Useful - Tumblr Posts
I cried today at work.
There was a girl who was kind of a new coworker, and I complimented her voice. She was shocked, and thanked me profusely, and told me that she is very insecure about her voice and that it meant a lot to her that I liked it. She said that just yesterday she had been feeling down because of how much she disliked it.
I didn’t cry a lot, but my eyes got watery and a few tears leaked out. I was devastated that she didn’t like her own voice, because I adored it so much and it hurt that she didn’t see the beauty in it. But mostly I cried because of how sincerely she thanked me, and it felt so good to be able to lift her spirits at least a little bit. As I walked away and continued my work, it dawned on me for the first time in my life that perhaps I really am useful, and that I am a good person.
If all I have accomplished by the end of my life is complimenting her, then her reaction alone makes my life worth it.
Seriously! Positive feedback costs nothing to give! Kids deserve acknowledgement for their work! Instead of just criticism or advice on its own!
An example from my own life- I'm planning on being an artist and I do art pretty much everyday. You know what's a lot more motivating than adults telling me how I should improve it or telling me to change it? You know what's a lot more motivating than being ignored? Talking with peers who actually care and don't brush it off- most of whom I can only talk with online. It's actually motivating when you feel like someone cares about your interests or work instead of waiting for you to shut up.
consider: teenagers aren’t apathetic about everything they’re just used to you shitting all over whatever they show excitement about
I gotta say, one of the greatest achievements of my 20s was that I learned (mostly) to differentiate between:
"I truly do not want to go" and
"I'm just feeling the Demand Avoidance, and I will like it once I get there."
here have 10 pieces of writing advice that have stuck with me over the years
every character’s first line should be an introduction to who they are as a person
even if you only wrote one sentence on a really bad day, that’s still one sentence more than you had yesterday
exercise restraint when using swear words and extra punctuation in order for them to pack a punch when you do use them
if your characters have to kiss to show they’re in love, then they’re not in love
make every scene interesting (or make every scene your favorite scene), otherwise your readers will be just as bored as you
if you’re stuck on a scene, delete the last line you wrote and go in a different direction, or leave in brackets as placeholders
don’t compare your first draft to published books that could be anywhere from 3rd to 103rd drafts
i promise you the story you want to tell can fit into 100k words or less
sometimes the book isn’t working because it’s not ready to be written or you’re not ready to write it yet; let it marinate for a bit so the idea can develop as you become a better writer
a story written in chronological order takes a lot more discipline and is usually easier to understand than a story written with flashbacks
Okay, regarding the last post/ask, there's a part of me that worries for internet safety in recent times, because it's very easy to become a victim of hacking, doxxing, or in more extreme cases, actual harm (grooming, stalking, etc.).
Not to age myself (and others) but there was a time in school where teachers would show us videos and presentations of the dangers of lacking online literacy/safety. Net safety videos were a stable of my childhood and many others, and most of those videos discussed the following:
Do not post personal information about yourself online
Do not interact with people you don't know
Do not meet people you met online in real life
The effects of cyberbullying
Those were the basic stuff. There was a lot more to take away from them
And those videos were scary. That was the point of them. I think about them less now, but it stuck. Because it can happen. And it has happened.
That's why I'm worried and a little taken aback about the lack of understanding of safety and knowledge of the current internet user base. I know that kids and teenagers use the internet, it's nothing new at all. But they're not being taught how to be safe or use common sense!
At least not in a way that I'm aware of.
If they are being taught, it's either not taught well or it's not being retained. Either way, it's clear that it's not being implemented.
And yeah most of those rules above are broken almost immediately, because we as people have gotten too comfortable with posting and sharing our intimate lives publicly. Our ages, our genders, our dating status, our home state. I'd be a hypocrite if I didn't acknowledge that, yeah, I also have some of that info in my bios!
However, some make the mistake of including very sensitive information such as their state, town, school, and worst of all their face!
Even if you don't do it intentionally, whether your posting on tiktok or whatever, if you have your state flag in the background of a video with your school logo just barely showing, someone with enough time and effort will figure out where you are. It's been shown in not only those tiktoks doxxing people but in those old net safety videos, too!
If this is scaring you, that's the point. That's what those net safety videos did. And sure, you'll forget about the rules and get comfortable with providing that info... I know most of us have, but it's up to you to keep yourself safe as much as possible.
With the state of the internet now, it's imperative to have an understanding of what the dangers are. Especially with ai in the mix. That's why I'm hesitant to even post my selfies anymore (Fuck Instagram for their ai scraping feature). It's because of what people might do. It's anxiety inducing. And that's why I'm making it a point to just be mindful as to what you do when you're online.
Don't join spaces that might have people that may take advantage of your naivety (I'm talking to kids and teenagers). If you find yourself in a space with someone or a group that makes you uncomfortable, leave. If they threaten or coax you to stay, follow your gut instinct and leave. Do not communicate with anyone who makes you uncomfortable. If it feels to be too much, tell a trusted friend or adult who can help you get out of the situation.
Don't post your current location. Don't post your school or work. Don't post your face if you can help it. Don't click on random links from people you don't know, even if they're offering free robux or nitro. It's a scam!
And before anyone makes a comment demeaning those for not knowing these scams or basic net safety, get over yourself. People who don't know either were never taught to look out for those things or never encountered such things.
People of all ages fall for scams regardless of what it is, kids to old people who aren't tech savvy. It's in our interest to teach people these things so that they can protect themselves. It doesn't make us better for knowing something and then shaming others for not.
Just be safe out there.
It’s Webcomic Day!
Webcomics are awesome! They are an excellent way to read comics with ace representation. There are hundreds of webcomics with ace characters to choose from, across every genre.
To get you started, here are 60 webcomics with ace spectrum leads!
1. StarHammer by J.N. Monk and Harry Bogosian @sketchbot9000
2. Lost in Translation by Jjolee @jjolees, Eunice, and Valeri
3. The Unlucky Ones and the Edge of Nowhere by Nicky Rodriguez
4. Novae by Kaiju @kaixju
5. Shaderunners by Alex Assan @alexassanart and Lin Darrow
6. Sombulus by Christina Major @delphina2k
7. SEIS by Puik
8. BUUZA!! by Shazleen Khan @shazleen
9. THIS IS NOT FICTION by Nicole Mannino @nicoima
10. Sarota Springs by Joanne Kwan @joannekwan
11. The Last Dimension by Leaglem @oneeyedleaf, Schooph, Hunie, and Spencer Gooding
12. Earth Angel by Raysdrawlings @raysdrawlings and Aquaarter
13. Crash and Burn by Finn Lucullan, Kate Larking, and Hannah Bradshaw Lozier
14. Aurora by Red @comicaurora
15. Soul to Call by Rommie @rommie
16. Supernormal Step by M. Lee Lunsford @mleelunsford
![A graphic of webcomic covers on a white background with a diagonal asexual flag in the bottom corner. Each cover has a speech bubble with the genre next to it. Webcomics: Song for Cantalagua (solarpunk fantasy), [un]Divine (dark fantasy), Charity Case (polyamorous romance), The Ink Witch (fantasy romance), Skull & Pyro (fantasy comedy), Husk (supernatural drama).](https://64.media.tumblr.com/812d5703bc511184f257ba7d32fd731f/a795c81015bbf1a5-ac/s500x750/6f770ca93c2a5eaec2e27c3245549cac5a02fac4.jpg)
17. Song for Cantalagua by Maria Izquierdo @vinzul, Antar Castro, Paulo Esparza, Alex Velázquez, Gerardo Blas, and Marisol Diz
18. [un]Divine by Ayme Sotuyo
19. Charity Case by Malacandrax @malacandrax
20. The Ink Witch by Izzi Ward @izzi-illustrates
21. Skull & Pyro by AuthorOfDragons @authorofdragons
22. Husk by Al Acevedo @huskcomic
23. Dom & Mor by DyeMeLikeASunset @dyemelikeasunset
24. Beneath the Woods by Mason Stark @ursachaotic
25. Skyvein by sen holiday @senholiday
26. Tamberlane by Caytlin Vilbrandt @justcaytlin, Ari Noble, Jonas, Elle Pierre, Isabel "Izzy" Pereira, Nakata “Knack” Whittle, and Koda "Puddle" Star
27. I’m Mortal by J. Lovelace
28. KAI by Queenue @rsqueenue
29. Ignition Zero by Cedar Wren McCloud
30. Cirque Royale by Brittany G. @atomicbritt
31. Kiss it Goodbye by Ticcytx @ticcytx
32. City of Blank by 66 @66sharkteeth, yayu_sensai, Ethan LeBlanc, and Spencer Gooding
33. Slice of Life by SallyVinter @celepom
34. Monster’s Garden by Ash G. @kilomonster
35. Brimstone and Roses by Speremint @speremint, Lumiscuro, Basia Dajewski, and Eunice Baik
36. Peripety by Mushki @mushki-art
37. Heroes of Thantopolis by Strontium @strontiumsun
38. Wondrous by Sarah Frederiksen @acolorfulreader
39. Cosmic Fish by Eliana Falcón
40. California Magic by Del Barrio @delshark and Britters @moodypuglet
41. Teleport by R.P. Ruffatti, Moomie Swan, and Xan Larson
42. Jade Kingdoms by Surenlicious @surenlicious
43. Jamie by Bre Indigo and Tami Babikian
44. A Week In Warrigilla by Teloka Berry and Priscilla “Pi” Wu @picayunearts
45. Finding Home by Hari Conner @haridraws and Claire Napier
46. The World In Deeper Inspection by Reimena Yee @reimenaashelyee
47. Four Leaf by Lumaga @lumaga and Hito
48. Castoff by Star Prichard @thestarfishface
49. Aces by Taqi
50. Covenant by explodikid @explodikid, bekkomi, Venacyr, Breanna Boswell, and Nico Hy
51. ELLIS by Marta Selusi @ratonpersona
52. Pathways: Chronicles of Tuvana by Elaine Tipping @triaelf9
53. Dirge for Broken men by JoshuaBeeking @joshua-beeking
54. My Sweet Archenemy by Rosanna Duong
55. LnR by Carossmo
56. Friends with Benefits by nezkovsou
57. Crowned Vessel by Dreadstrive @dreadstrive
58. Namesake by Megan Lavey-Heaton and Isabelle Melançon @secondlina
59. Those Who Sleep by Yokani
60. Kidd Commander by Aria Bell @shinesurge
Each webcomic listed has at least 1 asexual, demisexual, or graysexual leading character, with many having multiple. The majority of the comics listed are also made by acespec creators. This is not an exhaustive list.
Hope you found some new comics to dig into! Happy Webcomic Day!
For those writing fanfic for Chinese shows such as GDC, Scum Villain, etc and do not speak Chinese. You might find this useful.
i recommend this doc to people that ask me about my paracosm most of the time because it's so good. i genuinely use it to identify terms i forget sometimes
💭🔮✨ THE ULTIMATE DAYDREAMER’S GUIDE ✨🔮💭
💭 What is it?
This is a guide both for those in the Daydreaming Community, or want to learn more about it. It is meant to be an archive of all things relating to MaDD & ID, and is curated/run/owned by yours truly!
💭 Can I link this on my blog/post/etc?
Yes!! The whole reason this doc was made was so that it can be passed around as a general resource, so you are more than welcome to link it anywhere you want. Obviously everything in the doc is also fair game, all of it was made by & for the community, after all.
💭 Can we give suggestions?
Suggestions are highly encouraged & appreciated! I am only one person running this doc, after all, and will not be able to uncover/document everything without some help. You can send me stuff through DMs, my ask box, or discord if you have it. Basically if you have a way to reach me, you can send a suggestion lol I'm not picky.
💭 Links
Playlist: A compilation of songs about daydreaming, whether directly or just based on vibes. Currently only on Spotify.
Blog Submission Form: Since the daydream community is ever changing, I thought it would be a nice idea to compile a list of MaDD & ID blogs to be featured under the "Blogs" section. This section of the doc is so that community members — new & old — have a better idea of who to follow/who is active. Entirely optional & I will only add those who ask.
Thank you for compiling this <33
Skip Google for Research
As Google has worked to overtake the internet, its search algorithm has not just gotten worse. It has been designed to prioritize advertisers and popular pages often times excluding pages and content that better matches your search terms
As a writer in need of information for my stories, I find this unacceptable. As a proponent of availability of information so the populace can actually educate itself, it is unforgivable.
Below is a concise list of useful research sites compiled by Edward Clark over on Facebook. I was familiar with some, but not all of these.
⁂
Google is so powerful that it “hides” other search systems from us. We just don’t know the existence of most of them. Meanwhile, there are still a huge number of excellent searchers in the world who specialize in books, science, other smart information. Keep a list of sites you never heard of.
www.refseek.com - Academic Resource Search. More than a billion sources: encyclopedia, monographies, magazines.
www.worldcat.org - a search for the contents of 20 thousand worldwide libraries. Find out where lies the nearest rare book you need.
https://link.springer.com - access to more than 10 million scientific documents: books, articles, research protocols.
www.bioline.org.br is a library of scientific bioscience journals published in developing countries.
http://repec.org - volunteers from 102 countries have collected almost 4 million publications on economics and related science.
www.science.gov is an American state search engine on 2200+ scientific sites. More than 200 million articles are indexed.
www.pdfdrive.com is the largest website for free download of books in PDF format. Claiming over 225 million names.
www.base-search.net is one of the most powerful researches on academic studies texts. More than 100 million scientific documents, 70% of them are free
I got a laptop with Windows 11 for an IT course so I can get certified, and doing the first time device set-up for it made me want to commit unspeakable violence
Windows 11 should not exist, no one should use it for any reason, it puts ads in the file explorer and has made it so file searches are also web searches and this cannot be turned off except through registry editing. Whoever is responsible for those decisions should be killed, full stop.
Switch to linux, it's free and it's good.
Just wanted to ask, please forgive me if you've already answred this, what program do you use? Your art fucks HARD and like. I was looking at your art of the two moths over the city they die in and I was hit with the wave of "oh that looks really fucking fun actually." Like i know my art program can't do some of those effects and like, I'd love to try fucking about with them.
hi there, thank you! all my art is done in procreate and paint tool sai
because you mentioned that drawing in particular i thought it would be fun to break it down and show ppl what exactly went into each part of it so check this out
sketch & lineart - the brushes come from georgbrush.club and the urban sketcher is my most commonly used lineart brush, it has a nice irregular shape. the square brush is nice for big blocky sketches.
the cityscape was REALLY hard but basically I got a photo of the skyline of florence, traced some basic building shapes, then bullshitted the rest using the vertical symmetry/mirror tool to cut down on the amount of work (so i only had to sketch one half of the city). then for lineart I turned off vertical symmetry, turned on the two-point perspective tool, and got this:
the rose windows were made using the radial symmetry tool.
I didn't like it being so flat, so I used the liquify tool to make a kind of fish-eye effect (limited success tbh). I liked how it looked but the buildings in front needed something to cover them up to make the liquification less obvious...
first pass colours. I felt they were very washed out, aside from the sun which i loved. I use the spectra brush (default procreate) for skyscapes a lot, I love the texture. Although the clouds were filled in using the lasso selection tool, I softened the edges using the square pencil again and added texture using true grit sampler grainy brushes. The translucency effect comes from my setting the brush as an eraser. The sun rays come from the radial symmetry tool.
Blocking in the moths' colours was done with the urban sketcher again.
Something people may not have noticed is the labyrinth hidden in the sky! yeah I had a bunch of versions where it was more obvious but I found that it clashed a bit and was too busy, so I made it subtle. But yes. I searched for "royalty free labyrinth" and picked one.
The toner grit brush is one you've seen before if you've looked at any art on tumblr lately (this is such a popular brush) and it's from the true grit fast grit set. The pointillism brush is from the true grit free sampler pack, like my grain brushes.
I added shadows to the moths, increased saturation overall, and changed the clouds to a translucent blue (you can even see in the sun where I forgot to block in the sun itself because the clouds over it used to be opaque lol). Moon rays were drawn using the radial symmetry tool but this time with rotational symmetry off. I also moved the moon down closer to the moths because I felt that it was a bit far away, and this served to visually divide the drawing into three equal parts, so I chose to lean into that and divide the sky colours too, to show passing time, or an endless moment - morning, evening, night, etc.
And then the oroborous, I tried a few different effects on it because I wanted it to be very clearly separate from the main scene - I settled on a dot matrix newsprint texture, using procreate's onboard tool, and some heavy chromatic aberration. This is because the oroborous isn't real, it's purely symbolic and the moths' demise started when they became photographers so I liked the print media aspect there as well. The story itself is about grief without closure, cyclical violence, and sunk cost fallacy, while everyone explores an endless labyrinth, so an oroborous fits I think
what makes art fun to me is thinking up ways I can tell a story using just a single image. and sure a lot of it will be lost to an audience who isn't familiar with the characters or backstory but i want to leave enough in there that even complete strangers to my work will be able to construct a narrative about what's happening here, rather than it just being a cool image. that's my goal.
Finally I exported it to sai on my pc to give it a once-over. this is really important because the retina display on an ipad is oversaturated on purpose, to make everything look amazing and vibrant. but what this means is that on other screens, your work might look washed out. it's especially bad at displaying yellows! so i look at it in sai on my pc and i make minor adjustments, in this case I actually added another multiply layer on the moths and an overlay on their non-shadowed parts to increase the contrast there.
finally if you've read this far, I played a little trick with the caption of the drawing. yeah, THEY die... but only one of those moths is a theythem pronoun haver... the other has to survive. he isn't given a choice in the matter.
hi I'm from your pseudo-medieval fantasy city. yeah. you forgot to put farms around us. we have very impressive walls and stuff but everyone here is starving. the hero showed up here as part of his quest and we killed and ate him
Skip Google for Research
As Google has worked to overtake the internet, its search algorithm has not just gotten worse. It has been designed to prioritize advertisers and popular pages often times excluding pages and content that better matches your search terms
As a writer in need of information for my stories, I find this unacceptable. As a proponent of availability of information so the populace can actually educate itself, it is unforgivable.
Below is a concise list of useful research sites compiled by Edward Clark over on Facebook. I was familiar with some, but not all of these.
⁂
Google is so powerful that it “hides” other search systems from us. We just don’t know the existence of most of them. Meanwhile, there are still a huge number of excellent searchers in the world who specialize in books, science, other smart information. Keep a list of sites you never heard of.
www.refseek.com - Academic Resource Search. More than a billion sources: encyclopedia, monographies, magazines.
www.worldcat.org - a search for the contents of 20 thousand worldwide libraries. Find out where lies the nearest rare book you need.
https://link.springer.com - access to more than 10 million scientific documents: books, articles, research protocols.
www.bioline.org.br is a library of scientific bioscience journals published in developing countries.
http://repec.org - volunteers from 102 countries have collected almost 4 million publications on economics and related science.
www.science.gov is an American state search engine on 2200+ scientific sites. More than 200 million articles are indexed.
www.pdfdrive.com is the largest website for free download of books in PDF format. Claiming over 225 million names.
www.base-search.net is one of the most powerful researches on academic studies texts. More than 100 million scientific documents, 70% of them are free
this is your periodic reminder that for all the artifacts and errors and "tells" one could possibly list, the only reliable way to actually determine if an image is ai generated is to investigate the source. it is becoming increasingly common for "fake classical paintings" to circulate around curative aesthetic blogs, and everyone should be using this as an opportunity to not only exercise their investigative skills but also appreciate art more in general. you're all checking out the artists you reblog, right? 🫣
so what are some signs to look for? let's use this very good example.
what a lovely late-impressionist piece blended with evocative leyendecker-esque themes! why haven't you ever heard of this artist before? surely tumblr would be all over an artist like this. who is justin brown?
your two options from here are to do a search for the name, or a reverse image search. i prefer reverse image searching, particularly when it comes to a common name like "justin brown". so what does that net?
Immediately, without looking at any text, something is wrong: it barely exists. an actual historical piece would turn up numerous results from websites individually discussing the piece, but no such discussions are taking place. Looking at the text, though, does show the source-- and at least in this case, the creator was honest about their medium.
But let's also look at the "exact matches", in case a source doesn't make itself apparent in the initial sidebar results like this.
This section will often tell you post dates of images, and here it can be seen that the very first iteration of the image was posted 15 days ago. It did not exist online prior to that.
Seeing how long an unsourced image has been floating around is a skill applicable to more than just generative images! See a cool image of an artifact or other intriguing item with a vivid caption? Reverse search it! If all the results are paired with that caption and only go back a few months, you might just have viral facebook spam.
Sometimes generative creators are dishonest about their medium and do not tag it like in the example, so that's when establishing "jpeg provenance" becomes important. While it can be a little trickier to determine if someone is using generative images and not admitting to it if they aren't trying to pass it off as a classic, something to consider is the age of their account and the frequency with which they post. Here are some account red flags:
-Did they only start posting art after 2022, or if they did before, did their style/skill level WILDLY change? Not gradual improvement-- I'm talking amateur graphite portraits straight into complex digital renders. Everyone starts somewhere, newness is not a red flag alone; it's newness combined with existing in a vacuum away from any community.
-Do they post fully-finished paintings several times a week? -Do many of these paintings seem iterative of a similar theme or subject matter ("three well-dressed young men face each other under shade and dappled sunlight")?
-Does their style change in inconsistent ways? An artist that can swap between painting like Drew Struzan and Hokusai should be pretty well known, right? Why is no one hyping this guy?!
-Do they have social media besides the source instagram? If so, what are they posting about? Are there any WIPs? Doodles? Interactions with other artists? Gallery dates? 3am self-doubt posts? Or is it all self-promo? Crypto? Seemingly nothing art-related at all for someone pushing out 3 weekly paintings?
Basically, if it's important to you to omit this stuff when you curate, please don't just smash reblog if the source doesn't seem to be the OP themselves. Seeking out sources was important even before this became an issue, now it is more than ever.
peace n love
Webtoon's new age rating standards say that a comic can't be rated All Ages if it includes "Fully censored profanity (e.g., #$%^) in a few episodes". Literally more restrictive than 1950s newspaper funnies!
i'm begging you guys to start pirating shit from streaming platforms. there are so many websites where you can stream that shit for free, here's a quick HOW TO:
1) Search for: watch TITLE OF WORK free online
2) Scroll to the bottom of results. Click any of the "Complaint" links
3) You will be taken to a long list of links that were removed for copyright infringement. Use the 'find' function to search for the name of the show/movie you were originally searching for. You will get something like this (specifics removed because if you love an illegal streaming site you don't post its url on social media)
4) each of these links is to a website where you can stream shit for free. go to the individual websites and search for your show/movie. you might have to copy-paste a few before you find exactly what you're looking, but the whole process only takes a minute. the speed/quality is usually the same as on netflix/whatever, and they even have subtitles! (make sure to use an adblocker though, these sites are funded by annoying popups)
In conclusion, if you do this often enough you will start recognizing the most dependable websites, and you can just bookmark those instead. (note: this is completely separate from torrenting, which is also a beautiful thing but requires different software and a vpn)
you can also download the media in question (look for a "download" button built into the video window, or use a browser extension such as Video DownloadHelper.)