That would hurt

there is delaware (state) and delaware (river) 

both are equally strange

the state is a tiny little cryptid thing

the rive is a monster that spans new york, pennsylvania, new jersey and delaware. also washington crossed it once and that was like kinda a big deal i guess. like crossing the rubicon in rome.

Because someone might as well!? And look at this. Look. At. This.

Does this look right to you??

These are just the last three fics I wrote. I appreciate the likes, believe me I do, but you have to understand. Likes do nothing for content creators. It’s the reblogs. Because that’s how you find shit on your dashboard. Through reblogs. Not likes. This isn’t twitter or tiktok or instagram. This is a website that’s run by the reblog system.

Reblogging helps content creators put their stuff out there. Why do you think so many people stopped writing fanfic and creating beautiful fanart and edits? It’s because they put in hours of work and don’t get nearly enough notes for their masterpieces. Yes we do this because we enjoy it but like...some validation won’t hurt. A boost of confidence here and there might be all someone needs to finish whatever thing they started and left.

REBLOG YOUR OWN WORK.

Viren has taken away everyone I love — everyone except you. I can’t risk you coming with me. No. You’re not doing this without me. I let you jump into the Nexus alone, and I knew right away I made the biggest mistake of my life. I could have lost you. We do this together.

WOLVENDAUGHTER: pages 6 - 13

Bent on destruction, the Beast cuts a terrible swathe through towns and countryside, accompanied by its lone herald, the Daughter. A fable about the cycle of ruin and rebirth, perseverance, duty, and a grim hope.

You have no idea how many people lurk on your work. No idea how many times people go back to revisit your work. How big they smile when they simply think about your work. How fast their heart beats, how excited they get when they see that you posted something.

People are shy with their feedback. Sometimes it’s because they’re simply shy. Other times it’s because they assume you already know how great and talented you are. Could be both.

Who alway got in trouble? Me.

They would call my mother and she always came in and lectures my teachers and threatened to sue for making her miss work and treating me poorly.

She always taught my brothers to respect women. The only fights my brothers ever got in was defending women from someone else.

So naturally, I end up in the principal’s office, refusing to apologize. 

“He shouldn’t have put his hands on me and I wouldn’t have hit him!” That’s the only thing I was saying.

These people had the unfortunate luck of catching my dad at home, instead of my mom. So he comes fucking sauntering in there, like he’s Clint fucking Eastwood in some western movie and looks at me. 

“Melissa, did you punch him?” 

“Yes.” I said. 

“Why?” 

“Because he snapped my bra strap.” 

And he turns his squinty eyed glare to the principal and says, “You’re telling me my daughter is in trouble because that squirrely looking kid put his hands on her and she chose to defend herself? That’s what you are saying to me.” 

“Well, sir-” The man kind of stuttered because my dad is kind of intimidating in the quiet sort of way that kind of whispers in the back of your mind that this person could be dangerous. “Melissa did make it physical.” 

“No. That kid put his hands on my daughter. Are you saying my daughter cannot defend herself when some boy decides to put hands on her? Is that what you are teaching my girl?” 

The nuns there were like, so rad. 

It was a party organized for the end of the school year, and I was helping in the kitchen to prepare stuff with a nun and a bunch of little girls. There was one of the girls’ little brother who was there. 

There was a little girl who was carrying a bowl of tomato sauce and was going outside, but the boy was just in front of her and he slammed the door in her face. She dropped the bowl on the floor and got all messy. 

So what happened? 

The nun went outside, took the boy by the arm, and gave him an epic speech going around the lines of: “Would you treat the Virgin Mary like that, young man?” “Nnnnno…” “Then treat every girl like she’s the Virgin Mary.” Not only the boy had to apologize to the little girl, but he also had to clean up and he was put on kitchen duty for the rest of the day. 

Then another day, in catechism class (I was a in a girls’ school, mind you), the nun was there telling us: “If a guy touches you in a way you don’t like, punch him in the face. It’s not a sin against charity. On the contrary, you’re being charitable by showing him he’s sinning by impurity and you’ll save him from going to hell.” 

So I was at my desk during class looking like this: 

-Use references. No matter what anyone says, references are the backbone of art. It doesn’t always have to be from photographs either (however if you’re lookin’ for realistic accuracy I highly recommend using photo reference over artist interpretation), but using references and learning how to understand what you’re looking at will help you improve on your craft and how you make art in general

-Practice and take your time. Exhausted as this piece of advice is, practice is literally the biggest thing for art, hell for anything you wanna get good at. Ya gotta put the time in. But that DOES NOT mean you suddenly have to dedicate every waking hour of every day for the rest of your life. Draw as often or as infrequently as you want; draw when you want to, for however long you want to, and try not to feel guilty for not practicing. Art is of course not a race or a popularity contest, but damn does it feel like one sometimes, especially online. The sooner you learn to be kind to yourself about your progress and acknowledge that no matter what, you’re progressing, the better in the long run

As for what to practice, it depends. If you’re lookin’ at improving specifically on something, let’s say hands for example, then draw a bunch of hands from different angles. Trace over photos (actual photos) a few times, get a feel of how a hand is structured, then try drawing it with reference, and then after you’re comfortable with that try drawing without reference. Otherwise, if you’re lookin’ to practice in general just... draw. Best way of learning is to make mistakes before you understand how to overcome it, so sometimes say “fuck anatomy I’m drawin this” and just draw it, mistakes be damned. Having fun is a pretty strong incentive, so if you’re gonna make some mistakes may as well enjoy yourself doin’ it.

-Don’t be afraid to ask for CONSTRUCTIVE critique.  One thing an artist has to learn is that you must be open to getting feedback for your work, but that said I emphasize constructive because sometimes the internet doesn’t know the difference between actual helpful advice and being an ass. As such, you do not need to be open to constructive feedback all the time. Sometimes all ya wanna do is draw a dog, post that dog and say “look, I drew a dog”. And that’s entirely fine. TL;DR, if you wanna improve in art, be willing to ask for feedback and then being open to it when received. But if you don’t want it, don’t be afraid to be honest about that too, just don’t be rude about it.

Personal tip for this one in specific, it might be helpful for you to find an environment geared specifically toward giving helpful feedback. In college we had critique days where the day was geared specifically toward giving each other feedback and constructive criticism on our works, but it happened only in that environment. Otherwise to receive critique you asked, or your classmate would ask you if you were open to feedback before saying anything.

-Dont worry too much about the material you use to create art. Just because you got the good, expensive shit it doesn’t automatically mean you’re better. The artist is the one who controls the medium, not the other way around. That said, there’s no wrong in wanting quality stuff, because sometimes the supplies honestly are that trashy. If you’d like some recs on digital or traditional materials for art I certainly don’t mind giving any based on my own personal experiences O:

-Take up either reading or watching art education resources. Regardless of whether or not you wanna make this a career, if you’re truly looking to get much better I’d suggest lookin’ at classes. I don’t mean pay for it though, not unless ya wanna. Youtube is a wealth of art advice, tutorials, demos, and hell some of your favorite artists might have Patreon rewards/benefits where they put out their own process vids where they talk about their techniques and such (a lot of the time as low as $1 a month). Don’t be afraid to look into it. If that doesn’t strike your fancy, buy artbooks or search for their PDFs online. “The Making Of” books in particular are my favorites, they give you a glimpse of the mindset, process, and pipeline of how things are done in the industry and from professional artists of all sorts in the field, and a lot of the time there’s a good bit of solid advice in them. Full-on tutorial books are helpful too, online or otherwise; one of my favs is Tuesday Tips by Griz and Norm.

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