#or at least fundamentals of stuff

[the-canine-king]

not to be hater on main (and also it's going here since i think i'm gonna end up rambling too long on twt lol) but i really hate a lot of artist youtube content. honestly if you're looking for basic fundamentals, look for the professional artists that has worked in the industry for years and has a book published (loomis and hampton) rather than a random 18yr old student.

i mean, at least some videos are titled "how **I** draw _____" rather than "how to draw _____" and it's a bigger bonus if they mention which artist/ resource they studied rather than throw the method's name off hand.

i'm gonna be a super hater and art snobby here but i watched a video where it was really.... wrong? and also their fundamentals are pretty bad. i have a lot i wanna say here. (idk what got over me but i get really snarky here lol, there's extra notes at the end)

their use of the loomis method. i mean, idk if this is a modification of the loomis method that i've never seen but i've seen TWO artist mention the horizontal line in the classic set up is the EYE line. if we're following the book, it's the BROW line. and then they say "oh drop the horizontal line down halfway *and a little bit under*" tf you mean "a little bit"? just drop it half way for the brow?? GAH, looking at their basic structure from drawing from references really annoy me. like. YOU'RE NOT... DOING IT RIGHT...

them and 90% of videos bashing on loomis method for "not allowing different characterization. am i insane?? did we read the same book?? he LITERALLY DRAWS examples of varied head shapes?? literally mentions how you imagine the skull like clay and you disform it into a specific shape?? i can't find the exact line but i'm pretty sure he mentions how everyone had a similar basic head structure but it's up to the artist to figure out how it varies for the specific person. while yes it doesn't show better examples of different features in terms of race, but that doesn't mean he doesn't guide you on trying to understand the basic echos of the form across everyone that lets you use it to artistically form it for the specific model/ character. like it's so weird to see everyone parroting the same "issue" w/ the loomis method when loomis' book literally acknowledges it and says to know follow the measurements for every head

the lack of understanding/ shaping of form and the planes of the head. i mean idk if it's bc they didn't know the asaro head but them tracing a portrait to fit such arbitrary lines implying the planes was so AUGH. like it's so clear they don't have a good understanding of the lips and jaw/ planes of the cheek. how do you trace the photo (AND STUDIED HAMPTON'S BOOK) but not understand the lips and chin like cmon. i get it if it was more of a gestural approach but you're literally tracing so i mean lol.

their flat ass basic forms. lol. idk, like at least be capable of drawing a circle. and then drawing their guidelines following the form of a sphere. idk i started laughing when "this is how you draw the head in different angles" and it's incredibly flat. no form. no "space". you're just arbitrarily doing the motions without considering the shape you want to draw. if you want to draw a convincing head you have to draw a convincing shape

idk like. their art is genuinely not bad at all, way better than what i can make. and i understand that everyone has a different approach and etc etc like if this is how THEY do it then it's whatever. but at the same time it's really hard to look past as this is the most popular video over 1mil views and many taking this to heart in the comments. it's also probably a stylistic choice but style should not excuse poor foundations lol. i think it's heavy handed on the fact that the artist intuitively knows what looks better and can adjust it themselves but it's terrible advice for a beginner since the beginner wouldn't know what to adjust (they wouldn't have to learn to adjust if they learned how to draw the foundation better but whatever) lol

the way that **I** want my art to look and art that appeals to me is to have a big emphasis on 3d space and form. if the construction phase (foundation) is too flat your whole drawing would look flat. i'm still studying artist that manage to make a drawing feel like it's 3d on paper but i'm slowly getting the forms down.

i think i'm also just really irritated at this new wave of artists (at least on toyhouse) so adamant on NOT learning the fundamentals. like one one hand i get it if you don't care about improving, bc you're still improving if you're drawing for fun. however if you want to draw better quickly and more effectively then yes you have to learn the basic foundation. it's even more irritating when their excuse is "i don't want to learn realism" LIKE?? where do you think art comes from, JUST your imagination? it comes from life and your experiences. your memories, you clown. you live life and then draw out what you SEE and experience in the world. how do you draw a horse if you've never properly studied one. how do you draw a convincing person if you never understand how we actually look. you're not doing "realism" you're building your understanding of the world to make a world in your art. you're building your understanding of proportions and measuring. you're building your understanding of light and shadow. you're building so many foundational stuff that's found in every single art field and art style but you're too close minded you brush it off as "just realism"

i would end it off with "how **I** draw the head" but that's pretty hypocritical lol. if you read all this and wanna know what i looked at that's actually very helpful, literally just read hampton's "Figure Drawing and Design" and loomis' "Drawing the Head and Figure" that's literally all you need. (hampton also has a youtube channel where he goes over the head in a little series of videos, worth checking out if you don't know where to get the book or you just want the head chapters explicitly drawn in real time)

loomis helps a lot w/ figuring out the basics of basic, but hampton helps a lot more w/ more clear examples and an extra guideline to help place the eyes

[very-super-silly]

watching house and tryna keep track of all the hilson moments, but sometimes it just surprises me how wilson and house are just . always together 😭😭 like mf arent you an oncologist this is not your department??

[bigskydreaming]

Imagine looking at a character whose entire premise is that in every stage of his life, he's made every version of himself into someone that inspires people to such a degree that EVERY SINGLE VERSION OF HIM has people wanting to literally follow in his footsteps in some way or another.....

And coming to the conclusion that like.....the most important things about him are the sum of all his trappings. His entirely homemade developed from scratch could not exist if not for what he already was and brought with him BEFORE crafting this newest version of himself trappings, with his greatest trait throughout all of it being his adaptability; his ability and willingness to roll with the punches and not try to simply weather any opposition or changes to his life but instead reshape himself as needed to better fit INTO whatever new shape his life and the world around him takes. All while managing to carry the most innate, fundamental and necessary aspects of himself from one version to the next. Thus every single version of himself is different but simultaneously every single version of himself is also undeniably the same person.

The strength of this character, to me, will always be that he can be so many versions of himself, he can become so many things, all without ever actually losing or discarding any of the aspects of himself he considers most essential, the things he's not willing to lose or give up just to keep going. Finding that road not taken by most, usually because most never even think to look for it as an option. But one that he's always able to find because the one trick he's mastered in his tumultuous life is threading that needle of not just digging in his heels in an unproductive way but rather being selective about when and where he makes a stand and decides "this is not a thing I'm willing to compromise about" but here are places and ways I can and will change and evolve and adapt in order to make it possible for me to hold onto these parts and keep them as they are.

And that's why its always so mind-boggling to me that so many writers can't seem to think of anything else to do with Dick Grayson other than invent some new reason for him to just....not be that person, or to like just take the character whose most basic fundamental trait he's NOT about to compromise on is willingly giving up his spot in the driver's seat of his own life.....and make him just a passenger in his own life and stories.

Dick Grayson at age nine....at age nineteen...at age twenty nine....the one core thread running through all versions of him is the only way he's standing back and letting you call the shots for him or putting him on the sidelines in some way is over his dead body.

HOW he goes about that, what that looks like, who he becomes and what aspects of himself he plays up at some times and what traits he lets fall by the wayside at other times when they offer less in service to his primary goal here....that changes constantly. He changes constantly.

But those changes are almost always (or at least they used to be/should be IN MY OPINION) made with the intention of keeping certain things about him or his life as consistent as possible.

That's the duality of Dick Grayson that I'm here for. The inherent contradiction of him that COULD allow for endless conflict and breaking new narrative ground in all sorts of ways if mined properly:

His eternal willingness to compromise....but only ever in pursuit of doubling down on the ways he's not willing to compromise.

Forever walking that tightrope in ways that only a kid born and raised in a circus could ever hope to.

[kwillow]

I ask this as an Ambroys appreciator, but I genuinely need to know: Does our boy have any redeeming qualities?

...Yeah. Not really.

Ambroys is, for me, a fun exercise in making a character who is basically nothing but flaws. And they aren't even the "good" flaws.

He's not one of those "hates the world but fights to the death for his loved ones" types; he will throw his loved ones under bus to look good for strangers, who he also doesn't respect. He's not "an asshole but he owns it" because he will bend to other people's wills to try to appease them while continuing to be an asshole behind their backs. He's manipulative but not because he's a clever chess-master, he's just audacious and shameless enough to lie and guilt-trip people without remorse. He's too ignorant to be sophisticated but too educated to be naive. He can fight well enough, but he doesn't seek out worthy foes, only weaker enemies he can easily grind into the dirt for a cheap thrill. He's a coward. He's lazy. He doesn't "get" art. He has no convictions. He sucks!

But I think the fun with Ambroys is that he's such a worthless person, but he so, so desperately wants to be admired and praised and just liked. So he has to engage in this dance of maintaining a good public face over the void of his personality, where he tries to appeal to people while also being able to indulge his vices, because he doesn't believe anything he does or thinks is wrong... just unpopular. But being unpopular is worse than being wrong.

[take-care-of-it]

Getting real tired of some critics of Mouthwashing acting like Anya is the least fleshed out/least active character. Outside of Jimmy, she is the most active character. (and that's excluding how many of her ideas and actions directly influence Jimmy's, such as getting the extra painkillers.)

You can have your gripes and grievances abt how horror can overly rely on sexual violence in general, but I'm baffled that there seems to be some sort of consensus that there is no way you could ever do it well. That because it's overdone, no one can attempt to say something with these themes in the horror genre and it ever be meaningful. (DESPITE the fact that Mouthwashing is like, achingly aware of this. Half of the commentary in the game, the nail in the coffin, is peeling back the veneer of Jimmy's POV and assumed impartiality to show how his perception of the people around him don't fit into the boxes he's shoved them into.) That's not cope or making the game more complicated than it actually is (and even if it was, I kindly direct you to the actual definition of the concept of Death of the Author), the co-director basically says as much in an interview she did.

Also, I respect a take on Mouthwashing that claims general disinterest in seeing these themes trod out again in any context, infinitely more than one that claims the game just uncritically engages with these themes. And also takes that straight up lie about Anya as a character. Next you're going to be telling me you'd prefer if the game was about a young witch in the Alps.

[shallowseeker]

There's feelings here: a LOT of mixed ones.

I am also always talking about the process of Rowena THAWING, because that's what she's been doing all this time, in so many ways. Here, I think it's neat that she's juxtaposed with the snowy landscape, and she's drinking something warm.

She's pensive, because she's resonating with the loss. After all, she held onto Oskar well beyond his time, just as Crowley held onto Gavin well beyond his.

But I think too that Rowena understands Gavin on a fundamental level. Gavin was actively prevented from learning and betterment, and his instinct/mode was to RUN AWAY to America.

Gavin even left his loved one (Fiona) behind! Rowena did the same, in pursuit of a better life. She's probably thinking about how her life might be different if she could go back. Hundreds upon hundreds of choices are flashing through her mind. Could she be like Gavin? Given the choice, would she go back to Fergus, even if they'd have died in the much together?

Would it be right? Would it have even made a difference?

But Crowley assumes the worst. "A low, even for you."

Wow. Yeah. I'd be mad, too.

He's the King of Hell, and in so many ways, she made him into what he is, but he's also responsible for SO MUCH of his own behavior. He's certainly also King of Never Considering his own Wrongs (not even when Dean practically asks for a verbal apology in season 10's Inside Man).

Crowley tends to, as a rule, consider only his own hurts and emotions...

...and Rowena is more than happy to stoke those short-sighted hurts.

Ah, yes.

This scene where Crowley happily goads Rowena to kill the SON she loves more than Crowley. It's the Luciferian mate to the finale of 13x23, where Lucifer happily watches as he goads Jack to kill the FATHER he loves more than Lucifer.

All the while pretending that he's giving a "fair choice." Crowley says, "It's only cruel if you go through with it," as Lucifer coos, "You choose."

How messy!

What Crowley doesn't know is that for her, it's very likely both. Rowena is the queen of sundering her own feelings, the queen of dissociation.

This is just another loss in her long life of losses.

But it's a loss with a silver lining. A warped cry for empathy... and a cruel one.

Anyway, it's here that Rowena throws her drink to the ground and the sound of it doesn't feel warm. It feels SCALDING. She literally pours out any WARMTH she might've been feeling and prepares to go cold.

Because for Crowley to pretend their scenarios are in ANY WAY equal... is laughable.

This is revenge.

(Aside// How neat it is that Lily Sunder is a foil to Rowena here! Because later, she chooses to save Jack Kline despite Castiel having a hand in May's death..)

///

And so, Crowley is left staring. He doesn't move against her but seems to just... sit there, in stunned silence.

Empathy for his mother had never occurred to him, at least not when it came to Oskar.

As usual, he was too wrapped in in the volatility of his own emotions all this time.

//

"Feel what I feel, see what I see" indeed.

(((script via the blessed @spnscripthunt-inactive as always.))

[arodykeism]

much ado about pleasure

[folightening]

How about nations occasionally experiencing jealousy of humans for having an ending. A nation's end is forever a hanging possibility unlikely to happen - especially nowadays. They just... Exist. They don't get to rest, to stop worrying or caring or feeling. Cursed to be human but not granted that final rest all of humanity is eventually granted. Left with the feelings and memories humanity engraved on their being; people they'll never forget and can never see again... Any length of death they do experience is a candle in the breeze compared to the rest of their lives. And they return to living on and on. Never granted a proper rest, never granted the freedom from existing that humans are so scared of. Never understanding what makes the humans so terrified because they view it as well deserved freedom and rest.

[proudfreakmetarusonikku]

hammering down the timeline made me realise in my fic Kirby is literally ten times older than king dedede and that’s deeply funny to me actually

[cuntwrap--supreme]

Someone's tiny child drew a Something and they put it in their box saying the kid drew it for me. Which is cute, I guess. My mom did stuff like this when I was a small child who was obsessed with the arrival of mail. It's in the route's case to be immortalized forever.

Now to figure out how to read the drawing so I can find what I assume is treasure beyond my wildest imagination.

[floorpancakes]

im reaching new and concerning levels of understanding watanuki on a personal level

[rpfisfine]

not to have an extremely giant inflated ego when it comes to my playlists bc at the end of the day compiling a bunch of songs to suit a character or a fictional ship is purely abt fun and ppl with like regular jobs and stuff don't usually start up stupid discourse over a topic as inane as this but i do consider myself to be somewhat more skilled than the average character/ship playlist maker simply bc where the average playlist maker will put hayloft by mother mother i will put stuff like House of the Rising Sun in Old French

[navree]

'the reason why i say nobody should interact with anything israeli ever but don't have that same rigor for russia is because russia is a country with a long history that israel doesn't so there' okay and do you think that long history was also sunshine and rainbows? do you think russia got to the size that it did with the power of friendship? do you think russian history only started in february of 2022? are you stupid?

[sp1resong]

i really wish 'fandom' and 'fanfic' wasn't considered synonymous with 'shipping' tbh

[rabbitindisguise]

Some innocent soul: oh you like [anime title]? :)

Me, trying to sound normal: haha yeah 👍

Also me: *kicking the thousands of reblogs on Tumblr of gifsets and handful of fics I wrote about two characters 69ing under my bed*

[mantisgodsdomain]

Tags from this post segmented off into a post of their own (if you don't want to click that link, then just the phrase "ancient iterator dick discourse" should suffice. We have strong opinions about iterator construction because we live with a guy who manages large-scale construction projects and such like this for a living and it's really hard to listen to half a dozen calls about the legalities of one (1) bridge and budgeting and materials construction and the legally mandated fund for art on major construction projects and then just buy in to hundreds of years of iterator designs using a single thing made by one guy without changing a single piece of it or at the very least having eighty engineers arguing the shit out of it.

Full transcript of text below cut.

#we speak #realistically it would just require more specific tinkering w what we choose to include but we still think the dickscourse is funny #it's the image of a bunch of ancient monks gathering around to very seriously debate decisions with the upcoming iterator project #and then the whiteboard is just like. “ITERATORS: dick or no?” #(vital context: we got hung up on the semantics of people giving their iterators actual genitals in smut) #(as the existence of that on the puppet implies that someone had to design and manufacture and ship that shit for the finished iterator) #(and the general aura of the ancients instantly catapults this to fucking hilarious because it implies job titles like “dick director”) #(and work emails about iterator pipe written in the exact same cadence as all of the ancient correspondence we see in-game) #we dont think a lot of people designing iterators really Get the sheer amount of semantics and construction and effort and PEOPLE #that go into a project of the iterator's scale #especially when hundreds of them have been constructed! theres gonna be a whole ass trail of design changes and iterations! #youre gonna have hundreds of years of iterators being designed and technology coming into fashion and out of fashion #and things being integrated and things becoming obsolete and things being more or less practical as time goes on! #you cant really say that All Iterators have a trait because the sheer scale and timeframe theyre built on means thats near impossible #our windows 95 writing computer has different construction and deeply different design to a laptop from 2023 #despite them technically being the same type of technology #you expect tech developed hundreds of years apart to be The Same? absolutely not. theres gonna be eight trillion weird design quirks #accumulated both in the construction process and in the continued design refinement and improvement stage #...which is to say that you can and should write what u want but if youre gonna include pleasure inducing wires then we want like #a 40k word essay on how this got into the design how it wound up in future designs what function the wires perform that makes them Like That #and so on and so forth #we admire the confidence and ingenuity of the people who want to fuck the robots but we cannot get into their fantasies with good conscience #we live in the same house as an engineer who manages largescale construction and we also know too much about designing technology #...we should segment these tags into a separate post or something. we've gone WAY off-topic.