DawnAkemiHikari

What’s a mob to a king?

What’s a king to a god?

What is a god…

This beloved Cartoon series

started as this webcomic

This best seller Manga

and critically acclaimed hit animated series

started out as this webcomic

And this best seller novel

And award winning blockbuster movie

started out as a serialized free story on somebody’s website.

Keep pet me

This always makes me happy, because the source video shows that the shark actually wanted this. It experienced it once and then kept coming back for more petting.

(also, because i’ve seen comments about this: the shark is able to breathe while still, not all species need to be in motion to pass water through their gills. If you look closely, you can see its gills pumping)

I would very much like if more people would pet sharks and be good to them instead of trying to hurt them please

Sharks are very lovely and should get pettings like these more :)

MythBusters did an episode on how to survive a shark attack and a shark’s nose is so sensitive that a gentle tap is all you need to drive it away. The guy sat on the ocean floor with a bucket of chum and didn’t get attacked once, when hungry sharks swam up he’d give them a boop on the nose and they’d swim away. So if the shark is friendly, pet the snoot. If the shark is dangerous, boop the snoot. Either way, no one dies. 

Boop the snoot

Are you tired of feeling like your art just isn’t improving? Do you want to do a 30-day challenge that’s actually useful? Welcome to 30 Days of Improvement Hell. >:D

I made this because I’ve been feeling super ‘blah’ about my art these days, and I needed something to kick-start myself. Who wants to do this with me!? Start now or whenever you can (now you procrastinators!). Challenge yourself and have fun at the same time!

Tag your posts with #Improvement Hell so everyone can follow along and see each other’s awesome artwork. I may even create a blog and reblog them! :D

What are you waiting for? START!

Self-Portrait - Introduce yourself

Draw a figure using a reference - link to reference

Draw a figure that’s in action, using a reference - link to reference

Draw a part of the human anatomy you have trouble with. x20, with atleast 5 being skeletal/musculature studies.

Draw more figures. Quick gestures and silhouettes. x20, with atleast 10 different body shapes

Let’s have some fun. Design a character from either This or This character generator! Be creative and bring something to life!

Pick the weirdest object in your house/room. Draw it. Shadows and Highlights.

Find 2-3 objects, make a scene with them. Draw it. Bonus points for creativity. Double points for dramatic lighting.

Draw a landscape of a place you’ve never been or drawn.

Draw a BG with 1pt Perspective. Negative points if it’s a railroad or an empty street.

Draw a BG with 2pt Perspective.

Look out a window. Draw what you see. Bonus points for adding something interesting.

Draw an interior setting with the character you designed on Day #6 in it.

BG with either bird’s eye or worm’s eye view.

Halfway there! Draw three ‘action’ scenes with different compositions in each. Quick sketches are fine, just make them interesting and understandable! Bonus points if it’s the same scene, but different composition.

Draw a single page comic with 5-7 panels (the story begins and ends on one page). 

Draw an animal you’ve never drawn before. x10  Link references.

Draw a car. Negative points for whining. Hint: Use a perspective grid.

Think of the thing you hate drawing the most. Guess what? Draw it! Negative points for lying to yourself.

Pick an object in your house/room. Now design a character from it, using the shapes, forms, textures, purpose and colors as inspiration. Also link/post the object you used. Negative points for using a humanoid action figure.

Draw a character/object/scene, and shade them using ONLY solid blacks and whites. Bonus points for good use of lights/shadows

Draw a different object/scene/character. Shade using hatching, crosshatcing, and/or pointillism. Bonus points for lights/shadows and textures.

Colors! Pick a color palette, and paint a scene/character/object using only those colors (some blending allowed). Bonus points for good use of lights/shadows.

Draw and color a scene/object/character - no lines allowed! (aka - lineless art). Don’t forget light and shadows!

Draw a scene/character in a style you’ve never drawn before. If emulating an artist, credit+link. Bonus for color style.

Draw a character. Draw 10 emotions/expressions. Bonus points for ‘uncommon’ emotions. (i.e. anxiety, guilt, despair, loneliness etc.)

Draw three random shapes using your opposite hand (or your foot). Now design characters from those shapes.

Turn on the tv (or load your illegally downloaded movies). Pick an actor and draw them.

Almost done! Let’s have some fun. Draw some fanart. Bonus points if it’s super obscure and unknown. Make people guess what it’s from.

Last day! Find a drawing you did within the last year. Now draw it again using what you’ve learned! Link it for comparison!

 Look at all that amazing improvement! Congrats!

an offering of friendship !!

Protester in Baltimore trying to avoid violence

I meant to write this a few weeks ago when I saw a sudden resurgence of antipathy between the Korrasmi and Makorra fandoms.  There was “All Makorra shippers are homophobes” accusations from some members of the Korrasami fandom, and there was outright homophobia from some members of the Makorra fandom, and it was generally unpleasant.  I even got about halfway through this post then, but I figured it wouldn’t have been the right time and I wasn’t sure if I even had the right to comment on this (Generally speaking, the straight male doesn’t get to judge what is or isn’t offensive treatment revolving around a relationship between two women).  However….

As the post title says, simply not liking the Korrasami relationship or the ending to The Legend of Korra does not necessarily make you a homophobe.  There are a thousand different reasons not to like the ship or finale, as there are with every single TV show and romantic couple that has ever been written.  Maybe you have a different ship preference.  It could be you ship Korra & Opal (I could easily see the connection there with their mirrored development; Korra becomes more patient and understanding as Opal became more assertive and self-confident), or Korra & Bolin given how they had such a warm and constant friendship (If I didn’t ship Korrasami I would have definitely been in the Borra fandom), or even–yes–Makorra.  Maybe you don’t have any shipping preference and you wanted Korra to end the series not in a relationship at all, to show that a woman doesn’t have to be in a relationship.  Maybe you do ship Korrasami after all, but you dislike the execution in the series proper.

Not liking something doesn’t mean you hate what it represents.  We in the Korrasami fandom can’t just dismiss every criticism or remark from the Makorra fandom as homophobic just because their ship is m/f.

However, dismissing Korrasami–saying that they’re not together at the close of the finale, that it doesn’t “count”, that it’s not “real”–is homophobic.  Whether or not you like what happened, it did happen.  It was clear enough in the show itself, and was then explicitly confirmed by the creators.  To say that it didn’t happen at all is erasure.  Saying their romantic overtures are just “friendship” relegates all wlw relationships to just friendship, of less depth and seriousness than m/f relationships.  Saying that it doesn’t count because there was nothing explicitly sexual about it–even tame sexuality as appropriate to a kid’s show like kissing–reduces all wlw relationships to merely being physical instead of emotional.  If you reject its very existence, and all that it represents and means to the fandom, then yes, you are a homophobe.

This doesn’t mean that you can’t still ship Makorra, or write fanfic or change the ending.  I’ve seen Korrasami fanfic that re-wrote the series back to the first season to get them together then, even at points when Asami or Korra were honestly with Mako.  That is the very essence of fanfic, re-writing what happened to give you what you wanted, but you need to recognize that you are changing what happened.  If you want to write a post-finale canon continuation of the series that has Makorra at its center, then you need to explain how Korra and Asami broke up, because in canon they ended the series as a couple (And you need be careful here in general to make sure that you breaking them up doesn’t delve into homophobia all on its own).  If you want to make Korra & Asami never a couple at all then you need to re-write the ending of the series (And probably longer before that) so that they never got to the point where they got together.  Just writing “And the two friends came back from the Spirit World just as they had left–as friends–and Korra started dating Mako again” doesn’t cut it.  That’s you taking what is a canon wlw relationship and saying “No, canonically it’s not that way”, and that is homophobic.  That’s erasure, dismissal and reduction all rolled into one.

cis/het: why do you care so much? are you like gay or something??

me: