#what not having a scanner does to an artist

[thatsitso]

Sketch commissions open!

Bust 10$

Half-body 20$

Full-body 25$

Digitally colored +10$

Payment via PayPal

Pencil on paper comms open :]!! Dm me if you're interested! I really appreciate even the smallest commissions 🙏 (starting college tomorrow ueue)

Digital commissions open as well (info here)!

[empty-movement]

May I ask what scanners / equipment / software you're using in the utena art book project? I'm an artist and half the reason I rarely do traditional art is because I'm never happy with the artwork after it's scanned in. But the level of detail even in the blacks of Utena's uniform were all captured so beautifully! And even the very light colors are showing up so well! I'd love to know how you manage!

You know what's really fun? This used to be something you put in your site information section, the software and tools used! Not something that's as normal anymore, but let's give it a go, sorry it's long because I don't know what's new information and what's not! Herein: VANNA'S 'THIS IS AS SPECIFIC AS MY BREAK IS LONG' GUIDE/AIMLESS UNEDITED RAMBLE ABOUT SCANNING IMAGES

Scanning: Modern scanners, by and large, are shit for this. The audience for scanning has narrowed to business and work from home applications that favor text OCR, speed, and efficiency over archiving and scanning of photos and other such visual media. It makes sense--there was a time when scanning your family photographs and such was a popular expected use of a scanner, but these days, the presumption is anything like that is already digital--what would you need the scanner to do that for? The scanner I used for this project is the same one I have been using for *checks notes* a decade now. I use an Epson Perfection V500. Because it is explicitly intended to be a photo scanner, it does threebthings that at this point, you will pay a niche user premium for in a scanner: extremely high DPI (dots per inch), extremely wide color range, and true lossless raws (BMP/TIFF.) I scan low quality print media at 600dpi, high quality print media at 1200 dpi, and this artbook I scanned at 2400 dpi. This is obscene and results in files that are entire GB in size, but for my purposes and my approach, the largest, clearest, rawest copy of whatever I'm scanning is my goal. I don't rely on the scanner to do any post-processing. (At these sizes, the post-processing capacity of the scanner is rendered moot, anyway.) I will replace this scanner when it breaks by buying another identical one if I can find it. I have dropped, disassembled to clean, and abused this thing for a decade and I can't believe it still tolerates my shit. The trade off? Only a couple of my computers will run the ancient capture software right. LMAO. I spent a good week investigating scanners because of the insane Newtype project on my backburner, and the quality available to me now in a scanner is so depleted without spending over a thousand on one, that I'd probably just spin up a computer with Windows 7 on it just to use this one. That's how much of a difference the decade has made in what scanners do and why. (Enshittification attacks! Yes, there are multiple consumer computer products that have actually declined in quality over the last decade.)

Post-processing: Photoshop. Sorry. I have been using Photoshop for literally decades now, it's the demon I know. While CSP is absolutely probably the better piece of software for most uses (art,) Photoshop is...well it's in the name. In all likelihood though, CSP can do all these things, and is a better product to give money to. I just don't know how. NOTENOTENOTE: Anywhere I discuss descreening and print moire I am specifically talking about how to clean up *printed media.* If you are scanning your own painting, this will not be a problem, but everything else about this advice will stand! The first thing you do with a 2400 dpi scan of Utena and Anthy hugging? Well, you open it in Photoshop, which you may or may not have paid for. Then you use a third party developer's plug-in to Descreen the image. I use Sattva. Now this may or may not be what you want in archiving!!! If fidelity to the original scan is the point, you may pass on this part--you are trying to preserve the print screen, moire, half-tones, and other ways print media tricks the eye. If you're me, this tool helps translate the raw scan of the printed dots on the page into the smooth color image you see in person. From there, the vast majority of your efforts will boil down to the following Photoshop tools: Levels/Curves, Color Balance, and Selective Color. Dust and Scratches, Median, Blur, and Remove Noise will also be close friends of the printed page to digital format archiver. Once you're happy with the broad strokes, you can start cropping and sizing it down to something reasonable. If you are dealing with lots of images with the same needs, like when I've scanned doujinshi pages, you can often streamline a lot of this using Photoshop Actions.

My blacks and whites are coming out so vivid this time because I do all color post-processing in Photoshop after the fact, after a descreen tool has been used to translate the dot matrix colors to solids they're intended to portray--in my experience trying to color correct for dark and light colors is a hot mess until that process is done, because Photoshop sees the full range of the dots on the image and the colors they comprise, instead of actually blending them into their intended shades. I don't correct the levels until I've descreened to some extent.

As you can see, the print pattern contains the information of the original painting, but if you try to correct the blacks and whites, you'll get a janky mess. *Then* you change the Levels:

If you've ever edited audio, then dealing with photo Levels and Curves will be familiar to you! A well cut and cleaned piece of audio will not cut off the highs and lows, but also will make sure it uses the full range available to it. Modern scanners are trying to do this all for you, so they blow out the colors and increase the brightness and contrast significantly, because solid blacks and solid whites are often the entire thing you're aiming for--document scanning, basically. This is like when audio is made so loud details at the high and low get cut off. Boo.

What I get instead is as much detail as possible, but also at a volume that needs correcting:

Cutting off the unused color ranges (in this case it's all dark), you get the best chance of capturing the original black and white range:

In some cases, I edit beyond this--for doujinshi scans, I aim for solid blacks and whites, because I need the file sizes to be normal and can't spend gigs of space on dust. For accuracy though, this is where I'd generally stop.

For scanning artwork, the major factor here that may be fucking up your game? Yep. The scanner. Modern scanners are like cheap microphones that blow out the audio, when what you want is the ancient microphone that captures your cat farting in the next room over. While you can compensate A LOT in Photoshop and bring out blacks and whites that scanners fuck up, at the end of the day, what's probably stopping you up is that you want to use your scanner for something scanners are no longer designed to do well. If you aren't crazy like me and likely to get a vintage scanner for this purpose, keep in mind that what you are looking for is specifically *a photo scanner.* These are the ones designed to capture the most range, and at the highest DPI. It will be a flatbed. Don't waste your time with anything else.

Hot tip: if you aren't scanning often, look into your local library or photo processing store. They will have access to modern scanners that specialize in the same priorities I've listed here, and many will scan to your specifications (high dpi, lossless.)

Ahem. I hope that helps, and or was interesting to someone!!!

[keroppidreams]

Christmas came early cause GUESS WHO GOT THE BOOK!?

Lots of information in the read more.

There's about 300 pages of yume/self insert scenarios. It's all in 1st POV, which surprised me! I was expecting the artists to create a NPC self-insert character, but I honestly prefer what they did! The cover is a sleeve, so you can easily remove it. Though if you flip it over, you get this:

Definitely caught me off guard but it's a neat surprise.

As for the stories, each one-shot is like 5 or 6 pages long. They included a lot of characters (even Itou/Bansai/Otae get a chapter!). The more popular characters like Gintoki or Hijikata have at least three scenarios.

I'm debating whether to make a sideblog for these scans (especially since I might get more yume books in the future + people can request which characters they want) or to simply drop em in dropbox, mega or catbox. Let me know what you prefer. For now I'm probably gonna drop some of the scanned scenarios via a dropbox link.

Heads up I decided to use a scanner app on my phone to get the scans. Mostly because I realized that unless I wanted to wreck my book, my regular scanner wouldnt work lol. The scanner app does its job, but it kinda messed up the coloring/shading (ex: it makes it appear that sougo has darker hair instead of his biblically accurate sandy brown). Also they're all in Japanese and I barely know how to read hiragana/katakana, so you won't be getting translations from me 😭I could use DeepL or Google translate but theres a chance it'll be inaccurate. But if anyone here knows Japanese and wants to translate this book, be my guest!!

Anyways! Here's the first scenarios for Gintoki/Sougo/Kamui/Takasugi! I'm gonna tag @okiria @doki-doki-imagines @plucky-belmondo because their blorbos are involved (also if you would prefer not to tag you in the future pls let me know in dms!):

Gintoki

Sougo

Kamui

Takasugi

[longwuzhere]

Some cool Easter eggs I caught watching My Adventures with Superman that I want to show to people so they can be in on it with comic book readers: For the first episode's Easter eggs it's here

For the second episode's Easter eggs it's here

For the third episode's Easter eggs it's here

For the fourth episode's Easter eggs it's here

For the sixth episode's Easter eggs it's here

For the seventh episode's Easter eggs it's here and here

For the eighth episode's Easter eggs post it's here

For the ninth episode's Easter eggs post it's here

For the tenth episode's Easter eggs post it's here

My Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman comic issue 1 post is here

My Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman comic issue 2 post is here

My Easter eggs and references for My Adventures with Superman comic issue 3 post is here

SPOILERS if you haven't seen this week's episode obviously

We start off the episode with this shot of Superman with the drawn on glasses. A good homage to what Lois did in the 1980 Superman II movie...

where she not only drew the glasses but also a full suit and hat on a picture of Superman.

Next we see Jimmy waking up and seeing someone debunking his conspiracy theories on Sub-Diego.

Sub Diego was an actual place in the DC universe before the New 52 reboot. In Aquaman #15 and #16 (2003) , shown here (W: Will Pfeifer, P: Patrick Gleason, I: Christian Alamy, C: Nathan Eyring, L: Jared K. Fletcher for issue 15, Nick Napolitano for issue 16). The underwater city is actually San Diego, but is buried underwater thanks to a tidal wave and makes its first appearance in Aquaman #15 (2003). There was a lot of casualties from this.

When we get to our title its "You Will Believe A Man Can Lie" a reference to the tagline for the 1978 Superman movie.

As seen here on the poster, it says "You'll believe a man can fly".

Next we see our villain, well one of the villains, for the episode, Heatwave.

In the comics Heatwave makes his first appearance in Flash 140 (1963) (cover art by Carmine Infantino, Murphy Anderson, and Ira Schnapp). Heatwave aka Mick Rory is a Flash rogue usually acting as a rival to Captain Cold aka Leonard Snart. In MAwS, their Heatwave shares the same last name and powers, but MAwS Heatwave is gender flipped. You might have seen Heatwave in the CW DC comics shows where he is played by Dominic Purcell in The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow.

Lois, later in the episode, name drops Heatwave's name. Gotta be honest when Heatwave showed up I was like is that Rampage? Cuz the MAwS design looks vaguely like Rampage.

If she does show up in MAwS, I'll talk more about her in another post, but for now, Rampage aka Karen Lou "Kitty" Faulkner, makes her first appearance in Superman #7 (1987) (full page here: W&P: John Byrne, I: Karl Kesel, C: Tom Ziuko, L: John Costanza).

Steve drags Jimmy to film his debunking Flamebird videos and references Starro who I talked about here.

Lois, later runs around with the Daily Planet police scanner trying to catch Superman and the dispatcher reports that a robbery is in progress at McGuinness Luxe Garage.

This is a nice reference to Ed McGuinness who was the artist for Superman, Action Comics, and Superman/Batman in the early 2000s. If you've seen Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, then you'll know the movie takes inspiration from his character designs in the first arc of the Superman/Batman comic series. The Superman/Batman #1 (2003) cover here is done by Ed McGuinness, Dexter Vines, and Dave Stewart. I like Ed McGuinness's pencils, very stylized.

Heatwave name drops Livewire and the Gazzo mod family. Both of whom I've talked about here and here respectively

Heatwave has been running away from Deathstroke here who has been taking our her crew. Notice that Slade Wilson doesn't have the half black half orange helmet yet that almost every Deathstroke depiction always has.

He, Amanda Waller, and the General who I totally think is General Sam Lane, Lois's dad, are fans of DBZ cuz of the scouters they're wearing.

Later in the scene we see the General again he's totally General Sam Lane. I'll talk more about him when we get a double confirmation through a name drop/reveal in a later post calling Amanda Waller, Mandy. What a fucking bold thing to say to Waller! Like damn! power move right there!

Superman and Deathstroke are fighting under a highway and we see the traffic is heading to Bludhaven!

Very good reference to my favorite character in all of pop culture, Dick Grayson aka Nightwing. Nightwing makes Bludhaven his city to protect. The city makes its first appearance in Nightwing #1 (1996) (the panel here - W: Chuck Dixon, P: Scott McDaniel, I: Karl Story, C: Roberta Tewes, L: John Costanza). Fun Bludhaven fact, its crime rate is WORST than Gotham! Also HIGHLY recommend reading the new Nightwing run cuz its fucking amazing! Won a few Eisner Awards (think the Oscars but for comic books) recently and I am not just saying that because I am a Dick Grayson fan.

Near the end of the episode, we see Lois willing to jump off a building to prove that Clark is Superman. A lot of discourse was happening online over this, but I do want to say this is pretty on brand for her to do.

In Superman II, Lois does something similar and Clark saves her. its just in MAwS, Clark flies to save her thus ruining the secret identity, while in Superman II, Clark does save her but he is still able to get away with it thanks to him playing it more subtly.

Don't know why people we're in such a fucking fit over something that Lois has done before.

In the after credits scene, Jimmy, who planned a sasquatch finding adventure with Lois and Clark, but they were dealing with their shit and Jimmy was by himself, decides to do the finding on his own and meets a giant gorilla. In the first episode Jimmy mentions an intelligent gorilla in France and my guess is this is Monsieur Mallah. You can read more about him here. If you made it this far down, I appreciate you taking the time to check this post out and if you want to see my other MAwS Easter Eggs posts - Episode 1 is here

Episode 2 is here

Episode 3 is here

Episode 4 is here

Episode 6 is here

Episode 7 is here and here

Episode 8 is here

Episode 9 is here

Episode 10 is here

My Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman comic issue 1 post is here

My Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman comic issue 2 post is here

My Easter eggs and references for My Adventures with Superman comic issue 3 post is here

[accreature]

two things I have learned about the eye I am going to get tattooed

THE EYE IS TRANSGENDER

I am seen, viewed, fixed in the gaze of cis-genders

"I can tell whenever someone is trans also you'll be ugly if you transition" -- my mom

The airport dick scanner machine

Rando on the street catcalling me - does he know? If he doesn't, what would he think if he did?

They say I am a predator; they say I am in the women's bathroom to look; they say that by looking at ME their children become perverted

Prescription bottles with the first name scratched out—pinned in place by systems not designed by us, not designed for us, hostile to us

NOW IT IS MY TURN TO LOOK

TO THE CIS-GENDERS: YOU ARE FOUND WANTING (apotropaic charm viz. naẓar)

TO MY FELLOW TRANNIES: YOU ARE LOVED. YOU ARE HOME. I SEE THE REAL YOU.

See a little comic about connection

Sandia National Laboratories nuclear waste warning message is meant to keep people away, but certain freaks and weirdos use the text as a signpost to other freaks

THE EYE IS SEXUAL

All eyes are sexual

Eyes come in pairs and I am now missing one -- magnetism drawn towards missing half (halves?) (I will find you)

I want to look hot!! (specifically to other trans women)

Intimacy & immediacy of being seen truly—Breaks through the layer of plexiglass between us and the world

Self-deceit stripped away through pain; clarity, clarity, clarity

Piercing, penetrating, stripping

Sometimes crying is better than coming

Eyesockets are holes too

Absolution through confession, but confession is unneeded when you can see that I already see you

By my gaze we are both healed

All eyes are religious

TGIRL WITH A LINE TO GOD; STAINED GLASS AND NEON; ERIS WITNESS ME

I am working on finding someone to do the final design/actual tattooing, hopefully in the next month. If u know Denver tattoo artists who would understand what I am trying to do please hmu.

[tobiasdrake]

I know what it looks like but it's not what you think. I'm just trying to harass your top scientist into revealing company secrets. It's cool.

This would be the funniest possible time for Huesca to die. We've done Locked Room Quartet. We've done Open Air Locked Room. Are you ready for the Most Locked-est Room Ever Locked!?

The same underlings who tried to solve the last four murders? Sure, those guys are credible.

What is Yomi implying here? That Makoto came down here and knocked out two guards, then left in a car to go pick me up, and then came back down to capitalize on the chaos created by a fake letter he'd sent to Yomi earlier?

Because that... is alarmingly plausible and answers my question as to why that letter would even exist.

Looks like we pushed too hard. Makoto's being placed under arrest.

...so. Like. Am I cool to hang out, Yomi? You're just taking him, right? It's fine for me to still be here?

YUMA NO

YOU FOOL

We almost got away with it. Yomi was so laser-focused that he was legit going to take Makoto and leave us here. Your masterful disguise of freezing up and being so useless that you become mistakable for a floor lamp was working until you spoke up!

Floor lamp. Like I said. Pay us no mind and have a wonderful day. Oh, what is that noise in the distance? Is that the sound of some malcontents? Someone must go step on their necks, and that someone is you, Yomi. You got this, man. I believe in you.

Aww, that hurts my feelings. You were ready to get Halara'd trying to kill us all over me, like, yesterday. :( Am I really that forgettable?

I hope so too. It'd take out this entire building. We've got Yomi and Makoto here at the same time, plus Huesca. That'd solve a lot of problems for Kanai Ward right there.

Alright, we've time-skipped. Now someone is surely dead.

Aren't you a little short for a Stormtroo--Desuhiko. Halara must have delivered my IOU message.

To be fair, I'd be doing shit like this to him if he was the one over a barrel like this. Though I'd be going for more goofy prankster shit. Desuhiko is weirdly obsessed with shilling the Yuma/Kurumi ship at every possible opportunity.

HOLY SHIT, IS THAT YOU, YAKOU!?

Fuck, I thought it'd be Fubuki or Halara. Someone useful. Instead, we get these two clowns. But I suppose it will have to do. Thanks for rescuing me, try not to die on the way out.

DON'T UN-DISGUISE. Y'all have helmets. Just take those off. You don't need to strip down and make yourselves fully vulnerable to being caught, you fucking morons!

He didn't, actually. If he used DIsguise, he would have taken on an appropriate height for a Peacekeeper grunt. This was a disguise, but it wasn't Disguise. Which was honestly for the best.

Given how much Disguise takes out of Desuhiko, a non-Disguise disguise was the right call. With face and body fully covered, there was no need to burn energy on the full shapeshifting shenanigans route.

While true, your behavior in the past has done little to establish a relationship of trust and open communication.

It's like parenting. When you constantly tell Yuma, "DO NOT go snoop around, DO NOT get in trouble with the Peacekeepers, AVOID solving mysteries or doing anything meaningful," and then get mad at him every time he does those things? It's not going to discourage him from doing them. It's going to discourage him from telling you that he's doing them.

If you convey to your child/apprentice that they cannot confide in you about the things they are doing, then they will continue to do those things but they will not confide in you about them. Yuma went behind your back because everything you've said to him up to this point has convinced him that you must be lied to.

My IOU letter!

No, for real, what is that actually? Did Fink the Slaughter Artist tell them I was here?

...that's not a yes.

But it's also not a no. This sent a chill down my spine.

Nuh nuh nuh go back. Don't just yadda-yadda over your arrival here. You have to pass through a biometric scanner to enter the premises. How did you pass through the biometric scanner?

I guess Desuhiko could have Disguised a member of Amaterasu staff to get them through. That shit is practically shapeshifting so it might alter his biometrics. That or they smuggled their way in on, like, a troop transport? Maybe?

That is a fair assessment of what happened, yes. Yuma's floor lamp impersonation needs work.

Yomi had a plausible explanation for that, but obviously Makoto himself couldn't have dropped the letter at the sub. The timing of which still makes me think he did it specifically to get them to come fetch Yuma.

Makoto and Fink aren't proven to be in cahoots but they're likely to be in cahoots. Cahoots are more plausible than not at this point in time.

Hold up, your plan is to kidnap Amaterasu's most highly-protect employee from the middle of their HQ and then walk out?

Yakou, 95% of the time I want you to grow a spine. Then, in the other 5%, you are the boldest motherfucker I've ever met. I love it. I'm here for it. It's too bad Huesca's most certainly dead by now.

HOORAH! LET'S FUCKING GOOOOOOOOO

Into the poison gas chamber and DIIIIIIIIE!

...plan needs work, but we can workshop it. Gonna stay positive!

The hell is that supposed to mean, Desuhiko? I'll have you know that I have only Disguised as a woman one....

...four....

...five times. Out of five.

Okay, yeah. That's fair. Gimme the female suit and the polyurethane molded breast forms you set aside as mine.

You heard it here, folks. Yuma doesn't have a preference between male or female. Canon he/they.

Purple question-mark hair and pronouns.

You don't need your bag. These were disguises instead of Disguise. You should still have two of the disguises on you, Desuhiko. Would it be that hard to locate a third?

...we're going on this detour so you can make Yuma a female Peacekeeper, aren't we?

[antoninasavi]

Budapest. Hungary. June 2024

At Berlin airport, it was surprising that they ask you to put photographic film out of your luggage. As it turned out, it was to avoid spoiling them. They must have gotten new super powerful scanners. I can only thank them for taking care of my films, which were scanned with another machine.

Yes, I'm traveling alone again. This does not embarrass me at all, but only emphasizes my freedom and independence to act.

On the first day, of course, I climbed the nearest hill and from there I successfully hid in the national gallery from the scorching sun. For me, a person who thinks in terms of history and culture, nothing says more about the place where I am than the National Gallery. And in Budapest, it's really good! Compared to the quality of the works of the Verger artists, Berlin loses the pomp of the Kaiser's time or the greenishness of 1920. In the National Gallery of Budapest I found very many truly high works in their own right. But there was also something in it that made me think. As soon as the art of the Romantics is replaced by Impressionism as a trend of visualization, the paintings begin to painfully resemble copies of the French masters. This surprised me so much. The quality is of course superb and I have sometimes caught myself thinking that the Hungarians do it even better. And so it went on in cubism and in the avant-garde. It got to the point of absurdity that I saw a painting that was 100% painted by Gerhard Richter. But no, it was some obscure Hungarian artist again.

At first I wondered, where is the Hungarian originality missing? Or is it all a logical consequence of cultural influences. Or is it all about the curator of the gallery trying to conform to the trends of the market? Everything in me suspects that the latter assumption is true. Especially if we rely on the latest critique of contemporary consumer society as described in Oliver Roy's book "The Crisis of Culture".

On the second day, I discovered that I am a bad tourist. In the sense that it's not easy for me to sell anything. In the part of the city of Pest that is on the left side of the Danube River, there are the very streets that horrify me, filled with fat tourists, expensive cafes with disgusting coffee and all the clothing stores that are probably the same all over Europe. Strangely, I can't bring myself to interact with reality in such places. I find that I will avoid these streets in the future and will consider the day I stepped into them a tourist mistake.

I was fascinated by the city's trams. They make you want to keep up with them. Of all the films that were shot in Budapest (12 pieces of 12 frames each), at least two were spent on trams. As it turned out, streetcars are the most popular transportation in Budapest. Their intervals are sometimes as long as 60 seconds due to the incredible congestion during rush hours.

The castle on Buda Mountain with its incredible beauty of architecture right next to the ugly plastic and impersonal building of the Redison Hotel made me smile. What an absurd world we live in.

I love it when a city has so many hills. Perhaps because I was born in a hilly city, I feel alive making an incredible effort in the thirty-degree heat to climb one more hill. It's a pity Berlin is so flat.

As a bad tourist, I found all the areas where there are no tourists, where you can see how ordinary people live, and therefore how things really are.

On the last day I received a message that my flight was cancelled. So I was stuck for 3 hours in a history museum trying to get a seat on another plane and book a room for the night. The museum was useful, even if the guard looked at me with suspicion. I was a little worried that my credit card wasn't working. But everything worked out, and after I transported my luggage to the new location, I went to Mount St. Galert. The sky was very beautiful even after, Friday evening in Budapest. It's so unforgettable. That evening I fell in love with Budapest and threw a coin into the Danube as a sign or desire to return again. I didn’t regret at all that my plane was cancelled at all.

[csvent-2]

This is long and moved in a particular direction that I ran with. I don't care because I need to rant and am very, very sober this July 4th weekend.

To our whataboutism anon: If you're going to go off on a tangent, it needs to be convincing. Which means it needs to be well-written. The irony of all of this, I pray, is not lost on you.

Favor has always been to visual artists and writing has, until recently, almost always been devalued. Traditional art was once in the same category as writing, by the way. It's not just writers who have complained in the past. I think the traditional artists just had the option to try digital or better cameras and scanners while we writers have no such option.

Someone who can't speak English (or has a learning disability like dyslexia, which would be just as common in CS spaces but somehow missed anon's attention) is of course more than welcome to draw and always has been.

CS is mainly a hobby of looking at things, collecting them usually via money or trade, then looking at more things. So I can agree with the marketplace metaphor but I think where I take exception is how writing is, once again, being treated as a dump instead of a craft (used in a synonymous way here with "art"), and people who play in the dump have no right to complain when someone heaps more garbage in their space.

Anon even says, "bullshitting".

Just vomit on the page, turn it in. Why make a place for it? Even AI will do it for you these days. People who express this attitude have never seriously written anything, not even a postcard. I question if they can read material more complex than the back of a cereal box.

I question if they read at all, because even a semi-regular reader can spot the soulless, sometimes hallucinatory, mark of AI.

Hypothetically AI-generated drawings, such as backgrounds, could be hard to spot if the artist knows how to paint over the mistakes. It'd speed up the process a little. So does this mean each submission has to have a recording to prove it's all you? No, that's patently ridiculous. If someone wants to remark how the paintover actually takes time compared to writing, then I point you to the paragraph that begins with, "Just vomit on the page...".

-------

If you want to use writing to "last-minute" a prompt for whatever reason, that's your prerogative. It's no different then slapping together a visual prompt with the help of various brushes and stamps (the irony in how offended some people would be if I held that these tools make visual art a great dumping ground for busy writers because hey, it's so easy when I can just brush or stamp in a majority of what I need! Maybe I could even bash some bases together....

If you need to ask, yes, I was a digital artist for three years and a traditional artist for about five before discovering writing is more my flavor.)

Where lines cross is some visual artists will use writing as a shortcut when they're tired, don't have time, etc., and mistake the ability to hammer out a bunch of words in a short time as art, not quota, and this somehow gets morphed into, "this is so easy, why is this even allowed? What's the point?"

They do this even as they enjoy (or criticize or lambaste, depending) our work outside of CS in the form of TV shows, movies, comics, video games, and just about anything else that needs to convey story and character within a coherent structure. The same people who complain about the pathetic state of lore in most CS! Who do you think would make good lore?

It's easy to bullshit, I suppose, but very, very hard to write. Don't mix up these two concepts. Don't scoff, either, that you're allowed to bullshit if you participate in the bullshitting.

If writing-for-quota is what serves the particular need of the moment, then so be it. If you're particularly good, it may even be writing-for-art.

Remember that to some of us, this craft is as serious as your drawings, paintings, sculptures, etc. We are part of the art community, even the micro-communities of CS.

Writing is not a dump for you to throw your bags of shit in and then grumble that the place stinks. Bullshit vs writing. Don't mix them up. Don't expect everyone to shit as fast as you, either.

🌸

[romanceyourdemons]

as a philip k dick adaptation, total recall (1990) has the most adequate of all worlds. whereas blade runner (1982) exemplifies the neo-noir sensibilities of dick’s novels, a scanner darkly (2006) their reality-bending and themes of drug abuse and addiction, and minority report (2002) their dense social commentary, this film—although retaining traces of all those themes in the narrative—chooses to shift the focus away from those and toward late-twentieth-century sci-fi sex and action. i would describe the whole effect as a more narratively substantive the fifth element (1997), with the two films sharing many elements of their narrative skeleton; however, a key difference lies in the fifth element (1997)’s distinctive and hugely ambitious visual style, matching or exceeding that of blade runner (1982) in its depth and memorability. there are definitely visuals in this film that deserve commendation, both in terms of vast sets, excellent if understated costumes, prosthetics, and practical effects; everything the film sets out to do, it accomplishes fully. even arnold schwarzenegger’s dramatic acting carries the character without relying too much on his muscles, and michael ironside puts on a stunning show even in his supporting role. all of these things were very enjoyable, but when laid side-by-side with the other films this film shares intertextual links with, its tendency to play it safe becomes very obvious. philip k dick is a dense and distinctive writer, whose stories have many notable features, and total recall (1990) declines to commit to any one of them, without bringing much of anything else to the table; although the final effect is by no means bad, it does smack of loss and invites the question of what, under bolder artistic hands, might have been

[horsesteak]

“Now thank the good lordy above this absolute belter of a nook is still open in the wee hours of the day!”

The sudden blast of energy the newcomer radiated as his voice joyfully boomed through the tiny, cramped eatery was an immediate overdose for the overworked waitress. It was far too late (or rather, early, according to the man) for this sort of social interaction.

Check out Everything and Nothing by beans (with 6 e's and 6 a's) on AO3! Also check out my co-artist @gearbroth 's (!!!) art on their blog!

For the 2023 TF2 Big Bang! @tf2bigbang

~~~

See below for bonus sketches and infodump!

It's been a while since I did a big art piece like this. It was fun, and it got me experimenting with watercolour pencils for the first time. I'm still learning the craft, and as much as I want my first ever watercolour painting to be perfect, it'll have to do. I'm satisfied with my attempt this time.

Although I do wish I could capture the painting in a higher resolution; phone camera and scanner couldn't cut it, everything is still a bit blurry. Here's the best I can take on my phone:

It's also the original colours, before digital shenanigans were done to it. The work of a sleep deprived art wizard waving his silly little magic wand tool to get everything to look nicer.

The original concept for this mini-comic came to me while I was sitting under a tree, halfheartedly trying to study for my two exams the next day. I quickly sketched this:

I honestly like the lineart of this sketch better than the final. What could be better than demo's sparkley anime eyes?

I was excited I finally came up with an idea after being high and dry for weeks. Basically my mental state:

I was going to have Demo stride in, burst through that door with exuberant energy that filled the Spy's shitty dead-end cafe. And also showcase his traditional Scottish garb, which let me tell you is a whole rabbithole that I eagerly leapt into while researching for cultural accuracy. (I tend rely on real life references alot. Trying to branch out to stylised drawing would be cool.)

What happened next were these little sketches on post-it notes. I draw on them first before committing paper because...it's fun :)

Also in this case, this is a comic, so I could rearrange the drawings how I liked, so this was actually goated.

In the second image, see another case of liking the lineart more than the final. I had half a mind to keep that sketch of Spy and paint over it, but that wasn't watercolour paper, so no... :(

I was surprised how well the sketches turned out. Bloody hell, I'm an artistic genius! Now lets see how that translates to paint, eh? Well, you already know.

Some things to improve on, personally, is to make the lineart cleaner next time, so the paint doesn't mix with the pencil to make this weird greyish colour. Anatomy, always. Clothing folds is another big one. And finally, time management. Man, art is a passion, but damn does having too little time screw my art quality over. Well as they say, scarcity breeds innovation.

If you've made it this far, I am putting a virtual turtle (vurtle) in your hand, because turtles are cool, and you are too.

As a bonus bonus to this info-dump, have the original concept sketch while I was feeling out how to draw Demo in formal Scottish suit and kilt.

THAT IS ALL.

[princesscolumbia]

Artists of Tumblr: Help starting, pls!

So years and years ago (an uncomfortably long time, IMHO, that I'm not fond of telling) I put my pencil and sketchpad away for the last time. There's a lot of reasons why that was (most of them having to do with a certain ex that I Do Not Like) but prior to splitting into a system a few weeks ago it felt like that would be it. I did occasionally break out a piece of blank paper and sketch some stuff out, and I guess a part of me was always kinda pining to get back into art because I bought my last three phones I got specifically because they had styluses (stylii?) and when I got my current convertible laptop I also got a stylus for that.

Well, after the split, it seems that except for writing I got the creative drive! We're getting a guitar down the road (leaning toward a used electric to start, but there's something attractive about plucking away at a classical acoustic...anyway!), but now I'm looking to get back into art, and I wanna do it digital! Yeah, I've got a scanner and a camera on my phone and yadda so I could just get a sketchpad, but that's not a challenge and is just frustrating. I want to flex and learn and grow, and to do that I'm learning how to use my convertible laptop and stylus and a digital art program. I picked Krita because it's open source and well reviewed, but the problem is...uhm...I haven't the first foggy clue how to use, like, most of it.

I went to the "Tutorials and How To's" on the official website and...

Yes! These are things I know how to do and make complete sense!

(...the hell's a 'clipping mask'?)

(Why is speed painting a 'common' workflow?!)

(...WHAT DOES EYE TRACKING HAVE TO DO WITH ANYTHING?!?!?)

So, yeah...little help? Anyone know a good starting place? Something that doesn't assume I know All The Things™, please?

[jasminedragonart]

I have some art advice for anyone who needs it.

Basically, if I've learned anything in the years I've been doing art it's that just because you have a style does not mean you should consistently use it. If you consistently draw everything in your style your art is going to stagnate and deteriorate. You'll lose any progress you've made with your art because you decide half way through 'well my style doesn't need me to do (insert something).

You need to do different things. If you lose your 'style' along the way then fair enough, you'll find a new one, and your new one will be better. If you don't experiment and try to better yourself then you won't see things, improvements, on things at one point you never thought you could draw.

Find a sketchbook. KEEP IT. Do not buy fifty of them and never use them. Buy one, use it and fill every page until the end and only then buy a new one. Study hands, feet, clothes anything and everything. Practice lineart, paints, inks.

Sometimes you might find your work looks better traditionally than digitally and that's fine. That's amazing. You can post traditional work if you're into posting art. There are scanners for those things. If you want to try and experiment with digital art then see what you like with traditional and if you cam create the same effect with digital. Neither is better than the other. Both take skill and hard work. I, myself, love my traditional art. I've recently started using alcohol markers and I'm loving it in my sketchbooks

If you're in the uk and need sketchbook recommendations I have a few. otherwise maybe ask artists you admire what they use and what they're doing currently with their art. Experiment with the same things they are.

Most importantly, you will never draw exactly like someone else. You won't. there will always be differences. So focus on your journey not theirs and merely use them as teaching tools.

[goromcomzine]

This zine looks fun, and I am interested in contributing! I was wondering: once contributor applications are open what kind of samples of work are you looking for from artists? Are there any special specifications that need to be included in the samples? How many samples will you be looking for? Can samples of work from other fandoms be provided?

Thanks!

Hey there! For artists we are looking for Finished illustrations. We want to see that you have the ability to do compositions, as well as the ability to finish pieces.

For specific guidelines:

-We will be asking for a link to your work in the form of a portfolio site, a google drive folder full of your best work, an instagram page, anything that lets us easily see the work you want us to see.

*Make sure all links are viewable, because if we cannot view the link, we will not be considering the application.

-All work should be SFW.

-Traditional art is allowed, as long as you make sure to have a good scanner or photos with scanner quality.

-If you want to draw a comic for the zine, please provide comic pages in your portfolio.

-You can include other fandoms! In fact, having drawn Good Omens characters is not necessary, but it does help us get a good idea of what you'll do, so we would appreciate it!

This, along with anything else we may add, will be reiterated in the application itself. Hope this helps!

—

Applications will be opening December 23rd!

[daresplaining]

Does Matt have any vision left? I keep seeing runs alternate on whether he’s got an all-white cane or a cane with a red bottom, and I’m curious which is the right one?

Nope, Matt has no vision left, doesn't perceive any light at all. Unfortunately, Daredevil has been plagued pretty much since its inception by inaccurate cane depictions by artists who were either misinformed or just did not do their research. Even modern DD artists make basic mistakes regarding Matt's cane, despite having access to the incredible, handy research tool that is the Internet (here, for instance, is a short breakdown of the different types of canes for anyone who may not be familiar).

We know that Matt's cane is not the standard model that a non-superhero would use, because it folds out into a grapple hook and billy club(s). It has more heft to it as well, for braining-bad-guy purposes (according to Daredevil vol. 1 #159 it is made of steel-reinforced wood). Matt mentions in Daredevil: Road Warrior that his current (in 2014) cane was built for him by T'Challa with "special baffles to make it look like a straight-up cane" rather than a weapon when going through airport security scanners. It also, once upon a time, was stuffed with various crime-fighting gadgets: a tape recorder and microphone, reflector shield, gas pellets, subway tokens...though not anymore.

However, it is still supposed to be usable as a normal white cane-- since Matt also needs it to perform that function-- and to look like a normal white cane for secret identity purposes, and he would know what type would be the correct style for him to use. Thus, sadly, whenever you see Matt with a cane that looks wrong, you can pretty safely assume that it's just a symptom of inconsistent artwork and a creative team not doing the proper research, rather than an actual choice Matt has made in-universe.

[kokokulto]

how do you get your traditional art to retain its color once you photograph it?? Everything looks so vibrant and well lit it’s honestly incredible.

I was originally going to have a straight forward answer, but I think this is a good opportunity for me to share how I go about preparing my artworks for social media. Disclaimer! I'm not an expert in photo manipulation. This is what I learned after doing some research and experimenting. Capturing the artwork

I have to be transparent though that I do not photograph my work, I scan it! I use a CanoScan LiDE220. I've had it for 6 years. This is why I am able to retain the artwork's texture. However, the result of the scan is very washed out, and is not accurate to the artwork's actual colors. Example below:

The left image is the raw result from the scanner, while the right is an edited version that I have posted. As seen, the left image is washed out. So, to the best of my ability, I change different parameters of the image to get the closest to the real artwork. I use photoshop to edit the image, but it is possible to do it in any photo manipulation software (or you can get a cracked ver-) Editing the photo 1) Levels

Levels is where you manipulate the values of the image. The left is for your lightest values, and the right is for the darkest values. Moving the left slider alters the lightest values of the image. Moving the middle slider alters your middle values, and same goes for the right slider for the darkest values. I often slide the middle slider to the right to darken the image. I hardly touch the other two. Alternatively, you can use Curves to darken the image, it is a more intricate version of Levels and gives you the most control. I am not super familiar with it, so I cannot talk about it. 2) Hue and Saturation

Hue controls the most dominant color of your image. Saturation controls the intensity of the colors in your image. I often bump up the saturation of my images. There are times I also alter lightness just ta bit for sketch sheets, to slightly washout colors (mainly the yellow of the paper) 3) Color Balance

Color balance indicates which of the colors in each slide is more intense globally. Meaning that if you put the slider closer to blue, then all yellow tones will be washed out. Sometimes the Hue and Saturation sliders aren't enough, so I use Color Balance to tweak it a bit. 4) Brightness and Contrast

Brightness refers to how light or dark the piece is overall. Contrast refers to the difference of the lightest and darkest values. I often use this when manipulating sketches, this is to make the inks pop out more.  Other stuff that might be relevant

every piece has it's own set parameters, I eyeball everything lol. I do not have any "set values"

If there is a specific part of the image that needs editing, I "Mask" that part of the image out. Meaning that only a specific part of the image will be altered. Masking does not permanently change the image, so you can easily delete it if needed. Crash course in "Masking": the visibility of the image is set in black and white. The black parts of the mask is hidden, while the white is seen (Image below.) So for example here, only the white parts will be affected by the color balance

as much as my scanner is helpful, it cannot scan large pieces. One of the largest sizes I am able to scan is A4. So, I have only been using that size or smaller. If you want to invest in a scanner, you should consider the sizes of paper you often use. You can also "stitch" the artwork together (i believe photoshop has this, but it might be a hassle. I can't speak about this because I haven't tried it.)

If you are doing paintings on a canvas, you will have to photograph it There is no other way around lol, paintings like those are really photographed. Professional artists either have their own photoshoot set, or they find a place where they can have it photographed.

Sticky notes, or paper with luminosity aren't picked up by the scanner. I've been struggling with this one for awhile lmao. Altering it with the aforementioned steps alone don't give the result I want. I use layer modes too. Still currently experimenting. Example is below, original is a neon orange sticky note.

(original scan)

(altered with brightness/contrast, darken layer mode w/ orange, and vibrance)

ANYWAY!!! This is a master post of how I currently go around my works. Very lengthy, but I hope it helps someone!

[nientedal]

Hi Dal!!! 📓? I always love everything you write <3

Ooooo let's see. It's funny, at this point there aren't many that I haven't at least STARTED to write down, but...

sometimes i play with ones in which megamind gets attacked. and these can go one of two ways, either they can go "roxanne stops the attack" or "roxanne pursues and retrieves megamind because No. Mine. also, How Dare." and it's late and i am sleepy so in this case i'm going to go copy down some stuff i wordvomited into a discord server 3 years ago lmao - because how about a brainfic in which they have to get married And Then Figure Things Out Later? it's part of a category of stories i call Roxanne Saves The Day And Megamind Is Surprised

it's not ARRANGED marriage, but it is marriage, and it does set up some neat fake-relationshippy vibes that you can then play with however you like. in this particular one, we start off thusly-- we see Roxanne walking up the steps to City Hall to do something or other (I don’t know what it is, that’s not really important to the plot). She’s thinking to herself, probably reviewing whatever it is she’s here for

and. then. there are. screams. screeching tires. a shout (megamind, panicked). we see Roxanne turn. and we see: a sprinter van. large, white, no windows. it has jumped the curb and narrowly avoided hitting a fire hydrant. and we see: Megamind running, turning with his usual gun in his hand, lifting it to aim. we hear a shot, we see his hand jerk, we see the de-gun fly out of his grip and clatter across the steps towards Roxanne.

Roxanne is good at noticing lots of things very quickly. Roxanne HAS to be good at that in order to keep up with Megamind’s plots and make fun of him on the spot during kidnappings. And Roxanne sees: no shoulder array, no cape. panic on his face. a dart in Megamind’s wrist before he yanks it out and throws it and keeps running up the steps. Roxanne sees: men in white coats exiting the sprinter van

...Roxanne does not know what the fuck is going on, but she has seen enough at this point to know she doesn’t want it to go any further. She runs for Megamind’s gun, grabs it up, rolls the barrel to destroy (because Roxanne does not fuck around). Takes off across the steps on a collision course for Megamind.

he’s only a few steps from the doors when he staggers and falls. she fires a couple wild warning shots to make the whitecoats stumble back-- she gets Megamind’s arm over her shoulders-- gets her arm around his waist-- drags him up the steps and into City Hall with her.

inside city hall, a security checkpoint. a gate to go through, with a bag scanner. Roxanne has: a recognizable face, a ray gun, a stumbling Megamind, and no time. she hauls Megamind through security without any issues by yelling something about a meeting and and something about metro man, and then she takes off down the hall. Nobody moves to stop them.

well. they MOVE, just... like, i figure most citizens of Metro tend to freeze when Megamind appears on any given scene??? it’s safest. you stop moving until you can tell where he’s going next, and then follow the recommendation of the artist Ludacris. by which i mean you Get Out The Way

so anyway, megamind doesn’t have his cape, but he still has his belt, which means he has pockets. Roxanne knows the contents of some of these already because come on, of course she does, she's seen how he operates only about, oh, a million times. she drags him into an empty conference room and starts going through his belt’s pockets until she finds his hard-light sheet, which in my head is baaaaaasically a crinkly, thin blanket that operates along the same lines as the Invisible Car

and then she sort of……arranges herself and Megamind so they’re taking up the least amount of space possible, out of the sunlight (to avoid reflection), and hides them under the sheet. it’s not a perfect hide, but as long as they stay very still, probably no one will see anything out of place. probably.

(oh, btw, i'm giving y'all the absolute simplest, most complication-free rundown of this scenario. there are SO MANY PLACES you could go with this, so many places this could go wrong or complicated.)

Megamind has his knees to his chest and his head on Roxanne’s shoulder. she has her arms around him, one up around his shoulders and the other just around his back, with the de-gun in her hand, just in case (of course).

he’s immobilized but he’s conscious, and he goes absolutely rigid when the door to the conference room bursts open and the light clicks on. Roxanne holds him tighter, holds both of them still. a security guard circles the conference table. checks underneath it. leaves. (OR they're found. OR it's metro man, who definitely knows they're there, but covers for them. or or or, etc.) Roxanne doesn’t move. she’s not planning on moving for a good couple hours, at least. Just to be safe. “who are they?” she asks. “the guys in the van, why are they after you?”

He makes a noise that sounds like it’s trying to be words. Roxanne pats him and stops asking questions.

a while later, he mumbles, “I have something they want.”

“and they can just…take you away. in broad daylight.”

“i’m not human. and I’m a supervillain. the few rights i do have, no one is going to fight for”

roxanne is quiet for a while. then she says, slowly, “I have an idea, but…you aren’t going to like it. do you have any kind of government-issued photo ID?”

"ID yes. photo, no."

"….we can probably work with that anyway. marry me."

megamind's reaction to this is one of the things i enjoy playing with, so there isn't really a standard one, but it's mostly variations on the theme of "…wat."

but basically, the idea is that spouses have certain privileges denied other family members or close friends. If Megamind DOES get taken, in broad daylight or otherwise, then Roxanne will have legal recourse to fight tooth and nail to get him back.

"but you're dating metro man"

"correction: i am bearding for metro man, and he keeps saying he owes me for it; he'll help. look, we are already in city hall, i think marriage licenses is….third floor? probate? yeah. third floor."

anyway, she texts metro man. he comes in, agrees to help -- basic cover story: she was pretending to date wayne to keep attention off her Secret Clandestine Relationship with Megamind. in my head he's like, "oh shit, okay, yeah -- and i've got lawyers you can borrow, no problem. and uh. oh! oh yeah, hang on, gimme like…….twenty minutes, I'll be right back." (give me a wayne who Means Well and Does His Best as an adult, but just isn't very good at actually thinking, lol.) anyway he comes back with a couple of sparkly rings to really sell the story, and they get a marriage license. and then they have to hide for at least 3 days, because Michigan requires a lag between obtaining the marriage license and the actual marriage itself.

so, that's the basic setup. like i said there are so many ways you can change it and play around with it, it's a lot of fun!! megamind is reeling because this??? is apparently a thing roxanne (?!!!??ROXANNE???!!!) is willing to just…DO for him???? and roxanne is PISSED that this is even a thing that needs to happen because tHIS SHOULD NOT BE SOMETHING MEGAMIND HAS TO WORRY ABOUT, this is something NOBODY should have to worry about. what the fuck.

AND you get THREE DAYS of NO MARRIAGE for them to talk and angst and maybe have a small fight and then make up and realize how close they already are, and they have to act, in public, like they've been dating for a couple years at least! so, that's fun.

oh, and as for Minion: he is hiding in the lake. they're welcome to try and catch him there, but he is a fish in lake mcfuckin michigan, good luck.

so, the three days, the only way this works in my head is if evil lair has been compromised? because otherwise megamind just…wouldn't get caught, right? so wayne brings them to a safehouse and it very much has only one bed and it IS the sofa (it's a pull out bed)... OR he takes them to the Fortress. but that…that's a lot of trust. so, probably not that.

so here's one iteration of the safehouse scenario, based on a pull-out sofa bed my husband and i actually tried to sleep on one time. it was queen-sized. the mattress was three inches thick and had springs that dug into my ribs. THE ONLY way either of us got any sleep was, I starfished across the whole thing, and the boy made himself a bed on the floor out of the discarded sofa cushions. so, roxanne-starfish-megamind-floor is how they attempt the first night, but megamind is not good at sleeping in unfamiliar beds. and he is very, very stressed. he does not sleep well. roxanne winds up dangling her arm off the side of the sofabed and sort of…draping it over his shoulder. or his head. or holding his hand. you can put it pretty much however you want, it just depends what dialogue you use.

night two, they try leaning on the arms of the sofa, and stretching out a little bit and squishing together. they can maybe wake up with their legs kinda. stretched out. tangled up a bit? i'd say "it works great" but it DOES lead to a massive crick in at least one of their necks, and if megamind sleeps at all, it isn't very well. and so finally Roxanne is like, "okay, look. fuck this, I need to stretch out and you keep gasping awake and neither of us is getting any sleep, come here." and she turns to sit backwards against the armrest that's against the wall (so she can lean her head back) and Megamind sits between her legs and sort of…reclines back against her with his head on her shoulder & the arm of the sofa, and Roxanne holds onto him and he pins her upright and she can lean her head sideways down against his, and it works:

listen, i see a megarox, i have to put them in a cuddle. i'm a simple creature, i have few needs, megarox cuddles are one of them.

.......anyway there are about a MILLION BILLION PLACES YOU CAN GO FROM HERE WITH THIS, depending on how plot-heavy you wanna get. but this typically tends to be where i taper off, because this is one i play with for cuddles and angst and not much else.

(there's another version where they get him into the van and roxanne has to call another villain to help get him back. but i'm still working on merging it with the "fake" marriage one, lol.)