#And tiktok isn't really great for art either

[oifaaa]

Aren't you popular? Your art is really good and ive seen it on, like, pinterest and whatnot as well. I was under the impression that you were popular

Not really? Like my art really isn't actually that great I'd say at this point it is average, slightly above average at a stretch, and I was actually more popular when I was drawing star wars then now that I'm drawing dc or at least according to how many notes I get my star wars art would get on average about 2k to 5k regularly while with my dc stuff it sits more at 1k to 2.5k with the odd art getting more, also I'm only on tumblr which isn't really considered a popular site anymore (but I still love it here so)

[rotten7rat]

Batfamily + Cooking

Alfred:

He's the main cook, and has been since taking the job as the Wayne's butler. Classically trained in the culinary arts, and thankfully stillvery much enjoys it, though not as much as he used to. He likes baking more than cooking, and has gotten more of a sweet tooth as he's gotten older. Leans more on your classic British dishes, but is always happy to try a requested recipe. Prefers to cook either alone or with competent help.

Bruce:

No. Cannot even be trusted to make a grilled cheese, he always burns them.

Barbara:

Pretty good. Very much a 'throw something together at 7:30, eat at 8' kind of person, but everyone is always happy to have what she cooks. If it takes hours to make then its not worth it. A teacher suggested once that being raised by a single father, she must do most of the cooking and cleaning, and after that she refused to learn how to cook out of sheer stubbornness.

Dick:

An excellent cook. I think it comes naturally to him, he didn't spend much time cooking growing up but once he taught himself the basics he can pretty much throw anything together. Its by no means a passion of his, but he does enjoy it. However, he doesn't cook often due to being too busy and/or tired, so he gets a lot of takeout or just has something quick or microwavable very often. But if he's cooking you best be there. Anything can be a social occasion and he happily accepts help in the kitchen. Not great at baking though, he always manages to over-cook or over-mix.

Cassandra:

I'm sorry but she will throw rice, water, and and an unseasoned chicken breast in the rice cooker and call it a night. Either that or she'll have a protein shake and seven eggs.

Jason:

Quite good. Unlike Dick, it doesn't come naturally to him, but he is a fast learner and picked it up mostly from Catherine, Alfred, and YouTube. That being said, would he prefer tortellini en brodo or four boxes of Kraft mac and cheese? Tamales or something quick and greasy from Bat Burger? Its always the second option. I think he often cooks as a distraction or just something to do, and just gives it to the single mother across the hall or throws it in the freezer to eat a week later.

Stephanie:

Decent. She'll see a recipe on TikTok and will try it instantly, and she's always excited to try something new. Works best with a recipe but decides just to wing it mostly. Cooking with her mother has become somewhat of a bonding activity. Really good at baking, especially things like brownies and cookies. However, she will also throw pickles, peanut butter and ice cream in a blender and swear it tastes fantastic. Is learning to cook more because everytime she sees Cass eating a boiled chicken breast she takes psychic damage. Trying to sneak meat alternatives into Cass without her noticing. It worked once.

Tim:

Not great. Will follow the recipe to the letter and will somehow still fuck it up. He mostly sticks to simple recipes that are hard to mess up, and also just doesn't have the desire to spend heaps of time in the kitchen. He does make a mean sandwich though, every time someone tries to replicate one its just never as good.

Duke:

Doesn't particularly enjoy cooking but he's fine at it. Not as bad as Cassandra, he will season his food, but prefers it to be quick and not complicated. Loves heavier foods like pastas and other carbs but doesn't have the patience or desire to make them from scratch so he uses jar sauces, frozen potatoes etc. Will put taco seasoning on everything.

Damian:

Good eventually. Doesn't cook a lot now, but when he was younger he had a kind of 'well obviously its not difficult, its just cooking' mindset. He was humbled. By Dick. I think when he's older he is much better. Will still follow a recipe so it is perfect every time. It isn't a hobby, just a task that must be completed, but he'll be damned if he's eating bland food, he will spend an hour preparing vegetable tagine. Nobody can help of even be in the kitchen with him while he is cooking, because they are breathing all the kitchen air and taking up all the room. Get out.

[mcromwell]

Four years ago, I installed TikTok and began making art videos to promote my art business. I steadily got better at making videos, had a few big hits, grew my follower count to 75k (my largest on any social platform ever, to this day) and even qualified for the app's creator program, which netted me a fair chunk of change for a few months. Right when I started considering it an integral part of my business, engagement started tanking. Despite my follower count and trying to keep up with trends and editing techniques designed to retain viewers, my videos went from getting about 10k views to less than a thousand--that's not even 10% of my follower-count. The app slowly stopped recommending my videos to anyone, followers or on the FYP. For months. And then after TikTok was voted to be banned in the US, it got even worse, and the CEO even stated in his video addressing the ban that they would "not be able to pay creators as much due to spending more money on legal fees to challenge the vote". At that time I was grimly reminded of what I already knew about social media sites: they aren't your friend and they don't care about you. They'll give you something "nice" (a chance at monetization and virality) with the hope that you'll keep making content for their content farm, and when your videos don't get views, the gambling mindset of "maybe next video will do well" or "the algorithm is just weird right now, maybe it will improve if I just keep going" will keep you addicted.

I finally hit a wall. I can't waste my time. I have very little time to achieve what I want to due to my health. So making videos that get 300 views and no comments is definitely a waste of my time. I used to say good things about the algorithm, how it shows you niche things instead of only just the popular stuff, but clearly that isn't the case. My videos posted elsewhere get tons more interactions and engagement. I am stepping back from TikTok for a while; I even uninstalled it. The endless scrolling is not good for me, either.

All that to say: art videos will be less frequent. The only places I'd be making them for is Instagram and YouTube, and I think if I'm going to pick one to focus on, it'll be Youtube. Subscribe to my channel here, where I am slowly uploading my entire TikTok catalogue of hundreds of art videos.

TikTok did great things for me when it worked. It was really exciting for me to hear folks at in-person events say stuff like, "Oh, I saw a video of this painting!" "Your process is so fun to watch!" I won't forget the support everyone gave me. Thank you.

I hope to use this extra time to focus on my practice more. I want to lean into sketchbook bundle downloads, Patreon, and just simply drawing more! Exploring more! We'll all benefit from that. So here's to newer, healthier directions.

💖 M

[angelofsmalldeath-codeine]

What we lose in art when blogs leave the platform

Last night I was working on my fics database (I’m the spreadsheet kinda autistic) and checking if the links I had were still working and trying to fetch links for the ones I had recently added. I was upset about the number of blogs gone (some might have changed name and I haven't kept up and that one is on me). Some really amazing stories, art and overall fun is all gone. Precious interactions that help build the community totally vanished.

The vitriol and unjustified hate I see spewed everywhere has gotten to unbearable levels. I’ve been in fandoms and fanfic communities since the days of printed zines and yahoo/geocities groups that were uber hard to get into. I have survived all the websites that shutdown leading us to mourn the loss of that work. Fanfic was akin to contraband and harshly judged. We know we are weirdos, hence why we find community in alternative spaces away from the mainstream.

It feels like people want us to go underground again. Cool, we can do that, but we gonna be gatekeeping the hell outta these spaces then.

What peeves me the most is the puritanical take that has been recently brought into the space and how that’s used to measure others and judge them on some standards they are not even aware of until they start getting hate. Said hate is usually delivered via anon asks, of course, because god forbid them having the decency of defending their shitty takes, right?

Still on the puritanical take, the goalpost seems to change often too. It is self-serving. Kink shaming/topic judging is the default mode until someone decides they like that particular thing and it is no longer controversial. Why are you censoring your peers? Why do you assume that everyone subscribes to your beliefs, tastes, preferred topics and tropes? The performative activism isn't a good look either.

Sometimes this fandom feels like the mormons who do the soaking thing so they can get off before marriage without actually fucking. If the cock goes in because my friend is jumping on the mattress, that is on the mattress, not on me. I digress but y'all get the gist.

I have been on this hellsite since its launch and have seen many fandoms come and go. The assholes eventually fuck off to be toxic somewhere else, but they do tend to jump from fandom to fandom for a while until their reputation and toxicity catches up with them. It takes too long and the damage they cause is often quite extensive.

We are not in competition with each other here. I have said it so many times... Tumblr isn't a monetised platform and fanfic is a gift economy. Leave your fucking TikTok and Instagram cut throat mentality at the door. We don't tear each other down trying to build ourselves up in this house.

During the pandemic fanfic came into the mainstream mostly because of people on TikTok. Great! We are a welcoming bunch and it makes us happy that more people can find joy in consuming fan made art of their favourite shows and ships in whatever form they choose.

It is not because we've opened the door that we will let y'all trash the room. I'm sure you were raised better than that.

Can you not be assholes? Much appreciated.

P.S.: I am too old to care and have zero fucks left to give about anyone's feelings getting offended over this. Fuck you very much.

[panlight]

Hi. I have a few thoughts about "Breaking Dawn". I am 50/50 with these options, maybe they are both correct or both are not correct. Mayer wrote that all vampires know how to use modern technology because

1. So that vampires don't look pathetic and insignificant in the eyes of modern people who are surrounded by these technologies.

2. Vampires actually interact with these things, Bella is an unreliable storyteller in this.

Imagine stone statues that used to be people, but now they eat people. The cute things they have they took from the corpses of their victims. They don't watch movies or listen to music (don't know how to use technology or don't their senses perceive it?), don't talk to people and fight to the death for territory and food with other vampires. Doesn't sound cool, does it? A vampire who is 300-500 years old with a MacBook and a Range Rover is something else.

Your thoughts?

See this is really fascinating to me, especially back when I was actively reading fanfic, to see how differently other people interpreted it. Because when I originally read the books, my impression was that yeah, they weren't doing any of this. They were living in the woods just eating people and not going near humans at all because they couldn't without killing them. I thought it was really super hard, borderline impossible, for human-killing vampires to really interact with the human world in any meaningful way. That they couldn't pop into a movie theater and watch a film because the temptation to kill everyone would be too great and then it would be a whole thing and the Volturi might come after them. Like, at the time I thought Jasper going into a diner in the first place was super weird; why would he do that (other than so the cute diner story can happen, of course!), especially when he was already thirsty! Seemed to be asking for trouble!

And so, yeah, I didn't think being a Twilight style vampire sounded that cool. Living in the forest attacking random hikers and then wearing their clothes? Can't sleep? Can only drink blood and not enjoy food at all? No thanks. Sounds awful. What's the point of immortality if you can't like, DO stuff? Even the Volturi, Patrons of the Arts that they are, allegedly have just sat still on their thrones for so long they have literally gathered dust and started to petrify. They aren't going out and exploring the world, they aren't being active and engaged. They're sitting there like the stone people they are.

But then other people interpreted it totally differently and wrote vampires outside the Cullens having fairly Cullen-like lives with enjoying human world arts and culture and tech. Other vampires who had jobs and cool cars and nice houses. And certainly I've read and seen plenty of other vampire stories that do that, but I thought originally that Twilight vampires were much more 'feral' for the lack of the better word and hidden, that the whole vegetarian thing DID allow the Cullens a level of access to the human world that other vampires didn't have.

I've now come to think it's somewhere in the middle. I think Twilight vampires are still pretty nomadic, generally, and out of touch with the human world, but not as completely as I thought before. The whole red eyes thing are a bit of problem, but with colored contacts (like Heidi uses) or sunglasses, it's not a huge thing in the modern world. And I think the temptation to hunt is not as extreme as I originally had thought, either. That they probably can sit in a diner or movie theater or library for awhile and be fine as long no one is actively bleeding. But I still think the average Twilight vampire probably leads a pretty 'boring' life that's mostly about where they are going to find their next victim and trying not to draw attention to themselves. The average vampire isn't scrolling TikTok on their phone, because they don't have one, and don't have money to pay for service, because they don't have a job or a bank account. But they might fool around with the phone of their victim for a little while before tossing it so they can't be tracked. They don't have a permanent residence (other than Amun and his hidden temple, I guess), but might "play house" from time to time in a victim's place for the novelty of it, take a shower, figure out how the TV works, before going back to the wilderness once their victim's disappearance is noticed. It seems really lonely and boring, and a waste of their incredible intelligence. Better if you have a mate, I guess, but even then. I think the James/Victoria lifestyle (other than hunting other vampires for funsies like James liked to do) is probably closer to the average vampire experience than the Cullens'.

But then again, in MS James knows how to fly a plane apparently. Or did he just like . . . figure it out as he went since it wouldn't matter if he crashed?

[proshippers-against-censorship]

i'm back, local anti (technically not ig but i refuse to call myself a proshipper anymore after seeing some of the people lurking around over there) ranting in your askbox because you seem kinda chill actually. more controversial opinions incoming

(using general "you" btw this isn't directed at you specifically tumblr user proshippers-against-censorship)

free speech goes both ways. you have the right to make and post whatever you want on your own blog, but other people also have the right to talk about it on their own blogs if they have opinions about what you create.

specifically, i'm thinking about the whole "art lore" bullshit on tiktok. is it really shitty to draw over someone else's art to make fun of it? yes, incredibly. but you don't get to say it can't exist. you don't get to scream and cry about free speech and being anti-censorship if it only applies to people who are nice to you. if your art has the right to exist regardless of its purpose and the intention behind it, then so do other people's.

some people act like martyrs over being "anti-censorship," but then turn around and try to tell people what they can and can't say because it's about them. whether what someone else is saying about you is shitty doesn't matter. whether your art is "bad" doesn't matter in the scheme of it being posted and allowed to exist, so it can't apply to other people's thoughts and opinions about your art either. it doesn't matter one way or the other, your art has the right to exist, and so do other people's posts about said art. you don't have to like it, but you don't get to say it can't exist.

if you post whatever it is you want to post and people crawl up in your ask box like "why does it look like that" "get well soon" etc. and that bothers you, then you need to employ your own suggestions. curate your own online experience. close your ask box. turn off reblogs/comments. block people posting about you. if you can't handle that, then maybe you shouldn't be on the internet.

(i'm not talking about threats, doxxing, etc. btw, that's a completely different thing.)

Gonna sob rq over being called chill, I take that as a huge compliment. Especially when there's a good few antis who like to complain about how I'm quite the opposite in my messages...along with some colorful threats. Super fair to not want to take the label, btw. Folks are nasty. I've said it in the past, but I just don't bring up the controversy or label my other accounts. It's just way better for my mental health that way. I have like, 13 or 14 side blogs at this point? I can only imagine the number of threats I have gotten on here, times that. Yikes.

Here's to your opinion, though. It really shouldn't be controversial. Yeah, sometimes folks have real shitty opinions. But near every media has a way to delete comments from your own posts, and a block button. More folks need to use em. They're great.

[magical-girl-topic]

Possible most hated magical girl anime

Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt is a magical girl anime which many people have had a problem with the past couple of years. I'm not really on either side of the argument about this anime, but I would like to talk about it on here. <3 Both sides have great points, and I would really like to share it with you guys. Thanks for the support recently :3 I'll get on w/ it now.

Ever since its come out, I've heard a lot of mixed opinions on PASWG, and I can see why. I watched this anime in early 2020, due to getting A TON of cosplays of these two angel sisters on my tiktok fyp. x3

To get it out of the way, personally I do really like this anime, I think its very funny, the character design is awesome! And overall, its just fun to watch. I understand why so many people have a problem with it though

The first problem I've noticed, was racism.

One of the biggest controversies paswg has had with the magical girl, and overall just anime community, has been their many racist character designs. While this was made in the early 2010's (2012 to be exact), and it is based off of popular adult animation at the time, like South Park, and Family Guy, which also has had some very offensive characters in it, it doesn't really change the fact that the designs we're racist, and very offensive to a lot of viewers.

In PASWG, they used a lot of racist stereotypes against POC for their designs, a lot of people have only recently spoke out about this, and the anime, and fandom, has gotten a lot of backlash.

(When I say recently, I don't mean too recent, I'm kinda late on this subject, but I do still see a lot of people talking about it to this day. When I mainly started seeing people speaking out about this, it was late 2020- early 2021)

While that is obviously a problem for the anime, it's not completely bad, I mean don't get me wrong, the anime isn't the greatest, but personally, I don't think it deserves too much hate.

I think the artwork is incredible, the animation style and just the way everything moves is insanely gorgeous, the colors chosen for every single scene is pure eye candy.

There's loads of references in every episode, it has me so focused on every little thing to find every little easter egg possible its insane. xD Their pet, chuck, himself is an entire reference to Gir from invader zim. I've found a list of every reference in each episode, which I'll link here if you wanna look.

You should check that out its pretty cool <333

I'm not going to go full in depth of every problem and every plus there is to this anime because loads of people have done that, and I'm just writing this for fun and because it's what I enjoy. There's loads of other blogs and articles on paswg, which if this was of any interest to you, I advise looking into it <333

PASWG is a super cool, but pretty strange anime, and if you've got the time and wanna check it out yourself, theres only 14 episodes, so you totally should and let me know your opinion on paswg! <3 (And I'd love to hear urs if you've already watched it!! :-))

Thank you for reading this blog, it means a lot. :33 I love u guys sm, thx 4 the support, be ready 4 some more blogs and I'll cya soon! xoxo bye bye!

[rubylarkspur22]

KNYAU Masterlist

Just a list of my KNY AU's and what to expect. This is technically a rehash of my first post, but I thought this would be an improvement from the extremely basic descriptions of that post. Plus, I have more AU's to share.

Sunlit Blossoms|Kamado Sibling Role Swap (🌸): Your standard Kamado role swap with Demon Tanjirou and Demon Slayer Nezuko. Instead of Tomioka, the siblings are found by Rengoku, and it leads to a cascade of butterfly effects.

Sunflowers and Thundering Fireworks|Ship Swap (💕): I need a better name for this because it is not strictly ships being swapped, but the main characters are swapped with their ship counterparts. Nezuko and Tanjirou are the tsugukos of Tengen and the Kochou sisters respectively, and Kanao is a Demon Slayer trying to turn her demonic adopted brother(Zenitsu) back into a human. Other characters are moved around as I pleased, not really based on ships.

Mirrored Sunset|Full Reverse AU (🔄): Nezuko and Tanjirou are switched, as are the demons and Slayers along with their leaders. Except Inosuke. He's still human, he just isn't allowed to fight. Hashira are Upper Moons, and vice versa. Michikatsu is a four hundred something criminally underpaid dad cursed to never die until the King of Demons(Ubuyashiki Kagaya in this AU) is dead, as punishment for what he did as a demon.

Tsugikuni-Kamado Swap (🌙): Tanjirou and Nezuko (along with a few others) are born in the Sengoku Era and the two siblings are among the first Breath Users. Meanwhile, Yoriichi and Michikatsu (plus others) are born in the Taisho Era, with one twin turned into a demon whilst the other becomes a Slayer to turn his brother back into a human. This AU has two versions:

Moon Princess, Chosen Sunlight: Tanjirou is the original Sun Breather, and Nezuko becomes Upper Moon One. Zenitsu is also the original Thunder Breather in this version.

Ashen Moonlight, Sun Goddess: Nezuko is the original Sun Breather, and Tanjirou becomes Upper Moon One. Zenitsu is dead, and Kanao is wondering where her husband went on his last mission.

Moonlit Butterfly|Kochou-Kamado Swap (🦋): Nezuko and Tanjirou are both Demon Slayer's, with Tanjirou being the (late) Sun Hashira, and Nezuko being the Flower Hashira. Meanwhile, Kanae is trying to return Shinobu to her human self after their family was slaughtered by a demon. Also, Sabito and Makomo are alive in this AU thanks to Tanjirou and Nezuko being at Final Selection.

Scattered Emders and Broken Hearts|Age/Fate Swap (🔥): This one came from TikTok. The Rengoku family took in Mitsuri when she ran away from home due to her being ostracized for her strength and appetite. Not long after, a demon attacks, leaving Mitsuri and Kyojurou the only survivors, the former becoming a demon. The Kamaboko Squad are Hashira, and most of the Hashira are rank and file Slayers with a few others being swapped out with important people in their lives who either died or took a different path in life.

Burning Ribbons|Shabana-Kamado Swap (🎀): Ume leaves work one day to discover that Gyutaro has been turned into a demon. She seeks out a cure, and one of her adversaries is the deadly Upper Moon Six duo. A pair of siblings Ume can't help but compare herself and her own brother to. There are some other swaps (i.e. I made Tengen's wives Hashira while Tengen is their Shinobi husband).

Miyuri Koarashi (❄️): my Demon Slayer OC, the Snow Hashira. I made her a few months ago, and I am still workshopping ideas a little.

If I think of any others I wanna share, I will add them! For now, I hope all the emojis are visible! If you have questions about an AU, just send me an Ask with either the emoji of the AU name. I will try to put up art for all of these! Have a great day/night/time you are existing in.

[practically-an-x-man]

Your oc pairings doing the tiktok couples paint each other trend? (It's what it sounds like, couples paint each other and film it to show their reactions) (unfortunately I've seen a lot of sad cishet ones where the guy paints his gf or wife really badly, like intentionally, where the gf/wife looks like a monster so I need some actual nice ones to feel better and thought I'd ask about your ocs)

Awww that sounds so cute! (though it really sucks about the sad cishet ones, I don't know why you'd want to paint your partner badly on purpose, that's just mean and awful :( )

I'm just gonna answer this for the couples you know I think, just for simplicity's sake

Rae: Isn't that much of an artist, but she'd do her best. It's not fantastic quality but it's really clear that she tried to get all the details (especially in his eyes because she loves his eyes). I think she'd either just stick to drawing a bust of him just to make sure it's manageable, or would try something ambitious like him with his wings wrapped around her. Warren: Refined upbringing... I'm sure he's taken some art classes, not to mention his mom liked to paint, so he knows how to paint. He hasn't done it in years so it's a bit of a slow start, but once he finds his rhythm he actually makes something really beautiful. It has Rae crying a little when he shows it to her (but happy tears of course)

Robin: She's more of a music person than a 2D art person, so her solution is to paint a bunch of wiggly stripes in shades of blue and silver and say "it's you at superspeed" - kinda cheating, but it makes Peter laugh. Peter: Tries his best... that's about all he can say. He tried to paint her singing onstage for Carmen since that's how they met, but it's a little lopsided and goofy since he's not the best painter. It's not intentionally bad, he's just not an art guy, so he and Robin just laugh together when he shows her.

Madison: Would probably opt to sketch him rather than painting him (she's better at sketching, it was one of her hobbies to pass the time out in the woods), and would actually draw a really accurate sketch of Alex. He's very impressed (and it makes him a little embarrassed about his own drawing, honestly) Alex: Isn't a great artist, so he kinda just stuck to the key details - plus, as we both know, she's kinda hard to draw. Madison thinks it's sweet no matter how it turns out though, he could have drawn a stick figure and she'd still think it was sweet that he tried.

Jasper: Tries to draw the time the two of them kissed across the railing at Jasper's derby bout... Kyle: Ends up, by total coincidence, drawing the same exact moment, since it's also his favorite kiss that they've had. Jasper's is more cartoony and Kyle's is stuck in that vague zone of "past the anime character stage but not quite the right proportions yet" but they were both so surprised to flip it and reveal the exact same moment that neither of them are really paying attention to the quality of the paintings.

Prometheus and Corinthian: I feel like as dreams they'd probably have some kind of like... photographic art thing? I mean, they are themselves artistic creations, in a way, and they're not exactly human.... I guess what I'm saying is they'd both make realistic paintings of the other, and though they'd both find it sweet they also wouldn't quite understand the point of it... it's more of a human trend, I think.

Indie: Also opts to draw him rather than paint him (maybe with pastels or colored pencils, and she'd play with a fun color scheme), since she already enjoys drawing. It comes out really clean and accurate, and Hux is both impressed and maybe a little overwhelmed because I can't imagine anyone's paid enough attention to draw him before he met Indie. Hux: I also feel like he knows how to sketch a bit (admittedly this is a headcanon I latched onto from a fic I read, but still), though he's probably rusty since he hasn't drawn since he was a teenager. Indie kinda tries to brush it aside when he shows her, saying he's biased and she definitely doesn't look as nice as what he drew, but he insists that it's how he sees her. I mean, we already knew he's completely smitten for her.

[ol1verdrawsyt]

What r things you like about the dsaf community, and things you don’t like about it? Just curious to hear some thoughts! :D

Oh boy, I have a lot to say abt this one. I'm just gonna preface this by saying, I have a very special place in my heart for dsaf. Idk where I would be today if I hasn't have found that trilogy. With that being said, I'll start with the good.

Tw: opinions 😱😱

For starters, its a very welcoming community. Because a good majority of the community is queer, it makes it a safe space. In my experience, it was the first time I felt open and comfortable being myself inside of a Fandom.

It's also a very talented community. Like holy hell, have you seen those amazing Henry fanarts with him in the void? They're fucking epic!

Finally, the DSaF community is pretty sweet to new artists. I remember when I was in the piggy Fandom, they were brutal man. I got bullied constantly for my art and was pretty close to quitting for a while. In DSaF though, I just simply received constructive criticism and people helping me rather than shaming me.

-

-

Now onto the not so great

First, the ships that shouldn't really be normalized. Steven x Peter is probably a big one. Peter had a wife, Steven was a horrible boss and sent Peter to the factory knowing what would happen to him, and that he had a family (we know from Peter and Jimbo that you can refuse to do that. In the slightly evil ending, Peter refuses to send Jimbo to the factory) and also they canonically hate eachother. Also the horrible power imbalance? Like, idc what your excuse is, shipping boss x employee is just wrong.

And yet, this is like the 2nd most popular ship in the Fandom. I'm not done with it either cuz the people who ship Steven and Peter lead into my next point.

Being toxic towards straight ships. I'm gonna preface this before anybody gets mad by saying, I am a trans and queer man, I can have an opinion on this.

So Peterline is not a very popular ship despite it being cannon. Caroline is Peter's wife, and you see her at the end of the perfect ending. I've been bullied before (mainly on tiktok) for shipping this. I've had someone just go off on me because I'm "taking away gay rep and that Peter is canonically a gay man." Like, tf?? Also, side note: he isn't. Dogman confirmed the characters sexualities and Peter is "probably straight." Not to mention he had a wife that he chose and married himself, not a manufactured one like with Steven. But back to my point. Peterline is overshadowed by all of the Steven x Peter shippers because it's EVERYWHERE. I don't even know why it's a ship in all honesty. But heaven forbid you don't ship it and ship Peter and his WIFE.

You thought that was the worst of it? Wrong. We go away from the side that's mainly queer/allies and go to the homophobic side. Yep. There are homophobic/transphobic DSaF fans despite a good majority of the main cast being queer. Luckily, they don't really show their faces anywhere near the queer fans, so we're all set. I have seen them comment on davesport posts before though complaining. Speaking of davesport:

Davesport has completely taken over the Fandom. I love davesport as much as the next person, but if you truly love something, you have to admit the flaws. First, the weird kinda fetishism of it? I won't name names **cough cough daystars cough cough**, but there are artists who draw this ship and intentionally make the characters look like teenage boys and not old zombie men. Plus, people kinda romanticizing / glorifying the fact that Dave stalked and had an unhealthy obsession with Jack. That isn't cute and romantic that "he loves him so much that he broke into Jack's house on multiple occasions and watched him sleep 🥺🥺🩷🩷☺️☺️☺️" (genuine comment I saw btw, minus the emojis cuz I wanna make sure people know it's satire what I'm saying). Plus, people are bullied for shipping anything other than Davesport. I can understand if it's a proship (I'll get into those fuckewads later), but someone shipping anything other than davesport will get you witchhunted in this community. I know I said I don't like boss x employee, but I don't hate someone if they ship something like Harry x Jack or something. There are people genuinely scared of showing that they ship that because of the hard-core davesport fans. Final note on this point, it's the only DSaF content being made. I want more Blackjack and og managers art pls I beg of you I want more art of the og managers. But instead, it's just davesport again. It gets to a point where I'm kinda tired of it.

Next point: people babying characters. Now, I won't name names **cough cough daystars again cough cough** but there are very popular artists who get away with this. The biggest ones I can think of are Peter, Roger, and Jack. Here's why I think this happens:

Jack: Because he's shown to have a soft side. It's mainly seen in DSaF 3 on the flipside with him gently talking to the other souls and telling them that it's gonna be ok and he'll help them find justice and peace. Also, he is somewhat civil to Dave at the start of a few routes so probably from the fucking davesport shippers again.

Roger: Because he's hinted at to have an anxiety disorder. Hey there! Person with a diagnosed anxiety disorder here. DON'T FUCKING BABY US! Like, just because you have an AD doesn't mean you need 24/7 protection and babying because "what if you get scared 🥺🥺🥺😔😔😔". People with ADs can do amazing things despite it. And Roger is no exception. In the evil ending, he goes off at Jack about everything he's done and doesn't break a sweat. He's probably the strongest out of the 3 phone guys because he's the first person (other than Peter) to stand up to Jack when he's doing something wrong.

Peter: Same as Jack, he's shown to have a soft side. Mainly when talking about how he remembers his wife and family, and invites Jack to live with him and Caroline despite (to his knowledge) he's only known Jack about a week. But like with Roger, he puts his foot down when needed. In the evil routes, Peter takes Jack back to his office and just let's him have it. He goes off about the fucked up shit Jack has done and even throws in some amazing lines like

"That's Mr.Cawthon to you, employee. We certainly aren't friends."

"Employee, let me tell you something. I am a VERY good boss."

"It takes the truth to fool me, or close to it. And you've played me for a goddamned fool."

But of course, with this community, that entire badass scene with Peter and Jack is overshadowed by him being "uwu smol bottom gay boy"

I mentioned them earlier, so here it goes: the proshippers. They're everywhere. Some of the biggest dsaf artists **cough cough fucking daystars again cough cough** are proshippers. It's mainly a problem on tiktok. I've seen people ship: Peter x Dave, Dave x Henry, Steven x Henry, Jack x Peter, Henry x Dee, Henry x Jack, Dee x Jack, Jack x Dee x Peter x Dave. It's honestly disgusting, and I really don't wanna talk abt it anymore.

Next, people drawing Henry skinny. This one pisses me off a lot. People draw Henry as a skinny little bottom boy and not the fat old man he is. There's a lot of people guilty of this. **cough you probably know who I'm abt to say cough cough**. Some people try at least. For example, I tried sticking with my roblox-like bodies and giving Henry a very big torso. Later on, I finally learned how to draw plus sized bodies, and so now that I can, I immediately implemented it. Some people just don't even try.

Finally, people mad at dogman for moving on from the series. I shit you not. I came across people complaining about this just last night. Here's the thing: DSaF has a lot of problematic stuff in it. Nobody can deny that. Dogman has apologized for it on many occasions and doesn't want that to represent his work now. He moved on to Dialtown, where he can now get paid for his hard work and pay his team. But because he isn't talking abt DSaF anymore, people refuse to even look at Dialtown. It's just kinda...childish in my opinion? It'd be a different story if you just simply didn't enjoy Dialtown. Like that's fine and understandable, the game isn't for everyone. But really? Just because the creator moved on from his problematic past and made something original, you want nothing to do with him. That's just stupid.

-

-

Alr ty for coming to my Ted talk. If someone wants it I'll do one of these with Dialtown (there isn't much bad, it'll just be me ranting abt how much I love Dialtown)

Btw don't harass anyone I mentioned here if I did mention them. It doesn't solve anything, and you just look like and asshole.

[carrieleblancart]

In response to your questions about the timelapse videos, here are my two cents. Engagement doesn’t usually give you anything on tumblr other than a bump of serotonin, but it can lead to commissions or sales if you provide an easy link and are chill about it. But people are touchy about the word “engagement.” They want to feel like a community or maybe a cultural salon, rather than part of an extractive media process.

Your most successful process videos are going to show a satisfying finished piece at the end and give people time to look at it and go “wow.” So for most art some editing will be necessary to get there in a short video.

Another thing I should bring up is that the music you used for that sketch video was pretty grating. If you’re going to use music, i’d suggest finding something more relaxing. Just because the video is sped up doesn’t mean the sound has to be frantic.

Your painting process is so interesting, and your art is great! People here love cats with all their hearts and mostly really enjoy art. I wish you all the best!

Hi anon, thank you so much for your input! I really appreciate it, and I'm still getting used to actually getting responses, after trying to get it noticed for 10+ years (this isn't my first tumblr blog).

There's a lot going on with trying to share my art in the current internet ecosystem, probably something a lot of artists are dealing with. I'll try my best to describe what's going on on my end.

I don't like the term engagement either. I am trying to share my art through four main platforms at this time: Instagram, Tiktok, YouTube, and of course our precious hellsite: Tumblr. So my use of the term is more from the vernacular being used on other platforms, with what seems to be a kind of agreed upon use by artists of "this is what we have to deal with, so might as well lean into it." Maybe I'm mis-interpreting that (not surprising).

So far, Instagram is where I get my art noticed the most and has lead to the most sales/commissions/financial support. I think this has to do with the cat community that has formed over there. Tumblr definitely has its cat lovers, but I think a lot of them are over on IG so that they can follow internet cat celebrities and the like (I'm one of them!). So things like engagement and trends will dictate how I share my art with at least algorithm-led platforms. Also all of the cat people and friends I've met at shows regularly have Instagrams, not that that's a reason to be on there.

I agree that I should add time of the video at the end to show the piece to give it time to be seen. This can be easily accomplished if I make sure to take a photo of the art and include it in the video. I haven't had the best record of doing this due to my own ADHD and the pace at which these sketch paintings are being made.

Most of these recent sketch paintings were made back in August during CatCon on the spot! It's a crazy thing to do and I haven't seen anyone else do something quite what I'm doing, which is I guess part of my marketing for conventions and shows. So, sometimes I forget to take a picture at the end, but I'm getting better at including it in my process. And yes I call them sketches because they're fairly quick (I aim for 30 minutes for a 6"x6") and I don't get to add all the details I would like to if time was available. (I'm currently working on a new 3"x3" fully detailed piece of a famous internet cat, I've spent an hour and a half on it, and it's not done yet!)

Part of the timelapse question is not just to see what people prefer to determine how much time I should put into editing, but also how much effort I should put into digital storage. I have a couple different ways of recording footage, and the main way I've been doing so is with my iPhone. And so when I'm at events that I fly to, like CatCon, sometimes I'm having to transfer videos from my phone to an SD card until I can get home and get the footage onto a larger storage device. This can be tricky especially if I don't make sure to clear my phone storage before going to an event (something I'm adding to my list!) However, if I use the timelapse feature already available on the iPhone, then that makes editing and storage even easier for me later. I used this a lot with my Black Cat October series. But this timelapse footage doesn't look as good (maybe) and I don't have the option to do other edits later. Which then comes to the question for myself, am I really going to go back and make another edit for these sketch paintings? Perhaps the answer is timelapses for sketches, and full videos for fully detailed paintings.

And thank you for your input on the music part! The reason for the music in the last video was because of what's trending right now. Sometimes IG will save a copy of the video I posted with whatever music, so I had reused it in today's post. I think I'll make sure to use something more soothing/calming going forward just for tumblr, because you all have a special place in my heart.

Usually I'll open TikTok and do a separate video save to have a hi-res copy with music, but since I had recently created a shop on TT I only have commercially available music. Maybe I should take the shop down anyways, I'm really not sure if it'll help my art get notice or sell more stickers. I'd rather manage sales from my website anyways, but I feel like I should at least give it a try. You're welcome to tell me your thoughts on that!

I could go more into detail about my process for just uploading videos, but I feel like this is already getting TLDR. So feel free to let me know if you want me to ramble some more! I'd love to get input on that, as well as get an idea of what other artists are doing since I have no idea what I'm doing!

[tortoisebore]

silly question, maybe, and I'm asking it anon because I don't want you to feel obligated /at all/ to answer (or to feel pressured to read my fic, lol) but.

my question is, how do you deal with the "pressure" of posting on ao3? I reckon for you it can be quite a lot of pressure to have so many people reading your fic / waiting anxiously for new chapters, and feeling that pressure when you're writing.

for me it's kind of the opposite - I post my stuff publically to ao3 but I barely get any hits/kudos/comments, which I know isn't the be-all-end-all of fic writing (I loooove fic writing and would continue to do it either way for my own enjoyment) but it can feel a bit daunting sometimes to post something and not feel insane pressure to /live up to high standards/.

like, I'm not delusional (most of the time), I won't be the next zeppazariel or moonymoment or whatever, but it does feel like a lot of pressure to write something PERFECT in order to be "allowed" on ao3 and receive comments and feedback and word of mouth, you know?

idk this became really rambly but I just figured you might have some good insights into this as you /seem/ really smart and I value your thoughts? anyway hope you're having a good day x

hi!! this is NOT a silly question 🫶 i’m speaking from my own experience so please take it all with a grain of salt and know that those feelings of pressure and discouragement and that need to meet a certain standard are reeeeaalllll and we all feel that at some point when doing anything in the realm of creativity

i have a very specific mindset when it comes to not just writing, but literally everything i create. i went to an art school and had all of my work ripped to shreds in public critique from age 17 on, so i built a very thick skin early and learned to separate myself from my artwork and designs. it sounds very cold, but it was/is necessary in my career and i’m thankful for it now!

all that to say i’ve carried pieces of that mindset into my creative hobbies. when i do something like write fic or make art just for the sake of making something, i’m coming at it from a place of “this is for me and me only.” i don’t find myself looking to other people for confirmation that i’m doing well because if i’m enjoying what i’m doing, that’s all that matters!

i feel like it sounds kind of arrogant to say this, but because of that, i don’t feel pressure surrounding writing fic. i write when i want, i write what i want to see, and no amount of comments asking for updates is going to change my process or make me feel guilty for taking “too long” between updates. i have a whole entire life outside of this (as do you!) and for the most part people understand that you’re a person with a hobby just trying to do something fun.

i’ve also been in fandom spaces since i was a very young teenager and i feel very familiar with the way people act surrounding fic and fic authors, so i knew what i was getting myself into when i posted the first chapter. i expected it to not be seen by many people, i expected negative comments, and i expected lots of backlash about the story not being finished when it was posted (for some reason people hate wips now????). i just got extremely lucky that someone liked it enough to post about it on tiktok, and then on twitter, and it took off from there.

i also don’t really keep track of hits/kudos other than getting the kudos emails (but i do read every single comment i get on ao3!). those numbers don’t mean much in the grand scheme of things and i try not to let them get into my head when i’m writing. i’ve also been extremely lucky in that i think i’ve had one singular kind of negative comment on the entire thing?? and it was someone that just didn’t seem happy with the slower pace of the story. i was able to look at that and be like “great, it’s my story and i don’t care <3” and move on from it quickly.

i know that this is not a universal feeling and that most people do not feel this lack of pressure and anxiety surrounding posting their work. i have such a specific set of experiences that’s led me to this level of comfort surrounding sharing my creative endeavors, and i know it’s probably not helpful to hear, but that’s how my brain has worked behind the scenes about this!

if i had any actual helpful tips to give, i think the biggest one would be to write from a place of self-indulgence! you’re going to be most passionate when you’re writing things for you, and that’s going to come through in your work. other people are out there looking for the exact things you want to write, they just haven’t found it yet.

((also use ao3 tags liberally 🫶))

this was so so so rambly and probably not very helpful i’m sorry fhfhffhfjfh if you ever want to talk more pls dm me or send another ask if u want to stay anonymous!! 💕💞✨🫶

[animehouse-moe]

Have you been keeping up with Kagura Bachi? What do you think of it so far? I just opened the Manga Plus app and saw that it's at second place on the trending list💀. I honestly can't tell if people actually like it or it's just the memes

I have been keeping up with Kagurabachi (sort of). I think a good comparison to why its popular could be Kingdoms of Ruin.

It (currently) has a 7.59 on MAL, and has 91,000 members. It is not good. It should not be more popular than Shangri-La Frontier or Mahoyome or Kamonohashi Ron or even Ragna Crimson. It should not have a better score than Kamonohashi Ron or Overtake! or Dead Mount Death Play.

But it still does. Why? Content.

Anime fans love isekai, they love harem series, and they love edge. It can do enough to hide its bald spots from a casual viewer and reel them in with "I only feel hatred and will kill anyone in my path". Similarly, it's got a concept that isn't challenging to follow and understand, nor is it stupidly simple or plain.

All of this relates to Kagurabachi. A series without great art, action, narrative, and most of all execution. Yet it's still popular. The "revenge story featuring a black-haired swordsman" is a powerful trope that caters to the absolute lowest common denominator. Add on top the heavy handed and easy to follow humor, cookie cutter characters that fulfil tropes that fans eat up, and you've got a winning recipe.

Personally though, the one difference is that none of Kagurabachi is as offensively bad as Kingdoms of Ruin. That's also why it's so high up, it's much less offensive to the craft so it doesn't turn off as many people.

Anyways, yes Kagurabachi is not good. The issue is the fact that media literacy and knowledge of animanga is still in the mud for a lot of the Western audience. A meme is all it takes, an edit making it look cool, a single slideshow on TikTok going viral. The base level of people in the community, and what it takes for them to get invested in a series, is so far beneath the ground that it rivals the fervent fanbase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And so people will follow the crowd, they'll latch onto a single idea or pick something easy to follow. It's not like the vast majority of people that read Chainsaw Man or Jujutsu Kaisen really get what's going on with those series either, they just like them for shallow and superficial reasons that they can find anywhere.

[traumasurvivorshelpingsurvivors]

Hi, idk how to call that question so I try to explain it with an example: I want to learn something so I tell myself "For every page read, you may have a cookie". Then my (usually pretty small and inactive) part of me that does the self-care kicks in and says."Why? You never got anything good in your life without working for it. Why starving yourself of good things too?". Which is a valid point for me. So I will eat the cookies and then learn, but not as long and concentrated as I (imagine) I'd do if I still had a motivation to do so.

And if I force myself to do, I will very quickly get issues eating cookies without learning beforehand. That link "Treat X only after work Y" will be bound fast and strong. This doesn't only apply to food. And also long term rewards like "If you learn 10 times you may buy Y" don't work bc A I need my reward immediately or B I don't have the money.

Maybe worth mentioning that I had anorexia and back then did the same "You are only allowed to eat X after Y", as firm rules.

But most motivation tips work like this and tbh I have zero intrinsic motivation. Also stuff like "My bf tells me how proud he is afterwards" doesn't work.

I also don't want to make this a bigger issue than it is by "training my brain to stop making the link". You know, forcing myself to eat cookies after learning and when I eat cookies in my freetime saying to myself over and over "You may still have those without learning!" it might still work (after some weeks or months) but those will feel like full of punishment and the issue isn't big enough for that.

I hope you have some ideas how I can motivate myself in another way or how to overcome that issues without making it a long term project.

Have a nice day

Hey there nonny!

Motivation can be a really tricky thing, especially for people who are smart. Let's be real, why would I want to wait for something I could have now? Things that you can move up on your own to have before doing the task almost never work for those who reason like we do. If you're set on that method, though, I suggest giving the reward to someone else for safekeeping, so you can't give it to yourself early, or, eating half of it now, and half of it later if you have the self control for that, satisfying that "reward now" part of you, but still leaving some motivation.

If you're looking for other motivation mechanisms, try activities or things that come in steps. For instance, I enjoy art a lot. If I have something I need to get done like an essay, I'll sketch out some ideas for a new piece of art, and either a certain amount of paragraphs into the essay or after 45 minutes, whichever comes first, I'll do the next step of my artwork. That serves as both motivation for me, and a resting period from work.

A lot of times, a big part of not finishing tasks is because our brain can't stay engaged for that long. A good idea is to set some breaks. Ie: once I've finished this much of my project/once I've worked for this amount of time, I'll be able to take a 20 minute break. Then set a timer, and take your break. When on that break, it's important to stay off of things that will get you "hooked," or things that aren't easily stopped for you. Things like scrolling tiktok, watching shows, etc, tend not to be the best for you because you either "haven't finished the episode," or "it's only another 30 second video," etc. Things that make you get up and really take a mental break or physical break (depending on your task) are great. If I've been sitting for a while focusing, it's nice to go outside for a bit and put on some music or something. If I've been working outside, it's nice to come in and get some water and rest for a bit.

[finalshaper]

tumblr for newcomers as someone who took a year hiatus from the abandoned clown factory and spent time in the clown slaughterhouse (tiktok)

hey guys it's your Pal Nova and i've been trapped in this hellhole since 2017 here's my experience to contribute to the funny welcome to tumblr thing people r doing and some of these may be hard pills to swallow but take a big gulp of water and swallow as hard as you can if you're going to be happy on this platform. Also derived from other posts i've read of a similar topic!

Tumblr is a great place, but there is an unspoken etiquette here. As always, be respectful to people. color coded and bolded like a video game text box for reading ease, also includes other information.

Always reblog artist's work. Likes do nothing and is frankly a useless feature that Staff should either do something with or get rid of entirely. Reblogs let an artist know that their art is being spread around, and that more people are seeing it! It's like leaving comments and/or kudos on someone's work on ao3! It encourages artists, writers, editors, etc to make more!

We don't use "moots" or "muties" here. Just call em mutuals or Tumblr Pals like I do. But this one isn't exactly concrete.

Use tag filtering LIBERALLY. You can do this by exploring your settings (which you should do anyways so you're well-acquainted) and finding the section that says "filtered tags," pop a tag in there for something you don't want to see.

On that note, not everyone is going to tag shit. You cannot demand them to tag specific things (i.e certain fandom or very specific things you don't want to see) because it's their blog, their rules. But usually folks are nice and will tag things for you. But they're human, so they may forget. Don't be a jerk about it. Usually standard things (like gore, nsfw, etc) is tagged and should be tagged.

There is like, no filtering algorithm here and what there is of one is very finicky and weird. It's not like Tiktok's where you'd get flagged constantly for posting something entirely innocent. it's much more lax. yes, you can swear on here. no more "frick" or "unalive," we say "fuck" and "die" like the heathens we are here.

Don't reblog things with unnecessary additions. leave those in the tags or comments (if they're on).

Tumblr relies heavily on boundaries, because there's no ability to really private your blog or sideblogs. If someone says they don't want you viewing their blog (i.e their NSFW blog) don't throw a fit about it.

if you see a nsfw post nobody wants their notes full of "what is this😭" or "what😃" or "NAH💀" because it's annoying on Tiktok and it's annoying here too. Get over yourself, people post that all the time here. Just move on like the rest of us. so what if someone posts nsfw, you can do that here. as long as it's tagged and posted in the correct community section it's fine.

"there are minors on this platform"/"THERE'S KIDS HERE"/"you're posting openly on a platform that's made for minors" doesn't fly here and would get you laughed off the platform. tumblr is literally marked as 17+ on the app store. if anything you are a minor in a space that's full of adults. Also ties into respecting boundaries, and the above. throwing fits over people posting NSFW content (as long as it's not immoral ofc) is petty, and frankly, annoying.

Block button exists. If someone's bothering you, just block them. and if you're extra weary of someone just logging out to harass you, turn off anonymous asks. I'd also personally suggest setting messages/DMs to only blogs you follow.

You can post a carrd, but you don't have to. I have one, but I don't expect people to read it or force them to.

You are responsible for cultivating your experience here on tumblr.

Customise your blog and have fun with it! You can find themes on blogs like theme--hunter or just google! Explore your settings and the like. If you wanna take the challenge, you can screw with HTML yourself and make yourself an Awesome Theme.

Block corporate accounts and do not engage with them, even if you think it's funny. they're the death of our platform.

Familiarise yourself with some of the Bad Users on this platform and what they've done, not to get involved with drama but so you know who to block. if you're going to get cancelled on tumblr you'd have to be a super fucking bad person.

If you're on PC, download the Xkit extension (it gives you fun dashboard tools) and shinigami eyes (flags bad blogs i.e terfs as red, and good blogs i.e anti-terfs as green). It will save you some hassle, trust me.

tumblr is a great platform full of very respectful people. It's rare to find alt-right bigots n shit unless you somehow end up on the wrong side of the platform, but usually people are good.

Don't waste your time on petty drama.

tumblr has a long and rich history. you will learn it in time, young one

anyways this is a long ass post but this covers all my personal bases, if anyone wants to make any additions feel free.

[allcap-nostones]

Week 1: Creative Process

Full stop, I need to do more research on this topic so my ideas here are a lot looser than my other entries

Creative Thinking

"Research suggests that creative thinking involves mental work that is different in brain activity than that used during other modes of thinking, such as logic or analysis" (Cognition and Emotions in the Creative Process)

Improvement

Who determines what art should look like?

The artist

Online Audiences

I’ve seen many TikTok artists quit creating art after being insulted and criticized by users over their current skill not being up to par or appealing to their taste. The words of others can impact a person's will to create.

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTFNNUPLt

Art Teacher

My art teacher encouraged me to quit art because I wasn’t good enough at it and she didn’t see much potential.

I plan to look more into this article, Implications of Kant’s Theories of Art for Developing Creative Identity in Students, 

Industry

Splash art often requires a certain level of polish. Those who aim to work as an artist in this part of the industry may alter their art to meet this standard. (League of Legends comes to mind)

Speed

Artist are often praised for their ability to work fast. What's the rush?

“Another evidence of his great speed is the manuscript of the six German dances...which shows through the use of every possible time-saving device and abbreviation, the haste with which it was written" (Mozart's Creative Process)

Artist are encouraged to improve their work in a short period of time. I noticed an increase in videos recommended to me on YouTube that promise I'll be able to improve in a short period of time if I watch it. The focus seems to move away from perfecting/enjoying the craft to getting good enough faster.

Burnout

Due to not improving fast enough

“i was rly into doodling and drawing random shit when i was super young, albeit not all that amazing haha. but i still loved the act of creating. once i started getting more interested in it and tried drawing from like "how to draw" books and just trying to draw from life, i got insanely discouraged by always comparing mine to the "right way."the way its "supposed" to look. i always struggled with that, and i didnt get much encouragement to continue either. so i stepped away from attempting to make art for over a decade. tho i still loved looking at art a lot and was sad i couldnt create” - celestial_rayne (Reddit)

I'm not the most proud of this round of research. Although I think the topic in interesting, I don't think the research i've done so far led me in any direction i'd be interested in exploring further. I didn't really find myself falling into any rabbit holes that peaked my interest. Also I am really tired and so this post probably isn't making any sense so I will sleep now.