I used to think that you drew Mario on the thinner side and must confess I was a little bummed about it at first, but uhh.. I stand corrected. It's pretty damn close to his real model actually. Kudos for that!

It's okay, Anon! 👐 To be fair, his emphasized upper musculature and the way I present those volumes in my style might make his belly a bit less apparent, but I can assure you that my vision of the character is indeed pretty meaty and robust. :3 The best way to properly evaluate his body mass is to simply compare him with Peach. She is purposely quite thin in my art, in a way that is specifically meant to accentuate the contrast in silhouette between them. If my Mario seems less heavyset at any given time, well- that's likely because he's not standing next to her! 😆

And you know, it's okay to have certain visual preferences regarding most characters. I understand folks who are less fond of -say- the thought of a really skinny Mario for that reason, and having polite discourse over those elements is not at all a bad thing. What upsets me as a creator is when artists get openly called out and ridiculed (sometimes over absurdly trivial and harmless details!), and that's unfortunately something that I've seen quite a few times in the Mario fandom.

Self-entitled complaints. Rude assumptions. Insults. Finger-pointing. Gratuitous judgement. Just really unpleasant and tasteless stuff. My point being: constructive criticism is perfectly fine, but mean-spirited remarks are not. 🚫

Here to say once again.. as tired as I am

My art is romantic and at times suggestive in nature. I cover potentially sensitive topics (specifically drug use)

If you're a minor, I'd prefer you not follow me. I'm not an SFW creator 90% of the time

And I have stated such in a million other posts. Please don't complain especially when I say this quite often. If you're not reading my warnings, that is not on me

Talking About Mental Health And Suicide

EXTREME TRIGGER WARNING INCLUDING TOPICS RELATED TO MENTAL HEALTH AND SUICIDE/SUICIDE PREVENTION  

I don’t really want to have this conversation, but I feel like we need to and I have some things I need to get off my chest so I can feel like I can breathe again. I don’t really know where this is going, so let’s just call it a stream of consciousness exercise.

The suicide of tWitch hit me hard, and for a very particular reason. Over the past decade, there were a number of times I found myself in a particularly dark place. During those times, I have some pretty vivid memories of turning to “So You Think You Can Dance” and seeing tWitch. As a man with Tourette’s, I was bound to love a dude named tWitch. The way this guy moved, it reminded me, in many ways, of how I paint. Now I can tell you with certainty that I have absolutely zero rhythm when it comes to my body as it pertains to dancing, but I do have an incredible rhythm, strongly resembling dancing, when it comes to painting. This is why I am so often drawn to dance. One thing I specifically remember about tWitch, was his smile, and I couldn’t help but feel a little better when I looked at that smile and saw the joy that reverberated through the screen watching him dance. 

Learning of tWitch’s death is a sad and humbling reminder of the battles behind closed doors, and how sometimes the brightest lights are surrounded by the greatest darkness. This man was a treasure and an inspiration to so many…transcending way beyond dance but to all creatives and dreamers. I think that at times, creatives are able to hide these things more than others because we have learned how to paint a smile onto our faces while fighting our wars in silence. I think we also often feel it more, and this is one of the reasons I have had to isolate myself so much more as I have gotten older and fought my personal battles with my demons. 

I have always been pretty outspoken about mental health and suicide/suicide prevention. Although I knew my biological father died on my mother’s 21st Birthday, it wasn’t until I was 28 that I learned it was by suicide…something that I had already been battling with for over a decade. Just prior to learning about my father, I can recall a night with a pistol to my head and being a fraction of a second from never creating all of the things I have brought to life the past decade. As I type this, I can still see 20+ year old self-inflicted burn scars on my hands. I have been lucky and blessed that I have had art as an outlet for my pain and my darkness, but it’s not always as simple as that. 

I think that, for those that follow me, it was pretty evident this past year (for the first 3/4 really) that I was having some struggles. Though I am often candid in those struggles, I don’t think most know just how dark or serious it really was. I can look back now and say that there were many nights during the last year that I pushed and prayed for an overdose. There were many nights that I also gave myself about a 50/50 chance of waking up. I am thankful, today, that I am still here and able to share this with you, but it’s a very difficult reminder for me about a battle I have to face each and every day for the rest of my life…because this war does not end until it does.

I have historically found that when I am trapped in my darkness, people are drawn to that, like a moth to a flame…but the exact opposite. The response increases, and likely because people can relate and because it’s something visceral and real…because it’s something a lot of us feel and face…but not many are willing to acknowledge it to ourselves, let alone publicly.  It can be a real challenge as an artist, because at times I felt like I had to stay there. My “Open Wounds” collection is about tearing myself open and exposing my wounds so they can heal. This past year I ripped myself completely open, and quite honestly, I didn’t know if I was coming back. There was a time that I truly believed there was no coming back. To further this, the increased reach in this time led to a heavy increase in trolling, nasty messages, and the all too familiar joke of “Your work is going to be worth so much more when you’re dead.” I remember hearing this as far back as high school when I was just a lost teen without direction and on the edge. 

When someone dies by suicide, the comments quickly follow…some of them absolutely nasty and without the slightest bit of compassion or understanding. I always see the comments about how if you’re struggling, you should reach out and talk to someone. If I’m being honest, and I can only speak for myself, that has never worked for me. In my experience, I found that people said things like this to feel like they were doing something and because, if you should do something like take your life, they wanted to avoid any possible sense of guilt or responsibility. I noticed the same exact thing with the disappearance of my friend and the woman I loved, Deanne Hastings. People close to her reached out like they wanted to help, but when it was time to help and actually do something, they faded into nothingness, much like Deanne.

 I will say, I understand that people can only communicate through the understanding and openness of their own experiences. I have accepted that. I do hope that others struggling can find someone to talk to, someone that can help. For me, I have found that this is a battle I truly do have to fight alone. I have been let down by too many to risk putting my life in the hands of another. I simply refuse. I have also not been blessed with the resources that some have in terms of having a place to go or even decent health coverage. There are a number of times this past year that, if I had the resources or option, I would have checked myself in somewhere. If you have those resources, I am very happy for you. If you do not, I feel your pain and your struggle. 

After my decades of life experience and learning a few lessons, I am well aware that my life is in my hands and that nobody can save me from myself. It is up to me and I am fighting. The reason I spend so much time training in the gym and on the road running is because I am training and conditioning for life. I am preparing myself to fight the devil on my worst day…because I have had to before and I likely will again. This war continues until my dying breath. I am blessed to have my art as a light with which to fight, but I have to remember that every light also has a darkness and every darkness a light. 

I apologize if this didn’t make any sense. I just had to say some things that have been weighing on me. I think that in the past couple years, we have been isolated, cornered, and pitted against each other. We have been pushed into scenarios where we don’t feel safe, or comfortable, or loved. We have been put in situations where we feel like it is fight or flight and we are fighting for our lives. When this is the case, it is very difficult to communicate or come together…and I think that’s where we are. It all starts with someone taking the step to truly open up the conversation…and I hope I could at least do that.

All my love and gratitude for giving me the strength to fight when I needed it on those dark nights tWitch,

Michael

i didn't have "i'm broken" teenage asexual angst i had "i'm literally being the only reasonable one about this concept and the rest of you are behaving like fucking freaks" perception issues

Reminder that Palestinians in Gaza are being deliberately starved by Israel. Families in gaza are boiling plant leaves and eating them. They're also eating animals and birds food to stay alive. There are reported cases of kids and infants who died out of hunger and/ or cold. Starving people is part of genocide too. Remember how fast medicine was provided for the Israeli hostages, while Palestinians are starving for food and water and getting operations and amputations performed with no medication or anesthesia whatsoever.

🗣️ huh?? what do you mean I haven’t posted any Link signing propaganda yet??

People liking your personal OCs is still such a crazy feeling, I've been doing this for years and ppl asking about them still fills my entire heart with warmth and idk how to handle it

You enjoy this fictional guy I made up for fun?? Whose only content is random artwork or writing made by me and a handful of other artists at most? They have no show/book/game with a large fandom, it's just one person with an art blog?? I love u

I believed in you and your love. Please do not let me down and save my family from this war. Take them out of Sudan so that they can enjoy some stability and security.

many thanks!

This is my house after it was bombed in June and we are inside it

Please continue to support my fundraiser and share it with ur friends and network🤍

So it turns out that ChatGPT not only uses a ton shit of energy, but also a ton shit of water. This is according to a new study by a group of researchers from the University of California Riverside and the University of Texas Arlington, Futurism reports.

Which sounds INSANE but also makes sense when you think of it. You know what happens to, for example, your computer when it’s doing a LOT of work and processing. You gotta cool those machines.

And what’s worrying about this is that water shortages are already an issue almost everywhere, and over this summer, and the next summers, will become more and more of a problem with the rising temperatures all over the world. So it’s important to have this in mind and share the info. Big part of how we ended up where we are with the climate crisis is that for a long time politicians KNEW about the science, but the large public didn’t have all the facts. We didn’t have access to it. KNOWING about things and sharing that info can be a real game-changer. Because then we know up to what point we, as individuals, can have effective actions in our daily lives and what we need to be asking our legislators for.

And with all the issues AI can pose, I think this is such an important argument to add to the conversation.

Edit: I previously accidentally typed Colorado instead of California. Thank you to the fellow user who noticed and signaled that!

It's still surprising to see people say that when they see the upcoming strike post I made that this is the first time they're hearing about it, especially because I've seen several posts now talking about the same strike.

That being said: regardless of what kind of blog you are, please spread the news about the genocide, the strikes, boycotts, etc.

Even if you are a small blog, spreading word allows for more people to know what's going on and also do their part in protests and strikes, and maybe even the right people will be able to do more than what you're able to do.

And reminder: there is an upcoming strike on February 18th-25th. Prepare accordingly, protest, boycott, call your reps, and spread the word so more people are aware.

I want to post this here too because I’ve seen it happen a few times

Please understand that there are cultural differences and language differences, if you see this happening let the person clarify what they meant, that person might just not be familiar with words the western side of the internet use

Hey, guys uh, I don't know if I wanna send this post but, my Discord account got stolen. When I was talking to my friends, suddenly someone told me the server they were in got hacked and I wasn't even involved. If you have seen these accounts like this DO NOT ENTER THOSE SERVERS OR GIVE THEM YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION. I was stupid enough to believe it. So basically, I lost my Discord account. So happy man. But atleast I still have my friends with me eventually. @creeperchild please let anyone know about this. I'm sorry I was being so stupid for this situation.

gotta be honest and say it's insane to me that a bunch of people 'misremembered' nelson mandela dying in prison in the 80s even though he lived to become the president of south africa in the 90s and instead of thinking 'wow, i really should learn a bit more about international politics outside of north america and europe because not knowing such a basic fact like this about one of the most influential political figures of all time is kind of embarrassing', they became convinced that this was proof that parallel realities exist and they were having memories of an universe where mandela died in prison somehow. that's presumptuous on a level i can barely conceive of

I watched the original Muppets movies recently.

🇵🇸 IMPORTANT. Please share. 🇵🇸

If you have Instagram, Meta has set an automatic limit on "political content" as a means to stop the spread of awareness about Palestine, Sudan, Congo and more places where genocide and injustice are being enacted.

You can remove the limit in your settings. Instructions:

1. Go to Settings and Activity

2. Scroll down and click go to Suggested Content

3. Click on Political Content

4. Select "Don't Limit"

Please share so more people know about this and what to do