Low effort art I made last year inspired by the byler fanfic I’m writing. Just dropped another chapter after a million years so I thought it’d be fitting to post this now

Hello, have you talker about your art process anywhere? I am very interested in how you got into glitch art/photomanipulation/however you’d call this, and i want to learn more. Do you have programs you use, plugins, do you use any physical media or scanography/scanner manipulation? I really want to hear about anything you wanna talk about regarding the creation process for your art. Thank you for sharing your work.

Yes! Unfortunately, I tried answering this question in a ton of detail but tumblr didn’t save it as a draft automatically - which was a frustrating experience to say the least - so this is my second attempt at answering this ask — you’ve asked a lot of really valuable questions here, I’ll do my best to be concise in my answers!

When I first began playing around with editing software, I was 16 and simply wanted to make memes and silly edits. This was around 2015-2016, whenever vaporwave was a fresh concept and Resonance was trending on Vine — which is a sentence that makes me feel fucking ancient. I was really entranced by vaporwave, which had this off-white nostalgia for post-consumerist 80s and 90s cultural trends. I later became interested in how many of those cultural trends persisted and evolved into Y2K culture and beyond.

these are some of the images I was working on during that period of time, which were loosely inspired by indie horror and jazz cups and soundcloud rap. I was so proud of learning how to make my own scanlines using GIMP :)

Late 2016 I began my freshman year at a hoighty-toighty art school that I was too poor to attend, and quickly entered a mental health downward spiral — but I learned many valuable things, most of that info was painfully basic; my education prior to that was not anything special. I would not consider myself someone with exceptional aptitude for art — I just have a chronic compulsion to break things.

So, where to begin? My recommendation to anyone who’s newly interested in this style of artwork and editing:

Glitchet is a repository of info regarding many different styles and methods of distortion - from sonification to slipscans, there’s a ton of good info to comb through. Most of the techniques and tools covered are free to use, but there is some paid stuff out there too - but if you know your way around, virtually everything is free. More on that shortly :)

As for my process, programs, plugins, etc - there is a lot, and I don’t think I can cover everything. Primarily: Photoshop, After Effects, GIMP, ArtStudio Pro for iOS, Procreate, DestroyPix, and a number of other pieces of software that perform smaller, specific functions - such as BigJpg for AI-upscaling. I also employ analogue/physical distortion techniques like circuit-bending, slipscan, and more. These require additional hardware and knowledge; such as access to a copier/scanner, old CRT screens, and the ability to solder + work with low voltage electronics without accidentally shorting them out. Best part is that you can ✨layer✨ anything and everything, collage style — which is my favorite aspect, very playful and exploratory.

Now, if you’re like me and can’t afford fuck-all, but wholeheartedly believe that money should not be a limiting factor for creativity, I recommend installing the Adobe Creative Suite from downloadpirate(dot)com - which is also where I’ve gotten many of my plugins, although I do also pay for the plugins that I come to really appreciate, as they’re typically done by independent developers who could actually use the scratch. Same risks as any pirate cove: intrusive ads, popups, and redirect chains - use Ublock Origin to kill these annoyances. I recommend performing a scan with Malwarebytes after using any sketchy-looking-download site, but I was raised to be a bit paranoid so that’s purely preferential.

As for plugins:

Filenames in this image may correspond with the developer of the plugin — you can just search the filename + ‘after effects plugin’ and you’ll almost certainly find your way.

Most commonly, I use Pixelsorter, Pixdither, Displacer Pro, Pixel Stretch, and Hacksaw — although some of the plugs that I use aren’t listed above, like Datamosher, which is a script-based solution that helps remove i-frames from a clip in After Effects, all without having to use VLC and any handwritten scripts (the ol’ fashioned way).

These are all from the last year or so, to show the relative growth I’ve experienced since my time spent as a creature of 16 years. Naturally, I’m also like, more of a person now - so the art is partly better because I’ve simply suffered more :p

When I started, I didn’t know any of the jargon or how to describe a specific effect I was trying to achieve - so I taught myself how to do stuff by googling around, and if I couldn’t find an answer (which was 90% of the time) I’d just try to figure shit out. Which rarely ever resulted in outright success, but was always a significant learning experience. That’s why I’m so quick to drop the link to Glitchet! Sometimes I can’t help but wonder what I’d be doing now if I had known there was an online library for info on how to produce different types of distortions - definitely would’ve spent less time trial-and-erroring my way through aesthetics.

In conclusion: there’s so much to try and you should try absolutely everything that interests you. It’s free if you’re cool enough to steal it; though some things (like hardware) are gonna cost. You don’t need talent or an exceptional education, though both of those things would certainly help — and you’ll never run out of things to learn because there are infinite ways to break shit. More so than anything else, you need a willingness to explore, experiment, and fail often. You’ll fail miserably at times, so a proclivity for humiliation is also a big plus. Eventually your failures will start looking like successes; but you’ll have forgotten the difference by then and will be free to make whatever the fuck you want :)

I’m glad that you enjoy the work! tumblr has always been the best place for me to share my lil jpegs and actually find a real sense of connection with others who are similarly jazzed. My life completely bottomed-out a few years ago and I was in a really bad place whenever I logged into my blog for the first time in half-a-decade and started posting again. My personal growth from then to now has been a strange and incredible experience, and I’m so glad that I had the art and the funny little gays on this website to help me through the toughest points and teach me valuable things about myself; so if I can give back a little knowledge, I’ll gladly take that opportunity! I hope these findings serve you as well as they’ve served me.

hiiii! i just wanna say, i adore your art. second, im teaching myself to draw and while i can draw simple basics (mouths and sometimes eyes if im lucky), im still a beginner. ive watched many art videos and im still a bit confused on wtf im doing. so i just came here to ask if you had any words of wisdom for beginners? could be anything from what tablets to buy to simple mistakes to avoid. ive read some of the other posts here and have found it all extremely helpful so far! Thx for all you do!!

Hey there! Thank you so much!

I would put a read more but tumblr is broken. I’m trying to cover a lot of varied thoughts in little points, so if there’s anything you would like me to elaborate on or otherwise have questions on, feel free to shoot me an ask or dm me!

General

I think the biggest thing to remember is not to compare yourself extensively to others. A little bit of comparison is healthy... But too much will destroy your confidence, motivation, and take the fun out of art. Particularly if you are comparing yourself to someone older than you (life experience and coordination come into play here) or that has been drawing much longer (practice). 

Additionally... If you’re not having fun (and you’re not getting paid to do it), don’t force yourself. If you find yourself being frustrated or bored with art, don’t force yourself to do it. That’s how you burn out and get art block! This applies to parts of a peice, too! If you don’t feel like drawing a face or a hand today? don’t force yourself to finish it. Come back to it later when you aren’t as frustrated or are getting better results. Even if its a week or a month from now. Honestly, at any given time I have probably ten headless bodies in my drafts. That’s okay! I just come back to them when I’m ready to do the face. And don’t be afraid to abandon something if it doesn’t feel right!

Something that also doesn’t get said enough.... take care of your body! I never knew when I started art, but artists are supposed to do warmup sketches and stretches and muscle exercises! I didn’t do any of this, and i went through a period of a few months where I was drawing for 5ish hours every single day. I developed carpal tunnel from it! So remember to take care of yourself. Take breaks, stretch, remember to eat.

Practice

Practice!!!! Even if its just for fifteen minutes every day. Or twice a week. But if art is something you really want to get good at, you have to put in the time and effort!! You can’t expect to draw an hour per month and be on the same level as someone who draws an hour a day!

I know I say this a lot but I think the biggest thing is just reference! If you don’t know what something looks like, look at a picture of it when you draw it! To go hand in hand with that, though, don’t just copy what you see! Learn from it and apply it! So take, for example, a shoe! pay attention to the way the heel is shaped, the location of the eyelets for the laces... how large the toe is, how steep the top! While you’re at it, look at other styles of shoes as well, and compare them! See what makes it look like a boot versus a trainer! And then the next time you draw it, hopefully you’ll remember all the things you learned the first time around!

I do lots of studies that serve no purpose other than to teach me things! I use referencing/studies to learn about color theory, shapes, and anatomy in a real environment. For example, hands or fabric folds! Oftentimes I’ll do them timed (20 or 45 minutes) so that I don’t fixate on perfecting things, just on the process itself and what I can learn from it. This also helps with getting better acclimated to your software and more coordinated with what you’re doing. Repetitive learning, like with playing sports. 

I’ve realized a lot of people don’t quite understand what a study is? Basically you just look at a photo and try to replicate it so that you can learn about lighting or color theory or textures or anatomy or whatnot. So here’s an example of a timed study.

Additionally, don’t avoid!! We, as humans, have a tendency to avoid things that make us uncomfortable or are difficult. But it will make you a better artist in then end. When I first started, I absolutely hated doing fabric. I felt like I wasn’t good at it. So instead of avoiding drawing clothing, I sat down and did studies and sketches of different kinds of fabric. By the end of this learning period, I became comfortable with it and grew to enjoy it. These days, I adore sketching clothes, and it’s why my pants and shirts and things tend to be detailed instead of stylized in line art. If you don’t like drawing hands because you feel like you aren’t good at it? Sit down, look at a bunch of pictures of different hands, and practice it. By the end, you’ll be more comfortable, you’ll have learned something. Even if you feel like the drawings you ended up with aren’t good, you’ll still have learned, and that’s what matters!

Style

I worked on basics before I tried to develop a style. I made sure to start with a very realistic method at first, so that I could be sure I understood how fabric folds, anatomy, and realistic expressions worked before I tried to stylize them. I think in the long run this approach really paid off for me. It also allowed me to be conscientious of what elements I was absorbing into my artwork. I hear from so many artists that they started drawing when they were younger and into anime or cartoons or things like that, and tried to emulate it. Because those styles became so ingrained into their artistic skillset, it becomes near impossible to iron out those influences and get rid of them later. So starting with realism is a way to ingrain proper anatomy and other good practice into your artwork.

One way to develop style is to take a look at the artwork of someone you admire, and try to list out the things you like form their style - perhaps the thickness of their lines, or the way they do eyes. Do this with several artists, take all those little details you like and try them out! See if you enjoy using them in your own drawing process! Think of it like a grab bag or a pick-n-mix, sprinkling in the elements you like here and there to create something new and your own - not just copying another artists style word for word.

Don’t worry too much about it though; don’t allow yourself to become anxious or fixated on “achieving a style”. Its a natural ever evolving process that comes with time and practice. I know a lot of people get hung up on style, but just take it one day at a time!

Also try to keep in mind what style you’re going for as you begin drawing. And I don’t mean that like sailor moon vs. ghibli. I mean that as in, is this piece going to be a painting, a lineart, a lined painting, cell shading...? It will help you in the longrun if you narrow down the broad kind of style you use, and refine from there. 

Workflow

My workflow for paintings is very different from my workflow for lineart and cell shading. A full tutorial on how I do paintings can be found here! A process video for how I cell shade can be found here!

Everyone is going to have a different method that works for them! You just have to experiment and find out how you like to draw! For me, personally, I use color blocking for painting (see the tutorial above) and a spine method for lineart. How the spine method works is that I will draw lines that represent the legs, arms, back, etc. so that I can determine the placement, length, and composition. From there, I’ll add a dark outline that actually shows the shapes of the body. Then, I’ll use thinner lines to add details. This is the method I’ve found that works for me. Another commonly used method that I’m sure you’ve seen is representing body parts with cylinders and cubes. There are lots of good tutorials out there on breaking down bodies into shapes like this!

Something that I do is if I’m not quite happy with a part of a drawing, I don’t just erase it. I duplicate the layer so that I always have the original copy, and then I make changes from there. Sometimes I can end up with five or six different versions of the same arm or face that i’ve made minor changes to. And then I compare and pick the one I like best, or condense all the parts I like from each version to make a “best” version.

Tools

Currently I use Procreate and the standard Ipad with Apple Pencil. Prior to March I was using a Wacom Bamboo Touch and Photoshop Elements 2008. I find its harder for me to do full paintings in procreate, but its made my life a million times easier for lineart and cell shading. The pen pressure is phenomenal, and I also adore that its wireless / active screen instead of plug in like the wacom. The programme itself is intuitive and easy to get the hang of; it simply lacks a lot of the neat tricks that photoshop has, like rendering (lens flares, for example), gradients, and gradient maps. Try testing out different trials of programmes... firealpaca, photoshop, autodesk, whatever it may be! What works for me may not work for you!

Basement Corner: Writing for the F.A.M.I.L.Y. Initiative/Procreation Law of Vault 101

Welcome to the Basement Corner! Basically a little sector of this blog where, as Faerie, I talk about writing! It’ll mainly have to do with my fanfictions, since this is a fanfiction-driven blog, after all, but once in a while I’ll make posts about writing in general. Spoilers lie ahead for my fanfiction Inventor’s Absolution so proceed with caution if you haven’t read up to Chapter 18 - The Culling (P2) at least! The fanfiction can be found at either of these sites; AO3: http://archiveofourown.org/works/12490448/chapters/28433148 FF.net: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12694845/1/Inventor-s-Absolution ============================================================= Other warnings: The content/topic discussed here might be considered upsetting, so those who read on please understand that this is a fictional assessment in a fanfiction. Thank you! ============================================================= I wanted to address the ‘behind the scenes’ of writing the F.A.M.I.L.Y. initiative into IA. What is it, exactly? Well, it’s a questionnaire featuring a whopping 150 multiple choice questions to fill out, and it covers everything from simple questions like “what’s your favorite color?” to situation-based assessments like “you’ve been stranded on a deserted island with no sources of food alongside your soul mate, your mother, and your pet. You have been stranded for the last week with no foreseeable hope of rescue. Who would you vote to eat for sustenance (or would you sacrifice yourself)?” Okay, that last question is more like a fun gag, but honestly Vault-Tec would probably put down something like that, wouldn’t they? I’ve always been curious about the experiment of Vault 101 in having to keep the door shut indefinitely and relying on the unpredictable rise and fall of the population. We see promotional messages and posters littered about the vault that encourage procreation, detailing it as the civic duty of each and every vault dweller, but after 200 years we can assume that everyone is a distant cousin of another resident (save for the Lone Wanderer and James). This, obviously, can create unwanted mutations and will cause the population to steadily go stagnant in number. Lucy Palmer tells us during our 10th birthday party that the vault was packed when she was young, and though we don’t see the assumed entirety of Vault 101, or see how many people were initially let into the vault when the bombs fell, we can assume that the vault was huge--especially if they had enough food sources to feed everyone for 200 years (I like to think that they had crop farms, though, because having nothing but packaged food for 200 years sounds unreasonable). Concerning the meat of the F.A.M.I.L.Y. Initiative, I wanted to create a program similar to the G.O.A.T. that felt lore friendly. The biggest issue was coming up with a name that was comprehensive and would actually spell something (like the G.O.A.T. and S.P.E.C.I.A.L.); I originally considered titling the Initiative after another farm yard animal, but after much trial and error I couldn’t find an animal/acronym that felt realistic. I also considered shortening the name to F.M.L.Y., as inspired by the shortening of W.I.C.K.E.D. to W.C.K.D. for the Maze Runner movies, to a simple Future, Marriage, Lineage, and YOU spell out, which would have worked just as well but it bothered me that it wasn’t a legitimate acronym that spelled out FAMILY. I also considered something a little more silly that implied obvious foreshadowing with the acronym D.O.O.M., but I, again, couldn’t find anything to represent each letter in the name, and it felt a little too ‘on the nose’ to be taken seriously (even if it was meant for a dumb chuckle). A note for anyone who wants to come up with an acronym for anything in the future; it always helps to start with an idea, and a thesaurus will be your best friend! Always write down any words you find interesting or could be worked into your acronym and just keep playing around with it. The process is mainly exploring and trying out different options. A definite drawback to the F.A.M.I.L.Y. Initiative in Vault 101 is the fact that anyone who doesn’t identify as ‘straight’ isn’t welcomed or tolerated. The vault can’t have any residents trying to initiate same-sex relations or marriages because it goes against their basic civic duty in 101. Yeah, people can adopt unwanted or orphaned children, which nullifies the need for straight relationships, but the vault believes this will curb the genetics applied to the vault for future population if the Initiative is in effect. As well, due to the time period that Fallout is inspired by, I doubt that, socially, people would’ve been okay with same sex relations. Another issue with the Initiative is that it wouldn’t have been accommodating for residents who can’t have children due to health or mental concerns... after all, before taking the official exam, any residents who qualify in age (19-45) and marital status (single and without children) have to firstly undergo a medical exam to ensure they’re in top shape to bring in the next generation of dwellers. Side note: I think that Winona would’ve actually been considered underweight (since she’s described as rather scrawny/small in some descriptions of her body) in her medical evaluation prior to taking the Initiative, but it didn’t warrant marking her as ‘unqualified’ as a potential breeder... much to James and Jonas’ fear. Otherwise, I’ve actually thought about writing up the 150 test questions as a playful thing, so people can actually take the F.A.M.I.L.Y. Initiative’s questionnaire and get a result (through me) of who their ‘potential match’ would be! Suitors would include Butch DeLoria, Amata Almodovar, Susie Mack, Paul Hannon, Christine Kendall, Wally Mack, and Freddie Gomez from Vault 101, and some other NPCs you can find in Fallout 3. I also thought about doing it plainly for my own fanfiction OCs and characters I write for otherwise. Would’ve kept it all in Vault 101, but then there’s not very many single options. Plus it sounds more fun this way to include other characters! Writing the test would be a big undertaking, though, as I’d feel the need to get super technical with it an have answers that link to the proper results, with questions that cover various topics of dating... plus, the more suitors that are available to match with, the harder it would be to deliver a ‘compatible candidate’. Maybe I’ll spoof a draft and see how I feel about it, huh~? Anyway, thanks for sticking this random Basement Corner post! If I didn’t address something about the topic that you’re curious about, or you want elaboration on anything that was said, feel free to ask me anything! (picture attached was compiled by me; graphic of Vault Boy courtesy of Fallout Shelter) ~Faerie

Bianca Rowena, YA author of The Gifted Series

This month’s guest is Bianca Rowena who was born in Romania, Transylvania. She has been writing from a young age and has written the novels The Gift of Stone and The Virgin Diaries. She now lives in Canada which is the setting and inspiration for her novels. Let’s invite her to the blog to chat about her writing!

Hi Bianca Rowena, thank you for joining us. Can you give us a brief introduction to yourself?

I think you already did a pretty good job with the introduction haha. I’d say one of the things people find the most interesting about me is that I was born in Transylvania. It made for a different kind of upbringing which I like to think makes me writing have a slightly different perspective. Sometimes I get frustrated with how much editing goes into a final draft since my first language is Hungarian and my sentences are sometimes a combination of language style. The English language is spoken a bit backwards after all 😉

You mentioned that you have been writing at a very young age. What was your first literary piece?

That’s a great question. I know I loved to write short stories since I was probably about 7, but the first little novel I ever write was called “Fall” and I think I wrote it when I was about 13. I still have! It’s about middle school, friends, annoying boys and a school band trip to Spokane! I pulled out the notebook to glance over it just now and was amazed that there are some themes in there which I use in novels to this day! This short novel was 16 chapters long, hand written 😊

Tell us a bit about your latest release, The Gift Stone, which is part of the Gifted Series. What inspired it?

It started as a fan fiction actually. I watched The Force Awakens which I felt absolutely needed a sequel, immediately! There was no time to wait two full years to see what happens next, so I had to write it! Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who thought, this story needed a sequel which focused on Rey and Kylo Ren. There was a lot of fandom around it and I jumped right in! I fell in love with the story once it was all done and I didn’t want to leave it just as a fan fiction so I changed it up a bit and decided to publish it! I merged two novels to create the Gift Stone; a novel I’d been working on called ‘Temple Girl’ and my Star Wars fan fiction, and I put them together. It seemed to fit rather well.

  Is the Gifted Series your new focus or are you writing anything else on the side?

The Gifted Series is definitely my focus right now, until I have all three books published, but I’ve been itching to work on Moonlight Shadow, a novel that I wrote a few years ago about Aliens (humanoid aliens) that live on a small, human built planet (built from garbage), orbiting the Moon. When they originally landed on Earth (after their planet was destroyed and they had no place to go) they infected the humans with a virus and were exiled to the small planet “Moonlight Shadow” – originally a vacation destination for rich humans (and still is).

The story follows Daryl, a boy who is prophesized to be the aliens’ future leader and who has special gifts, and Ayza, the daughter of the world leader on Earth, who is kidnapped and brought to Moonlight Shadow to ‘procreate’ with Daryl, which is the alien race’s only hope for an antivirus via the special offspring that would come from Ayza and Daryl, both of whom are special for their race. This is the only way to save the Alien’s from dying out. Except both Daryl and Ayza are opposed to this idea. Yet the alien military leader’s patience is running out and they’re willing to go to any means to save their race. Can you see why I’m itching to get back to this novel?!! It’s so intense on so many levels. I can’t wait to visit the garbage planet Moonlight Shadow again! It’s always extremely hot there but I’m ready to go back. It’s been far too long and I miss that place. I miss Daryl and I miss Ayza.

I noticed you are on Wattpad, how has your experience been on this social platform? Would you recommend it to writers?

Yes and No. I’d recommend using it for fan fiction and to experiment with your creativity, but it hasn’t proven useful for promoting my work as far as sales go. My current fan fiction has 200,000 views and yet it hasn’t made any difference for me in sales numbers for my current two novels. I have however gotten priceless feedback and it was via Wattpad that I fulfilled my mission as an author, to create entertainment that would provide an escape as well as a needed emotional outlet for readers; essentially to better people’s lives. I was writing my Star Wars fan fiction live, 3-4 chapters daily (writted, edited and posted by 7pm every day). I did that for just over a month and came up with basically what is now the first two books of The Gifted Series.

At that time, I had Wattpad readers that were reading daily and one girl woke up at 5am every day just to read the latest chapters the moment they were posted (most of my Wattpad readers are in Europe and overseas so there’s a time difference). One reader commented that every day she would look forward to coming home from school so she could read my chapters, and once I was finally done the fan fiction she cried. A lot of my readers were as dramatic as me, so that was awesome. It’s these encouraging comments that made me write 80,000 words in about a month, which I like to imagine is some kind of nanowrimo world record (?) haha, I haven’t checked or anything.

I told my Wattpad readers that I will write a sequel to the next Star Wars movie coming out this December! So that will be in the theater with my pen and notebook, taking notes during the movie ^_^

Any final thoughts you’d like to share with the readers and aspiring writers?

For aspiring writers I’d say keep writing while you pursue getting a publisher or figuring out the many facets of self-publishing. You will want to have lots of manuscripts written for when the doors begin to open, not just one work, but many.

And for the readers I just want to remind them that they are the reason we write! And if you enjoyed a story please remember to leave a review somewhere, so the author can be encouraged and their work can get recognition 😃 thanks!

Thank you Bianca Rowena for joining us!

You can find Bianca through the following links below.

Website: biancarowena.com

Amazon: amazon.com/Bianca-Rowena/e/B0161S8DI0

Goodreads: goodreads.com/author/show/14199529.Bianca_Rowena

Facebook: facebook.com/BiancaRowena

Twitter: twitter.com/biancarowena

Instagram: instagram.com/biancarowena/

Wattpad: wattpad.com/user/BiancaWatson