millipedemotel

[millipedemotel]

the funniest thing an artist can do is misspell "artistic nudity" as "autistic nudity"

[millipedemotel]

You've been invited! Party with Party Cat? :)

[millipedemotel]

You've been invited! Party with Party Cat? :)

[millipedemotel]

character I say I like but really I mean I want to swing them around like one of these bad boys

[millipedemotel]

hi tumblr ive been neglecting you. here is a tdov charlie

[millipedemotel]

I really like the boop. Can we keep it? Pleeease?

*holding the boop like a kid who found a kitten*

[millipedemotel]

EVERYONE REMEMBER TO BOOP THE ARAB.ORG BUTTONS!!!!

[millipedemotel]

I put a smell on you

[millipedemotel]

someone tell me why i turned on a lazer pointer and my cat immidiately looked from the dot on the ground to the pointer in my hand. why does he know. the same cat who saw a treat reflected in a mirror and tried to eat the reflection. how does he know

[millipedemotel]

if you search a tag on someone's blog on the mobile app it will show you only a selection of posts in an inscrutably random order but if you go to a mobile browser and type [blog url].tumblr.com/tagged/[tag] you will get all posts on that blog with that tag in reverse chronological order. if you add /chrono behind it you get them in regular chronological order. naturally this works in desktop browsers too but i know many people are mobile only these days and the app's built in tag search is shit so this knowledge is vital to your survival

[millipedemotel]

What’s the moon made of? Meet me there after I’m gone 🌕🐁

[millipedemotel]

Nature is there to be loved

[Image ID: A color pencil drawing of a blue and purple beetle, shining with green highlights, against a black background. Its shell is shaded in with bold streaking lines of color.]

[millipedemotel]

truly cannot overstate how important it is for everyone to do research into local insect species and just try to notice them when you go outside. there are beautiful metallic blue mud dauber wasps where i live and they’re common in the summer but i just never noticed them until this past year. there are so many dragonflies at the local park. in one walk this june i found ebony jewelwing damselflies and an enormous stinkbug and an emerald-coloured tiger beetle and there is honest to god so much beauty in the insect world if you are willing to look for it

[millipedemotel]

Orchid mantis design commission. I literally can’t remember the last time I’ve drawn a mantis

[millipedemotel]

tears falling down at the party 🎈 🎂

[millipedemotel]

...that your audience won't hate.

This is a method I started using when NFTs were on the rise - thieves would have to put actual work into getting rid of the mark - and one that I am now grateful for with the arrival of AI. Why? Because anyone who tries to train an AI on my work will end up with random, disruptive color blobs.

I can't say for sure it'll stop theft entirely, but it WILL make your images annoying for databases to incorporate, and add an extra layer of inconvenience for thieves. So as far as I'm concerned, that's a win/win.

I'll be showing the steps in CSP, but it should all be pretty easy to replicate in Photoshop.

Now: let's use the above image as our new signature file. I set mine to be 2500 x 1000 pixels when I'm just starting out.

Note that your text should not have a lot of anti-aliasing, so using a paint brush to start isn't going to work well with this method. Just use the standard G-Pen if you're doing this by hand, or, just use the text tool and whichever font you prefer.

Once that's done, take your magic wand tool, and select all the black. Here are the magic wand settings I'm using to make the selections:

All selected?

Good.

Now, find a brush with a scattering/tone scraping effect. I use one like this.

You can theoretically use any colors you want for this next part, but I'd recommend pastels as they tend to blend better.

Either way, let's add some color to the text.

Once that's finished,

You're going to want to go to Layer Property, and Border Effect

You'll be given an option of choosing color and thickness. Choose black, and go for at least a 5 in thickness. Adjust per your own preferences.

Now create a layer beneath your sig layer, and merge the sig down onto the blank layer.

This effectively 'locks in' the border effect, which is exactly what we want.

Hooray, you've finished your watermark!

Now let's place that bad boy into your finished piece.

You'll get the best mileage out of a mark if you can place it over a spot that isn't black of white, since you'll get better blending options that way. My preference is for Overlay.

From here, I'll adjust the opacity to around 20-25, depending on the image.

If you don't have a spot to use overlay, however, there's a couple other options. For white, there's Linear Burn, which imho doesn't look as good, but it still works in a pinch.

And for lots of black, you have Linear Light

Either way, you're in business!

EDIT since this has escaped my usual circles, and folks aren't as familiar with my personal usage:

An example of one of my own finished pieces, with watermark, so you can see what I mean about 'relatively unobtrusive'-- I try to at least use them as framing devices, or let them work with the image somehow (or, at the very least, not actively against it).

I know it's a bummer for some people to "ruin" their work with watermarks, which is part of the reason I developed this mark in particular. Its disruption is about as minimal as I can make it while still letting it serve its intended purpose.

There's other methods, too, of course! But this is the one I use, and the one I can speak on. Hope it helps some of you!

[millipedemotel]

from art fight this year, for @punkcatash!