#so this is just a fun tips thing

[docholligay]

What do you say to the people that question the utility of a watch, since you've got your phone?

If you have difficulty with attention, having a way to check the time without getting pulled into your phone is invaluable. Also, it's easier for me to 'understand' time visually rather than digitally, with the way my brain is wired. I wear a watch probably 80% of the time because it helps me so much with time blindness and attention.

So I like to have nice looking ones! I only have a few because I do spend money on them, so I'd like to have another one, and I think this is classy looking in the way a lot of fandom jewlery isn't always. You wouldn't know what you were looking at unless you knew.

[notadreamurr]

People on tiktok wanted me to draw this

[your-unfriendlyghost]

Angels & Devils

was fooling around w/ some new brushes, I’m really liking these

& to the TWTTIN fans- if u wanna understand why im obsessed with them u 🫵 should read my Angela and Mark fic ;))

I can't promise it'll make this make sense exactly but I can promise it is entertaining as hell

[theythemmer]

••this is not what i had planned••

[valensolo12]

Been playing Pillars of Eternity all week and decided to try to keep a journal of interesting moments, since it turned out to be pretty fun when i did it with fallout 1. It's a much longer game so this is gonna take a while but here are my favorite pages!

also a family photo of the party so far :) Durance is the weird uncle

[humlase]

Here's this fuckass animation project I didn't do then had to cram in 2 days.

If it looks bad I KNOW. Once again, crammed 10 weeks worth of work into 2 days. I did not sleep.

Thank you to my wonderful partner @agaric25 and super cool friend for doing the voicelines for me. It would be actual ass if I had to do those myself.

additional credits: https://freesound.org/people/M-Murray/sounds/723857/ for the background music.

[yhwcomeback]

FIRST ONE DOWN, 30 MORE TO GO

[pyrosomatic-metamorphosis]

rough art tips to learn and then break at your leisure.

the distance between your eyes is roughly one eye. the corners of your mouth dont extend past the middle of each eye. ears are roughly in the middle of the tip of the nose and the eyebrow. the eyes are in the very centre of the head. the neck is just a Little slimmer than the width of the head (varies with fat distribution, but fat tends to build up under the chin). hair is easier to draw when you plot out the hairline and then where it parts. leaving appropriate distance on the side of the face (cheekbone area and back to ear) contributes to making characters look more realistic/hot as hell. i dont know specific tips for that so use reference. an amazing reference/study site is lineofaction.com . if you think of the face in planes it makes it easier to construct (look up tutorials). if you draw a spiral like a tornado it can help you figure out awkward perspective for extended limbs (look up foreshortening coil technique). tangent lines are when two lines intersect and cause visual confusion (when it looks like a line that defines an arm is part of the line that defines a building, for example) and avoiding them makes your art way easier to comprehend. quick trick to good composition: choose a focal point (where you want your viewer to focus), detail that area the most, and make sure various elements of the piece are pointing to that focal point. you can use colours to contrast hue, saturation, and brightness and make certain elements of your drawing stand out. drawing in greyscale can help you figure out values. using black in a piece isn't illegal but you should know what you're doing when you do use it- it desaturates a piece and if used as a shading colour can desaturate and dull whatever youre shading too. if you use almost-black lineart and then add black to darken the very darkest areas it will do a lot to add some nice depth. the tip of your thumb ends just above the start of your index finger- your thumb also has two knuckles and all your other fingers have three. if you see an artist doing something you like (the way they draw noses or eyes or hair or anything else) you can try to copy that and see if you want to incorporate it in your style <- this is ENCOURAGED and how a lot of us learned and developed our styles. there are ways to add wrinkles to faces and bodies without making the character look a million years old, you just have to keep experimenting with it. The smile wrinkles around your muzzle dont connect to your mouth or to your nose; there should be a small space in between smile or nose and the wrinkle line. eyes when viewed in profile are like < aka a little triangle shape. think of the pupil like a disk and apply foreshortening to it (it looks like a line when seen from the side instead of a full round dot). subtle gradients can add a LOT to a piece. texture can also add a LOT. look up Tommy Arnold's work (his murderbot pieces are some of my FAVOURITE) and zoom in. find those random little circles he added and try to figure out why he added them there. light bounces. there's lots of way light bounces. sometimes it even spreads through the skin. i do not know these light tricks yet but i want you to know that they exist. draw a circle to indicate hand placement, draw a straight line between that circle and the shoulder, and then (normally at a right angle) draw a straight line on top of that line to find the placement of the elbow. elbows are normally placed Just above the hip when standing and your arm is at rest. there are no bad colour combos if you're brave enough about it, just fuck with the saturation and brightness until it works. keep playing. try new things. add your own tips to this post if you want or even expand on some ive mentioned here. good luck go ham etc

[theanonymousninja247]

✨🎨 Collab 🎨✨

GUYS GUYS GUYS EVERYBODY SHUT UP (affectionately) AND LOOK AT THIS!

I did my very first OC collab with the very talented @starryheadedghost and her OC Juno! AND LOOK AT HOW CUTE SHE DREW MY SON! Look at him in her style and be in awe! He’s so delightful and charming I’m gonna cry 😭🙌🏼

Also I want yall to know while I treated Juno with the utmost respect (although I was a bit slow) my friend was holding my son hostage. Literally

SHE SENT ME THIS AS A THREAT! And I loved every second of it. Vincent got his enrichment😅

[the-worms-in-your-bones]

one thing i love about coming back and relistening to the early episodes is that now that i know where the characters and their relationships to each other are going to end up i can pay more attention to the little details of those relationships being built

[rollingchibi]

hot take: and this time i really won’t elaborate, but—i want to see poseidon in colors other than blue in fics.

disclaimer: not that the blue isn’t lovely—before anyone gets up in arms. (this isn’t an attack, and i’m getting tired of people thinking it is.)

“then why aren’t you contributing, soul, if you’re so critical?”

catch me perpetually sighing in my corner—

1) my poseidon designs do not have blue in them (i do, in fact, practice what i preach, thanks) except for small details pulled from marine life like the blue ring octopus and jellyfish (and this is done when i want to make him seem more untouchable as these are creatures you do not want to touch). and my poseidon designs change with almost every work. i adjust his design to fit the narrative and the story i want to communicate into something i think fits and says more about his characterization in the fic than what i can include in the narrative, especially since i’m seldom writing in his perspective.

i do the exact same with his environment. as someone that learned to do dramaturgy, the environment, the clothes, and the colors all are important and tell a story that isn’t being told in the core of the narrative. they are the small details that make up the character that you cannot communicate easily in the bulk of the work because it’s not relevant for the plot—it’s relevant for the understanding of the character.

if i show you a character living in a loft with no decoration and a singular bed, a jacket or hoodie they wear religiously, and opting for a darker color palette (a la derek hale), you can deduce that the character is reclusive, prefers to fade into the background, and has an aura and mentality of impermanence that leeches into their interpersonal relationships and perspective on life without me needing to focus the narrative story on that.

this is the same thing.

(conversely, i can depict a character wearing a color that’s entirely at odds with their character which tells you, as the reader, that this character values personal expression highly or that their favorite colors are a greater comfort than, let’s say, blending into the background—depending on the narrative. if this dark, brooding character is always wearing that hoodie/jacket that’s a bright mustard yellow, that tells you that it’s important enough to transcend the boundaries of his aesthetic or that the color is a point of comfort to him. this can be later highlighted if he, let’s say, turns out to really like sunflowers or sunny days, or be a core part of a childhood/origin story—a clinging to a previously much brighter demeanor before events in his life took place.)

2) critique on popular trend does not mean the trend is bad. this isn’t even a full critique because i’m trying to not elaborate. in short: i just want to see more colors on him. and i need you all to stop acting like someone having an opinion that is at odds with yours is somehow a personal attack, especially if you happen to be taking part in the trend. i have never once said that it is bad or terrible or that people suck for enjoying it.

(i know we’re living in the era of anti-intellectualism, but i need you all to actually read and understand what people are saying instead of taking knee jerk offense and shutting down dialogues because you can’t deal with even the most paltry sorts of conflict.)

if i were to go a little further into it, this is a, “why is the door blue?” criticism. sure, the door might be blue because that’s just what the author chose, but, also, is there a deeper reason? that’s the question, and that’s what i want a deeper answer to than just, “well—the ocean.”

environment has meaning and weight in narrative, and the permeation of blue into every aspect of his character tells me absolutely nothing about him except that—the ocean is blue. (this is the same issue i have with antinous and red.)

i can have a critique on how people use the elements at their disposal. that does not mean i am hating on what exists or what people choose to do. it’s a commentary on the importance of intentionality in art, especially in transformative media when you are championing your own interpretation of an existing work. “it looks nice,” is a valid enough reason to do anything, but it is not a sin or a reproach on creators for me, as both a writer and consumer, to crave more than just that.

my two favorite poseidon designs use color perfectly, and one of them is blue!

one is using earthen and greener tones which highlights the constant evolving and shifting patterns of his behavior and narrative, also his deeply embedded roots in his personhood and personal interpretation—very much in line with earth and bottom sea floor life, especially since they use a little murkier palette. it symbolizes his capacity for change and evolution while also emphasizing his rigidity and sureness—the steadiness of his presence. it also implies a further depth and grit to his character than what we can see on the surface.

the other is using gorgeously beautiful light blues and pale tones, in line with the more romantic and warming portrayal they have of poseidon as a paternal and overall relaxed figure. it lends itself to him being a supportive god in these iterations and being a highlight and point of vision in the narrative rather than a conflict or obstacle. it elevates the tranquility of his person, which is otherwise dismissed in narratives commonly, and softens his edges into something more approachable and reasonable, especially when tied in with the smooth and silk of the curvature of his overall design in addition to the color choices.

the colors mean something.

“why is the door blue?”

‘just because,’ isn’t the answer here, and it’s okay to say that it shouldn’t be.

(it’s also equally okay for it to be, but it’s not what i’m personally looking for.)

3) “why does it have to mean something? let people have fun.”

i never said that they couldn’t.

if that is your motivation to create, then i implore you to grasp it tight with both hands and do it. creation is supposed to be fun.

however, the birth of this critique is rooted in the simple fact that, as a writer, especially nowadays as we’re watching, in real time, the death of media literacy, i get saddened seeing interpretations and choices lacking depth and intention. i think that the greatest creative choices are happy accidents that you then lean into and breed them with purpose into something wonderfully deep and cerebral—so much depth can come from just doing things for the whimsy of it and having fun! that’s okay!

maybe you did choose the door to be blue for fun—maybe you just like it. but, look! now you can expand on that! now, you can make every time that they enter that room a moment of intention, a non-narrative signal of rising depression or calmness, every exit a shedding of it. you can have them repaint the door later after they undergo a character transformation or have the paint chip, symbolizing metamorphosis. (also a la derek hale and the hale house door and his painting over it but not sanding it—symbolizing a desire to move on but an inability to escape the past haunting him. and all without the viewer needing to be told.)

i have a lot of things come from happy accidents, a lot of things i discover about the narrative as i’m writing it. there are a lot of elements and design choices i include in my writing that no one will ever pick up on. but there’s intention in every word. there is context in the unsaid, in the subtext, in the world i have painstakingly crafted, especially as an author who hates world-building.

every part of the environment and character descriptions that i give in my writing has a meaning and a purpose—nothing is without intention (except for the typos—i’m just blind). and it’s okay if others don’t write like that. i’m not saying you have to.

all i’m saying is that i would love to see more of it, especially in a world where we’re seeing the ability to recognize these subtextual narrative tools disappearing as people require being spoon-fed information more and more.

and if i have to see the blue everywhere, i want to see why it’s important to the character.

4) “why is the door blue?”

because the sky is endless and so are the possibilities in the narrative.

and it’s not an attack on you for me to say that i want to see more of that.

thanks for coming to my ted talk.

(soul said there would be no elaboration.

….as always, soul is a fucking liar. there was elaboration.

in my defense, i talked about this in a server the other day, and people got defensive and missed the point of the critique because they felt i was coming for their favorite artists, and it’s been on my mind ever since. my critique is based on writing because that’s what i do, but it also applies to art, so—i guess, valid take? except not really. y’all missed the point entirely and misconstrued everything i said.

do what makes you happy, y’all—i’m not say you can’t or that you shouldn’t. i’m not even saying it’s bad. i’m just talking about what i would like to see more of.

and, yes, i do put my money where my mouth is. thank you. every fic and pathetic attempt at drawing that i make is an attempt to contribute to fandom the precise change i want to see. i’m not just talking to talk.

there is a crisis of the death of creativity and intentionality happening in art right now, and the era is ripe for an artistic renaissance, in every sense of the word, and i want people to recognize it and seize that chance.

this was something that i used to not understand when i took literature classes. i was of the masses that firmly believed that the door being blue was just for fun and that it was fine that it was for fun—and i still think it’s fine if that’s the case, too—but i’m getting closer and closer to nearly two decades of writing, and i see now the importance and value of creating with intention, of using the environment and the colors to tell a story without having to say it plainly. as someone who thrives in analysis, even if the door is blue for fun, i am going to see it as more than that, so there is certifiable value in intention in art and in not dismissing the background from being storytellers in their own right.

it’s not just an outfit or a chair or a color.

it’s a statement.

we are living in a world of regurgitated takes and derivative media—and that is very much present in fandom in spades. if you are taking offense to this, you are missing the point, and i cannot help you.

nowhere have i said it’s bad to do things for the whimsy of it, and nowhere have i said that any particular creator is wrong for doing things that way. if this is making you feel defensive and uncomfortable, then that’s good. analyze that. look into yourself and ask yourself why this humble take of mine makes your hackles raise. read it again and pick it apart, pick yourself apart, understand where you stand as a creator and what you want to do with your work.

the only piece of advice i can really give anyone, as the silly soul who said they wouldn’t elaborate and yet has done precisely that is:

break the box. open the blue door. see the world as more than what you’re fed constantly. you are all capable of coming up with something that is unique and intentional, even if it isn’t “marketable” or “mainstream”. art, any medium of art, is expression and communication, and being critical of trends and popular narrative is what keeps the boundaries of creativity being pushed, and you should all learn be okay with that—because that’s what art is supposed to do.

that’s all that i can say to you.)

[sysig]

Is this small and pixely enough that it’s not a spoiler

[telesodalite]

Woe, unfinished, mildly edited, fulfire fic tid-bits be upon you

-

Like a magnet, his optics kept drifting back to Misfire's face. His stupid, strangely charming face.

For a short while, after Clemency, it had been that face that haunted some of his nightmares. His recalls blurring the lines between the strange reality of Misfire's hands reaching into him to lock his fuel pump back into the very spot he'd pulled it from, and the fear that just as easily he could pull it out again. They had been bloody dreams. Dreams that had him startling awake, gripping his chest in the vain attempt to close what wasn't open, before spending the rest of the day avoiding Misfire's optics.

But now things were different. Not Misfire's face. No, that hadn't changed much. But Fulcrum's dreams had definitely changed. To say the least of what all rolled around in his processor as he slept nowadays.

Some of those newer dreams had crept to the forefront of his mind as he sat there on the couch, staring as the lights of the screen reflected dully across Misfire's plating in hazy blues and greys.

The lighting made his colors seem muddy and faded, but Fulcrum didn't really care, nor did he care to think what it made himself look like. He was too busy bringing an empty engex can to his lips while he watched the crinkle of Misfire's nose as he barked a laugh at something Fulcrum didn't catch onscreen.

He'd started noticing it months ago, all the ways the silvery mesh of Misfire's face would scrunch up with his emotions. Those little crinkles along his optics and nose when he laughed or glared. The creases indented along his cheeks when he grinned. Fulcrum found himself quietly logging away these little details. Idle notes and observations that had suddenly started piling up in the corners of his processer.

He… He'd never really done that before? He'd never really noticed those sorts of things in other mechs.

The faces and expressions of his past colleagues never seemed terribly important. All the details of every smile and frown were never worth filing away, outside of few notable moments where those expressions reflected his work performance. But besides the smile that meant promotion, and the frown that meant he'd screwed up, nothing else was noticeable. Nothing was worth remembering.

But now the memory of every genuine laugh that bubbled out of Misfire sat comfortably besides memories of warm joyful optics that Fulcrum found himself collecting every time Crankcase cracked a rare half-smile for him, or when Krok placed a reassuring hand against his back, or the times Spinister spontaneously pointed out something odd but ultimately nice about his stupid frame.

He didn't really know why he was doing it, memorizing all these mundane little things, just to have them flit through his processer randomly. Maybe it was because those expressions, those details, felt… comforting? Comforting in such a strange and unfamiliar way. But, a good way. A good sort of strange, much like the mechs themselves.

-

-

He had stared for a long moment, the credits and their rolling tune playing somewhere in the background as Fulcrum stared back. But Misfire was never one for personable silence, even as the sound of some likely long dead Iaconian orchestra filled the room.

"What is it?" He asked, a small chuckle escaping him as he brought a hand to his face, "Don't tell me I've poured it all over myself again."

It had taken Fulcrum longer than usual to unstick his glossa from the roof of his mouth as he watched Misfire run a thumb over his lips, but eventually he had coughed out a small, choked, "No."

That had earned him an odd look at first, but with their fields loose and open, Fulcrum could almost feel the exact moment something clicked in Misfire's mind, as the idle comfortable static he projected in pulsing waves evened out into something openly curious and almost subdued.

It wasn't often Fulcrum felt him that clearly.

Misfire tended to keep his field fairly close, though, maybe not as close as the others did, what with how Crankcase kept an iron grip on his, and how Krok's always held an air of strained control, even when it slipped from him. But still, Misfire's was always hard to read, no matter the reach or depth of his field.

Even then and there, with it loose and unfiltered and buzzing with the engex running through his system, there was an ever present undertone of something indescribably jumbled about him, like too many feelings at once, each too vast and hurried for Fulcrum to really feel or understand.

It always seemed to stir the passive anxiety Fulcrum must've been forged with when Misfire's field brushed against his own. As facing the indescribable vague mess of Misfire felt like trying to untangle a pile of live-wires he couldn't even see.

It was almost frustrating in a sense, the need to try and sort and understand what wasn't even his to begin with. But at the same time it was almost exciting as well. It was like a game, like a puzzle he had yet to solve.

-

-

Finally letting his own can go tumbling to the floor to join Misfire's, Fulcrum had brought a hand to cover his face as he drew his legs up and leaned back against the arm of the couch, trying to suppress the fit as the sly look slipped from Misfire's face at the sounds.

While Fulcrum had laughed, and… snorted, embarrassingly, he had felt Misfire's field change again, brushing something fizzy and almost warm against his plating as Misfire's features softened.

"I'm looking at you," Fulcrum had said then between gulps of air, letting his hand fall from his face as he reached out to poke at Misfire's chest, "Dumbaft."

His finger had lingered over the thick plating there for maybe a little longer than necessary, drawing Misfire's attention as it slid down a little before pulling away.

Looking back up again with his helm angled slightly, Misfire had followed the sight of his hand leaving his plating to where Fulcrum let it fall between them.

"Wow…" Misfire had chuckled a little dryly, "I was gonna make it real easy for you. I was going to say something like, ''Do you like what you see?'' or-… or something like that. But now you've ruined it. Good job."

Meeting Fulcrum's optics again as he pulled his own hand back from Fulcrum's shoulder, he brought it to rest between them as well.

"And you're laughing at me," He said next, faking a small pout as his hand drifted closer to Fulcrum's, "Which totally ruins the whole vibe I was going for really. I mean, it's sort of hard to be all nice and suave-like when you're being laughed at. Total vibe killer. Bit of an ego killer too if I'm being honest. So thanks for that loser, thanks for saying I have a funny face."

With Misfire's fingers brushing distractingly past his own, Fulcrum didn't think before the words stumbled out of him.

"I like your face."

It came out almost matter of fact sounding, Fulcrum's laughter having died down while Misfire complained about it. But at the same time the words felt so simple, they came out so easily, and in a weird way they felt nice to say. But Misfire's optics had widened in surprise, his frame frozen and his field suddenly struck quiet, and despite the engex numbing his usual nerves, Fulcrum felt a sudden pang of anxiety because of it.

The silence in Misfire's field was terribly alien. It felt wrong, and something in Fulcrum spiraled to think he had caused it. But slowly, almost as if it were creeping forward, an odd almost scrutinizing uncertainty fanned outward in a careful wave. Misfire moved with it, leaning closer as he searched Fulcrum's expression for something.

"Oh yeah?" He'd said lowly then, and that sly look returned. But that vague uncertainty didn't fade with it, if anything, Fulcrum felt it strengthen. Caught between what he saw, in Misfire's easy smile and dimmed optics, and what he felt, in the growing hollow distance within their fields, Fulcrum found himself frowning and pulling back.

-

-

Growing frustrated with himself, and wanting that feeling back, he had pushed forward, shifting onto his knees as he reached for Misfire's face before the other could pull away from him entirely.

"I like your face." He said firmly, maybe too firmly. His expression still drawn into a frown as he pressed his fingers into Misfire's helm, brushing his thumbs across the silver mesh he'd been staring so intently at before. "I like your optics, and your nose. I- I like the way you smile. When you really smile, and when you laugh. I do. I'm not lying."

And oh there it was again, that little curl of warmth in Misfire's field. Almost a tangible thing, like a brush of ventilation, but Misfire wasn't venting. His mouth hung open ever so slightly, but no breath left him as he stared at Fulcrum with widening optics.

Spurred on by that tiny bloom of warmth, Fulcrum chased after it with slightly slurred words and clumsy hands as he tried to fix whatever he'd done wrong, hoping with each word that Misfire might soften and smile again.

"I like your expressions, and- and I like your voice," He said, glancing down at Misfire's parted lips, and laughing softly, nervously, as he continued, "Even when you say something so stupid. I like- I like the way it sounds. I like your accent, I like the way it makes your words sound. I- I like your- your mouth?"

Once more that weird but nice feeling settled in Fulcrum's chest. Those simple words felt good to say. It felt like a weight off his shoulders, like an admission he'd been waiting to say. About what and why? He wasn't really sure. But the warmth grew, and Misfire took a sharp vent inwards, and that felt right, so Fulcrum kept on.

"I like your helm," He said with a smile, reaching up to brush his fingers over the jutting finials there, before dropping his hands to settle lightly over Misfire's chest. "I like your frame, the colors of it. I like your-"

Before he could finish, Misfire was surging forward, knocking their helms together and nearly bruising the mesh of their noses as he tried for, and just barely missed, Fulcrum's lips.

-

👁👁👍

[sneindeer]

man like... i really love my life. yesterday a friend and I helped another friend move, and I got to spend the whole day Doing Stuff (mostly while listening to Chapelle Roan's The Giver, because, yk, we get the job done!!) and also got to show them some clipping. songs. Today I woke up, cleaned my room, took a shower, had a nice chill breakfast and now I'm relaxing and later one of my girlfriends will come over and we're probably going to cook together. And tomorrow I get to go to work and pipette and centrifuge blood samples and enter data into the database and leave at four. And maybe next week I can go to a fun dance workshop thing and maybe next weekend I can go bouldering with friends.

[uniquezombiedestiny]

disease of the body, disease of the mind

[solar-halos]

now i am so curious about the worst Old Fandom hg opinions/theories