#i'm sort of still interested in drawing sonic but also not

[glazedyeastring]

I haven't drawn in MONTHS.

[murdercide626]

Thoughts on the Sonic 3 trailer:

First of all, HOLY S***!! This trailer was frikkin amazing!! :D

Shadow looks so badass, and just from the three lines we hear from him in the trailer I can tell Keanu is gonna be great in the movie!

I'm also glad to see that they won't be shying away from the darker elements of Shadow's origin.This movie is definitely gonna make me cry I know it...

Also, Eggman finally has his chubby gut! lol

Speaking of, it seems that Eggman and Stone aren't the ones to awaken Shadow as they seem unaware of the situation until Sonic goes to them asking for help. I can see why they changed it because if Eggman was teaming up with Shadow, like in SA2, it would probably feel a bit too similar to the plot of the second movie, with Eggman's partnership with Knuckles. So it's interesting that it seems that Shadow could be working alone in this version of the story. Actually, that brings up another aspect...

WTF!! GERALD IS STILL ALIVE???

This is definitely an interesting turn, and it brings up so many questions! The most obvious question is HOW?? Well, some people think that Gerald might have been changed to being Eggman's father rather than grandfather to justify him still being around. But maybe he is still Eggman's grandfather but he was in suspended animation for all these years, like Shadow. Or maybe he's a ghost or hallucination? Or maybe it's time travel, who knows! XD Eggman called him "pappap" which could mean either father or grandfather, depending on who you ask.

So, if that really is Gerald "in the saggy flesh" could that mean that he's actively manipulating Shadow into destroying the world, or is he going to be somehow instrumental in stopping him? I'm really interested to see what direction they go with this!

Also, it looks like the Ark has been changed up and is significantly smaller. I wonder if this shot is showing it going up to space?

And in this shot that appears to show Tails flying from the Ark, you can see some sort of attachments on the front that resemble Eggman's, or rather Gerald's, mustache.

I love this Japanese Chuck E. Cheese-like place called the "Chao Garden". lol

Also, hello Shadow 2005 game reference!

Eggman actually getting to hug Gerald is something I never expected to see, but damn is it wholesome! ^^

Omg, this drawing Sonic made!! My heart!

And I really dig Eggman's new mobile base that resembles a giant crab! lol

Nice Akira reference!

Anyway, I'm starting to ramble, so I'll just end this by saying that I am so effing excited for this movie! Just a few more months! I can't frikkin wait to see it! :D

And this time I'm gonna try to avoid any more trailers or spoilers, but we'll see how that goes... lol

[p-receh]

AMAZING EPISODE EPISODNYA BEST BANGET DKJDOFJOFJFODNKFKFKFI

I am not ok, BELIUNGGGGGG

What was your fav part? Mine? ALL OF IT

3 things.

1. ALL SEVEN ELEMENTALS BEIBEEEEEEEEH!!!!!

Not one by one like the comic counterpart, but literally Boboiboy used a freaking Hepta Split!

Tbh my expectations were low cause I was skeptical that Monsta not want to bring them after that last ep (link). But HOLY SHIT WTF???!!!!

I am absolutely jumping in my seat like a football supporter, I can't--

They got short screen time--I DON'T CARE. They still got a chance to team up once again after a whole 8 years since the first movie! Besides, that movie also shortened their screen time.

Whoever decided to make Oboi's armor resemble an ant needs a raise. That's freaking clever.

Btw it seemed their hats were locked with Oboi's position. Also, Hali, and Duri were the only elements that used their sword? Interesting...

"Kembali Beraksi" rearrangge version in the background during the whole scene?? Yes please!!!

Even though it is just short, their portrayal somehow solidified my deduction about the elementals.

Anywho I am still in tears that they finally showed up on screen again. That is my personal wishlist ever since when they announced the show. I am already satisfied with that alone tbh (like really, why should Monsta need to cut that part where they were essentially the big part of the promotion during the Windara comic arc??)

2. Finally Monsta went bold.

Oh, I looooooove that moment. Monsta started to not hold back and I am captivated by every single one of it. The dying scene was well executed, all voice actors were perfect, and this scene reminds me of this.

In my opinion, this scene was also a test for their next project which honestly more dark and horror(the most horror arc throughout the galaxy series for me)

3. IT IS TIME FOR BELIUUUUUNG!!!!

Can I say Nurfathiah Diaz as Beliung here was downright phenomenal? Like holy shit, this is by far her best performance imo, yet.

Her voice acting was blown me away and I could see her improvement from Taufan's first debut to Beliung's was....I'm-I'm lost for words right now.

Look at this line delivery! (Her laugh felt diabolical and I love it.)

"Tuanku yang seksa penduduk planet ni, paksa orang tua dan budak-budak kerja di lombong, tapi saye yang biadab?!"

Edit: Turns out she was pregnant when recording Beliung??

My Respect to her went rocket. Wow.

As a person who watch her performance since the very first season of Upin&Ipin until Boboiboy... I couldn't be more proud :')

And the animation team seriously packed the action right to the tea! Reramos was absolutely blasted the whole way by Beliung. He's as ruthless as Taufan's OG era!

See? See??? Being patient is worth it guys. Therefore I was easily enjoyed the design choice of Beliung's TV ver without seeing leaks.

Taufan's upgraded board also acted as weapons and wings? Genius. And also directly parallel to the first fight with Maripos. He even said this:

The way Beliung flies on his board almost looks like this.

Now I am 100% ready for other 3rd tier designs if this is what Monsta decides to continue on.

(oh I will draw this with the cyber Sonic for sure.)

To end this, Monsta decided to some sort of "invite" Oboi and Kuputeri into a small dark room, purposely to give a more in-depth conversation between the two, linked by Kuputeri's telepath power.

In my opinion, I prefer this strategy rather than the comic counterpart. Cause in a way, Monsta wants to show the bond between Kuputeri and Oboi as same as how Tok Kasa did with him in movie 2. Symbolize by placing the hat as they entrusted their power to the very same boy.

It might be exaggerating but that jumbled corrupted effect when Beliung's struggled? Impressive. Even more impressive that Monsta knowingly used the same effect when "finally" showcasing Beliung's card.

Speaking of ads, now they released the merchandise after the debut.

Talk about self-aware :/

Everything's not perfect and I do have slight issues, but honestly? I'm pretty satisfied with this episode! They ended it nicely done!

Lastly—

Are they not use DWIFUSION as their next title? If so, Gentar arc and Baraju arc are separated! Thank god! My biggest worry apparently will not come true! Alhamdulillah!!

PS: Oh wow, would you look at those numbers! 2 million within 3 hours when I screenshot this. What an impressive improvements.

[fantasy-anatomy-analyst]

Have you looked at the dragons from the Wings of Fire book series? I think the wing designs mostly get rid of the issue of lacking wing membrane along with generally just having some unique takes on different types of dragons. They even go as far as adding some bug dragons in the third series which is pretty neat.

Granted they all still have that 4 leg western dragon style design to all of them but all things considered they have some unique designs overall, especially for a kids book series. It definitely has had its influence on artists I think given that people try to draw up hybrids and their own tribe designs. My only complaint is that when people draw hybrids it's just smashing two of them together instead of really thinking about the different body parts they have.

yes, I've had a few previous asks about specific dragon types in Wings of Fire. I have never read the series. from what I can gather, it is a perfectly fine series and the designs seem to be stylized with a younger audience in mind, using visual tropes that make the different dragon types' narrative roles very clear.

I do think the designs are oddly inconsistent about the wings, because some of the dragon groups do have a patagium but others don't, and there is also an inconsistent addition of the elbow strut, which is a pet peeve of mine.

overall, the designs are fine. they do what they're made for and they're visually appealing and very well suited to the type of fandom that wants to make a lot of uniquely colored ocs with interesting features. I'm sure if I went on deviantart to look for Wings of Fire art, I would find a thriving community of young artists making dozens of dragon ocs with all sorts of color combinations and hybrid features.

I don't think there's a problem with letting people make their hybrids in ways that are a bit shallow and not well thought out. most of those artists are likely young teens who have just found their artistic passion! and mashing designs together is a classic fandom oc tradition, it happens all the time. sonic ocs? pokemon hybrids? sparkledogs? if the original Wings of Fire creators were being sloppy and thoughtless with hybrid designs I might have some critique there because they're professional artists working with a detailed world that has its own rules and they ought to be able to do something more interesting and thoughtful with their own hybrid designs. but for the fans? I'm not gonna step on the creative energy there, people can have their fun.

[sphxremint]

(man this art is really old but im usin it anyway lol)

☆ Heya heya一it's me, Mint!

I'm the guy that does the funny draws (and music (and sometimes edits)).

Some of you have definitely heard that line way too many times before. Or some of you probably just know me as the Simple Yet Stupid guy. If you haven't seen me before, congratulations! You've successfully met "that guy" (me) for the first time!

This is my tumblr. I reblog stuff I think is neat and post art/music/stuff I like once every [unspecified time frame]. I dipped (sort of) from Twitter (ah, sorry一ECKS [X] as it's called now) like a year or two ago because some guy had too much fun ruining it. Now I'm here more often!

Right, this is an intro post. lemme get on that...

☆ cool things you should know

• I'm 20 (born July 4th, on MINT day. not whatever the hell independence day is. eugh)

• I'm aroace (certain of it now! we out here)

• I'm black (there's like no way to make this funnier it just is what it is)

☆ some other neat stuff

• I draw!

I'm definitely not consistent with it at all, but I'm trying, 'cause it's fun and I like doing it. I may be into a lot of medias too, but I'm mostly an oc artist, and it's a curse I will bear until the end of time

• I make music!

I'm also not very consistent with it, but I'm a bit less open about it... I do it for fun, really; though it's more of a personal thing compared to my art.

• My timezone is CST

...which is about UTC -05:00. if you need to know that. i know we all got varied timezones

• I'm very good at being inconsistent!

(such as basic punctuation and grammar. cause thats important. sometimes i'll actually use apostrophes and sometimes ill just completely forget mid-sentence. lmao)

☆ my 5 core interests

aka. The main things I like! I switch between the 5 of these on a whim. You can inquire me about any of these. Be ready when it happens.

• Sonic The Hedgehog (he's just THAT GUY, yknow. just a guy who loves adventure. ultimate life forms and whatnot)

• Kirby (i'd forfeit everything for him. #1 blorbo living life)

• FINAL FANTASY (esPECIALLY XIII and XIV. but it's mostly XIV. two lalas ready for Dawntrail WOOO)

• Celeste (#1 game ever. i love everything about it so much, i naturally get my friends to play it. i'm also pretty good at speedrunning. smile)

• and anything osc! (though I'm not part of the fandom "like that". just on the surface layer, yknow? bfdi, ii, boto, ppt2... funny shows go brrr)

☆ cool and awesome tags

□ #mint.txt = probably some random garbled text i spat out one night

□ #mintdraws = i sure do! and you should go look at it!

□ #mint.png = funny image included (not guaranteed)

□ #mint.mp3 = rarely use this but i still want people to know i make music

□ #mint.ask = because i get those. sometimes art, sometimes stupid funny stuff

□ #simple yet stupid = yeah its for those funny objects i talk about. i put this one here just in case

□ #mint's expoboard = i'm probably talking about one of my ocs

☆ and some extra stuff i guess

□ my sonas and stuff if you need that

□ my carrd! go read it cause most of my extra links (and contacts) are already there

□ my toyhou.se Did you know I have a toyhou.se? because I never shut up about my characters, and sometimes people just need the Repository of Information. well... here it is.

Okay. I'll update this post more as time goes on, but... that's about it. That was probably like a read and a half. oops.

Remember: if you do follow me, you are (unofficially) officially consigning yourself to my presence and any stupidity and/or brainrot that follows.

...if that's cool with you. lmao =ᴗ=)b

(big shoutouts to the old pinned i had. you will forever be missed)

last updated: 08 / 27 / 2024

[dustylogicalityrat]

intro!

you can call me Logan or Layla! (yes, i stole Logan Sanders' name, let's move on!)

she/him pronouns! (no preference! just either of these!)

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

DNI if you support:

genocide (fuck israel)

queerphobia (this includes aspecs, trans individuals, intersex individuals, and every other identity)

racism

ableism

sexism

anti-abortion

pedophilia

incest

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

fun facts:

! i have autism and ADHD

! i'm white-hispanic

! i use tone tags

! Logicality is my favorite ship

! blue is my favorite color

! i'm still questioning my gender, lol (possibly bigender?)

! my favorite fruit are mango(e?)s

! i have way too many favorite songs

! my favorite Sanders Sides characters in order: Thomas, Patton, Logan, Roman, Virgil, Remus, Janus (i love them all so so much)

! my favorite Roleslaying with Roman characters: Roman, Youngblood, Noise, Henderson, Britney (chapter III), Lilypadton, Aunt Patty

! my favorite musical theatre characters include: Michael Mell (Be More Chill), Seymour (Little Shop of Horrors), Ram Sweeney (Heathers), Martha Dunnstock (Heathers), Beetlejuice & Miss Argentina (Beetlejuice), Jared (Dear Evan Hansen), Connor Murphy (Dear Evan Hansen)

÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷

things you can expect from me + possible triggers:

reblogging Palestine news (FREE PALESTINE.)

Logicality (but also plenty of other Sanders Sides ships!)

all lower-case or all-caps

possible fics? (if so, i only write Sanders Sides fics)

occasional drawings!

discussion of my experience as an aroace and genderqueer individual

discussion of my experience as an autistic and ADHD individual

learning to un-mask my autism and ADHD

possible vents? (i don't really post those kinds of things, but if i do, i promise to tag them properly.)

discussion of special interests and hyperfixations which include but are not limited to:

SO MANY reblogs... (sorting system in the search bar for this blog!)

+Thomas Sanders (honestly, he's basically the only thing i post about)

+Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

+Good Omens

+musicals

just a few examples:

>Be More Chill

>Heathers

>Beetlejuice

>Hamilton

(open to suggestions!!)

+Sonic the Hedgehog

+Will Wood

+so many cartoons (again, very open to suggestions!)

××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××

i've also realized i really like talking about myself. oh boy.

[therummesoccupied]

IDW'S SONIC THE HEDGEHOG, SPRING BROKEN SPECIAL - THOUGHTS

A while back, it became pretty clear that the abundant specials IDW has been releasing for the past year have had a certain... "commonality" about them. Endless Summer, A Very Chaotix Halloween, Winter Jam - the Four Seasons theming read loud and clear. Now, up until a couple months ago, I'd assumed the 900th Adventure Special was meant to be the stand-in for Spring in this lineup, so I was a bit surprised when Spring Broken was announced to round the seasonal specials off. I was interested to see what kind of send-off they'd give this little gaggle of stories.

This time around, we have pencils by Adam Bryce Thomas and colors by Leonardo Ito. These two are a really great combo, as I think Ito's emphasis on simple, soft color palettes compliments the very manga-esque style Adam brings to the table. This style, however, leaves me a little confused as to why he, of all artists, was the one pulled for this story.

ABT tends to be at his best when working on big, over-the-top action sequences. His work really sells the sense of adrenaline the series is trying to convey in its tensest moments. That being said, the story here is... fairly mundane? The characters spend a day at the fair and solve a mystery about flowers. Heck, the entire last couple pages are entirely dedicated to showing the characters enjoying the attractions once all is said and done.

There's not really a ton here in the way of high-stakes plot that would really give Adam a chance to shine.

That being said, there's still enough here that you can see his art style noticably developing a bit in a manner akin to Evan Stanley's. Namely in the way he draws Sonic himself.

It might just be my imagination, here, but I could swear Sonic's quills are longer and come to a more distinct point than the way Adam usually draws them. We know Evan has been taking strides to incorporate elements of official 2D Sonic art into her artstyle, perhaps this is a sign that Adam has been doing the same. Beyond that, I think I'm noticing some more fun and stretchy facial expressions on some of these characters, too. When it comes to the way faces are drawn, I've always found that ABT has a tendency to stay pretty on-model, but here I'm seeing a bit more expressive warping of the facial proportions than I'd expect out of Adam.

Where Adam really knocks it out of the park here, though, is with the background character designs.

Adam's always good at drawing up unique OCs, and there are tons of 'em here. Having so many characters with so many looks and still having a consistent style to them all goes a long way toward helping the world feel just a little more lived in. Another cool bit of background work he contributed is this central figure that pops up in a few places around the festival.

Also I just noticed that Cream and Vanilla are here. Neato.

When asked about this figure on Twitter, ABT said that she's intended to be a sort of Nature Spirit, and that the festival pays reverence to her. She's never mentioned in the story, but it's a neat little detail to see the more spiritual side of this world's cultures.

As I said before, the story, written by Josh Trujillo, is not too incredibly exciting. The majority of the plot centers around the mystery behind the annual Flower Contest, which itself is really three mysteries, all of which are wrapped up pretty quickly. Really, it seems to be less about the mystery, and more about how these characters spend their free time in a sort of slice-of-life fashion. This is fine, and it shows us some neat character interactions we don't normally get to see, like Jewel and Espio or Amy and Nite, but it's also something we've been getting a lot of lately.

It almost makes me wonder, with the amount of miniseries and specials they've been putting out there recently, if it wouldn't be possible, and maybe a better use of resources, to just run a dedicated sister series devoted to telling side stories like Sonic Universe did for Archie.

I'm not the first person to make this point, but perhaps then we could get more big, exciting plots full of stakes and gravitas in the main book. Who knows.

All in all, Spring Broken didn't particularly blow me away. I'd say it's a nice break from the norm but... it's not. It's exactly the kind of story we've frankly been getting in surplus as of late. I'm ready for things to move again, ready for the non-stop, blood-pumping action of Sonic the Hedgehog! There are some cute moments here and there that I do appreciate, but I just wish they could have come at a different time.

Issue #70 drops in about 22 hours for me, so with any luck, that will scratch my itch for more exciting Sonic stories for a bit.

'Til then, thanks for reading!

[blazehedgehog]

Sonic team and sega both need to piss off. I'm more likely to get a finished product out of fangames and contractors who make one game and jump ship. How many times will sonic team make a "step in the right direction" before they stumble into something actually worth the retail price?

This is kind of a dangerous line of thinking, because that's assuming the problem comes from Sonic Team or even Sega itself.

We've already had off-hand comments from Takashi Iizuka about how he wants to make Sonic Adventure 3 but "Sega won't let him" and made them do Sonic Frontiers instead. Sonic Frontiers, a game Sega's current president was deliberately pitching as "targeting high review scores."

So you could say, "Well Sega is the one who is responsible, right?" But Sega is not the top of this ladder.

I've been talking about this video with friends since I saw it, because it's very interesting. Moon Channel is run by a Real Actual Attorney, and he uses that knowledge and insight to provide opinions on certain legal sides of video games. In this video, he tackles why Sega seems to be so lax about fan-made content. It's sort of a sequel to a previous video, about why Nintendo is so protective.

The general idea put forth in this Sega video is that corporations are protective of things that have value, and Sega used to be more protective than Nintendo when it comes to intellectual property.

That changed when Sega was bought out by Sammy, a company mostly known for its pachinko gambling machines. Moon Channel suggests that Sammy bought Sega almost more for PR reasons than financial ones. Sega has a loyal and dedicated fan base, and by putting Sega forward as the face of the company, Sammy gets to operate with less scrutiny towards their gambling business.

For as loyal as Sega fans are, Sonic fans are even more loyal. So Sammy basically allows Sonic to operate as a "hero to the children" both figuratively and literally as long as it helps keep the company's image clean and Sega ultimately looking benevolent. Even though Sammy very clearly does not provide enough time, resources, or budget to actually make sure Sonic products are consistently good.

He does not make these claims baselessly. He references real earnings reports where Sammy directly talks about some of this strategy, and how little Sonic actually matters compared to their pachinko business.

He also suggests that Sonic could be at something of a turning point right now, given a confluence of recent success even in spite of Sammy's general disinterest towards actually growing the Sonic brand. Sonic has hit a string of success almost by accident, and by Moon Channel's prediction, that could mean Sega could start getting protective again, if nothing else, to prevent another Ken Penders incident.

My point in all of this is that you gotta go up the ladder a few rungs if you're looking for somewhere to point fingers. Even Takashi Iizuka, for all the power he has within the Sonic franchise, is still just trying to keep his job.

Does that absolve him of making bad decisions? No. It merely explains where some of this blame is coming from. The end product can still be bad, but there's a lot of pressure coming down from the top and all sorts of arbitrary guidelines we probably don't know anything about.

And, in general, "THERE ARE FAN GAMES BETTER THAN THIS" is probably a very good way to draw the wrong kind of attention. If you start threatening Sega about this stuff, you endanger a lot more than just yourself.

[dovelydraws]

If you don't mind me asking,

What's art styles ended up influencing .. Well your art style?

Oh, this is a fun question, thank you for asking!

Hmm, I think it's a little hard to say since I've been drawing since I was basically a toddler, lol. Every little thing I've ever enjoyed has had some sort of influence. I'll try to go through the timeline though.

When I was a little kid, I had a special interest in zoology (still do! but it's not as obvious as it was back then.) I used to wake up first in the house specifically so I could turn on the tv to the animal planet channel and just watch documentaries all morning, and I carried a giant animal kingdom encyclopedia with me to school every day to just flip to random pages and read whatever popped up. During this time of my life, I pretty much exclusively drew animals- particularly elephants, canines, and horses. I had no interest in people.

I had no real interest in stylization at this point- obviously as a little kid I was never able to achieve perfect anatomy or anything like that, but I was more interested in making my animals look real than cartoonish- which meant I was never really influenced by the disney movies I was watching, since they stylized their animals so heavily.

I remember the dreamworks movie Spirit held my attention for a very long time, and I think it may particularly have been that way because the horses looked and acted more real than they did in disney movies. They were still stylized of course, it was a cartoon after all, but it wasn't to any extremes. I still find myself wanting to mimic that in my animals now; cartoon, but not cartoon-y.

I think these two gifs help illustrate my point lol.

After this exclusive animal obsession (followed by dinosaurs, and then dragons) I got really into Sonic the Hedgehog around age 11. Drew sonic characters, and made my own OCs for it, for basically the entirety of middle school. I've pointed out in the past that it seems the way I draw hands was heavily influenced by this phase

Very round, almost rubbery, where the ends of the fingers tend to flare out a little bigger than they are at the knuckles.

Then after sonic, I got into my first anime, Soul Eater, and this is really where I first started venturing into drawing people and more realistic human anatomy.

Interestingly, this artstyle seemed to also do the Sonic Hands thing, lol

After this I had a big anime phase, as well as just a general "I want to study actual human anatomy" phase during early high school. I was following a lot of skeletal/muscular system tutorials during this time.

Following that I started getting back into american media, in particular I remember invader zim, steven universe, and tmnt 2k12. I'm not sure I can really tell myself where the steven u artstyle is present in my own, but I've had people tell me they can tell I was into it at some point after saying so.

Then there was the Rubberhose Boom of 2017, with the release of Cuphead and BATIM very close together; I had a big hyperfixation on that artstyle specifically at that time, and I feel like I may owe some of the loose-ness in my artstyle to that.

Then, I suppose, we come to Rise of the TMNT. That show ended up being a major inspiration to me, and I think I owe a LOT of recent artistic growth to it. Rise pushed me out of my comfort zone big time. I always liked doing dynamic poses, but rise encouraged me to push things further, and I started drawing more backgrounds and making bolder color choices because of it as well.

I think my artstyle became just a bit more angular after drawing so much fanart as well.

And I suppose that's where I'm now at presently! Aside from media, I also can't say I'd be where I am artistically today without the influence and support of my many friends. :) I owe a lot of things about my artstyle, particularly specific things like my lineart, to compliments my friends paid me which made me pay more attention to the things I was doing accidentally that they happened to like, then making it purposeful and more refined as a result.

[meiuya]

HELLO i’ve been a huge fan of ur artworks ever since 2021/ur pjsk works which i still really adore, i really love how shapey u draw & i was wondering if u have any tips or if u have any inspirations for being able to draw such fluidity within ur works ? if that makes sense !!! idk but mainly just wanted to say i really love all of ur art so much 💝💝💝

to preface this may not be very specific but i hope you can still derive some level of perspective of how i go about things i guess maybe it partly comes down to trying to be loose with it...? if i'm sketching with the intention of making it a full drawing then those sketches are usually rough and very messy. you can always make changes later, trust the process and whatnot, but once u have that energy that's something u can keep working off of.. like for a few things i drew back then i just immediately went into the colors without a sketch and that's still something that i do sometimes. and also i abuse the selection/transform tool like crazy HAHAH. i just move & redraw & stretch things until they look interesting. if you can be loose and have fun with it that's the key 2 unlocking your brain, which is what i am still forever trying to do. oh and curved lines r life...

in terms of inspirations for fluidity in particular there's a number of them but i think yuji uekawa's sonic art (particularly from the 90s-00s) and similar such works are the probably the most significant to mention. endless love in my <3 for this sort of stuff:

i draw sonic so much more than i post whoops but he just has a natural dynamism inherent to his design so i'd say most of the energy you might be getting from my stuff is what i picked up from drawing him a hundred times and then that maybe rubbing off on whatever else i draw or me trying to channel him LOL.

& of course thank you soooo much for your kind words ^_^. it means a lot! i don't know if any of this is helpful at all so if you wanna ask further feel free... but thank you again for enjoying my stuff for so long, it's truly truly very appreciated

[ya-killin-me-smalls]

i apologize for the text wall you are about to recieve i'm facing my fears of being an annoyance in the inbox

hey what do i do when i have several fixations happening all at once

my madcom keeps coming into the house because its cold but then goes back out because yay snow

the funkin won't leave the pantry because i keep coming back to the Tall Modded Men

deltarune deltarune deltarune deltarune

undertale is returning with a baseball bat because it refuses to be left behind in my elementary days (i promise you my AU content won't be based on fanon i've been tracking little details in the game i'm not cring pleas e don't sentence me to the swamp of sin)

im not sure if i'm going back to my fnaf phase i'm just very fond of the sundrop models i find on VRChat

MINECRAFT!!1!1!1!!!

and it doesn't help that i want (personally i have to i live off making silly little worlds with different stories and flavors) to make AU content the neurodivergent courses through my veins it will never end

this is a really good question that I don't see a lot of people asking so it's hard to find good advice for this

best advice I can give as a neurospicy individual is to not fight your attention span when it comes to hobbies. with school and work you don't have much of a choice but remember there are no deadlines or consequences in fandom

like I feel kinda bad for not having updated my two big fics in 2-3 months but y'know the juice just isn't there. I like quality and if I'm not interested it won't be quality. I try to keep my blog madcom focused because that's what people followed me for but trust me right now I'm all about my gta dude, sonic, batfam, mw2, and others I can't remember on top of madness combat

I can't give advice for artblock because I don't draw unless I absolutely want to, but for writing at least I find that outlining costs way less mental energy so even if I'm not putting together a new fic/chapter, I can still plan to with relative ease

but yeah neurodivergence doesn't always mean there's something wrong, sometimes it just means your brain works different and I don't think it's productive to try and force it to work another way. do what sparks joy. if your ideas are cringe, kill the cop in your brain because the entire premise of madcom would sound cringe if a 12 year old described it as their superhero backstory. what makes or breaks a story is the presentation of it, not the idea itself

also feel free to combine things you're fixating on. I was on a horror kick, decided to incorporate it with fandom (have not finished it because oh my god horror is so hard to write)

having people to bounce ideas off of is really helpful too because it can help you focus more on that one thing, as I'm sure you saw with the AU I'm working on right now. feel free to yell about stuff in my inbox if you'd like, don't know all those fandoms but I'm happy to listen

music also helps with focus, find a song that fits the vibe of what you want out of your work and set it to repeat. normal behavior I know but it worked for me

ultimately, don't stress. the mojo comes and goes, it's more cooperative if you are. fandom isn't a job or any sort of obligation and you can write, draw, headcanon whatever you want. sometimes multitasking is helpful because you can step back from something and then come back refreshed after working on another thing

hope this makes sense because it feels all over the place but yeah that's basically what I've learned to do

[captainschaos]

Welcome to my chaos! Expect the unexpected, roll the dice, and believe in the heart of the cards <3 I say too many words at all times, and a pinned post is no exception WHO [about me] ♤ names; lots, captain, chip, or lonely ---< I have a hoard of other names you might see around, but these are fine for here > ♤ pronouns; she/he/mirror/any/none ---< mirror pronouns mean use your own pronouns for me! > ♤ aroace + agender/genderqueer ♤ adult ♤ pfp; the any pronouns creeper, a little girlguything I own <3 WHAT [things I do] ♤ reblog and chatter away in tags primarily ♤ write ---< both fics and a bit of analysis/theory stuff > ♤ draw ♤ game design, though not particularly here, I'll just mention it sometimes. might get the blog for the rpgthing I created up and running again though! ♤ pretty much any art More specifics about how this blog works (fandoms/tagging/following disclaimers/etc) below the cut

WHERE [fandoms/interests] [Chaos disclaimer, this is nowhere near a comprehensive list and subject to change, but hits the major things I'll rb/post about. More current/main interests bolded.] ♤ mcyt in general ---&lt; traffic smps (secret life), hermitcraft (decked out), qsmp > ♤ slimecicle in general ---< the slimecicle cinematic universe > ♤ the sorry boys ♤ generation loss ♤ jrwi ♤ the magnus archives ♤ in space with markiplier/markiplier in general ♤ ethan nestor ♤ fnaf ♤ tmnt ♤ sonic ♤ kollok ♤ lackadaisy ♤ ethoslab <3 WHEN [posting schedule, or lack thereof] ♤ you will probably notice I often reblog things in bunches. That's because I tend to save rbs to drafts, then come back and tag, comment, and post in big sweeps. If you don't want that clogging up your dash, don't follow! ♤ my activity's real random, no queue, if I'm online I'm online, if I'm not I'm not. That's the chaos way WHY [general practice disclaimers] ♤ I tag primarily for archival purposes, including duos/groups I like. Because of that, I will use one name across all contexts, romantic/platonic/etc, so you might see me tag platonic art with a romantic ship name or vice versa! ♤ I try to tag trafficshipping, hermitshipping, etc, but I mainly ship queerplatonically which I've yet to find a consensus on tagging-wise? Because of that I don't really tag it much, just be warned. (This also contributes to the above point) ♤ I don't really have any cw/tws I tag consistently, but I'm more than willing to if I get asked to tag something! ♤ I am an adult, and though I'm still pretty young I discuss adult topics sometimes- probably best not to follow if you're not about 16+ ♤ askbox is always open for chatter or requests of any sort! HOW [to navigate- tags] > #secret life smp; the tag to block for spoilers! > #captain's chatter; me talking > #captain's words; my writing > #captain's scribbles; my drawings > #captain's mailbox; asks > #friend's stuff; my friends' art/writing/etc > #friend stuff; me goofin with friends lol > #epic art/writing/etc; stuff I've reblogged that is epic but not mine

[davidmariottecomics]

A Matter of Time

Surf's up, gang! 

Aloha from the beach! Okay, not really. I'm at home at time of writing, but I've made 2 whole trips out to the ocean this week, so I'm feeling beachy! Which, if you live near the water, is a pretty good way to feel in the summertime! 

In enjoying the season, I started thinking about the complex production timelines of comics, the ways in which some comics feel timely when they were created well ahead of the events they seem related to, and a book I read recently that had one time element that really didn't work for me. So let's take some time to talk about time! 

Story of Seasons 

Where I live in the U.S., summer means a certain thing. At this time of year, we're largely through the June Gloom and into hot, sunny days. The sun rises before I'm usually up, and I wake up early, and sets around 8 p.m. Most nights, in at least some parts of town, there are fireworks. Folks are having barbecues at home and along the beach--which people are flocking too. The college-aged kids only roll up after they've got up, and since they don't have school, you can usually not expect to see them before noon. And while the coastline's popping, closer to us, things are quieter exactly because school's out and the college campus has largely cleared out. And, specific to where we live, it means the trolleys and buses and some buildings and street signs, have assumed their summer wrap, promoting Peacock and Futurama's return and whatever else companies spent boodles of money on to promote ahead of and during San Diego Comic-Con. 

That's what the exterior of my life is like right now. Sweet, hot, summertime fun outdoors--though I spend most of my time in with the cats. And there's still a little bit of that in my work. I'm planning meeting up with folks at San Diego Comic-Con and, while I'm not particularly involved, I'm watching Riley Farmer get the Sonic the Hedgehog: Endless Summer one-shot buttoned up for next month. But most of what I'm working on is already well ahead, working actively on releases across the fall, and switching from planning to the first steps of production on our winter releases with spring 2024 already cresting the horizon. 

It's a funky dichotomy. If you go into a comic shop in the next two months, summer programs will be in full swing, from DC's big summer crossover event, Knight Terrors to IDW's Endless Summer, to Ultimate Invasion and the Hellfire Gala stuff Marvel's got going on, as well as Skybound's kicking off their Energon Universe, and whatever stores have left of the projects kicked off for Pride. 

But because you're seeing those things in stores, it means they're done and as I've talked about a bit before, generally comics have to be done a ways before their release. In an ideal situation, a comic is done between 7 and 10 weeks before the on-sale date. In a less ideal situation, a comic needs to be done at least 3 weeks before the on-sale date for most printers/distributors/final-order-cutoff reasons. But, in the former case, it means this next week, I'd be looking at what needs to go out right around mid-September--the first week of fall. And those are the things that'd be finishing. Let's say you'd need at least 10 weeks before that for finalizing the script; drawing, coloring, lettering, and doing any production on the issue; and getting it approved by all the relevant stakeholders. So the things entering that phase in the next week wouldn't actually see stores until the last week of November. 

In the books world, there are three spans, rather than the four seasons. Those are Spring (Feb-May), Summer (Jun-Aug), and Fall (Sept-Jan). And when you're working purely with single-issue comics, when you're in one span, you're generally working on titles for the next. When it comes to collections and OGNs, you can be working on stuff years ahead of time. (As an aside to all this, it's also super interesting that this is how things are sorted because it really speaks to publishing in the northern hemisphere... sorry to anyone in the southern hemisphere who is looking at IDW's Endless Summer and thinking "but it's winter!") 

I bring all this up as a reminder that comics take a long time to make and when there are comics have a particularly timely element, like a summer event, they're the result of months of work and planning to hit that specific date that falls in that seasonal span. And while tons of planning can go into something like a 5th week event (in months with 5 Wednesdays, some publishers will add extra titles on the 5th week so they have releases for that Wednesday without disrupting the regular monthly schedule of their titles), it also means sometimes something happens that seems very intentional, but is purely coincidental! 

Unintended Timeliness

Wendy Xu has a new book coming out next month, The Infinity Particle. Like all of her books, it looks very good. Straight from the copy, it "explores big questions through the eyes of an aspiring inventor and the lifelike AI she finds herself falling for." And in the build-up to release, advance reader copies have gone out to booksellers, librarians, and reviewers--the folks who should see the book early because it will help the book get more traction in stores, libraries, and more visibility with readers. But because of developments over the past year, it also is now very closely tied to a hot button issue: AI. Through the circumstances of the world around The Infinity Particle's release, early reviews and examination of it are inherently looping it into the larger conversation. Wendy's gone on the record about, as she said, "'AI' (derogatory)" and "AI-in-fiction (complimentary)."  But one of the things she's also been very clear about is that she's been working on this book since 2018 when we weren't talking about AI in the same way. 

I bring this all up because, when taken with my previous point about how long it often takes comics to be made, a lot of the timeliness that you may seen in a work can be coincidental. As another example, I've been asked a few times about whether the Metal Virus arc in IDW's Sonic the Hedgehog was in any way inspired by the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic. That arc is, in many ways, about a global pandemic. That arc, also, was pitched over a dinner at WonderCon 2018, where only the very first issue was on sale a week early and the series had not yet launched widely. The majority of it was written and in production before March 2020 when the U.S. really shut down in the early days of their response. So, no, the timelines don't really work out, it was just happenstance. 

And as a writer/artist/editor/etc, that's one of the things you have to keep in mind. I came from journalism, where timeliness was often an important part of storytelling. "New" is 3/4ths of "News." But outside of strips and editorial/political cartoons, it is much harder to incorporate true timeliness to your comics work. So, often, the default is to look for timelessness--something that isn't pegged to a specific event or set of circumstances, but that can be appreciated whenever because it speaks to something larger. Timelessness doesn't need to be forward-looking necessarily. It can be reacting to or interpreting long-standing history. But the benefit of trying to tell a story that always feels relevant, even if the cultural context around it may change the reader's interpretation from your intention (and there's a longer conversation to be had about interpretation vs. intention), is it usually doesn't feel immediately aged. 

The flip side of things having an unexpected timeliness is when you try to execute something to be timely, but in the interim of writing to execution or just through the flow of time, it just isn't anymore. Somewhat recently, Becca rediscovered "Boyfriend" by Big Time Rush. Obviously, this song is like 13 years old anyway, but boy howdy does the song feel it's age when they call out 2008 Best Picture winner, Slumdog Millionaire. It's not to say you can't or shouldn't put things in the context of the time they're written in, just that being considerate of it is probably to your benefit because specific cultural and contextual touchpoints should feel additive to the work and the intention, not haphazard as a way of showing modernity. (Two quick asides to this: 1. If you don't like "Boyfriend" by BTR musically, you do need to watch the video because it is wild. However, maybe "Boyfriend" by Dove Cameron will be more to your tastes and is incredibly funny if you listen to it as a response to the BTR song. 2. Cultural references aren't the only things that can feel dated or be misused and make your comic worse--see every time AAVE is misused in comics and the creators are immediately dunked on.)

A Timeless Romance... And Leia Organa

Last bit for today, building off what we were just talking about. I recently read Neon Gods by Katee Roberts. It's a smutty retelling of Hades/Persephone set in modern times. (I'm still figuring out some upcoming blogs, but certainly the aforementioned AI and also why SO MANY WORKS are gravitating to Hades/Persephone are on the shortlist). Overall, I liked it. Like many first books in a series, I hear it picks up in later volumes. There's a lot to say about it, but one thing that really stuck out to me was while I understand that it is set in modern day, anytime it made a specific modern reference, it really threw me off. 

Throughout the book, people make calls on their smart phones and have video conferences and there are guns and cars and skyscrapers and other hallmarks of modernity. And it is totally fine. It sets the scene and makes sense for the story being told. But every once in a while--I remember it happening 3 or 4 times--something specific gets called out and it feels weird. One of those times being a reference to the gold bikini Leia wears in Return of the Jedi. It's the sort of touchstone that should feel innocuous. Most folks know it, even if they don't super know Star Wars. But when it happens as like a singular pop culture reference in a work (the other specific callouts I remember feeling odd were a reference to UC Berkley and a brand-name medicine), it weirdly works against the modernity because it feels too concrete in a world of otherwise abstract modern life. It is so solid, so recognizable, that it almost begs the question of why there aren't more references throughout and it vaguely asks questions of the world and of the characters that aren't actually consequential to the plot--or, perhaps, that are consequential to a larger overarching plot that isn't really investigated in depth in the first book. Either way, it was just a little moment that in my reading created a bump that I'm remembering a week and a half later better than some of the actual plot elements or hot smutty scenes, which probably is not the intent of that otherwise kinda throwaway line. 

FRIENDS! 

Okay, shifting away from all that for a moment, I wanna talk about my many cool friends! Who have a new page on my website! Inspired by the webrings of old, I wanted to do a little something to help folks who find their way over to my site find their way over to the sites of other cool folks who are making comics! Right now, you'll notice a lot of family and people who work on Sonic in addition to a few other friends, but always happy to add folks that I've worked with or know and like who might want a bit more web traffic flowing their way. 

While we're on the topic, I know a number of former IDW folks are still looking for work. You'll find links to their LinkedIns there and if you have any opportunities that might be a good fit, please reach out! Also specific shout-out to Yu & Me Books, who could use some help at the moment. 

Patreon!

I'm now on Patreon sharing, wouldja believe, this very blog! As well as some other cool stuff that I've got planned! If you've been enjoying the blog for a while and want a new way to read or support it with a small tip, the Patreon might be for you. I'm also going to be doing Patreon-exclusive blogs that show off stuff like scripts and pitching materials that I can share, WIPs of some of my personal projects, some weird video/audio/streaming content at certain levels, and have a somewhat ambitious group funding goal where subscribers to my top tier mostly help me fund making more short comics by being able to pay cool artists I know! 

Do you not want to read this pitch for my Patreon? Good news: If you subscribe to it, this is cut out from the blog! Ooo aah! 

What I enjoyed this week: Blank Check (Podcast), Craig of the Creek (Cartoon), Dungeons & Daddies (Podcast), Yu-Gi-Oh: Duel Links (Video game), My Adventures with Superman (Cartoon), the beach, Girly Drinks by Mallory O'Meara (Book), the aforementioned Neon Gods (okay, that was last week, but y'know), Stab that Cake (TV show), the only real social media, Clapback, Cruel Summer (TV show), Crime Scene Kitchen (TV show), "Shy Boy" by Carly Rae Jepsen (my queen), the music video for "Water Slide" by Janelle Monae (really loving the aesthetics of their new stuff), Starship Troopers (Movie), thinking about The Love Witch (due for a rewatch). 

New Releases this week (7/5/2023): Sonic the Hedgehog #62 (Editor) Brynmore #1 (Editor) - Actually came out in my last gap week, but go grab it! 

New Releases next week (7/12/2023): Off week for me! Buy something else groovy!

Final Order Cut-Off next week (7/10/2023 - AKA Preorder Deadline) Brynmore #2 (Editor) Godzilla: War for Humanity #1 (Editor)

Announcements:

I'll be at San Diego Comic-Con! My schedule's gotten pretty full, but if you're going to be there, do reach out and let me know. I'll at least try to say hi! IDW announced our panels for the year and I'll see you at Sonic the Hedgehog: Speeding to the 900th Adventure on Sunday at 10, room 25ABC! 

Side note, because con is coming, I may or may not have an update the week of SDCC itself! And Becca's Twitch streams will be off that week, but they'll be streaming throughout the rest of the month. Just anticipate Tuesday streams, rather than Wednesdays, because of some scheduling conflicts. Just through July. 

Oh! And a reminder I am on Bluesky, but don't expect to see me on Threads! That service seems lousy! 

Pic of the Week:

Becca and I at the beach! Beach stuff including some cool shells and part of a crustacean's shell! 

[carnation-damnation]

Hello I'm asking for context 👀👉👈

HEHEEHEHEHHEHE

Here's a bit of a run-down from what @emdotcom (partner in crime to this au) and I discussed! (Also, if you don't know who Terios is, here's some posts regarding his place in sonic canon and in our au! 1, 2, 3, 4) the tldr is that terios was a possible design and name for shadow during the development of sa2, and emerald and i snatched him for funniesjosajosajoas

So essentially, we've been going over the plot for the Terios au like it's a game! Like a combination of sonic adventure/2 and shadow the hedgehog 2005, you'd play with different characters but can reach multiple endings (how many? uhhhh idk) This leads to some shenanigans and unlikely team-ups! It primarily focuses on Shadow as a main protagonist, followed by Knuckles and Sonic 'n co. Here's some of the team-ups and explanations for their stages/places in the story:

Shadow & Knuckles: Em pointed out that Knuckles has an inherent connection to the emeralds as the Master Emerald's guardian (and who can locate the shards/gems) Shadow and Knuckles were also weirdly absent from Sonic Unleashed, a game in which the emeralds also lost their powers. Input from two characters that have the strongest connection to chaos energy/the emeralds not being there still gives me hives..Yeh. I'd say that besides Terios, Knuckles and Shadow definitely carry the plot.

Sonic & Omega: These two are a very odd one, I know. Sonic is unable to rely on Chaos Emeralds to go Super, and both he and Omega have an anxious attitude of "We gotta get shit done and we gotta do it now". Sonic and Omega are left to ambush an Eggman base, the gang originally thinking that he had something to do with Terios' creation. Sonic and Eggman are longtime enemies, and Omega loves an excuse to bash Eggman robots. Unfortunately however, not only were the gang incorrect in their assumption that Eggman created Terios, he now knows there's an impressionable rogue bio-weapon out there. Oops.

Tails & Rouge: This may seem like a wildcard! But with Rouge being a silent spy, Tails being a genius, and both of them being fliers, I see no better duo capable of infiltrating G.U.N. to figure out just what Terios is, and how he's capable of draining the Chaos Emeralds of their powers. I also think that Tails' innocent curiosity can lead to possible Rouge lore...hehe.

Amy & Terios: Amy and Terios somehow end up becoming buddies! After half of the emeralds have been drained, Amy comes across Terios, probably in some sort of negative and sad state, and she tries to cheer him up by telling his fortune. They hang around for a bit, Amy not knowing that she's harboring a literal beast, and Terios being shown genuine kindness by someone other than Violet, his creator. Their friendship doesn't last long after Terios tries to go after another emerald, but it definitely sticks with Terios. And Amy wants to do her best to show him that he doesn't need to destroy everything to get what he wants.

Aaaaand yeah!! I really appreciate the interest!! If anyone is MORE interested, I'd love to discuss more of these interactions in depth, maybe draw a few!

[raeloganthesonic06fangirl]

So, this question might get a bit 'real' but I gotta know, how do you deal with the fact that many artists your age are better than you and that there's artists younger than you that are also much better? I mean, I get insecure when I see another artist that's either my age or younger that, contradictory, seems light years ahead of me and I'm like a decade younger than you, so I'm genuinely curious how you handle it.

I used to sort of be hyperaware of that when I was younger, especially because I really didn't start really being interested in doing art until I was 15, and wasn't able to get my first graphics tablet until I was 19, so I had a bit of a late start and probably didn't help that one of my cousins, who is 6 years my junior, was and still is somewhat of a prodigy when it came to arts and crafts.

Being 15 while hardly grasping the concept of anatomy and my cousin being 9 and making a whole heckin hyperrealistic pencil drawing of an upclose of a sea turtle on the beach, it sort of momentarily knocked the wind out of my sails if not for her saying "I wish I could make up characters like you do, though." which really sort of gave me an interesting perspective on other points of view. As far as she was concerned, she could make really good drawings, but she thought my characters were more fun to imagine.

Of course, I also have some disability stuff that does affect my fine motor skills to some degree, which is why I prefer to use pencils over inks and draw small because that suits better with the control of my wrist because if I did the whole-arm thing you're supposed to do, I'd never get a legible clean line, and holy heck, I absolutely cannot do paintbrush work cleanly at all, it's an absolute mess and looks nothing like how I do with pencils. Either way, I have a slight disadvantage with my range of (lack of) skills, and perspective is jank most of the time because I have no depth perception anyway without my glasses. Sometimes a sketch can take a few minutes on a good day or I spend all night trying to get a decent looking leg to work out in the drawing before giving up and throwing that in the "come back later" bin.

Another thing I like to hold onto is something my Mom has told my brothers and I over the years whenever one of us expressed disappointment in not matching the other in skills: "You are in competition with nobody but yourself."

I also have a sister-in-law who is a fairly popular artist in her particular community, but her wonderful words of wisdom for art is: "If you spend like a thousand hours working on a skill, you're gonna get really good at doing it."

Also, like, the majority of relatives on the paternal side of my family are natural artists in one way or another, sometimes even with textiles and crafts, and I'm recognized as the one in the family who does toon style over realism. My Lil Bro who has an account here on Tumblr I occasionally plug does fantastic anthro work with paws, claws, snouts and textures among other things. He's younger than me by a couple of years, and is the source of the "Sonic Man Candy" print I have hung up in my room that's a bit of a joke between us that I sometimes reference here one in a blue moon.

I haven't drawn this character in a good long while, but a cat character of mine known mostly as Bill (full name "Jared William Danus III") is a bit of a time capsule on how my art style started and changed over the years as I worked more of certain weak points and figured out that my best attributes were probably eyes and expressions, so I put more emphasis on those than anything to mask what might be lacking.

Bill started as simply a cat variant of your typical "imp counterpart to another character" in the vein of something like Mr. Mxyzptlk, as he's actually another universe's version of another character of mine, King Milo:

Over time, I sort of evolved Bill into his own thing, where his entire concept was "What if he wasn't exactly the typical main character, but the brother of a Chosen One sort of character, and wasn't even the Prime Universe version of all his variants?"

There's a massive amount of explanation behind him that I won't muddle here, but anyway, you can see that my earlier art bits were very not so good and very amateur and immediately makes my more recent stuff already look a bit better in comparison.

I'd say one of the most effective things you can do as a moral boost in times of doubt got your skills is to take an one of your older art pieces and redraw it. Get a real good look at what you've been able to improve on, check out your new techniques, maybe a better color pallet developed over the years, or maybe you can see life in the eyes of your characters or even see energy you weren't able to do the last time you drew that.

Age really doesn't determine your skill, it's how much time you've put into something you're very passionate about that helps it grow. And maybe a little bit of natural talent with some of us, because I'm pretty sure that's exactly what was going on with my cousin there. Straight up like that SpongeBob drawing a perfect circle thing.

[chaosincurate]

My month in music - March 2023

slowthai - UGLY (new)

black midi - Hellfire (revisit)

Black Country, New Road - For The First Time (revisit)

machinegum - Conduit

Alvvays discography (revisit)

Fall Out Boy - So Much (For) Stardust (new)

Yves Tumor - Praise A Lord Who Chews But Which Does Not Consume; (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds) (new)

Regina Spektor - Soviet Kitsch

boygenius - the record (new)

slowthai - UGLY

This slowthai album is really interesting. My experience with slowthai prior to this was limited to Nothing Great About Britain, and I loved the punky energy of that album which merged unbelievably well with his grime stylings to summarize the (justified) angst-ridden experience of the more combative sect of working class Britain, by mixing together the music of the disaffected, frustrated youth of two different generations, similarly to The Clash's London Calling.

This time out though, while anger and frustration are present, they take a bit of a backseat to mental illness and despair, which called for a genre change, and slowthai picked the perfect genre in my view: post-punk. This new sound is not only a better thematic fit than his previous one would be, but it also suits slowthai very well, because, as the name suggests, it isn't too distant from punk in terms of what is required of the performer, but it sounds very different, switching energy for a bit of complexity which suits introspection very well.

Not only is this a fascinating example of artistic consideration for an album, it's also just a great album, and makes for a great introduction to UK rap for alternative rock fans, and vice versa.

Apple Music link

black midi - Hellfire

I've spoken about this album before on my top albums of last year list (spoilers, it tops the list) and everything I said about the album still applies for me. The album has a dynamism and charisma I've seldom seen before. The energy is transcendent, the lyrics are darkly whimsical and almost dauntingly dense, the instrumentals are virtuosic yet restrained to artistic sense in a way that many virtuosos aren't... What's not to love? I believe this album is deserving of godly worship, and may well be my favourite album of all time. Sure, it has it's flaws, but I simply get too whipped up in the beauty of it all that I become a blind evangelical follower of this album's glory. Praise be to Hellfire!

Apple Music link

Black Country, New Road - For The First Time

Although their later album, Ants From Up There, is my favourite of the two albums Black Country, New Road have put out, For the First Time has it's own place in my heart too. For one, it's one of the only albums that contains an instrumental I managed to get into enough to have in my library (I'm usually appreciative of their role within an album, but for whatever reason, they rarely do anything for me outside of making for good transitions), but it also has a sound that leans more towards Joy Division-style post-punk which I appreciate in a wholly different way to their later album.

They have the same patience about their music, a willingness to draw a sound out and let it roam where it may, which, in my experience at least, is very unique and personally highly appreciated. But it's sonically way darker than Ants From Up There, more imminently haunting, all of which makes it so that, even as someone who doesn't like the album as much, I never think of this album as living in the shadow of the other, an issue that band discographies can face if they are unwilling to offer anything new.

Apple Music link

machinegum - Conduit

machinegum is a superband of sorts, with the lineup containing Fabrizio Moretti of The Strokes as well as Ian Devaney from a band that I can't say I've heard of called Nation of Language. They have a wikipedia page, so I imagine I'm just losing touch at the ripe old age of 22. In any case, I heard way more Strokes in this album than anything else, but for me it just didn't hit the same. There were some standouts that I still really like, though, even after a few weeks worth of listens had made me bored of most of the album. The most notable example of that relative longevity is Atomized. Seeing as that comes early in the album and is pretty representative of the albums sound, I'll link that here. Give it a listen, maybe you'll like it!

Apple Music link

Alvvays discography

I've already done a write-up on this amazing indie pop band that deserves more success (they are already pretty successful, but these guys are the best indie band right now). You can find the fruits of my obsession here!

Fall Out Boy - So Much (For) Stardust

I usually try to take the "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say it" approach when it comes to talking about music, but this album disappointed me to the point of frustration, so I'm gonna get negative here. Fall Out Boy stans, you've been warned.

So, first things first, no, this album isn't dreadful. This album has turned the tide following Mania and a long wait, I won't deny that, but to me this album felt like the perfect illustration of why its so important to know when you have nothing left to say. The album is completely unremarkable. It says nothing, does nothing new, and retreads unexceptionally. It feels like they're trying to make music for the kids of the 00s that don't exist anymore. It reeks of immaturity, which would be fine if not for the fact they don't seem to be aware of it. This isn't a punkish, knowing immaturity, it's a mid-life crisis in audio form, and it makes me question whether Fall Out Boy were ever actually good in the first place or whether their earlier material is just carried by nostalgia.

Sorry Fall Out Boy fans, but I needed that. I did like Fake Out quite a bit, though, and that's stood the test of time a few weeks poses, so I'll share that here. I hope everyone else enjoys it as much as the critics appear to have done!

Apple Music link

Yves Tumor - Praise A Lord Who Chews But Which Does Not Consume; (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds)

This experimental album from Yves Tumor is the strangest album I've heard that could still be confidently recommended to the majority of music fans. It's very formless, yet still manages to feel familiar. It's a demonstration of Yves Tumor's creativity that he can make something unlike anything else I've heard with such a singular soundscape, but still have the album be easy to get into straight away.

The only slight flaw I can think of that matters, is that it peaks quite early for me, which makes the rest of the album feel worse than the sum of its parts.

Apple Music link

Regina Spektor - Soviet Kitsch

This is one that has been on my radar for probably about a year, and I finally got around to it last month. Maybe I shouldn't have waited so long, because it didn't live up to expectation at first, but as time went on, I've appreciated this album more and more.

Regina Spektor is pretty weird. Like, all round weird. But it's a great example of why weird is not an insult. The brand-new-sentence style of lyrics in particular makes every line sound so intentional because it had to be. She's clearly digging down to the raw, abstract feelings and experiences that aren't yet translated cleanly into an earthly language, and she translates them herself, from scratch, and it becomes so personal and affecting because it's just all her, no cliches. She could say something as common as a greeting in this style and it would feel like she was the first person to say hello and really mean it. It's fantastic.

As I'm writing this, I realize that I might have enough to say about this album to justify it's own post, but that will do for this one. Give this one a listen if you like folk-leaning alternative stuff like Fiona Apple and Phoebe Bridgers. You might be disappointed, but then you won't be and you'll like it a whole lot.

Apple Music link

boygenius - the record

With the record, three very talented musicians, clever lyricists, and beautiful vocalists come together to make an album that is... Good? I mean, yeah, all those things still apply, and it is genuinely good, its not like Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus, and Julien Baker just lost all their talent completely in a few years, they aren't Green Day, but I guess I just expected more from three women who were such a large part of the popularisation of this kind of sound. It's a good album, and it's still worth a listen if you're a fan of any of the three, or of course if you liked the boygenius EP, but outside of a few fun and/or sincere moments, it felt a little arbitrary to me. Those moments are there though, and they are great, I just think maybe a second EP would be more appropriate than an album that, to me, felt like it had a lot of filler. As always though, you might have a different experience, so if you haven't heard it yet and like sad girl vibes, give it a shot!

Apple Music link