In my early Dirty-Thirties. I mainly reblog gifs that make me feel warm and fuzzy inside. Occasionally I post something of merit. Part time fanvidder (twinberettas on YT). Sometimes I write fanfics (Andrea Christoph on AO3). This is where I keep all my fandom spazzing.
I am currently experiencing this again via the joys of learning to (digital) paint. "This is going well, this is going- NO NO, BACK TO VIBES, NEVER AGAINNNNNN"
I’m starting to realize what I’m actually going to miss about Twitter as it dies a long drawn-out death (and yes, I realize the irony in this as someone who literally ignored the platform from roughly 2013-2018). The microblogging.
Being able to send a random thought, or weigh in on a conversation ‘as you pass by’ (a la algorithm) was a sometimes pleasant, sometimes miserable experience that was a bit unique to that space.
(Increasingly on the ‘miserable’ side these days, to be honest. But now and then there are these moments of magic where I briefly connect with a stranger and it leaves both our days brighter.)
It did somewhat fulfill that concept of a digital townsquare, where you could float from conversation to conversation, say your piece (have it considered or shunned), and move on to the next one. I hope something like that does manage to spring up in a similar fashion...sans the recent ‘fasc’ side of it ifyaknowutImean
(I’m still here. And there. And around. Doing things. Ever recovering from the nervous breakdown of 2019-2020, closer these days to a healthy new norm than I used to be. Still struggling with work-life balance but not as unbalanced as it once was. The writing continues. The journey continues. Love to you all. I’ll stop by again.)
[ID: A tweet from Elon Musk's official Twitter account that says, "To address extreme levels of data scraping & system manipulation, we've applied the following temporary limits:
- Verified accounts are limited to reading 6000 posts/day
- Unverified accounts to 600 posts/day
- New unverified accounts to 300/day". End ID.]
Already made a post about this but there’s a good chance Elon’s lying and the servers are just completely unstable because he refused to pay a contract with Google
Hi! We're introducing Important Blue Internet Checkmarks here on Tumblr. They're a steal at $7.99—that's cheaper than some other places, when you consider that you get not one but TWO checkmarks for your blog on web only (for now). Why, you ask? Why not? Nothing matters! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
You know, the writing does still happen. It happens in spurts, here and there, when the energy is free and available. Problem is, that last part doesn’t happen super often.
This year has been marked by a constant barrage of both bad and good. It started off with the absolute gut punch of my 56-year-old uncle dying from lymphoma, and upon returning from my final goodbye to him I managed to solve a bad work situation (if only as a stopgap before an actual solution) only to have another chronic condition hit the fan pain-wise. My trigeminal neuralgia, formerly just an irritation now and then, has blossomed into a problem I’ve had to actually start a medication regimen for in the hopes of staving off the day I have to drill a hole in my skull to fix the issue for good because my god do I hate general anesthetic and the overwhelming sensation of dying as you drift off against your will.
In two weeks I find out if I have always had an underlying ADHD untreated and making my life harder, or if it’s just the effects of CPTSD from the tough childhood I had. In the meantime I stumble along, taking a pill purely for the stimulant impact it seems to have on my brain while I wait for a doctor to tell me if this gut feeling is correct or if I’m just another unlucky survivor of buckets of trauma. What I know is that it presents an extremely complex clinical picture where the comorbidities are intertwined so tight it’s had to suss out what the actual root cause is.
And right alongside that, my partner (my love, my light) has developed what is looking more and more like the very same progressive incurable autoimmune condition I have been dealing with (and inject a syringe of biological response modifier into my stomach every week to blunt the effect of). He’s not at that point yet, nowhere near, but he’s currently having the effects of it dealt with surgically, a surgery I have had myself three times, scars across my body leaving trails of evidence of the pain I’ve had to fight through to function in a world that isn’t built for people like me, to have a chance at a normal average life like my parents had (the kids, the house, the future). Not to mention the inflation, the skyrocketed cost of living, J being out of a job going on two months now, and supporting my 59-yr-old father through a mental health crisis because it’s who I am and what I do and not because he’s ever been a good enough father to deserve it.
So yes.
The writing happens.
Just...never as often as I would like. But the words float around my brain, ready to go down on the page. I have something like 30 written pages of future scenes, and just have to sort out the....the muscles surrounding the skeleton, binding everything together to form a narrative that makes sense.
(I was looking for a gif of Lucy writing in her journal and saw that one instead and y’know it still kinda fits with what I’m saying here.)
This isn’t intended as a woe-is-me. I’m getting through it like I’ve gotten through all the other trials in life. I just...wish I had the ability to run off to a remote cabin somewhere, disconnect from my life, and just write on my laptop for hours on end, like back when I was a kid. The words flowed so easy back then. These days I feel like half the time I’m fighting off a vague sense of anhedonia that wants to rob me of the richness of creativity and of truly experiencing life. My brain feels like a gob of spiderwebs all tangled together, plot points hanging here or there and ready to be used if only I could sort out the thread between them...an insurmountable task when the executive dysfunction is so strong.
I hope all of you have been well. I know it’s hard to be as of late, no matter where you are geographically (and trust me, I know how lucky I am in many ways compared to some others to be where I am...where my health hasn’t resulted in bankruptcy and homelessness, and I can support two adults on one income). Keep hanging in there. I know I will be.
Your art style is a bloody DELIGHT - I was curious if you had any inspirations for it you'd be open to sharing? It's such a lovely balance between the whimsy of animation while still being fantastic likenesses of the characters the art is based on and it's everything I hope I'll be able to do one day myself (but I'm still VERY early on in practicing drawing).
HI. HI. YOU. YOU MADE MY DAY. WTF. WTF.
A more coherent answer:
First off, thank you so fucking much for liking my art style!!! It’s always a fucking battle and I am never certain of how I feel about it. Often, it kind of seems like I don’t have as cohesive a style as I should—so seeing this was such a shock. Thank you you fucking godsend
In terms of inspirations, a shit ton? Haha not very helpful. I started off drawing really loving burdge-art’s style and there’s a bit of their style influence on me. That said, at the same time, I was learning traditional art as well, so I learned a lot about capturing likenesses and proportions and such there. (FYI this was…6 years ago? Haha yeah. Drawing is a fucking process and it’s one that’s most appreciated as a craft rather than one where the finished product is perfect, so just general advice for not losing your mind: don’t be too hard on yourself for not getting something right in the final draft of your artwork. Note it, figure out how to improve it, then start the next project. It happens, it’s part of the process.)
When capturing someone’s likeness, I like to do a sheet of just studies first. First off, get a bunch of reference pics. People look different in different angles and the way their eye looks on one angle doesn’t quite match up to how they look another angle. Give everything a good study. I then *gasp* trace a source image. Probably not the best practice, but it familiarizes me with the shapes of the person. (FYI I’m in “tracing is amazing for practice but never claim that’s your own art” camp.) Then, I close the trace, do a redraw of the same picture but with only references. And then I draw a bunch of other poses. Everyone has a different process but this really works for me.
The reason why you want to do a version post-trace (aside from good practice) is because the trace looks…off. Real world lines don’t really convert very well to art lines. The sketch version has a stronger sense of 3D and structure. It doesn’t feel as wishy-washy as the trace. This is the place where art style begins to show because this is where you start to “condense” and take out parts of the original photo you don’t want to express. The sketch loses accuracy, but that’s where style develops. (In this one, I do think the eyes are a bit far apart. I’d fix that when I do the next sketch!)
The faint red lines behind the sketch is my shape layer. Highly recommend this. It helps everything set into place!
Okay, back to inspirations. Generally I am really drawn to art with strong fluidity and mood. Pencil sketches, oils, ink and watercolour, animators’ sketches, etc. I love love love nephrosoupp, holly warburton, chopinspree, and nobodyanybody0 (now nbgpart!)’s art. They have such a great cohesion to the works as well as fluidity and colour, and it’s like, how are they so good?
My current colouring style is influenced by traditional coloured pencil art, hence the line-y look. I’m working on incorporating some high-contrast into the style (ex. using blue as shade colours when base is yellow, etc.) but, as with all art, it’s a Fucking Process.
Hope the ramble was a decent read, and a giant fucking thank you once again for making my fucking day.
Goddamn this was so helpful, thank you! (I was the nervous anon who didn't wanna be a bother haha)
I'm glad I've been kind of on the right track for practicing (starting with traces and working toward freehanding). The suggestion of doing multiple studies via trace and then redrawing freehand is ASTOUNDINGLY helpful and not something I'd have considered. Definitely gonna check out your art inspirations now! I've been following Proko tutorials for many things but I feel like someone needs to do a concise "How to draw fanart" tutorial series, haha. Anyway, thank you for the reply!!
My adventures in drawing continue - this one was referencing a screenshot (obviously) but freehanded from scratch, which is why I decided to include my initial sketch lines (I have the layer hidden when I reach a point of not needing them).
TBH this is the first time I think I’ve freehanded a Flynn that actually looks like Flynn. PROGRESS. The more you draw the likeness, the more the features stand out to you that really make them “them”. In Goran’s case it’s mainly the sharp nose, chin, and a bit in the eyes to really capture him, I think.
Lucy has no face because I somehow managed to draw it essentially melting forward away from her body and had to scrap it. Needless to say, I am NOT as far ahead with achieving her likeness as I’d like (but hey, happy with the rest!). Still not stylizing particularly much yet, but much like writing, I’m sure that will come later with practice.
Oh, and here is an unfinished Emma-as-Grace-Kelly that I’ll probably never get around to polishing and don’t believe I’ve shared:
Every Friends Dynamic Ranked (as voted by my followers): #7 → Rachel & Joey
Hey, you listen to me. Listen to me. You are never, ever gonna be alone. Okay? I promise I won’t let that happen. Oh, Joey. Oh, sweetie, what would I do without you? You don’t have to worry about that, okay?
titsay
jacobvanloon
kaledo-art
snowghoul
dededos
andulkaphoto
vaporwave
