#the sketch is the most important and requires the most thought

[rakiah]

Hey hey! (^-^)/ How are you doing? Love your work btw, it's always for pretty and fluffy! (* >ω<) I just had a couple of questions, and the first one was: What are your tips for an aspiring comic artist? f(^ー^; I wanna draw some of my favorite scenes from my fanfics, and I thought it might look kinda cool if it was kinda comic/webtoon style? (-。-;) Like what's your I guess take on that and how one might do that? And what about panel style, placement, and size? Is that all up to the artist, or do they have a rhyme and reason? Sorry if this was too long. You don't have to answer btw. I thought I'd give it a shot since y'know. (*´～｀*) Anyways have a great day and keep of the good work! d=(^o^)=b See ya! (^_^)v

Hi!~

Pretty busy but fine and thank you! (//∇//)

That’s a big question and I’ll try to do my best! Explaining something that technic not in your native language can be uncertain so, I’m sorry in advance 🙏

First of all: Observe. Comics, doujins, mangas,… Just observe to learn how others do.

Comic is a narrative art so, the most important things in comic is the reading way aka the panels (the angles you choose), the speech bubbles and how you put them in your comic page. It’s really the first thing you have to put in your storyboard!

Texts in the speech bubbles are also veeeery important. Texts that are badly formatted is painful to read… Avoid doing cesura as often as possible and do nice text forms.

And please, if you choose a manga layout, do not put japanese speech bubbles, they’re really not suitable for western texts.

If you want to to a webtoon instead of a regular comic/manga, you have to thing your layout quite differently. Webtoons are more like storyboard for animation. Like a series of forceful scenes. Plus, you have to deal with the required format. I’m not pretty used to do some, I’m just working with a lot of them (I do the texts for them). I can recommend you Sweet Home (cw: horror, hikikomori) to see how the author use the long layout of the webtoon to skillfully instill the jump scares in their episodes!

A quick “how I do” to finish my blah-blah! ٩( ᐛ )و

First, I write my plot like a play (quick context for each act, full dialogues with stage directions) then storyboard. Tiny storyboard, I sketch 15 pages on an A4 page. Better global view. I can’t give specific advices on how to do panels (cause it’s something that just pops in my mind during my storyboard stage 💦) just keep in mind to diversify your angles especially during a talk between 2 characters. Don’t do a shot reverse shot, it’s just boring.

Then pages. I usually rework my storyboard at the sketch stage ‘cause I have a new eye on it lol

Also, don’t forget to think about the facing pages for the narration. You can do some fun page layout!

Tadaa! ✨

Hope it’ll help you and have fun with your comic! (о´∀`о)

#answer #long post #I also hope I made it clear enough 💦 #quick comic advices!

[cynautica]

i remembered i can just make stuff up (stream sketches + scrapped designs)

uhhhh quick fire for the second image from left to right juvenile vessel - old world cable maintenance - artistic diplomat vessel

Headcanons below the cut:

(Im not kidding word counter marked this as a 5 minute reading time open at your own risk)

While the sentiment of the architect network as "a thousand strings in a melody, not one louder than the rest" is a poetic interpretation of the network, it is not necessarily reflective of the precursors society as a whole.

At its peak, the species span billions of planets with billions on billions of individuals, all with their own degrees of autonomy and divergence. If each architect is equal in its power, than it is equal in its power to choose. Even if the soul of an architect, its very essence and its personality, is designed so perfectly that its primary desire is the perpetuation of order and advancement (two inherently divergent concepts), faults occur. Breakages occur. Pockets, cultural subsets, faded transmissions, and any other element of lost insight be it archaic or modern, lends itself to the impossibility of an entirely homogeneous society.

Whether a hive minded society reflects the only means to perfection is debatable, but its important to remember that our main portal in to the precursor world is Al-an, a known prodigy born and raised in to a society that has done nothing but benefit him. His view of his people is intrinsically skewed. He has never had a reason to see beyond the propaganda, nor question his directives. They have never once failed him.

But what of the little guys? The constructed failures so to speak. Those destined to be cast in to the bowels of poisonous cobalt mines and those who's birth purpose is to be irradiated and isolated for the greater good of the collective. Those who's genes prompted sub-standard intelligence who will never be seen as truly important. Their needs must be cast aside by design for the greater good of the collective. By design they must be ignored, their thoughts not relevant to the forwarding of progress.

Because there is true power disparity there is a true hierarchy.

Aware of this, the precursors devised a system of checks and balances to ensure that scientific progress remains at the forefront, rather than the accumulation of power by any individual.

As with all things though, power inevitably seeks to maintain and grow like a cancer.

One such exertion of power comes in the form of a "hive master". These unique individuals require precise expensive machinery in order to be produced, and as such are very rare. The vessels they require are likewise uniquely suited to only these hive masters and their unique ability to sway the voices and personality of any individual connected to the network. They themselves are invisible, completely undetectable except in physical form. Their unique telepathic abilities only work when paired with these vessels. They have no voice nor will of their own and are said to represent architect society on its most basal level.

Given their difficult to produce nature established personalities are very often used in place of new seed combinations. Personalities most suited for repurposing as a hive master include those who are most senior, intelligent, and aligned wholly with societal goals.

They are typically only found on heavily populated planets with more than a few thousand individuals. There they go undetected, like the sound of wind lost in a sea of voices, whose squall directs its very rampage. They are also enlisted for many unique duties on populous planets, such as the refactoring of corrupted individuals and silencing cultural sub-sets.

The average architect probably isn't even aware of the existence of a hive master unless their profession lies in the refactoring and diplomatic processes.

Despite the cultural drive for a monotonous and orderly society, artistic expression is common and encouraged in some sects. All architects possess the desire to express themselves, similarly to humans. Some do this simply with their inbuilt biolights that vary naturally with the individual, while others (less commonly) modify their vessel or design new and unique ones for themselves.

A vessel after all is a costly investment you cant just change like the season, its built to last you a couple thousand years. It's only natural that some seek to don something unique.

This behavior is sometimes detested by more traditional architects, but is not universally frowned upon.

Diplomats are actually encouraged to take on more artistically designed vessels. Often with their respective species' artistic values in mind. They've found greater success with alliances when they don't look like massive sticks in the mud.

Subsets of culture also at times develop unique vessels. Such as an order-over-progress movement that developed on the fringes of the network and preferred pie-bald esque vessels. Alternatively in the past as wars waged between the architects the opposing sides often don differing forms to show their allegiances. In more recent history, a wave of white-clad vigilantes advocated for a complete reset of the old-world collective.

Aside from artistic and affiliation vessels, mainstream precursor society also used a series of varying vessels to reflect personal occupation. Some of the most notable included the warrior vessel, who by design met the largest accommodations of standard architecture for the purposes of intimidation and physical altercations. Al-an's vessel likewise is very common as a heavier-built variant meant to face harsh outer worlds such as 4546B. On base, more light and energy efficient vessels make the dominant force where defense isn't a huge priority.

Microvessels such as those seen above in grey are fairly uncommon despite their energy efficiency. They are most efficient on old world planets that have been in development for hundreds of thousands of years, where the march of time means that not all builders past and present were on the same wavelength and as such small and precise forms mean that construction can be completed with minimal risk to crowded infrastructure.

Another unique and uncommon vessel is that of a juvenile grow-out vessel. These are seldom customized beyond survival needs, and are designed to acclimate a freshly generated architect to the physical world. Like a living vessel, they grow with the individual starting from broodling all the way until young adulthood. They tend to be a bit clumsy and lack the ability to interface with most technology. Always running a blue biolight, these vessels to not require a lot of energy to function physically. A juvenile architect must prove its maturity before it is allowed to graduate in to an adult vessel. This change-out phase is a diplomatic process and one can sometimes wait many years before being approved in to maturity.

The treatment of a new architect varies quite significantly depending on their birthplace and genotype. High performing juveniles are singled out very quickly for better education. Despite the rarity of children in architect society they are not given much importance. A single broodmother may be the ward of up to fifty broodlings, each of which given little attention in favor of allowing them to develop social skills among themselves. Despite architect's seeming infinite power to control resources, broodling mortality is surprisingly high.

#subnautica #sbz #subnautica below zero #architect #headcanon #hc #architect oc #precursor #fan design #fan speculation

[dizzyjaden]

Oh, to be loved by an artist... ✧˚ · .

Albedo x gn! Reader

♤ Summary: Your bf Albedo makes you pose for his painting then u cuddle <3

♤ Warnings: JUST PURE FLUFF !

♤ A/N: In celebration of this man finally getting a rerun in version 4.5

*✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:

*✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:

In the warm firelit glow of the room, dimly emphasized with orange hues by the setting sun peering in through the windows, Albedo's eyes graze over every inch of your body fervently, he sits stationed behind an easel and canvas where he is painting you. Sketching for him is a hobby that came about from his line of work. It is more often than not that sketching things he frequently studies or needs to understand better benefits his experiments. Painting, however...

Painting is more of a love language.

Albedo sketches whatever interests him, it does not take a long time to do, and it requires little material and effort. With painting, one must really stress the details to bring everything together. He paints things out of appreciation for them. To really see every feature and memorize it all.

Ever since the two of you started dating, the only thing occupying his thoughts is you. Anytime he attempts to pass the time with sketching, you're the first subject matter to advance in his mind. It only makes sense to dedicate hours to an entire full-length portrait of you. You are important to him after all.

The pose he asked you to take is candid and simple, nothing dramatic. However, you had begun to appear restless with frequent unintentional twitches across your figure. He smiles sympathetically.

"Try to focus on your breathing. It will make it easier to hold still."

A slow exhale passes through your lips. Truthfully, remaining motionless for hours is more difficult than you assumed, but you couldn't grow tired of this position you are in. Your lover is not a very affectionate person, at least not physically. He of course never turns you away when you are the one to initiate, but he rarely does so himself. You've realized over time that it isn't because he loves you any less than you love him, but the way Albedo prefers to show his affection is simply exactly what he is doing now. Penetrating through your skin with his gaze, his lips slightly parted and his eyebrows furrowed while he ingests each little characteristic on your body that has built up and brought him you.

"I'm impressed by you, my muse." He teases. "Most people struggle to maintain such a striking demeanor throughout the entirety of the session. I hope you do not mind me taking my time."

"Striking? What do you mean by that?" You hum curiously. He sighs as he struggles to find words for it.

"Some people just look... Posed." He attempts. "But you are naturally scenic... Though perhaps I'm biased. You could do anything and I'd find it devastatingly attractive."

You smile playfully and roll your eyes, realizing he has not actually touched the canvas in a moment.

"Not to rush you, but yes to rush you, I'd like to breathe soon."

Albedo nods.

"I am finished."

Your eyes widen.

"Oh, really?" You prompt, subtly asking for confirmation that you are allowed to move.

He smiles.

"I have been finished for some time. I just wanted an excuse to stare at you a while longer."

You give him an annoyed scoff as a response and immediately stretch your limbs out. The painting had to have taken at least six hours. You saunter over to where he is seated and allow yourself to practically fall into his lap. He gives your forehead a quick kiss as you nestle your head against his shoulder to observe his work on the easel.

"I think it turned out rather well." He states in satisfaction. "Though, I'm not sure the most talented artist alive could do you justice."

You are blown away by how casual he is about what he just put on that blank board you're staring at with your jaw on the ground. It's you, absolutely you. Terrifyingly realistic yet still captured in the most flattering way imaginable.

"It's... Incredible..." You mutter.

"It's a painting." Albedo sighs. "To be honest, I did like the idea of having something for me to look at when you are not around, but at the end of the day, it's still just a painting."

Once again, you're blown away by his indifference as he wraps his arms around you.

"A really good painting." You affirm. "It's very... Good-"

"You are so warm..." He murmurs quietly, seeming to have already moved on. You sigh.

Sometimes it seems Albedo does not give himself the appreciation he deserves, if you squint you'll notice that he doesn't think of himself highly in any regard. Despite his alchemical advancements, he still believes himself to be average at best when it comes to intelligence. Despite his borderline inhuman artistic skills, he does not think his work is anything of note. It makes you sad.

You don't want to bring this up now and potentially spoil the moment, though. You'll get on his case about not knowing how amazing he is later. Albedo is always busy, he is always running back and forth to get something done, but now he is quiet and still as he brushes a hand through your hair.

"Are you tired?" You ask him. He nods slightly.

"It will be dark soon..." Albedo yawned. "I'd prefer not to waste what little day is left by going to sleep early."

Thankfully you speak Albedo, so you know when he says something like that he fully intends to stay up very late, working. You yank away from him to glare in irritation, he laughs.

"I will not stay up all night, love. Promise." He smiles. You hate how adorable his smile is, you're trying to be mad at him.

"If you don't sleep, it will negatively impact my own sleep schedule." You say in an assertive tone of voice. "I cannot sleep if you aren't next to me."

Albedo doesn't seem to fully believe this since you've fallen asleep on your own nearly every day of your life until the two of you moved in together. Nevertheless, he contemplates.

"I will come lay next to you until you fall asleep-"

"No." You cut him off. "Let's go to bed."

He sighs in defeat and picks you up as he stands from the chair.

"Fine, fine." He mumbles, rolling his eyes at your victorious expression. He carries you to bed and collapses beside you instantly. His sluggish behavior warrants a giggle from you.

"I suppose today was longer than I anticipated." He admits, pulling the blankets over the both of you. "Although, I am glad we got to spend some time together towards the end of it."

You shuffle closer to him which brings him to immediately wrap his arms around you, pulling you into his chest with a sigh.

"Are you comfortable enough?" He asks. Something about Albedo is that he never stops fussing over you, he'll probably ask you the same question another twelve times before falling asleep.

"Yes." You respond simply, reaching your hands up to play with his hair. This is the best technique when it comes to shutting Albedo up. His eyes quickly flutter shut at the sensation and you smile.

"Love you Bedo." You profess. His grip around you tightens slightly at your words.

"Love you too..."

#genshin albedo #albedo kreideprinz #albedo x reader #albedo #genshin impact x reader #genshin impact #genshin impact fanfics #fanfiction #fanfic #genshin x reader #genshin men #albedo x you #fluff

[ballerinainskzville]

OT8 when they’re sick, skz

Bangchan: refuses to rest with all his power. “Baby, you’re not missing out on anything if you take a nap. You can’t continue working like this”, you’d argue with him and he would disagree. “There’s still so much to do!”, he’d disagree. “You have the next 4 comebacks planned out, missing out on one day doesn’t hurt anybody” He then would only give up and go to bed to about further upsetting and worrying you. Would fall asleep instantly and snore, tiredness taking him in

Lee Know: he’d be his usual teasing self, just less energy. You’d make him chicken soup to feel better and he’d pretend like it’s too sour. But end up eating multiple bowls. Even sick, he’s requested all of your attention. “Promise me to look after my kids when I die”, he’d say before he’s going to sleep.

“Lino, you’re not dying”

“Who can guarantee that I wake up? I need to know my kids are taken care of”

“What about me?”

“I’m sure you’ll find a way. The kids are important”

“So I’m not important?”

“I didn’t say that”

Changbin: would require tons and tons of cuddles. One big whiny teddy bear that wants to be looked after but would hate making you do something for him like cooking soup. You’d still make one and he’d compliment you over and over, expressing his gratitude for having you in his life and what he’d do if you weren’t his girl. Debated with you if going for a light walk as exercise would be good for him. Ending up watching action movies.

Hyunjin: definition of whiny would carry his name. Lots of dramatic sighs and complaints. He’d want you to stay further away in case you’d get sick too but stay in the same room. You’d read a book and he’d draw you reading. He’d sneeze and drag his pen accidentally along the page, ruining the sketch. Annoyed, he’d put the sketch block away. His furrowed brows would only soften once you shuffle closer and scoop him up in a tight hug into which he’d melt. “I want to kiss you but I don’t want you to get sick”

“Then get better soon”

“Ha, that’s a good idea. Never thought of it”

“I’m a genius, I know”

“If that makes you feel better about yourself”

“Shut up, Hyun”

“Make me”

“I can’t. You’re sick so I can’t kiss you”

He’d pucker up his lips in an attempt to steal a kiss.

Jisung: he would have trouble asking you to look after him. First, he’d pretend like he’s only tired and needs sleep. Waking up with a fever, he’d panic about what to do and ask you for advice. You’d then sit by his bed, wiping his face, neck, and arms with wet cloths to calm him down after giving him some medicine. He’d sigh with closed eyes and apologize over and over for being sick. You’d make him a light meal and soup and you’d end up watching his (secretly) favorite Barbie movie

Felix: similar to Jisung, he’d pretend like he isn’t sick at all to avoid you worrying about him. Until he begins to burn up and feel nauseous, admitting he needs to lie down because he’s not feeling well. You’d sit next to him, holding his hand while he’s sleeping, playing with his hair while you’re admiring the Star constellations on his face. He’d jerk up awake and then a sigh of the warmth. Feeling vulnerable while he’s sick, he refuses to change out of his sweaty clothes until you assure him that it’s fine and that he’s in trusting hands. Yours. He’d then let you help him and change into fresh clothes with your help before laying down again.

Seungmin: he’d ask you to stop by the pharmacy to grab some medicine. Asking if one of the members is sick, he’d simply say it’s for him. To prevent you from falling ill too, he’d ask you to stay in another room but you’re at each other to catch up on the day. He’d lay in bed, his eyes taking up most of the screen while you’re sitting on the couch of the living room. He’d quiz you to distract himself from nausea and talk until he’d fall asleep over ft. You’d end the call and make him some soup to eat once he’s up again.

Jeongin: he’d ask you if the certain headache is normal and when you’d disagree, he’d simply say “then I’m sick”. Would tell you not to worry and stay home but you’d come over to his dorm to look after him too. He’d have weird food requests, his stomach still hungry as always, and would tell you to just order the food under his name instead of bothering to cook. Which you’d still do. He’d compliment your cooking and apologize for being sick. Feeling bad that you’re looking after him when you were supposed to have a date at the arcade.

#skz fanfic #skz #stray kids #skz scenarios #seungmin #seungmin scenarios #skz jeongin #skz changbin #skz x reader #skz seungmin #skz hyunjin #skz imagines #skz lee know #stray kids seungmin #stray kids bangchan #stray kids hyunjin #stray kids scenarios #stray kids imagines #stray kids bang chan #stray kids felix #stray kids han #stray kids jisung #stray kids lee know #stray kids changbin #stray kids jeongin #stray kids fluff #skz felix #skz chan scenarios #hyunjin #hyunjin scenarios

[fantasy-anatomy-analyst]

I've an anthro tiger character who can walk/run/etc both bipedal and quadrupedal. Within the scope of the story he also becomes an amputee - so now hes missing his entire left arm and his right leg up to the knee. I've figured out that bipedally he mostly uses a crutch. but is there anything i can do for him that'll still let him scamper around? I've not been able to find reference for animals missing limbs in a similar configuration.

alright this one was fun. mobile aids for non-human bodies can be tricky, but it's cool and important!

the first step of course is making sure you can keep a character design relatively consistent in both a bipedal and quadrupedal stance.

(image description: simplified sketches of a feline character standing on all fours as well as upright on two legs. their left arm and right leg have also been colored over in red to note that these limbs are missing. there is also a note on the image stating that the arms and legs should be roughly the same length. end description)

keeping the limbs similar in length is important for quadrupedal motion, if you want the spine to be kinda parallel to the ground. otherwise, you get sloped backs which are not the best for smooth motion. but the more important part of this ask is the matter of mobility aids for a character that moves between bipedal and quadrupedal motion! so let's talk about that.

for one thing, if your character is not using a leg prosthetic, they'll need two crutches when they walk upright. one crutch is helpful when you have two legs but one of them is weaker, and in that case you'd use the crutch on the strong side, actually.

I previously reblogged a post about proper cane usage, but it can apply to crutches as well! and from what I've seen, the crutches that have a forearm brace are the most popular for comfort and ease of use. your character happens to be missing an entire arm on the same side he would be using a cane or crutch if he had a leg prosthetic on. so that does make things tricky. alternatively, he could use a leg prosthetic and not bother with a cane or crutch. but! you don't have to do that. you can still give him crutches, leave his right leg without a prosthetic, and even give him a versatile prosthetic for upright and quadrupedal motion!

conveniently, cats are well documented to manage just fine with three legs, whether they are missing a back leg or a front leg! there's even at least one cat out there missing both front legs and doing fine! so, your tiger fella really only needs one prosthetic to do both kinds of locomotion, I think. here's what I've got:

telescopic/collapsible arm prosthetic-crutch-combo and a collapsible or folding forearm crutch that can be carried on a belt when not in use.

(image description: the same feline character sketched upright and on all "fours", this time with added mobility aids. the notes on this sketch say "one leg, no prosthetic, requires two crutches. cats get along fine with three legs." the mobility aids drawn on the character include a folding forearm crutch and an arm prosthetic strapped to the left shoulder that can be extended into a tall crutch for walking upright. end description.)

play around with it until you're satisfied! if you just want a leg prosthetic instead, no crutches, then I think he could use the exact same prosthetic both upright and on all "fours" without the use of an arm prosthetic.

(image description the feline character again, this time showing a simple leg prosthetic that attaches at the knee, has a small thick piece bending slightly back, and then a longer straight rod ending in a foot pad. end description.)

you'll have to adjust the exact proportions and design to better match your character, of course, but these are the options i thought could work for your idea. I hope that's helpful and gives you more ideas for how you want to draw him! good luck!

#mobility aids #non human mobility aids

[sasukimimochi]

So i decided to repost the original sketches [plus one i thought was appropriate to put with these, since its got a butt i put it under the cut] and delete the cringe original post- since it didn't get any notes anyway- after cleaning them up/adding a block of color behind them [plus me toying with demon wwx's colors] so i hope you enjoy them!! More about the fic under the cut :D

The extra sketch that has a bumbum which is why the read more line. [plus the extra info and all].

Scroll to the bottom for links! [up to date as of 3/25/2023]

“Clash of Immortals” / COI is an upcoming project I’m super excited about with Demon WWX and Angel LWJ. I use my own version of hell/heaven for this, allowing for lots of fun details and some creatures unique to my universe, including A-Yuan who is a “Garden of Eden” [not drawn yet].

Information i can share!

Demon WWX / Wei Wuxian - Demon type: A black-blue feathered “Captive” or “Fallen” - a type of demon caused by cutting an angel’s ascension short as they are being lifted into the heavens, caused by demons trying to prevent as many new angels from entering heaven as possible. This means originally he was supposed to become an angel, but his line was cut and he was dragged past hell’s gates, causing him to descend instead of ascend once he passed through the gate.

This leaves a nasty scar on his back from the hook used to pull him up [if ascended the hook will disappear harmlessly] and this is why they are also nicknamed "Hook Demons" as they will sometimes even go around with the hook still in their back, just filed down, because they are going through a vital area and can't be fully removed.

Angel LWJ / Lan Wangji - Nearly a white wing, shares a nearly identical wing color to LXC, His is white with minimal jade undertones; he has MANY piercings to compensate his abilities in order to prevent his body from tearing apart. He does however have a unique trait- two of his flight feathers [one on each side] are completely black [I will test this with his design so don't hold me to this]. After his descent heaven is a bit perplexed- they allow this type of movement but LWJ is a very important for heaven’s force of angels, as one of the most powerful.

Fun Facts ;]

When they see each other for the first time as angel/demon they bristle, [in my universe, angels and demons feel wrong when in each other's presence, even if they're very soft and sweet. It'd probably be a good mirror to how LWJ and WWX don't necessarily get along in the actual series when they first meet too.] but then it’s a cheery reunion- LWJ might be somewhat uncomfortable, but WWX tames the sensation more easily as he is nearly unrestrained in power.

Someone comes within 50 feet of A-Yuan and Wei Wuxian sends the person’s heart to their throat just by looking at them despite this being a bad habit he probably shouldn’t use around the "Garden of Eden."*

*original species invented which will be explained better in story, I don't wanna spoil too much

and then we have "BED" HABITS

WWX is aggressive as all hell with everyone else besides his kind [in hell anyway bc he doesn't like everyone's attitude] -not in an intimate way he wouldn't do anything with anyone else- but becomes tame with LWJ, it's like a switch gets flipped. LWJ is the growling demon in bed while WWX is the purring angel, despite their anatomy quite clearly showing otherwise; and let me tell u I love purring demons and growling angels

NO ONE believes him when LWJ says wwx isnt the aggressive one, thinking the demon is tainting their precious second jade despite wwx not having a choice about his demonhood. LWJ be like: we still husbands regardless of who's the more aggressive one anyway. Yes, I’ve just decided we’re still married no extra ceremony required.

my COI music playlist can be found here. My favorite COI song is this one: "Into Darkness" by Thomas Bergersen.

all art in this post drawn in drawpile and edited on clip studio paint

Here's all the sketches for COI in order! ♥️ They update regularly on my original COI post [you are here] / the mdzs ff masterpost.

OG POST - Demon WWX & Angel LWJ [you are here].

COI - MXY YLLZ WWX Demon WIP COI - Chibi kisses COI - Cuddles COI - Slumber COI - hugs COI - Hellscape Concept art [ficlet included in this post] COI - Er-Gege COI - Marks COI - Reunion COI - Thank you! COI - I'm Home! (Previews) COI - I'm Home! ...

Reddit Posts!

See the OG Reddit post here [contains 11 drawings] Rough Hellscape Concept art [has more art here that i didn't post on Tumblr!] Slumber Hellscape Concept art [same as Tumblr] hugs/hold er-gege reunion Thanks [separated drawings] Marks Reunion Thank you! I'm Home!

See the Explicit™ COI ficlet here [i can't post this on tumblr, so i posted this on Reddit, sorry!

See the first peek at Ch 1 of COI here!

You can find all my other projects here!

Did you get this far? :0 hello! Thank you for reading it all ♥️ ♥️ ♥️

#mdzs #mdzs fanfic #mdzs fic #mdzs fanfiction #SasukiMimochi #fanfiction #fanfic #mo dao zu shi fanart #mo dao zu shi #the grandmaster of demonic cultivation #the grandmaster of demonic cultivation fanart #lwj #lan wangji #lan zhan #wei ying #wei wuxian #demon wwx #angel lwj #angel #demon #COI #Clash of Immortals #Concepts

[lurkinglurkerwholurks]

He's Shorn, We're Torn

First posted: October 22, 2018

Focuses on: BatFam (Bruce POV, focused on Dick Grayson)

Favorite bookmark: "Didn't know you could make me tear up over Dick's hair, but here we are."

Tier: Within my top 30 fics in terms of metrics, shockingly

This is my "behind the scenes" series where I indulge myself horribly by annotating my fics. Link to the fic itself above. Thoughts below the cut.

I really hecking hate that title.

As I said in the opening note, this was around the time the "Ric" storyline was playing out, and while I don't read canon, I did hear all about it and thought it was egregiously stupid. But it did get me thinking about (and maybe talking about? I don't remember) how Bruce as a parent might feel emotionally about his beloved son losing his trademark hair. Because that's his kid.

Bruce Wayne didn’t like to putter. He found it an inefficient movement, undignified, and an unnecessary tell. As a billionaire, Bruce could afford any number of eccentricities, including puttering, if he so chose, but a billionaire businessman should never display the uncertainties that puttering revealed. When Bruce walked, he strode, propelling himself decisively from Point A to Point B. If he must move as Brucie, the silly playboy, he could saunter. As Batman, Bruce wouldn’t dream of puttering. He had trained himself in the way of total stillness, of letting his anxiety and restlessness sink into himself and then dissipate, leaving him as immovable and obdurate as stone. It was a hard mentality to shake, even inside the walls of the Manor, away from unfriendly eyes, and Bruce wasn’t one to give in for the sake of mere comfort. So although his calf muscles strained and his hands remained wrapped around his coffee mug, he counted his breaths and held still. He didn’t fidget. He didn’t rise from his chair. He didn’t follow the tug of his heartstrings up the stairs. He waited, and he breathed.

So many of my slow openings (and I have many) are just me talking myself through a character's psychology. Sometimes I'll have a flash of a first line that tells me... something. And then I have to figure out if that something is right or not and I have to figure out why it's right or wrong. I don't remember here if my first mental image was of Bruce moving and fidgeting and that felt wrong, or of him being still and waiting just like that and that felt right. Whichever path it was, here we are.

Damian, for all his preternatural maturity, had no such compulsion. Bruce’s youngest blew in with all the focused energy of an avalanche. “Where is Grayson?” Damian demanded. “Is he not up? Why are you allowing such slothfulness?”

I had to figure out what order the other family members would appear in. I had my line to build toward (we'll get there), but everything before that needed to make sense. Really, Alfred should have been there first, but because this fic was about focusing on the kids' reactions (I didn't really have a grip on Alfred as a person yet instead of A Figure), I sort of left him out. Damian being the first kid down made the most sense.

His hair was askew, so Bruce reached out and smoothed out the errant strands. Damian ducked away and set about reordering his hair. He’d let it grow longer recently, not raggedly so, but enough that he could let it swoop and wave over his right eyebrow. The longer hair made for some interesting bedhead, and, at least in this moment, a good distraction for them both.

Oh, there were conversations about hair. I don't remember who all was involved, but we definitely joked about Damian growing his hair to match Dick's. Tada.

It had been a long month for him, for all of them, without Dick.

I had a whole sketched-out backstory for where Dick was, why he'd been gone, why it had been so dangerous, why it required the buzzcut. I just never got to it in the fic because it wasn't important to the story itself, just the logistics underpinning the story. This is @audreycritter Disease.

Knowing how badly Dick would need to rest, Bruce hadn’t intercepted his path up the staircase. He did, however, step out of the shadows just enough to let Dick know he was there, that someone had marked his return home, that someone had waited for him.

this is lowkey so sweet oh my goodness Past Me

Damian whirled, nearly rising on tiptoe as he restrained himself from bolting to the door. The corner of Bruce’s lips quirked upward despite his best efforts. There were times he forgot how very young Damian was, and it was a soft delight to be reminded.

he's just a baaaaaabyyyyyyyy

“‘llo to you, too,” Tim muttered. His voice was thick and crackling with sleep—or perhaps exhaustion, Bruce conceded, taking in Tim’s jeans and wrinkled t-shirt. “All-nighter?” Bruce asked as his middle child nudged over a chair and slumped into the seat. He thought he’d kept his voice perfectly neutral, but Tim held up a warning finger. “No lectures.” Tim rested his elbow heavily against the tabletop and dragged his long fingers through his hair. “I’m too tired and it won’t change my behavior anyways.”

I am still leaning heavily on fanon Tim here. We all have to start somewhere. (But also I am partial to "piano fingers" Tim for some reason.)

“No doi.” Tim yawned so widely that his jaw popped, then blinked twice and scrubbed a hand across his eyes. 

Wow. I really dated myself with that one. Does anyone actually say no doi anymore? (Also, I now know it's written doy because I tried to google it.)

He rested his hand on the back of Tim’s neck and squeezed gently. “You should head to bed.” Tim yawned again, leaning into Bruce’s touch like a cat. It still surprised Bruce how affectionate his sons could be when given the opportunity.

This was a gift from me to me.

Bruce leaned back in his chair, keeping his hand on the back of Tim’s neck, his thumb methodically digging into the knots in the muscle, and pulled back his other arm. When Damian hesitated, Bruce wrapped his arm around the boy and carefully pulled him in.

This was also a gift from me to me, both the affection between them and also the overall sensation of Tim resting on his arms while Bruce massaged his neck with one hand. My dad's done that more times than I can count, and writing about it was a little like feeling it. Phantom sense. Brains are weird.

Dick stood in the doorway, his easy smile underscored by the dark shadows under his eyes and the lines on his face that ran deeper than they had a month ago. Bruce quickly catalogued the other, subtler signs of trouble. The loose way his pajamas hung on his frame, the slight shifting of his weight off his right leg, the fading marks on his wrists, the new sharpness to his cheekbones.

Like I said. A whole backstory.

When Damian still hesitated, he pushed himself upright and shrugged. “That’s alright. I bet Tim’ll hug me.” Tim had been staring along with Bruce, but he shook himself from his daze and stepped forward tentatively. “No, back off.” Damian hurled himself forward and wrapped his arms around Dick’s waist.

Damian's "no, back off" is a line I can hear in my head like it's from a movie. I suspect the delivery paired with what I see in my head makes it way funnier to me than it does anyone else.

“Hey Tweedledum and Tweedledumber, pipe down.” Jason shouldered his way into the kitchen, laundry basket perched on one hip. They both ignored him, so he crossed over and smartly smacked each on the back of the head with his free hand.

I stole that line from some form of media, I'm pretty sure, but beats me if I can remember where. Also can't you just see Jason with a laundry basket on his hip? He doesn't live at the Manor, so he needed an excuse to be there.

“You let them act like this in front of guests?” Jason asked. He snorted, then flipped a loose curl out of his eye. “Dang, B. You’ve gone soft.” Guests? “Are you for real right now?” Dick asked, exhaustion momentarily wiped away by amusement. “Listen, pal, I—“ Jason froze, mid-sentence and mid-step, his face going slack.

This is one of the two emotional beats I was aiming this fic toward. The dialogue is wholesale fiction, but this really did happen to me at work once. I got my hair cut into a fauxhawk, showed up at work, and my coworker straight up did not recognize me from behind. Ma'am we have worked together for over a year.

A myriad of expression passed across Jason’s face, fluttering like the dappled shadows of leaves in a breeze. Even Bruce, as well as he knew that face, might not have been able to track them if the emotions hadn’t been echoing in his own chest for the last ten minutes. Surprise deepening into shock. Simple, stunning confusion. The sickening, swooping drop of realization. And more than a touch of sorrow. All recognizable, but not what Bruce had expected to see.

I love Jason feeling things.

Bruce remembered, suddenly, standing just outside a bedroom door, listening with held breath as his ward and his newly adopted son talked. He remembered defensive banter, quiet laughter, and the fruity fragrance of hair gel as Dick fixed his own hair, then carefully helped his new little brother with his. It had been one of the very few brotherly moments they’d shared before Jason’s… before Jason had gone away.

I revisited this years later in Steel Blues.

“It sucks asphalt, Dickie,” he said, even as he stepped forward and hooked a meaty arm around Dick’s neck. “You look like a trauma patient. You look like a Furiosa look-alike contest reject. You look—"

Finding alternative swears for Jason was always a bunch of fun. I should go back to that more often.

“Alfred’s tea? The oolong?” Jason asked, dropping the basket to the floor as he stepped away from Dick and toward the other two boys. “Don’t you dare. You idiots don’t have the skills. I’ll make it.” “Fine. I’m going to—“ “You aren’t going anywhere. You’re going to take this tray to the table, and Demon Brat here’s going to pop the plate of eggs back in the oven to warm them up. No, the oven, not the microwave, you beast.”

Writing overlapping dialogue is a difficulty but also sometimes fun. It's just dictation, in the end.

“Hey B,” Dick murmured. “G.I. Jane,” Bruce replied.

Jason's final insult, delivered by another.

Bruce felt a bit like the sitcom moms he had always mocked, the tightly wound, pearl-clutching women who bemoaned their rebellious teenage daughters hacking off their beautiful hair. Dick’s soft, shining waves of hair, gone. The strands Bruce had kissed goodnight, pressed his nose into during the rare hug, pushed off sweaty skin in illness, tousled in play… gone. Knowing that it hadn’t been Dick’s choice only made the loss ache more. Dick looked older without his hair. Harder. More serious. There was no ridiculous pompadour or boy band bangs to distract from the fine wrinkles around his eyes or the creases in his forehead. Not for the first time, Bruce wondered where his goofy little acrobat had gone.

I think it made my dad sad when I went to the fauxhawk. He was always really good about hiding it, though. It definitely made his mom sad, because she liked to play with our hair and now there was nothing for her to play with. She was also good about hiding it. Also, I'm 83% sure the inciting hair conversation was with @starknjarvis27 again. Probably. It might have been @audreycritter but I'm not sure we were friends yet.

“And what about you? Are you jealous, too?” Are you upset? Are you feeling just as weird as everyone else but hiding it better? Did you miss me? “Hardly,” Bruce replied. He kept his hand on Dick’s shoulder, palm flat against warm muscle as he guided Dick to the kitchen table. “My hair is a national treasure. So says People magazine.” I’m fine. Of course I missed you. Every second of every day. And Alfred said they had trouble communicating.

I am also a big fan of this trope and do it kind of a lot. I am not sorry.

Instead of recoiling from Dick’s lack of hair, Cass’s smile widened into a grin as she reached up and almost reverently ran her palm along the side of Dick’s head. “Fuzzy,” she announced, then did it again twice more before kissing Dick’s cheek and bounding away.

Cass's reaction is the most correct one.

It's a super sappy ending, but I like it.

#fanfic bts brain dump

[opbackgrounds]

Since you are reading the older arcs, I feel like you have a better vantage point to talk about this: how do you feel Oda's pacing has changed over the years? I keep getting the sense that he's going through stuff faster than before but when I check the number of chapters for each arc, the later arcs are so much longer. I don't know if it's nostalgia but I feel like the older arcs might have been shorter but they felt really detailed and well paced.

I've actually thought about this quite a bit, and I'm convinced that the answer is in the edit.

There's a lot of factors to consider when considering this question. Firstly, the cast is much bigger now. A bigger crew requires more enemies for fights, and grander world-spanning stakes requires an equally grand second- and tertiary characters. This is an inherent problem with creating a world and story that's as big as One Piece's and Oda's hardly the only person who's ever struggled with it--Just ask fans of GRR Martin how they're holding up waiting for The Winds of Winter.

However, while some of the growth is necessary and expected, Oda's done himself no favors. The recent Road to Laugh Tale sketches show that the Red Scabbards started out with only four samurai. Personally I think five or seven would have been a better number, but just imagine how much shorter Wano would be with the samurai plot threads essentially cut in half. And, really, as cool as it was that Oda was able to sit down and come up with the Eleven Supernovas in an afternoon, once they're introduced into the story Oda has to do something with them. In one fell swoop Oda introduced nine plot lines that simply did not exist before the Sabaody Archipelago. He did the exact same thing when introducing the Seven Warlords, and while that's a cool group that definitely has a place within the world of One Piece, I understand Oda's grief when he says he wished he'd made it a smaller group.

But, what's done is done and having introduced all these characters Oda doesn't really have much choice but to use them. I think for the most part his handling of the Supernovas has been really good, weaving them within existing arcs, but not every group has been that successful. The absolutely best thing Oda could have done for his pacing is cut out a lot of the fluff and streamline the story as much as possible. That's not to say that there's not a place for character interaction and jokes, but its like finding steak with the right amount of fat. You want enough for some flavor, but not enough to ruin the cut.

And that just hasn't happened. I brought it up at the beginning of Water 7 about how tight the plotting is. Even a lot of the jokes and character interaction end up tying back into the themes and plot of the story itself. I distinctly remember a chapter early in Wano where a ton of pages were spent on a joke about Franky going from

place to place looking for blueprints to Orochi's mansion, and while it's a good joke in and of itself, it didn't do anything for the overarching story of Wano. Had Oda cut it, the story would have lost nothing and he could have used those pages on something more important. The same can be said about the cute fox story the tied into the weapon stores. It was cute and heartwarming, but the benefit to the overall story of Wano did not justify the page count Oda spent on it. And it's not just Wano, because there's no reason why everyone and their dog deserved flashbacks during Dressrosa, and Doflamingo definitely didn't need three.

That's the power of the edit. Working on a serialized schedule means editing works differently than someone making a second pass on a novel. You have to be ruthless when deciding what to cut and what to keep before anything's been drawn. Because as I've said before, making a comic is one of the least efficient ways to tell a story out there, and stupidly labor intensive even when working in black and white and using assistants.

Oda's also made several comments, more lately, about being ready for One Piece to be finished. He has a different mindset now 25 years later than a young man just starting out on his journey. I don't think the fandom appreciates just how much of his life he's given up to see this story through, the years he wasn't able to spend with his wife and children, days of little sleep cooped up in a room drawing on a grueling schedule known to kill people. That has an effect on the story itself. A person only has so much endurance, and while I'm sure Oda still loves One Piece you can definitely tell how the simple passing of time has affected how he's gone about writing it.

#sarc talks #long post

[dymdrimluga]

Art of Mage: The Ascension

Recently, a big event happened: I started playing MtA again, and I was forced to read. To be honest, I still find it difficult to read long and complex texts in English, but it's great practice. It's not the first time I've opened the rule book, but now I somehow paid special attention to the arts. And they are very cool there! This is the book I want to talk about. And this is an old book, after which, I think, a lot has changed in the world of illustration. But I'm just curious how it was. Was this book successful? What do you think about it?

Many people worked on this edition

At first, I wanted to find the specific author of each picture, but despite the existence of such a list, it turned out to be a difficult task. So today I will only comment on the art, not the artists. I am not a professional because my art has never been used for such books, but I want to share my impressions and thoughts.

There were a lot of such cards there and they are also quite cool, and the main thing is that they look in their place and really look like real tarot cards in design and vibe. Although this is not the art that interests me the most, I couldn't help but mention them here.

Really cool. It seems to be something from traditional materials, similar to watercolor, maybe with the addition of something else. If you look closely, you can see the remains of a pencil. Look at the head. Is everything drawn anatomically correct? No. But does it create the right mood? Yes!

Art by Mark Jackson if I'm not mistaken. Kinda reminds me of Sandman from the comics, don't you think? I wonder if this kind of black and white line art is still used in modern books? Must check.

This art... I was a little surprised to see it in the book. I worked in the game industry and was used to the fact that everything should be casually polished (thanks to gamejams for allowing me to deviate from this rule). Right here... a dynamic plot, but work with the clarity of the picture, color, volume, lighting... on some details it is simply not there. It seems that at some point it was not the main thing to be an illustrator. I wonder what was important? And what remains? Because I would really like to be involved in something like this book.

I would be happy to see how it is done. I have thoughts that maybe photos were used, but most were definitely drawn and I just want to know how

It has its own style. A lot of work on small details requires patience, not everyone can draw so many small details and not get lost in them. I love when people do not lose the courage to draw in a unique style

as in the previous picture, traditional materials seem to have been used here: pencils, felt-tip pens, maybe watercolors? What do you think of when you see this? I think "small artists". So many talented artists with small audiences on Twitter or Tumblr can do the same. Although not. Not "the same", because no one will do "the same" in creativity. At the same level - yes. The same - no. It's obvious that a lot of the artist's personality and experience has been put into this, and that makes this picture unique

oh i love it, it's not even a color drawing, but it looks so good on the page! But I don't really understand what bothers me about this girl's breasts, I wish I could see what it looks like from the front

We have already seen this author. Look at the hair. I.. really don't know what to say. Not exactly what I expected.

interesting art, interesting creature. Many would call it a sketch, but I think it is precisely here that more work on the details is not needed

I don't know the author, but I definitely recognize the style - I saw something like that in the changelings rulebook

Oh, I like it. It takes a special skill to draw like that, and I don't have it. Very dynamic. And the form shown is interesting

Soap. Nothing extra, nice details on the background, clear silhouette. Good.

I love this kind of comic book style. It is exactly as it should be in this style, I don't know what else to say, except that there is a good work with textures

how interestingly and harmoniously different styles are combined in this book

I like it, I would read something like comic book in that style, very nice to look at

I can't say about the plot, but the details, volume, and shadows are very well drawn. I wonder if it was done in pencil? I am fascinated by people who can draw with pencils and have a similar result

very calm great vibe

this is already something closer to the game art I know, not casual, but a step towards polishing, + looks like digital

one more step :) If you don't pay attention to the face, something like this can now be drawn in hidden objects games. Very nice drawing, by the way, I like the dynamics.

I think that will be enough, at least for today. I don't know who would be interested in such a review with personal opinions. But here's what fascinated me and made me think: so many artists with such different styles in one book. Unbelievable. It would be very interesting to be a part of something like that. Now I want to review new books from this point of view. I used to look at them as a reader, but now...

I wonder if there will be new books of this kind? What are the requirements? What is needed?

Only one trend worries me. Some time ago I had a conversation with the author of this book It was an interesting but a little sad conversation. The author says that, at best, he will receive not so much for this book. He says that he cannot pay the artists as well, because then he will have nothing left. It's a shame, but the only solution he found was to use the AI. I wanted to read the text of the book, because Umbra is a very interesting topic. I even had the opportunity to read it for free as a free copy provided by the author. I did not read it. One of the comments says that the art there is well-suited, although it was created by AI. I do not know. I don't want to see it even for free. I think it brings Banality into the world, destroys the dreams of small artists to be part of something great. I can understand a small author of a small book that won't make much money. It's just sad. I can only hope that the trend does not spread to the whole world. It will really be the time of Winter. And no more magic in this technocratic world.

#illustration #world of darkness #mage the ascension #mages #just opinion #jaka kurwa cepibula

[burnwater13]

“Grogu! Time to eat!” The Mandalorian called out for his son to join him. 

Din Djarin brought two dishes to the small table in the main room of the cabin. Generally, they used it for everything but eating. He used it as a work bench for weapons' maintenance, while Grogu sat there to watch vids (usually Diggle and Daggle) while sipping on a cup of soup. Today he wanted to have some father and son time and thought that they could eat together for a change.

He went back to the small cooking station to grab his container of  hot spices because Mandalorian food wasn't Mandalorian if it didn't set your mouth on fire. When he returned to the table he expected to see Grogu in his seat. But, Grogu wasn’t there.

Dank farrik!

It was too early in the day for games. Grogu knew that. 

Din walked over to the door and looked outside and Grogu was right there. Sitting on the porch. Sketching. 

“Hey, buddy, time to eat. Just put a rock on the papers to keep them from blowing away.” 

Din turned to reenter the cabin when Grogu chirped a response to him. Uff. The Mandalorian grumbled. He turned back to Grogu.

“Okay, buddy, five minutes. You know you don’t like the pog soup cold.” 

Instead of going back into the cabin, Din stood there and watched what Grogu was doing. He liked that his son was happy to sketch and color. It was quiet work, most of the time, and it kept Grogu occupied when Din had more pressing work to attend to, like polishing his armor. Beskar was strong and durable but it didn’t clean itself or keep its circuits connected on its own. 

He noticed when Grogu looked up at him and frowned and Din began to laugh. Grogu hated being watched while he did work that he thought was important. Whether he was color…sketching, practicing map reading, practicing his Force skills, or doing something else that required focus and patience, if the Mandalorian looked over his shoulder, which was hard not to do, Grogu would look up at him and frown. It was just a routine now. 

“Buddy, what are you color... sketching? Can I take a look?” Din asked, dropping down to one knee to get a better look at the pictures Grogu wasn’t currently working on.

 It looked like Grogu was sketching the various critters he’d met during their adventures. It was hard not to smile at that. The sketches covered the smallest to the largest critters, with the Krayt dragon being the last one completed. 

He turned a little to see what Grogu was working on at that moment and saw a number of Tuskens with their massiffs walking through the canyons of Tatooine. Din Djarin was impressed. The amount of detail, the number of figures, and how they were arranged, made the Mandalorian bounty hunter chuckle. How had Grogu remembered all that without vids or scans? He had no idea. The bounty hunter didn’t remember what he had for breakfast that morning.

Grogu chirped at him and Din turned to meet his son’s gaze. Grogu was smiling broadly and began to explain in detail where and when the actions depicted took place. 

“I know buddy. I was there too. Massiffs are good critters.” Din commented.

Grogu coo’d at him. 

“What do I think their names were? I don’t know. I don’t think any of us asked the Tuskens about that.”

Grogu huffed at his dad and coo’d again.

“Oh, sorry. What would I name a massiff if we had one as a pet? Huh. I don’t know. What name would you use?” 

Din thought he knew where this was leading. 

Grogu had been wanting a massiff as a pet for a long time. Essentially for as long a time as when they first met them on Tatooine. It was a nice idea but Grogu was supposed to go back to his kind and it didn’t make sense to get him a critter only to have no one to share it with once Grogu was with his people. 

After they were back together, well, the N-1 starfighter was barely big enough for Grogu to sit on his lap. A massiff wouldn’t be able to tolerate being confined like that and he didn’t think he and Grogu would find that pleasant either. 

Grogu began to rattle off names and the Mandalorian held up his hand to get him to slow down. 

“Buddy, how about we make a list and then let our friends help us decide?”

Grogu nodded his head and smiled so broadly that Din could see all of his teeth. That’s when the Mandalorian noticed that Grogu must have been snacking on frogs while he was out there coloring. No wonder he wasn’t hungry for pog soup. 

#calendar prompt a day #the mandalorian #grogu #din djarin #pet massiff

[chattercap]

Future Plans for Actala

Sorry for the kind of sporadic updates, I do need to be better about posting here! I post devlogs on my itch page monthly, and I've decided to crosspost the latest one here since it has some important info about Actala's future development! A copy of my latest itch devlog is under the cut!

Hello, happy June!

It's been another month (time really does fly)! 

No Actala updates this time, as I ended up increasing the scope a bit on my Otome Jam project so I had to divert my attention to that (please look forward to some EXCELLENT voice acting)! Karamu will release sometime in the next couple of weeks!

But although I don't have any updates for Actala, I do have a bit of an announcement. As you might know if you played through the demo, I originally planned to illustrate the story 100% with CGs and mini-CGs. This was...unrealistic (as basically anyone with half a brain could have told you, I imagine). 

This was something that became EXTREMELY apparent as I worked on Karamu. I thought I scoped very realistically (a simple scene with 2 characters and only 10k words), and I hoped to finish the game within a month. However, while I finished the script in a week, I've spent almost 2 months on the illustrations. (If I extrapolate that out for Actala, where the current script is 250,000 words...I won't finish the thing for another 4-5 years...)

Part of that is that I've been experimenting with more complex/highly rendered CGs, and taking more care with the color and compositions (you can see a sample below). For Actala, I adopted a more simple coloring style because of the high volume of illustrations, but I was never really happy with them. Rather than putting out a ton of illustrations that I'm not happy with, I'd prefer to put out a smaller number that I'm more satisfied with.

If I'm being honest, I didn't adopt the "CG only" strategy for any deep reason in particular. It was mainly a snap decision based on insecurities with my own art, as I felt like my art couldn't really stand on par with other VNs (so I decided to create value with quantity over quality). However, ultimately I think it's detrimental to the project. The amount of work required for the art just dwarfs everything else, to the point where I put off the other tasks to make a SMALL dent in the art (for instance, I really want to improve the GUI, which looks a bit clunky and not super elegant...) 

So from now on, I will most likely adopt the sprite format for Actala, instead of utilizing exclusively CGs. Those sprites may or may not be animated; I'll try it out and see how I feel about them. You can still expect a lot of CGs from me, but not exclusive! Interestingly, I actually planned to do sprites in the early stages of development, and I finished almost all of them. These are over a year old at this point, so they will be completely redone, though! 

I hope that this isn't disappointing to anyone (it probably isn't; I'm just stubborn as an ox when it comes to my impulse decisions...) But from a projection perspective, it's just 100% impossible to get Actala out on any reasonable timeline with the approach that I was taking. This way, I'll be able to get the game out a bit faster (with nicer illustrations, just fewer of them)! And it will give me a little more time to polish other aspects of the game, and perhaps work on a few more side projects ;)

For the rest of this month, I'll be finishing out Karamu. Then at the start of July, I'll take a bit of a game dev break before tackling the sprites! Expect to see some sketches in the next devlog~

If you read this far, thank you! See you next month :)

Chattercap

#actala #actala-news #actala-dev

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

In yesterday’s newsletter, I noted the murder of Emmett Till as an event whose significance took decades to fully understand. When I wrote that sentence, I hesitated and considered adding a reference to the murders of civil rights workers Andrew Goodman, James Chaney, and Michael Schwerner. The bodies of all three civil rights workers were discovered in a field in Mississippi on August 4, 1964—fifty-nine years ago today.

          To keep my introduction to yesterday’s newsletter short, I omitted the reference to Goodman, Chaney, and Schwerner. On Thursday, Andrew Goodman’s brother David reached out to remind me of the 59th anniversary of the deaths of three brave young men who traveled south to help register Black voters disenfranchised by Jim Crow laws. Their fearless dedication to democracy ended in their brutal murders at the hands of the local KKK chapter in Neshoba County, Mississippi.

           Their martyrdom touched a nerve in America. The illustrator Norman Rockwell sought to capture the brutality of their murders in one of his most important works, “Murders in Mississippi,” aka “Southern Justice.” My wife and I recently visited the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, where I took the photo included below.

          The oil painting has a complicated history that is relevant to the struggle for civil rights in America. Norman Rockwell spent his career as an illustrator for The Saturday Evening Post, but left in 1963 because of the Post’s rule that limited Rockwell to painting Black people “only in subservient positions.” At Look Magazine, Rockwell began to explore the issue of civil rights. He painted “Murders in Mississippi / Southern Justice” to accompany an article about the murders of Goodman, Schwerner, and Chaney that inspired a generation of young people to take up the cause of civil rights.

          In the end, Look Magazine published an early pencil sketch that was more impressionistic and less visceral than the final oil painting. The oil painting hangs in the Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge. It is easy to see why the final version may have been too realistic for the readers of Look Magazine in 1964.

          Many Americans may not be able to recall the names Andrew Goodman, James Chaney, and Michael Schwerner, but they know their story. They know that young Americans of all colors and creeds risked their lives to take a stand for equality and liberty. They know that the bravery of those early “freedom marchers” resulted in tremendous progress in civil rights for all Americans.

          Each of us follows in the footsteps of people like Goodman, Chaney, Schwerner, John Lewis, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr., Hosea Williams, Coretta Scott King, and others too numerous to name. When we write letters, send postcards, make calls, march in solidarity, knock on doors, and show up at the polls, we are following the example of the faithful servants of democracy who preceded us.

          While few of us are called to make sacrifices similar to Goodman, Chaney, Schwerner, King, and Lewis, some are willing to take on work that is uncomfortable and possibly confrontational as we strive to “get out the vote.” I was reminded of this fact by reader Lori E. from Indianapolis, who sent the following note about her experiences phone banking to get out the vote in Ohio:

Hello Robert:  I want to thank you for sending the link for phone banks with Ohio Progressive Action Leaders.  I phone banked with them the last 2 nights, and my last call of the night last night was over the moon for me, and I have phone banked my guts out for the last several years.  I thought this woman was wanting to lead me into an argument about Issue 1, but she really didn't know what it was about, and I explained to her in detail why it is bad for everyone - especially the 88-county requirement, which is considerably more horrifying than the 60% requirement.  She wanted to know why Issue 1 was brought before Ohio voters, and I told her the truth.  Her big concern was term limits, and I told her that is something everyone wants to see on each side of the aisle, and that - as well as so many other citizen-led initiatives - were almost certain to never make it to a ballot if Issue 1 passes.  One conversation like that is exactly what makes an entire phone bank worthwhile for me.  She is also concerned about her children and what kind of country they will live in, and I told her that she simply must vote no then. It was one of those moments when I'm pretty certain I reached a person that I convinced to vote.  At the end of the conversation, she thanked me and said, “I know you probably don't hear this enough, but I'm so grateful you called and explained this to me.” I thanked her for making my entire evening phenomenal.  It truly was a magical moment. 

          Lori E.—like each of us—is honoring the sacrifices of the civil rights workers who faced danger, hatred, and violence to carry us to this point. Being able to reach voters by phonebanks, texts, and postcards is a privilege that we exercise because of those who came before us.

We can beat Trump, take control of Congress, and recapture state legislatures and statehouses in 2024. It will be hard. It will require sacrifice. But our sacrifice is a small repayment of the greater sacrifice of those who secured our freedom with their lives.

          Andrew Goodman’s legacy lives on in the good work of the Andrew Goodman Foundation, which supports youth leadership development, voting accessibility, and social justice initiatives on campuses across the country.

[Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter]

#Robert B. Hubbell #Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter #Andrew Goodman #leadership #voting accessibility #social justice #Rule of Law #Justice #murder of Emmett Till

[wuxiaphoenix]

Worldbuilding: Fantastic vs. Consistent

There are many reasons you can jam up while writing a story. One of the most frustrating ones is when you finally realize the idea you thought was rock-solid and hot iron ready to forge... might have a few holes in it. Bad enough if they’re “frivolous” details, like whether or not your general’s hats have gold braid, or rubies, or are as plain as possible to avoid sniper fire. Worse if you find a hole in the foundation of your idea. Or something that might lead you to tear up part of the foundation to make sure it gets done right. Like, say, the plumbing.

...No, really. I finally figured out I was having trouble writing some scenes in Colors of Another Sky because they’d require describing the Callers’ barracks - and I hadn’t figured out the plumbing.

Bear with me. This takes a little explaining.

Okay, so, the Demon-Callers deal with monsters, Things That Go Bump, and at times actual demons. (As the locals define them, at least.) This necessitates weapons skills, tracking skills, various other how-not-to-die skills... and after it’s all over? Laundry skills.

No, seriously. Many critters they deal with are potential biohazards. Venomous, poisonous, infectious, corrosive, flammable - they run the whole gamut. No matter how careful you are, odds are you’re going to need to wash your clothes and yourself after it’s all over.

When you wash off a biohazard, the results have to go somewhere.

That I had already figured out, thankfully. I have a pretty good idea what they needed to set up so all the wash-water gets safely neutralized and disposed of. It’ll be interesting trying to sketch it out so I have the surface details Jason sees, but I did have that in mind when I got started.

What I need to know is where the water comes from. Because believe it or not, that’s important to part of the foundation of my worldbuilding: how the magic system works.  

In a story where magic just happens - like the Lord of the Rings, or traditional fairytales - you can have an endless fountain just there. You don’t need to know the rules of it. They’re not what your character is using to solve their problems.

In Colors, the characters actively use magic and definitely use it to solve problems. So the magic system has to be consistent. It may not follow the laws of physics, but what laws it has, I have to follow precisely. So if there is a water source in a mountain fortress that is not an artesian well, I have to explain how their magic is set up to get it there.

(There is also a normal well, for regular potable water. Backup systems, people. Have them. Maintain them. Love them.)

A lot of fantasies would have a controlled portal to an Elemental Plane of Water. I thought about that, but... the idea of elemental planes is more of a Greek philosophy kind of thing than a cultivation one.

Portals, however, I’ve already set up as option. So... still working out a few details, but if someone summons fire, it’s not from an Elemental Plane of Fire. Though it’s likely from somewhere already superheated....

#creative writing #worldbuilding #colors of another sky #magic system

[ciceroprofacto]

Huge library envy! 😳

A more general question - what is your advice to hobby researchers for building a balanced biographical sketch of a historical figure? How do you approach biographies to account for various biases and perspectives, as well as simply mistakes? To what degree should you refer to the primary sources directly?

I took awhile to answer this cause I think it’s a really good question (series of questions?)

General Research Advice:

The best advice I can give anyone is to get really familiar with how to use online resources. There’s a lot of free ones- and it’s not worth subscribing to something if you already know how to find it for free (unless you have disposable income and wanna support databases that have a paywall- but consumption should be optional and not a result of ignorance!). The most important thing with these is to get familiar with their search functions.  I honestly find posts with long lists really overwhelming, so I’m not going to do that for you. Instead, here’s some key starters:

- https://archive.org/ - https://founders.archives.gov/ - https://www.loc.gov/

I can guarantee, if you get really good with a few useful tools, you’ll be a lot more-effective than if you run around looking for every possible resource. You could spend days on these sites and get a whole lot out of it.

Unfortunately, I kinda think books and other physical-resources (like maps or artwork or even tours of locations) are the opposite story. Most of them are going to cost something to access (even if it’s just the gas-money to go to your local library); and the more you can access, the better-off you’ll be. I say that because their scope is limited to what information they individually-contain, so it’s not like you’ll get anything out of becoming an expert in reading an individual book (or visiting a specific battle-site) like you could in becoming an expert in using an individual search-engine.

So with books and physical-resources, it’s a cost-benefit analysis every time, and then just pulling as much out of things as you can. Do you have the ability to visit a museum or a site? If so- can you take pictures of the exhibits to pull notes from later? Do you have specific questions you want to answer from your visit? Is there an expert on-site that you can get contact information from? Does the book have a good appendix of sources, and if you recognize any- were they trustworthy?

A personal library is a nice luxury, but it’s expensive and it has second-order effects of requiring storage and organization and then just being burdensome to move around with. So, if you want one- make it as cheap as possible. Thrift stores are your best friend. I know some places don’t have many of those (one of the reasons I didn’t enjoy California), or the time/ability to go thrift shopping, so I’ll also recommend thriftbooks. It’s a site that sells used books for decent prices with free shipping and a rewards program.

Bias & A Balanced Approach

I thought I’d made a post about this before, but a quick search didn’t find anything so, here it is, two-step process:

Know the writer

Cross-check 

Know the writer:

What’re their credentials?

Where do they come from?

What’s their cultural background?

What influences them?

Who do they work for?

Are they making money off this?

Are they gaining influence from this?

What else have they produced?

Are they consistent in their messages?

Cross-check:

Use the appendix- go to where the information came from and, if you don’t trust- verify (this is where the search tools online are really helpful!).

Read broadly. The more material you’re familiar with across various disciplines, the more likely it is that you’ll be able to sniff-out inaccuracies or skewed framing. Being more broadly-focused also helps you recognize a specific author’s strengths and weaknesses and where you can trust their word or not.

Also- how much do you care?

As a hobbyist, I’m assuming you’re not making money off of research or being graded on how well you retained information.  If you’re learning for fun, don’t bog yourself down so heavily with worrying over accuracy that it’s not fun anymore. It has to be a sustainable balance because- if you can’t find the energy to read a lot, you’re going to be worse at recognizing the quality of what you’re reading.

Basically- take pride in knowing what you know, but also...you don’t know anything anyway, so have fun with it.

Everyone has biases. You have biases! 

Learn them, love them, harness them. 

Bias is the spice of knowledge- no nutritional value, but it makes everything taste better.

I can be really critical of biographies that have obvious biases (and I think we need to be for ones like Chernow’s Hamilton that define public-understanding of a character), but bias is not a bad thing for a biography to have. It’s the story of someone’s life and if there’s no bias, it’ll come across dry and unfeeling. If the author is trying too hard to disconnect from the humanity of the character, it won’t say anything relatable and therefore won’t mean anything. What you’re really looking for is whether the bias is responsibly-handled.

Primary and Secondary Sources

I feel like we all have a gut-instinct to value primary-sources (i.e. contemporary sources for the sake of this conversation) as the end-all to understanding an event, and I wanna say upfront, that’s not true at all. There’s important utility in both. 

Primary sources:

Give first-hand accounts of things

Give invaluable insights on the subject themselves.

Give details of something as close to the event as possible.

Secondary sources:

Give broader context to make details make more sense

Give insights from someone with expertise in fields you might not know much about.

Give details about events that the author of a primary source did not or could not know.

So, obviously you have to use them in conjunction with each other, and here, I think you have a sort of ‘inside-out’ or ‘outside-in’ approach.

Inside-out: your primary sources are as close to the event as possible, so starting there, you’ll basically be working your way outward from the contemporary author’s limited perspective, pulling out topics that you want to understand more about and then looking for more information on that topic. 

Outside-in: your secondary sources are outsiders’ perspectives on the conglomeration of sources they’ve drawn together. Your task is just to hone in on those sources individually and see if you can gain anything new out of doing your own assessments.

As for how much you need to use one or the other...

I think that’s really a self-assessment. Just be really honest with yourself on your own reading-comprehension and how much assistance you’ll need with contextualization for a specific topic. The more unfamiliar you are with something, the more you should probably go outside-in for awhile until you can start to recognize things for yourself.

Hope this was useful if you managed to read all of it! 

Happy Hunting!

#reading rec #writing advice #answered #research advice