What Are Tone Tags

last update!

updated some chara profile descriptions to have a bit more info!! also, caved and made my card not even try to fit the seafoam v. stardust theme lmaoo

hyped for the fight!!!

Art fight prep thread

i’ll be periodically adding to this as i, well, do my prep for what will be my third art fight! there’s a number of things i need to do:

make references for the ocs that will be on my page (francis, maddox, cecie, iarmys, inanna, and ayelet (ayelet is @boxxed-upkr ‘s)) (three are done, but i may redo two of them..)

make icons for the above characters

make lil chibis of the above charas to sit on my home profile page

after teams are announced, make borders for this year’s attack icons

hunt down a person to do an 800 level revenge chain with, to try to be in the top 3 longest chains of the year

if possible, revamp the toyhouse pages of the public characters there

strikedown = completed

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caustic.caffeine’s art fight info

scene hitlist // revenge chain hitlist will be a long one!! aiming to be one of the top three longest chainers this year!

art fight profile: https://artfight.net/~caustic-caffeine

team: tbd! but i don’t mind friendly fires!

my characters: aside from one, all are humanoids! they exist within a dark fantasy/steampunk setting with healthy helpings of the occult, macabre, and otherwise potentially unsettling ✨on each of their profiles they have links to toyhouse pages with art storage and more info about their lore! references are a work in progress and a few characters i have hidden right now may be unhidden before art fight starts

who i’ll attack: in order of most likely to least likely! mutuals > characters on my hitlists > characters with themes i enjoy > beginner artists/people new to art fight/people with high attack ratios (hmu if that applies to you!) > people who attacked me first > bookmarks > everyone else

other notes: check out my socials for examples of my art! i occasionally dabble in animation, both frame by frame and tweening. if it means anything, i’m an autistic lgbtq+ disabled metalhead 😎. more about me on my site

examples of art range from late 2023 up to a few days ago

figured i’d add to this! here is a process reel going into how i generally do things, and an unlisted youtube video with the speedpaint and additional thoughts is in the works! (because i’m a masochist like that…/nsrs)

obviously i’m still working to improve and this isn’t a tutorial per say; it’s just explaining how i do things, since a few people wanted to know and it seemed fun to talk about lmao

(also, this is fran’s mermay ref, not canonical in the slightest but i figured i’d make one for funsies yk?)

since instagram decided to be hot and sexy and make this image crunchy on their site:

[francis, ayelet (ayelet’s @boxxed-upkr ‘s)]

SOS

Hello. It’s Mahmoud Khalaf from Gaza. Unfortunately, donations to my family evacuation and reunification in Ireland campaign have slowed down significantly. I was wondering if you could please reblog my donations post and help me boost my campaign and achieve my final goal.

Be our lifeline of hope after we were deprived of it! Be the light for a better life for my family at the end of this dark, gloomy, gory long tunnel of death, pain and torture. I live in Ireland now far away from my family in Gaza, and I say it to myself every day: My family deserves better. As explained in my post, vetted buy el shab Hussein and nabulsi #151 on the Vetted Gaza Fundraisers List. Recent Post title: Help Me Evacuate My Family from Gaza and Reunite with them in Ireland. Link to my post: https://www.tumblr.com/supportgaza/762249046198009856?source=share

I hope that you and your family will be able to be reunited, as whole and happy as possible. Best of luck!

Read their full post here!

if i can impart any one piece of wisdom to y’all, it’s to, whenever possible, assume good intentions

assume people are trying their best, want to be good and treat others well, and that when their behavior doesn’t align with those goals, it’s because of outside factors that are pushing them to their limit

it’s hard to do, it doesn’t always come naturally, but it’s worth it

day 1 revenge chain entries

these are the highlights of today! tap “keep reading” for context!

hi hello yes here is the context! vivi and i are doing an 800 level revenge chain to try to get on the top three chains of this season. for the first three days we’re doing 20 attacks each, before going down to 13 attacks a day (apd) (unless we want to increase our apd later on)

photo quality is bad since i don’t have a lot of time to neatly convert these trad drawings to digital 😭

so yeh, that’s what i’m up to!

woah this character is so cool i wish they were covered in blood their whole body trembling with a look of absolute horror on their face as theyre struggling to breathe in panic

Did some writing while procrastinating on drawing Cecie’s reference sheets. It’s rough, and I haven’t decided if it’s canonical or not, but here’s a concept for Cecie and Francis meeting (written from Francis’s POV):

Featuring: Cecie (she/they), Francis (they/them)

Mentioning: Maddox (he/him), Inanna (she/it)

With Maddox’s help, I’ve gained a decent grasp on the local language and culture. While before I had to use magic to surmount the language barrier, we now converse quite comfortably in his native tongue. I’m teaching him the Primordial language, too, but that one will take longer for him to master. Until I learned about his people’s customs, I had remained in isolation, not wanting to embarrass myself (or worse, garner suspicion of my origins).

I decided I was now ready to pay a visit to someone important. Important to him, and revered by the general public. Although Inanna had been keeping tabs on her for a while, I’ve never properly met her. Today, we’re going to fix that. Maddox was able to pull some strings to allow her and I to meet privately, so we wouldn’t have to be wary of the eyes and ears in her walls. I do wonder what he said when first mentioning me to her.

She had an ethereal sort of beauty, like she was standing with one foot in the realms of the arcane. She was always immaculately dressed; thick white hair braided to frame her face, modest but elaborate clothing draped over her figure to add to her mystique. Her kind grey eyes often seemed distant, as if she was listening to words the rest of us cannot hear. She carried herself with poise and grace (and forearm crutches, sometimes). She was one of the few people I struggled to read, her fair face a perfect mask of calm. It’s needless to say that she caught my eye, especially after Maddox told me about her unique gift and the people who abuse it.

I strode into the room, idly examining my nails, stopping when I saw that the woman had already arrived. She sat on the couch with her legs folded and hands clasped in her lap. When I entered, she appeared to snap out of a daze, eyes boring into me with surprising intensity.

“Francis.”

“Cecie.” I settled in the plush chair adjacent to her, getting comfortable, with my eyes never leaving hers.

“Tell me why I’ve been seeing you every night in my dreams for the past six months.” Cecie’s voice is soft, and delicate, but no less serious. I carefully controlled my reaction, not wanting to betray anything incriminating.

“I don’t know, Cecie. That could be caused by any number of things. I’d have to see your dreams to give you a definite answer.”

“You’d… be able to do that?” The tone of her voice shifted ever so slightly. I raised an eyebrow. “As in, see my dreams? I thought only I could...”

The corner of my lips quirked up as I responded. “Yes. Though, I won’t without your consent. I wouldn’t want to violate your privacy.”

Cecie grew quiet, eyes now fixed on a faraway point. She idly twirled a lock of her hair in her neatly manicured fingers. I’ve intrigued her, I can tell. And she has intrigued me.

“…Interesting. I’ve… I’ve tried showing others before, but… it never seems to work. They aren’t able to discern what they see, and… sometimes I can’t, either…” Cecie sighed wistfully, falling silent again.

I’m more than a little surprised that she admitted this so quickly. From what I’ve heard, Cecie hasn’t ever struggled to understand the signs she sees. She’s always been held up as being the flawless mouthpiece of the Divines. I can’t help but wonder how much of her image has been fabricated by the ones around her. Who Cecie is, behind the veil.

I reached out and gently took one of her hands in my own, tracing the lines of her palm with my thumb. Her hands were soft, and cold, and trembling ever so slightly, like she thought I wouldn’t notice her anxiety. She glanced back at me, startled by the contact.

“I can help with that… if you’ll allow me to.” I was close enough to smell the faint scent of lavender that clung to her skin. The soothing fragrance suited her perfectly. “You aren’t the first seer I’ve met in my time.”

“I…” Cecie pursed her lips, brows furrowed. “…Who are you, Francis?”

“A friend, if you’d like me to be.” I lowered my voice, matching her soft tone. “I don’t want to overstep my bounds, but.. I will say that Maddox has shared some about your situation. And… I understand how it feels.”

Cecie’s eyes widened as she took in a sharp breath. She gripped my hand tighter than either of us expected her to. “Wh- what did he say about me?”

“Essentially, that you live with overbearing relatives and haven’t had much of a say in what goes on in your life. He didn’t go into specifics.” I gave a wry smile, somewhat regretting having brought the topic up. Alas, it was bound to happen at some point.

“…He told me that you’d be able to help, if I reached out to you. I… I want to believe him…” Cecie trailed off, attention returning to where our fingers were now intertwined. Unsure what to make of me.

Now I knew I had her hooked. The desperation in her voice was well concealed, but not well enough. This is the voice of a woman who is desperate to live. A voice I’m all too familiar with.

“Then allow me to prove him right.”

my thoughts on the instagram ai situation, as a digital artist on the platform

figured i’d write and share this around so others in the community i’m in know my status. sooo, some basics for starters:

“Are you leaving Instagram? Where can I find you active?”

i’m staying on instagram for the time being. seeing as instagram almost certainly already has the data of my past posts, i won’t be deleting anything; going forward, i’ll be using ai disturbance filters and other anti-ai overlays for any stills i post. i anticipate using instagram for reels primarily, as well as staying in communications with mutuals and other artists. i do have a cara account, but will likely be posting intermittently until some issues i’ve noticed get addressed. going forward, i’ll most likely be at my most active over here! growth, fortunately, never was a priority in my social media presence so i’m not super concerned about that.

tldr:

instagram: gonna continue posting reels and occasional stills, will be primarily focused on interacting with fellow artists

here: most active! will post both rough and polished stills, as well as lore and whatever random thoughts pop into my head. (see pinned post for a tag guide)

cara: activity will be low unless shit really hits the fan on instagram and i can no longer protect my work via overlays. if you’re an insta moot, feel free to dm me if you want me to share your posts around, though! if the link doesn’t work: i’m @/asphodelity [EDIT] cara does work with an ai organization, hive; here is a post that goes into it and other things people have said about the platform! as i already wasn’t intending to use the platform all that often this won’t change anything for me, but make sure to do your research if you’re looking into the platform!

“Will this affect how much you post?”

not really! i already have a fairly sporadic posting schedule, so i’ll just be continuing what i’ve been doing: posting when i have things i wanna share :]

“Help! I’m an Instagram artist and want to know how to protect my art!”

i gotchu.

[EDIT] the non-glaze/nightshade/artshield filters are mostly ineffective! it won’t hurt you to use them, but if you can stick to using the glaze and nightshade sites!! if you don’t have a pc, you can apply to get a webglaze account!

how to (hopefully) opt out of your art being scraped in the european union (i think?)

how to (hopefully) do the same in the united states (note: post could be outdated)

other ways to protect your art: one, two, three, four

ai disturbance filters: one, two, three (set these to overlay at 30% as the top layer for most effectiveness! these aren’t as effective as using a website like glaze, but are better than nothing)

after june 26, no matter your region, you’ll be unable to opt out of ai data training. this affects, to my knowledge, everything you post, including captions.

“Any other thoughts?”

now, more than ever, we as a community need to stick together and support each other. don’t let anyone tell you your art isn’t worth anything; we as artists have something very special in our ability to create, express ourselves, and connect with the world around us, an algorithm and misguided techbros will never be able to take that away from us. keep pursuing what you love, my friends; we have to weather the storm to see the rainbow.

my dms are always open for art reasons. need a pep talk? i’m around. wanna collab or trade? i’d love to! need help boosting your social medias? i’m happy to help (although my presence is admittedly very small). whatever it is, i’m here and willing to help!

i’ll keep updating yall on this platform as my activity changes (or, perhaps, something big related to ai happens), so be sure to stick around if that seems interesting! also, please feel free to reblog this post and add more information i may have missed, that’s all for now, thank you for your time <3

boys being boys

(gartic with @univornz @boxxed-upkr )