riheinorndraws - Tumblr blog

[riheinorndraws]

THE MAJOR ARCANA

a collection of character development questions based on the arcana and their themes !! this is part of a collection of tarot-themed asks. if multi, please specify which muse(s) the question is directed toward !!

[THE FOOL] - Do they weight their options when making a decision, or do they impulsively make a choice?

[THE MAGICIAN] - Are they resourceful? What skills do they possess that help them navigate the world around them?

[THE HIGH PRIESTESS] - Do they meditate? Would they be considered "in tune" with themselves, or do they struggle with personal growth?

[THE EMPRESS] - Do they participate in or have a self-care ritual? If so, what does their routine look like?

[THE EMPEROR] - Is your muse a leader? If so, what kind of leader are they? Do they take a hands-off approach, or do they micromanage?

[THE HIEROPHANT] - What are important traditions to them, if any? Do they stay true to these traditions, or do they adapt them to fit their current situation?

[THE LOVERS] - What do they consider to be the "perfect partner", be it romantic, platonic, alterous, etc.? Is there someone like that in their life?

[THE CHARIOT] - Are they confident? If so, what makes them the most confident in themselves/their abilities?

[STRENGTH] - What are they determined to accomplish the most?

[THE HERMIT] - What does their inner voice sound like? Is it self-reflecting and introspective, or domineering and judgmental?

[WHEEL OF FORTUNE] - Do they believe in destiny/fate? If so, what do they believe their "purpose" is in this life?

[JUSTICE] - Are they a mediator, or do they prefer to step away from potential conflict?

[THE HANGED MAN] - Would they sacrifice themselves, literally or metaphorically, for those close to them? If so, what kind(s) of sacrifice would they make?

[DEATH] - What is their view on the cycle of life? Do they believe in reincarnation?

[TEMPERANCE] - Are they a patient person, or do they tend to act on impulse?

[THE DEVIL] - Which of the capital vices is your muse tempted by? (Pride, Greed, Wrath, Envy, Lust, Gluttony, Sloth)

[THE TOWER] - Are they a destructive individual (be it literally or metaphorically)? If so, how?

[THE STAR] - What is their health like? Do they consider themselves healthy, or do they feel like they could make improvements to better their health?

[THE MOON] - If they had to choose one trait to describe themselves, what would it be? Is it a genuine answer, or the illusion/persona they put on for others?

[THE SUN] - What makes them feel good? This can be happy, energized, revitalized, etc. It's all about good vibes, so what gives them to your muse?

[JUDGMENT] - What was an epiphany/awakening they recently had? Did they realize something that they've been naive to? Did they discover something about themselves? What happened?

[THE WORLD] - How would they define a utopia? What would it consist of, and do they see it as something achievable?

[riheinorndraws]

How I pratice drawing things, now in a tutorial form. The shrimp photo I used is here Show me your shrimps if you do this uvu  PS: lots of engrish because foreign 

[riheinorndraws]

THERE IS. a website. that takes 3D models with seams and pulls it apart to make a plushie pattern and informs you where things need to be edited or darts added for the best effect. and then it lets you scale it and print off your pattern. and I want to lose my MIND because I've lost steam halfway through so many plushie patterns in the mind numbing in betweens of unwrapping, copying all of the meshes down as pieces, transferring those, testing them, then finding obvious tweaks... like... this would eradicate 99% of my trial and error workflow for 3D models to plushies & MAYBE ILL FINALLY FINISH SCREAMTAIL...

[riheinorndraws]

Hey I'm sorry if this has been asked already and/or if this has already been mentioned, but I'm really curious how you make your sigils. I make my own using the shapes of the letters in my intent word/phrase but I know other people use the alphabet wheel (sigil wheel? Im really bas with words and I forgot what it's called, sorry). You didn't to answer if you don't want to share, I'm just interested in different methods and since yours are always amazing and I really admire your work, I figured I would ask. Also I really wanted to say thank you for being such a huge inspiration in general. Seeing the strength, beauty, and power in the sigils you create is what really inspired me to work harder both on creating my own sigils and on learning different methods and styles from people willing to explain.

Yeah I make mine probably a similar or the same way as you do, I even have a tutorial of how I do it posted. That method is called the spare method, but over time there’s a couple different versions of it. Some people dont eliminate vowels completely, some people use every type of letter that occurs in the phrase to make the sigil, I’m sure there’s more but this is how I do it :

Method 2: Spare Method Variation Breaking Up Letters Into Shapes: A Guide

There’s also the sigil wheel and the planetary squares, I don’t use those terribly often unless I have a phrase I want a sigil for that doesn’t have any letters left after the letter elimination process. If you haven’t heard of the planetary square methods, I made a tutorial for one of them, but each planet has a different numerological square designated to it that you can use to make sigils from, so this is really just enough to give a taste of the possibilities for those:

Method 1: Using The Saturn Square

And here’s a tutorial for the sigil square I made if you wanted to take a look at that too:

Method 3: The Sigil Wheel

Wow my sigils really give off that kinda vibe? That’s so sweet, thank you so much <3 I wish you luck on your learning journey in the craft 

[riheinorndraws]

Do you have a specific method for making sigils?

I do, yes. I’ve talked about it before - the old post can be found on @thesigilwitch [here] - but that is over two years old now, so I suppose I can update it, lol.

First, I come up with a statement of intent - a sentence that will dictate what my sigil does. All of my sigils are based off a sentence - I do not draw symbols without an intent or desire in mind, and if I do I don’t consider them sigils.

For an example intent, let’s go with “wellness and positive energy permeates my life.” This was a recent sigil I did, so I can give you examples of my steps.

I write that statement at the top of a piece of paper. I use all uppercase letters, because I think it adds more power, but that is a personal choice.

From there, I break down the statement, make it more abstract, by removing any duplicate letters. I only want one of each letter occurring in the sentence. Some people say to remove the vowels as well, but I like to keep them - it adds more variety to the shapes I can use when making my sigils. Thus, my intent of “wellness and positive energy permeates my life” ends up looking like “welnsadpoitvrgymf.” Try pronouncing that, lol.

The next step, for me at least, is to break down those letters further into their basic shapes. A W becomes \ / \ /, e would be | - - -, and so on. (Again, I always use uppercase letters when doing this.) This gives me more building blocks to create my sigils with, and more variety for their creation. I don’t like my sigils to look like a bunch of letters thrown together - I prefer it to be more abstract, and it is more visually appealing to me that way. When I break down the letters, I tend to only draw one of each shape, instead of all the individual lines and curves. So, doing that, “welnsadpoitvrgymf” becomes | \ / - ~ ) ◯ ( .

At this point, the top of my sigil sheet looks like this:

I often glance at that when I am actually sketching my sigils, to use it as a focus and help reinforce the intent in my mind.

Now that I have that done, I start sketching. Sometimes I use the pieces of the letters, sometimes I use the whole letters, sometimes I use neither and just wing it. There have even been cases where I combine some or all of those techniques for one sigil. It mostly comes down to what I “feel” the sigil needs. In certain cases, that means attempting new creation methods, which tend to be some I have found posted by others here on Tumblr. For the most part, however, I stick to my creation method, if it can even be called that lol.

However I decide to draw the sigil, I do a few sketches of different designs until I get one I like, which means it has to aesthetically appeal to me. Sometimes this happens in one sketch, sometimes it takes two or three (the average). I once filled two sides of a sheet of paper with like 16 sigils for the same intent, which took over an hour, and I still didn’t like any of them. I learned that it was important that the sigil looks good to you, because it connects it to you on a personal level - much the same way I believe it is important to like how a tarot deck looks. That may not be true for all, but it is true to me now.

The sketch page for the sigil “wellness and positive energy permeates my life” looked like this when I was done:

Generally, I don’t keep drawing after I find a design I like. I typically star the one I plan on keeping and using. I didn’t on this page; however, I went over the design a few times to solidify the lines exactly how I wanted them. The final design is the one on the top right, this one:

However, when I drew that particular design, I had the page flipped, so it technically should look like this:

As you can see, there are erase marks from where I tried lines out, but decided I didn’t like in the end. I don’t feel that has any impact on the sigil’s effectiveness.

The one right next to it was the first one I drew, and I almost went with that one as the final design, but I was concerned it looked too much like a very infamous racist symbol, so I passed on it. I was told it didn’t; however, since I had those negative connotations already in my mind and associated with that design, I felt it would be and for me to go with it in the end.

At that point, the sigil is ready to be used. However, I tend to make digital copies of my sigils, because I do post them online for other people’s use. This sigil was actually made for an intent suggested by a friend.

I either scan the page to upload my sigil, or I take a crappy picture with my cell phone and email it to myself. Either way, I get it on my computer and open it with Paint Tool SAI. From there, I redraw the sigil, which also adds another element of aesthetic to it, because I really enjoy how clean and sharp the sigils look when done with the line tool in SAI. 

When the sigil is made digital, I tweak some of the lines a bit further to keep them looking exactly as I want, how I intended the design to look in the first place, even though it may not have come across so well on the page. I also like to play around with line thickness.

Mostly the sigils are made transparent, with a white glow around the edges for visibility purposes; sometimes I create simple color backgrounds with the color corresponding to the sigil’s intent. It depends on what I feel like doing with it. 

When I post them online, they tend to get watermarks, if I can remember to do it. For a while they didn’t, because you can’t create text layers in SAI, but I have Photoshop back now, so I’ve begun utilizing the watermarks again.

The final version of this sigil ended up like this:

Now that I look at it again, the large curve needs fixing, lol. 

And that is how I make my sigils! I dunno if I needed to go so in-depth, but here it is. I hope you made it all the way to the end, and I hope it helps you, or provides inspiration for your own method, or whatever. I don’t really know why you asked me this tbh. But you know, enjoy!

[riheinorndraws]

Simple Sigil Creation: A How-To Guide

One of the most common messages I get on Tumblr goes something like this: “What is your process for creating sigils? It can’t be as simple as scrambling up letters, so what’s the real secret?”

The truth is, there isn’t a secret. Making sigils is actually quite simple. Anyone can do it. Even for a complete newcomer, the process should take less time than a coffee break. While there are many, many ways to create sigils — magic squares, automatic drawing, grid overlays — the methods don’t really matter all that much.

In this post, I’m going to show the step-by-step method I used for creating the most recent sigil I’ve published. It came at the request of a young woman who wanted to catch the romantic attentions of another female. It said simply: “She will see me in a romantic way.”

As you can see, I’ve gone with the most basic sigil-creation method here. I’ve written out the text, and I’ve isolated the consonants from the sentence. While there is an “occult” tradition behind this method, I wouldn’t get hung up on thinking that it’s the “right” way to make a sigil. It’s no better than any other method, it’s just easier to explain.

This first step is meant to abstract the coherent words into a less-coherent jumble of letters. The words stop being as meaningful, but the symbols behind the sigil’s intent remain. To keep things simple — and to speed up my next step — I arrange these letters into a grid.

The next step is to abstract the remaining letters even further. Here, I’ve simply started combining elements of the letters together. I generally start by picking two letters from the grid of consonants, and start combining lines, curves, curls, dots, and other pieces of those letters together.

I try to keep these new symbols as simple as possible — four or five pencil strokes at most — because I’ll be further combining them in the next step.

From here, I generally play around with a few ideas, combining elements of symbols as I go. Sometimes these ideas come easily, as seen in the picture, but sometimes it can take pages and pages of sketches to find one I like. In particularly thorny situations, I’ll even start the entire process over from scratch, just to give myself a clean slate.

Once I’ve found a design I like, it’s time to start on the final design. Much like every other stage in the process, there is no one “right” way to do this. This is also the step where most people could happily stop. When the sigil looks and feels “right” to you, it’s done. The sigil is complete, if you want it to be.

In my case, however, I’m also making art for my website and social media. That means creating a version of the sigil that will (hopefully) catch other people’s eyes. There are countless ways to do this — charcoals, crayons, digital painting, markers — and I’ve experimented quite a bit over the years.

I also like to have an excuse to play with ink and brushes, so that’s how this one came together. I like that it’s a little unpredictable — with streaks and globs and splatter — and I’m always thrilled when a happy accident improves the design.

As you can see, I create tons of variations, tinkering with brush sizes, stroke direction, the amount of ink in the brush, and other stuff. While I liked some of these versions, none of them looked quite right. So, I kept going until I found one that did.

A few ink-soaked pages later, and this version was the clear winner. From here, it was just a matter of scanning the image in and doing a few technical things in Photoshop to make it look better in black and white. I add the text, the watermark, and … that’s it.

Here’s the finished version.

As you can see, there’s no great secret to making a sigil. Nor should there be. Sigils are about focusing intent, and even a few pencil scratches on notebook paper can become a perfectly wonderful sigil with the right intent behind it. Yes, some people (like me) like to do a little showing off with things they picked up from art class, but that should never be a barrier to creating your own personal sigils.

Questions? Thoughts? Leave a comment or drop me a message.

[riheinorndraws]

DEAR ARTISTS, PLEASE READ THIS POST I STUMBLED ACROSS

IF YOU ARE NOT DOING THIS ALREADY, YOU SHOULD TRY IT

I even tested it out myself, it works great

[riheinorndraws]

So my problem with most ‘get to know your character’ questioneers is that they’re full of questions that just aren’t that important (what color eyes do they have) too hard to answer right away (what is their greatest fear) or are just impossible to answer (what is their favorite movie.)  Like no one has one single favorite movie. And even if they do the answer changes.

If I’m doing this exercise, I want 7-10 questions to get the character feeling real in my head. So I thought I’d share the ones that get me (and my students) good results: 

What is the character’s go-to drink order? (this one gets into how do they like to be publicly perceived, because there is always some level of theatricality to ordering drinks at a bar/resturant)

What is their grooming routine? (how do they treat themselves in private)

What was their most expensive purchase/where does their disposable income go? (Gets you thinking about socio-economic class, values, and how they spend their leisure time)

Do they have any scars or tattoos? (good way to get into literal backstory) 

What was the last time they cried, and under what circumstances? (Good way to get some *emotional* backstory in.) 

Are they an oldest, middle, youngest or only child? (This one might be a me thing, because I LOVE writing/reading about family dynamics, but knowing what kinds of things were ‘normal’ for them growing up is important.)

Describe the shoes they’re wearing. (This is a big catch all, gets into money, taste, practicality, level of wear, level of repair, literally what kind of shoes they require to live their life.)

Describe the place where they sleep. (ie what does their safe space look like. How much (or how little) care / decoration / personal touch goes into it.)

What is their favorite holiday? (How do they relate to their culture/outside world. Also fun is least favorite holiday.) 

What objects do they always carry around with them? (What do they need for their normal, day-to-day routine? What does ‘normal’ even look like for them.) 

[riheinorndraws]

U KNOW WHAT TO DO LMAO

[riheinorndraws]

oh guys it says theyre delicious trees that must mean you can eat it! 😋 yum

[riheinorndraws]

people on tiktok would never survive a day on tumblr

[riheinorndraws]

they are giving me way too much power with this character creator

[riheinorndraws]

tiktok porn is so so funny.

why even try at this point

[riheinorndraws]

[riheinorndraws]

I love it when dogs try to help but the task at hand requires zero dogs so they just kinda stand in front of you and look serious.

[riheinorndraws]

FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU

[riheinorndraws]

hey. the celebrities and corporations are going to try tumblr. you may want to drive them off the site, or find them amusing, ie “well THIS one can stay.” they may try to engage with the culture. they may do their research. DO NOT ENGAGE. do not bother. don’t fucking acknowledge them. don’t mess with their heads. don’t reply to them as a bit. let them think this site is a lost cause. let them fizzle out and die