#the way your art is a reflection of you

[thelordofgifs]

forever a bit insane over Maedhros’ mother-name actually. Nerdanel was a SCULPTOR and she named her eldest son well-made like!! the weird vanity!! the way she’s described as “not the fairest of her people” and immediately projects all of this onto her gorgeous gorgeous child!! The fact that maitë is also the root for “hand” like. did she know. did she KNOW. anyway do NOT try to tell me that Fëanor was the only parent fucking those children up because. he wasn’t.

#silmarillion #meta #my meta #maedhros #nerdanel #having Nerdanel Thoughts lately #the view of the child as the extension of the mother’s self #rather than its own autonomous being #the way your art is a reflection of you #and how you should probably not view your child as a work of art #idk I don’t like reducing nerdanel down to a wife-and-mother obviously #but the snippets of her as a mother that we do get are fascinating #especially in conjunction with her as an artist

[karkatbug]

For the final day: hsday/birthday party @413countdown

HAPPY HOMESTUCK DAY!

And happy birthday, John! The older you get, the less you want to celebrate, but that's why your friends are here ♥

4/13/2023 || 4/13/2024

#it's always sad thinking back #reflecting on what you couldn't have or the things you lost along the way #buts its okay john #youre not alone :) #homestuck #homestuck413 #john egbert #dave strider #rose lalonde #jade harley #hsfanart #my art #also im a big fan of the hc that they use humor as a coping mechanism instead of going to therapy LOL #but anyways hbd john ily

[hoppips]

For he did not know, that beyond the lake he called home, There lied a deeper, and darker ocean green. Where waves are both wilder and more serene. To its ports I've been, To its ports I've been.

#tom zane #alan wake #alan wake 2 #thomas zane #thomas seine #this mf has way too many potential character tags. thats all youre getting sorry #grey's art #hi this took me way too long to finish #it kind of looks like shit but i tried to make his reflection his diver look from aw1 :) #anyway. tom zane the man that we don't even really know if you are...

[thebrainrotsreal]

EVIL MARK, EVIL MARK, EVIL MARK!!! I want to be coherent about this season but please picture me foaming at the mouth and running on the walls. S2 being what if Mark's just like his Dad? Insanity. I love this show. Anyways, AU where an Evil!Mark tries to make Our!Mark worse, and Our!Mark tries to make the other better. Something something confronting your idea of the worst version of oneself. Plus, tweaked black and yellow costume because I saw it and immediately went murder hornet lookin' ass and knew I had to draw it. Evil ass Mark. Horrible. I think he should be dragged kicking and screaming into redemption.

#mark and the fact he is fighting for this fucking life to avoid the Many Bad Endings???? im pacing. getting out the red string. #when the season is about who you are and what you could become. when trying to be good is an active choice and a struggle. #RAHHHHHHHHHHH #chewing on the bars of my enclosure...when every mark is evil OUR mark is the outlier. the exception. the OTHER. RAHHHH #dog poetry being mark poetry because how often can you kick a dog before it starts snarling before you raise your hand? #how often can you beat it before it rips into you without mercy? when it bites not at your hand but at your neck? #when does violence for survival and violence for vengeance start and end? when your opponent is down and you keep drawing blood? #circling and pacing and losing my mind over this btw if you care #anyways self vs self gets me going crazy. did you know i loved the end of atsv? because it shows. #i think o!mark would lose his fucking mind at what evil wasp looking mark has done + this mf wasp would LOATHE mark's kindness #they both see the other as the WORST version of themselves and they can't stand it. They can't shatter the mirror but they think they can-- #--change the reflection. #evil mark seeing mark and seeing what he USED to be #mark seeing what he COULD be #CAN U SEE THE VISION?????? #digital art #invincible rotating in my mind #invincible fanart #fanart #mark my beloved #mark grayson fanart #mark grayson #invincible s2 #invincible show #mark like hello this is my secret twin and he is NOTHING like me hahahaha anyways wanna debate about having mORALS and LIFE #mark grayson vs the urge not to accept every responsibility as his own #he's batman coded that way #ok im done yapping #if this happened in the comics in any way shape or form dont tell me JACK SHIT or i will PUMMEL YOU with my SHOES

[hussyknee]

I'm really not a villain enjoyer. I love anti-heroes and anti-villains. But I can't see fictional evil separate from real evil. As in not that enjoying dark fiction means you condone it, but that all fiction holds up some kind of mirror to the world as it is. Killing innocent people doesn't make you an iconic lesbian girlboss it just makes you part of the mundane and stultifying black rot of the universe.

"But characters struggling with honour and goodness and the egoism of being good are so boring." Cool well some of us actually struggle with that stuff on the daily because being a good person is complicated and harder than being an edgelord.

Sure you can use fiction to explore the darkness of human nature and learn empathy, but the world doesn't actually suffer from a deficit of empathy for powerful and privileged people who do heinous stuff. You could literally kill a thousand babies in broad daylight and they'll find a way to blame your childhood trauma for it as long as you're white, cisgender, abled and attractive, and you'll be their poor little meow meow by the end of the week. Don't act like you're advocating for Quasimodo when you're just making Elon Musk hot, smart and gay.

#this is one of the reasons why #although i would kill antis in real life if i could #i also don't trust anyone who identifies as 'pro-ship' #it's just an excuse to shut down legitimate ethical questions and engaging in honest self-reflective media consumption and critique #art doesn't exist in a vacuum #it's a flat impossibility for it not to inform nor be informed by real world politics and attitudes #because that's what it means to be created by human hands #we can't even make machine learning thats not just human bias fed into an algorithm #if the way we interact with art truly didn't influence anything then there would be no value in it #just because antis have weaponized those points in the most bad faith ways possible #doesn't mean you can ignore them in good faith #anyway fandom stans villains because society loves to defend and protect abusers #it's not because you get the chance to be free and empathetic and indulge in your darkness and what not #it's just people's normal levels of attachment to shitty people with an added layer of justification for it #this blog is for boring do-gooder enjoyers only #lol #knee of huss #fandom wank #media critique #pop culture #fandom discourse

[pixlokita]

I guess idk I’ve never experienced it myself so that’s why I can’t draw it -w- or maybe there’s a secret that nobody is telling me┌( ◕ 益 ◕ )ᓄ pls sharing is caring

#pix habla #hhhh i beg of you 😔 please please tell me the secrets #i honestly stay away from romance too yeah that’s on me #but for the little love I have for it I shall like to be good at it ? 😭 #i shall like to draw stuff get it out of my system and be on my way #:v heckin heckity heck #it’s just you see drawings and you get emotions from them #but then you see your attempt and there’s nothing it’s so empty #and weird and awkward :’v #just like me #lmao #i mean the art does reflect the artist #this is my curse I guess

[orionali]

McCoy's entire character can be summarized as:

(stands over a dying person) "Oh no! What a senseless waste of a human life!" (crouches, snaps their neck)

#I wish I was kidding #but that's his backstory: loathes killing kills anyway #he's a living juxtaposition #in some way it's even worse than your vampire doctors #vampire doctors have to kill because they're haaangry #McCoy just streamrolls over people because... ehhh #that's one weird PTSD you got there buddy #obsession instead of the more common avoidance/shutdown trigger #also I made him trans #because I want to reflect #Aliya's art #desperados #Arthur McCoy

[magioffire]

as much as i appreciate all depictions of trans masc people in art, this isnt some kind of put down like omg you gotta draw ALL your art like this but... its honestly quite nice to see some trans masc characters that  have breasts  and are completely fine with that. like i get that top surgery scars have just become the visual short hand for ‘trans man/,masc’ character but thats not the reality for every trans masc person, not all trans masc people experience top dysphoria all the time, or even at all, and i feel like if we normalized the idea of breast tissue on men it would help to lessen the social stigma of men with breasts, cis or trans. i just love to see trans masc characcters who still have their breasts because its a reflection of the sort of trans experiences and bodies i am familiar with

#like seeing yourself in media is unendingly important #people who get to see themselves in media on a regular basis may not understand but seeing a character that looks like you #and isnt just a 'hahah fat tranny' joke that is actually extremely good for your mental well being #and you know...its part of the reason why i opted to make vali look the way he does because you know how many people #have come up to me expressing gratitude that someone would ever write someone who looked remotely like them #and wasnt just the butt of some cruel joke #and that they didn't really consider that it was possible for a character of this type to be considered desirable by fandom culture at large #because lez be honest fandom spaces can be very "pretty f/ggots only pls uwu' #again this isnt to put down anyone who DOES draw most of their trans characters with top surgery scars like #thats still important too i get really happy when i see art that includes that because its like the artist and i #are shaking hands like same hat #but even more so when i see a person or an experience that better reflects my own #where i had never seen it before treated with any reverance or respect #i wanna include that same feeling for others in my writing since i cant draw lmfaooo #to me thats the importance of diversity. not a brownie sticker you get to absolve you of being 'called out' #but something you do because you want to express and experience a fuller breth of human experience. not just the most acceptable versions #and help others see themselves in the art they consume #anyway thank u for coming to my ted talk #ooc. #tbd. #i hope this makes a single lick of sense lmfaooo #its 3 am leave me alone #im easily amused and also starving for content that gives me a single smidgen of shared life experience between trans people #this is why if you wanna see yourself in something..U GOTTA MAKE IT YOURSELF and u end up surprised at how many others were #also unknowingly looking for the same thing #and are like hey. thanks for that. i needed that. #and im like same bro :') #and tbf top surgery scars in art MIGHT be that for some people and i love that for them #but for me its seeing beautiful men who dont have 100 percent flat chests because that is apart of the trans male experience too #fuck just the male experience in general

[aeide-thea]

like, someone posted an article recently that was like 'i didn't like these books because the main characters were women who slept with women but weren't sufficiently enlightened about it for me as a queer woman to feel Represented,' and i just felt like. i bet i wouldn't enjoy those books either, judging from the reviewer's description! but faced with a review that's like 'these characters had attitudes i found unpleasant'—iirc a tendency to ironic detachment and internalized fatphobia respectively, which, to be clear, i expect i would also find unpleasant! but those are attitudes that plenty of real young women do have; are we arguing it's only acceptable to tell stories about the sort of people we'd personally want to befriend?—'so i didn't find their stories nourishing,' it's hard for me not to think, okay, fair enough, but—should 'nourishing' really be the definitive metric for art? should 'savory'? an author's job is, after all, to make art, not food…

#like. sometimes art is a door and not a mirror or a meal or whatever. #(also sometimes it might be a mirror for someone who isn't you. or for someone you don't want to be.) #anyway. let's all go reread some cheever and then reconvene. #discussion questions: do you feel represented by neddy merrill's nonmonogamy. is it problematic to set a story in the suburbs. #does it alter your reaction to learn that cheever was queer. #bookblogging #(also like. the thing abt this discussion is like. my feelings ALSO revolt at stuff like this. frequently and vehemently‚ even! #i just think like. it's not sufficient to feel‚ & to then regurgitate that feeling & call it a take; you also have to think. #and‚ like‚ *actually* think (and *re*think if necessary)‚ not just apply a veneer of rationalization to yr original kneejerk reaction. #otherwise—how are we actually better than the conservatives we disdain. #we have to have actual thought-out principles we attempt to consult‚ not just a different set of outraged‚ reactive feelings.) #(this also gets tricky because like. we obviously get to dislike things‚ & to complain abt them! fucked up to suggest otherwise! #but at the same time—there IS a point at which censure tips over into censorship. #like. most people will not feel free to behave in ways that are decried sufficiently strongly by sufficiently many voices. #so if we value freedom—and i hope we do!—i think we have a responsibility to be thoughtful abt how we use our voice.) #(which isn't to say don't do it! sometimes it would be shameful not to! #but power dynamics are complex‚ and sometimes punching a person as hard as you'd punch a system means the blow rebounds #and has knock-on effects you didn't entirely intend and don't‚ perhaps‚ on reflection entirely endorse.)

[b4kuch1n]

Hi, I've been inspired by the composition and abstract style of your artwork for a while now, if I made an experimental art piece inspired by your composition style would you want me to credit you as an inspo? or would you just not be comfortable with me using your art as inspiration altogether? (which is fine btw, i don't wanna do smth that would make you uncomfortable)

oh sure! feel free! I don't mind at all lol

#ask #bakuspeech #tbh I do think this question is like. somewhat redundant in art. or idk unnecessary? #all of art is inspiration man. very frequently from art by artists you're never gonna have the chance to reach out to #large cause bc they've been dead for decades to a few centuries #and like. idk as an artist you kinda have to accept that people will actually look at ur art and interact with it in their own space? #so like. yeah there are things that if I see you do with my art I will block you for. but on principle I cannot bodily stop you #this is all to say that like. if the question is about my personal boundaries it's gonna be more complicated. like if you make something #with ill intention and then cite me as an inspiration source. of course I'd not like that #but also that will be on me to reflect on that and like. do what I need to do #but outside of that. saying 'don't take inspiration from my art' is 1/genuinely patently unenforceable and 2/antithetical to #the way that I do art at all #like! I thrive on remixing! it's what transformative fanstuff is. how would I ever get on someone else's case for doing the exact same thin #anyways yeah don't worry about it I guess all of the above is more like. somewhat of a blanket permission #do whatever you want with my art! if it's cool and u want me to see it feel free to tell me. if u know I wont like it dont get caught by me #I am aware that I have before mentioned things you can't do with my art. those are personal boundaries. I enforce it in my own spaces #I have no power in yours. it's just how it is. use ur judgement. have fun chillin #that's it babey I go get snack now. its past mid autumn so the moon cakes are on sale so Im gonn #a get a bag of dried corn

[sleepvines]

In honor of mermay I shaved off Reed's head danglies.

rambling under the cut because I'm unwell about things (warning for sexual themes if that's not your thing)

what really gets me about Reed is that after he gets shoved under the bus by his crew (rightfully so) and has to reconfigure everything from rock bottom. He has to grapple with problems that never would have even been in his sphere of understanding as a cis man. His new form leaves him with dysphoria over what he considers "feminine" elements (functionally hairless, diminutive stature, in possession of a slit...), his transformation into some kind of fish thing leaves him feeling subhuman and ugly, all while his previous title as a captain careeens farther and farther behind him, and he can never catch up.

and still he has to get used to it. he has to accept it. there's no way around other than through. He suffers through his own personal emasculation terrors and comes out of it a far more stable person as a result. Koda has to get it through his head again and again and again that no matter what he looks like, what he's lost, he's enough. He doesn't have to run a ship to be enough. He can take refuge in her without punishment.

And on the sexual side of things (that's Curvor's whole deal if it wasn't painfully obvious) he still gets to dominate and call shots and be as masculine as he likes. He gets to be over the top about it even! reclaim his body for himself and discover that men come in shapes he couldn't fathom. It's just a struggle for a while because he has strong biases for how a man should look and be seen as that have to slowly dissolve over time.

He even gets comfortable enough to fuck and get fucked in ways that are "feminine" because he maintains control. Koda can fold him over in ways that he frankly would have died hearing about in the past. She makes him hit octaves he didn't consider possible. She calls him things that he'd only hear in his nightmares. And after all of it he can look back on it and say that he's just as man as he's always been. There's no losing.

#my art #curvor #2024 #no reblogs because I say so #looking at it I think a lot of Reed's issues reflect issues I used to have when I was a young trans guy #I felt like I constantly constantly Constantly had to prove myself and perform masculinity convincingly #and not to be terribly candid on main but sometimes kink shit is so freeing in regards to gender dysphoria #you get to take back your body in ways you have a say over #keeping it real by psychoanalyzing my made up fish guy's sex life #sleep rambles

[stillinthatweirdfaze]

I just touched my tarot decks for the first time since middle school and got a reading really early appropriate for my current situation, and I know that’s like, the point, they are designed to do that, they are designed to be vague enough that they could apply to any situation, that stillllll made my heart race a little bit.

#I’m interested in getting into non spiritual or “traditionalist” tarot bc it honestly looks really funn #I’ve heard people describe it as an inkblot test or art analysis that the whole point is to look at stuff and interpret it your own way and #I!!!!!!! Think that is so cool!!!!!!!!!! I love art analysis and the concept of having your own little deck that you can analyze just for #You and have it be your own personal thing with no rules on how to do it right or wrong is really appealing to me #A little bit on the self reflection mental health side but ehhhghjhhhhhhhh that whole subculture is kinda poisoned to me so not really a lo #How others would use it for that purpose #I’m a depressive person with a very stale daily routine I just think having a little painting to think about all day would #Bring me a lot of joy :] and a little self reflection maybe if it ends up swinging that way #Idk thanks for reading my rant I need more hobbies

[thedeadthree]

IRYNA PASTERNAK — the last of us.

(SLOW HEAVY METAL MUSIC PLAYING)

@jendoe asked: 🌞 + IRYNA

#🌸: aj #jendoe #oc: iryna pasternak #tlou oc #THANK YOU SO MUCH AJ DEAREST <3 i am emotional a bit i missed creating things for her so much !!!!!! you dear you! #(and ty ty for letting me set her up with your dearie raul IM HONORED and like....... sobbing) #speaking of ! teehee @ the feature in the bottom right <3 #i didn't at all forgo sleep making this kankxjnwe WORTH IT <3 #i know i shrieked about this already on discord but GODD the way she fit so well into it? the end times make for great spooky art <3 #that's my horror artist ! that's dearie right there! dear girl enjoys metal while she paints <3 its therapeutic! cathartic ! #smoking tw #teehee she will invite him to paint with her <3 that's how you know shes down BAD hehe #because her pieces are reflections of her? how she perceives and its her coping mechanism? so like..... it holds WEIGHT for her u know? #leg.ocs #leg.edit #t: moodboards #*ocedit #*myedits

[blue-jester]

eugh I hate how the internet has made certain things seem taboo to talk about in art when people have been doing it for centuries

#Im not talking about the problematic gross shit I'm talking about feeling like a bad person for writing characters that are suicidal #like obviously. There is a way to not write it. But. You should be allowed to express your trauma creatively. #That's like one of the main reason art is such a big thing culturally #people have been expressing grief and negative feelings in art as long as it's existed #its HEALTHY #I dont actually see much of this anymore but man it fucked me up when I was younger and I was in the thick of The Issues #fuck everyone who makes you feel like you're being 'problematic' for potraying your pain. Tag it and what not but you're allowed to #express it always and forever #biting biting biting biting biting #<- I REALIZE THIS MAY BE CONCERNING IM NOT REALLY GOING THROUGH THAT ISSUE MUCH NOW DAYS BUT I STILL WANT A HEALTHY WAY TO REFLECT ON IT #cw suicide #in the tags anyways ijhygtfgyhuj

[ronkeyroo]

🌦️  Some days you’ll be the storm -  But much like any rain that washes over, there will always be a vibrancy in your heart, a sunshine so stubborn, to blaze through even the darkest of days.

A little gift for my bud @draconicocelot who’s been going through a lot lately ;; Since words feel limiting and i feel for you greatly, I wanted to express myself through where i do best, and that is with my tender, silly art 🧡

#hugs// #Youve got this friend! #Dont be decieved by the false harshness revolving around vulnurbility #it isnt a weakness; its a part of us most worthy of love compassion and protection #let yourself feel what you feel #there is a purpose within it be it by flushing it out of the system or transforming those feelings onto something new #like art! #im so glad to have read that i was able to inspire you to find #solace through your art through such tough times... #theres a unique kind of strenght and self reflection by doing so and its a way to express when words fail or circumstances try to silence #your inner voice #finding that voice is so important...as someone whos been repressing themselves for most of my life i know how it feels so much #so let yourself cry #cry knowing youre still fucking badass and capable no matter what hurt stirrs inside #cry knowing that no matter how wet the rain gets or how bad the storm goes - the sun will always be there to shine through the clouds and #shed light on everything that was blurry or obscured before #hugs tenderly// #draconicocelot #my art #giftart #Tender Vibes

[cruelsister-moved2]

I think about this part all the time when i see online conversations about bigotry and oppression that focus on the most cartoonish and blatant (and isolated) iterations (also often explicitly associated with an 'uneduated' [working class and/or nonwhite] perpetrator), rather than the subtle structural machinations which actually serve to fundamentally define the way a marginalised person is able to move through society. & the way people are able to affect an academic posture when discussing a form of oppression which they themselves benefit from and participate in which allows them to appear to transcend this relationship altogether, making them not only not complicit in this relationship but also actually better placed to comment on it than either those who perpetuate it or those who are marginalised by it.

you can read the whole article here if you're interested I would really recommend it :)

#L----0 temporarily retiring from the most blatant transmisogyny to literally be like 'antisemitism is silly and its all just people who #believe jews can magically turn into dragons' or whatever and not like something our whole society revolves aroundin so many ways #and her sources are all about like medieval art history and not like. contemporary living discussions #which is literally a reflection of antisemitism that prefers dead jewish ppl passive jewish ppl and reflections of jewish ppl in the xtian #imagination... #'i can only find zionist sources on antisemitism' damn thats crazy did you know im killing you inside my mind rn. incidentally!! #i would literally screenshot like the whole article so please just read the whole thing:) #like its so crazy because youre both claiming not to participate in [in this case misogyny] AND perpetuating misogyny at the very same time #rendering women as less objective and worse commentators than you BECAUSE they participate in misogyny (as objects of it) and you dont at a #MAN!!!