Good Stuff.

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As promised, it’s finally here! Thank you to all of my patrons for not only the support that made this possible, but for giving me the confidence to work on a big project like this.

Rather than providing any drawing instruction, what this writeup aims to do is help you learn to unpack the decisions being made in a given composition, and articulate what elements in a piece are responsible for its impact. Being able to isolate these qualities in your own art and art that inspires you opens up avenues for improvement regardless of medium, style, or technical skill. This is the first of hopefully many PWYW art ‘tutorials’ from me. 

I hope you all enjoy! 

who's ur favorite character in the series?

Okay, okay, fine I will be honest...

Despite the fact that I drew many drawings of him I still got very flustered that i got this question... which is incredibly hypocritical because this is something i tend to ask people first regarding this game...

If there's one thing I envy about tumblr folk it would be their utter ability to gush over characters they enjoy the most without filter which is something that I find very hard to do with my favorites even if I really want to. Embarrassment aside I'm actually extremely glad I got this question because it allows me to overcome my own barriers. I am overjoyed.

Nick is just...an incredibly fun character both design wise and personality wise.

Disney’s Comic Strip Artist’s Kit by Carson van Osten.

You might know these already, but it is such good stuff I don’t think anybody minds if I share it here again. These hand-outs were meant as a way to get beginning artists working on the Disney comics to overcome some recurring drawing problems.

I found this on Mark Kennedy’s awesome blog: Temple of the Seven Golden Camels. Hence the ‘To Mark’ dedication on the fist page which, I guess, features some pretty sound advice for any artist:

“Just keep drawing my friend… Draw like the wind!”

http://sevencamels.blogspot.com

I've Got You Now, Snow Golems!

Merry Christmas @writebackatya from your Secret Santa for the @duckblrsecretsanta2023 :)

Alflear Week (3)

Embroidery and rings

The game says Alfred keeps the Pact Ring in an embroidered bag. It also states he dislikes embroidery. He totally made that bag himself.

more @malflearweek shenanigans.

Nights and Mornings

The next week....

The dawning horror of realising you are both night people.

QOTD below.

QOTD: What do Gyro and Donald not like in each other?

They adore each other in many regards, but when it comes to Donald's impatience and temper, plus self-loathing-fueled envy, Gyro finds himself more concerned for Donald. It's not always comfortable to watch the lengths Donald might go for a crumb of public validation. On Donald's part, he is unhappy that Gyro stretches himself out thin often, and for so little pay from Uncle Scrooge. Despite chiding him to not overwork, Gyro wants to be useful and disregards his advice. Donald always sticks up for his partner, but it creates some strain when Gyro once again retreats into the workshop for days trying to meet the quota.

For Day 2: Conflict of @donro-week

neocities/indie webmastery resources

since a lot of people are getting into indie web stuff nowadays, I figured I'd post my collection of webmastery resources I've accumulated here!

full list under the cut, you can also view the list and other resources on my resource page (which contains resources for other things too, not just webmastery or programming). This post will probably be updated when I find more stuff too

Font selector code HTML - the HTML portion of code I made to implement a working font selector on my website

Font selector code JavaScript - the JavaScript portion of code I made to implement a working font selector on my website

freeCodeCamp - free coding courses and certifications

The Odin Project - full stack web development curriculum, open source

Developer Roadmaps - community-made roadmaps for self-taught developers

GTmetrix - shows how fast your site loads and gives recommendations on how to improve load times

Cappuccicons - free icons, alternative to Font Awesome

XP.css - CSS framework mimicking the look of Windows XP operating systems

Indieseek.xyz - an indie web directory

Archetype - experiment with font and spacing options and see a live preview of what they'd look like on a webpage

Porkbun - cheap domain and web hosting provider with free WHOIS privacy (not having your private information publicly available and linked to your domain name which normally happens when you buy a domain unless you pay a fee) included with every domain

Whatruns - free browser extension for Firefox that tells you what a website uses to run

Inclusive Components - a blog about designing inclusive and accessible web interfaces, with example code

WAVE Web Accessibility Tool - scans a webpage and identifies potential accessibility improvements

ACA 80x15 web badge maker - make a web badge

Sadgrl's 88x31 button maker - make a button for your website

A Field Guide to Web Accessibility - an informative guide about web accessibility

Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools List - huge list of tools that assist in helping create accessible websites

SCM Music Player - customizable music player for your website

Resources - Bechnokid's resources, tutorials, and code snippets, including making an RSS feed reader for status.cafe and implementing Freezeframe JS (so animated GIFs don't play by default until hovered over or until the user clicks a button, important for accessibility)

Mobile Friendly via CSS - a tutorial by Dannarchy on making your website mobile-friendly

Website Carbon - calculates your website's carbon footprint, recommend pairing this with GTmetrix for specific recommendations as optimizing how fast your website loads will generally reduce its carbon footprint

Native Neocities Hit-Counter - a tutorial by Dannarchy on making a native Neocities hit-counter for your website

Cbox - free chatbox for your website

You Don't Need JavaScript - a collection of ways to do things typically done with JavaScript, without JavaScript

Creating your own website - a guide by 32-Bit Cafe

Zonelets - a simple, free blogging engine

Melonking's intro to the web revival - a series of blog posts on building a website for beginners

Code snippets - useful HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code snippets from Kalechips

Other people's collections of webmastery resources (not all of these are just webmastery):

sadgrl.online

Yesterlinks

Tinytools directory

32-Bit Cafe's massive resource list

awhe's cool links

30 seconds of code (free code snippets)

Milan's ultimate resource list (not just programming)

doqmeat's links

the garden of madeline's web resources page

Okay, I think that's all the links for now! If you have any questions on this stuff feel free to send me an ask btw, I'm happy to help :D

This is amazing , thank you!! I love Donald and nephews fluff, and how he made a great birthday for the boys even if it didn't go to plan.

Happy Holidays @dandyfelines I am your Secret Santa! I hope you enjoy this fic :) Sorry it took so long, its been a busy month.

@duckblrsecretsanta2023

DonChito Week?

Fellow Fans of DonChito or DonPan, do you exist? I was considering that we arrange a DonChito Week just so we can focus on creating content for this rare ship.

I and a fellow shipper realized that one of the problems that DonChito fans go through are the following:

we're usually multishippers who also have other rare pairs in mind. This leads to us creating content for other ships as well. Our efforts can only do so much.

Old fans, artists or writers have already moved on to other fandoms

The way we can solve this is by arranging a week or at least a project where we can all band together to create content for this ship together. Through sheer focus we will be able to provide more content within a certain span of time. It doesn't have to be a lot but the dedicated work of a few will sure help.

Boats

Fanfiction for Day 3: Boats of @donro-week!

Shape of Change

As he pushed his cart down the street, Gyro Gearloose spotted a curiosity in the front yard of 1313 Webfoot Walk. 

Donald Duck sat on the grass folding a paper boat. 

In fact, he surmised, given the sprinkle of scattered paper boats strewn around him, he had been folding them for some time.

Gyro was of an investigative disposition, so he abandoned his cart of tinkerings and gadgets to uncover the mental mechanisms behind the paper-folding mania.

This sheet of paper had Donald bound in an unblinking transfixation. His tongue stuck out in concentration as he folded it. In this state, the usual nuisances of squirrels chattering above him or the hiss of nextdoor neighbour Jones' lawnmower seemed to roll off his bubble of hyperfocus. He could commit his mind to any little oddity, and that quality always endeared him to Gyro.

He made a cacophony of his entry, knocking the mailbox and exclaiming, "Morning, Donald!"

Donald perked up at Gyro's arrival, as he always did, and waved at him. "Hiya, Gyro!"

“What have we here?” He eyed Donald's fingers pressing a crease into the sheet of paper, folding two symmetrical halves.

With a smug grin that betrayed his bemusement, Donald said, "Why, these things? They are called paper boats."

For the sake of theatrics, Gyro sighed. He joined him in the grass, smiling despite himself. "Very funny. But what for? Helping the kids' with a school project, perhaps?"

Donald's face of cheer unmasked into something morose. "No, I just wanted to get out of the house. A lot has been going on, and it's overwhelming." He flopped backwards into the grass. The paper boat tumbled out of his grasp, joining the rest in becoming bright white lawn ornaments.

Gyro waved a fresh sheet pinched between his fingers and let it rustle. "Shall I take over on boat-making while you rest?"

A single thumbs up popped out from the grass. 

So he started folding, flipping, creasing the sheet of paper with the press of two fingers, hearing it schliff. He transported himself to a time of short desks, tall teachers, and recesses spent in the library, all to access the long-buried knowledge of how to fold a paper boat. No memory was perfect, of course, but eventually, he had a crooked paper boat cupped in his two hands. Some corners stuck out in places and others were dulled by fold retakes. Asymmetry defined each face.

He turned to show his creation of irregular polygons to Donald, who had already sat up with crossed arms and a smug look on his face. Presumably, he had made Gyro’s earnest attempt to create a paper boat into a tragic spectacle.

"Hey, you," Gyro grunted. Possessed by a mischievous urge to get back at the little duck, spurred on by whimsy, he balanced the misshapen boat atop his bill.

It immediately toppled downwards.

Donald snickered, and then there they were. Two adults playing in the grass making paper boats. Donald quacked in laughter, and it wasn’t that amusing, really, but he replayed the moment the boat fell off his beak and maybe it was a little bit funny, so Gyro started laughing too. And was there anything better than sharing a little chortle together on a sunny morning?

When the laughter bubbled down, Donald said, "It's alright."

"Hm?"

Donald picked up a blank sheet. "Folding paper shapes is hard. Surprisingly hard. It requires a lot of attention and precision, and at first it felt like I couldn't ever do it well."  His hands worked deftly as he continued, "The boat looks so different from a flat piece of paper, and I'm not very good at visualising how each fold affects the shape. But, you know? I took it little by little. Even though I don't see how, I have to trust that each fold matters." Presented in two hands, he held a freshly made paper boat with crisp edges and clean faces.

“I see we’re not really talking about paper boats, are we.”

Donald tilted his head with a smile and looked at him teasingly. “Nah, I was talking about paper boats.” He set the new one down on the grass. 

Gyro chuckled. “If you say so.” They were, after all, surrounded by paper boats.

"But… I do feel better. The mess indoors has got nothing on me." Donald flexed an arm for emphasis and winked.

Right then, a curiosity struck at his heart.

Gyro leaned forwards and nuzzled the tip of his beak into Donald’s cheek feathers. 

They were soft. Donald leaned into the preening and it filled him with warmth, the kind he felt when they shared a hug, he supposed. The moment passed as quickly as it arose, and mid-morning air filled the gap between them. 

Donald moved to stand up, but his legs trembled. For a second, he inhaled, waiting for something to be released, but he only expelled a breath. Then, he smiled brightly at Gyro and extended his hand out to him.

Naturally, he took it. 

“I’ll help you clean up the yard.”  That was all that needed to be said.

Gyro assessed the task ahead. There were many paper boats littered around the grass. Still, he couldn’t imagine the yard without them after everything that had transpired. It must’ve meant something to Donald, because he kept sneaking glances back at Gyro. He didn’t know the shape of this change, or what it meant. But for now, he simply picked up each boat, one at a time.

QOTD: What's your favourite thing about Donald Duck?

If I had to pick one thing, it's his perseverance. In pretty much every iteration of Donald Duck, he doesn't give up when it's his big moment. He'll come close to it, of course, but at the end of the day he pulls through. He doesn't succeed all the time, but that's what makes him remarkably relatable and admirable. This quality is tied with the fact that he is a family-oriented person. I think Donald is at his most charming and likable when his loyalty and love for family is at the forefront.