antonym-of-synonym:

lazysmirk:

Just in case you forget this exists.

It exists.

Don’t forget these:
X COLOURlovers
X Kuler
X Colorotate
X Pictaculous
X Color Palette Generator

(via kickingshoes)

citrusmalicious:

japanese-revision:

japanese-revision:

Textbooks:

• An Integrated Approach to Intermediate Japanese
• A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar
• A Dictionary of Intermediate Japanese Grammar
• Read Real Japanese Fiction

Dictionaries:

• ALC (I use this everyday)
  →Expression encyclopaedia 
• Goo dictionary
• Weblio
• WWWJDIC (with audio clips)
• JWPce (downloadable dictionary for Windows)
• JEDict (downloadable for Mac users)
• Idiomatic Expressions
• Idioms dictionary [Japanese only]
• Counters dictionary
• Hovering dictionaries: 
  →Rikaikun for Chrome
  →Rikaichan for Firefox
  →Floating Dictionary for Mac
• Current Affairs dictionary

For kanji.

• Jisho (I use this for spelling kanji for if I can’t read it)
• Yamasa (I use this for learning to write)
• A Guide to Remembering Japanese Characters
• Associative Kanji Learning (stroke orders)
  
  

Online reading:

• Hukumusume Fairytales
• 竹取（Bamboo-Cutting） (vertical writing)
• 吉田秀幸の日記（Hideyuki Yoshida’s Diary） (recipes)
• Chokochoko’s reading texts to help with JLPT
• TED Talks (with Japanese subtitles and transcripts)
• Learning through Films [Japanese subtitles/scripts]

Manga.

• Free online manga
• Vomic (free online manga with voice actors)
• Sound Effects (in manga, etc)

Improving your speaking:

• Japanese pronunciation guide
• Interactive Hiragana Pronounciation table
• Topics for Language Exchanges.
• Bubbly (a Twitter-like app where you can record yourself)
• Audioboo (similar to Bubbly, but also a website)

Listening:

• “Real World” Japanese
• 泣きたいときのクスリ 2007 - ‘08 (radio drama)

Writing practice:

• Lang-8
• www.Japan-Guide.com
• 原稿用紙の使い方 (How to write an essay with Japanese writing paper)
• Shiritori (Japanese word-chain game)

News:

• NewsWeb Easy
• NHK News (audio news with speed controls)
• Mainichi Primary School student Newspaper

Podcasts:

• JOQR (Cultural Broadcasting)
• TBS Radio’s Junk
• TOKYO FM

YouTube:

• Afternoon Hirusagari
• Jet Daisuke
• バイリンガール英会話
• Analog TV Forever (collections of adverts)

Japanese sign language.

• Heartful Power Hideo
• Shuwa Island

TV:

• Japanese subtitles for anime
• KeyHole TV (to stream Japanese TV and radio)
• 風雲LIVE日本語（Feng Yun LIVE Japanese） (to stream TV)
• 映画で学ぶ実践英会話

Tumblr:

• Kanji-a-Day
• Holy crap Japanese
• Nihongo ga Suki
• Jumpstart Japanese
• Nihongolog
• Nadine Nihongo
• That Japan Addict
• ChilliMuffin
• Japanese through Fandom
• F-Yeah Native Japanese
• J-Vocab of the Day
• ぶらりめし [Japanese only]
• Peaceful Chef [Japanese only]

Those studying in Japan.

• Japanicking in Yamanashi (at Yamanashi University)
• Samxuel (at Kyushu Sangyo)
• Katy in Japan Town (at NUFS)
• Chocotastie (at Seinan Gakuin)
• Kim in Sapporo (at Hokkaido University)

Blogging:

• Yaplog

Learning websites:

• JapaneseClass.jp
• The Japanese Page
• Tae Kim’s Guide to Learning Japanese
• Erin’s Challenge (with listening and reading practice)
• Maggie Sensei

Other resources:

• Lots of threads with a variety of resources for Japanese learning
• JLPT Resources

I’ve added more to the list since first creating it. As always, if anyone has anything they would like to add, let me know!

I should retake japanese, I want to pass first level JLPT like I’ve always wanted to, at least.

chaperoned:

———————————————————————————————

“Readers tend to like characters who are struggling to achieve a goal. This simple principle can be invaluable in creating sympathetic protagonists.

• Characters working toward a goal are active characters.
• Characters who aren’t working toward a goal are reactive.

Reactive characters are much weaker than active characters, and we tend not to like them. Unfortunately, many writers end up unknowingly creating reactive protagonists.” - Odyssey Writing Tips

———————————————————————————————

PROACTIVE CHARACTERS »»

• A proactive character is a character who does things. They make decisions, they initiate actions, and they are driven by a goal that often makes them pick the wrong decisions and actions.
• This is important because what characters choose to do is going to create your plot. Why they choose to do it will create your stakes. Together, these factors make you invested in a plot.
• Proactive characters drive plot. They don’t just have strong goals; they actively pursue them. That’s one of the reasons people tend to love villains: they have a clear goal, are often centered around the attainment of that goal, and those goals give interesting insights into their personality and choices.
• This makes proactive characters are easier to build around and work with as the plot progresses. You can make plots around their goals and find ways for those goals to lead to new ones.
• You can get away with having reactive characters in literature sometimes because you’re able to rely on secondary characters to drive the plot and impact your character. (If you roleplay, you don’t get this luxury in RP because everything is centered around character interaction.)

———————————————————————————————

WHY IS IT SO IMPORTANT »»

Thehappylogophile has an answer:

“Almost every novel has it: down-time. That moment between the adrenalin-fuelled car chase and the point where the slasher leaps out of the tree-line and drags the protagonist’s boyfriend into the undergrowth. It’s a chance for the characters (and the reader) to take a deep breath and process everything that’s just happened. It’s often the point where characters share information, or plot their next move, or take advantage of the lull in death-dealing to “celebrate the wonder of life”. (Cue the sleazy electric guitar.)

So, how does your character behave in the lull? If she takes the opportunity to sit quietly and cry, or goes along with someone else’s suggestion, or her entire plan revolves around waiting to see what happens next, she’s probably a reactive character.

A proactive character is likely to be the one leading the conversation, making plans that include the theme (if not the words) “the best defense is a good offense”, or even taking the opportunity to return to her pre-story goals.”

What you should take away from this is: when a character isn’t driving the plot, s/he needs to have interesting goals/development outside of the main plot to work towards. This way, your character is always developing over the course of the game and still doing something during downtime instead of sitting idly by.

———————————————————————————————

IS MY CHARACTER REACTIVE »»

“A reactive character is more likely to do what’s “easiest” or “more immediate”. If choosing between two love interests, the reactive character will go with the one in front of him right now. Or the one who tries the hardest to woo him. Or the one that his friends tell him he should go with. Alternately, he won’t make a choice at all — at least, not until he’s either forced to do so by outside events (“Declare your undying love for me, or I’ll start drowning kittens! “) or one of the options is removed (“Now that Laura is dead, you have to love me!”).”

In short, reactive characters don’t make the interesting decisions that give us insights to a person’s personality or develop it.

“A proactive character will make a choice. It may not be the right choice (and often isn’t), but it’s a choice nonetheless: “I’ve considered my options and have decided that I’m really in love with the evil, but incredibly sexy, vampire, and not the sweet girl-next-door who’s always been there for me. How could anything possibly go wrong?”

In roleplay, you can generally characters aren’t reactive when their histories/personality read more like a grocery list of characteristics or events. Proactive characters’ applications are driven by and explore their goals and decisions.

———————————————————————————————

WHY DO PEOPLE MAKE REACTIVE CHARACTERS? HOW CAN I AVOID IT? »»

A big reason people make reactive characters is often because of the method they employ creating characters. Many times, writers will take a sort of Frankenstein approach — mixing and mashing character traits and then try to flesh them out. They say my character has x, y, and z trait. S/he has these traits because of a, b, and c.

Don’t do that. That approach generally does not work (unless mixed with others). It wastes your time and doesn’t get at the heart of the issues.

Sure, that can be a good approach to generate ideas. However, unless you find a conflict to base those traits around or use them to further that conflict, no one is going to be invested in your character or have a good idea of how these traits manifest and, most importantly, why.

If you need a formula to follow, try starting with:

• In order of importance, what are the five most important things to your character and why? (make note of conflicting wants and goals)

Tie in information about your character’s deeper motivations. Try to think about where your character’s sense of worth comes from, who they’re trying to impress and why, which of their own (or others’) priorities these might clash with, what characters may believe others want, their goals/values and how they were established, re-occurring problems in your character’s life (jealousy, financial issues, etc.), what sort of person other characters believe yours is, in what ways your character is uniquely selfish, your character’s opinion of him/herself, your character’s ambitions, what your character works to gain/protect, etc. If you’re having trouble, try this resource.

• Ex. Being liked. It is important to my character that he is liked. Peter struggled with it as a child because of his romantic involvement with his  goldfish, leading other children to think he was strange. He can be somewhat sycophant because of this and tries to secure that he is liked by making himself valuable to others even when it can be damaging to himself and those around him.

and/or

•  Character Name   wants to accomplish these three goals: being more   character trait  , obtaining   status symbol  , and protecting his/her ______. S/he wants to accomplish these things because s/he values ___, ___, and ___. S/he is driven to accomplish them because s/he is   good/bad trait   and   good/bad trait   and isn’t above doing _____ and ____ to get these things, which makes him/her   good/bad trait  ,   good/bad trait  , and   good/bad trait   (or makes other people view him/her that way).

Don’t use really broad, universal traits. If you’re using characteristics like those mentioned here (reserved, trusting, critical, etc.), it might mean you’re being too broad. Saying your character is angry or selfish, for example, fails to give insight into what that says about your character. Everyone is selfish and angry — just to varying degrees and because of various factors. For example, in this episode of Awkward Black Girl (which is an amazing webseries if you haven’t seen it), the main character Jae is sent to anger management. The characters in her anger management session go around saying why they’re there, and Jay (different character) shows how this gives insight to the things they care about. Pete gets angry when time is left on a microwave and not cleared because he cares about time management, Jae has an outburst when someone doesn’t return her stapler because she wants to feel respected.

My favorite trick to generate ideas for a character application is asking myself:

• How is my character   broad characteristic   (ex. uniquely selfish)? It helps you focus in on a goal, gain insight to what they value, and develop specific ways their characteristics manifest.

The key to creating proactive characters is to have them become involved in solving their own problems/accomplishing their goals, rather than depend on others to solve them. If you want an example, you can go here, where you can read through an author’s personal attempt to make her character more proactive.

———————————————————————————————

WHAT IF I’M ALREADY DOING IT? »»

(The first step is admitting you have a problem.)

The number one reason players get bored in roleplay or feel “stuck” with what they’re writing is because of something editors deem “episodic writing”. Cheryl Wyatt describes it as happening when “one scene happens then another and another and so on but there is really no point to the scenes”.

It happens when you lose sight of your character’s goals and how you want to develop him or her. (The reason people get so invested in relationship lines in roleplay is because it’s a quick and easy way to create goals and because there are pre-established milestones you can develop your character around. This development is often generic but satisfying as players are more invested in the stakes.)

Episodic writing happens for two reasons: 1) your character is reactive or 2) you’ve lost sight of your goals for your character and you’re letting them be reactive when they have a number of things established that would make them proactive. For example, your scenes/characters might read like this. You can see another great example of a problematic storyline here.

Additionally, you might be limiting the scope of how your character can develop and need to branch out more. Or you’re not thinking through ways you can accomplish the goals you’ve established for your character going in.

How do you fix it? Give your character a goal - or better yet, several goals. Let your character need help accomplishing those goals. This helps you develop character relationships, helps you develop your character (especially when you tie in weaknesses, values, etc.), and gives your character something to do. BAM! it really is that simple.

What kind of goal? There are some amazing resources here.

Then, you can have those goals lead to more and more negative consequences. It’s a bit like that book If You Give A Mouse A Cookie, where a little problem can lead to big ones.

One of the best examples I’ve read (but can’t find the link to) is this:

• Jane has become obsessed with growing a certain type of flower to spite her smug neighbor. Despite her best efforts, the flower won’t grow. She tries buying an expensive fertilizer online. She doesn’t realize that buying it has set her back $20 and her checking account is now on a negative. If she doesn’t pay rent, she’ll be kicked out. And on and on and on. Through this, you can help develop your character’s traits. For example, if Jane is too prideful to ask someone for money, this could result in character growth.

Jane is interesting because Jane is proactive. She actively works to grow that mfing flower. Her bad decision/goal leads to other bad decisions/goals.

Tada. You’re now well on your way to making your characters more proactive.

See also: Quick & Dirty Guide To Improving Your Writing

(via lawlspy)

tiffy11taffy:

demidojang:

troy-artlog:

How to Make Your Art Look Nice: Contrast by Trotroy

I suddenly had an urge to make a tutorial. Here’s the one I did for my dA. NOW FORMATTED FOR TUMBLR.

HUE

Troy’s a boss.

i can never stress enough the importance of contrast of values in an artwork. my teacher always emphasized it, and it’s really made a huge difference in my work :3

(via heysawbones)

robotlyra:

worddocs:

Writers, when penning scenes in which two or more characters are of the same gender, often encounter the problem of how to distinguish one person from the other. If everyone is a “she” or a “he,” how is the audience to know which character is doing or saying what and when?

As I’ve often noticed in slash fanfic, writers have the tendency to twist their prose into knots, trying to accomplish this in a “creative” fashion. If I had a nickel for every time Tony Stark was referred to as “the billionaire,” or “the resident genius” in fanfic, I’d be sipping Mai Tais off the coast of Florida instead of running this blog. “But Dr. E,” you might say, “if I don’t use descriptors, how will my readers ever understand who’s doing what in my story?”

Well, here are a few tips that may help you:

Read More

I really need to break out of the “identifying a character with a descriptive noun” habit myself. You’ve never known the true depths of awkwardness until you’ve attempted to pen Transformers erotica and found yourself reverting to describing characters by their alt-modes. And the altmode ISN’T a vehicle.

tooraloora:

I have a lot of feelings on this subject, so I’m going to share them with you beneath this cut.

Read More

Very good advice for those with this dilemma.

kastiakbc:

sixmilliondeadinternets:

A.K.A. “Pato is autistic and shows off his massive collection of saved links”

Have a seat, get a cup of coffee and sit through this. Hopefully you won’t regret it. This is mostly about illustration, by the way.

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FREQUENTLY ASKED BULLSHIT

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• “WHICH TABLET SHOULD I BUY?”

Get the cheapest shit available. If you’re in America/Europe a Wacom Bamboowhatever apparently does the trick. If you’re anywhere else get the cheaper-end Genius ones because Wacom tablets are expensive in every place that’s not the first world. Getting a $600 tablet will not make you magically improve and it’s a goddamn waste of money. Too poor for tablets? Start with a damn pencil.

• “POORFAG HERE, CAN’T AFFORD PHOTOSHOP/SAI, WHAT THE FUCK DO I DO?”

This is the Internet, pirate the shit out of them! Here’s a list of freeware programs you could use, because pirating is bad, mkay.

For general illustration:

• GIMP - Non-shitty, open-source Photoshop Clone.
• Paint.NET - If you are somehow too dumb for Photoshop clones here’s something easy to use.
• Flowpaint - Even simpler.
• Inkscape - Apparently good for things like vector art.
• Artweaver - Get the free version which kind of sucks but otherwise decent.
• Chibipaint - Sounds weeaboo as fuck The best thing out there for oekaki, or so they say.
• Will add more as I find them.

For 3D modelling and such:

• Sculptris - 3D sculpting for dummies

More links coming SOON! (Soon: Duke Nukem Forever).

• “I’M TOO MUCH OF A FAILURE I WILL NEVER IMPROVE”

Spoilers: Improvement will take a long time, specially more if you’re self-taught. Improvement requires dedication and consistenct in your learning. Don’t expect to get great if you’ve just started, and don’t expect greatness in the first year or so either. Save the shit you draw so in the future you can notice that progress has indeed been made.

If you still think you’ll never improve just look at this and realize how wrong you are. Now, if you think you’ll instantly be as cool as that guy, look at this and realize that you still have a long way to go.

• “I HAVE ARTIST’S BLOCK WHAT DO”

Artist’s Block is a very complicated thing but the underlying reason is either lack of creativity, acedia or just a towering pile of bullshit. The best way to treat it is to take up theoretical drawing (anatomy studies, for example) and treat it as a chore. If you need ideas look for the Ideas Generators section below.

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NOW, ONTO THE ACTUAL LIST THING.

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All links taken without permission but I’m sure nobody minds a bit of publicity.

BOOKS

• /ic/’s Recopilation - A 4.2GB books torrent. FUCKING GET IT. (The torrent description also has a list for more books, check those out too)
• Another comprehensive torrent - This one is over 5GB. It’s literally considered the Holy Grail and you should also get this if you can.
• Conceptart’s Recopilation - More art books.
• Why can’t I, hold all these books? - ~75 more books yo.
• LOOMIS LOOMIS LOOMIS LOOMIS
• The New Drawing on The Right Side of the Brain - A must have in artsyfartsyfaggy circles. It’s also in the torrents.
• Burne Hogarth’s Dynamic Anatomy - Pretty sure it’s in the torrents but I know somebody will ask for it separately.
• Eliot Goldfinger’s Human Anatomy For Artists - Another well-known book about anatomy.
• MORE BOOKS JESUS CHRIST WHERE ARE THEY COMING FROM 
• OKAY THESE ARE THE LAST BOOKS I’LL LINK I SWEAR

This is actually more than enough to get you started when it comes to getting books. Saying that the amount of books here is FUCKING MASSIVE would be an understatement.

A PRACTICAL APPROACH TO GESTURE DRAWING

• The Drawing Script - Selects from a database random images of animals, people, scenery, faces, etc.
• Figure & Gesture Drawing Tool - Read above.
• Posemaniacs - Poses IN ASTONISHING 3D MOFOS. Apparently criticized for not showing correct muscle movement, but otherwise okay for static stuff.
• Keep this in mind while gesture drawing.

Simple practice method for the aimless artfag: Open any of the first two links, and choose a distinct category (For example, faces). Tell it to switch every 10 minutes if possible; else, get a timer. Fire it up and start drawing what you see. The idea is that you should stop after 10 minutes and move onto the next one, no matter how incomplete it is. Repeat until your art gets showcased in the Louvre.

COLOR THEORY AND MISCELLANEOUS COLORING FOR THE MASSES

• Mandatory Conceptart.com link about Color Theory - These guys are so awesome I can’t even begin to explain.
• The Dimensions of Colour - Light, shade, and COLORS explained in a non-horrible yet convoluted way.
• Light and Color by Itchy Animation - Perhaps not as convoluted as the one above. Still decent.
• How I see color - Not mine, obviously. A quite lengthy dA tutorial in Flash.
• Example dA way on coloring - Needs some knowledge about Photoshop.
• Coloring Tutorial@dA - Read above, this one is much more comprehensive and pretty.
• Color is Value - Handy as a tips reference, not much else really.
• Celshading for weeaboos by weeaboos - COMIC SAAAAAAAANS
• And yet another Coloring Tutorial! 
• Color Scheme picker - If you’re too dumb to pick colors this does the job.

ANATOMY AND GENERAL HUMAN BODY STUFF

• Drawing the Head - Ron Lemen at (obviously!) Conceptart.com.
• HANDS HANDS HANDS at Posemaniac - FUCKING HANDS HOW DO THEY WORK
• Dragon Paint Art Tutorials: Human Body - A quick, yet extremely incomplete nosedive into drawing the body.
• The Big Guide into Drawing the Body - A technical kick in the balls, yet comprehensive enough.
• Basic pose and construction in Figure Drawing - Conceptualizes the shape of the body from stickfigures to 3D shapes and then holy dongs it’s a human body.
• Kitten-chan’s Body Tutorial - Don’t let the name fool you.
• Understanding Anatomy - The “Anatomy for Dummies” of deviantArt. Must see.
• I’ve got to Hand it to you - Great hand tutorial based on the concept of drawing organic figures out of 3D shapes.
• Muscles!
• How do I drawed hair lol - Hardly complete or good, but decent as a quick guide.

PERSPECTIVE

• Why can’t I hold all these Conceptart.com threads - Great to test waters in the wonders of perspective.
• Perspective and Composition - dA tutorials, dA tutorials errywhere.
• Perspective by Sashas - THE TUTORIALS WILL NEVER STOP THE TUTORIALS WILL NEVER STOP

GENERAL REFERENCES

• /hr/@4chan - High resolution images. We’re all grownups here, so you shouldn’t worry about tits.
  
• Photo Reference for Comic Artists - Self-explanatory.
• Senshistock@dA - A deviantArt account just for the sake of uploading references for the glorious proletariat.
• Tasastock@dA - Pretty much the same as above.
• Metlys@dA - Ditto.
• Tursiart@dA - Ditto, more oriented at medieval stuff.
• /ic/’s reference collection - Recopilaception.
• Artsyposes - POSES POSES POSES
• Lackadaisy’s Expressions - Cats or no cats, this is extremely handy.
• Lockstock@dA - Nude references and shit.
• Nude pics errwhere

LOOSE BUNCH OF VARIOUS CRAP

• /ic/ Thread 1 - Collection of tutorial images.
• /ic/ Thread 2 - Humongous thread with a crapload of links. A must-see.
• Manga to Realistic (dA) - A Twelve-Part walkthrough that dips your toes into realistic illustrations aimed at people with a weeaboo background.

GENERAL ART WEBSITES AND TUTORIALS

• /ic/’s Resource Site - To be honest most of the stuff in here was taken from this place, but there’s also a pile full of more useful things there so check it out too.
• Iconnucrit’s Resources - Down at the time of this writing, but decent from what I remember.
• How to Draw 123 - Too much information doesn’t hurt I guess.
• Oh Conceptart you card - So many tutorials!
• Improvement Center @ dA - Gallery of things that will help you… well, improve.
• Tutorial House @ dA - Read above.
• Stanislav Prokopenko’s Tutorials - Guy’s an instructor or something. 

ILLUSTRATION TECHNIQUES

• The Penciling Tutorial - A quite famous tutorial on “how do I penciled lol”
• Lineart by Sashas - This guy is bloody famous or something.
• How to Speedpaint - I don’t quite agree with this but it seems to work for others.

TEXTURES, BRUSHES AND ALL THAT JAZZ

• CG Textures - Massive collection of free textures. Also tutorials.

IDEA GENERATORS

• /r/sketchdaily@Reddit - A new idea to draw everyday.
• Just go here and pick one of the links.

ART COMMUNITIES

• Conceptart.com - These guys are fucking sweet.
• DeviantArt - Well, think about it. It is an art community after all.

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If you want me to add something, please notify me through my /ask. Be sure to check back often as I’ll be adding more things.

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(via fireandshellamari)

helpyoudraw:

click on the pictures for HQ

(via exxac)

characterdesign101:

Link to full size, it’s a big one

I said I have a lot of thoughts about shoes and the woeful mistakes even seasoned professional artists make with them, and I wasn’t kidding. Here’s a lot of words about high heels, in a constructive way. 

Courtesy of talesfromtheend

(via anoia)

tobediff:

Part 2 of 2!

The next tutorial will be on drawing clothing.

(via heysawbones)