#this was mostly just a drawing exercise so i can get better with objects and stuff

[creep-girl]

season 1 cast from memory except i have aphantasia

[deoidesign]

do you have any tips on color harmony and the colors of the rainbow? I'm trying to draw a 10 color rainbow but I'm struggling to make the colors match and any color system like RYB, RGB, CMYK or Munsell doesn't work (Usually green doesn't go well with the transition to blue or purple and yellow get stronger shades than other nearby colors)

Color harmony is a really complicated subject, so definitely remember to be patient with yourself.

Colors are significantly affected by how they interact with each other. A red next to orange will look different than a red next to green, which will look different next to blue... etc.

This is really important when it comes to making a color palette, because the colors you use WILL play with eachother, so you have to be sure they're playing nice.

This piece, for example, is entirely red. It's all the exact same hue, but the value and saturation makes the colors still distinct from eachother.

When making a rainbow, especially with 10 distinct steps, you have a lot of potential with your colors.

Personally I use HSB/HSV sliders when I'm illustrating. Hue, Saturation, and Black/Value. This lets me be as precise as possible when I'm selecting my colors.

I'll be explaining everything with these terms! (Hue, Saturation, and Value)

1: These colors vary only on hue 2: These colors vary on hue and saturation 3: These colors vary on the hue and value

You can see how much each of these will affect the colors and how they look next to eachother. Manipulating these factors can give you a lot of control over your palette.

Now, I'm varying which color is the "focus" of the palette. I'm also modifying every aspect of HSB to make them play nice.

4: This palette has a lot more yellows and oranges than the rest, and barely any/no blues 5: This palette is an even spread, 5 colors are warm and 5 are cool. 6: This palette focuses mostly on green 7: this palette focuses more on the purple and blue side of the spectrum.

If you're finding you're struggling well with green transitioning to blue and purple, then you can just have some more greens to make it feel smoother.

When manipulating all three sliders, you can make rainbows that are entirely tinted to a certain hue. This can get you really cohesive palettes.

8: tinted yellow 9: tinted blue/green 10: tinted pink/purple

When your palette is like this, you'll find that putting in a contrasting color will pop significantly more.

(These contrasting colors are pulled from the original fully saturated rainbow that I put together, #1. Notice how different the colors look here than they did in their original palette!)

You can use this effect as you please or avoid it as much as you like!

As always with art more information is key to making your decisions.

Exercises I suggest to understand color theory better:

Making pieces without using specific colors (try to make something look "Green" without using green)

Make a cool toned rainbow and a warm toned rainbow (every color has a cool and a warm variant) and draw something with each of them (one drawing cool, the same drawing warm)

Use red for shadows and green for light, and then draw the same thing with green for shadows and red for light (or any 2 opposite colors

Copy art and photography that has colors you like, but DON'T color pick until you're done to see how close you were (don't post pieces where you copied someone else's work without explicitly saying you did so, it's for study)

Paint from life

Take some colored pieces of paper and shine lights on them and watch how the light reflects off of the paper onto different objects

Here's some studies I did for one of my classes in school. They're old, I can't paint traditionally anymore without pain. But what I learned was still important whether or not the art is old!

I also suggest keeping these timed, All of these were under 1 hour (traditional) or under a half hour (digital). The more practice you get, the better!

And, if you can practice in different media (I understand it can be expensive, take up a lot of space, or even be painful), I personally find that each media has different pros and cons and forcing yourself to work within the limitations of a particular medium will teach you a lot!

(digital still lifes)

(gouache studies)

(Acrylic studies)

(digital copies)

I hope something in here helps!

Good luck!

[snoodls]

2024 art year in review ↫

Wow. Here we are again. Long time no see or speak, friends. Hope you have all been doing and keeping well!

This past year has been the strangest and most onerous yet for me yet. I'll get into it a bit in this post but fair warning that I may mention difficult, emotionally charged topics. If you're not in the headspace for that, no worries, you can skip to the other symbol. I'll see you next year.

∵

Art was extremely difficult this year. I really struggled even finding 12 pieces to throw into a collage like this. I tend to keep a steady pace of one medium-largeish, "postable" piece a month, interspersed with little doodles and sketchbook scribbles here and there. Therefore, it's usually fairly straightforward to compile these. I scroll through my digital art folder, pick out the best or my favorite piece I made within each designated month, sometimes sprinkling in mini works or traditional pieces when applicable. This year, I only made about 8 that I would consider posting--some of which are featured, most of which are actually not. Why? Why am I so hard on myself? (A rhetorical question, but one I ask myself every day and have yet to find an answer to.) Online platforms have become a formalized space for me--a "only the polished enter the portfolio" kind of mentality. I can't quite figure out if that is something to wrestle with or listen to. On top of the usual frustrating strain of perfectionism, I haven't felt the desire to post anything at all this year.

This reticence was mostly due to deep and inordinate amounts of interpersonal stress from changes in a community that I loved and had a huge part in building. I grew fearful to be perceived publicly online and to share any part of my art or life. February and March were black holes. I felt alienated from my identity. I didn't know who I was anymore. It got so bad, I was suicidal. Truthfully, the only thing that stopped me was knowing I had to live until April.

In April, thankfully, I went on a massive trip I had been planning with all of my best friends for four years. (vlpn, Kiire, 1ore, I love you so much!!!) I traveled out west to watch the eclipse and go on a road trip to a national park that I have always wanted to see. Better yet, I was surrounded by so much restorative, healing love. I sat on Kiire's warm leather couch soaking in the real, tangible community that I had built, and drew for the first time in ages. Kiire also gave me the most thoughtful gift--a little hand lino cutter and some vinyl squares. We all gathered at her kitchen table, carving away, laughing and sharing stories. Part of me is still in April, I think.

In May, I started a summer-long pottery class (turned residency, let's be real. I lived in the studio.). It was my first time working with real clay, after dabbling with oven-bake polymer clay and play-doh before that. Since it was focused on handbuilding, I didn't get the chance to use the wheel...which I desperately want to do this summer if I'm still in town. However, even if I was only making pinch pots and tiles, I felt myself grow by leaps and bounds as an artist. Not just in technique, but also in the conception. Why am I doing xyz? What does it mean? What does my medium add to my work? I enjoy working with my hands at a physical craft, but I still wrestle with creating stuff. I love physical objects, but have no space for them at the moment.

I lived more in my sketchbook this year, continuing the trend from last year. My former boss gifted me a shitty little 5.5 x 8.5" journal that I've been using as my work sketchbook. It helps keep me sane at my desk, and my creativity muscles exercised, but does not keep me from still drawing on lined notepads...lol. That work sketchbook has truly helped me break even further away from the trapping of art perfectionism. More and more I am embracing the messy, the ugly, the unfinished. I love drawing in ballpoint pen now, and have started Yet Another Sketchbook of pen plein airs. Okay, some pencil doodles here and there. But mostly pen.

Despite having an upward swing mid-year, my world kind of collapsed in on itself September onward. I don't want to go into too much detail about everything, because it's a little personal and frankly, there's too much to go over. From housing precarity, major random trauma-related panic attacks, a natural disaster, nasty people rearing their heads in my life, grief over losing family land, my grandma getting cancer, my job being so soul-crushingly frustrating and about to become much worse in the new year...it's been so much for me to handle. I'm tired, uncertain, quaking from what has and what may be. I'm creeping through the loamy undergrowth towards 2025, trying to drag myself towards what I love. I want to forge a better life for myself; I just want to live again.

Back to art, as all things seem to go--last year I wrote that I wanted to experiment with new mediums and techniques. Good news, bestie, you absolutely did. From linocut to pixel art to markers to to clay!!!, it has definitely been an experimental year at least. In 2025, hm...I think I want to keep at studies and focus on light and depth. I also want to keep up the trend of getting weirder and less literal with my work. I'm interested in trying out some interesting compositions and having patience with myself when stuff is not turning out. Turns out you can put down the pen and pick it back up. I also miss zines and want to make more...and also I want to keep up valuing my creative time and mini projects (like my tarot journal & my media journal).

I did hit some other interesting art milestones this year--I was rejected from some zines and even gallery openings. There's this great song off the new John Craigie live album that especially resonated with me. Listen to the whole song and whole album if you've got time. "If you haven't been failing, you haven't been trying." / "Maybe the cool thing was that even though [Van Gogh] wasn't successful, he still painted, every day, all the time, right up 'till the end. I wondered why. Probably for the same reason I was driving to these coffee shops. 'Cause it felt good to swing." / "As I passed under that sign, I could almost hear the tired voice of Jiffy Lube call down to me. "Oh Johnny. How long must we watch you fail?" And as I raced past into the unknown darkness, I called back, "Oh Jiffy, how long you got? We gon be up for a while."

∵

To close, I've never really done this before, but since I haven't posted much this year, I thought I'd go through everything pictured for some context. This is generally left -> right, top -> bottom...

A panel from my comic for Commander of your Heart zine, featuring Ximone and Sappho. I was also published in 2 others this year; very cool! A tiny doodle of Wideeyes from my mini sketchbook. A gift for my friend's birthday of his cat, Lily. Her muzzle really does look scrunkly like that. Ahku, sweet Ahku, from when I did a challenge to draw with your Least Favorite Brush. I still hate the brush. A linocut stamp I made of Xiyu using the aforementioned supplies. One of many stamps I carved this year.

A piece for Archalyte to gift a character to 1ore. Fletcher, my Wermz NPC and the mascot of the summer event I ran this year. Getting into pixel art! A goofy paintover of a guinea pig featuring Nickle. A study that I did using a tablet in the studio I helped build--my third time ever working with one! I think it came out alright. Work notebook doodles for a self-published zine I'm working on. Copic markers on trading cards, featuring two of my Neopets and a Werm of mine. Ora's was done freehanded with some leftover acrylic paint I had after painting a sculpture. Since this year has sucked so bad, I've been self-soothing in silly ways; namely, spending some time on Neopets and getting wildly back into Pokemon cards / into Battledome cards for the first time. I've been enjoying tiny scene compositions and collecting little art prints.

Daihei for Artfight for 1ore...I did this while on vacation with my family and it was my first digital painting on my computer in months. Tiles from my ceramics class; my first project! I wish I could show my final project, but it does not photograph well. Ceramic coaster I painted with The Archivist. Doodles of The Sphinx and The Archivist I unearthed today. Marker drawing of vlpn's character 6298.

Vent painting from October. Painted sculpture of Starrain. Ink painting of Ahku surrounded by stuff.

Onward, blinking towards the sun...

[my-perspective-corner]

Understanding spheres

Spheres are easy to draw but hard to work with. To demonstrate, let's do an exercise. Here is a sphere sitting on top of a cube:

I want you to mentally mark down where you think the sphere is making contact with the cube below it. Click keep reading to see the answer.

Since we are seeing the cube slightly from above, we are also seeing the sphere slightly from above as well, meaning that the bottom of it is slightly behind it. 

One mistake people make when they don't understand this is one that I intentionally replicated with the image above. As you can see, the sphere isn’t centered on top of the cube properly, it is slightly towards the back.

Since it can be difficult to tell where the sides of spheres are in 3d space compared to other shapes, it is easy to end up drawing it slightly off from where it should be.

Another similar mistake that I see a lot of people make is drawing cylinders thinner than they should be. When you look at art made by beginners, you’ll sometimes find some people drawing the far leg of people a lot thinner than the close leg.

Many people will look at this and think it is because the artist simply wasn’t paying enough attention. But I find that it is usually because they are making the mistake above. When the base of the far leg is obscured by the close leg, they try to think three dimensionally to figure out where the lines should go. But then they assume that the silhouette of the leg needs to be drawn at the front and the side.

When in reality, where these lines actually need to be drawn have nothing to do with any of those directions.

One way to get a better feel for how round objects should be drawn is what I did in the image above. Imagine the thing you want to draw from a different angle first, where it’s easier to see the necessary widths and heights, and try to keep them when returning to the angle you actually want to draw from.

I could probably make an entire post covering different things you could learn from this technique alone, so instead I’ll just quickly cover a couple of them.

These might seem obvious, but you’d be surprised by how many professional artists I’ve seen who didn’t have a solid grasp on at least one of these.

So far I have mostly covered things in orthographic projection. Things are a lot more complicated in perspective. One difference is that, whereas in orthographic projection, everything is always seen from the same angle, in perspective, things are seen from different angles depending on where they are relative to the camera. Everything that is above the camera is seen from below, and everything that is below the camera is seen from above. I have made a modified version of the method above that works in perspective. It’s this one that I talked about over here.

Most of the methods I know for drawing spheres in perspective will start by having you draw a circle in perspective, which itself can be a lot if you want to be precise. Which is why I haven't really gone into depth about them. However, there is one misconception that I would like to clear out. Most people tend to believe that, just like in orthographic projection, a sphere in perspective is just a circle. When in reality, this is only true if it is perfectly centered on the center of vision. The moment that it moves to the side even slightly, it will become an ellipse. The best way to understand why is to take a look at the picture plane and station point. 

If you imagine the light traveling from our sphere towards our station point, the light will take the shape of a cone, meaning that a sphere's shape in perspective will be that of a cones intersection, just like circles

If the sphere is centered on the center of vision, it is a circle, if it is off to the side, it is an ellipse, and, just like a circle, if it is reaching behind the station point, it is a hyperbola.

Most of the time, it will only slightly lean towards an ellipse. Unless you are drawing with a really wide field of view, and you allow yourself a decent margin of error, then a circle is usually good enough. I just think this is useful to know if you ever find yourself drawing some extreme perspective, and a circle suddenly becomes off.

[simplepotatofarmer]

HI, i think you make very cute art, and i soooo get the feeling that you're not getting better, and while i do think you're always getting better as long as you're drawing, i'd like to give just a tiny bit of advice. I saw you are drawing 3D shapes, and that's a good exercise, but it wont get you very far when drawing them like that, you have to take perspective into account, try to imagine *where* the cube is (don't only draw the cube, draw the floor so you can better put it in a space), the angle of the "camera" (how close it is to the object, that way you know how to exagerate the perspective), and don't only draw lone cubes, add a few more, put one on top of the other, make a few smaller ones, add more shapes! you don't know how much that helps you later with perspective.

If you feel like taking a step further, get a real life white cube and try to draw it, then add bottles (or any other simple-shaped object) and stuff, maybe you'll think "i'm not good enough to do this yet" but i promise you, drawing from real life is so much easier than you think, and it makes you improve SO fast (of course you could look for classes/youtube tutorials to make it easier), it opens your mind to later make backgrounds or any non human object

and look at those pig drawing you made! they're so good, and i'm not just being nice, i genuinely think they are very good, you have a good eye for detail, i can tell you've looked at reference and are trying to apply that in your drawings. The only advice i can think to give you about them is that you should maybe start bigger.- by this i mean, you should look at your reference, make out the biggest shape, and copy it in your notebook before you start with your details, think of it as sculpting, you shave a big shape until it looks like what you're trying to depict, that way you'll get more accurate results, plus, making big shapes will help you getting used to making cleaner lines, which isn't like REQUIRED to make good art, but i think it is always good to have the hability

anyways, sorry for this whole unwanted rant, but i just wanted to tell you that you're doing great and have a lot of potential. right now you're feeling down about it, but all you need is guidance, art does require study too! (and i PROMISE, study makes this process a whole lot faster,) just don't burn out, take it slow and make it fun!

take care, much love!!!

thanks for this <3

i mostly draw the shapes to warm up my hand because i have early onset rheumatoid arthritis and it makes it really hard/painful to use my hand to draw. so the shapes help loosen it up, that's all.

i also have pretty limited space to work with, there's only a few pages left in my sketchbook so it's hard to do things bigger if i want to draw more often but i'll definitely try that next time!

[whosbex]

I tried not to send EVERY question this time, but I did still end up sending most of them. 😅

1. Art programs you have but don't use?

2. Is it easier to draw someone facing left or right (or forward even)?

4. Fav character/subject that's a bitch to draw?

5. Estimate of how much of your art you post online vs. the art you keep for yourself.

7. A medium of art you don't work in but appreciate?

9. What are your file name conventions?

10. Favorite piece of clothing to draw?

11. Do you listen to anything while drawing? If so, what?

12. Easiest part of body to draw?

13. A creator who you admire but whose work isn't your thing?

14. Any favorite motifs?

15. Where do you draw most often? (Like what environment/room/place is your favorite for sitting down to draw for a while?)

17. Do you eat/drink when drawing? if so, what?

19. Favorite inanimate objects to draw (food, nature, etc.)?

20. Something everyone else finds hard to draw but you enjoy?

22. What physical exercises do you do before drawing, if any?

23. Do you use different layer modes?

26. What's a piece that got a wildly different interpretation from what you intended?

27. Do you warm up before getting to the good stuff? If so, what is it you draw to warm up with?

28. Any art events you have participated in the past (like zines)?

30. What piece of yours do you think is underrated?

Good Lord there are so many😭😭😭 (I’ll skip the ones that I don’t have an answer for)

2. are usually draw all my characters from an angle like not totally facing left or right, but also not totally facing forward.

4. hands. Must I explain?

5. I have a lot of old fanart.(not the best quality) that I did back when tangled the series was still running some of them, though I never finish coloring though. Most of the stuff I post on here are mostly all my recent stuff that I’ve done.

7. Watercolors and gouache paint I wanna try watercolors because I have the colored pencils for it but I feel like wash pain is a little too risky for me.😅

10. surprisingly,dresses. I like to add a lot of detail to them.

11. I wasn’t a lot of different genres of music, so I usually will listen to like a playlist or maybe one song on loop or maybe I’ll just watch KMK while I’m drawing. It really depends on what I feel like.

12. The face and hair

15. In my room.

17. i’ll eat whatever I can find in my pantry and then for my drink I usually just drink water or soda if we have it.

19.BOOKS!!

20. i’ve been told that faces and expressions are really hard to draw but personally I find them really fun to draw. I don’t know that’s just my preference.😊

22. Does procrastinating count as an exercise?😭😭😭

23.yah when I’m doing digital.

26. there is this one really good art piece that I did but I ruined it while coloring and I got really upset about it so I might redraw it now that my art styles a lot better.

27. Not really. I just need motivation and hyper focus.

30. I have a few:

Bill,and the one with Cass and Harry with their owls are old drawings..like I said I didn’t finish coloring a lot of them😅.

[halothanic]

18-25 for the ask prompt!

okay well first i must apologize for leaving this for probably a YEAR, idek when i reblogged this ask prompt but i'm sitting here waiting for my ipad to update so i'm finally going to answer these. i completely forgot about my inbox. btw to all my followers out there old and new feel free to drop asks anytime

18. an estimate of how many art supplies you've broken?

well, since transitioning to mostly digital art, i can't say i've broken many supplies! the only things i can remember in the past few years have been one prismacolor pencil that kept breaking (it made me so mad HAHA cus they're expensive) and then i have ~5 copics that have been completely trashed. thankfully none more! i'm really careful with supplies

19. favorite inanimate objects to draw?

i love drawing leather, stars, liquids and/or blood, and foliage! i need to get better at drawing things that aren't people. but i really like making things shiny so i guess that's why i gravitate towards these things. oh, and pens/pencils/stationery, i love cluttering up a space i draw (just like my real space, i'm a maximalist at heart)

20. something everyone else finds hard to draw, but you enjoy?

HANDS! they are my favorite thing to draw but i know they're an unpopular favorite

21. art styles nothing like your own, but you love anyway?

this is a tough question, but i really like simplistic art, especially vintage advertisements and stuff. one artist i can think of is eric hinkley, his work is so crisp and simple, nothing like mine, but i LOVE this style and surround myself with it. i have a lot of adornments and details in my work, but i'm always trying to make sure they're streamlined and/or pleasing. i also adore riso art but i really cannot figure that style out to save my life, someday i hope i do

22. what physical exercises do you do before drawing, if any?

umm, i should do stretches but i never do. this is probably why i have wrist pain at my age! but in the middle of drawing, i usually get up, stretch my back and arms/hands for a breather

23. do you use different layer modes?

yes! i use overlays and multiply, but not many others. i rely on alpha lock and clipping masks for my work, i love those modes so much

24. do your references include stock images?

yes and no, sometimes i don't reference my art but if i'm having trouble, i usually google what i'm thinking of and HOPEFULLY find a fitting stock image to glance at, so yes! but most of the time, it's just me and the photo booth app lol

25. something your art has been compared to that you have not been inspired by?

i don't get many comparisons but i think patrick nagel has come up! his art is super cool though, i would love to make a drag persona out of it hah

thanks so much for asking so many questions anon!

[lemodoe]

i only have krita on my laptop (unless you count paint 3D??)

if i'm drawing a profile then I tend to draw the right side of a persons face (their right), but it's not necessarily harder to draw their left, i just tend to do their right more, if that makes sense? I think its bc i'm right handed.

ummm, i don't know...i guess drawing mostly people, since that's also kinda all i drew as a kid.

i'm cool and different, so for me it's crowley >:) (getting a lot better though! i'm working on filling up a sketch page w/ him rn, and some of them are quite good, i think. i might be going overboard though.)

oooh, i have so many sketchbooks filled with stuff I've never posted, i only post stuff i particularly like. so probably...20% of my art is online?

my sibling, i've absorbed a lot of their style (especially their older style) without even knowing.

watercolor artists. how do they not make it run everywhere? i think they're cryptids.

at this point...? so many. i have a playlist on spotify filled with songs I want to make animatics to. It has 42 songs. and i know i'm missing some.

quite random, but usually just named after whatevers in the file, eg; aziraphale doodles, crowley scan, tma doodles scan, usually stuff like that.

don't really have one, however i do agree about the turtlenecks for crowley, i do love drawing him specifically in a turtleneck lol

either one of my spotify playlists (if i have one for the character i'm drawing than usually that! if not, then something chill, mac de marco is always an easy bet) or the magnus archives. :)

face. 100%, no doubt. everything else is a lot harder, but i can just whip out faces, no questions asked if you wanted me to.

i...can't think of anyone.

in general? not as of right now, but i do like adding little motifs to things that vary by piece.

in the house i live in, i'm almost never anywhere else. usually in one of the chairs in the living room.

i'm not sure, most of the time things turn out better if i enjoyed working on them.

tea :)

uhm, not that much, i think, at least in recent years. i did have a set of gel pens when i was about 9/10 that constantly broke, but they were quite cheap. 5%?

i don't draw inanimate objects a lot, but the few times i have, i've found that i enjoy drawing flowers. :)

...faces. they're somewhat easy for me but i love drawing them. although a lot of people struggle with them, esp. people used to drawing objects and such. i guess drawing nothing but faces and heads since you were 4 does that to you.

probably super cartoony/stylized styles, i love them dearly, but i guess they're just not how i draw.

...people exercise?

most of the time no, they intimidate me, but sometimes i'll mess around with them for my shadow layer.

yes actually! it sounds weird but they're really helpful, since there's so many of them to choose from. plus, i find them easier to draw from than reference images specifically for artists.

anime, just in general. this came from my grandmother though, who, even though she's an art teacher, has a really hard time describing styles that aren't either a.) realism or b.) classic cartoon style. so...her middle ground is anime?

mmm, can't think of anything. (probably because i only have teeny little doodles but shhh don't think about that)

ummm, i don't know...depends? if i'm drawing the thing for the first time then yes, definitely, but if i've drawn it a lot then it really depends on the day and how i'm feeling.

nope! too fresh an internet presence for that + my adhd is so strong in ma brainhole that i honestly don't know if i could reliably finish something like that.

i feel like everything has inspired me in some way, even if it's not art-style based.

most of my stuff that gets colored, if i'm being honest. a lot of the stuff that people tend to like the most are my sketches + random doodles i barely put any effort in, so it's always a bit sad when something I actually colored, lined, and spent too much time on doesn't get any attention.

Weirdly Specific Artist Ask Game

Didn't see a lot of artist ask games, wanted to make a silly one.

(I wrote this while sick out of my mind last year and it's been collecting dust in my drafts, I might as well let it run free) 1. Art programs you have but don't use

2. Is it easier to draw someone facing left or right (or forward even)

3. What ideas come from when you were little

4. Fav character/subject that's a bitch to draw

5. Estimate of how much of your art you post online vs. the art you keep for yourself

6. Anything that might inspire you subconsciously (i.e. this horse wasn't supposed to look like the Last Unicorn but I see it)

7. A medium of art you don't work in but appreciate

8. What's an old project idea that you've lost interest in

9. What are your file name conventions

10. Favorite piece of clothing to draw

11. Do you listen to anything while drawing? If so, what

12. Easiest part of body to draw

13. A creator who you admire but whose work isn't your thing

14. Any favorite motifs

15. *Where* do you draw (don't drop your ip address this just means do you doodle at a park or smth)

16. Something you are good at but don't really have fun doing

17. Do you eat/drink when drawing? if so, what

18. An estimate of how much art supplies you've broken

19. Favorite inanimate objects to draw (food, nature, etc.)

20. Something everyone else finds hard to draw but you enjoy

21. Art styles nothing like your own but you like anyways

22. What physical exercises do you do before drawing, if any

23. Do you use different layer modes

24. Do your references include stock images

25. Something your art has been compared to that you were NOT inspired by

26. What's a piece that got a wildly different interpretation from what you intended

27. Do you warm up before getting to the good stuff? If so, what is it you draw to warm up with

28. Any art events you have participated in the past (like zines)

29. Media you love, but doesn't inspire you artistically

30. What piece of yours do you think is underrated

[zachsgamejournal]

COMPLETED: Fable: The Lost Chapters

Fable is like DreamWorks's take on Game of Thrones. I enjoyed playing it, so am saddened that it wasn't something better. It's got two sequels, so maybe they'll deliver in this game's promises.

Complaint i left off which is still valid, the popin is so annoying. This is a 360 game. There shouldn't be noticeable popin. I remember playing the Motorstorm demo on PS3 kiosks in Walmart. One of the things that struck me was how many little shrubs of vegetation were spread across the track. Dozens of individual sprites populated the environment, while there were up to 12 detailed vehicles on screen, all with animations and realistic damage. Plus you could see 3d mountains and terrain in the distance. Yet the popin wasn't noticable. To guess, the draw distance was at least 100 feet.

Yet on Fable, little plants were popping in at a mere 12 feet. Like these levels were designed for an xbox. They're not very big and the backgrounds aren't highly detailed. I can't imagine there's any reason to have a single object popin. Not like the game is trying to hide load screens or anything. It's blatantly poor optimization that ruins the experience and immersion of the world.

Moving on...O can't believe how close to beating this game I was back in the day. I stopped just short of saving the mother (whom I thought was dead). Maybe it was because I had focused on strength and fighting the summoned dudes was annoying. If only I understood the magic spells.

See, generally I like to play games and figure them out for myself. How well a game teaches the player is one of my criticisms. I don't think Fable really dissuaded me from magic, but I didn't feel inspired to try it. Turns out I wasn't inspired to use my biw either cause it wasn't till fighting the undead that I remember trying to build up my skills. I think I wanted to unlock steal, but the steal mechanic reminded me of how restrictive Fable js compared to Morrowind and others. I probably just lost interest. Had I leaned into magic I would have finished it.

Magic is OP in Fable. And I'm thankful for that. I've heard magic can be OP in Morrowind, but you gotta know what you're doing. True, Fable has a lot of trash spells. And once you get enflame all other spells are useless IMO.

I've always shies from magic in games because it tends to depend on Mana, a finite resource. And to me, if you can win with physical attacks, then you're just not ready. I'm changing my perspective, especially when I see how it disrupts my enjoyment of things. In Fable, Magic potions are cheap. I had about 200 stored up by the end of the game. And with enflame, you can hit as many enemies that are within range, so getting surrounded by 5 foes is a welcomed opportunity to save on mana and boost xp earned. Plus, you don't take damage while using enflame. So I was killing everything while remaining mostly invincible. It made the game way easy. Sometimes I'd switch to sword or arrows for the fuck of it, but it was never better.

So anyway, I go to save the mom. Kinda dumb as a mission. You find her and try to escape to only be cut off by Jack of Blades, or whatever his name is. Then you go to prison where you have to win a race to get invited to a poetry reading, where you steal a key and escape again. I failed the key stealing the first time. So I had to watch a cutscene and redo the race. Booooo. Then I escaped down the same hall we got stopped at last time. But for some reason Jack wasn't watching. I mean, he could have stopped me so easily. Ah well, plotholes.

The prison sequence was disappointingly boring. When I failed the poetry thing, I half expected a few skills to get reduced as punishment. But nope. Just a note that I was tortured. This could have been more interesting. Maybe force the player into a routine: sit in your cell, get food, walk the yard for exercise, go back to the cell. But have the player make connections with guards and cell mates until they can plot an escape. Punish the player with reduced skills or xp, which immerses the player into the harshness prison life, creating a fear that without escape they'd lose all they have. (You can give apl back later). This could be a more interesting prison escape. Instead, we get a boring foot race and dumb stealth mission. If anything, it felt like the game was trying to extend play time without putting in too many resources. I mean, having to deal with moral decisions while in prison was a great opportunity.

Anyways, we got out, met up with the sister and bear Jack.

Who the fuck is Jack, anyway? I don't think he appeared until the Arena mission, which is like 60% thru the game. Lame time to introduce an antagonist. I think he was the shithead that burns the village at the beginning, but he wasn't seen. How great would it be to see Jack strike down the father and take the women, only to hear about his evil exploits while being raised in the guild. This would have created a personal revenge story worth remembering.

I mean the first 10 or so guild/story missions are unconnected, random events: hornet queens and helpless farmers. Why not make Jack behind it all: releasing hornets werewolves to distract ppl while he makes his moves. That could be a cool mission tree, where did these hornets come from? We tracked them to this cave. Huh, Jack's bandits are breeding them and sending them out in sabotaged supply barrels. What's his plan?

So after the very basic ending of killing the bad guy that wants power, there's an extra 2 hrs tacked on. It's not in the original game, and you can tell. The game has a decent plot of rising action, climax, and resolution. So to then add two more hours of gameplay and pretend it was part of the plan along felt wrong. I remember thinking, "We killed Jack, why are we still doing things?" Turns out Jack became a dragon and had to be defeated again. But most of the main characters from the original game aren't present, so it feels more like a fan game than an official expansion.

Actually it would have made a good sequel. After Jack is defeated you get reports of strange going ons and slowly learn Jack is gaining power as a dragon. A lot could be done with that. Or you could just poop out a half baked 2 hr expansion.

Oh, and Maze's betrayal. It was a surprise, but I didn't care. He mostly died with honor. But what if his betrayal was really about helping prepare you to be strong enough to defeat Jack. So like, by working with Jack, he had enough influence to ensure you were never outmatched but grew enough to win. Basically like how game designers treat gamers. It's a mix of Infamous and Metal Gear Solid 3.

Ultimately the game is very ok. It's mostly playable, though the sword play is a bit annoying. The characters aren't particularly memorable and the plot is pretty standard. But it has a certain charm and is fun. I'm interested to see what 2 and 3 are like.

[bisluthq]

For how creative Taylor undeniably is i find some of her fans lacking in even the urge to figure out how to be creative and what creativity is. In whatever form works. If they put that energy spent obsessing over her exes, exes exes, randoms she's not longer friends with and random's who don't get along with her in to that. They would probably feel better. I swear by creating as just a way to handle stress. Creating, sports, socializing, knowledge, going offline in any way.

Look my thing is if we’re being kind and frankly smart, then we can’t tell people they have to go exercise or socialize because there are objective reasons why that might not be possible. Some people have mental and physical health barriers to both those activities and some other stuff that I think would be good for people comes with economic barriers too. I get that. But if you have a phone or a tablet or a laptop and you can deep dive stalk Taylor’s bf’s ex girlfriends then you can download a little editing app and make fancams or fanart or you can write Wattpad fics tbh. Like you can. Nothing is stopping you from doing those things. It is not the most productive use of your time and energy like in the grand scheme of life but it is much better for you than finding out what some bitch liked on Instagram.

my ex stepsister is super weird (like as her personality) and has a bunch of neurodivergences and doesn’t have a job because of the diagnoses I think mostly and also because she’s quite weird so I think the jobs she could do like she can’t do but she makes a shitton of edits and videos and she does digital drawings on her phone and they’re obviously not very good because I think there is a limit to how good your little drawing is gonna be with your built in phone apps and with no courses or anything but I am much more impressed with what all she does with her time than with what Swifties do with theirs because I think she’s being creative and like… trying.

[extragalaxtic-cosmos]

1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 34, 35, 37, 37, 38, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, and 100

Well thank you… whoever you are, you are a menace… but thank you for letting me answer them all 😆

1. Coffee or tea? Tea. I drink both, but prefer Tea!

2. Black and white or color? Colour (correct spelling 👀😈). Black and white is nice for somethings, but I prefer colour. Fun fact I was once involved the filming of a short film that we did in black and white, which was actually incredibly fun do, although challenging with lighting. Ah sorry… these are meant to be short replies 😅😆

3. Drawings or paintings? Ooohh hmm hmm but what about drawing with paint? URGH ok hmmm drawings. Final answer. I just find them to be more cute… which I like. Oh but… urgh… no… drawings… maybe… hm…..Paintings… actually… OK I DONT KNOW!

4. Dresses or skirts? - dresses 😁 you can get very cute and pretty ones. I don’t wear them though. Just as an fyi.

5. Books or movies? Movies for me. I like books, I’m just a slow reader.

6. Pepsi or Coke? Pepsi. I seem to have gone off the flavour of coke abit. Unless it’s with JD…

7. Chinese or Italian? Takeaway right? Chinese.

8. Early bird or night owl? Early Bird, but TO early recently.

9. Chocolate or vanilla? Hm hm I am definitely a chocolate person, I must say.

10. Introvert or extrovert? Oh definitely introvert

11. Hugs or kisses? Ah.. well… hugs. I get to hold the person… I like kisses though to.

12. Hunting or fishing? - oh two things I can’t stand. Hm. I probably hate fishing less because you can put the fish back.

13. Winter or summer? I think winter. You still get lovely sunny cloud free days which are warm but also you get to be cosey. It’s a different sort of warm.

14. Spring or fall? I think spring. I like seeing stuff come alive rather than die. But… fall is very pretty to.

15. Rural or urban? Rural. I can do urban. But I need to be in or close to countryside.

16. PC or Mac? HA Hm PC.. it is better for some things. One being gaming.

17. Tan or pale? Middle? 😆 pale.

18. Cake or pie? Oh that’s IMPOSSIBLE… oh I hate you (jokes) cakes good, but I think Pie wins 😁

19. Ice cream or yogurt? I definitely eat more yogurt so probably yogurt, less cold.

20. Ketchup or mustard? Ketchup

21. Sweet pickles or dill pickles? Oh no… nooo… ohh.. Ergh… whatever the person I’m with likes 👍

22. Comedy or mystery? Comedy. I like to be happy. It’s a close call between the two though.

23. Boots or sandals? Boots. I refuse to be a person wearing socks and sandals.

24. Silver or gold? heh…. Silver, I love collecting silver coins, they’re more prettier than gold coins. (Mostly) golds nice… but hmm I don’t know… I get better feelings from silver objects.

25. Pop or Rock? Pop. This might sound stupid, but it changes, often. At the moment I’m listening to more pop.

26. Dancing or singing? Definitely dancing. I can do neither.. but at least dancing isn’t painful for everyone in the room 😆

27. Checkers or chess? Chess 😁

28. Board games or video games? Hm I actually love board games.

29. Wine or beer? Ohh wine… beer no.. to gassy, ale though… yes please.

30. Freckles or dimples? I honestly don’t have a preference both are just as nice.

31. Honey mustard or BBQ sauce? I think bbq sauce 😅 I’ve never knowingly tried honey mustard.

32. Body weight exercises or lifting weights? Body weight exercises probably 😆

33. Baseball or basketball? Baseball… I stand more chance of hitting the damn thing

34. Crossword puzzles or sudokus? Sudokus… they don’t show my actual stupidity 😆😆

35. Facial hair or clean shaven? Hm well…. I like my facial hair.

36. Crushed ice or cubed ice? Cubed ice… CRUNCH

37. Skiing or snowboarding? Skiing.. I enjoyed it for the brief time I did it!

38. Smile or game face? Smile!!

39. Bracelet or necklace? Necklace I think.. it can have more meaning being closer to the heart.

40. Fruit or vegetables? Vegetables!

41. Sausage or bacon? Love a good sausage 😆😆

42. Scrambled or fried? Scrambled!

43. Dark chocolate or white chocolate? Oh… hmm… dark chocolate I think. Nice white chocolate is difficult to find.

44. Tattoos or piercings? Hm. It’s close hmm you can get some very pretty looking ear piercings… ok it’s piercings!

45. Antique or brand new? Oh antique.. brand new these days is mostly just boring or cheap crap which looks antique so….

46. Dress up or dress down? I actually prefer to dress down 😅

47. Cowboys or aliens? Aliens!

48. Cats or dogs? Oh… Dogs. Love looking at cats love petting at a distance never not been clawed by one in close contact 😅

49. Pancakes or waffles? Wafflessss

50. Bond or Bourne? Bond

51. Sci-Fi or fantasy? Sci-fi Fantasy 😆😆 hmm Fantasy.

52. Numbers or letters? Letters… some a very pretty.

53. Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings? Harry Potter!

54. Fair or theme park? Probably a fair… I’m scared at theme parks 😆

55. Money or fame? Money.. I don’t like being the centre of attention.

56. Washing dishes or doing laundry? URGH dishes I think.

57. Snakes or sharks?…. Snakes at a distance.

58. Orange juice or apple juice? Orange juice

59. Sunrise or sunset? Hm sunset…

60. Slacker or over-achiever? Probably slacker 😆 I don’t want to be that clever if I’m honest…

61. Pen or pencil? Pen

62. Peanut butter or jelly? Jelly

63. Grammys or Oscars? I really don’t care 😅 Dice maiden tells me I like Grammys 😆

64. Detailed or abstract? Detailed… I can understand it more 😅😅

65. Multiple choice questions or essay questions? Multiple choice. Nice and simple. Getting a theme here? I really am quite stupid.

66. Adventurous or cautious? Cautious. But adventurous with the right person and situation dependant.

67. Saver or spender? Saver. I get panicky by not having money.. I’ve come to realise.

68. Glasses or contacts? Glasses. *pulls glasses down nose*

69. Laptop or desktop? Desktop gaming 😎

70. Classic or modern? Hmm hmm in what sense? Situation really matters here.

71. Personal chef or personal fitness trainer? Personal Chef - Food = NOM

72. Internet or cell phone? hm? Internet?

73. Call or text? Text 😆

74. Curly hair or straight hair? Hehe actually both. Sorry.

75. Shower in the morning or shower in the evening? I want to shower in the morning, except for certain circumstances (ahem). Works means evening showers these days.

76. Spicy or mild? Mild.

77. Marvel or DC? Marvel.

78. Paying a mortgage or paying rent? Paying a mortgage!

79. Sky dive or bungee jump? Oh god. Probably sky dive. There are at least 3 safety measures with that.

80. Oreos or Chips Ahoy? Oreo’s. What are chip ahoys?

81. Jello or pudding? Pudding!

82. Truth or dare? Truth 😆 unless it’s a different sort of truth or dare 👀

83. Roller coaster or Ferris wheel? Ferris wheel (sorry)

84. Leather or denim? Denim except for jackets. I personally like to weather leather jackets more.

85. Stripes or solids? Solids stripes make my eyes funny

86. Bagels or muffins? Muffins!

87. Whole wheat or white? Hm white I think..

88. Beads or pearls? Pearlssssss

89. Hardwood or carpet? Carpet upstairs hardwood downstairs

90. Bright colors or neutral tones? Mostly neutral tones for me personally. But I also like bright colours. I’m couldn’t for example have a bright yellow painted room.

91. Be older than you are or younger than you are? A lil younger please

92. Raisins or nuts? Raisins

93. Picnic or nice restaurant? Picnic actually 😅

94. Black leather or brown leather? Brown leather

95. Long hair or short hair? Short hair - long hair annoys me these days.. I hate it covering my ears.

96. “Ready, aim, fire” or “Ready, fire, aim”? Ready aim fire!

97. Fiction or non-fiction? Fictionnn

98. Smoking or non-smoking? Non-smoking

99. Think before you talk or talk before you think? I try to think before I talk, I prefer that. Doesnt always work out though.

100. Asking questions or answering questions? Answering them! I think 😆😆I also like asking them though!

Thank you for asking me to answer THE ENTIRE LIST!! Whoever you are.. menace. It’s been fun though 😁😁

[stagkingswife]

Energy Batteries

or

A Lazy Deer’s Guide to Ignoring Space and Time in Spell Work

I’ve been pretty frank about how I don’t really incorporate timing into my magical paradigm, that’s because this “battery” trick was one of the first methods that I figured out for myself after the death of my childhood teacher.  Because I’ve been doing it for so long I admit that I find it hard to detail the process in words, it’s like explaining in words how to walk or ride a bike, so I’m going to just explain my basic theory and leave it up to you guys to work out how the details work on an individual level.  I use this basic method for storing my own energies when I have excess (rare) for use when I feel depleted (more common, thanks to chronic illnesses and pain), storing important/interesting energies for later use, even for short term housing of spirits as part of the “catch and release” relocation aspect of the house “cleansings” I do.  We’re going to focus mostly on the first two for the purposes of this post.

Storing Your Own Energy:

This is the logical place to start if you ask me, it’s basically just an energy work exercise.  Before you start get an object that you want to be your battery, I have tried all sorts of objects and haven’t found much variation in quality or ease of operation based on what object I chose, so I recommend just picking something obvious, something that you won’t forget that you charged up with a bunch of energy, or better yet, something that you can label - or put in a container with a label.  

Making the battery itself is rather simple, building off of my other energy exercises:

Get comfortable holding the object that will serve as your battery.  Some people believe that their energies flow better through one hand than the other, if this is your paradigm, hold the object in that hand, if not I find both hands work well.  

Collect your personal energy into a tightly condensed core, and pull just a little bit away from the rest and send it down one arm or the other and into the object.  

Once the connection is established you can feed a little bit more at a time, though be careful not to feed too much at a time or you may find yourself feeling drained. 

Once the object is “full”, disconnect your thread of energy from it and tuck it back into your core.  You can now store your full energy battery away until you need it. 

*I don’t really have a good way to describe how to know when a battery is getting “full,” it’s just a sort of intuitive/instinctive feeling that I get.  Usually 15-20 minutes of unbroken concentration on charging is enough to fill a battery enough to power a standard spell for me.  This is something that everyone trying this is going to need to experiment with to get a feel for.

Storing Foreign Energies:

This is how I ignore timing and spatial limitations in my spell work.  Let’s say I want to use the energy of a certain natural occurrence, like a thunderstorm, or of a certain place like the Mississippi River, or my college campus, but I don’t want to wait for a storm or until I can physically get to such a place.  Instead I collect batteries of such energies whenever the opportunity presents itself.  Then whenever I want to work some storm energies, or Mississippi energies, or college energies, into a spell I can draw on that battery regardless of where I am or what the weather is.

The bulk of the process is the same, but first I draw the energy through myself, the same way I do when channeling an entity. 

Open your mind/awareness to the energies you want to put in a battery.

Pull the energy into yourself and through yourself and just like above into the object that is going to serve as the battery using the method above. 

*For this I like to use objects somehow tied to the energy I’m storing as the physical component of the battery - vials of rainwater for the thunderstorm, rocks found in the location that I want to store the energy of.  I find the sympathetic link keeps the energy fresher and more vibrant for longer. Using a battery in spell work for me is just like using my own personal energy, or any other energy source for that matter. It's just that when using a battery I happen to know in advance exactly what energy and how much of it is available to me. I will say that I don' like to use batteries for spells that I expect to need long term or in perpetuity, unless I have enough batteries of the same kind that I can cycle them through the spell to keep the energy level consistent. Instead I like them for quick burst spells or spells with a medium duration at best.

[pathos-p]

"Weirdly Specific Artist Ask Game" but i got tagged in it so i am gonna answer all of them 'cause theyre fun

questions by @/i-like-eyes

thanks for the tag @king-chook!! ^^

1. Art programs you have but don't use

i thiiink i have a license for clip studio paint that came with my old wacom tablet but i never rly used it. also used to have krita installed for the longest time but just always felt off to me idk why. don't currently have it installed anymore tho

2. Is it easier to draw someone facing left or right (or forward even)

to their right is a bit easier i think. not smth i consciously notice, mostly i'm just thinking abt when im doodling on the margins of stuff they usually are looking to the left of the page

3. What ideas come from when you were little

uhhh idk tbh, i dont think much of my art draws from that

4. Fav character/subject that's a bitch to draw

cityscapes !!! i love cities they r so pretty and cool looking but goddamn theyre so hard to draw

5. Estimate of how much of your art you post online vs. the art you keep for yourself

80-20? i post everything that i finish. basically the only stuff that doesnt get posted is sketches i give up on

6. Anything that might inspire you subconsciously (i.e. this horse wasn't supposed to look like the Last Unicorn but I see it)

hmmmm not that i can think of rn...

7. A medium of art you don't work in but appreciate

watercolour !! i've tried it a few times and Struggled but i love seeing ppl's work in it

8. What's an old project idea that you've lost interest in

so many animatics ..................... also many comic ideas ..................... i get so many ideas that i just never start on or start and only do a little before losing the hyperfocus/fixation and just Cannot continue them. it sucks

9. What are your file name conventions

usually the character name, maybe a bit of description of what theyre doing... idk not much of a convention to it

10. Favorite piece of clothing to draw

hmm i like jackets :)

11. Do you listen to anything while drawing? If so, what

yes, usually music. sometimes random youtube videos like stream highlights or video essays.

12. Easiest part of body to draw

uhhh hair? maybe idk. hard question bc it varied a lot depending on what kinda style and just. sometimes smth is hard in a particular drawing then easy later idk

13. A creator who you admire but whose work isn't your thing

i cant think of anything i will edit it in if i think of anyone

14. Any favorite motifs

in my drawings i dont feel like i use any much. mostly i pull motifs from whatever im doing fanart of lol. in music, i like religious motifs (but not like. ones abt christ or bible stories, rather heaven, hell, god/divinity, angels)

15. *Where* do you draw (don't drop your ip address this just means do you doodle at a park or smth)

at home pretty much exclusively. in bed lol

16. Something you are good at but don't really have fun doing

idk i feel like the stuff im better at is the stuff i like bc i practice it more for fun lol

17. Do you eat/drink when drawing? if so, what

not usually

18. An estimate of how much art supplies you've broken

surprisingly little. mostly bc i do more digital art lol

19. Favorite inanimate objects to draw (food, nature, etc.)

weapons and nature. especially ice for nature

20. Something everyone else finds hard to draw but you enjoy

i cant think of anything ill add it if i do

21. Art styles nothing like your own but you like anyways

i love rougher styles, like ones with a lot of visible brushstrokes and bold lines and shit. so cool. idk how to make it look good lol i dont have the confidence in my lines for it

22. What physical exercises do you do before drawing, if any

none... probably i should change that

23. Do you use different layer modes

yeah, often i use a multiple layer for shading then a variety to colour adjust at the end

24. Do your references include stock images

sometimes

25. Something your art has been compared to that you were NOT inspired by

cant think of any

26. What's a piece that got a wildly different interpretation from what you intended

there was this poem i wrote about capitalism and how shit it is and someone thought it was abt interpersonal relationships/smth along the lines of a breakup. i rly didnt mind it tho i thought it was cool bc the emotion was not far off, the sense of betrayal and abandonment. just a very very different subject

27. Do you warm up before getting to the good stuff? If so, what is it you draw to warm up with

no lol

28. Any art events you have participated in the past (like zines)

i ran a zine (digital only) for the dimension 20 zine jam! and also made art+writing for others in that :D also was part of a polygon yt fanzine a while back

29. Media you love, but doesn't inspire you artistically

spider-man (not the MCU, mostly tasm and a few of the comics)

30. What piece of yours do you think is underrated

IS IT BAD TO SAY A PIECE THAT GOT QUITE A BIT OF POSITIVE ATTENTION ?? maybe

i rly like the cj comic i did i am genuinely so goddamn happy with the result so . even tho it did very well by the standards for the fandom its for and my current follower base it is underrated

alternatively this one https://www.tumblr.com/pathos-p/704380503765221377/tridential-sovereignty?source=share bc it didnt get all that much attention on any social media site but i think its cool !!

(mostly only using recent ones bc i dont wanna dig back further esp onto my old twt acct, too much work lol)

[justanotherpersonsuniverse]

uh, ml bnha au

Yep. Here we go folks. Uh I don’t know much I’ll expand on this but it’s here. The quirks that is. Uhm- here we go I guess? Thank you @ghostatjoes and @symphonic-scream and all y’all for the ideas and inspiration.

Adrien’s will be the only on the nose most obvious one. I wanna try and keep these powers from being just the miraculous powers. So this will be a mix of just original ideas and akuma stuff.

Adrien: “Cataclysm” pretty much it’s Shigaraki’s Decay but a little different. It’s this au’s version of One For All. The Destruction Hero, Plagg, passed this quirk down to him when Adrien proved that he had a good heart to be a hero cause Plagg needs a replacement due to an injury causing Cataclysm to slowly start to kill him. Adrien is aiming to save as many people as possible as a rescue hero. (His outfit has a cat motif in honor of Plagg who has a cat head due to an unrelated mutation like how Tokoyami has a bird head)

Marinette: “Growth” Marinette can amplify the life in a living object. Whether this means taking a small flower and turning it a building tall beanstalk or amplifying the healing of someone’s body. However she can only use this in short bursts or else she risks over growing her body causing chronic pains and possible plants growing from her arms. 

Nino: “Bubbles” Okay yeah so obviously Bubbler, but it’s a little cooler? Nino can entrap anything into these bubbles. Sounds, healing packs, explosions, balls of fire, light itself, all condensed into these bubbles ready to be yeeted across the battle field like bombs, med packs, or flash bombs. However they can be a little fragile so he’s working to make them more tough. The bubble solution he uses to make these bubbles are made of his unique sweat. Bakugo style. Don’t ask what it’s made of he isn’t sure either. At least it makes him smell nice.

Alya: “Signal” Not the most offensive quirk, but she can send a signal to every single person in a certain radius that she’s training to grow. Whether this is a message, an image she’s seeing(this can extend to just what she’s seeing in general), etc. She’s also training for this to extent to different signals in the air like WiFi signals so she can send them electrically as well. However she risks heavy migraines with overuse. To make up for her very situational quirk she’s working on upping her physical strength.

Chloe: “Venom/Honeycomb” With Venom she can temporarily paralyze a specific part of an opponent. It’s not as strong as her mother’s Venom or her Aunt/Mentor Pollen’s Venom as it’s a quirk she’s gotten from her family, but she’s working on making sure she’s the most exceptional in the entire class, and making sure no one hears of her other quirk. Honeycomb, which is actually her main quirk and not secondary, gives her the ability to produce a honey like substance that can harden into resin following her will. Chloe refuses to use it for it is unexceptional. She must be like her mother or else..

Sabrina: “Emotional Pulse” Sabrina draws energy from the emotions around her to give her a physical boost. It can go from a strengthened punch to something looking like Detroit Smash. However a draw back can be that the emotions around her can start literally affecting her and somewhat tilting how she may feel. So in an angry environment she herself might start to become angry as well. Hyper empathy basically. And it makes her a little anxious about her identity as an individual.

Nathaniel: “Ink” Nathaniel basically water bends ink into creations he can control, quite literally drawing his creations to life. His limit is how much ink he has. Like that one fuckin Mickey Mouse game.

Alix: “Clockwise” For, at most, thirty seconds, Alix’s speed is super enhanced to an incredible degree, practically breaking time itself. This also enhances her strength and mind, pretty much giving her the spiritual equivalent of that one scene with QuickSilver or that one scene from Over the Hedge. However she can’t go over thirty seconds right now or else her body, mind, and definitely internal organs will begin to face serious damage. To make sure she can track herself, she has a pocket watch that she always has handy to remind her how much time has actually passed.

Kim: “Icarus” Kim can create wings out of a waxy substance from his back that allows him the power of flight. One of the most straightforward power here honestly. Like Icarus however, these wings can melt and can be destroyed. Kim, however, has a small control over the wax which means he could potentially be able to use it for something else, however this requires patience and control, something he lacks. 

Max: “Locker” Pretty much, Max is able to set a “marker” on any enclosed space (of a arm reachable size, spanning from a literal locker or a luggage bag) and from anywhere in a 4 mile radius (that he can train to grow) Max is able to “reach into inside” and grab anything that’s inside there. However this space must exist, it’s not a pocket dimension, and so are the objects inside as well. This quirk is useful for holding emergency equipment or grabbing a quick weapon. However it has to be something he can actually hold and something he has already put in there, so he must calculate what would be useful so he can prioritize space and what he should bring with him. 

Ivan: “Minotaur” Gives him attributes akin to The Minotaur. Though his appearance is mostly human, it does become more and more beastly as his anger or need to use his power rises. 

Mylene: “Fear” Mylene gets a boost of power from the fear around her, which she has the ability to enhance to terrifying levels, leaving her victims in states of trauma and distress if she doesn’t control its degree. This quirk mutates her slightly to be akin in some way to the form of the person she’s using her quirk on’s fear. However she herself is easy to be scared so this backfires most of the time.

Juleka: “Vampire Bat” She can do anything a bat can do! Plus a bloody bonus. She has the power of echolocation which, if trained, can possibly knock down a small target. She doesn’t have wings but is working to incorporate some kind of glider into her hero design. As for that vampiric bonus, she has minor control over blood, able to bend it at will, however at this moment, the best she can do is make someone dizzy through a few edits with their blood stream.

Rose: “Perfume” Rose is able to admit a powerful perfume like gas which, upon inhaling, can reduce the victims into a drowsy state of mind. However she’s the only one immune to it so she must be extremely careful with how she uses it and who's around to possibly inhale it. A strange side effect from this quirk is that there’s a slight green tint to her blush.

Extras-

Luka: “Synesthesia” like the actual condition of synesthesia, he is able to visualize and conceptualize sound on different levels of understanding. With this, his hearing is incredibly sensitive and simply pressing an ear against the wall could help him develop an map of the entire building. He claims to hear the souls of others as well, which is supported by his ability to tell from illusion or reality just by his sense of hearing.

Kagami: “Storm” She has the entire essence of a storm wrapped up inside her. Though it may be confused with Class 1b’s Aurore Beaureal’s quirk “Weather” if you were to mistake those two, you would certainly get a lightning bolt to the stomach. Kagami’s quirk has been part of her family for generations, and as the up coming member of her hero family’s legacy, she is planning for no one to be in her way.

Marc: “Origami” Has complete control over paper and can manipulate them to become any creation they can think of, getting said creation’s attributes. So if Marc made a origami dog it might start barking and it’s teeth might become sharp enough to actually pierce skin, same if Marc made a paper sword. However the limitation is how much paper Marc actually has.

Lila: “Whistle” Lila can manipulate a person’s perception through the power of her whistle, causing possible hallucinations or problems in their sight. However it’s controlled by her whistle and it’s power so breathing exercises are important for her to do. To make things easier, she has taken up using the flute to better enhance her quirk. 

Maybe in a different post I’ll talk about the different pro heroes, vigilantes, and villains.

[pcos-fighter]

As some may know from my group chat, I am currently in therapy to manage my anxiety and I’ve been learning grounding techniques and the kind of questions to ask myself when I get in one of my moods where I might spiral into an attack or spark it. I slowly have been working through how to manage and my therapist sent me techniques in the Betterhelp app which is how I’ve been going to sessions. The techniques I have started to learn and apply I am finding to actually be helpful when I actively work on them in a moment of panic.

For instance the other day at work I started to feel my heart race and that overwhelming stomach knot I feel when my anxiety spikes. I was in the middle of paperwork and received a text from a dear friend who supported my desire to leave my current job and sent me multiple job postings every few days. But the posts she sent me some of the listings just overwhelmed me and in my head, I began to spiral with thoughts about my abilities to handle those kinds of environments and I could feel myself start to panic a little. So when I walked to the mailbox to get the mail, I did one of the techniques I had read about previously and started to say out loud everything I saw outside to ground myself. I kept my focus on the things around me, naming each tree or car which helped calm me from a full-blown attack.

I am sharing this story because I know with PCOS many of us struggle with anxiety and depression and I know not everyone can afford therapy as it can be very expensive. Shoot I barely can afford it but with the app Betterhelp, it's a lot more affordable than other avenues so I make it work. This is why I am writing this post to share a few grounding techniques so that any of you who struggle with anxiety can have a tool that will help ease at the moment. Now it's not a cure-all so some may work better than others, but at least it can help (as a few help me) to ground you when your anxiety gets high.

There are seven ways you can ground yourself so take what works for you the best and use it to overcome those moments.

1. The Grounding Chair

The first step in this technique is to sit in a comfortable chair where your feet touch the ground. Close your eyes and breath in slowly to the count of three and then out slowly. Bring your mind's focus to the rest of your body in the chair. How does it feel? Scoot your bum right into the back of the seat so that the whole length of your back is pressing into the back of the chair. Can you feel the contact of the chair against your body?

If the chair has arms, touch it, is the material smooth or textured? Press your arms down the length of the chair's arm, notice how your hands hang off the end.

If your chair doesn't have arms, touch the material of the seat, how does it feel?

Next push your feet into the ground, imagine that energy drain down from your mind, flow down through your body, and out through your feet into the ground. As that energy drains from your head, feel how heavy each body part becomes, your torso feels heavy, and now your arms as you relax your muscles. Lastly, feel the heaviness go down your legs through your feet and down into the ground.

2. The 5-4-3-2-1 Grounding Technique

This technique uses all five of your senses to help get you back to the present. It starts with you sitting comfortably, close your eyes and take a couple of deep breathes. In your nose (count to three) then out your mouth (to the count of three). Now open your eyes and look around you. Name out loud five things you can see, you can look within the room and out the window. Name four things you can feel, (such as the silkiness of your skin, the texture of the chair you're in, or what your hair feels like.) What is in front of you that you can touch? Name three things you can hear, (traffic noise, birds outside, noises in the room you're in.) What noises do you hear? Name two things you can smell. Do you have something scented nearby or in the area that you can walk to? Name one thing you can taste, (it might be a good idea to keep a piece of chocolate or mint handy in case you are doing this grounding exercise.) You can always leave the chair in this exercise and taste whatever it is you have chosen with a small bite. Let it swill around your mouth for a couple of seconds, letting it really savor the flavor. Take a deep breath to end.

(This one works a bit better for me personally.)

3. Hold Something and Really Focus On It

Hold an object in your hand and really bring your full focus to it. Look where shadows may fall on parts of it or is there something about it that is textured? Or are there color variants in it or on it? Feel the weight of it, is it heavy or light? What textures do your hands feel while holding it? Is it rough or smooth? This can be done with any object you have lying around or if you know you are going into a stressful situation, take one of your favorite small objects and put it in your pocket so you can do this calming exercise on the go.

4. Distract Yourself

There are several ways to distract your mind so it stops thinking about whatever it is that is worrying you and focuses on something that isn't emotionally driven.

You can pick a color in the room you are in. How many things in different shades of that color can you see around you? How about out the window? Still feeling stressed? Pick another color.

Count backward by 7, starting at 100. It isn't easy and requires you to concentrate.

Or my personal one I use sometimes is having some friends send me pictures of cats on the internet or their cats and it stops me in my worst spirals. (Mostly cause I love cats.) But if you have a creature you love look them up. Or watch a video with them in it. Whatever works to pull you out of that spiral find that image online or video.

5. Draw Around Your Foot In Your Mind

Place your feet on the ground and in your imagination pick your favorite color to draw an outline around each foot. Start at the heel and using your imaginary pencil slowly go up on the side of your foot to your pinky toe and then around each toe then back to your heel. Repeat on the other foot.

Another way you can focus on your feet in a stressful moment is just wiggle your toes inside your shoe. Pay attention to the sensation as you move to separate each toe. Do some move independently of the others? Tense your whole foot then stretch it out. Now do the other foot.

6. Let Your Thoughts Come and Go

So this one is simple in that most of us with PCOS constantly have our minds overthink and wander. Personally, I know when my mind lingers on the parts I can't control or can't fully change my anxiety spikes and it just spirals till I have a panic attack because I don't stop myself and observe my thoughts. And I am learning in therapy that part of this is all due to cognitive distortion and the challenge to overcome those thoughts is to really think about what those thoughts do to my feelings and then my behavior.

This technique requires you to watch your thoughts for a minute. Imagine leaves floating on the surface of a stream. For each thought that comes to mind allow that thought to take its place on a leaf and watch it blow away in the wind. Or allow them to change into a fish and watch it float down the stream. Allow those thoughts to come and go, you don't need to respond to them.

In this case, you don't have to challenge these thoughts at the moment your anxiety spikes but down the line start to challenge them.

7. Get Your Adrenaline-Fueled Energy Out

If for whatever nothing works at first because your adrenaline is spiked your best bet to kick start the calming down process is to do something physical first to get that pent-up energy out. Go for a run if you can, a brisk walk if you aren't as conditioned to run or hate running, or clean a room like the kitchen, the house, or even outside if you have a yard. Dance around your room or house while listening to loud music. (I do this often, even on car drives for my daily commute and it helps me.) When you're physically spent you can try to return to the grounding techniques above to calm down your mind.

I hope this helps some of you in some form through those moments. I know in the past there are a couple I have applied without knowing these in full as grounding techniques and I am grateful to have a therapist who sent me this information as some others I have started to apply.

Living with PCOS isn't easy and managing anxiety isn't easy either. But hopefully, this helps those of you who struggle to find healthy ways to ground yourself so those overwhelming thoughts don't get the best of you. Take care cysters. You know I care about each one of you even if I am not a frequent poster.

All this information can be found on Dr. Sarah Allen's website.

[wanderinginksplot]

Nobody Listens to Kix

Previous | Next | Masterlist

Case 01386: Gregor

The commando standing in front of him was a miracle… At least, the closest thing the GAR had to one. CC-5576-39 - or Gregor, as he was known by the men - had been MIA for years. Then, he had been presumed KIA after he caused a series of explosions to distract a Seppie army while a group of droids escaped the distant planet they had all been stuck on.

Sometimes, Kix felt like he was really missing out on the action by being a medic.

The scanner in his hand beeped, indicating that it had finished, and Kix grimaced as he read over the results. Maybe he didn't mind missing out on commando-level action after all.

"Your body is in starvation mode," Kix told Gregor slowly. "You didn't have much to eat while you were stuck on Abafar, did you?"

"No, sir," Gregor admitted softly. "Borkus said I was a burden as it was, that he couldn't afford to keep feeding some human who ate like he was going to starve. He said I had to cut down on how much food I eat in a day."

"Well, for a normal human, that may be true," Kix told him. "But since the Kaminoans engineered us to have a faster metabolism than the nat-borns, we need to consume more calories in a day just to stay healthy."

"So, I'm not healthy?" Gregor frowned, staring down at his hands like he expected them to have wasted away to bones while Kix spoke. "I feel healthy."

"You aren't dying, if that's what you're asking, but we need to make some changes if we want to keep it that way," Kix warned.

"Won't I just be a little more… uhh- slender?"

"No. Not eating enough can lead to a number of problems, mostly with metabolism, but with other parts of the body as well," Kix told him, automatically slipping into lecture mode. "It can also cause diabetes, negatively affect your muscle mass, and even affect the density and porosity of your bones if left untreated for a long enough period of time. After that, major systems start shutting down."

"Oh. So what- what do I do?" Gregor asked haltingly.

"Well," Kix answered slowly, formulating a plan as he spoke. "You and I will work closely together to build a diet plan. You're being held here on a medical leave for the next few weeks, right?"

Gregor grimaced. "Yes. They say I can't be cleared for duty until I regain at least 60% of the muscle mass that I lost while I was on Abafar."

"Perfect. You'll need a lot of high-potassium foods and we'll have to monitor your salt intake, so you're better off here on Coruscant. Nutritional paste and ration packs are only meant to sustain your current physique with minimal loss of mass, so being on a ship wouldn't be in your best interest."

After Gregor indicated his understanding of Kix's explanation with a nod, Kix began working on the rough draft for a meal plan, calculating serving sizes and calorie requirements on the edges of the piece of flimsi. He sketched out a plan for weeks at a time, going as far out as a month and a half before Gregor would be back at full strength.

"When we're done, I'll place the data on a chip and we'll give it to one of the meal preparation droids so it can keep the diet going. I'm only on leave for the next few days, then I ship out for a month," Kix told him, tallying up a long column of totals. "If you don't mind, I'd like to have a med droid send me updates about your progress. I would like to check on your muscle gain when I get back, but I can at least give you advice about when it's safe to start exercising again."

"That's fine," Gregor said distantly.

Kix frowned down at the page before finishing up and holding it out to the commando. "Check this for me. If you have any particular objections to any of the foods I have listed, we can make adjustments. We just have to meet the calorie amounts I have listed per day."

Gregor made no move to take the piece of flimsi. "I'm sure it's fine."

"I'm sure it's not," Kix countered. "Studies have shown that you absorb more nutrients from foods you enjoy than those you don't. Look over the meal plan and tell me about the foods you don't like." Gregor still didn't move and Kix let his voice grow sharp. "That's an order, trooper."

The commando took the flimsi with the jerky motions of someone who had reacted on pure instinct, but he didn't even try to read it. Instead, he stood staring down at it blankly, guilt scrolling plainly across his face.

Kix stood and Gregor's gaze snapped to his face, something like fear budding in his expression as his breathing grew concerningly fast. Kix held his hands up, palms out, and put on his best soothing voice. "It's okay, vod. I just want you to sit down for a minute, yeah? I feel like we need to have an honest chat. Is that okay?"

"Y- yeah," Gregor stuttered slowly, face paler than the flimsi he still held in a loose grip. "Yeah, we can talk."

"I'm just going to help you sit down, all right?"

Gregor nodded, and Kix was alarmed to see how uncoordinated the gesture was. He walked around the desk with a calm he didn't feel, talking quietly and narrating his own actions all the while. "I'm going to come help you find a chair, that's all. We just need to get you sitting down. Is it okay if I touch your elbow?"

He waited for the commando to nod again before he gently grasped Gregor's elbow and steered him into a nearby chair. As soon as he sat down, Gregor sprawled slightly against the uncomfortably rigid backrest.

"What's going on, Gregor?" Kix asked, voice pitched low and gentle.

"I- I don't- I don't know," Gregor told him. "My heart hurts and I feel like I'm about to go into battle."

Fast heart rate. Adrenaline. Fear. Kix was willing to bet that Gregor was having a panic attack. "I'm going to touch your arm again. We're just going to put your hand on your stomach, okay?"

After another nod, Kix positioned Gregor's hand so that it was spread against his stomach, just under his ribs and diaphragm. As he had suspected, the commando was breathing shallowly, worsening his fluttering pulse.

"All right, Gregor," Kix said, deliberately using Gregor's name to draw his attention. "We're going to do a breathing exercise and I want you to feel the way your stomach and ribs move with it. I'm going to count to five as you breathe in. Ready?"

Gregor nodded and Kix started to count. "One… two… three… four… five… Okay, now hold it… two… three… four… five… Now breathe out… two… three… four… five… and hold… two… three… four…. five…"

He kept counting, Gregor kept breathing, and Kix could see the panic ebbing from his patient's tense posture. Eventually, Kix stopped speaking and Gregor continued breathing normally. When Gregor opened his eyes again, Kix asked, "How do you feel?"

"Tired," Gregor admitted, "but better. What was that?"

"I think you had a panic attack," Kix theorized. "Can you think of anything that may have caused it?"

"I'm not sure. I was thinking about Borkus and then you gave a command and I just- just…"

"That's okay, vod," Kix soothed, trying to ignore his own flare of guilt. "Tell me about Borkus. What made you think of him?"

"I- well… he never gave me much choice about what I ate. Or where I lived. Or what I did. I did so much…" Gregor's voice faded out so that Kix had trouble hearing his admission, "I shouldn't have been allowed to come back."

"Why not?" Kix asked, trying to keep his voice even. The last thing he wanted to do was trigger another panic attack.

"I- Borkus, he… I was his hired muscle. I did terrible things…"

"Did you hurt any innocents?"

"No," Gregor said, quick and firm. "I would never hurt anyone who wasn't part of the underworld, no matter what Borkus did to me. But I… I acted in ways that no soldier should."

"Listen, Gregor," Kix said, settling into a chair beside the commando. "That shabuir Borkus is the one to blame here. He saw an opportunity to manipulate someone else for his own gain. You didn't know who you were or what you should do, but you knew enough not to hurt those who didn't deserve it. Borkus is the one who should feel ashamed for the things he made you do."

"But I'm the one who did them," Gregor countered. "How do I move on from that?"

"You live," Kix said simply. "Focus on getting your health back, and let time heal everything else. Now, how do you feel about meiloorun?"

Gregor frowned. "I'm not really sure. I've had the juice, but never the fruit."

Kix stood again. "Well, meiloorun is good for people trying to rebuild their bodies after starvation. I saw a shipment in the main hangar bay. Let's go grab a few and see if you like them."

"Right now?"

"I wrote your whole meal plan around them, and you would just have to deal with it if you hate them. Is that what you prefer?" Kix waved the sheet of flimsi around, satisfied with the easy way Gregor's eyes tracked the movement.

"Lead on," Gregor said easily, rising from his chair to follow Kix from the medbay.

---

A/N - Okay, here's the thing: I've only ever had one panic attack, so this chapter was written with a bit of research and a lot of drawing on my own limited experience. Much more research went into refeeding syndrome and the side effects of not eating enough calories in a day. Also, the thing Kix says about absorbing more nutrients from foods you enjoy is real! I've been using it as an excuse to eat inadvisable foods for the last month, though, so I guess it's cursed knowledge? You're welcome! (Message me if you want the sources I used for the information in this chapter)

On the medical side: if you're struggling with an eating disorder or even just a negative self-image, please seek the appropriate help. The negative side effects listed in this chapter are just the tip of the iceberg and eating less than you should will permanently damage your body - and, unlike Gregor, it will take more than just a few months to regain your health. The technique Kix uses to calm Gregor is called square breathing, and it helps me in times of stress or high tension. Look into it if you think it could help you, but obviously seek the advice of a professional.

Thank you to everyone who has liked or reblogged this story!