What People Think Why I Became A Bookbinder: Oh She Wants To Explore Her Artistic Horizon With Those

5 min tutorial for trcelyne, hope it helps! 

What are some resources for people who want to better get into and analyze character design? I’ve been seeing posts in relation to a franchise I enjoys character design, and unlike a lot of people, I’d like to have my opinion be a bit more informed.

I always struggle to answer this kind of thing because my answer is "read a lot of criticism and maybe get a humanities degree in something."

This is art, so it's not really... there isn't really a handbook for this stuff. Everything in character design is utterly contextual, basically every rule that's true in one place is reversed in another.

I wish there were some books I could recommend, but the trouble is every time I've tried a book claiming to be "about character design" they tend to devolve into art tutorial books, or only speak to one very specific genre, or are more like personal treaties from specific artists outlining their specific approach.

All of these can be useful, to be clear! I'm not saying they're not worthwhile books. But I've yet to find something that addresses what people usually seem to be asking for, which is something like a learner's guide, or a kind of "introduction to character design."

ngl about five minutes away from deciding to write a book on character design myself, at least the very, very basics, it bothers me that somebody smarter than me hasn't done it yet

Most of what you need in order to understand and critique character design, though, you will find in art and literary history and in media studies of various forms. Learning a bit about semiotics is useful, learning a bit about media criticism and critical scholarship is useful.

Character design is a big complicated soup of things, so there's a big complicated list of ingredients that go into it. Read broadly, study broadly, the more things you understand and are familiar with, the more complex your thinking about design can become.

Our very own tower of studious isolation. Bachelor wizards unite!

I get why fantasy authors would default to using, like, the same basic arrangement of seasons and weather and gravity that we have here in The Real World because they have to make up so much shit as it is and it IS probably good praxis to give your readers some familiar touchstones in your world so they can just focus on the plot, but. having said that. I think there should be more settings that have seventeen seasons, all of them different lengths, and constellations that don't have fixed patterns because sometimes they'll get pissy and just move to a different part of the sky, and sometimes the sun tells people things telepathically, and there's a type of weather where the air just gets really thick and difficult to walk through that's unpleasant but not any more uncommon than rain. it's called smärklf.

(made using the pattern here! though i made the wings with my own patterns, and downsized the head some.) little man COMPLETE! took several months to make because i FORGOT i had NO PLASTIC BEANS to fill this guy with. and then struggled with embroidering the eyes on because as it turns it out that is Very Hard to do when you've already assembled all the fabric pieces together. so. his eyes get to stay closed. permanently sleepy....

grounding techniques, ok 5 things i can see. ugly man. shitty palm tree. clear evidence of air pollution. conservative bumper stickers. roadkill. why do i feel worse

Hear The Oldest Flute In The World

In 2008, archaeologists discovered fragments of flutes carved from vulture and mammoth bones at a Stone Age cave site in southern Germany called Hohle Fels. They were carved and played by Homo sapiens. These flutes are ancient, dating back 42,000 to 43,000 years, making them the oldest flutes in the world.

The oldest Homo sapiens flutes, that is. There is at least one flute made by a Neanderthal that is older. Found at a Neanderthal campsite at Divje Babe in northwestern Slovenia, the Neanderthal flute is estimated to be over 43,000 years old and perhaps as much as 80,000 years old.

The video above features Ljuben Dimkaroski, who plays trumpet for the Ljubljana Opera Orchestra, and who helped archaeologists figure out how to play the prehistoric flute. Don’t worry! He is playing a clay replica, not the original.

Reminder again since the eshop is closed, you can still mod any 3ds you have and its easy to do

3DS Hacks Guide

3DS Hacks Guide

A complete guide to 3DS (and 2DS) custom firmware, from stock to boot9strap.

Concept: a JRPG-inspired setting where instead of star signs or tarot arcana or whatnot, bullshit personality typing is based on what elemental attacks you’re weak and/or resistant to.

(”She’s resistant to fire and weak to lightning? Ouch - you know that means major commitment issues.”)

Skipping the sales pitch, I spent all day just to make this and I'm very happy with the result!!

If anyone else has the urge to crochet a tiny little guy for yourself or someone you care about, you can download the pattern below and fold it into a zine <3 (pls tell me if this works. I'm happy to update this with a pdf instead!)

Available in both english and swedish as always!