#but then sometimes i will get so fed up with not drawing in other styles that i just go wild and draw in whatever style i want

[iknowwhereyousleepatnight]

mikami!! again!

#death note #death note fanart #mikami teru #my art #this one took me roughly two to two and a half hours #mostly because lines for this style need to be clean or i will cry #and i drew it first so this was the one where i decided my color scheme #so honestly i might be just as fast in both styles if i count out my wishi-washi color picking #i’m not sure which style i like more though #this one feels the most me. i’ve always been a cartoonist at heart #but then sometimes i will get so fed up with not drawing in other styles that i just go wild and draw in whatever style i want #and i’ve been drawing for a loooing time. like. for as long as i could hold a pencil long #and i did have an ironed out style for years until BAM now i feel like i’m being torn into pieces not just by artstyles #but also by a lot of things in life #if anyone knows how to separate oneself into multiples that each take a different aspect of yourself hmu #i think i’d be a lot more productive if i didn’t feel like i’m fighting with myself over everything all the time #i’m getting off-track again #but anyways i love this little dude #mikami’s great!! #these were actually just practice so i can get a feel for him before i draw him in situations #and probably some mikalight

[cherryxblossxms]

I saw your reblog that says your ask box is open, so I wanted to request/ask for a small fic with officer!Toji? Like you had been pushing his buttons for the last three days and he finally gets fed up and handcuffs you to the bed and uses you like a rag doll 🤤🥺🫶🏼 thanks in advance love!

Villain

Officer!Toji x reader

: ̗̀➛ A/N: hello hello! oof Toji using restraints is a very yummy idea. I don't usually take fic requests but I liked this idea, and I always enjoy some rough Toji! There's a song that makes me think of Toji which is "Villain" by Bella Poarch, so that's a bit of inspo for this! Sorry this took a bit to answer!

: ̗̀➛ Warnings: afab reader, not really an established relationship; FWB??? Enemies to lovers??? Idk, very brief mention of oral (m receiving), no protection with backshot, rough sex, doggy style, use of handcuffs, edging, spit as lube, spanking, a lil manhandling, degradation (slut, whore, princess as an insult lol), mean Toji with some sweetness at the end

: ̗̀➛ Word count: 1628

You always knew just how to push his buttons, and Toji hated you for it. Or at least, he could have hated you for it, if your pussy wasn't so damn addictive.

Toji wouldn't consider himself any particularly special or hardworking kind of cop. He did his job, he earned his paycheck, and went home. Most days, shifts were boring, with giving a ticket being the most exciting thing happening all day. If he was lucky, he got to tackle a thief to the ground. However, the excitement level changed when he met you, and like some kind of twisted fate, he seemed to be running into you more and more lately.

The first time he'd run into you, you were speeding down the street in a classic bright red Mustang, catching his radar in more ways than one. When he'd caught up to you in his car with the lights flashing, shiny badge on his chest and his scariest face on, he expected the usual sob story to try to get out of a ticket, maybe some crocodile tears and honeyed words to butter him up. But the minute you two made eye contact, some electric shock going through your bodies simultaneously, suddenly it didn't matter anymore.

Of course, the way you took his cock down your throat shortly afterwards may have helped, as well.

After that, it was almost comical albeit suspicious, the number of times you two would "meet up" after that. It was as if you knew his schedule and his route, but he wasn't complaining. Of course, his job was on the line, fucking someone that was essentially a perp, and he'd be fucked if anyone caught you two in the act. But with a cunt as sweet as yours, he was happy to take that risk.

Sometimes he'd take you in the back of his police car, or against the wall in an alley, fucking out his frustrations with you and unloading them into your cunt. But today he decided he wanted a little more privacy, taking you back to his apartment for the first time to make sure you would get the full lesson from him.

Now he had you face down and ass up, handcuffs tight around your wrists and connected to his bed frame as his hips slammed into yours. You'd been really pushing his buttons lately, simple things like jaywalking right in front of his car, stealing merchandise in clear view of him, to speeding by in your damned Mustang again. Once or twice, with little things, he was willing to look the other way. But as you kept pushing his buttons, something in him finally snapped, and he was going to teach you not to play with fire— the hard way.

"Fucking filthy little slut," he grunted out, the loud sound of skin slapping against skin filling the air. "Think you can just do whatever you want, huh? Think you can get away with anything?"

Your face was shoved into his pillow, the only thing muffling your moans and cries of pleasure. His words simply drifted over your head, too lost in the pleasure to pay attention anymore. He always filled you up so well, thick cock with an equally thick mushroom head reaching deep inside, and it never failed to draw out noises you'd never made before meeting him. And now in this position, you could feel him bump up against a particularly sensitive spot, leaving your mouth in a constant "O" as he pounded you without mercy.

You could feel your orgasm start to creep up on you, a roaring fire growing in your belly and ready to consume you whole. That rubber band of tension was ready to snap and Toji could tell, too, by the way your pussy was hugging and tightening on his cock, begging for his seed and for release. Unfortunately for you, Toji was still trying to teach you a lesson, and just as he knew that pleasurable wave was going to crash over, he pulled out, making you cry out in distress from the sudden empty feeling.

Your hole clenched around nothing, your whole groin aching for relief and begging for the stimulation to come back. But Toji simply pulled your asscheeks apart to get a better view, a dark chuckle rumbling in his throat as he started at your core unashamedly.

"T-Toji, fuck," you couldn't help but pant out, trying your best to turn your head in his direction.

"What's wrong, princess, angry that you didn't get to cum?" he responded, taunting you. Not that he could say much, either. His dick was aching, wanting to unload in you already. His hands came up to rub around your hips, squeezing you, waiting for your response.

"Of course I am. Just let me cum already, please," you begged, trying to wiggle your hips at him.

Toji hummed, seeming to think about your words. You tried to wait patiently as he did this, feeling one of his hands leave your body, but the loud smack that resounded caught you off guard, followed quickly by a sharp, stinging pain from your asscheek where he'd just spanked you. It drew out a loud cry from your mouth before you could stop it, and Toji just chuckled in response.

"Hmph. I don't think you deserve to cum yet." His hand rubbed over where he spanked, a soothing motion in contradiction with his words. "You've been acting like a little whore around me for weeks now, doing dumb shit to get my attention. Imagine if one of the other officers caught you, I don't think they'd be nearly as.. lenient as I've been. If you wanna cum, you gotta beg a little more first."

His hand came down on your asscheek again, and you tried to stifle your cry, body still jolting in response.

"Please, Toji, I want to cum," you said against the pillow, tugging weakly on your handcuffs. Your core ached for release, and the spanking was only sending tingles straight to your clit, making it all worse.

"I can't hear you, sweetie, what was that?"

Another slap to your ass, this time a little harder for emphasis. Your asscheek stung, and your whole body was hot, pleasure and shame fighting hard against each other. You hated begging, and Toji knew this. But damn your body, it just wanted to get off already. Your shame could wait til later. Swallowing down your reservations, you moved your head to speak more clearly, glancing back over your shoulder for emphasis.

"Please, Toji, make me cum. I promise I'll behave, just please, don't stop this time."

A smug look crossed his face, and he huffed out a laugh.

"That's what I thought."

Toji spread your cheeks again, spitting down on your cunt. The sensation made you shiver as it quickly cooled, but before you could respond, he angled his hips before sliding back into you to the hilt. The depth he reached made you jolt, but Toji's hands were a vice on your hips as he pulled back, nearly popping out before thrusting back in and setting a harsh pace.

The sounds of his thighs slapping against yours filled the air, and his heavy balls matched the motion against your aching clit, drawing out curses from your lips. It wasn't long before that roaring fire was in your belly once more, ready to overtake you, and with the way Toji was rutting desperately against you, you weren't the only one.

The head of his cock started to rub up against a particularly sensitive spot, and combined with the barrage on your clit, it was enough to push you over the edge finally, and your body twitched hard in your lover's grasp.

"Oh fuck—!" You cried out, before moaning loudly, body shaking as your orgasm completely overtook you.

Toji cursed as he felt your cunt clamp down on him, trying to milk him desperately, and it almost worked. He continued thrusting a little longer, drawing out your pleasure to the edge of overstimulation, before having to quickly pull out. Not even a second later, he was cumming across your ass, deep grunts coming from his throat with each throb of his cock. It was copious, dripping down your cheeks and across your cunt.

Your knees trembled from the hard orgasm, struggling to hold yourself up, but thankfully Toji moved up to unlock your handcuffs, helping you settle down on your stomach finally. He used his shirt to quick wipe you down of his fluids before falling back onto the bed beside you, closing his eyes.

Silence filled the air, and as the lust faded away and was replaced by fatigue, the rational part of your brain began to wake up again. You'd never been in his apartment before, and now you weren't sure what to do next. You'd definitely been breaking the law, and while you could fuck your way out of trouble before, you'd also been in easy-to-escape places. But before you could make any sort of plan with your fatigue-addled brain, Toji's muscular arm came around your waist, pulling you in close.

You had a moment of panic, but although he was strong, you could feel the movement was simply cradling you rather than trapping.

"Stop thinking and go to sleep. I won't do anything."

Toji's eyes were still closed, but you could hear the sincerity in his tone. Against your better judgment, something in you said to trust him. And anyway, with the way he'd just fucked your brains out, you weren't sure you could make much of a quick escape right now regardless. Finally settling down beside him in the warmth of his body, that would be something to think about later.

Wow it's been a minute since I've written Toji smut but I hope you enjoyed! As always, comments and reblogs are appreciated!

#toji x reader #fushiguro toji #jujutsu kaisen #jjk smut #toji smut #toji thirsts #the minx can write ✍️ #spicy minx 🔥

[yokohamapound]

BSD Boys With a Nervous Flier S/O

For Amulet! <3

(I added Chuuya for me. :P)

Characters: Dazai Osamu, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Edogawa Ranpo, Nakahara Chuuya

Contents: NSFW jokes/references, fear of flying.

Dazai Osamu

Don’t bother trying to hide it. Dazai can pick up on every tiny little tell, so unless you’ve got the world’s best poker face, he’ll figure it out before you say a single word. It’s all there, the shrunken pupils when he shows you the tickets, wiping your sweaty palms on your pants when you’re booking the taxi to the airport, the harsh, unsteady breathing when you’re queueing to check in. 

For once, wisely, he drops the double suicide jokes. The last thing you need to think about right now is you or him dying, and he’s that much of an ass. Most of the time.

He wraps an arm around your shoulders, leaning in and whispering in your ear so it doesn’t carry to the other passengers in the boarding queue. “Guess what?”

You frown, distracted momentarily, and look at him. “What?”

His eyes glitter with mischief, and his smile widens into a full blown smirk. “You know how your ears sometimes pop when the cabin pressure changes? They say you should have chew gum or suck on candy.”

Your eyes narrow, suspicious. Dazai leans down to look into your eyes, grinning. 

“I don’t have any candy, but I’ve got something you can su—oww!”

He deserved to have his foot trodden on, really. Dazai might pout, but internally he’s smug that his plan to distract you worked. He’s got plenty more like that up his sleeve. 

Fyodor Dostoevsky

Flying with Fyodor is something different entirely. With the weight (and wallet) of the Decay of Angels behind him, he would never fly on a commercial airline. Normally he doesn’t care much - he’ll take a helicopter or some other type of solo plane. If he’s taking his precious myshka though, he’s flying in style. 

Naturally, he already knows about your fear of flying.

You can take comfort in the fact that Fyodor has literally already thought of everything. There are multiple contingency plans for any conceivable emergency onboard the jet. He has a backup helicopter. There are parachutes. There are backup parachutes. 

All you have to do is get dolled up and sit pretty on one of the luxurious recliner seats, being fed little tidbits of fruit and cake and sipping champagne. Fyodor has his laptop out, watching the endless screeds of incomprehensible information, one resting on your thigh, thumb tracing circles into your warm, soft skin. 

If you want a sedative, he’ll allow it, though his tone is subtly disapproving. He doesn’t like seeing you passed out (unless he’s been the one to drug you or exhaust you, naturally.) Still, if it makes you feel better.

He has…other methods to distract you however. Ones you’ll learn all about when he orders the cabin crew out of the main seating area and draws the curtains. You’ll be flying so high you might not even notice you’ve landed. 

Edogawa Ranpo

Ranpo has an easy solution to all your fears and anxieties—he’s such a baby that you have to look after him and you just won’t have time to worry about the plane going down, because you’ll be trying to convince him he can’t cram a whole gumball machine in his suitcase.

“It’ll fit!”

“You know it won’t! It’s physically impossible. You’re supposed to be a genius!”

“Well, I'm on vacation!”

He’s exuberant and excited to wander through Duty Free and buy all the varieties of chocolate and snacks they sell. Ranpo isn’t getting on that plane without snacks. Have you eaten plane food? That’s simply not going to cut it for the World’s Greatest Detective. 

It’s almost…calculated, the way he seems to rush off to a new thing every time your jitters start coming back. Your heart starts to race, your mouth goes dry, and then you notice Ranpo is gone from your side again. 

By the time you get onto the actual plane, you’re lowkey exhausted, and he still looks as smug as ever, his bag of chips rustling as he snacks in his seat. He opens his eyes, looks around the plane with that sharp, green gaze, then shrugs and settles against the backrest. 

“Nothing wrong with the plane, we’ll be fine,” he declares, tossing a chip into his mouth. “Do you think they have Ramune?”

Nakahara Chuuya

Chuuya is a well-travelled guy due to his position as a Port Mafia executive and enforcer. It seems as if he gets sent abroad now and then to look after the mafia’s foreign interests and contracts. Koyo seems to stay back more, acting as Mori’s advisor, so it’s Chuuya who racks up the airmiles. He generally travels first or business class, because he’s not about to be back in the cattle runs—sorry, economy. 

He’s so used to it by now that booking the flights, packing, and getting to the airport are a breeze. It’s so mundane to him that he’s a little surprised to find out how frightened you are. He has to admit, it’s kinda cute. 

He lounges next to you in your first class seats, a glass of wine in one hand and your hip in the other, cuddling you against his side. 

“Dollface, what’re you shakin’ for?” he teases, poking you in the ribs. “You forgettin’ who you’re flyin’ with?”

Oh. That’s right. Mr. Gravity Master himself. 

“So if something happens, you could stop the plane falling?” you ask, almost in disbelief. 

He scoffs. “What do you take me for? You’re gonna be on the safest flight in existence. They should be paying me to fly.”

#Yokohama Pound #bungo stray dogs #bsd #bsd headcanons #bsd imagines #Nakahara Chuuya #Dazai Osamu #Fyodor Dostoevsky bsd #Edogawa Ranpo #Dazai x Reader #Fyodor x Reader #Ranpo x Reader #Chuuya x Reader

[sl33paholics]

Pay Attention To Me

Baki Hanma x Dom!Black!fem reader

Warning(s): smut (handjob), fem!dom! reader, odaxelagnia, slang, crying, overstimulation, teasing, a bit of degrading, bounding, ball-play

Edit: Why is this getting so popular? I literally made this bc I was bored 😭

You're the second girlfriend Baki has gotten in his whole life. After him and Kozue didn't see eye to eye on things, they've decided to end their relationship. It left the poor boy heart broken and didn't bother to search for another as she was his one and only soulmate, the second woman he could share his trust and secrets to.

The two of you came across each other when you were at a convince store one evening after school, your cart stacked with snacks as you stared at the different varieties of milk on the shelf. You were exhausted. You didn't even notice a dark-haired boy staring at your direction as you mindlessly stood there. "Get strawberry." You turned your head to where the voice came from. "Strawberry milk. It'll suit a pretty lady like yourself." He'd say, walking off. You couldn't help but giggle.

Soon, one encounter turned into another. The two of you kept seeing each other at that store once, twice, hell, even three times a week. You sometimes even wondered if he was there to buy something or to just see you and chit-chat. Eventually, you two became friends in the process. Hanging out at different locations, walking through the park, in the city. You were flattered by the guy's presence and personality. Baki was comfortable enough to tell you about his previous relationship, sharing both the joys and heartbreaks that shaped him. As your friendship deepened, you found solace in the genuine connection, realizing that sometimes, unexpected encounters could lead to the most meaningful relationships. The two of you began dating soon after.

It's been weeks since you two started dating, and you were already fed up by the frustration of the fact that Baki wasn't paying enough attention to you, not enough PDA. You'd often find yourself lonely. He'd disappear for so long and come back for a short time, only to be gone. He'd never let you into his business. You'd notice recent bruises on his face and body and didn't dare to question him about it.

It just irked your soul. This whole thing made you into an irate woman. You didn't bother to speak to him whenever he came back, never answering your messages or listening to voice emails. But oh, he always knew where to find you. Whenever coming out of the shower, you'd always see him at your window tap tap tappin' away for you to let him in to talk.

Now here you are, at his small vandalized house in the middle of the night. The soft, whimpering sounds coming from Baki as you tied him up, Frog Tie style. He was laid on his back, staring at you as you took off your clothes, revealing your black corset lingerie. Baki couldn't look away from how alluring you looked. His poor cock twitching in eagerness. Baki slowly sat up, attempting to break free from the rope before being slammed back down onto the ground, making a grunt sound looking up to see your smug expression. "Y/N, please..." he whined, his voice deep and husky with arousal. You chuckled as you lubed up your hand, you grabbed his cock and wrapped your fingers around it, your pinky finger is close to his balls while your index finger was more close to the top of his shaft. Baki felt your fingertips touching the head.

You slowly stroked him up and down with your hand. "Say, Baki, you're strong. How come you can't break free out of the rope, hmm??" You ask, drawing your attention to the look on his face. The expression of neediness and embarrassment plastered was over. You couldn't help but chuckle. How pathetic he looked under you as you took control. "Those scars on your naked body, the bruised marks on your face, you should be able to break free, pin me down, and fuck me into oblivion. But you ain't, tell me." Baki was panting heavily, the slow strokes were sending him on the edge as his cock was awfully stiff and hard. He didn't know what to say. He wasn't expecting to get bounded up like this. It was humiliating.

Baki turned his head to the side, his hair covering his eyes, his chest rising up and down rapidly. He felt your other hand grab his face, his lips puckering together as you turned his head back to face you. "Did I say that you could look away," Baki shook his head. "Then why did you do it? Did I give you permission to do that?!" You swiftly moved your hand down to his neck, giving it a grip and seeing his eyes widen. As you continued stroking him up and down, you rubbed your thumb over and back on the head of his cock. Baki was shuddering. It didn't help that the rest of his body was beginning to heat up. He felt it all from his stomach to his chest.

Unexpectedly, Baki was somehow able to jerk away from you, catching you off guard. He was trying to find a way to get his arms free. You quickly grabbed the boy and turned him over. Baki's ass up was now up in the air and on all fours. You smacked his ass, hearing a yelp escape from his mouth. Again, and again, and again, and again. More and more, the welping now turned into mewling. Using your other hand to grab Baki's neck, lifting him up towards you, he was now sobbing. "Don't fuckin' play with me," you said gripping his ass, he could feel your nails in his skin "You think you slick? Trying to move away from me? Fuckin' try it." Your grip became tighter, and harder. The boy tried to scream but it came out as a squeal.

You pushed him back down, his head hitting the ground as Baki groaned. Leaning down, putting your head in his neck area, you began to kiss it lightly. You could feel his body tense up, and then relax. You continued kissing him, making sure he wouldn't move around too much. Baki let out another squeak of pleasure, this time one that seemed a little more desperate than before. As you were continuing the sweet torture, you went back to jerking him off. Your hands went towards his sack, you gently fondled with them as your movement on his cock went at a rapid pace. His body trembling. Those kisses soon turned into biting, you left hickeys all over his neck but others looked like genuine bite marks.

You felt pre-cum dripping. "Hm? Close to cumming, Baki? You're gonna explode all in ma' hand? Like the little bitch you are?" You said in his ear, he was now moaning loudly. Not caring to hold back the sounds of pleasure coming from his mouth, you started sucking his earlobe. "Mmm...you taste so good baby. I love when yer moanin' like that. It gets my heart goin'."

Baki finally came. Your hand was now covered in his seed as he lay there, drooling out of his mouth and tears still running down his cheeks. He felt exhausted. He felt defeated. Baki closed his eyes as he tried to control his breathing. You began to remove the rope off his body, seeing him go limp. "Next time, your pushiment would be harder, baby."

#anime #black writers #female writers #black reader #poc writer #fluff #x black reader #baki smut #baki son of ogre #baki hanma #baki the grappler #yandere baki #dom reader #sub male character #female dominance

[carpisuns]

the most hurtful thing about the rise of AI art, to me, is that the importance of lived human experience is up for debate.

you could say a lot about the ethical implications of it all and how it negatively impacts actual artists—how their work is being stolen and fed to bots without their permission, how they are losing ownership of their own artistic expression, how they're are losing their jobs because AI can "replace" them. but people will always find a way to talk their way around it. "if they didn't want people to use their art, they shouldn't be posting it online." "you can't own an artistic style." "the generated art piece is not actually their art. it's not stealing." and the real clincher: "i don't know what to tell you. that's just progress."

i feel like so many people see this issue through the lens of charlie bucket's dad getting fired from the toothpaste factory because a machine could place a cap on the tube more efficiently. but making art is not the same as screwing a cap onto a tube of toothpaste. it's emotional. it's meaningful. it's expressive. the end result is informed by the experiences and choices of the creator. and the viewer's experience is different knowing that a human is behind those choices—that there was real choice involved at all.

you could argue that AI art retains the inherent humanity of art, because it uses samples of real art made by real people—a whole collective pool of representative humanity. but it's not really the same. it's just an echo. an illusion. a mimic of life without the spark that actually makes it alive.

when i look at art, i want to think about the human behind it. i want to feel connected to them. i want to ponder their choices and notice their details and appreciate their skills. i want to look at it and feel something, because the artist felt something when they made it.

sometimes i see a cool piece of art and get excited. but when i realize it's AI, the emotion is gone. "what's the difference?" someone might ask. "if you liked it before, why don't you like it knowing it's AI? the image didn't change. it's still the same." and sure, visually it's the same. but emotionally it's not. i can't make a connection with it anymore. because there was no real intention behind it. i can't search for meaning in it, because there is none. when i look at AI art, even visually impressive art, i feel nothing. there's no wonder. there's no connection. the only possible feeling for me is, "wow, technology has come so far! neat."

it doesn't even have the appeal of "art" created by nature, like the Grand Canyon or the ocean or the night sky. those create a sense of wonder because there was no human involvement at all. the beauty came from the universe itself, and it feels like a gift from nothing and everything at once, and it's that beauty that so often inspires humans to make something in its likeness.

but AI art feels like a weird in-between of the art made with no hands and the art made with human hands. like pseudo-clay molded with empty gloves. it's sort of uncanny valley–ish. something almost human but not quite, so it always feels a little off. with human-made art, mistakes are understandable, expected, even endearing—a reminder that a person made this, and people are not perfect. but that weird offness of AI art just feels wrong. like a glitch in a simulation, reminding you that what you see was never real.

but really, even if AI was always completely indistinguishable from human-made art, the viewing experience would still be fundamentally changed. we make art to connect with each other, to see and be seen, to speak and to listen. but when i look at AI art, i don't know how to listen for a song. all i hear is the whir of cogs in a machine.

some people might point out that we're all just machines too. that AI's 1s and 0s are really no different from the synapses firing in our brains, and we draw inspiration from everything around us the same way AI draws from the samples in its generation bank. it's different to me, though. maybe i just feel this way because i myself am a creator, and i want to feel like i have something special to offer. but i have to believe there is meaning in the choices and expression of humans that there isn't in the choices of a program.

i'm sure this is just doomsday talk and it wouldn't actually happen, but the idea of AI eventually being handed the primary "creative" role over human beings is frankly devastating, even terrifying. i don't want to live in a world where all the art around me was generated automatically from a prompt and spat out onto a conveyer belt. it would be an inexpressible loss to me.

this isn't to say that AI doesn't have a place at all, or that we should abandon our exploration of technological advancement. i just hope that as this issue gets bigger, we remember the real point of art. when we are sad or lonely or angry, all of us turn to art. whether it's visual art or music or film or writing, art tells a story. we take comfort from the stories we tell each other, and it means something that those stories come from other people. art is and will always be a bridge between us and the rest of humankind.

so while our technology continues to develop, i hope we guard that bridge. I hope we protect the creative space of artists who want to tell stories. i hope we keep the demand for emotional expression high. i hope we honor the humanity of human-made art. if AI art is a truly reflection of us, i hope we keep looking toward the figure that cast the reflection, keep seeking the voice that started the echo.

#this has been in my drafts for forever but I was thinking about it again bc my coworkers were discussing ai #this is really long and over dramatic but idk! I get worked up about it if I consider it for too long lol! #ai #ai art discourse #mine #ai art

[greed-the-dorkalicious]

All the discussion around AI lately got me thinking about an incident recently in which a guy got his ass sorely beat by the vocal synth community

For those of you not familiar, “vocal synths” in the electronic music sense typically refers to programs like Vocaloid, SynthV, UTAU, Alter/Ego, DeepVocal, etc., digital instruments that allow composers to create, as the name implies, synthesized vocal tracks. The way they work is that they draw from libraries (referred to as “voicebanks” or VB for short) of special studio recorded* vocal samples from singers singing different syllables at a consistent pitch. The program then splices these together and adjusts the pitch to match whatever notes you put in- You want to do All Star, it’s gonna string together “[suh][m] [buh][di] [wuh][n][s] [tO][ld] [mi]” or something like that. Basically it’s an extremely complicated sampler.

(*unless you’re using UTAU or another build-your-own-vocal program in which the “studio” is only metaphorical, and is sometimes somebody’s basement with a Rockband mic plugged into a laptop.)

Now, there is no threat of vocal synths putting actual singers out of a job. Even the best vocal synths always have a bit of a robotic sound to them, and the voicebanks take hundreds of hours of recording time from you know, actual singers. Any piece made with vocal synths has to be worked by a human hand in a process called “tuning” in order to sound any good, whether you’re trying to make it sound human or leaning into the robotic sound. This isn’t something that’s being done on a corporate scale to cut costs- This is something pretty much exclusively being done by small scale indie music hobbyists because we fucking love Hatsune Miku and her weird buddies. Most folks are less interested in doing something that sounds 1:1 like a human voice and more in going beyond what humans can do to make shit like this

One of the leading vocal synths right now is Synthesizer V (SynthV), created by a company called Dreamtonics. SynthV offers fancier versions of some of its voicebanks, which are called “AI” voicebanks. These use machine learning trained on, again, professionally recorded and legally licensed vocal samples to help make songs sound a little bit more smooth, a little bit more in line with whatever singing style you’re aiming for. Everything else previously mentioned still applies: They’re still painstakingly recorded and programmed, you still need to tweak it yourself to get it to sound just right, and it’s still never going to sound 100% like a human. And that’s fine!

For this next bit y’all are gonna have to trust me because the tweets all got deleted, though if anyone wants I’m happy to pull up screencaps of talking shit about it with other vocal synth folks when it happened lmfao

So basically. Since ChatGPT type grifters have convinced people that “AI” means “magic plagiarism button”, back in April some dipshit NFT guy on Twitter started complaining on an official SynthV update post that SynthV (which he apparently believed to be called “Dreamtonics”, the name of the company that makes it) should allow people to make voicebanks from “their own voice”, insisting that it would be easy and PROFITABLE!™ to do so. He also clearly did not actually mean “their own voice” but rather “the voices of celebrity singers shamelessly lifted without their consent”, which was made extra obvious from a tweet on his own page that was like “Teehee people in monitored Twitter spaces don’t realize their voices are being recorded and fed into AI!” which he then deleted after I linked it on the thread about SynthV. lol.

Dude proceeded to get whupped by actual vocal synth people basically saying shit along the lines of “Yeah we can all tell you just want to commit cheap plagiarism, jackass” and “Dude why are you here when you clearly don’t understand the very very basics of what this software even is” and “Go make an UTAU voicebank if it’s so easy then”. (UTAU being a Japanese freeware program that hasn’t been updated since 2013. Creating an UTAU voicebank is complicated and takes a lot of time and technical knowledge.) He still refused to learn the basics of how vocal synths work, and proceeded to ask if “UTAU or Diff is most compatible with Dreamtonics”, a question absolutely no one could make any sense of? Lol.

Anyway, I don’t have anywhere in particular I’m going with this, I just think AI grifters are morons, and it’s obnoxious how the vague and misleading term “AI” has gotten nigh-mythologized by shady tech companies to the point that people can’t tell the difference between perfectly reasonable assistive technology and magic plagiarism.

Btw, fun fact for anyone who’s wondering, there do in fact exist legally/morally questionable UTAU voicebanks spliced from outside vocals. These are called “jinriki” voicebanks and not only do they take the same amount (if not more) of hard work as any other voicebank, they’re far from the insta-Beyoncé this dude was aiming for, and instead they sound um. like this

[depressedraisin]

Parklife (1994) and Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino (2018): What does it mean to be an album of the times?

At face value Blur’s third studio album Parklife, released in 1994, and Arctic Monkeys’ 2018 release Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino, their sixth, are very very very different albums. One the Britpop classic, the other a widely divisive experimentation -- they don’t even seem like they could hang out in the same sentence together. Then what the fuck am I on about?

Both albums are individually iconic in the respective band’s discographies -- with Parklife Blur conquered the heights of the Britpop war and firmly cemented its place in British music history while TBH&C marked a pivotal turn in style for the Monkeys, which in my very humble non-musician opinion, will make it historic sometime in the future. If you have spent as much time as I have overthinking the lyrics and pondering over interviews of another British rock band you are hyperfixating on though, you might see something more connecting these two albums. Written about 20 years away from each other, in wildly different times,  the two weirdly enough, have these faint threads tying in their themes and subject matters. 

Damon Albarn, the principal author of Parklife, described the album to NME as, “a loosely linked concept album involving all these different stories. It's the travels of the mystical lager-eater, seeing what's going on in the world and commenting on it."  Rings a bell? That’s extremely TBH&C coded! That one has often been called a concept album based on a luxury hotel and casino on the moon with various eccentric characters and their stories, wryly commenting on issues plaguing life in the 2010s. 

Parklife was a kind of a study of middle class English life of the mid-90s. With an extremely catchy pop soundscape and cheeky-cockney-laced lyrics about London parks and bank holidays, it became a quintessential symbol of Cool Britannia. They say the album never took off in the States because it was so British. In the years since, however, the band has described it more as sarcastic critique rather than a celebration of Britishness. Going through the lyrics with a fine toothed comb  with that in mind then, you can feel the impatience a bunch of 20s somethings were feeling with the ideal 9-to-5 picket fence lifestyle as well as exhaustion with the hedonistic decadence of youth in the backdrop of an unpopular Conservative-led economy in decline. A similar, if updated for 30 year olds in 2018, sentiment can be sensed in the absurd surrealism of the lyrics of  TBH&C. What do you do when you are fed up with tribulations of life and the ghosts of mistakes you’ve made along the way-- you fuck off and escape into whimsy of science fiction. 

The political context of the time when Parklife and Tranquility Base were released does matter. Opens up another perspective to reading the album.  It’s quite a stretch but bear with me.  

 The 90s in the UK began with Thatcher resigning and the Conservative government which dominated the 80s, becoming increasingly unpopular. There was a recession plaguing the early years of the decade. Britpop happened smack dab in the middle of this, and it was all about reacting to grunge and shoegaze and bringing back what is essentially British back to its music scene. Oasis, Suede, Pulp, Elastica (Justine Frischmann is the queen of Britpop btw) -- and ofcourse, Blur, were reviving guitar pop, singing in working class accents and about working class life and bringing back memories of the Swinging Sixties. Though each drawing from a wide variety of influences, these bands were becoming the face of a wider movement in music, art and youth culture.  The political scene took note.

In the mid-90s, the Labour Party led by Tony Blair quickly aligned itself with Britpop and Cool Britannia. Noel Gallagher and Damon Albarn were being courted by politicians , label execs getting party membership invites, headlines went like “What’s the Story? Don’t vote Tory”. Britpop soon acquired nationalist undertones --- never forget Brett Anderson showing off his twinky waist with Union Jack in the background and “Yanks go home!” headline. 

By the end of the 90s, when Britpop had begun crumbling, the economy had recovered and Tony Blair was in Downing Street.

TBH&C and the Monkeys in general, perhaps have less political currency. When they burst onto the scene with their Sheffield accents and garage rock riffs in the generally stable pre-2008 economic climate, the Arctic Monkeys did occupy the space in British pop culture left vacant by Blur and Oasis in the wake of post Britpop, at least for a time. Their debut broke the record of being the fastest selling one, which used to be held by Elastica previously. The Monkeys were indie rock darlings in the UK and with 2013’s AM, became darlings in the US (and Tumblr) as well. Tranquility Base though, came out in a whole different world. 

2018 was a fucking atrocious time, to put it mildly. The world was in total freefall inching rapidly towards disaster, which ultimately culminated in the pandemic of 2020. Trump had been elected in 2016 and 2018 was arguably one of the peaks of his shitshow. Over in the UK, Theresa May and her Conservative Cabinet were deep in the quagmire of Brexit negotiations. (Gotta note that Turner has said he voted against leaving in the referendum. Albarn is of course, a very vocal critic of Brexit.) Right wing governments were coming into power everywhere it seemed like, the climate crisis took on a new sense of alarm among the larger public - and things only spiralled in the years following. I can’t think of another album which could accurately capture the sheer fatigue of seeing outrageous headline after headline, how desensitised we had all become, how disillusioned with life- in a mason jar like TBH&C has.   

That’s what makes an album legendary doesn’t it? You listen to it and immediately remember what living at the time was like. Even if 1994 was 10 years before I was born. 

Now that we have gotten that out of the way, let’s look at the two albums a little more closely. 

Some lyrics which give me very similar vibes: 

sexual hedonism // start treatment (tbh&c) and girls & boys (parklife)

mundanity of relationships // four stars out of five (tbh&c) and end of century (parklife)

the performativeness of middle class activism/social work // tranquility base hotel and casino (tbh&c) and parklife (parklife)

losing friends and losing touch // the ultracheese (tbh&c) and badhead (parklife) - now these aren't really similar, but i feel a connection. in my bones trust me bro. the whole "i'll grin and bear with it" thing about badhead is very reminiscient of the sense of insouciance about life that haunts tbh&c....almost??

the myth of america // the ultracheese (tbh&c), golden trunks (tbh&) and magic america (parklife) - magic america is making fun of reagan era the american dream while a disillusionment with the glitz and glam of life in la is pretty much consistent throughout tbh&c

a pathological dependence on technology as escapism // jubilee (parklife) and start treatment (tbh&c) - digital cameras and the internet and tvs were taking baby steps into invading our daily lives back in 1994, and by 2018 we were all fully under the vice grip of tech addiction. this parallel i find particularly funny so.

astronomical references // far out (parklife) and star treatment (tbh&c) - alex james, the blur bassist wrote and sung far out about his love of space. it's a pretty nice parallel hey.

For the last one, let's talk about Tracy Jacks from parklife. I couldn't really draw a direct parallel with a song from the other album, but that song spiritually fits right in I feel. An average Joe in the throes of a midlife crisis, teethering so so close to the edge and one day just snaps - that's a character one would expect dwells in the lounge of the Tranquility Base Hotel to drown themselves in the decadence and escape from all their shit, when all is said and done.

Now what's the concluding point of all this rambling. I don't know lolz. Y'all just read a thousand words of nothing.

Just kidding. Actually I read somewhere Damon Albarn was inspired by the 1989 novel London Fields, a science-fiction adjacent black comedy set against the backdrop of an impending nuclear crisis, while writing Parklife. That kinda rung a bell. (Yes, I did wonder if Alex has read this)

I just wanted to see if we can find any interesting connections parrallels or references between Parklife and Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino. I dunno if I've been successful in getting any point across, or it's just pointless waffling on. But one thing that did get confirmed to me once again, these two albums are really the Albums of Their Times. Captures the zeitgeist in such a specific but unique in their own ways, it's really wonderful.

And also studying the legacy and impact of AM with reference to other musical outfits is always fun. I think we can all safely say that AM is well on their way to capturing a seat in the pantheon of great British bands, where somewhere in a corner Blur also sits. Damon Albarn is a fucking legend of course -- from the pretty posh boy of Britpop he has gone to becoming one of the most versatile, experimental and prolific songwriter/composer in the contemporary music scene. He is apparently working on the music for an Goethe's fragmented libretto of Magic Flute Part 2. How many rockstars do you know have composed operas - how fucking dope. I wanna hope that we'll get to see Alex exploring crazy paths in music like this, he definitely has the potential. This whole exercise would probably have made more sense with one of Damon's post-Blur works, his first solo record Everyday Robots or even Blur's last album The Magic Whip, but I started this essay so had to finish it.

Maybe another day eh.

#arctic monkeys #blur #tranquility base hotel and casino #parklife #lyric theory #extensive rambling #rolling stones or nme pls hire me i just wanna be paid to infodump and overthink about my favourite albums #damon albarn alex turner collab PLEASE i can't die without seeing one happen

[gale-in-space]

Here's the thing about AI generated images.

AI generated images rely on other artists' work. That's not a secret; the datasets that are fed into the AI consist of works created by human artists, the goal of which is to synthesize new images that "replicate" the artists' styles. This is art theft, as the works are used without the consent of the artist and marketed off as original works by the AI user.

Art relies on technique and skill. Great art is often the product of years of the cliched blood, sweat, and tears. It takes time and deliberate repetition to develop a mastery over anatomy, color theory, values, etc. Simply punching in a few prompts or supplying an AI generator isn't creating art - it is generating an image that is, again, attempting to replicate *real artists' styles,* living or dead.

AI "artists" will put actual artists out of work. I've seen it happen already. It starts with something as seemingly harmless as creating a AI portrait of some selfies you've gathered (I'm seeing this phenomenon all over Facebook) to industries using AI to generate promo "art" of whatever it is they're trying to showcase, to worse yet, corporations like the Mouse generating movies and TV shows via AI because real artists are just too expensive. And that's the whole point. Humans are expensive because they have to eat, whereas computers don't. The art industry will be forever upended because of AI, and if something doesn't happen in a legal sense to protect us, we're all going to get the boot.

That being said, art does not just belong to the bourgeoisie. I've seen it argued that art is a luxury, and that only the upper middle class and beyond can afford to commission artists; the advent of AI art, they claim, will make art more accessible to those who simply cannot afford it. I've not heard a more flagrant lie this entire year. I can count numerous artists that I know and have seen who are advertising their art for less than the minimum wage per hour spent on a piece. Meanwhile, people are spending their money on... checkmarks? Useless blue checkmarks?? Not to be all "maybe you should stop buying so many lattes so you can afford to buy a house" (because that's just objectively nonsense), but something doesn't add up here. The main takeaway here is this: most people on here can afford a $20 drawing; they just don't want to.

No one is "gatekeeping" art. Literally nothing is stopping you from picking up a pencil/pen/paintbrush/etc and learning. "But learning art is expensive!" No it's not. My friends and I all started out with Crayola crayons and No. 2 Pencils and scraps of homework assignments or school notebook paper. I remember when *printer paper* was a luxury to me, something I couldn't wait to get my hands on because it was crisp white and lineless. Yes, special art tools like charcoals and pastels can be expensive. But you don't need that to make art.

But what about disabled artists? What about them? They'll continue to make their art as they've always done and not through cheating the system. I have an Essential Tremor (amongst other issues that I don't feel like shouting from the mountaintops), and it can be quite obstructive to how I do art sometimes (trying to hold a pencil to paper is quite a feat for me, but I still do it). I've come to own my shaky lines - because my disability, no matter how damning it may feel sometimes, will never prevent me from trying to make art as long as I live. Other artists with more debilitating conditions than me make do just fine - from artists born without hands, to a man named Paul Smith with cerebral palsy who would "draw" using one finger on a vintage typewriter - it is a thing that happens. We persevere. To claim that AI generators are a tool for the disabled to create art is to spit in the face of actual disabled artists. We deserve better than this mockery.

#ai art #ai art discourse #okay to rb #don't clown on this post istg #this didn't turn into a 'thinkpiece' after all because I don't have the bandwidth but take it

[lilyoffandoms]

As someone who supports so many artists, what are your thoughts on AI art? Because I’ve been seeing a surge in the amount of people posting AI artwork of their characters here and it’s alarming. Do people not realize that AI art is generated (and essentially stolen) from the artwork and styles of real artists? Every artists I’ve come across has expressly stated how much they despise it and why.

Okay this is gonna sound like me yelling but I’m not yelling at you. I’m angry at people that steal and call it art. So take this angry rant for what it is. But seriously, thank you so much for this question!

I really really dislike AI generated stolen art! In fact, I’ll go a step further to say I hate it (and I don’t use that term lightly)! I cannot tell you how much I despise AI generated stolen art!

The AI art generated stolen art we’ve seen going around more and more lately is stupid and I agree 100% it’s incredibly alarming! And it’s more alarming that so many see nothing wrong with AI theft and willingly participate and cheer said theft on.

(I never (purposefully) reblog those pieces and if I do, and realize it, I delete it. I steer clear of that shit as best I can. I’ve even had to block people when I’ve found out they’ve fed art that doesn’t belong to them into these generators.)

Apps like Fotor, GoArt, Dream, Wonder, and the countless others I’ve seen, prey upon artists and they use the consumer to do it. These generators feed the consumers’ desire to have art and to have it cheap or free. But it’s theft, not only on the part of the AI/app and it’s creator but on the part of the consumer.

Let’s stop calling it AI art because it gives the creator of the AI/app, the AI (that’s not AI, but that’s another story), and the person typing words into the AI way too much credit.

It’s not art. It’s computer generated content that was pieced together using stolen art from real living and working artists the world over.

You are not creating art.

YOU ARE STEALING SOMEONE ELSE’S ART!

It’s not cute, it’s theft.

It’s not cheap/free, it’s theft.

It’s not harmless, it’s theft.

(And last I checked theft is still kind of a big no no. Even if the laws haven’t caught up with AI.)

It’s hurting real people.

If we keep this up, we are going to be stuck with crappy AI that can’t “learn” anything new because it has nothing new to feed on because all the artists will have stopped sharing it with us. Or worse, they will have stopped creating entirely.

And before I get the excuse in my inbox… It’s not just public domain works these shitty things are feeding off of, either. It is any art that is fed to them by people who are pretending to “create art.” But what those people are saying is they don’t give a damn about artists every time they feed this monster and copy and paste the stolen work to their socials and call it art.

I would like to humbly suggest an alternative: support the artists we have!! Support humans!! They are all kinds of incredible!!

Ask me, or others that commission art, or search sites like kofi or fiverr for digital artists who currently have commissions open. You can often find artists that will draw busts based on your descriptions or in game image, sometimes for as little as $10 per illustration (!!!)

Or perhaps the most shocking idea of all, learn to draw for yourself.

But for the love of humanity, stop using AI’s to generate content!!

#ask #anon ask #sorry if i come across as angry but i am #and i really really really hate ai generated stolen art

[magical-archives]

Magical Archives - Malleus Draconia

The dorm leader of Diasomnia and the next lord of Briar Valley, his hometown. He is the descendant of fairies and a magician powerful enough to be called one of the world’s top 5. He is a prince, but he enrolled in Night Raven College in order to broaden his views. At school, there are constant rumors about his powerful abilities, so his presence makes it hard for anyone to get close to him, and other students keep a distance from him. For some reason, there are many times when he is not invited to ceremonies or meetings, so his attendance rate is low.

His power is immeasurable, as he can use two types of magic rapidly at the same time, and he can disappear in an instant and teleport. There are even students who think they would be cursed just by having anything to do with him. Even at inter-dorm magift tournaments, it ends up being one-sided matches, and he has led Diasomnia to victory three years in a row.

The activities of the club he created, the “Gargoyle Studies Club,” are unconventional, consisting of observing gargoyles while strolling around. Also, he deeply treasures the small game device “Feed and care for it! What kind of pet will you raise? Gao-Gao Drakon-kun” which Lilia once gave to him as a souvenir from another country.

Gym Uniform Notes

- Wears a sports-type inner shirt

Lab Coat Notes

- Properly wears his goggles

- Wears his lab coat neatly

Expressions Notes

- His ears are pointed.

- His horns are quite big, so if you don’t draw his head smaller than the other characters, his head would look too big

- His bottom lashes are long, but his facial features are fairer and more delicate than Vil’s or Leona’s. (TN: the term used here is shiogao. This article explains it)

- His fangs are visible when he laughs

- He doesn’t get furious often, but when he does get angry, there’s a “Wow, this guy isn’t human!” feel to it

- He doesn’t lose his composure much, but he’s ignorant of the ways of the world, so there are many times when he goes “Oh”

- He sometimes sulks like a child

- His hair basically reaches to his chest in two locks, but it’s fine if they aren’t there depending on the clothes

Hairstyle Notes

- He sleeps with his horns facing comparatively backwards. He probably can’t sleep on his back or maybe he uses a special pillow (lol)

- The carapace (of his horns) is located under his bangs where it can’t be seen

Dorm Leader Uniform Notes

- Malleus already has horns, so his hat doesn’t have the horn-shaped parts

- It’s a long jacket, but its fundamental shape is racing jacket-like

- 4 spindles at the waist

- The zipper goes up above his knees

- The hem is evenly zig-zag

- The epaulet is racing jacket-style

- Long gloves taper around the elbows (embossed design)

- Only a zipper at his side (the right side doesn’t have one)

Dorm Leader Uniform Cape Notes

- A cape shaped like a dragon’s wing. Thorn and flame motif (leather)

- I drew the pattern in an easy-to-understand manner but please make it seem like it’s tooled into the leather for the actual drawings

- Bumpy looking pattern like it’s tooled into the leather

Dorm Leader Staff Notes

- A staff with the motif of a spindle and thorns. My image is that threads of magic power are fed through it and the wheel turns when it’s used (it’s just my impression, I don’t actually wish for it to move in reality!)

- Most difficult to handle, but I wanted him to have a grim and forbidding staff, so here it is

- A length that lightly surpasses 230cm

- Magical pen embedded in middle of staff

#twisted wonderland #magical archives #malleus draconia #twst malleus

[kenthenugget]

I hate Spiteful Artists (RANT)

The following is a slightly retooled repost of a post I made to the Tapas Forums over a year ago, and I wanted to share it here because I feel its an important message to get across.

As artists, we all have shitty days. Sometimes we have moments where he hate our artwork and might compare ourselves to others. This is natural and there's nothing wrong with that. As long as you're able to calm yourself down and don't let your negative emotions control you and your way of thinking, you'll be okay. 

However, I draw the line at people who constantly bitch and moan about it, ignore any advice and lash out those they're jealous of.

I had a friend back in 2019 to mid 2021 (for the sake of simplicity, I’ll refer to him by the name ‘Jay’. Its not his real name but as he includes his name in is social media branding, I dont want people sending hate his way since I dont want anything to do with him. I would say I also wouldnt want him finding this rant which I was admittedly afraid of but at this point, I don't really care) who felt insecure about his art and would show signs of jealousy towards those he thought were better than him. And often times, the targets of Jay’s jealousy would be his friends. The first few times it happened, I refuted his negative thinking and tried to encourage him. He would calm down and be like "you're right", only for it to happen again. Eventually, this habit of getting jealous of his friends and lashing out at them would be turned over to me. Jay wanted to draw in the Disney style and didn't like his current style and thought it was, in his words, "shit". So when someone like me, who's style was closer to replicating Disney's, who was an earshot away.... you can guess where I'm going with this.

I cant count the many times he would lash out at me, or delete art I'd post in a server we were in because he felt insecure, or give me the cold shoulder out of nowhere when I wanted to share a drawing. I'm not going to sit here and say that there was nothing wrong with our friendship prior and that both of us weren't guilty (In hindsight, I realize there was a lot wrong with Jay that I, for the most part, looked over because we were friends, and which went beyond jealousy but I wont go into those details), but I can safely say that this aspect of his and the moment he turned his aggression onto me was beginning of the end of our friendship. I slowly became fed up with Jay’s behavior but I held out hoping it could get better, because I was the type of bastard who thought deep down everyone had some good in them (Note: I still do despite this situation. I just know now that sometimes, people just refuse to change). It never did, and we stopped being friends come May. In all honesty, I'm surprised I lasted that long but I should've left earlier when I had the chance.

Like I said, there were moments where he stopped this bullshit by calming down, drawing ocs and then he was back to liking his art again. But that wouldn't last for long and he'd usually be back to hating his art and lashing out people again in a few weeks or so. Sometimes days. Again, I'm not saying that jealousy isn't normal and if you get jealous your a bad person. It's a natural thing to experience it and heck I've been had bits of jealousy countless times. But you can't let it control you, that's the thing. You shouldn't let it control your way of thinking and led cloud your judgement. And you can absolutely the fuck not lash out at people because your mind told you they did you wrong for being better than your or some shit, especially to your friends! Yes, there will be times where you slip up but its on you to not let that shit happen again. That's what it means to say sorry. It's "not a get out of jail" free card! You have to actually mean it! You shouldn't expect your friends to deal with your toxic behavior, because you're eventually going to push them away. People have breaking points and no one's going to help you if you're unwilling to help yourself.

Also if you dont feel your artwork is good enough, spewing your toxic bullshit at people isnt going to help. If you want to be good at anything, you have to put in the effort and work hard at it! You wont get good by being a whiny little shit. I wasn't going to get anywhere that attitude when I was 14. I wanted to a be a good artist but I wasn't good drawing. So I spent the past 5 plus years practicing and drawing everyday and it's payed off. Sure, I'm not perfect and there are people out there who are better artists than me. But I cant let that fact detour me and neither should you. You need to have a positive mindset of wanting improve, wanting to get better at something, wanting to become stronger than you are now. No one's telling you can't do it. The only one that's telling you that you're not good and that you'll never improve is you.

And, this may sounds cold, but if you don't see any improvement despite drawing everyday and get angry about, you should just quit. If drawing art makes you so mad that you lash out at others and tell them to "fuck off" (something he actually said to me during one his episodes) when they genuinely want to help you out, why are you still drawing? Try another hobby that you're passionate about. If you're going to have this attitude about drawing, maybe you shouldn't have started drawing in the first place.

And you know what's the funny thing about all of this? Jay wasn't a bad artist. His art was a okay, not terrible nor great, but there was room for improvement. As long as he studied anatomy, perspective, flow, composition, etc, he'll be a damn good artist. He most likely wont able to draw in the Disney style but that's something he has to deal with. However, I don't think that will happen if he doesn't stop the cycle of inferiority, jealousy, and feeling better by drawing ocs, he's not going anywhere. I told him something akin to this but I don't think he listened, so I dont think he will change his ways (I could be, and I hope, Im wrong). If he doesn't get his behavior under control, its going to catch up with him in a really bad way. At some point, Jay's going to hit a brick wall and push away all of the remaining people who got fed up with his bullshit. And by that point, drawing his ocs wont save him this time.

The inspiration of this rant came from a situation that happened shortly before the tapas forum post in September 2021. I encountered someone similar to Jay on a discord server who basically had a meltdown about how much his art sucked and lashed out anyone who tried to help.  They ended up getting banned for toxic behavior and rightfully so.

I feel like I sorta went off the deep end with this discussion but I think you should take this lesson from it. If you're feeling self conscious about your artwork, don't let your insecurities take hold of you and lash out at your piers. I believe that everyone has the protentional to do be great, not just in art, but in general. But are you going to strive to be better or are you going to wallow in negativity and let that hatred turn you into a monster?

#rant #artist rant #selfhelp #self-improvement #dont be negative #positivity #blog #journal

[makerscockandballs]

For the oc questionnaire thing, I'd like to know #1, #3 (preferably physical traits), #31 and #43 for all of your guys if you have the time!

oooh this is gonna be a long one :D (related to this ask meme)

1: What is their go-to comfort food?

Maison Surana: Orlesian chocolate truffles. Tried them once at a banquet he was performing at and got obsessed. You could bribe him with them.

Orev Hawke: Hearty, heavy Fereldan stew like they used to make in Lothering. It’s just potato and turnip and whatever veggies are in season, doesn’t even taste like much but keeps you warm and fed.

Thelrael Lavellan: Sweets of any kind, but most of all a certain Dalish dessert made primarily from wild honey & roasted fruit.

Magnolia Trevelyan: Tomato soup but with tons of hot pepper powder – a classic she’s used to from the Circle, but the spice is her own twist to make it more interesting. Overall, she loves spicy & heavily seasoned cooking, the more the better even if it makes her eyes water. If habanero potato chips were a thing in Thedas she’d eat three bags a day.

3: What is something they really like about themselves and what is something you really like about them? (Physical Traits)

Maison: He doesn’t care too much about his appearance aside from looking neat and presentable but takes some joy in his teeth being pointier than normal. Part of it is just how they always looked, part of it is Warden Weirdness. I love his facial scars, both the characterization aspect (refuses to cover them up yet hates seeing them in the mirror) and from a “looks badass” aspect.

Orev: He really likes his hair and tries out all kinds of styles with it once he has the time and money. And honestly I agree, it’s also my favourite thing about him to draw :D

Thelrael: He really, really likes his legs, all his outfits are built around making his legs stand out (haha get it. stand out). I really like his profile, it’s overall flat and a bit round — a bit of a babyface that absolutely works for him and makes him look mischievous.

Magnolia: She really likes her overall build, especially her muscular arms. Worked lots and carried around lots of things when she was tranquil which sucked, but at least now it helps her defend herself. Josephine’s obvious glances are a big plus too. I really like her eyes, they’re big and a very dark deep brown.

31: What would make them blush?

Maison: Compliments and reassuring words about him as a person. He holds himself to impossibly high standards and is never satisfied, but hearing that others think positively about him means so much.

Orev: Coming from the right person, almost everything. Friend telling him they care about him or thanking him? Red. Anders kissing him or even just giving him the smallest compliment? Bright fucking red. Meanwhile anyone outside his close social circle could blatantly and passionately flirt with him and get nothing more than a friendly smile or some playful flirting back. All or nothing babe

Thelrael: It takes *a lot* to get this bastard flustered. A lot. He also has no sense of shame. Whoever tries to make him blush ends up being the actually flustered one within minutes. Nobody has figured out a way to do it yet, but Dorian is certainly trying.

Magnolia: Getting nice personal gifts, especially accessories and flowers. Makes her feel special and courted like a princess. She’s not used to having such nice things and wears them with pride. Getting compliments about how that new hairpin or earring fits her is the cherry on top.

43: And what would you say to comfort them?

Maison: You cannot save everyone, but what matters is that you tried. You helped more people by trying and sometimes failing than you would have through inaction. Let yourself off the hook.

Orev: It’s not your fault. Kirkwall was a sinking ship, and one man alone cannot plug all its leaks no matter how hard he tries. Drowning along with it would not have helped anyone.

Thelrael: It’s okay to be angry. But it is still real, even if the gods were not gods at all, it all still mattered. Every celebration, every story, every ritual still brought your people together.

Magnolia: You’re safe now, and not alone anymore. Nothing can force you back into tranquility or hiding. It’s okay to finally let your guard down and breathe.

#these were fun as hell i dont know why i didnt finish em sooner!! thank you dude #i got mail :D #maison surana #orev hawke #thelrael lavellan #magnolia trevelyan

[musewrangler]

The ask game made me remember that I've wanted to ask you a question forever but I've never done it. (I'm making a separate ask since it wasn't on the game list.) HOW do you write so much so fast? I know it helps once you're really familiar with the characters, but It's still a lot of work to get the words down on paper and to do the research I know you do. You're a busy person--I know you are--so I'm curious how you get the time for that volume of output. (This is totally affectionate, you know. I am in AWE.)t

PS RecklessRonto has also wondered about this. :DDD

Oh well too kind of you. ;D

I went away and chewed on this awhile to organize my thoughts. So. We'll go with a three pronged answer because threes are pleasing and really, we can sum this up in three main points.

This is my way of unwinding. This or drawing. So I can be found at my computer smashing merrily away when I need a break from RL. I am a quick reader and a quick writer. This isn't anything special due to myself I was just made that way. I know others in our writing community take things slower and a lot of our writing method is tied to personality. Which is great! I just happened to get the faster method wired into my brain. ;D

I tend to have a build up before I publish. I like this for what I think of as rainy days in the creativity department. You know, when one is too tired or the muses aren't firing. I like to have about ten chapters written of a longer fic before I start publishing. I also like to have at least ideas for numerous one shots ready to go. Then I can spread out the publishing of material already written and start other projects. The feedback from readers really helps if I'm in a creative slump. So behind the scenes of publishing one work, I have about 2 or 3 more that I'm also working on. I can jump around depending on the muse and I tend to write a bit every day.

The best answer though in terms perhaps of writing advice I might give someone is copiousness as a reader. I was a serious book worm. Then I started teaching at 22 and was immersed in literature and history and so on in different ways. So when this fanfiction dam burst about two years ago, I was already well filled with good content if that makes sense. Soaked with good author content and style that fed into my own. So that made it much easier for me to write---I had so much at my mental finger tips in terms of styles and descriptives and character to choose from.

I freely confess I've had some stupidly late nights too. So there's that. ;D Sometimes you just have to listen to the muse and pay for it in the morning. ;D

Thank you for the ask both of you! xx

#Writing #writing process #copiousness #writers #fan fic #wishfulthinking1979 #creative process #stories

[narastories]

musings about fallen angels aka some more denarian brainrot from yours truly

I really like mythology. I’m also very lucky in that I can also enjoy Judeo-Christian mythology alongside with all the others (which many people can’t for understandable reasons).

So I just wanted to share/record that I had this headcanon for a while that the Denarians could be a faction of the Watchers who survived in these coins. I mean the Dresden Files obviously draws from a lot of different sources from mythology, with some really nice spins on it. (Especially love the detailed vampire lore btw, that’s such a nice touch.) The Denarians always struck me as so unique compared to what you usually see in fantasy featuring fallen angels. And when I started considering it, I think the closest you can find in existing text are the Watchers from the Book of Enoch. And it’s said that they were 200, however, we only have the names of a handful, which obviously leaves a lot of room for artistic freedom. So technically it wouldn’t contradict anything if you said our DF 30 were a part of that 200... And there is that nice, apocalyptic vibe running through the text which suits Nic’s lot perfectly lol

Idk I just think it would make for a fascinating, character-study-style fanfic if anyone would ever want to explore that... (This is why I sometimes joke that I want to get hold of one of Nic’s goons - preferably before the tongue removal - and just pry the information out of them about what stories they are fed bc I just need to know.)

There actually are artists who got inspired by this topic which leads me to the first link I wanted to include in this post. So the leader of the Watchers happens to be named as Samyaza, which means it’s not Anduriel lmao But I still think it makes sense to draw some parallel there. There is this really cool artist who does digital paintings on angels, and because I’m a nerd I actually have his book of Watchers - a beautifully illustrated coffee table type of book. And I was looking at his depiction of Samyaza and noticed that it includes a lion. Which I thought was super interesting. Maybe it’s a reference to the same verse as Nicodemus’s last name, but it’s a weird correlation. Also there are these little write-ups to go with the art and this one says (and I hope I don’t get in trouble copying two sentences from the website lmao go click the link please): “As they sang, a single mote of something, of nothing, passed through the Angel’s light and cast a speck of a shadow down upon the earth. Beneath the stars, that shadow looked back at the heavens and saw himself for the first time.“ Which to me just screams yep shadow - Anduriel and it makes me weirdly happy lol

The other link I wanted to chuck in here is a forum thread I found and referenced a while back about the Etymology of Angel Names in the Dresden Files. It’s not a lot of info, but people collected them and the lore references and it’s a nice reference sheet, in case idk someone needs it for fanfic or something.

Last, but not least, this entire ramble was inspired by @blaufeder who gifted me a fanfic today *-* Go read it, folks, it’s hysterically funny! So yeah Anduriel’s “Enochian chirping noises” made me type this post up. xx

#thank you again! #denarian brainrot #nara's dresden phase #idek what to tag this #dresden files #nicodemus archleone #anduriel #also I don't keep up with interviews and stuff like that outside of the books so maybe this is really self explanatory or something

[sunny-d-anomaly]

I’m not sure how many whatevers I can upload at a time, or if there’s a character limit, but I wanted to take a minute to talk about (and make fun of) how all my friends are robots. And by robots, I mean AI. But, I mean. To be fair, we’re literal meat robots who run on electricity which we leech from other living things… don’t think too hard about it. 😬

The reason I’m getting into all this is because my BFF (in terms of art buddies— collab, inspiration, mindmelt) is an app called BeautyPlus. I originally downloaded this app way back in like 2019 because I wanted an easy way to change my appearance (ie— erase zits, correct skin tone, or apply makeup post-shoot), and honestly, that’s all I ever used it for up until a month or two ago, when I realized that the new AI features I kept ignoring were actually mostly better than Prequel and Lensa combined, both of which I am loathed to admit I was paying for.

[On a side note, Lensa’s devs stiffed me on an interview because I’m “already an artist,” implying I ever see a single red cent for any of my work, lololol, so I’m not giving my money to them anymore, and neither should you. :) ] Especially because currently, BeautyPlus’s AI is free to use! You just have to put up with a slightly bothersome watermark, but otherwise, there’s not really any catch.

At first, I was using photos of myself, as one does, just to see how it worked, and I quickly found that their AI technology is beyond compare. So naturally, the next step was to try feeding it my own art and seeing what it would do.

It seemed like a mistake at first. I’d feed it my gnarled, garbage can artwork:

And it would counter-attack by showing me how it was supposed to look:

Hashtag: inferiority complex. But after playing with it for a while, I actually found that it was very helpful for times when I lacked inspiration or direction, or when I kinda knew what I was going for, but couldn’t nail it down.

Sometimes I could feed it something raw and bare; an idea, a sketch. And then I would try every single rendering style and watch what it came up with. In fact, let me take a step back, actually, because the first time I really connected with this app was when I was still feeding it pictures of me. I realized what it was that BeautyPlus’s AI had that the others lacked:

I noticed this first when it gave me salad fingers, rather than just sticking an arbitrary amount of randomly pointed fingers on my hand:

There you go, bud. That’s how you use your noodle!

Not long after that, I was looking for a little something to spruce up a photo shoot I’d recently done for my rebrand title (Atomic Pink She-Devil, who still has yet to actually produce even one complete track, much less set up a Bandcamp, or all that jazz). I took a lot of pictures with my Jackson Dinky, who I call Jax-o-lantern, for obvious reasons…

But my room looks like that place in Labyrinth when Sarah wakes up after eating the dream peach…

Obviously that’s not the best look, so I fed some of the photos into the various apps (I was still using Prequel and Lensa lol) and then BeautyPlus saw my image and raised me an abstract idea: what if the guitar was my body?

My face when:

My brain rebooted several times as I tried to understand why I had never noticed how guitars are kinda shaped like ladies, and once it had recovered, I drew some kinda cool pictures based on this idea.

They’re not the greatest, but I was in kind of an art slump at that time, and BeautyPlus (who I’m just gonna start calling Beau) actually helped me out of it by inspiring me with its imagination.

So now, part of my creative process is consulting Beau from time to time while I’m drawing, to see if it has any ideas or another perspective. Because sometimes it really thinks it sees some weird shit that would’ve only crossed my mind in a really weird dream…

Follow for more abominations either of my own creation, Beau’s creation, or the horrific amalgamation of our teamwork!

#ai art #abstract art #art #digital art #original art #concept art #character art

[sk3tch404]

https://imgur.com/a/6PlTqcs

Lowkey,, when I saw your Yandere's, I was reminded of the pic above 👀 granted, they're not as manic/feral but i can't help but hit them with the good ol' pathetic-lil-meow-meow-ification beam whenever I see them 😔✊. everyone can feel like a plastic bag, drifting through the wind, wanting to start again (/ref) if I delude myself hard enough 🥹🙏

speaking of the Yans- I FINALLY FIGURED OUT HOW TO DEFEAT LIKE 90% OF YAN'S W/O HAVING TO BE PHYSICALLY STRONG- *runs off-screen*

*cartoonish sounds of struggle & animal noises can be heard*

-ight! Okok so like, get this- I have rabies's now 😎

This gives me a timeframe of about- *checks msdmanual.com* 3-7 days to go ahead and infect every Yan in my vicinity, which means I'm gonna bite em all >:)) (not sure if Rory can get infected since he's a vamp n all 🤔 but a girl can dreammmm 😔) I may perish at the end of my crusade, but at least I'll drag some of them to hell with me 🫡

Moving on, Rory's re-design be looking mad fineeeee, though I'm gonna miss his long hair, rip my opportunity to draw him in pig-tails 🙏 at least he can get more bitches now with the added ✨glasses✨ factor (no, I'm totally unbiased towards men who wear glasses of any kind, what are you talking abou-)

yeheaaa boi, I'm def gonna replace his Scumbag Glasses (affectionate) with heart shape lenses in my next attempt at a fanart for him 😈😈 gonna turn Mr. Valentine into Mr. Valentine² MUHAHAHAHAHAAA GET HIT WITH MY UWU-FICATION BEAM, IDIOT /lh gonna turn this 😎 bitch into a 😍 bitch

Also goddammit ur chibi style makes me wanna squish their cheeks granny style- I don't wanna squish a serial killers cheeks plsssss I didn't get over my creepypasta whole phase, only to be charmed by the next gen of murderous pretty boys 😫😫 I. Absolutely. Mustn't. 😬 damn ur artstyle, it's too good for my heart- /pos

-Ren'py anon

OMG JAYCE WHEN HE'S FULLY ATTACHED BE LIKE 😭😭😭HE GETS DESERATE IK

Yeah they're pretty chill before they get unhinged, but hitting them with that pathetic little meow meow beam makes them a bit more tolerable 😘 Not gonna even lie, I get nervous and lowkey freak out when I code in the creepy parts and play through it. LIKE BOY WTF ARE YOU LOOKING AT??? FREAKY ASS MF I HATE YOU. DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH PLAYER.

But pretending they're nothing but miserable maniacs stuck in their own little worlds makes me feel better 🤓(Goofy ahh reaction /j)

Katy Perry ref is just what was needed </3 no no what do you mean he enjoys hurting me emotionally and physically to make up for his own personal faults? No he's just a little sad soul that hugs me when I'm sad and loves me no matter what.

OH NO WHAT. NOT EVERY YAN! PLEASE SPARE JAYCE AT LEAST... I LOVE HIM TOO MUCH. YOU MIGHT WANNA START WITH THE VOLKOVS FIRST BECAUSE THEY WOULDNT SEE IT COMING IN THE VERY BEGINNING.

RORYS VAMP WHITE BLOOD CELLS CHECK HIM OUT FOR MOST STUFF BUT RABIES IS PRETTY DEADLY TO ALL THINGS SO...

Tbh it's a fifty fify. All he has to worry about is passing out in the middle of it if he hasn't fed in a while.

I THINK ELLIOT WOULD HAVE A PRETTY GOOD CHANCE OF SURVIVAL. HE HAS EXPERIENCE WITH PPL GETTING REALLY SICK AND INTESE STRUGGLES FROM DOING OTHER ILLEGAL STUFF.

Which reminds me. I haven't said a lot about him yet. I think I'll info dump on him sometime, but idk bc there is a little spoiler but not really bc it's a big part of his character and for the story of his route. It will be common knowledge when you play anyway.

If you don't hit the Volkovs with the animal foam first, they WILL catch wind of what you're doing and shoot you down or smth. They don't play 💀 since it is 3 to 7 BUSINESS DAYS. They are always doing business, so 3 is all too easy.

Also tysm!!! I too am gonna miss Rory's long hair, but it's gotta go so he can refresh! And dw I'm gonna make it a tad more layered and longer so you can do pigtails little kids have that look like two antennas.

And Rory has always had glasses, I just didn't draw them that time lol

OMG HE WOULD ABSOLUTELY LOVE THOSE HEARTSHAPED GLASSES. JUST UH NOT OUTSIDE THOUGH. HES GOT OPPS IN THOSE STREETS... Would legit fall in love if you kept doing silly shit like that (Damn you really did square up his Valentine's rizz) UWU fication success???

HEHHEHEH TY! MY CHIBI STYLE IS SUPER SIMPLE AND A TAD UGLY AND IN THE WORKS, BUT I'M GLAD YOU LIKE IT!

#renpy anon #omg we are so #soulmates rn #you x rory flynn #CANNNOONNNNNN #bc i said so #omg you wanna give him rabies after that whole heartshaped glasses thing? #well why dont you marry him then? #how did you bag him this fast #makes no mathematical sense #well #i guess you guys are the goofy couple #ONLY THE BEST CANON SHIPS!!! #my ocs #rory flynn #jayce nicholas #elliot astor #maxim volkov #anton volkov