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You know how fantasy worlds are almost always based on (mostly Central and Northern) European Medieval aesthetic and folklore?

For a while I’ve been thinking that if we had a fantasy world made here, it would be interesting to have it be inspired by Modernisme (the Catalan artistic movement from the late 19th century - early 20th century). I mean, look at this and tell me it doesn’t have potential:

Interior of the Sagrada Família basilica, Barcelona. The stained glass in different sides of the temple are different colours, so the light changes colour depending on the hour of the day. (Photo sources x x)

Illa de la Discòrdia, Barcelona. x

Benches in Parc Güell (Barcelona), made with the “trencadís”, the typical mosaic used in many of Antoni Gaudí’s works (he’s one of the most famous Modernist architects, and one of the most famous Catalan architects of all times too). x

A hall in Hospital de Sant Pau, Barcelona. x

Ceiling of Palau de la Música Catalana, a concert hall in Barcelona.

Lots of these things. This one is in Argentona (Catalonia, too). x

And fashion would be like this:

Stained glass in Cerdanyola, Catalonia. x

Illustrations by Gaspar Camps.

More stained glass, now in Museu del Modernisme, Barcelona. x

Modernist jewels by Lluís Masriera (I’ve talked about Modernist jewels in this previous post). x

Even the furniture:

x

Interior of Casa Amatller in Barcelona. x.

Even in wood looked pretty.

x

And lots of cool windows inspired by nature!

And from outside

Olot, Catalonia. x.

And of course all kinds of windows. Light is important!

Torre Bellesguard. x.

Barcelona. x.

This ceiling in Palau Güell with holes to let light in. x.

And this lamp?? Also in Palau Güell. x.

Everything would have to be very curvy.

Casa Milà, Barcelona. x.

And shops

This bakery in Palma, Mallorca. x.

And I won’t begin with the tiles to not make the post longer…

What do you think?

And for people from other countries, what element in your culture do you think a fantasy world could be based on, aesthetically?

Update: so I talked about tiles.

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Queer 👍🏼

What’s something all of your OCs have in common?

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"Petra, it's Morgan. You know where I am. Please get the bail fund."

"Hey Petra, it's Wesley. Morgan said there's a bail fund?"

"Petra, it's your wife. Baby's with your brother - I need the bail fund."

"Morgan, it's Petra. I need - Wesley? Oh, hi. Where's Morgan? Whatever, I need bailed out of jail."

"Wesley, it's Morgan. Petra's in jail, too. I need you to get into the bail money -"

•

"Hey Petra? It's Jacen. Someone said something about bail money. For me? Oh, no. I'm with the baby. It's for the twins."

If your character were arrested, who would they call with their one phone call?

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One of my all time biggest pet peeves with historical(ish) fantasy is when the writer constructs a religion with a clear bias that it's stupid and false and therefore only the Stupid People and/or commoners believe in it and all the smart/elite main characters are like, quasi-atheists or otherwise just routinely flout established religious conventions of orthodoxy and/or orthopraxy because they're Too Smart for it or etc.

It's usually an extension of assumptions that people in the past were just less intelligent than in the contemporary, just being like "I know that the sun is a star millions of miles away that the earth orbits, but this ancient religion describes it as a chariot flying through the sky" and not really bothering to learn the context and just (consciously or subconsciously) settling on 'that's a crazy thing to think and was probably believed in because they were Stupid'.

And that whole attitude pisses me off so much. People were as 'smart' 10,000 years ago as they are today. These beliefs aren't just desperate, random flailing to explain phenomena that could not directly be accounted for either, it's not like people just looked at the sun and went "Uhhh I don't know what the fuck that thing is, actually. I guess it might be a chariot or a boat or something?? Yeah let's go with that." and based entire religious practices on this. Every well-established belief system exists within broader contexts of cultural values/subjective perceptions of reality/knowledge systems/etc, and exist as part of a historical continuum of religious practices that came before. Even when not Materially Correct, they have context and internal logic, they're not always dead literal with zero levels of allegory, and they're never a result of stupidity.

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What are some chronic illnesses that can only occur in a fantasy setting?

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hey when you make posts, i just want you to know, thou/thee/thy/thine/ye are like he/you(object)/your/yours/you(subject) okay? "thou art wearing shoes," "i will wear shoes for thee," okay?

you say thine if the next word starts with a vowel and thy if the next word starts with a consonant and they both mean "your" so "thine own shoes," "thy shoes," okay?

and ye means you and refers to the subject of a sentence, "ye members of the brotherhood of shoes," okay? you need this information to create better knight yaoi. i'm personally more interested in nun yuri but we are a community

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Been doodling some basic outfit ideas for the folx residing in the desert/s of my world.

Long sleeves, pants, and hoods to cover bodies from the sun

Capes/cloaks cover even more of the body, and can be used as personal air conditioning - away side to side and you'll have a lot of airflow

Most people cover the bottom half of their face to avoid burns

Masks are worn when traveling - the colored glass in the eyes helps to prevent glare, sand, or wind from irritating the eyes

These were mostly designed as travelers outfits, such as adventurers, traders, or nomads.

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We need to have more amab trans characters (nonbinaries transfemmes ect) btw. Bc first off underrepresented as hell and second off people are so quick to assume maleness and masculinity as default so I feel like we should try to unpack that more. Make some ocs today, perhaps?

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Love this! I know my brother did something like this, but I can't remember whether he made interlocking symbols or not. Super cool!!

When I was in my teens, I used to make an entire magic system with 360+ unique spells, ordered in magic schools and categories, and it boggles my mind that I basically reinvented DnD mechanics, even down to metamagic.

I wanted to make a wiki about it but I don't have time for it.

The point was to try to encompass every "superpower" I could think of into a magic system.

I even got lore related to it all, I'm pretty sure I'm gonna simply reuse it all for OC worldbuilding. Ngl the fun part was naming all the spells, symbols and coming up with the logic of it all.

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My favorite part of world building is the little stuff!!

Why is the God of Destruction a Little Guy™? Because he's based off my irl plush. BUT! In world? It's because he chose a "pleasing form" based off a species I've been calling the "Squidge". Because they're super cute in world, show up in tide pools.

Why do I have a spreadsheet of like 50 different preserves, jerky, dried fruits, herbs, etc? They're regional! Only travelers have some of this stuff because it's too expensive to get from typical merchants, unless you get it locally. Sorted by region, typical price in regions, etcetera

Common names and which gods they're derived from. Common animals, common monsters, is there any reason people kill them? What for? Why is this thing here?

Because that's the fun little stuff!! If you're building a world, and you put something somewhere, you might ask why it's there. Which opens the way for more stuff to get there! It's all related!

(I just finished an ecologies class. Everything is a web, connected by time, place, and circumstance. As a God, you get to control all those things. Good luck and have fun.)

"Wah this section of worldbuilding I'm doing is so minute and kinda pointless to the larger scheme of things, hurr durr I'm just focusing on some whatever part when I have actual story and plot to figure out-" WHO CARES. YOU ARE THE GOD OF YOUR UNIVERSE. HAVE FUN CREATING IT.

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Small fantasy worldbuilding elements you might want to think about:

A currency that isn’t gold-standard/having gold be as valuable as tin

A currency that runs entirely on a perishable resource, like cocoa beans

A clock that isn’t 24-hours

More or less than four seasons/seasons other than the ones we know

Fantastical weather patterns like irregular cloud formations, iridescent rain

Multiple moons/no moon

Planetary rings

A northern lights effect, but near the equator

Roads that aren’t brown or grey/black, like San Juan’s blue bricks

Jewelry beyond precious gems and metals

Marriage signifiers other than wedding bands

The husband taking the wife's name / newlyweds inventing a new surname upon marriage

No concept of virginity or bastardry

More than 2 genders/no concept of gender

Monotheism, but not creationism

Gods that don’t look like people

Domesticated pets that aren’t re-skinned dogs and cats

Some normalized supernatural element that has nothing to do with the plot

Magical communication that isn’t Fantasy Zoom

“Books” that aren’t bound or scrolls

A nonverbal means of communicating, like sign language

A race of people who are obligate carnivores/ vegetarians/ vegans/ pescatarians (not religious, biological imperative)

I’ve done about half of these myself in one WIP or another and a little detail here or there goes a long way in reminding the audience that this isn’t Kansas anymore.

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GW2 OC Questions: Combat Edition ⚔️✨

General Combat

1. How good are they in combat? Can they handle themselves in most fights? Is there anything that hinders them or acts as an exploitable weakness?

2. Do they like to fight? Is it something they only do when necessary, or are they always looking for a fight? Is fighting an important part of their life or something they actively try to avoid?

3. Are they good at hand-to-hand combat or do they prefer to keep their distance? Can they handle both situations? If not, what happens if they're forced to fight from an inconvenient distance or too up close for comfort?

4. How do they fight? Do they tend to stick to a strategy or just improvise? Do they prefer to win fast and hard, or to let their enemy tire themselves out before striking them down? Do they favor brute force and resistance, speed and dexterity, or something else? Do they fight fairly or is winning the only important thing? Elaborate!

5. Are they good at fighting alongside allies or are they better fighting solo? Are they better at taking orders or leading? Is there anyone (friends, pets, summons, etc) they synergize particularly well with?

6. What combat situation are they better suited for? Can they handle a 1v1 fight or do they prefer to have someone always on their side? How do they deal with larger-scale combat and what's their role in it (frontlines/leading the charge, backline/support, as far from it as possible, etc)? What happens if they are ambushed or outnumbered? Is there any situation that stressed them particularly?

7. How much have they trained to get where they are? Were they a prodigy/naturally talented, or did they have to struggle a lot to reach their current skill level? Did anyone teach them or are they self-taught? Have they ever had a regular sparring partner? Do they still train regularly?

8. Do they have any visible scarring or lasting injuries from previous combat experiences? How did they get them? How do they feel about them?

9. Are they also a healer/medic? What can they do if someone is hurt and needs assistance? Can they heal themselves? Do they have a plan for when they're injured?

Weapons and Magic

10. What weapons do they generally use? Are they particularly proficient with anything specific or have a preference of any kind?

11. Are there weapons they can't use to save their life? Why?

12. They have no access to their usual weapons of choice. What other weapons do they pick? How do they fare?

13. Can they use magic? If yes, what kind? If not, is there a specific reason?

14. Is there any particular quirk to their magic? Is there something they can't do with their magic that others usually can? Is there something they can do particularly well?

15. How powerful is their magic compared to their peers? How do they feel about it? Is it their limit?

16. Is there any unique way in which they mix their magic and weapons? Can they do it at all?

17. Do they have any fears or traumas tied to their own weapons/magic? (ie: sharp weapons user afraid cutting themselves, elementalist afraid of fire/deep water, necromancer afraid of death, etc)

18. Can they handle themselves in a fight without using weapons? And without using magic? What would they do if they were in a fight and disarmed/unable to use magic?

19. Are their skills augmented by anything? (ie. enchanted armor, prosthetics/physical augmentations, blessings from powerful beings, rituals, experimentation, etc)

In-game Questions

20. What's their profession/class? Is it by the book or is there anything unique? If not one of the playable professions, what's the closest one/the one you use for them in-game?

21. What are their usual builds/roles? Is there any they can't do for lore reasons? (can be specific builds or just the general role)

22. What trait lines/specializations do they use? Is there any they can't use for lore reasons?

23. What utility skills do they tend to use? Is there any they can't use for lore reasons?

24. What weapon skins do they use? Is there a skin that has a lot of meaning to them? Do they stick to specific sets or not? Why?

25. Do they use a weapon or magic unique to them/that's not present in-game? If so, how does it work?

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I actually have a question, I'm wanting to start a webcomic at some point in the future myself, do you have any recommendations or advice for me?

Okay, I have a million things to say on the subject but to save you a lot of scrolling I’ll cut it down to the main things I wish I knew when starting my webcomic.

Don’t overprepare

It’s easy to fall into the trap of perfecting your art style or developing your character arcs before you actually, like, make the thing. The truth is you get diminishing returns on the pre-production phase, and too much planning will just waste your time. I once wrote an entire script and sketched out 200 pages for a graphic novel version of my webcomic Roundhouse, 90% of which is now redundant or contradictory. Probably took me hundreds of hours. Whoops. Make a basic plot line and some concept pictures by all means, you gotta start with something, but you’ll be much more motivated to make the comic when you’re already making it.

Collect references

This might sound kind of contradictory to my previous advice but bear with me. It’s important to prioritise creation over planning but gathering a compendium of your favourite artworks and writing techniques will save you time in the long run. If I’m ever stuck on how to draw a certain expression for example I know I have a folder full of expertly drawn faces to remind me how nostrils work. Personally I keep separate reference folders for colour, anatomy and character designs. Fantastic cure for artist’s block, swear by it.

Get someone to proofread

You have no idea how important it is to get a second opinion. No one in the history of media has ever been better off without a different pair of eyes to catch a mistake. They’ll see the obvious things you missed, a typo, a pacing issue, a joke that makes no sense… if you’re embarrassed to show it to anyone in your life then get an internet friend to have a look. Hell, I’ll have a look. Send me a message, I’m easy.

Even the most talented creators struggle to be seen

A good comic will always have a better chance of success than a crap one but that’s only a part of the equation. We’re forgetting our two troublesome neighbours, Monsieur Marketing and Lady Luck. It stinks, but we operate in an algorithm-based economy, and getting things out there takes a lot of hard research. I hate the marketing side of things, personally. I’d much rather make a page every week and not care whether it’s seen or not but such is the nature of capitalism that I have to try and monetise my work any way I can. Knowing someone in the business can’t hurt either.

Look, I’ll never be able to condense everything I know about webcomics in a single post so consider this my declaration to give advice to anyone who asks for it. Got a specific question about comics? Message me.

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How I save time on backgrounds as a full-time webcomic artist

Hi! I make webcomics for a living, and I have to be able to draw a panel extremely fast to keep up with my deadlines. I draw about 50 panels a week, which gives me about 45 minutes per panel if I want any semblance of a healthy work-life balance.

Most webtoon artists save time on backgrounds by using 3d models, which works for them and is great! but personally I hate working in 3d... I went to school for it for a year and hated it so much I completely changed career paths and vowed never to do it again! So, this is how I save time without using any 3d, for those of you out there who don't like it either!

This tactic has also saved me money (3d models are expensive) and it has helped me converting my comic from scroll format into page format for print, because I have much more art to work with than what's actually in the panels. (I'll touch on this later)

So, first, I make my backgrounds huge. my default starting size is 10,000 x 10,000 pixels. My panels are 2,500 pixels wide, so my backgrounds are 4x that, minimum. Because of this, I make them less detailed than I could or that you might expect so it doesn't look weird against my character art when I shrink portions of it down.

I personally find it much easier to add in detail than to make "removing" details look natural at smaller sizes, but you might have different preferences than I do.

I also make sure to keep all of my elements on separate layers so that I can easily remove or replace them, I can move them to simulate different camera angles more easily, and it's simple to adjust the lighting to imply different times of day.

Then I can go ahead and copy/paste them into my episodes. I move the background around until it feels like it's properly fitting how I want.

Once I've done that in every panel, I'll go back through the episode and clean up anything that looks weird, and add in solid blacks (for my art style) Here's a quick before and after of what that looks like!

This makes 90% of my backgrounds take me just a few hours. This is my tactic when I'm working in an environment that an entire scene, or multiple scenes, will take place.

But many panels will inevitably have a location that's used exactly once, and it would waste time and effort to draw a massive background for those. So in 10% of cases, I just draw the single panel background in the episode. I save all of these, just in case I can re-use it later (this happens more often with outdoor locations, but I save them all nonetheless!)

I generally have to draw about 2 big backgrounds per episode, and 3-5 single-panel backgrounds per episode! At the beginning of an arc/book the number is higher, but as the series is continuing and I'm building up an asset library of indoor and outdoor elements to re-use for the book, the number generally goes down and I save more time.

My series involves time travel and mysteries, so there's a lot of new locations in it and we're constantly moving around. If I were working on a series that was more consistent in this aspect, this process would save me even more time!

Like I said earlier, this also saves me a lot of pain and gives me a lot more options as I'm converting from scroll format to print format!

panels that look like this in scroll format...

can look like this in print!

because I drew the background like this, so I didn't need to go through the additional effort to add in the extra detail to expand it outwards at all.

Anyways, I hope this helps someone! As always if it doesn't help, just go ahead and disregard. This is what I do and what works for me, and I feel like I only ever see time-saving tips for comics that involve 3d models and workflows, which don't work for me at all! I know there's more people like me out there, so this is for you!

Enjoy!

Also obligatory "my webcomic" if you want to see this in action or check it out!

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energy policy would be much better if we still had a tradition of animal sacrifice I think. people would be way more chill about nuclear energy if they could see a large and proud bull being ritually sacrificed every month or so at the base of the cooling towers to keep the plant safe

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Do not let them erase this. Do not let them tell you he meant "my heart goes out for you."

This man is the grandson of a Canadian Nazi sympathizer who moved to South Africa BECAUSE he thought the apartheid was just the coolest.

He has a gaggle of kids specifically because he believes his genes are superior and need to be spread to improve humanity.

He has thrown his support behind the neonazi party in Germany and the far right party in the UK, not to mention how far he's wormed up the ass of the Republican party.

He threw two sieg heil salutes back to back at the inauguration of the president of the United States and is trying to scrub the evidence off the internet.

Elon Reeve Musk is a fucking Nazi.

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1) Width. Add it.

2) Width. Just. Yeah. If you want to draw a really big guy - do it. The third guy is ok, but it's just a small guy with belly!

3) Gravity! More fat - more soft - gravity goes brr.

4) Basic shapes and clothes would definitely help you to draw a big comfy soft guy!

Miaou