to the stars who listen

Morrigan = Bubbles💙

Feyre = Blossom❤️

Amren = Buttercup💚

(this is meant in a loving way, u guys are the best!) [KoA spoilers]

So, basically, this is not my cat. 

But she’s all like chillin’ in my bed like she pays rent or smth.

Feyre: The stars are so pretty tonight!

Rhys: You know what else is pretty?

Feyre: * blushes *

I’ve been getting quite a few asks about the process for the patterns in my stylized artworks, so I decided to put together a couple of tips regarding them. 

Firstly, what you need are

—  CUSTOM BRUSHES  —

Most of the patterns I use are custom brushes I made, such as those:

For the longest time I was convinced making brushes must be super extra complicated. I was super extra wrong. All you need to start is a transparent canvas (2500px x 2500px max):

This will be your brush tip. When you’re satisfied how it looks, click Ctrl+A to select the whole canvas and go to ‘define brush preset’ under the edit menu

You will be asked to name your new glorious creation. Choose something that describes it well, so you can easily find it between all the ‘asfsfgdgd’ brushes you’ve created to be only used once

This is it. Look at it, you have just created a photoshop brush. First time i did I felt like I was cheated my whole life. IT’S SO EASY WHY HASN’T ANYONE TOLD ME 

Time to edit the Good Boi to be more random, so it can be used as a Cool Fancy Pattern. Go into brush settings and change whatever you’d like. Here’s a list of what I do for patterns:

- under Shape Dynamics, I increase Size Jitter and Angle jitter by 5%-15% 

- under Brush Tip Shape, I increase spacing by a shitload. Sometimes it’s like 150%, the point is to get the initial brush tip we painted to be visible.

- If I want it to look random and noisy, I enable the Dual Brush option, which acts like another brush was put on top of the one we’ve created. You can adjust all of the Dual Brush options (Size, Spacing, Scatter, Count) as you wish to get a very nice random brush to smear on your  backgrounds

The result is as above. You can follow the same steps to create whatever brush you need: evenly spaced dots that look like you painted them by hand, geometric pattern to fill the background, a line of perfectly drawn XDs and so on. 

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE

—  PATHS  —

But what if you want to get lots of circles made of tiny dots? Or you need rows of triangles for your cool background? Photoshop can do all of that for you, thanks to the magic of paths.

Typically, paths window can be found right next to Layers:

Draw whatever path you want, the Shape Tool has quite a bit of options. Remember, paths are completely different from brush strokes and they won’t show up in the navigator. To move a path around, click A to enable path selection tool. You can use Ctrl+T to transform it, and if you move a path while pressing Alt it will be duplicated.

Now, pick a brush you wish really was in place of that path you’ve drawn and go to layers, then choose the layer you want it to be drawn on. Then, click this tiny circle under the Paths window:

Then witness the magic of photoshop doing the drawing for you while you wonder how tf have you managed to forget about this option for the past 2 years 

You can combine special brushes and paths for all sorts of cool effects. I mostly use them in backgrounds for my cards, but you can do whatever you want with them.

Hey so, I decided to do another masterpost. This time on exams. Some tips for studying at the very last minute if you are like me, disclaimer: I am not in any way supporting cramming but this is just to help you through if you are left with no choice other than cramming.

Cramming

Cramming tips that actually work by @optomstudies

The night before the exam

What to do the night before an exam by @beautifullearning

The night before your exam by @tiny-personal-university-thing

The night before exam and I didn’t study guide by @renaistudying

The night before test and I haven’t started studying by @getstudyblr

Revision methods

Revision methods that actually work by @alimastudies

The 5 Best Revision Methods by @bstudies

Study tips

More unconventional study tips by @minimaliststudy

A stash of tiny study tips by @justestjarchives

College study tips that actually help by @samsstudygram

Five tips for study marathons by @booksavolonte

General study tips by @plantednotes

More study tips

My study tips by @anatomyandcappuccini

My study tips

Personal study tips

Quickfire study tips by @annabaestudying

Quick study tip by @studyspiratiom-coffee

Rare study tips by @studybllog

Scientifically proven study tips by @swankiegrades

Secret study tips I wish someone would have told me by @fearlessroadtomd

Some rare study tips by @organisedorgana

Top 5 study tips by @studyign

Weird study tip by @artemissstudies

101 study tips by @study-early

Study tips by @howtohighschool

Study tips from someone who has already been there by @haylstudies

Study tips straight from my professor by @just-refuse-to-be-stopped

Study tips that helped me get back on my feet by @sillydaisies

Study tips that aren’t bullshit by @thebitchwhomadeit

Tips for effective study by @kimtented

How I write revision summaries by @athenastudying

Ways to study for exams that are actually productive

10 mistakes when studying by @howtostudyquick

Memorising information

How to memorise information by @monetstudy

How to memorise information faster by @qxzu

Memorization tips by @aescademic

Memorization tips by @determinationandcaffeine

Memorization tips by @studyquill

Exam tips

How to cope with exams by @uk-studying

How to revise for exams by @a-pro-s-studyblr

Studying for exams by @orangeblossomstudies

Tips for doing well on your exams by @aboysstudyblr

Tips for doing well on your exams by @thepeachystudies

Exam tips by @studywithmaggie

Exam guides

Finals: study guide for the brave by @educatier

Pennyfynotes guide to exam season by @pennyfynotes

Quick guide to doing the finals by @inkskinned

Test taking tips

How I revise for exams + tests

How to study for a test by @tbhstudying

My test taking tips by @55studies

Test taking tips

Exam preparation

How to make a stress free exam plan by @marias-studyblr

How to mentally prep yourself for a test by @eruditicn

Procrastination

How to beat procrastination by @eintsein

Types of procrastination and how to deal with them by @emmastudies

Time management

Time management by @academiceve

Time management tips for busy students

Motivation

My motivation tag

Other masterposts by me

Notetaking masterpost

College advice masterpost

Apps for students masterpost

Here are some compiled highlights from SJM’s KoA tour in Chicago, October 25, 2018.

Sarah was vacationing in Costa Rica, about five years ago, when the last line of the entire ToG series popped into her head. It made it through the cuts and it is now the last line of KoA.

Lysandra was not supposed to be a main character, BUT she was driving with her husband when she saw in her head Lysandra shifting and turning into a giant ghost leopard and ripping some man’s head off. Then she had to include her more.

Sarah is super heavily inspired by music. Each character has a theme song.

Aedion is such a fanboy over Rowan. He was his idol. When they first met, Rowan gave him a knife which Aedion ADORES to this day.

The series, when Sarah was only sixteen and writing it, was previously called Queen of Glass.

Abraxos was inspired by Sarah’s cousin’s dog. His name was Buddy and he was found dumped at the side of the road, half dead, and used for dog fighting. He was a “bait” dog. Even though he had had a horrible experience in life, he was still the sweetest most trusting dog ever. He couldn’t be broken… and neither can Abraxos.

Sarah wrote fanfics for her own early drafts where Aelin and Rowan were not together. The fics mainly consisted of “badly written” Rowaelin smut.

Chaol is an ugly crier.

The glue the publishing company purchased could only bind 1,000 pages. Sarah’s final final draft of KoA was 1,020 pages. The editors worked to squeeze it in so KoA could be bound without falling apart.

There are a lot of things we do not know about that Sarah knows about in the world. For example: Ansel’s backstory and what lies in the Staghorn Mountains. Some of those secrets will be revealed in The World of Throne of Glass.

The World of Throne of Glass will be coming out next year (sometime) and will chronicle the wars, and give glimpses into TEN years after the events of KoA. We will see some OG characters.

If the characters were in the Great British Baking show, Aelin would lose because she would accidentally burn her cake, get upset, throw it out, and get kicked off the show. Rowan and Chaol wouldn’t be into it because they don’t like sweets, Aedion would try his hardest and only keep passing rounds because he’s charming and hot, Nesryn would do awesome because her dad is a baker, and Dorian has fine tastes and would be Nesryn’s top rival. In the end, Nesryn would win.

Taran is adorable.

She teased she doesn’t know if the series (or any spinoff in the world) is over yet. She said: “Maybe I’ll write another seven books” and the audience cheered immensely, and also commented “the door is not shut”.

CRESCENT CITY, her new book she has been working on in her free time, will have ACOTAR level of smut and gore, is set 2000 years or so in the future of its own world. Science+Magic. She sold the book with a one page synopsis and a Pinterest board.

ACOFAS is like the “christmas special” in her mind.

She has written 200 pages of the Nessian book already. It will be a full length installment.

Each book coming after the Nessian one will have their own pair, and at least one will be set 1,000s of years before Feyre and Rhys. They will come out after Crescent City.

If Rowan and Aelin “survive and are able to have children”, their godparents would be Lysandra and Aedion.

If Rowan and Aelin had a daughter who went out on a date, she would look up and see a white tailed hawk stalking her. At the restaurant they would eat at, they’d see Lysandra and Aelin looking up above a menu watching. When her date meets Aelin she’d be a ball of flame and super intimidating: “If you hurt my child I will burn you”.

If Lorcan had a daughter, he would secretly love doing her hair and dressing her up.

Aelin and Nesta both read smut.

Feyre and Rowan are the most like each other, so are Aelin and Rhys.

If Aelin and Rhys ever fought, Aelin would fight dirty and Rhys would not. It was a hard choice, but Rhys would win at the end of the day.

Aelin is the most like Elsa. Rowan: Shang because he is cute when he is angry, he’d be Zazu when he shifted. Feyre: Mulan because she sacrificed so much for her father. Rhys: Flynn because he would be upset that someone got his nose wrong on a wanted poster.

And that’s it guys! That was a lot of typing.

Tagging: @propshophannah, @aly-of-the-wildfire, @aelin-and-feyre