Art of Alyssa Read

(note: image above is not what is shown in the walkthrough. It is an example piece)

Ingredients:

Art program that has layers and selection tools

Patience (hubris or stubbornness is fine too)

(recommended) photo references of gemstones and/or prisms

(Optional but very helpful) Knowledge on how to use Reference layers and anti-overflow in Clip studio Paint

For this tutorial i am going to use clip studio’s “anti-overflow” feature. This post is not going to explain how to use that specific setting but you should be able to find guides on how to use it on clip studio’s official website or on youtube.

Please Note: The result of this technique will not 100% represent real life gemstones. These are more simplified but should still make an impression of the brilliance and appeal of gems, crystals and diamonds.

If you don’t work in CSP: the best workaround is to use the polygonal lasso selection tool for the same purpose.

This ended up being a long post so I am putting it under the readmore:

Did you end up trying the preemptive bracing, since you found that monthly hormone changes caused eds flareups and migraines? What kind of brace, if you don’t mind saying?

And do you find that chiropractic adjustments help or hurt more than massage?

Not asking you for medical expertise, but it is so nice to hear from people who are speaking from the lived experience.

Thank you!

.

I haven’t tried bracing my neck yet, no. I doubled down on cervical stability exercises in PT and that seems to be helping a bit more. (Though I am still on the lookout for a brace that doesn’t break me out in hives.)

And no, chiropractic adjustments of the neck are never recommended for anyone, but especially not for anyone with cervical instability issues. I found this out after a neck adjustment tore all the muscles in my neck and required me to have an MRI to look for a possible brain bleed after I started developing neurological symptoms from the injury. I was bedridden for weeks.

This was not a “bad” or wrongly performed adjustment: it’s just the risk of having your neck adjusted.

It’s been 5 years and I still don’t have full stability on the right side of my neck and often get tingling numbness on that side.

The spinal specialist I saw for my recovery told me he used to primarily see people with brain injuries from car crashes and construction accidents. Now most of his primary patients are people who saw chiropractors and had their necks adjusted.

I still sometimes see a chiropractor for mid and lower back adjustments, and my hips because those pop out of place fairly often and my chiro is better at getting them back in than the local urgent care, but my person uses gentle stretching motions rather than the more abrupt cracking motions. She also refuses to touch anyone’s neck ever. There are far too many vital nerves and blood vessels there to risk it. The fact that she knows this makes me feel safe entrusting my pain management to her.

Massage and physical therapy are how I manage my issues the best.

Mysofascial release therapy has been very helpful for me in reclaiming a lot of my range of motion, breaking up muscle adhesions and building healthy soft tissue. There’s some new-agey bullshit claims about it, but if you find someone who knows how to do it and who doesn’t believe the “cures cancer” horseshit (claims some chiropractors also make) it can be beneficial.

Jokes on you, motherfuckers, now I post art and random thoughts on the internet.

The zoo is split into 5 sections. There's the main entrance, from which you can go to either The Wilds of Africa, which branches down to Giants of The Savanna, or you can go to Zoo North, which branches down into the Children's Zoo.

It might be worth it to acknowledge as well that Zoo North is the Oldest section of the Zoo, and has undergone renovations in the past few years to better facilitate the animals there.

Every Incident thus far has occurred in Zoo North.

Most incidents thus far have occurred in Zoo North.

EDIT: The markings on this map are incorrect. The Vulture, Pin, was a Lappet Faced Vulture, and was housed not in Wings of Wonder but in the Vulture exhibit in The Wilds of Africa.

The first incident of tampering was in the clouded leopard enclosure. This one made the news, people laughed at the zoo over it, but the escaped leopard was found nearby her habitat and was returned without further incident. I'm not sure many people even realized that the reason she escaped was found to be a hoke cut into her enclosure.

The next day, over in Primate Place, the Langur Enclosure was found to be sabotaged with the same hole cut into it. No langurs escaped.

The third incident ended in the death of an animal. Vultures are kept in the Wings of Wonder area. In the Wilds of Africa, the Lappet-Faced Vulture Pin was found by keepers in a compromised enclosure; the vulture was not dead when it was found, but did ultimately pass away. We don't know details, as this marked the start of an active investigation, but the cause of the vulture's state is assumed to be from human interference.

And now we come to yesterday. 2 Emperor Tamarins were found to be missing. Theft is suspected as they cannot be found within the immediate vicinity of their home. Tamarins have their own Tamarin Treetops exhibit that houses multiple species.

The Clouded Leopard exhibit sits right between Primate Place and Tamarin Treetops. Thus far the biggest outlier in many ways is the Vulture, who was across the Zoo North in Wings of Wonder in the Wilds of Africa.

So there is a pattern to the perpatrators' movement and choices thus far. They've mostly been keeping to Zoo North, and seemingly choosing targets that don't spell certain death for them letting them out, nor for returning the animals should they escape.

I want to reiterate that this is an active investigation; the latest incident occurred yesterday. I am horrified at the situation, and I am so sorry to the keepers and security who are trying to do their job and look after these animals.

That said, I do have some speculation that seems pretty obvious from what information we have.

PLEASE DON'T FUCK WITH ZOOS, YOU WALNUTS.

Okay, so people may be wondering, who the hell would want to fuck around with zoos like this, and put these animals in danger?

Animal activists. I kid you not. There are a LOT of eco terrorist groups that absolutely HATE zoos (Lookin at you, various groups that shit on Oregon Zoo and our Elephant Herd, you pieces of hot garbage). They incorrectly believe that zoos are evil animal prisons and that they should just let all the animals go free and close them all.

Anyone with half a brain of course, knows that zoos are absolutely vital, now more than ever, in the conservation and protection of species that are on the brink of collapse, and help maintain genetic diversity for many species. Many of the larger zoos also participate in research and development of projects to help with tracking and care of wild animals (See: Oregon Zoo's ongoing Polar Bear tracking device testing with our bears, including the Bear Laser and the Bearette. No I'm not kidding.)

I would absolutely bet that these thefts and attempts at discrediting these zoos are "animal activist" wingnuts trying to say that the zoos are irresponsible with their care, and shed them in a bad light. You should know that every single zoo keeper I ever met in my time volunteering absolutely adored their charges, from big primates and bears down to tiny insects, and wanted nothing more than the best of care for them, as well as to educate the public about these amazing creatures we share our planet with. I'm sure those keepers are devastated at the death of Pin the vulture, and the Tamarin keepers sick with worry over their charges.

Managed to rouse myself about 9:30 and stepped into a pee puddle right next to the bed. Then discovered Bean had pooped on Sean's side of the bed.

Our previous labrador always pooped in my mom's room whenever she'd go on vacation. She'd wait until the day she got back, until she was distracted, then go do it. Every time, without fail, even though that dog only ever did it in the house otherwise if she was sick.

So the only AFAB folks I've ever really gotten along with, ever, have been Neurodivergents of multiple flavors, or Queer. (Because for some reason, queer ladies are also typically more forgiving when it comes to social expectations, at least in my experience).

But as an auDHD my closest friends are three dudes, plus my husband. One of them is also auDHD and we all joke that we pass the same braincell back and forth. My entire life I have found myself easily more comfortable and more able to unmask with people who were raised and socialized male, especially the few NT people who are in my close friend groups.

This is the worst thing I've ever discovered. it's going to be so detrimental to me.

http://www.antiquepatternlibrary.org/

It has every antique hobby I'm interested in, in one place. FOR FREE!!!!

You're welcome

https://www.oldbookillustrations.com/

https://www.oldbookart.com/

https://www.fromoldbooks.org/ <-- I have fund this site particularly useful in finding decorative borders that I could incorporate into patterning! 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page <-- this site has a treasure trove of public domain, but because it is so massive, it can be a BIG rabbit hole, and one that can be tricky to navigate. But still worth it. 

https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/

The people who are always barefoot are baffled that humans don't have a wash basin at their front door where people can wash their feet before stepping inside?? Do they just walk in with their dirty feet? The fuck do you mean you take your shoes off?

Humans don't have small baby-sized spellbooks for toddlers who just learned to read, so they can safely learn to practice tiny cute and harmless, age-appropriate magic spells before progressing to more mature and demanding spells? What, do they just throw teenagers completely unprepared into the arcane - hold the fuck up, is that why human sorceror mortality is so fucking high?

Dwarves who have always wondered why the entrance to human residences is so fucking big, why do you need to take up such a large area for a door that's just there to lead downstairs to the underground halls? Are the timber walls really as thick as a human is tall? What for? And once one of them gets invited to a human house to stay and rest, nobody ever fucking believes her: That's not the entrance, that's the whole fucking house. 100% of the human house is aboveground, there is no tunnel to the underground levels. They might have a single storage room down there, but the aboveground section is so fucking big because that's the whole house.