#the colours are just there to make this easier to look at

[handweavers]

something that comes up for me over and over is a deep frustration with academics who write about and study craft but have little hands-on experience with working with that craft, because it leads to them making mistakes in their analysis and even labelling of objects and techniques incorrectly. i see this from something as simple as textiles on display in museums being labelled with techniques that are very obviously wrong (claiming something is knit when it's clearly crochet, woven when that technique could only be done as embroidery applied to cloth off-loom) to articles and books written about the history of various aspects of textiles making considerable errors when trying to describe basic aspects of textile craft-knowledge (ex. a book i read recently that tried to say that dyeing cotton is far easier than dyeing wool because cotton takes colour more easily than wool, and used that as part of an argument as to why cotton became so prominent in the industrial revolution, which is so blatantly incorrect to any dyer that it seriously harms the argument being made even if the overall point is ultimately correct)

the thing is that craft is a language, an embodied knowledge that crosses the boundaries of spoken communication into a physical understanding. craft has theory, but it is not theoretical: there is a necessary physicality to our work, to our knowledge, that cannot be substituted. two artisans who share a craft share a language, even if that language is not verbal. when you understand how a material functions and behaves without deliberate thought, when the material knowledge becomes instinct, when your hands know these things just as well if not better than your conscious mind does, new avenues of communication are opened. an embodied knowledge of a craft is its own language that is able to be communicated across time, and one easily misunderstood by those without that fluency. an academic whose knowledge is entirely theoretical may look at a piece of metalwork from the 3rd century and struggle to understand the function or intent of it, but if you were to show the same piece to a living blacksmith they would likely be able to tell you with startling accuracy what their ancient colleague was trying to do.

a more elaborate example: when i was in residence at a dye studio on bali, the dyer who mentored me showed me a bowl of shimmering grey mud, and explained in bahasa that they harvest the mud several feet under the roots of certain species of mangroves. once the mud is cleaned and strained, it's mixed with bran water and left to ferment for weeks to months.  he noted that the mud cannot be used until the fermentation process has left a glittering sheen to its surface. when layered over a fermented dye containing the flowers from a tree, the cloth turns grey, and repeated dippings in the flower-liquid and mud vats deepen this colour until it's a warm black. 

he didn't explain why this works, and he did not have to. his methods are different from mine, but the same chemical processes are occurring. tannins always turn grey when they interact with iron and they don't react to other additives the same way, so tannins (polyphenols) and iron must be fundamental parts of this process. many types of earthen clay contain a type of bacteria that creates biogenic iron as a byproduct, and mixing bran water with this mud would give the bacteria sugars to feast upon, multiplying, and producing more of this biogenic iron. when the iron content is high enough that the mud shimmers, applying this fermented mixture to cloth soaked in tannins would cause the iron to react with the tannin and finally, miraculously: a deep, living grey-black cloth.

in my dye studio i have dissolved iron sulphide ii in boiling water and submerged cloth soaked in tannin extract in this iron water, and watched it emerge, chemically altered, now deep and living grey-black just like the cloth my mentor on bali dyed. when i watched him dip cloth in this brown bath of fermented flower-water, and then into the shimmering mud and witness the cloth emerge this same shade of grey, i understand exactly what he was doing and why. embodied craft knowledge is its own language, and if you're going to dedicate your life to writing about a craft it would be of great benefit to actually "speak" that language, or you're likely to make serious errors.

the arrogance is not that different from a historian or anthropologist who tries to study a culture or people without understanding their written or spoken tongue, and then makes mistakes in their analysis because they are fundamentally disconnected from the way the people they are talking about communicate. the voyeuristic academic desire to observe and analyse the world at a distance, without participating in it. how often academics will write about social movements, political theory and philosophy and never actually get involved in any of these movements while they're happening. my issue with the way they interact with craft is less serious than the others i mentioned, but one that constantly bothers me when coming into contact with the divide between "those who make a living writing about a subject" and "those who make a living doing that subject"

#you dont have to read all this im just ranting to myself #like this goes on for a while im just warning you

[shibuiking]

what i got rn

#if anyone um. is curious/cares/whatever then feel free to ask obviously #it would probably help me with ironing out details and stuff. normally i just let stuff come to me via dreams. u know how it is #the colours are just there to make this easier to look at #i was inspired abt watching documentaries abt ancient egypt and ppl commenting how their supply lines were super efficient #it makes sense that necrons need those too right...? more metals and blackstone... makes me wonder how costly resurrection is #also i forgot to add that not being very combat focused doesnt mean they wont start blasting unclean off their own mining planets

[rafaelsvala]

Leo

#art tag #finally understood what a limited colour palette is #rlly makes things a lot easier #s/o to gurneys book d #*the only theory book i own and actually use #this one's all emerald violet and red #i also managed to (once again) drop my watercolour box #it's very humid so all my sticky sticky little tubs went off to collect dust and dog hair #not to speak of having to put them back into order with half of them just looking like various shades of vaguely hued dark

[chaos-in-bright-pink-hair-dye]

Killjoys week 2023 official announcement!!

ID: Edited image that is made to seem like an old crumpled and stained poster with a piece ripped of at the bottom. The poster is mostly brightly pink with white title that says 'Killjoys week 2023 9th till 15th August' at the top of the page, a white rectangle with each day and its them written out in black text underneath the title, the themes go as follows:

Day 1 Memories

Day 2 Smoke

Day 3 All-seeing eyes

Day 4 Waste

Day 5 Hopeful eyes

Day 6 Wires

Day 7 Endless

The poster is covered in various scribbles done in black marker like stars, a heart or phrase saying Fuck Bl/ind and few different stickers.

/End ID

As I said before all forms of art are very welcome and of course the main point of this event is to have fun! So it doesn't matter if you can't finish each days prompt, feel free to choose only the days you like, interpret the themes in any way to your liking and very freely and if you want to join remember that simple sketches or ficlets are very welcome as well we celebrate every art piece! So please be nice to each other and enjoy yourselves!

#if someone knows why krita decided to export this png as 40MB worth of data I would love to know #because usually the files are many times smaller but whatever #i promise I didn't make this in my oc's colours it just sort of happened #especially since when I went to make it I had a completely different idea and then I started to look for images to use and this happened #should I tag this as eye strain? ig it isn't completely typical eye strain image but the colours are a little wild #but tbh I feel like this came together so nicely? I do wish editing text in krita was easier so I could change the spacing of the text #but otherwise I feel like it looks very cool and thematic #killjoys week 2023 #ttlotfk #ttlofk #killjoys #danger days #mcr

[ratwithhands]

Got dragged around a lot today so I couldn't quite finish this on time ;/ Anyways Emmet in his little goofy suit. Mildly formal, mildly circus, just thought it'd be fun :) Hope you guys like it and goodnight

#submas #subwaymasteremmet #emmetpokemon #kudari #monthofemmet #pokemon #pokemonfanart #I'd like to think this is his “deceptively formal” outfit #like at first glance you could definitely wear this to some event but you look at it for too long and it feels like a costume #idk might just be me #also it's like the most minor pointless detail but for sketches like these Emmet's coast and pants are just sliiiightly grey #feel like it makes him a little easier to look at than straight white #anyways this was supposed to be a proper old fashioned conductor's uniform but uh I started colouring #I don't usually work with the red version of their designs (I prefer the brown personally) but I think it worked better for this #the pinstripes also made it more interesting #maybe I'll draw him in this again sometime :)

[steakout-05]

autistic coded men who have orange cats my beloved

#star trek tng #star trek #star trek data #garfield #garfield jon #jon arbuckle #jetpack joyride #professor brains #jetpack joyride 2 #this is my type. weird silly or otherwise quirky guys who have orange cats #brains being autistic is more just a headcanon i have rather than deliberate coding #but he's been shown to have a few autism-like behaviours and traits across the shorts and jetpack joyride 2 #it's kinda stereotypical but he's more of a logical simple thinker and he finds strings of numbers to be easier to remember than names #which i find to be interesting! he just has different thinking patterns from what i've seen in neurotypicals. and it's like. #it's the autism radar. i can always tell when a fictional character seems to be Not Neurotypical because holy shit they act like me- #-or another autistic person i know! #also all these characters are like. different facets of autism and i think that's so interesting #on the left we have highly logical direct and ''idk what to do with my face or my hands help'' sherlock spin autism #and then there's slightly unhinged dorky possible ADHD combo and complete lack of social skills autism #and finally there's the evil autism #and i love all three of them <3 #i just realised they're also all sitting in big comfy chairs! #jon's armchair looks so comfy though. like i really wanna sit in there #it's probably slightly dirty and most definitely scratched up by garfield but my god that's what make it more homely and comfy #i wonder how many armchairs jon has gotten over the years. i should count all the instances of him having a differently coloured armchair #anyway yeah. autistic cat dads my beloved <3

[sysig]

New dream OCs drop (Patreon)

#Doodles #Dream Log #Original #Been a while! I always appreciate when my subconscious mind drops non-human humanoids on me lol #This case is was an older gay couple of like? they looked pretty normal generally but they had a specific feature lol #That when they blushed rather than their skin changing colour their fur would fluff out over their whole body haha #It was very fast! Kinda like Mystique's scale-fur? But only with blushing and then when they calmed down their fur would retract haha #One of the couple was way easier to fluster than the other tho haha so I really only saw it on him #I get the feeling it was also kind of GOmens inspired - specifically Aziraphale which is still so weird to me because I haven't seen?? #Or read anything GOmens?? Why brain #Smol was picking on me the other day while we were making Picrews together that I was basically just making a Crowley as well like damn! #Brain why #Anyway lol #These two had that very settled-in married feel of lightly picking on each other out of love haha #The more chill of the two liked to fluster his husband and in return he would lightly poke at him for his old-fashion fashion haha #Which of course he offered as well! Also in play! It was cute #I think they both had blue fur and light skin hmm - you can see the little whispies on ascot lol that was the main different feature #They were chunky and defied gravity like that too! It's gotten fuzzy to recall now but I'm certain of that #How silly

[rosaacicularis]

grian not being able to stomach the thought of purple because of the watchers vs scar unknowingly and inadvertently teaching grian to love it because of the lilacs <3

#grian favouring the poppies when scar gives the bouquet to him in third life… but then he starts associating the colour with scar #and suddenly the colour doesn’t feel so heavy and tasking… suddenly it feels like love and companionship… #and the poppies start to look more like blood on his hands… scar’s blood ok his hands… #but scar makes him love that one again too… he’s just so easy to love #it makes everything around him easier to love simply by association #scarian #desert duo #grian #gtws #trafficshipping #hermitshipping #fav posts less than three

[aria0fgold]

Looking at the sketches I made with the fresh set of eyes of today and honestly... It's pretty good??? Like the direction and everything mainly, like whoaa... I might actually be able to do this lil project then.

#aria rants #i was like ough... 24 stuff to draw??? sketch and line and color and stuff??? #immediately got scared of my own personal project but looking at the sketches now motivated me again #its not so bad! and i think what makes this a lil bit easier is that isat is monochrome #i dont have to worry about colours that much. just shades. and also the simple style too! #dont have to worry too much bout anything. i think for a first. this setup is pretty great!

[iridisentry]

I made a Nico!

This is my first time posting art or drawing for a fandom that doesn't solely exist in my head. Tell me how I did?

Nico di Angelo in this is in his late teens and I hc him to be less exhausted and hurting then. I also hc a fuckton of piercings as clearly shown. Shoulder-length hair is my jam to be honest.

#nico di angelo #art #artists on tumblr #nico #pjo #i wanted to get every detail perfect but i had exams so #screw it #i wonder what colour is a good highlight for the underworld? #black does not make good lighting apparently #which #fair #so i went with purple for mystery and power #and a sickly green for like...rotting things ig?? #i just see that shade of green connected to dark things and i suppose it just...made sense #but idk?? #digital art is weird btw #im fairly new to it #there are things which are easier--the UNDO button is godsend #but its harder to make a thing look less flat since idk how

[ite-its-jellyfish-love]

Woah, it's the edgelord himself: Irakusa Akuros!

#game art #akuros irakusa #ite! it's jellyfish love! #I decided to doodle this while listening to ''Roki'' because woahh... that song hits hard #it made me want to experiment with somewhat dynamic poses (though I think this still looks sorta dumb ahaha...) #his jellyfish form looks kinda odd but I wanted to try flat colours as well. just to make things easier to draw (imo i don't think- #-it worked hhhg...)

[gaytobymeres]

it's actually so sweet that I told my friends (all at separate times) I'm one of the bridesmaids at my brother and his fiancee's wedding and they all asked 'oh so are you wearing a suit?' and then got really offended/defensive on my behalf when I said I was wearing a dress. 'if it was my wedding I'd want you to wear what made you comfortable' kind of thing 🥺 like I don't mind wearing a dress for it, I have accepted that I will probably be forced to get a spray tan and will have to shave, wear makeup etc, and I don't really mind; I'm of the opinion that it's the bride's day and so I should just acquiesce, and I am really touched that she wants me to be a part of the wedding party. But it is also nice to hear my friends being protective of me and my identity and who I am as a person :')

#makes me feel hashtag valid #i think part of the reason theyre so protective is because they know me well #but they don't understand that i keep my general genderweirdness quiet from my family because it's easier that way #like my family are accepting and they know im a lesbian but i dont talk about it and neither do they probs bc i dont #but in terms of gender stuff it's easier and more pleasant if they think im cis #because lowkey they are transphobic #like i actually really like being referred to as ej (emma is also fine mind you) but i could never ask them to call me a diff name #whereas if i asked my friends they would 100% with no issue #im rambling #anyway its just nice to be known and also to have friends who will get offended on your behalf #even if youre not offended #they then also all said that i looked really hot in the dress (even though i dont feel it or see it) #also i want to reiterate i hold no negative feelings towards my future SIL about this shes really lovely #and also im at peace with wearing a dress like there are worse things lol #also also even if she was fine with me wearing a suit (she wants all the bridesmaids to look the same which is fair) finding a suit in the #right colour is actually really hard lol #also i wouldnt want to wear a suit because that would basically be like coming out to my entire extended family and um. no thanks. #theyll know if they need to

[estellaestella]

So in summer 2022 a friend dropped in and asked for some blusher to freshen up her makeup and i had to fess up i dont own any. (I dont do primers, foundations, highlighters etc either but that's another story.) Anyway, in all my time on this planet I had never bought a blush. And while i am sure that was right for me it didnt stop me from feeling super embarassed. Cut to a month later and I had bought 4.

So, my 2023 resolution is to not shop to fill an emotional need. No buying things unless i need them objectively. (Ok, with a tiny leeway for buying the prettier option.)

#a dab of lipstick works just fine #but yeah blushers make the process easier #i bought 7 scarves as presents yesterday and i didnt buy 1 for myself - thats like such a huge improvement #i love scarfs because of the way they add colour to a look

[skenpiel]

the greatest thing homestuck ever did for us was invent tricksters, thus letting us all design cute candy themed outfits for any and all characters even though the actual canonical designs looked like complete total fucking garbage

#they werent even based off of a single candy theme. it was just a mess of hideous colors and mixed motifs #i guess u could say they were just......... colours and mayhem? :D #teehee ^u^ #but really making candy themed colorful outfits was the best thing they ever did for us #especially when we were all thinking of how trolls would look trickster-fied #it was awesome how we all collectively ignored that the actual trickster designs were ugly as shit #AHH!!!!!!!! EVIL SPIDER!!!!!!!! #ya im at the trickster part throughout my reread lol can u tell #such hideous gaudy fucking outfits and colors. like im sorry i dont mean to sound like a snooty snob but they really look so bad #not to mention the whole peachy joke controvesy. lol. (not actually loling) #but anyway im really happy we all just turned a blind eye to how hideous those piece of shit designs were in favor of cute candy outfits #i guess janes was KIND of ok. the most ok out of all of them at least #its cause her dress was a paler warmer shade of yellow it made it easier on the eyes #even though the whole joke was like. eyestrainy wacko bullshit. hers was the least awful

[codgod-moved]

actually since i mentioned i remade my mc skin i’m making u guys look at it (the top one is the old one for Comparison)

i wanted to try a different shading style and i figured i probably shouldn’t use commissions to experiment too much + i wanted to revamp my skin anyway so. voila

#.mcskin #i think even just the base colours are a lot nicer #uri pointed out that the blue especially looks a lot better and. yeah #less Face Foliage so it’s easier to draw #and battery pack on the back because bear kept drawin me with wires coming out my head and i thought that was fun #does it make any actual sense? not really #but *shrug* #anyways i’m going 2 bed now goobnight #NEVERMIND JIMMY UPLOADED after i watch that i’m going to bed

[rearranging-deck-chairs]

also a big liberating thing about mcr is that they were like explicitly not trying to be cool. like sure cringe is dead but i guess sometimes you need someone you admire to tell you things before you believe it i guess

#but really it's so liberating like #oh no what if im embarassing well i wasnt trying to be cool so #ohh such big talk dimitri do you dare to go to the grocery store looking like you just stepped off a stage #WELL MAYBE TOMORROW #anyway things ive learnt #eyeliner makes me look hot #lipstick makes me look like a woman #although in all honesty thats more of a problem of the whole face the lipstick just helps #the lipstick colour i have sucks ineed like blood red or green or black i dont like this one #uhh my eye shadow is pretty bad but that was to be expected from a thing ive had in the bottom of a closet for 10 years #also the red is not red enough i need a redder shade #and ive tried three different types of eyeliner dont really know the difference although one smudged easier #so all in all great start i think