#happy to work in a variety of spaces and mediums

[m0r1bund]

hello! I was catching up on reading NAKAQUOI! and the essay from the most recent entry was such an inspiring method of storytelling. enough so to make me reach out and ask about your website in general (if you're comfortable answering!). what is it like running a lore/gallery site for your work? how and why did you get started? and lastly, what about it keeps you going?

thank you, cheers! -Winn

😭 Thank you so much for the kind words, this means a lot to me. I really enjoyed writing that little essay.

This is going to be a weird and vulnerable sidebar, but I promise I’m going somewhere with it. Honestly, it blows my mind that anyone reads them. I think it’s because I’m still operating on the assumption that this form of storytelling is for n=1 (yours truly) and other people are merely tolerating it, LOL. I used to be way more sensitive about sharing my characters / stories / worlds, because the forms of storytelling that came naturally to me were often received as incomprehensible, dense, and unintuitive by other people. At a certain point I decided that I just had to accept this and become my own hype man. People could enjoy the pretty pictures out of context, and they could be a vehicle for me to journal about the pretend people who live in my head. Good compromise 👍

for someone who talks big about making weird art and finding the 6 people in the audience who truly get it, I don’t think I realized that this could include my deranged essays about things that aren’t real. And yet. AND YET!!!! I think this desire to present my work in a way that’s “more” than just pretty pictures with text attached to them has been simmering for a long time, even though I dismissed it and was kind of embarrassed about it. Which is wild. Because I grew up on bestiaries and warrior cats lore compendiums and video game wikis and morrowind. There was clearly a precedent. And Yet.

Anyway, this desire started rubbing shoulders with the technical limitations of blogs and gallery websites, and also a general disillusionment with social media during the enshittification of the internet. Like, yeah it sucked that my whole body of work could vanish overnight. But mostly I had worldbuilding neuroses that made me want to scratch at the walls, and I knew just enough html + css to be dangerous. In 2018, I had also finished some longer works that made me more confident in my ability to deliver a cohesive Moribund, and these works weren’t intuitive to share on social media… So… I guess that gave me the impetus to stop flirting with the idea of getting my own website and start actually working on it.

M0R1BUND.com used to be a pure html + css + js website hosted on Neocities. It was ideal and I miss it in a lot of ways, because yeah, that IS the most unadulterated control you can have over your webspace. Had a blast with it, experimented a lot, learned a lot, hosted galleries and twines and webfiction and digital collages and ARPG stuff and interactive maps and a webcomic. And it was mine as much as it was the work of kind people sharing sample code on stackexchange, LOL.

Eventually, I felt the growing pains of managing this by hand. Updating ate hours out of my day. There are definitely more intuitive ways to build and maintain a pure html + css + js website, but I was working with what I knew. I started learning wordpress for basedt.net with the hopes of automating certain operations, like posting art to a gallery or pages to a webcomic. It felt intuitive enough that I later rebuilt M0R1BUND.com in wordpress.

It took a long time and a lot of work, like almost a year? And I still haven’t mirrored everything. Wordpress has made things easier to maintain, but I learned the hard way that it doesn't avoid the pitfalls of simpler website-builders… which is to say… whatever it does to make life easier will also make life incredibly difficult if you decide you want to do something manually. And it’s never the stuff you expect.

These days there’s also the baggage of Automattic’s nonsense. Wordpress is open source, so I don’t think it will go anywhere, but it’s still the corporate clownery that I wanted to escape by making my own website. Blech.

Really though, I love running M0R1BUND and it’s the closest thing I have to an ideal “home” for my work. Going to a dedicated website is unintuitive and out of the way for a lot of people, but (indicates generally) what have we just learned about me. This one’s for n=1 and the, like, 6 people who pop in and say hello. You are my people...

Looking forward, things cook at the rate of 2937728839 irons in the fire, and they are all getting done, but they are all getting done sooooo slowly… I’m having fun. Besides having a general compulsion to make art and tell stories and be Understood, I think that’s what carries me thru this. I want to have fun. and I want to trick people into caring about my characters and also the Sonoran Desert. And as Bjork says, I have to get the wiggles out or else the dark times will come.

It’s getting late and I don’t have a denouement for this. Thank you for your kind words! Thank you for asking! hope this answers? hope this helps (???) take the best and leave the rest.

[fugitivehues]

year of art - 2024

DN IN 2024??? Sorry, I had to~

I think I actually met my goal of more complex compositions this year? At least during whumptober! I had a lot of fun with the perspectives and muted colors. I also worked through a chunk of my collection of… decent papers. I can finally admit to myself that the nice paper is never going to happen until I have no other choices. xD

I've gained some decent gouache EXP on the side too! I hope I can show that off soon! 💪

art goals for 2025:

use up my non-cotton paper fr fr this time!!

more medium variety with markers, pencils, ink, and stuff

more plein air. I did a few irl pieces this year so I'm sloooowly getting the hang of it

but mostly i just hope to make more art and have fun! 🎉

Happy New Year!!

bonus

I saw this meme format and had to see how many spaces I could fill!! My Kei collection actually goes over the limit by quite a bit xD (Meanwhile Satoshi could fill these 100 spaces TWICE, Daisuke 1.5x, Kosuke once, and poor Fukami only half~) That's a lot of blorbos over the years. @@

[lochlady2]

Months of work… for this

Months is a bit dramatic, but I did officially start this around February 5. Here is my process.

These ARE my original designs EXCEPT FOR RABBIT AND THE SPINE. The Spine and Rabbit’s designs can be found just looking up “The Spine spg perler design” or “Rabbit spg perler design”. There’s not a lot of high demand for these yk? I made The Spine first as he’s my favorite, but he was a bit rushed. I was without dark grey and with limited white and dark red at the time, so the coloring is a bit off. I then made Rabbit. With hindsight, I wish I had decided to make the whole band by then so I could wait for copper, but I didn’t. I still think she turned out quite nice, though. The pale yellow really sells the blending her cheek makeup commonly has.

Once I finished the two of them, I had to make my second favorite, the best boy, The Jon. I briefly thought about making the whole band, but I wasn’t sold on it. I looked up a design, but there was only one full body one. My mind was LOCKED IN on making him now, so I broke out my new graph notebook with matching multi-color pen. I used the base frame for Rabbit’s body and simply…. Built around it. I thought the design was rather nice. I had no dark yellow, so I simply built what I could, let it sit, and went on to other things.

I moved to making a larger shadow design for a friend when the urge hit again. I looked at The Jon, The Spine, and Rabbit. They looked lonely. :( I shook myself off. No! I couldn’t do any more.

I made Upgrade. She was a bit difficult with the obsessive use of black in this freaking band and her outfit especially. I found a happy medium, but the hair was still confusing. There was no way I was adding more black into this design. Sure, I had dark grey at this point, but I just couldn’t find a way that worked. I also didn’t like using the same face for The Jon, The Spine, AND Upgrade. The mouths were what bothered me. The Jon had a very Gothic morose look on his face until he started talking. Rabbit’s mouth made Upgrade’s face look like a frickin’ Cthulhu beast. I settled on a half smile in dark grey and a very dark pink hair color. I’m pretty proud of her and The Jon. :)))))

I started feeling bad. I finished Upgrade very quickly and already had her sitting in a pile with The Spine and Rabbit, but The Jon sat unifinished. I didn’t like the look of the dark yellow perler online, and didn’t know what to do. That’s when I discovered metallic perler beads. They had an assortment and a just gold bag. I just needed gold, but it seemed cruel at this point to make 4/6 of the entire band, especially if I was excluding the newer members. I sat down and started drawing. I began with Hatchworth as he was pretty easy to translate to perler. His face and makeup was so complicated that it just blended together into a single copper plane for me. I gave him a very large, almost manic smile to compensate. I did have a bit of trouble with deciding the glasses shape, but moved on rather quickly. I screwed up on the calculations before coloring though which peeved me a bit.

Finally, I started Zer0. I wanted to use his official photo look, which had dreads pulled up into a really cool ponytail, but I just couldn’t translate it. The hair went backwards, and any way I tried just made him look like he was a cartoon character that had been hit really hard. Though I was much aggrieved to do it, I had to use his short hair. I felt like I had failed for being unable to translate a more unique black hairstyle, but I’d rather it be an easier style than he look ugly. Other than the hair, his design was simple and easily finished. I gave him closed eyes for more variety in the eye department and to not have an odd empty space to the side of the eyes.

Soon, my perler beads arrived. I quickly grabbed the tray for The Jon, set a gold bead in, and got angry. From the side, the beads glimmered in a perfect representation of their color and material. From the front/back, you know, the side that you SEE, the beads were either a dark greenish-brown or a dark grey. I felt EXTREMELY ripped off. I stewed in my anger a bit before I was struck with genius. I could melt the non-metal pieces of the designs to create a sort of frame, put the designs on duct tape, lay the metallic beads sideways, and melt again! I tried a couple demo pieces, and it worked! I then did the real thing and fell in love! Sure, it was a little choppy on The Jon, but the bumps from the sideways laying made the faces look like they actually had plates on them! I sat all of them together, and painstakingly threaded one black and one red thread through two parts of each member, tying a knot at some point so they wouldn’t clash. They now hang in my room, and I couldn’t be prouder. I put The Spine and Rabbit in the center because they have always been in the band. I put Upgrade and The Jon on the sides of them because I was proud of their designs. That left Zer0 and Hatchworth to be on the ends. I just already am not a huge fan of Hatchworth’s makeup and costumes even though I love HIM, but I just wasn’t very impressed with how I did on them.

Keep tuned! I may rank the members of the band soon! Love y’all ❤️

[gatheredfates]

Hi all and happy weekend! 🦇 We're keeping to the spooky theme still with the Compendium updates and, once again, I am gently boosting plugging the SEAFLOOR Saints Wake Gpose Challenge for anyone who might be interested! All works are reblogged to SEAFLOOR as well as queued on my blog.

There's not a big update this week so, if you know of anything I have missed, please reach out to me via my Discord or the Google Form.

As of today 10/20, the following communities have been added to Sea's Community Compendium for XIV Creatives. 👻

FREE COMPANY, FRIEND / CASUAL SERVERS

Skystone Co—An airship with a crew dedicated to shipping, travel and trade. Medium-rp FC on Mateus that focuses on bringing a wide variety of characters and rp styles together in one sky! Mist - W 26 - P4. Open for public rp but scheduled collabs and rp events are accepted as well.

COMPENDIUM

Some of the wording in the initial paragraphs and outline of the document has changed for the encompassing of purpose. While the Compendium has always functioned with writing/roleplay in mind, it's not the only thing that it's used for, and I wanted that to be more readily known.

Some changes have been made to the disclaimer, predominately clarity around irrefutable evidence. While it's common sense, I still wanted to include transphobia/racism as some of the criteria for Compendium removal. Basically: be a nice community and you won't be removed.

Have you thought about joining our Tumblr Community? You can find it here!

Want to submit? You can either fill out the google form here or send me an ask with the relevant information!

Is my space suitable for the Compendium? Most of the time, yes! Below the read more is some more information/stipulations. This is all publicly available on the document. 🍬

Below are the following things I do not accept on the Compendium:

Personal/Single-Character LFC ads. (Though these get posted to the SEAFLOOR Tumblr Community when I find them!)

Content intended for or can be used for bullying, harassment and OOC gossip. E.g. ‘Secrets’ blogs, receipts, callout posts, etc. This does not include IC tabloid blogs or other ventures used to generate roleplay.

Communities that do not have an RP/writing element (large-scale exempt).

Anything I find personally distasteful or goes against the spirit of this project.

Common-sense rule applies.

I want to put my community on the Compendium but we have an application process. Is this okay?

Yes! Just note somewhere in your application that's a requirement. The only thing that is mandatory for the Compendium is that you must be open to new members or have a public-facing/accessible facet. There's no point advertising a community if no one can join it in some way!

I want to put my Community on the compendium but I only have x number of members —

Also totally okay! People don't start with large communities. Activity is a must but, whether your server has two or two thousand members, if you're looking for new people to join, I'd love to help you find people.

I want to put my community/resource on the Compendium but I worry its too niche?

Okay, and? If your Eorzean Fishing Alliance has four members but you roleplay every second weekend, I still want to know about it. The same goes for resources; if it's relevant to the game, it'll be useful to someone.

How active does a community need to be?

If you find a community has not been active in about two/three months, send me a message and I'll take a look at it. Communities have ebbs and flows, especially event spaces that may take hiatuses depending on member interest/life events. I'm not strict in my implementation provided a space isn't dead. If a link or anything is broken, contact me asap!

I have [insert a question not stated here]?

No drama! Send me an ask or use the #Compendium channel in my Discord!

[witsserviceablesubstitute]

Stories are not reality. They use many tools to reflect reality but they are not beholden to the same rules. What's more, they reflect Romance just as readily as they reflect Realism. Stories require a suspension of disbelief. Some willingness to look outside yourself to pick apart meaning. An ability to empathize with experiences not your own so you can better see why and how it was put together the way it was. Stories are ephemeral and intangible, a collective fever dream with meanings that shift depending on the dreamer. They are also deliberately constructed and come with their own concrete intentions, histories, and baggage unique to each culture, genre, and medium the story is told in.

If I had one wish when it comes to critiques of fiction, it's that people come at a story from where it is first and everything else can come later. For example, critiques of YA are going to be different to that of Adult works. Those teenagers are heroes and sexual agents because it's important teenagers be allowed their own coming of age journeys— explorations of sex and sexuality a big part of that period of self discovery for many. (That doesn't mean sex has to be a PSA either, it can be raw and awkward and weird and uninhabited). E.g. No, that immortal/older supernatural being falling for our teen hero isn't a predator (well... there are layers). What they are is a extremely common teen power fantasy. (However, if you did want to read a YA series that deconstructs that particular trope and explores how horrific such a dynamic would be, I'd recommend 'The Fever King' and 'The Electric Heir' by Victoria Lee. Brilliant and harrowing books).

Okay, so, anyway. I've been watching a very good YA show called Dead Boy Detectives. (I have a feeling the people following me are reading those words with exasperation, "No shit"). It's fun spooky hijinks but it's also a beautiful piece of cinematic storytelling that uses a variety of mixed mediums to get its points across. It makes this queer nerds heart happy and deserves more space to tell the story it wants to tell and subvert the tropes it wants to subvert. However, in case it doesn't get that space, I wanted to recommend two queer book series that fans of the show may want to look into. The 'Whyborne & Griffin' series by Jordan L. Hawk (each book gets better and better, and also, the actor that plays Edwin would make an excellent Whyborne) and 'The Last Binding' series by Freya Marske.

[mossiistars]

I JUST SAW YOU GOT INTO RISD how. olease. its like my dream art school i need i need to know please

(also you have improved SO much since i last saw you're art!!!!! it looks great and i can see why you got into such a great art school :D)

live laugh jmart

first of all WAUGH THANK YOU

second of all it was. a mix of things.

I spent a LOT of time working on my portfolio, and really pushing myself to do things I wasn't used to. I used a pretty wide variety of mediums, included both realism and illustration, observational and storytelling. I focused on the creativity of the process just as much as the pieces themselves.

I also had the advantage of getting to go to a precollege program at an art school over the summer, where I learned a lot of really helpful skills and where I got to do live figure drawing. However!!! Another really good way to practice figure is to just go sit down in some public place and do quick sketches of people, and if you search around a bit you might be able to find some local figure drawing classes!

I asked a LOT of people for help with reviewing my portfolio. My art teachers at school, staff at a local art studio, I went to national portfolio day, and my neighbor actually used to work in RISD admissions and had a lot of good advice.

My grades are also pretty good, I've taken several AP classes, and I did well on the SAT. Grades aren't quite as important when applying to art school but with RISD especially they can definitely help. With the commonapp stuff, I talked with my guidance counselor about what to include, and asked for help reviewing my essay. I also applied early decision.

I watched videos about accepted portfolios (tip: if looking at other art, try to look for specific aspects that make it a good portfolio piece, not just "wow that drawing is good"- what technical skills are being displayed, how much variety is there in skills shown, etc. how pleasing the piece itself looks isn't what they're looking for, they wanna see that you can do different things, in your process, etc.). I also went to some of RISD's online webinars!

Sorry for the essay lol, but I hope this has helped :) Basically- don't be afraid to ask for help, use the resources available to you, push yourself to do new things, and be prepared to have basically no free time for the fall of your senior year (this last one isn't entirely true,,,it depends on how you space stuff out but trust me with a portfolio on top of the standard application you will be BUSY.)

If you wanna talk about it more I'm happy to dm!

[osodemielstudio]

i wasn't sure what i wanted my first post to be on here but i decided on posting my artwork from my basic drawing class !! ( ill be posting my final in another post )

i finished my first semester and this drawing class was honestly my favorite one and ive definitely learned a lot and did things i never thought i'd make tht im really proud of. my main medium is digital art but ive been wanting to tackle more traditional art and this was a fun way to do so, we mostly used graphite, charcoal and prismacolor pencils ( mostly in black, terracotta and red ) for our work !! ill put under the readmore what each piece is abt so if yr interested, feel free to keep reading underneath !!

i made sure to put these in the order we were assigned to do them but if yr ever curious abt one particular piece, feel free to send an ask!

Perspective

This was our very first assignment! We learned abt 1, 2, and 3 point perspectives during class and were assigned to take or choose a photo in one of these perspectives, pick a minimum of 3 things and then draw boxes in the proper perspective in place of the chosen objects !! i ended up choosing my mess of a workspace to do for this one !!

Imaginary Space

This one was another perspective focused drawing but we were assigned to choose a perspective and then draw a variety of shapes of our choosing to create a space we could theoretically have a difficult time walking through. I actually had an idea of make it look like claws were coming out but simplified it cause the original concept was not working too well!

Rendered Objects

This is where we started learning about shading! We were assigned to pick 3 different shapes and simply render them with a medium of our choosing! Since I was doing a lot of graphite work, I decided to use a blue prismacolor colored pencil for this and really like how it came out!!

Grid Method

During this time, we actually began working on our first still life but next to that, we learned about the grid method which then became our next homework assignment! We had to choose and take a picture of an object ( preferably something small ) and then use the grid method to scale it and draw it onto our big 18x24 drawing paper !! I ended up on simple scissors that I have because I actually did this last minute and felt horrible but my teacher still really liked it !!

Overlapping Objects

This one was very interesting! So originally this assignment was supposed to be two different ones assigned at different times but because we missed a day of class, my teacher gave us the liberty of choosing either one or if we wanted to, combine them which is what I ended up doing. The original two assignments were to do a personal still life on toned paper using charcoal and white chalk or pick an item and draw it in different angles and sizes to make it look like objects floating in space! I really wanted to do the overlapping object one but i wanted to try out the toned paper too so that's what I did and my teacher really loved this one!! ( also it was absolutely a mess to work with lol )

Still Life

This was my very first ever still life I actually did and I'm so happy abt it !! This was an in class assignment that we worked on for about 3 weeks and were allowed to finish at home on the last day and turn it in as our next assignment ! I am so so happy with how it came out and i'm very proud of myself for going out of my comfort zone with this !! Realism is definitely not my style but poking at it in this assignment definitely made me feel a bit more comfortable with it and maybe one day ill do another still life to keep practicing !!

Drapery Study

This was our next " still life " assignment !! This was a nice change of pace because not only was it just one " simple " object but i decided to work in color for this one and use a red erasable prismacolor pencil ( it was also very messy and smudged but it was still fun regardless ) !! Learning how to render the folds and how deep the shades should be at certain areas was so fun and my teacher really liked the result as well !!

[davidmariottecomics]

It's Weird Being Between Two Jobs

Hi there and happy new year! 

Title kinda says it all in this week's blog, but the strangeness of this time in my life is really settling in. 

Just because of how things worked out with leaving IDW and starting the new job, I ended up with a little under a month of free time. And the first week and some change of that was the end of the year holiday season. But the past week has been me sort of watching from the outside as people started going back to work. I did finish up some additional new hire paperwork, but that took maybe an hour total and I'm still over a week from starting the new gig. It's an odd space to be in. I'm not working for anyone--I'm not getting a paycheck (and am currently sort of living this month off of my last IDW paycheck plus paid out time-off)--but I'm also not so far removed from a gig as to be strictly freelance. 

And to be totally honest, I don't know that I really like it. I am not great at having free time. I like the idea of free time. I like the idea of having time to write for myself or relax with my hobbies. But I am not great at the latter and the former betrays the fact that even with my free time, I'm often trying to switch into work mode. Heck, at the end of the day, my starting this blog and crossposting it as a newsletter/Tumblr/Patreon is all influenced by my not being good at not at least trying to be productive with my free time. 

If you're also someone who has been working from home and especially if you've been working from home freelance, I'm sure you know all the complications of the domestic and recreational life against your job and probably are familiar with how helpful routine and scheduling is with all that. Right now, I'm freeform. I don't want to just use my old habits--the advantage of time off is specifically that I can break a 9-5 M-F format--but I feel like I don't have enough time to start building new routines. So, it's been a challenging couple of weeks. I have not done nearly as much as I think I'd like to have at this point, but I also keep needing to remind myself that I have done a number of things that were on my to-do list and that it's okay to have time off for myself. 

As such, instead of a really specific blog on something of late, let me share a couple quick bits that've been on my mind. 

The Anti-EGOT I recently finished a big relisten of season 2 of Dungeons & Daddies and in the intro to the show of one episode, Anthony Burch introduced the idea of an Anti-EGOT. I think he retroactively changed it in a later episode, but the general idea was to be a writer in four of the least respected mediums and not win an award for any of it. I believe, in the initial mention, the idea was the four mediums of choice would be video games, comic books, podcasts, and pornography (with wrestling being retroactively either added or replacing one of these, but I don't think I'm much of one to write for wrestling). Honestly, that kinda sounds like a dream to me. As I was listening to this stuff in the run-up to the new year, there was a part of me thinking "is going for the Anti-EGOT my resolution"? And I ultimately decided, no. I don't think that's a good resolution, but it is sort of my stretch goal for the year. If I can write in all those fields, get paid for it, and not win any awards (or, y'know... do) in my lifetime, I'll be pretty stoked. 

What my actual goal for the year would be is I want to try to release 6 comics. Different lengths and varieties. I'm not currently anticipating having that be like a single mini-series or whatever, but I want to try to do more in comics with what I am producing. And if I can maybe branch out into one of those other areas this year, even if it doesn't have a release for another year or more, I'd be cool with that too. 

Steamboat Willie Last year, you may've read my four part explainer about copyright! One thing that is repeatedly touched on there is the public domain and what all that means. Obviously, this year, Steamboat Willie and two other Mickey Mouse shorts entered the public domain. And it's been really interesting to watch that play out a little. It seemed like--and I know it's only been a week--most everyone got it out of their systems within the first 2-3 days of the year. A lot of that probably goes to Steamboat Willie and those early shorts not actually being all that interesting (fun, but very story-light). A lot of it goes to so much of what people would want to do with "Steamboat Willie" is either already legal because it falls under parody, is not actually meant to be sellable in any way, or was knocked out in a day. A lot of it too probably goes to how unclear what counts as public domain remains. For a character like Mickey, people have been pointing out are you using elements that were added after 1928 or treading on issues of trademark that are not copyright and are not as available. I am very curious to watch how this continues to play out this year (if it does), how things develop next year, and in the next couple of years, watch how things fall in preparation for about a decade from now when more of the early Disney catalog will be public domain (including Snow White) and other major companies start having some of their big hits become PD (like, say, Superman). 

I'm also kinda bummed to have not seen any immediate announcements/releases of new comic versions of Lady Chatterly's Lover like there were of The Great Gatsby or anything. That's the other really interesting/wild thing about this year--to me, it seems like the majority of the fuss was around the Mouse and the things that've remained popular in part due to the mouse, Peter Pan and Tigger. I have not seen nearly enough talk about One Million Cats or any of the film or music. 

Post-Twitter

The other day, Diana Sousa was asking on Bluesky (and Twitter, I guess), if Twitter is still the major non-convention way that comics editors discover new talent. And I responded as someone who is NO LONGER ON TWITTER but who is still needing to have discoverability of comics artists. I said, part of it is I am on other socials. I see new folks on Bluesky or Instagram or whatever. I also keep an eye on various databases--you don't have to be on Twitter to have access to #VisibleWomen or the Cartoonist Cooperative database or Cartoonists of Color or the Queer Cartoonist Database or the Disabled Cartoonist Database or any of these many sorts of resources. Something I didn't mention there, but will mention here is when you've got a company email address, you've often got agents of various sorts emailing you about talent, internal talent databases and/or recruiter-type folks, sharing info with other editors (and, y'know, I've in the past shared talent who I didn't have a gig for with editor friends at other companies because I thought they'd be a good fit). 

As I've mentioned before, the lack of access to talent was why I did wait so long to delete my Twitter (and also wanting to make sure I had ways of keeping up with world events and following non-comics people). But, genuinely, I am not stressing over continuing to find new people now that I've been without it for a little bit and know I've got a system.  Check Yourself for Midjourney Training Hey, speaking of my explainer on copyright and the lengths of time therein I talk about how "AI" is a tool of theft and companies trying to avoid paying artists for the use of their copyrighted works, the lawsuit against Midjourney's resulted in a list of names of "artists" they've scraped. Now, I only put "artists" in quotes because the list was made by incompetent tech bros and/or their clueless lawyers, and so there are a number of writers listed who do not particularly do art but where you can extrapolate that the artists they work with were scraped as well as companies, systems, game platforms, etc. While I understand that of course lawsuits are expensive, I do know a number of artists have been reaching out to the lawfirm of the existing suit and seeking to join the case as plaintiffs. If you're a visual artist, probably worth the time to double-check and, if you can, do something about it. 

Okay, I think that's it for this week! See ya next time! 

What I enjoyed this week: Dungeons & Daddies (Podcast), Reverse 1999 (Video Game), Nancy (Comic), Yu-Gi-Oh: Duel Links (Video Game), Baldur's Gate III (Video Game), Blank Check (Podcast), Spy x Family (Manga), How to Read Nancy (Book), Hitman 2 (Video Game), Pokemon Conceirge (Cartoon), Ted Lasso (TV show, finally started season 3), Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (Movie--can you tell I'm in a D&D mood?), The Floor (TV show), my new discord (friends can ask for access!), sending out some feeler emails for new projects and getting to do at least a little bit of writing for myself.  

New Releases this week (1/3/2024): Sonic the Hedgehog #68 (Editor)

Announcements: The Cartoonist Cooperative is still doing E-Sim cards for Gaza and at least 500 people have shown their proof of donation. You can donate a digital sim card so that residents can get access to the internet and have more functional phones and, in exchange, get some comics or a drawing or whatever else is available from the many participating artists. 

You can also give more directly. Things are obviously still very bad in Gaza as we've hit 3 full months of them being under siege. Over 20,000 Palestinians have been killed, including plenty of women and children. Israel has killed more journalists than any single conflict in my lifetime. They are attacking not just Gaza and the West Bank, but other neighboring countries. I hope the Internatioal Court of Justice can help bring this to an end, but in the meantime, the US has significant influence over the situation (between internatioal political power and the weapons and money we're sending as both a nation and that are being sent my many corporations in the US). You can call or fax or email or show up at the offices of your representatives to demand a ceasefire or to protest their inaction so far or to throw eggs at the president for participating in and encouraging a genocide. You should keep aware of actions, demonstrations, protests, and celebrations in your community too. Given the nature of the things, they often come together fairly quickly, so do exercise your due diligence. Also, of course, being informed and just giving your time to Palestinian journalists and writers is incredibly valuable. I don't tend to be a big TikTok fan, but it has proven to be one of the most reliable resources for firsthand accounts of what's happening on the ground. 

Meanwhile, Becca's got their first show of the year next weekend, 1/13 at Alesmith for a mini-con with BizBaz! Come pick up some new for 2024 stuff! Also, they've still got a little room in their schedule for this year, so get them for your comic project before it's too late! 

Finally, calling out my Patreon again as well as my webstore (final stock on basically everything there except Jimmy Squarefoot), my Kofi, and my eBay account as I am between paychecks for a while and those are other ways you can support me! 

Pic of the Week: We went to one of our favorite local restaurants, Rakitori in Hillcrest. They had a spicy cheesy tonkatsu ramen and I'm not a food picture guy usually, but I did quite like this photo and I'm actually very fortunate we ate there at the tail end of 2023, otherwise I'd have already eaten the best meal of 2024. 

[bastetwastaken]

It’s so easy to feel alone in a fandom. Well, in any situation too, but this post is mostly about fandom loneliness. 

Fandoms are wonderful spaces, they’re communities full of wonderful and like-minded people who you can share your thoughts and feelings with, but they can also be very lonely places. They’re not lonely for everyone, but they can be for some and that’s what this is about. 

You find a form of media you love, a book, TV show, movie, anything. It may make you feel happy, it may make you feel sad, it might move you in ways which you never thought something could, it may consume your every waking moment and fill your head with what if’s and buts and maybes. So you go online. You find that other people share these feelings and there are wonderful amazing places for you to sit within. 

Communities of artists creating amazing pieces with a variety of mediums, writers fixing your heartbreak or at least making the pain a little easier to deal with, people sharing their thoughts and feelings on particular moments, re-living the ways in which it made them feel and you realise that you’ve found a great place. A safe place, somewhere you can indulge in your favourite media and connect with people. 

But though those spaces may be full of people, you feel as if you don’t really fit in. You feel as if you’re just hovering on the fringes of this amazing world and you so desperately want to dive right in and join everyone and share that experience with them but you realise that you just…can’t. 

Perhaps you’re shy, an introvert, and talking to people is just a little scary to you but you really want to try, you just haven’t found a way to do that yet. Or maybe you’re feeling like you’re not good enough, that your thoughts are a little too out there, your headcanons don’t get the love you feel they deserve. Maybe you’re trying so hard to be an active member of the fandom and hundreds of people love your work yet no one actually talks to you. Maybe you just want to be there as a spectator yet you feel excluded from the wider fandom because you feel like you’re not contributing. 

You can be an active part of something and still feel alone. You can be in a group of people and still feel as if you’re the only one there. 

So what’s the point of this post? 

To shed a little light on loneliness, something which maybe most of us don’t give a lot of thought to, but something which is such a big part of all of our lives. A little reminder that we all need to be a little more kind to ourselves and to others, show people kindness, reach out to someone in the fandom you may not have spoken to before, if you have an artist or author you like (and they consent) talk to them as a person. 

Behind all our usernames we’re real people, and we should make more of an effort to remember that. 

Fandom can be lonely, but it doesn’t have to be.

[koreposion]

Geno being the most normal one means sometimes he wakes up after scribbling nonsense about Dream and how great and terrifying he is and just...makes breakfast.

It's him letting Ink smatter him in different types of make up and being happy that he's spending time with him. Training with Blue and getting into soft play fights with him as they wait for their next assignment.

Sure his teammates are a little weird( understatement) but they care about him. In big public spaces Dream holds his hand and gives him a pair of nouse canceling headphones. Talks to people for him casually, and makes sure that he's comfortable. In smaller spaces Blue makes sure to stay nearby and to check in with him. Brings bottles of water and snacks that Geno munched on as they relax. Helping him not feel like he's trapped by giving him soft kisses so he remembers that he can feel.

Ink explaining to him the workings of the AUs and different timelines. How fascinating different stories are and their variety is he doesn't feel so small and alone. Sure the multiverse is vast and filled with mediums of story telling but they are just the will of something that loves them. Yes, some suffer in the care of their creators but that's not what they need to fix. They need to fix the meddling of Gods and Creators who thinks that giving them missions is fun. They are loved and cared for.

The God thing does bother Geno a little bit, the first time he meets Nightmare he has a few quick thoughts before passing out, "Wow he's kinda hot- wait- THAT'S A LOT OF MAGIC-" he then collapses. The first time he met Dream the same thing happened, "They're the brightest thing I've seen in ages- wait- WHOA-" His eyelight goes out and he collapses.

[gospexchange]

Good Omens Song & Poetry Exchange About & FAQ

[this post mirrors the About page for mobile users]

All asks are tagged #FAQ

Event Schedule

The event will run from December 2023 to March 2024 as follows:

Sign-ups Open: December 15th Sign-ups Close: January 15th Match-ups sent out by: January 28th Participant Check-in: February 18th Final Pieces due: March 15th Gift Delivery: March 15th-25th

If any any point you think you will be unable to adhere to this schedule, including meeting the check-in, final submission, or delivery deadlines, please inform the mods as soon as possible.

Event Mods

Shanimal (shanimalx) Dash (Dashicra1) Caddis (contritecactite) Betty (BasketcaseBetty)

Contact & Social Media

Email: gospexchange@gmail.com Twitter: @GOSPExchange

What exactly is a song and poetry exchange?

It works just like a regular fandom exchange– fans are matched up to create fanworks to gift to one another. What makes this one different though, is that the gift prompts will be in the form of our participants’ favorite songs and poems! If you’ve ever wanted to read a fic based off of your favorite Shakespeare sonnet or Hozier song, now’s your chance!

It is not required to create a song or a poem for this event.

What kind of songs or poems can I request?

The only requirement is that whatever song or poem you request must be publicly available to read or listen to online. This ensures that our gifters know what to base you gift off of!

If you are having trouble deciding what to request, feel free to check out the #library-and-playlists channel in our Discord server for suggestions [Invite Coming Soon!]! There will also be space in the sign-up form to submit three different requests, though only one is required to submit, and only one will be used as the basis for your gift.

What kind of fanwork can I make as my gift?

Whatever you like! It can be about any character or pairing, and be any medium! Part of the reason behind making this exchange song- and poem-based is that it allows our gifters to interpret lines in lyrics in different ways and produce a wider variety of works!

We only ask that whatever you make, it relates to the requested song or poem assigned to you in some way, and that an appropriate amount of effort is put into it. It should be something you would be happy to get as a gift too!

What happens if my giftee doesn't like their gift / I don't like my gift?

Unfortunately, this issue is something that comes with the territory of participating in an exchange. Since the prompts for this event are songs and poems, they are even more open to interpretation than usual, and you may end up creating something that isn't well-received, or receiving a gift that you weren't expecting. This is a natural consequence of anonymous matches that is hard to combat in an objective way without dramatically changing the nature of the event.

The only thing we can recommend is to be as specific as possible when it comes to listing your No-Gos when you sign up. We cannot account for things you don't like if you don't inform us of them, and we will not be asking your gifter to change or remove things that were not listed.

What happens if my gift includes something I listed as a No-Go?

Please bring it to our attention as soon as possible so we can contact your gifter to change it. However: we will not ask them to change something that you did not inform us about. This is not a commission event, and we will not be asking creators to make unexpected changes to their finished work.

To avoid this happening in the first place, please be as specific as you can when listing No-Gos in the sign-up form. Both canon and headcanons can be very open to interpretation, so avoid using umbrella terms or generalizing statements. A good practice is to take a brief moment to consider how your phrasing could be interpreted by someone else, or even to ask a friend how they might interpret it! You can also make a note in your sign-up form that you'd like a second opinion from the mods, and we can help you clarify your wording!

[dannyfoley]

Sanya Kantarovsky is known for his work across a variety of mediums, as well as his texts and curatorial projects. His multifaceted approach often results in artworks that seem forced to reckon with their own embarrassment. The dark humor consistent in Kantarovsky’s work pits the sumptuous against the abject and thrusts private space – be it physical or psychological – into public view. Kantarovsky’s most well known body of work, his figurative paintings, contains drastic shifts in scale, paint application and stylization. Evoking the feeling of an uneasy inner monologue, figures are gawked at, exposed, poked, or spooned medicine. They interact with one another, as well as the edges of the canvas itself, testing the confines of their given bodies and their given frame. Similarly, the artist probes his art historical predecessors: both canonical and relatively unknown painters, writers and illustrators. The presence of these muses, which dot Kantarovsky’s compositions, simultaneously questions and indulges in a lineage of painterly impulses.

Sanya Kantarovsky

Baba, 2019

Oil and watercolor on canvas

85 x 65 inches

(215.9 x 165.1 cm)

Kantarovsky was born in Moscow, Russia in 1982 and currently lives and works in New York. He studied painting at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, RI and received his MFA at the University of California, Los Angeles. Kantarovsky recently presented solo exhibitions at Kunsthalle Basel in Switzerland (2018) and the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Turin, Italy (2017-2018). Recent group exhibitions include Radical Figures at Whitechapel Gallery, London; Baltic Triennial 13 GIVE UP THE GHOST; The Arcades: Contemporary Art and Walter Benjamin at the Jewish Museum, New York; The Eccentrics at Sculpture Center, New York; and his curatorial project Sputterances at Metro Pictures, New York. Other important presentations include Happy Soul at LAXART in Los Angeles; You are Not an Evening at Gesellschaft für Aktuelle Kunst in Bremen; What Were You Expecting, Mr. Milquetoast, a Plot? at Badischer Kunstverein in Karlsruhe; and Apricot Juice, with Ieva Misčeviūtė, at Studio Voltaire in London. A comprehensive monograph entitled No Joke was co-published by Studio Voltaire and Koenig Books in 2016. Kantarovsky’s works belong to several prestigious museum collections, including the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C.; the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston; the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles; Tate Modern, London; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

[alberto1996]

ENTRY #1

Title: Getting to Know Me: A Journey of Self-Discovery

Maupay nga Adlaw, dear readers of the Tumblr community! My name is Albert Borata and I'm excited to embark on this journey of self-introduction and sharing all about myself. So, grab a cup of tea, get comfortable, and let's dive in!

I am from San Policarpo Eastern Samar, fifth among nine siblings, I am a passionate individual who believes in the power of self-discovery and personal growth. Through my experiences, interests, and introspection, I have come to understand that life is an ever-evolving process, and we should embrace it wholeheartedly.

You may wonder that I am already 27 years old but still in my fourth year college, honestly, I stopped my education for 5 consecutive years due to critical economic crisis. Basically, my parents don't have the chance to send me to school because of financial problems. I have also taken 6 vocational courses at Tesda, its for me to have more knowledge and skills and make myself ready to matter what the world has to offer. But I have realized that I should work hard for myself, by 2018 I decided to continue my studies because I believe that my brain is still hungry of knowledge.

I took TVL course which is Beauty Care and Nail Care, coz my mom said that she wasn't sure if I am going ro make to college, it gave me the drive to study hard, and luckily I was a consistent honor student until I graduated my senior high school.

Now I am an Freelance hair dresser for 4 years, which is very useful in my college days, through home services, on hair and make up, whole body massage and more rakets, I was able to buy a kilo of rice every 4 days. I'm proud to say that I am the one supporting myself to finish my education, but I'm also happy that my parents are there to support me mentally and spiritually.

One of the things that define me is my love for creativity. I am an artist at heart, with a fondness for painting and sketching. These activities allow me to express my emotions and thoughts visually, creating a connection between my inner world and the outer reality. I am also a Volleyball player,and scrabble player.

Aside from the arts, I find solace in the written word. Writing has become my sanctuary, a medium through which I explore my thoughts, share my experiences, and connect with others. On this Tumblr blog, you'll find a variety of content, ranging from personal reflections to fictional stories, poetry, and even some tips for self-care and personal development.

I am also a firm believer in kindness, empathy, and understanding. I aspire to create a safe and inclusive space on this blog, encouraging open-minded conversations and embracing diversity. I am loud and proud member of LGBTQIA Community. Let's support each other, lift each other up, and celebrate the uniqueness that each individual brings to the table.

I also want to share to you my boyfriend who has been my number 2 supporter, because my family is my number of course haha 🤣, I am proud and happy with my partner, being so thoughtful and caring 😍.

He helped me a lot in my studies not only in financial aspect but in my mental wellbeing as well to keep unspired and feel loved every day.

So, dear readers, thank you for joining me on this journey of self-introduction and exploration. I hope that through this blog, we can connect, learn from one another, and inspire each other to embrace our true selves. Let's navigate this fascinating world together and discover the beauty that lies within and around us.

With love and gratitude, ALBERT

[lucianadjanic]

Film Journal #5: The 1960's - The Hand - 1965

During class we were shown a variety of animations made during the 1960's decade, where themes of political oppression and the fight against communism was at all time even in a medium thats very children catered like animation. The 1950's had a lot of that too, but in the 1960's, a Czech animator by the name of Jiri Trnka's work began to gain major traction.

His work spoke a lot about artistic expression along with the boundaries of freedom which they had been contained in. I wanted to focus in on the short film "The Hand," which was released in 1965. "The Hand’s message is still topical, being symbolic for artists working in oppressive regimes all over the world".

This was actually Trnka's last film and it was a success across the world, even winning awards, however, unsurprisingly enough it was banned across all of Russia as it was anti propaganda and spoke against the government's ideals.

As for the story itself which is told through masterful puppetry, shows us the perspective of a harlequin doll who is a loving artist whom cares deeply about his craft (ceramics) and the creations he makes and who it's provided for (his plants). Everything seems normal and peaceful for the beginning of the film as we see him creating art pieces, however then comes a disturbance in the form of a large gloved white hand. It essentially breaks its way into his house through the door and his windows and crushes his beloved works, and indulges him to create something more fitted to the hand's liking. This continues throughout multiple times where the hand tries to persuade and manipulate through a variety of tactics go get the harlequin doll to make the hand a clay sculpture of a hand. Even brute force is used when things like "praise, money, indoctrination, and erotics" don't even seem to work.

Unfortunately in the end, the harlequin is caught and taken hostage of, being stolen from his home and being trapped into a steel bird cage. He's then forced to work, and he is attached to strings literally being controlled by the hand above him - this time having to sculpt a hand out of stone/marble.

Miracously though, once the sculpture is complete he's able to escape from his prison and return home. When we all think finally there'll be a happy ending as he's safe at home - that where we're wrong. His own plant pot ends up being his demise as he's busy trying to bolt all the doors and windows so that the hand cannot enter - the pot falls onto his head accidentally from one of the cabinets. There he lies, killed by his own creations and given a "state funeral, making him posthumously part of the system".

I understand why this film made such an impact at the time and honestly I think should still be seen all around the world to this day. When I viewed this for the first time it really stuck with me and I was left awestruck not only by the artistry but the symbolism plunged about are so effortlessly done. I love imagery through symbols through hand's, (well of course in this case it was especially relevant as the hand is a symbol of communism), but it is also the perfect image to convey control, power, and manipulation. The hand that controls the strings underneath it, the people of the country. The glove "is a masterstroke. In its facelessness it is as scary as it is symbolic for the invisible hand of totalitarian power". As well as the choice "of not representing a human exponent of communism is effective in truly dehumanizing the movement and exalting its negative tendencies and implications".

https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2013/cteq/the-passion-of-the-peasant-poet-jiri-trnka-a-midsummer-nights-dream-and-the-hand/

[ediblegardenspointloma]

Six Reasons to Plant Sunflowers

I just planted sunflowers seeds in a six-pack for later transplant to the garden. Last year I grew them next to my zucchini plants with good success.

My thought was to attract bees to the sunflowers and the nearby zucchini flowers for pollination. They were gorgeous together. (Sunflower ‘Junior’ from Renee’s Garden, linked below).

The following text for Six Reasons To Plant Sunflowers is from the Home Garden Seed Association. The photos are from my garden.

Sunflowers are colorful. They are joyful! And due to the many commercial uses of sunflowers—cooking oil, cut flowers, and birdseed are three— they have been the focus of much breeding work. No matter where or how you garden, there is a sunflower for you.

1. To Attract Birds If it’s birds you’re after, plant multi-flowering, branching sunflowers. Birds devour any and all varieties of sunflower seeds. Particularly valuable for most winter birds are oil-rich black oil sunflowers. The seeds are thinner shelled, and easy for seed-eating birds to crack open.

(edible gardens52) A few years ago I grew very tall sunflowers in the vegetable garden. Warm fall days came and the seeds ripened to perfection for the birds. I was off to work one day and came home in the late afternoon to this. I missed the feast but wonder who was in attendance.

2. For the Table We associate sunflowers with vitality and happiness— a bouquet of sunflowers brings these good feelings indoors. Cut the stems at a 45° angle and strip all but the top leaves. Pollenless sunflowers will not drop pollen all over your tablecloth, and they’ll last up to two weeks in a vase. Bees will visit these male-sterile flowers, as they still produce nectar. If you choose to grow single stem varieties, you can space them tightly to produce smaller blooms, or a foot apart for larger flowers.

3. For Pollinators All sunflowers attract a great variety of pollinators, mostly bees. For a long season of pollinator abundance, choose branching rebloomers. The best choices for pollinators are those with fully exposed disc florets—the hundreds (or even thousands!) of tiny center blooms that develop into seeds.

4. For Architecture and Garden Interest There’s no doubt about it, by late summer, sunflowers are showstoppers. For fantastic garden focal points, choose tall—but not so tall that they’ll crash without staking— sunflowers in a variety of shapes and shades. There are many to choose from: big, fluffy ‘Honey Bear’, award-winning ‘Valentine’, deep, rich ‘Chocolate Cherry’. For garden adventure, look for a seed packet that contains several varieties of sunflowers. Shorter, more reachable varieties, such as fully double ‘Teddy Bear’, are ideal for children’s gardens.

5. For Containers If your garden space is limited, look for sunflowers bred for containers. ‘Sunray Yellow Hybrid’ (pictured) branches out to produce up to 14 smallish blooms, and tops out at less than 2 feet. ‘Music Box’ has bicolor blooms with chocolate centers, and grows to about 21⁄2 feet. (Seeds pictured below are from Renee’s Garden.

6. For Good Eating To roast sunflower seeds, spread them evenly on a shallow pan and bake them at 300° until they are golden brown, stirring occasionally. Varieties with large, heavy flowerheads, such as ‘Sunzilla’, ‘Mammoth Grey Stripe’, or ‘Titan’, are the best choices for edible seeds. Another edible option: Sunflower microgreens are delicious and easy to grow. To speed the growing process, soak sunflower seeds in a jar of water until roots start to appear, changing the water every 8 to 12 hours. Sprinkle them close together on a soilless medium and top lightly with the medium. Harvest the greens at about 4 inches tall.

[myhappyworldshop]

How to Master the Art of Watercolor Painting at Home

Art is one of the most fulfilling ways to relax, express yourself, and discover new talents—all from the comfort of your own space. Among the many forms of artistic expression, watercolor stands out for its gentle beauty and ability to create emotion through transparent layers and flowing colors. For those looking to explore their creative side without needing a studio or complex setup, Watercolor Painting offers a calm and rewarding entry point.

With a few simple tools, some time, and the right guidance, you can begin mastering this elegant art form right at home.

Start with the Right Materials

The foundation of any successful painting experience begins with choosing the right supplies. Thankfully, watercolor doesn’t require an overwhelming list of tools. Start with:

Watercolor paints – Pan sets are compact and easy to use, while tube colors offer richer pigment.

Paper – Invest in watercolor-specific paper, preferably 140 lb or heavier to prevent buckling.

Brushes – A small variety (round, flat, and detail brushes) can cover most techniques.

Palette – You’ll need a mixing surface for blending colors.

Water and cloth – Two jars of water (one for cleaning, one for painting) and a cloth or paper towel are essential for control.

These tools help you build confidence and produce cleaner, more vibrant results.

Understand the Basics of Technique

Watercolor is known for its unpredictability, but understanding a few key techniques can make it easier to control and eventually master:

Wet-on-wet – Applying paint to wet paper creates soft edges and natural blending.

Wet-on-dry – Painting on dry paper gives sharper lines and more control.

Layering – Since watercolors are translucent, layering light washes builds depth.

Lifting – Use a clean brush or paper towel to lift excess pigment for highlights.

Dry brushing – A mostly dry brush can add texture and fine details.

Practicing these techniques helps you discover how water, pigment, and paper interact.

Embrace Mistakes as Part of the Process

One of the best aspects of watercolor is its looseness. You won’t have full control—and that’s a good thing. The soft blooms, flowing gradients, and unexpected effects are part of what makes each piece unique. Don’t worry about achieving perfection with every brushstroke. Instead, use mistakes as learning opportunities.

Often, the most beautiful parts of a watercolor painting come from accidental blends and happy accidents that make your work feel organic and expressive.

Follow Tutorials and Study Other Artists

When learning at home, take advantage of the countless free resources available online. YouTube, Pinterest, and art blogs are filled with step-by-step tutorials, beginner exercises, and composition guides. Following along with an experienced artist can help you understand pacing, pressure, and brush control.

Additionally, studying the work of other watercolorists—both classic and modern—can inspire your own style. Notice how they layer, what color palettes they choose, and how they handle shadows and light.

Practice Regularly and Keep a Sketchbook

Like any skill, painting improves with consistent practice. Set aside dedicated time a few times a week to paint, even if it’s just for 15 minutes. Create a sketchbook or visual diary where you can experiment without pressure. Sketch trees, flowers, pets, or even your morning coffee mug.

The more you paint, the more confident you’ll become. Over time, you’ll begin to notice improvement in your control, composition, and creativity.

Mastering Watercolor Painting at home is a fulfilling journey that blends patience, playfulness, and self-expression. With the right tools, a few foundational techniques, and an open mind, you can create beautiful works of art that reflect your unique perspective. Whether you’re painting to unwind or hoping to grow as an artist, this gentle medium offers endless possibilities—all starting from your own home.