Whimsical Wanderings

INFP - a Place for Art and Nerdy Stuff

[nattousan]

ok so, I approached my local library with a proposal to donate a mural as a way to A: build portfolio/gain practical experience and B: give back to a beloved public institution. The director was very enthusiastic about it and i've been working on it since the beginning of March. Come with me as I endeavor to paint what is in all honesty an excessive amount of birds

I wanted the birds to look like they were actually in the space so first thing after doing the draft was to do a lighting study

after that I covered the walls in letters in lieu of a projector/vr headset bc i have neither of those :) Then i take a picture of the section of wall and superimpose the lineart over top of it so I can pencil in the lines

et voila

and that was a whole week on it's own so next comes the paintin' >:)

[nattousan]

and now, the birds

Birds 1 and 2/14: Red Winged Blackbird, Male and female, Agelaius phoeniceus

[nattousan]

Bird 3/14, American Robin, Turdus migratorius

[nattousan]

hoo boy, ok *out of breath*

GIVE IT UP FOR BIRD NUMBUH 5, THE CANADIAN GOOSE, Branta canadensis!!!!

this guy took me about 4 days to completely finish, all of those freakingk coverts were a bear to render

[nattousan]

speaking of obnoxious coverts:

bird 5/14, Bluejay, Cyanocitta cristata

the friggin stripes almost got me chat, i may not make it

[nattousan]

Madam....

[nattousan]

birds 6 and 7: American Goldfinch, Spinus tristis, male and female

pleasantly simple to paint! next is the flickerrrrr

[nattousan]

*melts into goo*

BIRD NUMBER 8, (yellow shafted) NORTHERN FLICKERRRRR, Colaptes auratus

genuinely made me start questioning my sanity around day 3, it's half the size the of the goose, WHY did it take me 4 days to finish??

nothing but pain and suffering, i'm sure hope the next bird will be much easier and with FAR less barring :)

[nattousan]

in other news, I am losing my mind hairline

[nattousan]

SHE'S DONE!!

Bird number 9: Red-tailed hawk, Buteo jamaicensis

my chains are broken i am FREE. although i did have a great deal of fun with this, the barring on the wings itself took me like four days and i am READY to move on

this was a week and a half of continuous work so please excuse me for getting a little emotional in the bg 🙏

[nattousan]

*does a little jig*

BIRD NUMBER 10!!! The Male Mallard Duck, Anas platyrhynchos

the male and female ones are gonna be posted separately bc they're taking a lot longer lol but yea! super happy i was able to capture the iridescent green of the head, i found metallic green and blue paint at a craft store that really made his head POP. it looks better in person i promise

ALSO!! As this is the 10th one, BIG announcement. The end is in sight!!!!! I plan to finish within the next 3 weeks and there will be a small dedication ceremony/ unveiling happening at the library to commemorate its completion on the 16th of May. If you live in the Western New York region and want to check it out for yourself shoot me a dm!

Also thank you everyone for your kind words and support throughout this whole process, it's been a genuine treat thinking there are potentially thousands of you out there cheering me on while I paint this 🥹

[nattousan]

aaaand another one bites the duck,

we're movin right along with bird numero 11!! The lady Mallard!! Anas platyrhyncos

the 16th is looming in the distance so i'm trying to get thru these as quickly as i can so i can have as much time for the GBH as possible. i still need to do the names next to all of them so i've got about a week and a half to finish everything which is GREAT because i have adhd and nothing gets my ass in gear like a fuckin deadline, let me tell you

[nattousan]

power couple that they are, here's bird number 12 and 13,

the Northern Cardinals, Cardinalis cardinalis

and NOW that they are complete, ITS GO TIME, in the next five days (library's closed for mother's day 😭😭) i need to have the GBH fully rendered, the names of the birds vectored, weeded, masked, applied to the wall, and then painted, plus additional cattails throughout. I may be able to get away with just getting the GBH done in time for the unveiling and then just have the names and cattails added later, but i'm gonna really try to get it all done in time. BUT, i have a plan. Part of why i take so long on these is because i really am just figuring it out as I do it lmao. there have been many a time where i am sitting on top of the ladder googling "how to paint birds" but I think if i take the time tomorro to do all that figuring out how to approach it beforehand, this will go a lot faster. I may also recruit some of my artist friends to help with the placing of the names... hrmm we'll see.

Anyways, shout out to the librarian who tracked down exactly the thing i needed so i could figure out where to place the highlights in my birds eyes, ur the real mvp

[nattousan]

thanks for the reminder, kid

[nattousan]

at long last, we've reached the end...

Bird number 14 out of 14,

The Great blue heron, Ardea herodius

thank you to everyone who reached out or got excited about this project, it genuinely gave me the fuel i needed to keep going. In total, the 480+ total hrs it took me to cover this wall pales in comparison to how long its expected to spend on there, hopefully imparting a sense of beauty and love for the natural world to the next generation and here's hoping i'm only getting started with these.

i'll see y'all soon :')

[dawnstarlightning]

holy heck! The light study- the realism! The adhd callout lol saaaame. Fan freakin tastic work!!!!

[mockva]

Man notices an Eagle eyeing the fish he just caught

[mexicain-sans-frontiers-v2]

[the-davest-of-uncles]

*gets back to the nest* baby you are NEVER gonna believe how i got this fish

[dawnstarlightning]

Discussion in the comments: “man wonder what this is like from the fish’s perspective.” And someone else (thebuni) writing the most METAL response: “An eldritch beast you've only ever glimpsed through a wavering veil reaches down, plucks you into an unsurvivable dimension and then throws you to the monster that haunts your childhood stories”

[prokopetz]

Consider:

Victorian England: 1837-1901

American Old West: 1803-1912

Meiji Restoration: 1868-1912

French privateering in the Gulf of Mexico: ended circa 1830

Conclusion: an adventuring party consisting of a Victorian gentleman thief, an Old West gunslinger, a disgraced former samurai, and an elderly French pirate is actually 100% historically plausible.

[medievalpoc]

It really just comes down to whether a given individual or group is looking for reasons to include, or reasons to exclude. Hypothetical groups like these can go a lot further than this, too.

[spader7]

OK I WANT THIS REALLY BAD SO I MADE THIS REALLY QUICK

[invisiblemelonmoose]

As much as I absolutely adore this, you’d probably have to come up with a fairly good reason for them to all meet up together in the first place. I mean, MLK and Anne Frank were born in the same year, but they lived on different continents and had no opportunity to meet. I’m not saying these cross cultural interactions are impossible, but choosing a certain region with an era isn’t necessarily exclusionary. It just doesn’t occur to people (or rather most writers in general) how well these eras matched up or how to connect these extremely varied backgrounds.

just make it a fighting game and ur good tho

[prokopetz]

I didn’t pick those roles at random, mind. All four of them are outlaws of some description, and thus have incentive to travel outside their native range - and in particular, all four of them would have any number of plausible excuses for ending up in San Francisco during the late 1860s or early 1870s. Once you’ve got them within shouting distance of each other, getting them in the same adventuring party is a simple matter of Plot.

[invisiblemelonmoose]

I feel dumb for not picking up on that. :B I’d definitely be curious to know just what kind of hijinx they’d be getting themselves into (I can already imagine an Ocean’s Eleven-esque heist).

Out of curiosity, why San Fran? I’m a west coaster myself, but I usually picture New York when it comes to historical fiction.

[prokopetz]

1. San Francisco in the early 1870s is both very prosperous and a wretched hive of scum and villainy.

2. It’s more plausible for a vaquero and a ronin samurai to meet there by chance - New York is on the wrong coast entirely for that.

3. Emperor Norton.

[dawnstarlightning]

this lives rent free in my head whenever someone mentions meiji revolution…

[lichen-bones]

Barn swallow, my beloved

[dawnstarlightning]

growing up these little guys were the sound of summer, just like the crickets and frogs. Our family farm was originally a 300ft chicken coop converted into a beef farm. That 300ft barn was open in summer for pairs of 20+ barn swallows to nest. By end of summer the power lines were filled with 50+ birds all chittering and swooping to fly south. To this day I find their bird call so nostalgic and no other bird sounds as much like they are holding a full on conversation together. 🥰❤️

[fleshst4r]

.

we're not going to make it

we will make it

it'll take too long to rebuild ourselves

we will make it

but what if we don't wake up in the morning

we will make it

i don't see a future with me in it

we will make it

we'll give up long before then

we will make it

im scared

i love you. we will make it

Voting ended onApr 11

[animnightmare]

The votes on this post. Oh. A poem in poll form, interactive art, the fact we can see how the other people reading it felt. im. this is really good.

[dawnstarlightning]

I love you. We will make it. (Putting that love and hope into the universe)

[zephyrine-gale]

happy witch hat atelier day!

[dawnstarlightning]

This anime is soooo pretty! And this fanart is somehow fully capturing now absolutely magical it is! Look at the details in her dress?! Her mom holding her hand, her friends in the pen swish?! So many little details and bright colors- if I came across this at a con you can bet I would literally shout “shut up and take my money!” :D

[hayleywilliamsfan84]

i keep laughing at the way that eridian culture in the movie and eridian culture in the book are not contradictory at all, if you accept that movie rocky is just a total FREAK

grace: boy i sure can't wait to meet other eridians haha! rocky, putting on a shirt for the first time in four years: rocky has something to tell grace but does grace promise not to be mad, question?

[hydrangea-pop]

I can't leave this in the tags lmaooo

[dawnstarlightning]

XD thanks for this- this was my spouse’s only complaint about the movie, and this made them laugh. :3

[animentality]

[dawnstarlightning]

We do fancy New years at a friend’s house when I can see he is acting strange. I hug him and his heart is JACKHAMMERING- omg are you okay??!! Your heart is POUNDING! He laughs nervously then 17 seconds after midnight he drops to one knee and it all clicks together. 🤣 17secs after midnight the year prior I told him he would never remember our apartment clock was slow… he really said BET. Lol He’s the best. 😁

[toastyglow]

Escape From Divinity | Full Series Compilation

I'm pleased to be able to now call this six-year undertaking 100% done! I honestly have nothing more to say about it. Thanks again for watching!

SONGS CHURCH by Fall Out Boy All This and Heaven Too by Florence + the Machine Hundred Days by The Bengsons Little Lion Man by Mumford & Sons Arsonist's Lullabye by Hozier Dear Wormwood by The Oh Hellos In Memoriam by The Oh Hellos

PROGRAMS USED Part 1 - Adobe Photoshop CS6 Parts 2-6 - Toon Boom Storyboard Pro Full Compilation - DaVinci Resolve Epilogue Art Cleanup - Clip Studio Paint

[cobra-diamond]

The Major Writing Flaw of the The Search

In my 3-part article on how to develop the central conflict of a hypothetical Season 4 of Avatar (available here), I described how the Fire Nation comics provide a cursory example of a logical continuation of Avatar. Unfortunately, the comics are marred by numerous writing flaws, one such flaw involving emotional continuity (as discussed here).

While much has been written by the fandom on the perceived “good and bad” of the comics, most of it has concerned the comics’ “ideas”: the plot, conflicts, character arcs, worldbuilding etc. In this article, I want to focus on the writing flaws, and one such flaw in particular.

Keep reading

[dawnstarlightning]

THANK YOU! I read The Search and was very excited to see the conclusion of Zuko’s quest to find his mother- only to be wholly frustrated with the characters acting so unsympathetic (entirely ignoring and not trying to talk to Azula) the entire journey. It made me want to shake them violently, though I know it was the writer’s fault. You laid out very clearly why I felt unsatisfied with the way this story played out.

[cannabiscomrade]

6/7/2025

The National guard is being deployed to Los Angeles to support ICE.

Trump border czar says National Guard will head to LA to fight anti-ICE protests

Tense confrontations between police and demonstrators in L.A. continued for a second day on Saturday, in response to operations by Immigrati

Mask up. Black bloc. White citizens to the front.

ICE and the LAPD have been firing rubber bullets directly at protesters and utilizing weapons like tear gas.

[cannabiscomrade]

The military has arrived in LA.

[cannabiscomrade]

Water and saline are the only thing that go in eyes.

Flush temperature burns for at LEAST 15 minutes. Brush off dried chemicals from chemical burns because water may activate the chemical.

Traffic cones over a canister can reduce tear gas range.

Wear ear protection if available. LRADs are no joke and will make you go deaf. Over the ear is best.

Write your “in case of emergency” in permanent marker on your body. Also any bail fund/pro bono lawyer.

You can and will be identified if you do not cover your face and any identifiable markings/hair color. KN95 plus a bandana or other cloth over the mask.

Medics will be primary targets. Protect them.

[cannabiscomrade]

6/8/25

Live updates: Trump deploys National Guard to LA in response to immigration clashes | CNN Politics

President Donald Trump signed a presidential memorandum deploying 2,000 National Guardsmen to Los Angeles to disperse protests that began in

There are reportedly 300 troops on the ground in LA as of this morning. I would assume the number to be higher than what’s reported. Trump signed a memorandum to deploy 2000 troops. The border czar is threatening to arrest elected California officials if they “impede ICE”.

Compton was attacked by ICE agents last night and the community showed up.

The Bail Project is a general reputable bail fund out of Los Angeles that helps people around the country.

The National Bail Fund Network is similar and regularly works with both protesters and immigrants.

If you have any individual or more local bail funds, please comment them so I can check and boost.

[cannabiscomrade]

Report ICE activity:

Los Angeles: 888-624-4752

Orange County: 714-881-1558

Central Valley: 559-206-0151

Kern County: 661-432-2230

San Bernardino/Riverside: 909-361-4588

CHIRLA: 213-353-1333

ORALE (Long Beach): 562-276-0267

Immigrant Rapid Response Hotline (Santa Barbara, Ventura & San Luis Obispo): 805-870-8855

[weaselle]

btw these are "rubber bullets"

they are also called "baton rounds" and have been known to cause serious injury and even death

and these are "bean bags"

that's a shotgun shell. It is fired from a shotgun. The cloth is kevlar. Inside the kevlar are... the same lead pellets that a normal shotgun uses. The kevlar sack prevents spread and penetration. The beanbag round has less gunpowder than a standard shotgun round, but still sends this projectile forward at about 180 miles per hour.

They love to say "rubber bullets" and "beanbags" because they sound harmless, but they are not harmless at all. Beanbag rounds like this have caused injury, permanent disability, and death.

Just so you know what's happening when they report "rubber bullets" and "beanbags"

[cannabiscomrade]

And the “rubber bullets” are meant to be shot at the ground first to allegedly make them “less lethal”. But LAPD is using them as direct fire.

[oh-motherfucking-bother]

They’re also targeting reporters and media outlets reporting on what’s happening, so protect the ones who are actually reporting on it and SPREAD that footage as far as you can

[pinecone-partyhorse]

they even shot directly at one of our journos

[revacholianrobot]

In hindsight it's very insulting to be told that flunking out of college due to adhd is actually "quite common"

[revacholianrobot]

just like, if there's a history at your institution of disabled kids not being able to make it you realise that's your fault right. like why don't you fucking do something about it. i guess they tried to do something about it with me and it failed so they let me go. crazy. nice work. why should we try to do any better.

[yourheartinyourmouth]

only 5% of people with adhd who go to college finish a degree. FUCKING. FIVE!!! PERCENT!!!!!!!!!!!

that should disgust and enrage you.

if any other demographic of students had a 95% failure rate, we would be demanding reform and studies to understand why that’s happening

when i was at my first university, trying to get accommodations for my ADHD, they just kept asking me what accommodations i wanted, and refused to answer when i would ask what was available to me. how the Hell am i supposed to know what i can have? what’s available???? also, i don’t know!!!! i’m an adhd sufferer, not a fucking disability expert for the fucking college, unlike you, DISABILITY EXPERT WHO WORKS FOR THE COLLEGE.

but because the us is OBSESSED with making sure no one gets anything “”for free””, she literally would not tell me what my options were until i broke down in tears and asked her why she was refusing to help me. and then she did a big sigh, like i was fucking up her entire career by *checks notes* asking the disability center in my university to help me, a disabled student

at the second uni i went to, i tried to explain to a dean that i was literally two gen eds that had nothing to do with my degree away from graduating and that i was burnt out and broke and exhausted and suicidal and i just needed to be able to finish my degree without the gen eds. and this. fucking. guy. looked me right in my face and said in the most patronizing tone he could muster “if you can’t handle it, then maybe college just isn’t for you.” keep in mind that up until that semester, i had been an honor student who made Dean’s List every semester and didn’t get below Bs. if it hadn’t been for my mental breakdown, i would have graduated cum laude, maybe even summa cum laude.

but this dean of students looked a disabled person right in the face and said well i guess you just can’t do it, short bus

[jecook]

Pulled these from a couple articles really quick but yeah the statistics are not kind. I remember writing a scathing essay about my issues with ADHD and college as part of an assignment for academic probation. I got back an email calling me entitled and lazy. Somehow, this thread helps me feel a lot better. I still have about a semester of school unfinished that I’m unsure if I’ll finish but… yeah. Makes me feel better to know it’s not just me.

[lady-harrowhark]

PSA: The Job Accommodation Network maintains a searchable database of accommodation suggestions for a wide variety of disabilities.

The full database can be accessed here and the ADHD page is here. The full database can be filtered by disability, by limitation, by work-related function, by topic, and by accommodation. Many of these accommodations are applicable to academic settings as well as the workplace.

Here are the section headers for ADHD accommodations ideas to give an overview of what the page contains - this post would become Do You Love the Color of the Accommodation if I attempted to list them all here

The ADHD page linked above also includes case examples and strategies for determining what sort of accommodations might be necessary. More broadly, the JAN website as a whole is a treasure trove of information related to the Americans with Disabilities Act and resources for both individuals and employers.

[trambrosia]

Oh fuck that's really nice, I will read it

Also just heard a podcast interview with a software developer who had good suggestions

Being a developer with ADHD

Do you feel like ADHD is holding you back? Maybe you don't personally have ADHD but you work with folks who do and you'd like to support the

[dandelionsresilience]

The head of disability accommodations at my college just kept ablesplaining to me that “accommodations are to level the playing field, not give you an advantage,” and that her job is to “protect the school’s rights” rather than help disabled students. The only accommodations they would offer me were 1. extra time on tests, and 2. an alternative test-taking location - neither of which I needed. I ended up getting (most of) what I actually needed by unofficially asking the individual professors, but it should have been legally protected.

[dawnstarlightning]

I often think about just HOW LUCKY I was that my family supported me. I was able to live at home without being charged rent, getting free food and laundry (my mom handled these tasks), and my parents told me to fully focus on college and graduating. If they hadn't given me that support, I don't think I would have made it.

When I graduated and got my first job I finally moved out of the house for the first time. That first year was absolutely excruciating. I learned a lot. I learned how to do my own laundry, and cook my own food, and deal with roommates. I can't imagine the ADHDers that don't have that support network. That have to navigate that. I was not doing well mentally during that entire period of my life. I also went undiagnosed for years until right after COVID when I realized just how bad things were.

I have a couple friends with ADHD, both of which didn't make it through college and I can see why!! They didn't have the support system and the burnout was real. All this to say, I will definitely be looking into the links above and I feel for all of you that struggled. You aren't alone. You aren't stupid. And I really hope you all are able to heal. ❤️

[youmegravity]

This one track single fricking has taken over my life for the past two weeks… but at least it's epic 🐉🔥

[dawnstarlightning]

This sounds so freakin' gooooooood

[thoughtportal]

cleaning along desire paths

[lady-griffin]

Fantastic advice!! And something I’ve realized I’ve been doing for myself these last 6-7 years, even though I never had a name for it.

Seriously, this is such a great way to go about organizing your home.

I really can’t express how much easier your life can be when you accept that there’s no objectively right way to do this kind of stuff, especially when you let go of the idea that it’s a moral failure when you can’t do something the “correct way” nor is it evidence of you being lazy.

Working with (leaning into) your natural limits and instincts can do wonders for you in your day-to-day life.

[spaceshipsandpurpledrank]

[mrcloudyfun]

Where is her award? She stayed in character for that whole thing!

[beardedmrbean]

She slipped a tiny bit near the end, but if you didn't know what was going on you wouldn't have caught it. 10/10 high quality spousal shenanigans

[loth-caatgirl]

she straight up villain laughed!

[dawnstarlightning]

I laughed so hard at this. He was so kind in helping her and she was an amazing actress. Pulled this off perfectly. Lol Him just faceplanting onto the couch at the end just so done. Harmless and funny pranks are the best. 😁

[worldwidewandress]

the baggage

everyone comes into a relationship with baggage. most people drop it when carrying gets heavy. the right person helps you unpack. goes both ways. the question is - are you ready to unpack?

so you're either gonna trip over each other's stuff or you gonna unpack together. there's no other way. once you're ready for the latter, wash the dirty pieces first, handle them with care, then fold them nicely - in a shared closet.

home is built on all the stuff we carry around heavy trying to shake off or run away from, until we're ready to sit with them, unpack carefully, and eventually decorate our space with.

[creature-wizard]

Hmm? What's this? An anti-voter telling us our votes don't count?

Well! That's quite an opinion! Let's look at their blog, I'm sure we'll see a long history of posts there, showing us that this person is not a bot or a troll account specifically made for election interference?

...Oh?

What's this? Literally only one post?

Oh! But that post is dated to August 2013! Clearly this must be an old blog, it's not like Tumblr has a feature that lets you date posts to anytime you want- oh? They do?

Watch out, y'all - anti-voting bots/trolls are on Tumblr, and they are trying to discourage us from voting. They do this because they know that if we vote blue, we can keep Trump out of office.

[dawnstarlightning]

Look, I hope you will choose to vote for Kamala, preserving democracy, and women's rights and not a man who sent an angry mob to the capital and just lies... But either way your vote matters! Every vote matters!

Now whenever I hear someone say "they're all the same, it doesn't matter. Why bother?" I can't help but wanna punch ya. They aren't all the same. Your vote matters! Choose whoever best supports what you want to see in the future. Will they be perfect? Probably not, but the people and bots telling you not to vote are AFRAID OF YOU. They are scared you will go out and make a choice they don't like. Let them be afraid. Don't let them take that power from you.