Tuesday

[clevermanka]

Fanart: Found you. Zhao Yunlan surrounded by various Shen Weis. Z1L/BY derivative collaboration!

This look on Zhu Yilong is killing me.ngngngngng. I love how confident he looks in this video.

Twitter thread on how Tumblr has changed fandom interactions.

I share these thoughts on why I'm no longer interested in most western media.

Monday afternoons a friend of mine hosts a Zoom session where we all art together and I spent two and a half hours on the FMP portrait. It really helped to have people chatting around me, be able to show off how I was doing and cheer on the progress of others. Managed to kinda-sorta do some shading and highlights with the acrylic paints--a first for me! It turned out so well I'm not going to airbrush texture over the top of it. So great to have islenskr on the call who'd worked with acrylics and could give me some tips.

I love art days with other people. If I could do that every day this week, I'd be able to finish it by the deadline! Except last night I realized I still gotta photograph it or find a graphics program that'll let me stitch scanned images together. Forgot I don't have access to the resources I did last time I did a large portrait like this. I can take it somewhere to get scanned, but my copy of Photoshop doesn't work anymore and I (once again) gave up on learning GIMP. We'll see if the friend who does amazing photography is available (or if her equipment is available) to help out on that. 🤞

Sometimes I'm overwhelmed by the amazing network of local people I still have surrounding me, even after all this time I've been too ill (and lately, too isolated) to maintain most of those connections. It's not quite the social circle I used to enjoy--I had fifty people show up to my 40th birthday party!--but the ones who remain are so, so good. And I'm doubly-blessed with the wonderful support of y'all on the internet.

Feels good to have people care about me. Feels good to be feeling a little better.

Comments

[riventhorn]

That was an interesting thread about Tumblr's effect on fandom. I'm not sure I buy the argument completely, but I do think it's true that fandom has become much more accessible/easily found as the internet developed, and that probably has had an effect on how younger people interact with it. Although I feel like kink shaming has always been a thing. And also that in the past, slash relationships in and of themselves came in for a certain amount of vitriol. I remember when it was common to warn that your story contained a same-sex romance. Now that is basically a non issue and so more focus goes on the kinks.

[clevermanka]

Agreed, I don't think any single angle encompasses the evolution of something as huge as fandom as a concept. Tumblr was definitely a major catalyst, though, and as much as I love it, I can't deny it can be an absolute garbage fire.

Now that is basically a non issue and so more focus goes on the kinks.
Or the never-ending ~drama~ of the people with Very Firm Opinions On Who Tops.
/o\

[riventhorn]

lolol, that's so true.