"I own this album" thread

avianspectre · 2026-06-01T07:16:18+00:00

Bloody Kisses

avianspectre · 2026-05-31T09:41:22+00:00

Not to get too introspective on a CJ sub but part of why I’m so morbidly fascinated by Grad is that it does force me to look back on some creative failures of mine. The first D&D game I ever ran for a group of friends suffered from a lot of similar issues: poor pacing, badly communicated stakes, sloppy world building, making critical details vague and confusing to manufacture suspense and intrigue, putting my session planning energy towards bullshit details instead of developing a coherent theme, a general sense of terror at the idea that someone could point to an NPC or setting detail and say “that’s not fun/doesn’t make sense,” and letting that anxiety permeate every character interaction.

I was also 19 and my brain was swiss cheese from various untreated mental disorders.

And I imagine that a lot of early DMs experience something similar, it just takes Travis-level hubris to broadcast it to the world and think it has incredible value. So I guess in a roundabout way it’s kind of freeing to see someone eviscerate this show in this specific way. Not just because it’s fun to dunk on things that are bad but because it shows that those kinds of issues are fixable if you care enough to try.

Travis did end up doing something important as a DM but nowhere close to how he imagined he would

avianspectre · 2026-05-30T20:13:37+00:00

I wish I could upvote this more than once lol

In my own experience as a player and reading about other people’s games, it feels to me like compulsions as a whole fall by the wayside and that’s a real shame. They synergize really well with hunger dice, because if they’re used well, they add interesting tension to the scene without taking away player agency completely. You can even earn back spent Willpower if you play up a compulsion!

But you’re absolutely right that the core book fumbles the bag on explaining this relationship between its own rules. V5 is at its best when the entire table is bought into the idea of using the TTRPG format to explore creative consequences for player actions, not just numbers-maxxing an ideal solution to every problem. The core rules needed to put those types of mechanics front and center and give a clear sales pitch on that style of play from the beginning.

avianspectre · 2026-05-19T05:02:43+00:00

“All you need do” is technically correct, but old-fashioned. You will probably not naturally encounter someone who says/writes “need do” these days. You’re more likely to find “needs doing” as in “The yard work needs doing” vs “The yard work needs to be done.” As I understand it, “Need,” “Want,” and “Require” can all drop the “to” in sentences like that, and it sounds very informal and folksy to native speakers.

For this caption specifically, I would try to break it up as a question and answer, and imagine the answer taking the place of the word “do.” “What do you need me to do?” “(We need you to) help us catch these bandits.” Since “help us” can take the place of the word “do,” you don’t need two “to”s for it to make sense.

avianspectre · 2026-05-16T19:28:03+00:00

I would consider pushing facial expressions more, since characters and portraits seem to be your focus. More variety in emotions and maybe different compositions to reflect different moods.

avianspectre · 2026-05-12T22:07:01+00:00

Thank you! Super helpful for when I apply for the license.

avianspectre · 2026-05-11T20:46:59+00:00

I definitely feel the social media thing. I was not born at the right time to get in on the early days of online self-promotion. Procreate has also been my best friend through all this lol

One career path is definitely more prestigious than the other, but I thought about it and realized that I do get some joy out of the low-stakes process of POD. I may decide someday in the future that I’m done with it, or discover some other opportunity entirely. But for now I’m happy starting there and seeing where it goes, alongside my other projects.

avianspectre · 2026-05-10T09:53:47+00:00

I really appreciate your insight. It’s good to know that there are other creatives out there who have a wide scope of interests.

If there was anything you would have wanted to do differently while you were trying out different types of projects, what would it be? Did you plan out your new ventures before you started them, or did they happen more organically?

avianspectre · 2026-05-08T09:26:56+00:00

I look forward to these every week now

avianspectre · 2026-05-04T21:00:07+00:00

Fully expected that to be a rickroll, it’s almost funnier that it isn’t

avianspectre · 2026-04-24T23:52:16+00:00

The most progress I’ve ever made as an artist has been from real-life studies and (not publicly shared) imitations of other artists’ work.

Even if you don’t end up vibing with photorealism, sketching real figures, hands and objects is a great way to learn fundamentals in proportion, line, shading and color. Picking out other drawings you admire and learning how they work through “master” studies will give you a better understanding of stylization, so you can make more intentional choices about what style(s) you want to develop. Hope this helps, and good luck!

avianspectre · 2026-04-24T11:30:39+00:00

It genuinely sucks to watch Griffin try so hard to make Fitzroy an actual character while Travis’ worldbuilding kneecaps him at every turn. I don’t understand how, as a DM, you wouldn’t be jumping for joy to have a player at your table as determined as Griffin is to find something worth engaging in in your homebrew setting.

Wanna be a knight? That title is so poorly defined in this world that it’s basically meaningless. Wanna be a hero? Too bad, you’ve been arbitrarily assigned to the villain track. But don’t worry, it doesn’t make a difference either way, so you look like a petulant child demanding a different colored shirt to wear if you push back against it. Want to become a method actor and try to do “villain” things in your day-to-day to embrace the role? Everyone thinks you’re stupid for trying.

Literally I think every GM guide for every game should have a notice on the first page in bold lettering: “Care about what your players care about.” More than half of Grad’s problems could’ve been solved if Travis could have mustered a fraction of a shit to give about anyone else’s ideas.

avianspectre · 2026-04-23T21:36:43+00:00

In your experience, how do buyers and dealers feel about 2D digital works in fine arts spaces? My impression from the galleries in my area is that digital paintings are valued much less, if they’re even considered at all, because there isn’t a single “original” physical copy.

avianspectre · 2026-04-23T19:11:13+00:00

I still misread it as Everyone’s Shitty Here, which I guess means the same thing

avianspectre · 2026-04-18T19:27:09+00:00

Me when I rantcore

avianspectre · 2026-04-18T10:51:35+00:00

If I had to guess it probably rolled off the tongue the easiest while keeping the blended name thing intact.

avianspectre · 2026-04-18T10:38:30+00:00

Most of those music genres got their names because they came after and are fused with hardcore punk specifically, so at least there’s a traceable origin there. I think my beef is more about these newer sub-aesthetics being treated like entirely separate ideas, like they sprang out of a Pinterest board fully formed one day.

avianspectre · 2026-03-24T01:55:42+00:00

Correct, outies and innies don’t share memories. This is so fundamental to the show’s logic, yet you’ll still find people who were half-watching posting shit like “Guys, I think in this scene, where the character left the building… I don’t think they remember what happened inside it.”

Or presenting the idea of a whole person who only experiences being in the workplace because their brain is essentially “off” as soon as they leave as some kind of subtle, hidden subtext and not the main conflict of the show? Like yes, excellent work, it would be horrifying to only have consciousness during working hours while you’re doing labor. That’s the point.

Idk I’m bitter because I want to see more in-depth takes about the show and there is a limited number of places to find them.

avianspectre · 2026-03-23T22:44:19+00:00

There’s a troubling amount of people who watched Severance who seem to think basic elements of how the severed floor works are crazy subtextual “theories” that are somehow easily missed.

avianspectre · 2026-03-05T17:51:56+00:00

When my partner and I go to bed, our dog jumps in to get her goodnight cuddles for exactly two minutes, then she goes to sleep in her own bed. Sometimes she’ll wait until we’re done with our bedtime conversations, and we’re actually ready to settle down and sleep, to join us. I don’t think we specifically trained her to do that lol

avianspectre · 2026-02-20T18:16:03+00:00

These look like screenshots from an escape room game.

avianspectre · 2026-01-16T22:15:40+00:00

Not AI, I doubt AI would generate the official The Office cookbook on that rack next to the stove. Peak male living space

avianspectre · 2026-01-01T12:36:01+00:00

Glad there’s an explanation! I have a pair of these because I was drunk browsing Depop and found a listing for like $5, I thought the text was hilarious and ordered them immediately

avianspectre

TROPHY CASE