Writing, art, and RP resources

This is a blog made purely as a collection for stuff I find useful in terms of writing, drawing, or RPing help. Might occasionally also include life advice or inspiration! Main blog is @classybotany.

[grassflu]

Anonymous asked you:

How did u get so good at drawing guns, and how long have u been drawing them?

  Thank you for the compliment! I wouldn’t call myself an expert on the matter yet (I’m still doing my best to learn!), but drawing guns is actually not as difficult as most people would think-I threw together a little how-to that more or less illustrates my thought process when tackling guns (semi-automatic pistols, sorry). This is just bare bones information however, for there are many different makes and models of guns that won’t always comply with steps 2 and 3 of this tutorial (the example I drew is based off a SIGp228).  But that’s where the internet and picture references come in to help fill in the blanks!

  Funny thing is that I avoided drawing guns like the plague up until last year when my buddy finally took me shooting and I think I developed some sort of mutual understanding with them (read: I really really liked it) and decided to learn how to draw them good!

    /EDIT/PS ANON IF YOU MEANT TO ASK HOW I DRAW NOT FIREARM GUNS BUT MUSCLE GUNS THEN I’M SORRY OMG

[timepolice-art]

OH BOY GUNS

[ktullanyx-deactivated20121227]

Just what I needed

[gyarados]

[nouiszarry]

[vortex-potato]

So here’s my tip of font using in graphic design. I made this list of fonts I suggest to be used more often and fonts I suggest to be used less often. Especially from Helvetica to Gill Sans, they are really popular fonts to be used by professional designers. They all work finely whether in graphic design, web design or typography.

From Rockwell to Parisish, they are fonts to be used in typography or artworks, mostly for vintage style. They are probably not suitable in some formal occasions. But they will be your good choice when you want to make a fancy coffee shop banner.

You might be surprised that Arial and Times New Roman are in my less used list. But don’t stop using them in your homework and essay- well, now you probably understand why you shouldn’t put them in your graphic works.

The rest of the fonts are what I constantly see people using in their graphic works and I must say that even tho those fonts look cool and fancy, they actually don’t look as quality as you think.

BUT, that doesn’t mean you should delete these fonts from your computer (oh but delete Comic Sans for God’s sake) They can still be used for certain situation, as long as you handle them well. However, please never do something like using Colors of Autumn as the title and Typewriter as the concept, unless you’re trying to drive someone crazy.

[wasteoftimeofmine]

Never expected this to get so many notes. Posted it before I knew to link back to source. Here it is: http://medieval.stormthecastle.com/armorypages/medieval-polearms.htm

[ghostflowerdreams]

Writing Research - The Middle Ages

Middle Ages (or Medieval period), lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. It began with the collapse of the Western Roman Empire and merged into the Renaissance and the Age of Discovery. The Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history: Antiquity, Medieval period, and Modern period. The Medieval period is itself subdivided into the Early, the High, and the Late Middle Ages. [1] [2]

Names

Medieval Names Archive

Behind the Name: Medieval Names

Medieval Names

Medieval Naming Guides: English

Society & Life

Timeline - Middle Ages: 500 AD - 1500 AD

Middle Ages - History

Medieval Children - Daily Life for Children in the Middle Ages

BBC - What Medieval Europe Did With Its Teenagers

Childhood in Medieval England

Daily Life in England in the Middle Ages

Feudal System

Medieval Life

Medieval Education

Life in a Medieval Castle

Middle Ages Castle

Medieval Occupations - Jobs

Rooms in Medieval Castle

Officers & Servants in a Medieval Castle

The Middle Ages - Town Life

The Middle Ages - Feudal Life

Village Life in the Middle Ages

The Middle Ages - Homes

The Middle Ages - More About Homes

Medieval Life - Housing

Medieval - Homes for the Rich

Medieval Manor Houses

The Middle Ages - Religion

Middle Ages Religion

Medieval Chivalry

Middle Ages Women

Noble Women in Middle Ages

Education and Literacy

Employment - A Woman’s Work

Marriage, Romance, and Women in Medieval Times

Life in a Medieval Village - Marriage

Middle Ages - Marriage, Pleasure and Consummation

Divorce and Medieval’s Women’s Rights

Middle Ages People

Medieval History - Knight’s Life

The History of Knights

Becoming a Knight

Knights Templar

Uses of Herbs in Medieval Life

Life in a Medieval Monastery

Medieval Monastery

Daily Life of a Monk in the Middle Ages

Medieval Monks

Medieval Monastery Map

Medieval Technology

Trade and Travel in the Middle Ages

Medieval Deaths, Funeral Rites & Rituals

Commerce

Currency and Banking in the late Middle Ages

Money in the Middle Ages

Medieval Price List

Medieval England - List of Prices of Items

Entertainment & Food

Medieval Art

The Metropolitan Museum of Art - Medieval Art

Art History Resources - Medieval Art

The Middle Ages - Music

Ballads: Exploring the Middle Ages

The Middle Ages - Arts & Entertainment

The Middle Ages - Medieval Music

Medieval and Renaissance Instruments

Entertainment in the Middle Ages

Medieval Entertainment

Medieval Sports

Medieval Games & Pastimes

Recreation & Leisure

Toys in the Middle Ages

The Joust

Tournaments

A Medieval Tournament

Medieval Literature

More Medieval Literature

Middle Ages: Books and Literature

Medieval Stories

Medieval Weddings

Meals & Etiquette

Medieval Food & Cooking

Middle Ages Food

Middle Ages Food Recipes

Compilation of Medieval Recipes

A Little Culinary History - Medieval Cookery & Food 

Medieval Food

Medieval Drinks

Hygiene, Health & Medicine

The Middle Ages - Health

Medieval Health

Middle Ages Doctors

Medicine in the Middle Ages

Medicine History in the Middle Ages

The Metropolitan Museum of Art - Medicine in the Middle Ages

Famines of the Middle Ages

Medieval Diseases

Health and Medicine in Medieval England

The Black Death, 1348

The Black Death - Bubonic Plague

The Medieval Miracles of Healing

Medieval Healthcare

Medieval Feminine Hygiene

Medieval Bathing

Medieval Oral Care

Medieval Skincare

Medieval Births and Birthing

Sex, Contraception, and Sexuality

Birth Control and Abortion in the Middle Ages

Fashion

The Middle Ages - Clothing

Medieval Clothing

Medieval Pleasant Clothing

Middle Ages Ladies Dresses

Medieval Lord Clothing

Medieval Women’s Clothing

Footwear of the Middle Ages

Glossary of Middle Ages Footwear

Middle Ages Hairstyles

Middle Ages/Renaissance Hairstyles

Medieval Hairstyles

Medieval Cosmetics

Scents of the Middle Ages

Medieval Jewelry

Dialogue

Medieval Glossary

Middle Ages Glossary

Medieval Origins (Words & Phrases)

Writing Medieval Dialogue

The Medieval Speech

Justice & Crime

Middle Ages - Major Wars and Conflicts

Law and Order of the Middle Ages

Medieval Warfare

Medieval Military Organization

Medieval Torture

Middle Ages Torture

Medieval Warfare & Arms

Middle Ages Weapons

Women at War

Medieval Life - Crime and Punishment

Breakin’ the Law

Feudal Justice

Crime and Punishment in the Middle Ages

10 Brutal Judicial Punishments from the Middle Ages

Law in the Middle Ages

Middle Ages Justice & Law

[caesaretluna]

                     Write Real People                     click and drag game

ONE RULE: DON’T CLICK AND DRAG UNTIL YOU FIND SOMETHING YOU LIKE!

if you want me to add anything just write me. i’ll add that and update the post!

I love all the click and drag games on Tumblr and after I read an article about diversity in YA books, I wanted to make a click and drag “game” myself. (i think this was the article, but i’m not sure, sorry)

[fucktonofanatomyreferencesreborn]

A mouth-watering fuck-ton of hand angle references.

By Shadowcross on DA.

[thecharactercomma]

Steps of Change

[thecharactercomma]

People don’t just change overnight! There’s a process. Even if the change is fast, there are steps and there’s a certain amount of thought involved if they want to make the change stick. There are exceptions, of course, like that antagonist you have somewhere with a dark and stormy night of tragedy that turned them into a revenge-obsessed murderer. For the most part, though, if your character changes too quickly, it feels fake. You need to ease them through the process.

This is a process that professionals study, so it’s legit. And you can reapply it in a way to fit how your characters change and develop during their arc. AND it’s a list of steps, so you guys will like it. For the character example, our arc will be about Audrey learning to stand up for herself.

Pre-contemplation: The thought first enters your mind. Maybe a friend mentions something, or you see something. [Ex: someone tells Audrey, “You’re such a pushover! Grow a spine.”]

Contemplation: You start thinking it’s a good idea. You start considering the benefits. [Ex: Audrey starts to think about how nice it would be if she was more assertive. She’d be happy more often and wouldn’t feel like a coward. It’d make her feel better about herself.]

Preparation: You start considering how you’d make it happen, and the steps you’d have to take. This can include removing temptation/unhealthy things from your life that are keeping you from change. [Ex: Audrey decides she needs to learn how to say “no.” She starts researching online about self-confidence and how to stand up for herself. She also needs to find a new friend, because the one she has uses her as a doormat (and someone to do her homework).]

Action: You do something! [Ex: Audrey starts to make her own choices. She tells her ex-friend “no” and refuses to do her ex-friend’s homework. She doesn’t let anyone push her around.]

Maintenance: You keep it up, get in a groove. [Ex: Audrey continues to stand up for herself. She doesn’t let others make choices for her. She gains confidence.]

Relapse: You break out of habit and lose the groove. Relapse is usually to step 3, but sometimes you’ll fall back to 1 or 2. [Ex: Something breaks Audrey from her confidence. Maybe the ex-friend pleads, or says “just this once,” or guilts Audrey into it. The inner voice tells Audrey she’s being selfish for putting herself first.]

With a steady progression like this, your character’s eventual success at the end of their character rainbow won’t seem sudden or contrived. At this point, they’ve earned it. They’ve worked for their change, and a reader will respect them for that. When they relapse, drama! It might take a few tries until they really break out of it. Think of it like someone trying to quit smoking. Habits are hard to break, and they don’t have to be a drug to be addictive. It takes some people years to quit smoking.

Change isn’t easy, and a lot of people don’t like change. It can be scary. It takes you from your comfort zone, and you won’t be sure of the results. Characters are the same way. Make them agonize and struggle over this change and make them relapse and lose all hope in what they’re doing. The end result will be so much more rewarding!

—E

[purmu]

the single greatest cloud brush I've worked with so far oh my god

just adjust opacity and size depending on how crisp lines you want

this shit took like 10 minutes

[old-helpyoudraw]

Various Male Jackets/Suits/Shirts

Transparent Umbrella

mode-5

teleesshop

teleesshop

bejubel

ebay

theleesshop

rtw-fashionspot

ebay

[drowninginrain]

IF YOU EVER WEAR THESE YOU’RE SURE TO GET LAID.

[the-radio-voice]

Who cares about get laid! i would just stay in front of the mirror and would fall in love with myself!

[littlelovelyfuck]

>implying I don’t do that all the time

[shooting-up-pie-in-the-sky-deac]

IT’S RIDICULOUS HOW HOT THESE CLOTHES ARE LOOK AT THE LAST ONE IT’S LIKE THE SEXIEST THING I HAVE EVER SEEN AND THERE’S NOT EVEN A PERSON IN IT I’M JUST IN LOVE WITH THE CLOTHES THEMSELVES LIKE WTF

[goddessofsax]

Blue, brown, and green eye colors

[nimblesnotebook-blog]

how do you write a brutally honest character? Or write a situation where you might be able to show this side of their personality?

There are two types of honest people. There are honest people who tell it like it is, whether their comment is welcome or not, and there are honest people who stay true to their word and who don’t lie, cheat, or sneak around. Both types can share traits:

Rude: Sometimes, an honest person can be rude when they point out truths. They may or may not realize that they are being rude. If they realize it, they might not care. If they do realize it, they might be reluctant to point it out or they might apologize for doing so. This is a flaw of being honest. It can cause conflict with other characters or it can reveal information that other characters wanted to keep quiet. Other times, people are honest because they like being rude.

Playing Fair: Honest people who “play by the rules” will reveal when a person is cheating (even themselves) because it’s part of their moral code. This can also be a flaw and it can result in an antagonist winning. They might have a chance to get out of a situation through stealing something that can help, but it goes against their moral code and therefore will result in internal conflict if they take it.

Outspoken: Some honest people will be outspoken or will seem outspoken if they’re the ones who stand up and give the truth that no one else wants to say.

Trustworthy: People who are honest can be trusted to tell the truth. This can be both a good and bad trait. They might give away someone’s secret if they feel it’s right to tell the truth about what happened.

Unbiased: Honest people have the ability to be more unbiased and objective than other people. They can look at both sides of a situation fairly.

Social Skills: The “tell it like it is” honest type can have trouble with social skills. They might not realize that some things are better left unsaid and therefore will turn others away through their honesty.

For some examples of these characters, look at the TV Tropes page.

There are tons of situations that you can show this and it should be present in more than just a few situations if it’s a major trait of a character. Showing their honesty can happen anywhere at any time, but it’s also dependent on your character and the story itself.

[nimblesnotebook-blog]

How do I portray a character that is a strict but caring leader?

Start here for information on leaders in general and then look at authoritative parenting here.

Strict but caring leaders are democratic leaders. They have the final say over everything, but are encouraging to subordinates and allow them to give input and share ideas. If you want your leader to be like this, try including the following:

Rules: A strict leader is going to have rules and they are going to have punishments for these rules, but they might allow offenders to give their reasons for why they broke a rule in an attempt to change this leader’s mind about punishment. The leader will still have the final say, but they will let their subordinates speak. Your leader can still be strict and even a little frightening when enforcing these rules while still being understanding.

Rewards: If all goes well and the leader is satisfied, they might reward others for their hard work. They’ll make it clear that this is a privilege that can be lost. They might take it away if one person messes up or they might just punish that individual. It depends on the leader and the message they’re trying to spread.

Encouragement: A strict but caring leader will encourage others to work hard, but won’t let them slack off either. If this leader notices that people are starting to slack off or fail, they’ll try to find out why instead of using methods such as fear to increase productivity.

Strict: A strict leader is obviously strict. If someone breaks the rules and has no valid excuses or explanations, this leader will punish them even if they like them as a person. Strict leaders know their power and they know they cannot appear weak. They need to be a leader so that others see them as a leader. Their power is based on how others perceive them.

Influential: This is a general trait for all good leaders. A leader must be able to influence thoughts. If you can influence thoughts, you can control actions. A strict but caring leader will be able to influence thoughts not through dictatorship, but through skill and respect. They will care about how they influence others, not just the end product.

Teamwork: Caring leaders push the idea that everyone must work together as a team and that they must help each other. Communication is important, thus letting others give their ideas and suggestions, but the leader is still the leader and has the final word.

Decision Maker: Leaders may be caring, but they still have to make decisions that others might not like and they have to be strict so that others know this leader has the final say. They have to be able to make decisions without feelings and relationships getting involved in the final choice.

[lilaira]

Hello friend! Im curious if you have any pictures of digigrade feet i could use for refrence..?

I tried..

[thedancingwriter]

Tips to Create More Effective Writing

I’m not going to give you any secrets to make your writing just plain brilliant, because, really, there are none. Writing takes experience. Someone just starting out shouldn’t expect to be able to automatically implement advice read in an article. But I am going to present to you some tips that can help you along in your writing journey.

Clear idea. Make sure you have a clear idea of what you want to do with your story. You want to write about pink elephants in tutus? Great! Now what are you going to do with these pink elephants? What is the plot for them going to be? What is their story going to be? What is their conflict going to be? What do these pink elephants ultimately want? Answering these questions and a few others can help give you a clearer idea of the story you want to tell.

Be specific. Don’t give readers bland descriptions. Give them descriptions that let them see what you are describing. Don’t tell readers there are a lot of houses in the neighborhood. Give character to those houses. Are they all the same? Are they different? What do they look like? Do these houses match the personalities of the neighbors? How does your character feel about these houses? And ect.

Word choice. It’s okay to throw in what I consider a SAT word every so often, but you don’t want to do it too much that those words eventually call attention to themselves. So the simpler the better. Word choice is also contingent on the type of book you’re writing. For example, if you’re writing a YA contemporary book, you’re more likely to use the word ‘use’ instead of 'utilize.’ However, if you’re writing a science fiction book, it isn’t too farfetched to use the word utilize. In the past I read a book that poked fun at using the word 'edifice.’ The word 'building,’ this book argued, is much better to use than edifice, because edifice is pretentious. However, sometimes building waters down just what the structure actually is. For example, in When Stars Die, I have Amelia call the cathedral an edifice at least once to keep me from overusing cathedral. Calling it a building would have watered down just how magnificent the structure actually is.

Crisp sentences. If you can convey a single thought with a simple sentence do so. Otherwise, complex sentences can invite confusion. This happened during the copy-editing stage of When Stars Die, where my editor had to point out a few sentences where confusion was evident. There was also one big sentence that I struggled with trying to cut down, and I had to have my PA help me. This required breaking this single sentence down into three simple sentences so that readers could understand what I was trying to convey. Plus, long, wordy sentences are annoying to read, mostly because our modern eyes are not used to them. If you’ve ever read fiction written in the 19th century, you’ll see what I mean by wordy sentences. Even though a lot of stories from the 19th century are still read today, if someone were to write like that, that story would have a rejection letter already waiting for it–unless, maybe, if this story is written as a parody.

Active voice. Using active voice to write sentences creates smoother, stronger writing. For example, instead of saying 'The ball was thrown by me’ it’s more effective to say, 'I threw the ball.’ Less words, too. An active sentence consists, in this order, the subject, the verb, and the object. The subject is 'I,’ the verb is 'threw,’ and the object is 'ball.’ So keep those three words in mind when writing active sentences. Sometimes the passive voice can work, but this isn’t something you want to overdo. This is also a judgment call and requires experience to pull off effectively.

Qualifying words. Using words like very, really, little, rather, and other qualifying words can be unnecessary in exposition. Writing 'She was very tired,’ is weak writing. Instead you can write, 'She was drained.’ Or writing 'He was really, really mad,’ is weak, too. Write 'He was livid.’ So wherever you use a qualifying word, replace that with a stronger verb. Qualifying words in dialogue, however, are okay, but crisp dialogue is important, too. After all, a teen character might not use 'livid’ to tell another character how someone reacted to a character’s actions: “He was really angry that you sent that text message to his girlfriend.” People use qualifying words in dialogue a lot, in any case. But, again, the crisper the better.

Get to the point. Don’t ramble. Find an effective way to state your point using as few sentences as possible and move on. Don't  veer from the idea your character is trying to get across. “I couldn’t stand the way she walked away from me, tossing her hair over her shoulder as she went to his car. Speaking of his car, it was battered, with blue, chipped paint. I wondered if he had gotten it from a junkyard.” The sentence in bold veers away from the point where the character should still be focused on the girl, not suddenly jumping to talking about the guy’s car. It’s jarring.

Avoid redundancy. This takes skill to spot, but reading out loud is pretty effective when spotting redundancy. You only need to state an idea once. Otherwise, this assumes your readers are dumb.

Edit. Being able to ruthlessly edit can take some skill, too. However, here are a few steps that might help: write the book, put it away for as long as you think it needs to be put away, then come back with a fresh pair of eyes and start tearing your story apart. All points mentioned above are things that need to be considered in the editing stage.

Ask Box is closed for now, as I have unanswered messages that I eventually need to get to. But I hope to eventually get to the post about writing asexual characters and another one about tying in sub-plots. Those posts, for now, just require a lot of brain matter that I don’t currently have.

[characterandwritinghelp]

How do you go about introducing the fantasy world you've created for your story to your characters?

This is known as exposition. Before I go on, I feel like I need to differentiate: Do you need help introducing the world to the characters, or to the readers? These are two separate concepts, but they can coincide: the reader’s view and understanding of the world can be filtered through the character, or the reader’s understanding of the world can be greater than that of the character as fuel for tension and drama.

Introducing the world can take a number of different forms, some better than others. Those to avoid would be things like info dumping and writing in worldbuilding as though you were creating an encyclopedia entry on the subject. As general advice, expose development in small pieces and try not to devote paragraph upon page upon chapter to explaining the intricacies of your world. Chances are that we don’t need to see all of it, at least not right this second.

If the character is a newcomer to the world (portal fantasies, Prince-and-Pauper-esque stories, etc.), chances are that readers are new as well. In describing the world to the newcoming character, the readers are exposed and introduced to it as well. Exposition of this nature can look similar to description: describing the facet of the world we are currently involved with, such as the new school of magic that the stunned character has just witnessed, a creature that the protagonists have never seen before, working through the political climate with a character thrust into the center of a peace negotiation, etc.

If the character is well-acquainted with the world, it is the reader who needs an introduction and no one else (probably). This can be trickier, since your character already knows everything and does not need the explanation that the audience does. Consequently, this will look a little more overt than other types of exposition, since you will almost always need to put this in asides to the audience rather than force characters to rehash things they are already familiar with (resulting in As You Know speeches and other forms of infodump via dialogue).

Infodumping can be sneaky, and you may not realize that you’re doing it. It can take the form of long conversations and chunks of dialogue, an extended passage in which a character thinks about their backstory or another flashback type scene occurs, or it can be paragraphs of straight-up description. This can work in some cases, if the description or story is genuinely interesting, funny, or otherwise pleasant to read. However, most of the time readers will be anxious to get on with the plot.

The best way to make exposition work for you is to make it relevant to whatever is currently happening in the story. If the information being presented has little or no relevance to the current events (“that abandoned castle over there was once the home of King Olaf III who liked to eat soup with a fork, now let’s get back to stealing that diamond”), odds are that it doesn’t need to be there, no matter how interesting the facts. If you can make information relevant (“that abandoned castle over there was once the home of King Olaf III who had a secret passageway under the castle, we can use it to bypass security and steal that diamond”), you gain the double bonus of advancing the plot while giving the reader information about the world.

You will always know more than the reader. This is not a bad thing, just a fact to bear in mind. It is absolutely fine to know more than the reader; you are the writer and you need to know everything you can. What the reader needs to know can vary by situation and by event.

Think of exposition like Legos: they come in differently sized bricks, build on each other, and tend not to go anywhere if you don’t build the entire thing right now. Exposition handles much the same way. You can lay down a few blocks to be the foundation, run off and deal with swords and dragons for a bit, then come back and add another room to Fort Exposition. When the situation arises that something needs to be explained, have a break and build a bit. Know when to stop and get back to the action, or risk boring the readers.

There is a general rule that more than one paragraph of straight explanation is at least bordering infodumping, and that more than two paragraphs is almost definitely classified as an infodump. If you have an entire page of exposition and nothing else, it’s probably time to hit the brakes.

More links for you:

TvTropes on Exposition, on Infodump, and on Expospeak

Fixing the Info Dump

Finessing the Infodump

Avoiding the Info-Dump

Info Dumps Aren’t Evil!

In Defense of Flashbacks

Backstory

I hope this helped. Let us know if you have any other questions.

-Headless

[lilbookofkell]

Texture and Color Resources

CG Texture

TextureKing

Fabric Tales

Mayang’s Free Texture Library

Spoonflower

Seamless Textures

Squidfingers

BittBox

100+ Seamless Patterns Great for Creating Website Backgrounds

Color Trends + Palettes