#i've got stuff to work on for sure... my color choice mostly

[dawnthefluffyduck]

I've been seeing a lot of people redrawing their old work and I wanted to give it a try :D after this I will be doing another one because I've never had such a dopamine boost (or it could be me having my first energy drink in a month)

I honestly can't say for sure when the first one was done, but if I were to take a guess... 2016? It's when I got my first pair of markers. I loved drawing mermaids at the time bc it let me draw long flowey hair while avoiding legs haha, and this particular drawing was my favorite 🧜‍♀️

Remembered to work in a higher resolution this time too haha

[styxxsyringe]

these questions are pretty similar so i'll answer both at once.

to buy from a chinese indie brand, you need two things: the brand's taobao link and a proxy site account. taobao is a chinese storefront (?) that most of these stores are hosted on. there are plenty of western stores online that also carry taobao brand clothing - like arcana archive, glitch cupids, and pixie rebels - but i would recommend just getting your stuff from a proxy as those stores often up the prices of the clothes.

note that it can be a bit of a struggle to get the taobao link of a store, especially if you don't have an account (which is notoriously difficult to get these days), but i did find some link lists! (mostly lolita stuff as that's what taobao is most popular for among alt fashionistas ^_^)

some other brands that i recommend -

eyeelike - y2k inspired, though their stock is usually very limited. sizes up to UK 10-12 (L) i believe

link (lemme know if it's broken):

frufru - bright, colorful, sorta harajuku-esque! i heavily recommend their star messenger bags, been wanting to get one of my own for a while ^_^

link

and hbreaker - a more visual kei sort of thing! more edgy than the other two stores, but i'm yet to check it out properly

link

so, now that you have the link, you need a proxy site. this is so that you can send the clothes over from china to your own country. in the past, i would've recommended pandabuy, but it died a few months ago due to illegal replica selling. for that, i'd recommend avoiding proxies that allow replicas, because they might go under while you're trying to get clothes shipped. (that happened to me T_T)

some that are reliable are:

sugargoo

superbuy

spreenow

now all you do is use the search bar (make sure it's on the "shop" mode rather than "product"), and plug in the link to the shop you want to buy from, and it should be the first result. get all your clothes, and now all you have to do is have them shipped out! shipping usually costs a lot (£20+ from my experience) and if you're buying a haul, it can be over £200 for just 4-6 items, so i'd recommend only buying stuff you KNOW you're going to wear often and enjoy. shipping should only take 2-3 weeks (at least in my experience - i live in the UK, it might take more time in the US.) and boom! now you can dress like those cool girls on xiaohongshu!

there are also two western stores i'd like to go over that have similar clothes - sixth dimension and minga london.

sixth dimension has many good qualities - they have more inclusive sizing (up to UK XL), reasonable prices based on their quality, and they restock and do sales often. i heavily recommend them if you can't afford the high shipping prices or if the sizing is too limited for you!

unfortunately, i have less nice things to say about minga london. they're highly extortionate in terms of pricing - i've seen shein quality cardigans sold for upwards of £70, for example. they do drops often, and have been accused of fast fashion but i'm not sure if that's legit or not. they've also stolen designs in the past. however, they do have inclusive sizing, up to XXXL. i'd recommend only buying from them if they're doing a sale, or if you literally have no other choice.

now regarding fruits mag - unfortunately, you can't buy from them. fruits mag is a japanese magazine that went over a variety of different street styles, so if you want to buy from fruits, you'd have to buy from the brands that the people in the magazines are wearing. as fruits was most popular in the 2000s, most of those brands are defunct...however, i do have some recommendations for japanese alternative brands!

alice and the pirates - popular lolita fashion. pretty good sizing i think, and they do worldwide shipping too iirc.

baby the stars shine bright - same as aatp, but more "cutesy".

acdc rag - yami kawaii type clothes with inclusive sizing.

dearmylove - jirai kei/dark girly clothing and beautiful shoes. inclusive sizing, i'm pretty sure they have a full plus size range! also collabed with needy streamer overdose lol

liz lisa - lolita/mori kei/girly styles and pretty coats. quite expensive tho...

moi-meme-moitie - the brand of malice mizer's guitarist mana-sama! gothic lolita. i'm not sure about sizing or prices.

6%dokidoki - yume kawaii and decora style. very colorful! i'm not sure about sizing.

angel blue - japanese kids clothing, usually worn in general kawaii and jojifuku styles. as it's for kids, the sizing is NOT inclusive at all, UK size S-M at the most from what i've seen. usually you can only find resellers on depop, but the pricing usually isn't horrible.

other than brands, i'd recommend looking for clothes thrifting on and offline (hit big city thrift stores for better chances of alt clothing), buying accessories from verified etsy sellers, and just looking around the house for anything you can turn into an accessory or part of an outfit! i hope this post helps you though!

[queen-erika-the-songful]

My personal ranking on the Barbie mermaid movies

(These are only a few thoughts I have about each of these so feel free to ask questions if you want)

6. Barbie: Mermaid Power - I mean come on I'm sure even the ones that love the DA-verse can agree with me that this one absolutely sucks. Terrible worldbuilding and lore that contradicts the movie it's supposed to be a sequel to. Songs that are super hollow and generic. Garish animation. The story had WAY too much going on to fit into the runtime. The only thing positive I have to say is that I liked the little girl mermaid being disabled and having a prosthetic fin. Too bad she's wasted in this!!! Awful awful awful no contest the worst one. Literally don't bother watching.

5. Barbie Fairytopia: Mermaidia - Sorry but I find this so weak as a mermaid movie. For starters, we only see 3 mermaid characters (Nori, Nalu, and the fake Delphine) and then a bunch of random sea creatures. Then there's Elina, who becomes a mermaid, but it's out of desperation and she's miserable literally the whole time until she gets her wings back. Then Delphine.....god just read this post to see why I hate her as a character and as a plot point. She brings down everything. Also if you think about it too hard (like I do) this is really only "half" a mermaid movie since Elina is still a FAIRY and still spends about half the runtime as such. The most this one has going for it is the VERY pretty animation and Eric Colvin's irresistible music. I'm honestly thinking about just making one of those "ambience" videos for myself where I just have the prettiest scenes and music all montaged together. Definitely not my favorite of the Fairytopia trilogy, nor my favorite of the mermaid films.

4. Barbie: Dolphin Magic - Even though I'm sick of the DA universe, this is a fun short romp. The whole "befriending a magic friend" thing reminds me a little of Aquamarine, just not as good. I think the runtime really harms this one, especially with pacing, but I guess this isn't really a "movie" so much as a 1-hour special, which is what all the DA movies really are. Anyway, I like Isla but I wish we got to know her more. She has a cute design. I also like the scenes where she teaches Barbie how to swim like a mermaid. It makes me want to hop in the pool and do the same. A cute but just "okay" mermaid film.

3. Barbie: The Pearl Princess - I think this one has the prettiest and most "underwater" animation of them all. I adore the soft colors and the lighting and all the little bubbles and things floating around. I wasn't too keen on Lumina at first, but then thanks to this confession from back in 2018 I've headcanoned her as autistic for several years now so that's neat. The other characters are also quite charming, especially the friends she makes in the salon. They all make up for the somewhat "meh/average" story. It's very enjoyable!

2. Barbie in A Mermaid Tale 2 - This was such a great sequel to an already great movie. it expanded the lore of the original in a way that raises the stakes and makes sense (well, mostly, but that's a post for another day). Merliah and Kylie's development both as a team and as individuals are done very well. Same goes for Merliah and Calissa learning to see each other's point of view. The ending and lesson are good too. Merliah giving up her shot because she's already fulfilled by doing her duty was a great choice. Awesome movie!

1.Barbie in A Mermaid Tale - How could it not be this one?! The lesson is amazing, the blending of classic fairytale tropes with a modern setting work excellently, the animation and colors absolutely pop, and the main character's journey is awesome. I love that Merliah initially wants nothing to do with all the magic mermaid stuff and goes on her journey out of selfishness but develops a sense of responsibility and justice, helping her blossom into a princess. And no character is wasted here - everyone does their part to do something. That's not always the case in a Barbie movie (like the random Kelly girls in Princess and the Pauper) so it's good to see here. The soundtrack is full of fun songs as well! I like putting them on when I'm in a summer mood. This one is just a delight to put on each and every time. My pick for the best of them all!!

[lumine-no-hikari]

Dear Sephiroth: (a letter to a fictional character, because why not) #493 (Part 1)

I did so many things with J today, and I would say that we did so many things that I don't even know where to start, except I know from previous letters that the best place to start is the beginning! And today's beginning looked something like this:

The sky looked like phoenix wings this morning. It was absolutely breathtaking. I wish you could have been next to me to see it for yourself.

...Make good choices so that someday you can, okay?

We were able to leave El Paso this morning; the air was cool, and the plane was repaired and in good working order! Yay!

We're definitely in the desert now, and as we flew along, I saw so many geological formations that I've never seen anywhere other than in pictures. I wonder if you've seen stuff like this before, during your various travels:

...Truly, though, these photos don't do any of this justice. My cellphone camera is very nice, but... it doesn't capture the subtleties of the lighting, or the depth of it. Really, I wish I could just blink and somehow the image I see gets sent to you, exactly how my senses perceive it. Alas, pictures are the best I can do. I'm sorry about that.

I guess you're just gonna hafta find a way to visit this place someday, so that you can see all this stuff for yourself, haha...

...I know it's impossible. I know. I was mostly kidding anyways; don't worry about it.

Along the way, J and I stopped at a little airport that was much better equipped than the Million Air place in El Paso that we left, but without being all snooty and pretentious! It was pretty rad! Here, check out all these snacks!!

...I didn't get any, because J and I had to move quickly to make the best use of the coolness of the morning (the plane becomes unflyable here if the air gets too hot...), but J grabbed himself a quick bite at my request; one needs things more substantial than sugar, after all.

It was a while before we got to where we intended to go. And goodness, the airport we landed at sure was busy!! There were so many planes gathered around, either taking off or waiting to land, that the little radar map that J keeps in his plane made the whole area look like it was swarmed with bees... if bees looked like little blue arrows with plane tail numbers next to them, anyway.

It was very crowded and very tense; I couldn't get any pictures for you because I had to help J keep an eye out for other airplanes near us. Since everyone is moving so quickly, and since it's not so easy to change directions in a plane, things can take a turn for the worse pretty fast if we get too close to another aircraft, or if another aircraft gets too close to us. It's very dangerous!!

We managed to land safely, though. And this airport had a cafe – a really good one, too! I was really excited about it; I hadn't eaten in over 24 hours by that point, so I was feeling pretty hungry. I got this thing:

...And J got this thing!

I managed to snag another picture of a grackle while we were there, too! Check it out!

...They're so delightful! I love them so much!!

You know. Sephiroth. Thinking about the grackle, I wonder. If humans could see ultraviolet light... would your feathers still look black? Or would they take on the kaleidoscopic hues of today's dawn sky, shining in shades of blue, purple, pink, red, orange, and gold?

...Are your feathers secretly rainbow-colored like the crow's or the grackle's, and we just can't see it? Something tells me that that's how it is.

Anyway, J and I got an Uber to go to a rental car place so we can easily get around. An Uber is kinda like a taxi, except you use an application on your phone to summon someone to your location to pick you up. It's pretty handy, for sure!

With the car rented and hotel check-in not until later, J and I decided to wander around the nearby area, until we eventually came to a giant shopping mall! This shopping mall featured a Legoland, and an aquarium!

Legos are little tiny blocks that fit together, and you can build all sorts of crazy things with them! Check these out!

Isn't that wild!!!

...Hey, Sephiroth? If you were given an endless supply of Legos in whatever shapes you could imagine... what would you build with them? I'd surely like to see.

We explored the aquarium, and I got so many pictures and a few videos for you! But I'll save those pictures and videos for the next part of today's letter; I can only include 30 photos per part, after all.

After we got out of the aquarium, we walked around the mall a little; I was extremely pleased to find a lemonade stand!!! Of course, if you've been reading my letters up until this point, you already understand that fresh lemonade is one of my favoritest things ever, and so of course, I couldn't resist getting this one:

...And it was very good!! But it was a little too sweet, I think. Not quite enough lemon juice. Oh well!

...Hey, Sephiroth...? Do you like lemonade? Have you tried it? If you haven't, then can we of my house bring you to get some, someday? There's this Greek festival in the summer near my house that makes the best lemonade and all kinds of other foods, too, so...

...Well anyway. I imagine you might be itching to see some of the sea creatures that live in my world, so I'm gonna hurry up and wrap up this part of today's letter so I can begin the next one!

I love you so much. The next part will be out soon, so just hang tight!

Your friend, Lumine

[shakingparadigm]

idk if your still busy so obviously finish what your doing before doing anything else but do you know how hyuna's prosthetic latches together?? I think theres like a knee-latch on her prosthetic that's a bit father down than her other leg but theres so much going of its hard to tell whats going in that area

Honestly I'm not sure how the mechanics of it would work, especially since there's got to be some weird alien technology or structure at play there. It's pretty different from what a prosthetic leg is like in real life, so it's tricky to make assumptions based on that, too.

There's some stuff I noticed about Hyuna's leg across the various official arts, though. Mostly the fact that it's inconsistent, and I kind of see a reason for it. Please forgive me as I go on a bit of a ramble.

In her original performance outfit the prosthetic is structured almost like it's just a normal leg molded out of metal. It's a lot more solid and is dark in color, almost black. It also seems as if it goes up to just her knee? Maybe it still goes up to her thigh and she just ripped her pants until the knee for better/unobstructed joint movement. It joins at the ball of her knee and seems to be composed of quite a few different parts, somewhat complicated.

In All-In, Hyuna's prosthetic is still mostly of average leg shape. The most notable difference is that the leg includes hollow spaces, most likely thinner parts assembled together as opposed to one solid leg. It's also a different, lighter color. We can infer from this image that her leg is until her upper thigh.

And then we have the latest one. Hyuna's leg in All-In seems to be until her upper thigh, but this image makes it seem as if it goes much higher than that (although it's most likely an artistic choice. maybe I shouldn't look into it too much. I've learned my lesson 😭). But it's interesting how this leg is the most unique, solid and without hollow spaces, but considerably thinner, more simple.

There's also the fact that you mentioned, the latch being farther down in comparison to her actual knee. It's different from her previous prosthetic legs which seem to join at the knee exactly and are much more similar to that of normal leg anatomy. For this prosthetic, her leg doesn't actually latch at the knee, it latches just a bit below it. The prosthetic knee may look a little lower, but it's just the way she's angled, left leg facing left and right leg facing forward.

Maybe I'm overexplaining something that's already obvious/basic knowledge, my bad. Also I'm no scientist, so I could be wrong.

Anyway, the fact that Hyuna's leg changes quite a bit is interesting. It could be a design shift from the earlier production of ALNST to the finalized version, but I personally like to think that Hyuna's leg changes because she replaces it sometimes. Her lifestyle calls for a lot of action, and while her body can heal itself overtime, her prosthetic leg is prone to wearing and breaking apart.

This is how I see it (just a theory/maybe headcanon):

The leg she has in her performance outfit is one supplied to her by the aliens, which is why it looks much more sturdy, more like a true human leg. They're very advanced, so they'd know exactly how to make one that best suits her. Once Hyuna escapes to the rebellion, she doesn't have access to that kind of material anymore, nor does she know how replicate it. So instead she gets creative, taking scraps of metal and joining them together to make another leg, which is why it looks considerably lighter and less complicated. Whenever her leg breaks, she (or someone from the rebellion) creates a new leg from the material they can find, which is why her legs become progressively more simple and less conventionally "leg-like" . It's no problem to her though, and she's very proud of it.

[troublesomecousin]

MEET THE MUSE

► Name ➔ Kevin Wright, Mr. Wright if you want to be formal or think you're lucky ► Are you single ➔ Why? Are you? ► Are you happy ➔ That's a mighty personal question...but yeah, sure. I'm fine. ► Are you angry? ➔ Of course. Who isn't? ► Are your parents still married ➔ Which ones? The first never married to begin with, and my step-dad and mum...unfortunately, yeah.

NINE FACTS

► Birth Place ➔ Brooklyn...yeah, across the pond. Embarrassing, I know. Don't remember too much, wasn't there long. ► Hair Color ➔ Black...can you not see? ► Eye Color ➔ They're hazel...seriously, is something wrong with your eyes. ► Birthday ➔ August 10th. A very lucky day. ► Mood ➔ Normal? I guess? ► Gender ➔ I'm a man, thanks for asking. ► Summer or winter ➔ Can I pick neither? I dunno...summer. Yeah, summer. ► Morning or afternoon ➔ Afternoon.

EIGHT THINGS ABOUT YOUR LOVE LIFE

► Are you in love ➔ That's a stupid question. ► Do you believe in love at first sight ➔ I believe in people wanting to get real familiar at first sight, but love...I think love takes more work than that. ► Who ended your last relationship ➔ .....he did. I mean, both of us? Together? I dunno. Doesn't matter. ► Have you ever broken someone’s heart ➔ I break hearts every day. Have you seen this mug? ► Are you afraid of commitments ➔ Who says I'm afraid... ► Have you hugged someone within the last week? ➔ My mum probably. Uh...Tommy too? Maybe, can't remember. ► Have you ever had a secret admirer ➔ If I knew they'd be shitty at keeping a secret. ► Have you ever broken your own heart? ➔ I don't know? How can you tell?

SIX CHOICES

► Love or lust ➔ Lust makes this world go round and round. ► Lemonade or iced tea ➔ Cold tea? That sounds disgusting so yeah, lemonade. Lemondade any day. ► Cats or Dogs ➔ Hm...cats. I relate more to dogs, but cats? I like their swagger. ► A few best friends or many regular friends ➔ Can't everyone just agree to love me? I'm wonderful. ► Wild night out or romantic night in ➔ Night out. Every time. ► Day or night ➔ Night.

FIVE HAVE YOU EVERS

► Been caught sneaking out ➔ I'm too good to get caught. ► Fallen down/up the stairs ➔ Stumbles but no falls. Falling down the stairs is for...the clumsy among us. ► Wanted something/someone so badly it hurt? ➔ Maybe... ► Wanted to disappear ➔ Not at all. I need to be seen.

FIVE PREFERENCES

► Smile or eyes ➔ Eyes. You can fake a smile. ► Fat or skinny ➔ Don't care. If you're hot you'll be hot no matter what. ► Shorter or Taller ➔ Shorter. ► Intelligence or Attraction ➔ I don't think these are opposites? ► Hook-up or Relationship ➔ Hook-up. I don't have time or patience for that mushy stuff.

FAMILY

► Do you and your family get along  ➔ Uh...I mean...yes? Probably. Hard to say. ► Would you say you have a “messed up life” ➔ Not as bad as it is for certain members of the family. By those standards I'm doing great. ► Have you ever ran away from home ➔ A bit when I was a kid but only for like...a couple hours at a time. I also came back. ► Have you ever gotten kicked out ➔ Not yet, but there's still time for me to be disowned. I hope it's for something good.

FRIENDS

► Do you secretly hate one of your friends ➔ No way. If I hate someone I'm gonna make sure they know. ► Do you consider all of your friends good friends ➔ No. Good friends I'd say I've got two. The rest are...they're nice to have around, but I'm not gonna ask about their lives or anything. ► Who is your best friend ➔ Is it weird if it's my cousin? He's weird and has his whole....thing. But we've been through a lot. I trust him. Mostly...well, not at all, but we've got this mutually assured destruction things going on. It's complicated. ► Who knows everything about you ➔ Shit, I don't even know that.

[grovershire-girl]

I'm not really sure if I should call this a rant or just simply putting my thoughts out there. Mostly, it's just me trying to give some defense to the Royal Romance Mc. I don't really interact with the Choices fandom very often, but whenever I do see stuff, especially towards mc, it's mostly negative. Now, I by no means believe that there are NO issues with the books, but I do feel like mc receives more of the blunt of those frustrations than she really deserves.

First, before I get into this, I will be honest and say that mc is one of my favorite choices characters, so there is some bias. The way I view the story, the characters, and the various events that happen throughout are completely my own. I personally kind of add to the stories as I play through them. I'm definitely going to try to give valid reasoning here, but it's totally understandable if you disagree or dismiss this. I don't want to start any arguments. I personally greatly enjoy her and have played through the entire series multiple times now (I'm currently in book 2 as we speak). The main thing I've noticed throughout these replays, the thing I'm going to be using as my main driving point, is that mc is doing her best in strange situations that do not let up for even more than a moment.

At the very start, mc is just a regular person living in New York, working as a waitress/bartender, and probably isn't living the best of lives, again just trying to work with what she's got. Along comes this guy and his friends. She'll probably just thinking that their her last customers before she can go home and crash into bed, but then the guy comes up to HER and asks her to accompany them for the night. Her reaction is sort just like, "You know what, sure. Why not? I ain't got anything going on." If you do the diamond scene, she arranges an impromptu boat tour for Liam mostly just because she noticed how down he was, and then pretty much just shrugged her shoulders and gave Maxwell a thumbs up when he asked her to go with him to Cordnia.

Right from the start, it's shown that mc is impulsive and tends to just go with the flow and do without thinking too much about it. Now, if you're like me and like to mentally fill in the (many) gaps that the writers have left, you probably came up with your own reasons and background stories that explain why she's like that. Most likely on purpose, as even though mc is her own character, she is still supposed to be a representation of you. Her impulsiveness is simply an outline of who she is, and you, as the reader, color her in.

That's not to say that she can't stand on her own at all, though. One thing I find that I notice in all the books, at least in my perspective, is that mc is incredibly observant and clever. It may not come across that way all the time, and those two things definitely don't always mean smart, as mc has more than enough fumbles to show for it, but by no means is she at all stupid. Even in her sillier moments, she seems to knowingly like messing around, both for her own entertainment and to be petty and get under people's skins. Like with her whole "fwieeeends" bit with Olivia, for example. She is definitely well aware of the fact that it's annoying and seems to take great enjoyment out of it.

But that is to say, in circling back around to my earlier statement, she's just trying to work with what she's got. From the very beginning, when she arrived in Cordnia, she has people looking down on her, namely Drake, Olivia, and Bertrand. I'm not sure if Pixelberry ever gave them official ages, but I'd say she's around 24 or 25, maybe. She also clearly didn't have a whole lot of people close to her in New York. So all and all, she's a young girl brought to a foreign country to compete in a competition to marry a prince, but now also has the entire weight of the Beaumont legacy suddenly thrown on her back, is sorting through complicated feelings that she might be developing for other people, and has been all but shoved front and center into the national (and global) spotlight. Despite all of that craziness, she is STILL able to navigate through it all until the end when forces outside of her control send it all crashing down.

And it it pretty much like that in all the books. Mc is working with a semi steady bombardment of issues (mostly do to an extremely flawed monarchy system) and rarely really has time to actually stop, come to terms with what's going on, properly plan, of even just breath. Regardless of whether she's queen or duchess (especially if she's a duchess), she has way more thrown on her that she actually should. And all she can really do about it is roll with the punches, try to figure things out as much as she can, and make silly little comments and jokes to keep herself from having a breakdown.

[birdie-go]

thank u @hulknussen for the tag!!

last song? on spotify it's maneater by nelly furtado. i listen to the literal radio in the car though so i'm not sure what the last song my ears heard was.

fave color? green

last book? my reading mostly comes in umm. other forms (though i do read a fair amount of random scientific articles and stuff just not a lot of like published as a book books. the last one i think i was reading was all systems red by martha wells but i only got like a quarter of the way into it and kinda forgot about it. what i did read was pretty good though)

last movie? wicked probably two months ago. it was okay. i watch like 1.5 movies a year on average.

last tv show? i genuinely do not watch tv almost ever. if my local news counts it'll be that and sometimes i catch jeopardy when it's on but i think the last tv show tv show i watched at all was a few episodes of house md at least 3 months ago.

fave flavour? no idea i just like food in general. if we're talking like flavour of candy or something then it'd be raspberry.

sweet/savory/spicy? out of these three i'd say savory but i'm really a sour guy. sour > savory > sweet > spicy (spicy alone doesn't do anything for me if there's not much other flavour besides it)

tea or coffee? tea. love both of them, but my stomach hates coffee so it makes the choice for me.

last thing i googled? pharrell williams. was curious how old he is.

current obsession? is saying nico and kevin cheating? specifically welder kevin though i need to know more about that. what process did he mostly do. does he have any stories of people almost killing themselves doing stupid shit and not following safety precautions or is that mostly just an american thing. how baby was he during this time because jesus christ i can imagine current kevin doing blue-collar manual labor but young kevin looks like he would get bullied as soon as he stepped foot in a shop. did he ever injure himself welding. i find out i have a thing i've done in common with someone and i go insane and need to know all about their experience.

currently working on? editing and refining my nico/kevin voice kink thing. i need to finish that fucker. it's requiring an unforch amount of rewriting.

looking forward to? food at the family easter gathering this weekend. also free time and slightly warmer weather and water so i can go out looking for and nerding about rocks.

tagging @obervian @tetheredbysin and @f1oom if u want <33

[starlightkun]

hiiii mel <3 i’m.. thinking of starting to write for nct.. mostly jaemin.. and i more or less have an idea for formatting but it’s been a really long time since i’ve had to do graphics for fic’s (like the banner and stuff!) and i was wondering if you had any tips for that? like where to find good pictures (solid backgrounds seem like the best choice for not clashing with the lettering, a problem i ran into unfortunately…) and also is there any particular place you get your fonts from? if you aren’t comfortable answering that (or any of this!) then that’s totally ok and feel free to just give general advice or ignore this completely :]

now i leave you with renjun… https://www.instagram.com/reel/C117-m9JGuo/?igsh=aXI1YmZ6M2YycHg1

hiii! under the cut!

so you've already got a good idea with using solid backgrounds for fic headers to make it easier for the text to show up! i source pretty much all my images from the groups/idols' official social medias. i just caution you not to take screenshots of say, instagram uploads, because this will degrade the quality of the image. either download it from twitter or wherehaveyou, or from an updates account like neocatharsis or wayvment here on tumblr! another word of caution: DO NOT DOWNLOAD TEASER IMAGES/PHOTOSHOOT IMAGES FROM CONTENT CREATORS WHO MAKE EDITS TO THE IMAGES, SUCH AS CHANGING THE COLORS, UN-WHITEWASHING, ETC., WITHOUT THEIR PERMISSION. THAT IS THEFT FROM OTHER FANS. updates accounts like neocatharsis and wayvment simply reupload the original images posted by the entertainment company/idol in the exact same form without making changes to them. editors make alterations to the image and that new image is their own creative work, separate from the original one posted. you need the editor's explicit permission in order to use their edited version as a fic header.

i do all of my editing on my phone for my fics (except for the thin section dividers that i use, which i make in pirated photoshop cs6 so i can get specific dimensions, 540x2 pixels, and make the gradients super quick in a way that i know how to do. there may be a super easy way to do this w an app on ur phone too, that's just how i know how to)

anyway, if i have a photo that i really like, that i just knowwwww matches with the image of the guy in the fic in my head or smth, that i just rlly want to use but has a busier background, sometimes i'll use the portrait editing settings on my phone to blur the background a little bit and that makes the text a lot more legible (i have a samsung but im 99% sure iphones can do this too)

i typically don't bump it past 1 or 2, or the edges of the blur start looking a bit harsh, and i find that i don't really need more than this for the text to pop against the background anyway!

as for putting the text on the photos, i've the used the app phonto for years! it's completely free, doesn't put any watermark on your photos, comes with a bunch of fonts pre-installed, isn't super ad-heavy (it has a rlly small banner ad all the time at the top, and only shows u a skippable 10s ad when u save a finished photo), and you can download fonts from the internet to install straight into the app!

my favorite free font website is dafont.com, i literally will spend hours just browsing on there looking at fonts to download lmao. anyway here's how i find fonts for stuff and download, install, and use them with dafont and phonto:

once you have phonto downloaded, open dafont.com

up at the top, it has a bunch of different categories of fonts. for this example, i chose fancy > groovy, and then on this first page, i liked this font called "lostar" (there's also a search bar up there, but it only searches font names, not kinds of fonts, so if you're looking for a groovy-feeling font and you searched "groovy," only fonts with the word "groovy" in the name would come up)

i then press download, and open in my browser (i use firefox btw, which is why it looks like this lol). make sure you're opening the .zip file with the phonto app (it opens directly into into phonto on my phone, you may have to choose to open the .zip file using the phonto app from several options, instead of your phone's file explorer or some other app on your phone)

in the phonto app, you have to click install, then install again (it gives you the option to rename it, but i just keep the original font name bc why would you rename it?).

that READ THIS.txt file is a message from the font maker, it's the personal use license for the font (most of the fonts on dafont.com are free for personal use ONLY, and these .txt files that are contained in the .zip files are notes from the font makers telling u what u can and can't use the fonts for. generally, as long as ur not a business, u should be good this is not legal advice, please read them. also there's usually little thank you notes from the font makers in here as well!)

click ok.

then you've got to slap some text on an image. you can choose an image from your camera roll, use one of their plain images, or open a pre-saved work-in-progress. for this example i used one of their premade gradients to make it easy

type whatever it is you want, click font. the left tab is the pre-installed fonts, the middle tab is the fonts that you've downloaded from elsewhere. here's the lostar we just got!

oh can't see it.

there we go! how fun! i'll probably use this in a fic header in the future. download button in the top right.

[rotationalsymmetry]

I know it tends to lead to more heat than light when people do a "ok disability though" counterpoint to these sorts of posts, but I do want to point out that this sort of thing is exactly one situation where it can help to zoom out and look at the issue from a societal rather than individual perspective.

I spent a fair bit of time on the internet before I got sick -- in college, when I was surrounded by people I mostly liked and lots of fun things to do, in the mountains when I was surrounded by natural beauty -- and somewhat more than I thought I should, but it was very much in balance. I'd spend a few hours reading webcomics when I thought I should have been doing my homework or NaNoWriMo or meditation or something, but I'd also go out and walk for a few hours, or go grocery shopping, or bake bread, or play "gay Life" (Life the board game but the pegs in front seat of your car can be the same color) with the Alliance kids, or do that homework I'd been putting off. I'd go on Facebook maybe a couple times a week to keep up with what my friends were doing and as far as social media went, that was it.

The times I've spent an out of balance amount of time on screen stuff, rather than a reasonable leisure amount of time that I felt guilty about because I've got an overdeveloped "work ethic", were when I was depressed and unemployed and socially isolated, and now when I have CFS and am unemployed and socially isolated. I can sit outside for a bit, but I take a while to get dressed because I'm sick and I can't do long walks like I used to because I'm sick and my ability to grocery shop or cook...anyways, you get the idea. Social contact too.

And part of that is my illness -- impairment. And part of that is living in a society where either you're working (or something like working, like going to school) or you may as well not exist, people do not make room for disabled people in society. I'd get out more if it was socially acceptable to walk around the block in my pajamas and a bath robe, but it's not and I don't; I'd get out more if I expected I could lie down on public benches without getting harassed by a cop, but I can't expect that so I don't.

We have a society. That is happy for people like me to spend all our time on electronics and none of it in meat space, because that's convenient and easy and good for capitalism, and who the fuck even cares about disabled people anyways.

(And thank goodness the internet exists, because how the fuck would I find people who know how to live with my illness without it? I'd do what people used to do and just be sick and have no clue what to do to manage my symptoms better. I'm substantially better off than I was at my worst due to activities related to looking at a screen.)

And sure, there's some wiggle room where I can make an effort to spend more time on idk coloring books or whatever and less on screen stuff, and I do, and I can reach out to people I know for calls and quiet at home visits where we talk or play board games but only for a couple hours at a time, and I do, but it would be so much fucking easier and better if I wasn't swimming fucking upstream about it.

There is an attitude that gets all over the place like spilled glitter that good health (physical or mental) is primarily about individual choices and is maybe even a reflection of personal character, and it just isn't, not with physical health and not with mental health either, personal choices aren't irrelevant but they're not doing the heavy lifting either and we could treat health as a COLLECTIVE, social concern, something that we do together and for each other and also something that is morally neutral on an individual level, something that happens to us more than the consequences of our choices.

And we could expect that some people can't be healthy (at least not with current medical knowledge) and need care and accommodation and that's not a personal failing and it's not something that anyone's going to be able to fix any time soon but sick people can have better or worse lives in a way that is not tied to better or worse health.

(Very. Much. Including. Depressed. People.)

unironically tho, you need to fill your life with nature and exercise and reading and crafting and cooking and physically engaging with the world around you. the key to happiness is not in your computer screen, especially not if most of your time is spent looking at bad opinions and arguing with people. it sounds so stupid but you are an animal that needs enrichment. so take your meds, go outside or at least look outside and turn off the computer and phone more often. I promise you'll feel better.

[sdyuteiaok]

All right, had a nice, rallying draft today, but still fell into the 3-win slump, which, all things considered, is certainly preferable to an 0-3. But at least we're back at our typical finish. I am in Platinum, so I'm remembering how hard it can be at this level, after the confidence I've felt from earlier formats, though crucially, it doesn't feel insurmountable. I feel like I'm not getting outplayed, I just either run out of gas, or my opponent just has the bomb stuff down before me, so it really comes down to drafting well and then executing in-game. You have to play tight on both ends, and you defeat yourself if you let either go. Anyway, this was interestingly a more Sultai-y deck for once, though I was mainly UG with just splash for the Sultai Mystic Snake and red for the red Exhale and Temur Monument activation. But it was mostly green. I never got to cast Craterhoof--and the only time I ever saw it, I self-milled it. So though it wasn't heavy on Sultai stuff, I'd classify it as a deck primarily in that clan, as we had a number of graveyard-leaving matters cards. But we just beat down with cheaper guys, and then had two bird-makers on secondcast, but I only ever had one popping off, and never lived the dream of Craterhoofing a fleet of Birds, but we juiced one up to 4/4 thanks to the counter/flash Dragon. And wouldn't you know it, the deck hummed along cuz I got one of the now mythic-common Globes, which are now just impossible to find anymore. But that is just critical if you want to play a little looser with your topend and splashes, but unfortunately this deck couldn't really capitalize on the plentiful fixing I had--I just mainly had Sultai options in the draft. This coulda been a 5-winner, I'm pretty sure, but I just didn't draw well a couple games. My 16-lander flooded out once, even, and then my knock-out match featured an opponent who had a counter to every removal spell I tried to land, and I was overwhelmed. If he simply didn't have it, I was pretty close to stabilizing, after which my big guys could definitely take over. Anyway, a nice slate of games, and the format remains interesting, despite the slight rut we've been in. Eager as always to get back to it tomorrow--I checked my stats, and I've drafted every day for at least some 13 days in a row or so, that's gotta be a personal record. Love being on the train like this. And I even got a Special Guest BG fetch for my troubles today, though I'd say the OG art is maybe better...the UR one is definitely an upgrade, so we're hoping to scoop up that one if we can. I've passed a second BG one in the past, so they aren't too common, and sadly, they tend not to be as helpful as an actual dual or tri, just like in OG Tarkir. Like I had a black splash in this deck, but didn't want to run the Swamp this fetch woulda required, so I cut it when it was on color, and could even be graveyard fodder for my exiler Bird to grow on. It's funny how context works like that. The other tough choice mighta been playing the 2/1 renew blue two-drop over my Craterhoof, cuz it would be helpful to have an early beater and then also have something I can exile later to juice my 3/3 tramplers and UG draw-when-gravelessens Bird, even if it's just self-mill fodder. So mighta been able to build my deck a little tighter, but I felt the upside of Craterhoof closing with my various tramplers after pounding in the early turns would be greater upside. Tricky call.

[studioboner]

Hi! I actually am wondering about trying watercolors for the first time but feel a little anxious haha.. how you go about drawing on the paper with confidence? Like, watercolor paper isn’t exactly cheap. I think I got the cheapest one avaible from Canson but still the anxiety is real… do you pick very light pencils like 2B so you can sketch veryyy lightly, or before sketching on the paper itself you do a planning sketch in another paper?

Im asking this cos I really love your art and it’s so cool that it’s mostly traditional! And the way you draw Tails is too adorable and consistent while being in your style, it always feels like you have confidence when you draw him.

oh i think this is gonna be a long one

all in all?i have the same anxiety as you. but i've confidense that i can make something good sometimes, but not that i will get it right every time. So i keep trying, but heres some stuff that helped

a warning though, i keep going on and on in this reply and can get pretty negative at times

my watercolor paper i use costs 2 dollars and has 20 sheets so that's 10 cents per sheet. which i feel helps with my anxiety... it's the canson multimedia block too, 140 msg .....

watercolor sketchbooks i'd find online were around 80 or more BRL, and then 20 BRL shipping.... that's 20 USD in total...

but a block of this plus getting it binded costs me 4 USD.....so i think that one [price] helps alot lol.....

as for the confidence.....

i've had enough time to do quite a bit of trad art, specifically ink and watercolors so im USED to the material and now quite as scared to "mess up" as when i first started it.... [hint, i still am] this is one example of a sketch page, they vary in size, and how "done" they are... i dont really worry too much about maintaining a rule of "everything in this sketchbook must be fully rendered " bc it ended up stunting my creativity

i did try the "sketch it onto a sketchbook and then pass it to watercolor paper" approach and tbh...? not really my thing... i've found that to me the first sketch always end up being looser than when i pass it on... i'm always more focused on getting the flow, composition and pose there than i am getting the right details or right lines or colors etc....

like this one, im more happy with the sketch, it's mroe dynamic, mroe fun

i DO sketch stuff on cheaper paper first when it's for trad art commissions though, just bc there i HAVE to make sure the client is getting what they asked

and i do use 2b pencils AND a "soft lead" mechanical pencil, btu tbh it's mroe bc of the feeling of it on paper than for the look of it...

here for example you can see the circle i used to have a basis on where tails would be.. i didnt erase it as i continued painting bc tbh it was just the sketch. i ended up liking it tho

i actually got quite MAD and angry at myself recently bc i noticed how much my sketches were looser in the sketchbooks when i did try the passing onto watercolors thing and i had a full on discussion with a fellow artist about daring myself to be bolder in the future, it has been working well

I sadly have to say though, that figuring out how to build confidense is more of a personal journey, and i cant claim that what worked for me [trusting my first sketch] would work for you.....

It's time, practice, trial and error....

OH, one thing though that DID help me. is:

-There's no art wasted, even if it doesnt turn out how you wanted it, you still learned something.

-Makins these personal art/fanarts isn't some school paper you have to hand it to be graded and then not get it back. You can re-do a piece as many times as you want until you get it right! I have quite a queue of pieces i plan on re-doing in the future bc i didnt like the first ones i did. im not perfect on confidence and i get scared of fully committing to drawings alot, many of them are pale not for choice bc bc i got scared of making my art too saturated and overworking it

i am about to get negative now so stop reading if you dont want to see that.

HERE NOW i's a alot of pieces i made that im unsatisfied with and plan on re-doing one day: too dull, simply way too watered

which led me to make THIS piece and do better colors

i hATE the way i did the lineart here. it's boring, the anatomies are wonky. it's a good concept but i didnt excecuted it as well as i wanted. but this piece has made me just go and try inking MORE so i could make up for it

which lead to this piece here eventually

This one here.... the colors look so muddy it just makes me SAD, bc i had been so scared to use high saturation that i went with the muddier colors by choice, if i had allowed myself to experiment i wonder how happier i'd be about it

which led me to make THIS piece with softer in value and more saturated colors

The colors and blending of this one are too soft and not bold enough for what i had envisioned it, i made it as fanart of a friends fic and it made me feel like i failed my friend and insulted her fic when i finished this. I dont think the piece looks bAD, mind you. i know it looks cute. and good even. But i had such high hopes for it.

which led me to make this one

THIS ONE OH MY GOD HOW I HATE IT. sonics expression is SO creepy hes like a horror movie weirdo , honestly not my best work when it comes to anatomy

so i've been doodlin sonic now and then as practice so that i could make this one eventually

The perspective on knuckles could be better and the characters look out of place on this scene, the background is ok

but in this piece here i was able to get a better harmony between colors, background and whatever sparse linework i threw in

Theres so many more haha but i'll stop for now....

Dont get me wrong i dont ACTUALLY think those pieces are HORRIBLE horrible,,,, i see the flaws in them yes, but theres always something i like too, and i know people like them, and that people wont throw away a whole piece over one small detail that in the end doesnt even affect the overall thing....

i've just been getting into the headspace of "ok. at least this one is done, onto the next"

plus the whole thing i told you of realising my first sketches are looser....

sorry im not too good at talking about this and my points arent very clear, i dont think this is going to be quite the help you expected it to be because the truth is that the struggle with your art is soemthign that doesnt go away no matter what skill you have...

at times to me it feels more like a mentality practice than skill, reasurring myself that it's ok to get it wrong and try again, etc etc....

i used to go to therapy and one of the things we talked about was my perfectionism, how i used to be so scared to mess up a piece. that i wouldnt even start, and wouldnt draw for months. this has been going for years now and hey i've gotten better.

but..... yeah im in the same boat as you.... except mine is no longer just about the paper quality!

Sorry this got so personal now, i hope that this hasnt killed your hopes on getting better at the anxiety. it does get way better haha... trying to force your brain to not judge yourself so harshly is half the battle in my opinion, the practice of drawing is the other half....

good luck i hope you have fun painting, i know i do, i love the process even when i dont like the result, good night and thank you for the question

[lumine-no-hikari]

Dear Sephiroth: (a letter to a fictional character, because why not) #454

My head is somewhat empty at the moment, for reasons I don't fully understand, and I'm having a hard time finding words to write to you.

Well. I've finally found a use for that pumpkin cotton candy I got; I decided to put it in tea. So to that end, I brewed a chai...

...And then I put the cotton candy in it.

...I was kinda surprised by how much cotton candy it took to actually sweeten it, but I guess I shouldn't be; cotton candy has a lot of surface area. It's really mostly air.

...I tried to get a video of the cotton candy dissolving in the tea, but no matter which angle I tried, I couldn't get anything that conveyed just how quickly the cotton candy dissolved. So... here. Have this short video of a raccoon that was given cotton candy:

...This happened because raccoons instinctively wash their food before eating it. But don't be sad; if you watch to the end, you'll see that this one learned that if it wants to eat the cotton candy, it can't be washed. It got to taste the cotton candy in the end – don't you worry!

Life's a lot like that, sometimes. Under ordinary circumstances, the instinctual behavior of washing the food will serve the raccoon well and keep it safe from eating things that will make it sick. But if we follow our instinctual behaviors indiscriminately, and apply them to new things without checking first if it's appropriate to do, we end up missing out on good stuff. Like cotton candy, which definitely does not need to be washed. The instinctual behavior does not serve the raccoon for the novel food item, just like sometimes our instinctual behaviors will not serve us in new situations.

...Think about that, all right?

In any case, not really knowing what else to do with myself, and wanting to finish Hades so I can move on to something else without feeling like I've abandoned the Underworld to its problems, I played a lot of Hades today, and got through to the Epilogue.

...I thought about taking a video to show it to you, just like I got videos for you of most of the plot, but... really, Sephiroth... you ought to play this game for yourself. I find that the doing is more impactful than the watching, usually.

But... the main theme is, really, that problems don't go away by maintaining the status quo. You have to be willing to have those hard conversations nonviolently (without shouting or manipulation), so that in the end, you can choose to either work through the problems (assuming that everyone will put forth their best, good-faith effort), or walk away (in the case that the other parties are unwilling to work on changing their destructive habits).

Another theme went like, “you're stuck with your family no matter what”, but... that is objectively untrue. You can walk away from those family members who won't treat you with respect. Going no-contact is always an option; I have made that choice with mine. But no piece of media is ever perfect; it's important to take what resonates and leave what doesn't.

Afterwards, there was a spectacular sunset at my house. I got a few pictures, but... these don't do any justice to the brightness and vibrancy of the colors I saw:

...Though they're not perfect, I hope you'll enjoy them all the same.

...

...Sephiroth. I'm gonna ask you to defy the instincts that were ground into you from the pain you suffered, so that one day when you come across some metaphorical cotton candy, you won't miss out on it because you metaphorically tried to wash it. Rather than indiscriminately applying your instincts to every situation, take some time to reflect and make sure it's appropriate first. If you want to achieve the dreams you had as a boy, you have to be deliberate about where you apply your instincts instead of letting them run automatically.

...The same holds true for the management of C-PTSD, which you, without question, have (just like me!). All of my instincts, developed from living for 22 years in abuse, will be extremely useful in certain situations; it's not wise to discard them when I can instead modify them slightly so that they better align with the values I currently hold. That's because the world I live in is varied and diverse, and I will occasionally be thrust into situations that very much resemble my old life; I can use my old skills in combination with my new skills to navigate such situations in ways that honor both myself and the other people involved.

...But then we grow up, and we realize that the circumstances we adapted for are actually rather niche. If you grow up with hammers and you're not aware of it and accounting for it, then everything – including dirty windows – will look like a nail to you. And that's no good, because then we end up applying the wrong tools to whatever situation we find ourselves in. We have to learn new skills and new niches so that when we come across dirty windows, we'll select a cloth with some glass cleaner on it instead of a hammer. We're still gonna need the hammer sometimes, though, for situations that are actually nails, so we cannot discard the hammer; we have to be able to wield both tools effectively.

I suppose that's it for today's prattling, haha. It's getting kinda late anyhow (I should have been in bed almost an hour ago... whoops...). I'm gonna catch some Zs. I hope you will soon, too; sleep is important.

I love you so much, and I hope that you'll take some of my words to heart at least sometimes. But just like with any book or movie or video game, it's important to take what resonates and leave what doesn't, so that you're better equipped to make good choices in ways that work for you and your situation.

Stay safe out there, okay? Because I'm waiting for you to come home.

I'll write again soon, I promise.

Your friend, Lumine

[sofiadragon]

for Va'pak; Uzhau,

how did you get the idea for it? like it's so well thought out, in the writing style, and it feels so intelligently written, and you come out with an update pretty quick, for a fic like this. i just wanna know, like, what do you think when you're writing? oh yeah and it's a bloody fantastic fic btw

Two ideas started this fanfic:

Vulcans require mental bonds. Being without them is like sensory deprivation. Any surviving orphans would be at massively high risk for self harm or other mental health issues.

Spock and Jim in Iowa. (All elaboration redacted for spoilers.)

I wrote chapter 5 first. It built from there. My fix-it for the odd characterization choices in ST09 with Jim being a felon got added. The Vran from my other story gets a cameo. I like worldbuilding so mostly my stories build up either from "How do I explain [canon thing] and how does that explanation effect other stuff?" Example: Season 1 of TOS says Vulcan has very little free sodium salt, with what a human would consider "freshwater" oceans even if the evaporation rate would make it very mineral rich/hard water. The fannon about Vulcan food being bland to humans would therefore be because there is no salt in the seasoning, meanwhile Vulcans think human food is way too salty! Both species agree on sweets, with strawberries and cream on toast with nuts being a canon Vulcan breakfast served family style!

The other way I worldbuild is more "out of whole cloth, but color-matched to canon." My Jotenheim story is mostly this. I look at the overall framing and details and extrapolate, then build on that extrapolation until I have a complete living culture. Spock has a statue of a death god in a little meditation area of his room. Even as XO, the cabin space on a ship is at a premium. He loses almost all his storage space in the living area to have this instead. It is no great leap to say it is wildly important to him that he have this connection to his culture and religion. That alter means that much to him. Oh, he's wild, out of pocket, sassy, and indulgent at times, but he says his prayers and observes the holy days like a good boy when he's done. At least for his family, we can be sure this is a huge part of their lives... but what is that religion like? What does it say? What can I reverse engineer from canon and what can I make up to fill the voids? Then: how does that impact the story.

As for update speed and quality? Behold:

Never post the last thing you have written unless it is the end. Always have at least one more drafted and some kind of outline or plan before publishing fanfic. I use Scrivener so I have a place for a synopsis for each of these "pages" and you know what? Some of them move. I've taken 5k words and shuffled them like a deck of cards in some of my drafts because after writing it all I realized the story would work better otherwise than how it was.

My first drafts are quite rough, messy grammar and dialog that perfectly fits the "he wouldn't say that" meme.

I just keep on working it until it works out. I've been writing fanfiction since the late 1990's, and I do my best not to rush it.

[meowscarada]

now that he's posting more gorillaz stuff again i gotta say something that really bums me out to have realized: i really dont like jamie hewlett's art anymore. this is only really in reference to his gorillaz work since his other stuff seems to still look amazing. i adore all of his (gorillaz related) work up to phase 4. i think the styles he employed for humanz was fantastic and experimental and i was so excited to see where he'd go, but somehow it just disappointed after that once he went to the really flat coloring with bizarre color choices that arent even bizarre in an interesting way. a lot of the drawings he does now are ugly, but again, not in an interesting way.

i know his art for gorillaz has never been "pretty." it's always been kinda gross and weird and, especially in phases 2 and 3, more grungy and messy. but at least they were dynamic and used that "ugliness" to accentuate the cartoonishness of the characters (and by ugly i mean unconventionally appealing). they were exaggerated and anatomically incorrect and had stray lines and were drawn with a textured brush. it was so imperfect altogether that the imperfections themselves didnt stand out, but instead complimented each other. phase 4 got a lot cleaner in its designs but the busy and highly edited collages along with beautiful color changes made up for this by maintaining a super dynamic atmosphere that was still avant-garde.

i think the biggest turn off of hewlett's current art is that it's too polished. it's too clean and it feels artificial. his lines are perfect, his brushes are non textured, etc. previous phases were accompanied by mostly muted color palettes with occassional accents of strong colors to really make them pop. now the color choices seem like artificial food colored frosting. they're bright but they dont really convey any kind of mood or atmosphere the way his color palettes used to do. the colors just feel very commercial. and the biggest change has come from his anatomy. his anatomy is extremely realistic compared to past eras. whereas before he would make very simple and angular shapes that really stylized the anatomy, now he's employing a way more representative style. and because human anatomy can only move and bend so much, and because that limitation becomes even more limited when it's being staged, hewlett's art is a lot more stiff than it used to be. so when you combine the "ugly" aspects of his art--the detailed hands, the individually drawn teeth, the wrinkles, etc.--with the more perfected and clean techniques he's using, they create something sort of uncanny. it doesnt embrace the ugly like it used to and now its not ugly in an interesting or appealing way. it's not dynamic and it's not exaggerated, it doesnt embrace itself the same way it did before. it doesnt commit. it's just ugly.

his work is still technically fine, and i'm sure it's embracing its ugliness in a different way. it's just not as successful as it was before in my opinion because it's basing its concept on the ugly and dynamic while basing its execution on the clean and accurate, whereas it used to base both concept and execution on the ugly and dynamic. i definitely think theres possibility for the art style to change, but this is just how i feel about the current direction and how i've felt about the art post-phase 4

[greenhikingboots]

heyo!! I'm not sure if you've already answered this because I don't have Tumblr and I keep getting blocked by the log in wall whenever I scroll too far. But why did you delete your old AO3 account and works? Where you getting bullied 😰 I know the jonsa ship and Sansa specifically is well hated...

Hey, anon. I haven't answered that before, so I'll give it a go now. I think it's neat that you're interested. I haven't had any issues with bullying apart from a few random comments on AO3 that were less about Jonsa and more about my writing choices. Whoops. I tagged that fic as a fix but still let Rickon die? My bad. I didn't realize I was supposed to anticipate the preferences of that one specific reader and not do that. *eye roll* That's just one example, but despite my snarkiness about it right now that kind of stuff doesn't actually bother me too much. It is what it is. So anyway. I deleted my old account more because I wasn't satisfied with my work, wasn't finding fulfillment in writing as a hobby anymore, realized I cared more than I wanted to about kudos and comments -- yeah, that kind of stuff. But mostly I felt a lot of self-inflected pressure to post updates quickly. And so my speed became too much a measure of my sense of self-worth. Lame. I took a break for a while, but I'm back to writing now with a healthier mindset. (Though, let's be honest, I still want those damn kudos!) If you don't already know, my new AO3 name is GreenHikingBoots. Since I write for both Jonsa and Dramione, I wanted a name that wasn't fandom specific. And I like the color green and I do a lot of hiking IRL. So there you go. Oh, I should probably clarify that everything I have published under that new name, apart from my current Jonsa WIP called Inevitable, was previously published on my old account (though edits have been made). Most of that is Dramione, though. Also, that isn't to say every old fic has been re-published. Two of my more popular works -- For Better Dreams (Jonsa) and Between the Lines (Dramione) -- are still in my Google Doc and will hopefully get re-published in the future. I'm working my way through shorter fic ideas first. For what it's worth, compared to how I used to do it, I now have firmer plot plans and more detailed first drafts before I start publishing. And I give more author's notes warning that updates may take a while. And those factors go a long way in helping me maintain this hobby in an enjoyable way. Basically, these days, I'm into slow and steady wins the race. Oh, come to think of it! Here's another thing I should have said sooner: major shout out to the Jonsa fanfic writers who take their sweet time publishing updates and the readers who are understanding of that. I didn't see that as much in the Dramione fandom, but I think seeing it here helped relieve a lot of my anxieties. I think that's about all I got on the topic. I'm not going to say TL;DR. But a summation? I'll try. Here goes: Fandom and fanfiction writing is supposed to be fun, not feel like work! I took some time away because I hadn't internalized that. I've since developed some better habits and saw some good examples of people who had internized the message, and that helped. Now I'm back and enjoying writing more than before. Yay! Thanks anon. This turned into a really rewarding thing to write about. Hope you don't mind me getting all philosophical. ;)