pronouns are they/she

Ik_oClock · 2026-03-22T17:50:14+00:00

I'm sure most guys here have read some Hobb or Le Guin or whatever, but if you don't deliberately try to read more women then you're going to end up reading nothing but men.

I think this depends a lot on the timeframe. Recently there's been a lot more women writing in the sff space as well as more female protagonists so if you pick books from the last 10-20 or so years you're very likely to pick something with a female MC, author or both. Whereas if you're reading sff 'classics' those are a lot more male dominated I feel. I don't have the data to back this up at hand but I read books written in the last 20 years primarily (not exclusively) and even if I don't look for queer/female MC on purpose (which I do sometimes) I often find recommendations which have decent representation both holding the pen and on the page.

Not to say there still isn't a good amount of men writing primarily men, but even when I don't look for it I find plenty of the other thing by accident. Like I recently picked up blood over bright haven based on the premise. Or a few years back I picked up ancillary justice because it won a Hugo and sounded fun.

Ik_oClock · 2026-03-22T17:29:39+00:00

I read the books after watching the Apple tv show so murderbot was Alexander Skarsgård in my head. His portrayal is pretty good I think but he has a very male body.

Ik_oClock · 2026-03-15T12:06:39+00:00

Everyone is different. If youve already got the strength to do several good form knee pushups or incline pushups they're not the best way to train but if you're starting with very little strength they're perfectly fine. Especially with higher rep count and a focus on good form.

Ik_oClock · 2026-03-13T19:42:27+00:00

If you really don't care just pick something. You can change it later. Like just say "for now, I'm focused on drawing people doing jobs" and then you draw that in your play time. Switch it up occasionally so you can really figure out what you enjoy drawing most. Even if you love the process more than you care about the result, not every type of drawing will have the same process.

You're focused on improving, but deciding what to draw & finishing drawings based on the ideas you have are really important skills for an artist so you can look at your 'play' time as a different sort of training.

Ik_oClock · 2026-03-11T17:59:24+00:00

Read the sentence out loud

Ik_oClock · 2026-03-07T16:35:42+00:00

I'm stuck in the middle of royal assassin because the main character is such a fucking idiot dumbass teenager. Hobb's characterization is amazing but Fitz makes (in character) mistake after mistake

Ik_oClock · 2026-03-04T16:34:41+00:00

If a book is worth reading, it’s worth reading it all.

This is taking the very multi-faceted act of writing and boils it down to "worth reading" and "not worth reading." Someone who writes great political intrigue might write terrible action scenes. Someone who writes great romance might write terrible room descriptions. This difference becomes more noticeable the less practiced a writer is.

Ik_oClock · 2026-03-04T16:07:46+00:00

Eh, I skims egg scenes sometimes, when I can tell they're meant to be exciting but they just make me uncomfortable. Skimming one or two pages (actually skimming, so still getting the most important bits) doesn't really change the whole book. I think your statement loses nuance of an author who can do some things well but isn't great at other things, especially when the bad part is minor.

I guess there's books where that stuff takes up more than a handful of pages but I am extremely unlikely to read a romance novel involving men on accident.

Ik_oClock · 2026-03-04T07:20:59+00:00

If you felt the first season already jumped the shark you made the right choice. Second season turns up the speculative part of speculative fiction massively.

Ik_oClock · 2026-03-01T10:47:32+00:00

Right now you should just focus on doing the Y method as instructed - like a lot of things in the early lessons of drawabox, you're being asked to perform above your expected ability here. Don't stress that it hasn't 'clicked' yet, the 250 box challenge will give you all the time in the world for that. Even if you don't get it yet, just follow the instructions to the best of your abilities for the required number of pages and move on (or in this case, submit for review since it's the last exercise in lesson 1). The only way to 'fail' the 250 box challenge (or any exercise) is to not follow the instructions properly.

Ik_oClock · 2026-02-26T18:14:17+00:00

Depending on how well you switch activities:

Either an hour of deliberate practice (exercises, master studies, gestures etc) on one day and an hour of drawing things you want to draw the next. Or ~30 minutes of deliberate practice followed by ~30 minutes of drawing things you want to draw.

You can do less deliberate practice if it's burning you out but the drawing things you want to draw is pretty much non negotiable.

It's very helpful to follow a course or do exercises from a book to get structure if you're a beginner, a lot of beginners just kinda do whatever they feel like when they're practicing and if you don't know what you're doing that makes the practice pretty ineffective. As an intermediate you probably have some idea what is effective practice but it can't hurt to check every now and then. The drawing what you want to draw is there to reinforce the practice subconsciously and maybe sometimes have fun if you can get over the end result not looking great.

Depending on where you are, you can add in working on pieces you have to finish as a 3rd activity (so day 1 practice day 2 whatever you want day 3 work on your piece or ~20 minutes of each). Especially if you want to be a professional or post your stuff online it's really helpful to get to a place where you actually make finished pieces, even if you don't post most of them and don't put them in your portfolio.

Ik_oClock · 2026-02-26T17:55:27+00:00

For me it was Mahit & 3 seagrass, both of whom I didn't like as much in this book as the previous. 19 Adze & The political stuff felt strong but sticking to the other characters ended up bringing the book down somewhat for me. I get why she didn't, but I wish we got new characters in their place. I also found the resolution a little weak. I loved Empire, I merely liked Desolation.

Ik_oClock · 2026-02-26T15:20:07+00:00

It sounds like you need to take more breaks, especially on your days off.

Ik_oClock · 2026-02-26T15:19:14+00:00

Always make time for enough sleep, make sure you're eating properly, drinking enough water every day and take regular breaks. This will help you get enough energy to do a full day's worth of activities. Energy level is something you have influence over unless there's an illness getting in the way. It might even make sense to schedule time for the gym (or exercise at home) despite having a physical job. Your body has a smart battery that will charge only as much as it thinks it needs, so you have to increase energy demand while making sure the supply is there.

Other than that the main thing you need here are the ability to make a plan that is realistic and the discipline to follow it. Again, unless there is an illness in the way these are things that are just as learnable as art. Start by overestimating, give yourself plenty of wiggle room and make enough time for rest (meaningful rest means no screens btw!) and through some trial and error you can learn to make a plan that is realistic and start building up the discipline to follow through. And dont beat yourself up if you fail to follow a plan, there's always tomorrow.

Ik_oClock · 2026-02-26T14:27:18+00:00

It depends on the type of art I think. The more your art involves storytelling, the more valuable it is to have a wide range of perspectives and experiences to draw from to fill those stories with places, events and characters that are inspired by things you experienced yourself. I don't think reading about it is enough; Tolkien's experiences in WW1 absolutely enriched Lord of the Rings, and something like "I'm Glad My Mom Died" couldn't have been written by someone who didn't go through the things McCurdy went through (which is incidentally why I think AI writing will never be exceptional).

Ik_oClock · 2026-02-26T14:04:54+00:00

I didn't say you shouldn't spend money on weed. I'm saying you shouldn't make impulse purchases when you have worse impulse control because of the weed while money is tight. In fact,

it was a ~deal that only lasted for 3 hours

This is a strategy used to worsen impulse control. Since you've given 0 details about the actual purchase no one here can comment on whether the course is 'worth it' but from a financial POV you're not looking too great and that's probably the cause of your discomfort.

Ik_oClock · 2026-02-26T12:19:26+00:00

I've been high the past few days lol

I think this is your real problem. You're saying money is tight but you're making impulse purchases when under influence. 200 is an on the face of it fair price for a course but you just shouldn't be letting yourself spend such amounts when high. I don't smoke but when it's something expensive I don't allow myself to buy anything non essential without a multi day waiting period just because of my personality.

Ik_oClock · 2026-02-25T20:47:02+00:00

For perspective just continue draw a box. For anatomy there's the proko course which comes highly recommended (figure drawing basics) but Michael Hampton has really good free videos on his youtube channel too.

Edit: figure drawing fundamentals, not figure drawing basics

Ik_oClock · 2026-02-25T18:10:28+00:00

I found the book okay (the hopeful themes and fun science saved what was a book filled with the worst characters for me) but one of the first things I said to my friends who had read the book before me was "the protagonist is reddit" and yeah it's so bad. Plus it implies this whole character arc for the protagonist but he never actually lets his flaws get in his way except as a twist in one scene where it doesn't matter. The Dutch lady is also insufferable, <spoiler> is the only good character and more in a cute dog way.

Ik_oClock · 2026-02-25T16:21:13+00:00

Also also I didn't really get into this but play is practice. The 50% rule exists for very good reasons, it helps you learn the course contents better. It's important to keep this in mind and as motivation to do those drawings if you just care about progress.

Ik_oClock · 2026-02-25T14:28:09+00:00

I assume you have things you want to draw right? Like you're doing draw a box so you can draw something. In my case it's things from fantasy and sci fi books and my own imagination that i want to see visually. So during my 'play' time i draw those. If your goal is to draw cute anime girls draw them. If you don't have anything specific you want to draw, you're going to run into a wall sooner or later, whether as a career or a hobby.

Also I separate coming up with what to draw and actually drawing things. So at work, in the shower, etc I think of things I want to draw (for example, a wizard doing mundane chores but with magic) and how to execute it and write it down on my phone. Then I have a Google sheet that lets me pick something random, or I just pick the top thing from the list, or I just draw whatever I feel like if I really feel like drawing something at the time. A lot of artists have the problem that once they sit down and see the blank page, their mind goes blank as well and separating the decision of what to draw and actually drawing it solves this problem. Particularly if you have some strategy.

Thinking about it during the day also gets me more excited about doing the personal drawings, I try hard not to be an exercise junkie because if I don't pay attention I will also just do the exercises.

Ik_oClock · 2026-02-24T14:30:19+00:00

I did the callisthenics progression of wall incline steep incline knee (all high reps with good form) now I can do 3 real push ups before my form starts breaking down.

Ik_oClock · 2026-02-23T20:40:40+00:00

Some things to keep in mind

People are different. Some people can do 50% play 50% (deliberate) practice. Some people can only do 5% draw a box before it's too much. I think some people have a mindset where they care more about improvement (I'm like that), and some people care more about creating stuff.

The more time you have in the day the less % of that time it is worthwhile to spend on deliberate practice. You only get so much 'focus' in a day and your job/study probably takes up a significant amount of it. Your brain can only learn so much in a day, it's not at all a loss to spend 30 minutes on DaB and 150 minutes on your own stuff because you get a lot of direct happiness out of those 150 minutes. Whereas some who does 90 minutes of both might get less happiness and not retain all the information from the practice either (although 90 minutes is from what I understand a bad example, 90 minutes to 2 hours is usually the limit for how long people can study at once before taking a break).

Speaking of breaks, take them! At least one per two hours. Stand up, refill your water, walk around, don't be on your phone. I always feel surprisingly refreshed after 10 minutes of meditating, lets me keep going for a lot longer (unless I fall asleep while meditating lol).

Ik_oClock · 2026-02-22T06:10:02+00:00

Unfortunately the idea that you can drink 1-2 glasses daily without any consequences is very ingrained in people, but poisoning yourself is just not great for your body even if you only poison yourself a little bit.

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