mancomplanblog - Tumblr blog

[mancomplanblog]

For Divided Bodies

[mancomplanblog]

For Divided Bodies

[mancomplanblog]

AYYY another Palette & Expression Meme, look at that. You may have to zoom in for details lol. 81 Expressions and 50 Palettes, go nuts guys.

Reposting anywhere but tumblr is okay with credit.

I personally will not be taking requests for this one as I’m trying to focus on getting commissions so I can afford a new computer~

[mancomplanblog]

JUST SOME THOUGHTS! I don’t really like the “go from the top up” advice on drapery/clothes - if you’re having difficulty try it like this!

YES I see the typo… I’m so sorry folks… I was in a frenzied rush to make this…… and I’m too lazy to fix it……

[mancomplanblog]

hi i'm an artist and i do pastel art. how do you color dark skinned characters in pastel art without whitewashing them?

i get asked this a lot by many artists and i totally get it

The first thing to note down is that coloring dark skinned in a pastel way is NOT about lighting their skin but rather about lowering the saturation in their skin tone.

what i mean by this is to focus less on skin tone and more of how piercing the color is. pastel are is soft and carries a fragile color scheme. many artists who don’t know how to color dark skin usually make the mistake of coloring their characters like this:

DO NOT DO THIS^^

artists coloring dark skin like this in pastel art is the primary reason why the myth of “you can’t color dark skin in pastel art” still lies around. The problem with these color scheme above is that this happens due to the artist focusing on the fact that dark skin is brown rather than trying to put effort into getting the skin tone to fit the color scheme. The color in these drawing have skin tones that don’t match the scheme at all and stands out too much hence the easy way out to this problem for these artist is 

W H I T E W A S H I N G ~

PLEASE DO NOT DO  THIS WHEN DRAWING A DARK SKINNED CHARACTER!!!

Rather than whitewashing them, the solution to this problem is to lower the saturation of the skin tone to fit the scheme

GO FROM THIS:

TO THIS:

^This fits the scheme so much more better because there character is clearly brown without their skintone being saturated to the point of hurting your eyes

M o r e  E x a m p l e s ~ 

from the colors i used on the skin tone of these two pieces the colors are around the same range of darkness 

The only difference is that one is more saturated than another

Welp those are all my tips for coloring darkskin for pastel art

hope this was helpful :’0

[mancomplanblog]

A tutorial on meatspace I made for my patrons last year! Making things exist in the same space believably is a difficult process, but hopefully this will help drawing softbodied subjects interacting together a little easier!

[mancomplanblog]

Honestly the mere fact that some people refer to Daddy Long Legs as “harvestmen” is creepier than 90% of all deliberately created horror but like the worst part is that the alternative is calling them Daddy Long Legs

[mancomplanblog]

For Divided Bodies

REALLY aesthetically pleasing bugs to look at

picasso bug

mirror spider

rainbow grasshopper

phylliidae true leaf insect

[mancomplanblog]

Found some hands tutorial by me

Not in English but hope it will help???????

[mancomplanblog]

i’m still grappling with the fact that colours can look so different across different monitors. and that you can change colour settings on monitors so that there are literally infinite combinations of displays that can exist.

i just…… as a digital artists its like??? what is real?? are my eyes real??

[mancomplanblog]

For the World is Mine

Minecraft had several items that were present in the game during alpha and beta and it took years for most of the items to have any purpose. The most well known dummied out item is the quiver, which probably would have allowed the player to hold more arrows than normal, but even to this day, the item is never used and still exists in the game's files... only to pop up again in development screenshots for release 1.9's "Combat Update", before once again being removed.

The Ender Dragon and the Wither were implemented into the game before they had any purpose. The Ender Dragon appeared in the 1.9 beta, but it could not be spawned at all unless you used a mod to do it for you. Likewise, the Wither was planned for version 1.4 and was going to be in one of the test versions for players to try out, but the developers had to dummy out the mob since spawning him would crash the game. The next test version of version 1.4 rectified it.

The game also had several status effects implemented once potions were introduced, but many of them went unused and buried in the game's code. Several of the unused effects were eventually put back into place, but a few others still remain dummied out without mods.

The Giant, which is basically a gigantic Zombie, can only spawn when the light level is more than 11 AND less than 8. Obviously, this is impossible. If spawned in through other means, it basically just stands there.

From TVTropes Dummied Out trope

[mancomplanblog]

[mancomplanblog]

For Gaikotsuger

Information on Angels, might edit later.

Amanda: Alright, so like different sources, different places people are talking about what the situation is.

Julia: For example, Maimonides in his Mishneh Torah, establishes that there are 10 ranks of angels. So meanwhile, in Christianity, the book of De Coelesti Hierarchia, which is On the Celestial Hierarchy, which is a beautiful title for a book.

Amanda: In Latin?

Julia: Yes.

Amanda: Cool.

Julia: Was written in the fourth or fifth century, and it acts as one of the most influential works defining the angelic hierarchy for Christianity.

Amanda: Wow.

Julia: The angels are later organized into orders that are known as Angelic Choirs.

Amanda: Huh.

Julia: Yeah.

Amanda: I always read Angelic Choir in the Bible as like some nice voices.

Julia: No. It's the literal hierarchal structure of the angels.

Amanda: That is wild.

Julia: Yeah. This whole episode is gonna be like that, where you're like, "That's not what I thought it was." And then you're wrong.

Amanda: Jules, you're such a good friend.

Julia: Using the New Testament, especially Ephesians and Collosians, Thomas Aquinus developed a schema that uses three spheres of angels.

Amanda: Thomas Aquinus, he's like, "How can I make sure motherfuckers 300 years from now are still quoting me every day?"

Julia: He wrote a lot of stuff down!

Amanda: He lived his whole life that way.

Julia: Yeah.

Amanda: It is ...

Julia: Bless him. Literally, bless him.

Amanda: I know, I'm making a lot of noises but his writing is incredible.

Julia: Yeah.

Amanda: And I cannot imagine having that much influence over so many people's lived experiences.

Julia: Yes, absolutely.

Amanda: Amazing.

Julia: So we're going to kind of talk about ... Specifically, what I'm going to talk about are the spheres, as defined by Tomas Aquinus.

Amanda: Alrighty.

Julia: So first thing, we're going to talk about the first sphere, and these are angels who are defined as, "Heavenly Servants to God." Specifically, one on one face time with God Himself.

Amanda: Yeah, like the hand-maiden, right? Or like the attendants, the butlers, the dressers?

Julia: Yeah.

Amanda: I've been watching a lot of The Crown season two. What up? They're right there.

Julia: How's it going? How's The Crown season two going?

Amanda: It's a lot darker.

Julia: Okay.

Amanda: World War Two happens.

Julia: I mean, I understand.

Amanda: Yeah.

Julia: At least they know what World War Two is now, because that was a thing in the first season.

Amanda: This is true.

Julia: Okay. First, on top of the sphere, are the Seraphim, which have references in Christian, Jewish and Islamic texts. Traditionally, they are the highest rank in the Christian hierarchy of angels, but they rank fifth of the 10 in the Jewish angelic hierarchy.

Amanda: Interesting.

Julia: Which I think is cool. I'm just like, "Oh, there's some mix-up here. I'm into it."

Amanda: Yeah, I wonder if it's like the different scholars ordering them on importance, or closest to God? Or is it the same sub-type of angel that is being differently ordered, or is it like the name being assigned to different groups?

Julia: In my mind, I'm thinking of it as like the standard in which the hierarchy is based off of -

Amanda: Yeah.

Julia: - is different. So in Jewish angelic hierarchies, going to be holding different standards than the Christian angelic hierarchy.

Amanda: Yeah, like what makes a good servant?

Julia: Exactly.

Amanda: What is God, and when, and how, and where?

Julia: Yeah. So the Book of Isaiah describes a six-winged being that can fly - obviously, it's got wings - with two of the wings said to cover their faces, another two to cover their feet, and then the last two used to fly.

Amanda: Fascinating.

Julia: Their name literally translates to, "The Burning Ones".

Amanda: Oh man, are they like aflame?

Julia: In some imagery, they're portrayed as flying Asps that also have human characteristics.

Amanda: What is an Asp? I'm forgetting.

Julia: It's a snake.

Amanda: Okay.

Julia: So they're like snakes, but they have human faces.

Amanda: That's in Cleopatra, it's in Cleopatra, and I'm terrified.

Julia: Yep. You should be.

Amanda: Nope.

Julia: Modern Christian theology has developed the idea that Seraphim are beings of pure light that directly communicate with God.

Amanda: I mean, fire? It makes sense.

Julia: Absolutely. So the next that we're going to talk about are the Cherubim.

Amanda: Cherubs!

Julia: Yeah.

Amanda: Yo! Pudgy babies.

Julia: No. Incorrect! So they are said to directly attend to God. They have four faces, one of a man, one of an ox, one of an eagle, and one of a lion, which would later become the symbols of the four evangelists.

Amanda: Whoa.

Julia: Yeah.

Amanda: I didn't know any of that.

Julia: They have four wings that are covered with eyes, they have a lion's body and they have the feet of an ox.

Amanda: Okay, I'm pretty sure this isn't true.

Julia: It's 100% true. Don't doubt me.

Amanda: What?

Julia: So the Cherubim, in modern interpretations, are often conflated with the Putti, which are human baby or toddler-like beings that are depicted with wings. So the Putti come from the Renaissance, basically. They're the classic, modern interpretation of what an angel should look like, this innocent, sweet thing that has little angel wings.

Amanda: Not a freaking Griffin-eagle hybrid.

Julia: I love the Griffin-eagle hybrid, though. It has eyes on its wings, like hundreds of eyes!

Amanda: I was blocking that part out, Jules.

Julia: Yeah.

Amanda: Like a scary, scary butterfly. First you give me snakes with human faces, now you give me should-be-a-baby-actually-a-four-faced-monster?

Julia: This is why we did this episode.

Amanda: And like, listen, I don't want to come down too hard on it. It sounds freaking badass.

Julia: Yeah, it does.

Amanda: But that's just very surprising. Also what are the eyes on the wings for?

Julia: Seeing into your soul.

Amanda: Better to see with, my dear?

Julia: Yeah, basically. So, interestingly, the imagery for this angel is said to come from the Hittite Griffith.

Amanda: Hold on, hold on. Now I'm thinking about the wings are like tiled in the eyes, and for some reason my brain just went to like, "How dope would it be if Baba Yaga's house also had like a tiled roof made of eyes?"

Julia: It would be horrifying.

Amanda: Yeah.

Julia: It would definitely fit into her aesthetic.

Amanda: Thank you for validating my idea.

Julia: She has it on a mood board somewhere.

Amanda: It's in her Pinterest.

Julia: Yes.

Amanda: Please continue.

Julia: So the Hittite Griffin is actually a really interesting character, just in mythology in general, and it definitely pre-dates the idea of the Cherubim. It's said that it was the guardian of holy things, which really fits into the imagery for the Cherubim itself.

Amanda: Yeah. Guardian, fierce protector.

Julia: For sure.

Amanda: And also a watcher, speaking to the eyes.

Julia: Absolutely. So it was said that between the Cherub's heads, glowing coals moved between them, could be seen, and their fire went up and down and lightning burst from it.

Amanda: So like the inside of their head is coals?

Julia: No, like between the heads, so like the body.

Amanda: Oh no, it's all four heads at the same time? Oh, man. Oh, no.

Julia: Oh, yeah.

Amanda: I was picturing a cube-head situation, with like the faces rotating, which, arguably, is scarier.

Julia: That's pretty good, too.

Amanda: Yeah. And so I was picturing magma on the inside, faces kind of like glue-sticked to the outside, and when they turn you can see the coals.

Julia: That's amazing, but no.

Amanda: So all four heads, same time, human ... What are they?

Julia: Human, ox, eagle, lion. Yeah. Cherubim were also said to move like flashes of lightning. Which is really ...

Amanda: That makes me think of the Weeping Angels, and that's terrifying, as always.

Julia: According to Thomas Aquinus - cool, cool dude, love him -

Amanda: And like, listen, I love that you chose him to do this lens as well, because he was obviously such a student of history and theology, and so for him to kind of be like, "This is all the stuff that I think probably it is." He's read everything that there is, he's coming up with his own interpretation, and we get to kind of like live in that head-canon for a minute. I love it.

Julia: Yeah, so according to Thomas Aquinus, who is a real bro, Satan was a fallen Cherub.

Amanda: Huh. That's a pretty satanic image. We were raised, in Catholicism, to think of Satan.

Julia: Definitely.

Amanda: I mean, mostly we think of him as - at least I did - as like a humanoid, in the way that we think of God as a humanoid, but if we're thinking about hellfire and creatures and demons, you know? Look at a Cherub in this sort of body, and that's what you pictured.

Julia: It does kind of mess around with later interpretations, where people are like, "Oh, well Lucifer was the most beautiful of all the angels." But we're not talking about Lucifer, we're talking about Satan. Different person.

Amanda: For our listeners who certainly aren't me, who don't understand the difference, what is the difference?

Julia: So, interestingly, in the Bible, originally, Satan is a title, not a person.

Amanda: Oh. That makes sense.

Julia: Satan, in the literal translation, means, "The Advocate".

Amanda: Huh.

Julia: So he was someone who would put people through trials, in order to text their commitment to God.

Amanda: Wow. Like Lucifer-person, Satan-title, originally?

Julia: Not necessarily ... Lucifer, not necessarily in all contexts, was a Satan.

Amanda: Huh.

Julia: Yeah. Sometimes he just rebelled, sometimes that was just a thing.

Amanda: Fascinating.

Julia: It depends on the source, and Lucifer is ... Supposedly, is probably an Etruscan God. He means, "The Light-bringer".

Amanda: Wow.

Julia: It was probably one of those situations where his name was ...

Amanda: Got adapted into, yeah.

Julia: ...was adapted into Christianity, because they were like, "Well, they can't worship him."

Amanda: Let's make him bad.

Julia: So now he's bad.

Amanda: Huh, I really gotta read Paradise Lost one of these days, huh?

Julia: Yeah. The last type of angel in the first sphere are known as either Thrones or Elders. They're first mentioned by Paul the Apostle in Colossians, and are said to be the living symbols of God's justice and authority.

Amanda: What do they look like?

Julia: So they're referred to as Thrones, because that's one of their symbols.

Amanda: Okay.

Julia: It's just a throne.

Amanda: I was gonna say, it's one of their forms. I was gonna be like, "Wow, very specific."

Julia: Well, they're also depicted as flaming wheels at times, even appearing as a wheel within a wheel, and the rims of those wheels are covered in hundreds of eyes.

Amanda: We keep coming back to the hundreds of eyes.

Julia: There's a lot of eyes.

Amanda: And I cannot emphasize enough, Thomas, how terrifying is this?

Julia: Goddammit, Thomas.

Amanda: Thomas, Thomas, my buddy.

Julia: My dude.

Amanda: My dude.

Julia: My real bro.

Amanda: My friend, my good, good friend. Please stop with the eyes. But also, this version of the Thrones - Julia is crying, laughing on the floor - Reminds me of sick rims.

Julia: Sweet rims, bro.

Amanda: Like Pimp My Ride, style.

Julia: Some real Fast and Furious bullshit, here.

Amanda: I mean, I think that's the conclusive proof we need that the Fast and Furious franchise is, at least, one tier of God's will on Earth.

Julia: Okay.

Amanda: Prove me wrong.

Julia: I can't.

Amanda: Mic drop.

Julia: With all of my background in history and religion, I can't.

Amanda: There's sick rims, there's [imitating Vin Diesel] family.

Julia: No!

Amanda: This is a perfect melding of me having an impression, and also me knowing what happened in a movie, and it just took Julia by surprise.

Julia: Oh, no. This wasn't supposed to happen.

Amanda: And to cap off that sentence, there is also an inexplicable jaunt in Tokyo, so ... Fast and Furious. That's me.

Julia: Did we go to Tokyo yet?

Amanda: No, but like we will.

Julia: Oh, okay. Cool. I mean, eventually, on this podcast again, yeah.

Amanda: Yeah.

Julia: Okay, so hundreds of eyes. In modern Christian theology, they appear as adoring, elderly men, who will listen to the will of God and present the prayers of men to God.

Amanda: Okay, alright.

Julia: They are also said to be the carriers of the throne of God, which is another reason that they have the name Throne.

Amanda: Like the physical carriers?

Julia: Yeah.

Amanda: Alright. Alright. I see the wheel, you know? Makes sense.

Julia: So we're moving on to the second sphere.

Amanda: Alright.

Julia: And the second sphere are specifically known as, "The Heavenly Governors of Creation". They guide and rule spirits.

Amanda: I mean, that's a translation that makes sense.

Julia: Yeah, I believe so. So the first one are Dominions, or Lordships, and they are in charge of watching over the duties of the lower angels, and having very little interaction with actual human beings.

Amanda: They're managers?

Julia: That ... Literally, I wrote, "They are the middle-managers of the angels."

Amanda: Nice.

Julia: I love you. So it's extremely rare that angelic lords make themselves physically known to humans, they are said to look like beautiful humans with a pair of feathered wings, but are also distinguished from other groups of angels by the orbs of light that they wield, which are attached to the heads of their scepters, or the pommels of their swords.

Amanda: Sounds like a Shillelagh in Dungeons and Dragons.

Julia: That's correct.

Amanda: Love it.

Julia: The next group are called Virtues, or Strongholds, and they are angels in charge of making signs and miracles known to the mortal world.

Amanda: So the traditional, sort of like heralding of a Divine Pronouncement?

Julia: Yes.

Amanda: Or like a Divine Interaction with the physical world?

Julia: Here is an actual description of the Virtues from the De Coelesti Hierarchia, which is kind of rambly but here we go. It's like all in Latin, so ...

Amanda: Classic Thomas.

Julia: This wasn't Thomas, but yeah.

Amanda: Classic Thomas.

Julia: The name of the Holy Virtues signifies a certain power and unshakeable virility, welling forth into all of their God-like energies. Not being weak and feeble for any reception of the Divine Illuminations granted to it, mounting upwards in fullness of power to an assimilation of God. Never falling away from the Divine Life through its own weakness, but ascending unwaveringly to the super-essential Virtue, which is the Source of Virtue.

Amanda: Wow. That probably was more poetic in the original.

Julia: Probably.

Amanda: But I do like that idea of whether you're talking about power or holiness or magic or whatever, being so powerful that like a puny, human body can't handle it. You know? Like we talk all the time about Ark, and a love of like physical and grounded magic.

Julia: Hell yeah.

Amanda: And in the Dresden Files, or other books where you get completely worn out after performing big magic, I think that makes total sense. And so, to have these angels sort of praised for their physical fortitude, because they are able to kind of go back and forth between those worlds and hold the fullness of God or whatever in their bodies, that's pretty dope.

Julia: That reminds me of the book that I'm reading right now, which is called Children of Blood and Bone. It is excellent, very, very good book. But in that book series, magic is almost like a muscle that you have to keep working and flex, and if you don't use it for long enough, you basically can't use your magic.

Amanda: Wow.

Julia: And in order to refine your magic, you have to use it more and more and more, and practice to make perfect. Which I like the idea of physical exertion the more it works better.

Amanda: Yeah. It's a good example of practice, right? That's a thing that we try to teach kids, but especially as an adult, where I think either I'm good at it or not, that kind of absolute thinking is very easy to do when you fail at a thing once. Like it's just hard for our brains to grasp the idea that we're gonna try and try and try, and fail and fail and fail, and that helps us succeed more, not to fail more. You know what I mean?

Julia: I know.

Amanda: So it's cool that that's kind of reinforced here.

Julia: I like that, that's a good interpretation. Thank you, friend.

Amanda: Thanks.

Julia: So the next and last group of the second sphere is the Powers, or Authorities, and they were meant to supervise the movements of the heavenly bodies in order to ensure that the Cosmos remain in order.

Amanda: I love it, the air-traffic controllers. I love it.

Julia: It's really, really dope. So they are also warrior angels, and oppose evil spirits, especially those that make use of the matter of the universe, and are often cast evil spirits to detention places of sorts.

Amanda: I love that. They're not just the, "Boring, office types that keep everything running on time." Which is like my job as an actual person, but also they are badass warriors.

Julia: Yeah, and that's usually how they're represented. So they're usually represented as soldiers wearing full armor and a helmet, and they're usually carrying either defensive or offensive weapons, such as shields, spears and chains.

Amanda: Amazing.

Julia: Powers are also said to be the keepers of history, and were completely loyal to God, whereas other spheres of angels could fall from grace, Ephesians says that no Power has ever fallen from Heaven.

Amanda: Incredible, yes. 10 out of 10, I am one of them, they are me.

Julia: Me. Yeah, same. I was gonna be like, "We should tag ourselves at the end." Like, "I pick Powers." So they also oversee the distribution of power among mankind, which I think is so cool!

Amanda: That is, especially if you think of them as like ... Picture like a nuclear power plant or something, where someone is sitting at like a big desk with lots of valves and things that they can adjust, and they're making sure that the Cosmos operate on schedule, you know? And that they are correctly distributing energy in the worlds, of course that will translate to power amongst humans as well, because human actors are like little mistakes waiting to happen, and little balls of chaos that you have to kind of keep contained. I think it's so logical that those things would go together.

Julia: Yeah. This kind of reminds me, and again, I'm gonna go on a little bit of a tangent of a really interesting character, actually one of my favorite minor characters in Our Fair City.

Amanda: Yeah.

Julia: Which, if you've heard our episode with Geoffrey Gardner, you know a little bit about Our Fair City, but post-apocalyptic, basically like a business ... A life insurance company takes over a city, and is running it in sort of this dystopian way, and one of the characters is known as The Switcher. So they're having power outages and stuff like that, and there's a problem, and he's this character that kind of takes over and uses his powers for good because he controls where the power goes. And he's like, "You want to take power away from the hospitals? No, we're not gonna do that, and I'm gonna make sure that people get fed in these times of need."

Julia: And it's like just a really interesting character, and that's kind of how I picture the Powers.

Amanda: Yeah, and if we want to get really big about it, and why not? Big wars are fought in small places, you know?

Julia: Yes.

Amanda: And it's like municipal government, right? And local representation, and advocacy, and door-to-door voter engagement that actually wins elections and changes governments, and like changes the way that a country operates, and so it is super not a sexy thing to work in logistics, or to work in management, or to do these things that we think of as just kind of like taking care of themselves, but that's where true heroism and altruism and advocacy happen. Like yes, you have to have figure-heads, yes you have to have big, daring, heroic acts, but lots and lots more people can and do make a difference on the sort of smaller scale.

Julia: Yeah. I think that's a really, really good point, and I think that the Powers aren't the highest in the spectrum of the hierarchy here, but they play a really important role, and they're also the most badass, I think, on this list, but that's just me.

Amanda: I love it.

Julia: We're gonna get into the third sphere in just a second, you want to get a refill?

[Theme music]

Amanda: Let's do it. Julia, this week we are sponsored by Rx Bar, which several of our listeners tried last time, and said that they absolutely loved it, which I'm so stoked about, because I also love it.

Julia: Yes!

Amanda: Actually, today, going to Easter brunch, I was very hungry and I happened to have a coconut flavored Rx Bar in my backpack, which I ate, I didn't get any weird indigestion, I didn't get a bizarre, unsustainable sugar high, because Rx Bars are super transparent, and they are made of actual ingredients, egg-whites, dates, nuts, etc. Cacao, coconut, whatever the flavor is, they just print it right on the label, that's what's in it. No weird stuff, and they're delicious.

Julia: Yeah, I actually, every time I go to the gym, I like to work out with a little bit of something in my stomach, but not a lot of something in my stomach, otherwise I get all nauseous and stuff, you know what I mean? Rx Bar is the perfect pre and post workout snack for me, I just down those peanut butter flavored ones in a heartbeat, they're my favorite thing in the world.

Julia: And the nice part is it turns out real food is actually good for you, and also tastes good. Shockingly, you can actually ... When you bite into an Rx Bar, taste the cacao, taste the real fruit, taste the spices, and that's because they're not hiding behind all of these ridiculous, fake ingredients, they're real and up front.

Amanda: Yeah, just like us, there is no b.s., there's no added sugar, they are gluten-free and soy-free and dairy-free, which is really nice, because I am lactose-intolerant and there is milk and wey and stuff in pretty much everything. So whether you're into sweet or savory, or like chocolatey stuff, or fruity stuff, there are flavors for you. And Spirits listeners can get 25% off their first order at rxbar.com/spirits with the promo code, "Spirits" at checkout.

Julia: Yeah, get a peanut butter one on me, or get a coconut one on Amanda.

Amanda: Yeah, and tweet us and tell us what flavor is your favorite. Like the texture's great, the flavor's great, I'm honestly such a big fan of these things.

Julia: Yeah, they're awesome and we're so glad that they're sponsoring Spirits.

Amanda: Yeah, so thank you again, that's rxbar.com/spirits, with the promo code, "Spirits", for 25% off your first order. Now, let's get back to the show.

[Theme music]

Julia: So Amanda, we're going into the final sphere, and this is the third sphere. Those members of the third sphere act as heavenly guides, protectors, and messengers to human beings.

Amanda: Alright, so the sorts of angels we probably read about in the New Testament.

Julia: Exactly.

Amanda: Yeah.

Julia: So the first one is the Principalities, or Rulers, and they are angels said to guide and protect nations, groups of people or institutions, such as the church. A single Principality rules over abandoned angels, and is the one that gives them orders in order to have them fulfill the Divine Ministry. Do you know what I mean?

Amanda: Yes, like the person issuing what we're gonna be doing.

Julia: Yes, they're the divine administrators.

Amanda: Hey!

Julia: Which is adorable. So they are the middle-managers of angels.

Amanda: Okay.

Julia: They are shown wearing a crown and hold a scepter, and they also are said to carry out orders given to them by upper-sphere angels, and give blessings to the material world.

Amanda: That is very cool.

Julia: Yeah.

Amanda: You know, Jules, I really want to know where scepters came from, like where did this idea come from, power for people?

Julia: I have no idea.

Amanda: You know? Like between Moses, it has often like a stick as he's leading people through the desert, and like parting the ...

Julia: He has a staff, yeah, but that's like ... He's a poor man.

Amanda: And so I understand, from that perspective, that like a walking stick is useful, and that's probably where that comes from, or like a staff for fighting or herding cattle and stuff.

Julia: Yeah, but a scepter is just like ... It's very ceremonial.

Amanda: Elevated staff, like what is the origin?

Julia: I don't know.

Amanda: People who know more than us about this, please email us, spiritspodcast@gmail.

Julia: Jim probably knows.

Amanda: Jim, let us know.

Julia: So they are the educators and guardians of the Earth, and they inspire living things to create both in the arts and the sciences.

Amanda: Oh, man!

Julia: Yeah!

Amanda: Thanks. I like creating stuff.

Julia: I do like creating stuff, that's why we do this.

Amanda: Hey!

Julia: We have a good Principality looking over us. You just did a fist bump to your chest and then peaced at the sky.

Amanda: I did.

Julia: Just for our listeners' sake.

Amanda: I did, and now when I see football people doing that, players, in fact, I will ...

Julia: I love those football people.

Amanda: I will ... Maybe the coaches, maybe the Gatorade boys and girls, I don't know. But I'll picture them looking up at the sky and thinking of Principality.

Julia: Next are the Archangels.

Amanda: Oh, these guys I've heard of.

Julia: I was gonna say, they're probably the most well-known of the angels, but they're actually only slightly above the common angel.

Amanda: Huh.

Julia: In the Bible, the term, "Archangel" only appears twice, in Theolosians and in Jude, and only one Archangel is given a name in the New Testament, and that is Michael.

Amanda: Yes.

Julia: Yes. You were pointing at me, were you going to interject, and say Michael?

Amanda: I was gonna say Gabriel.

Julia: Nope.

Amanda: But then I recovered.

Julia: So later Christian traditions say that Gabriel was also an Archangel, as was Rafael.

Amanda: Yes. One of the Ninja Turtles.

Julia: Yep, one of the Ninja Turtles.

Amanda: As is commonly known.

Julia: There were said to be ...

Amanda: I'm really sorry about the Gallagher. I really tried to listen at the time.

Julia: There were said to be seven Archangels all together, the others included Uriel, who was never mentioned in the western Christian Bible, but plays a really large role in Anglican and Russian orthodox churches.

Amanda: Huh.

Julia: These seven Archangels are said to be the guardian angels of nations and countries, and are concerned in the politics, military-matters, and commerce and trade.

Amanda: It makes a lot of sense that there would be a smaller group, or like round-table, of these Principalities. Of these Archangels, if they are influencing such huge events.

Julia: I agree, yeah, 100%. I should have probably gone into more, you know, Michael is known as the Angel of Death and stuff like that, and I wish I did but I didn't. Sorry. The next are just angels, just plain angels.

Amanda: Common angels.

Julia: So they are the lowest order of angels.

Amanda: No.

Julia: They are concerned with the affairs of living things, and are primarily just the messengers to humanity, appearing to people with messages from the heavens.

Amanda: But those are the angels that human beings talk about and pray for, you know?

Julia: Yes.

Amanda: And like wear necklaces of?

Julia: Yeah.

Amanda: So I think there's an interesting thing to be said here, too, where if you're running a business, you can be in the board room all you want but the way that people form opinions about your business is the folks that they interact with every single day.

Julia: That's true.

Amanda: The cashiers and the bank-tellers and the gas station attendants, those are the people that represent to the average person the sum-total of your entire organization, it's not the CEO.

Julia: Yeah.

Amanda: It's like who you talk about every single day.

Julia: Right.

Amanda: I think that's a valuable lesson that more people at companies should think about. I don't know, like paying your workers fair wages and ...

Julia: Livable wage.

Amanda: Their benefits, and vacation, and maternity leave, and parental bonding leave.

Julia: No one cares that you flipped over your m's to make w's for women, McDonald's. Just saying, just saying.

Amanda: Capitalism's a lie.

Julia: Capitalism is a lie. Personal guardian angels are probably fairly well-known, at least in western culture, these are not any specific order from the plain angels, but rather are given a specific human to watch over their day-to-day affairs.

Amanda: So it's not like a special kind of angel, it's just like, "Hey angel, this is your person."

Julia: It's just regular angel, and then they're like, "Hey, you watch that guy." It is a common belief that they are assigned to every human being, whether or not they're religious in the Abrahamic sense or not, it is never specified whether or not they guard multiple humans during their existence or just one. Which, you'd have to assume that they're ... If their person dies, it's not just like, "Well, I'm done. I don't have to watch any human being ever again."

Amanda: I mean, population is only growing, so I assume they would be given a newborn babe, but eight billion angels is a lot of angels.

Julia: Yeah, that's a lot of angels.

Amanda: At the same time though, you really want to connect ... What if the angel had a really boring person? That would suck. What if a person had a really bad angel? That would also suck.

Julia: Well, can the angels be bad, though?

Amanda: I suppose you're right, it's the whole Christian ...

Julia: Because that's how, supposedly, we get demons. But I'm like, "Whatevs." It's fine.

Amanda: You better ask Dan Brown about that.

Julia: We should ask Dan Brown about that angels and demons specification?

Amanda: Boom.

Julia: I hate you.

Amanda: I love you.

Julia: In Zoroastrianism, each person has one guardian angel, which is known as a Fravashi, and they manifest God's energy and don't convey messages, specifically, but rather just the energy of Ahura Mazda, which is their God-like figure.

Amanda: That's pretty cool though, like you decide for yourself what you do with that energy? They are here to make sure that you are inspired and connected, sort of like plugged into the bigger source of the universe.

Julia: To the Matrix of the universe? I agree. So that's angels.

Amanda: Wow, angels are a lot more complex in the tradition we were raised in than I realized.

Julia: Yeah.

Amanda: I know, I pictured just kind of like in white robes, blonde, male figure, coming down to herald some kind of pronouncement. But I love this idea of angels having managers and meetings.

Julia: Or being wheels with hundreds of eyes?

Amanda: Again with the hundreds of eyes, I'd forgotten it temporarily.

Julia: It's what we're here for. Nope. I'm here to remind you about the hundreds of eyes.

Amanda: Read The Seventh Tower by Garth Nix, it's very important.

Julia: And remember, stay creepy.

Amanda: Stay cool.

[mancomplanblog]

Need this for Bimbos in Time story

So.

Androids are my special interest so i’ve been following discussion about them and development of them for almost ten years and I’m stupid passionate about it. If anyone is wondering where we are at in our ethical discussion of robot development, this is whats going on.

Most of the discussion seems to be between these 5 fields:

Robot makers of all kinds (from animatronics all the way to industrial robotics) Psychologists Sociologists Lawyers/Lawmakers Ethicists

The general consensus has been:

All: Humanity clearly wants these robots and are getting blisteringly close to being able to build them to Chobits level, but not Blade Runner level, so while we have some free time between those phases lets talk about potential outcomes.

Psychologists: hem hem. we are concerned about what happens to the way we develop relationships. Humans imprint on things hardcore and because of this we are concerned.

Sociologists: I mean… yeah thats a concern, but its not nearly as concerning as what introducing an entire class of humanoid beings without rights to a society where real living people dont have rights

Lawyers: speaking of rights, what happens if you kill one. Like. do we call it “kill” or is it “break?” can you kill something that’s technically not alive??? what if you rape it?? Can you rape a robot? I feel lawsuits coming and its making me itchy.

Robot Makers:  Everyone calm down. They’re just objects, they’re toys. Its chill.. See, we’ll make something like it and see what hap–they broke it. they fuckin destroyed it. They destroyed it in a creepy way too….We are now also concerned.

Psychologists: Maybe we should be less concerned about people falling in love with robots and more concerned about what all this might do to their understanding of the disposability of concent and personhood.

Sociologists: YEAH MAYBE YOU SHOULD BE, PSYCHOLOGIST.

Ethicist: While you were all talking I’ve been thinking about what Lawyer said about raping a robot. While technically it wouldn’t be “rape” by our laws, would the robot perceive it that way? Do robots have concepts of justice?

Robot Makers: They don’t if we don’t program it into them. See I’ll just make this prototype and–wow. it can comprehend fairness and concern. I only taught it the difference between a safe and unsafe situation under the circumstances of it rolling off a table or not. huh. uh. ok…thats. hm. 

Lawyers: If it can be concerned for its well being, does that give it personhood? Becuase if its got personhood, its gotta have rights. And if it needs rights, we gotta make laws.

Ethicist: The question is not whether we think it has personhood, but more whether IT considers ITSELF to have personhood. Because historically, people have decided other groups of people dont have personhood regardless of the opinon of individuals within that group and it was bad. Like… real bad.

Sociologist: Does anyone remember what i said 20 years ago about being concerned about introducing an entire class of humanoid beings without rights to a society where real living people don’t have rights? Can we be concerned about that now?

All, chagrined: Yes.

Sociologist: Cool, lets move on. Ethicist brought up an interesting point about personhood and Lawyer brought up an interesting threat about personhood and Robot Maker is having an existential crisis about what it means to become God. So let’s condense our viewpoints and overview potential consequences:

1. we agree that society frames the use and consequences of all products/entities developed in it.

2. personhood is self-defined, and thanks to Robot Maker we now know that adding components to a robot that seem benign can have the added effect of them developing aspects of personhood.

Robot Maker, interrupting: And I think that the more complex the android, the more immediate and complex their understanding of personhood would develop–

Sociologist: Yes, we get that. This is a review. Anyway, 3. When they develop that personhood, they should be eligible for rights??

Lawyer: Get back to us on that, we’re trying to figure out whether this is going to make us a lot of money or just be a giant red-tape headache and you know how much we hate those. But also, if we give them rights they might not kill us all later, so we’re taking that into consideration. 

Sociologist: Noted. 4. when they develop personhood, denying them rights is unethical????

Ethicist: Technically yes, but that’s dependant on the definition of personhood within our legal systems ethics. You see Kant believes–

Sociologist: 

Psychologist: 

Robot Maker: while you guys were talking I made a robot that has opinions, can understand the nuances of humor, can teach itself to walk, and also doesn’t like humans much apparently so can you tALK FASTER PLEASE

And that’s where we’re at now. That was 35-ish years of intracommunity discussion condensed. 

[mancomplanblog]

For Arthur Modern

💗 Valentine’s Day Spells 💗

💖 for feeling beautiful 💖

glow like the moon - to reclaim youth and past beauty

glamour to attract comments - to help get comments on a selfie

rabbit heart - pop culture spell for courage and confidence

venus transformation - sailor moon spell to feel beautiful and powerful

sailor moon glamour -  a glamour to feel confident and beautiful, even when nervous and self-conscious

💕 for confessing 💕

charlotte’s entrance glamour - spell to make an entrance

seductive words - lipstick to make your words more persuasive

no light no light - to help you confess when you don’t know the words

howl love spell - to strengthen yourself before a confession

clear speaking glamour -  a spell to aid with speaking clearly

contact spell - to get that someone to text you first

see my feelings spell - a spell to help someone realize your feelings

💘 love spells 💘

cosmic love spell - pop culture spell to lead you to your soulmate

simple love attraction spell - to attract general love and romance

amortenia tea - pop culture tea spell to bring or strengthen love

show me your love - to help your signif show their affections for you

buried and decaying, we plant new seeds - to build new bonds over the breaking pieces

sweeten your feelings - simple jar spell to sweeten a bond

over the moon - full moon spell to bring love

the smoulder - glamour to spark “love at first sight”

greg and rose romance - to aid unconventional couples

rose quartz altruistic love spell -  a spell to encourage unconditional love

lust spell -  a spell to increase lust in oneself or a consenting individual

💞 for past loves 💞

what kind of man - spell to help get away from a bad relationship

nostalgia spell - to resurface old, fond memories in someone else

alexandrite separating spell -  to separate toxicity from a person, whether it is a toxic situation, person, or behavior.

rekindling spell - for relationships that have lost their “spark”

curse for a player -  a curse from scorned lovers to the one breaking hearts, to give them difficulty finding anyone to be with romantically/sexually

breezeblocks curse -  to affect someone you resent for leaving

🖤 for unwanted approaches: 🖤

anti-lust spell -  a spell to lower lust in oneself or a consenting individual

unwanted lover spell - to repel unwanted lovers

moon tiara magic -   spell to protect against people ragging on you

possession vigor potion -  a potion that distracts your enemies from you, and brings their ill-attention to one another instead

💔 for broken hearts 💔

steven universe shielding spell - pop culture spell to protect your feelings

alice tear jar spell - a  jar spell to help keep you afloat in your sadness

lover to lover - for a fresh start and reassurance

bubble your feelings - to hide away feelings that are causing you harm

arms of the ocean - pop culture spell to comfort and give you strength

hurricane drunk - pop culture spell to turn pain into invincibility

rose quartz healing tears - simple ritual to heal emotions

“nuka-cola” potion -  a frosty potion recipe for emotional healing

elixir of the wounded heart -  a potion made to soothe an injured heart

[mancomplanblog]

AYYY another Palette & Expression Meme, look at that. You may have to zoom in for details lol. 81 Expressions and 50 Palettes, go nuts guys. And since I know I will eventually get this question (or I won’t and people will just do it anyway) ASK ME before reposting. I may or may not already have it wherever it is you want it. Yes you may also just use it for practice. I personally will not be taking requests for this one as I’m trying to focus on getting commissions so I can afford a new computer~

[mancomplanblog]

Making Comic Pages

It’s been a bit since the last chapter of Red Muscle came out and i felt like making a post about how i go about making the comic from beginning to final page since i don’t know, maybe it will be helpful to some to just see how other people do it? I also love to say too much about the things I draw, so this will be fun for at least me!

Since this story is my first exploration into making comics that are over a few pages long, I had a lot of trouble figuring out how to get the mess of ideas in my brain into tangible story beats that I was really enthusiastic about. I have a hard time feeling confident about my visual thought process for ways of telling a story so I started my chapters as outlines in pure text. It might not work for everyone, but I’ve found that I can most easily get myself in the headspace of a story if I can just write it down, almost conversationally. This helped me push past the initial fear of trying to tackle drawing things that my brain kept telling me are above my skill level (which can keep a lot of people from starting their dream projects). I’ll write all the general story beats and keep dialogue to a minimum and just focus on the events. I treat is as if it was an outline for a short cartoon, and try to keep the story moving pretty fast.

After I feel I’ve got a good chapter going and I’ve written enough that I can start thinking visually, I’ll start doing really tiny layouts in my sketchbook. This step is the most loose and scattered part of the process, and I think where I purposefully limit myself to just get it done. I’ll try to get general placing and sizing of panels down to keep a good amount of story happening on each page and something interesting to go at the bottom to take the reader to the next page. I tell myself to keep this comic’s layouts really basic shapes, no diagonal panels or fancy tricks, and even though it might not be the BEST looking pages, the basics always work and teach you just how versatile their uses are (and where you feel like breaking from that will ADD to the story).

I’ll start to write down really rough speech for the characters here, which I hadn’t always done but I take so long drawing out layouts that I’d forget what I wanted the characters to say (story beats will get written down here too). I do a lot of rethinking the pages or specific compositions as I draw these, so panel replacements/inserts are scattered around the page. A lot of times I have trouble thinking up how I want to place the characters, so I’ll end up with sketchbook pages with multiple tests on posing/acting to teach myself something that will work well enough and I’ll move on.

After I get the layouts done, I move to photoshop and start drawing thumbnails with more cleaned up and clear versions of the pages. I’ll spend more time making sure the poses I put in the panels are something I’m more satisfied with. Some people might think of skipping either this step or the previous step and that might work better for them, but i’ve gotten into the habit of doing these 2 passes of pages. It probably stems from my weird habit of overworking the HELL out of these thumbs, I draw way too much detail on them!!! If you’re like me, adding the previous step to let yourself draw loose and messy and decide your panels there will make the neurotic clean thumbs feel like less of a chore to draw up.

When the thumbs are done, I just resize them and start final inks. This part of the process is the funnest!!! all of the hardest work is done (except maybe some BG design because i wait until the last minute) and I just get to draw pretty pictures. I’ll also type up the final version of the text because if I try to write the text too early, I’ll always hate it! something about deciding what the characters say when the final poses/expressions are drawn helps me work through it better (but I know dialogue is one of my weak points!).

From here, I just color all of the characters on one layer and the BG elements on another layer underneath. Before i start coloring though, I’ll try to decide on a color set or a feel that I want to execute for the chapter and go looking through my references to get some color ideas. This part is something I really enjoy, but I know I’ve been locking myself into pretty muted warm colors a lot, so it’s something I try to challenge myself with whenever I color more things.

After the colors are in place, I’ll just draw over the text because I like the look of handwritten text, and I’ll make the speech bubbles.

Then I just repeat these last steps for the rest of the pages!!! Even though i love the last steps a lot, they take up so much time, so I keep my colors flat and keep the shading for limited situations that need them.

I’m still honing in on improving the parts of my process that need work, but I’ve completed about 36 pages just for this story alone! Hopefully seeing all of the steps will help someone reading this feel like they can approach their own stories a little more prepared. I just rewrote some chapters of Red Muscle recently to be a stronger story after completing 2 chapters and seeing what works and what needs to be improved, and just getting work done is the best way to see and tackle the things you need to work on to be a better creator!!

Good luck to you all on your comics that you’re working on, and thanks for reading!