salemoleander

[salemoleander]

What is a webweave, and how are they made?

First of all, I am so sorry to all the blogs I've tagged. It's the quickest way to reference you! If you'd like me to remove you from this post, feel free to dm me and I will absolutely do so. On the other hand

What is a webweave?

A webweave is a collection of images and quotes, very much like a digital collage! They're most common in Hockey RPF, Racecar RPF, and MCYT. There's a couple different types of webweave. The first is a traditional Tumblr webweave, which utilizes Tumblr's image post format to arrange separate images, each containing one element. Some examples are:

"claire de lune" by @tomscryingcorner

"a hyper-specific web weave about my best friend" by @insecureegg

"untitled" (blue and orange) by @leehallfae

The second type of webweave is a collage-styled webweave. Remember when I said webweaves are a lot like collages? This type uses photo manipulation software to make webweaves look a lot like collages cut out of magazines or other physical media. Some examples are:

"Duality duo s4 webweaves" by @ducks-and-stuff

"Divorce Quartet - Web Weave" by @doublesilly

"lost in the dark (Hunger AU) webweave" by @salemoleander

That last one is the first webweave I ever saw, and inspired me to try my hand at it with a couple graphic design classes already under my belt!

Why webweave?

Webweaving is an awesome way to string together canonically unrelated moments, to compare characters or events from different fandoms, or to pay tribute to your favourite artist! You can use materials from anywhere (though getting permission from a fanartist, or artist of any work not in the public domain, is highly recommended), including but not limited to screencaps, gifs, and quotes. It's a great option for folks who aren't confident in their art skills but who want to use visual imagery to tell a story; it's also very succinct when drawing connections.

How do I make a webweave?

If you're looking to make a traditional-style webweave, it's quite simple! Find art, images, screencaps, pictures of quotes, screenshots of Spotify or Genius lyrics—anything you can imagine, in image form—and lay them out using Tumblr's handy image posting system! Make sure to think ahead about how two images will look side by side, and plan for short, wide quotes to have their own line between images. Keep track of your sources!

If you're eyeing the collage-style webweaves, you'll have a bit more work ahead of you, as well as a different type of source you may want to look into.

Before you get started, you'll need some kind of photo editing software. I'm aware some people use Canva, but I've never tried webweaving on that site and from what I remember it can be rather AI-heavy and paywalled. If you have Photoshop, great! Start there. If not, there are a few free softwares you could use. Some webweavers use Krita or GIMP, both free software; personally, I use Photopea, which is a free clone of Photoshop and Illustrator. Since I haven't tried Krita or GIMP myself, I can't compare and contrast their usefulness for you; you'll have to do that yourself.

Once you've found editing software, your path converges with traditional-style webweavers as you'll need to find art, quotes, images, and other such resources for your webweave. Keep track of where you get each resource! When using quotes, you will have a text tool at your disposal, and may not need images of quotes. Some people do still choose to use images of quotes, as do I on occasion! It all depends on how you want your webweave to look. You will need an additional resource, however, that traditional webweavers don't: pngs. By that I don't mean just any .png image, I mean transparent images that often contain objects, trinkets, and/or kitsch. There are a number of wonderful blogs on Tumblr, which I will link below in the resources section, that post solely transparent pngs of items. As a webweaver, I owe these blogs my life. Sometimes you will have to cut out an item yourself, and then you will be more grateful for these blogs than ever before.

Once you've collected your resources, mash them together in your photo editing software! You will be overwhelmed by the possibilities when it comes to canvas size. I recommend starting with the dimensions of your phone screen, so when you're done you can use your completed webweave as your background! Otherwise, it really doesn't matter. Complete freedom! I've used many shapes and sizes for different webweaves, depending on the sizes of my sources and the story I'm trying to paint. When you're done, I highly recommend saving it as a .jpeg, which will be somewhat large but absolutely worth it (higher quality).

Then post! Be sure to cite your sources!!

Why do I need to keep track of my sources? How do I cite the pieces I've used?

If you're going to use other people's work (as is the nature of a webweave), you'll need to give them credit. Even if a piece is from the public domain, it's still useful for fellow webweavers, readers, and artists to be able to find your source if they like the quote or art piece! When crediting, I prefer to list my sources below a readmore/cut using one of the following formats:

Book by Author Name, "Poem" by Poet Name, "Art Piece" by Artist Name, "Untitled (Art Piece Description)" by Artist Name, description of piece or png

If relevant, I'll link where I found the source I've used. Of course, sometimes I'll draw from a book I have lying around my bookshelf, in which case I don't link anything; or I may add flavour text myself, in which case it's nice to leave a credit that some of the text is my own. When citing a Tumblr post, it's up to you whether to officially mention the people whose work you're using.

(Here are a couple of webweave posts that show the way I link sources)

Where do I find resources?

Art and Images: mspencerdraws, birdsbyblue is drawing geometric birds!, @arthuntblog, @petersolarz, @detailedart, Artvee, Wikiart

Song lyrics: You can search for relevant lyrics on Genius, or you can search for thematic playlists on Spotify and skip around through the songs there, scrolling through lyrics. I can't give you many resources here, but some musicians whose lyrics I often run to are Evan Honer, Matt Maeson, The Crane Wives, The Oh Hellos, and Sleeping At Last

Quotes and poetry: Poetry Foundation, @two-bees-poetry, @petaltexturedskies, @theoptia, @geryone, @callisteios, Clint Smith, Ocean Vuong

Pngs: @oceantoyz, @treasuregamble, @honeyrolls, @goobersplat, @starryspngs, @adjpngs

Can I post a webweave on Ao3? How?

Absolutely! There are quite a few webweaves on Tumblr posted under both the canon "collage" tag and the non-canonized "webweave" tag if you'd like to peruse, or to join their ranks!

First off, you'll need to consider whether your webweave is traditional- or collage-style. If it's collage style, you actually get a bit of a break—posting is quite simple! If it's traditional, you'll need to do a few extra steps to make sure everything's laid out properly.

No matter which type your webweave is, you'll need to make sure your images are hosted somewhere. The two primary ways to do this are via Tumblr post and via Squidge Images. Squidge is my preferred method, as I never quite trust Tumblr, but you will need to be 18+ to host images there. If using Squidge, after you upload an image, it will give you several code options below it. Find the Full Image header and copy the "HTML" link. Paste this directly into an Ao3 draft. If using Tumblr, you can make a post (private if necessary), right click the image directly (or tap and hold on mobile), and copy the image link (should end in .pnj). Then you'll paste that link, with a bit of html I'll show you below, on Ao3. The html will center your piece so it's not off to the side, where text belongs.

<center><p><img src="pastelinkhere" /></p></center>

If posting a traditional-style webweave, it'll look a bit different. For images that should be next to each other, make sure all adjacent images' links are within the same set of <p> and </p>, like so:

<center> <p><img src="link1goeshere" /> <img src="link2goeshere" /></p></center>

If needed, you can adjust the width of any image by adding the width qualifier like this (you can use any %, or even px if you'd like; using a percentage adjusts to the screen):

<center><p><img src="linkgoeshere" width="80%"/></p></center>

Hopefully this is a fairly comprehensive guide! For further inquiries, my DMs are always open! As I've said, if you'd like to be removed from this post, or if you know someone (blog, artist, writer, etc.) you think should be added to this post, please let me know! I would love to make webweaving a more widespread art form, and the first step is creating a community for webweavers : ]

[salemoleander]

the term Average Joe implies the existence of the strange Abnormal Joe and this, i think, is the proper identification for joe hills of nashville tennessee

[salemoleander]

obsessed with what Gem said about Scar being like the spider in your room... if you can see him on his web, it's cool, but if he gets off that web and you can't see him, you're in danger

[salemoleander]

what would happen if we gave etho adderall though

[salemoleander]

My favorite dysfunctional team <3

[salemoleander]

Martyn’s past life episode 6 spoilers!! (Not really but still)

dear god what’s wrong with them

[salemoleander]

Now I have to know. Did sl scar pierce the ear himself. Cause. He’s all alone?

imagine

[salemoleander]

Like a wick in the wind

[salemoleander]

Inspired by this tumblr post I had to do my own complation of all of Tango's deaths. I think seeing all of them at once gives it a different punch

[salemoleander]

Inspired by pinkflames' poll, but I put different people on it bc I was curious if that would affect the outcome!

No 'see results' or 'not listed here' option bc it means one less spot for a player 👍

(For transparency, this poll omits Grian, Impulse, Lizzie, Martyn, Mumbo, and Scar. Imo all six of those players are especially prone to revel in wanton violence, play dirty/lie for personal gain, or both. If you disagree, fair enough! Making your own poll is fun easy and free)

[salemoleander]

So I received this a few days ago:

And tbc good on them, no harm done, the replacements for the DL and LL stickers are perfect! That said:

"slightly zoomed in" is an objectively hilarious description of this

Anyways. I'm sorry to the poor printshop that had what I assume was a stressful surprise, but I am especially excited to find a spot for the gigantic Divorce Quartet sticker piece :D

[salemoleander]

Cabin Core designs (also whoops funny cartoon nudity because I couldn’t get it out of my head)

They’re totally rugged, manly, and all sorts of other masculine adjectives

[salemoleander]

deadbird4deadbird ranchers:

jimmy's canary curse reputation

tango functionally is etho and bdubs' favorite bird to kill & drop at each other's doorstep as a gift

and what if they were both dead birds

and their wings touched

[salemoleander]

August Ghastketball update! Now with Beacons! — HermitCraft 10: ep 85

[salemoleander]

"I am going to get a good grade in ___________, a thing that is both normal to want and possible to achieve" drifts through my brain with positively alarming regularity.

[salemoleander]