OK To Make A Font Out Of Your Own Writing

Homemaking, gardening, and self-sufficiency resources that won’t radicalize you into a hate group

It seems like self-sufficiency and homemaking skills are blowing up right now. With the COVID-19 pandemic and the current economic crisis, a lot of folks, especially young people, are looking to develop skills that will help them be a little bit less dependent on our consumerist economy. And I think that’s generally a good thing. I think more of us should know how to cook a meal from scratch, grow our own vegetables, and mend our own clothes. Those are good skills to have.

Unfortunately, these “self-sufficiency” skills are often used as a recruiting tactic by white supremacists, TERFs, and other hate groups. They become a way to reconnect to or relive the “good old days,” a romanticized (false) past before modern society and civil rights. And for a lot of people, these skills are inseparably connected to their politics and may even be used as a tool to indoctrinate new people.

In the spirit of building safe communities, here’s a complete list of the safe resources I’ve found for learning homemaking, gardening, and related skills. Safe for me means queer- and trans-friendly, inclusive of different races and cultures, does not contain Christian preaching, and does not contain white supremacist or TERF dog whistles.

Homemaking/Housekeeping/Caring for your home:

Making It by Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen [book] (The big crunchy household DIY book; includes every level of self-sufficiency from making your own toothpaste and laundry soap to setting up raised beds to butchering a chicken. Authors are explicitly left-leaning.)

Safe and Sound: A Renter-Friendly Guide to Home Repair by Mercury Stardust [book] (A guide to simple home repair tasks, written with rentals in mind; very compassionate and accessible language.)

How To Keep House While Drowning by KC Davis [book] (The book about cleaning and housework for people who get overwhelmed by cleaning and housework, based on the premise that messiness is not a moral failing; disability and neurodivergence friendly; genuinely changed how I approach cleaning tasks.)

Gardening

Rebel Gardening by Alessandro Vitale [book] (Really great introduction to urban gardening; explicitly discusses renter-friendly garden designs in small spaces; lots of DIY solutions using recycled materials; note that the author lives in England, so check if plants are invasive in your area before putting them in the ground.)

Country/Rural Living:

Woodsqueer by Gretchen Legler [book] (Memoir of a lesbian who lives and works on a rural farm in Maine with her wife; does a good job of showing what it’s like to be queer in a rural space; CW for mentions of domestic violence, infidelity/cheating, and internalized homophobia)

“Debunking the Off-Grid Fantasy” by Maggie Mae Fish [video essay] (Deconstructs the off-grid lifestyle and the myth of self-reliance)

Sewing/Mending:

Annika Victoria [YouTube channel] (No longer active, but their videos are still a great resource for anyone learning to sew; check out the beginner project playlist to start. This is where I learned a lot of what I know about sewing.)

Make, Sew, and Mend by Bernadette Banner [book] (A very thorough written introduction to hand-sewing, written by a clothing historian; lots of fun garment history facts; explicitly inclusive of BIPOC, queer, and trans sewists.)

Sustainability/Land Stewardship

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer [book] (Most of you have probably already read this one or had it recommended to you, but it really is that good; excellent example of how traditional animist beliefs – in this case, indigenous American beliefs – can exist in healthy symbiosis with science; more philosophy than how-to, but a great foundational resource.)

Wild Witchcraft by Rebecca Beyer [book] (This one is for my fellow witches; one of my favorite witchcraft books, and an excellent example of a place-based practice deeply rooted in the land.)

Avoiding the “Crunchy to Alt Right Pipeline”

Note: the “crunchy to alt-right pipeline” is a term used to describe how white supremacists and other far right groups use “crunchy” spaces (i.e., spaces dedicated to farming, homemaking, alternative medicine, simple living/slow living, etc.) to recruit and indoctrinate people into their movements. Knowing how this recruitment works can help you recognize it when you do encounter it and avoid being influenced by it.

“The Crunchy-to-Alt-Right Pipeline” by Kathleen Belew [magazine article] (Good, short introduction to this issue and its history.)

Sisters in Hate by Seyward Darby (I feel like I need to give a content warning: this book contains explicit descriptions of racism, white supremacy, and Neo Nazis, and it’s a very difficult read, but it really is a great, in-depth breakdown of the role women play in the alt-right; also explicitly addresses the crunchy to alt-right pipeline.)

These are just the resources I’ve personally found helpful, so if anyone else has any they want to add, please, please do!

If you do more tutorials maybe poses?

How to do better poses:

a few things to think about when doing poses, just from the top of my head so it’s not very thorough. Hope it helps! 

Flower crowns in paintings ❀

Get access to my brushes, art tips, process videos, and files here https://www.patreon.com/ramonn90

been scrolling on your art tag for a good 38 mins

(can you tell there's something desperately wrong with me)

and HOW DO YOU HANDDSSSSS ghhhhh theyre so perfect how like EURGHH chomp chomp delicious but HOW??? 😭 youre magic dude

OMG. OMGGG. THANK YOUUU WHAT THE HELL I JUST BLUSHED. and im glad u like how i draw hands hehe thats so nce... theyre pretty fun(most of the time) to draw for me(when i actually do draw them) so i hope it shows. idk if this is you asking for hand tips BUT EVEN IF ITS NOT. IM DOING IT ANYWAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HANDS are all about SHAPES!!!!! theyre just a bunch of wobbley squares and wonky cubes and sometimes triangles too depending on the angle.

and if the pose/angle is more complicated? break the shapes down into even MORE squares and cubes. They are your best friend. we love cubes. (sorry. these arent great outlines bc im using my mouse. but you get the deal)

and im still not great at drawing softer hands tbh, but if you want them to not be so pointy and tough looking, just round out the corners and throw in more slopes and squishes.

and now im gonna say something and youre probably gonna groan really loud but just hold on for a second. hold my hand. okay. i feel like my mind awakened when i learned how to make hands in blender. NOW im not saying you have to learn blender just to figure out how to draw hands. because i still dont know blender either. and hands still stump me from time to time. but just the act of building a shitty hand out of cubes put me on this mindset for the rest of my life. i dont even know if this is anything, but heres a good video of someone building a very simple hand in blender and maybe itll lock into your brain like it did mine.

AI disturbance overlays for those who don't have Ibis paint premium. found them on tiktok

Y boobs are big pet peeve of mine, it’s 2017 and I still see them everywhere so I made a lil’ guide on natural looking boobies. Boobs are amazing, give them love.

Everyone look at the cat blanket I made like .. 3 years ago

i love love love when artists put a bunch of effort into like human anatomy and facial features and light rendering and drawing fabric folds and shadows and texture and then when they draw a gun they do this