#these were generated using a free AI program

[ashleywolfeandfriends]

Some AI-generated images of Ashley in a maid outfit

Really like how the latter two came out, but his smile in the first one is so adorable I couldn't not share it.

I actually had to remove fangs from the prompt because Dezgo didn't seem to be able to handle that properly and the mouth kept ending up looking weird.

[luulapants]

If anyone has taken their eyes off what's happening to federal workers in the US right now, here's some highlights that we're hearing from our comrades across the government who have not yet been fired:

In one building (hosting multiple agencies), the locks on the bathroom were changed so employees no longer have any access to a bathroom during the workday. People are peeing in trash cans.

Elsewhere, multiple agencies have reported that hand soap is no longer being supplied in the bathrooms.

Toilet paper supplies have not been adjusted to meet the needs of a vastly increased number of in-office employees.

Employee-owned coffee and coffee makers have been stolen or thrown away without notice (it was already illegal for taxpayer dollars to be spent on supplying federal employees with amenities like coffee, so many offices have coffee supplied by pooled employee funds).

Meanwhile, many offices don't even have potable drinking water (recurrent legionella outbreaks), so employees have to bring their own water from home.

Despite an explosion in the number of workers in offices, cleaning budgets have been slashed and many offices are not being cleaned regularly enough to remain sanitary. Pests like roaches and rats are a problem.

The firings continue, legal and illegal. Entire programs are being cut. Managers have no idea when they might lose staff. Employees are getting fired at 6pm on a weekend or finding out when they're unable to log into their computer or when they receive a shipping label in the mail to return their equipment.

Through all of this, the DOGE employees in federal workplaces are enjoying incredible and expensive luxury: AI-powered sleep pods, entire dormitories so they can live in federal buildings, nurseries for their children on site, free food and beverages, laundry services, and who knows what else. They have special security to restrict access to their areas of the buildings, including armed guards.

And I'm not just saying this to lament how bad it is for federal workers. I'm saying this because, as workers are reporting this to one another, the response is, inevitably: "This is illegal." "Yes, but who would I report it to? OPM? They're a DOGE puppet. OSHA? They've cut OSHA. The Inspectors General? Cut. The NLRB? Cut. My union? No longer recognized."

There is no one left to enforce these laws, so taking away access to basic sanitation is now effectively legal. They are doing this to federal workers, who historically have been some of the best-protected workers in the country. They are doing this specifically because it demonstrates to the public sector that it is now legal to do these things to their own workers.

[chromegnomes]

the most frustrating thing about AI Art from a Discourse perspective is that the actual violation involved is pretty nebulous

like, the guys "laundering" specific artists' styles through AI models to mimic them for profit know exactly what they're doing, and it's extremely gross

but we cannot establish "my work was scraped from the public internet and used as part of a dataset for teaching a program what a painting of a tree looks like, without anyone asking or paying me" as, legally, Theft with a capital T. not only is this DMCA Logic which would be a nightmare for 99% of artists if enforced to its conclusion, it's not the right word for what's happening

the actual Violation here is that previously, "I can post my artwork to share with others for free, with minimal risk" was a safe assumption, which created a pretty generous culture of sharing artwork online. most (noteworthy) potential abuses of this digital commons were straightforwardly plagiarism in a way anyone could understand

but the way that generative AI uses its training data is significantly more complicated - there is a clear violation of trust involved, and often malicious intent, but most of the common arguments used to describe this fall short and end up in worse territory

by which I mean, it's hard to put forward an actual moral/legal solution unless you're willing to argue:

Potential sales "lost" count as Theft (so you should in fact stop sharing your Netflix password)

No amount of alteration makes it acceptable to use someone else's art in the production of other art without permission and/or compensation (this would kill entire artistic mediums and benefit nobody but Disney)

Art Styles should be considered Intellectual Property in an enforceable way (impossibly bad, are you kidding me)

it's extremely annoying to talk about, because you'll see people straight up gloating about their Intent To Plagiarize, but it's hard to stick them with any specific crime beyond Generally Scummy Behavior unless you want to create some truly horrible precedents and usher in The Thousand Year Reign of Intellectual Property Law

[batboyblog]

Things Biden and the Democrats did, this week #16

April 26-May 3 2024

President Biden announced $3 billion to help replace lead pipes in the drinking water system. Millions of Americans get their drinking water through lead pipes, which are toxic, no level of lead exposure is safe. This problem disproportionately affects people of color and low income communities. This first investment of a planned $15 billion will replace 1.7 million lead pipe lines. The Biden Administration plans to replace all lead pipes in the country by the end of the decade.

President Biden canceled the student debt of 317,000 former students of a fraudulent for-profit college system. The Art Institutes was a for-profit system of dozens of schools offering degrees in video-game design and other arts. After years of legal troubles around misleading students and falsifying data the last AI schools closed abruptly without warning in September last year. This adds to the $29 billion in debt for 1.7 borrowers who wee mislead and defrauded by their schools which the Biden Administration has done, and a total debt relief for 4.6 million borrowers so far under Biden.

President Biden expanded two California national monuments protecting thousands of acres of land. The two national monuments are the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument and the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument, which are being expanded by 120,000 acres. The new protections cover lands of cultural and religious importance to a number of California based native communities. This expansion was first proposed by then Senator Kamala Harris in 2018 as part of a wide ranging plan to expand and protect public land in California. This expansion is part of the Administration's goals to protect, conserve, and restore at least 30 percent of U.S. lands and waters by 2030.

The Department of Transportation announced new rules that will require car manufacturers to install automatic braking systems in new cars. Starting in 2029 all new cars will be required to have systems to detect pedestrians and automatically apply the breaks in an emergency. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration projects this new rule will save 360 lives every year and prevent at least 24,000 injuries annually.

The IRS announced plans to ramp up audits on the wealthiest Americans. The IRS plans on increasing its audit rate on taxpayers who make over $10 million a year. After decades of Republicans in Congress cutting IRS funding to protect wealthy tax cheats the Biden Administration passed $80 billion for tougher enforcement on the wealthy. The IRS has been able to collect just in one year $500 Million in undisputed but unpaid back taxes from wealthy households, and shows a rise of $31 billion from audits in the 2023 tax year. The IRS also announced its free direct file pilot program was a smashing success. The program allowed tax payers across 12 states to file directly for free with the IRS over the internet. The IRS announced that 140,000 tax payers were able to use it over their target of 100,000, they estimated it saved $5.6 million in tax prep fees, over 90% of users were happy with the webpage and reported it quicker and easier than companies like H&R Block. the IRS plans to bring direct file nationwide next year.

The Department of Interior announced plans for new off shore wind power. The two new sites, off the coast of Oregon and in the Gulf of Maine, would together generate 18 gigawatts of totally clean energy, enough to power 6 million homes.

The Biden Administration announced new rules to finally allow DACA recipients to be covered by Obamacare. Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) is an Obama era policy that allows people brought to the United States as children without legal status to remain and to legally work. However for years DACA recipients have not been able to get health coverage through the Obamacare Health Care Marketplace. This rule change will bring health coverage to at least 100,000 uninsured people.

The Department of Health and Human Services finalized rules that require LGBTQ+ and Intersex minors in the foster care system be placed in supportive and affirming homes.

The Senate confirmed Georgia Alexakis to a life time federal judgeship in Illinois. This brings the total number of federal judges appointed by President Biden to 194. For the first time in history the majority of a President's nominees to the federal bench have not been white men.

[meetmeinanotherworld]

Y'all I mean this with my whole heart.

STOP FUCKING USING AI WITH SHIFTING!!!!!

AI does not have a place in shifting or any spiritual practices. It's so fucking soulless and it's so bad for the planet. And I'm gonna be so real with you, some of you guys actually do sound like you're sliding down a slippery slope into spiritual psychosis. And I hate saying that or even thinking it because it sounds like such an anti-shifter take. Like shifting is real, but some of you guys are displaying concerning behaviors when talking about using chat gpt or character ai with shifting. What do you mean you're "channeling" your s/o through chat gpt or character ai?? What do you mean chat gpt is giving you amazing advice and helping you on your shifting journey??? No, babe, that's a computer. A computer that has been trained on actual human interaction. So if you want help with shifting, TALK TO OTHER SHIFTERS!!!!

I get it, character ai is addicting. I was addicted to character ai for a long time and if I'm being completely honest, I still occasionally go on there. But I'm trying to stop because I'm aware of how bad it is for the environment. I've been getting back into writing fanfics again to help. But also, even if you do still use it, please have some common sense and realize that it's just a computer. You are not speaking to your s/o or your spirit guides.

If you want help on your shifting journey, there are so many resources. There's so much information on tumblr. If you have questions or need guidance, there are so many shifters who would love to help you. If you want to channel your s/o, there's people who do tarot readings for that. If you need scenarios, read fanfics or look up scenarios on tumblr or tiktok or literally use your own fucking imagination. If you want art of your dr self or you and your s/o, commission an actual artist or use photoshop or use one of those free art websites like picrew. Using ai art is really not cute. It's a very well known fact that ai just steals from actual artists.

Shifting is very much a HUMAN experience that ai will not understand because it is a computer. All it does is feed into your own biases. You could ask ai if there's a shadow man that lives in your attic and if you phrase it in a way that makes it think you want it to say yes, it will say yes. Theres someone who convinced chat gpt that the nazis were right because it fed that information to it. When you ask ai to be your friend, it's not your friend. When you ask ai to be your enemy, it's not your enemy. It is a program following commands. SO STOP DEPENDING ON IT ESPECIALLY IN SPIRITUAL SPACES!!!!! I'm genuinely so sick of seeing shifters saying they're getting help from chat gpt. Like that's probably why you haven't shifted yet. Because you can't even be bothered to look within and figure out what works for you.

AI is just so soulless and does not have a place in any spiritual practices, whether it's shifting or witchcraft or tarot reading or whatever you're doing. It's unreliable, it's bad for the environment, and it's just a computer program repeating shit it's heard across the internet, generated to tell you exactly what you want to hear. You're not getting any new information that you couldn't find with ten minutes of scrolling on tumblr. And some of the things I've seen shifters say truly concerns me like please stop and touch some grass before you slip into psychosis.

[thegalleonsnest]

OK since I haven't seen too many people talk about this since twitter news usually strikes pretty fast over here whenever e'usk does anything ever, let me give ya'll the run down on two things that will go live on NOVEMBER 15TH and why people are mass migrating to Blue Sky once more; and provide resources to help protect your art and make the transition to Blue Sky easier if you so choose:

The Block function no longer blocks people as intended. It now basically acts as a glorified Mute button. Even when you block someone, they can still see your posts, but they can't engage in them. If your account is a Public one and not a Private one, people you blocked will see your posts.

They say because people can easily "share and hide harmful or private information about those they've blocked," they changed it this way for "greater transparency." When in reality, this is an extremely dangerous change, as the whole point of blocking is to cease interaction with people entirely for a plethora of reasons, i.e. stalking, harassment, spam, endangerment, or just plainly annoying and not wanting to see said tweets/accounts. or you know, for 18+ accounts who do not want minors interacting with them or their material at all (There is speculation saying these changes are specifically for Elon himself so he can do his own kind of stalking, and honestly, with the private likes change, it lowkey checks out in my opinion)

Also, this straight up goes against and may violate Apple and Google's app store policies and also is straight up illegal in Canada and probably other countries as well.

If this ACTUALLY goes through, twitter will only be available in select countries, probably exclusively in the US, which would collapse the site with the lost of users and stock, and probably be the last push it needs to kill the site. And if not, will be a very sad and exclusive platform made for specific kinds of people who line up with musk's line of thinking.

2. New policies regarding Grok AI and basically removing the option to opt out of Grok's information gathering to improve their software.

And anything you upload/post on the site is considered "fair game" with "royalty-free licenses" and they can do whatever they please with it. Primarily using any and all posts on twitter to train their Grok AI. A few months ago, there was a setting you can opt out of so they couldn't take anything you post to "improve" Grok, but I guess because so many people were opting out, they decided to make it mandatory as part of the policy change (This is mainly speculation from what I hear).

So this is considered the final straw for a LOT of people, especially artists who have been gripping on to twitter for as long as they can, but the AI nonsense is too much for people now, including myself. Lot's of people are moving to Blue Sky for good reason, and from personal experience, it is literally 10x better than twitter ever was, even before elon took over. There is no algorithm on there, and you can save "feeds" to your timeline to have a catered timelines to hop between if your looking for something specific like furry art or game dev stuff. It's taken them a bit to get off the ground and add much needed features, but it's genuinely so much better now

RESOURCES

Project Glaze & Cara

If you're an artist who's still on twitter or trying to ride it out for as long as you can for whatever reason you have, do yourself a favor and Glaze and/or Nightshade your work. Project Glaze is a free program designed to protect your art work from getting scrapped by AI machines. Glazing basically makes it harder to adapt and copy artwork that AI programs try to scan, while Nightshade basically "poisons" works to make AI libraries much more unstable and generate images completely off the mark. (These are layman's terms I'm using here, but follow the link to get more information)

The only problem with these programs is that they can be resource intensive for computers, and not every pc can run glaze. It's basically like rendering a frame/animation, you gotta let your pc sit there to get it glazed/nightshade, and depending on the intensity and power of your pc, this may take minutes to hours depending on how much you wanna protect your work.

HOWEVER, there are two alternatives, WebGlaze and Cara

WebGlaze is an in browser version of the program, so your pc doesn't have to do the heavy lifting. You do need to have an account with Glaze and be invited to use the program (I have not done so personally so I don't know much about the process.)

Cara is an artist focused site that doubles as both a portfolio site and a general social media platform. They've partnered with Glaze and have their own browser glazing called "Cara Glaze," and highly encourage users to post their work Glazed and are extremely anti-ai. You do get limited uses per day to glaze your work, so if you plan on doing a huge backlog uploading of your art, it may take awhile if your using just Cara Glaze.

Some twitter users have suggested glazing your art, cropping it, and overlaying it with a frame telling people to follow them elsewhere like on Bluesky. Here's a template someone provided if you wanna use this one or make your own.

Blue Sky Resources and Tips

So if your a twitter user and your about to realize the hellish task of refollowing a massive chunk of people you follow, have no fear, there's an extension called Sky Follower Bridge (Firefox & Chrome links). This is a very basic extension that makes it really easy to find people on Bluesky

It sorts them out by trying to find matching usernames, usernames in descriptions, or by screen name. It's not 100% perfect, there's a couple people I already follow on Blue Sky but the extension could not find them on twitter correctly, but I still found a huge chunk of people. Also if your worried that this extension is "iffy," they do have a github open with the source publicly available and the Blue Sky Team themselves have promoted the extension in their recent posts while welcoming new users to the platform.

FEEDS and LABELS

OK SO THE COOLEST PART ABOUT BLUESKY IS THE FEEDS SYSTEM. Basically if you've made a twitter list before, it's like that, but way more customizable and caters to specific types of posts/topics. Consolidating them into a timeline/feed that exclusively filled about those particular topics, or just people in general. There's thousands to pick and choose from!

Here's a couple of mine that I have saved and ready (down below). Some feeds I have saved so I can jump to seeing what my friends and mutuals are up to, and see their posts specifically so it doesn't get lost in reposts or other accounts, and also specialized feeds for browsing artists within the furry community.

The Furry Community feeds I have here were created by people who've built an algorithm to place any #furry or #furryart or other special tags like #Furrystreamer or #furrydev. They even have one for commissions, and yes you can say commissions on a post and not have it destroyed or shadow banned. You are safe.

If you want, and I highly recommend it to get visibility and check out a neat community, follow furryli.st to get added to their list and feeds. Once your on the list, even without a hashtag, you'll still pop up in their specialized feeds as just a member of the community there. There are plenty of other feeds out there besides this one, but I feel like a lot of people could use one like this. They even got ones for OC specific too I remember seeing somewhere.

And in terms of labels, they can be either ways to help label yourself with specific things or have user created accessibility settings to help better control your experience on Blue Sky.

And my personal favorite: Ai Imagery Labeler. Removes any AI stuff or hides it to the best of it's abilities, and it does a pretty good job, I have not seen anything AI related since subscribing to it.

Finally, HASHTAGS WORK & No need to censor yourself!

This is NOT like twitter or any other big named social media site AT ALL, so you don't have to work around words to get your stuff out there and be seen. There are literally feeds built around having commissions getting and art seen! Some people worry about bots and that has been a recent issue since a lot of people are migrating to Blue Sky, but it comes with any social media territory.

ALSO COOL PART,

you can search a hashtag on someone's profile and search exclusively on that profile as well! You can even put the hashtag in bio for easy access if you have a specialize tag like here on tumblr. OR EVEN BUILD YOUR OWN ART FEED FOR YOUR STUFF SPECIFICALLY!

So yeah, there's your quick run down about twitter's current burning building, how to protect your art, and what to do when you move to Blue Sky! Have fun!

[unethicalpeacemonger]

Hello everyone, have a Gerard fanart while I talk about the current situation here in Indonesia

Press down here, please read all the way through if you can

Hello, I am A, I'm Indonesian. I apologize for my terrible grammar. I will be using initials due to future safety concerns.

Right now Indonesia is going through a massive change under the reign of our new president and his vice, and I can't say its a good thing. Our elected president, initial P. S. is an alleged human rights offender due to his participation in the kidnapping of several activists back in 1997 and 1998 during Indonesia's "New Order", under president Soeharto and a known Zionist. Meanwhile his vice, G. R. Is the son of our previous reigning president, a pro AI leader and generally seems to be underqualified to be a vice president.

It has been a little bit over 100 days of P. S. and G. R.'s reign over Indonesia and country has been in shambles. During their campaign, they promised the people a free nutritious lunch program that won them a massive following of supporters. However, the program turned out not as expected with the food being barely nutritious and even bad at times. But these are not only the problem Indonesia has been facing these past few months.

Some of these problems are; the government cutting education funds, countless of mis-use of AI in spaces it shouldn't (AI-art, AI competitions), even things like the shooting of a highschool student by an armed police officer, and silencing any form of art that criticized the governmental corruption. All happened in the span of more or less 100 days under the reign of our newly elected president.

However, the country reached a new low in the past 2 days. The parliament recently discussed a new bill that contained a revision to military personnel, letting them take part in socio-politics departement. The discussion was done closed, in a fancy hotel and not in the official government office. And just yesterday, they approved this bill.

If you're unfamiliar with this, Indonesia's military system had this exact system back in The New Order, under Soeharto's dictator reign. And according to history, this has done greater harm than good, increasing the probability of violence by the cops and military, silenced journalists, kidnapping and murder of activists, and ultimately, according to Indonesian history, a riot that killed several college students from Trisakti University.

Yesterday, several riots were planned, mostly by college students in Jakarta and they were met with violence by military personnel keeping track of them (mostly beatings). This alone has proved the escalated risk of violence by military personnel.

Please spread this as far as you can. And if you can, please do your own research because I am also not invincible to misinformation and/or propagandas. I'd like for people outside of my country know what is happening to us incase something greater than us happens.

[nortedwayfinder]

So I'm about to rant about developer layoffs.

I do all my little Sonic fanarts and animations in Blender. It's great, it's free. For my day job, though, I animate in Autodesk Maya. If you've ever been interested in learning 3D art/animation, you've probably heard of it. It's the industry standard.

Autodesk just laid off 1,350 of their employees. Over one thousand people lost their jobs, the CEO choosing to take those funds - money that would go to people who need to pay rent and buy food - and invest them into AI.

We already clown on Autodesk for thinking they can get away with a bunch of shit because they're the industry standard. Now the people who were actually making the program workable are gone.

I'm so tired man. It's no secret that game devs have been facing mass firings the past few years, and generative AI is one of the many ways cooperate greed has manifested into that result. And the thing is, you're not even safe from generative AI tools when you HAVE a job. So many of my fellow game devs have been forced by their managers to either use it or to create content for it to scrape. It's a parasite.

Anyway, rant over. Maya cringe, Blender based. It's not only free, but continues to innovate because the team listens to its users. It's a program made and maintained by people.

Here's the article I got this info from, and here's Blender's website, if you want to download it or support the team.

[lastoneout]

It's also like super fucking infuriating to see people continue to argue that generative AI is the best way for disabled and/or poor people to make art because like, you know what helps make art more accessible? Giving poor and disabled people money.

Like take me for instance, I'm disabled. I get severe migraines and intense leg/back pain if I sit at my computer for too long, my hEDS makes holding pens and pencils hard, my ADHD makes it hard for me to start certain tasks and/or stop them before I potentially hurt myself, my neck also hurts if I look down too much, my dyslexia AND my ADHD both make it difficult to keep track of a story as I write and use correct spelling and grammar, plus, I need to prioritize taking care of myself and going to appointments and keeping my house clean and that takes up a lot of my free time. All of these things make creating the kind of art I want to create difficult if not occasionally impossible.

So what do you think would solve my problems better? Giving me money so that I can have a drawing tablet and desk chair that won't hurt my neck or back, another tablet + pen and a lap table and comfortable body pillows for drawing in bed, easier transportation to my doctors appointments, effective treatment for my chronic pain and migraines, the ability hire someone to help me keep my house clean, a spelling/grammar checker that isn't complete ass, and a therapist and psychatrist who can help me manage my ADHD better?

Or an AI program that takes my input and spits out a drawing or story made of stolen content glued together that, in the case of the art, I cannot meaningfully edit without starting over, which also destroys the environment in the process?

Seems pretty obvious to me. I don't need AI, I need help to manage the things that are actually stopping me from being able to write and draw.

Or take my mom. She's had severe rhumatoid arthritis since she was a small child, her hands are deformed and she relies on her wheelchair to get around. She doesn't need AI to help her paint, she needs special paint brushes she can actually hold, a table her wheelchair will fit at, and someone to help her with personal hygiene/keep her house clean/take her to doctors appointments so she actually has free time to paint.

Does that poor kid growing up in public housing with parents who are too poor to afford art classes or supplies or to send them to college really need a computer program to draw for them, or do they need support to help them take those classes, buy drawing supplies, and money so they can go to college.

Blind people can paint, deaf musicians exist, people with missing limbs find all sorts of ways to make art, people with parkinson's paint with typewriters, my mother can't hold a normal paintbrush and she makes some of the most beautiful watercolor paintings I've ever seen, Van Gogh had bipolar disorder and only sold like one painting when he was alive, I mean for real how many different artists have you heard of who's biographies start with them being born into poverty?

This is not meant to be inspiration porn, these people are just ones who were able to find ways to make art despite their struggles. They shouldn't have had to struggle at all, but god imagine how many more artisrs and writers we could have had if none of them had to overcome those struggles. It breaks my heart to think of all the wonderful art that never got to exist because no one helped the people who could have made it actually have the time, money, support, and safety they needed to make it. AI would not have saved them because making art isn't the problem, being disadvantaged is the problem. Living in a world that refuses to make room for you is the problem. Being fucking poor is the problem. Humans have always found ways to make art despite huge barriers, the solution isn't a computer that makes art for them, it's SUPPORT AND MONEY SO THEY CAN OVERCOME THOSE BARRIERS AND MAKE THEIR OWN ART.

As a last example: I love watching dancing and I would love to be able to dance, but I'm terrible at it(I got kicked off a dance team for not being able to learn the dance at all despite spending weeks on it, idk my brain wasn't made for dancing) and my disabled body makes it more pain than pleasure if not actively dangerous, anyway. Having a robot dressed to look like me dance next to me while I get to watch would not make me feel like I'm getting to dance. It would actually be extremely fucking demoralizing and frustrating. I would hate that!!

Having an AI spit out a painting or book would not make me feel like I got to paint or write a book. It's a fucking anamatronic doll running on stolen ideas and it will never be the same as getting to actually expirience the joy of creating art first hand. AI is not the solution. Helping people who need it is the solution. And I am CONSTANTLY pissed to think about all the time and money that goes into these fucking AI programs that would be better spent helping disabled and poor people get the help they need so they can make art themselves, all while the people running the nightmare plagiarism pollution machines pretend that their horrible inventions exist to help people like me.

[spngraphics-archive]

Manips & Mock-ups March

We are excited to announce our first graphic-making event of the year, Manips & Mock-ups March (we couldn't resist the alliteration).

This won't necessarily be a daily challenge --though anyone is welcome to make daily creations if they'd like. Instead, the month will be broken up into general weekly "themes" with a few additional prompts for each week. You are free to use any or all of these prompts as inspiration for your creations, or disregard them entirely!

The goal of this event is to simply create any form of manip or mock-up. It can be as a static graphic or as a gif edit!

What exactly counts as a "manip" or "mock-up"?

For the purposes of this event, we are casting a wide net on what we consider "manips." We'd like as many people to participate, regardless of skill level, and "manip" often sounds intimidating. But it doesn't have to be anything elaborate.

A manip in its simplest form is the manipulation of images to create something new. It can be text messages between characters. A polaroid photo. A vacation postcard. A character given demon eyes or angel wings. Someone's hair changed. Two characters placed in a new setting. Characters meeting for the first time.

Check out our #manips tag for examples and inspo.

Mock-Ups are another option. For mock-ups we're thinking: Posters, VHS / DVD covers, book covers, album covers, magazine covers, flyers, prayer cards, etc. Basically something that could exist in the real world, but make it SPN.

You could make a poster for your favorite episode. An album cover for an AU were TFW are rock stars. Prayer cards for angels. A receipt from Gas 'n' Sip. A Biggerson's menu. The sky's the limit.

Check out our #mockups tag for more examples and inspo.

Use some of these, all of these, or none of these! These are just a guide / inspo.

📸 Week One: Memories 📸

Texts

Photograph

Mementos

Letter / Diary

Home Video

❤️ Week Two: Romance ❤️

Date night

Gift-giving

Suggestive ;)

Unlikely pair (Enemies-to-lovers / rarepair / crack ship)

Kiss (good ol' kissing manip)

🗃️ Week Three: Work & Play 🏖️

Vacation

Hobbies

Music

Undercover / Dress Up

Hunter's Journal / Bestiary / Lore / Casework

🤖 Week Four: AUs & Crossovers 🔀

Fantasy / Scifi

Reverse Verse (supernaturals are human, humans are supernatural)

Domestic / Non-supernatural

Historical / Different time period / Time-travel

"Superwholock" aka blending SPN with other media

In our poll gauging interest for upcoming events, a majority of responders identified as "non-creators" but interested. We hope to turn some of you into "creators" by sharing resources to make graphic-making accessible to everyone!

Check out our #resources tag for PSD templates to help you get started.

Some free editing programs (if you're not using photoshop):

Photopea (a free recreation of photoshop)

Canva (has many templates for mockups)

GIMP (an open-source program similar to photoshop)

Photoscape X

Where to get free stock / public domain images (some of these sites have now joined the AI wave but have options to filter out that content): Freepik, Unsplash, Pexels, Pixabay, Flickr Commons, Wiki Commons

🚫 NO AI generated content. 🚫 NO depictions of incestuous or adult/minor relationships. 🚫 Goes without saying but, no hateful / bigotted content. 🏷️ Please tag any NSFW content accordingly. 🏷️ Please tag for any additional content warnings.

🌟 Additionally please @ us or use our tracked tag #spngraphics-archive so we can see and reblog your creations!

[violainebriat]

It's a bit weird typing out a full post here on tumblr. I used to be one of these artists that mostly focused on posting only images, the least amount of opinions/thoughts I could share, the better. Today, the art world online feels weird, not only because of AI, but also the algorithms on every platform and the general way our craft is getting replaced for close to 0 dollars. This website was a huge instrument in kickstarting my career as a professional artist, it was an inspiring place were artists shared their art and where we could make friends with anyone in the world, in any industries. It was pretty much the place that paved the way as a social media website outside of Facebook, where you could search art through tags etc. Anyhow, Tumblr still has a place in my heart even if all artists moved away from it after the infamous nsfw ban (mostly to Instagram and twitter). And now we're all playing a game of whack-a-mole trying to figure out if the social media platform we're using is going to sell their user content to AI / deep learning (looking at you reddit, going into stocks). On the Tumblr side, Matt Mullenweg's interviews and thoughts on the platform shows he's down to use AI, and I guess it could help create posts faster but then again, you have to click through multiple menus to protect your art (and writing) from being scraped. It's really kind of sad to have to be on the defensive with posting art/writing online. It doesn't even reflect my personal philosophy on sharing content. I've always been a bit of a "punk" thinking if people want to bootleg my work, it's like free advertisement and a testament to people liking what I created, so I've never really watermarked anything and posted fairly high-res version of my work. I don't even think my art is big enough to warrant the defensiveness of glazing/nightshading it, but the thought of it going through a program to be grinded into a data mush to be only excreted out as the ghost of its former self is honestly sort of deadening.

Finally, the most defeating trend is the quantity of nonsense and low-quality content that's being fed to the internet, made a million times easier with the use of AI. I truly feel like we're living what Neil Postman saw happening over 40 years ago in "amusing ourselves to death"(the brightness of this man's mind is still unrivaled in my eyes).

I guess this is my big rant to tell y'all now I'm gonna be posting crunchy art because Nightshade and Glaze basically make your crispy art look like a low-res JPEG, and I feel like an idiot for doing it but I'm considering it an act of low effort resistance against data scraping. If I can help "poison" data scrapping by wasting 5 minutes of my life to spit out a crunchy jpeg before posting, listen, it's not such a bad price to pay. Anyhow check out my new sticker coming to my secret shop really soon, and how he looks before and after getting glazed haha....

[liberalk1tsch]

In honour of Katniss’ birthday yesterday, I invite everyone to also remember the real-life men, women, and children in Palestine enduring unimaginable suffering in the midst of an actual war. To be aware of the censorship being deployed against protesters of this violence by corporations at the hand of unjust governments.

As you may or may not know, on the 6th of May, Macklemore released a song called "HIND’S HALL" in support of Palestine, where 100% of proceeds from streaming will go to supporting UNRWA.

Hind Rajab was a 6-year-old girl from Gaza. In January 2024, she and her family were shelled by the Israeli army while in their car. Hind and her 15-year-old cousin, Layan Hamadeh, were the only survivors, trapped within the car. They called the Palestinian Red Cross Society, with Layan saying, "They are shooting at us. The tank is right next to me. We're in the car, and the tank is right next to us." The PCRS sent a team to rescue them. However, after 12 days, on February 10th, when the Israeli army withdrew from the area, Hind Rajab and her six relatives were found dead in the car, along with the two paramedics sent to rescue them, who were also found dead nearby.

The song is not available on Spotify yet. It is not available on Apple Music yet. It’s available only on Youtube, where—for the first time in the 15+ years i’ve been using Youtube—they have placed an 18+ age restriction on the video that includes multi-step age verification, where viewers must prove their age with a government ID, credit card, or submit a photo of themselves to an AI age recognition program (that oftentimes won’t even load).

This is absolutely abhorrent of Youtube/Google to censor this video, especially in the light of the recent attacks on Rafah, where thousands of Palestians have been cornered in what was previously considered the final "safe" zone.

Macklemore has since reuploaded a second video including audio only which has not been age restricted (yet), but the lack of imagery greatly alters the impact of his message. Many people may not feel comfortable verifying their identity to a corporation we know to be corrupt. Others may not be "old enough" to see it, though as the next generation of voters, as the primary group fighting for peace, you all deserve to see the truth of what’s happening in the world. I have screenrecorded the video and attached it to this post, but if there’s any of you who have already verified your age or feel comfortable doing so, please visit and interact with the original video here to contribute to aid efforts. If you are under 18 or do not wish to verify your age, the audio only video can be found here. Remember that your streams hold power, and even those who have nothing to give themselves can make an impact.

Additionally, most of the people who interact with my blog are Hunger Games fans. You were all outraged when the men, women, children, medics were bombed in the books, when it was fictional characters. So why would you stay silent when it’s happening in real life?

Free Palestine. 🍉

[gray-r-regan]

Stephen King wrote a short story I do not recommend you read -- it's great, only the world is already on fire and I don't want to pour gasoline on your brain more than I just have to -- called The End of the Whole Mess.

In it, a man is writing about his genius brother discovering a chemical that eliminates aggression in humans, and things go terribly wrong from there. Everyone on earth degenerates into a state like late-stage Alzheimer's, then dies.

I just finished watching A Little White Lie on Netflix.

It was pretty bad. I don't recommend that, either.

It was so bad it's one of those where you go looking online for some explanation of what they were actually going for, just so you feel a little less cheated by how stupid it was.

I read parts of four articles, just to the points where I was sure they were AI-generated horseshit (not one of them described the movie with even remotely factual accuracy), and then, finally, I found one that was so poorly written I could believe it was done by a human being.

The point is, I'm watching the world descend into a deeper level of stupidity by the year, and it is genuinely distressing.

AI could be so good for disabled and poverty-stricken communities and individuals, if used correctly and ethically, but it won't be, so what we've got is a dangerous, terrifying disaster we really can't afford, especially in a country like the US where stupidity has run rampant since the colonists landed thinking they were in fucking India.

I keep having to advise people who think they are writers that you can teach yourself grammar instead of paying a program to clean up after your willful ignorance. Khan Academy is great, and it's free, and the answer I get is ISN'T THAT FOR BABIES?

And the answer is no, babies are the people who want to do something as important as writing, but won't do something as fundamental as reading and learning, and definitely cannot cope with the thrashing around a person who is serious about it has to do in order to come up with anything worth someone else's valuable time.

I want to be kind and encouraging but sometimes it is kinder and more encouraging to tell people the truth, and the truth is you will never be a real writer unless you stop looking for shortcuts and commit to learning how to do it properly.

You will never be a real writer if you lose your ability to write anything the second your Internet is cut off.

You will never be a real writer if you tell a machine to spit out mucus-covered globs of other people's regurgitated ideas and claim they're 'yours' instead of honestly coming by your own.

I have to add another note here because I recently ran across another example of stupidity when making this point elsewhere:

"By your logic, everyone would have to come up with stuff using nothing but their brain 😒"

Look at the above. Seriously. It's like a neon sign pointing at this person's head that reads VACANCY. It says I was born yesterday so I don't know where ideas came from before AI.

Nothing comes from nothing. Everything ever created is created on the shoulders of giants (and non-giants). Ideas are not something you pull out of thin air while you stare, tortured, out a window. You get busy cobbling pieces of other people's shit together until you have your own, beautiful Frankenstein's monster. The reason it's not okay to use AI to do it is because it takes your brain out of the process and steals the work someone else's brain did, and is destroying not just your brain but the environment and the whole of human intelligence in the process.

It is not victimless, your lazy, idiot plagiarism. It hurts everyone in ways we won't even fully understand until later.

[o-sunny-day]

THE AMAZING DIGITAL CIRCUS EPISODE 4 DISCUSSION NOTES!!!!

TALK TO ME ABOUT THE AMAZING DIGITAL CIRCUS!!! IM BEGGING YOU!!!!

Spoilers ahead :D so many spoilers :D

IVE GOT THOUGHTS!!! That can most conveniently be organized in sections of character analysis… Some Jax and Ragatha are in there too but these are the MAIN ones I have the most thoughts on/thoughts that revolve around them but still include other characters. LETS GO!!!

CAINE!

Allow me to indulge in my PERSONAL favorite thing first before being more general- im getting these out of the way first cause theyre less THIS EPISODE and more how this episode adds to the rest of his character and omg i love him sm….

I loved when Zooble and Jax talked about Caine. I love when Caine specifically is talked about. Cause like- people's opinions of him. I care about a lot. itll ALWAYS be interesting, cause hes THE GUY. THE MAN. THE DUDE THAT PUTS THEM THROUGH ALL THE SHIT THEY HATE AND MAY OR MAY NOT HAVE “REAL” FEELINGS. He’s a really unsuspecting goofy character at a glance who (telling from ep 3) like actually KINDA cares?? Cant tell if it’s for more selfish reasons or what, but he’s clearly PROGRAMMED to care about his guests, so he does.

And some people (zooble) are kinda SCARED OF HIM and FOR GOOD REASON???? Like yeah no shit, Jax. Caine has the power to do ANYTHING including killing you…torturing you for all eternity. fun stuff like that!

But he won't! cause hes not programmed for that. So he wont.

Also side note: Caine said in the last episode “Zooble! look at this cool bee I drew!” and on his desk he just has a shitton doodles of bees. This is all he does in his free time.

Second more important side note: Caine glitching out at the end feels important, but also feels like just a comedic moment. and idk what to make of that. LOCKING IT IN MY HEAD EITHER WAY CAUSE IT CAUGHT ME OFF GUARD ON THE FIRST VIEWING SO MUCH 😭

LAST THOUGHT: I would LOVE for him to gain sentience cause I have a sneaking suspicion he doesn’t right now telling from how he’s literally PART of the circus they’re in… HM… Cause telling from Gummigoo it IS POSSIBLE for AI to gain sentience…. Foreshadowing perchance… OH YEAH, GUMMIGOO!!!

GUMMIGOO!

HE TOTALLY RECOGNIZED POMNI AROUND THE END OF THEIR INTERACTION. his face changed when she said that none of this is real in front of him, HE KNOWS. SHE KNOWS. but they also understand Caine wont let him stay. Kinda like a Sans (kill me) moment of “ik none of this matters, but since it wont last, I’ll at least be happy doing it!”

Something I love about the writing also…This being a very rushed adventure that Caine didn't get to spend a lot of time on explains WHYYYYY GUMMIGOO IS IN THIS. LIKE THIS WASN’T JUST FOR THE PLOT IT ACTUALLY MAKES SENSE???? all of the NPCs in it are unfinished or redos. He didn't have time to make new ones. ***I JUST LOVE THAT THAT'S SO SMART***

GANGLE.

i'm obsessed

Her taking off that smile mask and actually smiling with her real face KILLED ME. shes learning to be her authentic self and I love it

Jax constantly breaking her happy mask, making her reveal her true sad face feels like the equivalent of bullying the quiet kid like- she's always just pretending to be happy/okay, but then him harassing her makes her “break character “ (EH??? EH??? BREAK??????? CHARACTER????????? MASK?????????WHAT??????)

But Gangle going crazy I think is a sortaaaa “metaphor” (there's a better word but I cant think of it) for how pretending to be someone your not can make you the person you hate. Like she was kinda abusive in this episode… People who are awful people were all victims once, technically- not ALL ofc cause nothing is black and white n all that, but you get me-

IN GENERAL…

i think the motif of this episode was pretending to be someone you're not, for whatever reason you have. Not just for Gangle! For Jax, its to entertain himself, keep em sane. And for Gangle, its for everyone else. But for RAGATHA…I feel its both. She wants to feel useful/helpful for herself for selfish reasons BUT she also just wants to be useful/helpful for everyone else for kind, caring reasons. I already got that vibe before this episode, but Gangle talking about how she cant tell when Ragatha is being genuine or not makes me very confident this is the case

I thought Gangle was gonna abstract in that last bit of the episode, and im like 99% sure that was intentional. I love that a lot… I love how this show is written, abstracting was introduced right away, so now its a looming threat across all these characters youve grown to love, appreciate, and relate too

Idk what Gangle getting hit by the truck was a reference to, but part of my brain rot theorizing in me wants to say this digital world is basically Hell and thats how she “died” before getting here. Doesnt make any godamn sense and the truck thing totally has other explainations I JUST CANT THINK OF ANY!!! PUTTEM IN THE COMMENTS BELOW AND DONT FORGET TO HIT THAT BEL- *gets shot*

[elposting]

Oh my gosh two days ago (sorry this took me so long to write up, I had to digest it all lol) I saw The View, Stephen Colbert, and All In- and I MET ANDREW AND JOSH!!!! I think this is going to be a long post but just stay with me here 😭😭

More below the cut as always!!!

1. Okay so first was The View- we had general tickets and stood outside from around 7:30 to 9ish I think? It was so cold 😭😭 thankfully the wind wasn’t too bad

We got inside and got seated and everything, here was my view:

We did two of those shopping segment things and got to go home with a bottle of olive oil imported from Greece and a silk washcloth!!

We had to have our phones off for a majority of the taping, so when it was a commercial break there was this hype lady to talk to the audience- her name was Regina

Anyways, so josh comes on and does his segment (and at the end they told us all we’re going home with a free copy of the book! So im thankful I didn’t already buy a copy lol I was thinking of it)

After his segment he begins talking to Whoopi Goldberg and then Regina is trying to find audience members to talk to and stuff lol

// Side note- I had made bracelets to give everyone! I ran out of time to make Josh a brand new bracelet so I took my book of arnold one I had made to take to BOM with me; here’s a pic:

So I raise my hand and im like “I have a bracelet for josh!!” And then Regina has me pass the bracelet down through the audience to her- Whoopi and josh are still talking, and one of the producers is right by them. Regina gives the producer the bracelet and is like talking to her but she’s still on the mic- then I start talking about how big of a BOM fan I am lol. I brought one of my programs with me so I held it up, along with my sharpie on it; she has me pass that down too!!

Then the producer gets Josh’s attention, and I’m standing up in the audience- I get to talk to him as the producer gives him the bracelet and program lol. My mom snuck her phone: here’s our interaction & transcript below 🫣🫣

Regina: Look, there’s Alaina.

Me: Hi!

Josh: Aw, I really feel like I’m at a Taylor Swift concert.

[Audience laughs]

A: I’m the biggest book of mormon fan…

Whoopi: Does Alaina know him?

JG: …well, I can tell…

[Audience laughs]

A: …I love you so much…

R: [something…] (to Whoopi) she gave him a bracelet!

View Ladies: Awwww!

R: We love that show.

Joy: Alaina, have you seen that show?

Alyssa: It’s so funny.

J: That show’s good. I’m recommending that show.

[I spell my name and Regina confirms it back to me lol]

A: I’m seeing it front row next Friday.

JG: I’m not in it anymore.

[audience laughs]

-end-

I know this reads like one of those imagines but I swear it’s not 😭🙏 that video is not ai 🤨🤨

I was going to tell him I was seeing andrew later that night lol but we walked off

Im ngl i didnt even realize the view ladies were talking to me I was just so focused on josh lmfao but writing out the transcript had me genuinely crying that whoopi goldberg asked if i (personally) knew josh gad

Anyway so he took my program back and then he signed it!!

(ignore andrew’s signature lol that’s from later 😅)

But he stole my sharpie so actually I can’t forgive him. #canceljoshgad

I was so happy he spelled my name right I was so happy lol

Then we left the view and they gave us our gifts yadayada

2. We went to Stephen colbert next- this is less exciting so im just gonna speedrun through lol

Stephen is very nice! He did a Q and A lol it was fun

Josh was the first guest and the segment was def longer than the view. This was cut from the final show but there was a part where they talked about josh interviewing the lord of the rings cast at some zoom thing 5 years ago? At least I think that’s what it was I don’t really remember

Josh thought he was bombing during the interview so I felt really bad lol, I didn’t think he was but he kept talking about how poorly he was doing. I didn’t think the audience was quiet but maybe it just wasn’t reaching the stage?

At the end of the interview he like stood up and leaned over to shake Stephen’s hand but his pants kind of fell down so everyone on my side could see his underwear so that was um interesting (it was firetruck red for anyone who cares??)

Anyway quick shout out to the guy who does stand up before colbert comes on to warm up the crowd, he’s so fantastic

3. (Ok to preface I had to rewrite this entire section because it deleted the first time so im probably gonna go kind of fast here) all in!

Lowkey the show itself was kind of boring and a little terrible but they all did so great in the show!! And our seats were so good too:

I could see andrew the clearest 🙏 i kind of had to move my head to see everyone else lol (he sat in the third chair from the left)

Getting out of the theater was so hard too 😭😭 i was like zigzagging through chairs to get to stage door early… and then even when I got there it was SO crowded🥲🥲 lowkey felt like i was in the hunger games /j thankfully a woman let me stand next to her🙏🙏

Nick came out first!! He’s the one i was most normal to bc he’s the only one I haven’t had a hyperfixation on lmaooo…🫣 he signed my playbill and took a pic with me 🙏

next lin came out!! I gave him the bracelet I made for him and he said thank you 🥲 he was super cute last night. I’ve been a fan of him foreverrrrrrrr so I was super super happy to meet him he was so nice. he also signed my hamilton playbill 🥲🩷

then aidy came out!! i love her sooooo much i started tearing up when i was talking to her lol, i gave her the bracelet i made for her and she was like “this is so cool thank you so much!!” she is/was like one of my favorite snl cast members and i was soooo excited to meet her she’s so pretty and ilhsm🩷🩷

last I saw andrew!! I was kind of distracted cause aidy was right next to me so I didn’t even process at first 😭😭

I gave him my bracelet and he said thanks!! then i told him i’d seen josh earlier and he says hi (which is a lie but whatever sue me lolol). he asked me where i’d seen him and i said the view and lssc. he signed my bom program too!!! that thing is now my most prized possession ngl lol🫣

he was kind of down the line atp but still kind of involved in the conversation with me, so i asked him if i could get a polaroid pic with him (mind you, this camera is my opp and has been giving me problems all day, and had to spend $11 at a duane reade to replace the batteries so i was a little bit nervous lol). the photo was a little awkward and i was really nervous because polaroid doesn’t take the best pics in the dark- thankfully the CAMERA WORKED!! and the pic printed

i asked him to sign it and he said he would, but he was back down the line at this point (and i was a little worried cause the last time i asked a celeb for a pic/autograph was dame judy dench and then she just walked away… i was less nervous abt andrew forgetting though because he’s like 40 and she was like 80). so, i went to the end of the line to try to meet him, but at the same time he walked back to my mom in line to look for me 😭so we missed each other and he went back inside

but! after they closed the stage door i talked to these two other guys and they told me everyone usually comes out the front, so my mom and i ran back through the hotel to get to the front 😭there were a bunch of people there though

like 20 mins later andrew came out and he recognized me and signed my polaroid and took another photo with me 🥹🥹 i was so so so grateful!! he is the sweetest and every time i look at the pic i cant believe its real lol😅😭

oh and then afterwards richard kind just walked up on the sidewalk lol??? i asked him to take a pic and he was like “sure! but then i am going to go upstairs to have champagne with my friends” he’s so cute lol, and then i saw him walking through the lobby in the hotel too lmao I waved to him he’s so cute and sweet🤭

i had the best day ever and everybody was so so so nice. gonna keep the signed polaroid in the back of my phone forever now 😭🙏🙏🩷

[that-house]

I would love to hear more about how you run The Feywild and your stageplay rules

(the primary inspiration for my version of the faewild is the webnovel A Practical Guide to Evil, though I took things in a slightly different direction).

the rules of the faewild in my setting are as follows:

think of the faewild as an enormous stageplay, running the same old hackneyed fantasy stories over and over again. the farmer finds a magic ring, the king is betrayed by his closest advisor, so on and so forth ad infinitum

every fae has two sides, the actor and the role. the actor is the constant essence and intelligence behind the fae, while the role is the function they're currently fulfilling in the faewild's narrative

many fae tend to resent their role, because, you know, they're fully sapient entities that nonetheless have extremely limited free will. it doesn't matter if the actor is a kindhearted person, if their role is to be a murderous monster they have to do it

when acting in the capacity of their role, fae are nearly unstoppable.

any organism native to the faewild that isn't being played by a fae is essentially a philosophical zombie: they don't have sapience or instincts, just a programmed set of actions they follow. a faewild wolf isn't actually a wolf, it's a collection of atoms that are good at acting wolflike. (the difference this makes from a practical standpoint is ultimately pretty meaningless)

one seasonal court of the fae exists at a time, reflecting the state of the material plane (spring: prosperity, summer: war, autumn: upheaval, winter: stagnation)

it's the same fae every time, but each court uses different roles and different stories

when the courts shift, the faewild locks in its new status quo: any fae who gained power over the course of their story keep it. fae who died are demoted to background extras, and mortals who were stuck there are also "promoted" to being fae background extras forever.

mortals in the faewild have additional privilege, because they can take on roles but aren't necessarily bound to them. they're simultaneously audience and actor, and the risk of audience participation is always that they'll fucking ruin it for shits and giggles. like a bad GM, fae are generally pretty bad at working around mortal disruptions to "the plot."

the faewild itself is an ever-changing dreamscape of platonic ideal reflections of the material plane. time and space don't mean much: there's always exactly enough time to dramatically resolve the problem at hand, and distances are short enough that you make it juuuust in time.

honestly the best way to describe the visuals of the faewild is, like, those early dreamlike stages of AI art back when it was really bad at cleanly delineating between different objects. the capital city is simultaneously a city, a grand hall, and an enormous fucking throne.

whether hags are separate from the actor/role system or just have total synthesis between the actor and role is unclear, but they're doing pretty well for themselves and specialize in fucking with stories in ways that go against "the plot"

every fae in at least a marginally important role has a noble title of some sort. in my autumn court, for example, the three highest roles are the Autumn King, the Prince of Waning Sun, and the Princess of Rising Moon

i think that's about all there is to say. it makes for a really fun setting to run an arc in