Loving the new counterpoint that not only is posting activism, not posting is complicity. Why doesn't everyone with any fame or internet presence immediately release a lengthy but perfectly-worded statement telling us where they stand on every issue? Is it because they're evil??? It must be because they're evil

And then the usual answer is "they don't post online very much". Which is all very suspicious, don't they know everything of importance is done by posts on social media now

Okay I'm going to talk about this for the last time bc currently the stupidest manifestation of this I've ever seen is unfolding, and nothing can top it or explain this phenomenon better

So Amal Clooney was one of the lawyers who advised the ICC to charge Netanyahu with war crimes & issue an arrest warrant. But apparently there was already a backlash over her "not speaking up" which is already dumb, like, as far as I can tell she has no social media, but also she's a lawyer, she can't comment freely on cases, that could literally destroy the case

But she was trending bc people were saying she should be forgiven, for not posting. But also there are people adamant she not be forgiven. Because she should have spoken up sooner. Helping charge Benjamin Netanyahu with crimes against humanity is not good enough, she should have been posting, she needs to be held accountable for her lack of posting while she was, again, serving as a legal advisor on a international humans rights case against Benjamin Netanyahu.

Like when you're at the stage where people ask where a celebrity was, and the answer is "helping arrange an arrest warrant for Netanyahu", and your response is "why was she doing that instead of posting online" I really just have to conclude you think posting online is more important than anything else. Also that your online activism revolves around finding righteous ways to dislike celebrities you have entrenched parasocial relationships with that you rationalize by going "well I obsessively hate them so it's okay". But mostly the Posting Is More Important Than War Crimes Tribunals part

Some of the hardest parts of sharing your opinions on the internet:

hey fellow artists I know that we all want to create huge beautiful peices with dynamic poses all the time but sometimes you just gotta draw a guy just kinda standing there. For your mental health I guess.

Small artists you need to understand that when you see an artist who you think has 'made it' tells you not to worry about the numbers and to not fret about getting more likes than reblogs they are not telling you it because they think you are stupid for caring or because they dont need to network to survive they are very likely telling you that because they have witnessed first hand the way the numbers game tears people to shreds in terms of mental health and motivation

Beginner artist: It’s easy for you to say not to worry about the numbers because you don't have to do it anymore.

Advanced artist, shaking them by the shoulders: DON'T DO THIS, it's a never-ending loop of trying to satisfy the nameless statistical tables that make you think your worth is measured by the number of people you can entertain.

look, guys, this may seem ironic coming from a person with Verbose Disease, but I'm about to tell you the secret to winning social media: shutting the fuck up. you have a controversial discourse opinion? shut the fuck up and no one will know. can't participate in a boycott for various reasons? shut the fuck up and no one will know. you think or do something Problematic that has no bearing on anyone but yourself? shut the fuck up and no one will know. you haven't been keeping up on a pressing social issue? shut the fuck up and no one will know. your mind is a wonderful place where you can have all the bad takes in the world and they're all perfectly insulated from everyone and everything unless you try to excise them on a grand scale. you can take the mental L all by yourself without using a public platform as a confession booth and face zero repercussions and it'll be just fine. open up a damn diary and explain yourself there.

if you use multiple, pick the one you use the most, not your preferred one.

hot artists don't gatekeep

I've been resource gathering for YEARS so now I am going to share my dragons hoard

Floorplanner. Design and furnish a house for you to use for having a consistent background in your comic or anything! Free, you need an account, easy to use, and you can save multiple houses.

Comparing Heights. Input the heights of characters to see what the different is between them. Great for keeping consistency. Free.

Magma. Draw online with friends in real time. Great for practice or hanging out. Free, paid plan available, account preferred.

Smithsonian Open Access. Loads of free images. Free.

SketchDaily. Lots of pose references, massive library, is set on a timer so you can practice quick figure drawing. Free.

SculptGL. A sculpting tool which I am yet to master, but you should be able to make whatever 3d object you like with it. free.

Pexels. Free stock images. And the search engine is actually pretty good at pulling up what you want.

Figurosity. Great pose references, diverse body types, lots of "how to draw" videos directly on the site, the models are 3d and you can rotate the angle, but you can't make custom poses or edit body proportions. Free, account option, paid plans available.

Line of Action. More drawing references, this one also has a focus on expressions, hands/feet, animals, landscapes. Free.

Animal Photo. You pose a 3d skull model and select an animal species, and they give you a bunch of photo references for that animal at that angle. Super handy. Free.

Height Weight Chart. You ever see an OC listed as having a certain weight but then they look Wildly different than the number suggests? Well here's a site to avoid that! It shows real people at different weights and heights to give you a better idea of what these abstract numbers all look like. Free to use.

Homie gonna share this

the gardener 🌿

took a little diversion this week to make something for myself and try a new technique, and I couldn’t be happier with the result

12.5 hours total

i'm so sick of being the only person who can make simple connections of how doing a thing to the ecosystem has effects. so so so so sick NO ONE knows the ways of the plants

sorry just venting over how i am so so so small and the task is so so so big

This year, I had a balcony garden.

I wanted to last year but I 'never got round to it'. I kill a lot of plants (not on purpose. ADHD and constant watering is hard, and sometimes it's just me confused as fuck about why I suddenly have x thing happening to my leaves) and kind of felt it was hopeless anyway.

Then I was reading your posts, and how you were seeing biodiversity in even small little hopeful changes. And I was like. Hey. Even if I do kill the plants. They will feed insects for a little, while they survive, and after, I can put them in my compost pile and they will feed more insects, and the flowers (if I get any) will feed bees (which are my special children) and so, even if it doesn't give me food, and even if they die, it might be worth it to try.

I never ate the cilantro. Turns out my flatmate has the soap gene. But it flowered like CRAZY and there were SO many happy pollinators.

I ate so many green onion shoots. The bulbs I still haven't pulled because they just keep giving me shoots to eat.

The mint is going HAM and also the insects loved the flowers.

The cucumber plants went absolutely APESHIT and produced flowers ALL SUMMER, and they were BEAUTIFUL, and I couldn't walk outside without a bee or, occasionally, a butterfly dropping by. It's STILL FLOWERING in NOVEMBER in PHILLY and now I have ladybugs and fireflies. FIREFLIES! I didn't see a single one last year and now they love my balcony and I love them so much. I only got two cucumbers but I don't even care.

I had a bunch of nonedibles in a little greenhouse thing, and they flowered too, and I'd find random bugs (a grasshopper. Huge. Massive) in there hanging out. They died when the greenhouse got blown over but they lasted longer than I ever expected to keep a plant alive.

The birds came by my balcony despite the cat avidly watching them by the window. More types of birds, too. And my little compost box is constantly happy with fruit flies and regular flies and things I don't recognize. I never did get around to buying worms, but I haven't had to because the insects are having a blast in there and every time I think "oh, it'll be full" it is, once again, not full because it has been broken down further.

There is a tiny ecosystem on my 6th floor apartment balcony because you get excited about plants, and it was inspiring enough to get me off my ass. Because even if I didn't eat my plants, you reminded me SOMETHING ELSE WOULD.

The task is so so big. But if my fruit flies can eat an entire watermelon (yes. There was an entire watermelon in my compost bin at one point), I think you and I can tackle this watermelon together.

...Oh...Sheds a single tear that contains so much happiness

THE DEEP FROST

an absolutely enormous project for Axel! I learned SO much in the process of creating this piece, and I'm deeply proud of it. Definitely recommend opening it in a tab to check out those details!