@zyrafowe-sny @sourb0i @kalira @whimsicalmeerkat we are doing our best with deadlines!!!
and now, from the grand wip file:
"Hello, Liu-shidi," Shang Qinghua said.
"Shang Qinghua," Liu Qingge said, and then he said, "What the hell."
Goddamn it, Liu-shidi.
Shang Qinghua knew it was a surprise, but couldn't he have come up with something better to say than that? Maybe he should've sent a note ahead, after all. Then Liu-shidi could make himself look appropriately touched at Shang Qinghua's offering.
Regardless of that, Shang Qinghua bowed. "This shixiong would like to present you with a token," he murmured, and then gestured to what Liu Qingge had been staring at the entire time: the head of the Six-Tailed Dragon-Lion that Shang Qinghua had spent three goddamn days trying to kill.
It had been really hard! It'd involved a lot of explosives and screaming! But if he'd picked anything easier to bring back as a trophy for his beloved, it wouldn't have been romantic enough by Bai Zhan standards! So he'd fucking done it! And he'd timed it so he came back at sunset, so everything looked suitably romantic! Liu-shidi better be grateful!
"I... " Liu Qingge said. He stopped there, uselessly. Shang Qinghua waited, but Liu Qingge mostly seemed to be occupied at staring at the dragon-lion head, which -- okay, fine, acceptable, Shang Qinghua probably would've been offended if Liu Qingge didn't stare. After all, it was an objectively impressive kill! It deserved to be appreciated!
"The rest of the body is here," Shang Qinghua said, and pressed a qiankun pouch into Liu Qingge's weirdly limp and unresisting hand. "I hear that the liver is very good for improving qi levels. I hope it's useful to Liu-shidi."
He flashed his most charming smile at Liu Qingge. This seemed to spark a reaction. Liu Qingge straightened his back, fingers tightening on the qiankun pouch. He still looked a little bit like Shang Qinghua had hit him over the head with a frying pan, which wasn't the best view for their eagerly watching audience, but whatever, they couldn't have everything. "I. Uh. Thank you. Shang-shixiong."
Good enough! Now Shang Qinghua could throw himself into the hot springs on An Ding and then pass the fuck out!
Shang Qinghua was still holding Liu Qingge's hand. He briefly contemplated doing the romantic thing of bringing it to his mouth to kiss it, like something out of a shitty romance novel. He settled for giving it a squeeze, and blithely ignored the weird twitch Liu Qingge reacted with. "Good night, Liu-shidi."
Sorry for the random ask but ur the only person I know who's even read Moby Dick
I've been reading it aloud for voice training, and why the FUCK did Herman Melville put a fucking 10 page chapter detailing every kind of whale and his own bizarre classification in the middle of his book??? All the other chapters are like, 5 pages at most, and then there's just a long-ass rant about how naturalists are wrong actually.
Absolutely insane writer behavior. I'm obsessed.
LMAOOO and that’s the power of autism 😤😤😤😌😌😌
don’t worry; there’ll be more chapters like that 😌 what’s a story without several page diversions into questionable whale facts
Hiii I'm enraptured by those Mad Max scene studies you did, and I was wondering if you had any tips/advice to get started doing those? I want to improve my digital art but I'm not really sure how to start
gosh thank you so much!!
well, first i think the most important part about doing these studies is to not get too stressed about the timer (for those, each one was about 20-30 minutes. if you need, add ten more minutes! theres no rules. youre just trying to learn, its chill :]
i set a timer so that im forced to only think about what is important. i cant make tiny details in just 30 minutes, and its no sweat if the study turns out mushy; i didnt even spend an hour, so its not like i spent 4 hours on something i dont like. i personally think studying sounds boring as hell, so it takes a lot of pressure off of 'studying' if im locked in for just 30 minutes and learning what i can, and if im lucky, it might look kinda neat
id say use a brush with some color jitter to capture some of the complexities of color while you paint, and dont worry about color picking. i just dont suggest color picking often because it desaturates what youre working with a lot. however, if youre a beginner, it can help you recognize how much variation there is between colors (and just how much grey is important. wowza!) again, no rules! do what you need to learn and have fun. i personally dont learn at all if im not having fun. pick a subject youre interested in, and see what you can do in 30 minutes! i personally choose movie screencaps because they teach movement, color, value AND framing all in one go.
heres the process of a 30 minute study i made this morning of a scene from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
theres a whole lotta goofy stuff i missed as you can see with it side by side with the reference; thats totally ok because the next time i draw this, ill keep the proportions in mind, and not get hung up on details like the camera and remember highlights like on his forehead or the shape of the bag around his neck. mistakes help us learn! copying is NOT the goal of these; its just to see if i can make it feel like the reference. just remember, youre gonna have a lot of ugly attempts (ill make like, ten of these and maybe 2-3 turn out decipherable). dont get too attached, if it turns out mushy, take a quick laugh and try again. could have spent 30 minutes scrolling and instead you made a lovely color salad! keep going!
What software do you recommend for someone who would like to start animation but has exactly 0 experience?
I mean I think you can start with any programme that just allows you to animate? As long as you can practice some of the fundamentals any programme should work! Like I started animating on my dsi in flipnote studio shshsjdhajs
That said!
Krita is a free programme I know of that has pretty good animation tools, so definitely that one. Like if you can find a good tutorial I think this one could be a really good start
If you have an iPad I think procreate is quite good! I don't have one but I've heard good things about the animation tools in it
And then idk if you can find an older cracked version tvpaint is great but I would not actually buy this as a beginner cause. Expensive
Hi! Over this past year I’ve started running regularly, and I recently began to hit 10 minute miles! I’m very happy with myself for getting faster. However, I do tend to do 2-3 miles at a time, and I’ve noticed I’m having trouble maintaining speed throughout the whole run; usually my second mile is at 11 or 12 minutes, and my third is even slower. Any tips?
That’s great, congratulations!
So with subsequent miles you run you will probably slow down (everyone does) since you are getting tired. Don’t beat yourself up about it.
As you keep going you will get faster and as a result your slower miles towards the end will also get faster.
If you’re taking requests, I’d love to see some Jewish and Irish Catholic lesbians (especially the latter, since Catholicism is a rough religion to be gay in)
I always am, in case you were also looking for things to read right now here is a couple of articles I have that fit into those specifications:
Sophia Parnok, Russia's Sappho
Lesley Gore
Frieda Belinfante
Anna Freud
Also, I believe the Ladies of Llangollen were Irish Catholic, I am not fully sure but I fell down a bit of a research rabbit hole trying to figure it out. At the very least they were buried in a Catholic graveyard and the church in question recognizes their relationship on their website as a “romantic friendship”.
I can keep an eye out for more of these stories no matter what though!
