#krt talks

I use he/him for both, but neither Space nor Ventro are male. They’re aliens; their genders are alien.

Ventro’s gender is drone, and he’s trans. What that means is that he was hatched and raised a soldier, and is soldier-sized, but his gender identity (and, now, hormones) is the small, brightly colored interitrask caste that carries eggs in their bodies until those eggs are fertilized and the shells have hardened.

Space’s gender is nonexistant, and his species is unisex. His social role is non-parenting grunt worker; if he ever became a parent, a leader, a teacher, or someone who held community life and death in their hands (doctor, clergy, mortician, farmer, environmental support systems engineer, sanitation worker, etc.), his social status and pronouns would change.

All of which is to say that I could change their English pronouns to she/her without changing a single other thing about the book,

And that this would absolutely change the vibe of the book for many English-speaking readers (including myself tbh let’s not pretend I’m immune to subconscious influence),

The likelihood that I’ll draw any of them, let alone most? PRETTY LOW.

In the mean time: have the doodle I’m happiest with so far + a self-indulgent Mirian-ified trace of Edna Mode :P

A lot of my alien character designs tend to be nude mostly because I have very little patience for (or skill with) clothing design 😂

BUT

Realistically: Ventro should have clothes most of the time, and I need to get around to designing both what that looks like and what potential nudity taboos his culture might have.

I think most tellurian cultures wouldn’t have any kind of nudity taboo, but would probably still wear clothing a little more often than I’ve so far depicted.

Thank you, I think.

Thank you.

If we twist ourselves into a shape that burns, it won’t be your fault.

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Skipped this sort of thing last year, but @peachpuppydesigns mentioned the notion off-hand and it spurred me into getting it done!

I didn’t make all that many finished or polished pieces this year, at least not outside of Art Fight and gifts for other folk. But that’s at least in part because I’ve been writing a book, which is pretty exciting! :D Lots of other non-art stuff going on in my life, too; some of it quite stressful, but a lot of the rest of it good.

I’m pleased that I’ve been doing a pretty solid mix of traditional and digital art, and I’m pleased that I’ve been doing some active foundational work; pose and anatomy studies, body type studies, etc. It hasn’t been constant, but I’ve been poking my nose into it at least a bit every few months. I’ve also gotten a tiny bit better at having an idea and finding the bravery to just go for it; even when I don’t quite know what I’m doing, even if it’s just a small scribbled sketch. And I’ve finally pinned down some character designs that have been giving me trouble for years, which is a lovely feeling.

All in all — a bit of an eclectic-looking collection for this particular meme, but I’m happy with what I’ve done this year! ^_^

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A while back, someone asked me if I could share some of the resources I use. I figured maybe other people might find it useful as well! ^_^ Due to computer switches I could only trawl through the last ~5 years of research, but it’s still a fair collection.

(Obligatory disclaimer: I am not visually impaired! I just try to listen to people who are. The vast majority of these are written by and/or for people with visual impairments.)

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Vocab

American Printing House key definitions — Wayback machine

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Blogs, posts, essays, and speeches by folk with visual impairments

General sites:

Mimzy Writing Online (masterpost for writing blind characters) — Wayback machine

Where’s Your Dog — Wayback machine

Albinism Up Close — Wayback machine

Specific posts:

Why blindfolding yourself is misleading:

NFB member John Pere’s video & transcript — Wayback machine

Graduate researcher Arielle Silverman’s video & transcript — Wayback machine

Blind physician — Wayback machine

Missing eye / monocular vision — Wayback machine

Driving with albinism — Wayback machine (chronological series of posts, next post link is at the bottom)

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Posts of unknown/mixed authorship

Writing blind characters (tumblr thread) — Wayback machine

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Sighted guidance

How to Be a Sighted Guide by Vision Loss Resources — Wayback machine

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Long cane use

Care and Feeding of the White Cane: Instructions in Cane Travel for Blind People by Thomas Bickford, hosted on the NFB website — Wayback machine

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Orientation and Mobility

This is the term for specific training around navigating the world with a visual impairment. It will be a useful search term for you.

Additionally, I have purchased the O&M training course Step By Step that was published by the American Printing House. The actual video training modules are incredibly clunky to navigate through, and personally I’ve never had the patience. I’m also not comfortable redistributing their whole product like that.

But… the pdf study guides from the program are useful on their own, and those I will share! (Especially since they used to be available for free on the APH website. >_>;)

These are from the second edition.

O&M Training study guides (Internet Archive access)

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Careers

American Printing House career connect — Wayback machine

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Cooking

NFB: Suggestions for the Blind Cook — Wayback machine

APH: Safe Cooking Techniques — Wayback machine

BBC: Article about a blind Master Chef contestant — Wayback machine

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Visualization tools

For remnant sight and color blindness.

Visual acuity simulator — Wayback machine (icons at the top switch between vision charts & illustrative photos, bar at the bottom adjusts acuity)

Color blindness simulator — Wayback machine

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Thinking about disability

These aren’t specifically about visual impairment, and include other physical disabilities as well as autism.

But they’re important voices to hear, and can be useful for framing your understanding and general approach.

"Don't Mourn For Us" by Jim Sinclair — Wayback machine

“Confessions of a Bitter Cripple" by Elizabeth Barnes — Wayback machine

"If you can do X, why can't you do Y?" by Mel Baggs — Wayback machine

People can adapt to and accommodate for more than you might think (tumblr thread) — Wayback machine

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Self Portrait | 12-31-23 Gossy; any pronouns

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Normally I go through life like a first-person video game; I don't really think of myself from the outside-in.

But that's been... a bit less true, towards the end of this year? I guess I've been feeling introspective, hah.

I'm reaching the end of my twenties. I'm beginning to go gray — which started years ago, but it's getting to where it's clearly visible now. I'm finding more clothing that makes me happy rather than just failing to make me uncomfortable, and I'm expanding my comfort zones in other ways, too; stretching into the world. Trying to take care of myself while I'm at it, and working to decide what's most important to me.

And... I have active and targeted creative ambition for the first time since middle school. Which has been a bit of a trip! I was genuinely scared, that first day that I consciously decided to hold onto it rather than letting it fade. (It felt like waking up.)