Here's My Last 3 Sketchbook Pages :) Thought They Were Kinda Funky And Haven't Posted On Here In A While

A sullen Fae lad drawn entirely in crayon

A tip for excellent writing I just learned: Don't introduce a character with their Dramatic Backstory. It makes readers go "oh alright this is the Dramatic Background Story Character" and establishes a baseline of Tragic, either for the story as a whole or this character in particular. With no contrast of light and dark, pure darkness isn't impactful, it just looks like the absence of anything to look at.

If you really want someone's dramatic backstory to hit the audience like a gut punch, let them get to know the character first. That way the dark backstory doesn't come off as a description of who they are, but an explanation to why they are the way they are. Bonus points for connecting it to something that's already been established as a part of the character - what a devastating blow to suddenly put together that hold on, that funny quirky thing that they always do is a fucking trauma response.

I desperately need someone to convince my nervous system that the tiger does not exist.

My ocs Leili and Kai :)

"I did it for you" has gotta be my favorite form of betrayal. You gave me a gift I never asked for, and now I have to look around at the world you destroyed with the knowledge that it was gift wrapped and addressed to me.

back on my art grind

A Cuttlefish in motion

I was mesmerised by the motion of their fins so I challenged myself to make an animation of them.

entire plate of cheese. you agree. you reblog.

Hey, look at me. Look at me. I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: you need to condition yourself to being okay with being inconvenienced by things. The first time I spoke about this I meant it in a mental health way- it is good to go out to the store and see people versus just ordering alone at home- but there is another more pressing societal issue you should be more concerned about as well.

Any service you rely on for convenience can be weaponized against you the moment you begin to rely on it. Streaming used to be a cheap and convenient way to see movies at home. It is now exorbitantly expensive, you need multiple accounts just to get what you want, and any of those movies can be taken from you at any time. And unless you have gotten used to going through the “inconvenience” of owning physical media, you can do nothing about it. Same goes for buying things on Amazon. Same goes for any service like DoorDash etc. These companies WANT you to be reliant on them for convenience so they can do whatever they want to you because, well, what else are you gonna do?

Same thing goes for the uptick in AI. If you train yourself to become reliant on AI for doing basic things, you will be taken advantage of. It is only a matter of a couple years before there are no free AI services. Not only that, but in the usage of AI’s case, it is robbing you of valuable skills that you need to curate that you will be helpless without the moment the AI companies drive in the knife the way they have done with streaming. Delivery. Cable. Internet. Etc. It will happen to AI too. And if you are not practicing skills such as. Writing. You are not only going to be at the mercy of AI companies in the digital world, but you are going to be extremely easy to take advantage of in real life too.

I am begging you to let go of learned helplessness. I am begging you to stop letting these companies TEACH you helplessness. Do something like learn to pirate. It is way more inconvenient at the beginning, but once you know how, it is one less way companies can take advantage of you. Garden. Go to the thrift store (older clothes hold up better anyway). These things take more time and effort, yes, but using time and effort are muscles you need to stretch to keep yourself from being flattened under the weight of our capitalist hellscape.

Inconvenience yourself. Please. Start with only the ways you are able. Do a little bit at a time. But do something.

Today I learned about an incredible artist named John Conrad Berkey. He created cover art for many science fiction books, and also created artwork for NASA! But he’s most famous for his incredible Star Wars illustrations.

George Lucas actually bought several John Berkey science fiction illustrations and used them to help pitch Star Wars to studios. And many of Berkey’s pervious artwork was used as inspiration for Star Wars’s visuals.

Berkey was later commissioned by LucasFilm to create posters for Star Wars, shown below:

"Berkey's imagination and expressionistic style quickly set him apart from other sci-fi illustrators. From a distance, his paintings appear very exacting and perfectly rendered. But upon closer inspection, they reveal a beautifully loose and freely abstract style."

―Rusty Freeman, Vice-President, Collections & Public Programs, Plains Art Museum, Fargo, North Dakota

You can check out Berkey’s website here, and read his Wookieepedia page here

Coloured in a drawing from months ago. Hopefully it's not too blurry.

The solution to art block is almost always trying a new style, technique or medium and I'm enjoying coloured pencils at the moment.