hi im @magecastle now :-)
Just a reminder about fatphotoref.com—it exists!! I'll be updating with new photos next week and hopefully more regularly after that. Request access by going to bit.ly/fpraccess 💙🧜♀️ happy mer may!
erm. obsessed with making stupid little color palettes. most of these are named after songs I like
please tag me in your art if you use them ! :]
this is a poster i made for my call to action assignment in humanities! it's a bunch of basic and easy stretches for people who sit and work at a desk all day (me)
the idea is that you'd put the poster up above ur desk and do the stretches every 30 minutes or so,, the whole routine won't take more than about 6 minutes to complete and when done regularly it can prevent wrist, shoulder, neck and back pain! :)
all these stretches can be done while sitting (although i HIGHLY recommend you stand up and move around while taking a break from working)
U use colors in such a enrichening way, how do you do that may I ask??
thank you so much! 💕
this answer is going to be a little long.
the first thing, i think, is that it's very common to think of color as a means to an end, as just another type of information about a drawing: i'm using brown on the hair to show that the hair is brown, i'm using green to show that the characters are standing in grass.
but if color is information, then we can use it to say a lot more than just the basic facts of a drawing!
if you love drawing but want to get better with color, you have to learn to love color, too.
to want to know everything about how color works, to explore what different colors mean to you, to try and try and try again.
because, and this is the kicker:
ALL COLORS ARE RELATED TO EACH OTHER!
i think it's common for people to talk about complementary colors and that's helpful when you're starting out with coloring, but i feel that it can become very limiting when it's treated like a rule and can obscure the fact that all colors are related to each other. it's called a color wheel because there is no beginning or end!
for example, take this drawing:
in this drawing, i'm using colors from all over:
but by just rearranging them slightly and throwing them against a black background like in the drawing, you can see how they're actually relating to each other and not nearly as random as they may seem at first glance!
[these notes are from this post where i break down how muted or "ugly" colors pull an image together] all colors are related to each other in some way, and that means that
YOU MUST DETERMINE WHAT EACH COLOR MEANS TO YOU, AND IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO CONVEY THAT MEANING TO YOUR AUDIENCE.
for example, to me green can be uncomfortable and overwhelming, energetic and edgy, calm and natural, or fearful and tense. but no matter how it makes me feel, it's my responsibility to convey my relationship to green to whoever even glances at my drawing.
sure you can use commonly held ideas about colors [red = angry, blue = sad], but this shorthand is also limiting. if everyone used these commonly held ideas about color, there would be no room for experimentation or interesting, wild color choices! and colors mean different things to everyone-- that's what makes everyone's colorful art so different and so cool!!
another thing to note about those green drawings: each one is using a specific type of green.
the one with reigen leans blue-green, which creates a cool-colored image. meanwhile, reigen is warmer tones, which almost makes it seem like he's overheating when he's thrown against such a cool-toned background, which further expresses his discomfort!
the dimple!mob drawing is like a sprite or mountain dew-green, which encourages the feeling of electricity or energy. it's a cool yellowish-green.
the one of mob floating is a warmer yellowish-green, to suggest sunny warmth without drawing sun rays.
the divine tree arc drawing is a lot of reddish-greens, which can suggest a sickliness.
experiment with color combinations and different shades and hues! explore what these different types of colors mean to you!
so now let's get into the nitty gritty of color choice. the following images are from my free pdf about color, composition, and intuitive drawing:
the main takeaways from these pages are:
- consider simplifying your colors! more colors does not necessarily equal a better drawing.
- see how much a single color can do! can you use it in multiple places on your drawing? what meaning can you ascribe to the colors you're using?
- consider creating a concept for your colors and a few rules to guide your piece! a lot of great drawings can fall apart because the coloring concept was too vague or because there weren't enough rules or guidelines to keep the image coherent.
- are your colors saturated enough? are the different colors you're using fighting for the viewer's attention? do you have focal points in your art, and if so, are the colors you're using reinforcing those focal points?
- use the tools at your disposal! color-picking, color balance, overlay layers. it can feel important to try to prove something by hand-picking every color, but even when i hand-pick my colors i almost always check them with color balance anyway to make sure i'm picking the best colors possible.
- YOU DO NOT HAVE TO SUFFER FOR ART. PLEASE use everything that is available to you, and make sure that you are aligned with what brings you joy when you're making art!
i wanted to show an example of a drawing i've done that is doing way too much vs a drawing that is simpler but more balanced:
on the left, the colors are interesting but the background is too strong and is competing with the actual drawing for attention. on the right, the clear background and simple coloring create a cute, easy to read, successful image! this is what i mean when i say that colors can fight for the viewer's attention and mess up a good drawing.
my final secret is that i rarely shade with or use white, black, or grays. i don't think this is a rule that you have to follow, but i like it because it pushes me to figure out what colors will go best with each other, and i think this single tip has strengthened my understanding of color immensely. however, there are a lot of beautiful art styles that shade with and use pure white, black, and gray. you have to decide what you love!
and
STUDY!!!
look at other people's art, color pick it, and make a palette based on their art! look at how they represent values through color, how they shade, etc. study your favorite artists' work!! you will learn so much!!
i hope this was helpful! if you have any more follow-up questions or if there's something that you want to know that i didn't explain here, please don't hesitate to ask!
im posting this actually bc what the hell. april 3
Soft OC Asks
🌹 Where in the world does your OC feel most at home? Is there any reason why? If it’s not the place they were born, where were they born? Is there a certain somebody that makes them feel at home where ever they may be? What does home mean to them?
🍄 What are your OCs favourite snacks? Their favourite comfort food which always cheers them up when they’re down? Favourite meal to make? Do they enjoy baking and cooking and are they any good in the kitchen?
🍁 Where does your OC go when they need to have some time to themself? Would they ever have their own “comfort corner” filled with all the things they like? Do they have a favourite spot outside that feels like its theirs and theirs alone?
🍂 Does your OC enjoy hugs? What do they do as a show of affection for: their friends, their family, their significant other(s) or for strangers? Over all what are they like with recieving affection from others?
🌻 What little things do they notice about people or the world around them that make them happy? What tiny little treasures do they find in the normal every day that makes the world seem a little brighter for them?
🌾 Describe your OC through the eyes of someone absolutely head-over-heels in love with them
💐 How does your OC handle being unwell or forced to rest in bed? Who cares for them and in what ways? Does your OC enjoy being doted on or are they a terrible patient? Reversed: is your OC good at taking care of others who are ill or in need?
🌿 What way does your OC show that they care without using words? What way do others show your OC that they’re cared about without using speech?
🌳 What is your OC’s favourite way to relax after a stressful day? Do they have a favourite book to curl up with? A hobby? Or do they have a nice bubble bath and have an early night to bed?
🌲 How deeply does your OC feel? Are they typically empathetic or do they have a hard time connecting with others in this way? What are they like when offering support and comfort to someone they care for?
🌺 What does your OC do to calm down when they’re scared or after a nightmare? Do they have any special comfort items or need to be reassured by a specific person? How do they handle this if they’re alone?
🌸 What are some of their favourite things and why? List as many as you can think of!
🥀 How would your OC decorate a notebook or journal? What kind of things are written in there? Could you give an example of a nice entry?
🌼 Who are this characters friends and found family? How did they meet, how long have they been friends for, could they ever be something more than just friends? What do they look for in a friend or a romantic partner?
Questions for You!
💫What is your favourite fact about this character and why?
☄️ Does this OC deserve better treatment from you? Do you make them suffer just a little bit too much? Be nice to them!
🌠 On a scale of 1 - 10 how Baby is your OC? BONUS when asking this question rate the OC yourself as see if the reply matches up!!
💦 If you as the writer could erase one traumatic event from this OC’s life what would it be and why?
New comic alert!!
One of my side projects this spring has been a brand new instructional foraging comic PDF, this time about relatively easy-to-find-and-ID fruit in the Eastern US! Like wild fruit, this comic is FREE (though you can leave a tip as a thank-you if you'd like.)
Bumping this in case you missed it! I have a brand new free foraging zine up, ready to download. It’ll teach you about fruit you can easily forage in the eastern US, AND it has this bird:

Where I find images to make into PNGs
Museum / collection websites
Rijksmuseum • Metropolitan Museum of Art • National Gallery of Art • The Walters Art Museum • Europeana • Public Domain Review • The British Library • Victoria & Albert Museum • Wellcome Collection • Risd Museum • Phoenix Ancient Art • Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden • Georgian National Museum • Internet Archive • Getty Images • Louvre • Statens Historiska Muséer • Museum of Applied Arts • Royal Collection Trust • The Walters Art Museum • Science Museum Group • Kunst Historiches Museum Wien • The David Collection • MAK collection
+ pretty much any museum site with a virtual collection
Auction websites
1stDibs • Sothebys • Ruby Lane • Live Auctioneers • Christie’s • Timeline Auctions • Heritage Auctions • Auctionet • Hindman Auctions
Various
Google reverse image search > “find image source” > “visually similar images”
Other PNG blogs
vile-things • encyclopaedia-ornithonesiae • goobersplat • catplush • oceantoyz • transparensies • png-magician • whizpurr • adjpngs • transpareats • transparentstickers • transparenzz • pngtrash • fruit-prince • honeyrolls • bleedingthroughteeth • png-heaven
-
(I will be updating this list! If you have suggestions or would like to add your blog to the list, message me)
Thematic OC Questions
Some friends and I have been asking random questions regarding OCs. That got me thinking. Lots of OC question lists that I’ve seen have been about the OCs as people (their life, interests, habits). I want to ask meta questions about them as fictional characters.
These questions focus on the motifs and symbolic associations of a character in a narrative sense. This is more character analysis than character interaction.
..........
- What is the main color associated with them? What connections with that color do they share?
- Drawing from the language of flowers, what flower would symbolize them?
- What real life animal would they be represented by?
- What mythical creature would they be represented by?
- Which body part are they associated with? (Example: hands/arms symbolize strength.)
- Which of the four seasons best fits them?
- What time of day are they associated with?
- Which of the seven heavenly virtues are they associated with? Do they embody that virtue or are they trying to learn it?
- Which of the seven deadly sins are they associated with? Is it a negative trait of theirs or something they actively struggle with?
- Are they closer to life or death?
- Land, sea, or sky? Of the realms of the world, which one does the character belong to?
- Are they the sun, moon, stars or something else in space (black hole, meteor shower, etc)?
- Instead of your standard four elements, consider what kind of metal represents your character. (Look here for some ideas.)
- Regardless of whether or not they wield any, what kind of weapon do you associate them with?
- Pick an article of clothing to represent them. What does it mean?
- Breakfast, lunch, dinner, and anything between. What kind of dish are they?
- What instrument would be used in their leitmotif (essentially their character song in this context)?
- Which card would they be from the major arcana of tarot cards? (If you're more well read in tarot, you could also do minor arcana.)
- Which of the four temperaments (sanguine, choleric, melancholic, or phlegmatic) are they?
- What word/phrase is central to their character? (It can be something they say or something that summarizes them meta-textually.)
..........
This isn't a complete list of all possible thematic/symbolic questions that could be asked. Not all these questions could apply to a character. It doesn't matter if you associate certain things with one symbol and someone else has other ideas.
These are just some questions to get people thinking.
I just discovered foodtimeline.org, which is exactly what it sounds like: centuries worth of information about FOOD. If you are writing something historical and you want a starting point for figuring out what people should be eating, this might be a good place?
CHRISTMAS CAME EARLY
this is awesome but the original link just turned into a redirect loop for me, here it is again (x)
Reminder that dracula daily starts again next month for those who missed it last year
I personally started but then failed to keep up, so I'm going to try again this year
Link to the Substack to sign up:
It runs 3rd May - 7th November.
If you subscribed last year and haven't unsubscribed you will receive the emails.
Time to start tagging spoilers again
Also check out @re-dracula which is a podcast that will run episodes to coincide with the entries!
DONT USE THE PIRATE BAY PLEASEEEE I BEG YOU.
Use 1337x.to rarbg or rutracker, highly moderated public torrent trackers, because Pirate Bay has long been shut down, unmoderated, and cloned by some shady actors AND use Mullvad VPN (or any other vpn but mullvad is the best definitely) to protect your ip address while you torrent, bind it to qbittorrent and do not use utorrent anymore either because it is littered with adware.
OR if you don’t want to pay for a VPN, use direct download or streaming sites. Please y’all just take one pass through on the r/piracy or r/freemediaheckyeah mega threads to find whatever you want for free and also not infect your computer with Trojan viruses.
^^^ yes!!! Thank you sm.
If any of those terms made you go ????? and you think pirating must be So Hard, I wrote a verbose but easy to follow guide a while back for total beginners!
just wanted to remind everyone again not only of the 3,000+ resources offered through our Liberation Library but also of the study guides for beginners offered under each of our social justice topics!
resources can be organized by type (article, novel, podcast, video, etc.) as well as filtered and searched through. we’ve tried to make our system much more accessible than our former platform on google docs so this is such an exciting development to share with everyone.
please share to promote equitable access education!and if you’d like to volunteer with us, check out our open resources committee roles!
REBLOG THIS VERSION! image description by @bonesandblood-sunandmoon below the cut. thank you for writing one!
So you want to make an OC?: A Masterpost of Ways to Create, Develop, and Make Good OCs!
i made this masterpost in hopes that it helps you in making your own OCs ah;; it can also apply to developing RP characters i suppose! if you’d like to add more resources then go for it sugar pea (´ヮ`)!
How to Write Better OCs:
- basic tips on how to make your oc even better
- tragic backstory? learn how to write one/make yours great
- writing specific characters
- a wordier, great guide on how to develop your character
- kick out those vague descriptions and make them AWESOME
Character Development:
- how to actually make an OC
- Q&A (to develop characters)
- more Q&As
- giving your character a backstory
- how to write an attractive character
Diversity
- adding more racial diversity
- avoiding tokenism, AKA, how to add diversity to your cast not just because you “need” it
- writing sexuality and gender expression (doesnt include non binary, if you have a good ref to that, please add on!)
- masterpost on writing more diversity into your story
- cultures of the world
- guides to drawing different ethnicities (not just a great art reference, but also really helpful in appearance descriptions!)
Villains
- villain generator
- need an evil sounding name for your evil character? bam
- villain archetypes
- what’s your villain’s motive for being a villain?
Relationships
- character perceptions (What your character thinks of themselves and what others think of them)
- how to write strong relationships between two characters
- 8 ways to write better characters and develop their relationships with others
- OCxLove Interest Handbook
- develop your couple with good ol’ Q&A!
- how to write realistic relationships
- how to write relatives for your characters (this is more OC related to a canon character, but will help in writing family members in general)
ARCHETYPES
- 12 common archetypes
- 8 archetypes for male/female characters
- female archetypes (goes pretty indepth from two main categories)
- a list of archetypes
NAMES
APPEARANCE
- tips for better design
- basic appearance generator
- pinterest board for character design (includes NSFW and images of skeletons/exposed muscle (?) so tread carefully!)
- clothing ref masterpost
DETAILS
- give your character better powers
- a list of professions
- proactive vs reactive characters
- positive and negative traits
- interest generator
- skills generator
- motivation generator
- 123 ideas for character flaws
- list of phobias
again, this is to help inspire you or help establish your OCs! i hope you get a lot of info and help from this ahh ( ´ ▽ ` )ノ




















