Animal sanctuary
I just like animals.
I'm endlessly curious about nature.
I also like some videogames and animes. I do the art stuff. Photos.
I have too many hobbies.
So this blog will probably be a mess.
I can totally understand that the previous developer got burnout and left the company lmao.
I wish it'd be easier to look for another job while I'm still on this one. But... getting interviews past working hour or at weekends is ... rare. And I don't want to be multiple months without a job again.
People who see my profile or CV must think I'm a Senior Fullstack Developer, but... I'm not lmao. My major selling point is Java and quick adaptability.
Yes I worked with C#, yes I worked with many databases, yes I know multiple tools, no I never went in-depth with those or setup them.
thellere - I started writing a long big thing where I respond to everything Professionally:tm: but I honestly just cannot be bothered because it's draining so I'm just gonna quickfire the points I remember coming up
I've almost certainly missed things because I've not seen all the posts but whatever, I can't imagine much has come up that wasn't in the ones I did see
The big one first, the accusations I did nothing when an example was linked of stuff that shouldn't be in the art system. First, she was dealt with, immediately. She was told to leave and cool her jets, then she didn't and was silenced for it. I dealt with her immediately. Just because I didn't make a whole song and dance about it for you to see doesn't mean I didn't, and I do not appreciate the assertion that I let her off because she's my friend. I'm harsher with her than I am with anyone else in the server in fact.
Second, using the art as examples in the first place. In poor taste, but she wanted examples to back her point up, since others were also using examples. As she explained to me this morning after she'd been silenced for a few hours, she wasn't even commenting on the quality, she was commenting on the fact that it objectively shouldn't have been in the art system. And you know what? She's correct! It wasn't a fully original piece and contained an unedited screenshot from a movie. Objectively, following the rules, that should not have been in the art system, and that's what she was trying to point out - it didn't come across that way because of language barriers. I'm not apologising for her, she can do that herself if she wants to.
Third, toxicity and aggression in the Discord. Here's the thing: Someone disagreeing with you doesn't make it a toxic environment. Attitudes do. To be blunt, the people making accusations that a certain individual is toxic in there have had the same accusation levelled at themselves by multiple people. It's two sides of the ring fighting each other and it's getting extremely annoying. I also don't appreciate multiple anonymous messages (that aren't really anonymous because they're to the staff blogs and I can see through the flag) saying someone is the reason the site and Discord will die, and how they're always coincidentally timed to be when the sender was disagreed with by the target. I also don't like people sending anons to others to stir shit up and then come off anon to send a good vibes ask, which I've also seen happening. Quit it, act like an adult. As another point on this, if your response to multiple people is to call them less than human for having an opinion you don't like or doing something you don't approve of, as someone did last night, that's not even up for debate, I don't want you anywhere near my site. Either leave, now, or never do that shit again.
Now onto art shit itself. The whole thing started because I wanted a discussion on how to deal with the problem. It was NOT a "I'm doing this" thing, and whoever presented it to people on the site as though I was is a liar. The discussion was "the algorithm has trouble with this stuff, how should I handle it?" and that's it. It grew from there. I don't care about whether art is "good enough" to be in the art theft system, I care about "how likely is this to result in false positives that get people's stuff converted into reblogs", because that makes the system appear broken. THAT is what the discussion was about.
For the "handpicked features" debate - that's old news, that's already happening. Like, I get it. It sucks to be told your stuff isn't good enough. MY stuff isn't good enough to be featured. But fact of the matter is, it's meant to be the site's best foot forward, and I have the data and actual testimonials from people saying they left because they thought what was in the featured box was the best the site had to offer and if they wanted what they considered quality art they'd be better off elsewhere. Likewise, a lot of (but not all) artists feel their own effort is cheapened to be put on the same pedestal as shitposts and memes, which, lets be honest, a lot of what's in the featured box is. To be blunt, the "everything gets featured" is a failed experiment. I'm wondering whether if it had been handpicked from the start this part of the conversation would have happened, or whether I'd get the same response if I'd said "the minimum qualification is now 40 notes" or some such. There's a reason Tumblr, Pillowfort, etc etc all put the best art in features, and that's because it objectively helps bring users in and keep them there.
Next, I'm going to address the "keep existing customers happy instead of getting new ones" point people keep bringing up - to use the analogy of a pub, that only really works when you have more than 6 regulars to begin with. If I get 30 average customers but there's a constant turnover, that's still better for the pub. 6 regulars don't pay the bills, but 30 people, even if they're different ones all the time, would. If big artists come and stay, they bring more people with them. This means more people, and thus more content on the site. And also, more regulars is the goal to begin with.
This is already longer than it needs to be and I'm tired so I'm just gonna post this and be done with it but either way
At the end of the day: the stuff proposed was HYPOTHETICAL, and to be blunt, I'm not building a site for you, I'm building a site for everyone. What's good for the site doesn't always align with what's good for a given individual. That does not mean I'm saying smaller artists don't matter, as some people are trying to say. My job is to make the site succeed.
Some scribbles that I did today while bored. Some pose studies, line of action, skull, new design, textures... a little bit of everything.
Everything here is from imagination. Trying to see what I should look up for more serious studies.
Now that I don't have Home Office anymore, I can have my tablet here all the time and scribble whenever I want <3
Please don't try to warn your followers about certain people that were bad to you, even if your situation is absolutely valid. It will absolutely lead to the person being bullied for eternity, with no possibility of trying to get better. On top of that, hate encourages more hate.
Instead, please teach people to defend themselves and how they can grow their own healthy environment. That way, toxic people can be identified by the people themselves and blocked out for the time being. It still teaches the bad people some consequences, because they can't get what they want. That's all that matters. On top of that, they can still improve and learn, reaching out to other people normally, forming healthy relationships, unbothered by any past behavior.
It's important that people learn to get out of bad situations, instead of completely avoiding them. People need to grow, learn, adapt. Don't try to encourage a bubble, where everyone inside doesn't know how to deal with dangers. You will never be able to avoid them completely, but you can learn to face and outgrow them normally, without having to rely on extreme measures or wasting a lot of energy.
Everyone can grow. Everyone should get a chance. Don't isolate.
I wish y'all Merry Christmas ♥ Or as we say in German: Frohe Weihnachten!
Or some enjoyable holidays if you are not going to celebrate that.
I will try to post my studies from now on, to see my improvement and share it.
My lines need a lot of work, still very wonky and I keep redoing them.
One point perspective was kinda easy. I tried to go into more difficult forms, which helped me to understand the process even better. I just gave up with the moon, because it was getting too many lines. I couldn't track which line belonged where anymore.
Then I got to two point perspective... and somehow ended up confused as fuck. Rewatched moderndayjames' video about it, but I still think I didn't hit the right spot.
Now I'm here, feeling like calling it a day. I hope my studies will be longer over the days.
The art book I wanted finally arrived last week.
I consumed all the information given in there and appreciated the approach. Which was basically forms > anatomy > surface. With lots of examples of various animals.
So I tried to look up videos for studies of the moving subject and started sketching a bit. Only to notice that somehow, there's still something missing in information.
I then remembered that I bought some tutorials from moderndayjames on Gumroad. I digged up the animal anatomy ones and slightly skipped through the silent parts. But I noticed how often he mentions his perspective videos, to get the forms right in various poses. Gears started turning in my head.... So I decided to watch them.
They have multiple nice tips on how to reduce guesswork, and it made me realize how much I relied on 'guessing', thus complicating the process. So I decided to practice more simple forms, how to draw them in perspective, gain a better feeling for that by actually doing figures and studies. Thinking in 3D while drawing is a heavy weakness of mine.
Nonetheless, I couldn't stop thinking about how I still got decent results years ago. Without ever doing figure drawings, studies, and such. When last night it hit me. I did do that. Not conciously, but as a side-activity while listening in school, because I couldn't concentrate elsewise. I would scribble textures, eyes, horns, claws, simply what I felt like doing. The lack of focus on subject matter is what stagnated my improvements probably.
Now I've overanalyzed something which can be solved pretty simple. All those sketches I did back then were great practice. I can do that again. I might not be in school anymore, but am having difficulties to focus on my development work instead. My body always sought to do another activity, which I usually caved in. I noticed how distracting they were, hindering my work. So I didn't even dare to pick up a pencil for that. It removes me from the medium I work with and I might end up focussing too much on drawing. But honestly... that would benefit me so much more than the other bahvior that I'm executing currently.
On top of that, whenever I'm waiting for something, I tend to play with my phone. I can replace that with scribbling too! I can scribble during D&D sessions! I can scribble while watching videos, films, series'!
Just going back to the goold old scribbling, this time more aimed towards stuff that I'm struggling with and applying help from various sources to understand what I'm doing.
That might possibly solve various issues that I'm facing with my (recently diagnosed) ADHD. However, as I've grown kinda old, changing habits becomes harder. I don't expect fast process, but I'm looking forward to it.
Lioness Adaliah who I have had for many years finally has full written lore now! which you can read here: https://toyhou.se/475042.adaliah
