deadlyflan

[deadlyflan]

GUYSGUYSGUYSGUYSGUYSGUYSGUYSGUYSGUYSGUYSGUYSGUYSGUYSGUYSGUYSGUYSGUYSGUYSGUYSGUYSGUYSGUYSGUYSGUYSGUYSGUYSGUYSGUYSGUYSGUYSGUYSGUYSGUYSGUYSGUYSGUYSUYSGUYSGUYSGUYSGUYSGUYSGUYSGUYSGUYSGUYSGUYSGUYS

LOOK

APRITELLO ANIMATION 

I MADE A BG AND EVERYTHING

look at them TvT

For anyone who still doesn’t know, this is from Chapter 34 of our Ghost of a Chance fanfic. Spoiler alert? :P

Also we’re still working on the last two chapters, but they’re coming!

[deadlyflan]

@kathaynesart

Doodle :3

[deadlyflan]

Last year, I did this amazing lineart of my favorite turtle. I told myself that I hope to get back and color it eventually. And I did. Semi proud with this piece

Then the other one is the lineart I did last year

[deadlyflan]

oh, to have a single episode of them

[deadlyflan]

🍖 How to Build a Culture Without Just Inventing Spices and Necklaces

(a worldbuilding roast. with love.)

So. You’re building a fantasy world, and you’ve just invented: → Three types of ceremonial jewelry → A spice that tastes like cinnamon if it were bitter and cursed → A holiday where everyone wears gold and screams at dawn

Cute. But that’s not culture. That’s aesthetics.

And if your worldbuilding is all outfits, dances, and spice blends with vaguely mystical names, your story’s probably going to feel like a cosplay convention held inside a Pinterest board.

Here’s how to fix that—aka: how to build a real, functioning culture that shapes your story, not just its vibes.

─────── ✦ ───────

🔗 Culture Is Built on Power, Not Just Style

Ask yourself: → Who’s in charge, and why? → Who has land? Who doesn’t? → What’s considered taboo, sacred, or punishable by death?

Culture is shaped by who gets to make the rules and who gets crushed by them. That’s where things like religion, family structure, class divisions, gender roles, and social expectations actually come from.

Start there. Not at the embroidery.

─────── ✦ ───────

2.🪓 Culture Comes From Conflict

Did this society evolve peacefully? Was it colonized? Did it colonize? Was it rebuilt after a war? Is it still in one?

→ What was destroyed and mythologized? → What do the survivors still whisper about? → What do children get taught in school that’s… suspiciously sanitized?

No culture is neutral. Every tradition has a history, and that history should taste like blood, loss, or propaganda.

─────── ✦ ───────

3.🧠 Belief Systems > Customs Lists

Sure, rituals and holidays are cool. But what do people believe about: → Death? → Love? → Time? → The natural world? → Justice?

Example: A society that believes time is cyclical vs. one that sees time as linear will approach everything—from prison sentences to grief—completely differently.

You don’t need to invent 80 gods. You need to know what those gods mean to the people who pray to them.

─────── ✦ ───────

4.🫀 Culture Controls Behavior (Quietly)

Culture shows up in: → What people apologize for → What insults cut deepest → What people are embarrassed about → What’s praised publicly vs. what’s hidden privately

For instance: → A culture obsessed with stoicism won’t say “I love you.” They’ll say “Have you eaten?” → A culture built on legacy might prioritize ancestor veneration, archival writing, name inheritance.

This stuff? Way more immersive than giving everyone matching earrings.

─────── ✦ ───────

5. 🏠 Culture = Daily Life, Not Just Festivals

Sure, your MC might attend a funeral where people paint their faces blue. But what about: → Breakfast routines? → How people greet each other on the street? → Who cooks, and who eats first? → What’s considered “clean” or “proper”? → How is parenting handled? Divorce?

Culture is what happens between plot points. It should shape your character’s assumptions, language, fears, and habits—whether or not a festival is going on.

─────── ✦ ───────

6. 💬 Let Your Characters Disagree With Their Own Culture

A culture isn’t a monolith.

Even in deeply traditional societies, people: → Rebel → Question → Break rules → Misinterpret laws → Mock sacred things → Act hypocritically → Weaponize or resist what’s expected

Let your characters wrestle with the culture around them. That’s where realism (and tension) lives.

─────── ✦ ───────

7.🧼 Beware the “Pretty = Good” Trap

Worldbuilding gets boring fast when: → The protagonist’s homeland is beautiful and pure → The enemy’s culture is dark and “barbaric” → Every detail just reinforces who the reader should like

You can—and should—challenge the aesthetic hierarchy. → Let ugly things be beloved. → Let beautiful things be corrupt. → Let your MC romanticize their culture and then get disillusioned by it later.

─────── ✦ ───────

📍 TL;DR (but like, spicy): → Culture is not food and jewelry. → Culture is power, fear, memory, contradiction. → Stop inventing spices until you know who starved last winter. → Let your world feel lived in, not curated.

The best cultural worldbuilding doesn’t look like a list. It feels like a system. A pressure. A presence your characters can’t escape—even if they try.

Now go. Build something real. (You can add spices later.)

—rin t. // writing advice for worldbuilders with rage and range // thewriteadviceforwriters

Sometimes the problem isn’t your plot. It’s your first 5 pages. Fix it here → 🖤 Free eBook: 5 Opening Pages Mistakes to Stop Making:

🕯️ download the pack & write something cursed:

[deadlyflan]

hey (with swag)

[deadlyflan]

Small animation for the awesome sauce TDTWB by @saladmix

[deadlyflan]

Leo is concern

(you can't see it, but it's a little past 5 am.)

[deadlyflan]

Me and my friends in our discord server

[deadlyflan]

Happy first day of summer! ☀️ ’Tis the season for my return to the clover and dandelion buffet! ☘️🌱😋🐢

[deadlyflan]

I headcannon Mikey as being really into art, and since Ink Master started airing on 2012, I feel like 2012 Mikey and Maxine would be really into watching it when there's nothing else on TV.

One night, Mikey makes a comment about how cool it would be to have a tattoo of himself on his shell, and while Max doesn't know if that's possible–and Master Splinter would kill her if she did it— she does have animal safe paints that are probably safe to put on a giant mutated turtle's shell.

[deadlyflan]

and the last Raph

[deadlyflan]

Is been so long i draw human again

[deadlyflan]

I miss them honestly 💕

[deadlyflan]

Attempt at lasso, I like how the right leg looked. Idk how to explain, like more bright colors than the left one? (≧□≦)

Here is the ref

[deadlyflan]

[deadlyflan]

I love the little au I made for casey jones that lives rent free in my head

Casey and his chuzz boyfriend Robbie💔💔