Hufflehobbit Makes Things

[chuwenjie]

A compilation of stuff I know about drawing Asian faces and Asian culture! I feel like many “How-To-Draw” tutorials often default to European faces and are not really helpful when drawing people of other races. So I thought I’d put this together in case anyone is interested! Feel free to share this guide and shoot me questions if you have any! I’m by no means an expert, I just know a few things from drawing experience and from my own cultural background. 

[othersystems]

[urbanpineapplefarmer]

It is really important to me that all of you learn about Al Bean, astronaut on Apollo 12 and the fourth man to walk on the moon, who after 20 years in the US Navy and 18 years with NASA during which he spent 69 days in space and more than 10 hours doing EVAs on the moon , retired to become a painter.

He is my favorite astronaut for any number of reasons, but he’s also one of my favorite visual artists.

Like, look at this stuff????

It’s all so expressive and textured and colorful! He literally painted his own experience on the moon! And that's just really fucking cool to me!

Just look at this! This is one of my absolute favorite emotions of all time. Is Anyone Out There? is like the ultimate reaction image. Any time I have an existential crisis, this is how I picture myself.

And then there's this one:

The Fantasy

For all of the six Apollo missions to land on the moon, there was no spare time. Every second of their time on the surface was budgeted to perfection: sleeping, eating, putting on the suits, entering and exiting the LEM, rock collection, setting up longterm experiments to transmit data back to Earth, everything. These timetables usually got screwed over by something, but for the most part the astronauts stuck to them.

The crew of Apollo 12 (Pete Conrad, Al Bean, and Dick Gordon) had other plans. Conrad and Bean had snuck a small camera with a timer into the LEM to take a couple pictures together on the moon throughout the mission. They had hidden the key for the timer in one of the rock collection bags, with the idea being to grab the key soon after landing, take some fun photos here and there, and then sneak the camera back to Earth to develop them. They had practiced where they would hide the key and how to get it out from under the collected rocks back on Earth dozens of times.

But when they got to the moon, the key was nowhere to be found. Al Bean spent precious time digging through the collection bags before he called it off. The camera had been pushing their luck anyways, he couldn't afford to spend anymore time not on the mission objectives. Conrad and Bean continued the mission as per the NASA plan while Dick Gordon orbited overhead.

Fast forward to the very end of the mission. Bean and Conrad are doing last checks of the LEM before they enter for the last time and depart from the moon. As Bean is stowing one of the collection bags, the camera key falls out. The unofficially planned photo time has come and gone, and he tosses the key over his shoulder to rest forever on the surface of the moon.

This painting, The Fantasy, is that moment. There have never been three people on the moon at the same time, there was never an unofficial photo shoot on the moon, this picture could never have happened.

"The most experienced astronaut was designated commander, in charge of all aspects of the mission, including flying the lunar module. Prudent thinking suggested that the next-most-experienced crew member be assigned to take care of the command module, since it was our only way back home. Pete had flown two Gemini flights, the second with Dick as his crewmate. This left the least experienced - me - to accompany the commander on the lunar surface.

"I was the rookie. I had not flown at all; yet I got the prize assignment. But not once during the three years of training which preceded our mission did Dick say that it wasn't fair and that he wished he could walk on the moon, too. I do not have his unwavering discipline or strength of character.

"We often fantasized about Dick's joining us on the moon but we never found a way. In my paintings, though, I can have it my way. Now, at last, our best friend has come the last sixty miles." - Al Bean, about The Fantasy.

[futureevilscientist]

There’s also Alexei Leonov, writer and artist and first person to conduct a spacewalk!

This is his art.

[sevensmallgummies]

You can't forget this, the first art made in space.

March 1965, Alexei Leonov made this drawing only moments after narrowly surviving the very first space walk.

[literallymechanical]

hey google I just don't think that's accurate

[hufflehobbitmakes]

I’m so glad this is getting some attention, because it deserves it. GenAI summaries in a nutshell: lots of information, zero understanding. The Wolfbloods are just the tip of the iceberg.

[heretherebebookdragons]

If you are a fan fic writer and you're alright with people making fan art of your fic, reblog this 💚

[hufflehobbitmakes]

Continuing the ongoing “posts about hobby stuff people are curious about, covering the last couple of years of projects”, this is (by request) laser-cut acrylic jewelry bits! The world has definitely embraced laser-cut acrylic earrings and pendants and the like, but from what I’ve seen has not in any way discovered it’s full potential. There are a *lot* of amazing specialty acrylics out there that are not generally marketed to hobbyists but which can be shockingly affordable, especially on the scale of jewelry. In particular, there are two-tone acrylics intended for the commercial engraving market (think room signs in office buildings and the little executive desk name-plate things) which can make for wonderful high-contrast engraving effects (and which come in dozens of colors— I’m only showing a few here) and also fancy multi-color acrylics made for things like hotel lobby decor and aimed at the building market. I usually get my two-tone engraving plastics from jpplus.com— they have an excellent selection and reasonable prices. The weird special effect acrylics I got as an amazingly cost-effective 400-ish unit sampler pack from a Chinese manufacturer, and the small squares are actually really effective for jewelry! I’m keeping a list of colors I really like in case I decide to properly sell these (and thus can justify buying whole sheets).

These are mostly from a period when I deluded myself into thinking I had the organizational skills to run an Etsy shop, so these are mostly just “this seems cool!” rather than anything specific. Also because jewelry bits turn out to be excellent for using up every little leftover piece of material. I’ve not bothered photographing the tiny beads I fit into the holes in larger pieces and stray corners, but they’re fun to make.

The dark blue and gold plastic is scrap from a larger project that will be featured in another post. I *love* the stuff, but it is tricky to photograph well in small pieces, because the “dark blue” is actually black-and-metallic-sapphire-blue marble that looks *stunning* in person.

[hufflehobbitmakes]

One of my favorite art forms, finally starting to catch on in popularity: nightlights, aka side-lit acrylic. These are more fun than they have any right to be, and easy to make with a laser cut to boot. The bases cost $5 or less in small bulk on Amazon— or at least, they did back when I was making these regularly, which was a few years ago. They’re selling the exact same models for $10-15 for hobbyists now, sadly.

The starry sky is an excellent example of why crafting can be dangerous near me. I couldn’t find any starfields that I liked and which were both dense enough to silhouette something cleanly and looked realistic… so I spent ten hours tracing a NASA photo by hand. 😅😅😅 At least it came out cool?

Most of these are just a lesson in “black and white art looks amazing in light”; most of the artwork belongs to various amazing friends who 100% deserve credit but whose tumblrs I do not know offhand and will have to dig up.

[hufflehobbitmakes]

More shirts, the common thread this time being “this project was a fun gift, I liked how it came out, and it would take too long to explain the reasoning behind most of them.” The glitter animals are a toddler t-shirt and were loads of fun in ways you usually can’t get away with for adults. If you like colors, I do recommend making friends with kids, they’re a great excuse to be over the top.

[hufflehobbitmakes]

Folks have been asking about my many creations, so I’m dumping years’ worth of fun stuff on here, because hey, where else do I put it?

This installment: queer and neurodiverse stuff. These are mostly my own design except for “existential fear”. Most of these were made when I was just getting started and I was awful about taking pictures. As opposed to today when I am merely bad. Most of these are also gifts.

The alphabet mafia shirt, which is in eight colors of glitter vinyl, looks amazing in person and is one of my favorites but does not photograph well. It is also, unfortunately, a bit of a pain to make— did mention eight colors of vinyl?

[hufflehobbitmakes]

Some folks wanted to see my hobby work, and I didn’t have anywhere in particular to post it, so… might as well be here?

This is a collection of fandom shirts made with my laser-cutter and Siser’s wonderful laser-safe heat transfer vinyl. There are so many amazing special effects vinyls in the world and they’re so underutilized! All of these except for the two Yuri on Ice ones (Katsudamn and Victuuri) are other folks’ art, my own colors/lettering/layout.

[femcassidy]

white people please just purchase native artwork and jewelry from native people i keep seeing idiot white people be like “waaah i wish i could support native creators but its cultural appropriation” girl why would beaders sell you their earrings then. just dont get a medicine wheel or a thunderbird then like damn it is that easy

[idkinsertfanreferencehere]

http://www.beyondbuckskin.com/p/buy-native.html?m=1

[anexperimentallife]

If Native folks are making it to sell to white people with the approval of their tribe, it’s not “appropriation”–its support and appreciation! So yes, buy that native-made dream catcher, but not the mass produced fakes made by white people. Like, you can go to a pow wow and buy native crafts there, too.

[sch-uwu-lchen]

here are some places to get native/indigenous goods and merch online if you can’t find something local or if physical access is an obstacle:

https://sweetgrasstradingco.com/ https://nativeharvest.com/ https://byellowtail.com/ https://www.salishstyle.com/ https://trickstercompany.com/ https://hutxh.com/ https://www.thentvs.com/ https://urbannativeera.com/ https://www.oxdxclothing.com/ https://kotahbear.com/ https://www.totemdesignhouse.com/ https://ginewusa.com/ https://eighthgeneration.com/

and the only native-owned comic shop in the world: https://redplanetbooksncomics.com/