#even though thats not necesarry!

[chiptrillino]

Do you gave any advice for a still (kinda new) artist?

that is... a loaded question...

work smart not hard is my way to approach art though. and i would have loved if someone would have drilled that into me when i was younger? like... i still strugglewith that. but... it connects to the questions: what do i want to tell? and how can i show it?

defining this is a huge help to me. because some things need a bg to tell the story better. in other moments i don't need it because what i try to say is already told with just a pose or an object.

a bit rough and unperfect lineart is something most people don't look at. a bit a crooked nose or uneaven eyes, in general minor mistakes or crookedness in your art is something people usualy don't tend to see or point out because people look ant the entire picture and composition. (oh... -uncaps red marker- all my mistakes you guys ignore)

so... take shortcuts to achive what you want to tell. if you want to take them of course. don't push yourself because you think you have to. you don't know how something looks you look it up. if there is a free (emphasis on free) pattern use that. or learn how to make brushes for braids and pattern to have an easiertime.

the key for working smart for art are refrences. and to not shy away form them. there are usefull 3D tools in the web for free. you can use fotos to look how angles look like, you can take pictures of yourself.

there is this idea of art having to be hard and difficult in order to be worth something. which is just a stupid point of view. if you use CSP and have these 3D dolls available, use them. there is a reason they are there. use google sketch up as help for environment. if photos don't do it for you. there are many 3D design tools that help visualize what you would like to draw. and there are even artifical drawing rendering tool that can help you with environment.

to struggle through art and forcing yourself through something unpleasant will hurt you mentally on the long run. it kills the joy in the process and at the end can lead to burnouts or just dropping the hobby. (there is a slight difference if it is your job but there are methodes for these scenarios too) so work smart. us the tools that are here to help you visualizing what you want to show us. uhm... finding ref is relative easy but in case you would like to see what i use

adorastock: for posese

for artifical enviorment: this one got really popular a while back. its als just fun to play with :D

animal head references: sould my sould to this for obvious reasons!

manekin for shadows on the face: you can also just use it for head angles :D!

so... i think i talked to much ;;; sorry for the long post!

i couldn't find any art on your blog so i can't give you direct feedback. but you are a talented writer, i like how you portray izumi!

[urupotter]

Peter Pettigrew: the difference between telling and showing

One of the most annoying things about the harry potter fandom is it’s tendency to uncritically accept what we are told about a character at face value, even in the face of contradictary evidence. This shows itself most clearly in regards to Peter Pettigrew.

The narrative constantly tells us that Wormtail is a weak, inneffective, useless wizard. Wether its McGonagall talking about his lack of intelligence and academic prowess, Sirius and Remus, saying that he was so weak no one would have imagined making him secret keeper, or even Voldemort deriding him, we are constantly told by characters that are generally considered talented wizards of wormtails magical and general ineptitude.

And yet... by the standards that these characters judge others as competent, wormtail exceeds expectations.

The marauders are (rightly) considered talented wizards due to two feats. The creation of the marauders map and, with the exception of Remus, becoming animagi. We are given no indication that Peter was not as involved in the former than the other marauders, and he also accomplished the latter. James and Sirius were also noted to have had excellent grades, yet these are not a reliable indicator of superior talent or power. After all, Percy Weasley had better grades than Harry Potter, yet few would consider the former a more powerful wizard.

Becoming an Animagus is sufficient, though not necesarry to demonstrate that a wizard is talented at transfiguration. (Note how Dumbledore is not an Animagus yet he is the greatest transfigurer in the series). In addition, wormtail proved adept at conjuration, the second most difficult branch of transfiguration after human transfiguration. Thus, we must pay little credence to Minerva over Wormtails so called lack of talent.

Voldemort calls him a weak wizard, yet aside from him, nobody else expresses greater capability in Dark Magic (Snape being the possible exception). He can easily cast the killing curse, the most powerful of the unforgivables. He blows up a street and kills twelve muggles with a single curse, a feat which made Sirius Black the most infamous of the Dark Lords servants, when it was mistakenly attributed to him. He also performs a very dark ritual to restore Voldemorts body. This is more impressive than anything done by any other Death Eater (again, Snape being the possible exception). Yet he is the only one regarded as weak.

What’s the point of all this? The point is to show that whatever they may believe, these characters are, in fact, wrong to believe these things. The whole point of Peter as a character is that he is always misjudged and underestimated, amd thats what allows him to manipulate them and outmaneuver them.

It’s frustrating that fandom doesn’t realize this. It’s fine for the character’s to believe that Peter is incompetent, but if you as a reader want to understand him as a character, it is crucial to see that this perception is, in fact, wrong.

[se2sf]

Day 5 - Coastal California & Redwood Day

When I arrived to the Grants Pass, I was tired and decided to spent the night in the Walmart parking lot. I love Walmart, is a crazy place open 24 hours and you can find there anything you like. I saw beautiful pieces of fabric and imagined the clothes I can sew with them. 

After couple of reallocation in the parking lot and with the time I was able to have a decent sleep. I slept in the morning, have my coffee at the Starbucks and start driving. I downloaded a new book: Wild and started listening it. It is great to listen a book and drive! 

And I was finally in the Jedediah Smith and I started hiking, or running actually. There was many mosquitos and they bit me of course. A bee like creator also bit my leg and it hurt a lot. But I ran. It was a mostly flat and amazing trail. And there was not many people there and I was able to find the Grove of Titans! Yes, even though they say not to leave the trail, I did. I only live once and I tried to be careful out there. It was really nice inside the grove! 

Then I drove to the Redwood National Forest and got my permit for the Tall Trees Grove, where many of the tallest redwoods exist. It was a beautiful drive and an amazing hike. I ran most of the time. It felt okay after 10k of run I had in the morning and after some struggle I was able to find Hypernion: the tallest redwood in the world! which is also the tallest tree. Amazingly tall and special. But not really actually the tallest trees have only couple of feet difference and they all incredible. 

One thing I realized was how they coexist and make each other stronger. Two things are necesarry:

- Proper conditions: Next to water on a curvy part, humid

- Proper friends: All the tall redwoods I saw was together with some other really tall redwoods and I believe they are connected under, and sometimes above, the ground. 

Thats how you flourish in life!

[insert-witty-comment]

So, as the title says, I just finished season 1. I watched it because of recommendation from a close friend and because I saw plenty of people online just loving it. And if I were to sum my feelings about it into one word, it would probably be "Meh". And I would love to hear why am I wrong.To be clear, I don't think it was bad. But I definitely didn't enjoy it as much as I expected to. I would like to note why I fell about it this way, but I will need to talk about some plotpoints. I will try to put any major ones into spoiler format, but for sure: WARNING, SPOILERS (FOR WHOLE SEASON 1 I GUESS) AHEAD!There are a few things, that can be interesting about a series.Firstly, the main idea. Well, that's what in my opinion was the absolutely least interesting thing about ST. The "overall concept" was just a few clichés (otherworld monster; supernatural kid; secret government agency=bad; a bunch of slightly bullied nerds=good) melded together. Not necesarilly bad, but absolutely not anything I would find interesting.Secondly, characters. I don't say i didn't find any of the characters interesting. But, thats true just bearly: IMHO, I think just one of them is interesting - the missing kid's mother (I suck at names). Other then that I find every character one-dimensional and boring. Everybody was clearly and definitely good or bad from the very start, with basically no deviations from the first or second impression I got about them. There were two exceptions - the missing kid's brother, who became kinda creepy, which I didn't find good for reasons listed two paragraphs below, and the betterment of the douche, that dated the sister of the main kid, which is one of a few things during ST, that I actually enjoyed.Thirdly, the atmosphere. I admit, I might have just "not felt it" simply because of my being eastern-european guy in my early twenties. But yeah, the atmosphere didn't seem particularly great to me.Fourthly (is that a word?), the writing. OMG, there were just so many things I hated. From characters not communicating when they clearly should ("We're going to haunt unknown monster, that nobody believes in except for your mother, who might be the only one who saw it clearly and who is getting crazy, because noone belives her. How about we tell her about it, so she can get less mental and maybe tell us a little bit about what we should expect." "Well, she might get upset, so how 'bout no?" or when kid, who returned from the fucking nightmare dimension doesn't tell anyone (even though everyone loves and supports him) about him vomiting fucking alien slugs, that might be like super dangerous), through characters being stupid (like kids obviously not mourning, when they're absolutely supposed to by everyone else or super-secret government agency first not really able to deal with a small town sherrif that's just too curious and after he finds out, that they're fucking experimenting on kids, they just put him to sleep and drive him safely home and also they repeatedly forget that you can't fight telekinetic kid with guns, if she can see you to just stupid lazy writing (high-school proffesor effortlessly explains exactly the weird-ass part of pseudo-science, that can be used in this exact case, with a fucking bug analogy or missing kid's brother becoming a creep for like 2.5 episodes, just so he can snap some photos necesarry for the plot, after which his creepiness is never adressed again). I could go on, but you get the point. To be clear, I didn't hate all of the writing (for example, I really enjoyed the slow and careful exposition of El's background), there were just a lot of things that annoyed me.Fifthly (I have honestly no idea if this is English), the pace. Okay, I gotta admit, this was good. Stuff kept happening. That's the main reason why I find ST mediocre, but not bad. But it didn't really made up for the rest.Anyway, where am I wrong? What am I missing? I'd love to hear what you thing about ST and why. via /r/StrangerThings