fuck your fourth wall

I grew up in a triangular house

[weirdchristmas]

[dduane]

…I’ll always reblog the frog.

[actual-lich-queen]

Counterpoint: Matsumoto Hoji, active c. 1875

[empresstress13]

That’s a compelling counterpoint

[markscherz]

Another by Itō Jakuchu. Truly this genre is some of the greatest art of the last two centuries.

[friendlyneighborhoodseamonster]

Functional website

[markscherz]

Ever seen frog art so good it’s too dangerous for under-18s to see?

[huefaced-deactivated20240114]

I don’t know who needs to hear this, but reminder that you didn’t choose to play life on hard mode. You didn’t choose for “simple” or “small” things to be so excruciating or overwhelming to you: No one would choose that. You are doing what you can, all while bearing a tremendous burden on your back. You are so strong, and I’m proud of you for making it this far.

[johnnyjoestarrelatable]

rb if you’re a bi bitch who loves carbs

[fruitpeels]

A day in the life of gods strongest soldier

[fruitpeels]

You're right they should be transparent and in color

[halflifegifs]

someday im gonna wake up and everything is gonna look like this

[paper-mario-wiki]

earth post-rapture

[pangur-and-grim]

I was reading this shitty horror novella, and one detail that really stuck out to me is that this girl main character (who wore a nightgown throughout) was surprised by her period, and out of shame took off her soiled underwear and hid them. this wasn’t her first period or anything, it just caught her off guard. which, sure, that happens. but she then proceeded to walk around the house underwearless for the rest of the novella. I was reading this like………so is she just freebleeding??? is she leaving a trail everywhere she goes? what’s happening here? is the nightgown white? is she bleeding up the place in her white nightgown while everyone else is too polite to comment on it? she has multiple conversations with other people. are they blind? do they not care? is this normal?

after I finished the book I looked up the author, and it was a cis dude. that was a big ohhhh moment. like he just didn’t know…..that he wrote a novella about a freebleeder. he didn’t know that he was creating this insanity-inducing situation with no explanation. but did his editor not know? did nobody who initially read it know? why didn’t they know? what’s happening?

[pangur-and-grim]

this is what I imagine the house looked like by the end of the novella

[prokopetz]

Today's aesthetic: when a video game does the YOU DIED thing, but the developers neglected to give the baddies a victory pose, or even provide their AI with any sort of general script for what to do when the player character ceases to be a valid target, so they just keep milling around periodically attacking the air three feet above your character's prone corpse until the screen fades out.

[prokopetz]

(Bonus points for the ones that will knock you into some lethal hazard, killing you instantly, then proceed to conga-line into that exact same hazard and die themselves because their code prioritises "get within punching range of the player character" above "living".)

[cormorant-red]

how to erase pencil guidelines from under ink

1. wait until you’re absolutely sure the ink is dry

2. wrong

[tiktoks-for-dead-pope]

[creacher-feature]

[vinitile-deactivated20210311]

Hi!! Reblogging this a second time to inform everyone theyre nonbinary!! They use they/them pronouns!! (also check them out on tiktok their videos are wonderful)

[creepymutelilbugger]

saw this weird bug on the wall can anybody tell me what it is ? thanks

[tooies]

when a pelican bites you there's no malice in their eyes. they aren't upset at you. they are just hungry and want to see if you fit in their mouths. and if you don't then it's no problem and everything is fine. and if you do then well i guess your fate is sealed but that's ok it's a beautiful animal

[marlynnofmany]

Okay, see, I knew about the capybara gif:

But I didn’t know that they really are That Dense, All The Time. The same way sharks will bite anything that might be a seal, just in case, these birdbrains will apparently test just about anything for beak size. 

Behold a short list of bad ideas:

Human foot is not food, bird.

That is clearly bigger than your entire body.

...You do know what a bear cub is, right? Right??

That is a BICYCLE SEAT.

That’s it; arrested for bird crimes.

[prokopetz]

Crushing on a fictional character specifically in an "I want to suck their dick" way is inconvenient as hell. Like, at least an aesthetic attraction for a fictional character is actionable: the aesthetic qualities that draw you to them exist and can be engaged with. What are you going to do about a fictitious penis? At least half the time there isn't any textual evidence that they even have one, and if they do, so what? You're not gonna suck that dick – it's ephemeral, my dude. The dick is a lie.

[prokopetz]

My shit idiot brain: I want their dick in my mouth right now.

The cruel lash of material reality:

[thebibliosphere]

So, I'm playing the new map on Medieval Dynasty as a woman (because they finally decided to let you play as a woman), and I was curious how the pregnancy dynamic was going to work because historically, in the game, when your wife gets pregnant, she goes on an 18-year maternity leave until your kid is grown, and I was like, well I'm the main character, so what's going to happen?

Am I just not going to be able to work or complete quests while I run around after my kiddo? Surely not. That'd be ludicrous. I wonder how they'll handle this...

Well, they handled it. They handled it by making my husband pregnant.

My beloved lumberjack husband, Teodoryk, is with child and very happy about it.

This game went from "you can't play as a woman because it's historically inaccurate" to "we're not going to fix the ridiculous game dynamic of an 18-year maternity leave, but we will make it so you can get your husband pregnant instead."

Incredible. Fully headcanoning this as a t4t marriage in 11th century Poland. I can't wait to meet our beautiful child. I will, however, be hiring a new lumberjack because I am not cutting down trees for the next 18 years. Fuck that. I've got wolves to fist-fight in the woods.

[thebibliosphere]

Also, I just want to clarify in case the tone of the post wasn't clear: men being pregnant isn't the funny part. That's normal.

The funny part is that this game was so heavily cis and heteronormative and vaguely misogynistic, but when faced with correcting a glaring oversight in the game mechanic that people have been complaining about for years, they decided to accidentally say "trans rights" instead because it was easier than correcting the 18-year maternity leave.

Anyway. I need someone to mod this so you can have same-sex partners. I want to build the first literal gay village in history. And then we're going to kill the King.

[thebibliosphere]

Announcing our beautiful baby, Wolfram, born on the first day of Autumn. Both father and baby are doing well.

I'm gonna go fight a bear that's harassing some beehives to celebrate, as is traditional.

[anexperimentallife]

[paper-mario-wiki]

"south dakota" is the only state with 2 words making up its name

[rubensmuse]

[artfromsaturn]

Collection of Free Art Tutorials

I don't usually make text post on this blog, but a nice artist I know was asking for tutorials a while back and I forgot to send some to them while in school. So here's a post on it since it's easiest to grab and go this way. :)

This list focuses on the basics. I'm focusing on the foundations of art, so medium is generally irrelevant and you can use physical or digital with these. You'll have to google more specific tutorials on things like character design and such.

One of the biggest pieces of advice I can give to you is strangely, introduce things to yourself one at a time. In art class, we took whole topics week by week. For high school, we did a few exercises then spent a week drawing/painting and doing your piece(s). For basic art 1 & 2 in college, we did 1-2 exercises and then did 1-2 drawings, followed by HW (which we turned in next week) and sketchbook practice (which she'd check at midpoints). For basic art lessons with a tutor, we did practice then our own art. You can see the pattern here - the point is don't be distressed if you don't get everything at once, or the lesson in 2 weeks, or the lesson in 3 years - we practice and do a lot over time, and you'll pick up on things you need to improve naturally and through help with others. Take time to be proud of your art in mini steps too, even if it's not the best! You tried and attempting to climb an obstacle over and over again before finally leapfrogging it is still progress to it.

Overall tutorials:

DrawABox.com is a site that's dedicated to art exercises and practicing when you can. They talk about the basics of art as well as how practice is important. It can get tough at times and it's ok to stop and do a balance of say those practices and doodles if you choose to try and do all of it's stuff - but you don't have to either. It's just a nice basic education done by some art nerds who like going hard.

Ethering Brothers - these guys are famous for their 40billion tutorials. If you need help on a specific idea, search their gallery and you'll likely find something.

Thundercluck's Art Fundamentals - She did a good huge ass tutorials on how things work, and it's the least overwhelming of the 3 I got in this section, so I suggest it as one of the first to look at for digital stuff.

Art Instructions Blog - Another good & simpler website that goes great into fundamentals. They focus more on traditional art but if you're digital, you can replicate most of the techniques - art fundamentals and subjects cover all mediums. Very important

Drawsh - Particularly notes on Construction: construction is the basics of building an illusion of a 3D image on a page. Figuring out how to build shape gives depth to your work, and learning how to see in 3D lets you be able to draw an item then move it around in your head (sometimes, when you're good enough, don't be afraid to pull out a reference or use live subjects). Construction is how to figure out the foundation of your drawing, and good planning = better picture! This link starts at the back, hit newer post to go forward.

There's a lot on anatomy and other nitty gritty details for when you want to practice those as well.

Griz and Norm's Assorted tips - Long time artist talk about various tips and tricks they use in art and how to avoid certain pitfalls. It's eclectic but great to look through.

James Gurney's Blog - He's got a lot of thoughts, a lot of tips, and a lot of adventures he catalogues. It's the least organized out of these but fortunately he has plenty of tags and most post have something neat going on. He's fantastic!🥰

BEFORE ALL OTHER BASICS….

How to Make Your Art Look Nice: Mindset

There's a lot of artist with different perspectives on how to approach art and your mindset while doing it, but the general consensus is that it's a process and sometimes you have to remind yourself to enjoy art!

Line

How to draw straight lines without a ruler. …but for the love of all that's good do NOT feel bad about using one! This talks about how to hold your pencil and how to do some good freehand stuff, some good practice.

5 grips for holding a Pencil for Drawing - This goes for pencil, pen, tablet, etc.. Get comfortable and figure out what's right for you and your pictures. I'd like to note that paintbrush holding will overlap, but some will differ.

A few line drawing exercises that help with line confidence.

Types of line drawings & what they are.

Contour Line & exercises with Mrs. Cook - Contour lines are one of the first art exercises I do in all the drawing classes I've taken. The good news is that they're surprisingly fun & look neat, even the blind contours!

Good deep thoughts on lines and how to use them.

Line Weight Tutorial

Lineart Weight Tips!

How to show variation in your line art: part 1 & part 2.

Some teacher's Drawing 1 & 2 lessons put online.

Light, Shadow, & Value

An introduction to tonal values.

Why values are important. The main reasons are that they give depth to a piece, and values literally shape our world.

Tonal Values: Everything you need to know

How does light work & the basics on Light

Light & Shadow in Art - much more in depth of the above! Highly recommended if you have time to spare.

Understanding grayscale/monochrome art. Great for shading & planning.

A guide to Cross Hatching (and hatching in general) - As a side note, crosshatching is one of the early things taught as it marries Line + Value into a nice neat package and helps add form with just a pen.

Crosshatching for Comics

Learn more about coloring by working in grayscale

How to Make Your Art Look Nice - Contrast!

Using lighting to make your art look nice.

Some light & shadow classifications.

Edges - notes on how they work in shading.

Color

A side note - color theory doesn't differ much, but color MIXING will change between mediums. If you're doing traditional colored pencil, you're overlapping 2 or more pigments on top of each other. If you're doing traditional paint, you're mixing & creating a solution/emulsion (depends on the pigment and binding) of pigments with the particles reflecting light in different ways. In digital, overlapping colors & blending colors depend on how the program you use calculates it if you're not just putting 2 color side by side. This just means you have to adjust your mixing when you switch between them. :)

Slawek Fedorczuk's Light & Color Tips - also shows how to guide through a scene.

The Color Tutorial Part 1 & 2 by Sashas - A personal favorite.

Color Studies 1-6 by Sheri Doty Amazingly nice breakdown on how color works in simple terms.

Sarah Culture's Tips on Color

The value of underpainting

A few notes on reflective light.

Experimental color techniques with Alai Ganuza: first post, second, & third.

Color zones of the face charts

Composition

Good Tips on Composition

Here's an example of how you can search the Etherington Brothers' stuff and get like 10 tutorials and tips on one subject. Composition & Cover Design, Shadow Composition, Two Line Composition - plus more.

How to make your art look nice: Thumbnailing!

And don't be afraid to make silly thumbnails or sketches.

Composition Examples - charts like these are great when you can't think of something yourself. There's no shame in using them.

Flow and Rhythm

Formulas for landscape composition.

Perspective

Perspective Drawing Tutorial by Julie Duell

Linear & Atmospheric Perspective Guide

One Point Perspective City Tut by Swingerzetta

Niso Explains Perspective - these are great for drawing figures in perspective!

Putting characters into scenes and drawing backgrounds

Backgrounds that make your character stand out!

Using background detail to guide the eye.

Odds and Ends

I shit you not, probably 1/3rd of my color, value, & structure knowledge comes from pixel art since I've done so much of it and it is all about challenging yourself to do the most you can with limitations. Check out lospec's tutorial database for fun and see how it compares to art techniques you're doing - even if you never try a medium, it's always interesting to see how it works. :D

How to Make Your Art Look Nice: Reference Images & Style, Pushing Proportions, and developing style.

Foervraengd talks about how he expanded his comfort zone with concept art & landscape drawing.

Luna Art talks about what they're thinking when doing concept art.

Repeating visual motifs in character design looks cool.

Eric's Thoughts on Drawing Backgrounds and Props.

Show vs. Tell: Why Visual is Not Optional in comics.

The Lost Vocabulary of Visual Story Telling Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, & Day 4.

Traditional Animation's 2 Digital Library books, The Know-How of Cartooning by Ken Hultgren & Advanced Animation by Preston Blair are two books from the golden age of animation they have up on their site for free viewing!

Animation resources dot org has a lot of cool stuff. Here's Nat Falk's How to Make Animated Cartoons (part 1). Their pages on Instruction & Theory are a good start.

Books

Good news: the internet archive has a TON of resources. Make sure to check around and toggle filters, it's a bit weird with organization. For example, a book can be under art or drawing - techniques, depending on who catalogues it.

Andrew Loomis is someone artist tend to die-hard reccomend. His work is collected here & here on the internet archive (one is Andrew Loomis, the other is Loomis, Andrew - thanks). I own Figure Drawing for All It's Worth and I recommend checking all of his stuff out, especially if you're having trouble with bodies and hands.

The Animator's Survival Guide by Richard Williams is mandatory in animation classes for good reason - it's fantastic!

Perspective for Comic Book Artist by David Chelsea is great for any type of artist. So is Extreme Perspective & Perspective in Action.

Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics, Reinventing Comics, & Making Comics. The first one is on the internet archive, the second two are likely avaliable at your library or at a bookstore as they're pretty popular.

Speaking of comics, Drawing Comics the Marvel Way has been a favorite of comic artist for years no matter what comic book companies and artist you like, it's a good introduction.

Anything by or endorsed by James Gurney, Color and Light: A Guide for the Realistic Painter is one of my favorites (this is his official page but you can get them elsewhere for cheaper too).

Art resource blogs with good tagging systems: @artist-refs , @help-me-draw , @helpfulharrie , @art-res , @drawingden , & @how-to-art

Lastly, I suggest if you find something you like online for free, SAVE IT! Whether it is through the Wayback Machine, screenshotting a whole webpage, reblogging/retweeting something, or putting it on pinterest, digital media is fickle and tends to go up in smoke when you least expect it. I have a partially organized Pinterest board that helped me find most of the stuff I wanted to keep. Figure out what works for you and save what you can.

[art-res]

Thanks for the mention and putting this together! @artfromsaturn

[ad-wills]