#..also I can't draw canvasses

[st4rryyynight]

★ @saltydoesstuff werhhh, heyllo. again- *drops fanart for you and explodes into star dust*★

trigger warnings: eyes, unsettling

[pixelnrd]

this isn’t a hate ask at all i just wanted to know why in such a long challenge with almost endless sims didn’t you ever consider doing a trans heir with all the recent updates ea added and entering more modern generations. of course it’s your own sims and you can do whatever you want with them, but since you touched other sensitive topics i just wanted your thoughts on this!! sending much love. ❤️

Hi anon. Even though your request is very polite, I can't help but feel like you are disappointed in me and feel that I have failed in being fully inclusive and representative, otherwise you wouldn't've sent this to me anonymously.

Firstly, I want to address the fact that Thelma, from the 1920s, was a non-binary character, and many readers see them as having a trans identity. I explored Thelma as a non-binary character because the desire to create their character as such came to me at the time.

I think perhaps you are disappoined that I have not had an overtly trans characer in the Langston Legacy. I haven't done this for many reasons, which I'm happy to be open about below:

Following the exploration of a persons trans identity formation and transition is not a story that I am interested in telling. I have said it before and I'll say it again - I do not feel well equipped to tell this story with the right nuance and sensitivity it requires; I do not have any lived experience to draw on to tell this story, nor do I have anyone whom I can ask. I do not want to open myself up to critique for getting it wrong, nor do I want to offend anyone. The weight of these pressures mean that I don't have any desire or motivation to create a character whose purpose is to experience gender dysphoria and transition.

The way I have developed characters through history in this Legacy has been to feed into stereotypes of each particular decade. This has been my primary focus for character development, and arguably that is characterisation at a superficial level. Focussing time and energy of character development on one characters transition journey does not fit in with this balance that I am trying to strike in this Legacy. That is not to say that there were not trans people throughout history. There were and I am very aware of this. But exploring a trans character did not come to me as a natural fit in the other stories and themes I was exploring in each decade of this challenge.

I don't believe that this medium (a Decades Challenge) is the right forum or medium for me to tell this kind of story. That's not to say the sims isn't a forum for exploring these stories, and I am sure there are heaps of great sims stories out there that do. But my story is not one of them. I can't please everyone all the time, and I can't canvass everything in this Legacy.

There are so many types of identities and cultures I have not touched with this Legacy. I just can't achieve that. You could just as easily tell me I have not done adequate representation because I have not had any Muslim sims when EA has added headcoverings to the game. I can't fit everything in. It's also not my goal to fit everything in.

Finally I'll finish with this - I haven't finished this Legacy yet. There is stuff to come. So I would really appreciate if everyone holds their horses before summarising and telling me what I missed out on including.

[adickaboutspoons]

Because metatext is my jam, I decided to transcribe the text opposite Frenchie's log-drawings from 1x3:

As near as I can make out (Lucius, I have some Notes on your penmanship, dear), with some help from outside sources (more on that later), the text reads as follows: "Inspired of the thought of gold riches we were anxious to resume our voyage as soon as possible. We sent our letters home by the Dale she Sailed on the 26th inst. She takes also the US Minister to Chile who I understand has been recalled. We would have beat the whole fleet. We had a fair opportunity of viewing the beautiful Mountain Scenery along the route which for grandeur magnificence and wildness exceeded anything of the kind it has been my lot to behold before. And further back from the coast range the lofty Andes, raising their bold peaks and piercing the clouds with their Snow capt summits. Contrasting beautifully with the dark foliage of the mountains. Truly a sight to behold.

6 AM [    ] Cloudy, Weather mild, Light Winds and Variable. We dropped anchor in harbor opposite the city of Valparaiso about 12 M. Making the Passage from St. Catherines to this place in 53 days and from New York including 14 days stoppage at St. Catherine’s in 121 days. Valparaiso lies in Lat 32° 51’ South, Long 77° 14 West. We had a beautiful sail along up the coast this morning going at the rate of 10 to 12 Miles and Hour under a full spread of Canvass. 6 Other vessel going in at the same time, giving us a fair trial of our Barks Sailing qualities. And I must say she did her part nobly. If the chase had been of a few hours longer duration I think we would have beat the whole fleet."

Now. Unfortunately, we can't really use this to draw any conclusions about the show. You might have noticed references to the Andes mountains, which run up the western edge of South America and are not visible from the Caribbean. And Valparaiso. Which is a coastal city in Chile to the northwest of Santiago. Somehow I doubt even Stede managed to sail quite THAT badly. Back to that help from outside sources? When the geography wasn't matching up, I googled "We sent our letters home by the Dale" and it turns out the text is kind of a hodge-podge of extracts from the Diary of Alexander Van Valen from 1849-50 chronicling his voyage aboard the Heinlia voyaging from New York to San Francisio around Cape Horn for the purpose of prospecting for gold. Really all I can make of this as having any significance relating back to the show is something, something David Jenkins School of Historical Accuracy, something, something Historical Remixing in order to fabricate the story's text, something, something the show's text is NOT history, and history is NOT the text of our show.

[double-aa-batteries]

Wivov binder review

I just bought my first binder recently from wivov. I heard gc2b has gone down hill recently (for reasons I couldn't especially ascertain) and was looking for a different brand to buy from. i did a bunch of research but couldn't find any common consensus. I liked the looks of Wivov as a brand, but as it's new, a lot of people didn't know anything about the brand or the quality and were slightly suspicious. I took a gamble and I'm very happy I did!

I bought the black CORE racer back half binder in size small (I'm 30 inches around the ribcage and maybe 33 around the tits for reference). I haven't ever had a binder before, so unfortunately I don't have anything to compare it to but overall, I'm very pleased. the fabric is very smooth, even the inside canvass part against your skin. I have some sensory issues but nothing major and it's perfectly comfortable for me. even as a racer back, the straps hide fairly well under some of my T-shirts and would probably be entirely hidden if I didn't wear tshirts two sizes too big for me.

the quality seems great and I'm hopeful it will last me for quite a while. it's easy on and off and hasn't stretched for me so far and I've had it for a couple months and have been wearing it as often as is safe.

the compression is everything I was looking for and gets me virtually flat, but I'm also pretty small so I can't say how it would work for larger chested people.

my only complaint is that there could be another 1 cm of fabric on the edges near my armpits as there's a bit of bulging there and not a lot of fabric. but even that I don't really care about because it isn't visible under a shirt and the lack of fabric leaves ample space for me to wear tank tops and not have the binder peak out under the armpits

the shipping was on time and discrete. I will say, if you have someone opening your packages at your house (a parent, etc) that you don't want to know about it, be careful. it came in a regular black garment bag in the mail but inside the bag, it was packaged in one of the brown paper/cardboard letter folders with fun trans characature drawings on it. so just keep in mind! you could not tell at all the way it came in the mail, it's just once you open the bag.

over all, I'm so happy with this purchase. I feel so comfortable in my skin. if you're looking for an affordable, good quality option and don't want to order from gc2b, I'm very happy with Wivov

[hadesoftheladies]

i think there are varied reasons for why yaoi is so huge in female-dominated fandom spaces that can't be boiled down to "completely harmless" or "just male obsession."

on one hand, i think there's plenty of appeal in yaoi for women. for one, a lot of fujoshis (if i'm using the term correctly) acknowledge that this space is FOR women. they are NOT trying to cater to gay men. some of them are actively hostile towards male presence or input and most fujoshis simply aren't interested in "respecting men" in the yaoi space. like it or not, it IS a bonding ritual shared PRIMARILY between females FOR female pleasure and within female community. it being focused on two fictional caricatures of men/boys does not detract from that fact.

on the other hand, this has led to a fetishization and objectification of gay men, which, regardless of how any radfem feels about them, are still a marginalized group with more than enough on their plate and targeted by the same system we as feminists abhor.

on the other hand, consuming this content (from what i've observed) does not NECESSARILY have to lead to the harassment of gay men. because yaoi, from what i can tell (and in my humble opinion), is not simply about titillation. i know we can have endless discussion on where to draw the line between fantasy and reality. it's just really murky water trying to moralize fantasy because it simply doesn't always translate into real life, and for women especially, it often doesn't. fantasy is especially potent the MORE REMOVED it is from any real experiences and real life. there are "yaoi enjoyers" who need to keep reality and fantasy completely separate lest the fantasy be ruined. sometimes blorbos are literally just plastic ken-and-barbie dolls that people impulsively want to mash into each other. and i hesitate to insist on more self-policing and psychoanalyzing for women/girls who simply like "now kiss"-ing characters they enjoy, male or not.

when it comes to reasons i think women/girls enjoy yaoi content outside of titillation, i think that quite a bit of it could involve the fact that, for most of us (subconsciously at least) maleness is a blank canvass. it allows, in a way, for "pure" story-telling in our own imaginations. femaleness, and i do mean the female body + the female context, is DEEPLY political in our modern society. also historically. it could be that male characters' appeal isn't that they're "superior" or even "pretty" but that they're blank. they are default. they are the white paper everyone starts out with. you can do anything to and with them without it being a political statement. why isn't this true for female characters? because women and girls, even with all the knowledge they have of their complex internality, struggle to NOT objectify themselves. to not perceive themselves.

i argue that there's too much "awareness" women and girls have toward femaleness, and engaging with male characters is an easy way out. it doesn't require self-therapizing. it doesn't require deconstruction of the psychic trauma we all suffer under patriarchy. you can explore anything--your attraction to men, your fear of failure, your complex relationship with your father--distantly and simultaneously in a way that feels authentic to you. because talking or thinking about these things as a woman/girl quickly leads one to self-pathologize. society doesn't show much empathy to girl's and women's feelings, so they have in turn internalized that and seek to connect with and explore their emotions through a "respectable" means, i.e. the narrative of a male character. interestingly, that's how they get primarily women and girls like them to sympathize and empathize with their pain.

these male characters are vehicles, not agents. they are how women and girls both see themselves and want to be seen. many well-written female characters are well-written in a context close to reality. too close. conversely, majority remain, regardless, exceptionally beautiful, smart or brutally reminiscent of our place in society. so when we see female characters, we see them defensively: are we going to be portrayed negatively or unrealistically? is this female character going to be fuel to the public disdain for my sex? is she going to be another impossible standard i have to live up to? someone another man compares me to?

this simply doesn't matter with male characters because male characters are not expected to be anything but characters and female characters can only be female characters.

we must not forget the role society plays in girls' and women's internalized voyeurism. female characters HAVE been used to bash women and girls, humiliate, degrade or misrepresent them far more often than uplift them. it's a really sick cycle, but it's not one that women and girls merely "choose."

that's why i'm challenging myself that, regardless of how passionate and desperate i am for women's liberation, that i really give an abundance of grace to my sisters when it comes to decentering men. because there's so much psychological warfare being waged on them day and night, in the home and in public, that it's any wonder they pull through at any point. the fawn response women have toward men, however frustrating and humiliating, is an involuntary fear response. likewise, this sphere of media engagement/fandom, where girls and women craft men quite literally in their own image, should be analysed in context to the society that makes it so appealing. i don't think it's as simple as "male worship." i think it's a form of female bonding and male characters seem the only appropriate tools for quality escapism. and i have curiosity as for why that is.

i think, if i can summarize my thoughts, that so long as men in society are allowed to be any kind of people and women aren't, those are the biases we will take to media. i don't think fictional characters can escape the influence of public thought when we engage with them. not without a great deal of effort.

either way, i aim to be more empathetic and less judgemental when it comes to these things.

how do yall feel about yaoi? personally i don’t care about fictional gay men that are written and drawn by women for women. some feminists claim that yaoi men are experiencing “misogyny”and i think that in itself is misogynistic because real women and girls are experiencing horrific male violence and our focus should be on that and not on some drawn characters

[inevitably-johnlocked]

🐸 sorry for bothering you with a bit stupid question but how does one price their art? for example i do small drawings (not digital) sometimes with markers, sometimes with watercolours. nobody's been interested in getting any of them yet but if someone did i just wouldn't know how much to ask for. (i'm saving up for top surgery so i can't spend more on art supplies than what i gain from selling what i make but i also don't want my stuff to be too expensive so it can be accessible to everyone)

HI FROGGY OMG

I’m SO SORRY I MISSED THIS OOF.

Ahhhhh, this is a good question; I have a hell of a time trying to even get anyone to look at my art, let alone want to commission me. Basically, from my years of picking up tips and tricks AND from finally getting it knocked into my head in college: kind of guess how long you think it will take you to do, and decide how low hourly you are willing to work on something.

Say something takes you 8 hours to complete, and you only ask for 20$ for the commission. That’s $2.50 an hour. PLUS you need to factor in any additional costs, like supplies running dry and rent and food. You may as well be giving it away. 

If people are serious about commissioning you, they WILL pay the price you want. That’s something I’ve learned in 20 years as a designer. I used to commission my full coloured with background work for 20$. No. It’s fine I suppose when you’re young, but you deserve a lot more: that’s what they preached to us in college if we decided to go into Freelancing. Professional illustrators don’t even want your business for under 100$ on a pencil drawing, so take that into account.

If someone is willing to spend 5$ on overpriced coffee, but won’t respect you enough to pay you something that is your job, then they’re not worth negotiating with. I’ve been to enough comic-cons now with traditional illustrators, and none of them sell below 75$ for custom pencil work.

I understand the desire  to want to be accessible... which is why you offer additional, more affordable products, like lineart or stuff you KNOW takes you 10 minutes to do. 5 bucks for 10 minutes is reasonable. 5 bucks for 8 hours is NOT.

It’s all about the time management and supply cost, Lovely. Think about how long something will take you to do, and if you will need to purchase supplies to do the project. Things CAN be cheaper if you’ve already the supplies. But like, if someone came to me and wanted something in, say, acrylics rather than inks (which I have plenty of) well, I have to get in my car, drive to the nearest Michael’s, and buy some paints. Which aren’t cheap. So adding an additional 5 bucks for that is not unheard of. 

If you’re curious: my art, for instance, I KNOW takes me a LONG time if I have to colour it. So I don’t sell below 50$ anymore for detailed coloured work. My lineart takes awhile (research, bluelines, and finals), so 20$ isn’t unheard of for an original. Most of the time I just... fumble around and toss up whatever price is fitting me on that day, but I try to keep them in the same range. 

Since it sounds like you’re doing traditional work, which is a LOT of time and is expensive, I wouldn’t sell below 20$CAD personally. And if they’re getting the original, 25$.

But you could reduce that cost if you limit yourself to smaller sizes for non-original pieces (like do the work on smaller canvasses) so you save time and money.

Don’t undersell yourself, Lovely. 

Actually, this whole convo reminds me of a Venn diagram my Layout professor showed us in college, and it applies to art too:

Because yeah, if you want something nice, ya gotta pay. That’s why Starbucks gets away with taking so long: Expensive and Good(? I don’t drink coffee). But Timmies is fast but cheap coffee, LOL. This diagram is very true.

So yeah. Sit on it and think about it. My college professors (I have a business diploma specializing in Graphic Design) always told us, charge what you want to or are willing to make hourly for your work. GRANTED that’s on a more professional level, but just starting out, asking 50$ for 8 hours is fine (6.25/hr).

Good luck, Lovely! <3

[same-side]

Are there any specific resources you used while you were learning how to draw? I see your art and I get super inspired, but then I remember how far behind I am when it comes to progress, and I get discouraged. I've been drawing for a year and I still can't do proper anatomy and lineart, yet you've been drawing since August and you're wonderful at it. I really want to improve. Help a fellow artist out?

Hey there!!I’m really glad I can inspire you!! Please don’t give up!! If it’s any consolation, I get discouraged, too. I see the incredible art of this fandom (or just in general!) and it makes me feel like why even bother. It happens to everyone, and not just with drawing, but with everything in life! But I work through those feelings! I have faith in you and I believe in you!

I’m sorry, I don’t really have any resources I can point you towards! I never really watch tutorials or things like that, I don’t have one of those pose-able models or anything. I don’t know of any like. reference databases or anything. I also dont use any external brush packs and I’ve got a baseline non-display tablet. I think the biggest advice I can give is to use references and to do studies! Studies can teach you so, so much. When I first started I absolutely hated doing fabric. I felt like I wasn’t good at it. So instead of just giving up or avoiding it I sat down and did fabric studies until I felt comfortable with it. Most of my paintings are honestly just me practicing on something I feel like I’m not good enough at yet, whether its dual lighting sources, anatomy, fabric folds, hair... Don’t avoid the things that make you afraid, practice them until you’re comfortable with it!

In regards to lineart, some things I’ve learned- foremost, canvas size is really important. find which one works for you. Most artists I know work on somewhere around 3500 x 3500px . personally, my canvasses for portraits are usually in the 500 x 500px range, and sketch dumps are 1650 x 1650 px. Too small of a canvas, and you won’t be able to fit the detail you want - sometimes I post something with a wonky face and its because the canvas was really small so i couldnt properly draw! If the canvas is too big, it may be difficult to fill the space. Another thing - some programmes (I think SAI for sure) have a line stabilizer and a curve editor. my photoshop doesnt have this, so i cant really say much aside from that, but it can really help you get smooth lines without the wonky bumps. One last thing I learned recently - vary your line sizes. I usually work between 3px and 8px, with 4px as my standard. It provides contrast and makes the focus points more clear.For anatomy - reference reference reference!! Do studies!! And remember that your own body is your best reference!! I have a folder that’s just got different pictures of my own hand under different lighting sources that I’ve used in paintings. Don’t try to do something from memory if you don’t actually know what it looks like! I know a lot of artists use that “block” method. There’s real logic behind it; i think a common mistake is thinking “oh i just draw circles or blocks as a placeholder for body parts!” But the blocks actually mimic muscles and joints. Look at an anatomical model, break it into pieces. Then use those pieces to compose a body. not just random circles at random distances!A final note - I’m not sure how old you are, anon, but for the teens out there. please don’t compare yourself to adults as the end-all-be-all. Its fine to compare to others to see what things you could improve on or how to draw something differently, but don’t let it consume you. you still have so much time to learn and to grow. Even if there isn’t practical experience, someone older will have more life experience and a different perception, and it really does make a difference. Someone older has seen and experienced more, unconsciously learned more about the way bodies move and lights play out on things, what colours they like and dont like paired. And they may even have other life experiences that affect things. For example, I’m an engineer. I literally have a degree that trained me to be detail oriented and be able to understand proportions, perspectives, and breaking things down into basic shapes. it definitely helps with drawing, to have that sense. I’m sorry I couldn’t be of more help, but I hope at least something in here is valuable to you! I believe in you, anon!!

[myonlypen]

I've not had an excuse to write this before but can I just saw how much I LOVE these flags, purely from a vexillological standpoint? I haven't done any research into the intended meaning of aspects of these flags, this is purely my interpretation: if my interpretations are anything close to the intended ones then that makes them great flags though!

The first one, the standard LGBT pride flag. Usually you want to keep the number of colours on a flag to a minimum to avoid business or eye-hurtiness. But on this one the use of lots of colours is deliberate. To me, it is very good at representing what it stands for: inclusivity. As far as I know, I could be wrong, the colours don't stand for specific things, and that's a good thing because they can stand for anyone who feels like it represents them. And the simple design means the multiple colours works, and each stripe being the same size helps reinforce the concept of equality. It's also easy to remember which order the colours come in, because it's just the rainbow. If you accidentally draw them in the wrong order, you can just turn it upside down and you've done it correctly now! Some people are taught that the rainbow has 7 colours and while there's no "correct" answer for that, 6 is definitely more sensible answer because indigo and violet are just purples. Newton only chose 7 when he was playing about with prisms for mystical reasons. I'm glad this flag is on my side in thinking that 6 is a better count.

I'm not a fan of the more recent pride flags with the triangle on the hoist. I understand why they were made: some groups want to exclude some people from the LGBT+ label so the flags that add colours for e.g. trans are made to explicitly say "yes, including them too!" but I feel like that's sort of ceding ground by allowing the claim that the original flag didn't represent them. From a design point of view they're not great because they compromise the simplistic design which makes my "too many colours" complaint more valid. Plus the stripes aren't all the same size any more due to the triangle so I can't argue the equality interpretation. That, and, they're harder to draw from memory which is important for flags. Once I get to the triangle I'll have to remember which other flags' colours were incorporated into it and in which order. And perhaps this last complaint is a little cynical but I also get a bit of a consumerist vibe; "there's a new pride flag this year, please buy our new thing with the updated design. gib money plz"

But the trans flag? That's my favourite of the lot! Blue and pink are colours associated with the gender binary, at least in the English speaking world. At first I felt a bit put off by this because it felt like somewhat reinforcing gender roles. What if you're a guy who likes pink or a girl that likes blue? But then I thought about it some more. The colours aren't very deep so it isn't putting those associations front and centre. In fact, the pastel colours make it really easy on the eyes too, I could look at this flag for hours! The horizontal like of symmetry is also effective; the fact that the blue and pink are reversed on top and bottom communicates that it's about both trans men and trans women and doesn't privilege one over the other, and the white in the middle represents non-binary people. Of course, that could be seen implying that gender is a one-dimensional spectrum with the the binary on either end which may not be the case but there's only so much you can represent on a flag. On a lot of flags, I find that white space doesn't look like a part of the design but just part of the canvass that wasn't filled in (like, Japan isn't a red circle on white, it's just a red circle and the rest is blank) - but with this flag the white actually looks like it's part of the design and it works.

The bisexual I don't have as much to say about because I don't see it as often as the other two. You'd think that a flag representing "bi" would be a bicolour flag. But it's not! Because it doesn't represent one or the other, it represents both or either! Whether the two things it represents are straight and gay relationships, or gay and lesbians, the thin line in the middle means it doesn't matter to those who this flag represents. Magenta is also a top-tier colour so that boosts its likability rating too.

Flag Wars Bonus Round

Happy Pride Month!

These flags were close on their results for second place in the previous pride flag poll, so I decided to make a poll with just these flags.

[saltydoesstuff]

MY SONNNN

★ @saltydoesstuff werhhh, heyllo. again- *drops fanart for you and explodes into star dust*★

trigger warnings: eyes, unsettling