The sky is full of wishes

THIS SHOW IS SO PURE!

Of course I had to show the best part:

Legends of Tomorrow desperately writing around John Constantine’s chain smoking.

You cant deny this wasnt exactly how his appearance on LoT went ok

I’m an Athiest! I’m an Athiest! *cries out in jubulation* That was hot as fuck, especially considering I’m about to start writing round two of an OC x Dean divergence that really came outta left field and knocked me for six. Goddamnit, Jensen Ackles is a fucking pornstar and those intense, sexual gifs have murdered my vagina and THEN SOME! Saving for later…research… and I desperately need a Sam and Castiel version soon so fling a sister a link!

Hot damn!

@phenomenalchick @theworldiscolorful @babypieandwhiskey @mamaredd123 @atc74

on a hiatus to prep for fanime, but needed to get this out of my system

I don’t really know what people generally call this method of sigil making, so I’m just calling it “Letter Shaping” because you’re using the basic shapes from certain letters. This is the most common form of sigil making, and it allows the most creative influence. As you see above the sigils are for nearly the same thing, yet the sigils came out completely different. Not because the purpose was different, but because I approached them both a different creative way, and that’s what I like so much about this method. There’s a lot of freedom and personalization involved.

No matter how many tips you get or lectures you listen to, there’s always still going to be the challenge of actually doing the art itself. Many of us who have tried to dive head first into realism all were met with the frustrating struggle to make the anatomy look actually correct.

There’s no one method that is perfect in learning how to improve your anatomy and/or realism, everyone has their different methods and really what you need is to maybe try various methods more such as gesture drawing and still life drawing and life drawing.

Gesture drawing will seem frustrating cause it will never look anatomically correct, but that’s kinda the point? You are trying to grasp the concept of the figure to learn and study much more organic poses, people in motion, and loosen your hand as a warm up before getting into the finely built anatomy.

Now, as for life drawing… If you are given the opportunity to go to an actual, in real life, class/meetup where you will set up a sketch pad and then have a model sat somewhere in front of you to draw from, I would highly recommend doing it! There’s something very interesting I feel that happens when we draw from real life as opposed to photos and flat images. If you have no other choice, then it’s a fine option to take as you can really study the anatomy of a person in a photo! But to even draw a still life as simple as stuff on your desk or in your bedroom is good for helping improve that technical skill and your observation of what is there out in front of you.

My last major tip in improving your arm’s ability to draw the thing that is sitting right in front of you is to: keep drawing while you are looking at it. My art teacher in high school taught me the importance of this, and yes, it will come out wonky too, but you are basically trying to train your hand to be able to follow the contour of what it is you see out in front of you. The idea is that you’re actually drawing what you see, not taking a glance up, then looking back down and drawing what you think you saw.

I want to recommend this video, but the title is a little off putting and the presenter can be pretty harsh. However, there are many helpful points that really ultimately could benefit all of us and just know that you’re not the first (nor last) person to struggle with this.

“Why Your Drawings Suck” by Istebrak

In conclusion, you’re doing great with just practicing and keeping many of the pointers in mind when drawing. It can be helpful for you to keep all these things in mind as you draw, but also go a little easy on yourself. Don’t over stress about it, just try your best and don’t forget to have a little fun between all the practicing. It’s important you still can enjoy art by the end of the day and should not feel pressured by it. Overtime, you’ll learn the disciplines, you’ll develop a better flow and all this information will slowly become second nature to you as you improve and employ the concepts more into your art!

(Just a tool that might help clean up your writing and create a faster paced reading experience.)

Removing excess words. If you don’t need particular words, why keep them?

Another crashing wave sends me into a sprawl, and I’m forced to use my tides a few more times to distance myself from the rocks.

I should drop down as deep[er] as I can manage [and] use the reef for cover.

I can’t tear my eyes away until he disappears fully from view.

A burst of lightning shows the outline[s] of the cliff side.

A loud thud from the port window makes me jump, drawing my full attention. -> I jump at a loud thud from the port window.

Showing instead of telling. Making the reader feel what the protagonist feels is almost always better than telling them the protagonist is undergoing something.

I can’t believe the sight I see. ->  My lungs catch painfully, a shocked squeak rising out.

Everything is slick and wet. -> The slick metal offers no hold for my wet hands. I clench my fingers until the ridges bite into my scales, shark teeth holding me in place. Agonizing.

Removing passive voice. Active voice is more engaging and should be always be used unless you have a specific reason not to use it for that sentence.

The rock is a muddled, dark brown, and I almost miss him amid the lofty coastline. -> I almost miss him against the muddled, dark brown rock, his body tiny amid the lofty coastline.

Her voice is strained and furious. -> Fury strains her voice.

The wound is closed again, but before it closed, enough blood seeped out that I now feel woozy and off kilter. -> The wound closed while I slept, but enough blood seeped out that my head still spin, my limbs heavy.

Hello Anon, 

First, I’m honored you speak of me that way. Thank you for saying that. ❤️ 

I have 5 thoughts to your question. 

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1)      When you tell me of your experience, I believe you.

The stories and experiences I hear from my transgender, non-binary and genderfluid friends are remarkably similar and corroborate each other’s. Science supports that there are actual, measurable differences which confirms you have a different reality from much of the population. To dismiss how you describe your experience is to deny science and truth of your reality. 

When I was a child and teenager, the things the church leaders said about gay people did not match what I was going through. It was so confusing for me and took time for me to be able to say that they were wrong. Do you know the song “This is Me” from The Greatest Showman? That’s you and me, we are who we’re meant to be, and we have to declare our reality and affirm ourselves. 

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2)      The emphasis that “gender is eternal,” is a way of dismissing the reality and concerns of us who are not cishet.

The Family Proclamation and the Church (and Elder Oaks) use that phrase to mean 3 things. It’s used as a synonym for biological sex. It’s used to refer to an idea that men and women should have identities that correspond to our physical bodies, including heterosexual desires. And Church leaders use gender to mean roles and responsibilities or purposes, and that some are assigned to men and some to women.  

In the scriptures, “eternal” is not used to mean “forever” but means “of god” or “from god.” Eternal is one of the names used to refer to God. Think of the verse that says the purpose of God is to give humans “immortality and eternal life.” Immortality means we won’t die, that we’ll live forever. Eternal life is different, it means to live in God’s presence or have a God-like life. 

When they say “gender is eternal,” I agree wholeheartedly, just not in the way they mean it. Our gender is from God. Your Heavenly Parents had a hand in your creation. Our sexual orientation is eternal! Being cis, trans, non-binary or genderfluid is eternal! 

Given that our Heavenly Parents give good gifts, we’re not setup to fail or doomed to be lesser, that would not be fair or just or loving. We’re in God’s Plan, just not the Church’s version of God’s Plan. 

Last month I had the opportunity to meet with a general authority. He commented that being gay is not part of God’s Plan as the church understands it, “and yet, here you are.” The same applies to you. The church doesn’t understand how being genderfluid fits in The Plan, “and yet, here you are.”

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3)      In religion we use the language of certainty when it’s really an area of uncertainty.

When I stop to think of it, this is an odd practice. Of all the fields, religion is one where there’s much dispute, many differences, not a unity in belief or practice, difficult or impossible to test and prove, and yet all religions speak as if they’re absolutely correct to the exclusion of others. 

Even the short history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints shows that we’ve gotten things wrong, some tragically wrong, and changes were necessary to the doctrine and teachings, policies and practices. More changes will come, after all, we claim to be a church of revelation.

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4)      We’re each entitled to revelation for ourselves.

When God told me I’m not broken while sending waves of love radiating across my body, it contradicted what was taught by the Church at that time. It was a blessing and huge help to me to know what God really thought of me. Eventually the Church caught up, at least in part, it still has a ways to go to be true to the answer that God sent me. 

I don’t know why a church which claims to be God’s church doesn’t seem to have room for the great diversity of God’s children. Change is necessary.

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5)      Elder Oaks has a terrible record on LGBT topics and people.

Excuse me if I don’t trust Elder Oaks on these topics. When he was president of Brigham Young University, a system of surveillance was set up to ensnare homosexual students. 

He also established the Institute for Studies in Values and Human Behavior which was dedicated to finding evidence to support the Church’s views on homosexuality. The Institute worked hard to refute arguments put forth in The Payne Papers. After a few years, the Institute was disbanded as evidence mounted that homosexuality was not a choice and was not able to be cured.

He has dismissed scientific findings that gays and lesbians were “born that way.” He’s compared homosexuality to physical or mental disabilities and teaches that same-sex attraction did not exist in pre-earth life and will not exist in the next life. He’s lamented the public acceptance of same-sex marriage. He’s even suggested that parents of a gay child should not allow them and their partner to stay overnight, and to also refuse to go out in public and be seen with them. How is this loving and Christlike?

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At General Conference, I think about if Jesus were here, which talk could I imagine Him giving. Would He give an address about devotion to the rules and excluding others or would His focus be a message of love?