#next one might take a while

[tua-dumpster]

Who makes the best donuts?

Viktor, Allison, Klaus, and Diego can mostly cook!

Klaus… Not so well

Viktor and Allison are decent in savoury meals, but Diego is excellent in all baking and cooking :D

[mikibagels]

Cross-Dimensional Siblings - Snippet 2

What's the point in a race if you aren't there waiting for me at the finish line?

Read Snippet 1 here 👈

[randomeggart]

A hat under waters: Studio of dead bird shores!

The directors are some of the most difficult to draw for me... gotta practice

...Well, you know what's next, I know what's next, I think we all know what's next ;)

[duckzz]

For mistletoe time! Swiss and Rain with 3?? Princess Rain getting a little kiss ♥️

swiss being a gentleman <3

prompts!

[carpathiians]

sketches I kinda like

[matchlocksunflowers]

taking some extra anatomy classes this year, here are some of my notes in case they could help someone. should be updated every weekend (aside from october 28th and november 4th which are free days) with the following lesson's notes. (further explanations at the end)

anyway. here goes:

SCENE 0-1: LEARNING HOW TO LOOK/OBSERVE

when drawing, we each more or less have our own methods when approaching certain subjects, with multiple tools at our disposal in order to achieve the desired results. 

but generally, when drawing a model (or most things from life, actually) we can in some sort of way define a general order as to when to draw what: 

Looking / Observing

Blocking In

Correcting

Details

for today i’ll focus on the first one of the list, looking / observing.

the existing nuance between “seeing” and “looking” exists in the sense that “seeing” is more passive than “looking”. when you say “i can see a cat”, you aren’t paying too much attention to the cat. but when you say “i am looking at a cat’, you are actively paying attention to the cat and what they’re doing. 

(given the class is in French, the nuance was similar, using the words “voir” and “regarder”. but due to French not having a close equivalent to “watch” i cannot make more parallels about this, as my knowledge of English and French-to-English translation is still fairly limited)

when looking at a subject, the primary objective should be to understand what you’re looking at. you can look at a subject (or the world as a whole) under multiple filters: values, hues, proportions, in 2D or 3D, and so on. you need to define how you want to look at a subject following these filters of vision. what do you want to look at first? what do you want the viewer to look at first? this is important to define before you put your tool to your support. 

generally when drawing from life, it’s a bit reckless to rush to draw the model without actually observing them a minimum. you should take the time to observe, you are allowed to take your time to observe. no amount of limited time should paralyze you from examining the model the best you can before you put your tool to use. 

getting this more precise vision of your model can give you a better vision of their body, which is often hidden under detail. when drawing them, you should ask yourself “how is the model posing?” 

why look/observe? (probably like the most given piece of advice by pros and art youtubers who aren’t pros but still get called pros cause they have 1 million subscribers on youtube) 

this question is very easily asked but also very easily answered: 

to know how and what you’re going to draw 

to time yourself correctly and have a good time management (drawing a pose in 2 minutes is completely different to drawing a 10 minutes one), thus,

to avoid rushing to draw the subject. as said previously, take your time. start slow, but stay accurate to the model. (teacher compared it to a musician rehearsing a piece, first slowly, then speeding it up progressively as he gets to know the piece itself better and better. unfortunately as someone who is as farthest from a musician as can be, i cannot honestly attest to if this is accurate). 

but really, there is actually no such thing as a “finished” drawing. a graphite drawing could always have color added afterwards, a painting could always get more and more detailed. a piece is “finished” only when you deem it is finished. the French Académie des Beaux Arts didn’t like the Impressionists because to them, what the impressionists were doing were half assed jobs, since the idea of “transmitting a vague feeling, or an emotion through a specific style of very visible strokes” was absolute fuckery to them. speaking of, 

to transmit an emotion, or a feeling through the posing of the model. the more technical and controlled the strokes will be, the finer the wanted sensation will be felt by the viewer. this also ties in the physical aspect of the model. ideally, in order to achieve this, you can try posing the same way the model does. it may be a bit awkward but it works (depending on your learning type, of course.) 

to understand how the whole “body system” works. “i know the rules of the human body, therefore i make little to no mistakes.” 

adding a whole context to the pose helps: adding a situation in which the pose could work in gives some meaning to your drawing, as well as helping you remember it better. it also adds a narrative element to your drawing(s), which are absolutely always a plus. (memorization is also an important tool!)

now let me play devil’s advocate and ask: why not look/observe?

well, uh, there are two reasons my teach told us: 

to let your instinct and imagination go wild and free, trust your gut and have fun!! 

and, tying back, 

to let yourself be surprised by what you’ve done.

form synthesis (or just different types of approaches to draw form)

when drawing a model, there’s a few things that can be mentioned: 

multiple types of lines exist with different purposes within the drawing: the action line(s), structural lines, and contour lines. 

action lines define the overall movement of the pose. the principal one is the one you see when giving a better look at how dynamic the pose is. the secondary ones are the ones you can find in secondary rhythms when examining the pose a little longer. 

(here's a better example, actually:)

structural lines are pretty much the “stickman skeleton” you sometimes see in certain how to draw books (specifically the more advanced manga themed ones).

contour lines surround the form in a way as to draw all of the outer body without using inside shapes or lines. (it is also the basis for the Bargue method which will be slightly discussed below. there unfortunately won’t be any talk about cross-contour lines, as it hasn’t been talked about in class (yet?)) 

generally, lines take either an I shape, a C shape or an S shape. (teach said it’s preferable to mostly use I and C type lines when drawing live models. probably due to the fact that S shapes are much trickier to use “effectively” within a piece (effectively not meaning much in this context, if nothing at all. again, have fun.)). using these lines tell a lot about the model and the pose, telling a sort of dynamic storytelling which varies depending on what type of line you choose to represent your model. 

we can mostly talk about 2D shapes when three or more points have been linked by lines. sometimes, lines can skip articulations for the sake of dynamism. shapes should be thought about in their entirety, the difficulty that can be encountered usually being remaining vague but accurate with your form. 

now, a quick word about: 

the Bargue method (or, the fuck do you mean the Americans used it in art schools before us, Bargue was literally born in Paris, i fucking hate the Académie des Beaux-Arts)

the Bargue method is probably fairly well known among certain art schools or artistic communities. if i do recall correctly; it originated with Bargue noticing the low level of the students of the Académie des Beaux-Arts de Paris (or some other place basing itself solely on academic style art and paintings located in the city of Paris in the country of France on the continent of Europe) and devising a simple way to learn how to draw accurately from life (or plaster casts, depending on what you prefer). it solely based itself on straight, contour lines, forming a base around which to slowly add details to. apparently, a lot of art schools in america base their teaching of life drawing on this method, but given i do not feel like getting over $200k in debt without even mentioning living and travel costs, i cannot say if that is actually true. 

here's an example of it:

it’s pretty much basing yourself on simplifications of the form to attain absolute accuracy. no curves here to distract you, only straights. somehow, when pulled off correctly, it gives a very neat impression of realism.

anyway, that’s all i wrote down. hope teach won’t see this anytime soon, and hope this kinda helped a little bit. next week’s notes should be about blocking in shapes, so we’re starting to be a little more concrete with the actual drawing process. 

these classes were taught by Mr Francis Buchet at a class given at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, so most of the things i’m saying here are taken from him and his class. if you live in/close to Paris and are interested in learning artistic anatomy, i suggest you look up where he is giving public classes, since they’re infinitely more engaging than these notes. his instagram is be linked below. (hoping he doesn’t get mad at me for sharing these notes… in any case i will use my own example sheets to avoid getting in any more trouble.)

and, may i remind you: these notes are only here to showcase one approach among many others, so they don’t mean much in the grand scheme of things. i myself am in absolutely no way a professional, so please, take all of this with a grain of salt (or a spoonful, even). draw how you enjoy drawing, and find happiness in the way you want to draw. 

Francis Buchet's instagram: x

so, seeyou next weekend! (or earlier, if i draw something i want to show here.)

[skywalker42]

What people think ADHD is:

So I went to my room to grab sticky notes to leave my roommate a reminder on the dryer but then I saw my week old mug on my nightstand so I went to put it away and then when I was in the kitchen I realized there's no room for it in the cabinet and now I'm measuring the wall for shelving units.

Which, yeah, it is that. It's definitely that. But it's also this series of texts I sent to my friend this morning:

[quietwingsinthesky]

thinks about the master & the doctor cuddling thinks about them cuddling thinks about them cuddling thinks about them cuddlign thinks-

[aro-pokeverse]

@distortionmewtwo Ultraviolet@ Walt:

It made the glowy Mewtwo sad to see him cry. He really didn't know how to help, but he knew that he wanted to- especially as one lab pokemon to another..... so he took off his cloak, draping it over Walt's shoulders in an attempt to be comforting without outright hugging him.

[ <PREV ] [ NEXT> ]

The cloak given by strange Mewtwo made Walt warmer. But does he feel better after that? Nope, however he makes a smile towards Ultraviolet.

I-I think you should keep this yourself, a-alright?

[ @distortionmewtwo ]

[lets-try-some-writing]

The Grim Dark Archives: Statement #003 Holoforms

[Statement taken from [Redacted] on the 11th of October 2004, one year and two months after the Autobots have made their presence known and begun corresponding with human personnel. [Redacted] has been complacent but has refrained from revealing anything that we could use against the Autobots. They have shown willingness to give us ways to ward off Cybertronians, but they refuse to give us any data that we could use to potentially cause actual harm.

No amount of bribery or convincing has changed [Redacted]'s stance. Even using our own vulnerability as a talking point failed. High command has not issued an order to force [Redacted] to give up such information, but with what we are learning, I worry that order may come sooner rather than later.

Recently a report was received from Agent Fowler that caused a great deal of concern among high command. The Autobots were seen using what they call 'holoforms' to interact with humans. They do this by using an avatar that looks like it could be a human without closer inspection. It was not explained how they gained these avatars, but recently five individuals were reported missing across the continent. This alone is not unusual, but what is causing concern is the fact that the Autobots avatars match the missing individuals down to every detail except voice and mannerism.

In light of this, [Redacted] was called upon to give a statement in regard to the situation and what it means.

Statement begins.]

══════════════════

Holoforms? I suppose it would make sense for my kin to begin using them now that they have largely adapted to your planet and overall culture. My kind have always been fond of trying to blend in as much as possible on whatever worlds and with races they interact with. Its not even required half the time, but they do it instinctually. I suppose it is because blending in decreases chances of being killed, or it might even be a side effect of the T-cog. Whatever the case, it shows that they are settling in and preparing to act more boldly.

I will begin with a bit of history before I explain everything else.

To start, the idea of a holoform was not devised until the golden age when the empire struck out across the stars. Before that age we were content on our homeworld and had no need for holoforms to communicate. However as we spread and our empire grew, we found that even our adaptation couldn't make up for the impression our frames gave. Thus we searched for a way to make speaking with other races easier when our adaptation failed to suffice.

Much like T-cogs, our holoforms are not something we are forged with. No, the ability to create a holoform comes from an upgrade given to diplomatic units, or at least it was before the war. Now the upgrade is so common as to be given to every unit able to receive it. As for what the upgrade does? It allows up to process data on organic and inorganic material through a special series of... functions that we use to understand what we are processing on a base level. I do not believe it would be wise to elaborate further-

... I do not believe explaining the details would do you any good. It's not pretty by any means-

Fine... if you must know... just be warned that its a rather touchy thing for you organic types. The last group who learned very nearly waged war over the subject. I suppose it doesn't matter much now, you couldn't fight back against my kin even if you wanted to. At full strength, they could destroy your planet's entire structure without even devoting their full processing power to the action.

Right... we have unique nano-technology embedded alongside our processors that allows us to create a replication of what we are knowledgeable on. That means when we create holoforms we go out of our way to understand every single detail of what he are trying to replicate... inside and out. We need to pick what we are replicating apart in every conceivable sense to truly understand. We need to connect to them and see how they work, what makes them tick and function.

Those missing humans? I can tell you almost exactly what happened. It is near certain that they were specifically picked out from amongst your population for their traits and for their ability to vanish and largely be unnoticed. Looking at these files, I see a missing adult male, ex military with no family, grizzled expression and a firm build who disappeared in the woods up in Alaska. That one was likely taken by the Prime. I can already guarantee he is dead. The Prime most likely picked him out and hunted him down. At that point the male was most probably taken to whatever facility the Autobots are using and meticulously tested and taken apart until the Prime had a detailed understanding of how the male functioned.

I cannot even begin to guess what they did exactly. I have never taken a holoform, so I am unacquainted with the process. That said, it would not surprise me to learn that they dug through the male's mind until they had a detailed understanding of its functioning. It also would not be out of the ordinary for them to have slowly cut the male open to examine his biological functioning. The medic quite likely drew the process out too considering the way medics function. They are odd mecha... odd and dangerous. Whatever the case, the male is dead, along with whoever else was taken. They live on as images and facsimiles of my kin who will bear their likeness until they prove no longer useful or more data is made available.

Oh yes I can near promise you that the humans taken by the Autobots suffered and endured torment no being with pain receptors should ever face. However I would remind you that your world is covered in all sorts of your kind who can and do vanish without a trace. A few of your less useful humans perished so that the Autobots will not need to tear into your more valuable ones, at least until their medic decides to run more tests.

I would personally suggest keeping your noses out of it. The Autobots have what they want now, and if you keep clear of their machinations, you should be fine. Their acquisition of holoforms will not harm you any time soon. Now if there were a few dozen bots taking on holoforms, then I would tell you to begin gearing up for war. When that happens it generally means the empire is preparing for an invasion, but as it is, the Autobots are too weak and scattered to care about your planet in any significant manner.

Keep your head down and don't say a word. That is my advice if you want to keep of the medic's operating table.

══════════════════

[Statement ends.

[Redacted]'s words... they tell us a great deal. The Autobots are a threat, that much we know. They have weapons we didn't even know of and still there is so much to be addressed. What did [Redacted] mean when they spoke of the medic? Just what the hell happened to those missing people?

...What did [Redacted] mean by invasion?

We need to ask more questions, we need to understand everything we can about these aliens if we hope to survive. Not even [Redacted] is truly safe, they are not kind, though they portray themselves as if they were. They are different than the Autobots, that much is certain, but they are not like us. I doubt they even know that with how much they try to claim to understand about us.

Agent Witwicky signing off.

Recording ends.]

[fist-amidst-the-hands]

hi hi okay imagine. stede wants to brush out ed's hair the way izzy always does. maybe izzy is busy on deck taking note of damages after a raid. maybe they had an infestation and he's going over ration spoilage and inventory with roach. ed is tired and cranky and absentmindedly separating sections of curls and tugging them apart at the bottom where they get stuck together in knots. stede offers to help with the tangles, says he would love to give it a go and help ed relax

izzy walks in a few minutes later and immediately comes up and tells stede he's doing it all wrong but also gently takes the brush from him and shows him the right way - where to hold the hair, how to start at the bottom with little sections and work his way up, when to start with his fingers instead of the brush. neither of them can see it but ed is smiling so much his face might actually burst

[frozenartscapes]

Hubert and Ferdinand’s A+ support but from Edelgard and Dorothea’s perspectives while they hide in a nearby bush like the good wingmen that they are

[cerealmonster15]

ALSO when im re reading fics i wrote i explode when i notice i repeated the same phrase over and over and over again kfdlsjfklsd. why did i say a variation of "left as quickly as it came" three times in this one fic that im not even halfway through rereading.... #girl get new words

[pastafossa]

Some sad health stuff about a pet so scroll on if not your thing.

So my poor old kitty Cato. I don't post as many current pics of him cause he's not looking great. He's lost a ton of weight in the past year or so, upset stomach, fairly skin and bones now. Vet put him on prescription food and an elimination diet 5 weeks ago. And while he's stopped losing weight, and stopped vomiting so much, he's still not gaining his weight back, either. I'm technically feeding him more than the bag recommends, too. He's getting fed four times a day, almost an entire cup of food total which is HUGE when - even at a healthy weight of 9 pounds - you were a small animal.

I'm worried there's something wrong at a deeper level. He should be gaining weight back, and he's not. He's always, always hungry. He's sore if touched around his back half unless you pet him very gently. And you can feel all his little spine notches when you pet him.

I have had this cat for 13, almost 14 years. I realize that might not seem like a lot depending on age. But at mine that's a very large chunk of my life. And the idea of having to weigh what his quality of life is of this cat I've raised from a kitten, who has curled up with me by my pillow every night until fairly recently, who always follows me and sings to me and bonks his head on my face... this feels way too soon.

[ardate]

sniffs. man. i really want this job :(

[akkivee]

i think it’s………. interesting ig that kuukou’s clothes have been progressively getting darker