#FlirtingWithDisaster

Unreachable

Wandering mind, full of creation

Meandering lines, lost in elation 

Each stroke, I broke a little inside

Each fate, I hate. My will defied

I painted this in Feb 2022 about what it's like to be an artist with repetitive strain injury. In 2008, When I was 18, I made my first comic titled 1000 Words, it was about an artist helping a little girl with a broken family similar to my own. It received such positive feedback that I changed my Environmental Science major at UCBerkeley to Art major. Ever since then, my goal has been to tell stories with my art. Stories that are important to me. My next comic, Knite, was about a boy who wants to put the stars back into the polluted skies of China, my homeland. The comic after that, Fisheye Placebo, is a cyberpunk story about living in the age of technology, about fighting censorship and propaganda.

Unfortunately, I never got to finish Knite nor Fisheye Placebo. By the time I was 24, I was drawing day and night with no regards to my health. Not only did I get repetitive strain injury in my drawing hand, but my entire health suffered. My roommates had to rush me to the ER after fainting one night. I remember looking at my swollen right hand, my fingers like sausages, not even able to hold a pen, and just cry.

I've gone to the doctors and physical therapists. One told me I have Lupus (I do not), and another told me to put ice on it. More recently, I met a friend who happens to an amazing physical therapist and he was able to help me regain a lot of use of my hand. At my worst, I could only draw an hour a week, but now I am able to draw 2 hours a day. My hand is unlikely to fully heal, but I'm so grateful to regain what I have.

First, I want to address the rumors that I used AI to paint A Thousand Skies. Here is a condensed version of the 10 part video recording of how I painted everything. I normally reserve the full hours long video recordings for my patrons but here they are in case there is still any doubt https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1d-3hxjZWROiZPaI8XeU93cKBBKB1Gz9Z?usp=drive_link

All of my past paintings have full video recordings for my Patrons, going back to 2018 when I first got a Patreon.

Long time followers will also know that I care deeply about the environment, not only in the themes of my art but also in my actions to the best of my ability and knowledge. So much so that every year since 2016, I’ve donated 100% of my Black Friday sales to environmental charities, and you can see all the receipts of the organizations I donated to here https://www.yuumeiart.com/blog 

I realized a comment I’ve made at 2am and while sleep deprived was confusing. I want to clear up the misunderstandings from yesterday's post where I said AI isn’t that bad for the environment. I thought I was specifically answering the question of how much energy it takes to generate 1 AI image on my own computer without any servers, but I realize now that people were talking about how much energy it takes to train AIs by big companies. This was not what I was trying to refer to in my comment, but I recognize it is one of many legitimate concerns with the way current generative AI is developed.

I want to reiterate that I did use AI for a gag scene in my comic—the character, Vance, was objectifying women by seeing them as anime cat girls and pasting them over AI backgrounds. I thought that such a character having AI goggles was making a point. I recognize that regardless of the context, the use of AI carries other ramifications. I will be taking all of this into consideration with my future artwork.

Tagalog

ft. Manfred

Friends, sharing this GoFundMe link for my Tita, Janilyn Tesoro, who started to have pneumonia then got an operation on her intestine.

On January 28, 2024, Tita was rushed to the hospital due to a severe cough, only to discover that she was also suffering from excruciating stomach pain, leading to her extended hospitalization.

Her deteriorating condition necessitated admission to the intensive care unit and an urgent surgical procedure to prevent further complications stemming from a bloated stomach, caused by her immobile intestines and unyielding blood pressure.

As of now, the hospital has closed her account, and all ongoing medications must be purchased upfront. Their family's savings, HMO and insurance have been entirely depleted, leaving them unable to meet the escalating costs of her medical care. We earnestly appeal to your generosity in the hope of securing the funds required to sustain her treatment.

We extend our heartfelt gratitude in advance for any support you can provide.

Any amount will help her family specially on this extremely challenging time.

You can directly made the donations on the shared link or you can message me directly.

we have tendou satori, who after playing volleyball probably thought he wouldn’t ever find a niche or a place where he was valued ever again (“goodbye, my paradise”). after they lost to karasuno he tells ushiwaka that he’s happy to be interviewed as his best friend when ushi gets his own tv special. he’s perfectly happy playing the supporting role in ushi’s story, even from the sidelines where he can’t be /useful/ anymore.

he devotes himself to ushi (if you wanna beat wakatoshi-kun, you gotta get through me first”) , probably assuming that’s all he’ll be known for. and then chapter 401 opens with tendou as a famous chocolatier in paris who is beloved to the point that he gets his OWN tv special, where ushi is interviewed as HIS best friend. am i the only one who thinks about this constantly???