Fifteen miles of nifty!

qichi:

http://www.supercook.com/

posting as a link because it’s literally the best website ever. you just tell it what ingredients you possess and it flings recipes at you!


Free high-resolution textures! Everything from paper to fabric to glass and even seamless!

posted 1 day ago


kamidoodles:

bbbreakfast:

Download:

CS5 Brushes ( works with CS6 )

CS4 Brushes ( works with all versions prior to CS4 )

____

A lot of people ask me while livestreaming what brushes I use, and since I only use some out of certain brush packs, I figured it’d be easier to just clump the ones I use the most together.

If you want to download all the content from the original brush packs, you can download them here:

k04sk Brushes ( also a combination - credits in their description. has a TON of brushes to experiment with!!)
castrochew Brushes - Skin and Hair Texture Brushes

if you have any problems downloading / getting brushes to work, please let me know :8)

not that i draw much in ps, but hmm.



awesomezani: iammyurl: chrib3r: A psychologist walked around a room while teaching stress management to an audience. As she raised a glass of water, everyone expected they’d be asked the “half empty or half full” question. Instead, with a smile on her face, she inquired: “How heavy is this glass of water?”Answers called out ranged from 8 oz. to 20 oz.She replied, “The absolute weight doesn’t matter. It depends on how long I hold it. If I hold it for a minute, it’s not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I’ll have an ache in my arm. If I hold it for a day, my arm will feel numb and paralyzed. In each case, the weight of the glass doesn’t change, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes.” She continued, “The stresses and worries in life are like that glass of water. Think about them for a while and nothing happens. Think about them a bit longer and they begin to hurt. And if you think about them all day long, you will feel paralyzed – incapable of doing anything.”It’s important to remember to let go of your stresses. As early in the evening as you can, put all your burdens down. Don’t carry them through the evening and into the night. Remember to put the glass down! I needed this so badly DAMN after reading so many inspirational things, this is the first one that actually felt life-changing.

awesomezani:

iammyurl:

chrib3r:

A psychologist walked around a room while teaching stress management to an audience. As she raised a glass of water, everyone expected they’d be asked the “half empty or half full” question. Instead, with a smile on her face, she inquired: “How heavy is this glass of water?”
Answers called out ranged from 8 oz. to 20 oz.
She replied, “The absolute weight doesn’t matter. It depends on how long I hold it. If I hold it for a minute, it’s not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I’ll have an ache in my arm. If I hold it for a day, my arm will feel numb and paralyzed. In each case, the weight of the glass doesn’t change, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes.” She continued, “The stresses and worries in life are like that glass of water. Think about them for a while and nothing happens. Think about them a bit longer and they begin to hurt. And if you think about them all day long, you will feel paralyzed – incapable of doing anything.”
It’s important to remember to let go of your stresses. As early in the evening as you can, put all your burdens down. Don’t carry them through the evening and into the night. Remember to put the glass down!

I needed this so badly

DAMN after reading so many inspirational things, this is the first one that actually felt life-changing.


writeworld: Prompts-And-Pointers What They Do: “This blog was created in order to provide daily tips and prompts to writers who delve into fiction. I spent a lot of time desperately looking for creative writing prompts that focused mostly on writing about yourself and yourself only. I wanted to provide a blog for fiction writers and role-players alike.” Why We Follow: Sharp, succinct, and reliable, Prompts-And-Pointers is  exactly what their url suggests. They are made up almost entirely of prompts and one-liner writing tips (pointers) for everyday inspiration. Aside from the prompts and pointers, the mods post articles and reblog great resources. Go for the: Pointers Stay for the: Prompts  

writeworld:

Prompts-And-Pointers

What They Do: “This blog was created in order to provide daily tips and prompts to writers who delve into fiction. I spent a lot of time desperately looking for creative writing prompts that focused mostly on writing about yourself and yourself only. I wanted to provide a blog for fiction writers and role-players alike.”

Why We Follow: Sharp, succinct, and reliable, Prompts-And-Pointers is  exactly what their url suggests. They are made up almost entirely of prompts and one-liner writing tips (pointers) for everyday inspiration. Aside from the prompts and pointers, the mods post articles and reblog great resources.

Go for the: Pointers

Stay for the: Prompts

 


memes that are more useful than actual class

hospitalvespers:

here is a list of deviantart memes that are more helpful than our character design teacher could ever hope to be. i wouldn’t say you have to do all of them, or even every thing in each one (switch stuff up a bit if it inspires you to draw a different pose), but they’re all good starting places!

Expressions and Body Language
25 Essential Character Expressions - super helpful for different emotions you might not normally draw
Ultimate Expressions - same thing but bigger if you have like a YEAR
Reactions - expressions, but with a reason!
Body Language - body language is just as important as facial expression, so this is a good one to try

Poses
Annoying Poses - some tricky things
Action Poses - HIGH KICKS ALL AROUND
Action Poses II - (for more subdued characters)
Character Poses - various, everyday things

Development
Different Ages - it’d probably be better to space out the ages more, but it’s a good start
Character Variety - figure out what makes them unique
Wardrobe - drawing clothes is FUN
updated age meme

Other Stuff
Character Building - more of a written thing, but interesting if you’re into that kind of stuff
Character Inspiration


darksstars:

Il miele dentro la leonessa: Ultimate Writing Resource List

thelastrplord:

a massively extended version of ruthlesscalculus’ post

General Tips

Character Development

Female Characters

Male Characters

Tips for Specific Characters

Dialogue

Point of View

Plot, Conflict, Structure and Outline

Setting & Worldbuilding

Creativity Boosters* denotes prompts

Revision & Grammar

Tools & Software

Specific Help


On habits and taking care of yourself

keyboardsmashwriters:

Anonymous asked you:

I’m a big fan of your blog and I don’t know where else to turn ^^; I’m having a lot of trouble getting the motivation to write, to work and to exist in general. I thought it was just procrastination, but it’s gotten to where I’ve completed 0 assignments all week and haven’t written anything for a whole month. I could really use any help or advice you’ve got, even if it’s just yelling…

First of all, I’m super glad you turned to someone about this, because I know it’s not always easy working up the nerve to ask people for help. Also, I’m a big expert on how to get myself (and my lovely partner in crime) to work beyond what I call our “brain rebellions”.

The brain rebellion is simply when we’ve fried ourselves by overworking for extended periods of time. Lots of people will tell you this is just bullshit and you need to learn how to “work through it” like “everyone else does”, but if you’re stressed, then you need to de-stress, not make yourself even more stressed. Don’t listen to those people, because, chances are, they don’t know a thing about your inner workings.

Here are some things to help you cope and de-stress:

  • Know your limits. Everyone’s different and, consequently, everyone needs different things and works at different paces. The important thing is knowing how much you can take. Never think of it as “giving up” or “giving in” when you reach your limit. Think of it as, “My well-being comes first.”
  • Be realistic about what you can handle. It’s okay to challenge yourself, but don’t tell yourself anything like, “Okay, yesterday I wrote 500 words, today I’m going to write 5k!”
  • Don’t compare yourself to others. If you see someone who regularly writes 5k words a day, don’t kick yourself because you can only write 500. Your circumstances are likely so different from theirs that comparing yourself only hurts you with feelings of inadequacy.
  • Take care of yourself first. Eat. Sleep. Take breaks to watch mind-numbing television or look at pretty artstuffs. Your brain is telling you it needs to turn off for a while, so let your brain turn off.
  • Change your routines. If what you’re doing now isn’t working, consider changing it up. Work somewhere else, at different times of the day, in public places or in private. Sometimes our default working environments aren’t very good to us for various reasons.
  • Go someplace new. Take a little mini-vacation. Go find your nearest state park. Take some friends (or a significant other, or, heck, go by yourself) and stay at a place in the mountains or by the river. Find your nearest old towns and do some window shopping. Give your brain a chance to think about other things and detox from stress.
  • Treat yourself. Reward yourself with something you love but you don’t have very often.
  • Find a community of people similar to you and connect with them. Support groups are awesome and the right people can help talk you out of bad places.
  • Know that you’re more important than the work you do or put out. You must always, always come first.
  • Ask for help. If you fall into one of those bad places, don’t be afraid to ask for help. It doesn’t make you weak — it actually takes a great deal of strength to ask for help. A school counselor should be able to direct you to where you can find help, or you can always try hotlines.

There will always be school and there will always be something to write, but you’ve got to fulfill all your mental health needs before you get to that. When I’ve a friend who’s clearly been overworking themselves and is considering whether or not to just shut the book for the night and do what they want, I will be the first supporter.

Once you’ve done the things above, then here are some tips to get yourself working again:

  • Set small goals. A lot of the time, we think about ALL the things we need to do and it haunts us as one giant entity. Sometimes making “to-do” lists to organize projects in order of importance can do this as well, because then you have a full visual of how much needs to be done. Write your to-do list, take the first thing, and divide it up into manageable segments. Then —
  • Organize your time. Work for maybe a half hour, then take a work-free, mind-numbing tumblr break or whatever you please (or you could write or doodle or look for new music — it’s okay to be productive on your breaks because sometimes productivity in any form is what it takes for us to feel good about ourselves). Then take this process and repeat.
  • It takes seven minutes for you to fully fix your concentration on something new (at least, that’s what I’ve heard). The first seven minutes are the hardest when you pop open a school book to do homework or open up a word document to write, but give yourself seven full, uninterrupted minutes of focus.
  • Train yourself to think positively. This’ll take time. My father says it takes 21 days to make or break habits, but this is of necessity. When you finish your working increment of thirty minutes, don’t go, “Oh hell, I only read two pages and I still have to read 17 and answer the response questions and alkdsfl.” Get yourself to start thinking, “Two pages are out of the way. Now I get some free time.”
  • Take walks. If you’ve got nature around you (green belts or anything similar), then take a walk. Negative ions are said to be good for the body, and nature secretes loads of negative ions. If you don’t have nature, then get away from technology (which secrets positive ions, said to be draining) with a book or a notebook or a drawing pad.
  • Talk to people, whether in person, on the phone, through AIM or Skype, Tumblr or forums. Connecting with people gets you to hear voices other than your own, and it also gives you the chance to unload all your thought vomit. Just make sure you find some positive reinforcements, not negative.
  • Build yourself up. Work with smaller segments an increments at first. Work for ten minutes, then give yourself a break. Then, as you get more comfortable, challenge yourself to do fifteen minutes.
  • Cheat a little. Oops, you got to this part in your story that you’ve been waiting for and you wrote for fifteen minutes longer than you should have. That’s cool. You might match your next work segment time to make up the difference.
  • If you feel like giving up, stop. Repeat the first set of bullets. Don’t start working again until you’re ready.

Your writing may be suffering because you’re simply overworked and overstressed, but it could also be because of guilt: “I haven’t done any work, I don’t deserve to write,” or, “How can I do any writing if I haven’t done any work?”

Your creative process might be poisoned by this stress. For now, you could do little things for your writing that help inspire you. Between your work segments, look at art, listen to music, plot and plan. Try to keep yourself in creative habits, and when you feel confident again, start writing little bits and pieces that excite you.

Here are some additional links that might help:

I hope all this helps, and thank you again for the ask.

Good luck!