#i Love art and i love seeing the passion and inspiration and design process people go through

[codaynamics]

if you ever see me reblogging a bunch of a single artist's works, its most likely bc i just found them and i immediately went "OH THIS IS SO GOOD LOOK AT THIS COOL SHIT" and just started shoveling everything into my arms like a creative media buffet for all my homies to eat up

[chosopie]

BREAK MY HEART - SUGURU GETO

inspired by I Don't Smoke - Mitski , art credit: 1luj

Suguru was a man who was often consumed by thoughts. Everyone looked up to him, because he was reasonable, capable, kind. Your friend group relied on him, for he knew what was right or wrong, what to do and not to do. He was the anchor and lighthouse. He was selfless.

Every single day, he gave himself to everyone like an offering.

“Give and take,” people would say. Suguru would always give. He would always take the darkness—swallowing filthy curses everyday. No one understands how it feels and tastes. To him, it was like swallowing puke back in.

Who would have thought that one mission could permanently shatter an unbreakable person? He broke like glass. One crack, and it leads to a series of cracks crawling and spreading, leaving the whole thing broken.

You vividly remember the night he came home, injured and exhausted. He kissed you passionately with hot tears running down his face.

Despite it all, he had you. You did not give yourself to people the way he did, but you gave your whole being to Suguru. You had your heart exposed to him and every other part of you.

There were several nights where you'd try to comfort him, but you knew you couldn't fix him. It's not that you weren't enough, you just weren't the solution. For someone as logical as Suguru, he valued solutions and answers rather than comfort. He had his priorities.

"I love you, Suguru," you'd whisper to his ear, your hands tangled up in his hair while he laid his head on your chest.

His eyes stared into nothingness, his mind occupied with so many things but you. "I love you," he said, without even fully processing it. His mind simply read your words and he just repeated them out loud for your sake.

Soon, another devastating blow shook Suguru.

When the news reached you, you were in denial.

"Not my Suguru," you thought. Your mind was in a frenzy. He could not have killed all those innocent people. 112 people. 2 of them were his parents. It was impossible.

Maybe it had something to do with his very being, the way he was designed. Was it possible that consuming all those curses meant consuming all those evil thoughts? Something had to be wrong. You were looking for everything else to blame but Suguru.

Suguru now stood across the road, his face blank and his lifeless eyes staring back at you like you were a void. A cigarette was held between his two fingers.

At this very moment, the two of you were on completely different sides.

It was like you were in a car with tinted windows, and Suguru was outside of the car, where he couldn't see you. He was staring into the tint's darkness, while you saw everything clearly. You saw him, but he did not see you.

"Please, come back. I don't care how miserable you are. Just throw it all on me. Share your burdens with me." You pleaded. "I can take it, just stay with me!"

His eyes narrowed at you. "Why are you still holding on?"

"Because I still love you, and I always will."

"I wish you'd stop trying," he shakily said. "My love, do one last thing for me before I leave, will you?"

"Anything."

"Break up with me,” he softly said. A part of him had hoped you didn’t hear him.

Suguru was in so much pain. Remnants and pieces of him were scattered on the palm of your hand but you could not do anything to fix him. Once a lighthouse, now a lost ship sailing away from everything including you.

Now, you find yourself smoking to remember his mouth.

[flanaganfilm]

Hey Mike! Can you talk about your experience going from Absentia to Oculus? That process after Absentia went on its festival run to pitching Oculus? Would love to learn about that time in your life & career!

I moved to Los Angeles in 2003, right after I graduated college. I went to Towson University in Maryland, was an EMF major (Electronic Media & Film) and had wanted nothing more than to make movies my whole life. We were a comfortable middle class military family (my dad was in the Coast Guard) and for most of my life, making movies for a living felt like an impossible dream.

When I moved to LA I took whatever work I could find. I shot and edited those local car commercials you see on TV at 2am, I was a logger and an AE for reality TV shows, and I eventually worked my way to editing.

I said I'd give myself 5 years to make it in Hollwood. By the time we shot Absentia, I'd been here for 7 years, and in that time I hadn't gotten any closer to my dream.

I've already written at length about how Absentia came along and what it was like to make that little movie, and I've recently blogged about how the Oculus premiere changed my life and birthed my career, so I won't rehash those - but I don't often talk about what went on in between.

I finished editing Absentia just before my oldest son was born in 2010, and went back to working full-time as a reality TV editor. In fact, in the months leading up to his birth, I was working double-time - I spent my days at a company called Film Garden working on a series for DIY Network, and my nights editing packages at Nash Entertainment for those true crime clip shows. Whatever it took to keep the lights on and provide as much support as I could for my son.

While this was happening, I'd submitted Absentia to a pile of film festivals. We didn't get into any of the majors - Sundance, SXSW, and Toronto all passed on the film. Our world premiere was at the Fargo Film Festival, where Tom Brandau, one of my former professors from Towson - and one of my mentors - was teaching.

(Our original festival poster, WAY better than the weird clip art that would come later)

The movie got into a fair amount of film festivals, and we traveled with it as much as we could. I have fond memories of the Phoenix Film Festival, San Luis Obispo (where I met Greg Kinnear at a party and very awkwardly asked for a picture - you can see how thrilled he is about it) and my personal favorite: the Fantastia Film Festival in Montreal.

(At one of the screenings, I believe the San Luis Obispo Film Festival)

While this was happening, the film was picked up for a tiny VOD and DVD release through Phase 4 Films.

They were a Canadian distribution company whose claim to fame was putting out Kevin Smith's Red State under a very unusual distribution model. They acquired the movie, which led to a company holiday part in Hollywood.

There, I briefly met Kevin Smith for the first time. We've met again since, and I've now had a chance to thank him for the kindness he showed me back then - I was just some starstruck kid at a party, but he was gracious and available and inspiring. I really admire the way Kevin deals with his fans, and I've tried to emulate it over the years.

So that was kind of it for Absentia. We went to a few festivals, went to a few parties, and posed for a few pictures with some people we admired. Phase 4 designed some truly godawful cover art, dropped the movie into video stores, and that was that.

($2.99 is a pretty good deal)

So Absentia had pretty much run its course. It had a passionate following of fans, but between the crappy art design and glut of low budget horror films on the market, its moment had already come and gone. I was back at work, editing a series for DIY Network called Extra Yardage, and yearning for another chance to make a movie.

Absentia might not have broken open the industry doors like I'd wanted it to, but one thing it did yield was a meeting with an entertainment attorney named Joel VanderKloot.

I had been represented a few times over the years by various managers (to be honest, they were actually Jeff Howard's managers, and they took me on because we had a co-written project together.) But those relationships hadn't gone anywhere, I'd never sold a script or booked a job, and when I suggested making Absentia they were not supportive ("You've already tried the indie thing, haven't you?") so by the time Absentia was made, I was completely unrepped.

Joel was a family friend of Jason Poh, who was one of our Absentia Kickstarter backers. He was a guy who'd just found the project online and donated a thousand bucks. He kept up with us, and loved the final movie. He told me he knew an entertainment lawyer and offered to arrange a lunch.

I left my editing job at Film Garden for a long lunch and met Joel in Santa Monica (this was a day-killing drive for me). Joel had seen the movie and really liked it. We had a good lunch, but wasn't immediately sure about taking me on - it's a lot of work to take on a new client, and there wasn't much heat on my movie. But there was something there that he liked, and he called later that day to say he would take me on as a client.

I was elated. I felt like I'd made my movie to the best of my ability, and that it had flashed in the pan and then died... no one had noticed outside of a few festival audiences and critics. But here was someone who worked in the industry and he saw something in the film that he believed in.

Joel started looking for managers while I clung to my day job. He passed the movie around and we had a few nibbles, which led to the first manager in my career who wanted to simply represent ME: Nicholas Bogner.

Bogner went about setting general meetings at production companies who specialized in horror films. There weren't a lot of takers, and not everyone was willing to watch an entire feature film in consideration of a general meeting. So it was hit or miss - I was a nobody, after all, and they get these kinds of incoming inquiries all the time.

But there were a few takers. And the very first meeting I had was with Anil Kurian at Intrepid Pictures.

Again, I took an extended lunch from my editing job and drove across town to Intrepid's offices in Santa Monica. I was beyond nervous when I sat in the waiting room. The young man working the front desk signed me in and offered me a water. And then, just before the meeting started, he leaned over and he said "I loved Absentia, by the way."

Anil was a really cool executive and we had a good general meeting. At the end of it, he introduced me to the heads of Intrepid: Marc Evans, and Trevor Macy.

We all ended up in the conference room, where posters for Intrepid's other movies - at that time, The Strangers and The Raven - were hanging. I vividly remember staring at them while I pitched all five of the ideas I had for movies.

One of them was a story about a little boy whose dreams manifested in real life, and another was a take on Stephen King's novel Gerald's Game. But at the time, none of these ideas worked. The meeting was over, and everyone was politely going about their day.

I felt a panic in me. It was my first real meeting, the door had been cracked open just an inch by Absentia, and I was about to walk away with nothing. Would my new manager want to keep me? Would my new lawyer think he was wasting his time?

I stopped in the doorway and turned back. "I've got one other thing," I said. "I made a short years ago about a haunted mirror, and I have a take for a feature."

They kind of laughed at the idea of a haunted mirror. "How do you make that scary?" Trevor asked. I said "Think of it like a portable Overlook Hotel," and the room got a little quieter.

"I'd like to see that short," Trevor said. I agreed to send it immediately.

I ran back to work, stayed a few hours late to make up the time I'd burned on my lunch hour, and went home to find a DVD copy of Oculus: The Man with the Plan.

I'd made that short in 2005. It was 20 mins long, and a lot of fun. Over the years whenever I'd get into meetings (all courtesy of Jeff Howard, who had sold scripts long before we started writing together), people would see it and ask about a feature. Every time, though, the conversation stalled because they wanted the film to be a found footage movie, or they'd balk at the idea of me directing a feature.

I sent the DVD to Intrepid and waited. About a week later, they called and asked me to come back in.

I took another long lunch (this would become quite a habit as the project advanced) and drove back down. We met again in the conference room, but this time the mood was a little different.

Trevor said "We're interested in this. How would you expand it? I know there are cameras in the room with the man and the mirror, which begs the question of found footage..."

My heart sank.

"... but we're thinking that's a mistake. It looks like all the fun is in playing with reality, and you can't do that with found footage. So how would you do it?"

And we were off.

I won't rehash the long journey between this meeting and the Oculus premiere at Toronto (scroll down to find another blog about that), but that was really the moment when things changed.

I drove back to work a little giddy. Intrepid optioned the short film, I called Jeff Howard to see if he'd still want to work on a feature with me, and we were commissioned to write the script.

It was my first Hollywood job. I was paid the bare minimum, but I was also able to join the WGA because of the deal. I still didn't quit my day job (and wouldn't for a long time, not until the movie was really shooting in Alabama the following year) but I was off to the races.

Once the script was done, Oculus would lead to my first agents (at APA, and they treated me very well) and my first "real" movie.

What's particularly neat about this time, looking back, is that I owe it all to Absentia. We'd made this tiny little movie to try to kick open the door of Hollywood and start a career. And despite the enormous pride I had in the finished film, it felt for a long time like it hadn't quite succeeded in that.

But quietly, subtly, the movie did exactly what I hoped it would. The festival screenings built up a small but confident word of mouth. The movie led directly to my attorney Joel (who still represents me to this day), which led directly to my first real representation, which led directly to Intrepid Pictures.

Trevor Macy is now my business partner and has produced every single thing I've ever made since. We run Intrepid Pictures together, and I see that same eagerness in the faces of young filmmakers who find their way to us for general meetings. I try to be as supportive and accessible to them as I possibly can, because I remember very well what it feels like to stand in their shoes.

And Trevor even ended up making those other pitches he'd rejected all those years ago - Before I Wake and Gerald's Game followed soon after Oculus was done.

Absentia did everything I could have wanted it to do, and much more. I'll always remember that period of time with great affection... but man, it was stressful. The uncertainty of those years still exists in me, I don't think it'll ever leave.

Someone told me, along the way, that there wouldn't be a moment when I realized I "made it." It would happen while I wasn't looking. That ended up being absolutely true.

[lucky-clover-gazette]

i think i really like the dark pictures anthology because they put. so much freaking effort into every aspect of these games.

yeah the mocap is a little janky, yeah there are glitches, but they're working with what they've got in terms of funding and technology. it's the WRITING, man, that blows me away. what a (super)massive undertaking that must be!! the script writer for until dawn said in an interview that he used microsoft excel to keep all the branching story beats straight, and it was only after the game's release that the studio developed their own program specifically to write this flavor of game. so so so cool, are you kidding me??

until dawn gets so much love and deserves it, but i want more people to talk about dark pictures too. these games are just so earnest about what they want to be, and the creative integrity shown by the studio is refreshing compared to the majority of media that's designed to appeal to the widest audience possible. each story is completely unashamed to emulate a specific horror subgenre, and you can just tell the devs had fun when coming up with the plot, mechanics, and visuals.

and on top of that, they put in the extra thought and effort necessary to give these stories genuinely meaningful themes; in little hope, dealing with self-forgiveness in the midst of grief, in house of ashes, an anti-war stance that a lot of studios wouldn't touch for commercial reasons, and in the devil in me, commentary on art of all things. they could have totally just done a simple saw trap route a la josh's maniac setup in until dawn, but instead they made the overarching story about the artistic process, especially relating to macabre subject matter like true crime. of course there are still plenty of ridiculous saw traps and genre-typical cliches, but there's MORE to it than that, and the game probably would have sold just as well if deeper themes hadn't been included. if they don't know supermassive, people are most likely playing the game for the saw trap stuff, but surprise! this game has a really cool story too! it has fantastic execution of branching storytelling, brilliant atmospheric tension, and a mystery with the curator than spans over multiple games! i could say similar things about each of the other entries, that they go far beyond their gimmicks and deserve your attention.

i see the dark pictures games and think to myself, "yeah, these are where supermassive's creative passion really lies." say what you want about the quarry, but it felt dryer, less inspired, more phoning-it-in storywise compared to until dawn and dpa. it's still a cool game, but compared to dpa i just don't think it was supermassive's favorite project to work on. i almost wonder if some of the artistic commentary in the devil in me is a projection of the development staff having to split their time between dpa and the quarry, given the fact that both games were 2022 releases.

i don't really have a point here, except that the dark pictures anthology is a very cool and innovative flavor of horror media and i love it to bits. i can't play it, because i'd have a panic attack, but i sure do wish more people talked about it. and i'm SUPER excited to see what supermassive does next with dpa in directive 8020!!

[mistysblueboxstuff]

Hello, first of all, I’m really sorry for bothering you with this. I’m a person who other people consider an artist. I’ve made things all of my life with whatever tools I could get my hands on. My family was too poor to afford paper and pencils so I burned wood engravings with magnifying glasses. My handwriting is tiny and precise because I loved writing but had to squeeze every inch of space out of a page. Over the years I’ve done a lot of other things that caught my interest, including sculpture, 3D modeling, modding, making dolls, decoupage, graphic design, oils, watercolor, lots of stuff. I won awards, got into some magazines. People paid unreasonable amounts for my stuff. I even spent two years in college majoring in drawing and painting before admitting to myself that I hated the process and though I had some technical skill, I wasn’t a real artist and didn’t have the inspired creative spark real artists had. I was okay with that; I don’t want to express myself.  I’ve always made things because I wanted to learn things and see something I wouldn’t have been able to see otherwise. 

I’ve always thought of myself as someone respectful of artists. I’ve spent so much on commissions that I don't have a savings account. I’ve always paid artists as well as I can afford and sometimes more if I thought their rates were low or if I knew they were putting extra work in on a piece. I’ve also bought a lot of fan made merch. Almost a thousand of that has been on prints you’ve made. I love your art.

I’ve been passionate about text and art AI for years. At first I was excited when the public became aware of my hobby and I thought that I’d finally be able to talk about it with people. Except, it turned out that everyone hates this thing I’m passionate about and would hate me if they knew I used it. I’ve had to hide it and keep it bottled up inside, away from the people I want to share it with. Everywhere I look, I see words like AI bro and AI clown and lazy and that people like me should just die.

I’ve heard all of the arguments for and against it. I do get why people are scared and discouraged and feel like they’ve had something taken from them. But I also know that I can't stop loving AI. I can't stop making things and learning new skills in things that interest me. That’s who I am. If I know anything about myself, it’s that.

I have one enormous print of yours of Aziraphale hanging over my bed. It has given me so much happiness for the past two years. I’ve felt love and beauty when I look at it. It’s been a source of comfort and joy. Having grown up lesbian in a religious household that thought I needed an exorcism, there’s something about seeing him turn his face away from God that resonates.

It’s been eating me up inside for weeks because every time I look at the picture above my bed, I don’t see Aziraphale any more. I don’t feel that love. I can only think about the person behind it that I respect and how they’ve said I should die, and the community behind them that I want to be part of but would hate me.

Am I the bad guy? The pain feels like a festering boil that needs to be lanced, so I guess I’d like to hear you say that what I’m doing is unforgivable so that I can take the picture down, grieve and move on. I know that's a lot for a stranger to ask of you. It's probably messed up that I'm even bringing this to you. I'm sorry.

Hiya. Thank you for messaging me. first I'd just like to say I don't think anyone should actually die. I know I say AI folks should die but it's something that I don't actually mean or want, I'm just angry. I don't like being told to "adapt or die". I don't appreciate AI folks saying I should "get on with the times and use the AI". I don't appreciate being told to "learn a new skill" by people who by all accounts have none themselves. I don't appreciate being told to "go work at McDonald's bozo". Being told to "get a real job". These are the things said to me personally, not just to artists in general.

Have you seen the vile things artists are being told by the AI tech bros? How we are being treated? They call us "drawslaves", "paint pigs", but at same time we're the "elite" keeping the poor masses away from their god given right to be able to make art without putting any effort into it.

We have every right to be angry and I'm really sorry me saying they should die has hurt you. I'm hurting too. I haven't been in the best place mentally and I won't go into details but this whole AI thing has only made it worse.

I don't think artists are just scared or discouraged, they're angry because their art is being stolen by this thing made to replace them. It really really hurts, I can't tell you how much. It's also infuriating. A lot of the time it makes me want to just stop making art because what's the point? It'll just get stolen and chopped up, bastardised into some AI monstrosity and soon I won't even be needed at all. I spent my whole life trying to figure out what to do with it, finding one thing i love and managing to make a living off it, only for it to be taken away from me by a machine. Might as well just stab me to death and get it over with. It would hurt less. One of the things that hurt me the most is when people question if my art is AI or not. I hate that I also question every piece of art I now encounter too.

Your story is inspiring and it sounds like you enjoyed making art, so what happened? I can't understand how any artist would actually feel accomplished by generating images via AI. I do understand it's fun and brings joy to people I guess. As for being a part of the art community I don't think most artists will ever accept AI folks as being a part of it. There is a huge AI community though, as I'm sure you know.

Personally I find it really difficult to look at AI images, for many reasons, seeing them treated as art pains me. It's why I left ArtStation and why I'm no longer active on DeviantArt either.

I don't think you specifically are the "bad guy". The bad guys are the people who are pushing for this thing to actually replace artists. The bad guys are the hedge fund billionaire man babies behind it. I do think people using AI are helping it get better at stealing though. The support the AI has been given by folks using it has made people behind it more aggressive as well.

But like I said many times before I don't hate AI specifically and if it stops stealing and starts being used more ethically then it's fine (sort of). But I think everyone knows the AI would be nothing without actual artists' work, that's why they're gonna fight for their "right" to keep stealing from us. Wonder who they gonna steal from when most of us abandon art because we'll have to do something else to survive and there won't be time for making art anymore.

I'm really sorry my stance on AI is making it difficult for you to enjoy my art though, I never really thought about that so thank you for making me consider your perspective on this. I'm happy my art has brought you joy. For what it's worth I don't hate you, I don't think using AI is unforgivable, I don't think you're a bad person for using AI and finding joy in it. But as an artist I will never support AI. AI stomps all over everything art stands for, to me at least. It's a travesty. It mocks everything I've been through as a person to get where i am now. There are so many artists i love and seeing their art stolen and used in this way makes me so mad. It's easy to make the issue sound simple by saying "artists are just scared because AI is better" but it's so much more than that.

I'm sorry you feel like you need to take my Aziraphale painting down. I can't help but feel the way i feel though. i hate AI as it is now but that doesn't mean i hate every single person who uses it. I'm sorry though. i wish i had something smarter to say and something to make you feel better :(

[danielle-dna]

19 - Great Expectations

Despite barely scraping enough UCAS points to get me to university and having the honor of being the first person in my family to go to university, I still felt like an absolute faliure.

It dawned on me that I will never be a doctor. I will never be anything I wanted as a kid. A rock star, fashion designer, actress... all of those were young girls wishes. Sometimes life happens and things don't go according to plan. Sometimes we lose people close to us but sometimes we meet people who change us for the better.

Still, I couldn't help but notice that my inner child often cried and mourned the person I could've been. If only I had both parents. Maybe then my mum wouldn't be so overworked and she could actually afford to send me to guitar lessons when I was younger. If only I had more money and an easier job. Maybe then I could afford to spend more time studying and actually get to the prestige course I wanted. If only I was pretty. Maybe then I wouldn't get bullied as a kid and I wouldn't carry all this emotional baggage with me.

This was hard for me to process. But I knew I couldn't share any of this with Simon. The man has seen horrors and death. What do I have that is worth mentioning?

My mum and I finally moved to our new, smaller and cheaper flat. It was modern and fairly spacious, but nonetheless it was a studio, meaning I wouldn't have my own room anymore. And I would have to share the bed with my mum. Again.

After unpacking what seemed like a bloody warehouse, I finally, FINALLY managed to decently organise everything. Despite knowing that mum WILL re organise everything when she returns from her two week placement, I was satisfied with my progress.

I looked at some of my empty sketchbooks and art supplies that I haven't touched in months, maybe over a year. Why did I stop?

I guess I got too exhausted and depressed about everything, that way didn't have any inspiration, let alone willpower to draw anything. Looking at the empty room that has become my habitat, I picked up my phone and invited Simon to a little "housewarming party".

-

An hour and a half later, Simon and I were already doing my favourite kind of yoga position: masked man bridge pose. Well, I was doing the bridge, he was doing the rest. Honestly, I had no idea how could he still have so much stamina.

"Simon, fucks sake, take it easy, this is a new bed." Replying with nothing but a smirk, he grabbed my butt and picked up the pace.

This went on for another hour, during which, I also took the lead sometimes and demonstrated what kind of fanfictions I have been reading as a teen.

After we were both kind of tired, we just laid on the bed, naked, embracing each other. Simon was kissing my cheeks and caressing my back. "You hungry, love?"

I couldn't help but smile at him. "A little, maybe. Just had the dessert." Giving me another kiss, he stood up, butt naked, and started going through my fridge. "Bloody hell, you ever have any food?"

"Sometimes, check the freezer, there may be a frozen pizza."

Thank fuck there was, or else we would have to go out and actually TALK to people.

It is my firm belief that frozen food, especially pizza is humanity's greatest achievement. After dinner, we both laid in the bed, touching each other and talking about our lives. Simon even told me a few funny stories from deployment. I was happy to see both sides of him. He was so much more than just a stoic lieutenant.

And then his very large friend demanded attention again. I was more than happy to give it. Whilst I was in the middle of a very passionate blowjob, I head EDM bass coming from the upstairs flat. I was surprised, since most of my neighbours were very quiet, reserved and peaceful. "You are so good at this, love. You wanna keep going?"

I nodded with my very full mouth and kept going. Then I had enough and pushed Simon back to the bed, took his mask and put it on me. This seemed to turn him on even more. Throwing him a condom, I waited patiently so he could put it on. When he was finished, I pounced on him and rode him like it was a competition.

But there was just one...tiny...tiny...problem. The fucking music wouldn't let me concentrate. In sheer frustration I took off his mask, got off of his hips and silently yelled in the pillow.

"I'm sorry, Simon, I can't focus. I fucking can't." With that he stood up and banged on the ceiling a few times. Nothing.

"You can report them to the landlord tomorrow. Wanna keep going'?"

With a facefull of sheer annoyance I nodded and spread my legs.

[tearlessrain]

7 and 12 for the durge creator asks:)

eey thanks! (ask meme)

so for clarity, my durge is actually two people, they're twin brothers (or yknow, they consider themselves that, not even gonna try to figure out the exact biological fuckery behind their existence), one of whom (Ryldimar) developed a conscience after getting tadpoled and the other of whom (Veil) really didn't. They were extremely close all their lives and are basically one soul in two bodies or something similar, but forgot each other after they got tadpole'd and were both just vaguely aware that they'd Lost Something Very Important until they started respectively piecing things together. their story inevitably ends tragically but Ryldimar at least more or less survives to move on from it.

Ryldimar is the one whose playthrough I consider "canon," while Veil didn't encounter much of the main plot up to act 3 and carved his own way to Baldur's Gate, where he proceeded to kill Orin and take her Netherstone before Ryldimar got there and basically replaced her as the Bhaal boss in my own canon. How did Veil resist the Absolute without the prism? some kinda twin bond/Bhaal blood bullshit, don't worry about it.

I somehow don't have proper art refs of them yet but they are each other's dream guardians in-game so I have screenshots like this hoarded.

just. imagine that Ryldimar is wearing a bunch of scraggly bloodstained furs instead of shiny plate armor. he didn't even look that put together before the tadpole.

so that was a bit of a ramble but yeah lol.

7. Is their personal story represented in their overall design? Do they carry any mental scars or physical alterations from the shit that happened to them? It is, but not all of it is on purpose lol. I made Ryldimar first and wasn't terribly invested in the whole durge concept, I just wanted to see more of the game, so I threw together something visually appealing to me and picked drow because I'm one of those people. then I decided to do one(1) evil run and made Veil by just mucking up Ryldimar's design a little. it was actually my friend who suggested that they could be twins and I immediately got super attached to the concept (because who doesn't love a good Evil Twin trope) and now here we are, and I've since adjusted their designs a little accordingly (they've both got the red swirl tattoo, but Veil's is canonically on the opposite side and it's not a tattoo so much as a remnant of whatever process split them into two people). Ryldimar is the one who ended up in Kressa Bonedaughter's custody for a while, so he's got a fair amount of scarring from her various vivisection attempts. It's also the reason he experienced such a stark personality change in a way Veil didn't; Kressa's poking around in his brain (mostly in an attempt to make him slightly more docile so he'd stop trying to strangle her with his own intestines) had unforeseen long-term consequences. Veil's face scarring is intentional and decorative, and it predates the tadpole. They both had some artistic inclination though they uh, kept it a lot more reined in than Orin obviously. Veil always leaned more toward visual arts and Ryldimar preferred music (mostly as justification for the single level in Bard I gave him).

Veil also does absolutely have brain damage, but aside from the memory loss it mostly just fucked up his emotional regulation a bit. Though ironically, he doesn't remember his name (Veil is something he picked for himself post-tadpole) while Ryldimar does remember his.

12. OC Art/Stories or shipping content? What do you enjoy the most? What's ur little hidden passion? Okay so arguably a bit of both; the two of them have a whole story arc intertwined with @elaphaemourra's tiefling oc Dragonfly (same person who is the inspiration between Veil and Ryldimar in the first place). I really love throwing my ocs at other peoples' ocs and the whole conversation started as just throwing whump ideas around by letting Veil get his hands on Dragonfly. that evolved into "Dragonfly is the hostage in Ryldimar's storyline, he was originally captured by Orin but once Veil killed her he didn't need a hostage anymore, so he just kept him for fun."

It was already canon that Ryldimar ends up killing Veil and rejecting Bhaal, now he just. also gets a very traumatized tiefling out of it and by this point we've written walls of text about these two recovering and helping each other heal from the insane shit they've both been through.

also they fuck. so much. they're the absolute epitome of "that which doesn't kill me gives me kinks that are difficult to explain."

[cass-ettetape]

hihihihiiiiii i’m new to tumblr but here’s my first oc, charlie. i’m still working on her design and developing them, but i still thought i’d share. :3

Name: Charlie (last name tbd) ((im super open to suggestions))

Gender: Non-binary (they/them pronouns)

Likes:

- Music, especially playing bass in their band.

- Secondhand and DIY fashion.

- Eco-conscious living and political activism.

- Vinyl record collecting.

- Art, particularly embroidery and sewing.

Dislikes:

Closedmindedness to other ideas

- Superficiality and insincere people.

- Indefference

Hobbies:

- Playing bass and music composition.

- Sewing, embroidering, and creating DIY clothing.

- Collecting and curating vinyl records.

- Participating in environmental activism.

Personality:

Charlie is passionate and embodies a blend of punk and hippie ideologies. They are environmentally conscious, politically engaged, and creative. Charlie is empathetic and values their close relationships with family and friends, particularly their dad and Jonah. They’re emotionally intelligent and well adjusted, but they’re smart too, particularly in mathematics and engineering.

Alignment and Morals:

Charlie's morals are aligned with environmental and political activism, rooted in their desire for positive change in the world. They believe in fairness, equality, and individual expression. They believe in always finishing what you’ve started.

Relationships:

Dad: Charlie shares a deeply loving and close relationship with their father. He has been a strong musical influence in their life and has played a significant role in shaping their character. He’s their biggest inspiration and greatest support.

Jonah: Jonah is not only Charlie's best friend but a bandmate as well. Their bond started in childhood, and is unbreakable, despite the challenges they face. They connect over their shared love for music, but also butt heads during moments of grief and distance (Defffff not important later).

Lorenzo: Lorenzo is another bandmate and friend of Charlie's. They value his passion for music history and appreciate his contributions to the band's creative process. They value his good listening skills and respect his dedication to the things he enjoys.

Malik: Charlie enjoys connecting with Malik through their shared interests in art and creativity. They encourage Malik to explore his artistic side as he’s been neglecting it. They love Malik’s general good vibes, positive demeanor, and stong moral compass.

Gabriel: Charlie and Gabriel have many moral and philosophical discussions.Gabriel handles the more theological side, while Charlie the more practical side. They appreciate the perspective and really get each other thinking.

Mannerisms and Expressions:

• Charlie tends to adjust their jewelry when contemplating or nervous.

• Expresses themselves through music and occasional introspective silences. (They go nonverbal (Me Fr))

• Values quality time and often initiates activities with friends.

• They have a hard time managing volume and speed of speech. When they have something to say they often talk to fast for anyone to understand.

• Although they love talking and would never mean any harm, they have a hard time judging when someone is done speaking, and sometimes accidentally cut them off.

Love Languages:

• Primary: Quality Time

• Secondary: Words of Affirmation

• Giving: Acts of Service

Looks:

- Depending on their preference, Charlie may have various hairstyles, both long and short funky cuts.

- A few tattoos and piercings.

- They are often dressed in earthy tones, such as green and brown, but they also love blue amd turquoise tones.

Fashion:

Charlie's fashion is one of their favorite means of self expression, and they see it as a reflection of their character. After all, if they shopfast fashion can they really claim to believe the things they do? They prefer secondhand and DIY clothing, often modifying and creating their own pieces. Their wardrobe includes band t-shirts, ripped jeans, cargos, maxi skirts, and jorts. Charlie loves to accessorize with unique jewelry and accessories like beaded necklaces and bracelets.

Brief Backstory:

Charlie's backstory includes their childhood experiences in their dad's band and their close relationship with him. They met Jonah as a young child in school, and their friendship with Jonah grew over time. Jonah eventually joined their family, becoming like a son to Charlie's dad. Jonah and Charlie started their own band after their dad's band broke up, inspired by the idea of creating music together. Their story takes a poignant turn when Charlie's dad is diagnosed with cancer, testing their resilience and love for each other. Later in the story, Jonah's avoidant attachment style leads to a rift in their relationship, which Charlie desperately wants to mend. To show their support and love, they write a song with the help of their bandmates.

[ryuichirou]

I’m sure you already know this, but I find it really interesting that they had Yana Toboso from Black Butler do the character designs for Twisted Wonderland. I also had no idea it’s an official Disney product! I looked it up out of pure curiosity since I’ve never heard of the series before and I really like your art for the characters. I’ve been following for a while but I thought maybe relating to the characters from TW would help me envision your ideas a lot better 😅

Thank you so much for your ask and for your kind words too! It is amazing that you are invested in my art enough to check out the characters that I draw to get a better understanding of the ideas behind our stuff. I am very flattered and happy… 😭❤️

It is indeed interesting, and I’m sure a lot of people experience this, but it’s so funny to watch/read TW at times, because you always get this “wait, is Disney really ok with this???” feeling.

Our TW journey is kind of funny because it started with us rewatching and rereading Kuroshitsuji (you might’ve noticed that…) and appreciating Toboso both as an artist and as a writer. We also had seen her works for TW every now and then even up to that point, because when you look up her artwork and try to study her, it’s kind of inevitable. Our friend had started playing TW around that time and we ended up seeing even more of amazing artworks and designs Toboso’s done for the game and also hearing some good stuff about the characters and the game itself. Then we were told about Idia and Azul, so we drew them just for fun because of their very pretty designs.

But then we found out that she isn’t just an artist and a designer, she is also a writer for the game?? Which surprised us and made us especially excited to learn more about it; we really enjoy her writing. Some of the ideas she covers and the way she expresses them are quite unique and interesting, and you can see it in both Kuroshitsuji and TW. Like, they seem familiar to a certain degree, but don’t go the way you expect them to go, especially if you’re anticipating a Disney formula or stuff like that. I could rant about it for a long time…

So yeah, we ended up temporarily pausing our Kuroshitsuji deep-dive and started watching TW (both the main story and the vignettes/events) instead. We are still in the process, there’s still a lot of stuff for us to watch and see, and it is truly very exciting.

We’ve read some parts of the interview in which she told about how she’d started working for Disney, how she’d arrived with her concept sketches right away, and had basically just become the main creator behind the game that instant, because she had a lot of very good ideas and a very clear direction for both the game and the characters. I’m sorry, I just really love it, I really really love the fact that a great artist who is very passionate about her work and Disney films got this opportunity and got recognized for her skills, she really deserves it.

Oof sorry my reply to you turned out to be a love letter to Toboso Yana haha, I couldn’t help it. Love this woman a lot, especially lately: the more we see of her, the more inspiring she becomes to us both as a designer/artist and as a writer. Alright, I’ll shut up lol

Thank you so much for your ask again! Please have a great day <3

[artsy-hobbitses]

Hi! Really big fan of your art. Really love the dynamism (I don't know if that's a word? Sorry ^^;) of your Humanformers and how their designs are all so different!

I'm trying to get back into drawing (I used to draw so much as a kid, really fell off the wagon when I went into college), and I was wondering... how do you deal with the frustration of pieces not turning out the way you picture them? I get so discouraged sometimes when my skills just aren't quite up to snuff for what my brain wants to do. How do you stay motivated to keep at it?

Hello hello and thank you very much for your kind words!

Honestly you’ve got to find a way to love the process, to just see something come to life in your hands even though it’s imperfect. Embrace that imperfection as a reflection of who you are and your development as an artist at that point—a lot of old art before you get to a point where you’re happy does mirror a part of you and your influences at that period, like a little time-back machine.

Keep drawing even though you’re not ‘there yet’. Give your art a little story and narrative so the technical aspects of it are not all you have to go on. I know a lot of local artist friends who just draw things without a story or narrative, and when they cannot get it ‘right’, it inevitably feels harsher because the critic in you will see it as ‘hollow’.

You not being able to 100% put the things in your head on paper is actually a good thing—you’re already able to visualise, your body naturally needs to play catch-up with your head.

So asides giving it a little story or narrative, look to people and IP which inspire you for reference. I keep telling people this—if you’re not at a point where you can freely draw without reference, use a reference—hell, trace if you have to (practice only) to build muscle memory.

Finding a core group of art friends who mutually support each other is also invaluable. I started out a 14-year-old with shitty but determined and lovingly-made MSPaint and Mouse Neopet doodles, I can’t imagine how my progress would have been if I didn’t have a little group on the site who were genuinely charmed at what I managed to accomplish with the roughest of tools and kept cheering me on (I was entering those damn Beauty Contests and I did not care that other pieces were prettier the mine).

Last of all, remember the audience you’re drawing for first and foremost—you. Draw what you love, draw self-indulgent shit, because the best way to motivate yourself is “I WANT IT THAT WAY” and actually clawing to get it that way. There’s a running joke that so many fan artists get good at anatomy because “I NEED to see X and Y DOING THIS THING”, it’s that simple/silly and that’s the energy you need to embrace.

My first year college lecturer told students about my portfolio project something along the lines of “She’s not technically sound, but you can see that she LOVES what she’s doing, and that’s the kind of passion you need”.

So keep drawing to build muscle memory and storytelling to give even rough art a soul, and embrace that imperfection as just a snapshot in time. Of course you can do better, everyone can, but use that as a motivator, more of a “HELL YES IM GONNA DO THAT” instead of a “Why can’t I do that”. It’s a matter of perspective too!

[deadboyfriendd]

I've seen you mention that you're studying graphic design and for some reason I had it in my head that you studied English or followed a writing course. I think it's because your writing and your style always makes me feel like I'm reading a published novel. Hardcover honey. It's so well put together and I've really enjoyed reading all the recent anon asks about your wips and past works. The level of thought and detail you discussed in those alone blew me away. Are you self taught?

Hi anon!

First off, THANK YOU SO MUCH for the reading and all of the love. I literally can't think about people reading and liking my work too much or else I will start crying. It means SO much to me.

Yes! I am currently getting my BS in Graphic Design, but I do have an AA in Liberal Studies and a second AA in discretional honors from when I thought I wanted to be a nurse, got into the honors program at my community college, and got all the way through nursing school before I decided I wanted to be an artist!

I am self-taught! Writing has always just kind of been something that comes naturally, but that isn't to say that I haven't had a ton of practice working on this website. When I read back through some of my stuff from my Wattpad days and read back through some of my stuff even from a year ago on here, I am so surprised to see how much and how quickly I was able to grow as a writer when I didn't see that kind of growth on any other platform I've ever written for. A big part of this can be credited to @dr-aculaaa in our little writer's room. Her work pushed me to be the greatest writer I can be and Drac is always my go-to!

I think the first time I ever got recognition for my writing was in the 7th grade, and I just didn't stop! I was a weird kid and really insecure with myself so when I was good at something like writing or art, I tried to capitalize on it and milk it for all it was worth because I thought it would make people like me, but, as an adult, I write largely for myself now. My great granddad was a published author and he wrote westerns! I didn't know this until after I wrote Cochise!

I also had a couple of really great teachers and some really great college courses that I think helped me out quite a bit. My middle school english teacher (who I still talk to!) really encouraged me to continue working with writing and art. I was also his TA for four years so he was able to fuel my flame for reading, writing, art, and music! He is also part of the reason why I became a teacher and I can only dream of being half the teacher he is.

In college, I took a couple of really cool electives, Theatre History, Witchcraft and Heresy in Europe, Art History, and The Politics of Punk to name a few. It really helped me expand my worldview and fueled my love of writing because writing is also largely a reading and researching process for me!

As far as my actual writing process, I write about the things that make me happy and largely, I write about myself and my own experiences. In reality, my cochise universe is a culmination for my love of Tombstone, my love for my desert home, my passion for westerns, and the fact that I was watching a LOT of yellowstone at that time. Just like Stone Gothic came out right after that class on Witchcraft and when Drac was talking to me about monsterfucking lol! I write about the things I've seen and the things I've stored in my brain. I think the reason it takes me so long to get anything out is because, when I feel like getting really descriptive and getting in the zone, I pretend I'm standing there with a macrolense and think about what I'm seeing or feeling, how someone else can be feeling that, and how I've felt when something similar happens. I also think about how I've read about how other characters feel in similar events!

My love for writing also ultimately comes from my love of reading, if you scroll down a little on my page I have a couple of lists of books that have really inspired me! When I see prose I like I try to write like that, and its always going to come out in my own way- which I have learned to be okay with.

Ultimately, my entire relationship with writing is this weird pieced-together mosiac of learning how to deal with myself and my life experiences, catharsis, my desperate need to be creating something, my love for reading and learning, and also my constant craving for validation and praise.

I'd be happy to talk about this all you want, anon! Thanks for reading and letting me spew these thoughts all over the dash!

[crom-cristianortiz]

Gaining Insight into the Creative Process of Concept Artist Crom - Cristian Ortiz in an Exclusive Interview.

Since he was a young boy, Cristian Ortiz has been driven towards illustration. His passion for the arts have led him to explore many disciplines within the creative industry-- animation, comics, storyboarding, game design and advertising.

But there's one thing that all of these fields had in common; drawing! Once he discovered 'illustration' as his rightful career path though it seemed like everything made sense--so with every decision since then his goal has been to become an illustrator.

Are you self-taught or did you have a formal Art Education ? 

I always drew and had personal projects going since I was really young but I wanted to see what was there to learn from places like St. Martins University where every summer I’d spend all my pennies on their short courses on storyboarding, illustration and design.

By the time I was seventeen, I had attended a foundational course in East London that taught me how to take on projects and briefs with confidence. Later on, at Middlesex University, my Illustration & Animation degree not only brought together an incredible group of peers but also permitted traditional illustrators to open up new perspectives for me which otherwise would have gone unrealized.

I eagerly saved every penny to attend St. Martins University's summer courses in storyboarding, illustration and design to gain an understanding of the possibilities within my field.

My past work experience has been exclusively in freelancing, so I am more familiar with it. If you prefer having direct contact with the people you are collaborating with and taking care of the administrative tasks yourself, then this is a great route for you to take.

Being an excellent game artist necessitates the ability to creatively transform a project brief into your own personal vision, while simultaneously infusing it with enthusiasm. An aptitude for bringing life and energy to characters and environments is key in this role, enabling you to craft unique experiences that players will love.

You should be full of enthusiasm when constructing bold new worlds and fascinating characters - it's key to the creative process!

If you are an aspiring game artist with dreams of succeeding in the industry, then honing your artistic skills and practice is essential. Different styles come into play depending on what type of game artistry you are interested in. To become a proficient game artist, it is important to develop a vision for how you want to express yourself visually through practice - creating projects that test your boundaries and challenge your abilities will help identify where further development needs to be focused on.

Trends come and go, yet to effectively communicate your vision visually requires diligence, practice, and personal projects. Do you find that the final illustrations are distinct from the ideas originally in mind?

The pieces I showcased at "Illustrated 2016" in the Truman Brewery were close to what one may classify as Fine Art. But where does Illustration stop and Fine Art begin? Or, is there no distinct boundary between the two? To me, it's about pushing boundaries: striving for excellence and surprise factors. More often than not, I end up with something even better than what my initial vision was!

I believe people perceive my work as valuable because I make physical pieces on canvases and fine paper, instead of mass-produced prints. While labels can be irrelevant to me, the fact that my artwork is one-of-a-kind has caused its value to rise exponentially in recent times. With a professional background steeped in commercial work and pop culture, who knows what direction my art will take me next? 

What's it like to be part of the Creative Community in London? It's inspiring! In my experience, this city is a true powerhouse for creative individuals who are looking to collaborate and perfect their respective crafts. From indie comic creators, sign painters, game developers and more – if you have an interest in art or expression then there will always be a gathering that welcomes your enthusiasm. I've been fortunate enough not only witness these communities but also connect with them; never has there been such an energizing force towards creativity as what exists here.

London exudes magnetic creativity, which has attracted an eclectic community of artisans who are eager to collaborate and hone their crafts. This vibrant metropolis is alive with unique individuals wishing to share their inspiring skills and experiences with others.

[cxcosmos]

Hi i want to participate in your tarot game my inicials are S.B and my pronouns are she/her

Thank you 🤍

Hello!!

What makes people drawn to you?

Here is what I got for you:

People are drawn to you because of how passionate and creative you tend to be. Most of them don't see that creativeness in themselves so they might come near you to see if it rubs off on them, people might admire whatever work you dabble in whether the arts or something to do with design. You take your inspiration from the world around you and it sparks up so many ideas. Your brain is constantly looking for something new to dabble in because it is just something you love to do. Although at times you might feel that you are lacking balance perhaps this might be due to an event that happened a while ago and has affected you greatly in a negative way. You have still yet to process it and it has been weighing down on you, you need to learn to heal from this and let your creativity flow even more. Do not let that event control the course/direction of your life from now on, be the best you can be and let nothing stand in your way.

Thank you for participating in the game S.B, please tell me if it resonates:))

[artsytoasterwaffle]

MY PERSONAL STATEMENT :)

I'm a very passionate person and I love to indulge in the vibrant and intricate aspects of the world around me. The first time I watched the animated TV show Steven Universe, I almost instantly fell in love with its beautifully designed settings and worlds so much that I had the desire to bring its beauty into other parts of my life.

When the time came to start my A Level art personal investigation project, I decided to explore the concept of landscape paintings acting as portals that allow you to escape into whatever world is depicted. Having taken the title from an episode called “Escapism” I explored all sorts of media until I eventually found my strength in gouache. I love intricacy and gouache helped me to incorporate lots of idyllic details into my work as well as maintaining a slight cartoonish style so as to not forget the roots of my inspiration.

My main intention for my escapism project was to make people wish that they could enter my paintings, and I was successful in this by picking techniques and aspects from artists along my journey in order to create the ultimate escape; I was able to capture the blissful and timeless feelings and combine them into an ethereal and whimsical atmosphere. It fills me with love to see other people in awe of the worlds that I've created, so in the later parts of my project I brought more personal influences into it, like my dual heritage (Mauritian and South African) where I created a hybrid out of each country's national flower.

Doing an art foundation course will allow me to further bring beauty into the world with the skills I'd learn, and being able to create things in the future that I wouldn't be able to now would broaden my ability to spread love through my art. I consider myself quite open to new experiences. Having travelled all over the globe to beautiful places like Mauritius, South Africa and Spain throughout my life I tend to meet opportunities with excitement and anticipation whilst taking inspiration from everything, and I would be ecstatic to study a foundation course and try out new techniques and materials as well as developing skills i have already acquired.

Photography is a skill that I am quite experienced in, where I chose to investigate the changes in fashion over the past 100 years for my A Level personal project. However along the way I found it to push me out of my comfort zone. Photography really helped me with my problem solving capabilities as I found myself having to overcome many obstacles such as set building, makeup design, outfit design and much more, but as aforementioned I love to bring out the beauty in things and one of the most rewarding aspects of the A level was getting to see the final products. Just something about these elegant and graceful images really ignited my passion for the subject and made me want to learn more.

I look for creativity and beauty everywhere I go and a lot of my interests stem from art. For about the past 10 years I have had a vast array of interests with my main 2 being toys and films. I am highly invested in the process of creating and designing toys and I find myself attracted to vibrant and brightly coloured ones as they bring me joy with their vivid patterns and hues. The process of stop motion animation and classical hand-drawn is also something that has greatly influenced me for a long time, with my first encounter with the stop motion world being in 2010 when I watched the movie Coraline in cinemas. My passion for toys and stop motion has led me to create a handful of doll-like sculptures out of plastic in the past, however I would love to try creating maquettes out of other materials in the future. I hope to

[casestudieslen]

Gallery Pal Design Sprint

UI/UX Designer

Introduction

For this design sprint, I selected the prompt for Gallery Pal. This is a very interesting prompt to me specifically due to my passion for art and my love for museums. This app will be designed for guests of art museums, providing an easier experience for their visit. It would make it so that anyone who visits an art museum has an easier time learning about and appreciating whatever pieces the museum in question might have. 

The Process

Research

The research provided for the spring came in the form of an interview with a museum tour guide named Lena Carroll. It was a fascinating interview full of good insight both about the thoughts of a tour guide and about the issues that an average guest would have when visiting. 

Some insight from the interview went as follows: 

The average visitor doesn't know much about pieces in a museum

But some people know a lot and have done research, only go on tours for more information.

The guide gives the artist's name, the location of the painting's origin, and fun facts about the pieces.

Artists have a lot of background details that can reflect in art and strengthen the viewing experience.

The artist's background seems to resonate with guests a lot.

Tragedy resonates with guests.

Context behind the art is important.

Giving tidbits about why a technique was used is important.

Giving context and tidbits about the medium is important.

The guide encourages guests to look at pieces individually, so they can look closely and reflect on what it means to them.

Art periods are important to differentiate.

This is all very good insight to have on an average visitor’s experience, and even on the experience of the tour guide. It will be interesting to see how I can use this information to assist me in making the app.

End-To-End Experience Maps

For this app idea, I decided to create two end-to-end experience maps. There were two important functions I was rolling around in my head. 

The first idea was to be able to scan an art piece with a photo function and have the app be able to find it in a database. This would allow the user to find comprehensive information about whatever art piece they were looking at. Gallery Pal could find information about the piece itself, its medium and content, as well as information about the artist for further historical facts and context. 

Inspiration and Sketches

An important step of this process was finding competitors and seeing how they tackled the same problems I was tackling. I found a few good areas of inspiration to begin drawing from for initial sketches of the most critical page.

These apps all handled a similar thing, and I believe one of them may even be work from a former student of this program which is interesting to see. These all provided good inspiration for the pages I wanted to create. 

I decided in the end to focus on the picture scanning function, since I imagine that would be more useful to the average user. Ms.Carroll said in her interview that most guests to a museum didn’t know anything about art, so being able to find something easily just by looking at it through a camera would most likely be the more useful function. 

The map function would be more for those who already know what they want to see, and that’s less critical in the grand scheme of things.

Once I gathered enough inspiration, I selected what I considered to be the most critical screen in the process, which is the screen that gives information about the art piece that was just scanned. To figure out a good layout, I created eight quick sketches of different layouts that could work. 

There were a few things I wanted in the design that I tried to incorporate throughout every sketch:

A picture of the art piece in question.

The name of the piece with the artist’s name beneath it.

Buttons that lead to further information about the art piece.

A description of the art piece. (This one wasn’t as important to me as some others so it didn’t get included in every sketch.)

Once all of the sketches were finished, I went to get feedback on which layout looked the best out of all of them. Most of the people I asked agreed that the simplest of the designs was the best to start with, so I began to work with this sketch,

It is a very simple layout, but would then lead to other pages full of information, so it was as good a place to start as any

Solid Sketches

Once I knew what direction I wanted to take with GalleryPal, it was time to begin creating more solidified sketches. Since the initial page sketched out was the “found art piece” page, I decided to continue in that vein and sketch out the path that begins with scanning the art piece and ending with the information about the art piece.

I wanted the camera function to be very simple since the only function it would have would be to see and scan the art piece being looked at. So I kept that page exceedingly simple and bare.

For the result page itself, I wanted the three buttons to lead to further information, that information being an About Artist page, an About Medium page, and a Historical Context page. 

I created one of the information pages as well, to nail down what exactly should be on it. From the interview with Lena Carroll, I remembered that she liked to give fun facts about the artist in question, so I wanted to add something like that to the About Artist page. This would provide some interesting and digestible facts that would lead the user to read more about the artist.

Once these pages were sketched out, I continued to sketch the remaining two information pages. 

For the Medium and Context pages, I wanted them each to be simple but informative. The Medium page should show an example of whatever it is that was used, as well as information about it. A good resource for a user who is interested in the materials of an art piece’s creation.

The context page didn’t need an image in my opinion. It did need two different categories though, so I created a Time Period and Surrounding Event box. These names would change later in development.

Prototype

Once the sketches were finished, I created the initial prototype for Gallery Pal. The first step was to create a color palette that would suit the app. It needed to be simple I thought, since the function of the app is simple. Two main colors felt like enough, so I selected red as a primary color and blue as an accent.

Burgundy represents individuality and sophistication, among other things, and blue represents open spaces, imagination, and inspiration. These colors felt appropriate for the topic at hand, and they go well together. Burgundy felt much better than just a pure red, due to how muted and easy on the eyes it was.

Everything remained simple, and the blue made a good accent to everything. 

Because of blue’s meaning, I thought it would make a good frame for any images used in the app.

Some changes did occur between Sketch and Prototype, due to the sizing and the orientation of everything. 

The titles of the pages got a lot smaller since the room was needed for the other things on the page and I didn’t think the titles needed to be so obtrusive.

The layout of the Medium page changed just slightly since the second image I immediately planned for was not going to fit in the design.

The only change for the Context page was the titles of each category. I decided that they needed to be more general and that it would make it look better if the titles were in the form of a question. So they became “When Was It Created?” and “Why Was It Created?”. 

Usability Testing

The testing for this app was very simple due to how quick the entire process was. Still, testing is always necessary and fascinating, so I gathered five participants and did some light testing. 

Since the path I created was so bare bones, I couldn’t really create scenarios for my participants to go through, but regardless I created a few questions to gauge how well my app works. 

Are the colors pleasant to navigate through and look at?

Is the app easy to understand?

Are the button placements easy to select?

Is the information legible and easy to read?

Some of the positive feedback I got from my usability testing is as such:

The colors are pleasant to look at.

Everything feels like it makes sense. 

It is simple and easy to understand. 

It’s not too over the top. 

These are good to know because they alleviate any fear of the app being difficult to understand and difficult on a visual level. However, no app is ever perfect so of course there is still some useful feedback to be gotten,

Two users found the font a little hard to read and could be a bit bigger.

Some spacing could be better for the words inside the boxes, there needs to be a more solid border.

It isn’t much feedback but it is still good feedback. It will be useful for future iterations of the app and beyond. 

For future iterations of GalleryPal, I would make the font a little bigger, and add a more solid invisible barrier for the text in the informational boxes. These aren’t large changes, but they are still important for the user experience, and the changes should be made.

Conclusion

In Conclusion, this design sprint has been a very fascinating experience. It is less in-depth than a usual process, but I believe that in the end, I managed to create a coherent and attractive app. I imagine that if this was done with a team, the process would have taken a little longer, as there would have been many ideas to work through. But this was a wonderful experience in finding out how fast an idea can come together with suitable materials. 

[welzie-art]

Maui Prep Academy Art Class Studio Field Trip

Last week we hosted the Maui Prep Academy at our art studio in South Maui. It was so much fun to share what I do here in the studio with the next generation of Maui artists. These past few months I have been trying to get more involved with the local Maui high school art programs to share what I do as a professional artist and to help inspire students to follow their creative passions.

The Maui Prep students drove all the way from the Westside of Maui and brought along their engineering students as well. This turned out to be a great addition to the field trip as the engineering students had currently finished up a project of building a surfboard. Since my artwork is built just like a surfboard, these students were really interested in the process. Whenever someone is interested in what I do I get very excited to share my knowledge and try and help as much as I can. It was so much fun to see some of the students eyes light up when seeing the process and ask amazing questions.

Once I gave the tour of my studio, explained my process and how my art career came about, we jumped write into a screen printing project where each student could print their own “Love Maui Love” silkscreen print. The students really enjoyed this process as they were also going into a silkscreen portion of their art program. I love sharing my projects with people so they can see how much fun it is to pull ink and print a cool piece of art.

After everyone got a turn on the silkscreen press some of the art students had some questions about their current art project and how they could adapt their artwork for the screen printing assignment. I was so honored to be able to give feedback and teach them the process of reworking their artwork over and over again to get their desired design. The students were so receptive to my feedback and you could tell they have so much fun creating artwork.

We had some sketchbooks and art supplies that were donated to us that we were able to gift the students. It is so much fun to give out art supplies to help encourage art. When I was in high school I loved having sketchbooks to fill up with doodles and its fun to share that with these Maui students.

The Maui Prep field trip to the art studio was such a blast and hopefully inspired some of the students to start creating more and more. I am so thankful to be able to share my creative space and show the future artists that it is possible to become a professional artist and do what you love to do. I look forward to working more with these students as well as the other art students here on Maui.

Aloha, Welzie