"does a story need to mean something" i think i know what people are trying to get at here but it is also worth reiterating that 1) stories or narratives always convey meaning, question of 'need' irrelevant 2) that meaning is not necessarily or solely determined by authorial intent and it's not a property that the story in itself possesses transcendentally but comes about also as the result of an interpretive act occurring within a given set of social relations and circumstances. the iliad probably did not mean to homer exactly what it does to me. a generative language model can't imbue its output with its own 'intent' and yet if i read that output and interpret it, i'm engaging with it in a way that creates meaning, structured by the particular narratological frameworks or schemata i've learned. a story might 'mean' something internally, and 'mean' something quite different when that internal meaning is contextualised in its social and historical circumstances. etc.

okay hey wait art suggestion time. stop locking yourself in to an art style. especially if you're anyone whos still in/under highschool. but even then stop fucking doing that.

theres nothing wrong with having a preferred style to draw in (clearly as a guy writing a multi book comic i know. trust that i know) but if you catch yourself thinking 'i cant draw that its not my style' or 'i want to learn to draw like that but its not my style' you gotta knock that shit off

you are not a brand. you are not a company. you are a person learning a skill and how the hell do you know what 'your style' is without trying to learn to draw in different ones? please do style studies. please try drawing realism even if it looks like shit at first. try doing abstract works. you dont have to like them but im begging you at least to try, because the things you learn carry over into your main body of work. and youll see yourself grow in ways you didnt think you could 'in your style'.

少女革命ウテナ

during streams people will sometimes ask for my help on how i would anthropomorphize animals they want to try making furry characters of. naturally im always excited to try animals ive never drawn before, so here is a boar and a heron.

Pride month vest project, a patch a day #29: Wheat But Not Bread, Fruit But Not Wine

some storyboard utenas i enjoy

Measured in letters, not syllables. Please do *not* put your deadname in the tags, I don't want to know that

Monika Marchewka (Polish, b. 1988)

Back to ordinary, 2023

Oil on canvas

Some of the book recs I see online.. id rather be reading the back of my shampoo bottle

my dog in pokemon mystery dungeon

watched pokemon m08 tonight and drew something self indulgent btwn comms yayyyy teehee

if you like crafting and also free things, might i suggest the antique pattern library?

it’s a not for profit that’s gathering books, patterns, and other materials related to crafting that are out of copyright (or getting permission from copyright holders in some cases) in order to share them online. they scan items, clean them up, then make everything available for free!

free things are great, especially when you’re just starting to get into something. like oh, i’m supposed to spend money on this hobby i just picked up 20 minutes ago???

the first time i ended up on the site, i seriously spent hours just trawling through everything. there’s the usual suspects like knitting, crochet, embroidery, but there’s also woodwork, calligraphy, and books on things like how to mount and frame pictures. with cross stitch patterns, they also make modern charts with the dmc colour codes available.

links to their webbed site and instagram:

https://www.antiquepatternlibrary.org/

https://www.instagram.com/theantiquepatternlibrary/

behold, a glorious cat cross stitch pattern (link goes to antique pattern library page):

[image id: Multicolour charted cross stitch design of a cat sitting on a red pillow with tassels, holding a green ball]

watched pokemon m08 tonight and drew something self indulgent btwn comms yayyyy teehee

i say this with love: yall will make yourselves feel bad about fucking anything, i swear to god. you feel bad about feeling too much. you feel bad about feeling too little. you feel bad about what makes you feel good. you feel bad about not knowing what you like. you feel bad for not being able to survive easily in a world hostile to you. you feel bad for the tactics that you use to survive. you feel bad for how you identify. you feel bad for being unique. you feel bad for experiences that you share with millions of people. you suspect that every feeling, experience, desire, fear, and question in your brain is somehow evidence that you don't deserve to exist.

i can be so so reassuring about all of these things but ultimately you are the one that's gonna have to make a conscious choice to stop measuring yourself in these ways. there is no authority who gets to determine whether you have the right to exist or not. you already do. there is no body that votes on whether you get to feel, identify, or think as you do. you already do. your existence as it is is non-negotiable. stop trying to justify yourself. you're already here. the world is going to have to deal with it anyway.