The Ink-Well

feeling extremely lustful about this house

@galacticnightsky123 (New post to stop them getting long)

I'd say for high fantasy, one key component is a priori worldbuilding and design. Even when taking inspiration from other countries, the priority should be making it suit your own world. Taking inspiration from multiple countries at once rather than making it "fantasy France" is already a better start so long as you're intentional about it

One key flaw of orientalist designs, for example, is that the designs don't make sense. If you're not thinking when you combine India, the Sahara, and Albania, you're going to be combining clothing suited for very different climates

If a character will be living in a sandy desert, why would they be exposing themselves and wearing metal on their bare skin? If a character is in a hot, dry place, why would they be wearing fur cloaks? If a character is modest, why would all their clothes be transparent, etc.

Another key is synthesis: less mix and matching disparate elements and try instead to merge and alter them

As an example, I was trying to combine Cambodian and medieval French inspirations for these fantasy designs below:

I came at it from the concept of using classic European silhouettes, but with SEAsian materials and aesthetics (well, mostly SEAsia and some Melanasia as the two characters have different origins)

Then I added fantastical elements by exaggerating the shapes and colours, inspired by the bright/pastel and gold colours of magical girls

At the end of the day, you can do a lot with fantasy (it's not like most European fantasy is accurate to history) but you want to at least reference something real before making changes, rather than going off what you think something looks like, or you're more likely to fall into stereotypes. You won't always be perfect but trying will usually result in something more interesting than the default

In terms of reference: I recommend either real photos, museum pieces, or art that originates from the culture you're referencing (second-hand art might not be accurate)

In terms of avoiding orientalism: Most things you google will be better if they're from Arab authors, but there's plenty of advice online. I don't have any specific recommendations other than this video by Yousef AbdulHusain kickstarted a lot of my investigation into it (he also does plenty of other videos on Arab stereotypes in media)

And this video by Farya Faraji isn't about clothing but it's a great dissection of just how omnipresent orientalism is and how easy it is to misunderstand culture based on how it looks in media

Some lesser seen rodents... & non-rodents

Striped grass mice (x3), lowland streaked tenrec, Luzon cloud rat, Paca, Eurasian hamster, European hedgehog

My sister took more photos of my dress. I am very happy with how this turned out :)))))

As a former music teacher, I can also say that "learn the fundamentals first" is the death knell for a vast percentage of beginners, especially adult learners.

I've run into this with drawing several times, where some well-meaning artist has lectured me on needing to study anatomy properly or not use shortcuts like CSP brushes. And oh, believe me, I know. I know exactly how to learn an artistic discipline in a structured way. I just...don't want to!

The thing is, I'm not aiming to be a professional artist. I want to draw my gay little anime guys. I would undoubtedly improve at art much faster if I approached every gay little anime guy drawing as a study exercise. But I would also have quit drawing a decade ago if I couldn't just let myself enjoy drawing imperfect fucked-up little guys with whatever shortcuts I needed to body myself across the finish line.

With my adult piano students, my approach was always "What's your goal?" If their goal was to learn exactly one Elton John songbook to play at parties, then...that's what we did. We'd put tape on the keys to label the notes, and just fuckin go for it. Learning exactly one Elton John songbook is a good and noble musical goal, full stop.

Some of my students needed and enjoyed a more structured approach to learning; if they wanted to be able to play classical music, then yes, scales were going to have to enter the equation at some point. And yet others would learn the Elton John songbook, catch their white whale, and realize they wanted to explore more of the ocean. The scales were still there for them to learn!

Often the choice isn't between "learn art well" and "learn art imperfectly" - the choice is between "learn art imperfectly" and "don't do art at all." To which I say, learn imperfectly! Or, what the hell, don't 'learn' art. Just do, and enjoy the doing of it.