Orphans of Ordas

We are all dreams

[anythings-a-sweet-if-you-eat-it]

boring take from real 21st century idiots: bdsm is bad because it's basically torture

interesting take from a fictional 14th century monk: torture is bad because it's basically sex

[ohholydyke]

Shoutout to the nun who had other nuns tie her up and pour hot wax on her as she confessed her sins

[amorphousgenderlesscryptid]

I'm sure that's true, but something tells me googling "nun tied up by other nuns" "hot wax" "confessing sins" will likely get what you might call rather un-academic results

[pretensesoup]

As others have noted, the nun in question was Saint Mary Magdalene de' Pazzi.

[wagitfag]

picklesbaseball

[magikonch]

[mayakern]

After drawing Hemlock’s undergarments a while back, I had to do the same for Roxanna and Vanetta! So here are all three of my current dnd characters in their underclothes.

[mayakern]

here’s progress shots for painting roxanna’s hair and chemise

[softness-and-shattering]

May I ask, whats your process for drawing the curls to begin with, and deciding which areas are shadowed/less detailed? Im struggling to find a balance between drawing a bouncy cloud and defining every single lock of hair.

[mayakern]

it depends on the hair texture and how i think that specific character would treat their hair. for roxanna, even tho it’s a pain in the ass, i basically draw every lock of hair because she is a high maintenance girlie with very curly hair and a thorough curl regimen.

i literally picked out the majority of her cantrips to support her hair care routine: shape water to get it wet, prestidigitation to apply product (using the “dirty” or “clean” a surface function), shape water + mage hand to finger curl each strand, then prestidigitation again to dry it. that’s how she gets her hair into these perfectly defined, bouncy, ringlets that still have individuality and character and don’t look like uniform heated rod creations.

when it comes to shading and deciding detail, it’s all about figuring out where the light hits. depending on your lighting, most of your detail is either going to be where the light illuminates the hair the most or (if the light is so bright it blows out those areas and causes loss of detail) in the mids. typically where things are turning away from the light you want less detail. but it really depends on the situation.

all hair is basically made of many tiny ribbons that you can clump together in larger forms to simplify the shapes/drawing process, but the curlier or more coily the hair is, the less clumping you can get away with. very very curly/coily hair that is more textured typically looks better painted rather than drawn, imo, because painting is much better at capturing the depth of the hair and the way it catches and bounces light. not to say it can’t be done, but in my own work i think i am more successful at painting it than drawing it, as you can see in the two pieces below where one is more “drawn” and one is more “painted”

what’s important to realize about the “bouncy clouds” in hair is that these are actually a representation of many, many many teeny tiny coils of hair so densely packed together that trying to individually draw every individual coil will never properly capture the way uniquely beautiful way very textured hair reflects light. because at the end of the day, hair is all about texture and light.

and ngl im not sure im the best person to come to for advice on simplifying how to draw curls because i am a freak that draws and paints basically every clump of hair. maybe because i primarily draw wavy and curly hair, maybe because i’m a freak idk, maybe because i still have learning and growing to do as an artist.

i also wouldn’t consider myself an expert on textured hair (i still have a lot to learn), but these are my observations as someone who has drawn and painted a lot of hair over the years.

[softness-and-shattering]

Sorry for the delay in responding, thank you so much! The idea of choosing cantrips purely for hair care is so cool, that would never have occured to me. Now I have to think about how my curly haired characters actually treat their hair. It might be fun to give them vaguely wavy frizz cause they couldnt be bothered 😂 (if you dont mind;) Re drawing every strand of hair, do you have a process or a guide for like. Where and how to draw each strand? I tend to draw a couple strands framing the face, and then I dont really know where to go. I kind of end up with a curly blob with no interior detail, like six giant curl strands, or a bunch of squiggles that look terrible. Ive tried some tutorials and thats given me a flat front layer of curl and a flat back layer. How do you place your lines/light/shadow to suggest mass and depth and movement and layering? This might be a kind of thing you just have to get a sense for, idk. I think I understand what youre saying about light Im just not sure how to replicate it. I especially like your piece with the hair all piling up on the pillow - your art is gorgeous btw. And the second last image, even in the darkest part of the hair there are lighter strands, darker patches. The red haired magic girl, all those curls flow so beautifully into each other, I always end up with spots that are jarring to the flow, are you using shadow to de-emphasize where the curls run into each other like that? I have also seen artists do linework where every single line is flowing the same way, and I havent worked out how to imitate that. Thank you again, and no pressure to respond, much appreciation if you do :)

[mayakern]

i have some tutorials and process videos on my tiktok, including a tutorial playlist, and some stuff tagged on tumblr but i don't really have like a definitive guide. curls are VERY diverse and every head of curls contains multiple curl types. understanding them isn't just about learning to draw them, you have to learn about hair and how it behaves and for my part of that comes from having naturally wavy hair that sometimes ringlets (even if i don't wear my natural texture anymore) and watching a lot of videos about curly hair and gathering a lot of references.

also, when i say i draw every piece of hair--i do not mean individual hairs, but rather clumps. curls form clumps and the size of those clumps is a big factor in the over all determination of hair texture. straight, wavy, curly, and coily hair actually have different follicle shapes and these determine the category of hair texture, but a lot of the tightness and definition in a curl is determined by clump size. the smaller the clumps, the tighter the curls are/look. i have a looot of hair references saved that i use constantly but i don't just look at them--i think about how that texture and definition is achieved. when i can, i make an active effort to find the hair care routine of the person i'm referencing so i can see their hair in various states, including styled, brushed out, wet, and with different (and preferably also with no) products.

(source)

so when i think about defining hair visually, those are the main things i think about: texture, care, and clump size. and light. you can broadly think about different types of wavy, curly, and coily hair as either cylinders, cones, or ribbons (and ribbons can also be used for straight hair).

for most textures, the more defined hair is, the shinier/more reflective it will be, and the more light it will catch. in general when shading a full head of hair it just comes down to practice, observation, and trial and error. the hair that is in shadow will catch Less light but very infrequently will it catch No light.

i think the problem you are running into is that curls have a lot of dimension and shape so when you separate it only into Front Pieces and Back As A Single Mass, you are basically flattening it into a couple cardboard pieces instead of seeing it as a complicated mass of smaller shapes that all interact with each other, similar to a mop head

i recommend taking some time to study some references, including drawing from them and trying to break down the hair into larger shapes. try this several times with different categories of shapes--whether the shape is defined by mass. when you do this you'll notice that even the clumps of hair that catch the least light still usually catch some light.

it's also important to note that most light is caught on the parts of the curls that face outward (or towards a very directional light source) and that the parts where curls face each other is usually in shadow. it's part of why curls are so hard to simplify.

i don't really have time to go more in depth than this so i hope this helps!

and i guess maybe the biggest takeaway here is that if you post your curl routine online with good lighting there's a decent chance you'll end up in my reference folder lol

[what-even-is-thiss]

I’m kinda surprised that nalbinding isn’t as popular as crochet and knitting tbh because it has an even lower barrier of entry tools wise and unlike crochet and knitting it makes fabric that you can cut.

I guess it’s because it’s slower or something.

[what-even-is-thiss]

Nalbinding aka needle binding is when you use yarn and a big sewing needle to make fabric btw

It also has a lot of different kinds of stitches you can do that make different densities of fabric.

Some people even make rugs.

[thewolfwaitsbelow]

I feel like part of it might be casual people are generally aware of the existence of crochet and knitting, even if they don’t know very much about either, but have never heard of nalbinding

[what-even-is-thiss]

Yeah I hadn’t heard of it until recently and I ordered a big bone needle for myself to try it out and that should be arriving soon.

I was surprised that I’d never heard of it though. It’s older than knitting and crocheting and even though it’s been done all over the world it’s super relevant to Nordic culture and my grandmother and I are both into keeping in touch with our roots a bit so I’m surprised I’ve never heard of it.

It seems like the sort of thing that would be popular even if not as popular as crocheting and knitting, considering the low barrier of entry.

[what-even-is-thiss]

You also don’t need a bunch of different sized needles for nalbinding or whatever. The size of the stitch is controlled either completely freehand or by pulling it against one of your fingers. Most people who have a lot of nalbinding needles seem to either have tried out wood, bone, and metal ones to see which kind they liked or they enjoy carving wood or bone and like making their own needles as an extra hobby.

It’s also a lot easier to freehand and adjust as you go than crochet or knitting and you mostly go by inches instead of rows and number of stitches so a large number of accessories like stitch markers or whatever isn’t really necessary.

Maybe the lack of accessories also makes it unpopular idk. People do like collecting things in their nests.

[the-color-of-sound-is-space]

I've been wanting to do so, I cannot find anyone who can teach me, and any books I can find on it are Ass in the Visual Learning department. Otherwise I'd be making the hell outta some nalbinded fabric

[what-even-is-thiss]

I found this channel by a nice man who makes up close tutorials

Happy Needlebinding

I create videos on YouTube to learn people how to needlebind using two fingers and your thumb. Needlebinding helps people to relax, relieve

[what-even-is-thiss]

I thought this would be kind of a niche post to make but I was quickly reminded that I’m on tumblr, the website full of gay people with one billion hobbies.

[what-even-is-thiss]

So my bone needle actually came this evening (yay!) and I’ve started trying this for real. It clicks in my brain way easier than crochet does. I’ve gotta work up the muscle memory but I think I can do this.

The downside as a beginner is that undoing mistakes is more time consuming than with knitting or crochet. You’ve gotta like sew your mistakes out backwards. Disadvantages of making a really sturdy fabric I guess.

I like the feel of this bone needle though and don’t think I’ll be trying the wooden or metal ones.

Also I think I’m gonna have to get good at doing Russian joining if I decide to get good at nalbinding because I don’t have wool yarn and the ends won’t felt together if it’s not at least 50% wool. A small price to pay for using big bone needle though.

Anyways curse of new fiber craft be upon ye.

[natalieironside]

Natalie's Cool Website :)

The official home on the web for award-winning speculative fiction author Natalie H. Ironside, queen of queer pulps

(icon by @neladoesart)

Hi! I'm Natalie. I'm trans of gender and ace of sexual and I write dark fantasy and dark sci-fi adventure stories full of boners and thud-and-blunder action violence wherein no swash remains unbuckled, nor pot unboiled. I also blog about books and history and languages and I write essays and poetry sometimes, and don't forget about the many exciting Age of Empires 2 scenarios available at Natalie's Cool Website.

You might have heard my short story The Wishing Tree on the Tales to Terrify podcast! (now available as a zine from Grinning Kitten Press). Other stuff I’ve published to date includes:

THE LAST GIRL SCOUT: A post-apocalyptic wasteland adventure story and transbian romance about two women who fall in lesbians together and fight Nazis and draculas in the bombed-out ruins of Old America

LEAD AND ROSES: LOVE SONGS AT THE END OF THE WORLD: A collection of short fiction set within 23rd-century post-nuclear wasteland we’ve all come to know and love

IN THE COURT OF THE NAMELESS QUEEN: A collection of dark fantasy f/f erotica about sexy swashbuckling swordswomen (both cis and normal) and a giant scary monster lady in a far-off realm of adventure and dark magic.

If you're curious I'd really like it if you'd check out my Patreon because there's even more fantabulous treasures on there and you can subscribe for the low, low price of just one American dollar. Your one American dollar will go toward the ever topical "Natalie can make rent and doesn't starve" philanthropy fund.

I'm gonna stay here on Tumblr until they forcibly remove me from the premises, but I'm also on Pillowfort, Bluesky, and Cohost

I'm also $NatalieIronside on cashapp and I have a wishlist on Throne if u want to help me pick up work supplies or just kick me some groceries (please do I am very hungry):

Natalie Ironside - Wishlist | Throne

Send Natalie Ironside gifts via Throne. Browse Natalie Ironside's wishlist and support your favorite creator safely.

:)

[anarchopuppy]

roxy’s Great Big Mutual Aid Masterpost

So, this isn’t the first post ever made like this, but I’m trying to do something a little different than just posting a bunch of links. I’m only gonna include resources that are international, common, displayed either as a map or as a geographically-sorted list, and easy to participate in, to make this masterpost as accessible as I possibly can. If you’re reading this post you’re probably an English-speaker with an internet connection, and so with that in mind my goal here is that any given link you click will have a decent chance of having something near you, and there will almost certainly be at least one link on this list with something you can plug into

Groups

Mutual Aid Wiki - A map of mutual aid groups of all kinds, largely (but not exclusively) ones started in response to the pandemic

Food Not Bombs - A map of free public meals from rescued food waste. Can be a little outdated

Buy Nothing Project - A list of hyper-local gift economy groups

Trash Nothing - A list of local groups where people give and request things that would otherwise be thrown away

Transition Network - A map of local groups seeking to build sustainable circular economies from the ground up, for people, not profits

Industrial Workers of the World - One big labor union for everybody, with local chapters across much of the world

It’s Going Down’s Upcoming Events Page - A partial list of radical actions taking place in the near future, updated frequently

Locations

Slingshot Collective’s Radical Contact List - An international catch-all list of projects

Intentional Community Directory - A map of communes, housing coops, land trusts, eco-villages, and similar communal living projects

Repair Cafés - A map of spaces where you can show up and have your broken items repaired for free (or volunteer to do so for others)

Sharing Cities - Maps of the commons in various cities across the world

Sharing Spaces

Little Free Library’s Sharing Box Map - A map of little free libraries that have been converted into sharing spaces for food, personal care, or hygiene items

Freedges - A map of community refrigerators for sharing food

Little Free Pantries - A map of sharing boxes for non-perishable food

Can’t Find Anything?

None of these lists are comprehensive, and these aren’t the only resources available either. Try using a search engine or looking on social media with keywords like “[your location] mutual aid”

Maybe you could start something yourself! Here are some resources: How to Form an Affinity Group, How to Share from Shareable, Small Town Organizing for Anarchists, resources for mutual aid groups from Mutual Aid Disaster Relief, seven steps to starting a Food Not Bombs group

If you don’t have even a single accomplice to start an affinity group with, there are still actions you can take on your own! Check out my #practical tag for ideas

[cutee-houses]

1871 Gothic Revival – Mt. Tabor, NJ

Beds: 1/Baths: 1.5/Sqft: 738

$279,900

[foodffs]

[foodffs]

Orange Chicken

Follow for recipes

Is this how you roll?

[lets-steal-an-archive]

ALT

View on Twitter

https://archive.org/details/vhsinstructionals

Instructional and Educational VHS Tapes : Free Movies : Free Download, Borrow and Streaming : Internet Archive

[berlynn-wohl]

me browsing this folder: omg omG I don’t know which one I’m more excited to watch, this Frontline episode from 1992 or this NOVA episode from 1984!!!

the NSA agent who can hear everything through my phone:

[digital-magus]

Yes… YES! fucking hell I LOVE this! Give them all to me!!

[roach-works]

IMMEDIATELY hit gold, thank you OP, i am respectfully stripping for you (1987)

[roach-works]

[foone]

I'm finally getting back on my feet but I've been hit with continuous migraines for the last month which is really impacting my finances, and my insurance keeps rejecting my migraine meds. Any spare dollars would really help while I try to get this sorted, thanks!

Support Alice Averlong ❤️

Become a supporter of Alice Averlong today!

[punkitt-is-here]

someone with a meow wow fursona would go hard as hell.

[punkitt-is-here]

[pillowfort-social]

Hey everyone! We want to make Pillowfort a non-profit, but we need to bring together a team to make that happen. In order to register as a nonprofit, we will need at least three board members to assume the roles of President and Secretary. We’re also looking for people to join as directors and/or to helm the following responsibilities:

General Operations & Administration

Development

System Administration

App Security

Legal

Finance (Treasurer role)

Content Moderation

Community Management

If you're interested in joining Pillowfort in one of these capacities, please follow this link to read more about our goals & how you can help us!

[adultlikers]

[porksweats]

e me a mail

[fortooate]

make the attachment a pic of a snail

[jumpingjacktrash]

give me two gifs

of critters in clover

[nuclearcarrots]

then photoshop them on the CLIIIIIIIFFS OF DOVER

[laurasinele]

I still reference this post today. And yes, when I say I reference it I mean I sing it.

[mousidy]

where are my transfem gamedevs pspsps cmere let's be devs together

[mousidy]

reblog/reply with your projectssss I wanna see them and play them

[mousidy]

need more fellow devs in my life again pspspspsps

[mousidy]

kinda wanna start a transfem gamedev discord server but tbh I'm already stretched pretty thin across all my projects 😭

[queer-as-city-folk]

in very early stages, but I just made a server for this!!

Check out the Transfem Gamedev pit community on Discord - hang out with 1 other members and enjoy free voice and text chat.

[dduane]

Why Do So Many Museums Hold a Convicted Antiquity Dealer’s Treasures?

After The Met returned a Roman bust connected to Phoenix Ancient Art, the question of what will happen to other works sold by the gallery to

A long read that will turn your brains right around in your head at the lengths people will go to to (a) steal stuff and (b) make loads of money at it.

[wobblydev]

The 1-on-1

The first in a short series about organizing.

If you enjoy these little comics, organize. Everyone has a crucial part to play in this work. Yes, it can be difficult, awkward, emotional and draining. It can also be empowering, exciting and elating! You will never have to organize alone.

Visit https://iww.org/ and scroll to the “Organize” banner to get in touch with us. Virtual organizer training will give you the tools you need to begin. We don’t have a lot of time. Join the One Big Union and ORGANIZE!

Poster Size

[soracities]

"Absolutely no one comes to save us but us."

Ismatu Gwendolyn, "you've been traumatized into hating reading (and it makes you easier to oppress)", from Threadings, on Substack [ID'd]

[paper-mario-wiki]

HEY wanna read but annoyed on where to find copies of books?

Here's an archive with millions of PDFs of books and papers and magazines and essays and stuff.

[meltedgarment]

I've been looking for such archives, thanks

[fealty-to-thee]

you’ve been traumatized into hating reading (and it makes you easier to oppress).

i was not going to publish this essay because i don’t like to yell but here the fuck i am.

the first link broke, here you go

[creatingblackcharacters]

BEGGING us to read nonfiction every now and then. Like. Words on page. It doesn't have to be the only thing you do, but you gotta keep in practice with it. No easier people to subjugate than those who question nothing they're told.