#my inbox is always open if anyone disagrees and wants to explain why btw

[strike-another-match]

personally i feel the "you didn't actually make that" accusation against AI artists is normally, if not always, justified. i think it is possible to use any medium to make art, and that includes transformative art (like blackout poetry or collage) but - and this is a big but ‼️ - you have to contribute something of your own to it if you want others to look at it and agree that the artwork is at least partially yours

so in the end if you want authorship, you need control, and if you want control, you need skill. when someone with no knowledge of the visual arts types some words into a prompt box and gets a nice image, that image is nice precisely because the machine (in reality, the authors of the artwork the machine was trained with) took all the artistic decisions for them. that is why we say "you didn't actually make that"!

open the door for more user control and, akin to letting a passenger fly a plane, you will end up with a wreck - unless that person is willing to learn what they need to learn to be entrusted with those decisions. so what i'm trying to say is: you can use AI to make art, but it will take a similar set of skills and a similar amount of time to make than it would take to make any other kind of art

(of course, not everyone cares about this, and that's fine. this post is exclusively about the people that seek to claim artistic authorship of images generated through AI tools)

[gihu]

Hello ! I’ve been wanting to start drawing but to really learn. Do you have any tips ? How did you start drawing? I love your art !! 💕

Hello friend!! So sorry for the delay, I’ve been p busy and also was a little shook that anyone would ask ME for art advice??? bc tbh i’m hardly at that level yet LOL but also maybe it’s a good thing you asked me bc BOY have I struggled and BOY am i struggling now!!  putting this under a cut bc i tend to ramble

So one thing I won’t say is “JuST pRActICE” which is what a lot of tumblr artists say and that irks me even though it’s true and valid advice it’s just…not that helpful. At least for me. Another thing I won’t say is “I popped out of the womb with a pencil in hand!!” because I can’t relate. Being from a pretty conservative Asian family/country kinda suppressed what desire to pursue art, even as a hobby, in me as a kid. I started learning how to draw in sophomore year in high school because I got REALLY fucking obsessed with One Piece LMAO. I lived and breathed OP, I was watching dozens of eps a day at one point. That one tumblr post that was like “the best way to get better at drawing is to become obsessed with something and draw it a million times”? Probably the most solid advice I’ve come across. Anyway, that obsession led me to wanting to create fanart for the first time (that was my starting point for wanting to become an artist, which eventually led me into stop motion, thanks One Piece)! I did start attempting to draw the characters right away, but I also started watching a bunch of youtube videos and using figure drawing sites to practice anatomy. I’d recommend starting off with learning anatomy! Learn the proportions of the face and body, it’ll help a TON. but you’ll have to learn how to enjoy the process of studying bc there’s so much studying to be done if you want to learn how to draw. Other tips (that helped me personally): 

-don’t aim to finish a drawing 100%. By that I mean skip rendering the details, it’ll slow down your improvement. try to aim for 60 or 70%. also, some may disagree with me on this but try to avoid using color at all when you’re starting out! you may get overwhelmed and it’s fact that drawing and knowledge of values are far more important. i’ve heard a professor compare color to icing on a cake: it makes the cake pretty but why would that matter at all if the cake base tastes like crap??

- don’t doodle mindlessly. a tip i hear often is to doodle lots and lots but…i don’t think it helped me improve at all. you need reference, something to compare your drawings to so you can throughly analyze how to improve them. nearly every single artist i know, including myself, uses reference for their drawings. it’s ok to doodle to jot down ideas and stuff, just not for learning. 

 - draw from life as much as possible!! it’s more helpful than drawing from photos or art because translating from 3d to 2d really trains your brain by forcing it to analyze more. also, photos tend to be distorted and alter reality. copying/referencing art can be helpful but only if they’re master paintings (sargent, monet, etc.) IMO. please don’t copy from tumblr artists, even for practice LOL. try to avoid their tutorials as well if you’re a beginner you probably won’t be aware of the mistakes they make, and unwittingly incorporate them into your drawing habits. there’s tons of art book PDFs out there, they’re your best bet! 

- carry a sketchbook around and just draw as much as possible. use your free time to draw from life. make it a habit. the more you draw the more you’ll add to your muscle memory and visual dictionary

- find out what interests you about the world, and incorporate those interests into your art! is it the way clothing falls across the body or the way light casts shadows? do you have a particular interest for teeth or hands?? i think hands are quite amazing 

- idk if i’ll be able to explain this clearly but whether you’re drawing comics or making “aesthetic” work, CONCEPT will always be more important than how your art looks! by concept i mean idea, message, etc. The clarity of your message is also important! it needs to be readable

- don’t blame your tools for your lack of skill. when i was starting out i wasted so much time researching and accumulating a bunch of art supplies that i didn’t even use, thinking that better tools would increase the quality of my art. the only tools i needed turned out to be pencils, pens, some watercolors and later, a basic tablet. award-winning films have been made with iPhones alone.

- lastly…JUST DO IT. technical skills are important but what’s even more important is your passion and desire to create. what’s holding you back? fear of being judged? that’s dumb! the best art-related quote i’ve heard is by andy warhol:

“Don’t think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it’s good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.”

isn’t that beautiful? this changed my whole outlook on making art! i mean, you won’t ever be able to make art that appeals to everyone but you sure can make art that some people will like! there’s an audience for everything! so don’t be needlessly burdened by what you think others think of your art and make art for you and you only. one thing that i did that i deeply deeply regret is quitting drawing for 2 years up until this past summer, and that’s only because i didn’t think i’d ever be good enough at drawing. so i just gave up. it makes me so sad because even if i drew for just 10min a day i could’ve improved so much in those years! please don’t do what i did

- some helpful websites/youtube channels: schoolism (the best and most affordable online art class i’ve come across, $35 a month but they have legit instructors from disney, pixar etc.) Line-of-action (for figure drawing) croquis cafe (more figure drawing bc you can never do enough) sycra (youtuber who makes tutorials, one of the few that trust completely. i especially like his video on iterative drawing) 

man that was long! but there’s so much to talk about still! btw it’s admirable that you want to learn a new skill! i believe that if you truly want something to be better at something, you will, 100%. if you ever have more questions, feel free to shoot me a message, my inbox/DMs are always open, even if i might take a while to get to it :)

[chelecooke]

13 Reasons Why Not

I am late to the party. Not only did I not read the book, but I watched the series later than most people, only finishing it yesterday. There were things to love in this series (namely Jeff,) and some excellent performances. I applaud the actors involved.

However, I also had some serious reservations about the show, and I can’t seem to stop thinking about them, so I’m going to try to unpack my thoughts and explain where the problems fall for me. And, because I like the symmetry, I’m going to do it in 13 reasons why NOT.

BE WARNED: There are LOTS of spoilers ahead, and there are also a lot of triggers. If you have been avoiding this show for because of triggers, proceed with caution.  However, know that if anyone is struggling, or needs to talk about anything brought up here, my inbox is always open. You don’t need to know me personally, I will listen! I am here for you. So, here they are, 13 Reasons Why Not

 #1: The Magically Forgotten Crime Scene Let’s start off light with a continuity error. In Tape 4: Side B, Tony asks Clay whether he’s ever seen a crime scene, if he’s ever seen a dead body. Clay tells him that he’s been to funerals, but Tony says it isn’t the same. He then goes on to explain about how he saw Hannah after her death, and everything was quiet. The problem here is that, only a few episodes later, we learn that Clay saw a crime scene incredibly recently, he was the one to find the crash, to find Jeff. Now, there is an argument to say that Clay hadn’t processed that death, with Hannah’s coming so soon after. However, it leaves us with two options: Either Clay is lying to Tony, or that it’s a continuity error made only to make Tony’s story more horrific. By the time we see Clay find Jeff, an all round nice guy btw, we’ve almost forgotten how harrowing Tony’s story was made. So, yeah, I’m still not sure which this is, but if Clay had been lying to Tony, I feel it should have been addressed after Tony learns Clay found Jeff’s accident.

 #2: No Note For how much time Hannah spent making the tapes and planning, I find it completely unimaginable that she did not leave a note for her parents. This, to me, is end of the rope plotting. Hannah was close enough with her parents that she would not have left them without anything to hold onto, where she spent days recording tapes for those who had wronged her. To me, this feels like the bad plotting to shoe-horn in the law-suit and drama surrounding the parents, and therefore the stressers to the rest of the teens who have heard the tapes. Even with a note, the law suit could have taken place. Again, it feels like an attempt to make this even more horrific than it already is.

 #3: Mr. Porter Mr. Porter should not be listed as a Reason. Bear with me on this, for I know people will disagree. That tape was supposed to be Hannah trying again. He was not on her ‘list’ of people who had destroyed her life. He was an afterthought, and I think it’s wrong. Now, did Mr. Porter say some insensitive things? Yes. His questioning over whether she consented to something she regretted was cringe worthy (and in my opinion, completely ham-fistedly written, as I don’t believe a counsellor would question a girl like that, knowing how upset she was.) but he didn’t tell her to ‘get over it’ as some people furiously claim. He gave Hannah the only two options she had: Tell someone what happened and who did it. Or try to find a way to move on. If she wasn’t willing to tell someone what happened, or who was involved, what real other option could he give her? Is there a third option I don’t know about? I am a big supporter of anyone who comes forward in these cases, and to those who decide they would rather not. But those are the options! We can’t know about how he would have followed up, trying to make her come forward about the attack, because we know what happened next. There was no time for him to give her in coming to terms with what had happened and how to move forward. Also, people say he should have told someone, he neglected the concern for Hannah. But… WHEN? And to who? Hannah commits suicide mere hours after she saw Mr. Porter. Even if he could have alerted others to how depressed she was, he didn’t have the time. He wasn’t sitting on this for weeks, or even days. It was hours, hours probably out of school time when he didn’t have the resources. And WHO was he meant to tell? Counselling sessions are private, he is not allowed to share things unless he has reason to believe that Hannah is an immediate danger to herself. He can’t tell the police, he can’t share personal details with her parents. When he asked what she meant by making life stop, she said “No, I didn’t mean that.” He has no legal reason to believe she is an immediate risk of suicide, and therefore inform people of what she has said to him in a private meeting. Even if he could have told other teachers to keep an eye on her because he is worried: there wasn’t time! Clearly, looking back, he held tremendous amounts of guilt over what happened to Hannah, but I honestly don’t believe he should have had a place on a tape.

 #4: Jeff! I’ve already mentioned Jeff, and Clay’s selective memory of crime scenes, but I want to talk more about the massive plot hole that is Jeff’s death. It was clearly done for plotting purposes, by the fact we don’t know about it for so long. However, it is completely unrealistic that there is ZERO mention of a second death until over half-way through the series. Everything is Hannah, Hannah, Hannah… even from Clay, who saw Jeff’s crash, who was friends with Jeff. No one ever asks him how he’s doing about Jeff’s death, only Hannah’s. We don’t hear about the ‘Drunk Driving’ posters until after we know about Jeff’s death, as if Hannah’s death completely outweighed it. There was no public memorial in the halls to a very popular boy. The drunk driving posters were all removed and exchanged for suicide posters, as if one tragedy cannot exist in the space of another. NO ONE mentions Jeff in the present day scenes, despite him clearly being a well-liked guy who died tragically within weeks of Hannah’s suicide. Again, plotting for drama and reveal where it doesn’t make sense to do so.

 #5: Jessica’s attack and Justin’s lies. Now, you may think this is a reason against Justin, but you’d be wrong. Don’t mistake me, Justin was utterly horrific for lying about the attack, but actually, this reason is against you, Hannah. After Jessica’s party, there was a lot of grief on all sides. Hannah only makes one attempt to tell Jessica what happened to her, someone she considered at one point, a best friend. She makes NO attempt to get Justin to come forward. She makes no attempts to tell an adult what she witnessed. She warns no one about Bryce and the danger he poses. She knew Jessica was completely out of it, that it might take time for her to come to terms with it, but she does nothing. I find this unforgiveable.

 #6: Zach I feel truly sorry for Zach. He did something stupid and petty. But, you know what… he went out on a limb and was publicly humiliated. Haven’t we all done stupid things when we’re hurt? When someone humiliates us? On the night of the date between Hannah and Marcus, Zach publicly leaves his friends and goes back to look after Hannah. In the cafeteria, he told his friends to shut up, and went to ask Hannah out… where she loudly and cruelly rebuffs him. He opened up to Hannah about the fact he’s not received any ‘compliments’ himself. Even Hannah admits in her tape that she believes Zach is lonely. To me, Zach is a popular boy who actually probably feels like he has no one. Who is constantly surrounded by people and is still lonely. That is a horrible state to be in. To not receive these compliments because people assume his life is perfect and he doesn’t need them. It’s clear Zach is struggling, and he acts out. Did he act badly? Yes. There is no denying that his revenge was petty and mean. But did he stop the moment Hannah wrote the letter? Did he stop when he realised how much damage he was doing to her? Yes. Hannah constantly asks Zach “Why Me?” but you know what, he can ask the same question. Why was he the one Hannah publicly humiliated? Why was he ignored and rebuffed when he honestly extended a hand for help? Why Zach?

#7: Ryan I think people might be starting to recognise a pattern here. Ryan did something stupid. Let’s get that out of the way. He broke Hannah’s trust by sharing that poem, I’m not denying that. But the way it is portrayed in the show is misleading, and again, clearly done to forward the plot. Ryan did not share the poem maliciously, he did not out Hannah to the world. He kept the author anonymous, wanting to showcase talent and something real and raw that he thought his classmates would identify with… perhaps even help someone going through the same troubles as Hannah. Even when people started discussing it, when teachers wanted to applaud the writer, he kept her secret. Hell, Ryan even admitted that he shared Hannah’s poem to boost her, to show her how talented she was. He broke her trust, yes. But Hannah had a chance to accept his apology and his meaning behind it. All she saw was her own ‘Truth’. She refused to see his.

 #8: Clay Clay should not have been a reason. He should not have been on those tapes at all, Hannah admitted as much. He did absolutely NOTHING wrong, and yet he got put on those tapes for the sole purpose of making him listen to them. The author needed a likeable character to hear the tapes, and this was the only way to do it, to put him through unimaginable stress and hurt just so we, as the readers (and viewers) had someone to root for. The fact he was put through something incredibly painful just for a sympathy kick makes me angry.

The way Hannah speaks about Clay leaving the party, as well, gives voice to one of the other problems I find in this series: the Somebody Stop Me of it all. This aspect of the story bugged me. Hannah frequently points out on the tapes that ‘I wanted you to stay’ or ‘I wanted you to come after me’, and uses those lack of actions as reasons to blame them for her decision to take her life. Clay was in an absolutely horrid position. He clearly wanted to stay, but was being screamed at to go. He decided that the best option was to respect Hannah’s wishes, but was then vilified for it in Hannah’s memories of that night. She doesn’t blame herself for screaming at him to go, to not accepting his help, she blames him for not offering staying after making very clear she didn’t want him to. Then, the same happens with Mr. Porter. She tells him multiple times that she wants to go, that she’s fine. And then immediately blames him for not coming after her. His phone has been attempting to ring off the hook, and when he takes a minute to answer it after she has claimed the meeting is over, she blames him for doing exactly what she asked him to do. We all know teenagers are not always rational in their thinking, but don’t try to play it off as completely rational blame and expect me to be on board.

 #9: Blame I have a serious issue with the blame mentality used in this story. In fact, originally, I wasn’t going to watch it because, even before starting episode one, I knew I would have a problem with it. I watched this series to keep myself informed, so I would know why there were such a serious range of reactions. So, I’m going to put this out there…

No one is to blame for Hannah’s suicide. You can’t put the blame onto 12 people (yeah, Justin had two tapes, that bugged me.) You can’t even put it on one person (Looking at you, Bryce.) You can’t even blame Hannah. Some people say that the meaning of this show is that people should be nicer to one another, and yeah, I agree, people should be nicer. However, that doesn’t mean that you can blame people for not being nice when there are a million contributing factors to a tragedy, because take away these twelve people, and maybe Hannah still would have done what she did through a set of different traumas. What some of these people did was horrid and, in one case in particular, unforgivable. However, they were one cog in a very large machine that caused a tragic suicide. Hannah, at no point, recognises her own part in that machine. That is not to say she is to blame, but she is a cog. You know what else is a cog… EVERYTHING! Your brain chemistry is a cog. The chemicals in your body is a cog. Victim blaming is a cog. Sexism is a cog. Trauma is a cog. Society is an effing cog, for Christ’s sake. And to not point out any of that is neglectful, and in my opinion, dangerous.

 #10: Sheri What exactly did Sheri do that makes her deserve a part in the tapes? Now, you may be looking at me going ‘Whuuut? Did you miss that whole episode?’ but hear me out. Sheri did absolutely nothing against Hannah. She made a mistake which contributed in a crash that killed a boy and injured a man. But how does that make it a reason for Hannah to take her life? This is the thinnest of plot threads tied up to injure Clay when he realises a girl he likes is on the tapes, and at this point, the tapes become less about blaming people for Hannah’s crumbling mental health, and more about spilling secrets to make others suffer.

 #11: Other People’s Lives I think the story did do a good job of pointing out that you don’t always know what’s going on in other people’s lives. Unfortunately, it didn’t show any sort of recognition that these things will change the way we behave, that we do stupid things, and that we can’t always be the cast to someone else’s story. Through the story, we realise that Zach is lonely and under pressure, that Courtney is being pressured into being perfect and is scared of what her truth will do to that, that Tyler is under intense bullying himself, that Alex has a difficult relationship with his dad, that Justin is being physically and emotionally abused and is constantly on the verge of being homeless, that Clay has been suffering with his mental health. These people are putting up with their own whole worlds of crap. Does it suck they weren’t better friends? Yes. Does it suck they made mistakes? Yes. Does Hannah ever attempt to help any one of them? I’ll let you think on that. Does it make Hannah’s problems somehow worse and more worthy of recognition than the ones they’re already dealing with? Does it mean that single incidents (as it is in most of these cases,) should define the rest of their lives as guilty of driving a girl to suicide?

 #12: Hypocrisy The whole story is based around teaching these people what they did wrong to Hannah, to apparently showing them how they should be better people. And yet, there is absolutely NO realisation of the damage Hannah has done to their lives in making these tapes, in putting this immense blame and guilt on them. She turned Tyler’s life into even more of a living hell by announcing what he did to everyone. She made him a target the same way others did to her. Is she any less responsible because ‘hey, it was done to me first’? Hannah tells everyone that Courney is gay! By the time Courney gets the tapes, you’ve already had 4 people, none of whom are known for keeping their mouths shut! She outs a girl who has made it abundantly clear she’s not ready to admit that to everyone. Hannah blames Justin for a rumour enough to put him in tape 1, and yet she openly admits secrets about Courtney which she knows will do damage. Alex attempts suicide, and while I believe there were a lot of factors in Alex’s life that pushed him to see death as his only way out, one of those undeniable factors is the tapes! So, if you’re going to claim that people can drive someone to suicide, that they can be held accountable for their death: you have to also recognise Hannah’s influence in how she destroyed other people’s lives. Playing her as the innocent victim is wrong when she does the exact same to others.

 #13: The Emotional Abuse of Jessica You may think this is a post about Jessica’s wrong doings. You’d be wrong. This is another, and final tape for Hannah. I’ve already pointed out that I think the lack of contact after Jessica’s attack is unforgivable, but this is about the tapes and the emotional abuse Hannah inflicts on Jessica through them. Jessica is number 2 on the tapes, meaning that she got them very early on. Only Justin had them before her, and the emotional abuse that comes out of those tapes is horrifying. Let me explain… By the time Jessica gets the tapes, she has already been put through the ringer (even before Bryce’s attack.) She is raped, her semi-friend (used because they have a complicated relationship, but even I wouldn’t say they weren’t friends) has tried to force her to come forward about something she doesn’t fully remember or understand yet, a friend on a beer run for HER party is killed in an accident, and then semi-friend commits suicide. The amount of emotional turmoil this girl is going through is enough to make anyone break… so let’s pile on more. Yes, Jessica and Hannah had a very complicated relationship, but friends falling out is hardly newsworthy. The fact Hannah piles her grievances of year old drama onto Jessica, a girl who, as noted above, is in serious emotional turmoil, is cruel. But not only that, but this becomes full on abuse of a girl who has already been sexually assaulted. If Hannah was lying about the rape (which obviously Jessica first believes) then it’s a horrific rumour she will have to denounce for the rest of her high-school life. If Hannah’s telling the truth, it’s airing a traumatic secret that Jessica isn’t ready to come to terms with. Either way, Hannah gives Jessica NO choice or time to deal with this. By Hannah’s rules, either Jessica hands on the tapes to the next person, spreading the story of this awful event in her life, or it is spread publicly by Tony. The fact that Bryce, Jessica’s attacker, is on the tapes, means that should Jessica not want the world to know, she is being forced to hand on tapes in a chain that eventually reaches her rapist. Bryce may have been the one to rape Jessica, but it is Hannah who serves her the worst emotional abuse.

 So, those are my 13 Reasons Why Not. I know this was long, and honestly, I could have gone on for a lot longer. Even if you don’t agree with my opinions, I hope you took the time to read through them and see how the other half feel. After all, that was the whole point of the story, right?