Beautiful, Resplendent Nonsense

Art and OC sideblog for @thebigvolt mostly Homestuck content but I do a little everything.

[theartvolt]

Hey, welcome to our blob!

This is the official art/adjacent sideblog for @thebigvolt. Here is where we will be posting our art (among other assorted procrastinations)! I am a newbie artist, I mean ofc I've been around a while, so I've done a whole bunch of worse art in the past, but this is sort of like the next step, y'know?

You can call me w/e (as long as it's not "late for dinner", I don't cotton to liars). Pronouns are they/them i suppose

I am v v into Homestuck atm so p much 90% of my stuff will be HS related, but I also plan on doing other things and my own stuff. I have an original series on Webtoon called Super Fish Legs. It was made (and abandoned) several years ago, but now I have an excuse to get back into it!

Here I will also be posting some original content related infodumps and nerd rants (I am quite aurtistic), including but not limited to; OC worldbuilding, HS fansessions, discussing techniques and constructive criticism, and various other things instead of doing my homework!

A lot of my early stuff will be kinda mid (except for Shitty Karkat; the skrunkly) so follow so you can watch my progress as an artist! This is just a mild hobby so don't expect frequent updates (unless I am in ADHD Hyperfocus Overdrive)

Here are some tags I frequently use! (Older tags use "cj" instead of "volt")

#volt did art - I do art

#volt infodumps - I infodump, but sometimes… I just regular talk

#volt talks - I just regular talk, but sometimes... I infodump

#ask volt - PLEASE bother me with questions and statements and recommendations and prompts, I will try to respond to as many as possible

#fanfic chat - Talking about fanfiction; will most likely just end up being my own.

#art wip - Art that is work-in-progress

#volt style - Art that is done in my art style, but that will change drastically as I do not have a set “style” yet.

#canon style - Art that is styled as closely as my skill allows to the source material; in the case of Homestuck, this specifically refers to sprites.

#hero mode - Art that is styled as closely as my skill allows to the Homestuck frame style called Hero Mode. Not necessarily Homestuck characters but pretty much just Homestuck characters

#ms paint - Art that is made on Microsoft Paint (Windows 10)

#[art program name] - Art that is made on [art program]

#physical art - Art that is drawn on paper and photographed

#mouse art - Duh

#tablet art - Also Duh

#fansession - my Homestuck Fansession. I'm very proud of this

#miststuck - my Homestuck AU based on Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson. Technically also a Mistborn AU.

[theboxfort]

Peace and love

[clowniconography]

this is one of the more creative hate comments i've seen and i felt the need to immortalize it

[prokopetz]

I think the weirdest form of fatphobia I keep bumping into is writers suddenly becoming deeply concerned with physical realism when a fat character is involved even in contexts where everybody's physical capabilities are explicitly bullshit. "They're fat, it wouldn't make sense for them to have super speed" and it would make sense for the 98-pound twink to be able to run at Mach Fuck? That's something skinny people can do in real life, is it?

[toothsheeran]

[fullest-circlest]

If you're writing 18th century dialogue, this website lets you search words and phrases to double-check whether they were in use & meant what you intend. It doesn't include every period-accurate use of a word/phrase, but it certainly helped me separate genuine 18th century grammar from the vague tangle of 💬old-fashioned fancy-speak💬 I've internalized from TV and video games.

[my-deer-friend]

Other websites that let you do this:

Johnson's Dictionary Online (thanks @yellowbelliedtoad!) – 1755 and 1773

Green's Dictionary of Slang – 1300s to today

A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – 1788

Feraud's Dictionaire critique de la langue française – 1778

[zisurru]

A dictionary of the English and Italian languages by Giuseppe Baretti is a bilingual dictionary from 1790!

[stumpmaker]

Don't let being bad at drawing stop you from making stuff in tomodachi life. The stamp tool is essential.

[thereisselfpreservation]

I'm seeing warnings about scammers trying to commission artists but the "reference sheet" for their character they want commissioned isn't an image but a .vbs file ("visual basic script"), and will run a script when you open it, probably to yoink your account(s), but I haven't seen this from anyone who's actually clicked it yet. Just be careful and never open a file like that, 'cause people suck.

[thereisselfpreservation]

For reference (heh)

At a glance, file name checks out. But!! Do not open a .vbs file!!!

[factual-fantasy]

[danidarkarts]

@factual-fantasy

[fynori]

i'd like to add that the shadow color isnt necessarily dictated entirely by the primary light source, but the bounce light! so for the example of a sunny environment, the reason the shadows are blue are because of the light from the blue sky reflects across the environment; but, if the character were to be under tree cover, the bounce light would be coming from the leaves and thus the shadow would look greener.

[danidarkarts]

Yee yee!!! You got it right on the nose!

Bounce light is something I didn't cover but I adore it!

Gotta work on my bounce light 💪

[labrador-entity]

My good friends this is called using a

Gamut Mask

(image via )

James Gurney is an absolute master and gives really good clarity on colour techniques. Yes, it is traditional paint focused, but the principles are the same. Yes it is informed by the environmental colour but as a painting technique it is achieved this way!

I would also suggest that in digital processing, rather than apply a regular colour layer at a mid opacity, try out the different types of layers, Eg. Screen or Multiply. This can give you at least a starting point to help direct your colour palette.

[technecat-scratchings]

Layer Blend Modes are so so so important to working in digital art. There's a ton of math that goes into figuring out how the layers should blend together, which is why some of the modes you can pick are literally called Multiply, Add, Divide, and Difference (that's subtraction). The graphics software takes the color values of your base and blend layers and runs a calculation to get your resulting layer appearance. The ones that don't have specifically mathematical sounding names are still doing calculations, but they're more complicated (think linear Algebra and higher). Some of them, like dodge and burn, are named for actual photo editing techniques.

While it's not super important to know about the mathematical side of blend modes, I think it's worth knowing at least enough about how each of the categories of blend modes works and why they do what they do; if for no other reason than having a starting point when you start experimenting with them in your work.

An overview of the basic blend modes and how they work from Genevieve's Design Studio: Accessible with minimal color knowledge; practical and illustration focused. https://youtu.be/kMc87hQrJd0?si=TWCB365pKSfWS8p0. (16 minutes) This creator also has a ton of free resources you can download, including a Blend Modes cheatsheet, but fair warning: you have to create an account to get them!

Want to learn even more about the math-y stuff? It has great film visuals! A video from FilmmakerIQ: You need some basic knowledge of RGB color models, understanding of values/luma, and at least a tenuous understanding of Algebraic formulas. (26 minutes) https://youtu.be/F7_kaTP7_W4?si=x0urqXZ8f51nQVKl

[silima]

oh yea just throwing it out there but. if u are a beginning digital artist PLEASE i am BEGGING you to experiment with different methods of making your drawings because i see so many of yall suffering for no reason using what you’re taught because you don’t know to try a different way. like SO MANY PEOPLE people make jokes about how much worse their lineart looks from their sketch and how much of a pain it is to do lineart… if that’s you, then, don’t do lineart! just clean up your sketch a bit, or keep the bits from the sketch that you like the most and only do a separate layer for the things that really need fixing, or just paint right onto it!! endless possibilities. if u keep having trouble with layers? u don’t need them, just merge them and keep going. better at sketching traditionally than digitally? take a picture of ur sketch and draw on top of it. there is no One Right Way to do anything in art except what’s fun and satisfying for you. be free

[eridan-ampora]

my old blog is gone but the directory is (back) up and running!

i’ve compiled all the dialogue from homestuck, pesterquest, hiveswap friendsim, and hiveswap acts 1 & 2 and sorted it by character. navigating it is easy, just click on a character to visit their file! :)

[eridan-ampora]

if you’re having trouble accessing something, please please PLEASE message me about it & tell me exactly what you clicked to get there so i can fix it! all hitting “request access” does is send me an email letting me know you used an old link.

[girlinspacepodcast]

Resist the push for generative AI. Make art.

Source:

Make Art — Joshua W. Cotter

Alt Text: Four panels of a comic by artist Joshua W. Cotter entitled "Make Art".

Panel 1: "Art poses a threat to corporatocratic systems because a purpose of art is to remind the individual of their inherent autonomy. Their humanity."

Panel 2: "That is a purpose in direct diametric opposition to that of corporatocratic systems: objectification of the individual for profit and control."

Panel 3: "Generative A.I. is part of an authoritarian corporatocratic effort to co-opt and commodify the creative process to rid the end result — art — of that with threatens its existence — humanity."

Panel 4: "Resist commodification. Defy corporatocracy. Defy oligarchy. Defy their anti-human, anti-life authoritarian movement. Make art." — JWC, 02-10-26

[kiiraes]

gonna post my entire stickman reaction pic collection

[kiiraes]

[kiiraes]

[kiiraes]

[kiiraes]

[kiiraes]

[kiiraes]

[kiiraes]

[kiiraes]

[astroslayyy]

throwing in a few more I have :3

[helioscopepdx]

Evergreen PSA: Victoria Douglas is doing magnificent work creating digital assets and resources for cartoonists at HALFTONE HOSPITAL. These things are all pay-what-you-will, which is an incredible gift to the community.

What sorts of things, you ask?

A printable 11x17 poster of all possible formal divisions of a nine panel grid. That's 322 layouts!

A digital sizing reference guide to make sure your pages are being drawn at the right resolution before you find out they're too small the week of the deadline!

Loads of great brushes for Photoshop, ClipStudio, and Procreate, including these Micron pens!

We could go on, but will stop for now because you should just go download some stuff. (And, of course, chuck in some $$ if you can afford to!)

[transhuman-priestess]

if you've never engaged with a creative art on a regular basis you need to understand that it requires concerted effort to get into "the groove" to make something and every second that it takes to get into that groove causes physical pain, but the only thing worse than doing it is not doing it.

[purlty23]

[theartvolt]

buge

trying out krita and tbh i think im liking it so far. Taking some getting used to but :3

[theartvolt]

learning a new art program bc gimp is pissing me off