a little bit of anything

If I like or make it, it goes here. I definitely like more than I make, though. My tags are all over the place at the moment, but I'm really into Miraculous Ladybug and Chat Noir (ML in tags), Pokemon, LoZ, and a couple other things.

[photomatt]

Tumblr Advisor Board

I think it could be cool to put together a board of the top Tumblristas in the world, that could see previews of what's coming up and advise on strategic direction. Who should be on it?

[astralminstrel]

My voice would be silenced on a board like this.

Which would make me leave, because this site would not be for me anymore.

This was a place where shy, awkward, unusual creators could come together and share their wonders with impunity. It was Pinterest, but unrestrained. It was Twitter, but democratized. It was Facebook, but anonymous. It was blameless in its flaws, protective of the downtrodden masses, and welcoming with its platform.

Ultimately, I wish for it to be more of the same. This place drew me in because it was welcoming, and strange, and colourful. It was kind and quirky and weird, but you could jump right in and splash around at any time. The unrestrained joy of mud puddles and dancing in plain sight, before pointed eyes pierced your perception.

That was tumblr.

This idea is so demonstrably un-tumblr, it boggles my mind how it could have ever been conceived in the same stratosphere. It makes me question whether I should have stayed here. It makes me want to run away and find a new refuge.

A popularity council?

How absurd.

Not in the good way.

[astralminstrel]

For decades, I've been using rulers 📏 flat side down. My lines were always smudging. But today, I accidentally put the ruler curved side down.

Perfect. Effortless. Flawless. Done before I even noticed.

I won't go back, you can't make me.

[silverfox66]

Adobe is going to spy on your projects. This is insane.

[audacityinblack]

For general graphics: use GIMP For vector graphics: use Inkscape For drawing and illustration: use Krita For print and web publishing and design: use Penpot For PDF authoring: use LibreOffice For PDF reading and form filling: use Okular

All are free, open source and cross-platform. None use AI.

[victoriadallonfan]

Reblog for everyone

[cpericardium]

friends don't let friends use GIMP. use photopea

[differentdancesfandom]

Gonna pop my favorite reference for Adobe alternatives here, lovingly compiled and updated by xDanielArt since at least 2020:

[divodevs]

lord reblogging on main bcz fuck adobe (PROUD csp user)

[valhallasoutlaw]

I SWITCHED TO LINUX A WHILE BACK

ITS WORTH THE LEARNING CURVE

[memes-4-all]

[huntress1013]

This is so utterly hairraisingly ridiculous that you wish she made that story up, but it is unfortunately true.

[astralminstrel]

This was first known in 2019.

[shinonart]

What if abilities changed the appearance of a Pokemon?

A master post of all the ability forms drawings I've done! It's been such a fun series to work on and it makes me so happy that it's brought you all so much joy!

I regret not starting the little additional descriptions earlier and I thought of fixing that but I desperately need a nap so nope.

I did fix the one that ruffled the most feathers though - quite literally! The Skarmory saga is finally complete!

Other Ability Forms posts!

Find me and my art elsewhere!  

[charlesoberonn]

"Oh you had a plague? Come back to us when you had a World War, brand new unconventional weapons, and a new international order."

[charlesoberonn]

I apologize.

[noroquian]

[demareth]

insert that YOU chihuahua post where theyre being pinned down i cant for the life of me find it

[charlesoberonn]

This one?

[schwazombie]

[ruffboi-mags]

Oh, Charles. The hubris. Honey. You had to know this was a possibility. Why would you tempt Apollo like that.

[dzamie]

I love how we don't even need Apollo to be captioned, it's just "he's holding a dodgeball and looks Greek statue, of COURSE it's Apollo delivering the gift of prophecy unto unsuspecting tumblr users"

[nebulous-nebuli]

[sour-charity]

[blueelectivire]

Absolute fucking trainwreck of a post

[seven-very-hot-fish]

Oh gee I wonder why this is going around again

[zack-creeper]

Art

[the-doctor-and-the-asshole]

How. Interesting

[rainbow-dash-the-ultimate]

Absolute bog standard post

[61below]

K

[kestarren]

Dragon like cloud over Mount Fuji at sunrise. By touyoui, Nov 2024.

[lilac-sunx]

That is not a dragon like cloud that is a cloud dragon.

[warblebeast]

[libraford]

I am becoming aware of the effect a lack of trust in the media has had on people, paired with a dearth of research skills.

[libraford]

I'm thinking about the argument I got caught in yesterday- the subject of it doesn't matter.

Often, pseudoscience and misinformation comes packaged with a lot of very important sounding words, and the jargon gets to the point where it seems like a lot of work to fact check it. Which makes the 'I encourage you to do your own research' statements real obnoxious. If it's phrased in a way that's impossible to navigate, good luck.

It sucks, but you gotta.

If you don't want to fact check individual words, that's fine. That's a lot to ask of someone that's just trying to figure out whether something is true.

This is where we get into something called 'lateral research.' Instead of trying to draw a map to a sentence, you check the credibility of their source material.

This is your Snopes, your Fact Check/Media Bias, your Follow The Money.

Knowing more context about what someone is saying will save you a lot of time and energy.

If you're not sure about something, question it.

[zetabrarian]

I feel like I've been throwing this around a LOT lately, but:

Practice SIFT! SIFT is based on lateral research and can be very helpful for these situations.

DON'T just share information without doing your due diligence.

[elizeshiro]

whyyy the fuck does this not have more notes please rb this more often qwq

[libraford]

Well, I mean... probably because I posted it like an hour ago.

[weaselle]

STOP

i have found this post and infographic and i want to share it

INVESTIGATE THE SOURCE

zetabrarian's blog says they are a socially progressive librarian monsterfucker, which a quick scroll through their blog seems to support. This makes them pretty cool but not necessarily the perfect source -- anyone can say they are a librarian, and surely not every librarian is correct about processing information

FIND BETTER COVERAGE

if i go to a search engine (in this case google via firefox) i see that several universities, libraries from large municipalities (like Los Angeles) as well as the BBC all agree that this is a real method experts in information fields recommend. I wouldn't necessarily take any single one of these sources as 100% credible, but they are individually reasonably reliable, and taken together indicate a high probability of factual information

TRACE TO ORIGINAL CONTEXT

A brief search reveals that the SIFT method was created by Mike Caulfield, who is a research scientist at the University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public, where he studies the spread of online rumors and misinformation. This is an extremely good source of information for how to process information on the internet. As the creator of the SIFT method, he has taught thousands of teachers and students how to verify claims and sources through his workshops.

I could not find a post or page about SIFT written by Mike Caulfield himself, so i went to the University of Washington's website for this page about it, since that is the university that employs him.

It corroborates the above information, though there are a few notable differences. For example, under the "trace to original context" section in the Washington U. source (again, as close to the original as i could find) this step contains advice to check the date. This seems very good to include, as in the fast moving world of internet information, things become outdated or get updated very quickly, and yet first takes and outdated articles hang around and get shared for a long time.

EXTRA CREDIT

I personally find that it is important to outright search for the opposite information. For example, I put in a few searches like "Mike Caulfield discredited" "Mike Caulfield wrong" "SIFT method bad" etc. I found nothing showing me any indications this method has any problems. Interestingly, somehow this did turn up an article about news literacy on Medium, which was actually written by Mike Caulfield in April of 2017

[scurviesdisneyblog]

Hercules model sheets by Andreas Deja

[hamletthedane]

“There are other forces at work in this world besides the will of evil.”

[slotted-spoon]

Best go vote add I’ve seen, maybe ever

[hamletthedane]

I remember posting this back in 2020, not even intending the message to be “go vote”. The last photo was chosen among many others simply because it was a nice visual conclusion to the preceding chaos. The post was made many months before the election, and I had intended more to speak to the overall terrifying political climate of 2020 and all the small things we were doing to fight back and make changes that year.

But upon posting this, I received over 400 asks (I stopped counting) from different people demanding that I take the post down, telling me how dare I suggest that people vote in this political climate, and even several dozen anonymous asks threatening to attack/kill me for “spreading nationalistic propaganda”

It’s hard to remember, but that was the general sentiment around the election online in 2020: Rampant disinformation. Large-scale campaigns dissuading people from voting. Hundreds of negative comments on any post that even MENTIONED voting. You couldn’t get away.

But this election? It’s night and day. While I’m sure there’s still some people whining in a sad dark corner somewhere that moral purity is dead and they’re the last chosen saints of leftism, etc etc, the vast, VAST majority of people have zero tolerance for that bullshit this time around.

We are voting. We are talking to our friends and family about voting. We are reading the actual news and trying to cut through BS online quick-takes. We are getting people to the polls and donating to Harris and standing in line with others waiting to vote.

I’ve voted in every primary and election since I turned 18, but I have never seen young people voting on this level before. It’s truly mind-boggling just how much the younger voting block has mobilized in this election. This is the kind of thing that can change a nation if we let it.

Honestly, regardless of how the election turns out tomorrow, everybody should be so proud of what we tried to accomplish here. Keep up the good fight.

[warblebeast]

Samwises and Frodos of the world, rise up. It is your time to conquer evil with your small acts of kindness and integrity.

[a-funyarinpa]

animation of charmander makin some pancakes

[the-gummy-worms-have-me]

Everyone look at this

[minty-mayhem]

The ending is incredibly satisfying

[linguisticparadox]

I laughed like NEEEEHEHEHE

[pokemonheritageposts]

Pokemon Heritage Post

[armengoldira]

[thecognizantminds]

[grumpy-old-patriot]

Number one reason I won't buy a new car.

[silverloke]

#when people criticize dystopian fiction for being over the top i think about how we live right now #this is terrifying

i really love my old outdated car!!!! what the fuck is this 😭

[ascendingrabbit]

Hey guys! The website she's promoting here, upon further inspection, looks pretty scummy. Don't fall for fear tactics and stay safe.

[astralminstrel]

This is a good reminder to future me that if someone is promoting something, they're probably selling it. Anyone selling something is doing so for a reason. It's becoming more important to investigate that reason, not less.

[soberscientistlife]

[warblebeast]

This is more or less how Kantians can justify lying as being morally right in certain situations.

[astralminstrel]

Christians have a similar dilemma.

God's 9th Commandement is "Don't give false witness against your neighbour", which has also been interpreted as "Don't lie". (Exodus 20:16)

Earlier there's an example of midwives lying to the king of Egypt to protect innocent lives. (Exodus 1:18-21) Though, you could argue that was before the Commandments were made, so I'll give another example.

Rahab, a prostitute living in Jericho, lies on the behalf of two Hebrews to the authorities. (Joshua 2:4-6) Then she gets included in Jesus' genealogy. (Matthew 1:5)

This indirectly suggests that lying is sometimes necessary for the sake of protecting lives. In which case, it's the morally right option.

[droplets-of-neptune]

By Juan Brufal

[awlwren]

[id: painting of an orange tree growing diagonally in front of vibrant blue and yellow houses beside the sea.]/end id.

[what-eats-owls]

Unfortunately, AI is getting real good, y’all.

[astralminstrel]

The composition looks so nice, and the brushstrokes are really clean. They look so real. I wouldn't have even suspected AI. Kind of alarming if it is AI art.

The only thing that made me think it might be is the noise on the edge of the branches. Y'know, that pixel fuzz?

Which is less pronounced in other high contrast areas. Like where the edge of one house meets the other.

These were both max zoom and cropped phone screenshots, so the resolution is the same. The amount of fuzz should be similar if it's just a lossy file...

I hope someone smarter than I am could look into whether this artist is using AI art to generate works.

[ask-whitepearl-and-steven]

Hey, I love the comic! I love how the storywriting stays true to the original series but also adds its own fun spin on it! You've actually inspired me to write my own Blue diamond AU, lol.

Anyways I have a question for making comics just in general. How can you make dynamic compositions in such a small space. I honestly love how intricate all of your panels fade into one another!

So, if you're okay with it, I was wondering if you could give me some tips on how that would work?

Anyway, I love the comic and stay awesome!

:D

Your own comic - that's awesome to hear! It's always exciting to start something like that. I wish you the best of luck in your goals!

As for the paneling - honestly, the first step is to stop thinking of it as a 'small space'! The truth is, even on a small mobile screen, we can fit a lot of detail. And as long as we know how to use the space wisely, it's not ever going to feel small.

Ironically, cramming MORE into a panel makes it feel smaller.

Drawing less on a panel makes it feel larger. Weird, isn't it?

My more general advice is... STUDY MOVIES!

Don't just WATCH movies. But study them. Movies are like comics for dummies because there's only one size and shape of a panel and all the characters do the hard work of acting for you. (It's a joke, don't kill me.)

Anyway, the paneling in movies is versatile and interesting BECAUSE they're putting that single wide panel to the best use. If you already drew some comics, compare them to a movie screenshot and see what's different! Then, ask yourself why a certain angle, or a certain cropping of an image works better.

You'll find that there's some awesome ways to cram fun details into even the smallest corner of a panel. :)

There's also some awesome art resources by more talented comic artists than me out there. I'm sure others will link them in the comments, but for now, here's one I found:

How to Layout Your Comic! Panels, Gutters, and Page Flow

Confidently guide readers through your comic with this collection of techniques by comic artist Steve Ellis on comic frames/panels, gutters,