This Madness of Creation!

The comics, illustrations, and thoughts of illeity. Loves tea and silence.

[illeity]

Denouement

New Years is here. Time to welcome 2019!

After this post, I will only answer Asks if I can reply to them privately. My visits here will reduce drastically as I look for a new home. So look below for ways to find me.

PRIMARY PRESENCES

(Places, I’m generally more active in.)

twitter - Retweets stuff, posts my own art and doodles, chats with other peoples.

deviantart - Formal artworks and comics mainly. No doodles.

curious cat - Send me your Asks and questions here instead.

ko-fi - If you like my stuff and would like to support it, drop a coin here for this busker.

illeity a t outlook d t com - email me for longer letters or business matters.

SECONDARY PRESENCES

(Places I’m not always active. Not advisable if you’re looking for a quicker response.)

gab - It’s pretty bare right now. Maybe if Twitter dies?

minds - Pretty bare as well. Not a good platform to post art, especially comics.

Have a Happy New Year 2019!

My parting message?

Slay your Goblins everyday, lest they become too big and overwhelm you.

[illeity]

Dedicated to the person who sent that touching letter. You know who you are.

I already sent the reply. This is my public reply.

Once more into the fray,

-illeity

[illeity]

Merry Christmas, dear Anointed!

(Photosets!)

Understanding the limitations of human beings is the beginning of wisdom.

-Thomas Sowell

Coin in the hat?

[illeity]

Merry Cyberpunk Christmas!

Mary was bred to be the perfect corporate utility for Rome Co., blameless, intelligent, and programmed for Ultra-High Frequency Trading. One day, however, a kindly birthing tank maintenance associate slipped in a few images of green forests, golden mountains, and blue skies into her training programs. This burned in an intense curiosity in her and she escaped as soon as she was able.

Jo3seph was a Carpenter, a rare person able to read assembly code and able to manipulate the backend of reality that Rome Co. closed off from the rest of the world with its proprietary high-level programming language.

On meeting Mary, Jo3seph saw something special in her, for she could disassemble Rome Co.'s language into useable sections, something even the most normal human being can use to improve their lives. However, compiling the code needed time, and together, they conspired to find safe haven in ベツレヘム, as they are chased by Rome Co.'s police force and local mayor Herod.

Jo3seph was terrified at being chased by authority, but seeing Mary's smile brought out the bravery in this man, beaten down by a lifetime of hopelessness and pain.

Coin in the hat?

[illeity]

Think you could open a CuriousCat on Twitter so people can still ask you questions?

Done.

I appreciate your curiosity, but I’m no guru. I’m just some artist who enjoys anime, vidya, and light passing through leaves.

Also, posting random pictures like this:

[illeity]

Thank you for everything, especially the Inkopolis Myths. Btw, will you post more of them on DA/Twitter when you leave Tumblr?

Yes, of course! Though to be honest I tapered off playing Splatoon 2 once they introduced the Online service, but I have a few stories left and it’s been bothering me. I think I have one for the Expansion and another for Salmon Run.

I’m thinking of returning to them once the holiday season is done and done. I’ll conclude the Myths properly.

[illeity]

Hey, I've been a quiet follower for years and if you do go I just wanted to say, well... It's been a ride. I haven't always agreed with your viewpoints on some things, but I've always respected the care, thought and logical approach you've taken to express them. You've consistently encouraged the people on here to think for themselves, did your best to weave engaging stories and exposed me to some new things. Who knows? Maybe our paths will cross again. I guess what I'm trying to say is thanks.

We work in the dark.

We do what we can.

We give what we have.

Our doubt is our passion

And our passion is our task.

The rest is the madness of art.

Quote by Henry James

You’re absolutely welcome, my friend.

[illeity]

Well, on the upside, you won’t have to deal with Tumblr and it’s idiotic practices anymore. It was a good run, though. Your unique words of wisdom will not be forgotten here.

That’s a good way of looking at it. Thought credit to Tumblr, it really got me exposed to a lot of the practices of the regressive left. Not knowing what it was back then, anyone who came up to me with those kinds of talking points, I would argue from the standpoint of a storyteller.

It would be a while before I would learn to directly disassemble an argument and it implications: Growing pains.

Once you’re on the ride, you can never get off, anon.

Cheers.

[illeity]

Any philosophers you'd recommend?

It’s generally a better idea to expose yourself to the best ideas of multiple philosophers as opposed to sticking with one. The reason is that the history of philosophy is also the history of the development of ideas. We came to this point in time not just as a result of past ideas, but the manner in which those ideas changed to reflect the world they were born in.

If you stick with Plato, for example, you might grow to think that the state that he planned for in the “Republic“ is a pretty good idea (in some respect) without knowing that it’s pretty fascistic and elitist in retrospect.

Here is one site that suggests some books to get started with.  Here’s another.

It’s also a good idea to take a multidisciplinary approach to philosophy. Ideas are worthless if you don’t pull them from the ether into something we can use. So go read some History, Psychology, Science, Politics, etc. Being interested in Philosophy means being interested in everything else. And that’s a very good thing.

[illeity]

wishing the best for ya, bud!

Same with you, bub!

[illeity]

Hey! I just wanted to ask from whence did your art style originate? Also what programs do you use to make it? Photoshop? Do you use a drawing pad or iPad? Also what artists do you want to draw like, like whose style do you borrow from and study to incorporate into your own?

Okay, that’s a lot of questions. Let me unpack them one-by-one.

I just wanted to ask from whence did your art style originate?

I have no idea. My drawings started off anime influenced right off the bat with Yoshiyuki Sadamoto’s run on the Evangelion manga. Then I incorporated styles here and there as the years went on.

Also what programs do you use to make it? Photoshop?

I use Clip Studio Paint for doodles and formal works. They put the program on sale at least twice a year for 25$ so I suggest for waiting for that. It’s fast, intuitive and effective.

I use Photoshop for finishing (tonal correction, effects, text, web optimization).

I used to use Corel Painter, but it runs slow on my machine.

Do you use a drawing pad or iPad?

I use an old Wacom Intuos 4 Medium. The size is great because it can handle shorter strokes and the pen is nice and chunky. Wacoms are expensive, but they will last you a very long time.

Also what artists do you want to draw like, like whose style do you borrow from and study to incorporate into your own?

There are a lot of artists I love, both contemporary and classical so I’ll just put in a few that come to mind. But more commonly, I like styles with chunky, fat patches of color, lineart with a mix of loose freehand and drastic line variation, and dramatic lighting:

Jakub Rebelka - I discovered him through the Judas miniseries published by BOOM! Studios. Lush colors and simple, beautiful, and well-defined character designs.

Rembrandt and de la Tour - These two artists and their chiaroscuro style made me fall in love with Light. It’s a difficult discipline, but utterly worth it.

Tsutomu Nihei - I vowed to incorporate backgrounds in future works so I looked to Tsutomu Niheifor guidance. I love his vast superstructures and lonely expanses of urban sprawl guided by the suffocating tenets of Brutalism.

Kaamin - This artist’s style feels like the apotheosis of my own style: Loose but defined, splotchy but ordered, messy but disciplined. This artist is a master of color and I’ve printed out a few of their works as personal reference.

I also posted a bunch of my favorite artists here

[illeity]

To the question of if God is good why is there suffering in the world ? I was taught that humanity was given full authority of the world effectively making us the little g god's of the world but when we sinned we have that authority to the devil which is why the bible calls him the little g god of this world and why things suck cause he's "roaming around seeking who he may devour" but if your saved your not under the yoke of the world anymore but operate withr the authority of Jesus Christ

So to clarify what you mean, as humans we are given authority over the world and by sinning we give authority to the devil to cause chaos. This in effect, makes the devil mere messengers of our cruelty and malevolence (which ties in nicely to Satan being a former angel, or messenger to God). Is that right?

If so, then that’s an interesting view. I made the original comment in half-jest because I’m aware of the limitations of reality. A perfect elimination of evil in the world would entail removal of freedoms, which would make us less than human and more like machines and would be a greater evil and counter to God’s intent: A creation is his likeness.

[wearepaladin]

Why is the collective worried about tumblr banning porn? None of yall are porn blogs, and while the algorithm is new and has it’s errors, if you believe a post has been flagged unfairly it’s easy to make an appeal for a human to review it and fix the error. In the past it’s even been easy to ask tumblr to retrieve entirely deleted blogs too, if that were to happen this time around.

To be frank, I’m of the opinion this is probably going to blow over, but enough people are worried that even if staff comes up with something less drastic, too many people are going to leave anyway, which means the Collective’s not going to be able to inspire people like it used to, and if the whole website does implode, we’ll be ready to set out an alternative while keeping our followers informed.

All this is more of just in case than hard core certainty, but it would be irresponsible to do nothing.

[we-are-bloodrager]

This is why we’re worried about it.

Those are all reblogs of just *mine* that have been flagged as explicit. I didn’t realize an essay about how Boromir was a tragic character that includes pictures of Sean Bean was inappropriate.

[wearepaladin]

Son Of a Bitch, they tagged my audio transcript of @illeity’s NK/Solaire comic?! Yeah, this entire action is warranted.

[illeity]

Apparently, the bot doing this also flagged the Tumblr post announcing the changes. This site is going to the dogs.

[illeity]

Hey! I just wanted to say thank you! I have followed your stuff on Tumblr for the past few years and I just wanted to say that you've inspired me and opened me up to new philosophies ideas and even poetry and artwork i mightve never discovered without you and you've helped me through so many things that I have no words to express my gratitude! So all I can really say is thank you and I'll miss you! God bless!

You can still look for me from the links I posted, anon. You’re welcome though!

Eat the world, anon!

Suck the marrow out of life!

[illeity]

So Tumblr did it. Because of CP, Apple had to remove the app from their store and in a nuclear move, Tumblr started nuking adult content from the site.

Lewd artists have started to leave, while others have seen the site and audience they've built up over the years finally succumb to a mad puritanical fit intended to save the site but would actually condemn it in the long run.

My site had a relatively quiet growth over the years. I started off writing those Adventure Time comics that focused on a lot of the internal lives of the characters and narrative back-alleys the crew never really explored. Then, I slowly but surely ruined search results for people who were studying Emmanuel Levinas in their philosophy class.

And so we reach this point. I think I have one old artwork that's very close to being lewd and the rest of it are jokes that range from light to dirty to dark, but I'll be considering my next moves when the new year starts. The reasons are I can't be bothered with strikes to my account and Tumblr broadening the range on what is "acceptable" for matters that people find merely offensive or disgusting. Disgust is no basis for the restriction of expression.  

So by December 31, 2018 I'll stop posting here. I'll continue posting art when I have some to spare, but when that day comes, I'll put up one more post detailing where you can find me and that'll be it. Terminus est.

Here are my present presences:

Twitter // Mostly retweets of stuff that interests me.

DeviantArt // Mostly full, formal works. Not a place for doodles or quick drawings.

Ko-Fi // Donation page. Drop me some dosh? I’m planning on exclusive content someday.

Minds // Also formal works. Their image gallery system isn’t that good yet so I’m on the fence for this.

For all the people who have been with me from the start, I thank you deeply.

For my friends here, I hope we can see each other in other places someday.

And to everyone else, cheers.

[illeity]

On DC/Vertigo, I've always found it more interesting from a philosophical standpoint than Marvel. It's always been more "meaningful" to me, if that makes sense.

It does to me as well.

I could regale you with so much of my excitement over the cosmic and metaphysical aspects of the DC Comics/ Vertigo universe. I’d be jumping on my thoughts a lot so bear with me.

The architects of DC took decades to develop it into something of great beauty and order that connects our reality with theirs. In my opinion the overarching theme of what they built was “life” and “story” and existence itself was a living organism that acted and reacted with certainty among the conflicts and crises our heroes dealt with.

First we have Jack Kirby’s New Gods which described new divinities that would arise from the deaths of Old Gods, their birth reflecting the change in our consciousness and culture. It was a modern epic with grand scope of two forces locked in battle for the structures and symbols of reality. Kirby saw gods, representations of the very best and the very worst in us, as superheroes and villains and their clashing is thus a gigantic mirror to our own battles, lesser in scope but meaningful still.

Morrison’s entire Batman run and Final Crisis was a celebratory ode to humanity and the human spirit. Here he elevates Batman to mythic state and humanity as equal to gods that were destined to replace the New Gods. Humanity was seen by extradimensional beings as mere germs, but their white-hot passions enable them to reach for great things and overcome evil, even a God of Evil, and to solve existence-ending problems that even gods could not do.

Warren Ellis reflected this optimism in “Planetary” which serves as a biography of pop culture of the early 2000s and earlier and an archaeological dig on the strangeness of life and the importance of preserving said strangeness from the selfish and authoritarian.

He further developed on themes of life by introducing the substrate called Bleed which exists between universes. In print, Bleed refers to an area of paper to be cut off; areas between stories. In Grant Morrison’s Final Crisis, the Monitors mention Bleed as “Ultramenstruum”, referencing Morrison’s Vertigo work on “The Invisibles”. In The Invisibles, Ultramenstruum was seen as “molten imagination, the bricks and mortars of the universe.” Creation itself.

“Menstruum” probably refers to the event that occurs to women every 30 days. You can also guess what occurs every 30 days in comic books.

During the Metal event they set the DC Multiverse as a world of possibilities and posit a darker multiverse where all failed ideas go to die, referencing stories that never prosper when the writer decides not to continue on with the story. There is a sadness when people become criminals out of desperation, it’s even more tragic when stories turn to evil so that they may survive.

There’s even more to go on but I have to stop. The DC stories tie deeply into religion, cosmology, and mysticism which creates an aura of wonder that I can’t just ignore. Marvel may be more rooted in the human experience, but DC seems to focus on the spiritual and the primal, referencing again and again their function as stories, and the power of stories to serve as foundation for our lives.

[illeity]

Apologies if this topic irritates you, but what are your thoughts on this whole Article 13 debacle and how do you think this is gonna go?

First off: Dude, don’t apologize. I keep my asks open because I want to hear from people whether about my art or other matters. If I don’t feel like answering it, then I won’t.

A quick view of Article 13:

It’s bad news, man. It applies a valid form of Slippery Slope where more and more ideas are prevented from being talked about. It’ll start off with memes and reach as far as hate speech which in itself is vague enough that people in power can decide how that is defined.

In the UK it’s already triple compounded by the immense restrictions on free speech by the state AND corporations that reject speech which doesn’t fall in line with their ideologies, specifically Silicon Valley leftist talking points. It might hinder them in that the EU can start controlling the message to say “Leave is bad”. But it might help them in that they’ll start to feel the boot heel hurt and fight harder to Leave. 

I can imagine it’ll embolden other countries to match those restrictions with their own legislation restricting speech and eventually (as clique as it sounds) will reach Orwell’s 1984 where thought, culture, and history will be driven top-down instead of the much preferred bottom-up.

If you’re part of the UK, join UKIP. Gain back the Empire you’ve lost over the decades because of Pathological Altruism.

Here’s what Guy Verhofstadt of the European Union thinks of the concept of nations:

And as a parting shot, here’s a painting of the Tower of Babel by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1563)

And here’s the building of the European Parliament:

Why base off a building’s design to a symbol of man’s arrogance?

Really makes you think, huh?