I Have Recentlytonight Discovered That Devientart Aka My Go-to For Almost Everythinghas A Bunch Of Really

I have recently tonight discovered that Devientart aka my go-to for almost everything has a bunch of really good prompts posts. So I found a bunch of nice, open ended lists that can be interpreted any number of ways. I bolded my personal favorites. So enjoy. God knows the community could improve their writing.

25 Prompts Challenge Version: 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08

250 Erotic Prompts

75 Prompts

Prompts

435 Writing Prompts

100 Art and Writing Prompts

10 Writing Prompts

Writing Prompts 2

100 Writing Prompts

1000 Prompts

15 Writing Prompts

70 Writing Prompts

20 Writing Prompts

100 Writing Prompts

My 31 Writing Prompts

100 Writing Prompts

Writing Prompts

From all the spam that’s going around in this tag, I felt like I needed to do a bit of service to this wonderful fan base and recommend tons of noteworthy fics and authors! Do check out their Ao3 profile for more of your viewing pleasure (some even have their tumblr links listed, so follow them too!) Apologies ahead of time for the long post.  Enjoy! 

General Characteristics of fanfiction recommended: Levi/Erwin Smith AS THE MAIN PAIRING, mainly fluff, mainly smut (some PWP), equal amounts of fluff & smut, NSFW, angst, origin/backstory canon, reincarnation, “the daddy kink,” all Archive of our Own fics (except 2), elements of BDSM, Marriage, Domestic, various AUs

INDIVIDUAL WORKS: direct links to author and fanfic

Audacity by Shoi – THE origin fic that probably every Eruri fan has read so far. Incomplete; updated regularly  (at least three times a month); Multichapter. 

Lessons in Waiting by tennou – Student(Levi)/Teacher(Erwin) AU.  Incomplete; updated regularly (at least twice a month); Multichapter. Has other eruri fics, such as An Intimate Friendship (Complete, One-chapter)

Don’t Play Jesus by GuessWhat – Drug addiction Modern AU. Incomplete; updated rarely; Multichapter. 

Gilded by the Night by rivai-lution – Prostitution AU.  Incomplete; updated regularly (at least three times a month); Multichapter. 

meditation (i thought of you) by coinseller – WW2 AU. Complete. Multichapter.  

Now, Forever by Kuri – Reincarnation AU.  Complete. One chapter. 

Road Rage by longlostwriter – Driving school AU w/ teenager(Levi) and driving school instructor(Erwin).  Incomplete; updated regularly (at least three times a month); Multichapter. 

Filth by clautchy – Origin story.  Incomplete; updated often. Multichapter. 

Levi’s Marriage (The Ring) – Afterstory; warning: you will probably cry a lot. Complete. Author link in doc. 

AUTHORS: direct links to their Shingeki no Kyojin tag and notable fanfic examples.  *ALL ERURI FICS UNDER THE AUTHORS ARE RECOMMENDED*

**CHECK THEIR TAGS IF IT FITS YOUR INTERESTS**

daphnerunning – author of Just a Job (prostitution AU) and more.  Incomplete; Hasn’t updated in a while. Multichapter.  

Cherry – author of Coup de Grace (Afterstory, Incomplete; updated regularly. Multichapter) and more. 

ero_hime – author of The Happiness You Deserve (married Levi/Erwin domestic, Incomplete; updated regularly. Multichapter) and more. 

orphan_account – author of Nothing Heals Quietly (rewritten form of what was once “Don’t Get Precious;” student(Levi)/teacher(Erwin) AU. Incomplete; Multichapter) and more – The Taste of Grave in the Mouth (Zombie AU, Incomplete; Multichapter.), Detriment (modern Orphan(Levi) AU. Incomplete; Multichapter). All updated rarely. 

sassanids – author of THE pirate AU Kindle and Char (Incomplete; updated regularly. Multichapter) and much more.  Also the author of just hold on tight and let me do my dance (daddy kink fic. Incomplete; hasn’t been updated in a while. Multichapter)

7dragons7 – author of Wings of Silver and Blue (origin fic. Incomplete; updated regularly. Multichapter) and more.   

NanakiBH – author of Retrospective (daddy kink. Incomplete; updated regularly. Multichapter). Various one-chapter fics. 

SPooK – author of all your BDSM needs and more. Updates regularly. Various complete, one-chapter and short multichapter fics. 

InstantPsycho – author of Tentative (BDSM fic.  Incomplete; updated regularly. Multichapter) and more. Various complete, one-chapter fics.

Kittypistol, Vee – authors of Big Dumb (Levi/Erwin as roommates. Incomplete; updated regularly. Multichapter). Check out the authors for their own individual works!

13th, Memos – authors of Take You To The Coffeeshop (Coffee Shop AU. Incomplete; updated regularly. Multichapter). On a personal note, perhaps my favorite Eruri fic of all time. Check out the authors for their own individual works!

stereobone – author of I’m Only Going to Heaven (If it Feels Like Hell) and more. THE Eruri sugar daddy kink fic (Complete; one long chapter).  Various complete, one-chapter fics.

animehead – author of Blood Desire (Vampire AU. Complete; one chapter) and more. Various complete, one-chapter fics.

LionAmongTheSheep – author of A very drunken Corporal  (Complete; one chapter) and more. Few complete, one-chapter fics. 

gunpowderlatte – author of various complete, fluffy one-chapter fics. 

thefangirlingdead – author of A Twist of Fate (Reincarnation AU. Incomplete; updated regularly. Multichapter) and more. Various complete, one-chapter fics.

thanatopsis – author of various complete, one-chapter fics.

eightminutes – author of Nostalgia: I Wandered Home Saying Your Name (Tattoo artist Levi. Incomplete; On Hiatus. Multichapter). Various complete, one-chapter fics.

NezuPezu – author of various fluffy, one-chapter fics.

andtheheir – author of Find Hell With Me and Vice (Origin stories. Complete; both contain one long chapter. 

cosmonaut_field – author of A Different Kind of Sugar (sugar daddy Erwin AU. Incomplete; updates regularly. Multichapter). Various one-chapter and multichapter fics. 

bandanaye – author’s writing tag. Contains Rich boy Erwin and foster child Levi (Incomplete, multichapter).

How I Afford Travel

Badass trips on a not-so-badass budget. 

Many travel blogs are written by people who’ve sold all their possessions and have taken a huge plunge into the world of long-term travel. This can sound expensive at first, but when you consider that you don’t have rent or a car payment in this lifestyle (or much room to carry any possessions), it can actually be very cheap to live this way, provided you can work a little along the way, or do some kind of virtual freelancing or contract work.

I’m not one of those people.

I do have rent to pay, and a car payment, and bills, and the trappings of a fairly typical middle class young urban professional life. I have a cat. I work in a cubicle. I like some amount of routine, and sleeping in my own bed. I have a ladder to climb, that I want to climb. 

I also don’t have a ton of free income to spend on travel.

Despite all this, in the past 2 years I’ve managed to visit 9 cities in 4 countries (Colombia, Jordan, Egypt, Spain) and very soon I’ll be off to visit 7 more cities in 3 countries (Italy, Croatia, and Spain again — I love Spain), a 17 day trip; a few weeks after I return, I’m off again on a small trip to Mexico for a wedding. When I’m done, that’s 16 cities, 7 countries, in just 2 years. Not much for the permanent nomad, but a lot for someone who’s expected to be at work by 9am every weekday.

When people find out how much I travel, some imagine I must have a lot of spare income or be a trust fund baby. I keep encountering this perception — especially among Americans — that travel is this huge undertaking that is incredibly expensive. Well, it sure can be, if you choose to make it that way. But if you step outside this perception, and do some research, you’ll find that it really doesn’t have to be that way. Travel can be affordable, if you plan for it and prioritize it in your life.

Here’s how I do it:

1. Flights. By far, this can be the single most expensive purchase of your trip. A coach round trip ticket from the US to Europe usually runs anywhere from $700-1200 on average, depending on the season. The trick is: don’t buy your ticket with actual money. Buy it with fake money called points or miles. A few years ago, I strategically opened 2 different credit cards (one an AmEx, one a British Airways Visa) with unusually crazy high enrollment bonuses. Within just a few months’ time I went from 0 miles to 50,000 AmEx points (redeemable for airline miles on at least a 1:1 basis) and 100,000 British Airways miles. Keep in mind, BA is part of the OneWorld alliance, so I can book with other airlines using these miles. In just a few months’ time, with 2 credit cards (that didn’t hurt my credit, by the way) I earned enough miles to take 3 international round trip flights — without ever stepping on an airplane. I got the AmEx points simply for opening the card, and I earned the BA miles after spending $2500 in 3 months, which wasn’t that hard for me because I strategically put ALL my expenses on the card for 3 months. 

The trick is knowing which cards to open. These cards usually aren’t well advertised, so you’ll have to do your research. A few good resources to get you started:  Unconventional Guides: Frequent Flyer Master by Chris Guillebeau. This is actually the first resource I used to learn more about travel hacking. If you’re a total newb, as I was, this is the best introduction to the world of frequent flyer miles that exists. But it’s not overly simplistic; there are a ton of insider tricks and tools in here that I haven’t even taken advantage of yet. This guide is the reason I earned 150,000 miles without stepping foot on an airplane. FrugalTravelGuy.com This is a great blog for those interested in staying up to date on the latest frequent flyer news and credit card offers.

FlyerTalk.com This is a forum for the serious hardcore travel hackers — the credit card “churners” who sometimes earn up to 1 million miles a year doing this. FlyerTalk can be intimidating at first if you’re new to all this, so I’d recommend starting from the top and working your way down.

2. Rooms. Very rarely do I stay in what most Americans think of as a “hotel” when I travel abroad. Many travel hackers and frequent business travelers are loyal to a certain brand of hotel, especially those with their own reward points systems, which earn them free stays (and yes, there are credit cards for this too). These can be a great value and I do participate in a few programs like Hilton HHonors for stateside bookings. For my international trips, however, I prefer everyday price flexibility, so I book a variety of inexpensive, off the beaten path accommodation types — and none of them involve splitting a room with strangers, camping (not counting the bedouin camp I stayed with in Petra, which I did for the experience and not the savings), or couchsurfing. A lot of people associate budget travel with roughing it, but it is possible to be comfortable. In fact, by avoiding the beaten path, I usually have a less expensive, equally as comfortable, and more interesting cultural experience. Most of my international trips have involved staying at a combination of private rooms at hostels, small independently owned hotels, bed & breakfasts, and private apartments.

Hostelworld.com This room search and booking site will expand your idea of what a hostel can be. Often you’ll find that smaller, inexpensive and independent hotels will list rooms on Hostelworld even if they have a website and brand themselves as a hotel or bed & breakfast. You can search for rooms nearly anywhere in the world, filter by room type (most hostels have private bedrooms, some with private bathrooms and some with shared bathrooms), location (there’s a handy map view), price and more. It’s also low risk - you just pay a small 10% down payment when you book and the rest when you check in. I’ve stayed in some very nice hostels for a fraction of the cost of an equal quality hotel and it’s one of the first places I look when I start planning a trip.

Booking.com This is a rising star in the online travel booking world for hotels. Based in Amsterdam, they are one of my top sources for rooms in Europe (though they offer rooms in several other parts of the world too). Booking.com’s strength is their breadth of rooms available; you can find a variety of low-cost, tiny, independently owned hotels that will be difficult or impossible to find elsewhere. They even offer free cancellation on many rooms. Their pricing also cannot be beat — sometimes I even find rooms that are less expensive than hostels!

Airbnb.com I am a huge fan of this service. A major disruptor to the online travel booking industry, Airbnb offers you the ability to reserve a room in a private apartment directly through someone who lives and is local to the place you’re going. You can book entire apartments or just spare bedrooms, allowing you the choice between having a cozy place all to yourself or staying with — and getting to know— a local, something that may not have happened otherwise (and my most memorable trips have been those in which I connected with locals while I was there). A few other perks can involve more amenities than a budget hostel or hotel may offer, such as the ability to wash your own laundry or cook your own food if you need to (it is an apartment, after all). I travel for 2 weeks at a time when possible (more on that later), and I pack only a carry-on. After a week like that, a washing machine is an unexpectedly welcome blessing. You’ll also get to feel more like a local, even if you never meet your host. You’re staying in a neighborhood, not a commercial, touristy zone. There’s a lot to be said for that. Finally, I love their website. Not only very easy to use and socially integrated, the design is beautiful. I love flipping through the home slideshow of gorgeous apartments on offer. It’s interior design porn at its most authentic — these are real peoples’ homes!

3. Timing and trip length. I would be remiss to say that the above 2 factors are the only methods I use to travel to so many places affordably. The fact is, I can say I fit in 16 cities and 7 countries in 2 years because of how many of those cities and countries I manage to pack into a single trip. In 2011, I did only a 1-week trip to Colombia. In 2012, I did a 17-day trip to Jordan, Egypt, and Spain. This year, I’ll do another 17-day trip (that’s essentially 12 vacation days) to Italy, Croatia, and Spain. Considering all the places within those countries I travel to in each trip, I typically pack up and move on every 2-3 days. That’s not a lot of time in each place! Just enough to visit the major sites, take in the atmosphere, and decide if I’m intrigued enough to return someday to make a longer trip of it.

This pace is not for everyone, but it works for me. I’m restless, and like squeezing every drop out of my precious vacation days. Plus, nothing’s worse than booking 5 days in a place you’ve never been, only to arrive and find out you’re bored after 1 day and it’s too late to make any changes. I intend to see the world, and I have to do it in 2 weeks per year. So, I compromise. It can be a little tiring, but I don’t take these trips necessarily to relax — I take them to recharge in other ways. Travel is my passion and I crave new cultural experiences. My worldview has expanded a little more each time I set foot on US soil again; this is creative fuel to the fire of everything I do, from painting to marketing strategy. That’s why I’m determined to prioritize it, even with a limited budget. For those who’ve also been bitten by the travel bug, you get it. The rest of the world will go on thinking that we’re rich, and I suppose that’s fine.

At the Hotel Oriental Rivoli in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt. Somewhat fancy, resort-style digs. About $60/night.

Today I gave my students a quick presentation on some of the basic considerations for composition, which I am now sharing with you! I’ve given them separate talks about color and tonal value/contrast, which are also super important compositional concerns. (I’ll be sharing those presentations too once I properly format them)

I personally love learning about different compositional techniques. It’s fun to think about the ways that the brain views & sorts images, and how we can trick it into feeling a certain way or looking at certain aspects of an image first! It’s easy to fall into compositional ruts (which I am also guilty of) because a lot of art gets by with mediocre, though serviceable, compositions. If you can generally understand what’s happening in an image then it’s generally fine. However, it’s the truly great compositions, where everything in the whole image has been considered and ‘clicks’ together, that bump up an illustration to a visual slam dunk. NC Wyeth is one of my favorite artists for this reason: his compositions are rock solid, varied based on the image’s intent, and always enhance the mood or action he is depicting.

For extra reading, some online compositional resources that I’ve found helpful or interesting include: Creative Illustration by Andrew Loomis (download it for FREE. Such a great book all-around.) Gurney Journey (check out the “Composition” tag, but really everything he posts is great) The Schweitzer guide to spotting tangents Cinemosaic (a blog by Lou Romano with some truly WONDERFUL compositions captured from various films) Where to Put the Cow by Anita Griffin

Happy composition-ing!

Process gif of my entry for this contest. I really need your help! If you simply FB like my image you can help me win a new tablet!! 

Please vote for my entry Retro Jinx by ethdraws!!

So I didn't realize your taste in music was as fantastic as your artwork. If you don't mind, what songs did you use in your livestream from the 20th?

Ital Tek - Fireflies

Ital Tek - Violet

Ricky Eat Acid - It Will Draw Me Over to it Like it Always Does

Virtual Boy - Sandias

Virtual Boy - Let Go

Everything Everything - Awe/Arc

Hidden Orchestra - Undergrowth

Bjork - Storm

Cid Rim - Extended Ranges

Colin Stetson - The Stars in His Head

Dorian Concept - Her Tears Taste Like Pearls

Dorian Concept - My Face Needs Food

Dorian Concept - Toe Games Made Her Giggle

Dorian Concept - Thank You All the Time Forever

Everything Everything - NASA is on Your Side

Hidden Orchestra - The Windfall

Hidden Orchestra - Out of Nowhere

Jogger - Biss

Jogger - Master and Student

Jogger - Falling

Jogger - Just Briefly

Dorian Concept/Tom Chant/ Cinimatic Orchestra - Dreamwork

Sufjan Stevens - Interlude 1 - Dream Sequence in Subi Circumnavigation

Sufjan Stevens - Movement II - Sleeping Invader

Sufjan Stevens - Interlude III - Invisible Accidents

Sufjan Stevens -  Movement VI - Isorythmic Night Dance With Interchanges

Sufjan Stevens - Too Much

Sufjan Stevens - Age of Adz

Sufjan Stevens - Get Real Get Right

Sufjan Stevens - Impossible Soul 

Flying Lotus - And the World Laughs With You

Flying Lotus - Arkestry

Flying Lotus - Recoiled

Flying Lotus - Drips//Auntie’s Harp

Flying Lotus - Table Tennis

Flying Lotus - Until the Quiet Comes

Flying Lotus - DMT Song

Flying Lotus - Electric Candyman

Flying Lotus - Hunger

Flying Lotus - Phantasm

These are all the songs on my current playlist. And yes, they are all links (except one). Click away!