#lipsie

[nattravn-art]

@lipsie Absolutely!

So first of all I ought to say that I am using the software Aseprite (also available on Steam), which costs about 20$/17€ (but you can get it for cheaper during steam sales for example).

I had tried making pixel art on Clip Studio Paint before, but it didn't feel satisfactory. What's great with Aseprite is that it's specifically made for pixel art/animations/sprites, etc. It felt much better to use compared to CSP.

Anyway, I followed these Aseprite tutorials for beginners:

They are part of a playlist for pixel art tutorials (in general). As a note, I haven't watched all of them yet, but I like the way the artist explains things (always with visual examples too), it's very clear and structured information.

What I found great in the videos above is that the artist encourages you to pause the videos and do exercices of what he just showed, which helped me learning a lot! This for example is what I made from the first video (and what I made for the first time using Aseprite):

Makes me hungry (and I don't usually like donuts).

I was also recommended this video, again specifically about Aseprite! That felt like a good refresher after I took a break from the software and forgot everything about it.

I hope this helps! :D Good luck with your pixel art journey!

[hyperbali]

@lipsie - you are not the first to recommend an ita bag! i'm considering it, maybe... it would be nice if i could find a genuine leather one...

@queenqueso - yeah, that's about where i am, too. they're so... childish looking and i hate it :(

@snark-n-snack - HILARIOUSLY,

i picked up one in decent condition on poshmark a few weeks ago! the problem is it's still a little big and i'm trying to pare down what i carry on a day-to-day basis for the sake of my back. i've got enough weight with my chest as it is

(don't mind the mess, i'm reorganising)

[opportunity-strikes]

Knowing

It is a strange thing

To discover that in order to know thyself,

you must allow others to know you.

The notion, at first, sounds preposterous.

But in order to learn the shape of your soul

you must allow others to perceive it first.

Precious pieces of self are found through the tenuous lens of trust.

Imperfect, fragile fragments of glass crafted with droplets of molten sand

that spill with agonizing slowness from the hourglass of intimacy.

Each piece falls into place and draws the whole further into focus.

How precarious it is to learn thyself through the clarity of others.

But how necessary,

how essential

to Know.

[sanguivor]

Okay. I can't take it any longer. I NEED to ask you to tell us more about Velthryn, if you'd like to just. Dump anything about her, her backstory, campaign, art, what she looks like, whatever. I wanna KNOW.

I am so incredibly happy for this ask because Velthryn is my pride and joy, she's the best thing I've ever done, and she breaks my heart.

she's my very first d&d character and I played her for over three years in a campaign with my friends, we finished it last year actually and I'm still thinking about it. everything about the campaign was homebrewed, from the setting to the lore and the history of the people that live there, and it's so incredibly rich and detailed it's incredibly impressive considering that was the first time my friend dmed anything, so the story and the plot are entirely him but everything Velthryn was like the weirdest love letter between the two of us. I'm so incredibly proud of how her personal story played out.

I've talked a bit about her before (I have a tag for our campaign here) but never went into detail because I managed to keep her backstory a secret for THREE YEARS for plot reasons so this is the first time I'm going in depth about her like this I'm excited.

Velthryn is an assassin rogue moon elf from the far north, a land constantly blanketed in snow and ice even in the summer months, and under near constant night for most of the year. she's specifically from the Black Cathedral (Astaeran in Mavel'en, the archaic language moon elves speak) which is one of only two places inhabited in the far north, the other being the city Leirion, and both are inhabited solely by moon elves - the rest of the continent is separated by mountains, superstition, and sometimes the moon elves blades.

the Black Cathedral is a cult where generations of moon elves are raised in isolation to make offerings and prayers in blood for the Night Father so he might usher in what moon elves call the eventide, endless night and sleep not just for them but everything and everyone. a gentle end of the world. Velthryn was one of five moon elves called Nightdaughters, who are chosen every half a century to bring death to what the Cathedral call the five fated to die on the continent. just before the start of the campaign she and her sisters (Maevan, Ylaria, Helle, Honoria) found the first of the five; a farmer and his children still asleep in the early hours of the morning, and their deaths were not gentle. Velthryn, raised with the belief that death was a gentle mercy, could not reconcile the bloodlust she shared with her sisters so she did what no Nightdaughter should ever do or has ever done. She fled, and by sheer luck or fate ended in the company of the three others who should have been her sworn enemies but ended up being her greatest and only friends.

knowing full well a Nightdaughter who abandons her pilgrimage and her sisters should take her own life or be hunted by her sisters Velthryn stayed with what became our d&d party not because she thought the Cathedral was wrong but because she thought she could fix what she and her sisters had done. She was going to give a proper end to the five fated to die, give a proper prayer to the Night Father.

and for the next three real life years I got to figure out how Velthryn would navigate a strange world without the safety and familiarity of her sisters and their pilgrimage, how she would come to terms with the knowledge everything her Cathedral taught her was a lie, from the pilgrimage's purpose to the very existence of her gods, I got to make the heartbreaking decision in session where she sacrifices herself in place of one of the five fated to die in an attempt to save them and to atone for leaving her sisters, her pilgrimage, her god and her belief, only to come back from the gentle peace of death by the very god she died for who wanted more from her. she watched and felt most of her sisters die, dealt the killing blow for Maevan, she and Ylaria spared one another but went their separate ways, and Velthryn returned to the Cathedral alone. the campaign ended with Velthryn realizing the only mercy she could give the Night Father was the gentle peace of death, and as his last Nightdaughter she was the one who held the blade that brought the end to the old gods, whether they are or ever were gods no longer mattering.

she also once did 144 points of damage in a single attack. I LOVE assassin rogues <3

she's incredibly quiet and soft spoken, a good liar not because she's charismatic (the opposite actually) but because her expression is as unchanging as ice, she's intimately familiar with death and killing but she's not cruel, does not abide needless suffering. the first time she spilled blood on solid ground free of snow she slipped on it. she killed an oni single handed in two turns of combat (my dm is STILL mad at me) before anyone else had a turn. she's so unnerving she spooks horses just by being near them, and she hates them for being foolish and clumsy. she's so unused to sweets she thinks they're gross. she has a passive perception of 24, absolutely nothing got the drop on her. she's a rogue but she can't pick locks or pickpocket to save her life. her party had a paladin and a cleric and she was somehow the most devout of all of them. her fave colour is purple because of the purple in the arctic lights. she's my babygirl she's a murderer she's my everything <3

visually I've always had Vel compared to a ghost, piercing white eyes and hair with unnaturally pale skin in constant contrast to the black garb gifted to Nightdaughter's and her uncanny ability to disappear (+17 stealth by the end of the campaign lmao) she's often likened to a specter in appearance and thematically throughout the campaign. she was fully supposed to die but post campaign she's replaced the previous Elders of the Cathedral who she and the party killed in revenge for what happened to her and her sisters, it's the only time she was never merciful in her killing, and with centuries ahead of her she means to ensure the old gods rest is not disturbed.

I have a tag for her: x

two playlists: x + x

and a pinterest board: x

also a tag for her complicated love and rivalry with maevan: x

and a playlist for them too: x

there are so many different things about her I haven't even touched on, like the fact she and Maevan took the places of the fourth and fifth meant for sacrifice, but soooo much of the lore and campaign plot ties into the other party members and those aren't my stories to tell (though feel free to ask @mismageus about Áine, the little sun elf cleric who's saved Velthryn's life in more ways than one I know she'd love to talk about her)

anyway thank you soooo much for the ask I love talking about Velthryn <3

[charlemane]

two characters who understand each other like no one else does and therefore hurt each other like no one else can

[gemsofgreece]

A crystalline beach in the islands of Lipsí ||  Stef Greece Travel & Photography

[barbiebirthdaycake]

[mias-playground]

Amanda Holden modeling Lipsy Collarless 3/4 Sleeve Belted Faux Leather Shirt Dress. Available from Next.

[pillimehukas]

[babieken]

SHOWNU😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

[nattravn-art]

TTRPG Questionnaire

Tagged by @lipsie! Thank you this is lovely! :D

I'll answer for my butch main gal: the paranormal investigator Beatrice Blythe (homebrewed universe based on Call of Cthulhu, a pseudo Noir-fantasy universe set in an alternate reality version of the UK).

GENERAL

Name: Beatrice Blythe

Alias(es): None but her friends nickname her as Bea. A colleague of hers call her Sir. She likes that.

Gender: Female (she/her)

Age: 30

Place of birth: Small town in Wales

Spoken languages: English, Italian

Sexual orientation: Demi/lesbian... GIRLS!

Occupation: Paranormal investigator/detective

Class: Inquiry Agent

Ancestry: Human

APPEARANCE

Eye color: Amber

Hair color: Auburn (red)

Height: 1,80 m

Scars: Nothing notable (she's got a good healing skin)

Burns: Nothing notable

Overweight: No

Underweight: No

FAVOURITE

Color: Teal, warm browns, fall colours in general

Hair color: Doesn't care

Eye color: Doesn't care

Music genre: Doesn't listen that much to music but dances to swing.

Entertainment: Reading, dancing with her girlfriend.

Pastime: Reading too, and napping when she can. She has a bit of a.. sleep problem. She recently picked up endurance running.

Food: Mamma's ragú (she might be obligated to say that by Italian Family Law but she genuinely loves it)

Drink: Coffee, black, no sugar

Books: Nonfiction books for the most, she enjoys reading about practical things. She might enjoy a sappy lesbian romance book or two though, but you'd rather catch her dead before she admits it.

HAVE THEY

Passed university: Took a course in Criminology before an apprenticeship with a Detective before she applied for her own license.

Had sex: Yes

Had sex in public: No, and is not interested

Kissed a man: No

Kissed a woman: You bet!

Kissed someone of other gender(s): No

Gotten tattoos: No

Gotten piercings: No

Had a broken heart: Yes, when she got rejected by a crush. She then thought she didn't have time for relationships with her line of studies/work and grew close to her best friend she TOTALLY thought just saw her as a friend.

Been in love: Is very much in love with her girlfriend Lizzy.

Stayed up for more than 24 hours: Too many times, both due to her job and the fact otherworldly presences tend to find her at the dead of the night because they NEED her services to break their curse and have no concept of open hours.

ARE THEY

A cuddler: Yes but only in the privacy of her bedroom.

A kisser: Only in private.

A smoker: Yes, of cigarettes and more rarely cigars

Jealous easily: No, she's exclusive with her girlfriend and has absolute trust in her.

Trustworthy: Absolutely, she puts her honour on the line and she has a VERY strong sense of honour. Even it it's detrimental to her sometimes.

Dominant: Quite often. She doesn't particularly like it but she has a very strong "no bullshit" rule and some people she works in collaboration with can pull up quite a lot of bullshit. She also has a temper.

Submissive: It depends of the situation but not often, and as long as she judges it to be fair.

Single: Nope!

RANDOM QUESTIONS

Have they harmed themselves: No

Wanted to kill someone: Yes, but more in the sense that she wished some people would drop dead.

Actually killed someone: No, but she's gotten into physical fights and might have sent some people to the hospital that way.

Ridden a horse: For her girlfriend's sake, yes!

Have/had a job: She's a detective at the head of her an agency that she co-owns with a colleague. She also has 3 associates and is part of a network of paranormal investigators.

Have any fears: Losing her loved ones or have them harmed by looking into too powerful forces/dangerous individuals.

FAMILY

Sibling(s): Single child

Children: Two foster daughters, one that she gets along with greatly and another who she's quite similar with in character. They... tend to clash.

Grandparents: None, all passed

Parents: A witch and writer of a mother and historian of a father! Both are alive and teaching classes at university.

Aunts/Uncles: A bunch of them in Italy that she's barely met, from her mother's side.

Cousins: A bunch in Italy, she's barely met them too.

Pets: No but a benevolent twinned eldritch house spirit who she's welcomed into her home, under the pressure of her girlfriend/colleagues. They eat cobwebs and dust bunnies. She actually really likes them.

tagging @thecrimsonvalley-creates @guided-by-the-blood

[hyperbali]

I got thrown riiight back into the DA brainrot and want to design my Lavellan now, but I need inspiration... oh no... it seems I have no choice but to support one of my favorite character designers and buy their DA collection... nooooo, what horrible fate (anyway, I've been meaning to do that for ages I LOVE IT SO MUCH)

Lmaooo I was staring at my phone when I got the Gumroad notification like "what on earth..."

Bless you 💖

($5 on my Gumroad for 8 years' worth of Dragon Age content including stuff I never posted if anyone else is interested!)

[opportunity-strikes]

did you just come up with that raw-ass line about knowing the shape of your soul in the tags of a tumblr post. bruh.

It's part of a poem that i wrote about my dnd character while i was sleep deprived because I'm a dramatic Hooligan

[darkwingswarrior]

Meet Lipsy, My version of the sentient Eclipse plush.

[adventurelandia]

1970s Mickey Mouse oil painting by Lou Lipsi

[redcarpet-streetstyle]