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THANK YOU FOR 5000+ FOLLOWERS!!! You guys are great!!

I have lost so much of my life force to this goof. Apologies to the folks who have no idea whats going on. Please listen to The Adventure Zone by the McElroys. That’ll explain 50% of what’s happening here.

Panels 1 and 2 are white text on a black background that reads: Perhaps for some people who think about it, there is nothing but eternal oblivion. The eternal erasure of your consciousness. Or for some it’s eternal life and their God’s glorious kingdom or eternal cycling through all the inhabitants of their world. Any of them are options, Merle. Any of them are just- erasure, or contentment or revival, any of them are fine as abstract concepts.

Panel 3 is Kermit the Frog in a black suit and tie meant to be John Hunger. He is standing in an oval/vaguely eye shaped window staring out the window. the room behind him red and purple with the faint image of stars. Kermit/John is saying “But eternally, Merle, eternally? You can’t possibly conceive the length of eternity, Merle. I have.”

Panel 4: Kermit/John from behind, still looking out the window. Now there’s a chess board and conference table in the foreground. John says, “It’s maddening and it’s hopeless but it’s this burden we’re all saddled with from the moment of our creation. It’s a finish line that, by definition, will never arive.”

Panel 5: A close up from behind with John’s reflection in the window. Now he says, “It stretches forever and ever, it’s too ambivalent to even taunt those trapped behind it.”

Panel 6: a shot of Kermit/John’s hands, green with the fingers outstretched against a mostly purple sky. John continues “Existence Merle- life Merle- is… horrible.”

Panel 7: His hands, now balled into fists and shaking. “To exist, to live is horrible.”

Panel 8: Kermit Merle, with a red jacket and white hair/beard, at the other end of the conference table. There’s a chess board in front of him. John stands facing away from him at the other end of the table. The table and chairs are made up of a pale blue galaxy. Merle says, “I… I don’t thing I want to hang out with you anymore John”

Panel 9: a sketchy drawing of Kermit/John against a white background. He stands with one leg slightly crossed in front of the other and his hands outstretched. There are yellow, green, red, and blue kermit eyes floating. The text reads, “The Ascendant.”

Me: Nice he’s going with the “magic user that can’t fully control his powers” trope, probably a sorcerer or maybe even did a secret warlock pact or something.

Fitzroy: I’m a barbarian. 

Me: 

It’s not a contest to see who can get by without them. It’s not cheating to look at a thing in order to know what the thing looks like.

USING REFERENCES FOR ART IS NOT ‘CHEATING’!!!

If you can draw/paint without references, great!  But if you need to use them, and feel that your art can be bettered by using references, please, use them!  This is one of the biggest tips I can give to artists, is USE REFERENCES! 

Anyone who would dare to attack someone for using references after ‘recognizing a pose’ is a dipshit, who doesn’t know a thing about art.

Do you know who else used references for their art?

Norman Rockwell

Alphonse Mucha

Gustav Klimt

Toulouse Lautrec

Vincent Van Gogh

Paul Gauguin

Edgar Degas

Gil Elvgren

Frida Kahlo

Pablo Picasso

Disney Studios

Soooo. I made this post originally on my personal blog (I’m eliciaforever), and it was nothing more than a little rant about a specific incident that I deleted after five minutes. But before I could delete it, it took the hell off on me, and now it has all these notes. And LOTS OF AMAZING INPUT.

And I just wanted to add in response to the above tags in particular, that shaming people for using references is something that happens to so many of us SO OFTEN. It doesn’t matter how skilled you are. People think art is supposed to be magical or whatever, and anything else is a crime. The reality of course is that art is a thousand times more deliberate than a lot of people think it is.

Oh, Mr Clay….

old people: let me speak to your manager. This never would have happened in my day. And yet you all want the minimum wage raised. I’m going to kill you.

cashier: I’m sorry it’s going to be a 5 minute wait for your food