#designs so good check the og

[thedrotter]

drew @coochie-sniffer3000 's jeff n tony girl designs CUZ THEY SCRATCH MY BRAIN THE SILLIES!!!

[floorpancakes]

princess in my head

happy belated birthday saki my cute sparkly darling fluffy frilly beloved fictional bestie please eat all of the desserts and wear all of the pretty dresses as is your right <3

[the-witchhunter]

You know, if Spider Punk gets people interested in punk, good. We all have to start somewhere and Hobie is a damn good representation. If he is what makes a person go “hey, this seems cool, I should check it out.” good. That’s one more person interested in punk and wanting to get into it. 

That being said, if you are new to punk(hi baby punks!) some things to keep in mind

1. Punk philosophy is largely anti-authoritarian. Individual and even punk communities differ on specifics, and some are more political than others, but the core themes tend to be resisting those who would control and oppress us, and supporting and including people in your community

2. Punk fashion SHOULD NOT BE EXPENSIVE. A lot of fashion companies will try and sell you jackets for a couple hundred bucks, but that’s just corporations trying to cash in on a subculture. A big part of Punk and its history is DIY because Punk should be open to everyone and putting that behind a fashion paywall is just not punk. You don’t even need to be dressing punk to BE punk, but thrift your clothes. Make stencils and use spray paint or bleach to give it a pattern. Use old jeans to make patches. Buy your spikes and studs in bulk and go wild. Turn your old t shirt that doesn't fit anymore into a back patch. Go crazy with some safety pins. You can make more with $30 than you can buy from a designer for $300. And skill is not needed, frankly if it looks a little wonky it makes it look more punk

3. Dental floss makes for good thread for sewing on patches. It’s good for thick, stylistic stitches and is both cheap and durable. Don’t know why I made this its own point but it’s one of the most common tricks for punk DIY besides taking paint to scraps of fabric to make a patch. Honestly, if you want to know how to do more, just ask other punks how they made their vests and jackets, they’ll probably be happy enough to tell you

4. Punk philosophy and music is closely related. The communities evolved around the music scene so it is closely linked. Give some punk bands a try if you haven't already. There’s a bunch of subgenres so you’ll probably find something you like. From OG “proto punk” where the sound was still developing into what we call punk, to pop punk, anarco punk, and folk punk. There are people who say you can’t be punk if you don’t listen to the music, and there’s a whole conversation to be had about all that, but it’s just a good idea to try listening to some punk music

5, Nazis fuck off

6. Seriously, nazis fuck off. There’s a whole history behind it and why we associate skinhead punks with neo nazis. Largely we’ve made it clear we don’t want nazis in our community and the street punk music scene that nazi punks became associated with has made strides to separate themselves from that.

7. Be cool and respectful of people regardless of religion, ethnicity, race, sexuality, gender, background, etc. Solidarity with our community is important and all sorts are welcome. Gatekeeping isn’t cool and frankly women and minorities have done a lot for punk as a whole. Respect for everyone

[p0rk-guts]

Velvette if she served cunt

Design breakdown below 👇🏾(BEWARE IT'S VERY LONG)

Alright going into detail about my gripes and edits. Like Velvette but her design is just. Not good to me. None of her (main) outfit details look like they fit to me— pinstripe pants + long fur coat paired with black crop top and scene sleeves? Skull earrings? TINKERBELL HEELS????? Tell me how any of that meshes well or even makes SENSE for the social media influencer persona she's supposed to have going on. Now that I think about it I'm pretty sure she's supposed to be clown themed... But I'm just gonna toss that idea out bc being a revered social media influencer and a clown at the same time just seems a bit oxymoronic to me, and the "clown" details aren't adding shit for me.

And don't think I forgot about her features. Pale ash grey skin and wavy hair at best. If she was supposed to be some type of creature where a nonhuman skin tone would make sense then maybe I could let it go?? But as far as I can tell she doesn't have an object or creature or animal theme like the other V's and if she does I shouldn't need to do detective work to figure it out. There is no reason for *any* of these poc characters to have grey skin, especially since they don't have any other poc features at all.

Sorry that shit gets me heated anyways. Onto my redesign. Gave her a more obviously black skin tone and textured hair bc I love a 30 inch buss down as much as the next girl but considering how there are no significant poc cast members with visibly textured hair I think she deserves to flaunt some coils if no one else will.

Ngl I'm not. A fashion girlie. Idk what's trendy idk what screams "influencer" so a lot of this was just throwing shit at the wall that I've seen around recently but it looks cute enough to me. And there was a bit of inspiration taken from Aliyahcore and ghetto fabulous fashion ❤️

If you can't tell this is shamefully inspired by lovesart23's Velvette reimagining because imo they had some outstanding ideas for Vel. I low-key stole their idea for those floating eyes in her hair that follow her around and help her keep tabs on shit it was just a superb idea for a social media overlord to me. I also took some inspo from @furbtasticworksofart 's redesign because vampire influencer sucking up the souls of her followers in exchange for content??? Too good (also the eyes were supposed to have bat/vamp wings I just forgot 😭) So yeah she's a vampire demon now. Without the features she was looking too human anyhow. Maybe she also feeds off of the energy of her followers through tech like after Vox mind controls them or whatever... Idk idk is that anything

Speaking of Vox, the screen glasses are meant to connect her to him w/ their color and shape while serving the purpose of being like a second phone she can post and check the web with. Like lovesart said in their reimagining vid, Vel doesn't really do more than pose for selfies and scroll on her phone when it comes to social media so in my head she's constantly flipping her shades on and off, using them to scroll and stay active, and they can show when she's not paying attention or respect to something/someone bc scrolling is more worth her time in the moment.

The hearts everywhere are also supposed to kinda represent social media likes + connect her back to Val w/ his heart patterns. That might've been what the hearts in her og design were for but. I just didn't like their placement bc I'm a nitpicker and a hater❕

I have so much more I could say about possible ideas for Velvette because I love evil black girls and I only want them to succeed in my media and I could treat her so much BETTER but I'll refrain bc this is way too long anyway.

Alright for reading/scrolling through all that rambling I offer you the sketches + some alt hair ideas I had

P.S. I'm very open to constructive criticism but if I see anyone just dick riding in my replies or rb's I'm just blocking you on sight ✌🏾

[kitocrystal]

Checking out other Quest AUs as I wait for my will to come back to continue with Inky Mystery.

(The conflict has not let down yet and I’m starting to feel dread)

Anyway, go check out this neato retell of the og Quest story by @thequestfortheinkmachinecomics. The characters’ designs are nicely touched up, their personalities seems more natural now, the art is really cool and oh no, I’ve run out of juice for words… I just know that this retell will be good so I’ll be on along for this ride.

[thecrowsart]

people: omg we finally get to see hyper! me: omg we finally get to see more angles of kusuriuri's clothes! observations and (A LOT OF) ranting under the cut:

1.)

The inside sleeve design has been revealed! It's pretty similar to the outside design but instead of that four-petal design, it's a gold circle. Also, it looks like the large eye is shared by both sides, but based on how the sleeve looks in other images, it must be really really big..... I guess they can get away with it lol. Like, if you laid out the sleeve fabric, I think it would look like this:

2.)

THE BACK OF HIS OBI. What the hell kinda knot is this actually... like, does anyone here know about obimusubi because I'm not very good at knots but if it comes down to it I will learn how this works. I already thought this based on the promo art but it seems like his obi fabric is double-sided, with purple on one side and the check pattern on the other, with a red trim. That lighter salmon color in the knot seems to be a different fabric, maybe an obiage? It's not tucked into the front so I'm not sure if that's the right term, but in any case it's some kind of extra fabric. If the purple and check are really one piece of fabric, then the knot is like... a hitch? It's some kind of one-loop bow, and it's quite bulky so he might have an obimakura in there. Whatever it is, it's considerably more elaborate than OG Kusuriuri's obi, which was that red brocade just tied into a large crooked bow. Who is helping movie Kusuriuri get dressed in the morning? (I'm sure he can do it himself and I commend him for the dedication to the aesthetic lol).

3.)

His mirror is now kept looped around this thick cord that kind of comes out of nowhere and disappears into his obi. First of all, how is the mirror staying up like that since the string is only looped once. Second, the thick white cord looks the same as the one that comes out of the left side of his obi and loops around his back, but I'm not sure how they would connect. Logically, they probably are the same cord and it goes through his obimusubi somehow. 4.)

This one was actually noticeable in the very first trailer as you can tell, since the second screenshot is from that trailer, but I somehow never noticed it until now. Kusuriuri has neck markings now! In a different frame I caught a glimpse of the part that goes into his collar, it looks like a circle, though it's not visible in either of these screenshots. But from the first screenshot and some other frames I saw, it looks somewhat off-center. I wasn't sure if it was just a weird frame at first, but it looks consistent the few other times (time?) that part of his neck is visible. It looks like the strip of red that leads down to the circle curves off to the left rather than going straight down the center. I didn't realize this before but his neck is actually concealed in most of the promo images.

5.)

A better look at the back of his socks, plus two things that were visible this whole time but I didn't notice: first, his black leggings have this folded layer you can probably see on top. I'm not sure how to describe it and I don't know exactly how it works. It seems weird to me that he would have three sock layers (outer black, inner black, white), so I think the two black layers are probably still part of the same sock. I'm just not sure exactly what's up with it. Secondly, his geta have metal corners on the teeth! I don't think I've seen that on real geta, so maybe it's just a random detail, but if it's a thing on some real geta, I wonder if it's to keep the wood from wearing away there. Also another think I'm just noticing, there's a reinforcing wedge of wood under the front part of his geta that overhand the front tooth. You can see it a little in the second image.

Overall, that's all the new design stuff I noticed. Since I just drew him twice and spent like all day thinking about this, I've realized his design is way more elaborate than the original one. He has a bunch of little doodads, like the ties around his ankle or that decorative tie that comes out of his ohashori:

which still bothers me because I've never seen the back of it. Where are those strings going. And how is it secured in the first place? is it tied or pinned underneath his ohashori, like on the tie under the obi (not sure if there's a name for it)? What is it? Why does he have this here?

These details as well as things like the corners and wedge on his geta, the red trim on the obi and the check pattern, and his elaborate eye make up are all design elements that could never really have worked for a tv show. It's impressive to me even that OG Kusuriuri had that hand drawn brocade texture and the designs on his kimono that he did. It's the type of thing animators usually avoid, lol.

I like the movie design visually, but my god is it a pain in the ass to draw. Due to the aforementioned details of course and the wider variety of colors. Oh yeah, my last (for real) observation is that this Kusuriuri looks a lot less human than our OG friend. His skin is entirely whitish-grey, and he has that white/purple and red hair, and now he has markings on his neck instead of just on his face. (Unrelated but I feel like they made his lip tattoo less prominent and it makes me sad because it's one of my favorite things about Kusuriuri's design). But Hyper, from that very small glimpse we caught of him, looks more mundane than the original. I think it's the combination of his black hair and his markings being red instead of gold. I wonder what the rest of him will look like.... It was interesting to me that his face is drawn differently from Kusuriuri. In the TV anime, they have the same face shape and features, but their hair and coloring is different. And OG Hyper had a slightly different version of Kusuriuri's clothes. We can't see this new Hyper's clothes, but his face is more square looking. He looks like a different person... interesting lore implications.

Okay, I really must stop there.

[the-bitter-ocean]

(MAJOR 2HATS SPOILERS- Artist’s notes under the cut)

Overture/ Beginning/Prelude/Foreward

here are the og sketches of the opening scene in ISAT I did of what it would be like if any of the other party members was in Loop’s position. If you want to see the cool finished version of the Overture composition (Mirabelle) you should go look at @tealgoat wonderful piece that can be found here

First initial draft of designs+ personality of each one can be found here and the latest redesign/ redrawing of those designs + human designs can be found here

The first one I worked on was “Overture” which depicts my take on a SASASAP! Mirabelle more commonly known as “Rewind” or “Riri” {{she/they}} for short in my Au In Cycles And Cessation. I wanted her reaction to be sad and desperate but most noticeably angry. She tried so hard and it all amounted to nothing. She couldn’t take it anymore. She is the only one of the four shown visibly angry.

Second one is “Beginning” which depicts my take on a SASASAP ! Bonnie aka “Constant” or “Con”/“Connie” <(they/them)> for short. I wanted the emotion for Bonnie to be sadness, anger and confusion. Blind to the situation at hand because they made their wish on impulse so that they could be free. They are the only ones out of the four who have their eyes closed.

Third one is “Prelude” which depicts my take on a SASASAP ! Isabeau aka “Cycle” or “Cy” [[he/they/it]] for short . I wanted Isa’s emotions to be sadness but in contrast to both Mira and Bonnie I wanted the emotion to be something that’s quieter and more subtle. The emotions are sadness, resignation and relief. Happy that this can finally end- one way or another. He is the only one out of the four visibly smiling.

Last but not least is “Foreward” which depicts my take on a SASASAP! Odile aka “Eon” <<any pronouns>>. I wanted Odile’s emotions to be subtle in the way that Isabeau’s was but in a different direction. The emotions are sadness, resignation, determination. Theyre resigned to their decision and knows she has no other options left but moves forward anyhow. She is the only one of the four visibly determined to end things once and for all.

I know for the aus my mutuals Basil (Of Stitches & Sequence) Pastell (In Recipies & Repetition) and Teal (In Tales of Time) made (which are very good and you should all go check them out) the alt loopers guide is loop guiding them and not their alt selves so the drawings/ designs is not canon to any of those stories!! but it still a neat thought experiment / character study.

[tmmyhug]

mangoball archives

(follow up to this post)

so since twitter is collapsing, the search for a good mangoball backup led me to this project by @this-glittering-world and. it is absolutely fantastic. it's a full mangoball recreation in html, including the christmas special and author's notes. there's dark mode and light mode and even the option to read it as a chat fic without all the twitter styling?? not to mention it's just a well designed site? i'm very impressed.

imo, this is the best backup of mangoball right now and it deserves much more attention. check it out:

https://glittering.world/mangoball/classic

the other archive I want to direct attention to is the one on thread reader. this is slightly less reliable because if the thread gets deleted or if twitter goes down it'll stop working, but it works for now. also it looks like you can save the threads as PDFs for a couple bucks which is handy. here are the links to the og and the christmas special:

[hansoeii]

Several things: -LOVE your art, it’s amazing! Especially the one with Crowley and Aziraphale under the umbrella - which software do you use? Your art always look SO gorgeous (cheeky quote from GO right there lol) - how did you get so good at drawing?And thank you for encouraging other people to keep drawing and being so kind as I sometimes can’t help but compare my sketches to others and feel silly, but I guess it’s just a learning curve… Thank you so much for bringing your art to the world!😊

Thank you so much!!

I use Clip Studio Paint for drawing and Photoshop for small adjustments!

2. Haha thanks! Honestly...it's the hyperfixations. I managed to improve a lot in just a year because I've been drawing SO much cos there's so many shows and movies I became obsessed with that I wanted to create art for. So by drawing a lot I just naturally improved. For example these two Illustrations are just a year apart:

I actually didn't actively try to improve, it's been a while since I did proper studies (I just don't really have the time for it between freelancing and art school), it just happened.

But I can absoluetly recommend going on YouTube and look for some art tutorials if you actively want to start improving! There's some channels that helped me so much back then:

moderndayjames

Incredible shape language and super insightful tutorials on all kinds of topics! I learned so much from him.

Ahmed Aldoori

So many awesome tutorials on so many different areas of art. Love it.

Marco Bucci

Incredible tutorials on color theory and understanding how color works in general! Learned SO much from him!

Sinix Design

The OG tutorials I began learning from. I watched his videos religiously as a teen. I adore his painterly style and adopted it in some way, haha.

Ethan Becker

This dude sometimes drops these tiny art tips that just completely blow my mind and that I adopt immedietly. He's super entertaining but also such a great teacher.

And I can also recommend checking out this book by James Gurney if you want to get better at colors!

And for anatomy I highly recommend the Morpho books!

But improvement doesn't only come from drawing a lot. A lot of the time I don't draw for a while and just study the world and artists around me and suddenly I improved when I get back to drawing. Don't ever overwork yourself to the point that you don't enjoy what you do anymore. Take breaks and listen to your body!

I learned to try and not compare myself to other artists, which helped a lot. Through conventions and social media I made so many lovely artist friends and realized how we're all struggling in a very similar way. A lot of us don't even really know what we're doing most of the time, haha. But we help each other out, it's such a wonderful community. I think when you're not actively part of the community it tends to feel like other, more successful artists are some kind of art gods that have perfected the craft and never struggle. But believe me, all the artists you admire go through rough times all. the. time. Sometimes what they do feels easy and natural, other times (more often than not) it feels like you have to try and learn how to walk all over again and you start to doubt your abilities. I personally go through that so many times.

So what I'm trying to say is that instead of comparing yourself to the artists you admire, learn from them instead. Ask questions, befriend fellow artists, study the artists you enjoy and just have fun with it!

And finally I thought it would be fun to share some of my horrendous Johnlock fanart from a decade ago for some motivation:

I hope my answer didn't overwhelm you, but I thoight it would be nice to give a more detailed answer!

Have a wonderful day and keep drawing! :)

[kidstemplatte]

papas reacting to fnaf

this is so silly but i’m a diehard fnaf fan. also i started thinking about the parallels between the afton and emeritus family and got rlly emotional LMAO. please enjoy teehee

primo

-you’re sitting at your computer, losing your fucking mind. why is night 4 so hard???

“let me try.” he says.

-you know he won’t get far, bless his heart, but you’ll let him give it a shot.

-little do you know, he’s an absolute BEAST

-he takes a seat at your desk and starts clicking.

so i… stop them?”

“yeah. just don’t let them get into the office.”

“the power’s going down.”

“yeah, when you use the cameras, turn on the lights, or use the doors, it’ll go down. then it’s game over.”

he nods.

-he’s weirdly quiet, clicking away, until you suddenly hear the joyous chimes indicating he’s survived until 6 am.

“is that all?” he goes.

-your mouth is literally agape, you’re in shock.

-it doesn’t scare him at all

-he starts playing the game at his office whenever he needs a break. doesn’t flinch.

-lowkey sheds a tear at henry’s speech.

-he doesn’t like security breach, he prefers the repetitiveness of the old games

-he takes the lore very seriously, like it’s a piece of fine literature LOL

-the story of the afton family is heartbreaking to him and he relates to it a tad </3

-his favorite game is the OG and his favorite character is freddy. he’s a simple man.

secondo

-“this is stupid. what am i supposed to- FUCK! SATANAS! STAI INDIETRO, CREATURA DISGOSTA!”

-he clears his throat.

“i was caught off guard.”

-he doesn’t want to watch the lore videos at first because he thinks it’s “childish” but soon is sucked in.

-watches the lore videos with you and is specifically fascinated with william aftons character.

-he likes kids so he’s immediately disgusted by the cruelty of his actions

-he makes it his life’s mission to unpack the psychology of william afton

-his favorite is fnaf 4, he likes the nightmare designs

-HATES BALLOON BOY. wants to punch him in the face.

-he’s not very good at the games and curses so loudly when he plays because he’s so determined to make it through the night 😭

terzo

-“five nights at freddy’s? why are you spending the night with freddy and not me?”😏

-terzo hates mascots so he’s already scared shitless.

-when he plays the game he talks to himself like a maniac.

“no. stay, bunny. do not move. you too, bear. WHERE DID THE CHICKEN COME FROM? no, let’s NOT eat- eat by yourself, chicken!”

-loses his mind at the jumpscares, screams like a little girl.

-but he’s so interested in the complexity of the lore

-terzo goes down internet rabbit holes late at night LMAO so he’s more than willing to watch lore videos with you

-bro had to do a double take when he saw toy chica💀

-“purple man? he has good taste, no?”

immediately takes it back when he finds out what his deal is

-hums the theme song while he’s at work.

-his favorite game is fnaf 2 (and it has nothing to do with toy chica)

copia

-take a shot every time i say this on my account:

copia is a big fat dork.

(but we all are too, and we love him for it)

-he doesn’t understand it’s scary at first. aww, look at the bear! clicks freddy’s nose on the poster over and over. “boing! boing! boing! boing! boing!”

-but as soon as he checks the cameras he’s like OH. i see what this is.

-he gets so stressed playing the game LMAO

-when you introduce him to the lore he’s so fascinated and deeply invested. it rattles his brain but he can’t get enough.

-the next morning after you watch a video with him he has deep eye bags. you find out he stayed up all night watching lore videos.

-soon he’s a diehard fan. he keeps merch in his office beside his comics and other collectibles.

-his favorite game is pizzeria simulator because he loves the non-scary part 😭

-he loves foxy because he’s “misunderstood”🥺

-and mangle, thinks it’s sad how the kids took her apart and put her back together :,(

-has all the plushies LOL

[meruz]

all the lil books i have self-published in the last 5 yrs... I just wanted to take pics of all of them together. my children.. most of these are out of print now.

loser's club fanzine is hiding underneath vibe check and also..honorable mention to Pokemon Traveler my og anthology zine baby a book thats too big for me to bring with me whenever i move LOL and thus lives at my parents house

(old pic)

I've been selling my art at anime cons and stuff for like over 10 years now and i have this issue where i only like making art that is a flat image. like i don't enjoy making small trinket-y merch like charms and pins, and I don't ever have good ideas for single iconic vignette designs form patches or tshirts. whenever I go to a con i just go through all the illustration and fanart files ive made for kicks over however many months its been since the last con and i just print em all out LOL. but now i run into the problem of having so many prints all the time and It's a pain to keep track of loose prints like that so my solution... is to put them all into books and become guy who just brings books to cons. so YEAH here's to many more years of books!

[seawing-vibes]

Finally did this !!! With Sora :) !! She’s one of my favs so I had to do her designs <33 The top row is more of ‘canon’ designs for her to me, so the graphic novel and wiki design’s + Liighty’s design will always prevail as the Sora I think of when reading the books lmao

The bottom row are all designs from artists on Tumblr ! All of these designs are soo good an all these artists are super great at designing so check em’ out !!

Liighty - Wings of Fire PMV: Sora: In Fact

@avianwofdesigns - Sora

@wofdesignhub - Sora

@daily-wof-designs - Sora

Here is the blank template if anyone else wants to do this!! Unfortunately I can’t find CanineDragons’ original post so this is a version I scraped together from the OG template !!

[genericpuff]

Do you have any recommendations for comics on tapas? I'm rather new to the app so I wondered if you had any. Sorry if someone already asked!

Oh, so many! Tapas was one of my OG homes waaay back in the day, when I was still getting into drawing comics (back then it was gag-a-days). I spent a lot of time reading comics on there and it was one of my first introductions to comic platforms in general (next to SmackJeeves, RIP).

Rock and Riot - 1950's LGBTQ+ gangster teenagers getting into shenanigans and turf wars. Very cute and fun and adorable <3

Monster Pop! - Monster girls who are besties! This one has some real gorgeous art especially if you like the original vibes of S1 LO, lots of bright beautiful colors and lineless shapes. The creator of this comic, mayakern, now develops comfortable and eco-friendly skirts with her wife and pals for plus-sized folks! (they have pockets!)

A BETTER PLACE - Young girl Hannah and her little brother Theo find something cool in the woods. Children becoming gods. This was one of those comics that had some REALLY cool "you had to be there" time travel elements that aren't quite as immersive in hindsight (I was one of those people who were there and DAMN it was awesome), but it's still absolutely worth the read and it operates as a sort of prequel to another one of Harry Bogosian's comics on the platform.

Fail by Error - This comic is long since done with, its creator having moved on to bigger things, but at one point in time, this was the titan series on Tapas, before the platform became predominantly BL's and isekais. Fail by Error was truly one of the best of the best of Tapas-hosted comics from its golden era of comedy comics. Also the creator made art for me once and I still have it! <3

(my babieees <3)

RandoWis - funny gag strip is funny ! He also draws an MMO-themed comic that - coincidentally - when I double checked, looks like it stopped updating in 2021 until two days ago. So yeah, good time to check that one out too!

Undying Happiness - Naomi takes a chance on love and decides to meet up with a guy she met online. He turns out to not look like the guy in the photos in the most hilariously absurd way.

Deep Fried Pudge - Okay, this is a really weird inclusion because like... this comic isn't good. This comic is painfully bad. Like, "roll your eyes into the back of your skull at your dad's stupid jokes" bad. This comic has not stopped updating daily since 2012. It literally just had its 11 year anniversary. Every update is just a single panel either making some pun or just stating very innocent, inoffensive opinions. There are four thousand of these things. And every single one is done with the same art style and joke structure as before, the comics from today look and feel like a 7 year old made them the exact same way they did 10 years ago, as if trapped in a hellish time capsule of its own design, and I love it, I freaking love it. Its existence quite literally defies human nature. Reading it and attempting to comprehend why it exists is like staring into the eyes of some Eldritch god that chose peace over chaos. Pudge will outlive all of us. Pudge will outlive the universe. All hail Pudge.

[centrally-unplanned]

Today is the 20th Anniversary of the release of Haibane Renmei, which is a great time to post art. Good art, you ask? Oh the best - early 2000′s wallpapers from the dregs of the internet, of course! 

Nothing says “graphic design is my passion” like throwing black font on a black background because, like, its the Black Parade? It has to be black???

Another genre of Wallpaper at the time was the ‘anime + poetry’ blend, which Haibane was a poster child for:

Posted by “Knight Of Lain” in 2005 as their first wallpaper, King tier shit. This genre really died out by ~2010, but I think early internet had a lot of quasi-spiritual, “Christian-ish but I don’t like, read the bible ya know?” teens for whom Haibane’s ennui & iconography really hit home. Those people are either practicing capital-W Witches or Gwyneth Paltrow now.

Something I did discover when browsing DeviantArt was the people who uploaded “wallpapers” that were just screenshots? Of their desktops? So like their UI was still there, so you couldn’t really download it as a wallpaper:

At the time that would be frustrating, now its perfect Y2K-core vibes. “Posted in 2006″ yeah I gathered that, show me the Warcraft 3 mods don’t tease me like this!!

To diversify a bit, I did find this Winamp skin in the Museum, fully ‘flipped image’ and everything like how it was done at the time:

I find this particularly amusing because I know why it exists - Serial Experiments Lain was hugely popular with the techno scene for obvious reasons, so there are tons of winamp skins for that show, and Haibane is related to Lain, so even though Haibane shares like none of Lain’s aesthetic in that regard...why not right?

On the more professional side, Megatokyo Author Fred Gallagher absolutely did a Haibane-inspired sidestory in his webcomic in 2007! He loved the anime and I think its ‘genre’ was something he was trying hard to emulate in the late 2000′s:

Link if you want to read it, though the Haibane elements are more aesthetics than plot.

To end this a little meta, Haibane wallpapers, like everything back then, were built out of “constituent parts”, official art from scanned artbooks and promotional material, cut & recoloured in photoshop. One of the big source ones at the time came from this image, if I recall correctly:

Which is funny, because it kindof isn't from Haibane Renmei? That isn’t Rakka. Its from Yoshitoshi Abe, in a doujin he published in 1998 *called* Haibane Renmei, but it was extremely different from the show. Its just a collection of standalone art jumping between cute and gothic-creepy, and these angels live in modern Japan:

The latter creepy stuff is actually kindof funny, as you can tell this guy is definitely designing for Serial Experiments Lain at the time - which shares that sensibility deeply - but its an aesthetic that would barely survive in the actual product by the time the *true* predecessor doujin of the anime, Haibane of Old Home, would be released in 2001. But since so many Haibane fans *were* alt-edgy goth loving freaks due to how Haibane was situated & transmitted in western anime cultural spaces at the time (and its inherent themes, not taking that away), pulling from the extant creepy art out there was a natural instinct. So that og image just...became Rakka.

You can check out the 1998 doujin here in full if you want - if you are a fan of NieA under 7, the other anime based on one of ABe’s doujin, you will definitely notice some proto-characters for that story in this.

(Also since it has happened before, every art featured here is unironically great, their creators are great for making them. Cringe is dead, I love all of this) 

[therichantsim]

Simblr Gratitude 💜💜💜

I have been sitting on this because what are words... Whew, okay here goes nothing. After a season of feeling icky and not being sure if I should continue with simblr, storytelling and even playing the sims altogether. I'm glad I was encouraged. My first shout-out is going to my good sis @cinamun. I for real deal love you. We keke in the DMs and talk about all kinds of stuff but you are a queen and the cornerstone of black simblr. Even if I were to leave I would always come back to check on you, scroll your page, and heart all your shenanigans. The second shout-out goes to @maxfaiden/@greighish. I think anyone who has had the pleasure of having you as a reader definitely has to enjoy your amazing and sometimes in-depth analysis of their story. We live for that shit!!! I know we all like to say we don't do it for the engagement but to some extent yes the hell we do. So, thank you for braving these internet streets to give us the breakdown. You are appreciated. The third shout-out goes to the day one OG readers that have always liked, commented, and reblogged @geminispeaketh @quesims @omgkayplays @ladytee918 @theosconfessions @helloavocadooo @shesthespinstersimmer @trumpets0ng @missyv89 @sandibat69 @bbdoll @mysimsloveaffair @cross-design. Y'all have been riding with this crazy blog since I turned it into a simblr. Up next are my new friends @beebeesiims, @oatberrytea, @yooniesim @riverofjazzsims @happy-lemon @nyrarachelle @beachyserasims @happy-lemon @kissalopa @invisiblequeen I know a lot of you found me during my BC challenge but I appreciate you for sticking around and engaging in my maddness.

I know I probably forgot to mention someone which is why this sat in my drafts for two days. Yet still please know you all are appreciated. Especially now when we're living in real-life dystopian times. This community of misfits has been and hopefully always will be my place of online mental refuge, fantasy, comedy relief, rant space and so much more. I've learned so much about writing, editing, gaming, and non-sim-related knowledge. Peace, love, and grace to you all.

[a-cloud-for-dreams]

Okay, I caved and downloaded Romance Club😭😭 Does anyone have any good story recommendations? I'm still gonna be on Choices and post Choices content (and finish off the books on my reading list). I just feel like I need to stop relying on one storytelling app

Ugh, this is such a weird feeling! It reminds me of when I switched from Episode to Choices and I had to acclimate to the better quality of stories imao. I just wanna ✨expose myself✨ to more interactive apps and since Storyscape or wtvr doesn't exist anymore this is the closest I can get

Kali: Flame of Samsara (UP TO DATE)

Astrea's Broken Heart (UP TO DATE)

Heaven's Secret: Requiem (UP TO DATE)

Chasing You 2 (UP TO DATE)

W: Time Catcher (UP TO DATE)

Love, Sin, and Evil Vol. 1 (UP TO DATE)

The Desert Rose (UP TO DATE)

Garden of Eden (UP TO DATE)

Soulless (UP TO DATE)

7 Brothers (UP TO DATE)

Song of the Crimson Nile (CATCH UP NEXT DIAMOND RUSH)

Legend of the Willow (NEXT DIAMOND RUSH)

Heart of Trespia (NEXT DIAMOND RUSH)

Psi (NEXT DIAMOND RUSH)

Chasing You (STARTED...)

Sails in the Fog (STARTED...)

Dracula: A Love Story (STARTED...)

Rage of the Titans (STARTED...)

Hell and Highwater (STARTED...)

Shadows of Saintfour

COMPLETED

Kali: Call of Darkness: 9/10; love the MC, the characters, the story progression, the Dozen lore, replayability, etc. but gets a point off for its problematic depiction of Indian culture and Hinduism) tbh it deserves an extra point or two off because I despise the way Remy clearly wrote from a Eurocentric perspective, but this is also the first RC book I read after the slew of mid Choices books so I got attached unfortunately

Theodora: 9.6/10; I got the ending where I was only able to save my soul and it made me sad 😭 the story was well written but there were parts where I was just a lil bored. At least, that’s how I felt initially before I became obsessed with the book. It's objectively amazing etc. but I feel kinda robbed from screentime with the OG characters if that makes sense? Either way the writer did a great job writing them into the plot in later seasons and the MC is so amazing I love her <3 it’s not easy to write the progression of multiple relationships already but to have a different set of likable LIs every season is incredible!

Arcanum: 9.8/10; THIS BOOK WAS SO GOOD omg I love how the plot came full circle and the MC was interesting and well-written (her character design was also top tier). It's such a unique concept for a book I love it. I feel like S3 could have gone by a lil quicker (along with a couple of other nitpicky things) but that could just be because S2 was so full of action

Heaven's Secret: 9.9/10; I just started its sequel, but I was pleasantly surprised at how engaging this book was! I like the gradual progression from being a new student to slowly learning the truth behind your death and about the academy. The final battle scene was super cool, and I feel like everything had a logical explanation (ex. Shepha only having power over light). I also like the different pathways of being an Angel, Demon, or Harmony Bearer (which I was!) it was really fun and seems like a replayable book <3

Vying for Versailles: [review pending, check later]

Sins of London: [review pending, check later]

Heaven's Secret 2: [review pending, check later]