#sometimes its an artist thing sometimes its a medium thing and also both

[blakbonnet]

ARTIST OF THE WEEK @midearthlingart ✨

This week's AOTW is Laz aka midearthling, and any AOTW event intending to bring classic ofmd art back into circulation would be incomplete without them <3 She agreed to answer a few questions for me and shared some great tips for beginners:

- Which do you use to draw (app/digital or traditional)?

I think everything posted here is digital, done mainly on Procreate, although I have started using Art Studio Pro more recently and I really like it (also an iPad app but available on other machines afaik!). I do like to doodle and do studies in my sketchbook though, I think it's good to keep me sharp and for a change of pace! And sometimes ideas come easier that way. But any completed pieces tend to be digital.

- Fave brushes/pencils/mediums (links/screenshots?)

On procreate I'm partial to using jingsketch basic’s flat brush, it’s so versatile for sketching and painting! Other brushes in my regular rotation are the default chalk and 6b brushes from procreate. I also have a soft ‘photoshop’ brush that I use to flat in colours, and a round brush I downloaded that I often use for sketching too; unfortunately I can’t remember where I got either of those ones but I’m pretty sure they were free! Sometimes I use random texture brushes, and the default watercolours in procreate.

- Your favourite piece you've drawn?

I go through phases of really loving some pieces and then hating them again (I often dislike my own art!) One of the best things I ever drew is a very nsfw comic so I unfortunately can’t share it on tumblr lmao. But in its stead, I think this and this have a special place in my heart.

- Who's harder to draw: Ed or Stede?

Honestly it just depends on the day! Both can be difficult to capture for different reasons; oddly I think for me I don’t have Ed’s face pinned down as much as I do with Stede’s. I’ve drawn them so much at this point I can bang them out without reference most of the time, but every now and again I’ll have a difficult angle and need to reference again! Stede’s nose is my absolute favourite to draw though.

- One essential tip for beginner artists?

Keep going! References and 3D models are your friend! It’s okay to make studies of other people’s works in order to learn (just don’t share and try to pass it off as your own!) Tracing photos to learn is also fine too, these are all just tools to help you hone your skill.

- Why OFMD? 🥹

It did something to my brain! I remember watching it back in March 2022 when there were only 6 episodes out at the time, I binged in one go and then the very next day watched all of them again. It just felt so cosy! I watched initially when I heard about it because I already loved Rhys and Taika’s works so needless to say it was hook, line and sinker from me from the start—I did not stand a chance! When it turned out to be a queer, middle-aged love story I knew it would be special to me forever.

[intomybubble]

The artwork in Phantom Tales of the Night is so gorgeous. In a couple volumes there’s even artwork inside the front and back covers (before getting to the actual pages).

(It’s a but confusing to read, but the English release is completed with 12 volumes!)

[critrolestats]

New Blood, Old Regards

Thanks to @eyeofthenewt1 for this art piece!

Greetings! Although the Stats Team is still in a state of retirement, we’ve periodically updated several of our Campaign 3 Running Stats categories and galleries thanks to the efforts of a new team of data collectors. This team, consisting of Archivists Astral, Ethereal, Fey, and Shadow, have been preparing since the beginning of the year to launch their own site, and that day has come! With that, we’re pleased to present:

The Omen Archive

Although they have been providing CritRoleStats updates for our Campaign 3 records, their site will be its own thing with its own tools, toys, and focuses, such as graphics derived from their own databases of data. Please visit them at their website, reach out to them, and check them out on their various social media pages:

Website: https://www.omenarchive.com/

Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/omenarchive

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/omenarchive.bsky.social

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/omen_archive/

Tumblr: https://omenarchive.tumblr.com/ ( @omenarchive )

CritRoleStats will continue to update our databases and running stats pages with the data we receive from the Omen Archive until the end of the campaign, so that anyone from academics to casual fans have access to a complete catalogue of three campaigns worth of data. After that, our site will be completely (accessibly) archived, and our legacy will be carried on entirely by projects like the Omen Archive.

Thanks Are In Order

Outside of our final livecast, we realize we went out without the proper thanks to the community members who helped us grow. We’d like to take this opportunity to give credit where we feel it’s due.

We’d like to thank the team at Critical Role for their support over the years, with special thanks to Dani Carr for both her wonderful spirit, tenacious work ethic, and the marvelous send-off she gave us.

We’d like to thank the creators in the community. Thank you to the artist community for letting us feature your wonderful talent to give vibrancy to the numbers and words we’ve filled. Thank you to the information gathering community, from the wiki workers to the meta analysts, for giving your time to help make Critical Role more accessible. Thank you to the academics for finding value we didn’t know we had in our work. Thank you to everyone who creates in this community, whether your medium is music, words, stats, or art; whether you share for a large audience or for the joy of your private home or table; whether you encourage others with high presence, or quietly inspire and support from the shadows. Your creation makes the world a more interesting place.

We’d like to thank both our patrons and our Ko-Fi supporters for allowing us to carry on for as long as we have, and to make sure our work can continue to reach those who want to be informed and inspired. Thank you to our regular visitors, as well; traffic is supportive in several ways!

Thank you to those who have been with us, whether it’s the very beginning, sometime in the middle, or even if you’re tuning in just now. Your patronage and your expression of value in our work has been a blessing. (Thanks for the 1d4.) We’d also like to thank everyone who has continued to visit the site in spite of the lack of regular content creation on our part, and are grateful that so many of you are still finding use in the previous campaigns’ worth of data, as well as the current one.

We love you all very much. Now, back to retirement!

[dungeonzine]

Need help prepping your zine portfolio or could use some pointers? Here’s a brief guide for choosing and organizing your works to make a successful portfolio!

Let’s start with artists.

What format should you use? Simple is usually best! Google Drive folders are often preferred because they easily display your work with no extra steps. Carrds, websites, or curated social media work too, so long as there is not extra material or posts hiding your work. Try to have as few clicks before seeing your work as possible, so no need to separate work into folders and certainly don’t require a mod to search your entire page for it—they may not have the time.

Make sure that your work is publicly viewable! Double and triple check that your Drive folder is shared publicly or your websites are not behind a password.

When choosing which pieces to include, always choose your best and most polished work. All works should be complete, in full color, and be fully shaded or rendered. Try to have at least some of your works be approximately something that would be found in a zine, which usually means about A5 sizing. Backgrounds are an essential skill for zines; make sure you show you can draw them well. Of course, sometimes some of these elements are excluded in a piece as a stylistic choice, but all are important skills to show you have.

If possible, try to include the topic of the zine in your portfolio. It does not need to be every single piece. If you only have WIPs or messy work of the topic, then it may not be worth it to include it and that’s alright (though make sure the zine does not require art of the subject when making that decision. Ours does not).

Most zines ask for featured works separate from the portfolio. These are the first things mods look at when evaluating your application. Choose your strongest three (or however many are asked for) pieces as your featured works. Typically, try to include art within the fandom as a featured work if you can. Try to have those vital skills on display in these as well (backgrounds, rendering, etc) so it’s immediately clear you’ve got what it takes.

No need for every piece to hit every point. Try your best for the portfolio together to hit most of them and meanwhile you can work on creating some art specifically to show off anything you’re missing!

There are some things you want to avoid including at risk of weakening your portfolio. A portfolio is only as strong as its weakest piece, so having less pieces is better than having weaker pieces. Only include polished work you’re most proud of. WIPs, sketches, or isolated character work may give the impression that you won’t provide a complete zine piece. Including multiple styles or mediums (especially ones that you wouldn’t be comfortable using for the zine) may confuse a mod as they might not know which you’ll use. If you include multiple styles, make sure that you are skilled and polished enough in all of them to use them for the zine. It’s totally fine to have a smaller portfolio, especially if you’re just starting out—don’t clog it with art that’s not your finest.

Merch portfolios are very similar to page art portfolios, but focus on character-centric work often without backgrounds. Do research on what makes a good merch design, because not all compositions translate well to physical products.

Photographs of merch you’ve made are excellent, but if you don’t have them then you can make mock-ups to help mods understand what you’re envisioning for the final product. Merch portfolios can be a combination of photos, mock-ups, and designs. Print samples may look very similar to a typical page art piece.

If applying as both a page and merch artist, you will likely want to have separate portfolios, as the roles require emphasis on different skills.

Writer portfolios are similar to artist portfolios in that they should contain only your best work. You may also use a Google Drive folder or another hosting website so long as it is highly curated and does not contain many other works to sift through. Typically, zines ask for 3-6 works under 3k words, but double check these numbers with each project you apply to.

If you’re applying to a specific role, such as poetry or article writing, try to have those kinds of samples ready. It may help to make a separate portfolio for those more specific applications.

Here are some other tips! Of course, there’s an infinite amount of ways to make a great portfolio, so if this guide isn’t working for you that’s totally fine. Experiment with different ways if you’d like!

Our applications open soon. Good luck!

Got additional questions? Send an ask here on Tumblr or on our Retrospring! We’re always happy to help or clarify.

Learn more about our Dungeon Meshi zine here!

[tainbocuailnge]

I think there is a difference between the comic as a sequence of images with text and the comic as a comic. it's a subtle difference that an untrained eye might not see but the more one as artist draws comics the clearer this difference becomes, because one who first aspires to draw comics will soon find they are merely drawing sequences of images with text.

when people say an artist is clearly inspired by anime they often use "anime" to refer to japanese pop culture in general, but if you look more closely you can often tell it really is specifically anime rather than manga that inspired them, because the paneling and camera angles in their comics will read like a series of anime screenshots rather than a manga page. similarly, when I was a teenager really popular manga that had anime adaptions would sometimes get "animanga" reprints where they replaced the panels with the equivalent anime screenshots of the scene, and they often looked like dogshit because the very premise showed blatant disregard for why the original comic worked in the first place. these two examples are both about anime because i am a weeb but it applies outside that context too. a cartoon storyboard can be read as if it were a comic, but what it really is is a sequence of images with text that has yet to be refined into its actual intended format.

there are many artists who only employ the medium of comic because what they actually want to draw is a video, or a video game cutscene, but the only tool actually at their disposal is the ability to draw a series of images and add text to them so that is what they use. there is no shame or mistake in doing this, you have to make your art with the tools that you have available, and if the sequence of images with text is enough to convey the idea then it was the right tool for the job. but these are different mediums with different visual languages, languages which have a lot of overlap and can occasionally be used in each other's stead to achieve similar results (especially when drawing a fanart comic of a video game for example), but which are still ultimately different. the comic and the video and the cutscene are all different forms that a sequence of images with text can take but they are far from completely interchangeable.

there is a key difference in approach to the comic as a series of images roughly interchangeable with other forms of series of images like the video and the cutscene, and the comic as specifically the comic. this difference in approach is not always necessary to achieve results, an artist who wants to convey a scenario they came up with needs only the sequence of images with text to achieve this. but the difference between a comic with good writing and art, and a comic that is a good comic, is in whether it was treated as a comic rather than a sequence of images with text. I say this as an artist whose nearly every comic has been simply a sequence of images, because I just don't have the patience to refine it into a comic when I merely want to convey my idea rather than draw a comic. it takes a particular skill and insight that have to be developed and practised separately from the ability to draw well and the ability to write well in order to become good at making "the comic" as synthesis of the two.

it's hard to specifically point out the essence of this difference between the sequence of images and the comic because it's kind of a vibes thing honestly, and it depends on where and how the comic was meant to be published too. comics meant to have paper print editions have different constraints and requirements and frameworks to work with than webtoons meant to be read on slim mobile screens in a continuous scrolling format. a good traditional comic will consider not just how each individual panel looks but also the way each page as a whole looks, and how the pages look next to each other in a spread, and how it feels to turn the page towards the next spread. a good webtoon will consider the movement of scrolling down and how this affects the transition from one moment to another in its composition. time is time in videos and cutscenes but space is time in comics, and the space your have available determines how you can divide time across it. when you make a webcomic on your own website you have no constraints but the ones you set for yourself, and sometimes this leads to things like homestuck, which would not work in any other format than the one it created for itself.

the best comics are good because they tell their story and present their images specifically in the form of a comic, in a way that would not be possible if it were not specifically a comic. I think this is true for basically every medium, I'm just thinking about comics specifically lately, because even though I don't really consider myself a comic artist - because I usually draw sequences of images rather than comics - the thing my clients want to pay for is often still "a comic", and they don't know or care to tell the difference. it's a difference that, as established, is often fairly moot anyway, because as long as it successfully conveys your idea it's good enough. but it's precisely because the sequence of images is often good enough that the specific skill of the comic artist is often overlooked.

[merrycrisis-if]

Allie, if it's not too much, what would you say are the ROs stats? As in, what's their percentage in Success, Christmas cheer? What are their predominant character stats?

Haha this is quite an interesting question! Let's see :D

(Obviously this is mostly done in good fun and not meant to be definitive in any way.)

Got long, so under the cut.

Nat

Charisma: High. Could really turn the charm on if they wanted, but usually they're too earnest/genuine/bighearted to really use it to manipulate. Also more likely to use their charisma to make people feel at ease than to flirt or seduce or convince/argue.

Intelligence: Oh, smart. In both the bookish sense and the sense of... could talk about anything/everything under the sun kind of way. Not so peachy with numbers.

Creativity: Pretty artsy/crafty, but probably a better "talker" about art than an actual classical artist. Plays the saxophone, but is more of a music-enjoyer than a music-composer, really. Also crochets. And uh, as a anthro post doc fellow, pretty dang good at writing (sometimes writing nonsense.)

Athleticism: Could probably run away from an angry animal if chased, thanks to having to chase Kiho and Liz around all the time, but other than that... not the most sporty.

Success: Maybe medium? They're very good at writing and pitching their ideas, but unlike some MCs, they are very good at prioritizing the "life" part of the work-life balance scale.

Christmas cheer: Maybe medium as well. They did just have to spend the first Christmas with their family without MC in years, but they also love Christmas in general and are being comforted by the sights/sounds/traditions of being with their family, so. I'd say they're doing alright.

Serious/Flippant: More to the middle. They're light-hearted, but earnest/sincere.

Independent/Harmony-seeking: Harmony-seeking. They care a lot about their relationships, and making sure the people around them are happy, and sometimes tend to prioritize that over what they're feeling (a lot of the time because they sometimes don't even notice their own feelings if someone they're close to is putting out a strong emotion.)

Cynical/Optimistic: Leans pretty far to the optimistic side.

Local/Cosmopolitan: (Answering based on their r'ship to NYC) More towards the cosmopolitan side, but rather still a strong connection to NY and its community.

Shay

Charisma: Well, as mentioned in-game, they have quite a magnetic/confident presence, and could really turn-on the charm (e.g. stage presence) when they want to, but a lot of the time they just don't give a shit (unlike Nat, who'd generally be pretty nice to everyone.)

Intelligence: Not so smart in the formal, bookish way, but very good with their hands, and figuring things out intuitively. Also pragmatic and can think quickly on their feet/improvise.

Creativity: Again, great with their hands, so—probably could do art if they tried, but they never really got into it—more of a music person. They can play four different instruments, sing, and write their own songs. Generally they do prefer writing the music itself than writing lyrics though.

Athleticism: Athletic as heck. Good Kinesthetic sense/they just know what their body is doing, and have good balance. Also they like being active, so it's also a matter of also having lots of practice/exposure (fave sports? Skateboarding, mountain biking, basketball, and maybe bouldering.)

Success: Maybe medium? It's tough catching a break in Singapore, and they're still a pretty small, unknown indie band here. Also, like Nat, they have other things they like to do in life—like tend to their plants and go biking.

Christmas cheer: Pretty damned high. They've long left family drama rubbish/nonsense behind, and they've just met a very cool neighbour they might/might not have a crush on (and whom they could've just... banged). Also just did a pretty good gig on Christmas day. Life's peachy.

Serious/Flippant: Definitely flippant. Need I say more? Shay likes to think that life doesn't need to be taken too seriously.

Independent/Harmony-seeking: Leans far into the 'independent' territory. They've long learnt—from their past—that you can only really live for yourself.

Cynical/Optimistic: Optimistic, but less so than Nat. They've been burnt before, and they also have commitment issues.

Local/Cosmopolitan: Mostly leaning local.

Qiu

Charisma: Medium, I guess—they can be very convincing/persuasive, but mostly because they know which buttons to press to decimate someone's argument. Also, their quiet confidence and intelligence is sexy, but if we're talking traditional charisma/charm, then Nat and Shay definitely have the edge (Qiu's also far less likely to even want to charm anyone.)

Intelligence: Like Nat, very intelligent, but unlike Nat, they naturally think in less of a "can link ideas in all sorts of branches", divergent thinking sort of way, and more of a "let's solve the problem/dissect this problem/come up with a theory and test it", convergent thinking way. Also good with numbers and logic.

Creativity: Less creative in the traditional art/music/writing sense, but they have an underrated skill for improvisational thinking—like some of the best lawyers out there, Qiu's able to come up with/cobble together plans or arguemnts that work in an arguably pretty inventive/creative way, almost on the fly.

Athleticism: Their...Achilles heel. 😂

Success: They are the embodiment of Singapore's traditional definition of success, minus the "already married" part.

Christmas cheer: Pretty low. They've never been much of a Christmas (or holiday/festivities) sort of person though, mostly because their family almost never celebrates anything. MC's the one who used to force them to celebrate things like anniversaries and birthdays—they wouldn't bother otherwise. But they do harbor some hopes that a Christmas miracle may happen re: MC this year.

Serious/Flippant: Serious. But they do have a sarcastic/dry sense of humor.

Independent/Harmony-seeking: Bout halfway. They care too much about what the people they care about think, but everyone else = flies on the wall.

Cynical/Optimistic: As cynical as Nat's optimistic, which is to say... very much so.

Local/Cosmopolitan: Bout halfway. They're widely-read and cosmopolitan in their tastes, but also have never imagined themselves living anywhere other than SG.

OK oh my god! That got WAY too long I'm not sure anyone will actually read this, but yep! Those are my answers!

[the-phantom-author]

Hasan Piker | Artist S/O

I love Hasan and his little artist S/O. Honestly one of my favorite concepts. Reblogs welcomed! Request are open!

Honestly he would be obsessed. He has said on multiple occasions that as a kid he used to draw all the time but doesn’t do it anymore. So Imagine the joy that would be brought to his face upon telling you that you are an artist? He’d be so interested and intrigued about what you do, and how you do.

So show him, like he is so excited to tell you about the things that interest him, so he is so happy when you do the same. Like if you ever take out your sketchbook and show him your warm ups, he is so ready to do them with you, or when you show him the different styles of shading or color blending he’s so ready to show you his examples of him doing those things.

I can see him walking around your apartment the first time and seeing that your little “studio” that is actually just the extra bedroom or a glorified closet, so he offers to set you up in one of the extra places that he has in his mansion.

The moment that you do he’s just watching you do your thing as often as he can. Like, if your in front of an easel minding your own business and painting away, he’s just leaning in the doorway, watching you do your thing.

Ever since this was requested, I've had this idea of just painting an entire wall in his house. Like a little mural, like in the hallway or something. He’d be taking pictures of your progress and putting them on twitter, it’d be its own little instagram post when it’s done.

Also painting his nails, obviously, but making them cool/cute designs. Like you know how he usually has the plain solid color? You can paint them with nice little flairs. He would love it, even if it's just like stripes or dots, he’d be obbsessed wiht them.

If you’re making something out of clay, he’s so happy to just sit next to you and watch, but he also wants to join you. He just thinks it neat. Like, imagine as a little date night making mugs together, but for the other person, and painting them matching colors. They're not even drinking mugs, but you both use them to hold pencils, pens, and such. YOurs is on your work desk and his is on his stream desk, he would never let the opportunity to talk about down, honestly all it takes is one chatter to ask about before he starts gushing about you and your art.

Speaking about your work in his stream room, your art would be everywhere. Paintings that would be scattered on the walls, clay projects that would be on his shelves, any kind of tapestry or crochet just laying around as a decorative piece. They would be everywhere, and he’d be so proud of them. Anytime he adds a new piece, you can bet the “personal updates” part of the stream would include him introducing the piece, he’d also start talking about the specific things that he likes about it before he moves on. Ever so often he’ll just show his collection of items in the room.

Art segments on stream! You are already a stream icon, so when Hasan asked if you wanted to do some art on stream together, and chat saw you in your element? They ate that shit up. Sometimes it’s jewelry making streams, sometimes its making the beads, other times it’s threading them into bracelets or necklaces. Or it is like a Bob Ross follow along thing, they love the dynamic, and Hasan chronic over/under mixing of colors and never getting the right amount of paint, leading him to have to ask you if you have some to spare. Painting streams where you invite chat to paint with you and post the results on twitter, after you’re done you go through and talk about them, people in chat would kill for you to compliment their work.

Chat would also love to ask you about your journey through art. Like what make you start doing it profressianly, why you use your specific medium, how yo started selling things, and how you’ve been able to make a living. Things of the nature.

[zeta-in-de-walls]

Reminiscing on the Dream SMP (part 1)

Hey guys, I was thinking about Dream SMP the other day. That server was a lot of fun in its day even as the content creator Dream turns out to be a terrible person.

It's been a little over a year since Tommy's DSMP ending and I thought I would reminisce on it.

The main question I have for the server is just how its final streams were so bas.

In its day, it was pretty cool and I believe it helped inspire a lot of future SMPs, showing creators how much fans had an appetite for story in a minecraft server (it wasn't the first but it was certainly influential).

One of its main strengths that first attracted me to it was the improv lead stories slowly evolving into loosely scripted streams.

By loosely scripted, I mean they had a concrete plans for the story beats but still left the actual dialogue up to the streamers to come up with which, when it worked, gave you some really natural sounding dialogue that at least somewhat reacted to the world around it.

The actual storylines were nothing too special. But the medium helped uplift them to feel extra unique - you would often get long unhurried streams allowing any important plot points to really breathe and get to see the characters going about their days, often doing things like rebuilding structures or mining even in content heavy streams - which many were not. This all helped the world feel very lived in and surprisingly immersive. Streamers interactions with their viewers through their chats was also an important element. This helped streamers as they had a live audience to judge their content off of and also to bounce off of, which was especially useful when they were streaming alone as it gave them an audience to naturally deliver soliloquys about their characters thoughts or just allowed them to narrate what they were doing at any given moment.

Being a server with many different streamers was also an interesting element. Viewers were not expected to watch all of it and indeed there was tons of content - another amazing about it was the sheer amount of content you got from it, such as multiple multi-hour streams every day - sometimes a different perspective of the same events, sometimes something completely different at the same time. I like to compare the server to comic books in that regard. They all took place in the same server but what stream you watched was what character you wanted to follow. And some fans would keep up with multiple, some only one or maybe two characters. But they were all fans of the server even though gradually they diverged more into their own separate fan groups - especially as different streamers had very different styles of content.

All this is to say that streaming was a cool medium for the Dream SMp and it was both a huge strength and sometimes a weakness. One reason I was such a fan of Tommy's exile arc was essentially how it was able to tell a story of isolation and the development of an abusive dynamic rather uniquely as with streams you got to see the everyday and see the character going about their day-to-day routine while gradually becoming more depressed. It basically used streaming and the minecraft medium to its advantage so well that I appreciate it almost artistically.

There were downsides to streaming as well. Overtime the fans increasingly labelled streams as heavy lore or semi lore or non-canon depending on what the streamer was up to as some days they just streamed building something and didn't want to interact with the server's plot. Sometimes the streamers would do stuff for content and looking at the wider story it was very easy to see these characters as terrible people or struggle with the disconnects. Sometimes jokes would turn into the most serious plots and there was some real whiplash.

But as I said. I don't really believe the story or characters were all that special. But the nature of the Dream SMP elevated it and when it was good, it felt like something special.

[spnfanficpond]

New Member Spotlight - May 2024

The Pond is always growing and we want to make our new members feel welcome! Here’s a list of recent additions to our fishy family, along with a little info about them!

Guppies, Jellies, and Mutuals, oh, my!

Tumblr name:

@masoena

Other handles:

AO3: Masoena, Discord: masoena5

Do you have an SPN OTP?

Wincest but I ship just about anything that is SPN I would say I'm a multishipper overall.

Are you in any other fandoms?

Shadowhunters

What are you looking for in the Pond? What can we do for you?

I'm looking to connect with other writers and artists and create amazing things together, lift each other up be that through brainstorming, feedback, advice or collaboration.

What pairings do you like to read? Reader inserts? Ships? Poly fics

Wincest, Sabriel, Arthur/Dean, Samwena, Destiel are my favourites and I do love triple ships to e.g. Dean/Sam/Donna or Wincestiel or pretty much anything in SPN

What genres do you like to read? Angst? Fluff? Smut? Crack? What are your favorite tropes?

Hurt/comfort, angst, A/B/O, smut, dom/sub, bdsm, angel kink or grooming, protective character saving other character(s) in peril, BAMF characters, meet-cute, animalmorph characters (not bestiality just humans with some physical animal traits e.g. Sam with cat ears), case-Fics, alternate Universes, creature fics (vampires, weres, etc.), crossover fics, enemies to lovers (sometimes) and anything from short one-shots to super long fics found its way into my bookmarks.

Do you have a favorite Fanfic writer? If yes, tell us who! (Please let us know if they are on Tumblr or AO3.)

There are a few who I keep going back to and love the works of: SamandDean76 - on both Tumblr/AO3 compo67 - on AO3 nyxocity - on AO3 (but believe they are no longer active) brokenlittleboy - on AO3

What kinds of fics do you like to write?

My works list is a mix ranging from drabbles, medium length to long fics. It really depends on the idea and inspiration. Some stories need 2k words to be told others need tens of thousands but I believe my sweet spot is around the 10-15k mark as I like to plan plot outline and majore milestones but also love just letting it flow however it wants to.

Drop a link to your masterlist on Tumblr or Works list on AO3 so we can check out your writing!

Drop a link to your most underappreciated fic!

My most underappreciated fic is a drabble but most underappreciated fic that I was super excited about posting but which did not get a lot of attention was a choose your own adventure A/B/O fic that had a Wincestiel main pairing. And I wonder if I posted it in the best way or if there is a better way to do it. :)

Is there something you have not written but would like to try? Why haven't you tried before? How can we help?

Moments like this happen as I take part in more bangs and reverse bangs where people put forward concepts and ideas that have never occurred to me and it is endlessly fascinating to try out new ideas and things. As of right now I can't think of anything that I want to but haven't tried yet.

Tumblr name:

@corpsexcquis

Other handles:

Corpsexcquis for Tumblr / Hyobe or/And SonofEros for Ao3

Do you have an SPN OTP?

Wincest/SamDean

Are you in any other fandoms?

Haikyuu! / JJK / Twilight

What are you looking for in the Pond? What can we do for you?

I’d like to meet more people in the SPN fandom and get some help with writing.

What pairings do you like to read? Reader inserts? Ships? Poly fics?

Usually ships, rarely poly but with the right combination I’m open to anything

What genres do you like to read? Angst? Fluff? Smut? Crack? What are your favorite tropes?

Angst and dead dove mostly

Do you have a favorite Fanfic writer? If yes, tell us who! (Please let us know if they are on Tumblr or AO3.)

Dollylux is one of my favourites for SPN (they’re inactive on Ao3)

What kinds of fics do you like to write?

Usually long ones, Angsty, 90s/80s/70s dirty America, heavy with codependency and references. I never quite manage to finish them though hehe

Drop a link to your masterlist on Tumblr or Works list on AO3 so we can check out your writing!

Drop a link to your most underappreciated fic!

Is there something you have not written but would like to try? Why haven't you tried before? How can we help?

I think a story that is during the medieval era. I love it but I don’t know enough about that time period just yet ! Perhaps betaing ?

Tumblr names:

@clarrisani

Other handles:

Clarrisani

Do you have an SPN OTP?

Wincestiel & Destiel are a tie

Are you in any other fandoms?

I dabble in Good Omens

What are you looking for in the Pond? What can we do for you?

Seeking a beta reader and support to get back into writing SPN fan fiction,

Do you host any fandom events or podcasts, or do you have a shop where you sell things that we can boost for you?

I have an original novel coming out in August. Updates are on my writing twitter https://twitter.com/katrinamckee03

What pairings do you like to read? Reader inserts? Ships? Poly fics?

I like reading a bit of everything

What genres do you like to read? Angst? Fluff? Smut? Crack? What are your favorite tropes?

Whichever strikes my fancy for the day.

What kinds of fics do you like to write?

I like to dabble in a bit of everything

Drop a link to your masterlist on Tumblr or Works list on AO3 so we can check out your writing!

Drop a link to your most underappreciated fic!

Tumblr name:

@candygramme

Other handles:

Same handle for Ao3, Threads, Discord, Live Journal/Dreamwidth and X, which I rarely visit. On Instagram I am candygramme1 and on Facebook I am Sue_Ashworth, but not really active.

Do you have an SPN OTP?

Dean/Sam

Are you in any other fandoms?

Yes. I have written in a few others - Highlander, Roswell (the original one), The X-Files and CW RPS.

What are you looking for in the Pond? What can we do for you?

I'm looking for friendship, inspiration, a chance to help new writers.

Do you host any fandom events or podcasts, or do you have a shop where you sell things that we can boost for you?

Not really. I occasionally art, but want to learn to vid if there's someone around to teach it.

What pairings do you like to read? Reader inserts? Ships? Poly fics?

Not Reader inserts, for sure. I like plot and longer fic myself, but pretty much anything between Gen and Explicit is great if its well written. It's all about nailing the character for me.

What genres do you like to read? Angst? Fluff? Smut? Crack? What are your favorite tropes?

Yes is the short answer! I love all of it, but tend to write crack although not always. I love angsty stuff, and casefic.

Do you have a favorite Fanfic writer? If yes, tell us who! (Please let us know if they are on Tumblr or AO3.)

felisblanco is on both. Roxymissrose is on Ao3 and deadlybride is on Tumblr (zmedia) and Ao3 too. There are others, but those are a good start.

What kinds of fics do you like to write?

Cracky, silly stuff, plotty casefic and occasionally PWP.

Drop a link to your masterlist on Tumblr or Works list on AO3 so we can check out your writing!

Drop a link to your most underappreciated fic!

Is there something you have not written but would like to try? Why haven't you tried before? How can we help?

So many things. I have countless wips sitting waiting for me to finish them. I just get stuck and don't get back to them.

Tumblr:

@libby99hb

Other handles:

Libby99HB(AO3), Materialgwooorl (Discord)

Are you in any other fandoms?

The Vampire Diaries

What are you looking for in the Pond? What can we do for you?

I haven't used Tumblr in years, so I'll be semi-new here. I'm looking to connect with people, find new things to read, get inspired, create, and maybe even make new friends through this community. It's a place to connect with others who love what I love and learn from them. 😊

What pairings do you like to read? Reader inserts? Ships? Poly fics?

Don't really ever like to read any fics with ships mostly OFC or Reader inserts

What genres do you like to read? Angst? Fluff? Smut? Crack? What are your favorite tropes?

Angst, Fluff, Everything 18+, Smut, and all AU's

Do you have a favorite Fanfic writer? If yes, tell us who! (Please let us know if they are on Tumblr or AO3.)

I have three AO3: @smolandgrumpy @Zeppelin_Skies ( on Tumblr @zepskies) @neganslucilletblr (Same @ on Tumblr)

What kinds of fics do you like to write?

The fics I like to write revolve around love.

Drop a link to your masterlist on Tumblr or Works list on AO3 so we can check out your writing!

Drop a link to your most underappreciated fic!

The only fic that I have up at the moment is a TVD one. Right now it's on a little break because I have three SPN fics that will be out sometime this summer.

Is there something you have not written but would like to try? Why haven't you tried before? How can we help?

I'd like to try writing some one-shots. I have a hard time keeping things short and sweet, but hopefully, I'll be able to hop on a writer's challenge after connecting with others on here.

That's all for this month, folks! (If we're missing anyone, let us know and we'll add them to next month's list!) Make sure to say hi to the newbies and make them feel welcome! Thanks to all from @manawhaat, @mrswhozeewhatsis, @mariekoukie6661, @thoughtslikeaminefield, and @heavenssexiestangel!

[stoopystuppy]

crippling heathers headcanons 😭

this is just mostly the Heathers + V & JD ueueueue some of them may be OOC ueueueue

Artistic side

 ▪︎ McNamara:

- she'd be the type to have a cute cartoony and vibrant artstyle, and if it were the modern days, she'd definitely be an animation kid

- artstyle is very inconsistent, one second she’s doing an anime artstyle then the next she suddenly know how to draw semi-realism 

- uses pen, paper, markers and colored pencils but eventually switched to digital 

- isn’t afraid to try other mediums but she’s super comfortable with digital

- doodle!! doodle!! doodles!!

- vents via art

 ▪︎ Duke:

- she’s defo a painter kind of artist (more comfortable with oil painting), draws whatever she sees; objects, old pictures (she sometimes draw her gfs but hides it from them)

- experiments with different mediums

- she’s the type to say “lol yeah this is just a sketch” to a finished-looking output

- hates her works and probably burns them (the others cry for her but she’s like “lmao”)

 ▪︎ Chandler: 

- isn’t really the artistic type but since she’s surrounded with artists she kinda has those amateur artstyle that doesn’t look messy but has no knowledge in anatomy and such

- draws a lot of clothing designs (likes to draw floral designs)

- her gfs support her and they try to make her designs real and they wear it for her

- she just draws for fun or if she’s bored

 ▪︎ Veronica:

- can’t draw for shite, very messy and shaky hands because of coffee and little to no experience

- the type to draw pp for fun

- but fr, she would attempt to do realism and loves drawing with graphites

- does scenery artworks and portraits

- combines traditional and digital (linework in traditional, colorwork in digital)

 ▪︎ JD:

- the type to draw small edgy stickmen but when he draws seriously its like he's a facking god 

- draws in a monotone color (usually black)

- comfortable with using only charcoal and graphites

- throws his art away (the only thing he and Duke bonds over /j) 

▪︎ Martha:

- SHE HAS THE ANIME ARTSTYLE!!!

- loves drawing animals (especially ponies)

- she and McNamara do collabs together

Playing instruments

 ▪︎ Veronica: 

- plays the acoustic and electric guitar, maybe some drums but she likes playing the acoustic guitar more 

- plays the ukulele time to time

- she's also learning to play the bass (being taught by JD) 

- ironically plays the clarinet 

 ▪︎ McNamara: 

- just likes playing the recorder and drums, had lessons for both

- she also plays maracas and harmonica bc she likes annoying her gfs

- is being taught the guitar by Veronica

- loves learning different kind of instruments, although they don’t get used anymore once she finds a new instrument to play (tho if there are similar functions, the skill will go over it)

 ▪︎ Duke:

- was most likely forced to play the violin

- is learning other instruments via her gfs’ and recently fell in love playing the drums

- being taught the drums by both Veronica and McNamara :] 

 ▪︎ Chandler:

- more on vocal but was forced to play the harp or/and piano 

- does duets with Duke <3

- LITERALLY THE ONLY ONE THAT DOESN’T PLAY THE DRUMS BETWEEN THE FOUR OF THEM

- and also the only one that doesn’t have any plans on learning or hoarding other instruments because she’s burnt out with playing the two

▪︎ JD:

- pianist and a self-taught bassist 

- his mom was supportive of him playing the piano and he had piano lessons when she was still around but he stopped learning when she’s gone because he didn’t want to be reminded of her for the longest time

- bought his own bass with his own earned money to distract himself and learned it instead

- good thing for him too because it wasn’t as loud as the piano so his dad doesn’t scold him

- every single time he sees or/and touches a piano, he feels his mom around and would be emotional, he doesn’t have any plan on coming back but gets sentimental when he gets a chance to play it

Texting/Chatting style

 ▪︎ McNamara:

- loves using tone indicators and often uses them in her messages

- she types really fast and would make a lot of typos but fixes them 

- doesn’t care about punctuations and would elongate her words

- loves loves loves using emoticons because she thinks its cute :D especially these ones; ٩(＾◡＾)۶ , (ᗒᗣᗕ) ՞, (づ ◕‿◕ )づ , (⁄ ⁄>⁄ ▽ ⁄<⁄ ⁄) , (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

- loves using (yellow) emojis like; 💛✨🎉👑🧀

- enjoys keyboard smashing and using caps lock because she thinks it shows her excitement on things or shows how upset she is; "DHMJDKWODUQKOSHWJISJSJZ!!!!!!" and "hdjsksjnsnsnkz"

- laughs in either keyboard smash or “hehe”

- ex;

  Mac-a-: Guysssss i splled milk n the bed :((( /srs

  Mac-a-: spilled* on*  sowwy ╥﹏╥ fnkfianmkf /lu

—--------

  Mac-a-: UWUWEUUWEUWEUWUEWUEWUU✨✨✨✨✨✨

  Chandy: ????

 ▪︎ Veronica:

- uses tone indicator a lot for McNamara, Martha and JD 

- has good punctuation and grammar but does not give a damn about capitalization nor does she put periods at the end of her messages (unlike a certain someone)

- uses "lol" "lmao" and etc in a lower caps

- sends copypasta bc she thinks its funny

- the only time she uses caps lock is when she's screaming or laughing

- ex; 

  -Ronnie: is anyone up for pizza? /genq

  -Ronnie: no? well, that's alright /nm

—--------

   -Ronnie: cum

   Chandy: y am i dating u

 ▪︎ Chandler:

-  she isn’t really up to date with tone indicators and one time someone was ranting and she’s just “ok what the hell is a /neg” and then everyone just screamed at her (via chat form) and told her to shut up (only V and M did that) and that JD was venting lmfao

- she later was then taught about tone indicators and uses it sometimes (only with McNamara)

- uses emojis a lot and laughs with emoji; 😂😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣🤣

- T A K E S   H O U R S  TO RESPOND but expects you to respond to her quickly 😭 

- she’s too lazy to type so she either uses auto-correct/predictive text thingy to continue her sentences or she literally just have missing letters in her words and go like “wht u doin??”

- her texts are literally either “r u hre? ive been waitin 4 u🙄😒😪” or “Are You Here? I’ve Been Waiting For You 🙄😒😪” (auto-correct/predictive text)

- followed by that is 3791874218 missed calls from her

- IRONICALLY SENDS THOSE “GOOD MORNING” GIFS FHIWAINFISAF and McNamara’s the only one who hearts it and replies with a “GOOD MORNING!!!”

 ▪︎ Duke:

- talking to her would literally be like talking to a bot or reading a research paper, bc of that she’s such a dry texter

- girls got proper punctuation, proper grammar and capitalization, EVERYTHING

- often gets annoyed when she sees grammar mistakes and would fix it for the person

- will literally type a whole paragraph scolding you to type better 

- doesn’t laugh in “haha’s”, just uses “lol” in lowercase, uses "lmao" after every offense towards others or herself

- barely text/chat and would rather just vc and send vm instead and then McNamara and Chandler join her and they all just started sending vms (V: w..what?)

- ex; 

  Dandy: Don't forget, we have an assignment due later at 4PM.

  Mac-a-: waIT WHAT??!?!

—--------

  Dandy: I hate myself lmao.

  Chandy: dont 😐😘💞

  Dandy: K.

—--------

  Dandy: I want to kill someone.

  John Doe: same.

  Pony Martha: You guys are /j right? 😊😊

  Dandy: *seen*

  John Doe: *seen*

  Mac-a-: aRE YALL /J OR /SRS!??!!??!?!?!??!

▪︎ JD:

- types slowly and somehow still makes typos and he doesn't fix them

- he just lets other people interpret what he's typing because he doesn't give a damn about them

- nor does he give a damn about proper punctuation and grammar although he adds a period at the end of his messages

- just uses tone indicators for Martha, Veronica and McNamara

- uses emojis but only the edgy looking ones; 🖤💔🔪🔫⚰🥀

- laughs in “haha’s” and doesn’t use acronyms

- ex;  

   John Doe: wnns sese my hmsrerz.

   Chandy: what

   -Ronnie: sure

   John Doe: *sends pics of his hamsters*

—--------

   Chandy: istg ur worse than me

   John Doe: slay.

[aspiffygoat]

So! As I mentioned on the SpiffStream yesterday, I'm trying my best to continue my art lessons after pushing through a combination of both inconvenient work scheduling as well a still ongoing art block I'm struggling under. I'd... very much appreciate some words of encouragement, or maybe some sage advice, whichever one works for you (if you don't mind, of course).

art blocks can be a real pain, and all artists go through em sooner or later. I decided to ask some of my art friends how they also go through their art blocks and what's similar between all of us are: 1) Making something you don't want to work on right now will only make it worse. Focusing more on what inspires you can help. 2) Doing something creative that isnt your main thing also helps. Whether its drawing something different or jumping into a different medium. I draw armor from time to time and i also have my pixel art. I also dabble in modding and romhacking when the mood is right. You could also jump into 3d modeling or writing or music composition. Hell, grab some legos and tinker around. If its creative, it will work. 3) Sometimes you just need to take it easy and rest. looking into improving your rest or your stamina also helps! you can also schedule a "cheat day" where you are free to do nothing! 4) Forgive yourself and be kind to yourself. Like I said this happens to everybody. Beating yourself up over it won't make the art block go away. You can do it. It takes patience, rest, and something new to get out of it.

[pysoch]

Hey guys I have scout angst for you all :3

So one of my favorite musical artists is a fella named Matt Maltese. He's most recognized for his song "As The World Caves In", but he has some absolute bangers in his discography. There's specifically one song from one of his upcoming albums that's been encasing my mind these past hours of my life.

It's raw, which I really like about Matt's music. He doesn't loveslick lyrics like a lot of other songs, but they also have metaphorical meaning occasionally. Usually they're blunt, like this one. However blah blah I can rant about music some other damn time, here's my lil Scout headcanons!!!!!

For maximum experience listen to song. It might make some of these see my vision behind the song.

(t/w for angst and sensitive topics, as usual)

_______________________________

- Scout doesn't like Pauling just because of her looks, duh, but also because she does some things that his mother would do (do not bring Freud into this). Like snorting when she laughs or having a plan C, D, etc for everything. Blunt and humerous, but kind regardless. I guarantee he sends letters to his ma about her.

- Sometimes in battles he completely turns off his voice communications and listens to the muffled chaos around him. It brings him an odd sense of peace when he doesn't have voices interrupting it.

- Although he's still kind an extroverted bragger, and the obvious self esteem issues behind that, he also wears the shield of overconfidence because his ma before he left said he's her favourite soldier of the family.

- Even though in the comics Scout seems to be abrasive towards talking about his dad, he in the hours of the nights talks about it freely to either Engineer or Pyro.

- Adding to that, Engineer is definitely a fatherly figure towards Scout. Scout clings to every time Engie calls him "son" like the southerner he is, and though it's just a nickname, Scout takes it to heart and in his head imagines it as an endearing title.

- Sometimes Scout still goes under his blankets at night and puts a pillow behind his back to pretend its his ma holding him when he's scared or sad. He gets homesick a lot.

- He'll yap about how he's more successful than his brothers but will defend them from other people with his life. Knows em all by name, too, and I like to envision they all write alongside the letters his ma sends. He keeps every single one.

- When he first experienced respawn whilst in the medium, he cried out for his mom and sobbed. Not because of anything to do with death, but because he realized she would've then lost both her husband and her baby boy.

- Once he came back, he crossed his fingers and whispered a "love you" to the ground because of a superstition he has that if you do that then look to the ground, the words will find their way to the recipient's hands and to their ears. He always does it with his ma in mind :)

- Scout has only physically self harmed once, and it was before he was recruited because of ongoing depression. He vowed to never do it again after waking up to his ma holding his arm and crying out small "sorry"s.

- After the comic "reveal" of Tom Jones being his "dad", Scout acts as if he's honored to be his son, but has slowly gained a small resentment towards the singer and can't quite listen to his music the same.

- Heavy and Scout often argue, but Heavy inside really has the brotherly instinct of wanting to protect Scout. Scout semi-recognizes this because he sees Heavy's demeanor like one of his older brothers, but denies that Heavy is intentionally doing it because of resentment.

- BLU and RED scout are the only doppels that still aren't used to each other, and will do whatever it takes to avoid even so much as hearing one another in battle; sometimes avoiding direct instructions from administrator to do so.

I'm really tired so I'm gonna head to sleep for the next half hour before morning classes begin goodnight my lovely followers!!!!!!!!!!!

[babyleostuff]

the anime issue is being brought up now because someone was trying to call out another idol for watching it (this case was also a little old). Now every idol who’s ever mentioned it is being dragged into the conversation. The original call-out might have just been a random shot by the type of people always out to cancel idols. This one just happened to gain traction now

Made in Abyss was extremely popular and well-acclaimed for its plot, characters, and world-building when it was released. I’m not surprised multiple idols have seen and mentioned it. The story is a gory horror fantasy, that does edgy things to be shocking and sensational. It’s a medium where you’re often ignoring distasteful or immature jokes, caricature, tropes, etc as embellishments to an otherwise interesting story. You might become desensitized and overlook things you would be more alarmed by if you thought of it in a real world context.

I will say that the manga is by far the worst offender, the anime is cleaned up a little, and the Korean adaptation might be sanitized even more. I understand people’s complaints because the disturbing themes still aren’t exactly hidden, but I don’t know if I expect a casual watcher to be watching with a critical mindset. Sometimes someone’s just watching a popular anime without thinking that deeply about it.

The major complaints were the youth of the main characters and gratuitous nudity, body fluids and functions, torture, gore, etc. Maybe it’s jarring and horrifying to make you feel uncomfortable on purpose. But it’s frequent, often unnecessary for the plot, and a lot of it’s presented in sexualized depictions even if it’s completely not sexual within the story itself. A lot of people also question the author’s…interest and love of children.

So we’re battling a few moral dilemmas when engaging with this story. Separation of the artist from the art. Does the media one consumes reflect their values? Expectation of idols to be morally superior. And then some of the outrage sounds like rhetoric used leading up to literary (and fanfiction) purges, and you get to the slippery slope of censorship and banned writing.

I’m trying to present a little of both sides. Yes I hope people are able to look at stories like this and be critical of the pedophilic framing. I don’t want to normalize or imply support for the author, inclusion of these story tropes, or anyone interested in them in that way by promoting such works. But also people will write disturbing stuff and it’s up to you to police your intake.

Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, The Office, Friends, Brooklyn 99, Disney princess movies, Ghibli, Hunter x Hunter, SpongeBob - many popular stories and franchises contain problematic elements under scrutiny. For many issues, people don’t assume reading or watching it means you engage or support it (think stories involving mafia or gang violence, domestic violence, war, cannibalism, murder, even incest). Topics like sexual orientation, gender, and sexualizing minors seem to be the ones that frequently spark the most heated responses and threats of censorship.

That’s my long spiel on this topic. I don’t want to dismiss the concerns, because I do hope people are critical of the media they consume and recommend. Sometimes, that’s being able to parse through the good and the bad of a story and be aware of it. There aren’t completely unproblematic and unbiased stories just like there aren’t perfect artists, writers, and idols.

I’m not sure this will be directly addressed by any idols. Others have liked controversial stories, animes, characters, and people before and I think they usually just let it pass quietly. I imagine if they engaged with it as just a harmless piece of entertainment- they’re not going to think much more of it. Maybe idols will know not to mention it in the future

oh my, you’re so well spoken 👁️👄👁️

thank you so much though, this truly makes more sense to me now

[beatriceeagle]

For the get to know the vidder ask game:

Hardest vid to edit?

When and why did you get started?

Bonus kuwdora questions:

Does the music you use for fanvids overlap with the music you listen to casually? Why or why not?

Is there a vid that you have watched/rewatched that has inspired you or informed the way you make vids?

Hardest vid to edit?

Every vid is hard to edit in its own way :) I feel like the effects-heavy vids or the comics vids that require endless preprocessing always stick out in my mind, but at the moment I think my answer is "A Kind of Brother," my Critical Role Beau + Caleb vid. The actual process of putting the vid together wasn't that hard, but I worked and reworked it a lot to make a vid work that was 90% the same two people in the same static shot. (There was also a lot of boring technical work that went into making that same static shot not look like it was jumping around the screen, since the camera and players aren't exactly in the same spot between episodes.)

Why and when did you get started?

I've always loved fanvids, and I'd had fanvid ideas for years and years, and even tried to make a few, but never got very far, mostly because of the technical barrier. Then, in 2016, two things happened at the same time: I got Camtasia on my computer for work, and I got extremely into a web series (Lovely Little Losers) that was freely available on YouTube. The combination of having software readily available that I knew how to use and having ideas for a source that was very easy to procure made vidding a lot more achievable for me, and so I made my first vid! Later I started making my own web series, which meant that I got better editing software and learned a lot about the technical side of things, so the entire process started to feel a lot less overwhelming, and that's when I started vidding in earnest.

Does the music you use for fanvids overlap with the music you listen to casually? Why or why not?

Sometimes but not always. My most used artists are Kesha, Taylor Swift, Metric, and Arcade Fire, and I do listen to those people casually, and often get ideas for vids from songs that I've heard a lot. But sometimes I have a source or vid that I want to make, and I go in search of a song for it, which usually results in a vid to a song I would probably never listen to independently. See the above Critical Role vid—that came from a long and exhaustive search for a song that captured the extremely specific dynamic that Beau and Caleb have with each other. I eventually settled on "Blood Brothers" by The Tyde, a song and band I'd never heard of before. I think it's a good song, and I listen to it casually now (because it's on my Beau & Caleb playlist) but I've checked out the band's other music and it mostly doesn't click for me.

Is there a vid that you have watched/rewatched that has inspired you or informed the way you make vids?

So, so many. Raven's TNG/DS9 vid "disappear" was hugely influential when I first started vidding in earnest, and really helped to shape my idea of the kind of vidder that I wanted to be. "Women's Work" by luminosity and sisabet was one of the first vids I ever saw, and gave me the idea of fanvids as critical essays that can say something about their sources. @monkeyswithjetpacks' "The Ballad of Wesley Crusher" is a tour de force of side character study, and I basically outright stole the sequence of Wesley looking at the different view screens from behind for my Good Place vid. Bironic's "Starships" introduced me to the concept of massively multifandom vids (and her notes helped me figure out that adjusting the speed of certain clips might make my vids flow better). "Gasoline" by garrideb was my introduction to comics vidding, and I'm still trying to capture the fluidity she gives to the medium in it. I probably watch "Seven Years" by CherryIce every other month, both because it's gorgeous and I love it, and because I want to figure out how she did it so that I can do it myself. I'm probably forgetting a dozen more.

[ruthytwoshakes]

Art licensing info and bio below.

Howdy

Im RuthyTwoShakes, Ruth for short .nice ta meet tcha ! Previously known as Daffoduck or Daffysbrainrot. I draw war criminals and beautiful ladies. (most often they are both.) sometimes fluffy dog people n other stuff! It/its. But beautiful babes can use whatever pronouns they want helllll yeahh

not very good at responding to anything, but I appreciate every comment I get :D ALSO HEY IF YOU HAVE A TF2 EVENT YOU WANT ARTISTS FOR OR A FUN ART COLLAB THING reach out!!, I do not bite except for when I do but I cannot bite you for you are in my phone. ASK BOX IS OPEN ALL THE TIME TOO GIVE ME IDEAS AND I MIGHT JUST FORGET ABOUT HTME!!!

Other sites:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC38E05EtHpfj75Iqld2c2sg?sttick=0

Artfight: https://artfight.net/~RuthyTwoShakes

Wanna Use my Art?

some rights reserved - CC BY-SA 4.0 Deed (Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International)

You are free to:

Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format for any purpose, even commercially.

Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.

The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms.

Under the following terms:

Attribution — You must give appropriate credit , provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made . You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.

ShareAlike — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original.

No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

This work by  RuthyTwoShakes is licensed under Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International

if you’d like to make fanwork of my characters, redesigns, or stories, I’d be honored! Please send it to me so that I can see your wonderful creation :3

Current Projects:

• TF2 Horse Land (yeahyeahyeahyeahyeahyeahyeah!!) sketches are done! Horses will come soon. not actual Horse land btw it was actually super racist https://daffysbrainrot.tumblr.com/post/732184080892002304/sneak-peaks-at-a-new-project-teehee-turndeed-them#notes

• TF2 Class Swap - sketches are done! Just gotta figure out how to add a little more flair to their outfits. https://daffysbrainrot.tumblr.com/post/722513284945805313/howdy-everyone-i-got-super-inspired-by

• MissFire AMV(s) - not even close to finishing whoopsies sorry lesbians https://daffysbrainrot.tumblr.com/post/731001880846729216/bonus-sketch-hehe

• Kid Fortress Au - hough. Got so many idea in brain. No time. So sad https://daffysbrainrot.tumblr.com/post/731960714323001344/think-i-forgot-to-post-this-before-but-boom-kid

• TF2 Face Studies - https://daffysbrainrot.tumblr.com/post/731316033133150208/howdy-homos-heres-some-studys-i-started-back

• TF2 Girlmode - teehee my first ever project. Should really finish it. https://daffysbrainrot.tumblr.com/post/708138916429070336/hey-i-made-the-tf2-but-women-i-love-tf2-ggrgsgdg https://daffysbrainrot.tumblr.com/post/711305702595018752/women-and-pyro-and-pauling-i-love

TF2 OCS

• Glider - my boys,, love both of them so much. (Oldest to newest order) https://daffysbrainrot.tumblr.com/post/716061402526269440/everyone-alert-little-weird-man-alert https://daffysbrainrot.tumblr.com/post/716224290162360320/jump-scare-jump-scare-1000-nightmares-forever-oh https://daffysbrainrot.tumblr.com/post/730031866599669760/raaaaaa-thank-you-qucihee-male-living-space

Completed Projects:

• silly gay tf2 memes: Trans Fems https://daffysbrainrot.tumblr.com/post/708546538842030080/figured-i-should-make-one-for-trans-mascs-too https://daffysbrainrot.tumblr.com/post/708579375961030656/its-nonbinerey-time-when-the-non-binary-said-its https://daffysbrainrot.tumblr.com/post/708640313249513473/l-e-s-b-i-a-n-s-didnt-add-anything-else-because https://daffysbrainrot.tumblr.com/post/708770670835892224/oh-yeaaah-mu-lu-mu-time-men-the https://daffysbrainrot.tumblr.com/post/729823820963250176/sup-bro-your-pic-of-soldier-saluting-the

• TF2 Wrist Health Poster - https://daffysbrainrot.tumblr.com/post/730095606308208640/howdy-everybody-i-loved-captainhanyuus-wrist

Important tags:

daffys drawings - all my old art yay!!!!!!!!!!!!

ruths doodles - all my current art :3

Ruths Artfight - artfight hooray

Epic TF2 Projects

[nanjokei]

the deen higurashi animes are not that bad people just watched them when they were 11, heard people say they were bad, then read the vns much later and went "well its not exactly 1:1 so it really is bad"

you really have to appreciate the work chiaki kon did to make the original higurashi anime coherent in 26 episodes. sure its not perfect, but compared to most vn adaptations, are you kidding? deen higurashi is perfectly watchable. it's no clannad but i consider it a successful vn anime adaptation that stands in a field of failed vn anime adaptations. it is great as long as you stop after finishing kai and do not touch anything that came after it

also this is only tangentially related but since i see people sometimes lying that ryukishi may not approve of this, or especially of the umineko anime. not true! the umineko anime is a different matter because the production of that anime was a mess, the story was releasing AS THE ANIME WAS AIRING, and ep4 was horribly adapted by virtue of it literally COMING OUT LITERALLY AS THE ANIME WAS AIRING. ngl though, as much of a mess it was, it was one of the first anime i genuinely followed from the first episode to the last as it was airing. and what an anime it was. absolute trainwreck, everyone was happy that EP3 was actually adapted pretty well after how goofy EP1 was and okay but derpy EP2 got sometimes, then came EP4 and uh. haha.

but i digress... my point with this^ is that a lot of people have delusions of grandeur of original authors hating an anime adaptation just to justify their own hatred of it. i see it all the time, especially with old adaptations of shounen manga superseded by either remakes or sequels (rare, but i'm thinking of bleach here). people have this long standing urban myth that togashi HATES hunter x hunter 99, but the only recorded opinion we've ever gotten of it is that his assistants would watch it while he worked away on the manga itself, so he didn't have an opinion on it. a lack of an opinion does not signify an opinion. if anything, there are more clues pointing to togashi being involved in the anime in at least some capacity— namely the bonus stage arc, which has foreshadowing for things that hadn't even happened in the manga yet at the time, and was allegedly based on scrapped drafts that togashi had.

really, lately "mangaka is involved with every step of the adaptation" has become synonymous with quality, but manga artists are manga artists. not all of them know what decision is right for the animated medium. i have yet to see an anime turn out especially good because the studio kept the mangaka in the room making whatever level of decision they can claim happened. (to be honest, i kind of doubt it anyway, but i don't care.) it's dumb, but i miss the era when adaptations were actually about adapting to a new medium and having *shudders* oh noooo spooooky filler to help the story flow better, or hell just diving deeper into certain scenes and expanding on them, rather than having a big jack off contest about who can draw the closest to the manga without any deviation so a bunch of salivating geeks on twitter would tweet at any public figure involved in the anime with either praise or insults both 100% lacking in any critical merit

at least.... can we stop animating at 300 gigasharts per second to appeal to twitter shounen meatheads so we can get anime longer than 13 episodes again. im fucking sick