building community on the indie web - neocities guide part 2

neocities is a free hosting website that lets you build your own html website from scratch, with total creative control. neocities is part of the indie web, but certainly not all of it!

If you're looking to get started with the nitty gritty of neocities, i recommend checking out my neocities guide part 1 :) part 2 is focused on forming a community & making connections.

why join neocities/the indie web?

by building your own site, you have the freedom to make whatever cool shit you want. no limits, no censors, no masters. just you and your website. connect with people or just tend to your own virtual garden, the choice is completely yours.

okay. you have a site. now what?

do you want to build & foster a free web community? here's some things you can do or add to your site to start making connections

create a button for your page

making a button for your site is a great way to connect with other indie web users! site buttons are usually 88x31 pixels and should be easily located on your site.

many users create collections of site buttons, or web neighborhoods. this is an easy way for you to remember & share your favorite sites! remember, we're not working with an algorithm here.

join a web ring (or clique)!

web rings were created in the 90s, before google, as a way for websites to link to one and other. web rings are often themed so you can find like-minded people with ease, but they don't need to be!

once you join a web ring, you add a snippet of code to your site so when people "hop along" the web ring they'll discover your page.

brisray's webring list has an enormous list of mostly active web rings you can check out. here are some examples!

join a pixel club!

starting in the 2000s, pixel clubs are a great way for people to create & share art with each other. pixel clubs tend to follow a theme & provide base art for each user to customize however they want. for example, in the afternoon tea pixel club each user creates a unique tea cup.

participate in one of 32-bit cafe's web events!

32-bit cafe is a community of web-hobbyists enthusiast about making the web fun again. they periodic events challenging participants to create a site page following a certain a theme or guidelines, like their new years eve event or 2024 halloween.

create adoptables, pixels & a toy box

one popular thing that people will do is create adoptable pixel art that others can add to their page! people will often put all of the adoptables that they've collected into a "toy box."

(protip: etiquette requires you to hyperlink back to the original source site whenever you add new graphics to your toybox. it's just polite!)

create web graphics (and a "for you" graphics page)

when browsing personal sites, you'll often see "graphics for you" pages! these pages are full of graphics/fun stuff that you can add to your own site for free. yes, free baby! just link back to the og or give credit when requested.

making a page for graphics is cool! making graphics is cool!! indulge your creativity! share fun stuff! some things you can create:

other interactive stuff

last thing to remember kids... always avoid hotlinking! (hotlinking is when you add images to your site using a link instead of downloading it and uploading to your own website)

as always, say hi to me on neocities!! :)

figured out a way you can search for posts that are tagged TWO things on a blog!!! feeling clever

for anyone else who didn’t know, this is the format!:

https://[blogURL].tumblr.com/search/%23[tag1]%2C%20%23[tag2]

remove the [brackets] when using it!

mods are asleep, share hacks that make the site usable against its will

i hate that every time i look for color studies and tips to improve my art and make it more dynamic and interesting all that comes up are rudimentary explanations of the color wheel that explain it to me like im in 1st grade and just now discovering my primary colors

“red and green are opposites 🥰” cool now how do i paint a tree with pinks and blues without it looking like a child’s finger painting or incongruous blobs of rainbow vomit

ok i can’t explain it very well but im looking for tips and techniques for rendering art like

with specifically the highlights and colors being hues that compliment each other, don’t distract from the scene, and make it more interesting/visually appealing

is it too much to ask

gonna drop some sources I have saved on Pinterest! I don't know if these all link back to the original sources so apologies for that

cohesive but still contrasting

This kind of talks about color and composition

This is a bit about landscape specifically

Values & composition

Contrast in composition

Balance in colors & values

This one's more for palette building but I think it's useful and can be applied to the other ones

Cohesion within compositions/lighting

"Chromatic fringe" - I also see people using this with shading, they bring in a transition color that is a different hue than the base color or shadow, it makes it so that less vibrancy is lost and it doesn't get muddy!

This one specifically has a lot of process behind the style of painting you're looking for!

Also one of my favorite artists who makes bright and colorful art like this is Not Sorry Art on TikTok & YouTube, her website is here and it's<3 my fav. She has some videos where you can see her process

With the oranges painting you put as an example, I noticed they painted the lighter values more toward yellow - they also exaggerated the hues of the undertones of the photo, so I'm guessing they either did it in their head or bumped the saturation up to get a closer look! I really love these paintings you shared and I definitely share your desire to paint/draw like that :)

thanks this is super helpful! /gen

Contrast in composition and cohesion with composition and lighting are things I struggle so much with thank you so, SO much for this!

Yeah okay ill reblog that!!

tutorial for drawing characters with Down syndrome!

DISCLAIMER... please keep in mind that this is an introductory drawing tutorial and has some generalizations in it, so not every “X is Z” statement will be true for Actual People. it's more of an overview of features that are common in people with Down syndrome, not meaning to imply that every person with DS has all of them 👍👍 thanks

if you draw any characters using this feel free to tag me!!

just for the Heck of it I made a video of how I draw hands

here is the links to the lemon pasta as well as a ton of other yum dot com stuff i have to try reccomended by @krynnmeridia my dear dear friend

and heres a two part pasta recipe from @sapphosdickandballs my other dear dear friend smile

HII my character & shape design tips PDF is now available! ^_^ hope you enjoy !!

BUY HERE or HERE

STORYBOARD/ANIMATIC TIPS

ko-fi✏️

I made these for my friends, but I thought that might be helpful for yall as well! hehe! Now whenever someone asks for storyboard tips I can throw this at them!

Examples of storyboards I made for fun:

literally most things that people write off as just ‘textures’ to use in graphics are stolen & unsourced material created by artists or photographers NOT meant to be used as elements in projects without royalty payments. you can say ‘it’s just random tumblr posts they don’t care’ but you wouldn’t want someone to take your work and edit into their work so they can be praised for their beautiful style and creativity even if they just post it on social media w/o profit, would you?? so maybe if you browse pinterest or google images for pictures without finding the original source, you’re using images that you’re not allowed to use without realizing it.

you see it on here a lot especially in (i won’t link anything but i’m sure you know what i mean) those album track ‘aesthetics’ posts, au ‘aesthetic’ posts (you see these less in kpop, but where people use non-royalty free images to kinda craft a visual au), and even just rather typical graphics that have a lot of ‘texture’ elements. and texture packs too!! that’s often where the problem starts; people just collect images (often literal art), compile them in a folder w/o sources, then insist no one can repost those images w/o crediting the person who compiled them. what???

SO may i suggest some of my fave places you can get FREE, ROYALTY-FREE elements that are totally legal to use

I’m gonna add a few more:

Hey guys! I’m a sort of designer enthusiast/hobbyist and I do my fair share of freelancing, so overtime I’ve accumulated a list as well which I would love to share with you.

it seems like website building is about to have a boom, let me share my favorite resource of all time!!

this is a website packed to the brim with website building goodies , including a website layout maker that is the easiest and most user friendly maker i’ve encountered! perfect for creating your own neocities (it’s free!!) , the code even has helpful tips in it for those new to html/css!

i also recommend w3schools.com for quick and easy to follow chunks of html/css tutorials! gifcities is a goldmine for old neocities era gifs, and blinkies cafe is perfect for making your own blinkies!

i can’t wait to see everyone’s websites in the coming weeks and months! remember, it’s fine to take it slow and let it look silly, that’s always been the point of websites like this :]

ps check out our neocities and feel free to drop yours in the replies :]

ayo i found 2 pages with head angles of humans and animals, could be useful to anyone reading this

hoomans

animals

I'm someone who listens to anything from any genre at least once, so I've skipped around to a ton of different genres in my lifetime. That said, I've compiled a small list of black artists I've seen in their industries while finding new artists to listen to, some popular and some are VERY small in listeners on Spotify, so feel free to give this a browse and find a new artist!!

Some fantastic goth black-lead bands: Light Asylum (classic goth, genuinely beautiful sound), Scary Black, Shadow Age, O. Children

Metal (and its subgenres): Backxwash (a little rap a little metal but ALL fucking brilliant), Bad Brains, Black Pantera, Duma, Hacktivist (listen to 'Forgot About H', that one FUCKS), Sycamour

^ subcategory, reggae metal: Skindred and Orange Sky

Punk: Fishbone, Palpitating Mouth (PLEASE go listen to them, they're a bunch of teenagers doing good work and just starting out, I adore their sound), Pleasure Venom, Soul Glo (ALSO BRILLIANT), Whole Wheat Bread, Gut Instinct, Zulu

Country: Jimmie Allen, Shaboozey, Kane Brown, Mon Rovîa (<- he's SPECIFICALLY Afro Appalachia for anyone looking), Darius Rucker

R&B: The Weeknd (I'm serious go listen to more than his top hits), SZA (god I adore her), Janelle Monáe, Kehlani, Summer Walker, Solange, Giveon (his music is astoundingly good, literally a favorite), Janet Jackson, Zhané, India.Arie Simpson, FKA twigs (<- her music is... uncomparable. You just have to hear it), Ashanti, Insooni (who sings in mostly Korean)

KPOP (now I don't listen to this genre much but my sister has and came to offer these): Fatou, Yoon Mirae, CoCo Avenue

Electronic (and it's associated genres): Green Velvet, TroyBoi, Honey Dijon (she is INCREDIBLE both as a person and what she does), Jon Casey (also WICKEDLY talented)

Rap: MF DOOM, Doja Cat (we all know her but listen past the top hits, it's ALL GOOD) JPEGMAFIA, Childish Gambino, Rejjie Snow (god he's actually incredible), Kendrick Lamar (listen to his fucking 'DAMN' album. I'm serious), Ka (also fantastic, he's hard to find on Spotify so look up 'my brother's keeper' and you'll find him), Freddie Gibbs, Trippie Redd

Any other artists I've heard that I can't pin down to one genre: Steve Lacy, Vince Staples, Kah-Lo, Nova Twins (the bass... oh my god it's drool worthy), Special Interest (some of y'all would LOVE Impulse Control and the Disco series), TV On The Radio

And when all else fails, interacting with artists you find on Instagram/TikTok brings more of that music to your explore pages, so give a small artist a try when you find them! You never know who your next favorite will be

(Feel more than free to keep tacking on, esp. any black bloggers that have personal favorites, this is mostly just music I've come across- some are my favorites, others I like maybe a song or two. I also don't know much of the current status of these bands as I really mostly listen to their work)

people NEED to stop gatekeeping making music like ohhhh i don’t have an instrument ohhhhh i don’t know music theory ohhhhh i’m not gonna pay for some program. SHUT UP. take my hand.

you need NONE of that shit!!!!! there’s a website called beepbox.co. literally all you have to do is press things until it sounds a modicum of nice. it’s easy it’s free and it works on anything which has a browser because it’s a website.

if even ONE person starts making music bc of this post it will be worth it.

making bad music is just as important and okay as it is to write badly or draw badly or sing badly. you AREN’T BEHOLDEN TO MAKE GOOD MUSIC. making music is not utilitarian HAVE FUN. HAVE FUN!!!!!!!!!

love how people will encourage people to just start making shit and see what happens when it comes to drawing and writing but when it comes to beginner musicians (music makers if you wish to be less formal) it’s just COMPLETE RADIO SILENCE. it feels like no one even knows you MAKE music it just sprouts up from the ground one day and some guy picks it up. am i alone in this dark cave

Fuck it

I'm gonna try and make music

Call me betovan bc I'm deaf as fuck /j

HELL YEAH!!!

Alternatively if you wanna get into music producing in a more “proper” way, you still don’t need any money.

Ableton has excellent free websites to learn the basics:

Learning Music

Learning Synths

You can learn basically everything you need on YouTube. I recommend:

Mercurial Tones Academy

Dan Worrall

Bthelick

A lot of your favorite artists, mainly in electronic music, likely have done track breakdowns, you can watch those to learn how they do things.

DAWs (Digital Audio Workstations) ultimately all do the same things, and Cakewalk is a great FREE fully fledged one. Sure it has some issues, and doesn’t have many plugins included, but it works just fine. All the music I released so far was made there, before I made the jump to Ableton.

As for VST plugins:

Vital is an excellent free synth

Native Instruments Komplete Start is a good free collection of plugins

TDR Nova is a great free EQ

There’s a lot of others and I don’t wanna name everything I’m aware of here, but feel free to DM me for more (Or if you have any other questions and stuff too).

And as for samples, you can get a bunch of free ones at:

Cymatics

Ghosthack

Having good headphones is nice and what I’d recommend you invest in first once it comes to it, but even your current ones will probably be fine, mainly if you slap AutoEQ onto them to flatten the frequency response. And ultimately, music isn’t all about the mixing, the most important part is conveying an emotion.

I know this goes against the spirit of the original post a little, but I want people to know that getting into music production also no longer costs thousands, you can just do it at home on your computer without no money.

Yeah, there is still quite the learning curve, I get that, though it’s also why it’s managed to hold me as a hobby for so long.

I do however have something of the exact opposite variety too, the most simple way to make music I know of, and a wonderful little semi-social experience, along the lines of the game Journey:

How to implement the filtered tag posts on your blog theme

You can use this to prevent posts with certain tags or your own custom tags from showing up on your blog. The filtered posts will have an overlay obscuring the post itself with an explanation of why the post was filtered along with the option to view the post if you'd like.

This post is not going to explain the details, you'll be just provided an instruction to implement this on your blog. You need to be familiar with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript before proceeding with this.

This is an announcement to every h2o: just add water, mako island, or any other deep-sea ocean mermaid related blog:

Please use this mouse effect for your blog on your desktop!

Maybe you’ve already seen the effect where glitter comes out of your computer mouse whenever you move it. Well, this is from the same maker and but this time you got bubbles that rise to the top.

I just want someone to use it, thanks.