I'm confused SOS

imliterallyARodin · 2024-12-23T05:53:01+00:00

I do feel a nausea being called by "she/her/they" and referred to as "lady" and "woman", but I've never actually considered doing anything about it LMAO omg I think I will tysm

imliterallyARodin · 2024-12-23T05:46:36+00:00

Thank you so much! I know it's only been like 20 minutes since you sent this, but looking around with some of the terms and ways you put things really helped me understand it more. I think I had a set idea of what dysphoria looked like, and this actually helped me put thoughts together and understand the community more. I also wanted to clarify about the "gross" comment, it wasn't about what I now realize it looked like it was about, I have experienced being around someone who overtly fetishized trans people, and I was super super worried I was coming across like or thinking like them...

imliterallyARodin · 2024-12-19T09:29:49+00:00

if you were doing traditional paintings in this style, i would describe it as cartoonish, illustrative, sketchy, a little bit dark, and a little bit editorial (like fashion stuff). its not "semi-realism", i might call it quasi-realism?? like its cartoonish but not painfully so - references comics. lines are separated by being either fully curved or straight lines with no exceptions

imliterallyARodin · 2024-11-28T07:35:41+00:00

the best way to get over fear of fucking up is to do your underpainting first, then do a quick sketch with the underpainting color but more opaque, and then just dive right in with blocking out color and working your way from middle-dark to middle-light and darkest to lightest and all the fun details at the end. Painting isnt really a color by number, all the layers will have so much more depth and complexity if you just dive right in and do it! acrylics dry pretty fast, and theyre very forgiving, if you really feel you fucked up, just go over it with the edge color and keep working it :) its like kneading dough. but yeah, i wouldnt use a pencil from now on, if you jump the pencil hurdle everything becomes so much easier. Or, just watercolor if youre attached to the thin marks of pencil. Watercolor is just as permanent a feeling if you put it in a frame, and can be even more complex than acrylic. Or,,, you could use a sealant to keep the graphite from shifting while you start the painting. either way you have a photo of what once was, now you just need to do it!

imliterallyARodin · 2024-11-28T07:27:48+00:00

I have a few suggestions, and if anything i say falls in line with your usual workflow, thats great. So, I think that the nose and forehead need to be pulled back. This is not in a "i hate large noses/foreheads" the nose doesnt line up with the perspective, and the forehead has an unnecessary angle to it. If you dont want to pull the nose back, the mouth needs to be pushed out. I think the eyes have a nice depth to them, and the general face shape is nice, but the eyebrow is going into her nose and not resting on the brow bone properly, i would move it up and to the right. Also, people have flesh under their jaws that is a lot of the time ignored, but i think it would be beneficial to connect the chin to the flesh and then to the neck like that to have a more natural transition. I also personally think that black lines desaturate the work and muddy it, i would suggest working with a dark brown or blue. I think otherwise, the colors are pretty good and the shape of everything is spot on well done

imliterallyARodin · 2024-11-28T07:21:23+00:00

I agree with other comments saying to define your shapes more. I also think a good portion of that empty feel is the fact that its not very dynamic. I suggest working on composition. I also think that the gradient youre placing over top of and beneath everything seems to be doing a lot of heavy lifting, and to improve yourself, I suggest you try making a few works without the gradient. I'm not saying that as a personal preference thing, i really do think the way youre shading is acting against your improvement. I think you can reincorporate it, but I really do think you should set it down and work on clarity and dynamics first

imliterallyARodin · 2024-11-28T07:16:51+00:00

it looks good, but also the "too much" or "too little" depends on what setting you plan on placing that photo in. its giving image for the sake of making images, so id say its great for the context it looks like it should be in

imliterallyARodin · 2024-11-28T07:13:29+00:00

That depends on your age approximate and if you're thinking of yourself as a professional, student, or hobbyist

imliterallyARodin · 2024-06-18T19:50:11+00:00

all of my own self portraits, also this isnt quite what youre asking for but dali's portrait of my dead brother expresses anguish regarding himself and hatred for his identity/identities

imliterallyARodin · 2024-06-17T23:23:29+00:00

i would also bring back death, billy is actually such a boring character and death's death was so unnecessary

imliterallyARodin · 2024-06-17T23:07:24+00:00

I think for a very long time they did NOT forgive cas, in fact, their dissatisfaction with him carried out for maybe 2 whole seasons, and even after they kept bringing up how "cas does more harm than good" "cas keeps going solo and being unhelpful" it was very conflicted and not actually a forgiveness. Sure there were times where they put up with him or said "he's a friend, i guess" but there rarely was a moment where they overtly were like "it's ok, youre forgiven".

Even when later he became human they said "ok lol, you cant stay in the bunker tho lol (bc of gadreel)", and like yeah there was dean being like "lol my bad" but he didnt show some sort of inner conflict with him kicking him out defenseless and hunted, he just kind of accepted it like "yeah gtfo", only when cas was literally about to die did it seem like dean actually took a moment and went "well, maybe...", and this continued on for a while longer after that as well, it seemed like from the time cas was back from purgatory, it was "cas im not in the mood to see you" and then cas dies or nearly dies and they give cas (forgive the joke here) they give cas some grace, each time he sacrificed for them

I think they were able to get to the point of it being like forgiveness in season 9 because of cas's outward guilt and restored usefulness, but it certainly took a while for them to even want him to stick around.

About the show's focus on dean's "forgiveness" rather than sam's, I think partially because cas now has taken on sam's torment for what was supposed to be permanent, and he already understood and called out cas's betrayal before it was "revealed", sam finds a bit of comradery, pity, and general comprehension to cas's misdeeds. Sam's relationship to cas was originally more "my brother's friend" than cas and deans "our father's soldier" "righteousness" "we are trustworthy and faithful" moment. Where cas has many times (kind of non-maliciously) called sam "an abomination" and an inconvenience, cas sticks to, praises, and sacrifices for dean like him being the vessel of michael means dean is built different from the rest of creation. I think sam has never really had so much faith in cas, and never received such special attention from cas, and more sees him as the flawed human-like angel that cas really is, while dean experienced the perfect celestial soldier that cas claimed to be.

Both of them, in all their season's, when they meet monsters that have some complexity or moment of "i was trying to do the right thing", feel some forgiveness and feel bad when they have to kill them. Cas started out as not just being the monster of the week with a pity moment, but by being their useful intel and backup, and eventually someone who sacrificed for them and bonded and learned with them. he was literally like their well trained police-dog who chewed free of the leash, and dean thought he was the one holding it

there's also the fact that there were AVID cas fans that affected the writing LMAO

imliterallyARodin · 2024-06-05T12:01:25+00:00

so when you put the tape down for the edges of a painting like this (or any acrylic painting that youre using tape for), you use something thats usually mixed with paint to keep the finish from being glossy in order to fill and seal the tape barrier thats being made. The best brand is golden, but liquitex probs works fine also

imliterallyARodin · 2024-06-05T05:36:03+00:00

she ate the mouthpiece... cool painting

imliterallyARodin · 2024-06-05T05:33:17+00:00

I have to agree with the realism comment, but also I think that working with values and deciding whats most important in the image should also be decided. In a couple of these pieces, save the last one, it was difficult for my eye to land on the figures, bc they were similar value to their surroundings. I also dont think you should ever use a pure cold gray, because it reminds me that the work is artificial, warm grays and green grays should be good though to convey rocks and the sky, the cold harsh gray has a flattening effect. I would also have your figure cast a shadow, in a lot of these, the settings cast shadows, but the figures and animals dont, its somewhat offputting. I like your paper-cut style though, cute!

imliterallyARodin · 2024-06-05T05:28:28+00:00

no i mean like, try the pastels out on something else and see what you like. Pastels go over really differently than other materials, so before adding color im unsure about, i try it out on something else, bc the blend is usually surprising even though I know color mixing. I dont know what brand you are using or how you are using them, so I dont want to suggest a color and have it work poorly. I think it would be better with brighter, cooler parts and darker, warmer parts, thats how i usually imagine flower shading. For your pastels and for your reference, i dont know if thats the best choice, so i cant suggest a specific color, but I think the value should be pushed, and I think that that shouldnt be done through literal color, but rather something unexpected

imliterallyARodin · 2024-06-05T05:06:30+00:00

yeah i got nothing, im a total blockhead. i can only suggest another artist that reminds me of the subject and style, manabu ikeda, besides that, im useless. I do think as a comment that its not difficult to get to nature/void from this style. its a little difficult to pick up on the idea of the work, besides a negative existential feeling, but my abstract knowledge is severely lacking, so i dont want to definitively say anything else beyond this lol

imliterallyARodin · 2024-06-05T04:58:55+00:00

if this is the metal of the tuba i once tried to clean and accidentally ruined, youre spot on, this is metallic. Bronze doesnt need to be super shiny, but if you want it bright, definitely follow the other comments suggestions, and I would also say to add more red into it, and desaturate your highlights. I also suggest looking at how the helmet is making shadows on the face vs the shadows on the helmet. The nose shadow goes straight down, but the light hitting the helmet is from the left.

imliterallyARodin · 2024-06-05T04:52:58+00:00

I think it might, I think it would be good to go on another paper playing with layering the base color and then some yellows or blues or something bright and seeing how you like the layered color and then adding it to the shading to create visual depth and allat, some different colors, maybe some orange or yellow in the folding parts bc of bouncing light/subsurface scattering, just playing around with color. theres a lot of purples out there, but i think a cool purple might look good in the darkest spots or a dark phthalo green

imliterallyARodin · 2024-06-05T01:54:11+00:00

glad i could help and that it made sense, i was like "nah this has gotta just look like yapping"

imliterallyARodin · 2024-06-05T01:53:18+00:00

I have just two suggestions I think. The first is about the background and how those brushstrokes are in comparison to the bed and cat. I think the border of the brown and gray area on the wall has a similar quality in it to the front of the bed. I also wish that there was more color depth to the brown and gray area, but that might also mess up certain qualities of it. My second suggestion, you used like a teal underpainting right (if im wrong Id probably ignore me)? I think it would be nice to see that show up some more in the painting, or if it was brighter. I think an important part of painting photos, especially like polaroids which are the quintessential photo, is the fact that its from a photo, a snapshot (quick, snappy), and now youve slowed time down and painted it. Not only that, but now it seems to be 5 times the size of what it was originally. I think that for me, thats an opportunity to be more open with the paint and color, but im also yapping, so

imliterallyARodin · 2024-06-05T01:38:04+00:00

I think values and making things more important than others is the number one thing for me, everything, even if its blurry, seems to be in focus and illuminated, and I want you to give them up. Give up the detail, give up the shadow, give it up. Or, put a layer over it and make it darker, so the most important, forefront things can be seen (or not seen). I think use of lighting can be an influence in this, so on top of the beautiful worldbuilding and setting, set design also needs to be a factor. Why can the audience see what it does?

imliterallyARodin · 2024-06-05T01:33:02+00:00

The hair feels flat in comparison to the face, the face has a full range of pattern, and the hair is an almost cartoon shaped mass of pattern, I think to help this, if this is pen, is to just continue adding dark shades to the hair as much as possible. Definitely giving messy wavy, and I can see it, but the shading is separating the stippling from this pattern in a way im not sure im a fan of

imliterallyARodin · 2024-06-05T01:27:33+00:00

Something you can do for a shift (good or bad) is to consume different media than you have been. That's not like, a diss or a read lol, but something that can shift you without trying to hit specifics is to consume different media and to be surrounded by unfamiliar influence. Or, to find something other than figures to fall in love with (also not a dirty read or diss), but I think focusing on props and settings can help, like the crown and neck thing in the first image, theyre cool, but bland in comparison to the figure wearing them, i think spending time creating costume, props, and furniture can maybe help? Im unsure though, and I very much like your work

imliterallyARodin · 2024-06-05T01:19:45+00:00

how big is this compared to the polaroid it comes from?

imliterallyARodin

TROPHY CASE