[1] Color Zones Of The Face [Tried To Find Source, I Think Its Here]

[1] Color Zones of the Face [Tried to find source, I think it’s here ] 

[2] Navate’s Skin Chart Supplement – the actual tutorials are:  Section I: Skin Basics &  Section II: Skin tones

Two brilliant skin tutorials. Do not use flat colors for skin! Underpainting is important for realistic, vivid skin. Remember, underneath your skin is fat, muscles, red blood, blue veins, bones. 

Consider reblogging this to support the original artist. I recommend following them as well!

More Helpful links: Ask a Question/Request a Tut | Submit a Tutorial | Promote Your Art Commissions to +18.3 K Dashes | Stay Updated on DeviantArt! | Visit me @astrikos

Writing a Blind or Visually Impaired Character

A Multi-Step Guide Written by a Visually Impaired Writer and Blogger

I’m hoping this blog will over time develop its own following, and when it does people will inevitably see my bio and notice what I included: I’m visually impaired.

Yes, a visually impaired writer, and I’ve written with two blind characters before so I have some practice in the field.

So, inevitably, someone is going to ask how to write a blind character.

Or, at least, I hope you’ll ask someone who’s actually blind or visually impaired about writing a blind character before you get too involved with your new WIP.

All parts will be tagged #blindcharacter in my blog, and I will add links to every post as I finish each part. Follow my blog for more writing advice.

Note, this post updates fairly often and old versions are still floating around out there. The most current version of this post is pinned to my blog with any new guides or links you might of missed.

As of 24 January 2021, this is the most extensive and screen reader friendly version of this post.

Part One: Crafting the Blind Character

In which I tell you how to begin making a blind character who is more than a cardboard cutout

Part Two: Narrative Choice, Visual Description, Verbal Description, Social Interaction

In which I give you a basic rundown on how to write from the perspective of a character who can’t see and still make the narration descriptive

Part Three: Tropes and Clichés to Avoid

Your blind readers will thank you for not being the 5000th person to do this and manage to actually finish your story. (Do you have any idea how many stories I’ve noped out of within two chapters because of these clichés? A Lot.)

-New- Part Four: Canes, Guide Dogs, and O&M

Everything I can tell you about 1) how to learn how to use a cane 2) how a cane works 3) how to describe what your character experiences with their cane 4) everything I know on guide dogs

Part Five: Small Aspects of being Blind You Never Thought Of

5 January 2021 Edit: This link has been fixed to correspond with the correct post

Or, really, very normal everyday things for blind people, the inclusion of which will make your characters more real and authentic. It’s the tiny details.

Part Six: Should You Cure Your Character’s Blindness? (Short Answer: No)

There’s no way to write a cure for your blind character that doesn’t make blind readers hate you. Sorry. We came here to finally experience a relatable character who experiences the world like us, but none of us are getting cured so seeing this character we learned to love become something alien from us in the end feels like a slap in the face

Why I’m Blind and What I See -NEW-

I thought I’d finally make a post explaining the complicated situation about my vision. Includes an explanation of visual snow and exotropia, two of the three causes for my vision issues.

Writing Blind Characters Falling in Love, an Advice Post:

Someone asked what being blind and falling in love have to do with each other. Honestly, blindness changes your perspective on everything and it makes an impact on every relationship you have. This includes some things that you definitely do not want your character’s love interest to be/do.

Writing Blind Jokes (Should You Do It?)

You know those flow charts of “should you do x?” going around? It’s like that, but screen reader friendly. Should you write blind jokes. It’s pretty complicated and there are a lot of possible scenarios and details to consider.

Advice for Writing Toph Beifong -NEW-

In this I discuss what I would like to see done in fanfiction with Toph’s character after ten years of reading Avatar the Last Airbender fanfiction

A small essay addressing the frequently asked question on giving your blind character a superpower to help them “see.”

It’s became a popular question, so to make the answer easier/faster for everyone to access, I wrote what will usually be my initial answer. Below there are a few links to some notable past questions on this subject.

Mourning My Vision, it’s More than Depression. 

A small personal essay addressing the nuances of the mourning period you experience with a new disability. The mourning period is mentioned in other guides, but this is more detailed.

Dealing with Heightened Senses, a video by Molly Burke with additional commentary by me

While Molly talks about the myths and truths about heightened senses, I talk about the correlation with blindness and neuro-divergency and how co-morbid disorders/disabilities might affect sensory processing.

Satirical Commentary on the phrase “that blank look in their eyes” used too often in fiction to identify a blind character

a:tla, I’m looking at you (and my eyes aren’t blank)

I Found a Lost Piece of Blindness History

My grandmother told me about her blind aunt and how she sent letters. It led me to speculate about all the O&M things people develop on their own but never get a chance to pass onto other blind people. Technology and techniques are lost in history and reinvented, including the white cane ad guide dogs.

Includes a little history on the introduction of guide dogs into the 20th century

The Following are Answered Anon Questions

Making Your Blog More Accessible

Making Links Accessible to Screen Readers

Reblogging to Add an Image Description to Someone Else’s Image

Why I Write Image Descriptions

Writing Blind Characters

Advice for a Character Who was Born Blind

Over-Protective Parents of a Blind Character, Why They’re Over-Protective and How to Avoid Crossing a Line

A Blind Character in Victorian Era Historical Fiction

Is It Bad Not to Have Guide Dogs in a Fantasy/Historical Setting Without Guide Dogs (short answer: it’s not bad)

Someone Asked About My Thoughts on a Medusa-like Character Blinding Herself to Avoid Hurting Anyone

-New- Characters Who Have Recently Gone Blind and Avoiding Inspiration Porn

Talking about Popular Blind Characters In Media

Does Daredevil’s Echolocation Negate His Blindness

Someone Else was Asked How to Write Daredevil Fanfiction

Blind Characters with Superpowers/Fighting Styles

World Setting where the General Population has a Superpower

Superpowers that don’t involve sight, Five questions to ask yourself if this superpower is a bad idea or a good one

-New- Your character would not use a cane as a weapon, it’s a bad idea

D&D/Roleplaying Blind Characters

-New- Animal Familiars Acting as Service Animals and Advice for Communicating with Your DM

-New- Portraying Older Blind Characters + Causes for Vision Loss with Old Age

 Steve… Why is he always like this-

Metal tutorial

Fire tutorial

So You Want To Understand Imperialism: an introductory reading list

This is part 1 of my theory recs; rather than dumping hundreds of titles into a Google doc and releasing it into the wild, I figured it would be less overwhelming to break them down by topic. This list is obviously non-exhaustive, and I might add some links to it at a later date, but it contains what I consider fundamental readings. Some books I was initially going to include here I kept for future posts instead, because they cover intersecting topics like settler colonialism or political economy.

You will be able to find all the recs under this tag. Drop me a message if one of the links is broken and I’ll do my best to replace it. Happy learning!

- National Liberation and Neocolonialism 101, selected writings by Lenin, Nkrumah, Amilcar Cabral, Che Guevara, and Bill Fletcher

- Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism — V. I. Lenin + The Internationalist Lenin: Self-determination and anti-colonialism — Vijay Prashad

- Capital, Volume I, Chapter Thirty-One: Genesis of the Industrial Capitalist — Karl Marx

- How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (audiobook also available) — Walter Rodney + The World Turned Upside Down: Rodney’s 1972 masterpiece — Leo Zeilig

- Divided World, Divided Class — Zak Cope

- Neo-Colonialism, The Last Stage of Imperialism — Kwame Nkrumah

- The Wretched of The Earth — Franz Fanon

- Towards the African Revolution — Franz Fanon

- The African Liberation Reader (Vols. 1 - 3)  

- The Open Veins of Latin America — Eduardo Galeano

- Cuba’s achievments and America’s Wars — Fidel Castro

- Killing Hope — William Blum

- The Jakarta Method: Washington’s Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program That Shaped Our World — Vincent Bevins (no free PDF because it was published this year, but I linked an Amazon alternative for purchase)

- NATO’s Secret Armies: Operation Gladio and Terrorism in Western Europe — Daniele Ganser

- The CIA As Organized Crime: How Illegal Operations Corrupt America and the World — Douglas Valentine    

- How to Read Donald Duck — Ariel Dorfman and Armand Mattelart

- Rambo and the Swarthy Hordes — Michael Parenti

- Against Empire — Michael Parenti

- The Face of Imperialism — Michael Parenti

- The Law of Worldwide Value — Samir Amin + Samir Amin at 80: An Introduction and Tribute — John Bellamy Foster

- Discourse on Colonialism — Aimé Césaire

- The Blood Never Dried: A People’s History of the British Empire — John Newsinger

Making & using a lace brush in CSP

saw this tweet on twitter,

https://twitter.com/ClipStudioTips/status/1216735942658199554

which actually goes over using file objects to make repeating textures, which is the same method I used to make my lace brush shapes! I elaborated on the process on twitter, and I’m just crossposting this here.

So the first thing is to make a new file object as explained in the tweet, and then if you make use of CSP’s symmetry rulers you can make some complex repeating patterns like this!

The flowers were all done using a 6 line symmetry ruler, and the part at the bottom used a 2 line ruler.

& when you set the file object to tiling, you can set what directions it tiles in, too!

Once you’re all done drawing your pattern, you want to make it a brush tip. You need to set this up correctly! CSP’s brush tip engine works as black = primary colour, white = secondary colour,

so to ensure that the brush changes colour as expected: make sure you’re working on a transparent background, and convert your layer to greyscale before you save it as a brush tip material!

This step is important, if you don’t set the layer to greyscale, it will not change colour, even if it’s in black & white.

Anyway with that done you can make it into a brush tip shape by going to edit > register material > image… Here are the settings you’d want for a lace brush! Make sure to tag it so you can find it later.

Once that’s saved you can make it into a brush,

go to brush tip and change the material to your new lace tip

go to stroke, and enable ribbon

if it’s repeating in the wrong direction, go back to brush tip and change the angle to either 90 or 270 (depends which way up you want it)

And you’re done! But as for actually using it, actually prefer to have my lace brushes using the figure line tool, and to make a vector layer for them!

That way you can adjust the line as you need to create more realistic deformation. This works fine with the brush tool too, but drawing a line with the brush tool will create a lot of anchor points so it’s a little trickier to work with.

Anyway! Here’s an example of me using this method

I heard that Undertale was having an anniversary! Please enjoy StuffinFluff Cooking’s take on the butterscotch cinnamon pie, featuring the official Toriel plush from Fangamer!

When this recipe says to keep mixing, please keep mixing! Melting the sugar into the butter can be challenging, and so can adding the mixture to the egg yolks. Take it as slow as you need, but turn the heat down on the butter a little to keep it from burning if you’re going to take a while!

Sorry for the lack of activity, everyone. It’s been difficult to balance my posts and recipes with my freelance animation work. We’re going to try to have more frequent recipes for you guys in the future. :’) 

Please follow StuffinFluff Cooking for more recipes! And if you liked this one (or just like Undertale and pie), feel free to like and reblog it so others can see! Thank you everyone!