I have no pity to spare for thee...

Hiiii remember when you sent me this request 10,000 years ago? I started on it a long time ago and I forgot to finish and post it. 😅 But here it is! Finished and posted! Also thank you for the compliment <3

The girls went to a cafe and found a drink they both really like but it's wayyyy overpriced so here they are using Crystal's Mind Powers™ to figure out the recipe so they can make it themselves. :) (Could Crystal afford to pay for their drinks everyday? Definitely. But screw those big corporations! It's about the principle of the thing, ya know?)

And there was a second person who asked for Niko and Crystal, for some reason I can't find that ask but whoever you are this is for you also!!

Pat Perry, Craigslist Still Life 03, 2022

Bounce light is something I didn't cover but I adore it!

Gamut Mask

(image via )

James Gurney is an absolute master and gives really good clarity on colour techniques. Yes, it is traditional paint focused, but the principles are the same. Yes it is informed by the environmental colour but as a painting technique it is achieved this way!

While it's not super important to know about the mathematical side of blend modes, I think it's worth knowing at least enough about how each of the categories of blend modes works and why they do what they do; if for no other reason than having a starting point when you start experimenting with them in your work.

An overview of the basic blend modes and how they work from Genevieve's Design Studio: Accessible with minimal color knowledge; practical and illustration focused. https://youtu.be/kMc87hQrJd0?si=TWCB365pKSfWS8p0. (16 minutes) This creator also has a ton of free resources you can download, including a Blend Modes cheatsheet, but fair warning: you have to create an account to get them!

"What’s the point of supporting gay rights but nobody else’s rights. You know? Or - workers’ rights but not Women’s rights - it’s - I don’t know - illogical."

"There’s a lodge banner down in the welfare. We bring it out for special occasions. It’s a hundred years old. I’ll show it to you one day. It’s a symbol like this -

Two hands.

And then he said, “The important thing is to find something you feel good about doing.”

That phrasing struck me. “Something you feel good about doing”. Most people would have phrased it as “something you enjoy doing”. Or “something you’re good at doing”. But Mr. Rogers’ subtly different phrasing leads to a profoundly different connotation. “Something you feel good about doing” may not be enjoyable–people who work in hospitals or in disaster zones might not enjoy much of their day, but they probably feel good about helping people. “Something you feel good about doing“ may not be something you’re particularly good at–you may be a terrible artist by any objective standard, but if you feel good about making your art, then it’s a worthwhile endeavor. Looking for “something you feel good about doing” can help you find a truly satisfying life path.

People go off about transphobes not knowing any better because they're 'old' and today my 90 year old Grandad gifted me one of his fancy suit jackets, complimented my terrible beard, and continued his extremely wholesome habit of calling me "sonny me lad".

So. Yeah.

I spent years terrified of coming out to him because he was in his 80's at the time so I wrote him a letter like "I'm a man, Gramps" and he was so proud he showed the letter to his neighbors and phoned me and opened with "So how's my Grandson?" and has never got a pronoun wrong.

Eventually I worked up the nerve to visit them, mainly to see and console my grandfather, but also because I couldn't bear the thought of losing all of my family because of who I was. I hadn't intended to come out, but when my grandfather asked me about the rift between my parents and me I ended up sitting down and crying as I came out to my grandfather, my great aunt and two of my second cousins.

My grandfather is definitely very neurodivergent and didn't seem to entirely grasp the concept of me being transgender, but he still told me encouragingly that it was not his job to tell me what I should do with my body, and that he was proud of me. My cousins both held me and told me they thought I was brave and would support me no matter what.

But I will never forget what my 92 year old, very southern, very religious great aunt said to me that day. She took my hand and called me by name, as I wept, before she leaned over to me knowledgeably and went, "There were some people I knew as a girl who were- they were born girls, but in their hearts they were really boys. And you could tell from the way they moved and acted… but their families wanted them to be girls. But I have always known people like you, and they were made that way because God wanted them to be that way and be true to themselves.

"I have loved you since the moment I saw you and I will still love you! You are becoming who you are, and that's good, because God made you that way! You are happy and I am happy! I am glad to have a nephew! I love you!"

say it with me: "thank you yuyu for posting bts videos on tik tok!"

In the afterlife, let's still be brothers, okay?

It is important to consider the culture of the person who created the piece, absolutely; but the different perspectives offered by the viewers is fascinating in and of itself and does not always detract from the message.

As an example, when I was younger, I watched Schindler's List. This movie is famously shot in black and white except for one section, concerning a little girl in a red coat. The camera follows her until her eventual death.

I am Turtle Island Indigenous and I was always taught that the only color spirits could see was red, because it is the color of life and blood.

So the second the girl in the red jacket came on screen, something inside me chilled with fear.

The only color in the movie was that red. At some point, I, the viewer, had died.

I remember sobbing at the sight of the burning human piles that were shown, convinced I was buried in there somewhere. The reason I had only seen red on the girl was that my death was recent. I was the ash in the air mistaken for snow. I had died before her and had followed her, helplessly, until she followed me.

The message I got for that was maybe not what the creator had intended: that there was no "being clever enough" or "good enough" or "kind enough" that would shield or protect you from such a massive tidal wave of evil.

You are not exempt from tragedy, that red jacket whispered. You are not special.

When I told some of my white friends about my experience with viewing Schindler's List, some were shocked and the rest just out-and-out mocked me for my "media illiteracy".

"it was just a filming trick to make you feel something," I remember one saying, which terrified me. How had he not felt anything even before she showed up?

This is not the same as having an eating disorder. But it is a warning sign for developing one, and carries its own negative health effects.

It's not disordered to look at your diet and decide you'd like to drink more water, which then naturally results in you drinking less soda.

It is disordered to become obsessive about soda and feel extremely stressed at the thought of ever drinking one because of the calorie content.

There are many fitness practices that for some people, some of the time, will result in weight loss, but you don't control if it happens to you.

Because the truth no one wants to acknowledge is that losing weight isn't inherently healthy.

Gaining weight isn't inherently unhealthy.

And as you incorporate more fitness habits into your life, like movement, improved nutrition, better hydration, better rest, etc. your weight will likely regulate to your body's set weight.

Set weight is still a theory (though a well supported one) but the likelihood is your body has a genetically programmed optimum weight range. And while maintaining healthful habits you can likely toggle it to either end of your natural range, but the thinness that society idolizes is not in everybody's natural range.

Which means with fitness some people will lose weight. And some people will gain weight. Some people's weights won't change much at all.

Some people who are currently living in thin bodies may discover that they are actually healthier in fatter bodies.

Which is why weight loss centric mentalities often lead towards disordered behaviors.