therapeutic care and were expected to just move on from killing people on daily or being tortured to being stand up civilians, mothers and fathers. On top of pre existing traumas connected to often lacking parenting care). So my question is how does Maureen end up opening up to Gale about her past, both her traumas and her own wrongdoings and how does he take it? And how much she reveals (purposefully or not) to the rest of the crew?

Excellent points all and the questions posed here are totally on my list of things to be woven into fics because they’re essential for their story making any sense, ya know? So, love this.

First off. One hint we have in Gale’s POV (in First Night) is that from the first time he saw her in the nose of Our Baby, he adored her nose. Tiny detail, doesn’t mean he was in love, doesn’t mean he was asking for a hand in his lap. But as we will learn, Gingerale had a rather startling attraction to her right away.

Why was it startling? Because Gale Cleven hadn’t felt attracted to a woman since…well, couldn’t remember when.

Not strongly, at least. It had been sometime early in highschool when a dreaded presentment settled over him that he was odd, and that worsened into knowing he was outright queer by college.

No like really. He liked men. In that way.

And that wasn’t something he was going to pursue, not if he was gonna rise up in the world, make a better run of it than his daddy. But it was something to acknowledge and he had to finally. Then he moved on.

And then he met Bucky, and he almost wanted to think Bucky felt the same hot gut devotion he did, but Bucky was like that with everyone.

Including a new girl named Candy. Or Maureen, to be proper. She was a new girl among many new girls who came flooding in with the war on. And Gale got along with all of them just fine. Used to them all, used to the batting eyelashes or the pink cheeks, the slipped phone numbers and the not so subtle attempts to bump into him in a corridor. He was used to that.

Plenty of them were really capable. Shockingly so. Among them, Kendeigh.

What he wasn’t used to was being watched by a woman across the bar, being hunted down by her, laughed over his stringent lack of alcohol, have her buy him a Gingerale, call him by the same name in a voice that suggested nothing good, like she knew he wasn’t as good as he pretended anyway. He felt a hot gut longing for that.

If only they’d met before all this. Before he was her Major and she was feuding with the new Lady Colonel over being demoted to bombardier. She was ferocious in her own way, very good at getting a party going, could make anyone forget how many folks they’d lost in a practice crash last week. She was good to have around. He asked if she might get put as his bombardier when they shipped out.

There weren’t any objections. He almost wished there were, to knock some sense into him for wanting to keep her so near. It diluted all his half hearted protests to the contrary. But soon she wasn’t just a a friend, someone to help wrangle and occupy Bucky, she was also his deputy. As missions got worse and the stakes got higher, he needed someone like that. When Curt went down, she felt like the closest thing left. It was her and Benny, and it felt wrong to have both eggs in one basket, as it were, but he wanted them with him all the same.

That’s a brief, but rather long all the same, fly over of my vision for some this.

One other addition: Maureen has a gay brother. One of those Ivy League homosexuals who wasn’t at all out but lord knows he wasn’t in either. And she knew it. Liberal in many ways, she accepted it, easily, and didn’t think much of sniffing another out when she found one. Much to Gale’s horror and then relief. It’s a dangerous to admit to a woman he’s not sure he fully likes, even if he rather adores her. But what she does with that trust -it’s like watching a flower bloom.

She’s oddly touched by it. Almost rises to the occasion under it. And for Gale, it’s good to be known.

Having that aspect known, by the time he gets to the stalag, goes through what he’s been through, proceeds to go through more once there —Maureen already knowing some of the most intimate details about him, he can’t manage to fully push her away when he begins to spiral. Meanwhile she is on a learning curve about how on earth to help. Since all the selfish ways she used to extract his attention would only be harmful and -selfish. And she rises to that occasion. She does it for Brady, too. And might be the only one tangibly keeping those two men’s morale’s afloat.

You can imagine after all that, how utterly ingrained and intertwined they are by time of liberation.

Before then. Before Gale leaves her behind in the escape. She tells him she loves him. And I think she tells him more. Now she’s learned there is a more to her story.

[bunnyboy-juice]

lets hear it for the femmes who have strong boundaries re: eating ppl out but will gag themselves on all forms of cock without a second thought 🥰

this post is about lesbian sex

[nyctarian]

now that i am back in Reading Mode TM my scheme is to work on. finally for once and all. actually clearing out the books on my currently reading list. or at minimum get my currently reading to be Under 20 books for the first time in ages lol

added a readmore to this post bc someone rb'd it for some inexplicable reason. am i going to have to start adding "dont reblog" to personal posts again lol. this is tangential to my belief that reblogs showing up in tags now is punishing those of us who have thorough tagging systems for our own uses and not for others

[venomgaia]

i also have been testing pngtuber+ vs veadotubemini and heres rhe fruit of a 49 layer model

[aita-blorbos]

AITA for prioritizing my career over the life of a friend?

I (26M) am the only defense lawyer in a frontier town. I often take clients pro bono and I firmly believe in the right of every man, even guilty ones, to have a fair trial with competent legal help. However, I recognize that the law often leads to a miscarriage of justice, which is why I have an alter ego as a masked gunslinger seeking to work outside the law when necessary.

I've befriended an outlaw (22M) who is a wanted manwith an awful reputation because of his surly personality. His reputation has taken on a life of its own and no posse would capture him alive if they had the chance. However, while he made poor choices as a teenager, he’s not the monster everyone says he is.

Recently, he was framed for a murder he definitely did not commit, as I was with him as my gun-slinging alter ego when the murder supposedly happened. Naturally, I took his case pro bono and tried to defend him in court.

Unfortunately, the only way to prove that he did not commit the crime he was accused of was to reveal my secret identity as an eye witness. But I have made many enemies in my gunslinging identity, and people I care about would be in danger. Furthermore, I worry it would undermine other cases I have successfully argued, and I am practicing law under an alias as I am concealing my true heritage from people in this town, so I chose to remain silent.

Without evidence, and with the other charges against him, my friend was sentenced to death. Of course, I wasn’t going to let that stand. I broke him out of prison as my gun-slinging alter ego (dynamite is a fantastic invention) and we were able to trick his accuser into recanting the false testimony, but sometimes the thought of what could have happened if I had failed to break him out, or if the charges had stuck and his bounty had gone up, haunts me sometimes.

So AITA for choosing to keep quiet about my double life?

(OOC note: This was sent in again by one of the wizards as a single ask. The only edits that were made were adding in paragraphs for legibility--sorry if they're not where you would have put them, original author!)

[campingwithmonsters]

dropping some BMB character concepts—

“Vasilisa the Unfairly”

“One of the once living being that entered The Spotlight and succumbed to the groove— she went in with an unknown goal and a wooden doll in hand that was “charmed” to protect her. However, Vasilisa ended up losing the doll, and now wanders sickly through the glow, half-dead, and with clusters of mushrooms and veins of mycelium infesting her body, as well as an impressive pair of protrusions in a fully functional arm and a “head” that appears to look like a skull. The head can glow a brilliant orange like a flame when in the night and light herself a path, but most don’t assume kindly of someone in The Spotlight.”

(Based on Vasilisa the Beautiful/Fair and fairy rings)

“The Three Billy Goats Gruff”

“Also inhabitants of The Spotlight, possibly succumbing to the wrath themselves. To help those fall into to the groove, they attempt to charm others with a haunting melody and sing along. Marching to the beat of their own rhythm, they’ll do what’s necessary to win, even if that means sabotaging each other.”

(Based on The Three Billy Goats Gruff, fairy rings, and a lot of other weird prion/disease related stuff.)

“Merdusa”

“Should you be rafting your way through the waters towards “Giant Peach Island”, you best be weary about not disturbing the Merdusa that swims beneath the water. A bit more on the timid side unless provoked, looking into her eyes long enough can make your body attempt to disintegrate into sea foam. It’s undetermined if she does this willingly, or is just an unfortunate feature of her’s.”

(Based on The Little Mermaid and Medusa)

Credit to @pazam for help with this design!

[phagodyke]

fun sunday afternoon plans my dbt workbook arrived + I have a lecture on adhd + seasonal affective disorder to watch that I signed up for a while ago. maybe either of those will tell me how to survive this winter without killing myself 👍

[light-wrath-paradise]

No I am pretty sure it actually isn't the norm to make a movie poster for your My Hero Academia OCs but go off I guess

everyone should be weirder about their ocs more.

[whisperofthewaves]

uhhhhh. my flatmate was so eager for me to try the banishers and. idk. I'm already kinda prejudiced against what I dub a "console type game" and this one's level design etc is so painfully in that vein it sucks away what interest I may have for the story itself. which is a shame, bc it does sound rather promising. but I guess I'll have to watch it on yt

[tofupixel]

⭐ So you want to learn pixel art? ⭐

🔹 Part 1 of ??? - The Basics!

Edit: Now available in Google Doc format if you don't have a Tumblr account 🥰

Hello, my name is Tofu and I'm a professional pixel artist. I have been supporting myself with freelance pixel art since 2020, when I was let go from my job during the pandemic.

My progress, from 2017 to 2024. IMO the only thing that really matters is time and effort, not some kind of natural talent for art.

This guide will not be comprehensive, as nobody should be expected to read allat. Instead I will lean heavily on my own experience, and share what worked for me, so take everything with a grain of salt. This is a guide, not a tutorial. Cheers!

🔹 Do I need money?

NO!!! Pixel art is one of the most accessible mediums out there.

I still use a mouse because I prefer it to a tablet! You won't be at any disadvantage here if you can't afford the best hardware or software.

Because our canvases are typically very small, you don't need a good PC to run a good brush engine or anything like that.

✨Did you know? One of the most skilled and beloved pixel artists uses MS PAINT! Wow!!

🔹 What software should I use?

Here are some of the most popular programs I see my friends and peers using. Stars show how much I recommend the software for beginners! ⭐

💰 Paid options:

⭐⭐⭐ Aseprite (for PC) - $19.99

This is what I and many other pixel artists use. You may find when applying to jobs that they require some knowledge of Aseprite. Since it has become so popular, companies like that you can swap raw files between artists.

Aseprite is amazingly customizable, with custom skins, scripts and extensions on Itch.io, both free and paid.

If you have ever used any art software before, it has most of the same features and should feel fairly familiar to use. It features a robust animation suite and a tilemap feature, which have saved me thousands of hours of labour in my work. The software is also being updated all the time, and the developers listen to the users. I really recommend Aseprite!

⭐ Photoshop (for PC) - Monthly $$

A decent option for those who already are used to the PS interface. Requires some setup to get it ready for pixel-perfect art, but there are plenty of tutorials for doing so.

Animation is also much more tedious on PS which you may want to consider before investing time!

⭐⭐ ProMotion NG (for PC) - $19.00

An advanced and powerful software which has many features Aseprite does not, including Colour Cycling and animated tiles.

⭐⭐⭐ Pixquare (for iOS) - $7.99 - $19.99 (30% off with code 'tofu'!!)

Probably the best app available for iPad users, in active development, with new features added all the time.

Look! My buddy Jon recommends it highly, and uses it often.

One cool thing about Pixquare is that it takes Aseprite raw files! Many of my friends use it to work on the same project, both in their office and on the go.

⭐ Procreate (for iOS) - $12.99

If you have access to Procreate already, it's a decent option to get used to doing pixel art. It does however require some setup. Artist Pixebo is famously using Procreate, and they have tutorials of their own if you want to learn.

⭐⭐ ReSprite iOS and Android. (free trial, but:) $19.99 premium or $$ monthly

ReSprite is VERY similar in terms of UI to Aseprite, so I can recommend it. They just launched their Android release!

🆓 Free options:

⭐⭐⭐ Libresprite (for PC)

Libresprite is an alternative to Aseprite. It is very, very similar, to the point where documentation for Aseprite will be helpful to Libresprite users.

⭐⭐ Pixilart (for PC and mobile)

A free in-browser app, and also a mobile app! It is tied to the website Pixilart, where artists upload and share their work. A good option for those also looking to get involved in a community.

⭐⭐ Dotpict (for mobile)

Dotpict is similar to Pixilart, with a mobile app tied to a website, but it's a Japanese service. Did you know that in Japanese, pixel art is called 'Dot Art'? Dotpict can be a great way to connect with a different community of pixel artists! They also have prompts and challenges often.

🔹 So I got my software, now what?

◽Nice! Now it's time for the basics of pixel art.

❗ WAIT ❗ Before this section, I want to add a little disclaimer. All of these rules/guidelines can be broken at will, and some 'no-nos' can look amazing when done intentionally.

The pixel-art fundamentals can be exceedingly helpful to new artists, who may feel lost or overwhelmed by choice. But if you feel they restrict you too harshly, don't force yourself! At the end of the day it's your art, and you shouldn't try to contort yourself into what people think a pixel artist 'should be'. What matters is your own artistic expression. 💕👍

◽Phew! With that out of the way...

🔸"The Rules"

There are few hard 'rules' of pixel art, mostly about scaling and exporting. Some of these things will frequently trip up newbies if they aren't aware, and are easy to overlook.

🔹Scaling method

There are a couple ways of scaling your art. The default in most art programs, and the entire internet, is Bi-linear scaling, which usually works out fine for most purposes. But as pixel artists, we need a different method.

Both are scaled up x10. See the difference?

On the left is scaled using Bilinear, and on the right is using Nearest-Neighbor. We love seeing those pixels stay crisp and clean, so we use nearest-neighbor. 

(Most pixel-art programs have nearest-neighbor enabled by default! So this may not apply to you, but it's important to know.)

🔹Mixels

Mixels are when there are different (mixed) pixel sizes in the same image.

Here I have scaled up my art- the left is 200%, and the right is 150%. Yuck!

As we can see, the "pixel" sizes end up different. We generally try to scale our work by multiples of 100 - 200%, 300% etc. rather than 150%. At larger scales however, the minute differences in pixel sizes are hardly noticeable!

Mixels are also sometimes seen when an artist scales up their work, then continues drawing on it with a 1 pixel brush.

Many would say that this is not great looking! This type of pixels can be indicative of a beginner artist. But there are plenty of creative pixel artists out there who mixels intentionally, making something modern and cool.

🔹Saving Your Files

We usually save our still images as .PNGs as they don’t create any JPEG artifacts or loss of quality. It's a little hard to see here, but there are some artifacts, and it looks a little blurry. It also makes the art very hard to work with if we are importing a JPEG.

For animations .GIF is good, but be careful of the 256 colour limit. Try to avoid using too many blending mode layers or gradients when working with animations. If you aren’t careful, your animation could flash afterwards, as the .GIF tries to reduce colours wherever it can. It doesn’t look great!

Here's an old piece from 2021 where I experienced .GIF lossiness, because I used gradients and transparency, resulting in way too many colours.

🔹Pixel Art Fundamentals - Techniques and Jargon

❗❗Confused about Jaggies? Anti-Aliasing? Banding? Dithering? THIS THREAD is for you❗❗ << it's a link, click it!!

As far as I'm concerned, this is THE tutorial of all time for understanding pixel art. These are techniques created and named by the community of people who actually put the list together, some of the best pixel artists alive currently. Please read it!!

🔸How To Learn

Okay, so you have your software, and you're all ready to start. But maybe you need some more guidance? Try these tutorials and resources! It can be helpful to work along with a tutorial until you build your confidence up.

⭐⭐ Pixel Logic (A Digital Book) - $10 A very comprehensive visual guide book by a very skilled and established artist in the industry. I own a copy myself.

⭐⭐⭐ StudioMiniBoss - free A collection of visual tutorials, by the artist that worked on Celeste! When starting out, if I got stuck, I would go and scour his tutorials and see how he did it.

⭐ Lospec Tutorials - free A very large collection of various tutorials from all over the internet. There is a lot to sift through here if you have the time.

⭐⭐⭐ Cyangmou's Tutorials - free (tipping optional) Cyangmou is one of the most respected and accomplished modern pixel artists, and he has amassed a HUGE collection of free and incredibly well-educated visual tutorials. He also hosts an educational stream every week on Twitch called 'pixelart for beginners'.

⭐⭐⭐ Youtube Tutorials - free There are hundreds, if not thousands of tutorials on YouTube, but it can be tricky to find the good ones. My personal recommendations are MortMort, Brandon, and AdamCYounis- these guys really know what they're talking about!

🔸 How to choose a canvas size

When looking at pixel art turorials, we may see people suggest things like 16x16, 32x32 and 64x64. These are standard sizes for pixel art games with tiles. However, if you're just making a drawing, you don't necessarily need to use a standard canvas size like that.

What I like to think about when choosing a canvas size for my illustrations is 'what features do I think it is important to represent?' And make my canvas as small as possible, while still leaving room for my most important elements.

Imagine I have characters in a scene like this:

I made my canvas as small as possible (232 x 314), but just big enough to represent the features and have them be recognizable (it's Good Omens fanart 😤)!! If I had made it any bigger, I would be working on it for ever, due to how much more foliage I would have to render.

If you want to do an illustration and you're not sure, just start at somewhere around 100x100 - 200x200 and go from there.

It's perfectly okay to crop your canvas, or scale it up, or crunch your art down at any point if you think you need a different size. I do it all the time! It only takes a bit of cleanup to get you back to where you were.

🔸Where To Post

Outside of just regular socials, Twitter, Tumblr, Deviantart, Instagram etc, there are a few places that lean more towards pixel art that you might not have heard of.

⭐ Lospec Lospec is a low-res focused art website. Some pieces get given a 'monthly masterpiece' award. Not incredibly active, but I believe there are more features being added often.

⭐⭐ Pixilart Pixilart is a very popular pixel art community, with an app tied to it. The community tends to lean on the young side, so this is a low-pressure place to post with an relaxed vibe.

⭐⭐ Pixeljoint Pixeljoint is one of the big, old-school pixel art websites. You can only upload your art unscaled (1x) because there is a built-in zoom viewer. It has a bit of a reputation for being elitist (back in the 00s it was), but in my experience it's not like that any more. This is a fine place for a pixel artist to post if they are really interested in learning, and the history. The Hall of Fame has some of the most famous / impressive pixel art pieces that paved the way for the work we are doing today.

⭐⭐⭐ Cafe Dot Cafe Dot is my art server so I'm a little biased here. 🍵 It was created during the recent social media turbulence. We wanted a place to post art with no algorithms, and no NFT or AI chuds. We have a heavy no-self-promotion rule, and are more interested in community than skill or exclusivity. The other thing is that we have some kind of verification system- you must apply to be a Creator before you can post in the Art feed, or use voice. This helps combat the people who just want to self-promo and dip, or cause trouble, as well as weed out AI/NFT people. Until then, you are still welcome to post in any of the threads or channels. There is a lot to do in Cafe Dot. I host events weekly, so check the threads!

⭐⭐/r/pixelart The pixel art subreddit is pretty active! I've also heard some of my friends found work through posting here, so it's worth a try if you're looking. However, it is still Reddit- so if you're sensitive to rude people, or criticism you didn't ask for, you may want to avoid this one. Lol

🔸 Where To Find Work

You need money? I got you! As someone who mostly gets scouted on social media, I can share a few tips with you:

Put your email / portfolio in your bio Recruiters don't have all that much time to find artists, make it as easy as possible for someone to find your important information!

Clean up your profile If your profile feed is all full of memes, most people will just tab out rather than sift through. Doesn't apply as much to Tumblr if you have an art tag people can look at.

Post regularly, and repost Activity beats everything in the social media game. It's like rolling the dice, and the more you post the more chances you have. You have to have no shame, it's all business baby

Outside of just posting regularly and hoping people reach out to you, it can be hard to know where to look. Here are a few places you can sign up to and post around on.

/r/INAT INAT (I Need A Team) is a subreddit for finding a team to work with. You can post your portfolio here, or browse for people who need artists.

/r/GameDevClassifieds Same as above, but specifically for game-related projects.

Remote Game Jobs / Work With Indies Like Indeed but for game jobs. Browse them often, or get email notifications.

VGen VGen is a website specifically for commissions. You need a code from another verified artist before you can upgrade your account and sell, so ask around on social media or ask your friends. Once your account is upgraded, you can make a 'menu' of services people can purchase, and they send you an offer which you are able to accept, decline, or counter.

The evil websites of doom: Fiverr and Upwork I don't recommend them!! They take a big cut of your profit, and the sites are teeming with NFT and AI people hoping to make a quick buck. The site is also extremely oversaturated and competitive, resulting in a race to the bottom (the cheapest, the fastest, doing the most for the least). Imagine the kind of clients who go to these websites, looking for the cheapest option. But if you're really desperate...

🔸 Community

I do really recommend getting involved in a community. Finding like-minded friends can help you stay motivated to keep drawing. One day, those friends you met when you were just starting out may become your peers in the industry. Making friends is a game changer!

Discord servers Nowadays, the forums of old are mostly abandoned, and people split off into many different servers. Cafe Dot, Pixel Art Discord (PAD), and if you can stomach scrolling past all the AI slop, you can browse Discord servers here.

Twitch Streams Twitch has kind of a bad reputation for being home to some of the more edgy gamers online, but the pixel art community is extremely welcoming and inclusive. Some of the people I met on Twitch are my friends to this day, and we've even worked together on different projects! Browse pixel art streams here, or follow some I recommend: NickWoz, JDZombi, CupOhJoe, GrayLure, LumpyTouch, FrankiePixelShow, MortMort, Sodor, NateyCakes, NyuraKim, ShinySeabass, I could go on for ever really... There are a lot of good eggs on Pixel Art Twitch.

🔸 Other Helpful Websites

Palettes Lospec has a huge collection of user-made palettes, for any artist who has trouble choosing their colours, or just wants to try something fun. Rejected Palettes is full of palettes that didn't quite make it onto Lospec, ran by people who believe there are no bad colours.

The Spriters Resource TSR is an incredible website where users can upload spritesheets and tilesets from games. You can browse for your favourite childhood game, and see how they made it! This website has helped me so much in understanding how game assets come together in a scene.

VGMaps Similar to the above, except there are entire maps laid out how they would be played. This is incredible if you have to do level design, or for mocking up a scene for fun.

Game UI Database Not pixel-art specific, but UI is a very challenging part of graphics, so this site can be a game-changer for finding good references!

Retronator A digital newspaper for pixel-art lovers! New game releases, tutorials, and artworks!

Itch.io A website where people can upload, games, assets, tools... An amazing hub for game devs and game fans alike. A few of my favourite tools: Tiled, PICO-8, Pixel Composer, Juice FX, Magic Pencil for Aseprite

🔸 The End?

This is just part 1 for now, so please drop me a follow to see any more guides I release in the future. I plan on doing some writeups on how I choose colours, how to practise, and more!

I'm not an expert by any means, but everything I did to get to where I am is outlined in this guide. Pixel art is my passion, my job and my hobby! I want pixel art to be recognized everywhere as an art-form, a medium of its own outside of game-art or computer graphics!

This guide took me a long time, and took a lot of research and experience. Consider following me or supporting me if you are feeling generous.

And good luck to all the fledgling pixel artists, I hope you'll continue and have fun. I hope my guide helped you, and don't hesitate to send me an ask if you have any questions! 💕

My other tutorials (so far): How to draw Simple Grass for a game Hue Shifting

[justaleafinthewind]

If any one of my posts is to break containment, make it this one.

Before January 2025, download your favorite fics, especially those with smut or queer content.

If Project 2025 goes into effect (which it very likely will now that we have three red branches of government in the US), they may attempt to restrict the use/sharing of media on sites like ao3.

This particularly applies to fics with smut or any type of queer content, because the official Project 2025 document states, "Pornography, manifested today in the omnipresent propagation of transgender ideology and sexualization of children, for instance... has no claim to First Amendment protection... Pornography should be outlawed."

Now, I don't expect ao3 to disappear or go anywhere without a fight, but it's best to be on the safe side these days.

To download your favorite fics:

Go to archiveofourown.org and open the fic you want to download.

At the top right corner, to the right of the 'subscribe' button, is a button that says 'download'. Click it.

A drop-down menu will give you the option to choose the format of your download. Choose your preferred format (.epub and .pdf are my personal favorites -- .epub lets you open a fic in the apple books app and .pdf is compatible with like every device and program out there).

When you click the button for your preferred format, a pop-up window appears confirming your choices. The title of the document will default to the title of the fic, so be aware of that and consider changing conspicuous titles to something ignorable, especially if you share the computer.

You're done! Now do this with all your favorite fics!

Stay safe out there, your favorite characters are rooting for you <3