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porcelainseashore · 24 days

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Into the Ether (1)

(Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, ...)

Pairing: Vampire! Toreador! Leon Kennedy x Fem! Reader

Summary: At the all-night events cafe you run, you’ve become acquainted with an elusive patron, Leon, though you can never remember the last moments of your interactions together. After a harrowing encounter, a love-hate relationship develops between the two of you as you grapple with your newfound status in a world of darkness and investigate the reasons behind the untimely attacks.

Content & Warnings: 18+ Resident Evil x Vampire: The Masquerade crossover, horror, mystery, romance, slow burn, strangers to enemies to lovers, angst, fluff, eventual smut, swearing, smoking, non consensual blood drinking, blood bond, vampire turning, violence, injury, mild gore, torture, religious themes, minor character death, RE characters (Chris, Claire, Ada, Wesker, Jill, Sherry, Hunnigan, Rebecca, Baker Family, Merchant, Patrick, Luis), VtM concepts (Camarilla, Anarch, Sabbat, Second Inquisition, Toreador, Ventrue, Brujah, Gangrel, Nosferatu, Malkavian, Tremere, Ghouls).

Authors' Note: Super excited for this crossover series! I’ll try to keep a regular update schedule on Wednesdays. I might take some liberties with VtM lore and mechanics to fit the story, but hope to stay as true as I can to the source material. Finally, I imagined RE2R Leon (my favorite!) in this role 🫶

AO3 Link

Chapter 1: RC By Night

You first saw him in summer, when the days were long and the nights were short, and the streets came to life again. There was the heady smell of pollen in the air and the humidity was sweltering. Just a couple of months after you and a bunch of idealistic friends from your theater school days had taken the plunge, and opened an all-night cafe in one of the cheaper, grittier areas of town, east of the river of Raccoon City.

It had been a scrappy little project, one you didn’t expect to receive a cult following and gain in popularity amongst the intellectuals and counterculture crowd. But then again, there was also the City College nearby and the events program you’d lined up each week drew them in. From comedy nights and disco fevers to site-specific and performance art, you knew what people liked and how they wanted to be entertained. A bit of kitsch, a sprinkle of avant-garde and a generous dose of unpretentious social drinking. It pulled him in too.

Him. You didn’t even know his name. The first thing you had noticed were his striking blue eyes that seemed to glow from the shadows of the dimly lit space, peering out at you. Always observing, always watching, never speaking. Sometimes he’d glance over across the opposite end of the room at another pair of companions — a rugged, broad-shouldered man with a dark crew cut bumping shoulders with a younger, spunky redhead in a matching biker jacket. They’d exchange subtle looks of recognition and mild suspicion before returning to whatever they were doing. Though they never uttered a single word to each other.

He came back week after week, ordering the same drink each time, but never touching it. One Manhattan, please. You obliged. A waitress you had sent over to pry on your behalf told you he enjoyed the cocktail, but couldn’t tolerate much alcohol. You saw him lift the drink to his nose, sniffing it as the corners of his mouth turned upwards, silently smiling to himself before he placed it back down on the table again. Strange. You shook your head and prepared a cup of black coffee, taking it over to him as his eyes lit up in surprise with your approach.

“On the house,” you explained, plonking it down on the table. He raised an eyebrow but remained tight-lipped.

Maybe he didn’t like coffee? Or how did he usually take it? “Uh—” you turned back towards the service area, as if to check that the condiments were still in place. “Would you like some creamer or sugar to go with it?”

He raised his hand to indicate it wasn’t necessary and his jaw clenched, before fixing it into an awkward smile. “Thank you.”

Those were the first words he had spoken to you. It rolled off his tongue like a swirl of mist, a sliver of a dream you couldn’t quite remember when waking up. You took another step forward to get a better look at him. He had a baby face, angelic almost, with that typical, boy next door charm your mom would have gushed at, and you imagined he couldn’t be older than his early twenties. Upon closer inspection, he seemed slightly pale, faint dark circles around his eyes that had seen more than his fair share for his age. There was a sense of weariness and jadedness behind them that made him appear older than he was.

Bringing the cup to his lips, he sipped a small mouthful, letting it sit for a moment, before swallowing it down languidly. You admired the curve of his Adam’s apple, bobbing as the liquid poured down his throat, littered with freckles and specks of moles. Something about his very presence mesmerized you, even more so than earlier. It was hard to place a finger on what it was exactly, and why this feeling seemed to grow with every second you were lingering near him.

He pulled out a pack of cigarettes, tapping it on the table before offering one to you. Why not? You were a social smoker and took it as a sign to join him. In fact, there was no other place you’d rather be at the moment. You were confused, but did not question it as you took a seat beside him, noticing that he flinched each time he flicked open his lighter to ignite a flame.

His fingertips brushed across your wrist as he lit your cigarette, causing you to shiver in response, while his jaw tensed again, as if trying to rein something in. Licking his lips, he took a puff from his own, exhaling the smoke as it billowed around him and for a second you thought you’d lost him to a wall of fog. Both of you continued smoking in silence, checking in with each other through furtive glances, even though there was nothing to be ashamed about.

At some point, you followed the direction of his gaze and saw that same pair of companions he often regarded from the corner of his eye. They were frowning, giving him dirty looks as he shrugged nonchalantly in return.

“Not much of a talker, are you?” you broke through the thick stillness of the air that surrounded the both of you like a bubble, separated from the rest of the evening revelers.

“You’re observant,” he teased, his eyes crinkling as he stubbed out the leftovers of his cigarette in the ashtray. You followed suit.

“So, what brings you here?” you asked, gesturing to the suit attire sans tie that he was wearing. “Don’t get me wrong, but this place doesn’t exactly seem like the kind you types hang out at.”

“Hm,” he huffed, though your question didn’t phase him. “And what exactly is my type?”

“I’d say you were a yuppie,” you blurted out, your mouth rarely had a filter on these days. “But I can’t be sure, something about you seems…”

“Off?” he offered, smirking, yet his expression carried a hint of somberness.

“Different,” you corrected, but mumbled out a quick apology nonetheless soon after.

“Don’t be,” he grazed your hand again as he adjusted himself in his chair, and you felt like he was doing this on purpose. “At least you’re honest. It’s a rare quality to find these days.” Though the way he said the last sentence sounded loaded with a double meaning.

“These days?” you guffawed. “You’re speaking like an old man.”

He joined in your laughter though that was the end of your conversation for that night. The rest of the evening went by in a blind haze, and you found yourself in a dazed state later on in the wee hours of the morning, still sitting at the same table, but your newfound friend gone without a trace. None of your colleagues had noticed a thing. You didn’t even get his name, but you shook yourself, commanding your limbs to get back to business and clean up after the customers that had left.

The next time you saw him was when you were hosting the karaoke night of the month. Decked out in a shimmery mermaid glitter jumpsuit, hair tied up in pigtails and face caked with extravagant make up, you hopped onto the stage, only to nearly stumble on your flimsy heels when those piercing blue eyes landed on you from the all the way back. Of all the nights he could have dropped in, he chose this one.

You suppressed your embarrassment and warmed up the audience with a couple of well-placed jokes before kicking the event off with those who had registered to participate. It appeared to be a tough crowd as you only had a handful of sign ups, and would need to potentially seek out volunteers when they were done. You hoped the rackety sound system would hold up till then too.

Fortunately, when it came to the crunch — which it did — you always had an ace up your sleeve. “You there,” you called out, pointing towards the back of the room. “Yeah, blue eyes, you.” Crooking your finger, you beckoned him over, waiting in anticipation to see what he would do.

To your surprise, he bowed his head, accepting the challenge, before slowly weaving his way through the crowd, who were cheering him on with your prompting, towards the stage. He flashed you his pearly whites as he climbed up the short stairs, his floppy bangs bouncing with each step. For a moment, you thought you caught something feral in his gaze, but it dissipated when he reached out for the mic from you, his hands sweeping over yours with an electric touch.

You were in awe of him, like almost everyone else in the cafe, when he broke out in a rich tenor voice, effortlessly floating through the notes of the gentle melody, that you felt as though you were being wrapped in a serene, velvet cocoon. Enthusiastic claps and hoots filled the space when he finished. The only two people in the room who were scowling were the same pair of companions he knew from before.

“Will you join me after the show?” he whispered in your ear as he handed you back the mic. Nodding was the only appropriate response.

You were rushed off your feet for the next couple of hours and it was late by the time you called the event to a close, but he was still there, by his usual table, waiting patiently for you.

“So you decided to push me into the spotlight,” he accused with a wry smile.

“Don’t pretend you didn’t enjoy it,” you shot back. “Here.” You set a cup of black coffee down in front of him. “My treat.”

“You’re too kind.” It sounded flat, like a game that had become routine between the two of you. He took a sip from it, nothing more, nothing less.

That was all you could recall from your conversation. You didn’t get his name until a few nights after.

“Hey, blue eyes,” you acknowledged as he strolled in.

“Leon,” he disclosed sharply. “It’s Leon.”

That was the night of exchanging introductions. You named all the nights you’d spent with him under various labels, so you wouldn’t forget.

Another night, he had whipped out a flip phone and you nearly choked on your drink. “They still make those?” You stared in disbelief.

He turned to face you in amusement.

“Bet you don’t have a—”

You didn’t even need to finish your sentence for him to fish out his pager, dangling it in front of you like a toy.

“Fuck off,” you laughed. “No fucking way.”

He grinned at your outburst and it was one of those times, few and far between, where you experienced a glimpse of that youthful energy he often hid behind a calm, matured facade.

“You’re still living in the 90s dude?” you jested, grabbing the pager as you flipped it over, trying to determine if it was real. It was.

His lips curled up into a playful smirk. “Something like that.”

“Healthcare,” you guessed, squinting at him. “I heard people there still have them. You’re a doctor?”

“I wish.” He coughed out a self-deprecating laugh, before rummaging through his wallet for a sleek white card, sliding over to you. “PI, actually.”

“Private Investigator Leon S. Kennedy,” you read the title out loud, deliberately emphasizing each word.

“Go ahead, shout it from the rooftops,” he joked.

“Don’t tempt me.” You gave what you hoped was a cheeky wink, not flirty, definitely not flirty.

A lopsided smile spread across his face, and you wondered if you were finally beginning to unravel the mystery of this man, one that he seemed to carry around like a burden.

“Well, now you know where to find me.” He winked back, taking a tiny sip of his free coffee.

That was the night of P.I. Kennedy. Soon, these nights blurred into each other. You felt like you were getting a step closer, but yet you weren’t. He always had you at an arm’s length for some reason, even though he seemed to want more. Why did he keep coming back?

He also appeared to care about what you thought of him. At some point forth, he started dressing down, exchanging his usual formal attire for a shirt with no blazer, and his sleeves rolled up to his elbows. A fine gold chain necklace peeked out from underneath his top collar, which was left unbuttoned. “Better like this?” he asked with no context. You had to pause and consider what he meant for a while before you understood.

“If you’d like to fit in.” You shrugged indifferently. “But I don’t think you want to.”

“You know me well,” he murmured fondly. The back of his fingers caressed the side of your neck, just under your jawline, along a pulse point. You closed your eyes and sighed. It felt sensitive and tender.

“And how well do you know me?” you asked.

There was no reply, but somehow you already knew the answer.

Another thing you were vaguely aware of was that you kept missing the tail end of your interactions with him. It was as though after a certain point in the night, you would come to, like waking up from a daydream, and he would have disappeared by then.

Your colleagues asked if you were seeing each other. Were you? You were only chatting, you surmised. Nothing had gone that far yet, at least from what you had gathered. But you liked him more than you would’ve liked to admit.

He walked you home one night, and when you reached your doorstep, you were about to invite him in, but he interrupted you. “There’s something I need to tell you…”

Guilt clouded his eyes, unmistakable and heavy. But as he was about to say more, he held back, as if pulled by an invisible thread. Then, you felt yourself overcome with tiredness, but it was pleasant and comforting. “Can you help me to bed?” Your voice sounded far away.

All at once, you felt yourself being propped up under his arm and your weight shifting under your feet, until your head touched a feather-soft pillow. He draped a blanket over your unmoving body. “I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I never should have—” Even in your state, you could tell it pained him.

“I won’t do it again, unless you let me.”

That was the last you heard from him for a while.

━━━━━━━━━━━

Leon couldn’t get enough of you. Believe him, he tried countless times, but it didn’t work. From the moment he had set foot into that establishment, he had damned himself. He knew it when he spotted you and smelled your sanguine resonance from afar. It was the humor of your blood, and it was stronger and more consistent than he was used to. You were just so full of life, and enjoying it to the point where he was envious. You signified all the hopes and dreams that had been dashed spectacularly to the ground, ever since becoming… what he was now.

He had to have a taste of you. A little drop wouldn’t hurt, would it? He’d been taught ages ago, by Ada, his sire, that he needed people like you to survive. If one ignored their hunger for too long, things would get worse, so much worse, and not just for himself, but for everyone else around him. It was simply the lesser of two evils to feed, and he’d never actually killed anyone by doing so. Then, why did it feel so wrong? He had gotten good at pushing down these thoughts, until they were reduced to an inaudible hum at the back of his mind. Just like many other things, he learnt to compromise. But compromising meant that sometimes, he’d lose a piece of himself. If there was an equivalent of a soul within the monster he had become, then it was fragmented, and he’d never get back the ones that had dissolved into the ether, due to the bad decisions he had made. Like the ones he would soon make with you.

Taste. Taste was something he had acquired since young. In his human life, he always had an eye for detail, an eye for what fit, what worked, and what didn’t. It certainly helped when he became a cold case detective with the police force, filled with unbridled potential, only to have that overturned, when he decided to chase after love instead of missing people and puzzle pieces. For years, he would’ve done anything for her, only for it to amount to wasted time and regret when the inevitable boredom that came with time struck, and he was tossed aside over something exciting and new. Still, he knew a delicious vessel when he saw one. You were just meant to be a special curiosity that he could pass on to the older vampire for a favor or two. At least, that was what he told himself, when you took the initial bait and he beckoned you to stay through unnatural means. That was the first lie.

When he bit into you, he was met with a burst of color, vibrant shades of all kinds of red. The flavor saturated his mouth: sweet roses, his favorite kind, their scent carried on a gentle zephyr; warm light that enveloped him but didn’t hurt; traces of nicotine coursing through your veins; and the familiar iron tang that gave it its kick. Your face, your voice, your very essence haunted him in that taste. He could see you like a will-o'-the-wisp performing on stage in one of your many plays across a lifetime, laughing with your friends in the back of a car speeding down the highway, crying into a pillow when you had your heart broken by your first love… How was this possible? Your memories came flooding through him and you were blissfully unaware of it all. He felt like a spy, listening in to all your secrets and desires, and his blatant invasion of your privacy disgusted him.

This was wrong. He shouldn’t have gotten so close. He should’ve heeded the warning glances the Redfield siblings were throwing his way. So, he tried his best to stay away, but like an addict, he kept crawling back, seeking you out like a dog with its tail between its legs. How could a mere mortal have such an effect on him? Did he taste this way to Ada when she turned him? He laughed sardonically. If only she could see him now, being so torn up over a woman he had just met.

He tried to erase you from his mind, but you were always meant to be something more. You reminded him of all the things he missed when he was living. You were the best he had ever tasted, but he didn’t want to turn you over to her, not yet. After all, he could afford to enjoy you for just one more time. The second lie had spun its thick, dark webs throughout his head. Truth be told, he would never share you with anyone else.

The third lie came when he resolved to tell you what he really was. He couldn’t keep going on like this and deceiving you, but his sire’s words bore down on him. “You don’t get attached to a vessel,” she scoffed. Wait, wasn’t he one too at some point? Her contradictory words replayed in his ears like a broken record. In any case, he wasn’t attached. He was being brave and honest, which was how he liked to think of himself. But when it came to the crunch outside your doorstep, he was a coward, finding himself unable to breach the rules of the Masquerade and gave in to his urges instead. It was then that he realized deep down, he was truly a despicable and hateful low-life.

Thump! He felt his body slam against a solid wall, as he entered a secluded alleyway round the corner from your apartment. A dull ache bloomed across his skin. After the events that had happened that night, he didn’t even bother putting up a fight. He slumped down until the brawny, older male sibling, Chris, lifted him by his collar and pinned him in place. At the same time, the slender redhead, Claire, Chris’ female counterpart, spoke, “Where the hell are you going with this, Leon?”

“Why do you care?” he spat, blood coating his teeth. “The cafe’s in neutral ground, no one’s claimed domain over it yet. I can feed on whoever I like.”

“Listen, you’re Cam scum, but you saved my brother back then, and you used to hang with us,” she hissed, jabbing her finger into his shoulder to emphasize each point. “So, I’m gonna give you a tip, but just this once.”

She brought her mouth to his ear. “There’s interest in the domain… and you’re not the only suitor vying for her attention.”

His eyes widened at the threat.

“Whatever you do, do it fast.”

#leon kennedy x reader #leon kennedy x you #leon kennedy #leon kennedy smut #leon kennedy angst #leon kennedy fluff #resident evil #vampire au #vampire the masquerade #vtm #crossover #porcelainscribbles

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needahugfromesme · 5 months

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When do you think was the first time Esme went to University and how do you think it went for her?? 🥹

Thanks for this! @stregoni-benefici🥹💕❤️I LOVE this question！

Here are some of my thoughts:

I think Esme went to university as early as the 1930s for an art/art history degree. Although the official guide says Esme has degrees in architecture and art, I don't think the first one she got was an architecture degree. I do think one of the fandom's headcanons that the reason Esme wasn't working as a teacher was that she didn't want to risk her children's lives makes a lot of sense. Her caution made her choose to give up teaching art after decades of wrestling with the desire to drink blood, but she still loved art so she went to college to refine it. Even though the guide doesn't mention art history I think it opened up Esme's interest in ancient architecture (and of course the 17th century Carlisle) and decided to pursue ancient building restoration as a career. So immediately after earning a degree in art/art history, Esme chose to pursue another degree in architecture. And it makes perfect sense that she would earn these degrees in the 1930s. During the Great Depression, the New Deal funded and facilitated numerous archaeological expeditions and projects, including collecting folklife records and restoring early American architecture. Key agencies included the WPA, CCC and Historic American Buildings Survey.

I think Esme's college life was rewarding but difficult - not academically challenging, but in terms of being a woman in a misogynistic, elite institution. She faced stereotypes about her intellectual capabilities and discouragement from male professors, as well as strict rules and restrictions placed specifically on women's behaviour and coursework options. The university excluded women architecture students from mentorships and work/apprenticeship opportunities that developed technical skills. The university rarely allowed women students to take site visits or hands-on design assignments from conception to construction. She was steered only towards "suitable" decoration projects. She had to be careful of her reputation if attending sessions too late into the evenings or being the only female. So I think it's quite possible that during the same time period, Carlisle was also attending the university to do a degree/find a teaching job (New Moon does mention the tradition that Carlisle would return to the university from time to time), for Esme's sake, and also to be exposed to the latest research. Moreover, financial difficulties, theoretically should not be hard since her husband was rich, but I've always felt that for Esme her past of being controlled and abused made her value all aspects of freedom and independence (nothing personal about Carlisle, of course). Carlisle could give her lavish gifts, but it was her degree, her choice, and she would pay for it. Unfortunately, most scholarship funding and paid jobs went to male students at the time. She had to sell some of her paintings anonymously to pay for her tuition and she continued to confront immense sexism and lack of career opportunity postgraduation.

I feel college was an important milestone in Esme’s "humanization" process. Not only did she finally overcome her fear of slipping in the crowd, but she was finally able to achieve something as a woman, as herself. She didn't have to be anyone's mother or wife in order to survive with her head held high.

#stregoni-benefici #every time i see your ask in my inbox💕🥹#for my fellow historian and one of the most powerful women i know❤️#twilight #esme cullen #my headcanon #twilight historical context

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thotpuppy · 4 months

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WIP Tag Game!

tagged by @dear-massacre ! AND @whimsicalmeerkat! WHIL i was writing my post lolol

This is sorta smth i track regularly? but i have it all sorted by word count akdgjkajdg it's part of my progress tracker server w some friends. Adding words is the easiest way to track 'working on a project' so that's what i do! I also have a (separate) doc in my drive folder that tracks just, general prompts, so when i have ideas i slap them in there.

Current (Teen Wolf) WIPs:

TriReign: Shepherd, Lamb, Wolf: small outline, chapters 1-4 complete, 5 wip - 16,575 - Sterek, Medieval Fantasy, Arranged Marriage, Omegaverse, Political Drama, Sex and Politics, Duty and Honor and Subterfuge, etc. my current current current WIP. Baseball AU: Collab? outline - 331. MOSTLY this is just. a Roster and some thoughts about a general plot concept. I want to illustrate this but i can't do a comic. It's also a Sterek concept. FratBoi Stiles x RA!Derek: 52 - this is just straight up a PWP with the prompt borrowed from a TWT moot that ive been meaning to work on for ages and just haven't yet. Higher Education 2: 2,821 Sciles, trans!Stiles, post-canon college AU. Also PWP, but also my gross unhygenic sloppy AU kinda. it's just. its grossnasty wet n sloppy porn. i wanted to finish this and then write a Third part for Sciles week this year and i didn't. whoops There's a Werewolf Tradition for That: 72 - Sterek didn't know they were dating AU. Alive!Hales but Werewolves are still a secret. Stiles and Derek are good friends and roommates, they're both idiots pining for each other, and out of the blue Derek's Mom sends them a formal invitation to celebrate their engagement. Stiles doesn't even know Derek's a werewolf. total ROMCOM, kinda inspired by My Big Fat Greek Wedding, but only in Vibes. Lone Wolf Wild West AU: Chapters 1, 2 posted, not outline - 3,670. Sterek, Lone Ranger!Derek, son of the sheriff Stiles. Mystery, adventure, romance. I miss cowboy...

Somewhere in here I will also put my Collabang fic and any other events i sign up for, because I'm gonna have to pause my major WIPs to work on them lol

1920's Mafia AU: Outline only - 1313 - Stiles is a city detective, the sheriff is the Police Commissioner, this takes place in Los Angeles. There are tunnels running all through the city, albeit underneath (real). There's been an uptick in gang activity lately. Stiles secretly 'runs' by which i mean, owns and protect, but isn't involved in Actually Running, an underground speakeasy in the heart of the city. He doesn't let any gangs runs their trouble on his turf. Until one day, a Hale is shot by an Argent right outside his doors. Sterek SuperBat ComicCon MeetCute: WIP One Shot - 1,049 Inspired by MultiE's art. nerd x nerd solidarity Sciles Ancient Greece AU: 192 - this is a friggin poem and is probably gonna stay a poem. New! Sex For Work: Parts 1, 2, 3, 4 - 23,228. Part 5? Sterek BDSM CEO x Personal Assistant AU. Originally intended to be kinky prompt fill series but Caught Plot. I meant to rewrite it last month to convert it into a standalone story, but uhhhh didn't. I DID do reformatting though. I just need to get writing on it again, but i tend to be kinda singleminded.

Other Fandom WIPs:

Big Blue Boyscout: 47 - Superman x Nightwing, xenophilia fic. "He's Big and Blue in more ways than one..." Bruce Wayne Visits Smallville: 685 - I got distracted while bingeing smallville for the first time and haven't gone back, but this was just supposed to be a one shot but my outline grew legs DP/YJ Crossover: 220 - this is more of a concept than a real specific fic, but i REALLY like comparing danny phantom to specifically the young justice animated series, and i wanted to try and come up with a cohesive clone comparison plot, rather than just making it a lil joke. Maybe it'll be Danny x Conner because himbo tee shirt conner is my baby boy baby boy Not So Blushing, Not So Virgin: 40 - SuperBat role reversal where everyone expects clark to be this sweet inexperienced things and then he absolutely blows bruce's back out.

Hiatus Projects:

Universal Law of Gravitation: Chapter 1 WIP, significant outline - 3,080 - Sterek Lifetime fic. I wrote out this huge long super comprehensive timeline and got super caught up in it. It's supposed to be about how, despite their best efforts, Stiles and Derek just can't stay apart, so there are a ton of messy breakups and fights in between. I just never put together an actual proper Plot, so when i started writing it, i got SUPER bored. It has a playlist! and i made a bunch of pseudo-science chapter titles hehe A Fever You Can't Sweat Out: Chapter 1 posted, Chapter 2 WIP, significant outline - 9,911 - Sterek, Marrish, Scallison, post-canon AU, surprise mpreg! Similarly to ULG, i wrote out a huge big timeline and outline and got super nitty gritty into the details, but literally Chapter One i went Off Track and it just killed my motivation. It's HUGELY ensemble, and i picked out jobs and hobbies for like 12 people to all live in a big ol estate together. It also suffered from "world building but no plot", but i DID try to make a plot, it just. wasn't good haha. The entire concept is, Lydia gets pregnant which makes Allison baby crazy so she gets pregnant and Stiles wants a baby so, so bad, but he's dating dating/married to Derek and therefore would have to adopt or something, but he wants it so bad he magics himself up a contraception.

Prompts!

Derek is moody, Stiles teases him about the fact he like, never smiles. Kisses him on a whim to get a rise out of him. And then proceeds to have a existential crisis after because "oh shit did he just kiss DEREK".

Werewolf!Stiles’ Pavlovian Pleasure Response to Scott’s Click (iykwim)

Stiles x Jeep crack smut oneshot

Post Nogi stiles is having trouble feeling like himself again. he feels a sharp disconnect with his Self that he didn't used to have, like he's lost touch with his humanity. He needs someone to remind him how it feels to be human.

unspecified/platonic - In this kind of weather, it makes more sense to stay inside. Or rather, stay inside somewhere else. Stiles sets up shop in a bookstore's cafe to while away the time warm espresso, a good book, and his own company. Until Someone/Something Else comes knocking.

Supernatural Boarding school (circa 2005-2009 role-play forum vibes)

Bastard Prince Jackson and Freedom Fighter Stiles (see doc)

Stiles’ mythology professor bites off more than either can chew - The Great Beacon Hills Custody Battle

“Teenage Dirtbag” Loser!Stiles Sterek fic

all of my prompts literally only exist in a single document where i put Ideas i like adkgjakjg everything in wips has a dedicated doc, but most of them dont have much written yet.

There's also 1 absent prompt here that im now saving for the collabang so ive omitted it from my counts because its technically a wordcount of 0 until i get to start working w my artist (:

no pressure tags! @renmackree @lavender-lotion @like-lazarus @geekmom13 @endwersed

#my writing #ugh my wip pile is ever growing.........

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guppyscolita · 29 days

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can u tell us more abt that chair tf piece u did a while back?? i remember u saying it was part of some project and ive been wondering what the context behind it mightve been

oh sure. I can talk a bit about the project and the piece just to recall, anon is talking about this piece:

"What is a chair? there was a human there I think, now there's just a piece of wooden furniture, beautiful, well, not really, just useful at least. do you want to become one?"

As I mentioned on the original post, "the chair" was a extract from a bigger project I was working on one subject for my career, a subject that actually proceeds my thesis project. Ideally, the piece belonged to a group of pieces that used transformations to talk about certain social situations that are specially reflected on my city/country. And the medium I was going to use was street art: Stickers, Stencils, paste-ups and posters specifically. "the chair" was supposed to be on sticker format, and it was supposed to be around the center of the city, where my college (art college) is Of course while being outside on the wild, people could see the sticker and think whatever they wanted about why a chair is wearing clothes. The idea is that there was a human there, before it turned into a chair. Now what people took out of that is what could make the piece interesting. My idea was letting it as ambiguous as it is. But the original context on the sticker is actually a reference to an art piece called "1 and 3 chairs" by Joseph kosuth. where there's a whole analyses about concept and form, it also is a conceptual piece, which by itself brings a lot of discussion about he forms of art and such.

On a similar tone, the piece also is inspired on "this is not a pipe" by René Magritte

again, as part of an analisys about what we see vs what it really is in art. Said references (to which I can technically say "the chair" is a parody off) are, most likely, something that just a small amount of people would get if they see the sticker on the wild. And It's why I like to let the meaning open and not try to pretend much of what the sticker is. So, Why Someone turned into a chair?...

-------------------------- As for the rest of the project, there was other 3 pieces that also went around the same idea of transformations. "the chair" was the one I found funnier and I think it really worked the way I wanted. Saddly, my city and overall country has gotten VERY dangerous atm, and specially when I was about to vandalize set my pieces on the street, the violence escalated so high that face-to-face classes where suspended. So I just couldn't really finish the project as I wanted But honestly, even if it's not for a subject, I do want to set at least the chair around my city, I think that would be fun.

#my art #questions #what a shitshow is to study arts lmao I love it #the chair

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datrb · 4 months

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2023 art review!

Even if this year wasn't the biggest on art, due to my physical condition (especially in last couple of months), it would still be nice to look back on what i did as an artist throughout it!

This is gonna be a fun ride...

So, let's dive straight into it, shall we?

Continuation under the cut

January

2023 started on a high note, with me just having finished the King piece, and moving on to the next big thing, being an AvA3/5 double piece.

Sadly, during the process i messed up big time which led to me being unable to finish the piece the way i wanted to, rendering this project an eternal WIP. However, i still cherish the idea and do wish to either redraw, or complete it.

February

Doing 2 big projects one after another did end up affecting my overall drive, so i spent majority of that month just making sketches.

First one is a little redraw/redesign of my old character - Derek, whom i used for a roleplay with my friends like 3 or 4 years ago, and second one is Deach, a character from my fantasy setting.

Also, back then i joined a new fandom, people in which have reminded me of my admiration for SCP, after which me and my friends proceeded to make OCs for it. Was a fun time! (Also this access card was sold by me as a YCH, sadly i couldn't really find buyers, so yikes)

March

By march is slowly started recovering from january's disappointement and was a bit more productive already. One of my friends really helped with it too.

A musician friend of mine reached out to me, asking to develop a design for a villain character in the plot he was working on. After listening to the theme song i couldn't resist. This ended up being one of my favorite designs so far, and i adore its look in neon.

In the meantime, i kept working on my fantasy setting, refining more minor details of designs and stories, yet having to reserve only to making sketches as i was too busy with college and other projects. Characters you see on screen are Ian and Lanfor respectfully. One is a strong yet troubled mage and other is a great Emperor, and even better person.

April

I'd say april was one of the most productive months of this year, mostly because i managed to snatch some time for myself and my setting, which allowed me to complete two full pieces and achieve some extreme progress with my story.

This piece is an illustration to a scene i wrote for two of the characters, Lanfor and Emile, called "Night Visitor". This was a scene of a reunion of two old friends. A bittersweet, yet a lovely work. Love both the written one as well as the illustration.

This one was more of a... Proof of concept. Needed to test out the expresiveness of the design for one or a relatively new characters - Covlar. Was originally a simple sketch on paper, but i couldn't resist the urge of making it into a complete illustration. I then proceeded to make a few notes for this scene. Both want to write it properly and avoid it at all cost... Best to avoid it, for my own sanity.

May

May was a bit of trainwreck, because i got a brand new laptop, which took me quite some time to get used to and even more time to reassure myself that it is in fact alright for me to draw on this suspicioiusly thin piece of tech.

Ironically enough, the only vomplete piece i drew that month was drawn on my old laptop. This screenshot redraw was to made to honour the premiere of AvA6 ep.1. Sadly, i did it a bit late because fo technical issues, but i still had a ton of fun doing it.

June

June was... Chaotic, to say the least. Mostly because i finally got comfortable with the new laptop and could now draw a lot more freely due to it being a lot more compact than the original one, which worked almost like a PC. Besides, i got a ton more free time because semester finals ended up being a breeze.

Ended up making a ton sketches and doodles, that i didn't actually plan to finish, but still enjoyed a ton. Here are some of them

Then, ofc, the memes and the gand redesign, because AvA6 just had to break all of my portrayals. But, i mean, after AvM s3 my original designs did become a bit dated.

The biggest pride and saddest of failures was this picnic piece, however. I still plan on finishing it, but it is hard doing so, when i have changed quite a bit of my artstyle by now.

July

July was quite lazy. Semester ended and i spent that entire month out of the city. It was a great time, very peaceul indeed.

And again, that musician friend from before came into clutch, asking me to develop another design for his other project. And again a villain. He said he really liked how i draw bastard type of characters.

August

Well this is where fun began. End of summer break means i have just this much time to actually draw something i would never have time to draw normally.

For me to draw something to commemorate a new episode is almost like a tradition at this point. And, given how long it's been since i made anything that would require effort, no wonder i have chosen arguably the most complex piece to pull off energy-wise. Yet i did and now i simply adore this piece, even if it did render me disabled. (I crunched through all of this piece, pulling off 40+ hours of work in just 4 days, so naturaly it ended up worsening my condition by a lot)

Then i also proceeded to do all of these tiny side projects, like Victim ask, which i couldn't last long at due to my condition, and working on a design for my favourite streamer. (Which i cannot show as the work is not complete an it's best if i avoid spoilers)

September and October

These two months i spent being unable to draw at all via a doctor's advice. Arguably, these two were the hardest months for me to handle.

I assume you can imagine how hard it is to suddenly stop being able to do what you love, regardless of how much you wish to do it.

Novemer

*Nervous laughter* I... actually still wasn't allowed to use my hand, but that didn't stop me and i ended up making an entire series of sketches to celebrate AvA6 ep2.

"Small in big quantity will sure be less exhausting than a single big thing" - (C) Me, proably

I will admit, i still adore all of these sketches and each of them deserves to become a fully fledged piece in it's own right, but i really better keep them as they are. For my own safety.

December

As you way have expected, this month will stay without a single thing from me. It's not because i don't want to, but because i can't. And, given the circumstance, it better stay that way.

Afterword

I finally got my diagnosis and soon enough i will start active treatment for my condition. It would be a shame to make this worse than it already is with impulses like those that happened in november, so i am making this post as a way to draw a line for myself.

It is still kinda crazy to realize that there are quite a few people interested in what i make, so i will make sure to take my recovery as responcible as possible, and then come back to you with even more art in the upcoming year! Let's be positive about it.

#alan becker #animation vs animator #ava #illustration #ava fanart #animation vs minecraft #avm #artists on tumblr #2023 art #yearly art summary #oc art #original character #digital art #No character tags because there are too many of them

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kellshaw · 3 months

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2023 Writer Year in Review

It’s time for a late 2023 review post where I reflect on life, the universe and my author career. I did one last year which makes a good benchmark. Let’s see how I did!

2023 Goals vs Actual

Finish the next two books in the Revenant Records series

Completed half of this. I got Feral Night out, and I’m working on the third book in the series. Not quite at the stage of getting two to three books out per year. But I’m happy with the book I released—it’s a solid improvement over Final Night (which I still think is a pretty good first author book!) Currently, I’m knee deep in the entrails of book 3. I got ambitious and I’m attempting a puzzle mystery with two POVs which is slowing me down as I work through everything. I also won’t put this up for pre-order until it’s 100 percent finished, which includes proofing covers, backmatter—the works!

Complete twelve issues of the monthly newsletter

Done! I’ve kept the newsletter going. Still writing it in character, as it’s more fun that way. (In character? Check it out!)

Submit original short stories to magazines

This did not happen. I went through my old backlog of shorts and found a sword-and-sorcery-ish story that might be worthy of magazine submission with a bit of polishing.

Write a proper Lukie-focused short as a reader magnet

Done! It’s always good when your giveaway story relates to your in-progress series. You can grab Fiery Night here as a newsletter sign-up bonus.

I would like to do a second, completely free short for a wide release and even have an idea for one. Will do this later, but not prioritize it.

Streamline my automation sequence for the newsletter

This was a bit of admin that I kept putting off, but it’s done now. Need to improve and develop the sequence further.

Engage an artist for some character/concept sketches + learn to draw

I got some done by a talented artist for my newsletter which are fantastic, but I won’t be happy with sketches until I can draw my own characters competently. This year, I did a few simple art courses at my local community college and attended a few live drawing sessions. This year, I’ll keep practicing. I also signed up for an online drawing academy by clicking on a random Facebook ad and going “Hey, that’s not too bad” (I know, I know). Was stymied also by Apple Pencil breaking, and had to revert to the less technical Graphite Pencil.

Social media, book reviews

I continue to be inconsistent with social media. I do this ad hoc posts, but a meh presence on social media. Not good at the funny meme stuff, and my book-a-year schedule means I can’t do too much around launches. I tried many social medias in 2023. I should pick something and be consistent.

2024 Goals

Okay, here we go. In 2024, I’m going to simplify my list. In fact, I had a more complicated list. Start a subscription! Work on the tabletop roleplaying set in the Vestiges of Magic world, do more drawing, and then when I got some strategic advice which was...

Write the next book... No side projects?

And that’s my core goal for next year!

Finish Revenant Records #3 - Fractured Night

Still in progress. At first it was a puzzle mystery and now it’s more about the characters. The premise is like the Shining crossed with a dark faerie tale....

Start the 2024 web serial, do a chapter a month

I completed a web serial last year, which I’m sitting on until I get more material out to launch a series with it. (Having launched a series on the fly, my next series will have a bit more material ready to go before I launch.) This will be in my newsletter and on my website. I’ve got about four chapters done. The premise: a woman seeks the help of a supernatural assassin to avenge her murdered daughter, but the assassin she needs to help her has retired....

#writeblr #urban fantasy #writers of tumblr #indie publishing #author business

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somethingimworkingon · 1 year

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“You had to be there”: in conversation with Albert Watson for Vogue CS, April 2023

Carmen Dell’Orefice photographed by Albert Watson, Vogue CS, April 2023

“You had to be there,” says Albert Watson. The legendary Scottish photographer is talking me through his shoot with the every-bit-as-legendary Carmen Dell’Orefice, the original supermodel, who makes her Vogue CS debut this month at the tender age of 91.

In one particular picture, Carmen, statuesque in opera gloves and giant shades, appears to be rising like an Art Deco Venus out of a red and white mosaic cloud, yards of Lever Couture dress pooling below her. How, I want to know, did he make her look so – well, so tall? “There’s a ledge that she’s standing on at the back of the elevator,” Albert explains – “we shot in a freight elevator” – next to the makeup area at the photographer’s studio in New York. Despite the fact that she is “very fragile: two people had to escort her onto the set, if she’s standing for any more than five minutes she gets vertigo,” Carmen remains, clearly, the eternal, consummate professional. “Once she was on the set,” Watson continues, “once that flash went, she [said] to herself, ‘Ok Carmen, pull yourself together, let’s go!’ She would laugh, give a little something [special] for every shot.” She may not have been actually levitating, but some kind of magic appears to have been happening. Not a gesture, not a moment was wasted. “There were sometimes just five frames – click, click, click, click – done.”

The very idea of a nonagenarian with vertigo posing in dark glasses and couture several feet off the ground, in an elevator, is dizzying, and Watson is candid about the challenges. Early ideas discussed with the team in Prague included a shoot with a Surrealist theme. The immense depth of Watson’s knowledge, his decades of experience – not to mention his great gift for storytelling – are evident as he explains to me, in detail, how a Surrealist-influenced shoot would work, how the model would move, how long the shots would take, how the photographer would conduct the sitting. He mentions the Vogue masters Horst and Erwin Blumenfeld, as well as Welsh theatrical photographer and set designer Angus McBean. But then: “I had a coffee with Carmen a week [before the shoot]… She is beautiful, people looked at her as she left the coffee shop… [but] she is fragile,” and he knew that this shoot needed to go in a different direction. “As far as conceptualising it, I knew that my energy was best served to pour energy onto Carmen, to make her feel good about the shooting. If I had a 20-year-old model I could pour my energy into the concept – but you have to accept this is Carmen, a 91-year-old, and that’s kind of remarkable.” And, in the end? “It was fabulous!” Albert says, warmly. “She is a wonderful person” – as well as a part of fashion history. He describes the project as “photographing somebody from another era, even before my time. She pointed out that when I first picked up a camera she had already been working as a model for twenty years – and I’ve been a photographer for fifty years!”

Albert Watson is 81, and has shot over a hundred Vogue covers. He started working with the magazine in 1976 (Carmen appeared on her first Vogue cover, aged 15, in 1946). Born in Edinburgh, Watson retains a soft Scottish accent, despite having lived in the US since the seventies. “I started off at art college as a graphic designer,” he says. Impressively, the fact that he was born blind in one eye seems never to have held him back. “As a craft subject I had two years of photography.” He then spent two years studying film at the Royal College of Art, but it was photography which was to dominate his career. Early test sessions for Max Factor in Los Angeles brought him to the attention of magazines, including Vogue, and his first celebrity image, of Alfred Hitchcock holding a dead goose for the Christmas 1973 issue of Harper's Bazaar, set the stage for a career in A-list portraiture. From Steve Jobs to Bill Clinton, Mick Jagger to Queen Elizabeth II, Watson has photographed many of the most famous faces of our times, as well as hundreds of actors, musicians and other celebrities.

youtube

Going back to the Vogue CS cover story, “I approached the shooting like it was portraiture,” says Albert. “My preparation in this case was that it had to be minimal, treating Carmen as a celebrity [rather than] a model, [where we] catch glimpses of the fashion.” I mention that some of the shots have a feel of Irving Penn, some of the styling, the hats and fascinators, reminds me of Lilian Bassman photographs. Albert doesn’t disagree. “You could sense, when you photographed Carmen, a little bit of a thread going all the way backwards to the 1990s, the 1980s, the seventies, the sixties and into the fifties. You could feel that [history] from her, the way she projects it.”

Carmen Dell’Orefice photographed by Albert Watson, Vogue CS, April 2023

As well as shooting portraits, fashion, and covers for magazines including GQ, Rolling Stone and Details, Watson has photographed major ad campaigns, directed TV commercials, and shot film posters and album covers. He also keeps up a steady stream of personal work, including still life and even landscape photography. You’ve shot so many different kinds of subjects, I say: do you have different mindsets for different kinds of photography? Do you feel differently when you’re shooting different subjects? “I do!” This is a good moment to point out that Albert is also an educator, a teacher of photography students. His Masters of Photography series covers everything from “The importance of casting and hair & makeup” to “Photographing sand dunes.” He tells me about taking time off between fashion shoots to travel in the north of his native Scotland, which in turn leads a fascinating discussion of his methodology when it comes to preparing and conceptualising photo shoots.

“I’m not a landscape photographer,” he says, “but I always wanted to spend six weeks just doing landscapes, no faces in front of me. [In 2013] I went to the Orkney Islands to do ‘portraits’ of the standing stones there. I went to the Isle of Skye [with] a book of paintings by Degas.” While Degas is famous for his Impressionist studies of ballet dancers and jockeys, Watson took a book of his less well-known landscapes. “I was fascinated by the fact that he would paint a rather boring hill – if I was standing behind Degas and took a picture of it [with a camera] and showed it to you you’d go, ‘Ok, it’s a picture of a hill,’ whereas if you look at the Degas painting you say, ‘Wow, what a beautiful painting.’ The thing is that Degas is doing an interpretation of what he sees in front of him, and I’m taking a picture… so I get an exact copy of what’s in front of me.”

Watson talks about how two photographers shooting the same landscape may end up with the same image, whereas two painters rarely will. He’s describing the need to push photography, beyond simply recording what is in front of the camera. “You have to try and control the landscape,” he says, “don’t let the landscape dominate the final image.” Some of his endeavours seem almost like Buddhist meditations – spending three days, ten hours a day, photographing reflections caused by the wind on a Scottish loch, for instance. Or getting up every day at 4.30am to be on the road by 5.30am, when it was still dark, to do “a series of pictures in a beautiful kind of forest, using the headlights of the cars as lights going through the forest.”

Carmen Dell’Orefice photographed by Albert Watson, Vogue CS, April 2023

Watson’s landscape photography isn’t simply an endurance test – even though “I chose October deliberately because the weather was bad!” He approaches it with as much professional preparation as any of his commissioned work: “I had two assistants with me, to make me very efficient, and able to quickly get up a mountain to take a picture, and quickly down.” He also uses it a way of reflecting deeply on the meaning of the images. “I wrote down a lot of things that were connecting landscapes to an emotional response.” On Skye he was musing on “Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, Victorian romantic paintings” and when I ask him about how he keeps track of all these ideas, all these concepts, projects, he replies, “I’m taking notes all the time. I have a diary with me, and I’ve a diary by my bedside. Sometimes I wake up in the morning with an idea, go to sleep get an idea…” He talks about jotting things in a little notebook – “Landseer [the nineteenth century English animal painter and sculptor], some of the German Romantic painters from the 1860s, 1880s.”

On Skye, he also spent time taking pictures of the landscape specifically to manipulate them later – “shooting for a computer,” as he calls it. In his eighties, Watson still has a strong interest in innovation, and is unfazed by technology. His Instagram account, @albertwatsonphotography, is beautifully curated (“my son does that, he does a great job”) and has a strong following, but Watson is shrewd about the platform, well aware of what generates likes and what doesn’t. “With Instagram you have to be careful. Instagram is kind of a false reading of how popular your work is.” A combination of old and new, published and unpublished work, the account is also an educational tour through five decades of image-making, an excellent resource for photographers, students, designers and photography lovers alike. I ask him to talk a bit more about his own resources, and what kind of advice he offers to younger generations today. Unsurprisingly, Albert has a wealth of brilliant insights on the topic.

“I always say to younger photographers: ‘preparation,’” he begins. “They immediately think, ‘must charge the batteries in my camera!’ But it’s nothing to do with that. It’s conceptual preparation… When I’m preparing a shooting, I’ll go through a lot of books.” Watson admits, “the one thing that amazes me that young photographers don’t use nowadays… [is] books.” He talks about how books can be a source of ideas and inspiration, even if you end up taking things in a different direction than originally planned. A book is like a road map, but you don’t have to follow it faithfully: “It’s like you head out from London to go to Cornwall and you end up in Wales – the important thing is the book gets you out of London!”

His book collection is “about 30% photography, 70% art. That is a major difference,” he points out. “You’d imagine for a photographer it’d be 92% photography. But there are books on art, architecture, Frank Lloyd Wright, books on the Maya, the Aztecs… a complete collection of [seventeenth century English architect] Vanbrugh drawings, Michelangelo drawings...” With thousands of volumes at his disposal – “I have five libraries in my apartment” – it’s also important not to get overwhelmed. Or overburdened on set. Albert’s trick is to use the iPhone to snap images from his library and collect them in albums on the phone to use as reference, especially when travelling. It’s an elegant solution, as practical as it is contemporary.

Watson himself has been the subject of several books, from the educational (Creating Photographs, from the Masters of Photography series), to the spectacular (Kaos, a dazzling career overview published by Taschen in 2017 in a limited edition priced at £2,000). His work has also been featured in catalogues from scores of exhibitions. Watson, The Maestro, at Hangaram Art Museum, Seoul Arts Center through March 30, 2023, is his first retrospective in Korea and his largest exhibition to date in Asia. Meanwhile, those hauntingly beautiful images from the Isle of Skye can be seen in an online exhibition at the virtual gallery, CameraWork.de.

I ask if there any books he would recommend? “One of the best things for photography students, and design students,” he says, “is photography catalogues from [auction houses] Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Phillips – Phillips does nice big ones” (as both a photography lecturer and former Phillips art director, I’m delighted to hear this.) “You can buy these things [on Ebay] going back fifty years,” Albert points out. “For thirty bucks you’ve got a thousand images by classic photographers! It's a great teaching tool.”

Our interview is nearly over, there’s just time for one last question, so I ask what motivates him – to teach, to experiment, to plan, to shoot – “What inspires you to keep doing what you’re doing?” Albert laughs. “I’m addicted to photography!... I always found the technical side of photography a pain in the neck, so I was never enthusiastic about that, but I did realise that if you want to be a photographer you have to have to bite the bullet, do your homework. I’m glad I did, because working hard on things like lighting, it opens creative doors for you. You can solve things quicker if you know how to light.”

#albert watson #carmen dell'orefice #vogue cs

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k00282666 · 1 year

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Movement Statement

Chosen Electives: Ceramics, Sculpture, Printmaking

For the Movement project, I really focused on ballet legs and marionette dolls. On my original mind map, I had dance/performance as one of the direct links from the centre of movement. I knew when I wrote that down I wanted to involve some element of puppetry, as it’s a medium of art that involves active motion as a part of the piece. As for ballet dancing, I really enjoy the romantic drama of a lot of well known ballets like Giselle, which I used for secondary research.

I did try and force ‘progression’ in the project, when I started involving swans. Even though this didn’t feel natural to me, I thought it was expected of me to sort of move on from my original concept. I’ve since realised that exploring a single concept is well worth the time, rather than forcing yourself to move on.

Printmaking: During the printmaking elective weeks, I focused on creating patterns relevant to my concept. As my only 2D elective, I took the time to create graphic images, as I wouldn’t have this opportunity in my other 2 chosen electives.

I loved the speed at which one could get results when making prints. It created more room for exploring shapes and formats.

My favourite thing that I made during this time was the ballet feet stamp. I really enjoyed the look of them lined up neatly like a row of dancers preparing to glide on stage.

Sculpture: the sculpture elective was definitely my weakest point, which was quite surprising for me as I originally thought that I would be studying it for the next 3 years.

With the idea development workshop at the beginning of the week, we took the time to write down verbs that came to mind when thinking about the movement project. I came up with words like to tie and to knot. I started to involve the dents and impressions made in skin by clothes, specifically pointe shoe ties.

I think it was my weakest point because I ended up being very frustrated with the openness of the course overall, which, again, surprised me. I thought being able to use any material at any scale would be exciting but I found the prospect of actually doing that quite jarring. It just didn’t end up being for me.

Ceramics: Ceramics quickly became my number 1 choice during this process. I loved experimenting with what was possible in the kiln and finding how prevalent ceramics are in daily life.

I made my marionette legs with the lighter clay we had readily available so that they would have an almost porcelain look once glazed. I made 2 sets of marionette legs as the first set didn’t go quite according to plan. I didn’t take into account how clay shrinks when fired so the holes I made for the pins on my rosary beads were too small.

I think in terms of sustainability, it was easiest to fit it into ceramics. I was really happy to find out that any clay that had dried out was able to be recycled and used over and over again. After only a short few months in art college, I quickly found out the sheer amount of work you produce that either doesn’t turn out the way you wanted or just gets thrown out. It was great to see that the material we used and explored with was never put to waste. Many of the tools we used were also pieces of twigs, old twine and rubbish. I also found damaged trinkets in my local antique shop which I inserted into my ceramics pieces in various ways.

It was definitely a learning process, adjusting my expectations, becoming comfortable with stumbling. It was so new to me the idea of trusting a powerful machine with your work and not being 100% sure what was going to come out the other side. But it was so incredibly rewarding when thinks came out exactly or better than expected.

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inqorporeal · 2 years

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A very common trend among people requesting commissions -- regardless of whether it’s writing or art -- is that they themselves are not writers or artists and thus have no idea exactly what they’re truly requesting. Most of them have no idea how much time is required to get something done; they think it’s just typing or lines on paper. You press the button labeled “Make the thing” and *poof* it’s done! So simple! Anyone could do it! Why are you charging so much?

I’ve had people offer me $10 per page of work like it’s a massive favour (a page is roughly 300-500 words, depending on your formatting) without acknowledging the amount of time spent planning, outlining, and researching beforehand. A page-worth of content is closer to $150 at my standard rates (that’s per-word, plus a commission fee). For more intensive projects, I charge by the hour at $15 per, because I will be doing nothing but that for 8 hours a day, including weekends, and if you think going by minimum wage is unreasonable, you need to get back in your time machine and return to the 20th century.

This time, I received a contact about doing an illustration to decorate a product package. It was clearly some sort of commemorative thing. They asked for a map, done in an illuminated style, within one month. Was I interested? Well, yes, maps are relatively simple, and I have a lot of experience working in illuminated manuscript style from back when I was doing reenactment and living history in college; I could do that in a couple weeks. I asked for more information, and that’s when the red flags started popping up.

The first one was that they took several days to get back to me, and with as short a time frame as one month, I figured they’d found someone else. When their reply did come in, it included thirty pages of concept design document, and let me tell you, the amount of detail they wanted on a map smaller than two pieces of standard printer paper, within the space of one month, was infeasible. I have a full time job starting this week. I would have literally done nothing but work, commission, and sleep for thirty days -- there wouldn’t even be time to cook dinner; heaven help me if the trains had an issue. So I let them know it, as politely as possible:

While I am interested in your project, the scope of it is concerning, and I'm afraid I will have to decline. You want a lot of very fine, clear detail, at a very small scale, in colour, within a very short time frame. The map on its own would be easily done within the allotted time, but with the proposed illustrations included, the time required and the cost are both exponentially higher. One month is not enough time for that much art -- particularly because I would need to be in constant communication with someone for feedback to ensure the result is what you're looking for -- and I'm not certain you would be able to afford my standard rate for a project of this scale.

I did not quote them the estimate, which had calculated in at nearly $3000 at my standard rates (holy shit). I really didn’t think they would be able to afford that, but neither was I willing to burn myself out on the off chance that they could.

It seems that either reading comprehension is not their forte or they decided to try negging, because the reply I just got back was:

Thanks for your time and for your comments.

It's the most common reply, as it's surprisingly hard to find someone willing to draw in [this particular] style.

With no further queries.

Oh honey, it’s not the style. I’ve done that style before, I know exactly what’s required, and that’s why I’m telling you that one month is not enough time for your project. You don’t seem to understand how much time went into the manuscript illuminations in your reference files; and I am not a monk chained to a desk 16 hours a day. If you had said two months, I might have accepted. Good luck finding any artist who’s willing to work themself half to death because y’all waited til the eleventh hour to get your art done.

Also: I charge up front for stuff like this, because I did get stiffed by a company once, and that will never happen again.

If your commissioner comes to you with a shorter time frame than you would normally require for their project, don’t fucking take it. Burnout sucks -- not being facetious here, I do mean that the risk of hitting the depression threshold and crashing after an extended period of having zero free time to decompress and do your own thing, is very fucking high -- and no project is worth it.

#life of inq #not naming and shaming it's more of a vent post #i'm really not exaggerating about the amount of work they were asking for

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invincipals · 28 days

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I like Tumblr more than bsky. People on here make me feel bad about myself sometimes, but I'll try to let that happen less.

It feels more private and like a place where I can share my thoughts deeper. Bluesky is nice but... I feel like it's more... Surface level, for me, right now at least.

Today's thoughts are: I have a very complicated relationship with how others view me.

I think it's because I'm ashamed of how little I've achieved with my life. I am quiet and shy and a college drop-out. Despite everything bad about me, I live a rather cushy comfortable life. People put in way more effort for way less. Not that that means I should just sit back and feel guilty, no, that's fucking dumb, but that I need to do more with my time.

I want to feel alive and like I'm doing something. I'm getting brain-fogged writing this, I did have work today after all, so I will just start to type train of thought without going back and editing things together.

As I started typing this and then stared back I felt like it was kinda whinging, just more and more wishing and whining instead of doing something. But truthfully, it is hard to know where to start. But I have this problem where I set myself up for failure by imagining big plans with stars in my eyes, when I know I should start small...

One small start could be finding a food bank place near me that accepts food. Which sounds like, duh, all of them would. But a lot don't want food. They want money to buy the exact supplies they need. Which makes sense. But... If I were to slide food from work into my bag instead of the trash, who could take that? I consistently struggle with finding places that just accept Food.

I'll figure it out. Might have to reach out to local online things and ask them where to go.

I realized an issue with myself recently. While listening to the audiobook of Unmasking Autism, there came a point where I, the reader, was asked to write down all the times that I truly felt alive.

...I can not think of anything. How terrible is that?

For so long, my existence was spent waiting for things to be better. Waiting to move out from my abusive parent's house. Waiting to start HRT. Waiting for surgery. Waiting for my next paycheck. I need to start living for Now, even if I am not perfectly happy with myself. Or perhaps, it is easier for me to say that now that I pass 100% of the time, even with my long mullet.

But, yeah, living for now. There is no perfect time. I... don't quite know how to Not constantly be distancing myself from my uncomfortable reality. But I know I need to feel uncomfortable more.

But I need something that makes me thrilled, and full of life. It is self-torment, stagnant, to do the uncomfortable without enjoying myself too. I enjoy making art, drawing and writing. The excitement of making up a plot point and realizing how perfectly it fits into my story, it's like clicking together the most difficult puzzle.

I have a weird relationship with my stories. I have this one, my main sci-fi world, that I love so deeply. I love it so deeply that I'm putting it on the shelf, and not fully committing to the novel beyond rough draft chapters because I want to give it attention when I'm ready, when I'm more skilled. I have other ideas and projects to tackle in the meantime, and I must make myself focus on them instead of doting on my Spiral characters.

Returning to the concept of feeling alive... I want to go hunting. It must feel amazing, to go into the forest alone for hours, days even. To challenge the world and for it to challenge you back. To prove yourself, to exist not as some holier than thou naked monkey standing high and mighty above nature but to exist as a part of the food chain and to return home with food for myself and my loved ones. I picture in my head the feeling of biting into meat that I bagged myself, as a hunter rather than a consumer... There's just something there. I imagine a thrill in hunting. It's in the evolutionary history of my species. I must take mind to read different perspectives, during my period of research and saving money for supplies. Basically I plan to read what indigenous people are saying about hunting rather than just what other white people have to say.

I just want to connect with nature more. I've dedicated myself to taking almost-daily walks. I skip on days where I'm out and about for other reasons. But on days where I'd otherwise be inside all day, I walk. I try to keep my eye out. I take pictures of things that catch my eye. I think it'd be cool to just pick a random plant and try to identify it. Maybe re-download iNaturalist and dedicate myself to actually figuring out how it works lmao.

I wonder if I could forage too? My father foraged. It was one of his... Things. He hyperfixated, had fleeting special interests. When it wasn't horrific conspiracy theories that he forced me to listen to, it would be things like natural foraging. I remember, the venison he hunted, paired with the sheep's head mushroom he foraged. Holy fuck, I've never eaten anything more delicious and savory. Though I admit I don't trust myself to correctly identify mushrooms, perhaps I could start with... A plant. Such as the Dandelion. I have eaten those before.

Scrolling back up, what the fuck am I even on about? I am truly all over the place. Anyways. yeah, I care so, so much. But typing about going outside more made me feel better and hopeful.

I can not imagine how damaging social media must be to some people. I am some nobody who's most popular account ever only reached ~300 followers. And even I notice so many strange complexes within myself because of Posting and Online Attention. Probably because I am so online and isolated. I am making more friends in the real world and it feels good. I want to do more. I am so scared and awkward but I go and talk to people at the furbowls anyways and I really really want to connect fully with this local furry community. And yet, I am terrified of Realness. I am utterly horrified and stricken with panic when I engage in spaces that are genuine and expect more from me than just my half-assed masking. But I know that terror is a good thing to feel.

I do not know quite what to do with this blog, I feel... Weird... Because some of my friends follow it... I care so much about how I appear, I feel held back by the preconceived notions and perceptions of myself. And yet I'm so... Weird! I push back and act unlikable on purpose! I embrace being crude and blunt because I don't like to be palatable and easy! I don't want to be lovable, I am not lovable, but I wish to be loved and to love deeply despite that. I think I probably need therapy.

Well! Anyways! What other updates do I have, for the 0 people who read this far?

Well, my tooth fucking broke the other day! Second to last back molar, left side, I was picking at what I thought was a piece of food stuck to it and the shit just tore off. Maybe like... Ehh, 1/5th? 1/4th of an inch? 6 millimeters? I'd post a pic, but it's gross. It's got this yellow streak on it, and part of it is black. No pain yet! Got a dentist appointment set for Tuesday, let's hope it doesn't disintegrate further in the meantime!

Also, I got art of my boy Damian. Look upon it. This was not exactly a commission, but I donated to Packmates Mutual Aid (specifically for community member Owly who needed help with rent while recovering from a workplace injury) and got this in return. I am glad I was able to help by giving money. I've been in their discord with the volunteer role for awhile, but I simply have no relevant skills at the moment. But at least I could chuck the fun-money portion of my latest paycheck to someone who needed it more. And of course, get some of my favorite characters feet out of it as well.

Despite how strange and ramble-y this was, it felt really, really good to get out there. Like, I actually feel my mind a bit clearer after unpacking all of that and thinking about positive steps to take.

#op #blog #Added readmore because this became so long

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7-milena-trajkovski-7 · 3 months

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Art Theory and Criticism - Task 3.2

When it came to choosing an artwork to analyse, I chose Antoine Camilleri’s ‘Xandru l-Imħabba’. What intrigued me to choose this artwork was the choice of media, concept, and the multiple times I encountered the artwork in my life for the past 4 years. When studying art history for my advanced level art subject in Junior College, my art history teacher kept mentioning the problem with the course not having enough Maltese artists that revolutionised movements and the whole art scene in Malta. With this work being one of the only three Maltese works we had in the syllabus to discuss and remember for later examination purposes/essay writings, I felt a strong connection with what the artist tried to say and my own art’s narrative. I often use personal narratives and messages for concepts so to me it stuck out. Fast forward to my second year in MCAST studying for a bachelor’s degree in fine art and coincidently, my contextual studies project had to be done by observing pieces in a museum. Low and behold there is the piece I recognised encased in protective glass in the MUZA museum in Valletta. I knew I had to write about this work for the current task, especially since I was open to new techniques and even made use of Arte Povera for my own experiments. One of them I even used googly eyes and traditional clay, which was strikingly similar in tone for the choice of media Camilleri used for his piece.

Experiments I did using Arte Povera inspired mediums (clay, beads, googly eyes, ceramics, string and plastic)

The fact that I used arts and crafts associated material, along with recycled ‘trash’ and combined them with a traditional medium like clay made me more convinced that I had to analyse his work. As for the actual research, seeing how much time he dedicated to his family, even if it left him in poverty for some time, really resonated with me. The act of letting his children come in and out of his studio which was connected to the kitchen reminded me of how my family is in constant support of my work and even loves to come and peek from time to time out of curiosity. When it came to analysing his piece in terms of line, shape, composition, texture and even the mixed media, it solidified my choice of the work since I could take from it after this assignment as well.

Figure 1: Camilleri, A., 1980s, Xandru l-Imħabba, [mixed media], 193 x 20cm, MUZA, Valletta, Xandru l-Imħabba (Broadcast Love) - MUŻA (muza.mt) Photograph taken by me when i went to see the piece in person at MUZA in Valletta.

The themes of religion and family always haunted and at the same time pushed me forward in my artistic journey, so for me this was one of the most special pieces that we have on the Maltese Islands from a legend in the Maltese art scene. It is still relevant till today as with the Maltese art scene still developing compared to the rest of Europe, we as a Country can benefit from the way the ideas and choice of media this artist merged to create a piece ahead of its time. This especially because Malta still has a stigma to more contemporary and conceptual work compared to the traditional Baroques that dominated the scene for centuries as masterpieces. Journals and articles that I found dedicated to the artists mention these points as well. Which is why documentation and autobiographies have been made, along with commemorative exhibitions to honour him even after his death.

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jpaulanzia · 5 months

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I, II, III: A Blog About Myself

Hi! Welcome to this blog! I am so glad for everyone who can read this and to be here on this post, seriously. Well, because there are already hundreds of millions of blog posts on this very vast internet in a vast modern world, what are the odds and who am I, right?

Oh…

Sounds like an interesting question.

Sorry about that! Now, allow me to tell you everyone who I am.

Hi again! Luckily, this is actually a blog of mine about myself and some things I like and do. My name is John Paul and you can all call me Ampy or Amfy. Let me share the story behind that nickname first. Since I was a kid, anyone from our place including my friends, relatives, and neighbors called me Ampol, something my family gave me. Cool nickname, right? Or so I think. But yes! I think it is cool and unique. Since then, I have been happy about it but as I went to Senior High School, some friends, and classmates of mine suddenly called me Ampy. I was like “That is different, but sounds classy. I’ll take that.” After some time, it likely did become my secondary official nickname, or mostly for my friends. One day, I just thought of making it spelled “Amfy” sometimes, until it became somewhat my “artist name” every time I share my artworks and outputs on social media. Wait. Me, an artist? Well, an aspiring artist.

As of now, I am currently a 3rd-year college student. I am taking a Bachelor of Multimedia Arts in Lucena City, Quezon, Philippines. I think art particularly with drawing has been my game since then, and I’m happy about it. I remember back then when I was a kid, I drew anything I imagined and anything I saw. But that was me as a kid. I think I just learned to fall in love with it as we may all do with any art we like. From learning to becoming a hobby and to now, pursuing it. Going to the other things that I do like; I also love doing photography. I can say that it is also one of my most done works as an artist. I also do paper crafting and modeling sometimes as hobbies. I would also like to say that I love cats. I have seven of them.

II.ighlights in Life

Now, I will talk about some highlights in my life. I believe the things that would be the most important and memorable for us are the ones that we do with commitment and love. Even if they are only just some simple or even normal daily activities, they could still be achievements that we all can be proud of forever. So far as a multimedia art student, I have had some fulfilling experiences and moments for myself that I am glad and grateful for. With drawing, I am now able to reach some other people by sharing my artwork online. There are also already some small commissions that I have taken before. It’s not the biggest but I am happy about that as I am still on my way to taking on more projects. What makes me delighted is every time I see my works in public being shown and had by many people before. Seeing them enjoy and appreciate my work was something I’ll never forget. I have also been doing production assisting before for some studios and a few times, as an assistant photographer, going to such places in Quezon. Those are such accomplishing experiences for me.

Honestly, I can say that there may be not that many accomplishments that can be shown off to other people besides the school awards and other apparent ones. But to myself, I know that there are lots of them from what I know and feel. Making my family and other people happy with me is a big achievement for me already. Being with my family, meeting my friends and everyone; everything I have today, and being able to do what I love are all important highlights of my life. There may be some times that there are some harsh challenges and difficulties concerning our choices in life, but I still do my best and I know that we all do.

III.yself still in the future

In all my future aspirations, I envision myself as a professional concept artist or visual development artist and being part of some large and renowned teams and studios, perhaps even having the opportunity to work with the amazing visual development teams at Marvel Studios, for movies, shows, and maybe even games. Five years down the road, I know that it may be possible, but if not, I see myself well on my way, if not already there. Another possibility is continuing freelance work as a multimedia artist, with a potential venture into owning my very own studio or collaborating with someone else. It's not just a dream; every day, whether with my studio or in a big studio, I'm working towards these goals and I will create them as masterpiece.

#blog #IHM

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ksenijapunte · 7 months

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Introduction 19.09

In the module launch of the course we were introduced to visual communication, which includes film, magazines, diagrams, maps, street art, and fashion. In this module I have to extend my understanding of visual imagery as a means of communication. We then got given some ideas on what we could base our concept of, for example; heritage, identity, hobby, everyday life or family etc. However even with this help, I still found it quite hard to figure out what i wanted to base my project about. At first i started thinking about heritage and family and including things from Russia and Latvia in my project however i figured this would be slightly harder as i wouldn’t be able to go back to these countries in such a short time to collect primary research. After this I thought to focus on a hobby, for example crocheting as this is one of my favourite hobbies. I have crocheted plushies, bags and clothes before however i didn’t want to peruse this because it would all be very crochet based and i didn’t find a way to expand this idea. After this I wanted to focus on nature and capturing decay on buildings, lamp posts, gates but i wasn’t sure on this as I did decay work in my college course and didn’t want to repeat what i have already done.

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tathrin · 1 year

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#yeah kiss my entire ass cormac mccarthy What's up with Cormac Mccarthy? I've only seen some of the movies based on his books. Are his westerns hollow or something?

Ohhh ha ha ha so. This may not even be entirely his fault? I don't actually know enough about him and his writing to say for sure, because the one book of his that I did read filled me with so much rage that I would sooner set myself on fire than read another.

I was in college (art school, majoring in comic books) and I took all the writing classes that I could squeeze into my schedule because I love writing too (storytelling is where my heart lies, and I thought I would do that with pictures at first, but turns out I actually like writing prose more, oops). Well, my Creative Writing professor had clearly ended up at the wrong school somehow and was deeply frustrated about it — because let us just say that most of the kids at this school were not in my boat re: love of writing, and they only took classes like these because they needed a few non-art credits to graduate.

So the level of interest/talent he got out of his students was mediocre at best. (They weren't there to write, they were there to draw or sculpt or design. Of course 98% of them were half-assing or less their non-art classes.) So he was really excited to have someone who liked writing and was good at it and was excited to be there...!

But. he liked Literature. And only Literature. And I used the Capital L there on purpose, because he was one of those folks where you can just HEAR the sneer when he says "gen-re fic-tion," you know? Looked waaaaaay down his nose at all the stuff that I would consider actually good and interesting books in favor of Boring Person In Boring Life Does Boring Thing That Changes Nothing About Boring World, Wow What A Commentary On The Human Condition That Was! So Deep! Much Thought! etc type books.

(So you can see what I thought of the stuff he liked, too.)

So here I am, turning in all these stories with spaceships and witches and robots and shit and it's the best writing he's gotten from one of his students in years. He's thrilled! ...and so distressed because Why Won't I Write Real Stories? I could be Such A Great Writer if I would just get over my interest in this Genre Stuff! Woe! Alas! Weeping! etc. Someday I'll Grow Out Of It, Surely, Because I'm So Talented! All that jazz.

He wasn't a dick about it; he was actually a very nice fellow. We were COMPLETELY incompatible, but he was nice and so I tried to be nice in turn even as I gave my very honest opinions about all the boring-af shit he had us reading lmao.

So, I'm being A Good Sport about it every time he assigns his Boring-AF Projects where I'm not allowed to put in rayguns and magic swords and alien species and all the stuff that makes writing fun. But I still put in effort, and turn in good (if boring-af) pieces, and participate in class (and argue very politely for The Merits Of Genre Fiction), etc etc. He's delighted to have me, and I have no doubt that I was one of his favorite students ever, even though I had Shit Taste In Books. So he decides he's going to give me a treat! He's going to make our next assigned book a Genre Book! I'm going to be Delighted!

He assigns us Cormac McCarthy's The Road. I don't know if you've ever read it, but: don't. It was intolerable. Second-worst book I've ever read. It's a Post-Apocalypse story about some dude and his kid walking across the world to...idk. Walk? Be a Metaphor? I don't fucking know. Nobody has a name because That's Deep. And because we're being extra deep, we're going to Write Badly On Purpose because it symbolizes the Breakdown Of Society!

And by "written badly on purpose," I mean we're throwing out the entire concept of Writing So Your Shit Can Be Read By Human Eyes.

Apostrophes no longer exist! Commas hardly do either! Or sentences! Or quote marks! Or any form of useful punctuation whatsoever! Just a bunch of either fragments or endless run-ons trudging away into the abyss until you're ready to throw your soul down there with them just to fucking escape. Paragraph breaks only happen when a scene changes! Your eyes skitter-off the page as though it was coated with teflon, your energy sinking into a bleak grey misery that isn't even alert enough to qualify as despair. Every section leaves you a little less alive than before. This is drudgery, the very concept of dullness distilled into ink and printed out for all to read and suffer. I give you an except, but I don't suggest you actually read it because I'm not that cruel:

Oh my gods it was unreadable. I think my eyes actually bled. And to make it even more of a slog, it was clearly written by some dumb-fuck who'd never actually read any post-apocalyptic stories, and thought that he was Far Too Clever to need to do any actual research on the genre that he was "elevating" with his "literary style" or what-the-fuck-ever, because every character in it was so bum-fucking stupid that there was NO WAY any of them would have lived five minutes in an actual fucking wasteland. Also every single Wasteland Cliche that you can imagine, without a drop of originality or subversion or even lampshading or clever commentary or anything. It was all just...there. In the shallowest, blandest way possible.

(He also never actually defined or even hinted at What Happened, I presume because he was too dumb to figure out a backstory this was Literature and not Genre and thus Proper World Building Wasn't Necessary Because This Was A Metaphor Or Something idk fuck it. Like...sometimes there were gas-masks? but also people didn't need them? and there didn't seem to be radiation in a way that hurt anybody, but there also seemed to be Radiation Aesthetics going on...? It was just. so badly done.)

And our protagonists were SO stupidly incompetent. Just, complete idiocy, countered with Incredibly Convenient Random Happenstances (you would not believe how many Untouched But Easily Accessible Stashes Of Food these fuckers stumbled over oh my gods) to save their asses from their self-inflicted imminent death over and over and over again. An absolute travesty of a book, written in the worst fashion possible.

Needless to say, the essay I turned in on the book tore it about seven new ones. I SHREDDED it from first word to closing paragraph. Did not find one single redeeming or enjoyable thing about that clusterfuck of a "story" (and I use the term loosely) and I made sure everyone knew it. I wasn't shy about my opinion of the arrogant asshole who wrote it, either, and what I thought of the choices he'd made in writing that way, and the lack of talent and intelligence he'd demonstrated throughout.

My poor professor was devastated. He'd thought this would be my favorite book of the whole class! He picked it especially for me, as a treat! And I LOATHED it. (I hadn't realized it was supposed to be a gift to before I wrote the essay, or I probably would have been gentler in my disassembling of it. But I only discovered that when he handed the essay back. Poor man. I did feel a little bad about that. But oh my gods the book was horrible.)

So I have no idea what kind of author Cormac McCarthy is in general, or whether he's more tolerable (or even hypothetically enjoyable, I suppose) when he's writing whatever he does usually. This may be a complete outlier: an attempt to try something new (that failed abysmally) from a guy who normally writes Just Fine. I don't know! And I'm not interested in finding out, because to me he will always be the egotistical shithead who wrote the most spirit-draining, eye-torturing travesty of a book ever printed called The Road and he will not be forgiven for that crime.

#rants #i'm not tagging this with his name because i presume there must be people who actually do like his books because they keep selling somehow #and so i presume that whoever is in the cormac mccarthy tag doesn't want to read me shitting all over im so we'll just once again go with:#yeah kiss my entire ass cormac mccarthy #which frankly feels like the only tag i'll ever need to have on my blog for navigation purposes involving him tbh #least favorite books #me

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graziadiocenterilpostino · 1 year

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Chiara Sala: on visiting CSULB

1. Tell us a little bit about yourself and your Italian background. How did you become interested in visiting Cal State Long Beach?

Hi everyone! My name is Chiara and I am 24 years old. I live with my friends in Milan in a very nice small apartment and I attend the State University of Milan, one of the oldest and most beautiful universities on the world (in my opinion!). I study one of my biggest passions: Italian literature. I have always lived in a small town close to Milan with my family and now that I live in a big city I can tell that it is a totally different and more exciting lifestyle. It totally suits my way of being: I am an curious and outgoing person and I love meeting new people, which means that a cosmopolitan city like Milan creates the perfect environment to do all of this. I also have a lot of passions like dancing, playing sports, and visiting museums and art galleries. Luckily, Milan facilitates keeping all these hobbies alive. I am also a Christian and for this reason, living close to one of the most beautiful cathedrals in the world (Duomo, Santa Maria Nascente) is something incredible for me.

Even though I really like my city and my country I always love to travel. My family has always been adventurous and curious: my parents and older siblings spent 6 years in Uganda in the 90s and since then, they never stopped traveling. My sister Daniela has been living in Ecuador for the past 12 years and my sister Anna just moved from Beijing to South Sudan. I’ve always found the USA fascinating and this is why I chose to spend my senior year in high school in New York City. Since then I fell deeply in love with the United States and I’ve always dreamed to go back there one day. This is why I decide to write my master thesis in the US. Thanks to my cousin Caterina (who lives in Los Angeles) I decided to contact Dr. Enrico Vettore, her former Italian teacher at CSULB, which is the university that she attended. In the last 3 years of college, I started to take an interest in teaching Italian to foreign students and I thought that it would be interesting for me to have an experience abroad to learn more about the different teaching methods of the Italian language.

2. You came to CSULB to do observations for your research. Can you tell us a bit about the work you did and other projects you have going on?

Dr. Enrico Vettore and Dr. Clorinda Donato told me about the intercomprehensive approach that is used at CSULB with the Spanish speakers and I found this topic very interesting–this is why I decided to attend the different Italian classes. I observed how this approach worked and how the students respond to this kind of method. Before I came to California, I did not know anything about intercomprehension, it was a totally new concept for me that had I never heard about in my studies at my university. For this reason, I tried to learn as much as possible from the professors and from Dr. Clorinda Donato, who was kind enough to let me interview her. It has been an amazing experience, and I find it really interesting to observe such good and competent professors as they introduced new students to my language.

Now, I will work on finishing my thesis and I will graduate at the end of April.

3. What are your post-graduation plans? Is there an ideal career path you have? Would you prefer to remain in Italy or move abroad?

I would love to teach either Italian literature to Italian students or Italian language to foreign students. I had an amazing experience as a student with my Italian teacher in high school. I think the years in high schools are very difficult, but also fascinating and I believe it would be both challenging and incredible to teach something that I love as much as literature to Italian boys and girls. At the same time, I would like to spend some more years abroad, possibly in the US to teach the Italian language. I still have to make a decision, but I find both possibilities exciting.

4. Is there any advice you have for someone visiting Italy? What are the must-see locations?

Even though Italy is a small country. it is famously beautiful in each and every region. The beauty of its art is in every city from the North to South: I could tell you to visit Florence, Naples, Siena, Rome, or to enjoy the southern sun in the Mediterranean beaches of Calabria, Apulia and Sicily. But I would like to focus more on the North since it’s the side of the country where I grew up and I feel like it is not as known as the other places. Lombardy and Veneto have some of the largest and most beautiful lakes of the country, I would suggest to visit Lake Como, Lake Lecco and, and above all, Lake Garda. There are some gorgeous little towns in which you can visit some of the fanciest villas you will ever seen. If you go to the Aosta Valley and Piedmont, you will have the chance to see the Alps and some of the most iconic mountains of Italy such as Monte Rosa and the Cervino. If you are planning to visit Italy in the winter you should definitely take a day or two to ski in these regions. Some places, like the famous Bormio, are known for their incredible scenic outdoors spas where you can relax in fancy Jacuzzis while admiring beautiful landscapes. In Piedmont, you can find some beautiful valleys where you can try some of the best wine you will ever experience. If you want to enjoy some days at the beach, you can go to Liguria and see the Cinque Terre. If you are used to sandy beaches, you will be a little disappointed, though, because these little towns are built on the rocks and it is not easy to find a comfortable spot to lie down and sunbathe. But I assure you, you will be surprised by the uniqueness of these little colorful towns. There are plenty of cities you should visit while you travel in the North like: Turin, Venice, Bolzano, Bergamo, Genoa, Pavia, but I want to focus on my city, Milan. Unfortunately, Milan is rarely found in the category of the “beautiful cities of art,” since is mainly known for its business and it is considered to be the most modern city in Italy. But I think its beauty lies in the encounter between its aggressive modernity and the past that is preserved among its streets. If you go to Milan, I would suggest to visit the neighborhood of Brera, the Duomo, and the Navigli, which are artificial canals where young people like to hang out and drink and chat. If you like soccer you should go to see a game at the San Siro stadium, and if you enjoy opera, I would suggest you to go to the Scala. Milan is famous for its fashion, so if you are into stylish clothes you should go shopping in the main streets of the city like Montenapoleone and via della Spiga.

5. This semester you are returning to Italy. What was your fondest memory on campus? What do you think you will miss the most from Long Beach?

I am really sad that I had to leave CSULB. It is a beautiful campus and I had some incredible experiences that I will never forget. Above all, I will miss the opportunity to meet people that are so different from me. Honestly, in the beginning I found kind of hard to introduce myself to the students because I think Americans are less sociable than Italians. But with some effort I succeeded in making friends and I am very happy and grateful for those relationships; I will miss them a lot. I like that it is so easy to find people that have different interests, perspectives, beliefs and backgrounds from me. I will also miss Italian classes; I love that they are so small and I really appreciated the relationships with the teachers. I found the professors to be very nice and always available. I feel how much they care about their students and there is not much distance between them and the class. I also really liked the amount of entertainment that you can find on campus (bowling, gym, pool, etc.) I really enjoyed spending time with my friends in those areas. I will miss Long Beach very much, I loved the food, the weather (in Milan it is 0 degrees Celsius today!) and the company!

Chiara Sala

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