#been watching tutorials and wanted to start off with the absolute basics

[zippityzap]

Said I wanted to practice pixel art more soooooooo here's a little page of doodling to practice circles and ovals and other miscellaneous shapes

[dreemurr-skelememer]

Hello :D

I have been following you for the last year or so (a few days after I got my Tumblr lmao) and I absolutely love your art!

I have been wanting to study your art style for a while but don't really know where to start,,,

Could you please show me a small portion of your art process, if it isn't too much trouble of course. Thank you and have a nice day!

hello. oh my god. this took forever to find.

im sorry it took 2 WHOLE FUCKING MONTHS for me to respond to this but i wanted to put it off until i felt happy with my art process again, so here it is

my fall 2024 rendering tutorial!

(this will be very very long)

FLATS AND WHATEVER YOU WANNA DO WITH LINES GIRL. then make sure to recolor the lineart to better match your base. trust me it helps, bold dark lines are Not your best friend when rendering. wait for that post-rendering

i start off with a doodle or a sketch, and then filling it in with flats and other details such as blush

FIGURE OUT YOUR LIGHT SOURCE. FIGURE IT OUT GIRL YOU CAN DO IT you can make it as simple as possible, make it as big as possible, dont even THINK about the details.........just make it really fucking big so you at least know where the shadows and the light goes THEN add smaller shading details LISTEN TO ME. LISTEN TO ME OKAY!!!!!!!!

my key point with this is for you to learn lighting fundamentals.

it's SOOO ANNOYING but alas......they are all correct. it helps a lot.

one thing i also really want to point out is that i like creating a big shadow shape first before fixing up the little details (such as folds and whatever) because it helps me focus on the way the lighting actually works instead of tunnel vision-ing into making the shading make sense on the clothing.

contact shadows (i dont remember if thats what theyre called okay) theyre fucking ugly because im not actually thinking sorry 💔

okay so basically:

contact shadows (if that's what they're called) are the spots in shading and lighting where light will NEVER hit.

shadows are still influenced by the colors and lights around it (it's why a blue shadow and a yellow shadow feel completely different, despite both being shadows) so it's not always COMPLETELY dark.

BUT! there are small points in shadows where light never hits, and they're almost always super dark or pitch black.

it's hard to explain shadow and light so briefly for a tutorial, but you'll notice it when watching fundamental studies and when trying it out for yourself

YES i unclipped the multiply layer YES its ugly and terrifying but it makes coloring the multiply layer easier okay the colors merged w multiply so now it looks cool and has depth overlaying colors that actually make sense

so basically what i did was color the multiply layer that i used to shade the overall drawing

adding a band of red/orange/yellow around where the light hits, and blue where the shadows get big and wide, gives it a fake ambient occlusion effect in the way that a person would get if they stood under the sun with a clear blue sky

the colors don't have to make sense, especially because i never draw backgrounds, but coloring the shadows really help it give a sense of depth and extra subtle detail and effect that just helps make the painting look nicer

around the end, i also put in colors (in an overlay layer with a low opacity brush) that actually make sense in context of the drawing, which is the lit cigarette and the yellow eyelights

mostly because none of the colors were making sense and i needed to actually make use of the lighting that DOES exist in the drawing lol

adding a muddy golden yellow pin light layer (opacity turned down to like 40-50%) to make the light colors less ugly lol

i SWEAR by the fucking pin light layer style. it's so useful and so so underrated.

i used an almost brown-ish gold color on stop of all the layers, and with the pin light layer, it helped make the bright (almost blue-ish) white colors more warm and more yellow. it just helps make things more warm (something i prefer)

i could probably show what it looks like without adjusting the layer opacity to truly show off what i mean (like in the coming section) but i sadly forgot to do that lol

make a layer on top of your drawing with this color in these ranges YES the drawing is fully merged NO don't be afraid, the base was fucking ugly anyway 💔 make this layer into an exclude/exclusion layer style TRUST turn down your exclusion layer opacity from a range of 10% to 40% literally until you're happy with the contrast and the way the color over the drawing. use your eyeballs. i know you can do it im so proud of you

this is pretty self-explanatory instruction-wise, so i'll go into why i do this instead

i really like art that seems like it has low contrast, with almost mid-gray shading and lines. i don't personally use dark and bold lines and shading, unless i find it necessary for the tone of the piece, so using this method helps lower the contrast of the art and make it look "pleasantly muddy" in the way that it's easier and softer on the eyes.

the inverted blue color also helps makes things warmer!

the exclusion layer style is still a bit of a mystery to me but i really like the effect it gives, even if i don't completely get how it works lol

if you want an alternative method to this, and if you have access to it (because i primarily use sai and sai only),

i absolutely encourage you to play around and experiment with gradient maps.

there are so many out there you can make yourself or even get from others that just give the painting an extra amount of depth and color variation. they're SO fun.

personally, if sai2 gets a gradient map update, it's over for y'all it will literally be so over no one will be able to stop me

then i merged everything and actually adjusted the contrast back up because it was looking too muddy for me 💔 but the color adjustments are still there so all hope is not lost here's a comparison of the adjusted contrast in black and white (adjusted on the left) (newly merged layer without adjusting the contrast on the right)

as you can see, i actually turned the contrast back up (despite talking all about how i liked things with less contrast lol)

i wanted to demonstrate that doing adjustments should be done in moderation, and is why i adjust layer opacity often when making color effects

you are free to play around with colors to help your style, but don't lose your initial idea and colors along the way.

you still need to trust your own colors and intuition!

along with that, i just want to say that it's completely okay to change your mind mid-painting, and it's okay to make somewhat drastic changes.

don't be afraid to change things you don't like or change your mind about certain aspects way later on

that's basically the whole thing of this!!! don't be scared!!!

now im gonna hold your hand when i say this..........but you need to learn how to render by yourself. it seems like i can teach you but i literally can't, because rendering is different on every piece and depending on how clean your base is. i have to render A LOT because of how fucking ugly my sketches are LMAO to simplify it, think of it as obsessively cleaning up every detail you can see, but with a color picker and a clean, hard edged brush. if you have shit lineart, you don't have to redraw it cleanly over and over, just paint over it. that's basically what rendering is

THIS especially is where you need to be brave and stop being scared.

like i said, i can't teach you how to render, and it's something you have to discover yourself because rendering is something that will always be personal to every single piece you make. the way you render on every piece is different.

on one piece, you will barely need to render, and on another, rendering is more than half of your ENTIRE process.

don't be afraid to paint over your old art.

rendering is a process that's both very perfectionist yet also very careless.

find your balance and just go for it.

and then that's it……..u did it………..now yuo know how to paint and render. it's literally just layering shading and lighting knowledge until you think it makes sense and looks okay lol additional note: since i render in only one layer (you don't HAVE to do this, but it'll be harder for you…), i also made slight adjustments with the transform (and liquify, if you have it) tool to make things more proportionate. (i drew the head too big lol)

if you compare the finished piece to the final unrendered base, you can see that a LOT changed, including a bit of subtle proportion adjustment.

particularly, the sleeves changed A LOT (because i really didn't like them)

but it's also over all cleaner and more coherent, instead of having haphazard colors and shading just thrown about.

rendering is when you finally use all 100% of your brain to finalize and figure out where the shading should go, where to clean up your lines, where to ERASE or ADD BACK in lines, and make sure all your colors look coherent.

it's not as intimidating as it seems, i only use a hard edged brush with a little bit of color mixing and my color picker.

it's like dragging and dropping colors to cover up mistakes, it's really quite fun when you get used to it

i wish i could explain it clearer but it's hard to describe without visuals!

i hope this helped, and i hope all my yapping isn't annoying (art as a special interest beloved)

have fun studying and trying to render in my art style!

[heph]

TLDR: Got any drawing exercises to recommend?

I’m in loooove with the way you use lines, shapes and colors/shading to show form in your art. The way you draw bodies shows a lot of understanding of the shapes that go into them, and that’s something I often personally struggle with. I’m familiar with the shapes of a face, but when it comes to connecting them to the shapes of the body and so on, I get frustrated that it’s jumbled instead of cohesive.

I was wondering, when you’re looking to practice, whether that’s anatomy, line-making, still life shapes or whatever, do you have any exercises you’ve done and would be willing to share? I’ve been trying to crawl out of the no-art-depression-hole for a bit and want to start with things that don’t take much willpower but help me improve

I might be the worst person to ask this! My relationship with art is not typical and I do not practice mindfully! (I just draw whatever I want and that's my practice, y'know?

Anyways, here's my progress of how I learnt to draw :3

Step 1 is proportions - breaking up the human body into manageable blocks and pieces. And step 2 is learning the muscles that build up the body, and from there you can simplify as needed... Or do that thing anime art kids do and skip directly to the simplified bit! (You probably shouldn't do that but if it's a hobby who cares!)

For specific tutorials, I find that proko is probably the best mix of entertaining/educational content you can find, but aside from that I watch a lot of speedpaints.

As a sort of get rich quick scheme, I think the absolute easiest way to get stupidly good at art is studying perspective - but you at least need a basic understanding of proportions and anatomy before you can draw someone in a funky perspective.

Everything in life is in perspective, and every piece of work you will ever make will have perspective in it. Perspective is sort of like an all-encompassing thing in our reality that you don't realise is there, and maybe even not realise is missing in your work (just that something feels... Wrong) AND LIKE NOBODY EVER TALKS ABOUT IT! WHAT THE FLIP!!!

I don't really have a specific source for learning perspective, because I've been on-and-off trying to wrap my head around it for a few years (I'm still awful at it but I'm getting there...!) here's a video!

I do think that drawing with progression in mind might help, but I think with art (as a hobby) the most important thing is probably love for a special guy and joy of creation. You have to love what you're drawing and the simple act of creating, or it just won't work out. If you're in a depression hole maybe just try creating for the sake of it, and don't give yourself too many expectations :)

[cryptidplays]

Hi, I was wondering which engine you were using to make your game? Would you say it was beginner friendly and does it require coding?

I’m just curious. 🙂

Hi!

I am using RPG Maker MV to make my game. I would definitely say it is pretty beginner friendly! You can do a whole lot with the engine, too. People have made some absolutely fascinating games. Heck, you can technically even make visual novels using the engine (although Ren'Py is probably better for that, if that's the sort of game you want to make.)

And you can do in-depth coding, but it's not really necessary if you don't want to/don't know how. Since MV has been around for about a decade, there is not only a lot of documentation for it, but also a lot of plug-ins for if you don't want to make all your scripts or code from scratch when you want to do something with the engine other than the basic stuff. (As someone who finds writing scripts very daunting, it is very nice that people basically make whatever plug-ins you might need instead of having to do it yourself.)

Also, while I have not tried the newer version — MZ — I've heard that it has a few more quality of life things added to it, which probably makes it a slightly easier to use engine while still being very similar to MV

I would, however, recommend watching/reading tutorials if you want to get into making games with RPG Maker. Even the basic commands that are provided in the engine can be a bit confusing if you're just starting out. (Although, be warned, the community on the RPG Maker forums can be a bit snobby and rude to newcomers. It's better to see if they have pre-existing threads pertaining to what you need to know rather than making your own. Unless you absolutely cannot find what you're looking for.)

But, if you find the idea of using RPG Maker appealing, I'd say it's a really fun program to use! Just definitely get it on sale (sometimes it goes on sale for up to 95% off. I got it 75% off, though. Just keep an eye on steam, because sales happen frequently!)

[tj-crochets]

I have a quilting question! That being, I’ve never quilted before but I have a gazillion squares of fabric (thrift store whoops, didn’t realize it was cut) and I need a new quilt. If I’m trying to do a basic “I want a warm blanket” quilt, would I just… sew a checkerboard of the squares together, then get batting and idk, a piece of matching size fabric for the back? I have a sewing machine but nothing specifically quilting I don’t think.

Hi! You've got the basics down, that pretty much is the bare bones of quilting and if you want to start with just that you absolutely can. There are some steps that can make the finished product a little less lumpy and/or a little more durable (ironing, basting, stuff like that) but off the top of my head I don't have specific resources to point you toward? Let me see if any of the quilt youtubers I watch have some videos on it okay this quilter doesn't seem to have a "never made any sort of quilt before" tutorial but once you've made one quilt I recommend Just Get It Done Quilts (or if you want to be particularly ambitious about your skills, before your first quilt? I found a lot of technique advice only made sense to me after I'd made my first quilt, but you might learn differently than I do). She has a lot of pattern videos and a lot of technique videos. This seems like a decent very detailed step-by-step guide to making a quilt from start to finish (I just glanced at it), but I will tell you one thing that most of the guides you will read will disagree with: If you are making a simple patchwork for your first quilt (aka a checkerboard of squares) and you aren't super picky about the exact finished size, you do not need to worry about the 1/4" seam allowance. You can ignore all of that and come back to figuring out how to do it later. For simple patchworks, it's just important that your seam allowance is consistent. So, if you're not super familiar with sewing but are using a machine, just line up the edges of the fabric with the edge of the foot on your sewing machine, and whatever that is will be fine (as long as the seam allowance is large enough to not unravel. It'd work for all the sewing machine feet I have, but I have not seen all the options) also tagging in @creations-by-chaosfay, who has been quilting a lot longer than I have. Do you have a good step-by-step starting guide to making your first quilt?

[jalebi-weds-bluetooth]

hi, jalebi, hope life is treating you well.I watched your interview with Utkarsh Naithani,it was absolute delight and kind if a tutorial class of story-writting.keep it up and waiting for many more interviews like that.And I got to see your face too😍,which was a sight for sore eyes.

I want your absolute opinion on the fact that do you think that the introduction of kidnapping tract had disrupted the flow of IPKKND and kind of destroyed what the writters had previously had in mind?

thank you.

Thank you so much for the sweet comment <3 Uff, you and your taareef.

Now, regarding to your question;

do you think that the introduction of kidnapping tract had disrupted the flow of IPKKND and kind of destroyed what the writters had previously had in mind?

To be very honest, the introduction of the kidnapping track brought the show back on track - for me. The show started addressing everything that was needed. The circumstance of the marriage. The fact that Arnav wouldn't believe Khushi. The fact that the situation was against Khushi. And that Shyam was upto something, he would take revenge against Arnav.

All the characters and situations were put on a RUDE pause from the end of Holi until the terrace scene (which worked into the kidnapping).

I have, legit, NO idea what the writers had in mind. Because the writers were writing aimless comedy, forgot the weight of the situation. And the months from Holi to Arnav leaving for London had absolutely little sense. It raised FAR too many questions, character rewrites, motivation rewrites, than anything else.

I believe, given the situation Arnav and Khushi was in - nothing would've been able to shift them away from bitterness apart from the fact that they loved each other UNTIL it was, literally, a matter of life and death between the characters.

We got back the telepathy, the hurt. Khushi is no longer a stupid woman trying to get back at the man who holds the reins of her sister's marriage in his hand by annoying him? (WTF was that logic)

Rather she's back to being the intelligent, hurt woman, who painfully knows that if things were fine - he'd never say he loved her.

So what went wrong with the show is not the kidnapping track but how they showed the investigation.

I laughed at them forgetting Khushi is a Raizada. If, let's say Manish Malhotra's relative goes to the police fearing Manish Malhotra's safety. The police is not going to laugh at it. We know how the police treat the elite class. Remember how upon Lavanya Kashyap's (who is not even a Raizada) phone call the police had arrived at Shantivan personally to do an employment check?

Which by the the police don't have to carry out by themselves. Employees submit themselves and police verifies the history and fingerprints. But just because the house was Shantivan - they were ready to do basic duty. Secondly, not everyone in Delhi can just gently hold Delhi Police's hand and escort them out of the house.

Arnav Singh Raizada can.

So, the kidnapping, Khushi's intuition and disbelief over Arnav's confession, her constant panic and the family sending her to Lucknow and even she and Mami getting suspicious of Arnav reaching London or not were BRILLIANTLY done.

And even with Arnav, right. Forced upon this horrific situation he is stripped of his prejudices, fears and doubt. He loves her. She feels strongly for him (she nearly confessed before he left). She wanted his trust.

It was a great way to reset the dynamic between the two.

And FINALLY Shyam is doing something as a villain. He wants everything Arnav owns, everything Arnav has. It starts with his assets and ends with Khushi.

Also Khushi knows Shyam is enough of a horrid man to actually pull something like this off? She's suspicious of him from the START. And we see her dealing with her abuser and the threat of Shyam being under the roof as her.

What went wrong is in the execution of second half of kidnapping track:

Arnav's LIFE is at stake. Just why has she NOT confided in Akash? He's right THERE. Why not in Payal? Just how is the 'ghar ki shanti' more important than the life of the head of the household?

What was the whole stupid James Bond thing with Manorama?

WHY WAS NO ONE UNDERSTANDING THAT A RAIZADA WAS SEEKING HELP?

What was the stupid "let's honeytrap Shyam" plan?

Just why were they doing Tom and Jerry stuffs to trap Shyam?

In short, why did the intelligence just disappear in the execution of this track?

WHY DO BABLI AND MASALA MAMA EXIST? (Honestly, I felt if Akash and Payal had a more relevant, important track the kidnapping track could have felt better than this demon child cause EVERYONE loved Akash Payal).

Actually introduced a really good cameo of a private detective/police inspector who would work in private sensing a bigger threat.

Either way, I have far less issues with the stupid kidnapping track because I got Arnav and Khushi back, and I got Shyam back. The three wheels of the story, their characterization, their plots, were on track.

And this is my absolute opinion of the kidnapping track.

Best,

Jalebi

[rookinthecrownest]

Hii, I hope you’re doing great and have had a wonderful start to 2025! You already know I love all your DA fanworks because I’m yapping about them non stop 24/7 but since you’ve been posting more art lately (that latest Lucanis study was SO AMAZING 10000 out of 10 highly recommend staring at it forever), I wanted to ask you if you had any tips you’d be able to share for someone who wants to learn digital art (my delulu 2025 resolution is to try my hand at it lol, we’ll see how that goes): from best apps to use to techniques or anything you think could be useful. For context, I’m familiar with sketching and drawing on paper, but have never done digital art, so my question is less about the mechanics of drawing and more about the medium, if that makes sense. Thanks so much in advance!

Thank you for the ask! <3

AND TYSM FOR THE LOVE ON MY ART IT'S SO APPRECIATED!! ;-; <333

I'm so glad to hear you wanna get into digital art for 2025! I'm happy to share some things that helped me get into it and bits of wisdom I've picked up from others along the way.

Digital art is an awesome medium that gives you a TON of freedom to basically create whatever (so does traditional but obviously with a few more practical constraints like materials etc.) - that being said when you're first transitioning from traditional -> digital it can be a bit finicky. Give yourself a LOT of grace/patience because just getting the hang of the basic mechanics of digital art can be a steep learning curve (at least it was for me).

I'll put everything below the cut bc this will be long and full of rambling.

App Recommendations

Recommendations for apps depends on the kind of digital drawing you're going to be doing. I have an iPad so I can only really recommend apps for iPad lol.

If you have an iPad, I recommend Procreate - I love it, it's what I've been using for the last year or so. It's intuitive and fairly easy to pick up for beginners (and there's a TON of tutorials on Youtube on how to use it/intro to the software).

It's easy to download custom brushes/patterns/textures into the app. Procreate also does this neat thing where it automatically records all of your brush strokes so you can make process videos without having to go 'oh, I should screen record myself drawing this so I can play it back later!' <- nice for someone like me who is very forgetful lol.

I tried the adobe one too (forget what it's called), and I think Autodesk Sketchbook as well a long time ago but I didn't love them. I always go back to Procreate lol.

If you have a computer/PC set up then I assume you'd be working with a tablet. Apps for this kind of drawing would be things like Photoshop/Paint Tool Sai/Clip Studio Paint. I'd recommend watching a few Youtube speedpaints by artists who use these softwares to see how they function and if they would be a good fit for you but I don't have a tablet myself so I can't offer much guidance there.

The Right Tools for the Job

I don't know if you've ever heard this, but I used to hear it all the time. The tools/software shouldn't make a difference, a good artist can work with whatever they have available and make a masterpiece.

And this is true! For expert artists. I've seen some amazing artists pull off masterpieces in MS paint without layers/brush pressure sensitivity/etc.

This is not quite so true for novices (in my humble opinion and heavily coloured by my own experience).

When I first started using procreate and was just using the default brushes I hated absolutely everything I drew. Nothing looked right. I couldn't even make a simple sketch without hating it. It took me a long time to admit that the default brushes in Procreate were just not helping me create what I wanted to create, so I caved and started buying custom brush packs made by other artists. I'm not saying if you use Procreate you'll run into the same difficulty I had, just that if you do find yourself getting frustrated with the default brushes being hard to master at first, don't be like me and feel like an utter failure instead of finding the right tools to help you succeed.

I really like Jing Sketch's brushes, I use them ALL the time.

And now that I'm more experienced, I can use those default brushes and actually prefer them in some instances.

The Right People to Learn From

There's a ton of great artists out there who make digital art/general art tutorials, who I learned a lot from.

On Youtube, check out:

Sinix Design

Marc Brunet

ChrissaBug

On Instagram, check out Derek Domnic DSouza (lots of great content about Procreate in particular, but also just in general very helpful with digital art tips). He also does free workshops sometimes :)

And that's about everything I can think of! Hopefully that answers your question! <3

[lixenn]

Crochet corner

I'm back with my yarn babbling again, this time because I want to distract myself from thesis writing OTL

My current scarf project is still ongoing and I left it at home so I can't show any progress pictures since I'm in my dorm again (and I forgot to take some when I was still at my parents place), so I will talk about my past projects.

And when I say past, I mean past, as in I will go back to my crochet roots. You're getting my fiber artist history hot off the keyboard folks, so strap in and enjoy the ride.

Back to the beginnings

My crochet journey started way back in primary school, where tiny baby Lix made a small square creature in craft class. Basically we crocheted a square (easily done with single crochets, can be achieved by tiny people) folded it in half, sewed together the edges, stuffed it with cotton fluff stuff and sewed it shut. Put on some eyes, a nose and mouth plus fake fur as hair and hurray you made a square creature! I actually kept that thing for years, it was chilling on our radiator like a wonky guardian until it eventually got lost or thrown out (I can't remember which). I remember that the stitches were surpisingly neat for my age, which past Lix apparently couldn't replicate for years. Primary school me had talent... (unfortunately I don't have a picture of the wonky square creature or I would have showed you guys)

Deco for the win

While I did try once or twice to get back into crocheting again it never really worked out until! My mum found this website: Drops-Design. A German (?) website for knitting and crochet patterns (and lots of other stuff). She showed me some cute cupcake and coffe cup coasters and asked if I could make them. Past Lix - like current Lix - was filled with false confidence and answered with: "Yeah, sure I can try." So, my mum ordered the yarn over the website and my crochet adventures started from anew.

Fortunately for my sanity the patterns my mum asked for had video tutorials attached, otherwise I would have been utterly fucked, since I have never read a crochet pattern in my life. With the help of the video, the coasters were relatively easy to make even when I was confronted with unknown stitches and multiple colour changes. The end result didn't look nearly as nice as what the website showed but for my first few tries I was satisfied.

Once again I have no pictures available but if you want to take a look at the pattern it's here. There you can also see the finished product.

From this point onwards I started going nuts with making deco shit. All differnt kind of flowers, stars, snowflakes and bunnies. That site opened the crochet door for me and I was happy as a clam.

Granny square madness

However, times were changing once again, when my dear friend got me some yarn for Christmas.

200 g of yarn.

With colour transition.

I only ever used solid coloured yarn before and was at a loss of what to do with this gift.

And what else to do when lost in the yarn world, then look at youtube for help. Spoiler: Youtube helped tremendously as it introduced me to the glorious invention that is granny squares.

Granny squares are fun shit, they come in all kinds of different patterns and colours and you can make lots of things with them. I watched a simple tutorial on youtube and got hooked. I used my friends gift to make granny squares only to be confronted with another dilemma: What to do with those granny squares? I got max 20 squares out of these 200 g and let me tell you my dudes, that's nothing for a bigger project.

So I simply went absolutely batshit crazy, for I decided to make a patchwork granny square blanket.

Please let me remind you people that before this lapse of judgement I only worked on small projects aka things that I made in one day tops.

Once again I follow my motto: Go big or go home and ohhh boy did I go big. I went gigantic and here is proof:

That badboy is the definition of patchwork because it's made up out of FOUR different types of yarn, since I have run out of yarn SO MANY TIMES IT WAS RIDICULOUS! I needed to rebuy yarn at least five times, I was going insane. This project took me over half a year if not longer and weaving in the ends- *shudders* horrible, dreadful, hated every minute of it.

But I like the finished product, it's now chilling on my coach at my parents place, not really used all that often but still pretty.

I didn't stop with the granny squares after that clusterfuck though. Nooooooo sire~ I made a shitton of other granny square projects since I like to suffer (none of them as big as my blanket however, thank the outer gods).

Well, I certainly rambled enough for one post, I will be back with other projects in the future!

Toodles~

[martins-taperecorder]

Statement of Jaime Finley, recorded April 27, 2004, regarding an… Endless Rock gym.

Statement begins:

I can’t say I’ve ever really considered myself afraid of falling- it’s a rare to find someone in my profession that does. Now though.. I don’t know. Maybe I would. I think I would.

Sorry, I’m getting ahead of myself. For context, I’m a rock climber. I work at a rock gym as an instructor and coach, and I’ve been climbing for around 15 years now. This all happened last week, April 19. I think.. no, I’m sure- that it started with the old man and his daughter.

He introduced himself as Simon, and said that he was taking his daughter, I think she said her name was Helen or Harriet? out climbing for her birthday. She seemed a bit young to be his daughter, as she looked to be in her early thirties while Simon looked to be in his late eighties, at the very least. I didn’t really question it though, I mean it didn’t really matter to me their family situation. None of my business, you know?

Anyway, for a minute I thought the old man- Simon- intended to climb as well, and I was honestly kind of baffled as to how he would even be able to get up the wall in his state. He seemed so.. frail. Like the wind could blow him over. I was going to advise him against trying, but he seemed content enough to simply watch his daughter and the other climbers in the gym, so I didn’t raise the point.

I congratulated Harriet on her birthday, and began the tutorial. They hadn’t signed up for top roping, so I took them over to the bouldering area so I could give them an orientation.

If you don’t know much about bouldering, it’s basically just climbing with no rope on a shorter wall with a mat underneath so when you fall you won’t hurt yourself. Some people are more scared of bouldering than top roping, even though it’s not as high up, just because they know that if they fall, they’re not attached to anything. However, I’ve always been a big fan of the simplicity and ease of bouldering; you don’t have to tie in, wear an uncomfortable harness, or have someone else there to belay you. Most of all, you don’t get the tingling fear in the back of your mind when you’re fifteen meters off the ground trying to jump to the next hold. Sure, there’s the comfort of a rope, but it’s still in your human nature to be afraid of heights. When you fall in bouldering, there’s no sneaking worry that you’ll plummet to your death; you’re landing on half a meter of foam in less than a second. I’m getting off topic, sorry. It’s just that, well, I want to really point out how unusual it is for me to be afraid of the height of a bouldering wall, especially considering my experience in climbing.

So I brought them over to the bouldering area, and I was explaining to the pair of them how to land safely when jumping or falling from the wall. Though there is a thick mat there, you still have to be really careful to roll backwards, and avoid twisting your ankles or hurting your wrists trying to catch yourself. I was getting on the wall to demonstrate when I got the strangest feeling. It’s something I’d never felt on a wall less than six meters high; this… sinking, freezing feeling of total dread. It was so much more intense than I was used to, even when climbing something high up. My legs were shaking and my vision was blurred, but whether it was from tears welling up in my eyes or just vertigo I’m not sure.

For that second, though, I was just so absolutely certain that if I fell, I would just keep falling.

All of a sudden, Simon, the old man, said something. I can’t remember for the life of me what it was. But in that moment I snapped out of it and stepped off of the wall without falling off. My whole body was trembling, and I felt like I was about to throw up. I just about managed to maintain my composure, for the most part. Harriet asked me if I was okay, and I just.. stared at her.

The look on both of their faces was odd, almost smug? It was like, like they knew something crucial that I was just out of the loop of. Honestly, I must’ve looked like a total idiot just standing there, sweating and trembling for no apparent reason, but I got the strange impression that they knew. So I just spluttered out something about not feeling well and got through the rest of their orientation quickly before leaving them to climb and rushing to the staff room to sit down.

I ended up just working at the front desk for the rest of my shift instead of out on the floor. It took a few hours and a couple cups of tea for me to feel better, and by the end of my shift I had just about convinced myself that it was just some weird fluke. I decided that, after I clocked out, I was going to stay to do some climbing for myself. It always made me feel better to just put the world off and get on the wall, and I thought that maybe if I was able to climb without any weird vertigo, I could confirm to myself that it was a one time thing, and not something I needed to worry about.

There were a couple climbs in the gym that I’d wanted to try, go I grabbed my chalk and shoes and headed over. As I entered the bouldering area, I saw that the gym was pretty sparse. That wasn’t really odd, considering that it was a dreary Tuesday evening in mid autumn. It wasn’t completely empty, though, and it kind of settled my stomach a little that I wasn’t totally alone. In hindsight I don’t know why. It’s not like their being there stopped it from happening.

I warmed up on some easy climbs before getting on the one I wanted to project, and the whole time I felt totally fine. No weird vertigo, no sudden onset of dread. I wish my body had given me some indication that something was still wrong, but looking back, it really did feel like any other warmup. It did, however, ensure me that as far as I could tell, whatever happened earlier was a one time occurrence.

I was wrong, of course.

It was when I started the more difficult climb I had been intending to work on. I was actually doing quite well on it, considering that it was a slightly harder climb than I usually project. However, the second I was halfway up the wall, the feeling returned, hitting me suddenly like a brick to the stomach. I was instantly nauseous and sweating, and my limbs were shaking so hard I was worried I’d become dislodged from the holds.

I tried to look down though the spinning vertigo to reassure myself that I was only maybe two meters up, but as I shifted my gaze, I saw that the floor was Gone. The walls stretched around infinitely into the endless void underneath and above me. I know it was impossible. The floor was RIGHT THERE. I was no more than a few feet from the floor a second ago, yet there I was, suspended endlessly above an unimaginable depth. I can say with certainty that I have never felt more fear in my life.

It took me a while to regain my hold with my sweat slick hands but I did, and painstakingly, I began to climb downwards. There was no ground in sight, but.. what else could I do? I climbed for what felt like hours, but there was still no sign of ground below me. My fingers and arms ached, threatening to give out on me, but the deep, encompassing dread that I felt of the Fall kept me from letting them. Looking back, I don’t know how long I was there. It felt like it could’ve been days.

I don’t remember how I ended up falling, but my foot must’ve slipped on a bad hold, and my weakened arms just couldn’t hold out any longer. So I fell. It was sudden and abrupt, and I was plummeting through this vast, empty plane with no hope of escape. I knew in my soul that this was the end. I closed my eyes and braced myself.

And then I was back on the ground of the gym. Nothing had changed. Everything was normal, and, according to the clocks, only twenty or so minutes had passed. It took me a while to get back to my feet, dizzy and exhausted.

I don’t remember much about the train ride home, but I was extra careful to keep my feet on the ground. I’ve taken the week off sick, and given how I look, I think it’s pretty convincing. I don’t know what I’ll do when I get back, but I don’t plan on going bouldering again anytime soon.

Statement ends.

Archivist notes:

It appears that Mr. Finley was unable to follow up on this statement, due to his disappearance on May 4, 2004. According to one of his coworkers, Laura Peterson, he was last seen heading to the back of the gym to clean the workout equipment, just past the bouldering area.

His disappearance was not noted for at least an hour, when other members of staff began questioning his whereabouts. There are no exits around that area of the gym, nor would he have been able to leave out of the front door unnoticed due to the staff at the desk.

A police report was filed, but no meaningful evidence was compiled; there was no trace of Mr. Finley in the building, save for his personal belongings in the staff lockers. According to the lead staffer at the gym, Conor Murphy, it was as if he had simply “vanished into thin air”.

End recording.

If it wasn't for the additional note given to me , I would've tried to give a follow up with Mr. Finley myself. So I thank the additional note !

Well , with my personal experience with the vast.. this , definitely sounds like it. Somebody getting suddenly stuck in the vast while climbing a rockwall is quite interesting.. not unheard of , but definitely interesting.

Martin glanced outside his window , the sky was bright and seemingly shining a few moments ago , and now it was all foggy outside and the sky seemed to darken. As it seemed like a storm was approaching.

The vast is.. a strange place. I can say that for sure. it seems like they enjoy catching people once they are off guard and believe that they should be save.. and for Finley this obviously was the case. Climbing up the rock wall , believing he would just fall on the matt that should be on the floor. And managed to get stuck in the middle of the vast when he thought he was safe.

..I want to say maybe the "vanish from thin air" thing , maybe the vast trying to trap him. I don't want to believe that he was taken or trapped inside the vast.. but it is a very possible thing that could happen.

[volfoss]

Long time no faceup...

Under the cut cause my number 1 hobby with doll faceups is to talk 700 years about the process and well. I was talking a LOT this time around lol

I am so kind of notoriously bad at not finishing a doll. Like ridiculously so. In my defense with this doll- his face sculpt was SO ridiculously out of my comfort zone (I usually have more cartoonish dolls > realistic) and he was massive (and his body had a lot of mods that I in turn wanted to modify) (on top of my pain increasing a lot which caused me to not be able to work on projects often the last year or two). I would have kept his faceup if it wasn't scratched badly in certain places but, here's the before (blank, I am NOT showing how bad my previous faceup attempts are..it's bad) and then I'll get into processes and such!

[ID: A large ball jointed doll sitting up. His face is blank with no eyes or wig and his body has multiple sculpted blue sections on it. A cat is sniffing his shoulder. /End ID]

The mod work was easy (thankfully! Pin that says I ❤️ my dremel) but I am not done with that so I will be focusing on his face! I watched a lot of realistic faceup tutorials and came away with a few takeaways:

1. Watercolors and a skinny nail brush WILL be your best friend. Also water in general to fix the mistakes

2. Take your time <- you'd think this was obvious but I'm soooo bad at rushing a faceup ok. I'm so bad at slowing down

3. Pastel before watercolor makes it go on smoother (the vid recommended using white which worked well bc this boy is very pale lmao)

4. Be brave and get the worst bit done first so if you fuck it up it's no big deal

So, with that knowledge I began sealing the head (was doing him along w 2 other heads Ive been putting off) and that was when the trouble started. I use sponge on sealant (liquitex matte varnish. Works like a dream always and no respiratory gear or weather conditions needed) but it was applying glossy. I assumed it was too cold in my room and after a few layers of hoping that would fix it, it didn't! Thankfully it had happened to me before and I shook it up VERY aggressively (like 1-2 minutes of shaking) and it went on fine minus some exaggerated texture on the resin from the few bad layers. Now this is one of the issues w this method, the other is it can trap dust/hair or whatever in there (you can easily pick it out if you notice it before it dries tho). These are both pros for me, I like when the doll looks more textured skin wise (realistic) and if I'm getting a little too lost on what direction to take the head, the dust or hair can make moles, freckles, or even scars! Prefacing all of that with the sealant was kicking my ASS and I was fighting for my life, which wasn't giving me much hope when this was a faceup style greatly out of my comfort zone and skill set, so it was just really a bad start. Also important to note that I did like absolutely no mockups for this which I usually do. I did a very vague basic realistic faceup and that was it, which was not really setting myself up for success, one may say.

But, somehow, the first layer was ok! I put white pastel down under the eye, around the eyebrow placement and then after some mishaps with the watercolor on the brows, I went to my old tactic. Usually with brows, I lay a layer or two down of pastel (FAR lighter than I want the brows to be) to kind of carve a rough shape out because I'm so atrocious at getting them even (like to a comical level. The amount of times I've had to redo a full brow to match the other makes this be my default method bc I'm SO bad at them).

I did one layer of that, and then decided I would try again with the watercolor. I don't want him to have super obvious eyeliner or anything (statements I've never said before. I have dolls where the liner covers the entire eyelid, I love a big eyeliner) so I just did the top waterline in a dark brown watercolor on a skinny nail art brush. This went... Suspiciously well? To the point where I just decided hey, we're going in and doing the eyelashes on the same layer.

Eyelashes are another point I'm so bad at, to the point where of all of my dolls I've painted, I've done bottom eyelashes 2x like ever. 3 at most. I remembered the tips from the video (not too much water but not too much paint, steady your hand, take it slow, and not doing just straight lines (hard to do that because I default to that often lol)) and just dove in.

The first eye went so well that I just went right into the second one and it was so much less bad than I thought it would be. It's crazy that practice and research helps? After that dried, I mixed pink and peach acrylic paints together to paint the lower waterline, and after THAT dried, I covered the bottom lashes with the same white pastel. It muted it a lot but the main thing I've learned working with this sealant method is that it WILL take stuff off. So in theory, I hoped that it would take the white pastel off and not fade my very painstakingly painted eyelashes.

Somehow it did work (thank you makeup knowledge or something) and the first layer was done. It felt SO wrong to have a first layer with NO blush???? Like absolutely makes no sense to my brain but it was so relieving to be done with the worst parts (minus the brows. I was not looking forward to those).

[ID: A three quarter view of the doll head shown above. Instead of being blank, it has very faint blonde eyebrows and dark brown lower eyelashes. /End ID]

This is the time in which I admit that I was wrong that it was so bad to do a realistic faceup (which could easily change when I do the blushing, you do not want to see the 80s blush situation I had on the first faceup attempt), as having the brow bones so prominent made the painting so much easier. I was very mad about this as this is my first proper* attempt at this sort of faceup and it was going so well (* proper meaning I actually attempted to adapt my style to the sculpt instead of putting my usual methods to use here on a head of a different style). Honestly I just kind of locked into the brows, and since my brush is a nail brush, there's a little ball stylus (I think that's what it's called? Dotting tool may also be what it's called) so when I messed up, I got that wet and very gently cleaned it up, dabbing the excess water/paint with my finger. This was SO much less painful than using acrylic paint on brows (that is MISERABLE to remove if you fuck up with black acrylic. That does not budge ever) or using watercolor pencils (like with doing my own eyeliner, I do much better with a brush than pencil).

Genuinely never will go back to using a different material for doing the brow strokes, this was such a breeze. Even getting it even wasn't too bad, I just cleaned the brows up with that same technique until I got it close enough. While I was waiting for that to dry, I used the same dark brown (I have a very small watercolor palette and no clue how to blend it lol, so I just used the same color this whole faceup so far) and same brush to add some paint to the eye crease to add some more dimension to the face. While that was drying, it started to bother me that all the dust was just not covered up, because my brain is used to when I break the paint out, I'm nearly done with the faceup, so it should be covered and cleaner by now. Which honestly I'm glad I did! It looks a lot better with most of it covered, although I do still.plan on doing a scar from the left eyebrow up to the forehead as well as others on the forehead but those are 3d sculpt projects and not flat paint projects (I use Elmer's glue to build it up and then blush/paint over top) so it is not my problem now lol.

[ID: A front facing picture of the head above. The head has dark brown curved eyebrows, moles dotted at random around the face, and the eye crease is filled in with dark brown. /End ID]

As if this project wasn't driving me crazy with stress enough, when I powdered the brows, one of them just didn't get as powdered as the other and so when I applied the sealant, about half the brow came away with it! Absolutely devastating but it is just the nature of water colors and liquid sealant! The next layer now had to include a patch job on the brow, as well as blushing (or if I was a little smarter, one layer for the brow repair, seal again, and a layer for the blushing so I didn't mess it up again!). It was such an incredibly frustrating set back especially with how long it took me to do the brows initially.

At THIS point, I was so relieved I had done a mockup digitally (even if not super accurate to what I ended up going with) because thinking of doing the blushing the next layer did make me want to cry a little bit for a couple reasons (on top of the already immense frustrations that sealing the brows on the start of day 2 brought).

As I said earlier, very different head type than what I usually do (usually can just slap some pink on the cheeks, brown elsewhere etc), but the bigger issue was how pale he is. I find it a billion times easier to paint a yellowed doll or a doll with darker resin (I am SO excited to get to my Dong next (his resin is so pretty (and has been really fun to work on while I was in white boy shading hell)) than a white unyellowed doll. If you know color theory or like any makeup at all, paler skin makes things show up so much brighter, which is a pain in the ass when you're trying to make a doll not look like they have clown makeup on with the blush alone. And with how sculpted his face is, I had to place the blush just right to get it to look ok, as well as somehow get the shading to look clean and decent.

I used a combination of a brush directly against the pastel and shavings and slowly built up some flush to the cheeks and shading around the nose.

[ID: The same doll head as above, but with a more peach color to the lips and cheeks, with slight definition around the sides of the nose bridge. /End ID]

I added the tiniest bit more blushing (my favorite hobby is procrastinating sealing. #1 thing ever) and then felt really unsure if I was somewhat close to being done or not, so decided to try it on his body with random eyes and wig to see what else needed to be there, which confirmed a couple things!

[ID: The same head as before, now shown on a seated large ball jointed doll body. He has a long lilac center part straight wig on and dark eyes. There is a doll to the left and right of him./End ID]

The first thing was somehow ALL of the messy forehead was covered by the wig, which was such a relief in of itself. The second thing was all of the blushing looked really good and natural which was such a big relief honestly.

He really just looked like some guy which was very funny as I really um don't have any dolls in my collection that have a normal faceup (guy addicted to getting too silly with it voice: Well surely getting MORE goofy won't hurt! I think the closest to a normal guy would be Theo? Cordelia perhaps too but she's also so pink lmao) and look like just a guy that you could find at a gas station. This will probably not last as I wanted to turn the forehead marks into silvery scars (I feel we could get a little silly with it and have it be magical or something like that, provides the scars look ok lmao. Future me's problem). I definitely need to add some more shading under his eyes (under eye bags are PERFECT when his eye bags are actually sculpted, I'm not used to that on a sculpt lol), accents to the lips (MAY do lip lines. May just add more color. No one ever knows what my go to is with lips because I hate doing them), add highlights (and maybe use some pearl x powder on the eyelid area... I kind of want him to look MOSTLY natural but I cannot lie, the lure of men with eyeshadow. It's a slippery slope) and mess with his eyes a bit as he looks really good with that purple wig, so I'd like to use colors that coordinate with that if possible (same with the eyes probably?). All in all, this was a lot of work for a low energy day and I feel I'm entering the home stretch a bit!

Day three, and despite how horrendous I was feeling like the entire day, I locked in and got a lot done!

[ID: The same head as above, with silver scarring on the forehead and nose and slightly more pigment on the lips. /end ID]

In pictures the scars look a LOT like leeches to me but it's ok or something. I wanted to do silver as I felt it would be fun to do a more magical twist with the characters and having some funky colored scars would work with that! I started with a layer of light grey paint and Elmer's glue mixed together, then added layers of a silver paint with the glue until it was more pronounced from the resin, how a scar would be, and then shaded with watercolors (before then adding the blushing to make it look like actual scars instead of weird metal globs). Honestly I really liked how the eyebrow and nose ones came out but the forehead ones were more of a cover up job rather than where I wanted to place them, so they may get adjusted later.

Other than that, I started work on his eyes (and most of the day was laying in bed in pain so I didn't get a ton done sadly)! It's not very visible in photos but I also used a glittery powder (pearl ex) on the eyelids to add some sparkle.

All that was left is a bit of scar work, figuring out if I'm going to do lines on the lips (my worst debate always tbh, I feel they rarely look good with my faceup style and are often a pain in my ass), finish the eyes (admittedly this is just because I'm very slow with it as I don't really like working with the resin a ton), and gloss the areas that need it. There is definitely a chance I remove the forehead scarring (the great part about it all being glue is well. It removes easily) and do something different there that's a bit bigger and less small blobs but that is tomorrow's problem. Honestly really excited about the eyes, they look REALLY good from when I've tried them in!

I then proceeded to procrastinate for about a week maybe (time is odd for me rn) because I was so unsure about the forehead scarring but when I picked it back up, I did the finishing touches I planned on here and then wrapped his eyes up and he's done! 2 heads to go (sadly. I'm so scared doing them to be honest cause it's so much work always) but very happy with him!

[ID: The head shown previously, but on his body. His lips and scars are now glossy, he has eyes with a dark blue sclera and bright purple glittery iris in, and is wearing a long straight lavender wig. His body is wearing a teal and purple camo shirt that is tight fitting. The doll is sitting between two other dolls on a shelf. /End ID]

[go-go-devil]

hi, since you're a fan of pathologic i wanted to ask:

have you played pathologic 1 and 2? if so...

would you recommend playing pathologic 1 before pathologic 2? some say that 2 is a remake but also something of a sequel, and pathologic 1 is notoriously difficult to play...

Good evening, and thanks for asking!

For a long while I did not have the means of running Pathologic Classic HD nor 2 on my laptop, but I was still able to experience Classic by watching a friend play through it (as well as getting to play the game in the sense that they let me make choices in all of the dialogue segments which is basically half of the gameplay).

I have far more experience with Classic than 2 since we were actually able to finish the routes in that one, but I can confirm that 2 plays mostly the same but with a few different mechanics. And to clarify: Pathologic 2 is actually a re-imagining of the first game, not a sequel. It has many little call-backs to Classic and I can see why some are speculating that future routes may go even deeper in referencing this, but it can be played as its own game separate from Classic. Blame the English localization for the confusing title.

As for which one I'd recommend to a newcomer?

Pathologic Classic HD, for sure!

The infamy behind Classic's difficulty has largely been blown out of proportion due to a variety of factors. The original translation of Classic before the HD re-release was notorious for being botched and, because of that, WAAAAAY more cryptic than intended which caused a lot of English speaking players back then to get confused and frustrated with it. Besides that, some more modern players get turned off by the 2000's era graphics and occasional jank and call the game bad off the bat without giving it a chance, and then there's people who simply don't pay attention to the game's tutorial and/or try to play it like a action game when it really isn't...

Patho Classic objectively isn't any harder than 2, and I would consider it a better starting point than 2 for the sole fact that I found it to be less stressful than 2's gameplay.

Patho 2 may be more streamlined than Classic, but it can also be quite severe in its death penalty system (which 1 didn't have) and is even harsher when it comes to the rate at which npcs get infected even on its "easiest" difficulty. This can cause many new players (me & my friend included) to oftentimes miss out on interesting npc questlines due to them dying too early for us to save them. There's still always a chance of this happening in Classic as well, but its quicksave feature makes it easier to redo a day if you fuck up. In case of absolute emergencies, we also found it easier to enable God Mode in Classic than in 2.

At the same time, though, I do think Patho 2 has a better tutorial than Classic. Also while I found 2 more stressful, that is very intentional to its gameplay and serves as more of an artistic choice to enhance the story than just put in there for the sake of cruelty. I won't state my opinions on the storytelling of each to avoid any spoilers for both, since its best to know little about the story going into each.

Really I'd say it's up to you on which one you prefer. Honestly my first experience with Classic was more memorable and enjoyable than 2 due to our immensely bad luck with 2's infection rate, but maybe it'll be different for you!

[yakeisoda]

Hello, just wanna start this off by saying that I love your art. I've decided to ask my favourite artists for art tips as I wanna get into it, but no matter what I do it never looks right. So, any tips?

HELLO TYSM!!! ngl i dont think im the best 4 this question im also kinda in a rut rn where im not really satisfied w my art n craving more progress and improvement but im getting there somewhat but very slowly! (ive been this way for a rly long time naow) this might be long but im gna try n throw in the things ik, sorry if my thoughts r messy im not the best in articulating stuff :')

i think a good way to start off is to find out what skill you lack the most or what you want to improve the most on, say for ex: u wna focus on getting better at composition for illustrations, then a good way to improve them is to learn about the composition rules (ex: rule of 3rds, etc), look for any scenes in films/animation or photographies and storybooks , study them and recreate it! go crazy !! ive done a study on a friend's picture before, and have asked my friends if i can use their photographies as practice!

looking for inspiration will also improve ur visual library, they can help u find what u wna put in ur art ! like perhaps certain color palettes or styles, it's best to look at different mediums of art instead of focusing only on one, sometimes u can find techniques meant 4 u! (ex: of this is my friend who used to be a watercolor artist, ive observed them using watercolor techniques when they were still new to digital art! basically mix n match whatever feels good/convenient 4 u :] )

disciplining urself is also good to have more improvement! i have trouble w this the most ever since bc its hard 2 focus if no one is like there to monitor u (in my experience), if u rly wna make progress u have to squeeze in some art practice time in ur schedule, it can be around 15-30 mins or even 3 hrs, completely up to you! (rmb to take breaks!). you can give urself deadlines if that will help n maybe timers too!

my prof always said "Proper practice makes perfect", so it's also best to practice with a clear goal in mind, take notes on the things u lack and if ur watching any art tutorials/speedpaints, take notes of those too! it's good to have something specific in mind so u wont get lost n u wud know what u wna do! it helps u retain info as well so u can look back on stuff, to avoid overwhelming urself u can just focus on small bits first, ex: in anatomy, u can focus on the head area first, break it down to drawing eyes and noses, etc! then u can move onto the torso area!

USE REFS!!!! make use of pinterest or any other refs u can find, cannot stress this enuf go crazyyy w references, make a moodboard full of referencess n go crazzyy w them!! i used to not like doing this bc i just head straight in to drawing bc thats what i was used to but art college trained me 2 use refs bc they help so very much, theyre like ur guideline for what u wna make so u have a clear goal in mind, also photobashing seems like a great practice too never tried it but yes it can help when ur planning an illustration/concept art!

^above also applies to art styles! go crazy n experiment w them!! i think its so very fun to explore diff art styles n not stick to 1, again this depends on u but having a different range of artworks is rly fun, u can go from very pastel soft colors n style, to smth very vibrant n sharp, to smth like dark n chalky-sketchy kind of vibe if im making sense T__T, basically go wild!! go crazy!! dont let urself sit in 1 box! hop into other boxes !! or wear all of them!! or poke holes in the box n add stuff to the box or wear a circle!! trust me it looks so fun if u put different artworks uve made side by side n go wow i did that!!

also create small thumbnails 4 illustration! its really best to plan ahead art too, as i said i used to just head straight in n not plan but ive learned to absolutely enjoy planning making art! collecting refs n seeing what kind of composition goes n what colors wud work is so very fun actually! it rly helps a lot

theres also this one post i lost the link, but basically it shows how much progress u can make if u make loose sketches vs full on rendered illustrations vs a mix of both, again this depends entirely on u bc things r different for everyone! i think that post is really good for teaching abt art progress (if any1 knows where it is pls do link!), i think focusing on sketches n practice is better tho bc it helps u draw more freely n loosely! i think that speeds up ur process more as well n doesnt make u lose interest immediately compared 2 focusing on finishing 1 big rendered illust (talking from experience) but then again its different for every1 so honestly just experiment n see what feels right for u!

i wna say tho that although it is good to make sure ur drawing looks right its also good to just let yourself draw freely, i think what matters is that u understood the structures of something and as long as ur able to apply that in ur own way i think thats gud! i think drawing freely helps u draw more fluidly? like having more expression is what i mean. ive gotten into the "i have 2 make this look right" hole before n i noticed it made my art look stiff, so highlyy recommend doing gesture drawing n life studies! rmb to have fun when practicing n learning,

dont pressure urself too much! enjoy the experience :] ! messy sketches r good!! not everything has to look good or perfect! my sketchbooks from way back were just doodles, pencil sketches no color mostly, theres an occasional lined one w markers , ballpen, n some highlighters, n my drawings were either smth funny that happened w me n frens with our personas or making ocs for my faves or ocs for me in general!

ur sketchbook doesnt have to look pretty its like ur diary but its art ykno! ur thoughts in visual form for the day! (again all up to u as long as u have fun! its all different 4 everyone!)

anw tysm again!! sorry if this was all over the place HAHSAW i tried my best but these r the tips i keep in mind most of the time or the ones i hold closest to me n that i try to apply as much as i cud! if u need anything else clarified just lmk! not the best w words but hopefully it helps :'')! most of the stuff i mentioned here i also need to take into practice HAHWHAW so mb its gud 4 me to write this down so i can finally push myself to do stuff,

[birdybirdnerd]

Hey! I recently read your fic Somewhere Else and it hasn’t left my mind since. Absolutely incredible writing and storytelling, I can tell that it’s going to stick with me. I also loved the inclusion of the Twine game in chapter 37 (literally skived off work for last half of the day playing it), and it’s gotten me super inspired to make something sort of similar for my own fan works. My question is, do you have any sort of resources or tips you picked up when making it? I’m a complete newbie at this sort of thing and beyond downloading Twine and watching a few YouTube tutorials, I’m not quite sure where to start. Thank you so much for reading and thank you for sharing your work, I cannot stress how much I loved Somewhere Else.

IM SOOOOO GOOD AT ANSWERING ASKS W\HEN I GET THEM GUYS, I PROMISE. NO ONE CAN SEE THE TIME STAMP OF WHEN THIS WAS SENT SO I HAVE PLAUSIBLE DENIABILITY

HI anyways thank you so much!!!!! im so happy you enjoyed it and that it inspired you, i had a TON of fun making the game even if it got real frustrating sometimes. thats on me though for deciding to jump feet first into coding a game without doing any proper learning abt it beforehand skjdfhkdjf

the twine website itself is a really good resource, it has a tutorial on how the user interface works for newbies as well as a 'cookbook' on the different specifics of the engine and examples of how things work, and also advice on picking a built in format for the story you want to tell, since twine has a couple different ones that work differently. i just used the basic one, harlowe, which is good for text based multi choice cyoa type things, very basic, very simple and easy

any time i had particular difficulty with something (the confusion clock the clock THE CLOCK-) i would dig through the interactive fiction forum to see if someone had a similar problem, but barring that theres also this twine 2 neocities that has some good tutorials and info, and also? the program itself offers a lot of info while youre coding, if you go looking through the different commands and variables and stuff it tends to explain what they do and how to use them. sorry, im not the best at explaining my process, and also its been over a year since i messed with it and i cant for the life of me remember a lot of that stretch of time lmao

good luck and have fun!!! and remember that if you get too frustrated at any point, take a break. do something else, let your brain breathe, and even if youre not actively thinking abt the problem, your subconscious will be stewing what you Do know in the background and itll be leagues easier when you get back to it to figure out what was wrong

[talenlee]

3e: The Excellence of the D&D Onramp

There’s a recurrent pattern of discourse in the TTRPG community, especially amongst indies, that, cooked down into its parodically simple position, goes:

D&D is hard to teach, and nobody plays it properly.

So let’s talk about D&D having one of the absolute best onramps of all time starting with when I started to play it, in 3rd edition D&D. I bring up this edition of the game because it is absolutely a pigs arse of a game, and I know that a lot of the systems of the rules are only attempted by extremely bold people who needed something systematised.

Lemme tell ya, you run one aerial combat in 3rd edition you quickly invest in every technique you can to ensure you don’t have to run another.

First, a qualifier. D&D’s existing onramp is that it is part of our culture and has been for nearing on sixty years. When I started playing D&D it was older than I was and some of the people I first played with are dead from having lived too long. The current edition of D&D is from 2014, which means it’s now two years older than 4e was when it launched. D&D has had multiple movies, it had literal physical stores for its own branding at one point, it is without a doubt one of the most infrastructurally entrenched RPG brands in the world.

That is a big part of how D&D’s onramp works. It’s everywhere and you can almost always find someone to talk about it with you, or someone on the internet to help you with some element. There’s what we call a paratextual industry around the game. Speaking as someone who has tried to promote the work of indie RPG makers, and for it been called ‘a weirdo who talks about shitty games that aren’t D&D nobody cares about,’ the communal infrastructure is part of D&D and it is powerful.

It’s also, very much not something you can brush off.

Like, it’s really easy to want to do that. After all, it can feel like cheating, right? D&D gets to have poorly written Dungeon Master’s Guides because there’s a huge communal pool of video, podcasts, and personal tuition happy to show it off, and people even learn about how to DM from watching actual tv series and stuff? Right? It’s like how the art of documentation feels like it’s being crushed under a world of video tutorials.

So anyway, let’s pretend for a moment that D&D doesn’t get to be judged on the basis of the sixty years of market dominance and successful entrenchment. Let’s pretend we’re just talking about the books.

D&D gets you playing almost instantly and the thing it gets you playing with is your stuff and that immediately pushes you towards understanding what that means.

The onramp to D&D is in the character creation, which is itself, something like a game. There’s a reason gigadorks like me have spent twenty years caring about 3e D&D builds even though we don’t play the game any more. The actual mechanical puzzle starts with a phrase like:

“Elf Wizard.”

“Dwarf fighter.”

“Half-orc bard.”

The game presents you two pieces to work together, and those things are, you may notice, incredibly stereotypical and basic. A lot of D&D’s racism problems start baked into this part of the game, because of how the game tries to present whole cultural groups. The demihumans, that grouping, yeah, them.

There’s this idea Mark Rosewater talks about in D&D, that he refers to ‘preloading.’ The idea is that if you approach game mechanics to express stuff the players already imagine, or that makes sense to them, when players engage with the mechanics, they’ll have a pre-existing handle on them and be able to imagine a way to treat them that gets them to care and invest.

And they invite you down two paths: What’s an elf do? Okay, cool, I can look that up. It’s over here. And over here there’s what a wizard does. And oh wow that relates to this stuff. And you might be looking at me like I grew a tentacle in my forehead because you’ve probably heard me bullying games for having a complicated, non-streamlined character creation system – how is it okay that D&D makes you look up tables and not okay that Rod Reel And Fist does it?

It’s a matter of why you’re engaging with these things. When you’re checking around the D&D character creation system, in these first times, you are playing with pieces, you’re playing with some of the most familiar pieces in literary canon. The idea of ‘our hero, and his dwarf fighter friend,’ that’s language that’s standardised outside of the game media. And that means that you’re building something that’s both very familiar, and gives you freedom to be playful in that space.

Can it be better? Absolutely, 3rd edition’s character building is extremely cumbersome. There are tons of problems in the game, in its systems, but the thing that starts you playing is so painfully efficient that people don’t even notice it. People act like making your character isn’t playing the game, because, when taken as a whole task people need to do perfectly, to achieve certain results, it is a big homework task. But making choices and learning about those choices is presented as a playful activity.

I’m not trying to be uncharitable with this summary, and I want to make sure that if you’re reading it, I’m not trying to make your position sound silly. Nor am I thinking of anyone specific – that kind of thing is for discord sessions of meanspirited gossip. This is about the general idea that D&D is ‘hard to learn’ or a ‘bad system’ because of it, and that ‘nobody plays it right.

And for that I have to pull one of those memey faces like ‘ehhhhhhhhhhhhhnnnnnn’ because I feel like people are speaking to an emotional truth while making factual assertions that don’t respect the way the actual game that exists exists, and this kind of talk makes for conversations about games and how to make games… worse.

It makes them worse.

And it makes them worse in an unhelpful way.

There’s an impulse in the not-making-D&D community, even those of us who play D&D, to overstate its weaknesses and minimise its strengths. I don’t know why necessarily. On charitable days, I feel like it’s because the problems D&D presents to a designer can seem large and obvious, and on less charitable days I feel like it’s because a lot of us are pretty pissed that we can put in tons of work to make original material and get passed over by someone pooping out stock-art modules on DMSguild.

But if you can appreciate what D&D’s doing good – and its unfair advantages! – then I think you get into better habits, and better perspective on how to make your own games more engaging. Technical superiority isn’t actually an inevitable good, and turns out that sometimes you lose in the Big Game of Capitalism even if what you made is great.

Waging a war against D&D for your life sucks, but I feel like it works better when you’re honest about it. If nothing else, it means someone who sees you talking about it will at least be able to test for yourself what you say. And when we appreciate this problem system, and the problem it represents in the ways it actually is, we’ll avoid weird brain-boiling conversations like ‘Players don’t actually like rolling dice.’

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

[esha-isboogara]

jojo’s bizarre porn tropes

publishing even MORE headcanons before i finish the first set ? an absolute iconic move from me tbh. i went crazy with my tags bro😩but anyways enjoy this …i will do more characters if i can come up with more tropes

here’s part two

jonathan - he’s very vanilla so your videos fall under the passionate category. jonathan takes the act of making love very seriously so expect to cum at least twice in one session. he won’t over stimulate though , he gives you a pleasant high. y’all don’t post a lot but when you do it’s usually a movie that will have the viewers drooling.

joseph- amateur porn. he isn’t too fond on setting up a camera and having a script or whatever. he’d much rather record you giving him head or maybe a lil pov of back shots. joseph makes sure you’re featured on his only fans regularly. videos are usually no longer than 5 minutes.

jotaro- big dick small girl trope. my god this man is hung. people watching your videos are always slightly worried for your safety. how does it fit? women all around the world want to be you. some of the more aggressive sessions almost always lead to concerned comments. jotaro does have a bit of a reputation so he refuses to show his face along with yours.

kakyoin- not a trope but most of your posts are cosplay related. dressing up as your favorite anime characters and fucking for money is a dream come true. a lot of work goes into your videos mainly because of the well put together costumes and make up looks. the entire look gets ruined in the end but presentation is a big deal. the two of you have a cute set up. it’s high effort but the rewards are so worth it.

josuke- innocent boy and experienced woman. he still won’t say it out loud but he is a total bottom so having you top him/take control is perfect. josuke will use titles like “step mom gives new son blowjob during dinner” to catch a persons attention. or so he says. you’d swear he has a bit of a thing for it. your videos are usually a bit longer and medium effort.

giorno- very beautifully done/well put together porn. people who watch the two of you enjoy modern art and pretty landscapes. it’s essentially art house porn. your content is extremely well put together and is pleasing to eye as well as to the dick/pussy. giorno doesn’t much care if his face is recognized-hes a crime lord there’s not much anyone can do at this point.

leone- rough sex! the people who watch your videos are sickos and the others are worried for your safety. lots of tying up, whipping, slapping and abuse of your little hole. don’t worry it’s all consensual and monitored.

bruno- pov style porn. honestly an iconic move from him. he loves to go back and watch your tapes so why not upload them. similar to joseph they’re never longer than five minutes but there’s a good amount of them. occasionally you two will put together tutorials for those less experienced in sex.

jolyne- lesbian! jojo knows how much men love that wlw content so the two of you exploit that fetish to the max. it started off as just a few short clips but as time went on you and jolyne got a whole set up. most of your vids are pretty basic but men especially eat them up so 🤪

hermes- massage porn. she’s always been good with her hands so why not use her abilities for something fun? you guys don’t upload often. not because you don’t want to just because you always forget or get too caught up in what you’re doing.

foo fighters- the two of you were on the weirder side of porn hub. strange toys, story lines and odd outfits. from alien sex to retro porn you’ve done it all. honestly it doesn’t really matter if others find it sexy the two of you enjoy it. it doesn’t take much to convince them to post your videos- it takes longer to explain how the camera works than anything.

[memryse]

Last Life Propaganda: a guide for people with absolutely no idea what they're getting into

Have you ever wondered what on earth is wrong with your Last Life mutuals? Seen Last Life SMP trending #1 and become greatly concerned about why your dash is on fire every Tuesday? Considered checking it out, but don't know anyone involved or where to start or how or even what Last Life is?

Basically, this is a propaganda/FAQ post for people who've never seen a minute of Hermitcraft/Empires/adjacent content in their lives, and have no idea how to get into Last Life. Because God knows I wish I'd had a post like this answering all my questions when I was getting into this series completely blind.

Now is the best time to get into Last Life if you want to experience any of it live, because unfortunately it's looking like the series will be drawing to a close within the next couple of weeks. Luckily, it won't take you very long to catch up!

1. What even is Last Life?

Last Life is a hardcore Minecraft miniseries on YouTube, featuring a bunch of Hermitcraft and Empires SMP members and a few extra friends. Each member starts off with a random amount of lives between 2 and 6. On your final life (your red life), you're not only allowed but encouraged to kill other players. Each week also has "boogeymen" chosen at random from the non-red players, who have to sneakily get a kill Among Us-style. Even if it sounds complicated, I promise you it's not hard to follow in the videos, and there's a handy little tutorial in the first episode explaining it all anyway. The server also has proximity chat (no Discord calls allowed) and a small world border to make sure everyone is stuck near each other.

Last Life is the sequel to 3rd Life, which was a very similar concept but every player started off with exactly three lives and there were no boogeymen.

Basically, if you like death game media, you'll love it. You'll probably also love it if you're not usually a fan of death game media. It's just really good. I love Last Life.

2. Do I need to have seen 3rd Life to watch Last Life?

No, not technically! I would certainly recommend it though, because 3rd Life is an absolute masterpiece of a series. Also, because it's a miniseries, you can watch it in a relatively short amount of time - I would personally recommend Grian's, which will take you just under four hours altogether. Best enjoyed if you binge it all in one sitting, but it's fun and will leave you feeling somewhat empty inside regardless! :D

But, again, it's not required. You just won't understand the 3rd Life references in Last Life.

3. How/where do I watch Last Life?

All Last Life content is available on YouTube. There is no livestream content to catch up on - all videos are recorded in "sessions". Basically, every Friday, everyone logs on for a 3 hour period and records the full thing. That's the only time that they play on the server, and it makes sure that everyone is online the whole time. Lots of interactions to be had!

4. Which POV should I watch?

There are no "bad" POVs for Last Life - everyone is heavily involved in one server event or another every session. It's a really action-packed series. You can theoretically pick any member and go. That being said, here are some of my top recommendations:

Mumbo Jumbo is probably the best for newcomers: he's new to Last Life, having not been in 3rd Life, his episodes are a reasonable length and great fun to watch, and he's been pretty heavily involved in the main conflicts on the server.

GoodTimesWithScar has absolutely fantastic storytelling skills and is easily one of the most entertaining POVs to watch (if not the most). However, he wasn't in the most recent session due to some health problems, so you'd have to pick a different POV for this session.

If you're only looking for a short POV for a trial run, I'd say to check out LDShadowLady or Smallishbeans. Both of them like to keep their episodes short but full of action. Personally, long episodes are the way to go, because the beauty of Last Life is in all its dialogue, but these two are great if you're not quite sure about committing to the series just yet (or if you just prefer shorter videos! that's also cool!)

5. I don't know any of the members, what do I do?

Genuinely, it does not matter! Whether you've been following Hermitcraft for the last decade or this is the first you're even hearing that name, Last Life is equally enjoyable. I can vouch for this; I got into 3rd Life having only seen a couple of Scott's streams and nothing else. I've also gotten multiple (10+) of my friends who aren't familiar with any of the CCs to watch it, and every single one has been blown away by how much they enjoyed it. So, trust me, it's worth checking out :)

6. Does Last Life have lore?

Last Life has a pretty interesting approach to its storytelling: with it being in a 3 hour session format, it is completely improvised. People will have vague ideas of what they want to do each session at best; no events are planned in advance, nothing is scripted. If you need a DSMP comparison, it's pretty much like very early S1 - Disc War or very early L'Manburg era, where they're roleplaying to some extent but not playing fully fleshed out characters (other than a couple of members who are just really dramatic and roleplay constantly anyway). It does require reading into things a little to make them as dramatic as we do, but it's all great fun!

TL;DR: Watch Last Life, it's really good, it'll fill the void in your heart and then tear an even deeper one moments later :D