#Out of Cards

[epitomees]

((...so hear me out...

...what if I do make them related...))

[fantomevoleur]

((The old brain has been rattling around with ideas of Akira's college years and what he wants to study YET AGAIN!! I haven't come up with anything concrete as of yet, but there are certain things I can say with full confidence he'd study. I'll put this under a Read More because IT'S A LOT!!

One thing is...he wants to double major. GOOD LUCK WITH THAT BOY!! THAT'S GONNA TAKE YOU EXTRA LONG ESPECIALLY WITH THE MAJORS YOU'RE INTERESTED IN!! But he's a smart kid, and he will put in the work and the long hours studying in the library and pulling all nighters to do well with his studies. Makoto taught him well about time management and study habits so he's not too afraid or nervous when it comes to the hefty workload he'll be doing. He's more than prepared.

Secondly, he wants theatre/acting as a minor. That is a must, that is absolutely necessary, you will not be able to sway him with that decision. He loves acting, he misses his time in community theater, and since high school was...what it was he hasn't been involved in a while. On top of the minor, he does want to participate in a community theater near his college, or if the school happens to provide its own theater for the students. Not only is it because he misses acting, but he wants to give back to a community whom helped him during a very rough time in his middle school years. His dad was sick and kept getting worse, his mom...well, she's always been a bitch but it got harder to handle her attitude in middle school, so his escape from all that was community theater. I don't think he'd want to take up a director position, but he wants to be a part of the staff in some way while also getting to audition/act in their plays.

So now for the majors. There are four currently rotating in my mind and his mind.

Business, psychology, law, and criminology.

The first one is...a given for Akira, and I'm definitely leaning towards business being his secondary major. The interest came from Akira's father, how he taught Akira about working a small, independent business and how his father WAS going to leave his little fishing business to Akira once he passed away. Now that didn't come about because THANKS MOTHER, THANKS FOR TRICKING YOUR HUSBAND INTO CHANGING HIS WILL AND TRANSFERING THE BUSINESS OVER TO HER but you know, that can be fixed in time. Hopefully. His father may have taught him the basics, but Akira does want to know more. He wants to know the ins and outs of running a business so he can bring his father's back, and perhaps help Sojiro gain more profit and attract more customers. Helping small businesses and family-owned shops are the real motivation he'd go into studying business, even though he won't have any fun with it. It'll suck for someone as antsy and creative as Akira, but he will put in the work.

Now psychology, I will be entirely honest, was influenced heavily by Maruki's actions. Akira still has a rocky relationship with him, and he doesn't fully trust him anymore nor will he fully trust him ever again, but he understands why Maruki did what he did. It wasn't the best option, Akira literally BEAT THAT SENSE INTO THE GUY, and he's hoping Maruki will find his own way to heal and grow from his mistakes. But it made Akira think about the other counselors and therapists out there who may be suffering in the same way as Maruki. How did it affect their patients? Were they providing any help to them when they needed the help as well? It's very much that classic Akira mindset of 'I need to help others who have been in the same position as me/my friends so they can be better'. He doesn't want to see other kids his age go through the same experience as him, or his friends.

Law and criminology were, surprise surprise, heavily influenced by Sae and Akechi. He's now seen what the government can really do to its own people via Sae's palace, and even to their own family via Akechi's situation. He wouldn't be going in to become a lawyer or a prosecutor or anything like that, it doesn't fit him and honestly he doesn't want to be working under some law firm that could abuse his talents and background. Plus WITH his background already, his chances wouldn't be so good. No, if he goes down this path he wants to come out being an investigator or a private eye. Someone who can work for themselves, someone not tied down or stringed to any police unit, but someone able to help people who can't trust the legal system or police. Akechi gets more of an influence on Akira's decision in this part because...well despite Akechi's cases being setup up BY him to make him look good for the public, Akechi is still a very intelligent person. And I wouldn't be surprised if he asked for Akechi's and probably Sae's assistance with a case he wants to open up. That being, the death of his father by his mother's hands. That's the main reason, the driving factor in choosing law or criminology as his major. The law aspect of it is so Akira knows the inner workings of the country's legal system, so his mother doesn't try to rat her way out or play the victim again. Criminology is to find the conclusive evidence in her being guilty of the crime. That's also why he'd never, ever, ever change her heart. He wants her to admit to her crime by the doing of his own hard earned work.))

[tres-fidelis]

((After one GRUELING DAY OF FLIGHT DELAYS AND SPENDING WAY TOO MUCH TIME IN AN AIRPORT, I am back and….ready to recupe. I may be dead to the world for most of the weekend, but I’ll be lurking around and maybe throw out some stuff here and there.

We’ll see. Yesterday was hell but I’m glad my flight didn’t get cancelled because of the global outage.))

[ren-the-joker]

< Small reminder that this is a sideblog so I can't follow you back with this one. >

[epitomees]

((At some point I gotta ramble about Shinji's Alive Verse because I really want to start getting more in-depth with it and writing for him in that verse, legit he's going to be so much more calm and less grumpy IT'S ACTUALLY INSANE!!))

[fantomevoleur]

((I will say though, out of all the covers I have heard Glee's Smooth Criminal performance is one of my favorites. AND ALSO YES AKIRA WOULD WANT TO RECREATE THIS PERFORMANCE!!! HE'D BE SO HAPPY TO HAVE A PARTNER DUET WITH HIM!!))

[tres-fidelis]

((Something I realized that is VERY VERY heartbreaking to me?!?

KC hasn't spoken or used her voice to speak AT ALL for several years. Her parents do the talking, they make all the choices for her in all aspects of her life, and because it's been so long since KC uttered even a single word she's fully convinced herself that she's lost her voice. She truly believes she will no longer be able to speak, to scream, to do ANYTHING with her own voice.

But lo and behold, when her dungeon materializes and she has to face her own Shadow self? All the frustration she's feeling, and the guilt in her own heart having to face such a dark side of herself, suddenly BREAKS that silence. And in one very hoarse, very straining, and very broken cry for help, KC finally speaks up when she screams at the Shadow version of herself.

Years of being mute and convincing herself she no longer can vocally voice her own thoughts and opinions is broken by the fact KC CANNOT and WILL NOT accept all of her true self.))

[audacious-unicorn]

Listen. There are no short cuts to creativity. Creativity requires frustration. Creativity requires pain. It requires perspective. It requires thought. It requires not feeling good enough. It requires being frustrated or moved by the world. It requires feeling, period. The time, effort, and the love for an art so deep that you're willing to be frustrated by it, be irritated that it's not quite right or not quite good enough, to share your pain with it. It also requires you to keep going in spite of that.

Simply having an idea doesn't make you creative, because the reality is a billion and 1 people have had the same idea as you before. No one is original when it comes to 'ideas'. What makes art special or original is what you do with an idea, and the personal touch that makes it your own.

To me, the most egregious part of generative A.I. in any context (writing, art, etc) is stripping away individuality from ideas. It strips away the very thing that makes art, art. There's very little versatility. All the generated shit looks exactly the same which makes it really fucking boring. If you can't understand that, then you weren't ever creative to begin with.

Additionally, let me just rephrase that paragraph.

"The Anti-AI Coders thought that AI coding was gonna be just a fad, and yet more tools keep popping up and getting better! Instead of using it to showcase their creativity, they castigate it because they are afraid that it will take away their livelihood. Stuff like this is just mind-blowing but what's really mind blowing is that by next year, we'll have tools that are even more insane than this, limited only by our imagination! AI democratized coding and that's all there is."

"The Anti-AI mechanics --" "The Anti-AI cooks --" "The Anti-AI dock workers ---" "The Anti-AI doctors --" "The anti-AI economists --" "The anti-ai construction workers--- "The anti-AI journalists --" "The anti-AI electricians --"

If it can replace art, it can replace you too lol. And they want it to do that. Because it's cheaper to do that than it is to pay people. I agree that these could be tools that could assist people in certain areas but y'all are giving CEO's too much benefit of the doubt lmao. As if its people like you and me pushing these into companies at Mach speed. Make no mistake. These aren't tools being utilized to revolutionize something inaccessible for you. These are tools being utilized to render jobs inaccessible to you.

Can't afford art school?

After seeing post like this 👇

And this gem 👇

As well as countless of others from the AI generator community. Just talking about how "inaccessible art" is, I decided why not show how wrong these guys are while also helping anyone who actually wants to learn.

Here is the first one ART TEACHERS! There are plenty online and in places like youtube.

📺Here is my list:

Proko (Free, mostly teaches anatomy and how to draw people. But does have art talks and teaches the basics.)

Marc Brunet (Free but he does have other classes for a cheap price. Use to work for Blizzard and teaches you everything)

Aaron Rutten (free, tips about art, talks about art programs and the best products for digital art)

BoroCG (free, teaches a verity of art mediums from 3D modeling to digital painting. As well as some tips that can be used across styles)

Jesse J. Jones (free, talks about animating)

Jesus Conde (free, teaches digital painting and has classes in Spanish)

Mohammed Agbadi (free, he gives some advice in some videos and talks about art)

Ross Draws (free, he does have other classes for a good price. Mostly teaching character designs and simple backgrounds.)

SamDoesArts (free, gives good advice and critiques)

Drawfee Show (free, they do give some good advice and great inspiration)

The Art of Aaron Blaise ( useful tips for digital art and animation. Was an animator for Disney. Mostly nature art)

Bobby Chiu ( useful tips and interviews with artist who are in the industry or making a living as artist)

Sinix Design (has some tips on drawing people)

Winged canvas (art school for free on a verity of mediums)

Bob Ross (just a good time, learn how to paint, as well as how too relax when doing art. "there are no mistakes only happy accidents", this channel also provides tips from another artist)

Scott Christian Sava (Inspiration and provides tips and advice)

Pikat (art advice and critiques)

Drawbox (a suggested cheap online art school, made of a community of artist)

Skillshare (A cheap learning site that has art classes ranging from traditional to digital. As well as Animation and tutorials on art programs. All under one price, in the USA it's around $34 a month)

Human anatomy for artist (not a video or teacher but the site is full of awesome refs to practice and get better at anatomy)

Second part BOOKS, I have collected some books that have helped me and might help others.

📚Here is my list:

The "how to draw manga" series produced by Graphic-sha. These are for manga artist but they give great advice and information.

"Creating characters with personality" by Tom Bancroft. A great book that can help not just people who draw cartoons but also realistic ones. As it helps you with facial ques and how to make a character interesting.

"Albinus on anatomy" by Robert Beverly Hale and Terence Coyle. Great book to help someone learn basic anatomy.

"Artistic Anatomy" by Dr. Paul Richer and Robert Beverly Hale. A good book if you want to go further in-depth with anatomy.

"Directing the story" by Francis Glebas. A good book if you want to Story board or make comics.

"Animal Anatomy for Artists" by Eliot Goldfinger. A good book for if you want to draw animals or creatures.

"Constructive Anatomy: with almost 500 illustrations" by George B. Bridgman. A great book to help you block out shadows in your figures and see them in a more 3 diamantine way.

"Dynamic Anatomy: Revised and expand" by Burne Hogarth. A book that shows how to block out shapes and easily understand what you are looking out. When it comes to human subjects.

"An Atlas of animal anatomy for artist" by W. Ellenberger and H. Dittrich and H. Baum. This is another good one for people who want to draw animals or creatures.

Etherington Brothers, they make books and have a free blog with art tips.

📝As for Supplies, I recommend starting out cheap, buying Pencils and art paper at dollar tree or 5 below. If you want to go fancy Michaels is always a good place for traditional supplies. They also get in some good sales and discounts. For digital art, I recommend not starting with a screen art drawing tablet as they are usually more expensive.

For the Best art Tablet I recommend either Xp-pen, Bamboo or Huion. Some can range from about 40$ to the thousands.

💻As for art programs here is a list of Free to pay.

Clip Studio paint ( you can choose to pay once or sub and get updates. Galaxy, Windows, macOS, iPad, iPhone, Android, or Chromebook device. )

Procreate ( pay once for $9.99 usd, IPAD & IPHONE ONLY)

Blender (for 3D modules/sculpting, animation and more. Free)

PaintTool SAI (pay but has a 31 day free trail)

Krita (Free)

mypaint (free)

FireAlpaca (free)

Aseprite ($19.99 usd but has a free trail, for pixel art Windows & macOS)

Drawpile (free and for if you want to draw with others)

IbisPaint (free, phone app ONLY)

Medibang (free, IPAD, Android and PC)

NOTE: Some of these can work on almost any computer like Clip and Sai but others will require a bit stronger computer like Blender. Please check their sites for if your computer is compatible.

So do with this information as you will but as you can tell there are ways to learn how to become an artist, without breaking the bank. The only thing that might be stopping YOU from using any of these things, is YOU.

I have made time to learn to draw and many artist have too. Either in-between working two jobs or taking care of your family and a job or regular school and chores. YOU just have to take the time or use some time management, it really doesn't take long to practice for like an hour or less. YOU also don't have to do it every day, just once or three times a week is fine.

Hope this was helpful and have a great day.

"also apologies for any spelling or grammar errors, I have Dyslexia and it makes my brain go XP when it comes to speech or writing"

[hinamie]

newest issue of first years fashion just dropped

[heedra]

unsung benefit i think a lot of ppl are sleeping on with using the public library is that i think its a great replacement for the dopamine hit some ppl get from online shopping. it kind of fills that niche of reserving something that you then get to anticipate the arrival of and enjoy when it arrives, but without like, the waste and the money.

[noknowshame]

bringing it up again for the millionth time but I'm still obsessed with the way that hannibal lecter is canonically aware of the narrative not because its ever explicitly stated but because the author who created him genuinely believes this to be true and stopped writing the book series because he's afraid of him

[reactionimagesdaily]

[anhniedraw]

Instead of going to bed i made this, go my first years cuddle pile.

[epitomees]

[charm-in-spades]

"You write for yourself before you write for anyone else" is a rule I have lived by since I first started tumblr and the only stories I've felt disappointed by were stories I myself decided didn't fit. Notes are nice encouragement but self-motivation is so much more empowering.

if it's good enough for you, then it deserves to be made. don't let anyone else decide if your story is worth it or not.

[fantomevoleur]

🌟- One of my favorite icons

For all you filthy icon hoarders...

I may not have used this one a lot but it is LITERALLY one of my favorite Joker icons because JUST LOOK AT HIM!! LOOK AT THAT SMUG GRIN HE'S GOT GOING ON!!

He feels so confident about himself in this icon, he's in control of the situation so much he's playfully teasing and eyeing the other person. HE'S JUST A LITTLE SHIT HERE!!! AS HE RIGHTFULLY SHOULD BE!!!