Beneath the Peridot Fog

simplymykayla: sometimes you just gotta take a step back and...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 10:59:59 -0400

sometimes you just gotta take a step back and look at this site

psychocereals: rat-got-your-tongue: psychocereals: “I want to...

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 00:54:19 -0400

rat-got-your-tongue:

psychocereals:

“I want to have your talent, i wish i had your skills.”
“How are you so good at art, how did you get this good”

I get those questions countless times, and almost everyday and i almost always answer with the same phrase, 5% talent, 95% work. Let me tell you my secret of being an artist.

Look at the pictures up there, do these look like schoolbooks to you? no? exactly!
Those are the sketchbooks, and piles of paper i had drawn in and on the last four years, and those don’t even include bigger paper sizes and the drawings in my notebooks from when i still went to school.
quite a lot hm?

What i want to say with those is that the greatest advice i can give for becoming a better artist is simple: pracise. hell, practise your ass off! Draw until your pencil blows smoke and your hand hurts and your brain actually gets out of ideas.
I’ve been spending a lot of my time and put my whole heart in my art back then, and i still do, art is my passion and greatest way of expressing myself.
What helps me most for improving and getting inspired is going to places where i could find inspiration, this can be a bigger city where you can observe people and buildings, observing the night sky while taking a walk through your hometown, visit and explore ruins of ancient builings, ravines, mountains, or simply spend some time in woods with a stream nearby and where you can hear the soft rustling of the leaves.

Open your mind for the things around you, try to understand them instead of avoiding the different and suspect. Talk to other artists about their experiences and lifes, experiment with things and different media.

Make up stories in your mind, write them down, give them a life with characters with unique personalities. I, for my part, have written quite a few stories and made a lot of characters, and created three whole universes with different concepts till now.
That is a great way to create inspiration through yourself.

The important thing is to believe in yourself.
Accept the fact that there will always be someone better, or at least someone you will look up to as artist, but remember to not look at them with envy, i promise you will not come very far when getting frustrated about someone else being better than you in your opinion.
And age is not a factor here, everyone has a different way and speed of learning.

But i also promise that there will be people who look up to you, and with each step you make, with each tiny thing you learn, there will be more, and the ones already here will admire your art even more.

And remember, you will always learn.
There is no limit in learning about different concepts, styles, ways of lining, sketching, colouring, different methods of art! maybe you enjoy grafitti more? maybe sculptures are your thing? maybe carving little figurines into pencils is your thing! Everyhing is possible, as long as you believe in youself!

And the best thing is, you can always get better and improve youself, there are literally endless possibilities, and there is no border as long as you have an open mind and are eager to experience the new.

An artist is not born with talent.

An artist learns their talent through their open mind and will to learn and grow.

All of this. When people tell me they wish they could draw, I always tel them ” You can! Everyone can” It just takes a ton of practice and a ton of effort and a ton of dedication. Its like any other skill. No one is born a great plumber, no one is born with the ability to write a 500 page novel, no one is born with the ability to do insane math with huge numbers. Like with every skill, soem maybe be born a bit better then average at a skill. They may learn quicker and become better faster. But anyoen can do it. And the only way to improve, at art and at anything is to practice practice practice til you cannot physically continue. You will have moments of clarity in your work when you feel super confident and great about what you have acomplished and you will have moments where you want to burn it all and quit. And soem people will. not everyone has the dedicationa nd drive to become ‘talented’ at something. but those who do will continue and learn from their mistakes and get better and better.

Talent isnt some sort of mystical power that creates prodigies. It is the result of years of time, patience, and practice.
And if you want it enough you will succeed in the end.

Please, don't make fandom look bad.

Sun, 09 Jun 2013 14:53:18 -0400

silencedrowns:

flyingcatnall:

I never post on Tumblr, so I’m hoping my few followers can help me get this word out by reblogging…

I work for a hotel that hosts a major US con every year. I love anime and I go to cons myself, but I am going to be blunt about some of the problems we have and how we deal with them. I don’t know why people lose common sense when attending cons. I realize that most con-goers are young, and probably haven’t traveled alone before. They’re also really excited to go to a con and to see people they’ve only chatted with on line.

But…things have gotten out of hand.

So, please…read this list of Bad Behaviors that I’ve seen over the past three years and please…don’t do them!

1. Completely Trashing Rooms. I have part of the team that has to take pictures of the damages left behind after a con. We will bill you. Sometimes, we won’t even tell you. We’ll just charge it on your credit or debit card. Again, the tiny print in the contract allows us to do this. We take pictures in case you try and dispute the charge with the credit card.

2. Being a Homeless Congoer. These are the people who don’t have a room but figure they can sleep in the lobby, stairwell, hallways, whatever. We’re on to you. We will remove you from the premises. If you are underage, we will still call the police.

3. Being Unable to Pay for Your Room or Food. These are the people who usually make arrangements for rooms with online friends. One friend books the room on a credit card, but when it comes time to settle the bill and the so-called friends are asked to pay their share in cash or come up their own credit card to split…there’s suddenly no money. I feel bad for the person who booked the room, and I’m sorry that you’re not going to make rent, or that your mom is sick, or that you’re a poor college student or whatever. Please don’t stand in the lobby and cry or try to offer me “free art commissions” or the horns off your Homestuck costume. My hotel does not accept those as payment.

4. Having Noise Complaints Lodged Against You. So, that little gathering you decided to have in your room is getting pretty loud and despite two phone calls from the desk asking you to quiet down, you refuse to do so. Guess what, the hotel management is throwing you out. We’ll have our security guards tell you and then the police will escort you from the premises. No, you will not get a refund. No, we don’t care you have nowhere to go. Maybe those two phone calls should’ve clued you into the problems you were causing.

6. Acting Like You Own the Hotel. These are the people who think that since they paid X dollars for their con badge and Y dollars for the room they are entitled to do whatever and whenever they want. Here are some of the most ridiculous (and this is by far not an inclusive list):

a. Taking their clothes off and running down the hall
b. Wearing full Homestuck body paint and jumping in the pool and hot tubs.
c. Screaming “KAWAII!” at random people
d. Camping out in the hotel restaurant and not ordering anything
e. Running through a wedding reception in different a ballroom while shouting “HETALIA!!!”
f. Smashing a brand new TV in one of the rooms
g. Sex in the lobby. While in cosplay.
h. Setting up an “art table” in the middle of the lobby. (She didn’t get an artist alley table and was mad about it…
i. Pulling the fire alarm at 3AM and forcing an evacuation (This person was prosecuted. We caught them on tape)
k. A cosplay-photo shoot that went out of control with photographers physically fighting with each other…in the lobby.

One more note: Our manager is really upset about the amount of clean-up required after the Homestuck cosplayers we had last year. Bathrooms and bathtubs were covered in gray body paint, and the pool and hot tubs had to be drained and cleaned because some of them thought that would be a quick way to get it off. Manager is thinking of putting in the contract with the con that they have to ban Homestuck cosplay to prevent this in the future.

So, as a Homestuck, I beg you! Please, please, don’t do this! Clean up after yourself!

I saw this reblogged as link by another blog and decided to reblog from the source. I don’t think any of my followers are in danger of doing said stupid behaviors, but I still think that regardless of your fandom, getting word out about shit like this is important.

ishimondos: i’m laughing so hard my local pizza place has the literal worst website you’ll ever see...

Fri, 07 Jun 2013 22:40:30 -0400

ishimondos:

i’m laughing so hard my local pizza place has the literal worst website you’ll ever see omfg

as-our-fingers-entwine: zebrabelly: ash-grey: queerlyobscure: ...

Fri, 07 Jun 2013 22:24:29 -0400

as-our-fingers-entwine:

zebrabelly:

ash-grey:

queerlyobscure:

ladyrose837:

voldemortswhorecrux:

stealingsailboats:

the-herbal-alchemist:

liberalbutnotpartisan:

thedigitalfortress:

bitethismeowmix:

ludenberg:

mrowp:

Please don’t buy this system.

cant you just turn the camera around or put a blanket over it.

still a mic though

and theres the chance that it might say something like “error kinect camera cannot function when obscured”

Videogame consoles are not supposed to spy on you.

Videogame consoles are not supposed to potentially rat you out to the government.

Videogame consoles are not supposed to arbitrarily decide who sees what’s on the screen and what’s not.

I have never told anyone not to buy a videogame console, but in this case, knowing what I know about the Xbox One, I am seriously imploring people not to buy this machine. The console will not be consumer-friendly, and between the above and an always-on internet connection, how do you know your hobby isn’t siphoning personal information to…well, who knows who?

Suffice it to say, the Xbox 360 will be my last Microsoft console. I don’t care how many more Halo games get churned out.

Adding this here from my videogame blog because it’s too important, and the potential for Microsoft to spy on us, then report findings to the government if asked…yeah, no.

Spread the word!

If you haven’t read George Orwell’s “1984”, do so.

Seriously.

I don’t play videogames, but this is very frightening to think about.

Is this for real?

Yep, it’s for real. Though Microsoft will probably deny and/or downplay a lot of the features, claiming that they have “the consumer in mind” and that it will ultimately benefit them more than do harm. Which, of course, is complete bull.

Glad someone else mentioned 1984, because that’s exactly what the always-on camera/microphone reminds me of. Of course, you can still unplug your Xbox, but any time you’re using it it has access to your whole life.

This is all accurate, by the way, and the Xbox system has historically been a joke to hack into. It’s not even an especially powerful system. You can already buy a better laptop than the reported specs.

Do not buy this console. Don’t do it. It will have access to an insane amount of information that you won’t even realise you’re giving it. It can see and hear you. And it’s Microsoft. Do you trust microsoft not to sell you out if they think there’s a dollar in it?

Even if you do, do you expect Microsoft to put genuinely adequate measures in place to protect the data it collects about you? Even if you’re willing to have that data collected in the first place?

Give your money to Playstation and Nintendo. Give your money to indie developers who’ll give you a DRM-Free or Steam (that is to say, sensibly DRM’d) product. Do anything but buy this horrific only-happens-in-dystopian-sci-fi product.

(Other suggested reading: Brave New World)

IMPORTANT SIGNAL BOOSTING.

I do not consider myself a conspiracy theorist. And I don’t mind things like red light cameras or CCTV cameras on public places. But this is fucking creepy.

There are some other things I’ve heard about this console that bother me in entirely other ways. Things that sort of force you to be the kind of consumer that Microsoft wants you to be. Stuff that’s not creepy, but totally wrong in other ways.

So just FYI. I don’t expect I’d buy this anyway since I don’t even have an Xbox 360, but if I was ever in the market I sure as hell wouldn’t be now.

SUMMARY: DO NOT FUCKIN’ BUY THIS PIECE OF CRAP SPY GEAR SYSTEM.

junk-os: sometimes your 13-year old self teach you things....

Sun, 26 May 2013 16:30:12 -0400

junk-os:

sometimes your 13-year old self teach you things. good things.

So I just powered through the series Uta~Kata...

Sun, 26 May 2013 01:39:05 -0400

and so now I’m left sitting here with these strangely powerful feelings and questions. I don’t even think I can get into a good rant about it right now, but I feel it coming…

soon

I wish the neighborhood kids didn't scream so much.

Sat, 25 May 2013 19:40:33 -0400

I keep on getting freaked out and thinking someone’s in trouble or hurt and even though I see that there are adults out there with them I just can’t relax.

sassmasteredd: Twilight still acting like a pony and trying to eat with her face is fucking amazing...

Mon, 13 May 2013 17:43:55 -0400

sassmasteredd:

Twilight still acting like a pony and trying to eat with her face is fucking amazing ngl

and that was one of the parts of the trailer that restored my faith, actually.

I was scared for the Equestria Girls animation, but I’m thinking it’s gonna be a lot better than I was worried it was going to turn out to be.

biologytextbook: a support group for people who began using popular slang ironically but now cannot...

Mon, 13 May 2013 17:30:53 -0400

biologytextbook:

a support group for people who began using popular slang ironically but now cannot stop

imagineyourotp: Imagine Person A of your OTP having to kill Person B because of duty.

Sat, 11 May 2013 22:41:02 -0400

imagineyourotp:

Imagine Person A of your OTP having to kill Person B because of duty.

Me Playing Bit. Trip Runner

Sat, 11 May 2013 22:22:30 -0400

Me: okay i think i get it, i just have to relax and let the music carry me
-fails to jump up step-
Me: FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCKYOUFUCKYOU

for some reason i thought it wouldn’t be a weird thing at all to say “but arterial...

Fri, 03 May 2013 22:55:24 -0400

for some reason i thought it wouldn’t be a weird thing at all to say “but arterial bleeding is the best kind of bleeding!” to a co-worker at work today.

So last night

Fri, 03 May 2013 22:38:59 -0400

I ended up staying up until about 6:45am, which is rare for me nowadays.

In that time between about the hours of 10pm and 6am I drew one decent drawing and about five shitty drawings, had a period of about 20 minutes where I was actually afraid of my own fingers, and kept on hearing noises that sounded like something was throwing clothes out of my closet.

Which is weird because my bedroom light was still on so I could clearly see nothing was falling out of my closet.

but still

weird night

-intense screeching-

Thu, 02 May 2013 23:11:57 -0400

i’m just having all of these feels for these ships that i love and i just can’t even handle me right now

I feel like I was going to do something productive but then I found a preciousmetalshipping blog and...

Wed, 01 May 2013 20:03:28 -0400

I feel like I was going to do something productive but then I found a preciousmetalshipping blog and wow how is it already 8:00??

kapooyah: not being able to draw ur own oc

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 15:55:50 -0400

kapooyah:

not being able to draw ur own oc

I think I might be a sloth. no seriously

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 15:53:30 -0400

I think I might be a sloth.

no seriously

I am that type of douchebag friend who doesn’t talk with you for weeks but still cares about you...

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 15:39:48 -0400

I am that type of douchebag friend who doesn’t talk with you for weeks but still cares about you and hopes you still care too.

ladlelickedbarnaby: delusioninabox: Daily #207. Effort is not...

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 15:29:22 -0400

I could not draw the personal story with this because it was too difficult, as well as another memory I had wanted to share. The phrase "you didn't try hard enough" or similar still bothers me today.

ladlelickedbarnaby:

delusioninabox:

Daily #207. Effort is not something that can be measured by outcome, but only by your own heart. That, at least, is what I believe.

This was actually the beginning and end to a longer piece I had written, but I cut out the entire middle - which was my personal experiences with school and competitions - because it was too difficult to draw, and also too long.

THIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.

If only there was an easy emotional resolution to this quandry.