#this was fun!! it's not like? fully rendered by any means because art is still. so new especially digitally alsdkghdkgh but

[beetlethebug]

The Megidos!! Based on the piece Water Snakes II by Gustav Klimt, who’s my favorite artist! 

#look at them your honor #i fucking love the megidos so much!! they deserve everything and more #tbh wanna do more klimt inspired pieces because he's my fave artist #this was fun!! it's not like? fully rendered by any means because art is still. so new especially digitally alsdkghdkgh but #i had fun and that's the important part!!! #homestuck #homestuck fanart #megidos #aradia megido #damara megido #the handmaiden (homestuck) #fanart #my art

[spamminginks]

Comic Progress

I thought it would be a fun idea to show you all how I went about making this comic since I don't see people do it very often.

Timeline:

-Day 1 Part 1-

I started by making a side profile study of what I wanted the ender king to look like and the comic thumbnails while Phil was still live, before he had even seen Missas' "house". I have hyperphantasia (I have extremely vivid mental imagery) so I already knew what I wanted everything to look like, so I was able to finish both the side profile and the full thumbnail set before Phil had even ended stream.

-Day 1 Part 2-

Took a short break to take a nap and eat some food (remember to always take breaks and save the progress you have down to send to yourself so you can see it at a different angle. It helps a lot with seeing any errors you may have made.) At this point it was getting close to when I usually sleep so I only did a little more progress before I stopped for the day.

-Day 2-

Really started pumping out more refined final sketches for about half of the pages. The only one that I didn't like was page 1 of set 2. Added text and experimented with text location

-Day 3-

I decided to make a 3d ref for page 1 of set 2 because I was struggling to get the angle right, finished the other half of the final sketches and figured out what I wanted for page 1 of set 3.

-Day 4-

Break day. Didn't do much beside deciding what angle I wanted page 2 of set 3 to be at and light edits all around. This was also the day I decided I wanted the comic to at least be translated into spanish and started asking around for a translator in different qsmp discord servers I'm in.

-Day 5-

This was the day I made my post about the comic! I started rendering 5/12 pages and finished page 3 of set 3 (sorry for the trash image quality).

-Day 6-

Decided to full send it and do all four of the main qsmp languages. @tikiloowho got me in contacts with @insertatitlehere for the french translation and @the-anime-idiot got me in contact with @/zzkkai_ for the portuguese translation (cellbit discord my beloved). While I waited for the translations to get back to me, I finished fully rendering 11/12 pages. The only one I didn't finish was the first page because I wanted to customize the enchantment table text on the book for all of the languages.

-Day 7-

Got all of the translations plus any grammar updates that got caught and implemented them into the comic and fixed any last minute edits I wanted to make. Stopped for the rest of the day to come back to check if anything else needed fixing.

-Day 8-

Posting day!!! The comic is now available in all four languages listed above! Thank you for following along and checking out my art! It really means a lot <33

English | Español | Française | Português Brasileiro

My personnel favorite pages

Bonus!

#qsmp #qsmp fanart #qsmp philza #q!philza #q philza #qsmp philza fanart #philza ender king #philza season 4 #qsmp ender king #ender king #roy ramble #my art #qsmp comic #comic wip #my comic

[bechnokid]

Thoughts on the new Pokémon games? Any favorite Pokémon or characters?

They are pretty good! My favorite character is Nemona and my favorite Pokemon is Chi-Yu, who I have lovingly named "Splashy".

I do have some more in-depth thoughts if you want to keep reading.

Graphics (5/10)

Probably some of the worst I've seen in a mainline game, despite the character and Pokemon models being really high-quality.

The low-quality draw distance is to be expected, but it's still pretty jarring seeing NPCs without their hand animations fully rendered. Some hands would look like 🤚 when holding a Pokeball or even just a pencil.

The environments are really lackluster, and the weather can cause the frame rate to drop into the single digits.

Glitches are plentiful, but not in a good way. Pokemon spawning in walls, HP bars glitching in Tera Raids, environments glitch when camera is not at an optimal angle, etc.

However, the Pokemon's textures look absolutely fantastic. I love how shiny the Magnemite line looks. :3 I kinda wish the particle effects were better on Pokemon like Skeledirge and Chi-Yu, but that's ok.

Story (10/10)

I'm so glad the story ended up so much better in SV than in SwSh. I remember not being able to play through Shield after playing Sword because of how boring the story was. Not this time, though. SV continued to keep me engaged throughout the whole thing.

(SPOILER ALERT) I kinda wish they put more effort into making Scarlet and Violet different from each other regarding the AI Sada and Turo. I don't think it would have been too farfetched to have Sada a golem because of the existence of legendary titans.

Arven's story is fantastic, and although he is not a favorite character of mine, I've really warmed up to him after learning his goal in healing his Mabosstiff.

Gameplay (7/10)

I really thought Gym Leaders, Titans, and Team Star Battles would be scaled. That would have been really cool...

I was deeply saddened that they decided to remove the majority of the QoL features from PLA, and reverted to its traditional turn-based gameplay. It isn't bad by any means, but it makes the game slower than it should be.

Being able to sneak up on Pokemon and catching them off-guard was really fun, but I wish it can be applied to also catching them and not just battling them.

However, auto-battling is really cool and fun!! I love it! Being able to bring out my Pokemon and battle other wild Pokemon really sped things up.

Follower Pokemon are back!! Although I kinda wished they changed the speeds of some of the Pokemon when they're running/walking with you. Chien-Pao, I know you have a walking animation, please just relax and walk with me!!

RIP sparkling sounds when finding shiny Pokemon. I understand that it makes finding them more exciting, but I think it makes it harder for those who have difficulty telling colors apart to find them. I don't really get having to remove a feature that would otherwise make finding shiny Pokemon more accessible to others.

Characters (8/10)

Although no one really got me all "doki-doki" like Guzma has, the cast was absolutely fantastic this time around.

I love that almost all of the gym leaders have their gym challenges as something they do on the side. Their passion is something else that they're into and they bring it into their Pokemon battles, whether it's baking, creating art, streaming, cooking, etc.

The Elite Four is fantastic, too. It's great seeing another Gym Leader become another member of the Elite Four. :3

That said, I don't trust Geeta.

Please help Larry.

Overall Score (7.5/10)

Pretty good! It's a good start to an open-world Pokemon game, but kinda falls behind compared to other open-world games out there that have surpassed it by a long shot and were released earlier! I mean like. The franchise is nearing its 30th anniversary and it still doesn't have voice acting of any kind.

It's an obvious result of dev crunch, and I really hope they space out release dates if it means getting better games. However, I don't think this will happen anytime soon.

#ask post #anonymous #bec talks pokemon

[retphienix]

Persona 5 Royal.

Hm.

I think even with the newform of post shortening I'll read-more this, so let me get a gist out of the way.

This easily became one of my favorite games. It's on the list, it's embedded in my mind, it's granted me interesting plot lines and characters and it's quickly given me something I'm happy to love.

There's the gist; And the elephant in the room is that I got a smile out of the mysterious glance at what appears to be Akechi in the background, that's fun.

Now to say.

Much.

I'll try to separate different thoughts with a header of sorts because this is gonna be a mess.

This game is honestly pretty incredible.

I feel like this is a weird way to start this out but, I didn't expect to so quickly play an RPG that so enraptured my mind and heart after DQ11.

I've played a ton of games that have touched me in various ways, but it's rare for me to play one that so thoroughly entrenches itself in the miasma of experiences that make up who I am; Just finds my core and sets up shop. Offers a mirror, offers challenges, offers a shoulder, and plenty more.

Playing a game like that isn't common; It's a matter of having something to say, or do, or show, and it's a big matter of personal bias.

It's just how art can hit ya, or miss entirely. Sometimes you find one that stops you in your tracks and you dwell on it for years after.

Despite playing a lot of games, I, and I assume most others, don't play games that hit that note too often.

It's rare.

I've played so many games I would happily recommend for being phenomenal in their own ways, but that list isn't fully comprised of titles like that.

When I played DQ11 I found myself with a story so dense with things I appreciate that it took over my mind for months. It's still left quite the impact, being a title that can easily bring a happy tear to my eye if I dwell on it too long as I find what they've told to be such a beautiful heroes' tale.

Persona 5 has hit that same deep place in my mind, and, in the grand scheme of things, so quickly after I just found a different title that did the same.

And this isn't by any means a ramble on how P5 is perfect; Far from it because that doesn't exist and because it was created by people- people aren't perfect- people don't make perfect things.

Just in the way of cultural differences and personal morals there are things in P5 that I simply believe weren't handled as well as they could have been, be that gay characters, flip flopping on whether sexual assault as a subject deserves respect or laughs, or the ways in which relationships with minors and adults are presented and treated.

While conversely at least some of these faults could be argued for by virtue of life itself not being perfect, but then it becomes a matter of what is your art's morality; What is it trying to say, and is it being presented because it's true to life, or because it's titillating, silly, or something a creator believes to be right.

I digress.

This is a ramble on how what P5 is is something extremely special to me. And an incomplete one at that, as I couldn't possibly revisit every important moment in this 236 hour (inaccurate*) long story on a post made at a whim at the end of said playthrough.

*= I was AFK a lot, and my gameplay included a lot of rendering video, it wasn't this long but my save sure was lol.

I don't (currently, maybe I should) keep notes of my playthroughs- the posts themselves are catalogues of my thoughts at each time. The finale post is more to sum up where my heart lands me, not to substitute a well rehearsed and scripted video essay.

I guess that makes this even less than an essay- it's just a ramble, lmao.

Let's start with the end because it's so fresh.

I'd say what I understand to be the base game ending (I'm assuming it's just the previous god going) was bombastic, exciting, and even had the bite of the metaverse disappearing and Mona potentially dying. I fucking adore that.

The ending of Royal is a lot more clean... and reminds me of something I already mentioned lmao.

Spoilers for DQ11 skip to next red text:

but both include a Perfect ending and a Broken But Hope Filled ending but inversely placed in the story.

DQ11 ends on the Perfect ending, with the weight of knowing you created the Broken But Hope Filled ending and effectively killed yourself out of that ending to create the perfect ending.

The point of it all being that you did the best you could for the world, then found a way to try to do even better for another cursed world (parallel timeline shenanigans), so you sacrificed the life you've fought for, and the relationships you've forged to 'try again'. The Perfect ending in this case IS perfect, just not for the Hero. They gave everything up for this as a sort of ultimate sacrifice.

P5R ends on the Broken But Hope Filled ending and you spent the last dungeon literally killing the Perfect ending because you refuse to give up the relationships you've forged and the meaning you find in the struggles you're lives have experienced.

I find that interesting. (continued but not spoilers anymore)

Royal's ending is bittersweet. We're saying goodbye (THAT SUCKS), the metaverse is (I believe) gone again- but that sting isn't as bad since it's already done that before, Akechi is 'dead' but he simply doesn't compare to Morgana who was a true friend through the entire game, and we gave up a utopia to get this.

The entire moral that lead us here is literally golden in my book- I appreciate the insistence that our experiences hold value, including the negative ones as we grow from them. But I think as far as ending on a bang or whimper it's a lot less flashy than the base ending seems to have been assuming assumptions assumingly on what that is lol.

Basically, I think base had a better ending, but Royal had more to say and what it had to say was very good in my book, it just then had to end and kinda went "Uh, then we ended, shit."

I still teared the hell up multiple times doing my Earthbound walk about in the post game. And I still wish desperately that I got to get closer with Yusuke and Haru.

AH I love all the damn characters so much.

I feel I've said it all on these fuckers, I love these dunces and they are the best. The party is one of the absolute best out there- it's truly a crew you WANT to be in, you want to go hang with these guys at a ramen place, you want to go hang at a library because one of them needs help with something, you want to go wander the shops with them, you just want to be friends with absolutely all of the party members (maybe not Akechi in the later game when he actually joins the party but that's a whole other complicated goof).

It's an accomplishment to go and create so many likable and befriendable characters- I love em.

And the side characters and confidants are just a fantastic eclectic group- I'm being so vague simply because due to how P5 is formatted, I'd argue 99% of my posts are just me talking about the characters because you GET to do all these things with them. You GET to go to the movies and study and hang at the baths- so I've said all there is, I'm sure.

But I love them. <3

Another thing I've talked plenty on already but is worth mentioning in this finale post is that fantastic gameplay

I literally can't expand on it much in one post so I'll leave it simple.

It's flashy, it's EXTREMELY involved, it's combo heavy in a fantastic way (and with multiple avenues for combos!), and the worst I can say about it is that on Normal difficulty it became exploitable pretty early on and didn't really challenge directly much until the end, but, difficulty is not the end all of the gameplay's quality.

You want to feel involved and challenged in *some* way (if not direct difficulty), and I felt both of those things- just without much risk of failure. Arguably- ARGUABLY- that's damn near perfect. But for preference, I'd have preferred a slightly harder time- more HP on enemies and more risk of losing- but this isn't a complaint- it's a recognition that I will probably highly enjoy replaying on a harder difficulty :)

Simplifying the entirety of the gameplay to combat would be a crime though because this game was also half life sim, and quite an enthralling one at that. Hell, half isn't enough, MOST of this game was life sim, and I loved it so much more than I thought I would.

It also kinda screwed me a bit because I LOVE reading everything I have access to at any given moment.... and this meant a metric ton of reading every day, sometimes accomplishing next to nothing.

You could easily do all the things I did in this game in like 10 hours of gameplay, but it took me 23 times that because I would regularly take trips EVERYWHERE to seek out new NPC dialogue that added nothing to the game itself but was quintessential to my experience.

Loved it.

And before I close for good on this playthrough, I want to just speak some appreciation towards some of the morals and themes in here.

Not all, I'm stupid (for one), and tired (another), and some fucked up third thing as well so just a couple that I feel like talking about.

For one, RIDICULOUSLY big fan of the personal justice angle. It lent itself to so many narratives about the problems with the world from the angle of these things being normalized, expected, or accepted by society at large- but that doesn't mean we should accept them and stop trying to make things better.

It's just a solid theme to build around and it tied itself to the motivations of our characters so damn well with many of them being upset at how Adults handle the world or mistreat others and seeking to make things better.

Also, if the like 8 times I brought it up didn't make it clear, a big fan of the strength of kindness in the Akechi - Joker storyline. It's really a show of how Joker's refusal to turn his back on others, even people as, to be frank, shit as Akechi with his murder fun time nonsense, is literally what grants Akechi his moment of redemption.

That murder kid really tried to turn self sacrifice into a selfish move for personal revenge, and Joker's refusal to be insincere to him left Akechi stunned as his motivations were changed in real time right before he died- that's just a fun narrative, man.

And while I think it made the stakes feel less "scary" than the prior chapter, I really do enjoy how Maruki was our final baddie since he's quite literally a goodie.

It offered a completely different angle to challenge the PT's morals and allowed us to end on a narrative about the worth of our whole life experience rather than a narrative on defeating evil, it was honestly a really good choice in my book.

And I suppose that wraps up this mindless ramble.

To close I just want to say, I fuckin' love this game. It's a favorite now, as I've said.

I'd also like to say I'm surprised that getting to the post game wasn't as demanding as I was initially lead to believe.

I had been lead to believe, since launch of Royal, that this game was some weird "Do it perfectly or you're fucked" kind of game.

I avoided playing Royal for YEARS, because I thought I'd HAVE to shove a guide down my throat in order to experience half the game.

But as it turns out the Royal content is rather short, all things considered. And the requirements are MILES less intense than I was lead to believe- like- MILES. I thought you needed all confidants or else, like, it's not that hard lol.

Getting a perfect run on a blind run is a bit rough, but even that isn't remotely out of the cards if my playthrough is anything to go by.

And on whether / when I'll play more; Now that I've seen the credits, I'm not sure.

This playthrough was.... strange for me. When I pick a game up for the blog I usually stay pretty consistent with it. I've had flubs here and there over the years, but this might be the single most disjointed playthrough I've ever done- with months of no updates multiple times throughout just because of where I was outside of playing.

But because of this, I've basically been playing this game for 8 months. That's a long time to be on one single player game that I think a few weeks coulda done.

Kinda want something else. But my desire to play through on a harder difficulty, on NG+, and to get a perfect end to my playthrough with all confidants maxed remain.

Part of me wants to just jump right back in- especially since very very little of it would "need" (I do this for fun lol) to be blogged about in the first place, but a lot of me wants to sit this on the shelf and come back later in life.

And a lot of me also worries that doing that might table it too long, as I table many things and then decide new experiences trump them.

This game has the benefit of being one of my all time favorites now, so it's less likely, but I mean. FFT is an all time favorite. Doing modded runs of that for the blog has been backlogged for years. I don't want to put replaying P5R off that long at all.

But enough idle worrying in my game diary.

I am going to play something else for a while. That's my current plan. Mostly because that whole mishap with myself that caused this playthrough to be so disjointed is very much still a struggle- so I don't want to dive into a full new playthrough that's just as disjointed.

I might set a date for myself; Come back in a year's time perhaps. I have nothing set in stone. But I want to replay this. Harder difficulty, NG+, perfect confidants. I want that.

We'll find out when.

In the mean time I'm going to bask in the post-game joy of this phenomenal title.

I'm grateful for the opportunity.

And thank you to all who saw fit to interact through this playthrough- I doubt many would get this far into this nonsense post to see said thanks, but I'm sending that out there into the world all the same.

This was a ridiculously positive gaming experience in terms of the game, and a pleasure to chat with some fans.

Everyone, have a good one :)

#Persona #Persona 5 #P5 #P5R #Persona 5 Royal #RetPlays

[thedragonofcauldron]

Friend sent me an obviously AI generated image of a couple squid people, one blue and one orange. Attached text is only "fun playable race?"

This friend has liked to do worldbuilding things, and tries ro come up with interesting race/cultural concepts. so I try to look at the picture for any hints, and I got nothing. So I respond that the picture looks fine, but pretty generic - I don't see anything interesting to catch my attention.

He says my criticism is "withering." That he felt he was being "dragged over the coals" for something he had "no control over" and that if he wants a "good looking proxy" this is "the best he can do" without paying for infinite refreshes and

Im

I'm a fucking artist.

I realized a while back, when he first started talking about this stuff, that what he wanted (painterly, fully rendered splash art) was not compatible with what I could give, because I do more stylized, cartoons or sketchy stuff than that. When he told me he didnt like the "AI Art Debate" we had a long discussion and settled on "it wouldnt be that bad except because Capitalism" and when he said he was paying for Midjourney and would show me his "concept art" I dealt with it, because of course he would want pretty things at the push of a button, and even if I won him over on a moral objection, it's not going to stop the AI art thing happening.

But I'm still fucking seething that he'd say to my face that my shoulder shrug response of "kinda generic tho" was --withering-- and then say to me that the mangled corpses of other people's stolen work, complete with the shredded remnants of their signatures in the corner, was the best he could do if he wanted something that looked good.

I'm pretty sure he didn't mean to insult me on as a profound level as I'm feeling it, but jeesus FUCK man did you think at all about who you were talking to before you hit send? At all?

The only reason I'm venting here and not going off on him personally is I'm a bit concerned for his mental health atm, so I'm doing the RESPONSIBLE thing and waiting until I've cooled off a bit and he's in a place where he has other people to support him but FUCK man.

#rant #vent #ai art discourse #ai is theft

[batterdoodle]

Ask post found HERE!

6. Warm colors or cold colors? I think I stay generally neutral? I don’t really have a preference when it comes to art, though when it comes to like drawing an ACTUAL scene I can do either of them if needed. ...If I was better / more motivated to do backgrounds I think I’d do a lot more pieces with mood lighting to be honest. But I mainly do transparent backgrounds / solid color / white backgrounds so I tend to lean more into vibrancy and clarity when it comes to colors / designs.

12. Show us an old drawing! How old?

18. Are you satisfied with the attention your art usually gets? Honestly, I’m very surprised by how many people here like my art and like my OCs / designs! The tags people leave always make my day and it sometimes even motivates me to draw more and post older art. If something “flops” in notes, it doesn’t really matter to me because I enjoyed drawing it anyway. :] Learning to love doing art for yourself is so worth it every second.

@ocularose​

2. What's your favorite thing about your style? I’ve honestly been learning to love my style a lot more in the past year, so I’d definitely say... I’ve improved at fluidity / movement, posing has absolutely improved alongside angles and general anatomy.. I think one of my favorite things is that I really enjoy drawing now, as silly as that sounds. Another thing is I really like the vibrancy and colors, and shading when I do end up doing it. I’ve started to love my sketches too even though I hated that the most in the past.

4. Favorite thing to draw? I really like drawing drippy stuff sometimes! Not sure why but it’s fun to let loose. Obviously aside from liking drawing official characters and OCs, I love making designs based on little ideas, or just generally making character designs / adopts to sell. It’s nice to know that something I make might end up being used in something big one day, or be loved as a character. :]

8. What's the most fun and the least fun parts about your process? Most fun.. I really love shading, sometimes lining can be super fun too depending on the amount of detailing. I don’t really dislike many parts of my art process, though I used to DESPISE sketching because I didn’t have any solid style or way of getting something done so I used to spend hours just on a sketch and by the time I’d get to lining and everything else I’d be exhausted or horribly bored. Maybe something I dislike is that I can’t draw even faster? Sometimes I get hit with a million ideas at once and my hand can only move so fast before I overwhelm myself with my own ideas lmao. Though I’ve trained myself to draw incredibly fast even now but I want to be SPEED.

20. A piece from this year that you're really proud of?

I’m honestly still really proud of this piece. Didn’t even plan on making it a piece initially either and just ended up fully rendering it, but it turned out so good. I think I nailed the exact mood lighting I was going for.

@gutsbutt​

17. What do you love getting compliments about? Honestly anything really!! I appreciate it all, though my heart explodes when I compliments that point out specific things about my art that people notice. It just means a lot that people take the time to look at my art and want to let me know they like it. :]

20. A piece from this year that you're really proud of?

I know I already answered this question, and I also know this is another Pleo, but this is also one I went to town on for basically no reason. I love it so much, it makes my heart feel fuzzy. :]

21. Something you would like to improve on? Honestly mostly anatomy and posing, fluidity more, definitely... learning how to redraw humans to where I’m comfortable with drawing them again. More ways of using colors because can’t have enough of pretty colors in art. :]

Thank you guys so much for the questions!! I tend to talk a lot so I wanted to put it all in one post to avoid spamming a bunch of huge posts with answers. Have a wonderful day and thank you so much for reading!!

#not art #text #ask #long post

[gertlushgaming]

BIT.TRIP RERUNNER Review (Steam)

For this BIT.TRIP RERUNNER Review, The classic rhythm platformer is back as BIT.TRIP RERUNNER + RUNNER MAKER! The fun of the original now sports fresh mechanics, art, and soundtrack – plus RUNNER MAKER, which allows you to create custom levels. A must-play for rhythm newbies, experts, and everyone in between.

BIT.TRIP RERUNNER Review Pros:

- Decent graphics. - 1.08GB download size. - Steam achievements. - Full controller support. - Graphics settings - resolution, display mode, v-sync, frame rate, render scale, brightness, quality preset, anti-aliasing, shadows, effects, textures, global illumination, reflections, and post-processing. - Can rebind controls for both the keyboard and the controller buttons. - Choose which controller buttons show. - Difficulty settings that affect score multiplier - obstacle density, checkpoints, stair assist, and bonk counter - Runner gameplay. - Opening tutorial level. - Two game modes - play and runner maker. - Runner Maker is a robust in-depth level creator where you can upload and download players' Creations. - The Runner Maker mode has a level browser with filters. - Extras - imagery, words, and cutscene viewer. You unlock entries in these by collecting keys and choosing what to unlock. - Has a history of the Bit Trip games. - The play mode has three zones and bonus levels mode. - Collect boomboxes to unlock new soundtracks and graphic styles. - Tight solid controls as always. - The actions unlock over time. - End of level breakdown. - Difficult, brings the pain like none other. - You can use the d-pad and stick. - Big boss encounters. - A lot of replay value. - Fully animated backdrops. - Each unlocked soundtrack also unlocks an additional 10 levels. - Still has the strong pull of just one more go. - Maintains the high standards of all the previous games and has you replaying levels and learning the level layout. BIT.TRIP RERUNNER Review Cons: - The menu structure is cold and not as good as the last few games. - I get it's a remake of an old game but they have kept it quite sterile looking out of the game. - Using the stick to play is not as smooth as the d-pad. - Doesn't feel as content-packed as the last two outings, I mean it doesn't add a ton of new content. - Boss fights initially are tough because you don't get any help as to what needs to be done. Related Post: The Many Pieces of Mr. Coo Review (PlayStation 4)  BIT.TRIP RERUNNER: Official website. Developer: Choice Provisions Publisher: Choice Provisions Store Links - Steam Read the full article

#Indie #PC #steam

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

hi raven !! do u have any moots who are people u looked up to before u became moots with them? just curious :-)

Hmmmm... 🤔 A good question!

When I first started out writing, my two inspirations were twstpasta (Mac) and panacea-wishes (Lily). Mac had a very clean and simple interface and a whimsical way of writing, whereas Lily edited together her own banners and focused more on pretty descriptions... I wanted my writing blog to have its own unique flavor like Mac's and Lily's did!

You'll notice that I wrote the last paragraph in past tense, and that's because both of those writers have since terminated their respective blogs and moved elsewhere💦 but to this day, I still really love them and the work that they do! If you’re interested in continuing to follow them too, you can find Mac at @mcdonaldsnumberone and Lily at @fairlyabookie. However, please note that they no longer take writing requests; they only write what and when they wish to.

Another predominantly text-based blog I enjoyed (and still enjoy!) reading is @pianostarinwonderland. It's mainly a dumping ground for TWST thoughts and theories, which I do also sometimes share on my own blog. It's a place I go to when I need to get my brain juices flowing, and sometimes the things they point out make me develop more of an appreciation for the details of TWST! (I also used to be an Azul stan, so I'd run to a fellow Azul stan to feel validated in my screaming, ahah~)

Back around the start of my TWST journey, I mainly relied on @kibadreams and jmee for story translations and rough summaries, respectively. Kibadreams does their best to retain the original “voice” of every character when they translate, and they’re very open about the potential translating mistakes they may have made and they’re striving to improve! Jmee really goes in on the details and the deeper meaning behind character relationships and TWST lore. I really appreciate the work that they have done for the community!

Special shoutout to @mysteryshoptls, whom I first got to know as a friend before they initially set up their translation blog. They’re a great source for vignettes and character lines; their translations really retain the spirit of the original characters in Japanese.

There are also a lot of artists in the TWST fandom that I admire! Seeing their posts always puts a smile on my face, and it inspires me to work hard at my own things too. I especially like seeing their own OCs and takes on certain scenes and characters from the game. It gives me confidence to share my own original works~

@4nimenut (They use very delicate brushstrokes that remind me of watercolors or traditional Chinese paintings! The lighting in their pieces is also very atmospheric~)

@airin-queenz (A very bright and cheery art style! The colors and the shading really pop out.)

@beth-lau (I love how they draw expressions! The arrangement and details... they really bring out the emotions that every character is feeling.)

@k0ushii (Their sketchy art style and color choice is very soft and easy on the eyes! They've also done gijinkas for Cookie Run and FNAF characters, which I absolutely adore the designs for!)

@lolitsleia (I love how dumb their OC Alex and Ace are together! lolitsleia really does a bit of everything, from nice fully rendered pieces to funny little sketches and comics of the characters interacting with each other!)

@myuunji (Their Yuu is really adorable and clumsy! It's lots of fun keeping up their shenanigans in the little doodles and comics they make.)

@pearlwhitecats (Their love for Silver is really pure! I can feel it come off in every Nahime x Silver work they make. I'm also a fan of their cutiepie OC Neviah~)

@renniecirque (Ren has a really unique art style! It almost looks like traditional art instead of digital because of how soft the colors and the line art is. It gives me cottagecore vibes! Very soothing to look at~)

@shimmeryspark (Kana's art is both cute and detailed! While their fully rendered pieces are a treat, I also really like their chibis--they look so round and squishy, I just want to pinch them with my fingers! Their shrimp-based OCs and Kana (the Yuusona) with Floyd and Ruggie are also adorable and pure~)

@stupidneko (I like how big and expressive their eyes are! I also really love the little details they add to accentuate various pieces, like tiny sparkles or little tuffs of cotton.)

@suiiseis (We share a mutual appreciation and intense brain rot for J word I like how dainty their style is, from the lithe forms of their characters to the way they draw eyes and hair!)

@teuffels (Their vibrant, bouncy colors really bring pieces to life! They also get really experimental with poses and compositions, which always keeps you guessing. Plus, their love for Lilia and Xiao is just so wholesome and endearing!)

@tinyfantasminha (I adore their OC Vic's sass and their breakdowns over Jack Howl! They're very talented with drawing poses and coloring in a way that mimics the TWST style!)

@yttrocen (An artist with a very soft and pastel color palette, mainly doing comics and doodles. If I'm not mistaken, they mainly do Tweels, which I can appreciate~)

@zariyen (Yuu Yumehara my beloved he's so cool and hot and-- I'm a huge fan of zari's work on alternate outfits for Pomefiore! Everything they do is really gorgeously detailed; I could stare at their pieces forever and ever!)

It feels like a really big honor when someone you look up to follows you back! It's like one of those "wow, senpai noticed me" moments you see sometimes in anime or manga. Of course, I'm not super close to everyone that I listed in this post, and I’ve also met a lot of amazing people and made friends that I didn’t include here (since they didn’t quite fit the parameters of the ask)!!

Please consider checking out their socials and supporting them!! Let’s keep exploring this twisted wonderland together 🎵

#it feels weird thinking about how many people I met because of TWST #dhjssdgsjsbjsw it has been a wild ride #to the people I pinged in this post #I’m sorry if the pings annoy or bother you 💦 #question #shoutout #notes from the writing raven

[zabiume]

Orihime as a pacifist + TYBW reflections

So, yesterday, we were talking about Orihime’s core traits in @governthestars ask about writing Orihime + her general characterization and I didn’t expand much about her pacifism because I wanted to make a separate post about it.

On my first read of TYBW, the thing that struck me the most is that both Yhwach and Orihime were probably the most proclaimed “peace-loving” characters in that they both called for a unity of all three worlds.

But the way both characters aim for this “peace” is rather distinct. Yhwach advocates for total anarchy, and his definition of anarchy is the total breakdown of social systems and orders that currently uphold society as we know it, rendering everyone into one clustered group through destruction. Orihime, on the other hand, advocates for anarchy in that she trusts social groups to be capable of taking care of each other and living in harmony through interdependence, without the help of higher institutions like Soul Society. Yhwach focuses on destroying the status quo; Orihime focuses on unionizing the 90%. The fun thing for me is that both definitions have been used to describe anarchism/anarcho-pacifism before and I’m sure this wasn’t meant to be that deep, but it could be, and I’m sad it never went anywhere.

The most frustrating thing about Orihime’s “cool-ness” as a character is that she’s a pacifist in a series where literally everyone is a fighter. Bleach is a shonen, so power-ups (shikai/bankai) and final forms take center stage in what makes a character “cool” to an audience. Kubo set up bankai to be a technique that is incredibly rare to achieve + a physical manifestation of a character’s self-actualization, and that’s pretty deep, but the thing about writing a shonen is that you’re inevitably going to have a shonen audience. AKA, no one cares about what you can do if you can’t do bankai. This is why Chad and Orihime are usually ranked low in popularity polls, despite having solid character arcs and motivations that are apt for them, while characters like Byakuya and Hitsugaya (who have had little to no relevant character arcs post-HM) are very popular. You’d be surprised at how many people on forums think Chad is irrelevant to Ichigo’s main circle, simply because he’s a non-shinigami character. You’d be surprised at how many people think Ichigo is closer to Byakuya than he is to Orihime. But when you see both these ideologies floating around, it isn’t really surprising that most fans thought Ichigo would end up in Soul Society.

I think the point Kubo was trying to make with Ichigo and his identity struggles as a Visored in HM arc, Fullbring in the FB arc, Quincy in the Quincy arc and shinigami throughout is that he can co-opt the identities of all these factions without actually committing an undying loyalty to any single one of them. This is why Ichigo has allies in every faction, just as he has enemies. The entire point of Ichigio’s moral code is that he discards the official manifestos of whatever groups he’s in and creates his own. He’s no one’s man, so to speak, abiding by what he thinks is right as opposed to what each society claims is right. This is a recurring theme seeded in as early as the Lost Agent arc and people still think he’d throw in with the shinigami folk after all the awful shit they’ve done and would have done to him & his friends. If we were to draw a scale of anarchy →  status quo, you’d have it be something like: Yhwach → Orihime (& Ichigo & co) → Urahara(& co) → Gotei 13 with all other characters falling somewhere within that spectrum.

What does this have to do with Orihime as a pacifist? Well, this is what peace and harmony means to her on a grander scale. On a smaller scale, Orihime doesn’t want to hurt a character unless she absolutely has no choice. And even then, her heart isn’t in it unless she’s protecting someone other than herself. This is why she had troubles with Tsubaki before Fullbring Arc, but I don’t think she does now, even if Kubo didn’t really have the time to expand on her powers and origins. I think this quote by Wonder Woman does a good job at summarizing Orihime’s take on violence:

“Don't kill if you can wound, don't wound if you can subdue, don't subdue if you can pacify, and don't raise your hand at all until you've first extended it.”

Orihime would much rather avoid violence and she hates when there’s avoidable loss of life, as we see in Ichigo’s introspection of her re: Yammy. She values life, much like other popular characters in media who don’t kill--like Batman, or Aang. Given her history with family violence and abuse in general, it is pretty much central to her character to be non-violent. Plenty of good characters in media are non-violent as I said, but I think fans like to jest and mock her a lot in fics, especially in I/R fics where her pacifism is written as passive-ism;  where she doesn’t appreciate her powers as much as Ichigo does, where she doesn’t care about whether she has powers or not, unlike Ichigo, who would die without Rukia his powers. This is such a fundamental and hateful misunderstanding of what her powers mean to her and why they were born in the first place-- i.e to protect. Her powers were born because of Ichigo and in the epilogue, we saw her powers protecting Kazui, their son. One of the main reasons why I think a Bleach next gen series would never work--or at least why I don’t want Kubo to cave and make one-- is because it dismantles Orihime and Ichigo’s core of wanting to protect their loved ones. As long as Ichigo and Orihime are alive and functional, I don’t think they’d delegate any wars or greater responsibilities to their son, beyond the occasional Hollow. Orihime sees her powers as an avenue to protect her loved ones, to keep them safe from their enemies -- which, ahem, you might be surprised, is how Ichigo sees his powers, too! It’s almost like she has a fully developed moral code, just like Ichigo does, who knew?

Look, we all read Bleach for different characters and I think it’s amazing that it’s  a versatile enough series that you could read the entirety of it for a character who’s not the protagonist and still walk away with a satisfying story. I mean, I literally could not care less about Nnoitra, while there are fans who run entire meta Tumblr accounts for him. My point isn’t that you shouldn’t do that, it’s that if you read Bleach entirely for characters that are not Orihime and willfully ignored every single panel she was in, you’re not going to have a well-rounded or accurate opinion of her. You’re only going to see her as Ichigo’s bland and convenient love interest or wet blanket wife (yuck) or even a nuisance and hence you’re going to write her as such. If Kubo wrote her that way, I would understand that reflection in fics as well, but he didn’t. We see her as one of Ichigo’s closest companions and motivators for 685 chapters. We see her as his wife in one of them. You don’t need a degree in the School of Orihime Arts & Sciences to be a good Orihime writer-- you just have to understand that she had more of a purpose in Bleach than to be Ichigo’s wife, or Ichi/Ruki’s red herring, or Uryu’s trophy wife or XYZ gay ship’s laughing stock. Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.

(Part 1)

#this is just my excuse to sneak in comrade!orihime into my posts huh skdjsjdks #orihime inoue #meta #sorry for the Salt but she's my daughter and im tired of the Direspect #i have SO many headcanons and thoughts about her powers and loose threads kubo never got the time to write #and i give every fic a chance if she's in it #but it's so funny when the writer clearly hates her/doesn't know what to do with her #and you'll see the comments praising op for doing a better job than kubo did like please.. #kubo compared her to a god and you insinuated she was a child murderer i think i know which characterization i'd stick with

[madeofcc]

izzy’s dag-dag the artist… tag

RULES

Show us a rendition of yourself in your own art! Can be anything! Sims render? Random stick figure? Picrew? Go nuts! (Just be sure to tag the artist if you use someone else’s picrew!!!!) Tag the blogs you want to know, and don’t be a dick that’s it! Also, feel free to answer as vague or in-depth as you want. And if you don’t want to answer a question for any reason just don’t vibe with it! Skip it if you wanna! Also make sure you tag me and use #dagdagtheartisttag so I can see it!!!!!!!!

I was tagged by @alelelesimz​ ♥ thanks a lot !

QUESTIONS

1.) Do you prefer to be referred to by your name or blog name?

Both ? As long as people aren’t shitting behind my back

2.) Where are you from?

France ...

3.) Do you have pets? 👀

I’d love to !!! I crave for a black pussy or a white shepard.

4.) Tell us about your “dream”.

Depends which one but let’s say the biggest is to be able to live my life with my man, some animals, a little farm maybe and write my books ...

5.) Aside from art, what are your hobbies?

Cooking ! I love to bake and prepare nice dinners for my friends and loved ones. I even get better at bakery so this is usually one of the rare thing I’m proud of and want to develop ^^ I also dance and sing but this artistic ... I think most of my hobbies are art related ...

6. )Does anyone irl know about your blog?

Yep ^^ A lot of people actually. I don’t mind speaking about it, I’m even a bit proud thanks to you all ! I didn’t receive any bad critic or bad joke about that by the way and people are usually impressed by what I do (even though it’s nothing compared to you all) so that’s comforting :)

7.)Do you know anyone from your blog irl?

Nope but that could be nice !

8.) What are some fun facts about you?

I still don’t know if I’m ready to be fully non binary

9.) What’s your day job?

For the next 3 or 6 months I’m kind of a counselor ? I don’t know what the correct words are but I give advices to small entrepreneurs. What I’ll do in 6 months though ? Still don’t know ...

10.) Do you have a celebrity look alike?

I don’t like to think so as to me, everyone is unique but every time a brown eyes/curly hair becomes famous, people say I look like him ... Last time it was straight people who said I look like John fucking Snow and the gays said I look like Xavier Dolan, who are just both curly brown hair and eyes men  ^^”

11.) What’s your aesthetic?

I don’t really know ... Let’s say I like to tell dark stories in a colourfull world ? I never really thought deep about that to be honest

12.) What kind of artist are you?

An evolving one ? I’m always learning and evolving in my personnal life and so does is my art. I like to do a lot of different things even though that means taking more time to finish things. I try to be as much inclusive and feminist as I can/want without fearing other people’s judgment just because it’s also the kind of art I want to see in general.

13.) How did you get into your form of art?

I started to write at 16 after spending a night at my grandmother’s in which we spoke a lot. She told me a lot about her life and how she survived ww2 as a child and she highly suggest me to start writing. It took a while though but it grows surely inside my mind. I never stopped writing since.

For sims story, well it’s pretty simple. As I don’t know how to create cc yet and wanted to be a part of the community I thaught the best was to start storytelling. After all, I have a lot of stories in mind and I wanted to see how it would look as sims story so why not create it instead of waiting for someone else to tell it?

14.) What do you watch/listen/read/anything else while you create?

A lot of things !!! I’m watching Orange is the new black as I’m writing for instance ! As I live with my boyfriend and we have one room, we watch TV while I work on sims stories. We don’t even have a desk or a special room for that so I usually play/write/edit with my laptop on my legs ... Not the best comfort I can assure you

15.) What is your favorite of your own creations so far?

I’m more and more happier with what I do with Destiny Harbour these days ^^ I’m still working on season 2 and I really can’t wait to show you all the plots I’ve prepared . I’m also prepapring a little something for Simblreen I think . I need to stop my brain from having ideas someday ^^”

16.) How would you describe your art style?

I don’t know ... Here I write dark sims stories I guess. I like to play with different style, different editing to fit a proper story.I love to mix darkness and colourfull things to include some kind of light in those stories.

17.) What is more satisfying to you coloring or outlining?

Colouring for sure.

18.) What meme would you use to describe yourself?

Also, I including a lot of little details about me in the pics. Some stuff I like, my current look ... Try to find everything :p

19.) What character from any media form do you most identify with?

I rarely identify with a character as I never really find myself represented yet :/ I do love and feel close to a lot of characters but the list is way too long as I watch to many things.

20.) If you were on the run, what would you change your name to?

ccfoedam?

21.) Have you ever or do you want to change blog names?

Not really. I always thought about this name since I wanted to do a sims blog.

22.) God forbid Tumblr decides to pull a MySpace and lets us have page songs, what song would you choose?

I listen to a lot of things so here’s my top 5 of the moments :

Coeur by Clara Luciani / Cure for Me by Aurora /  Claque le by Bagarre / Burry a Friend by Billie Eillish / Strange Days by HEALTH

23.) Oh yeah, I’m still on the MySpace train and I’m starting discourse! Who’s your top 8?

There’s too many.

24.) Did you understand those references or did you have to look them up? (I’m fully away I’m ancient, but are you?)

I’m almost 30 dear please

25.) One last question; why are you like that?

Because I’m awesome ? I don’t know

Dag dag?

Super dag !

I tag @cyberth0t​ @xldkx​ @sweetpyxels​ @poetic-falls​ @lonely-bologna-sims​ @ladybugsimblr​ @ladykendalsims​ @99simproblems​ @idajha​ @tartiish​ @oydis​ @someone-elsa​ @aniraklova​ and anyone alse who wants to do it ! Feel also free to ignore ^^

#dagdagtheartisttag #tag game #this took me 3 days to answer #I tried to not talk a lot this time

[raccoonium]

Izzy’s Dag-Dag The Artist… Tag

I was tagged by @poisonedsimmer !

By @morgynemberisagenderfluiddaddy

~ Rules ~

Show us a rendition of yourself in your own art! Can be anything! Sims render? Random stick figure? Picrew? Go nuts! (Just be sure to tag the artist if you use someone else’s picrew!!!!) Tag the blogs you want to know, and don’t be a dick that’s it! Also, feel free to answer as vague or in-depth as you want. And if you don’t want to answer a question for any reason just don’t vibe with it! Skip it if you wanna! Also make sure you tag me and use #dagdagtheartisttag so I can see it!!!!!!!!

~Questions~

1.) Do you prefer to be referred to by your name or blog name?

Blog name or just Raccoon!

2.) Where are you from?

Somewhere over the rainbow

3.) Do you have pets? 👀

Four furballs, three of them are brothers and of course I had to name them after Kingdom Hearts characters (Sora, Vanitas and Xion), and then there’s Gremlin

4.) Tell us about your “dream”.

So I had this dream once when I was little that I was going with a car but always around the same building and I couldn’t stop. I wasn’t going fast or anything dangerous but the car couldn’t stop. Nothing spectacular.

yes I know what kind of dream it means but no i don’t feel like asnwering it so have this free random thing

5.) Aside from art, what are your hobbies?

Is playing videogames considered art?

6.)Does anyone irl know about your blog?

Yes but noone’s interested enough to check it out

7.)Do you know anyone from your blog irl?

Sadly no.

8.) What are some fun facts about you?

Not a fun one, just a fact. All of my OCs have a tiiiiiiny part of myself. Might be stuff I like or stuff I don’t. Stuff I am or stuff I wish I was. Or stuff I wish that I never will be. You’ll never know~

9.) What’s your day job?

I won’t say but the best part is when they pay me for taking a shit

10.) Do you have a celebrity look alike?

Elmo probably

11.) What’s your aesthetic?

I’d say messy but grunge makes it sound less bad

12.) What kind of artist are you?

Uh. I like drawing but I gave up on it a while ago. So now I try to learn 3D stuff.

13.) How did you get into your form of art?

The current one because I was stubborn on wanting to make hairstyles for sims.

14.) What do you watch/listen/read/anything else while you create?

Either rock/metal/jazz music, videogame music or jazz versions of videogame music. Or some stream in the background.

15.) What is your favorite of your own creations so far?

A 18+ Soriku drawing I made a while ago that I won’t show here, and for sims stuff I think it’s the 2009 hair because it was much needed lol

16.) How would you describe your art style?

Fucking mess choose an art style already.

18.) What meme would you use to describe yourself?

17.) What is more satisfying to you coloring or outlining?

Since I’m a WIP bitch and almost never finish anything, I painted too little, so outlining wins.

19.) What character from any media form do you most identify with?

Courage the cowardly dog.

20.) If you were on the run, what would you change your name to?

Funny enough it’d be Axel.

21.) Have you ever or do you want to change blog names?

Already did~

22.) God forbid Tumblr decides to pull a MySpace and lets us have page songs, what song would you choose?

La ley innata by Extremoduro I don’t care y’all don’t know shit about spanish that’s THE masterpiece along with her newborn brother Mayeutica.

23.) Oh yeah, I’m still on the MySpace train and I’m starting discourse! Who’s your top 8?

First of all fuck you second of all i’m not tagging. No particular order, many different reasons:

@/gunthermunch

@/poisonedsimmer

@/oydis

@/drosims

@/simandy

@/ladykendalsims

@/slade-the-neko

@/pixeles

24.) Did you understand those references or did you have to look them up? (I’m fully away I’m ancient, but are you?)

I lived the MySpace era but it was not my kind of website so not really

Dag dag?

25.) One last question; why are you like that?

I just go with the flow

Now tag tag!!!

No this is kinda personal so just do it if you feel like it and I’ll read it if you @ me!

[algernoninwonderland]

Hi i rlly like ur blog and ur takes!!, whats your fav episode of ml?

Hi! Thanks! It may not look like it, but Miraculous isn't a show I that I hate, because I don't tend to watch shows that I hate unless I really want to rip them to shreds. Which requires some intellectual honesty, so I need to watch everything so that I can discuss everything.

Miraculous is a show that frustrates me, because I actually like quite a few episodes! So giving you only one answer is going to be super hard. Would two-parters be considered as one episode? Who knows. I'll try to give you two answers for each season, and my favourite season 4 episode this far.

So, season 1! It was a fun one, there are very few outright bad episodes, it was a very promising one overall!

Stormy Weather

It is, to me, the best season 1 episode, and maybe the best episode of the show proper. It's basically all of what Miraculous can be, condensed in twenty-two minutes, and while it also includes some of the show's flaws, they are rather minor here.

The storyboarding is stellar, the use of shot composition is genuinely terrific and so is the visual storytelling in general, the character acting is brilliant, the rendering is the best the show has ever gotten, the lighting is so expressive, they make full use of the show being 3DCG by moving the camera around in ways that make sense rather than having it spin around stupidly and meaninglessly as would often be the case later on. The character writing is really effective, so that, by the end of the episode, you know who these characters are, and you've got a few ideas of where the show could be going next and you find yourself wanting more. It establishes the storyworld and the basic character dynamics in a very efficient way and it made a strong impression on me. This is how you make a pilot episode.

The Origins two-parter.

It's the proof that the show can attempt character arcs and continuity and be good at it, and make the Love Square actually appealing and not a somewhat annoying gimmick. It captured what falling in love as a teenager actually feels like, and that's an impressive feat I've rarely seen anywhere else. Thank Étienne Guignard for the Umbrella Scene, he's the one who boarded it (he went on to work on some of the best sequences in Steven Universe: Future). Back then, “they're made for each other” made actual sense and didn't make me want to turn off the show. It's a satisfying two-parter.

Moving on to season 2! Which also did tons of interesting things which made up for less competently-written and animated episodes.

Dark Owl

Worldbuilding revolving around civilian characters? In my episode of Miraculous? It's a rarity but we love to see it! It's a very fun one, the pacing is great and M. Damoclès' Knightowl cosplay/Batman fantasy actually makes a lot of sense and is very entertaining. The Love Square interactions in this one are great, that bit of reveal for the kwamis actually felt impactful, something actually happens to M. Damoclès once he's been deakumatised and what caused his akumatisation in the first place is being addressed and solved. It's very enjoyable! Just thinking about this one makes me smile.

Riposte

I like sabre fencing. I like perfectionist “gifted” kids crushed by parental pressure who put on a front of coolness but are still just kids underneath. So of course I liked Riposte and I loved Kagami from the very start. The fencing animation is good, they get the timing and poses right, the rendering is actually pretty great for this one too. It makes sense that Marinette would behave this way and have such a strong bias against that other fencer, even without knowing that it's Kagami. It's not without its flaws, the reveal that “it's actually a girl and she's cute, and could this be a rival for Marinette?” annoys me, and “she's Japanese, therefore that whole Samurai BS, in the year of our lord 2017” makes sense considering who her mother was but we could only make inferences back then, also it doesn't make it any less orientalist bullshit. Nevertheless, it's an episode I really quite enjoyed.

Moving on to season 3!

It's my least-favourite season so far. Doesn't mean there aren't good moments in it. I would put Oblivio on this list if not for the last two minutes which are, if you'll pardon my French, utter dogshit that makes me hate what they're doing with Chat Noir, it kind of ruins everything. Because the rest of the episode is genuine fun, like, actually genuinely fun and then this shit happens. Desperada could be a good Adrien episode but it's disguised as a Luka episode and it's just not very memorable. Most plot-heavy episodes have very mediocre execution and questionable creative choices that make me frustrated with a lot of them.

Chris Master

It doesn't get talked about a lot, and I understand why, but I also really like this one. The art direction is fun and reminiscent of A Town Called Panic, one of my favourite Belgian cartoons ever, which uses real toys and stop motion. The animation is lovely, the show remembers that Marinette is a fashion designer for once. Chat Noir is fun. The akuma is fun. It's just a fun time overall! Sometimes, you just want to watch giant toys and weird flying fish and Miraculous delivers on that.

Ikari Gozen

Hate the orientalist BS, hate that they're doing the whole Samurai spiel in, wow, 2019, but aren't actively disproving it by having other characters not buying into that. These are the only two Japanese characters in the show for crying out loud. Hate that Kagami is still wearing a school uniform for no good reason, even when doing kendo. Despite these flaws, Ikari Gozen is great, for both Marinette and Kagami. It has some of the strongest character writing in this show and I didn't expect that.

Moving on to season 4! But you probably know what my favourite episode so far is, it's the same as everyone else's.

Gang of Secrets

It's not perfect, not by any means, but it does so many things right that I can't help but like it. It builds on everything the show has been so far, and it's a very gratifying experience for the viewer. Continuity gets to play a major role for once. Alya finally gets to be a fully-realised character again, the show stops treating sadness like a fashion accessory and actually does something good and clever with the theme of its episode. And most of everything clicks together in a way that delivers in terms of emotional payback. This episode is a game changer. I hope there will be other episodes like that in season 4.

#ml #miraculous #long post #my favourite episodes #ml sugar #me? praising this show? #you would not believe your eyes

[thoughtfullyyoungduck]

Misjudgment

Summary: can you do a losers club x reader where the losers save the reader from the bowers gang so they invite her to the losers club, except stan doesn’t trust her bc he’s stan. so then the reader confronts him abt it and then they become friends?

Being the new kid in any new school is difficult a label designed and slapped on your forehead to follow you around and attrack attention because of it. Derry middle school was no exception, and in fact, to you knowledge, was even worse than any other school you had ever been too. Your parents switched jobs a lot, and with that came moving around heaps of times too, so being the new kid wasn’t a state-of-the art experience for you. 

It still sucked, walking into a school, your peers huddled together in group while you, the loner, picked at your fingernails to appear busy and to not get caught staring longingly as two friends giggled and talked about their crushes to one another.

The first time you spotted Bill, leader of the infamous loser club you would soon become a part of, was the same day you first witnessed Henry’s psychotic behavior, plundering Bill’s book bag and lighting it on fire mere inches away from the poor kids face. You had stomped over, snatching the bag out of Henry’s hands, the books were mostly destroyed and missing, and handed it back to the boy who scrambled up.

‘You better stay the fuck away from me you fucking hoer. You must either have a Deathwish or want to date B-b-billy,’ he mocked,’ enough that you don’t care who you piss of, and that mistake, can be deadly here in my town.’

Bill thanked you, asked for your name and invited you to join in on a birdwatching retreat him and his friend were going on, but you declined. The altercation left you rattled and spooked, and you didn’t know Bill or any of his friends, all strangers in a town of even more strangers, and went back home.

That decision had both negative and positive outcomes attached to it. Bowers awaited you along with his goons, emptying a slushie on your head and spitting in your face and hair, humiliating you to the best of their abilities. At one point, they tried to glue a freshly bought pad to your skirt, their tyranny halted as Bill and his followers threatened to call the police on them.

‘That’s what being brave will get you in this town’, Mike said, staring the bowers gang off as they .

‘Yeah, but luckily there’s strength in numbers.’

‘Yup, welcome to the losers club new kid. Ben, you’ve been kicked off the nickname ‘new kid’, I need to find you a new one.’ Richie pondered, tapping his fingers to his chin as he came up with a new nickname for Ben.

Persuading Richie into giving him a different derogatory name was enough for Ben to accept you with open arms in the group, as did almost everyone else, and you gained six new friends, a huge upgrade from the zero friends you had prior to them. The hospitality showed, and you were never forced to eat lunch or walk to class by yourself any longer.

The losers club consisted of seven people, but to your parents you vowed that there we’re only six friends you engaged with, because the seventh member, Stanley, was not your friend. At most, the two of you were acquaintances, people that hung out because of mutual friends.

He never liked you or made an effort to befriend you, his cold demeaner deterring and dynamite to your time dedicated to the losers. Not once did he address you personally, and if someone inquired a question and you would go to respond, Stanley would talk over you, like you were never there in the first place. The whole situation, that you had no inkling on how you ended up in the first place, put a damper on the blossoming friendship, and you often found yourself nail-biting tense, on the lookout for the day the other losers would be tired of the tense underlying issues themselves and kick you to the curb.  

This unease pushed you to confront Stanley about his behavior towards you, as you did not want to end up alone again, and you adored the friends you had made in the losers club too much to let go without a fight.

The opportunity to do this arose one day after school, when only Eddie and Richie, both lounging in the hammock, and Stanley and you are around in the clubhouse. You’re sketching in the a notebook, the one you and Bill share, to compare  various techniques and color schemes, and also because it’s fun and interesting to observe what someone else is crafting.

No one besides Bill and you know of its existence, but it’s not strictly a secret, it’s more of a - none of the others care so why tell them-? You’re seated in the stack of cushions, plumped up by Eddie, in order to protect ones ass against blisters, since that’s thing apparently, and Stanley is fully emerged in a book, as far away from you as the small, incepted space allows.

The drawing is coming along pretty well, the sketch portraying the clubhouse itself and it’s inhabitants, and you’re focusing on measuring the length between the hatchet and the far wall, when Stanley spots the book in your lap.

‘That’s Bill’s,’ he snidest, crossing the room in no time to protectively grab it and cage it in his arms.

‘I know that’, you secure, reaching for the book but too short to actually clasp it. ‘I borrow it from him.’

Stanley stares you down with a level headed look, ‘Oh, really?’ He says so sarcastically you urge to rip out his tongue and render him silent.

‘Yes really. What’s the problem with that Stanley?’

‘Stan the man, chill out’, Richie laughs on edge, squirming in his place as he and Eddie watch the situation unfold.

‘No fuck that. What the fuck did I do to get you to hate me so much?’

‘You know what you did.’

‘Enlighten me, fucking please Stanley.’  The hostility swarming around the two of you is palpable, and it’s containing to build to a crescendo neither are prepared for. His admission could potentially dissolve the undercover threat, a way for you to explain or fix the thing you display that Stanley contempt. But that can only be done if the thing gets pointed out, which so far, it hasn’t.  

‘You are conspiring with Bowers and Patrick, I am onto you.’

‘Excuse me?’

‘Just admit it.’

‘Okay, I fucking admit I’m colluding with the same douchebags that tried to defoule me. You got me there Stanley’, you’re seething, rage vibrating in every pore. Richie and Eddie attempt to deflate the situations, but glares from Stanley and you dispirited their focus.

‘Stan, come on,’ Eddie pacifies, ‘why would she do that?’

‘Is it not it convenient that she just so happened to be at the same time and place as Bill is getting beat up? And that she gets attacked right after but somehow escaped any physical damage? Who knows what secrets she’s been tattling?’

‘Well I’m sorry, let me go to them and ask if they would be so kind to punch me in the face’, your voice got more and more hysterical with every word, and you bend down your knees making eye contact with Stanley as you mock him.

‘Stan Urine, This isn’t ‘The Soldier’, they’re no such thing as spies, although Miss K in a spy suit is the fantasy to have for all my wet dreams.’ Richie vulgar joke goes by unnoticed, you and Stan involved in a staring match. You’re the one that breaks eye contact, huffing as you slide on your heels and move to leave.

‘Fine, whatever, I pick up on when I’m not wanted.’

‘No wait. Y/N, don’t go.’  

‘Stan the man gets prickly around the time his period is due, chalk it up to that.’

‘Shut the fuck up Richie no I don’t.’

You force the handle up, resting it a bit above your head and pause, sighing. ‘I’m not conspiring with Bowers, I just wanted to make friends.’ The latch gravitates to the floor after you’ve climbed out, and with it a chapter of your life, now it’s back to being friendless.

Four steps away from the clubhouse, the latch opens again and out tumbles Stan, meticulously lifting himself up by the piece of hardwood that is unscathed with dirt from the ground, and sprints to catch up with you.

‘I am sorry’, he says, flabbergasting you. ‘I should have been more open and accepting, and not my judgmental, evil self. I am not myself if I haven’t eaten a snicker and I apologize,’ Stan rolls his eyes.

‘Those lines were fed to you by Richie’, you state matter of fact, a smile tugging up your lips in spite of your earlier mood set.

‘No they weren’t’, elevates from below ground, conforming your suspicions.

‘Okay, yeah partly. But I do need to apologize. Being so antagonistic was wrong and unnecessary. Can we start over?’

‘I mean, give me back my notes and we’ll make a deal out of it?’

‘Of course.’

#bill denbrough x reader #bill denbrough imagines #richie tozier x reader #richie tozier imagine #eddie kaspbrak x reader #stanley uris #stanley uris x reader #Ben Hanscom x reader #beverly march x reader #Mike hanlon x reader #My writing #the loser club imagines

[eirikrjs]

In defense of Soejima's feet

So I do kind of empathize with the idea that it’s a lot fun to mock the feet of Soejima’s Personas, but honestly, I absolutely believe that a lot of Soejima’s design decisions are informed by the technological constraints of the project he is working on. P4 was created within a relatively short timeframe on an aging console, so it makes sense for him to come up with designs that reflect that: Evolved Personas that are basically palette swaps and modeling those feet would take significantly more polygons that simply using the infamous hooves. I won’t deny that a certain aesthetic preference of Soejima’s might also factor in, but I do would like to point out that Soejima’s Persona designs in P5, P5R (Cendrillon+Vanadis, the rest were most likely done by someone else on the art team going by the handwriting on the concept art) and P5S are almost all far more detailed than the Personas from P3 and P4 - I’m sure that it’s no coincendence that the games that regularly feature Personas with lots of flowing elements like capes or dresses with intricate textures are the one on PS3, PS4 and the Switch. A large portion of these designs even has actual feet (Kidd, Goemon, Carmen, Zorro, Robin Hood, etc. …)!

I mean the fact that the lead character artist probably takes the actual modeling into consideration is most likely something that is true for Kaneko and Doi as well. Kaneko’s demon art for example got significantly more angular once the demons were primarily rendered in 3D since that is easier to replicate with fewer polygons.

I’m sorry if i’m overreacting to a silly joke, but sometimes the stuff people are bashing Soejima for feels pretty unfair. This isn’t even going into the Soejima neck joke that is mostly a P3 era thing that can also be found in some of Kaneko’s art from the early 2000s as well. Soejima’s work is certainly not above criticism, but if you want to critique him, then take his newer art into consideration as well.

________________________________________________

I’ll be honest, the Soejima Stubs are a thing I barely paid any attention to until I made the comparison to Doi’s Satan’s own peg legs (far right):

It’s why the feet collage exists in the first place. I’d forgotten how terrible Satan’s are, and, honestly, they’re much worse than the personas because demons are literal and thus more suited to follow naturalistic base forms (so, feet). However, the actual motive wasn’t to make fun but to point out how persona design trends have bled over into demons, and how similar Satan and others like Doi’s Odin are to personas; personas tending be visual metaphors for their host characters devoid of the cultural context that lends significance to the best of demon design.

I have to disagree that P3/4 personas don’t have feet because of technical limitations. Even the chibi PS1 FF7 models had feet. A good example of technical limitations affecting a design is Atavaka (thanks @b-reis):

The PS2 model lacks the elephant head knee decor, various sashes, the spear tassel, and it’s hard to see but the rope carried by the downward pointing right first is also absent. But what did make it through is the distilled essence of Atavaka: his body. The basic anthropomorphic form is the most important element, followed by the symbolic armaments (minus the rope, hence being secondary); the rest is mere adornment.

But unlike Atavaka (who still has feet!), Soejima’s personas were originally designed for the PS2. The team had a lot of experience with PS2 limitations by then and surely, if Soejima wanted to, the personas could have been designed with feet. But that was neither the intent nor the priority. As the original quote from him says… wait, I didn’t actually translate the whole quote, which is really why I was joking about it. So here it is, roughly translated:

コノハナサクヤにかかととつま先がないからのは、常時空中に浮いているからです。宙に浮いているキャラクターは、完全な脚があるよりも、かかととつま先がないほどがビジュアル的に映えるとの理由からです。そしてもうひとつは、この造形が自分の好みだからでもあります。

Konohana Sakuya has no heels or toes because she’s always floating. Simply, floating characters, visually speaking, don’t require them. Another reason is that this modeling is to my liking!

It just seems to be Soejima’s stylistic preference. And sure, I do get that many personas do float (esp. in P4, the context of this quote) and the absence of feet does make them otherworldly. It fits. But apparently Soejima didn’t come to that conclusion until P4 since plenty of P3 personas still have feet (and float!), yes, even comically tiny, vestigial feet:

And yes, as some others have chimed in to say but to whom I have yet neglected to reply, P5 personas have feet! But many aren’t just floating, they are either on the ground or their feet are anchored to something, in the case of Kidd or Wukong.

Being fully aware of the context always helps, but here I don’t think you need to know the new designs before you can comment on his old, as the different games follow different design motifs and presentations:

Persona 3: Lots of feet, lots of stubs/skewers

Persona 4: Mostly stubs/skewers

Persona 5: Mostly feet

Despite all of this, I still think the P4 personas’ lack of feet is kinda funny. It feels like Soejima was grasping for a unifying theme for the personas but shot wide of the mark. Like, Chie’s Tomoe has big ol’ laced-up boots and still floats.

Really, the worst for me is seeing SMT demons like Satan replicating these ideas that usually don’t belong as part of the visual language that separates them from personas. Plus, from my perspective, making fun of Persona counts as “punching up.” It’s fun/cathartic and Persona/Soejima/Meguro/Hashino will come out of it completely unscathed! Total win-win.

#shigenori soejima #persona #feet #submission

[ot3]

My approach to flat colors + limited palette drawings

This is a follow up to this post  i made about how i go about figuring out a color palette for my limited palette drawings. an anon asked me about my actual technique of finishing them so this is gonna be an explanation of how I work in a limited palette with flat colors. I ended up with these thumbnails for a sketch last time so we’re gonna work from here and I’m gonna sort of walk through how i got to the finished version

first things first: every part of this process is just developed as a result of me messing around. take my advice with a grain of salt and if you think you know a way to do something better/that makes you more comfortable. go with that over what I say.

I’m honestly a little surprised when people express confusion about how i draw like this because it’s SUPER simple - literally all you’re doing is just stacking solid color blocks of shape. its very imprecise despite how sharp everything ends up looking. 

First things first is that you want to decide how you will be handling your edges throughout the duration. Do you want your shapes to be ultra-sharp and precise, or do you want a little bit of a wobblier, grainier edge? Both can look good but it’s VERY much a matter of situational basis. i’ve been favoring looser and grainier shapes so that’s how i’m going to be working on this. 

on the left here, you can see the shapes made with precise rectangular selections and an untextured pen, on the right, freehand drawn shapes and a grittier pen. There’s something immediately pretty different feeling about them. So play around with that first - its not something that’s fun to change halfway through! But lets step back a minute. It helps to work large to small. The two biggest shapes here are these orange chunks and everything gets stacked on top of them so i’m gonna do that first. 

Now, a key feature of what i do: clipping masks. almost all digital art programs have them. What a clipping mask does is it constrains the pixels of a layer to the transparency of the layer below it. Here I have the light orange layer, and then on top of it the buildings and billboard are clipped to the orange. Most of you probably already know this and I’m overexplaining a bit, but there was a time when i didnt know how clipping layers worked and someone had to explain it to me.

now you’ll notice the shapes of the buildings are rough, and sloppy. here’s the fun part: since this is all about stacking shapes, only your exterior edges matter. this all gets filled in. be as sloppy as you want when you’re making your shapes. in fact, the outside edges get trimmed out a bunch to when i do this - i go in and erase them clean. Don’t be too finnicky about drawing perfect and precise! its a waste of time. As long as the silhouette is what you want, the interior can be a nightmare.

Working this way, it’s important to keep your layers stacked in a way you can make sense of. Right now there are four layers here: the background dark orange, the two main orange rectangle shapes, and then the buildings on one layer and a billboard on the other. I rack up a LOT of layers doing this and it makes it annoying in some aspects, but being able to freely recolor any one chunk without losing my detail is a key aspect of this.

So, I block those out

Next, I do the same for the smaller chunks that are still main shapes. There are once again, a lot of layers here. The top layer is the hair - you can see the head showing through it. The head and arm underneath the hair, same layer. Then the cup. Then the light green pieces of paper. Then the dark green ones.

The cup is technically farther forward than the head and arm so you would think it’d go on top, but the point isnt to recreate the foreground and background hierarchy with layers so much as it is to group things in a way i can work with. The cup goes underneath so it can be grouped with all the other objects on the table. 

now, i just go and fill in all the shapes. i forgot to do the blinds but i get them later. you might notice a lot of these shapes are pretty rough, which was harder to notice before they were filled in. Now that I can see better, I go in with an eraser and clean up the edges until they’re the shape I want 

sometimes erasing leaves little bits of ‘noise’ around objects like on this napkin here. i like to keep a little bit of this noise for texture, but if you dont like it make sure to get rid of it! if you’re working very crisp this will stand out a LOT

Next up is to add some detail onto the objects

I flipped the canvas here because the head shape was wrong - the ears were uneven and i wanted to fix it. I want to go about adding detail onto the billboard and buildings. i do all detail with clipping masks - but the objects are clipped to another layer and so nothing can be clipped to them. instead, i unclip them and just erase by selection for the same effect

all of the text on the papers is clipped to the papers below it. the buttons are clipped to the phone. the yellow photos and card are actually another independent layer on top, in case i want to recolor them separately. im indecisive and end up recoloring things a lot. For the most part these objects are starting to become recognizable as more than just shapes

i go in an add the details on the background and character now. theres some more stuff on the table. the lines of the face and ears are on one layer, and the flats of the eyes below that. Here’s what each group of layers is, and what they look like on their own

The background/bottom chunk. Just the table, window, and shirt.

The middle bit. All the stuff on the table and the blinds.

Finally, the top, which is just his head and arm. 

now this stage is the bare bones of the drawing. you can more or less tell everything that’s happening. it reads. but its very much lacking in something - it doesnt have a ton of depth or interest. and adding that additional detailing, the dept and interest, is where stuff starts getting REALLY tricky and subjective. 

im gonna take you to a much simpler scenario to show the sort of options i go through at this stage

ahh its our dear friend, sphere casting shadow. this is, more or less, the kind of image we have. you can tell whats happening but it’s lackluster. there are TONSSS of ways frm here that you can go add interior detail to a shape once it has been established. here are some quick and SUPER rough examples

from top left to bottom right: flat cel shading, softer airbrushed/gradient shading, halftone, and a textured brush. Each of these has their strengths and weaknesses. They can also be combined.

for example, here’s the solid cel shading being used to contain a gradient/airbrushed detail. This image - probably the single oldest piece of my art i still willingly show people - is entirely colored with gradients being contained in cel-shaded chunks. It has a sort of soft, luminous quality but without losing its crispness.

here’s a super quick bust with some variations of stuff going on. obviously this is no masterpiece but you see how different types of detailing can interact with each other and be used to distinguish materials too. 

With the mob psycho comic I did, the detailing that wasnt line was done using a variety of halftones of different shapes layered on top of each other

by contrast parts of my ace attorney comic use a textured brush and have a sort of blended, papery feel

any of them can work for pretty much anything as long as you are using it with intent. practice around. mix styles of finishing together. find a comfort zone. the more you do it the more intuitive it becomes and at the heart of it this process is a very intuitive way of drawing because of how far removed it is from realism.

Now here is the trick - light and shadow.

Everything up to this point has been very flat and adding detail helps but there’s only so much that can accomplish. To get HEAVY light and shadow you need to think about things differently. I think if there’s any part of this process that’s complicated, its this one. 

To truly get the most out of your palette, you need to pick chunks of an image to be in higher/lower light and then either ‘step up’ or ‘step down’ the colors in that chunk. here’s what I mean.

Here’s our ball with a beam of light on it. Everything Within the beam of light is one step in our limited palette lighter than anything outside of it. Here’s how I go about doing this: the shape of the beam of light is below everything else. Then, once I have the shape blocked out, i select it. With that selection in place, i go to EVERY SINGLE LAYER that’s effected, lock the opacity, and recolor that chunk. So what’s going on here is that there is only one more layer - the beam of light, below everything but the background, and the rest of this effect is just caused by every layer above it now being two-toned following the exact same silhouette. THIS is why it’s so important to keep your layers separate - if the shadow and highlight had been painted onto the base directly, i would not be able to do this without significant effort. 

This works with all of the finishing techniques I talked about above

A combination of cel shading and half toning, all stepped up to give the appearance of heavier light on one area.This is also how I go about rendering transparency in this style. All of my layers are fully opaque and I allow the colors to do the work of conveying transparent material

Here’s our ball with the patterned/textured brush  shading, being viewed partially through a window

it’s obviously not a very representational way of working, but as long as your audience UNDERSTANDS what you’re trying to convey, then you’re executing it successfully.

So with that, now we’re gonna go and finish this drawing.

For this one, I decide a big central shadow is necessary. In the original thumbnail, he was backlit, which I still plan on doing, and that wouldn’t make sense without casting a shadow.

I’ve had to change the colors of some objects entirely in order to get this to work right. This is what I mean when I call this an intuitive process - some stuff felt weird, so I changed it. This also involves a bit of problem solving. The newspaper is now unable to be separated from his hand. Sometimes changing the color of an object makes that object look better, but ruins its relationship with the objects around it. It’s up to you to learn how to adjust and finagle things until you get it where you want.The paper he has and the napkin underneath it also all blend together now.

The next few parts of this process are REALLY just trial and error, where I toss a bunch of spaghetti at it until it works. It’s hard to decide what to screenshot, because I don’t know what will or will not be part of the finished drawing. To that end, you can watch the recording of this drawing here. This video isn’t edited at all so it contains a couple of minutes of really shitty sketching, and then all of the color thumbnailing work i did in the last post. Actually getting started on these final colors begins around the two minute mark. It is also sideways, I am sorry I don’t know why. 

Now, here you can see where I’ve more or less worked things out. His hand’s not on the cup anymore because my friend pointed out it didnt have an arm attached to it. I added some halftoning to make a gradiating effect in the sky and on the table to give the impression of a sunrise. His eyes are different but as of posting this, I don’t like them and am probably about to go back and change them again. The Cup now has a shadow and some rim lighting. His hand is in shadow. The stain on the napkin is big enough to define the edge of the paper on top of it.

Little things like that. 

The more you draw like this the more the way you need to think about your space becomes natural. I hope this helps and I wish you all the best of luck!

#long post #idk what to tag this yet again #reference #color theory #i guess

[swastikholidays]

15 Ways to Spend Less and Enjoy More

Life's more than just existing. One day it will vanish. Make sure it's worth living. Don't just exist. Live, enjoy, explore, thrive, Cherish your solitude. Do anything but let it produce joy, a sense of fulfillment.

Believe in miracles, experience wonders, do whatever it takes you to be happy and fulfilled. There is a saying, "Money doesn't buy happiness". Let me disagree and agree with it at the same time. When you are planning to relish the magical experience at Disneyland, nothing except money will let you live that moment.

But that doesn't mean you can't enjoy it at all without currencies. It takes a creative mind to think beyond exceptions and make life worth living. So, whenever next time you are out of budget but still want to seek that sense of fulfillment and happiness, scroll through fifteen unique options you can try your hands on.

1.  Play a Musical Instrument

What's more soothing than music? Music calms you in ways that are not easy to explain. Go for musical instrument sessions or take out your guitar or piano from the store and you are good to go. It won't cost a penny.

Image Source: shutterstock.com

Even if you are a newcomer, it's worth taking live sessions from YouTube and starting learning an instrument, so that whenever you are at a family dinner next time, you can showcase your skills to everyone, and more than that it will amaze you in unbelievable ways.

2. Walk by the Beach

Most of us are lucky to live by water which has amazing quality to soothe our senses. Try that early morning walk by the beach on the powdery sand or an evening walk by the water when moonlight is fully showing its effect inside the waves.

Image Source: Stocksy United

You can even spend a full day around it, experiencing sunbathing by laying your body on the sandy coastline. This soothing experience will pleasure you in ample ways and give you a sense of fulfillment.

3. Go Hiking

Though going for hiking tours will extract major currency out of your pocket, a nearby or city outskirts hilly landscape will not cost much. You can pack your bag, put all the necessary equipment in it from a water bottle to a small camping kit.

Image Source: Wallpapper Cave

It will grant you fitness as well as an amazing experience. Hike the top of the valley, place your camp there at night, and experience that beautiful morning from the hilltop.

4. Devour Chocolate Delicacy

Chocolate makes everything water. Its properties make it an addictive delicacy. Who doesn't love chocolate anyway? Whenever having a bad day or left with less money, do nothing but go to a store and buy chocolate to experience amazingness.

Image Source: The Chocolate Delicacy

A chocolate cake, truffle can do wonders because all you need is peace, love, and understanding, and a chocolate bar bigger than your head.

5. Family Picnic

A trip may sound like a costly affair but a picnic is a perfect example of enjoying more and spending less. Choose a nearby park or a peaceful location and go out on a family picnic.

Image Source: SheKnows

Pack all the food items, mouth-watering dishes to water or juice bottles, and make sure to pack a mat. Take a racket or a football or a cricket kit to enjoy more. Live, love and laugh, and be the best version of yourself.

6. Ride a Bike

There are days when we feel like being alone and going somewhere far where nothing chases us and no one except our company can be our companion. For those days, your bike can come to your rescue.

Image Source: Le Tour De India

Experience a bike tour to nearby areas while a soft breeze kisses your face and gives you a soothing feel. Sometimes we don't need a trip to enjoy ourselves more, a biking tour can be very touching. Just maintain safety and you will be on unexplored endeavors of life.

7. Explore Nearby Places

For how many years you have been living in a particular location and haven't explored the nearby locations. You may never know that there could be some hidden gems existing nearby your residence. It's way more adventurous than exploring a new destination, especially if you’re living in historic cities such as New Delhi or Hyderabad.

Image Source: Stocksy United

You can take your bestie with you and enjoy it to the fullest. You can begin from the backyard or a location on the outskirts of the city. Learn about historical monuments nearby or know about the total geography. It's up to your inner explorer to see whatever they want to gain.

8. Enjoy Happy Hours

It is a term used for the time when a particular restaurant or bar offers discounts on drinks. You can gain the maximum out of it if you plan accordingly. Just know when you need to enter a particular foodie joint and devour free appetizers and discounted menu items.

Image Source: Showbiz Cheat Sheet

Likewise, you can save money and enjoy the limited currency you have in your pocket. No matter how stressed you are throughout the day, the magic of happy hour will extract that from you and let you enjoy it amazingly.

9. Volunteer

The ultimate sense of fulfillment comes when you render exceptional services for your countrymen. Join an NGO or volunteer for social service to contribute even your bit to society. You never know a little contribution from your side can be a lifesaver for another person.

Image Source: The Town of Edson

Enjoying not only means fulfilling yourself or doing things which can benefit only you, sometimes the real sense of enjoyment can be felt when you see someone else smile because of you and let them attain what they deserve.

10. Adopt a Hobby

Routine tasks are good, there's nothing wrong with doing productive work but adopting a hobby and practicing it on a daily or weekly basis will not cost you anything. It will make you feel peaceful and accomplished.

Image Source: Mantelligence

It can be anything from listening to music, dancing to your favorite tune, or cooking new dishes. When you know that you have things to do even on free days, you will never feel bored or feel like planning something extraordinary and a hobby doesn't cost much but your skills and time.

11. Exercise Outdoors

Hitting the gym could be part of your routine but working on your fitness outdoors can be a day challenge or an activity for the days when you are planning to enjoy in a real sense. Get up early in the morning and choose a nearby park or backyard lawn to practice fitness.

Image Source: NBC News

Soothing breeze, early morning rays of sun touching your face will do wonders for your health in and out. Going to the gym for fitness may cost much but doing the same exercises outdoors won't cost anything plus will also give you a real sense of accomplishment.

12. Karaoke Sessions

Clean your backyard first thing in the morning and decorate it well for evening karaoke sessions with delicious barbecue plans. This is a luxurious and in-budget experience at the same time. It could be whole family fun or just you and your small fam jam.

Image Source: CTV News Vencouver

Dress well, take pictures, record videos & live music sessions. A perfect evening time with family can turn out to be worth relishing. Relive the moments and enjoy to the fullest while your expenses can be controlled.

13. Visit Your Village

Your busy routine might not have allowed you to meet your grandparents and go to your village. Give yourself a change of scene and experience beautiful natural surroundings while you can devour mouth-watering cuisines prepared by your grandma.

Image Source: Kerala Tourism

Take a jungle safari with grandpa or learn from his hunting skills to enjoy as much as you can. Learn the art of cooking healthy dishes from them and spend some fun-filled time. Nothing can make you feel happier than your village tour and meeting your grandparents.

14. Find a Nearby Library

What's more soothing to a book lover than visiting the library and surrounding yourself with multiple books and that exotic smell of books can do wonders to your mind. You can enjoy the maximum and your whole day can be fun-filled with multiple books.

Image Source: Bluesyemre

Explore several pieces of work in a nearby library of the town and you never know which historical piece you may lay your hands on which can turn out to be a huge add-on for your knowledge bank. Don't forget to make a library card so that whenever you feel the urge to get surrounded by books, you don't have to think much.

15. Surf the Waves

Surfing doesn't mean only buying or renting expensive boards. Just surf through your body while taking precautions to not go deep. Equip yourself with a pair of swim fins to aid propulsion. This adventurous experience can be an add-on for your skillset as well as soothing for your senses.

Image Source: Offshore Surf School

Whenever next time you want to feel rich and have the urge to earn more for happiness, just count the things that money can't buy and experience to your fullest.

If you have any question regarding this wonderland – do email us and I will be happy to answer any of your queries or any travel package.

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#15 WAYS TO ENJOY AT LOW BUDGET #15 WAYS TO Travel AT LOW BUDGET #FIFTEEN UNIQUE WAYS FOR HAPPINESS #UNIQUE OPTIONS TO ENJOY AT LOW BUDGET #Travel