Indigo Galaxies

Pick a bottle any bottle lol

I recently read an article about a therapy group for depressed people who had all attempted suicide at some point. The breakthrough question for them was, “If your goal was to be just as miserable as possible, what would you do?” Most of them listed things like not getting enough sleep, or isolating themselves from everyone… the list goes on, but the point is, they listed things they already do. But now they saw those “coping mechanisms” for what they really were: things that were actively making their condition worse.

I read that article at 2:00 AM, asked myself, am I TRYING to be miserable tomorrow? And it was easier than usual to put my phone down and fall asleep. Even my intrusive “lying down” thoughts about meaninglessness and existential dread were easier to suppress when I framed them as things I’d think about to purposefully make myself feel as awful as possible.

Fuck that is helpful

if you feel bad for no reason, that’s scary and frustrating. if you MAKE yourself feel bad, it’s okay, because you’re in control. except if you’re in control, maybe you should try to make yourself feel good, even if that’s scarier because it might not work.

scary and good is, actually, better for you long term than predictably bad.

Warming up with a ghostly doodle 👀

楽俊

Rakushun - the Twelve Kingdoms

Leaf ghosts

!! #//FLASH WARNING//# !!

A little Danny Phantom Animation I whipped up for the halloween season, also got to learn some After Effects! 

A spider in my bedroom.

Une araignée dans ma chambre.

stained glass forest

Spidey Sense vs Ghost Invisibility

Danny is visiting NYC with his fam for a ghost convention or something (as one does) and decides to do some sightseeing. 

by Erisiar

雪花

watercolour

that specific and very surreal emotion when youre in a genuinely SPECTACULAR mood bc youre indulging a lot in your hyperfixation but, separate from that, youre having a lot of trouble keeping up w a basic self care routine and simple responsibilities bc you just cant bring yourself to care much about them, so you have this background radiation of feeling kinda lazy and useless but you don’t actually think about it consciously much bc you’re too busy having fun hyperfixating

Heyyy I’m surprised and glad to see in the notes of this that I’ve apparently put words to something that people have trouble putting words to, but I wanna add something a little more productive to this as well.

My experiences aren’t universal but this is how I deal with it when I get caught in the Fun-Unproductive spiral, as someone with ADHD.

What’s something manageably small that you can quickly do towards ONE responsibility/health need? - Quickly washing your face? - Drinking one glass of water? - Eating something easy, like peanut butter, or a bit of cheese or lunchmeat? - Checking your messages from your friends? - Looking at Canvas? - Checking your e-mail?

How can you make it as easy on yourself as possible? - Listen to music or watch a video you like while you do it? - Doing a task from your phone, so there’s no extra steps (getting up, turning on computer)?

Get rid of imaginary limits. - Do you think you have to do this at a certain time? Odds are, you could do it right now anyways. (i.e. brushing your teeth in the middle of the day, ‘cause that’s when you remembered, still gets some plaque off!) - Do you feel you have to do this in a certain place? Try doing it somewhere new (more fun, or more comfy, or just closer to where you are right now). - Do you think “I have/want to finish [blank] first”? It’s probably inconvenient (I know how it gets with momentum), but it might be for the best to contradict that this time! - Do you think “I have to do this with NO DISTRACTIONS”? Maybe this is an exception. Not starting at all is less than patchy progress.

If you still find yourself shrugging things off in favor of continuing to hyperfocus…

…stop and consider how you’re thinking about “what you’re supposed to be doing.” - Are you focusing on how “late” you are to start? - Or how bad you feel that this “should be easy” for you? - Do you keep saying you should do better/more? - Is it difficult to even think about?

You should be able to comfortably think about the things you need to do.

It took me years to realize that my brain doesn’t HAVE to be a dichotomy between feeling so guilty I shut down completely, or jumping from distraction to distraction to make life bearable until I “inevitably” crash and burn.

Try to push yourself to focus instead on…

…demystifying obligations. - What you do or don’t do in this situation is just an action, not anything more. - What people may think of the way you go about things isn’t as important as just making sure you aren’t hurting yourself right now. - You will physically feel better if you take a break. - What did you do first the last time you needed to do this thing? - How did you feel the last time you did this? Why?

…detaching your sense of self worth from the situation. - You’re not bad or gross or lazy for struggling this way. - (I think a lot of simple “No, you’re not’s” at myself like this.) - You don’t deserve to be punished. - You’re not screwing up something “easy,” because it’s not easy for you. - It doesn’t matter who’s fault it is, what matters is doing what you can for your wellbeing.

oh hey new guide thinggg~ some basics on how to practice! there’s SO much I could add to this, so it’s just the basics :O

short (kind of): there’s more to practice than doing something repeatedly, it’s also learning new things, problem solving, and honest critique. Each of those is its own skill…also be nice to yourself!

Illustrations by Pauline Baynes (1922-2008) for THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA.

Some experimental The Chronicles of Narnia illustrations I did in my uni. I wanted to draw the most memorable landscapes from each book as I imagined them in my childhood. Tried to do some experiments with style and practice more in drawing environments¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

Linguini and Remy.  

Some old Danny Phantom stuff, because it’s October and I saw that some of my Danny Phantom artwork as going around. 

90% of writing advice can be thrown out the window for your first draft.

Show don’t tell? Ignore.

Basic grammar and punctuation? Unnecessary. 

Physical descriptions of characters? Don’t need to bother. 

Solid plot? That’s for later. 

The words don’t come as fast when you’re thinking of the best way to put them together. It doesn’t have to be pretty, or much more than inconsistent nonsense.  The point is to have it exist.

Effective storytelling is for subsequent drafts! Go write some nonsense! 

As a hyper-perfectionist human, THIS is a piece of advice I wish I’d internalized a hell of a lot sooner. If I hadn’t overwhelmed myself by considering every little thing, starting over when it gets “too messy”… there’s no doubt in my mind I’d have a first draft by now.

Now, passion is the only thing I care about in my first draft.

when i’m writing fiction, the main rule i try to stick to is that: the first draft is where i write what’s important to me.

this usually means character arcs and deep ethical and political debates for me, but for some people it’s gonna be physical description or in-depth plotting or Whatever

your subsequent drafts are where you fill in the gaps and make things make sense, but that first draft should be everything you personally care about, and don’t worry much about the rest