#rmnoffs

[breelandwalker]

This is, possibly, an oddball question for you but do you have any recommendations for books about the incorrect history of the so called “burning times”? I have some wicca books in my personal library that spout the pseudo history but nothing on where it came from and why! Feel free to disregard this if you don’t have any or don’t have the spoons, and thank you for your time!

Behold my list of book recommendations! I keep it handy for just such an occasion. There isn't a specific title that talks about why the Burning Times myth is bullshit, but titles like Adler's "Drawing Down The Moon" and Ronald Hutton's "The Triumph of the Moon" do provide a much more historically accurate history of modern witchcraft and the ideas surrounding it. (Really, I think Ronald Hutton's "WITCH" and "Triumph of the Moon" should be in every witch's library. They're that good.)

You can also check out Ep. 23 of BS-Free Witchcraft, where everyone's favorite curmudgeon Trae Dorn runs down the history of the concept and the history (and pseudohistory) behind it. There's a related episode of Hex Positive (Ep. 36 - Margaret Effing Murray) where the two of us sat down in the virtual studio to talk about how Murray's writings and support for the thoroughly-debunked Witch-cult Hypothesis affected the development of the modern witchcraft movement.

Enjoy!

[silvermoon424]

Hello! I tried searching your blog but couldn’t find anything, even though I swear I thought i saw you post tips on how to unbind books for scanning! I just got some doujinshi in that I’d like to scan for personal use, and since your stuff is always very high quality I figured i’d take a look! Do you have any tips at all? Thanks for your time!

First of all, thank you!

I thought I had one specific post, but it turns out a lot of information is spread throughout my scanning tag! I recommend taking a look at it.

To unbind books, I use a microwave. I usually put something in for a minute (unless it's a thin book, then I do 35-45 seconds). I'll take it out and start gently tearing out pages. For larger books I usually need to put the book in the microwave again because binding glue cools and solidifies again quickly. I've heard that other people use hairdryers, but in my experience that takes forever and I'm impatient, lol.

I love scanning doujinshi because you typically don't need to unbind them, as they're usually thin books. The thinner the binding, the easier it is to get good quality scans. To get the best scans out of bound books, I open the book and lay it flat. Then I press open the crease/binding as far as I can without stressing the binding too badly. If you don't have a scanner with a heavy lid or if your scans keep turning up blurry, it's best to apply pressure with your hand on the lid of the scanner while it's working (be gentle, of course!).

I hope all this makes sense. I recently got a tripod for my phone so maybe I could film my scanning process.

[oldbrooklynsoul]

congrats to my winners! @rmnoffs @on-va--voir @nycstark @bicaptain @hasan-minhaj I will open my requests to you all and you have 24 hours to send me your 30 different subjects/types of graphics etc etc to me! ♥ Thank you so much to everyone that participated!

[616marvel]

Hi! I was just wondering, would you be willing to share how you did the blending mode on the black widow infographic? ( post/179277024699/mcu-brief-character-history-click-to-enlarge ) I love the style and I'd like to make myself a laptop background with it!

Hi! Sorry this took a bit, was going through a list of request haha but typically it depends on the image. If it’s more dark, I’ll use “Screen” - if it’s lighter, I’d use “Darken” or “Multiply” (lighter backgrounds are tricker in my opinion, just because of the other stuff with the image) But I’ll do an example of dark & light undercut aka these three: 

Screen blending for dark images//

Step 1: Basically find your two dark images, place it on top of one another and set the top layer as “screen”: 

Step 2: If you see unwanted things on the image, simply color the unwanted spot with the same color as the image itself (without the screen) so that it can blend seamlessly. (So preferably a dark color).Step 3: Place your coloring on top and you should be good to go. Usually I like to brighten it and then play with selective colors. 

Darken / Multiply blending for light images//

Step 1: Find your two light images, place it on top of one another and then set top layer as “darken” or “multiply” depending on your preference (I prefer darken because it keeps the color consistency the same):

Step 2: Now you have the same unwanted stuff on the image, all you have to do is create a new layer, do the same color as the background of the bottom layer and you should basically have a fairly clean blend without damaging either of the layer.Step 3: Place your coloring on top and you should be good to go. This is what it looks like when it’s set to ‘darken’

This is what it looks like when it’s set to ‘multiply’

Okay so sometimes you don’t get so lucky with the clean images that’s mostly dark or mostly light - but the blending for those are also practically almost the same? Except you kinda have to use your best judgment when choosing which one to use. 

Step 1: This image is more on the light side so we’ll use ‘darken’ 

Step 2: Except now it has that weird thing on her face, so just simply create a new layer (layer 2 as seen below), color it with the most dominant color in the background and erase anything that you don’t like on the the one that you set into ‘darken’ (layer 3)

Step 3: Place your psd and you should be good to go ~ (p.s always remember to sharpen)

[oldbrooklynsoul]

hey jord! I was just wondering about a couple of things. one: post/185285511869/i-am-one-of-28-young-ballerinas-with-the-bolshoi what fonts did you use here for this graphic? and two, how did you get the shadow effect on the second graphic? it looks like you inversed it somehow, but after that i'm stumped! would you be willing to do a tutorial on it?

these are the two fonts I used! Quenos + Explorers ! For the second image I inverted it after messing around with the lightness of it, and then to complete the look I added a gradient map layer to finish the subject! Give me a bit and I can post a tutorial!

[breelandwalker]

Hello Bree! I'm a witch that's slowly coming back into practicing, and I've been reading your book 'Grovedaughter Witchery' as one of my re-introduction to witchcraft. In it, you have a section on a craft known as a Witch Web, but I can't seem to find anymore information on it on google. Do you have any online resources about them, or suggestions for what I should look for? Searching 'witch web' just brings up information about witches online. Thank you for your time!

Really? Am…Am I the first person to put that term in a book? -quietly has a moment-

Okay! So witch webs are a thing that I’ve been doing for a little while, just a couple of years. They’re super easy to make, they’re very versatile, and they make a good meditation exercise to boot. You can pretty much make them any way you want, as fancy or as simple as you please.

I’m a little surprised that there aren’t more resources for this out there. It might be because a lot of things with a similar look or crafting technique get lumped in under the “dreamcatcher” label. But that’s not what I make them for, and I wanted to avoid any possible issues with appropriation. Plus a lot of my spell construction techniques revolve around the idea of spinning a web, as opposed to making a bubble or building a wall. So I called them witch webs instead.

Annnd I guess that means you won’t find many other resources about them on Google. If you’re looking for construction techniques or weaving patterns, you can try something like “homemade dreamcatcher,” but that might still lead to some confusion.

Is there something specific you’d like to know about them? 😊

[616marvel]

Thank you so much for the tutorial! Your stuff is #goals lmao I'm using all your Natasha stuff everywhere I can....

I’m just glad people love my queen as much as I do- ;-; she deserves it all i love nat

[silvermoon424]

Hello! It's me, the person who was asking for tips on scanning! I wanted to send you a quick thank you for two things: one, thank you again for the scanning tips! I was able to successfully scan in several doujin for archiving/japanese language practice with your help! two: thank you for the big google doc on how to pirate literally anything, you saved me (again) from not having to buy a manga for a third time to take apart to scan for graphics lol

This makes me so happy!! I'm so glad my advice was able to help you!