Hey, there! I really, really love your art… It’s got such an oniric vibe to it that makes it unique. As a beginner artist, I was wondering, if you don’t mind answering, if you could share some tips about how to find your own style? By now, I can only “copy” other artists’ works, in their own art styles, but when I try to get into my own style, it’s just… Blank, empty. I hope you can answer me on this, I’ve been walking in circles on this subject, with no progress whatsoever. I also hope you’re doing okay, and that you are having a good time there where you are ^^

Hello!! Thank you so much!! I’ve been inspired by Ukiyo-E and manga styles forever so this hits me in the soft squishy center of my heart. I’ll try not to ramble too much in my answer because this kind of journey is so personal and yet totally universal to all kinds of artists lol

First, a personal story:

When I was a kid, I was always drawing. When I saw something I loved, I drew it! I copied Pokémon cards, drawing dewgong over and over and over again just to get that majestic tail swoosh. When I was about 9, I got one of those cheesy howling wolf shirts from Orlando Studios and became obsessed with copying the image on it (but with pencil on notebook paper) probably a hundred times just to try and get a little closer to drawing badass wolves. I tore pages out of magazines and copied the clothes and faces I liked, making my little OC characters. I had this incredible Dralion Cirque du Solieil poster that was just fucking INSANELY COOL and I would draw it and stare at it for hours just trying to pick apart what about it was so fucking cool.

Everything I’ve drawn up until this very moment has pieces of all those things. Every dragon I draw has that poster, every wolf face has that tshirt. Even in years of formal art classes, students are tasked with copying the masters! Its a well-traveled path for every lifelong artist. You try on different styles, maybe some fit and others don’t. Regardless - YOUR hand is the one making the drawing; you can’t hide it and that is your personal “style”. Just like an author’s voice, humor, and values in things they write.

So, my point…

There is no true originality, cliche but TRUE! If your drawing feels soulless, what art to you looks full of life? Really observe the details about it - what about it makes it alive? Be as specific and granular as you possibly can. Take that thing, and copy it. Copy it and spend time with it, apply it to all kinds of things until it feels like it’s doing its job. Eventually it becomes an automatic part of your process and becomes your own. All art and style is like a big ol scrapbook of what gives you those feelings!

TLDR: style is a culmination of allllll the tiny moments in other things that you’re drawn to. Art development has no endpoint, KEEP GOING!!! Find what you love and USE IT!!!

I believe in you, and everyone else out there struggling with this! Everyone does at some point!! Just keep drawing and never stop! Even if you feel like you aren’t making progress - you are. Constantly.

do you think buck even considered the option that he maybe could be wanting eddies attention

Hi, nonny!

I actually don't think that was something that ever crossed his mind. And, to be completely honest based on the fact that I've watched the episode and dissected every scene to my roommate a million times, I really don't think he actually wanted Eddie's attention as much as the fandom claims he did. His comment to Tommy about wanting his attention was genuine, and there's so much evidence to that if you watch the episode without Buddie goggles on (I say as a Buddie shipper).

The thing is, there was no issue between the three of them in 7x03. Buck and Eddie have been on good terms all season, they both know the same amount about Tommy at that point, Buck even goes out of his way to find a way to spend time with Tommy - that's why he was at the hangar at the beginning of 7x04 to begin with! He wanted to spend time with Tommy and wanted to know him and wanted to be his friend. This is a canon fact can't be brushed off by "actually, it was because Eddie-" no. He wanted a friend. That's allowed.

Buck is literally there and asking Tommy to spend more time together! He's asking him out for a beer, and he looks so excited that Tommy wants to say yes, and then Eddie rolls up, literally, and takes his new friend away from him and off to Vegas.

All of Buck's anxiety and insecurity in the episode stems from that moment.

He knows that Eddie is cool and fun, he says it a million times before Tommy kisses him. I think the problem is that Buck feels like he's being passed over for someone cooler than him - someone who Tommy relates to more, because Eddie was in the army, and likes basketball, and fighting, and trivia nights. Eddie and Tommy click in a way that Buck doesn't have with most of his friends, and he felt like he was being pushed out before he even had the chance to try to be a part of that friendship.

Also, I feel like it's definitely not about wanting Eddie's attention, because he complained that Tommy was spending time with Christopher, too. This family that he knows he's a part of - because he's in Eddie's will, and he watches Christopher regularly, and he's not really a guest in Eddie's home, etc. - is getting more attention from this new friend he wanted to make than he is, and it's only been two weeks. Even the basketball being delivered to the firehouse feels like he just wants to prove he's as cool as they are, and he goes out of his way to show up to the pick up game (with a compression sock on his bad leg!) to try to hang out with them. More than anything, Buck just wants to be included.

He wants a chance to prove himself before he's ruled out of being Tommy's friend completely. He doesn't want to be the default babysitter because two people he wants to spend time with don't invite him along. It's making him feel dumped to the side.

If it was about wanting Eddie's attention, he wouldn't have been complaining about Christopher and Tommy connecting. His first moment of frustration wouldn't have been when his time with Tommy was interrupted if not completely derailed by his plans with Eddie. He wouldn't have tried to prove he was good at basketball by knocking over Eddie and potentially messing up that relationship just for more of his attention than he already gets.

Eddie is cool. Tommy is cool. Buck wants to be friends with the cool kids - he's already an irreplaceable figure in Eddie's life, and he knows that, but he has no connection to Tommy, who keeps getting pulled away from him by his best friend and a teenager. He wanted one-on-one time with Tommy. He wanted flying lessons from Tommy. He wanted to go out for a drink with Tommy. And that's all before he starts getting jealous of anyone at all.

As a big sibling with a lil sib with epilepsy, when they read TBC they Honestly thought if they got struck with lightning reciting the lord's prayer they'd be cured like Shadowsight is from their epilepsy. I had a discussion with them on how that's not how it works, but ge was so upset they took it away from Shadowsight that he hasn't picked the books back up and has stated that 'he hopes Ashfur wins and starts a new religion.,'

I do not even know how to respond to this besides saying that your little sibling is 100% right to be pissed and I now also hope Ashfur wins and starts a new religion.

i guess what im trying to say is

i love you .

@201-klz-dead

I don’t usually make posts like this, but I’ve been seeing a lot of anti-intellectual junk lately, and I really think we need to put the word “pretentious” up on a shelf until people learn what it actually means.

It doesn’t describe someone who likes artsy-fartsy deep meaning media. People who are pretentious are fake. They’re posers trying to be sophisticated and unique, not like other girls. They pretend to only like stuff they think will make them sound cool when they talk about it. They want to act like they know something you don’t, and they want attention for it.

By definition, if you genuinely enjoy something, you can’t be pretentious. If it resonates with you, and you analyze it, and you don’t care what people think, that’s the polar opposite, actually. If you love obscure experimental prog music, if you watch underground high concept indie films through English teacher eyes, if you spend hours in a modern art museum reading each piece as a vessel for storytelling, if your backpack’s full of poetry books that inspire you, if you play underrated games that were someone’s passion project, if you have an interest in studying the classics or the masters, you are not pretentious.

Of course, some people just don’t like some stuff, and that’s fine, but that’s not what this is about. Don’t let anti-intellectuals shame you for enjoying things just because your interests are inaccessible to them, because they refuse to be brave and put effort into critical thinking. You’re not stuck up for refusing to overlook the craft of artists.

THE BEST OF SHENKO 1/?

The end of the world has a way of reminding you of all the things you forgot to say do. Mass Effect: Legendary Edition (2021)

When Robin was first introduced, she had been working with Crocodile in Alabasta for the past several years, so I could understand her skin tone being a little lighter than it used to be, but not this bad.

It's extremely fucked up. I would understand the "it was an animation error" argument if it wasn't because it happens with all the characters (not only Robin) and they're whiter and whiter each episode (even the characters that should be black).

If we follow irl reasoning as you say, then all of them should be tanned because they're pirates. They're constantly under the sun. But no, they go backward and instead, they lack melanin every episode. It was already bad, but Egghead fucked up big time.

And don't get me started on Usopp because people could use that excuse on any other character, but Usopp?? I truly, really, don't think it takes too much thinking to get that he's black and Toei just keeps making him paler than Sanji. It's ridiculous and racist and people who ignore it or say it's been talked "too much" (because people say it and apparently there's a limit for them as to how much you can complain about racism) always get on my nerves.

What Toei is doing is just disgusting and people defending it are always the ones who refuse to see any mistakes in the things they like. News flash! You can like something and admit it has mistakes.

Man,

Wrentail's character is just something I love, he is horrible in a very mundane, unfeeling, callous way.

He looks at Mudpaw, a cat that is only still alive because Wrentail decided to save him as a kit, and is just like "kid's a pussy (pun intended), let me toughen him up." and puts him through horrible training without feeling anything. Yet at the same time it doesn't seem like Wrentail is out to make Mudpaw's life horrible or is targeting him, it's just that this is the only teaching method he knows. He is callous and doesn't seem to know or care about how this is affecting Mudpaw.

At the same time, when push comes to shove, he clearly has a basic sense of right and wrong. Not letting a kit die isn't exactly a exceptional test of morality, but it shows that Wrentail knows doing so would be wrong, same with saving Mudpaw from falling. He does both without hesitation or ulterior motive. Wrentail isn't evil or deranged, but he can ignore his own conscience when it suits him.

Also, love his design, the contrast between his colorful pelt and permanent grumpiness speaks to me. WHY COULDN'T YOU JUST MAKE HIM A BROWN TABBY LIKE EVERY OTHER BAD CAT IN WARRIORS!!! Now I'm invested :(

YES THIS. He is a very mundane evil. Not mundane in that his abuse was unremarkable, not at all, but mundane in a way that is just... the way some people are. I've said it before on this blog, but I try to portray Wrentail in a realistic way. I don't want him to be cartoonishly evil, because real people aren't like that. Real people have multiple sides to them, and they can be terrible and abusive while also doing good deeds in other areas. This most certainly doesn't absolve them of the terrible things they've done, but it can muddy the water if you're only looking for someone who is pure evil. That's why I portray Wrentail doing good things as well; real abusers hardly ever seem like abusers from the outside.

tbh I've gotten a few comments on the youtube videos that have mistaken these good deeds as a form of redemption for wrentail. This is absolutely not the case. Wrentail's good deeds do not cancel out his bad ones. Him saving Mudpaw at the falls? Sure, Mudpaw instigated the fight but wrentail is the adult here; as a fully grown warrior, he should be fully capable of handling an out of control apprentice. Real teachers have to handle situations with students who are being violent, and they absolutely are not allowed to allow students to harm others or themselves (source: several college classes on classroom management and personal experience in classrooms). It was the bare minimum that he pull mudpaw up from the falls. And he did! He did it without hesitation! But that hardly means he's a shining beacon of moral good. Saving Mudpaw as a kitten? Literally it would have been illegal if he didn't. Once again, he shows a bit of emotion in the situation, he's swayed by a tiny kitten being in need, but it's still the bare minimum of what he should do for that kit.

Doing these things was good, to be sure. He's saved mudpaw's life twice. But it is absolutely not a reflection of him "secretly being a good person" or whatever. anyway I know those sorts of comments are likely made by people who don't have as much life experience or are just on the younger side, but it's kinda disheartening to see people misinterpreting those actions as me saying "oh actually he was secretly a good guy!" when that couldn't be further from the truth of what I'm trying to say. Black and white morality doesn't work here, good actions do not always equal good person.

And just because he's chosen to be harmful and abusive to Mudpaw, doesn't mean he's pure, abject evil. Wrentail wouldn't go out of his way to hurt Mudpaw if he weren't his mentor. It just so happens that he was put into that position of authority over this specific cat he had something against, and because he could hurt mudpaw, he did. He had the opportunity, and he took it. He could have just as easily asked for Larkstar to assign Mudpaw to another warrior, but he didn't, because it gave him the excuse and the room to hurt someone he thought deserved it.

Man, I really love the concept behind the designs I made for Wrentail and Mudpaw specifically. Wrentail isn't supposed to look evil, that's the point! He blends in with normal clan society. I specifically altered their designs after a while, making Wrentail softer and more rounded and Mudpaw angular and sharp-edged, to reflect the other characters' impressions of them. It is really funny though how many evil wc characters are big dark brown tabbies HAHA

I just finished your New Wave fic. I’m convinced everything your write is gold. I loved your TMA fics, with the most heartbreaking demon AU imaginable and the hilarity of Fahrenheit 101. I loved your moon knight fics, starting with Steven talking to animals on the reg at work to the system growing closer with a focus on Jake, i- there’s- it’s sooo much packed into it. When I’m on burnout, of art or writing (maybe life in general at times) I revisit your work and am thrown back into a creative headspace.

You are my favorite writer, you cram so much meaning and thought into your work and it shows. The characters are dumbasses and say the most ridiculous shit and turn around the next chapter and say the most thought provoking thing, and I don’t get whiplash from it because these characters just work! They just do, and I… am very much off track!

Anyways I just got into Batman and reading your fic is fueling that flame! I can’t wait to see what you have in store next, and I shall now stalk your blog for writing tips! I hope you have a nice day broski 💙

Thank you!! This is so sweet thank you so much! This ask is so nice!

Trust me, if there's meaning then it's because I get obsessive over these fics and I massively overthink them. I honestly wish I was better at making simpler, more elegant stories. I feel like nothing I do is truly going to be good until I can find that simplicity.

"Dipshit who says stupid stuff and then turns around and spouts ridiculous philosophy" is just how I talk. But I habitually approach my life from a standpoint of finding humor in everything, if only to soften the blow. I was once told that it's really hard to tell when I'm joking, because everything I say is always half-joking and always half-serious. I feel like that's pretty evident from my narration too...

As for writing advice...um, I was just speaking about this with somebody. When you're plotting a story, the first thing I like to figure out is what I'm trying to say. Everything else should be built around that. The joy of writing is that I think we all have something we want to say, or something we want people to know, or that we have an aspect of ourselves and our lives that we want to express. Most of the time, trying to convey those things verbally just results in a frustrating approximation of your true feelings. I find that when I manage a successful story, the depth and scale of what I'm trying to impart is fully understood and felt. It's rewarding. I think if people aren't understood on some level, by somebody, they kind of die.

Thanks for the sweet ask!!

you know one thing i find extremely telling about the whole 'melvin can't say ily' thing is that neither do any of the other couples - but that doesnt really matter to them. like take lumax for example - they've never said they love each other, or said it to anyone else, and they've also broken up 6 (??) times over the course of the show. but anyone who watched season 4 came away knowing they do love each other. another example of this is jancy; i don't think they've ever explicitly said they love each other either, but they don't have to. because with both of these couples, you can visibly see it because they show it in their actions, in the way they look at each other, and the way they're constantly motivated by each other.

and so, for massachusetts institute of technology to not only not have all the above implications (they're separated every season, never have those romantic looks, their actions are almost always motivated by something else) but also have their most significant relationship plotline be that mike cant say he loves her, and that (despite them being the only couple who got an explicit love confession w mikes monologue) el also believes he doesn't love her, is very telling. because with lumax and jancy and jopper, you don't have this debate; it is taken as objective fact that (at one point or another) they love each other, because its obvious, and they dont have to spell it out to get people to realize. but moonlight on the river? whether you ship byler or not, there's still none of that objectivity. you literally don't know how they feel for each other, even though we know that if the duffers wanted to make it clear, they could and would've. and i just think it's very interesting the route they decided to take with it instead, especially in comparison with all the other romantic couples on the show rn.

I really, REALLY hope that CAPCOM never reveals who Nero's mother is. I don't think I can take losing all the steamy Dante/Vergil Mpreg fanfiction and fanart!😥

Oh anon, I highly doubt the art and fanfic would disappear just because capcom gave a face to nero's mom! Even if they were to actually make her a character, I think me and everyone else who's deep in the hc would just keep going as if nothing had happened - after all, I highly doubt Vergil being Nero's actual mother would ever be made canon, so why care about what canon says on the matter? It fits incredibly well with his character and with the general vibe all of the spardas have that make them so close, at least in my experience, to the (specifically transmasc) non-cis experience, but it's one of those things that was likely just a happy accident and as such will probably never be recognized by the creators, even. Though while I think it's clear that the official intent of purely canonverse is to imply Vergil had a ONS with a random woman who got pregnant with Nero, I personally don't think it would serve the narrative to make her a full fledged character - something like that would muddle the story a bit too much. I think it works perfectly as a "yeah this thing happened but how or the details don't matter, what matters is that now Nero exists" thing rather than having its own detailed branching off plot. I just don't think DMC is the franchise to explore that - and besides, I think capcom, so far, hasn't seemed too interested in exploring that, which honestly I appreciate not just as a shipper (because again, like I said, at the end of the day what canon says matters relatively little) but from a narrative perspective.

asian parents will literally do everything except get their kid therapy (devotion 2019)

guys i'm so sorry i write so much i promise i'm trying to get better at it 😣 i just have so much to say all the time but i promise i'll try to tone it down since i don't want to clutter your dashes

seeing so many videos on YT lately that are like “I read this dark romance book and i’m calling the police” or some condescending put-down derivative

babe if it’s not for you then put it down and find something new to read nobody wants an hour-long video of you yucking someone’s yum

haiiii question for the masses <333