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lathmar holi festival in the small indian villages of nandgaon and barsana in the northern state of uttar pradesh. men from one village sing provocative songs to gain the attention of the women in the other village, who then pretend to beat them back with bamboo sticks called lathis. the tradition is based on the story of lord krishna and his shepherd friends flirtatiously throwing colours on radha and her cowherd girls, who in turn chased them off with sticks. the festivities are heightened with thandai, a drink laced with a bhang paste made from ganja. photos by daniel berehulak, jan kostal, mahesh kumar and sanjay patel

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Because I had way too much fun with the Finnish name generator I found. :B

My name turned into "Tuulikki Susi" which translates to "a woman spirit of the forest" and "wolf", so the character is a forest guardian spirit who takes the form of a wolf.

In her human form she enjoys hanging out with her river spirit buddy in coffee shops and parks. /ouo/

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Photo by:Divinemethod

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Bohemian Rani Festive Collection 2013 by Sapana Amin 

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OK THERE IS SOMETHING I NEED TO SHOW YOU GUYS

LOOK AT THIS FUCKING MAJESTIC CREATURE. THIS MY FRIEND, IS A TIGER

THEY ARE PRETTY MUCH THE GREATEST THING EVER

THEY EVEN COME IN WHITE 

LOOK AT THOSE FUCKING PAWS I JUS T WANT TO TOUCH THEM

AND THEIR BABIES LIKE ARE THEY EVEN REAL

ARE THEY??????

AND I’M NOT GONNA SAY THEY’RE HARMLESS BUT ILY 

IT’S EATING FROM A BOWL I’M SCREAMING

HONESTLY THEY JUST REALLY BIG KITTIES

SUP BITCHES LETS DO SOME SWIMMING

THEY ALSO LIKE SNOW

LIKE CAN U NOT BE SO PERF???

T I G E R S 

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I love your art work so much :3 I was just wondering, how do you pick your colors? they are just so beautiful and unique and UGH i cant do colors and it pains me

its about time i try to explain this as the obviously unprofessional i am. 

i just pick colors depending on my mood, there are colors that look colder and warmer, so i take advantage of that 

do you feel the colors. you gotta feel them. 

then it’s time to pick the best colors for your piece, aka AVOID THESE IF YOU CAN. 

sometimes they work tho, but why pick those when you can pick these

they give you cuter colors and better color palettes.

remember to feel how warm or cold or neutral you want anything to look. 

that’s better looking than the MS Paint default palette. after some time you will be able to choose nice colors, give it a try. (you can also make a new layer with a solid color and set it to Overlay and it should help). 

then the shading comes in, you’ll eventually realize some colors look better with others. BUT PLEASE PLEASE AVOID SHADING WITH BLACK/GREYS OR MAKING LIGHTS WITH WHITE.

ew that looks so simple, why do that when yOU COULD BE SHADING WITH COLORS TOO??? 

yeah that looks more lively. 

i really like colors and that’s why i experiment with them a lot so to fully understand them you could either learn on your own by trying (like me) or you could take color classes, which is good too because they will teach you about other important stuff like this 

but basically its just 

don’t take me too seriously because i just fool around with colors hnnn. u3u 

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Limits of the Human Body by Soda Pop Avenue.

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Lip-Sync - Mouth reference by *DarkmaneTheWerewolf

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Zarnala

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Any information about writing kids, I am writing a story and don't really know anything about expressing a toddlers opinion, someone that can barely talk and cries all the time is a bit complicated...

This gets long so I’ve just bolded the important stuff, then whoever braves reading this can hopefully skim to the part they need. Followers/Admins, feel free to add your own thoughts…!

The most complicated thing about a toddler is knowing how to deal with them. Toddlers are impulsive and demanding - they don’t understand the world around them or other people enough to weigh in things like 1) the situation, 2) everyone else’s moods and 3) how reasonable their request is when they start throwing a fit. Basically, they’re unable to empathise in the same way an adult can.

So here is a sort of cheat-sheet to help you work out what a toddler is capable of doing and saying. Please note that all children differ.

Speech

By two, babies have enough of a vocabulary to actually communicate with the adults around them. They’re capable of phrases rather than sentences. Things like:

'Juice?' - ‘I’m thirsty’, ‘Where is my juice cup?’ or ‘I want my juice cup’. (Replace with pretty much any physical object/person the child has learnt to address, ie ‘Sweeties?’, ‘Toys?’, ‘Daddy?’)

'Bye bye!' - ‘Goodbye’, ‘I understand that this television programme/song/game is finished now’ or ‘I’m done with your shit and I’m not going to obey your orders. Chase me.’

Shortened words. Banana becomes ‘nah-nah’ and most foods/other objects are shortened/poorly replicated versions of the actual word.

Very simple sentences to convey a meaning, such as, ‘It hurts!’, ‘That was mammy (I heard from across the room/on the phone/I saw pass by the window)’. Usually just something they’ve learnt to repeat from those around them, so they don’t always use it in context.

'Yack!'/'Yuck!' - ‘My nappy is dirty’, ‘I don’t like the taste of that food you’ve just forced into my mouth’ or ‘My hands are covered in sticky things and it’s your job to clean them’.

'No.' - ‘I’m not going to eat that’, ‘I’m not going to play that game’, ‘I’m not going to watch this television programme’, ‘I want to see daddy, yes, but I’m going to say ‘no’ anyway because I like that word better’ or ‘I don’t want to do what you’re asking of me’.

'Bababuhbbuhagfugjjhug'. Random gibberish that toddler says in between coherent words/phrases. In my opinion, they’re trying to simulate a conversation but know they can get away with putting in the absolute bare minimum of effort.

Repetition. All children at this age try to repeat the things you say and do. Most of the time they achieve gibberish, but if you repeat a word often enough, they’ll memorise it.

Generally speaking, toddlers have very mundane conversations where they repeat just about everything in their limited vocabulary to get the whole range of rehearsed reactions you have available.

Behaviour

Basic facts:

Toddlers cry a lot because they lack any ability to express the range of emotions they’re experiencing.

They thrive under routine, as it makes them feel safe and secure. Disruptions to the routine means a cranky, unsettled and irritable two year old.

Toddlers have limitless amounts of energy. They don’t stop throwing themselves around, even if they haven’t slept for twelve hours. It’s up to you to enforce bedtime, otherwise your toddler will stay awake until his body goes into automatic shut down.

They’re rough-handed and have to be taught to be gentle. This is why pets scatter when they see a toddler crashing into the room. They know it’s tail-pulling and back-slapping time.

That said, toddlers do have their own personalities and quirks which is why this guide really can’t beat actually being around a toddler or two. Here’s a brief summary of the differences I’ve observed between my two oldest nephews (I’ll call ‘em A and B) to give you a little reference sheet of how to develop these individual differences:

Playtime: A is very quiet. Used to playing on his own, so you have to really dedicate yourself to getting him up on his feet or engaged in a game (but once you do, he doesn’t sit back down again or accept that the game has an end). On the other hand, B never sits down ever, not even during his allotted television time. Pretty sure he’d stand up in his high chair if able. Always in the mood for games and says/does funny things to make everyone laugh.

Discipline: B is strong-willed and doesn’t understand the concept of, ‘Don’t touch that’ or ‘Don’t do that’. If you shout at him, he puts his head down, looks very sad and then cries into his hands until you distract him with a new game or tickles. A is similar, but goes in a huff for a very long time and possibly won’t speak to/look at you for the rest of the day. Will continually retry his evil plan and scream/cry louder every time he’s thwarted.

Outside: Neither A nor B like holding hands with designated adult whilst outside. Also set on ‘auto-run’ for the entire time with no way of turning it off. Both incapable of sitting still for car rides and like to test the child lock feature at frequent intervals throughout the journey.

Potty training: Both A and B reluctant to use potties. Need encouragement, so praised extensively after any achievement. B a lot lazier than A when it comes to flagging up a warning. A sometimes so determined not to use potty, that he says nothing at all until you notice his pants are soaked through.

Conversation: A’s favourite words: ‘Car’, ‘Bick’ (bike), ‘Noisy bick’, ‘No’, ‘Grandad’. B’s favourite words: ‘Spidey’, ‘An Man’ (Iron Man), ‘Uck’ (Hulk), ‘Mammy’, ‘Daddy’, ‘Imims’ (Minions). Both ask for ‘Mammy’ when crying.

Mealtime: B eats anything and everything. Appears to have no workable taste buds as even enjoys the fizziest sweets out of the offered selection. A is fussy with food, prefers chips, sweets, chips and chips. Dislikes anything gooey or odd in texture. Expects reward after attempting the main meal.

Bath time: A hates the water, hates it on his head especially. Attempting to wash hair leads to many tears. Prefers to play quietly with toys in tub with occasional splashing. Do not get in the bath with A, as he cries. It’s HIS bath time, damn it! B on the other hand is like a mermaid baby and frequently dumps his face into the water and rears his head laughing like an adorable kraken. Lots of splashing. Enjoys baths with others.

Bedtime: A believes sleep is for the weak and will do everything in his power to stay awake. Cries when you give up on story time after he flips the page back to the beginning for the umpteenth time. B accepts bedtime with no fuss, but will crawl (and not walk) to the bed to buy time. Gets in bed without problem, and listens to bedtime story whilst gazing into the distance. Forces sleep upon himself to end the banality. Both A and B wake up obscenely early, no matter how late they went to sleep.

3+

It’s basically all the same but they have a larger vocabulary and a weaker tolerance for your bullshit. Three-four-year-old kids are more open to challenging you, especially on the things you thought you knew. This is where they surprise you with almost intelligent observations and suggestions. For example, A was four when we had this exchange:

Me: Look, A, that new school they’re building is so huge…!A: It’s got lots of windows!Grandma: Yes, it does! And lots of doors and - I don’t know what those are.Me: They look like big vents.A: I think they’re for the kitchens when they’re cooking food and it gets too hot.Me & Grandma: Ohhh…!

However, they’re not so great at thinking outside of the box. It’s usually by the age of five that children start adding, ‘Well, maybe it’s because…’ onto the end of any statement you make, and the suggestion is usually something innocent/imaginative like:

Me: I’m so annoyed! Somebody hasn’t put these books back.A: Maybe they just forgot.Me: No, I think they were just too lazy.A: Yeah! Or maybe they had something else to do and went to do that instead. Or what if they heard something outside and went to see? Wouldn’t that be funny? What do you think they heard?

Children don’t lose their hyperactivity either, or their silliness. They’re easily amused and entertained. Their speech is also imperfect. Well, everybody’s is, but they have less of an understanding of grammar and sentence order, so you get funny things like:

A: (when being read to) Don’t forget to read the blob on the back!A: Have you seen all those mices on the TV? There’s loads! (laughs for about ten minutes)A: Well, I runned the other way so my friend didn’t see me.A: (when singing along to Zedd, ‘Clarity’) If uhh roooohhh’s inananiny weh yoo MY CLARITY.A: If the picture’s taked and I shut my eyes can I do it again? Because that time I think I shut my eyes.

And that’s about all I can think of adding at the moment. I hope this is somewhat helpful…!

Resources:

Previous answer on writing young teens/children.

Writing Child Characters

What You Should Know About Babies

FYCD Child Characters tag

- enlee

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By Vivek Tanwar

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THIS GOES TO ALL THE LITTLE ARTISTS OUT THERE

Volavarn and I have collected and hoarded these, in order to make good use of them one day. Now we decided to share them, so all of you could use them too:

Color Pallet Generator

Textures

Clothing References/Costumes

HD Movie Screenshots

People and Animals - Classes

Muscles and Bones

Anatomy - you have to log in with your google or facebook account though

Concept Art

and always remember

have fun :D

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Hehe one of my friends drew herself as an intensely fabulous lady-dwarf yesterday, so of COURSE I had to draw myself as an elf so that we could have MIDDLE-EARTH ADVENTURES~

I think I'd be a very young (and thus rather more emotional/childish) wood-elf from Mirkwood who got tired of hanging around fortress halls and decided to go out and see the world instead. I met my dwarf-friend in the Prancing Pony one night while she was traveling to Erebor some time after the War of the Ring.

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kel i know you probably hadn't posted any art with gas mask on it, but i wonder if you have some tips for me to draw the gas mask u_u

YEAH JUST REMEBER NOT TO DRAW IT TOO CLOSE TO THE FACE bc there’s actually a space between the mask and face IT’s not tightly fitted HOPE THAT HLEPS SORRY IT”S A SO SCRIBBLY I need to sleep 

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Nifty info AND a great source of running horse refs! :D

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"Readers tend to like characters who are struggling to achieve a goal. This simple principle can be invaluable in creating sympathetic protagonists.

Characters working toward a goal are active characters.

Characters who aren’t working toward a goal are reactive.

Reactive characters are much weaker than active characters, and we tend not to like them. Unfortunately, many writers end up unknowingly creating reactive protagonists.” - Odyssey Writing Tips

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PROACTIVE CHARACTERS »»

A proactive character is a character who does things. They make decisions, they initiate actions, and they are driven by a goal that often makes them pick the wrong decisions and actions.

This is important because what characters choose to do is going to create your plot. Why they choose to do it will create your stakes. Together, these factors make you invested in a plot.

Proactive characters drive plot. They don’t just have strong goals; they actively pursue them. That’s one of the reasons people tend to love villains: they have a clear goal, are often centered around the attainment of that goal, and those goals give interesting insights into their personality and choices.

This means proactive characters are easier to build around and work with as the plot progresses. You can make plots around their goals and find ways for those goals to lead to new ones.

You can get away with having reactive characters in literature sometimes because you’re able to rely on secondary characters to drive the plot and impact your character. (If you roleplay, you don’t get this luxury in RP because everything is centered around character interaction.)

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WHY IS IT SO IMPORTANT »»

Thehappylogophile has an answer:

“Almost every novel has it: down-time. That moment between the adrenalin-fuelled car chase and the point where the slasher leaps out of the tree-line and drags the protagonist’s boyfriend into the undergrowth. It’s a chance for the characters (and the reader) to take a deep breath and process everything that’s just happened. It’s often the point where characters share information, or plot their next move, or take advantage of the lull in death-dealing to “celebrate the wonder of life”. (Cue the sleazy electric guitar.) So, how does your character behave in the lull? If she takes the opportunity to sit quietly and cry, or goes along with someone else’s suggestion, or her entire plan revolves around waiting to see what happens next, she’s probably a reactive character. A proactive character is likely to be the one leading the conversation, making plans that include the theme (if not the words) “the best defense is a good offense”, or even taking the opportunity to return to her pre-story goals.”

What you should take away from this is: when a character isn’t driving the plot, s/he needs to have interesting goals/development outside of the main plot to work towards. This way, your character is always developing over the course of the game/ your novel and still doing something during downtime instead of sitting idly by.

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IS MY CHARACTER REACTIVE »»

“A reactive character is more likely to do what’s “easiest” or “more immediate”. If choosing between two love interests, the reactive character will go with the one in front of him right now. Or the one who tries the hardest to woo him. Or the one that his friends tell him he should go with. Alternately, he won’t make a choice at all — at least, not until he’s either forced to do so by outside events (“Declare your undying love for me, or I’ll start drowning kittens! “) or one of the options is removed (“Now that Laura is dead, you have to love me!”).” - Jo Eberhardt

In short, reactive characters don’t make the interesting decisions that give us insights to a person’s personality or develop it.

“A proactive character will make a choice. It may not be the right choice (and often isn���t), but it’s a choice nonetheless: “I’ve considered my options and have decided that I’m really in love with the evil, but incredibly sexy, vampire, and not the sweet girl-next-door who’s always been there for me. How could anything possibly go wrong?” - Jo Eberhardt

In roleplay, you can generally tell characters aren’t reactive when their histories/personality read more like a grocery list of characteristics or events. Proactive characters’ applications are driven by and explore their goals and decisions.

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WHY DO PEOPLE MAKE REACTIVE CHARACTERS? HOW CAN I AVOID IT? »»

A big reason people make reactive characters is often because of the method they employ creating characters. Many times, writers will take a sort of Frankenstein approach — mixing and mashing character traits and then try to flesh them out. They say my character has x, y, and z trait. S/he has these traits because of a, b, and c. Don’t do that. That approach generally does not work (unless mixed with others). It wastes your time and doesn’t get at the heart of the issues. Sure, that can be a good approach to generate ideas. However, unless you find a conflict to base those traits around or use them to further that conflict, no one is going to be invested in your character or have a good idea of how these traits manifest and, most importantly, why. If you need a formula to follow, try starting with:

In order of importance, what are the five most important things to your character and why? (make note of conflicting wants and goals)

Tie in information about your character’s deeper motivations. Try to think about where your character’s sense of worth comes from, who they’re trying to impress and why, which of their own (or others’) priorities these might clash with, what characters may believe others want, their goals/values and how they were established, re-occurring problems in your character’s life (jealousy, financial issues, etc.), what sort of person other characters believe yours is, in what ways your character is uniquely selfish, your character’s opinion of him/herself, your character’s ambitions, what your character works to gain/protect, etc. If you’re having trouble, try this resource.

Ex. Being liked. It is important to my character that he is liked. Peter struggled with it as a child because of his romantic involvement with his  goldfish leading other children to think he was strange. He can be somewhat sycophant because of this and tries to secure that he is liked by making himself valuable to others even when it can be damaging to himself and those around him.

and/or

 Character Name   wants to accomplish these three goals: being more   character trait  , obtaining   status symbol  , and protecting his/her ______. S/he wants to accomplish these things because s/he values ___, ___, and ___. S/he is driven to accomplish them because s/he is   good/bad trait   and   good/bad trait   and isn’t above doing _____ and ____ to get these things, which makes him/her   good/bad trait  ,   good/bad trait  , and   good/bad trait   (or makes other people view him/her that way).

Don’t use really broad, universal traits. If you’re using characteristics like those mentioned here (reserved, trusting, critical, etc.), it might mean you’re being too broad. Saying your character is angry or selfish, for example, fails to give insight into what that says about your character. Everyone is selfish and angry — just to varying degrees and because of various factors. For example, in this episode of Awkward Black Girl (which is an amazing webseries if you haven’t seen it), the main character Jae is sent to anger management. The characters in her anger management session go around saying why they’re there, and Jay (different character) shows how this gives insight to the things they care about. Pete gets angry when time is left on a microwave and not cleared because he cares about time management, Jae has an outburst when someone doesn’t return her stapler because she wants to feel respected.

My favorite trick to generate ideas for a character application is asking myself:

How is my character   broad characteristic   (ex. uniquely selfish)? It helps you focus in on a goal, gain insight to what they value, and develop specific ways their characteristics manifest.

The key to creating proactive characters is to have them become involved in solving their own problems/accomplishing their goals, rather than depend on others to solve them. If you want an example, you can go here, where you can read through an author’s personal attempt to make her character more proactive.

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WHAT IF I’M ALREADY DOING IT? »»

(The first step is admitting you have a problem.)

The number one reason players get bored in roleplay or feel “stuck” with what they’re writing is because of something editors deem “episodic writing”. Cheryl Wyatt describes it as happening when “one scene happens then another and another and so on but there is really no point to the scenes”.

It happens when you lose sight of your character’s goals and how you want to develop him or her. (The reason people get so invested in relationship lines in roleplay is because it’s a quick and easy way to create goals and because there are pre-established milestones you can develop your character around. This development is often generic but satisfying as players are more invested in the stakes.) Episodic writing happens for two reasons: 1) your character is reactive or 2) you’ve lost sight of your goals for your character and you’re letting them be reactive when they have a number of things established that would make them proactive. For example, your scenes/characters might read like this. You can see another great example of a problematic storyline here.

Additionally, you might be limiting the scope of how your character can develop and need to branch out more. Or you’re not thinking through ways you can accomplish the goals you’ve established for your character going in.

How do you fix it? Give your character a goal - or better yet, several goals. Let your character need help accomplishing those goals. This helps you develop character relationships, helps you develop your character (especially when you tie in weaknesses, values, etc.), and gives your character something to do. BAM! it really is that simple. What kind of goal? There are some amazing resources here. Then, you can have those goals lead to more and more negative consequences. It’s a bit like that book If You Give A Mouse A Cookie, where a little problem can lead to big ones. One of the best examples I’ve read (but can’t find the link to) goes like this:

Jane has become obsessed with growing a certain type of flower to spite her smug neighbor. Despite her best efforts, the flower won’t grow. She tries buying an expensive fertilizer online. She doesn’t realize that buying it has set her back $20 and her checking account is now on a negative. If she doesn’t pay rent, she’ll be kicked out. And on and on and on. Through this, you can help develop your character’s traits. For example, if Jane is too prideful to ask someone for money, this could result in character growth.

Jane is interesting because Jane is proactive. She actively works to grow that mfing flower. Her bad decision/goal leads to other bad decisions/goals. Tada. You’re now well on your way to making your characters more proactive.

See also: Quick & Dirty Guide To Improving Your Writing