fdrago360

[fdrago360]

I know I say that I'm kinda nuts for doing the amount of visual research I do, but at the same time: Specificity is SO much more compelling and real feeling, and imo not getting references often makes things look more amateur.

Eg. drawing a sofa- my mental image of a sofa is something like this:

Like. Its a sofa. It works. But it's not very convincing, the pillows are kinda wrong at the back, and it's not really giving any information about the owner. Even if you want a basic sofa... What kind of basic.

comfy and cheap?

kinda rigid?

inherited? ------

who does this comfy cheap ikea sofa belong to anyway?

guy living alone?

teenage girl?

Grandma?

Anyway I'll get off my soapbox but specificity is sexy and fun and it can do your storytelling for you!

[fdrago360]

[fdrago360]

huh !

[fdrago360]

IMPORTANT NEWS FOR ALL THE MONKIE KID FANS

We got information from a reliable source about the show.

Apparently, while we all thought that s6 was taking their time to give us a better quality, Lego hasn't worked at all on it.

We've been quiet about it for far to long. If we want this show to survive we need to make our voices heard! Let them know that the fans WANT for this show to keep going. And we have ways to do it!

1) Start using #RenewMonkieKid

Let them know that we want a new season!!

2) Contact LEGO.

Go to Lego customer service > send a message > I need help with something else > My topic isn't listed And let them know how much you love the show, your concerns, and maybe about the struggles we have with acessibility! But remember, no spamming and no harassing. Being mean about it will get us nowhere.

3) Start creating!

Fanart, fanfics, animatics, and whatever you like!! Show them how much Monkie Kid has inspired us all!! And don't forget to use the #

4) Get the show known!

There are tons of content creators out there! We can get their attention (I repeat without harassing or spamming them) to the show, show them what they're missing out!!

if we want our favourite monkeys to succeed, we need to start being loud!!

[fdrago360]

The problem with sewing is that you quickly realise you have dumped lots of skill points into control thread and furthermore, there’s a lot of other hobbies that require control thread so you decide to pick up knitting, or crochet, or weaving, and then spinning happens to you, or rug making, or cord weaving, and then you turn the wrong corner on the internet and find out control thread also specs into basket weaving, and book binding, and then you’re thinking things like “I wonder if this also applies to lead climbing” and now you have A Problem

[fdrago360]

Looking for fic recommendations that have angst like this to feed the random character fixation

[fdrago360]

I’m genuinely curious, has anybody ever played through Majora’s Mask and not been stressed out like… the whole time

[fdrago360]

REJOICE! It's vampire lovers season!

[fdrago360]

good evening to everyone deranged over a piece of vampire media

[fdrago360]

Scalemate Pattern

Hi friends - I got a request to share my scalemate pattern! And.. because of the weirdness of tumblr messages, I don’t remember who! So I hope this makes it back to whatever fellow Homestuck fan requested it - let’s make some piles of plushies!  As usual, if anyone uses this pattern, please link back to my page, and also send me a picture! I’d love to see what people make! I want to see an army of scalemates!

I used a 3mm crochet hook, and Red Heart Super Saver yarn in “Spring Green”. I’m certain, however, that Homestuck fans will be keen to choose their own color and associated scalemate name scheme - for example, this little fella is named Rear Admiral Applebottom.

^Head:

This is definitely the hardest part of the scalemate! My idea for the head was to start with the snout and crochet out, instead of just making a round head and sewing a snout on - it makes the face smoother, but also gives you a bit of a surprise as to what the shape becomes when you stuff it - if it becomes too rounded, I just kind of smoosh more definition into the face?? The trick here, is that in one row, I put all the increases on one side of the circle so that it flares out into the forehead area.

6 sc in a magic circle

inc 6x to make 12 stitches

3 rows of 12 stitches

(1 sc, inc) 6x to make 18 stitches

1 row of 18 stitches

(1 sc, inc) 6x, then additional 6 sc to make 24 stitches

1 row of 24 stitches

(3 sc, inc) 6x to make 30 stitches

(4 sc, inc) 6x to make 36 stitches

5 rows of 36 stitches

(4 sc, dec) 6x to make 30 stitches

(At this point, you can perform this step I describe below before finishing closing off the head, but I truly don’t think it made much of a difference!)

(3sc, dec) 6x to make 24 stitches

(2 sc, dec) 6x to make 18 stitches

Stuff the head, then finish closing

1 sc, dec 6x to make 12 stitches

6 dec to make 6 stitches

close off w more decreases

^ Optional Step

Here’s something that I tried, but didn’t seem to make too much of a difference and you can likely skip it if you want. I tried to make an indent where the eyes go by using a sewing needle and thread and catching a bit of the yarn where the eye should go, then pulling it in and tying a knot. In the end, this really didn’t make a difference in how the head looked, and I don’t even think it makes sense with the design of scalemates, so PLEASE feel free to skip this - I was mostly experimenting with new techniques!

^ Adding eyes:

These buttons came in a sewing repair kit that I picked up at some point in my life, but they were almost exactly the size of 12mm safety eyes! The one important thing to remember is that since you’re sewing eyes on rather than using safety eyes, they ARE less safe! Don’t let animals or small children chew them off!? Other than that, how exciting it is to be able to choose the eye color - I’m sure at craft stores there are lots of great color and style options!

Spikes and Tail:

Ok, this part is very straight forward! The one challenging thing is to start crocheting around that small (3 stitches) magic circle - I find that to give them a sharper point, I push my crochet hook into the spike to stretch it out before stuffing.

Small spikes (make 2)

3 sc in a magic circle

(1 sc, inc) 3x to make 6 stitches

2 rows of 6 stitches

medium spikes (make 2)

3 sc in a magic circle

(1 sc, inc) 3x to make 6 stitches

1 row of 6 stitches

(2sc, inc) 2x to make 8 stitches

2 rows of 8 stitches

large spikes (make 3, use one for tail)

3 sc in a magic circle

(1 sc, inc) 3x to make 6 stitches

, 1 row of 6 stitches

inc 6x to make 12 stitches

3 rows of 12 stitches

Leave a long tail of yarn at the end of each spike, stuff them, and sew them onto the head. I would recommend using pins to hold them in place so that I can make sure they go on as symmetrically as possible.

^ Body:

This body is super straight forward - I imagine that you can actually do color changes to make the tummy out of yarn, but I chose to make the tummy with felt - either one I’m sure will look fine!

6 sc in a magic circle 

inc 6x to make 12 stitches  

(1 sc, inc) 6x to make 18 stitches

(2 sc, inc) 6x to make 24 stitches

(3 sc, inc) 6x to make 30 stitches

(4 sc, inc) 6x to make 36 stitches

(4 sc, dec) 6x to make 30 stitches

1 row of 30 stitches

(3 sc, dec) 6x to make 24 stitches

2 rows of 24 stitches

(2 sc, dec) 6x to make 18 stitches

4 rows of 18 stitches

Leave a long tail of yarn and sew the body onto the head after stuffing! And while you’re at it, sew that tail on as well! 

^ Legs:

I’m so happy with how these turned out - to make them, I started with a chain 6 (the bottom of the foot), and crocheted around it. Then again I did some uneven decreases to make sure that the bottom of the leg was flush with the ground while the foot was somewhat distinct from the leg. Again, when it comes to yarn work, some fudging and hand-shaping goes a long long way!

chain 6

sc around the chain to make 12 stitches

(1 sc, inc) 6x to make 18 stitches

With the decreases, the reason the decreases came in such a weird spot for me was that I wanted the 3 (or 2) decreases to happen OVER the TOP of the leg - so however it turns out for you, just make sure you’re not decreasing on the long end of the oval!!!!

3 sc, dec 3x, finish with sc to make 15 stitches

3 sc, dec 3x, finish with sc to make 12 stitches

3 sc, dec 2x, finish with sc to make 10 stitches

3 rows of 10 stitches

Leave a long tail on the legs and sew them on to the body! 

The final thing I added was a little white tummy, which I just cut from felt and sewed on. Of course, any color will work, this is just what I happened to have on hand as I made the Admiral relatively early on in my crochet career. 

And that’s all! I’m afraid I didn’t take great pictures while I was making him, so apologies for that. If you get stuck on something in the pattern or something is looking wrong, please feel free to message me. Other than that, this is all in all a fairly simple amigurumi, especially compared to the massive work of art that is Homestuck. Happy crocheting!

[fdrago360]

Is anyone else getting ads on..... How to kill the monkey King?

[fdrago360]

Not sure if anyone has said this yet, but Red Son has a puffle now right?

Like that’s a puffle.

[fdrago360]

i will be a Wildbrain defender until the day I die. Despite a) having very little time to work on the season, and b) having such massive shoes to fill, they did such a good fucking job.

It's also a lot less noticeable when you're actually immersed in the story and voice performances. PLEASE give it a go if you're on the fence. The trailer was very much misleading about the quality of the animation - it's very solid and they captured a lot of Flying Bark's charm and ambition (there's also quite a few parts actually recycled from Flying Bark's work, so they're extra smooth). No emotional impact was lost. This season was such a treat and it'd be a shame to miss it just because a small portion of it looks a lil wonky.

[fdrago360]

the japanese “-ne?” particle and the british slang term “innit” serve the same function

[fdrago360]

hopefully they never take away the way you can drag the little post icons around the screen on the android app