Local Fandom Harpy

Please forgive my shit lighting that makes the papers appear off-white I don't care enough to further edit the images

Trying to figure out the following:

Is my blending technique off somehow?

Is one of the brands not very good?

Am I using the wrong type of paper? (All of them say they can handle alcohol marker).

Yeeeeeep! Most other mediums you can kind of work your way around with the red-yellow-blue-brown-white-black but not alcohol markers! Can only deepen saturation/color so a lights set and a darks set for beginning is crucial. If you can, picking up a light blue-pink-yellow will cover a lot, but a full lights rainbow is always nice. And then a medium purple/blue for shading with bc black is really strong with the markers. Actually if you've ever done water colors it's a very similar process aside from like. The paint part

But the main thing with building is that you lay down your base color and then work your way towards shading from there. If you want the brush strokes to show then no need to blend, but if you're going for the blended look then hitting the base color over your shading a couple times really helps get it to mesh together. Just gotta be careful you don't pick up color on the marker when doing that. Also working on marker paper/smooth mixed media paper helps a ton with bleed. I mean it'll always happen on the back but regular paper has bad issues with sideways bleeding along the fibers and watercolor paper/other painting paper soaks up too much of the marker and wears them out faster. Also no water based products (pens, etc) unless they're the last thing you're adding and the section is dry bc they'll bleed like hell. But it's a very fun medium and surprisingly easy to do I feel! I hope you're having a good time experimenting

Also what brands are you using? Copic are gold standard and blend the best but can add up, I've heard good things about Ohuhu but never used them myself, and the rest are. Meh

Yes, I've done watercolors! And water based markers. So this was like "oh duh I obviously made a mistake of COURSE I need very light colors" lmao.

In the examples above when testing blending I definitely did "light color layer first," then added the darker color, and even blended by layering over with the lighter color, and I used circular motions and I'm still like. Hm.

Could be paper, could just be practice and control, could be markers. Although I think the blended purples turned out the best and I used a blending marker also there.

So far none of the papers I've used are watercolor paper, and all of them are smooth and should be okay for mixed media, but I still feel like I got some fuzziness. Crescent Rendr is a mixed media paper that touts being no-bleed through, I've also tried a vellum multi-media (not pictured), and a Strathmore (cheap end) Bristol sketchpad. I have some nicer vellum and bristol I might test out, and another mixed media smooth paper to try.

I got Ohuhu (brush/soft chisel tip combo) and a random set "comix markers" (on sale impulse just to try, and meh!!! Meh.) I think I might like Ohuhu? I just need to figure it out a bit more, maybe. The nice thing about the Ohuhus I bought is that it comes with like a...plasticy sheet to lay under your paper to help prevent bleed through hitting the next blank page underneath in a pad/sketchbook.

I may see if I can return the comix markers. If not there's a used art supply store in Philly that will probably take them.

I mayyy also try out Arrtx for their pastel markers, because I know I've really liked their acrylic paint markers set I bought! Otoh, I know they're way more expensive. On the other, other hand, Ohuhu has two different pastel marker sets which idk how you even choose between them

Vs

Please forgive my shit lighting that makes the papers appear off-white I don't care enough to further edit the images

Trying to figure out the following:

Is my blending technique off somehow?

Is one of the brands not very good?

Am I using the wrong type of paper? (All of them say they can handle alcohol marker).

Anyway apparently Mr. Eclipse made 5000 years' worth of solar eclipse graphics, which you can find the simpler versions of here

I collaborated with the Human Artistry Project to make this strip alongside other web cartoonists to make the point that “Stealing isn’t Innovation” when it comes to A.I. usage. It seems to be doing numbers on instagram and elsewhere, so you may also read it here, tumblr.

and like my issues are now that I've looked it up:

It is *not* something I can probably take just as needed without experiencing withdrawals

Side effects includes dry mouth which I already get from adderall and frankly I worry if I don't hydrate enough constantly I'll have bad breath from the dry mouth and ALSO it says constipation

Also it says I need to tell my Dr if I have high cholesterol. which my normal cholesterol is fine!! but my aunt recently told me I need to get my Lipoprotein A cholesterol levels checked because apparently that's genetic and means a high risk of heart issues and my uncle had a heart attack requiring bypass despite being fairly young. And my dad is obviously dead so I don't know for /sure/ he had the bad genes also soooo. SO NOW IM A LITTLE WORRIED.

Also wtf it can cause a decrease in white blood cells??

I'm probably overthinking my anxiety about this but I kinda thought it was going to be an as-needed medication and the whole lipoA thing feels like I should mention it. Plus given that it's an antidepressant I don't want to start to take it without maybe scheduling a few days off work in case my body goes into full on hibernation mode while adjusting like it did when I first started taking Zoloft. When I did that I literally could barely do anything but sleep for like, a week.

JUST!!! AUGGGGHH. I'm going to try to be better about taking melatonin gummies for a week or something and maybe message the doc about this instead of starting it tonight. I feel like I manage my anxiety fairly well MOST of the time, but new medication roulette still makes me anxious lmfao.

In this guys defense he did ask if I wanted a guide to sleep hygiene or to try a medication, and like. I know all about sleep hygiene I just suck at following through lmao. And he was originally going to prescribe me something else entirely, which I might bring up next month. Remeron *does* get off labeled for insomnia from what I've seen looking it up, so I get the logic...the papers that come with the meds say the adverse side effect of "somnolence" impacted 54% of people lmao. and the reason why he switched what he was going to prescribe is because I am a) underweight and b) struggle to gain weight.

So like he went "oh hey remeron is prescribed for sleep sometimes and common side effects include increased appetite and weight gain." And I was like oh that would be helpful too.

And I would've asked wayyy more questions except this was during the work day and the appointment had already felt like it had gone on for awhile longer than I expected and frankly after having to pee in a cup and answer twenty bazillion questions from various checklists about my mental health, I was kinda just ready to leave lmao.

I do also have anxiety/depression but I think my sertraline works fine for that most of the time sooo...I think I'm gonna talk about this next month like heyyyy I'm concerned about this one actually. Like it probably will help me fall asleep! But also, if it acts like Zoloft did for me, I will be sleeping non stop for like a week. Not worth it to me. I could just like... take some antihistamines at night or something idk. A zzzquil. Melatonin does! work! I just forget! To take it!! So. Ehhhh.

Gold earring with glass head pendant, Phoenician/Carthaginian, 3rd-1st century BC

I'm gonna look it up later at home to prepare for any side effects but I hope it goes well and works