Annie Choi, Studio Ghibli

being a self-taught artist with no formal training is having done art seriously since you were a young teenager and only finding out that you’re supposed to do warm up sketches every time you’re about to work on serious art when you’re fuckin twenty-five

someone: oh yeah, do this exercise during your warm ups! it’ll help

me: my what

What’s up I have an actual college degree in art and I was never ONCE taught to do warm ups.

when i was in undergrad, it was kind of mentioned in and offhand way that we should do warmups, but we were never shown what that meant. And, y’know, we were young so it didn’t matter so much. 

Being older now and having an art job it’s…kind of essential. 

So: a quick primer for those of you who are like ‘ok but how do i actually go about doing this warmup thing.’ 

1) you may be tempted to do ‘a warmup drawing’ which is just a drawing that will take longer than it needed to and probably be frustrating and kind of bad because you didn’t warm up first. It’s tempting but always a trick your brain is playing on you! Do not trust! 

2) warmups will vary based on what feels good to you/what task you’re about to do/what motor skills you want to practice. That being said, some good standbys:

a) circles. Just a whole page of circles on whatever drawing surface you’re going to be using, whether that’s your tablet or your sketchbook or a drawing pad on an easel. For these circles you should make sure that you’re drawing from your shoulder and not your wrist. In fact, you want to be drawing from your shoulder rather than your wrist most of the time! forever! your wrist is delicate please preserve it! 

In order to ensure that you’re drawing from your shoulder, when you’re holding your pencil or whatever drawing tool you’re using, the only part of your hand that should be touching the drawing surface is part of the last two fingers–some people prefer the finger tips, but I tend to favor the first knuckles. Either way, the fingers should really be ghosting over the surface, providing guidance rather than support. 

I usually start with big circles and then go to smaller circles and lines of ellipses, and then try to fit circles and ellipses inside other shapes i’ve already drawn as a precision exercise, but i don’t do that unless i’m feeling loose

b) spirals! i don’t always do spirals, but if i’m stiff and the circles just aren’t cutting it, spirals are a good fall back. I start from the center and work outward, going both clockwise and counterclockwise until i feel comfortable with the whole range of motion. Some people really care about getting perfect spirals but for me it’s all about making sure i’m comfortable with how i’m moving so who really even cares about how the spirals look. Not me! 

c) lines! straight lines! in parallel! i do a mix of vertical, horizontal, and diagonal. These are often more from the elbow than the shoulder, especially if I’m working on a smaller surface. For this exercise, I recommend holding the drawing tool perpendicular with the surface

d) connect the dots. This is a precision and accuracy exercise and takes two forms. The first is to draw two dots and then draw a straight line between them. The second is to draw three dots and draw the curve that connects them. This sounds a lot simpler than it is in practice. Take time to ghost over the line you plan to draw before actually committing to your line. (I don’t always remember where I picked up my warm up exercises, but I’m pretty sure I got this one from Scott Robertson. His how to draw and how to render books are very technical but also accessible and worth checking out)

e) cubes, spheres, cones, and cylinders. These help get your brain into a more volumetric space. I draw multiples of each, rotating the forms around, and I’ll often take the time to do some rough shading on at least a few of them

f) spidermans! This one is really good if you’re going to be storyboarding or working on dynamic poses. Just fill a page full of spidermans doing all sorts of acrobatics. 

g) beans. I don’t do beans too much anymore, but I know a lot of people like it so I’m mentioning it here. Fill an area with different size bean shapes without lifting your pencil off the paper. 

h) short medium and long line repetition. draw a short, medium, and long line on your page, and then draw directly on top of them 8 to 12 times, doing your best to exactly trace what you’ve already drawing. Repeat with a wavy line. I’m bad at this one, which means I probably need to do it more. 

And there are lots more options too! Hit up youtube to see what other people recommend, put together your own go-to list, mix it up when you’re getting bored, etc. 

This is a long list, I know, but I usually don’t take more than 10 to 15 minutes to warm up, and I can warm up one handed while I’m drinking coffee, so, multitasking hurrah. 

Sometimes I’ll advance to a precision warmup and find that I haven’t loosened up enough yet; it’s totally ok to go back to an earlier exercise! Also, all of this has the added benefit of kind of ritualistically getting you into the drawing mode so even if I’m not feeling it before I start, by the time I’ve gotten to the end I’m usually Ready For Drawin’. Brain hacks. 

so, yeah! that’s a lot of words, but! Warmups are important! Save your joints, take less advil, do better drawings! 

How on earth are you supposed to draw from a sholder? might as well tell me to draw from the foot. It makes no sense

https://youtu.be/pMC0Cx3Uk84

https://youtu.be/NBE-RTFkXDk

:3

Reblogging to save a wrist

A reminder that Gene Roddenberry's intent of Star Trek was that it was always meant to be a commentary of modern society.

Cops parked in bike lanes are a real problem, luckily, there is a solution...

Better solution that won't get you on some list for bullshit: call a tow truck service. Lotta the smaller local towing companies are more than happy to get money from the dep't.

Yeah that is what you probably should actually do

"I’m very concerned about my client’s right to a fair trial in this case.  He’s being prejudiced by some statements that are being made by government officials. Like every other defendant, he’s entitled to a presumption of innocence. But unfortunately the way this has been handled so far his rights are being violated. And as you know, Your Honor, there’s a wealth of case law guaranteeing his rights to a fair trial, but none of the safeguards have been put in place yet here — in fact it’s just the opposite of what’s been happening. 

He’s a young man, and he is being treated like a human pingpong ball between two warring jurisdictions here.

These federal and state prosecutors are coordinating with one another at the expense of him. They have conflicting theories in their indictment, and they are literally treating him like he is some sort of political fodder, like some sort of spectacle. 

He was on display for everyone to see in the biggest staged perp walk I’ve ever seen in my career. It was absolutely unnecessary. He’s been cooperative with law enforcement. He’d been in custody for over a week. He waived extradition. He was cooperative at all accounts. There was no reason for the NYPD and everybody to have these big assault rifles — that frankly I had no idea it was in their arsenal — and to have all the press there the media there. It was perfectly choreographed. 

And what was the New York City Mayor doing at this press conference, Your Honor? That just made it utterly political. And as your honor knows under Loro v. Charles, the Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit has held it to be clearly established that these staged perp walks to the media unrelated to a legitimate law enforcement objective is unconstitutional. And I submit that there was zero law enforcement objective to do that sort of perp walk. There’s absolutely no need for that whatsoever. 

And frankly, Your Honor, the mayor should know more than anyone about the presumption of innocence that he, too, is afforded dealing with his own issues. And, frankly, I submit that he was just trying to detract from those issues by making a spectacle of Mr. Mangione. 

And there are consequences to this. 

He has a right to a fair trial. And I just want to put on the record statements that the mayor made publicly about my client. Nothing saying “alleged” for example. And he said “I wanted to send a strong message with the police commissioner that we’re leading from the front. I’m not just going to allow him to come into our city. I wanted to look him in the eye and state ‘You carried out this terrorist act in my city, the city of New York that I love.’” And he wanted to show symbolism. 

Your Honor, he’s not a symbol. He’s somebody who is afforded the right to a fair trial. He’s innocent until proven guilty. And the mayor was talking to jurors — future potential jurors that elected him. Those are the people that elected him that he is talking to and calling this man a terrorist.

So, Your Honor, I just want to make a record of this and put everyone on notice that this has to stop, and my client is entitled to a fair trial and the presumption of innocence."

It's kinda fucking weird how there are three cops looming over the two of them. Kinda feels like that might get in the way of his ability to speak freely to counsel. 🤔

I FUCKING LOVE GOOD DEFENSE ATTORNEYS THANK YOU MA'AM

They even do cost-benefit analysis before industrial disasters. Workers will bring up safety issues long before the tragedy

Ancient Arlathan Solavellan Au

Vallyn is June’s champion and Solas is still Solas lmao. They meet while he is trying to copy June’s notes/transcripts on eluvians to make his own.

I love sitting down in the evening and trying to decide what activity I should do to unwind and then realizing an hour later that I have neither done an activity nor unwound

haaaaaaate thinking back on people i used to be friends with, not because im nostalgic or miss anything about them, but because of what he fucking knows. fuuuuck that guy’s last impression of me was me being all superior with multiple people ditching him at once and yet he knew me when i was in a marvel phase. i told him i would eat soup and pretend tony stark had made it for me because i showed up at his house late at night after a traumatizing experience as spiderman. why does he get to know that happened

You were everything to me, a light to guide me in my darkest hour don’t want to say goodbye just yet, don’t want to be alone and then you come, to hold me once again, I feel safe at last Although I feel the end is coming closer unto me

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　——神と人

To every “Ellana”,Good night.

I really need to go to bed

I just love the identical shit-eating grin that the companions get when you find that naked guard tied to Celene's bed - these two especially.

They're just living for the messy drama and I am here for it.

I went back to listen to DAI companion banters and comments.

It's so funny that Solas is always " the veil is Xxx here." To a point that all the other companions started to make fun of him, especially Sera.

I mean the Veil is literally his life goal.

Inky should have immediately known what he wanted to do after the reveal. "Let me guess, It has something to do with the Veil, doesn't it? " 😩

Post Veilguard ending:

Egg: "good morning, vehan. The Veil is fuzzy today with a chance of minor breach. Would you like some eggs on your bread?"

at first i lol'd at the hypothetical fade solavellan baby. and then i serioused

It's SO funny that the Inquisition was, essentially, mostly a bunch of liars.

Varric is an unreliable narrator who according to Bianca tends to make up stories about what he wished would have happened. The Iron Bull is a Ben-Hassrath who will mostly act the same whether you've sacrificed the Chargers or not until *that moment* in Trespasser. Vivienne, while always frank in her opinion of you, is also absolutely a master of The Game. Sera runs with the Friends of Jenny, appears immature and pulls pranks on people, yet she does it with such skills that she is rarely caught. Solas is Solas. Blackwall/Thom Rainier? NO ONE does it like him. The advisors are not exempt either. While Leliana is obviously a spymaster, Josephine can and will destroy someone's reputation with nothing but a glove planted somewhere compromising. And Cullen? Is really cagey about his time as a templar. Even the Inquisitor is a fraud. Willingly or not, you gain an army because people believe that you are the Herald of Andraste. Which is patently false.

Then there's Cassandra Allegra Portia Calogera Filomena Pentaghast, Seeker of TRUTH. Cole, whose job is to blurt everyone's secrets aloud. And Dorian, who left the nest of backstabbing vipers that is Tevinter, only to traipse through sand and snow and mud with this organization of lying liars.

10/10 team no notes

okay. look. lissen.

ok joke's on you beep, i wrote 250 words again

We're at 7k words for this chapter. Taking bets now on how much longer this will be. I'm like... fairly certain it'll push past 10k but I'm not sure how much further.

Also for the record those documents in the screenshot are:

okay. look. lissen.

ok joke's on you beep, i wrote 250 words again

We're at 7k words for this chapter. Taking bets now on how much longer this will be. I'm like... fairly certain it'll push past 10k but I'm not sure how much further.