ArtfulFable

29, oc artist and writer

[kiwibee]

🌿🌾 Dex and Mosscap - from A Psalm for the Wild Built

[rederiswrites]

Just watched Adam Conover (of Adam Ruins Everything) make such a solid point that I think we should spread far and wide. Yes, having AI write your emails is lazy, sure, but people love being lazy. We need to really emphasize that sending AI emails (or using AI responses on social media, or publishing AI flyers, or or or) is rude.

It's rude. You're making someone take their time to read something you couldn't bother to write. You're telling them they were so unimportant you couldn't be bothered to actually take the time to say something yourself. And frankly, you're lying about it while you're at it.

It's rude.

[katsdom]

The above is doubly true if the content of the email is something that will be important to the person receiving - especially something that affects them negatively. They see that this thing that affected them so much didn't matter enough to you to write it yourself. I was a bystander to such a thing not long ago and it was just awful.

[fthgurdy]

RUDE!!! that is so very much it.

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

If I may offer the lecturer's perspective on this idea:

Currently, it's marking season for us in the UK. I have an exam board in four hours, in fact, which is where we all go over every profile of every student on our courses, see what results they've achieved, and work out their "decision" - if all is well, the decision is to let them continue the course, or the final degree grade calculated if they're in final year. If it hasn't gone well, the decision is about whether they get to rework the pieces that failed, resit exams, repeat the whole year, or be required to withdraw.

And, as has been the case for the last two years, the profiles are now littered with plagiarism investigations. Every one of those - every single one - will have come in as an assignment that the lecturer received, and started reading, and then with a sinking feeling thought "This isn't your work." Every one had to go to an academic misconduct hearing. Every one is an enormous draw on time and resources, including the emotional reserves of the lecturer.

And I know that's not the main issue! I know in the grand scheme of things, our feelings aren't the most important part of this equation! But as we're talking about rudeness, let me explain:

Firstly, the work itself. You begin reading, you see it's AI. Contractually, we have to read it anyway, and give feedback on why it's shit, and what makes it bad, and that is absolutely fucking soul destroying. Most students who use AI are doing so because they've managed to train their brains to find reading something boring abhorrent, and they want to skip that part; but a ChatGPT-generated report is bland, vague, and utterly devoid of any passion, insight or personality. In short, it's boring. You simply passed your boredom on to us.

Secondly, regardless of your personal feelings about the assignment, it at least had a purpose. It was there to stretch you, and make you think about the topic so you could learn about it, and to test that learning so we can all make sure you have actually learned what you need to. But the slop you handed in, that I now have to mark? What's the point? Literally what is the fucking point of me marking it? You didn't even write it. None of the feedback I'm obligated to give means anything to you. I'm marking ChatGPT, and it can't read.

Which means, not only is it fucking boring, it's actively pointless. Ask anyone in the world what a boring but pointless obligatory task does to your mood. Imagine that.

Thirdly, the misconduct hearing. Because listen, again, the lecturer's feelings here are, once again, not the main point. Students who cheat like this aren't doing so because life is hunky dory. They're stressed and overwhelmed and struggling, and they think they've found a magic way out, and so being pulled into a misconduct hearing - where the best they can hope for is to have to redo the whole piece for a capped mark, on top of all the rest of the work they have (functionally, a bonus assignment), and the worst is expulsion - is a mental breakdown-inducing experience. That, obviously, is the biggest issue.

But, the lecturers know all that, which means we know what we're triggering if we do report it. I cannot tell you how upsetting it is to receive a slop assignment, realise what it is, and then have to make the call to report it. I know damn well how upsetting that's going to be for you. I know how stressful and painful that's going to be. I know this might mean you're going to be thrown out of university. In some cases, I know it means you will be.

I know I could look the other way to spare you that

And oh, that gets tempting. When things are really bad for you, and I see you struggling, and this is your third strike; fuck me but it's tempting to pretend that I can't tell.

I cannot do that.

Which brings me to number four: the soul-bleachingly fucking horrible ordeal that is the misconduct hearing itself. Most people are non-confrontational; I'm no exception. I also simply do not enjoy a sobbing, panicking student sitting in front of me, telling me about how stressed and scared they are and how they're terrified they're going to fail. But that's how these things go.

Our most recent example is an international Masters student. I don't know the particulars for him; but I do know it's not uncommon in his part of the world for families to go into obscene debt, often to loan sharks, to send their kids to UK universities. Failure means more than just academia for him. Having to sit through him turning white and quietly begging us to give him another chance before he left in tears he tried to hide from us was, obviously, much worse for him than us; but it was honestly traumatic. Even now, two weeks later, I can't get it out of my head. There's nothing we can do; but, I feel guilty anyway. I could have looked the other way.

(It wouldn't have passed anyway. It was terrible. But at least he'd probably be allowed a resit - we're still waiting on the outcome of this one, but he may well be withdrawn)

To bring this back to the point of the post:

I know my feelings aren't really the ones that matter here. I do know that. But, every time a student chooses to use AI to write an assignment, all that is what happens behind the scenes. My job nosedives into being shit. Whether it's reading the boring slop, having to write pointless feedback, or making the upsetting decisions to report it when I know what the consequences will be and then having to deal with the guilt, my job that I love suddenly becomes shit. And that, actually, among the many other things it is, is fucking rude.

[broncoburro]

With his best (and only) friend gone, an eighteen-year-old Lucas struggles to right himself from an emotional tailspin. He finds company in his late-night wandering... as well as a peculiar sense of deja vu. Whether this goes anywhere good remains to be seen!

(These characters are from Forever Gold. Itaja is set to appear in Episode 5!)

[grendel-menz]

In the dark, the deer mistook my headlights for stars

[pibgeonart]

sphinxes in my toon boom

[marsoid]

Outing my OCs for pride month… [webcomic] [patreon]

[incaseyouart]

catharsis

(i had a bad day bc last night my insta and fb accounts were randomly flagged and disabled, and the appeal protocol is literally just me giving them more personal data (phone number, email, and a video selfie) and it felt so violating and stressful, bc if it didn't work, i'd have been permanently locked out. also, i performed in an aerial hammock + silks showcase saturday night that almost went *very* badly for me, and then turned out okay, so trust, I felt the entire emotional spectrum)

these scenes in the PHM movie are heart-wrenching, and rylan gosling did a fantastic job

text is from the book

[renal03421]

Distinguishing features and communications of Mollarens

Will be supplemented and edited!!

The Mollarens are slender reptilian beings with elongated torsos and powerful digitigrade hind limbs, counterbalanced by a long tail, whose aerodynamic silhouette is perfectly adapted to life across the relentless deserts of Ta'arrik. Their skin carries a distinct purple undertone, generated by a natural UV-filtering pigment that shields their tissues from the harsh stellar radiation of their homeworld, while their base coloration diverges sharply along sexual lines: males exhibit light sandy-beige tones with softened striping, ideal for daylight camouflage on open dunes, whereas females display a darker charcoal-gray palette with high-contrast patterns that dissolve into the shadows of rocky crevices and canyon floors. Their elongated skulls, streamlined by aerodynamic crests, bear vivid pigment markings that function as dynamic visual signals; males feature red-orange stripes above the brow that deepen in saturation during arousal or agitation, while females carry saturated yellow triangular accents above the eyes paired with cool blue cheek markings, highly legible against their darker backgrounds. In place of conventional forelimbs, two flexible muscular hydrostat manipulators emerge from the upper chest, draped in fine, highly sensitive scales, with males displaying a faint greenish luminescence at the appendage bases and females showing a rich pink-purple hue that reinforces their overall photoprotective pigmentation. Tucked beside these structures are barely perceptible vestigial claws, evolutionary echoes of ancestral limbs, while the manipulators themselves capable of rapid color shifts and precise tip deformation serve not only as the primary medium of their gestural language but also as living canvases for broadcasting subtle emotional states, making the Mollarens physiology simultaneously utilitarian, deeply communicative, and seamlessly woven into the stark, nomadic rhythm of their world.

The Mollarens are an emerging civilization currently at a Copper Age level of development. Their society is characterized by constant migration and nomadic movement, as the ever-changing environment of Ta'arrik prevents them from establishing permanent settlements. Their sign language is deeply symbolic, supplemented by chromatic facial displays that convey emotional states. They possess a written tradition, with chronicles preserved on processed membranes harvested from specialized fungal species. As omnivores, the Mollarens employ a complex multi-modal communication system that combines visual signals, substrate-borne vibrations, and rapid contraction of pigment cones for instantaneous expression. Their material culture includes sophisticated weaving and sewing techniques, clay sculpture, and pigment-based art.

[dovegraveyard]

My current size diff obsession

[littlestpersimmon]

Please help me go into remission from Type II diabetes

Hello everyone, I am so sorry to remake this post, but I am very scared. I am experiencing embarassing and vulnerable symptoms- my type II diabetes is becoming progressive, and I am desperate to go into remission. It has affected my liver and my heart, and neuropathy has made me partially incontinent. On April I was hospitalized twice. I have no thyroid, and without medication, it will put me into a myxedema coma and will kill me within days. Hypothyroidism and type II diabetes is making it very difficult for me to find work, as I am from the global south (the Philippines), with government aid only covering 20,000 pesos (around 326 usd) a year. I am the only person in my family who can work; my mother is paralyzed from a brain injury, and my sister is autistic with a very low frustration threshold. I need help covering for my new medication, as I now take metformin twice a day, and phosphates to help with my liver and kidneys, and b complex to help bolster my immune system. Im sorry I keep remaking this post, I am alone and desperate. Community is all I have. Thank you so much for your endless grace and compassion.

Please come buy my prints!

Shop gallery quality Art Prints by Caleb.

https://www.inprnt.com/gallery/littlestpersimmon/

I have 400 exclusive artwork on patreon for only a dollar a month!

https://www.patreon.com/littlestpersimmon

Get more from Caleb on Patreon

creating eerie crests, and other things.

You can also submit a tip here if yohd like, I promise I will do everything I can to give back to the community when I am in a better position to

Pay Maria Isabela O. Hosalla using PayPal.Me

Go to paypal.me/calebhosalla and type in the amount. Since it’s PayPal, it's easy and secure. Don’t have a PayPal account? No worries.

[littlestpersimmon]

If I am trans and I must live, will everyone please help me continue to live? 🥹

[littlestpersimmon]

Hello everyone, Im very sorry for reposting this again. But I was laid off. The publishing house closed. If anyone could please help me, pray for me, or vouch for me, i would appreciate it so much. Thank you for your endless grace and patience with me.

[littlestpersimmon]

Guy with cataracts and scarred from an explosion has a fail toymaking shop in front of a rundown temple and he has a crush on a disfigured lowly priestess whom he suspects is a stealth trans guy because she always picks the boy option when they play board games (he’s right btw)

He's from Kalantiaw, but his mom is diaspora, and I thought her to be half "Japanese" (coded) - still trying to figure out how japanese ethnicities come to play.

She was a sailor turned pirate. She didn't know the language spoken in Kalantiaw (more akin to Khmer), and she spoke a different language (more austronesian), and she named him Kahilingan, which means "wish". But in Kalantiaw, where she settled, his name means "curse" or "bad omen" 💀 it doesn't help that her life ended with the beginning of his. So.

Kahi spends much of his life chasing the image of his mom and trying to.... live up to her- because sailing is the most esteemed occupation in their world. Only very very very very very few people have managed to work on "dragonships".

Basically, their world is physically broken (like living on an asteroid belt) and they sail to and fro each sundering / country on specialized stone ships called "dragonships" / "bakunawa"- and the ships themselves are semi-alive? They're like.. Stone ships laminated with the spirits of devas and dragons and other great beings who have all died because of (redacted).

Anyway, his mom, Maaya, was a renowned sailor- she tamed a dragonship that was imbued with an infamously wild dragon called Duksa- Dragonships are Sponsored, but those who sponsor the ships are almost never in command, and they also easily lose ownership to their hired captains- because the ships themselves are sentient, and they never obey anyone who they deem are incapable of commanding them. Only Maaya could control Duksa hehe. So she became known throughout all their world as this wild woman who loved fast boats and only accepted voyage commissions "if they are very fun". Anyways blah blah blah she fell in love w Kahi's other parent (who is nonbinary) and she got pregnet with him. And they eventually settled in Kalantiaw, in it's countryside near the subterranean capital (Kamharik).

Kahi always annoyed his other parent abt his mom because he too wanted to meet Duksa, but his parent kept warning him not to go near the ship because after Maaya died, it went even more mad with grief. Kahi more of an engineer than a captain like his mom, but his goal was simply to acquaintance with Duksa rather than actually captain her. But Duksa did not accept anyone, not even anyone who was part of Maaya's original crew.. Kahi went to an apprenticeship on shipbuilding-

he became somewhat popular for being clever with his hands, and all around Kalantiaw, everyone thought of him as reliable and very creative when it came to problem solving. So he went from normal ships to fixing dragonships.. ..

The Greatest dragonships are ones that are imbued with the spirits of actual ancient dragons and qilin, bc some are imbued with "lesser" dragons or false dragons, and some are with non-dragon albeit great spirits- like minor gods, wind spirits, phoenix,naga, etc etc..

Duksa was a true and great dragon, and Kahi knew that she was suffering from severe neglect, so all he wanted was to patch her up-

Everyone, every single one of Kahi's peers discouraged him, bc it is known that anyone who even approaches her is immediately kilIed by her; but Kahi, he is different. When he approaches Duksa, she was a shadow of herself, a ghost ship- She senses Maaya, and she even thought that Kahi was her at first- so she lets Kahi patch her big crabclaw sails, fixed her boilers and really tried to replicate how she used to look when Maaya lived.. and Duksa didn't know it wasn't her, because her eyes were covered in barnacles.. The "eyes" of a dragonship is its lodestar, and Kahi was purposefully saving it for last because he is frightened of what Duksa could do to him;;

But before that, Duksa spoke to him, joked like "ah beauty, what happened to you?! Your voice sounds like you swallowed a frog.. are you ill? Why did you abandon me?" Fhjsjs

"Why are your hands so gentle now? I want you to be rough!! Stop this at once! I am not old!"

But when Kahi started scraping finally at the lodestar, and he opened Duksa's eyes to the world once more, she cried in great anger because who tf was this intruder! And why did he carry Maaya's spirit with him !!!

Her entire deck creaked so hard the floorboards broke again, and she swayed her whole body so Kahi nearly fell from the lodestar;; he tried to reason with her, and it sort of mirrors how his mom tamed Duksa. She barrelled in head on and confidently, but Kahi was meek and gentle.

Eitherway.. an angry dragonship is like highly radioactive, its like being in a storm in a contained environment, and she started puffing steam- it's like microdosing being in fukushima; And she called Kahi a fool, he'll never measure up to Maaya, he will never be her- aaaah, but she didn't kiIl him. Maybe because she knew he was Maaya's boy. She warned him never to return, and tossed him into the open shallows. So, he was absolutely brokenhearted. He was 19.

~intense lonely lovestory between him and a closeted trans guy raised by mean transphobic priestesses in a cult the antithesis of a loving and wise lesbian death goddess occurs.~

There she is.. her name is Viharana Magayarin

Names-

Maaya's name is spelled a certain way in kanji, I want it to mean "True"

Duksa's name is Tagalog, it means "grief"

Kahilingan's name is tagalog- and it means "wish". Inspired from.. in tagalog, "curse" is a contronym of sorts- "curse" and "promise" is the same word ("sumpa")

Kahi's trans boyfriend's name is Tala, and it means "star" 😌

[littlestpersimmon]

I drew Kahi's "girlfriend" (closeted trans guy whom Kahi would love without question or limits eitherway.)

His name is Tala / Sitara. His name means "Star" in Sanskrit and Tagalog !

He was raised by a cult to be a priestess too, and the goddess speaks to him as a ghost, trying to instruct him to liberate himself and the other orphans being indoctrinated by the priestesses..!!!! BTW in the world's lore, the goddess has a wife who is a nonbinary trans woman !

And this is Duksa, the dragonship

[artfulfable]

nothing quite like keeping yourself slightly physically uncomfortable because you know if you were actually comfortable you'd fall asleep from exhaustion and you can't do that because you've got work in a little under two hours :)

[artfulfable]

alley cat

[abby-howard]

A couple scenes from a little gay vampire story I was kicking around a couple years ago! I sometimes do little pencils-only scenes for things and never post them. But I was looking back at these and was like why not? They're cute!

I have a whole story for these two, but just for funsies, something to do every now and then when I need to let loose.

[abby-howard]

(she will eat them though)

[bethfuller]

the landscape of the eye

more art / prints

[saucefunk]

the pieces together! worlds apart…

[saewokhrisz]

senki se menekül