so I got into grad school today with my shitty 2.8 gpa and the moral of the story is reblog those good luck posts for the love of god
okay so i just got my dream job??? a week after applying to it?? and now i’m thinking….maybe this is the good luck post
…..not even six hours later i got an offer of a well paying full time long-term job with free room and board in queens in nyc, allowing me independence and a way to escape an abusive situation and an unhealthy environment
likes charge reblogs cast, folks, this is the good luck post
being a self-taught artist with no formal training is having done art seriously since you were a young teenager
and only finding out that you’re supposed to do warm up sketches every time you’re about to work on serious art when you’re fuckin twenty-five
someone: oh yeah, do this exercise during your warm ups! it’ll help
me: my what
What’s up I have an actual college degree in art and I was never ONCE taught to do warm ups.
when i was in undergrad, it was kind of mentioned in and offhand way that we should do warmups, but we were never shown what that meant. And, y’know, we were young so it didn’t matter so much.
Being older now and having an art job it’s…kind of essential.
So: a quick primer for those of you who are like ‘ok but how do i actually go about doing this warmup thing.’
1) you may be tempted to do ‘a warmup drawing’ which is just a drawing that will take longer than it needed to and probably be frustrating and kind of bad because you didn’t warm up first. It’s tempting but always a trick your brain is playing on you! Do not trust!
2) warmups will vary based on what feels good to you/what task you’re about to do/what motor skills you want to practice. That being said, some good standbys:
a) circles. Just a whole page of circles on whatever drawing surface you’re going to be using, whether that’s your tablet or your sketchbook or a drawing pad on an easel. For these circles you should make sure that you’re drawing from your shoulder and not your wrist. In fact, you want to be drawing from your shoulder rather than your wrist most of the time! forever! your wrist is delicate please preserve it!
In order to ensure that you’re drawing from your shoulder, when you’re holding your pencil or whatever drawing tool you’re using, the only part of your hand that should be touching the drawing surface is part of the last two fingers–some people prefer the finger tips, but I tend to favor the first knuckles. Either way, the fingers should really be ghosting over the surface, providing guidance rather than support.
I usually start with big circles and then go to smaller circles and lines of ellipses, and then try to fit circles and ellipses inside other shapes i’ve already drawn as a precision exercise, but i don’t do that unless i’m feeling loose
b) spirals! i don’t always do spirals, but if i’m stiff and the circles just aren’t cutting it, spirals are a good fall back. I start from the center and work outward, going both clockwise and counterclockwise until i feel comfortable with the whole range of motion. Some people really care about getting perfect spirals but for me it’s all about making sure i’m comfortable with how i’m moving so who really even cares about how the spirals look. Not me!
c) lines! straight lines! in parallel! i do a mix of vertical, horizontal, and diagonal. These are often more from the elbow than the shoulder, especially if I’m working on a smaller surface. For this exercise, I recommend holding the drawing tool perpendicular with the surface
d) connect the dots. This is a precision and accuracy exercise and takes two forms. The first is to draw two dots and then draw a straight line between them. The second is to draw three dots and draw the curve that connects them. This sounds a lot simpler than it is in practice. Take time to ghost over the line you plan to draw before actually committing to your line. (I don’t always remember where I picked up my warm up exercises, but I’m pretty sure I got this one from Scott Robertson. His how to draw and how to render books are very technical but also accessible and worth checking out)
e) cubes, spheres, cones, and cylinders. These help get your brain into a more volumetric space. I draw multiples of each, rotating the forms around, and I’ll often take the time to do some rough shading on at least a few of them
f) spidermans! This one is really good if you’re going to be storyboarding or working on dynamic poses. Just fill a page full of spidermans doing all sorts of acrobatics.
g) beans. I don’t do beans too much anymore, but I know a lot of people like it so I’m mentioning it here. Fill an area with different size bean shapes without lifting your pencil off the paper.
h) short medium and long line repetition. draw a short, medium, and long line on your page, and then draw directly on top of them 8 to 12 times, doing your best to exactly trace what you’ve already drawing. Repeat with a wavy line. I’m bad at this one, which means I probably need to do it more.
And there are lots more options too! Hit up youtube to see what other people recommend, put together your own go-to list, mix it up when you’re getting bored, etc.
This is a long list, I know, but I usually don’t take more than 10 to 15 minutes to warm up, and I can warm up one handed while I’m drinking coffee, so, multitasking hurrah.
Sometimes I’ll advance to a precision warmup and find that I haven’t loosened up enough yet; it’s totally ok to go back to an earlier exercise! Also, all of this has the added benefit of kind of ritualistically getting you into the drawing mode so even if I’m not feeling it before I start, by the time I’ve gotten to the end I’m usually Ready For Drawin’. Brain hacks.
so, yeah! that’s a lot of words, but! Warmups are important! Save your joints, take less advil, do better drawings!
You know, I think my elementary school art teacher for 1st and 2nd grade talked about this - she had us do warm-ups before we started and talked about “whole arm movement” - and then it was never addressed again by any other art teacher I had up through college. (I also can’t remember if she explained WHY it was important. I seen to think she just told us to do it. Most of what I remember about that class was being smol and grumpy because I found art class really frustrating.)
everyone who reads this post will get some bigspicyjoy within 24 large minutes (hours)
Ok y'all but like I’m not even kidding about this I read this post yesterday and today I got an email from the peeps at hamilton and I won the lotto gor $10 tickets and I would like to give all my thanks to the internet’s favorite fish, Goldie Gurston, for making this possible because I totally believe they did this with their amazing gay powers
So I know this is likely a coincidence…but I reblogged this and just now discovered I’ve been given a $150 amazon gift card as a bonus at work. So thank you, fish!
If it worked for them I hope it works for everyone else
much-ado-about-everythin; hi chelsea, i’m moving out of my college dorm and onto my own post-grad adventures (and tbh a little freaking out about it). I want my place to feel warm & safe & not temporary! i remember you posting a bunch a while ago about thrifting pieces from Craigslist? any tips for a newbie on how to acquire furniture safely & fix it up, and just give a new place that ~homey feel~ i see in your pics. love to Juno and Connor, etc
ahhh I love this question!! that tag has a few resources in terms of like, general buying-from-strangers-online advice. for making places homey, I am a big fan of the following: blankets, plants, Stuff On The Walls (it does not have to match but if it’s framed, so much the better, you’re not living in a cinderblock dorm anymore), rugs, flowers, fancy hand soap (you use that multiple times a day! it’s a nice thing to splurge on), books.
So I was taught a lesson in how to get rid of a migraine in 30 seconds and omfg listen my migraines don’t go away ever but I was shown what part of my body to touch and like???????????????
It’s witchcraft????????? Like I would be burned at the stake if I lived in ye olde days knowing that information?????
What the fuck??????
Spill it! Lol….Hooooowwwww?? Had migraines since age 9….😓😓😓
Its called the T4 push, but I literally can’t find the info online????? I guess I’m not searching good enough? These medical fuckers are holdin out on us lol.
It’s best to have someone do this for you while you stand up and relax your muscles as best you can, but if you’re alone, a tennis ball and a flat surface will probably work. Alternatively you can lie on the edge of a bed at the pressure point. (But no really do try to find someone to do it for you)
Find the area in your spine between either the first, second, third, or fourth vertebrae. It should be sore and uncomfortable to press down on, so look for the one that’s most painful, and press down with as much pressure as you can on that area for 30 seconds.
Realize that 80% of your pain has magically disappeared and keep the info secret if you live in a small puritan town, lest you be tried for witchcraft.
If you don’t have to worry about being burned or hanged, then share the info with your migraine suffering friends.
As someone who wrote a 10k word paper on pressure points for a high belt ranking test in her martial arts class, I can tell you that you just found a pressure point used in acupressure and acupuncture to relieve pain, particularly that in the head. :)
Hand to god we discovered this by accident when my husband was rubbing my neck and I nearly collapsed it felt so good
This post was sent by literal angels??? I’ve had a persistent low-level headache for nearly 24hrs and now it’s gone??? In 30 seconds? What gods did you sacrifice to for this information!?!?
As a medical massage therapist, I thought I would give my two cents.
This is good for tension migranes and normal migraines, but actually pretty useless for sinus migraines. It’ll help for a hot second, but quickly come back. (These are usually the migraines behind your eyes, in your ears, and behind your forehead. Sometimes it can feel like jaw pain or TMJ) for sinus migraines, behind the ear in a divot. Press down firmly and pull towards your collarbone. That’ll drain your sinuses. Also, pressing around the eye socket on the cheekbones help. There is also a little triangle up away from the eye in the eyebrow bone. Press and hold pretty hard and that’ll relieve that behind the forehead pain. Also, ear pulling is great to help move sinuses around.
Don’t forget the temples too! Press firmly and hold. Open and close your jaw while holding your temples. It’ll feel weird, but it’ll help with jaw pain. It’ll work a similar way if you hold the jaw joint under your cheekbone.
And never underestimate the power of a foot massage!! Give minutes can be all the difference!! Our feet are our base. If they hurt even a little, somewhere else in your body will hurt. Treat your feet and sinuses kindly!
As a lifelong sufferer from frequent migraines I will reblog this everytime I see it, for myself and my fellow sufferers!!
no, listen, when I say I want to integrate more specific solarpunk stuff in my life, i don’t mean to ask for yet again new “aesthetic” clothes that now you have to buy or make to show your support of the movement (screw that i’m consuming enough as it is), or more posts about impossible house goals, or whatever, I’m asking you what my options to build a portable and eco friendly phone charger are, im asking you viable tiny-appartment edible plants growing tricks on a budget, im asking tips to slow down when my mind and society tell me im not fast enough, i don’t need more rich art nouveau amateurs aesthetics or pristine but cold venus project, okay, i know i should joins associations where I am tho i’m constantly on the move, thanks for that, just, you know, can we get a bit more practical ??? how do I hack my temporary flat into going off the grid for the time i’m here
Hello! ☀️ Here are a few practical suggestions for stuff you can do:
Growing herbs in water makes it easier to control your plants growth conditions, it takes up less space, and produces bigger and healthier plants. Easiest/most common herbs to grow in water from cuttings (propagate) are lemon-balm, mints, basil, sage, thyme, and oregano. Rosemary also works, but will take longer to sprout roots. Herbs like ginger, turmeric, and garlic might not do very well.
To start, you’ll need:
- A jar/ container
- Tap or bottled water (avoid distilled water)
- Liquid plant food
- Rooting hormone
- Herb stems
Cutting Stems:
Choose a stem that is a good 4-6" tall, and looks healthy and strong, and cut it below a leaf joint. You can also buy cut herb stems in the produce section of your grocery store. A good example:
Next, strip the bottom leaves so that about ½-¾ of the stem is bare.
Then use scissors to make a slanted cut right below the lowest leaf joint. The area that the leaves grow out of, leaf joints or nodes, have a lot of meristem cells, which form a callus over the cut and sprouts roots. And cutting at a slanted angle increases the surface area for both water and nutrient uptake.
After this, place the stem in a jar of (not distilled) water, and place the jar somewhere moderately sunny (depending on the needs of the herb). (Source for pictures)
You don’t NEED to do much else after this, but it would likely appreciate some help. Add a rooting hormone to the water, which will stimulate the stem to grow roots and contains a fungicide to prevent the cut from rotting. You can buy a premade rooting hormone, such as this one, or you can make your own using willow twigs. Here’s a DIY.
Also, plants usually get their nutrients from the soil, but since we aren’t using soil here, we will have to provide nutrients for the plant by adding it to the water. Again, this is something that many people do well without, but it will likely give better results. You don’t need much, certainly not as one would with an entire hydroponics system with a nutrient reservoir. Just add a drop or two when the roots start growing (about two weeks in), and maybe once a month after that when you change out the water. You can buy liquid plant food like this one.
Finally, changing the water can depend on what plant you have, such as lemon balm which needs to have its water changed weekly. If you are using an opaque container, algae won’t form as quickly as it would in a clear one, and doesn’t need to be changed quite as often. Generally, more or less every three weeks or when the water is a bit murky should be fine. Done!
Some plants do not even need rooting hormone. Such as:
- Mint (All types)
- Lemon Balm
- Strawberries (runners will create their own roots if you put them in soil and water for a week, clip when there are roots)
- Green onions
- Lettuce
*As long as the water is fresh and changed every other day. You are going to get plants from these.
Definitely! Those root so quickly and easily, it’s really fun and rewarding to watch :)
