#advice tag

[aposemavtomaatuponaline]

YAMA: THE ACRONYM TO KNOW

yama: 'you aren't materialist enough' [I realise, yes] (value reduction & physical mereology)

[drpeppertummy]

ur art makes me wanna draw my own belly doodles!! do u have any advice for drawing bellies :3

oh hell yessss u should !!!!!!! ok i dont really have Much advice but heres what i got off the top of my head (& a lot of it is stuff i gotta work on myself too jghfdjfhg)

someone else (cant remember who😭) posted about this recently & its something i definitely agree with: know where the hips and rib cage are. thats what i pretty much always start with so i can get passable proportions and also start to lay out the pose

play around with different shapes, sizes, weights, etc. small taut bellies, big plush bellies, perfectly round, full of rolls, top-heavy, bottom-heavy, bellies that push out far or bulge at the sides, etc

positioning clothes, limbs, props, etc appropriately around the belly can add a lot of depth to it. think about where a shirt would be pulled taut, where the folds on clothes would fall, the angle an arm would have to be at to rub the belly, etc

think about how soft/firm the belly is. will it squish up against a surface or stay round like a basketball? how deep can a hand press into it? maybe the lower half is softer than the stomach area? much to ponder

sometimes a pose can do a lot for the belly. sometimes a cute outfit can do a lot for the belly. sometimes the context implied by props can do a lot for the belly. think about what you want to emphasize or show off, what you want to suggest about the situation, etc

having a specific situation in mind isnt a necessity, but personally i think it helps. i have an easier time drawing a character if i know whats going on and why, how they feel about it, who they might be with, etc. doesnt have to be all that involved. could just be somethin simple like "they were hungry so they made too much lunch" or "trying to get dressed but their pants wont button"

experiment with lines. clothing folds, belly rolls, lines intended to show stretching or tightness, stretch marks, etc. this can add depth and emphasize the shape or feel of the belly

this is something i Really struggle with: it helps to know how big you want the belly to be. personally i tend to go overboard and make it bigger than i wanted to. just be aware of the size youre going for so you can keep it where you want it to be

look at other belly art and take note of what aspects of it you like. theres much to be learned from watching other artists and seeing what people do differently

& if anyone else has Better advice Please feel free to add !!!!

[paula-of-christ]

one of my friends is slowly distancing herself from Jesus and i'm so heartbroken for her. she used to be the type of person who never skipped church, prayed the rosary daily, etc etc but she's slowly losing everything. she still calls herself catholic but believes in so many things that the church is against. i keep praying for her and i feel like God is pushing me to have a conversation with her but i'm terrified to do so. i don't know how to even approach it without a holier-than-though attitude :( any prayers for my friend and advice would be appreciated God bless!

It can be hard to have conversations like that but if you feel the push for God to do so, you definitely should find time to grab a coffee or sit down with her and just bring up that you haven't seen her at Mass as often, or that you haven't seen her praying her rosary, has she picked up any new/different devotions recently? Keep praying for her as well, and let her know that you're there for her to lean on, maybe you two could get together once a week to pray together or read scripture together.

[toyhousedramas]

is it ok to take inspiration / reference others designs even if they say no? like i will do it anyway that's just stupid. as long as they look different it is ok???? it feels like they are monopolizing colors and designs mostly pop designer or one who are not even worthy of being "copied". what's others opinion on that? like if someone says don't be inspired or colorpicking I always do it anyway

It's fine, they can't police it, attempting to would be both futile and anti-ethical to art as an ideal. No one can own the foundations of art; colour, aesthetic, the ethereal idea of a vibe.

Art has always been a space for influence, evolution, and reinterpretation. No one can truly ‘own’ basic elements like color, shape, or aesthetic concepts, they’re foundations of creativity that exist beyond any individual’s claim. The idea of policing those aspects, especially in something as fluid and subjective as art, is not only impractical, but it goes against the essence of what art Is.

Every artist draws from the world around them, whether it's consciously or subconsciously. People might claim ownership over their specific designs or styles, but that doesn’t mean their work is immune to reinterpretation, nor should it be. Art thrives when it evolves and adapts, so long as the original work is respected and acknowledged in the proper contexts.

In the end, focusing too much on ‘who owns what’ stifles the very freedom that makes art so powerful. As long as you're creating something personal, it’s part of the natural process of artistic exchange.

[zemi-noelle-art]

Your LPS customs are soooo amazing!! Like genuinely so inspiring 😭 I wanna get into it but I have no idea how!!

Thank you so much!!! that really means a lot! And I'm really honored to hear I've been inspiring people with my work<3 I can provide some tips on starting the hobby if that helps! this'll be based on my own experience though of course! I can firstly say that getting into LPS customizing was pretty simple for me, because I already had most of the supplies I use for other projects, and it was only a matter of getting the bases themselves to paint on. Of course I have the LPS I grew up with but I didn't want to ruin those lol. I use those blank bootleg LPS bases they sell on amazon. You can also use authentic LPS but I'd recommend making sure you're not painting over a rare one like a big 5 or Savannah Reed first lol. A good starting point is to draft out the design you want on paper/digitally to see what kind of custom you want to make. for me I use digital templates and paint over them in my art program. Templesta on DeviantArt has some really good ones! For paint I use acrylic. Get a teeny tiny paintbrush for detail work along with a couple other sizes as well and those should be all the basic supplies you need to start! You can also get more complex with it and use chalk pastels, water color pencils and glitters too. Get creative! see what supplies you can use to take your customs to the next level. As a tip, make sure to water down your paint and do multiple thin layers. Patience is key because that paint is not gonna want to stick to the base at first. A lot of the actual painting process does come down to practice and a steady hand.

If you want to seal your customs which isn't necessary but gives them a nice finish, I recommend Liquitex high gloss varnish to seal the eyes. There are some good matte varnish sprays out there but I recommend doing your own research on those, as they can be resin based and therefore need a bit of caution and prep to handle. I personally use Mister Super Clear matte spray to seal the base of the custom, and I always spray outside with gloves and a respirator.

And though I have done sculpting I don't consider myself well versed enough to recommend supplies for clay but I've heard Green Stuff and Apoxie sculpt are good clays to use, but be sure to do your own research on those as well.

The monster high doll customization community is a good place to look for material research! A lot of the process of the face-up is pretty similar to painting LPS. That's actually what got me into customizing in the first place; I just watched a bunch of Dollightful, Enchanterium, and Moonlight Jewel's videos and said to myself "Wait a minute, I could do this with LPS!" I also of course recommend watching other LPS customizer's videos to see the process of how they make their customs, and show them some support as well! Pumpkinscustoms Is a really big inspiration for me and HelloStudios, Mr. Crazy Ray and LPSCobalt have really good videos on making customs.

And once again, if you don't wanna dive right in you can just draw them, whether using a template or not to see if you like the process and the design! You can even make a bunch of designs digitally and once you feel ready to tackle a real custom, start there! ahaha I didn't know I'd be writing a whole-ass Essay but I hope all this helps!! Thank you for enjoying my work!

[sleepy-shutin]

Sorry dk how to ask on my alt Lol but what are some sources that helped you with DID research as a whole. It's always so hard finding the right places to read or look into

this blog is no longer really active, but i'll still answer this.

google scholar, researchgate, ncbi/national center for biotechnology information is great for finding research papers. sci-hub is the place to go to get past the paywalls. look for something called a "DOI" (digital object identifier). it's usually either a URL with the letters "DOI" in it or next to it, or a string of numbers with the word "DOI" next to it. copy and paste it into sci-hub to see if they have it, and if they don't, they may not have that particular copy from that link/website you're using, so be sure to try with other links/websites. if you can't get access to this paper anywhere, try emailing the author.

libgen, anna's archive, pdfdrive, and z-library are where i get my books downloaded from. i think a handful of domains from z-library have been seized so you can't use it right now, but it'll be back up eventually. one thing to be super aware of is that every single one of these websites has dangerous mirrors trying to steal your info, use your computer for bitcoin mining, or some other sketchy shit like that, so BE CAREFUL. z-library especially. if any of these websites are asking you to donate bitcoin (bitcoin and any other similar currency; z-library asks for donations of real money normally in non-intrusive ways to keep the site running), share your personal information, or anything else that runs red flags in your head, dip the fuck out of there.

authors you want to pay attention to (i can mostly only remember last names off the top of my head rn so bear with me): bethany brand, kathy steele, ozturk, vedat sar, nijenhuis, richard kluft, braun, dorahy, pica, putnam.

[petruchio]

hello, sorry if this is a dumb question. i read your post about your phd and learning and stuff. how can i get smarter/maximize learning when i'm not in school and not in a position to go.

no not dumb at all!! but my answer is pretty simple i would say… read!!! read fiction, read articles, read non-fiction, read anything you can get your hands on. go to the library and get 10 books and see which one you like and read it!

and then i feel like the second thing is discuss!! talk to people. talk about what you’re reading, maybe that means joining a book club or sending an article to your mom/friend/coworker and saying “what do you think?” and then having some kind of critical discussion about it. i mean that’s basically what a lot of college classes are, at least seminar classes — reading stuff and then having someone say “what do you think?” (obviously there’s a lot more to it, there’s someone selecting the reading and guiding the discussion and giving relevant context and all that BUT really there’s just a lot of reading and talking!!)

so yeah read! then talk! then read about what you talked about! then talk about it again with more sources and more information! do research about the background of what you’re reading — the authors life, the sociopolitical context of the work, a secondary source that talks about the construction of it, anything! then read it again!! keep thinking about it!!

and if you don’t have anyone to talk to, write! you can write in a journal, write on your blog, write in your notes app — i have about a million unpublished essays in my notes app on everything from communism to 13 going on 30. i work a lot of stuff out by writing about it. it’s a great way to do the “discussion” part of the work without having to have someone to actually discuss it with.

so yeah — consume something, think about it, synthesize it, learn more about it, try to come up with an opinion, and then share it. whether you’re sharing it with another person or just a blank page. and have fun :) never imagine you “can’t” do something or that you’ve reached the end of what you can learn. the world is huge and life isn’t long enough to learn even a fraction of everything there is to know, but you can always keep trying. there’s always more to know. that’s the fun of it!!

[ask-calico-jack]

Is pee stored in the balls?

Yes pee is stored in the balls, but so is jizz, that's why they both come out in the same place. and that's why you've got 2 balls in your sack. ones for pee ones for jizz. The bladder is one of those organs like the appendix and the liver that's stored on the left side of your body and you can stab it and it's fine. These are the sort of science facts you need to know to get anywhere as a pirate.