tiiredcollegestudent

[tiiredcollegestudent]

So I wanted to know what kind of crystal could go in a wizard staff, right? so I googled “big crystal,” as one does, and got an Etsy ad for This

And as you all know I Am currently taking a geology class, so I am probably more emotionally invested in minerals than usual. But that is...very obviously not a natural crystal.

So I did some looking around on Etsy.

Now, these shops all seem to advertise to the “witchy”/“spiritual healing” type of person. And there are a lot of them. Crystals are a Big Thing on Etsy. And ALMOST ALL of them are obviously artificially cut into the same sort of prism with a triangular pyramid top, regardless of the actual sort of crystal it is supposed to be.

Even like, fucking, obsidian. Obsidian is volcanic glass, it doesn’t form crystals at all, it is not a crystal

I’m not throwing any shade at people who are into crystals for like witchy reasons, but it really seems like if crystals are spiritually important to you, you should know what a crystal is...right...?

[tiiredcollegestudent]

is this orange or yellow.

[tiiredcollegestudent]

How do you start with an original project and get people interested in it?

Honestly I might not be the best person to ask! O: Feathers and Flowers is my very first og project that has no ties to school and is entirely based on my own want to make it, so I’m a little new at it too. But based on what I know from making AUs plus the experiences I’ve had with F&F thus far, I guess my biggest three tips are:

-Make a project you yourself would be super down for if you were the audience. It’s always good to be aware of what your potential audience likes, of course, but ultimately it’s you who will be making the story, the art, the writing, the characters, everything that has to do with a project. May as well make it about something you personally care about and enjoy! Doesn’t have to be anything super groundbreaking or deep either; maybe you just really wanna make a comic about a dog. Make it! owo

-Don’t skimp on the prep work; I’m talkin the pre-development stage, which includes: initial concept/idea, brainstorming, character design and creation, set design, scriptwriting, outlining, so on. How you go about it depends largely on how you work best as a creator, but I highly recommend sitting down once every so-often and try to hash out what you’re story’s about, how you’re gonna be telling your story, and the steps you’re gonna take to make that a reality. When I first started making F&F I legit had no real direction outside “demon gf in human world”. For that it helped me start the story, but it left me a little aimless until I sat down and tried to figure out what was the biggest and most important things I wanted from the story on all fronts: how the characters evolved, the themes of the story, the medium I told it in, so on. That and several rewrites later led me to the story I currently have and am currently very pleased with, regardless of the fine-tuning it might still need. uwu

Personal tip here that I’ve learned from building AUs: building the world around the characters might be easier than doing the worldbuilding first, then putting characters in it. I say this specifically because the characters are generally what drives the story forward, so tailoring a world that fits their agency and requirements helps single out things you need to develop in the world to make it work, and leave the extra fluff out of it. For instance: if you’re character’s a dragon you might get into how the world perceives and reacts to dragons, but in the same breath you do not need to know how dragons came to exist in the world unless that specifically has a bearing on your story. If it doesn’t, don’t worry about it. 

-Talk about it! Easiest way you can get folks to care about any project you make, OG or otherwise, is talking about it! Show how much you care about the stories and characters, show off the characters with artwork or written one-shots, post a bit about the lore, share your thoughts, just.... talk about it. No one will care if they don’t know what in the world you’re making, and that’ll only happen if you’re willing to share it in the first place. So don’t be afraid to start posting even if the product isn’t “finished”; let your audience get to know the characters and the world they live in, answer questions, put the effort in. And try not to get discouraged when traction doesn’t immediately take: OG projects are notoriously more challenging than fandom stuff because it’s completely new characters, stories, worlds, something you’ll have to show to people while Fandom content has the advantage of folks knowing much of what they need to know about the characters and such, so therefore it’s easier and far more familiar to delve into.

Hopefully some of this is at least a little helpful! owo

[tiiredcollegestudent]

I'm not sure if you've ever answered this but i'm curious as to how you start designing characters. I'm trying to learn how to "properly" design characters so to speak. Like, what's the first step you take? Do you already have an idea of what you want in mind? Or do you just try to find a general idea of what you want?

I’ve answered a similar question quite a few times in the past, but that’s okay, I never mind answering! :3 So first and foremost, I’d dare say that there isn’t necessarily a proper way to design characters. Like everything art, it’s different depending on the artist, so your process will always be a little different from someone else’s and that’s entirely fine.

There are general ways and common processes taken to design a character though, such as industry-standard processes and such. Pretty sure what I was taught in college is that process, but how I go about it might be different than what the actual industry (game, movies, animation, whatever it is) itself does.

SO! with that said, these are my tips based on my personal way of designing characters:

1. Figure out who your character is. You don’t even have to know the nuances of your character’s personality, all you need is at least a vague idea of who you want the character to be. Like, are they a friendly character? Mean? Do they have a theme you wanna follow like, winter themed, wolf themed, steampunk themed? What I personally like to do for both my own characters and for commissioned character designs is getting at least 3 important traits your character must have represented in their design. For me when I design my personal characters, that often boils down to: their most core personality traits (often no more than 3 words), their job, occupation, or theme, and their name.

These traits are important to me because I’m of the idea that a design should tell you what your character is all about; to some extent you should be able to get summarized feel of who your character is from the design alone, and you won’t be able to get that if you have no idea who they are at at least the surface level.

2. Gather References. I’ll say it over and over again, references are important no matter what you’re doing. In terms of character design, I always gather up stuff that pertain to the design I wanna make; I gather photos that fit the themes and looks of the character I’m designing, a few existing designs that sorta relate to the look I want the character to have, some poses that might fit the character, anything I think will help me. I don’t usually exceed more than 15 images though, mostly because I try to keep everything as simplified as I can.

3. Do silhouette variations before you do any design finalization. While nuanced design of a character is important, I’m of the mind that the silhouette is arguably the most important part of the design. Silhouette is important because its what makes the character distinct and easy to pick out, especially in crowds or even simply alone. That’s why characters like Bugs Bunny, or Micky Mouse, or Bart Simpson are so recognizable; you’ll know who they are even if their entire design is blocked out.

There’s no right or wrong way to do silhouette but the one thing I’d advise is to work as quickly and as simplistically as possible. WORK ROUGH. DO NOT worry about super intricate details here; the point is to find the character, not make it look pretty. Think of these as thumbnails, but for a character.

I’d also suggest to work with more than just one silhouette; make at least 3-6 variations before you settle on one. While you might end up going with your first design, after consideration, it’s a far better idea to see variations of the same concept before you choose. It’ll give you a chance to come up with an even better design than the very first one you etched out.

-Do color variations. Color language us just as important as the shape language and overall design itself, so after you’ve gotten a silhouette and design you wanna stick with I recommend playing around with their colors before you settle. Like the silhouette part, do at least 3-6 minimum, and don’t be afraid to do little variations of one color scheme you like the most. Color Theory applies here but despite me knowing how to use it I’m admittingly bad at explaining, so I’ll leave it at this. I’m sorry ;w;

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Hope this helps a little bit! owo

[tiiredcollegestudent]

orpheus this, eurydice that. what about ME

[tiiredcollegestudent]

Me: I want to draw something breathtaking

My brain, in its infinite wisdom: Ferret, but longer

[tiiredcollegestudent]

made some fight music in case any of y’all wanna kick Santa’s ass this year

[tiiredcollegestudent]

[tiiredcollegestudent]

THE ORIGINAL BENDERS

[tiiredcollegestudent]

The Walls of Ba Sing Se and the (historic) Sinocentric World Perception

“This is why I never came here before. I’ve heard it was so different from the way the monks taught us to live” -Aang

The Walls of Ba Sing Se are a physical representation of the Sinocentric system (see picture above).

The Sinocentric system was a hierarchical system of international relations that prevailed until the end of Imperial China. It established Imperial China as the center of the world and civilization, and the Emperor as the lawful and legitimate ruler of the whole world (lands all under heaven or 天下 tianxia).

Neighboring countries were categorized as varying degrees of civilized/ barbarian, depending on their proximity, relations to and similarity to Imperial China itself. It defined Japan, Korea, the Ryūkyū Kingdom, and Vietnam as vassals of the Emperor of China (huangdi). 

Areas outside the Sinocentric influence were called Huawaizhidi (化外之地), meaning uncivilized lands.

The walls of Ba Sing Se, with their Agrarian Ring, Lower Ring, Middle Ring and Upper Ring and the corresponding class divide, reflect this world view.

Image source: One

[tiiredcollegestudent]

[tiiredcollegestudent]

i just feel like there’s a lot of great moments from gen 2s young lives and i for one would like to see them

Lees verder

[tiiredcollegestudent]

[tiiredcollegestudent]

Oh do I have a story...

in my 19 year of life, I have never been cat called, so let me tell you my surprise, a girl with hairy arms, messy blue hair and an undercut, how weird it was to try and pass two dudes who told me my hair looked pretty, to which I smiled, thanked and passed them, to then hear them say my butt didn’t look wrong either...

And you know what I felt? validation

validation that to those men, I didn’t look ugly. and just like with OP, it fucked me up

the thing about being someone who’s never catcalled is that you start to wonder why like is it because im ugly???

and then you realize that youre judging your worth by whether or not you are objectifiable to a man and thats so fucked up like honestly its so fucked up 

but the worst part about the patriarchy is that it still sits at the back of your mind regardless like “nobody thinks youre pretty because they dont see you as a sex object” like somehow thats a desirable thing and it fucks me up

#doesnt help that im gay

[tiiredcollegestudent]

not so friendly reminder with diwali coming up that the swastika (swuhs-theek-ahh) is of vedic origin, and it's a symbol of well-being, auspiciousness, and prosperity in hinduism, jainism, and buddhism. it's still common in nepal, mongolia, china, japan, and, most famously, india.

it's been around since 500 BC, and germany appropriated it, making it a symbol of hate.

the symbol on the right? THIS is not offensive. it's stolen culture. please be fully informed before you make any accusations this upcoming holiday season.

[tiiredcollegestudent]

The Fire Lord.

[tiiredcollegestudent]

current mood

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