Tuesday Tips - “Pick A Side” To Create Appeal And Clarity In Your Figure Drawing (or Any Character

Skincare tips + some myth busting (acne edition) -pt1.

These are not your usual “drink water, moisturize, get plenty of sleep” shit. These are real stuff that worked for me, and they could work for you too. Keep in mind that everyone is different tho. Ur skin might not react as well as mine did.

1. It does not matter which cleanser you use

As long as it doesn’t irritate you and isn’t overly drying, it ok. Don’t bother investing in cleansers with active substances such as benzoyl peroxide or glycolic/salicylic acid, cleanesers simply do not sit on your skin for long enough for those to work. Save that money.

2. You don’t really have to change your pillowcase everyday, ya kno.

Acne bacteria are anaerobic. They won’t survive on your pillowcase anyway. Same goes for your pijamas, bra etc. if you have back acne.

3. Speaking of back acne, wear cotton and try not to carry too heavy rucksacks.

And for the love of god, don’t wear synthetic clothes AND carry heavy luggage at the same time. Will irritate you af. Synthetics do not absorb sweat so it just accumulates on your skin the whole day. Icky.

4. EXFOLIATION

But not the mechanical kind. Damages skin. Get yourself a good enzyme or acid peel, or a cream that contains them. Makes your skin so soft and nice and really helps with getting rid of blackheads and preventing blocked pores. As a bonus, gets rid of flaky skin, if you have it. There are many kinds of acids used for chemical exfoliation, mainly categorized as alpha hydroxy acids and beta hydroxy acids. They say alphas are gentler, and therefore better for sensitive skin, but also less effective for acne. I’ve tried and liked both, since I don’t have sensitive skin. Both worked for me. Do some research on this to find the best acid to use on your skin. Very important: exfoliate at night and use sunscreens!!! Exfoliating substances make your skin more sensitive to sunlight!

4. Invest in a chemical peel.

Get it performed by a dermatologist. For me, doing it once a month for three or four months saved my skin FOREVER.

5. Ditch lemon on your face…

…and apple cider vinegar. And baking soda. And sugar scrubs. And olive oil. The first two are too acidic. Baking soda is too basic. Sugar scrubs are too abrasive. Olive oil’s chemical composture isn’t suitable for acne prone skin (too much oleic acid. Ur oily skin already has enough of it. Search for oils high in linoleic acid if you want to use oils as moisturizers). Raw honey is good, apparently. Cinnamon and turmeric too. Stay vary with turmeric because according to some studies it makes skin more sensitive to sunlight.

6. You don’t really have to use toner. Invest in some hyaluronic acid serum if you want a middle step between cleansing and moisturizing.

Hyaluronic acid is an amazing humectant, and makes skin sooo well hydrated. I prefer to first apply hyaluronic to hydrate and then seal that water in with some oil-based moisturizer. That + regular exfoliation = soft skin!!!!

7. Retinoids

I used Differin on my back and it cleared me up sooo well and also got rid of my hyperkeratosis pilaris. I had quite bad bacne, and after three months they are pretty much gone. Unfortunately I’m still waiting for post-inflammatory erithema (red marks) to fade buuuut hey, I have no more acne! You should also probably go to your dermatologists to get more information on which retionid you need. Don'tforget to wear sunscreen while you’re on it. Also: you don’t have to exfoliate while on retinoid. You can, if your skin is not sensitive, but it’s not particularly necessery.

8. Topical antioxidants

Literally the most important and least known thing on this list. Lemme get a bit scienc-y.

All acne begin their journey as blocked pores. Blocked pores are those white, bumpy, skin-colored little shits below the skin surface. The most important thing you can do to prevent your acne is to prevent blocked pores. Pores are blocked as a result of sebum oxidation and consequent formation of squalene peroxide, the most comedogenic substance on earth. Bam. You have clogged pore, the perfect breeding ground for acne bacteria, which then triggers inflammatory response by your body and you get a red zit.

But this red zit would’ve never happened if your sebum never oxidized. Substances that prevent oxidation are - you guess it - antioxidants. So get yourself a good product with vitamin c, vitamin e, niacin(b3), or green tea (green tea is especially good, because it also reduces sebum output. It’s not enough to just place teabag on your skin, it wil just sit on your skin and won’t penetrate. Buy a cream). This is where you splurge, ladies. Antioxidants are also good as an anti-aging agent and serve as a protection from envirotmental pollution. Pays to invest in them.

Bonus tip

Sudocrem + tea tree oil = spot treatment!!!

Ok so this is it for now. I hope some of you will find this advice useful. I wanted to include diet/supplement tips in this post too but since this text turned out to be hella long I decided to leave it for another time. Stay happy pals!

How to Plot A Complex Novel in One Day (It WILL take all day)

Now first, I have to say, that the plot you’re able to come up with in one day is not going to be without its flaws, but coming up with it all at once, the entire story unfolds right in front of you and makes you want to keep going with it. So, where to begin? 

What is your premise and basic plot? Pick your plot. I recommend just pulling one from this list. No plots are “original” so making yours interesting and complicated will easily distract from that fact, that and interesting characters. Characters will be something for you to work on another day, because this is plotting day. You’ll want the main plot to be fairly straight forward, because a confusing main plot will doom you if you want subplots. 

Decide who the characters will be. They don’t have to have names at this point. You don’t even need to know who they are other than why they have to be in the story. The more characters there are the more complicated the plot will be. If you intend to have more than one subplot, then you’ll want more characters. Multiple interconnected subplots will give the illusion that the story is very complicated and will give the reader a lot of different things to look at at all times. It also gives you the chance to develop many side characters. The plot I worked out yesterday had 13 characters, all were necessary. Decide their “roles” don’t bother with much else. This seems shallow, but this is plot. Plot is shallow. 

Now, decide what drives each character. Why specifically are they in this story? You can make this up. You don’t even know these characters yet. Just so long as everyone has their own motivations, you’re in the clear. 

What aren’t these characters giving away right off the bat? Give them a secret! It doesn’t have to be something that they are actively lying about or trying to hide, just find something that perhaps ties them into the plot or subplot. This is a moment to dig into subplot. This does not need to be at all connected to their drive to be present in the story.  Decide who is in love with who, what did this person do in the 70’s that’s coming back to bite them today, and what continues to haunt what-his-face to this very day. This is where you start to see the characters take shape. Don’t worry much about who they are or what they look like, just focus on what they’re doing to the story. 

What is going to change these characters? Now this will take some thinking. Everyone wants at least a few of the characters to come out changed by the end of the story, so think, how will they be different as a result of the plot/subplot? It might not be plot that changes them, but if you have a lot of characters, a few changes that are worked into the bones of the plot might help you.

Now list out the major events of the novel with subplot in chronological order. This will be your timeline. Especially list the historical things that you want to exist in backstory. List everything you can think of. Think about where the story is going. At this point, you likely haven’t focused too much on the main plot, yeah, it’s there, but now really focus on the rising actions, how this main plot builds its conflict, then the climactic moment. Make sure you get all of that in there. This might take a few hours. 

Decide where to start writing. This part will take a LOT of thinking. It’s hard! But now that you’ve got the timeline, pick an interesting point to begin at. Something with action. Something relevant. Preferably not at the beginning of your timeline - you want to have huge reveals later on where these important things that happened prior are exposed. This is the point where you think about what information should come out when. This will be a revision of your last list, except instead of being chronological, it exists to build tension. 

Once you’ve gotten the second list done, you’ve got a plot. Does it need work? Probably. But with that said, at this point you probably have no idea who half your characters are. Save that for tomorrow, that too will be a lot of work. 

After you’ve plotted the loose structure of your novel from this, see my next post to work on character! 

Scottish Deerhound, Rhodesian Ridgeback, Borzoi, and Irish Wolfhound

Hound group

LCKC all breed show, day two

July ‘18

How did I not notice this?

I KIND OF JUST REALIZED THAT JESSIE FROM TEAM ROCKET FORMS A FUCKING R WITH HER HAIR AND BODY

WHY DID IT TAKE ME OVER 10 YEARS TO REALIZE THIS

On Describing Characters

Anonymous asked: “I’ve been writing in first person for my novel, but I’ve found I’m not sure how to describe the main character’s appearance.”

First person in particular can be a bit of a challenge when it comes to describing appearances. I think all the way around the trick of describing the way they look while looking into a mirror is a little tired and often hard to make it feel believable. The method I find most helpful is describing by comparison. 

Keep reading

site that you can type in the definition of a word and get the word

site for when you can only remember part of a word/its definition 

site that gives you words that rhyme with a word

site that gives you synonyms and antonyms

Hair color reference chart. It’s not perfect, but from what I could gather it’s pretty accurate.

Quick and dirty hat drawing tutorial

One of my biggest pet peeves is the amount of artists (including many comics professionals) that do not draw hats properly.  Since most of the characters I draw wear them I get a lot of practice. I thought I’d share the basics with you.

Basic Hat Structure- a hat is made up of a crown (the part that covers your head) and the brim (the part that shades your eyes). The crown should be bigger than the head you draw. Always draw the head shape first and work the hat around that. The brim of a hat is NEVER flat. Hats are meant to keep the head warm and the sun off of your eyes. The front of the brim will fold down to give the eyes as much shade as possible. A band or ribbon runs around the bottom of the crown with a faux bow on the left side, mostly for aesthetic purposes.

Top Hats- These are favored by rich ducks everywhere. A proper top hat is made of silk. A lot of top hat-styled hats that are made of wool or felt are more of a coachman’s hat. Fine for cosplay but rather gauche when you’re drawing the Penguin. The traditional top hat will not have a large band and will have a ribbon around the brim. Some top hats have a crown that will collapse flat.

Bowler Hat or Derby- A short brimmed hat. A ribbon also covers the brim. The crown is rounded and made of hard material.

The Fedora- Not the short brimmed, straw trilbys you see hipsters wearing on the back of their heads. A traditional fedora is made of fur felt and has a large crown with a pinch in the front. A larger brim dips in front and traditionally is worn up in back.

Next lesson- we learn about the Homburg!