TheBioticBasilisk

ToxicSnakeSkull on DeviantArt. Total Nerd. Wannabe Artist. Complete Idiot. Obsessed with Fantasy, Sci-fi, Comics, and Videogames. Life officially belongs to Mass Effect, Dragon Age, and Legend of Korra, among others. Here to attempt to make people laugh, signal boost the work of some very talented people, or share my own cruddy work. Need I say more?

[evostrashbin]

…And they were lab partners [oh my god they were lab partners] Based on this iconic scene:

[nubeinvernal]

[emmavakarian-theirin]

maybe one day i'll have an idea AND act on it within the same year

[not-great-not-terrible]

[oursaviorkellinquinn-deactivate]

ATTENTION

If you see this you are OBLIGATED to reblog w/ the song currently stuck in your head :)

[thelittlescrimshaw]

Me: wow I’m way too attached to fictional characters

Me: *sees y’all send death threats to writers because you didn’t agree with their decisions*

Me: never mind I’m attached the healthy amount

[chittychittyyangyang]

Do not fall.

[solosprincess]

Not to get emo on main but you ever think about how the troop sang about their dreams of finding “a girl worth fighting for”, and they think their girl worth fighting for is one of romance, but the song abruptly comes to a halt when they find a different girl worth fighting for.

A tiny girl that had been killed at the hands of the Huns. A child too weak, too small to have any chance of withstanding the murderous invaders. That is their girl worth fighting for.

[xxstar-bluesxx]

This is fucking horrific

[gay-jesus-probably]

It’s also worth noting that ‘A Girl Worth Fighting For’ is the last song in the movie. Up until here, it’s a fun movie, and the imminent invasion feels like it’s just there to keep the plot moving, and to provide a little bit of drama to spice things up. None of the soldier’s are quite taking this seriously yet; sure, Mulan wanted to save her father from the draft, and on some level she was aware that he would die if he went to war, but beyond that she’s interested in not being caught, and not shaming her family. Her motives are good, but they’re entirely self centered. All the other soldiers are more or less in the same boat - they want to get tougher, they want to impress girls, they want to be cool soldiers. Shang’s easily the most serious of the bunch at first, and even then it’s just because training bad soldiers will reflect poorly on him, and important people are paying attention.

The abrupt ending of ‘A Girl Worth Fighting For’ is the wake up call. The soldiers and the audience get slapped in the face with the realization of what’s really at stake here. China is being invaded. Villages are burning, civilians are dying, and this isn’t going to stop until the country is conquered or the invaders are defeated. This is not a fun musical, this is a major crisis.

Mulan is such a good movie for so many reasons, but the abrupt tone shift is such a major reason why. It’s an excellent commentary on the reality of war, and it being a kids movie just meant they had to make their point without showing any actual gore, which I’d honestly say makes it that much more poignant.

[taraljc]

That moment, when they come over the rise and see the razed village is one of the best scenes in film. Period. Somehow, instead of giving me tonal whiplash, it took my breath away, and that’s one fuck of a balancing act.

[yellownicky]

Girls Night 💛

A little late but Happy International Women's Day!

[keplercryptids]

"wow you blocked me just cuz i disagreed with you???"

yes. yes, exactly. this is a social media site. i come here to look at pictures of birds and shitpost with my friends. this is not a town hall meeting; i am not your elected official. i do not owe you my energy, my space, or my time. you and i are strangers that use the same website. i can block you for literally any reason and that's okay. take a deep breath. block me too. you'll feel better.

[xkatebishop]

Tired of seeing negative shit about her. This is an Avatar Korra appreciation post. Reblog this if you love and appreciate Korra. 

[gummybearattacktheworldofdespair]

[darkwarlock707]

For those who thought that this was Nintendo baiting people into posting videos for them to take down, (as I initially did, admittedly), it’s actually people posting pictures of YouTube takedown notices. Nintendo didn’t bait anyone...They walked into a metaphorical garden rake.

[pi-la]

Megas vs Mystery Machine

[midnight-revolucion]

When Cartoon Network was The Cartoon Network

[dmvkidcudi]

Used to be so lit

[canape-official]

the director of these bumpers put all the HD masters on his vimeo for free

[passworddots]

Wow, I miss this.

[dragon-in-a-fez]

sorry what

[dragon-in-a-fez]

[capricorn-0mnikorn]

That header photo doesn’t do the dragon justice. (For shame!). Here’s NASA’s own photo:

(Source [Because NASA is funded by taxpayer money, all their images are public domain, BTW])

[arch-tempered-yian-garuga]

THE TIME HAS COME

[bioluminosity]

he is here 

[radhakawaii]

Reblogging for THE ART HOLY SHIT

[grimauxiliatrixofficial]

REALLY THOUGH IMAGINE SEEING THIS KIND OF SHIT AS A DANE IN THE 900S

[idunnotm-has-no-idea]

bro whyd i think they meant an actual freaking dragon

[the-unnecessary-commentary]

Given how lifes been lately, why wouldn’t you think “yep real life dragon, might as well”

[thebioticbasilisk]

I think I should check my 2021 Bingo Card...

[thebioticbasilisk]

Artist seeking help (Skin Tones)

I’m probably making a mistake by doing this (this is the Internet after all, nevermind Tumblr), but here it goes...

So, lately I've been trying to take certain steps to try & grow as an artist. One of those steps being experiments to expand my range with different skin tones. Here are the results so far...

I basically thought it was time to put together a little sample collection that would make future projects easier. But unlike other experiments, I don't feel DMing a few select friends for feedback is going to be enough for this.

Hence why I’m writing this post.

If anyone has a moment to spare, I'd be grateful if you could tell me whether any of these samples would be suitable for a particular race or fictional character(s). Example: which sample do you think is a good one for Isabela of Dragon Age fame, [D3] or [D4]? You could name drop a character(s) from some of my favourite fandoms - RWBY, Dragon Age, Mass Effect, She-Ra, Overwatch, Marvel, Avatar, just to name a few - or you could name drop a character(s) I may've never even drawn/heard of. Either way, I hope it puts me on the right path.

And please do say if any of these could be considered problematic + I should avoid using for a particular character/race so that I can eliminate them from the list. I have my suspicions about one or two of them, but I believe I would benefit from added confirmation.

This goes especially for any POC artists. Your feedback + guidance would be invaluable & I would welcome your advice with open arms should this post catch your eye... even though I'm not holding my breath, especially after uploading this onto another site (f*ck you and you algorithms Twitter!).

I have worked with a few of these previously, even though they didn't quite go according to plan on this occassion. By example: [C3] is the combo I tend to use when I'm drawing Korra but I'm wondering whether I coated it well enough for this demo. Questions about some of my previous art would also be welcome.

"Which of these do you use for {character}?"

"I think {sample} would be more ideal"

While I'm at it: friends + mutuals please feel free to drop a reference image(s) of your OC(s) & say whether any of these samples would be a good match for them. It would be really handy to know for when I hopefully get to a point where I'm creating more gift artworks.

This is just the beginning. Not only are there more Marker combos that I want to try, but there's still a lot of potential for me to build on these methods even further as evidenced from a previous mixed media trial featuring Korra. But at this moment I'm trying to take this one step at a time.

Also, don't take any notice of the little numbers + letters scribbled by their necks. That's purely to help me keep better track of marker combos I used for when I ultimately piece together a little 'tome' full of my methods/techniques which will save me future hassle. 

Thank you for taking a moment to read this thread. I hope we can keep any comments + critique (if any) civil & constructive. I'm not trying to start any kind of discourse. As an artist who is still learning & wants to do the right thing, I'm just asking for help.

[redhawke-deactivated20170628]

Skintones for POC companions in Dragon Age

Whitewashing is a huge problem in every fandom, and DA is no exception. All of the characters above are whitewashed and have their skin lightened on a daily basis. 

There is no excuse when someone whitewashes a character. Take your appropriate swatches if you must, and make sure you are staying true to the characters actual skin tone. Use these colours if you’d like - they were more meant to prove a point. You are certainly welcome to use them as a base.

Stop whitewashing POC. Stop lightening skin, stop slimming down features, and stop blaming whitewashing on lighting. You know better than that. You can do better than that.

Do not take swatches from the lightest part of the face - all the light colours shown here are meant for highlighting purposes. They are the highlights of the face, to be used to display light bouncing off the surface of one’s skin.

Every image of the characters except Josephine was taken from the dragon age wiki site and was only altered to fit and blend with the pictures. All other graphics are mine. 

[mrnicholas]

Okay…so if you know me you know that whitewashing is a HUGE pet peeve of mine. And normally I’d be all up on this post screaming “YES, THIS!”  Because I agree with a lot of points in this, mostly the “ Do not take swatches from the lightest part of the face - all the light colours shown here are meant for highlighting purposes. “   however…it’s not this cut and dry. I want to make it perfectly clear that I agree with the majority of this post and while I’m not excusing this I would like to sit down and explain why people blame this on lighting.

Skintones are HARD to replicate accurately. Especially if you haven’t put a lot of study into it. Color theory takes a long time to learn and most fan artists haven’t spent that kind of time trying to master it. Hell, even most professionals can’t do it perfectly. Most aren’t intentionally whitewashing. In fact, most are probably swatching from game stills to make sure they don’t whitewash and yet they still get called out for it. Why? For several reasons. 1) Photoshop tends to desaturate swatched colors. Darker skintones are pigmented therefore usually more saturated, therefore if the artist doesn’t realize this is happening they don’t realize the color has changed so they don’t consciously boost the saturation or shift the value. 2) Monitor discrepancy. For example my Dorian pic is significantly lighter on my pc than on my phone. Different monitor settings have a tendency to change color. Some of us like bright displays and some of us can’t handle that kind of light. Mine is turned down therefore sometimes when I paint things look TOO dark when in reality they’re not so what the artist sees on their computer and what you see on yours might be different. Digital art makes it hard to get colors perfect across the board. But lighting does factor in a great deal.

The examples shown in the post above are all shown in similar lighting, but what happens when an artist wants a non-neutral light? Maybe they want a super bright sunlight or cool toned white light. What then?

I took a few POC models in xna lara and lined them up. Notice how the skintones change. (In reality they’d shift a little more than this because xna lara is terrible at lighting) The “flat neutral” is the most accurate with their base textures.

Can I just point out how light Fenris actually is in comparison to everyone else? Yet people get absolutely pissed if you paint him lighter than Zevran who is actually several shades darker.  And if I had painted Fenris ANY of the colors in any one of those pictures I would have gotten called out for whitewashing. In fact when I painted him (and as a rule in general) I took him at least two or three tones down from his actual color and boosted his saturation and still had a few comments about it.

Now, this is all relative, but I’m just trying to illustrate why this is a complicated matter and why you can still follow all the rules and still get called out on whitewashing. The lighting and color scheme WILL completely shift color.

To better illustrate this, may I invite professor Idris Elba.

Same man, four skintone shifts. Four different lighting scenarios. Different swatches. 

This is a problem because when finding references we think “Which screen should I should I try to match? Well, let’s say my lighting is similar to the second picture. Okay, great, I have my reference and I’ve swatched and compensated for the discrepancy. Fantastic, but WAIT, I still get called out because he’s not as dark as he is in 3 or 4 even though he wouldn’t be because my lighting isn’t neutral or dark, and the ambient color is different. I think “well fuck, I did the best I could and I matched my reference.” But the person criticizing thinks “he’s darker than that so you didn’t make him dark enough” and while, yes, that point is valid, it’s also not applicable in this particular situation.So you do another picture, this time in darker lighting, replicated picture number 3. Another person says “he’s more the color of number 4, you made him too light and too red.” Eventually you just don’t know how to approach without criticism anymore and what happens? A lot of artist then give up on learning dark skin tones. Which is the complete opposite of what we want, isn’t it? That’s not progress.

In closing…while I’m sure there are some people out there intentionally whitewashing and they SHOULD be fucking called out for it because I can’t think of many things that piss me off more than that I absolutely have to point out that probably a ton of artists who get constant hate about this are probably just victims of lack of color theory knowledge and swatching from screens without realizing how inaccurate it can be sometimes. And that may be giving some of them too much leeway, but is that better or worst than automatically assuming the worst? This is why a lot of professionals tell you that it’s better to mix colors yourself,but can I reiterate again that SKINTONES ARE FUCKING HARD AS A BOG FISHER’S BALLS!  Most of those artists are already kicking themselves because they don’t know how to do everything perfectly, tearing them down over something as complicated as this only makes them feel like absolute shit. Educate them, by all means, but make sure your information covers all, not just one aspect.This kind of thing takes years and years to learn, (I don’t even know it well and I’ve been doing it for more than 10 years) it’s unrealistic to expect a set of swatches to have much effect when color and light come into play. 

EDUCATION goes farther than CRITICISM. Please, if you have a problem with the way an artist is painting skintones educate them, don’t just assume they’re purposefully whitewashing unless you know for a fact they’re a complete bigoty douche. I realize I’ll probably get a lot of hate for this, but…as an artist I can’t get behind “lighting doesn’t actually change anything” when I know for a fact that it does. Does it always change things as drastically as people paint them? No. Does it excuse turning a brown person into a white person. Fuck no. But it is not some bullshit excuse artists use to hide racism. That idea is just as dangerous a misconception as the people who purposefully whitewash and just breeds contempt across the board.

[turbootaku]

This was really cool, really thorough @mrnicholas. Thanks for this!

[hollyand-writes]

As a POC who is thoroughly fed up of people in this shitty fandom being bullied over supposed “whitewashing” that isn’t even whitewashing (including, and maybe especially, other POC fanartists who get bullied over that shit) – THANK YOU SO MUCH @mrnicholas for actual sensible commentary on this issue.

(Fun fact: I myself come out vastly different skin colours in my photos, depending on the lighting. Even more so, sometimes, than Idris Elba above.) 

[storybookhawke]

OP: “directly color-pick from these dark ass photos of characters in candlelit taverns, caves, or a dark castle, or literal nighttime and do not stray from these colors ever”

An actual artist: “Uh… no?”

TLDR: There’s just a difference between “this drawing is on the lighter end of what is a reasonable spectrum for this character’s skintone in this lighting” and actual whitewashing.

[unicornempire]

Great examples, and all very true! I literally went to a great art school and took a class in color theory and I’m STILL terrible at color and don’t understand it very well. It’s definitely not easy, it takes a lot of learning and it takesa lot of time to absorb all that information even with so many great resources on skin tones out there. [I’ve seen them, but that doesn’t mean every young artist has!]

[caffeinatedrogue]

I love @mrnicholas’ response to this post because it’s so spot on. Even if you’re painting in b/w, the light/shadow range between a lighter skin (or object!) and a darker one is gonna be completely different. Add undertones, saturation control, ambience lighting if you’re painting colour. It is difficult in general, skin being a particular nightmare. And I see why people can get worked up about it, there’s little representation for POC and we all want it to be accurate. HOWEVER. Do not dogpile on artists who are clearly early in the stages of learning the craft, they are just trying to figure it out, 99% of the time. And even if an artist’s work looks great and polished to your eyes, it doesn’t mean they have perfect mastery of every tool in the book. Every little bit comes after lots of trial and error and learning to see what you have been doing wrong. Unless there’s blatant malice please just make constructive criticism at first, like ‘I think the skintone could be a bit darker and saturated’ rather than putting them under fire for something they’re likely already self conscious about. And if you’re a customer getting a comission done, just say it if you want your character to look darker or in any way different! Any artist with an ounce of professionalism wants nothing but you to be satisfied with the piece you’re paying for and will welcome any feedback with open arms.

[thebioticbasilisk]

RWBY meets the MCU

Yang:*Breaks into Raven’s camp*

Weiss: YESSSS! We know eachother! She’s a friend from School!

Raven: I have to get out of this Kingdom.

~

Ren: Nora, stop! Just for once in your life: DON’T. SMASH.

Nora: Big monster!

~

Clover: The city is exploding, we’re fighting an army of Grimm, and I have a fishing rod. None of this makes sense.

~

Ironwood: *about Oscar* Gods Qrow, how old is this kid?

Qrow: I don’t know, I didn’t carbon date him. He’s on the young side.

~

Harriet: *after ambushing Blake* You didn’t see that coming?

~

Jacques: Listen to me! You are a Schnee! If you turn your back on me, you’ll be just like everybody else.

Weiss: What's so wrong with that?

~

Qrow: *about Raven* There was one time when we were children, she... she transformed herself into a bird, and she knows that I love birds. So I went to pick up the bird to admire it, and she transformed back into herself and she was like, "YEAH, IT'S ME!", and she stabbed me.  We were eight....at the time.

~

Ruby: The longer Salem's in Remnant, the more powerful she grows. She'll hunt us down. We need to stop her here and now.

Blake: So what do we do?

Yang: I'm not doing "Get Help".

~

Marrow: his people are completely literal, metaphors are going to go right over his head. 

Vine: Nothing gets over my head. My Extendable Arms Semblance is too fast, I would catch it.

Harriet: I’m going to die surrounded by the biggest idiots in Remnant.

~

Mercury: Whoa! Whoa. There must be some kind of peaceful resolution to this, fellas... or even a violent one where I'm standing over there.

~

Watts: Hear me, and rejoice. You are about to die at the hands of the Council of Salem. Be thankful, that your meaningless lives are now i...

Yang: I'm sorry! Atlas is closed today. You better pack it up and get outta here.

~

Ruby: I get the first crack at Cinder. I'm the one she's waiting for.

Penny: *Walks by* That’s true. She does hate you the most.

~

Oscar: Ozpin. Oz, I know you like making your entrance at the last second, well, this is it, man. This is the last *last* second. Oz! Oz! OZPIN!

Ozpin: NOOOO! 

Oscar: Oh, screw you, you old secret-keeping asshole! I'll do it myself!

~

Robyn: I recognize that the Atlesian Council has made a decision, but given that it’s a stupid-ass decision, I’ve elected to ignore it.