#and don't crop out/remove my watermark!

[yumethefrostypanda]

Just when im about to go to sleep...

Thank you for letting me know <3

[missis-maple394]

We didn't saw that coming... (hollow knight doodle)

DO NOT REPOST / EDIT / TRACE / MONETIZE MY ART FROM OTHER SITES.

Author’s comment:

"I miss Maple, I wonder where she went on her indefinite hiatus?" -my friends

Well... about that. I played Hollow Knight again after 6 years of hiatus (while waiting for silksong, lol.lmao.). Today's quick doodle on slightly burned out life & creatives, the Knight itself from Hollow Knight! Why do they have that on their head stuck in the buzzsaw? Well... for a quick recap:

- I completed the 4 Pantheons and its seal of bindings, I'm saving the last pantheon later after I took an actual break.

- Pure completion on 112% using Sealed Siblings ending for this steam's achievement.

- All Attuned/Ascended/Radiant clear, two bosses remain empty, as I assumed it's from last pantheon's exclusives.

- Completed Path of Pain under 6 hours before my dinner's ready. 

Was it worth? Oh hell, you had no idea how I'm so happy to complete it! However; it's okay that your experienced with this game were good enough. I can't blame you for struggling one of the hardest, optional post-game content they provided, and it's all FREE in base price. By the way, did I mentioned that game is in sale? Go get it, don't feel guilty for small price to play this game. Play blind and don't look up, explore and enjoy the combat!

Hakita, the ULTRAKILL dev, said his tweet saying "If you pirate a game, then enjoy it, spread word about it and get someone else to buy it, that's at worst an equal trade, at best an additional sale that wouldn't have happened if you hadn't pirated it." (source: PCGAMER Article - Ultrakill dev says it's fine to pirate his game if you don't have money to spare). So what he meant that, don't feel guilty and get it full game for pirating/sale for this.

Now if you excuse me, I'll be working on slowly with art again after I had vacation on flight since weeks back. It was so cozy but cold!

Author’s note:

DO NOT start a roleplay using direct messages/comments & replies with my artworks.

DO NOT add your playful or direct rudeness to my posts such as replies, comments, hidden tags and private messages.

DO NOT tag and marked as a kin/me/morally questionable content etc. Aesthetic or Inspiration tag is good enough.

DO NOT claim my artworks belong to you, and removing / cropping my watermarks away.

DO NOT sell my art for monetary profit.

DO NOT SUBMIT ANY CRYPTOCURRENCY/NFT ART AND A.I. IMAGE GENERATOR WITH MY COMMISSIONED / PERSONAL ARTWORK.

DO NOT dub my artwork / comics, especially A.I. voicework.

Please DM me for inquiries such as commissioned work or reporting my artwork has been reposted or edited.

[yumeka-sxf]

Regarding scans and watermarks

Yesterday, a SxF clear file scan made by my friend @xxscarletxrosexx (who had allowed me to share the scan on my blog here) was reposted on Twitter with her watermark clearly removed. She wrote an insightful post about how, despite what many people think, it does take a good amount of work to obtain and scan rare collectibles like this. As someone who makes a lot of scans with watermarks, I want to offer my thoughts on the topic.

For those who have followed me since my blog started, you may have noticed that my watermarks have "evolved" over time. This was in response to, of course, my scans getting reposted without credit (my old watermarks were easy to crop/edit out). I know some people take issue with putting watermarks on official art because we technically didn't "create" it. But that doesn't mean time and effort wasn't put into making the scan. To me, it's similar to people who take photos of exclusive events or people who make gifs...while they didn't create the subjects of these things, they still created the presentation of it. For people who take and share exclusive photos, they spent time, effort, and money not just on going to that location and taking the photos, but posting them in a presentable way online for others to enjoy. For people who make gifs, it again takes a lot of time and effort to create, edit, and present the gifs in an attractive way on social media. In both these cases, while these people didn't draw, animate, design, etc, the subject of their photos or gifs, there was still self-imposed work and creative effort behind it, which I think deserves some recognition. It's the same with making scans...I didn't personally draw the images I scan (and I make this clear by including "scanned by..." in my watermarks) but I still made the presentation of it - the scan - which does take time and effort; I bought a Canon TS6300 scanner a while back particularly for this purpose, I often have to finagle with the books I scan to make sure they're properly flattened so the scans aren't blurry or crooked (have to redo them sometimes when this happens), and if little pieces of lint or other blemishes get in the scanner, I either have to scan them again or use photo editing software to fix them. And while I paid for all the books, posters, etc, I scan with my own money, sometimes just obtaining certain rare collectibles not only takes money, but a lot of dedication to obtain! The Twiyor chara fine graph I recently posted about is a perfect example of how much work can go into acquiring a rare item...and I have no obligation to scan the merch I get. I could just enjoy them on my own and only share quick, low-quality photos from my phone. But I like making scans because I know other people enjoy them 🙂 I also know that many people don't have the means or funds to get this kind of merch, so it's nice to let them have enjoyment from it second-hand through my scans! Sometimes I buy merch only or mostly for the purpose of making scans because I know that artwork isn't currently available in an official artbook or anywhere else.

Since I make so many scans, I just accept the fact that they will get reposted without any mention of me or my blog...which I don't mind that much since that's what the watermarks are for - they're to show people who see the scan where it came from, and if they choose to go to that site, they'll be able to find even more scans to enjoy! But if someone actually removes a watermark, it's like they so adamantly believe that the person who made the scan doesn't deserve any recognition for their time, effort, money, etc, put into it that they're going to spend their own time to remove any trace of that person from the scan...I mean, I can't say it's the most heinous act in the world, but it's disrespectful and just plain not nice. I try not to let it bother me, but it is hurtful to see someone else get recognition for something you put work into. But I just keep things in perspective and tell myself that at least I'm not an artist whose creations are getting posted all over the place without credit (I always cringe at all the uncredited fan art I see on Facebook groups and YouTube music compilations. It's so out of control 😔)

Anyway, I hope I've properly illustrated here that it does take a good amount of time and effort to make scans. I don't think I deserve as much recognition for it as an artist who actually draws the images they post, but I still think this kind of content sharing deserves some credit, even if it's just leaving a watermark intact.

[bobbiedebruyn]

How to recognize stolen gifs

Reposting is a constant problem that all gifmakers deal with, both here and on other social media platforms. Whether you're new to Tumblr or just passing by, I'm going to provide an explanation on how to spot a repost and what to do with it. I'll cover both Tumblr and Twitter since, unfortunately, Twitter is the most common place for gifmakers to find their content.

Let me start by saying that most gifmakers have a unique style. We can recognize stolen gifs by their crop/dimension, sharpening, and coloring settings. After a couple of years, you're able to find the set of adjustment settings that you prefer the most. So even the most basic gifs (simple scene gifs) go through a lot before we post them on Tumblr.

If you're new here or don't know much about gifmaking you might be confused about what I meant by crop/dimension, sharpening, and coloring settings, so we're going to go through them one by one.

Crop/Dimension

On Tumblr, for your photosets to be displayed correctly, you need to follow the correct image dimensions. For example, if you post one gif, the width should be 540px (with a maximum height of up to 810px). If you post two gifs in a row, the width of both needs to be 268px (with a maximum height of 600px). And if you post three gifs in a row, two of them need to have a width of 177px, with an exemption for the middle one, which needs to be 178px (with a maximum height of 400px for all three).

Since the maximum height is not specified, all gifmakers have different specific dimensions that they prefer, and therefore they can recognize them easily. For example, if I were to post one gif, I'd make it 540x360 or 540x380, and if I saw it being reposted, I'd recognize it.

Sharpening

Sharpening refers to the Smart Sharpen Filter. This is a filter all of us use to make our gifs look crisp and less blurry. Similarly to dimensions, everyone has unique settings for their Smart Sharpen. Some people use it once, while others use it twice. There are also different values people input into the settings of that filter, therefore they can recognize it. I'm going to provide some visual examples of a gif with and without any sharpening.

As you can see, after applying the filter, the gif became more detailed and less blurry.

Coloring

Now, let's talk about what makes gifs special and unique. Coloring involves a set of adjustments applied to a gif to enhance brightness, and vibrancy, or to remove color tints and alter specific colors within the gif. Even the most basic gifs undergo this process. And as you might expect, everyone has their own coloring settings, ensuring that no two gifs are exactly alike.

One last visual example I'm going to provide is a comparison between a gif without sharpening and coloring and a gif with sharpening and coloring. This way, you can see the difference between what you witnessed on screen while watching a specific TV show and how someone edited that scene in a gif.

Personally, I'm always trying to give a gif more contrast, vibrancy, and brightness. One specific thing I do, which makes it easy for me to recognize my gifs, is changing the leaves in the background from green to yellow. I often aim for this little detail if I know that plot-wise TV show takes place in autumn but the filming took place in summer. Similarly, other gif makers have their own unique additions to their sets that are easily recognizable to them.

Now that we've figured out what makes a gif special and how gif makers recognize them, let's move on to the section about how you can recognize stolen gifs and what you should do about it.

Twitter

This one is extremely easy. Twitter is not exactly known for gifmaking. Sure, some gif-oriented accounts make gifs, but they're not as common as Tumblr gifmakers. However, when it comes to them, there are some ways to tell if a gif was made by them. Watermarks: Twitter accounts often watermark their gifs (Tumblr folks do that too, but it's less common, I'd say). Dimensions: Twitter uses different dimensions for gifs. On Twitter, the width of a gif needs to start from 1080px, in comparison to Tumblr's 540px. When people repost from Tumblr and post on Twitter, the quality of a gif is extremely terrible because of the different dimensions. So, if you don't see a watermark, there is a clear sign of coloring, and the quality is extremely low and pixelated - the gif is most likely from Tumblr.

You can try finding the gif's source by using Google reverse image search. Usually, it'll lead you to the original creator.

Tumblr

Spotting a repost on Tumblr is a bit more complicated but of course, there are ways to do it.

Different dimensions: On Twitter, people usually repost one gif, while on Tumblr, people repost whole sets. It just so happens that sometimes they repost different gifs from different sets. So, if you see a gifset and the dimensions of the gifs in it are not the same, then it's probably stolen from different sets.

Different coloring: Again, if the coloring of the gifs is drastically different, then it means it's probably stolen from different sets.

No creator's tag: Gifmakers often track their own creations using hashtags such as #mine, #mywork, #mine, and #gif. While sometimes gifmakers may forget to include their tag, if you notice a blog posting multiple sets without them and it looks suspicious, it's likely a repost.

No tags: To give gifsets more visibility, gifmakers often use tags such as #onedirectionedit #wtfockedit #filmtvedit or different source blog tags. Reposters don't know about it and don't use it.

Weird captions: Reposters often use gifs as reaction pics. So, instead of captioning a set with something like "Steve Harrington in 3x03", they're more likely to caption it with something like "he looks so hot here!" or "he's so pretty!!" Look out for sets with such captions that look like comments. Keep in mind that they often don't format those captions either.

If you saw the gif before: As mentioned previously, no two gifs are exactly the same. The chances of two gifmakers having the exact same settings down to a pixel are close to zero. So if you think you've seen that exact gif before, it's definitely a repost.

What can you do?

If you've been in the specific fandom for a while, chances are you might have seen that gif before and you might figure out who made it easily. You can also browse through your fandom's overall creations tag to try to find the original post and gifmaker. To do so, search for #yourfandom + #edit. For example, I currently gif the TV show called Wtfock, its creation's tag is #wtfockedit. Got it? Cool! After you figure out who the gifmaker is, you can send them the reposter's post and ask if that's their set.

If you can't find the original gifmaker on your own, you can try messaging other gifmakers from that fandom and asking whether or not they know who made the gifset.

You can also contact the reposter on your own and kindly ask them not to repost the gifs. Explain the Tumblr etiquette to them, there's a chance they're new to the website and simply didn't know about it. There's a chance they might listen to you and take down the post. If they choose not to listen and block you, you can once again message or send asks to different gifmakers from that fandom to inform them of the reposter so that they can block them.

You can also encourage the reposter to make their own gifs, especially if their excuse for reposting is "I don't know how to make my own gifs." While it may seem challenging, it's not impossible. This website is full of tutorials, and many gifmakers are open to helping out and explaining things if you're new to gifmaking. I'll leave a link to a comprehensive guide 101, just in case.

That's it! I hope this post has helped you understand what makes gifs unique, how to distinguish reposts from original posts, and what to do when you encounter a repost. If you have any more questions, feel free to leave messages in my askbox.

[ave661]

I see your work EVERYWHERE! I follow you on a lot of platforms and I've always loved your modeling style.

However, being as good as you are there's alot of people (especially recently) who crop out watermarks and post your pieces elsewhere. Mostly on TikTok and Pinterest.

I'm an Artist myself and not long ago I deleted my Deviantart because I found my art on google and being reposted by others.

Is there any way at all to tactical things like this besides just reporting and blocking? It's scary being and Artist and I'm not that big at all, but I still don't want it to happen.

Unfortunately, in order to avoid reposting to some extent, I had to create accounts literally everywhere to be the first person to publish them. And it's true, for about two months I have noticed a very large increase of accounts stealing my and others art.. It's hard and exausting to fight them all. Sometimes I write private messages to reposters asking them not to do it and they listen to me, but there are also people who deny it and even block me lmao

I don't have a perfect solution for this, the only thing is watermarks, blocks and reports.

What I've noticed is that wms are most likely to be removed when they are large and noticable. When they are blended into the background, they stay (idk, i guess they are too dumb to look for them). When I make renders with several characters, I hide them on each of them. For example, someone stole THIS render and removed my watermark from Ghost, but didn't pay attention to the one hidden on Soap xdd

but what started to scare me is AI. About a month ago, I reported an account on Pinterest that was removing my wms and changing resolutions. 2 days ago I saw 2 tiktoks on my fyp with this new filter where my renders were also edited, and yesterday someone did THIS… so it's getting worse. I am bombarded with new problems from every direction and sometimes I don't know what to do because I'm not an expert. I am just like all of you and I just want to make art as a hobby and for fun.

Unfortunately, Call of Duty is a big fandom and there are some shits who want to take advantage of it.

So what I do is: -hide watermarks -post art in lower resolutions (if it is 2k-4k, it will be easier to remove wms and more likely someone will want to sell them as posters etc) -and I'm also starting to think about using an app that prevents AI from reading my stuff

at the moment I'm only focusing on situations when someone removes my wms or tries to sell them. There are so many reposters that sometimes it just overwhelms me

[murderofsomeone]

art related boundaries/concerns

(making this post since I've been getting a lot of questions lately)

hi I'm an adult. please take this within that context.

using my art for pfps/profiles is fine, credit is optional but preferred. this doesn't apply to ocs: please ask first and always credit

drawing my ocs/designs is always fine and encouraged

don't reupload my art without asking. i'm ok if you're just like. sending it to someone, idgaf, just as long as it's private

don't sell my art

don't remove watermarks. I understand they sometimes get cropped out for formatting reasons but that's about the only thing I'll excuse

don't draw nsfw content of my characters/designs/stories. don't send it to me either if you find any

don't put my underage characters/designs in weird situations, especially genderbending and aging them up (if I make an adult design of them that still doesn't give you the right to be weird)

making fanfiction, crossovers, and aus of my stuff is pretty rad. if you want to make one go ahead, just remember to be respectful

I don't have any strong opinions about people kinning my characters/designs, so it's all good. just remember to be respectful

I feel kinda weird about people headcanoning sexualities, gender identities, disorders, ethnicities, etc to my characters/designs. a lot of these things are already set in stone and I'd prefer you just ask. (if you're a friend/mutual I don't mind as much)

I'm ok with people asking for alternative versions of drawings (ie: removing the text or background). the only exception is if it's too much work to bother

I really don't mind questions about my characters/designs/stories. it isn't annoying and I do appreciate opportunities to talk about them

practice common internet etiquette by not sending weird sexual comments directed to my characters/designs. saying stuff like "I want him" is fine and funny, I just don't want to hear about your dick

I draw entirely for fun and do things when they seem funny/relevant, do not assume I ever owe you anything

please do not blatantly rip off my ideas and characters. being inspired is ok, I just really don't like it when people take my ideas out of context and act like they own them/are free use. I put a lot of work and thought into these things and it's incredibly discouraging to see this happen over and over again.

if you find me being a "hypocrite" about some of these because there are exceptions and feel the need to be an ass, i may be inclined to throw rocks at you

If you need clarifications or have questions feel free to ask, but this is generally what's set in stone.

[hpysprkl]

Kiki's Art Commissions

Commisions are: OPEN

Who and What I Draw

Your Fallout OCs and fave companions. All Fallout, all the time. I've played every Fallout in existence (except that Tactics/BoS bullshit) and I love them all - yes, even 76.

Interested in non-Fallout art? Doesn't hurt to ask!

Looking for more examples of my work? Here's my tag.

Prices (USD)

More details on terms, what I will and won't draw, what I need from you, etc below the cut.

Payment is currently only available through PayPal. I'm looking into other payment options, such as Ko-Fi.

What I need from you

your faceclaim(s). If they're not someone I can easily google, I will need a few clear photos from different angles. Don't have a faceclaim for your OC yet? This is a great place to start looking

in-game screenshots are sometimes useful, so include those as well if they look anything like your OC. I will always prefer real human reference though, so please give me a faceclaim!

basic details: height, build, age, hair color/texture/style, eye color, identifying marks, etc etc etc. For companions, give me your headcanons on any details not provided in-game (or if you headcanon something differently), or I'll use my own if you don't have any

what outfit(s) they wear. If it's vanilla/Creation Club/Atomic Shop, just the in-game outfit names will usually do (i'll tell you if I need more)

any personality traits, background info, or quirks you want to share are absolutely GREAT and help me breathe a little more life into a character

if I'm drawing them with a companion, tell me a little about their dynamic

Will draw:

your Fallout OCs

their companion(s) (including ghouls)

weapons

some blood/gore/injury

sfw romantic content

Difficult areas:

curly hair - I'm trying, I'm learning, but it's harder and might take me longer

Super Mutants - haven't tried yet, but it can't be that hard

artistic nudity/pinups: I'm really out of practice, I make no guarantees

Won't draw:

anything racist/queerphobic/transphobic/bigoted/etc

minors

backgrounds. There's a reason this is a serparate, specialized job in animation and comic studios

nsfw romantic/sexual content (I don't have a problem with it, it's just way outside my wheelhouse. I'm learning.)

excessive blood/gore/injury (again, outside my wheelhouse)

creatures (same reason)

IMPORTANT STUFF

What you get

high-resolution digital art (A4/8x12" at 200dpi for busts, minimum of 12x12" at 200dpi for half body and up) suitable for printing for personal use only

If you'd like me to crop you an isolated closeup of a character for use as a profile pic, I'm happy to do so at no extra charge

my work always includes my signature watermark; you may not remove or modify it

you're not required to credit me if you share it on social media, but of course I very much appreciate it if you do, and a link back to my tumblr along with it will earn you my undying love and gratitude

What you DON'T get

the right to modify, redistribute, sell or in any way profit from the work or products derived from the work (you can share it on your socials or post it with your fanfic and that sort of thing, but you can't sell stuff or give things away with my art on it). If you are interested in licensing for prints, stickers, or any other digital or physical merchandise (even not-for-profit), please let me know so we can discuss licensing terms. The 'no redistribution' rule does include gifting. If you're interested in, for example, printing stickers with my art of your OC to hand out at comic con or something, please contact me.

copyright/intellectual property rights. It's still my original artwork. As such, I am free to modify and distribute it in any way I see fit, including for profit.

[lock-my-feelings-in-a-jar]

Hello, I don't know if I'm the first to ask this, but how do you make gifs?

If it's not a problem, could you explain it to someone who had never made gifs, but want to try?

As you can imagine, it's a fresh awoken need, because I think I just got a stroke watching a concert and I wanna try gifing, pls help a fangirl out 🙏

OKAY SO i use a program on my desktop called instagiffer, which actually makes gifmaking very easy once you get the hang of how it works and learn the shortcuts you can take with it. it's pretty easy to learn just messing around with it to see what everything does, but on top of that, i have a very efficient system that's been developing over the years.

this is what it looks like with no video loaded in it yet:

i had to load in a video to see these other things for screenshots, so here it is with a video loading in(one i started a long time ago and never finished but am working on now, i've posted one gif from it already though):

so it has the effects panel(which i never use except the enhance one but i've had to switch that off before on certain videos if it looked messed up):

and it has the captions panel, for subtitles or anything:

it's got the manual crop thing in the frames dropdown, so you can be more precise about cropping edges out instead of just relying on dragging the corners of the red square around:

as far as i'm aware, the program seems like it's been abandoned for a long time, the website for it hasn't been kept up, the social media pages for it, etc., but it's still available to download in places online somewhere i believe. or if you'd prefer, i could probably send it to you! i can also help with how to use it if you wanna give it a try, and tell/show you my usual routine.

besides that, sometimes i'll use ezgif .com to do things like remove frames or change speed on gifs i've already made or to resize them if i need to because it's quick and doesn't throw a watermark on it, but i think you can make them there too. i haven't done it because it didn't work for me when i was testing it out one day, but it might have just been me being impatient.

[homenecromancer]

This post is not what I wanted it to be when I set out to write it. It just sort of peters out where I got bored, although I tried to tie things up a little at the end.

But did you know that you can connect 9/11, Mothman, and Maximum Ride?

I wrote most of this post in 2021 and will probably not ever get around to really finishing it, because dumpster-diving the conspiracy theory Internet is depressing. Also, while I sometimes enjoy reading about Mothman or other cryptids, I am not here to write an investigation of how cryptid lore spreads and mutates on the internet. Which is where things were increasingly going, the longer I worked on this post.

A previous edition of this post linked to archived versions of the conspiracy websites I mention below. In this edited version, I've almost entirely moved to using screenshots, in order to avoid having my blog be a couple clicks away from upsetting, bigoted content. So this post is a little long.

This is a post about Maximum Ride. But it's also about the weird world of conspiracy theory websites in the 2000s.

Let's start with a brief note about James Patterson. Before he retired in 1996 and began to devote himself full-time to writing, he worked in advertising. He's used those skills in interesting ways over the years: in 1993, his first big book, Along Came a Spider, was promoted on television, when that was essentially unheard of for a book. I encourage you to read this article for a closer look into Patterson's general approach to writing.

Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment was Patterson's first young adult book, released in April 2005. What's important for you to know, if you don't already, is that it's about a group of children with wings. It was also heavily advertised.

Part of the marketing for the book was undertaken by a firm called the Concept Farm. They created a lot of stuff, but today we're interested in one specific thing: this website.

The site is kind of a riff on a type of site that existed then and exists now: “this weird cryptid is definitely real and I totally saw it”. In this case, the cryptid is the main characters. Believe me, we’ll circle back to this topic, so if you’re not familiar with this kind of website, don’t worry.

There’s not a whole lot to the site, so I’ll direct you right to the page I want to discuss. 

Get a good look at this photo.

Don’t worry, you’ll be seeing it again.

Now look at the right side of the site. You see those links? Just take a minute and appreciate that list. A couple of them are just someone’s Angelfire (free web hosting) site. We’ll be seeing Above Top Secret later on, but the other sites aren’t of special interest to us today.

wingkidsarereal is the earliest appearance of this image I was able to find. I didn’t look all that hard, but still -- it’s visible in a July 9th, 2005 archive of the site. This is before any other usage I was able to find, but I don't think that says anything more than "it's hard to find websites from 20 years ago". I suspect, but cannot prove, that this image was probably circulated via email forwards prior to appearing on the archived pages I was able to turn up -- and email forwards, naturally, don't show up on the Internet Archive.

Let’s take a quick tour of the conspiracy theory internet, and see where else this image shows up.

s8int.com is a real time capsule -- it’s a young-earth creationist conspiracy theory site. Here we find our image in November 2005. This is the uncropped version which preserves Steven Moran’s watermark at the bottom left corner. For the most part, when you see the image getting passed around, it’s been cropped to remove this watermark.

The overall look of this site is extremely archetypal of 2000s conspiracy theory internet. By today’s standards the formatting is relatively plain -- all the flavor is in the text. Not visible in this screenshot: a generally simple design with a big banner image at the top, and a row of icons for other pages along the left side of the screen. This is the general look that the designers of wingkidsarereal are imitating with their site.

s8int believe this photo shows a pterodactyl near the World Trade Center. At this point in time, the later consensus (which we will get to later) had not yet gelled.

This is also the first place we see a bit of text that pops up a few times later -- the alleged description by the photographer, Moran. I haven’t been able to track this text any further back in time than this page, but it makes sense to me that it would’ve been passed around as a chain email before its appearance here. It’s also possible that the person who wrote this text sent it in to s8int themselves, and that it became a chain email later on.

Worth noting: s8int also have the highest-resolution version of this image I’ve seen, which you can view here.

Next, in February 2006, the wonderfully trustworthy-sounding mothman.us is on the case… they think it’s Mothman. This website has a slightly more sophisticated, modern look than s8int.

In October 2006, a small-scale Blogspot blog made a post that also uses the Moran image. The formatting is actually too bad to screencap, so here's the text of the whole entry:

Spooky Story Four: The Mothman Returneth Last year, I did a spooky post on The Mothman. It's probably one of my best scary stories, and I get a lot of hits from people Googling The Mothman everyday. You can find my original post HERE. The question now is...have there been other Mothman sites lately? For those too lazy to read my first post, and for those who need a refresher, The Mothman is a winged creature, standing about 7 feet tall, and has bright red eyes. There were literally hundreds and hundreds of reports of encounters and sightings with this flying thing near Point Pleasant, West Virginia from 1966 - 1967. The reports made national news, as Mothman sightings kept coming in, along with sightings of UFOs all over the place. It is here in Point Pleasant where the infamous Men in Black first made their public appearance as well. Townspeople also reported that they were having psychic visions and dreams. Basically, it was a weird time for Mount Pleasant that eventually ended in disaster. The Silver Bridge collapsed on December 15, killing 46 people. And immediately after, sightings of The Mothman abruptly came to a hault. Since 1967, there have been worldwide reports of this Mothman appearing prior to major disasters: * People reported seeing the Mothman just days before the Mexico City earthquake in 1985. * There have been many interviews in Chernobyl from those that said they saw a winged man-creature, right before the nuclear reactor disaster in 1986. * Minutes after the Twin Towers' destruction on September 11th, 2001, observers reported seeing "winged, flying men" flying near both towers. The picture (at left and right) shows that the flying creature is much too big to be any kind of bird. * Newspapers in Tbilissi, Georgia wrote about how some guy said he got information from a "winged phantom" concerning the Church of St. David being in danger. Soon thereafter, there was a major earthquake striking Tbilissi on April 25, 2002. The church suffered massive damage. * Months after the Tbilissi quake, Chinese citizens reported seeing The Mothman. Shortly after reporters published their stories, a Chinese MD-82 in the northeastern part of China. There were further reports from people saying they knew the plane was going to crash because of information given to them by "a man that looked like a moth." * There are reports all over the world, even in Afghanistan and Iraq. So what is The Mothman and why does it seem to follow major disasters? Is it trying to warn us of impending doom? Or is there something sinister involved? Or perhaps, it's simply the human imagination trying to cope with tragedy. Although the tragedy of Mount Pleasant was 40 years ago, it seems the myth of The Mothman is still one that captures our attention and our imagination. Whatever you believe, catch Sci Fi investigates this Wednesday night, as the crew goes to Mount Pleasant, WV to investigate The Mothman (Sci Fi Channel). I was in Charleston, WV this summer and no one would take me on the hour drive to Mount Pleasant. As one local resident told me, "For us, it's all very realToo real." For those that live in the area, The Mothman represents a very scary and uncertain time in their town's history.

Let’s wrap up in February 2007 with an Above Top Secret thread.

Above Top Secret is a general conspiracy theory discussion forum, so getting a clear consensus on something is rare. This thread is no exception, and it’s not good reading. But forum member Raist did eventually go the extra mile to win an argument they were having, and emailed the photographer, Steven Moran.

…It was the wrong guy. This Moran did give his opinion of the photo – he thinks it’s a bird. Also, I must note: this screencap is from a 2015 archived version of the site -- in 2007, Above Top Secret had a black background with greenish text, and was much more like the other conspiracy sites I've shown in this post.

This is where I chose to stop poking around with all this stuff. Not because men in black suits showed up at my door, but because I just sort of lost interest. I had seen what I was interested in seeing: a widely-circulated photograph made the successful jump from "this photo of a recent event is crazy -- is it an angel? A demon? A pigeon?" to "this photo is part of conspiracy theory 'canon' and is definitely Mothman".

Along the way, it crossed through the small portion of the internet that I was reading in the mid-2000s. I'll pause to speculate on how I think it got there: someone working on wingkidsarereal needed some images to use for the site, and happened to see the Moran image somewhere. I don't think it's any deeper than that.

The Mothman angle was what dragged me into scrolling through these old conspiracy websites, because it seemed so odd to me. Worth mentioning: it is my opinion that The Mothman Prophecies, which came out in 2002, helped give Mothman a boost out of the world of weird nerds who like talking about cryptids and toward the mainstream, or at least toward people who had not yet heard about this specific weird phenomenon. (Here's a brief little 2001 IGN article I found, explaining what Mothman even is. Which you don't need to do if everyone already knows.)

Canonically, Mothman appeared during a specific period in the late 1960s in a very specific area of West Virginia, then was never seen again. But he just keeps showing up, "canonical" or not -- people really, really want to see Mothman, in the same way they want to see Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster. Seeing Mothman is cool, and gives you a link to a pre-existing bank of cryptid sightings. You're not just a person who saw something weird. You're a person who saw a known thing that's linked to a global pattern of sightings.

And so, now Mothman is no longer limited to Point Pleasant, West Virginia in 1966 - 1967. Mothman is in Mexico City in 1985. Mothman is in Ukraine in 1986. Mothman is in New York City in 2001.

Mothman... is in our hearts.

[pparamnesiaa]

Your art style is sooo pretty i recently saw your dst oc art and is super curious how you do the little animation and how you emulate the dst art style so well if you don't mind answering :D!!!

Tutorial for Animation/Art

Hi thanks for asking!! Here I will provide you a small tutorial for both, although it WILL be messy because I can't do tutorials to save my life and I tried to keep it as brief as possible! Although if it remains unclear or other users still have questions (about either the whole thing or certain aspects) I won't mind making full videos where I tackle everything step by step. :P

I will begin with how I make the gifs and then I will repost with a small guide to the artstyle because this is my FIFTH attempt at posting the entire thing and tumblr says no... ALSO ORIGINALLY THE VIDEO WAS SPLIT IN GIFS FOR EACH STEP BUT TUMBLR DOESN’T WANT THAT EITHER, I FEEL ANGER

(LONG THREAD BELOW, PROCEED WITH CAUTION /j)

Animation

Oh boy here we go again

——————————————————————————

1. As an example, here I have the animation I did for Sky's introduction. So basically what I do is draw whatever I desire to animate in different layers, in this case I drew the arms holding the headphones on a different layer above the body, fairly simple. I use IbisPaint X by the way!

2. Then I save the parts separately and move onto the animation bit, I previously used CapCut for animation too but now I use Alight Motion and I crop out the watermark.

!! On the first example I used a green screen so I can add the animation onto the background, but this may not work if your animation itself contains green or a similar color, so be mindful of the palette used on your art. !!

3. Once the animation is exported, I place it on the background along with added assets, effects, etc. To remove the background from the animation, you'll have to use the chroma key feature.

4. AND LASTLY, I use my precious website EzGif to turn it into a gif, and don't worry if the gif is too large in size, for this website has an optimisation feature that allows you to fix that issue (and if it doesn't work I just go on other optimisation websites lol).

——————————————————————————

Here’s the video, just a showcase of each step! No explanation in them.

[chaifootsteps]

Commission anon again. I tried making an invoice for practice. How does this look for the terms and condition? i’ve been looking at how other people did thiers

“The product is digital only.

The product is not to be used for Ai, Ai training, crypto, etc is prohibited.

Any alterations of the artwork such tracing, edits, base edits, cropped, recolored, etc are prohibited.

The Artist (me) Watermark must not be removed from the artwork.

Reposting artwork to other sites are prohibited unless proper’s credit given to the artist.

The Product is allowed for personal use only (free to play games, free music, etc) as long as it’s not for commercial use or being profited upon. If used for commercial use, the artist (me) will get 100% of the profit.

You must not claim nor pass off the product as your own creation and must provide proper credit to the artist . I.e adding links to my socials as-well shout outs and proving information on where to contact me.

Proper credit must always be given to the artist (me) for whenever the product’s used. Whether it’s cameos, collaboration, etc.”

Sounds pretty good, although I don't think I've ever had a commission artist insist on links to their socials. That would probably be enough to turn me off, honestly.

[missis-maple394]

Radiance Ita Bag (concept doodle)

DO NOT REPOST / EDIT / TRACE / MONETIZE MY ART FROM OTHER SITES.

Author’s comment:

Good day, I made a concept doodle on Hollow Knight's final boss herself, The Radiance! This doodle was drawn for fun, the idea was based on my Hatsune Miku's mouth-themed ita bag, I have bought since last two years ago. I feel that she could be plushy friendly if Fangamer reconsiders making a doll out of it or this too, haha! 

Enjoy my quick doodled work, If you wish to have this as a reference to make one; feel free! I don't like my doodle page being reposted unless you're asking me permission first. Have a nice, bright day outside!

Author’s note:

DO NOT start a roleplay using direct messages/comments & replies with my artworks.

DO NOT add your playful or direct rudeness to my posts such as replies, comments, hidden tags and private messages.

DO NOT tag and marked as a kin/me/morally questionable content etc. Aesthetic or Inspiration tag is good enough.

DO NOT claim my artworks belong to you, and removing / cropping my watermarks away.

DO NOT sell my art for monetary profit.

DO NOT SUBMIT ANY CRYPTOCURRENCY/NFT ART AND A.I. IMAGE GENERATOR WITH MY COMMISSIONED / PERSONAL ARTWORK.

DO NOT dub my artwork / comics, especially A.I. voicework.

Please DM me for inquiries such as commissioned work or reporting my artwork has been reposted or edited.

[fainthedcherry]

TAKEN OFF MY TOYHOU.SE!!! LINK TO TOYHOU.SE POST HERE

YOU CAN GET THESE IN A PAIR FOR A SMALL DISCOUNT BTW AND TO GET 2 CHARAS FOR A SMALLER PRICE.

If you buy 2 characters, whose moodboards correspond, it's a special price of 15 bucks, instead of 20.

RULES FIRST TAKEN ALSO FROM MY TOYHOU.SE THAT APPLY NO MATTER WHAT IF YOU GET A DESIGN I MADE SPECIFICALLY MYSELF:

SO LONG I GIVE YOU PERMISSION TO, YOU ARE ABLE TO DO AS YOU PLEASE IN TERMS OF REGIFTING/TRADING/SELLING THIS CHARACTER. IN OTHER WORDS: MESSAGE ME FIRST, BEFORE DOING WHATEVER YOU NEED TO IN REGARDS OF OWNERSHIP CHANGE. 

If you will not ask for my permission, I can simply reclaim the character if I want to, without having to let you know as well.

I WILL check on the character I gave away once or twice a year, just to see, if they're being used. If I see nothing, I'll ask what you're up to simply. I do expect a response within the same year I sent a message. If the person is sick or some other thing prevents them, I will obviously respect that and wait. 

^If you DON'T LIKE ME CHECKING ON MY DESIGNS- DO NOT ADOPT MY STUFF. I had a person complain about it, so I added this warning to appease any future Karens. You own the character 100%, do what you want with them, but I still made the original design, that's what I check on simply. I won't tell you to change anything or whatever. Just let me know, what you do w/ the character, if you display nothing on their profiles (a short sentence or basic info is enough, anything to imply, the chara's being used or just "using them privately for roleplay" or something, so I know what you're up to.), it's most likely why I messaged you.

 DO NOT DELETE THE TOYHOU.SE CHARACTER PROFILE, ONCE TRANSFERRED. If you hide it or private it, that's totally cool. I just wanna be told or like informed, if I ask, why the profile is not accessible, if I WILL ask. AGAIN, SEE ABOVE WITH ME JUST CHECKING IF THE CHARACTER'S BEING USED OR NOT.

 DO NOT POST MY ART TO INSTAGRAM. IT FEEDS IT TO AN AI ALGORITHM AND WILL READ THE DATA. I DON'T WANT THAT. I WILL BLACKLIST YOU, IF YOU HAPPEN TO DO THAT.

IF UNCERTAIN ABOUT SOMETHING: JUST SHOOT ME A MESSAGE DAMN IT. I. WILL. NOT. BITE. I will instead APPRECIATE THAT YOU REACHED OUT TO ME REGARDING YOUR CONCERNS!!!!!!!

ORDER OF PREFERENCE ON DEALS:

Animations > Real currency > shipping art > art > customs

1 - OPEN - Lost Identity - [30€ - SORRY REALLY TENTATIVE AND IT BETTER PAY OFF HALF A SINGLE CD IF I MUST PART W/ THEIR DESIGN TBH]

2 - OPEN - Candied Sweetheart - [10€] 

3 - OPEN - Trials And Vices - [10€]

4 - OPEN - Pearls & Foam - [15€ - off-base & patterns took a long arse while sdfklsdg]

5 - OPEN - Urban, Gods & Space - [15€ - off-base] BOUGHT BY MY FRIEND KOBRA_THE_ARTIST!!!!!!

6 - OPEN - 80s Komondor Sym-ippie - [10€]

7 - OPEN - Decayed & Wilted - [10€]

8 - OPEN - Sugared Heartbreaker - [10€]

9 - OPEN - CUTE. V O I D - [10€]

10 - OPEN - I ♥ FISH [15€ - off-base]

11 - OPEN -  Hold on, this isn't a poodle?! + Emo-themed <3[15€ - off-base]

12 - OPEN -  Cozy, Coral, Cutie, Снек [15€ - off-base]

Once purchased - FILE WILL HAVE THE MOODBOARD SEPERATE, COLOUR PALETTE USED WILL BE PROVIDED. WATERMARKS REMOVED. FULL-QUALITY AT DISPLAY IN ITS ORIGINAL SIZE (due to compression, the images have been compressed down to 3 MB. I WILL send you a high quality version via inbox, already cropped as well to the character you bought, let me go through the hassle, if I'm the one, who had to compress these files in the first place.)

OFFER YOUR ART NO MATTER THE SKILL LEVEL - I don't care how "good" you draw, I usually only pay attention to good poses or composition in art, the rest doesn't matter to me really. I am very open to consider ANY offer, just ask me please, really.

Q & A BELOW ABOUT PAYMENT, GOAL OF THIS SHEET, AND WHAT I'LL DO IF YOU WON'T FOLLOW MY RULES STATED IN THE OWNERSHIP TAB, GLOBAL PERMISSIONS:

Q: What and how to pay?

A: You can pay via my Paypal, via my Kofi, you can pay via art. Just upload it straight to the character's toyhou.se in question, you chose to draw / I have chosen for you.

Q: What will you use the money for?

A: To be blatantly honest, I just wanna buy Jojo part 4 & 5 CDs to watch with my friend, unfortunately ONLY pricey Blu-rays exist, so I gotta cough up what is my self-set monthly allowance x3, hence adopts! :( BUT! I put a lot of time, effort and love into them, so that they're worth the money I put down! :)

Q: Can I gift these to a friend? Can I resell? Can I resell for a higher price than bought?

A: CHECK. THE GLOBAL RULES. I WROTE EVERYTHING DOWN THERE IN DETAIL. I ALSO wrote down, that I can reclaim characters, if you won't follow my rules OR take care of them. JUST. DON'T BE LAZY. AND READ. PERIODT. I WRITE IN METICULOUS DETAIL FOR REASON, SO THAT YOU AND I. WON'T GET INTO A DISPUTE.

Q: Can I change the species? Can I change the design?

A: YEAH GO AHEAD. Just keep em a little recognizable pls tho? I'm not asking for much, if I ask of you to just..Yknow if it's a sonic OC, to keep SOME of their animal-looking stuff like i.e turn massive ears into a cat headband or somth. YKNOW JUST DON'T CHANGE IT TO A POINT IT'S UNRECOGNIZABLE. If you're concerned, that you might've overdone it, MESSAGE MEEE. I DON'T BITE. IT'S NOT EMBARRASSING TO REACH OUT TO SOMEONE. It really isn't, and NO, I will NOT ignore you, I'm just busy IRL, hence why it make take a while until I respond :)

Q: Can I repost your drawing/reference of them? 

JUST DON'T CLAIM IT AS YOUR OWN MAN. And you BETTER not post it to sites, that support feeding it to AI such as Facebook or Instagram, other than that, GO HAM. JUST MAKE SURE IT STAYS AWAY FROM AI-LEARNING ALGOS PLS.

If you got questions, shoot! I won't bite, I'll appreciate, that you asked me instead!!! Normalize asking questions and not being afraid to communicate casually <3

---

CASUAL DESC GO;

Been a good few years, hasn't it? I'm a bit rusty, so I did my best, to avoid using the same motifs on every adopt. xD

These were made with semi-custom moodboards! I used this moodboard generator, to create my own tileset of images, that inspired me. :> I challenged myself to make unique designs, based off 1 moodboard only! Just as a fun challenge, until I had a cool idea too to it!

This is why I was gone for so long- I spent half a week on these now LMAO, also I was working on these between my driver's exam theorum, surprise surprise, I failed it bc I was too stressed to study even more due to my parents sdfjksdgdsm NEXT TIME I'LL GET IT THO.

[mrswhozeewhatsis]

PSA from a fandom con photographer

As some of you know, I'm a con photographer. A while back, a bunch of us joined a group chat together, and we talk about all things cons and photography in there. Recently, the subject of photo theft has come up again, but this time a new comment was made and that's why I'm here.

In the past, I've heard photographers express frustration about people reposting our photos with watermarks cropped out or otherwise removed. Sometimes, these photos are edited further and someone else's watermark slapped on top of it. This is disrespectful, at best, and really offends the original photographer. Usually, this is done in an effort to gain clout online, and not for any artistic reasons. This is not what I'm here to talk about.

I know that a lot of folks on Tumblr use con photos for fic headers and aesthetics and such, especially for RPF fics. (Because we can totally tell whether a photo is Jensen or Dean, even with the background edited out, he's just that good.) It's come to my attention that some photographers would be REALLY uncomfortable with their art being used this way. They don't read fic, they don't understand it, or they just don't want their art used in a way that misinterprets the moment captured in the photo, even if it's fiction.

We need to respect this.

How do we feel when someone reblogs our fics and uses it to prop up an argument about our characters that we disagree with? We feel kinda shitty. That's how photographers feel when their photos are used in ways they weren't consulted about.

How do we fix this?

When you search Google and find an image from a con, do a reverse lookup on that image and AT LEAST TRY to find the original photographer. If the photo has been taken in the last year or so, you can come to me and see if I know who took it, too.

Ask that photographer if they are okay with you using their image in the way you intend. I know this is a pain, but remember how you'd feel if someone used your art without asking permission!

Many times, if you ask, the answer will be yes. Sometimes, it may be no. Please respect the answer you receive.

If you honestly try and can't find the photographer, then at least put a comment captioning this on the post where you use the photo. If you make a good faith effort and express this in your caption, that at least lets us know that you tried.

If you have any questions about this, feel free to ask me!

Personal note from me: If you like any of my photos, you are welcome to use them. I know I don't make the best photos in the fandom, so this isn't much, but it's there.

Also, "credit to Google" or "I found this on Google" is not credit. Google does not create images. Google only indexes them.

Just remember that there is a person behind every image and piece of art you find on Google.

Also, if you don't contact the artist/photographer, how does that person know that you liked their work? They don't. This is the same as if someone reads your fic but doesn't hit the heart or reblog it. Personally, I LOVE getting asked about my photos the same way I love hearing feedback on my fics. Let your photographer know you love their work!

I've been asked about screen grabs and gifs. I'm referencing just those photos taken by people at cons. Screengrabs and gifs also take talent to create, so if you can find out who made them and give them credit, that's awesome. Photos taken from the star's Twitter or IG....that's a good question. Credit would go to them, but they are impossible to ask if they mind. An argument could also be made that they know what might happen to any photo they put out there. (Maybe put a link to the original as credit?)

It was only recently that I saw someone comment about their photo being used to apply a narrative to Jensen based on his facial expression in the photo, and a brief mention of fic happened right after that, and I just got the feeling that certain photographers would not be pleased to know how we use their photos, sometimes.

As far as I know, no photographer has found their photo in a fic header and complained. But based on what was said, if they did, they might not be happy. And not just because most photos used in a fic header end up being further edited to make it work with the header, beyond cropping. For instance, an asexual photographer might feel icky about their photo being used as a header for a smut fic.

TL;DR - Credit your photographers in your headers, edits, and mood boards when at all possible. Make the effort to contact them and ask for permission. Some may give you blanket permission as I have. Some may not. Either way, this is their art that you're manipulating, so please respect it.

steps off soap box Thank you for listening!

[jaeharuart]

FEEL FREE TO SEARCH THE TUTORIAL TAG ON THIS BLOG TO FIND MY ART TUTORIALS! : )

I make art, music, comics, and animations. No AI is used for my art. No 3D, no photo-bashing, and no references are used either unless stated otherwise on a piece. All support and follow links can be found on my Link Tree below. https://linktr.ee/jaeharuart You can find voice-over video tutorials and painting time-lapse videos on my YouTube or catch occasional Live Streams on my twitch. I've been painting for 20+ years now and studying for 10+ My art never "took off" though so I'm still just a regular working joe.

Also since this is pinned here's a quick common Q&A: You DO have my permission to use my art as a phone or desktop wallpaper or as an icon, you do not need to ask, I'm just happy you like it enough to want to : ) You may also repost it so long as you make sure my JaeHaruArt watermark logo remains on it and visible. You don't need to @ link or tag me if you repost it so long as my watermark is still on it.

You DO NOT have my permission to repost 'edited' versions of my art or versions where my watermark/logo has been cropped out or removed. Please just don't do this. It's a shitty and fucked up thing to do. You also do not have my permission to SELL or to attempt to sell any of my art, ESPECIALLY fan art I make. I very clearly DO NOT SELL FAN ART for legal reasons and if I find it being sold I'm going to request it be removed. Lastly please respect the fact that I do not wish to have my art used as an NFT or to train AI. Thank you.

[ivegoneawayinsidemyhead]

PSA

I had hoped this would go without saying, but I just got a message about someone removing the watermarks from my manips and re-posting them, so.

To be clear, I'm absolutely fine with people re-posting my manips on other sites. I'm thrilled if people like my work enough to want to share it! But please do not erase, cover up, or crop out my watermarks (especially not so you can add your own watermark??).

I try to make my watermarks as unobtrusive as possible so they don't distract from the picture. But I also spend hours/days/weeks on my manips, so it hurts to see them "out in the wild" with my mark deliberately scrubbed off of them.

Thank you!